College Football Has Already Written Off the Big 12 and ACC

College football’s preseason narratives are already taking shape, and the Big 12 and ACC may be starting the season at a major disadvantage.

In this livestream, John Kurtz breaks down what the preseason Coaches Poll says about the national perception of the Big 12 and ACC, why Texas Tech, BYU, Utah, Houston, Miami and SMU are already being placed into very specific boxes, and the one thing these conferences must do to finally change the conversation: win College Football Playoff games.

We also dive into the latest developments surrounding the Protect College Sports Act, including the proposed revenue-sharing cap, NIL verification rules, transfer restrictions, conference realignment provisions and the uncertain timeline for a Senate vote.

Plus, USC has reportedly backed out of a future series with Texas Tech, joining Alabama and LSU as major programs dropping scheduled games against Big 12 opponents. What does that mean for the conference’s scheduling problem, playoff access and national reputation?

Later in the show, we get into college football tailgating traditions and discuss the mentality every non-blue blood program should embrace after strong comments from Utah assistant coach Sharrieff Shah. Could Utah, Texas Tech, BYU, SMU or Louisville become the next program to make an unexpected national championship run?

Topics include:

Big 12 and ACC preseason narratives
College football Coaches Poll reaction
Texas Tech and BYU playoff chances
Miami and SMU expectations
Protect College Sports Act update
College football revenue sharing and NIL rules
USC dropping its Texas Tech series
Alabama and LSU canceling Big 12 games
Big 12 nonconference scheduling problems
College football tailgating traditions
Utah football and Sharrieff Shah
Potential surprise College Football Playoff contenders

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#CollegeFootball #Big12 #ACC #TexasTech #BYUFootball #UtahFootball #CollegeFootballPlayoff #CFB

Transcript

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Some real life football to talk about, ladies and gentlemen. The coach's poll is out. And we know that these polls, coaches and AP, serve to do one thing and one thing only, and that is set narratives. So we're going to set narratives today. Or at least see what the narratives are that were set. Of course, it's a day that ends in Y in the summer of 2026. So we have a Senate bill update. It's not looking good if you're somebody that wants this to pass, which I think if you are anybody outside of the top 10 to 15 brands in the sport, you certainly do. That's unfortunate for most of the fans watching this video. I'll tell you about it. Plus, uh another big time non-conference matchup goes by the wayside. Also very unfortunate. Texas Tech on the receiving end this time. And we'll wax poetic and nostalgic about the beauty of college football at the end of the show today. Welcome in. It is open for business. I am your host, John Kurtz. Thank you for joining me tonight. As you file in, like and subscribe. That is very helpful. Fongwe, thank you for being here early ahead of the pack, my friend. Going to start changing things up a bit. So I want to give you a heads up on this front. You can leave a super chat by clicking the dollar sign below the chat box as always. But I am going to try and save most of those toward the end of the show, unless it is directly talking about the segment that is going on right now. Structural change, I think it will help the flow of the show. And certainly understand if that bums you out and you don't want to leave them anymore, that is okay. You do you. If you want to support the channel, you're totally free to do that. You can also do so on Venmo at John-Kurtz-4. Thank you, everybody. All right. The coaches poll is out. And the coach's poll is here to do one thing and one thing only. That is set narratives. Of course, this is the same with the AP poll. And it's a longtime gripe of many for even having these things at the beginning of the year, because the narratives are already set in stone for every Power 4 conference after what we have seen here. Big Ten and the SEC, it is less consequential. Of course, it's not great news for the Big 12 and the ACC, particularly the Big 12. And there is only one solution, my friends. But before we get to the solution, let's look at this. All right. The uh top 25, thank you to on three for always creating the best looking graphics with the top 25. Uh, that I think is pretty hard to deny. You can see the top five there seems like a pretty uh agreed upon consensus that that is the top five in the country in some order. I've seen some people really high on Oregon as a national champion this year. Notre Dame has been picked as a national champion this year by Josh Pate. Saw that the other day. Uh, Texas, Georgia, Indiana obviously is the defending national champion. Probably the cutoff comes at Miami. Miami, I would say, is where most people would cut off like through legitimate national championship contenders at the top of the poll there. Six different teams got first place votes. That stops at uh Indiana. So that also shows how wide open this is at the top of the sport, much different than it used to be, where you'd have one or two teams every single year seemingly getting first place votes in these coaches and AP polls. There are some funny things here. All right, before we can attack the specific conferences, if you are somebody that says, wait, hold up, Clemson? What is Clemson doing there at 23? You are not alone. You are not alone. In fact, this has brought out the conspiracy theorists who honestly justifiably say this feels like big SEC at work. This feels like sticking the SEC with another ranked win to start the season because who does Clemson play week one? Clemson plays LSU. So now that can be a ranked win held up all season for Lane Kiffin and LSU when they're trying to get in the playoff at 9-3, which seems like a very plausible scenario that could absolutely play out. Uh Clemson, seven-win team last year. They lost nine draft picks. Their quarterback is a program guy who's been there for like four years and couldn't beat out Cade Klubnick. I'm scratching my head at it too, but maybe Dabo's got uh a rabbit he's gonna pull out of the hat. Also, throwing Mizzou in at 25, that feels once again like some SEC magic here. Mizzou always feels like they get just sprinkled in at the back end of the top 25. They'll beat a name opponent like a Florida or something that looks more impressive when it happens or in name than it actually is, and they'll just barely hang around the back end of the top 25. Yes, I know I will take some heat for that being a Big 12 guy, but I think everybody knows that about Mizzou. Okay, that's Mizou's role here. Just like I'll take a shot at myself. The Big 12 serves the role of having a couple teams sprinkled in between like 18 and 25 in every single poll. And that's no different here. You see Houston at 24, Utah at 21. BYU's at 15, Texas Tech is at 12. We're going in reverse order there. So the Big 12 has number 12, number 15, 21, and 24. The ACC has number 7 Miami, number 20 SMU, number 23 Clemson. Worth mentioning Louisville, who I'm very high on this year, is at 26. They were just outside of the top 25. And that back to the Mizzou thing. Like, come on, man. I think Louisville deserves that spot more. I think Louisville's going to be a better team. Give it to the ACC there. We are living in a power to world, my friends. So what are the narratives, John? You told me that there are narratives and only one solution to all this. Well, for the for the ACC, as much crap as the Big 12 takes for right now, it's like BYU, Texas Tech, and everybody else. I mean, right now, the ACC, it's it's essentially the same thing, except really just with Miami. Maybe if you wanted to float SMU there and say Miami and SMU are basically tech and BYU. But it's really just Miami holding up there at number seven, played for the national championship last year. So it's fair to say like I can understand why they would be a national championship contender here. Um but Miami just outside that top six. Fringe national championship contender. Meanwhile, Texas Tech, Texas Tech just outside the top 10. All right. So they're very similar. They're holding up the top of the league. Rest of the league is pretty blah to everybody else. And this is really, this is a problem that the ACC has, man. They've got the brand power, they've got Miami who just played for a national title last year. But I tell you what, outside of that, the ACC's got a lot of work to do. The problem is, if you're a Big 12 fan, that does a lot of heavy lifting for the ACC, is having a team that can win playoff games and has proven that it can play for a national championship in this 12-team playoff era. Understood that TCU played for a national championship. What does it mean for the Big 12? Well, it's worse news because, hey, at least if you're the ACC here, you have that power at the top, and the Big 12 with Texas Tech doesn't quite get there. If Brendan Soresby had not gambled a bazillion times as a freshman in Indiana, this would probably be different. I bet Texas Tech would be right next to Miami, something very close to that. Uh, I bet, I bet, I bet that would be the case. See what I did there. Unfortunately, that's not what is going to happen because of Brendan Soresby. There's not enough love in my boy Will Hammond. And so Texas Tech doesn't get that same love. And now, if you're the Big 12, you're you're staring down the barrel of the exact same narrative that you had last year and the year before, and that will continue to follow you until you do one single thing. Speaking of one single thing, please do subscribe to the channel. Really helps uh those of you that watch but don't subscribe. It is really big for me if you can give me that one click and subscribe to the channel. Thank you. Uh, for the Big 12, it's just a sign that, like, hey, we think you're the same league that you've been. We think that you're the same league that you've been uh each of the last two years. Not good enough to win playoff games. Texas Tech, just outside the realm of what you would expect teams that they think could win playoff games will be ranked at. BYU, by the way, at 15, it's basically like just throwing them in the same spot they've been the last two years. Which, don't get me wrong, like that's a good thing for BYU to start there. They're gonna play Notre Dame. They will have ample opportunity to work their way into at-large consideration if they beat Notre Dame. Starting at 15 and having the fighting Irish on their schedule, that's enough for that. But you got to go win the game. And I do feel like the message here almost becomes it's it's just like, hey, we know what you guys did last year and the year before, and we think you're gonna do about the same thing again, and we don't want you in our party. And that's what the Big 12 is going to have to fight. The rest of it, it's like, yeah, okay, Utah fine. Uh, remember what happened with Utah at 15 early on in the the playoff rankings last year, and then just hovering there. It was like, hey, we'll tease you a little bit. You're not actually gonna get in, though. You're not actually gonna get in. Utah being in the top 15 early on in the playoff rankings did not matter at all. We're gonna sprinkle you and Houston at the back end. Now, if it were me, I you guys know I would have Houston ahead of Utah, but I have no real issues with both of those being between 20 and 25. The only thing that's gonna change this for the Big 12 is just winning playoff games. That's it. That's all it takes. This will continue to be your lot in life if you are the Big 12, unless you win college football playoff games. There's just nothing else to it. Um, because if you don't, everybody will continue to be ranked between 12 and 25. It'll be in some order, could be three teams, could be five five teams, could even be like six teams. We've seen that at times where they really go crazy at the back end of the top 25, but you're just not gonna crack that like top seven, eight, nine, if you continue to get wiped out in playoff games, like what happened last year with Texas Tech. No, I know Arizona State did not, but I gotta be honest, like it's hard for me to really dispute this too much, especially with the Brendan Soresby thing and tech having its quarterback situation shaking up in the air. And I know, again, I am the will, the Will Hammond guy, but it's fair to say they've got question marks there, in part because of his injury, not even just because of his ability, but his injury. So I don't know. That this seems about right to me. I can't argue too much with the top five. I can quibble at the back end with a Missouri or a Clemson. I can be frustrated as a as a Big 12 guy that the Big 12 is not in a better position here, but I also have to understand that the reality is I think that's pretty reasonable, and you have to understand where people are coming from with that. The league, this is where I go back to Cody Campbell's statement. Like, we're we're not as Texas Tech upset with the Big 12. We just want everybody else to like get on our level. We want everybody else to move forward, stop complaining about our money and try and get better. And this is this is an example of that. The league has to get better, or it will not get more respect in polls like this. Uh, thank you for being here, everybody. I've got a couple more topics for you here today. Uh, get you back to your outline. Thank you, everybody who's in the chat. Make the chat lively. If you submit a super chat by clicking the dollar sign below the chat box, I will get to it at the end of the show. The Protect College Sports Act is teetering. Still alive, but teetering. It is not looking good right now, folks. And frankly, uh at this point, I don't know exactly what I'm rooting for. Which seems crazy, okay, as somebody who has been a pretty big proponent of this. Let me explain, though. First of all, I don't I don't understand how Ross Dellinger does this. Day in, day out, he is like grinding away with the politics of this. And I don't even mean just like, yeah, there are politics in college sports. This is the literal politics. I'm like reading his nitty-gritty on this bill today, and it's about all these different like Senate procedural things that just seem I'm like, I this seems so old-fashioned, old-timey, and boring. I have no appetite for it. But Ross has to because he has to keep us all informed right now. So he continues to report day in and day out. If you need the quick refresher, here's what we're waiting on a vote for with the Protect College Sports Act. Like what would happen here? Antitrust protection for a one-time transfer rule, five years to play five eligibility, no professional athletes returning to college, an agent registry and a 5% max fee. But really, what you care about here, players would only be able to transfer once penalty-free. They'd have five years to play five. The revenue sharing cap would go from 21 million to 48 million, and there would be a strict verification process for outside NIL deals. The conference size would also be limited to 19, and any team moving from power league to power league would have to be an independent for five years, which is crazy and very significant. And if you are a fan outside of the SEC or Big Ten, that is certainly the most important piece of this. Before I get to the latest update by Ross, I do have to point out, like, Andy Staples did a good job of pushing Eric Schmidt, who is one of the senators that's on this bill, who was he was pushing him on, like, hey, why wouldn't people just cheat anyway? Why wouldn't people just blow through the cap and cheat anyway? It's college sports. Like, that's going to happen. And I I will admit, like, while I support this, people who have been out there for a long time saying, hey, these guys actually don't like really know what they don't understand college sports well enough to to fully get this and make a completely comprehensive bill. I think in in that instance, it's a fair criticism. Like, people will try to cheat. I I hope that their system that they've set up here will be enough to handle it. I don't know if it will, because college sports is pretty good at cheating. Has always been and always will be. There was also Matt Brown brought up a good point from extra points. Um, Matt Brown said, hey, if you got to wait five years to go from a power league to a power league, what if we ever get to the point where the Big Ten or the SEC start kicking teams out? If that were to happen, does that school then have to wait five years? If Northwestern gets kicked out of the Big Ten, do they have to wait five years to go to another conference and they have to be independent? Another unintended consequence, potentially not thought about. Though I know those of you in SEC and Big Ten countries say that would never, ever, ever, ever happen. Just like many of you said, the Pac-12 would never, ever, ever implode, never, ever blow up. Uh, here's the latest. Ross Dellinger wrote earlier today. Now, this is like this morning, okay? So more has happened since. But this morning, Ross Dellinger wrote the Protect College Sports Act isn't dead, far from it, but it remains in a murky place as senators sift through a traffic jam of items in their last full week before a five-week recess. If the act isn't voted on before the Senate breaks for recess on Friday, there uh the then time has a chance to kill another deal. So his whole story was about how time can kill deals here. If you give it too much time, you don't get it out on the floor and vote it on, it can die. He's saying, once again, reinforcing that idea. If it doesn't happen Friday or Saturday, there is some buzz according to him that it they might stay until Saturday. Uh many believe the votes are there not only for the necessary 60, but as many as 70 and beyond. So they think they could really push this through strongly, but they may not actually get there. And this is where I had to learn all these crazy details about how it works. So, because of procedural steps, typically they'd like bring it for cloture, and then there's like another 24 hours you have to wait, and then another step, and then another 24 hours, and it would be like next week before you could actually vote on this thing because of like ancient stuff that's going on in the Senate. Instead, they can because of a quote unquote time agreement. Apparently, that's like a name of a thing, a time agreement, you can speed that up. But that you have to have unanimous approval to do that if you're saying, hey, for time reasons, we need to get this voted on, but one dissenter can ruin it. And so you've had a bunch of dissenters here. Not everybody is on board, even with the SEC and Big Ten there. So then Ross was explaining it could still get to the vote because people are bartering on, you know, hey, you vote for this bill and I'll vote for your college sports thing. So there's like that happening. I mean, this is when I say like it's a mess. This is for sure a mess. And why it would have been nice to have the SEC and Big Ten on board sooner, so more of this could have happened earlier. There would be less of a time crunch and less pressure, but here we are. And then things like today, the uh is it the Congressional Black Caucus? I forget the specific name there. I'm sorry. They came out against it, and that was the same group that killed the score act the day that it was supposed to be voted on in the House once upon a time. So it's just like there, there's a lot working against this right now. The White House can't put out a statement earlier today that said they're in full throat support of this, which the White House has been this whole time, but uh, it seems like that's not likely to be enough to get this over the finish line. And when I say I can't even decide what exactly I'm rooting for anymore, I'm just like pretty exhausted by this all. It's because it's just like, you know, you've got to wait for these updates day by day, and we're getting closer and closer to the season. I saw somebody in the chat say, like, college football so close, like I'm shaking, I'm excited. That's where I'm at. Like, I'm just tired of talking about it. And I know I'm the guy that talks about it all the time because it's been the big thing that's going on in college sports, and it has crazy ramifications. And sometimes we're bad at humans, I think, at judging like what's truly important in the moment, what we should be working on, for instance, that's going to net the most results. It's easier to work on something less important. So this will be much more consequential and much more important, but I would rather be thinking about the coaches poll, the top 25, and what narratives are being set for the leagues right now. That's just where I'm at at this point on August 6th. And having to read about all the different political elements of this is another part of it that gets exhausting. Just things that I don't know. It's not my world, I'm not familiar with it. And so, yes, I want the bill to pass. I think first and foremost, for everybody's sake, to get the ability to enforce a one-time transfer rule, that would go a long way toward restoring some sanity in the scene. Combined with if you do have the retention pool money and if people are gonna cheat or not, there's uh a much higher cap, and you have retention money, and guys can only transfer once penalty free. You'll have the opportunity to actually get to know players better, not have them leave every single year. It won't be so much of a total free-for-all. And I I just think you're gonna be in a that will help keep some of the fan frustration at bay, which is just natural. When every year you don't know if these guys are gonna be gone or not. When the ball's tipped, when it's snapped, when it's kicked off, whatever the sport is, it's very easy to still get into rooting for your team at that point. But there was so much more to it before that where you get attached to players. I think that would go a long way for everybody. For that reason, I definitely want it to pass. Obviously, I would rather not see the Big Ten and SEC runoff and create some sort of super league together or become the AFC and the NFC. And so capping conferences at 19 teams, I would be in favor of that. Understand that it's very controversial. Many people do not like that. These are all things that I I still would support with this bill. Not perfect, not as good as it was at the beginning. It's gone through a ton of different iterations and changes. I'm still in favor of it. But when I but am I like vehemently sitting here rooting for it, even if my brain logically knows I should be rooting for that way more than I am like thinking about the season and games coming up just because of how consequential this will be. I'd be lying if I said I had as much gusto in me about that as I do the season that's coming up. So I'm sure many of you are with me, and I'm sure many of you just want me to shut up and stop talking about it. Uh, it probably needs to get voted on within the next 48 hours. So we'll see. I mean, the next time I talk to you on Sunday, we should have a pretty good idea of whether or not a Hail Mary really hit with this or if it's just gonna go the same way, the score act. Honestly, that that's the I guess that is the other thing. If they don't vote on it, we will still have that out there, like kind of like, ah, well, it's still sort of a possibility. Then we'll still have to be sitting around waiting for it and wondering if it's gonna happen over the month-long recess, too. At least by then, like, games will have started, it'll be much more in the background. But that that will still be like hanging over. Whereas if it just got voted on, then we'd have a little more idea, like, okay, here's what's coming up next. Anyway, either way, you're gonna be hearing about it for a little while longer. Uh, thank you, those of you who are here. Thank you to everybody for hanging out in the chats. We've got a couple other things to talk about, a bit of a shorter show tonight. I guess we'll see. We'll see how long this goes. But from earlier this week, a story that was very easy to miss. I've been getting so frustrated with what's happening with college football and non conference games. And I know that many would tell me from the SEC, well, you made us made us, but there's been pressure on us forever to go to nine conference games. Now that's why we're starting to drop a lot of games. This is not about the SEC today specifically, but that has been something. Of my frustration with them dropping non-con games because of a nine-game SEC schedule. And the Big Ten would say, well, give us our 2014 playoff, and you'll have lots of great non-conference games because teams will feel like they have plenty of runway to lose non-con games and still make the college football playoff. Look, Alabama, LSU, and USC, they have now all bailed on Big 12 non-conference series. So this is yet another big boy. Yet another big boy bailing on playing a Big 12 non-con series. And it's just further reinforcing the conundrum that the Big 12 faces. Some schools in the ACC to a lesser extent, but having the partnership with Notre Dame helps. Nobody will play the Big 12. And then the Big 12 takes heat for weak schedules. And it is a vicious cycle that the league is in right now. So recently I talked about this in light of what happened with a couple of those SEC teams. LSU dropped Arizona State. Alabama dropped Oklahoma State. And I know many of you SEC fans in the comments, like I saw it. People pointed out hey, LSU has SMU in 2029, which was one of the two games that was going to be played against Arizona State. Alabama has Ohio State and Notre Dame, the same years as those games were scheduled against Oklahoma State. So when you go to a nine-game conference schedule, then you're not going to want to play two of those games. We are in the same world where Kurt Signetti, who's at the top of the mountain, throwing shade at everybody, just when he got asked about his schedule recently, was like, look, we're going to do the best thing we can for us. And as a K-State guy, it hits home because Bill Snyder used to take crap for that back when he was winning 11 games every single year, rolling out three rummies in the non-con schedule, and was like, look, it's better for us. We get to play more, play more players, get deeper into our depth chart, get them reps, and we don't risk losing. Like it's smart business. So I understand that element of it. But regardless of whether or not you say, hey, they have other more important games, they're now going to a nine-game conference schedule. There's a very valid reason for them to drop these. It does again reinforce this cycle for the Big 12. That is the Big 12's reality, whether or not you want to say there are justified reasons for it happening. The latest victim is Texas Tech. And this one is particularly interesting because of what Texas Tech has been dealing with all offseason. Remember Steve Sarkeesian? Steve Sarkeesian came out and took a shot at Texas Tech's schedule. Very shortly after that. We got reports out there. I want to say Matt Zenitz was one of the first to have it, that USC and Texas Tech were talking. Well, now, as of earlier this week, you see the Brett McMurphy tweet there. USC has withdrawn from a potential series with Texas Tech to play in Houston and Las Vegas in 2027 to 28. The neutral site games would have pitted Lincoln Riley against his alma mater. Discussions between the schools were ongoing for the past six months, but ended this week. So there you go. I mean, Tech's been taking a bunch of heat for its schedule, but for six months, they've been working on this, trying to get games done with USC. It didn't happen, and it's not Texas Tech's fault. And this doesn't, by the way, I initially I saw this and was like, oh, wait, okay, hold up. So that's connected to Notre Dame, right? No. Different years, right? The Notre Dame series doesn't start until 2030. It's just, this is a huge bummer. And I'll get to the vicious cycle that the Big 12's in. But even beyond that, one, college football needs more good non-conference games. And it doesn't just need to be the Big Ten playing the SEC. Get everybody involved here. Texas Tech is at the top of the Big 12. They are making waves across the sport. All publicity is good publicity, right? Red Raiders. They're making waves across the sport. Get them out there playing big brands. This would be great. College football fans win if this series gets played. Tech is becoming a bigger and bigger program. Like they need games and need moments like this. This is a part of your growth and development as a program. Be a very good thing for the Red Raiders to have a game like this. Again, the narrative is already out there about Texas Tech and its schedule. And it's like, all right, well, tech tried to fix this. Like you're telling, oh, Texas Tech, you need to lose weight. You need to lose weight. Tech's like, all right, fine. I got a treadmill. I'm getting on it. And then like the treadmill breaks, or you take it away. I guess the more apt comparison would be here. You come in the middle of the night and steal it and take it away. Then you turn back around the next day because Lord knows when the season starts, people will be like, well, tech schedule, tech schedule, tech schedule. Well, dude, we're trying. Like, we're trying. We're trying. But you're bailing on us. Big 12 teams play crappy schedules. There's not enough. The SEC will go complain behind closed doors about BYU and Texas Tech to the selection committee. Well, they're trying to get games. Now, BYU, to its credit, tried to get a game and got a game with Notre Dame. Two of them, in fact. And we'll see if that series does continue, like Brian Santiago told me he thought it would. The other thing for Texas Tech is that if you are getting a series like this, it's one thing to play Notre Dame. Playing Notre Dame is going to be really difficult. They have the look of a legitimate bona fide top five team this year. Marcus Freeman seems like the real deal in a complete stud. Lincoln Riley, on the other hand, maybe like we'll see. At one point, I certainly thought he was, but at USC, like USC Lincoln Riley, he has not been that guy. And I know everyone's talking themselves into USC again this year. For me, it goes back to George Bush. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. That's actually how the saying goes. What did he say? Fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me, can't get fooled again. I'm not taking the bait on USC again. And so for Texas Tech, it's like this is a game where you get brand value out of USC. That's still going to stay there, but they should be much more beatable than Notre Dame. This was a great, honestly, great work by Kirby Ho Cut and Company. If you're going to schedule somebody when you're taking heat for not having enough meat on the bone on the schedule, USC is perfect. You get brand value, people talking them into them every year, staying in the top 25 because of what has been accomplished over like 150 years of football history at USC and not what they are right then. Beautiful, but now it's falling apart. And the biggest bummer of it all is just that it perpetuates this vicious cycle that the Big 12 is stuck in. It starts with the Big 12 getting crap for not playing a strong enough schedule. Then the Big 12 gets left out of the at-large of the college football playoff. Then the SEC spends the offseason lobbying for even less Big 12 representation somehow, which they did this year, complaining about BYU and tech behind the scenes in that meeting with the playoff committee. Then you hit the off-season, Alabama and LSU drop Oklahoma State and Arizona State. Texas Tech says, hey, we're going to try. We try to get USC scheduled. USC drops Texas Tech. Then the Big 12 gets crap for not playing a strong enough schedule, and we just start the whole cycle over again. That's where we're at. Like, that's say what you will. If you are a Big 12 hater, that's fine. You can say nobody wants to play you. You can say sucks to suck. You can say, hey, there were legitimate reasons for the SEC teams to drop those games. None of it changes the ultimate reality here. You're just getting frozen out. If you don't have opportunities to play these teams in the non-con, there's only one thing you can do, and that is win playoff games. I mean, we're back to the kind of the theme of the day here. You just have to win playoff games to start to garner any kind of respect. But it is much more difficult when you're only getting one bite at the apple every year, and things like this reinforce that you're only going to get one bite at the apple. Right? So it's it's partially the Big 12's fault. You can't go get whacked and not score against Oregon. But it's also helpful to have multiple opportunities when the Big 12 has probably deserved more opportunities than it has gotten over the last two years. Huh. Are these teams, the SEC teams, ducking the Big 12 out of fear? I did discuss that recently, so click here to find out. That's for everybody watching the clipped version. Those of you hanging out live, don't worry about it. I've got uh I've got a couple more minutes with you here before I bail. Uh I need you guys to help me out. Need you guys to help me out on a shorter show today as we're getting closer and closer to college football season. Let's get in the spirit of the season. All right, college football games are going to be played later this month. A Big 12 game will be played later this month. What's the key to a great tailgate andor game day? I need that answer from you because I'm a little out of practice on that. And I got on a nostalgia kick earlier this week and was sitting around thinking about the old tailgating days when I used to get to do that quite frequently. And I love it. Like there is absolutely nothing better than the energy of a college town with a big game coming up that Friday and Saturday, like the whole day, the whole buildup, and being around the tailgate, being around the town. So I know a bunch of you out there listening are people who are tailgating on the reg at your games. I want to know about your setup. Hit me with it. We're gonna chat about it and have some fun with it here too in the show. I I grew up tailgating every Saturday in the peak of the Bill Snyder era when he was winning 11 games six out of seven years from 1997 to 2003. So that was big-time college football in a big-time environment that punched way above its weight class, especially back then. I know people be like, oh, old man, old, you know, unk out here talking about what it was like in the 90s and early 2000s. The stadium was louder. The stadium was louder, it punched way above its weight class. It was awesome. K-State was in the top 10, top 20 all the time, every single year. I can remember even back then in the 90s and early 2000s, like people having the TVs hooked up outside of the tailgates, people with their RVs that had crazy setups. And, you know, people would, it's not even just before the game. You'd be hanging out there after the game just for hours. Like the parking lot would be full of people. There, there are themed meals every week, right? Shout out to my guy Tjax, who's out there doing like a themed meal every single week uh at his tailgate. I still, I told this story the other day, I think it was on Threemon maybe, but I still remember walking out after K-State beat Nebraska for the first time in 30 years in 1998, and us getting handed a bottle of champagne as we were on our way out. Uh, just incredible moments from that. And as we get close to the season, especially when there's all this talk, Senate bill, what's it gonna look like? Will the Big 12 survive? All these different things. I it's it's nice to take a step back. I would suggest it, and just remember why you fell in love with this in the first place. Remember all the good about it, and so much of it to me is like the tailgating experience that you have. So, you know, John here says beer and mesquite cooked meat. That's what he's going with. Okay, I mean, look, obviously, two staples. I would imagine many of you are grilling. I would imagine many of you have some uh some Teddy Brewski's on hand. For me these days, it would be the NA beers, but whatever floats your boat. Uh, I've been to West Virginia and walked among the tailgates, though not really getting a chance to partake because I've been working. That's a problem since 2010, basically, in college. I've been working. I don't get to go out and hang out at the tailgates. I am generally working, but I've been to Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, West Virginia. Like these are some of the best tailgating environments I can remember. Oh, Iowa St, Iowa State and K-State, of course. Um, all elite tailgating experiences. I would love to get open for business to the point where eventually I'm going to a game every single week. That'd be awesome. But right now, the way it is, the way things are set up, it's like it's it's better to be able to one take everything in from the couch and watch as many games as I can to react to stuff, and then two be able to react on the fly. That's what you guys want. If I'm judging by the numbers on the channel, everybody wants the instant reaction stuff these days. So going to games is much harder. And this is to me one of the biggest pains, not just of being a college sports fan, but one of my biggest pains in life, not even kidding, is that I cannot be in two places at once. Because two equally unmatched experiences are hanging out all day at the tailgate, at the game, at the tailgate for a big-time college football game, or even just a college football game on a campus that loves it and cares about it. Nothing better than that experience. But there's also nothing better than having 12 straight hours of incredible games on your TV when you can quad box it these days and have like six games going at once. There's nothing better than that either, but I can't you can't do both at the same time. And so this is why I'm asking you about your tailgates. I don't get to experience that side of it nearly as often anymore. And it is it is legitimately a bummer. It is legitimately a bummer that we don't get to do that anymore. Nick, you are right. The European minds certainly cannot comprehend. Maybe they can comprehend a little bit more after coming over for uh the World Cup this past summer. Uh Fongwe says, old school charcoal grill, burgers, brats, iced tea and Kool-Aid. My man, Fongwei. I told you I have the NA beers. You've got the iced tea and Kool-Aid, my friend. I I love it. Uh charcoal grill, though. I'm much more of a gas grill guy, but the charcoal grill does mighty fine for tailgating, I'm sure. That's uh that's a little bit easier. Uh John says Texas Tech's uh stadium will I I know John, you mean punch. Texas Tech Stadium will punch way louder than its weight class. It has usually been even in a losing season. Yes, I have experienced that before. Been to tech many times. I counted this the other day, five or six. I think especially now, right? Like the video was going around the other day of the student section for the BYU game last year, which was just nuts. And obviously the video, all the students that were lined up the week leading up to the game, too. Texas Tech's on a different level now than what it used to be. 100%. 100%. Uh Nick be tailgating when KU beats K-State this year. All right, Nick. We'll see, buddy. We'll see, my friend. We'll see. Who's playing quarterback? That gonna be Cole Ballard? Is it gonna be Cole Ballard doing that? Honestly, I'd probably rather it be Zeke Marshall and not Cole Ballard because I've still got some nightmares from the last time I saw Cole Ballard play K-State. Uh, thank you guys for indulging me there. Hope that fires you up a little bit for uh for college football season. Shorter live show tonight, but thank you for being here. We'll have some fun as the season gets closer. I promise it will not all be Senate bill. That's gonna, one way or the other, go by the wayside for a little while because there's gonna be a five-week recess. Whether it gets to the floor for a Senate vote or not, eventually we'll get to talking about games. We're very close, my friends. Thank you for hanging out tonight. I appreciate you for being here. Those listening on the audio platform, shout out to you guys as well Spotify, Apple, wherever it is that you get your podcast. Uh, let everybody know, let your friends know about open for business. Take care, everybody, and I will talk to you soon.