Andy & Ari On3 - Would Michigan vs Ohio State be BETTER without the Big Ten Championship game? Ryan Day thinks so | Iowa State AD on Big Ten & SEC | Brendan Sorsby Latest

Episode Date: May 19, 2026

As the chatter surrounding college football has been predominately about the expansion of the College Football Playoff, another weekend has been brought up out of concern: the conference championship weekend. Watch here as Andy & Ari break down Ryan Day with The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman and how the Buckeyes head coach says The Game would be enhanced without the Big Ten title game. Do you think this is true? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (0:44) Intro: Rivalries (1:43) Ryan Day Comments (13:32) What are the solutions ahead? (26:56) Watching Spurs vs Thunder last night (29:46) Closing out the Ryan Day discussion (30:21) Iowa State AD on th Big Ten & SEC (48:38) Latest with Brendan Sorsby (1:00:34) Conclusion: See you tomorrow for Megaboard Wednesday! Once the guys wrap up the discussion surrounding Ryan Day and conference championships, the fellas head to Ames, Iowa, where Cyclones AD Jamie Pollard had some bold comments regarding the Big Ten and the SEC. Are there any obvious solutions for college athletics moving forward?   To close, Andy & Ari break down the latest with Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby. Will the Red Raiders QB have a chance to play, or is he simply going down swinging? Watch as Andy & Ari discuss.   Thanks for watching!   Send your questions to: [e-mail] [e-mail]   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/vqfBCWQs0e4   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy and Ari on 3, Ryan Day, the Ohio State coach says the Ohio State Michigan game would be better if there were no Big Ten championship game. Is he right? Plus, the Iowa State Athletic Director, Jamie Pollard says the Big Ten and the SEC should just break away if they don't want to follow the same rules as everybody else. Ari and I are going to break that statement down. And what would happen if they actually did? Plus, Brendan Sorsby is suing the institution. What are his chances of getting an injunction? What happens next if he does or if he doesn't? How is this case going to play out? We'll talk about it all today on Andy and Orion 3.

Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3. And it is conference meeting season. That means that ADs and coaches are meeting all over the place. And the big 10 coaches are up this week. They are in Rancho Palos Verdes near Los Angeles, one of Ari's dream locations. been through that neighborhood? I have not. Buddy, it feels like something

from a Disney movie. You're driving through the hills and you have all these houses that don't look very big, but you can see through their front door and then when you look through their front door's windows, you can see the ocean and like the houses drop off the side of the cliff. That is my literal dream. I think if I could pick anywhere on the

face of the earth to live, it would be in that neighborhood. Pretty nice. That's why the Big Ten's there. That's why the Big Ten's there because they're feeling there. I mean, it is Big Ten country. Don't forget. They got two schools in L.A. Yeah. Ryan Day, Ohio State's coach, talking yesterday to our friend Scott Docterman of the Athletic,

said that getting rid of the Big Ten championship game would make the Ohio State Michigan game better. And here's what he said. I think it could be even more important, Day told the Athletic. You're playing for either a chance to get into the playoff or a chance to get seated high and get a first round by. Or if you're already maybe predicted to be one of the top eight schools, you're fighting for a high seed. So all those are critically important to your success in the playoff.

I think with the elimination of the championship game, it keeps that rivalry as fierce as it's ever been, the stakes just as high. Ari, I disagree on the stakes being just as high. You would disagree even more. You've said it for years. But it does take away the possibility of them playing in consecutive weeks. unless theoretically there was a 2014 playoff and I guess they got matched up in the first round.

Andy, it's very likely that they are going to play more than once in the near future, regardless of whether the Big Ten championship game exists or not. Right. The 12 team playoff or a bigger playoff that we're going to see the Ohio State play in the playoff. And it literally could have happened two years ago. So, or was it three years ago now? It could have happened in 2022. 2023.

The year that... No, I'm sorry, 2024. 2022. Bad at math. 2022 was the year that Georgia and TCU play for the national championship. Ohio State and Georgia played that classic Peach Bowl. TCU upset Michigan and the Fiesta Bowl. Yes, if Ohio State and Michigan won there,

they would have played each other for the national championship. Yeah, and that was the 14th playoffs. So now imagine, I'm sure, the multipliers of it being the 12 are more likely. You know what would keep the Ohio State Michigan game enhanced or, at its best. If there were no playoff in the winter just went to the Rose Bowl? Yeah. I was like the way that he was talking about is like they did have that for almost

100 years, Ryan. But like there's no putting, who says this? There's no putting the toothpaste back in the tube on this one. Like I don't know if I view the Big 10 championship game, Andy, as the culprit for any lost emotions or stakes. In fact, I think that some of the biggest, most memorable additions of the game have happened during the Big Ten championship game era. I mean, the one from 2022, or the year that Jim Harbaugh and the Spygate stuff was happening,

and Ryan Day had his back against the wall and the game was in Columbus. I believe that was 2023. Was one of the best Ohio State Michigan games of all time in the stakes. I don't think we'll ever get to a point where it's nearly as high as that. In fact, I think I even wrote after the game with a week leading into it that we're never going to get this again because of the playoff expansion. So, like, I don't know, like, just let me ask you this, Andy, take this away from just Ohio State Michigan. Do you think that Big 10 SEC conference championship games in general do take away

anything from the rivalry games that happened on the final weekend of the regular season? I think they could because you had mechanisms in place before with divisions where you wouldn't have them playing again the next week in the championship. game. I think when they went supersized, so when the SEC went to 16 and the Big 10 went to 18, they basically, they eliminated the fun part of their conference championship game. They're the ones that created the danger of having the same matchup two weeks in a row, like a repeat of the Iron Bowl or repeat of the game. And like, luckily we haven't had it happen anywhere yet, right, that I am aware of or that I'm remembering. And we've had rematches in the Big 12, but, and we've had

rematches in the SEC of games that had been played in the regular season. But nothing directly after rivalry weekend with those two teams playing because, again, the divisions kept that from happening. And then last, like last year, let's say Michigan had beaten Ohio State. I think Oregon then would have played Indiana for the Big Ten championship game. Yes, Ohio State, I believe, would not have gone to Indy if that happened. So that was like from that standpoint.

And Michigan would have made the playoff. like that would have been a really high stakes result right there. Yeah. So I mean, I think that my, you know what I saw. I saw some stuff on Twitter yesterday because did you, you saw the Bill Connolly playoff manifest. I did. He did a good job breaking down what games would have been more and less meaningful with the 2014 playoff. And can, let me let me throw this out there because I love Bill. And I firmly believe that Bill does not like a 2014 playoff just like we don't. I firmly believe that Reese Dave. is not like the idea of a 2014 playoff, just like we don't. The problem is if you work for ESPN right now, no one is going to believe you in the general public. When you say you don't want a 2014 playoff, they're not going to believe that it's because you want what's best for the sport. They're going to believe ESPN told you to write that.

Okay, regardless of what people believe, and I saw all the comments of like circling where he works and retweeting him with it. The guy made great points. So you can accept them or not. Like, it's up to you. And that's the thing. Whether someone's partisan or not,

But these are facts about these games. Sometimes the biased person is right, by the way. Yeah, Joel Klatt on the other side of it advocating for can make a really profound, compelling case for the 2014 playoff using facts that help his argument. So here's the converse argument to this. I saw Doug Le Mairese posted this and I thought it was interesting and I wanted to bring it to you. He said that the rivalry games at the end of the year,

year that Bill Connolly was asserting would have less stakes or be less valuable, would actually continue to prop up the final weekend of the year because people in college football die for that weekend regardless of the stakes and that the rivalries in college football stand, you know, on their own merits in a way that other games in the NFL and NBA don't from a rivalry standpoint. And I think I agree with that. But I think obviously the bigger danger here, Andy, isn't the diminishing returns of rivalry game value or or stakes the the problem for me here is is that you're also like taking away the stakes from weeks one through six so like it's just like the whole thing is bad and i don't want to turn this

into a playoff thing well but it is a playoff debate that that's what it is yeah and this i asked somebody this question the other day what was the most important in terms of defining the rest of the season in terms of affecting the playoff and who ultimately won the national championship. What was the most important regular season result last year? Which game? The Miami-Nodem game. Correct. Week one. When the 2014 playoff, that result is meaningless. Yeah. And that result also only turned out to mean something because of the circumstances of the season. Like, you know, you're going to pick and choose, like, which game matters. But like if Notre Dame paid. Yeah, I guess theoretically if Notre Dame had dropped a third game,

or a fourth game, then maybe it wouldn't matter. Or if Notre Dame would have beaten somebody else to offset that, it wouldn't have mattered. It was the perfect storm. But the point that you're making, which is the right point, is that game, week one in the 12th team playoff can still matter a lot. And it was proven to be so last year. So I don't know in the 24 team playoff, the teams that are actually equipped to win the national championship very rarely,

if ever, are bad enough to lose four or five times in the regular season. So what you're doing is you're eradicating any high leverage moments from the actual good teams, because good teams can have a bad year and miss the playoff with two losses back in the day. Now a good team can have a really bad year during the regular season. A few things don't go their way, bad breaks, whatever, they're not bought in. This is the example that I always go back to because I covered it. the 2015 the 2015 Ohio State

team I covered every single day they could not figure out who their quarterback was they were playing quarterback musical chairs the team had already won a championship the year before half the team wanted to be in the NFL already it was single-handedly one of the most Zekeel O'Let played for them the second half of the Michigan State game like it was just

yeah they did forget and he also had like a boil on his foot or something or on his shin I'm trying to remember correctly but the point is is that Ohio on paper was probably the most talented team in the country that year. Yeah. But they were not great enough in doing what they needed to do in the regular season to earn an opportunity to compete for it.

In the 2014 playoff era, Ohio State could have lost twice more in the regular season and won the national champion. See, I think I'm a little different than you on this. Like, I wanted to see the 2015 Ohio State team play for the national title. I wanted them to have a chance. With a 12-team playoff, that team has a chance. Were you at the game? But the four-loss team doesn't have a chance, and that's fine with me. Were you at the game?

The Michigan State game I was on. The Michigan-Cook wasn't playing game. I was at the Michigan game the next week. It was one of the single most impactful games I've ever covered in my entire career. Obviously, being on the Ohio State beat and I'm losing it, probably exacerbated that a little bit. But, like, I am in the camp of protecting knights like that with my life. that's what my camp is. So I don't know.

In a 12 team playoff, you're still going to get games like that that knock a team out, that knock a, like that was Texas at Florida last year. Yeah, like the whole thing to me, and I used to say this during the 12 team, I'm trying to go back to like remember points I made

during the anti-12 expansion. Yeah. Where I was afraid that the regular season would be crippled by it. And actually it turned out that 12 is a great functional number. And I was wrong about a lot of those things. And regular season, games to this day still matter a lot. And you still have very good teams like Notre Dame not making it. So it felt to me that it was unnecessary at the time. Yeah. Like Oklahoma's run last year through

the end of its schedule, the hard to kill sooner. It was a lot of fun. It's not as much fun if they have two more losses to play with. Yeah. So and like then like all we're doing is like trying to make Virginia two lane games more exciting. And like I'm all forward. If you're a Virginia fan or a Tulane fan, you want to be included. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be included. But like if we did a pie chart of college football fandom and the sheer number of people who root for football teams and watch the games on Saturday,

how many of the fans in totality do you think are fans of programs that are traditionally very good? Would you say it's like 80% of total fans? 70% of total fans root for one of the big dogs of the sport? Like how many Macs would it take to match Georgia fan base? If you put them all together, it might. Maybe. Yeah, the whole conference wouldn't reach.

There are a whole conference of Mac fans would not be as big as like the Florida fan base. And when I say big dogs, I mean, that's like 25 teams probably. Right. I'm not saying Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia and Clemson. Like I'm talking about teams like Florida State and, you know, even North Carolina maybe. Like, I just don't know that, like, the net positive that you get with the 2014 playoff is most beneficial to the teams that have the fewest fans. So, like, that's also part of the reason why you see. Ari, is there a way to solve for the issue where you can have a 12-team playoff but not have conference championship games?

Because I agree with all of these people that the massive expansion of the conferences, the lack of divisions, the unbalanced schedules. the fact that you're essentially punishing your best teams by making them play each other before they play in the playoff. I get it. It has made the conference championship games irrelevant. So what can you do? Like there needs to be a solution there. Well,

it is kind of funny. The Big 10 has its solution, and that's a 2014 playoff that starts that weekend. So what would we propose to counterprogram that? Yeah. Well, it is funny that the entire conference realignment nonsense is actually probably the reason why we haven't gotten rematches with rivals in the Big Ten championship game because the schedule variance is so great between teams that are playing in the same conferences. Yeah, it was great last year because Ohio State and Indiana had not played. That's why it's not happening.

We could see them play. There's a higher likelihood of a random team going, you know, undefeated or one loss in the conference. championship race because they have a lighter schedule. You have teams in the same conferences with two entirely different schedules. Go look at Ohio State schedule this year and go compare it to Penn State schedule. They play in the same conference. They have completely different paths. Texas and Texas A&M schedule last year.

Right. It was the same situation. It's the same exact thing. And it happens every year, which is why you don't have Texas and Texas A&M playing again in the SEC championship a week later because there's too much variance. But like to counteract it, I'm trying to think like, what if you, because here's the other thing, if you abolish the conference championship game, then what are you left with?

You're left with crowding a champion when you have nine teams tied for first at the end of the year, which is also stupid. So, like, I feel like you need, because the tiebreakers to get into the game are dumb. And then winning the game at least gives you some sense of finality of who won the league. Like, I almost feel like they're essential just from that standpoint. You need to play a game in order to decide who won the league that year, unless you want to have a nine-way tie or an eight-way tie. I don't know if the conferences would ever agree to this,

but our guy Caden Smith, who produces J.D. Pekyllisher. So he went on the show, and his proposal was play some, do play in games, 11 versus 14 and 12 versus 13. So that would have been Notre Dame Vandy and BYU, Texas. J.D, I actually have a little bit of a solution here. I think when you talk about the 24 team playoff and the proposals and all the stuff that the AFCA is talking about 24 is too many teams. We're going to keep it to the 12 team playoff.

And since conference championship games are getting put to the wayside and teams are risking getting injured and getting more mileage on their tires before they go into the playoff. Love the straight seating that we have now. I think you take the top 14 teams though and you take teams 11 through 14. And that is a play in a weekend that we have for the college football playoff to replace conference championship week before we go into the playoffs. So this year, for example, if you look to straight seating, 8, 9, 10 was Oklahoma, Alabama, Miami. If you're a top 10 team, you make it to the playoff. but then Notre Dame number 11, you play 14 Vanderbilt for a spot into the playoff,

and then BYU and Texas play each other for the last spot inside the college football playoff. I think that would be amazing. I think that would give the revenue that we need and the juice we need for conference championship weekend. And on top of that, if you are a conference champion in my playoff, you not only get whatever buy your seating ranks if you're a top 14, but you're a guaranteed at home playoff game. So even if you do have a buy, that's not going to be a bowl game. That is going to be played on your site. We still want to incentivize being the top of your league. I think being a regular season champ now in this world, you get rewarded with a home playoff game. Congratulations. It has Cadence college football playoff. I'd really like that idea.

Going from conference title weekend to play in weekend, keeping it at 12, that would have been awesome. Those are good games. And at that point, too, it settles the discussion of, well, we're on the bubble where the committee cooked us. It's like, no, we actually saw you play against who you were supposed to be up against based on the whole resume comparison, I test. It's like, we'll still factor that in in the rankings, and I'm okay with that because I think college football has always, and for the foreseeable future will always be in some ways a little bit subjective, but to have it actually settled on the field, which everyone has been screaming about and crying about since the BCS started, I think that's a great solution.

I'm good with that. I'm going to watch the hell out of that. You're more of the financially oriented guy than me here and like understanding how it works. It's like, that's a great idea. But like, is the SEC and the Big Ten just going to hand over the cash cow that the championship games are and let them? Correct. You have to make it worth their while.

And that's really, if you've heard Greg Sanky talk. So our friend Seth Emerson from the athletic talk to Greg Sanky earlier in the week. Greg Sanky is anti-2014. But he said he'd be willing to listen. And the reason he'd be willing to listen is, I think if you find a way to make the SEC hole for dropping the SEC championship game, if you find a way to replace that revenue, they are going to be more open to something.

Yeah. It's all a revenue thing at the end of the day. But what if it's this? Automatic bids or you read division, you create divisions in these monster leagues, and then you give auto bids for teams that win the divisions. That is kind of what Tony Petiti proposed, where he wanted the top four in the Big Ten

and the top four in the SEC, and all, it's, I don't know if I like that. What if you just do two separate conference, two separate divisions, and then auto bids in a 12 team league? What if one division's good and one division sucks? Because you had that in the Big Ten and the SEC historically. Then it's no different than the reason why A&M probably made the playoff last year. Yeah.

I mean, I don't know. There's a great solution for any of this. Yeah. But like I do, like, it's, it is crazy because it is true that conference championship game weekends don't mean anything. The games don't matter. They've destroyed it themselves by going supersized. But at the same

time, I had a blast watching it with you last year. And maybe that's the counterpoint to 24 teams can't wreck college football because it's just fun to watch no matter what. The SEC championship game was not fun to watch because it was a blowout. I know, but I still thought that the

Big Ten game was awesome. The ACC game was awesome. I don't know if it's just me. but remember when the SEC game happened and like in the middle of the third quarter when Alabama was getting its doors blown off what started in the middle of the third quarter the debate about whether Alabama should be in or whether they should be penalized in this whole thing.

Yeah. I love that. Like I love engaging. There was no debate in the committee room, obviously, because they didn't even move them one spot. But I still think that that day was still a tent pole day in the fan experience. Whether it mattered in the committee room or not,

like we would expect. Yeah, I just think you need to make it matter. for the playoff. And I mean, here's the thing. If it's a 2014 playoff and you're essentially playing 9 through 24 in a seated fashion to get to a 16 team bracket the following week, that's kind of the same thing. Yeah. Well, it is funny because you do say conference championship game weekend sucks. So what we're going to do is we're going to expand the playoffs to 24 and turn every weekend into that.

Yeah. The problem is you're not going to have nearly as big a brands as you have during conference championship games. weekend. So I don't know. And again, that's the issue with the SEC. They will get more money for this. I don't know if they're going to get that much more. Because it's not worth what the current, like the 11 games in a 12-team playoff are worth more because the stakes are higher and the brands are bigger.

Does Ryan Day believe that Ohio State was worse off heading into the playoff because they had to play the Big Ten championship game. Do SEC team? Does Georgia feel like they were worse off because they had to play Bama? Well, the only thing that prior year, I think you could definitively argue that Georgia was worse off by having to play Texas

because they lost Carson Beck. Yeah. So that's the hardest part. It's like if you want to have a weekend to crown a conference championship game and you want to call it irrelevant, that's one thing. But if you feel like you're blackballing teams, that's not the word. We're punishing them.

Yeah. You should make the ones that are barely making the playoff work harder to make the playoff, not make your best teams work harder. Yeah. Or maybe there's a way to replace the championship game with a game between the five and six seeds and whoever. Which is what Tartini pitched already. Yeah.

So, I don't know. With automatic bids. So, yeah, there's no easy way to do it. And they're going to have to figure it out. But put a bow on this thing. though, because this is the entire segment here, we kind of got off track a little bit. Do you think that there's any credence to the championship games being worse off,

or existing games? I would like it if the championship games did not give us the possibility of a second consecutive rival rematchup, whether that is Michigan, Ohio State, whether that is Alabama, Auburn, Texas or Texas A&M. I would like it if that was not a possibility. I don't want to see that game two weeks in a row. I'm fine with it in the playoff. But I don't want to see it in a playoff two weeks in a row. Because could you imagine if Ohio State and Michigan played?

Like if Ohio State Michigan played a few years ago in the championship game for it all, do you think that would have been cool or do you think that would have sucked for the rivalry? Cool as hell. I think it would have been cool as hell too. I think like watching two rivals play each other for the national championship would be peak. awesomeness. Now, it would suck for the loser, especially if the team that won the title

was the team that lost the first time, which is probably what would happen a lot of times. Well, I can well, personal experience there, 1996, Florida State wins 24, 21 in Tallahassee. The Mighty Gators win

52 to 20 in the Sugar Bowl. Yeah. Guess who's got national championship rings? Yeah. But that's the way it works. It's Sports. Like, I don't know. Like, like, I always feel like, too, like we're in charge, like, in these discussions of like solving the biggest issues. And I'm kind of like on your team here. It's like, who cares? Don't need to solve these issues? It's weird. Who cares? I don't get paid to solve them. I get paid to talk about them. And the people who get paid to solve them are not really great at solving them. Or kind of want other people to solve them for them. I am okay existing in a world of college football where if the biggest issue is that the teams that play in the conference championship games aren't playing for as much as you think they're playing for. Like I'm okay with that. Like if that's if that because people are watching it.

It's football. I do think, Andy, you live in the South. You're very familiar. Like the SEC championship still matters probably more to the teams in that league than other championships do. But like the Ohio State Indiana game last year that we got in the Big Ten championship. game I thought was a net positive for the Big Ten's catalog of games last year. We got to see a matchup that we hadn't seen before. And maybe some years it won't work out or you might get two in a row.

But I don't view, like, I never have sat down for an Ohio State Michigan game and just gone, oh, this sucks. The winner has to play the Big Ten championship game next week. That's not, maybe that would change if they played twice in a row. But I think that there's enough variance where that will probably happen very rarely. Yeah. And that's the thing. when you add Oregon into the league, when you add USC and Indiana is good now.

It becomes more difficult for them to play twice in a row. So yeah, good luck, guys. You got to figure it out on your own. We're out of the solution business. Yeah, we're doing our best, but here's what I will say. And I think you agree with me. Last year was freaking awesome. Like, I had a great time.

I thought that the sport was fun. I thought the games were engaging. I thought there was a very appropriate amount of drama. I think that there was a same. I didn't think it lasted long enough. Didn't last. It was over. That was the only problem.

What is the main issue with how last year went? There is no main issue with how last year went fine, but everybody wants their team to win. They want their conference to come out victorious with the plan. They want their conference to chart the future of the sport. That's pretty much it. But I think there's Notre Dame fans out there that think last year sucked. But a good season is going to have teams that,

that feel that way. That's sports. I don't think the Thunder were particularly happy that an alien shot from mid-court to tie the game in overtime last night. But like it was awesome, right? Yeah, I mean, that's one of the, like, I realize this is not an NDA show, but Ari, I couldn't go to sleep after watching that last night. Like, that is one of the coolest games I've ever seen. This is not an NBA show, but I was watching it too. It was incredible. And I want to ask you this question. is Victor Wembenyama going to change the NBA forever? Possibly because there's nothing like that. I don't know what you can do to stop him.

You know how many times Oklahoma City drove the paint and then Victor was under the basket and the person dribbled away from the basket? There's one in overtime where Shegilds is Alexander dribbles into the paint and the look on his face is like, nope. He kicks it back now and they miss a three. is there a statistic that can quantify how many points he took away from Oklahoma City by just existing in the paint?

Like they have, yeah, they have advanced stats that measure rim protection and stuff like that or drives that get within so many feet of the basket. So yes, they do have that and it is quantifiable. But the fact that he can pull up from 27 feet and drill a three-pointer at seven foot four is there's nothing you can do about it. you know, Isaiah Hartnstein is a seven-foot good defender under normal circumstances. They had to take him out of the game and play Alice Caruso on Wembe. Like, they were like, this is the best chance we got. Yeah. It was incredible.

So. But like if this was the case, like are the Spurs just going to turn into a dynasty again? Yeah. Because they'll see. Because they have a, I'm sorry. I get so excited. I don't know if they're going to win this series. That's the best part.

No. Like, well, I think it's kind of hard to imagine that they won't if the person that's, best suited to cover Wemby is like a foot and a half shorter than him. But there is nobody who's best suited to cover. They tried Chet. That doesn't work either. That's what I'm saying. So it's hard to imagine.

I just like, we're not an NBA show, but I had a blast watching the game last night. Well, and that's the thing. We love sports. We love how it can thrill us and show us something new, something we never thought we'd ever see.

The best tweet about the game last night was, this must have been what people were like. when they saw a movie in color for the first time. Like, yeah, it's true. It's like your whole world opens up. That was a terrible shot selection, by the way. I don't know, like it went in and it had a 20 seconds ago on the shot clock.

It was an awful shot selection. But like, what were we doing here? Like, if he made it and it was awesome, but if he would have missed that, wouldn't everybody been just like, what the f? Oh yeah, they did it kill them for it. But, hey, that's why you got to win, buddy. But that was like further from step than Steph range.

Yeah. Yeah. No, Steph's range as well beyond that. But Steph shoot from there a lot? He does, right? Yes. But here's the thing. That's why we watch these sports. That's why they captivate us. That's why we love. That's why we sit here and argue about college football in the middle of May and whether they should play the conference championship game or not, because all that matters to us. Like, it's just fun. It's cool because you get to see something you never thought you. you'd see. Like, for example, to tie it back to what we were originally talking about, when we sat at that Texas Roadhouse in College Station and watched Michigan win at Ohio State in a game that Michigan should not have had a chance in, like, that is what you watch for.

That's the whole point. Yeah. So got to keep giving us those moments. That's the key. Okay. How they give us those moments is always up for debate. Let's talk a, about what Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard said because he's frustrated because he believes that the Big 10 in the SEC, which worked with the Big 12 and the ACC on this House versus the NCAA settlement that created the College Sports Commission. We talked about that last week with the Nebraska case. And he feels like the Big Ten in the SEC don't want to follow the rules that everyone agreed to create. And so Cyclone Fanatic posted this on Twitter.

And this is Jamie Pollard talking to reporters. And this is a fascinating quote from Jamie Pollard because on one hand, you admire what he's saying. But on the other hand, you're thinking, this might not be the best thing for Iowa State either. But here's what a frustrated Jamie Pollard said. It's frustrating because collectively, the four conferences created the season.

CSC and we spent a lot of money. The four commissioners spent a lot of money creating the CSC. And so then to have two of the conferences not want to adhere to it is perplexing to me. Because then it's like, well, why did we spend the money? If he didn't want rules, then why did you create this entity? That's what's frustrating to me. The same people that say they want rules only want rules if they don't apply to them. I mean, I said it three years ago.

Yeah. Let them break away. I'd say I would turn it around and say we should break away from them. Let them go. You know, but they have to go in all their sports and see how fun it is to play baseball and softball and track when it's just the 20 of you. And that's what I think we should do.

But I'm one person and, you know, that's probably a little more draconian. But that's how I feel about it. Like, let's quit talking about it. Quit threatening. Go do it. But if you're going to do it, don't get to just do it in football and then keep all your other sports with us. No, take them all.

See how fun it is. Cyclone fanatic with that video. And that is probably how a lot of people in the Big 12 and the ACC feel, but they probably aren't as willing to go in front of a microphone and say it as Jamie Pollard was. Well, the thing that I am just confused with, the perplexity, you know, or like the frustration is like, when they put the CSC together, like I don't have an econ degree. I'm no financial genius. But the thing seemed moronic from the beginning,

especially considering the fact that the main tent pole of its existence is to do something that's literally illegal. I just don't understand why everybody is blindsided by the fact that people weren't going to adhere to a cap. They were never going to adhere to a cap. Nobody is ever going to you cannot even do it in in America. It's just it's not a tenable solution. So why are very smart, powerful people so confused by what's, I agree with one of the things that he said is why bother making it.

I agree with that. There was probably a lot of money invested in doing it. But if you thought that LSU was going to just play by the rules and not it, you saw the breakdown of how much money this team is invested between the firing of Brian Kelly and the hiring of Lane Kiffin in the roster that they built, you. 20 million dollars is a drop in a bucket compared to what LSU has spent on trying to win championship in 2026. Nobody was going to do this. In fact, I thought that with the revenue share model, teams that were abusing the NIL system and doing things that were outside of the scope of what actual NIL is, we're absolutely going to max out the rev share for football and then go on top of it with more unregulated deals. Like what did like what the thing I'll ask Jamie Pollard before we go into well you you know the other thing too of like the threatening of track no one cares about track.

So what did you think it was going to look like a year and a half ago? Yeah. Did you actually there was going to be a hard cap that everybody would adhere to? Why? They thought. And it wasn't just guys in the big 12 in the ACC. I remember having an argument with an athletic director in the SEC. and they said once this this house settlement goes through there'll be a cap and i said no there won't

and because one it's illegal and they're like but but but it's a settlement i'm like yeah it's not legal precedent it's not a cba what they thought they were doing was a poor man's cb a because the plaintiffs were athletes and so it's an agreement with the plaintiffs which they're like, oh, well, the athletes got their say, and they're opting in. But you never created a system where somebody from outside the system couldn't sue you, which is the problem, which is why if you don't pay the Nebraska players, the Nebraska Attorney General will come after you. And by the way, you also can't tell the companies involved with this what they are

and aren't allowed to pay. So there were several ways to challenge it. and it was never going to hold up if it got challenged. And actually may just get completely wiped off the map by a challenge from the plaintiff's attorneys themselves who are party to the deal because they've said, hey, you can't keep these MMRs, these third parties. So Learfield or Playfly, the companies that work with the schools to funnel money to the athletes. You can't keep them from doing this. It was never going to happen. June says that you can't, then you can't.

And it's gone. Capping the income of the players without actual collective bargaining agreement is impossible. Yeah. It's impossible. It's basic economics. It was never going to happen. So we can go to the second part of this comment, which is be careful what you wish for, Jamie. Yeah.

because the Big Ten and the SEC, they're talking about it amongst themselves. They are like legitimately talking about breaking away, not breaking away together as a super league because that would get them sued by everybody else because then they'd probably have market power. They could be considered a monopoly. But breaking away individually and the SEC does its own thing over here and the Big Ten does its own thing over here. They create their own rules.

They enforce their own rules. I don't think that's going to work either. because it's all fine and good when you can make the NCAA out to be the bad guy. But if you're making and enforcing your own rules, guess who gets to be the bad guy? Guess who gets sued by the schools, you. So decide what you want. But Jamie Pollard's saying, oh, they can't just take football. Let them have, you know, let's see what happens when they don't have us for basketball.

You know what would happen if they didn't have you guys in the Big 12 for basketball? They would say Mountain West, Big West, Atlantic Sun, Sun Belt. you guys want to play basketball with us, we're going to have a big tournament, lots of money. And you know what those leagues are going to say? Absolutely. How much money percentage-wise of Iowa State's income exists because they play on the same system

or field with the SEC and the Big Ten? Most of it. I think people are more inclined to be interested in what Iowa State is doing because their results impact what happens with the SEC and Big Ten in the postseason. It would have been very interesting. You know, I wonder how much of the Big 12 championship games ratings last year were impacted by teams of legacy major college football powers that were terrified

that BYU would win and that Texas Tech and BYU would be a bid thief to another one of the traditional powers. If they weren't even in the same system, the Big 12 becomes less relevant in general. Yeah. In fact, the entire big 12th is you can, you can, can point at them all you want, but they're going to win because they've got the bigger fan bases. They have more market power than you have. Yeah.

So unless you can make more market power, they're going to win. And it's not fun to talk about. You can either play with them or not, but are they going to try to make their own rules? They're going to try to make it as advantageous for themselves as possible? Yes, they are because they can. The Iowa states of the world are rightfully upset because they want to exist in a system that has a level playing field. You know what is not going to happen? You're not going to raise a hundred years of precedent or 100 years of what has been real.

Well, even when they were making rules to make things more level, Iowa State never had a chance. I feel like teams that don't have a chance are trying to create a chance for the first time on 120 years. Well, Tessors actually creating a chance for themselves. A lot of teams. Yeah. A lot of teams that are not because they have money. Yeah.

Everybody who's had a chance has had money. And if you don't have money, there's a reason for it. Your fan base is less robust. You are less interesting. You are not high on the food chain. So do not argue or try to muscle your way into the top of the food chain when that's never been your place to begin with. Well, that's the thing. If you are living on a subsidy complaining about the taxpayers, not great for business.

It's biting the hand that feeds you a little bit there, I think. And I just, I get frustration and I get like that the financial chaos is probably a strain to a lot of different people. But this financial chaos, this lack of a salary cap, this lack of oversight of financial deals has also opened the door for the most parity-driven sport we've ever had. So just because Iowa State isn't one of those teams doesn't mean that you, that the system is. But that does suck. And we talk about this on college football on choir and Stephen Gropry made a good point. Like Iowa State, Virginia Tech, NC State, Kansas State, these are very passionate fan bases. and they are very loyal

and they are just as passionate as the fan bases at Ohio State in Michigan but they are not that size in number. They're just not as robust. Yeah. And I get it. It has to be frustrating as hell because you have to find the cash

to actually compete. And then you see in Indiana coming up. You see a tech. Texas Tech doing this. There are other schools now that are capable of competing because now it really is just about money. It's not about history or anything else. It's can you afford it?

But there will be schools that can't afford it. The thing I just don't understand is what's the difference for Iowa State between now and 2003? Nothing. They're better off now as long as they hire a good coach, which they had one. and that's probably another source of the frustration is they had the best coach in their school's history. He left for Penn State. There really wasn't much they could have done about it.

I mean, they kept Matt Campbell as long as they could. And he would have left for Penn State if it was an option before NIL. Yeah. Like, it's just nothing's changed. Now, it might be, if you were a kid in a certain. Yeah. Because Iowa State's actually been very, very good at times. Iowa State has been very good.

they've managed their money very well. They're super competitive in basketball. They've been as competitive as they've ever been in football in the past 10 years. So like Andy Pollard's done an incredible job at Iowa State. You know when you're like 16 years old and you have like a friend group and you all feel like you're in it together? And then one of the friends in the friend group gets a hot girlfriend for the first time, how like the other friends who are sitting at the lunch table with you feel, about that person.

That's probably how Iowa State feels about Indiana a little bit, right? Like, oh, you got the hot girlfriend. Now, we all ended up getting- Kurtz-Denty's on next. We're gonna tell him that we call him the hot girlfriend of college football. No, he's the hot guy who got, who left his friends to get the hot girl.

Yeah. Chrisignetti's a very attractive man. But you know what I mean like that, that like sense of like, we were in us together. You're no longer, you're no longer with it. with us, you left. I mean, they call that a sellout

and skating movies on Disney Channel in the 90s. Like, that's what is exactly. But you're right. There is now an opportunity for those schools to, like, it was a very rigid cast system before NIL.

If you weren't one of the, the cool kids, you weren't going to join the cool kids club. Clay Clemson was the only school that I could think of that really joined the cool kids club. And it was very hard to break in.

into. Now, you can break into it. It is essentially the difference are between, I'm going to compare my Julian Fellows shows. It's the difference between Downton Abbey and the Gilded Age. Downton Abbey's in England. It's still about who your family is and your lineage, not necessarily how much money you make. Guilded Age, same time period in America. If you can afford it, you can do it. Like it, that's what it is. But here's the thing. Would you rather be at your table with the other guys and nobody ever get a pretty girlfriend? Or would you rather look at one of your peers get a pretty girlfriend and then reinforce to you that it's possible that you could do it one day?

I still think that depends on your personality, Ari. Like how you feel about that? I think that if I were an Iowa State fan, as frustrated as I would be in the moment. that there is more hope for winning a championship or doing something great in this system than there was in the previous one, regardless of how much money LSU or Alabama or Ohio State is spending. Right. They will always outspend you.

They will always be bigger than you. They will always be more powerful than you. But one day, if you get that cocktail right, you can do something to them in a way that you could never do in 2003. And I think that that is an invigorating thing for the entirety of the sport. And I think that part of this isn't only because you got better. Remember, guys, LSU spent all this money. And it might turn out that they win the championship this year.

They are really talented. And we're going to probably have an episode here in the near future, breaking down some of the names on this team that, you know, are very good. But LSU probably is not going to be 2019 LSU this year. And like those big dogs that used to exist. in 2005 and 2009 and 2014 don't exist anymore. So Iowa State, although you are not able to spend commiserate with what LSU just got done doing, if you ever get really good, you never have to do something that

you would have always had to do in the past, which has had nine first round draft picks on your team to win. You can create a very good team that plays together that's well coached, that's got a few break out guys. Honestly, Andy, Brees Hall, Brock Purdy, you get that going again? And the right year, you can win a championship, I think, in this system. And I think that that should be invigorating. I don't think that I would be upset about about what's happening right now. I think that you have to accept where you are in your lot

in life. I have a great life. I don't drive through Rancho Palos Verde's hating the people that live in that neighborhood. I hope one day that I could buy a house there. Well, we're going to find out if Iowa State can do that or not. or if the big 10 just want to wall off their neighborhood. You know, Andy, you can still drive through Ranchos Palo Verde. You can still go through there. You can drive your Ford Fusion through there if you want. You don't want a wall around the community.

They're going to call the cops on you if you do. You do have a Ford Fusion. They might call the cops on you. But Andy, I think that's the whole thing, man. I think that's the whole thing about sports, competition, life. You were always, you were never on the top of the food chain. You're out on the top of the food chain now, but you could maybe eat a shark one day if you do it right.

I think that is awesome. It is possible. And I think that we're, what if we're in the first of 10 years, Andy, of atypical teams winning the championship? What if Indiana isn't the exception to the rule? What if Indiana is the beginning of a new trend? We can hope.

We don't even know. We haven't advanced into the system long enough to even know. Yeah. And we want to change it? Why don't we get 10 years under our bell? in a 12 team playoff in an NIL revenue share system and see what the results are before we make any wholesale

judgments about how this era is going. Nah, everybody's used to freak out about it the whole time. That's a fun conversation. What if a Big 12 team wins the championship in two years? It could happen, right? It could. It could happen.

Well, the team that is trying to, the team that won the Big 12 last year, has a quarterback suing the NCAA right now. And sometimes more money, more problems. Exactly. as the show was dropping yesterday, Brendan Soresby was dropping his lawsuit against the NCAA. I put out a video on Monday about this,

wrote a column at On 3 about this, kind of explaining the circumstances of this case, what the chances are that Brendan Sorsby is going to win or not win. And in this case, win and not win, like we're not talking about at trial here. This is all about getting an injunction. He's trying to get an injunction so that he can play this season. If he doesn't get the injunction,

he's going to go to the supplemental draft. And Ari, I haven't got a chance to talk to you about this since the case dropped. But very interesting where in court documents, you have Brendan Sorsby admitting to betting on his own team when he played at Indiana. Now, these are not games he played in. He was redshirting. But this is the kind of the bright line, the NCAA is saying you can't cross. Now, there's also admissions of betting on Cincinnati basketball.

when he played at Cincinnati, and that's also prohibited by the NCAA. And then he said he essentially got so addicted to gambling that he was betting on Turkish basketball, obscure tennis doubles matches, and the Nathan's hot dog eating contest. Andy, I don't want to make light of this. I have also wagered on the Nathan's hot dog eating contest. How do we wager? Just purely on the winner on dogs. You can bet on the winner by Joey Chestnut.

That's what I do. Joey Chestnut over 72 and a half hot dogs. And you just watch this for whatever. Was it 10 minutes? They give them 10 minutes. I can't watch because they're dunking the buns and water and that just grosses me out. It is really gross. But I took the under one year with chestnut and he blew past it.

I was just like, how could a human being eat 78 hot dogs in 10 minutes? But he did it. Here's the thing, Andy. I don't really care. what the reasoning is, I can understand, like, from a human element, like, if you are not playing and you're competitive, wanting to be a part of, you know, the explanation that he gave about wanting to feel connected to his teammates, his team, his program. Like, I understand that. There's no explanation that you can give that makes that okay. I think that's how most people feel. And I think that's, that's what makes this interesting because we've seen, you know, look, the picture of the judge came out where he's doing the guns up with the mascot. We've seen this.

The judge in the Trinidad Shamblis case had a law degree from Ole Miss. Trinidad Shambliss got his injunction. The judge in the Charles Betayako case had an undergrad degree from Alabama. Charles Betayaco did not get his injunction. The judge in the Joey Aguilar case had two degrees from Tennessee. Joey Aguilar does not get his injunction. It doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get home cooking just because you filed in a local court. And I don't know that a judge is going.

to be the one, like the thing about the judge in the Betty Akokist, Daniel Pruitt, he said it in his decision. He's like, I'm not sure I want to be the one who erases this rule because everybody on earth is going to be able to come get an injunction if I give him this injunction. Like every G-League player who wants to come make some money in college basketball will immediately file for an injunction if I grant this. And I'm not sure I don't want that I want to be the one to break the seal on that. And I went to. and my best friend is an attorney, and he asked me this year if March Madness was happening.

Not everybody that goes to your favorite school cares about the football team. Right, right. And so, but this judge also, he could be the biggest Texas tech fan in the world, and he may not want to be the one who makes the decision that causes everybody who gets caught gambling

on their own team to immediately go to court. And just because you're loyal to your favorite team doesn't mean you want to sacrifice or potentially jeopardize your professional standing. Like, that's not, you know, like, every, I'm assuming that becoming a judge is a very hard thing to do. And I'm not sure that he wants to risk his reputation, his, how people view him, his entire life's work over whether or not Brendan Sorsby plays football this year. Now, what the attorneys for Brendan Sorsby are arguing is, hey, listen, the NCAA says they're here to help student athletes. They're not.

So, so why are you punishing someone for an addiction? that you should be helping him through. That's one argument they're making. Another argument they're making is this process is just taking entirely too long because Brendan Sorsby has said, you got me. I did these things that you were accusing me of. I did them. And the NCAA is still saying,

hey, we need an in-person interview, even though you're in rehab right now. We also need you to turn over your Venmo records and your bank records and your phone records. And he's like, you got me. I did it. decision please. Yeah.

Yeah. That is funny. If somebody gets caught red-handed or somebody, like there's no trial, right? Well, they make the eligibility decision. And so that's what Texas Tech, in official NCAA Parliance, what Texas Tech did yesterday, Pete NACO's reporting this, Texas Tech declared Brennan Sors being eligible and applied a reinstatement. So now that the NCAA will make a decision about whether he's eligible to be reinstated. My guess is they will say no, that he's not.

I don't know if that will happen before or after the hearing for the injunction because they've requested a very quick hearing for the injunction because they need to know in time so that he can apply for the supplemental draft if he wants. He has until June 22nd to do that. So basically they've got a month to get this straightened out. And I think Swarzby's camp understands that this is a bit of a long shot, him playing at Texas Tech this year. And I think more than anything, they would like some finality. And then they can go make a decision.

And if there is no finality, you'd have to go to the supplemental draft either way, right? I think you would. So what I think's going to happen is you're going to have this hearing. And then you'll know one way or the other because the judge will either grant, injunction or deny it. And if he grants it, he's playing for Texas Tech. And if he denies it, then Sorosby's going to the NFL. That's pretty much it. And we kind of know what everybody's going to argue. Like the NCAA hasn't issued its response, and they will. So if a hearing gets set, the NCAA will file a written response to the complaint. And my guess is it's going to be something

to the tune of, hey, in the course of running our business, we have to have rules against people betting on their own teams, that we can't function as a business without that. That, I guess, will be their main argument. Yeah. And I think it's a compelling one. I think most people feel that way because, like, the Bettyaco case, it felt pretty cut and dried. Like some of these other cases with Trinette Shambliss, with Owen Heineke, the linebacker

at Oklahoma who got another year because the judge granted an injunction. you had people saying, well, I get it. Okay, the NCAA doesn't always apply the rules evenly on these medical hardship cases. Like with Charles Berdyaco coming back from the G League trying to play in college, I don't remember anybody who wasn't affiliated with Charles Beretio

or an Alabama fan saying, we want this. And in fact, there were Alabama fans were like, no, no, no, don't grant it. don't want this. Yeah. I'm guessing in this situation, most people feel the same way. Yeah.

And I think that's what we're going to, I think it's like sometimes too, it's like you can overly complicate things. And I think that we're used to Andy with the NCAA in these suits, especially now that they happen every other weekend, trying to make things more complicated. I think in this specific instance, it's pretty cut and dried, and it's not that complicated. And you can sue and you can make compelling arguments and all these things.

but I think that like everybody's on the same page here. You know, and that's what I try to explain in the column is, is this is not, while it is structurally similar to the way they set up, the Trinidad Chamberliss attorneys set up that complaint where you're doing it as a breach of contract situation, the facts of the case are completely different.

Yeah, I mean, and that is the difference. And River pointed this out, like, I mean, you know, going down swinging as like a concept here, But it's also like you have a shot to take, and it might be a full court shot with 0.7 seconds left. You take the shot. You know, what's he going to be?

I don't blame the guy for taking the shot. All they can say is no, and then you go to the supplemental draft. Yeah. And I think that he is probably anticipating, and his attorneys are anticipating that that's what's going to happen here. I'm not under the illusion that he has a shot of, you know, playing next year. and I think that as compelling as maybe some of the things that he said were, or at least from a human standpoint,

maybe understanding that gambling is a disease for some people, and that doing things maybe although not harmful or at all important in the results of the Cincinnati games that he did wager on, are also still not, you know, it's not, it might be understandable from a human standpoint, but you can't not condone the behavior regardless of the motivation. Yeah, it will be interesting to see, you know, how does the judge weigh these different arguments?

Because when you're trying to get an injunction, you need to show that there's going to be irreparable damage that if they can't do the thing they're asking to do because of the case, that if you let them do it, then they will not be irreparably damaged. You can probably make that argument if you're Brennan Sorgeby's attorneys because he stands probably to make more money

this year at Texas Tech than he'd make in the first year in the NFL depending on his draft status. And this is his last year of college eligibility. But the other really important piece that you need, if you're getting an injunction, is the judge has to believe that your case might prevail on its merits. And that's where the rubber is going to meet the road here. Does this judge by your arguments that, hey, this is an addiction?

The NCAA should be helping him rather than punishing him. Like that, that's the argument they're going to make. And the NCAA is going to come back and say, we sympathize with this, but to run our business, we need this rule. Yeah. Might seem complicated now. I think it's going to be pretty, you know, point A to point B.

I guess so the Joey Aguilar one's a good example of that. Yeah. Where it also, when the judge really laid it out there, wasn't that complicated. Yep. So I think that's that's where they're at. And we will probably find out the next few weeks. You know, the next thing that happens is you'll get a hearing date and then the NCAA will respond and then they'll have the hearing. And we will know one way or the other.

And again, June 22nd is the date for the supplemental draft to declare. So it's got all to get done by then. Thanks for watching today. Megaboard Wednesday tomorrow. message boards are popping. It is conference meeting season and there's always somebody saying something that causes the message boards

to start buzzing. We will talk about it tomorrow on Andy and Orion 3.