Tuesday: Home-Field Advantage

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
I just got word from Sam here, the guy I've
turned and his wife into golf fans from the last
several years. Unfortunately, that's correct. We have news that brooks
Keepka is coming a leaving Live. We'll tell you tell
you about that in a little bit.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Ironically, that's one of the roommate's favorite too, up there
after she saw the clip of him and Bryson a
couple of years ago.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, all right, we're gonna get to that in a
little bit.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Dan Lanning came out and said that the matchup in
the Orange Bowl between Oregon and Texas Tech should not
be in the Orange Bowl. It should be in Lubbock.
It should be a home team at a home advantage
for Texas Tech. And I think he's got a great
point that we give schools five, six, seven, and eight
a home game against nine, ten, eleven, and twelve, but

(00:53):
we don't get one through for a home game in
the middle of December where it would be cool for
their fans to have a postseason game at home. Now,
I'm pretty much sold on the fact that we're going
to go to sixteen teams and they're going to meet
again in I think early January or or late January
early February to determine if they want to expand the playoffs,

(01:14):
and I think that they're definitely going to and one
of the reasons why is there they definitely will want
to keep the group of six schools in it, but
also to give other schools that may be more deserving
from a roster standpoint than the group of six schools.
And I'll get into that morn a little bit, but
I think we're going to go to sixteen. So one

(01:35):
through eight in that scenario are going to get the
opportunity to host games in nine through sixteen would be
the road team, but I wouldn't mind the second round
also being on college campuses. I would also like I
understand you have to have a week for studies in
school and finals. And the reason that there are there
were there were the games were last week and a

(01:57):
lot of schools this week or actually last Saturday, we're
finishing up their finals.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Last weekend. This week is a dead week.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Almost everybody's out of school, and so that you and
you still want your players to be able to enjoy
Christmas with their families, and then we get back into
the next three rounds. New Year's weekend, the weekend after
that in the championship game two weeks down the road.
So I'm okay with all of that, but I do
think it would be cool to see more games.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
On college campus sites.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
I think, And I didn't get to see it because
I was driving back from a funeral on Friday, but
I got to experience it through the radio. The pregame
show that oh you put on at the stadium, I'm
told was quite impressive.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, someone needs to do a freedom of information request
and see how much that laser show cost, because I
think that was the biggest budget IEDLM in Oklahoma's Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Well they just got it out of the the They
just print money in Norman. They've been doing that for
a while. Would you like to see Oregon in Texas
Tech in Lebock Shane.

Speaker 4 (02:59):
I mean, personally sure, I'm a Texas Tech fan, but
as a college ball peurist that I am, I'm going
to remain unbiased for this segment. Just for the segment though,
But my thought process is this is that pretty much
all playoffs need to have the same rules according to
where they are in terms of location. I believe that
the best way to determine real playoff outcomes is honestly

(03:21):
to have every playoff game be neutral site, so that
there's no competitive advantage for one team just just because
they happen to like land in a location. If you
look at the NFL, it's all based on location until
you get to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 5 (03:36):
In high school football it's it's all varied on location.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
I think that I think there's some sort of cohesion
in there, just as a sports fan in general. But
with college football, my belief is this, whether it's twelve teams,
fourteen sixteen, whatever do they want to do, I am
actually okay with it. They all were neutral site games,
but you use bowl games as the DOESNY have playoff
spots for those, whether it's the first round, second or
third or whatever.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Yeah, I think it's a it's a cost thing more
than anything else. If both teams have to travel, then
both teams are paying for stuff.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Right.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
If only one team is traveling, it's whether it's the
NCAA picking up the bill or the individual schools, that's
an easier situation.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
If that's the case, then every playoff, every playoff game
needs to be at a certain school until you get
to the Championship and honestly, forget to forget the Semis,
forget the Rose Bowl or Sugar But with all that,
it should all just be in one single campus. And
I think I think you and actually talked about this,
believe or not, I think it should. I think the
championship game in that case should be the only neutral
site game.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, I think, you know, I think Dan is going
to get what he's asking for as soon as they
go to sixteen teams, because then it really will be
pretty easy to make one through There's no buys. One
through eight will be your home teams playing on campus.
And it also then it gives some it gives some

(04:56):
real advantage to every top seed favored team in those matchups,
not just because it is a little unstable that five
through eight get to play an additional home game while
one through four are already planning their trip to the Rose.

Speaker 6 (05:12):
Bowl or the Orange Bowl or wherever.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
And even for Oregon, it's it's a lot closer a
flight from Eugene the Lubbick than it is from Eugene
to Miami. They're gonna be in the air an extra
two and a half to three hours. It's probably a
close to a five and a half hour flight from
from Portland. I'm sure they leave from Eugene, but from
the Oregon area to the Miami area.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
And also one through four had the advantage of already
buying the tickets ahead of time because they're already gonna
be there.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
So, yeah, they knew they were gonna host the game
in whatever Bowl game that they were at. Yeah, but
then from a fans perspective too, especially with it being
New Year's weekend, how many people can actually afford If
you are a team that you're thinking is gonna go
all the way, you're gonna have to buy tickets to
the Orange Bowl. Then you're gonna have to buy tickets
the semifinal game, and then you're gonna have to buy

(06:00):
tickets to the championship game. So and travel to those
respective cities, and now all of a sudden, that becomes
an expensive proposition for all of your fans. Now, obviously,
if you're the road team, okay, you you don't go
to every road some do, but you don't necessarily go
to every road game, so you can you can kind
of justify that. But you can't wait around hoping that

(06:21):
your team makes the National championship game. What if they don't,
then you're not going to get to see them play
their last game.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, and I mean, I definitely hear the concern for
the consumer and the price of attending all these games.
But I can tell you as someone who has a
you know, a significant other born and raised in Lubbock,
there's gonna be people mortgaging, you know, down payment, giving
up down payments, or giving up future purchasing plans for

(06:50):
the next few years to try to be at all
these games. I mean, the the era of Texas Tech
playing in meaningful playoff games. I think you're gonna have
people trying to They'll find a way to make sure
they're at at least one of those three.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Well, and and the era is is not over with.
It's gonna be there for a while as long as
Cody Campbell's got a check buk exactly.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
And maybe maybe there's your maybe Cody Campbell becomes Lubbock
Santa Claus and he puts up well, yeah, he already
has now for the fans directly to buy out some
of these hotel blocks.

Speaker 4 (07:23):
Cody Campbell is pretty much love Screwge McDuck. At this point,
He's what screws McDuck.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Okay, I know't.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, it's a very confusing metaphor because you hear Scrooge
and you think he's anti helping you.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
That makes sense, especially this time of year.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
No, but like those those out there who've ever seen
the Disney Christmas Carol or duck Tails or anything like.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
That, the massively wealthy benefacts well, I know he's that,
that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
And it's the point I was making yesterday about the
college football playoff, and I keep hearing so I heard
Paul feinebamb jump on it on a on a video
today that we need to eliminate the group of six schools.
And my point in all of this is, and I
did this. UTSA has been in existence for fifteen years.
In the last fifteen years, they have a better record

(08:10):
than Indiana. What's the difference between UTSA potentially becoming a
college football.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Power in Indiana?

Speaker 1 (08:17):
It's thirty three million dollars that the Indiana has raised
to pay its players instead of just over one or
whatever it is for UTSA. If I gave Jeff Traylor
thirty three million dollars this afternoon, my bet is is
his roster would look a whole lot different on January
twelfth than it's going to look. And it would have
players on it that could compete with everybody on the
schedule next year, including Texas. So don't tell me that

(08:40):
Purdue can go raise thirty three million dollars and enjoin Indiana,
but North Texas and UTSA and Rice can't well.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
And it's also, I mean, it's so arbitrary of where
you draw the line because twenty years ago TCU was
playing in the wat Yeah, and then the Mountain West
and then the Big twelve, Houston was in the America.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Oklahoma State was a game away from playing for the
national championship in twenty eleven, and this year the second
worst team in college football exactly.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
So you can always find you can always find an
angle to support your narrative if your narrative is leave
the small schools behind. But I think it's pretty hypocritical
to not consider the context of a lot of these
the rise of a lot of these small schools, and
the absolute ineptitude of a lot of these schools that

(09:29):
are in big conferences but have never done anything.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Or James Madison or two Lane Booster and you went
to the games last week and you love the experience,
and on your way back on your private jet, you're going, man,
I wish we.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
Could do this again every year.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
You can just go to your bank, get a big
check and take it to your ad and say, go
buy me a football team. And as good as James
Madison was, they can get better if they can go
buy more players. We are in a transactional world in
college sports, and it's going to be the same way
with basketball. The team that spends the most money is
going to likely have the best chance of winning. And

(10:06):
every team out there is basically the G League for
the other teams that are going to spend money. I
get a player, I develop him, I make him great,
he averages seventeen a game, boom, he's gone. Typically, what
a coach is hoping for now is to go out
and sign three or four freshmen that maybe average ten

(10:27):
or eleven points a game, don't really have great years,
but kind of have good years, and their dollar number
isn't much, maybe one that they can actually pay to
keep them. Then let them explode and win a national championship,
and then let the big boys come in and poach them,
and then go get another class.

Speaker 6 (10:42):
And there's a perfect example of that.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
We saw that in college basketball not that long ago,
when Dusty May took FAY to the Final four.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
And Elijah Martin was playing for Florida last year after
he played for FAU the year before.

Speaker 6 (10:55):
And a couple of the other kids and went to.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
The Michigan Michigan Russia out there exactly golden, Golden, So
that's I guess that's the inconsistency that drives me the
most insane. Is for college basketball, there's not an uproar
to like to eliminate the sixteen seeds from the tournament.
It's still absolutely understood part of the entire bracket. But

(11:22):
for football, for some reason, we view it as well.
There now we need separation of the class.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
If you would have had this argument with me three
years ago, I would have said, fine, don't put the
group of six in because they don't have a chance
to compete, and they don't have a chance to It's
like UTSA is going to play Texas A and M
and Texas and LSU and they have very little chance
of beating them unless the other team really plays poorly.
But we now live in a different world where I

(11:52):
can go out, and I can get arch Manning to come,
an arch Manning type player to come to UTSA if
I gave him seven million dollars, because because tech is
only given him five. Whatever I want to spend money on,
and whatever I want to get my booster club and
sponsors to spend money on, I can now basically outbid
everybody for players.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
And this same logic you could the Fine Bomb would
also say get rid of the G six, but also
get rid of the Pittsburgh Pirates, get rid of the
Detroit Tigers. When when him and Saban say we don't
let Triple A teams into the World Series.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
The Triple A champion could beat the Pirates in some
days one thousand.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
So it's again when it's totally transactional and all level
playing filled money wise, where if you have it, you
have a chance.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
It's a lot.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
We all thought it was going to make the blue
Blood's bluer and richer and smarter and better.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
It's paying them out, go ahead, change.

Speaker 5 (12:47):
It's only it's only panicked them because now.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
Because now they're they're now they're being threatened by Indiana.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
And they're being poached by, like you said, lower level programs,
do you just say, guy, Alabama commit to come to
them this past year, so it's it's open season, right.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Well, the Alabama commit ran out of his time at
Alabama and needed a place to play his graduate year.
So Shad Bank Kendrick Blackshire did the same thing the
year before. But we're in an era now where it
doesn't matter what your tradition is. It doesn't matter ho
having national championships you won because most of the eighteen
year old's never heard of the guys that played twenty
years ago. All they care about is, oh, I'm getting

(13:22):
a check. How big is it? Is it bigcause of
the other guy's Okay, I'll play for you. Let's go.

Speaker 6 (13:26):
An eighteen year old now doesn't even remember when.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Clemson was good, yeah exactly, and they were good for
Lee Baden, who's he exactly exactly. So I mean, yeah,
the importance of having heritage or being a heritage brand
is absolutely outweighed by what your bottom line.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
All right, We're going to talk spurs coming up at
the top of the hour, a couple other things to
finish up this hour. Next four to forty seven on
the ticket and you can win Alamobile tickets if you
call right now seven three six ninety seven sixty call
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