Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BIG 10 SQUAD - Iowa Hawkeyes will look to challenge Ohio State Buckeyes in 2025

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

Ohio State Buckeyes clinch the national championship, sparking debates on the future of college football. How will NIL deals reshape the landscape for teams like Ohio State, Michigan, and USC? Join host Craig Sheman and guests Jay Stevens, Zach Anderson, Spencer, Roman, Zach Seiko, and Mark as they explore Ohio State's path to victory and the impact of NIL on college sports. Discover insights into the Buckeyes' strategic intensity, the ethics of recruitment, and the evolving playoff format. The discussion also touches on the significance of rivalry games and the role of the transfer portal in building powerhouse teams.Will traditional powerhouses adapt to these changes? Tune in for expert analysis and insider perspectives on the shifting dynamics of college football.

Well, Ohio State wins the natty. Congratulations. By the way, that's back to back national championships for the Big Ten. Let's talk about it. Let's brag about it. It's time for the Locked On Big Ten squad. You're talking ball with the Big Ten squad,

sponsored by Game Time. From USC to Ohio State, from Michigan to Oregon, from Nebraska to Washington, it's the local experts of the Locked On Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming Big Ten weekend. Know her feelings and thin skin allowed. Squad up, you're part of the Big Ten squad.

Welcome to the Locked On Big Ten squad. I'm Craig Schiemann, host of Locked On Big Ten. Thanks for checking us out. Sit back, relax. We're gonna brag about a national championship here today. What a welcome aboard We got Zack Anderson Yaksheimer from Lockdown UCLA Jay Stevens from the Lockdown national champion Buckeyes, yeah move him over center position. That's good

He's actually go from Lockdown Nittany Lions Roman from Lockdown, UCR. I'm sorry, Washington. I do. I don't want Spencer for lockdown organ ducks, college football and everything else. Gentlemen, welcome aboard. Roman, I love that. I love that light blue you you have behind on that flag. Yeah, right. I know. It's so clear. Well, actually, you underestimate the power of use. We talked about something like a national championship, Zach Anderson, can you scootch over? What does that say? UCLA, you underestimate the power of UCLA.

Oh my gosh, it is a Star Wars. That's incredible. I was wondering the same thing. Are we talking, are we comparing Anakin Skywalker to UCLA? And if so, how? No, we're Vader. Oh, you're a Vader. Okay, so you committed war crimes. Sick. the turn on the Jets in the post season, ran the table, played your best football, got a national championship. Everything's awesome in Columbus, Ohio. Oh man, awesome. It's great. Oh yeah, they still won the thing. Ohio State has just been playing. They got to that. They got to the playoff and they said, we're going to crank

up the intensity. We're going to do the things that we kind of hid all season long. And they ran right through the playoff run and they won the national championship. This run is one that we'll be talking about for a very long time something we've never seen in the sport and for Will Howard to come in and to take the lead immediately and to change some of his mechanics and to buy into everything that is needed to be in Ohio State Buckeye I think we got to see that at its full potential on Monday night where Will Howard played really, really well. Way better than sometimes I even thought he was going to. That third 11 pass to Jeremiah Smith

was just like the exclamation point on the entire season. It's fun, man. It's fun that Ryan Day was able to get this done, that these guys came back for this mission. It was Natty Abust all year, and they walked away with the national championship. Did you I don't know how far you stayed with the celebration of the Cavetti and the and the trophy

presentation, but what's this the the the cart girl drove Ryan Day and uh and we know howard into the wall. We almost killed him. She probably managed to get the NIL money. I don't know what's going on man, but that was that was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. And she felt bad. Well, Howard felt bad for her. Luckily, they didn't have that far to walk

from the car crash to where they were going to go. But that was a weird scene, man. Absolutely. Let's go around the clock here. Zach Anderson, what were your thoughts on watching the Buckeyes? It wasn't close until it was close, and then it wasn't again on Monday night.

This just felt like you know a little deja vu. Last time we had college football playoff expansion we had an Ohio State team you know kind of out of it come out late and win. The only thing we missed was Ohio State's third string quarterback dominating Oregon you know but you know close. Gee thanks I really needed that flashback I mean I love being here's just the greatest experience. It was pretty much the same thing. No, you didn't have to. No, there's an important distinction here between you have to and you wanted to. You just wanted to. It's okay, Spencer.

Now that I'm being here for the first time, I gotta throw some shade on USC later. We'll get there. We'll be getting it. All right. And Spencer, I actually, after I went live on Monday night, I locked a Big Ten. I know you joined Jay for the post-game show.

I caught the second half of that. You guys were very cordial, by the way. It was very, very chill. Listen, I enjoyed it very much. I just thought I'd tell you that. Spencer and chill, that doesn't happen. I know. It's a rare occurrence.

It's like seeing a spotted leopard out in the wild. It does indeed happen. But Craig, when you began the show talking about the national championship, I thought you were talking about the real national champion, Oregon Ducks, who have been deemed the national champions by Wolf Analytics. And even after the playoff, are you guys actually not aware of the most Halle-

Is that him howling in the corner? Wolf Analytics was? No, this is a real thing. Apparently it was part of the analytical matrix. The BCS used back in the day when that existed. And even after Ohio State beat Oregon and held a 34 nothing lead, one for straight playoff games, beat two teams out of the SEC. According to Wolf Analytics, Oregon is the national champion after the season.

So how about that? Big 10 champs as national champions. Is that what you guys are doing out there in Eugene? Well, here's what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to read the fine print on the banner, because Jay's going to hang one that says national champions, and you're going to hang one that says big 10 champions. You both are hanging banners.

That is true. And yet, at this now, a big 10 championship has never felt more irrelevant to a fan base than that big 10 title does to Oregon fans because right now every single one of them looks at that and goes gosh darn it should have lost the game. Should have lost what were what were they thinking winning that football game?

Those fools. How were they thinking winning that football game? Those fools. How dare they? Roman, how about your final thoughts on the Natty this week? My first thought is Oregon still lost. That's great. Let me just do a quick one around here. Here we are again. The best day for Washington is when Oregon loses. That's classic. Keep it rolling, man. Good to know we're rep free. Hold on. I just wanna check. Every other program that is here

has at least one national championship in football. Am I correct in that assumption? Just doing a quick little run around there. Yeah, co-national championships count. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure. Is there a trophy? I'm like, Oregon's regular season national championship? Wolf analytics.

Wolf analytics, Natty. Yeah, that, no, I, Craig, let's, yeah, I just needed to make sure that got in there. Thanks to Zach for doing that first, by the way, since the Washington guy would have taken all the flack if I'd been the first one to make that. No, it really was the culmination of everything that Ohio State was working for all year long, Jay, as you said so well. That was just an unstoppable roster, as it had been all year long Jay as you said so well. That was just an unstoppable roster as it had been all year long.

And it was fun that it was at least a game in the second half for a little while. James, your heart disagreed with that. That's kind of what I assume, but as just a neutral observer of this game, I really didn't enjoy watching that. And the props to Ohio State, truly. All right, Zach Seiko, what are your thoughts?

You saw Ohio State before, you saw them when they were good. You didn't see when they were like really good after they turned things on here the postseason. Yeah, I guess that Michigan loss was what they needed. I wanna see how many quick hitters I can fit into this because we have so many people on the panel. Shout out to the producer for making this like an around the horn setting

when the mute button was put on Spencer. So that's where are my points. You're the next to the team. Yeah. So but I I look at it from the fact that yes Ohio State was that they were my preseason national champion pick and they finished all the way through. Somebody pointed out and multiple people pointed this out that the Michigan game doesn't really matter at the end of the day and and other part as Spencer alluded to the Big Ten championship doesn't matter because of this expanded 12 team college football playoffs. So I think that's maybe maybe we get time to actually fully discuss this as a panel. But Ohio State, excuse me, Ohio State got into the 12 team playoff and honestly, frankly, Penn State as well because of the expanded, because of the expanded bracket.

They had two losses. Michigan would have knocked them out. Imagine, imagine the four team or even a six team playoff where Michigan at seven and five knocks out a perennial national title contender and wins that fourth game in a row. Now that game is absolutely meaningless because of the run Ohio State went on. I watching this national championship game shout out to Notre Dame

I did not think they would make it as close as they did but they you know They fought back and they kept the competitive and from the Penn State point of view Penn State's very close They lost to yes, Oregon But they lost to the national champion by seven points and they lost to the national runner up by three. Penn State was right there. They are oh so close just to kind of throw in something about make it about me, make it about my show and my fan base on this big 10 squad. But I really think I just look at that and it's Ohio State at 10 and two. I think they deserve the national championship because they obviously won it and they went through a gauntlet of teams to get there

and they dominated, but that game against Michigan has no value, no meaning. And isn't that what college football is about with the rivalries and the history and everything else? I think the game still has value. I mean, right, they still have to win next year. And the fact that they lost that game actually helped them with the playoff run.

So I think that game still has the value. Right, but previously that loss would have removed the ability to even go on this run that is true. That is the point that is correctly making. I want to follow up on that in a minute but first I want to welcome Mark from USC Lockdown Trojans is with us for the first time and I think we have we have all four pack twelve teams. This is kind of like locked on pack twelve. RIP all four pack twelve teams this is kind of like locked on packed

well I think locked on packed well you see show mark welcome how are you sir well how are you very good all right so- I don't want to. I feel like we can catch up on the whole season with you here everything you've gone through but we'll

talk about your thoughts on Monday night. So I just want to say Spencer congratulations on the on the Wolf National Championship. Thank you. Thank you. Just like Auburn back in 2004. Get your trackers ready. Start that parade. Enjoy it. Have fun. I've got my flights booked to Eugene already. I wouldn't miss the parade for the world. What Ohio State proved this year, and I think this really needs to be recognized, is that they recruited really well. And when they did with those recruits is they paid really well to retain that core group.

And that's what came together. And I think people overlook that. You know, I know a lot of people focus on Oregon and how much they spend with the transfer portal and NIL. Oregon actually, excuse me, Ohio State actually did it the right way. They paid players who they recruited who earned their money, kept them together, and you saw the end result. It's kind of, it's almost like a small little Jim Harbaugh in there.

It took Jim Harbaugh and Michigan how long to get there. What did Ryan Day and what did Ohio State do? They paid their players. They went out and said, we're gonna pay an offensive coordinator to call plays. Let's take a little bit off of Ryan Day's plate and look what happened. You you finally got that national championship and I wanna say a special thank you to Ohio State because that

meant Notre Dame didn't win one and USC's off season was just a little bit better. There you go. That's those are the kind of digs we like on the squad here. All right. We're just warming up. When we come back, I want to revisit what Jay said about the Michigan game coming up in 2025. I got a different spin on it I want to throw on you guys.

We'll do that when we come back here on Locked On Big 10, the squad. Want to tell you about Talkspace. Therapy is a game changer and it can help manage stress, improve sleep and communicate more effectively. But finding the right therapist and fitting sessions into busy schedules can be a challenge. And that's where Talkspace comes in. Talkspace, the leading virtual therapy provider, makes getting the help you need easy, accessible and affordable. With Talkspace, signing up is simple. You can get matched with a licensed therapist who fits your needs,

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support for the show. That's Talkspace.com slash locked on college promo code space 80. Back on the lock on Big 10 squad. Jane want to start with you. We talked about this a little bit on my podcast and also my radio show, you know, if things had not worked out if it was a short run in the playoffs for Ohio State coming off the Michigan loss. And if they lost to Michigan a fifth straight time,

I mean, let's face it, it'd probably be it for Ryan Day. I think winning this championship now, for the first time ever, takes the pressure off of winning the Michigan game. I'm saying you could lose the Michigan game this year and for the fifth straight year, which would normally get a guy bounced, and you can't bounce a defending national champion, I think this actually takes a little bit of the crazy

pressure off of Ryan Day for at least one year, one honeymoon year. You agree or disagree with that? Yes and no. I think it does take a little pressure off of Ryan Day because he has won the ultimate game at the end of the season, but there's still a lot of pressure to win that game. He still understands the importance of it. And with this new age of college football and pretty soon, like I told someone earlier, we're gonna be at a 14 team playoff and we may get a different view of different seating of the 12 team next year.

College football is ever changing. And with Ryan Day, he's been able to adjust on the fly to a lot of the changes and he's been a little slow to do it. But once they've been all in, we've seen the result of that. That game still means so much. Now the value of it is a little bit different now, the 12 team playoff in,

you can be tending to lose that game and still going to miraculous run to win the playoff, but there's still pressure to win that game. And I've even heard a lot of people discuss like, well, what about the iron bowl? What about this bowl? Well, it's still the game and it still even heard a lot of people discuss like, well, what about the iron bowl? What about this bowl? Well, it's still the game and it still means a whole lot. Yes, Craig, I do agree.

The pressure is off a little, but if you lose five in a row, he's not gonna get fired. But man, that's when I think that hot seat stuff for some people start. He is gonna be one of those Buckeye legend coaches. I think he's one of what, five Ohio State coaches to ever win a national championship.

Only one of three active coaches to win the Natty. So he's in a very exclusive group. His winning percentage is one of the best of all time. So he's in a very exclusive club, but he's lost four in a row. And that's still a thing that. But he's lost four in a row. Yeah and that's still a thing that he has to not do

next year. Zach Anderson we think how important is that Michigan game in November. I don't know because I'm not part of the big game I'm just gonna tell mark USC sucks and that's my. Cardinal. I'll see you in a week, Zach. All right. Well, Spencer, I know you'll have a lot more to say about it. Yeah, I mean, I would, but I also

wanted to go back to something that Mark said earlier. You referenced that they built it the right way. Number one, who's building it the wrong way? And number two, what is the wrong way? I'm going by results. Ohio State did it the way NIO was supposed to be used. So you think that Caleb Downs came to Ohio State just because he wanted to go play for him You don't think there was any money that changed

Say that again of that starting defense how many came out of the transfer portal that'd be a question today It was a starting defense. I think Caleb Downs was the only one I I think that's the point. So where are you coming from here, Spencer? I don't know. You're the one that laid it out that they did it the right way. And it seemed to me that you were implying that teams that are too reliant on the portal are doing it the wrong way or that there is a wrong way. I'm just looking for an explanation of what the wrong way is and what the line of demarcation is. What is too many transfers? I'm saying the teams that go out and are buying rosters on an annual basis, Phil Knight, you're not going to get that camaraderie, that culture that you need in the locker room to win. Look

what Notre Dame did. They're not big players in NIL, but they do it a certain way. And regardless of what their regular season schedule was, they got to the national championship team. They recruited, they developed, they retained. You add a player here and there. That's what the transfer portal is supposed to be for. Now all of a sudden the NCAAs come out and said,

you know what the transfer portal doesn't even really exist. If you want, go enroll in a school and go enroll somewhere else. Well so that's why I give credit to the way Ohio State's doing it. Jay said something about Ryan Day's been a little bit slow to doing it the right way. I get that. USC has been slow to build up to the way college football has been played today infrastructure wise. With defense that's what you guys need that's what you guys need yeah we could talk about the Alex Finch thing we're all blue in the face but that's yeah that's done um and you know interestingly uh Spencer I was looking at a list today before I came on because, you know, Ohio State did like $21 million in nil, Texas is $22 million.

The Phil Knight comment he made, Oregon's only like $10 million on the collective. It was a lot lower than I thought it was going to be because I thought Nike would have been higher. I mean, I thought that was the only reason anyone ever went to Oregon is because they have money. I mean, they got talented players before NIL. Now they're getting talented players after NIL. And there was a report from someone over at the Believe Network that Dylan Thinnamen, the transfer safety from Purdue, was offered a

lot more money by SEC schools but wanted to go to Oregon. But we'll just overlook that. Phil Knight's low-hanging fruit. And if that's all you can jump up and reach, then by all means, you take as many shots at him as you'd like and keep losing to Minnesota. Hold on, though. I think a big part of this, especially when you take shots at Oregon, I don't even mean this with all the Washington stuff behind me. Truly, I don't.

But if you're going to tout every single year coming in and grabbing a top five recruiting class and then every single year passing over those guys for transfer portal. Like, I look at somebody like Jerry and Dicky. I look at there are plenty of examples. Or Jerry and Dicky hasn't been healthy yet in his college football career. He was hurt. But I just heard his first season. Magically hurt the day before the day of the game. You need them the most, right?

That's not. How was that relevant to anything? Yeah, that's that's not office game. What? But that's I use Jerry and Dicky as an example of just a five star prospect where it's whoa, this guy could come in and change things. Jeremiah Smith at Ohio State is like, like obviously a world beater in that in that sense. But I use Jerry and Dickie as the example because it's like, oh, hey, we got this guy

who we think is going to be our alpha number one guy. And then every single year at every position, like at every position, you're just passing them up with guys from the transfer report. I think that's the example that Mark is trying to make. I mean, that's just, that's just flagrantly, that's just flagrantly not true. You're, you're under the impression that this is a Colorado type roster where literally almost every single starter or key rotational depth piece is a transfer. And that's just not the case. And even if it is the case,

isn't the object to have the most talented player on the field? Sure, absolutely, absolutely. But it just- Just own it. Just own it. Don't pretend- I'm not trying to run away from it.

You're saying that it's bad and wrong and terrible. And I'm sitting here saying that Oregon's trying to build the most talented roster that they can. If they don't feel like a kid is ready, why would you put them on the field? Evan Stewart was ready to play or not ready to play. You spent all that money. What is this point you're making with Evan Stewart? He was great for the Ducks this year. He was a big reason why they beat Ohio State the first time around.

Spend all this money on guys one-year rentals out of the transfer portal allegedly and then they sit out because they want more money the day of the game. That's how Ohio State got quit. Wait state got quit wait so wait your accusation is that evan stewart didn't get enough money and he sat out the rose bowl Alexander and Emmanuel prion i what what is even happening right now was that hold on was that your literal accusation mark that oregon that that evan stewart sat out the Rose Bowl because he didn't feel like he was getting enough NIL money that is what you just implied. Yes, it is. I'm not implying I'm saying it. You're saying that based on what? Was he hurt? Yes, he got hurt before the game. Doing what? Dan Landick doesn't release a bunch of medical information. I don't know all the, sorry, I wasn't there on the ground, but you can't make an accusation

like that when it has no basis in reality. We'll see. This stuff usually comes out down the line. It's okay to be defensive. Why is he coming back to Oregon? Because he's getting paid. So you think he used the opportunity to go compete for a national championship to leverage Oregon for more money and you think he what faked an injury before the game?

Added the running back from Ole Miss and up at Ohio State. What did he do? What did he do? He asked, I want to be paid more money to play in this game or I'm leaving. Lane Kippen called his bluff. He went to Ohio State. Okay, that's a different situation Everything's always a different situation Quinton Joyner tried this with USC. He wanted to be paid twice as much as Woody Marx USC said you know what the running back position doesn't deserve that much money

Now he's playing it Now he's playing at Texas Tech. OK, I'll just let that stand. Emmanuel Preon agreed, renegotiated his contract days before the Vegas Bowl, agreed to it, played in the Vegas Bowl. Somehow or another, Oregon made an offer after the fact, where is Emmanuel Preon today? Bear Alexander, he renegotiated his contract during Spring Ball, sat out.

USC gave him more money. He wanted more after that. Where is he now? At Oregon. Some of this is circumstantial, some of this is anecdotal. At a certain point you go, you know what? Oregon's willing to pay whatever it takes. Maybe you'll get a championship out of this.

I'm sure- And that's why USC's in the Las Vegas bowl. Evan Stewart held out because he wanted more money. All right. You don't have to believe it. Okay, that has no basis. There, no one has reported that anywhere, but all right, go for it.

Say whatever you like. I wanna jump in here. We should do a podcast together. We're late for break. Zach Sanko didn't even get a chance to speak this segment. Your first one will come back. Final word as we continue on the Locked Off Big Ten Squad. Let me tell you about game time.

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Terms apply. Again, create an account and the redeem code LOCKDOWNCOLLG. For $20 off. Download Game Time today. Last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed. I back out of the lockdown Big Ten squad. Zach Seiko, you can jump in here since we didn't get to you last time, but you can either jump on that championship game. We were talking about the NIL whatever you want. The floor is yours.

Zach. All right. I get a I get a soap box. I Jay's Jay's not here. I so I feel like this is after you win the Around the Horn, but somehow we all lose in this case. First, I didn't get to point this out earlier. So we mentioned, you mentioned it, Craig,

that the Big Ten has now won back-to-back national championships. The Big Ten absolutely dominated in both season. And I think of whatever's going on in the locked on SEC squad, it probably looks like that screen, that shot of the SpongeBob in his own brain where he's running around and there's flames and papers and boxes everywhere.

That's probably what's going on right now because there clearly was some form, allegedly, right? I preface it this way, of tampering, paying players under the table because notice how When nil and this is how a noter dame is so mark you bring up of an excellent point that noter dame wants to do Things the right way Penn State wants to do things the right way. This isn't about Oregon or anybody else I'm not trying to I'm not trying to say that all because Notre Dame does XYZ. That means Oregon is the antithesis

That's not what I'm saying But Notre Dame does operate by a certain set of standards and honestly so does Penn State. So I can speak to that where they're not trying to back channel players, they're not trying to throw, you know, all right, increase the dollar amount, let's get into a bidding war,

let's make this pay for play. So the SEC, what happens when NIL gets involved here? Oh, the playing field is a lot more level The SEC isn't able to stack the depth chart of all these teams and then claim that they're the best conference In the entire country by a mile That's that's not it anymore because now the transfer portal and NIL and now that Ohio because Ohio State Michigan Notre Dame and Penn State all notably and maybe USC and other former PAC 12 schools to an extent said we're going to try to do this, you know by the unwritten rules and

Ohio State Ohio State said you know what we're gonna go all in if other teams are going to throw $20,000,000 allegedly at a roster Why can't we and why can't we do it to retain the players that we know we're going to get the best out of Penn State is doing it right now. Drew Adler should be going to the NFL. Nicholas Singleton, K-Tron Allen denied Dennis Sutton. Penn State is doing the exact same thing that Michigan did coming out of the 2022 season. Ohio State did out of the 2023 season. So that is a formula to an extent here what I'm trying to get at above all of this is that? Nil has changed the game the way that we know it I can't believe I'm gonna become a college football

Fundamentalist and say that we should go backwards and the 12-team playoff maybe isn't the best idea because it is taking away I I get what Jay said that Jay said that Michigan and Ohio State and everything else that it's still a meaningful game But at the end of the day, it is not there was no Jay said that Michigan and Ohio State and everything else, that it's still a meaningful game, but at the end of the day, it is not. There was no consequence from that game. You lost to a seven and five team in the past, you were nowhere to be found in the college football playoff, but here they are.

Ohio State gets a mulligan and they end up going on a run because of motivation and everything else or whatever have you. They were the best team on paper, but they did not win the games they needed to on paper. And the 12 team playoff allowed that mulligan. Same here for Penn State. I feel like I'm throwing stones in a glass house here,

but they went on to win the national championship. Penn State got close. I'm honestly in favor of moving it back to four teams, but that's never going to happen. I was always, I always thought they should have stayed at four because they're making more and more things less, less significant. And I hear what you're saying there. I really do. Let's do the around the horn final segment here. Zach

Anderson, your final thoughts, the floor is yours. Any topic like you are the winning round and around the horn. Oh, that's you know, there's no of shots thrown every which way direction, you know, let's go towards Roman's way. I don't like you though. But that's pretty lame, pretty lame shot. Dang it, you took my final piece. I got no beef with the Huskies at this moment.

I just think, I guess we'll throw it to UCLA basketball, they're underachieving. Cronin called them soft and delusional. They got to figure it out. I hope they do. UCLA football, they got a quarterback coming in. They got some pieces coming in. Long ways to go to truly compete and be in the conversation

this deep in the season. But I think they're doing things that were better now than what Chip Kelly was overall recruiting than just the transfer report. Those are my thoughts. Hey, look at it this way, Zach. Vader was better in episode five than he was in episode four. Sometimes that development just takes a little bit of time.

And apparently, UCLA is Darth Vader. But man, that's great. I got to get me one of those, whether it's UCLA or not. But how best to end today's show? I do wonder when the SEC snaps back because I imagine it will happen eventually. The Big Ten's not winning every national championship forever, but who's it going to be and when is it going to be? Big Ten's got three of the five best preseason odds

team to win the national championship next year with Ohio State at one Oregon at three and Penn State at five and look if that plays up maybe Texas finally breaks through next year and that's kind of the bounce back but I think this back and forth like this championship for Ohio State and how they did it in the path that they went through I think and even Paul Feinbaum has admitted this puts the Big Ten as the best conference in the country at least at the very top. That's what you have right now and that's not a small thing to have achieved and I do think everything that's changed in the college football landscape in the last couple of years has something to

has a major part in in doing that but at some point, I expect the SEC, which still cares, which still invests, which still has plenty of money of their own, is going to have kind of a resurgence. I just don't know if that's three years from now, five years from now, or if it starts next year. Roman, final word? Yeah, first of all, Zach, I love what you're saying,

I love what you were saying a few minutes ago about the restocking of rosters, because that's exactly, it just made me think of of that was exactly what Washington did after the 2022 season. And I'm really curious to see if it starts to become more of a trend around the country, as we just kind of see this world of NIL continue to evolve. Because like Washington had seven picks in the top 100 in last year's NFL draft. You think it was easy to retain all those guys to get Roma Doomsday to come back, to get Michael Pennex to come back? And it's just, it's a fun thing that I'm just really curious about kind of countrywide in terms of cultures that schools are building. Are we going to see this become more of a trend? And it kind of plays into exactly what Spencer

is saying as well. Are we going to see a bunch of these guys continue to come back year in and year out, whether it be, you know, at Texas, Alabama, Georgia, USC, Penn State, Oregon, Ohio State, whatever it might be. And I think that's going to be something that, you know, with 12 teams, if it continues to expand, that's going to be a really fun part of the college football playoff as just college football continues to grow in this new world. Yeah, well said. Mark, final word. Yeah, I have no problem with the 12 team playoff or even expanding to 14. You wanna tweak it, reseed,

so certain programs don't feel like they're getting the short end of the stick. Fine, I'm good with that. But I think part of the problem is we're conflating. We're trying to remain a traditionalist, which I am to the core, but at the same time trying to change and adapt going forward with the game of college football the way it's going right now.

We talk about how the Michigan-Ohio State game lost some of its lust or some of its value. I disagree. 13-9 still bothers USC fans to this day. But again, you can do this. Are you playing peekaboo with Mark? It looks like a five-year-old on a playground. That was my first UCLA SC game.

It looks like a cartoon interpretation of what a witch does. Poor audio listeners. At the end of the day, UCLA gets 13 to nine. That's their feather. USC just says, well, we've got 11 national championships. We've got eight Heisman's. We when our head coach walks up to the free playoff, we know that we're from L. from LA not just the other school from la

Oh, wow. Ouch Mark can I interject because I want I want to get your response to this The reason that is the case is because ucla and usc were nowhere near the postseason Ohio state had not had everything to gain and nothing to lose You guys are simply playing for bragging rights. Ohio State still had something after the fact. We're talking about a 12-team playoff system now. We're not talking about 2006.

That's what I'm saying. We can't conflate anymore. We have the system now. We can't say, well, because of this, that doesn't work. These rivalry games still matter. Are they going to affect Michigan or Ohio State or USC or Oregon going to a playoffs? No, but they still matter.

John Robinson won a national championship at USC. It didn't stop USC from saying you're fired. All right, on that note, guys, gentlemen, tell our audience, follow these guys and subscribe. They do a great job covering your favorite teams in the Big Ten each and every day. Go ahead and subscribe and we'll continue to cover your favorite teams every day throughout the season and the off season. And don't forget, I got you covered the entire conference every day with Locked on Big Ten, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Craig Schiemann. We'll talk to you next time.