Andy & Ari On3 - Senator Ted Cruz explains the Protect College Sports Act: Will the bipartisan legislation WORK?

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

As Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell submitted a bipartisan legislation to save college sports, Senator Cruz joins Andy & Ari on today’s show to explain just how the Protect College Sports Act would work. Will this legislation work and be pushed through? Will the SEC and Big Ten schools jump on board as well? What about the Lane Kiffin rule? Watch here as Senator Ted Cruz joins the show to explain.   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (0:43) Presenting Sponsor (2:25) Intro: Previewing Senator Cruz (3:58) Ted Cruz joins the show (21:36) Kickoff times announced: Arkansas (30:29) Big Noon Kickoff: North Texas at Indiana (40:04) Is SEC over-delivering? (49:41) Big Ten’s Week 1 Slate (51:51) Tennesssee & Chaz Coleman (1:02:30) Conclusion: See you tomorrow!   After Senator Cruz joins the show, Andy & Ari dive into the early kickoff times  announced on Wednesday afternoon. After the schedule dropped, one athletic director from the SEC wasn't too happy about where their week 2 and week 3 games shook out.   Next up, the Big Noon game for week one has been announced. As Andy & Ari discuss North Texas at Indiana being FOX's first Big Noon Kickoff game of the year, what can be done about scheduling?   To close, Andy & Ari head to Knoxville, Tennessee, to discuss the latest with Penn State transfer Chaz Coleman. As the top rated edge out of the transfer portal decided to go to Tennessee, will Coleman suit up for the Volunteers this fall? Andy & Ari dive into the Vols on Rocky Top.   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   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/0XTtnJL5Tcc   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 3 presented by BetMGM, our first sitting U.S. Senator guests. That's right. The chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Ted Cruz, joins us. He's one of the co-authors of a massive bill that, if enacted, would change a lot about college sports. And it's tempting to tackle a lot of the issues. And this has been something that's been going back and forth in Washington for several years. This is probably the best chance of any bill to pass, but it is still in committee in the Senate. We've got news today about how the SEC feels about one particular provision. Spoiler,

they don't like it. We'll ask Ted Cruz about that and more on today's Andy Naurion 3, presented by BetMGM. 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.

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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 Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM and Ari. Not a political show. But we have a politician on the show because this is about college football. There's a bill that addresses a lot that has to do with college football that was introduced in the Senate yesterday by Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell.

And Ted Cruz is joining us on the show today. And I will point out that it is a bipartisan bill. So the senator who is on the show today wrote the bill. And it was interesting. You know, I think that this is a very interesting situation for the few. future of college football. It's very intense. It's got a lot of tentacles to this. And it was really cool to actually have the person who helped co-author this bill talk it through on the show with us. And you've heard me say throughout this process, as the leagues have

lobbied in Washington and trying to get a law pass that would help them get their arms around some of the stuff that's going on in college sports, I think it's a long shot that a law will pass. I think it's a pretty hard thing to do to get everybody to agree and to get the Senate and the House to pass it. The only way it passes really is if it comes out of the Senate and can get the 60 votes in the Senate that would override the filibuster, you've got a bipartisan effort in the Senate. So this one, more of a chance than any other. But as you'll find out with the first question I asked Ted Cruz, there's already some resistance. Here's Ted Cruz. We are joined by Senator Ted Cruz, the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, who just dropped a bipartisan bill that addresses

an awful lot about college sports. And Senator Cruz, I'm here in Destin at the SEC Spring meetings, just got out of a press conference with the commissioner Greg Sankey. And I don't know how you guys feel about this. I've heard people say when you have a bipartisan effort, if everybody's mad, that's usually a good thing. It seems like the SEC folks not too keen on one part of the bill about the pooling of meteorites and they said, nope, we're not doing that. Did you expect, when you and Maria Cantwell put this out, did you expect resistance from the SEC, the Big Ten, the bigger conferences? Well, look, there are lots of players in sports that have different interests and that's part

of what makes it challenging to address it. Let me start Andy and Arii by just saying thank you for having me on the show. Look, the reason that we filed this bill is that I think college sports right now are in crisis. I think we see chaos in college sports. The transfer portal is out of control. You see students going to three, four, five, or more institutions. You see people playing seven years. You see pros going back to college ball.

It's a mess. And you also see every week a different institution announcing that they're cutting a sport, they're canceling a program, they're canceling women's sports, they're canceling track and field, they're canceling Olympic sports, they're canceling tennis. And most schools that are athletic budget is spiraling to such a level that they're losing millions or tens of millions of dollars. If we don't act, much of what we know and love today of college sports, I think risks

being destroyed. And so I've spent three years working, trying to build a bipartisan coalition for Congress to step in and preserve what we have in college sports. And this bill, I introduced it this week with Maria Cantwell. the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Maria Cantwell is the ranking member, the senior Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee. And we introduced it along with Eric Schmidt, who's a Republican from Missouri, and Chris Coons, who's a Democrat from Delaware. This is designed to stop the chaos, to protect athletes, to protect schools, to protect competition. And it's designed both to stop

the out-of-control spiraling cost, but simultaneously to increase the revenue. So what you asked about there, one element of the bill is it allows schools to join together and negotiate for pooled media rights. Now, Commissioner Sanky is not a fan of that particular provision. Greg is a good man, and he's a friend. I've talked to him a lot about this. And what I've told him is I said, look, that provision is entirely voluntary. Nobody's going to force the SEC to do this. And if you look at college sports, virtually all of the revenue that is generated in college sports comes from college football. And the SEC and the Big Ten are the two giant players.

And by allowing schools to come together and voluntarily pool their media rights, you have the potential to negotiate a much bigger contract, grow the pie, and have more resources for all of college sports. And what I've told both the SEC and Big Ten is, is listen, for this to work, the other schools are gonna have to come to you

with an offer that is compelling to you, that is more money for you, that is more revenue for everyone. And no one's forcing you to participate. So this is an avenue that potentially increases your revenue and at the same time, simultaneously can preserve the rest of sports. Senator, when you hear people, you know, who are interested in the way that college football is changing in the direction that it's going, you know, you'll probably find some critics, too, of say, well, why does college football need saving?

From your perspective, why do you think college football needs to be, saved? Well, look, I talked about the chaos we have right now. I think the path we're on. If Congress does nothing, in three to five years, you will have somewhere between 30 and 50 schools that have college football teams. And I think all of the rest of them will shut down, that they will have been, the bidding war will have gotten so high that it will not be competitive. And basically, college football will become a mini NFL. I don't think that's good for for schools. I don't think that's good for athletes. I don't think that's good for fans. And so I want to see, let's take my home state of Texas. We love football in the state

of Texas. If we got into that scenario, the two biggest schools with the most resources are University of Texas and Texas and Texas A&M. I think in any scenario, UT and A&M survive and they thrive. But I think it would be a terrible outcome if we saw the other schools in Texas lose their programs. Can you imagine a Texas without a TCU, without a Baylor, without an SMU, without a Texas Tech, or a University of Houston, or a Rice. That, all of those other schools,

it's a big part of their institution. And so this chaos was caused by Congress. It was caused by Congress in passing the antitrust laws. What has happened, the current chaos is because you cannot enforce any rules at all. You can't enforce eligibility rules. You can't enforce transfer rules. So the bill we've introduced, for example, on transfer rules, we specify that every athlete

gets one free transfer. You can have a second transfer in limited circumstances. So if your coach leaves, you can have a second transfer, if your program is canceled, or if you're the victim of sexual assault or sexual harassment. But other than that, if you transfer a second time, you have to red shirt for a year. That's better for, look, as a fan, you want to cheer on your team and not suddenly have all your players playing for the opposing team the next year. And by the way, a big focus for me is not just the superstars, not just the Michael Jordans and the Arch Maddings, they're going to do great. But 99% of college

athletes are never going to play in the NFL. They're never going to play in the NBA. And it's not good for a student to go to three, four, five colleges in five years. You don't get a good education. And so I think it's much better to have some stability. It's better for the athletes, the schools and it's better for the fans. Well, I'm going to push back on the shutting down football programs. Division III football exists. Division II football exists. The FCS exists.

It wouldn't shut down football programs. There are plenty of football programs that operate that don't make millions of dollars that do operate even without scholarships. So I feel like language like that is a little extreme because I think people who actually follow these sports understand nobody's shutting down. Now, the question, and I think it's interesting, is who's going to be in that club of the people that are going to play big money college football? And in your state, you mention them, TCU, Texas Tech, SMU, they don't want to be left out of that club. And I'll share with you something that a friend of mine from Texas A&M texted me yesterday when the bill came down.

They said, did Senator Cruz let Cody Campbell write this bill? and we've had Cody on the show. We love Cody. But obviously, this has been what he's been pushing. And how much was it a desire to keep those schools in the tent? Because I'll tell you, on our show, we've talked about, we want this to be a bigger tent. We don't want a super league. We've said it many times.

But is that the goal here is to avoid that outcome? Listen, Cody is a very good friend of mine. He's a Texan. and I think he's been a real leader on college sports. He's spent a lot of time in energy trying to produce positive reforms. But Cody didn't write this bill. This bill was written by myself and Maria Cantwell, and it was the product of literally hundreds of hours of sitting in a room

negotiating every single provision. You mentioned a Super League. There's a provision explicitly in this bill that bans a Super League. One of the real risks is the SEC and Big Ten, joining together. Now, I don't believe they would succeed. I actually think that they would lose the antitrust litigation that would be brought against them if they tried to form a Super League. But whether they would win or not, this bill makes clear they cannot merge because you would essentially turn them into the NFL. They'd be the G League for the NFL. And you

said, well, it wouldn't destroy the programs at other schools. It may not totally destroy them. It would just turn them into effectively high school football, where they would not be competitive, they would not be playing the major schools. Part of what's fun about sports is the Cinderella story. Look, a couple of years ago, Baylor won March Madness. It's hard to see that happening right now. Right now, the winners of the tournament are the people with all the money who could pay for the top athletes and the smaller schools. It is incredibly difficult to be competitive.

I want to maintain a system where from a fans perspective, you have the joy, the, the, the, the joy, Look, I was a freshman in college in 1989 when Princeton played Georgetown. We were the 16 seed. Georgetown was number one. Alonzo Morning was played. And we came within one point of being the very first 16 seed in history to beat a number one seed. That's an amazing thing about sports. That's fun for the fans, for the athletes, for the institutions.

And if you suddenly have the bailers and TCUs being relegated to, to non-competitive national level sports, that does enormous damage, not just to the athletic programs, but to the institutions themselves in terms of their alumni donations, in terms of their recruiting. I mean, you do real harm to universities across the country by letting that happen. You know, there's a balance here between wanting to create a system and rules that preserves sports, as we've known it, our entire lives. And then there's also the secondary part of this, which is, you know, treating the athletes in the labor in a fair manner. How do you thread the needle between those two things?

And what do you say to people who are worried about how the athletes would be treated under this bill? Well, look, you absolutely have to do both. And this bill is designed to protect athletes. So front and center, this bill protects the rights of athletes to receive NIL money to receive compensation. I think the old system where everyone got rich but the athletes, that wasn't fair. That wasn't right. those student athletes were being exploited. And I think if you work hard, you develop incredible skills, you ought to be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor. So this bill protects the right,

number one, for legitimate for real NIL. So if a quarterback is selling tennis shoes, you ought to be able to make whatever money you can. You ought to be able to make millions from that if you're selling that many tennis shoes. Secondly, it protects the right of student athletes to participate in revenue sharing from the school so that you have athletes being compensated. On top of that, we have really historic protections for athletes, health care standards of comprehensive health insurance while the student athlete is competing, and for five years after they're competing, that is a massive expansion of health care coverage for student athletes. We also create a $60 million medical trust to help smaller schools, to help historically black colleges and

universities to have the resources to provide that health care. We predict, We protect health and safety standards for students. We protect scholarships and academic protections. We also require, as an element of participating in the media rights pooling, that you cannot eliminate roster spots or scholarship spots for non-revenue sports. You can't eliminate it for women's sports or track and field or Olympic sports. I think protecting those other sports is hugely important because, kind of College athletics has been an avenue.

Right now, there are more than a half million student athletes in college in America. Over the years, millions of young men and women have been able to get a higher education through athletics. And 99% of them never play in the NBA, they never play in the NFL, but they get the benefits of discipline and teamwork and hard work and losing with grace and winning with grace and everything that comes from competing at a top. level, and that sets them up for a future in life. And I don't want to see a scenario where hundreds of thousands of those slots go away,

and hundreds of thousands of young men and women, many from economically disadvantaged environments, are denied the chance to get a great college education. One, I have to ask you about this as a provision, and you didn't name it this in the bill, and I'm disappointed you didn't, because it has colloquially been called the Elaine Kiffin provision, where a coach can't leave during a season. And I'm curious, how is that enforced? I mean, would Lane Kiffen be arrested for leaving? How does this work?

So look, it is absolutely the Lane Kiffin provision. That is how we envisioned it, and that's what we drafted. And it says that a university cannot recruit or hire a head coach or an offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator. while the season is happening or during the playoffs. And basically what we did is we adopted the rule the NFL has. That's the NFL's rule. In the offseason, you can go and poach someone's coach.

You can go poach their offensive coordinator. But you can't do it during the season. And listen, I think what happened with Lane Kiffin was really unfair to the student athletes who were it's not fair if you're playing to suddenly have your coach leave in the middle of the season as you're going into the playoffs and have your coach coach go to a competitor. I just think that's bad for the system. And so it's enforced by by giving enforcement authority to prevent any other school from hiring them or bringing them on board. By the way, you can still compete for coaches. Just don't do it in the middle of

the season and screw up the season for the student athletes and for the fans. Yeah, I wonder, you know, that's an interesting thing because I think a lot of people would agree with you with the fact that he, Lane Kiffin leaving, was kind of a weird situation for the student athlete and of course for college football in general, but at the same time too, if this were to go into effect, the calendar of college football also doesn't match up with that timeline that you're describing there. Well, the way we set it, set it up is that you can't hire or recruit

during the season or till the end of the playoffs. And so you've got the whole window of the off season. And that's the way that NFL works right now. And, you know, the NFL is the most successful sports business in the world. And so I think if it was, works for the NFL, it would work just fine in college, and there'd be plenty of time to recruit coaching talent in the offseason. So before we let you go, Senator, I have to ask you one thing. This is at the request of Georgia's athletic director, Josh Brooks. He pulled me aside when he

found out that you were going to be on the show. And producer River, can you please bring up a picture of Josh Brooks? So I have to ask you, Senator, has anyone ever come up to you at a speaking engagement or in the airport and said, I don't like what Kirby Smart is doing with the offense here. He needs to hire a different offense according to Mike Bowie. Do you ever get that? Because he tells me quite often he'll have people come up and yell at him about something that you said on Fox News or CNN. Well, well, tell Josh, number one, he is a very good looking guy. So that is a high compliment. I will say I have not had anyone yell at me about Georgia athletic decisions, but I have more than once been stopped at an airport and people ask for a picture and they say,

Senator Rubio, I'm such a big fan. And I will never correct them and I'll take the picture. But as I'm taking the picture and they think they're taking a picture with Marco Rubio, I'll whisper. I said, you know, actually, I voted for Cruz and they're just kind of confused by the whole thing. And then I assume at some point somebody tells them that they may be mistaken. So Ari is a Texas resident. So you represent him.

I am Florida man. Marco Rubio represents me. So that is very funny. But now, so now you'll understand if someone ever comes up to you and says what Georgia did on third down against Auburn was awful and you should fire everybody, that's why they're saying it. I now do understand. I will say Herschel Walker is a good friend of mine. And so, you know, Georgia football has been an amazing institution. And I will say on behalf of a Texan.

Florida is an incredible state, and I'm actually really grateful that Florida is such an incredible state because I think it makes Texas better. I want our states to compete for which can be the most awesome state because I think it makes each of them better, and that's good for the whole country. Well, the Gators went one and one against the Longhorns and Aggies last year, so they're going to have to little butt in that. So Senator Cruz, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Ari, we move from the halls of Congress to something that probably has more immediate impact on the college. football season. We got kickoff times. And somebody's mad about them.

Somebody's always mad about kickoff times. But we got an AD in the SEC, Hunter Eurocheck at Arkansas, not happy about the Razorbacks kickoff times, not one, but two. So they play at Utah week two. That game kicks off at 10.15 Eastern 8.15 mountain time. then they turn around and go home and they play Georgia the next week at noon eastern 11 a.m. Central time. And they did not enjoy getting squeezed, Ari. And Hunter Eurcheck put out a strongly worded statement about that yesterday.

Yeah. So let me ask you, it is about a day of loss of recovery, right? Between those two. How big of a deal do you think that is? not a huge deal because you have you have teams that play saturday and then play friday night in other leagues it's not SEC schools don't have to do that but uh it happens pretty frequently with with you know acc teams basically have to do that once a year big 12 teams have do that once or twice a year so it's not it's not really that big of a difference uh it is

inconvenient and i guess if you are worried you're going to lose one or both of those games. You can have a built-in excuse there, but it's not the, it's not the easiest way to do it, and you'd prefer that it'd be spaced out a little differently, but it could be worse. You could have a Saturday game and a Thursday game, which some schools do. I mean, heck, there's NFL teams that play Sunday and then play Thursday. Yeah. You know, I think it's interesting because those games are also super important to like the beginning of the Silverfield era. Like it happened very early. they're two very big games and I understand the frustration. Anytime a D or anybody starts bringing up questions of player safety,

I think it has to be taken seriously. But I read that and I was like, there are teams that play with that little of a break all the time. So like, well, and it's, it's Arkansas feeling like it's not getting the same treatment other schools are getting in the league.

And interestingly enough, we asked Greg Sanky, the SEC Commissioner, about this on Wednesday because Hunter Yerichick had put out the statement. It was a kind of topic of conversation here at SEC meetings. And here's what Greg Sankey said. And Hunter Yerichick said he was not pleased with the kickoff times and wanted that to be changed. Is that something that could be revisited? And what's your reaction to his displeasure? We've communicated the displeasure in advance. It hasn't changed. That's one of those points of authority that's given to our broadcast partner and the squeeze on the on the the west coast game we don't have to do what our colleague conferences do by comparison and then

the squeeze with an early kickoff is not something that I'm thrilled about either but we do delegate that authority as part of our TV contracts. Yeah. Translation. ESPN paid for the right to put those games whenever the hell they want them played. And these are both ESPN games. They're both, one's ESPN, one's ABC, I believe, but those are Disney-owned networks.

And as my friend Stephen Godfrey on the college football and inquire always says, you could always take less money if you want more control over the kickoff times. But nobody ever takes less money. I was waiting for a mad men scream there. I know you're in public right now recording this, but were you going to give into that a little bit?

that's what the money's for one of the housekeeping guys was just really amused by me screaming on Draper quotes in the middle of a hotel yeah he listen there are certain things that happen in college football that are probably not as convenient

right like it isn't as convenient for Arkansas to I mean going to play a night game at Utah just sucks to begin with And is that like the crux of the issue here? Is it just the fact that they have to play Utah at night? Yeah. And the thing is like we used to have this little game with the old Pack 12.

You remember this, Ari. When somebody had to go to Pullman on a Friday night, inevitably you could look at the previous week in the schedule and see they were playing the latest possible game on that Saturday. And you could just circle that Pullman game as a loss. Like at Washington State was going to be a loss. Mike Leach feasted on those games. Remember the Gardner Minshew year?

I think, I can't even remember who they beat that year, but there was a field storming, and it was one of those deals where they got them on Friday night. The team had played as late as possible the Saturday before, and the Pac-12 did that to somebody pretty much every year. And it's not, the SEC teams are actually fairly lucky in this respect because they're not playing a bunch of Thursday and Friday games. games. So I get that they're used to a little more regularity in their schedules, but I mean,

you, you gave them that right when you took that money. That's, that is what ESPN paid for. Whenever I come across stories like this, because like, I don't know how much an Arizona state fan cares about Arkansas schedule squeeze. I like to think, though, about, um, what the motivation of the complaint is. Like, if, let me ask you. you this. Do you think that if Arkansas played Utah at noon and then played Georgia on Friday, and it was the same amount of time between the two games that there would have even been a complaint? Is the complaint about the squeeze, or is the complaint about, oh, great, now we've got to go to Utah, which, by the way, we've talked about this and had a bit on the show for years of

how much different it is to play at Utah during the day and at night, right? Like, it's a huge difference. Also, also the timing. So that is a 915 central. So if you are living in Arkansas, that game comes on at 915 for you. So that's a very late kickoff for you. 10.15 on the East

Coast. It's also a we scheduled this marquee non-conference game and most of America is going to be asleep when it's being played. So that's the other, that's the other piece of it too. And again, you seated that control of ESPN. And it's

interesting because it's like that game is actually not part of the SEC's package. It's part of the Big 12's package, but the Big 12 sells to Fox and ESPN and ESPN and ESPN that wound up picking up that game. I think it's going to be a great game. And I know that you're right. A lot of people will go to sleep. I think that this is the type of game that is more for college football sickos than it is for the casual fan. But I think that these are also the types of games that get highlighted in November when we're talking about playoff stuff. Yeah. You start measuring depth of conference, all these different things. Obviously, you've had a front row seat all week to hearing about how deep the SEC is.

Well, then go out and win the game. I mean, you know, go out and beat a big 12 team on the road in a tough environment at night. So, you know, I get that Ryan Silverfield is probably wanting to get off to a fast start. I understand that it's a new challenge. And Arkansas is trying to change its lot in life and winning that game was probably more important to them than it would be in other years. Not that it isn't always important. but you know I just I don't know if you are going to cash the checks exactly you know like when my boss at on three asks me to do something that I don't want to do which happens sometimes

I do it because every Friday something happens to my bank account exactly and that is again no one's ever taken less money from TV and the second they do then you have something to say. And you heard it. Like Greg Sanky said, the league actually attempted to intervene here. The league said, hey, we don't like this. Could you not do this? And ESPN's like, guys, this is what we pay you for. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't, I'm not very moved by it. The only thing I've ever really moved by is if it were a legit question of safety. Yeah. And I don't know that that's the case in this regard. Hey, by the way, with this deluge of kickoff times that we got on Wednesday, Ari, we now have the answer to a question that we've been asking

for quite a bit of the off season. You know, we've asked frequently, look at that terrible week one schedule and try to find Fox's big noon kickoff game. We have our answer as to what game has been selected for week one noon on Fox. Now, I don't know if they send the whole road show to this thing. I wouldn't if I were them, but maybe they will.

it's North Texas and Indiana I can't even say with a straight face there's so much to unpack here I think even though it's like I mean first it's the joke

right like there's nothing to do what are they going to do but from a television standpoint I found this to be interesting and I wanted to run that by you okay that Indiana

my guess for what they were going to do this week was just throw Michigan or Ohio State on because if there's not a lot of options you throw on the big television property and just try to make a the difference, right? In Ohio State, by the way, is going to be on BTN at 1230 Eastern time on that day. I also think that this is super fascinating because as we continually talk every five to seven years about conference expansion,

and we talk about television viewership and property value of individual programs, has Indiana's property, or asset of Indiana to the Big Ten increased dramatically from an interest in viewership standpoint? and is it possible for a program that was once the worst program in college football history to actually change its interest as a television property to the general public and as Indiana done that? Like that's an interesting thought. Of course they've done that. Of course they've done that because they won a freaking national title. And so they've made the playoff two years in a row. They've won the national title last year.

They're absolutely more interesting as a viewership property. That said, this game's going to suck. Now, if Eric Morris and Drew Mestemaker are still at North Texas, and they bring something similar to last year's North Texas team to Indiana, that actually would be a very intriguing game. But poor Neil Brown, Eric Morris took most of the team to Oklahoma State. So Neil Brown is rebuilding that roster.

This is not a great time to be playing against Indiana. And so it's never a good time with Kurt Signetti on the other sideline. No, it's not. But there's a much, like, that's a much more interesting game if it happened last year, because that was a really good North Texas team. And so, like, there are games where you have a group of six team playing a power conference team that are interesting. This just, the circumstances of this make it where it's not one. And the bigger problem is nobody in the Big Ten even bothered to try.

Now, you do have Ohio State playing Texas the next week. you have Michigan playing Oklahoma the next week. So they're doing their part. But Penn State, USC ditched the Notre Dame game and replaced it with San Jose State. But is this a good time to highlight that Indiana is not doing its part? Indiana is not doing its part. Indiana is not doing its part. Indiana doesn't have a non-conference game.

And I know they won the national title. But Indiana has also been the centerpiece of the SEC television debate of, well, or sorry, the SEC non-conference. debate, not television debate. And they were able to win the national championship last year and they were able to make the playoff the year before because of an impeccable record.

And Signetti gets up at Big Ten Media Days and says, well, when the SEC plays nine conference games, maybe we'll consider, okay, well, guess what? They've done it. They're playing nine. So the question here to me is if you win the national championship, you're no longer in the building phase. I think at the beginning, Kurt Signetti's scheduling

philosophy made a lot of sense because you have to think about where Indiana was the day he stepped into Bloomington for the first time. But now that Indiana is no longer a team that's on the upswing, and they are a team that River has just texted us in the background as a Tier 1 Big 10 team, and now is good enough to hold the Big Newton attention for a week one slate that's otherwise not very good. I think it's Kurt Signetti's, and maybe this is a column, I think it's it's Kurt Signetti's responsibility as Indiana's head coach now to step up

and schedule games that are going to be beneficial for his team. You know what? It's not the individual league's responsibilities to make their teams do this because they sell this product to television and they're selling a crappy product to Fox right now. And, okay, here's a great example of this, Ari. What does the NFL do with their opening week every season? What do we get?

We get either a Super Bowl rematch or a rematch of two teams that went deep, deep in the playoffs or played a classic playoff game last year. Like, they do that on purpose. you know, like the bills to get everybody excited every year on purpose. Like, yeah. And I think that that's right. And we can't delve into another, should there be a sole leader of college football discussion again,

because we do that a lot. But the question I have for you, though, specifically with Indiana, because if they aren't having that guideline or the college football or the Big Ten isn't enforcing that type of scheduling philosophy, do you believe that if Indiana is going to be a team, for the next seven years as long as Kurt Signetti is there that is figuring into the college football playoff discussion that it's almost important for him not just from a responsibility

standpoint in optics but a program setup standpoint to ensure that Indiana has an extra bullet point on its resume because I criticized Alabama I criticized Texas you know del Conti Chris Del Conti the AD at Texas yesterday said something about how the game for Notre Dame the home and home future is tentatively scheduled, but didn't really make it feel like it was going to be played. If you're going to. Yeah. And by the way, all those home and homes just mark them as tentative because they may get, the games may get played, but they may instead of two games be one game in a neutral

site. In a neutral site. Yeah, that's another story for another day. Secondary revenue stream. But I do think that Indiana has now risen to the point where they can be criticized for this, much like, because like last year we criticized Penn State for it. Penn State was so far along as a program going into last year that they didn't need to do the weak non-conference schedule bull crap

to try to get into the playoff anymore. Like Indiana has now advanced far enough into the pantheon of college football where this is no longer acceptable. And by the way, you don't have to schedule Georgia. You know what? Okay. One of the most fun games to me of the opening weekend is Ole Miss Louisville, which is going to be in Nashville on that Sunday night.

And that's great. like Indiana Louisville. That type of game would be so much fun. Indiana, NC State. Indiana, North Carolina. Yeah.

Indiana, TCU. Yeah. Yeah. Or you could do an SEC team if you wanted. You know, Indiana, Tennessee would be fun. Tennessee plays Georgia Tech in week two.

That's, you know, that type of game. That would be. And look, I'm sure most of them would be scared to play you. But the thing is the one, that don't have playoff aspirations

are probably not going to be scared to play. They're probably going to like to have a chance to play against a team that's been really good and know they're going to get eyeball. Fran Brown would go, yeah. Because Fran Brown knows if they go play Indiana now, that that's going to be in a prime TV spot. Like, if Indiana,

North Texas is a big noon game, Indiana Syracuse absolutely would have been the big noon game. Yeah. And I don't know if we intended to stumble into this discussion, but I do think that if you like me have been critical of SEC teams or big time properties talking about or canceling non-conference games, Indiana no longer gets to like walk in the back. You don't get a pass. And look, we praise pretty much universally Kurt Sigdetti and there's a good reason for that. Like there's not a lot to criticize.

This is the one thing you can criticize because he is the one who got up and said when the SEC plays nine conference games, come back to me, okay, they're playing nine conference games, we're back. And Indiana might be 10 and 2 in the future and might need it. I need it. I think all the same exact things that we said about Notre Dame last year. Well, actually, Notre Dame is a terrible example because they played two tough non-conference or two tough early season games against big time foes. But Indiana might need it too.

I think it would be interesting because the next good game that Indiana has scheduled in the non-conference, is Notre Dame and I believe it's 2030 and 2031. Oh. And as a result, it's like, I don't even know what job would have at that point. Hopefully this one, Andy. Yeah, me too. Hopefully this one.

I don't know what's going to happen, but Shannon, if you're listening, hopefully this one. But like the results of this that we're talking about and we're making fun a big 10 noon, it's not their fault, man. Step up, Indiana. Step up everybody else and don't do this to us again. Well, that's right.

And the Big Ten is not delivering to Fox and to CBS and NBC what it should be delivering for the amount of money they're paying. And so this brought up an interesting question at SEC yesterday. So Greg Sankey gets asked about whether the SEC is over delivering or if their contract with ESPN is undervalued. And here's what Greg Sankey said. Greg, you put into a number of those stats. And obviously it's great here for television viewership for the SEC. I'm curious that do you feel like at this point in a couple years into this ESPN deal, do you feel like this deal might be undervalued relative to what you guys are delivering?

Yes. Does ESPN feel the same way? They probably have great value. I mean, keep in mind, we were really undervalued before. Like really undervalued. The move to ESPN was based on moderate metrics for 15. games, I think that's held up well so far. We've had increases. We had the ability to expand and add to that. We've had a ninth game that's built. So, you know, to be big picture, everybody

would say they're undervalued. I think ESPN has continued to work with us in Disney and Jimmy and his team in a healthy kind of way. You know, kickoff times aside, relationally, we've continued to to make progress. So yeah, would you like more in this environment? Do I think we're over and delivering? Sure, but I'd much rather be over delivering than under delivering. And that's part of the message with our football coaches today, with our athletics directors yesterday, and even with our presence of chancellors is the importance of us continuing to perform at a high level. He may as well have looked like pointed north when he said I'd rather be over delivering than under delivering because the Big Ten is under delivering.

And I don't think, I don't know if that matters because I think when you have Michigan, Ohio State, when you have some of those really just, you know, you have Oregon Penn State, you have some really great brand on brand action to sell. It may not matter if the bottom of your schedule doesn't deliver as well as the bottom of the other league schedule. But if I were the Big Ten, I would be somewhat concerned about that because I don't, I don't, I can't imagine NBC and CBS are happy with the selection of games they've gotten for the amount of money they're paying. Yeah.

And I don't know. Like we also look at micro picture here and say, well, the first week sucks. But I wonder if you zoom out and look at the totality of what they paid versus the advertising opportunity they have throughout the entire season. If they're still making good money, I'm sure they are. Now, the question I have for you here is just this. When these next television deals expire here in the next six years, can during the negotiating process if these television networks are are dissatisfied with the early season slate that they've been delivered because you got to remember these teams are also navigating their scheduling decisions based on what they perceive right or wrong as best for their playoffs their route not necessarily with can the television networks put a provision or a a part in the contract that insists or defends or defrauding demands that the Big Ten and the SEC schedule rules or create rules for scheduling that insist that you have to play an X number of games in the non-conference against teams that would draw higher viewership numbers.

They can negotiate anything they want. Now, there's a lot to unpack there because, you know, look, the Senate bill we've been talking about. If it passed, there would be the opportunity for everybody to pool their rights. If everybody pooled their rights, I think you'd find a lot more collaborative scheduling going on between the conferences. and the networks to set this up like the NFL, where it makes sure there are marquee matchups on every weekend, and there are X number of marquee matchups to sell every single weekend. I think the leagues try to do that on their own,

but as you've seen this year with the Big Ten and with the SEC to a lesser extent of week one, they didn't do a really good job of it. Well, this might be a stupid question, and I think I know the answer to it, but I want to ask it anyway because you're more familiar with this, is during the negotiation, windows obviously like how long do television contracts usually go it's over a decade usually right no the big 10 one no the big 10 ones are six year deals right now that's that they did a six year

deal and then another six year deal so the big 10 one is the next one to come to market it's it's 2030s is not till the 2034 football season will be the next time the SECs is is available now again if they all decide to pull their rights that's going to change but one thing they do look at during these negotiation windows, I'm assuming they have to look at future scheduling as part of their negotiations, right? Absolutely. They do. And that's why you're hearing talking the big 10 right now about potentially 10 conference games. Because if they won't do it themselves, then the league can force them to play another big time opponent by putting another conference game. If I were a television network and USC Notre Dame got canceled, I'd be pissed. Agreed. Because

you think about that. That is Fox. And now NBC knows they're going to get, that they would get USC Notre Dame when USC is in South Bend. So NBC knows they're getting that every other year at least. But if I'm Fox or CBS, I'm thinking, oh, we're going to have that game. And if you're CBS and NBC, you're thinking, because of our exclusive windows, we're going to get that game when it's in LA because they're not,

Fox isn't going to do it at noon. and now you're screwed. And they just took it as a bait and switch. It is. You sign that deal with that being a tent pole game for you. And if this whole thing starts becoming a reality, and you saw today, Andy, maybe you didn't, you're by the beach and at an important meeting,

but Oregon and Baylor canceled their home and home. So like this is, if this becomes a, it's like one thing to shoulder losing USC Notre Dame, which is one of the most important and lucrative television properties in college football. But what if it turns into an avalanche of everyone canceling every night of game? And that's the thing. You say, oh, it's just Oregon Baylor. Okay.

But if Oregon Baylor, a game you'd probably want to watch, you'd probably be intrigued by it. You'd watch a little bit of it if there's not a major Titanic matchup going on opposite. That game is going to turn it to two games you don't want to watch. Yeah. So there's no Oregon Baylor now, and now you get Oregon McNee State instead. And now you have Baylor, Sam Houston State instead. Then you have two unwatchable games. Yeah.

And one that you would have on the iPad. Yeah. And this is not the right way to run a business. And I think that's the thing is they still haven't figured out they're part of the entertainment business. They're getting there. They're getting there, but they're not there yet. And this is, they need to have marquee matchups every single week.

there should never be a week like week one this year. Like they all all of the leagues, the Big Ten, the SEC, the ACC, Big 12 should be embarrassed by their schedules. Embarrassed. And even like having two games at the same time

or during the same week when you have zero like you have to remove them. I don't know how hard it is. Yeah. And the thing is like ESPN is stupid for broadcasting the Ole Miss and Louisville game opposite. at the Notre Dame Wisconsin game. Put that in the afternoon on Sunday where it has no competition.

Like why are you competing against something you don't need to compete against? I also don't know how hard it is and maybe it's impossible because schedules are made, but like how hard is it to demand that Ohio State Texas switch to a different week? So I did an exercise on the college football inquirer where I tried to find a way to move Oklahoma at Michigan to week one to make that the big noon game.

And it basically involved because U-TEP is, I think U-TEP is Oklahoma's week-one opponent. Western Michigan is Michigan's week-one opponent. And I did figure it out. Like I was moving U-TEP schedule around and moving Western Michigan scheduled around and figured out a way to make it happen. How many games are you moving in totality? It was like three or four. And obviously they're not going to do that.

that. And so that's that's the problem. Whoever, there's no centralized authority. And there's not even a centralized authority within the leagues. Like it'd be one thing if somebody at the Big Ten office sees the game like, because remember these things are scheduled years in advance. So they're sitting there two years out looking at week one of 2006. They should be going, guys, this sucks. We have to fix this now. And somebody fell asleep. That's that's really what happened is somebody fell asleep. And they didn't bother to do that. Somebody who has a job that looks at future schedules, because we could have identified these schedules suck two years ago. Yeah, because I know like Tennessee Nebraska got got canceled, but that was a week two game. That wasn't supposed to be week one anyway.

So it's not like that game. If it had been scheduled for week one, you could say, well, that's where Tennessee, Nebraska would have been, but that wasn't scheduled for week one. Yeah, River, throw that back up. Let's read this for the podcast listeners. Notable week, uh, notable kickoff times for week one. Fresno State at USC 9 p.m. Eastern on September 4th. That's a Friday night. Yeah.

Um, North Texas, the big noon game, obviously at noon, uh, eastern again at Indiana, Ohio at Nebraska at noon Eastern on FS1, Ball State at Ohio State at 1230 Eastern on Big 10 network, Boise at Oregon, September 5th, the best game Saturday, best, best game in the afternoon, 3.30 Eastern, Marshall at Penn State, FS1, 330 Eastern, NIU at Iowa, 415 Eastern Eastern Eastern Eastern Eastern Network, Western Michigan at Michigan, which was my guess for what the big noon game was going to be. It's 730 Eastern time on NBC, Washington State at Washington, which, you know, I guess. Second best game.

Yeah. Probably the best game there. 4 p.m. Eastern on September 6, which is Sunday and then Wisconsin at Notre Dame, September 6, 7.30 p.m. Eastern time. Yeah. And that's going to be on NBC. One of the Notre Dame fans, correct me on this, because I said it wrong the other day. That is actually a Notre Dame home game that is being, they're playing that at, this is a Lambo field game, right? Lambo, yeah.

Yeah. So, excuse me, this is, I believe this is a. Wisconsin home game. They played a game in Chicago, and this game, this was the return date. It was one of those neutral site home and home kind of things. And so I believe this is a Wisconsin home game, and they played a game,

and then they were supposed to play this game in 2020, and it obviously got canceled because of the pandemic, and everybody played conference-only schedules. So there's a little bit of, that one's a little bit of a special case. Yeah. And they're both about two-hour. away because Lambo from Green Bay

or from Madison's about two and a half hours and I believe Chicago to Notre Dame is about two and a half hours right? 90 minutes with no traffic but there's never no traffic so that's why that is but the Big Ten schedule yeah just terrible terrible. Another game that we know the kickoff time

for is Tennessee Georgia Tech week two I believe that is a 730 p.m. Eastern kick and we'll get a look at the Valls, new look Valls, as they bring in Jim Noles as their defensive coordinator. One of the additions to Tennessee's defense. The game is that 7, Andy, not 7.30, not that a big difference.

Oh, excuse me, 7 p.m. Eastern time. So Georgia Tech, obviously, they've undergone a lot of changes to do coordinators, new QB, but Tennessee, we're going to see that revamp defense. Chas Coleman was one of the players who was coming from Penn State to play in that Jim Null's defense who played in it last year. He has not reported to Tennessee's voluntary workouts. Pete Nacos reported that at on three on Wednesday. And so this is a blow, and it's unclear what's going to happen with Chas Coleman.

So he may or may not wind up playing for Tennessee this year. And I don't know if this changes anything for you, Ari, because my question with Tennessee was with Knowles, you know, when he moved to Ohio State from Oklahoma State, it took him a little while to get that defense rolling because it is a somewhat complex defense to put in. It was all new players learning it. And they were awesome in year two. It took a minute in year one. He then goes to Penn State.

And obviously nobody from Ohio State was following him to Penn State. And so again, he was doing it from scratch. Now, it's hard to say how that went because everything blew up for Penn State so quickly last year. But with him bringing a decent number of players, to Tennessee who knew that defense, that was giving me confidence that, okay, they are going to hit the ground running defensively. And again, Tennessee's offense was not the problem last year. Tennessee's defense was the issue. And I thought, okay, well, then that side of the ball is probably pretty much taken care of. This doesn't help that. No, it certainly doesn't. But, you know,

I do think that it's still very early on. My hope is that Chaz will still play for them this year. And I think that hopefully whatever issues he's going through will be eased by the fact that he has a familiar defensive coordinator. And hopefully they can work through those issues. But yes, I think that the defense should be, I mean, the number one criticism of Jim Noles's defenses everywhere, as you pointed out, was that it takes two years for people to figure it out. So obviously, every player that comes with him or came with him helps maybe. shorten that transition a little bit. But, you know, I was thinking about this. And, you know, we haven't done this yet because we do hot seat stuff. We do pressure stuff. We do pivotal seasons,

you know, like feeling stuff that I love. Yeah. Somebody asked on Twitter the other day, who is facing the most pressure this year? And a lot of Tennessee as a program facing Josh Heiple facing the most pressure of any coach in college football. And I don't know if you, if you subscribe to that, but obviously losing one of your better players on defense wouldn't help that pressure situation. Okay, let's just, we'll start within the SEC and work our way out.

I would say that Shane Beamer's probably under more pressure in the SEC, but Josh Heipel is under pressure. Now, he made the playoff two years ago. So does he get grace for that? Or is that not, does that not happen anymore? I actually think it's the exact opposite. I think the fact that they made the playoff so early makes it harder for him now.

Yeah. I think you would be, would you go with me on this. Do you think that they did not make the playoff two years ago? He'd be facing less pressure right now. No, I think he'd be facing a ton of pressure. Because I think that the playoff berth kind of was a taste of success and you know what a taste of success does to a fan base. But that fan base, look, Tennessee's fan base is going to put pressure on the coach no matter what's going on. No matter what's happened two years ago, three years ago, this is the most. one of the most passionate fan bases in America, if not the most passionate fan base in America, and they expect what they expect.

Whether that's fair or not, they expect what they expect. In Resident Tennessee fan river points out that the taste of success in 2022 was the bigger kicker than 2024 when they made the playoff. But the thing that I do wonder, and Josh Heiple has pointed this out himself,

you have made this comment. The thing with Tennessee has always been that it was kind of a disaster when he took over and gradual improvement year over a year culminated in that playoff birth two years ago. Then the offseason fiasco with Nico last year made it hard. They figure out a way to still be pretty good. But I think Tennessee fans are like starved for that next step. And well, this is year six. So yeah, what he took over is irrelevant now. Now, I would argue and I think, I don't think anybody would argue against me on this. He did a phenomenal job when he took

over. He got them better, faster. And he said it himself in that interview with Chris Lowe a few months ago, he said maybe he fixed it too fast. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like, he fixed it so fast and did such a good job that now. But I think once you get in a year five, you're six, like, that doesn't matter. Yeah. You, you, results are expected. Results are just expected. And that's, you know, it's hard. They pay these guys a lot. The pressure is high. And I, do I say it again? Do I double Don Draper? Do it. That's what the money's for. Same inflection. Hopefully the janitor is still there.

Just being like, God, this guy needs some help. But, you know, we, I guess like if Tennessee is kind of a hard team to peg, because I guess it's within reason that their defense will be greatly improved. I mean, Jim Knowles has been an interesting traveling man on the defensive coordinator the last three years, but he did win a national championship defense two years ago. Now, was that the players? Or was that him or was it both? I don't know.

But when he was at Oklahoma State, he had one of the most dominant defenses in the country with not a lot of guys who got drafted. They also don't have a quarterback. They lost some of their best receivers. We don't know if they have a quarterback. Maybe they do have a quarterback. Faison, Brandon, George McIntyre, one of those guys could be awesome. We don't know.

We haven't seen them yet. Yeah. If I had to guess right now or take a shot in the dark of what I think Tennessee will be this year, I think it will look a lot like last year. Maybe the team might look different. Maybe the defense will be better and the offense will be a little worse. Maybe it'll be the same. I don't know, but like a nine and three.

eight and four type team and I just don't know if that's going to cut it there well we're going to find out I eight nine and three eight and four I think you're probably doing okay it depends on what it looks like uh as Danny white their athletic director could put it a best home schedule of alls have had in quite some time maybe ever they they they get Texas they get Auburn they get Alabama yeah here's here's Tennessee school schedule for the podcast listeners Furman opener uh then at Georgia Tech night game as we illustrated earlier. Kennesaw State, Texas, Auburn, Arkansas, Alabama, South Carolina, Kentucky, A&M, LSU, Vanderbilt, not an easy schedule.

But your home schedule, you've got Furman and Kennesaw State. But then in SEC play, Texas, Auburn, Alabama, Kentucky, LSU. Yeah. It's a hell of happening, right? Right. We're going on a schedule. You make me the promise. You got to take me once.

I don't know when. You act like we've been married for 30 years and I've never. ever taking you to Hawaii. That's exactly how you have taken me. If we were married, you have taken me on some great trips. But I think also part of being married is that your wife will always ask you. I'm on the wife in the situation. Your wife will always ask you to take you to a place that you haven't been.

We are very well-traveled people. But I've never been to Knoxville. I've never been to Rogersville, Tennessee. And that's the key thing. We need the full producer river celebrity experience. Like, yeah. And I mean, he's the celebrity, not us. we need we need to start with the Walmart parking lot and see where the night takes us that's our that's our Thursday

they're like a bonfire in the woods we we end up in like I don't know how it goes but there's uh there's been some folks that reached out to me that they want to make the bonfire happen to a big so yeah oh wow yeah canned beer it's gonna be great yeah already says canned beer like that like every craft beer it doesn't come in a can now uh so I should have said we canned light domestics Ah, there we go. Okay. Yeah. So we do that Thursday night. We move to Knoxville on Friday night. Do it up big. Big dinner, maybe stock and barrel have some big nasty burgers. And then some moonshine mountain cookies. And then Saturday, you get the full stadium experience. I am very embarrassed that there are two stadiums that I'm very embarrassed to say that I have never been to for a game. Tennessee and LSU are two games that. I've never seen at home. So hopefully it's a night game.

Hopefully I get the full experience, the Volnavie I'd love to see. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to experience one true, authentic Southern Rogersville night. Which game do you want? Which game do you want? Producer River, throw that schedule back up. Obviously, I'm pretty sure it's not for a Minnesota State,

but which of these home games do you want? Well, I wanted to be chilly outside. I want to be like. So, LSU? But I don't want the game to be bad. So I feel like Texas is probably the answer here because they'll probably be or have a really good shot to be 3 and O. And people will be super excited to kick off SEC play against a big time brand. But the biggest fomo I've ever had in this business was missing the home game against Alabama when Henne Tucker was the quarterback four years ago.

They've won the last two Alabama games at Neeland Stadium. I think if I had to have. pick, I would probably still pick Bama because that's a rivalry and it's home. And I want to like fix these scars that I have for not being at the last one or the one two times ago. Well, we have our answer. We'll, we'll start arranging transportation. We'll start arranging logistics. Producer River reserve us a space in the Walmart parking lot for Thursday night. Reserve space in the in your bat in your basement from your childhood home too. Yeah, yeah. We'll make it work. We'll make it. Perfect.

We called it the bunker back in the day. Yeah, of course you did. It's the chill zone. It's where we chill relax. This is the chill and relax. All right. I think that's perfect. I think that's a plan.

Ari, I'm actually really excited because we've spent a lot of time talking about the rules and talking about Senate bills and what or not. Talking about actual kickoff times and games, the blood is starting to boil a little bit here. This is feeling good. I like this. Yes. Andy, it's not every day that we have a fairly significant or very significant politician on the show. Maybe we thank him for his time too because it's probably not going to happen again.

Probably. He may not be back. He may not be back. And also, not a political show, but when the politician writes a bill about college football, kind of in our wheelhouse. So that's how that works. Yeah. But yes, thank you.

And by the way, get your questions in. Dear Andy, dear Ari, mailbag show tomorrow, Andy Stapleson3 at gmail.com. Ari.wasseman at on3.com. Get your questions in, and we've already got a couple good ones. But get yours in right now, and we may answer on the show tomorrow. Plus, we got another draft coming up. It's going to be another doozy. I'll talk to you then.