Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Big 12 SQUAD - How does Kansas Jayhawks recruiting compare to the rest of the Big 12?

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

Big 12 shakeup: BYU QB Jake Retzlaff exits, Texas State joins PAC-12. Is college football's landscape shifting dramatically?Host Drake Toll and the squad analyze Retzlaff's departure from BYU Football and its impact on the Cougars' upcoming season. The team dissects Texas State's surprising move to the PAC-12, exploring potential recruiting battles and conference realignment strategies. Discussions cover Sacramento State's aggressive push into college football prominence and the evolving dynamics of TV revenue in the sport. Jake Hatch offers insider perspectives on BYU's quarterback situation.Tune in for expert analysis on how these moves could reshape the future of Big 12 Football and beyond.

A Big 12 contender has lost its quarterback and will look to a young man to find its way. That's great news for everybody else in this conference, right? This is the Big 12 Squad. You're talking ball with the Big 12 Squad, sponsored by Game Time. From Oklahoma State to Utah,

from Kansas State to BYU, from Houston to Texas Tech, it's the local experts of the Locked On Podcast Network bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the Locked On Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming Big 12 weekend. Buckle up, it's the Big 12 Squad, and we have a seat for you.

No hurt feelings and thin skin allowed. Squad up, you're part of the Big 12 Squad. Squad up, no hurt feelings or thin skin allowed. Drake's all of Locked On Big 12, JT Westridge all of Locked On Utes, Jake Hatch talking all things BYU Cougars, Parker Hainsworth of Lockdown Cougs with the Houston Cougars, Kevin Borba with the Buffs, Cody Stilvall, Oklahoma State. Thanks for making our shows your first listen every single day. If you hit subscribe, we all get to keep our jobs. Biggest story

in the Big 12 this week, and there have been massive recruiting wins for Utah, massive for BYU, for everybody here. Even Colorado is picking up three stars. We will get to those, no doubt. But a contender in this conference has lost its quarterback. Now it was the 11th best quarterback in the league in QBR last season and come to find out maybe he wasn't the greatest thing since sliced bread.

But JT Worcester still will start with you. BYU is without Jake Retzeloff forever. Yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, he's gone. And I feel like if you're BYU now, I'm very curious to see what he get out of McKay Hillstead out of my blank on the other quarterbacks name is there as well too. But the way I look at this is like this, I was already anticipating based on how BYU had success last year,

all these close games, these thrilling wins, I was looking at BYU as a team that was going to regress this season. Now I feel a bit stronger about that this coming season. I just feel like you don't lose your starting quarterback on in late June. And you go back to the big 12 title game. Look, Utah had a situation a couple years ago where I don't game. That's true. They actually didn't. That's right. I forgot. They had a really good season. But we're ended up being

the second best team in the conference. Like I can even say that last year, BYU proved that they were that but I just I don't see how they end up being there too. It's an unfortunate situation for everyone involved. I'm curious to see what happens with Retzlaff now too. But yeah, BYU has got to recover quick because obviously all the spring ball reps still went to the main guy and he's not there anymore. So a lot of work to do, Jake. Clip that and save it boys. I want to hold on.

Oh my gosh. No, here's the deal, JT. BYU, you mentioned they succeeded in a lot of close games, but here's the deal. There were some total of the parts of the squad, JT. BYU, you mentioned they succeeded in a lot of close games, but here's the deal. They were the sum total of the parts of the squad. Defense, special teams, and offense all contributed to BYU going 11 and two. I think BYU's in a better position to absorb a QB hit like they have absorbed than many programs in the Big 12.

I really do think that the sum total of the talent on BYU's roster, if they can get even average quarterback play from a McKay Hillstead or a Trace and Borge or even a Bear Bachmeier who's also here in Provo, I think BYU actually will endure this, I think relatively well. What does that mean, endure it well? Does that mean they're still one of the best

in the conference? What does that mean? So I thought the ceiling for BYU with Jake Rutzloff was probably 10 and two and a chance to play a big 12 title game. I think he's probably worth one to two wins, but they dropped you to 8 and 4. I think that's still fairly respectable, especially at the Power 4 level. So for me, I didn't go to BYU and I'm not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I like to have a beer in my free time and not to say the LDS community cannot, but the honor code

is one of those things that's going to deter people. And it has since the beginning of time. But to me, if you sign the honor code and say, I will not do these things, in order to play football at BYU, you have now committed yourself to the rules of the university. I find cowardice in a guy who helped build, not build, yes, build up the brand of BYU, because so many people across the country, oh, it's filled with hatred and bigotry, you know, they don't like me because I'm different. BYU Jew shirts are flying. They love this quarterback who's the first Jewish quarterback in school history. And he takes all this exposure, breaks the

honor code, it's national news. And then when BYU gives him a lesser penalty than they've given past athletes, he just gives up. I see cowardice in that. If I'm a teammate of his, if I'm your starting offensive lineman that fought for you last year, came back this year, I don't like that because I'm celibate because I signed the honor code. You also signed that and now you're dipping because you couldn't follow the rules that leads me to a question actually, it probably goes to JT and Jake as the BYU and Utah representative because Utah is just up the road but culturally very similar part of the country, right? Every school has rules and I don't mean to spoil anyone's fun here, every school's kids are breaking those rules. This is starkly different, right? And I guess Jake, like at Notre Dame you couldn't have theoretically football players spend the night in girl's dorms either. But I can tell you that did. Right? Like that happens at different places across country. People bring these rules. This is a big deal and a lot different. And I'm with Drake that he kind of got slapped on the wrist and still left.

Well, and that's the thing about it. I will say this. All the other athletes that I know of that have been forced to leave BYU had extra years of eligibility so they could endure missing a semester or an entire year and then come back and continue their playing careers. Jake's got one season left and I have it on very good authority. There's no way he's getting an extra year eligibility. That Juco waiver that Diego Pave has got, literally it feels like nobody outside of him has been able to get an injunction of that variety. So Jake's got one year to get it right.

And I think that may be playing into why he decided to bolt. But to your point, it would have been in some ways respectable. The fact that he would have manned up and said, hey, I screwed up. I'm going to absorb the punishment here and I'm going to come back better for it. But I think that he's just, he's really thinking out for number, thinking, thinking and feeling out for number one above all else. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Go again.

I was just going to say it's obviously the honor code is very I talked about on my show and I'm obviously an outsider but it's very complex and so for the average person it's like how extreme how bizarre like how could they do this? Right? And that's that's literally the whole point of the honor code is like these are the guidelines that we abide by and blah blah blah and like all that and like that's life and so he signed on to that but at the same time I don't think people could be upset about him leaving because I'm sure there's some desperate quarterback program or desperate quarterback needy program out there Who is either gonna pay him the same or pay him more and he's going to leave and it's gonna be okay We're good to go right like as long as as long as he doesn't have any legal issues I think he is cleared to play and some team will take him. Go ahead, Jake. Sorry.

From the Mormon bastion to the Catholic bastion, watch out for Notre Dame on that front. They have a flow on the road. I expect that Jake Redsloff, if everything holds, as I am hearing that he'll be playing for the Fighting Irish this fall. Is premarital allowed in South Bend? What's the stipulation there? Only if you support Rudy. Only if you support Rudy. Which most people don't. You have to know that he's on sides. Hot take we did in the third segment, but not a good movie. We'll do that later.

Turns out all of his teammates were like, that guy sucked. We hated him. Why did he get a movie? Yeah, it's not a good movie and it was fictional. Rudy Ruecker. A say member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's Sean Astin. Jake really quick. I guess I Parker. Yeah, I was gonna say it is interesting to me though. You say he's looking for number one. It is looking after number one in a playing sense because I'd imagine if it was about money, he could have dipped in April. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I'd imagine if it was about money, he could have dipped in April. Right? Like, yeah. Yeah. Again, by definition, he's not a good quarterback. If there's bad, definition, better average, good, great. He's not a good one below average. But if someone's going to take him in July, they would have taken him in May. Like, no, if he's going to go to Notre Dame in July, he would have gone there in May, too. Right. That's not a question. The biggest thing that needed to be resolved was the civil lawsuit. That's been dismissed. Both sides of this lawsuit have filed a motion.

It's been signed off by the judge. There was no program in the country that was going to bring in a quarterback who had a pending civil lawsuit alleging sexual assault. That's a PR hit that you will avoid every day. So now that that's in the rear view mirror, programs like Notre Dame are much more likely to take on a guy like Jake Groszloff. But to your point Parker, yeah, he probably could have left in April, et cetera. But he decided he was going to stick it out

for the time being. And then when BYU handed down the punishment they handed down, he felt like it was untenable. And yeah, as Drake said, he dipped. I think it's really interesting what you guys are talking about though with, we've heard multiple opinions now on distract, being you know distraction and like him looking out for just himself and transferring and even Drake's talking about like hey you viewed him as a below average quarterback. I think he's an average quarterback right. I thought he was part of BYU success but I am not the I did not think 11th in the big 12 which yeah again law of averages that's below average. Yes but there's more stats

than just that I'm saying too that talk about him as a quarterback. I think he's a top 10 quarterback in this league I did but I also say is Jake are you would you have wanted him to stay? Because as you said to like we think he's at best we think he's average So do you want average hanging over your team? You then maybe you go on a run and then seven games into the season You're gonna drop this guy back in and now all of a sudden like how do you handle that? I think it's best for both everyone that he's moving on

I agree drop this guy back in and now all of a sudden, like how do you handle that? I think it's best for both everyone that he's moving on. I agree. It's best for all sides to move on from this because I think it's just a debacle that would have followed him at BYU more than it would at other programs. Yes, there'll be questions wherever he ends up about the situation, he'll be asked about it,

but not to the same level if he would have stuck around in Provo. But to your point, JT, yeah, he was an average quarterback and this is a program speaking of BYU. They know elite great quarterback play. It's part of their history. Go back 50 plus years. They have had some of the best quarterbacks in college football.

Jake Retzloff is not one of those guys. I have said this before in my podcast. I'll say it again. He's a good quarterback, but this is a program that wants great quarterbacks. Coming up, let's go into one more thing, Dre. Yeah, hit me with it, Kevin. There's a lot to be said about an average quarterback, right? Some teams just need an average quarterback to facilitate them to wins, right? There's certain programs who have sort of built their whole success off of insert

quarterback here. We're just going to build a really strong team around them. Like to go back to Utah a couple of years ago, Cam Rising in the Pac 12. I think at best Cam Rising was probably the fourth best quarterback in the conference, behind Bo Nix, Michael Penick, Williams, yeah, other guys like that. And so Utah was still contending for a Pac-12 title. They did win the Pac-12 title, right? So although he is average, right, we don't disagree there, an average quarterback could lift a BYU defense or help lift a BYU special teams and offense to play off contention. So I think it's a loss in that matter, but we're not gonna pretend like he was the best thing since slice bread.

Yeah, Gary Bohannon won the sugar bowl at Baylor. The Michigan kid won a national champion. BYU legend, Gary Bohannon, right? Yes, correct. Or, you know, like Greg McElroy or whoever the other guy was, AJ McCarran and Bama weren't elite, but they were good enough to win. Coming up, Texas State joining the Pac-12. The Conference of Champions is back. The Big 12 Squad. Hey, today's show is brought to you by Monarch Money. Why? Because I'm 24.

And I looked at my account and I say, oh, I'm spending so much on Fortnite skins. What? Monarch Money is my own personal CFO. I could go in and it shows me where my money is going. It's an accountability partner, full visibility and control over my finances. So when I go in there and I say, oh, take out Netflix, Hulu, and the Fortnite skins, all of that is draining my account. I can actually now say, hey, those are the three areas

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For the people that are at home, typically I would do the ads. Think behind the kimono there, dang. No one knows what this means. Did you not hear that dog poop and Roomba vacuum? What just happened here? Yeah, Jake had a crossover earlier and I explained it to him. I was eating my dinner and I spilled my dinner all over the, all over my, my cow hide rug. And I was like, Oh, that's all my

hibachi. And then as I was looking down at the dinner, I realized there was dog poop in the rug. And I was like, Oh, that's weird. My dog doesn't. And then I, I found the Roomba and it had scattered just a pile of dog feces across the house. It was just, it just and just drug dog poop across the floor and the entirety of my home. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I all over it. Yeah, it's just dead because it's like, you know what? There's too much poop for me to function. How do you clean a Roomba? And then where do you start with the floors? I have a Swiffer but it doesn't feel like that's enough. And then there's the rug situation. It's a cow hide rug. How do you clean a cow hide rug without destroying it? I mean, genuinely, I will take any suggestions at this point. I, I, it is, I'm dreading ending the squad

show because then I will have to go inside of a war zone in there. What do I do with the dog while I clean it up? I don't have to go to Kroger and just buy a lighter and some gasoline and hope that my insurance covers it. Well, probably shouldn't record at that part, right? If we're recording ads, you're like, for insurance purposes, that did not ever happen. Correct. I will not buy your trolls are loving that your house is covered in poop. Your they are. The haters are finally winning tonight. He also, my dog ate my, of course he pooped in the house cause he ate my entire thing of sweet tart

ropes. I love a good sweet tart room. And I just left the package out last night. And he, yes, he consumes like seven sweet tart ropes, which it's probably not good for a dog. And so he's like, I've got to poop. And he did it in the house. The Roomba was like, Oh, it's two o'clock. I always run from two to five. So I get home at 5 30 and there's just, I didn't even notice it at first. It's like if someone was, was murdered in the room of your house, you don't walk into that often. And then, you know, a couple of hours later, is that blood on the floor. You

would think of the smell. There wasn't if there's some people get murdered and there's no smell. I don't know. Just a regular Tuesday. To get us off of this. Speaking of things people didn't notice to get us back to the Pac 12 thing, Drake, I don't feel like a lot of the country is going to take notice of the new Pac 12. Yeah, I have the Pac 12 pundits, they're like, this is it, the new, the Power Five is back. I think you should take notice in Big 12 country because Texas State is right in the middle of everybody. Not to mention they have the most,

I think the hottest young coach in all of college football. I was amazed that Texas State was able to pay him enough to keep him. And now that they have him and they get this escalation event, I think this is going to be problematic for the Oklahoma States and the Texas Techs and the Baylor's and the TCUs of the world. What do you mean problematic? Yeah. When it comes to another heavy hitter in your backyard that can steal some of your recruits, just like SMU is doing right now, from a transfer portal perspective, they're going to be able to come in now and say, hey, you can get out of the big 12. You'll have an easier shot at winning a conference championship. And you might have the availability to get back into the CFP

conversation with the PAC 12 certainty. I think it's going to be an issue. But if I'm tech, I can just pay more money. Maybe that's what we're saying is, is that Texas States, first of all, Texas States had rapidly growing, it's like over 45,000 people, it's a rapidly growing university. And they couldn't have bought to pay attention to this because it's, it's, it's right back, right, right in their backyard, right, right behind us. They have to have known this is coming though, Cody, because that's the only reason they had the money to pay the coach, right? Like that had to be a big part of it.

It's like, we're going to be doing this soon. How else could they have kept them out of any other powerful conference because lots of people want to Kenny, can they pay them crap ton of money? Now you're right. Maybe there's an anticipatory move that we're going to pay you X amount of dollars for the hopes that we one day get into Pac 12. And if so, then great, they hedge their bet wonderfully. But

regardless, they seemingly have more money than we give them credit for. And this is going to even validate that even more. But he's going to leave. I think he's going to leave. I don't foresee GJ Kenny being a lifer there. Now we've learned that Jeff Traylor, Jeff Traylor stayed at UTSA, which is a very good and now he's kind of diluted his coaching status. He's kind of hurt his rep. Yeah, I don't think he's a lifer. Two years ago, he was the guy.

I think they're just waiting for certain jobs to open and This is why to me the Pac 12 is doing some stupid stuff is the second it runs in Gonzaga If if Gonzaga loses mark few and the next head coach can't win games you've brought on portland state Congratulations, you you con the secondn's bat at basketball for five straight years. They're a terrible addition to the Big 12. They give you nothing. And if you add Texas State, G.J. Kinney leaves. They were terrible before him. Clemson with Dabo Sweeney. If Clemson has the next football coach who's just average, goes seven and five every year, they lose their allure after five seasons. There are established brands like Michigan and Ohio State and Alabama and LSU that will always give you something good or bad.

I don't think Texas State much less, I don't think Clemson or Gonzaga or UConn much less a Texas State is one of those. So I only push back on this one, UConn has done this like five different coaches over 26 years. Like I think that that means that it stands to test the time. But the other thing I would say too is that, that is really a very short list of programs, right? Like that we could move on from a hall, from an all everything hall of fame coach and continue the program on without him. I mean, obviously you're talking about like 12 programs. That's not even a full conference worth really, right? I don't think that that's like a big knock on any,

it's gotta be a knock on most schools, right? That's not just a knock on, it's a knock on all but 12. So I wanna ask Cody and Parker, you're usually the closest to this situation obviously, isn't the response, you wanna live in San Marcos or you wanna live in Houston? Isn't that the conversation that some of these guys are gonna have to have when it comes to recruiting

in the state of Texas? Well, or Lubbock. I think San Marcos does beat out certain places. And again, I have a cousin who lives in Lubbock. I get it. But San Marcos is a fun college town to a lot of these people. Rapidly growing universities.

Got the river running through it. And frankly, I don't get to see them. They get rowdy at football games. They enjoy it. I, though, love, and Drake understands this as a Baylor guy, Now I 35 links the Atlantic coast conference and the Pacific coast conference up and down. I 35 all at once. So literally take this thing seriously. Whenever they originally launched, maybe Parker can

can help me with this. Did they not hire Dennis Franciani to be their first coach in school history? Like they gave a clear indication from the get-go, we're gonna do the best that we can to try to become a legitimate player in the football force. Now they're here, you mentioned San Marcos, you mentioned the area of operation in which they reside. They're literally a thorn in our side. I think SMU's a thorn in our side right now. Are they getting a massive amount of recruits over?

All of us, no, but they will if they continue to stay at this clip. I think Texas State is no different. Yeah, I think this is a big problem because I, I think I think it's just interesting about all this and Drake kind of mentioned this just going back to the full pack 12 conversation is full Drake mentioned like they're already putting out some not smart stuff. I don't understand why they're already trying to talk like, Oh, this is what we've done the last four season. We have the fourth best collective winning percentage. Like it's like, but against who like what we've done the last four season, we have the fourth best collective winning percentage, like, it's like, but against who, like, what are we? What are we doing? Like, why can we play some games before we try to

do a positive PR spin? Like, you can't be the SEC all of a sudden and try to like, just win all these hypothetical matchups, like, you can't just do that all of a sudden the day after you become a conference, Jay, trucker, Utah fans act like they're even got in the conference. What are you talking about? I thought about something with that the other day. Yours was also fun.

This is like the rest of the playbook. Remember the old AAC commissioner, he was so quick to point out all the successes of the American Athletic Conference, trying to pump up what he was perceiving to be the power six narrative, when he was trying to push that for the AAC. This is right out of that playbook

when it comes to the Pac-12. Yeah, speak for my former comes to the Pac-12. Yeah, it's funny. Speaking of my former employer, the Pac-12, you realistically, you can't just make all these exciting moves, because it's exciting in their eyes, right? If they didn't get 18s, they're no longer an FBS conference. That is how it goes, right? So they're an FBS conference.

I think you could argue very easily that this is probably by far the best G5 conference now, or whatever. Yeah. I think they have all the best teams. They'll probably consistently produce the playoff representative for the group of five. That being said, you have to sort of advertise yourself as better. Memphis? Tulane? Like, ah, ah, ah, ah.

I mean, Boise State, and then Washington State and Oregon State literally were P-14s or only a year removed. Is Memphis going to stay viable without Fred Smith around? That's my question. Also, also, I come in waves. Who's going to be the best player in the game or only a year removed. Is Memphis going to stay viable without Fred Smith around? That's my question. Also, also I come in ways.

It says the Pac-12 doesn't stop here, right? They could continue to expand and kill these other group of five conferences. Like the, the mountain west is probably piss in their pants right now because CBS gave the Pac-12 their TV deal basically, right? They have, their deal is up in, I don't know how many years, but CBS is now with Pac-12, their TV deal, basically. Right? They have their deal is up in, I don't know how many years, but CBS is now with Pac-12, right? The Mountain West is up next year. So they are worried about that. I think Texas is a great addition to the Pac-12, but I'm actually kind of concerned alluding to what Borba just said. Sacramento State seems to be a very viable next option in line

to make the Pac-12 a little bit bigger. Sacramento State doing some crazy things right now. Let's keep this thought going here. Let's keep this thought going. This Pac-12 deal, is it a threat to the Big 12? Glad you brought up Sacramento State, Cody. They're rumored to have this multi,

not even, it's like a 30 to $40 million NIL budget or something just stupid. And building a new stadium and trying to build themselves up and hiring coaches to paying players, to doing things that are just completely abnormal for any FCS or even group of five school. The pockets are super deep in Sacramento for some reason, whatever reason, doesn't matter.

They're good. And I foresee them as the next big thing, the next Boise State, but much more viable because it's hard. It's hard to get to Boise, but Sacramento is a big enough town that we can add Sacramento to dominate the big sky then why didn't they dominate the big sky? If that's the case, yeah, they just decided three and nine last year in the NIL era. Go to the year before that though, when they had Troy Taylor, right? They're consistently in the playoff. They were a really good team. And now they have Sacramento States down the

road for me. They have Shaq who's some sort of honorary GM, if you will. They're landing Jayden Rashada. They have Mikey Williams. They have Mike Bibby as the head coach of the basketball team. Brendan Marion is probably, how do you say that, you know, if he was probably a year away from getting a P4 job, right? So they have all the right pieces to play here. I don't know if he'd be the head coach of our programs, but all of our staffs would add Brendan Marion to HeartBeat.

I agree. It might be as a coordinator, offensive edition, but like they made a home run higher there too, like Borb was saying. Right, and they're taking a risk, right? So Sac State is doing all the right things to position themselves. They're kind of being loud and annoying about it They're president is probably the most active person I've ever seen on Twitter. That isn't Below the age of 30 and in terms of Drake's answer

No, no, no, I don't think so. They're close But to answer Drake question if there are threats of the big 12, the only way the Pac 12 sack state could be a threat to the big 12 is that the big 12 doesn't give itself enough of a like a lift, right? Like the big 12 has to consistently show like, we are better than them. The only way it could be a threat is if the Pac 12 can sort of make an argument like, hey, head to head, we're right there with you, right? So the big 12 needs to create that separation, they

need to out recruit them, they need to beat them, when they go head to head, and they just need to make it. So that discussion can never even happen. I wonder to Cody's point about worrying about this. And I think some of our concerts are in some certain other conferences are ending soon. I feel it's Mountain West or whichever, but the bigger deal will be if the ACC actually falls apart

at whatever point and one of them heads to the PAC 12, right? Because then it is a school, like you're saying, JT, that has the P4 rep, has the money, has the infrastructure, et cetera. Right now with just two and those two being Oregon State, Washington State, I don't know that they're a big threat right now, but the fact that there could, like there's like a potential threat, right?

That they are lurking in the background that if ACC falls apart in 2029, then you could start pulling, because clearly if Stanford and Cal could be in the ACC, then they could also be in the PAC-12, right? And the new PAC-12. Stanford, though, is, they want to be in a conference with AAU programs.

Like, they kind of pride themselves on being academic excellence and being sort of at a different tier, right? They could have joined the Big 12, right? The Big 12 would have offered them open arms and be like, hey, come join, and they're like, no, we're kind of here, and you guys are kind of here.

But I'm mentioning people. It's more so than saying. What? Say that again. Yeah, the Big 12 would have offered Stanford. Stanford? Yeah, Stanford's the two pompous. This, genuinely they were that was their whole message was no AAU and we don't like the religious schools. I don't

think the big 12 tried that hard. You know, Stanford, trust me. Sure. So yeah, I think what board was getting at is had Stanford called and says, and say, Hey, we'll take the same deal that BYU is taking, you know, we'll take a two thirds of a share or whatever it was for a couple of years. That's a no brainer. You add a brand like Stanford's a huge brand. And it's your new Vanderbilt whether or not they're good or not. I totally disagree. When the pack, they're Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt is my beat. My first after the pack 12 Stanford was my beat. I was covering them for SI and literally every metric showed that they were a popular team. They were at that time.

Come on. That's our show. I mean, literally, here's the thing. They were one of the most watched teams. I think the only teams outranked him was like Oregon and USC. They produce in the room with us right now. Lock on cargo right here. But they're talking with metrics like they had everything supporting them. They produce NFL players.

They were popular on TV. There's, they have notable alum, right? Right now they're getting recruits with no head coach. So Stanford has always been a thing. It will always be a thing. And I get the Vanderbilt comparison, but that's very global. Everyone's heard of Stanford.

Not everyone can tell you where NC State is. When I went to Baylor, there were people like, yeah, go to Baylor. They're like, what? Where's that? Even Vanderbilt. I don't think most people know Vanderbilt's in Nashville. Stanford's brand power is certainly there. It's just their revenue is not going to get ... They're so committed to the Olympic sports that they're not going to give you what you want in football. The Big 12 is fine without them. I think what Borbritt is saying is they could have come to a head. But honestly, I don't think either side is very ticked off

if they didn't. Drake, aren't we watching this newly formed Pac-12 essentially serving as a, I can't call it like a host, in terms of it serves its purpose for a while for Washington State, for Oregon State. You and I discussed this. Boise State as well. For them trying to leverage themselves

for the next three, four, five years until the next round of what we expect is conference realignment comes about. And then they leap back into the power four. Isn't that what we're expecting from this league? That's good. What I'm really curious about is how are they gonna raise the 20 million each year at the rev share?

I think that's gonna be a big challenge for these Pac-12 teams. Hence why I don't see them as a major threat right now. It's a very, this is all temporary. Jake and I talked about it in a crossover this week. This is all for Washington state and Oregon state to look at the big 12 of the ACC and say, look, we rebuilt a conference.

We have Kirk Schultz, who's a genius, and we can bring value to your league. You have schools out West at up. They're only trying to bolster their resume to move up. I don't think their ultimate goal is to be in a conference with Sacramento state. They want to go make as much money as they can in the big 12 of the ACC. This is just kind of a proof of concept for them to wait for four years until we rework our TV deals and they're back in the fold. This is not a permanent

thing for the Pac-12. Would you see them also pulling in a Boise or a Sacramento then because it's like, hey, look at this like gang of four, like how much success the four of us is mad in this conference, take the four, right, like, as opposed to saying the one or two is I think the four almost might be more appealing than the two. But I also, I, it's an interesting thought process. Exactly. Yeah. Like medium market, though. And that's where the whole pack 12

new and current or whatever you want to call it. That's where it gets hurt, right? They're none of them are in the biggest markets possible. Boise's, it's cool in terms of history, but Boise's always been trying to get in to a Power 5 conference. Well, we'll talk about it next week, but we're seeing the death of, it'll be slow, but we're seeing the death of the TV revenue being what it is. It's going to plateau. I don't think we can keep up with the billion dollar contracts that are being doled out, because the viewership is just not there in a TikTok world, in a world without, you're seeing it at the pro level in every sport. And so I do think we'll get to the point where we say, hey, yeah, you're in Pullman, but also you grab a lot of the Seattle viewership, and you're in Boston, you're in Boston, you're Boston Boston College and no one watches you. So your market isn't as important as I think we would have considered it to be five or 10 years ago, as we see how these,

Clemson, South Carolina, not a big market at all, but Clemson's a massive moneymaker for these TV companies because they're good. So it's less of market now, I think more of your actual brand value. And that's why we talk about brand value so much as opposed to market in today's world. So that's all for next week.

This was, yes, JT. Can I say one thing really quick? Close the show. Just on Sac State, y'all are so enamored with Sac State. Can we just see if this is actually gonna work this year? It's all about potential, right? Jayden Rashada hasn't amounted to anything. Mikey Williams hasn't amounted to anything.

I like Brendan Marion. We see a lot of coaches that I like, his offensive coordinators that flame out as head coaches. Mike Bibby could be the very well-seen thing. This is just a massive experiment. I don't know why we as the big 12 need to be all in on this. This is something we can talk about another time, but I don't wanna wait and see.

Who would your ex-girlfriend from Sac State? Is she just like a pop star now? It's an hour down the road, right? They got good food, nice little downtown, some capital. Wait, why you hate? Worcester cell with the UxJ captain. We better talk about this pro Parker poll next week too. Parker Hainsworth, Kevin Borbara locked on bus, Cody Stovall of Oklahoma State. When we get

the entire Big 12 crew back together next week, we will talk about this. That's a fun little teaser. That's all coming up next week. This has been it always will be locked on. Thanks for making our shows your first listen every single day. The dosing grande squad.