Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BIG 10 SQUAD: NCAA Passes NEW Eligibility Rules | How they impact Iowa

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

Big Ten shakes up college football with the new “5 and 5” eligibility rule, setting the stage for a new era—no more endless waivers or awkward redshirt seasons. The Big 10 Squad debates whether this reform can finally bring order to the chaos. Will this bold move eliminate confusion and eight-year seniors, or just spawn fresh controversy? Illinois Fighting Illini’s win total sparks heated predictions as FanDuel sets the mark at 7.5—can Bret Bielema push the Illini from good to great? The crew breaks down Illinois’ manageable 2026 schedule, rivalry games, and the impact of losing key players like Luke Altmyer. The hosts draw parallels between roster management and middle school dances, while the hosts dissect what the path to eight wins might require. Can Illinois surprise the Big Ten, or will old hurdles remain? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'm Illinois, shake things up in the Big Ten. That's on today's Locked-on Big Ten Squad. You're talking ball with the Big Ten Squad. 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. No hurt feelings and thin skin allowed. Squad up, you're part of the Big Ten Squad.

Happy Thursday, everybody. Welcome to this week's Lockdown Big Ten Squad. I'm your host, Spencer McLaugh, the neutral arbiter of all things college football. Trent Condon of Lockdown Hawkeyes has to go. So before I introduce everybody else, we started this a little late, Trent, give me your thoughts on the new 5-5 eligibility rule, likely to be the law of the land in college football. Yeah, I absolutely love it because I've been complaining about this for about the past decade.

And certainly when the ridiculous four game, you can still redshirt rule went in for football, it felt like it was inevitable that was going here. Get away from the waiver process. No more sick uncle, any of those kind of things. Five for five, it is the right thing to do. It is one of the few things that the NCAA feels like they actually got right. That is a season veteran take right there. Look, it got it in under the bell just like that.

So Trent Scott a roll. Jacob Goans of Lockdown Hoosiers is here. Isaiah Hole, locked on Wolverines, Ryan Herrings of Lockdown Badgers and Jay Stevens of Lockdown Buckyes as well. Goings, you're in the... Welcome back. Thank you. Thank you. It is great. It is great to be back. Order has been restored here at the Big Ten Squad. The trip you took and the places you went, I just figured you'd stay. I know. There was a small temptation, but I got to tell you, I missed air conditioning and good water, man.

By the end of it, I saw that heat wave coming. I said, I don't need to stay over here. No AC? see? Mm-mm. God, they really don't have air conditioning? I know. Dude, of all the things the Europeans on the internet are amazed at America about, I'm surprised AC hasn't come up more often. You know, they're impressed with things like Buckees and free refills and all this stuff.

I can't believe. Waffle house is amazing. It's just incredible. And I'm like, have you been to a college football game yet? clearly you haven't but soon Jacob we may very well have some semblance of steady rule following procedures for everyone to adhere to I don't I'm sure a few people will try and challenge this but overall I feel like this is one of those things that everybody actually thinks is a good idea I have a feeling on this call everybody will be in agreeance that five and five is the way to go

and you know there are some people who are making complaints and raising you know, a little bit of stink about it because as, as Trent said on the way out, it's like, yeah, but what if I have a sick relative or what if I tear my ACL and fall practice? And it's like, well, that's called life. I don't know what to tell you. The NCAA has been pushed around for so long. They finally decided to put in some guidelines to put in basically an order of this is how it is, no matter what, everybody fits into this system. And I think it's the way to go. You're like Dolores Sumbridge out there. They will have order.

Did anybody get that reference? Nope. Isaiah, at least a little. Okay, cool. You guys are all too cool for Harry Potter or whatever. Anyway, Craig, we're moving in the right direction, right? We are. By the way, I'd like to introduce myself to the new host of the locked up account spot.

Spent some money. It's good to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Craig. Why are you so much older than everybody else that's here? How come I? I was just born a lot earlier than all of you guys. Oh, okay. Wow. Facts. You can't argue that. I, I'm still, Ryan from two weeks ago wearing the Badger hat, still going viral on my channel. So, who knows for you? Let's go. Fantastic. Yes, there are a lot of things that are debatable, but the five and five spot on got to do it no confusion with red shirting all that's gone no more eight years seniors who are 27 years old playing college football uh this is one thing i think that everybody can't agree with the five and five format is is the way to go moving forward i

some kids should look me should feel lucky hey get to play five years of college balls to the usual four some usually don't get on the field the freshman year i think it'll work out pretty well for everybody Ryan, is it as agreeable as this will be Luke Fickles last season in Madison? Negative. No, we were bouncing back this year. We did our win total. Remember, we all went over. You were with me, Spence. I know.

I know, but I had to come on here and start taking jabs. How else could I reintroduce myself as host of the squad? For the third year in a row, I'm taking the over. We're going to nail it, though. Third time's the charm. I love this. And, again, one of the points I made was, you guys run there but my middle school dance

it was super awkward like super awkward which is like similar to the red shirt dance you sure none of us were there did you get kidnapped in that one too or I don't think you'd be able to have been there myself you could have chaperoned it I'm not sure

like it was super awkward though like it's a little in out am I gonna dance no cool right I'm I'll just do the sideline no I'm gonna jump in now no no no no no that's the redshirt dance we've been doing the last couple years. It's like, is this guy good enough to play? Yes, but no, we want to hold them.

But four games. Oh, no, we need them, but we can't play them. Let's hold off for a game. Then you don't need them. It's a super awkward middle school antiquated dance that we no longer need. College players come in more ready to play than ever. They have trainers. They know how to lift weights.

They've been on program since they're 13 with psycho dads. It's all good. They don't need a redshirt anymore. This allows players that are ready to play right away. It allows teams to not have to do this super, weird middle school dance of we're going to play it but no but yes but maybe four games short and in basketball you can't do it at all it's ridiculous so this is an awesome rule there was a discussion at one point whoa wow what was that what was that was that was that on your end spencer

i don't think so anything what are we even talking about there was like a major echo but it was thunderous and authoritative like i was speaking from the iron throne thunderous boom coming out. That's the last thing that dude needs. Oh, my gosh. That was, that was, that was off putting, but in like a very kind of intimidating way. It's like when you hear Darth Vader breathing. I'm going to get like seven.

I got that reference. That's Star Wars. Oh, there we go. Oh, that a boy. That a boy. I don't even remember the point that I was going to make. Your favorite middle school dance memory was. Well, that was a long time ago.

I don't remember many things from those dances back then. You went to those? A couple of them, yeah. I was not that brave. You did. In middle school? Jay and I were the only ones that could get dates. You two were just walking while I was sitting in the back door.

That is true. I couldn't get a date until high school. But I really wish I remembered. You guys were dating? Like that meme, it's great. You guys getting paid? Yeah. That's what I thought up to.

Gone off the rails. That's a great. Right. But is there any way for the squad show to actually go than to just get completely off the rails? I mean, our bosses were going to be super proud. Do you know how fast we got into content this episode? Trent started talking within the first 15 seconds. I know.

I was incredible. I know. Trent was here. I joined two minutes. Yeah. You missed Trent. You missed Trent. So Trent had to,

Trent said, I've only got until eight minutes past the top of the hour. We didn't start until the six minute mark. We've got a 45 minute intro that we listen to every show that we've got to get through. And so then I looked down and it's seven minutes after the hour and I'm like, Trent has a hard out. And so before I introduce everybody, I just go,

Trent, give me your thoughts on the five and five. And then he does it. And then he locked off. And then you hopped on like nine. seconds later he's like hi i've got softball practice later yeah that was pretty much it yeah those those those those pretty much it uh jay and isaiah would you like to share your favorite middle school dance memory is your turn i don't have a middle school i went to very small christian

schools that i think thought dancing was uh i mean you've seen footloose no you probably had it's gonna say oh i didn't think they were uh I did think they were big on big on the dancing over there. Oh, wow. Someone made an image for the last squad of Minnesota's schedule. I should have done that. Is that you going? Of course it was me.

That's what happens when you leave and I take over. Good ideas. Come into the chat. Oh, dang it. This is phenomenal. I know. And I even said, I made it by hand. It took me hours to do like hours.

You typed it in as a prompt and it spit it out in 10 seconds. I don't know. what you're talking about. No. Certainly. Certainly. Certainly not. We'll get back.

We'll get back on the rails. And we'll talk about whether Illinois is going to do what they failed to do last year. Unfortunately, Sonny Verma of Luckton, and Aligni is not here. But we are going to talk about his team anyway. Whether he likes it or not. And if he's upset with that, maybe he should show up for work sometime. See, that one had the sound. And I like the sound.

I love the sound. Just like I love Odu, of course. And you will as well. because look, running a business is not something that you want to be all over the place, disconsjoining, discombobulated. You're using a bunch of different systems in order to run your business. You got one thing for marketing over here. You got one thing for accounting over there. You got one thing for something else over there. I've never actually run a business before, but if I did, I would check out Odo because I want those platforms to talk to one another.

And you got another one for HR, which is probably very underutilized aspects of this particular company as you can see. But if you want all those services working on the same page, that's where Odo comes in. Odo is an all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform. From sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, everything works in one place, helping your team move faster, stay organized, and focus on growing the business instead of managing software. The best organizations know that success isn't just about talent. It's about having everyone working toward the same goal. And that's true in sports, just like it is in business.

You want to be streamlined, you want to be working together, you want things to be simple and efficient. Great organizations win because operations matter. That's why you should get O-D-O-D-Frey today at O-D-O-D-comcom slash locked-on. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-O-com slash locked-on. That's the place to go. Check out O-Doo at O-D-D-com slash locked-on. Do you guys have the sound all the time on those 10-year transitions?

because 10 years of the Lockdown Podcast Network, of course. Do you have them? Yeah, yes. So I had them. I thought the squad ones, I think just on these. I had them, and then they went away, and I like them. They're fun. They're funky.

Snapy. They add, yeah, snappy. They had a little moxie, little pizzazz, little juice. Kind of like what Illinois is trying to do in the 2026 season. Spice it up a little bit, you know? Thank you, Isaiah. That was a seamless transition. So our friends at Fanduil have got Illinois's win total at seven and a half.

Now, when you lose a player of Luke Altmyers caliber at a program like Illinois, a stereotypical national talking head like myself would automatically look at the align eye and say, pullback year, regression to the mean, not real, not any good. But then you get a scheduling break like the one the align I got, and I tell you, what Jacob Goeins. For those on audio, the schedule goes like this. UAB, Duke, Southern Illinois, all at home.

They go at Ohio State, they host Purdue, at Michigan State, a buy before they play Oregon, go at Maryland, host Nebraska, go at UCLA, host Iowa, and then go at Northwestern. I have seen far more

difficult schedules than this one for Illinois. So seven and a half, where are you feeling on the align. I flush out the thoughts of the team that I might have picked a beat Indiana last year. Yeah, you want to know what happened in the result of that game. It's the photo behind me. That was the historical beatdown that Indiana handed out when pretty much everybody realized, okay, the Hoosiers were for real. Look, seven and a half is not crazy, right? That's not an unattainable win total. And you start looking at the schedule as you just read out. They should start 3 and 0.

I think they can beat. I'm looking at games they can win. I think they They beat Purdue. I think they can beat one of Maryland or UCLA on the road. That's five. They'll beat Northwestern on the road. That's six. Now you're talking about trying to find two more wins with Ohio State, Michigan State, Oregon, and Iowa. I just, and Nebraska in there too. I just, I don't know. They get some of their tougher games at home going on the road to Ohio State. Like, don't worry about that one. But hosting Nebraska, hosting Iowa. I'm going to say they get seven. I think they go just under their seven and a half. I'll say they go seven and five this year. I don't trust them in some of those 50, 50 games on the schedule. They are tough.

They have struggled to really level up and beat, you know, the Wisconsin's of the world. The cream of the crop. You can't struggle with that last year. You are not incorrect. One of the things that struggled with that task last year. This is true. This is very true. Craig, you look at the Big Ten as a whole. Before I press you on taking the over under of seven and a half, why do you think Illinois has been able to be good, but hasn't leveled up to be great? Well, I think Breitlema puts a premium on his line of scrimmage guys, and that's just fundamental, right? You get good in the trenches, you can probably fight for a 500 schedule and then add a couple of wins. I mean, he's won 19 games in the last two years. That's pretty good. Before I give you a win total, though, as an

I got to ask Jacob as the Hoosiers beat Miami and the Natty crushed Alabama in the Rose Bowl, beat Oregon twice, won the Big Ten championship. You're putting a picture of the game in September against Illinois on your wall? That's what you chose? To be fair, I bought this like two weeks after the game and hung it up midseason. And then they just continue to top it and top it and top it. So yeah, I might be due for an upgrade, but I didn't know that they were going to have eight other performances better than the beat down they handed to Illinois in my in my defense. I think that Illinois game is the best one.

At the time, the Illinois seemed like a once in a lifetime blowout. I'll give you that. And this is the best it'll ever get in Indiana for football. A ranked team that we blew out, what more could they possibly achieve? Yeah, exactly. I got Illinois at seven wins through the Nebraska game. So can they win one more at UCLA,

home against Iowa, or at Northwestern for the season finale? And I think they can win one of those. I think all those three opponents are pretty good, so it might be sketchy. So if they get over this year, I mean, it's by the hook. I give them the eighth game if they can come up with a win in those last three. So you like them at the over, at the over seven and a half, by the way. work in silence

sometimes my friends oh dang it that's not as good whoa it also wasn't silent if you want to be really fair I should have muted my mic while I was while I was typing that's not bad course now you can just see my shoulder flailing in the corner

of the screen yeah like I'm like I'm getting some type of a Dak Prescott workout you know just that's also not right that's not correct Indiana's not on that schedule oh dang it Nor is Minnesota.

Or Wisconsin or Penn State. Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to take, I'm going to, I'm going to be. I'm going to be. Yeah. Put that with that 30. Look, I did, I did not, I did not prove free to it in, in real time. I was more concerned with the immediacy.

And I got to tell you, whenever people talk about AI take it over, I say, look at what it can't do. There are people who are like, it's going to take out all these jobs. I'm like, it can't make a schedule, guys. Like, it's like the definition of user error. Like is right here. He's got the yips. Spencer's been gone for a couple weeks.

No. I put the right command in. Yeah. That information in, bad information out. Yeah. That's, uh, that's, uh, that's. Yeah, I don't know where was this last year schedule? I don't know, but that's terrible.

No, no, it's not even, hold of now we, no, no, no, no, now we have to, now we have to put it back up because this is actually really funny. So I think they played Ohio State at home last year, but they played Oregon on the road in October the year before. And that Indiana game was in Bloomington, not at home for them. This is a three-year composite. This is also. Yeah. What chat chb-t agent did you go like to the first one? Is that like the original chat chTP T you're using?

Yeah. Hey, no free pop, man. What AI did you use? I used one that I'm familiar with that given- Clearly not. How did you get this other, like this is perfect. Is this even accurate? This is accurate.

Yes, the Minnesota one is accurate. I'd like, right? Minnesota, week five in Minnesota, right? Yeah. Minnesota, Mississippi State is such a random non-conference football game. That I would love for Minnesota to beat so that we can go to SEC folks that love to be like, the SEC's depth is so much blood to blood. If I hear that one more time, I'm going to smash a damn window.

Those are two teams that like the conferences don't really claim. Like are we really claiming Minnesota? Thank you. The SEC really claim Mississippi State. But that's those are the sorts of. matchups that the SEC loves to flaunt and granted only when they win. Yeah,

only when they win. Only when they win, of course. If Isaiah and Michigan can beat Oklahoma and Ohio State can win against Texas, then we just shut them up for good, right? Yeah, that's true. That's true. Yeah, Isaiah, don't screw it up. Don't screw it up. Are you okay with Dusty May?

This show is just completely gone. Are you okay with Dusty May leaving like, what's your status, brother? I, well, I'm blessed, number one. but not because of Dusty May leaving, but just because I was about to hit record on a show that was talking about close to nothing. Like, I guess we'll talk about

some recruiting things that we haven't even figured out yet, I guess, like, and then that happened. So it was one of those things where it's like, I hate this, but I also love this because it makes life easier. And I mean, you also just got a national championship out of the guy. We're going to finish these thoughts when we're.

get back you just got a national championship out of dusty may so how how mad can you actually be that he bolted because let me let me tell you i know i am neutral arbiter of all things college football back there but i'm just going to like hypothetically put myself in the shoes of i don't know an oregon fan just as like a random random school to pick if i were an oregon fan and i'd wait a lifetime or more seemingly for a national championship in football. When that one arose, I can assure you if they went three and nine and three and nine in the next two years, I wouldn't care. I would not care in the slightest. Eventually, I'd want him to get back to it and make the climb again.

But there's just an element, you know, if Dan Lannning bolted after that for, I don't know, the Kansas City Chief's job or something, and then whoever, they hired went three and nine the next year i'd say well remember that time they won the national championship that was cool is that how you're feeling isaiah well here's a thing that i got to tell you about michigan fans uh they say that uh until everything like coming off of jim harbaugh and you know him winning the national championship and leaving it was kind of like controversy for yeah yeah i mean exactly i mean just that's the great thing is squeaky everything was squeaky cling No one, no one's saying anything about it anymore at all. But it's like he leaves and everyone says, you know what?

Like we can just go like six and six this year. Who cares? We won the championship. And then the moment they started losing to Texas in week two, I were everybody, unacceptable. This is, I hate this program. We haven't won a national championship in at least a couple months. This is absurd.

What happened to the program I love? So I think it's probably the same in basketball because I think Michigan fans were starting to kind of feel like, hey, you know, especially with the in-state rivalry with MSU. I think it was kind of like, hey, we might be surpassing Izzo after just a couple years, right? Like we won a championship, you know, and last one that you won was 25, you know, plus years ago at this point. I think the thing for me that's the hardest is the timing of it because Michigan fans still were complaining a lot about John Beeline having left in early May in 2019. And then Dusty leaves in mid to late June. And so that leaves you a little bit in the lurch. And it was made even all the worst because I went to an alumni dinner on Monday night.

And Trey McKenny's there. And I mean, it looked like not only like his dog died, but it looked like someone kicked his dog repeatedly in the process of set death. So, you know, you see that and you just are like, okay, not a great scenario. But you know what? Like there's a lot of people who in the Michigan fandom are just putting all the blame on Ward Manual. They don't like hearing me say this because they think like, oh, I'm just going to defend Ward manual.

but like the truth of it is is like it was apparent from the things that came out after the fact because like no one knew this was happening trade mckenny when i asked him i said did you know this happening he's like absolutely not but that it was a scenario where he didn't want to deal with all of this college nonsense that we talk about on this show every single week and so we to blame him especially once he won a naughty and he can go coach cooper flag like There's worse in these spots. And he finally gets to coach Morez Johnson, Jr. He's been wanting to do that for some time.

Yeah. And by the way, Isaiah, just to put a bow on the point that you made. Illinois, seven and a half over under. I got over. I think they go 10 and 2 next year. 10 and 2. I picked them to do that last year. They went 8 and 4.

Which wasn't bad, but, you know, it wasn't great. Ryan, you may wrap this squad in literally. whatever direction you want. That could go so many directions with me. Okay. Let me just start for a second to acknowledge the unbelievable content creation run, Isaiah is on with Michigan.

That's like a content volcano. It's like National Title football, blah, Harba Li, blah, cheating, stallions, blah, blah, Sharon Moore, blah, Dusty-Nay Championship, blah, number one quarterbacked country, Price Underwood, blah. Like, no, three coaches leaving in Dallas,

blah. Like, it's like, gosh, can I have one of those stories? Can I have For locked on badgers Ryan, jealousy doesn't look good on it I was about to say the jealousy Susan. I was like, man, I want one.

Well, your moment in the sun. Craig, your mic didn't really pick that up there. At all? Am I gone? Yeah, you're good. You're good now.

It was just kind of, it sounded like this. Moment in the sun. I was just going to, say when Luke Fickle gets fired, you'll have all of that. Ah, yes. Or exceeds expectations. Either way, we're going to say extended. exceeds expectations.

That's how we grade five-year-olds, right, on the report cards. I'd like to welcome back, Paul Chris, by the way. I think that's the movie. He's still out there. Yeah. He's still hanging. Still chilling. Give me under an Illinois, by the way.

That's where I'll wrap up. I think it's harder to goaltmire. I just think that's not as easy as people think it's going to be. He is indeed. He was quite good. He was quite good. Is Caten Hauser as good? I guess we'll just have to wait and find out.

Jacob Goans, locked on Hoosiers, Craig Sheiman, locked on Big Ten. We had Jay Stevens of locked on Buckeyes and Trent Condon of Lockdown, Hawkeyes. Ryan Herring's locked on Badgers and Isaiah Hall, Locked on Wolverines. I'm Spencer McLaughlin from Lockdown, wherever. We appreciate everyone listening. We'll see you next time.

And until then, hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day.