Andy & Ari On3 - Why would AD Trev Alberts leave Nebraska for Texas A&M? | Can the ACC get two in the CFP in 2024?

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

Today's show is brought to you by PrizePicks, the easiest way to play daily fantasy. All first time users that deposit and use the promo code ANDY will receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. If you deposit $100, PrizePicks will give you $100.Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/ANDY(0:00-1:23) Intro(1:24-14:53) Dear Andy Intro - Why Trev Alberts Leave?(14:54-26:44) ACC getting 2 teams in 12-Team CFP?(26:45-34:36) ESPN & ACC Contract?(34:37-37:05) What Happened to Michigan's Sign Stealing Scandal?(37:06-39:08) Will Clemson get back to the Championship with Dabo?(39:09-40:46) Garrett Nussmeier's Ceiling?(40:47-44:14) Tony Alford Leaving Ohio State for Michigan?(44:15-48:30) Olympic Sports getting cut?(48:31-51:32) Cal & Stanford left out in 2-Conference League?(51:33-54:09) G5 School You're Starting a Dynasty With?(54:10-57:51) Final Four or 1st/2nd Round?(57:52-59:09) Conclusion - James Fletcher Tomorrow to break down championship weekendIt’s a Dear Andy episode, and you’ve got a ton of great questions.Why would athletic director Trev Alberts leave Nebraska for Texas A&M now? Can the ACC get two teams in the College Football Playoff in 2024?What happened to the Michigan sign-stealing scandal?What does Michigan taking assistant coach Tony Alford from Ohio State mean for the rivalry?Want to watch the show on YouTube instead? Head over here and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/2T_t89kjVzM

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. My favorite day of the week. It's dear Andy day because you guys drive the show. You are the ones who keep us going, who give us the ideas, who help drive the conversation, shape what we're talking about. And. Now, sometimes the news also helps with the questions. There's a question I got quite a bit, and we'll use two of them. But safe to say that there's actually probably about a thousand of them that I got.

And people were asking this question over and over and over again on Wednesday. So one particular fan base, a lot of just why, why? And we'll get into it. We'll get into it. But we have a lot to talk about. We're going to talk about a surprising athletic director move and what it means in the grand scheme. We're going to talk about the ACC on the field and off the field. We're going to talk about the video game. We always talk about the video game. We're going to talk a little bit about the NCAA basketball tournament because it's coming. Selection Sunday is this Sunday. St. Paddy's Day and Selection Sunday. Green beer in brackets.

Unbeatable combination. But let's get to your questions. This is going to be an all-deer, Andy, jam-packed full of questions. And you got some really good ones. So we will get to your questions. First, we're going to hit two that are basically asking the same question. We'll start with the one from HuskerGI. And he just says, Trev Alberts?

Which is really all that needs to be said, but we'll go to Mr. Drew, too, who added a little more to it. Trev Alberts is leaving Nebraska. Why can't we have nice things? That is a great question. That is the question of the day because that was the bombshell. Came out Wednesday morning, reported by Brent Zvernerman of the Houston Chronicle, that Trev Alberts had been identified as the top candidate for the Texas A&M AD job. And in Nebraska, it was what? Wait, what?

Trev Alberts, former Cornhusker star who spent his first AD stint at Nebraska Omaha and then came over to the University of Nebraska Lincoln, would leave Nebraska to go to Texas A&M. Now, this is actually not the first time that's happened where a Nebraska AD has left for Texas A&M. The other one was Bill Byrne, but that was a different story. Bill Byrne had been there for 10 years. Trevor Alberts has only been there for 10 years. Trevor Roberts has only been there for three years and he's brought Matt Rule on board. It seemed like everything was going fine. They just gave him a big raise and now he is off to Texas A&M. So why did this happen? Why did it happen now? I think that's the question that most of the folks in Nebraska are asking, most of the Nebraska fans, because this is a kind of core shaking moment where you think everything's moving along swimmingly and you feel like the football program finally moving in the right direction.

The schedule's manageable this year. It looks like you can finally get back to a bowl game. And then this boom, because this destabilizes things. And the question is why did it happen now? And I think that was the thing that there was so much surprise within the Nebraska athletic department that this was going on, that this was happening. And if you follow all the people who cover Nebraska are great folks at Huster Online, Sean Callahan and Steve Sippel. That was their takeaway. Tom Chattel, longtime Nebraska reporter for the Omaha World-Herald. He was the same thing. Everybody he talked to shocked. Mitch Sherman from The Athletic, same thing. Longtime Nebraska reporter. Everybody was stunned. And you just wonder, why would you do it now? Why would you not see out a little bit of Matt Rule, see what happens?

Why jump to Texas A&M right now when they just hired a new football coach that you didn't hire? It doesn't make a ton of sense until you dig deeper into it. So let's, let's dig deeper. And the story starts as some do with a top gun pilot. No, seriously, a top gun pilot. So Ted Carter call sign slap shot because he was the captain of the U.S. Naval Academy hockey team. Had a decorated career as a Navy pilot, flew F-4s, F-14s. F-14s, the plane from the original Top Gun. F-A-18s, that's the plane from the second Top Gun. And he became, after retiring from the Navy as a vice admiral, he became the chancellor of the Nebraska university system.

And so he was in charge of the system of Nebraska State University. So oversaw the Omaha campus, the Lincoln campus. So he and Trevor Alvarez worked together very closely. Trevor Alvarez loved Ted Carter. Well, Ted Carter last year decided to leave Nebraska to become the president at Ohio State. Now, here's the real circle of life moment. Ted Carter, as the president of Ohio State,

finds out that Gene Smith, longtime Ohio State athletic director, is retiring. So he has to go find Gene Smith's replacement. Who does he hire? Ross Bjork from Texas A&M, opening the Texas A&M job. Now, that doesn't necessarily lead you to why Trev Alvarez would leave Nebraska for Texas A&M now, but here's the thing. Ted Carter still hasn't been replaced within the Nebraska university system. The Board of Regents has had seven months and they have not found a president yet. That is not the greatest thing in the world. Plus, Ronnie Green, who is the Lincoln campus chancellor, he retired in 2023. So all of the leadership above Trevor Alvarez has left, and he's not entirely. Nebraska right now is going through a massive stadium renovation. Texas A&M just did theirs. So it's a little bit different situation. Money, I don't think really was the issue here because I think Nebraska could have paid Trev Alberts. And I think one of the things we've talked about over this with coaches,

and I think it applies to ADs as well. If you're in the Big Ten of the things we've talked about over this with coaches, and I think it applies to ADs as well, if you're in the Big Ten or the SEC, especially at a place that has a lot of money that is typically competitive in most sports, Nebraska's a little bit different with football, but I do think they're going to be competitive again. You don't have to go somewhere else for money. You're going to be able to get paid wherever you are. But if you feel like it's a better situation,

if you feel like it's a more stable situation, then yeah, you may move on. And that's the thing. If you're Matt Rule and you're looking at this and you're going, okay, what I signed up for feels different now too. And now you got to decide, okay, how do I feel about this? Now, here's the thing. If Matt rule gets Nebraska competitive, he's going to be beloved. He's going to be handsomely rewarded

for it. So I don't think that's something you have to worry about too much right now, because I think how this season goes probably will determine how you feel about Matt rule. If you're a Nebraska fan, if he does really well, you're going to love him. And I imagine Nebraska will make sure it does everything within its power to keep him.

If it doesn't go well, then you're, you're probably going to be like, ah, well, we'll try again later. So, but that's the thing you see this with 80.

Sometimes I'll give you an example and it goes back to Texas A&M actually. So when Texas A&M hired Scott Woodward away from Washington, Scott Woodward put a key man clause, what's called a key man clause in his contract, because the president at Texas A&M at the time was Michael Young, who had also been the guy who hired Woodward at Washington. And it basically said, if Michael Young leaves, it becomes very easy for Scott Woodward to leave. Now, Scott Woodward would end up leaving anyway for LSU because that's where he's from. That's the job he always wanted. And so it made perfect sense. But had that happened, he had protected himself, making sure that his boss was going to be his boss. And if that situation changed, it made it easier for him to get out.

So we've got a lot in the chat. Chris Callahan says, it's a no brainer. A&M is a much better program. This isn't the nineties anymore. Max says, laugh out loud. What does Texas A&M want ever? Dude is clear as snake trying to further his further screw no matter who's in his way jared says a&m is not a better program trevor's just super mad nebraska hadn't hired a president yet if it was iowa state that offered he would have left i don't

know about if it was iowa state but the a&M thing is interesting. And here's the other question. If you're A&M, why Trev Alberts? What about him was the part that said, okay, this is the guy. Now, you can say that the programs are in similar places where they have tons of money, they should be competitive, and they are not competitive to the degree they want to be. A&M has been more competitive than Nebraska over the last 10 years, but that doesn't mean it's where the Aggies want it to be. The Aggies would like to win national titles. They've never really been able to get over that hump. That's something that they want

Trev Alberts to help with. They want him to help them move one more step up, which for them, one more step up would be competitive in the SEC, making the 12 or 14 or however many team college football playoff. That is what they desire. Nebraska wants to get back to bowl eligibility. Then it wants to get back to being competitive in the Big Ten, being competitive for college football playoff berths. So essentially the same job in that respect. One thing that Trevor Alvarez has in his past that I think intrigued the people at Texas A&M is when he was at Nebraska Omaha, he moved them from Division II to Division I. And that was a pretty controversial process. They ended up dropping football. But I think the decision makers at A&M looked at it and said, okay, there's some stuff

coming up in the world of college sports that are going to require a lot of hard choices. And having somebody who's had to make some of those, even at a smaller level, might be helpful. And that's the thing. If athletes are declared employees, if they wind up doing collective bargaining, if that sort of thing happens, athletic departments are going to have to dramatically restructure. There'll be a lot of fat cutting. You've heard the warnings about cutting sports. We'll get to that. There's a question about that later in Dear Andy that we'll talk about, but there will definitely have to be decisions made in terms of how you structure things, how you spend your money. And so having

someone who did a transition like that could be helpful. So that is one reason why Trev Alberts was an attractive candidate for Texas A&M. So we'll find out. And we got the A&M and the Nebraska fans arguing in the chat. Look, you're basically in the same place right now. A&M is slightly bowl eligible. That's it. You're basically in the same place. One of you fired a coach two years ago. The other fired a coach last year.

Basically in the same place. One of you fired a coach two years ago. The other fired a coach last year. Basically in the same place. But it hurts because Trevor Alberts was a Nebraska guy. He played for Nebraska. First round draft pick out of Nebraska. Played for Tom Osborne. That's where it really hurts. And so we'll see what happens next at Nebraska. Obviously huge fan base, huge passion, lots of money. There'll be a lot of 80s who want that job. Unfortunately for the Cornhuskers, Trev Alberts, not one of those 80s because he is headed to Texas A&M. In the chat, John says, and you better talk about Michigan hiring Tony Alford from Ohio state.

Oh, John, stay tuned. Don't worry. It's coming. We're definitely going to talk about that, but we've got a couple other juicy things to go before that. But first let me tell you about prize picks. Download that prize picks app. It is the best daily fantasy game in America. The most fun to play. Use the code Andy and they will match your first deposit up to $100. So here's how it works. You're picking squares. And so maybe you're watching conference basketball tournaments. Maybe you're watching NBA games. Maybe you're watching darts. Trust me, if you can compete, Price Picks has squares for it. Let's say you're watching a basketball game and you're looking at it and you're saying, okay, I think this guy's going to have more than six and a half rebounds.

You say more than, you pick that square. Now you go pick another square. You pick at least two, you pick up to five. The more squares you pick, the higher the potential payout, but also it's a lot harder to do. So there's your challenge right there. You decide, am I sure about these two or do I want to let it ride and go up to five or three or four? It's your choice with prize picks. And again, you can mix and match sports. You can mix and match teams.

It is a ton of fun. Download the prize picks app. Perfect for watching day basketball today and tomorrow. Lots of day basketball going on. Use the code Andy and they will match your first deposit up to $100. All right. Next question. We are going to get to that Ohio State Michigan coach poaching situation. Oh, trust me. But I think this one from IC is going to get people riled up a little bit too. This is a very interesting one. What are the chances an ACC team gets an at-large bid in the 2024 playoff? Using the 12-team format

and current alignment, it would have happened just three times in the college 2024 playoff. Using the 12-team format and current alignment, it would have happened just three times in the college football playoff era using college football playoff rankings, and not since 2017. This is true. IC has done the homework on this, and I think that's what makes this very interesting because the assumption is that the ACC and the Big 12 almost assuredly are going to have at least the champion and an at-large team. And I think if you look at the history in the Big 12, it's harder to go back and compare because, one, you've got to pull Texas and Oklahoma out and then try to extrapolate what them not being there on the schedule would mean for those other teams. But you've also got to figure out like what would utah have done because there's there's a lot of years where utah was the pac-12 champ or was ranked very high in the pac-12 would they have gotten an at-large bid you know we we'll

see what what will happen with some of these other schools with it you know arizona would have been in the mix a couple of times and got into a BCS. I'm mixing up my eras now. Got into an access bowl during the CFP era. So the question is, who in the ACC could potentially be the at-large? We got to figure out who the champ is first, though. It's not as easy as just saying Florida State or Clemson, even though those are probably the two most likely. But let us go back through the history like IC did. It is very interesting to

think about because it has been a while since the ACC would have had an at large. Now in the first year they had Florida State at three, Georgia Tech was 12, but if they needed a G5 team, Georgia Tech would have been out. 2015, Clemson and Florida State would have both been in. 2016, Clemson and Florida State would have both been in and Louisville was there at number 13. Remember that was the year that Lamar Jackson won the Heisman. We talked to Tom Herman yesterday. We talked about that Houston-Louisville game on a Thursday night in November in 2016. If Louisville had won that game, that would have been a situation where probably the ACC would have gotten three in with the format that they have this year. 2017, the last year that they would have gotten an at-large, number one Clemson and number 10 Miami. But then you get to 2018. Clemson and number 10 Miami. But

then you get to 2018. Clemson gets in at number two. The next one's Syracuse at number 20. 2019, number three Clemson's in. The next one is Virginia at number 24. 2020 doesn't necessarily count because remember Notre Dame played at ACC schedule. So the ACC actually got two teams in the four-team playoff that year. So congratulations to the ACC, but obviously Notre Dame is not doing that. Now, North Carolina was also number 13 that year to point out in 2021, this would have been really interesting. So Pittsburgh is the ACC champ at number 12 in the final CFP rankings. They would have been the four seat in this year's playoff. Like if this had happened this year, they would have been the four seat because they would have been the four seed in this year's playoff. Like if this had happened this year, they would have been the four seed because they

would have been the fourth highest ranked conference champ. And that is wild because there's a buy and then that team's going to play the winner of the 5-12 game. Like that's one where if the 12 upsets the 5 and you get that four seed, you could have the 12 into the semifinals. That would be crazy. 2022, Clemson got in at number 7. Florida State was right on the edge there at number 13. And then 2023, Florida State would have been in.

Louisville was your next up at number 15. So that is the biggest thing is who is potentially a conference title contender who can be really good. So I think a lot of this depends on is Clemson back. Are you buying Clemson stock? Remember Dabo said, buy Clemson now. If you buy Clemson now, you're going to be happy. That's what Dabo said at the end of the season. They did end the season playing well. But they also, once again, didn't really use the transfer portal.

You had Cade Klubnick talking a couple weeks ago about how they got thin at receiver because of injuries, and it felt like there were times when you had guys running a particular route for the first time in a game without really repping it much at practice because they had to come in because they were thin. You know what helps your depth? Using the transfer portal. So I'm a little worried here. Clemson has the talent, you know, of all the teams in the league, Clemson still probably has the most raw talent, but they've got to be better than they were last year. Like, cause even if they don't win the league, if they're better than they were last year, you could potentially have a 10 and two Clemson that winds up in the

playoff. Now I think Florida state is another obvious candidate. They're going to be different this year, but I don't think they're going to be significantly worse. And they went 13 and Oh, last year. I think they're still going to be very good. They just have had to replace a lot,

but we, you know, I think my Norvell has earned the benefit of the doubt in the transfer portal. So I'm going to put them on the list. Obviously Louisville. I think Louisville might be better than they were last year, last year,

little bit of benefit from the schedule, but also the really good win against Notre Dame. Jordan was awesome. Jamari Thrash was awesome. Isaac Arendo, if you saw him at the Combine, you understand. Very, very good. But Louisville has been very active in the portal. Other than Florida State and Ole Miss, Louisville probably improved itself the most through the portal.

Now, the biggest question probably is a quarterback. So Tyler Shook comes to Louisville from Texas Tech. Remember, he started his career at Oregon. Then he went to Texas Tech. Tyler has been a good quarterback when healthy. But the problem is he's been injured almost every year. It feels to me a little bit like a Michael Penix healthy. But the problem is he's been injured almost every year. This is, it feels to me a little bit like a Michael Pennix Jr. situation where Michael Pennix Jr.

at Indiana, season ending injury after season ending injury, he finally gets to Washington, he's healthy and he just blossoms. Now, same thing where you've got Tyler Shook going to play with a guy who is considered a quarterback whisperer in Jeff Brom. For Michael Pennix, it was a little bit different because he had played for Kalen DeBoer before because Kalen DeBoer had been the OC at Indiana at one point. But even though Tyler Shook's never played for Jeff Brom before, I think we've seen Jeff Brom's results with quarterbacks through the years enough to understand that he can make quarterbacks better. So if Tyler Shook is healthy,

there's a very good chance that Louisville's back in the ACC championship game and very competitive for a spot in the college football playoff. Now here's, here's another one. And I, this is one that could go very much in either direction. But if we're talking about teams that have the talent to do this, Miami's on the list. This is a, we got to see it. We got to see it on the field, like game one against Florida. You probably need to win that game. It doesn't affect the ACC standings, but if you want to make the playoff, if you're not planning on running through the ACC without losing, you probably got to win that game.

But Miami is talented. They brought in all the offensive linemen last year. They brought in a bunch of stud defensive line recruits this year. They got cam ward out of the portal to play quarterback. Xavier Estrepo is back. They've got players. Miami has guys. And that's the part that if they ever put it all together and you,

this is kind of the question that follows Mario Cristobal because Oregon had guys and they did put it all together like 2019 they put it all together won the Pac-12 they unleashed Justin Herbert in that Pac-12 championship game against Utah all of a sudden they look like they beat anybody in the country this Miami team is going to have the talent to play with anybody in the country but we have to see it not be so inconsistent because that's the problem for Miami is they've been just ridiculously inconsistent over the years. And even under Cristobal, you've got the Georgia Tech situation where he doesn't take a knee.

I think that wound up costing them more than one game. I think that followed them throughout the season, but they haven't enough players to make this work. So I've just named four teams that I think could legitimately be college football playoff contenders. Hopefully the ACC can get two of those teams in the playoff. I, you know, it, we talked about what happens next. We've heard all the different models being floated around for 2026 and beyond. So they've got potentially a guarantee of two teams in the playoff, which I understand why the ACC would want to take. As David Hale from ESPN, who's covered the ACC for a long time, points out, that might not be the best idea for the ACC or the Big 12 to take that because you're essentially writing into the rules that you are a second-class citizen to the Big 10 and the SEC. And I know the ACC does not want people to feel that way, but if they sort of admit it, that's how it's going to feel.

So I feel like you've got to push to be competitive and just try to do this on your own. I still think a better model going forward is something that has as many at-larges as possible because everybody feels like they have a chance. Even if it's still going to be mostly big 10 and sec, everybody comes into the season with a more equal chance. And you can say, oh, it's rigged. The committee's going to rig it. You can believe that if you want to. I don't believe that. I think you give yourself the most chances possible.

And the ACC right now, I think two's reasonable. I think the champ and an at-large is a very reasonable outcome for this season. Now, if you ask me, am I more confident that the ACC or the Big 12 will get an at-large team? I'm way more confident the Big 12 will get an at-large team. Because I can name a ton of teams in the Big 12 that I think are going to be competitive. And then I think could, in the right mix of circumstances, hit the schedule just right, go 10-2, 11-1, win the league. So that's the tricky part with the ACC. IC's research is not wrong. They have not had

that great second team. And they need to have that this year. They need to have at least a great second team, possibly a great third and fourth team. We'll see what happens. Our next question also concerns the ACC, and it comes from Willie. Dear Andy, as an ACC guy, I've been thinking about this for a little bit.

With the ominous idea of a two-conference league going forward, how advantageous would it be for ESPN to not opt in to the second half of their media rights contract with the ACC, which would essentially dismantle the grant of rights and allow some of the bigger brands in the ACC to leave and join the ACC and Big Ten to where they already have a stake and be able to produce a greater product from them. Oh, Willie's videos are amazing. By the way, Willie is somewhere very nice do you see all the boats in the background will willie might be near where i am right now that that's a he's in he's doing well so very interesting question and what will he's referencing if it got confusing they're

talking about the acc picking up its option or excuse me, ESPN picking up the option on the ACC contract. So this was revealed in Florida state's lawsuit against the ACC, the one filed in Florida, not the one the ACC filed against Florida state in the state of North Carolina. This gets very confusing, so I'm sorry. I'll try to explain as best I can. In the ACC lawsuit in North Carolina, all the stuff, the juicy bits are sealed, and the ACC is trying to protect all that information from getting out. Florida State does not care that much about if that information gets out. So Florida State, in its lawsuit against the ACC in Florida, put in a little nugget.

It's actually in a footnote, and then it's mentioned again a few more times in the initial complaint. But it's a big deal if it's true, which I don't know why they would put it in there if it but it says essentially that ESPN has an option that it has to pick up beyond 2027. Remember that the TV contract runs through 2036, but apparently ESPN has an option after 2027 going to 2036. So that option has to be picked up by February of 2025. So it's sort of like, you know how you have a rookie, a quarterback on a rookie contract and he was a first round draft pick and he's got that fifth year option. Like the team has a deadline to pick it up. Same thing. ESPN has a February 2025 deadline to pick up this option. Now, we've not gotten any confirmation from ESPN or the ACC that this is the truth here. But again, we also haven't seen it refuted. And presumably,

we could read this in the ACC ESPN contract, but that is under seal right now. That is under seal in both cases because it's considered proprietary information, trade secrets. And in fact, ESPN filed something in the North Carolina case saying, hey, Florida State violated our rights here by putting this in that Florida case. That information is not supposed to be out there. So you could say that ESPN is definitely going to side with the ACC here, definitely going to pick up the option. I don't know if that necessarily means anything. ESPN does have a duty to try to protect its trade secrets. So they're trying not to have that information get out. If this thing goes really far, if it went

to trial, which again, I don't think it will, but if it ever did go to trial, that would get out or at least portions of it would get out and then they don't want that. But the question is, would ESPN pick up the ACC's option? You know, we'll find out in 11 months. But. The existing contract is still cheaper, probably for ESPN. It still provides all this inventory for what they consider a reasonable. Amount of money. So. I would lean toward. Yeah, they probably would try to pick it up now.

Obviously, if the membership of the league changes, like if Florida State were to find a way to buy its way out, then maybe that makes it different. But I don't know that ESPN just says, no, we're done with this thing. The other part of that is the schools that would be left in the ACC in that case, because we don't know if the grant of rights would still be in effect at that point, because the grant of rights is tied to the ESPN contract. So the school, your Boston colleges, your Syracuse's,

like, are they filing lawsuits immediately if that option doesn't get picked up? Doesn't mean they're going to win, but could they tie it up for a while? It's a legitimate question, because if you're them, you're going to fight for your life to stay in a quote unquote power conference. And it doesn't matter if the ACC says we'll take two automatic bids and be written in as second-class citizens, the big 10 in the SEC, that's still better than the alternative if you're Syracuse, if you're Boston College, if you're Wake Forest. So you want to make sure that you get as much as you can for as long as you can. So that's why they want to protect this ACC deal as much as they can. We got some go Knowles in the chat. So, and Willie, Willie chiming in, but I think

these next few months are going to be very interesting in the ACC Florida state tug of war, because as we get closer to that February deadline, you're going to probably see the rhetoric ratchet up on both sides. I've said all along, I don't think this case goes to trial. I think in both cases, whether the Florida State lost a trial or the ACC lost a trial, it's a disaster for whoever loses. I think it's a worse disaster for the ACC if they were to lose a trial. And if you think there's a non-zero chance of you losing, you do not want to go to trial, which means you figure out a number.

That's how most of this stuff usually works. Somebody figures out a number. If you're the ACC, you put off figuring out a number for as long as you can. You try to keep the number as high as you can. Make it so that Florida State doesn't have the money to pay it. But at some point, you may have to come up with a number. Because, again, if there's a non-zero chance that you might lose a trial, you can't afford to go to trial.

Because imagine if Florida State prevailed in a trial against the ACC. Then it all goes away for nothing. So that's what, that's what happens. So crunch time says the ACC needs to lock in the two playoff spots because the alternative is to end up like the Pac-12. This is true, but the alternative could happen anyway. Like I said, if you lose a trial, that happens anyway, probably. So I think that's the tricky part. It's just very difficult to predict what's going to happen next or predict what the TV landscape is going to look like.

With ESPN, they're starting this joint venture with Fox and Warner Brothers. We don't know where they're going to be at in 11 months we just don't so we'll find out next question from Bryant dear Andy you got a bunch of questions what happened to the Michigan sign stealing scandal will Clemson get to a national championship under Dabo Sweeney again? What is Garrett Nussmeier stealing at LSU? Three questions at once. Let's start with Michigan and sign stealing. The NCAA is still investigating. I spoke to

somebody the other day who is involved in this situation and the NCAA is still trying to gather information. This could take a while. I don't know what they're going to find. The person I talked to seems to think the NCAA might not find what it thinks it's going to find. But the other piece of it that they could have whatever happened if as long as they said something that broke the rules happened they could have tagged that to Jim Harbaugh because

he was the head coach they still could presumably but it doesn't matter because he's the coach of the Chargers right now so I don't know how incentivized they are but I will say this that rule about advanced scouting and sending people to other stadiums and recording signals and all that stuff, that rule is still in effect. Unlike the transfer rules, unlike NIL rules, that rule has not been enjoined in court. So they can actually work on that case. It's one of the few cases they can still work on, but I don't know how long it's going to take. Cause again, they are still in an information gathering stage. These tend to take a while as you know, and if you're Michigan,

I don't know if there's any incentive to cooperate or deal with that. Just, just let it run its course. Yeah. I think they're probably, probably going to be fine. If, if they want to vacate something later,

we all watch the games, but they would have to find more. So we'll see, we'll see what they find. You know, they felt like they had enough and the big 10, you know, the ncaa had and decided to suspend jim harbaugh but again with no jim harbaugh there with other assistants who have now gone on to the the nfl i i don't know what they're going to find i don't know that they're going to have access

to enough stuff to find it. Brian's second question, will Clemson get to a national championship again under Dabo Sweeney? Not unless he uses the transfer portal. I know I sound like a broken record. I was late to the party on this. I will credit my friend Ari Wasserman, who said this a couple of years ago, that Dabo's just not evolving fast enough to stay competitive for the national title. They can be competitive in the ACC,

but if they want to be competitive for the national title, I don't know they're going to have the depth that they need. You've seen teams that seem deep, like Georgia last year. Georgia should be deeper than anybody but georgia had receiver injury issues that that costed in the in the sec championship game like nobody's immune to this and if you don't use the thing that allows you to build your roster most efficiently you're probably never going to have the right kind of roster to win the national title again you know we talk about michigan and all the guys they brought back and how many people they developed but do they win if they don't have a left tackle in a center that they pulled out of the transfer portal

if they don't have an edge rusher who blows up the last play of the rose bowl who they pulled out of the transfer portal from coastal carolina like josiah stewart is it coastal carolina Carolina. Josiah Stewart was at Coastal Carolina. So I think that's the issue. You've got to use the tools available to you. And I understand Dabo Sweeney's reluctance because Clemson's continuity, their ability to recruit, the way they recruited, where a Clemson offer was like a precious jewel. They didn't blast offers out. You had to earn the Clemson offer. And when you committed, you were committed. And it created a really good developmental program. But unfortunately, that was built for an old era. And that era doesn't exist anymore. Garrett Nussmeier's ceiling at LSU.

Listen, in this era of college football, the fact that this man has hung out as long as he has at LSU and has ascended to the starting job tells you they are highly confident in Garrett Nussmeier. And obviously, I think the feeling was all along that Garrett Nussmeier could be a great quarterback. If Jaden Daniels hadn't developed the way he had, Nussmeier probably would have already been LSU's starter. And so the fact that they made sure he stayed, that they have him, and that he was taken care of and shown that he was appreciated, I think they feel very confident that Garrett Nussmeier can lead LSU to competitiveness in the SEC, possibly an SEC title, possibly a national title. It's LSU. Those are the expectations. Now, what happens on defense is probably going to have more to do with whether they achieve those goals. So it's more up to Blake Baker and the new defensive staff.

And then all the players defensively, the young guys moving into new roles, guys they've gotten out of the transfer portal. That is probably the bigger deal for LSU. I'm not worried about Garrett Nussmeyer. I think if they felt like there was any doubt about Garrett Nussmeyer, he would have already been told, you can transfer somewhere else. Don't worry about it. But they didn't.

They said, hey, we like you. Please stay here. Please be our quarterback. All right. Now we get to Tom's question that we got commanded. We must answer this question earlier in the, in the show, in the chat. And I'm happy to do that. Does Michigan hiring Tony Alford complete the humiliation of Ryan day in

Ohio state? I don't know that I'd put it that way, but I will say this. The big 10 has become the sec in all of the best ways. This is, this is what you want. This is the good stuff right here. When you've got rivals

poaching assistant coaches from one another. Tony Alford was a running backs coach at Ohio State for nine years. Nine years. Jerome Moore comes in at Michigan, decides Mike Hart's not going to be retained. Goes and gets Tony Alford. And that's not a case of, oh, Ohio State didn't want him. He hadn't been doing a good job. Tony Alford has been recruiting incredibly well at Ohio State. He has developed running backs incredibly well at Ohio State. Now, do I worry about Ohio State finding an adequate replacement? No, I don't. It's Ohio State. But do I love the potential for drama here? Do I love that Big Ten schools are now going to really start poaching coaches from one another?

And the thing is, I was thinking about this. So we see it all the time in the SEC, like Traveris Robinson going from Alabama to Georgia right as Nick Saban was retiring. That's the sort of thing you see every year in the SEC. But the difference is, it was Alabama to Georgia. It wasn't Alabama to Auburn. And I was trying to think, have we seen the Alabama-Auburn? Kirby Smart actually looked at the Auburn job, but remember, they weren't going to let him finish the postseason with Alabama

if he took it. So he winds up not taking it. Gus Malzahn gets it. But direct poaching of assistance, it seems to happen more indirectly than anything else. Like Charles Kelly's at Auburn now. He used to be at Alabama, but he was at Colorado last year. Like Christian Robinson is at Alabama now. He used to be at Auburn. He also used to be at

Florida, and he also went to Georgia, but he was at Baylor last year. It's not as direct, but oh man, if this is going to happen in the Big Ten, if Michigan and Ohio State are going to be stealing assistance from each other, let's get Luke Fickle and Jonathan Smith into this mix too. Come on. Wisconsin needs to start doing this. Michigan State needs to start doing this. Let's go. I'm all for this because all it does is make the best rivalry in sports even better. This rivalry is so heated right now.

And Ohio State is down so bad. But the second Ohio State wins the game, everything flips. And Ohio State has the team this year that should be able to beat anybody. But what if they don't beat Michigan? What if they don't? Oh, this is the stuff that gets your juices pumping in the middle of March for a game that's not going to happen until the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This is going to be amazing. We got a brother Bill Oliver reference in the chat from Ryan.

Yes, brother Bill. Brother Bill coached at Auburn and Alabama. I believe multiple stints at his school. So yeah, this commonplace in the SEC, not so much in the Big Ten, but man, let's see if it'll keep happening in the Big Ten. All right, this question comes from David. With all the hand-wringing about how making the players employees or revenue sharing with football and basketball players will result in the majority of Olympic sports being cut, could you please explain once and for all the laws of supply and demand and

how a particular university finds value in fielding a sports team. They will continue to do so. Even if it loses money, athletic administrators and coaches always cry about the sky is falling. And anytime there is change and yet it never does. They're constantly wrong. For example, the university of Florida clearly values gymnastics.

I highly doubt the constituents of UF would allow the UAA to cut this program. The same can be said for programs that aren't large state schools that use sports teams to increase attendance, engagement, and donations at said schools. but you saw Alabama's athletic director, Greg Byrne. You saw the ACC commissioner, Jim Phillips on Capitol Hill this week saying, well, if we have to share the money with the players, if they make them employees, we're going to have to cut all these sports. It is interesting. And I'm trying to remember if it was, was it Matt Brown from extra points? Somebody on Twitter who follows this stuff very closely said, it's amazing how they always put the gun to the head of the women's sports whenever they fear change or fear losing the amount of money they're currently getting. But that's what they do. And they're trying to scare you. But the truth of the matter is they sponsored all these sports before football made all this money.

They lost money on all these sports before football made all this money. If they want to sponsor the sports, if they feel like they're important, if they actually care about them, they will continue doing that because they feel like it's a valuable thing to spend money on. If they cut those sports, it's because they don't care. It's not because they can't. It's because they don't care enough to do it. That's it.

So every time they say, well, we have to. No, they don't have to. They don't care enough to do it. That's it. So every time they say, well, we have to, no, they don't have to, they don't care enough. And really you don't care enough because when's the last time you watched a college volleyball game? When's the last time you watched a college track meet? I don't want to hear you saying that this is your concern. If the football players become employees, because you're not actually concerned about that. You don't care about those sports. We know. We see how it works. We see what you watch.

Now, what David mentioned, like gymnastics at Florida, they sell out every meet. It'd be crazy to cut that sport. Volleyball at Nebraska. They sold out a football stadium. You can't cut that sport. Volleyball at Nebraska. They sold out a football stadium. You can't cut that sport. There is value in this stuff. And if there wasn't, there'd be no Olympic sports at the FCF's level or division two or division three, but it all exists somewhere. And the other point David made, and this isn't necessarily for the big state schools, but this is for other schools in Division I. Like private schools, a lot of them will create sports as revenue drivers, as enrollment drivers.

I'll give you an example. 50,000 bucks a year in tuition, and you would like to get 20 guys to pay $50,000 a year in tuition, you start a lacrosse team because those parents will pay. They will do it. Volleyball, same thing. Soccer, same thing. All you got to do is start a team. There are parents who are willing to spend anything for their kid to be on a college roster. Anything. There are also parents, as we learned from the Aunt Becky affair, that want the admission benefits of their kid being an athlete or in Aunt Becky's kid's case,

not being an athlete. All that stuff matters. So there is value and they will find a way to fund the sports they actually care about. If they stop funding a sport, it's because they don't care about it. It's not because they can't, it's because they don't care enough. So do not let them fool you.

All right. Next question from Sam. This is our friend Sam Fortstein. If you watch the prime video telecasts of NFL games on Thursday night and you go to the alternate channel, Sam is the one doing all the advanced stats. He is a genius. He is one of the deepest thinkers when it comes to the sport of football. He's an idea guy. He's tremendous. He was also Andrew Luck's center at Stanford. He asked, in a world of the power too, do Stanford and Cal really get left out? No Bay Area presence? And it does. The last part of the question makes a lot of sense. I mean, the Bay area is one of the largest population centers in america would you not have a university from the bay area in there but i will say if we look at what happened after the pac-12 disintegrated you know the acc picks

up cal and stanford that was weird and the fact that they were available, I don't know how surprised I was because again, they don't take football as seriously as some other people do. Stanford obviously took it very seriously under Jim Harbaugh early on under David Shaw, but Stanford also has different priorities than most of your football factory type schools. What surprised me a little bit was Stanford is the best school in the FBS in terms of academic reputation, worldwide academic reputation. Cal, if not the best, one of the two best state schools and one of the best schools in general in terms of academic reputation in the power conferences. The big 10 that they didn't snap them up because you know those presidents would

want to be associated with those schools. I was a little surprised by that. I thought that they might just take them because we want to be in league with those two schools because of their academic reputation. The fact that they didn't would concern me. If you go pure power two, are the decisions completely driven by football? I think they are. I don't think they're driven by academic reputation at that point so i don't know sam i have to worry about it uh ryan in the chat bay area i didn't realize berkeley and palo alto were that close ryan we got to get you a map dude you're you're you're acting like miss teen south carolina here many u.s americans don't own maps and that's why they don't know how to identify South Africa and such as. They are, I mean, listen, if there's a lot of

traffic, it's not that close. You will probably drive past the Tesla factory on your way between the two. I have driven actually between the two before. Beautiful drive, by the way. Beautiful. But yes, they are both very much in the Bay Area. All right. This one from Gopher Topher. Which group of five team should I start a dynasty with in the EA Sports College football game?

And our producer River has given us a suggestion. He's got that angry wave. He wants Tulane to be his dynasty team. I, I'm not sure I'm going. I see. I feel like Tulane is too, uh,

too good at football right now. Like they just beat USC, uh, you know, at the end of the 2022 season, the cotton bowl, they played for the AC championship last year. Like, I don. They played for the AAC Championship last year. I feel like they're too good.

I need somebody to lift up. I got to raise them up. I was thinking Georgia Southern would be the team I'd take over. Little Irk Russell, get after their asses. I'm bringing the triple option back to Georgia Southern. No offense to Clay Helton. I think he's doing a fine job there. And they throw the ball all around the yard there, which I'm sure is very strange to the people in Statesboro. But I'm bringing the triple option back to Statesboro and I'm winning national championships.

I am 100% doing that. That is one of the first orders of business when I steal my son's PlayStation 5, put it in my office, and lock the door. It's going to happen. Go Eagles. All right. Other teams. I did ask my son about this. I didn't mention that I was going to steal his PlayStation. He suggested Central Michigan. He suggested the Chippewas and I think that's great here's how I'm gonna but but I need to know can I customize my coach like I think you're going to be able to because when head coach Connor Stallions leads the Chippewas to five consecutive national titles, it is going to be epic.

So that would be my other choice, I believe. That would be the way to go. Mars Jam says Marshall. Marshall would be fun. A little thundering herd action. Cannot wait. I'm so excited for this. Marshall. Marshall would be fun. A little Thundering Herd action. Cannot wait. I'm so excited for this. And again, triple option coming back to Statesboro. You heard it here first. Cole Swindell is going to come to my games. Cole Swindell is the country singer who always wears a Georgia Southern hat. Listen, I cannot wait to turn Georgia Southern hat. It's listen, I cannot wait to turn Georgia Southern into the greatest

powerhouse the world has ever seen. Final question. And thank you again for all these questions. They were tremendous. This is from our friend, Mitch, the Michigan state fan. Do you prefer attending the final four or the first and second round games during the NCAA basketball tournament? Mitch, this is the easiest question you have ever asked me. And I will, I will say this to you. If you are ever considering going to the NCAA basketball tournament to watch, if it's your own team, I understand if your team makes the final four, go to the final four. But if you have a choice, if you're going just as a fan of the sport or just going to see the experience, do not spend all your money to go to the final four.

Pick a first weekend site and go there. It is the best event in American sports. That first weekend, you're in a smaller arena. It's usually an NBA arena. You're in a decent sized city. That's cool. They're almost all cool. So like there's a, there's a regional or a sub-regional in Omaha this year. Omaha is awesome. Omaha is so much fun. Ask any college baseball fan. it would be a blast to go to a first weekend site in Omaha or in Charlotte or in Pittsburgh. These are all places that have them this year. What you get is you get eight teams, eight fan bases, Wednesday and Thursday or Thursday and Friday, depending on when the games are. You have the open practices

the day before the games. It is so much fun. And that first day that now you have to buy two, two tickets because there's two sessions that first day. So you get, you get your first two games and your second two games, go to a mall. I always tell people probably my favorite day professionally was when I covered the 2008 NCAA tournament in Tampa. I got to see four double digit seeds win on the same day in the same building, including one that went on a buzzer beater. It was incredible. Every game just got better and better and better. So if you want to have fun, because the mixing of the fan bases is so much fun.

You learn other schools' traditions. You'll meet people from schools that maybe you didn't even know existed. And the people who are there for the really high-seeded teams, they're just there to have fun. They don't think their team's going to win. But if their team does win,

legendary memory for you and for them. And then if you stick around, you get two games on Saturday or Sunday, and they're, they're really high stakes games. They're intense. Like the trying to advance the NCAA tournament is incredibly hard. It's so much fun. So it So just the math of it is better. So first weekend, you get four games the first day, two games the second day. If you do the second weekend or the final four, you get two games the first day and one game the second day. So if you're following your team, great. Do the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight.

Do the final four. But if you just want to go have an amazing weekend, do a first weekend site. You will not regret it. It is again, probably the most fun, fun weekend you'll have with anything you can do in American sports. That's common guys. That's common selection Sundays, this Sunday, the tournament. well, the first four starts Tuesday, but the tournament proper starts a week from today. You know what we should do? We should have James Fletcher III, on three's resident bracketologist,

come and get you ready. Oh, wait, we're going to tomorrow. So James is coming in and we are going to have a primer for college basketball in 2024. If you haven't watched a single game all season, don't worry. Watch James and he will make you an expert by the time the bracket comes out on Sunday. So we're going to have a show tomorrow. We're going to get you completely prepared for when that bracket comes out. So when you fill it out Monday morning, you're going to be completely ready. We're also going to come back on Monday morning and break down the bracket, but come tomorrow

and we will get you prepared. You will understand who's playing. We're like, when I mentioned Caleb Love, you're gonna be like, oh, Caleb Love. He was at North Carolina. No, he's at Arizona now. I'll tell you who Dalton Connect is if you don't already know. Tennessee fans definitely know who Dalton Connect is. We'll talk about Robbie Avila. Now, if you've been watching this show, you know who that is. That's Larry Nerd, but he's not guaranteed to make the tournament yet. So we'll talk about him too. It's going to be so much fun. I can't wait. I love this week. We'll talk to you tomorrow.