ESPN's Bill Connelly On Looming 2025 Chaos, Uncertain Quarterbacks & College Football’s Future

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the solid verbal hull.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
For me, I'm a man, I'm forty.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
be happy. You want to be happy for dake Edo State?

Speaker 4 (00:13):
Is that? Whoo whoo? And no them and tie Dan Rubinstee,
we come on the airwaves today, shortling over some audio
editing that you did that you may unveil at some point,
maybe not this episode, but as the season gets a
little closer.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah, Well, what we do during the season is we nickname.
We try to nickname. We attempt to nickname each and
every Saturday based on the matchups, based on the vibes
of that week and what it might mean for the
bigger narratives of the season, and so generally speaking, early
in the week, I will do like the Aaron Sorkin
long Shower brainstorm thing, and I'll think about where my

(00:56):
mind is going with regard to, oh, it's Nora Scalinois week,
and what does that have in common with ASU Texas
Tech Week? And I'll just think about what's on the
line that week, and then I'll come up with something
generally with an S or A you know the CS.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Sound, and you know, we alliterate and go from there.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
And I just thought of something that made me laugh
today and I immediately went down to the very silly
audio lab and made it. And I don't know when
we'll use it. I think we're going to use it
going into week one. Honestly, we couldn't want to hold
onto it.

Speaker 5 (01:28):
We could No, there's no reason to keep an ace
like that up your sleeve. By the way, I'm ready
willing and able to fully seed control of the Saturday
naming over to you.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Oh that's it.

Speaker 5 (01:41):
I think you're better at it. I think we can
just kind of give that over to you. Maybe I
can steal another part of our preview content and make
it my own. The window of opportunity. I think I'm
a little better at that anyway, definitely, so we can
make that trade here now. If you're cool with that.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
I'm absolutely great with that. I would love to be
the Saturday's are the Saturday namings are good?

Speaker 1 (02:02):
I think we got it.

Speaker 5 (02:02):
Well, Hey, welcome back in. I'm ty he is Dan.
This is a solid verb. But we've got an interview
that Dan conducted last week with our friend Bill Connolly
from ESPN dot com on deck here in just a
few moments I had a chance, of course, because I
put the episodes together to listen to the conversation that
you guys had a lot of really interesting stuff from Bill. Yes,

(02:25):
of course, and it's stuff that we touched on through
the course of our own previews. Granted, some of that
did come from him in the previews that he put
together to help us get ready for and help really
all of college football get ready for what's about to
happen here in the twenty twenty five season. But the
SP plus rankings with a bunch of teams clumped together

(02:46):
at the top, we've got new quarterbacks, we've got new
offensive lines in some cases, we've got whole new rosters
that Bill tries to get his head around. And he's
got a new book coming out here shortly called Forward
Progress that he gets into a little bit with you
that we have had the good fortune of seeing in advance.
But hopefully you guys out there can hear what Bill
has to say and pick up a copy for yourself,

(03:07):
because of course we have Bill on all the time.
He's like our authority for all things thoughtful with regard
to college football statistics, with regard to college football, one
of our favorite guests, So glad we're able to have
him back on.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
One of the questions, or one of the parts of
the questions I asked him, was sort of alluding to
the fact that, you know, if what Purdue does in
overhauling their roster, or West Virginia or Southern miss any
of these schools that have added dozens upon dozens of
new players, generally with a new coach, that it might
prove who is the actual best at scouting Conference USA

(03:43):
for potential transfers, Like who is that talent scout for
the Mountain West. And this I don't say this in
any sort of like gleaming like fun way. It's kind
of depressing when you think about it, that like who
is the best at identifying and pillaging talent and perceive
lesser conferences? But it did make me realize that the

(04:03):
more money schools have, they're going to have somebody specific
like it's just going to be Texas's Mountain West guy
who is on that staff or gal on that staff.
It's like, your job is to watch this conference week
in and week out, identify people who could succeed at
Texas and figure out if there might be competitive or

(04:25):
financial interest down the line throughout this season, contacting whoever
you need to contact that there's just going to be
a Conference USA point person for all of these huge programs,
which is both super interesting and kind of a bummer.
Which what's more college football than that?

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Right now?

Speaker 5 (04:43):
Just a little bit predatory, yeah, to say the least,
But we are where we are if you are new here,
even if you're not new here, if you have yet
to hit the follow or subscribe button, please do so.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
We've already started ramping up.

Speaker 5 (04:57):
We will continue doing so, being that there is a
small slate of games yes this coming weekend, which we
will dive into on our next episode.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
So hit the file, subscribe, rate, leave a review.

Speaker 5 (05:11):
All that stuff helps of course, going out to verballers
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(05:32):
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Speaker 3 (06:00):
It's all good, Yes, absolutely no, And you know what
I'm gonna do, By the way, this year, don't tell Bill.
Everybody be cool. Who's listening to this? Don't tell Bill Connolly.
But I've done this a couple of times in the
discord at verballers dot com v E R B A
L L e r s dot com that's accessible only
to those of you that are helping to keep the
factory open, the content Factory tie. I'm gonna do a

(06:25):
little bit of on demand Bill Connolly sp plus uh
team profile revealing. Oh okay, So if if you're somebody
who is like, hey, you know what, don't tell Bill.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Don't tell Bill.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
If you are somebody by Forward Progress right now at
Amazon dot com or bookshop dot org. If you are
somebody who is like I'd love to know more about
you know, USF and some of their defensive metrics this season.
Pop over, I've got youa Forballers dot com. How about
that beautiful, beautiful.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Well, without further ado, why don't we get to that interview?

Speaker 3 (07:02):
And with that, I am now joined by Bill Connolly
of ESPNESPN dot com, the proprietor of the sp plus
all encompassing good times with college football numbers. That's how
it's written out right.

Speaker 6 (07:18):
Sp AEGT n plus yes exactly, and owns a tote
bag we got at S and P Diner Deli or
something in New York, which is delicious.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
And now the author of well, he's already been off
of published author, but the author of the new and
forthcoming book Forward Progress release date. Remind me, tell people
where to buy it. Remind me so that you get
the most.

Speaker 7 (07:46):
Dollars September second. I'm sure like buying from Amazon doesn't
guarantee the most dollars, but it also guarantees the most exposure,
because that's the entire way you sell a book. In
twenty twenty five is rigged the Amazon algorithm by going
on podcasts, So.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
So buy two copies, one on Amazon and one on
wherever Bill shows.

Speaker 7 (08:07):
Bookshop dot org is good too, Apparently if you pre
order on bookshop you might just come who have already
just been getting their books.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
So great.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Release dates are just kind of theoretical, and that's fine.
I'm good gets people hyped for the season. Okay, so
we are, I don't know. I'm looking at the date here,
about eight days as we record this, ahead of week zero,
so a couple of weeks ahead of week one.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
What is front of mine right now?

Speaker 7 (08:31):
Well, I mean the biggest thing is that the season
is allowed to start because I am officially mentally ready.
We start of August every year. I'm like, boy, I
don't know, and I need some I'm not ready. I
need some more, but I'm ready now. I got my
small skull projection set up. I'm in a good mood.
You know, everything's everything's ready. So I am allowing the
season to start in Dublin on in just a few days,

(08:55):
so I can't wait. Yeah, that's that's the main thing.
You know, if we're getting specific, you know, two things
all my little preseason writing material of late, like two
things have stood out pretty consistently number one, like even
you know, I tamp down tap down the top ratings
at spplus even further, just playing with kind of you know,

(09:15):
playing with how things should have worked in previous seasons,
looking at early spreads, things like that, And now like
twelve teams are within one touchdown of number one. That's fantastic,
Like obviously there's a chance one of these super talented
teams just clicks and everything and they pull away. But
right now, on paper, you know, Texas last week was
ranked number one of the AP pole in My first

(09:36):
reaction was, man, they are overrated, And then I realized
I was going to think that about literally anybody totally.
We have a whole bunch of threes, fours and fives,
no number one, no obvious number one who should be
number one. So it's going to be really interesting in
that regard. And I guess the other thing, like a
correllaray to, that is part of the reason we have
all these teams kind of in a weird place is

(09:57):
young new quarterbacks everywhere, and guys run around a lot
and get hit, and some of them are gonna get
hurt and some of them are gonna be spectacular, and
who the hell knows which who goes into what bucket.
It's gonna be a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
I think my sort of working theory on who is
actually good and who might be good and who isn't good.
It's the combination of proven good quarterback and proven good defense,
and you can sort of fill in the blanks so
one around that there's one team. And even then, like
you still have questions about Clemson, right, you still like
Clemson last year.

Speaker 7 (10:29):
State, I'm the Clemson hater of the offseason. I'm talking
about Penn State. Oh but everything else you just said applies.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
See, I'm okay, you're right, I should say Clemson and
Penn State. The Tom Allen Express Rail is what connects
those two teams. But okay, you're right, but even those
two teams, right, even that quarterback didn't complete a pass
to a receiver, And even that Clemson quarterback got better
as the season went on and had a good playoff game,
but wasn't like crazy consistent downfield. That defense didn't stop

(10:59):
the run all the time. And all of this is
to say amazing because we don't have like a handle
on the top ten twelve fifteen. That's great, Yes, yeah, No,
I mean we have two birds in hand, and there
are flawed birds in hand, and a whole bunch of
teams with major upside who might just kind of face
plant because their quarterback situation is so weird at the moment.

(11:19):
So like even Arch, Like that's the thing. I know
why Texas was number one, Right, it's Arch. It's Arch's turn.

Speaker 7 (11:26):
He's been ready. We've been talking about this guy for
five years. It's his moment. He's going to be amazing.
He's gonna win the Heisman. The only player to ever
have fewer career passing yards and be the Heisman favorite
is too. Right after that the national title touchdown pass.
That's the only time anybody has ever had like less
than a thousand yards but started off the Heisman favorite.

(11:47):
So we're in a weird territory here too. It didn't
win the that Heisman that year. Alabama didn't win the
title that year, although they came very close. They were very,
very good in twenty eighteen. But no, I like, you know,
even Arch, the sample we got last year was epic upside.
That UTSA game was like the best small sample performance

(12:07):
in the history of college football, and then Louisiana Unroe
bates him into a ton of mistakes, and then every
time he takes a stap against Georgia, he's sacked within
about a half second. And they have a brand new
offensive line this year. So like, even with Arch, he
could be absolutely amazing, just as everybody's predicting. But even
he's not a guarantee. And you know, if he's not amazing,

(12:29):
if Julian Saying looks like a red shirt freshman sometimes,
if Ty Simpson reminds us that there's a reason why
he wasn't starting even when Milroe was struggling in the
last couple of years, Like, none of this is guaranteed.
So yeah, and this is all I ask for. I
don't want to know think I know who it's going
to win the national title before the season starts, totally.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
And one of the things we've been talking about is
how little we can be confident in going into the
year with how crazy rosters are and how you know,
up in the air quarterback is not even just among
top teams but kind of everywhere in your studying. We
you know, we've done our preview season we've completed all that.

(13:10):
But in your estimation, is there a team that has
the widest possible variety of outcomes? There are fascinating teams
that like the upside is clear, but sometimes teams don't.
Like the floor is still high, right, Like LSU is
probably not gonna go four and eight, But like who
has that combination of high ceiling and low floor that

(13:33):
makes you say I'm going to watch them a ton
because of that?

Speaker 7 (13:38):
That's a good question. When you started the question, I
was leaning towards Alabama just because I think I'm higher
on them than a lot of people. Like if Simpson
is good, then they're kind of they don't have any
flaws and they're going to be really good as to
as boring as that is. But in terms of like
kind of range of outcomes, I'm almost does Tennessee count
because they could addbsolutely fall apart offensively this year and

(14:04):
you know they return a ton from a really good defense.
But you know one of their the nickelback is already
kind of hurd and or whatever. No he's not hurt.
That was the weird holdout, kind of odd.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
Right, he wasn't at practice in the facility.

Speaker 7 (14:16):
But I think they've had some injuries already. Obviously the
quarterback situation is weird, so like that could all fall apart,
I think pretty significantly. Also, they made the playoff last
year because their defense was spectacular and even though their
offense was mediocre, So the quarterback change might not matter
at all. You know, they might actually an aguilar, have
a guy who can throw a pass within three seconds,

(14:38):
and maybe that actually kind of opens things back up.
Maybe the defense is great again because they really do
return a lot. So I can really talk myself into
just about anything with Tennessee four and eight. Obviously, if
we're talking about that kind of range, that's probably pushing it.
But I can still see very clearly with Tennessee and
really Old miss maybe South Carolina, a lot of teams

(14:59):
in that kind of that we're ranking in the teams
for the most part from the SEC, any of those
teams could be top ten or six and six. So
that makes that a really really interesting thing to follow.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
I think one of the things that you talked about
which makes it even harder for people like us, specifically
you to evaluate, is because you're going on returning production,
you're going on hard data, you're going on recruiting rankings
and portal rankings. Teams like Purdue in West Virginia bring
in a combined like one hundred and twenty seven new players.

(15:31):
When we get to those types of numbers, the conversation
then gets to who is best at evaluating Big ten
third string players, who is best at evaluating Conference USA
players with upside? And one that's a worthwhile question in
twenty twenty five, like who can find those guys with

(15:53):
the most frequency the highest frequency? And two between those
two schools, as they both have good coaches, who are
you banking on to have the more intriguing twenty twenty five, Well.

Speaker 7 (16:06):
I guess produced the easy answer, just because the bar
there is a lot lower. Like they were terrible last year,
worse than a Big ten team should ever be, and
so you know they're almost guaranteed to improve. Plus they
got Barry otom who kind of did exactly this thing
two years ago and immediately created something pretty good at UNLV.

(16:26):
So obviously the competition levels higher here as well. So
I'm not going to pretend they're going to go nine
to three or something, But like I do think he
just kind of he seems to be a guy who well,
I was gonna say he tends to blah blah blah.
He's done it once, but he did it really well
at UNLV, and now he comes into a similar kind
of super downtrodden situation. He gets a couple of quarterbacks

(16:48):
and a bunch of new receivers and an absolute truckload
alignment and just the defense could start eleven new guys
for the most part, or will start eleven new guy maybe,
So like that they could be anything, a team like
pretty and Southern Miss. Actually, like they're probably they're almost
certainly projected too low because even though they're projected to

(17:11):
improve a lot, you're just only gonna you're only going
to be guaranteed to improve so much. And they were
horrific last year, so they're almost certainly underrated in SP plus.
West virgin is an interesting one though, because on paper,
like there's almost out their returns and you know, the
defense you know, wasn't like kind of fell apart already

(17:31):
last year, and it could be twenty two new starters
and all that, and I like it feels like that's
a situation where things could go very awry. But also
I love the running backs he signed, and if rich
Rodriguez has good running backs, true, like I quarterback, I
don't know, don't know what they have there or what
they'll need there. We got a bunch of new receivers too,

(17:52):
but he got Jalen knighton from SMU kind of a little,
I'm assuming, pretty low risk, low cost kind of deal
after he missed like most or all of last season.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
And.

Speaker 7 (18:01):
Then three small school thousand yard rushers, all of them
marveraged at least six and a half yards per carry.
The fair Estate kid Canon Katzer averaged eight and a half.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yards per carry.

Speaker 7 (18:14):
Like it just feels like if rich Rodriguez has seven
awesome running backs and a competent quarterback, they're gonna score points.
They're gonna beat somebody.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
They shouldn't nobody super fun.

Speaker 7 (18:22):
So I've they're obviously a candidate for sixteenth to the
bit twelve, But I do think they could have some
moments and if the offense clicks just right, they could
you do some pretty good things.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
And by the way, to be fair to rich rod
and quarterback, he exclusively wins a ton of games with
non NFL quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
That's what he like.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
Look at his Arizona quarterbacks like Khalil Tait was very exciting.
But you're talking bj Denker, You're talking a new Solomon,
Like you're not talking about guys that are throwing the
ball for the next fifteen years. And so he's that
guy to figure out how to hit corner with these
guys yea.

Speaker 7 (19:01):
And at jack Stid he proved too, like, give me
decent personnel for us, very specifically the things I need
to do, and I'm gonna win some games, like I'm
gonna still rush for four hundred yards on a team
or two and it's just gonna be a lot of fun.
So I'm yeah, I don't want to set expectation Sidees,
but I think they're very much a fun ball candidate

(19:22):
this year.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
So the name of the game with the portal for
the most part other than teams like Purdue in West
Virginia and Southern miss is all right. We need to
address this situation in our back seven. We need to
address finding offensive skill guys, and so we are going
to bring in, you know, fifteen guys on offense to
help give us some pop or an opportunity to score
more points. And sometimes that works out, sometimes that doesn't.

(19:46):
If you're looking around the landscape at a team that
very much struggled on one side of the ball last
year that seems to be aggressive in addressing it, either
by being just healthier than where they were on that
side of the ball than they were last year, or
bringing in talent via the portal, or you know, particularly
intriguing recruiting class, whatever a new coordinator. Is there a

(20:08):
team that you feel like can make a particularly dramatic
leap on a single side of the ball.

Speaker 7 (20:13):
This is a letdown of an answer because it's obvious,
I think, but Oklahoma is clearly probably the start of
the list. They were those worst offense they've had in
the twenty first century last year. And you know, their quarterback,
who I was never completely convinced on anyway, he was
broken from the right to the very start of the year.
The offensive line was appalling. I mean, that's the one

(20:35):
thing they've been able to count on for the entire
extent of the two thousands is a good offensive line,
and it was worse they had since the nineties. So
you know, in theory, he actually the fact that he
only signed three transfers for the offensive line surprised me
a little bit, right, But you know, just the fact
that you know, bringing importing an offense that has been

(20:55):
imported to another school before and clicked immediately, Like it
seems to be portable with the ben Arbuckle system, which
was also from the same tree as Zach Kitley if
I remember right, Like that's ben Arbuckle and Jametier and
a whole bunch of new skill core guys who I
don't love, like jay Nott's hurt a lot, and the receivers.
You're really hoping you're needing a couple of like FCS

(21:17):
guys to click if you want a big boost there,
but just better health, like dim Burk stays healthy the
offensive line. Maybe the two Stanford transfers at least make
things a little better. And I think like there's massive
improvement potential there because they still were pretty good in
a few games. Obviously they smoked Alabama at the end

(21:37):
of the year. Their defense was the best they've had
in quite a long time, at least a decade, and
returns a ton, So it feels like that's a top
fifteen defense. And if you can just get to like
a top forty offense, their schedule is absurd. They're not
going to go better than eight and four no matter what.
But they'll be a lot better, and they'll beat a
couple of really really good teams to get to eight
and four, and they'll feel good about things.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Is offensive line do you?

Speaker 3 (22:00):
I mean, everybody's trying to plug and play on the
offensive line and there's only so many talented guys that
can sort of come together in a five man unit
to go around. Is that a position group that you
still feel like is difficult to replace and plug in?
Did you ever feel that way? Are teams successfully doing it?
The team that I root for is trying to do

(22:20):
that this year with new tackles and a new left guard.
I believe that's where Pregnant is playing. Is that an
advisable strategy or do teams just not have a choice anymore?

Speaker 7 (22:32):
Well, I think at this exact moment, it is pretty
unique in that, like I think, you know, the cycling
out of almost all of the COVID eligibility guys. Obviously,
if you redshirt it in, if you redshirted it in
twenty one after having been in school in twenty still
are a senior now, So there are still few of
those guys, but a lot of the experienced ones are gone.
And I think that's why when you look at you

(22:53):
know what, I'm just looking at the top teams at
SPPLUS this year, Ohio State, Georgia, Texas, Oregon, Michigan, I think, yeah, LSU, Tennessee,
I don't remember for sure, like in Oklahoma, brand new
offensive lines, all of them, or mostly new offensive lines.

(23:15):
And so that's really interesting because, yeah, some of those
rebuilds are not going to go well at all, because
it is really hard. The continuity there upfront really does
tend to mean something. But you know, a couple of
them are going to go fine. It's just hard to
predict which ones are are going to be a disaster.
But I do think that maybe that's a boon for Alabama,
who should have a great offensive line, Texas, A and

(23:36):
M should have a great offensive line, and.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
A lot of these other schools.

Speaker 7 (23:42):
Clemson will be their best line in a while, but
they're all offensive lines have never been kind of standout
units for them, and Penn States should be pretty good
as well. But yeah, you've got a whole bunch of
new there, and a couple of those lines are just
kind of stink. So it's definitely an opportunity for you know,
randomness to hit and for us to see a couple
disappointing offenses.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
You mentioned Texas as being you know, your first instinct
being overrated at number one until you realize that everybody
likely would given what we think a number one team
should look like in terms of what they return. On
the flip side of that, is there a team that
seems too far away from top ten, top fifteen being
ranked where you say to yourself, look, it's not going

(24:25):
to take a ton for this team to be in
the top fifteen. Obviously, I go to missoo in my
brain just because of that schedule, right, just like, what
is the bar to go nine and three against that schedule.
I don't know if that's the answer for you, or
if there's another team that you're like that seems too
distant a place for them to be considered.

Speaker 7 (24:42):
I it was kind of jarring when I did my
IF's list a few weeks ago. You know, it's one
of my I basically have a series of things I
write every off season, and it's really for me. Like
people seem to enjoy them and that's good, but really
it's for me to get my mind right and the
IF's list is a good experiment for just like what
do I think about the teams? It's basically how many ifs,
Like how many question marks does it take for me

(25:04):
to make your team a serious national title contender? So
for Penn State, it's basically eight. Does aler have one
more gear? And I think the only other one I
had was like do the new transfer as a receiver?

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Click?

Speaker 7 (25:17):
And that's pretty much it. The defense, you can you
can talk yourself into the defense, maybe falling off a
little bit, but I just I trust their personnel. You know,
they have good experience and they just hired the best
defensive coordinator in the sport. Can't pretend to worry about that.
So they had two whiffs. I think Alabama had two wiffs,
and then all your Texas's and Georgia's and Ohio States

(25:37):
and whatnot had three. One of the other teams that
had three that really surprised me that I kept thinking
and thinking about it, just didn't realize was team I
just mentioned A and M. Yes, if I had a
poll vote, I think I would have them at like eighth.
And so the fact that they're nineteenth definitely threw me
off a little bit. I mean, I kind of get
it when you if you know, I know a lot
of the AP voters especially are trying to almost project

(26:00):
forward and towards like what is this going to look
like at the end of the year. It's kind of
sort of a power rating and sort of a prediction,
and somebody in the SEC's kind of lose games. But
you know, I think A and M's Marcel read probably
doesn't have the ceiling that Arch or some of the
other young quarterbacks in the conference have, but we already
know his floor is pretty high. We already could know

(26:21):
he can run a ball control offense. I have the
best running backs in the conference maybe, and an enormous
and experienced offensive line, so that feels like a lot
of that if a couple of the defensive line transfers
hold up like they are not really missing anything. And
I didn't expect to think those thoughts about Texas A
and M. Also Mike Elko taking more control of the

(26:44):
defense because I was never a j Bateman higher fan.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
I think that.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
And he's just a good coach, right. He gets teams
who aren't necessarily ready to make a leap, and all
of a sudden they end up with nine wins and
you're just thinking yourself, what happened there, and you're like, oh,
you win fifty to fifty games because you coach well
in the fourth quarter. Things are good. And so you know,
I'm never gonna go so far as to say Texas
Hayam isn't an eight and fourteen because they just are that.

Speaker 7 (27:12):
Yeah, there's burden of proof with a program like Texas
A and m like, you're gonna you can talk yourself
into them frequently and they're gonna let you down a lot,
but Mike Elco hasn't ever really let me down, and
the lines are good.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
I agree.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
I'm gonna stay in state just because they're fascinating in
Texas Tech and that's a fan base who they themselves
will tell you, do not let yourself in August talk
yourself into this being the year, because it never is.
This is this is a Texas Tech team that can show,
or a Texas Tech program that can show an incredible

(27:45):
random October Saturday and a hugely embarrassing November Saturday, all
within like two or three weeks they've spent. They are
well coached, they hired a good coach on defense, it seems,
and chill would.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
I love what he seems really good.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
They seem to have addressed the very specific things that
need addressing, and they play in a quality conference that
is going to be difficult, just because the floor on
a lot of these teams seems pretty high. Hunt the
close games, a lot of close games. Are you willing
to seduce Texas Tech fans into believing what they want

(28:22):
to believe in this moment?

Speaker 4 (28:25):
No?

Speaker 7 (28:25):
But okay, so that's the So I find myself saying
a lot of the same thing as about Texas Tech
as I said about Clemson on a different level, and
that they are projected to improve a lot, and I
agree with that, but I think they are starting from
a lower point than a lot of people realize. Like
Clemson last like the last three years and spplus they've
averaged our ranking in the twenties, So they're projected to

(28:49):
improve a ton, but it only gets them too like tenth.
With Texas Tech, it's kind of the same deal. Like
last year they went eight and five, which isn't obviously terrible,
but they I think they want were four and one
on one score games got blown out a little bit,
like when they looked bad, they looked horrible, and therefore
they finished their fifty fourth.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
In SP plus.

Speaker 7 (29:10):
So yes, the transfer class, they return a good amount.
The transfer class is awesome. They're projected to rise a ton,
but they only rise to like what was the final
twenty ninth And granted, twenty ninth puts you in range
in the Big twelve where everybody is between like seventeenth
and fortieth, but it doesn't make you stand out at all.
You're probably gonna have to win close games again, and
it's really hard to do that two years in a

(29:31):
row unless you're Missouri. They they will forever win every
close game, just like they have.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
I'm not gonna, you know.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Stats be damned, but.

Speaker 7 (29:42):
Of course Texas I mean, but Texas Tech is going
to be in the mix for sure. And I do
think you know, I'm so and I write plenty about this.
I'm so kind of just concerned about the SEC and
Big Ten so blatantly trying to pull themselves away from
the rest of the sport, and the way they strong
armed everybody into giving them all the new playoff money

(30:03):
basically just as absolutely disgusting, could have been the healthiest
possible thing for the sport instead of was maybe the worst,
the fact that Texas Tech is actually just trying to
lay down pure cash to beat a lot of these
schools and say we're going to win this way instead,
I feel like I want that to happen for the
good of the sport, just to kind of shake things up.

(30:26):
I don't know exactly that the repercussoms of that might
be terrible and it might make everything even worse, but
I'm all for a usurper in the year twenty twenty five.
So I almost kind of hope that Texas Tech like
that in softball, we're able to just lay down cold
hard cash and leap frog a bunch of blue bloods
and make things really awkward for a lot of people.
I'm kinda I would not mind that at all. I

(30:48):
just I'm not predicting it to happen. I'm still a
little skeptical.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
So you could have named your new book this is
pro transition here segue as it's called for the good
of the sport. No phrase you just uttered for the
good of the sport. That could Maybe that title exists,
I don't know, the name of the book is forward.

Speaker 7 (31:05):
Proparily forward progress exists as like a football themed romance novel.
So like, if you google like forward Progress book, you're
gonna get mine, and you're gonna get like a six
pack rippling chest shirt. Open one and the same, well,
so one and the same. I'll sign if you've seen
me anywhere, I'll sign either one for the record.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
The most I think one. You should be on tour together,
some sort of book signing tour the most digitally and
real life erotic football tales that can be combined. Okay,
so you write this book. What is the inspiration for
the book that just goes through why we're here, how

(31:45):
we got here, the how, the why, the when, the who,
and where you think this can go if certain boxes
are checked? So what what? What made you wake up
at two forty four am in the middle of one
night and this is what I'm doing.

Speaker 7 (32:01):
I think it was December twenty three is when. Okay,
the process for this started. Well, I think basically I
was talking. I said earlier that I kind of write
things for myself sometimes and hope that other people like them.
I started to realize as that really kind of gross.
Last round of conference realignment was unfolding and everything was happening.

(32:22):
I started to realize that I don't. I was just
kind of reacting to stuff I didn't have a vision for.
I like having a vision for where things should go,
even though that vision is probably not going to be fulfilled.
I like being able to say, well, this is what
should happen. And instead, so much was changing so quickly,
some good, lot bad that I just kind of started

(32:42):
to realize I needed to kind of arrange my own
thoughts and so, you know the fact that there seemed
to be a lane open for it. Basically as you
were suggesting how do we get here? Where are we
going kind of situation, I said, Okay, well let's write
that book. And the inspiration of the intro chapter kind
of came to me immediately, where you know, I figured

(33:04):
this thing would be put out in twenty twenty five,
twenty th anniversary of USC Texas. Think about how vivid
a lot of us remember that game, and how how
massive an occasion that was in college football, and then
think about everything that has changed since that point, whether
it's the conferences, whether it's you know, Reggie Bush's situation
would be he wouldn't had to give it back his

(33:25):
heisman in twenty twenty five, You know, just all the
different things that have changed, and that became kind of
a focal point for the first chapter. Let's rewatch this game,
talk about how amazing it was, talk about Keith Jackson
and all the kind of the nostalgia things there, and
then just one by one worked through as you know,
Texas would have won the SEC and USC would have

(33:47):
won the Big Ten, and you know they would have
been legally millionaires. A lot of these guys and almost
no transfers on either team. The only starter who was
a transfer was a Juco transfer for offensive lineman for
the USC. Most of the USC players were from California.
Most of the Texas players were from Texas. Like just
it really was. It was kind of the start of
the modern area. It was NHD, we remember so much

(34:09):
of it. And also it was kind of the end
of an old era where everything's changed since then. So
that was a really nice starting point. I thought their
chapters about realignment, chapters about history of arguing about a
playoff and why there's no commissioner and how we got
to the point of paying players. Although the book deadline
came the week before the Freaking House settlement was actually finalized,

(34:30):
so I had to put I just I knew not
to count on this sport to help me out at all.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
But we kind of time of that part.

Speaker 7 (34:36):
Yeah so, and then kind of towards the end, I
spin it towards the manifesto of sorts like here's you know,
the things I'm most worried about, Here's what.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
We should or could be doing.

Speaker 7 (34:48):
And I thought it turned out well, like I'll, I
have control over as it made me is whether it
makes me happy, and it made me happy.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
So so when you find yourself, I'm going to be
extremely reductive here, and because this is how I find
myself in situations. When you find yourself, you're at you know,
a backyard party, you're at you go out to eat
with other people, whatever social situation you find yourself in,
and you know you're with dentists and accountants and horse
trainers whoever. And they find out that you write about

(35:16):
college football and a little bit of German soccer for
a living, tennis and tennis, of course, of course tennis,
which is what mostly we texted me.

Speaker 7 (35:24):
Yeah about ninety text sorry about Geo, Vonnie and Petchy Paricard.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
Someday, someday got to get that footwork going Okay, When
you're in those social situations and people find out you
write about college football for a living, they will ask
you a very broad, difficult to answer question in two
bullet points. What do you do when somebody says, what's
the deal with nil and portal? Is college football just

(35:50):
going crazy?

Speaker 1 (35:51):
Like?

Speaker 2 (35:51):
How do we? How did this happen? And how are
they going to fix it? What do you actually say?

Speaker 7 (35:56):
Just why? Why West West agents in college football?

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (36:02):
Well, first of all, people apparently a lot of the
people I end up telling them what I do, they
don't pay very close attention. They say, well, how do
you think the chiefs are going to be this year? Which,
of course, you know I do have opinions on, but
it's not they're not paid opinions, right, Yeah, I mean, well,
first of all, it's easy enough to agree with whatever
premise they're throwing out there because there's a grain of
truth in it. So you can impediately start with kind

(36:22):
of the compliment sandwich, yes, and kind of peel.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
But no, I mean I I you know.

Speaker 7 (36:28):
I also try to usually spend things back to like,
if you watch a college football game, you know it's
a college football game.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
It hasn't changed in.

Speaker 7 (36:36):
Ways that you can actually see on the screen, just
because you know, the quarterback made two million dollars last year.
So I was like, as long as that's not a problem,
then we could be good. And as long as Missouri's
playing who they're supposed to be playing, especially this year,
but now that they're playing Kansas again, yeah, I mean,
I basically it's a good yes and situation. I do
think there are a lot of legitimate concerns. I also

(36:56):
think there's a lot of us. Anything we don't like
that changes or thing the changes that we don't like,
we immediately say college sports. It's it's, you know, gonna
kill college football. We're gonna you know, blah blah blah
blah blah blah. Like nothing's killing this sport. Attendance is good,
TV ratings are good. Everything looks fine right now. But
there are warning signs. There's a whole chapter and there

(37:16):
about how sports do fall off when they thought they
were invulnerable and impossibly successful, like NASCAR, like a little
bit of college baseball, a little bit of basketball, and
or college basketball and baseball, I should say, but yeah,
you know, it is easy enough, Like there are plenty
of legitimate concerns. I'm not worried about paying players at all,

(37:38):
other than the money flow that we've set up just
as we start to pay pay players. That's more of
an issue to me. But I am you know, I
understand concerns about the transfer portal and everything. How you
have a new roster every year, and if you're winning,
that doesn't matter at all. Everything's great. But if you're
losing and you don't have a way to identify with

(37:58):
anybody on the team, you don't know any of the names,
then you're going to probably tune out faster too. So
that's it's easy enough for me to acknowledge the grousecene,
even though I usually try to spin it in a
positive direction too.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
So what to you is that canary in the coal mine?
You know, there are different reasons why those sports. I
think one of the sports that has fallen off, you know, NASCAR,
right had like a hugely successful run and now it's
it's sort of shrunk a little bit.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
I believe I'm not an expert, so maybe I'm wrong.
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (38:26):
Ian McGee is an expert, and he said exactly that, Yes,
you're good.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
Yeah, I knew I was right somewhere in that sentence
Canary in the coal mine about college football, we are like, look,
college football looks the same, College football is popular, People
watch it, people go, People have strong opinions in the
way that they've always had strong opinions. But if you
were to point to one single thing where like this
needs to be addressed, because this is it's leaking right now,

(38:51):
it's you know, it's there's there's a hole in the
hall and we need to figure out how to patch
it before things get a lot worse.

Speaker 7 (38:59):
Yeah, I mean the general the dramatically uneven money distribution,
and not even like the fact that you know, Michigan
has more money than Central Michigan, not really worried about that,
but just you know, the fact that it well, the
fact that Mississippi State's going to get twenty million dollars
from the playoff no matter what, and Memphis is going
to get like one point seven no matter what, even

(39:20):
though Memphis could make the playoff like that, just over time,
that's twenty million dollars more or eighteen million dollars more
every single year over a long period of time. And
how does that shape things in a way like we've
always had inequality in this sport, but it's inequality where
every every once or twice a decade something you'd have
a really stupid crazy season, Like eighty one to eighty

(39:43):
four was all pretty wild, nineteen ninety was wild. Two
thousand and seven of course, was very wild, and the
years that followed were pretty crazy too until Alabama really
kind of kicked in a little bit. So there were
all these periods and right now, like I'm really excited
about this season because we don't know who, like, among
the top twelve teams, who's really legitimately the best and

(40:04):
who could be and we could go see a lot
of different chaos events in that regard. But also Boise
State's gonna make it gonna be like the only top
fifty G five team in the SP plus rankings where
they were sixth I think in twenty eleven. So that's
my biggest concern in general is just you know, we
start to separate basically Number one, I guess in the

(40:26):
book I started, I came back a couple times to
both app State, well app State in East Carolina as
one example, and Iowa stated as one example for app
State in East Carolina. It was just more about, like
some belts in a good place right now where they're
playing the opponents they want to play, and that's good.
But also when game day goes to Boon, those are
like the coolest moments of a given season. Right They've

(40:49):
they've been to Tuscaloosa thousands of times, They've been to
Columbus thousands of times. They're always got to go to
those places. But when they go off script is.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
When JMU when they go to North Dakota State. Yeah,
and if if.

Speaker 7 (41:01):
Like we get to a point where like app States
not even playing Texas A and M much less beating them, right,
we're eliminating that like they've gone FCS games. I understand,
like you can still kind of do those things, but
like if we're just eliminating the possibility of the NIU
Notre Dame upset, the app State, Michigan upset, all these
things that don't happen much but do happen, like if

(41:23):
like that's just a huge loss for the sport because
those are such energy givers. And even though those games
mostly go one direction most of the time, I love
those games too as a fan because number one, they're
a win for your team, and number two you get
to watch the freshman play and all these like they're beneficial.
I don't want to. I don't want Missouri playing a
top twenty team every week. That's not what I come
here for, right, But yeah, if we start skewing things

(41:45):
in that direction, where like the SEC is playing nine
or ten game conference schedules plus a Big ten team
and blah blah blah, like we're just eliminating those opportunities
for a specific kind of memory, Like I'd still love
to be able to play the East football game and
win a national title with Akron, Like have it be
an option too? It might not even be an option,

(42:06):
you know, moving forward, and that stinks, But I think
so that's personally probably my biggest thing, But I do,
I think the biggest the most canary in a coal
mine situation, Like we if we start telling the Iowa
states of the world like they legitimately don't matter if
we get to that point. Now, obviously Big twelve champion
gets into the playoff, like that's fine, you know, there's

(42:27):
still a path there.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
They don't have to win the playoff.

Speaker 7 (42:30):
But if we do get to a point where the
SEC and Big ten have distanced themselves so much, or
just decide to align with each other and maybe grab
a couple of ACC teams and then leave everybody else
to play at a different level of the spoil altogether,
which is what a lot of people are predicting. I
don't think we're going to get there, but we could.
And we basically tell Iowa State, who draws fifty seven

(42:51):
thousand fans per home game, more than a lot of
Big ten schools or some Big ten schools, and they
have two top fifteen finishes ever like, they're not disrupting anything.
They just get to be a part of the party,
and they show up on Saturdays and it's the coolest
it's the other coolest thing about college football. And if
we basically tell them, like, don't worry about it, you're
not big time football. You don't even get to pretend

(43:11):
to be big time football anymore. And you know, some
of those fifty seven thousand stop showing up, you know,
and if they don't have any connection to Ohio State,
Michigan at the end of the year either, then that's right,
fewer people going to games and fewer people watching games
on television, and that seems like a pretty bad thing.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
And fewer people watching ancillary program, fewer people that are
introducing college football to their children or to their classrooms,
or right, the culture of college football suffers when you
eliminate what I and you and I agree are crucial
ties across every single area of this country. Is there

(43:50):
anybody that feels that way, that's in power that and
I say that, you know, sort of tongue in cheek
because there's no be in power. And also Greg sank
it's not his problem, right, it kind of should be
right that it should be his and Tony Petiti's problem. Like,

(44:10):
as stewards of the biggest places, you should be at
least partially stewards of the sports and looking out for
the capital T G G great or good.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
But they don't.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
So how does somebody emerge with the type of power
and leverage and political persuasion skills to sit down in
a room with people who are not paid to care
and tell them, Hey, big picture, this is what this

(44:46):
sport needs. And I am a persuasive, charming human who
can convince you, Like, how does that person emerge?

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Who is that?

Speaker 7 (44:54):
Like?

Speaker 3 (44:54):
Does it like does it have to be Greg Sankeie?
It's like is it his like thumbs up thumbs down
from Gladiator that decides the future of this sport.

Speaker 7 (45:02):
Yeah, since there is nobody officially in charge of the sport,
there's no commissioner or anything like that. The de facto
commissioner is the most powerful conference commissioner, and in this
case Greg Ziki is the commissioner of college football because
he's the longest tenured member of the two like the
longest tenured commissioner of the two conferences that matter for
the most part. So the fact that the de facto

(45:25):
commissioner of the sport is working for only for the
good of SEC presidents, who would fire him if he
doesn't do a good enough job of working for them right,
seems like a problem. And it was, you know, Jim Delaney,
I do have a chapter in there about commissioners and
why we don't have one and how things work, and
there was kind of I went back to the start

(45:46):
of the nineteen hundreds for like the de facto commissioner
of the sport, from Teddy Roosevelt in nineteen oh five
to you know, Grantlin Rice in the nineteen twenties and
thirties and Walter Byers, head of the incinable a for
three decades simply because it controlled the TV contract. Yeah,
it was since in caa versus Board of Regents went

(46:07):
in the way of the Board of Regents of Oklahoma
and Georgia and we got ourselves a free market, which
has been fantastic in a lot of ways. I always
want to like it ruined college football in one way.
And also I get to watch any college football game
in the country on a given Saturday, like for free,
all the way down an AI. Yeah, because you know,

(46:28):
because of the live streams someone. Yes, but I can
watch any game I want. And that's amazing because the
more college football I watched, the more I like college football.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
So that's great.

Speaker 7 (46:37):
But it comes with this other thing that we haven't
accounted for, and that is just that whoever is doing
the best of mastering the free market gets to actually
run the sport, so you know, and there's no you know,
I wanted to come up with some creative answer in
the book, since it is the definitive guide to the
future of college football as to what could happen, how

(46:58):
things could look. But really, I do think there's only
one real answer, barring some national emergency, that takes down
the budgets of just about everybody and forces some massive
change which I'm not going to root for. We're looking
at like, the only way this could ever happen is if,
like the College Football Playoff becomes its own entity that
you have to opt into with a set of roles

(47:18):
and a collective bargaining agreement with a unified television contract
and all these things, and you have to opt into
playing in this quote unquote league.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
If you want to be.

Speaker 7 (47:28):
A part of major college football, then there's no place
for someone to lead the sport. And the problem with
that college Football Playoff example like that is the Big
Ten and SEC would have to voluntarily agree to do it.
And why would they do that because they already run everything.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
So yeah, we're.

Speaker 7 (47:47):
Kinda like I it's pretty clear what directions we could go.
And it should be said, even if we have our
college football commissioner, he could be Johnny Infantino, Like there's
nothing like, there's not there's no guarantee that you could
trust me, right, but you know they could easily become
corrupted as well, and that might not solve a damn thing.

(48:07):
I just know what life is like without one and
it's not really all that great.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
You need college football.

Speaker 3 (48:13):
The big ten in the SEC will lose their power
if college football starts to fade away. And the the
money that is willing to save college football is some
sort of benevolent Saudi Kansas State fan, right, Like, that's.

Speaker 7 (48:33):
Let's let's get let's get the Pith, the Saudi Arabia
Pith right right right to start, you know, throwing in
ten billion dollars a year. So it actually makes financial
sense for the SEC to do it. There's our answer,
benevolent dictators.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yeah, I'm not. I'm not a dictator guy myself.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
So that's the issue, right, that's the issue that there's
no person, there's no no, there's nobody with that skill
set that kind of leverage unless I mean, I guess
somebody at you know, if Jimmy Pataro or Bob Iger
wake up and they just feel like this this notion
that they themselves need to be the change that college

(49:10):
football needs, which I wouldn't bank on.

Speaker 7 (49:14):
I'm thinking they're doing okay for themselves too right now.

Speaker 3 (49:16):
Yeah, So, in your manifesto not to give away the game,
what do you see as a path forward for and
by all means forward progress at Amazon or when you
say bookshop bookshop dot org, bookshop dot org. The crux
of your argument about the path forward that can help

(49:36):
this sport navigate all of the sand traps and water
azers that it's set in front of itself. What do
you see as living in reality?

Speaker 7 (49:47):
Well, I mean reality is we know how things are
going to go for a little while here because we
know who runs the sport, and there's no It's like,
we need the national emergency without the national emergency, right,
we need the effects of it without any like. So
I don't short term, I don't know. I just know
that long term. You know, ten years ago we were
yelling about all these things that should change, and a

(50:07):
whole hell of them of a lot of them have changed,
and it looked like they never would. We argued about
a playoff for fifty years and then we suddenly got one,
and then ten years later we got a real one
that wasn't just you know, one extra game like the
four teamer. We've been arguing about breakaway big schools, breaking
away from the peons and whatnot since the seventies, and

(50:27):
they kind of have now they could do it more,
but they already kind of have. So yeah, I mean
that's the biggest thing is right now a whole bunch
has changed. And best logic I can give is that,
you know, something that seems impossible right now, like like
the SEC and Big Tens forfeiting some of their power
to make sure that Iowa stayed and app stayed in
East Carolina and everybody who has the money they need

(50:50):
to make sure they can remain competitive, hold on to
some players, make sure they're playing the teams they want
to play, so that their fans were showing up. You
know that those are all things that you know, it's
it's hard to see how exactly that would happen, but
we didn't see a lot of what was going to happen,
So you know, just basically keep keep, you know, keep keep.

(51:10):
It is what it is for right now. And again, products,
the product could be a lot worse. It's still going
to be a lot of fun. It's always going to
be a lot of fun. Great, but yeah, just keep
your eyes hoping for for opportunities for change and and
don't necessarily give up on those changes.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
Never happening was.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
This inevitable as you see college football paralleling, you know,
free market opportunities, Like was the idea of realignment? Was
the idea of leaning into TV money as streaming was
sucking away commercial and ad revenue? Like, was this all

(51:47):
inevitable or was there a moment that you look at
you like, man, I think things would have been a
lot better if the Longhorn Network never started and failed,
And like, is there that moment or is it just
you know, this is how it works.

Speaker 7 (52:00):
Well, I mean we always talk about college football being
a reflection of America, and so therefore you've seen America
drift towards consolidation and inequality and all that, and so
you can say that it was inevitable in that regard,
but there were also all along the way there this
clear bad decisions that were made that brought us closer

(52:20):
to whatever the breaking point is than because you think
about well, number one, think about all those things we heard,
the gossip, things we heard after the fact about the
PAC twelve falling apart, Yeah, and them having like a
thirty million dollars per team deal on the table with
it was at least part of ESPN.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
I don't remember he was SPN.

Speaker 7 (52:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they had that on the table. But
some of their school presidents had been convinced that they're
actually worth forty million dollars a year, and lead.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
I think they were like the Utah president, Maybeizer was wrong,
it was Utah. He was like, I have spoken to
a consultant that has told me we should be asking
for fifty as a starting point in the negotiation.

Speaker 7 (52:56):
And ESPN said, well, have fun, because we're not paying
fit fifty million a team, and so like that was
that was preventable. And if it, you know, USC and
UCLA maybe still leave eventually, but maybe it's still an
actual conference now if they actually read the market correctly
and say we're not really better than the big twelve
here and the big tols getting this sounds like that's
a pretty good deal, you know. So that was preventable,

(53:19):
and you go all the way back to border regions again,
Like there's obviously a lot. I wrote a lot about
that case, and I think I assume anybody who's listening
to your show by now knows kind of the basics
of that about how you know, Oklahoma and George especially
Oklahoma led the way suing the inc DOUBLEA for they're
basically saying they can't control the TV contract with the
college football TV contract, they can't limit the market the

(53:42):
way they were.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
All along the way there.

Speaker 7 (53:46):
His name is Andy Coats, the guy who argued for
Oklahoma in front of the Supreme Court ended up being
Oklahoma City mayor. He said like at the time he
was trying to he was begging the instituba to settle
because he could kind of see what happened was going
to happen if the conferences and teams had a free
market and no controls, and so they were in his mind,

(54:08):
it kind of seemed like if the NCA would settle
and they'd expand the contract pretty dramatically, and they were
already looking and expanding it some we could have ended
up in kind of like ninety percent the same in
terms of how many games are on television and everything,
but there would have still been a few more controls
over it, and it wouldn't have been every conference for
themselves the way it ended up being. And so like

(54:31):
they're all along the way, things were preventable. But you know,
it is hard to say like we could have still
gone to ninety percince the same place, because this is America,
and this is how America's worked too.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
Fair enough, all right, Bill Connolly, ESPN, Forward Progress, Amazon
dot com, Bookshop dot org. Thank you so much for
all of your time. Check out Bill's backlog. He's got
sp plus pieces on ESPN dot com. He's got conference
previews for each conference, not just Power conference, each conference,
and Yukon and Notre Dame up on ESPN dot com

(55:07):
right now. He's thorough and interesting. Bill, Thank you so
much for your time.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Thank you, all right, Dan.

Speaker 5 (55:13):
Bill Connolly ESPN dot com always brings his fastball when
he stops by the solid verbal again, talk through a
bunch of topics with you. I covered a lot of
ground when you said that you were going to have
a chance to chat with him. Of course I said, yes,
rubber stamp that one sight unseen, but thought maybe that
it would be very focused on the book, which it

(55:35):
was to some extent. But we got into a whole
bunch more here on this episode. And as always grateful
for his time.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
Bill's the best, and yeah, check out his book of course,
Forward Progress.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
It's great, really if you are somebody who just likes.

Speaker 3 (55:49):
To read sitting in bed before you go to sleep,
or you want it in the bathroom, or you want
it in the bath or you want it on the road.
It's a great, great, very fast, informative read. Great to
have Bill on and he's just an invaluable resource before, during,
and after the season, so nothing but great things to say.
And he texts with me about tennis all the time,

(56:10):
so that's good.

Speaker 5 (56:11):
By the way, just to pick up on a loose
thread from our intro, and this is something that I
think we have referenced before. Aaron Sorkin reportedly takes six
to eight showers a day when he's going through writer's block.

Speaker 3 (56:26):
Yes, to just refresh and rejigger the wheels in his head.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 5 (56:33):
So this is what you need to do in order
to make sure that we are naming our saturdays appropriately. Now,
the big question that I had as I'm sitting here
listening to the interview waiting to get to our outro,
are you going to name the week zero Saturday?

Speaker 3 (56:54):
I think week zero is a good name, right that,
like there's never been a week zero before week zero? Oh,
if that makes any sense, that like this actually has
a set fun name because it's not a full Saturday.
It's nowhere near a full Saturday. But it's like that
amuse boosh. It's that appetizer, and I think it's great.
I can't beat week zero, especially because the game of

(57:17):
week zero also has a.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Terrific name in Pharmageddon.

Speaker 3 (57:21):
Yes, and it's just a European farm that seems closer
than the normal farms in Iowa and Kansas.

Speaker 5 (57:28):
Too many monikers up in here. We need to keep
it simple, stupid right now. We will get to that
when we get to week one.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
By the way, just in terms of book ending things,
I'll start my day with a shower. But on Saturday
nights at midnight Eastern time, which is when we are
doing our snap judgment recap stream after each and every
Saturday this season, set your watches, set your phones. If
I'm feeling a little bit run down because I'm overwhelmed
by the long day of college football and where to begin,

(57:58):
I'll jump in a cold shower the show starts. Yeah,
give myself some juice, Ty, sometimes you need it.

Speaker 5 (58:04):
I'm gonna need to talk to you about some tactics
this year because I was definitely sucking wind down the
stretch last season.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
It took every ounce.

Speaker 5 (58:13):
Of me to make it through doing those streams at midnight,
especially later in the year. Progressively, your body wears down
like you're actually playing on the football field once you
do that every week.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
So we're gonna need.

Speaker 5 (58:25):
To talk some strategies to say the absolute, very least.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
Ty when you think about physically demanding pursuits and occupation totally,
this a lot of people are saying podcasting. A lot
of people just in terms of labor, physical toils totally,
a lot of people are saying podcasts where you have
to stay up a little bit later than usual on

(58:51):
Saturday nights. They're pointing to that as like, what are
we doing to our people keeping all of these poor
podcasters toil?

Speaker 1 (59:00):
You don't get traps like this, Yeah.

Speaker 8 (59:03):
In any other profession, I think that goes with that's saying.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
It absolutely does.

Speaker 3 (59:07):
But yes, we are going to somehow dig deep to
make it happen for this incredibly physical and demanding pursuit
we've chosen.

Speaker 5 (59:15):
So look big. Thanks again to Bill for stopping on by.
Thank you to you for doing that in my absence.
I've just thrilled to have Bill on whenever we have
the opportunity. As we get now a little bit closer
to the season, you're going to start hearing more announcements
with respect to the Patreon, the games that we've got going.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
All sorts of stuff as we build to the season.

Speaker 5 (59:36):
I think we're at some point going to work on
some new merch that we're going to drop in the store,
if not in time for week one, at some point
thereabout week one we'll be getting to.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
That as well. So all of that stuff is definitely forthcoming.

Speaker 5 (59:48):
One thing I did want to drop here at the
end of this episode for anybody interested, We are revamping
the newsletter this year. Yes, we have had several iterations
of this over the years. This year we're sending out
twice a week, once on Mondays. It's going to be
sort of a recap of the key narratives and questions

(01:00:09):
and just sort of like the aftershocks from the week
that was right, you always kind of have that period
after the games take place where you're sitting with your thoughts,
you're trying to figure out, trying to make sense of
it all. That's gonna be on Monday mornings as we
get into Thursday. We're going to look at the questions,
the key burning questions that everybody probably cares.

Speaker 8 (01:00:29):
About, even if they don't know them at the start
of the week.

Speaker 5 (01:00:32):
So twice a week you go to Quickslance dot Solid
Verbal dot com.

Speaker 8 (01:00:36):
Quickslance is the name of the newsletter.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
It is entirely free, and.

Speaker 5 (01:00:41):
We are bringing on a gentleman by the name of
Tyler who is going to help us write it this year.
A lot of the work will be his. Yes, we
got a double tie effect going on here. He's for
four or five years written his own very successful newsletter
called the Three Point Stance. We're thrilled to bring him
aboard our team over here as well to help us
with the newsletters. So, if again you're out there, you're

(01:01:05):
a fan of college football, you're a fan of free stuff,
which we offer plentifully, plentifully, plentifully plentifully here on the
Solid Verbal go and check out the newsletter Quickslants at
quickslants dot Solid verbal dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
Yes, and we're gonna use all of our savings and
hire Daniel day Lewis for one day to do our
YouTube shorts. It's gonna be. It's gonna change everything, tie.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
It will it will. Well.

Speaker 5 (01:01:31):
Look on that note, we've got games to preview on
the next episode. We've got week zero to talk about
on the next episode.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
We've got quarterback battles.

Speaker 5 (01:01:40):
And injury news and anything else that goes down between
now and then on the Thursday episode, the season is
finally here for that guy Dan, for myself Tie. We'll
talk to you all in a

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
Few In the meantime, stay solid, peace,

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