SEC Threatens to Go Nuclear and Leave Again; Should Anyone Believe Them?

The SEC is threatening to go nuclear and break away from the current structure of college sports if it does not get what it wants from Congress. But should anyone actually believe Greg Sankey and the SEC this time?

This could be a monumental week for college football as lawmakers consider major changes to the proposed federal college sports bill. The latest revisions could impact conference realignment, Power Four expansion, NIL enforcement, revenue-sharing limits and the possibility of a future super league. We break down what the SEC and Big Ten are demanding, whether the SEC’s latest threat is legitimate and what could happen if the bill falls apart.

Plus, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi says the Big Ten is overrated. Does he have a legitimate point about the conference’s depth, or is he the wrong person to make that argument after the Big Ten’s recent run of national championships?

We also discuss whether Clemson’s elite run is officially over under Dabo Swinney and which programs could become the next Clemson. Could Texas Tech, BYU, SMU, Louisville or Indiana make a similar leap into the national championship conversation?

Also on the show:

• Post Malone wears an Iowa shirt inside Jack Trice Stadium
• Texas Tech lands a major stadium naming-rights deal
• The latest changes to the federal college sports bill
• Why the SEC and Big Ten want protections against a super league
• Whether conference realignment could accelerate again
• The future of NIL and the revenue-sharing cap
• Which Big 12 program has the best chance to become college football’s next powerhouse

Get “Open For Business,” a Big 12 newsletter with the latest college football news, analysis and commentary. Sign up below:

https://bit.ly/OFBNewsletter

#CollegeFootball #SEC #Big12 #BigTen #Clemson #TexasTech #BYU #ConferenceRealignment #NIL #DaboSwinney

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

The SEC is threatening to leave it all once again. Should we believe them? Or is this just a leverage play? And if the SEC were to leave, would anybody else go with them? What kind of a domino effect would that start? We've got Pat Narduzzi taking some big time shots. Big time shots at the Big Ten. He says the Big Ten is not as good as the ACC, which seems a bit wild, right? If you've been paying any attention to uh college football these days. Clemson may be done, ladies and gentlemen, because I listened to Dabo Sweeney. I've got some Dabo Sweeney audio, some clips to play for you. And boy, it seems like Dabo is still the same Dabo. So who's going to replace Clemson? Who can be the next Clemson? A team to go on that type of run. And we've got a new stadium deal in the Big 12 that's trend setting, honestly, across college football. And it's underscoring one big thing that I'm seeing in these new Jersey patch deals and stadium deals. Welcome in. It is open for business. We're going to talk college football all the way through tonight. Thank you for being here. Please do like and subscribe as you enter. Of course, keep the chat lively. I see you, Wolf Wolf Doggo, Pace and Cougar fan, the John Dry. Appreciate everybody who's here already. Should be a fun show tonight. You can submit a super chat by clicking the dollar sign below the chat box. Appreciate anybody who's able to support in that way. But otherwise, just keep the chat lively, keep it respectful, and let's have some fun tonight, ladies and gentlemen. Make sure you're signed up for the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter as well. It's OFBnews.com to get subscribed to that. Okay, so off and running. Let's get right to it here. The latest that has happened with the Protect College Sports Act, of course, is that the SEC and Big Ten are going to get some level of help here from the lawmakers. Now, what level of help that is going to be is still up for debate. And when I last did a live show for you, it seemed like the SEC and Big Ten were going to get a lot. Let's dive into the latest. Ross Dellinger wrote yet another article about all of this. All right. And the SEC has once again pulled the nuclear option. The SEC is threatening to leave and do its own thing. It's called Plan B. And are they actually serious this time? Is really the question. Or is this all strategic? Is this leverage? Could the bill actually go to a vote this week? And if the SEC isn't happy with whatever the outcome is, and they truly decide to leave, is anybody going with them? What kind of domino effect does this have? We are headed into really tricky, murky territory and potentially dangerous territory in college sports. So Ross Dellinger from Yahoo Sports has the latest update. He's been the authority reporting on this and everything that's happening in college sports. The SEC and Big Ten are still getting more of what they want, but perhaps not all of it. This is the type of report that's like honestly a bit good and bad if you're a Big 12 fan or if you're an ACC fan, if you're somebody outside of the top 20 or 30 brands in college sports. Ross also wrote about will the SEC pull the nuclear option and actually go to plan B. Okay. Timing, also of the essence. It is very important. They have to hurry. Ted Cruz thinks a vote could happen potentially this week. Here's what could be changing. All right. Remember the laundry list of things the SEC and Big Ten want done here. A huge part of it is that they wanted the language changed around the membership freeze, where essentially nobody could move in any conference in college football, the way the language was most recently written on this bill. It started out that it was just the SEC and Big Ten that couldn't expand or merge. That then changed. Now it's at the point where nobody could move at all. The SEC and Big Ten also wanted to see the language around pooling broadcasting rights clarified with complete certainty that it was voluntary. They did not believe that it was voluntary. The SEC and Big Ten wanted to see the language around outside NIL changed. That was a big part of what they were asking for as well, because they do not want outside NIL to go away, which is a bit interesting if you've been following this whole saga. And how everybody talks about how the money is crazy, but the SEC and Big Ten are worried about that. They also do not think the language is strong enough to protect being able to enforce a one-time transfer rule and being able to enforce the five years of eligibility. That's the meat of the demands from the SEC and Big Ten. So here's what Ross Dellinger says is the latest from the Senate. Maria Cantwell, who's one of the two senators on this bill, wants Washington State to be able to join a Power Four league again. So it now is going to allow movement from the G6 to the Power Four. Okay, that's one piece of it. That's not going to satisfy, obviously, the SEC or Big Ten. It does underscore how everybody's kind of operating in their own world here for their own self-interest with uh Cantwell being from Washington. I'm going to read to you now from Dellinger's story. He says in addition to that, the revision may provide flexibility for power conference programs to move to other power leagues, such as those in the ACC and Big 12, shifting to the SEC and Big Ten. But those moves may only be made within a certain framework of parameters yet to be formalized. So he's saying this bill probably will include some language now that would allow the SEC or Big Ten to take schools from the ACC and Big 12, which would be huge news, but it would only be under certain circumstances. And I have no idea what those parameters or circumstances would be. And that will tell a huge tale as to how good or bad this could be for the ACC and Big 12. Dellinger says the revision is also expected to include language prohibiting third-party entities such as private equity groups from forming a super league by poaching 20 or 30 of the biggest brands in the sport. So that's something the SEC and Big Ten do want. They don't want to see somebody take in the cream of the crop Super League, basically what English Premier League soccer was when 22 teams broke off to do their own thing. Well, why would the SEC and Big Ten not want that? Well, because Tony Petiti or Greg Zanke wouldn't be guaranteed to have power in that. They've got power right now. And if you're the teams at the bottom of the SEC and Big Ten, you definitely don't want that, right? Because then you get left behind. So that's the motivation behind that. On limiting outside NIL and keeping everything within the RevShare cap, uh, from Dellinger's article, solutions include adding language into the bill that expand the cap or at least offer flexibility to schools by adding new cap-related rules. So it doesn't sound like that language is going to change in terms of making outside NIL more of a thing. But to me, the idea that really makes sense here is just expand the cap. Like at least streamline everything. Say it's all got to be RevShare, but just put it like raise the cap. That would be a little more streamlined and easy to keep track of for everybody. That's what's going on right now. So the SEC and Big Ten are going to get a decent amount of this, but will it go far enough? We still do not know the answers to that. And as I said, Ted Cruz, one of the co-authors of this bill, is still telling people that this could actually go out to vote by next week. They definitely need it to happen by the end of July, and they're running out of time very quickly. So you need to be paying attention to this because if it does not go to the SEC's demands, uh they're going nuclear, nuclear, apparently. Let's look at this tweet from Ross Dellinger. Uh critical juncture in the history of college sports. Without passage of a revised Senate bill, SEC leaders are preparing Plan B, a self-governing model in which the league enforces its own rules and perhaps even competes against its own members only. Man. I don't even know that we have time to explore all of that, what that would look like, what that would mean if the SEC breaks off and just does its own thing. Like it's only SEC teams, playing only SEC teams. Would this be if that where the Big Ten then is going to break off and do there? And then they I don't know if that starts a domino effect of all of that. And I also don't know if this is just leverage, because this definitely could be just leverage. Please do subscribe to the channel if you watch, but don't subscribe. It really helps if you give me one click. I appreciate it. Let's talk about that. Jamie Pollard. Remember Jamie Pollard, Iowa State Athletic Director? He called out the SEC in Big Ten not that long ago and was like, hey, quote, let's quit talking about it, quit threatening, go do it. He is saying, call or bluff on it. Call or bluff. See if they're actually going to do it. And then if they do, like, stick to, we will not play you in anything. Not just football. Like, we're not going to play you in sports. See how it goes. This is why I do wonder if this is, are they 100% serious about this? Or is this just floating it out there to put some pressure on the senators involved to really tweak the language the way the SEC wants it? That would be something I definitely wonder here if this is just trying to leverage more advantageous language out of the bill, trying to bend it to their will, so to speak. This is the time to be doing it. Like, what did I just say about the time crunch that everybody is in here trying to get this bill passed? There is an August recess, and that is a huge hurdle because if you get past the August recess, then you're getting close to the midterm elections, which are coming up into November. And all the political folks, again, I'm not a political junkie that knows all this stuff, but all the political folks say it would be extremely difficult to get something to pass then. Like stuff grinds to a halt. Everyone's worried about the midterm elections, right? So this is the window. And if you're the SEC, you have to be sitting here saying, if not now, then when? Like let's let's really push the pedal to the metal. And the SEC, as we know, is not a conference that is used to be being told no on anything or not getting its way. Both the SEC and Big Ten right now, but the SEC's got a couple of decades on the Big Ten in terms of being the top dog and getting whatever it wants here. So that seems to be the situation. We know there will be some level of concession. This latest Dellinger update makes it seem like not quite as much as I was believing late last week. But there's still going to be some level of it, and the SEC is preparing to go nuclear if they need to. I know that that could get clipped and I could just be called naive if and when that were to happen. But, you know, Greg Sankey, especially, seems like a guy more so than Tony Petiti, at least. I'll put it that way. Greg Sankey, more than Tony Petiti, seems like a guy who cares, being someone who's worked in college athletics, more about the overall ecosphere of college sports than a Tony Petiti does. Does he really want to be the one to start whatever that movement would lead to? Does he want to be the one to do something so drastic as that? I get the frustration and the feeling like, hey, if we don't get a bill and this doesn't pass and this doesn't provide real order, we're never going to get it. Like we can't govern ourselves as a big entity. So we'll just govern ourselves as a small entity. That is the idea here. The SEC thinks that, hey, this is like membership that is mutually agreed upon to be in this group. It's a smaller group, so we will withstand legal challenges or not get them. Whereas the totality of everybody else would. It's about trying to govern themselves, and they think that would be easier, and that the SEC is a big enough deal it can stand on its own. We would find out. I don't know that Greg Sanke has it in him to totally do that. We'll see. We'll see. It's not the first time the SEC has threatened it, so this is not a totally new idea. Click here to learn about when this started. That's for everybody that is watching the clip version. Those of you that are hanging out here live, I appreciate you. Uh appreciate you very much being here. Great to see you all in the chat. Great to see you all hanging out. Should be a fun show tonight. John dash Kurtz-4 on Venmo. If you want to contribute to the channel that way and leave me a question or comment, I'm gonna bring in my guy Ben in just a moment, who hit me up on Venmo with a great comment because it's going to lead right into what we are talking about next. So very good stuff, Ben, because Ben saw a tweet that I put out about one, Pat Narduzzi. Yes, Pat Narduzzi. Uh, I don't know if you guys saw this, but he set college football Twitter ablaze with some comments that he made uh to a sports radio station at ACC Media Days. Here, let me just lead in with what Ben had to say on Venmo. Okay, so Ben says, in conjunction with your Twitter post on July 18th, please mention that a fairly decent Pat Narduzzi coach Pitt team lost to easily the worst West Virginia football team I have seen in my lifetime this past football season. Well, it is now mentioned. It is now mentioned. Pat Narduzzi's pit team lost to easily the worst West Virginia team that Ben has seen in his lifetime this past football season. Yeah, Pat Narduzzi called the Big Ten overrated, ladies and gentlemen. Let's talk about it. An ACC coach took a huge shot at the Big Ten. Not the SEC, who's actually down right now. This would be the time to do it. No, he went after the three-time defending national champion Big Ten. And I will say this coach makes one decent point, but the way he went about doing it is a bad look for everyone outside of the Big Ten. Everyone. It just helps build the Big Ten mystique even more right now. All right, so ACC Media Days was this past week. The rest of the show, we're going to react to some things that happened at ACC Media Days. It's talking season, and everybody is talking, and everybody loves their league. Everybody loves their team. Hope Springs eternal at Media Days. Much like in spring training for baseball, everybody's in the best shape of their lives. It's that type of vibe when people are talking about their team. Right. And I tend to be someone who fights for the underdogs in college football, right? This is not a channel that is based out of one of the Power Two conferences. So you might think I would love the fight that we see here out of Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi. And, you know, in a vacuum, look, I do. I like that you're fighting for your conference and its place at the big boy table and it's defending its honor. I mean, that's what it is, defending its honor. All of us that have come from Big 12 country know what it's like to have to be on a crusade to defend your league's honor. So I can appreciate that in a vacuum from Pat Narduz, Pat Narduzzi, but you have to pick your spots well. And I don't mean to quote the rock here, but you need to know your role. You need to know your role. And I don't think either of those happened here in this clip from one Pat Narduzzi. All right. So let's let's hear it. Let's hear what uh Pat Narduzzi had to say.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

I said it then, I said it now. You know, after about two years in the league, I said this conference is better. Uh it's better than the Big Ten. It's got more skill. Um and uh, you know, I just think you know, up and down the East Coast, I just think there's so many players in our area where in the Big Ten trying to get players up there, you know, to to come up north, and it's you know, now it's got a little west flavor to it. But I th I've said that for years, and uh and I'm gonna stick to my guns. You know, it it you know, and you look at our record, you look at our record in bowl games against you know um the SEC in the Big Ten. You look at our record, you know, in the regular season. I mean, you know, we don't have a losing record, we have a winning record against those teams.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Talk about okay, all right, Pat. All right, Pat. Look, um I know what he's getting at. What he's getting at is there is a a there's a depth problem in the Big Ten. Problem may even be actually too strong because if you have the championship contenders, it just doesn't really matter. But if you want to talk about the Big Ten not being very deep, I'll have that conversation all day. That's uh that's a totally fair conversation to have. The problem is, the problem is who's saying it, what conference it's coming from, what team and program it's coming from, and the way that you're saying it and the timestamp that you put on it. All right, I've got a laundry list of problems here. But let's let's first dive into like if there is a criticism of the Big Ten here, to me, it's it's the schedule that you could wind up with in the Big Ten. Where if you're a contender, you may wind up with like one or two meaty games, and then the rest is very manageable, as manageable or more so than like the Texas Tech schedule that takes so much crap this year. Like I've pulled up Penn State here, okay? Penn State, first of all, the non-con is Marshall, Temple, and Buffalo. And then after that, Penn State plays Wisconsin. Let me rattle off this series of games, all right? Wisconsin at Northwestern, Purdue at Washington, Minnesota, Rutgers at Maryland. That's a huge chunk of Penn State's schedule. Then they they do have to go to Michigan and they host USC. But ladies and gentlemen, like, I don't, I mean, I think Kyle Whittingham is going to be pretty good at Michigan. Is it going to happen right away this year? Is Bryce Underwood ready to step in? Are they a national championship contender? No, I don't think they're in that tier in the Big Ten. You're missing Oregon, Ohio State, and Indiana on this schedule. So, like, yes, we can have a debate about the depth of the Big Ten. There is a point to be made here from Narduzia. I would have that conversation all day long. The games we can talk about here are like USC at home at Michigan and at Washington. But like, you know, I mean USC and Washington, I think, are fine. But I think, I mean, I think Texas Tech and BYU are certainly as good or better than USC and Washington. And then Michigan perhaps fits into that same conversation, also. So you can wind up with like a Big 12 schedule in the Big Ten. We're seeing it this year with Penn State. We can talk about the depth. But Pat, my brother in Christ. The Big Ten has won three straight national champions. They just had the first 16-0 team in college football history last year. That team is Indiana, by the way. Oregon still exists. Ohio State still exists. I know I was just ragging on Penn State's schedule, but Penn State does still exist. Michigan, like there are like five legitimate national championship caliber programs, certainly four of them, right now in this league. Narduzzi timestamped this thing by saying 2015. Okay, well, in 2015, that was a different story. If you wanted to say at that point, hey, the ACC's better, well, it the ACC was in a stretch of winning three titles in six years in 2015. They had the Florida State Jameis one and they had back, they had two titles from Dabo. So that's a much more defendable statement at that point in time. Even understanding that Miami made a great run to the national championship game last year. Also, just like Pat can't be the guy that makes that statement, man. He's two and six against current members of the Big Ten. He's two and six against current members of the Big Ten. That was pointed out by a wave of people on Twitter, as you might imagine. Uh they came after him, they had the pitchforks out. The ACC also, I think, has some depth issues of its own. Now, that would be more in the traditional, like brand power sense of what you think of the ACC, where it's like Clemson, Miami, Florida State, and then everybody else. I understand the last few years. I mean, Wake Forest popped up with nine wins last year. I think SMU is turning into a really salty program. Louisville is spending a bunch of money and uh trying to play at the big boys' table. There are a lot of interesting things happening in the ACC for sure. But the Big Ten could throw it right back and be like, you've got a couple of brands that are probably going to leave for one of our leagues at some point, and then not a lot else. And the kicker here, he mentioned the ACC's record in bull games and all that, which, you know, don't even give me stuff. I'm not even going to table stakes for this conversation is understanding that bull records just don't really matter. But the ACC is 27. And 40 against the Big Ten since Narduzzi was there. So it is technically a losing record. I'm here for fighting for your league. I'm here for not just laying down for the SEC and Big Ten. But I don't think it's productive if you've got the wrong messenger using the wrong timestamp, coming from the wrong league and the wrong program to be making valid points that are there because it distracts people from getting to the actual valid point. It keeps people from actually digging in and being like, oh, wait, no, there is a point here. And Pat Narduzzi just stepped up and said, you know what? Why don't you pull up our schedule and pull up Penn State's schedule? And let's compare notes on these two here. And let's see whose is actually much more difficult. Like, is this actually a conversation? If you want to do that to make your point about the Big Ten, I think that is great. Now, I'm not the PR guy for Pitt Football. I'm not the PR guy for Fernarduzi, unfortunately. I couldn't, I couldn't make that for him. The bottom line is this just this is also not the time. This is not the time. The Big Ten has earned it. Let the Big Ten bask in its glow. It has won three straight titles. It has prevented the SEC from even being in one of those championship games. Indiana, Ohio State, and Michigan, three different programs, have won titles. They have the greatest story, arguably, in college football history right now with the Hoosiers. And then Oregon is just sitting there too with Dan Lanning, who it seems like inevitably he's going to get a national championship at some point. The way he's going, the way he's recruiting. His program is still there, too. They were the number one seed in the playoff uh last year in 2024, right? And then yeah, you still have that Penn State, Michigan, USC tier. Like that they're good, Pat. They're really good. Okay. I'm not Miami is awesome. Florida State can certainly have some athletes. There is some quality depth building with like your SMU Louisville tier of the ACC, but the Big Ten's better. The Big Ten's better. The Big Ten's better. The Big Ten's better. Can we just can we say that and just and just leave it at that? I think that's all fair, right? We can agree on that. Now the latest thing the Big Ten is doing has to do with the future. Click here to find out why the Big Ten's demands suddenly have some Senate support. That's for everybody watching the clip version. Those of you that are hanging out here live, I appreciate you. We've got a couple more things to chat about here, including Clemson and Dabbo Sweeney. And who is going to be the next Clemson? Will it come from the Big 12 or the ACC? Oh, plus a tough one for Iowa State, and Texas Tech got a new stadium deal that is pretty trend setting across college football. Al, uh, as I mentioned, that is that is for the it will be in a clipped version of the video. This I'll give you a little peek at how the sausage is made here. Uh, just it's good YouTube best practices to have a video specifically that people can click at the end of it. So I will clip these out. It'll be a separate video, and then it will have the video actually there to click. So it's not there right now. Is Clemson done under Dabo Sweeney? I know everyone's asking that question. Who will be the next Clemson if Clemson is done? Because I think there are multiple possible answers in the Big 12 and ACC, and well, of course, one in the Big Ten that we do have to talk about. But ACC Media Days this week, Dabo's comments really had me as someone trying to be very objective here about Dabo, wondering if if this really is it. The Clemson Dynasty. I'm not talking about Clemson being a decent program, but Clemson being this dynastic thing, I just I don't see it right now with what I'm hearing from from Dabo. And I say this as somebody who we all take our shots. We all have jokes about Dabo. I respect immensely the job he's done. Like he is going to be a college football hall of fame coach. He's a two-time national champion. And he's also just um he's an enjoyable guy. Like he's a he's a fun, he's an entertaining guy. Content creators, college football fans, we should all really like and appreciate him because of some of the all-time quotes that he's had over the years. I mean, BYOG, bring your own guts. Like, Dabo's been a quote machine. He's also an incredible story. Like, you can't, you can't not respect Dabo's entire life story, right? Like, poor family, gets to college, walks on in Alabama. His mom at one point is like living in his college apartment because she was struggling financially. He has to go work in commercial real estate even after he had finally latched on to a coaching staff in the SEC, gets to Clemson, not even being a coordinator, and gets the head job. Nobody expects him to be able to do anything, and he turns into, again, a college football hall of fame level coach. All right. So you have to respect Dabbo Sweeney. You also have to understand that we're we're in 2026 right now. It's no longer 2016. And he still sounds to me like a guy who's not adapting enough to this era of college football to regain elite level footing. And that's why I wonder are there programs now that do totally get the era we're in and embrace what it takes to be at that elite level that can be the next Clemson, jump into a Clemson-like run. So I'm going to get to that. I think there are multiple answers in the Big 12 and ACC, even, not just the Big Ten, where there is one clear one there. I think the debate about how done Clemson is here seems to me to be about like how long a period of time you're listing as the decline of Clemson football, especially after listening to some of the points that Dabo was making. If you are really narrowing down to what the era is that we're in right now, which to me is basically like 23, 24, 25, and now the 26th season. That's when NIL could had completely exploded. The transfer portal had completely exploded. And things really truly were the environment that we are in now. And it gets crazier every year. But I think that to me is like the real line of demarcation. We had some NIL and some transfer portal before that, but it was not total Wild West until then. And if you do that, Clemson's basically an eight and four program. They're 26 and 14. So if you do, again, comms decree from a state school, but you do some math, you got basically an eight and four program. Now, if you broaden that out to five years or 10 years, which is what you're gonna hear Dabo do in just a moment, then yeah, things still look pretty good. But that I just that's apples to oranges. We can't be talking about that anymore. It's not a completely different sport that we're playing, but it's close in a lot of ways. It's close almost to talking about, yeah, hey, that's great. You won the basketball championship, but you're playing baseball now, right? Like this we're close to that with how wild and different this environment is right now. So I just listen, listen to this. Like, this was Dabo at the podium, and it just seems so much like he is still living in the past right now.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Three times this decade. You know, and we talk about all that we have, and even with seven wins last year, we still won the top 10 winning approaches in college football this decade. We're stepping wins. And we think we're second in championships this decade. George's first, we're second. Uh we're number one in graduate, we're number one in graduation, we're number one in graduation. These aren't these aren't like make-believe things. Football's not easy. It's hard. We've had here we've had 15 winning seasons in a row, and I think there's only 14 out of 138 that can say that.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

They're great numbers. I understand if you're the if you're the sports information director at Clemson, it is your job to put numbers and stats like that at the top of the media guide and the media notes, the header of the media notes. That I mean, that's what I would do. I would put wrap it around in a in a border around the big Clemson football logo, and it would say three conference championships in the last however many years it was for him, you know, X number of playoff appearances in the last decade, seventh winningest program in the last decade. That's what you would do. And that's your job, and you should promote it. And those are great accomplishments. It's not what I want my head coach saying. It's not what I want my head coach saying at the podium. Even if you wanted to tell me, hey, it's the PR efforts of the coach, and deep down he knows it's it's a different era and this doesn't really matter and all that. I still don't want that. I don't think it projects when the narrative is what it is on Clemson right now and the questions are what they are in Clemson. I don't I don't want that being projected. I can't imagine the fans would be happy with that. I don't know how Clemson fans, if you're here, let me know in the comments. I I can't imagine fans would be happy hearing that. And, you know, the other thing here is what is the narrative against Dabo? He doesn't use the transfer portal enough, which is uh a big part of this. I think he's I appreciate Dabo again because it feels like he is yearning for this to still be the like 2016 and and before college football. I would hit that button to turn back in a second if I could. I wish it was too, but that's not what's going to get you performing at an elite level these days, which is why, again, I think new Clemson's can emerge. We'll talk about that in just a moment. But Dabo has like a four, it's a fourth-year quarterback who couldn't beat out Cade Klubnick, red shirted a year, backed up Cade Klubnick for a couple of years, and didn't go to the transfer portal and seems pretty proud of it by letting the program guy play quarterback this year.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

Uh that you know we weren't gonna go and get some shiny, you know, object at quarterback. Well, we understand that. And and if it doesn't work out, we're gonna be just raked over the coals for that. Um but you know, you gotta make decisions that you believe in. And you know, we always do what we think at Clemson is best um for our team, for the long-term health of our team and organization, etc. And there's a reason why we had confidence in the decision that we made.

SPEAKER_02 32:45

Yeah, so then he goes on to the you know, because we're at practice, we're at practice every day. You know, I mean, just that's I the fan in me rolls my eyes hard at those comments, though I do understand what he's saying. But, you know, I mean, Chris Bizzini, great game against SMU. I understand when he he came on in relief to play. He was a consensus four-star recruit. But, you know, Kate Klubnick was a pretty maligned quarterback, never exactly setting the world on fire. You couldn't beat him out. Now there's talk of the freshman, true freshman quarterback they have coming in this year actually being in a QB competition at Clemson. I don't know, man. If I'm a if I'm a Clemson fan, I'd be like, dude, we're Clemson. We do have those playoff appearances and all the wins in the last decade. We we should have the clout to go out and get a great quarterback in the portal. Why didn't we do that? Why didn't we do that? These are all reasons. I just I feel like Clemson is not going to regain its footing as an elite program. I they could still be eight, nine wins good for sure. I don't think that to me, the dynasty part, that's done. So, can someone be the next Clemson? I'm gonna answer that for you. I've got four teams here, three of which are from the ACC and Big 12. Please do subscribe to the channel, by the way. Many of you watch, but don't subscribe. Helps a lot if you give me one click. So when we're talking about Clemson's run and who's gonna be the next Clemson, Clemson went 20 years without a 10-win season from 1990 to 2010. Then in the next 12 years, they had 10 plus wins every year. They went to two national championship games and won them. They went to four national title games total. They had six playoff appearances in nine years. So two Natties, four national title games, six playoff appearances, 10 plus wins every year in 12 years. That is a very high bar. I don't know that I'm expecting anybody to go on that type of run quite to that level, but can someone be in the ballpark? If there is someone who's gonna get to that level of ascension, well, you got to start the list with Indiana on who's, you know, potentially the next Clemson, right? I mean, they were not a middling program like Clemson was. They were a terrible program. And Kurt Signetti won 27. It is wild to type 27 wins over the last two seasons for Indiana, but that happened. They went 16-0 last year. He's a stone cold killer. They have the number one portal portal class. Like Indiana certainly appears to be here to stay. I was reading yesterday about Kurt Signetti having to turn down all sorts of coaches who wanted to come learn from him because there were just too many and you can't fill all those requests, right? Crazy world that we're living in where that's Indiana football. But here are, I don't think it's limited to just the Big Ten. Here are three other schools, and actually, I'll even give you four other Texas Tech. To me, the whole mindset is the big part of the problem for Clemson here. Is there any school in the country that understands the mindset of what you need to win at an elite level right now, like Texas Tech? You can argue about their execution, how brash they are, the ego, some of the tactics, any of those things. But they understand the mindset of what it takes right now. That is for damn sure. They've got a good coach, they've got them locked in long term, they've got all the financial backing you could ask for, and the synergy and commitment from everybody, understanding they got to do what it takes to win. I'll talk about it more later, but they just signed a big new stadium deal where they're gonna be making five mil a year off of that stadium naming rights. Tech is doing what it takes to win. And their history looks a lot like Clemson's leading up to this big line of demarcation. Texas Tech's resume in the 15 years prior to that is 6.2 wins per year. Clemson's in that period I just told you of 20 years, 6.5 wins per year. So they're like the same level of program that all of a sudden ascends. Now, in that era, it was Dabo doing what it took to win in that era. In this era, it's tech doing what it takes to win in this era. SMU, another Texas-based school with a lot of financial backing that seems to really understand what it takes to win these days. And that's as evidenced as anything by not taking the money from the ACC for as long as they won't just to get into the ACC and give themselves that opportunity. They understood it's now or never, do or die. These are schools like I really appreciate the attitudes that they have sensing the urgency of the moment. They are meeting the moment. 31 wins the last three seasons, one playoff appearance for SMU. You know, we could go into last year was a little disappointing. Three of the four losses were by a field goal. They did lose to a bad Baylor team, uh, an okay TCU team. Only the 25th ranked portal class. They're not recruiting up a storm, but it's competitive enough. And look, I think Kevin Jennings will give them a chance to be pretty good this year. The offense should be good. They're gonna have to outscore people. The defense, some real question marks there. But SMU, I would float out there. Another one from the ACC would be Louisville. Also seems to really understand what it takes in this era. If you watch basketball and football right now, man, like Louisville is spending. Louisville is spending. They're going out and getting some dudes. They have a head coach in Jeff Brahm who is very good, and they have him locked up. They've been flirting with the playoff with a really good run the last three years. They were capable of beating Miami last season and did. Like, I think there's some good things happening at Louisville. Now, we're talking about making a big jump to get to a Clemson level, right? BYU is another I would actually throw out there, too. Flirting with the playoff two years in a row, 23 wins the last two years. The question to me would be like, do they fully have the gumption to do what it takes to win at that type of level in this era? I the financial resources are there, but Kalani Sataki, if you watched his interview on my show from Big 12 Media Days, literally just said in a very candid moment everyone had kind of kicked their feet up when they made it into the Big 12, and he had to get them to get back to work and make sure that they were getting all the financial resources and otherwise that they needed to win. He had to get their attention with the Penn State offer to do that. So they've got the coach, they've got him locked up long term. Now they have more resources. They have been successful the last two years. They've got a young quarterback, too. Like a lot of things that could lead you in the direction of like, hey, maybe BYU ascends to making some type of run, at least in the ballpark of this. But I don't think it is going to be Clemson. I think all those programs absolutely have a chance to be better than Clemson over the next five years in this era. I would expect that a couple of them at least would be. Now, did any of those teams or programs, Clemson included, wind up on my top 10 college football programs as of right now? Click here to find out. That's for everybody watching the clip version. Those of you hanging out live, don't worry about it. You can come back and see that later if you would like. Hey, Kim, respect to you, my friend. Kim says, respect to you, brother. Respect to you. I appreciate you being here. I saw Kim at Big 12 Meaty Days. Great to see you, and I appreciate your kind words in person, my friend. If you want to be like Kim and contribute to the show, you can click the dollar sign below the chat box. Thank you to everybody who does that. John Dash Kurtz-4 on Venmo. If you're not here live and you have a question or comment, shoot it to me that way. I'll read it on the next show. You can still be a part of the conversation here. Thanks to everybody who is here. Having fun in the live chat. It looks lively as always. Can we can we take a second here to talk about a bit of a blunder? And this one hurts me. Iowa State fans, I know that you are more hurt. You're very upset about this, and I totally understand. I put yourself in Iowa State fans' shoes here, and you would be very upset about this. I do have to say though, I really like Post Malone. And uh unfortunately, he screwed up. So here's this. Well, I don't know if he thinks he screwed up. Uh, in the eyes of Iowa State fans, he certainly did. This is Post Malone wearing an Iowa shirt, apparently, well at Jack Tri Stadium. Post Malone was playing at Jack Tri Stadium and wore an Iowa shirt. That really a thing, apparently, that happened. That's tough, man. That's tough. Like I can imagine what the reaction of, for instance, K-State fans would be if that happened at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, someone showing up wearing a Kansas shirt. I don't know if Iowa State fans, if there is more backstory to this that I'm missing, did he do this on purpose? Was this like an accidental, like, oh, I'm in the state of Iowa, I think this will fly? I'd love to know the backstory on this. I'm not a big country music fan, but even Post Malone's country album had me a couple songs like, all right, you know, like I can get into this. And I love go back to the beer bongs and Bentley's era, Hollywood's bleeding era of Post Malone. Big fan. Big fan. So this is tough. I was sad to see that. We got to get somebody send him, somebody send him an Iowa State shirt. Somebody send him a Big 12 shirt. Somebody send him some monster energy. Can we get? I got my monster hat over there. I'm about I'm gonna give it to Zach, who hit me up. He is going to get that monster hat. Can we send Post Malone some monster gear at the very least and get him wearing that as we talk about monster Big 12 football? And he performs in a monster Big 12 football stadium. Somebody needs to make that happen. Uh, all right. Let's close out here by talking about um what's happened with the Texas Tech naming rights deal. And I think this has legitimate impact across college sports. Like, I don't I don't think this is just a Big 12 centric story. I think this is very interesting. So Texas Tech has they're ditching the Jones, right? It's not gonna be Jones ATT Stadium anymore. It will be rebranding to Galaxy Stadium starting this year. Galaxy Stadium, which the significance here is gonna be the finances and the type of company this is. But I just want to start by saying Galaxy Stadium sounds cool. That sounds cool. That's a cool sounding company to have be the sponsor of your stadium. Galaxy Stadium is nice. That is not sorry, Kansas City, but G-E-H A field at Arrowhead Stadium, whatever it is. Like G-E-H-A, I I still don't fully understand what it is years after it's done this name, right? You know, it's kind of bland and boring, right? Like that's not a that's not a fun one. Um, you know, this is not like what it with Camerica was that just trying to think of all these stadium sponsors in my head. What many of them are boring? That's not boring. Galaxy Stadium's cool. Tell your kid you're going to Galaxy Stadium, you're gonna have a gang of Texas Tech young children fans because they're gonna be like, yeah, I want to go to Galaxy Stadium. I like that. A lot of money. 15 years, $75 million. So it's gonna be about $5 million per uh per season. There's also a lot of It sounds like this is a like kind of multi-layered deal, like economic development piece of this that is happening, uh, with some partnerships between the company and the schools. And you're saying, well, John, well, tell me about the company then. Well, this is one of the interesting things. The Big 12 has seen two big deals. Kansas got the Jersey Patch deal, which is 30 million for five years, about six million annually for all their jerseys. And it's with XRP, which is a crypto company. Uh, Galaxy, it's a tech company that was originally known for crypto, but now focused on data centers and digital infrastructure. So these are, I'm not here to have a discussion about crypto or data centers. Like I don't want to do that. The point that I would make here is one, I appreciate that these athletic departments are willing to do what it takes to get top dollar for their assets. I also recognize that when you're in the Big 12, you may be, you may have to go a little further on the fringes of some of these companies in order to get that type of return on your investment, that type of money. And look, I'm all I understand the position these schools are in. Like I said, I respect the aggressiveness and the hustle of these athletic departments. What did I just say? Sensing the moment, meeting the moment. They're doing that. It just may be companies that not all of the fans are like overly thrilled with. Some people probably have some issues with the data centers or the crypto. Once again, not having that debate. But when you're in the Big 12's shoes, you you have to do some things like that. Whereas if you are an SEC or a Big Ten, you can probably go for more of like a uh like a blue blood, right? You could probably go with more of like a blue blood kind of company. And I mean, the money's gonna be bigger anyway, just because of what your your value or your asset is, at least for most or some of the SEC and Big Ten schools. So I do want to draw your attention to that. Like this is we've been talking about this on this channel for five years now. If you're the Big 12, you gotta play some games on different nights of the week. You might have to embrace more of the, I remember the conversation very early on was like maybe you embrace more of the gambling sports books. That feels like now it's just everywhere. But you may have to do some things that are not conventional because you need to. You need to close the gap as much as you can, or just keep up as much as you can with things like that. And I think you're seeing that both here from Texas Tech and Kansas. And I would file both of those schools under the umbrella of schools that get it right now and are meeting the moment. Kansas pulled the $300 million donation out of David Booth. I think Travis Goff totally gets it, has the urgency. He's got that football stadium built. He made all of that happen. They got the massive donation from David Booth. Like he is pressing the pedal to the floor. Now he's done this jersey deal. I mean, Texas Tech, I don't need to tell you. Like they they understand as well as anybody. I think in college athletics right now, what you got to do to win in this era, and they are they are totally, totally doing it. I think Utah's in that group. I think BYU now starting to hit that group. I'm trying to think, I feel like I'm missing somebody else in Big 12. I mean, Houston is definitely recruiting, like they are stepping their financial game up. Oklahoma State, you know what I mean? I think like Oklahoma State, West Virginia, they have made big commitments financially in terms of what they're doing. So they're probably on the fringe of that discussion as well. Need the entire league to be there. And I know that's that's going back to some things that Cody Campbell talked about not that long ago. Let's uh let's talk to TMGL. TM Gell says, thrilled about the $75 million to tech, but makes me worried about the monster deal. Uh one mil per school. All right, TM Gel. You must not have watched the show the other day. TM Gell says one mil per school for all 16 teams, jerseys, and fields. Texas Tech got five a year. Well, first of all, lots of apples to oranges happening here. TMGL. But I did break this down on it was both, right? My show and 365 sports. First of all, we're talking about a stadium versus the jerseys. I don't know what the I don't know what the differences are there in terms of the value prop. But once again, I feel like I will, I will scream this. I think it's I understand why you guys do this. I'm not trying to like talk down to you or call you stupid. I I'm just saying there is a big difference between selling one school. The value that a jersey patch has for one school to local businesses, the direct ROI on that is a much different value proposition than, hey, here's 16 random schools scattered across the country. There's not like a direct link there. Like if you are the casino and resort that, or maybe it was just a hotel, I apologize, but no, it's a casino and resort because it was like a Native American tie-in that Oklahoma State has on its jersey patch, and you're you're a casino and resort in Tulsa, yeah, it's it's worth way more to you to be on Oklahoma State's jersey than it is to like throw out, hey, 16 random teams. Like you can draw that line way easier, and it's a much different it is apples to oranges doing that versus hey, here's just like 16 random teams, and you're kind of doing this for like some broad-based brand awareness. Like you'll get conversions out of being the casino and resort that's on the Oklahoma State jersey. Plus, the other aspect of it is the schools that are getting high numbers, like the Kansas numbers really high for XRP. Guess what? Guess who owns XRP? It's a donor. So there's a different value prop for a donor that's gonna be like, hey, it's cool to have my logo on the Hawks jersey. Like, that's a that's something that doesn't exist for Monster. There's no like sentimental tie there. So that changes the value of what you're selling there. It's just it's a totally different thing. And you don't have to take my word for it. Matt Brown, who's one of the best like Capital J journos out there doing it in college sports, he wrote a great piece about it. I retweeted it, but Matt Brown at extra points. Um, and then Jack from Snapback Sports, the CEO of Snapback Sports, had a really good thread about it on Twitter. And he says that as somebody who has been negotiating to try to get his logo on Jersey patches. He has talked with multiple schools about doing that. And he was also like, hey, people are rushing way too quickly to blast this deal. This is not, you gotta chill out for a second. So that would be my message there. Chill out, don't do the apples to oranges thing. Let it play out. Let's see. I don't, we haven't seen what a another conference can get for it. We don't know what the market is like there. It is a different ball game than it is the individual jersey patches for the schools. That would be my message there uh to you, TMGL. Okay, uh old Texas Tech Man 9144. All right, so I guess that this is him. I did talk a little bit about the Cody Campbell story that broke on the last show, which was that he paid it's like $274,300 to Ken Paxton the day before Ken Paxton then issued his public threat to the Big 12, which ironically wound up ending Brendan Sorsby's Texas Tech career, more or less. Uh, so old Texas Tech Man, first of all, I appreciate the support of the channel. Uh says John Cody Campbell paid $274,000 to Ken Paxton's Republican campaign. Uh Governor Abbott, Republican campaign, $925,000. Dan Patrick, Republican campaign, $575,000. Is that Street Cratic? This is a problem. I don't follow politics enough, guys. I'm sorry. Republican campaign, $325,000. Chiprop, $280,000. I think old Texas Tech Man, correct me if I'm wrong. I believe the point that you're making here is that he has donated to a number of campaigns. Yes, I would understand that. It I didn't if you watched that segment, and I would imagine that you probably have if you're responding to this. I was not here. Look, I'm not, I just don't care enough to like bring a pitchfork and be like there's a bribe and we gotta do something about it. I'm I'm I don't I look at politics right now in the country. I'm like, I don't want to. That's that's a shrug for me based on where we're at right now, seemingly, with politics in the country. So I I'm not here trying to bring out the pitchfork. Having said all of that, yes, I understand he donates to lots of people. It was his largest donation ever to Paxton, according to the reporting. And look, man, I mean, it did come the day before Paxton issued that threat to the Big 12. Like it it's it's a little sketchy. It's a little sketchy. I'm not trying to bring the pitchfork at anybody, but yeah, man, it's it's it's a little sketchy, regardless of how much he's donated to other campaigns. I maybe that's more like Ken Paxton, your price is too low. I don't I don't know. Um you can't you can't totally run away from that. And look, I I appreciate the sentiment. I appreciate you being here, but you can't you can't totally run in high from that. Yeah, also this, I I do agree with TM Jell here. And once again, old Texas Tech Man, like I appreciate your support of the channel. I'm I don't I don't really have much interest. That's another piece of it. I don't have a lot of interest in still going down Brendan Sores. I am Brendan Soresbeat out. I hope the next time I hear Brendan Soresby is him throwing a touchdown pass in the NFL. And I, you know, I hope that's about what would that be? 14 months away, 15 months away. I would hope that it's like 15 months away that I don't hear Brendan Soresby's name again until then. And it's nothing against him personally, but that story just it's it's run its course for me for sure. Okay, uh thank you all. I appreciate you being here. Please do like and subscribe if you haven't yet on your way out the door. Those of you who are listening on audio platforms, you're the real MVPs because the numbers are growing and growing there. Leave me a review if you rate the podcast on wherever it is that you're listening to it. That is very helpful. And just spread the word. You know, word of mouth works. Social media is great. Continue to spread the word about the show. Uh, all right, everybody, thank you for being here tonight. I hope you have a wonderful start to your week. It's gonna be a busy couple of weeks for me. I will be out of town for parts of each of the next two weeks. I'm gonna continue to give you content. It just you may need to be on your toes a bit more for the live shows and when things are gonna be happening. Uh, because I have I have a lot going on. It's July, it's the travel month uh for everybody across the country, right? Uh so I'll be in touch. Make sure you stay tuned in on the channel. You can follow me on Twitter at JL Kurds to get um to get full updates there as well. So take care. I will talk to y'all soon.