Jeff Barker on the SEC and the future of Texas Athletics

CBS Austin Sports Anchor and Reporter Jeff Barker joins Cam and Zimmel in-studio to talk all things Texas inclduding their move into the SEC and their celebration on Sunday.

Episode Transcript

(00:21):
Continue Wednesday show live from studios herein Austin, Texas. Glad to have
you with us here. Continue tofilling in for Craig Way. He'll be
back Monday with us and now happyto be joined in studio live along with
Andrew Zimmel Jeff Barker from CBS Sausin. Always glad to have Jeff in studio.
I'm glad we could do it onemore time. Happy to be here,

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gentlemen. Just a little jealous ofCraig though obviously a well deserved vacation,
but seeing some of his pictures ishanging out on the beach and all
that, so little jealous. Ialways get jealous of him being able just
to play golf, and it's justlike, man, I would love to
be out there at the Dunes Clubor wherever we're going. Concern is if
I'm gonna lose six golf balls todayor seven versus how will traffic could be

(01:06):
driving in on three sixty to day. But hey, he's served that vacation
because he's one of the hardest workingguys in this business, without doubt.
You were down the SEC celebration onSunday and it kind of felt almost like
a game day atmosphere. I wasvery surprised to see how many Texas fans
flocked out through that. I don'treally get claustrophobic and crowds much. I

(01:27):
mean, just with this job,I've been at plenty of games and big
events and all sorts of things likethat. That was about as close to
being super claustrophobic as I've been ina crowd in a long long time.
It almost felt like a music festival, and it's been forever since I've been
to one. But just like thecrowds and everybody, like not really knowing

(01:48):
where you're at, just knowing thatyou're in the middle of the sea of
people. And I had my camerawith me too, so that was that
was interesting. But I mean theway Texas fans showed out for that,
Holy cow, man, anytime youput a free pit Bull concert front of
everybody, not just Longhorn fans,you know, people are people are gonna
bite it that. But no,it was it was an awesome time out
there, man, And just youknow, all the interviews that we got

(02:09):
to do, and uh talking allthe coaches, seeing how excited everybody is
and and it finally feeling real becausesomething like this is you know, two
years at least publicly in the works, and even much longer than that,
I'm sure behind the scenes of justsome of the initial conversations that the powers
that be were having about making thismove with Oklahoma. And then also I

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gotta say, I saw Oklahoma celebrationon Monday, and Texas fans were getting
after them for that. But whatI don't get is like, maybe this
is just Oklahoma's fault. I don'tknow who bade all these decisions. Why
did they do it on a Monday, like a Monday in Norman. And
I get that the fan base isdifferent with them too. They're yeah,
they're okay, see, they're likea surrounding area of Oka. See.

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But still like a lot of theirfans are in DFW, even in you
know, all cross Oklahoma. Indifferent parts of Texas as well too,
especially North Texas. But I thoughtthat was interesting that Texas would basically turn
this into a giant like festival,which is what it was, and then
Oklahoma would have their deal on Monday, Like, well, that's the difference
between Norman, you know, that'sthe difference between those two. Yeah,

(03:16):
Brent Feedibles posted like a video likeit's like, hey, relyve that SA
celebration. There was like twenty peoplein the background, and meanwhile there was
just there was so many people outof the Texas one. Not surprised.
Yeah, I'm a little bit surprisedmaybe that it wasn't on a Saturday Sunday
versus Monday. I guess because ofthe midnight thing. Uh you know that
they were officially members at midnight onJuly first. But it compared the Texas

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I mean it's kind of like,yeah, Okay, Texas really went all
out in this rollout in Oklahoma.You know, might have just been kind
of screwed by being on a Monday. That's a credit to I was gonna
say Tinfoil had on here, folks. I think it was ESPN being like,
hey, you know a little Longhorn, now we're a little Texas.
The connection there and then versus youknow, Oklahoma. Who cares. They

(04:03):
did have their own live for Oklahomabroadcast. I forget who was on there,
but I mean they did do theirown thing. It just Texas fans
seem a little bit more amped upfor it than Oklahoma fans maybe. Yeah,
And also got to give credit toCDC the entire time he's been here,
he's been mister big Event and DrewMartin and so many other people on

(04:23):
staff with him at Texas and also, you know, got to give you
Chairman of the board Kevin Eltive credit, President Jay Hartzel. All those people
have to be on board for abig event like that to happen. And
that's how CDC has been since hegot here, not just all the unbelievable
coaching hires he's made, but makingeverything a big event, making Texas a
big deal again, and not justlike, oh, we're just gonna live

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off of this brand and everybody knowswe're Texas the most you know, the
burn orange, the most recognizable handsign in college sports, and the logo,
all that kind of stuff. He'sreally taken this while he's been here
to a whole other level, whetherit's Bevo Boulevard, Longhorn City limits,
all those things on game days.You know, the money that he's raised
for new new facilities that help theseteams win, help you know, draw

(05:08):
these coaches here, these elite coachesthat he's bringing in, not just in
the major sports and in some ofthose you know, those other sports that
maybe we don't talk about on aday to day basis like football. So
got to give credit to them.I mean they CDC and his crew man.
They know how to turn something intoa big time, awesome event,
and that's exactly what that was onSunday. You were a twenty twelve graduate
from UT twenty eleven, twenty eleven, so I wish I could have stayed

(05:30):
till twenty twelve. Would have beenmore fun. Yeah, yeah, so
you're you know, you were therefor the very the kind of the beginning
of the end for Texas football,uh with Mac Brown. Since since your
graduation, there's been I think threeeighties, right de Loss, Mike Parents,
Steve Parrison actually now five with CrystalConte. Right, so you've seen
kind of the disorganized nature that Texashas gone through the peaks and valleys.

(05:56):
Right, it's been very frustrating.I talked with CJ. Fogle from a
Texas Football about this. It's likewhen I graduated in twenty twenty twenty,
and you know, during my time, there was you know, some coaching
search es, some coaching hires sothat they can't go the right way obviously,
you know Charlie Strong, the TomHerm, the Steve Sarkeesian. Now
it feels like Texas going into theSEC is into a period golding possibly of
their golden age. I don't thinkyou could ask for more alignment within the

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athletic department and all across the universityright now. I mean, all those
you know, big powers to bethat I mentioned, el Tive, Hertzel,
even the ones that aren't necessarily justfocused on athletics every day, they
are all on board. I meanyou all heard Kevin Eltife in there,
you know, when he was goingoff on stage. I mean, that
guy stole the show. Like everybodyit seems to be rowing in the same

(06:43):
direction, which is huge for anathletic department. There's all these whether it's
football specifically, when we talked aboutwhat Sarks building right now, everybody throws
out these buzzwords, and yes theyget old. They you know, they're
cliches, cultures, a cliche.I mean, it gets thrown around way
too much. I might have evenheard you about that recently, Cam,
and it's true, I'm sure,But also I mean, what's what's the
alignment? I just use another oneright there, But they are they're cliches

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for a reason. If you don'thave those things, it's really hard to
win. And even just across anentire athletic department, I mean, they
have the alignment right now, theculture seems to be in place. Obviously
you're gonna hit bumps in the roadin different sports along the way, but
right now, I mean as theyhead into the SEC, when this when
they decided to make this move,or even before it became public, Like
I said a second ago, Idon't think you could have asked if you

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drew it up, I don't thinkyou could have drawn it up in a
better way for them to be goinginto the SEC with more momentum and more
alignment. And obviously it all startslike it always well with the football program
and coming off of that season theyhad last year, you know, big
twelve championship College football Playoff, youknow, a player or two away from
maybe competing for the national championship.And now for Texas to go into the

(07:53):
SEC expanded twelve team playoff, theopportunities and margin for air have you know,
at least grown a little bit.Even if the SEC is more difficult,
you know, now you've got morechances to be on that national stage.
And get into the playoff and quoteunquote play for a national championship every
year. So I think across theboard, but starting with football, it's
hard to hard to have drawn upa better kind of state of the athletic

(08:16):
department and university than Texas has rightnow as they make the transition. What's
the most exciting thing you're looking forwardto with Texas moving into the SEC?
Is there anything that has your attention, not just maybe Texas football, but
any other sport or rivalries being renewed, anything of that line. I'll start
with football, and then I'm suresomething else more random will pop in my

(08:39):
mind. I mean, I say, I'll say what I'm about to say
for football, and it also goesfor baseball too, but for football specifically,
the environments that you're going to playin, the fan bases that are
going to travel to these games,and even just with fans coming to Austin,
it's not it's not that like OklahomaState fans wouldn't travel from Stillwater,
because they would. I mean,while in college a I worked at a

(09:01):
hotel downtown and you know, wheneverthey would come to town, or Texas
Tech would come town. Obviously,those teams are going to travel, but
it's more of those. I didnot work there. I worked at the
Sheraton downtown over on Eleventh Street.Oh valet, you know bell hop.
Can you picture me doing that?I can. I was at the driscoll
as a valet first one semester.My freshman or sophomore year wheelist had more

(09:22):
more space than you did over there. You know, we had nothing.
That's a tough job over there byyou know six or whatever the cross street
is, especially when when you weworked till like two am, and it
would also coincide with the sixth Street, the dirty street coming off the people
out there, and then also thehomeless people who just don't give any fs
at all. It was made forsome very interesting, uh Saturday mornings at

(09:45):
three am. But continue no doubthad those same experiences. But yeah,
I think the experiences of the opposingfans and these new fan bases wanting to
come to Austin for a game isgoing to be a huge part of it.
And then not to mention the obviouspart of Texas and their fans getting
to now travel to I'd know theywent to Arkansas and Sarks first year,
but now to go back to Arkansaswith the program the way it is,

(10:05):
and you know, maybe get alittle revenge for that game. Not that
there's that many guys that are thatare still on this team, but Texas
is going into that atmosphere much moreprepared for it than they were in year
one. And then you know,renewing the A and M rivalry. I
mean, all this stuff, Ithink for me is kind of just the
obvious stuff that early on I'm reallyexcited about, and I think you're in
and year out. Like I waskind of a grouch about the schedule aspect

(10:30):
of it before, where I reallyliked the Big twelve schedule in football when
it was only ten teams and growingup in LA with the Pac ten was
like that back in the day,like you would play all nine of the
other teams. I've kind of gottenpast that point with the SEC a little
bit, like all right, itjust is what it is, the eight
conference games. But I've started tocome around also on how you know you're
gonna play some different teams, Likethere's no LSU in Alabama on the schedule

(10:52):
this year, but like Florida doescome here, you know, Georgia comes
here for I mean, arguably thebiggest game at dk ARE and some of
our lifetimes. So there's gonna begames like that that you're just not getting
in the Big twelve. And look, it's no offense to Texas Tech and
Baylor, like those teams show outwhen Texas goes on the road there,
like especially these last couple of years. I mean I was at the Tech

(11:13):
game two years ago when they stormedthe field. I was talking about crowds
a second ago. At least allthe people were in burn orange and were
on my side on Sunday. Imean that was crazy at that Tech game,
like seeing how much they truly dislikeTexas or hate Texas thing. We
use that word for them definitely,So I think that's what it is.
And then, like I mentioned baseball, Baseball's you know, I don't know,

(11:35):
I don't know if I think Texasthe true diehard fans get it.
I don't know if the casual Texasbaseball fans truly understand that every SEC atmosphere
baseball wise, just like football,like they have their own unique deal.
I mean, my first job wasin Jackson, Mississippi, So I was
in ole Mi. I was atole miss and Oxford and Swayze Field and

(11:56):
the Swazy Showers and then Duty NobleField and Start. Both those teams have
won national championships in the last tenyears. I mean, I think of
what's four of the SEC's won likethe last five College World Series, and
I think almost every time it's beena new champion, and that you know,
the team that hadn't won it.So the last time there wasn't an
SEC team playing for the title,I think it was like two thousand and

(12:18):
six or something, right, andeven just during baseball season, like there's
a huge difference between going to Wacofor a Big twelve matchup on the road
with Baylor and going to you know, Duty Noble Field and playing Mississippi State
or even even Georgia, like goingsomewhere like that where you may not think
of their baseball program as like superhistoric, but you know, or maybe

(12:41):
not that atmosphere, but it isawesome. So that's what I'm probably most
excited about. Jeff Barker from CBSSaustin in studio with us. We're gonna
take a break here, but we'regonna come back. Continue this conversation.
Also get Jep's thoughts on Brianni Jamesmaybe as John Deere picks. Heading into
the fifth major of the p jS season, some may say that all

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that and more here as The CraigWait Show continues on this Wednesday afternoon