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Is the B1G/SEC CFP bromance having a rocky patch? image

Is the B1G/SEC CFP bromance having a rocky patch?

NCAA Report With Don and Russ
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4 Plays1 day ago

Don and Russ talk about the recent 2.8 Billion dollar court decision involving NIL and a little difference of opinion between the B1G and SEC on the College Football Playoffs. 

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Transcript

Introduction and Host Setup

00:00:00
Speaker
This is Gateway Sports. Ladies and gentlemen, I've got a couple questions for you. Do you love college sports as much as I do? Are you always wondering where you can find the latest NCAA reports?
00:00:13
Speaker
Will come to the right place? Welcome, sports fans, to Fuel Sports Presents, the NCAA report with Don Enright. Gee, that sounds kind of interesting..
00:00:29
Speaker
ready to win the game.
00:00:33
Speaker
For the win in the air, it is up and it is good!
00:01:02
Speaker
Look at the air, look at the hang time, look at the flying motion. Look at his head above the rim.
00:01:19
Speaker
help me a chance
00:01:44
Speaker
To infinity and beyond.
00:02:19
Speaker
on the field stands.
00:02:31
Speaker
You've got to get it done.
00:02:44
Speaker
Pay attention, son. This is for your own good. The moment you've all been waiting for. Here they are, your favorite hosts, Don Glenn and Russ Robinson.
00:02:56
Speaker
All right, this is the NCAA report. I am your co-host Don Glenn. The other co-host is sitting across from me all the way down in the boot heel of Missouri.
00:03:07
Speaker
Mr. Russ Robinson tonight. How are you doing, Russ? I'm doing pretty good, Don. Everything going good your way? Oh, it's not too bad. I got found out, uh, I got, you know, found out a couple of weeks ago that, uh, um, I will, I'll be looking for employment, uh, but, uh, well, you said that.
00:03:26
Speaker
Yeah. so but I mean, that, and that's, that's working its way out. I mean, so we'll, I mean, I've got some other things I've got to deal with and we got to figure out and, uh, And, you know, and in July, I get ah and in July, i get a lot of i'm going to have to have a lot of ah dental work done. So we might we might miss an episode here and there. You never know.
00:03:48
Speaker
Well, if you're going to do it July for college sports, that's the right time to do it. Just. Well, that's true. just I mean, be ready to go in August, I guess. Oh,

NIL Settlement and Athlete Compensation

00:03:56
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And as we had talked you know about tonight, that it's it's been kind of quiet, but there have been a couple of developments coming down the pipe. So we're going to deal we're going to deal with those tonight.
00:04:05
Speaker
um The first one is when we've been you and I've been talking about this for God, it seems like a couple, three months now. um And that's the two point eight billion dollar settlement um that became the NIL or the way NIL is going to be handled from here on out, or at least for the time being.
00:04:25
Speaker
um And just a quick recap, the the settlement was basically to try and come up with a way that the to make sense of all this and to get athletes properly compensated because the way it was initially when they when the NCAA said you could pay players, they set up these collectives and they were paid by the collectives and the school weren't supposed wasn't supposed to have any kind of dealing with these kids anymore.
00:04:53
Speaker
Um, and it became a quagmire all mess. You had kids holding out to get a better eye, know, kind of like trying to be a free agent, holding out for a better deal or refusing to, uh, to practice or play.
00:05:07
Speaker
um and you had just astronomical figures being thrown around for all these athletes. So now as the, as it sits, um,
00:05:19
Speaker
um It's called the House Settlement. includes an approval for each school to share up to $20.5 million dollars with athletes over the next year and $2.7 billion that will be paid out over the next decade due thousands of former players barred from that revenue for years.
00:05:40
Speaker
well um it's year in year I'm seeing people on both sides. Some people saying it's a big win um for thousands of students. Stephen Berman called it a fantastic win for hundreds of thousands of college athletes.
00:05:55
Speaker
um But then you've got a group of ah female athletes that are now suing the NCAA over Title IX violation because the way all this is going to work, supposedly,
00:06:10
Speaker
is that, um well, the the one model, I guess, that has been put forward is a seventy five fifteen five fiveve model, which team. 15% goes toward...
00:06:23
Speaker
goes toward col it or towards a school's football team ah five or fifteen percent goes toward ah basketball, 5% goes towards women's basketball, and then the rest of the sports in that a university program gets the remaining 5%.
00:06:46
Speaker
um And, you know and I don't know that much about Title IX, but I do know that it is based on an equal equal number and equal access to to um sports and related items.
00:07:02
Speaker
So I can see where these female athletes might have a good case filing a Title IX violation because, know, If 15% is going to men's basketball and 5% is going to women's basketball, you know, I was never really that good at math, but that don't seem even to me. So think I think they may have a point on that. So we'll have to see how that all comes out.
00:07:26
Speaker
um What's your take on this whole thing as far as now that the schools are in control of this money? How is that going to change or do you think it's going to change anything in the ah transfer portal or ah recruiting and in general, per se?
00:07:53
Speaker
Well, I guess that remains to be seen. You know, we can sit here and project out all we want to, Don. We don't know how this is really going to impact the schools. They're debating this right now. Each school's debating at how they're going to divvy up that money.
00:08:11
Speaker
I've seen some stuff. you know Of course, I follow Mizzou pretty close, and you follow Illinois pretty close. And I've seen some stuff on Mizzou, what they but the revenue sharing or is now.
00:08:23
Speaker
And, of course, the model is similar to what is this this model that we this court ruling is. and how that's going to come out. And, you know, it's, ah how you know, football gets it's a the majority of it, but men's basketball comes in a distant second.
00:08:40
Speaker
And then the then the non-revenue sports kind of starting with, I think men's baseball comes in third and women's basketball comes in fourth, actually. So then the rest of the non-revenue sports.
00:08:55
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know how this is going to play out. You know, I think there's a lot to be decided. I think it depends what the schools want to what kind of chance they want to take. I know they're you know, like you said, Title IX, they're flirting with lawsuits and they're flirting with you know, with saying, hey, you're violating Title if you don't do this. So there's a You know, it's one thing, Don, they've got this settled. They've got this settlement. Right. And they're glad that's behind them.
00:09:23
Speaker
But there's some whole messy yeah there's a whole messy trail road ahead of them to weather through this. I i just don't know how what to expect here. So I think every school is going to be looking at this. They might be looking a little differently, but I still think there's a lot of nervous ADs out there.
00:09:43
Speaker
Oh, there has to be. I mean, yeah yeah because yeah you've been dealing with a system for the last four years of an outside influence, basically doing all the funding and coming up with the money and and doling it out to the players and whatnot.
00:10:02
Speaker
And now the school has that, but at this point they are capped by that... um
00:10:14
Speaker
20.5 million that, that, that, and, you know, I was looking it up and it was talking, it talks here in this article about, uh, uh, um, the winners and losers. And it mentions, um, Michigan quarterback, Bryce Underwood, who is, and I, I just rolled right past it.
00:10:34
Speaker
Um,
00:10:38
Speaker
and his, his, oh, there it is. Uh, ah a rough guide of winners include football and basketball stars at the biggest schools, which will devote much of their bank role to signing and retaining them.
00:10:49
Speaker
For instance, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood's NIL deal is reportedly worth $10.5 million to $12 million. dollars who Okay. So again, I'm not that good at math, but yeah ah if if you're taking 12 million of that 20 million,
00:11:09
Speaker
and giving it to one player,
00:11:14
Speaker
how is they how are they going to portion the rest of that money out? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. and you know yeah And that's the problem.
00:11:26
Speaker
Don, I hate to venture off the subject too much, and I guess this still kind of irks me a little bit, but we knew for years that this was going to be a big potential problem.
00:11:37
Speaker
oh yeah I mean, the yeah the revenue sharing was not going to stay like the athletes weren't going to continue to be cut out. So the schools had brought this on themselves. You know, I know that it's hard to get how many of our hundred schools together and work out a deal, but they, you know, they knew this was coming.
00:11:57
Speaker
I mean, And so it's hard to feel sorry for them. ah This has just been something, if you look down, if you follow college sports at all, look down the road, you could see this was going to blow up. And this was going the schools are going to eventually be facing something like this.
00:12:13
Speaker
ah We didn't know how it would, exactly how it would look, but now we know what it looks like. And, you know, that nobody's too happy about it, but, you know, they they took advantage of the athletes for a long time.
00:12:26
Speaker
And I locked, you know, I locked the old old system, you know, get them give them a scholarship and let them stay around. And you can transfer once. I locked the old system. And for the old for the fans like me, locked it that way. But I could see it for years coming that this was going to blow up, you know.
00:12:44
Speaker
Well, like you said, you always had the yeah always had the the guys out there that they're the, or the, the, the innuendo, I should say out there that you had these player or these teams, schools paying players under the table and you know, all that kind of stuff.
00:13:04
Speaker
Um, you know, and, and, You know, occasionally that program would get in trouble because they would be found that they, oh, yeah, you did that, you dumb-dumb. Why did you do this? yeah um But, um you know, I don't think even then we could have envisioned this type of a,
00:13:24
Speaker
ah oh, what do I want to say? This type of a... ah ah A crazed environment, if you will. you know Yeah. um So I think and looking again at this in in a lot of respects here, they've also, according to this settlement, they have instituted or set up who's they because I think a lot of people are going to wonder who's going to police all this.
00:13:53
Speaker
Well, there is supposedly now, according to with this decision, they've set up a college sports commission or the CSC.

New College Sports Commission and NCAA's Changing Role

00:14:03
Speaker
um And it will be. um Let's see here.
00:14:10
Speaker
It'll be directly related to compensate or no. ah Yeah, for they'll be the ones overseeing everything. they The leadership of that committee is Brian Seeley.
00:14:26
Speaker
He was um previously an executive with MLB. Yeah. He has been appointed as a CSO of the College Sports Commission, and they say his role is going to be involve commissions, investigative and enforcement teams, overseeing opre operations and ensuring compliance with new regulations.
00:14:46
Speaker
Um... The responsibilities, it's overseeing the NIL contracts. The commission will regulate NIL agreements, ensuring they're made for valid business purposes and do not exceed reasonable compensation limits.
00:15:01
Speaker
That's going to be an issue there. What's going to be considered a reasonable compensation for, um you know, a person's involvement in advertising. ah Investigating violations. yeah The CSC will investigate potential violations of the new rules.
00:15:18
Speaker
and administer penalties for infractions. And revenue sharing is supposed to start July 1st this year. and The commission will manage a revenue sharing model that will allow participating schools to distribute a portion of the revenue directly to student athletes.
00:15:35
Speaker
um The establishment of this commission marks significant shift in landscape. And that goes without saying. And it does go on to say here that it's it's set to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of college athletics, focusing on fairness, compliance, and financial well-being of student athletes.
00:15:54
Speaker
um yeah I don't know about all that. yeah ah You know what saying? Yeah, I know. Yeah, it's... i So I guess this commission is going to be separate from the NCAA in terms of its scope. It's going to be dealing strictly with the financial end of it.
00:16:18
Speaker
um So that's that's something new that I guess they're going to have to worry about playing with. Yeah. Yeah. And that as far as how is it's going to enforce, ah according to another article on it, was, a yeah, boy, this they I didn't see this. they were The new CSE was only recently incorporated in April, and... um everyone understands what the stakes are the highest they've ever been. doesn't really give a, I thought this was going to give me a little idea. Well, Oh, well I guess it's going to deal with things like policing areas and academics, gambling cases, um, things of that nature. See?
00:17:04
Speaker
Yeah. ah Basically the NCAA is being left out of except for like recruiting violation and administrative does stuff, I think in, in, in terms of what this article is saying. Um,
00:17:16
Speaker
But it's going to be interesting how they what what what their enforcement arm is going to be like. I mean, you know, if a school overpays and says, say, spends $23 million instead of $20.5 million, you know...
00:17:30
Speaker
um you know What's it going to be? You're going to take the money away from the kids. That doesn't seem actually fair. um You know, does the is there a fund set up where these schools are going to pay fines and then you and then that money gets distributed to everybody else? I mean, I don't know. i mean This is this is going to be some really fun new territory to keep an eye on coming down the road. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. They're going to have but they've got a lot to work through. So it's it's.
00:17:57
Speaker
it's this is this part is settled so to speak right but then the next the next part is what's uh and that's why the ad's you know i've been reading the paper the ad's don't want talk about it too much until they can get through to read how they're going divvy up this money to the different sports and stuff yeah and and like i said and i can see issues coming down the road with uh Like I say, with with with the the whole inequity thing now, um you know, um I know a lot of people and they they one of the articles got a little political and said that, you know, the the view is that the Trump administration might not be as
00:18:39
Speaker
um strict in enforcing the fairness part. um I don't know if that, if that will play absolute anything into it.
00:18:50
Speaker
I think in in certain terms that the, the schools are going to do what the schools are going to do. And you know, they'll, they'll try and hide it as long as they can and then face the consequences later is what I think they'll do.
00:19:03
Speaker
regardless of of what political party or or person is is dealing with it. um In somewhat of that vein, there was an an interesting article I saw that the the University of Wisconsin is being penalized for recruiting infractions.
00:19:22
Speaker
It occurred during spring practice of 2023.
00:19:27
Speaker
ah Nine members of Luke Fickle's staff violated a since-changed NCAA rule by making phone calls to recruits before the recruiting calendar allowed them to be made.
00:19:42
Speaker
Boy, how do you get nine guys on a staff that's been with the that's amazing. ah You know, but back in the day but back in the day, they would have went after Fickle for lack of institutional control.
00:19:56
Speaker
but Yeah. ah But I guess that's a lot of these guys now are no longer with the clubs. A lot of them are school. A lot of them left after 23. um But among those specifically penalized are Fickle.
00:20:10
Speaker
Outside linebacker coach Matt mickel Mitchell and former defensive line coach Greg Scruggs and former recruiting lead Max Steinecker.
00:20:22
Speaker
Um, the infraction is considered a level two violation. Both Scruggs and Steinecker received one year show cause orders, which I'm not sure what that entails. Uh, while fickle and Mitchell will not be permitted to contact high school recruits from June 15th to June 21st. Oh boy.
00:20:40
Speaker
That's a, that's a, yeah, I guess that that is just, that's not even a slap on the wrist. That's a, don't you ever do this again? Uh, well the show cause for the two assistant coaches mean they really can't, uh,
00:20:51
Speaker
They really can't be hired by anyone unless that school wants to absorb their penalty. And one of those this coaches, Don, and yeah it's the same article we're looking at. Yeah. i He's already gone to the n NFL. He's out of college. Yeah. Yeah. i yeah One of them's already moved on to the 49ers, it looks like. it And one ended up didn wind up a general manager of the program out of UCLA.
00:21:17
Speaker
um Yeah, USC. Steinecker will be the general manager for the USC's program. Yeah. Yeah. so So I don't know how that will impact him ah because he said it said something about his one of his responsibilities is overseeing recruiting. Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:39
Speaker
I don't know how that will impact him, but yeah yeah, you know, it sounds like Finkel's got out of it. Mainly shaking loose those two coaches that had the most to to lose. I think, and it says here that this is It was with the 20, they completed the 24 recruiting cycle and included reporting fractions that they said was probably their best class in in school history.
00:22:07
Speaker
Among the programs, 22 signees, 11 were blue chip players, four star recruits. And it ended up being ranked 25th nationally for that particular recruiting class. So I guess a call early call often works. I don't know. ah Yeah.
00:22:23
Speaker
Well, you know, we we saw what happens with the... Uh, Jesus, the Houston basketball coach. Um, he made a bunch of illegal phone calls, a bunch of, Calvin Sampson, and Calvin Sampson. And he almost won the national championship.
00:22:39
Speaker
Uh, uh, you know, people tend to get over that, you know, that stuff. And they might've felt that way about Finko, you know, what, what's the point, you know, uh, it's going to be, that's probably going to be a rule. That'll be, well, they said it already been it has already been changed according to this. Um,
00:22:59
Speaker
They changed the rule in August of 23, just months after the report reported violation. So um dave've ah that rule is no longer in in in either it's no longer in in place or they've adjusted it in some way. It doesn't really say what it did. It just says it was changed after the the violations were reported. so baby And that's probably why they gave them such a light sentence.
00:23:25
Speaker
um You know, they went in changed rules and made it somewhat legal. um yeah otherwise Otherwise, I don't think USC would would have touched that guy to be ahead of their recruiting program if that was the case. Yeah, I'm sure before they hired him, they did their homework, and you're probably right. They probably wouldn't have put him in such a responsible position if they thought there was going to be a big problem.
00:23:48
Speaker
so but just so that but I thought that was an interesting, just an interesting little side note tidbit to to what's ah what's happening. and And I don't know, do you think, and and again, this kind of goes back to what we were talking earlier.
00:24:02
Speaker
um you We've seen, I think, at at least I think, other than the Michigan sign stealing or whatever it was,
00:24:14
Speaker
um
00:24:17
Speaker
you seem to see a lot less violations coming out of NCAA. Right. um You know, and I wonder if it's just a fact, and it's just a thing of like, especially now with the transfer portal, the way it's opened up um with the NIL, are they just at this point so overwhelmed that they just unless it's just one of those glaring things that are obvious or ah oh by university self-reports they're not going to go out and worry about because you remember back in the day oh yeah you know um there was always an investigation on somebody somewhere oh yeah yeah yeah
00:25:02
Speaker
Yeah, I think that the NCAA realizes they they don't know where they stand legally anymore on this stuff. I mean, you know, when you've got, youre essentially, you're but with the NILs, you're buying players, paying a salary. That's exactly it. You're buying them away. You know, with the transfer portal, you're buying them away from other schools.
00:25:22
Speaker
You got coaches talking publicly about it. I mean, Rick Barnes, there in Tennessee's season last year, basketball season. I mean, in at a press conference, he told told a story about him lecturing one of his players, telling them, this is not what we're paying you to do. So, I mean, this stuff is just wide out in the open now. So, I'm at the NCAAs.
00:25:45
Speaker
we're going to wonder what their role is going to be after all this settles out. I'm not sure there's I don't see what I don't see what it's going to be, you know. Well, I think i think with the with this College Sports Commission taking over the the whole financial end of it, maybe that will allow them to the NCAA, I mean, allow them to um reassert themselves.
00:26:06
Speaker
But I think and we've talked with this over the last couple of guests we had too i I think the NCAA as an organization has pretty much lost all control.
00:26:18
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, we we we know and we see in college football especially that it is pretty much SEC, Big Ten driven.
00:26:29
Speaker
um You know, Big 12 and ACC have a little bit of say-so, but they're kind of like the red-headed stepchild sits in the corner. Um, yeah you know, and then you've got all the minor conferences, big West and new PAC 10 and all these that are just kind of sitting there wondering what, where their role is. And, um, you know, at least before the NCAA may not have been perfect and it may have been a totalitarian, uh, regime, if you will, to use a political, uh, construct, but, uh, at least you knew what they were dealing with.
00:27:05
Speaker
You know, you knew that if you um contacted a kid outside of a recruiting phase that you were going to get in trouble. You knew that if you um publicly blasted another coach, you were going to get in trouble.
00:27:25
Speaker
You know, and nowadays it's like it's it's it's open season. So, well you know, so I think i and I think I think and we'll get into this and a little bit later when we talk about the the as I call it, the big bromance breakup.
00:27:42
Speaker
Yeah. The bromance on the rocks, if you will. Yeah. ah But and we'll get to that right here in a minute. After I talk to you a little bit about liquid IV, you know, hydration is important for maintaining good health and the human body consists of 50 to 70 percent water.
00:28:00
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00:28:15
Speaker
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00:29:34
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00:31:47
Speaker
All right. So um
00:31:52
Speaker
let's see. Well, let's let's kind of get... I want to do a little bit of recruiting before we get into the the whole...
00:32:04
Speaker
Huh. I can't find it now. Anyway, down i was looking, I had it and I can't find it. I, that that's, a i'm so I'm sorry. It's I'm, I'm embarrassing. I'm embarrassed folks.
00:32:15
Speaker
I can't find what I was looking for. And I had it there just not that long ago. um But I was looking at the recruiting thing and it was showing.
00:32:30
Speaker
Oh, here we go.
00:32:32
Speaker
No, that's the wrong one. ah But it was it was showing you that the and the top seven schools in recruiting ah for this year, for 2025, is all SEC.
00:32:46
Speaker
is all s e c That doesn't necessarily surprise me. or i thought I would have thought that Ohio State would have been in there somewhere. Ohio State's in the top 10, and i think Michigan's in the top 10. 20 to 25. There we go.
00:33:09
Speaker
but Finally found it. have and Okay, yeah they got ah yeah. Texas is number one. ah Georgia is two. Ohio State's three. Alabama's four.
00:33:21
Speaker
Oregon is five. And then you got Florida at six. Michigan at seven. And then the the world rounds out the top ten are LSU, Auburn, and Texas A&M. Okay.
00:33:31
Speaker
Okay.

Recruiting Rankings and Conference Domination

00:33:32
Speaker
Um, that sounds, that sounds a little more credible than all SEC schools in the top seven. and Well, said seven, seven, no, so I said seven of the top 10 were SEC. Yeah. Okay.
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah. Cause we had seven SEC, three big tens, um, or big 10 schools. Um, let's see then to to look at where, where you and I sit, uh, Missouri is actually really good. Uh,
00:33:58
Speaker
They're sitting with the number 22 recruiting class overall. And Illinois down at number 37.
00:34:07
Speaker
ah Looks like you guys picked up a one four-star recruit. How you guys did that, I don't know. But, hey, you know.
00:34:18
Speaker
No, so yeah i mean I think i think we're seeing we're seeing what you and I have talked about before is that, you know, football, even though it's taken a little bit of a backseat in some respects this past season, it's the SEC is still going to be king as far as the football goes.
00:34:36
Speaker
As far as recruiting, yeah, they, they ah you know, and that's kind of Missouri at the end of, well, if want call it the upper 20s. That's kind of typical for them because there's so many other schools that just recruit better.
00:34:51
Speaker
Of course, you know, we've talked about this, Don, now on now with this the transfer portal and all that and retaining those guys is a whole different subject. Oh, that's yeah.
00:35:03
Speaker
So that can get chip away at yours. So it's, it's you it's your coach's ability to raid the transfer portal and replace, replace losses or just take away. I mean, you know, that's, that's really where a lot of the skill comes to. it I'm not sure, you know, recruiting is going to be important, but as long as you've got that wide open transfer portal, you know,
00:35:25
Speaker
you know I'm not sure that that if you're you're not a top-team recruiting class, I'm not sure it's that big of a deal anymore. You've got to tell you can rate it can raid and steal other players away from other schools. Right. Well, i think it's also dependent upon um the excuse me, the the sport, because I i think you're you' think you're seeing in in football, I think you're, or in basketball, you're right.
00:35:52
Speaker
you could You can restock a team without even grabbing a freshman with the transfer portal the way it is. Uh, football, think it's a different story. I think football, you are still going to need some of those guys who are going to, um you know, come in as freshmen, uh, and at least stick around a couple of years to see and, and maybe turn into something.
00:36:13
Speaker
Uh, and like you said, it's retaining those guys, uh, in this past season and the off season in Illinois, I know we had, ah everybody was worried about Luke Altmire, uh, because Josh McCray left and transferred out.
00:36:29
Speaker
can't remember what school he went to right now at the top of my head, but then he lost his two top receivers to the NFL and everybody's worried about, you know, okay, Luke's gone. So now we're going to be back into, back into crapper again. And, um,
00:36:44
Speaker
Bielema was very good at keeping him, um keeping a couple of top defensive players the on the team.
00:36:55
Speaker
um and like say and And that speaks volumes. When when when you can have somebody that's and the same thing with Brad Underwood last year after the basketball team. You had four guys immediately draw transfer out.
00:37:07
Speaker
arab Everybody was worried about Ty Rogers. He was on, he took a red shirt year. and Okay. He's going to come off his red shirt. He's going to go someplace else. He said, no, I'm staying. ah Kylan Boswell was going to be reported as going somewhere. He said, no, I'm staying.
00:37:22
Speaker
ah Thomas Lavicevich. He said, Hey, he says, I ain't going any place. ah He, you know, so yeah it's just a matter. You're not going to keep them all. I don't think any coach is goingnna be able to retain everybody.
00:37:34
Speaker
um you you'renna You're going to, and now it's just, and like you said, and I think who was it, one ah our um was a Brian Smith um was saying, you know, you're going to lose people. You just don't want to lose the wrong ones.
00:37:49
Speaker
and but Absolutely. Right. so But i do I do agree. I think in basketball with the with the transfer portal, high school recruiting is not going to be a front burner issue unless you can really find those ah like like Brad Underwood has done this year. He's got the top player in New Jersey and the top player in Kansas coming in.
00:38:08
Speaker
um If you can find those kids, you go after those kids. I think you're going to see a lot of those borderline kids that, in basketball especially, that teams normally took a chance on are going to slip down to Division II or slip down to the mid-majors, whereas they might get a shot at a Rutgers to to to be a project on the bench, if you will.
00:38:32
Speaker
um But if you know if you can get a sophomore or junior from another program who is going to fit your bill already has been exposed to college basketball already knows what's going on.
00:38:46
Speaker
He's a better pick than that kid that you're going to try and make a project out of for sure. Right. Right. No doubt about that.

College Football Playoff Expansion Debate

00:38:53
Speaker
Okay. So, uh, now I want to get to, as I call the, the, the the the break, the possible breakup of the bromance.
00:39:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. in the, in his recent talks about the college football playoff. And we we, like you said, we all know it's going to expand and there's no ifs, ands, buts it's going to expand. It's just a question of what year they're going to do it in.
00:39:20
Speaker
Um, and, We had discussed a long time ago ago a while back that the Big Ten and the SEC were kind of joining forces to kind of push this narrative and get a a ah ah playoff system in place.
00:39:37
Speaker
And ah it seems now that... um They have a different view of how that's supposed to go. um you know, and and I'm going to have to say this and even being a Big Ten a person as I am, um I think the Big Ten is looking at this very selfishly and the and completely the wrong direction.
00:40:02
Speaker
They are in favor of the 4-4-2-2 playoff scenario, which is four teams from the Big Ten, four teams from the SEC, two from the Big 12, two from the ACC, and then the rest are filled in at large births.
00:40:22
Speaker
um I think they want that because they want a guarantee to get teams in, whereas the SEC, who originally while they said they didn't back that plan and i think i got sankey's uh comment here um
00:40:41
Speaker
somewhere say He said that they, it's something that they would, that they are are not, ah they weren't prepared to get behind, but it was definitely an option or something of that nature. yeah Now they have come, come away and are endorsing, it seems at least ah endorsing the plan that is put forth by,
00:41:07
Speaker
um I believe was the big 12, if I remember right, o which is the five plus 11. refers to the five plus 11 model, which um is ah the top five or the five, uh, main conference, ah champions or four, four of these, the power of four conference champions and one from the, what they, what they are now calling the group of six.
00:41:38
Speaker
So I guess they're including the pack 10 into that now. Um, which, and you, I discussed this. I think that's probably the better model if there is a model. Um, um,
00:41:51
Speaker
And the what the other thing that seems to be going on here where they're having their differences is the SEC, um they want to have a better metric and to look at strength of schedule.
00:42:08
Speaker
But the SEC and the ACC play an eight-game conference schedule. home The Big 12 and the Big 10 play a nine-game conference schedule. Mm-hmm.
00:42:19
Speaker
And I guess it's the Big Ten is saying everybody needs to be on the same schedule. Right, right. Which I think that's that. To me, that does sound legitimate. I get that.
00:42:32
Speaker
Because you've got, because like like a a guy pointed out, okay, you've got a 9-0 Tennessee team, let's say, coming near the end of the season. Mm-hmm. And they've got an automatic win coming against an FCS school. They know they've got it coming up.
00:42:48
Speaker
Mm-hmm. So they could lose out, beat that FCS, make sure they beat the FCS school, lose out the other two games and make the playoffs. Yeah. at ten and ten yeah You're right. I mean, you know, that's, um, the eight game schedule is something that the ah coaches, you know, have really gotten him into Sankey's ear on this.
00:43:12
Speaker
um you know, there was a movement a couple of years ago, Don, to go ahead and, um, go ahead in the SEC and go with nine games. But then they got thinking about it.
00:43:26
Speaker
And they feel like the eight-game conference schedule is tough enough. And going to nine-game conference, what they're afraid of is that they'll if they had that ninth conference game with the way that the committee is set up now, they could see themselves like at Ole Miss or a South Carolina at nine and three and not getting invited and feel like they're one the better teams.
00:43:47
Speaker
out there. they They could see that. That's why they go they went back to supporting excuse me this 5-11 deal. There's more at large teams available. right and so ah you know they you know People complaining about SMU getting in.
00:44:03
Speaker
People are complaining about I see who else am I trying to think of Don who got in that. Well, I heard complaints about Indiana or complaints about Arizona State.
00:44:18
Speaker
theres almost big The biggest complaint about Arizona State and SMU, I think, or no. Arizona State was the conference champion. Right. you know like the but I think the biggest complaint about those guys were that SMU and... Or no, if Arizona State especially.
00:44:36
Speaker
Maybe it was SMU too. Were outside of... Or not... No, not SMU. Clemson. No, it was Boise State. think you're thinking... Anyway, there was two teams that were outside of the top 12 that got...
00:44:54
Speaker
a first round by. Well, that was, his that was Arizona state and Boise state. It was Boise state and Arizona. That's right. And that was, that was the biggest complaint on that I saw was, was because, and they're right. I mean, if you've got a ranking and okay, these teams get in because they're a conference champion,
00:45:15
Speaker
But if they're not ranked in the top 12 or 14 or 16, whichever, how many teams we were going to we're going to rank to put in the playoff, then they should come in at that bottom level, at that bottom team.
00:45:28
Speaker
They shouldn't be vaulted to a higher position than anybody else just because they're a conference champion. I mean, they don't do that necessarily in basketball.
00:45:39
Speaker
So why would you do it in football? And I think that's some of the metrics they're talking about is because it says here, the SEC appears open to continue with selection committee, but one of the tweaks that currently used metrics and weighs the strength of schedule more heavily than it has in the past.
00:45:54
Speaker
Such a development wouldn't require a move to a AQ heavy format. The key for sec leaders is they want to be rewarded for how difficult they believe it is to win in a conference as is.
00:46:07
Speaker
Right. Right. Yeah. you know Yeah. That's it. I mean, you know, they, they feel like they play at their conference is a tough conference schedule. It is now, ah They feel like, you know, SMU and Indiana getting selected when the metrics didn't rate you know rise up to the to what they thought they should be.
00:46:26
Speaker
And that Boise State and Arizona State got by. They're not complaining about them giving winning their conference championship. Right. just And so, you know, that's that that's their main concern.
00:46:40
Speaker
you know Don, if you'd asked me two years ago, would the SEC be moving to nine games, I would have said yes, they they will do it soon. But i'm not so I think they're holding out on this until they get ah the the committee to apply more to the metrics that night than they did last year.
00:47:00
Speaker
And mean they'll hold that carrot, I think, in front of the committee or whatever until they get that two they they get their way on this. ah But, you know, you're right about the sense that it makes sense.
00:47:14
Speaker
Like the NFL, everybody plays the same round of games. Right. Yeah. It makes sense that way. and And that's why we're moving to ah the NFL professional model anyway.
00:47:25
Speaker
Right. So it's they need to work this out some way. I don't know But, you know, they need to make some sort of compromise on this going to the metrics, you know, leaning more on metrics than just the committee decision making a guess or whatever, you know.
00:47:41
Speaker
Well, it's there's a there's a comment line in here. it says the SEC's regular season Gollum memo signaled to the Big Ten leaders that the conference just wants a formula that proclaims it.
00:47:53
Speaker
claims it is the best rather than any real changes. The big 10 is more convinced than ever that more automatic qualifiers are the way to fix the problem, not a tweet SOS metric.
00:48:06
Speaker
um So yeah i don't think, I don't think they could, the two sides could be any further apart on this than that. Yeah. It looks like they are right now. You know, I don't know what kind of compromises they can make, but I know Sankey was late, like you said earlier, and we had talked about this before, but, Sanky was leaning with the Big Ten commissioner on this thing as far as moving forward.
00:48:29
Speaker
ah But then the coaches got into his ear big time. in So he kind of he kind of changed his tune a little bit, so or quite a bit. So I don't know where it goes from here. I don't see the SEC adding nine games.
00:48:43
Speaker
Anytime soon until.

Motives Behind Playoff Changes

00:48:45
Speaker
Yeah. i yeah yeah I, the the one thing I also states in here, the one thing, the big change arguments they say is, is the belief that more automatic qualifiers would add to potential play in championship weekend and keep more program fan bases invested later into the season.
00:49:04
Speaker
I think that's utter bullshit. But, I think what they're wanting for those play-in games is more revenue. That's why they want play-in games. They want more revenue. Forget the fan base being there. They just want more money.
00:49:18
Speaker
Yeah, kind of laianc double like the NCAA tournament, the playing games. Yeah, it's about but money. Yeah, sure. It's all about money, and that's all it ever it's ever going to be is about money. Right. So I just think, I don't know, like you say, I think they're going to have to come up with, they're gonna have to kiss and make up soon because, you know, um they don't want to drag this out too long, and they've got to make a decision on on how they're going to do the rankings and stuff for this coming season.
00:49:43
Speaker
Absolutely. Because I don't think they want that same quagmire they had last year. Uh, like you said, where we have two teams that are not in the top 12 that are, uh, getting buys.
00:49:55
Speaker
Um, I just don't think that's right. Um, but you know what, then again, what do I know? Yeah. But, uh, well, uh, Russ, it's been a wonderful evening as always. Um,
00:50:08
Speaker
ah yeah I mean, we we yeah we kind of went over the game, but a little bit and went over the place. But, you know, like I said, it's been a slow period right now and, i you know, real slow. I know the NFL draft is coming up in a couple of weeks. So maybe we'll have ah we'll talk a little bit about some of the college guys that are that are moving on.
00:50:27
Speaker
are you talking about the nba drug the draft excuse me not the nfl the nba draft the nfl's already happened the nba draft um i know well i i was looking the predictions earlier and like three of the first five or first eight or something like that that are chose that that they say are going to be picked are three duke players so you know go figure that one out yeah Well, we can talk about that in a couple of weeks.

Closing Remarks and Promotions

00:50:54
Speaker
so exactly So until then, where can we find you, my friend?
00:50:58
Speaker
I'm Blue Sky. I'm Russ57. You can find me there on Twitter. I'm Uncle Frank, FRRobinson1957.
00:51:09
Speaker
And I float around some of the Facebook groups, Cardinal Facebook and Mizzou Facebook groups. So you should find me there. All right. Well, and you can find me right here as always or you on my other podcast, Talking Sports with Uncle Don, found on the Gateway Sports Network and Spotify as well.
00:51:29
Speaker
Also, the i be I'm still working on it and possibly will be at least that program will be will be also be on ah YouTube. I'm going to try that on this next next one maybe and see how it goes. It may be my one and only try, but we'll give it a shot.
00:51:47
Speaker
ah You can also find me at ah on twitter or x i guess i keep calling it twitter for some reason uh at tso tb gcs you can also look me up later down the road here in another couple weeks on the ship for allini sports on the champagne room i'm going to start writing for those guys as well um So check us all out.
00:52:13
Speaker
And don't forget to check out Gateway Sports for many other podcasts, like the 2 for 3 with Moose Michaels, the team of rivals with Ron Nettle, Pete Geddes, and Elliot Dewey. Ron also teams up with Chris Hambleton for At the Park and look at St. Louis City soccer.
00:52:28
Speaker
Rodney Capel and Tim Van Stratton team up for the stupidest sports show on earth. You can also find... the one and only Derek King with the Derek King show. And of course I did mention my talking sports on the bleaches with uncle Don.
00:52:43
Speaker
So until we meet again, i want you guys to have fun, stay safe, talk with us next time when we produce the NC double a report with Don and Russ.
00:52:55
Speaker
Good night, everybody.