Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - BIG 12 SQUAD - Big 12 REALIGNMENT CHATTER | What will happen to Kansas?

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

Can the Big 12 survive the power play by the SEC and Big Ten, or is a seismic shift in college athletics imminent? The Big 12 Squad tackles the heated debate over conference realignment, the rumored addition of Louisville, and whether government intervention is the only hope to keep college football from becoming a two-league universe. The hosts dissect Josh Pate’s radical plan to restore conference regionality and question whether historic rivalries and logical geography can ever return to the sport. From heated rants about bubble teams like West Virginia and TCU to frustration over SEC and Big Ten dominance on ESPN and Fox, the panel breaks down the flaws in NCAA tournament selection and the consequences for Big 12 schools. With references to brand power, TV money, and underappreciated programs, this episode is packed with passionate takes and critical questions: Is tradition dead in college sports, or can the Big 12 carve out its own path to respect and relevance? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Look, I think adding Louisville to the Big 12 is just as good a step as the next guy. But before that, they're making themselves hurt with Cody Campbell of Texas Tech saying the SEC and the Big Ten must be stopped now. This is the Dose Grande Squad. You're talking ball with the Big 12 squad. From Oklahoma State to Utah, from Kansas State to BYU. From Houston to Texas Tech, it's the local experts of the Lockdown Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive. of the upcoming Big 12 weekend. Buckle up, it's the Big 12 Squad, and we have a seat for you.

Know her feelings and thin skin allowed. Squad up, you're part of the Big 12 Squad. Happy Thursday night, everybody. Welcome to the Big 12 Squad. I'm Drake Toll from America's number one Big 12 podcast, Locked on Big 12. Thank you for making this show your first list in every single day. Parker Hanksworth of Locked on Cookees.

Cody Stoball, Locked on Oklahoma State. Mountaineer Paul. Tubby question mark. State. He locked on West Virginia and Philip Mulford brand new locked on sun devils to the Dose Grande Squad. Thank you for making our shows your first listen every single day.

We will start with the SEC and the Big Ten, the big bad dogs. Done? Is there a watchdog now? Do we finally put a a stop to their reign of terror? If you hit subscribe, we get to keep our jobs. The news this week, Cody Campbell pairing with Louisville, and Louisville wrote a big, long article about this. This comes from

their administration saying, you know what, we're done. The Big Ten and the SEC have taken over for too long, and they are dismantling college athletics. If we do not do something now, it will be too late. John Kurtz has talked about this, saying Cody Campbell has their ear, and the SEC and the Big Ten are now writing a response paper, and they're going back and forth.

Effectively, I think we're finally all coming to terms of the fact up, the government, as much as I am not usually pro-government stepping into things, but just we're, nope, this is one of those. We're like, the government's going to have to step in. then otherwise the big 10 of the SEC are going what the hell are you eating paul he's got to be he's got to play the part now there's a role here it's good man it's like a fruit roll up or what do you got going on there paul it's a reason a what is that what does that even mean it's a reason

of little there's like only in west virginia kind of thing is that a grandma candy what the hell i have never heard of that so hey i have never heard of that so hey i Hold on, you got to pour that out. We can't give free pup. We can sponsor us. No, no, no, no. I had steak in noodles earlier and it was pulling the steak out of my teeth and I didn't know you guys could hear it. Sorry.

These have been defunned for like 30 years. Paul's eating a very, very, it's stale and this could kill a regular human being, but Paul is superhuman. It's required for my, yeah. So. Is it a medicine? What is this? I have an abnormal gut. I'm

Philip we don't want to go off the rails this quickly by the way I was brought in they said hey look this is it's a great group of guys we're going to talk about sports and apparently I learn about old MREs that Tubby found that there we go somewhere deep in the mountain hollers but you have come around

and that's how Mel Gibson came up with the passion of the Christ okay did you make yourself like in your basement what's go where did this come from I've never heard of hey why are we talking about Paul's basement right now when we're supposed to be talking about the SEC.

And we'll get there. But Paul, just for the listeners who are listening, just showed us, okay, Google, a German brand of individually wrapped chewy chocolate caramel candies covered in 45% cocoa dark chocolate. I've never heard of this in my life.

You just whipped out some German chocolate on the show. And he didn't bring enough for the class. Like, that's the big problem here. I don't think the class. I don't even think I want any. I'm scared of this. Several of my mouth at one time. Hey-oh

Speaking of MREs That before There we go I think we can all And look we'll talk today on today We will talk to on today show About West Virginia The bubble and how ESPN

It's kind of boxed out the Big 12 On plenty of different subjects But at TCU in the bubble The list goes on Of Big 12 schools They're not getting the respect they deserve But this whole Big 10 SEC thing is legit Like they've got the

National Networks Fox DSPN by the Cajoness They've got Fox DSPM In their mouths And they are are doing whatever they can to take college football where they want it to go. And the Big 12 is not included in that. Yeah, of course.

And the sanctimonies nature in which the Big Ten and the SEC are pretending to operate about how, you know, they don't need somebody else coming in and changing the landscape of college football because it was already changed in 1984. I don't know if you read the write-up that they paid to have put together, but it was absolute nuts to see them of all people pretending that they're here to protect college football. So if we change stuff, it would be bad for college football. It's it's la-la land, fellows.

I mean, look, I'm already here a refugee from the, from the Pact 12. You know, we already had it happen to me once as the ASU guy. Like, thank you, USC for breaking that up. I know they want more money here, guys. But can I at least have like three years in a conference before it gets blown up again? Can I ask a question? Please, someone. Go ahead, Drake.

Go ahead. Thank you. Tenure. I think Cody's the longest tenured one of all of us here. Phillip, new guy, Phil. Hey. So welcome to the Big 12 squad. Do you think that the Big 12 is in danger of falling apart here in the next couple?

What do you feel about the stability of the Big 12 conference, New Guy, Phil? I, man, I don't know. I'm pulling this all out there. I think it really depends on how much regulation we can get involved with this. Because on the one hand, you have teams like Notre Dame that are saying, look, we're in the college football playoff, regardless of what happens. If we are ranked in the top 50, we deserve to be in there because we are just holier, we are so good at this.

Holier than that. I don't know how that happened. I like where you go with that. You're going to guarantee. You're going to guarantee you're saying that like if Alabama exists, they probably should be in the playoffs. Like, there is so, there's only headwinds working against whoever's not the SEC in the Big Ten. Correct. That, yeah, I have no doubt that we're going to go to some, unless there can be something done to stop it,

unless popular, unless there's popular sentiment saying, hey, we like regional conferences. We like having, you know, rivalries. You're going to have some Super League. It's going to be the big SEC or whatever, and it's going to have the top 15 teams of the country. Everyone else is going to be, he's just sitting here eating risons.

German. They're not a bad secondary option, if you ask me. Paul, it's pro-Risen. Actually, I think Philip makes a great point here, and let's go there next. It is, the reason we're going to, a break here and go to because I want to flesh it out. Josh Pate posted a list of if he could change college football tomorrow and go back

to conferences that make sense because they do not make sense that Rutgers is playing UCLA. If we could go back and do it over again, here's how he would do this. I'll tell you, this is the Dose Grande Squad. I'm Clea Butler, host of Lockdown Women's Basketball. And this is Mazda's Women's Basketball Snapshot, celebrating the work no highlight reel can ever capture. number one ranked Yukon dominated St. John's 85 to 49 on Sunday at Madison Square Garden,

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All right, gents. So here is what Josh Pate proposed. This still alive, by the way, Josh Pate is alive. And, oh, hey, let's get paid. The Everydayer Club, if you listen to Locked on Big 12 every day or locked on Coogs every day, you can go to Supercast. Hold on. Locked on big12.com. Locked on, big12.com. Locked on West Virginia.com. Locked on, supercast.com. Locked on, insert name here.com.com for the everydayers. And get ad free locked on.com. Locked on.com.com. And Josh Payne, this is his proposal. He wants to, hold on, let me make this clear for you guys because you're all going to complain that you can't see it. He wants to revitalize revamp college football via his own expansion plan. And I am now proposing the idea to you guys of whether or not this is the way to go. If we could go back yesterday and make it all right, if we can start over, West Virginia shouldn't be in the Big 12. If we can start over, Arizona State shouldn't be the Big 12.

They should be at a conference with BYU, with Utah, and with USC. And guess what? West Virginia just should be to conference with Pitt and Louisville and Virginia Tech. If we can go back and do it all over again, we would do it. It would make a whole lot more sense. But we ruined it that we can't put the toothpaste back in the tube, obviously. However, if I could vote right now, we have a magic wand and go back to this, to have regionality in college athletics, to have regionality in sports, I would do it.

None of you are on the screen, but you can begin speaking now. So I got to say that I love having a big job. Josh Pate story. I feel like he hadn't been in the news a lot lately, and I love having more Josh Pate things to talk about, especially because, Drake, I feel like,

you know, if anyone would know about needing to redo and put toothpaste back in a tube and just go back in time, Josh Pate absolutely is the guy to want to do it. Now, I will say as Locked on Cougs host, we've talked when Houston got to the Big 12 by this 30-year gap.

The Southwest Conference falls apart. Houston gets left out of the Big 12. They're still trying to recoup all of the time lost. There's a generation of fans that are now donating to all your programs that never happened with Houston, right? I do think, though, that Southwest Conference thing you just had, like, that's the water cooler talk at every job around here all the time is this hypothetical matchup between the Burn Orange School and the Maroon School and, like, all those. Like that still is the conversation happening in Texas as the surrounding states. It's like, okay, well, who would win between SMU and Texas or Texas Tech and Texas or whatever in a given year? Or in basketball right now, you'd have Houston and Baylor and whatever talking like the same kind of conversation.

And I like the regional aspect of this was so great for so long. And as someone who got left out of once upon a time, it'd be great. It does make this kind of feel like we just got here first. nothing like Phil pointed out a second ago, right? Like, we all just got to this four mega conference like, you know, four gigantic 16 plus team leagues. And like it, it feels like, you know, how far can you really try to experiment before you call it completely failed.

As someone who just got there, it feels kind of, you know, wait, wait, hold on. We're already backing up now. You know, we just got it there. I would say the only Cincinnati is the only one that we've added to the big 12 that hasn't carried weight yet. Agreed, but. everyone else has done something. I mean, Utah is a hypothetical.

Yeah, hypothetical something, right? They won 10 games this year. When I look at that Josh Pate thing, it validates that he absolutely hates the Big 12 or the origination of the Big 8 because why is he put in Utah? I'm so flipping tired of Utah. I do not want to be with them,

a part of them. Get them, I'd rather be rice and be next to Houston. Then be playing. I mean, get this Utah business out of here. Look, I'll take Utah back, okay? He put ASU back in the pack. He yells at the Pack 10.

I hated those games because they killed every promising ASU season in the last five years. But I'll take Utah. That's fine. I just want to go crush Oregon's dreams in the desert every year, you know? And we don't get that anymore. You, of course, you talk about these lot of these matchups that don't make sense. Why in the world is Stanford in the in the ACC? Because Josh Payte can do whatever he wants.

No, no. Like they're back in the pack 10. That's fine. You're talking about egregious prospects of these four mega conferences. Why in the world are there two California schools in the ACC? I'm assuming Josh Pate still had something to do with us. To be fair, those California schools are at least on a coast. Those ponies in Dallas have zero.

I mean, there's not even a lake, really. I mean, there's not a whole lot of water there. Gata. You know, we got White Rock. We got White Rock Lake. Hey, did they put, where did they put West Virginia in that graphic? Paul, did he throw you back in the ACC? It was back in the Big East, which I mean, you know, we're missing a few schools there that

like Maryland, West Virginia and Maryland go back a long way rivalry-wise. But obviously. The Rutgers, that might be worse than Utah. My bad. Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah, no. USF, what I mean, if you're going to bring back to Big East, USF was actually ranked

as high as number two in the country. when they were in the big east. They were really good at one point in time. But I mean, I'm not, obviously, they're not in a powerful conference now. I get it. But, you know, for West Virginia, Virginia taking pit, there's 100 years of history on both sides of that. You know, there's a ton of regionality involved in that. I think it's simple, simple things in life are what people care about. Can I drive to the game or not? Or do I have to book a flight and call off work, you know? It's so simple. And yet, they still F it up. It's crazy. The ability to drive to Black, you know, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, for them for them to drive to Morgantown, you know, pits an hour away.

Virginia Tech's two hours away. It's insane, you know. The hatred, too. I was real worried about where you're about to say you were driving, Paul. So I'm glad you clarified there. The second one, I will say, though, the other thing, and this is probably unique to Texas is that, like, Lubbock and Houston are still, like, 10 hours away.

Like, that's probably unique to the geography of the region. But, like, Tulane and Tech in that Southwest Conference thing, going from New Orleans to Lubbock, that's a long way and still feels like there's a regionality to it that I kind of think works, right? Like it's not necessarily just driving distance, right? There's more to it than just that. There's also, you're in the same time zone, right? There's, it's one thing to say, I, you know, I can't drive from Lubbock to middle

of nowhere, Louisiana. That's fine. But I don't have to stay up until two in the morning to watch my team play. You know, I don't have to go to, I, I have a job. I can still follow ASU. Like, obviously, if I am an ASU alum and I live on the East Coast, that's a different thing. But, you know, I shouldn't. these conference games that are all over the place,

it's a lot easier for me to follow if it's in the time zone of the school that is playing. Correct. That's a great point. Also, we can take two minutes on this. If you have a politician on your show, because you know what, I'll say it. I think a couple of us had Josh Paid on our shows. I like Josh Payne.

I have his phone number. Always been great to me. Always been great to me. Yeah, me too. There's a, there is a dividing line of like, hey, this person's a politician. 50% of people are going to react to this negatively 20%, 30%, 40%, you start to weigh the odds of that percentage, right? Ultimately, Pate deleted the video with the president. That's always, I'm also, I'm pro, don't delete.

Like, leave that thing up. Let it ride. I didn't know that. Let the conversation, don't delete the thing. Don't wave the white flag. To be clear, he didn't delete the full episode. They were just like a split off, right? Like the full episode still up, I think. So it'd be like locked on Big 12 posts.

Hey, here's the best segment so that you can, just digest what you came to see. And the idea there would be for Pate or locked on Big 12. This is the, this is the magnum opus. This is what you go and see. I just don't. I think a lot of the listeners of this show, of our shows, listen to Josh Pate. I'm not berating you for listening to him. Right. I would, I'd say in a spot like this, the president invites you to the White House, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan, George Washington. Go to the White House. Do whatever. Make your own personal decision to do whatever. You're like, have a relationship with the president. That's fine. I think the second you bring it into your listenership,

that and you don't center it around sports. I listened to the interview. It was not really about sports either. That's what I'm like, yeah, that's what I'm like, okay, maybe we don't. You just don't have to alienate 30% of your listenership. It was just a bad interview. Maybe he was trying to expand his horizon a little bit there.

That was my thought when I watched it. Maybe he was trying to get into another medium. Maybe he missed. What a risk, you know. It is a risk. I haven't seen it yet, but I assume Trump being a sports dude, they would talk a lot of sports. So I figured it would make some sense.

Yeah. I mean, the pipeline from college football to the Senate is. Condoleezza Rice. I thought that's for Drake. I thought it's Tuberville. I think though that Drake, the thing,

and I mean, you hit a lot of points there's I'm saying you missed something on purpose. The thing that you missed, though, was Pade had to that point been pretty adamant about like, hey,

let's just talk ball. Right? Like that, I think, I think that that like, that was kind of his being, was like, I'm the guy that just talks ball.

Right, yeah, regular sports. It's just the normal sports guy. Remember, though, he started out talking ball. And Trump didn't know what the heck he was talking about. Like, he was struggling to keep up in some of the area. Oh, really? You can't ask Trump. I think he pivoted, though, because he was, it was obvious that there was a disconnect.

You know what I mean? I don't know if that's why he pivoted or not. I'm not trying to make excuses for Josh. Probably. I need to go listen to it. But it was like clearly Trump was not fully, he didn't understand. understand everything that he was asking about. Which I think that's why you ultimately probably like, hey, this is not something.

And surely the president reached out, his office reached out to Pate. I can't imagine Josh is just emailing every politician waiting for the opportunity. And you weigh that, right? You weigh the cost analysis of this. Pate weighed it. He did it. It blew up in his face a little bit. It would be tantalizing. I mean, if you're trying to tell me, but they didn't have a list of subjects they were going to go over.

I think it was in prompt, too, in a way. I don't know. of the media office. Right. I don't think they would just give them a... No, they brief that stuff to a T. Yeah, they brief that stuff to a T. I think Pate has to understand

this guy doesn't know ball like that, which also fine. I don't need my politicians to know for Nameda does this 40. I don't need that. I don't really care. Then it's a matter of, okay, if that's not going to add your sports conversation with the sports guy, then it's not really like, hey, if Pate says, I have my separate podcast,

the Josh Pate show of Josh Pate and the world. Yeah, dude. Talk about politics. I don't care if outside your sports show, you have whatever beliefs you want. I actually assume the intersectionality would be this Cody Campbell and will the government get involved. I figured that would be the both of good conversation. No, not really. Did they not touch on that? I thought they touched on it. It wasn't really a focal, but it wasn't like a memorable piece of, hey, this is, you know, what's going to happen. But good, good discourse. It was more like my friend was Nick Saban. It was like, he knows the people. But again, hey, credit to most of you guys for at least, you know, watching it and at least giving it a shot. Just to see, because that's, look, that open-mindedness to me is an important thing in sports and politics. You mix the two.

You take a risk, and I'm still going to listen to Josh Pate. I'm still going to watch Josh Pate. Absolutely. Between the next episode, I got interned off. Still going to text him whenever I feel like, hey, I really need Josh Pate's thoughts on this. Coming up. Who, the bubble. We're recording this Monday, releases on Thursday, but the bubble is probably not going to change much.

We're probably still going to be in a really crappy situation. Why is that locked on Big 12 squad? Hey, today's show is brought to you by Game Time. Game Time's exactly where I go on any tickets. I wanted to go to the great old Opry last week, and I'd been once, I've never to a show there. So what did I do? I went to Game Time. It's a game time. I need a seat deal. Game Time said, I got a seat deal for you. Oh, and by the way, if you want to watch a little college basketball next weekend, do that too. Go to the Big 12 tournament. Go watch the regular season finale. Go see it with game time. The game time guarantee means 100% legitimate tickets. The seat view from your seat is a game changer. See the panoramic view from the exact seat that you buy.

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It give you a boost with zero sugar. A lot of upcoming flavor innovations planned as well. Find your new favorite five-hour energy shots available at five-hourenergy.com or Amazon, five-hour energy. or Amazon today. Paul, let's go to you. And again, recording on Monday night with intention to release on Thursday. So things could have happened.

But I think even if West Virginia will say lost to Kansas State earlier this week in a game that will happen, I don't care. If we're going to let Auburn at 16 and 15, 5 and 11, an SEC play get into March Madness and have West Virginia so distant. Like Joe Lannardi has West Virginia grouped with Baylor somehow. I do not understand how we're not allowing the middle of. of the pack in the best conference in America to have, like if Colorado at 16 and 13, six and 10 in Big 12 play had that record in the SEC, which is a worst conference, Joe Launardi would have them in March Madness. That is a problem.

That is a serious problem. I mean, if it's like the committee owes us one a little bit, right? I mean, after last year after every single bracket, you know, bracket matrix had never missed. Every single bracket had West Virginia in. And because of Bubba, Mr. Bubba Cunningham, we missed, right? because his beloved tar heels need it in. You know, obviously this is a, we control our on destiny still.

I think if we went out, we're in a decent spot. We may need to win one in the conference tournament. It really depends on what the rest of the bubble does. I did some blind resume tests on my show earlier today. I'll give you one really quick. So this is a team that, you know, in my opinion, probably shouldn't be in the tournament. But let's talk about it really quick because if you look at their record, 19 and 10, right, or I'm sorry, 17 and 12,

net's 41, 2 and 11 in Quad 1, 2 and 1 in Quad 2. Do you know who that is? Anybody know who that is off the top? That would be Indiana, a team with two Quad 1 wins, 2 and 1 in Quad 2, and Quad 2, and Somehow they are above West Virginia. Darren DeVries have lost four straight games and they're still in the tournament. Somebody explained that one to me. And you can go Auburn as well.

You think Bruce Pearl is probably worth four more wins for that team this year. If they got to kept him around. Maybe. They also not as because they were last one thing. I think the same thing to me is it's the exact inverse of the SEC argument in college football playoff, right? Which is a much smaller field. they'll tell you that a three loss SEC team needs that 10, 11, 12 spot because those three losses are just because they play in the SEC.

Well, the inverse of that is exactly this in the Big 12 with basketball. TCU has beaten some very good teams, played Michigan down to a nail biter, and ultimately it's going to sit at about 500 in this league, right? Like that's the way that goes. They lost to a bad Colorado team that is probably going to keep them around 500, right? truthfully they took michigan down to the wire and michigan's going to be a one seed like you're telling me they couldn't have an upset in the first weekend if you gave them the same chance and this is it just it feels like the exact same argument but it's not being applied for you know

dollars or whatever whatever you're going to put it on meanwhile i would point out while i'm talking about dollar well i'm brought up dollars the big 12 is doing very well in terms of tv ratings and basketball right like big mondays the big 12 a team's been doing very well Saturday afternoon, Saturday night. Like primetime Big 12 basketball is doing very well. You'd think this would start to spin at some point, and it's not. Got to win it. Got to win it, fellas.

Yeah, I mean, obviously in West Virginia's case, I'm sorry, Bill. In those Virginia's case, you have to win out, right? I mean, and the thing is, is no Big 12 team has never been above 500 of missed, right? I've got some people telling me that if we went out and we're 10 and 8, we're probably still going to miss. That's what people are telling me. That's crazy. Yeah.

Sorry, Philip. It's like, yeah, sorry. I don't mean to step under those state's toes here. I look at the conference, though. You mentioned West Virginia is sitting there at 8 and 8. Is there any doubt that BYU at 8 and 8 would get in, though, for the TV dollar because we want to see DeBonce in the tournament? That's it.

You nailed it. It is silly. Now, now, and this is pushback just a tad. This is, it should open the conversation up to, yeah, 8 and 8 isn't all made the same based on non-conference. Like, BYU has beaten some of the best teams in college basketball, or at least played them close, like Yukon. That's a game they're going to use that.

And so, yes, this is a different. So to me, of where BYU could be a five or six seed and West Virginia should be a seven seed. Like, I don't even think West Virginia should just squarely be in. Right. I'm Oregon that they should both be in. I'm sorry if that wasn't like, if one is, they should both be. But I ain't just based off our quad one wins, I feel like we should be in. You know what I mean?

We've done some really good games. We've beaten Kansas. We've been UCF. We've now beaten BYU. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of silly. Well, and it's just it is, it's the silly, and we've kind of touched on the silly losses, the Utah, the Oklahoma State. That's what's killing us. But it's the Utah.

It's the Baylor. It's, you know, the home losses to bad teams. And yeah, in relative to where you want to be as far as Big 12 schools and their status, like I'd say Baylor's a bad team right now. They, yes, certainly good spurts. That's anybody to big 12. Oklahoma State on their best day could beat Kansas and Stillwater because it's the Big 12 that our basketball is that deep. I believe that. And also it's probably because Darren Peterson won't play that game.

Baylor-Ratty. We talk about perception being a big deal in football. Let's say that Houston beats Florida for the Natty in basketball last season. Does that change this conversation at all? Maybe. The money stopped ahead of it. Obviously. I don't think it does.

I think what's interesting though, Cody is like, you know, Houston is 60 seconds away from a title, right? But Tech was also of double digits down the stretch in the early date game, and you could add two Big 12 final 14, which were that close to that. And you've had Big 12 teams actually win it recently in Kansas and Baylor, and Tech was in the final in 2019. So, well, I guess they didn't win it last year.

The Big 12 has had success. It's not quite apples to apples to me. I know, but it feels like other conferences, if we give them an excuse to bury the Big 12, they're going to do it every time. Here's my question. How much of this flows down from other sports? Right.

So, yes, Big 12, great basketball year. In the past couple years, we've been very good, even if ASU has kind of got through that in there. But football is, if basketball money is here, football money is off my screen. Right. And we all know the SEC, it just means more. They have the big football dollars.

We were talking about this at the start of the show. How much of this is? well, even if we're going to take Auburn, for example, even if Auburn is mid-de-poor kind of okay at basketball, they have such a big fan base from their other sports that the calculus says they're going to bring more money into the broadcast. They're going to bring more viewership in than a very good Texas tech team that, you know, it is a newer school, newer program.

Maybe it doesn't have that level of, well, we're, you know, we're Auburn, right? We're Eagle, let's go. Yeah. I think there is something to that for sure. And I did think, you know, when you look like, I'll use West Virginia one more time. You look at what West Virginia has had to go through over the last four years. You're on your fourth coaching four years. Yeah. I think that's definitely one of the part of this is that just the fly, like I said on your show the other day, Drake, the flying WV used to have a lot of brand power. And it's lost a lot of brand power in both major sports over the last half decade or a little more. After Bob Huggins was. let go unce ceremoniously and when Neil Brown took over unfortunately so we've got work to do we're hoping to regain some of that in the next couple years because time is running out yeah good i think that's a great spot uh and of course paul who is our wise sage and doctor to end us on a on a high note thank you mountaine here paul and park green north cody still ball and we're a hockey school now drag Oklahoma State's a hockey school.

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