04-04-24 Pete Fiutak with Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Well do it Broncos Country tonight.But with all Brian Nick Ferguson Grant Smith,
it's some interesting news lately about thiscollege football super League, the interesting
premise that you know, I mean, we've talked about on this show how
I want college football to go toalmost an English Premier League style relegation system.
But this is a new kind ofthing. That an idea that they've

(00:21):
come up with, and the ACCI believe sat down the SEC Big Ten,
I think they canceled their their sitdowns in this. But I want
to go. I want to getsomebody who knows a little bit more about
it get a chance to talk aboutit. So let's go to the KA
Comments Barrels hotline and check out withPete Futach of College Footballnews dot Com.
Pete, how you doing this evening? I'm fine. How you guys been

(00:42):
doing pretty well? I saw thisstory about this the super League, and
I think we all probably aren agreementthat college football is headed towards a super
league, if it's not already tentativelythere. I was gonna say first to
stop you there, but what doyou think college football has been for one
hundred and fifty I mean, we'rethe whole I get Oh, no,

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the Big ten and SEC are goingto take over. Well in about what
is we're three weeks four weeks awayfrom right now, you're gonna notice that,
for like the umpteenth straight year,about forty two to forty six percent
of the NFL draft is going tobe made up all of Big ten SEC
players and it's only gonna get weirdernow, Uh, with the expansion,

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it's gonna those two conferences are gonnaIf you take the new uh, the
Oregans and the Colorados and Arizonas ofthe world too, it's gonna be over
fifty percent. It's we're already there, especially when it comes to revenue production,
and even beyond that, we're pastthat. The Big ten's bigger than
the SEC. So this idea ofthe Super League, we're kind of in

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that world already. Well, Pete, you know, obviously this is a
conversation about the Super League and we'rejust talking about football here, but you
have to think, based on Titlenine, we're going to have to include
women's sports in this whole mix aswell. So with that being said,
have you heard any dialogue that wouldstay that with the formation of these super

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leagues. There's going to be atrigger down effect for women's athletics. All
right, I'm going to talk reallyout of my butt here because I think
I kind of know this, butnot really. I think this that you
want to, not that I'm thinkingabout it. I think this gets around
that because the way this would workis it really would all of a sudden,
because Title nine is really about it'sthe point of that is making sure

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it's equal access and equal benefits UHfor for both men and women. UH
is coming from the school and theuniversity, if it's from a business or
hedge fund or a league, orif it's some other way of Again I'm
just talking here. I think thatthat's not it doesn't become a thing like

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because if all of a sudden,for example, if some you know,
trillion dollar hedge fund guy decides thattheir good company is gonna they're going to
bag bankroll this, and all ofa sudden, you know, Alabama quarterbacks
getting paid eight million a year.I don't think that means that a women's
volleyball player or something then has toalso equally make eight million a year.
So I think this is the onlyreason why they're really talking about this.

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It's not even about competitive ballots.And as much as as awesome as English
Premier League relegation is, because that'sthose games are actually the most funds,
it's all desperation. You're not gonnahave that. Because the problem with the
idea of relegation one, it's notthese aren't colleges. I mean, these
are universities. They're supposed to kindof be about learning and stuff and it's

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not really about the sports. Andplus, these these TV contracts and media
deals are so far in advance.I mean we're talking twenty thirties and hopefully
we're still all around. But bythe time these you know, media deals
stop and yeah, who are yougoing to relegate Northwestern? You're going to
relegate cal You're going to relegate Duke, You're gonna really gate Vanderbilt. Well,

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these TV deals are kind of predicatedon having the Chicago in San Francisco
and Nashville market, so it's Idon't think you get the relegation part.
So the real key to doing thisis right now the colleges and all these
places they are trying to figure outhow to get out of the anti trust
lawsuits that are coming that are sayingthat, hey, you guys are keeping
all the money to yourselves. Theseguys and women now are really employees and

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they should be getting paid by youguys. And because at that point,
you don't want to start having collegespaying for players and college athletes, especially
when you're you've got kids who arepaying, you know, ninety thousand dollars
a year to go to Syracuse.They're like, wait, why are we
paying money to get a you know, a linebacker when you know all these
college tuitions are bad. It's abad look. So this is a way
to probably get around that. Withthat said, I don't think it's going

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to happen. Well yeah, Imean obviously with the SEC. So he's
only not even sitting down and cancelingtheir sit downs on this idea that this
seems far fatt However, for collegefootball remain viable, it feels like that
they need a one an enforcement mechanism, more agency that works significantly better than
the nc double A, which hasbeen frankly terrible at that. The NCAA

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has been great for logistics, butjust about everything else, it's been staggeringly
awful at And you know, wemoved from the fourteen playoff, which felt
like not, you know, thatthat was not enough to what are we
up to now? Sixteen teams orwhatever it is, which feels like it's
over overdone. There's got to besome middle ground here that we can find
that makes college football funfair, viableand and isn't you know, I don't

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know the mess that it kind ofcurrently is. Let me go back to
this. It's never been viable forsome programs. I mean, Purdue's never
gonna win the national championship in football. I mean, it's just it's it's
just not that it's always been.They have to have not And the other
part of this that we're talking aboutthis now was that April four we're talking

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about this now when Mischi was tryingto go hit that goal line stand in
overtime to stop ja and no Rowin Alabama. Did anybody care about Connor
Stallions at that point? No,you know, did all this stuff about
oh, Florida State, they're gonnasue this and do this, and oh
my gosh, we're gonna you know, we're gonna get rid of the college
football Playoff corruption all the fixtures thatthat kind of went away after they got

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whacked sixteen six to three or whatever. I mean, it's it's all all
this stuff. Once the ball getskicked off, people tend to not care.
I mean, because you have toremember also that for all the stuff
we're talking about right now, forninety three percent of the people out there,
college football is nothing until August atthe very least. So it's all

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these I get what you're saying,but I'm with you on the cooked up
playoff. But still at the moment, all the pro leagues, at least
half the teams get in in youknow, the NTS Men's basketball tournament,
something like nineteen percent of the teamsget in. And even with the sixteen
team, you're still talking about onlylike ten percent of all college football team.

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So it's still gonna be really hardto get in. And that on
the positive side to kind of,you know, help me out on a
positive note here, December is gonnabe awesome. It's just I mean,
the bull games that they think sobad now they're boring. Everyone outs out
and nobody cares, but everyone kindof watches because there's nothing else to do
in December except NFL on Saturdays.But going starting with the well, how

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they've got this stuck or set up? Is that starting right out of the
gate from the now, the conferencechampionships are going to be massive because those
are playoff games. They get inand get a first round by h and
then you've got the first round onthe home sites and it's just going to
carry all the way through. Thenegatives here is it's going to go all
the way through to January twenty ifit's too long, but it's still gonna

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be a fun December. Now,how much involvement should anyone and the NFL
league off is be involved with Iguess any dogs or the construction of these
super leagues? And if the leaguewere to do that, wouldn't that kind
of jeopardize their anti trust laws.Yeah, there's a whole bunch of parts

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to that, and it kind ofgoes hand to hand with the discussion right
now that's happening when it comes tobasketball side of things, Well, you
know it's awesome that you know,the women's side is is kicked in.
And why is it really awesome rightnow is because there's that's where the superstars
are, That's where the Caitly andClarks are and the page Buckers and the
angel Ress. They're because they're therebecause they don't really have another option.

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So the superstars, you know,these women rose up at the right time
and right now they're great. It'sa fun parlor game in bart trick to
play. Ask anybody to name aYukon men's basketball player. They can't.
Nobody could do it. There's justno stars like there were, you know
before Kobe and Kevin Lebron decide tonot go to college and go right to

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the pro. So, uh,there's a star power aspect of this side
of things here. Uh. Andto be partly because the on the men's
college basketball side, a lot ofthem are going to the G League or
they're going across the world. They'replaying in Greece, they're playing in China,
they're playing elsewhere because they can.That's going to change now with nil
more people are going to play atcollege basketball again. But a long winded

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way of saying, you're not ifyou're the NFL, you don't really want
to mess with this because you don'twant to start you want to the college
is to sort of stip through theeighteen and nineteen year old bodies, to
be crude about it, and beforethey became mature and figure out who's who
and who's what, because at theend of the day, we all think
about these as minor leagues and allthe talent that's coming out here. But

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it's really hard for even the NFLguys. Remember, I mean it's a
crazy stat but after the third roundof the NFL Draft in a couple of
weeks, you got about ten percentchance of getting a starter who's going to
do anything for you for three years. It's just it falls off a cliff.
There's only like one hundred guys ayear who really matter in this thing.
So you don't really want to doany anything if you're in the NFL

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because colleges are doing it all foryou to kind of stiff through who the
good players are. What's gonna Talkingwith Pete Futec College Footballnews dot Com,
it's interesting that you say that becausethe NFL was involved in consulting on this
super league idea, so you feellike they don't want to, you know,
they don't want to get involved andmess up the cash cow, the
golden ghost that's been feeding them foryears. However, they seem to be

(10:22):
putting their foot in the water ontrying to organize this stuff anyway. They're
trying to figure out a way tomake more money. I mean, they
don't don't worry about whatever the combinationyou know, XFL thu's happening right now,
that's not a problem for them.And they don't really have to worry
about college. I mean, theNFL is the NFL. It's just a
bigger giant. It's just the thing, obviously, and so they don't really

(10:43):
have to mess with this too much. But I do think if they're if
they're seeing this and they're saying,you know what, maybe if we did
figure out a way to really makethis sort of a feeder system or really
make alliances, you know how,some way to make it almost like a
triple A like in baseball, ormaybe there's they're really kind of spitballing around
right now just to kind of seeif there's something there. The problem with

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all this is that none of thesecolleges are going to want to give up
their rights, their power, theirmoney, any of that stuff. And
the branding's not going to change.And where this kind of changes as well,
by this eighty team super league isnot going to happen. It's because
they're talking about for this to work, they're going to go to they would
go to like eight leagues, eightleagues of the conferences of ten teams,

(11:28):
where no one wants to ditch theBig ten branding, not now, and
if it does, it's not goingto happen for fifteen years because of a
lot of the contracts in play.So it's an interesting idea, and I
think they're all this kind of saying, Hey, we've got all this money
here, how can we figure thisout and make more So this is just
kind of a fun idea that gotthrown out there, and again, I
will be shocked if anything really comesto it. Well, speaking of branding,

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I mean, obviously the CU Buffshad a brand back in the early
nineties, but that brand has somewhatbeen revitalized by Coach Prime. So I
want to get your take on whatyou think about Coach Prime and what he's
done, not just for to seeyou boffs, but just for college football
in general. Full disclosure, he'sprobably my favorite athlete of all time.

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I could not have been a biggerDion fan during his days, So I'm
a little skewed with my thoughts process. I am really interested and this is
this is where this is where thisis gonna get kind of interesting, because
he really is kind of showing whatyou're supposed to do in the modern era.
Whereas we have the recruiting world kindof you still have to kind of

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recruit a little bit. You stillhave to build. You still have to
get the guys, you know,the eighteen year old guys and get him
in a weight room for two orthree years and figure out what you got.
I mean, there is some elementsof that, but what Prime's doing
is like right out of the gatesaying we're gonna be good right away.
So you just one gotten a lotof good players. It's really hard to

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do though, And what last yearsort of showed is you could have superstar
skill guys. You can get speeds, you can get great, flashy guys,
but depth is really tough and gettingthe lines are hard. And that's
where the that's where the you justhave to suffer is there's no really easy
way to do it to put togethera starting five on that offensive front and
to keep finding the killers on thedefensive side. Look at the at USC,

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they've had a hard time figuring outthat defense and that's the USC.
Uh. It just it's so hard. And that was the problem last year
where you know, the style ofoffense, you know, Shador Sanders was
getting you know, beaten up atthe end. So uh, but it's
still fun. You still coach Prime. It's he created a stir. He
created a whole lot of fun.And then they finished in the last place

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in the PAC twelve. But itwas a whole lot of fun, while
last last year isn't. Isn't thefun part of the branding though. I
mean, if you look at themodern way to recruit, I mean you
basically have two paths to trying tobuild a powerhouse now, and that's with
a lot of money in l Aand I deals or creating a culture in
which people want to be associated withall of the same way that Oregon data

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now with the uniforms and all thatin the way Colorado. Is that the
path going forward for recruiting in collegefootball. Yeah. And then and that's
the other part of this is wherethe nil's built in, where you do
have the collectives, which I,as God's my witness, I do not
understand nil collectives. I do thisfor a living. I've researched it.
I know these I don't get whypeople give their money into these collectives.

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I mean, look, look atthe Arizona basketball team this year. You
know how much money it took toput that team together and for what you
know, it's it's just the returnon investment just isn't there. Especially basketball
is easy. Joy he is acouple of guys. Football is impossible.
So the one real big positive withDion and c u way of doing it,

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like you said, there is abuilt in branding to all that that
maybe other players who can come incan see off of that. Because as
soon as this thing kicked in lastyear, at least for those first the
first month, instantly, what dowe get. We got the I think
it was a Google ads that theywere in, at least the sons were
in. I think they were KFC. Yeah, thank you, And there

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was a KFC. I mean,and that's kind of what you're saying,
because Yean's cool and so who knowsthe idea of marketing and sports better than
that guy when it comes to doingall this. So there is plus the
fact that it just put them onthe map, Like, look, my
kids could not possibly care any lessabout sports, even though there's been a
sporting event on in this house.Every waking moment of their lives just rubbed

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off. But when Colorado was thecool thing, all of a sudden,
my kid who was with the collegeis like, you guys should look at
Colorado like that. That's the valueof you know, college sports, And
that's what we kind of forget iscollege sports are nothing more than one entertainment
and two a pr arm for thecollege. And if you have a good
pro i mean good college football team, all of a sudden, it changes

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everything. I mean, go oncollege tour and everybody just wants to see
the football stadium, whether they careabout sports or not, because stadiums are
cool. So yeah, all ofa sudden, if you get people looking
at Colorado and you get someone onthe campus and they say, wait a
minute, this Boulder is pretty amazingand this is a beautiful school, that's
everything. You've done your job asthe pr arm of the school. Pete

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fu Tech College Footballnews dot Com.We always appreciate time. Anytime, guys
have a great one. Take care