Andy & Ari On3 - College Realignment's Point of No Return? What will Arizona and Washington Decide?

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

Subscribe to On3! ⬇️ youtube.com/on3sports/The best of college football and recruiting https://www.on3.com/Follow Andy Staples on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Andy_Staples Follow Andy Staples on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andy_staplesFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/on3sports Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/on3/?hl=en Like/Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/On3Sports/ Shop On3 https://shop.outsider.com/collectionsAndy breaks down a pair of Pac-12 After Dark board meetings 0:00-5:00As we wait for the Arizona and Washington boards to meet late Thursday, Andy looks back on The Alliance and how college sports wound up with a major conference (the Pac-12) on life support. 5:01-21:40Then Andy chats with Jon Wilner of the Bay Area Newsgroup -- one of the most plugged-in people in Pac-12 country -- about what could happen at Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, Oregon, Stanford, Utah and Washington.21:41-42:50We can't let realignment stop us from talking about football, though. Minnesota receiver Chris Autman-Bell joins the show to discuss his seventh(!) season as a Golden Gopher. 44:34-51:29Next, Lettermen Row's Spencer Holbrook joins the show to discuss Ohio State's quarterback competition.57:24-1:15:22Andy's extra point features a delightful sequel to a hilarious NIL commercial starring our new best friend, Kansas State guard Cooper Beebe. 1:15:23-1:23:25

Greetings in the wee hours of the morning on the East Coast. It is 2 a.m. Eastern Time, 25 minutes after the University of Washington Board of Regents adjourned following a 95-minute executive session. Do we know anything from that meeting? Not necessarily. Not at this juncture. But I wanted to make sure I updated you guys because the way the show works now is we have a show that begins at 8 p.m eastern time and it runs for about an hour maybe a little more but on thursday night you had an arizona board of regents meeting it started at

9 p.m eastern time 6 p.m local time. And then you had a Washington Board of Regents meeting that started at 9 p.m. local time, midnight Eastern time. So little bits happened since we adjourned the show. And I think I just used the word adjourned because that's what I've been watching a lot of board meetings, or at least when they call them to order and then adjourn to executive session, then come back to adjourn to adjourn. But here's what has happened since then. The show ended about 9.15. The Arizona Board of Regents was in session. Shortly after that meeting ended, Ross Dellinger from Yahoo reported that Big 12 presidents have voted to accept Arizona's application to the Big 12 if it comes. Now, Arizona would have to vote to do that or vote to join the Big 12, essentially.

For that to happen, there has to be another meeting, probably this time publicly, of the Arizona Board of Regents. Now, remember, the Arizona Board of Regents also controls Arizona State. That one's not done yet. Multiple reports suggesting Arizona State will be a little bit longer in determining what's going to happen. The reports that the Pac-12 will hold a meeting on Friday, that Arizona State's going to listen in and see if minds can be changed.

But at the moment, it does appear that Arizona and Arizona State are headed to the Big 12. We don't know about Utah yet. The theory is that Utah is also headed there. Washington and Oregon are reportedly targets of the Big Ten. Allegedly, that is for partial shares. More money than they would have made in the Pac-12, more money than the teams in the Big 12 are going to get, but not a full share of Big Ten revenue.

Now, you may say, well, why would they leave? A full share of Big 10 revenue comes if you eventually go to the Big 10, and that's a lot of money. So remember, even if it's not the full share, if it's more than the other one, and the full share is coming, that's probably a pretty attractive offer considering what the other options are. So we will see what happens. But there's a very good chance a lot can happen Friday, and it's going to be a very eventful probably weekend.

And right now, things don't look good for the Pac-12. I will reiterate now, and you'll hear it again as we go into the show, multiple times. Remember when the Big 12 was dead in 2010? Remember when we declared it dead in 2021? Sometimes conferences rise up from the dead, so it doesn't mean right now that the Pac-12 is done, but things are not looking great. You're going to hear from John Wilner, Wilner Hotline from the Bay Area News Group. He's one

of the more plugged in guys in PAC-12 country. He doesn't sound particularly optimistic, but we will have to see what happens. This could go on for a few more days. A lot of these meetings require a 24 hour advance notice. So without notice that another meeting is coming, it may be into the weekend before we get any sort of official word on some of this stuff. But it does feel like the wheels are moving pretty quickly in terms of realignment. And it feels like this could be a pretty dramatic one if everything comes to pass. So we'll have to wait and see what everyone decides got a big show for you today we'll talk about how they got here we'll talk to John Wilner we talked to Minnesota receiver Chris Ottman Bell we talked to Spencer Holbrook from Letterman Road about the Ohio State quarterback competition and

Cooper Beebe Kansas State offensive lineman, one of the show's new best friends, stars in an exceptionally great NIL ad. All of that, plus a great Nick Saban smile on today's show. Welcome to Andy Staples on three on a very potentially eventful night in the world of college sports. We are waiting for a meeting of the Arizona Board of Regents, which controls Arizona and Arizona State. That starts at 9 p.m. Eastern time, 6 p.m. local time, Mountain Standard, because they don't believe in daylight savings time in Arizona, which

if you've been watching the show this week, you know that. Another meeting scheduled. This one is a 9 p.m. local start at the University of Washington. Their board will meet 9 p.m. Pacific time, midnight on the East Coast. Another executive session meeting. Both of these are executive session meetings. We think, as far as we can guess, and this is how the order of operations and realignment goes, that these people will be meeting and potentially endowing their presidents with the ability to negotiate conference affiliation. So what that means is if you're Robert Robbins, the Arizona president, or Michael Crow, the Arizona state president, they say, hey, you can go talk to other conferences if you want to talk to them.

And we'll see what happens. But right now, Arizona and Arizona State can probably go to the Big 12. Utah can probably go to the Big 12. We talked to Dan Wetzel last night. He had written that the Big 10 was exploring the idea of adding Oregon, Washington, Cal, and Stanford. Pete Thamel from ESPN reported on Thursday

that maybe not Cal and Stanford. And that's an interesting one because that leads me to believe if that's what happens, if it's Oregon and Washington Washington but not Cal and Stanford, then it is Fox completely pulling the strings in the Big Ten, which we kind of thought was happening anyway. But Fox doesn't want Cal and Stanford. It doesn't do anything for them.

That does not give them the bigger games that you all want to see. Oregon and Washington, that does. Think about this. Oregon, Ohio State, Washington, Michigan, Oregon, USC, Washington, USC, Nebraska, Oregon. All of these games are games that people will watch and want to see. Wisconsin, Oregon is something that everybody's going to want to see. Penn and washington these are games people want so that makes sense as to why fox would want that now why did it take this long to get to that probably because the big 10 didn't want to be viewed as the aggressor which is a little weird considering the Big Ten is the one who dealt the critical blow to the Pac-12 anyway when they took USC and UCLA. But college presidents are weird, and they think this matters.

They think it matters whose fault it is that you killed a conference. It doesn't really matter. We all know what you're in it for. And I really would love to see if this does come to pass. And we don't know if it will yet because we've declared conferences dead before and they've risen from the dead. Hi, Big 12. You're very much alive. But if this comes to pass, I would love in the press conferences next week that they'll inevitably have, if Oregon and Washington go to the Big 10, if Arizona,

Arizona State, Utah go to the Big 12, they'll say, we're making a 40-year decision. And this is about the quality of the schools that will associate our brands with creating opportunities for our student athletes. No, you're doing it for money. Get up and just say we did it for money. It's okay. We all know why you're doing it. It's funny because these are the same people that are going to Washington, D.C. and whining to Congress that they can't handle all this NIL stuff. Well, the players who are making this money and the people who are tampering with the players can look at these people who, by the way, are tampering, are trying to induce people with cash, and just say, I learned it from watching you,

Dad. I learned it from watching you. We all remember that commercial. It was ahead of its time. But that's why they're doing it. We know that. We know that. We know that. I felt bad watching Jake Dickert, the Washington State coach, on Thursday. He was getting interviewed by his local beat court.

And think about it. Not since the fall of the Southwest Conference in the early 90s, have we seen schools that actually lost their golden ticket. When the Southwest Conference fell, the ones who got to go to the Big 12 were okay. But Rice, Houston, TCU, they weren't okay. They had to wander through the conference hinterlands. Some of them are still wandering. We haven't seen that happen because we thought it might happen when the Pac-10, then Pac-10, tried to grab half the Big 12. So we thought it would happen to potentially Kansas State, Iowa State, Kansas. But it didn't happen because they survived. left the Big 12 for the SEC or said they were going to, we thought it might happen to the likes of Kansas State, Iowa State, Kansas,

TCU, Baylor, that whole group. And it didn't. It didn't happen. They survived. And we'll talk about that in a little bit. But this could happen. This really could happen to Oregon State and to Washington State and potentially to Callan to Stanford and it sucks if it happens to them it absolutely sucks

because if you ever watch college game day on ESPN you see old crimson on every episode that's how dedicated Washington State fans are they make sure their flag flies prominson on every episode. That's how dedicated Washington State fans are. They make sure their flag flies prominently on every episode. And if you've ever seen Washington State go to a non-conference road game and drink a town dry, you know how passionate those people are. They're going to be the victims in this. Because if all of this comes to pass, they're probably the mountain West and it's not throwing shade at the mountain West, but they were in one echelon and they're going to be viewed as being in a different one.

So the beat team asked Jake Dickert after practice, what this all means. And I thought, I thought his answer was pretty good it's one of those things you know guys we got to control we can control you know it's amazing to me you know how you know the question when how long would it take tv money to destroy college football maybe we're here you know maybe we're here you know to think even remotely five years ago the pac-12 would be in this position it's unthinkable to think that we're here today. And to think that local rivalries are at risk and fans driving four hours to watch their team play in a road game and rivalries is at risk, to me, is unbelievable. And I know our place at the table.

But at the end of the day, Pac-12 football and Pac-12 brand, man, if we stay together, it's really strong and we'll have a strong future. I firmly believe in that, you know, so it's important, you know, that we stay focused here in the now and maximizing what we can, but at the end of the day, I just think it's, we'll look back in college football in 20 years and be like, what are we doing? What are we doing? You know, let's let our guys stay regional, let's play, let's preserve the Pac-12 and what it is. You know, so I'll let the people that make those decisions, make those decisions. But at the end of the day,

we can focus on right here, right now, and maximizing this team. And that's all they can do right now because the Pac-12 for 2023 is a very good deep league. It's going to be a slog for everybody, for all of the teams in the Pac-12. And then perhaps they go their separate ways going into 2024. We're going to have to see what happens. I mean, what happens in Arizona probably will predict what happens everywhere else. If Arizona and Arizona State say we're leaving for the Big 12. Utah might follow.

That allows the Big 10 to come in, and it's not being the predator there, even though it already was. And they can take Oregon and Washington, or they can take Oregon and Washington, Cal and Stanford if they wanted to. Doesn't sound like that's what they want to do. But how did we get here? Well, this particular round of realignment started with Texas and Oklahoma going to the SEC. And there was a domino effect from that. And we are now finally

potentially seeing it come to its conclusion. So when that happened, the eight schools remaining in the Big 12, it seemed pretty bleak for them. They went to the Pac-12. They said, hey, can we merge? Can we do something? And the Pac-12 said, no, no, no, no. You don't belong with us. And so they were left to fend for themselves. Bob Bowles, who was still the commissioner at the time, they very quickly grabbed four schools, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF. And that seemed to help. Bowlesby was on his way out. He retired. They hire Brett Yormark as their commissioner. Brett Yormark then pushes to the front of the line for a TV contract, pushes past the Pac-12, which that move will be very important here. But let's go back a little further. Let's go

back to 2021, right after that Texas-Oklahoma move was revealed, before they were ready to reveal it, by the way. And let's talk about what happened next, because some of us have memory-holded, but it's one of the funnier slash dumber slash sadder moments in the history of college sports. I speak of course of the Alliance. Remember the Alliance? It was the PAC 12, the big 10 and the ACC joining forces to fight the evil SEC. Was the big 12 invited to the alliance? No, no, no, no, no. Not cool enough.

You were left for dead. You're just a corpse. You can't be in the alliance. And I thought about that a lot on Thursday. And I was like, I got to go back and see that alliance press conference again. Because I remember watching it and going, what are these people doing? What exactly is the purpose of all this? And so I watched the press conference and a couple of questions stuck out. One

asked by USA Today's Dan Wolkin. Yeah. Hey guys, I'm curious what kind of documents has been signed or will be signed to formalize this alliance? How will it be legally enforceable? And will it include any language that prevents one league in this alliance from poaching members of another league? We'll go ahead and start with Commissioner Kliabkov for this. There's no signed contract. There's an agreement among three gentlemen, and there is a commitment from 41 presidents and chancellors and 41 athletic directors to do what we say we're going to do. If there's any lack of specificity in the press release, it's because we want to make sure we could deliver 100 percent of what we promised. So we're aligned in how we want to approach this. But there's no contract.

There's no signed document and there doesn't need to be. That is George Klayavkov, the PAC-12 commissioner, looking incredibly naive in hindsight. If you're not watching on the YouTube channel, and by the way, you should be, like, subscribe, review on the On3Sports YouTube channel. You don't see Kevin Warren, the then Big Ten commissioner, who's in the box to the right of George Kliapkov, just kind of nodding along because at that point, they might have already been talking to USC and UCLA. That's how stupid the alliance was.

The Pac-12 essentially let the Fox into the hen house. And the only reason they were doing it was to say we're not the sec which didn't make any sense anyway and then the big 10 did exactly what the sec had just done but let's let's go to another question our friend bruce feldman from fox sports and the athletic he asked another question later in that because he wanted a follow-up on what george klyavkov had answered to dan so he asked a question and acc commissioner jim phillips answered uh question for you guys just from earlier about there being no signed document i mean jim you just talked about stabilizing a volatile environment i mean what do you say to people who listen to that and think you know i mean i've talked to some big 12 ads who felt like

the big 12 was a stable had been for the last decade to have no signed document you have 41 different schools obviously there's some that are going to have seem to have more leverage than others who would you know to think that there is no signed document, that this alliance isn't very binding at all. How do you, I guess, how do you ensure people feel like this is actually has some strength where you don't think somebody's gonna pull an end run or do something outside the alliance to better their own specific situation?

I'd say this, Bruce, it's about trust. It's about, we've looked each other in the eye we've made an agreement we have great confidence and faith our board chairs have looked each other in the eye and have committed to the same level of support and connection to one another our athletics directors have done that and so if that's what it takes to get something considerable done then you know we've lost our way of course binding contracts uh serve a purpose but at this juncture that to us wasn't a critical element of it and um we'll certainly see where all this goes, but, but I know what we discussed, we all know what we discussed, and we're very confident about executing on all that's been described today. That is Jim Phillips in 2021,

whose league right now only exists because of a signed binding contract left for him by predecessor, John Swofford. That grant of rights in the ACC is what has kept Clemson and Florida State and North Carolina and Miami from going somewhere else. And they're still trying. You heard Florida State on Wednesday, very performative, the president, all of the trustees getting up and saying they need to get out of the ACC. You didn't hear that from Clemson. You didn't hear that from North Carolina, but I'm telling you right now, Clemson's trying to get out. They're trying to get out. They'd love to be in the Big Ten or the SEC. So would Florida State.

That's where we're at. So as you look back at that and then you see what's happening now, I want you to remember the one immutable truth of college sports and of college football. There's no one in charge and no one knows what they're doing. If you understand that, everything else makes sense. So as we wait for the various boards to meet and tell their presidents to do whatever they will do, just remember, no one is in charge and no one knows what they're doing. That's about it. Now, we got to discuss all this. And who better than John Wilner, one of the most plugged in guys in Pac-12 country, to do it. When we return, John and I will talk about what happens next in the Pac-12, the Big 12, the Big 10, and beyond. We are joined now by the most plugged in guy in Pac-12 country, John Wilner.

You find him on X, I still can't call it that, Twitter, at Wilner Hotline, the Bay Area News Group. His column is syndicated across Pac-12 country because he's the guy who knows what's happening. In fact, last September, he wrote a column basically predicting all of this. John, are you surprised that here's where we're at as we wait for these Board of Regents meetings to start? You know, I thought it was possible that it would come this quick, but not likely. And I wasn't also, I got to be honest, I wasn't expecting that the Pac-12's negotiations of a media rights deal were going to be still going on this summer as well. Right. Back then, you know, we were waiting for the UCLA situation to resolve itself with the regents. And I would have figured that the Pac-12 would get a deal done sometime in the fall or winter.

And that would probably settle everything. You know, at that point, it didn't seem like the big 10 presidents had an appetite for more expansion, didn't want to kill off the PAC 12, but the PAC 12 has kind of left itself very vulnerable for, to this situation. Exactly. Well, when, when you go back, Ross Dellinger wrote about this the other day, you go back to 2021 when they formed the alliance, the Big 12 was kind of left for dead. And they came to the Pac-12 and said, can we do a merger? Can we do something? And the Pac-12 said, no. How much do you think they're going to regret not just kind of picking the bones

of the Big 12 when they had a chance? Yeah, I'm sure they are now, at least some of them, right? And they decide not only to not merge but not expand and add any schools. I mean, I thought they should have thought about adding Houston and TCU at that time. But the thing is, Andy, that is par for the course with the Pac-12 presidents. I mean, par for the course with the Pac-12 presidents. I mean, par for the course, right? Bob Bowlesby spoke to Larry Scott about a strategic alliance before COVID even. Yeah. And they didn't want to do it. And then 2021 comes around and they don't want to expand.

You know, it's always, well, they don't fit institutionally. They don't fit geographically. They don't understand that to a certain extent there's strength in numbers. And, you know, they would be a much better situation right now if they had TCU and Houston, that's for sure. But this is just a continuation of a trend. And I feel like the Big Ten, their president's group was pretty academically elitist for a while.

But then when it came down to brass tacks, they were like, no, no, no, let's just make a better football conference. Well, true. Although you're getting two top 25 schools there with those two. But yeah, I mean, that was, you know, it seemed like the academic allegiance there was secondary to the competitive and financial gain for the Big Ten. Big Ten is more pragmatic. I mean, they have obviously a much better strategic position in the sport than the Pac-12 does, but they are also more pragmatic. And I just think they have more presidents who are locked in on sports. The Pac-12 has very few, has never had many. For many years, the Pac-12 was run upside down with the likes of Oregon State and Arizona State kind of

leading the way in the boardroom, whereas, you know, in the Big Ten, that would be like, you know, Purdue and Minnesota setting the agenda, right? And that doesn't happen. And that was part of the reason USC left is USC felt like, you know what, we need to we need to have some more authority in terms of what's going on here. And they were just treated like one of 12. It is amazing. And you mentioned Arizona State. Michael Crow was the president there. It was Michael Crow and Ed Ray at Oregon State who basically were the presidents in charge of the conference for a long time. How surprised were you when you saw the announcement for the Arizona Board of Regents meeting? Wasn't just Robert Robbins, the Arizona president, that they were also going to discuss something involving Michael Crow,

which we assume to be allowing him to negotiate conference affiliation? Yeah, that's been one of the big questions for the last few weeks is, are those two schools tied together, whether they're in the Big 12 or the Pac-12? Did they have to move together or could they stand separately? And I still don't know exactly what's going to happen. You know, ASU, I think ASU has got, Crow certainly has got a deep allegiance to the Pac-12, I think. ASU has more reason to stay, in my opinion.

They have, you know, 70,000 students, an immense draw from California, especially LA. In fact, they have opened a campus in LA. And so... But the Pac-12 is not in la that's there's a problem right there well that's part of the problem but there's certainly if you join the the big 12 uh you know you're moving your center of gravity towards the southern plains right where's dallas yeah yeah you stay in the Pac-12, you have a presence. Assuming they add San Diego State and you've still got Cal and Stanford,

you're more westward looking if you stay in the Pac-12. And I think that could be – I don't think that will necessarily be the deciding factor for Crow, but that could be something he takes into account. So where does Utah fit into all of this? Well, I think that they're going to do whatever the Arizona schools do, but I also don't necessarily think Utah has the same draw to the Big 12 just because they've already got BYU. And from a competitive standpoint, I've thought this many times, why would the Big 12 want Utah?

I mean, if you're Baylor – Is it really good at football? Yeah. Well, if you're Baylor. Yeah. Well, if you're Baylor-Oklahoma State, though, and you want to win the league to get in the playoff, you want Kyle Whittingham standing there? But Alabama, think about it this way. Alabama and Georgia didn't say don't take Texas and Oklahoma.

No, they didn't. They're like, bring them on. Well, that's true. But I don't know that they necessarily have had a look at Oklahoma on the same competitive level in Texas. That's just me thinking. But I just competitively, and this is the same deal with Oregon and Washington going in the Big Ten, right? If you're Oregon and you want playoff access,

you've got to think about staying in a smaller conference rather than joining one that's got 18 or 20 schools. See, I don't know about that because first of all, we don't know if it does go 18 to 20 or the SEC goes 18 to 20, however that works. We don't know what the playoffs

are going to look like in two years because they can redo the deal in 2026 but the other factor is during the big 10 you might only need to finish fourth to make the playoff and that's a big difference between having to finish first and having to finish fourth yeah that could be and i'm sure oregon's run the numbers uh yeah no doubt and same with washington so we'll see how it comes out. I don't know that anything is a deciding factor. I just I do think that the the competitive aspect of the whole thing has been, you know, maybe not talked about as much as it should, because I know Utah, Oregon and Washington all, you know, value playing, you know playing the big stage in football and how they look at being in a massive conference

versus a 10-school Pac-12 that does not have USC. I think it's something you've got to take into account. Now, we've seen Pete Thamel at ESPN report that the targets of the Big Ten are now Oregon and Washington. Dan Wetzel reported on Wednesday that it would be Oregon, Washington, Cal and Stanford potentially. Where do Cal and Stanford stand at the moment? I think they're kind of in limbo. A lot of this is a financial issue for the Big Ten, right? I mean, each school that comes in, Oregon comes in at, say, 40 million, six years, somebody's got to

come up with $240 million, a TV partner. And if you double that with Washington, you're talking about half a billion dollars over the life of that contract. So, and that's just to bring them in at, you know, two-third shares or whatever it is. So I think that Cal and Stanford don't necessarily map out financially. And, you know, for all they've got going for them on the academic front and with their location and all the alumni in the Bay Area, they, I don't think that they are right now top of mind for the Big Ten. But I would not be surprised if some point later the Big Ten does come calling because they will be receptive. They're going to be stuck behind. They're going to be left behind.

And that's the part I keep thinking about is if Fox is running the show in the Big Ten, which what we've seen suggests that might be the case. They're going to say, no, we just want Oregon and Washington. They're not going to want Cal and Stanford because you put Cal and Stanford into schedules in the Big Ten doesn't really give you better games unless Stanford suddenly goes back to being what it used to be. We'll see what Troy Taylor's recruiting there. But Oregon and Washington, definitely like you put those, you load them into Big Ten schedules, you just created, you know, 25 great new games. And so that's, I think that's the part that Fox would be looking at.

But if the Big Ten presidents actually have any say in this thing, I'm assuming they would love to be associated with Cal and Stanford. Oh, yeah. There's nothing better. I mean, Stanford is top of the heap, really, in terms of the shoulder rubbing for presidents. And plus, there's all the tech money here and the access to the Facebook, Google, Apple, tons of alumni. The market certainly is substantial. So, yeah, we will see how that

pans out. But I don't know. It doesn't feel like right now they're at the top of the list, like the way Oregon and Washington are. You know, and the other thing, something you said that was interesting, too, from the Big Ten calculation is Oregon and Washington come in and there's a lot more good games. You're right. But whatever network is paying for it isn't necessarily going to get those games. So that'll be really interesting. Yeah, and that's the thing. You may have to go back to NBC and CBS and say,

we need to change a little bit of the order just to give a couple good games to whoever. And the craziest thing, I think, John, and I don't know if this will happen, I don't know if ESPN jumps in and says, okay, we want a late night contract here and so we get Big Ten after dark. Or does it go to the streamer?

Does it go to Amazon that has the NFL? Or does it go to the streamer? Does it go to Amazon? Yeah. That has the NFL? Or does it go to Apple? Like, how weird would it be if George Klyavkov presenting this Apple deal to them ends in Apple buying Oregon and Washington's way into the Big Ten? I know.

That would be bananas. But that's what realignment is. It's bananas, right? Yeah. I know that nobody is going to want to spend $500 million and end up with the fourth or fifth pick each week and get Rutgers-Illinois. Yeah.

Although if you add Oregon and Washington, your fourth or fifth pick is also pretty good. Pretty good, but I don't know if it's worth that much. Right. And then you've got to factor in the big 10 network selection it's just the whole thing is is is very complicated the way the big 10 is structured yeah and that's that's the part i'm curious about because i keep again i keep saying if fox is calling the shots i don't know what happens in the acc but if organ washington come off the board the only two left that truly add value from a better game standpoint are Clemson and Florida State.

And you asked me a year ago, would the Big Ten ever consider that? I said, absolutely not. But now, I mean, who knows? Oh, well, I think that's a big – to me. I've always thought that Fox's next move, you know, and this was I had assumed the Pac-12 would have a deal right now. And then the West Coast schools wouldn't necessarily be still available. But I've always thought Fox's next move was going to be to the southeast because they're boxed out of Florida right now since the ACC and SEC are both on ESPN. So if Fox wants access in Florida, they would have to go get Florida State or Miami. Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, Clemson isn't, you know, it's in the state of South Carolina, but it is a team that everybody in the South wants to watch

and really a team that people across the country want to watch. And that's the part I think that people forget. Now, everybody thinks it's 2010 and it's still about markets. It's not markets. It's brands. It's can you create a game that a lot of the country wants to watch? And that's why I think you're seeing Oregon and Washington. Because I think the Big Ten just probably looked at it and said, well, shoot, we don't want to deal with the death blow.

We don't want to deal with the death blow to we don't want to deal the death blow to the pac-12 thing is i don't it's not funny but you did you know land the critical wound when you took usc and ucla like you're gonna be blamed for this anyway why are you waiting until the big 12 yeah you know just chops the head off right Right. No doubt about that. I mean, it's all, and I have thought this for a long time, Fox and ESPN are the chess masters, right? And these conferences are just the pieces. And it's clear once Texas and Oklahoma moved, it was only a matter of time before Fox countered with a 16-team Big Ten.

And now, you know, even as this Oregon-Washington thing with the Big Ten right now, is this Fox's way of keeping all the West Coast brands away from ESPN, right? Because they'd have USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington. ESPN would effectively be off the West Coast for college football. Yeah, because their West Coast wing, assuming Arizona State and Utah went to the Big 12, that would be ESPN's West Coast wing. Them and BYU is where you'd be watching your 10 p.m. Eastern time,

7 p.m. Pacific time games on ESPN. Which is not Oregon, Washington, USC. No, it's not the same thing. So, yeah, it is. And you've got kickoff issues with the mountain schools and once the time changes and the weather. So there wouldn't be as much scheduling flexibility as if they had access to some of the West Coast schools.

Yeah. So when you look back on this whole period, at what point did you wonder what was going to happen with George Klyavkov and the meteorite steal? What point did it start to become a little bit fishy? When they came out of the holidays and weren't even close, I even wrote a column basically saying this guy needs to get a sense of urgency here because with realignment, time and risk are moving in lockstep. The longer you wait, the more chance something unexpected is going to derail your plans. So I kind of understood. The Pac-12 will tell you,

they were getting told things about UCLA that the public did not know. And that gave them reason to think that they should, you know, wait and see how that played out. But I kind of assumed that they were moving on parallel tracks. And so if, if once the UCLA thing was decided, that they were going to be able to move pretty quickly and wrap something up, came out of the holidays, and it was very apparent that they were just kind of getting started in January. And that, to me, seemed like they were setting themselves up for a big problem. It is amazing to me because it does feel like they just,

every step of the way way weren't aggressive enough. And the Big 12, meanwhile, was extremely aggressive. I still think that had to do with experience in these matters, because the Big 12 presidents and the people at those eight schools that were left behind when Texas and Oklahoma decided to leave had been through pretty much every imaginable realignment scenario by that point. And so I think they knew what they were doing, whereas the PAC-12 schools never did. They didn't, right? I think you're right. And the priorities were different too. I think the big 12 for obvious and understandable reasons, prioritize security, right? Whereas the PAC-12,

they didn't necessarily prioritize security. I think they prioritized money because they didn't think they were in danger of losing other schools. And again, it gets back to the presidential arrogance thing that I mentioned earlier. I mean, that is just the DNA out here, and it's gotten them into a lot of trouble. Well, you have been posting over the last few months, odds of survival for the 12. You pulled it off the board this week. I did. Yeah. What do you think?

It's like when a quarterback gets hurt and all the money goes in on the other team and they have to shut down betting. It's it actually feels a little bit like the NFC championship championship game when when a purdy hurts his elbow yeah and then josh johnson gets a concussion when christian mccaffrey's running a wildcat you know you know where this is that's right you're gonna end up yeah but what do you think happens in the next few hours and days well i think it's gonna be decided by tomorrow. I really do. Yeah. And I could be wrong because I thought this was going to be decided in March. And then I thought it was going to be decided in early July. But I do think the clock is ticking here on every front for them

and the patience the schools have had with the commissioners is of is worn out uh and they've got to make a decision so i think it's gonna be decided you know i don't know about odds it's it's give or take i mean it push we've seen the big 12 rise from the dead two or three times yeah and and including one day in 2010 where somebody reported on espn that the big 12 was dead and it lived. So I'm not ready to say the Pac-12 is dead, but I will say it's not looking good for the patient right now. No, it's not. I mean, I would say 40% chance of survival, 45% chance of survival. It's probably a little bit less than 50-50. But the other aspect is somebody's going to have to pull the plug. Who wants to pull the plug?

Brett Yormark wants to. Well, Brett Yormark does. I don't think he cares. He doesn't. But would Arizona or Arizona State want to be the ones that are responsible for the thing dissolving Oregon, Washington? I don't think any of the presidents want to really want to do that. I think they're all kind of around the table kind of saying, well, we'll stay if you stay. Well, we'll stay if you stay. And nobody trusts anybody and everybody has options available or almost everybody. And so it could just be like presidential stasis just causes this thing to move forward.

What a way to advance a conference. That's right. We're too afraid to actually do anything, so I guess we'll stay. And if that is the Pac-12's best hope, then it won't last much longer even if this holds up. Well, you know, I think they've got a five-year deal planned, so if they can get through this week, they may get through the next five years. Well, we shall see.

It's going to be a very eventful next day or so. It's going to be an eventful night. So, John, I know it's afternoon on your coast and I see you drinking some tea. You may want to brew up some coffee. Oh, I will be. I will be. Thank you, John. I've been doing a coaching search the last 13 months. will be. I will be. It's like covering a coaching search

that lasts 13 months. It's true. It is. It's true. It is the world's longest coaching search. And that's, as a former newspaper team beat writer, sounds like the most miserable thing in the whole world. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just hoping it, however it ends, it's just wanted to end. Thank you, John. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot, Andy. All right. Let's have a little palate cleanser. We've talked a ton of realignment. We need to talk some football and this came across the feed tonight and it

should bring some joy to your heart as long as you aren't a team on Alabama's schedule or somebody who hopes to win the SEC title. But Nick Kelly, who writes for the Tuscaloosa News, snapped this picture of Nick Saban as Saban left the podium after his post-practice press conference. And for the folks listening in podcast form, I'll give you the, I'll draw it for you. Remember after the onside kick against Clemson in the national title game that Alabama wound up winning 45-40?

Remember that smile? The most genuine smile you've ever seen from Nick Saban? It looked just like that. Ladies and gentlemen, this man may have a monster of a team on his hands. Maybe that's what we're looking at. Maybe our declarations of Alabama as no longer the kings of the SEC were premature. We shall see.

We'll shift gears, though, to the Big Ten, because while we were at Big Ten Media Days last week, we caught up with a fascinating player, Chris Ottman-Bell, Minnesota wide receiver. This guy is entering his seventh season of college football. He was committed to P.J. Fleck at Western Michigan. And then when Fleck went to Minnesota, Ottman-Bell decided he would go to Minnesota. Been there the whole time and still there, now teaching the youngsters what to do and basically becoming Mr. Minneapolis.

Here's Chris Ottman Bell. Big 10, Chris Ottman Bell entering season seven at Minnesota. So we were just talking before we got on the air and you were committed to play for PJ Fleck at Western Michigan before he moved over to Minnesota. And a lot of your class was too, but those guys are gone. John Michael Schmitz now off the NFL, Mo Ibrahim now off the NFL, Tanner Morgan gone. Is it lonely? It's not lonely. I still got guys on the team that I love and enjoy a company with.

But I just always think about, you know, everyone has their own time, and God has time for everyone else. So I never follow or do anything when anyone else says. I'm just following my own lead, my own road. When freshmen show up and you talk to them, are you like, you were a baby? Yeah. I've told a bunch of freshmen on the team that when I first got to college, you were in grade school or something, bro.

Oh, middle school at the latest. You had a bad time still with your mom when I first got here in college. That's crazy. So this is thinking about how different the game is now, how different the stuff around the game is now. How has it changed for you? Because obviously the transfer portal came in, but you didn't use that. But NIL is something that was new.

Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, that was in your, what, fifth year in college. So what has that been like? For me, I've definitely seen a bunch of things change. I feel like when I first got to college, it was just now turning the leaf over from the two-a-days, like the old practice style. So then NIL came along as well. But for me, I've always stayed grounded.

I've always stayed true to myself and true to how I came in and basically what my culture of football was. So I never cared about the transfer portal and NIL here. Now I've obviously got certain deals with NIL and this and that now. But I take everything I can out before I get out of college. But I just stay true to myself and stay true to how I know and how I know football should be. So now I assume you've graduated. Yes, sir.

What are you working on now? What degree are we working on? So I've obviously graduated with two degrees. I'm an undergrad and my master's in retail merchandise and master's in youth studies, but a minor in retail merchandise. Sorry. And I'm just, you know, going to throw my last season. I got to take a couple classes to be on the field this upcoming season.

And I'll definitely try the NFL for sure. That's my biggest goal. That's the thing I want to try the most. But after that, we'll see what I can do with my major. So this is the classes you would, if you pursue into a degree, that would be a second master's degree? I believe so. Maybe a doctorate, maybe.

Oh, there's been a guy working on a Ph.D. in college football. Brady White, when he was quarterback at Memphis, was working on a Ph.D. So it is doable. I get called doctor a lot, so it could be in the works if I wanted to be. So after football, what is it you want to do? After football, whether it's like fashion, I'm big on fashion. I love high fashion. I love high fashion designer whether

is that or kids anything with kids man I love kids I love being able to give back because when I grew up and how I grew up I didn't really have much mentors around me or anyone I can look up to so one of my biggest things when I came to college was I need to be able to impact all kids whether they like sports or not I just want to be able to be a role model and image for all kids well and you can tell them where you came from and what you, if you think about how long you've been in college, what you've been able to do, I would imagine that's a pretty inspirational story when you're talking to a young person who is in the same shoes you were.

It's amazing, man. I can definitely lay off these stories and let these young kids know you can do anything you want, no matter what, man. You just got to put in the hard work, dedication each and every day, and do the right things in and out, and you'll get there. So now you have a really breadth of knowledge about the Big Ten. So I want to ask you, who was the toughest DB that you've gone against in your career? The toughest DB that I've gone against in my career?

It's a lot, man. I've had a couple of battles with Rileyiley moss in iowa oh yeah um him um honestly a non-conference guy that we play i think 19 georgia southern kindle kindle vildor yeah great corner he's with the bears now and i'd say another one was probably uh jeff akuda from ohio state that you and you played in 2018 when you're watching the nfl are you like playing against that dude yeah play against that oh for sure that Play against that dude. Oh, for sure. That dude. I watch my Penn State screen touchdown a lot. That was Michael Parsons. That's right.

That's definitely one of the things you just do as a competitor. If you go to a freshman and say, hey, watch this play. You see that? That's Michael Parsons. Are they like, what? Sometimes. I sometimes watch old film with the younger guys and showing what I did back in the day.

Especially with me being on the injury and coming back. It's like I got some things to prove to you guys this fall camp. How much do they make fun of you? It's here and there. It's not a lot. I get teased here and there. I was going to say, you've got to be ruling the locker room at this point, right? I've definitely been there the longest.

I literally seen our new facility be built. I was in an old facility when I first got here and seen the new one be built. So I get jokes here and there, but it's all a funny game. So tell me, because you've lived there forever now, what's the best thing about Minneapolis? The best thing about Minneapolis, I believe, is it being in a city. Most college towns that you go to is just that college town. A lot of cow pastures. That's it. That's it uh minneapolis is great because literally

our school is literally on campus in a huge city like downtown is like two minutes away from oh yeah so i guess it's a lot to do good food great experience to have great activities to do so i think the biggest thing and the most thing about the special thing about minnesota is how it is in the city now i realize we spent this entire interview talking about how old you are but you are still a very young person i'm curious how aware of prince were you when you moved to minneapolis i actually have a prince tattoo you have a prince i have a princess is it is it is it the symbol it's the it is what he changed his name to yeah so uh i have the prince tattoo i have to get a fence i never got a feel of it but i have an outline like when when so when was when did you become were you a prince fan your

whole life i wasn't a prince my whole life but once I got here and I knew about the coach and everything and I started listening to Prince his Prince is almost like a not he's I don't know I don't want to have any debates on your day but Prince is kind of like Michael Jackson leather when it came to that oh no no I don't think that's it yeah okay cool he played every instrument every hour I've always I've always thought Prince was like cool he was swaggy he was always in purple he was always doing his thing and making sure his thing was, and he was just fresh all the time. So I got a Prince tattoo that's, you know,

had a kind of- Favorite Prince song? Purple Rain. Purple Rain? It's gotta be. Nothing better than that. I can never take the place of your man. That was a good one too.

Darling Nikki, also really good. I just feel like Purple Rain is like the staple, man. Oh, it's perfect. It's like, that's the one. Cause you can vibe out to that. You can. When he gets going at the end, he. Oh, it's perfect. It's like, that's the one. Because you can vibe out to that. You can. When it gets going at the end, he gets the, yeah. I can't get that high.

I would do the impression, but we can't do that. That's my favorite, so. Wow, the Prince tattoo. Now that, see, you are the ultimate recruiting poster for the University of Minnesota. We brought him here, seven years, two degrees, Prince tattoo. 100%.

I'm sorry, I'm gonna go. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. You got it. Chris Oppenbell, thank you very much for that interview. Mr. Minneapolis. I mean, when you bring a guy in, he spends seven years there. He gets two degrees and a prince tattoo.

He's now a native. We got some good questions in the chat, by the way. This one from Drew Valentine. If you're Arizona or Arizona State, if Oregon washington are going to the big 10 eventually why would you not go now and have a better chance at an automatic qualifying bid in the playoff in the smaller pac 12 or the pac 12 that backfills with san diego state smu colorado state unlv that sort of thing it's a great question and to be honest drew if Drew, if the Pac-12 were to survive this, this is how. This is the path.

It's somebody saying access to the playoff more important to us than that $10 million. This is the argument that Dan Wetzel was making on the show last night, where would you rather be the team that wins and gets more money that way because your fans are excited, they're giving money, they're buying tickets, or would you rather just go to another conference and get some more money? Now, ideally, you do both. And that's where the new additions to the Big 12 prior to Colorado, UCF, BYU, Houston, Cincinnati all feel like ones that could do both because they've been winning at various times, some more consistently than others, but all of them somewhat consistently. And you think, okay, they can win in the Big 12 as well.

Arizona hasn't been winning in football, but Arizona has been winning in basketball. And remember, the Big 12 is a badass basketball conference. So the question I think probably for you is better posed to Arizona State, which has not been as good in football and basketball together and doesn't have that one elite program. So what's in it for them? Now, Utah, and I saw earlier in the chat, there were some folks arguing about Utah. Would Utah be left behind? Utah is not left behind. If the two Arizonans go, it feels like Utah would go too. Utah can win in the Big 12, guys. And here's the other thing

about playoff access. This is the same thing I brought up with John Wilner. If the Big 12 goes to 16 and they're adding Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah, they're already going to be a two-bid league. They're probably already going to be a two-bid league with who they've got now. They could be a three-bid league going forward, especially if Houston and UCF and Cincinnati and BYU get deeper and better. There's a good chance that could be a three bid league in some years, not every year, but in some years. So they will have a chance to make the playoff in either one. It's just not an automatic.

And the thing is, if you stay in the Pac-12, it may not be an automatic if Stanford starts recruiting better and gets back to where it was or San Diego state comes in and, and they. They're already good in the Mountain West, but then they get better with access to better players. So there are no guarantees in this. And I think that's the dilemma if you're Arizona and Arizona State. So from Jeremy Poindexter, where will Cal, Stanford, Washington State, and Oregon State end up? That's a great question. The Cal and Stanford thing. We don't have an answer to that yet. Cause you know, Dan Wetzel reported that the big 10 was looking at them.

It makes sense if you're the big 10, if you're a big 10 president that you want to hang with those people. But if you're Fox, you don't want the big 10 adding them. They don't add anything dollar wise because the, their fan bases are fairly small and they don't necessarily move the needle when their games are on TV. So that's, that's the issue they've got. Now it's hard to imagine them in the mountain West. It's easier to imagine if, if Oregon state and Washington state had nowhere to go, that they end up in the mountain West that, that would make sense and would seem to be a geographical fit. And actually it'd be a lot of fun

with those programs because you put them in there with Boise state with San Diego state. I think that'd be good. You could have a PAC 12 mountain West merger at that point. And maybe you call it the PAC 12. I don't know. I'm not entirely sure how you're going to do all this because we don't really know what the end result is going to be until we see what Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Oregon, and Washington do. So we'll find out. But back to football for a little bit. There's a quarterback competition going on in Columbus. And I know we've said it here. We think we know who's going to win it.

But I was thinking back to 2014 today. And that was a year there really wasn't a competition. Everybody assumed Braxton Miller was going to be the guy. And he gets hurt in camp. JT Barrett comes in. But then he gets hurt in the Michigan game. Cardell Jones comes in and a lot had to happen for Ohio State to win that 2014 national title they needed a bunch of quarterbacks had three quarterbacks talking about the quarterback competition on Wednesday

Spencer Holbrook joined us on Thursday Spencer's at Letterman Row which is on three's Ohio State site breaking down the quarterback competition we're going to hear from the quarterbacks joined us on Thursday. Spencer's at Letterman Row, which is on 3's Ohio State site. Breaking down the quarterback competition, we're going to hear from the quarterbacks. We're going to hear from Ryan Day and get Spencer's analysis when we come back. Spencer Holbrook of Letterman Row. We got to talk Ohio State quarterbacks because the Ohio State quarterbacks talked this week along with Ryan Day. Now, no decision has been made. We've had Spencer on the show.

He's predicted that Kyle McCord will be the starter. But as far as we know, it's a competition between Kyle McCord and Devin Brown. And Spencer, are they including Tristan Jebbia in this, the 25-year-old who signed with Mike Riley to play for Nebraska in 2017? No. the 25 year old who signed with Mike Riley to play for Nebraska in 2017? Um, no, simply put, um, Tristan Jebbia was brought in as a great third option. If you absolutely have to pull the break glass in case of emergency, go ahead and put them in there. But at the same time,

he wants to be a coach. And so he knows that he learned from Mike Riley. He learned from Jonathan Smith. Now he gets to learn from Brian day and Corey Dennis. And, uh, he gets to teach those guys along the way, Kyle McCord and Devin Brown. He's known Brown for a long time. This is a really nice kind of friendship that they have, but also it's a little bit of a mentorship for both of those guys because they just don't have a lot of experience. But you see Jebbia in the portal, might as well take him, right? Yeah. Well, but that's what i was thinking about as i was preparing to talk to you today because we we assume it'll be kyle mccord who was you know

marvin harrison jr's high school quarterback there's a connection um accord has started a game before in his career as a backup to cj stroud but you know i think about 2014 in the preseason, all was set loaded roster, Braxton Miller coming back as quarterback and he out for the season, tears a labrum in practice done. And all of a sudden what happens now? And then JT Barrett takes over and then he gets hurt in the Michigan game. And then Cardell Jones comes in and they win a national title. So you do never know what's going to happen.

It's so weird that it always seems to be Ohio State, right? Like the Jackson Smith and Jigba injury last year, the Braxton Miller injury in 2014. It just, it always seems to be. Osa. Yeah, the Bosa injury. Like why is it always Ohio State? I don't know.

Let's hope that this team's a full strength this year just because of how fun it could be. But like they have three guys that they really could play if they needed to at quarterback. So let's hear from Ryan Day about what he would like to see happen over the next few weeks. This is his ideal situation if he could wave a wand. You know, we had with going back with CJ, going back with Justin, Dwayne, where after the first couple weeks of fall practice, you know, we felt like somebody emerged and then we went with the starter. But that evaluation continued into the season.

Remember that first year with CJ, it was, you know, into the third game, you kind of had that shoulder issue. And then Kyle played in that game, and then CJ went back in. So you just never know how things are going to go. But in an ideal world, you'd love to have somebody emerge after the first week or two. And we usually have that scrimmage on that second week on that Saturday, and usually have a pretty good feel. I remember when I was playing college football and we had a competition between me and somebody who was a couple years ahead of me and it went all the way down

to that last scrimmage and then it kind of went into those first few games and you know I was named the starter and then and they continue to be the starter but you know so every situation is different but, if you're asking for an ideal situation, you'd love, again, for somebody to merge here the first couple weeks and then they're taking the majority of the reps with the ones as you head into game week. Now, Spencer, they're not opening with Notre Dame this year, but they are opening with a conference game at Indiana.

So it would seem like you'd want to have that situation work itself out. Do you foresee that happening? Say, you know, you get to that scrimmage at the end of the second week and whether they announce it to us or not, one of those guys is taking most of the reps with the ones going into the third week of camp. Yeah, I think that's probably going to be the case. One of the things that kind of gets omitted from that is the fact that CJ Stroud was by far and away the best quarterback in that 21 competition. And Justin Fields was by far and away the best quarterback in the 19

competition. And so this is Ryan day's first real, you know, having to truly make a decision where he might be a little split, but I do think that there will be a decision to be made there after that scrimmage, maybe a few days more into that. You don't want to go into that Indiana game, in my opinion, still scratching your head as to who the starter could be, especially if you have a feel for one guy's ahead of the other. That hasn't changed since Peach Bowl practice.

That hasn't changed since March and April. That didn't change in the first two weeks of August. Why would that really change in those last two weeks? I know things have happened and things can happen like that. But if you have a feel for Kyle McCourt being the starter or Devin Brown being the starter by then, I think you've got to go ahead and let loose and let that guy take over and be the voice. Because both of those guys are not just jockeying for the starting quarterback job. They're jockeying for leadership rights.

They're jockeying to be the guy in that locker room. And so you kind of have to establish a leader at that point. I think it's going to be wise for them to not do what Michigan did last year with that week non-conference and take that quarterback competition in those first three weeks, but truly settle on a guy in these first few weeks of camp and let that guy run with the job. Well, and that's not really something Ohio State can afford to do with a conference opponent week one, with Notre Dame in week four. You're going to have to know.

And by the time you get to that Notre Dame game in South Bend, be settled into what your offense is because that's a team that can beat you. So that's the part that I find very interesting. Now, Devin Brown was out the last week or so of spring with an injury. How much ground would he have to make up? I don't know how much he truly missed in that week. You obviously miss playing in front of 50, 60,000 people in the horseshoe. He's never thrown a pass in the horseshoe in front of people.

And so to miss that, I think was more, more valuable, but the spring practice part that last week leading up to the spring game, is it truly like a lot? It's a lot of what are we going to do in the spring game, putting the finishing touches on spring practice. So I don't know how much he truly missed.

He said he was trying to push the trainers to clear him a couple days early maybe so he could get the football back. He was having trouble gripping it those first couple weeks, but he looks to be back 100%. I don't really think he missed too much. Obviously obviously you would love to be able to throw the football for a month if you're a college quarterback um and that that kind of explains itself but but that his injury probably happened at the best time possible when they you know the spring game you don't want to miss that but you did then you break for a few weeks then you're back and when you come

back from from that break you get to go into june and throw with your receiver so i don't think that he missed too much but i think the ground to be made up happened in the year that he was a senior in high school and cal mccord was learning the system and i think that's just the bottom line of this competition well let's hear from mccord because he he was asked about you know what it's like to be in the in this lineage of Ohio State quarterbacks. You look at the guys before, like I've been watching film of like 2018, watching Dwayne, then watching JT and years before, and Justin and CJ, I think they've all set a good precedent, but they've all done it their own way.

So I think just kind of realizing there's a lot of different ways this can be done. But like I said, I don't think, you know, anyone's ever put, you know, an expectation on myself that I didn't expect for, you know, for myself. So tell us about Kyle McCord, Spencer. What kind of leader is he? What kind of player is he? Obviously, highly recruited quarterback has stuck it out this far, which in a lot of cases, once you get beat out for a starting job, you go somewhere else. He's still here. So what is it about him that has him in the pole position for this job? I think you have to start, and I don't want to go too long,

but you start with the recruitment. He committed to Ohio State five days after Dwayne Askins became the first starter to be a first-round pick at Ohio State in decades. And then he was also picked over J.J. McCarthy to be the Ohio State quarterback. And that's just the truth of that recruitment. Both of those guys jockeying for that Ohio State spot. Both of them were also looking at Michigan, but both of them liked Ohio State a lot. And McCord was the one that got to commit to Ohio State.

And so I think that's been well documented at this point. And so, you know, Kyle's got that edge to him, I think, as somebody who's been doubted a little bit. You know, in that 21 classes freshman year, he's expecting to be, you know, the hot freshman on campus. And then Quinn Ewers comes in for that training camp and kind of steals the spotlight as the true freshman who's the five-star. You know, then he has to sit.

I have memory hold the entire Quinn Ewers Ohio State experience, so I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, because at that point they had two five-star freshmen on campus and Quinn was the guy, according to a lot of people, and Kyle McCord was the other five-star. And so as weird as that sounds to be the other five-star, that's what Kyle McCord was. Then he sits behind CJ Stroud for two years.

I think that chip has just grown. And I, I, I really don't like that cliche, but with Kyle McCord, you really have to use it. You know, he, he got that start against Akron as a freshman with CJ Stroud sat out with a shoulder injury, you know, and then just went back into the shadows almost. And then last year was the backup the entire season, but CJ Stroud played really well and didn't need a backup as the number two overall pick in the draft. And so he just has been working in silence as a leader.

And he talked even yesterday about not wanting to step on CJ's toes the last two years. He's really emerged as a leader now that he can express himself in that locker room and not have to worry about, well, if I say this, maybe CJ will you know, we'll take it a different way as the leader of this team. And so I think that's where he's really grown. He's come into his own and he truly is one of the leaders of that locker room, whether he's a starter or not, that's, that's who he is at this point. He's really grown into that.

It is amazing when you think of now the who's come before, because, you know, CJ was the number two pick in the draft. Justin Fields was a first-round draft pick. Dwayne Haskins was a first-round draft pick. Dwayne Haskins was chosen over Joe Burrow, who became the number one overall draft pick after winning the Heisman at LSU. This is a pretty deep lineage at this point. Ryan Day talked about the pressure of being the Ohio State quarterback, especially now.

I mean, you can say it doesn't, but I think it does. Yeah, the expectations and standards are very high here. But that's at every position. But yeah, I mean, the guys that have come before have done an unbelievable job. So yeah, that is the expectation. We should be playing for a national championship. We should be Heisman Trophy finalists and a a first round draft pick. That's been the standard set and we got to keep building on that. So, but what jumps out is that it just doesn't happen.

Just because, you know, you're the quarterback at Ohio State doesn't mean that all those things are going to happen. It takes a lot of hard work. It takes, you know, a lot of production on the field. You know, you got to go put it on the field. It isn't just going to happen. I think these guys understand that. Anytime you're going to be the quarterback at Ohio State, there's a lot of pressure. I kind of like that he just says it out loud. You're supposed to win the Big Ten. You're supposed to go

to the playoff. You're supposed to be a Heisman Trophy finalist. No pressure. He makes it sound like it's almost like the standard. That's because it is. He came to Ohio State and decided, okay, this is going to be a quarterback destination. It makes it sound like it's almost like the standard. That's because it is. It is. 100%. He came to Ohio State and decided, okay, this is going to be a quarterback destination.

And he made it a quarterback destination. I actually wrote about that at LettermanRowe.com on Wednesday, a column about the court understanding that standard. You beat Michigan. You go to the college football playoff. You try to win a national championship. And then you become a Heisman Trophy finalist along the way the way then you become a first round pick in the pre-draft process like that is the the standard at Ohio State at this point and and to think that the Kyle McCord

can't be that or Devin Brown can't be that I think is a little silly at this point because I saw CJ Stroud struggle for two games and and then sit out for one before he really got his footing under him. I saw Justin Fields go forward for 13 in a spring game before he decided to become Justin Fields. Like, this is what Ryan Day does with quarterbacks. And so that expectation is really, really high. It's almost unreasonable until you look at it and realize it's not unreasonable because it can be done by multiple people. And this is the most experience somebody would have in this system, in a Ryan Day system before becoming a starter, if Kyle McCord is announced as a starter. And so I think that even raises the bar even higher of like, you know, this system better

than the other guys have when they started. So, so you need to be at that level. It's a little like Mac Jones when he took over to Alabama, although Mac was not as high profile a recruit as Kyle McCord was. But same thing where they'd had Jalen Hurts, they'd had Tua Tungavailoa right in a row. And here's this guy who's been in the system. And internally about Mac Jones, like the other players were like, this dude's awesome.

He's going to be great. But we didn't know that, you know? And so I feel like that's, that's where Kyle McCord might be right now. Yeah. It's, it's interesting because, you know, not only have I watched some Ohio State folks and fans start to talk about Devin Brown as next in line and everybody likes the shiny new object anyway, but I've also seen, you know, I've seen the hype train for, again, like a JJ McCarthy, who was a five-star quarterback in his own right. I've seen, you know, folks talk about Drew Aller, who was a five-star in his own right. But I think sometimes we get lost in that crazy shuffle that is,

what have you done for me lately? And we forget that Kyle McCord had five stars next to his name. He just happened to commit to Ohio State so early that he became like another one of those other five stars in the class and just kind of fades into the darkness and works in silence. And I think that's one of his biggest strengths is that he's so used to working in silence that now once he gets to do it in front of this big audience, I think that's what is going to make him kind of shine through. Well, he also gets a throw to Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Abuka. Let's be honest. Yeah.

Something to do with it too. Yeah. That's not going to hurt him at all. Now, one thing that I do find interesting about this particular situation is, you know, Ryan Day has talked about giving up play calling that Brian Hartline you know calling plays how different is that dynamic now because the other quarterbacks that we've been talking about the ones that came before had a different situation with day yeah it's it's it's so interesting because Brian Day's going to have his finger on the pulse of this offense it's not as if he's going to completely abandon it I right honestly I wouldn't even expect Brian Hartline to take over the entire reins of the offensive

play calling immediately. You know, maybe there's a certain trade off there that has to happen before, you know, a full trust and understanding happens. But, you know, Kyle McCord talks about it a little bit. Like they are comfortable with Brian Hartline. It's not like, you know, bringing in, you know in an entire new offense coordinator for a new system. They're not really trying to fix something that's broken. They're just trying to make it so Ryan Day can be a head coach and a CEO. So Brian Hartline only knows one head coach as a full-time

wide receivers coach. He was the interim wide receivers coach in 2018 until he got that interim tag removed. He only really knows one play caller. It's Ryan Day. He's really learned under Day more than anyone else as a coach. And so I think they kind of will be on the same wavelength. And I also think that's going to help McCord, who has had two years with Day, two years with Corey Dennis, the quarterback's coach, and also two years with Hartline. Those guys have all three been in his ear for a couple of years now anyway. And so to hear those play calls, I don't think much is going to change, but you wonder the, does the aggressiveness change? Does the, you know, the third and four play call change when you've got the wide receivers coach calling a play rather than, you know, the, the Chip Kelly, you know, guy calling the play and Ryan day. So there are a

couple of dynamics there, but I wouldn't expect a lot to necessarily change. It's just a new dynamic, a new fold to what this offense can be. Well, and also know Kevin Wilson, who Ryan Day was calling the plays. But Kevin Wilson, very experienced play caller. I'm sure they lean pretty heavily on his knowledge and experience in those moments as well. So that does change things a bit. Yeah, and Kevin was a very vocal part of the offense. He's part of the reason that this tight end room is back to maybe like a top level championship level standard. I know that he didn't really slip. They had the Nick Van Etts,

they had the Jeff Hiremans, but he's really taken it to another level. He helped Cade Stover a lot, but so did Keenan Bailey, the new tight ends coach who's working behind the scenes with Cade to become a good route runner. A lot of voices in that room. I think everything still has to bounce off of Ryan Day beforehand. And whether he's calling the plays, Brian Hartline's calling the plays, or you and I are calling the plays, Andy, it's going to have to run through Ryan Day before he gets down to the field, at least for now until that trust is built up where, okay, Brian, here's the play sheet. Call your game.

I just call the let Marvin be Marvin play and sit back and enjoy. I said last year. You think Ryan Day would thumbs up that one if I radioed it down from the press box? I said last year. I would look at my colleagues in the press box and I'd say, hey, I think they should run the Marv play here on third and five. I don't know. It might work. It's going to be fun to watch.

And however, this quarterback competition ends up and we think we think we know how it'll end up. But I can't wait to see what it looks like, because it is slightly different dynamics in the play calling. But the same level of talent on the field, which means probably lots of points. So, Spencer Holbrook, thank you so much. Andy, thanks for having me. I always appreciate it. Welcome back. Breaking news. The Arizona Board of Regents is in executive session. We don't know what they're saying. But former Microsoft CEO Bob Herbold did clear his throat very loudly before they convened and then went into executive session where we don't know what they're saying. Though we presume what they are doing, because Robert Robbins, the president of the University of Arizona, is in there.

And Michael Crow, the president of Arizona State, is in there. And they did say what they were going to talk about at executive session. Issues regarding those two and their duties and their assignments. And if you know your realignment order of operations, that typically means they are authorizing the president of each school to negotiate conference affiliation on behalf of the school. We'll see if that means are they going to the Big 12? Does it mean are they accepting a meteorites deal with the Pac-12? We're going to find out. And as John Wilner told us earlier, could find out pretty soon, probably in the next 12 to 24 hours.

So here's the deal. We're about off the air at this point. This meeting could go for a little while. Even if it does end, they probably aren't going to tell us anything right now because there's other steps that need to be taken. Plus, there is a Washington board meeting that begins at 9 p.m. Pacific time, midnight Eastern time. So that one also bears watching. So here's what we're going to do. So as you know, we published this whole show in podcast form. And lately we've been releasing that podcast at 6 a.m. Eastern time,

3 a.m. Pacific time every day. I'm going to stay awake. Good news for me, there's actual football to watch. The Browns are playing the Jets in a preseason game in Canton, Ohio. First preseason NFL game of the season. It means we're that much closer to college football. It's a beautiful thing. So I'm going to text some people.

I'm going to watch what I can watch. I'm going to watch a little football. If there is something that needs to be analyzed, if there's news that comes out, and we think it will be them negotiating with the Big 12, then I will record a new opening for the podcast. So we will talk on the podcast about that, then they will time travel back to the beginning of this show. So if you watch this whole show, then all you need to do is listen to the beginning. But if you didn't, and you don't listen in podcast then all you need to do is listen to the beginning.

But if you didn't and you don't listen in podcast form, you can see how convenient it is to have it on demand in your ears while you're walking your dog, while you're commuting to work, while you're commuting from work, while you're trying to get out of doing work. All of that stuff is on the table. So whatever your podcast platform of choice, we're on all of them. Subscribe, rate, review. We love good reviews, even bad reviews. We take constructive criticism too. So if you're a Spotify person, search on 3AndyStaples, subscribe. If you're an Apple podcast,

search on 3AndyStaples, subscribe. And it'll be there in the morning. I'm gonna stay up. If there's something I need to talk about, I will attach that to the front of the podcast and then we'll time travel back and it will be this show. But now it is time for our extra point. And I'm very excited about this extra point because I do love a good NIL deal. And this is a sequel to a good NIL deal. So if you're not a Kansas State fan, you might not know about this situation last year, but it was a spectacular NIL deal.

There's a company in Manhattan called Cat Cans. And what Cat Cans does is they put, I'm probably gonna get in trouble for saying this because I know this is another brand name, but basically they're a port-a-potty company. And so if you have a job site and you need a portable toilet, they bring it to you on your job site. And they had this incredible commercial last year with Deuce Vaughn

and Felix Anuzike-Odama and one of their volleyball stars. And the premise of the commercial was deuces running around the city of Manhattan and the Kansas state campus. And he's got to drop a deuce. And so he runs up to the, to the cat can and it's Felix. Any DK is Amma first round draft pick. It's his cat can.

And it says no deuces allowed. And then can, and it says no deuces allowed. And then the volleyball star, hers says no deuces allowed. And then deuce finally finds his own and he can do the deuce. But a lot of puns in these commercials. Well, remember, we interviewed Kansas State star Cooper Beebe earlier this week. And Cooper may be one of the best interior offensive linemen in the country. He's going to be a high NFL draft pick. He and three fellow offensive line starters decided to come back. All those guys are even older than Cooper, which is crazy because Cooper's

been there quite a while. But so Cooper and Hayden Gillum, I'm going to say they're really the stars of this commercial. You probably think that Kansas State starting quarterback Will Howard is the star of this commercial, but I think it's Cooper and Hayden. Here it is, the best NIL commercial of 2023 so far, the new Cat Cans ad. Willie Macon, back with Cat Cans. Here to let you know our number one job is to protect you, our customers, just like it's the offensive line's job to protect Will Howard. Ready, set, go. Restrooms are conveniently located to provide protection when the urge hits you. Restrooms are secured in place to protect you from getting sacked while in use.

Restrooms are cleaned and disinfected to protect you from unwanted germs. We'll do anything to make sure Will Howard's comfortable. Just as the good people at Cat Cans, we as offensive linemen do the dirty work every day to protect people like Will Howard. In addition to portable restroom customers, our septic system customers are pumped routinely to protect from messy sewer backup. Our newest service is protecting the citizens of Northeast Kansas with storm shelter distribution and installation. Nice pass.

We'll like the offensive line. Our team cat cans will always rise to the occasion to protect you. So many puns. Will he make it our number one priority? That's how you make an NIL ad right there. If you are listening on podcast form and you didn't get to see the beauty of that ad, you had Cooper and Hayden smashing visiting fans who were trying to invade Will Howard's porta potty. You had Cooper winking at the camera.

I mean, it had it all. We need more NIL ads like that. Got one? Send it my way. Congratulations to Cooper on his starring role. We knew he was bound for big things, probably bigger things in the NFL, but Porta Potty ad is a hell of a place to start. Start the cat and pants ad. We'll talk to you later.