Andy & Ari On3 - Which coaches can work their way off the hot seat? | The NCAA has chosen the hill on which to die

Episode Date: May 31, 2024

It’s a Dear Andy show, but before we get to your questions, there is a ton of news to discuss…(0:00-13:16) Intro: More Kickoff Times Announced(13:17-24:31) Pete Nakos Joins to break down Transfer Portal Settlement(24:32-28:44) Governance of College Sports moving forward(28:45-28:59) Dear Andy Intro(29:00-34:59) Hot Seat Watch - Recap of Eliah Drinkwitz and Neal Brown(35:00-43:27) Billy Napier(43:28-47:59) Sam Pittman(48:00-51:07) Dave Aranda(51:08-57:26) Colorado Miss Bowl Game AND Travis Hunter win Heisman?(57:25-59:03) Arch Manning takes over or Non-Power 2 Champion?(59:04-1:09:10) SEC Trips on November 9th and 16th for Jim(1:09:11-1:10:20) Wrapping up the week(1:10:21-1:12:37) Northwestern's Temporary HomeThe SEC dropped a bunch of early-season kickoff times Thursday and — more importantly — promised to deliver the kickoff times for most of the rest of the season on June 11. Of note, the first SEC edition of the Red River Rivalry will kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT. Also, the Egg Bowl (Mississippi State at Ole Miss) and Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate (Georgia Tech at Georgia) are moving to Black Friday.In other news, the NCAA settled a federal lawsuit with the Department of Justice and various state attorneys general over transfer rules. Essentially, there won’t be any. On3’s Pete Nakos will explain why the NCAA rolled over on an issue that has a huge effect on football and basketball.Now it’s time for your questions…Which coaches could make an off-the-hot-seat comeback the way West Virginia’s Neal Brown did last year?Could two-way Colorado star Travis Hunter win the Heisman Trophy if the Buffaloes don’t make a bowl game?Which SEC games should Jim from Michigan attend in November?What is more likely: Arch Manning takes over for Ewers during the season, or a non-Power 2 school wins the Natty?Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/7fTvJO7WwXYHost: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples Up to Free. Happy Friday. We move from virtual college football to real college football and it felt even more real on Thursday as more conferences dropped kickoff times. The SEC was finishing its spring meetings in Destin, Florida and usually that means there's going to be some kickoff time sprinkled in. We got some more of those, but we also got a very interesting announcement from the SEC. And this is something that a few of the SEC ADs had been telling me was coming for a few years, but it was one of those that you don't really believe it until you actually see it. So we got the first three weeks of kickoff times, which is nice, but they always put out the early kickoff times about this time of year. This was the most we'd seen to this point. But on June 11th, the SEC is going to release the entire schedule. There may be a couple of flex games that they'll say this may be a 3.30 Eastern

or it may be a primetime game. But for the most part, you're going to see kickoff times that are set in stone for most of the season. And that is a remedy to probably one of the biggest complaints that I've gotten from fans about when you just tell me when the games are like the NFL can tell you exactly when the games are with a few exceptions. And they do it every year. They drop the schedule. Here's their kickoff times. If you're planning travel to the games, if you're planning how you're going to watch the games, you can figure it out. College football is not like that. College football has

these 11-day windows, sometimes even six-day windows, where you don't know when your game's going to kick off. It could kick off at noon Eastern time. It could kick off at 8 p.m. Eastern time. And it's annoying. It's very annoying if you're going to the games. It's even annoying if you're just planning on watching them on TV. But if you're going to the game, especially big games in these college towns, small college towns, most of the people are coming from two, three, four hours away. They're trying to plan things. Well, the way you plan for a noon game is very different from the way you plan for an 8 p.m. game. So you're going to get times. June 11th, they're going to have a whole show. Now, I don't think it's going to be a case where the wedding planners around the South are going

to be watching. That's the one where you find out when your open week is. So they're going to have to have that show different. You could do this all at once. Guys, the NFL has shown you the way to make this thing an event. But absolutely, this is the time to tell us when these kickoffs are. Let people know. The Big Ten is going to get all the ire here. Because now the Big Ten games are on so many different networks. They have the draft. They have different choices.

But they're not going to be as flexible about doing this. They're going to want to wait and say, we need to see what the best games are going to be. Then we'll figure out how to set them up in terms of time. The SEC, because it's now all on ESPN networks, it's a little bit different. They can just say, look, hey, we're on this network. Before it was CBS had the first choice. And so CBS wanted to make sure it had the best opportunity to get the best game. And that's why you had that 11 day window is CBS would pick that game. And then all of a sudden it's everybody else just moves around because it for the SEC everything else was on the ESPN family of networks and so once CBS picked then they could move things where they wanted to move it they just need to know what CBS was going to pick

that is not the case anymore also some of the feature games moving around. So we learned this on Thursday, the first SEC edition of the Red River rivalry, Oklahoma and Texas. Now that game has been played at noon Eastern, 11 a.m. local time at the Cotton Bowl most years in the last few years. It is going to be a 3.30 Eastern, 2.30 local kick, so you have more time to eat fried things at the Texas State Fair before you go into the game. Basically, they're doing what they do with Florida Georgia and Jacksonville. That game has usually been at 3.30. They did try it at primetime. It did not go well. They decided they're not going to have that in primetime anymore because people just get way too drunk having that long to drink before the game.

Red River, though, 3.30, 2.30 local. Get yourself some deep-fried Snickers bars. Head into the game. The Egg Bowl, traditionally on Thanksgiving, is moving to 3.30 Eastern, Eastern two 30 local on black Friday. Black Friday is going to be an interesting day because I, you know, the NFL always had it's Thanksgiving games. You always had your Cowboys game and your lions game. The NFL has since started putting pretty good games in primetime on Thanksgiving, which makes it tough.

Like the Egg Bowl used to be, you know, you'd have your Cowboys game, your Lions game, and then everybody watches the Egg Bowl that night. Now there's a really good NFL game on that night. I see why they're not trying to compete with that. Now, obviously the NFL is also playing on Black Friday. We know that. But college football still feels like it owns Black Friday because now you're going to have the Egg Bowl at 3.30 on Black Friday. Remember, Nebraska-Iowa is on Black Friday, and we've talked about how good that game could be this year.

If Iowa's pretty good, that game could potentially, maybe, be for a playoff berth with Nebraska playing a spoiler. Also on Black Friday, clean old-fashioned hate. Georgia Tech and Georgia, that game's in Athens, is going to kick off at 7.30 p.m. Eastern time on Black Friday. So, you know, the SEC trying to take more of Black Friday. A couple of years ago, Florida State moved the Florida game to Black Friday. Now it was on the ACC TV contract, but I thought that was a good spot to move that game to that particular year because Florida wasn't really in the hunt for much. Florida State was pretty good that year.

That felt like a good time to have that game. Now, if both those teams are competing for national titles, if they're both competing for playoff berths, yeah, you probably want that game on Saturday. Georgia and Georgia Tech, that series has been so lopsided. Georgia is so much better than Georgia Tech right now, although I will say Brent Key's team played Georgia really tough last year. That one, it's a great rivalry, but I don't think anybody's going to go in expecting Georgia Tech to pull off the upset. And that's one of those, if they do, if they're competitive,

it's a very pleasant surprise on Friday, watching the game Black Friday. You're done with your shopping, you're eating your leftovers, but that leaves some prime real estate on Saturday for game that might be a little more in doubt. So very interesting. Some of these kickoff times, I I've got some more from week two and three that I thought were interesting. Christopher Jordan says the Alabama, Wisconsin kickoff time is whack. Now we already knew what time that was going to be. Alabama-Wisconsin was announced a while back. It's noon. If you're playing at a Big Ten stadium and you're Alabama or you're somebody really good,

you're going to kick off at noon Eastern. That's how Fox does it. Fox puts their best game at noon Eastern. So, well, I say that now. Unless that Big Ten Stadium is Autzen Stadium or the Coliseum in LA, you're probably not kicking off at 9 a.m. local, though I think Fox would still like that to happen. I don't think they're giving up on that yet. But, no, that is when they play their biggest games. So, yeah, Michigan, Texas, same thing.

You're going to see games like that. Andrew says, believe it or not, we'd be too drunk for 3.30 for the Georgia-Florida game. That's true. I've been to many of those games. They could play that game at 6.30 in the morning, and you'd all still be drunk. Steven Wilson says, Texas and Texas A&M definitely taking the Egg Bowl spot on Thanksgiving. I don't believe they are. I don't believe they are.

They did play that game traditionally on Thanksgiving Day, but when you have teams that are competitive for playoff berths, and I don't know, do you want to play a very important game on a short week like that? And I think, you know, if you're Ole Miss, it's sort of the same thing. Ole Miss this year is a team that is in contention for the playoff, most likely, if everything goes the way they would like it to. But no, Texas A&M is going to be on that Saturday. Especially if Texas is competing for the SEC title, competing for a playoff berth. You don't want to have to turn around and play a game like that on four days.

Thomas, we prefer to have later kickoff time so we can drink more before the game. Yes, Thomas, I'm aware. I went to an SEC school. I'm aware of how this works. LSU, Florida, Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, very much aware. Very much aware of the complaints from the folks in Oklahoma that thought the Big 12 was out to get them with the noon Eastern kickoffs, the 11 a.m. local kickoffs. But they're going to have fewer of those this year.

I was looking through the tick-off times that got released for the first three weeks. Speaking of Oklahoma, your first SEC network appearance is week two when Houston comes to town. That just looked weird to me, seeing that on the schedule. Oklahoma on the SEC network. Speaking of conference networks, this was an interesting one, too. I was looking at the ACC schedule. They dropped some game times on Thursday as well. Appalachian State Clemson in prime time on the ACC Network week two.

Be a little careful when you're playing Appalachian State on your own conference network. The very first game ever played on the Big Ten Network was Appalachian State Michigan in 2007. Be very careful there. Speaking of cross-conference games, Ole Miss, watch out. We were talking about Ole Miss a second ago. Watch out, Ole Miss. You're going to Winston-Salem to play Wake Forest in week three. You're going to be on the CW. You're going to be on the CW at 6.30 p.m. Eastern time.

The CW is where the old Raycom games went last year, starting last year. Weird things happened in those CW games. I'm telling you right now, very strange things happen in that CW game. Ole Miss should definitely beat Wake Forest. Like there's no question that Ole Miss should beat Wake Forest, but you've put that thing on the CW.

Okay. Now, now you have my attention. Now you have my attention. A couple other ones. That classic ACC SEC clash. How at Auburn. 3.30 week two on ESPN2.

Tennessee-NC State, one of the games we've been looking forward to. You've been listening to the ceilings and floor shows. For the SEC and the ACC, we talked about this game quite a bit. We think both these teams are going to be pretty good. Both these teams are potential playoff teams. That game is at 7.30 p.m. on ABC Week 2. That game is from Charlotte. And then Mississippi State is going to play some Big 12 after dark.

They go to Arizona State. And they play at 10.30 p.m. Eastern, 9.30 p.m. Central. 7.30 local in Week 2. So we got some times. We know when some of these things are kicking off, that makes it feel more real. We are so much closer. It is June 1st tomorrow. We are not far away from actual football, people. This is not a drill. But it is still May. So, of course, we have to talk about people either complaining about rules, changing rules, doing stuff with rules, because that is what we do in May. And for that, we bring on the great Pete Nikos.

He had a very interesting necrotification yesterday. Pete, the NCAA has settled the federal lawsuit over the transfer rules. It's another settlement just a week after the last one. Yeah, Andy, really interesting development yesterday. And the thing that we're going to talk about here the most is as part of the settlement agreement, the NCAA is not going to enforce the multi-time transfer portal rules at this point. And they've also agreed to not put any rules in place to circumvent the settlement. And that kind of gives you an idea of what we think this enforcement mechanism in this house for NCAA settlement, the other settlement that came last week, probably will not include anything on the transfer portal. And that is very interesting to me because I put in the headline of this,

the NCAA has chosen the hill on which to die. And the hill they're going to die on, I'm saying that like it's going to happen. I'm not saying the NCAA is going to go away. I'm just saying in terms of losing these fights, winning these fights, the one they're going to fight is athletes being employees, because this is not so much a settlement as them saying, we lose, we're done. We can't fight this. And they finally wised up on this front because the reason they can't fight this is in a world where the Federal Trade Commission just outlawed non-competes in general for people who aren't top executives at their companies. That's something that's happening out in the real world. It has nothing to do with

college sports, but kind of does in this case. You're not going to go to court and try to enforce a non-compete on non-employees, on people that you on the other side of these, you know, in other parts of the court system, you are arguing vociferously that they are not employees. Right. Yeah. And the other thing that really popped out about the settlement agreement was the rule of restitution is not going to be enforced anymore. And this was one of the big NCAA bylaws that allowed the organization to go back and punish schools or athletes who sued the NCAA and lost in court. And while the NCAA has really only used this bylaw on, I believe, only one or two occasions, it just shows that this power structure in college sports that we've known forever, we've thought to be toothless for well over a decade now, is really going to have to undergo some change. This House settlement goes back in the play of how does the NCAA look?

Does it try to become a front office like the professional sports or whatnot? We can dig into this more, but all that means is Congress has to step up. And we all know that that Congress really has not had an appetite for anything in the last 33 to 35 months. Yeah. And here's the thing I find interesting about this, because I think if you ask coaches, they don't like the way the NIL stuff works. They don't like it being completely uncapped that you can basically ask for more money all the time. But the other piece of that is the mechanism that allows the players the leverage to ask for that more money. And that is I can go to another school anytime I want to. The coaches, if you ask them, like if you gave them a choice between, would you rather have a salary cap or would you rather be able to sign a player to a contract that says they will be at your school for this number of years?

Whatever number that is, three, four, whatever. Yeah. They would take the contract that says they'll be there that many years. They don't want to give them the power to renegotiate. The money part doesn't matter to them. Yeah, exactly. And we talked about this last Friday and I'll bring it up again, but it really brings up the idea of transfer fees coming to college football. And, and if athletes are sharing,

signing contracts when it comes to revenue sharing, how do those non-compete clauses and things like that work out? Because as you mentioned, the ftc ruled against those recently so uh a lot needs to be worked through so i've just read the the messy versus ronaldo book and so i've that a lot of that is about transfer fees and how that process works in international soccer now i don't think i don't think you can set a value for a transfer fee. Like we may see transfer fees, which I actually think would be a pretty good idea. If your group of five schools or, or your Vanderbilts of the world are going to become farm teams for the teams that are playing for the college football playoff for the national title.

Like, I think that would, that would help things and, and probably, you know, give them some more money, allow them to, to retain their players better. But I don't think you could do a thing like, you know,

with, with Ronaldo or with Messi, like Barcelona would, would set Messi's transfer fee at like 800 million euros. And like, I don't think you could set the the transfer fee of the starting like let's say dj lagway becomes the starting quarterback at florida he's as good as advertised like i don't think florida could set his transfer fee at 50 million dollars yeah and i was joking around i said general bootyoty. That would be probably one of the lower transfer fees

as much as we're going to play him in EA Sports College Football 25, which is dropping a deep dive later this morning. Yes, I know. I know. They've rolled this marketing campaign out in a pretty smart fashion because they bring us down last week. They tell us, okay, you can start talking about this on Wednesday. And I asked them for more video assets of the game to,

to run as B roll when we were talking about it in the video the other day. And I asked them for still shots of different things. And they said, no, can't have any of those. Why? Because they're putting this out today. The other, the other thing that we should talk about real quick when we talk transfers here, Andy, is the D1 council approved emergency measures in April to allow athletes to transfer as many times as they want as long as they remain in academic standards. So yesterday's news, while very interesting, while the Department of Justice negotiated a settlement with the NCAA, it also is not like this resetting of the portal market necessarily because it came in April. At the the same time though it's also just

another major courtroom loss for for the ncaa yeah i mean because it's basically them saying we're not going to fight this is the department of justice allows them to call this a settlement it's not a settlement it is essentially we're laying down our sword and getting nothing out of this we're just not going to waste any more money fighting this because we know we're laying down our sword and getting nothing out of this. We're just not going to waste any more money fighting this because we know we're going to lose. And that's the part that, that I find interesting because this, this feels to me,

Pete, like the first time they've really done that, they just said, you know what? We're not fighting this. And it's definitely been a change in strategy, right? Like I think I would have predicted

the NCAA power conferences to settle this House settlement maybe 12 months ago. I don't know if I would have thought it would go as quickly and smoothly as it did. I kind of thought it would have gone up to the jury trial start. But obviously with the House settlement, and now

this one, it's clear that the NCAA just wants to stop bleeding money and trying to fight in the courtroom a battle it doesn't think it can win. And now we're definitely going to see the leaders head up to Congress yet again. Well, right. They're going to go to Congress and they're also going to have to fight in the National Labor Relations Board cases, which will funnel into the court system as well, where some players are trying to be deemed employees. And that seems to be where they're going to fight. They're going to pool their resources to fight that fight. And it's interesting because you talk to the folks who are trying to organize the athletes into some sort of collective bargaining unit, and they, they say they don't necessarily have to be employees that they,

if they can collectively bargain without them being employees, maybe there's a path to that, but that would, that, that would also potentially take a congressional action to make that happen. Right. Yeah. That would have to come with probably the,

some sort of an anti-trust exemption. And then obviously the preemption of state laws and things like that. So yet again, it's Congress. But it is an interesting model to think about. It's something that almost all player associations now back, mainly the College Football Players Association and athletes.org. But it's really interesting too, and we can dig into this another time, but this house settlement really has nothing, from my understanding, that would really set these associations up to collectively bargain. Right. So you've got nothing really set up that way.

Now no rules that govern player movement. I know the people in charge understand this, but it feels like they're not fully comprehending. The player movement piece of it is what drives this, is what drives these markets. And so if they can't control that, they're never going to be able to control the money part of it either, because you and I have talked about this. They want this house settlement to be a salary cap. It will not be. If you think NIL collectives are going away, what you heard yesterday means they're definitely not going away. And free transfer movement also means that some athletes are going to go to the highest bidder. Well, how do you think the highest bidders are going to bid?

It's not going to be through $ 80,000 a year in revenue sharing. It's going to be coming through backroom deals or through collectives or however you want to say it, but that's going to continue to have a lot to do with movement in college football. I'm waiting for transfer fees. Christopher in the chat says, we obviously need oversight. If the NCAA is done and it's heading that way, what does governance need to look like? Pete, I don't know if the NCAA is done. I think there's still going to be an event management company. We'll see. Because everybody involved in that House settlement keeps saying, well, there's an enforcement piece of it, but we can't

tell you what it is. I believe that they've made something up. Yeah. I just have a feeling when they reveal it to us, we're just going to laugh at them because they're not going to be able to do anything with it. The little bit we've known is everyone keeps citing, oh,

it might look like an NBA or NFL kind of management system front office with, with commissioners and things like that. Well, that's great, but that's really only great for football. And then it brings up the question yet again, does some of these conferences break off under the college football playoff umbrella and do their own thing?

And the other really interesting thing too here, Andy, is someone's going to have to govern the rest of college sports. Like I know the fans and like we spent so much time worrying about the top 150 FBS teams, but I think one mechanism of all of this that probably hasn't been talked about enough is there there there is gonna have to be event management and and that's why a lot of people believe and tell me and andy that uh there there could still be a split yeah yeah and that's the thing

they're they're gonna be a bunch of schools schools and there are a bunch of schools that are basically doing a different thing. They're running a different operation. They're running more of a charity than anything else. And what we talk about normally with teams that are playing for the college football playoff teams that are in the power conferences, they're not running a charity. They're running a business. And it's a very different type of situation. So yeah, I wouldn't be shocked if there were multiple governing bodies down the line. I know that's not what the people in power want, but the people in power don't want things to change. And unfortunately for them, they are going to change no matter what. So Pete, enjoy your weekend.

Maybe there won't be some massive, like, think about this. If I had told you 10 years ago that the NCAA would just roll over on the transfer rules because the Department of Justice and multiple states went after them, it would have sounded crazy. It would have been crazy. It would have sounded crazy. It would have been crazy. It would have been crazy. And the antitrust arm of the Department of Justice tweeting out the settlement,

that provided a real laugh yesterday. Yeah, that's when you know that everybody despises you. When the Department of Justice comes after you and they're celebrating that you rolled over. Pete Nacos, thank you so much. We will talk to you very soon. See you guys. That's Pete Nacos. That was a little bit, you knew it was coming because you knew they couldn't fight that. You really can't send your lawyers to one part of the court system or one arm of the government, in this case, the National Labor Relations Board, and say, they're not employees, and then send lawyers to another

part of the court system and say, but we must hold them to these non-competes. So there will be no transfer rules. If you think there will be any sort of enforcement going forward, you are wrong because the lack of transfer rules will drive this market. So continue to be ready for coaches to complain about all this because that's the part they hate. That's really the part they hate. It's not that the players are getting money. I don't think any coaches really are that concerned about the players getting money. In fact, most of them will tell you they're fine with that. There's, there's a lot of money in college sports. I think most coaches would, would agree that their salaries have ballooned in a pretty crazy way. They're happy to take it. I'd take it too. If somebody wanted to offer me that money, I'd take it too. But they understand. They're not naive. They understand the players deserve a cut of this. What drives them insane is that basically week to week, some guy could come in and say, hey, I'm going to put my name in the portal if you don't

give me a raise. Now, portal windows help that a little bit. And I do think this probably helps you if you're going to have portal windows, because you can say, look, we're not restricting their movement. If they want to move, they could, this is, but we have to, or form. So that helps. But it does, at the very minimum, a player's going to be allowed to renegotiate every year. A player's going to be a free agent every single season. That's the part that drives the coaches nuts. And that's the rule they roll over on because they cannot enforce it. They just can't. They were going to lose that case. All right, let us move to Dear Andy. We have some great questions for you. And I love Dan's first question because I

like the way we're coming at this. And I'll tell you why after I read you this question. This question is from Dan. Eli Drinkwits and Neil Brown were on warm, if not hot seats going into last year. Both seem to have turned the corner, Missouri more so. What coaches are on notice currently do you think will turn around and go from maybe they'll get fired to signing an extension come December? I like this because it doesn't cause us to do the traditional hot seat show. And we'll probably have to do that at some point as we get closer to the season. I realize that. I realize that's part of covering the sport.

It's not a part of covering the sport that I like, though. Because I don't want to, I don't want it to seem like we're rooting for anybody to get fired. And the thing about it is, like these head coaches, they're getting these massive buyouts. I don't, I'm not worried about them. I don't feel sorry for them. Like they're getting massive amounts of money. They were paid massive amounts of money when they're fired. It's usually because they failed in spite of being paid massive amounts of money and

they're going to be comfortable and their families are going to be comfortable. What bothers me is when you fire a head coach, most of the organization gets wiped out. And that means there's a lot of people who are not making massive amounts of money. People who are making very normal salaries who then have to uproot their families and move, find new jobs. Like that's the part I hate about all this. So I like the fact that Dan came at it from a more positive direction, like, Hey, who can play their way out of this? And I think Neil Brown's a great example. I'll push back on Eli Drinkwitz.

So I realize if you don't follow the contract news, you might have looked at Eli Drinkwitz as being in trouble going into last season. But he was actually given an extension after the 2022 season. He was not going anywhere. Now, perhaps if they'd had a bad year last year, he starts this year with some negativity, but he was in a pretty good spot. He was pretty comfortable. And obviously, they were great last year. They should be good again this year. I don't think there's anything to worry about for Eli Drinkwitz. Neil Brown was going to get fired. And Neil would tell you that.

Neil would have told you that going into last season. I remember talking to him in the spring of last year. And he said, you know, this is my last. I got to make my stand here, basically. That's why he went back to calling plays. It's why he reorganized things in the way where he felt the most comfortable because he said, look, I've got to do it the best way I can do this because I've got to make this work.

And he did. They won nine games at West Virginia last year. And I think one thing that that taught me watching that situation play out is that in this era of college sports where everything's in flux and everything's changing, we probably shouldn't make any grand sweeping assumptions going into a season about a program and say, well, this guy's definitely getting fired or this guy's definitely going to make it because here's what happened with Neil Brown. This is why Neil Brown went from hot seat to winning nine games,

signing an extension, feeling pretty good about things. West Virginia's collective could not help Neil Brown retain players after the 2021 season, after the 2022 season. They were, I'm sorry, after the 2021 season, after the 2022 season. They were, they were, I'm sorry, after the 2021 season, they were bleeding players. They were one of the teams that got pillaged the most that year. After the 2022 season, they'd gotten things in order. It allowed them to keep a lot of the really good players they had. They had some continuity. They had some guys who played big roles the year before who then come in and play a big role in 2023.

They had the same thing in place going from last year to this year. And you'd look, West Virginia didn't lose very much through the transfer portal. So a lot of it is the trial and error of figuring out how does this all really work? How do we get these pieces in place to make it work? And remember, it's all constantly shifting. We don't know what the collectives are going to look like once the schools start paying out the revenue share. We just talked about it with Pete. They're probably going to have collectives. They'll probably supplement the money that the schools are giving out, but it won't be the same thing as it is now. And so like West Virginia had to get its house in order, figure that part out. And all of a sudden, Neil Brown was in a much different place.

The job became much different. It became something sustainable. Whereas post-2021, if you looked at the way things were going that offseason, you're like, there's nothing he can do here. There's nothing anybody can do here. Well, now you can't. And West Virginia will go into the Big 12 schedule, feeling pretty confident that they can play with anybody in the league.

They open with Penn State. Chaotic 37. So imagine Neil Brown upsets Penn State to start the season. What a story that would be. Absolutely. Now, I went into last season because they played at Penn State to open last season. The Penn State's coming to them in Morgantown this year. And I said, you've got Yolo Neil Brown because he should run every trick play in the book because what

has he got to lose? What are they going to do? Fire him? Because they were going to fire him. If it hadn't worked out, if they'd gone five and seven, probably if they'd gone six and six, they were going to fire him. And now he's very safe. So let's talk about the coaches this year who could be in that position. There's three coaches that if you ask anybody, they're the names that pop up when we say who is in a situation where they really need to win this year or that's it. It's Billy Napier at Florida. It's Sam Pittman at Arkansas. It's Dave Aranda at Baylor. In all three of those cases, they've got to win.

But I do think in all three of those cases, if they do win, they're okay. They're going to be okay. We'll start with Billy Napier. That's the highest profile one. We talk about Florida's schedule all the time. He's getting sued by Jayden Rashada. We've talked about Billy Napier a ton over the last few weeks because of all of the stuff around him the thing about Billy Napier though is he can make this all go away by having a good season now he can't make that lawsuit go away that that will be what it'll be the Rashada thing happened and they have to deal with the fall out of that but it doesn't necessarily affect him going forward, especially because the NCAA rules regarding NIL, they're enjoined by the courts right now. So I think if Florida had wanted to, if those NCAA rules still existed,

they could have Jeremy pruded Billy Napier. Because based on a text message that we saw in a lawsuit, there's a recruiting staffer named Marcus Castro Walker who was negotiating basically Jaden Rashada's deal, which would have been in violation of the NCAA rules at the time. And they can tag anything that a staffer does to the head coach. So they could have Jeremy pruded him if those rules existed. Tennessee and Virginia, the states suing the NCAA, make that impossible. So that's not on the table.

Florida doesn't want to fire Billy Napier. At the end of the season, it would cost like $26 million. I believe half of that would be due within, I think, the first couple of months. That is not a great situation. That's a massive upfront payment combined with a massive payment that you'd have to make to hire somebody else. So Florida does not want to do that. Florida would love for things to work with Billy Napier. And I think you talk to people around the program, around Gainesville, everybody likes Billy Napier.

They like him as a person. They just need him to win more games. So I do think it's possible for him to do that. Now, we've talked about a few times, what would it take? And the thing is the schedule is so hard that it actually, it lowers the threshold for what it takes, I think, to stay. Because I think if you go seven and five against this schedule, you're probably okay with that. Now, if the five losses are by, you know, by an average of 35 points. That's maybe something different. But if you can win seven against the schedule,

my guess is the five losses are not by that much either. If you're eight and four against the schedule, you are perfectly fine because that means you did beat somebody that probably was competing for a college football playoff berth. And that is the goal to be able to do that. So that's the path to stay. That's the path Billy Napier needs to take to stay.

Now, it's certainly not going to be easy because I think that early season schedule, while it offers the best chances to win games, it also offers some chances for crippling losses, like losing to Miami off the bat. From a psychological standpoint with the fan base, it would be awful. Even though Miami could be one of the better teams in the country,

at least from a roster standpoint, they are. We don't know. We need to see them do it on the field, but we think they are going to be pretty good. So even losing to them isn't the end of the world. Texas A&M though, that's one of those that I think, you know, if you ask the average Florida fan, they're marking that as a W. I don't look at that as an automatic W. I look at that as a coin flip. I saw what Mike Elko did in year one at Duke. He was working magic with a

roster that wasn't nearly as good as what he inherited at Texas A&M. He's got a quarterback in Connor Wigman. They went and got Nick Skorton, one of the best edge rushers in the country from Purdue. They're going to be pretty good. Are they going to be competitive for a college football playoff berth right off the bat?

I don't think so. But could they come to the swamp and win? Yeah. So you got to win that game if Billy Napier. The UCF game, absolutely critical for Billy Napier to win. You cannot let Gus Malzahn bring the Knights into the swamp and beat you. That's the one from a practical and a psychological standpoint, that would be that. Because you can't lose to UCF at home if you're Florida. That's the psychological piece of it.

But the other piece of it is UCF could be a very good team in the Big 12. We'll see. Their offense is going to be very good. Whether their defense comes around is the big question mark. But if their defense is solid, you're talking about a team that could actually compete for the Big 12 title. But compared to the teams that are on the back half of Florida's schedule, UCF is not that good. And if you can't beat them, what's going to happen when you play Texas and Georgia and Ole Miss, Florida State? That's the issue. So that's what Billy Napier's got to do because he's got DJ Lagway, the

quarterback everybody's excited about, but he's got Graham Mertz ahead of him, who's a good steady, rock-solid influence, the person you want. He's the Alex Smith you want your Patrick Mahomes to sit behind, If we're going to, if we're going to use that analogy, though, I don't want to put that on DJ Lagway right now, but that's what you've got to be thinking about. You've got to, you just got to one at a time, get those W's. I even think there's a path at six and six. I think it depends on, on the six losses and what they look like, but I think there's a path at six and six. I think it depends on, on the six losses and what they look like, but I think there's a path.

Cause like I said, they don't want to fire him. It's not a great situation. There's not an obvious person that you go after the people you might go after that would make the fan base happy are very expensive very very expensive y'all best i want to see you have to as good as possible as a fan but regardless of season i believe we need to see 2025 with lagway at qb1 or else there's no point yeah but here's your thing if they go four and eight or five and seven,

Napier's kind of told you who he is at that point. I don't think it matters. You had, remember, you had the number four pick in the draft at QB1 in your 100-billion Napier. They went six and six. So he's got to show he can win period. It doesn't matter whether he wins with DJ Lagway or somebody else. He needs to show he can win period because if he can't at least crawl over 500 or crawl to 500 with these guys, it's not going to get you what you want with billy with dj lagway either but you can go seven and five with graham mertz against the schedule or eight and four with graham mertz against his schedule then that gets you excited about what things look like with dj lagway

john tudor's just nasty i could see flor Florida going 1 and 12 thank god they play Tennessee I'm not sure here you're trying to insult more Florida or Tennessee with that one that's that is uh that's diabolical right there diabolical that game's in Knoxville though so the curse is only in Gainesville for the Vols they've've won some in Knoxville. So I don't know that the curse applies in this particular case. Okay. Let's move on to Sam Pittman. Sam Pittman, another person that the people around the program would love to see succeed. They don't want to fire him. But if you look at the way things have gone, they certainly seem to be headed that direction if Arkansas doesn't turn things around.

So what do you do? This is a very interesting situation. Unlike the Billy Napier situation, where he's still very much in control of things. He's revamped his staff in a way that he wants to. He didn't get forced into anything that he didn't want to do. Napier's still going to call plays, which is his choice and his prerogative. Pittman got an offensive coordinator put with him, who used to be the head coach of the program, who was fired in a very ignominious fashion, but not because he was losing. Bobby Petrino, the last coach to be truly successful at Arkansas, is the offensive coordinator for the Razorbacks this year. If that's not a, hey, if Sam doesn't get it done, we slip Bobby as the interim. If he wins a couple games, we can have Bobby as the head coach again. That's what that is. So Sam has to work his way out of

this. Here's where that starts. Well, obviously, you don't lose to Arkansas at Pine Bluff, but I don't think they're going to do that. But week two, they're going to Stillwater. They're going to Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State is one of the best teams in the Big 12. They bring Ollie Gordon II back. Dr. Alan Bowman is still playing quarterback there. They are very similar to the team that played in the Big 12 title game last season. That's a game, if you can go in and win,

you can get a lot of forward momentum. It would be very helpful. It would change things. Arkansas has made some changes. K.J. Jefferson, he went to UCF. He's going to play for Gus Malzahn. Talon Green comes from Boise State. Remember, we saw Talon Green lead Boise State to the Mountain West title at the end of last season. Remember, they fired Andy Avalos midseason, Boise State did.

And they rallied. And Talon Green played really well down the stretch. Ashton Gentry, also a huge part of that, of course. But this is one where you've got to win at Oklahoma State. You may have to go to Auburn and win. And I've said, look, Auburn is going to be in a very interesting position because they've got Oklahoma coming in, in Oklahoma's first SEC road game.

They've got this Arkansas game. These are both games of Jordan Hare, where the other team really, really needs to win, and Auburn can crush some dreams. I think Auburn's going to be better in year two under Hugh Freeze. For Arkansas to have any chance, they got to win games like this. Obviously, you have to win in start ball. But the rest of the SEC schedule is brutal.

It's brutal. Tennessee, LSU, Texas, at Missouri. I don't know if you're winning those games, even if you're pretty good. So that's the part where Sam Pitt, he's got to win one of those, I think, to keep his job. But everybody would like that, I think, I think everybody around Arkansas would like to see him stay, but it's going to require him just like Billy Napier to win some games. We don't expect him to win. Now we've, I feel like we've seen Sam Pittman do that. We have yet to see

Billy Napier. Well, maybe we didn't make The Utah game, year one for Billy Napier. I think that was one. I guess we didn't know what to expect, but that's one I would have probably picked Utah at the beginning of the season. So that one is probably it for Napier, but Pittman has got to win one or two of those and then hold serve on all the games that Arkansas

is either the better team or it's a coin flip. You probably got to go to Stillwater and win, and that's going to be very difficult. Tough situation, but it's doable. It's doable. Now let's look at Dave Aranda at Baylor. Dave Aranda, the only one of these coaches that we're mentioning who's won the conference at his school. They won the conference at Baylor in 2021. That of course engendered a lot of goodwill. That goodwill is mostly gone right now. So what has Baylor got? What do they have to do? Be competitive in the Big 12. The thing about the Big 12 is there's a lot of teams that can compete for the conference title. We're not looking at Baylor as one of those teams. It has to insert itself in that conversation. Can it do it?

We're going to find out. We're going to find out. Air Force as a non-conference game. Don't like that. Don't like that one at all. That's a tough one. And then they got a lot of the best of the Big 12. They got to go to Utah.

They have to play Oklahoma State. They get them at home. They have to go to West Virginia. They have to go to Iowa State. It's not a pleasant road schedule in the Big 12. They have to go to Iowa State. It's not a pleasant road schedule in the Big 12. They have to go to Colorado also. We don't know yet what Colorado is going to be, but that's one of those. If I'm looking at Colorado's schedule, I'm probably penciling that in as a W for Colorado. You've got to win those games if you're Dave Aranda. If you're Dave Aranda,

I'm looking at the schedule. We'll say you're going to losea. If you're Dave Aranda, I'm looking at the schedule. Let's say, we'll say you're going to lose to Utah. You're going to lose to Oklahoma State. The other games are all winnable. They're also all losable. Maybe at Houston is one where you should just go in and win. But you're going to Lubbock. That's not going to be easy.

Ames is not an easy place to play. We just talked about Neil Brown and what they bring back. Kansas, they closed the season with them. Lance Leipold has a role in there. This is a very difficult schedule, but like I said, if we're just penciling in, you're definitely like,

and I don't even think they're definitely going to lose to Utah or Oklahoma state. But if I were just to say, look at the schedule, put the ones you think are probable L's. Those are the two I'm putting. I'm probably not writing an L next to any of the other games. So Dave Aranda definitely has a chance to pull out of this. He's got Jake Spavitol in as his offensive coordinator.

Gary Patterson, former TCU coach, working as a consultant, which is wild because the vitriol in that TCU-Baylor rivalry is something to behold. But yeah, I think Dave Aranda has a chance. It's not necessarily going to be easy, but you look at that schedule, there's a lot of coin flip games. If you can win them, you'd be okay. Next question comes from Real Big Heart Man. Can Colorado miss a bowl game and Travis Hunter still win the Heisman? This is a great question. I know the Colorado fans don't want to hear it phrased this way.

And I don't think we have to phrase it this way. I think we can even predict massive improvement for Colorado. We could say Colorado is going to go eight and four, make a bowl game. And you still are going to have this debate. Now, I think because what Travis Hunter does is so extraordinary, like this isn't just like Charles Woodson would play receiver occasionally. Travis Hunter plays full-time receiver and full-time corner. It's extraordinary to watch. And I think that should lower the bar. I also think the team aspect of it is a little misleading in the Heisman race because you have people who are like, well, he has to play on a good team. No, you don't. It's the most outstanding player.

You can't help who got put around you. All you can do is what you can do. And Travis Hunter does it all. So should Travis Hunter, if he's one of the best corners in the country and one of the best receivers in the country, either be a finalist or win the Heisman trophy. Yes, he should. No question about it. I don't even care what Colorado's record is.

If he is one of the best at two positions, absolutely. Will that happen? Probably not. Colorado will probably need to be pretty good to make this happen. I went back some of the more recent Heisman races. The most comparable one is the one last year. Jay Daniels.

LSU was not in the mix for the national title. I mean, when they lost to Florida State in the opener, it was on life support. When they lost to Ole Miss, that was pretty much it. They had a shot when they played Alabama because at that point, they had not lost more than one conference game. But he was not really in the mix for the national title,

for the SEC title, but his numbers were extraordinary. And he was the best player. And the way I looked at it, you know, he was him and Bo Nix and Michael Pennix Jr. Well, if you put Jayden Daniels on Oregon last year, Oregon doesn't lose to Washington twice. Like, Oregon makes the playoff. If you put Jayden Daniels on Washington,

I don't know if you get that different a season. If you put Michael Pennix at LSU, would you have won nine games? If you put Bo Nix at LSU, would you have won nine games? I don't think you would have. Like, Jaden Daniels overcame maybe the worst defense LSU's ever had to win the Heisman Trophy. So that's why you look at that and you say, okay, maybe the voters will give Travis Hunter proper credit, even if Colorado is like seven and five or eight and four. But I will point out that LSU did go nine and three. And you look back at the Heisman Trophy winners before that, 2022 Caleb Williams was in the mix for a playoff berth going into conference championship weekend. Like

if they beat in Utah, won the PAC 12, they're probably in the playoff. 2021 Bryce Young's team won. The sec was in the playoff 2020 Devante Smith's team won. The sec was in the playoff 2019 Joe Burrow. Same thing. Won the sec in the playoff. Kyler Murray, the year before big 12 champ in the playoff Baker Mayfield, big 12 champ in the playoff. You got to go back to Lamar Jackson in 2016, where they lost three games. And actually, there was a Thursday night loss at Houston that really, I thought, might really hurt Lamar's Heisman campaign. But it was very hard to not pick Lamar that season. And really when they played Clemson, which was the eventual national title winner, that game had been awfully close. You know,

you knew Louisville was capable of competing because of Lamar Jackson with some very high powered teams. So, but again, nine and three, Johnny Manziel's team was 10 and two Robert Griffin. The third seemed nine and three Tim Tebow seemed 9-3. The last time a Heisman winner came from a team that had won fewer than nine games at the time of the vote, Ricky Williams in 1998. Texas was 8-3, but here's the catch. They only played 11 regular season games. If they had a 12th regular season game and it was some non-conference cupcake game,

they would have been 9 and three as well. So yeah, it would be, it would be tough. Richard, sorry, Travis Hunter should not win the Heisman. There are other more deserving players out there. Richard, you don't know that. Like that's the stupidest thing anybody could ever say. Nobody's played a snap this season. You have no idea if there are more deserving players out there. Not one single play has been run that will affect how you should vote for the Heisman Trophy, or well, how I should, because I have a vote, and thank God you don't. If Travis Hunter is one of the best receivers in the country and one of the best scorers in the country, I don't care what Colorado's record is. He will be on my ballot.

Most outstanding player. We've not seen anybody do this. So, yeah, absolutely. Will he win it? Probably not. But that's okay. You can only do what you can do. And Travis Hunter does a lot for Colorado. So Real Big heart man had another question too. He said, what is more likely arch banning takes over for Quinn years during the season or a non power to school wins the national title.

That's a great question. I think your non power to list of teams that can win the national title is Florida state. And then obviously in the power to, there's a lot that we would put on that list. And then now I think you mean that Quinn Ewers loses the job to Arch Manning in some way, like Arch Manning takes over and becomes a starter for the rest of the season.

Even if Quinn Ewers is healthy. That I don't necessarily see. Do I envision a scenario where Arch Manning has to start games for Texas? Yeah, we've seen that. Quinn Ewers has been the starter at Texas two years. He's missed games both those years. Hudson Card had to start games two years ago. Malik Murphy had to start games last year.

It's entirely possible he could get dinged up and Arch comes in. Now, if Arch came in and then just balled out, could he Wally Pip him? Maybe. But I think Quinn's going to have the benefit of the doubt here. But in terms of, do I think Arch Manning might start games? Yeah. Because Quinn Ewers has not stayed healthy for a full season yet. Let's do one more. This one's from Jim in Michigan. Dear Andy, I've wanted to experience SEC football for as long as I can remember, and I'm finally making it happen this November as part of a 36th anniversary trip with my wife to the Southeast. Congratulations.

We plan to take in two games on November 9th and November 16th. The options for our trip are listed below. Can you please rank these options for campus and stadium atmosphere? Nightlife is not a consideration and I don't really care that much about the actual game matchup. For example, if Bryant-Denny is a must, it doesn't matter that Mercer is the opponent. P.S. I've heard South Carolina is underrated,

but obviously you would know. Heck yeah. My first college football game in person was at Williams-Brice Stadium. It was against Appalachian State. I believe 1985. Might have been 1984. Have to look at the schedule.

Can't remember if I was in first or second grade. But my mom took me to the game. Williams-Brice Stadium rocks. I'm telling you. I was there for the Ole Miss game in 2009 on the Thursday night. Spectacular. All right. But let's look at the game options.

Georgia at Ole Miss or Mississippi State at Tennessee, Saturday, November 9th. Now I, I did go to game time, our, our partner, our ticketing partner to look at potential prices for these games as well, because I think that was, that's probably part of the math there because obviously Georgia at Ole Miss is going to be a very, very hot ticket. Though right now, it's not as pricey as I thought it was going to be to get into that game. And that's what I put a poll out with the prices on there. So you can actually get into that game for $282. And I will say Vaught-Hemingway Stadium is not massive.

Even a faraway seat, quote unquote faraway seat in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium is a pretty good view. So the fact that you could get into that game now for 282 bucks and experience the Grove and experience all the pageantry of an Ole Miss game, plus see what could be an absolutely incredible football game, I think that one is the one I'd go with that week. Even though being able to go to Neyland Stadium is a must. And if Tennessee's good, even if Mississippi State's not good in Jeff Levy's first year, Tennessee's probably going to be pretty good.

That's a game that their fans expect them to win. They could be very excited at that point. It's $164 minimum to get in right now in game time. As you see, the demand just higher in Tennessee. If we're Georgia playing at Tennessee, which they're not, we'll talk about Georgia and Tennessee and Athens in a minute. But if we're Georgia playing at Tennessee, like these tickets would be $500 plus. Georgia's playing in Ole Miss and you can get in for under 300 bucks. Like that seems like the play. And then you have all the great places on the, like Ajax Diner on the square in Oxford. You can go to Big Bad Breakfast to get your breakfast on game day. It's a lot of fun being in Oxford,

which is a very cool college town. And then being there for that level of game. Like I was there for the 2014 Alabama game. That was the Katy Perry College Game Day game. One of the most fun weekends I've ever had covering college football. So I think that one is the one you're going to pick because if that ticket

were 600 bucks, I'd say maybe do maybe go to Knoxville and, and just have fun. Cause like Neyland stadium, when Tennessee's good, there's very little that compares, but you're going to get a whole lot of the experience. If you go to Oxford and that's a,

that's a pretty good price. I'm not going to lie. All right, let's go to November 16th. He's got more options on November 16th. LSU at Florida, Tennessee at Georgia, Missouri at South Carolina, Mercer at Alabama, our guy General Booty, and the Warhawks of ULM at Auburn. All right. So it's important to point out what the ticket prices are here, because I think that matters. If you want to buy a ticket to that LSU Florida game in the swamp right now, it's 123 bucks. Now we go back to our discussion of Billy Napier. Where's Florida at when that game is played?

I think the atmosphere in the swamp will largely depend on that. Like if Florida has been good for most of the season, like they were good in the early season and they're trending toward Billy being able to keep his job and do it. All right. It's going to be a great atmosphere in the swamp and LSU games are always weird. Strange things always have like who throws a shoe?

Strange things happen in LSU-Florida games. They're fun. So for that price, it's pretty good. But here's the thing about the Swamp. When Florida is good, when the fans are excited, can be kind of kind of dead sometimes so that's the tricky part you are rolling the dice if you buy that ticket because if if Florida is good and the fans are excited then you got the ultimate bargain for 123 bucks if they're if they have a bad early, the atmosphere is not going to be what you want. Now, in terms of the atmosphere being exactly what you want, Tennessee at Georgia, that's

going to be the, you know, if you want to understand what an SEC big game feels like, that's one. Athens will be off the chain that weekend. But you're paying at least $407 to get in right now. More if Tennessee's good. Like if Tennessee winds up being good, if you wait and you want to buy this ticket like three weeks before the game, game time will have it.

Because they always got tickets. But it's going to be expensive because those Tennessee fans are going to start buying tickets too. Missouri at South Carolina, 83 bucks. If our guy Cody Blair is right and Lenora Sellers is really good, this could be fun. Missouri is going to be good this year. We know that. But if South Carolina is having a good season,

Williams-Brice is a spectacular place to watch a game. The upper decks sway when they really get going. When they play Sandstorm, the student section goes nuts. I love, love, love Williams-Brice Stadium. There's Bojangles right across the street. You're from Michigan. You don't get Bojangles where you are. You walk across the street and get some Bojangles. So I think that's like $83 is an option there. Mercer at Bama. I do think a game at Bryant

Nittany Stadium is an important part of your cultural education as a college football fan. Would I go to a Mercer Alabama game with an $18 ticket? Cause you can, you can buy one for 18 bucks. Would I do that over a Georgia Tennessee game in Athens? No, I wouldn't do that. Spend the extra money,

go to Athens, soak it all in. But if that is too pricey for you, if you would like to get a bargain and you just want to see what the atmosphere, like Mercer, Alabama on a beautiful mid-November day, because the weather would probably be perfect on a day like that. Like you'll get the tailgating on the quad. You'll get the pregame atmosphere.

Like when they play Sweet Home Alabama before the game starts, is it kind of wait till all the fans have gotten to their seats. And that's usually when they hit the button on sweet home, Alabama. Like it is, it's spectacular. When you hear Barrett Bryant's voice, growl across the loud speaker.

I ain't never been nothing but a winner. And they go berserk. There's nothing like that. So for 18 bucks, yeah, I think you could have some fun there. But again, if you can get the Tennessee Georgia ticket, do it. ULM Auburn, same thing. Jordan-Hare is an incredible place to watch a game. You get the flight of the War Eagle. The fans, very hospitable, except usually Alabama fans. But they are great to visiting fans at Auburn, especially folks that come from other parts of the country that kind of want to see what it's about. They will show you a good time.

They will make sure that you leave happy and that you have great memories of that, that trip. But that said, if you could, if you can go to Tennessee, Georgia, go to Tennessee, Georgia. I cannot stress that enough. Like that one's going to be fun. You're not going to regret that. You may, when you look at your checking account right after that week, but the memories will be pretty incredible.

So if you, like I said, if you want to roll the dice, come to Gainesville, hope that Florida is pretty good and the atmosphere is rocking in the swamp. But if you want the guarantee, go to Athens that week. And Jim, I'm jealous. I'm jealous because I remember the first time experiencing these different places for a big game. It just gives me goosebumps thinking about it. You and your wife are going to have such a good time. And again, congrats 36 years. Congratulations. So everybody, I've got a Twitter poll up right now on both of Jim's weekends. So go to Andy underscore Staples, vote in that poll, let Jim know where he should go. Jim, I'm excited for you.

And you got to write back in, you got to tell us where you decided to go. And then you got to send us pictures from those games. It's going to be amazing. I cannot wait. I'm so excited for you guys. It's been an incredible week. We had incredible deer, any questions we got to talk about the EA sports college football game. Uh, we had the, the, the rivals elite event. I mean, we were just on threes elite series in Nashville was one of the coolest events I've ever been to. We had some of the top players in the country joining us. You met Jamie French already.

I know there's a few schools that are like, oh, we got to get Jamie French here. Come on, pick us. Next week, you're going to meet Will Black, Notre Dame commit, offensive lineman. He's a very Canadian human being. A lot of fun. We're going to have more on the video game. Interviews with the people who made the game. Also, Big 12 ceilings and floors.

My friend Ari Tempkin, who works for the Big 12 radio on SiriusXM, he's going to go through all of the Big 12. We're going to get ceilings and floors on those teams. And remember, those spreads are going to be wide because there's a lot of teams that can compete for the Big 12 title. And I'll leave you with an image. This is one that our friend Adam Rittenberg from ESPN sent out on Thursday.

This is what Northwestern Stadium is going to look like this year. So remember Northwestern, they're renovating Ryan Field, 2024 and 2025. So they are modifying the soccer-slash-field hockey stadium that is on Lake Michigan, like on the shore of Lake Michigan in Evanston. They're going to play most of their home games there. They're going to play a couple home games at Wrigley field. The Ohio state game is going to Wrigley, but it's going to hold, I think

talking like 15,000 people. So we got renderings of what it's going to look like. Adam posted the photo that they had sent to Northwestern season ticket holders. This looks like the coolest place to watch a game. I got to get to Evanston for one of these games. And I kind of wish they were playing the Ohio State game there. I realized it would be probably too hot of a ticket. But I would love to see a game there. We will see if we can make that happen.

I think on three is willing to make that happen. I'll put out the word to my guys at Pardon My Take because their studio is in Chicago now. Like, listen, hey, you want a little in-person college football breakdown? Just give me an excuse to get up there and I will go see a game on the lake. If you've ever lived near the Great Lakes, if you've ever vacationed near the Great Lakes,

if you've ever been near any of the Great Lakes, imagine what the wind's going to be like in the stadium. Throwing the ball is going to be an adventure. I just can't wait. Now, I want to do it in September. I want to do it when it's warm. I don't want to do this when it's cold. I do not want to do this in November.

But yeah, early season, we may have to make this happen. Thank you guys for making it happen this week. Thank you for always being there. Another fun week in the books, and we'll talk to you on Monday.