# The State of the Big 12: From CFP Credibility to Kansas State's Reboot (with John Kurtz)

An episode of [The Solid Verbal College Football Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/270037732), 17 Feb 2026, 59 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/21437ee1-47d9-4b16-8696-b30d011a2c26/67f7805b-9643-4d65-b213-b3f30144150b/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=51c7e0eb-425c-4d93-b5a8-b30d011a2c46

In this episode, we're joined by John Kurtz of the Open For Business podcast and newsletter to talk about the state of the Big 12 conferenced heading into the 2026 college football season. We discuss whether Oregon's playoff shutout of Texas Tech will leave a lasting mark on the Big 12's reputation, the importance of BYU's upcoming game against Notre Dame in Week 7, the scoop on what happened at Kansas State last season, and a hypothetical future state with North Dakota State in the conference. Sign up for John's newsletter (https://www.ofbnews.com/) and check out his show (https://www.youtube.com/@JohnKurtzShow). Support the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbal See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal.
[0:04] Speaker 2: I'll that for me.
[0:06] Speaker 3: I'm a man, I'm for I've heard so many players say, well,
[0:09] Speaker 3: I want to be happy.
[0:10] Speaker 2: You want to be happy for day Ada State? Is
[0:13] Speaker 2: that whoo whoom?
[0:14] Speaker 1: And Dan and Tye.
[0:18] Speaker 4: For Bus welcome back to the show. My name is
[0:22] Speaker 4: ty Hildenbrand. Dan Rubinstein took the boys out to the
[0:25] Speaker 4: West coast to visit the grandparents to catch some rays.
[0:29] Speaker 1: He is not going to be part of today's episode.
[0:32] Speaker 1: He will be.
[0:32] Speaker 2: Back later on this week in his stead.
[0:36] Speaker 4: I wanted to bring on a guy who we first
[0:39] Speaker 4: brought on for the first time last year. John Kurtz
[0:43] Speaker 4: runs the Open for Business podcast and newsletter. He is
[0:47] Speaker 4: really sharp. He has focused on the Big Twelve, among
[0:50] Speaker 4: other topics across college sports, even if you are not
[0:54] Speaker 4: a Big twelve fan. I think he comes at college
[0:57] Speaker 4: football from a perspective that a chunk of our audience
[1:01] Speaker 4: will find resonates with them. So very excited to bring
[1:04] Speaker 4: him back on talk about all things Big twelve, where
[1:07] Speaker 4: the conference is at. He knows a lot about k State,
[1:10] Speaker 4: which obviously is going to have a new college football
[1:13] Speaker 4: coach in twenty twenty six. I want to talk to
[1:15] Speaker 4: him about a whole range of things, and of course
[1:18] Speaker 4: I will put the links to all of his fine
[1:20] Speaker 4: work down in our description. Of course, if you are
[1:24] Speaker 4: just finding us for the very first time here over
[1:27] Speaker 4: at Solid Verbal, please hit follow, please hit subscribe wherever
[1:31] Speaker 4: you can so that you do not miss any of
[1:33] Speaker 4: our episodes again, going at it twice per week all
[1:36] Speaker 4: throughout the offseason. And of course we do have a
[1:39] Speaker 4: free newsletter which you can find at soliverbal dot com
[1:42] Speaker 4: slash newsletter. As many of you are listening to this
[1:45] Speaker 4: on Tuesday morning, we should be hitting your inbox relatively
[1:49] Speaker 4: soon with a bit of a blurb on mister Beast
[1:53] Speaker 4: apparently putting a ton of money into the ECU college
[1:57] Speaker 4: football program. I don't know if that's a yet, it
[2:00] Speaker 4: seems like it's trending in that direction.
[2:02] Speaker 1: But a YouTube.
[2:03] Speaker 4: Influencer trying to help ECU win a national championship is
[2:07] Speaker 4: very much something that is our speed. So we'll talk
[2:09] Speaker 4: about that in our newsletter and of course much much
[2:12] Speaker 4: more throughout the course of the long and cold off season.
[2:17] Speaker 4: Without further ado, our guest of honor today is John Kurtz.
[2:20] Speaker 1: He listen all.
[2:21] Speaker 4: Right, I am pleased to welcome back today's guest of honor.
[2:25] Speaker 4: His name is John Kurtz from the Open for Business
[2:28] Speaker 4: podcast and newsletter. Quote I cover the Big twelve like
[2:33] Speaker 4: it's the center of the sport because for us it
[2:37] Speaker 4: is end quote. Hell yeah, John Kurtz, welcome back to
[2:40] Speaker 4: the show, my friend. How you doing, hey time man?
[2:43] Speaker 4: Thank you for that.
[2:44] Speaker 3: Yes, this is a place where we can find some
[2:46] Speaker 3: Big twelve respect, and I know that your podcast is
[2:49] Speaker 3: a place for that as well, so I appreciate the invite.
[2:52] Speaker 4: Usually I do this at the end, but because I
[2:54] Speaker 4: respect your work so much, tell people right out of
[2:58] Speaker 4: the shoot here where they can and find all the
[3:01] Speaker 4: stuff that you're doing.
[3:02] Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate that. So on YouTube definitely where the
[3:05] Speaker 3: biggest following is. But you can find the Open for
[3:07] Speaker 3: Business Big twelve podcast on YouTube if you search that.
[3:11] Speaker 3: You can also find it on podcast platforms if you
[3:13] Speaker 3: would prefer to find it there, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, whatever.
[3:17] Speaker 3: And then the Open for Business Big twelve newsletter. You
[3:19] Speaker 3: can sign up at ofbnews dot com. That's ofbnews dot
[3:23] Speaker 3: com and I have just recently started a channel to
[3:27] Speaker 3: do a little more national stuff. It's OFB College Football
[3:30] Speaker 3: if you're interested in that. But obviously most of what
[3:32] Speaker 3: I'm doing here is the Big twelve centric stuff.
[3:35] Speaker 2: Cool, well, go and check John out.
[3:37] Speaker 4: I want to peel back the curtain here for just
[3:39] Speaker 4: a moment because and John'll probably laugh when I bring
[3:43] Speaker 4: this up, I sent you a note at the end
[3:46] Speaker 4: of last year. I wanted to put together a Predictions episode.
[3:50] Speaker 4: Right like whatever podcast you listen to, if it's news,
[3:53] Speaker 4: if it's sports, if it's tech, everybody does some version
[3:56] Speaker 4: of the Prediction episode, and our version of it was
[3:59] Speaker 4: going to be, Hey, I'm going to reach out to
[4:02] Speaker 4: all these great guests that we have on throughout the
[4:04] Speaker 4: course of a year. I want them to send in
[4:06] Speaker 4: a voice memo. I'm going to play him or going
[4:09] Speaker 4: to react to them. It's going to be the first
[4:11] Speaker 4: episode that we put out, first non playoff episode that
[4:14] Speaker 4: we put out in twenty twenty six.
[4:18] Speaker 1: Then I got sick for like three weeks.
[4:21] Speaker 4: Then when I got better, there was obviously everything going
[4:24] Speaker 4: on with the playoffs and just got really hectic.
[4:26] Speaker 1: We didn't have the bandwidth to put it together.
[4:30] Speaker 4: I will say one of the predictions that we did
[4:33] Speaker 4: get was from.
[4:35] Speaker 1: Our guest of honor today, John Kurtz, which I.
[4:37] Speaker 4: Am going to play now. I did not want it
[4:38] Speaker 4: to go to waste. John, So here is what you
[4:41] Speaker 4: sent into me. I guess at the end of the
[4:43] Speaker 4: calendar year.
[4:43] Speaker 2: Hey, what's up, guys.
[4:44] Speaker 3: This is John Kurtz from the Open for Business Big
[4:46] Speaker 3: twelve podcast and newsletter. My twenty twenty six prediction. Something
[4:50] Speaker 3: in the college football Playoff will enrage the establishment enough
[4:53] Speaker 3: to create a rule change. You're one of the twelve
[4:55] Speaker 3: team playoff. It was the audacity of Boise State in
[4:58] Speaker 3: Arizona State to get first round even though Arizona State
[5:02] Speaker 3: was one play away from beating Texas.
[5:04] Speaker 2: Year two, it's the gall of the.
[5:05] Speaker 3: Group of five to think they deserve even a sliver
[5:08] Speaker 3: of access to the playoff in a system that's totally
[5:11] Speaker 3: rigged against them.
[5:12] Speaker 2: Year three.
[5:13] Speaker 3: Who knows, but somebody's gonna get blown out and Lin
[5:16] Speaker 3: Kiffin will fire off forty tweets in between cryptic hot
[5:18] Speaker 3: yoga poems to force whatever change they decide they want.
[5:22] Speaker 4: All right, So, now that we've finally found a way
[5:24] Speaker 4: to use that great prediction, I guess my question to
[5:27] Speaker 4: you is, what are they going to change? What is
[5:33] Speaker 4: your perspective on the lay of the land in college football.
[5:37] Speaker 4: They're sticking with the twelve team field. They made some
[5:40] Speaker 4: subtle changes, right like Notre Dame maybe has a bit
[5:43] Speaker 4: of an easier pathway in depending on how they finish.
[5:46] Speaker 4: It's not going to be so much I guess voodoo
[5:49] Speaker 4: with respect to which conference champions get in, Like those
[5:53] Speaker 4: those teams that win conferences are going to get in.
[5:55] Speaker 4: But there's still so much wiggle room. And I think
[5:58] Speaker 4: we all see the writing on the wall that there
[6:00] Speaker 4: will be changes at some point before long. It's just
[6:03] Speaker 4: a matter of when. So as things stand right now,
[6:07] Speaker 4: do you stand by that prediction? And how are we
[6:09] Speaker 4: feeling about I guess the landscape here in the short
[6:13] Speaker 4: term for college football and the college football playoff?
[6:16] Speaker 3: Yeah boy, you can you can tell from the snark
[6:18] Speaker 3: there that that was like in the heat of the
[6:19] Speaker 3: moment as everything was happening in the college football playoff
[6:22] Speaker 3: at the time. My fear has been Now, I guess
[6:28] Speaker 3: I'll start with this. I am pleasantly surprised that we're
[6:31] Speaker 3: going to have a twelve team playoff again and that
[6:33] Speaker 3: we didn't move toward the next iteration of what it
[6:36] Speaker 3: is already. I am fearful of, especially in light of
[6:41] Speaker 3: Texas Tech getting blown out in the College Football Playoff,
[6:43] Speaker 3: that like the next thing will eventually be. I mean,
[6:46] Speaker 3: it seems like we're going to get conference champions in there,
[6:49] Speaker 3: right and that the Big twelves place will be secure,
[6:51] Speaker 3: and the ACC for that matter, because with everything that
[6:54] Speaker 3: happened with its conference champion this year, obviously that could be.
[6:57] Speaker 2: Up in the air as well. But my fear has just.
[6:59] Speaker 3: Been we continue to move more and more toward like, well,
[7:02] Speaker 3: we can't have G five teams getting blown out, we
[7:04] Speaker 3: can't have Big twelve teams getting blown out. We can't
[7:06] Speaker 3: have ACC teams getting blown out as a couple of
[7:09] Speaker 3: them did the year before. So just hey, everybody, you
[7:13] Speaker 3: got to get in on merit. We're not giving away
[7:15] Speaker 3: anything to the Big twelve or the ACC's That's sort
[7:18] Speaker 3: of where I was going with that and where my
[7:19] Speaker 3: fear is. I don't think I think there's enough resistance
[7:23] Speaker 3: there that it's not going to happen anytime really soon.
[7:27] Speaker 3: But as a Big twelve guy, that's always been my defense.
[7:31] Speaker 3: Mechanisms go up with that, and you know, like frankly,
[7:35] Speaker 3: Texas Tech had a that was a terrible performance, Like,
[7:37] Speaker 3: I think that's going to reverberate for the league for
[7:39] Speaker 3: a long time, unfortunately, until somebody gets back there and
[7:43] Speaker 3: proves them wrong. But the frustration for me in all
[7:47] Speaker 3: of that was, yes, Texas Tech did not perform very well.
[7:51] Speaker 3: I was early on the I don't want to say
[7:55] Speaker 3: like anti parent Morton. I respect him, but I was
[7:57] Speaker 3: early on the I don't like Texas Tech ceiling with
[8:00] Speaker 3: Baron Morton as quarterback trained, So that didn't totally shock me.
[8:05] Speaker 3: But just the year before, I mean Arizona State again,
[8:07] Speaker 3: it just kills me that they blew the fourth and
[8:10] Speaker 3: thirteen stop against Texas to win that game of the
[8:12] Speaker 3: Peach Bowl. But they were that close, and that was
[8:15] Speaker 3: the team that was picked last in the Big twelve
[8:17] Speaker 3: preseason poll that year, so we're not It's not like
[8:20] Speaker 3: the Big Twelve can't compete here. And that's my overall
[8:23] Speaker 3: frustration with the playoff in general, is that nobody has
[8:25] Speaker 3: any tolerance for any blowout at virtually any level, unless
[8:30] Speaker 3: you're like Tennessee getting blasted by Ohio State, and then
[8:33] Speaker 3: Lin Kiffin does not have any tweets to fire off
[8:35] Speaker 3: about it, right, But anybody that's below the SEC or
[8:38] Speaker 3: Big ten threshold getting blown out in the college football playoff.
[8:41] Speaker 3: Nobody has any tolerance for it. And that's really frustrating
[8:43] Speaker 3: to me because I think that's always going to be
[8:46] Speaker 3: there to some point, and if we continue to just
[8:49] Speaker 3: eliminate teams or groups because of that as you gradually
[8:54] Speaker 3: go down the list, then you're going to wind up
[8:56] Speaker 3: with a system that cuts out so much of what's
[8:59] Speaker 3: great about about college football. So that's my concern and
[9:02] Speaker 3: where I was going with all that.
[9:03] Speaker 1: I have some thoughts on that that I'm going to
[9:04] Speaker 1: bring up in a little bit.
[9:05] Speaker 4: I want to kind of test a concept as we
[9:08] Speaker 4: go through this conversation. But more to the point of
[9:11] Speaker 4: the Texas Tech game. I remember watching your reaction breakdown
[9:17] Speaker 4: whatever we want to call it video after the Texas
[9:20] Speaker 4: Tech Oregon game, and you said something that stuck with me,
[9:24] Speaker 4: which was that college football fans have the memory of
[9:26] Speaker 4: a goldfish, and that despite Texas Tech having a great
[9:31] Speaker 4: season objectively a great season, despite earning the number four
[9:34] Speaker 4: seed getting the first round by ultimately getting shut out
[9:38] Speaker 4: twenty three to zip against Oregon, as you just eluded,
[9:41] Speaker 4: that's going to be the thing that draws the headlines
[9:44] Speaker 4: on the national level now that where a couple weeks
[9:47] Speaker 4: weremoved from that game, do you still feel that way.
[9:53] Speaker 2: Somewhat?
[9:54] Speaker 3: I will say that one thing I feel like that
[9:56] Speaker 3: has helped, and it goes right in line with you
[9:59] Speaker 3: saying that everybody has the mo of a goldfish, and
[10:01] Speaker 3: you know we're onto the next news cycle. Is Texas
[10:03] Speaker 3: Tech unsurprisingly crushed it in the portal again.
[10:06] Speaker 2: So now that's where everybody goes to it.
[10:09] Speaker 3: And I'm looking at the way too early top twenty
[10:11] Speaker 3: fives and where everybody's at on Texas Tech like feeling
[10:14] Speaker 3: that out. There's there's a lot of hype for Texas
[10:17] Speaker 3: Tech once again. I see them in the top ten
[10:19] Speaker 3: all over the place, So it seems like everybody is
[10:24] Speaker 3: still willing to accept like, Okay, we know that Texas
[10:26] Speaker 3: Tech in this era has a bunch of money. They're
[10:28] Speaker 3: going to get talent. We trust their portal class. They're
[10:31] Speaker 3: clearly doing things the right way. Some of that is
[10:34] Speaker 3: it's not just the money. Tech has a really organized operation.
[10:37] Speaker 3: James Blanchard is an awesome GM. Joey Maguire I think
[10:41] Speaker 3: has clearly built a culture like there's a lot going
[10:43] Speaker 3: there and so people have bought in enough to that,
[10:47] Speaker 3: and now they look at it and say, all right, well,
[10:48] Speaker 3: Brendon Sarsby is a more dynamic quarterback than what they
[10:51] Speaker 3: had last year, and Baron Morton and a gimpy Baron
[10:54] Speaker 3: Morton at that in the playoffs, so there seems to
[10:57] Speaker 3: be more buy in. I'm like, hey, Texas Tech could
[10:58] Speaker 3: really be this team. I think I have been pleasantly
[11:03] Speaker 3: surprised at where text respect level is going into this season,
[11:08] Speaker 3: and to a lesser extent BYU's as well. Now the
[11:11] Speaker 3: Parker Kingston News is going to hurt some of that.
[11:13] Speaker 3: We'll see what that does. But I think even BYU,
[11:15] Speaker 3: there's been a decent level of respect to the twenty
[11:19] Speaker 3: three wins they've had the last two years in the
[11:21] Speaker 3: program that they have built. So I'm a little less,
[11:25] Speaker 3: you know, in the moment, I was pretty down about it.
[11:27] Speaker 3: I felt pretty bad about it. The day that it happened.
[11:29] Speaker 3: I was like, this is going to be I think
[11:31] Speaker 3: a lot of people are.
[11:33] Speaker 1: I don't think you're alone in that. I think a
[11:34] Speaker 1: lot of people.
[11:35] Speaker 4: I mean, we had people who wrote into us almost immediately,
[11:37] Speaker 4: people who are almost flooding the reverblondb. We don't even
[11:40] Speaker 4: do a reverb that week, people talking about, you know, like,
[11:43] Speaker 4: what's this going to mean? I think it's a fair
[11:45] Speaker 4: reaction given where we're at. And the reason I asked
[11:49] Speaker 4: the question is because I also feel a little bit
[11:51] Speaker 4: differently now, being six weeks whatever removed from that game.
[11:57] Speaker 4: For many of the reasons that you brought up, Texas
[11:59] Speaker 4: Tech has conte nude, you know, just one team in
[12:01] Speaker 4: the Big Twelve, sure, but Texas Tech has continued forging
[12:05] Speaker 4: ahead with its foot on the gas, especially with respect
[12:08] Speaker 4: to the portal. And though we've had many Tech fans
[12:12] Speaker 4: over the last year right in and almost express some
[12:16] Speaker 4: sort of disdain over the fact that we would bring
[12:19] Speaker 4: up Cody Campbell and how they're spending, and it's only
[12:22] Speaker 4: part of the story, guys, don't make it all about that, granted,
[12:26] Speaker 4: But also I think the fact that they are spending,
[12:29] Speaker 4: that they are so aggressive, indirectly gives the conference more credibility,
[12:33] Speaker 4: which is not a bad thing if you are a
[12:34] Speaker 4: Big twelve fan.
[12:36] Speaker 2: Totally agree.
[12:36] Speaker 3: And I mean the interesting thing about it is if
[12:38] Speaker 3: you go back, I mean, shoot, even last year at
[12:41] Speaker 3: this time, like I remember talking about Tech last year
[12:43] Speaker 3: at this time, and I had Tech fans that will
[12:45] Speaker 3: get frustrated at me because I continue to say I
[12:47] Speaker 3: was like, guys, I have not seen them win more
[12:49] Speaker 3: than nine games in a regular season since Mike Leach
[12:51] Speaker 3: was there, Like, you got to prove it to me first.
[12:53] Speaker 2: Last year, it was still.
[12:54] Speaker 3: The narrative of like this is the zany Conference where
[12:57] Speaker 3: anybody can beat anybody, and there's no real tent pole
[13:00] Speaker 3: team at the top. And now it seems like just
[13:03] Speaker 3: one year later, everybody is like locked into oh yeah, okay,
[13:06] Speaker 3: they've got it, Like that's the team that's going to
[13:07] Speaker 3: make the playoff every year. That's the team that will
[13:09] Speaker 3: have the talent to do it every year, and you
[13:11] Speaker 3: need that. Like look at the Big Ten versus the
[13:14] Speaker 3: SEC right now. It's funny to me how the SEC
[13:16] Speaker 3: has kind of turned into the Big twelve model of
[13:20] Speaker 3: what everybody thought it would be a couple of years ago.
[13:21] Speaker 3: It's a bunch of good teams that are beating each
[13:25] Speaker 3: other up, and that's the narrative about it, whereas the
[13:27] Speaker 3: Big Ten is teams at the top. You know, you've
[13:30] Speaker 3: got your three to five teams that are great at
[13:31] Speaker 3: the top and programs that are great at the top
[13:33] Speaker 3: and then a lot of jobbers that just get beat
[13:36] Speaker 3: up on, you know, I mean, and that's been more
[13:39] Speaker 3: successful at the national level. And now the narrative is, hey,
[13:41] Speaker 3: the Big ten's the best conference because they're winning the
[13:43] Speaker 3: national championship. So obviously you scale that down. It's on
[13:46] Speaker 3: a much lesser level in the Big Twelve. But the
[13:49] Speaker 3: Big twelve has needed a team or to jump up there,
[13:51] Speaker 3: and it certainly looks like in this new era, very
[13:54] Speaker 3: quickly both Texas Tech and BYU have positioned themselves to
[13:58] Speaker 3: be those two. Based on Reese is yes, but to
[14:01] Speaker 3: Tech fans points it's a combination of resources, good coaching,
[14:05] Speaker 3: good organization and really good culture that I think are
[14:08] Speaker 3: combining there, and the Big twelve would be well served
[14:11] Speaker 3: if both of those two teams are in the hunt
[14:14] Speaker 3: every single year.
[14:15] Speaker 4: Are you a Brendan Sorsby guy? Are you as gung
[14:19] Speaker 4: ho on Sorsby as apparently Texas Tech Woods. I do
[14:26] Speaker 4: like Brendan Soorsby. I think he's a very good quarterback.
[14:29] Speaker 3: I do think there's a tendency to in the transfer
[14:32] Speaker 3: portal era when you're the guy that gets pigeonholed is
[14:36] Speaker 3: like the number one guy or one of the top guys.
[14:39] Speaker 3: There can be a tendency to I hate using this
[14:42] Speaker 3: word and I feel like it'll get thrown back in
[14:44] Speaker 3: my face. But overrate a quarterback, you know, like Brenton
[14:46] Speaker 3: Sorsby's a really good quarterback. Is Brendon Sorsby like the
[14:50] Speaker 3: best quarterback in the country. I don't know about that,
[14:53] Speaker 3: But I think the thing that I love the most
[14:55] Speaker 3: about it for Texas Tech is that he he clearly
[14:57] Speaker 3: has a higher ceiling than what Baron Morton had. As
[15:00] Speaker 3: much as Morton brought to the program, great leadership, great toughness,
[15:03] Speaker 3: I think he really elevated the floor. But this is
[15:05] Speaker 3: a guy that elevates the ceiling of what Texas Tech
[15:08] Speaker 3: can do. And the thing that killed like so Tech
[15:12] Speaker 3: problems in the Oregon game. Even if we break it
[15:14] Speaker 3: down to that game, they had a there were some
[15:16] Speaker 3: drives when they moved the ball. I mean it was
[15:17] Speaker 3: thirteen to nothing, like late in the third quarter, and
[15:20] Speaker 3: they had the ball inside the red zone. You score
[15:22] Speaker 3: a touchdown there. It's a one possession game. But text
[15:25] Speaker 3: problem all year was they struggled in the red zone
[15:28] Speaker 3: and what is the best antidote to that. It's using
[15:31] Speaker 3: the quarterbacks legs. Barren Morton couldn't do it, not just
[15:34] Speaker 3: because he's not very mobile, but because he got hurt
[15:36] Speaker 3: very on in the year in September and was just
[15:38] Speaker 3: never mobile at all after that. And Sowersby's going to
[15:41] Speaker 3: give them that option, Like now you can unlock that
[15:45] Speaker 3: in the red zone. And if they were scoring touchdowns
[15:47] Speaker 3: in the red zone, I mean, some of those games
[15:49] Speaker 3: that they were winning by twenty three to twenty five
[15:51] Speaker 3: points in the Big twelve, they would have been winning
[15:52] Speaker 3: by forty two and it would have been even more dominant.
[15:55] Speaker 3: So I do think that there's something to that. Now
[15:58] Speaker 3: you've got to replace the d and all that firepower.
[16:01] Speaker 3: That's a whole other conversation.
[16:02] Speaker 1: But separate conversation.
[16:03] Speaker 3: For sure, this gives Texas Tech many more ways to
[16:07] Speaker 3: beat you, I think, is the thing with soresbe But yeah,
[16:09] Speaker 3: you know, I mean even like Sam Levitt, I know,
[16:12] Speaker 3: obviously he's he's in the SEC now, but great player,
[16:15] Speaker 3: but yeah, spent a lot of time hurt and I'm
[16:17] Speaker 3: sitting there looking like boy, I mean, all the programs
[16:20] Speaker 3: clamoring after him the way LSU went after him as
[16:22] Speaker 3: hard as they did, and the money he's making him, Like,
[16:24] Speaker 3: I think Sam Levitt's a really good player, But like,
[16:27] Speaker 3: I don't know, in the portal if especially if you're
[16:29] Speaker 3: at a high profile position like that, I think we
[16:32] Speaker 3: have a tendency everybody wants to get really excited about
[16:35] Speaker 3: that and hype that guy up, and it may.
[16:36] Speaker 2: Inflate the expectations a bit too much.
[16:39] Speaker 4: I think he's better than what they had, and I
[16:43] Speaker 4: do think his legs will make him a much more
[16:47] Speaker 4: dynamic option for that offense. And I you know, we
[16:51] Speaker 4: were both very high on Texas Tech this year. We
[16:55] Speaker 4: obviously like the roster that they put in place. It
[16:57] Speaker 4: became glaringly obvious with each passing that the defense was
[17:01] Speaker 4: going to be a problem for a lot of teams.
[17:02] Speaker 4: But there was this feeling deep down in the pit
[17:07] Speaker 4: of my stomach about is Baron Morton the dude? Is
[17:11] Speaker 4: he the one who can kind of blow the roof
[17:13] Speaker 4: off this thing and take him to new heights, And
[17:17] Speaker 4: whether it was his fault or not, he was not
[17:19] Speaker 4: able to engineer anything special against Oregon and kind of
[17:23] Speaker 4: get them over that hump.
[17:24] Speaker 1: We'll see again.
[17:25] Speaker 4: I don't mean to tease this too much, but I
[17:27] Speaker 4: have some thoughts on just sort of the Big Twelve's
[17:30] Speaker 4: place and in general the landscape around college football, just
[17:34] Speaker 4: from a conference standpoint. But before we get there, I
[17:36] Speaker 4: did want to get your opinion on scheduling in the
[17:41] Speaker 4: Big Twelve.
[17:41] Speaker 1: Now that we're talking about Texas Tech here.
[17:43] Speaker 4: So you called Texas Tech's twenty twenty six schedule a gift,
[17:49] Speaker 4: I want to say on one of your recent videos
[17:51] Speaker 4: something like that, because they miss both BYU and Utah,
[17:56] Speaker 4: they don't play anybody in the non conference. You can
[18:00] Speaker 4: ask that with BYU, which has a very rough conference slate,
[18:04] Speaker 4: excuse me, And they did add Notre Dame in Week seven,
[18:08] Speaker 4: which I think you've also said now is like the
[18:10] Speaker 4: number one most important game for BYU maybe for the
[18:12] Speaker 4: Big Twelve in twenty twenty six. As somebody who is
[18:16] Speaker 4: outspoken about the Big twelve, which scheduling model is better.
[18:21] Speaker 4: Do you prefer the Tech model, which is essentially, let's
[18:24] Speaker 4: assemble the masses here, let's get as good a team
[18:27] Speaker 4: together as we can, and let's find our way into
[18:28] Speaker 4: the playoff and then go from there. Or do you
[18:31] Speaker 4: like the BYU approach, which is partially their own doing
[18:35] Speaker 4: with a non conference slate and bringing in Notre Dame,
[18:38] Speaker 4: but much harder. They will clearly be much more battle
[18:41] Speaker 4: tested in taking both in totality, Which one do you
[18:44] Speaker 4: think is better for the health of the Big twelve?
[18:48] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think there are a lot of
[18:51] Speaker 2: thoughts here. One.
[18:52] Speaker 3: Some of this is just a byproduct of the world
[18:54] Speaker 3: that we're in, right with these bloated conferences, this is
[18:56] Speaker 3: going to be a thing every year in every league.
[18:58] Speaker 3: You are going to wind up with teams that get
[19:01] Speaker 3: the cushy path and the cushy road just because of
[19:04] Speaker 3: unbalanced scheduling, and you have too many teams, and you
[19:06] Speaker 3: know that there are a lot of people to blame
[19:09] Speaker 3: for the pigeonhole that college football has put itself in
[19:12] Speaker 3: in that regard. So with Texas Tech, it's like, yeah,
[19:14] Speaker 3: their non con is is a little bit soft. They
[19:18] Speaker 3: certainly could have tried to at least control some of that. Now,
[19:22] Speaker 3: how many SEC teams could you get to schedule a
[19:24] Speaker 3: home and home with you on short notice to try
[19:26] Speaker 3: and beef up the schedule. That's where I don't know.
[19:29] Speaker 3: The answers to those questions like how much of a
[19:31] Speaker 3: shot Tech would have had to legitimately beef it up
[19:33] Speaker 3: that much. The way the conference schedule has broken, even
[19:37] Speaker 3: if you were looking at it last year, I think
[19:40] Speaker 3: we would have viewed Texas Tech conference schedule for twenty
[19:42] Speaker 3: twenty six much differently than you do now. Like things
[19:45] Speaker 3: have changed so much year to year in the Big Twelve.
[19:48] Speaker 3: It's shifted really fast. That's why the people that you
[19:51] Speaker 3: know are like, hey, I hear the complaint. Can the
[19:53] Speaker 3: Big twelve just you got to make Texas Tech and
[19:55] Speaker 3: be why you play each other? Dynamic scheduling is like
[19:58] Speaker 3: if you start doing that every year, it's just you're
[20:00] Speaker 3: going to be chasing your tail. Like it's impossible to
[20:03] Speaker 3: set that up every year the way that you really
[20:05] Speaker 3: want it to because there has been so much fluctuation
[20:08] Speaker 3: and change. So I don't I say that to say
[20:10] Speaker 3: I don't begrudge Texas Tech too much for the way
[20:13] Speaker 3: their schedule has turned out this year.
[20:15] Speaker 2: Which one is going to be better for the Big Twelve?
[20:17] Speaker 2: I do?
[20:18] Speaker 3: I mean, I love adding Notre Dame. I love the
[20:20] Speaker 3: fact that BYU was able to make that happen. I'm
[20:23] Speaker 3: certainly in favor of anytime the Big Twelve can get
[20:25] Speaker 3: a game against a top tier brand in the sport.
[20:29] Speaker 3: I think they should do it. By the way, Oklahoma
[20:30] Speaker 3: State does play Oregon this year, which they played them
[20:35] Speaker 3: last year too. I don't I probably shouldn't have even
[20:37] Speaker 3: brought that up on the show, but hopefully this one
[20:40] Speaker 3: goes a little bit better.
[20:41] Speaker 4: Different team, right, different team, different players, different it's totally different.
[20:45] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And coming to boom Pickings. So you know,
[20:48] Speaker 3: there are a couple opportunities for the Big twelve, but
[20:50] Speaker 3: obviously Notre Dame gets the headline. Anytime you can make
[20:52] Speaker 3: that happen, I think you got to go do it
[20:53] Speaker 3: because you just don't get those opportunities and you have
[20:57] Speaker 3: to take those shots. And I think we're headed toward
[20:58] Speaker 3: a world where, you know, I mean, there was the
[21:00] Speaker 3: article from Ross Ellinger that came out recently talking about
[21:03] Speaker 3: the SEC thinking about just going totally siloed, only playing themselves. Like,
[21:07] Speaker 3: I think those opportunities are going to be lesser and
[21:10] Speaker 3: lesser and lesser, and no guarantees on what happens in
[21:13] Speaker 3: the playoffs. So go take shoot your shot whenever you can.
[21:16] Speaker 3: And especially the fact that that game's in provo and
[21:19] Speaker 3: BYU has been this team the last two years that
[21:22] Speaker 3: has been on the outside looking into the playoff when
[21:25] Speaker 3: they should have been at the very least right there
[21:27] Speaker 3: in the discussion. You know, last year, everybody appropriately made
[21:30] Speaker 3: a big deal about you know, ESPN's literally leaving them
[21:32] Speaker 3: off the graphic, right, it's going like ten, eleven, thirteen, right,
[21:36] Speaker 3: and then a little note like oh yeah, by the way,
[21:38] Speaker 3: BYUS twelve or so, and even the year before, you know,
[21:42] Speaker 3: I mean, Miami was considered like the last team out
[21:44] Speaker 3: and right there, and I felt like BYU had an
[21:45] Speaker 3: objectively better resume to Miami and they just weren't a
[21:48] Speaker 3: part of the conversation. So BYU needs this, like they
[21:50] Speaker 3: had to go do something to earn a level of
[21:54] Speaker 3: respect that just frankly has not been there for them yet.
[21:57] Speaker 3: So I think in that situation it works. I could
[22:00] Speaker 3: also hear, though, an argument where you would say, well,
[22:02] Speaker 3: Texas Tech, John you just said, has all this respect.
[22:05] Speaker 3: Everybody already thinks they're a top ten team, They respect
[22:08] Speaker 3: the talent that they have. Roll out there in easy schedule.
[22:11] Speaker 3: Just go unbeaten, win the Big twelve time, Like, you'll
[22:15] Speaker 3: be fine because everybody respects what you did last year
[22:18] Speaker 3: and people in college football respect recruiting rankings and portal
[22:22] Speaker 3: rankings above almost anything else, right, Like, that's such a
[22:25] Speaker 3: powerful currency, and Texas Tech has that right now. They
[22:29] Speaker 3: have that in spades. It's not just the literal currency.
[22:31] Speaker 3: It's kind of the social currency of college football that
[22:33] Speaker 3: Texas Tech has built up so much of that they
[22:36] Speaker 3: can probably survive having the easier schedule like that. Now
[22:40] Speaker 3: you can't slip up and lose a dumb game or two,
[22:43] Speaker 3: which did happen last year when they had a quarterback injury.
[22:46] Speaker 3: So there's some give and take to it. But I
[22:49] Speaker 3: think there are two unique scenarios that almost play well
[22:53] Speaker 3: to each of those teams in the situations that they're
[22:55] Speaker 3: in this year.
[22:57] Speaker 1: All right.
[22:57] Speaker 4: So this could just be because I am currently looking
[23:00] Speaker 4: at what my options are for new credit cards that
[23:04] Speaker 4: can get me travel points because I want World Cup
[23:07] Speaker 4: tickets and it's going to cost the Kings ransom to go,
[23:09] Speaker 4: but I'm going to go because I want to see
[23:11] Speaker 4: the United States play and it's going to be fun.
[23:14] Speaker 4: But I am very much hung up right now on
[23:16] Speaker 4: this idea of credit scores, not because mine is bad,
[23:19] Speaker 4: but just because I'm curious with how it works and
[23:23] Speaker 4: what it means broadly speaking about college football. All Right,
[23:27] Speaker 4: here's where I'm going with this. I might try to
[23:29] Speaker 4: build it out and write something I don't know.
[23:31] Speaker 1: We'll see.
[23:33] Speaker 4: I only kind of know how credit scores work. You
[23:35] Speaker 4: pay your bills on time, you don't carry a balance,
[23:38] Speaker 4: the number goes up. In a college football Since John,
[23:42] Speaker 4: it's obviously more complicated. Right, You've got the regular season
[23:45] Speaker 4: component and who you play. You've got the postseason component,
[23:49] Speaker 4: which is very much looking back. It's a retrospective for
[23:52] Speaker 4: how your conference did over the last let's say five years.
[23:56] Speaker 4: And then there is, as you just eluded, sort of
[23:58] Speaker 4: a national media narrative component to it, what people are
[24:02] Speaker 4: saying and how it makes the powers that be feel
[24:06] Speaker 4: about your conference, about your team. I'm wondering what the
[24:10] Speaker 4: best way is for the Big twelve to raise its
[24:13] Speaker 4: credit score, because if you're not winning national championships, that
[24:20] Speaker 4: clearly is a big deal. If you're not getting to
[24:22] Speaker 4: that conference championship or the national championship game, I should
[24:25] Speaker 4: say it's a big deal. You're not front stage center.
[24:28] Speaker 4: People may not look at you in the same light
[24:30] Speaker 4: as they would some other conferences that do get to
[24:33] Speaker 4: that game. So if you are, I guess put in
[24:35] Speaker 4: charge of raising that number for the Big Twelve, how
[24:39] Speaker 4: is it that you're doing it?
[24:42] Speaker 2: Boy, it's a good question.
[24:44] Speaker 3: I would also point out one of the you know,
[24:45] Speaker 3: I said, hey, it's frustrating nobody remembers what Arizona State
[24:49] Speaker 3: did against Texas and forgot that. But look, I know
[24:52] Speaker 3: what happened in the national championship game. But man, I
[24:54] Speaker 3: mean TCU played for a national championship in the twenty
[24:58] Speaker 3: twenty two season, right like into twenty twenty three.
[25:02] Speaker 2: They eat Michigan that year.
[25:04] Speaker 3: You know, Oklahoma was the team that was running the
[25:07] Speaker 3: Big Twelve and making the playoff every year, but they
[25:09] Speaker 3: never they have not put together a run like that
[25:11] Speaker 3: in the playoffs since TCU did. Like, that's a team
[25:13] Speaker 3: that's still around in the conference, I do think.
[25:17] Speaker 2: And the SEC.
[25:18] Speaker 3: That was the last time the SEC was in a
[25:19] Speaker 3: national championship game as well, was when they played TCU there.
[25:22] Speaker 3: So I think it's a little unfair how the Big
[25:24] Speaker 3: Twelve gets treated. But it is a real problem, Like
[25:27] Speaker 3: you are correct, whether I like it or not. The
[25:30] Speaker 3: credit score is not great unfortunately. The one like just
[25:34] Speaker 3: banger of a way that you can do it like,
[25:36] Speaker 3: this is tried and true, this will get it done.
[25:39] Speaker 3: You got to win playoff games. You've got to win
[25:41] Speaker 3: one of those games. You've got to Arizona State has
[25:44] Speaker 3: to cross the finish line against Texas. Texas Tech has
[25:48] Speaker 3: to have a quarterback that is capable of scoring a bit,
[25:52] Speaker 3: taking some pressure off the defense and changing the game
[25:54] Speaker 3: flow against Oregon, which I think if they had Brendan
[25:57] Speaker 3: Soarsby in that same game last year, they very well
[26:00] Speaker 3: could have done. And the way Tech defense was playing,
[26:03] Speaker 3: that game could have turned very quickly and been much different.
[26:06] Speaker 3: But that's not what people will think. That's not what
[26:08] Speaker 3: people will remember. The only other way, and this is
[26:11] Speaker 3: a part of why I advocate for playing games like
[26:13] Speaker 3: BYU Notre Dame, go beat some of those big brands
[26:16] Speaker 3: in the non conference if you can get them on
[26:18] Speaker 3: the schedule, because there's just there's only so much you
[26:22] Speaker 3: can do when you are a big twelve team playing
[26:25] Speaker 3: a big twelve team, Like there were two instances last
[26:27] Speaker 3: year where the Big twelve had some real spotlight. Obviously
[26:30] Speaker 3: one of them was BYU and Texas Tech in Lubbock.
[26:34] Speaker 3: When game days there you had like the whole spotlight
[26:37] Speaker 3: that week, and that unfortunately turned into another situation where
[26:40] Speaker 3: everybody sort of rolled their eyes because BYU wasn't very
[26:42] Speaker 3: competitive before that. It was Utah Texas Tech, which didn't
[26:47] Speaker 3: capture quite that level of attention, but there was a
[26:49] Speaker 3: lot on that game, and that was, you know, especially
[26:52] Speaker 3: people that really know college football across the country, like, hey,
[26:55] Speaker 3: this is a really good game, like everybody needs to
[26:57] Speaker 3: watch this. That also turned into a blow out, but
[27:01] Speaker 3: it helped Tech, it helped its reputation, but it's not
[27:04] Speaker 3: really helping the reputation of the conference.
[27:07] Speaker 2: Those games just don't move the needle. You know. I
[27:08] Speaker 2: had somebody ask me why did Why would you say?
[27:10] Speaker 3: How can you say Notre Dame by us the biggest
[27:12] Speaker 3: Big Twelve game, it's not even a conference game, like,
[27:14] Speaker 3: because that would move the needle, that would help, that
[27:17] Speaker 3: would raise your credit score, Like if BYU beats Notre Dame,
[27:20] Speaker 3: that will raise the Big twelve's credit score. I really
[27:23] Speaker 3: just think outside of that, there aren't many realistic ways
[27:26] Speaker 3: to do it. The way you have been kind of
[27:30] Speaker 3: shut off by the rest of the college football world
[27:32] Speaker 3: from a respect standpoint. The only way you're going to
[27:36] Speaker 3: do that is to actually go out and beat some
[27:38] Speaker 3: of the teams that really matter, whether you like it
[27:40] Speaker 3: or not, whether it's fair or not, I do, you know,
[27:43] Speaker 3: try to just deal in the actual reality of it.
[27:46] Speaker 2: I don't know.
[27:46] Speaker 3: I'd be curious, ty if you think there are other ways,
[27:48] Speaker 3: because I don't see much other way than doing that.
[27:51] Speaker 2: Well.
[27:51] Speaker 4: I think beating Notre Dame would be a start, but
[27:54] Speaker 4: I think it's just like again, like this is part
[27:57] Speaker 4: of why I'm kind of fascinated with the framing of
[27:58] Speaker 4: this because it feels like it's very applicable to where
[28:02] Speaker 4: we're at in college football right now. And it's always
[28:04] Speaker 4: been the case, but never more so than now. It's
[28:07] Speaker 4: sustained success, right, So beating Notre Dame, winning a couple
[28:12] Speaker 4: of playoff games, that's part of it. But I think
[28:16] Speaker 4: it's especially in the case of the Big Twelve, it
[28:19] Speaker 4: needs to be something that persists, something that people can
[28:23] Speaker 4: count on, something that people eventually start to assume.
[28:26] Speaker 1: Now, maybe Texas Tech will get there.
[28:28] Speaker 4: They're certainly putting in the work to try and assemble
[28:30] Speaker 4: the roster, but what they need next, and what I
[28:33] Speaker 4: think the conference needs next, is not just for one team,
[28:36] Speaker 4: but for a collection of teams to have that sustained
[28:40] Speaker 4: success that we could see on any given Saturday. That's
[28:43] Speaker 4: what's going to move the needle. And look, there are
[28:45] Speaker 4: plenty of teams in the Big Twelve that I think
[28:46] Speaker 4: are rising, and we could talk to that a little
[28:48] Speaker 4: bit later on, but that's just where they're at. I
[28:51] Speaker 4: don't know if you know Texas Tech not scheduling anyone
[28:55] Speaker 4: in the non conference is going to help much, But
[28:57] Speaker 4: certainly if they get to the playoffs and win a
[28:59] Speaker 4: game or two, that helps.
[29:01] Speaker 1: To the other side of it. If you'r BYU, you
[29:03] Speaker 1: knock off Notre Dame.
[29:04] Speaker 4: Even if you don't make the playoff, I think it
[29:06] Speaker 4: does raise the credit score. Again, kind of use that
[29:10] Speaker 4: framing here of the Big Twelve. I'm curious though, to
[29:14] Speaker 4: talk about this maybe within the context of like the
[29:18] Speaker 4: SEC or the Big Ten or even the ACC, because
[29:22] Speaker 4: it's such a very nuanced discussion. Right, the SEC had
[29:26] Speaker 4: a great credit score, but hasn't been in the title
[29:29] Speaker 4: game in a couple of years. The postseason record was awful,
[29:34] Speaker 4: awful this past offseason.
[29:35] Speaker 1: It just was not good.
[29:37] Speaker 4: You effectively have said, or you said in one of
[29:40] Speaker 4: your videos that the SEC is effectively waved the white
[29:43] Speaker 4: flag after missing the national title game for a couple
[29:46] Speaker 4: of years in a row. I know, you sided like
[29:47] Speaker 4: Joel Klatt and some others who were basically saying as
[29:50] Speaker 4: much that the stock for the league is down. Do
[29:54] Speaker 4: you think that that sentiment, though, is something that will
[29:57] Speaker 4: actually impact the way that the committee the ranks teams
[30:01] Speaker 4: now moving forward. Which is the whole other side of this,
[30:04] Speaker 4: right there is what your reputation is. But then there
[30:07] Speaker 4: is the question of, yeah, is it actually gonna matter? Though,
[30:09] Speaker 4: because we're still talking about the SEC, we could extend
[30:13] Speaker 4: this out to the Big Ten if we wanted. These
[30:14] Speaker 4: are the two big power centers in college football right now.
[30:18] Speaker 4: So A, to what extent does the reputation take a hit? B?
[30:23] Speaker 4: To what extent does the reputation matter when we're talking
[30:25] Speaker 4: about basically the two conferences with the most money.
[30:30] Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I mean they have gotten to a point,
[30:33] Speaker 3: the SEC in Big Ten where they in effect are
[30:36] Speaker 3: too big to.
[30:36] Speaker 2: Fail, right.
[30:37] Speaker 3: I mean, they control the levers of power so much
[30:42] Speaker 3: that I think we're talking, like you said, about a
[30:45] Speaker 3: very nuanced discussion here, like will it hurt the SEC
[30:49] Speaker 3: perhaps to some degree if it's an SEC team against
[30:52] Speaker 3: a Big ten team, you know. I mean, I think
[30:54] Speaker 3: now if the conversation is or if it's secv. Notre
[30:57] Speaker 3: Dame and you're trying to argue over a spot at
[31:01] Speaker 3: the back end, who's getting in at number eleven or
[31:04] Speaker 3: twelve or whatever in the playoff rankings, I don't think
[31:06] Speaker 3: it's going to have any any real market effect on
[31:10] Speaker 3: is it a Big twelve team like BYU versus an
[31:14] Speaker 3: SEC team. If it's like Alabama from last year and
[31:16] Speaker 3: BYU fighting for a spot. I mean, we saw how
[31:18] Speaker 3: by you got treated last year, not on the graphic.
[31:21] Speaker 3: Alabama was at least on the graphic right, like if
[31:23] Speaker 3: they're that and they're getting in the playoff. So I
[31:27] Speaker 3: don't think it has any real tangible effect that helps
[31:30] Speaker 3: the Big twelve, and it will make differences for the SEC,
[31:33] Speaker 3: and certainly in the SEC's pride. I mean, I really
[31:36] Speaker 3: think that's one of the biggest things at play here.
[31:38] Speaker 3: You just have so much pride in that league and
[31:40] Speaker 3: it that trickles down everywhere. It's not just teams and players,
[31:44] Speaker 3: but it's administrators. It's yes, college Football Playoff Selection Committee
[31:49] Speaker 3: members that people will complain about, but it's the fans,
[31:52] Speaker 3: the whole infrastructure, the ecosystem of the SEC. The Pride
[31:55] Speaker 3: has really taken a hit there, But I don't think
[31:58] Speaker 3: they're any further out from when a national championship than
[32:01] Speaker 3: they would be otherwise in terms of like access to
[32:03] Speaker 3: the playoff. The opportunity will be there. There's a whole
[32:05] Speaker 3: other discussion whether or not the SEC is going to
[32:08] Speaker 3: be able to compete the way that it wants to
[32:11] Speaker 3: in this world where now the talent is more evenly distributed.
[32:15] Speaker 3: You know, I've heard guys like Josh pay talk about
[32:16] Speaker 3: the SEC may have been a little bit lazy on
[32:19] Speaker 3: some things over the years because they they had such
[32:22] Speaker 3: a talent advantage, like staffing, coachings, maybe too much of
[32:26] Speaker 3: a good old boy network there, not looking for mining
[32:29] Speaker 3: for a young, up and coming talent as much because hey,
[32:33] Speaker 3: we've had the guys. We can just stockpile of three
[32:35] Speaker 3: deep that's going to go kill everybody. I think that's
[32:38] Speaker 3: a different conversation. The SEC is going to have all
[32:40] Speaker 3: the access that it wants for the foreseeable future, just
[32:42] Speaker 3: because of what it's built over the last you know,
[32:45] Speaker 3: really like two decades. They just had such a run
[32:48] Speaker 3: of power that I don't think that's going away anytime soon,
[32:52] Speaker 3: even if the Big Ten continues to beat them in
[32:54] Speaker 3: the College Football Playoff.
[32:56] Speaker 4: So I'm not going to compare the Big Twelve to
[32:59] Speaker 4: the S because I don't think it's quite apples to apples.
[33:03] Speaker 4: But I think the one element of where the Big
[33:07] Speaker 4: twelve is at that is not being covered enough is
[33:10] Speaker 4: something that we used to joke about with the ACC
[33:14] Speaker 4: when we used to talk often about there being quality
[33:16] Speaker 4: in bulk. The Big Twelve is kind of there. As
[33:20] Speaker 4: I look down this list of teams, these sixteen teams
[33:23] Speaker 4: in the Big Twelve, and your mileage may vary depending
[33:26] Speaker 4: on how into the Big Twelve you are or aren't.
[33:30] Speaker 4: But I would challenge anybody who's a serious college football
[33:33] Speaker 4: fan to not look at this list of teams and
[33:37] Speaker 4: come back with fewer than like eight that are legitimately
[33:41] Speaker 4: very very interesting in twenty twenty six. Now, for me,
[33:44] Speaker 4: that number is like fourteen teams that I'm very interested
[33:47] Speaker 4: in for a whole multitude of reasons. We've spoken at
[33:50] Speaker 4: length here about Texas Tech and BYU, but I could
[33:53] Speaker 4: run down this list, John, and there is truly a
[33:56] Speaker 4: lot of quality in bulk Utah is interesting for a
[34:00] Speaker 4: range of reasons, but I think it's still going to
[34:01] Speaker 4: be a pretty good team. Houston is very much building
[34:05] Speaker 4: under Willie Fritz. Arizona really got its act together last season.
[34:10] Speaker 4: Arizona State with Kenny Dillingham is never not interesting and
[34:13] Speaker 4: they're still going to have a pretty good roster. Kansas
[34:16] Speaker 4: State had a team I know you know a lot
[34:18] Speaker 4: about is also going through a coaching change, but is
[34:20] Speaker 4: going to have a fair amount of talent there as
[34:22] Speaker 4: well to be competitive. We can go down the list.
[34:25] Speaker 4: Baylor is interesting, Kansas is always interesting. UCF I thought
[34:29] Speaker 4: was better than expected last year. West Virginia was plucky.
[34:33] Speaker 4: Oklahoma State, who we mentioned earlier, new coach brings over
[34:38] Speaker 4: Drew Mestemaker. Like the list goes on and on here,
[34:42] Speaker 4: Colorado I didn't even mentioned Dion. So there is a
[34:45] Speaker 4: long list of teams now in this conference that on
[34:48] Speaker 4: any given week con knock you off and is not
[34:51] Speaker 4: short on interesting storylines.
[34:53] Speaker 2: More to the earlier point of credit.
[34:55] Speaker 4: Scores, I think having a deep conference, which is something
[34:58] Speaker 4: that we have lauded about the SEC for years now,
[35:01] Speaker 4: having a deep conference also is something that can help
[35:04] Speaker 4: move the needle a little bit.
[35:05] Speaker 1: If you're a big twelve.
[35:06] Speaker 3: Fan, Yeah, I think as you as I'm listening to
[35:08] Speaker 3: you lay that out, it's like the dream scenario there.
[35:12] Speaker 3: What you want to develop would be Texas Tech and
[35:15] Speaker 3: or B. Why you continue to dominate at the top.
[35:19] Speaker 3: And I guess when I say dominate at the top,
[35:21] Speaker 3: be at the top, and then go win some playoff
[35:23] Speaker 3: games so they have the respect they continue to recruit
[35:26] Speaker 3: at a high level. And then that list of teams
[35:28] Speaker 3: that you just rattled off, you have three or four
[35:31] Speaker 3: every single year that are going to really challenge and
[35:34] Speaker 3: be pretty good and fill in like a really nice
[35:38] Speaker 3: second tier. And then the other teams that you mentioned
[35:41] Speaker 3: are still at least in the plucky category, and you've
[35:43] Speaker 3: got some of that depth combined with trusted brands that
[35:48] Speaker 3: people know at the top. I think that would be
[35:50] Speaker 3: your best case scenario over the next five years. And
[35:52] Speaker 3: it doesn't have to just be Tech and BYU at
[35:54] Speaker 3: the top. If Kenny Dillingham really is that dude, which
[35:57] Speaker 3: you know, I mean, I think the job he did
[35:58] Speaker 3: with Jeff Simms last year, as many games as he
[36:01] Speaker 3: did should.
[36:02] Speaker 1: Be I mean, that was that was sorcery with Jefferson.
[36:04] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that should be respected just as much
[36:07] Speaker 3: as what he did with with Skataboy and Levitt the
[36:09] Speaker 3: year before.
[36:10] Speaker 2: Really, so he may be that guy.
[36:12] Speaker 3: Like it really might be that they have a speaking
[36:14] Speaker 3: of schedules, I don't know if you've seen their schedule,
[36:16] Speaker 3: I have brutal I've got to go to Texas A
[36:20] Speaker 3: and M and the non con They've got tech and
[36:22] Speaker 3: BYU like it's yeah, they've got a tough schedule this year.
[36:25] Speaker 3: But man, I mean the rest of them, like Houston,
[36:27] Speaker 3: I think it's really intriguing. Like I made this point
[36:30] Speaker 3: in a recent video, and I know people are gonna
[36:32] Speaker 3: roll their eyes at this and see it like, oh,
[36:33] Speaker 3: you know, this is a little a little bit out there.
[36:36] Speaker 3: I'm not saying that Kurt Signetti is the exact same
[36:40] Speaker 3: as Willie Fritz at Houston, but if you look at
[36:42] Speaker 3: their backgrounds, they are very similar. They're very similar in age.
[36:46] Speaker 3: They they've each won at the lower levels and just
[36:49] Speaker 3: gradually brought themselves up. Now, Fritz has not been on
[36:53] Speaker 3: the complete fast track that that Signetti was at Indiana,
[36:57] Speaker 3: but he did take a four win program to nine
[36:59] Speaker 3: laslast year, and now can they take the next step
[37:03] Speaker 3: with Connor Wigman back. He has always been a guy
[37:07] Speaker 3: that has put together a defense. He lost shield Wood,
[37:10] Speaker 3: his defensive coordinator, to Texas Tech last offseason, they still
[37:13] Speaker 3: had a top tier unit in the Big Twelve. They're
[37:15] Speaker 3: bringing in Keishaan Henderson, who is a five star quarterback
[37:18] Speaker 3: recruit this year, so they even got a QB of
[37:20] Speaker 3: the future. They have a top ten portal class according
[37:22] Speaker 3: to On three. You know, like Makai Hughes, who I love,
[37:25] Speaker 3: was a stud at Tulane a couple of years ago,
[37:27] Speaker 3: got buried a bit at Oregon this year, but restocked
[37:30] Speaker 3: the offensive line like Houston. I think Arrow trending big
[37:33] Speaker 3: time up. And Willie Fritz is just one literally everywhere.
[37:36] Speaker 3: I mean, it's the same thing as Kurt Signetti. Like
[37:39] Speaker 3: go google what Willy Fritz has done and you'll find
[37:41] Speaker 3: a lot of winning there.
[37:42] Speaker 2: So I think they could be.
[37:44] Speaker 3: A program that's really on the rise. Oklahoma State, you know,
[37:47] Speaker 3: I mean, we'll see Eric Morris is bringing like seventeen
[37:51] Speaker 3: players from North Texas, like the bulk of his upper
[37:54] Speaker 3: crust of that roster is coming, including three players including
[37:57] Speaker 3: Mesa Maker, who were top five at their position in
[37:59] Speaker 3: the portal. That could be one that takes off pretty quick,
[38:02] Speaker 3: Like I think Oklahoma State has a good, healthy infrastructure
[38:05] Speaker 3: as a program there despite what happened the last two years,
[38:08] Speaker 3: that could be one where you see a pretty rapid
[38:10] Speaker 3: ascent over the next few years. Arizona, Noah Fafida is back.
[38:14] Speaker 3: He had quietly a great year last year. They started
[38:17] Speaker 3: a little sluggish last season, so I think people didn't
[38:20] Speaker 3: pay as much attention to that, and they lost an
[38:22] Speaker 3: overtime game to BYU early on, but they come back
[38:25] Speaker 3: and win nine games.
[38:26] Speaker 2: Fafiitas back.
[38:27] Speaker 3: Danny Gonzalez's returning is the defensive coordinator, and that's been
[38:30] Speaker 3: a place where they just have not had much stability
[38:33] Speaker 3: on the defensive side of the ball, like their coaching staff.
[38:35] Speaker 3: I just heard this stat earlier today that they have
[38:40] Speaker 3: the full defensive staff back for the first time since
[38:42] Speaker 3: twenty seventeen at Arizona, which is crazy. So they're starting
[38:46] Speaker 3: to put some things together and Brent Brennan seem like
[38:48] Speaker 3: they really did a good job identifying talent and they
[38:50] Speaker 3: have so much less turnover on the roster than they
[38:52] Speaker 3: did last year. So they're a number of teams I
[38:55] Speaker 3: think you can make interesting cases for and then yeah,
[38:58] Speaker 3: you've got some proud programs TCU like Sunny Dyke's always
[39:02] Speaker 3: seems to have a decent amount of talent. He's done
[39:04] Speaker 3: a good job, not a great job, but that's a
[39:07] Speaker 3: place where you know you can always have enough talent
[39:09] Speaker 3: to go win like twelve games because they've done it
[39:11] Speaker 3: so much. We'll see about the turnover with k State
[39:14] Speaker 3: and Chris Climban, but I think the hope is that
[39:17] Speaker 3: Case State has hired a Kenny Dillingham in Colin Kleine,
[39:20] Speaker 3: very similar kind of archetype as a coach there. They've
[39:23] Speaker 3: got a lot to prove, but that's been a program
[39:26] Speaker 3: that's proved it can win Baylor tough times right now,
[39:29] Speaker 3: but another one of these programs that's won twelve games
[39:31] Speaker 3: in recent memories. So yeah, I like the case that
[39:34] Speaker 3: you're building, and I think you hope that you form
[39:37] Speaker 3: the combo of depth with some real solid punch at
[39:40] Speaker 3: the top and teams that you know can go win
[39:42] Speaker 3: playoff games.
[39:45] Speaker 4: What exactly went down at KSE State this year? I
[39:51] Speaker 4: was one of many who are very high on k State.
[39:54] Speaker 4: It just felt like there was a lot in place
[39:56] Speaker 4: and it just never took flight. It never took flight.
[39:59] Speaker 4: There had been rumors even before the year started that
[40:01] Speaker 4: maybe Chris Climent would hang it up, maybe that he
[40:04] Speaker 4: would decide to walk away from it, But just when
[40:09] Speaker 4: it felt like things might be clicking, then you saw
[40:12] Speaker 4: something to the contrary. It was one of those stories
[40:14] Speaker 4: throughout the course of the twenty five season that to me,
[40:18] Speaker 4: I still don't feel like I have a really good
[40:19] Speaker 4: handle on what transpired there. I know it's a team
[40:23] Speaker 4: you follow closely. Are you able to kind of shade
[40:26] Speaker 4: that in a way that us dumb dumbs can figure
[40:28] Speaker 4: out and understand exactly what was going on behind the
[40:30] Speaker 4: scenes there? Why did it come apart at Case State
[40:34] Speaker 4: and the manner that it did.
[40:36] Speaker 3: Yeah, you mentioned that there had been some rumors about
[40:39] Speaker 3: Chris climb and thinking about retirement. I would say for
[40:42] Speaker 3: the last two or three years. I would call it
[40:45] Speaker 3: just a poorly kept secret that he was not a
[40:47] Speaker 3: guy that wanted to go to Bill Sneyder out and
[40:49] Speaker 3: continue coaching into his seventies and eighties and just do
[40:52] Speaker 3: this forever. And I think that rapidly gained momentum as
[40:57] Speaker 3: the sport changed because he was a guy that did
[40:59] Speaker 3: not want to. He just wanted to coach ball. Like
[41:02] Speaker 3: he was not big on doing the offseason tours, you
[41:05] Speaker 3: know where you're going to see donors all across the state,
[41:07] Speaker 3: like trying to fundraise. That was not really his jam.
[41:10] Speaker 3: He's a pretty like laid back, generally sort of soft
[41:14] Speaker 3: spoken guy who just wants to go coach and he's
[41:16] Speaker 3: a player's coach, and the players love him and likes
[41:19] Speaker 3: that's what he's about. He's not, you know, he's not
[41:22] Speaker 3: like a Lane Kiffin who enjoys a lot of the
[41:24] Speaker 3: other stuff, the other elements of the sport and what
[41:26] Speaker 3: goes into it and marketing himself. That's not his personality
[41:29] Speaker 3: at all. And so I think the way the sport
[41:31] Speaker 3: was going, it was pushing him further and further away.
[41:34] Speaker 3: And I know, at least behind the scenes kind of
[41:37] Speaker 3: a story of like he really didn't like that in
[41:40] Speaker 3: the middle of the season because of what had happened
[41:42] Speaker 3: with the roster that he had some guys in there,
[41:44] Speaker 3: like asking for more money as the season's going on,
[41:48] Speaker 3: right like, stuff like that was a huge turn off
[41:50] Speaker 3: to him. And so I was not totally shocked in
[41:54] Speaker 3: that respect that it wound up that Chris Climban retired.
[41:58] Speaker 3: I was pretty shocked at that team played as poorly
[42:03] Speaker 3: as they did, particularly at the beginning of the year.
[42:06] Speaker 3: And that is one thing I'll give Chris Climbing credit
[42:07] Speaker 3: for it. They did steady the ship in the middle
[42:09] Speaker 3: of the season and at least became a competent team.
[42:12] Speaker 3: But if you watch that team play in September, they
[42:15] Speaker 3: were fined in Ireland, a little bit sloppy, but you know,
[42:19] Speaker 3: lost the close game to Iowa State. But the rest
[42:22] Speaker 3: of that month, man, I mean they lose a game
[42:24] Speaker 3: at home to Army where they look terrible. I think
[42:27] Speaker 3: the worst game they played all season was actually a
[42:28] Speaker 3: Friday night game at Arizona where I mean they just
[42:33] Speaker 3: just no efforts, no intensity, no fire. It was weird
[42:37] Speaker 3: because that's not really what you expect from a Chris
[42:40] Speaker 3: Climbing team. And this team had talent, Like That's the
[42:43] Speaker 3: other thing that is so staggering. If you look at
[42:45] Speaker 3: where KSE State's roster wound up, like Jace Brown, their
[42:48] Speaker 3: wide receiver one is going to be catching passes from
[42:50] Speaker 3: Sam Levitt LSU too. They had two defensive linemen go
[42:54] Speaker 3: play for Kurt Signetti at Indiana right, tobyos and Sambi
[42:57] Speaker 3: one of the better pass rushers in the Big twelve,
[42:59] Speaker 3: and Obis are both going there. You know, defensive tackle
[43:03] Speaker 3: who had a lot of interest, Malcolm Alcorn Crowder wound
[43:06] Speaker 3: up at SMU, the best linebacker the case. They had
[43:09] Speaker 3: Austin Romain. He's at Texas Tech right now. Like these
[43:12] Speaker 3: guys went to. There was talent on that roster, and
[43:15] Speaker 3: that was the narrative on the team going into the year.
[43:17] Speaker 3: Why everybody was really high on him and excited. Chris
[43:19] Speaker 3: Climbon had done a good job of building up that
[43:22] Speaker 3: talent from the end of Bill Snyder's tenure where they
[43:24] Speaker 3: just weren't recruiting anybody. It was just it had gone
[43:27] Speaker 3: way to like walk on development heavy. They really did
[43:30] Speaker 3: a good job of bringing the talent level up, but
[43:32] Speaker 3: for whatever reason, it just didn't click. I would tell
[43:35] Speaker 3: you that I think the culture well still not being
[43:42] Speaker 3: like an awful culture. It was not like a culture
[43:44] Speaker 3: built around toughness. I think they had a lot of
[43:46] Speaker 3: talented players that were not as tough and gritty as
[43:49] Speaker 3: what some of the previous Chris Climbing teams had been,
[43:52] Speaker 3: and that that was a problem and it started to
[43:55] Speaker 3: spiral as they lost the first game. You had the
[43:58] Speaker 3: drama with Avery Johnson's family, with Dylan Edwards.
[44:02] Speaker 2: Who.
[44:03] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I was gonna, you know, try and skirt
[44:06] Speaker 3: past that one.
[44:07] Speaker 2: Now you can't. Yeah, yeah.
[44:10] Speaker 3: There was just so much that happened right away, you know,
[44:13] Speaker 3: before you even hit September, Like the Dylan Edwards injury
[44:15] Speaker 3: saga was still weird. I'm not sure I totally understand
[44:18] Speaker 3: exactly what happened there, but you know, he the offense
[44:21] Speaker 3: needed his explosiveness and just think snowballed. I don't think
[44:24] Speaker 3: the team was really tough enough to handle it, to
[44:27] Speaker 3: be quite frank, and so that's where you hope Colin
[44:30] Speaker 3: Klein can can instill that.
[44:31] Speaker 2: Obviously, he's a guy that was.
[44:33] Speaker 3: Really really tough in his playing career. He's he's a
[44:36] Speaker 3: no nonsense guy as far as that is concerned. So
[44:39] Speaker 3: it'll be interesting. Like you know, Avery Johnson, I think
[44:41] Speaker 3: is a guy who could really use Colin Klein instilling
[44:44] Speaker 3: some of his toughness into him and injecting some of
[44:46] Speaker 3: that into him with the talent that he has. And
[44:48] Speaker 3: that's going to tell a lot of the story as
[44:49] Speaker 3: to how this case date season goes. But yeah, I
[44:52] Speaker 3: think that's sort of the best synopsis I can give
[44:54] Speaker 3: you of how that all imploded last year and led
[44:57] Speaker 3: to the point where I will say this case, I
[45:00] Speaker 3: think are generally pretty excited here that they didn't miss
[45:02] Speaker 3: the boat on Colin Kline because he was going to
[45:05] Speaker 3: and the story goes. I mean, he was literally about
[45:08] Speaker 3: to take a job before he got the call to
[45:11] Speaker 3: go take over at k State. So I think he
[45:14] Speaker 3: would have been at a G five job, and he
[45:16] Speaker 3: was number two at Oklahoma State had Eric Morris not
[45:19] Speaker 3: worked out. So K State fans are happy that they
[45:22] Speaker 3: didn't miss the boat on him.
[45:23] Speaker 4: Where do you think if you can say he was
[45:25] Speaker 4: headed if not for k State? You mentioned a G
[45:27] Speaker 4: five job South Florida.
[45:31] Speaker 3: K there, South Florida is what the word on the
[45:34] Speaker 3: street was that Colin Klein was a big time candidate there.
[45:37] Speaker 2: So do you like the hire of Colin Klin?
[45:40] Speaker 4: I mean you speak of Kansas State fans who are
[45:43] Speaker 4: happy to be bringing him home, and obviously he was
[45:46] Speaker 4: a sought after coordinator, right had his hat and a
[45:49] Speaker 4: couple different rings. But what do you think looks different
[45:54] Speaker 4: for K State fans out there as they bring their
[45:57] Speaker 4: guy back home. How does he change the calculus in Manhattan?
[46:03] Speaker 2: I love the higher.
[46:04] Speaker 3: I think based on the situation that you were in,
[46:07] Speaker 3: it's a higher you have to make.
[46:09] Speaker 2: Now.
[46:09] Speaker 3: I know that people say, well, Scott Frost and Nebraska
[46:13] Speaker 3: and this is literally the week that Bill Mouse, you know,
[46:15] Speaker 3: the former ad there. His book comes out of the
[46:17] Speaker 3: story about how he knew at the time he wasn't ready,
[46:20] Speaker 3: but he felt pressured like he had to do it
[46:21] Speaker 3: because he was the native son and so like I
[46:24] Speaker 3: understand the optics of all of that, but you know,
[46:27] Speaker 3: he's a guy who was a high level coordinator in
[46:28] Speaker 3: the SEC the last two years, helped take Texas A
[46:30] Speaker 3: and M to the college football Playoff this past year. Really,
[46:35] Speaker 3: I think they did a wonderful job with Marcel Reid
[46:37] Speaker 3: getting as much as he could out of him with
[46:39] Speaker 3: the offense.
[46:41] Speaker 2: And he's your guy, you know.
[46:44] Speaker 3: I mean, he's one of the most popular players, if
[46:46] Speaker 3: not the most, in case date football history. I mean,
[46:48] Speaker 3: it might be like him and Darren Sprolls, maybe Michael
[46:50] Speaker 3: Bishop in that same tier.
[46:52] Speaker 2: Like, it's just a higher that she had to make.
[46:55] Speaker 3: And he's a guy that's motivated to come back and
[46:57] Speaker 3: wants to come back. And the the thing that I
[47:00] Speaker 3: like about it the most is not even like a
[47:02] Speaker 3: purely football like on the field thing. It's that I
[47:06] Speaker 3: think Case State's athletic department needed a kick in the
[47:09] Speaker 3: rear end to like get with it and what it
[47:11] Speaker 3: takes to win in college football in twenty twenty six,
[47:14] Speaker 3: Like modernize the way you're doing this with nil the
[47:18] Speaker 3: money that it's going to take. Jean Taylor, case State's
[47:21] Speaker 3: athletic director, who I really like, I think has done
[47:23] Speaker 3: a very good job in his time in Manhattan. He's
[47:25] Speaker 3: really been one to fight the new system the way
[47:28] Speaker 3: college athletics is and I get it, like we all
[47:30] Speaker 3: have our frustrations with it, but I don't think sitting
[47:34] Speaker 3: there and trying to, you know, pound your fist on
[47:36] Speaker 3: the table and complain about it is the way that
[47:38] Speaker 3: you're going to win. You got to just adapt and
[47:40] Speaker 3: do it and figure it out. And that's what Colin
[47:42] Speaker 3: Klin is all about. That immediately brought in Tray Scott,
[47:46] Speaker 3: a GM who totally upgraded what they're doing from a
[47:48] Speaker 3: scouting and portal standpoint, and I thought they attacked the
[47:50] Speaker 3: portal really really well.
[47:52] Speaker 2: Time will tell you know what the.
[47:53] Speaker 3: Talent looks like there, but in terms of getting their
[47:56] Speaker 3: ducks in a row, making sure that fundraising is there, Hey,
[47:58] Speaker 3: this is what we need.
[47:59] Speaker 2: They have a huge staff.
[48:00] Speaker 3: I mean the support staff has increased a bunch from
[48:03] Speaker 3: what it was before with Chris Climb, like things like
[48:05] Speaker 3: this where client has now seen that in the SEC.
[48:08] Speaker 3: He understands what you have to have to win at
[48:11] Speaker 3: this level. And I think Case Date really needed that
[48:13] Speaker 3: somebody to come in and somebody that has the cache
[48:16] Speaker 3: by the way, to say, hey, I'm calling Clin dude, like,
[48:19] Speaker 3: this is what we need if you want to win
[48:20] Speaker 3: at Case Date like they won in the SEC. Like
[48:22] Speaker 3: he's the guy that can come in and have the
[48:24] Speaker 3: cache to immediately do that. I think it's going to
[48:26] Speaker 3: help the athletic department a lot.
[48:28] Speaker 4: That was gonna be my question because one of the
[48:30] Speaker 4: things we speak about often specifically when there's a coaching
[48:34] Speaker 4: changes alignment. You know, you could bring in a great name,
[48:37] Speaker 4: but if he is not on the same page as
[48:40] Speaker 4: the administration, then all too often we see those situations
[48:44] Speaker 4: fail unless you've got a guy like a Colin Kline
[48:47] Speaker 4: to your point, who comes in with a ton of
[48:50] Speaker 4: name recognition in that community and perhaps he can help
[48:54] Speaker 4: change some old ways, even if it's not an entirely
[48:56] Speaker 4: do administration backing him. So, is that what you are
[49:00] Speaker 4: seeing you here in the early going, even if you've
[49:01] Speaker 4: got an ad who maybe is a bit slow to
[49:05] Speaker 4: the punch with respect to where college football is at,
[49:08] Speaker 4: is Klein, at least in the early going here moving
[49:11] Speaker 4: things in the right direction in your opinion, it sounds
[49:13] Speaker 4: like the answer is yes.
[49:14] Speaker 1: But uh, that would be cool if you're a State
[49:17] Speaker 1: fan to hear that.
[49:18] Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely think so, Like I think you should.
[49:21] Speaker 3: You should take comfort in that fact that there is
[49:25] Speaker 3: one a lot of support for him, because the other
[49:27] Speaker 3: thing about it is if you're if you're trying to
[49:30] Speaker 3: round up money, you need somebody that people believe in
[49:34] Speaker 3: like case, State I think has more nil punch than
[49:37] Speaker 3: what the typical outsider would guess. But it's not going
[49:41] Speaker 3: to just come freely and willingly for no reason. Like
[49:44] Speaker 3: I'll make this point. I mean, drum Tang just got
[49:46] Speaker 3: fired as the basketball coach, But the last two years
[49:49] Speaker 3: he had, I mean two years ago he had top
[49:50] Speaker 3: five to ten nil money in the country. This past
[49:53] Speaker 3: year was at least top fifteen to twenty. The results
[49:56] Speaker 3: were terrible, but people believed in him after the first
[49:58] Speaker 3: two years, got behind him, really supported him. Who as
[50:02] Speaker 3: a case state donor, is going to be like, no,
[50:04] Speaker 3: I'm going to pass on supporting the guy who is
[50:07] Speaker 3: a Heisman finalist, has his name in the Ring of Honor,
[50:09] Speaker 3: and like almost took us to a national championship game.
[50:11] Speaker 3: Like that's the guy who has the value to just
[50:14] Speaker 3: rally everybody. When things were getting a little bit stale,
[50:17] Speaker 3: people were concerned. The fan base was really divided with
[50:20] Speaker 3: the Chris Climbing situation, and it got a bit nasty
[50:23] Speaker 3: toward the end of it. I mean, you saw his
[50:24] Speaker 3: emotional press conference after the Utah game where he was
[50:27] Speaker 3: talking about I think I deserve a little bit of respect,
[50:29] Speaker 3: Like things are pretty fractured and now total unity, like
[50:33] Speaker 3: everybody's behind this with Colin being the driving force. I
[50:36] Speaker 3: think the one thing I would say is I think
[50:39] Speaker 3: Colin will have to learn what he can and can't delegate,
[50:43] Speaker 3: like what he needs to delegate, Like you you have
[50:46] Speaker 3: to be so much more of a CEO in this role.
[50:48] Speaker 3: You're gonna have to pick and choose your spots and
[50:49] Speaker 3: what you can't do, but all indications are right now
[50:52] Speaker 3: it's been total full steam ahead. He's got his hand
[50:54] Speaker 3: and basically everything, and it is pulling everything in the
[50:58] Speaker 3: right direction.
[50:59] Speaker 2: In my opinion.
[50:59] Speaker 3: Doesn't guarantee success, obviously, but I like the way things
[51:03] Speaker 3: are modernized and changed since he took the job.
[51:05] Speaker 4: As you're describing this, I'm a struggling New York Giants
[51:08] Speaker 4: fan as well when I'm not a college football guy,
[51:11] Speaker 4: and it sounds a lot like what the Giants are
[51:15] Speaker 4: going through with John Harbaugh right now. How it was
[51:17] Speaker 4: a program that's been terrible over recent memory and they
[51:21] Speaker 4: needed somebody to come in there with the sway that
[51:24] Speaker 4: could change things around. And well, you know, we'll see
[51:26] Speaker 4: if it works or not, but if it works for
[51:28] Speaker 4: k State, that would be incredible. John Curse. The final
[51:31] Speaker 4: thing here that I wanted to ask you about, because
[51:33] Speaker 4: I know you also mentioned this out on your YouTube channel,
[51:37] Speaker 4: but the inclusion now of North Dakota State at the
[51:42] Speaker 4: FBS level is crazy fascinating for a million different reasons.
[51:48] Speaker 4: You took it a step further though, and I guess
[51:53] Speaker 4: charted maybe the longer term course for North Dakota State,
[51:57] Speaker 4: and you wondered at least haphazardly about whether or not
[52:01] Speaker 4: it could end up with them eventually joining a bigger conference,
[52:05] Speaker 4: say the Big twelve.
[52:07] Speaker 3: Yeah, first of all, I am fascinated by this, Like
[52:11] Speaker 3: I love that North Dakota State is doing this. Kudos
[52:15] Speaker 3: in respect to them for realizing that, like it's now
[52:18] Speaker 3: or never, like if you're you've got a chance here,
[52:21] Speaker 3: And this is sort of the path that I charted
[52:23] Speaker 3: forward for North Dakota State. Like, if you want any
[52:27] Speaker 3: shot of being a part of like the next iteration
[52:30] Speaker 3: of college football whatever that is going to be, like,
[52:32] Speaker 3: you better try and jump on the lifeboat now or
[52:35] Speaker 3: musical chairs.
[52:35] Speaker 4: Right, you gotta get yeah, like it State's Joan in
[52:38] Speaker 4: the mac because of it.
[52:39] Speaker 3: Right, you just want d yes exactly like you got
[52:43] Speaker 3: to take your shot. And they I mean, I think
[52:47] Speaker 3: looking at the success of like James Madison for instance,
[52:50] Speaker 3: is a very it has to be a really enticing
[52:52] Speaker 3: thing for them. James Madison did not win near to
[52:54] Speaker 3: the level that North Dakota State did in FCS and
[52:57] Speaker 3: it took them like four years to get to the
[52:59] Speaker 3: College Football Playoffs. So of course you got to look
[53:02] Speaker 3: at that and say, hey, we've gotten until twenty thirty
[53:04] Speaker 3: twenty thirty one, ish, you know, when things are really
[53:06] Speaker 3: going to change, can we be a team that propels
[53:09] Speaker 3: ourselves into the college football Playoff? By that point, it
[53:12] Speaker 3: makes all the sense in the world as to why
[53:14] Speaker 3: they would do that. Now, I don't know that they
[53:17] Speaker 3: wind up being a fit as a team that fits
[53:20] Speaker 3: into like what the Big twelve currently is like as
[53:22] Speaker 3: we think of it.
[53:23] Speaker 2: But my wondering out loud.
[53:25] Speaker 3: There is like, Okay, if it turns into a super
[53:28] Speaker 3: league and it's a more tight super league, that's just
[53:31] Speaker 3: like your AFC NFC thing with Big ten SEC. Maybe
[53:34] Speaker 3: they add the big brands from the ACC and like
[53:36] Speaker 3: Notre Dame hops up and joins one, and then you
[53:39] Speaker 3: just sort of have this like best of the rest
[53:41] Speaker 3: conference that's there, and that becomes more or less the
[53:44] Speaker 3: Big Twelve. At that point, the ACC would be a
[53:46] Speaker 3: bit decimated. Maybe that still has the Big twelve label
[53:49] Speaker 3: on it, maybe it changes into something else. But like
[53:51] Speaker 3: if North Dakota State five years from now has been
[53:53] Speaker 3: to a couple of playoffs and has built its program
[53:55] Speaker 3: up at the at the level that they're at right now,
[53:58] Speaker 3: could they be a part of that? Like sure, I
[54:00] Speaker 3: think that's very much possible. And I mean, look, I've
[54:03] Speaker 3: already seen them beat Iowa State, Kansas, and k.
[54:07] Speaker 4: You're familiar with their brand of work.
[54:11] Speaker 3: I am very familiar with their work, not just because
[54:14] Speaker 3: Chris Cleman came from North Dakota State, but because in
[54:16] Speaker 3: twenty thirteen I sat there and watched them do it
[54:18] Speaker 3: the first game after Case States Big twelve Championship season
[54:21] Speaker 3: with Colin Klein. I watched them win in Manhattan. So
[54:24] Speaker 3: I have seen them do it, and that just that
[54:29] Speaker 3: strikes me as a place that is going to throw
[54:31] Speaker 3: its full weight behind this. And speaking of things that
[54:34] Speaker 3: will galvanize donors to make sure you have everything you need,
[54:36] Speaker 3: like shooting this shot, I think they'll give it their
[54:40] Speaker 3: best effort, and I'm just really interested. I love it
[54:42] Speaker 3: for college football's sake, because they have so much name
[54:45] Speaker 3: value too that I think will really help them name
[54:47] Speaker 3: id across the sport. I just can't wait to see
[54:51] Speaker 3: how this is going to go for them.
[54:53] Speaker 4: I think I also saw and I could be wrong
[54:56] Speaker 4: about this, so forgive me out there if you're listening,
[54:59] Speaker 4: and I am.
[55:00] Speaker 1: But.
[55:03] Speaker 4: Because of the little hot war going on between Notre
[55:07] Speaker 4: Dame and USC, USC needs a game Week one, and
[55:11] Speaker 4: that team could be North Dakota State, which could be
[55:14] Speaker 4: kind of cool.
[55:14] Speaker 1: That would be pretty fun just to get that. I
[55:16] Speaker 1: would expect us he would win that game.
[55:18] Speaker 4: But North Dakota State, a much discussed FBS newcomer going
[55:25] Speaker 4: on the road taking on us would be kind of cool.
[55:27] Speaker 2: Are you telling me we're going to see Lincoln Riley
[55:29] Speaker 2: and the Fargo Dome eventually? Maybe?
[55:32] Speaker 4: Although I don't know if he likes to leave the
[55:34] Speaker 4: state of California. But have you been to the Fargo Dome?
[55:37] Speaker 4: By the way, have you ever been up there?
[55:39] Speaker 3: I have been to the Fargo Dome. It's an interesting story,
[55:42] Speaker 3: not for a game. I interviewed for a job there
[55:45] Speaker 3: like eleven years ago, something like that. It was like
[55:47] Speaker 3: the number two play by play gig at North Dakota State,
[55:49] Speaker 3: so I got the whole tour of the Fargo Dome.
[55:52] Speaker 2: So I have been there.
[55:54] Speaker 4: Dan and I went up for a playoff game. People
[55:56] Speaker 4: who listened to the show heard me mention this probably
[55:58] Speaker 4: a thousand times already. But unlike any college football setting
[56:02] Speaker 4: I've ever been to, it was more akin to like
[56:04] Speaker 4: minor league hockey or a rodeo or a monster truck rally.
[56:08] Speaker 4: I mean it was loud, it was intense, and that's
[56:12] Speaker 4: going to be an imposing venue for anybody who has
[56:15] Speaker 4: to visit in the Mountain West or really otherwise. I mean,
[56:17] Speaker 4: it's loud in there, and they know what they're doing.
[56:20] Speaker 4: There's a reason why that program is so successful, and
[56:22] Speaker 4: I think it's driven to large part by the fact
[56:24] Speaker 4: that it's just a very unique setting for a game.
[56:26] Speaker 4: It's you got to be on your game up there
[56:29] Speaker 4: because it is loud. It is really freaking loud. Yeah.
[56:32] Speaker 2: Were you guys there for a playoff game?
[56:34] Speaker 4: We saw them play Colgate. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, back
[56:38] Speaker 4: in like twenty eighteen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that checks out.
[56:41] Speaker 4: Definitely on brand for the soliverbal love that.
[56:44] Speaker 2: John Kurtz a pleasure as always.
[56:47] Speaker 4: Again remind the fine folks one more time where they
[56:49] Speaker 4: can find all your work.
[56:50] Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate that.
[56:51] Speaker 3: So check out the Open for Business Big twelve podcast
[56:53] Speaker 3: with John Kurtz on YouTube. You can also find it
[56:56] Speaker 3: on your podcast platforms if you would prefer to go
[56:59] Speaker 3: that route. And the Open for Business Big twelve newsletter
[57:02] Speaker 3: twice a week for free to your inbox have almost
[57:04] Speaker 3: sixenty Big twelve fans reading it. It's ofbnews dot com.
[57:08] Speaker 3: That's ofbnews dot com to sign up for that, and
[57:11] Speaker 3: I also do have an OFB college Football channel for
[57:14] Speaker 3: some national college football talk.
[57:16] Speaker 4: Awesome, man, Well, I'm glad we were able to do this.
[57:18] Speaker 4: I know Dan sends his best. He's bummed he wasn't
[57:21] Speaker 4: able to be part of this, but we'll bring him
[57:24] Speaker 4: on next time.
[57:24] Speaker 1: All right.
[57:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, Hey, sounds great. Send my best to Dan.
[57:28] Speaker 3: I appreciate it as always high and let the record
[57:30] Speaker 3: show that I restrain myself and made zero pop punk
[57:33] Speaker 3: references on this.
[57:34] Speaker 2: Ah, we got change that next time.
[57:37] Speaker 1: Next time, we'll get it.
[57:38] Speaker 2: I'll all come next time. All right.
[57:40] Speaker 4: There you go for Bolerhood John Kurtz, go and check
[57:44] Speaker 4: him out. He does an awesome job with all of
[57:46] Speaker 4: his content, be it out on YouTube or his podcast
[57:50] Speaker 4: or his newsletter. Always a pleasure to speak with him
[57:53] Speaker 4: and get his insight on what's going on in the
[57:56] Speaker 4: Big Twelve. As I said at the top, Dan will
[57:58] Speaker 4: be back on our our next episode. In the meantime,
[58:02] Speaker 4: we'd appreciate you hitting follow or subscribes that you do
[58:05] Speaker 4: not miss any of our episodes. If you have anything
[58:08] Speaker 4: that you'd like to add to today's episode. You can
[58:11] Speaker 4: go to our website and fill out the form and
[58:13] Speaker 4: send in a note that way, or you can always
[58:15] Speaker 4: email us at solidverbalotgmail dot com, or you can just
[58:18] Speaker 4: reach out on social media. We of course value your feedback.
[58:23] Speaker 2: In the meantime, for that guy Dan way over there not.
[58:26] Speaker 4: On this episode, for myself tie over here in Eastern PA.
[58:30] Speaker 4: Thank you so much for downloading, for listening, for supporting
[58:33] Speaker 4: what we do. We'll catch you all on Thursday. In
[58:36] Speaker 4: the meantime, stay solid

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