July 18, 2025 • 40 mins
Jason Fitz & Geoff Schwartz talk about what NIL has done to college football and the complaints surrounding all the changes in the sport, the direction of the College Football Playoff, Fitz being a child prodigy violinist, and much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
College football's almost here, which means we can finally get
actual games. And I think the thing that I'm most
excited about right now, when we actually get college football
games is that it will get everybody to shut up
about all the other stuff. All of a sudden, we
will forget about the arguments about how college football should look.
We'll forget about the arguments of who gets paid what.
(00:22):
We'll forget about the arguments of nil, and we'll forget
about the arguments of profits sharing. Hell, maybe even for
a day or two, we'll forget about the arguments about
the college football playoff, and we'll have what we love,
which is just a beautiful sport. He's Jeff Schwartz. I'm
Jason Fitz hanging out on two pros and a cup
of Joe on Fox Sports Radio. And look, we'll get
to the weird playoff proposal in a minute. But I
(00:43):
do think, man, and maybe I'm wrong, Jeff, but maybe, like,
especially with the Week one matchup being Texas Ohio State,
my hope is that by getting such a landmark beginning
of the season, oh my god, two huge teams, two programs,
that everybody has their eyes on the spectacle of it, all.
What I really hope it does is it reminds us
(01:04):
that we love college football for the product on the field,
and all the rest of this stuff is just ancillary
yelling and what's become a year round yelling cycle.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Look, we're in the business I think of year round yelling,
so I don't I don't. Look. I I was on
Pack twelve radio for six years. Right, Obviously there's no
more Pac twelve, so no more packed old radio. And
the summer months were boring. I joke about this all
the time, like I'll do different radio programs and they'll
(01:34):
ask me like, hey, do you want to interview, Like
are you ready to interview like someone who covers boxing.
I'm like, Buddy, I interviewed like Colorado's cross country coach. Okay,
you know how hard is to find information on cross country?
I interviewed a Washington or Rower one time, Like I've
interviewed a lot because that's what the summer months were, right,
(01:55):
you just interview Olympic sports and you talk about previews
and and and like there was nothing to talk about, right,
And I'm not saying those are not topics worth exploring,
but for the general masses, no one's really worried about
spring collegiate sports, right, and Olympic sports. Now I wish
I was doing it still. You have, you have an
(02:16):
endless amount of information to talk about, right, endless amount
of stories in college football because of the portal and
NIL and Congress getting involved in these media days now
are three days. I'm going to Vegas next week for
Big ten Mediaday to cover Big ten Media Day. Like
they're three days, four days long. It's just intense amount
of stuff that comes out. Like I actually from a
(02:37):
perspective of like content, I mean, college football couldn't be better.
But you're right, I can't wait to get the football
because when you get more content, you get a lot
more people saying things that are ridiculous. And I'm looking
forward to just getting back to the ball and we'll
get there soon enough. I mean, look, week zero is
(03:00):
what it's August twenty third, I think, so we're close
a month, a month and five days away.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
God, And I mean it can't come close. It can't
come soon enough, you know, because all of this conversation.
Number one, I go back to what Saban said last
year on a game day that was really important, you know, say,
sat there and talked about financials, and he said, we've
got to make sure you're paying the right guys. Like,
we're so obsessed right now with how much people are
(03:28):
making and how much programs they're spending, and everybody wants
somebody to step in and make it fair and equitable,
but they want to do it in a way that
doesn't allow the players to continue to grow, and they
also want to do it in a way that seems
to throttle back certain programs, Like I don't understand, you know,
at some point what the logic behind any of it is.
I hope that we get a standard in practice, just
because that makes it easier for us to have rules
(03:51):
and norms. And you mentioned earlier, we're years away from it,
but the faster they can accelerate a process that turns
us into programs that are negotiating against a union. I
just that's that's inevitability. Until we get to that point,
we are not going to have equal playing field. We're
not going to have any even concept of fairness.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Okay, but but fairness is a myth in sports, right,
Like we get that fairness is a myth, especially in
college sports where we've had the same teams win every year, right,
I mean, like we the last first time winner in
college football, like first up champions I think Florida in
the nineties. Everyone's win a championship since has already won
(04:29):
a championship in previous years. It is not a sport
that it's ever had any sum It's a parody. And
and what NIL is doing though, is it is it
is trying to correct that. Again. Look, I'm Texas Tech
is paying for a roster. Look at SMU last season
being able in year one to go to the ACC
and be competitive. It's not because they were just good
(04:52):
old two stars and we coached. No, they got they
got the dudes, right, you're able to you know, teams
are able to keep players now that they weren't able
to keep. They're able to pay them now. So it
is it is helping the parody of the sport. And
the thing that I the comment I always go to,
I think it's important to note here is it's not
my money. It's not your money, right, don't donate to
(05:14):
organ You don't donate to organ or whatever schools are you,
whatever school you support, It's not if if Nike or
Phil Knight or whoever, all the the booshes. We gotta
organ if they want to spend their money on paying
eighteen year olds, more power to you, not my money.
I'm not spending my money that way.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Of course I'm gonna want to watch it, and I
hope we keep spending the money the way we do.
But all these things about like fair and like sports
are not fair. Man. It's never been fair, and this
is just making it, I think, in my in my opinion,
more fair. We have more opportunities for teams to succeed
that we've had in the past because they're able to
keep players, develop players. And we're seeing a team like
(05:54):
like like Texas Tech for example, build up the roster
because they're able to pay players.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I mean in that sense ever, the capitalist that I am,
I will understand that there's a part of me that
I got killed on Twitter yesterday for saying this. But
like to me, if you want to win, cool you
actually can. You can impact that. Not you personally, but
like for all of us. If you're sitting around saying
I want my favorite team to win. I grew up
in Vegas as a kid, right, so I grew up
(06:22):
around UNLV basketball. It is virtually impossible for UNLV basketball
to become relevant again consistently. But now if they want to,
all they got to do is find the right money
from the right casino magnets, and all of a sudden,
bam think it. They could go out and buy whatever
team they want. You want to win an NCAA championship
in basket, if you want to have a shot at it,
you can do it. Now. It takes a lot more
money for a lot more time to do that from
(06:43):
a football standpoint. But man, if you want to make
UNLV football the most prominent team on the entire West Coast,
find the money. And if you can't find the money,
then whose fault is that? Like I just I don't
know why we need everybody to step in and swoop
in and save college football. Like this is an empowering
error college football. If you want to have the best team,
go out and buy the best team. If there was
(07:04):
no salary cap in the NFL, could you imagine the
wild Wild West? It would be the Denver, the Dallas Cowboys.
Like I just, the teams could go on and spend
whatever they want, however they want, whenever they want. That's
college football, now, that's opportunity. I look at it as opportunity,
not as limiting.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
It's opportunity for players to to get paid a wager,
of course, a fair wager. And again, look, do I
think that an eighteen year old should be paid more
than a season veteran. No, I don't think so. And
I think that schools are fair that out, like, we
just can't pay young players more than we pay our veterans, Like,
I think that's probably bad roster building. I'm bad for morale,
(07:42):
but I'm all for players getting what they deserve. Right
for so many years we didn't right now. The only
pushback I have on this a little bit is that
a scholarship is worth something. I left college with no debt.
My wife left college with a lot of debt. I mean,
it's something right not to have that scholarship a degree
for free. It does matter, there is value in that.
(08:03):
But if you provide your school with more value by
playing football, you should earn a wage for that. And
players are now earning that wage, which, yeah, they didn't
earn that wage for a long long time.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
So I think this is the only pushback on my
scholarship pushback. This is always my scholarship pushback. Yes, I
was offered, for example, a full scholarship to be as
a violin major. As a kid, I was offered a
full scholarship to Indiana. If I had gone to Indiana,
I would have studied with At the time, they had
one of the best violin teachers in the world weirdly,
(08:32):
in their classical music department. I would have had the
best facilities. Because they have great music facilities, I would
have been able to turn around and immediately start teaching
in the area at an elevated cost per hour. Because
I went to Indiana for music, I would have been
able to go out and get gigs in the orchestra
if I wanted to, I could have started working that day.
And because I had Indiana on my resume in that area,
(08:55):
I would have in Bloomington, I would have made way
more money than just a regular kid because I had
a particular set of skills and they offered me a
full scholarship. My only argument has always been the scholarship
has value, but every other kid that gets that full
ride gets to monetize that opportunity from the day they
step on campus. Just because you play basketball or football
doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to do the same.
(09:16):
So that's been my.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Made it very clear. Uh, I've made the same argument
for years by the way, that you should be able
to earn and have a scholarship like because your example
is actually one I always use. For instance, I've always
said that like a musician, right is able to be
on scholarship and also earn money on the side. My
point is, I think I think people have undervalued what
(09:41):
a scholarship means. I think we got to the point
where people are like, it means nothing. No, it means
it means something. It doesn't mean everything, and it shouldn't
preclude you from working on the side. That's always been
my tike. I want to make that very clear. I'm
with you on this one hundred percent. And so, but
the whole point of this is that I I don't
think the system is broken. Can it be refined? Absolutely.
(10:06):
It is allowing for more teams to be successful. It
is allowing for the parody that we seek that everyone
claims they want all these positives and again, it's not
your money. Why are you so concerned about what an
eighteen year old makes? Yeah, again, I think it's kind
of crazy that eighteen year old we gets two and
a half million dollars and a veteran on the team
(10:26):
doesn't make us much. But if that's the way that
Miami wants to spend their money, so be it. Like
that's their prerogative to do so. It might fracture our
team at some point, it might not. And I think
it's kind of crazy that people just seem upset by
this when in their own profession they would gladly cheer
for someone to make the most money possible.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, you're not wrong, And I will only add one
other reminder to the world. Nobody ever sat there and said, man,
I wonder if the guys in N Sync have the
proper education. No, like you ever sat there and said, man,
a sixteen seventeen year old kid shouldn't make that kind
of money. Nobody ever sat there and said Taylor Swift
made how much touring before she was eighteen? Oh no,
(11:09):
that can't be okay, Like it is amazing and arbitrary
to me. How we suddenly assign it to athletics in
a way that we don't to all other media. Like, No,
nobody's ever gonna watch a TV show and say, wait
a minute, that's a kid. That kid better not be
making good money to be on that TV show. But boy,
the minute you catch a football, throttle them back. Don't
let them earn money. It makes no sense to me.
(11:31):
Do you have kids, by the way, No, No, okay,
I have two, they're eleven and nine. And it's interesting
when you when you have kids and when you sort
of have done the college thing yourself and you look
at their academics, like, it kind of changes, at least
for me, how I feel about sort of like getting
a degree. To me, it seems more like and my
(11:53):
wife does a bunch of hiring it at her job,
and so I've asked her this before.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
You know, the degree it's important to get because it's
it signifies you've worked hard to achieve something. And that
stands out right, you went to culture four years, like
I got my degree. I don't use my degree, but
I got an agree like it's it's a sign of
of work, right, you've worked, But like I don't. I
thought I feel like I valued it way more than
(12:17):
then I probably should have. And now as a parent,
with my kids going through academics and whatnot, like I'm
like far less concerned about overall grades per se than
like how they their work habits and their work ethic
and who they are as people. That makes sense. I
think I put that degree on a pedestal that I
probably don't think that same way being a parent.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Now, that's interesting and it'll be interesting to see how
all of that gets. You know, we're in such a
transcendent time in our culture in general, it'll be interesting
to see how that's perceived. It's it's wild because we support,
you know, so many kids right now, and in a
way that's I think beautiful to go out and earn.
(13:00):
You know, you've got creators all over the place. You've
got people doing what you and I do that are
in high school and that are putting out incredible video
work and you look at it and you're like, man,
this is this is wild, like when it's talented. In
certain ways, it's amazing how we we assign what has
value and what doesn't have value, especially when it comes
to education and especially when it comes to sports. That
being said, there was a college football playoff proposal at
(13:22):
SEC Media Days that has me thinking maybe maybe we're
onto something, or maybe we're all losing our mind. We'll
tell you about it. Next to Jefterwarts. I'm Jason Fitz.
We're hanging out for Two Pros and a Cup of
Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Hey, it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
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(14:13):
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your podcast.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
It's Two Pros and a Cup of Joe. I'm Fox
Sports Radio hanging out with the Jeff Schwartz. I'm Jason Fitz,
getting caught up and ready for a wild weekend. I'm
sure for everybody.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
It's not really that wild.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I get it, but I don't know. Is there something
to your so vain being the song right now, Jeff,
are they coming at us? Are we? Yeah? Is this
a social statement being made?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I want to learn more about your your excellent violin playing.
That's that that can I so I have, dude, I
am the least musical person. I have no rhythm or
nothing when I was My parents tell the story a
lot of when I was in like fourth grade, we
learned how play the violin in school, in elementary school,
and we just were like we learned how to like
(15:06):
pick like Mary had a little wam, like nothing crazy right,
And my parents said that they choked that like I
couldn't even do it correctly for the concert, Like I
was just up there just like just everyone was on
rhythm and I was the kid like in the back
who just no idea what I was doing, just zero
clue how to play violin least not like a semester
trying to learn how to play violin just never happened, no chance.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I mean, look, I couldn't play offensive line. I mean,
we all have our skills, though. My mom started taking
piano lessons when I was really little. We had a
piano in the house and a neighbor came over to
give her lessons when I was four and my mom.
My mom and dad have no musical background. They just
like music, but they're both tone deaf, and so my
(15:53):
neighbor would come over and try and teach a lesson
and my mom couldn't figure it out, and I would
crawl up on the bench after the lesson, and by
year I could play what he was trying to teach her,
and so my parents were like, Okay, he has a
propensity for it. So they took me to UNLV at
the time to try and get me piano lessons, but
they didn't have any piano teachers available, so they said,
why don't we put him in violin for six months?
And that's where it started. I was four when I
(16:16):
started playing, and for the first six months I was
the worst. Like I started with Suzuki, which is like
this easy way to teach kids, and you're supposed to
go through a book in six months, and it took
me like a year and a half to get through
book one. Like I was terrible. I was the worst.
Like the teacher was like, please God make him stop.
But I was a really stubborn kid and I was
like no, I like this, I want to figure it
out and then once it clicked, I went through like
(16:37):
books two through ten in the next six months after that,
Like it was automatical. So by the time I was eight,
I practiced eight hours a day. I got into Juilliard
when I was ten. I played Carnegie Hall when I
was ten, Like I was a little child prodigy violinist,
Like my whole life growing up, and we didn't My parents,
you know, tried hard, but they never had much. So
I was a public school kid while going to Juilliard
(16:58):
while balancing eight hours of practice today, So like it
just the grind was my entire life. So it's it's
funny that I think that's part of the reason I
love working with athletes in general. It's because, like there
is a commonality to you know, when nobody's watching, what
are you doing, and how much work you put in
to try and get good at what you do, and
you know, there there's a It was my whole life,
(17:20):
My whole whole life. I practiced eight hours a day,
And when I got to Juilliard, I was the lazy
one because other kids had tutors and they practiced in
twelve you know, they practiced twelve hours a day. So
you know, certainly a wild journey for me.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah, there is a lot of you know, the practice
part of it is, uh, there's there's a lot to
be good. That's that's a lot. I mean, I fight
this now just as a sports parent. Like, we have
a lot of family friends that they spend a lot
of hours in the with their kids, you know, doing sports,
and it's like, I'm like, it's it's a lot. Like
(17:54):
I know there's a payoff at the end. Again, we
don't I haven't gone that direction yet, but I got
friends that, you know, their daughter's doing four hours of
gymnastics a night, like nine years old. It's like, oh,
that's feels like a lot. But I get to payoff
at the end.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Obviously it's a hard thing too, Like because when I
first when I moved to Nashville at the time, you know,
I moved with some buddies and we kept getting and
losing our own record deals, and we all thought we
were going to be famous. But I remember when I
got my first call to do a fiddle gig, and like,
I was a violinist kid that just started playing fiddle
because there's better money in it. And when I started,
(18:27):
I got my first call. They were like, great, so
if you could play mandolin on this song and acoustic
on that song, because that's Nashville. Everybody plays a million things.
And I was like, wait a minute, I spent my
whole life learning how to play this. I didn't know
you wanted me to also play this and that, Like
it's such a different classical music is such a different
commitment level that I was behind, Like I am still
behind it. But it's funny like I never because I
(18:49):
didn't grow up a fiddle player, Like I didn't grow
up playing Devil, went down to Georgia and Orange Blossom
special like little kids do. And when I started playing
fiddle gigs, I took seventies rock guitar so and just
tried to rip apart, like how did they play Hotel California?
How did they play you know, like Aerosmith's stuff, Like
like I just I took guitar solo because the way
I looked at it is like there were twelve year
olds out there that could play better fiddle than I
(19:10):
ever would ye, but it's it's funny to me that,
like you talk about sports, like I grew up in
a very specialized world and now music is less specialized,
and it's funny that in sports it feels like it's
all of my friends growing up, we're playing fifteen sports
and now they're so many kids are essentrally focused on
one or two instead. It's like the two roles have flipped.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, the thing that you know, I am vietname ly
against like specialization at that at young ages. I think
that's crazy. I mean I didn't do that, and a
lot of my friends that were professional athletes didn't do
that either. Yeah, I mean it's it's kind of crazy
how that has become a thing with with sports now.
And it's hard because you know, I feel very fortunate
to obviously have the background of playing in the NFL,
because a lot of times I want to tell these
(19:51):
parents like like sorry, but like you're you're five six,
like your your wife is five to two, like your
kids now playing Major League baseball. But I don't want
to tell them that. I don't want to ruin their
their you know, there is their existence of being a
pair of sports parent. But you know, genetics matter. You know,
things change in high school when when players get when
(20:13):
kids mature right in either direction, So you know, it's
a difficult discussion to have with with how much time
and effort you should spend with your child playing sports.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
So, dude, in fifth grade, I remember this so distinctly. Again,
I'd already gotten into Juilliard and I'd already played Carnegie
Hall at this point, and I distinctly I was so
obsessed with football on Sundays. It was my favorite thing
in the world. And I remember going to my mom
and dad and being like, I want to play Pop
Warner football, Like I just I really want to try this.
And my mom just flat out looked at me and
(20:45):
she's like, my mom's like five five and my dad's
like six foot and they're both crowny people. And my
mom looked at me and she's like, look at the
two of us, what part of this like makes you
thinking you're not going to play football? And she was like, look,
you're already graded something. I'm not going to let you
sack of something you're great at because you want to
try football when you're just gonna get murdered doing it.
And that's my mom. Like my mom was always very
(21:07):
My mom was the type to walk in the room
if I was practicing and just take it out of
my hand and always say, if that's the best you
can play the damn thing today, put it away. Like
my mom's very direct. But I always respected that because
I think I would have totally gotten off track on
what I ended up being great at just because I
wanted to play a little bit of Pop Warner football.
And I know my athleticism now is a grown ass man.
I never should have played football, right, I know this.
(21:29):
I accept it.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, to think that the hard I think the hard
part as a parent is not wanting to like to
like squash, you know, the wanting to play sports and
wanting to be a part of a team and wanting
to put the effort in right. You don't want to
tell your kids no for those reasons sometimes, But I
(21:50):
understand where your mom is coming, especially if you're good
at something else, right is you don't want to to
use up any sort of time doing something that you're
not good at. It might not have a future. So
it's a difficult part about it. I think I'm being
a parent, like you want your kids to have fun
and play sports and be involved in the community. But
sometimes it's like you said, your your mom tells you like, hey, man,
it's not for you.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Oh, my friends tell me all the time. I'm the
worst my friends with kids, cause like I'll go to
a dancer recitle for one of their kids because I
want to be a supportive buddy, you know, and it's like,
you know, she's she's eight or nine years old, she's
doing her best up there, and I'm like, yeah, I
was already a chillier. Like it makes me the worst,
I know it, But I go to these things. I'm like,
your kid doesn't have talent. I don't know how to
tell you this, Like your kid's just not good.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Oh, because they think they do. They ask you like
can can Mike?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yes, people think that they're like American Idol is living,
breathing proof that parents need to be more honest with
their kids. Sometimes at some point, like somebody and I
think parents are the delusional ones too. Like half the time,
you know, a parent will sit there and be like, oh,
you should really listen to my kid, And then I
listen and I'm like, yeah, your kids sucks. I don't
know how to tell you this, but like your kid
(22:52):
is not musically talented, like your kid's tone deaf. And
it's like but then the prints are like no, no, no, no, no,
they're good, and it's like, ah, man, I'm sorry, your
kid's not going to be famous. Like if you're asking me, look,
we're all wrong sometimes, but man, your kid doesn't have
that it factor. Like somebody's got to be honest with people.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Thankfully, I have not had anyone ask me those things
about their parents, their kids about like football and baseball whatnot.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
So wow, I guess. I guess it's maybe different in
the in the music world.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Also a number of people that you think, so.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I don't really have that question about whether they could
make it, anyone can make it or not.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
I always loved when people will come up after a
concert and like, you know, when the band was lucky
enough to have a bunch of hits and we're touring
all over the world, and you know, people will come
up after a concert and the thing that I heard
more than anything in my life was, oh, man, you
know what, I played the violin in fourth grade. I
should have stuck with it. And I'm always like, yeah, yeah,
(23:50):
because if you'd just stuck with it, like, there's no
like I've always I'm very very blessed, I'm very very lucky.
I worked my ass off and I was given a
set of talent that I I don't understand why I
was given and I'm very honored to have it. But
whenever somebody's like, oh, man, I should have stuck with it,
it's like, yeah, because if you'd have practiced forty minutes
a day for a few years, you'd be where. It's
(24:11):
a weird conception with music, where just because it's like
NBA players complain about the fact that the coverage of
their sport is skewed because so many people can play
rec league basketball, music is that times a thousand, because
so many people can sit down and play a chord
at the piano, They're like, oh, I could have been
a musician. It's like that's a lot more than that.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, i'd imagine. So again, I'm the least music a
talent of person ever, So I couldn't even tell you,
like where to be given on that, But yeah, I
mean it's talented, and you know, sometimes luck plays a
role in it, but yeah, you have to have that
baseline of talent to be successful, and it feels like
it with music. You can tell pretty early, right if
someone has it or they don't.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah, I mean, the earlier the better too, because like,
as you get older, you learn that you're dominant to
one hand or the other, Like you learn that you're
right handed, can't do anything with your left, and most
good musical instruments required to be as ambidextrous as possible.
So the earlier you start, That's why little kids that
start when they're four are more successful than kids that
start with their twelve, because when you're twelve, you're like, well,
I can't do anything with my left hand, you know
(25:08):
what I mean. So he's Jeff Swartz, I'm Jason Fitza.
Now that we've given you a music tutorial, let's give
you a college football playoff tutorial here because a suggestion
was made it SEC Media Days for a thirty team
college football playoff. What say you, Jeff?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
At this point, I think I'm willing to go back
to the BCS. I'm like willing to just to just
to end this all and go back to the BCS.
The BCS seems fine in hindsight, right, Like we just
got the two best teams that played one game and
made it happen. Here's the thing about the postseason in
my mind, Okay, postseasons are for determining champions They're not
(25:46):
participation tournaments. I think the postseasons in many sports are
too big. Now, they're too big. We don't need we
don't need a seventh NFL you know, participant in the
post reason and that team gets smoked every year in
the postseason. We wouldn't need it anymore. It's not needed. Okay,
it's not needed to have to you know, to have to,
you know, to need thirty teams in a postseason. Twelve
(26:07):
is probably too much. Now. Twelve works because you get
excitement for your team to make the postseason. Twelve works
because you get all the all the conference champions in.
It's a clean tournament, it doesn't taking very long. But
the point of any of these things is to win
a championship. And I can tell you right now, the
(26:29):
seven teams that have a chance to win a championship
in collachable this season about talent acquisition, right, That's what
it's about, coaching talent acquisition. So it's mainly to sixteen, eighteen,
twenty four, thirty. Whatever you want to do is about
making a participation tournament, not about crying a champion. Now,
if you want to, if you want that that's to me,
that's fine. If you want to make this into and
(26:49):
I'll watch all the football, you watch all the football,
we'll talk about it. If you want to make this
into a participation tournament, which is like, hey, you win
nine to three, here's your reward for ninety three, you're
a playoff team. If you want that to be what
this is. Okay about argument, but you cannot sell me
on we need more competition for a championship. Therefore we
(27:10):
need thirty teams. That's not gonna compute in my brain,
doesn't work that way. You're not winning a championship that way.
But if you frame it as a participation tournament, okay,
I buy that. But thirty teams as a competitive way
to the tournament champion is really silly to me.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I think at some point, if you're going to want
a thirty team college football playoff, as was suggested at SEC.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Media liked what's by the Missouri head coach, Yes, thank.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
You if you if that's what you're shooting for. To me,
you're basically just saying, okay, we want to recreate the
NCAA March madness vibe, and with that we are just
accepting that we're gonna get slaughters in the first round
with the hope that once every decade, somehow somebody shocks
the world. But for the most part, you're just gonna
sit and sit down and absorb that. What I think
(27:59):
therefore getting in that process is that part of the
reason March madness is March madness is because that sixteen
to one game, that fifteen to two game is rarely
a standalone game where we're just sitting there watching this
one slaughter happen. And that's the difference. Like when you've
got four TVs going at once and everybody's gambling on
all of it, then it's a great time. There's nothing
(28:19):
better than the INCI tournament. And frankly, you care about
the margin of victory because there's money on it. And
if this thing turns out to be shocking, great, you're
watching the last six minutes of it. But for the
most part, that game is just buried. In the college
football world, the windows are treated so differently. We're going
to be stuck suffering through a number one team taking
(28:41):
on a number thirty two team in all of college football,
and that's just going to be a terrible game. And
then everybody's going to sit there and say, oh my god,
why are we doing this? And people are going to
complain about having to watch a blowout, So like, that's
the lose lose.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
On it to me, it is, It absolutely is the
lose lose And that's why I think that were unlikely
to get any sort of difference in a championship result.
If you go to expanded playoff, you're just gonna get
people complaining about the end result, which again is not
where you want to be. But look, people complain no
(29:15):
matter what about everything. That's not going to change life.
But you know, even a fourteen playoff, I think the
goal for me is just finding a champion. It's pretty simple,
and that's the best way to do it.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Yeah, And I guess it comes down to that core.
What are we looking for? Do you want the best
team to be a champion or do you just want chaos?
Or do you want more meaningful football? And I think
the real answer, you know, if you're Missouri, you just
want to find a way to get included in this
thing because it means money and exposure and you're banking
on fans just want meaningful games. Like I'm not sure
(29:47):
that a random Missouri UNLV game is going to move
the needle. But if it's a Missouri UNLV playoff game,
people will watch it. So you're just banking on people's
desperation for football as being a reason to catch it
that way.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Which again, it's it's fine to say that, but we
can't say we want more competition for a championship. If
you want more eyeballs to your program, great. If you
want games to matter, great, but you know, if you
want the regular season to sort of matter more. But
I will say that as someone who you know, I'm
an Organ guy who who roots for a team that
is basically a perennial playoff team, it will be. It
(30:21):
does change the way I view the organ regular season,
where I don't view it as every game is due
or death right, like it like every game you lose
your out of the playoff. I viewed as like a
dude as an NFL fan, where it's like, okay, you
lose a game or two, like how's that? How does that?
How does that get you ready to play in the postseason?
So that you know there's it's you look at things
(30:42):
I think a little bit differently because you do an
opportunity to make the playoff with a couple of losses.
And last year, you know, we don't get know how
to stay as a champion. And they're probably were the
best team even with multiple losses. If we have a
shorter playoff, right, obviously fourteen playoff, they wouldn't even be in.
But so that's why I think twelve is probably just
about perfect. It's about where we need to be, and
(31:04):
that's where we should keep it. Thirty teams sixteen. I
don't I don't get I don't get the purpose of
continuing to you know, to to make this like more
than more than has to be. And you know, drinking
with I get it. You know, I get his thoughts
and and you know fits us right about wanting uh,
you know, more exposure and and and I understand that
(31:26):
the conferences with these TV contracts, like you get more
playoff teams, you end up probably with more money, you
end up with more exposure. All those things are important
to building a program, to building a conference and building
fan base and excitement, especially when now you're paying players. Right,
the more money you're able to generate, the more money
you're able to bring in your program, the more able
(31:46):
to play players. It's it's it's this cascade effect. But
I fundamentally believe that post seasons should be designed for
picking champions. And I just don't think that making a
postseason that is thirty teams is not You're not getting
a different champion with thirty teams, You're actually probably getting fits.
(32:09):
I would even argue, I agree with this last year,
that expanded playoff actually benefits the better teams because the
depth they have on their roster. A shorter playoff you
can get by with injury or two a four. You know,
at sixteen team playoff, A thirty teen playoff we need
to play three, four or five games. That benefits Ohio
(32:29):
State and Texas at Oregon and Georgia more than a
short playoff system.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
And you're right. And I also think that instead of
focusing on the number of playoff teams, I think, honestly
we should be focusing on how to get the best
playoff teams. And which is its own weird conversation. You
mentioned your background with the PAC twelve, which I think
is important in these in these talks because there are
certainly schools that are trying to find a way to
get included into the college football playoff. I just don't know.
(32:57):
For me, when we sit here and yell about what
it looks like, I think we should be focused more
on how do we get the best teams in. I'm
a big proponent it'll never happen. But I'm a big
proponent of if it's a twelve team playoff. I just
want the twelve best teams in college football. I don't
give a damn where they came from. I don't care
if all twelve of them are a SIS see one year.
I don't care if all twelve of them big ten.
I don't care. I just want twelve best. I don't
(33:19):
know how you find the line between getting the best
in and then getting enough people around the country in
to make it work. But I don't think adding more
teams solves that problem.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Yeah, look, the twelve best is an interesting discussion because
I do think you want to reward someone from winning
a conference. I think it's it's pretty difficult to do that,
and so I'm okay with rewarding you know, a team
and a group of five. It's just you understand that
team is just not going to have playoff success. It's
it's that simple. They're just gonna And you're right, maybe
one year they do. But you know, the thing about
about two is, you know we turn to you know,
(33:51):
Boys Estate beating Oklahoma, right, or we turn to UCF
beatings they beat someone at a bowl game one year, a
couple of years ago. Right, You have to like those.
When you play a big dog that just lost their
conference championship game, like in the Peach Bowl, that team
is checked out. Man. It's a lot of different when you
play them in a playoffs and we saw last season
when play a team in a playoff setting versus just
(34:12):
a bowl game, it's a lot different, man. Their mindset
is different, their focus is different. You're not gonna get
many upsets. It's just the way it's gonna be. No,
you mentioned earlier, you might get one that sort of
saves the whole thing you feel great about. It certainly
possible that that one, like you know, makes it all
worth it. But I mean that one is gonna be
very fleeting, man. It's not gonna happen very often.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Yeah, and the one at I mean at what expense
like that You get the one every once in a
while that comes through. It's a nice story. But like,
do we really believe that the thirtieth best team in
college football would have a shot at a national championship.
I don't think so. So then what are we doing?
No chance? I mean that's the other hard part about this,
(34:54):
all that to say, the sport itself, to your point
you made earlier, has never been better at one thing.
I'll tell you what it is. Next to Jeff Schwartz,
I'm Jason Fitz. We're hanging out with you on Two
Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
It's two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio. For over forty years, tire Rack's been helping
customers find the right tires for how, what and where
they drive. Ship fast and free, backed by free road
hazard protection, but convenient installation options like mobile tire installation
tyre rack dot Com the way tire buying should be.
I'm Jason Fitz, He's Jeff Schwartz. This song is a fraud, Jeff,
(35:38):
because the devil solo is way cooler than Johnny. The
whole problem and I told Charlie Daniels a RP this
when I had the chance to interact with him. The
whole problem with this song is that Johnny didn't really win,
Like the fix was in from the outset, the Devil
beat Johnny, and the Devil actually should have won Georgia.
I mean, there we go. I got. I don't even
think it's arguable.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
I thought about that deeply.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
I can't imagine why, just like you know, most people
probably get false starts wrong. Your Twitter mentions, most people
get the Devil went down to Georgia wrong in mine
holding holding wrong all the time, all the time. Okay,
so hear me out college football. Everybody's yelling and screaming.
But you said something earlier that I think is important.
(36:26):
I think we have more balance coming into this year
than we've had in a long time. And when you
look at recruiting numbers, which I know are tougher now
in the world, but you're seeing recruits go to more
schools than ever, it's spread out more than ever. You've
got more opportunity for schools than ever to decide how
they want to compete. In the modern market, you've got
a better opportunity in the transfer portal for teams to
(36:46):
be able to turn around and do what they need
as they need it. Replacing players has become easier than ever.
Because of all of that, I would argue that when
you look at the top I don't know, fifteen to
twenty programs this year, we're going to see a better
spread angst the top fifteen or twenty programs that we've
seen in a long time.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yes, I think so. I do understand if you're one
of the teams that's sort of uh not in that group,
not liking losing your talent every season to the portal,
which I totally understand, like that would frustrate me as well.
But the top, you know, is going to be very competitive, right,
I mean, I think you look in you look at
like the handful of teams that probably can win now,
(37:24):
and you know that's the same way every year, but
that number expands by it seems like a couple of schools
every year. Look Ohio State obviously, Oregon, Penn State, right,
Notre Dame, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, LSU probably feels that way
this season. You know, you look at it at the
Big twelve. There's teams that feel like they have an
(37:45):
opportunity to win. I mean there's Clebs in this year
is gonna be really really good Miami. I mean like
there's there's there's a lot of good teams.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
This season, one hundred percent. The hardest part is what
happens to the teams that and this has been my
contention for the last couple of year years. What happens
to the teams that are pretty good and are used
to being relevant because of it? Like what happens to
the Wisconsins, Like in the modern climate right now? What
happens to the Floridas? What happens to these teams that
(38:12):
consider themselves to be prominent, but they're frankly not going
to be prominent enough to hold on to players compared
to some of the other programs that will have more
money and have a better chance at a champions.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
They just got to figure they got to get better.
I don't tell you like they have to figure out
a way to perform better and play better and keep
that talent. It's kind of that simple. And you know Wisconsin,
for example, you know they they they are going through
a transition physic offensively every year. Now with with Fickle there,
like they're trying to find a way to get the
best they can offensively, and for so many years they
(38:45):
did things one way. They're trying to fix that. But yeah, look,
with change, you have to adapt in some part to
have adapted better than than other ones.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I mean for every oh my god, that sucks for
you know, Wisconsin that's trying to figure out how to compete.
Then you've got in Indiana that last year to the
world by storm, which is the other side of this, Like,
I mean, can't we look at some of that as
a positive? Like I struggle to see what's so broken
when you're just coming off of a year where, whether
it was an anominally or not, Indiana and Boise State
(39:14):
were able to make so much noise. Like I would
argue that, you know, Barry otom leaving UNLV for Purdue,
he has a better chance. He had a better chance
at the college Football Playoff at UNLV, then he's going
to have at Purdue. But you never know, correct.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
And that thing is otim is a good example. I mean,
you know, can he get the talent necessary PUE to
win like that? That's gonna be his biggest problem. We
know you can coach, can you get the talent.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
And the talent, well, it's all attainable. You just got
to write a check. Yeah, that's I mean, I understand that.
Then people will scream, all it shouldn't be that way.
I don't know why, Like, you just got to write
a check. If you're Googled and you want to have
the best tech employees in the world, you just got
to write a check, you know. And if you if
you want to have the best football team, you just
got to write a check. I don't I don't understand
why that's a bad thing.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
It's not. It's just bad when it comes to college athletes. Otherwise,
otherwise no one seems to care.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yeah, it's look, I want to live in a world
where ald in a world where everybody gets rich and
where all of these teams win, but most importantly, where
you feel like, hey, you can control your own destiny,
And to me, having the power to write a check
means in some ways you at least control your own
destiny and your chance to be competitive. That's all we
can ask for. All we can ask for you guys
to do is keep hanging out with Fox Sports Radio.
(40:29):
Throughout the course of the day, He's Jeff Schwartz. I'm
Jason Fitz. Thanks for listening to two pros and a
cup of Joe. Have a wonderful Friday, y'all.
College football's almost here, which means we can finally get
actual games. And I think the thing that I'm most
excited about right now, when we actually get college football
games is that it will get everybody to shut up
about all the other stuff. All of a sudden, we
will forget about the arguments about how college football should look.
We'll forget about the arguments of who gets paid what.
(00:22):
We'll forget about the arguments of nil, and we'll forget
about the arguments of profits sharing. Hell, maybe even for
a day or two, we'll forget about the arguments about
the college football playoff, and we'll have what we love,
which is just a beautiful sport. He's Jeff Schwartz. I'm
Jason Fitz hanging out on two pros and a cup
of Joe on Fox Sports Radio. And look, we'll get
to the weird playoff proposal in a minute. But I
(00:43):
do think, man, and maybe I'm wrong, Jeff, but maybe, like,
especially with the Week one matchup being Texas Ohio State,
my hope is that by getting such a landmark beginning
of the season, oh my god, two huge teams, two programs,
that everybody has their eyes on the spectacle of it, all.
What I really hope it does is it reminds us
(01:04):
that we love college football for the product on the field,
and all the rest of this stuff is just ancillary
yelling and what's become a year round yelling cycle.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Look, we're in the business I think of year round yelling,
so I don't I don't. Look. I I was on
Pack twelve radio for six years. Right, Obviously there's no
more Pac twelve, so no more packed old radio. And
the summer months were boring. I joke about this all
the time, like I'll do different radio programs and they'll
(01:34):
ask me like, hey, do you want to interview, Like
are you ready to interview like someone who covers boxing.
I'm like, Buddy, I interviewed like Colorado's cross country coach. Okay,
you know how hard is to find information on cross country?
I interviewed a Washington or Rower one time, Like I've
interviewed a lot because that's what the summer months were, right,
(01:55):
you just interview Olympic sports and you talk about previews
and and and like there was nothing to talk about, right,
And I'm not saying those are not topics worth exploring,
but for the general masses, no one's really worried about
spring collegiate sports, right, and Olympic sports. Now I wish
I was doing it still. You have, you have an
(02:16):
endless amount of information to talk about, right, endless amount
of stories in college football because of the portal and
NIL and Congress getting involved in these media days now
are three days. I'm going to Vegas next week for
Big ten Mediaday to cover Big ten Media Day. Like
they're three days, four days long. It's just intense amount
of stuff that comes out. Like I actually from a
(02:37):
perspective of like content, I mean, college football couldn't be better.
But you're right, I can't wait to get the football
because when you get more content, you get a lot
more people saying things that are ridiculous. And I'm looking
forward to just getting back to the ball and we'll
get there soon enough. I mean, look, week zero is
(03:00):
what it's August twenty third, I think, so we're close
a month, a month and five days away.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
God, And I mean it can't come close. It can't
come soon enough, you know, because all of this conversation.
Number one, I go back to what Saban said last
year on a game day that was really important, you know, say,
sat there and talked about financials, and he said, we've
got to make sure you're paying the right guys. Like,
we're so obsessed right now with how much people are
(03:28):
making and how much programs they're spending, and everybody wants
somebody to step in and make it fair and equitable,
but they want to do it in a way that
doesn't allow the players to continue to grow, and they
also want to do it in a way that seems
to throttle back certain programs, Like I don't understand, you know,
at some point what the logic behind any of it is.
I hope that we get a standard in practice, just
because that makes it easier for us to have rules
(03:51):
and norms. And you mentioned earlier, we're years away from it,
but the faster they can accelerate a process that turns
us into programs that are negotiating against a union. I
just that's that's inevitability. Until we get to that point,
we are not going to have equal playing field. We're
not going to have any even concept of fairness.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Okay, but but fairness is a myth in sports, right,
Like we get that fairness is a myth, especially in
college sports where we've had the same teams win every year, right,
I mean, like we the last first time winner in
college football, like first up champions I think Florida in
the nineties. Everyone's win a championship since has already won
(04:29):
a championship in previous years. It is not a sport
that it's ever had any sum It's a parody. And
and what NIL is doing though, is it is it
is trying to correct that. Again. Look, I'm Texas Tech
is paying for a roster. Look at SMU last season
being able in year one to go to the ACC
and be competitive. It's not because they were just good
(04:52):
old two stars and we coached. No, they got they
got the dudes, right, you're able to you know, teams
are able to keep players now that they weren't able
to keep. They're able to pay them now. So it
is it is helping the parody of the sport. And
the thing that I the comment I always go to,
I think it's important to note here is it's not
my money. It's not your money, right, don't donate to
(05:14):
organ You don't donate to organ or whatever schools are you,
whatever school you support, It's not if if Nike or
Phil Knight or whoever, all the the booshes. We gotta
organ if they want to spend their money on paying
eighteen year olds, more power to you, not my money.
I'm not spending my money that way.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Of course I'm gonna want to watch it, and I
hope we keep spending the money the way we do.
But all these things about like fair and like sports
are not fair. Man. It's never been fair, and this
is just making it, I think, in my in my opinion,
more fair. We have more opportunities for teams to succeed
that we've had in the past because they're able to
keep players, develop players. And we're seeing a team like
(05:54):
like like Texas Tech for example, build up the roster
because they're able to pay players.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I mean in that sense ever, the capitalist that I am,
I will understand that there's a part of me that
I got killed on Twitter yesterday for saying this. But
like to me, if you want to win, cool you
actually can. You can impact that. Not you personally, but
like for all of us. If you're sitting around saying
I want my favorite team to win. I grew up
in Vegas as a kid, right, so I grew up
(06:22):
around UNLV basketball. It is virtually impossible for UNLV basketball
to become relevant again consistently. But now if they want to,
all they got to do is find the right money
from the right casino magnets, and all of a sudden,
bam think it. They could go out and buy whatever
team they want. You want to win an NCAA championship
in basket, if you want to have a shot at it,
you can do it. Now. It takes a lot more
money for a lot more time to do that from
(06:43):
a football standpoint. But man, if you want to make
UNLV football the most prominent team on the entire West Coast,
find the money. And if you can't find the money,
then whose fault is that? Like I just I don't
know why we need everybody to step in and swoop
in and save college football. Like this is an empowering
error college football. If you want to have the best team,
go out and buy the best team. If there was
(07:04):
no salary cap in the NFL, could you imagine the
wild Wild West? It would be the Denver, the Dallas Cowboys.
Like I just, the teams could go on and spend
whatever they want, however they want, whenever they want. That's
college football, now, that's opportunity. I look at it as opportunity,
not as limiting.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
It's opportunity for players to to get paid a wager,
of course, a fair wager. And again, look, do I
think that an eighteen year old should be paid more
than a season veteran. No, I don't think so. And
I think that schools are fair that out, like, we
just can't pay young players more than we pay our veterans, Like,
I think that's probably bad roster building. I'm bad for morale,
(07:42):
but I'm all for players getting what they deserve. Right
for so many years we didn't right now. The only
pushback I have on this a little bit is that
a scholarship is worth something. I left college with no debt.
My wife left college with a lot of debt. I mean,
it's something right not to have that scholarship a degree
for free. It does matter, there is value in that.
(08:03):
But if you provide your school with more value by
playing football, you should earn a wage for that. And
players are now earning that wage, which, yeah, they didn't
earn that wage for a long long time.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
So I think this is the only pushback on my
scholarship pushback. This is always my scholarship pushback. Yes, I
was offered, for example, a full scholarship to be as
a violin major. As a kid, I was offered a
full scholarship to Indiana. If I had gone to Indiana,
I would have studied with At the time, they had
one of the best violin teachers in the world weirdly,
(08:32):
in their classical music department. I would have had the
best facilities. Because they have great music facilities, I would
have been able to turn around and immediately start teaching
in the area at an elevated cost per hour. Because
I went to Indiana for music, I would have been
able to go out and get gigs in the orchestra
if I wanted to, I could have started working that day.
And because I had Indiana on my resume in that area,
(08:55):
I would have in Bloomington, I would have made way
more money than just a regular kid because I had
a particular set of skills and they offered me a
full scholarship. My only argument has always been the scholarship
has value, but every other kid that gets that full
ride gets to monetize that opportunity from the day they
step on campus. Just because you play basketball or football
doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to do the same.
(09:16):
So that's been my.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Made it very clear. Uh, I've made the same argument
for years by the way, that you should be able
to earn and have a scholarship like because your example
is actually one I always use. For instance, I've always
said that like a musician, right is able to be
on scholarship and also earn money on the side. My
point is, I think I think people have undervalued what
(09:41):
a scholarship means. I think we got to the point
where people are like, it means nothing. No, it means
it means something. It doesn't mean everything, and it shouldn't
preclude you from working on the side. That's always been
my tike. I want to make that very clear. I'm
with you on this one hundred percent. And so, but
the whole point of this is that I I don't
think the system is broken. Can it be refined? Absolutely.
(10:06):
It is allowing for more teams to be successful. It
is allowing for the parody that we seek that everyone
claims they want all these positives and again, it's not
your money. Why are you so concerned about what an
eighteen year old makes? Yeah, again, I think it's kind
of crazy that eighteen year old we gets two and
a half million dollars and a veteran on the team
(10:26):
doesn't make us much. But if that's the way that
Miami wants to spend their money, so be it. Like
that's their prerogative to do so. It might fracture our
team at some point, it might not. And I think
it's kind of crazy that people just seem upset by
this when in their own profession they would gladly cheer
for someone to make the most money possible.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, you're not wrong, And I will only add one
other reminder to the world. Nobody ever sat there and said, man,
I wonder if the guys in N Sync have the
proper education. No, like you ever sat there and said, man,
a sixteen seventeen year old kid shouldn't make that kind
of money. Nobody ever sat there and said Taylor Swift
made how much touring before she was eighteen? Oh no,
(11:09):
that can't be okay, Like it is amazing and arbitrary
to me. How we suddenly assign it to athletics in
a way that we don't to all other media. Like, No,
nobody's ever gonna watch a TV show and say, wait
a minute, that's a kid. That kid better not be
making good money to be on that TV show. But boy,
the minute you catch a football, throttle them back. Don't
let them earn money. It makes no sense to me.
(11:31):
Do you have kids, by the way, No, No, okay,
I have two, they're eleven and nine. And it's interesting
when you when you have kids and when you sort
of have done the college thing yourself and you look
at their academics, like, it kind of changes, at least
for me, how I feel about sort of like getting
a degree. To me, it seems more like and my
(11:53):
wife does a bunch of hiring it at her job,
and so I've asked her this before.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
You know, the degree it's important to get because it's
it signifies you've worked hard to achieve something. And that
stands out right, you went to culture four years, like
I got my degree. I don't use my degree, but
I got an agree like it's it's a sign of
of work, right, you've worked, But like I don't. I
thought I feel like I valued it way more than
(12:17):
then I probably should have. And now as a parent,
with my kids going through academics and whatnot, like I'm
like far less concerned about overall grades per se than
like how they their work habits and their work ethic
and who they are as people. That makes sense. I
think I put that degree on a pedestal that I
probably don't think that same way being a parent.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Now, that's interesting and it'll be interesting to see how
all of that gets. You know, we're in such a
transcendent time in our culture in general, it'll be interesting
to see how that's perceived. It's it's wild because we support,
you know, so many kids right now, and in a
way that's I think beautiful to go out and earn.
(13:00):
You know, you've got creators all over the place. You've
got people doing what you and I do that are
in high school and that are putting out incredible video
work and you look at it and you're like, man,
this is this is wild, like when it's talented. In
certain ways, it's amazing how we we assign what has
value and what doesn't have value, especially when it comes
to education and especially when it comes to sports. That
being said, there was a college football playoff proposal at
(13:22):
SEC Media Days that has me thinking maybe maybe we're
onto something, or maybe we're all losing our mind. We'll
tell you about it. Next to Jefterwarts. I'm Jason Fitz.
We're hanging out for Two Pros and a Cup of
Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Hey, it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of pipe in hop baseball talk featuring
the biggest aim the newsmakers in the sport. Whether you
believe in analytics or the I Test, We've got all
the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, so do
yourself a favor and listen to Inside the Partner with
(14:13):
Rob Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get
your podcast.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
It's Two Pros and a Cup of Joe. I'm Fox
Sports Radio hanging out with the Jeff Schwartz. I'm Jason Fitz,
getting caught up and ready for a wild weekend. I'm
sure for everybody.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
It's not really that wild.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I get it, but I don't know. Is there something
to your so vain being the song right now, Jeff,
are they coming at us? Are we? Yeah? Is this
a social statement being made?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I want to learn more about your your excellent violin playing.
That's that that can I so I have, dude, I
am the least musical person. I have no rhythm or
nothing when I was My parents tell the story a
lot of when I was in like fourth grade, we
learned how play the violin in school, in elementary school,
and we just were like we learned how to like
(15:06):
pick like Mary had a little wam, like nothing crazy right,
And my parents said that they choked that like I
couldn't even do it correctly for the concert, Like I
was just up there just like just everyone was on
rhythm and I was the kid like in the back
who just no idea what I was doing, just zero
clue how to play violin least not like a semester
trying to learn how to play violin just never happened, no chance.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I mean, look, I couldn't play offensive line. I mean,
we all have our skills, though. My mom started taking
piano lessons when I was really little. We had a
piano in the house and a neighbor came over to
give her lessons when I was four and my mom.
My mom and dad have no musical background. They just
like music, but they're both tone deaf, and so my
(15:53):
neighbor would come over and try and teach a lesson
and my mom couldn't figure it out, and I would
crawl up on the bench after the lesson, and by
year I could play what he was trying to teach her,
and so my parents were like, Okay, he has a
propensity for it. So they took me to UNLV at
the time to try and get me piano lessons, but
they didn't have any piano teachers available, so they said,
why don't we put him in violin for six months?
And that's where it started. I was four when I
(16:16):
started playing, and for the first six months I was
the worst. Like I started with Suzuki, which is like
this easy way to teach kids, and you're supposed to
go through a book in six months, and it took
me like a year and a half to get through
book one. Like I was terrible. I was the worst.
Like the teacher was like, please God make him stop.
But I was a really stubborn kid and I was
like no, I like this, I want to figure it
out and then once it clicked, I went through like
(16:37):
books two through ten in the next six months after that,
Like it was automatical. So by the time I was eight,
I practiced eight hours a day. I got into Juilliard
when I was ten. I played Carnegie Hall when I
was ten, Like I was a little child prodigy violinist,
Like my whole life growing up, and we didn't My parents,
you know, tried hard, but they never had much. So
I was a public school kid while going to Juilliard
(16:58):
while balancing eight hours of practice today, So like it
just the grind was my entire life. So it's it's
funny that I think that's part of the reason I
love working with athletes in general. It's because, like there
is a commonality to you know, when nobody's watching, what
are you doing, and how much work you put in
to try and get good at what you do, and
you know, there there's a It was my whole life,
(17:20):
My whole whole life. I practiced eight hours a day,
And when I got to Juilliard, I was the lazy
one because other kids had tutors and they practiced in
twelve you know, they practiced twelve hours a day. So
you know, certainly a wild journey for me.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah, there is a lot of you know, the practice
part of it is, uh, there's there's a lot to
be good. That's that's a lot. I mean, I fight
this now just as a sports parent. Like, we have
a lot of family friends that they spend a lot
of hours in the with their kids, you know, doing sports,
and it's like, I'm like, it's it's a lot. Like
(17:54):
I know there's a payoff at the end. Again, we
don't I haven't gone that direction yet, but I got
friends that, you know, their daughter's doing four hours of
gymnastics a night, like nine years old. It's like, oh,
that's feels like a lot. But I get to payoff
at the end.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Obviously it's a hard thing too, Like because when I
first when I moved to Nashville at the time, you know,
I moved with some buddies and we kept getting and
losing our own record deals, and we all thought we
were going to be famous. But I remember when I
got my first call to do a fiddle gig, and like,
I was a violinist kid that just started playing fiddle
because there's better money in it. And when I started,
(18:27):
I got my first call. They were like, great, so
if you could play mandolin on this song and acoustic
on that song, because that's Nashville. Everybody plays a million things.
And I was like, wait a minute, I spent my
whole life learning how to play this. I didn't know
you wanted me to also play this and that, Like
it's such a different classical music is such a different
commitment level that I was behind, Like I am still
behind it. But it's funny like I never because I
(18:49):
didn't grow up a fiddle player, Like I didn't grow
up playing Devil, went down to Georgia and Orange Blossom
special like little kids do. And when I started playing
fiddle gigs, I took seventies rock guitar so and just
tried to rip apart, like how did they play Hotel California?
How did they play you know, like Aerosmith's stuff, Like
like I just I took guitar solo because the way
I looked at it is like there were twelve year
olds out there that could play better fiddle than I
(19:10):
ever would ye, but it's it's funny to me that,
like you talk about sports, like I grew up in
a very specialized world and now music is less specialized,
and it's funny that in sports it feels like it's
all of my friends growing up, we're playing fifteen sports
and now they're so many kids are essentrally focused on
one or two instead. It's like the two roles have flipped.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, the thing that you know, I am vietname ly
against like specialization at that at young ages. I think
that's crazy. I mean I didn't do that, and a
lot of my friends that were professional athletes didn't do
that either. Yeah, I mean it's it's kind of crazy
how that has become a thing with with sports now.
And it's hard because you know, I feel very fortunate
to obviously have the background of playing in the NFL,
because a lot of times I want to tell these
(19:51):
parents like like sorry, but like you're you're five six,
like your your wife is five to two, like your
kids now playing Major League baseball. But I don't want
to tell them that. I don't want to ruin their
their you know, there is their existence of being a
pair of sports parent. But you know, genetics matter. You know,
things change in high school when when players get when
(20:13):
kids mature right in either direction, So you know, it's
a difficult discussion to have with with how much time
and effort you should spend with your child playing sports.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
So, dude, in fifth grade, I remember this so distinctly. Again,
I'd already gotten into Juilliard and I'd already played Carnegie
Hall at this point, and I distinctly I was so
obsessed with football on Sundays. It was my favorite thing
in the world. And I remember going to my mom
and dad and being like, I want to play Pop
Warner football, Like I just I really want to try this.
And my mom just flat out looked at me and
(20:45):
she's like, my mom's like five five and my dad's
like six foot and they're both crowny people. And my
mom looked at me and she's like, look at the
two of us, what part of this like makes you
thinking you're not going to play football? And she was like, look,
you're already graded something. I'm not going to let you
sack of something you're great at because you want to
try football when you're just gonna get murdered doing it.
And that's my mom. Like my mom was always very
(21:07):
My mom was the type to walk in the room
if I was practicing and just take it out of
my hand and always say, if that's the best you
can play the damn thing today, put it away. Like
my mom's very direct. But I always respected that because
I think I would have totally gotten off track on
what I ended up being great at just because I
wanted to play a little bit of Pop Warner football.
And I know my athleticism now is a grown ass man.
I never should have played football, right, I know this.
(21:29):
I accept it.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, to think that the hard I think the hard
part as a parent is not wanting to like to
like squash, you know, the wanting to play sports and
wanting to be a part of a team and wanting
to put the effort in right. You don't want to
tell your kids no for those reasons sometimes, But I
(21:50):
understand where your mom is coming, especially if you're good
at something else, right is you don't want to to
use up any sort of time doing something that you're
not good at. It might not have a future. So
it's a difficult part about it. I think I'm being
a parent, like you want your kids to have fun
and play sports and be involved in the community. But
sometimes it's like you said, your your mom tells you like, hey, man,
it's not for you.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Oh, my friends tell me all the time. I'm the
worst my friends with kids, cause like I'll go to
a dancer recitle for one of their kids because I
want to be a supportive buddy, you know, and it's like,
you know, she's she's eight or nine years old, she's
doing her best up there, and I'm like, yeah, I
was already a chillier. Like it makes me the worst,
I know it, But I go to these things. I'm like,
your kid doesn't have talent. I don't know how to
tell you this, Like your kid's just not good.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Oh, because they think they do. They ask you like
can can Mike?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yes, people think that they're like American Idol is living,
breathing proof that parents need to be more honest with
their kids. Sometimes at some point, like somebody and I
think parents are the delusional ones too. Like half the time,
you know, a parent will sit there and be like, oh,
you should really listen to my kid, And then I
listen and I'm like, yeah, your kids sucks. I don't
know how to tell you this, but like your kid
(22:52):
is not musically talented, like your kid's tone deaf. And
it's like but then the prints are like no, no, no, no, no,
they're good, and it's like, ah, man, I'm sorry, your
kid's not going to be famous. Like if you're asking me, look,
we're all wrong sometimes, but man, your kid doesn't have
that it factor. Like somebody's got to be honest with people.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Thankfully, I have not had anyone ask me those things
about their parents, their kids about like football and baseball whatnot.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
So wow, I guess. I guess it's maybe different in
the in the music world.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Also a number of people that you think, so.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I don't really have that question about whether they could
make it, anyone can make it or not.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
I always loved when people will come up after a
concert and like, you know, when the band was lucky
enough to have a bunch of hits and we're touring
all over the world, and you know, people will come
up after a concert and the thing that I heard
more than anything in my life was, oh, man, you
know what, I played the violin in fourth grade. I
should have stuck with it. And I'm always like, yeah, yeah,
(23:50):
because if you'd just stuck with it, like, there's no
like I've always I'm very very blessed, I'm very very lucky.
I worked my ass off and I was given a
set of talent that I I don't understand why I
was given and I'm very honored to have it. But
whenever somebody's like, oh, man, I should have stuck with it,
it's like, yeah, because if you'd have practiced forty minutes
a day for a few years, you'd be where. It's
(24:11):
a weird conception with music, where just because it's like
NBA players complain about the fact that the coverage of
their sport is skewed because so many people can play
rec league basketball, music is that times a thousand, because
so many people can sit down and play a chord
at the piano, They're like, oh, I could have been
a musician. It's like that's a lot more than that.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, i'd imagine. So again, I'm the least music a
talent of person ever, So I couldn't even tell you,
like where to be given on that, But yeah, I
mean it's talented, and you know, sometimes luck plays a
role in it, but yeah, you have to have that
baseline of talent to be successful, and it feels like
it with music. You can tell pretty early, right if
someone has it or they don't.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah, I mean, the earlier the better too, because like,
as you get older, you learn that you're dominant to
one hand or the other, Like you learn that you're
right handed, can't do anything with your left, and most
good musical instruments required to be as ambidextrous as possible.
So the earlier you start, That's why little kids that
start when they're four are more successful than kids that
start with their twelve, because when you're twelve, you're like, well,
I can't do anything with my left hand, you know
(25:08):
what I mean. So he's Jeff Swartz, I'm Jason Fitza.
Now that we've given you a music tutorial, let's give
you a college football playoff tutorial here because a suggestion
was made it SEC Media Days for a thirty team
college football playoff. What say you, Jeff?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
At this point, I think I'm willing to go back
to the BCS. I'm like willing to just to just
to end this all and go back to the BCS.
The BCS seems fine in hindsight, right, Like we just
got the two best teams that played one game and
made it happen. Here's the thing about the postseason in
my mind, Okay, postseasons are for determining champions They're not
(25:46):
participation tournaments. I think the postseasons in many sports are
too big. Now, they're too big. We don't need we
don't need a seventh NFL you know, participant in the
post reason and that team gets smoked every year in
the postseason. We wouldn't need it anymore. It's not needed. Okay,
it's not needed to have to you know, to have to,
you know, to need thirty teams in a postseason. Twelve
(26:07):
is probably too much. Now. Twelve works because you get
excitement for your team to make the postseason. Twelve works
because you get all the all the conference champions in.
It's a clean tournament, it doesn't taking very long. But
the point of any of these things is to win
a championship. And I can tell you right now, the
(26:29):
seven teams that have a chance to win a championship
in collachable this season about talent acquisition, right, That's what
it's about, coaching talent acquisition. So it's mainly to sixteen, eighteen,
twenty four, thirty. Whatever you want to do is about
making a participation tournament, not about crying a champion. Now,
if you want to, if you want that that's to me,
that's fine. If you want to make this into and
(26:49):
I'll watch all the football, you watch all the football,
we'll talk about it. If you want to make this
into a participation tournament, which is like, hey, you win
nine to three, here's your reward for ninety three, you're
a playoff team. If you want that to be what
this is. Okay about argument, but you cannot sell me
on we need more competition for a championship. Therefore we
(27:10):
need thirty teams. That's not gonna compute in my brain,
doesn't work that way. You're not winning a championship that way.
But if you frame it as a participation tournament, okay,
I buy that. But thirty teams as a competitive way
to the tournament champion is really silly to me.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I think at some point, if you're going to want
a thirty team college football playoff, as was suggested at SEC.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Media liked what's by the Missouri head coach, Yes, thank.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
You if you if that's what you're shooting for. To me,
you're basically just saying, okay, we want to recreate the
NCAA March madness vibe, and with that we are just
accepting that we're gonna get slaughters in the first round
with the hope that once every decade, somehow somebody shocks
the world. But for the most part, you're just gonna
sit and sit down and absorb that. What I think
(27:59):
therefore getting in that process is that part of the
reason March madness is March madness is because that sixteen
to one game, that fifteen to two game is rarely
a standalone game where we're just sitting there watching this
one slaughter happen. And that's the difference. Like when you've
got four TVs going at once and everybody's gambling on
all of it, then it's a great time. There's nothing
(28:19):
better than the INCI tournament. And frankly, you care about
the margin of victory because there's money on it. And
if this thing turns out to be shocking, great, you're
watching the last six minutes of it. But for the
most part, that game is just buried. In the college
football world, the windows are treated so differently. We're going
to be stuck suffering through a number one team taking
(28:41):
on a number thirty two team in all of college football,
and that's just going to be a terrible game. And
then everybody's going to sit there and say, oh my god,
why are we doing this? And people are going to
complain about having to watch a blowout, So like, that's
the lose lose.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
On it to me, it is, It absolutely is the
lose lose And that's why I think that were unlikely
to get any sort of difference in a championship result.
If you go to expanded playoff, you're just gonna get
people complaining about the end result, which again is not
where you want to be. But look, people complain no
(29:15):
matter what about everything. That's not going to change life.
But you know, even a fourteen playoff, I think the
goal for me is just finding a champion. It's pretty simple,
and that's the best way to do it.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Yeah, And I guess it comes down to that core.
What are we looking for? Do you want the best
team to be a champion or do you just want chaos?
Or do you want more meaningful football? And I think
the real answer, you know, if you're Missouri, you just
want to find a way to get included in this
thing because it means money and exposure and you're banking
on fans just want meaningful games. Like I'm not sure
(29:47):
that a random Missouri UNLV game is going to move
the needle. But if it's a Missouri UNLV playoff game,
people will watch it. So you're just banking on people's
desperation for football as being a reason to catch it
that way.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Which again, it's it's fine to say that, but we
can't say we want more competition for a championship. If
you want more eyeballs to your program, great. If you
want games to matter, great, but you know, if you
want the regular season to sort of matter more. But
I will say that as someone who you know, I'm
an Organ guy who who roots for a team that
is basically a perennial playoff team, it will be. It
(30:21):
does change the way I view the organ regular season,
where I don't view it as every game is due
or death right, like it like every game you lose
your out of the playoff. I viewed as like a
dude as an NFL fan, where it's like, okay, you
lose a game or two, like how's that? How does that?
How does that get you ready to play in the postseason?
So that you know there's it's you look at things
(30:42):
I think a little bit differently because you do an
opportunity to make the playoff with a couple of losses.
And last year, you know, we don't get know how
to stay as a champion. And they're probably were the
best team even with multiple losses. If we have a
shorter playoff, right, obviously fourteen playoff, they wouldn't even be in.
But so that's why I think twelve is probably just
about perfect. It's about where we need to be, and
(31:04):
that's where we should keep it. Thirty teams sixteen. I
don't I don't get I don't get the purpose of
continuing to you know, to to make this like more
than more than has to be. And you know, drinking
with I get it. You know, I get his thoughts
and and you know fits us right about wanting uh,
you know, more exposure and and and I understand that
(31:26):
the conferences with these TV contracts, like you get more
playoff teams, you end up probably with more money, you
end up with more exposure. All those things are important
to building a program, to building a conference and building
fan base and excitement, especially when now you're paying players. Right,
the more money you're able to generate, the more money
you're able to bring in your program, the more able
(31:46):
to play players. It's it's it's this cascade effect. But
I fundamentally believe that post seasons should be designed for
picking champions. And I just don't think that making a
postseason that is thirty teams is not You're not getting
a different champion with thirty teams, You're actually probably getting fits.
(32:09):
I would even argue, I agree with this last year,
that expanded playoff actually benefits the better teams because the
depth they have on their roster. A shorter playoff you
can get by with injury or two a four. You know,
at sixteen team playoff, A thirty teen playoff we need
to play three, four or five games. That benefits Ohio
(32:29):
State and Texas at Oregon and Georgia more than a
short playoff system.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
And you're right. And I also think that instead of
focusing on the number of playoff teams, I think, honestly
we should be focusing on how to get the best
playoff teams. And which is its own weird conversation. You
mentioned your background with the PAC twelve, which I think
is important in these in these talks because there are
certainly schools that are trying to find a way to
get included into the college football playoff. I just don't know.
(32:57):
For me, when we sit here and yell about what
it looks like, I think we should be focused more
on how do we get the best teams in. I'm
a big proponent it'll never happen. But I'm a big
proponent of if it's a twelve team playoff. I just
want the twelve best teams in college football. I don't
give a damn where they came from. I don't care
if all twelve of them are a SIS see one year.
I don't care if all twelve of them big ten.
I don't care. I just want twelve best. I don't
(33:19):
know how you find the line between getting the best
in and then getting enough people around the country in
to make it work. But I don't think adding more
teams solves that problem.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Yeah, look, the twelve best is an interesting discussion because
I do think you want to reward someone from winning
a conference. I think it's it's pretty difficult to do that,
and so I'm okay with rewarding you know, a team
and a group of five. It's just you understand that
team is just not going to have playoff success. It's
it's that simple. They're just gonna And you're right, maybe
one year they do. But you know, the thing about
about two is, you know we turn to you know,
(33:51):
Boys Estate beating Oklahoma, right, or we turn to UCF
beatings they beat someone at a bowl game one year, a
couple of years ago. Right, You have to like those.
When you play a big dog that just lost their
conference championship game, like in the Peach Bowl, that team
is checked out. Man. It's a lot of different when you
play them in a playoffs and we saw last season
when play a team in a playoff setting versus just
(34:12):
a bowl game, it's a lot different, man. Their mindset
is different, their focus is different. You're not gonna get
many upsets. It's just the way it's gonna be. No,
you mentioned earlier, you might get one that sort of
saves the whole thing you feel great about. It certainly
possible that that one, like you know, makes it all
worth it. But I mean that one is gonna be
very fleeting, man. It's not gonna happen very often.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Yeah, and the one at I mean at what expense
like that You get the one every once in a
while that comes through. It's a nice story. But like,
do we really believe that the thirtieth best team in
college football would have a shot at a national championship.
I don't think so. So then what are we doing?
No chance? I mean that's the other hard part about this,
(34:54):
all that to say, the sport itself, to your point
you made earlier, has never been better at one thing.
I'll tell you what it is. Next to Jeff Schwartz,
I'm Jason Fitz. We're hanging out with you on Two
Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
It's two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio. For over forty years, tire Rack's been helping
customers find the right tires for how, what and where
they drive. Ship fast and free, backed by free road
hazard protection, but convenient installation options like mobile tire installation
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I'm Jason Fitz, He's Jeff Schwartz. This song is a fraud, Jeff,
(35:38):
because the devil solo is way cooler than Johnny. The
whole problem and I told Charlie Daniels a RP this
when I had the chance to interact with him. The
whole problem with this song is that Johnny didn't really win,
Like the fix was in from the outset, the Devil
beat Johnny, and the Devil actually should have won Georgia.
I mean, there we go. I got. I don't even
think it's arguable.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
I thought about that deeply.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
I can't imagine why, just like you know, most people
probably get false starts wrong. Your Twitter mentions, most people
get the Devil went down to Georgia wrong in mine
holding holding wrong all the time, all the time. Okay,
so hear me out college football. Everybody's yelling and screaming.
But you said something earlier that I think is important.
(36:26):
I think we have more balance coming into this year
than we've had in a long time. And when you
look at recruiting numbers, which I know are tougher now
in the world, but you're seeing recruits go to more
schools than ever, it's spread out more than ever. You've
got more opportunity for schools than ever to decide how
they want to compete. In the modern market, you've got
a better opportunity in the transfer portal for teams to
(36:46):
be able to turn around and do what they need
as they need it. Replacing players has become easier than ever.
Because of all of that, I would argue that when
you look at the top I don't know, fifteen to
twenty programs this year, we're going to see a better
spread angst the top fifteen or twenty programs that we've
seen in a long time.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yes, I think so. I do understand if you're one
of the teams that's sort of uh not in that group,
not liking losing your talent every season to the portal,
which I totally understand, like that would frustrate me as well.
But the top, you know, is going to be very competitive, right,
I mean, I think you look in you look at
like the handful of teams that probably can win now,
(37:24):
and you know that's the same way every year, but
that number expands by it seems like a couple of schools
every year. Look Ohio State obviously, Oregon, Penn State, right,
Notre Dame, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, LSU probably feels that way
this season. You know, you look at it at the
Big twelve. There's teams that feel like they have an
(37:45):
opportunity to win. I mean there's Clebs in this year
is gonna be really really good Miami. I mean like
there's there's there's a lot of good teams.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
This season, one hundred percent. The hardest part is what
happens to the teams that and this has been my
contention for the last couple of year years. What happens
to the teams that are pretty good and are used
to being relevant because of it? Like what happens to
the Wisconsins, Like in the modern climate right now? What
happens to the Floridas? What happens to these teams that
(38:12):
consider themselves to be prominent, but they're frankly not going
to be prominent enough to hold on to players compared
to some of the other programs that will have more
money and have a better chance at a champions.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
They just got to figure they got to get better.
I don't tell you like they have to figure out
a way to perform better and play better and keep
that talent. It's kind of that simple. And you know Wisconsin,
for example, you know they they they are going through
a transition physic offensively every year. Now with with Fickle there,
like they're trying to find a way to get the
best they can offensively, and for so many years they
(38:45):
did things one way. They're trying to fix that. But yeah, look,
with change, you have to adapt in some part to
have adapted better than than other ones.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I mean for every oh my god, that sucks for
you know, Wisconsin that's trying to figure out how to compete.
Then you've got in Indiana that last year to the
world by storm, which is the other side of this, Like,
I mean, can't we look at some of that as
a positive? Like I struggle to see what's so broken
when you're just coming off of a year where, whether
it was an anominally or not, Indiana and Boise State
(39:14):
were able to make so much noise. Like I would
argue that, you know, Barry otom leaving UNLV for Purdue,
he has a better chance. He had a better chance
at the college Football Playoff at UNLV, then he's going
to have at Purdue. But you never know, correct.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
And that thing is otim is a good example. I mean,
you know, can he get the talent necessary PUE to
win like that? That's gonna be his biggest problem. We
know you can coach, can you get the talent.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
And the talent, well, it's all attainable. You just got
to write a check. Yeah, that's I mean, I understand that.
Then people will scream, all it shouldn't be that way.
I don't know why, Like, you just got to write
a check. If you're Googled and you want to have
the best tech employees in the world, you just got
to write a check, you know. And if you if
you want to have the best football team, you just
got to write a check. I don't I don't understand
why that's a bad thing.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
It's not. It's just bad when it comes to college athletes. Otherwise,
otherwise no one seems to care.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yeah, it's look, I want to live in a world
where ald in a world where everybody gets rich and
where all of these teams win, but most importantly, where
you feel like, hey, you can control your own destiny,
And to me, having the power to write a check
means in some ways you at least control your own
destiny and your chance to be competitive. That's all we
can ask for. All we can ask for you guys
to do is keep hanging out with Fox Sports Radio.
(40:29):
Throughout the course of the day, He's Jeff Schwartz. I'm
Jason Fitz. Thanks for listening to two pros and a
cup of Joe. Have a wonderful Friday, y'all.
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Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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