College Football Live - CFB LIVE - DAY 1 OF BIG TEN MEDIA DAYS

Episode Date: July 28, 2026

On today's episode of CFB Live, Zubin Mehenti, Dusty Dvoracek, Sam Acho, Pete Thamel, and Heather Dinich breakdown Day 1 of BIG TEN Media Days. The crew breaks down the possibility of a 24 team playoff, Lincoln Riley in his 5th year at USC and Rocco Becht joins the show. All this and more on CFB Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And a reminder, the Big Ten is really, really big. We have 18 teams, six coaches a day for three days. In the next half hour, you'll hear from Lincoln Riley. And we'll hear from Matt Campbell's new quarterback, slash old quarterback Rocco Beck. And with that, we welcome you inside college football live. Let's get right to our panel. I'm being joined today by Sam Acho.

Sam, it's great to have you here. Simply put, you know is this as well as I do. The Big Ten has this week to themselves at Media Days because they own the week. They own college football. Why is that? Well, three titles in three years with three different programs at three different stations and life kind of says.

It all. Way back in 2024, JJ, kissing that trophy. Michigan wins it in a hailstorm of controversy. Harbaugh departs for the NFL. The very next year, Michigan, of course, their arch rival. Ohio State left for dead after two regular season losses. Instead, they stormed through Ohio against the world and win the playoff. And then the Indiana Hoosiers getting it done in one of the greatest stories in all of sports. But the big boss at the Big Ten wants to remind you this league has a lot of depth. You cannot send your top teams out into the CFP unless they've played and have them be successful, which we have been very successful if they're not going through a gauntlet in the regular season.

You know, this idea that the middle of our conference isn't hard, is this not right? Like at the end of a day, our teams are ready for the CFP. Our travel looks like the CFP travel. You're going all over the country, how we play, the difficulty in the road in the Big Ten. I just think that's overlooked. So there are many ways to size up the Big Ten of the SEC. We're going to talk about it with the guys here in just a second. This is just one way.

Numbers on your screen here. This is the simplest way to understand this. On a neutral field against an average opponent, an average SEC team would win by a little more than two touchdowns, a Big Ten team would buy a little less than 10 points. The beauty of that, it's all hypothetical. We'll see what happens when the games start getting played. And with that,

We welcome you inside. Let's roll. Dusty Devorchak is here. I looked on my play sheet here on my little wristband. You are now in. I have audibled. It's great to have Sam here as well. Sam, let's start with you.

Big thing. Big Ten, SEC. The Big Ten's got all the ammo, all the momentum. Are they clearly college football's premier conference? The answer has to be yes, but I may not go far saying clearly. These are two of the best conferences, but you have to say, okay, what delineates or differentiates these two conferences. And I would go back to championships won. For about 20 years, 13 of the 17 championships were won by the SEC. But in the last three years, they've been won by the

Big Ten. And you start saying, okay, well, you're winning championships. What else delineate? You start talking about players drafted. Well, this last year, for the first time, albeit, the Big Ten had 10 first round picks. That's more than the SEC. Mind you, for about a decade before, it was the SEC. Now you start going to, okay, well, how do you start delineating even more? You start saying clearly it's not as clear because the SEC had more players drafted, 87 versus the Big 1067. So that's where it starts getting a little bit different. But I would say if you wanted to start getting down to the nitty-gritty,

you go to Championships 1. That's why I go to the Big 10. Yeah, Sam, look, best is defined by the Webster's Dictionary, which, you know, you appreciate, is the highest standard. And the highest standard is championships. And right now, the Big 10 has won the last three national championships. and the fact that it's been won by three different teams, I think it's extremely important.

And if you look at the top going into this season, it feels like the Big Ten is sitting in great positions to have multiple teams that can win a fourth in a row. You mentioned it as 14 out of 18 national champions were won by the SDC. They also had strings of seven straight national championships, five straight national championships, and during that time, they actually defined it as championships

or what to find the best conference in college football. I believe the SEC is the deepest conference in college football. They have more good teams to really good teams than any other conference. But listen, if we're talking best, Zubin, we're talking at the very top and you've got to win championships. And right now, the Big Ten is running college football. They've got the bragging rights and they've got the championship belts. Last thing I'll say before we move on to our guest, and that is the ace in the hole for the Big Ten is USC and Nebraska. If they ever get to what they used to be

or even a facsimile of what they used to be, it'll further the Big Ten even more. Penn State is already in that discussion. We don't need to worry about that because the Nittney Alliance have so much going on and so much history, including a new head coach, Matt Campbell, a decade at Iowa State, where he was the winning his coach in school history,

and now they sort of backed into him, but many people believe, including Dusty, they got the right man. Their portal class has a familiar face because Rocco Beck came over, with Matt from Ames to state college, in addition to about 20 other guys who wore that cyclone helmet. And this may be the biggest thing of all. Look at the schedule. No Indiana, no Oregon, no Ohio State. At least not in the regular season. It'd be a good problem for my man Rocco Beck

to have if you saw them in the playoff. It's great to have Rocco here on college football life. First things first, I've been following you for years. You are not maybe the most highly recruited high school player coming out of South Florida. But, But now in about a half decade, you're entrusted with leading one of the blue bloods in the history of the sport. So what did people miss about you? Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me on today. But like you said, I wasn't highly recruited coming out of high school.

I only had two power four offers, Iowa State and Wake Forest. Ended up choosing Iowa State just because of Coach Campbell, what he was preaching, the culture that he was building. And now, fast forward four or five years later, I'm playing at Penn State. So I'm super grateful to be here. super grateful to be in this position and I couldn't trade it for the for the rest so I'm excited to be here

excited to play with my new teammates excited to win a lot of games with Penn State a couple of fan bases want to know the answer to this question so I promised I would ask and this is big your offensive coordinator at Iowa State Taylor Mouser is now with you at Penn State had he become Iowa State's head coach after Matt Campbell left

how difficult would it have been for you and some of the other guys to maybe not leave Ames but stay. Yeah, I'm going to be honest. It would have been a lot harder than my decision, which is coming out here with Coach Campbell. Obviously, Coach Mouse has been my OC for the past two years now, and I have a great relationship with him, and I thought he was ready to be a head coach, and so I definitely was going to be harder. Don't know what the outcome would have been, but I'm just glad that we're all in the same place now here at Penn State,

and I'm able to go out one more year with Coach Mouse. I heard about this anecdote, and you've got to take our viewers inside this. So when Matt Campbell was seriously considering leaving for the first time in a decade, the first person he called was a becked, but it wasn't Rocco-Beck, it was your dad, Anthony Beck. What was that about? Take me inside Campbell calling your dad before he called you or anybody else. Yeah, I think what he really wanted to get across was he didn't want to put all that pressure

on me, the stress on my shoulders early on in the day, before he ultimately made that hard decision. And we ended up having a team meeting that night where he told the whole team. But again, I respect him for his decision. I respect him for going to my dad. It shows a lot of trust that he has in my family and in myself. So no hard feelings.

But again, I'm just happy to be here with him. Happy to be here with familiar faces and excited for this season. Last couple for you. What's it like going to a new team knowing your new team is full of 25% of your old team? Yeah, it's definitely intriguing.

definitely makes it a lot easier. The transition was a lot easier to have those familiar faces around. And I think having that many guys that came from the Iowa State locker room, now in the Penn State locker room, was helping Coach Campbell lay that foundation for what he was building,

the standards, the expectations, the goals that he wanted this set for us, something that we were able to help lay in that locker room so the Penn State players could follow. And the last thing for you here, I heard somebody, I believe it was by you, say the only difference between playing at Ivy

State and Penn State with regards to history is that if you add 50,000 seats to Iowa State Stadium, it becomes Penn State Stadium. So what is the pressure like going from making history to a place that didn't have much? And granted, you did a great job there to having the pressure to be the quarterback at a place like Penn State. Yeah, obviously playing at a place like Penn State, a lot of expectations comes with playing the position of quarterback. And so I've been able to talk to a bunch of alumni that had played quarterback in the past at Penn State, been able to ask them how to be a Penn State quarterback, how to live like a Penn State quarterback.

And so I got that information, and I'm going to instill that into my game this season. But I can't wait to walk out of that tunnel for the first time in Beaver Stadium and just have those butterflies and goosebumps. It is great to catch up with you. I should mention that the last time Penn State won the Big Ten was 2016. That's when Matt Campbell was just getting it going at Iowa State. Now he'll look to get it going in State College, Pennsylvania.

That's Rocco Beck, and this is Matt Campbell on the expectations that lie ahead. It's an honor to build on those great successes and traditions of our past. I will tell you we will honor the traditions of this great program, a program that's played over 139 years of football, has over almost 950 wins in college football, and it's my opportunity and my honor to be able to represent that great football program. There was many people that didn't believe you could. prime out of Ames, Iowa, unless it was the right job in the right portion of the country,

and it feels like this has been two for two, Penn State and a chance to lead a program like that. Dusty, let's start with you. Expectations for year one, because I want to remind you, the previous coach went 104 and 45, and wasn't good enough to stay. And the expectations were through the roof last year. And when you look at the schedule, like we've talked about, they don't play the other big three. There's no Oregon, there's no Ohio State, there's no Indiana. So my expectation is, come November, Penn State in year one under Matt Campbell,

will be in the college football playoff race. Look, this guy is a big-time football coach, Zubin. I love the hire. I think Nittany Lion fans are going to love the higher. And eight out of ten seasons in Ames, Iowa, he had winning seasons. Two appearances in the Big 12 championship at Iowa State. It was the five-star culture versus the five-star player. Remember when Brise Hall said that after they beat Tech?

Texas in 2020. And now it's going to be that five-star culture with potential five-star players. I can't wait to see exactly what that looks like. And boy, it's a beautiful runway year one for Matt Campbell. He's got the 24 players that come with him. It just shows you how much players want to be with him. And that's going to really help allow him to get that culture implemented. And I got to tell you, I think the fact that it's Rocco Beck, these key pieces are really going to allow this team to thrive right out of the shoot. Well, you mentioned Rocco Beck there, Dusty. That's where I want to go with Sam.

I mean, he's been playing college football for a long time, but the expectations are a little bit different here, but he's got a lot of familiar faces around him. How do you think Beck's going to do out of the gate with a manageable schedule? Yeah, I think Rocco Beck will be fine. Here's the reason why. I got a chance to call an Iowa state game last year. You talked to everyone on that coaching staff, including the players,

and they don't just talk about Rocco Beck's his skill. They talk about his leadership. They say when the game is on the line, you want the ball in his hands. He's going to help you win. Now, last year didn't go the way that they would have hoped, but when it comes to the type of belief that he instills in his teammates, not just last year, but go to the year before.

I caught a couple of Iowa State games then as well. There's such a level of confidence when he's on the football field. Of course, their schedule is favorable. Buffalo, Temple early on, right? It's going to be an easy runway or preseason, if you will. But when it gets rough, they're going to point to Rocco, and they're going to trust him, and he's going to get him through. Not easy to follow up Brock Purdy and everything he's done in the NFL,

but this kid slipped right in. He is not afraid of the moment. Still to come here on College Football Live, why the biggest off-season edition for USC won't take a snap for them the entire season. Lincoln Riley will explain what that's about next. College Football Live is brought to you by Liberty Mutual Insurance, only pay for what you need. Right now, for a limited time, everyone's part of the Buick team, even you.

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The last few weeks have taken us to Frisco Shards. Charlotte, Tampa, and now Chicago for media days, the second city, the Big Ten, second to none. Lincoln Riley on the addition of Gary Patterson. Yeah, it's been, I mean, it's tougher to move the ball in practice. He's, you know, Coach Patterson's one of one. I've told people I've had a chance, you know, throughout my career and calling plays for a little while now to call plays against a lot of the people that you would say, hey, these are maybe the greatest minds of this last era of college football, the greatest defensive

minds. And I've never coached against somebody that I thought was more unique and tougher to go against than Gary Patterson. That is some incredible praise. Of course, you may remember Patterson and what he did over that great, great run he had at TCU. And it remains to be seen what kind of addition this will be, though. Riley seems to be very bullish.

Pete Thammel joins the crew. Pete, let's just start with you here. that change that was made and just a huge year in all avenues for UFC still looking to make that first playoff. Absolutely. Zuban talked to Lincoln Riley this morning. And look, he expressed frustration that entering year five, he has not led USC to the college football playoff. Now, he pointed out over that time, USC switched leagues, they've switched presidents, they've switched athletic directors, they've switched facilities in which they practice in. There has been a lot of change. He's convicted that this is the USC, team that's best situated to do that, especially along the lines. I think it's telling Zubin, USC brought two defensive tackles to Media Day. That's not exactly what you think of when you hear

the V for victory humming in your ear is some big noseguard, right? So you got Jada Maiba back at quarterback, and look, there's pressure on Lincoln Riley to push USC through to the other side. He obviously signed that 10-year deal for more than 100 million. The buyout to fire Lincoln Riley would still remain to be over $70 million. So if they don't make the playoff, I don't think it's a no-brain. but there is pressure ratcheting up and USC's run out of excuses. Yeah, I'm with you, Pete. It feels like the pressure is very real. There needs to be a sense of urgency there in L.A. right now with this football team.

And you touched on all the key points. The offensive line's going to be good. The quarterback's going to be good. But the reality is Lig and Riley went there and he said that he was going to USC because he was going to be able to get the players he needed to win national championships. As we pointed out, they haven't made the college football. playoff. They have now canceled this almost 100 year rivalry with Notre Dame to help ease the schedule to get them into a college football playoff. And this is a big year. This is a big moment

right here in front of them. Year five, you have plenty of time to implement your players, your culture, your schedule now, and there's no excuse to this point. The schedule, though, is very tough. They do draw the other big three from the Big Ten. They have to go to Happy Valley. schedule and the Big Ten is going to be too much. To me, with the non-conference they have, they got to go 10 and two. I see three losses on the schedule. I do like some key pieces.

I love the offensive line. I think Jay Myeva is outstanding. Second Best QBR in the country last year. And the addition of Gary Patterson is excellent. He provides toughness. He provides an edge and Ocho. Being there within the same state, I know you know a lot about Gary Patterson.

Yeah, it does sound like a lot of excuses, though, if you're asking me, you said, oh, we've changed conferences, you know, we've changed ADs. A lot of schools have changed conferences, a lot of schools have changed ADs, change presidents, et cetera. But you've been there for four or five years. There needs to be a level of consistency and winning. And so all that noise to me, it's not showing up on the football field. But now here's what it is. Gary Patterson, the defensive coordinator, is phenomenal. You think about his run at TCU and dominant defenses year in and year out.

Think about just what, two years ago he was an assistant. at Texas. I got the chance to chat with him there. And he was pretty much operating as a GA. I mean, he was down in the film, in his meeting room, writing out cards as GAs do, up at 6 and 7 and 8 p.m. at night when everyone else is at home. And so the addition and the attention to detail that Gary Paxson is going to provide is going to be a huge boost on the defensive side of the ball. We know that offense, Lincoln Riley is an offensive mind.

The offense will be said. That defense needs to be significantly better. But sooner or later, with the $100 million dollar contract and, you, years to be there. You got to start winning games, winning championships to have that be commissory to the level of pay you're getting. Last note, 2022, they made the Pact 12 title game with Caleb Williams. You win that year in the playoff and he's probably home free with the criticism. But they didn't and he's still on the hook. Still to come here on college football life. Could USC make a 24 team playoff? Are we really headed to doubling the size of the field

already? Our playoff insider with her. exclusive intel is next. Hear that? It's your money calling. It wants a promotion. Elevate your savings with the Scotia high-interest savings account. Always earn high regular interest rates that grow the more you save and invest. Conditions apply.

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in the heart of Big Ten country, Minnesota and the Big Ten boss, on the 2014 playoff. Want you to know everyone has a stake in this thing. It's been completely collaborative. And even though the memo gives the SEC and the Big Ten more, the operating decision making in this process, we've really included on a daily basis our colleagues

and the ACC, the Big 12, and everybody else in the CFP room. We're trying to do this together. I think there's been a lot of movement among coaches and ADs around the country that 24 is the right number. But we've got to see if it has the right value and we've got to understand that process and how we schedule it and when. He's trying to be inclusive or joined now by the playoff insider Heather Dinnich,

who's old enough to remember when this thing was once four teams and once we didn't have a playoff. But here we are. Heather, simply to you, when this idea was first proposed at 24 teams, people were laughing the idea out of the room. And now where one Greg Sankey holdout from it happening, how did we get here? Well, Zuban, I think there were a couple of factors that played into it. One, the SEC went to a nine-game league schedule this year, and all of the coaches were not having to.

happy about that happening and the playoff not expanding. So then you start to hear some buzz bubbling up amongst SEC coaches and athletic directors, hey, if we're going to do this, we need to have more access to the college football playoff. Plus, you've got the Big 12 and the ACC and then wanting more access. And when you have coaches getting fired because they're not getting into the playoff, there's a question about the return on investment. And so here we are with it being more seriously considered. Yeah, it just frustrates me a little bit because how realistic of an opportunity do some of these other teams have, right? You talk about a 14 playoff. Okay, you got your best four. Then a 12 team. Now you're saying 24 teams. You think about maybe the fourth, fifth, and six

Beck's team in the Big Ten or SEC or ACC, it's like they don't have a real opportunity to go win a national championship. So for me, that's the frustrating part. I understand that, all right, there's more viewership, et cetera, but it doesn't make sense for me to add to a playoff when already last year you're seeing some of those lower ranked teams aren't giving it aren't as competitive as you would hope in a playoff. We've

only had two years at 12. I think it's been great. I'd love to see some more at 12. We'll see this year. Expansion feels inevitable at some point. I sure hope they at least see what 16 looks like before we jump to 24. 16 does

allow four extra spots. We could get rid of the buys add four more home playoff games. There's some aspects to like, and I want to value the regular season. College football Zubin has the greatest regular season in this country. Let's not lose that without adding too many spots to the college football playoff. It's a great point. The bottom line is as magnanimous as he was there.

It's really in the hands of the Big Ten of the SEC, and everybody else will accept the results. Tomorrow from Big Ten Media Days, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Oregon, Purdue, and UCLA. We will see you then. Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair.

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