The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Colin Cowherd on Expectations for Ohio State, Texas & USC plus the Big Ten vs SEC Power Shift

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Fox Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt is joined by Colin Cowherd to discuss this upcoming season. The two dive into why they are so excited for this year and react to the AP Preseason Top 25 Rankings. Colin gives his predictions for the big Ohio State-Texas and Michigan-Oklahoma early-season matchups and what he expects from those teams this season. Klatt and Cowherd break down their expectations for USC and whether the Trojans will take the next step and reach the College Football Playoff. They also look at the ongoing rivalry between the Big Ten and the SEC and Cowherd reveals why it’s not the Alabama and Georgia’s of the SEC that have the best shot at competing with the Big Ten’s resources in this new NIL era. Chapters 🏈0:00-2:02 Colin Cowherd joins the show!2:03-5:54 Where are we with college football?5:55-12:18 How is NIL impacting quality of play in CFB?12:19-16:30 Reacting to the first AP Top 25 Poll16:31-18:50 Expectations for Texas this season18:51-24::18 Expectations for Ohio State this season24:19-29:35 Is this USC’s year to make the CFP?29:36-38:15 Current rivalry between Big Ten and SEC38:16-41:25 Expectations for Michigan this season? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I can't think of anything right now about college football I'm not happy with. Let's just do the NFL model. Regular season decides the playoff. They'll be the Texas of last year. The downside to being dominant is you kind of become a little delusional. LSU was running through coaches and you're like, they're winning 10 games every year. With out further ado, here he is. The legend himself, Colin Coward.

What's up, my friend? How you doing? I'm ready to talk some college football. I love that. Listen, you know, I'm always raring to go. And this season, I think, has the potential to be as interesting a season as we've seen in a long time. Let me start with this. And we'll get into some of the teams that we love to discuss, certainly during the course of this conversation. But I wanted to start with this. And it's not even a Big Ten SEC type of conversation. Colin, I have argued, and you and I have had this conversation, I think college football is better than it's ever been. And one of the reasons why is the idea of what I would call hope and optimism. I think for the first time in a long time, there are a number of fan bases with legitimate hope and optimism.

And the reason for that, although not just singularly, but is the idea of the current structure creating more parity? The structure as it relates to NIL, the freedom of movement through the transfer. portal, kids not having to go to the NFL, so they stick around and become more experienced. The idea that you can build your roster, the cream is rising to the top. You don't have to stay in the Mac. You know, if you're a great player, you can go play for Miami or Texas Tech or Ohio State or Georgia. And for all of those reasons, what we're seeing right now is more quality teams and more parity. And because of that, more fan bases have hope and optimism. What are your thoughts on that? Well, college football like baseball.

has always been steeped in tradition and lore. But the truth is, college football started becoming very regional and very repetitive. If you go look at the top five preseason teams 10 years ago, it was Alabama and LSU and Georgia and Clemson and Florida State. The top five now, we get West Coast Oregon, Southern Georgia, academic independent, slightly Notre Dame, Ohio State, and the Texas Longhorns. More diverse, three time zones. I talked about this on the show today. I had a friend that was a therapist, and we talked about this. It was a fascinating day I spent with him, a very emotional day about 20 years ago.

And I wanted to break some cycles in my life. And he said, you know, he literally grabbed a whiteboard. I spent all day with it by 4 o'clock. I was exhausted. I'd been crying, talking about my child. It was one of these kind of Deepak Chopra days where I bought a session with it. You unpacked it all right there on the whiteboard. And I went back to my childhood. There were just some things I had cycles I had to break. And what I really discovered during that six hour, seven hour day was that we tend to embellish both the good and the bad times in our life, that little tiny moments in our childhood that we made ourselves into a victim. was just falling off a swing or getting picked on because you have big ears like every kid in the world gets picked on in the fifth grade. Or the great moments, the great vacation, wasn't really that great. It rained most of it, but you remembered something fun with your dad that we embellish stuff. And I think college football fans are embellishing how much they love the Sabin era

because Alabama was struggling to sell out home games on their own schedule out of conference. The ratings are down. Do you remember he would get mad at the fan base in the postgame press conference for leaving early? And they were uninterested at times. It was a one sport conference. We are embellishing how much we love it. Attendance and ratings were down. Now you took the cream of the crop out west, threw it in the Big Ten.

So you have a super conference. You took the cream of the crop in the Big 12, jammed it into the SEC. So you create these almost AFC, NFC, super conferences. That does not mean Notre Dame, Miami, or Texas Tech can't win and compete for a net. What it means is go look at Texas's schedule. Before they even get to the playoff, there are six premier games. Go to the USC schedule. If they don't play out, they still play Oregon, Washington, Ohio State, Indiana, Penn State. These teams now, especially if they get to the play out or playing like eight must watch games. It wasn't that long ago that Ohio State,

you waited for the, if they had a week out of conference schedule, you know, the Youngstown State, the Northern Illinois, you waited for the Road Penn State game and the home Michigan game. And that was it. And you crossed your fingers. If you're a Buckeye fan at Hope, you beat Michigan and get to the Natty. They were like it was a two-game season. You just have more games. I mean, I'm fascinated to watch, you know, Penn State go to USC or USC go to Penn State. My eyes haven't seen that.

I've seen enough Cal, Oregon State for six lifetimes. I love all these new games. And I think we've just talked ourselves into loving the tradition. And most tradition is not as good as we remember it to be. How about this? The NFL is not draining college football of its talent. In fact, NIL has created the opposite. Of the top 10 teams in the AP poll, all 10 quarterbacks have at least one year of starting experience with an average,

Colin, listen to this, of 19 starts in their career. That's average in the top 10. They'll all be over 30 by the end of the season. Some of the quarterbacks in the past likely would have been gone. Dante Moore would have been gone. Archmanning probably gone. Trinidad Chamblez, probably gone. Jake Maiava, probably gone. Darian Mincea, probably gone. All of these guys, and now they're back in college football. Yeah, Carson Beck, too. Carson Beck.

Now, he's gone. He was an experienced guy. I mean, you can make the argument that we're getting the best quarterback play. And I think that this year, let's just bring it to this year, we might have one of the best core of quarterback groups that I've seen in a long time, specifically out of the Big Ten, but really all of. over the country. And I think that could make for one of the best college football seasons that we've seen in a long time. Well, there are things, when you pay young people, administrators and older

people, they bristle. Like when anytime you raise the minimum wage, a friend of mine owns a restaurant in L.A. And years ago, I said, what's a little secret to your business? And he said, will I pay my dishwasher $3 more an hour than everybody else in town? And everybody else in town gets mad at me. And they come to me and say, why do you pay your dishwasher that? And he said, because I don't want to have to replace a dishwasher every six months because he goes to another place that gives him 50 cents. So I overpay him.

So I keep him. I have to sell one more pizza a week. And I've made my money. And the point is, there was all this stuff about all the you pay the players, they'll be an imbalance. But no, the most important position in the sport is quarterback and now the NFL gets a much more prepared, experienced quarterback. And again, the NFL now says, well, he's more beat up. Okay, time out. If you go look at draft picks, the percentage of NFL draft picks that are still with a team that drafted him five years into the league,

it's under 20%. So spare me on your, listen, this whole league is about getting the most you can out of draft picks for like three to four years, you know, and then you just recycle through your other draft picks. So even the criticisms of NIL, which is this kid comes in, he's made money, my take is you don't have to teach him about money. They're more mature, more education, more snaps.

I think it's benefited not only the college game, which is more sophisticated. I mean, Indiana, Miami last year, the national championship was the closest thing I'd ever seen to a pro game in college. Sure. The motion, the sets, the man in zone coverage by Miami, the pro athletes, it looked like, I mean, it looked like highly sophisticated. I mean, it almost looked like pro football.

It was just really impressive. Well, even the pace of the game, both of those teams played at a very slow pace. You know, they're snapping the ball every 30 or 32 seconds versus, Remember, we had gotten down to team snapping it every 19 seconds, trying to run 95 plays. And that just wasn't the case in the style of game that you saw last year in the national championship between those two clubs. And because of it, it comes down to what? Quarterback play. And Mendoza made the plays and Beck made the mistake.

Yeah, I, listen, I understand that grievance sells. But I can't think of anything right now about college football. football I'm not happy with. I there's nothing about the sport. The fact that I get Notre Dame. Now even even free agency every year for every player. I think here first of all, um, transfer port aims wilder than it is. Now for college basketball, it's a circuit. I mean, you're replacing almost your whole roster. But like, let's take USC. Well, Jaden Maiava is his third year. quarterbacking. Their offensive line, all guys that have been there two to three years. Their defensive line, I think they had one interior line transfer. Their wide receivers are freshmen. They replace

guys Kobe Lane, Jacoby Lane and Mackay Lemon, who had been there for years. I'm looking at USC, which is, you know, it's L.A. It's flashy. The offense is a lot of high school recruits are guys that transfer years ago. I think primarily the guys that transfer out, are like people that leave jobs that think they deserve more pay or more opportunity. Is the core, I mean, go look at this this year. They're edge rusher, Archmanning, their left tackle. They did get a star receiver from Auburn, who's a hell of a player. You know, like it fills a knee.

But Sark told me today, he said, I would only take about six transfers a year. He goes, my problem is when nine of my guys leave, now it's 15. He goes, I'm mostly replacing my guys who leave. he goes, but we're not looking to fill a lot of spots. You know, every program, as you know, Joel, it's hard to find good corners. It's hard to find good interior de-linement. Anybody would take those players. Pass rushers.

Yeah, I think it feels like everybody's just transferring. And really the core players at Notre Dame aren't, the core players at USC aren't at Ohio State. Now, the SEC is getting outbid for players. It's a little bit more of a turn style down there. But I think the Northern Powers in Miami and Notre Dame, I think they're core. I mean, like Notre Dame's defense this year, I don't have the depth chart in front of me,

but it's the guys that are returning were there last year. They'll play have a top three defense. It's a lot of returning guys from Notre Dame. Including Leonard Moore, who I think might be a top two pick in the NFL draft at Corner. Whether life serves you an ace or an unexpected backhand, the high-protein yogurt, Oikos Pro, is there to feed your strength and help you turn every challenge into a smash.

Oikos Pro helps build strong muscles and support muscle recovery with high protein and contains no added sugar because true strength isn't about being able to take the hits. It's about being able to bounce back. Oikos Pro, feed your strength. Visit oikos.ca for more details. Your reaction to the top 25. I want to go back there. Ohio State was number one. They got 40 first place votes. Oregon was number two. Georgia comes in at three. Notre Dame four, Texas, five, Indiana, six, Miami, seven. Now, it goes on from there, including, you know, teams that you and I talk a lot about. Alabama is at 13. U.S.C. is tied with BYU at 14. Michigan at 16. Did you have any specific thoughts about the AP top 25? Any problems with what came out? Indiana is the most fascinating. Once again, they have a very easy out-of-conference schedule. They get USC at home. Josh Hoover, who I probably watched five to six times at TCU.

You know, he's not as big as Mendoza. He's about six-two. His arm is okay. I don't think he pushes the ball downfield quite as well as Mendoza does. He's a good solid quarterback. I've seen him. He's been starting for years. I just don't think he's as good as Mendoza. And my argument has been I love Signetti, but let's not forget the year before Mendoza, we were complaining because he was punning at midfield late in the game down to two scores, but he was kind of conservative. And then Mendoza arrives and even Signetti submits like, hey, I've never thrown the ball down the field that much. I mean, we were throwing post pattern six times a game.

Signetti acknowledges, yeah, that Mendoza guy kind of changed the way I coached. So now you go back to a experienced good. prospect. I don't think any college kid is going to be as smart as Mendoza. I mean, he's like Andrew Luck smart, got into accepted to Yale. I don't, I don't, I think Hoover's very good. He has an incredibly quick release. That's what I remember about him. He gets, he snaps the ball out very quick. He's very pretty to watch. Mostly a pocket guy like Mendoza can run, but, but he's mostly a pocket guy. But they're not going to be as good at quarterback. So I'm fascinated to see what Indiana does this year. Yeah. And, and, and six,

seems like just more motivation for him. Speaking of Signetty, because as a man, I don't know if I have loved any coach more at the podium than Kurt Signetti. I mean, Sabin was very good. There's no doubt bristly. But this guy, like once he feels like he's got a chip on his shoulder, it's on. And I cannot tell you how much I love it. I mean, I love meeting with him.

I love what he says. If you were to just go back to when he was hired and, you know, hey, Purdue sucks and so does Michigan and Ohio State. And two years later, the guys were in a national championship. I've never seen anything quite like it. And I don't think it's going to stop anytime soon. By the way, just last thing on the top seven, Georgia and Texas, three and five. No problems there, but it is the first time since 2015, Colin,

that we have not had an SEC team garner a first place vote in the AP top 25. Well, I think Georgia's offense is kind of pedestrian. I like their defense. LSU's got 41 transfers. I like Sam Levitt. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes. But 41 transfers is, I've seen that with USC, Brian Kelly at LSU, Dion Sanders.

It's just too many transfers. You can't build a culture with 41 players from taking different exits to your stadium. Like, it's just too much chaos. So I think they'll be really fun to watch. And I think Lane's a really good coach. But they're just, I mean, new staff, new players. It's just a lot of movement and their schedule's not easy. So I think Texas has the

right positions filled, experienced offensive coach, quarterback left tackle, excellent edge rusher. Oh, and they have the one really great receiver from Auburn. So they have them right. But they only return 11 starters. It doesn't bother me because their their best players are all in key spots and have been there. And also the culture is set. We, Texas has the culture. So even though guys didn't start, they've been in the program before. They'll step up and play. So I don't worry about that.

But I do think there's a lot of pressure on Texas to beat Ohio State in that first game. Yeah, I was going to ask you about Texas in terms of expectation. You know, because obviously we could talk about that first game, Ohio State call. And there's no doubt that one's going to be, you know, ratcheted up. No doubt. Okay. But then they still have to travel to Tennessee, September 26th. They've got Red River against Oklahoma on October 10th.

They're going to have to host Ole Miss. They're in the top 10, at least right now. They've got to go to Missouri. They're in the top 25. They've got to go to LSU. They're number 11. They've got to go to Texas A&M. That's all in the month of November, those three road games, by the way.

Listen, look at the court. Julian San, Trinidad, Camas, Sam Levitt. They are facing a gauntlet of quarterback. I mean, Mon started in the playoff last year, Kell and Mond for A&M. So I just think that's, that's, I mean, listen, when you start playing, what do you think they have to do? What does Sark have to do?

I think they have to be to Ohio State. They will. Oh, that's, you think they're winning that game? Well, they're 20 and one since Sark got there at home. And you know, in college football, home's a big deal. You always get one great call. You always get one great call. And the truth is, teams tend to play better at home.

young men. So I think it's going to be, you know, it's going to be 24, 23 or 28, 27. It's going to be like that Oregon Ohio State game at Otson a couple years ago. It's going to come down. That was a great game. Yes. I remember it very well. Last possession game. I think it's going to look like that. I would probably take Texas close. But I said it then with Oregon, Ohio State, and I'll say it again with Ohio State, Texas. I think Ohio State at the end of the year will be with a better team. but in week two down in Austin, I would take Texas. It's a fascinating game for both of those teams. And the reason being, I already outlined,

we just talked about the Texas difficulty after that game. If you lose at home, all of a sudden the schedule becomes daunting and you're like, okay, how do we get to nine and three? And let's hope nine and three is enough at that point to get into the playoff, which, by the way, they were in that boat last year after losing that game in week one of the regular season. But Colin, then you look at Ohio State schedule and you think to yourself, oh my goodness, it's worse than Texas's schedule. So they have that game.

Let's start with. They have to travel to Texas week too, which, you know, is a lot of people think a top two or three roster in the sport. They've got to go to Iowa. And I understand a lot of Southern people just like roll their eyes at that. But look at what Iowa does in the bowl game. Look at what Iowa does at home every single year. It took Dan Lannning and Dante Moore, everything they had. had last year to beat Iowa in Kinnick Stadium. So they've got to go to Iowa. That's October 3rd.

They've got to go to Indiana. Kurt Signetti has not lost at home. They have to go to USC last year, Lincoln Riley and the Trojans undefeated in the Coliseum. Then, Colin, they've got to host Oregon and host Nebraska in the month of November. That schedule is crazy tough. And let's say they do lose to Texas. How do we expect them to go through that and still make the playoffs? Well, I think there are two-lossed team that makes the playoff. I think Texas is going to be a three-loss team. I think USC is a three-loss team. What's going to be interesting is Penn State doesn't have to play.

I mean, Penn State got the luckiest break of all time. I don't think they have to play Oregon. No, they miss Oregon. They miss Ohio State. They've got to play USC at home, and they've got to go to Michigan. Of the contending type teams, ranked type teams, they don't have to play Indiana. So those are their two toughest games.

So I think the argument at the end of the year, because they bring their quarterback from Iowa State. So they have a nice coach quarterback. And I think he had a very good transfer portal. I think Penn State's probably going to be the underrated team in the Big Ten. My take. The schedule, just they're going to be able to build confidence. If they stumble and play poorly, they can still win a lot of games. What's going to happen when Ohio State, you know, and Penn State at the end of the year,

Penn State has the better record. Ohio State's clearly the better team. Sure. That's going to be an interesting argument. I also think, and I'm going to give Signity a pass for one more year, but Indiana's out-of-conference schedule has been pretty anemic. Now, he inherited schedules, and they get built years in advance. But I do think we're going to have to start holding because Ohio State now out of conference

is playing big boys. I think we're about a year away. Michigan has scheduled big, obviously, with Oklahoma this year and last. I think we're getting Oregon tends to be willing to play big out of conference games. I think we're about a year away from holding Indiana a little more accountable out of conference. At least in September, I'm not asking for something in October. But I think it really is an advantage. I mean, USC got rid of Notre Dame.

One of the reasons why they wanted to start four and oh and play home games and they wanted to be healthy going into the Big Ten conference schedule. Like it is a strategic move. It definitely is. I don't know. Let me just put on like a forward, you know, looking at it. And we'll get back to this season in a moment. I do think that the playoff is going to expand. Yeah.

And I think part of the expansion is going to be actually like built into the cake, not just like, oh, we've got to do this as well, is going to be a scheduling agreement between the big boys. So I do believe that this is going to. to be fixed in the upcoming years. I think that playoff is going to expand, and part of that expansion will be an agreement, and they'll generate revenue off of this, that each conference plays nine conference games, and then they have an automatic 10th game against the other conference.

And I do think that that's going to be coming. I think it's great. And I don't like the conference championships going forward. I don't think there's, I mean, let's just do the NFL. model. Regular season decides the playoff. Let's not, let's not have an intermediate game. By the way, where somebody could get hurt going into the playoff. What's the point of that? I mean, if you're Alabama playing Georgia at the end or whoever you're playing and you're running back, gets a knee ripped up in the SEC championship game, then we've got an argument on, well,

where do you seed them? Remember when Kenyon Martin got hurt, Cincinnati, he played at Cincinnati. He like breaks the leg before the tournament. It's like, well, they're not a number one seed. He's the dominating player on the team. Didn't that happen to Marcus Camby? Am I remembering that correctly? I thought it was Kenyon Martin. It may have been Camby. Or maybe both. I don't know. Let me move on really quickly. USC. I'm big on USC this year. I know you're bullish on USC this year. The offensive line, obviously losing the center is not great, although I think you would agree with me. They've recruited at a very high level and they should have dealt. enough to recover from that. Don't love that it's the center position, but with the backs back

that they have, the quarterback back that they have and the support that they have through recruiting at O-line, they should be very good. The reason I bring up USC, seven of the 12 playoff teams a year ago, Colin in 2025, were outside of the top 15 in the preseason poll. And in 2024, there were four unranked teams in the preseason poll that ended up going to the college football playoff. Here's USC sitting at 14 right now in the preseason. Is this a team under Lincoln Riley that can finally take the next step and compete at the top end of the Big Ten? Because they have not quite been there right now as of the last couple of years. Do they take that step this year? They have yet to prove that they can play a complete beginning to end winning football game

against good competition on the road. I mean, hell, they lost in Maryland on. the road a couple years ago. They're a different, they're a different team on the road. Illinois last year, a game I called. A great game, by the way. Fantastic game. Yeah, I mean, I'll believe it when I see it. I think they have the best O-line D-line combination, not a ton of depth. I mean, they have their starters on the O-line D-line are the best they've had since Pete Carroll. They're young at receiver. Mark Bowman, a five-star tight end will probably start. Trent Mosley, a five-star receiver will. So they're kind of young at the skill positions, but it's the best one-two running back punch Lincoln's had, and he likes to run the football. I don't think

they have a ton of depth. What would worry me if I'm USC, I'm playing Dante Moore, Julian Seyen, Josh Hoover, a three-year starter now at Penn State from Iowa State. A lot of good quarterbacks. And USC had two NFL safeties. Both are gone. They're okay at corner, not special. I don't think their secondary has a ton of playmakers. Both safeties last year, Bishop and Camari Ramsey were physical playmakers. I don't think there was good on the back end defensively. And this is not a year to have questions in the big pen on your back end.

I mean, the SEC's got good quarterbacks too. So I worry about them laid in games, holding onto a lead, not a ton of defensive line pass rushing depth. Starters are good, but they've played 65 snaps. You're on the road. Your D-line's tired. Julian San, Josh Hoover are lighting you up and you're not great on the back end. It's again, smart teams take leads, tough teams finish. They're smart. They're not necessarily tough. And I just worry about, I worry about the back end of that defense in a conference with NFL quarterbacks all through the schedule. So is USC in your estimation after that going to the playoff?

They'll lose to Oregon, Indiana, and Ohio State. They'll have three losses. It's a good schedule. My guess is they'll be like the 13th team and a 12-team playoff. They'll be the Texas of last year. Is that enough for, you know, you used to live in L.A. I'm in L.A. now. We know USC fans.

We know how they feel. We've heard the scuttle butt over the last. couple of years. Is that enough for Lincoln? I think it is. NIL actually saves coaches. Okay, when Pete Carroll was in L.A., there were no NFL teams. Now there's two. The passion, they're not the NFL team in town. You got Harbonne, Herr, McVeigh and Stafford, like pro football is a bigger deal in L.A. College football just matters less than it did. And I think people look at Lincoln. They don't cheat.

He's smart. They're fun to watch. The stadium has been upgraded. It's a good environment. Games, they got great games at the Coliseum. I mean, Notre Dame a couple of times, a Penn State game a couple years ago. Michigan's been there. Like the Big Ten has really good games.

It's entertaining. I don't think you run them out. I mean, you know, in the NIL, you're building facilities. You're paying your roster. Oh, you want to pay them 65. million or $70 million to buy them out and then $75 million to the next guy? Where are you getting the money? Yeah. Where are you getting now? Especially after they just built their facility, you know, to your point about that. I think that the financial burden of changing a coach now versus even

five or six years ago is significant. It's not just his buyout. Now it's his staff buyouts. It's the buyout of the next coach that you're getting. It's then building and buying a roster, which at this point, I think it's probably $30 to $35 million. just on the roster size. So to your point, I think just outside of the playoff would certainly be enough for Lincoln. And I agree with you.

I think they're going to be right there. I think it would be huge for them to get one of those wins against a big boy to show that they can. Remember, this is why James Franklin ultimately is no longer the head coach at Penn State. It's because he got to that level and there was a ceiling over him. And he's got at home,

speaking of Lincoln Riley, Oregon, September 26th, and Ohio State October 31st, both in the Coliseum. Can you win one of those? Can you win one? If you win one, then I think you, but again, now you got to go win at Indiana and at Penn State. I know. Again, the Penn State game.

Look at the date. Look at the Indiana date. That's cold weather for an L.A. team. That's right. They also have to host Washington. You didn't bring up their quarterback, DeMond Williams, who's a very good player with an offensive oriented head coach in Jed Fish. And then the last thing that I wanted to kind of gauge you on is where do you think we are in?

I don't think anybody can get away with or away from, I should say. If you're talking about college football, if you're covering college football, because of what you stated earlier, where we took the powerful teams in the West Coast, we jammed them into the Big Ten, we took the two best brands in the Big 12 and we jammed them into the SEC. and now we have this AFC-NFC-esque style of environment, if you will. And so because of that, it's just comparison, comparison, comparison. The SEC ruled college football for over a decade. They were the preeminent superior conference by every single measure. And all of a sudden, in the last three years, almost every single measure has flipped.

Head to head has flipped. Big 10, 4 and 0 in the last four matchups in the playoff. Also a better bowl record head-to-head against the SEC. You've got the last three national champions, all three different schools, obviously Michigan, Ohio State, and Indiana. You've got no SEC teams garnering a first place vote in the preseason AP poll for the first time since 2015. And for the first time in well over a decade, we saw an NFL draft in which the conference that had the most first round draft picks was actually the Big Ten and not the SEC. where do you think we stand? Where do you think we're going in this rivalry of the two conferences?

Well, the SEC is still has big money. It's just the two Texas schools. It's not Georgia, Alabama. Like Georgia, Bama were the ones that were well healed and well capitalized and beautiful facilities and tradition. And then the NIL came in and they're good. But it's Texas A&M and Texas and oil money. So I've said this. Texas saves the SEC. If you take those two schools out, SEC, the gap between the Big Ten and the SEC is ugly. Now it's flipped to the advantage is the Big Ten. And that's all because they're in more metropolitan areas. You know, I mean, Penn State can get money from Philadelphia, USC, UCLA, Seattle, Phil Knight Money, the Indiana money from their business school. You know, Ohio, you know, you got Cleveland.

Cincinnati. You got all Columbus is actually a pretty big city. So, and Michigan's got Detroit money. And by the way, one of the biggest endowments in the country, you do have money in the SEC, but it's just Texas and Texas A&M. That's where the real money is. So I think they'll, I think they'll be a national champion eventually out of the conference. My guess is Texas is one of these years going to get a little bit of a favorable schedule, not this year. They're going to get into the playoff. And just attrition of more good athletes, they'll win a championship. But I think one thing that is inarguable, not only has the Big Ten won three straight titles, the SEC hasn't played in any of those games. So the gap isn't, oh, we just got knocked out. It's like, no, no, the SEC in the playoff and the Bulls is only beating second-tier conferences and other SEC teams. Yes. Like, they're getting pushed around.

I mean, when I saw Illinois, and you can say, well, the SEC teams don't care. When I watched Illinois win a bowl game against an SEC team, and the physicality up front, I was like, well, this is a new day, man, they were pushing around an SEC team. You're like, okay, this is different. This is four years ago. It didn't look anything. Illinois would have been bolt raced, would have been dominated up front.

I mean, I hear that argument about like, well, maybe they're not invested or they don't care in those situations. you know, Vandy seemed to care a decent amount and still got handled by Iowa in that game. I think there's just a reluctance. I don't know what it is. The SEC fan and those that prop them up on television networks have a reluctance to even acknowledge that there's a possibility that it's like, well, yeah, they could be really good. You know, like, they can't even comprehend what Indiana did with Kurt Signetti. It's breaking their brains. They can't comprehend that a guy like Kirk Ferns could just roll down with Iowa.

And it's like, oh, actually, he is fundamentally that good. And that team is, is difficult to beat. It's an interesting dynamic that goes on. And right now, it's, it's clearly resting in the Big Ten. Well, here's the other thing that's difficult for the SEC. is when you've been as dominant as they have been for 20 years. And then the NIL changes roster composition. You as a fan and media have to be more realistic about it.

So we all know that Kalin DeBoer is a top eight coach in college football. He may be top five. And yet people are like, well, he doesn't know what he's doing. No, no, no. He doesn't have the players. He doesn't have Knicks rosters. were 11, 12, 13 NFL players. Alabama's losing the Caleb Downs.

They're getting poached. So what you have to do, because I do think the way to win in the SEC now is continuity. When Saban was there, I think 33 coaches were fired. Alabama fan has to come to terms with, listen, man, we don't have Ohio State players.

So don't get into a really vicious cycle where you keep firing coaches because you're not winning. You have to alter. You know, it's almost like, it's like a budget. You know, let's say you have wife and a husband both work corporate jobs and they make good money. And all of a sudden, they have twins. And the wife says, you know what, I'm going to stay home or the husband does. Okay, now the budget's different. Well, you've got to, you've got to alter your vacation schedule. Now, you have to alter reality. You just have to have to. to live in a different world. You can't have two range rovers. Now you don't, now you have one

used car. So you can, you can have a divorce and blame each other, but your, your budget changed. So the reality is you have to be if you're a Bama fan or a Georgia fan. I mean, I watched Georgia's offense last year. It was just, it. It was just okay. It's like, there was no Brock Bowers, Ladd-McCon. It's just kind of, Gunner Stockton, it was just kind of okay. So don't, Don't blame Kirby smart. Kirby is a very good coach. But I think the key for the SEC is, now will the Big Ten become the SEC?

And if you can't beat Ryan Day, you're running through coaches. So now the downside to being dominant is you kind of, you become a little delusional and think you can win all the games. And it's like, no, that's not. I mean, LSU was running through coaches.

you're like, they're winning 10 games every year. So I think SEC fans just realize the world's changed, lean into continuity, don't be ridiculous. These northern schools have a lot of money. And if you can win 10 games a year and get into that playoff every other year, you're going to have a season where, remember, what happens in playoffs, Joel, is that a lot of the teams that you don't want to play, you don't have to. They get beat.

You get lucky in some of that. Some of that stuff is just seeding and luck of the draw. Sure. That's true. I can't wait for this year. I can't overstate the importance of that week two. You've got Ohio State, Texas. You've got Michigan, Oklahoma, everything that we just talked about. That could change the entire narrative right there. If Oklahoma and Texas were to win both of those games, that changes the entire narrative. That quarterback for Oklahoma. John Mateer. Nobody's talking about that, dude. That guy can spin it, man. He is good. If he's healthy, remember when he was healthy, he was the front runner for the highs.

trophy after they beat Michigan last year. People kind of forget that that's how good he was playing early in that season. If they can protect him with a run game, then they certainly could be a very formidable team this year. Yeah, he is a, he is the one quarterback that is just under the rate, even Levitt at LSU from Arizona State's getting all this love. Yeah. And it's like, guys, go watch Oklahoma.

Oklahoma's probably going to beat Michigan because of that kid. Okay, so you've called on this show that you think it, Texas beats Ohio State and Oklahoma beats Michigan. What do you expect from Michigan, and in particular, maybe their quarterback position? I like Underwood. I think actually, and this is the history of Jim Harbaugh is, it's funny in the NFL in San Francisco, with the Chargers, with Michigan. He never had great receivers.

It's the one position he never had great receivers. This Michigan team, I really like the guys on the outside. I think Underwood's got a sensational arm. Again, they were a mess last year, so everybody's just dumped it on Underwood. Oh, he's overrated. I don't know. Looks pretty talented to me. I think he's really good.

You got to be very careful when the coach is going through personal chaos, which we now know what Michigan was happening. That stuff bleeds through the program. Sure. It's very easy to dump on Michigan's talent. I think Michigan Whittingham is nothing else, if not predictable, and compartmentalized. I mean, his special teams at Utah were great. His teams may not have been great at quarterback, but they ran the ball.

They were physical up front. You knew great tackling teams. He is going to put a fence around it. They're going to be a little more boring, maybe a little predictable. I think people are blaming the players for what happened. Michigan and they were massively undercoached last year. I would fully support that. And they were young.

There were times they had six freshmen on the field offensively, in particular late in that season. I can't wait to call that game. Gus Ginny and I will be there. Big Noon Saturday is going to be their week two in Ann Arbor as Michigan takes on Oklahoma. So that'll be a phenomenal game. And my friend, we will begin our weekly appearances,

I believe here soon. I cannot wait to start coming on your program. And I can't thank you enough for coming on. on my program right here. I can't wait for the season for sure, but thank you for joining me, my friend. Listen, it's payback. I mean, all the years you have popped my ratings

and I've probably hit on a dozen massive bonuses and not giving you a penny for it. My whole goal is to treat you better on my show than you treat me. Well, I think you did it. Oh, man. Thanks for your time, my friend. We'll talk to you soon.

All right, thanks, buddy. Big thanks to Colin here for being on the program. That was a lot of fun. And I got to tell you, every time that I talk at length about this season, I get more excited for it. And I hope you're feeling that at home as you are going through this month of August, getting all set for the season here in 2026 and all of our shows. And remember, if you want to be aware when our shows drop, what's going on? You got to subscribe. So subscribe to the YouTube channel if you could. You can leave a comment down below. What did you like? What did you not like from what we talked about here today? If you're listening, wherever you get your podcast, go ahead and rate and review us. That would be awesome. And then on social, we're everywhere, wherever you like to social media. So basically, whatever your age, wherever you like to social media, we're there at Joel Clashow. You can get all of our content in more shorter form out there. We will be with you with more Joel Clatchow as we get you ready for the season.

And I got to tell you, thanks to Colin Coward. That was a lot of fun. Hope you enjoyed it.