SEC and Big Ten Bully the Big 12 and ACC Into Submission Again

The SEC and Big Ten appear poised to get many of the changes they demanded in the Protect College Sports Act, raising even more questions about who really controls the future of college football.

John Kurtz breaks down the latest reporting on negotiations in Washington, including possible changes to conference expansion restrictions, media-rights pooling, NIL enforcement, transfer rules and eligibility limits. With Ted Cruz suggesting the bill could reach the Senate floor soon, the SEC and Big Ten may once again be positioned to shape the rules for everyone else.

Plus, Michigan football is facing another major scandal after an external investigation revealed new details about what athletic director Warde Manuel knew regarding former head coach Sherrone Moore’s relationship with a staff member. Why has Michigan avoided becoming the national villain of college football despite scandals involving Jim Harbaugh, Connor Stalions and now Moore?

Finally, new campaign finance records show Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell donated $274,000 to a committee supporting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton one day before Paxton threatened legal action against the Big 12 over Brendan Sorsby. Was it simply political influence, or something more concerning? And what does it tell us about how far Campbell is willing to go to get what he wants?

Topics include:

SEC and Big Ten Protect College Sports Act demands
Big 12 and ACC conference expansion protections
College football NIL and revenue sharing rules
One-time transfer and five-year eligibility limits
Michigan football scandal and Warde Manuel
Sherrone Moore investigation
Connor Stalions and Jim Harbaugh
Cody Campbell donation to Ken Paxton
Texas Tech and Brendan Sorsby
Big 12 legal battle
College football politics and corruption

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Transcript

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Well, the SEC and Big Ten are going to get their way yet again. Certainly looking that way. We're going to talk about the Senate Bill, Protect College Sports Act, what it means for the Big 12 and the ACC. Basically, they've been lockered again by the SEC and Big Ten through political connections and maneuvering, it would appear. Ross Dellinger has the latest. We'll chat about it. Michigan has a scandal going on, bit of a Texas Tech scandal going on right now. College sports is crazy. We can't go a week without major scandal, it seems, enveloping the sport in some way or another. There are going to be a lot of Red Raider mentions because I think the Michigan scandal actually Texas Tech makes a very good point about it that I have seen this week. Okay. And to have some fun at the end, we do have some Big 12 preseason polls that are out now. Not just the coaches, which we already saw from Brett McMurphy and talked about that, where the coaches decided to pick BYU. I've got what the players said in my anonymous player survey. And then shout out to the Deseret News, which took a media poll. So now we we know the temperature of the room, where everybody is at right now, and how the Big 12 is going to shake out this year. So I will reveal those results to you guys. Of course, if you subscribe to the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter, you already know OFBnews.com to sign up for that and join 6,400 plus other Big 12 fans who do. This is Open for Business. Welcome in. I'm your host, John Kurtz. Thanks for hanging out with me tonight. Excited to talk some college football with you. College football and surrounding entities, because that always now includes things like politics and lawyers and all of these things. My dad called me a hobby lawyer the other day, and I was like, Well, what do you expect? I work in college athletics at this point. Covering college sports, you have to be. Thank you all for joining me tonight. Please do like and subscribe as you enter in. You can click the dollar sign below the chat box if you would like to submit a super chat tonight. That will guarantee your question or comment makes it on the show. Otherwise, just keep the chat lively, respectful, but lively, ladies and gentlemen. You can hit me up on Venmo as well, John Dash Kurtz-4. If you want to submit a super chat there, I will kick off the next show with it. So you can still be a part of the combo, even if you're not here watching all of this live. Lots of ways to still be a part of the show. All right, you guys ready to get rolling here tonight? The SEC and Big Ten are going to get their way. Yet again, shouldn't be surprising. I'm sure it's not. Uh the main changes they wanted to the Protect College Sports Act, it certainly appears are on the way. And it still might not be enough, which is the craziest part of all of this. It's been all quiet on the Protect College Sports Act front, at least relatively quiet for a little while. There was a recess going on, I believe, there with the Senate. But things have been happening behind the scenes. Remember last week at Big 12 Media Days, Brett Yormark mentioned that he was going to be going to the Hill soon. He was there this week, according to Ross Dellinger's latest report. Greg Sankey went before him. Jim Phillips and Tony Petiti are coming up next, next week in the weekend between ACC and Big Ten Media Days. So everybody is making their way. There have been calls taking place with some of the major stakeholders here, some of the biggest schools that are involved. And of course, this whole time, the SEC and Big Ten, who made their voices very clear three weeks ago about all the changes they want to see in this, they have been maneuvering to get as much political influence as they can here to make sure that this didn't get passed in its current form. There were a list of 10 changes that the SEC and Big Ten wanted made to this. So what is going to happen? Well, they're going to get the biggest of what they wanted, it sure appears. Ross Dellinger's latest report says the senators are in deal mode. He's quoting a source there. The senators are in deal mode. All right, well, that sounds good, right? Deal mode. We're going to get something done. That's amazing. Not so fast, my friend. In the immortal words of Lee Corso, that actually may be bad if you're a Big 12 or an ACC fan who wanted to see this get passed more in its original form. The form that we had seen Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell, the two senators that put this together, fighting back so sternly for. Yeah, sounds like that may have been all for not. I'm going to quote to you from Dellinger's article here. They are working to strike a deal with the SEC and Big Ten by revising portions of the Protect College Sports Act, the piece of bipartisan legislation intended to regulate the ecosystem. Some believe a deal is close, others cast doubt. A deal between the lawmakers and the two most valuable conferences in college sports is not only important, but it's beginning to feel necessary. If the last few weeks have shown us anything, it's that passing legislation to regulate an industry without two of the most influential stakeholders is difficult. Yeah. Look, I I will say that I have never been so naive as to think that it wouldn't be tough without the SEC in Big Ten. But enough people, Dellinger included, saying 50-50 a couple weeks ago on the College Sports Inquirer, enough people had led me to believe that like this this thing could actually pass without the SEC and Big Ten. I I must admit to some level of naivete here. Now you're asking me, John, what what are the changes coming? What are the changes coming out of the 10 that were proposed by the SEC and Big Ten? They're basically the most important ones and the ones that would have uh an adverse effect on the Big 12 and ACC or perhaps just anybody outside of the top like 10 to 20 brands in the sport. Please do click subscribe. Helps me a lot. Bunch of you watch, but don't subscribe. Please do make sure you subscribe to the channel. All right, let me run down these changes for you, according to Dellinger. He said, not everything will change, but some likely will. And of course, items one, two, and three on this list. It's like, oh yeah, those are the things that this whole time you've been like, wow, that's actually a nice thing for the non-powers of the sport. Starting with, of course, that anti-expansion language. That anti-expansion language. Yeah, the SEC and Big Ten did not like that this originally was a bill that said anybody doing over a billion dollars in revenue can't expand or merge. So it targeted the SEC and Big Ten and nobody else. Well, they complained about that and they got it changed to now nobody in the power four. They looped in the Big 12 and the ACC. So at that point, it was more or less like membership is frozen outside of if someone wants to jump from G6 conference to G6 conference. Basically, membership would be totally frozen in college sports. Yeah, uh Dellinger says that's probably gonna change. The language around that will change. I don't know how exactly it will change. So does that just like open it back up to like totally everything? I think a part that you're gonna see in this, it sounds like that is something SEC and Big Ten folks have wanted is language saying that a private equity group can't come in and create a super league in and of itself, which from their standpoint, I think covers a couple of bases. One, they didn't like any of, you know, some of I want to say it was the Smash Capital plan at one point, was talking about like kind of a 70 team deal with relegation and promotion, which sounds awesome, by the way. Of course, we love it here on this channel. They don't want anything like that, but they also don't want if you're Tony Petiti or Greg Sankey, you've got so much power right now. If a private equity group came in and said, hey, we're doing the NFL thing, we're gonna take the top 20 or 30 teams out of your leagues and do this, well, that wouldn't be good for them either, because there's no guarantee that they're gonna be in charge of that. So they don't want that. Seems like they're gonna get their way and they're not gonna be restricted from being able to form a super league or whatever expansion they want in the future. Guess what number two is? Pooling media rights. Okay, pooling media rights is in there. The SEC and Big Ten wanted more concrete language, stressing that it's voluntary, voluntary to pull the media rights. They want to make sure that that is very, very clear. So it would make it more difficult, more of a hurdle, perhaps, to pool media rights. That is number two. And the other thing that, of course, would be very good for everybody else in college sports, but not so much the SEC and Big Ten. They would make more money. Everybody would make more money, but it would likely close the gap a bit between the SEC, Big Ten, and everybody else if the pooling of meteorites were to happen. Uh, guess what else? Finally, it's the NIL piece. SEC and Big Ten do not like the language that's in there right now that would essentially force any NIL deal that you were doing outside of revenue sharing with outside entities, right? Like your Learfields, Nike, Adidas, corporate sponsors, the donor who has a car dealership, any of that stuff. You wouldn't be able to circumvent the cap with that anymore. It was going to, in essence, bring all of that in under the RevShare cap or else. And so that was a part that I actually found very interesting because I thought if that actually happens and everybody has more or less the same amount of money to work with, we could just go back to what college sports was like 10 years ago if everybody's working off the same amount of money. And it would your recruiting advantages would again be like prestige and coach, and that could backfire a bit on the Big 12. So that's what I'm more dubious about in general, but you do think about your huge spenders, your like Miamis and Texas AMs of the world. They could just go totally crazy and nuts with this if you still continue to be able to spend as much as humanly possible. And that may be what happens based on this. Uh, guess what else might be in there? This was something Dellinger was not quite as certain about, but said might happen. How about remember the revision that if media rights were pulled, certain rivalries would have to be played again? Sounds like that may get written out of this thing. I mean, it's like everything that was nice about this where you're like, hey, this is actually fighting for the every man a bit instead of just the top 10 to 20 brands in the sport. Uh, yeah, that's all the stuff that the SEC in Big Ten has been raging against. And now it seems like Cruz and Cantwell at the last minute may be giving it on this. There's a real time crunch here. Ted Cruz told Dellinger in the story that he thinks it could, or at least Dellinger reported Ted Cruz thinks it could get out on the floor for a vote as early as next week, but they really need it to happen by the end of August. There's a recess coming up, so like it's it's got to move quickly, and that's why you're in deal mode now. You lose some leverage when you don't have a lot of time here. Uh one one thing that the SEC and Big Ten want that may or may not happen, according to Dellinger, here is different language written around the one-time transfer and five years of eligibility, where the SEC and Big Ten think they actually need like more concrete language to make it specific enough that they can really enforce that without legal challenges. And see, this is where I'm like, all right, if we could flip-flop this, I'm totally fine. If you're if you're a Big 12 or ACC fan, like you're totally fine. Anybody should be in college sports with that part being ironed out as you know, make that as ironclad as you possibly can. Stop the lawsuits, like just give yourself some kind of rules that you can reliably enforce. You get one free transfer. After that, it's gonna take a year. You have five years to play five. We've already seen the lawsuits piling in on that since they have tried to enact that. And that's the part that may not change. That's just like, man, I came on here and I praised Cruz and Cantwell, and now it's like, what are we doing? What are we doing, my friends? Um, again, I will say probably some naivete on my part to buy into some of what was being said that hey, this could potentially pass even without Big Ten or SEC support. It appears that they have used the last couple weeks to rally up enough uh support to get some real pushback on that, and it may lead to a bunch of changes. Hasn't happened for sure yet, but Dellinger's article definitely made it seem like that is the way it is headed. To me, your best case scenario here. I guess if you do have some protection of an outside Super League coming in to just take the top 20 to 30 teams off the top, like that may not be the worst thing in the world. As I mentioned, the NIL debate, I think, is a really healthy one that you could have as to like what's better for everybody outside of your Ohio State, Texas, Alabama tier. So either way that goes, I could make you an argument that that actually might be a good thing. I I still deep down my gut is like, we got it. This can't just be a runaway freight train to spending an unlimited amount of money forever. So I do like the idea of can you just bring it under a rev share cap and have it be one standard number and like have some order to that? But you know, then it cuts down on the amount that like a Texas Tech can come up in the world by by spending more money. And and there's gotta be best case scenario, you give me stronger language on enforcing one-time transfer in five years. Like, what are we doing here if that's not gonna happen? I I will side with the SEC and Big Ten on that. What are we doing here that if that's not gonna happen? That's the biggest piece to regain some control over what is happening right now. We'll see. We'll see what happens. If you wanna you wanna go laugh at me, you want to get a little caught up here and uh track how this has been going when times were a bit more optimistic on how this bill may fight for everybody outside of the top 10 to 20 brands in the sport. Click here. That's for everybody watching the uh clipped version. Those of you hanging out live, just continue to hang out. I appreciate you all. It's great to see you here. Thank you for being here. You know what? Jared, thank you. I couldn't agree more. This is the best take I've seen on here in years. All my years doing the live show, we're at like almost five years now. This is the best take I've ever seen, Jared. Thank you. He says for those listening on the audio platforms, by the way, and I appreciate those who are. He says John Kurtz is awesome. So I defy anybody to uh to to disagree with that. I am wearing this awesome shooting shirt today. Look at this thing. Isn't that a sick logo? I love this. I know I don't I don't wear I don't wear this gear very often. I try to be very partial, but I was I was feeling it today, you know. I thought about mixing it up. Honestly, I I have not found enough excuses to wear this, and I thought, well, it's a live show in July, so why not? Let me know what you think. You guys, you guys liking this logo? I think this is awesome. They K-State has gone to uh this logo now where it's like they got more of the sports-specific stuff, like a Heisman Willie kind of thing that I saw some of the K-State reps at um Meaty Days and Frisco last week wearing. I really like that a lot. Any of the old school logos are great. I actually I like the change that Texas Tech has made with its with its logo as well. And I know I've taken I took some shots the other day from tech fans for not having the updated one on the graphic. The problem is it just doesn't pop well enough on the graphic. The old one pops better, so I've still been using it, but I I do need to make that transition. I I I like the Texas Tech logo there. Uh all right. Please do like and subscribe. All of that really helps. I appreciate everybody who does. And uh make sure you're subscribed to the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter, OFBnews.com, to get signed up for that. Let's talk Michigan, okay? Let's talk Michigan. Michigan should be taking way more heat. I I cannot figure out why Michigan is not just the total bad boy of college sports right now. And instead, it still seems to be Texas Tech. Now, I fully as much as anybody understand the Brendan Sorceby scandal, but did you guys read the reports out of Van Arbor this week? I mean, Ward Manual, the AD, has not been fired yet, but it certainly seems like that's coming. Some kind of exit there is coming. But it's crazy. And there may be more to come from this. It's the investigation, obviously, into what happened with Sharone Moore, but it just underscores uh some of the hypocrisy that we have coming from Michigan in and of itself, first and foremost. I you guys probably don't need me to tell you about the Sharon Moore aspects, the latest wild thing that happened in Michigan back in December. Uh Paige Shiver, who was the like administrative assistant for Sharone Moore that he was having uh an inappropriate relationship with, she came forward. He tracked her down at her apartment. He was in jail for a hot minute there. He got fired, obviously. Big scandal, right? Big scandal. And Ward Manual, the athletic director, was saying, well, we didn't know about it until she came to us in December of 2025. Michigan hires an external investigator to come in and look at this whole thing. And now we're getting leaks from this report. Okay. And uh apart it this it's wild, man. This is a this is a huge report. And I know, you know, it there's been talk about it, but I still am like compared to the amount of noise that there was about Brendan Soresby, it is it is a bit staggering. Like I understand some of the points that tech fans were making, and they have one specific beef against Michigan that is a very appropriate, I think, stance at this point for tech to be making. Real quick, please do subscribe to the channel if you don't. Many of you watch, but don't subscribe. Helps a lot if you click subscribe. Uh, per this external investigation into Sharon Moore's relationship with his former executive assistant. They found a note from Ward Manual in August of 2024 before Sharon Moore had even coached a game as the head coach at Michigan that was telling Sharon Moore that he can't take her on trips, which would obviously indicate he had an idea of this. Like he he knew what was going on when he had hired him to be coach before he had coached a single game. And this is post-Jim Harbaugh scandal, right? Like the I I should say Connor Stallion is probably the more appropriate way to say that, but Jim Harbaugh was overseeing all of that. This is nuts. This is nuts. I mean, that should be huge news here at Michigan. And Ward Manual has been doing this public front where he's saying, like, I haven't been fired. You guys have tried to fire me like three times on social media in my 10 years. Obviously, the guy is overseen national championships in football and men's basketball, which I think does play a big role here in this. That that plays a large part in people maybe being more willing to brush some of this under the rug. But the reporting that came out, players and staff raised concerns about that relationship during preseason camp in 2024. Uh, Ward Manual again said they didn't know until December 2025. I don't even care about, like, yeah, sure, Ward Manuel should go and he probably will, but it's more like I understand Texas Tech fans' frustration over this whole like we got completely raked over the Colts for Brendan Soresby. And look at a school like Michigan here, I'm not saying that they're totally skating. Like they're they're taking plenty of shots, but it just doesn't seem like the same level of vitriol, and that Michigan does not have this like bad boy um label nearly as much on a national front as what Texas Tech does. And if you start going down the rap sheet for Michigan, Jim Harbaugh lying to NCAA investigators about recruiting violations during COVID, Connor Stallions, the sign stealing scandal, cheating the year that they won the national championship, the Sharon Moore situation, and now and like basically an AD cover-up of the situation. Like, what can Michigan? Like, why is Michigan not the baddest of bad boys in college football? Instead, it's like, well, Texas Tech has a loud guy who essentially functions as the owner of the team, and they had a quarterback who almost played for them, who had bet 40 times on his own team. Now, you guys know where I stood on all of that, very passionate that Brendan Soresby should not have played, should have gotten what was essentially a one-year suspension, and that is what happened. But especially when Michigan was out here being the school, thumbing its nose at Texas Tech saying, We're not going to play a volleyball game against you because you are like an affront to the integrity of the sport. I mean, boy, doesn't that ring hollow? You know, I mean, the the land of Michigan men here are going to thumb their nose that way at that, and this is what all has been happening in their house. I mean, this is Joey Maguire had a really good line. Joe Joey McGuire had some bars. He was spitting some bars at Big 12 meeting days. But one of them was his line where he talked about like, some of these people out here that I see talking need to like check their closet and see what's what's happening in their closet, make sure that's all clean before they come after us. Michigan would be at the top of that list. At the top of that list. I don't know. It just doesn't feel like the punishment has matched the crime z crime z plural here for Michigan. I mean, like, I went to a Royals Astros game the other day. I say the other day. It's been a couple months, I think, at this point. But when I was there, like Jose Altube got booed. He's still getting booed for the sign stealing thing back in 2019. It just doesn't feel like the same level of vitriol exists toward Michigan. So I know that like whataboutism isn't isn't generally productive. I'm not telling you, Texas Tech fans, that that's the best way to spend your time is making the jokes. Although I was laughing at some of them on Twitter about, well, we should cancel the volleyball games against Michigan because of all this. You are well within your right to do that. I think it is very fair to point out the hypocrisy and all of that. But damn, you know, it's like I get where you guys are coming from, and I I don't understand why there's not a little bit more hate directed toward Michigan right now. Uh, that's not meant to come after Kyle Whittingham either. This is exactly why you go hire a Kyle Whittingham, is because you need somebody to steady the ship right now. And that's a guy who is that's an adult in the room. Kyle Whittingham is very much an adult in the room, and there have not been enough, apparently, of Michigan here. But, you know, it's like the the attack against Texas Tech was integrity of the game, integrity of the game. Michigan's now got integrity of the game and inappropriate relationship and AD cover-up. I mean, you got you got it all. The whole schmorgis board there is at Michigan. They need to clean things up, man. Good luck to Kyle Whittingham. I'm sure he'll be dealing with a new athletic director here pretty soon. But I Austin Meek actually had a great take on this uh when he was on with the 365 guys recently. Shout out to Austin Meek, a former K-State beat rider way back in the day. And shout out, of course, to Smokey and crew at 365 Sports. But his take was like Kyle Whittingham's already gonna be like the most powerful man at Michigan, and he hasn't even coached the game because I mean, yeah, like Mike Boynton's the head basketball coach. Shout out to the former Oklahoma State Cowboy. But Whittingham's been the head coach of the football program longer, and then it may be a new AD. So he's he's gonna be like the elder statesman there of the big three, the most high-profile three in your athletic department. Wild. Uh, will Kyle Whittingham succeed at Michigan? Click here to find out. That's for everybody watching the clip version. Those of you hanging out live, just keep hanging out. We've got a super chat to get to. If you want to submit a super chat, click the dollar sign below the chat box. Appreciate uh those of you who do. Let's see. Okay, yeah, we got some we got some chats coming here. Let's talk to Big 12 Little 12. Big 12 Little 12 says not having Utah, not having any Utah players on the preseason all Big 12 team except for punt returner will release the Kraken with Dampier, Ficklin, and Parker in unspeakable ways. And I'm there for every bit of it. Look, the most cliched fan perspective to have, my friend, Big 12, Little 12, is we want to be flying under the radar. We want to be. This is great. Gives us uh uh Bolton board material. We can throw it up in the locker room. This is perfect. Listen, as a K-State fan, I understand that entirely. That has always been the attitude of K-State fans. Like, we're better flying under the radar. And I'm not even saying it's wrong. It is just very, very cliche. So I'm glad that you get a chance to have that. That is that is a nice thing, right? I mean, Utah, you can understand. I I think to an extent, Big 12, Little 12, right? Like quarterback is a bit crowded. Like I Devin Dampier is very good. Bird Ficklin has an incredibly high ceiling, but I mean, Noah Fafita deserves to be the preseason All Big 12 quarterback, right? Like, I think we can agree on that. Running back, if we want to have a conversation here, LJ Martin is going to get one of those spots. He's the returning offensive player of the year. We're on Parker is very good. I'm trying to remember who was, someone help me out. Who else was All Big 12 running back with him? That's probably more of a discussion that we can have there with Weyshawn Parker. But some of this is just Utah has some really good players at a crowded position. Quarterback, crowded position there. Because then, you know, I mean, quarterback, we can talk about Drew Mestimaker. Like there are other, now, if it were Mestimaker that were first team All Big 12, and you're saying Dampier has the production at the Big 12 level, let's chat. We can have that combo. I'll have that all of that combo all day. Anyway, Big 12, Little 12, play that chip on your shoulder card proudly. Because I think it's a good, it's a good and fun one to play as a fan. It gives you a little more juice as a fan. It's not as fun. I I saw this actually with the K-State fan base. I think the last few years, it was like post-Big 12 championship in 2022. There was a lot of love and respect the next three offseasons for the team. And that was an unfamiliar position for the team and fan base to be in. Frankly, I don't think it was as much fun where you're like, man, they're they're pretty high on the cats. I mean, I think I'm high on them, but should it be that high? This is more fun. So enjoy it, my friend. Uh Alan, what's up, Alan? I appreciate you being here. Alan, you're my guy. Alan said, uh, John heard on an ACC, heard an ACC podcast say the SEC would pass on Florida State and Clemson in favor of weaker UNC and Virginia. Uh our opportunity for the Big 12 is what Alan is asking there. Boy, we're going back to this is taking me back to that's been two years ago, right? With the Ross Dellinger story that he well, Ross Dellinger at least telling me that he thought there may have been conversations between the Big 12 and Florida State and Clemson, at least as just like a last-ditch landing spot there. I I would think at this point, with the unequal revenue sharing that exists in the ACC, the success initiative, the brand initiative, that's that would be enough to keep Florida State and Clemson around to not have to deal with the headache and the cost, which would be massive to leave that league. You're talking about a nine-figure exit fee to get out of there, even though some of that has gone down. I just think it's all still too difficult, probably, for any of that to happen. Uh I don't look, I love the Big 12. I don't think it's enticing enough for all of that to uproot. Now, I guess never say never with Brett Yormark. I certainly trust the guy to make some moves. But I think that would be a long shot. I the North Carolina thing doesn't surprise me. Virginia, uh mildly, although I know Virginia has like a similar case. They're kind of like a North Carolina light, huge school, huge population base, a lot going on outside of obvious football success, which doesn't really exist there. And yes, I know they had a nice season last year. Okay, so maybe maybe that'll be on the the uptick, but historically there. Uh Alan says September 11th, 4 p.m. at the wheel. All right, 4 p.m. at the wheel, a rendezvous with destiny, Mizzou at the booth. That's a Friday, right? So we'll see if I can get away from work. Friday, September 11th, 4 p.m. at the wheel. Alan, thank you. Uh OFB News at uh gmail.com, Alan. If you want to if you want to send me the real deets on on all of that ever. Just let me know, my friend. Big 12 Little Twelve, back in here. Speaking of ADs, uh since since you are tonight, hot take. Ooh, Harlan will be out at Utah in two years, and Alex Smith will take over as a legacy hire. Okay. All right. Well, hey, Kansas legendary Kansas City Chief, Alex Smith, set the table for Patrick Mahomes. I'll be forever grateful. I've got love for Alex Smith. I think Mark Harlan gets a bad rap. I think he takes too much crap. I understand where some of the criticism uh comes from, but especially on the Kyle Whittingham thing, I think he takes way too much heat. That was a tough, that's an impossible situation and an impossible, just an impossible stroke of bad luck with the Michigan issue happening the way that it did. So I'm gonna in defense of Mark Harlan, I will say chill out just a bit on on that front. But I'm not saying you can have your hot take. I would just say some of the vitriol I've seen directed toward him over what happened with Kyle Whittingham. I would I would back off of that a bit. But Big 12, Little 12, thank you for that. That that's I enjoyed that. That's a good hot take. When I when we say hot take, that is hot. That is a hot one. Have not heard Alex Smith's name mentioned as a as a potential AD, but maybe I'm just not in the loop. Utah fans, you can let me know. All right, please like and subscribe. That does really help. Sign up for the open for business big 12 newsletter, ofbnews.com. Well, we now know, speaking of scandal, who Texas Tech can blame the Brendan Soresby L on. Maybe we should say who Brendan Soresby can blame taking the L on and not being able to take college football. Because thanks to a lot of good reporting, certainly looks like Cody Campbell heavily influenced Texas AG, the Attorney General Ken Paxton, to threaten the Big 12. Of course, that wildly backfired. It turned into the Big 12 getting an extra little boost, a new lawsuit that they could file preemptively. That reporting, according to the athletic, had a huge role in why Brendan Soresby just gave up on college football. So we we have the smoking gun, in essence, now through the reporting about the Cody Campbell, Ken Paxton relationship. The question is like, does it really matter? Does it really matter? 2026. I would say only in one important way. Only in one important way. Let's run back through this series of events. Okay, if you're trying to remember the timeline on all it on all this, remember like we've gone like, has it been two weeks? Like at least like a week and a half since really talking about Brendan Soresby, folks. We were doing so well. I that's what instead of open for business, the sign should be we have gone, we have had what, 10 days without a Brendan Soresby incident? Well, now we got to rip off the sign. It's it's back to zero. But a judge granted Brendan Sorsby the injunction so that he could play. Texas Tech stood by him. The Big 12 mold over, keeping Texas Tech out of the Big 12 title game if they played him. The Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, put out a letter threatening the Big 12 with legal action if the Big 12 were to punish Texas Tech. And then the Big 12 in the dark of night filed a federal lawsuit to preemptively make sure they can enforce their league bylaws. Then Soresby gave up, tried the supplemental draft. That didn't work either. Okay, well, here's in that timeline. We can now fit something in. It's between the Big 12 mulling over the title game punishment and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton putting out a letter threatening the Big 12. In between there, the athletic, and it was at the Texas Tribune. I apologize if I'm botching the name of the other paper, that got the details on this when campaign reports had been filed, campaign financing had been filed. The day before, one day before Ken Paxton's letter threatening the Big 12, Cody Campbell donated $274,300 to Paxton Victory, a joint fundraising committee supporting his Senate run. All right. So that's the crux of the report here. Some may call it a bombshell. I have to admit, in the environment that we're in in 2026 and the way politics are going now in general, like, I don't know, it doesn't get me fired up the same way that it probably would have 15 years ago. There's also some important context to interject here. All right. So please do subscribe to the channel if you watch, but don't subscribe. It helps me a lot if you click that subscribe button. Thank you very much. Um, Cody Campbell had, for context, previously donated money to both of the other candidates who lost in the primary to Ken Paxton for that Senate seat. So I guess you could see that and start to think, all right, well, was he actually initially supporting his opponents? And so this shows even more guilt almost in this. If it some people have been calling this a bribe, it does that show more of a motive there if he was just like, oh, well, I was really wanting these other guys to win, but now I need to go to this. I I don't Ken Paxton was the attorney, he's the acting attorney general, right? I don't, I don't know. Campbell had also previously donated to Ken Paxton in 2025. That was another piece of info in the athletic story. But the June 10th donation, which is the one in question, was the biggest that Campbell had ever made uh to Ken Paxton. So I like there's I mean, there's a lot of smoke there. Like it, it it was a very significant donation compared to what he had given Ken Paxton before. And it came the day before Paxton threatened the Big 12. It's enough to obviously look very, very suspicious. I would also say the athletic story, Cody Campbell declined to comment. I mean, let's be honest, guys. How often these days does Cody Campbell pass on a chance to comment? It's not often. I don't I don't see that often. Uh I think it was a wise move uh for him on on this on this front. Texas Tech, nobody else, basically nobody gave comment. Paxton's office, Texas Tech, nobody. Which, hey, they they finally took my advice in the Brendan Soresby situation and just not saying much. I'm just I I'm a little disinterested in the conversation over like, you know, people, is it a bribe? Is it not? Should something happen? Here's the thing, guys, nothing's gonna happen. Nothing's gonna happen. Again, I don't know if you've looked around at like the political landscape right now. We're not you know, bribery's not really like uh at least like a sketchy thing happening like this that that could be construed as that. It's not really moving the needle for anybody these days. Nothing's gonna happen. Don't hold your breath on that. But to me, so I I guess the the answer to answer my question from earlier is this actually important? I mean, not really, not this part in a vacuum, other than I would say the the takeaway here, and what you should remember is Cody Campbell's not afraid to flex his money and influence. And it seems like there's a very good chance that's what he was doing here. Now, sometimes that may backfire. So with a guy who can shoot from the hip and be pretty liberal, pun intended, about the way that he flexes his money and power. Um you got to remember that he's just gonna do that sometimes. Sometimes it'll work, sometimes it won't. But if you are like a Brent Yormark, I mean, he knows this full well after seeing the tweet that was fired off about everything runs through Lubbock coming after Yormark directly on Twitter over the Houston game. He tried to flex his power and influence there. Obviously, with Brendan Sorsby here. Tried to flex power and influence. He's not afraid to do that. He's gonna do it, and you better be ready for it. You also will have to determine sometimes whether or not that's gonna be a good thing or a bad thing for him. You'll have to have some discernment there. But I just to me, that's what this is. It's another example of he's a force to be reckoned with. Sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. Sometimes he's on your side, protect College Sports Act, sometimes he's not, Brendan Soresby, etc. To me, it was just further confirmation of that. I don't, you know, I some people seemed very worked up about it on Twitter. I just am not really all that worked up about it. He's a guy who I think gets his way a lot because he's got a lot of power and influence. I mean, he's got the president's ear, for instance, right? And he's a billionaire, a multi-billionaire. So he's got a lot working in his favor on that. Not a guy that's that's used to be being told no, I would, I would have to imagine. Now, that's just me making inferences based on all the information that we have here. So you got to keep that in mind. I'm sure Brett Yormark and company already had, but this gives us some confirmation with that reporting. Um, he he may not have gotten what he wanted, actually, with the uh Big 12 preseason coaches poll, which unofficial, but the coaches poll. Uh, click here to find out why. That's for everybody watching the clip version. Those of you hanging out live, I appreciate you, my friends. Thank you for being here. Let's see. We got another super chat from Zach. My guy, Zach. What's up, Zach? Zach says, uh, Zach Lake, by the way. I love the BYU is getting a lot of attention lately, but what are your three sleeper teams in the Big 12 that we need to talk more about? Uh, by the way, I'd still love the hat. Can't DM unless you follow me. Oh, Zach, I did say I would give you a monster hat. Thank you. Uh all right. Zach, let me Zach on Twitter. That's ridiculous. I don't know why it should. I feel like I have that open. I get lots of DMs from people who don't follow me. I don't know what's going on with the Twitter algorithm there. Zach, we'll I'll find a way. Zach, if you don't, if somehow I forget this, OFBnews at gmail.com. OFBnews at gmail.com. Hit me up there. Uh oh, and your question, by the way. Three sleeper teams in the Big 12. I would say, look, I'm gonna count Houston as a sleeper team. I know people will roll their eyes at that, but I think Houston is like sleeper can win the Big 12. I don't think people are like sleeping on them, not including them as a team that is at least flirting with the contender tier. So I would say that. I would say West Virginia. I think West Virginia's got a shot to be upwardly mobile this year in the league. I I like Michael Hawkins at quarterback. I definitely love Cam Cook. I think the overall talent has upgraded there quite a bit if you're just judging by what the recruiting rankings are, which I know can be flawed, but I think Richrod really made it an effort to turn over the roster again this year for that purpose. And I think West Virginia is doing a better job with NIL and actually pumping in a lot of support to that program. So I'd go West Virginia. You know, I would say both Arizona schools. And part of the problem here is that they've got fairly tough schedules. Arizona State in particular, just a brutal schedule. But Arizona, man, Arizona's just kind of lurking there. They've got no Fafita. I came away very impressed from Brent Brennan after talking with him at Big 12 Beaty Days. Check out that conversation on the channel. If they really did do an adequate job replacing all that firepower they lost in the defensive backfield in the draft last year, Arizona could be a really salty team. Or in the words of Brent Brennan, as he said in that interview, a very sexy team. Okay, very sexy team. So that's like four that I would give you, but I think all of those teams to some extent are flying under the radar. And yes, if you're keeping your bingo card, that is me finding a way to wedge Houston into that discussion once again. Uh thank you, Zach. Thank you, thank you. We'll find a way to get you that monster hat. I gotta find that. That's lying around here somewhere. Honestly, if I have to give you the OG monster hat, I will give that to you. Uh, because that's how much I I want you all to enjoy monster Big 12 football, ladies and gentlemen. And monster Big 12 basketball for that matter. Please do like and subscribe. I appreciate all of you guys for being here. Thanks for hanging out. Before I go, before I go, speaking of teams that are being overlooked, I have a Big 12 player poll who they picked to win the league. I was surprised by who didn't make the top two. And we also, thanks to the Deseret News, have a media poll. All right. The media don't agree with the coaches. Actually, a pretty stark contrast there. All right. So let's get into this. Who's right? Who should we trust more? I feel like I could actually just blow the cover on that instead of like teasing out that piece of the content throughout this and just say, trust no one. It's the Big 12. Trust no one. It's not a good idea to trust anybody trying to predict this conference. Remember, last year, Iowa State and K-State was the Big 12 coaches' championship game pick, swinging a miss. Then uh two years ago, the media picked Arizona State to finish last, swing and a miss. There they are, leading Texas, one play away from winning a game in the Peach Bowl after winning the Big 12 championship. Yeah, not a great idea to put a lot of trust in that. First, let's check out the Deseret News media poll where they they took uh, I believe it was one beat writer from each school to vote in this poll, and this is what we got. All right, this is what we got. Texas Tech, overwhelmingly the favorite there. 14 of the 16 first place votes. The only other two went to BYU. So this was not really surprising. Houston and Arizona tied for third. Utah is fifth. TCU, Arizona State, K-State. So the faction of people, and I understand who have been saying, like, why is K-State at eight and a half wins? Why is K-State this high? The media tends to be on board with you and being more cautious about where the Wildcats are. Oklahoma State at nine. Honestly, like this feels like a lot of the projections that I have seen, to be completely honest, where then you get into Baylor, Cincinnati. There does seem to be post-Oklahoma State, there seems to be a pretty big dividing line between Oklahoma State and then Baylor, Cincinnati, Kansas, West Virginia, UCF, Colorado, Iowa State. That whole group, that's where the dividing line is. I think all the way down to Oklahoma State, you can make a case for like, hey, this team, I can definitely see it. I can see how they would jump up and potentially win the league, have a real chance to do that. But then once you get to Baylor, it's a lot tougher to start trying to figure that out. And Iowa State and Colorado have been the two most popular teams at the bottom of the polls that I have seen. Interesting though, you know, the coaches picked BYU to win this league. And so I thought, is that the coaches not having confidence in Will Hammond? Is it that Big 12 media is more confident in Will Hammond or just more like buying into the narrative of Texas Tech roster? Texas Tech's roster is just going to be too talented, no matter who really is playing quarterback there. It is interesting to me that the coaches feel more strongly about BYU and the culture. Is it that to the coaches, it's like it matters more, they admire more the overwhelmingly positive culture that Kalani Zataki has been able to foster at BYU, though Joey Maguire's done a great job with that too. So I don't know. You make of it what you will that the media is more on this Texas Tech bandwagon. Now, if you're wondering what the players thought here, I don't have like a full poll, but I will set this up for you. What I asked the players, and it was 30 of them that voted uh for who they thought would win the Big 12 if they could not pick their own team. So that was the stipulation. And I explained this the other day on 365. But the way I've learned in three years of doing this now that you have to ask the players to do it, is you have to tell them, hey, I know if I asked you who's winning the Big 12, you would say your team. Who's finishing second? Who are you playing in the Big 12 championship game? That's the way to get them to actually answer it. If you say who's winning the Big 12 and you can't pick your own team, you'll just get a bunch of guys saying, No, man, I picked my own team. They're confident dudes. You have to set it up that way. So that is how I asked the question. And here's what I got from the players. The players picked Texas Tech, but Houston was second. Couple of extra votes in front of BYU, then Utah, then Arizona. Just one vote for uh Arizona. You can see the votes underneath the team name. So again, Texas Tech, players pick Texas Tech, but there was a lot of love and respect for Houston. A lot of love and respect for Houston. I can even say from teams that beat Houston soundly, there was still a lot of respect for how good of a team that was. That caught me by surprise a bit when I was hearing those players explain that. So make of it what you will, OFBnews.com to get signed up for the newsletter. You can go back then and and uh read the full bit about this. Go find it on Twitter at JL Kurtz2. Probably an easier way to do that. Get signed up for the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter if you find my link to that post from Monday. But that's when the the poll came out. You can read a little bit more of some of the quotes from players. I just had today come out. If you are an OFB news subscriber, you got in your inbox the toughest place to play, which we can certainly talk about as well. I have discussed that, giving you my opinion on it already this year. That was a couple of months ago. Now the players have weighed in as well. And that was a fairly tight vote, I will say, a fairly tight vote. There are some really fun ones coming up, especially the try. I asked who the best trash talkers were in the league, and we got some money quotes. I think I actually got the best quote that I've had in three years of conducting this anonymous survey when I asked who the best trash talkers or who the team was that talked the most trash in the league was. It's an interesting one. So make sure you're signed up. Make sure you're signed up, and you can get all that straight to your inbox. You know, Jared, I'm glad I'm I'm glad Jared brought this up. Jared says Colorado is really confident this year. Colorado is really confident this year. Brennan Marion, their offensive coordinator, I saw the quotes circulating this week where he had compared um Juju Lewis to Quinn Ewers back to Brennan Marion's time at Texas. And the one that was really eye-catching is he said that their offensive line reminded him of the offensive lines that he had at Texas, that he was around at Texas. And I was like, I mean, that is a statement, my friends, because what has the deal always been with Colorado under Coach Prime? It's been like, hey, they're gonna have skill talent. Can they play defense and can they be physical up front? Like, do they have enough of an offensive line? Jordan Seaton is phenomenal. Jordan Seaton's now an LSU Tiger, and they never seem to be able to fully put an offensive line together. Brennan Marion seems to really think that they have. So Colorado is confident. I think that's fair. We were discussing earlier in the show, a Utah fan thinking, like, hey, we've got the chip on the shoulder thing rolling right now. But what about Colorado, dude? I mean, they're being picked last or next to last by virtually everybody. That's a hell of a chip-on-the-shoulder card that Coach Prime can play. Maybe Colorado will thrive in this role. So much spotlight, so much attention the entire time that Dion has been there. Maybe this year that will work in their favor. We'll find out. We'll find out. Thank you for mentioning uh that, Jared. That is uh that is good stuff because that has definitely been out there and around uh this week. All right. Thank you all for hanging out tonight. Fun show. Fun show. Like and subscribe. Sign up for OFBnews.com, the open for business big 12 newsletter. Hit me up on Venmo, John Dash Kurtz dash 4. If you've got something you want to weigh in on that I didn't address in this show, John Dash Kurtz dash 4, leave it in the comment there. And uh I will I will kick off the next show with it. You can still be a part of things, my friends. Uh take care, enjoy the rest of your Thursday, have a great weekend, and I will talk to you soon.