Andy & Ari On3 - Mike Elko for College Football Commissioner? Texas A&M coach SOUNDS OFF at SEC Spring Meetings

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

As the 2026 SEC Spring Meetings are underway in Destin, Florida, Andy Staples and Pete Nakos are on the scene with the absolute latest. One of the more notable sessions involved Texas A&M’s Mike Elko, who could make an exceptional commissioner. While a number of SEC head coaches took the podium today, watch here as Andy & Pete dive through some of the most notable quotes from Tuesday in Destin.   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (0:52) Presenting Sponsor (2:34) Intro: Mike Elko at the podium (16:40) Who could be the CEO? (24:31) SEC Championship Game’s Future (36:00) Alabama QB battle: Keelon Russell or Austin Mack? (45:39) Drinkwitz’s Punt Rule Rant (50:30) Conclusion: See you tomorrow!   After the fellas discuss Mike Elko at the podium, the guys switch gears towards the conference championship game. What’s the overall sentiment with the game amongst SEC coaches? How much would the schools miss out on TV revenue? Andy & Pete dive in here.   As more coaches spoke at the podium, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer commented on the quarterback battle in Tuscaloosa. Between Keelon Russell and Austin Mack, who will be the Crimson Tide’s starting QB? Andy & Pete discuss.   To close, the guys dive into Eli Drinkwitz’s punt rule rant. What’s going on with this rule change? Andy & Pete discuss to close out the show.       Send your questions to: [e-mail] [e-mail]   Our show is also presented by BetMGM!   If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works:   1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB. 2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. 3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you use bonus code CFB when you sign up!   Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary.   See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. This promotional offer is not available in DC, Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET (Available in the US) . 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only (if applicable). Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/M2nvPBwDC0c   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today is Andy and Ari on three or Andy and Pete on three. Mike Elko makes his case for college football needing a CEO. Not him, mind you. He does not want the job, but he does want someone to have the job. And he makes a really, really compelling case for him to be Texas A&M coach and for someone else to be the CEO of college football. Also, the SEC championship game, a hot topic of discussion here at the SEC spring meetings in Destin. And what do the coaches think? How does that square with the financial realities?

Also, Alabama's quarterback competition. Kalin DeBoer gives us an update on the two guys that are duking it out to be the starting quarterback for the Crimson Tide. All on today's Andy Nari on three with special guest, Pete Naco's. We are presented by BetMGM. All the lines and totals you see on this show come from BetMGM. And if you're not already signed up, you download. the app, you sign up using the code CFB, that CFB is in college football, you can get up to $1,500 in bonus bets for doing that. If you are already signed up, there's a lot going on for

you this week. The BetMGM hat trick jackpot is still going on. So every NHL playoff game, you have a chance to win a share of $10,000 in bonus bets by placing an anytime goal score wager. And if that player gets a hat trick, so three or more goals, then you can enjoy part of $10,000 in bonus bets, a share of 10,000 in bonus bets. Also, there's an NBA odds boost token running all week. The conference finals matchups are set. You've got the Thunder and the Spurs. How are you feel about those? Well, now's a chance if you have a very strong feeling, activate your odds boost and you can wager with boosted odds on the NBA conference finals. That's all happening at BetMGM this week. So make it legendary with BetMGM.

See betmgm.com for terms 21 plus. Only this promotional offer is not available in D.C., Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem called 1-800-Gambler or 1-800-My-Reset, available in the U.S. 7778-N.Y or text Hope N.Y-4-6-7-369. 1-800-5-0 in Massachusetts. 1-800-Bets off in Iowa, 1-8001-80-0-23 in Puerto Rico. First bet offer for new customers only, if applicable, subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Welcome to Andy and our entry.

Playing the park of the already is the great Pete Nacos. We are here in lovely Destin, Florida. Redneck River. He's one of the Hilton. Yeah, my wife always thinks I'm going to the beach when I go on this trip. I am not. I am always in a very well-air-conditioned basement. Yep.

And that's pretty much where I stay. That's where we're at. It's a little bit of moisture in the air. and it's been raining outside. There's a beach out there somewhere. You go upstairs. There is a beach, I'm told you can see some water. Yeah.

But I really just want to be here to hear what Kirby has to say, what Eli Jernicles has to say. It's been a fun morning here. Mike Elko was on fire on Tuesday morning. And so if you haven't already seen the quotes on social media, they've been making the rounds. But Mike Elko made a really great case that college football needs a CEO, that somebody needs to be in charge. And look, we've talked about this on the show before. We've thrown names out there. Our friend Josh Pate always says he should be the commissioner.

And Josh will accept the job. Even Mike Elko won't accept the job. But Elko probably not looking at Pate for this either. No, I think he's looking for somebody who's maybe run a Fortune 500 company. He wants to CEO. He doesn't want a commissioner. He's fine with what Greg said he's done in the SEC. That can be his commissioner.

He wants someone to step in who has an understanding of the marketplace, but it's an understanding of what it looks like to put a roster together in financials and how that should actually be governed. Because if you came here today with us, the only thing you'd really be hearing all morning is what coaches want in the CFP in this echo chamber of there is no enforcement currently in college football. Right. So Mike Elko, the one person making a suggestion as opposed to just saying,

oh, well. So here's Mike Elko. go on why college football needs a CEO. It feels like you might like a commissioner sort of. How about a CEO? How about a billion dollar industry has a CEO and a board? But wouldn't that require people not operating out of self-interest and giving up power for something like that?

I don't know. Probably. There's been some conversations about at BACC have to do their autonomy to change rules and do things. What kinds of things with the league you feel like want to do? that you're not able to do this, the current government structure? Create some type of, like, I think, I think I'm not the only person frustrated by the lack of governance. And so if, if it comes more to an SEC model, then you at least have the ability to say, okay, this is, like, we certainly have great leadership. Greg Sankey does a phenomenal job

looking out for the best interest of the SEC. And so Greg can get in with the presidents and the ADs and the coaches. And we can come. up with some type of decision about what's best for the SEC, go out there and enforce that. And if that provides some level of regulation or legislation within the SEC, I think that's why that's becoming more of a talking point because that seems more attainable than anything else. There's nothing else that actually seems attainable when you look at where it currently stands. Yeah, and I think that's the frustrating point for coaches and for everybody else's. And fans ask me this all the time, Pete.

And why isn't someone in charge of college football? Why does the Big Ten want to do what's best for the Big Ten? And the SEC does what's best for the SEC. And Elko talked about this later because he said, you know, Greg Sanky does a great job for the SEC. Tony Petitie does a great job for the Big Ten. And that is their job. But I think if you're a fan, you're saying, how come there isn't someone who just cares about the good of the sport? Right. You go back a few years, right? And we were talking about how the college football playoff, could that be the governing body that kind of takes a centralized role in trying to, and that hasn't happened to do the house settlement and things like that.

And no offense to Rich Clark, who's the executive director of the CFP, but that's not the job. No, that's not the job. Not the job and not the job. I think he wants it to be. But we're left now in this situation where, you know, the season kicks off in three months. There's a lot of excitement about that, but you have over $100 million in deals in limbo in the NIL go clearinghouse run by the College Sports Commission. And you and run by the four conference, the four power conference.

Well, really, in the Pac-12s in there too, because they were also defended in the NCAA. And coaches have come here enough with their ADs now and said that this isn't working, that now the self-governance topic is really going to start taking center stage. Yeah. It's a discussion topic on the agenda. here this week.

Are we going to see any action items on it right now? No, probably not, not expecting that. But it's definitely becoming much more and more a centralized topic and something that coaches, including Kirby Smart, that we can get into, are more than happy to get up there and talk about. Let's hear Kirby Smart, the Georgia coach, talking about if the SEC was to break away,

he didn't seem all that upset about the idea. Kirby, your president has some great point of comments about frustrations with the system and breaking away. I'm curious, your thoughts on that. And do you think the problems are the rules for the people who don't have a willing missed to follow? Well, the second part of the question, I don't have an answer to, but I've said this for a long time in our president. I've been a huge advocate that if we can't find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play our own. I'm not afraid of that. I'm not afraid to

break away and say that our conference is strong enough to go out and have and play. I mean, like, if we could actually function and it financially would make our, our programs more stable and we could support things financially. I'm talking about all the sports and do by our own rules. I'd be all for that. I've been to this meeting now 10, 11 times and it's frustrating at times to say, well, we can't do this because litigation. We can't do this because we can't do this because we'll get sued.

We can't do that. And we're just trying to do things for the betterment of the sport and the betterment of the student athletes. And that's not curtailing what money they make. I'm not advocating that they make less money. I'm fine with what student athletes make. I'm trying to make it where it's as equal and it's comparable footing for everybody, and it's not a race to the bottom, as they say.

Second part of your question was, basically, is default the rules or is there just a general willingness for equal to try to end around that? That's been. There's 100%. That goes back to the self-preservation. And if I can self-preserved by making my schedule easier, doing this, circumventing the rules, but there's been circumvention of the rules the entire time. There's always somebody trying to.

It's the policing of that and the navigating to make people follow within the guidelines. And what's happened with litigation is there are no guidelines. I'll just go to court. I'll just go to court. Let's go to court on everything. Not just player eligibility, but on everything, it's a lawsuit away from everybody back and down. And so they strip the power from any regulatory agency that we would put in place.

So at some point you've got to go over say, how do we want to do this? Self-preservation is one of the key. keywords that we hear key phrases we heard today pete and uh elko was talking about self-preservation because he he talked about it when we asked him yeah what kind of playoff he would prefer yeah uh because he's like you know it's just for good sport one thing but it let's let's let's let's hear mike elko talking about uh what number in the playoff because it again man was on fire yeah i don't know why you guys ask us like why do you care what we think like it doesn't matter what we think um i said this before, I think there's two sides of that conversation. I think there's a good

of college fall where we better be really careful. I don't know why we're trying to become a trophy sport. I don't understand why that's something that we're trying to do. Then there's self-preservation, right? And so if you really ask me on record, what does Mike Elko want? I want 40 because then I'll make it and then I won't get fired. But you will if you don't go deep enough if it's 40. I'll take a few years. And in a few years, we adjust. And then I'll want something else. Have you not been around this thing long enough?

That was me saying you will get fired if you don't go deep enough. But Elko with the perfect response to that. That'll take a couple years. You know, we heard something else. And we don't have to play the clip. But Steve Sarkees made a very succinct point, too, of, you know, a year ago, James Franklin made the semifinals. And then five, six games into, you know, fired.

Yeah. And he is acting. worried about the health of the sport with situations like that. And I mean, that's a situation that Sark also was saying that this playoff or bust mentality, national championship or bus mentality. I'm like, buddy,

you may have picked the wrong job if that, if that bothers you. Yeah. Because I would say the University of Texas has always had a national championship or bust mentality. For sure. But it hits home of how in the 12th team playoff, there's absolutely no wiggle room.

And I'm not saying, don't like that. I'm just saying that's why you're going to hear Mike Elko. Yeah. You know, say, I love a 14 team playoff or have someone come out and say that 2014 playoff sounds great. Yeah. But I think he's self-aware enough to say, yeah, this is not good for the sport.

This is good for me. Yeah. And I think that's not what most people are saying. No. It's not what most commissioners are saying. It's not what most 80s are saying. And as we watch this. go through.

Right. And we've had it, there was a coach today, and I'm blanking on who it was. It was Eli Drinkwitz. Okay. I think that said, you got to give this some time to, to marinate. Yeah. You can't keep changing everything. Yeah.

Where you have no actual data. I mean, we just went from four to 12. Right, right. It's going to take time. You know, we talked to Greg Sankey about it, too, and I think this all comes together last night and had the conversation of, okay, so, so people were in a rush to get to 24, 16, or some sort of. to expansion. What's that mean for the calendar? And does the calendar have to happen before the

playoff evolves? And he said, well, I don't know about that, but I don't want to see week one moved. Well, if you don't want to see week one move, then there's going to have to be some tough discussions about how deep this postseason is going to be. You know, we spent so much time asking coaches and hearing from coaches, what playoff format do they want. But it seems like we're still ways away from actually seeing that become a reality. Yeah. And I, and I'm, I'm fine with that. I'm with Eli Drinkwitz and don't change for the sake of change. Maybe let some data roll. And I already talk about this on the show quite a bit. That if you just allow the sport to exist and breathe for a minute or two, then maybe you find out, okay, this is working.

This part isn't working. We can change this. But a natural evolution, not a forced evolution. Yeah. And the thing is, it goes back to what Elko's saying. if there's someone whose job is to look out for the good of the sport, then that person would be talking to Tony Petitian, talking to Greg Sankey, and talking to Jim Phillips, and talking to Brett Yormark, and saying, guys, we're going to slow all this down. Yeah.

And we're going to look at this, and we're going to take some time and study it before we make any sort of drastic changes, because we don't even know what this is going to look like in 10 years. And in the current CFP format, right, in the way the television contract was done, Tony Petitian and Greg Sanky have all the power in that meeting room right now. There is no one in there, and this is not a shot at anyone. I think all commissioners would agree. There's nobody in that room right now.

And you could say Rich Clark, but I don't know about that. Who truly care about the health of the sport? Well, it's not that Rich doesn't care. There's nothing he can do about it one way or the other. But no commissioner goes in there saying, okay, if I'm Greg Sanky, how can I help the Big 12 here? It's no. What can I do to get more of SEC teams in the playoffs? Yeah.

You're not doing your job. If you're the commissioner of the Big Ten or the commissioner of the SEC, your job is to put your conference in the best possible position. It is not your job to do what's best for the sport. And I think that's the tricky part because you get into this discussion like Kirby Smart was talking about breaking away. Okay. What he's really talking about is the SEC making its own rules, playing within its own rules.

I think there's more to it than these guys think because I think if you do this, that you really probably can't play with the other leagues you take away what the postseason is yeah you probably have to play within your own conference the SEC title game champion it would be the national champion would see right and then yeah and the big you you basically go back to an afl nFL before the super bowl situation and but does is that something you know i'm not saying but is it something that needs to happen to truly get to the next iteration of the sport to force it into what it needs Because what he's really saying is there need to be rules among peer groups. Yeah.

And FBS is not all peer groups. There's not 136 peers in the FBS. It's just not the way it's going to happen. It's all tiered off, especially with spending nowadays, right? You have a $45 million LSU roster in the bottom of the SEC is a $60 million roster. Right. But then we were talking to an ACC coach, and they're talking about they're in the middle of the ACC, and they spend like the bottom of the SEC.

Yeah. And that's just, it is very tiered off. And I think probably for the health of the sport, it should be tiered in that way so that it's more competitive so that it is more like schools facing one another. But again, you're not going to get to that with everybody trying to protect their own corners. And so I'm curious, like, if we were to take Mike Elko's idea to its. logical conclusion and look a little bit of this is fantasy land because you'd need some sort of antitrust exemption at least the rewrite sports broadcasting act sure so that they could sell their tv rights as one like you'd need something that would allow them to do this stuff together and not get

sued but who are we talking about here because like elko's point is don't look within the sport you know widen your lens no look look for a true like fortune 500 CEO who's Managed thinking leader outside of the enterprise. I mean, he's talking about bringing in a Fortune 500 CEO to run the sport. Yeah, I mean, and obviously, like, there's money in it, but there's not this kind of money. And if you're running Google, sure, that's not the job you want. Sure. No.

If you're running in video, that's, you don't want this job because you're taking a pay cut. No one, you know, we spend so much time in the off season, especially in what I do, it's like this defensive coach and the SEC is taking an NFL job. There's more people running away from the college game than running into it right now at all levels. But I think about, you know, somebody like Bill Gurley is a good example. A former Florida basketball player who ended up, he went to got his master's at Texas, and then he goes into venture capital and ends up becoming the kind of the angel investor for Uber and sits on the boards of all these different, help cultivate all these different huge companies.

Like that's the kind of person who I think Mike Elko's talking about that you'd want to reach out to. You know, when I don't know if you or Ari wrote this list, there was a list though that was written about, okay, who could be the commissioner? Yeah, we always start with Nick Savings. And everyone starts the Nick Savant. That is not what Mike Elko is suggesting here wants. Yeah. He wants someone who takes a very business approach to how they view the college game. Yeah.

And it would, I think it would be helpful. because I think one of the things that I sense just interacting with viewers and listeners is they feel like no one's even listening to them at this point. With the 2014 playoff, it is just sort of a runaway train toward this 2014 playoff. We had an Iowa fan right in the other day

because we asked, you know, Iowa fans, you'd make this thing. Yeah, how bad do you? And this Iowa fan wrote, I don't want it. I would like my team to just make the 12 team play. Well, and the issue, too, is that, you know, we don't have these conversations because we're not at 24 yet. But, okay, so if we're at 24 years, the next year are going to be about when can we get to 32?

Yeah. And you hear Kirby Smart, you hear Mike Elko, you hear Greg Sanky talk. They don't view college football as a tournament sport. They don't want this to ever be a 30-team field. Yeah, now that's a, I don't know. You can say it's not a tournament sport. Football is a tournament sport, whether they believe it or not. Division 1 college football wasn't a tournament sport.

That was what it was for a long time, and that made it different. And you can say that made it charming. I say that made it stupid. High schools have tournaments. NFL has a tournament. 1-A, now FCS, has a tournament. Division 2 has a tournament. Division 3 has a tournament.

Football has a tournament everywhere it's played. So there's nothing wrong with a tournament. There's nothing wrong with finishing a season with a tournament. Every sport on earth does that. Otherwise, how would you know? We could vote on it. That's what we used to do. It was stupid.

So this, it's not a tournament sport is BS. It's a tournament sport. But there's a way to do the tournament. When they say tournament sport, they mean that in their head, it's not a 64 team. Yeah, it's not a 64 team. Yeah, yeah.

Look, there's a reason the NFL has 14 teams in the block. Right. So, but. Now, granted, that's a huge percentage of their league compared to what college does. It's almost half. I think it should be more exclusive in college. Yeah. But you talked to like a Brett Bilema, though, right?

And I thought I know we're at SEC, but I thought to him last week. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was like in Jetfish, who was in the NFL, they both had prior NFL. And they think that like almost half of the college football should be able to get in. Yeah. Which is a very aggressive take on this. But here's the thing I, you know, and I'm sure you're talking to them about this. I feel like when the power conference coaches say,

that they are looking at quote unquote college football as the power conferences in Notre Dame yes so that would be 67 correct not 136 yeah okay yeah so that's where that 32 number comes from yeah and their head yeah and again if you had a CEO in charge this they'd say stop stop wait hold up let's stick at 12 for a little bit and see how it goes yeah I mean we're only we're going into year three. Correct? I mean, and it's produced two very exciting playoffs.

I think, and two very entertaining regular seasons, I would say too. Yeah. So I'm all right. And two entertaining national title games, which was not always the case. Yeah.

In the BCS. Now, Notre Dame made the Ohio statement a little bit entertaining at the end, but the last one was great. Yeah. And the semis were great. Yes. And so the semis were great the first year.

Yeah. So they've been great. yeah i i'm excited about what it can be i'm excited that you're getting another year of this and i thought the regular season was fun i thought the playoff was fun and and maybe i'm 24 you're gonna completely water down the opening i'm hoping yeah i'm just hoping that and again this goes against what we've been saying gregg sankie digging his heels in yeah because again he or tony patiti can control this yep because of the way they've engineered it so he can just dig his heels in say nope and Petiti said if it doesn't go to 24 they they'll they want to stay at 12 okay great

let's let's all stay at 12 and Greg saying he brought up a great point last night that I think probably got a little bit lost on the mix and I wrote about it but a year ago the big 10's a big idea was 16 and now it's 24 16 with a Q's yeah now it's 24 and it feels like there's no going back to 16 which is definitely yeah from from talking to uh Greg it it irks him if you stay at 12, 16's on the table. Yeah. But you, because again, things can change. Like, everything keeps changing in this sport.

Everything's evolving every year. Yeah. So we will see what happens. But I love the Elko idea. I do think there's a chance. Some things change. I don't think there's going to be some overarching legislation that goes through Congress that, that the Senate bill that was supposed to be, you know, like the perfect piece of legislation. I think we're like 10 days into

into final negotiations. And it's all coming up against an August recess. And if nothing happens before August, then you admit terms and forget about it at that point. And there's also a lot of other things going on in the world. And also maybe Congress doesn't need to solve your problems. Maybe you need to solve your own problems. But there may be some middle ground there where they can solve some of their own problems.

Maybe they do get a, you know, a narrow sliver of a thing that lets them reorganize a little bit. But that's going to be painful too. And we're on the cusp of it. When you hear the coach of the University of Georgia saying, I'd be fine with my league breaking away. The leader of SEC coaches. Yeah.

The dean. I'd be fine with my league breaking away. There's been some thought. Some movement is afoot. And there's been some thought in the saying that that's not just, you know, shooting from the hip by Kirby Smart. No, he's not an, an important. He knows exactly what he's saying when he says that.

Speaking of Kirby Smart, I was very interested to hear his thoughts on this next topic, Pete, because we've asked Greg Sanky, we've asked all the coaches here about this, the SEC championship game because last month, Greg Byrne, the athletic director of Alabama, made waves saying I think the ship has sailed on the SEC championship game, that its time has passed, which was a massive shift in rhetoric. because you did have other leagues saying their championship games time had passed, but the SEC championship game is a different animal. Correct.

The first one is viewed as more special than the rest. It makes more money than the rest do. It is a more cherished game. And so we asked the coaches about it. They all feel so passionate about it. It was interesting. Like, producer River, can you play Eli Drinkwitz talking about the SEC championship game? But the original ways of being taught how the developer program

and build a program and coach in this sport has changed significance since I've been here. And that's just the realities of what we are and what we're doing. And, you know, that's why I believe in the SEC championship game. It's a heck of an opportunity to have great entertainment. It's one of the best games that the SEC puts on every single year. And I don't know why you would get rid of that just because, you know, you want to get to the next thing. Like we're constantly looking for the next thing, the next thing, the next thing, like that's the answer. like man sometimes you just got to slow down and enjoy what you have and what we have is really good product you know the one thing about that too and you know john summer all got up there and he has memories at going to s c title games as a kid curvy smart it was always the dream to playing the c c title game as a player it's obviously something held very close and dear to to a lot of these coaches um and the reality of it is it's a massive television property for the cc if you go to a 2014 playoff and conference

championship games are taken out of the equation, that kind of money is going to have to be made up in a new television. So there's that part of it, but there's also the sentimental part of it and there's also the competitive part of it. And I found that very interesting hearing Eli Drinkwitz talk about it. The guys who haven't gotten there yet or got there as assistants or GAs but haven't gotten there as a head coach. Yeah.

They still want it still matters to them a lot. For sure. They want to get there. Eli Drinkwitz wants to bring his team to an SEC championship game. Clark Lee wants to bring. to bring Vanderbilt to an SEC championship game. He's a big, big deal to him.

I asked Sumer all about it because he's got an interesting perspective on this. He's played at Kentucky, so he's played in the league. He's from Huntsville, Alabama. He talked about going to one of the early Florida Alabama SEC championship games when it was played at Legion Field. But he's also coached

in a conference championship game every year since he's been a head coach. He had two at Troy and two in the American. Yeah, at Tulane. And he was more measured. about it. Yeah. He said, I want to bring Florida

to an SEC championship game, but I also don't want to get us banged up. I don't want to. Kirby, let's hear it from Kirby because Kirby's probably

the best person to talk about this because he chased it as a player, participated in a bunch of them in Alabama, has participated in a bunch of them as the head coach at Georgia. He's been in the two that have happened. And he's dealt with the side of the play. Yes.

Yeah. I lost his starting quarterback against Texas two years ago. So this is the opinion I wanted to hear. How do you feel about the SEC championship game? Yeah, I love this as a championship game. I've been a big fan of that. I grew up watching it. I've talked about it many times, almost nausea.

I mean, the first time they ever played in Birmingham, I was in high school playoff, playing a final four football game and watching Florida and Alabama play. And the time, that was like a childhood dream. Long time since then. and a lot of changes since then. So is it the revenue stream that we're having to fund our athletic programs with that we need because of it? Is it the calendar that we need to shrink?

So we're not playing a championship game on late January. And I don't think that's great for student athletes. I don't think it's great for the transfer portal to be ending the season that late. And if that championship game is in the way of that or gets put on the back burner because of that, I think you'd have to accept it. I'm really more worried about the financial burden that we're under right now of paying for all of the athletic department. And when you take that revenue stream out, can we make it work? And is it sustainable to do without it would be my biggest concern?

Okay. So what that tells me, hearing him say that, because it should mean more to him than anybody. For sure. He's won it. He's been involved in it, but he understands it better than anyone because he's been involved in it more than anyone. he's basically saying if they can find the money to make up for it to make them whole, he's okay with it going away. And you know,

he brings up an interesting point towards the end that you hear more and more from coaches who play in the championship games is how late the season goes. And that, I mean, it goes back to the CFP conversation, goes back to the calendar conversation. It goes to the impact that title games would or wouldn't have an expanded playoff, along with trying to figure out how to run college.

sports, college football is also barreling towards a reality of they're going to have players playing more games than ever. How do you compensate for them? How do you make sure their bodies are prepared? Right. And Kirby was interesting because he got asked about the buys. Yeah. The buy teams are one in seven now. I think part of that was because of the way the seating worked in the first year of the 12 team playoff. But Georgia has lost in the quarterfinals both years of the 12 team playoff. After playing an SEC title game. Right. And including one where they lost their starting quarterback. And so I think that's a, that's a pretty interesting piece of it too, because he said, I would prefer it just continue. I would prefer to just go through, which also speaks to a 24 or a 16 team playoff where you just, in a 16 team, there's no buys.

Right. You just play. And that way, you're going to get an easier opponent for first. Right. You're also not sitting around at home for a week. Exactly. So it's a really interesting debate. discussion. But the thing is to me, I think with 12, you've already basically render the SEC

and the Big 10 when irrelevant. You haven't done it with the ACC and the Big 12. Those still matter because you may be deciding if somebody gets in or correct. But in the SEC and the Big 10, they're going to be in. They're going to be in. So you're essentially punishing them. So what do you do? How do you make them whole? I've thought about this. Like there's got to be a better way. There's got to be a bracket busters or have your bubble teams play and maybe give them an opportunity to get another quality win. If it's super clear that you're going to get two teams in, maybe three, have the four or five play or something like that.

I mean, at the very least it would be great for television. Yes. And that's the thing. Find something that is great for television that TV networks would want to pay for. And that's what this is all about, too. I mean, at the end of the day, if the SEC can recoup the dollars, it would lose from a conference title game. I think that would,

they're going to be okay with it. So if there's a 2014 playoff, and this is part of the reason why Greg Sanky, you have not heard him say, no, absolutely we won't do 24. Yeah. Because the consultants that work with the CFP

have not come back and said, here's the valuation. Right. Here is what ESPN, Fox, whoever might bid would pay for a 2014 playoff or the additional games created, the additional inventory created by a 2014 playoff. So they haven't said that yet.

If they come back and say it's going to bring $250 million of which the SEC and the Big Ten are going to get most of it, there's a good chance they say, you know what, okay, that's fine. If they say $300 million, the SEC is probably like, sounds good. We'll make it work. Yeah. Now, the other interesting thing, though, is, so December 1, right, is when a decision needs to be made on the CFP that gives, but all conferences, enough time to figure. figure out the conference title game situation. But the interesting thing is so the CFP commissioners meet again in June and Denver. And those conversations will be interesting to see if they get more valuation data about if 24 makes sense.

If 16 makes sense, we heard Greg Sanky say last night, there's not going to be any decisions this week on the CFP. Well, are we a month away from a decision or are we a month away from more clarity? maybe we'll find out more when we talked to Greg Sanky tonight, but I think that is... He said they had the luxury of time, and he's looking at it like between now and December is a fairly long time. It's probably not a fairly long time. I don't think it is. But I guess it's better than him having to decide this one. It's a lot of time, though, if you're comfortable, just having 12th team another year, which he is clearly in that case.

Yeah. And probably like with Tony Petiti saying that they'd prefer to stay at 12 if they don't go to 24, If you're Sanky, you're kind of annoyed by that. You could tell he was very annoyed by the – because they were the one – the Big Ten was the one saying 60 last year. That was the message last night. But you also are like, okay, I'm fine with 12. You're fine or 12. Maybe we'll just stay there.

Yeah. Again, the biggest losers in all of it, though. I'm trying to wishcaster. Are the ACC and Big 12. Yes, they want – they want the bigger. They want the more people able to hang a banner saying we made the playoff. It's exactly what Mike Elko talked about. Andy, you're going to have to tell me, you know, you're...

Okay. I believe John Summera also made a comment when he was on the podium, but he's not sure if there are two elite G5 teams for a 2014. Yes, I thought that was very interesting. And he snuck that in. He was... This is a man who coached a G5 team to the playoff last year. Yeah, and he was okay saying that, which I thought was pretty eye-opening.

Yeah. And only paints the picture more of how there's a disparity between the P4 and the G6. It's different. I mean, look, the 2009 Boise State team, Yeah. Does not exist in the group of five right now. No. There is not a team that talented.

It's not, you wouldn't be able to keep that group together. No. NIL, you know, at the beginning of NIL, there's a thought of, okay, if Boise State can raise X amount of dollars,

can they get a couple of five stars in every class? What has really turned it into, though, with revenue sharing, is that there's a better basement now for an SEC team. So maybe a five star, like a Jared Curtis, goes to Vanderbilt instead of Georgia.

It's not. Well, the other thing is, and those G6 now, those schools are being used as minor league teams. They're being his developmental program. So you put in the work of taking the undersized high school offensive linemen. Develop him. He grows into the right size.

He starts 36 games for you, and now he's going to go start for a big 10 or an SEC team. It's crazy, too, if you go through and look at the math of it, and we do it every year, like the number of all conference selections that just magically vanish from the Sunday. Bell from the Mac, from the CUSA. It's just, it's the minor leaks. That was a very interesting comment.

One of us needs to write about that. Yeah, I think we need to do that. Want to talk a little actual football? Let's do it. Let's talk about some actual football. I asked Kailen DeBore a question today because I'm fascinated by this. Alabama's quarterback competition, Pete, is not completely unique. They're not the only.

It feels like the only one. They're not the only power conference team. where the quarterbacks have been in the program for more than a year each. Iowa is the other one. They're both transfers at Iowa. Heklinsey and Hank Brown are both transfers. One is a transfer at Alabama. Austin Mack spent the first year.

But he's been with Caleb Moore. This will be his fourth season with Kalin Abor. Right. And then Keel and Russell obviously was a freshman last year. And so Alabama has these two guys in this day and age who were willing to wait. Right. Behind Ty Simpson. With no spring transfer portal.

Duke it out. knowing that one of is not going to get the job. I'm fascinated by this because I feel like this bodes well for Alabama that you created an environment where this could happen. And so that's why I asked Kalin Abor about it. Here's what he said. How in the standage does you manage to get a couple of quarterbacks who've been in your program for at least a year,

you know, in Keelan's case, in Austin's been for a long time, to stay and actually compete against one another? No, I think that's a great question. I think I would give credit to both of those two that, you know, Keelan and Austin are two guys that are competitive. There's two guys that really feel like there's, well, they have a belief in themselves. And, you know, each of them feeling that they can go win the job and that they can do what it takes to win here at Alabama. But I also would say that I think there's an environment in that Rue, because last year with Ty being involved, I mean, there was three guys competing. you know, we continue to bring in more, more guys that want to be a part of it. Why do they want to be a part of it?

They want to be a part of our program, of course, and we'll be a part of our offensive system. But I think, I think, you know, Ryan Grove and now Brian Ellis being in that room as the quarterback's coach. And I'll give Nick Sheridan and some credit too for keeping those guys around. It kind of, Brian's now bridge the gap. There's the new quarterbacks coach. But I think it's just how, what does it look like? And you're giving them opportunities. you're challenging them. They feel like they're getting better and reaching their potential. And you're giving them everything you got.

And so they love their teammates. Their teammates love them back because they do stay. And they place priority on the most important things. And that's just being the best, bringing a great attitude and effort every single day. So you make the right choice here? If it's really as tight a group as he's making it sound. He didn't say that.

What's that? He didn't say who the leader is. Or if there's a leader. No, and he's not going to. No, I know. And I wouldn't if I were him. I wouldn't either. Not right now.

But you have a situation with Austin Mac and Qon Russell where, you know, from talking to sources, like Q on Russell clearly had the better spring game. Right. Austin Mac was banged up. That was real. That's 100% accurate. What Qon Russell can do on the football field gets people around him excited. We've heard Ryan Coleman Williams talk about it.

We've heard a handful of other people, you know, talking to me on. on the phone and stuff. It's going to be a very interesting decision that Kailin Abor has to make. Yeah. Of do I go with this guy who gets all my players around him very excited because of what he can do with his legs? Or do I roll with Austin Mack who has patiently waited. It was a great relationship with Ryan Grob who knows this offense inside and out who, you know, came in off the bench at Rose Bowl has the temperament to be the quarterback but maybe doesn't have the you know, the oh my gosh, Keelon Russell just made that kind of

I don't think you make that decision in a vacuum. No. I think it has a lot to do with the other things that Kaylon DeBorse had to wrestle with this offseason where they could not run the ball at the end of the season last year. No. And he fires his O-line coach, fires tight ends coach, brings in new versions of each. Adrian Clem coming into coach the O-line. They revamped the offensive line through the transfer portal.

Yep. And that is, it's going to be a completely different offensive line. Yeah. Completely different tight-end room. And I think that is a piece of it that you kind of need to know what you have. And probably they have an idea coming out of the spring, but probably need a little better idea as they get into fall practice. Here's Kailin DeBore talking, because you've got to ask about physicality.

Yeah. And I don't think it was all a physicality issue. Like we talked to Josh Quavis at the Senior Bowl, and Josh was the starting tight end on this team last year. And he was very upfront about missed assignments. people not necessarily understanding their jobs as well as they should in the blocking schemes. And that's the part, Kailen Abor knows they need to fix. Here's him talking about that.

Kalan, you've talked about physicality and looking at, I don't want to misquote you, but just looking to increase that. What does it look like for year three increasing the physicality for your guys? Well, I think there's times when we were extremely physical. I think what you kind of get tied into is the run game probably, right? And there's the inability in important times and consistently to be able to run the football. And so I think there's more than physicalics. I think there's some very physical individuals on our football team.

I think we have a team full of them, honestly. I think there's an execution piece that has to take place. And that involves everyone from the offensive line, the tight ends and, you know, running backs, receivers doing their job and, you know, knowledge, right? There's knowledge to execute a running back needs to know who's the unblocked, the unblocked defender, who's the guy he's got to beat to get an explosive play. And so I think there's a toughness, whether it's mental or physical, that is in our program. You know, we made the playoffs.

So we got to look at the things that we did. We made the playoffs and won seven of eight SEC football games, went to a conference championship. won a playoff game. And so those things don't happen if you're not a tough football team in some regard. Now, we fell short of our goal. And so we understand there are, there is more for us to accomplish when it comes to all those areas, whether it comes to the physicality or the execution. You know, we're working on chemistry right now with so many new faces compared to what we had a year ago. So, you know, I see our guys work every single day. And so I know they're strong. I know they want it.

I know there's a toughness about them. There's a grid about them. Last year's guys, I'd go to battle with those guys because of who they were every single time I possibly could, you know, and we're developing that with this team right now. So it's not toughness, I don't think. It's not athleticism. No. Like, Alabama has good athletes.

Alabama has tough players. I think physicality is the word, right? Physicality and chemistry and understanding. Like he said, running backs understanding who they need to block in pass protection. That sort of thing has to matter. And I think you probably have to gauge that as you're deciding the starting quarterback. Yes. Now, you know, they could probably play both of them.

Yeah, early in the season. And might we want to. And get a sense of it. But if you don't think it's coming together as much as you hoped, I think that's, that points you toward Keel and Russell. Yeah. It points you towards the player, okay, he has this ability where he can completely take over a game from everything that we have heard from, you know, sources behind the scenes. Yeah. And if you do feel like that the line will be better, the, you know, assignments will not be missed. Yes.

It takes a little bit of pressure off the offense. Yeah. Maybe things like that. But if you feel like you can run the ball with the backs. Yeah. And then that maybe gives Austin Mack a little bit better chance. But I do think that the Keel and Russell being as dynamic as he is does give him an edge. And so though Kailen DeBoer obviously isn't going to drop any hints. No. I think if we read the T leaves, I feel like Keel and Russell probably is the more dynamic choice. Yeah.

If they want to have someone who can maybe erase some mistakes. Yeah, especially early. But it's another thing. Like you said, you can play them both early. and you got a wrong way to do it. Yeah, get a sense of it. And then, you know, maybe by the Florida State game, you figure out. Yeah.

Well, actually, you got Kentucky Week 2. Yeah, you got Kentucky Week 2. You got Kentucky week. You got to figure out week one. Yeah, you probably need to know by Kentucky. So that is going to be, that's going to be something we're following all summer. But I don't, again,

that Kaila Dabor is going to tip his hand at all. I wouldn't expect a starter to be named until maybe the morning of the ECU game. Yeah. Maybe do like Urban Meyer did with Cardell Jones. J.T. Barrett, like he tells him. Right. It's a lot different because

last year's a little different because Ty Simpson was the proven guy. Yeah, yeah. He'd been there. He'd earned the job. They played at FSU week one. They clearly needed to name a starter before week one. Yeah. I think we could be in a situation where this thing runs through week one. And then we really get the full picture

at Kentucky. Yeah. And that game is going to be really interesting. Yeah. With the new regime at Kentucky. Well, Stein. Our man, Nick Rauch, has already picked a Kentucky upset in this game. Not a thing surprises me. Nickworks for KSR, so he knows his audience. But, hey, who knows?

One more thing, Pete, before we go, and we're going to get really football nerdy here. And I think Eli Drinkwitz is the perfect coach to get this football nerdy with. Eli Drinkwitz is the coaching representative on the football oversight committee. Yep. And he has been aggrieved, slightly angered at the reaction of some of his fellow coaches. over the last few months. And Eli's the guy who typically walks into this

and says about three things that go ultra-viral. Yeah. And he purposely walked in here today trying not to do that. He's trying to be nice. But the thing that makes him the most mad, and it has nothing to do with the playoff, it has nothing to do with it. So the football oversight committee

drafted a rule and the NCAA Rules Committee passed this rule. Yeah. It's about punting. And it is made, special teams coaches across the country very mad. And Eli Drinkwoods does not understand why they're mad because they sent a notice to all these coaches

saying, hey, we're thinking of changing this rule. Now, get ready, because we're going to get really nerdy here. Here's the rule. The rule is not everybody's eligible in a punt formation. So what I mean by that is, like, in a standard formation on a standard down, first, second, third down, there are at least five guys on the field on the offense who are not eligible to go out for a pass.

They're not eligible to go past the line of scrimmage unless the ball is not being thrown across the line of scrimmage. They are denoted by their numbers. They are wearing number 50 through number 79. If an official sees number 50 through number 79 going out for a pass and that person hasn't reported as eligible or they're not lined up in a way that makes them eligible, they're ineligible. They are ineligible and it's against the rules. because of the way punting works and because of the personalities in punting, it doesn't,

you don't put offensive linemen on your punt team because they're slow. You don't want them covering punts. You may have one or two as the shield guys, as the personal protector for the punter. Yes. But you're not going to have five offensive linemen across the front on the punt team. Exactly. So you have all these guys who wear eligible numbers.

Yes. And it became very hard to officiate. So they're just like, oh, well, whatever. So to rein that back in, make it more standard, make it make sense, make it more like the actual game of football. They made a rule that says the two guys on either side of the center. Yeah. In a punt formation. Are ineligible, just like if they were offensive linemen in a normal formation.

For whatever reason, this has blown the minds. Kirk parents, Pat Fitzgerald, not a fan. Yeah. Yeah, the Big Ten apparently 18 to nothing against this rule, despite the fact that, according to Eli, Drinkwitz many coaches who responded said they were fine with it yeah so uh he he wanted to be asked this question so i asked the question so here is eli drinkwitz on the very very offensive according to the big ten punt rule i don't again understand all of the consternation about it one quote or one coach said it's going to be a clown show well if you

to turn football into a clown show because you want to run people off the field and put in zip up jerseys so that you can have a formation that you wouldn't ever use on first, second, or third down just for fourth down. I think that's the intent of the rule. That's the intent. If you want to say you're going to punt the football, then you should have to, and you have 11 eligible numbers, you should have to line up in a scrimmage kick formation. And then to have people say that it's a player safety issue.

I mean, what a joke. The NFL lines up in the exact formation that we're talking about from a scrimmage kit formation every time. And I think they worry about player safety quite a bit. So, again, complain about something that you could have been a process to. And then when it doesn't go your way, I mean, what's next? Maybe they find a local judge that allows them to use whatever pump formation they want to leave. I don't know. All right, guys, we got to get out of here.

The next guy's up. That is Josh Max in the sports information director, shooing his coach off stage. Listen, you guys want to know what coaches really care about. There you go. They don't care about the playoff. That's what they care about. They care about punting.

They care about punt formations. And Elii Grinowitz is like, come on, guys, we gave you a chance here. And now you're mad at us. The line about the temporary injunction. That's just that's Vintechi Ligerendz. It's right there. Yeah. That's what they care about.

And that's why Mike Elko says, not him, someone else should be the CEO of college football. Let the coaches worry about the punts. We'll worry about it all here at on three. Thanks so much for joining us. I'll be back tomorrow. More from the SEC Spring meetings. Later today, Lane Kiffitt's going to talk. You may have a video just dropping with Lane Kiffin because, I mean, he's got to say something.

Yeah. He's got to say something, right? Greg, thank you. We'll address the media again, too. going to be a busy, busy week here on the Redneck River. We'll talk to you tomorrow. See you tomorrow.