Open For Business: College Football w/ John Kurtz
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Open For Business: College Football w/ John Kurtz
Yormark Leaving the Big 12 After Shutting Down Sorsby?; Big 12 Could Still Punish the Red Raiders
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The Brendan Sorsby saga may be mostly settled, but the fallout between Texas Tech and the Big 12 is not over yet. Brett Yormark came out of the situation as a massive winner after the Big 12’s legal strategy helped push Sorsby toward the NFL supplemental draft, but now the question becomes whether Yormark’s stock is rising so much that he could eventually leave the Big 12.
We’ll also dive into whether the Big 12 is still considering punishment for Texas Tech, why the league has not yet dropped its federal lawsuit, and whether trying to recoup legal fees from the Red Raiders would be a smart move or a major mistake for the future relationship between Texas Tech and the conference.
Plus, there’s a major update on the Protect College Sports Act after the bill passed through the Senate Commerce Committee. With support from Notre Dame, the NFL, MLB, the Big 12 and the ACC, could Congress actually stop the SEC and Big Ten from creating a college football Super League?
And finally, BYU faces a complicated situation after the Parker Kingston rape case was dismissed without prejudice. What does that actually mean, could the case be refiled, and how should BYU handle questions about Kingston’s future?
On tonight’s Open For Business Big 12 live show:
* Brett Yormark’s big win in the Texas Tech-Brendan Sorsby saga
* Whether Yormark could eventually leave the Big 12
* Why the Big 12 may still pursue consequences for Texas Tech
* The latest on the Big 12 lawsuit and possible legal fees
* The Protect College Sports Act moving forward in Congress
* What the bill means for the Big 12, ACC, SEC and Big Ten
* The latest on Parker Kingston and BYU’s impossible situation
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Well, we just can't get away from the uh Brandon Soresby story. Still a couple of extra legs of life to this thing, including will Texas Tech be uh punished in some form or fashion by the Big 12 still, according to reporting from ESPN's Heather Dinnich, that is on the table and something we may find out tomorrow. So it could be another uh banner Monday for the second straight week for the Big 12 conference. Actually, third straight week, really. We've had back-to-back crazy Mondays in this conference. And there is one piece of reporting that has not been talked about much at all that I think needs to be today on the show, and that is about Brett Yormark and his future. It was buried pretty deep in his story by the athletic and all the chaos and commotion about Brendan Sorsby. So I do understand how it got missed, but we need to chat about where Brett Yormark may be eventually headed here. Uh by the way, the Protect College Sports Act is still going through the Senate right now, past a major hurdle. The Senate Commerce Committee has moved it on, so now it could actually hit the Senate floor. And Ross Dellinger's latest article outlines a situation where, again, the senators are not backing down from the SEC and Big Ten at all. At all. It is heartening to see how much Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell are really pushing back against Greg Sankey and Tony Petiti, though the Big 12 and the ACC were dealt to blow in the latest revision to the bill. So we're going to cover that. We've got a Parker Kingston update that is, uh, to be honest, a really, really tricky one for everybody involved. BYU, the judicial system, Kingston himself. It's a bit messy, all right, but it is in some ways uh pretty fascinating to see what's going to unfold there. And then, man, Brendan Soresby's lawyer. We'll see if we have time for this. I didn't want to just bog you down with everything, everything, Brendan Soresby, but we did get a really interesting interview from Soresby's agent where he took fire at Cincinnati and asked the question, like, why is Cincinnati not getting more heat? Which is a question Texas Tech fans have asked that I think is a fair question to be asking here at this point. So there's a lot to get to here on this show. Thank you, everybody, for joining me. Uh, it is the Open for Business Big 12 podcast. I'm your host, John Kurtz. Like the video, subscribe to the channel, all that stuff helps as you file in. This is where the Big 12 just means more. Which means that, senators, you are welcome here. If uh anyone wants to spread this throughout the Senate, fire up some support for the Protect College Sports Act, you are more than welcome to do so. Let's uh I think that's the the deal. We need to get the show to Washington. Maybe that should be the goal now. I keep talking about pushing to 35k subs. How about get open for business to Washington? All right, put it on a bumper sticker, put it on a t-shirt. I guess that's probably my job for you guys to put it on a t-shirt. Anyway, thank you all for being here. Sign up for the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter. It's OFBnews.com to do that. OFBnews.com. You can hit me on Venmo at John-Kurtz-4 and leave a question or comment there. If you're not watching live, I will kick off the next show with it. So you can still be a part. But if you're here in the chat right now, which is lively as I figured it probably would be, you can leave a question or comment right now. Obviously, keep it active there. But if you click the dollar sign below the chat box and submit a super chat, you guarantee that your question or comment makes it on the show tonight. So thank you to everybody who is here. Please, again, with sensitive subjects here, try to be respectful to each other each other in the chat. I know that there's going to be disagreements. People have very strong opinions on what has happened with the Brendan Soresby situation and where it's going. Just try to be respectful to each other. That is that is my request, okay? Uh look, Brett Yormark is unquestionably a huge winner in the Brendan Soresby saga. I know that won't make Texas Tech fans happy, and I may actually make Big 12 fans unhappy because the question that I would ask from it is was he too successful? Is this a bad thing for the Big 12? Could the Big 12 lose Brett Yormark? We're gonna have to dive in on the reporting and one line from an athletic story that got way overlooked in the chaos of last week. So the dust is like kind of settled on this, right? I mean, it's it's settled, but Brendan Soresby still has not fully been accepted into the NFL supplemental draft, which the deadline is tomorrow as I record this here on Sunday. Shout out to everybody listening on the audio platforms who are not here live. You guys are great. Continue to listen there. But I'm recording this live on Sunday night, and as of Sunday night, he still is not like officially in a supplemental draft. They have not set up a supplemental draft. And a part of this is because he's got to be deemed officially ineligible in college football, which is why he dropped his lawsuit there. They're trying to get him declared officially ineligible, and then he could go to the supplemental draft. Uh, it does seem like he's, you know, not gonna play at Texas Tech, but again, everybody is waiting a bit on pins and needles at this point. Like, okay, like, is this can we can we get this officially taken care of, NFL? And while that is happening, the Big 12, this is one of the big news items from the last few days. The Big 12 does still technically have its federal lawsuit filed. So the league has not rescinded this. Presumably a bit leery about everything I just mentioned. Like, is this all totally final? So it was nice uh for a couple of days to take a bit of a step back from this, but I do have some fears that we're not totally done with it, and some of that could be some punishment still coming Texas Tech's way, uh, because that has been reported. So I will get to that. But look, when we're talking about winners and losers, I know that there are a lot of you out there who won't be happy with my opinion that Brett Yormark is a pretty big winner here. But I think when you when you take the temperature of the room in college football and how many people did not want Brendan Soresby to play football this year, it's pretty clear that Brett Yormark is a big winner there, uh, which is a rare W for Brett Yormark lately, it seems like, in the national eyes. Okay. It doesn't mean that Texas Tech is a pure loser, quote unquote, in this situation either. I don't know that this has to be, I do know, this does not have to be a zero-sum game where there is a straight up winner and a straight up loser. Because if you did listen to Brendan Soresby's agent talk about how great Joey McGuire was and how supportive Texas Tech was, he said, I just think they talked too much. That was the one thing that got them really in trouble. But Brendan Soresby's agent, if you just played that clip, which look, Texas Tech is not dumb. If they're ever in a recruiting paddle, there's any question about that, just cue up the interview on a sports radio station, I forget where that was, that Soresby's agent did the show, and you play him that, and it's like, hey man, we'll stick with you through thick and thin, through anything. Uh, so this has not gone all totally south for Texas Tech, right? But unquestionably, Brett Yormark is a huge winner and the biggest winner here. Like, I first heard, I'll give credit to Chris Williams from Cyclone Fanatic in Iowa Everywhere, who first had this take. I saw his clip circulating about this, and that really sparked to me. I was like, dude, he's right. I mean, obviously, you think of well, the 15 Big 12 ADs who seem to be furious about all this. I mean, they they wound up getting their way, so they are winners. But when you think about who was under the most pressure in this situation, I mean, that's your mark because on one hand, he had the entire college football world that seemed to disagree with Texas Tech being supportive of playing Brendan Soresby this year, did not want to see him play. Felt like the integrity of the game was on the line. Some of it performative outrage, but a lot of legitimate concern there. That's where the temperature of the sport was, and they're looking at you like, hey, buddy, you've got to be the one to stand up here because now the courts say the NCAA can't stand up. He has his own room of 15 screaming mad ADs who are popping off to the media with F bombs in stories because they're that upset and really unhinged at that point with their anger. And then on the other side, he's got right now the most powerful program in the league. Now, I know some will push back on that, and I get the one-year criticism about what Texas Tech's done, but with the combination of money that they have with Cody Campbell's influence, I mean, look at what's happening nationally with the Protect College Sports Act. That is a very influential guy. There is a lot of power in Texas Tech's corner right now, and they did win the league last year. So you've got your most powerful member totally upset on the other side. They've already had plenty of issues with you over the last six months with a ton of animosity brewing over there, and you've got to be the one to sort out what's going to happen here. You've got to be the one to make this work without it totally blowing up. Love him or hate him, whether you are a tech fan and you totally hate Brett Yormark, or you are somebody who completely loves him and wants to cheerlead for the Big 12 all the time, you got to admit that is a lot on one guy's plate. That was a lot on his plate, dude. And Brett Yormark in the end pleased 99% of the college sports world and about 99% of the entire sports world in general, anybody who was paying attention to this, and 15 of his 16 member institutions without having to have some long drawn-out battle. And I would also tell you that he knocked out two of the biggest stereotypes about both he and the conference by doing this. This is another thing I think you need to consider in all of this. What do we always hear about the Big 12? Like for years, one, very passive, not aggressive, not out there doing things that are uh proactive, not a proactive league. Okay. And is there anything more aggressive and proactive than at 1 a.m. having your legal team file a really creative suit that Tom Mars called Brilliant, that Curry Sexton, the attorney I had on here, called Brilliant, that within 24 hours made Brandon Soresby go from meeting with tech officials on Sunday to reinforce, hey, yeah, I'm good. I'm gonna play for you guys to okay, fine, I'll go to the supplemental draft. Yeah, that's that's pretty aggressive and proactive. And it's also not bowing down to the most powerful member in the league, which what is, I mean, the narrative of the Big 12 since its birth, since before there was a game played in 1996, the narrative of the league was that it was always bowing down to Texas. Obviously the Longhorn Network, but this goes back to Nebraska getting upset at Texas for decisions that were being made in like 1994 and 1995 before the the conference even officially began. So this was a big stand where the Big 12 finally was not ruled by that. And once again, I would say, regardless of whether you agree with him or not, I think you got to agree that standing up to the most powerful member in the league is a change of pace for this conference. But this is where I get to was it was it almost too smart for the Big 12's own good? Is this going to backfire on the Big 12? Please do subscribe to the channel, push into 35k subs. Uh, it helps. Many of you watch, but don't subscribe. It really does help if you subscribe to the channel. So let's read this from the athletic. I feel like I have not seen really any discussion about this. It was buried pretty deep in a story that actually ran before Soresby had announced, along with Texas Tech, that he was going to just go to the supplemental draft. So it was like this heat of the moment. There are there are a ton of stories going back and forth. The news was happening very quick. There was so much anger and people going back and forth about everything that it was very easy to miss. But this came from that story, all right, what I'm about to read you. Quote This conflict with Texas Tech will test his leadership like never before. The consensus among those in college sports is that this is unlikely to be the 59-year-old's last job. Those who know your mark well say he is keenly aware that how he handles this could not only define his tenure with the Big 12, but also have an impact on whatever he aspires to do next. I mean, we're talking about this quote or this passage of the story mentioning those who know your mark well. So there is some info coming here from people who are close to Brett Yormark. And the consensus among those in college sports, people who would also know Brett Yormark fairly well, is that it would not be the 59-year-old's last job. Unlikely to be the 59-year-old's last job. And when you frame it around the context of he knows just how important this story is going to be to his legacy, that's where I start to get a little concerned. As somebody who thinks that Brett Yormark has done a very good job with the big picture stuff for the Big 12, is not perfect, but has done a really good job with the big picture of the league. I'm like, oh boy. So he got over this. I think he's a big winner here. I think his respect had to go up from. I mean, think about you know, he stood up toe-to-toe with Cody Campbell, who has relationships with all these high rollers like a Ken Paxton, like people in high places. And Ken Paxton puts out that statement threatening to sue, and Brett Yormark stood tall and got the Big 12's legal team to outmaneuver them legally at 1 a.m. and make this all essentially go away. There is a whole horde of people in the SEC and Big Ten that are not fans of Cody Campbell right now. You think their respect didn't go up for Brett Yormark after watching that happen? And now you're thinking about what's what's going on next. What's going on next in the sport world, sports world for Brett Yormark, who clearly is very accomplished even before he got to the Big 12? He moved the Nets to Brooklyn. He had great success with NASCAR. He worked for Jay-Z. Like, this is a guy that will have a lot of options. I just start to get a bit antsy now where I'm like, all right, was this like he feels like all right? Strike while the iron's hot. I just made a really big, widely popular move within the industry and within sports. Is it now time to start plotting my next move? I'm going to say just keep an eye out on that. Uh, because I think that's a significant thing to include in that story. And this, it's, it's, I don't know if you've noticed, but with so much chaos and commotion going on with the Protect College Sports Act and where college sports are heading next, it's not exactly a time that I would want to be changing commissioners. Um, the Big 12, I think, hired very well last time. So they've learned the lesson that you have to hire somebody, a different style of leader in today's day and age. We don't need to get totally into who they would hire, whatever next. I'm just putting that out there. That this was something that was now reported in a story by the Athletic. These are guys that are Big J journalists. They're talking about people that are close to your mark. So my ears really perked up reading that, especially after it worked out very well, uh, I think for Brett Yormark here after all of this happened. So I'm putting it on your radar. Uh hey, click here to find out exactly how your mark in the Big 12 did execute that legal maneuver and stun tech, which sent Brendan Sorsby to the NFL. That's for everybody watching the clip version. Those of you hanging out live, uh, thank you very much for being here. No need to worry. Uh, but I appreciate you. We've got a lot to get to today. A lot, a lot, a lot to get to, including some super chats right now, starting with my guy Lewis. And by the way, click the dollar sign below the chat box if you uh want to join the party here with the super chats. Appreciate all of you who do. Lewis says, uh Soresby law Soresby's lawyer apparently knew he had a gambling problem for years. So blaming Cincinnati uh is a big deflection by his pinstripe beamer skirt. All right, are we talking so are we talking about the the agent here? Then that it's a big deflection. I mean, look, what I'll say about the agent is the agent's job is to create the best outcomes for his clients. I'm not saying it's gonna make a massive impact going and doing a sports radio interview and and painting the narrative like that, but that is his job. He's just doing his job. So I'm not gonna waste a lot of time getting upset there. Like I the and and it is a very complex issue. I mean, he also talked about the proliferation of sports gambling and how do we expect these kids not to get bogged down in this and into some trouble when it's everywhere and people around college sports are making so much money off it. Like, that is a legitimate issue. It is very true, but it's also very, very, very clear. Very clear. Don't bet on your own team, let alone 40 times. Like it's you know, you do have to take some responsibility for that. And that has been a part of my frustration in the whole Soresby thing the whole time, is it doesn't feel like a lot of people who are on his side, whether it's him personally or his school, I feel like there's been too much of an admonishment of some of the responsibility there. Uh so yeah, if you want to call the Cincinnati part of deflection, I mean, I mean, that's fine. I I am, I will just say, for as much scrutiny as Texas Tech got, I understand why tech fans would say, hey, can we open up some kind of investigation, dig a little deeper on Cincinnati and what they knew uh at the time? That's not an accusation from me towards Cincinnati. That's just an understanding of being exasperated with what your school just went through and saying, hey, he did play there, and we do know that there was a prohibit trigger where they had at least a conversation. So can we dig a little deeper there? I can at least understand that. But uh Lewis, I appreciate it. I don't know anything about what Soresby's lawyer did or did not know. I have not seen that. If let hit me up on Twitter if there's like an article that has that, if there's something beyond just like some Twitter speculation or whatever. So uh I respect your opinion. I appreciate you bringing it to the table. I just I have not seen anything about that. And uh until something like that were to get reported, I just don't know that I'm gonna speculate a whole lot on what Brendan Sorsby's lawyer did or or did not know. Uh, David, what's up, David? David says even the NFL doesn't allow players to bet on NFL games. Uh, maybe the NFL and teams are hesitant on Mr. Brendan Soresby. Well, I would tell you this, David. The NFL loves winning games. And the NFL loves talent, and Brendan Sorsby does have plenty of talent. I think he's he's going to get drafted in the supplemental draft. I don't think that will be a problem. I did see uh Ian Rappaport projecting him as a second round supplemental draft pick. So basically, like teams just have to submit how high of a pick they would use on him because you lose it in the next draft if you wind up getting the player. And so he he guessed that someone would go as high as a second to get him. NFL NFL teams need quarterbacks, man. So I I think he will probably he will probably find a home there. I do. I appreciate you being here, David. Thank you very much, my friend. Uh securities attorney, HB, Texas Tech, and I appreciate you, Securities Attorney. Thanks for being here. Texas Tech News Sourceby probably wouldn't play as soon as the news hit, but publicly stood by him to show new recruits that tech will always have their back. Uh love them or hate them. I think this was huge for recruiting. I don't disagree. I don't disagree. I mean, I I don't think tech needs a lot of help in recruiting right now, uh, the way it's going, but it certainly does not hurt. And like I said, all you got to do is put on the tape of the interview from uh Brendan Soresby's agent to find all you need to know about what they thought of Texas Tech's support here. Obviously, through, I mean, the thinnest of thin, right? I mean, as tough as it gets, being a total national pariah out there, Texas Tech stuck by him completely. Uh so I I think I mean this is where we go back to I think tech was pretty floored that the ruling came in from the judge the way that it did. I thought they played it perfectly before that, where it's like, hey, we're we're standing by our guy, he's probably not gonna be eligible, we're gonna totally support him. And then it becomes a different deal when you're like, oh, wait, all right, well, now we know what the reaction is, and now what do we do when we're here? They did stick by their guy. And we don't need to relitigate all this. I I would say that's where to me, I would have had, I think it would have gone much better for tech if they would have said, yep, he can play. We think it's best for him if he's here. We think it's best for our football team winning games if he plays. The judge said he can play, so we're gonna play him. And then just leave it at that. No, he didn't murder anybody or whatever. Just leave it at that. Just be honest, and I think it would have gone a lot better anyway. Uh, old Texas Tech Man 914. Uh, John, all this bleep started when Soresby didn't pay $1 million to Cincinnati on his contract with Cincinnati. Uh plus, why can't the Big 12 expand? Okay, two things we did see. There was reporting from the Athletic. One of the stories post-mortem after Soresby had said, Hey, I'll just go to the supplemental draft, did say that it was like law enforcement or a I don't, I can't remember if it was specifically the FBI, but it was like it was like law enforcement that first triggered this. So I know that the the narrative here from tech fans is like Cincinnati tattled, and that's what started all this. At least according to reporting, we have seen. It was not that. It came through a higher power, which is why Ryan Hyatt was on here saying, hey man, this story might not be over because the FBI sometimes gets involved here. And it's not that Soresby would have been throwing games, but what's happening downstream of people who realize who have access to who's betting on games? They can see that, oh, here's a college kid betting on his own team, and then they're trying to take info from like there could be things downstream happening here that that make this uh pretty dicey too. Uh why can't the Big 12 expand? Well, that's because, and we're going to talk Protect College Sports Act later, but that is because Cruz and Cantwell, the two senators, tried to acquiesce and like extended all the branch basically to the SEC and Big Ten and say, hey, you're upset that you're frozen and can't expand or merge. We'll do the same thing to the Big 12 and the ACC. And that still didn't satisfy the SEC and the Big Ten. So that's that's a part of where we're at right now, uh, unfortunately, on that. But thank you, old Texas Tech man. Uh Kim, what's up, Kim? Kim says, question for every Big 12 coach at Meaty Days. Coach, would you support a mandatory audit of every university's athletes nationwide? Well, what's it an audit, like an audit of their their uh betting habits, I guess, or like their phone. I I see what you're getting at there. Like you're getting at, hey, there are probably lots of athletes out there who are betting and we just don't know about it. Uh and I would think the most likely scenario for all of that is probably a big chunk of what Soresby was doing, which is sending money to a friend or something to have them bet for you, which is how you could get around the prohibit thing uh triggering there. But the problem there is if you're auditing that, how do you audit that? How do you I mean you audit the phone, the the uh the phones of every friend of every college athlete out there? I mean, I see what you're getting at. I understand your frustration. I don't think uh I don't think that that is practical. Um there look, Big 12 Media Days will be very interesting. It's in just over two weeks. We're like uh 16 days away. There are gonna be a ton of questions asked about this all over the place. I will be very interested to see what the tone is of the responses from both athletic directors and coaches and players. Hell, I mean a lot of players there too. Be very interesting to know not just how everybody feels, but who's gonna be willing to uh openly share really how they feel. Uh, so we'll we'll see, Kim. We'll see what happens and what comes from that. But thank you, my friend. Reginald. Reginald says, uh Cincinnati is guilty of having him for two years and uh hush up about the issue until Texas Tech picked him up. Well, again, Reginald, I would I I don't know if you're insinuating the same thing that I think old Texas Tech Man was earlier. Reporting would suggest this was not Cincinnati tipping anybody off. Uh if you if you want to believe that, that is you are free to believe that. Uh until I see you reported that it was Cincinnati who tipped anybody off here. Uh I am not going to run with that. I can understand being a bit cynical about it all. And once again, I you know, I feel like I've said this a bunch and was gonna play, I was planning on saying it again at the end of the show, but yeah, like if your response here is, hey, can we do a little more digging on Cincinnati? Totally fine with it. Totally fine. I don't just I I'm gonna say it again. What guys, bookmark it, hit record on your phones right now because I feel like I've gotten this response so much from people. If you want to investigate Cincinnati further, I'm fine with it. I won't stop you. Do it. That's cool. I get it. There you go. What else do you want from me? I got it. I'm with you on that. Okay. Not an accusation to Cincinnati, but if we want to try to do more digging, if you it I don't know what entity it is, that's a part of the problem. I don't know what entity it is that can do that. Can the NCAA do it anymore? I don't know who it is that would do it, but sure. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm I'm open to it. The Big 12, I guess. You know, if you're responding, hey, the Big 12. People should be furious and they should vote on that. Fine. Okay, there you go. I will I will support that message to do a little more digging there. Uh I just uh yeah, I don't know how many more times I'm gonna need to say it. Now, speaking of punishment and what's coming now, is the Big 12 still trying to go after Texas Tech with some punishment over the Brendan Sorsby situation? Big 12 has not dropped its lawsuit yet, and Sorsby still hasn't been approved uh for the NFL supplemental draft, and it does sound like more could be on the way, which I don't like. I don't like that, but we will get to the reporting on this, what could be coming on Monday, and why I don't think it would be a good idea. I would not be in favor of this. So, yes, as the dust has somewhat settled here, uh Brendan Sorsby announced his intentions to head to the NFL supplemental draft, but notice I just said intentions. He had to be fully deemed ineligible by the NCAA before you could be eligible for the NFL supplemental draft. That deadline is Monday. We have not seen confirmation on that yet. The NFL, by the end of Monday, theoretically would have to say, all right, fine, you're approved, we'll hold a supplemental draft. So that is a lot that still has to happen, which I think is why the Big 12 is still sitting here, hanging on to its federal lawsuit, because they're like, we don't know what's gonna happen. What if the NFL doesn't want to go through with this somehow? And now are we back in the like canny or willy or won't he play for Texas Tech situation? There's a lot going on here. I think it would be in everybody's best interests at this point, fans included, like everybody who has spent the last two weeks yelling at each other, it would be in everybody's best interest if the supplemental draft would happen for Sorsby. And as I mentioned, Ian Rappaport expects him to be a second-round pick. That would definitely mean it works out well for everyone. If he's gonna be a second-round pick, yeah, Brendan Sorsby will have an NFL future. I am pretty, pretty confident on that. But like I said, it seems like the Big 12 is still a bit antsy here. Here's part one of the report from ESPN's Heather Dennich. Big 12 presidents and chancellors haven't rushed to pull the leaks recently filed federal lawsuit because there are still questions about Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Soresby's NFL future and any possible legal retribution. That's from a conference source that told that to ESPN. Big 12 presidents and chancellors haven't rushed to pull the lawsuit because there are still questions about Brendan Soresby's future and any possible legal retribution. Big 12 board of directors is expected to have a call early next week uh to discuss next steps. Some have questioned what, if any, liability could exist for the conference or how it will play out with the NFL, uh, given Soresby's admitted history of gambling. You know, to David's point, he was on earlier tonight and he uh asked a question here like, you know, would the NFL be leery of him because of the gambling issues there? And my response was like, look, I feel like the NFL cares so much about talent and especially talented quarterbacks. I don't think that's gonna hold anyone back from taking him, but I can understand being safe and saying, hey, let's just wait and see. Let's wait and see how this all plays out. Because yeah, if the NFL were to have the supplemental draft and then he doesn't get taken, then yeah, is there some sort of is Jeff Kessler gonna be back in our face again uh suing the Big 12 for what happened here or how I don't know. That's where I just feel like we're just so jammed with lawsuits in college athletics. If another one came, obviously I wouldn't be shocked. And the Big 12 feels the same way. So they are holding off right now. I think that's good business from the league to go ahead and keep it there for now until you are really, really sure that it's okay to pull it back. I think that's good business. What I don't think is good business is part two of this report that came from Heather Dinich at ESPN. Please do subscribe to the channel. Many of you watch, but don't subscribe. It helps a lot if you do. So one click would be great. This is where I get concerned about muddying up what's going to happen moving forward and what it would do to the relationship of the league and Texas Tech, which obviously you know is already a little bit uh a little bit frayed. This is from the rest of ESPN's Heather Dennich's report. A Big 12 athletic director said the conference could still consider some punitive ramifications for Texas Tech, aka some punishment. Big 12 could still consider some punishment for Texas Tech. The source said it wasn't necessarily a case of trying to quote punish them, but some would like to hold the school responsible for the fees that resulted from the legal squabble. Okay, so we're ESPN. We said punitive ramifications, but then the source says we're not trying to punish them. This is all a bunch of semantics. I mean, that would be a punishment. That would be a uh uh monetary punishment if you're gonna have to pay for the league's legal fees. Let's just let's call it what it is, okay? Quote, this is the source speaking to ESPN now. Quote, there may need to be consequences for Texas Tech, even if it works out this way. It was pointed out there's been legal fees involved in this action. Is it right for all 16 schools to share in those legal fees when we didn't have anything to do with starting it? Those are some of the things that are going to have to be worked out, and they will be. Huh. I mean, look, I get where the AD is coming from. Money is tight for everybody these days. It's not a fun time to be trying to manage a budget as a Big 12 athletic director or any college sports athletic director right now. When you get an unexpected expense, whether it's whether it's like coming at the conference level and it's gonna trickle down to like what your payout will be later on, however, you're it's gonna hit you as an individual athletic department. I understand why you'd be like, hey man, we didn't even do anything here, and now we got to pay this. I get it. I don't think this is worth it. I don't think this is worth it. Um if we are going to review some of the facts of the case here. I mean, look, Texas Tech did not file that lawsuit, okay? Brendan Sorsby did. And I know the Big 12's response then to that, the AD, if we were having a conversation, would probably be, well, yes, but we had to file our suit and put together this brilliant legal action because of what Texas Tech's response was to all of that. To which I would say, well, yes, okay, but none of that would have happened had the judge not ruled in favor of Brendan Sorsby, which is a lawsuit that Texas Tech was not a party to. So I would grant Texas Tech some leeway here. Okay. I I they were supporting their guy. I would say let bygones be bygones on that, and just try to move forward with some harmony. You know, I mean, I don't know what the legal fees are. I'm sure it's a lot because it was clearly some great, great attorneying. But guys, can we can you try and do something to produce a little bit of harmony here? Like, I don't even like that this leaked out, that this got out there, that a source was talking about this. I mean, regardless of what's what ends up happening, the fact that they're considering it right now, I think is enough. I mean, that's just gonna rock the boat a little bit more. And I just right now, you need to steady the ship. Steady the ship. It was wobbly and it could have been really bad and it wasn't. And credit to Brett Yormark and his leadership for that. But let's try to calm the rest of the aftershock down now and just move forward. Because, you know, it's not about the other thing I'm sure the AD would say is, well, I mean, it John, the money to Texas Tech is not going to be very consequential. You know how much money they have. Yeah, this is not about the money. This is about like this is like a respect thing. This is this is about the principle of the matter, not the actual tangible money. And I I've got to admit, really good point from Chris Level, who does locked on Texas Tech, but uh a ton of broadcast work with with Texas Tech and the program officially. He tweeted out, quote tweeting Heather Denich's report, and said, and two Big 12 ADs just had their fines cut in half for choosing not to play in a bowl game, which equaled half a million dollars. Mixed signals, it seems. I gotta admit, like that's a good point. That's a good point. If you're unfamiliar with this story, that was K-State and Iowa State. They were initially fined 500 grand a piece for skipping bowl games last year while going through their coaching changes. And it was just announced a couple of days ago that that fine had been cut in half to 250K for both of them. And look, like I was on record at the time, I understand why K-State and Iowa State did it. Doesn't mean that there shouldn't be punishment for it. Like the league's gonna lose money on that. It's it's a bad look to your bull partners. Like, that hurts everybody else in the conference if you don't do it. There should be uh punitive, like enough of a fine or punishment that it's gonna legitimately deter people from doing that. I saw somebody tweeted, why not just make the punishment for that? Like you can't play in a bowl game next year or something. I'm like, hey, look, I can get on board with that. I understand why people would be upset about that. And I don't I don't know why the fine was cut in half. Maybe some of it is just like what the the the money wound up being now that they've had a chance to look at it, like what the financial ramifications will be to the rest of the league. But you need to make that pretty punitive. You don't want teams pulling out of bowl games. And I get it, if you're a tech fan and you say, you're cutting these guys 500 grand worth of slack, and then you're gonna throw back on us to cover whatever legal fees here. That's why I was like, yeah, look, especially if you're gonna cut slack to K-State and Iowa State, me, the K-State guy, Texas Tech fans, I see you, I see you message board geniuses, okay? I'm the K-State guy, and I'm sitting here saying, yeah, that's a good point. Like if you're gonna cut K-State's bill in half, then don't just don't enforce the legal fees on Texas Tech. Just can we have some harmony here? Can we have some harmony? That's my that's my plea. Uh, they're gonna meet early in the week, as you saw from Heather Dinage's story. We'll see. I I hope it ends up going away and there's not a fine, and everybody can just start moving forward. Um another stance that I will take where I'm gonna say, I just don't know that this is worth it. Though I said that about the Big 12 trying to really push back on what Texas Tech was doing, and Yormark pulled a rabbit out of his hat and found a way to make it work without getting messy for weeks and months, which is what I thought would happen if the Big 12 did try to push back. So maybe there's maybe there's another rabbit to be pulled out of the hat. I don't know. Uh hey, click here to find out why I think Brett Yormark is, by the way, the the biggest winner in this entire saga. That's for everybody watching the clip version. Those of you that are here hanging out live, uh, don't worry. I've got some more super chats to get to. We got to talk Protect College Sports Act. We got to talk Parker Kingston with the update there to uh to his legal case. And let's see, we'll start with Alan. If you want to submit a super chat, click the dollar sign below the chat box. If you're not watching live and you want to submit a super chat, hit me up on Venmo at John Dash Kurtz-4. It is totally free, however, to like the channel and sign up for the open for business Big 12 newsletter at OFBnews.com. And uh it is also totally free to subscribe to the channel, which really helps. Uh Alan, what's up, Alan? I appreciate you, my friend. Alan says, John, Texas Tech is fortunate that Sorsby was pushed out. The real winner in this mess is BYU, who with the Notre Dame win is the likely Big 12 champ going to the college football playoff. Uh, eight wins for Kansas this year. All right. Alan is high on the Hawks. Alan, I'd be curious who you think is is uh playing QB for Kansas. Do you think it's is that eight wins with Cole Ballard or is that eight wins with Marshall at quarterback? Like which way are you going there on the QB comp? Um saying Texas Tech is fortunate, Soresby was pushed out. I I can understand the angle on that just being like, hey, the noise and the distraction and everything that came with what it was going to be heading into this year and being an incredibly marked man would have just created too much extra pressure and added distraction for tech and could have hurt their season. I can definitely understand that. Also, if you're a big Will Hammond guy like myself, you would say, well, you've you've got a pretty good quarterback anyway, assuming that he recovers all right coming back from that knee injury. Uh BYU, I mean, I think the Notre Dame game is honestly inconsequential if the idea is that they're going to win the Big 12. The Notre Dame game is very consequential if the thought is BYU will get to the playoff as an at-large. That's where that game just means everything for their season. And even beyond that, it just means everything for like Big 12 credibility. That will be a monster game. Monster game for the league. So, Alan, I appreciate you. Thank you for being here. Great to hear from you as always. And uh, yeah, we'll see. We'll see what happens with your Hawks this year. Love the confidence. Uh, securities attorney HB. Look, everyone is acting like text season is over. Will Hammond would have beat Oregon last season. Soresby is a 10 of 10 QB. Hammond is an eight, and he's got like three more years of eligibility. Securities attorney HB, you're a man after my own heart. You are a man after my own heart. Prop it up. Will Hammond around here. Boy, I went so hard in on Will Hammond after watching that Utah game last year, man. I loved the potential that we saw. If you just if you play back that tape from the Utah game, it's hard not to get excited about Hammond. I the one thing I will say, even to push back on myself who loves, loves, loves, loves the ceiling of Hammond. It's just it's the knee injury. You know, will that affect things? Like a big part of what makes Hammond effective is is he is he's a guy that can beat you with his legs. Like he's pretty mobile. And Texas Tech, I don't need to tell you guys about last year, like how much having a hobbled quarterback can make an impact. Because, you know, as much as um Baron Morton takes a lot of flack for what happened against Oregon, he was still playing with a bum wheel. I mean, basically the entire season. So that definitely affected him. Uh, that can affect you in a lot of ways. So we just gotta see. We just gotta see how he recovers from this knee. We gotta see how that goes. Uh, but I'm with I'm with you. It's his tech season is far from over. I mean, I just thought, hell, there were, I don't remember if it was BetMGM or what what outlet it was. Somebody did over-under win totals for the Big 12 that that just came out again the other day, and tech's over-under was 11 and a half. 11 and a half. Meaning, if you're going over on that, you're picking tech to go unbeaten in the regular season. So, yeah, tech season is not over. It is not over at all. Uh, old Texas Tech Man says, also, it's over. Sorby has dropped his lawsuit, but now uh Big 12 wants tech to pay for Big 12 legal fees, their lawsuit. Uh, yeah, well, the the thing I would say about it not being over is like I I all bets are off pending what happens with the NFL. Like, let's see what happens with the the supplemental draft if that's actually gonna happen. Uh I I assume that it will. I assume that tomorrow will be the day we find out about all that, but I I hope that it does. Um Big 12 wants tech to pay for Big 12 legal fees, their lawsuit. The one thing I would say about that, Texas uh you you just heard my take, uh old Texas Tech man. I agree with you. I don't think the Big 12 should enforce that and try and make Texas Tech pay that. I don't think that's worth it at all. I think there is a reasonable defense for tech to say they're like, hey, this was Soresby's lawsuit, not ours. This all happened because of a judge's ruling, not us. Chill on that, okay? But the reason the Big 12 filed a lawsuit was because Cody Campbell's guy, Ken Paxton, came out with a legal threat. Uh, so that is what was the the final straw in the Big 12 coming forth with the lawsuit. So there was some tech involvement there. I'm just saying not enough to justify, you know, for the ends to justify the means on this, uh, to me. So I agree with you. I agree with you. Uh Thomas, Thomas Gilbreath says, if we don't see major change in a shift to a CBA, then I think we're only going to see similar or worse situations uh to the Source B fiasco. Very well could be. And you could honestly take that statement and just apply it to everything in college sports. Like if they don't turn to employees and collective bar collectively bargain and sign real contracts, you know, the the battles over who can pay what, is this NIL legit or not? Uh, can you how much can you pay over the cap? Uh all of these issues. I even if a Protect College Sports Act goes through, you could see still a bunch of problems, things getting challenged legally, and not have anything fully settled until you get there. So I am with you. And that's something I want to talk about here with a perfect lead in. Thank you, Thomas, to the next segment, which is about the Protect College Sports Act and what is going on there. So nobody is standing by the SEC in Big Ten anymore. Nobody. Uh, it's the power two against the World on the Protect College Sports Act. Even after forcing the Big 12 and ACC to freeze their membership, the Big Ten and the SEC are still not happy, particularly the Big Ten. Is this all, as senators, by the way, continue to stand tall against the SEC and Big Ten, is this all though going to backfire on the Big 12? We've got to talk about the wide range of potential outcomes here. Because as much as I want to cheer all this on, I am still a bit leery of where everything could land in the end. So let's break down what those possibilities are and what the latest is here, starting with the support for this thing that continues to grow. Okay. So you can add Notre Dame, the NFL, and Major League Baseball to the list of supporters of the Protect College Sports Act. And what's really interesting about that is that the NFL even specifically likes the pooling of media rights. That's the big bugaboo for the FEC in Big Ten. They do not like this idea of pooling media rights across all sports. The NFL is supporting that. Okay. And the big newsy piece of this, beyond just the extra support that's come along, is that the Senate Commerce Committee did pass the bill on to the next step by a 19 to 9 vote. It needed 15 votes. It got 19. So now it moves on to uh to be voted on by the Senate. And while I do love this, it's it's good news to see this. It's good news to see the senator still fighting. And when I say fighting, believe me, fighting, wait till you hear the quotes. There is still that chance. There is still that chance that this winds up in a way where it all kind of backfires if you're fighting for those outside of Power 2 lands. Okay. I will continue to say, no matter how it ends, you cannot take away how satisfying the feeling is to see somebody, anybody with some level of power, standing up to the SEC in Big Ten and just giving them the finger at being like, you are not going to throw your weight around and dictate literally everything in college sports anymore. Okay. Listen, Big Ten and SEC fans, I understand you've had the power for a while. You've been calling all the shots, making all the decisions. You're not going to agree with that. You're not going to like that. You're going to start throwing insults about the Big 12. Whatever. That's fine. Do it. You got to understand if you know that if you were in a Big 12 fan or an ACC fan's shoes, you'd be like, yeah, this is pretty great. This is pretty great. We've been pushed around, had our membership taken advantage of, compromised. It's pretty nice to see somebody really stand up. Please do subscribe to the channel, by the way. Many of you watch, but don't subscribe. One click really helps me. How about this quote from Maria Cantwell, one of the co-sponsors of the bill? Quote People have to wake up. The politics of these conference commissioners moving around deck chairs with realignment and making millions of dollars themselves and not thinking about the broad interest to solve these problems has led us to this point. It's time to listen to some other people. I mean, hit me with all those gifts out there that just say, preach, preach. Time to let somebody else make decisions. I know, uh, John, it's the government. Look, I don't know. We don't have a commissioner of college sports. We have a crazy power vacuum and no real structure here, and the NCAA has lost even the power to adjudicate gambling on the sport. So what do you want me to do? There are no other options. There are no other options. How about this quote? Uh, another one from Maria Cantwell. Quote, what we did today is say we're not going to let the most powerful and richest conferences dictate to the rest of America what's going to happen to 500,000 athletes. We're not going to let the most powerful and richest conferences dictate to the rest of America what's going to happen to 500,000 athletes. She wasn't done. She accused the SEC and Big Ten of intimidating members by threatening them with scheduling changes. She also suggested that uh commissioners were treating the ADs and university presidents like puppets. Yeah, there's a lot. That's a strong accusation. Like, hey, you guys are trying to whip everybody into shape, keep them in line with the commissioner's opinion by threatening them with schedule changes. I have no idea how true that is. That's what Maria Cantwell says. Um, I don't know. I would put nothing past anybody at this point. And the interesting part about it, okay, when we think about where this is all gonna land, the Big 12 and the ACC did take a hit in some of the revisions here. And that changes to me the calculus of where this all could end. It creates more outcomes with more variants for the Big 12 and the ACC. And we will talk about all those outcomes, but here is the change. So one of the things the Big Ten and the SEC have been so upset with is hey, you put provisions on here that any conference with over 1 billion in revenue as of right now, as at the time of the writing of the bill, wouldn't be allowed to merge or expand. And so that's only the Big Ten and the SEC, not the Big 12 and the ACC. And they're saying, hey, that's not fair. You're telling us we can't expand or merge or evolve, but yet the Big 12 and the ACC can. What the hell is that? Well, they acquiesced on that and said, fine. That's even something I've said. I was like, hey, I do kind of understand that. Uh, so fine, throw it in the bill. Well, they did. So the ACC and Big 12 can't expand or merge. And yet the Big Ten and the SEC still released another statement saying they're not happy. They still oppose the bill. Ross Dellinger reported it's the Big Ten who is the most unhappy still. And I, you know, judging by at least some of the Twitter reaction that I was seeing this week, definitely seems like the Big Ten, its crowd is the most upset with this bill still. Not happy at all. So, I mean, that that part is that is very consequential for the Big 12. Like, how long has the narrative been? Well, the ACC is going to implode, and then you try to be the best of the rest conference with all the leftovers from the ACC when the top four or five in that league get scooped up by the SEC and Big Ten. Well, that would mean that that can't happen. If you're Texas Tech and you're upset with your commissioner and you're upset with your conference, and you're thinking, hey, we need to be out of here, we need to leave. Well, you can't go to the SEC or Big Ten with all of this. Like their membership is frozen. So you're stuck in the Big 12, which is again, there's so many interesting competing potential outcomes and interest here because you know, Cody Campbell's a big part of what is pushing this forward right now. Uh, the Big 12 also, just in general, is it's a bit of a motley crew right now. I mean, look, I I love this league, but it's a bit of a sea to shining sea motley crew of teams that you're just locked in with this membership. If you're like West Virginia and you're saying, hey, maybe someday something that makes a little more geographic sense for us could work out that you're locked in. You know, I mean, this is you got to think about that with this now on the table. So will it actually pass and where is this all going to end up? Ross Dellinger says it's it's likely to be up for a vote in the Senate in July, and the goal would be to have it signed into law before the school year. But even if it makes it through the Senate, you got to worry about the House of Representatives. I think that'll be tougher just from what I read. Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise, who uh are the top two in the House of Representatives. They're from SEC country and they've expressed opposition to this. Worth mentioning that uh the president has been supportive, but did ask lawmakers to find a compromise. So, you know, like supportive-ish, but like, hey guys, please figure it out. Uh, we we shall see. If the SEC and Big Ten are still really fighting against this, I don't know how exactly that would go. If you're asking me where does this end up, what are all these outcomes? What are you warning me about here, John? The problem is there's so many things that can happen. There are so many variables to consider that I view this as you're lighting a firecracker and you're trying to guess where that will land. You're trying to guess the exact spot where that will land. Light a firecracker on the ground, it's gonna pop, shoot way up into the air. Where's that actually gonna land? You have no idea. You have no idea. Uh, I mean, some outcomes here. Let's start going on the list. This thing passes. Uh, membership is actually frozen, and everything goes into place, and there is some relative stability. That is a potential outcome, but it could pass, everything goes into place, and then because of the limitations on outside NIL, we just return to like the old hierarchy of college sports because it's more difficult now. Like Texas Tech would have a harder time paying a recruit more money because outside NIL is limited, and now it goes back to the structure of like, well, if the money's relatively equal, then it's who has the history, uh, who's in the best conference, all these things, right? It would go back to being dominated by the SEC, uh, probably, honestly. It could pass, but then be met with a ton of legal challenges that just uh make this feel as uncertain as ever. Like, if it's being challenged, we're waiting on more lawsuits. Then are people following this? Are people enforcing it in the meantime? Like, I have no idea. I have no idea who's enforcing it. I have no idea. Uh, it doesn't pass, and the SEC and Big Ten are so furious. This is the backfire one that I talk about. The SEC and Big Ten are so furious they they pull the trigger on just leaving, running off, and doing their own thing. We've seen the Big Ten doing about face very quickly before in the Kevin Warren days when they went from the alliance to all of a sudden, oh hey, by the way, we're gonna take USC and UCLA. That certainly could happen. Or maybe it doesn't pass, but collective bargaining actually happens. Like if this doesn't, if this doesn't go through, everyone says, all right, fine. Look, we've got to just find a way to do this. I know that like throughout this process, I think Cantwell has talked about some of the senators have talked about like hurdles in the way of that actually happening. I don't maybe it paves the way for people to say, fine, we we can't do that. That's the one thing we have to do. We'll just make that work and figure it out. That's my point. I know I think all of those are possibilities. There are probably other possibilities anywhere in between. I don't know. It's wild. I'm just holding on for the ride. This is your latest update right now. We'll see where it goes. There is some fun to be had in looking at people kind of taking a stand on your side and being like, hey, it's time to stop letting the SEC and Big Ten just push everybody around and completely change the sport irreversibly. But that doesn't mean that the ultimate outcome is still going to be something great. We just don't know. We just don't know. Click here to find out where that uh pushback against the SEC and Big Ten really started. That's for everybody watching the clip version, everybody hanging out live. We've still got one more major story to talk about. We'll see if I get to uh some of the others down later. There were a couple quick things, but we're already pushing pretty long here. Thanks to everybody listening on podcast. Long podcast out there. You can find the show on Spotify, on Apple, wherever it is that you get your podcast. Obviously, this is on YouTube as well. It's a YouTube live show, podcast audience. If you want to join in, subscribe to the YouTube channel. You'll get an update when I schedule the lives. And they are typically around eight o'clock on Sundays, and then either Wednesday or Thursday for the midweek show. Couple more super chats. Pacific Northwest Ute checks in and says, uh, I still have Will Hammond PTSD. Yes, here's your Utah fan vividly remembering what Will Hammond did to the Utes in their home stadium last year. Uh, but some solace in Jackson Dart's little bro Diesel signing as a Ute C B plus a three-star QB out of Arizona. I saw the Diesel Dart picture, and that was everything that I would hope a kid named Diesel Dart would look like while committing to a school. It was pretty awesome. And 10 of 10, no notes uh from me on that. So best of luck. Best of luck to Diesel Dart and uh and the the three-star quarterback uh heading to Utah. Thank you for checking in, Pacific Northwest Ute. Uh let's see. Lisa Rawls Fit. What's up, Lisa? Uh, it's not the Protect College Sports Act, it's Project Rudy Act. Uh $9 billion Smash Capital King Cody Takeover of College Sports Stunt 70 Team Super League. Well, this is certainly the criticism from those who don't like it. And there, I didn't go down this road because to me this felt a little more into the minutiae that I don't know that there's as much interest about, but there was a section of the Dellinger article about Cantwell arguing with the SEC and Big Ten over their concerns about this. She said, Hey, the SEC and Big Ten think that there's going to be some kind of hostile takeover where suddenly the Big 12 and the ACC are like the superior conferences. She definitely I'm paraphrasing here, but thinks the concerns are very unfounded. Um, do I still have that article pulled up? Maybe I could go look at this. Uh, there was frustration over obviously how visibly close Cody Campbell and Smash Capital have been as all of this is going on. Uh let's see. At the center of the fight are the two wealthiest conferences, each of which holds skepticism over the legislation. At a hearing for the bill two weeks ago, Texas Tech Booster Cody Campbell and those of private equity-backed firm Smash Sports uh sat separately within the velvet ropes, often reserved only for witnesses or lawmaker guests. Campbell and those from Smash are each separately proposing an idea to pool FBS meteorites, a concept that found its way into the legislation. Um all right, where's Cantwell arguing here? Uh sorry, it's not in this same section. I was able to pull up the Smash Capital piece, but anyway, Cantwell. Cantwell is definitely pushing back on that idea. You are going to be met with, Lisa, I appreciate your opinion here. I certainly understand. I mean, I know guys like uh Greg Flugar, who I certainly like and respect a lot. Big Ten guy, he doesn't like it at all. Um Big 12 fan who's watched what I would consider a hostile takeover of college sports by the Big Ten and the SEC over the last five years. If it turns into a 70-team Super League that's a little more equitable, hell if I care. That sounds great. Sign me up. I think that's better long term for everybody. I mean, we'll disagree on this. I totally understand, but I have called this the save the Big Ten and SEC from themselves acts because I think that it's very short-sighted. If you start cutting out too much of the sport, I think that produces diminishing returns down the road. And I think that would result in none of this working out for anybody in like 20 years. So that's my take. We'll fundamentally disagree. I would say the Smash Sports uh plan not only is better for like my personal interest as a Big 12 fan, but I think it is better for the general health of the sport long term. Uh and I would also just say ain't no fun when the Rabbits got the gun, because the SEC and Big Ten have executed an absolutely hostile takeover of the sport since July of 2021 when the story broke that Texas and Oklahoma were leaving for the SEC. So that's my opinion. We're going to disagree on that. It's a pretty hostile takeover to take Texas and Oklahoma away, to take USC and UCLA away, to destroy a 100-plus-year-old conference, which the Big Ten put the final nail in that coffin to get rid of the Pac-12, to change the college football playoff finances to be so heavily skewed toward the SEC and Big Ten. That's a pretty hostile takeover. I don't know what the dictionary definition of it would be. You'd be merging two words there. Um, but I'm pretty sure if they put that together as a word, they add that as one uh one word, you would see the SEC and Big Ten's actions over the last five years in college sports covering that. So you're not going to get any sympathy from me uh here on this channel, but I do respect your opinion, and I am glad that you're here. We will just fundamentally disagree on that. And uh and that's okay. Robbie, what's up, Robbie? Robbie says, Hey John, go cats, incline we trust. I appreciate you, Robbie. Thank you for being here. Uh incline we trust indeed. K-State's K-State's been on a recruiting heater, you know. I know to like Texas Tech fans will look at it and be like, well, okay, you're just nipping at the top 25. All right, cool. But where K-State recruiting has been, Colin Klein and company are tearing it up. And they're doing it without any winning on the field themselves to share with this staff put together, right? Which is what is even more enticing about it to me. Uh, I love this class, particularly the defensive side of the ball with this class. Um I'm pretty thrilled. I'm pretty thrilled. Thank you, Robbie. Alan says, uh, Lance Lipold is a stick with your guy type of coach. Uh QB1 is Cole Ballard, Rock Chuck Jayhawk Allen. I I agree with you, Alan. I think that's how the year will start. Whether it will end that way, we'll see. But I watched Cole Ballard execute an incredible game plan from Andy Koloneki in 2023. That game where Jason Bean and uh Jalen Daniels were out, and he damn near beat K-State. I mean, if Rich Miller would have not dropped a pick six, uh Kansas probably beats K-State by like 20. Uh so Cole Ballard has my respect. And I would I would with you guess that that's probably who starts at quarterback. Yes, I do agree. Big Lyman 34, big lineman 34 says, not surprised the NFL is supporting the Save College Sports Act. They're part owners of ESPN after merging TV networks last year, conflict of interest IMO. It should trigger antitrust questions. Uh, okay, so the NFL, part owners of ESPN after merging TV networks last year, conflict of interests. Uh well, see, I thought I I don't know. This is where I can't look, man. I didn't even know about the NFL and ESPN piece of this. I frankly, as you just heard my response a second ago, I don't care. Like, I don't care what your complaints are from Big Ten and SEC country. Um, that's fine. I I think there are lots of things that have been discussed or talked about that the SEC and Big Ten could do that should trigger antitrust concerns, as have long been discussed. And that has been uh possibly one of the barriers to all of this. I just this is it kind of I just gotta be honest. It kind of cracks me up. And big lineman 34, I shouldn't just assume that you're a Big Ten or SEC fan. That is that is my fault. And uh I I do not intend to attack you personally here with this, but you do have to understand after five years of this, it's a bit amusing for us in Big 12 country to look at the crazy outcry here and the how could this happen? This is so unjust, and the after what's been happening to the Big 12 and the ACC, uh, you know, certainly to an extent too, but and the Pac-12, you know, Washington State, Oregon State, like just what's happened the last five years. I, you know, it's I got a little bit of the you know, world's smallest violin thing going on as as my response to this. So like I I I appreciate you. And I I appreciate anybody who is on the other side of this, like being in the the chat and listening to all this, but I just sorry, sorry that it's not gonna just be Big Ten SEC run this sport into the ground world. At least it might not be. We'll see if it passes. I don't know. And as I just outlined, there are a million different ways it could all end. Okay, tech fan. I was like, I thought, I thought big lineman. I thought okay, I was like, I thought I had seen you before. I'm pointing out the NFL shenanigans because I'm tired of paying so darn much for football. Okay, okay, I got you. I got you. Um man, has the chat been angry tonight? I'm just now looking. I have I have not looked at a single thing uh from the chat other than the super chats until right this second. And uh and it sure looks like right now things have been a little angry. Kaisa, please please do be respectful. Please do be respectful of each other. I say that as we're about to go into the uh Parker Kingston story, and we're going real long tonight, so that may be good for some of you, that may be bad. Uh let's uh let's at least get this last story in. Uh, because BYU is in a in a real bind here, all right? BYU is in a real bind, uh, and it's because of a player who does not even play for them anymore. That would be uh former wide receiver Parker Kingston. You guys know by now, uh the first degree felony rape case was scheduled to be in July. It's now been dismissed for now. There is a caveat to that, and that makes this really difficult because I've seen now fans uh talking about speculating, wondering like what do you do if you're BYU here? Uh there's a there's a lot to discuss. There's a lot to discuss. So uh Parker Kingston allegedly uh sexually assaulted a 20 year old woman in February of 2025. You can find all the gruesome details out there if you want. I I am not going to get into rehashing that. Especially, yeah, as we've got a real feisty chat tonight. I just I want no part of all that. Uh you can go get all the details. Parker Kingston, of course, uh says that it was it was all consensual according to an affidavit. Um, Parker Kingston was kicked out of BYU and off the team uh in February when this this all came out. So it was like a year after it had happened, February of 2025, February 2026. He is expelled, uh, kicked off the team. So this is BYU's leading receiver, 928 yards, five touchdowns last year, huge special teams weapon. Um the guy's a really good player. And obviously, the football piece of this secondary to whatever actually happened and the victim and and all of that, okay. But from a football standpoint, I just point that out to say that it's a big deal for the BYU football team to lose him in a year where their top three pass catchers from last season are now gone. And it felt like like, hey, I mean, obviously, like case closed, like he's out of school, he's off the team. This this case is coming. That's a very, very serious thing. Uh, but now it seems, I mean, I'm just monitoring some of the conversation on social media, it seemed like there was some conversation here about like, okay, well, what does this open things back up? Does this open things back up for BYU? I would just say it feels like an impossible position for almost everybody to be in. Okay. Please do subscribe to the channel. Uh, it helps. Many of you watch, but don't subscribe. There are some people I've seen taking victory laps saying, like, hey, the case is dismissed. Everybody who came after Kingston and BYU, I think a lot of this is more. I mean, obviously, people some people care about Parker Kingston, but I think this is where we get into the tribalism and the fan stuff. And like, you took shots at our school for having this happen and a second straight year and all that. But the it's it's not really fair to say like the case is dismissed. Like it was dismissed with prejudice or without prejudice, rather, which it means it can be refiled whenever. They're not saying, hey, there's no case here. It's that the prosecution was asking for a couple more months, saying that the victim wasn't ready to go on trial right now. So, like, can we push this back to September? And the judge is saying Parker Kingston has a right to a speedy trial. So we we can't, I'm not gonna let you push this back. It had already been delayed somewhat because of this. So there were questions. The the case that Kingston's side is making here is like, hey, how do we know that this like if you're delaying his life, he needs to get on with his life, and now we're delaying this again. Will they even, you know, will your side be ready even in September? And the judge is kind of like, hey, look, why don't you just come back when you're ready? That's that's basically what we have here. And so I guess if I'm getting into more of the details here, you you can certainly read about all this and get a better rundown than what I'm giving you, but victim says medical condition prevents her from being able to take part in a trial. Uh Kingston's legal team wants a right to speedy trial. Judge agrees, said the case can be refiled whenever the victim is ready. You've also had, I mean, within the last week, right, the video that came up of Parker Kingston working out with some BYU players in the the indoor facility, which the university responded and said it wasn't aware that it was happening and it wasn't a team-sanctioned activity, and that they have responded appropriately. So we don't know exactly what that means, but I would take that to be that that's probably not going to be happening again. I don't know, man. This is a tricky one. This is a tricky one. Um can't part of what Kingston's attorneys argued, and this was I was reading the Deseret News story about this. There were social media pictures, the victim out celebrating her 21st birthday uh during the dates of a previously scheduled jury trial, uh, when they've been told, like, hey, she can't stand trial. So the case is now like there's not a case right now, but it could come back in a second whenever they decide they're ready. So I, you know, how do you handle that? How do you handle that? I mean, ultimately, I look, I think that you still, it's like you would be taking on a world of public criticism here if you're BYU and you were to do this, regardless of how you feel about it and agree or disagree, there would be a bunch of backlash that were to happen. So I I don't think you can actually do it, but I guess I just it is a significant update because you look at this and just you're like, man, I just I feel for like everybody involved. I don't know how anyone is supposed to have a firm grasp on like what exactly is the correct course of action here. Because if uh Kingston's side would say, hey man, hey, so his football future is now ruined, he's still trying to move on with his life and get married, I think was one of the points that they were making there too. And just if it's not going to be football, get on and do whatever he's gonna do, and he's still he's gotta have this now like hanging over him without a specific date for the trial. And then on the other side, you know, the victim side is really upset because they feel like they've been dealt a real defeat here, that they can't just get it pushed back, but the case still be out there. And then BYU, you're like, man, I I don't know now, like the case was dismissed, but not like totally dismissed. I don't, it's tough, man. It's a tough one. Uh tough one. I will say the uh stressed by the judge in all of this that there is a prump presumption of innocence, obviously, is uh we live in America, so there is that. But I don't know, it's a sticky situation, and I just thought at least reading down the update and like a clarification of where things are at, just from what I was seeing as as some of the social media discussion about this, seemed like seemed like a fair and uh and appropriate thing to do. Uh let's see, let's see, let's see. Man, we got okay, the super chats eat it up here before we get out of here. All right, guys. Uh JPAP967. JPAP says, punish Texas Tech for an appeal, but not Cincinnati. Crazy work. Well, again, JPAP. You may not have been here for my my final rant on this. And I know in some ways you're probably responding to the chat as well as responding to me for the 1715th time. If you want to investigate Cincinnati to dig a little deeper on what they knew or didn't know, I would not fight you on that for a second. I understand if you are a Texas Tech fan and you are frustrated by how much uh grief your school took, well, there hasn't been more digging into Cincinnati. Period. End of sentence. Now, if you're saying an appeal uh for Texas Tech but not Cincinnati, or punish Texas Tech for an appeal but not Cincinnati, what there hasn't been anything proven on Cincinnati yet. So you gotta find something. You gotta find a smoking gun, you gotta find the proof that they did uh know about this. So I can't support a punishment until you find anything, but if you find something, then get back to me. And if your point is, hey, dig a little deeper to find something, I'm with you. There's 1718? We'll call it 18. Uh, Kim. What's up, Kim? Kim says, uh the psychos in here tonight are exactly why I want tech to stay forever in the Big 12. I don't care about playing Rutgers or South Carolina, etc. I just want the extra money to remain with the classy schools in the Big 12. Well, I love that, Kim. Thank you. And thank you for your support of the channel and for being here. I haven't even seen what's going on in the chat, so I don't know. I don't know what all it is. It's crazy that I thought like the fighting in here would be all about Soresby, but you're I I assume then you're telling me it's more about the Protect College Sports Act. Um, we've just got hot button issues all over the place, man. It's June 21st, and it is hot and heavy as ever in college sports with everything going on. Uh, Kim, I certainly hope there are many people who feel that same way too. You know that I feel that same way about Texas Tech. I've been making trips to Lubbock for games since 2011 when I started working full-time uh in college sports and with college football. I have watched like six games in Lubbock before. I enjoy going there. I I know this is like the touristy thing to say, but I like the fried cheese at Spankies. All right. I like that like rooftop bar where we used to host my pregame show that was across the street from the stadium. I can't remember its name, but it was quite fun. I enjoy it a lot. Um hell, I was even there for an indoor track meet one time that I did for uh play by play for the Big 12. So I definitely want Texas Tech to stay around too. And that is why back to the take of just don't find them, don't find them, Big 12. Like, can we just move forward with a little bit of harmony here, please? Um anyway, Kim, I'm glad we got to have a Kumbaya moment here. Hopefully, everybody else can join in on that. That would be nice. That would be nice. Thank you for your support, my friend. Thomas, what's up, Thomas? Thomas says, despite all the chaos and unfortunate situations this offseason, I am stoked for the season. I think the Big 12 is going to be a dogfight this year. Guns up. Keep up the good work, John. Look at this. Look at this. We can all have some Kumbaya moments. Thank you, Thomas. Thank you, my friend. Guns up indeed. Guns up indeed. I appreciate you. Uh I am trying to do my best here. It's tough. Like I understand everyone's hot. Everyone, no matter what I say on this, I'm gonna have people mad at me. Uh, and sometimes I'm probably too susceptible to that in the chat, which is why I was trying to stay a little bit out of it tonight. Um let's say it's it just can we can we stay a little respectful? I feel like Jackie Moon. Everybody love everybody. Everybody love everybody, okay? But Thomas, I appreciate you. Uh, and thank you for your support tonight. Jim, what's up, Jim? Uh, Jim, before the Protect College Sports Act is signed into law, Big Ten will add Miami and Duke, SEC, uh, Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina, NC State, Big 12, Georgia Tech, Louisville Pitt, Virginia Tech, ACC, South Florida, Tulane, Memphis, Eastern Carolina, and Yukon. Now, Jim, this is how you internet, my friend. This is how you do it. This is getting back to the roots of conference realignment interneting. And I have to say I like it. Now, that is yet another scenario that could play out here. Remember when I said it's like lighting a firecracker and trying to predict where it's going to actually land? Yet another scenario. Add it to the list, put it on the board. The Charlie Day from Always Sunny, where he's got all the string attached. He's trying to figure out tack another picture up there, get some string up to it. All right. That could be the scenario. Everyone's like, well, wait, this is gonna pass and membership is frozen. Fine. We'll take Miami and Duke. Big Ten finally gets into uh to Florida. Now, I will say the Duke part is interesting because I would think the Big Ten would only add Duke if it's taking North Carolina as well. I would think the interest there is having that Duke, North Carolina rivalry in your conference. SEC, Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina, NC State, Big 12. I didn't even closely look at the Big 12 list. Let's see here. Georgia Tech, Louisville, Pitt, Virginia Tech, Ace, uh, okay, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Pitt. Uh, I like that. Louisville, near Big 12 member, once upon a time. Pitt, we get the backyard brawl. I love that. Virginia Tech, another natural rival for West Virginia to help out. Um, and a football program that I respect. And James Franklin, probably gonna have them on the rise. Georgia Tech, speaking of football programs on the rise. Ramblin' Rack. Sign me up. Sign me up. Let's do it. Let's do it. I would actually uh I would actually be okay with that. I would be okay with that. The ACC part, that's the one where I'm like, I mean, I guess then at that point, they're just in a panic situation, they gotta add whoever. I don't know what the how the ACC would would look after that with those with those squats. Brett Your Mark might be a little jealous of UConn even. That's good though, Jim. That is getting us back to our roots. Thank you. Thank you, my friend. Uh John says, good content, my man. See you in Frisco this July. Yes, yes, I will be in Frisco. I will be at Big 12 meeting days. Uh, it's gonna be a really good time. I'm looking forward to that. I'm gonna try and talk to as many coaches and ADs here on the channel as I can to just get you guys as much content as possible. It is a uh uh just a sprint, just a crazy couple of days, but and I imagine it will be even crazier this year because of the temperature surrounding everybody's tempers in the league and the just the mood uh after the Brendan Soresby saga and everything that's happening with Protect College Sports. Who knows what might break while things are there? So I would just say you're gonna be there, make sure, and I don't know, bring some popcorn, a seatbelt, something, uh, to make sure that you hang on and make it out alive. I'm looking forward to it very much. Yes, I will be there. One of my favorite weeks of the year, big 12 media days. I'll say I was gonna say like day, but it's like the two days. My one of my favorite stretches of 48 hours of the year because I get to see so many awesome people around the league that I really like and respect content creators, coaches, admins, etc. So let's do it, shall we? It'll be very fun. We'll see you there, John. And uh, I will see all of you very soon. Thank you for being here in the chat tonight. Those of you that are here on YouTube, please do subscribe, like the channel, obviously spread the word. Those of you who are listening on audio, Spotify, Apple, etc., thank you. Rate and review, that does help. Uh, if you share it with a friend, that does help. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. You can figure out when I'm doing this here live. Or if you just want to see my beautiful, bright, smiling face, you can do that too. Uh, so thank you all for supporting. Sign up for the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter at OFBnews.com, and I will talk to you all very soon. Take care.