Andy & Ari On3 - The Next Realignment Domino? Arizona? Oregon? | Penn State OT Olu Fashanu | Sleeping on Miami?

Episode Date: July 31, 2023

Andy and On3 national writer Jesse Simonton debate the next possible move in realignment. Is the Pac-12 going to add a school (or more)? Will Arizona follow Colorado to the Big 12? What about Oregon and Washington? Could the ACC be a factor in any of this? (0:00-24:20)Penn State offensive tackle Ole Fashanu joins the show. Fashanu probably would have been one of the first tackles off the board in this year’s NFL draft, but he explains why he wanted to come back to Penn State for one more season. If he plays well, he could be the first offensive lineman taken in next year’s draft. (24:20-32:26)Miami donor John RUiz has gotten himself into a weird situation and Andy and Jesse discuss (32:26-37:24)John Canzano (The Bald-Faced Truth radio show, JohnCanzano.com, Canzano and Wilner Podcast) joins to explain just how the Pac-12 got itself into this mess. (37:25-59:16)Andy and Jesse offer their takeaways from all the conference media days. Andy has thoughts on Miami and Charlotte. Jesse has thoughts on Oregon and West Virginia. (59:17-01:11:54)In Andy’s extra point, we learn if producer River Bailey followed Penn State coach James Franklin’s advice. (01:11:55-01:16:31)

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Realignment continues. It never stops. Jesse Simonson, you're here on three national writer. We have not gotten your take on all that has happened. Colorado has left the Pac-12. It has gone back to the Big 12. The Pac-12 is now... We don't know.

They're nine. They always change the number. But I don't think they're going to wind up at nine. Well, where do you want me to start? Because I do have thoughts. I've written a column, and on three, it came out late last week. This is obviously Sunday night show. I think it came out uh late last week this is obviously sunday night show i think it came out

thursday um and i got off the cleav cough jokes but i think where i'm at right now andy and where i would like to kind of start this conversation from as a launching point is i kind of feel like i'm like mugatu from zoolander oh yeah i'm on crazy pills that's my halloween costume this year by the way. Just wait for the show. Are you serious? I will do it in costume. Oh, wow.

I've got the wig, the sweater. It's in my closet. I didn't even know that. This is organic podcasting, video podcasting at its finest. Oh, yeah. Well, I feel like I'm on crazy pills because, correct me if I'm wrong, but the national narrative from many out there and many colleagues that we respect seems to be that the Big 12 commissioner is seen as this kind of renaissance man and savior because, wait for it, he added three G5 schools a year ago. He didn't add them. Bob Bowlesby added them.

Bob Bowlesby added them, but the conference as a whole has added three G5 schools. They did sign a nice media rights deal. And an independent BYU. And an independent. Two G5s and an independent. They get a nice media rights deal basically usurping Klyavkov. And then they added the worst program in the

Pac-12. And just to me, continuing our Ben Stiller movie uh analogy in my head here it feels like they're still kind of like the skinniest kid at heavyweight so you're not worried about the pack 12 i i am worried about the pack 12 and i think that the jokes write themselves with kliavkov but i just think we have older oversold how, how awesome this is for the big, I don't know that it's awesome for the big 12 in that there's some headlines out there.

They got Colorado, but here here's, here's where the big 12 should take a victory lap. We left them for dead when Texas and Oklahoma left for dead. We were like, Oh, they're going to get rated. The PAC 12 is going to pick them apart or the American is going to try to get them. And before they can get schools from the American,

they are the one that is strong, robust, and thriving right now. Comparatively. Yes. But I would say, I mean, look at when Colorado was last in this conference, Texas was in the conference. Yep. Oklahoma was in the conference. Texas A&M. Missouri, Texas A&M. Looks a whole lot different.

It has obviously become, and I do believe in the strengthening, especially as we can leapfrog forward here, if they are able to get Arizona, I do think it's become the burgeoning power in hoops, which does give them agency because of the billion dollar enterprise. It is the NCAA tournament next to the cool kids table. Like you can't have a basketball tournament without them, which helps a lot of them out because they have all the important teams.

So I do think that's important. I just think let's see this next shoe to fall before we really crown the commissioner there. Well, Greg Normark has done a good job by being aggressive. But I do think like Linda Livingstone, the president of Baylor, she's the head of that president's group right now. All of those presidents, for the most part, have been through all of this before. And I think that's the difference between the Big 12 and the Pac-12, is the presidents in the Big 12 have dealt with all of this. They have lost. They have had to pick up schools. They have lost more schools, had to pick up more. They know how the order of operations work, and they also know how aggressive you have to be.

And I said this the other day, the Big 12 knew it was in a kill or be killed situation. I don't know if the Pac-12 knew that until last week. I would say we know the Pac-12 didn't think that because Klaipkov's been a step slow. I mean, he has done, as I wrote, his best homage to Larry Scott because he's had his head in the sand seemingly on everything. Now, to your point about the presidents.

He's got to deal with their presidents. To your point, their presidents seem to be also kind of stuck in quicksand because they have been slow to react to a multitude of issues in and around this sport i mean from the fact that he literally went on record friday last friday yeah and said not worried and the kicker was we have bigger fish to fry that that is gonna haunt him i mean and that was that is literally well you just lost maybe your worst member or worst football team, and your conference still might be cooked

because it doesn't look like, as we can explain, it doesn't look like the Mountain West can send San Diego State can't go now because they would owe some $30 million. They could go eventually, but they can't go for next year. They can't go in 2024, so they would owe some $30 million. I mean, where do they go, Andy? SMU. You could get SMU right now.

But that's the thing. Now, San Diego State, because you could add San Diego State for two years from now. Yeah, you got to wait until 25. But San Diego State, from a competitive standpoint, is superior to Colorado in the revenue sports, the better football program of late. Now the coach prime thing does change things a little bit, but San Diego state basketball is fantastic. The PAC 12 actually needs that as much as anything else.

Here's the actually interesting thing that I don't think has gotten a lot of buzz, but I think is at least an interesting offshoot of this realignment because you just mentioned Prime. Everyone loves Deion. They're going to be one of the must-watch teams this fall. I wonder if they

actually are now entering a more difficult equation in 24-25 than what they'd potentially be facing in the Pac-12. The Pac-12 is as deep as it's ever been. Knowing what we know about how they're going to lose the best quarterbacks, they're leaving Bo Nix, Caleb Williams, they're going off to a new conference, Penix is going to be gone. The Big 12 is going to look a whole lot different.

I wonder if it's going to... Now, he obviously, Deion, is going to look a whole lot different. I wonder if it's – now, he obviously – Deion's stoked about getting to recruit Texas and Florida. Right. Is that much better than getting to recruit California where the majority of your alumni are? I don't know. The longer you go in the Big 12, the longer Cincinnati, UCF, Houston have to recruit at their level and deepen. I'm telling you, and Kansas State's already good.

Baylor's already good. TCU just played for the national championship. It's going to be a tough road in the Big 12, too, and we'll find out. Colorado plays TCU right out of the gate, so we'll see where they stand up. William Henderson with a comment on the stream here. Pac-12's like Texas. They think more of themselves than reality. The Pac-12 is nothing at this point, William says.

It's still something. It's not dead. And here's my question to you, Jesse. If you are Oregon and Washington. Stay. Okay. Why? Because if you are able to get in your hypothetical SMU.

Right. In this landscape of we're now going to a 12-team playoff where you are guaranteed, keyword guaranteed, an automatic berth if you win your conference. Right. Those two teams have an easier path, as we just outlined, than probably any other Power 5 school in the country. Okay, let me throw this at you.

And this is not happening right now. But Oregon would like to go to the Big Ten But Oregon would like to go to the Big Ten. Washington would like to go to the Big Ten. I don't think that's happening. The Big Ten has shown not a lot of appetite for adding more. Kevin Warren, when he was commissioner, wanted to add more. But nobody since then. And he's gone.

He's with the Bears. What about this? If you're the big 12 and i don't know that they'd say yes but you could ask oregon washington and utah you add them to the big 12 that is at least a two bid league every year and probably a three bid league most years so is your path to the playoff really that much harder in a league that could get three teams in? So in this hypothetical scenario, no Arizona. Arizona's going to end up. Listen, I'd take those three over Arizona in a heartbeat.

I would too. I'll take better football over better basketball. I still think I'm waiting out the big boys. I'm waiting out a phone call that I think comes eventually from the Big Ten. It's just not going to come right now. And so if the because I think the payout seems to be. Knock on wood here. They seem to think that ultimately their media rights payout is going to at least be similar to what the Big 12 has right now.

Yeah. And that's if it is, then great. You're in good shape. Yeah. But what does that look like? Because one thing that Rick George said, the Colorado AD, when they were announcing their move is- Before he ran out for reporters?

No, no, no. This is after he ran out for reporters. This is after they said, hey, we're moving. He was with the chancellor in the press conference, and he said, we want to be aligned with ESPN and Fox. The implication there is that the Pac-12 won't be on those two networks, which I'm still not convinced it won't be on one of them. And then you've got an Apple or an Amazon filling in everything else,

which, again, that's something everybody can get. Unlike the PAC 12 network. Yeah. I mean, I, I think we, I think we said it last, last week. I, I would be hard pressed to believe that ultimately I know ESPN is going through a lot of dynamics right now, but if they, they need inventory, they're obsessed with live rights. I think the PAC 12 is going to come fairly cheap. They want that PAC 12 after dark time slot. They need it.

Right. Now, if you're the Big 12 and you can get more Pac-12 teams, you can have that slot. Now, you probably need to get some Pacific time zone teams too. You get Arizona. Now, Arizona actually is in the Pacific time zone part of the year. They're mountain standard time all year. They don't believe in daylight savings time.

I knew that. Actually, that's a fun fact, but yeah. Yeah, it just depends on when you go. You got to do the math in your head, and it's really bad. Just look at your phone. It changes. But there's another factor in this that we're not accounting for. ACC.

ACC. Go ACC. Yes, the ACC. ACC. You and I both live in Florida. It's impossible to ignore Florida State rattling the saber over and over again about, I don't want to be in this league if we're going to be $30 to $40 million behind the SEC teams we have to recruit against. and they're doing the math up until 2036 when the acc contract ends i still think it's a massive risk whether you're florida state or clemson or miami or north carolina to challenge that grant of rights but i'll throw a

date out at you that's flying around this state and that's august 15th it's not tax day but it's it's might as well be florida state's tax yeah so if you would like to leave the acc and play somewhere else in 2024 you would have to declare that intention by august 15th right now i i find it hard to believe anybody's going to do that but i'm just throwing it out there and because the just the rhetoric out of Tallahassee keeps feeling like they want to make a move. You and I were talking about this before the show. I get their urgency and desire to want to leave. I mean, they're getting lapped financially.

They just landed a five-star the other day, and Mike Norvell's like, we need these coffers going to be able to keep up with the nil and just the general resources and paying staff members who do they recruit against the most florida georgia auburn alabama lsu those are the teams they have to recruit against exactly exactly and as our conversation went i just i just think right now they're a man without a home because the SEC has the Florida that isn't interested in saying they do not have any- There would be pushback to Florida State or Clemson trying to join the SEC. Now, there would be no pushback to North Carolina.

They would take them, but the Big Ten would also take them in a heartbeat if they were available. So that's the thing. The other piece of this that I feel like nobody's ever talking about, and I feel like it's important, the SEC and the Big Ten have not operated as 16-team leagues yet. They'll do that next year. I don't know that I'd want to try to grow anymore

until I see how that works. I mean, that is bravo, because that, I think think you just encapsulated what greg sankey has sort of been saying without explicitly saying that yeah and the big 10 commissioner tony uh tony patiti essentially said a similar statement at media days last week yeah i mean they did not say it in those precise terms once you go past 16 you're not even really a conference anymore right you're more of a afc nfc you know you can split it up into into half semi-conferences or divisions or how you

want to do it but you're probably not really especially if you get to like 20 you're two 10 team leagues at that and that and that's why we're seeing uh the big 10 say yeah oregon and washington are nice if we wanted those schools we would have had them a year ago they can take them anytime they want and that's why my thing with oregon and washington you you pick the flavor you want if you want to stay in a pack 12 and they add some some schools great if you want to go to the Big 12, whatever. You can get out when the Big 10 does their new TV deal if they want you. We don't believe, or I don't believe this folly that they could go independent. That Phil Knight would pay for them to go independent.

But what about, okay, this bubbled up when USC and UCLA left. We all quickly dismissed it because it just doesn't seem plausible. But I keep thinking about it again and again after this situation because you've got a couple entities that are now backed into a corner. You've got the ACC where unless they can figure out new revenue streams, they have a problem coming up because there are seven schools that want to get out or want to radically change things. They want to change the revenue distribution model or they want to get out. Oregon and Washington and Utah need something to help them.

Whether that's a good TV deal for the Pac-12, which I think is what they're hoping for, or something else. Could the ACC pick them up? The Super League? It doesn't make any sense because you'd have all these teams on the East Coast, nothing in between, Louisville, I guess, and then all these teams on the West Coast. It makes zero sense, but none of this makes sense.

They actually kind of need each other, but it's so logistically dumb that I just don't think you can do it. Yeah, and there's also the complicating factors. You've mentioned Utah several times. Yep. They seem to have, and I don't know the inner workings of their school president, but the little bit that I've read and talked to some people, they seem to have kind of an undying loyalty to the Pac-12.

They've only been there as long as Colorado. There's no undying any. Remember. But they gave them the official blue checkmark of you're now a Power 5 school. This is a school that once started its own conference. It let everybody out of the pack to start in the Mountain West. Well, what happens in Utah stays in Utah sometimes too. I mean, that's a whole other world out there.

So we don't know exactly what happens next. It is going to be really interesting. The simplest explanation is, hold on. We got a comment from Chris Callen here. FSU better have a promise from the Big Ten if they try this. I don't think the Big Ten is promising anybody anything. That, again, FSU is a man without a home because I don't think they academically meet exactly

what the Big Ten school president wants. Yeah, they fit fine in the SEC, but they're going to get pushback on that. But I think ultimately, if they're available, the SEC would take them and I think ultimately if they're available, the SEC would take them and Clemson if they could get them. Yeah, I think they would want them, Clemson, maybe North Carolina and Virginia Tech. Virginia, probably if they could get them, but I don't know if they could get them.

That's another one the Big Ten would want. But yeah, you think about just the brands and the matchups you could create and something like that. Yeah, you're looking at, okay, I'd watch those games. Right. And that's when we're talking about this stuff, this is not how the presidents see this, but this is how the TV networks that actually run this stuff.

See this. Would you watch these games? Like if I tell you we're putting Florida state and Clemson in the sec, would you watch those games? Hell yeah. You'd watch those games. Yeah. But I guess the pushback is that the SEC is like,

we're about to be at 16 and we can't get ESPN to give us more money for these better games. That's another piece of it. You just have to say, look, we're redoing this deal or we're going to court. And trust me, ESPN would cave to the SEC

because it is a cash cow it's a tent pole of their future business like i don't think this is going to work out this way because it sounds like it's more likely disney spends espn off or sells an equity stake but i said if they ever sell espn with disney plus and it's just part of the app, that it's just going to be like Darth Vader, Belle, or some other princess. Marvel. Nick Saban. Yeah. Thanos Nick Saban. So that's how important the SEC is to ESPN. So they have probably more leverage than people realize. But I don't know that that's where we are right now it's the simplest solution right now is talk to san diego state see if they'll come in 2025 talk to smu see if they'll come now you could talk to colorado state if you wanted if you wanted to have 12 you could

unlv is another one but super exciting programs you could go you could just goV is another one, but super exciting programs. You could go, you could just go 10 and take one of them. It could take SMU right now. I, that's the, if I'm Oregon and Washington, that that's,

that's the thumb that I'm, I'm having my school presidents, you know, press down on that option. Yeah. Yeah. And that makes it easier. Oregon,

Washington, Utah can kind of split that path of the playoff. If Arizona and Arizona State get good, they've got the shot. But I saw somebody in the chat pointed out that it's definitely a one-bid league. For sure. Yeah, it's not like the Big 12 potential two-bid league now. If you could get the best of those to come somehow and again none of the rhetoric suggests

they want to but this gets worse because remember George Klyavkov has not presented the full group of Pac-12 presidents with the numbers for the TV deal yet what happens if it lands like a fart in a stiff wind like 20

million well or it's similar numbers but it's networks If it lands like a fart in a stiff wind. Like 20 million? Well, or it's similar numbers, but it's networks you never heard of or people are going to not subscribe to. But then if you're still getting 30 million, you're getting 30 million, right? Because it's going to be... Oh, no, no, no, no, no. They're signing a short-term deal. Exposure matters too. That's fair.

Especially when you're not something people seek out. Like the SEC or the Big Ten, you could put them on any network. People would go find them. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. But that's not necessarily the case here. And honestly, the ACC, I think, has found a similar problem, that they just don't have the brand names plus exposure.

Right. Because the brand names, Miami, Florida State, we'll see what happens, but they've been down. Yeah, but they do have ESPN and ABC, and so you can find their games pretty easily. They have their own network on ESPN, so it's not hard to find ACC games. This is the issue. Like, if Klyavkov come back and says it's Apple or it's Amazon, and that's most of the games,

and some of the games are going to be on ESPN, how many people are going to subscribe? Now, Amazon's different because you subscribe to Prime to get the free shipping and all that, and what you get is programming as a bonus. And that what you get as you know, is programming as a bonus, but Apple, you got to pay.

They just don't want to do it. They just need to avoid getting on the CW meets paramount plus. Listen, okay. This CW slander. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about that because the CW is a widely distributed broadcast network.

Like it's actually probably easier to find than some of these subscription services. Yes, but I don't think you want that to be your primary source, is what I'm saying, versus an ESPN After Dark where you're leading from the best ACC or Big Ten, Pac-12. How about this, Jesse? SEC game. What if Pac-12 After Dark, what if the ESPN says you have to put your best game on Pac-12. How about this, Jesse? SEC game. What if Pac-12 after dark? What if the ESPN says you have to put your best game on Pac-12 after dark?

Glorious. They hate that already. They hate playing night games already. Like, it's crazy. They want to start every game at 1 p.m. Pacific time. But some of these Arizona schools, they can't kick off until 9 p.m. because it's so hot. Because it's so hot.

So we'll see what happens but it is going to be an absolutely fascinating next week or so this is this is weird i i thought eventually everybody stand down but i thought eventually that they'd come with a tv deal and they say okay here it is here it is, let's do it. And it keeps going and going. It's like, it's becoming a Jan Brady, George Glass situation. My boyfriend, George Glass? Or, you know, it's the buddy you had in high school is like, I got a girlfriend, but she lives in Canada and she can't come down.

Like, at what point did the president of the factional say, dude, just show us the numbers. Let's go. We've been waiting. We're now past the point, Andy, where this news that we're at the one-yard line came out in December. Folks have now celebrated.

Kirby Smart has celebrated Christmas in July, and we still don't have a Pac-12 media rights deal. I know. And they approved expansion kicking the tires on teams in March and then said, no, no, no, we got to do the TV deal before we expand.

Even though everybody else who's done it expanded first. I don't know. It doesn't make a lot of sense. You know what does make sense? Not the famed alliance. Olufashinu mauling people. That is the Penn State offensive tackle who might have been the top

tackle in last year's draft or this year's draft decided to come back to Penn State. He explains why when we come back. We have Penn State, and we're talking about something very important, and that is steak. So Olu, this is your first trip to Indy. You got the St. Elmo experience last night.

What did we order? Man. Tomahawk ribeye, 35 ounce. Beautiful. 35 ounce, yup. Is that, where does that rank among the largest steaks you've ever eaten? So, I think that's, like, number two or three or four. I mean, granted, all of, like, the top four,

they've all been different types of tomahawks, but that was definitely, like, number four. I know my number one was the day before – I think it was when I came back home freshman year, and my mom made this, like, it had to be, like, a 46-ounce, like, tomahawk. Mom just makes it for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She made it, and, like, it was perfect. And, like, literally, like, I, like, held it up, and, like, it was just massive.

So, yeah, that was definitely number one. But this one, this was definitely, like, literally, like, I, like, held it up. And, like, it was just massive. So, yeah, that was definitely number one. But this one, this was definitely, like, top five. So I've done a couple 64s, 64-ouncers. Yeah. And it's about speed at that point. You just got to start sawing and you start eating. But how do we order our steaks? What do we?

Oh, come on. Okay. When it comes to, like, good pieces of steaks you know me personally i like medium rare you know that's perfect i actually will go rare sometimes really depending on yeah one day i might the older i got the more rare i would really yeah i was medium rare when i was your age yeah it's the same thing this is this is unbelievable because i i'm looking at you you're 310 3 like 323 323 yeah around that how is it when did human beings start doing this where they're 320 pounds and they're not fat how does that work i don't know but i mean all i can

say is i give all the credit in the world to coach losi and our great strength staff and um also uh leanne our nutritionist just you know sending me on the right path and um back to coach losi and the staff you know just you know with the great workout plans that they have just, you know, sending me on the right path. And back to Coach Losey and the staff, you know, just with the great workout plans that they have for us, you know, they make sure that not only do we stay in shape, but, you know, we get bigger, faster, and stronger and leaner every year. How did your body change from high school to now? Yeah, so in high school I came to Penn State at like around 315,

but it was a really like bad 315, you know, a whole lot of fat. Then I lost a whole lot of fat. Then I lost, I lost, um, I lost a good amount of weight. Then I just restructured it just with a lot more like lean muscle. And it's not that I get to eat whatever I want. It's I get to eat a lot of what they tell me I need to eat. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Most likely. I mean, yeah. I mean that you basically said it perfectly, but I mean, luckily, like all the options they give out are pretty good. That is that is pretty good. Now, I think there's probably a few people surprised that you're sitting here right now and not being forced to sing your alma mater in front of a team meeting on some NFL team. How did you make that decision? Because you were you were very early.

You came out in November and said, I am coming back. Decisions made. I'm good. How did that happen? Yes, I mean, that decision to come back, you know, just in general with Penn State, they've been so great to my family and I for these last three years. And, you know, going into this year with having the opportunity to graduate a semester early with a degree in supply chain, combined that with the fact that, you know, just have another opportunity to go suit up with my brothers for one more time,

you know, made that decision to come back a lot easier than most would expect. So you can explain to us how everything broke down because of the pandemic, right? You can explain how the sources, the factories, the logistics of sitting off the port in California. I mean, that's what you guys talk about in class now, right? That is supply chain, but that's a whole level. That's a whole other level for me. Now, how much of the decision, and I was going back through your career, was that you just hadn't really played that much?

Yep, of course. Are you saying how much that factored in? Yeah, I mean, how much did that factor in? I mean, that definitely factored it. You know, with being an offensive lineman, it's a very, like, developmental position that, you know, requires a lot of reps and a lot of game time to really, like, get a hold on. You know, that wasn't as much of a factor.

But, you know, just in that wasn't as much of a factor, but, um, you know, just in that in general, with me coming back, it's just another opportunity for me to get in more reps, get better. So what you get to practice against every day, I can't imagine anybody's got a tougher assignment than, than Abdul Carter, chop Robinson. What is that like really hard, but you know, I'm, I'm thankful. I Really hard, but, you know, I'm thankful. I'm super thankful that, you know, I'm on their team and I'm not going against them in an actual game. I mean, when you talk about our defense, you know, if I'm being completely honest,

I think that's the best defense in the country. So for me to go against them every day during the spring, you know, with all of us just getting each other better, you know, I think that's going to pay dividends at the end of the year. Then also going into camp just, you know, before playing any other team, I get to play, you know, in my opinion, the best defense in the country for a whole month. You know, I think that'll help us a lot. When Abdul got there as a freshman, what did the first few reps look like from him?

Just speed. Just that guy's so fast, and he's such a great athlete. And he just, you know, there's some guys with football where, you know, they're just a good football player. Like, you can just tell, like, everything comes natural. And Abdul is that exact guy. You know, nothing ever seems robotic about him. He knows exactly what he's doing whenever he does, and, you know, I'm really excited for him. He knows exactly what he's doing whenever he does.

And, you know, I'm really excited for him. Yeah, it's crazy watching Micah on Sundays now. And they kind of figured out with Micah what to do. And now there's a guy almost like that again. Yeah, no, exactly. So what is it like going into this season where you do have some pretty big expectations, but also you've got the players who can meet those expectations. No, most definitely.

I mean, going into the season, you know, everyone on the team knows that we have high expectations from outside the building, but, you know, we're really just focused on the expectations inside the building. And, you know, we all truly think that, again, no one has higher expectations for the season than ourselves. And that just is a testament to the amount of work that we put in, you know, starting in January all the way up to this point and the amount of work that we're yet to put in with camp starting next week.

So, I mean, at the end of the day, you know, in terms of handling expectations, you know, we don't pay too much attention to outside of our facilities, and, you know, we just keep everything much attention to outside of our facilities and you know we just keep everything inside now back to the important thing is steak are you a are you a steak eater are you a steak cook as well you know i'm a i'm a i'm a i'm a steak eater but you know i've been i've been diving in the you know cooking steaks you know i'm a i'm a very big like reverse sear type of guy you know well that's with your tomahawk yeah exactly you go to about 115 and then you get okay so i uh i had my

son and his friend had them on a saturday all the girls were out of town yep we got some tomahawks yeah and i've got the the pellet grill which you can control the temperature very precisely. So I had that one, and I had it pretty low. Got them up to about 110, 115. And then on the Kamado one, I had that thing at like 800 degrees. And just... It's beautiful. How does that feel when you put that down on that really hot grill? It's just like, you know, it's the best feeling in the world you know you're just putting on the finishing the

finishing touches on the steak you know you you know that the steak's already fully cooked but you know putting it on a really hot grill to get that nice sear you know there's there are very few things you know in life that are better than that so there's a reason he's gonna be the first lineman off the board that's one of them yes sir thank, sir. Olufashnu, thank you so much. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you. Welcome back.

So that's Olufashnu. Future first-rounder. Lots of stakes. I'm impressed. The stakes are high for Penn State this year. The reverse seer. But he goes against Abdul Carter and Chop Robinson every day. He's practicing probably harder than anybody else.

Yeah, I mean, he came back to school because he wanted more preparation and what's better preparation than going against a couple potential first-rounders on the other side of the pass rush. So Matthew saw the headline I put on this thing where I asked if we're sleeping on Miami, which is a topic we will get to later in the show, Miami on the field. But Miami off the field, very interesting news in the Miami Herald on Sunday. The SEC, not the Southeastern Conference, but the Securities and Exchange Commission, investigating John Ruiz, Miami's NIL sugar daddy.

And it's not looking good. Turns out that life wallet may be short a few bills. Well, so they did not turn in their annual report on time and it was dragging out and they kept saying, okay, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming. It finally did get finished here in the last few weeks and they reported revenues of $23 million. Now, when they took the company public, the projected revenues for 2022, $990 million. That's a pretty big difference. I'm sorry, $992 million. That's a pretty big difference. And I think this is a topic that's been written about multiple times throughout the last six months because the stock price has continued. It started out $10 at the IPO, trading at $0.22 a share right now. Yes. Yeah.

So John Ruiz did tweet that this was a hit piece in the Miami Herald, which it's not a hit piece if they're just telling everyone you're being investigated. Or if they're literally just reacting to the numbers. Stating the numbers that you have given to people and that we can see where the stock is trading. It's not lies. That is where the stock is trading. So I don't know what that means for Miami'sami's nil situation that now i will point out ruiz is not their only nil donor and they've reacted accordingly saying basically that we have you know we have confidence that we have built a sustainable model and while life wallet is

obviously a uh strong contributor to our brand we have ex-collectives that are working on supporting our athletes. So I just – it's crazy to me because you knew when there was an IPO and basically a billion dollars on paper that this was going to get a lot of attention. But I think Ruiz used the NIL stuff, knowing that he'd get a lot of publicity around the NIL stuff to promote the IPO. It didn't work. And didn't it?

Didn't it? I don't know the inner workings of this, but didn't the Cavalier twins that went there and made all that money a year ago, basketball players, the basketball players, women's basketball players. They still had a year of eligibility.

Right, and they're going to the WWE. Right. But I think they're probably doing all right. It might have been that they could make more money doing it the other way. That's what I was wondering. That's what I didn't know. But I didn't know if their decision was precipitated because they saw this stock going. Well, I'm sure there are concerns for anybody who has a deal with them because they're being investigated.

And now what the NIL deals are for is very small potatoes compared to the kinds of dollar amounts we're talking about. Because he had another situation where the guy who originally came up with the name LifeWallet, the company LifeWallet that he bought it from, wanted $12.5 million from him. So it's a lot of money. What do you think Tyler Van Dyke's thinking right now? Could have been Alabama starting quarterback, maybe? Well, could have been competing to be Alabama starting quarterback.

But it is a strange situation. We'll have to keep our eyes on that but we're going to change gears again back to realignment john canzano who is one of the more plugged in guys on the west coast he's portland-based he's got a radio show podcast with john wilner who's the other most plugged in guy in the Pac-12. And John has talked to multiple Pac-12 presidents throughout all this. He's talked a lot to George Klyavkov. He's going to explain to us how the Pac-12 got in this situation. So we'll be right back with John Canzano.

John Canzano, you can hear him everywhere in the state of Oregon on the radio, on Ball Face Truth Show. You can also read him at johncanzano.com. You can also listen to the most informative Pac-12 podcast there is, Wilner and Canzano, or is it Canzano and Wilner? John, which John goes first in that deal? He let me go first. I don't know why. He's a nice guy. He goes, oh, no, no, no. Alphabetical. Yeah. So yeah, for those who don't know, John is one of those tapped in people in the Pac-12 based in Portland. And I had to have him on because this is just, some things just mystify me about what is going on in the Pac-12, John. And you've been in touch with with various presidents and athletic directors all through this process

and it was interesting i was i was poking around on your site and i noticed a story that you wrote in march about them approving expansion can the idea of expansion candidates just looking into it doing your homework vetting that sort of thing and And here we are in July and none of that has happened and a meteorite still hasn't happened. And now they've lost Colorado. What is the holdup? Well, I think one is you're dealing with academics in that room and the PAC 12 presidents and chancellors, I think are a little different than maybe some of the other conferences. They're not pirates. They're not aggressive. Some of them are not all that tuned into sports. And they have long been on their high horse about academics and culture. And that stuff's important. I get it. But I think they've moved too slowly here. And I think Colorado ultimately lost patience. I think we saw that this

week. The USC-UCLA thing, I think was a little bit naive. I think that they should have been more tuned in to those two schools not being as engaged. And I think that was a big misfire early in the George Klyovkov tenure. But yeah, let's go back to March. They had approved exploration. It was San Diego State, SMU, as we all know now, were one and two. I think Colorado State was one of the top four. I haven't confirmed that, but it was loosely confirmed to me early on that they had poked around Colorado State. And I don't know if that was a contingency move or if they were just exploring it. But they may now have to go full boat into that.

Well, and that's what I wonder, because we look at what happened to the big 12 when they lost texas and oklahoma within weeks they had added byu cincinnati ucf and and why am i blanking on houston and and they they added all those within weeks now granted they had done the vetting process years earlier with the the david borin induced dog and pony show. But that seemed to be a nice template for how this works. And what I can't understand, and I'm curious if someone's given you some insight on this, why is it that they feel like they can't do any expansion until they get the meteorites deal done? Because nobody else has done it that way. They've all done it in reverse. Yeah. And the media executives I've talked with say, look, at least at face value,

you need to know who's in, who's committed from your members and who are you potentially adding. Now, I've been told they ran several different models, including if you go back to last December, they were running models that included UCLA returning in the event of the UC region. So maybe that explains some of the early pause. Maybe they were holding out hope that UCLA would come back. They would just replace them with San Diego State. But you're right. That order of operations doesn't make sense if we know that your media value is, you know, you need to know is SMU part of this conference? Is San Diego State part of this conference? That's how you come up with the total value. And look, we've seen the Big 12, you know, they do a, you know, they had a clause in their contract that allowed them to add Power 5 members. And, you know, maybe

the Pac-12 was going, hey, we'll just add that afterwards. And then if you add value, but I was told early on by multiple members of the CEO group that they really wanted to nail down the deal first. Then they were going to nail down the deal first. Then they were going to pivot to the members and go, OK, their potential media partners and go, OK, does San Diego State add X value, Y value? OK, we can bring them in. Does SMU? It feels a little clunky and formulaic to me and a little naive. And now that we look at it, I mean, you know, we could argue that there was a misfire there and maybe the big 12 having gone through this, like you said, they had been through this, they were facing, they were teetering a couple of years ago and PAC 12 could have rated them. Maybe they were much more equipped to pivot, but I think the PAC 12 is doing some soul searching

in the last 72 hours. That's the part I'm curious about because the two that are most interesting to me, well, I think we can make it three, Oregon, Washington, and Utah. Two of those, Oregon and Washington, from a brand standpoint, are stronger than anybody in the Pac-12 or the Big 12 individually. Utah is the two-time defending PAC 12 champion has done nothing but get better since joining the PAC 12 from the mountain West. If I'm Brett, your Mark, I'm saying I want you three and we'll be 16 and we're done.

And I would imagine that that's not what Oregon, Washington and Utah want given what they've said publicly and what they've said privately. But at what point do they have to start listening to other potential options? I think they needed to listen early and I think they did some of that. But I think Oregon in particular looked at the Big Ten first and and also maybe the SEC. And they didn't get a lot of warmth in return for those. Because I think Oregon and their brand, they see themselves as kind of above the Big 12 conference and a tentpole in the Pac-12.

They also value the access to the playoffs. So as long as the Pac-12 has access to that playoff, I do think there's a motivation for Oregon to stay put. They have the great equalizer in Phil Knight. They aren't hurting for revenue. It doesn't matter as much in Eugene that they're $30 or $35 million behind the Big Ten Conference in annual revenue because Phil Knight can write a check. So I think Oregon was thinking about that. Plus, you have a complex relationship with Oregon State. And I really do wonder how much pushback you'd get

from the state capital if you tried to separate those two schools. I think we've seen some of that at Washington and Washington State as well. And then to your Utah point, I just think those three schools all value access to the playoff. And I think Utah knows now because it's a two-time champion, it can get there from the Pac-12. So as long as this conference can stay together, get a reasonable amount of money in this media rights deal, I think all three were thinking all along, hey, we're better suited in a 10-team conference or a 12-team conference than going anywhere else. But I think they all have to be listening at this point because as Colorado proved,

you can't really trust the people in the room right now. They're all pirates, so to speak. Exactly. the people in the room right now. Like they're all they're all pirates, so to speak. Like exactly. Colorado was telling people a week before they left, hey, we're all in behind closed doors in the meeting. I've talked to other members there and they all kind of went, yeah, yeah, you're going to do what's best for you. But they were getting messaging from Colorado that said, hey, we're all in. And, you know, they should not have been surprised by this because I think Philip DeStefano had gone public. We all heard it. He wanted numbers. But at this point, everybody's got to do what's best for themselves. But, you know, again, the messaging internally was not matching what was happening externally.

I was reading Brady McCullough's story in the L.A. Times the other day where he talked about USC blocking potential expansion before they left and it reminded me of back in the big east acc days the big east breakup there were big east schools that said they had a tv deal on the table pretty good one from espn and there were schools that said no no no let's just wait on this and all those schools went to the acc yeah and so, like, do the Pac-12 presidents not realize that when someone's mouth is moving in realignment times that they're probably lying to them? I think there's some of that, that naive sentiment. I do think it occurs in that room. And some of it is due to the fact that I think, you know, prior to maybe 10 years ago, when the media rights money started to explode, that world was very much about, hey, we just want athletics to be self-sustaining. And it was viewed as kind of the toy department.

Like, you know, anybody who's worked at a newspaper knows that sports section was always viewed as the leisure section. And that's the toy department over there. They're just covering games and having fun. When now suddenly you have billion-dollar TV deals involved, you have cutthroat, you know, business people who are leading these conferences. There's no longer the, you know, the Greg Sankey's of the world who came up running the intramural department at Ithaca College. You know, those guys don't exist. The Southland Conference. Yeah, it's a long way from that.

A hundred percent. So I think there is a little bit, like if they're not tuned into it now after Colorado, they'll never get tuned into it. But yeah, I'm told they've met several times in the last few days. They've closed ranks a little bit. I think the early part of this next week is going to be really interesting because I think they need to show some action internally.

So I'm curious about the numbers. So Klyavkov has been communicating with the presidents themselves. I know the ADs have kind of been shut out a lot of this. Has he been giving them ballpark figures, ballpark idea of what networks are involved all along? I think that, you know, you have to remember there's the PAC- 12 CEO group, which is

all the presidents and chancellors. Right now it's the nine remaining. And then within that, they have an executive committee. Now I'm told that the executive committee did get a deeper look at numbers and felt good about it. Now, I don't know if they shared that throughout, but the sentiment I was getting in the room, and I'm not just talking to one president, I'm talking to multiple presidents. The sentiment all along was they liked where it was going. I believed it was headed to Apple and ESPN, some sort of blend in that way. It felt to me, I asked, you know, I asked one of the CEO group members after media day, I said, how confident are you that, you know, football season starts and this is done?

And it came back that very confident this will not be hanging overhead. You know, I just I think they were moving in the right direction. And Colorado may be different. Maybe Colorado isn't as tied to the Pac-12 because it came from the Big 12. Maybe it just got impatient. Maybe it really down deep had some conflicting agenda internally. I don't know. But I think now you have to look around that room and you have to ask, can we trust anything that anybody's saying? Get some numbers on paper, get them in front of the presidents and try to hold this conference together.

So what exactly is the holdup on firm numbers for a deal? Because there's nobody getting rights right now. There's nobody doing rights deals between now and when they have to have this done. They could have had numbers anytime in the last nine months. What's going to change between now and two weeks from now? Yeah, that's a big question. And I think what the PAC-12 needs to do, and it's going to take some strong leadership, is pivot to those partners and say, it needs to happen now or it's going to take some strong leadership is pivot to those partners and say it needs to happen now or it's not going to happen because they're kind of getting to that point. He goes to Miami and then ESPN and Disney have, you know, all the layoffs. And Bob Iger comes out and says, look, we're seeking an equity partner that can help, you know, position us for success. Could be Apple. Yeah, could be Apple. And so I asked that question directly. I said, you know, does that Apple ESPN Disney equation, did that cause a pause?

And I was told, yes, it caused a pause in the negotiation. It caused, but I was given that quote, it's going to be worth the wait, meaning that they were being told, hey, when this comes out on the other side, you're going to be in better position. We're going to have our stuff together. But again, that delay, I think, cost them Colorado. And they're going to have to determine if that was worth it. So you take the Dion piece out of the equation. From a brand standpoint, I don't really know that San Diego State and Colorado are all

that different or SMU and Colorado. But the San Diego State one, especially San Diego State competitively, at least over the last 10 years in the two revenue sports, a lot better than Colorado. So that's the other one. Why not just get that done? I mean, it's a state university in California. You'd think at least Cal would be on board and just say, hey, guys, pretty good school, good sports. Let's go. Yeah. I talked with a number of prospective expansion candidates in the last few days. And San Diego State is still sitting there going, we're waiting for them to get their media rights deal done. And I think the $34 million balloon that has been caused by missing that deadline, July 1, is a hang up.

But for me, it's not a hang up if you say, look, do what the SEC did with Texas and Oklahoma. We're adding you. It'll be effective. You know, July 1, 2025, not 2024. You're in. You're a full member. We you know, here's what you're getting. And then in the interim, you pivot to SMU and you go, hey, you're going to be member number 10 right now. Grab that Dallas-Fort Worth market, 2.9 million households and make that happen. Yeah, you're right. I mean, I think we're all sitting here going, okay, what is the holdup with expanding? But I think they're in that position as well. And I think there are a lot of interested parties, particularly the Arizona schools that are now looking going, okay, what's happening this week? What's going to happen early this week? So what do you think is going to happen and what time frame are we looking at right now?

I just think that the time for sitting back, being prudent, trying to be patient and wait is over. And this is where it takes real leadership. I think George Sklyavkov's got to go to the media partners, got to go to the consultants and say, this happens now or never. We need paper to pen. You need numbers down because even internally, you know, on Thursday and Friday of last week, when Colorado announces, you know, they're going, the messaging still was we're together, but it started being, it feels like we're together because nobody was quite trusting it. It wasn't like as definitive as it was a few weeks ago. And you have to start wondering, you know, for the schools that have somewhere to go, if there is an Arizona that has somewhere to go, would they really be willing to leave Arizona State? That is a big question.

Would they leave them behind? Would the Big 12 go beyond where they say they want to go and add multiple teams? I don't know. But it feels to me like paper to pen, pedal to the metal, get off your high horse, forget about the culture, forget about the academics and start thinking like a pirate. The late Mike Leach, former Washington State coach, would would approve of this. What would he say, Andy? What would he have said about all? Oh, he would he would have been furious because Washington State is fighting for its athletic survival right now. Washington State, Oregon State, I think they're in the same boat.

Cal, kind of in a similar position. I don't know. It really does feel like especially those schools should be putting the most pressure on. But I do think this is an interesting dynamic here. Because if you look at the Big 12, what was left after Texas and Oklahoma left? The eight that were left, they were all very similar all similar in profile similar academically similar athletically and they'd been through a bunch of crap together like the difference between them and this group in the pac-12 like stanford and cal are completely different than Oregon State and Washington State.

They're not the same thing. And I do think that makes making decisions or being aligned a little more difficult. Oh, 100%. And I think, you know, Oregon State and Washington State have to be a little nervous right now and have to be looking out for themselves. But I think simultaneously, you know, the conversations I have with people at Stanford, you know, relate around the fact that, you know, they're not totally comfortable where college athletics is going.

They value the Olympic sports more than others do. People in the SEC would roll their eyes at them when they hear when they hear they're talking about, you know, can I hold it? Can I raise my hand and solve their problem immediately? Do it. Take a chunk off your endowment and endow the sports. Done. There you go.

Your Olympic sports problem is solved. You're welcome. How about this one, Andy? How about, you know, I keep thinking about Phil Knight. He is a legacy guy. It matters to him. Does the Pac-12 matter to Phil Knight? You know, I'm trying to get that answer.

And it could just be as simple as Phil Knight coming in and going, okay, how do we solve this problem? Because they need that kind of thinking. They need a guy who has built a company in the room. They need a guy who's a visionary in the room. And I think, you know, if I'm George Klyovkov, that's a phone call I'm making. I'm having a conversation with Phil Knight going, what do you think here? Because he may have a solution that nobody's thinking about, or he may be able to write a check that nobody expects. Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, the assumption out here everywhere else is that Oregon and Washington are just waiting on the Big Ten. But look, you can do whatever you want and wait on the Big Ten. You can stay in the Pac-12. You

can go to the Big 12. We're talking about six-year media rights deals. You just leave when the Big Ten does their new deal if they want to expand at that point. But they don't want to expand right now. Yeah, there's no appetite for it. And look, Phil Knight's 86 years old, that Oregon's trying to get to the playoff and give him a return on his investment. He's put a billion dollars into that university and he's been patient to a point. They give Dan Lanning the big extension. And I think Oregon is geared maniacally right now on getting to the playoff. It expands. They have access.

But in order for that to happen, this conference has to stay together. And so that's where I wonder if Phil Knight comes in and goes, OK, we'll keep it together in the next five, six years. Here's how we're going to do it. Well, that would be very interesting. John, I know you did not intend to be working that much this past week. You weren't expecting a team to leave the Pac-12. You were working on a camp that your foundation puts on.

And so tell us a little bit about that camp and then how Ralphie leaving affected that. Crazy. I mean, but this is the life of a sports writer and you know this, like, you know, you're never really on vacation. You're never really away. And you can almost assume that if you do go on vacation uh hell's gonna break loose like yes that's just how it works part of the job but uh you know we have a non-profit the bald face truth foundation was founded in 2009 it helps kids in art music education and athletics i figured as long as i was doing a radio show and writing a column i might as well do something that really

matters you know like i got frustrated a little bit by writing a column, I might as well do something that really matters. You know, like I got frustrated a little bit by the fact that a lot of what we do, Andy, disappears at the end of the day. It goes into the ether. We don't have a fence that we built to show for it. And so I just I know how important co-curricular activities were for me and my wife, you know, as we grew up. And so we've just bought in big time to raising money and funding a lot of programs in the Pacific Northwest. And one of the coolest things we do, probably the coolest thing I do all year is we do camp exceptional. And my brother's an adaptive P.E. specialist in California. He and his team have been doing stuff like this in their school districts.

And I got to talking with him and I said, why don't we bring you up for the summer? This was 10 years ago. We'll put on a camp for typical kids and special needs kids. It's inclusive. They're working together. They're playing sports together. We'll get athletes to volunteer as team leaders and get him to work with the kids and we'll put on a sports camp. And we're in the 10th year now. We've had more than a thousand kids come through it. It's really cool to see some of the kids who were campers 10 years ago now working as counselors. Portland State's football team comes out, volunteers, serves as team leaders. You got these big old football players crying at the end of the week because they're working with kids who have challenges and they don't want it to end. And the basketball program at University of Portland and Portland State both volunteer. Some community college athletes volunteer.

And it really is the highlight of our summer. My entire family, we had 20 people staying at our house, Andy, and you know how that goes. And we just put this camp on every day. But, yeah, I'm at the camp, and my phone's blowing up on Thursday morning with Pac-12 sources who were going, you know what, I'm not sure about Colorado. There was a big shift that morning as the Regents were going to me. And I took not sure as meaning they're gone. Like, you know, you don't say you're not sure if you're inside the Pac-12

inner sanctum. And so, you know, I, I haven't, I've got my laptop with me because that's what we do. And you know that, but I stepped away from the camp, wrote some stuff and updated it. But after reporting that, I walk back out onto the field and I see, you know, there are kids who are dealing with real challenges. They're sight impaired. They're using assistive devices. They, you know, kids that have Asperger's or Down syndrome or are on the spectrum and they're competing and working together in this sports camp alongside kids who are typical kids who are probably

getting more out of it than anybody. It's just, it's real perspective. It all kind of floated away for me. And I went, you know, this is the stuff that matters. This sports world stuff will figure itself out. Yeah. The conference stuff will eventually get done. That is what matters. And, John, thank you for doing that, and thank you for joining us. Thanks, Andy. Welcome back. So, by the way, if you like what you're hearing, like, subscribe,

comment on the YouTube stream. We'll see it right now you can make fun of us if you want and if you make fun of jesse i'll probably just throw it up there uh so jesse we have to talk about some of our takeaways from all these conference media days because they are all over we have now had time to digest and i feel like some of the days stuff just got covered by other things and i go back to that first day of acc media days all everybody's worried about what is jim phillips gonna say the northwestern stuff is happening he's getting named in lawsuits also there's potential you know strife within the acc does anybody want to leave mario Cristobal. Pat Narduzzi popping off. Oh yeah, Pat Narduzzi popped. Put a lid on it.

Yeah, no, no. Mario Cristobal was there that day. Sounded awfully confident in his offensive line. And he's not a guy who throws around praise for his offensive line willy-nilly. And the fastest way, as you know, to get better is to be better on the offensive line. So if Mario Cristobal is not blowing smoke, if he indeed feels like that line is better, and it's one of those situations that might be a little bit similar to LSU last year, where LSU had Will Campbell, you knew as a true freshman he was going to start.

Francis Malgoa is a top 20 recruit who could potentially start. And I think that seems to be where that's headed. And then Samson Okunololo, maybe the Emory Jones of that duo and maybe coming in, you know, I don't know if he starts day one or eventually starts, but I like that Mario is confident. I know he's got a good secondary, Cam Kitchens. I think people are talking about him as a first-round pick. Is it possible they could be good this year? Williams there. I mean, they have a nice safety duo.

In a Stars Matter world, the fact that Mario went out and got two of the top five offensive tackles in the 2023 class. He then got Javon Cohen, offensive lineman from Alabama. Matthew Lee is an all-conference guy at UCF a year ago, going to play center. This is an offensive line that was terrible last year. It was real bad. And it was real bad.

It was the problem. I think Miami has something like seven new staff members this year. Not a new offensive line coach. Well, Alex Mirabelle is right. And well regarded. All are tied together on the same line in high school. Exactly. But I'm just saying it's noteworthy that even though that unit in particular had its issues a year ago. That was not a change that Mario deemed necessary.

The question is, is what kind of start can they get off to? Because they play A&M in week, what is it, two? Two, yep. And they don't, I mean, their schedule, not a lot of let up in that Miami schedule. They have to play North Carolina, Clemson, and Florida State. So as ACC schedules go, it's about as rough as it gets. Yeah, and I know – I think they're kind of like in the Nebraska situation

where people are kind of wish-thinking their return to resurgence. They obviously are in a better position than what Nebraska's been in recent years, but I think their win total was still only around seven, seven and a half. Nobody's feeling particularly optimistic. I think the Texas A&M game will tell us a lot. Yeah. It's one of those where everybody's going to panic about whoever loses. And the question, yes, definitely.

The question for Miami is, is if the offensive line is fixed, do they have the receiving talent that can rise the tide, so to speak? Because I think we expect tyler van dyke to be better and shannon dawson's offense shannon dawson's good with quarterbacks i mean you go back through his history he's he's had good fortune and then and the quarterbacks have liked working with him so i do think that van dyke's going to be in a better place than he was and look if you go back to the end of the 2021 season, Tyler Van Dyke looked like a rising star, like a potential high NFL draft pick.

Yeah. And then, yeah, he went from guys putting his name in those way too early first round mock drafts to a guy that wouldn't have been signed off the scrap heap. Now he battled injuries a year ago. Let's be fair. I think that's the other part. But there was some confidence stuff.

Obviously the James Gaddis offense did not work yeah and and mario you know i joked i joked in a column last week doing acc power rankings that it was as if you know everyone we're still we're both stoked for the future of the uh ea sports yep next dynasty ncaa football i think mario pulled the plug and hit the reset button after the way after the way last year went done probably in november but it took them a while to actually say it but yeah i think they they had decided to to move on and you know we'll see if the revamp works it's not any it's not easy that you lose your OC by choice. You lose your DC because Nick Saban said, hey, come coach my five stars, and we'll see what happens. What you got?

My first storyline that I think, this actually did get a little bit of play, but you and I haven't gotten to talk about it. Your boy, Neil Brown, Mr. YOLO, he got pretty hot on the mic at Big 12 media days and lambasted the media, called them lazy for their reporting, saying we are not going to finish last in the Big 12. We have never since I've been there finished last in the Big 12. I think he's right, and I still think he's going to get fired.

So to keep the job, I think you've got to win eight games probably. Because they've put a pretty impossible situation in front of them. Ren Baker, new AD there. Yeah, and Ren Baker, as he was getting interviewed, the questions are how are you handling Neil Brown's situation? Neil has to overperform to have a chance to keep his job. That's why I'm so excited about this Penn State season opener. Penn State, West Virginia.

I was looking it up. And by the way, there's a peacock on it. It's on NBC. That's going to feel a little weird to see that game on NBC. But I just think Neil Brown's going to run every trick play in the book. I mean, you have to. You have to do it. He's calling plays.

He's going to go out on his terms if he's going to go out. But I don't disagree with him that I think they're going to be feisty. I just, he's got to really perform well to keep that job. I mean, they have 11 power five games this year. Lyons, the guy who hired him, has done him no favors with this schedule. I don't think they're going to finish last. They may be frisky. I still think ultimately he's going to get fired because a new AD wants to

call his own shots there. The guy, the guy who's probably going to finish last is West Virginia's former coach, Dana Holgerson at Houston, who's also going to get fired. And it could be, it could be a loser leaves town game. They do play.

When those two play in the middle of October. Yeah. We have to, also going to get fired and it could be it could be a loser leaves town game they do play when those two play in the middle of october we have to we have to retrain our brains that we got to look at big 12 schedules to see who plays whom because before it was a true round robin now you don't know who's playing here you can actually get an easy one or a hard one all right speaking of coaches who lambasted the media for the way they picked, I am so excited about Biff Poggi at Charlotte. I cannot even tell you. Any other questions for Coach?

That's it? Three questions? Maybe that's because you have us ranked last. That's all what you think of us. So we get that message. Thank you. Love it. All right. Former hedge fund manager. Current current loaded. He is also currently the fundraiser for Charlotte's football program loaded. So this is an interesting guy.

And the comparison is Joe Moglia at coastal Carolina. But I look at what he did at St. Francis, and there's a documentary, I believe it's on HBO, where you can watch what he did at St. Francis. You'll see some of the players who are going to be playing for him at Charlotte. He's got quite a few guys who signed with Power 5 teams, and maybe it didn't quite work out as well as they wanted to. He's got like two sixth or seventh year seniors from Michigan.

And they're coming. Well, and remember his son Henry played at Michigan. Yeah. So he's got connections everywhere. He was at Michigan with Harbaugh the last few years. I'm fascinated to see what happens because, again, he's got some players back that he coached in high school who it didn't work out at the power five places they went.

But maybe it works out at Charlotte. Charlotte's first year in the American could be very interesting. They're going to finish last. I think they're not going to finish last. I think that, I think they, I think they have like the lowest returning production in that conference per or per in that. Yeah. In that league per bill Conley. I, I am. Well, maybe cause the production left and they brought in. No, guys metrics count

in the transfers he's he's come up with new numbers I do think Pogge will be a fascinating character because clearly he's just gonna pop off we're gonna get him on the show I'm gonna I'm gonna call them up and and we'll get him on the show because I I am fascinated to how can you not love a dude named Biff oh yeah he like he coached without sleeves when he was coaching high school. I don't know if you can get away with that in college, but I hope so. I heard he bare wrestled Jim Harbaugh. I'll bet he won. I don't know.

Did he have to pay for dinner? I don't know. I mean, that's too... Jim Harbaugh's got money, but Biff Prodigy's got money. Money. All right, what's your second one? My second one is, are we, the collective we being the national media, sleeping on Oregon? Pick to finish fourth in the Pac-12.

Okay, that's Pac-12 media because I would not have picked them fourth. I would not have picked them fourth either, but I've seen some other folks kind of throw some cold water on the landings. I think there's a really good chance they win the league. I think. And yet they got one vote. Yeah. I think if,

if a PAC 12 team makes the playoff, it will be USC or Oregon having won the league. And yeah, maybe Utah will prove me wrong. Maybe Utah will win number three in a row and they'll be undefeated or they'll have one loss and they will break the streak and become the PAC 12 first playoff team since 2016. But I think Oregon and USC, when you look at their rosters and that's what the committee is going to do, they're going to say, you know what, if they play some of these

teams, there's a better shot. Now I know what happened when they played Georgia last year. You don't have to remind me. They're going to be better this year than they were last year, at least from a pure talent standpoint. Yeah, and I think Bucky Irving's a stud at tailback. If their defensive line, which honestly has not played up to the – Former five-star Jordan Burch, South Carolina transfer. That sounds pretty nice, especially for a defensive line that hasn't exactly lived up to its stars thus far.

I think they had just 18 sacks last season. That needs to be better. You went nuts getting to draft Bo Nix. I know. He stays healthy. He's going to pull up massive numbers. So that's what I think. I think folks are sleeping on Oregon.

They also, schedule-wise, they play at Washington, at Utah, middle of the season. If they split those games. Right, they don't have of the season. If they split those games. Right, they don't have to win them both. You split those games, you get USC and Oregon State at home two of the last three weeks of the season. They will dictate who goes. What about Coach Prime early?

Pity the Prime. That's your welcome to the Pac-12, get out of the Pac-12 moment right there. That's going to be a duck stampede. Yeah, yeah. It is crazy. I think Oregon has a good chance of winning this league. We agree. I know USC is probably going to be the favorite for most people.

25 with 36 votes. And obviously Utah, we're just never going to give them credit, are we? They won this league like six times in a row, and we're still not going to give them credit. There we? They win this league like six times in a row and we're still not going to give them credit. There does seem to be a little bit of skepticism, which notable for us down here in Gainesville, a little bit of skepticism of whether Cam Rising can play week one. Billy Napier is certainly probably crossing his fingers.

Yeah, they better get ready for him just in case. Because Kyle Whittingham said it's going to come down to the wire on that. But Brant Queethy is going to play, and he tore Florida up last year. So we'll see what happens. But now we get to our extra point. And, boy, it's a fun one. We were in Indianapolis last week for the Big Ten Media Days, and James Franklin offered a little advice to our producer river

bailey who had never had the st elmo shrimp cocktail before uh james had taken his team his guys to st elmo the the owner of st elmo is a penn state grad they had tomahawk steak you heard olu talking about that olu did not have the shrimp cocktail but uh franklin was teaching the other guys how you eat it, and he gave some advice to River. All right, James, I got my rookie producer, River. He's going to have his first St. Elmo shrimp cocktail while we're here, so just give him before you go, how do you do it?

I think the biggest tip is don't have manners and chew with your mouth open because if your mouth is shut, I don't know what you call them, vapors or whatever. It feels like it's going to explode out of your mouth. Correct. And like he said, if you've got a cold, it's the best thing ever. But if not, I would just don't have manners when you eat it. All right, Jesse, I want you to critique River's technique here. So we didn't get into St. Elmo because –

It's St. Elmo. Well, we were trying to get the show done, and we couldn't exactly be sure when we were going to be ready, so we couldn't nail down a reservation. But Harry and Izzy's, the sister restaurant, serves the same shrimp cocktail. So River got to Harry and Izzy's, and here is River trying the shrimp cocktail.

And Jesse, I want you to critique this. There you go. All right. You don't need a cracker just eat it pull a shrimp out and eat it it's a big shrimp it's a jumbo shrimp i'm not used to oxymoron a man-sized bite right there how are we feeling A man-sized bite right there.

How are we feeling? My sinuses are gone. There you go. My sinuses are watered down. Holy cow. Pretty solid. It's good? It is good.

All right. It's just very opened up now. There you go. All your senses are opened up now. There you go. All your senses are firing right now. There you go. So, River took a massive bite. That was an impressive bite. He seemed a little not impressed with the shrimp.

He seemed to be, it was okay. It was okay. And then kaboom. I mean, it was like he'd walked too close to the fire, and then just the wind just went. The thing is, when you first have it, what's going through your mind is cocktail sauce can't possibly be that hot, so who cares? I'll take a big old bite.

God bless horseradish. And it takes a second or so, and then it feels like it's all going to explode out of every orifice in your face, and that's where he was when he's like, oh, man. It's a brilliant bite. I, too, have never been to the original St. Elmo's. I've only been to Harry and Izzy's. So good on River.

Welcome to the club. I'm glad you at least got to experience it, taste it. I mean, like you said, the best part was he went for it. Dove in. Too big. Jumbo shrimp. That's what I appreciate. If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. Grab it. Huge bite. Perfect.

Love it. That's our newest member of the team. That's River. You may have a different food take tomorrow. Less impressive. Exactly. Exactly. There is a photo floating around on social media from Michigan that we may have to critique.

Dear Andy show tomorrow. So get your questions in. You know where to find us. At Andy underscore Staples. At Jesse R.E. Simonton. On. I'm calling it Twitter. I'm sorry. I'm not calling it X.

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