Andy & Ari On3 - Brendan Sorsby vs NCAA LATEST: Injunction hearing for Texas Tech QB

Episode Date: June 1, 2026

As Brendan Sorsby is seeking an injunction vs the NCAA to be eligible for the 2026 season, how successful will the Texas Tech QB be? As the injunction hearing was set for Monday, Andy & Ari break down the absolute latest on the former Cincinnati and Indiana QB. Will Sorsby suit up in Lubbock, or will Joey McGuire’s Red Raiders have to officially turn the page with a new quarterback?   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (1:00) Intro: Sorsby’s injunction hearing latest (15:22) What if Sorsby wins? (17:42) Texas Tech 2026 Outlook (21:06) Elite 11 MVP: Nebraska QB Commit (31:13) Who is uncommitted in the top 10 at Elite 11? (35:45) Nebraska ahead of 2026 (38:24) Why the SEC NEEDS to win a title (58:47) Conclusion: Thanks for watching!   Once the fellas wrap up the Sorsby conversation, the guys switch gears towards the Elite 11. Nebraska QB commit Trea Taylor claimed the MVP award, and the fellas discuss how impactful he can be in the future for Matt Rhule’s Huskers. Will Nebraska be able to finally right the ship. With the departure of Dylan Raiola and the entrance of Anthony Colandrea, should Husker fans be optimistic about their future? Andy & Ari debate.   Later, Andy revisits Ari’s column on the SEC from last week. As the conference wrapped up its 2026 spring meetings in Destin, Florida, last week, what does the SEC need to do to prove its really the best conference in college football? Andy & Ari discuss here.   Thanks for watching! See you tomorrow!   Send your questions to: [e-mail] [e-mail]   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's Andy and Ari on 3, Brendan Soresby, the Texas Tech quarterback, has his day in court, or rather his lawyer does, because Sorsby wasn't there. But the arguments are in from Sorsby side, from the NCAA side, and a judge is deliberating on whether Sorsby will be allowed to play for the Red Raiders this season. We'll talk about that. Plus, a Nebraska commit named rivals MVP of the elite 11. What does this mean for the Cornhuskers down? And what does it mean for quarterback recruiting in general? Because there's some pretty good quarterbacks at the elite 11 that are going to schools that maybe you wouldn't expect elite 11 type quarterbacks to be going to. Plus, our Ari Wasserman has a column on the SEC.

Stop telling us you're the best and start winning national championships again. And then we'll believe you. We'll talk about it all. And today's Andy and Arion 3. Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3. And once again, we are talking about something that happened to courtroom. It feels like that's what we do in the offseason in year of our Lord, 2026. Sorry.

We're court reporters. It's okay. I took reporting public affairs in college 20 years ago. It was good. Yeah. I took public affairs reporting. They apparently, you know, name it in a more concise way at Florida than they do. I can't imagine why.

Yeah. So we did not unpack some of the things that we found out. on Friday. So we should do that now. And then we'll get. Yeah, let's get everybody into the, into the bulk of the news, though. It's, it's Monday, as we're recording us about 115 Eastern time Monday, the arguments are done in the courtroom in Lubbock. And the judge, who has been assigned as a former Tarrant County judge. So actually worked in Fort Worth most of his career. He got assigned in this case after the original judge recused himself. I'm not sure anybody who lives in that town wanted to be the one to have to decide this thing. So the judge has heard the arguments

from the NCAA and from Brennan Soresby's team and is deliberating right now. So we don't exactly know when the ruling is going to come down. It probably will come down sooner rather than later because the Soresby team has requested a ruling by June 15th because they want to make a decision on the supplemental draft, which is June 22nd's the deadline for that. but I imagine it will come sooner than that. I don't know if it'll come later today, Ari, but who knows if the judge so moved, maybe he'll say,

oh, I will either grant this injunction or I will not grant this injunction and we'll have something else to say. But that's where they're at right now. Yeah, and there wasn't really the expectation that we would be arriving at a decision, you know, in the very moment that the court received both arguments. So this is not.

But it's not completely out of the, you know, ordinary of like what you would have expected. And like I just like my opinion on this, Andy has really not wavered much, which is he did the thing that you're not able to do in sports. And there could be a million different reasons why you did that. I just don't know if there's any possibility of reconciliation when it comes to the eligibility given the deed. Like it feels like that's the worst. worst thing that you can do. Like, if you actually, like, think about it, is there a rule within the scope of the NCAA? I know there are worse things in life and law, but in college football as an athlete that you cannot do that's worse than this. I mean, there are

murders worse, but. Yeah, I just mean, like, I don't know as murder in like the NCAA handbook. Like, I mean, like, of the things that actually are, yes, the betting on your own team is is up there. And we learned more on Friday when everybody did their last minute filing. So Friday afternoon, you had the NCAA file its response, which sort of outlined the arguments that the NCAA attorneys were going to make on Monday morning in the courthouse. But also the stipulated facts came in from both sides. And it's basically both sides stipulating that Brennan's stores be placed at least 40 bets involving Indiana football while he was the quarterback for the Hoosiers. Now, both sides agree that he didn't do any betting that would have affected the

outcome of a game and didn't use any inside information. So that's part of the Soresby team's argument here. But he also did 40 times bet on games involving the team he played for, including there was a, in 2023. Now, these are not games that he played in, but there were two bets in 23 when he was not redshirting. That's bad. Yeah. You know, and I think that there is like this, like, I'm trying to think of like nice ways to think about it positively.

And of course, it's kind of the same deal with Pete Rose that you heard, right? Which is he never bet against the Reds. And my understanding, Brendan, never bet against Indiana. So, you know, if I- Excuse me, one bet in 2023. There was a bet in October 22 for the under on Indiana. as quarterback passing yards, which I think that the defense, not the defense, Sorsby's teams is a plaintiff, but Soresby's team had said all the bets were for Indiana. This one wasn't.

And then there was one in 2023 for the under on the first half of an Indiana football game. So that would be the two times that the bets went against Indiana, which that also, that's where you get into the did he have inside information, that sort of thing. Now, neither. side is claiming that he did. Yeah, I don't understand like the inside information thing though, Andy, because just being on the team is insider information. Correct. Correct.

And that's why there's a rule against this stuff. So essentially what the Soresby team is arguing is he has a gambling addiction. They got it diagnosed. They had a medical professional explain that, you know, a medical professional tell the court that he has a gambling addiction and an anxiety disorder. and the NCAA's argument is, okay, great, he has a gambling addiction. He's welcome to seek treatment for that, which he already has. He doesn't have to play college football to get treated for a gambling addiction.

Yeah. Yeah. And like, Andy, I think I can sympathize with the situation. If it's a legit illness, as we know when it comes to addictive things that are detrimental to your health, people give in to addictions, even if it's, ruins their life. Like, this isn't like a situation where I can't understand how or why somebody could get to this place. It's how we handle the person that crossed the line. Just because you're dealing with something doesn't mean that you're not like that that it's a forgivable offense.

You know what I mean? Like there are people who do things all the time that were done at a place of addiction and wasn't who they were as a true self or, you know, wasn't, you know, where their North Star from a moral standpoint would take them, but that doesn't mean that they didn't do what they did. So, like, that's kind of like where I'm with this on this. And I actually just, I'm like really trying to come up with some scenario in my head where this could be forgiven.

And I just cannot do it, Andy. I just can't. Well, it doesn't matter if it's forgiven or not. That's really, that's outside the scope at this point. It's up to the judge to decide, will Brennan Sorsby potentially succeed on the merits of this case? would he be irreparably harmed if he's not allowed to play college football? That's what the judge is deciding here, because this is an injunction hearing.

This isn't the case itself. And I'm willing, sorry for the choice of words, but I'm willing to bet there is no case itself either way. This is all about the injunction. If you get the injunction and he plays, I think everything gets dropped after he plays the season. If you don't get the injunction, there's no reason to continue it anyway. So, yeah, the thing that is interesting about the law that I, just like I didn't go to law school, is yeah, he's going to be irreparably harmed. But that's the consequence of doing the thing that you did. Like I don't understand that situation.

Well, is he going to be irreparably hard? He can make money playing football this year. Yeah. He might not make as much, but he can make money playing football with the possibility of making a lot more. Yeah. When he goes to the NFL. So like if he goes to if he goes to the NFL this year, he could make more money. Well, what we playing football?

He played at Texas Tech. So here's how I think about it. Now walk me through it, Andy. Okay. Let's say that Brendan Sorsby would get taken with a third round pick in the supplemental draft. This is just hypothetical. Just to walk. Right.

Right. Right. Yes. Yes. But if he were to come back to Texas Tech and have a great year and have a chance of actually without this being. being a black mark. He'd make more.

He'd make more, yeah. Isn't that still a reparable harm? It doesn't mean that he's never. No, no, no, but the possibility of him making more money now is not, like, he could go to the supplemented draft this year, wind up an NFL starter ball out in his second contract's gigantic in a way that it wouldn't have been if he was drafted in a bad place next year. But his income would be worse than it would have been otherwise, which is the different not necessarily because we're talking about a hypothetical second contract that may or may not

happen depending on how he gets drafted. Second contract with also still exist if he got drafted next year. Like that's not what I'm saying the income that he's making for the next 12 months would be lower in the supplemental draft than it would be. I'm saying it's not a slam dunk that he makes less money if he doesn't go back to college football this year. If this was his last chance to ever make money playing football, then yes, it would be a slam dunk. Okay. I just meant that if you were to make X in the next 12 months and then half X in the next 12 months,

that half that you're missing and the second is still irreparable. If you ultimately get a second and third contract that are worth more than that, then you weren't irreparably harmed. Yeah. Okay. That's what I was asking. I thought that damages or damages and you can't, if it's,

you know, if you lose out on that money, that's irreplaceable money that you could have had, which is a reprimal. You know, it's, it's replaceable, but it all comes out of circumstance.

I would, I would side with you on this that the circumstances are, better if he gets to play for Texas Tech this year for him to make more money. So that piece of it, I think, probably favors Sorsby. Yeah. The would his case succeed on the merits, I don't know if that does. Yeah. You know, I'm just like, there are a lot of these cases, Andy, like for Trinidad Chambliss.

You know, there was some, I had some, and then of course he didn't do anything wrong. His was just a case to try to play more. But like I find myself a lot of times when people get in trouble in college And this has been something that I've dealt with my entire career when people get in trouble or if they get a DUI or they do something that's that's really stupid. And it hurts them. Like I have remorse for that person. And to a certain extent, maybe a little bit for Brendan, but like not much. Like I'm like having a really hard time getting to a place where like I'm sympathizing with his situation, even if he is addicted to him.

I think most people struggle to sympathize with him. Yeah. So we'll see. I mean, I don't know what's going to happen in the next hour or two weeks, but the reason why they need this decision as fast as they do is because I think that even the defense probably is aware of, or the plaintiff is aware of where this is headed. Yeah, I think they knew they had a long shot. It is interesting.

They hired Jeffrey Kessler, who's the guy who beat the NCAA in court in the house case. And, well, I mean, they never went to trial. The NCAA settled and so did the other conferences. But Kessler's also beaten the NAC. a felon court, like he has a pretty sterling record. But this case reminded me more of watching the NCAA in those cases that were about players getting money and players getting paid, where the NCAA had no good argument. And so they hired the most expensive lawyers they could to try to come up with something.

And it wouldn't, now, the attorneys on the other side were Jeffrey Kessler and Steve Berman, really good attorneys. They probably didn't even need to be really. really good attorneys. Because the NCAA's case was so bad in those cases. This felt like a role reversal where Kessler had to earn every penny he was getting for this. And I actually, I find like what he's saying to be somewhat compelling, Andy. Like I do understand that, you know, again, if you are, you're not thinking within your normal confines of a well-functioning thought process if you're giving into an addiction. So like I, but like this is the layup. Like,

I'm not a professional attorney, but that would have been my argument too. you know like when you think about an attorney really all their job is to do is to be to create a clever compelling argument and when it comes to brend and sorsby side of things i think that this is a layup of an argument anybody could have come up with that one like that's the whole thing so um well yeah you're saying that the NCAA says they care about the student athlete and they care about their well-being and so theoretically they should care about this and and they should be worried about him getting help, not worried about punishing him. That's the way they look at this.

Yeah. Yeah. So, and, you know, I mean, the unders are would be kind of scary, the under bets, because you have an impact as the quarterback of a team to ruin that, you know. So, no, he's not there. He's, he wasn't playing. Yeah. If it was a game he played in, I don't even know if there would have been a hearing today. Yeah.

Yeah. We'll see. We'll see, Andy. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think I would be holding my breath if I were a Texas tech fan. Yeah, I think the odds are against them. I keep you, it's funny how much of that's in our vernacular, like as people who talk about sports.

Yeah, but that was a very, I mean, that's a fairly common thing to say even before gambling became very, but yeah, I don't think their chances are great that he's going to get to play this year. the judge has to be aware that if you do that, then anybody who gets caught doing this is going to be able to get an injunction and go play probably. That would be the thought. So it does open the door for that. And, you know, it's another question of can the NCAA enforce any rules at all?

Because we know there's a bunch that can enforce because they've been challenged in court and don't hold up to antitrust muster. Well, I have seen a lot of this stuff online as I was reading about it, and I wanted to get your take on it, which is if the NCAA somehow loses this and the injunctions granted in Sorsby plays, is this the case or is this a,

would you view this as a tipping point of it's pure chaos now? I think, here's the thing, there are no fans probably outside of the Texas Tech fan base that think he should be allowed to play. So like those other antitrust cases were, you know, the in-consumer didn't really care if they got paid or not at the end of the day. People don't want him to play if he bet on his own team. The average consumer does not want people betting on their own teams. But if the NCAA, if the NCAA cannot win a case that is this cut and dry, then what case can they win is what I mean?

It should, yeah, it should tell. the schools that it's time to collectively bargain because you need some rules you can actually enforce. Don't worry about the Protect College Sports Act that we talked about with Ted Cruz last week. Don't worry about that. Just collectively bargain, get some real rules. Because even that law, even that bill, if it gets passed, it can get challenged in court and overturned. If you have a CBA, the chances of it getting overturned are slim to none. The chances of rules that you created with both parties with the players and the teams, the chances of that getting overturned in court are very slim.

Because a judge would say, you all agreed to this. Yep. So, I mean, we have to get there. And Andy, I just want to go back just 30 seconds,

too. I don't want there to be a misunderstanding. When I said earlier that he could impact the game, I understand why you said he wasn't playing in it. I understand he wasn't playing in it, too, but I meant optically it's a bad, Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And he's at practice.

That's where inside information actually hurt to you. He knows that the starter had a terrible week of practice. He knows if there's certain things that they're struggling with. Yes, agreed. Agreed. Now, the NCAA did not go there. They didn't say that. So they probably could have, but they didn't.

All right, let's talk about what this means for Texas Tech from a football standpoint. If he can't play. then Will Hammond, that's your guy. But remember, Will Hammond is coming back off a torn ACL. He may not be able to play right away. You may not see him until week three against Houston. So you've got a Tulsa transfer there who probably winds up starting your first two games. So if Texas were to take you up on your offer, I don't know you got Will Hammond for that game.

Yeah, well, it doesn't seem like Joe McGuire is overly concerned about week one at this point, given what he's offered to do. But yeah, I think that like they, my understanding, Andy, and talking to some people from behind the scenes there are the last few weeks is that they're pretty, they're pretty, what's the word I'm looking for? They're hopeful or they're cautiously optimistic that Will Hammond will be ready before them. So my hope is that he will be too much. Chris is the guy from Tulsa.

And so they, but they feel comfortable with Kirk Francis to start the first couple games. Yeah. And you know what? Here's the deal too. and I don't mean to, even if they lose a game in week one, like they should still be in very good position to win the Big 12. So that's the thing. They're playing Abilene Christian in week one,

so I'm not particularly worried about them losing that game. So if they lose that game, then they've wasted all their money on this team anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I honestly don't even think the guy should play until Houston. So, you know, I would give him.

the extra few weeks and let them fully be ready. I was reading the thread on Red Raider Sports and great job by Jared Ramirez of Red Raider Sports, keeping everybody up to date. They had a running thread on Red Raider Sports on the message board, just

explaining what was going on in court today because it wasn't a situation like the case in Mississippi with Trinidad Chambers. This courtroom did not allow cameras. So thanks to the folks of Red Raiders Sports for keeping us up to date on what was going on. But I saw a lot of a lot of posters having questions about, oh, should Texas Tech settle or should the NCAA settle?

No, no, no, no, guys. There's no, no, there's no settlement here. Like, this case is not getting settled. And the NCAA has been offered a suspension. Like the Texas Tech team or the Threatened Sorbsby team offered a two-game suspension already. And I think they'd take a three game or maybe even four-game suspension because that still gets their guy paid. But the NCAA is not offering that. the NCAA is not willing to do a suspension.

And, you know, I guess if they thought they had a bad day in court, they might reconsider that. But given their previous history, I don't, I mean, they've had way worse days in court than this and not backed off. Yeah. Well, I think that we covered it there, Andy. I just, I'm just looking forward to just hearing what the actual decision is and then we can go, you know, move forward.

But I think Texas Tech hopefully will still be in a good position. I think they're one of the more compelling teams, obviously, going into the year. And, you know, once they can just understand what's happening, they can just proceed and prepare for what they know they have. Yep, exactly right. Ari, let us move closer to the football field. We're still talking quarterbacks, though. Elite 11 finals were this past weekend in Los Angeles,

our guy Charles Power, our lead evaluator, for rivals was there. Greg Biggins, who's covered the quarterback industrial complex as well as anybody over the years, was there. The rivals MVP, according to Charles Power, Nebraska commit Trey Taylor, which this has got to be big news for the Nebraska folks, because obviously they're sitting there trying to figure out what their quarterback situation is right now. The thought is it'll be Anthony Calandria coming from UNLV. Before that, he was at Virginia. They've also got T.J. Lateef who filled in for Dylan Riola last year. But Trey Taylor headed their way.

And if he's the best of a group that included the best recruits in the class of 2027, then I'd say that that bodes well for Nebraska. Yeah. Well, you know what? One thing I wanted to point out, because I used to go to this every year back at the athletic and even before then, it's a really great event and you really get an opportunity to kind of see these guys up close and personal and talk to them. I think that next year, we should try to go out there and do a show there because they have sets on the side. It's really awesome. And you're really around a lot of the future stars of the sport in a way. And they have people like Caleb Williams came when I was there last time. And, you know, they have coaches that were once elite 11, you know, participants becoming counselors. And, you know, that's where we, before I became obsessed with Deuce Robinson. Like, yeah, there's just a lot of people there. And it's just like, yeah. It's not just quarterbacks there.

They have some very good pass catchers there. They have some good DBs that come to help out. It's the closest thing in the summer to being around college football that you can do, I think. And it's just fun. And I think, you know, who's against thing at the Renaissance at LAX and having a good meal before going to bed too? So, Andy, the coolest thing about the Elite 11, though, is college football fans and message boards exist because of, in my opinion, future hope. Like being able to look at somebody that is yours and envision what could be. Like that's why recruiting exists is because everybody is always excited about what's next.

And I think that if you have a player who won the MVP at the Elite 11, and granted, I don't know, you know, everybody is familiar with it. It's not like they're in full pads, but they're doing a ton of drills. And it's very scientific. They have a bunch of talent evaluators there. They have machines like scoping your velocity. I mean, they've got every single thing. you can do to like measure traits for a quarterback.

And like if your person wins the elite 11 or is named an MVP by a person like Charles Power who like is one of the best evaluators in the entire sport, um, that's pretty good idea that you might have gotten somebody special. So, you know, I found, well, I've got the list. Go ahead. I've got the list of, of the elite 11 MVPs over the years. 2005, Diabelle, who will be a freshman this year at Texas. So we don't know what he's going to be yet.

That's the son of former NBA great Raja Bell. 2004, we may see this guy starting this year. Keel and Russell. He's at Alabama right now. He's competing for the job against Austin Mack. And if you watch the Alabama Spring game, Keel and Russell very well may be the guy. 23, Julian Sayan, the current Ohio State starting quarterback, who was a Heisman finalist last year in his first year's a start.

Keep going. It gets better. If you have, I don't know how far you back, you went. It gets worse before it gets better. Yeah, not every year was perfect, but like, yeah. 2012, Jackson Arnold, 2021. The story's not completely written. Cade Clovenik. Now it's going to get good again.

2020. Caleb Williams. Yeah, okay. That's good. 2019, C.J. Stroud. 2018, Spencer Rattler, who wound up being a good college quarterback in South Carolina. 2017, Justin Fields, 2016, Tua. That, it gets pretty good.

I mean, when you actually think about the odds of how many quarterbacks play high school football and getting an NFL starter or somebody who started multiple years in the NFL, like four out of five years, that's pretty freaking good. It is. It is. So, I don't know. My point is that it's interesting because Nebraska, you know, got a, a five-star quarterback that had connections to the university,

chose Nebraska over some big-time programs during a time in which it was rarer to do so. And that didn't work out. And now maybe you do get a really good quarterback who changes your program in the way that it needs to be changed. And it just doesn't come with all the fanfare. Trey Taylor from just off memory, I know, is a top 100 player. He's from Illinois.

And he's a Midwestern guy. And he has physical. He's going to play high school ball in Nebraska this year too. Yeah. So, you know, he's going and he's going to get a lot of corn. You know, I think really good for his body. And he'll be ready to go. So, like, I don't know.

Like, I look at this list and Andy and I were talking about this before the show, but you see guys in the elite 11 top performers list here that we have on the screen. And you can read them off if you want, but we have commitments to Virginie Tech. We have Oregon. We have Kentucky. We have Ole Miss. So, like, you have some blue. bloods in there because you're always going to have blue bloods involved with the top

quarterbacks in the country. But, you know, seeing like Kentucky on that list is fun. Yeah. Now, like Peter Bork is Virginia, excuse me, Virginia Tech. And then Jake Narrod is the, is the Kentucky commit. And Will Stein, I'm sure, had a pretty good idea what he was looking for when he got this job at Kentucky. He was the Oregon OC. So he's looked at some really good quarterbacks. Now, obviously, Will Munsell, who is going to Oregon is right above Jake Nauron. So, yeah, it's interesting to see the distribution on the list. And I was wondering about this. Like, has it changed considerably in this era? And I went back and looked at 2017, 2018, 2019. Now, there were non-blue-bloodish schools on this list. And if we're being real here,

a lot of the finalists, it wound up transferring a lot of times because quarterback recruiting is a crap shoot. But this feels like a different era. And we talked about this when Israel Abrams, who wound up number three on this list, committed to Miami. Because if you're Israel Abrams, you're looking at that and going, okay, I can be the first homegrown Miami quarterback in a while, but they keep hiring new transfers. And I do think it's changing the demographics of the quarterback recruiting. I think the schools that can get in on top level quarterbacks, it's a bigger list now because some schools are deciding, hey, we're transferred schools.

We're taking transfers and that's what we're going to do. And others now can probably get in on some guys that maybe they could not have gotten in on earlier. Yeah. And the other thing about this event, too, is that some people are uncommitted. Some people have like, and I don't know,

like you went back and looked at some of the previous lists and you do have random teams on there. But sometimes the people who are invited to the elite 11 don't coincide with the recruiting services because the Elite 11 has its own mechanism for scouting. And a lot of times people rise up boards very quickly based on the performances. Like I believe Jackson Dart was one

that was kind of underrated, was a late bloomer, and then went to the Elite 11 and shot up. CJ Stroud went to the Elite 11 and I think won the MVP and then went from like a top 600 player to a top 80, player and then went to Ohio State. The CJ Stroud story at the elite 11 is kind of the quintessential story where Ohio State was looking at him, but it was unclear. And they had somebody else committed at the time.

And basically, a lot of the guys who came to the elite 11, the other quarterbacks and the receivers and those guys were talking so much about CJ Stroud that basically got back to Ryan Day, like. or I got back to the coaching staff at Ohio State that, hey, this guy might be the guy. This guy is a big time player. And not everybody realized that. It was being around those people and him competing and his willingness to compete against those guys that helped him shoot up the board. Yeah.

So it is like, you know, if I'm a Nebraska fan, I'm delighted. You know, and for most of the people who perform well, you know, doesn't have to be an NFL starter to be transformative either, right? Like, you can have a really good player who has a bunch of great tools that is awesome at Nebraska and doesn't even get drafted. You know, like, it doesn't have to be Trevor Lawrence or Deshaun Watson for it to be a success. But, you know, I think that obviously having a quarterback in the fold is the ultimate view of hope when it comes to being a fan. And I remember writing a column, we know you and I were in Chicago and we were at the athletic convention together. And he flipped and I ran up to my hotel room, wrote a column about it.

it because it was so important of like what does this mean for for Nebraska and it's just like this isn't quite as high profile because Dylan Rayola was at some point the number one overall player in the country but I mean you never know what kind of player you're going to get it's just like I mean I just kind of think like if you have like DeMond Williams he wasn't some huge deal at the beginning of his career and then he turned out to be awesome and now look how big of a difference it is not you think Nebraska would like to have to demand Williams like you just have to somebody really good. So.

Yeah. It's really interesting. Like I was looking at the one uncommitted guy on this list is Ryan Rikowski, who's from the L.A. area. And he's the only one in this group that hadn't committed anybody yet. It looks like he may wind up recruiting or he could get one up at SMU. They were, they've been looking at him. Greg Biggins said Nevada is a school to watch for him. But after this.

the level of school might go up because other schools may get involved. And what happens here too? Because we're fairly late now. I mean, I know people think that, hey, there's still, you know, five, six more months left until signing it. But what happens is not for quarterbacks. This is really late in the process for quarterbacks. And if you look of the top 11 players that, you know, rivals ranked there,

10 of them are committed already. So what I think happens is there are teams that need quarterbacks late in the process. and then all of a sudden your scarcity at the position then impacts how many offers you get to and stuff. So like obviously one flip or one, you know, decommitment changes the entire thing. But, you know, when you talk about butterfly effect, Andy, you love that so much. Like when it comes to quarterbacks, like there are so many moves that happen in and around not just the Elite 11, but this time of year in high school football recruiting that have changed like the destination for 20 other people. So it's.

I did a thing where I kind of. followed it down. I'm trying to remember who it was. It was somebody flipping away from Penn State. Was it Brandon Wimbush flipping from Penn State to Notre Dame? I think that's what it was. And I traced it all. I traced it into D2 after signing day. It was wild. I wrote a story once and the kid's name is escaping me because I don't have the capacity that you do up in the big brain of years. Who was that really cool or fun Nebraska quarterback to watch like five years ago? maybe that doesn't narrow it down. But he was like super athletic and had a really good freshman year,

had a down sophomore year. And then Adrian Martinez. Adrian Martinez. Exactly. Thank you. Was committed to Tennessee and then Bush Jones got fired. Yes. And I think that Ohio State,

because I was on the beat at this time, Ohio State got invited. I wrote a column or a story for the athletic back in 2019 with the headline, how Ryan Day's decision with Adrian Martinez shifted the power dynamic of college football because I think that they moved. on from him and then it like moved on and infected like 15 other recruitment. So, um, and this,

this includes people like Justin Fields, Spencer Rattler, uh, Jalen Hertz. Like there's a ton of movement when it comes to players at that level. So, um, yeah,

anyway, if you're a Nebraska fan, I'd be pretty pumped. That's all. Yeah. I know that, you know, times have been kind of annoying the last few months,

but I'd be pumped about this. Definitely be pumped about this. This is, this is something like, you know, reading the, message words at Husker online, it feels like there's been quite a bit of negativity this offseason. But this is a sort of thing you can get excited about for real, legitimately

excited about because this is a guy who went and competed against the best of his position in his class and looked the best of all of them. So that is genuinely great news. And one little tidbit about the Elite 11, too, that I always found interesting is that when you think about the types of players who have come through and you watch them work out sometimes, the former participants who come back and be counselors work out and do the same exact drills with them. And when I went the last time, Caleb Williams was, I believe, either in his final year at USC or in its first year in the NFL, and he came back and ran through the same drills as the kids. And it was completely night and day between his athleticism, his ability, his arm strength, all the things that he was doing,

in comparison to the seniors in high school that were doing the same drill right next to him. And it just goes to show you, too, of how much money and resources get put into these kids, that the best of the best high school prospect can't even compare physically or talent-wise at that position to somebody who's been in college for two or three years or in the first year in the league, which then also opens the door for a secondary discussion, which is, is it smart to invest as much capital as necessary to sign the top quarterback in the country if he can't even compete at a high level in comparison to a third-year player in college, which, you know, is the whole thing right now. So anyway, it's fun and it's exciting, but obviously getting in on the ground floor or somebody in high school who has a chance to develop into something great

is probably the most pure fan experience that we even have left in this new world of college football. Now, let's look at a three-star quarterback from St. Pete, Florida, in the class of 2003. It would be Anthony Calandria, signed with Virginia, played for there for a while, then went to UNLV, played well for UNLV last year in Dan Mullen.

He is the projected starter at Nebraska this year. So you also don't know how things are going to wind up. The one thing I do know is that I know things have been shaky at times with Anthony Calandria, but isn't he a joy to watch? He is an absolute joy to watch. And I think, you know, it may be that last year with a little bit different coaching, he did not have the no, no, no, no, yes, yes, yes traits as much as he had at Virginia. And Dan Mullen's been good at adjusting his offense based on a quarterback skill set.

So I would imagine that gives Dana Hulgerson a lot to look at as he inherits Anthony Calandria. So, yeah, I'm excited to see it because he was super fun to watch at Virginia when I think there were times when he was trying to elevate them in a way that they maybe weren't capable of being elevated. And so he had to take some risks. at UNLV, he didn't have to take as many risks because the talent gaps weren't as wide. Nebraska, the talent level should be pretty well, pretty good there. So I do think he's not going to have to do

a lot of super risky things. But he is fun to watch when he gets going, when that pocket breaks down a little bit and he needs to make some magic happen. It's fun. I promise. It'll be an adventure. One way or the other.

And it's completely different and a completely different feel for Nebraska in general. Because Nebraska wasn't as backyard footbally run around in circles type of team the last few years. No. And that's not Dylan Raola's style or game. But I'm not sure. The thing is, I think given what Nebraska had from a protection standpoint, they probably needed someone more like Calandria. Yeah. So we'll see.

I mean, I know that like Nebraska. The fans are probably a little bit, I don't know, sour about the way that that all went, but it doesn't necessarily mean that your team's going to be way worse. I don't know if Dylan Raolo is an irreplaceable talent. We're going to find out, but they also got a big one coming in Trey Taylor. So get excited about that. Go for it. Get excited.

Are you got fired up last week. When I was in Destin, I was listening to Greg Sankey talking, I could kind of feel the steam coming from your ears from... Did you know what I would... Did you know that I was going to think that before I wrote it? I knew you were to think that when he said it. Okay. So Ari wrote a column and the headline is, the SEC needs to stop telling us who the best league is.

It's time to prove it again. And so I was in the press conference when this question got asked. And it was essentially a question of, you know, what do you do now that you haven't put a team in the national title game in three years? This was to Greg Sankey. And Greg Sankey's response is, hey, you know, that doesn't mean we're not still the best conference. We still had the most players drafted. You know, if you look at how the, how the Ole Miss Miami game went down,

Ole Miss is throwing the ball into the end zone with a chance to win the game. And they would have made the national title game, how they won that game. So it was a lot of the same stuff we used to hear from the Big Ten people when they couldn't win the national title. And all of the SEC did was win the national title every year. and I get exactly why are you said what you said. But it's not just Greg Sanky because like I understand if he was the only one who said it, it'd be whatever. Oh, no.

It's his job. It's his job to prop up the conference. So like it's not just him. But I just I feel like and I don't know if it's radio personalities. Let me just ask you this before I go into my rant. Of all the national media in the country or the most or the loudest most prominent college football shows. What percentage of them do you think would be based somewhere on the southeast? Do you think that most of like our media is comes from there? Like,

is that just a perception of mine? In college, people care the most. Yeah, exactly. Of course, that also is more lucrative business for places that want to report on those things in those areas. Yeah, it's all I hear. Give the audience what they want. Yes. all the time. And I don't know if it's because their coaches in the SEC are more interesting or are more willing to say things. But all I've heard for years now is it's a grind and it's harder to win at the end of the year when we're beating ourselves up. Our 11th best team is better than you. Well, you've got to say something when you can't just point to the national champion. It's a lot easier when you can be like, hey, see that?

I'm just tired of hearing it, man. Like it just and I don't know because I was in the Big Ten sphere while the SEC was kicking the crap out of everybody for 20 years. And you heard you heard them whining about. I just I don't ever remember the big. The SEC's a media construct. I remember that. Oh, it's the media propping up the SEC. No, it's them winning the national title all the time. You go back now same same thing. It works the same way. And I'm, I'm with you. You said it very well in your column. If you want people to think you're the best, win the freaking title. That's so funny. You brought that up because I actually forgot what it was like covering a Big Ten team and being on a Big Ten beat during that time.

But the Big Ten was annoying in a very different way. The Big Ten, pretending like there was some sort of conspiracy that would like. It was pitiful. It was so sad. Yeah. They didn't go, we're the best. They just complained about all the,

my personal favorite, Ari, the first time the SEC beat a Big Ten team to kick that streak off after Florida beat Ohio State. Jim Delaney, who is the Big Ten Commissioner, put out a press release saying, the SEC is faster because it's dumber, basically. I have no recollection of that. Tell me more. I'm fascinating.

It was spectacular. He's like, we were all very impressed with the SEC speed, but we have certain academic standards. The funniest part is Ohio State had a guy playing for its team in that game who had originally committed as a Juco transfer to Florida, but couldn't go to Florida because the SEC had more strict Juco admission standards. Well, and the big 10. And committed a 15-yard penalty in the game for no good reason. Because it was hysterical. The last year or so have been accused a lot of being a big 10 homer.

And I just would encourage those people to go read some of the things, because there was nothing more annoying to me, even more so than saying I'm the best when you're not about blaming academics and academic standard for not winning. Like, like, just shut up. It was so bad. It was so pitiful. Michigan used to do that for 15 years before they finally. Yeah, now they don't have to. And that's what they don't have to do it anymore. We're a better university.

Why? Because they won the national title three years ago. Like, shut up. Like, I just want everybody to shut up. There's a scoreboard. Like, we won't. Have you not learned anything about this sport already? The SEC is just hell bent on convincing you.

If you didn't win the national title, it's not because you weren't the best. it's because all this other crap happened to you. Yeah, but I will say the Big Ten's media conspiracy was far more off the reservation than the SEC is just more insane than you. That was more insane than this. But, you know, the thing too is that like I just wanted to be understood, Andy, that I do believe that the SEC is a deep conference. I do believe they've got great players.

I do believe they're going to win another championship. But buddy, I'm so tired of hearing about what happened in 2018. Like if in, you know, whenever you talk to an SEC person about modern college football, they always go backward. For 20 years, we know. Everybody knows for 20 years were the best. Nobody even debated it, did they? Did people debate like in 2017 if the SEC was the best? Like, I don't know.

Yes, there were people in the Big Ten who were like, it's a media construct. It wasn't a debate, but they made it one anyway. Yeah, I don't know that it was a media construct. I think it was just winning national championships most years and having a ton of players drafted and all the best players going to those schools. And they still have really good, you know, here's the thing about the SEC that needs to be said.

There is too much money being invested into those programs for them to fail long term, right? Like, it's like this is a very temporary thing. And I think that the Big Ten will continue to put teams into the championship game and I think the SEC will too. It's not that the SEC stinks. It's not that the SEC isn't good. It's not that the SEC will never,

be good again. It's just the whining of in longing for the days of dominance that it's just like they can't fathom what's happening right now. And no matter how you say they can't. Nobody who, think about all the people who are in the SEC right now. They don't really remember a time like the coaches, the AD's, Mitch Barnhart just retired. I mean, he was working before the SEC's run of dominance began, but not many of these people were. They came in. the middle of this thing and that's what they dropped into and they just they just assumed it would always be that way yeah and what what do we what do we always tell what do you and i always tell everybody all this stuff is cyclical it comes back around and i remember in 2006 covering

florida going well the big 10's clearly the best conference but here's the thing you're Ohio State. But we didn't even fathom. What if what if it's not? And then Florida plays Ohio State that we thought was clearly the best team. And Florida crushes and we're like, oh, so they're not the best. And the SEC was legitimately king shit for two decades, which is a very long time in the cyclical world. Like it is a very long time. Now, the thing that I am a little bit wary of, and you and I have discussed this in the past, is that the SEC is also using 2019 talking points to change rules. And that's scary to me. It's like, okay, you know, if you want to go back and be in 2020 and then change the way that the college football playoff committee

deliberates, that's scary to me. But I am also amused by the fact that those rule changes ultimately ended up benefiting teams that weren't in the SEC this year. So, you know, it's just I just like I can't hear it anymore. I just like that's it. Like that and I'm not going to write about it again. I got it out and I'm happy that you let me like freak out. You've written that column twice in the last couple months, haven't you?

No, I don't. What was the other one? I'm sure there's another one. Check the Ari Wasserman writer page. Yeah. Well, you know what? It kept working.

So if it was number two, I mean, people needed to hear it again. So I just, I'm tired of hearing about it. That's all. And you know what? We have a show because I keep hearing about it.

That's fine. And people disagree with it. But go read the replies in your, in your spare time today to the tweet of the story. Oh, yeah. No, the best part of this is everybody just wants to be mad about it. Nobody cares about the facts. Nobody cares about anything. They just want their team to win, whether their team is the SEC, the Big Ten.

But people are equally passionate about it, too. SEC people are offended. And Big Ten people have waited two decades to be able to say, shut up. So, like, everybody is wound up about it. And I don't blame the big team. 10 people one bit because the SEC was pretty arrogant about it when it was on top. Yeah. It's sort of like when I was early in my marriage and I was like my wife is a great chopbuster,

fantastic chopbuster. And I would bust back a little bit and she'd get upset. And one day I said, you do this to me. Why are you getting upset? And she just looks at me and goes, you know I can dish it out, but I can't take it. Yeah. That's the SEC. Yeah, but at least your wife is self-aware about it. Self-aware enough to know.

Yeah. I mean, I actually think that's a superpower, like to be able to say don't do that because I can't take it. Like, it's, you know, it's just a different sport now. And I think that it's more even. Maybe the SEC is 20% better. Like, it's still the variance and the amount of teams that are in these leagues are going to lead to different results. And now a lot of people are. Here's what's interesting because the Big Ten is winning national titles.

I will argue that the SEC is a much better television product. The ratings suggest that too, but there's a reason for that. So our friend Seth Emerson at the athletic put these numbers together at the end of last season. The average margin of victory in conference games in the SEC last year was 11.4 points. It was three points closer than in 2024. In the Big Ten, the average margin of victory was 16.8. points. So 36.4% of Big Ten games decided by a touchdown or less.

In the SEC, 57% decided by a touchdown or less. So the SEC is providing a better week-to-week television product, but the Big Ten is producing national champions. Yeah, but do you think that closer games, do you think closer games is proof that you're better? No, I didn't say it was better. I'm saying it's a better product. It's a more interesting product. I don't know if they're better.

Closer games are more compelling. The teams at the top, I think, are worse in the SEC than they were. I think that's why. So they're actually creating a more compelling television product, but they're not capable of winning national titles as much as they were before because they are not so head and shoulders above everybody else. Kind of amusing because the only thing that Greg Sanky ever really should be worried about is how big of a television, how compelling their television product is.

Right. I know that winning is important. He got asked about that. He got asked if their TV deal was undervalue and he's like, yeah. Do you think? He's like, but I'd rather over-deliver than under-deliver. And it was a clear shot at the Big Ten whose television product is not good because there's too many blowouts. If you think, or if you ask Greg Sankey, what would you rather have?

10 consecutive national championships or 10 consecutive most compelling? television titles. What do you think he would take? Without the titles. As long as the compelling television titles translate to dollars in the next deal, then that. That, right?

Yeah. So it'll be interesting, and I think, like, I've been on record all summer, and I'll do it again as we start June. I think Texas is going to win the national championship this year. I think that the SEC will win it now. I think that's the thing.

I don't think there's anything functionally wrong. with the SEC other than the NIL transfer portal era has flattened the curve and allowed other teams to get into this and it's not just a couple of teams at the top of the SEC and one team at the top of the Big Ten. There's a lot more people who can really compete now. And I think that's why you're seeing more variation. I also think that the Nick Sabin dominance poisoned our brain to how easy it is won in a national championship.

And I think the 20-year dominance that the SEC had poisoned their brains on what to expect out of their conference. Well, right. If it's not Nick Saban, if Alabama has a good coach, but not Nick Saban during that era, are we even talking about it like this? Because it could be that the just the level of dominance from the SEC was because of Nick Saban. You know, if Alabama wins two national titles instead of six during that period, do SEC teams necessarily win all the other ones? I don't think they do. I think it's possible that they do. I really do think that the SEC was bigger. Unless you would have won one of them.

I can't stand the thought process because some people say if Nick Sabin didn't exist, the SEC wouldn't be dominant. I think that's fundamentally false because of where their players came from during that era. I think that their consistency in how many times Nick Sabin won the championship propped up Alabama, but I think there were years where Alabama didn't win another SEC team would have. So like that, but like if you look, and the reason why I think that, Andy, is because they had five separate national champions during that era. They had Auburn, Florida, LSU, Bama, and Georgia. So, like, there was five different teams from the league.

A candidate. Right. And Auburn was the only one that didn't win it multiple times. So of those. Like that, that, so, like, I think that the Sabin thing, I only brought up Sabin because I think that he poisoned the regular fans' brain into thinking that national championship should be more regular, both in the SEC and nationally. And I think that the SEC's reign of 20 straight years, basically, of being the best conference

in the country and hoarding as much talent in draft picks as they did has poisoned. SEC fans' brains now into what should be normal moving forward. Is that a fair thought? Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, do I think the SEC is going to go 10 more years about winning another national title? I don't. I don't either.

I think they're going to winning this year. I mean, they could. But they also might not. And that's what it's a more interesting sport right now than it was in 2015. Yeah. It just is. Yeah. It's like if you change the rules of how teams are assembled, then why would anything be the same?

It seems like basic math to me. If you're an SEC person who's clinging back to the last 20 years, ask yourself, if everything about how teams are assembled and how money is deployed has changed, why would the product change? It's like changing the ingredients to a pizza recipe and expecting the same exact pizza to come out of the oven. It's not the way it works. When's the last time the SEC and the Big Ten played one another for the national title?

It's been a long time, hasn't it? I think it has. So because they I'm looking so 25 Georgia. No, not 25. Sorry, what am I looking at? Oh, this is the SEC. Alabama, Ohio State in 2020 was the last one. Yeah.

So it's not, and it didn't happen that frequently before that because a lot of times one of the, one would get knocked out in the semis. Like, for example, when Ohio State won in 2014, they beat Alabama in the semis and then beat Oregon in the final. And then Clemson had their run. So that was ACC's time. So they were very, they were in the playoff every year for seven straight years. So like that's going to obviously change the numbers on that a little bit too.

So, but, you know, I think now with Miami's rise and, you know, some of the West Coast former PAC 12 teams like USC, hopefully, for their fan sake and Oregon, you know, I think Washington might be a sleeper this year. Like, do you have like the Big Ten also gets to like glom on to success of programs that might have been good enough to win it? Like if the PAC 12 still existed, Andy, and those teams were in a different conference, they would still be deploying capital at the same rate. Maybe not the same way. Texas and Oklahoma were still in the Big 12. They would also be deploying capital in ways that make the national title contenders. Much harder for the SEC, like, which I think kind of illuminates how insane the SEC's run was.

Like, there's nobody that has more respect and more of like an awe factor than me when it comes to how long the SEC killed it. And like I understand fundamentally why they were able to. to do that. The best players in the country typically are from the southeast region of the country. You know, you have pockets like L.A. and you have some in Ohio and but you have Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, you know, all these places where all the players come from don't want to go as far when they weren't getting paid and they all went to those collections of schools. So, but 20 years, you know, you always talk about how things are cyclical and you had to like teach me this because I'm a prisoner of the moment and I remember back in the old ass days, the Andy Staples show.

at the athletic. I would say something. I was like, this is not going to last forever. But how long is a healthy, in your opinion, how long is a healthy cycle in college football? Because like 20 years is unhealthy. Like no conference or no team or no region of the country should dominate the sport for 20 years the way the SEC did. I think a cycle should be between five and seven years. I think that's probably about right. And really this one changed because the rules changed and Nick Saving retired because the rules changed. But what rules are going to change in the future? What is the system going to look like?

How is recruiting going to change? How are recruiting thoughts going to evolve, right? Like all these different things that come into play that are going to impact the results on the field. And it feels like right now the Big Ten is spending a bunch of money and they have corporations closer to their campuses than they do in southern places. And that people think that this is a permanent stranglehold. But Andy, as you point out,

will point out with you, something else will change that will change the sport and then it'll go back to what it is. But what I do know here, and this is probably a fact and something that we can close on, I think it's unequivocally true that the fan base is in the southern part of the country care more. And when you have that much care, that will always have a correlation between investment in the program. So like that to me, like, I don't know if an LSU fan cares more than Ohio State man, but I think an LSU fan cares a hell of a lot more than a Michigan state fan. A Mississippi state fan cares more than a Northwestern fan.

I think that that is a fact. So as long as that's the case, then you probably have a little bit of a leg up on everybody else because money travels to where interest is. And that's just the way that the world works. So I don't think the drought will last forever, SEC folks. I think you're going to get one eventually. Are you things you going to get it this year? I don't know if that's true unless you literally just invested almost a hundred million dollars into this team.

And you picked a different SEC team to win. So like as long as that's happening, like they will get it back again. But in the meantime, I don't know, man. If I play Madden with somebody and I'm like talking shit before we play Madden and that person kicks my ass, I just go, you know what, man, you're right. You're better. Like it's just like, maybe that's just my personality. but like just take your ls on the chin like men and get better. They all never do that.

Have you learned nothing covering this sport? They will never do that. What else are we going to do in June? I know. I'm so thinking. Way for the judge in the Brennan's Sorsby case. And are we going to preview what we're doing this week too, Andy, for the people, just so they know.

What are we doing this week? We're taking a little jet plane together. Yeah, but we can't talk about that yet. Oh. I mean, we can talk about taking. in a jet plane. But what we're doing, we can talk about later, but not quite yet. Oh. But we can't talk about it later. We also, this week, the Hall of Fame ballots out, we mentioned that my Leach was going to be on it. He is indeed on it. We're going to try to figure out who's going to make

the College Football Hall of Fame. This list on the ballot is insane. There are so many good former players. The choices are almost impossible. I feel so bad for the people who have to actually pick. But Ari and I will do our best to try to pick who will make the College Football Hall of Fame in this next class. And of course, as soon as we hear back from the judge in the Renan Sorsby case,

we'll talk about it. And if it's tonight, we'll go live. Yeah.