Big 12 Breakaway From the SEC and Big Ten? One AD Says They Should

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Is a Big 12 breakaway from the SEC and Big Ten actually on the table? Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard thinks it should be — and his comments are shaking up college football realignment conversations across the country.
In today's video, we break down exactly what Pollard said, why it matters for the Big 12 conference, and what a Big 12 breakaway would actually look like in a world where the SEC and Big Ten are pushing to consolidate power over college football.

The "go do it" argument — and why Pollard's calling the bluff
What the data actually says about Big 12 football's value without the SEC and Big Ten
How the 24-team playoff factors into the breakaway conversation
What Brett Yormark and Big 12 leadership should do next


🔔 Subscribe for Big 12-first coverage every week
👍 Like if you think the Big 12 should stand its ground
💬 Drop your take in the comments — would a breakaway actually work?

#Big12 #CollegeFootball #CollegeFootballRealignment #Big12Football #SECFootball #BigTen #JamiePollard #BrettYormark #CollegeFootballPlayoff

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Ladies and gentlemen, it is getting spicy. It is getting spicy. We've got Big 12 ADs popping off, telling the SEC and Big Ten to go shove it, essentially. Is that smart? Should the Big 12 be poking the bears? Should the athletic directors be saying this to the SEC? We'll talk about it tonight in the live show. Uh, we've got a BYU Notre Dame annual rivalry brewing. Question mark. That's been the topic of conversation brought to you by a national media member this week, which probably is surprising to some. Look, I would love it. The question is, would Notre Dame love it? And is it actually feasible? So there are two questions. Tough blow for Texas Tech in the uh Brendan Soresby case. A tough blow for Soresby as well. This one is particularly funny and entertaining, though. I gotta tell you, I've got a picture related to this that you're gonna have to see. It truly brings me back to like the roots of college football, what makes college football so awesome. Uh, we'll talk about that. And then, hey, man, Tom Brady. I don't know if you Texas Tech fans were Tom Brady fans, if there's much overlap there. But if there was, probably not gonna be any more after what he said about the Red Raiders. Uh, welcome in. It is open for business. This is where the Big 12 just means more. I am your host, John Kurtz. Thank you for joining me here tonight. Everybody, as you file in, please do like the video. Please subscribe to the channel. Both of those things help. You can drop me a super chat. Well, first of all, just comment, leave some comments in the in the chat. Have fun in the live chat. You should always be doing that. You can also um hit me up on Venmo at John-Kurtz-4 if you would like to leave a super chat there. There are two ways to leave a super chat. One, you can click the dollar sign below the chat box if you are in there live. If you are not and you're catching up to this later, you can still be a part of the conversation. Just hit me up on Venmo at John-Kurtz-4. And when you do that, you can leave a question or comment there. Uh now, Bob did that. And so I'm going to get to Bob's Venmo comment in just a moment. Bob, I'm going to say this off the top here. It has to do with the BYU Notre Dame topic from this week. So I'm going to wait actually to lead into that topic with your question or comment. So just be patient with me through this first part and we will get there. Another free way you can help out the channel and support everything that I'm doing here is just to sign up for the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter. It's uh OFBnews.com to get subscribed. That's ofbnews.com. You can also click the link in the description of this video. That is an easy way to support and help. And I do want to give a special shout out to those of you who are listening on the audio platforms, Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts, you can find Open for Business there. And uh we continue to grow and grow. That is growing like wildfire over there. So spread the word. If you are listening via the audio platforms and you want to be here for a live show, there's always a midweek live show Wednesday or Thursday at around eight o'clock, and then you get one on Sunday nights as well. But if you are subscribed to the YouTube channel, you'll get updates when those live shows get posted. Um, posting them further out in advance now. So you'll you'll get a clear idea and a clear picture of when it is that the show is going live and how you can be a part of it. So that's the table setting. Let's get off and running tonight because there's some good stuff to sink our teeth into tonight, man. I'm I'm excited for this show. This is as fired up as I've been for a show in a minute, because we've got good topics for the offseason for sure. We've got some good topics tonight. Did the Big 12 just blow up college football? Because one Big 12 athletic director certainly is trying to, at least with his words. He is calling the bluff of the SEC and the Big Ten. A move that many will applaud, but others, like myself, will duck and cover from. Uh, could the SEC and Big Ten really break away? Could the Big 12 say to hell with everybody else and break away themselves? That's the position we're kind of getting into right now in college football. Everybody's siloing up. The numbers actually say this would be very problematic if the Big Ten and the SEC were to do this. And I will reveal those to you in this video as well. So, look, there has been a lot of talk lately about like what's going to happen. And it's not even so much in the typical like realignment sense of a will there be an SEC or Big Ten like AFC NFC thing? Are we gonna have a super league? Where's everything going? You know, the Florida State Athletic Director, for instance, has been somebody that uh Michael Alford, I believe, is his name, has predicted movement within the next two years. But that's that's not what I'm talking about here. What I'm talking about here is we we got another series of articles uh coming out of the Big Ten this week. I believe Big Ten meetings were this week. Um, and the talk there was Big Ten folks being like, hey, dude, it's a mess with the College Sports Commission, and they're trying to, you know, lay down some ground rules on what's going on, and nobody wants to follow the rules. Everybody now is saying, well, this is kind of a mess. Maybe we should just break off and do our own thing. I mean, it's basically you're starting to get that sentiment now out of the Big Ten, whereas before the SEC had been leading the charge on this, right? Remember, it was not that long ago we talked about the SEC threatening to just silo up. And when I say silo up, it's like literally like just climb into a silo, only play themselves. Like they weren't even talking about playing the Big Ten. It would be literally playing themselves. Just that's it, the SEC. Because with the idea being the SEC thinking it's not fair, other people are playing by different rules, there are different NIL laws in different states. The only thing we can control is if we are in one conference, we can govern ourselves. So we will play here. And it seems like I think that's what said it's Jamie Pollard off, who is the athletic director at Iowa State that we're going to talk about here with his little tirade. That again, I think a lot of Big 12 fans will uh probably relate to. I've certainly heard from some who are in this camp. But uh I would guess that that's some of the frustration that's coming out here because the conversation started about the College Sports Commission. And when I play you this audio, like Jamie Pollard makes a very good point about the College Sports Commission in general, because what's happening there is you have this entity that was created as a part of the house settlement that is supposed to be uh uh an enforcement agency, more or less. Like this is this is something that can come in and tell you, hey, you can't sign that NIL deal because it's not fair market value. It's trying to put some guardrails in. How often have you heard people in college sports say we need guardrails? Well, now what's happened? There are way too many deals, it's getting bogged down, they're not quick enough on the trigger of getting stuff approved. And then there was a story this week about you know, like 80% of deals are not even going through CSC because it's so it's not working. I mean, basically it's not working, and people aren't actually legitimately trying to use it. Shocker, college sports folks trying to bend the rules, skirt the system uh to their advantage. And so some of the frustration that you're gonna hear from Jamie Pollard is like, well, what the hell? Like, we all signed off on this. We all decided this was a part of something we would create, and everybody complains about rules and guardrails, and then we actually have something there. You guys just cheat and don't use it anyway. You know, I mean, that's basically what he's saying. And I I think it's I don't think that's really directed at anybody specifically necessarily. It's just like that is the reality. Like nobody in college sports wants to follow the rules, even when they want rules in general. And this is the problem that you have when you just have no governing body that has real teeth to it that's looking out for the best interest of everybody. Okay. With that, there's also this piece of okay, if everyone's gonna break away, if you're gonna talk about Big Ten and SEC just breaking away instead of following the rules here, instead of realizing you might be killing the golden goose if you do this, then fine. Just go, just go do it. Just go do it. And I've since I this channel turned into what it is now, which was back in July 2021 when Texas and Oklahoma left, and that became the big dominant story. I mean, there have been Big 12 fans on this channel who have told me, John, the Big 12 should just break off and do its own thing now. Tell them, call the bluff of the Big Ten and the SEC. If this is where you're going, if this is what you're trying to do, then just go do it. Stop beating around the bush and we'll do our thing and maybe keep it more pure, quote unquote, like what college sports used to be. And you guys can go be diet NFL and see how it works out for you. A lot of people have had that attitude. You can count Jamie Pollard, the athletic director at Iowa State, among that group. And man, wait till you hear this audio. Like he is not shy about it at all. Please do subscribe to the channel, by the way. It is one click, it is very easy, and it helps me out a bunch as we push toward 35k subscribers. Here is Jamie Pollard and what he had to say.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

And we spent a lot of money. The four commissioners spent a lot of money creating the CSC. And so then to have two of the conferences not want to adhere to it is perplexing to me. Because then it's like, well, why did we spend the money? If you didn't want rules, then why did you create this entity? That's what's frustrating to me. The same people that say they want rules only want rules if they don't apply to them. I mean, I said it three years ago. Let them break away. I I'd say let I would turn it around and say we should break away from them. Let them go. You know, but they have to go in all their sports and see how fun it is to play baseball and softball and track when it's just the 20 of you, you know, and um that's what I think we should do. But I'm one person and um, you know, that's probably a little more draconian, but that's how I feel about it. Like, let's quit talking about it. Quit threatening. Go do it. But if you're gonna do it, you don't get to just do it in football and then keep all your other sports with us. No, take them all. See how fun it is.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

That's that's pretty strong. It's pretty strong from Jamie Pollard. Now, uh, first of all, shout out to Cyclone Fanatic for the video. Uh, amazing site if you're an Iowa State fan. I we gotta react to both sides of that, okay? I appreciate, first of all, Jamie Pollard's candor in that. It's great for content purposes, and it's great for just showing you look, Jamie Pollard is not the only person with that sort of sentiment that are that's in these rooms right now. You know, within the Big 12, I know there's a lot of frustration about the the current state of affairs, the Big Ten and the SEC. I mean, it's yeah, I can confirm to you he is not the only one that has some sort of feeling like this along these lines. Now, whether or not this is something you should be saying, whether or not you should be poking the bear, like those are all different things that we could debate here, but he's just being honest at a time when, well, really, college sports, you you don't always get a whole lot of honesty and and candor like that. Um he's on the CSC, and I guess he did. I forgot he did specifically direct it at the Big Ten and the SEC. I would say, look, there, I think there are Big 12 schools that are also trying to skirt that. It's not it's not just the SEC and Big Ten. I think there are a lot of schools that are trying to skirt that because it's college sports, man. Everybody tries to cheat. Like that's that's how it's been going for a the eternity, like since the sport began. And if you especially don't have an entity like the NCAA anymore that can really enforce things, you're just gonna get people trying to undermine every single rule. But it is frustrating when you're like, yeah, hey, everybody, we signed up for this. We signed up for this. Like, what are you doing? And then you're complaining about the state of things and how much money's being spent and all this, but you sidestep the rules when it helps you. So that total I'm with him 100% on the first part. The second part, the second part, and I've got some numbers later on that will show that Jamie Pollard's hypothesis here that it would be a bad move for the SEC and Big Ten to break away. There are some numbers that support that. So I will show those to you. I will just correct his statement a little bit where he's saying, like, hey, you guys, if you want to do it, heck, we should do it and just call their bluff and do it ourselves and break away and say, but fine, you got to take all your sports and have fun playing with all 20 of you. He used the number like 20. If he's talking about just the SEC or just the Big 10, then I mean, yeah, then it's close to 20. But if it is both of them, it's 34. And if they're gonna take another six to 10 teams, you know, then you're talking about getting up over 40. It still is, I would still argue to me, it's killing the golden goose, right? You've got the goose that's just laying the golden eggs every day. You get a little impatient, you want to take them out of the goose, you kill the goose, and oh, the eggs aren't there, and now you just lost what's producing the eggs, right? That's the old parable. Um, I would still argue that cutting out as many teams as you would be in that scenario would be doing that. And I've long argued that here on this channel. Um, but it's not quite, it's not 20 teams. They would have more ammo than that to play each other. Um, I don't think it would be a good thing for anybody involved. It is a possibility. I certainly would not do it if I were the Big 12 and call the bluff to that regard, where you're just gonna say, hey, we're gonna preemptively leave. That's not gonna happen. I understand people who think this. I understand why Jamie Pollard would say this because it's gotta be, especially for somebody in his shoes that's working in it, it's gotta be just an unbelievably stressful thing to deal with and just annoying. Annoying that you're having to deal with this and you have like no power really in these boardrooms when everybody gets together. Um I understand where he's coming from on that. And if you're a fan and you're tired of dealing with it and just saying, like, I can't take this like existential dread that exists underlying all of this because it's undeniable. It's there. If you're not one of the top like 10 to 20 brands in the sport, that that existential dread is there and it sucks. And hey, let's just go ahead and get to where this is clearly going. I get why you would say that. My stance has always been as much as this does suck, as lame as it is, I just want to hang on and see what happens because I still think it's so unpredictable as to where this ultimately ends up. I think with the potential government involvement, you know, it was a rough week for the score act, if you were paying attention to that. Um, but I think with potential government involvement with whatever is going on with the CSC, I mean, they did just win in court against Nebraska. Um I just don't know what it's all actually going to look like. And we did just have Indiana win a national championship. What says Texas Tech or BYU or somebody else from the Big 12 couldn't spend its way into a national championship. And it's not even really like Indiana did not have like top five money or anything like that. Um, we are in an era where stuff like that is completely unpredictable. So I think it would be foolish to just pack up your bags and leave. But I think this is very indicative of what a lot of the sentiment is in the room in the Big 12 right now, and I understand where Jamie Pollard is coming from. As for would this even work for the SEC and Big Ten for their sake, right? What would this look like? Uh, there was some good data from Jeff Fuller, who always puts good stuff out. I want to start with his first tweet here. So it's a it's a poll that he is looking at here that shows ACC and Big 12 fans are the most aligned, meaning they have the highest percentage of fans whose favorite college football team and favorite college basketball team is the same thing. So you're like the hardcore dedicated alum fan of your school. You're not a Duke men's basketball fan and a Notre Dame football fan, right? You you love Iowa State and you watch football and men's basketball there, and that like that's your team. SEC and Big Ten is lower. So his point here is kind of like these are more, you got more like bandwagon fans in the SEC and Big Ten, like more casuals, as you might say. And then it goes on to show uh only 45% of college football fans claim an SEC or Big Ten school as their favorite team. So his point here is like how short-sighted would it be to just break away and you leave over half of the fans theoretically in the sport behind. Now, he also says I've seen some claim that it's as high as 55 to 60 percent. I mean, either way, if you're cut, you're cutting out almost half. You know, if you'd be cutting out almost half of the fans in the sport, you've already slaughtered the Pac-12, which, you know, nobody seemed to care about that. If you then are taking out like half the fans, this is the killing the golden goose thing. This is where I even it's just all these short-term money grabs, but no one can see like, hey, long term, this won't be good for the overall health of everything. I guess the play that you're making is we'll pick up enough other casual fans. But I would say, look, dude, the casuals don't go for just semi-pro football. We've seen this time and again in the country. When teams or when leagues have tried to put that together, it doesn't work. And you you the way this is all going, and then cutting everybody out, you've just you've just created like a a little XFL, you know, semi-pro league. I know he hates me. He's gonna roll out there for Alabama at some point. Uh, and that I think will have diminishing returns financially and otherwise. Uh, so I thought this data, this is not like, you know, they have not surveyed every single college football fan out there, right? But this is just uh an example, I think a nice illustration of the point that is trying to be made there when I push this, hey, you're killing the golden goose kind of thing. Um, in conclusion, I don't think it's what anybody wants. I don't think it's inevitable that we're headed for that. But I do understand why Jamie Pollard and others feel this way right now about where things are going. That's where I'm at on this. And if you want more info about, I mean the SEC specifically has been talking about this for months now, breaking away by themselves and doing their own thing. How exactly would that work? Click here to find out. That's for those that are watching the clip version, everybody hanging out live. You can stay right here. I appreciate you. Uh, James, I see that you're the first one here. I'm gonna read your comment and then Bob's from Venmo in just a moment because it will lead into the video about or the the uh segment coming up here about BYU and Notre Dame. Uh Pacific Northwest Ute. Pacific Northwest Ute says 34 Big Ten and SEC teams, which coincidentally is about as many teams as the NFL and NBA each have. Critical mass exodus, duper league, breakup is hard. Well, Pacific Northwest Ute, are you saying here that you think it would work? You think it would work because they have 34 teams? Um, I'm curious about that. I I mean, I still don't think 34 in in college football. The thing is that it is not, it is not if you're talking about, hey, that works in the NFL, okay, that is the professional sports league. Like that is the one that has a grip. It's got a monopoly on it. If you're trying to do the exact same thing as them, it's gonna fail. That's not gonna work. And I understand you have some built-in advantages with the history of the college football teams that you have there, but I think cutting out half the country and then trying to do it the same way the NFL is doing everything, I don't think that's it. I don't think that's the way to uh to long-term make it. Uh Jordan, what's up, Jordan? Jordan says, Utah stinks. All right, I guess I guess we got all the big 12 fans and all the big or the uh BYU fans and all the big BYU lead-ins here to this segment. So, Jordan, you got the party started, my friend. Thank you uh for being here. Thank you for the comment. Utah stinks. Uh, or maybe that was just in in a shop back at Pacific Northwest Ute. I'm not I'm not entirely sure there. James. Okay, James, let's let's get rolling into this uh BYU Notre Dame story. James says, I would be stunned if Notre Dame would entertain a permanent schedule with BYU. I would like to see it, but I just can't imagine them doing it, unfortunately. Well, that's one of the questions I want to answer with this is how likely is it to actually happen from the Notre Dame side? And just in general, practically, how could it work? I, as with everything on this channel, I think there's some nuance to this. I don't think it's an outright yes, I don't think it's an outright no. And I will get to how I think all that will go down and work. So thank you, James. Thank you. Now let me get to Bob, who Bob hit me up on Venmo, John dash Kurtz dash four, if you'd like to do that, to leave a question or comment. And uh Bob said, Hi, John, long time offline. I love Notre Dame's proposal to play more games with BYU, but wonder if that will advise. Affect other Big 12 schools' late season schedules. Thoughts. All right. Well, Bob, I appreciate your support of the channel. First of all, uh immensely, if you want to be like Bob, John Dash Gertz-4, or you can click the dollar sign below the chat box right now in the live chat if you are here in the here and now. We do need to clarify, it's not there's there's not been a proposal uh by Notre Dame here beyond just this this two-year series, right? This all got kicked into high gear and discussion this week because, well, one, it's the offseason. Uh, but two, Ari from Andy and Ari on three, Ari Wasserman, he wrote a story, and then they did a video this week about like, hey, what if this is just like a perfect little accident that both school has kind of backed into and this turns into a great rivalry moving forward? So it's a national guy, and he's the one that brought it up and put this into discussion. Now everybody's been talking about it. Um, what do I think? I think it would be wonderful for the Big 12. I wouldn't worry for a second about it, and I don't think Brett Yormark would worry about for a second what it means for the league as a whole. You gotta take these opportunities to play these games. If that makes scheduling BYU a little bit trickier because they're gonna have a game in mid-October or whenever it would be uh against Notre Dame every year. I don't I wouldn't I would not worry about that at all for the conference. You need these opportunities. Alabama just dropped Oklahoma State from its schedule. So you don't have many many opportunities to play games against the biggest brands in the sport. So that that is my stance on it, Bob. I would say go for it. I'm I'm I'm I'm all in. But let's talk about this, okay? Let's talk about this. Does Notre Dame want to play BYU every single year? A national voice is pushing that, uh, and it would be a dream for BYU in the Big 12. Absolutely. But would it actually make sense for Notre Dame? And is it actually feasible from a logistical standpoint? Those to me are the two big questions we've got to answer in this video. So we all know BYU and Notre Dame are playing this year, and BYU can send a thank you note over to uh Los Angeles to USC. That's the reason that this game is being played because USC and Notre Dame stopped their series at least for now, though more on that later. So it left an open date on Notre Dame schedule, which has already taken some heat for being too soft. You know, Miami was the only real school with some teeth to it, at least on paper on the schedule right now. Um so they needed somebody good to play. And that's where, I mean, this is this is a high compliment to BYU that Notre Dame was like, all right, that's who we're gonna go get. Let's let's go play in Provo. We need that game. And I I will say, look, as much as I love that that's happening, I'm gonna be at the game, which I I think Bob also sent a follow-up message and said, like, I hope you'll be at the game. I will be at that game. Um, I don't love that it comes at the expense of like Notre Dame and USC not happening. That game needs to happen, that should happen. It's ridiculous. That, you know, this isn't even a conference realignment thing. Like, realignment's pulling apart all these rivalries. This isn't even a realignment thing. Like, guys, just play the damn game. You know, I know theoretically it was supposed to be about USC and it's kind of Lincoln Riley running away and saying, well, this isn't to our advantage when we got to play all these conference games and we're trying to make the play like, okay, whatever. But just play the rivalry game. Um, it does speak volumes though about the respect level for BYU right now. And if you're Notre Dame and you're playing this game, you can choose either USC or BYU and take the rivalry part out of it, just in a vacuum. Well, BYU for the last six years has finished higher in the college football playoff poll than SC. Okay. Two straight, obviously, but for the last six, even, they have finished as the higher ranked team in the playoff poll. So it would be to your advantage from a strength to schedule standpoint to play the Cougars. Uh, in that respect, this is this is a symbiotic relationship so far. And for two teams that last year were both just barely on the outside looking in of the college football playoff, how advantageous would this have been last year had they played? This would have been monster for both of them. I mean, BYU absolutely. If they beat Notre Dame, yeah, that that is the justification really that they needed. They lost the only two games that they had a chance to prove something on a national scale, which was beating Texas Tech. If you played Notre Dame instead of Stanford, I mean, that makes a massive difference, right? If BYU wins that game. I would think the same for Notre Dame, right? That they were so close to being in, like got nudged out at the last minute if they had another win over a top 15 to 20 team in the playoff poll, you know, depending on where BYU would have ended up with another loss on its schedule. That may have been enough to push Notre Dame over the edge, especially if it was in Pro Bowl, right? So symbiotic relationship so far, but will it happen every year? We got a national voice pushing that. Please do subscribe to the channel, helps a lot. One click, that's all it takes. Uh, Ari Wasserman of Andy and Ari on three, he wrote a whole column about this, and this was the general thesis, okay? He said, it got me thinking, what if Notre Dame and BYU played every year? What if this marks the start of a new rivalry? What if this is a happy accident that turns into something brilliant? Who loses? Who loses? That's the question Ari is asking. And the whole question here in this video is well, would Notre Dame lose? Would Notre Dame want to do this? Not would they lose the game? Would they lose by playing this every single year? First of all, respect to Ari, a real one, for even asking this question. I appreciate that he did. Uh, somebody actually taking some time and looking at this and being like, yeah, this would be great. And BYU deserves respect, and the Big 12 deserves some respect in this scenario. Um, there is one really big hurdle logistically to this happening, maybe two. And then, of course, the question of would Notre Dame actually do it. For BYU, look, let's get the obvious out of the way. Huge win for BYU and the Big 12. The Big 12 just needs opportunities to play the big boys. They need big games against the big brands. Uh, Oklahoma State's gonna play Oregon this year. That's a huge one. Oklahoma State had a series with Alabama, that's now been dropped by the Crimson Tide. So that sucks. And that type of thing does happen, and it's gonna get harder and harder, I think, as we move forward. Unless maybe we move to a 2014 playoff, but for now, it's gonna get harder and harder moving forward to get SEC and Big Ten teams on the schedule now that the SEC's gone to nine league games. That that hurts. So you gotta take games against big-time brands like this when you can. And for BYU, if you think about them specifically, if you win the game, huge boost to your playoff chances, and it comes in a game that's not a conference game. So if you lose it, you can still just roll through the Big 12 and win the Big 12 title and make the playoff anyway that way. 12 team era does nothing but help BYU. I guess unless you get blown out, right? Maybe then people will hold that up and say, well, they can't hang with the top of the sports, or whatever, you know. Uh, but it is essentially win-win. Um, you get a chance to validate yourself and you don't take a conference loss in the process. Um, but yeah, I mean, even if I'm, you know, I'm talking myself out of the like, even if you do, and people are like, oh, they can't hang with the big dogs, if you just go win the Big 12, you'll be in the playoff. And I mean, Notre Dame looks like they're gonna be here for a while. A lot of chatter right now about Marcus Freeman being good enough to be in the NFL. You know, so I guess theoretically, if they lose Marcus Freeman to the NFL, maybe things change. But he's a great coach. He's recruiting at a really high clip right now. Notre Dame's got it rolling, and BYU's got it rolling. And that's where we get to the question of is this something Notre Dame would want to do? Is this truly a benefit for Notre Dame? Uh, you've got things really rolling in Provo, too. I mean, Penn State just came hard after Kalani Sataki, and there's a reason they did that because he's he's a hell of a coach. And he's now signed up long term with more of a financial commitment, both in terms of NIL and to Sataki and his staff than existed there before. Uh, so if you're Notre Dame, you've got to look at it like, hey, man, these guys, for the last six years, they've been better than USC. Last two years, they've been right on the outside of the playoff. Um, this is something that can work for us. And that's just from like a strength of schedule standpoint. Maybe it becomes more palatable too if you get the assurance of a 2014 playoff, which Notre Dame has now signed up to support. Because if that happens, Notre Dame's going into every year like, hey, as long as we go like nine and three, maybe even eight and four, like we're gonna be in the playoff. So we can take some losses, we can take the risk that if BYU is still gonna keep this program humming, even if we lost to him, we'd be all right. Um there's there's that angle on it. If you would have replaced Arkansas or Purdue, somebody like that on the schedule last year with BYU for Notre Dame, might have been enough to get them up and over into the into the playoff. I I mean, I suppose one thing you'd be considering here, like that does it feel like Notre Dame's like lowering itself, like stooping down to playing a Big 12 team. But this is where I think BYU's brand really helps. Who is more similar in the country, honestly, to Notre Dame than than BYU? I'm not talking from just like, look, if you wanted to say Ohio State or Michigan or something like that, just because of pure brand. I mean, like, okay, but the similarities are clear, like national fan base because of the tie to a religion. Uh at one point, BYU was an independent and could legitimately handle it. There are not many schools across the country that could do that. Um, they're they're really similar. And some of that stuff is what I think is so cool about the game and why I would love to see it played every year, and why it could turn into a really cool rivalry. Um, again, a couple of hurdles that I'm going to get to in a moment, but national fan bases, based around religion, both kind of operate a little bit differently. They they have the ability to go independent, they have two great, relatively young head coaches, you know. I mean, I Marcus Freeman versus Kalani Sataki could be just a hell of a coaching matchup that develops over time. I love everything about it. I can't tell you whether or not Notre Dame would actually like want to do this long term. And they are at least now back talking to USC. There was a report from the Times of Troy newsletter. Says, quote, it's not clear yet when the rivalry series will return or what the terms will be. A person familiar with the discussions uh told the Times Notre Dame is now willing to discuss playing the game earlier in the season, which had previously been a sticking point. Given future scheduling agreements, it's possible the two schools won't meet again on the football field until 2030. Now, I know uh Jerem Jordan from BYU TV said, hey guys, BYU has already got its schedule filled out until like 2034 with the one power four opponent. So, you know, good luck. This is this is not gonna happen. It's a non-starter. He's obvious that's obviously someone that's very connected um at BYU that I have a ton of respect for. I guess my answer would just be like if Notre Dame actually wanted to do it, you could, I mean, 2028-29 is Boston College. Like, no offense, BC, but I'd tell BC, hey, sorry. Or I mean, that's Boston College. You could still play Notre Dame in addition to Boston College on the schedule. And again, all you'd have to do is win the Big 12. You can still make the playoff, you still have access there. I don't know. I that's something I would sure do. If you get Notre Dame coming to your building once every other year, I would sure do it. I'd sure find a way. Um, the question would be: would Notre Dame actually be interested? Would they want to push that? And to me, the ultimate answer here is like I would imagine Notre Dame takes a wait-and-see approach with this, right? See how this goes for the next two years. There's no need to commit to anything long-term now. Uh, just see how the game goes. See what BYU is. Do they survive without Jay Hill as defensive coordinator? Does the program just keep rolling? Those that have questions about that. Like, if Bear Bachmeyer really is that dude, maybe the Cougars are even better the next two years. And this turns into a great thing. And it's a you know, a couple of great games. It's really beneficial for Notre Dame. And then at the end of it, they're like, hey, we still don't have things totally worked out with USC. We've at least got another couple years here before 2030, which seems like according to that report, might be the earliest that they could link back up. Hey, let's keep it going. And then if it goes well those two years, maybe it's like, all right, USC's back on the schedule, but hey, BYU, we'd love to keep this thing going. This is a good thing. You take your shot, shoot or shoot. Shoot your shot, take your opportunity, see if they want to do it long term after that. See if they want to. Um, that would be where I would imagine this is going, and that would certainly be my approach. Uh, so if BYU beats Notre Dame, they may be playoff bound. Uh, but what if I told you ESPN was pushing BYU to the playoff anyway? Click here to check it out for yourself. That's for everybody watching the uh clipped version of the video. Those of you hanging out live, I'm still here with you. Thank you for being here. Please do like the video, subscribe to the channel. Both totally free. Nice and easy. Clicks. A lot of you watch the channel, but don't subscribe. It does help me if uh you get those subscriber numbers up. You can sign up for the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter at OFBnews.com or click the link in the description of the video. It's totally free. It comes to your inbox twice a week. And uh you'll have one most likely tomorrow, tomorrow or Friday morning. You can join 6,300 plus other Big 12 fans who are subscribed. And I appreciate each and every one of you. We're gonna finish with uh a little bit of Brendan Soresby. I know some of you may be getting tired of hearing about this. I promise you, if you stick around for this one, there's a funny element of this update to the Brendan Soresby case. I'm not trying to make light of his situation at all, but there's a very college football, classic college football element of this. I'm not talking about Foxified playoff industrial complex college football element to this. This is your older brother's college football of the 70s, 80s, 90s. Okay, maybe your father's college football, right? That's what we're gonna talk about here. An element of this that is great. All right. Texas Tech had a huge win in the Brendan Soresby case until they didn't. Until they didn't. Momentum had been building toward uh uh certainly a shot that Soresby was actually gonna play for the Red Raiders this year until we got some big news today about the judge in the case. All right. I'll explain what happened and why it may put uh Tech and Soresby back at square one in uh in all of this. You guys know the deal by now, right? Brendan Soresby, he got he got caught gambling, thousands of bets. The one that is the killer here is that he bet on Indiana when he was playing for Indiana. A lot of bets, though, man. It's a bit of problem. So much info came out this week in the affidavits and stuff associated with the court case. Uh, he was betting on Turkish basketball, he bet on the Nathan's hot dog eating contest, he was betting balls and strikes of Reds games. A lot of stuff. Definitely seems problematic. Um, he's seeking treatment for it right now. And the thought, of course, because of the Indiana bet, was that he was going to be ruled permanently ineligible, much like Hunter Deckers of Iowa State from uh from a few years ago. But things started to change when Brendan Soresby hired one of the plaintiff attorneys of the house case, Jeff Kessler. He was involved in the Alston case. He's been a longtime NCAA nemesis. He also was a guy who defended Tom Brady in Deflate Gate. More on Tom Brady at a moment. We're not done with Tom Brady today, and we're not done with Tom Brady in Texas Tech today. Okay. But earlier this week, things heated up. You saw the breaking news video that I did. Uh Brendan Soresby officially sued the NCAA. Read to you a little bit of the reporting on this. Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby filed a motion against the NCAA in Texas state court on Monday. He is seeking a temporary injunction that would grant him eligibility for the 2026 season. So he wants the judge to give him a temporary injunction that would grant him eligibility for this season. Like full stop. Wants the judge to say, hey, I rubber stamp this. Go play, kid. Go get him. Uh, this is from the lawsuit. Quote Rather than support a student athlete's recovery from a gambling addiction, the NCAA has weaponized his condition to shore up a facade of competitive integrity. Pretty strong. Facade of competitive integrity, while simultaneously profiting from the very gambling ecosystem it polices. Fair point on that one. Now, the thought here was this may just be a ploy to get the NCAA. Well, not even a ploy, and they've said as much in the lawsuit. Like they want a decision quickly. It's pushing the NCAA to decide something within a month because June 22nd is the deadline for the NFL supplemental draft. Soresby could go in the supplemental draft. If someone takes him, they would forfeit whatever round they take him in, they would forfeit that round of a pick next year in the regular draft. So someone quarterback needy in the NFL could just go grab him now. It's a big deal, obviously, for Soresby. I understand. Now, there's a part of me that just says, like, hey man, actions have consequences if the NCAA doesn't get to it by then. I you knew the rules about gambling and you gambled, even on your team. So I am empathetic to the overall problem. I'm not as empathetic to some of the consequences that are coming per these actions, but like, hey, I understand it. Go get the best lawyer, try and make the best situation occur for yourself. That's fine too. You well within your rights to do that. We did learn with this. I'm gonna get to the judge in just a moment, right? Which is the crazy part. We did learn through this. Soresby offered to accept a two-game suspension and have his eligibility conditioned on completing the treatment program, among other conditions. But quote, the NCAA rejected his offer, the lawsuit states. I mean, I guess, you know, I said the other part of this was like the the funny part, the very college football-y part. I gotta admit, you do something that's gotten everybody else popped for a permanent ban, and your your like idea to the NCAA, your concession is well, hey, what if let's just settle and you just spend me two games and I'll behave and we call it good. Permanently ineligible for two games. Two games is wild, man. Jeff, Jeff Kessler, these guys, these guys mean business. They mean business. Now, the judge you thought might mean business too, because Philip Hayes is the judge who got assigned to this. Remember, this this was all filed in Texas. I'm gonna show you a picture here of Judge Hayes, and this is the part that is funny to me. Okay. There's good old Judge Hayes. Uh yeah, uh hanging out with Raider Red, flashing the guns up. He uh he has a couple of degrees from Texas Tech, if you're wondering. And so immediately when that got out there, oh hey, this is the guy assigned to the case. I mean, you know the internet. Like everybody kind of catches fire on this, and like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. That's the dude. This is the most college football thing ever. You go find the friendly judge who's got a couple degrees from your squad, who's just all about the Red Raiders, and he's the one that will rule on Brendan Soresby. Like, this seems like this is how you get stuff done. Especially in this day and age where like the NCAA can't do anything to stop it. It it would it's just like taunting the NCAA at this point. You're not just beating them, you're just doing the Dion for the last 20 yards as you walk it into the end zone, right? Like, hey, this is our guy. This is the judge in the case, this is our dude. I mean, that is that is hilarious, man. It's hilarious. Now, here's the kicker, though. So when you see that, everybody's like, oh my God, like they tech might actually do this. Like, they're gonna get this guy to play. They went and hired the deflate gate Austin house settlement guy, and and then they get the judge who's flashing the guns up. Like, wow, tech is gonna pull this off. Unbelievable. Until today. Until today. Uh, let me read to you. Bloomberg Law reports that Judge Philip Hayes has recused himself from the case. Uh, Judge Philip Hayes, a Lubbock native with two tech degrees, didn't give a reason. Replacement to be picked uh by administrative judge with degree. I so this is a set, this is a sentence from the report. The replacement for Judge Philip Hayes will be picked by an administrative judge with degrees from Texas AM and Baylor, but not tech. So we've gotta, we've gotta go into just so college football. Lawsuits, first of all, billable hours, and then we gotta dive deep into where the degrees are from of everybody who's adjudicating everything to make sure we know where the conflicts of interest uh lie. It's that is that's just peak college football. Hey, this guy's A M and Baylor, but not tech. Now now do we have to do we have to worry about do we have to worry about whether or not the AM and Baylor is gonna come out here? Is that gonna make things worse? Um yeah, I don't know. I I don't know if there are pictures of them, you know. Is there what a picture of one of the that guy with Revely? Is there a picture of him with the yellow jersey on running out with the Baylor line or something like that? Um yeah, I I thought in the the way that the NCAA just getting destroyed in court, I was like, well, that on brand makes sense. Tech will win this. Here we go. Now it doesn't really seem like that. I I still would definitely be in the mode of like he may well get an expedited decision. I think it's still gonna be like, hey, buddy, you're not gonna play. Have fun in the supplemental draft. Here we'll we'll get that done for you. So you can go do that and uh see what happens in the NFL. I'm still not seeing anything that makes me think like, bam, sure thing, they're gonna get this done. Once the judge, that was that was a big turning point for me. It feels like. Oh, okay. Sanity may prevail in the in the Brendan Sorsby case. Um yeah. Anyway, there's your update. There's your update on Brendan Soresby. Uh, thank you everybody for being here. I've got one last quick thing for you. So you got a couple minutes here. If you want to submit a super chat, click the dollar sign below the chat box in order to uh to do that. Like the video, subscribe. That is totally free, and I really appreciate everybody uh who does that. But man, I Texas Tech. I was not intending to make the back half of this like all tech related, but I I just I gotta read you this. This is Tom Brady was giving a commencement speech, and Tom Brady took a shot at tech, totally unwarranted, totally sideswiped him for no reason. Okay, to try and make his story sound a little bit better at a commencement, I guess is really the reason here. But totally unnecessary shot from Brady. So Brady is talking about Danny Amendola, Texas Tech's very own Danny Amendola. And Brady's point here is like find yourself good teammates, find yourself good people to be around, and they don't even have to be the guys that you think of as like the first round draft pick, right? Like the guy from the prestigious place. That's the point that he's trying to make here. So Tom Brady says, understanding this served me well on every step of my journey, including that step into the huddle on that fourth down with the outcome of the Super Bowl, 99.7% guaranteed that we lose. He's talking, of course, about the 28-3 comeback in the Super Bowl. We called the play. It was a little square out to Danny Amendola. Here you go. Red Raider fans, hold on to your butts. Danny went undrafted out of Texas Tech. He was cut by three NFL teams. He wasn't the tallest, he wasn't the fastest, but he had a huge heart and he played his you know what off in the biggest moments. I hope you guys find colleagues like Danny. Having business school friends are great, don't get me wrong. But sometimes you need a kid from a glorified community college who can bail your you know what out of any jam. If you want to achieve great things, surround yourself with people like him. Yeah, Tom Brady, sometimes you need a kid from a glorified community college who can bail your blank out of any jam. If you want to achieve great things, surround yourself with people like him. Boy, Texas Tech, a glorified community college, according to Tom Brady. As if Red Raider fans weren't dug in enough on Patrick Mahomes. And look, honestly, maybe I should be thanking Tom Brady because this will just further entrench more people on my side that Patrick Mahomes will go down as the greatest quarterback of all time in NFL history. Come on down, Red Raiders. I've been fighting the fight for a long time. You can link arms with me and Nick Wright on this battlefield. Let's talk about it. But yeah, now you're definitely going to want Mahomes to go out and win the legacy battle against Brady, right? Like, what the hell is that? Tom, come on, man. It's because you went to Michigan, you got to be all Michigan, man, about it. This is this is the whole problem with the college sports ecosystem these days. That you got these uppity guys from the Michigan, Ohio State, Georgia, crust of the college football world, taking shots at everybody else. Texas Tech is a very fine, respectable institution. It is not a glorified community college. If you're gonna say that, I mean, talk about it, wasn't Rex Burkhead from like Chandron State or something. I mean, talk about one of those guys. You know, Danny Amandoli. If you want to say, hey, he was cut from three NFL teams, he's really short and all that. Okay, that's fine. That that part of the story is accurate. Glorified community college for tech is is too much. That is too much. Mahomes, somebody make sure, make sure that Mahomes finds this. You know, Mahomes, I'm sure, has Brady's number. I'm sure they talk. Somebody get this to Pat. He's a competitive dude, right? Remember, we played the Bears that one time and he threw all the touchdown passes. He was like counting on his fingers. Uh, he's a hyper competitive guy. He'll say something, he'll take care of it. Just get it to Mahomes. If you have to, put a couple of Coors lights in him, get a couple silver bullets down the goal to Patrick Mahomes, and let him let him go at Tom Brady a little bit. Let him go at Tom Brady. Thank you. John is correct. The goat is Mahomes. And if we as Big 12 fans didn't recognize and realize that already, now we have with this comment here. From one Tom Brady. Okay. And hey, I see where is where where did I see yeah, here we go. I saw this. They cheat well, though. Okay. Is this if this is about Texas Tech, my point would be on Tom Brady? Is it not cheating? The clear plastic surgery that has happened since he began his career. You've seen the pictures of what his headshot looked like when he started versus what it looks like right now. Okay. No, I'm not saying it hasn't done him some wonders. The guy looks very good, but that seems to be cheating as well. Oh, speaking of cheating, why am I even going to that on the cheating? We're talking about Tom Brady. I just said Jeff Kessler is the same lawyer being used here, but in represented him in Deflate Gate when Tom Brady cheated. When he cheated.

unknown 50:27

Right?

SPEAKER_01 50:27

How many? I mean, how many scandals happened with the Patriots while Brady was there? Cheated. Cheated, cheated, cheated. Oh, Leroy says no, that was about Michigan. Okay. All right. All right. Thank you. Good. Good. Good. Okay. Now that we got that established, got that out of the system. Everybody, you're welcome to come to the Patrick Mahomes side of the aisle. Um this is funny too. Mahomes lost to Iowa State bad. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. You can hang your hat on that, Iowa State fans for sure. Uh DJ Reed of K-State had a pick six off of Patrick Mahomes in college in Manhattan once upon a time in uh 2016. Uh so yes, those things are fun, but we can still we can still uh still support Pat the goat. Uh the goat here. Oh, Brady cheated on Giselle. I don't did Brady cheat on Giselle. I don't look. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. Uh Pacific Northwest Ute, Brady's Hayton is a bit deflating. Hashtag goat grazing. You know what, Pacific Northwest Ute? That's why they call you the goat here of this chat, because that's good. Brady's Hayton is a bit deflating. Can you put together like a like a full a full rap, like a full song about the Big 12, Pacific Northwest Ute? If you do it, uh, I'll play it on the show. So that's that's my challenge to you. I would love for that to happen. I trust in your cleverness and your ability to do that, my friend. Okay, I think that's gonna wrap it up for me tonight, guys. Thanks for uh obliging me with a little bit of fun at the end there. Uh best wishes and recovery to Patrick Mahomes as well. Probably gonna need that knee this year now that Rasheed Rice is bleeping around again. Don't know that that guy's ever gonna be reliable enough to be out there for an entire season. Ha, okay. Uh, like the video, subscribe to the channel, sign up for the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter, OFBnews.com, or click the link in the description of this video, and join 6,300 other Big 12 fans who do. Uh, thank you all for being here. Fun one tonight. Good stuff going on. I will see you guys on Sunday. Enjoy the rest of your week and take care.