Uncertainty In College Football | Week In Review

Published Aug 14, 2020, 8:00 AM

Albert Breer talks to SI's Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger about the chaotic week in college football, from cancellations in the power five conferences to how the NCAA will set up testing procedures to deal with COVID crisis

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All right, welcome in. It's the MMQB Weeken, a review podcast. It's probably weird hearing my voice first, normally you guys here, Mitch and I'll be sort of off to the side with Jennie and Connor to start. We're gonna do things a little differently this week. This has been a really wild week in the world of football, and because a lot of the craziness, the unpredictability, all of it's been coming from another level of football and will affect the NFL, we wanted to shake things up this week and we're gonna bring in a couple of my colleagues at s I who like, I'm not blowing sunshine here, guys, like I think you guys have done as good a job as anybody in America covering this mess whatever whatever you want to call this thing over the last over the last few months. From s I, Pat forty, Ross Dallinger. Uh, what's this week been like for you guys? Mess is a good word. That's a good place to start. Uh. We did actually, Russell Wee I can't even remember which story now, but we did run a story with a quote from one h. A. D That said, my god, what a mess. That was his description of it. Uh. I mean it's been totally drinking through the fire hose. Uh really and Ross was carrying all the weight last week because I was in Colorado. But like, from Friday night, we thought we had like a pretty significant story on the American Athletic Association players, you know, wanting to boycotting this sortday. Wow, that's pretty big. By Saturday morning, that was totally blown out of the water. And then you know, just an absolute sprint Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday through just one permutation of news after another. How much of it Ross, how much of you do you think, like and I don't know, I mean I find this a lot in the NFL, right, like when one decision can a lot of times give cover for another decision. How much of this do you think actually was a chain reaction? Because I remember and like I look like everybody doesn't know. I love college football as a spectator. It's my favorite sport, and I just like so I was, I was locked in on this on Saturday. It didn't seem like it was a mistake that like the MAC announces their shutting their season down, and you had the big ten all of a sudden hitting the pause button, Like, how much of this do you think was individual conferences maybe waiting for somebody else to go first with X, Y or Z, and then all the dominoes starting to fall. Oh yeah, I definitely think it's a it's a domino effect in you know their ten FBS conferences in the four that are no longer playing are they're kind of linked to one another. Uh, and so they absolutely was a domino. You know, the the Mountain West, the PAC twelve were kind of linked. It's like a big brother little brother thing. The MAC and the Big Tin linked again the little brother and then the Big ten in the PAC twelve, the Big brothers, they are linked together. They do a lot of the things the same. So I think it absolutely was this kind of domino. And then you can look at it from the other side. You know, the Sun Belt Conference, you go say the A see they do their link together with the SEC, the A, C C in the Big twelve, So they're kind of for now banding together. What do you guys think happens next? Because right now and look full disclosure, because of how I'm gonna borrow your buddy Wetzel's word again there Pat, how backcrap this whole thing has been. I mean, I want to go full disclosure here. We are recording this at four o'clock on Thursday, and I don't know what's gonna happen at seven, eight or nine o'clock on Thursday. But what do you guys think happens next? Because I like, right now that the impression I'm getting at least reading your reporting is, you know, obviously the big ten in the pack twelve are out, and you have the A, C, C, the SEC in the big twelve still standing, Like, what's the next domino to fall here? Well, you know, I think basically it's going to be incremental progress towards a season or a sudden shutdown. I think one or the other is it depends if if if thing bad happens in the next several weeks, I think we'll just kind of keep progressing inch by inch towards playing. But if something does, and there's an excellent chance it does happen when tens of thousands of college students start hitting campuses like Alabama they're moving in this week, Uh, you know, in various other places around the country that's happening. So you know, we'll just have to see how they withstand those sort of things. But you know, it's wild. I mean, I think I don't want to speak for Ross, but Sunday all day pretty much and Monday morning I was convinced that everything was gonna be shut down by now. And then you know, things kind of stabilized and there was pushed back at the Big Ten that didn't work, but still the other conferences kind of I think got together and said, Okay, we're gonna get through this. And they all hinged on the Big Twelve and we can get into that if you want. But the Big Twelve saying they were gonna play gave cover for the A, C, C and SEC, and I think those conferences want to continue on as long as they can. You guys think the Big Big Ten thought everybody was gonna go with them, because I like, at the NFL level, a lot of people feel like Kevin Warren's got these aspirations of being, you know, the NFL commissioner eventually and that maybe and I can't tell I got a number of pretty colorful responses like when the Big Ten shut down from NFL people, do you get like, do you think Kevin Warren thought that everybody else was gonna follow once they kind of jumped off the ledge, and that maybe it would in the end be like I'm first, what do you think? Gross? Yeah, yeah, I definitely think that's exactly what happened, and that's how I got out. That's how I got to us, at least because Kevin Warren was was encouraging or engaging with everyone, recruiting other power fives to like, hey, guys, this is what we're gonna do. Come on in, UM and so yeah, I think he kind of thought he could recruit everybody. And you know, I like Pat said about the Big twelve, I mean, I think it was Tuesday night was their meeting, and uh it it was. There was vigorous debate there. I would talked to a couple of a d s that were in on that. I know Pat has two and there was some debate on who was this safe enough? Who it seems you know, it seems unsafe to me, And there were some factions there. So I think I don't know how close it really was, but certainly UM, Kevin Warren and the whole movement there made made an impact and he nearly got what maybe he was expecting because if the Big twelve went then Pat and I were both told like the a SEC was kind of connected to the Big Twelve in a way because they didn't want to just play with two Power five conferences. This is them in the SEC. Now the SEC might just played by themselves. I mean, like, okay about that, you know, like like what the SEC like? I sort of feel like the SEC, like would they do that? I don't think. Fun to fan they might, it's fun to think that they might do it. You know, I don't think they would do it, but it is fun to kind of think, like maybe maybe the last one is left of the SEC and the Sun Belt and you know they're they're they're playing for some kind of crazy playoff. You know, Alabama's getting uh you know, Troy and someone to sixteen seed playoff. I mean it would be it would be a crazy to think about. But the SEC, they are in it to win it, man, I mean, they are definitely in it until absolutely they can't either optically or health Yeah. I mean, obviously, if you wanted to pick one conference that's gonna say, prior this season, out of our cold dead fingers, it's gonna be the SEC. I don't think they would go it alone, but I wouldn't be shocked if it came down. And if they were last, they were last. And nine eleven, when it came to who was gonna play that next weekend, the NFL canceled before the SEC did, right, you know, So you guys know the story behind that was like Pete Rosel's greatest regret was playing a game after jf K died and like after the assassination, that was his greatest regret as commissioner, and Taglieboo had succeeded Roselle and he knew it. And so I think the NFL canceled like almost right away after nine eleven, so and I like, maybe this looks like like I don't like that's the weird thing about all this is like for all these guys, like you know, all the A D s and like the commissioners like that, that probably has to be on your mind, right, like in five years, how are we going to look at all of this? And is it gonna be like like who's gonna be the idiot? Is the idiot gonna be the the guy who pressed pause and blew up the season? Or is the idiot gonna be the guy who went forward. That's the I mean, I don't and we don't know. I mean, like I'm not, we don't know, and we won't know until it happens, um I do. I mean, there's a lot of Big Ten fans that are really mad right now, whether they should be or not. I'm not going to comment on that. Where much you're alumna allegiances Land, I'm trying to think, Yeah, I think i've I've I've made that known. Yeah, it's a sad day, sad day hat it's brutal. Guys prepared me for it, though, Yeah, it's I mean, I feel to look, those games mean a lot to a lot of people, and there are a lot of fun and you know when you're there and you see those environments in Happy Valley or in Columbus or in the Big House or even you know, Kinnicks Stadium, and the I mean, it's it is really really a cool slice of American culture. And you take that out of people's lives, it stinks. I mean, I'm hoping we could do it in the spring, but it won't be the same under any circumstance. I mean, there's no telling whether we'll even have fans at any point. But you know, it's gonna be a tough, tough fall for a lot of people, especially I think those people from the Midwest and from the West coast who are watching other people play if they get to the point of plan. Yeah, and I saw, like guys, I saw so like the one question. One thing I thought was sort of interesting because they hadn't seen much on this, I think until the day Um said they're gonna make a decision on the Fall Championships, right, the n c a A is okay, so that's gonna happen, and so that would encompass like sports like a cross country, volleyball, soccer, all those And for those who don't know, because this is an NFL podcast, I think football is the only sport where the n c A doesn't control a championship, right fbs, it's the only sport. If they cancel the Fall championships, then what happens because like, then does it make sense to go with four with the other sports? And you can't really just go forward with football, can you, because yeah, I don't think they will. And and Pat had that tip a couple of weeks ago. We had we had that story on one Saturday. They all run together down but uh, it was like the Power five eighties and other commissioners were getting together to explore away to have their own fall championships. Um, you know, but as they were scared that the n c A would cancel the Fall Championships and they didn't want to just play football. They knew optically it didn't look good. So for sure, that's a that's a big vote to next week. And I still I can't imagine them pulling the trigger. Like everything I've gotten in a lot of this information was before the big ten in the pact well bowed out, So I wonder how that changes the vote. But all the information I got in last week and the week before was look the D one counsel that hasn't in their hands. It's almost all a d s uh, and they're probably not going to pull the trigger on it. But things have moved everything, things have changed, uh since then. So I don't I don't know what do you think, Pat, You think that that you think the Fall Championships get canceled, You think they go forward with them? I think they go forward, as Ross said, and Ross did a lot of the reporting on this, you know. I mean this was classic college sports where basically the power of five people stopped the Board of Governors from canceling everything, which they almost did in late July, said wait a minute, and then the Board of government, they got the Board of Governors to dish off the decision to another council, and then they dished it to a third council, and that's going to be the deciding group because that's the group that has the athletic administrators on it, you know, mostly a D. S. Ross had the breakdown. I think it was forty people and like twenty eight of them are athletic administrators. Uh. And so basically it was no, you cannot make a decision until somebody's going to give us the answer we want. I think it's gonna be the way it boils down. And so I think we will have this group signing off and playing fall sports and at least six conferences four. Now it's interesting too, because like with football, I would think like maybe like the powers that be in football would probably put some pressure on on those people to write because like, if you don't go forward with the Fall championships, whether it's just a matter of optics or not, it's still harder to go for with football, right, Like if you call off the soccer tournament, like then it's I mean I would think that even create more liability right like where it's like wait a second, you can cancel everything else, so like whatever happens, like you guys are taking on the rest here, the liability is a huge Like that's a huge concern. It seems like among administrators. You talk to them, and I know the fans will because I'll tweet that out or I'll write it and fans will, Oh, but they could you know, break their neck or break their leg or whatever. And you know, I think an injury is is a little different than um of a virus and the effects of virus. Uh, when you've shut down all the other sports because of the virus, not because of injuries. So there's a distinction there that fans have a hard time kind of wrapping their mind around misliability, right Pat Mine, I mean Pat, like like like there's like there's it's I mean, we hear health and safety, yet they are opening these campuses to tens of thousands of people. A lot of the schools are right, and I mean I saw the Ohio State. You know, I saw pictures on the Internet of people moving into Ohio State this week, like, and I lived in those dorms. There's no social distancing going on those dorms. Like, there's no way you can follow guidelines on the campus that has for people. So if it's if they're not shutting down the campus, it's not purely health and safety. It just has to be that extra level of liability. I would think. Yeah, I think so, you know, I mean that's one of the things. You know, there was a reason why there was a Buckeye Pledge for a while, they're right, and then some of these other forms at other schools of you know, just just to make sure you know what you're getting into here. Now, some of that was trying to modify behavior, but some of it was also to gain some level of of deniability or or or avoid liability. Um. And yeah, that that, you know, I think that that as much as you can do to mitigate risk, you want to do. And that's where you know, the Ross had the stories. The Senate stepped in and basically bullied the n C double A and to get rid of these liability waivers. Uh. And I think that uh, you know, but if you're if you're sitting there in the Big ten, it's got to at least cross your mind what happens if something goes really wrong and we get our short suit off for tens of millions of dollars? You know, Yeah, and ross you've done since you've done some reporting on this, like, like, wouldn't it put it puts added liability on the A, C, C and SEC in Big twelve two that the pack tent Pack twelve and the Big tenant pulled out right like? Because now, like I would think from a legal standpoint, that would almost serve his notice right like, And that's I mean, I would think that would create like a little bit more of a problem for the other conferences if they go forward. It does the first when Pat and I reported that story Sunday that you know, all hell was breaking loose and and all that, and it could be this big domino effect. The first thing, like SEC Assistant Assistant A. D texted me was we were gonna we can't not you know, we can't play if they don't play, because every conference that doesn't play makes it harder for us to play optically. Liability, Um just just all that stuff. So honestly, and I think Pats it this earlier, we were at Sunday afternoon or so in maybe even Monday morning, and Monday morning we were thinking, like, this is gonna be a full scale domino. Um, and you know, for whatever reason it wasn't. They dug in the heels. Uh. And we're still gone. But that is a like a there is a big time worry. I think what administrators is, Uh, there's just a lot of pressure on them because of what the other conferences did. You know? Is there something that stopped Is there something that stopped the Big twelve from canceling? You think because you said that they were the I've seen you guys refer to them as a swing state. There's something that happened over the last week that stopped them from canceling. You think, Well, one of the eighties and discussions told me that the decision came down to the risk of the unknown uncertain risk of playing during a pandemic verse the known risk of not playing, which includes financials that we all know about. I mean just huge millions of dollars, just a potentially the industry crumbling if you don't play in the spring mental health for players continues to get brought up, even though they'll be staying in the facility. Uh so all those things like they just thought, you know what, this this the known risk of not playing it outweighs right now the risk then, you know, the uncertain risk of of playing it because ultimately that's where the big kin in the pack. Two of us start digging on this today for a story on doctors that's coming out tomorrow, and the doctors have said, like, it's really not what we know while we cancel, it's what we don't know, you know. And that's the big thing. It's like the fear of the unknown. Yeah, that I will piggyback on that. That one of the things that I heard, and I remember, gosh, and the days do run together. But I think it was Monday night, Yeah, talking to several Big twelve sources, and they had been going through a series of meetings all day and I think they felt buoyed or relieved that they had come up with enough of a medical construct to satisfy all the presidents and they were gonna put all the doctors on this call with them and basically have them explain, Okay, here's what we need to do from a heart standpoint, here's what we need to do from a testing standpoint. And if we get everybody to do this together and do it the same, we're gonna be covered. And so I think that was a big part of the equation, was just getting everybody's all the medical information out there at the same time, assuaging some fears about my o kite artists, kardiitis and uh, and then getting everybody say, all right, we're gonna test everybody, and we're gonna have the same heart procedures as each each team, all ten of them. You was crazy about this thing, like and I'm not even talking about college football the NFL, Like I had no idea before all of this, and my wife's a nurse, I had no idea. Doctors disagree this much about things, like I had no idea, Like and I mean it's I mean, seriously, it's like you know the old saying, like you know that numbers are like hostages. You can make them say whatever, You can make them say whatever you want. I feel like it's the same with doctors now, right, Like, like it's like if you need an expert to tell you something, you know, tell you what you want to hear you can find them, like like they're out there, and it's almost like maybe in a certain way that was the case with these two, is like you're just looking for confirmation of what you already think, like you think this is too dangerous to play, all right, Like I'm gonna go find a doctor who will tell me that I really want to play. I can find a doctor who will tell me that too. Yeah, oh yeah, that's huge. And today, I mean you should see some of the quotes that out from these doctors, because I have tried to get a doctor in each different region of the nation. So I got one in Washington, one in California, one in Louisiana, at one in Alabama mine, then one up in the Midwest in Ohio, Maryland. So I've got him in and they do they all kind of say something different. I think what the big thing is. And this has not been reported on a ton but the PAC twelve advisory board had seventeen extra people on it then all the other ones, and they were all independent people. They weren't tied to a school. They were like independent epidemiologists, so they weren't they didn't have school biased or or any kind of like team bias, and so they were kind of independent and that that that is a big reason I think why their medical document looks like it does, it is as stringent as as it is is because they had so sometimes it's the medical board makeup of you know, which is kind of interesting. That that's super that's super interesting. That sounds to me like why that that sounds to me like why players don't trust team doctors, you know what I mean, Like in the NFL, like they don't trust team doctors because this team doctor, I know where his paychecks coming from. I like, his paycheck is coming from over here, and he works for he in essence works for that coach, and that coach wants me out on the field no matter what, you know. Like so it sounds almost like that ross. Yeah, it's it is uh. And also there's another thing to this, and of course it's the regionalization in the political politicalization of every issue in America, it seems like, and this is also one of them. And um, I saw a map that was circulating today of all the states, UH with a team that has canceled in states with the teams that haven't canceled, and I mean, it looks like the electoral college map. I mean, it's it's just it looks like a presidential election, you know. So it's regionalized. And think about it. The doctors that are on these medical advisory boards are gonna be from the region from the and they're gonna think about college football like people from the region which in the southeast, you know, is like we're all like, you know, must have must have pushed through in West Coast. Isn't so much take it or leave it in the west? Yeah? Yeah, you know what. Even on another level, pad it's like like, this is what's happening with the government, right like? And I think you and I talked about this too, like this is I mean, it's like it gets kicked down to the federal level, to the state level, and then you got the municipalities all doing some different things and they're fighting over it, and then you kick it back up to the state level and like the states looking at like what do we do? And those are the conferences right like. So it's almost like what's happened with COVID in our country. Oh. I think the parallels are striking and eerie and somewhat disturbing. That is, I mean it's played out, yes, Mark Emmert, and the n C double A is the executive branch, I guess or the national body, and they haven't done anything. You know, nobody's has gotten anything out of them in terms of real leadership. And and so then it gets taken down to the municipalities or whatever, the states, and that's the conferences, and then even from there within that, as you said, the local uh, the the actual schools that they're disagreeing, some of them with each other. You know, Nebraska really wanted to play Michigan's like now we're not gonna play, at least at the presidential level. Uh. You know, it's it's this is politically and in terms of structure, this is what's going on in college football. Is what's going on in the pandemic. And it struck me too, guys, because you know, I I talked to a few college coaches just like, hey, what can the NFL learn from you? Because he had the college has been sort of a step ahead, and I know, like a lot of the NFL coaches have like you know, like for example, I know, like Joe Judge uh leaned on Kirby Smart, you know, because they're really close, and consulted with Nick Saban and Bill O'Brien consulted with Ryan Dane. So you had all this And so I called some of the college coaches and asked them about it, and I was like, I was really impressed with what like Lincoln Riley had set up at Oklahoma and and what you know, Jeff Hafley, he's down the road from me here at Boston College, what he had done. And so know you're right about and you think about it's like, wait a minute, why is a football coach in charge of this? And then there's nothing against those guys. I think like a lot of those guys have done a great job. But it's not like the NFL teams. It's not like the Eagles are putting Doug Peterson in charge of COVID control. Yeah no, that's I mean, honestly, and in most cases, other than coaching football, it's better to have the coaches just outside of you know, don't do just don't do anything but football. Crawl into a hole. Yeah, put on academics. We don't want you to put on public health or campus you know, I remember in May when you know it's like the kind of the heart of the pandemic late April May, Yeah, this might be more April. And all these coaches were you could tell they're getting restless, and so they started to kind of speak out, and you know, I think that's when Gundy spoke out. And then you had lead stuff. And I got a call from from A this than a D. It was like, see, this is what happens when a man with a lot of money doesn't have work, Like, this is what happens. All they do is fout off and get us all in trouble. And you know it was an S I d and he was just railing on him, but it was Dabby. I was Dabbo and Leech and Gundy and maybe a couple of the people, and it was like they spoke out. It's like shut shut up, you know. So when they're not in the film room and on the field or in the weight room, Uh, they don't have anything to do, and they have all this time and money, it's like, you know, and it's a pandemic. They're stuck at home. So they started running the mouse and it was a mess. So I was dying when I saw Gundy. I saw it the ESPN trailer. I don't know if you guys saw this, but I think ESPN Plus is doing a like one of those all access series with Oklahoma State and the opening scenes like Mike Gundy getting a COVID test and talking about serious and I'm like, what ESPN And I'm sure Pat would look away in on that one. Yes, it's great, look at Mike gun to get his COVID test and talk serious about it. Yeah, yeah, fellas, we gotta take this seriously. Yeah, yeah, expert on all things Mike Gundy. So uh, I think one other thing I want to get to get get get, get to you guys on is what do you think is gonna happen with individual players now? And the reason I ask is one thing i'd sort of heard at the you know, I'd say, like a month a month and a half ago, you know, I started asking around with some of the guys who work in college scouting, do you think there's gonna be an exodust of players? And like we're gonna get whatever a few dozen star players leaving. And we got a few right, Like we got Mica Parsons and um and Caleb Farley from Virginia Tech and greg Us so from Miami, and and and Rondale Moore from Producer. We've had a few, um, but one of the things that I thought was interesting that was really common that I heard from a lot of these guys who you know, I was asking, do you think you'll see this, was they'll probably go back as long as they have something to play for, right, Like, they'll probably go back if there's a real college football playoff, if there's a national championship to play for it, they'll probably go back if there's that. Now that things have sort of become bastardized a little bit, and like pat like we could have like two separate seasons, like you could have theoretically the Big ten in the Pack twelve going in January and February or in the spring, and then the SEC the a CEC in the Big twelve going in the fall. Do you guys foresee any more players opting out now, because again, the season is gonna might look a little sideways. Sure, yeah, I think there will be more guys that do. Um. You know, I think, as you mentioned, there's there's several that have already done so, but I think some more just kind of holding their cards to see exactly what it looks like. And then do they even have to make a decision. I mean, I'm sure a lot of guys would just as soon let the the course of the conference decision be their decisions so they don't have to be the one that steps out and says, hell, no, I'm not playing. It's like, well, I couldn't have it anyway because we don't have a season, because you know, we don't have the conference decide and now, um so, but but the longer we go, if if we're going to get to kick off, yeah, I think we will see more players uh uh drop out. And I mean I don't think anybody blames them even a little bit. You know, very personal decision and a lot of them have big things on their mind professionally after this. So I would be surprised if there's not many more changes. I would think think, yeah, yeah, I mean, same thing. I would think we're gonna have a more dominoes. I'll stop keeping track. I had a file of keeping it up with all of them, and it was like up to I don't know, like twenty five Power five players, uh and you know, probably I guess maybe five or seven of them were drafted draftable maybe a little more. Um so, I I don't know what it's up to now, it's probably well over forty or fifty. I gotta go. There is a friend of one who's keeping track of I gotta go check it out. But I was on the phone with somebody from l s U who, of course the hunt where Jamar Chase plays, and uh, I was like, what what is Jamar Chase doing? Because his dad had come out and said he's playing no matter what. And just even even a person who works at ls YOU called me. He was like, what are they thinking? Like what is he doing? I mean if he was mostered to get the hell out of here? Man like. So it's funny it is from a person from the school you know, is saying that. But there's any interruption or delays, things start getting bad during the season, and after we do get to a fall season, you can bet, like somebody like Jamaar they're gonna go, I mean mid season they're gonna go. It was interesting because like I looked at so I kind of did the twenty nineteen draft right. So I looked at it and I was like, okay, so I'm gonna kind of rewind it a year and would these guys have gone as high as they did? Right, And so Joe Burrows obviously the outlier. Joe Burrow benefited huge from coming back and having that extra year. But then you go down the list, Chase Young, we knew, Jeff Kuda, we knew Andrew Thomas, we knew To Ah, we knew Justin Herbert, we knew Derek Brown, we knew Isaiah Simmons, we knew and so you kind of keep going down the list. There are it feels to me, guys, and I like your perspective on this, because you guys cover a day to day it feels like with the real now later on in the draft that's something different. But it does feel like they're a good amount of kids, where like I think we know what they are and they could probably walk away and be Okay, yeah, no, I mean it, like Jamaarch is absolutely Pine sul at um at Oregon. Certainly. You know, there's plenty of of the high end draft picks that, yeah, you know occasionally obviously the Joe Burrows don't happen very often. Now, you can have some people that could go you know, maybe from third round grade to a first round grade or something like that, or a five to a tube. But you know, you don't often go from the fifth the fifth round pick to the number one overall pick. So I think I think for the most part, I mean, if and I you know, I would imagine agents would probably tell the top guys so you're you're fine, you know, or even even that kind of second layer of guys, you're gonna be okay. You don't have to play if you want to, maybe okay, but don't feel compelled to help yourself out. I just wonder if there's gonna be a long reaching impact here to Ross because Christian McCaffrey opened that door, right, I mean, he opened that door for everybody to skip their bowl game. And now all of a sudden, because guys had cover, they went and did it right. Like, So like, if this works out, if you have you know, say fifteen twenty guys in the first round that didn't play this year and they're just fine, you wonder if that starts to become an option, and then that's good for nobody. So maybe then the NFL has got to reevaluate the three year rule because it's not really good for the kid to sit out a year, right, he's only doing it to protect himself. Not good for the school, and it's not good for the NFL either, Like that's not good that that, you know, they're bringing in guys who haven't played football in a year. Yeah, the three year rule, I think you know, and you might know more than me, but it just seems like more and more the air people on college in the college scene that are like getting on board with the eliminate the three year rule. And a lot of it's coming from n i L. You know, people and especially coaches are like, oh, they want money, they can just leave right now. That's fine, We'll just deal with it. Um. And really that's I mean, it's America. I was supposed to have a little more you know, freedom, open market stuff, like just they want to go, just let him go. I was talking to a senator about n I L and it's one of the he was a little bit knowledgeable and like most of them, a little bit knowledgeable about college sports. He's like, why can't they should be able to go, Like, you know, they should be a freshman. Should we got to go high school senior should be able to go? And remember, um covering L s U back in thirteen maybe, and uh, I asked Less Miles, like, where would Leonard four Nett at a high school? Because he, I mean, you know, at high school. I actually happened to see him play in high school and like the advice of Kevin Falk. Kevin, I was down to New Orleans for a game, and I texted Kevin sometimes I like to go to a high school game just to see what it's like and in areas where when I'm at a game somewhere. So I texted Kevin Falk and I had no idea what St. Augustine was, and he said, go check out this kid, Leonard four Nett. He was a junior in high school at the time, and I swear to God, Ross he looked like he was thirty years old. It's it's crazy, but I remember Less tell him he would probably have been a fifth round pick out of a fifth or sixth round pick out of high school like in the NFL. He said he had scouts and told him, you know, you know, we've seen him, and yeah, he would be. So yeah, I think we're getting to that because of n I L it's gonna fast track it that we're potentially getting to colleges in people, very important people in college football arguing lift this three year band and I you know, NFL lifted in. Maybe we'll see it coming the next few years. And that's what a lot of people don't realize is that it's an NFL. A lot of people think that's a college football program. That's an NFL rule, and the NFL wants that rule in place for very specific reasons. And like that's I mean, like when Maury's Clarette and Mike Williams sued in two thousand four, they weren't suing the n C A A. They were suing the NFL. All right, so let's go rapid fire. We'll wrap this part of the discussion up. I just want to go through each conference and what you guys think, I'll put you on the spot here. Well, you guys think the most likely result is conference by conference? Is it? They'll play now, they'll play later, they won't play at all. Start with the A, C C. Gosh, this is hard because it's dumb. It's kind of a dominant thing. But I mean I'll say, yeah, they'll they'll they'll play, you know, play in the fall, in the fall. Yeah, let's say a C C moving forward, Devil Sweeney charging down the hill at Clemson's baby leading the way. Big ten. Obviously we know it's not the fall. Do you think they'll actually play in the in the winter or spring? I don't think so, but uh, you know, boy, it's interesting, Like I like some of these plans that have gone around that we we both wrote about. I mean, they're interesting, they're they're difficult, but boy, the fan scene kind of turned off by them. So I don't know whether there's gonna be this ground swallow if we have to have a spring season. So I'm gonna say no, I don't think Big ten plays Big twelve. Well, they feel like they're hanging by a thread. But yeah, I guess they just gotta go with the others. Pat Yep, I agree. I think Big twelve Texas pushing them right through there. I feel like Pack twelve might be the easiest one. Like, just from the outside looking in, I don't think they want to play. But but what do you guys think? Yeah, i'd say that the Big Ten really, I just don't you talk to people around college athletics and the feasibility of a spring season. I just don't see it, you know, yeah, I uh, I'm not sure the Pack twelve of our plays again. Really, it's funny I had to do. I was doing this doctor stuff. I had a doctor. He looked over the stringent testing protocols the Pack twelve had. They basically BackBox and in a corner the pack that They're like, here are our stringent protocoles. We can't follow them. Oh no, you know, that's kind of like that, he said. It was like and he said exactly. Pat just said, He's like, I don't know when they play on playing with these particles. Like, I mean, here's so a brief story I'll tell as quickly as possible. But the reason why you can tell the PAC twelve is not like the other Power of five conferences two thousand four Cal against USC, Aaron Rodgers completing nineteen passes in a row, playing against uh Troy Paulamalo and all these studs on the other team. It's an incredible game that goes down to the very end. Cal first and goal, second and goal, third and goal, fourth and goal can't get him for the winning score. Epic battle. The best team Cows maybe ever had. Fans are what the Cow fans are walking out like, Wow, that was fun killing themselves like they can't even you know, they're just distraught for weeks and they're they're like, oh, that was a fun. I'll tell you what I like. I grew up in college because I'm fourth generation Big ten. I grew up with college football. But I will never forget My freshman year was the year like and you guys remember Andy Katson were was in the cover of the Sports Illustrated College Football issue that was like the basket weaving story, right, like that showed his class schedule and everything else. And so they were number one in the country. And I remember the Nick Saban Michigan State team coming in and beating them, and there was like a blot. They were up by seventeen. They they Michigan State blocks upunt and roars back and beats him. Right. I have never been in a quieter place than Ohio Stadium. After that game, on the walking out, all you heard was a like I don't know if I can swear on here loud at like like single loud expletives, and just everybody else was dead silent, filing out of the stadium. So that gets back to the motivation, right to make these decisions. You know who's more motivated, which that's that's why, you know what the four three or four schools in the Big ten are so mainly against it because they care more because they are SEC schools. I don't even need to ask about the SEC. I mean, this is full steaming on the moon. Wherever hell freeze over, we'll fight him on the ice. Yeah all right, guys, So now I want to just to wrap things up here. I want to flip it back around. Is there anything is like? Anything is college football reporters that you guys are interested in know from me about the way the NFL's handle all of this. Does How much does the NFL care about they're being a college season deeply? I mean I think they really really the college college football is the golden goose to them. And there are three reasons, I think three primary reasons why. Number one, it's a free minor league and the cost of running minor league and that sport would be astronomical, not to mention the fact that we've seen over and over again it's very difficult to monetize in football, right, so there's a huge sunk costs there. They would have to take on if college football would take on any sort of water. Number Two, it's the foundation for the most popular event, right Like, the NFL Draft is probably as far as stuff the league runs, the second most popular event to the Super Bowl in the popularity of college football. Is a foundation of that, right Like, think about like the NBA Draft, Like, and why is the NBA Draft not as popular as it was, say twenty five years ago, Because twenty five years ago, all those guys were coming from college basketball and we knew who they all were. Now you've got foreign born players, You've got guys maybe from different it's just it's not the same. And so I think that's that. And then the third reason is the marketing machine. Johnny Manzel and Tim Tebow say what you want. As players, those guys were stars coming into the league. The NFL didn't need to do anything like you just you put them on rosters and you're selling their jerseys. Right So I pad, I would tell you, I think the NFL will do everything it can to protect the college season, including and we wrote about this today, moving the combine or draft if if it's necessary to accommodate some sort of season in January and February that was that was my question. How how would they accommodate a springing season. But I guess you kind of answered they would be open to moving. I think the I think the combine, like the combine would be fairly easy to move the draft. So the commissioner can unilaterally move the draft. He doesn't need approval from the Union. He can move the draft as far back as June two, so you can buy yourself an extra month there. And that's why I think the one Big ten plan um that like, to me, like the Big ten plan that gets you done by the middle of March, totally accommodates the NFL, you know, and so and I think if you're accommodating the NFL draft, I think the NFL will help you and in the Big ten and you know, uh, you know, Pat, we discussed this. That means the NFL is accommodate. You know what that means. That means you're getting dome stadiums to play in, which is huge. You know, like like if they're helping you, that means you're getting the Doman Minneapolis, the Doman Indianapolis, the Doman Detroit. You know, so you're gonna get that sort of help from them if you're helping to make their events go, Yeah for sure. All right, So you guys have helped me get through this week. So I want to say I appreciate that there's been a difficult week in the Brier household. It's been an emotional week. But somehow, I you know, it's Friday, It's so, it's it. We're about to get to the weekend. I made it through the week. Okay, Um, it's gonna suck for you guys though, right, like knowing like all this stuff is teetering, like I like, i'd imagine like just knowing like that this stuff is sort of teetering and there and there was a chance. I mean, I I'd love to know what was running through you guys heads when you thought that it was over, like the because you said you said there was a point where you thought this thing was done right, Like so what do you like, like, like what was running through your head at that point? Like, how are you going to spend your fault? Yeah? What are we gonna do? I mean, because that's we already Like I went through that. You know, I covered more basketball than Ross and I went through that back in um in March and I was like, what the you know, what do you do when? I mean, as it turns out, there was so much news to cover. It was all incremental and everything, but there was so much that carried us through. But but eventually you run out of those stories. And so we like company. What despite what some people may say, we like company. No one here's rooting Hey, no one on this podcast. Just me clear, No one on this podcast is rooting against football. Seat Yeah, we're not rooting for the virus here. Okay. We would love to have football. It's a it's fun and entertaining, and we like going against writing stories about great players and interesting people. But then we it also helps keep us employed. You know, I hope we'll still be employed even if we have a half a season. But you know, let's be honest, we all need football in our lives. Yeah, I'm all for those checks continuing to clear too, Just so you guys know, all right, appreciate you guys coming out, Ross Dallinger, Pat forty. They've been all over all the news and any like anyone out there that wants to follow what might happen to the Big ten season? What might happen to tack twelve season. How all this is gonna go down with the Big twelve, the A, c, C, and the SEC. Be sure to check out Ross and Patsworth because they've been crushing it all the way through this. Appreciate you guys. Thanks

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