Andy & Ari On3 - Is Colorado really everyone's Super Bowl? | Billy Napier needs to win HOW many games?

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders said the Buffaloes are "everybody's Super Bowl." Are they?(0:00-1:14) Intro(1:15-20:53) Is Colorado everyone's Super Bowl?(20:54-31:34) Baylor HC Dave Aranda's Comments(31:35-32:41) More Colorado Talk(32:42-41:09) Dear Andy - FSU & Clemson leaving ACC, CFP implications?(41:10-45:00) Does in-game coaching matter more?(45:01-51:16) Looking at Florida in 2024(51:17-54:30) AD & Coach take less money for NIL?(54:31-58:24) Walking on in this era of CFB(58:25-1:02:00) Gap between schools like Kentucky and Georgia(1:02:01-1:03:28) Conclusion - Cam Rising's EligibilityMeanwhile, Deion Sanders took the stage at Big 12 media days, and he said something very interesting. Sanders essentially said he’s held to a higher standard than other coaches. But is he really? Andy explains.Sanders also seemed genuinely excited for this version of the Buffaloes. He’s confident they’ll be better than 4-8, and he explained why.Later, Andy breaks down Baylor coach Dave Aranda’s blunt assessment that the Bears are recruiting better because they are “paying players.”Next, it’s time for Dear Andy. You asked some great questions, including…Should the ACC get an automatic College Football Playoff bid if it loses Florida State and Clemson?Can Florida be better and that not reflect in the Gators’ record because of the difficulty of the schedule?Should a school pay its coach and AD less and send the difference to pay players?And much more…Want to watch the show instead? Join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/hvkJ2ekcqgQHost: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Yeah, we're talking about Coach Prime today. That's right. And because we're talking about Coach Prime, and every time we talk about Coach Prime, we get comments before the show even starts. At 4.28 a.m. Eastern Time, 2.28 a.m. Boulder Time,

the Cape Crusader chimes in. Any little thing Colorado says, y'all are quick to jump on it. There were other teams at media day that said things too, but I guess that don't get y'all views. Congratulations, Cape Crusader on figuring out how shows work. We talk about the things that people are interested in talking about. And as much as I am interested in Kansas and Lance Leipold, who you have seen on this show, yeah, more people are interested in Dion. Every time we talk about Dion, people have an opinion. He's fascinating in that way. Although, it is something Shador Sanders, Deion's son,

said that I found the most interesting at Big 12 Media Days. Because it's one of those things that you hear it, and you're like, ooh, that's, you guys think a lot of yourselves, and then you think about it, and you're like, you're like, Ooh, that's, you guys think a lot of yourselves. And then you think about it and you're like, no, no, no, that's maybe you're right. And then you're like, wait, maybe that's a bad thing for sanders said because i saw it and i'm like and it's i just became the alonzo morning gift in real time so here is shadur this video is from carter ball who asked the question And it's a good question. Let's chew on Shador's answer, though. In terms of him operating with a certain obligation,

does that sort of flow over to you as his son and being in the spotlight as you just answered that it's a different level in how you feel you have to perform? Do you have an obligation to perform at a different level? It's been that since day one. I remember first media day when I was in HBCU, I said, well, we won't lose the game. I'm undefeated in the swag, so I already know what the expectation comes with. I know where everybody's Super Bowl, so I'm really just, I always stay level headed, stay grounded because I would never wanna be be that guy, look back and not being able to

take advantage of the moment that we have right now. I know we're everybody's Super Bowl. That is a bold statement from a quarterback whose team went four and eight last year. Bowl. I know where everybody's Super Bowl. So is Colorado everybody's Super Bowl? Charles Williams. He's laughing. He's crying laughing according to multiple emojis. Everyone's Super Bowl, but Colorado hasn't won anything yet.

Andrew, does that make Bo Nix a Super Bowl champ? The truth, Colorado is everyone's Super Bowl, like the Washington Commanders are Super Bowl contenders, laugh out loud. Here's the thing, guys. You think he's wrong, but he's not. He's not wrong on that. Everybody who plays Colorado wants to kick the crap out of Colorado. Like normally when a team that was one 11 the year before or four and eight

the year before comes to your stadium, you're like, this is going to be a boring game. You worry it's a trap game because you worry your players won't get up for it. Deion brings so many eyeballs that everybody Colorado plays wants to beat the living crap out of them. Case in point, last year, the Colorado State game. It's at Colorado. At the time, Colorado had already beaten

TCU and Nebraska. That's where they had college game day and big noon Saturday, dueling sets, pregame shows. Lil Wayne leads them out of the tunnel. The Rock was on campus. It was a massive event. Colorado State, which was a 5-7 Mountain West team last year, took Colorado to overtime in that game. Probably should have won. That is them making Colorado their Super Bowl. Oregon, you got the Dan Lanning saying they play for clicks, blah, blah, blah. Oregon wanted to make a point by beating the living hell out of Colorado.

So if you don't think that North Dakota State, Nebraska, Kansas State, Utah, everybody that Colorado plays, if you don't think they want to make a point when they play Colorado, you're crazy. Shador's absolutely right about this. And it's not helpful for Colorado. It really isn't. Charles says Colorado is not going to be hard to beat. Hype and swag do not win games. Discipline, execution, and togetherness when games also it helps when the other team's not up for you see Ohio State and Georgia get that treatment because they're better than everybody else so when they come in the other teams like this is a special game this is the most special game on our schedule. If we beat these guys, the whole world will notice us.

But the difference is Ohio State and Georgia have better players than almost everybody they play against. Colorado does not. Colorado has the best player on the field in Travis Hunter in probably all of its games this year. Colorado is probably going to have the better quarterback in Shadur Sanders in a lot of its games this year. Colorado is probably going to have the better quarterback in Shadur Sanders in a lot of its games this year. It remains to be seen how good Colorado is at the other positions relative to the teams they play. Last year on both lines of scrimmage, most of the teams they play were

better than them. That is not a recipe for winning football games. So it is that. Now, I see a lot in the chat thinking that it's because of something Deion is doing to promote them, that they've got their YouTube channels and all that, and it's all the propaganda. I've seen that from people in my business too. But if Deion, let's say Deion Sanders Jr.

did not have Well Off Media, which is the YouTube channel, we would still be talking about Deion Sanders. I am not the target audience of Well Off Media. Stephen A. Smith is not the target audience of Well Off Media. I saw today my friends Maggie Gray and Andrew Perloff. They do a show in New York City on WFAN.

That's not a college football market. Guess what they were talking about today? Deion Sanders in Colorado. We talk about it because he's interesting and people want to talk about him. They could be putting out all this stuff or not. We'd still be talking about it. I just don't know how much better they're going to be. I said last week, I think they're going to make a bowl game. I think they're going to have at least a two win improvement, but that let's say they're 6-6.

That still means six teams took advantage of the opportunity with all those eyeballs on them to beat Colorado. That's what they want. It is going to be fascinating to watch. So Deion talked at big 12 mini days yesterday and this the question to shadur feels like an extension of this question to dion and so let's let's talk about whether there is a higher standard whether dion is judged more more harshly than everyone else with what you brought to the programs in the historic black colleges and to Colorado, do you feel an obligation with whom you are to perform

at a higher level or coach at a higher level? Yeah. Yes. Yes. I'm judged on a different scale. My wins are totally different than your wins. Your wins, you're just judging football. That's why I have to start out and give you education and academics and so forth. I have to give you those things so you understand there's a greater scope. I can't win nine games and our GPA suffers. Our GPA can't be high, but we lose another eight games. We can't not go and grab high school players

and you got a bunch of guys in the portal, out of the portal that's getting incarcerated. My wins are different. We have to win in every area. That's the way we're judged. And I'm cool with that because we we come a little different so the expectation is greater but it's not just football it's been like that all my life I've always had a greater expectation for myself so the expectation you have for me would never outweigh the expectation

I have for myself thank you that's a wonderful question So Deion's saying that the standard is higher for him. He's wrong about that. He's being judged like every other coach. Do you win or not? He's getting more attention than most other coaches. Like, that's where the difference is. The difference is Deion gets the attention that Kirby Smart and Ryan Day get, but doesn't win like them and doesn't have the national title expectations they have he also

doesn't have as good of players as they have that's the difference but he gets the same kind of expectations and they're judged the same way like when our guy philip dukes was on and he was talking about deon sanders and and the the way people feel about him dukes kept talking about well if deon doesn't win he goes faster than than anybody it gets fired faster that's not true like dion is gonna get the same benefit of the doubt probably more because he brings attention and sells tickets than any other coach his job is to win games and he can say, if I don't win them this certain way, or my players aren't, you know, great human beings off, that's not true. If you win, people will want you as a

college coach and pay you more money to be a college coach. If you do not win, the publicity dies down and you eventually get fired. That is how it works everywhere. But it's funny that everybody can't see this. Charles in the chat. Ohio State and Georgia aren't in everybody's social media either. Colorado can't beat a Big Ten or SEC team. Ohio State and Georgia are all over everybody's social media. All over it. That's the thing. Colorado is in the sphere from an attention standpoint of Alabama, Ohio state, Georgia.

They're just not as good. And that's a problem because when Alabama shows up at your stadium, the whole stadium's ready to go beat Alabama. The players have been circling this game for a year, but Alabama has better players than you. Colorado isn't always going to have better players. Now, does Colorado have better players than last last year i think that is the key question and they went deep into the transfer portal again as we know they also sign some high school players jordan seaton the number one high school offensive tackle in america signed with them. But it's an all-new offensive line.

Justin Myers from UTEP. We'll see how he does. New defensive line. Dayon Hayes from Pitt. BJ Green from Arizona State. Like, how are they going to do? That's the question here. Because they're going to have to be better.

Because Shador is right. Shador's right about this. Every single team that they play is going to want to crush them and embarrass them. Because they will get that attention. Now, if everybody beats them, because you saw this last year, once it was clear that they were not going to be competitive in the Pac-12, we stopped watching, stopped paying attention, really until they panicked and demoted Sean Lewis as OC.

That'll happen again if they can't win. But if they win a few games, especially if they intersperse wins with losses and some interesting things happen in those games, we're absolutely going to keep watching. Now, their first game is North Dakota State. We talked about yesterday, Oklahoma State having to open with South Dakota State. These are not games you should ever schedule as an athletic director ever because you can easily lose them and dion is well aware of that he actually got a question about the bison yesterday at big 12 media day coach dom iso wday in fargo north dakota you're opening up with north dakota state or a known god yes killer tell me what you know about the Bison. They're good.

They're really darn good. And I'm mad at Rick right now for putting them on the schedule to open up with them. Like, can you give me a layup or something? Those guys are wonderful. Their staff has always been amongst the best. Many people have matriculated from that staff to go to higher

levels. Those kids play their butts off. They're tough. They don't make many mistakes. They're accustomed to winning. They don't give a darn about being at home or on the road. That does not faze them whatsoever. We just can't wait to see it. I know it's a national television game.

I believe it's a Thursday night game, hopefully not too late. But we can't wait to see them. It's going to be a phenomenal game, phenomenal matchup, but that program is second to none. Christopher, never schedule NDSU, App State, or Old Dominion. That is correct. At least with App State and Old Dominion, they're in the FBS now. There's no winning when you play North Dakota State

because you're supposed to beat them. But if you lose, it's entirely public. What Dion said is absolutely right. North Dakota State players do not care where they are playing. They don't care who the opponent is. They've played in big games. It doesn't matter to them other than if we beat Colorado on national TV on a Thursday night, week one, we're going to get celebrated. So, yeah, very disciplined team.

Good players. Now, I think Dion, it sounds like, is doing a good job of making sure his players understand that, that when they look at the film, this is a team that can beat them and worry about that. It's like we talked about yesterday with Mike Gundy, not suspending Ollie Gordon for game one. Well, I'm not surprised because they're playing South Dakota State.

They're playing the two-time defending FCS national champions. That's a lose-lose situation for you scheduling that game in the first place. So you can't lose. This is going to be an utterly fascinating situation because if they go to Nebraska and lose in week two, which is entirely possible, then probably the hype train derails somewhat. But if you look at the Big 12 schedule,

there are winnable games in there. They open with Baylor. We're going to talk about Baylor in a second. They go to UCF where the stadium actually bounces. Then they get Kansas State, which is one of the favorites to win the league. We'll know by the middle of the season what Colorado is. We'll have a very good idea. I think we probably had a very good idea last year. I think really after the Oregon game last year, we knew exactly what Colorado was. So I'd say by that Kansas State game, we will have a very good sense of what Colorado is.

And looking at that schedule, three and three coming out of that, doesn't sound completely unreasonable. But they are absolutely everybody's Super Bowl. Absolutely. Shador got that part right. It sounds conceited to say it like that, but he isn't wrong. Like that is, that's been his college experience playing at Jackson State and playing at Colorado. And, and it's true because everything his dad does gets attention. He is one of those people. And we've, we see them throughout sports, whether it's because of who they are, who they play for, or they just make people feel a certain kind of way,

or they just get more attention. People are just fascinated by them. We saw it with Tim Tebow. We're seeing it with Caitlin Clark. We see it with Dak Prescott. And I think with Dak Prescott, it's also because of the Cowboys but we see it with various people Terrell Owens back in the day was like that it didn't matter what they did everything

they did was interesting and Deion's been like that his whole career he's been like that as a player been like that as a coach he was like that as a media personality so that's the part of it that the players can't control dion at this point can't control it either he could not talk and we'd still find ways to talk about it but yeah this is this is going to be a really interesting season because now the book is out on Colorado. We think obviously they're going to be running a different offense, different defense and have different players.

So maybe the book isn't out until after three or four games, but they are going to be the show when they show up at your stadium. And the question is, do you make it your own show? Do you take over the show? Do you take that attention for yourself? Because I think that's what every team is going to want to do. It'll be just like when Ohio State rolls into a stadium. The difference is Ohio State has better players at almost every position and Colorado won't in a lot of these games. They will have the best player probably, maybe the second best player. The question is,

how did number three to number 22 work out? How do those matchups work out? But it will be an absolutely crazy scene when they show up early in the season. Like when they show up in Lincoln, it's going to be wild. I can't wait. I cannot wait. Because will it be Nebraska Super Bowl? Hell yes, it will be. Will that matter? I guess we're going to find out. Will it be Nebraska Super Bowl? Hell yes, it will be. Will that matter?

I guess we're going to find out. Moving on to one other coach that appeared at Big 12 Media Days. Now, I wish I had the audio of this quote. And this is one of those, I understand I've been in this situation before. One of the more frustrating situations, you get this incredible quote and the audio gets jumbled. So David Smoke, who's a great radio guy in Waco, he was talking to Dave Aranda, the Baylor coach before Dave Aranda went up on the big stage. And Smokey asked Aranda essentially, what changed? Why did you recruit so much better this past year than the year before?

And Dave Aranda just goes, we're paying players. That's why. Incredible quote, blew up on social media. But unfortunately, the audio got garbled. So I would love to play that for you. But it's not in dispute. Dave Aranda is very clear that that is what he said. But I wish I could play it for you because it sounds like it was hilarious. He's like, we're paid players. That's why. But I do want to play you something because we talked about Dave Aranda last week. I said, I think he's a coach who can coach his way off the hot seat.

I think he's going to be capable of winning enough games to keep his job this year because of some of the changes they've made. And part of it is the way they recruited. Part of it's the way they attack the transfer portal. He got a great question yesterday, and it was a simple question, but provided a really insightful answer. So, I mean, this is kind of a simple question, but what happened last year with seven or eight months to think about it? I look at the lessons from last year showing up in the moves that we've made

this year. And so we're fully invested now in Transfer Portal. We're fully invested with name, image, likeness. You know, I'm fully invested in football, which I think is probably the number one thing. And I think those things just moving forward, man, just put us on a position to be so much a better team. And there's just an energy around the building that I think that shows that. I think you talk to any of our kids, they feel that.

And so, like I say, I'm excited to get started. So Dave Aranda, Shayhan Jayaraj asked that question it's a great question Shehan's from CBS Dave Aranda essentially said yesterday that their offensive line that was playing last year should not have been playing that they were too young that they shouldn't have been thrown into that situation that Baylor should have attacked the transfer portal harder between 2022 and 2023 that they should have tried to pay more. Essentially, they should have tried to pay the players more coming out of the portal, offered more to those portal guys to get a more functional offensive line that would have allowed them to do the things they wanted to do offensively. You're not going to hear a lot of coaches say that,

but Dave Aranda, if you've listened to him before, is a different cat when it comes to that. He will say things and talk in a way that you're not used to hearing a major college football coach talk. And he was very blunt about that fact. And so later he got asked to follow up on the we're paying players now quote here's what he said

you created a little buzz this morning with an interview with sycam earlier where you talked about what it takes in recruiting uh paying players uh just wanted to ask you about the nil piece and what baylor has done maybe over the last year to kind of increase that and how that has helped you in recruiting? In the past, and I mean, this part still holds true, I've always felt really strong about our recruiting visits, our official visits, our visits of any kind, any type of interaction. The feedback from the parents have been, hey, this is authentic, real people.

These are people that are gonna be mentors to my son. These are people that care about his education. These are people that care about his education. These are going to be, these are people that aren't going to abandon my boy when things get hard. These are things that people are going to see him still and work to get him back up and where he needs to be. And so that's always been that and still is that now. It's that in today's climate, you know, that's not enough. That hasn't been enough. I think that was really kind of the story of last year in a lot of ways.

Last year's recruiting is that it wasn't enough. And so now with the money part of it, and I know it's still shocking for people to hear it, but it's, I mean, there's certain guys you recruit, and the money part is kind of how maybe we as a general consensus kind of, it's shocking to hear it. There's some people you recruit that it's like that, but the higher caliber, the higher ranking guy you go, it is not like that at all. It's like that's the expectation to get into the thing. And then once you get into the thing, it's an escalator to try to win the thing.

And so I think you have to say yes to that because that's where it's at. And the balance is to be that and then not lose who you are and to not lose the relationships and not lose the authenticity and being genuine and really caring because I you know I we talk about buying players and what you don't want to do is make it so it's so transactional that that's what it is you're buying and discarding and off and on and so I just feel like um yeah that's the challenge you know as coaches we're trying to get the best recruiting class as but really what we're doing is trying to be transformational in a transactional, all-the-way act. So that is Dave Aranda talking about a changing world. Now, I kind of disagree with this a little bit and i this may sound like i'm going back on something i said yesterday when i was talking about mike gundy because i i don't like the morality play of

college football i've never liked it because it's always been a business it's always been about winning it's never been totally about making men out of people or developing better human beings, that's not the point and that's not what gets you hired or fired necessarily. Now, that said, there are lots of coaches out there, Dave Aranda included, who do want to help their players become better people. In fact, I would say that is most coaches. That is almost everybody who works in the business. And it's not unique to football. There are companies out there,

and I've worked for some that are really good at this and some that aren't, where the people in charge want you to grow as a worker, grow as a person, and they feel like that makes you a better employee. And then there are some that just, they only care about the output. They're not worried about who you are or what you are. That's pretty universal. So Dave Miranda is saying, I need this to be transformational and not transactional. That's up to you. That's your choice. You can continue to try to make it transformational

all you want. But yes, there's a transaction involved, just like any other business in the world. Lots of businesses care about their employees, but they all have to compete financially. So these coaches need to understand this. The fact that there's a transactional aspect of this now, and spoiler alert, there almost always was, but the fact that there's a transactional aspect of this now does not mean that you don't try to find the people who fit what you do the best, the people who fit into your culture the best. The teams that win are the ones that can do both. So for Dave Aranda, you make millions of dollars. You will get to keep making millions of dollars to coach football. If you win enough games, you will be fired. If you don't win enough games,

they will not fire you for not molding enough men, but they will fire you for losing too much. You've got to decide if those two things are compatible. And I would argue they are compatible. I would argue that teams that care about each other, that love each other, that feel like the coaches care about me, my teammates care about me, I care about my teammates, I care about my coaches,

those are the best teams. Your goals are compatible. You just got to understand that. And it sounds like it's taken a minute for some of these coaches to understand that. So perhaps Dave Aranda understands that now, and perhaps that's what helps him survive this season, but we'll find out. We will find out. It will be very interesting to watch. You know, they've changed offenses.

They bring Jake Spavitol from Cal to run the offense. I do think one of the issues they had last year, you heard Dave Arenas talking about maybe some of those offensive linemen shouldn't have been playing. They were a wide zone team last year. Jeff Grimes is the offensive coordinator. If you're a wide zone team, for those of you who've never played offensive line, wide zone team, you better have some studs up front, some athletes, some true athletes up front

because they have to be able to move and they have to be able to move people. And sometimes it's hard to be able to do both. And it's especially hard to be able to do both when you're too young, not quite ready. We'll find out. One more thing on Colorado. East Coast Kev says, when Colorado dominates the Big 12, will all of you clowns publicly admit you were wrong or will you keep moving the goalposts? Well, they're not going to, probably. If they do, yeah, everybody's going to celebrate well they're not going to probably if they do yeah everybody's going to celebrate them everybody's going to say they were right all along they

believe in dn all along but the fact of the matter is they're probably not going to so i don't think we're gonna have to worry about that but if they're good yeah we'll say they're good i i love that question that's all we get that question what What are you going to say if they win 12 games? And I'm sitting good. What do you think I'm going to say? I just don't think that's going to happen. But I'm excited to watch. I'm excited to watch Colorado, North Dakota State.

I'm excited to watch Colorado, Nebraska. I think Coach Prime makes the game more interesting. All right. Speaking of interesting, you guys had some very interesting questions. Very interesting questions. It is time for Dear Andy. There's a lot.

A lot to chew on today. We'll start with one from Tony, which is a playoff question, but trust me, it's still July. We can turn it into a conference realignment question if we want. From Tony, is it too late to take away the ACC's automatic qualifier if Florida State and Clemson leave and the conference crumbles? Okay. So I don't know that Tony watched our how the 2024 college football season is going to work episode on the 4th of July.

Because, and this, again, we got to keep talking about this stuff because it's all new. It's all different. The ACC does not have an automatic bid to the playoff. Neither does the Big Ten. Neither does the SEC. Neither does the Big 12. The top five ranked conference champions have an automatic bid to the playoff. So more than likely, that will be the ACC, the SEC, the Big Ten, and the Big 12 will be the top four

ranked conference champs. And then somebody else will be the fifth highest ranked conference champ. But it's not written in. And that's actually one of the things they were arguing over when they were trying to expand the playoff. It's one of the things that Kevin Warren, when he was the commissioner of the Big Ten, used to hold it up, which was odd because it didn't really matter to the Big Ten. But then we found out they were trying to get their TV deal done without competition.

They were talking about codifying, saying that the automatic bids go to these conferences. Other commissioners and people involved in the creation of the expanded playoff were concerned that that would open them up to potential lawsuits. So that's why they didn't say this automatic bid belongs to this conference. So as far as the playoff system goes, in the event that the ACC were to be radically different from a competitive standpoint or from a creating national title contenders standpoint,

it wouldn't change anything. You wouldn't need to change anything. You might reduce the number of automatic bids, which is what they did when the Pac-12 disintegrated. I could see that happening, but it would just change who gets the automatic bid. The Sunbelt or the Mountain West or the American at that they would be, but their champ might get the nod instead. So that actually is already taken care of. That part is figured out. The other part that Tony mentions, if Florida State and Clemson leave. Now, there was news on that front on Wednesday. There was a ruling in North Carolina in the case where Clemson, sorry, the ACC sued Clemson in the state of North Carolina.

Clemson had asked for a stay or a dismissal, which is standard procedure when you get sued. And the judge said, no, the case will go forward. Now, the ACC sent out a statement, trumpeted this as a huge victory for them. We've always said North Carolina is the place where this needs to be decided. Well, that doesn't really change the fact that Florida State is suing you in Florida. Clemson is suing you in South Carolina. And those judges may believe that their states are the better place to decide this because, you know, public universities in their states. So maybe North Carolina is the venue for it, but I don't think

the judge in Florida who's allowing that case to go on or the judge in South Carolina will see what they decide on this very topic. I don't think they're going to agree. So I think we're going to have a jumbled mess for a while. I still think ultimately the same thing happens. There will be a non-zero chance that Clemson or Florida State prevail. And as long as there's a non-zero chance that Clemson or Florida State prevail, the ACC can't afford to go to trial. They'll have to come up with a number and say, here's what you pay. Here's your number and you're out. And then it's up to Florida state and Clemson to decide if they want to pay that number. Now, the other thing that's come out this week, we've had a lot of whispers. Ross Dellinger at Yahoo mentioned this in a story,

but also we've heard it coming out of the big 12 media days. And it's, I find it hilarious that when everybody in the big 12 gets together, suddenly there's more talk about realignment, and in this case about Florida State and Clemson. I don't know that you're going to pay that very large number to go to the Big 12. Because like I said, the ACC is going to come up with a number at some point down the road.

But I don't know if going to the Big 12 and look, the Big 12 will be able to do a new TV deal probably or at least add to its TV deal if they got brands like Florida State and Clemson. I just don't know if it's going to be enough to justify the spend you'd have to make to get out of the ACC. If you could get into the Big 10 of the SEC, yes, you will make enough money. You will break even for a little while, and then you will make more money down the road. So that makes financial sense. I don't know if the Big 12 makes financial sense. And then you've got the private equity piece of it where perhaps you've got some people telling Brett Yormark and the Big 12, well, if you could get these guys, perhaps we'd invest this. That's all, that's all fine and good.

But it would have to make financial to the people in the Big Ten that even though they have two more programs than the SEC, the SEC's football schedule is better than the Big Ten's. It is more fun. It is more watchable. And the Big Ten needs some better brands. And if you sprinkled a bunch of games involving Florida State and Clemson into the Big Ten schedule, it would be a lot closer to what the SEC schedule is in terms of watchability, in terms of a product. So we'll see what happens with Florida State and Clemson. I don't, I don't think a resolution is as close as maybe some people have tried to

make it out to be this week. I do. I think it's sooner rather than later, but it's not, I don't think in the next couple of months that that's, it doesn't feel like that right now. It feels like some more stuff has to go on in the courtroom and there has to be some sort of the icc is going to have to take a hit

to say you know what okay we now recognize that non-zero chance and i don't think they've taken that hit yet in court. I don't think they're there yet. So we'll wait and see what happens. But I do find it fascinating slash hilarious that when the Big 12 people all get together with a bunch of reporters, suddenly there's a bunch of whispers about Florida State and Clemson to the Big 12.

That sounds like wish casting, i i say that but the folks at the big 12 and the the people they were working with did really do a good job of destabilizing the pac-12 last year to to get what the big 12 ultimately wanted so it's not outside the realm of possibility. It will be very interesting to see if the big 12 has a hand in this, or if there's a consulting firm or somebody whispers in an attempt to destabilize the ACC. I don't really think you have to say very much. The fact that their two best football brands are suing them right now, and they are suing them back, probably tells you all you need to know next question comes from eric and i'm wondering if in-game coaching matters more than it used to with an expanded playoff and more rounds

in the previous system you if you were a high talent roster think georgia alabama and ohio state you probably only had to win one or two games during the regular season where you were less than a touchdown favorite and even if you lost game, you still had a good shot to make the playoff where you only had to win two games. Sometimes one of those against a team with less talent, think TCU or Cincinnati. In the new system, even if you were a team with a bye, you probably need to win one more elimination game against a team with presumably near the same amount of talent. Does this third and sometimes fourth round negate the talent advantage and place a greater emphasis on in-game coaching? Does that question even make sense?

Absolutely makes sense. Now, the answer is complicated, though. Because that quarterfinal round, when you get to eight teams left, that quarterfinal round is a place where in-game coaching is going to matter a lot because you're going to have a lot of good on good, similarly talented teams playing. The semifinals and the final especially,

talent is, well, not just talent, depth. Talented depth is going to matter i think the most when you get to the final like you're still going to be able to need to be able to coach really well in the field but you may be dealing with depth issues that there there's a chance that you come in as a different team because it's been that many games. I mean, we're talking about 16 or 17 games in some cases when you get to the final. So on-field coaching is absolutely going to matter.

And I think in the quarterfinals especially, like when the talent levels are going to be close, if one is a better tactician than the other, like a significantly better tactician than the other, even if that team's not more talented, the better tactician probably going to have a good chance to advance. The problem is that better tactician better have enough depth to get through the next two games too. And that's where you got to be able to do it all. It's very hard to do this without elite talent. And I know people say Michigan last year didn't have elite.

Michigan had quite a bit of elite talent. I'll give you an example. So Michigan loses all the, all these NFL players. And then the EA sports player rankings come out yesterday and there are five Michigan players still in the top 100. Will Johnson's number one, you know, Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant, the two D tackles that that's the best D tackle tandem in America. So they had that. They had all these, you know, NFL offensive linemen last year. They were talented and deep. Like they could handle, they lost Zach Zinter, the offensive lineman in the Ohio State game. They were deep enough to overcome that. So that's the type of team you got to have.

Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama, what Oregon is recruiting itself into, what Texas has been recruiting itself into. Those are the teams that should theoretically be deeper. And so if they survive, and that's the thing, they got to survive that quarterfinal round, their depth then becomes an advantage. So yeah, I think the master strategist where that will become most important is in the quarterfinal round. Now we got two questions I'm going to answer together. One from Todd. I believe the Florida Gators will be an improved team over last year. Will their record reflect the improvement? And now a question from TD Gator nine,

who makes his opinion on this very clear. Dear Andy, who is the last coach to have three wins or less against 500 plus teams in their first two seasons, and then go on to win a championship part two, when does Billy Napier get fired? So I went and looked up that stat just to make sure this wasn't a negative Nelly just trying to get me to read that out loud

when it's not true, but it is true. So Billy Napier opened 2022, first game at Florida with a win against eventual Pac-12 champ, Utah. They also beat South Carolina that year and South Carolina went up eight and five. Last year they beat Tennessee. Those are the wins against teams that finished above 500 in their season. That's it. That's not good. I tried to go back and see if there were coaches in their first two years that had equal problems problems i don't way back i don't back like bobby bowden when he got to florida state because i was thinking okay he had a tough first year then he went 10 and 2 his second year and i was like well maybe maybe he didn't have that toughest kid no they they did play against teams that finished over 500 uh coach oh i thought would be interesting to. Coach O's first two seasons at LSU,

first two full seasons, he was the interim in 2016, but his first two full seasons were 17 and 18. And in the first year, he did only win two games against 500 plus teams, but he won six of those such games in the second. So I started crunching the numbers on this thing. How many teams on Florida's schedule this year, and we've talked a lot about how hard Florida's schedule is, but how many teams on Florida's schedule this season have a Vegas preseason win total of seven or more? So we're not even including the 6.5s here. We're just seven or more. So seven and five or better is kind of the baseline for these teams. There are nine. Miami, nine and a half.

Texas A&M, eight and a half. UCF, seven and a half. Tennessee, eight and a half. Georgia, ten and a half. Texas, ten and a half. LSU, nine and a half. Ole Miss, nine and a half. Florida State, nine and a half.

Oh, by the way, Kentucky is 6.5, and Billy Napier has not beaten Mark Stoops yet. So there's your mandate, Billy Napier. You're going to have to win games against good teams, which we knew. Now, to get back to Todd's original question, will they be an improved team over last year? And does the record reflect that? The schedule is harder so that yes, they can be improved and wind up with the same record. Now, if they wind up with the same record, if they wind up five and seven again, I don't think they're going to keep Billy Napier because at that point you've shown what you are. You're an under 500 coach.

That program aspires to be better than that. I don't think it matters at that point. Now that said, if you go six and six and make a bowl game, if you go seven and five, like you go eight and four, there's no question. Like the question, if you go eight and four, and I've seen this, I've seen these numbers crunched lately. Like if Florida goes eight and four against this schedule, could they be a dark horse at large playoff team? Yeah. I think they'd be considered. I don't know that they'd get in there, but I do think they'd be considered eight and four with this schedule, depending on how the four worked out, but eight and four, you're absolutely staying. Seven and five, I think you're absolutely

staying because it means you've beaten teams that are pretty good that either made the playoff or close to making the playoff. Six and six, I think there's a path to staying. It just depends on how the games looked. Were you close in the games you lost? Now, if you go six and six and you lose the six by an average of 28 points, you're gone. If you go six and six and you lose the six by an average of six points, that means you're probably kind of right there. And next season could be significantly better. So all of that context matters, but the, the,

the having nine teams on your schedule with a preseason win total of seven or better Billy Napier so far in two seasons of Florida, the best of those two, he beat two teams that finished with over a 500 record. If you only beat two of the teams out of those nine that are supposed to have over a 500 record, you're five and seven this year.

Not good enough. So that is the mandate for Billy Napier. You have to win some of those games. And I've heard people say, but the schedule is so hard. It doesn't matter. You're at a program that pays you to win national championships. We quote Don Graper a lot on this show, but that's what the money's for. You got to win those games.

If not now, when? So there's where they're at right now. When you lay out the schedule like that, when you lay it out there with how many teams are expected to be really good, because it's not just, it's not like they're all at seven and a half. There's six opponents at nine and a half or higher. That's crazy. But again, that's what the money's for. You are paid to win games like that. Will he? We'll find out.

This one's from Don. Could you see a world where it makes more sense to pay a coach and an AD less and fund NIL with the difference? For example, would it be more beneficial for an SEC program with a less robust NIL to have a head ball coach make 4 million instead of 7 and fund his team's NIL deals with the difference? This is a great question, Don, and I am really interested to see how this works out. So with the revenue sharing, the way we think it will work, now the house settlement hasn't been approved yet, so we don't know that this is how it's going to go. But the way we think it'll work is you'll be able to share up to 22 million with the players. We think schools will fund football with most of that. We think it will be a fairly similar number between schools, how they fund football. Not everybody's going to have 22 million lying around to fund it. Some schools, obviously, like Ohio State, Michigan, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, they'll have it.

Some of the schools in the ACC, some of the schools in the Big 12, they have to figure out how to fully fund it. Remember, it's an option. You can go up to that number, but you don't have to. So how do you find that money? Well, one way you may find that money is by saying, you know what? I don't think we have a coach who's so special that we need to pay that coach the way the highest paid coaches get paid. We would be better off putting that money into players. Ditto for the AD. Now the ADs don't make as much. So you could, you shave that, you know, that percentage off the AD salary. Probably that's probably half a million bucks you're saving. But for the coach, yeah, you could save like 3 million bucks. If you're going to fund at 19 million or 22 million,

the difference is you're going to pay the coach 4 million or 7 million. I would put that money into players. Unless you are sure you have the next Kirby smart. If you don't think you got the next Kirby smart, if you think your coach is pretty good, eight and four type, somewhere between seven and five and nine and three, but you're not sure where, you've probably got a replacement level coach. That person probably doesn't deserve to be paid among the highest in the sport.

So yeah, I think you put that money into players. And we're going to find out who's going to do that. Once the schools have money coming out of their own budget going to players, which would be the beginning of next football season, the 25 season. We're going to find out if ADs can figure out whether they have a replacement level coach or a truly special one, because if you don't have a truly special one, you do not need to pay them like they are Kirby smart because they are not Kirby smart.

Next question comes from Matt. Dear Andy, what are the benefits to being a walk-on football player and would you recommend it to anyone in this era? I would recommend it to everyone, especially in this particular era. Now that era is ending after this season, unfortunately. So the class of 2025 is in a different boat and we don't know what's going to happen to walk-ons because right now they're going to put, they're going to put roster limits on these football programs. And they're going to change the math on walk-ons because one of the reasons you walk on is because you feel like you were under-recruited and you want to go to a program that is big, big time, or that is just a level above where you were recruited at. It doesn't have to be the biggest, the big, but

I don't want there to be a world where a student at Ohio state can't try to get on the football team at Ohio state. It doesn't mean they're going to make it, but there should be a path for them to get on the football team, whether it's a practice squad where those players make less or something, there needs to be a mechanism for that because that's one of the things that makes college football special. And in terms of what I recommend it, absolutely. So there's a couple kinds of walk-ons. There's the ones that were under-recruited, people missed on them, they knew they were better than they were, they get out there and they show it when they walk on at a really good school. There's also the ones who thought they were, they get out there and they show it when they walk on at a really cool.

There's also the ones who thought they were under-recruited who get on the practice field and realize, no, I was evaluated entirely accurately. That was me. I thought I was better than I was. I get on the practice field at Florida. It is abundantly clear. I'm not nearly as good as these people, but I will tell you this, I learned a lot. You learn a lot about dealing with adversity when you're playing against someone who's much bigger, much stronger, much faster than you. And you just got to figure it out, even on the scout team, like figure out how to stay alive. That's helped me every day of my life since. Every day. So absolutely, I would recommend it. But I also would recommend it, like, in this particular environment. Let's say the house settlement doesn't get approved and things kind of continue as they have.

There's really, the last couple of years, there was never a better time to walk on in a big-time program. Because with the transfer portal with so much movement and players leaving and coming and going people who'd been in the program who developed and i'm talking not about the walk-ons like me but the ones who could actually play and there's plenty of those they were in a great very advantageous position because let's say there was a bigger outflow than inflow from the transfer portal, there's a good chance that Walk-On could get put on scholarship if they're contributing, if they're playing well. So until this house settlement passes, fully clears, and we see what happens next, I still think it's, it's valuable.

I also think they're incredibly stupid if they don't figure out a path to allow walk-ons, to allow people who are students at a school to get on the football team at that school, or at least try to get on the football team at that school, because it is a valuable thing. It's valuable for the school. It's valuable for the school. It's valuable for the players. They need to figure that part out. I will be incensed if they can't figure it out, because the people in charge of the sport do a lot of dumb things,

but killing walk-ons would be one of the dumber things they ever did. Next question comes from John. What is the thing that promotes a mid-level team to an S tier? And for those who don't know about the tier rankings, S is the superlative, that's the best of the best. So we're talking, you know, Georgia type teams. I know it's not coaching. I'm skeptical that it's money. What accounts for the consistent gap between a Georgia and a Kentucky? So John's a Kentucky fan. Now, I will push back on, I know it's not coaching.

It's absolutely coaching. Because coaching in college football is also recruiting. Remember, a good coach in college football is equivalent to a good GM in pro football. Now, they also have to be able to do the on-field stuff. But if you think Mark Stoops is a better coach than Kirby Smart, well, you're just wrong. Everybody knows that Kirby Smart is a better coach. He's as good or better of an evaluator. He's better at getting really good players. And his on-field coaching has been excellent. So coaching absolutely matters.

But since John brought it up, what accounts for a consistent gap between a Georgia and Kentucky? Let's look at your starting lineup. Unfortunately, you gave me the best slash, well, best for me to come up with it easily, but worst for you. Example, J'mon Dumas Johnson, probably Kentucky's best linebacker. Do you know why he's at Kentucky? Because he wasn't going to start at Georgia anymore. Brock Vandegrift is Kentucky starting quarterback.

Do you know why he's at Kentucky? Because he wasn't going to start at Georgia. Like those are very clear examples. Part of being a coach in college football, because again, this is why I pushed back on the, I know it's not coaching, is getting the best players. Georgia clearly has better players because people are leaving Georgia for Kentucky because they can't play at Georgia or they can't start at Georgia. They certainly would be able to play at Georgia that's it and and so if you want to do the 22 by 22 side by side you ask yourself who on Kentucky's roster would start at Georgia

Dion Walker absolutely would that's one maybe Dane Key or Barry and Brown would would crack you know would sub out for one of the receivers at Georgia, maybe, but that's it. Everybody else at Georgia, the starter would start. So yeah, it's coaching because recruiting is part of coaching. And you can say it's not money, and you're probably right. I mean, Kentucky football has a lot of money. Probably not as much as Georgia, but it's got a lot of money. But yeah, you have to have better players than them at some point.

Your best players can't be players that couldn't play for them. Or you're not going to win those games. One more question. This is tremendous. From another John. Andy, do you think Cam Rising will pull a LeBron Brawny situation and play with his son at Utah someday? I'm assuming the NCAA has given him unlimited eligibility. Not unlimited, but yes, Cam Rising is eligible for an eighth year after this, the seventh year, if he would like it. He says he doesn't want it. He says it's not the plan. He says seven is enough.

But I get it. Cam Rising's been in college football a long time. But as far as I know, he's probably not going to be in college football until he's 40, maybe just 28. Goat dog, Cam Rising is the last of the 90s babies. That's right, the last college football player born in the 90s. Litz, my own worst enemy, was playing as he sat in his crib.

By the way, everybody's still in the chat arguing about Dion. But no, why would we talk about Dion? Why would anybody want to do that? That's why. We'll talk to you tomorrow.