June 27, 2025 • 10 mins
The Award-Winning writer from CBS Sports stops by to talk about his new article which is taking college sports by storm.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
All the phone line right now is our friend from
CBS Sports dot com. He wrote, maybe the story of
the summer is Shean j Raj and uh Shean.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Thank you so much for.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Joining me, man, Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
All right, first off, I want to say I've been
a big fan forever, ever since you were covering Texas
college sports, but now you're covering the national view of things,
and you wrote an incredible story on Texas Tech. I
want to start first off with how did you come
up with the idea? Because I think a lot of
people around the country are interested in West Texas, but
(00:37):
they're thinking cowboys and you know, oil fields, not necessarily
thinking about text tech football.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
You know, it's interesting, right because obviously they put together
a tremendous transfer class that ended up number two in
the country in the two four seven rankings, and they
threw some real money around. And when David Bailey committed
coming from Stanford, I mean that's the kid that every
single program in the countree tried to offer and went after,
and so I really wanted to know a little bit
(01:04):
what was happening in Lubbock. But there was also an
aspect too where I just know, right, like you see
this all the time in this nil era of like
people being like, well, they threw money and that's the
whole story. And I just knew that there was a
little bit more to it, and I wanted to figure
out what exactly that was. And so, you know, I've
had great relationships at Texas Tech over the years, and
(01:25):
so thankfully I was able to set up some fantastic
interviews and spend some time there, and I really learned
a lot about that place.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Well, I want to say this for people who didn't
read the piece yet, it's available right now on CBS
dot com, CBS Sports dot com. I want to say,
but it reminded me so much of when I was
a kid reading Sports Illustrated and in my back of
my parents' car, reading about these places that I knew
about but I didn't know about. And I want to
give you a credit, man, because the story, Man, this
(01:53):
is the first real long form piece of journalism that
I've read a long time that did what you did.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
I really want to give you credit for that, man.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
That really does mean a lot. And I've heard from
so many people, you know that because the story ended
up being five thousand words. Please don't be scared off
from reading. And it really does fly by. But you know,
I mean, like you said, this isn't something that necessarily
happens a lot. You know, sometimes people can get bogged
down in things. But you know, since this has come out, like,
first of all, I'll tell you, like our analytics say
(02:24):
like it is one of the articles that has the
highest for tention times of any article that's been published
this year, which means essentially people are staying on the
page and actually reading todaying thing, which is pretty incredible.
The other thing too, that I'll say is that, man,
it has been soap. Well, I've gotten some people say, yeah,
this reminds me of old school s, size reminds me
of Grant Land. Like, I've gotten some people saying that
(02:47):
that they haven't read something like this since the days
of Blackie Sharad at the Dallas Morning News. So like,
it's pretty cool, man, It's it's surreal, honestly to get
compliments like that. So it really does mean a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
So let's cut to the Chase, Texas Tech winning the
Big twelve this year.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well, I've been saying that I think I might put
them number one on my Big Twelve ballot. I guess
we've gotten news today that we're not going to have
a Big twelve media ballot this year. Apparently they're not
putting out a poll. But I do think that Texas
Tech is on the short list of legitimate contenders in
the Big Twelve. For me, that list is about four
or five teams. I think certainly Texas Tech is on it,
(03:24):
Arizona State belongs on it with what they bring back.
I'm really high on Baylor as a potential breakout candidate,
and then Kansas State and BYU is kind of that
swing team right now with the Jake Reslaf situation at quarterback.
But those four to five teams are kind of the
ones that I think will be there at the end
of the year. And Tech Tech, I would argue, has
(03:44):
the best individual roster in the Big Twelve. Now they
have to prove they can go out and do it.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
After Texas and Oklahoma left the Big Twelve, I think
a lot of people left the Big twelve for dead
and they prove not to be that. With Arizona State
last year, could you see a resurgence in the conference? Yeah,
I think that.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
It's funny, right because we had this expanded twelve team
college football playoffs, and the Big Twelve was the only
major conference that only had one true contender to make
it in Now we have a conversation about the fact
that I think it's actually kind of ridiculous that BYU
didn't get more consideration after going on the road and
beating SMU, but you know, they finished number seventeen in
(04:20):
the country. I think though, that when you look back
at the last five to ten years, what happened last
year was a little bit of an anomaly. No, I
don't think that necessarily the Big Deal is going to
have multiple top five teams or even win national championships,
but it's pretty typical that you get, you know, two
or three teams in that top ten to fifteen conversation.
(04:41):
I mean, I think back to twenty fourteen. Of course,
the Baylor team that I covered, Baylor was number five,
TCU was number six, Kansas State was number eleven. They
would have all made it potentially in a year like that.
So I do think that we're going to see a
little bit of a resurgence. Though, I will say as well,
and this is a next essential issue that the conference
knows that it has. You do need some teams to
(05:01):
establish themselves as those with credibility, and I think that
you need some of the teams that do have some
preseason hype to come into the year and perform well
to try to make sure that you're able to really
get that many teams into the top ten group.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, let me tell you who's to blame for that,
and that would be TCU, who proved to be a
fraud the National Championship and then came out and laiden
egg against Colorado in their first game after that loss.
That to me is a signal point of you need
to have a national brand. They had a chance to
do and they couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
No, And I think that that's a huge part of it.
And look, here's one thing that I'll say as well,
right I mentioned I don't know, like if you asked
me today, out of the sixteen Big Twelve teams, do
any of them win a national title, let's say in
the next ten years, I would say no, I don't
know that there is a legitimate national title team in
the Big Twelve. But this is one place where I
(05:54):
think the expanded College Football Playoff actually has an opportunity
to maybe help you because example, you mentioned TCU, they
get destroyed in the National Championship game to the extent
that people forget by the way they beat Michigan the
week before that. Right, So I think that there will
be more opportunities to win games in the playoffs, to
(06:14):
be competitive, to have good results. And look, when you
get to the round of the sort of serious national
championship contenders, maybe you still can't hang. But I think
it's going to at least change the dynamic a little
bit if the Big twelve starts to at least win
some playoff games.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
We're talking to our friend Jay Sheehan Jia Raj from
cbssports dot com right now, and you know, I can't
let you go without talking about Texas State joining the
PAC twelve. It's rumored, it's been reported now that it's
going to happen on Monday.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
What is your initial reaction to that.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, Well, first of all, I mean, look, we obviously
had conversations back when I was covering the state of Texas,
and this would have been really unthinkable at that point. Right,
Like I moved over from my job at Day almost
like football in twenty twenty one, which was the year
that Texas and Oklahoma announced they were going to the SEC,
and like, there is not a team that you would
(07:05):
have been more surprised to end up in the fact
twelve in Texas State at that point. But I think
that this is a real compliment to what they have
done from an athletic department perspective. Of course GJ. Kenny
being you know, the head of the snake in the
football program, but their athletic director, their new president, I
think they've done a phenomenal job of being ready for
(07:26):
this moment. And I think also understanding what the goals
of the institution are. That's I think one thing that
gets a little lost in this is, you know, when
you think about Texas State, like they moved up to
FBS back, you know, close to fifteen years ago because
they wanted to increase their national profile through athletics. And
I think that you know, again, there are four university
(07:48):
systems in Texas. I think that text AD isn't officially
considered the flagship of the Texas State system, but it's
the de facto flagship. And you want that team and
you want that program to be at least in the
same kinds of conversations to the other great universities in Texas.
So I think it's a huge moment for the program.
And by the way, for the PAC twelve, you got
the opportunity to not just come to the state of
(08:10):
Texas to recruit players, you also get to come to
recruit students. And I mean obviously you know, being in Austin,
San Antonio, you guys know, right like, this is the
fastest growing area in the entire country right now, and
I think that the PAC twelve sees this as a
huge growth opportunity.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Well, especially after they lose you know, Los Angeles, they
lose Eugene. Now they it's sunny, Sam marvelous. We've all
been there. We love that place.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
When I think that, I'll tell you what, I think
that there are gonna be some TACT twelve coaches who
are pretty pleased when they get down here and have
an opportunity to get on the river. But seriously, like
this is this is I think a huge growth opportunity,
not just for the PAC twelve, but again like long
term for Texas State. This is a university that's growing
and I expect that again in the next couple of years,
(08:56):
like they are going to invest a lot more into
ensuring that they have a nationally competitive program.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
So I don't know the next time I want to
give to talk to you, So I have to ask,
it's hot outside, give me a hot take for the
twenty twenty six college football season.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Of the twenty five or twenty six, we'll do twenty five.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
I guess, yeah, it is twenty twenty five. You're right.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Well, no, I mean, we can look ahead, don't worry,
we can. But let's see a hot take for the
twenty twenty five season. I think that I think that
the national champion this year will not be one of
the top five preseason teams. I think that we have
so much parody in this sport this year, and when
(09:37):
you look at the top contenders heading in right, you've
got a Texas, You've got a Georgia, programs like that,
Ohio State even I think that there are a lot
of holes. I mean, plenty of them are replacing at quarterbacks,
a whole bunch of them are replacing first round ticks
in the trenches. I think that we have maybe a
more unexpected national champion this year than we've had in
(09:59):
a little while.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
He is SHEHANJ. Raj cbssports dot com. Read his piece
on Texas Tech and West Texas.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
It's really really good. Thanks so much, man, thank you
so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
All Right, when we come back, NBA Draft Grade Spurs
get Dylan Harper and Carter Bryan. What does that mean
for the Spurs going forward? And did they get n
A plus. We'll tell you next and you have a
show next on Sports Radio seven sixty The Ticket
All the phone line right now is our friend from
CBS Sports dot com. He wrote, maybe the story of
the summer is Shean j Raj and uh Shean.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Thank you so much for.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Joining me, man, Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
All right, first off, I want to say I've been
a big fan forever, ever since you were covering Texas
college sports, but now you're covering the national view of things,
and you wrote an incredible story on Texas Tech. I
want to start first off with how did you come
up with the idea? Because I think a lot of
people around the country are interested in West Texas, but
(00:37):
they're thinking cowboys and you know, oil fields, not necessarily
thinking about text tech football.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
You know, it's interesting, right because obviously they put together
a tremendous transfer class that ended up number two in
the country in the two four seven rankings, and they
threw some real money around. And when David Bailey committed
coming from Stanford, I mean that's the kid that every
single program in the countree tried to offer and went after,
and so I really wanted to know a little bit
(01:04):
what was happening in Lubbock. But there was also an
aspect too where I just know, right, like you see
this all the time in this nil era of like
people being like, well, they threw money and that's the
whole story. And I just knew that there was a
little bit more to it, and I wanted to figure
out what exactly that was. And so, you know, I've
had great relationships at Texas Tech over the years, and
(01:25):
so thankfully I was able to set up some fantastic
interviews and spend some time there, and I really learned
a lot about that place.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Well, I want to say this for people who didn't
read the piece yet, it's available right now on CBS
dot com, CBS Sports dot com. I want to say,
but it reminded me so much of when I was
a kid reading Sports Illustrated and in my back of
my parents' car, reading about these places that I knew
about but I didn't know about. And I want to
give you a credit, man, because the story, Man, this
(01:53):
is the first real long form piece of journalism that
I've read a long time that did what you did.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
I really want to give you credit for that, man.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
That really does mean a lot. And I've heard from
so many people, you know that because the story ended
up being five thousand words. Please don't be scared off
from reading. And it really does fly by. But you know,
I mean, like you said, this isn't something that necessarily
happens a lot. You know, sometimes people can get bogged
down in things. But you know, since this has come out, like,
first of all, I'll tell you, like our analytics say
(02:24):
like it is one of the articles that has the
highest for tention times of any article that's been published
this year, which means essentially people are staying on the
page and actually reading todaying thing, which is pretty incredible.
The other thing too, that I'll say is that, man,
it has been soap. Well, I've gotten some people say, yeah,
this reminds me of old school s, size reminds me
of Grant Land. Like, I've gotten some people saying that
(02:47):
that they haven't read something like this since the days
of Blackie Sharad at the Dallas Morning News. So like,
it's pretty cool, man, It's it's surreal, honestly to get
compliments like that. So it really does mean a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
So let's cut to the Chase, Texas Tech winning the
Big twelve this year.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well, I've been saying that I think I might put
them number one on my Big Twelve ballot. I guess
we've gotten news today that we're not going to have
a Big twelve media ballot this year. Apparently they're not
putting out a poll. But I do think that Texas
Tech is on the short list of legitimate contenders in
the Big Twelve. For me, that list is about four
or five teams. I think certainly Texas Tech is on it,
(03:24):
Arizona State belongs on it with what they bring back.
I'm really high on Baylor as a potential breakout candidate,
and then Kansas State and BYU is kind of that
swing team right now with the Jake Reslaf situation at quarterback.
But those four to five teams are kind of the
ones that I think will be there at the end
of the year. And Tech Tech, I would argue, has
(03:44):
the best individual roster in the Big Twelve. Now they
have to prove they can go out and do it.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
After Texas and Oklahoma left the Big Twelve, I think
a lot of people left the Big twelve for dead
and they prove not to be that. With Arizona State
last year, could you see a resurgence in the conference? Yeah,
I think that.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
It's funny, right because we had this expanded twelve team
college football playoffs, and the Big Twelve was the only
major conference that only had one true contender to make
it in Now we have a conversation about the fact
that I think it's actually kind of ridiculous that BYU
didn't get more consideration after going on the road and
beating SMU, but you know, they finished number seventeen in
(04:20):
the country. I think though, that when you look back
at the last five to ten years, what happened last
year was a little bit of an anomaly. No, I
don't think that necessarily the Big Deal is going to
have multiple top five teams or even win national championships,
but it's pretty typical that you get, you know, two
or three teams in that top ten to fifteen conversation.
(04:41):
I mean, I think back to twenty fourteen. Of course,
the Baylor team that I covered, Baylor was number five,
TCU was number six, Kansas State was number eleven. They
would have all made it potentially in a year like that.
So I do think that we're going to see a
little bit of a resurgence. Though, I will say as well,
and this is a next essential issue that the conference
knows that it has. You do need some teams to
(05:01):
establish themselves as those with credibility, and I think that
you need some of the teams that do have some
preseason hype to come into the year and perform well
to try to make sure that you're able to really
get that many teams into the top ten group.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, let me tell you who's to blame for that,
and that would be TCU, who proved to be a
fraud the National Championship and then came out and laiden
egg against Colorado in their first game after that loss.
That to me is a signal point of you need
to have a national brand. They had a chance to
do and they couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
No, And I think that that's a huge part of it.
And look, here's one thing that I'll say as well,
right I mentioned I don't know, like if you asked
me today, out of the sixteen Big Twelve teams, do
any of them win a national title, let's say in
the next ten years, I would say no, I don't
know that there is a legitimate national title team in
the Big Twelve. But this is one place where I
(05:54):
think the expanded College Football Playoff actually has an opportunity
to maybe help you because example, you mentioned TCU, they
get destroyed in the National Championship game to the extent
that people forget by the way they beat Michigan the
week before that. Right, So I think that there will
be more opportunities to win games in the playoffs, to
(06:14):
be competitive, to have good results. And look, when you
get to the round of the sort of serious national
championship contenders, maybe you still can't hang. But I think
it's going to at least change the dynamic a little
bit if the Big twelve starts to at least win
some playoff games.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
We're talking to our friend Jay Sheehan Jia Raj from
cbssports dot com right now, and you know, I can't
let you go without talking about Texas State joining the
PAC twelve. It's rumored, it's been reported now that it's
going to happen on Monday.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
What is your initial reaction to that.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, Well, first of all, I mean, look, we obviously
had conversations back when I was covering the state of Texas,
and this would have been really unthinkable at that point. Right,
Like I moved over from my job at Day almost
like football in twenty twenty one, which was the year
that Texas and Oklahoma announced they were going to the SEC,
and like, there is not a team that you would
(07:05):
have been more surprised to end up in the fact
twelve in Texas State at that point. But I think
that this is a real compliment to what they have
done from an athletic department perspective. Of course GJ. Kenny
being you know, the head of the snake in the
football program, but their athletic director, their new president, I
think they've done a phenomenal job of being ready for
(07:26):
this moment. And I think also understanding what the goals
of the institution are. That's I think one thing that
gets a little lost in this is, you know, when
you think about Texas State, like they moved up to
FBS back, you know, close to fifteen years ago because
they wanted to increase their national profile through athletics. And
I think that you know, again, there are four university
(07:48):
systems in Texas. I think that text AD isn't officially
considered the flagship of the Texas State system, but it's
the de facto flagship. And you want that team and
you want that program to be at least in the
same kinds of conversations to the other great universities in Texas.
So I think it's a huge moment for the program.
And by the way, for the PAC twelve, you got
the opportunity to not just come to the state of
(08:10):
Texas to recruit players, you also get to come to
recruit students. And I mean obviously you know, being in Austin,
San Antonio, you guys know, right like, this is the
fastest growing area in the entire country right now, and
I think that the PAC twelve sees this as a
huge growth opportunity.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Well, especially after they lose you know, Los Angeles, they
lose Eugene. Now they it's sunny, Sam marvelous. We've all
been there. We love that place.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
When I think that, I'll tell you what, I think
that there are gonna be some TACT twelve coaches who
are pretty pleased when they get down here and have
an opportunity to get on the river. But seriously, like
this is this is I think a huge growth opportunity,
not just for the PAC twelve, but again like long
term for Texas State. This is a university that's growing
and I expect that again in the next couple of years,
(08:56):
like they are going to invest a lot more into
ensuring that they have a nationally competitive program.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
So I don't know the next time I want to
give to talk to you, So I have to ask,
it's hot outside, give me a hot take for the
twenty twenty six college football season.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Of the twenty five or twenty six, we'll do twenty five.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
I guess, yeah, it is twenty twenty five. You're right.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Well, no, I mean, we can look ahead, don't worry,
we can. But let's see a hot take for the
twenty twenty five season. I think that I think that
the national champion this year will not be one of
the top five preseason teams. I think that we have
so much parody in this sport this year, and when
(09:37):
you look at the top contenders heading in right, you've
got a Texas, You've got a Georgia, programs like that,
Ohio State even I think that there are a lot
of holes. I mean, plenty of them are replacing at quarterbacks,
a whole bunch of them are replacing first round ticks
in the trenches. I think that we have maybe a
more unexpected national champion this year than we've had in
(09:59):
a little while.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
He is SHEHANJ. Raj cbssports dot com. Read his piece
on Texas Tech and West Texas.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
It's really really good. Thanks so much, man, thank you
so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
All Right, when we come back, NBA Draft Grade Spurs
get Dylan Harper and Carter Bryan. What does that mean
for the Spurs going forward? And did they get n
A plus. We'll tell you next and you have a
show next on Sports Radio seven sixty The Ticket
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