Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - The PAC-12 Implodes, Huge Conference Shakeups, and a Deshaun Watson Case Update

Episode Date: July 6, 2022

Is this the end of college football as we know it? As UCLA and USC leave the PAC-12 to join the Big Ten, what will happen to Geoff's Oregon Ducks? Geoff theorizes a PAC-12 and Big 12 merger, while considering the possible benefits of adding more West Coast schools in the Big Ten. No matter what happens, the new conference alignment will shake things up in all programs, potentially impacting recruitment options, Olympic hopefuls, and the less-commercialized college sports programs. Geoff and Gabe discuss Deshaun Watson's legal suit and inevitable suspension, and how the Browns’ huge contract offer to their new QB looks worse and worse each day, especially in comparison to what they gave up in Baker Mayfield. Finally, in a game of Over-Under, Gabe and Geoff talk Brett Farve vs. Pat Mahomes legacy, NBA free agency, Kyrie Irving predictions, the NFL’s new Gambling Exec position, and wrap the episode with 4th of July Dad-to-Dad BBQ'ing recaps. Make sure to leave a rating and follow the pod if you enjoyed, and leave a comment or tweet @geoffschwartz to share your take.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's wednesday july 6th i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe gill and this is jeff schwartz is tomorrow you're powered by the varsity podcast networking gabe i'm tired man i'm exhausted talking about the college football landscape it is ever-changing with ucl and usc going to the big 10 what is the status of the rest of the pack 1212, the Big 12, the ACC, Notre Dame? We'll talk about all that. We'll talk a little bit about Deshaun Watson, a little bit about Kevin Durant, because the NBA just lets their players do whatever they want. And isn't that good for the sport?

We'll talk about all that. Gabe, welcome to the Big Ten Conference, Mr. Big USC football fan. Listen, Kevin Durant just wants to play in Big Ten country. So he's trying to figure out a way to get to LA. That's all it is, man. He's just a Big Ten guy. When I land back in LA on, I'm coming in the end of July, I'll make sure

to check out the Big Ten Ocean. His long PCH. Oh my God, this is like, it's, okay, so for those who don't know, my day job is with Pac-12 radio um I've been doing it for four years now it's with it's not it's associated with the Pac-12 but through Sirius XM it's not like for I'm not working for the network per se but I grew up

in a household of two UCLA alums um I went to every game um at the Rose Bowl from time I could walk until I graduated I went to Oregon for four years. And now, obviously, I live in Charlotte. But, you know, again, I work for Pac-12 Radio. And I follow my conference. I love my conference. And my conference, Gabe, that I grew up with is no more with UCLA and USC going to the Big Ten. This happened Thursday about 1.30 Eastern.

I know that time because that's when my boss furiously called me and asked me to go on the radio. And I just landed back from New Orleans. And Gabe, since then, man, it is, oh, every, I just keep refreshing Twitter. I'm like, what's going to happen next? So I'll go to you. First reactions when this happened. Maybe I was more surprised than I should have been.

I like to think I'm kind of an insider in the media world. I tend to kind of know how things work. But I did not see this coming. And my first reaction was, huh, well, that'll make for a few more interesting USC games every year. You know, I am a USC fan. Some might call me a bandwagon USC fan.

I don't know that that's fair. So my first instinct was, okay, we could get a few more good football games out of this. My next instinct was, boy, the money is really making these decisions. And the powers that be are, it's a smaller and smaller group, and they're motivated by money, and that's clear. And then my last thought, and these were similar to all the takes I saw, so I'd love you to jump in on this, is this is kind of the beginning of the end of college football as we know it. Or maybe it's the middle of the end, not the beginning.

But I think by 2025, college football will not look a damn thing like it has for our whole lifetime. No, definitely won't. Gabe, you know the people doing this. They're 12 miles from your office at the Fox Studios in Century City. They're the ones doing this. And ESPN is in charge of the SEC and kind of making that conference go. And when you look at the money, this is about money, guys.

It's not about anything else. Money. So UCLA and USC in the current Pac-12 contract get about, it's estimates like $19 million million to maybe 30 million a year, something like that. It's a bad deal. Everyone knows the Pac-12 television deal is not good. And going to the Big Ten puts UCLA and USC

in the range of about $100 million a year. And so this is about money. If you're USC and the reports are that, you know, they're upset the Pac-12 didn't come to them and say, hey, how can we, you know we kind of alleviate some of your money issues? And how can we give you a better cut of the new TV contract? If I'm the new Pac-12 commissioner, George Klotkoff has been on the job for a year now, why would you go approach USC about that?

They haven't been a good football team in 10 years. I get it that the market is Los Angeles, but if you're him, I get why he didn't go to USC and say, Hey, you should take more than someone else should. Now UCLA is different game because UCLA is in the deep red in their financial department at the athletic office, a hundred million dollars in the red. This makes a ton of sense. And USC brought them along, right? Like USC brought them along. And the hard part that I have about this is this idea of like value right because if you look at Pac-12 is what I know man if you look at who's been good at football and basketball the last 10 years it has really not been USC and it

has not been used for basketball until very recently so this idea about value by just being in a big TV market leaves a lot of us like, what is going on here, right? Because no one's been watching UCLA. Some people watch USC, but not as much as Oregon or Washington or Utah on the Pac-12. And I get it. USC is a little bit down. We have a lot of us are having issues just kind of coming up with terms, especially with UCLA in this instance. the thing you mentioned about where we're going is exactly what's happening we've talked about this for a while now right two major conferences and maybe it might be three and if we'll talk about that a little bit

but two major conferences and eventually maybe like super league right like super league lower league thirdly kind of how the english soccer system works. But I think a lot of us thought this would happen all at once, not kind of in fractured pieces where Oklahoma and Texas make the move, then USC and UCLA make the move. It feels like we're paused for a little bit of time. And then, you know, 10 years from now, four more teams go somewhere else. I think a lot of us thought it would just happen all at once, right? UCLA, USC, Oregon, Washington, Cal, Stanford, Arizona schools, Utah,

go to the upper conference. Sorry, Washington State and Oregon State. But nonetheless, right, like everyone just kind of goes all at once and makes this move rather than it happening with UCL and USC scurrying off, you know, just out of nowhere. So it's not surprising this happened. It's surprising how it happened when it happened and kind of the talk afterwards about again in my opinion i'm an organ fan gabe like organ

in the last 25 years has grown their brand so strong and so big and they've grown their national audience they're the most watched football program on the west coast but they play in a small market and it's kind of been humbling for a bunch of Oregon fans to realize all that we've done doesn't really matter in the end. Let's talk about Stanford going to certain conferences over Oregon because they're just playing the Bay Area. You know this. Who watches Stanford play football?

More people in the Bay Area watch Oregon play football. So it's this realization that this is all being driven by what TV market you're in. And I think for a lot of us, we really didn't realize this was the case, even though sort of we should have known that, because a lot of schools, a lot of the best schools in the country aren't in big markets. Tuscaloosa, how big of a market is Tuscaloosa? Clemson, Alabama. Clemson, South Carolina. Right? Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I mean, it's New Orleans, essentially, right?

Close enough. But Tuscaloosa's not Atlanta. Like, it's not, you know, like, it's so, Columbus is a good-sized market. Ann Arbor, what, you know, I don't know, you know, but, so it's just, it's, it's a realization that, yes, we're in this for money now,

officially in it for money. NIL has changed a lot of things as well. But it sucks, man, because my conference is being torn to shreds. And it's the Pac-12's fault, not my fault. It's the conference's fault, right? They weren't forward-thinking enough. Bad TV deal. Didn't see this coming.

And now we're at an extinction point pretty soon i think i want to follow up on a few parts and maybe raise a few other topics connected to this so what where will oregon go so um we can just start that discussion now um that's what i want to know so yeah okay so these are the three um options i think for where we're going in college football. Okay? And one of them is the Pac-12 just stays put. Okay? They add two teams, San Diego State, Boise State. None of those move the needle. They stay put.

We got word today, and we're recording this on Tuesday the 5th. By tomorrow, all hell could break loose again, and things are different. So this is what I'm looking at right now at 3 0 6 p.m eastern on the 5th the pac-12 today announced they're negotiating a new tv contract why well the reason why is because they need to have a number in mind to tell their schools what they think they can make to let their schools know whether or not they should stay or leave there's no loyalty anymore right there's no more ucl and usc are founding members of this conference there's no loyalty anymore right they didn't tell no more. UCLA and USC are founding members of this conference.

There's no loyalty anymore, right? They didn't tell the league office. They just were gone. No loyalty anymore. Everyone's looking out for themselves. But nonetheless, the Pac-12 needs to do their due diligence and figure out how much they can make in the open market. Ideas are they were going to make $500 million, now $300 million. Because 40% about of the Pac-12 viewing area was in Los Angeles just again

and it doesn't mean that UCLA and USC are being watched there's just more TVs in Los Angeles just the way it is so that feels the least likely option the next most likely option right now is the Pac-12 and the Big 12 have some sort of merger. Whether that is 22 teams, the 10 Pac-12 teams, and the 10 Big 12 teams. The Big 12 was at 10. Now they're at, well, they will be at 8, and they added 4. So they're at 12.

They're back to 12 now, coming up when Oklahoma and Texas leave. And so, but in that merger, probably not all 10 Pac-12 teams are going because 22-team league doesn't really do anything. That's a weird scheduling number. Again, we're looking at this in value added by TV markets. It's odd because, again, Oregon's like a top-10 brand, man. Everyone watches them play, but it doesn't matter at all. So you look at the Arizona schools, you get Phoenix, right?

Salt Lake City, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, right? Those five. And yes, the two Arizona schools, Utah, Oregon, Washington, six. Six schools. Those six schools go to the Big 12. You have an 18-team conference. You negotiate a deal with ESPN. And the reports are, you know, $600 million.

So, you know, you're getting somewhere $35 million a year in this new contract, something like that, for the 18 teams. But now the question becomes, too, like, does Oregon say, hey, we're more valuable than 15 other teams in this conference. We should get more money. Because I understand USC being upset that Oregon State has the same amount of money as they do. That's ridiculous, right?

I get why that's, but again, like USC, they argue if they just held up their end of the bargain for the last 10 years in football, we wouldn't be here, right, Gabe? That's right. Yeah. And they didn't. They've been terrible.

And I give Mike Bone credit, their new athletic director. He's done a great job. He got Lincoln Riley. He's cleaned things up over there. And he got him into the Big Ten. The third option, which seems less likely now, blends a little bit of a couple of these. So there was talk about Oregon and Washington in the Big Ten.

And again, these are all rumors, hearsay. Now, there are guys on the internet who are Big Ten guys that have broken stories before about the Big Ten. You know, they have 5,000 followers, 10,000 followers, but they have tweets. Like, they're showing tweets that they have said, hey, look, I've got good information before. And there's an idea that obviously

Oregon and Washington and Stanford are coveted by the Big Ten, but Notre Dame is the most coveted. They should be. And Notre Dame moves the needle financially to where the Big Ten would want them in the conference. That puts them at 17. So now do you go 18 or go to 20?

That's where Oregon gets in to the Big Ten. Notre Dame goes with them. Oregon then goes. Or Oregon, Washington, Stanford go and make 20. But Oregon, Washington, Stanford do not bring in the same amount of money as Oregon, Washington, Stanford go and make 20 but Oregon, Washington, Stanford do not bring in the same amount of money as UCLA, USC, and Notre Dame do so will they have to take less of a share

than everyone else which is what Maryland and Rutgers did when they joined the Big Ten but again how do you justify Rutgers Illinois Maryland

Northwestern making more money than Oregon. I don't know how you justify that. So if you're Oregon, do you say like, well, no. Now back to talk about specifically Oregon. It seems unlikely Notre Dame seems to be moving now. But again, I feel like when Oklahoma and Texas left and USC and UCLA left, there was no warning.

So I don't know how much I believe all these stories coming out about like what's happening right now, because we said Oregon, they have not put out a statement. They have not had anything leak. There's not been one like off the record comment, nothing like they haven't talked to a single person. So no one even knows what they're doing unless it's talking to the Big Ten side and you get in the rumors on that side um but if you're Oregon here's the question right do you say hey big 10 we'll take less money to join your conference but now we're in the big 10 and we have the prestige of being the big 10 but maybe we're not as competitive anymore that's a thought or we go to big 12 and we become right now the number one or two football program depending on where you rank Utah and Oklahoma State and Baylor.

So maybe you're in the top four, but you're the big dog. You're the biggest brand, the most money, and you have Nike. And that's the question I think Oregon is dealing with. If you have the ability to get in the Big Ten, which seems at the moment highly unlikely. If you listen to people at Fox who know some of this stuff, highly unlikely is if you talk if you listen to people at fox who know some of this stuff they seem very it's very unlikely um that this is going to happen to the big 10 um but this is where we're at right now i think with organ again it's a weird spot because organ is not valuable

enough alone to go to big 10 but probably too valuable to play in like the pac-12 big 12 merger thing it's a weird spot to be in game yeah okay so a couple things then that spill from that yeah the acc somehow like seemingly unaffected by all of this the acc has been losing relevance uh in recent years as well some of their big programs have not held up their end of the bargain. And so I wonder if what's going to happen with them. Obviously, it seems completely preposterous for Oregon to consider the ACC, but at this point, what does it even matter where the hell these schools play? Are we looking at a scenario in the next few years

where we have essentially the Big Five becomes the Big Four? Pac-12, big 12 are essentially merged the acc finds some way to try to strengthen itself and we've got these behemoths in the big 10 in the sec is that what you think it shakes out as well the acc can strengthen themselves by notardame because right all their sports play in acc outside of football so there's now we get in kind of the nuance and kind of the well let, let's go there, though, because I feel like they better be making Notre Dame a good offer. But here's the problem. This is kind of, again, the drudgery of this.

So the ACC just signed a new deal with ESPN. It's a great deal for ESPN. It's awesome. It goes through 2036. It's wild. It goes that long. And there's something called grant of rights. So when they signed in this new

contract to leave the contract to leave the conference you would owe upwards of like nine figures hundred million dollars to go okay law schools don't have that money just to leave the conference now there's thought today yesterday about they could sue their way out of it i guess that's why there's really not a lot of talk about acc schools leaving because i think in the end if we're going the two big conference idea right the sec would grab clemson florida state you know uh north carolina and someone else in the big 10 grabs a couple others they get 24 so if notre dame were to come to the acc they're not going back to espn negotiating a different deal.

Everyone's just taking less money with Notre Dame showing up. And that's what this comes into. The conferences are looking at this as how much value do you add to our bottom dollar? And if you're the SEC, and let's say each team's getting $100 million right now, and you add Clemson, Florida State, Miami, and North Carolina. Is everyone still making $100 million? I don't know. Maybe.

Maybe everyone's getting $90 million now. And are they up for that? And that's, I think, where we're at with the ACC. There's thought and talk about the Pac-12 and ACC merging because academically, they align, and that's a big part of this. The Pac-12 presidents have historically not put a focus on football,

more on the academic side of things, and they want accredited schools with the AAU. The Big 12 is not that. The ACC is. But then again, you're playing conference games, four of them, five of them a year out on the East Coast. Look, I would love to drive to Clemson to watch Oregon play or North Carolina to watch Oregon play, NC State.

That would be incredible. Duke, Wake. Oh, my God. I'd be in heaven, right, being able to do that. But that's a lot of travel. And that's a lot of travel for you still in USC. And this is why I think the Big Ten needs to add more West Coast schools. Because it's not the football team and the basketball team.

It's like the volleyball team, the softball team, the baseball team. They don't fly private. They don't fly in these grand airlines. They don't stay at great hotels. Aren't there for like two days and you're leaving. And if you have some more West Coast schools, you allow yourself to lessen some of that travel burden, right? You go to the Pacific Northwest or Stanford in this

and not having to travel to Rutgers. Did you see the tweet that LA to Rutgers is the same distance as Rutgers to Iceland to Reykjavik? Okay, maybe there's a school in Iceland that wants to join the ACC. So hopefully you see why this is so freaking exhausting to cover every day. I do see why and I still have a dozen more questions. So let me just pepper you with a few more things. So does this in any way make it more or less likely that we have an 18 playoff instead of a four when the dust settles and these conference realignments are official by 2025? Because it

seems like that whoever was making the decisions about all that we we know the networks have the biggest say all right so even more consolidated so can we just get to the eight team then you guarantee probably will be 12 and again it can't be done until 2026 till the new tv deals up that's right but so that's what i'm saying so are we looking at a 2026 now it actually can be an 8 or 12 team playoff. Yes. So you guarantee the top two teams in those four, you know, in the four majors. And then you have the at-larges like you have currently. And they come from these weaker big 12s. Yeah.

Yes, that's possible. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm for anything that gets us to an expanded playoff. I think the expanded playoff is going to happen with or without the new alignment, though. Well, fair enough. But this might force the issue because one of the questions I had

thinking as a USC fan was, huh, does this make... This might make a game in October a little more interesting, but does this make a path to the playoff any more or less likely or more or less difficult? And like, I think it's scary.

If you're USC, does this make it easier to play in the Big Ten? No, I think that this makes it less likely you make the playoff. I agree, even with a new playoff structure. Agreed. Yeah. So I think you're taking a serious roll of the dice here. If you're USC, who could very easily, we think is right on the precipice of retaking

dominance of a conference that was taken seriously for a long time yes so if you if you run through regular season and then beat oregon or even utah uh or whoever whoever the other powerhouse of the pac-12 is at the time you're going to the playoff yes now you're basically signing up for a two loss regular season by entering the big 10 probably yeah now you're basically signing up for a two loss regular season by entering the big 10 probably yeah now you have to win it to get in because otherwise you're like a two loss at large so then my question about the big 10 is are they making it impossible for themselves like or are we going to see two big 10 teams and two sec teams and everybody else can go screw i mean if you go to 12 you would have a probably guaranteed for

like you'd have one for this new you know you go to 12, you would have a probably guaranteed for, like, you'd have one for this new, you know, Big 12, Pac-12 conference. You would have it, but you'd probably get, you would never get out large from the smaller conferences. You'd just get one automatic bid, probably. Right, so this, what I'm getting to here is, like, the CINCI's of the world really take an L on this, because... Well, they're in the big 12 now

so maybe not oh god I forgot about that okay yeah well there will be yeah yeah right geez it's so hard to get track of all this yeah how do you think it feels doing this for three hours a day every day and figuring this out all right here's one to think about I had a whole bunch of questions I'm just going to keep firing uh what does this mean for recruiting? Because my uninformed theory is that this actually helps having USC and UCLA, the two LA teams, join the Big Ten, actually probably hurts their own recruiting and helps their new competition. 100% agree. Okay, well then explain.

Okay, so I don't buy this idea that USC, who has traditionally recruited top 10 classes even under clay helton is somehow going to now recruit better classes with all the talent they missed out in the midwest what are we doing yeah now penn state could go to los angeles be hey hey la kid guess what you're you're in big 10 country now you want to come out to the big 10 we play ucl, USC every year. Your parents can see us play. I also think, Gabe, the idea of going to a recruits house in Los Angeles and saying, hey, man, come to USC.

Oh, do I get to watch my son play? Once a year. Otherwise, the closest goal is 1,500 miles away. That hurts, I think. Right now, Oregon, now obviously everything's fluid because of these changes oregon right now has a crystal ball in 24-7 sports for a five-star quarterback out of michigan named dante moore i don't know if they get him or not but people seem to think that's happening um they're not in the big 10 napoleon midwest kid like they matter how much

you paying these players right now how quickly can they get to the nfl there's a thought that usc doesn't want oregon in the big 10 they're like vetoing this they have no say in this usc that they're not a voting member yet um you know it's kind of funny that little or they're worried about little old oregon out recruiting them that they're they have to skip conferences like to it's so ridiculous um i don't think this helps recruiting in the way that people think it might help usc recruiting yeah there's just not like this this whole plethora of midwest kids that usc has been missing out on now they're going to get them yeah i i'm not buying it either i

don't think you know just to name a guy we both like a lot you know joe thomas isn't like actually maybe i won't play at wisconsin maybe i'll play at usc now you know like those guys are playing where they were going to play and then and the cave on tibidos now probably you know i'm sure directly i assume he stayed in the pack 12 because obviously it's a nice situation at oregon but he knew he'd get to LA a couple of times in his career. And I think the argument, though, that I think can be made, can be made, is that this hurts Oregon, therefore it helps USC. Right. But that's if USC gets those players that Oregon doesn't get.

Oregon's about to get a four-star tonight, a corner from Washington. He's a high four-star. He might be a five-star once all said and done. It really hasn't hurt them quite yet. We'll see where this obviously ends up in the next couple of weeks or whatnot. But I just don't buy this changes very much as far as competition. It makes it probably tougher and better recruiting. I just don't think it does.

All right, so then I saw you getting into it with some people on Twitter about this because that's what you were doing all weekend. How does this impact the style of play for USC and UCLA joining the traditional sort of Big Ten schools like trench warfare, colder weather, running up the middle, all the stereotypical cliche BS we hear about Big Ten ball. How do they adjust? So it's kind of funny because this is, I think, this is a great example of how people just don't kind of pay attention to the West Coast.

So they were, there's this whole thing about, oh, yeah, you know, like, Iowa with their fullbacks, Wisconsin, just the running attack. So I'm looking at it right now. You know, like Iowa with their fullbacks, Wisconsin, just the running attack. So I'm looking at it right now. Last year, Oregon State, who rushed for about 300 yards against USC, they averaged 40 rushing attempts last season, and they threw the ball on average 26 times. Oh, boy.

It's a big passing conference here, buddy. Big passing conference out west. Utah, you ready? You ready for Utah? Utah ran the ball 38.7 times. Passed the ball only 28.6 times a game. Yep. The Pac-10, the Pac-12 Air Raid Conference over here.

So did Oregon. My Oregon Ducks. Ready? Average 38 rushing attempts per game and 29.3 passing attempts. And again, some of those are like those RPOs, right? So you're really calling runs. USC has seen rushing offenses all the time. The question becomes, same has always been with them, are they going to recruit the big boys in the middle?

They just lost a five-star to Miami, who, you know, I get it. But like they haven't recruited very well in the trenches. It's been half a year since Riley got there, but really with Helton as well. Can you recruit and can you develop at a level good enough to win at any conference? And USC hasn't shown that recently. Can they do it?

Certainly. There's a kid that's a five-star kid out of Iowa, off its alignment. I know way too much about recruiting. He came into Iowa. I guess in this new scenario, USC's in on him. I guess.

But you got to recruit and develop these guys. You can't just say that you want to stop the run and run the ball to be great. So I don't... UCLA, man. Chip Kelly, he lives to run the football. The idea that he now... I mean, that all of a sudden... Last year, UCLA.

42 rushing attempts per game 27 passing attempts per game like they live to rush the football to this idea that somehow it's a shock that big Iowa runs the football the issue is going to be for USC sometimes it's like the 11 a.m central kickoff at Northwestern yeah playing in that dead atmosphere again Olympic sports aren't it's not great for Olympic sports but um it's, I don't think this changes much other than, you know, USC and UCLA are kind of just a more legitimate, bigger conference. Okay. Well, you just sort of hinted at it.

Last couple questions. You know, we're obsessed with football here. I think football is how these decisions get made, but the ripple effect for basketball, which people care about, is pretty legitimate. And then, yeah, you mentioned those Olympic sports. How do the Pac-12, like there are some sports that are basically exclusive to the Pac-12. Where you compete for a USC or UCLA and track and field and water polo and some of these other sports. You're basically going straight to the Olympic team.

Yeah, no, you're right. Now what happens? You're going to Iowa to to play water polo i don't think so they said that usc beach volleyball got like left behind and they've won like won like two championships in a row yeah there's a lot of those sports on campus uh softball should be fine i mean they're still good in softball baseball will be tougher because i mean you're basically gonna start your season all at home and then play mostly road games as the Midwest warms up a little bit basketball um UCLA will come in as one of the better teams you know the Big Ten notoriously gets a bunch of teams in tournament that never win a game or don't win multiple games so we'll see how that changes the Big 12 actually the Big 12 Pac-12

merger is really good for basketball yeah you had in Arizona, you had in Oregon to that mix, plus Kansas and Texas Tech and Baylor and the good basketball programs in the Big 12. Yeah, it's just there's no thought to Olympic sports. I saw the release of the Big 12, Big 10 I should say, will put in all considerations to help us ease our travel issues. I mean, I guess you go out for two weeks and you play a bunch of schools and fly back home,

I guess is probably the way to do it. I'd imagine with classes and communication online so much now. But this move was not made at all for, or with a thought of Olympic sports in mind. Yeah, that's kind of a pity because that's really one of the claims to fame. And then, you know, a place like Stanford really does have to consider that, right?

Like, Stanford. It shows UCLA. Dude, UCLA. Stanford does. Stanford and UCLA have won the most championships in NCAA championships in history. Not a lot of football championships, but everything else.

So if you had to guess, when was the last UCLA football Pac-12 title? I'm going to guess whenever Troy Aikman was there, late 80s. No, a little later, 1998. Really? Yeah. The K. McNown team went to Miami and blew the game. They were going to be the first BCS championship game,

but they blew it in Miami. UCLA basketball, John Wooden retired after the 1975 season he won his 10th championship that year how many championships does UCLA want since 1975? won the championship? won? yes won the championship won! 1995

you are correct sir how many Final Four appearances in 40 years have they had? I don't know but I feel like they're in the Elite Eight all the time. It sounds like you're telling me a number's pretty low. Four? Five. Five.

Five. Five. Five. You're not going to change the Big Ten? Yeah. It's a money grab. It's fine. I'm four.

Make your money, buddy. Make your money. Make all your money you can. We're making millions doing this podcast. I'm all four, man. Make your money. I just want to know, Gabe I mean, we're making millions doing this podcast. I'm all for it, man. Like, make your money. I just want to know, Gabe, you know people at Fox better than I do. Someone today is like, you work at Fox Sports.

You should know what's happening there. Who do I have to bribe? Like, who do I have to send a gift basket to? Like, how does the bribing process work, you think? To bribe them to let Oregon in the Big Ten. I know exactly who you go to. I know exactly who it is, too. They said it.

I know exactly who it is. I'll tell you offline who it is I mean we're members of the tribe I believe and maybe that plays up a little bit I'm not 100% sure about that let's talk without microphones in front of us

the name that was floated via the interweb I don't know we'll see but nonetheless I'm going to bribe someone we'll work on it did Lincoln Riley know the interweb. I don't know. We'll see. But nonetheless, who am I going to bribe? I'm going to bribe someone. All right. We'll work on it. Did Lincoln Riley know?

When he went to USC? No. But he obviously knew like the last week or so. Well, of course he knew before we knew. I don't think he knew what he signed. All right.

Let's take a break. You need a big sip of water. We should have one more, I hope, the last conversation for a while about Deshaun Watson on the other side of the break because I think we need a breather and separate that conversation from the next one and

then we'll do a quick over under game and get out of here uh so let's take let's take a quick break come right back all right jeff we're back uh you've rehydrated i know that was hard for you i'm sorry for the press conference but I think the people who listen to this show wanted to hear your take on all of that. This one is always hard to talk about and is getting more legalese than ever before. So I'm going to try my best to outline the facts and then get your take.

Deshaun Watson, the NFL, met with an arbitrator last week. It was supposed to be one meeting. It turned into multiple meetings and a homework assignment to come back with some more thoughts written down from each side. They were trying to determine the potential penalty for personal conduct violations that he might have committed. But apparently, we should not expect a decision anytime soon. The people involved are not beholden to the NFL schedule.

They don't see that as a deadline or a timeline. So we still do not know what the length of a suspension would be. And from what I read from the smart people that I think know their stuff, who've covered these kinds of arbitrations in the past, it's looking more and more like a settlement would be in everyone's best interest.

So the league and the player and players union in this case, so that Deshaun can know what his punishment is and plan for it the team can plan for it but also so that the league doesn't start having a whole lot of stuff leak out there's a lot of information that they have access to that they probably don't want public involving maybe even some owners and what they knew and so a settlement would keep it private, give Deshaun the answer he needs and move things along. Eventually. Is that where you think this is headed? Yes. Even though I was NFL,

I would tell him to kick rocks and fine or at least anything. I mean, what could come out that's worse than anything else we've seen come out of the NFL and they just keep on taking. The idea is basically the NFL PA. And maybe his, you know, the lawyer are going to, are going to dig up dirt on the NFL and release it if they give him too long of a suspension. And there's talk about like, well, Robert Kraft.

Robert Kraft, and I've been on the radio, I'm going to say this, but he got a rub and tug. Like, one time. It's not the same thing as what Deshaun Watson's been accused of doing. Like, stop using that as like, oh, he wasn't punished one time. It's not the same thing as what Deshaun Watson's been accused of doing. Like, stop using that as like, oh, he wasn't punished very much. It's not the same thing. It's not close. Stop saying that.

I get Daniel Snyder hasn't been punished. But that, and Jerry Jones, the NFL should punish those owners. But that shouldn't preclude them from punishing Deshaun Watson to the maximum extent that they're allowed to do. You have 24, 25 women with credible accusations that have made them like how many times are the women going to have the same stories and you know this idea of a settlement man like in the nfl i've talked to this many times game let's put themselves in this situation because they decide to be the the crime and punishment league like they just they want to be the league that punishes all their players

for off-the-field infraction, which is fine, but then you have to own it. You got to give them the proper amount of time. I've seen the idea of eight games plus last year's suspension. He gives back his money from last year. He voluntarily set out last season. That's not suspension. I think he needs a year and be done with it if the nflpa wants to fight you which they will it's their job i'm for the nflpa fighting that's

their job to do it's why i pay them the dues uh be my guest to fight it um but i just don't i just don't think you can punish him any less than a year. And also part of this as well, as usual, is the Browns, the freaking contract they gave Deshaun Watson. It just looks grosser by the day. It's so bad. Yeah, it's pretty hideous. So people are picking up on that. So this is, I'm just going to read one version of the same observation.

I don't even want to call it a joke. Lots of people were tweeting this over the weekend or as of a few days ago. So it said today Deshaun Watson was in front of the NFL jury pleading his case. Baker Mayfield was in front of kids putting on a youth football camp. And, you know, it's not totally fair comparison, but the point remains like Baker's done seemingly everything right. They said they wanted a leader. They wanted an adult. It seems like Baker's done seemingly everything right they said they wanted a leader they wanted an adult it seems like Baker's been a pretty good guy since he got to the league and would be the kind of person you'd want as the face of your franchise I've even seen this from Browns fan accounts so I'm just I'm wondering if public perception is shifting really really really negatively against the Browns right now and that might be why they sort of cave on some things.

Well, of course it's shifting negatively. They gave Deshaun Watson a contract that only punishes him for $1 million and then guarantees the other $230 million for his life as contract, $70 million more than the next quarterback guarantee. Yes, they're getting pushback about this. The question I think you're asking is does baker mayfield become the quarterback if deshaun watson suspended it's he basically closed the door on that i i would be paraphrasing i don't have the exact quote in front of me so but

so if the browns say you know what we're not trading you does he not play quarterback this entire season the quotes i read made it sound like he said sort of we've we've moved past you know any kind of workable situation with each other well yeah he he he has but what the browns have his rights i can't see him stepping on a football field for the cleveland browns even if they beg him probably probably not probably not but i mean he's on the roster and sean watson not there i could see that. All right, well, all right, you don't want to play? Okay, don't play then.

Sit out, be my guest. We'll have to keep an eye on that. Do you, at what point, if there's still no decision made about the suspension, at what point does this become an actual football problem for Deshaun and the Browns? Just to make it about football. When does he need to be with the team and start getting ready realistically? Well, I mean, obviously, he's going to be suspended something, no matter how long it is.

And I think the Browns need to know by the start of training camp what that number is. By the start of training camp. But there's something I – someone said on the radio the other day when I was – Adam Kaplan, I think it was, was on Fox Sports Radio, mentioned that if he's suspended for less than a year he's actually allowed to practice with the team in the preseason okay if he's suspended indefinitely obviously he's not so that kind of changes the dynamic of all this right if you spend it for half a season we'll practice all training

camp and then like how how is that like again like how's that an actual suspension really like i you know how's that he's whatever it's just the baseball has been in trevor bauer two years i don't think he's gonna get two years but like just give him a year man yeah it it seems like they obviously wanted to do this without it just being good l's edict which is why we have this arbitrator involved but it's not good though it's not Goodell. It's not Goodell. But what's funny is that the appeal goes back to Goodell. But I think most people I read are saying it's very unlikely he's going to change a decision, like undo the credibility of the independent arbitration that took place.

Who's like a well-established judge. Yeah, it would be crazy for him to undo it. credibility of the independent arbitration that took place. Who's like a well-established judge. Yeah. It would be crazy for him to undo it. So, okay. So we're kind of where we thought we were, but I'm betting on a settlement being the only resolution because the team is going to want to know whether they can get this guy into camp or not. He's going to obviously have to miss some games, as you're saying.

And eventually the league probably would like to move on from this. This is not great. Yeah, again, before the season starts. And then you have a whole month of talking about just football. All right, well, let's talk about football. So I saw a quote. I think you're about to vehemently agree with Brett Favre. Get ready.

Favre said he'd be, quote-unquote, shocked if Devontae Adams was as good with Derek Carr as he was with Aaron Rodgers. You agree over under 99%. Yeah, agree. Tyreek Hill and Devante Adams will not be as good with their new quarterbacks. They're downgrading in talent. Yeah, I don't even know why this was considered debatable or a slight at all. Like, isn't this just obvious?

or a slight at all. Like, isn't this just obvious? Like, you're going from the two best quarterbacks of the last 20 years to a couple of guys who every other year we wonder why they're in the league. Yes. It's like... It's not a controversial thing.

Yeah, okay. I agree with Brett Favre, wow. Yeah, you did. It gives me the chance, though, to talk about Favre this way. While looking at why Brett Favre was trending, I found a video of him, a highlight reel of him doing a bunch of stuff, and the caption was basically,

if people tell you that what Pat Mahomes does nobody's ever done before, show them this, and it's Brett Favre just slinging it. No look passes, crazy. He was doing, yeah, he's incredible. Do you like the comparison, though? Do you think Patrick Mahomes is going to go down as a better quarterback than Brett Favre? Yes, but I think the comparison as far as, like, Super Bowl,

I mean, it could be tough to come back and win another one. It's just hard. Yeah. I think Mahomes seems like a better dude than Brett Favre. Yeah, I think that's probably fair to say. And, you know, just like a different character. I mean, he's very invested in the community. He owns, you know, soccer team, Royals, the women's soccer team. Like, he just seems like a different character i mean he's very invested in the community he owns you know soccer team royals the women's soccer team like he just seems like a

different person but i think career-wise yes less interceptions like less turnovers brett farve is like set the record for interceptions i think right he has a lot of records not all of them are good uh all right nba free agency that i feel like i'm about to set you off. 99% chance NFL players get super jealous when they watch the nonsense that NBA players get to dictate in free agency. It is wild. So Kevin Durant is like, yeah, screw you Nets. I'm leaving. He's like $2 million left on his contract. Yeah.

And they're just like, okay, cool. Bye-bye. What team you want to go to sir we'll put you team you want do you know how many games Zion Williamson has played in three seasons I mean it's three years he barely ever plays he got rewarded with a $200 million contract

yeah that's nuts it's wild I just think wouldn't it be nice if the owner of the Nets was like, yeah, no, no. We're not trading you. They don't do that in the NBA. And they don't have the say. There's like four people who run the NBA.

Who's your basketball team, the Knicks? Are you like a Lakers fan? A lifelong Lakers fan. That's well documented. I would, as a lifelong Lakers fan as well, I would very much take Kyrie Irving over Russell Westbrook. No, I disagree. Yes, 100% agree.

I actually started to do some research. Kyrie can play still. He can. Does he want to? When he plays. I started to think about this a little bit. Maybe smarter people than me have had this theory or could tell me why this is totally insane are we sure that he didn't just see

like a loophole with the whole vaccine thing and go like wait a minute i can just not play half the season if i just you also think you paid for half the season i understand but he just he didn't need like he just didn't have to deal with it for half the season. Is there any reason to believe that maybe he just didn't really want to play 82 games? Granted, you're right, he gave back the money, but he's still making plenty. Oh, it's certainly possible, yeah. So why do we assume that he's going to show up in L.A. and be like, I'm ready to give you 78 games a year, 35 minutes a game?

I don't think we can be assured that that's the way it is. I think you're right about that. There's no assurance that that's, that's what happens. But Russell Westbrook is, doesn't do anything for Lakers. I'm not arguing that Russell Westbrook has been good with the Lakers. I'm just saying Kyrie Irving may not even want to play the game. Like Westbrook, I don't think people question how like hard he tries. He's just not as good as he used to be,

and he's not a fit with LeBron and AD. Fair. Kyrie is obviously still terrific when he wants to be, but the question is, will he want to be? That's a good question. I think he will want to be good, yes. I would be very, very worried. Now, did you see this tweet from

genie bus very cryptic yeah the passive aggressive shot what do you do you think it was a shot at lebron i mean is that just so obvious to you yeah who else would it be i don't know but she basically was admitting that lebron has more power over the organization than she does if you read the tweet six times like i did yeah yeah. Yeah, it does, right? It's pretty weird that the owner, the family that has run that team forever is just sort of taking orders from LeBron. You really think that? I think when LeBron's on your team, he runs the show. Yes. Here's another headline. The NFL hired a, I don't know exactly what the role is going to be, but a gambling exec.

Yes. Someone who's focused on gambling is now a major exec over at the NFL. So seasons until we have some form of in-stadium betting, over under two and a half. Well, the NFL has to pretend that they care about gambling now, right? They don't allow NFL Network employees to talk about it. So they're going to start like, are they in on gambling now? Are they in?

Sounds like they're, it sounds like they're trying to get smarter on it. I don't know that we get to say they're in. Call me up NFL. I'll help you guys out. I would say we're still a while from that. I think we're still a while from that. All right. So you're going to take the over on two and a half years.

A lot of laws need to be written before that's possible. Yeah, like my state, North Carolina, might never happen. I don't even know. I was about to go into what it would take to pass a big law federally and have it hold up in the courts, but then I realized that would lead

to a whole different podcast. Yeah, that podcast would not be fun for people. Well, maybe for some people, but probably not for most. Well, a lot of people are hate listening to those podcasts. Now, here's a be fun for people. Well, maybe for some people, but probably not for most. Well, a lot of people hate listening to those podcasts. Now, here's a weird one for you. What are the odds we see a Maryland-UCLA Big Ten Championship basketball game one day? Matt Ford will just die if that happened.

He would just die. I mean, it's possible. Yes, right? Right? Could happen. I mean, you'll see Matt courtside at Playa P uh when when the turps show up uh-huh wow big 10 championship between ucla and maryland are you i think i think you have to you have to fly to rutgers to jersey to see to see usc records the first time that's in new brunswick actually you know what the first time i saw usc play

was at giant stadium was still giant stadium i believe uh they played one of those like week one or week two games against syracuse was just like a big alumni event and they blast them you know by 40 uh in like the worst rainstorm i've ever experienced but uh wait it was a big alumni event you showed up at a big alumni event for school you didn't go with many alum yeah oh. Oh, you were with the show. I'm saying the two teams. You sounded like you were an alumni of USC when you

said that. I was in a bus full of alumni. Okay. A lot of alumni. Now you're like an adjunct professor at USC. That's right. Alright. Jeff, this is a weird one. I want to know guys who've tried to own you by buying your jersey over under 0.5 people in history have tried this.

Well, obviously this guy on Twitter thought he was funny. That was a funny – I blocked his ass too. So I got an email the other day from Fanatics. I'm sure you guys have ordered clothes on Fanatics. It's the website that you order all your sporting gear on, your fan gear. I got an email from them that they direct deposited $1.40 into my bank account for a purchase that was made, presumably in my name, in the fiscal year of 2019 in quarter three.

So I put that on the internet and some guy was like, yeah, I just bought your jersey as a snot rag. And I was like like great cell phone great oh man you own me you gave me money you gave you paid money to own me thank you for that three years later bro three years later I got a dollar and forty cents

for a purchase it's not from my parents not from definitely not from my wife so kudos to anyone out there who bought a Jeff Schwartz jersey three years after I retired. Well, it was not me either. You can cross me off the list.

Maybe our friends Chad Millman or Blackjack. Maybe one of them bought it. They love you. Oh, yeah, Blackjack. I don't think it goes with his aesthetic. No, not very well. It wasn't sequined. What about Paulie?

Could have been. Could have been Paulie. You never know. Yeah, we'll have to find out who was the real person to buy your jersey. I don't think it was that guy on Twitter. But it did make me ask one serious question. So does that mean like J.J. Watt is getting a $1.40 check every time somebody buys his jersey? And that must be worth millions.

Dude, I have no idea. People ask me this so much. I've never gotten a check before like this. I have no idea. Huh. Maybe there's like the customs get paid a different way than like just the stuff that's at Models and like there's no way J.J. Watt's getting a dollar off every jersey

they sell with his name on it. Probably not. That seems crazy. I don't know. I mean, it'd be cool if he did, but I can't imagine. The rich get richer, just like the Big Ten Conference. All right, last question. Over or under two and a half hours you spent at the grill on Monday?

Oh, my God, bro. Do you want to know what I made this weekend? Okay, so my wife um we do this she does this thing where it's just like i'm like hey what are we doing today oh 28 people are coming over just no advance warning and then it turns 28 to becomes 37 we just have an open door people just show up so i went to dinner saturday night for my wife's birthday that same crew came over on sunday i made um their kids came over with them so I made I did I brought my flat my pit boss

black flat grill my flat top grill I made hamburgers and hot dogs smashed I made smash hamburgers you know like the took a smash it down hamburgers hot dogs then I made hibachi fried rice on the blackstone

so it's pit boss but it's a it's a you know i made the vegetables on one side made the rice on the left side with the with the egg in the middle i did the beef and i did the shrimp afterwards okay um and then yesterday i did um what i do i did burgers brats hot dogs and i made three homemade pizzas in my pizza oven. Oh, um, with dough I made on Thursday. Dan Rubenstein is my,

is my pizza. I was going to ask, did he help you out with that? He's my, he's my pizza, um, Mr. Miyagi. He's like my,

my, he's like my, my mentor, my pizza mentor. Yeah. Um, so yeah, so I did that.

And then my wife, we had some shrimp and she's like can you marinate them and cook them so i marinated two pounds of shrimp and so i made a marinade and cooked them last night then we went to our neighbor's house and we had dinner at their house last night um they made kielbasa's and um do you like baked beans yeah sure i don't even i don't eat them very often but they they made baked beans with bacon in it? Yep, yep, yep, yep. Oh my God, it was so good.

And they had pulled pork, kielbasa, hot dog, cheeseburgers, baked beans, homemade potato salad. It's a Southern, it was a Southern meal. Not kosher, but... Homemade macaroni and cheese. Yeah, it was good. It was good even last night. The problem, of course, is that it's 1,000 degrees outside.

You're doing all this stuff in the south. So you just sweat the entire time. Yeah, not out here, buddy. And I learned, this is the first time I think I realized why the, like, dad's grilling memes, you know, all exist. Because I realized, you know, my kids are now four and two i just went off and grilled and nobody bothered me i was willing to make that last as long as it could possibly take yeah i would have stood at the grill the entire day for the peace and quiet because the kids can't come near the grill and some that you know my wife or whoever else is

around we had a bunch of people over also it's like yeah they'll they'll play with the kids they'll deal with them because i'm obviously helping by grilling so that's why dads do it i didn't know until now like it's not because everyone loves grilling it's because you get peace and quiet yeah the yeah the only thing that i just didn't like of doing this you're with i'm with you there. I'd have to watch it, which was great. But the idea is like, everyone's like, can I help you? Can I help you? Can I help you?

I'm like, just leave me alone. Just like, let me cook. Yeah, leave me alone. I don't need your help. I have it all in my head what I'm about to do. Quite literally. Just like, let me do it, please.

All right, Jeff. Well, it's nice to check in with you. I'm sorry about all the chaos in your life. The Pac-12 is no more. Well, I mean, otherwise, dude, Pac-12 Media Day is July 29th. That's going to be a weird, a weird, a weird day. You're a media member.

You should get a credential. You should come on. You should come down to LA Live. I'm going to get a credential and I'm going to ask all the tough questions. This one's for Jeff Schwartz. I'd just like to know, who'd you pay off at Fox

to get what you wanted for Oregon? Tell us the truth, Jeff. I need to know. But we're going to Topgolf. I'm excited for that. I look forward to it. That'll be fun to talk about on the show after we do it.

My wife just played Topgolf, Gabe, and she won, and she's terrible at golf. She said her key was just hitting into the smaller targets in front of her. Yeah. Don't get too big eyes.

You know, aim at the achievable, and you can maybe do very well. Well, I'm excited to see you guys in a couple of weeks. We'll get some more podcasts out to you. If anything breaks with Oregon or Washington, I might hop back on and deal with an emergency. We'll let everyone know if that happens. Thank you. Please subscribe, rate, review, and subscribe.

We're proud of the Varsity Podcast Network. Talk to you guys next week. Take care, everybody.