July 14, 2020 • 53 mins
Mike Blewitt and George Kurtz are joined by Joe Lisi for this episode of Football Full Circle! The guys discuss the Big Ten announcement, the ACC delay, and the possibility of having spring football. What does the future of college football look like? Will there be a full college football season in the fall? Mike, George, and Joe discuss Matt Breida's future with the Dolphins. The guys wrap up the show with a little bit of fantasy football as they discuss strategy for drafting in slow drafts.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sports grid dot Com Betting insights and entertainment at your
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sports grid dot Com. Hey, everybody, welcome to this hour
(00:34):
of Football Full Circle, joined by Joe Leasy this hour,
he's the co host of College Football Today along with
Like a Padre George Kurtz. Joe, First of all, how
you doing, Bud, How's how's the summer going? How are
things in New Jersey? Things are going well? Mike from
a from a summer perspective, food, great weather, but then
a big week of college football in terms of news,
(00:55):
tumultuous week. So we'll see how it plays out in
the coming weeks of July. Yeah, so look, there's no
easy way to transition. It's been a massive week in
college football. I think news continues will continue to spill
out over the weekend as we are recording filming these shows.
(01:17):
So news is breaking by the moment, and the big
one was really with the Big Tent, right, we expect
similar news with the A C C in the pack
twelve to be announced, But the Big Ten is really
the one that put it on the line. And here's
their official quote. The Big Ten Conference announced that if
the conference is able to participate in fall sports men's
(01:40):
and women's cross country, field hockey, football, men's and women's soccer,
and women's volleyball, and based on medical advice, it will
move to conference only schedules in those sports show this
is something that was rumored to be happening potentially to
these Power five conferences and beyond, and now this interest
that they had twenty eight different FBS opponents scheduled outside
(02:04):
of the conference, so those games all sort of go away.
But did you I mean, I I assume that it
just got to the point where we expected that this
is the best we were going to do. It was
the best that I guess we were going to do.
I think what I was surprised about it started with
the IVY leagues earlier in the week where they canceled
the season completely. But then the Big Ten didn't take
(02:27):
into account any of the other Power five conferences, the SEC,
the Big Twelve, the Pack twelve. I mean, they were
completely blindsided by the development. So that was where I
was surprised. You would think that with these big games
on tap Oregon, Ohio State in terms of September twelve,
Michigan and Washington Alabama USC on the in terms of
(02:49):
sec Pack twelve, they all have huge repercussions by their
decision and for them to just take the front and
center stage in terms of the lead, I was shot
by that. But again, and we'll see how it plays out.
Everybody wants to be first in terms of, you know,
showing that they have a plan in place, but this
could have a domino effect in terms of not playing
the season at all. So George, Joe brings up an
(03:11):
interesting point in that they want to be seen as
a leader here, but there isn't really a plan in place.
This is a reduction of games, but this isn't really
this is how we're going to do this. This is
how we're going to get past this. This is just look,
this is the best we're gonna be able to do.
So we're not making people travel that far around the country. Yeah,
(03:33):
I think Joe used through the important word their domino effect.
I wonder if this is the first domino. It's an
important word in that set in that little law statement,
they made there if the conference is able to participate.
They're not even saying it's definite there. But as Joe
is pointing out to me, you know, the first thing,
oh yeah, we're gonna play a full schedule, will battle
through now conference only next with seeing debate, that's that
(03:56):
we can't play. It's canceled, you know, And I wonder
this is going to start other conference. He get the
same thing. I know that the IVY League sort of
was the first Domini don't because I think Joe brought
up in a tweet earlier this week. No one cares. Yeah,
for the most part, very few people cared. Now this
is bigger, and I wonder this is going to be
there now these other conferences will be looking at it
on the Big Ten. They may not be the biggest conference,
(04:16):
but it's still the Big Ten. It's still a major conference.
And I wonder if that's going to force other people
to think the same things. It's what I keep saying
that how does the NFL play or college football play?
If Major League Baseball has to cancel their season in
middle August, how do you then justify, oh, yeah, we're
gonna play anyway. How do the other conferences justify continuing
their schedule. There at a conference schedule, and you already
(04:37):
have one confidence says, you know what, it's not safe.
We can't do this. Yeah. There there's some sense apparently
from the SEC institutions that they were a little blindsided
by this this week. They didn't expect an announcement like that.
But given the fact that the a c C in
the pact we all have seen ready to follow suit.
I don't know what other choice the SEC had. It
would have put that out that you Alabama USC game
(04:59):
on ice and many others that were scheduled as well.
You know, I would push back a little bit on
the thought that the IVY League doesn't matter at all. Granted, look,
there are some IVY League players that make it to
the league, right we still have Ryan Fitzpatrick playing there,
and there's Cameron brad and other Harvard players and probably
a couple of other um IVY leaguers as well. I believe,
(05:22):
just for Horstead that bears tight end. I believe these princetons.
So anyway, there's a few players that make the NFL.
I understand and everybody watching understands. They're not a premier
football conference. However, in my experience in working in and
around college athletics and with college athletic departments, the IVY
(05:42):
League is still seen as a prestigious conference for the
history that they've provided, and obviously the academic guidance and
the commitment to student athletes that they still put forward
in a very real way. In a in a much
more real way it frankly then the Power five conferences,
which are big business operating as if everybody is still
(06:06):
a student athlete. Right, we can agree on that, but
I do I have noticed in my experience that the
IVY League is still seen as somebody that they look
to for guidance on these issues. Now, Big ten is
gonna play football or try to even if the IVY
League doesn't. That that is a separate issue. But I
(06:27):
will say that once the IVY League did say something, Joe,
I think it led to other people to be like,
you know what, we have to say something and do
something about this. I think to your point, the biggest
thing is that the IVY Leagues are private schools, right,
and we're talking about state local schools like l s U,
like Alabama. That's the biggest difference because it directly it
(06:48):
ties to the local economies. Alabama not playing four games
let's say most of them at home for the most
part for out a conference, right, Yeah, one of them
would have it in Dallas. The other three are home
games almost right. So that's a direct impact on the
local state economies. And that's the biggest difference I think
(07:08):
between the IVY leagues and the Power of five conferences.
But to your point, from a health perspective, they do
take every precaution because they can afford to. I mean,
at the bottom line, they're smart institutions. They charge a
high tuition, and they want to protect their student athletes,
and they're doing the right thing. I just think that
the other Power of five schools, when they look at
(07:30):
the big picture, they're saying, hey, it's not just our university.
We have a possible effect where in one like Stanford,
we're gonna drop eleven out of thirty six programs, and
there are other programs that are gonna be hurt by
this decision. And where do they go from there from
not just football but other varsity sports. Yeah, we'll we'll
(07:52):
get to Stanford in the next segment as well. But
it's a it's an important point it's all part of
this discussion and the reason that some of these decisions
are being made. George, I'll take you the next pathway
on this specific discussion about the Big ten, and it
is regarding a quote from Jean Smith. Now, Jean Smith
is the athletic director at at the Ohio State University.
(08:13):
He is amongst the most powerful and recognizable athletic directors
in the whole country. If you were doing a ranking,
he could be number one. Kevin White at Duke amongst
them as well. But I would say this quote here
from Jane Smith, I'm really concerned. This is via Ari Wasserman.
Ari Wasserman is the Ohio State beat writer for you
(08:35):
Athletic I'm really concerned, said Jean Smith when asked about
his optimism that football will happen in the fall. When
you look at the behavior of our country and we
and in May we were on a downward trajectory. Now
if we're not the worst in the world, we're one
of the worst in the world. There's additional quotes from him,
but him saying he's really concerned. George, this may all
(08:57):
be for not all this planning is my just go
down the tubes We've all been talking about it each
and every week. We've been on this roller coaster ride
where look, we said two months ago, George, you and
I said, no way than a month ago. We're like,
you know what, six chance this might happen today? I'm
having your confidence is very low, and I think it's accurate.
(09:20):
I think we're trying to say it changes almost by
the week or by the bye week, you know, multiple
weeks here. I don't have the belief. I think most
of these sports football, I might might be a little
bit different, but baseball, hockey, basketball, they're all going to
try and play. Maybe because they're three weeks away, right,
so I think they're going to try football. You talk
more seven weeks away, almost two months away, so we'll
(09:41):
have more information then. I think they're all going to
try and start. I just don't think any you're going
to be able to complete it football. This virus has
made for football. I know the nfl X actually believes
the virus will bend to them that they can change this.
How are you going to change the huddle? How are
you going to change the tackle? How are you going
to change blocking? The panting? You have that dirty is
(10:01):
old as anything. I mean, this is device is made
for football. I don't see how they're gonna be able
to get through it. You are they planning is good,
you want to try and start fine plan everything out here.
But what do we see in baseball this weekend? They
screwed up all the tests all the tests for screwed
was there was a holiday and the tests didn't show
up at certain ballparks. Football, they better learn from baseball's mistakes.
(10:22):
Baseball keeps making, keeps making them. Football better learn from
them and not think, well, we're the NFL, we're better
than everybody anyway, we don't need to pay attention. Yeah,
there's one positive out of the baseball there's only one
eight percent uh positive rate on the intake testing. But
as you said, tests are being delayed, there's a lot
of logistics that still need to be worked out. Players
are testing positive than negative. So all this stuff is
(10:45):
is happening in real time. Football does have the luxury
of watching the mistakes play out from other leagues, but
they may have they may maybe at the disadvantage of
watching other teams or other leagues fold before it even
gets to them. Again, Joe to George's point and what
I was saying earlier, I really don't have a problem
with them planning to do different things. I think it's
(11:08):
indicative of the fact that they're being diligent about all
of this. This is what it looks like with fans.
This is what it looks like without fans. This is
what it looks like with the full season, this is
what it looks like when we're only playing conference games.
So I don't really have a problem with them planning
it and people can say this is ridiculous, it won't happen.
I think you have to act as if until the
(11:29):
moment where you say, you know what, everybody isn't safe
and we're not going to do it, even if it's
down to the last day and they're ready to kick off.
If you say we're not doing this, I'm not having this,
student athletes travel, We're calling it off, I'm frankly, I'm
okay with that. I don't think it's a waste of
time to plan ahead and try to act as if. No,
you have to. I agree with that point wholeheartedly. And
(11:49):
and with Ohio State, Mike, they were affected by the
COVID test this week. They had an exorbitate amount a
high amount of COVID test they they suspended violent terry workouts,
so they were in a position of weakness where maybe
they stepped forth to the big tenant said, you know what,
we're taking charge. We want to play the season, but
it's got to be conference only games, and this is
(12:12):
the best way it could happen, because maybe they did
see the writing on the wall. Yeah, and look, these
players are reporting this week. You're watching this show on
the weekend, and the players are reporting. July is the
day when the formal workouts are allowed to begin. They
(12:33):
moved normally it would be later in the summer, obviously
due to the shutdown of spring practices. They moved it
up to allow for extra time. And now, unfortunately, it
seems to be going right back into a wave of
outbreaks within several teams, certain states obviously, and now we
find ourselves in this position. I was talking to a
(12:53):
friend from an A C. C school and athletic administrator
in a SEC school. Their players are board on Sunday,
two days before workouts get started. Walks pretty dice. But
we'll come back talk more about this Stanford specifically after
this right here on the grid Sports Grid Dot com betting,
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(13:17):
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back on the grid along with Joe and George right
(13:38):
here on Football Fool Circle. Follow us all at sports
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Joe can be found on Twitter and Instagram. I go
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to send your your hate mail to George only, all
your nice comments directly to me and I'll siphon them
(14:01):
down as necessary. So we're talking about Yeah, I know
it's a it's highly concentrated percentage of hate mail versus positive.
I get it. But what I'm gonna say so h
a CEC. We talked about other conferences. The a c
C has delayed fall sports and via Brett McMurphy uh Stadium,
(14:25):
a CEC football also expected to play conference only game,
sources told Stadium last month. A SEC Commissioner John Swafford,
who's the outgoing commissioner, told Stadium if Power five schools
played conference only schedules that a SEC would assist Notre
Dame with as many games as it needed. They already
had six games on the slate. We'll get to them
a little bit more in the moment. But you're Joe.
(14:48):
You brought up something interesting during the break as we
were talking in terms of wiping out non conference games.
So bring up what you said about the Syracuse b
C game. Yeah, that's Week one and they're a CC opponents.
So if they're only gonna play conference games, does that
game get pushed back to October? Do we start the
(15:09):
season October one and give these kids an opportunity? Nobody
really knows. And we talked about Notre Dame. They have
six games on the schedule that could force them into
joining the a c C specifically if that decision is made.
So there are residual effects, and not just from the schools,
but from the gambling aspect. Some some books Fan Duel
(15:29):
in particular put up the Week one games. I mean,
they're gonna have to pull those back now because those
half of them are non conference, So they're all repercussions,
and how does that affect the wagering aspect, not just
week to week, but the college football playoff as well.
My keep in mind it's a top heavy type of
dominance by these Power five teams. You look at Ohio State,
(15:51):
they were tenant oh last year in the conference, won
by thirty three points per game. They're forty three and
four over the last four years within the Big Ten.
Clemson forty nine and four against a CEC opponents since
two thousand and fourteen. They won those games last year
in the a SEC thirty six point seven points per game,
(16:11):
l s U by twenty two points per game in all,
Oklahoma by fifteen point seven points per game Oklahoma's and
we've lost four conference games since two thousand and fifteen
as well. So if we're gonna have a college football playoff,
you can only look to maybe five or six teams
to crack that because conference games matter. It's sort of
the way it is anyway, though, There's really not a
(16:33):
lot of teams in the mix every year, and they
very rarely lose the out of conference games. However, some
of the teams have played these schedule, these marquee games,
right oh how State Oregon was going to be exciting.
I would have liked Alabama over USC, but that's not
a cake walk, certainly for either team. Um, and it
does take away some of those interesting ones. But George,
(16:54):
to Joe's other point about this, just take the Syracuse
BC things, since he brought it up, and it's my
alma mater, so be it. They play on September four,
which I guess it's a Saturday before Labor Day, right.
Then the BC is scheduled to host Ohio University, then
(17:16):
go to Kansas, and then host Perdue. So their first
conference game with September four three non conference, and their
next game Clemson at BC October two. Now, the fact
that it's a conference only schedule, you wipe those three
games out. You have to start moving things around. But
(17:37):
you know, it's stacked for teams like BC that maybe
we weren't going to have a huge season. Now they
are in the conference only gauntlet. It's like everybody else.
So it's it's equitable in that sense, but uh, it
certainly doesn't line up the way they want and schedules
are going to get shifted around, even conference wise, to
make it more or less favorable. For other teams than
(17:58):
otherwise would have been. Danny Joe meant you could push
it back to October. Now you could do that, but
do you want to do that? I was going to
say no, I would say lop lop off the November
games and move them in. That's where I'm going with this,
because once again we live up north cold getting colder,
and that's when they expect the second wave to hit,
(18:19):
and soon we're out of the first wave by that,
which we may not be. It may not matter, but
either way, they expected to get worse again uh in
the Northeast as they see as the year goes on.
So I would think they wouldn't want to do that
They want to get as many games in as soon
as possible. So I would wander the opposite if they could.
I have to generate the schedule. Who has games for you?
If you want to move those games up to September?
(18:39):
If you can get that once again, get the season
oh as soon as possible. So I think they would
do the opposite there. But I listen, I do understand
the theory there. Or let him start a month later
two to get things under control more if you're not
ready to play by September, by the first Saturday in September.
You can go both ways here, but I think if
you want to get the games in, you gotta start
as early as possible. Dude, I say, Lacy, I say
(19:02):
ten weeks. No, buys, let's do it, like, if we're
gonna do it, we just got to get this thing done, like,
we've got to give it, get it over with. You
want to give them one by all, one by right
in the middle of the season, fine, but at ten
games they should be able to do it. A lot
of the teams have an early by and don't really
get a break after that anyway, they play eight or
nine games in a row, right' I'm for that. Let's
(19:25):
kick it off. But the problem is is that what
is the internal uh mandatory you know, uh incubation period.
I mean, you're if a player or you have a
handful of players that have to wait two weeks, well,
if they're starters, that's gonna put a huge detriment for
the offense or defense for a respective team. Right. So
(19:46):
that's why I say let's start it later. Let's get
in eight weeks October November. We're done right at Thanksgiving
and then now we could have conference tournaments more, you know,
December three. I mean, that's the way I would do
what It saves them more time. We're gonna inch it up.
Players aren't even ready at this point. I mean it.
And the more I talk about it, the more insane
(20:08):
it seems. Honestly, I'm just being honest Live Show. I'm saying,
I'm talking through this. This is crazy talk. I don't
see how they're gonna be able to do it. I
have never seen how they're gonna be able to do it.
And this doesn't change anything. You can make it argued
both ways. Joe's argument makes sense. I understand where he's going.
I just think the people are gonna I don't think
you're gonna be able to stay a start of the COVID,
(20:31):
the virus, it's gonna come back. What are you gonna
do that? And you lose anyway? And I think no
matter what they do, they're gonna lose. I don't know,
you can't beat this. The virus is going to win.
I just think if you want to get his many
games as possible, you need to start earlier, as early
as possible. You know, that's week one of those season's
week one. You know, I understand they won't be ready.
They won't be we know they won't be. But if
(20:52):
you wait, you might lose those games completely. You might
have a five game season. You know what's good. It's
what I worry about with baseball that I jokingly have
the over runner August eighteen. I don't even think we'll
get the football before baseball has to cancel and once't
at college football. How does college football or any college
sports justify playing a season if a non contact sport
like baseball has to cancel? How do you how do
(21:13):
you do that? How do you justify that? Well, the
elephant in the room there, we haven't even talked about yet.
There's no kids on campus, right, they've been saying they
athletic directors, including Notre Dames on athletic director who will
talk about in a moment, has said, if there's no
students on campus, we can't play football. It's a terrible look.
It's gonna be an even more terrible look when everybody
(21:34):
now knows, all right, we just need this for the cash,
So let's run these guys out there. Uh ten games.
UH will bastardize this season? But whatever, who cares who
the national champ is. We got paid for the ten games.
That's sort of all it's about at this point. Show
they're gonna have to figure it out because it's not
(21:56):
just not what are they playing for? I mean what's
the selection process? And that's another factor that people are
gonna want to know, Like, obviously, okay, you have five
teams that are undefeated, how do we differentiate which is
the stronger conference? Obviously SEC Big Ten. Now the Pac
twelve goes undefeated. What are they gonna have an argument?
(22:16):
Do we just take the four best teams independence like
Notre Dame or Hurt huge with those out of conference
games there and I have a conference game against uhh,
well technically Clemson that they'll still play, but Wisconsin in
lambeau Field, I mean that resume builder. I mean that
Hurts Oregon needed that game against Ohio State and Walks
in Michigan. So that that is a huge impact on
(22:39):
those schools. We mentioned the economies and the college football Playoff,
the Heisman, they're all affected from from this decision moving forward,
and unfortunately other sports as well that we'll get into. Yeah,
So a SEC commissioner, John Swofford has said at the
league adopts and conference football schedule for twenty and Notre
Dame like it will be in the mix. Irish already
(23:01):
had six opponents on the docket. We mentioned that earlier.
That's courtesy of David Teal. He covers a c C
for the Richmond Times Dispatch. So, uh, George, again, this
is where where I hate to keep going in circles.
But you know, this does start to put as Joe said,
it starts to the walls start crumbling down, and you're saying, well,
(23:23):
how are we gonna do the Heisman? How are we
gonna Are we even gonna do the conference championship games?
Do we just play it like the it's the English
Premier League and we'll just play the regular season games
and then we'll figure out who makes the tournament from there.
Or do we just say we're scrapping postseason. We just
need these games on TV. But the payout for the
the football, the college football playoff is massive too. They
(23:45):
don't want to give up that money. If they're playing
for this money, they're gonna want to play for that money.
I think what we have to understand, what fans have
to understand, and this is not just college football, it's
NFL football, NBA, NHL, m l B, MLS. This this
season is now screwed up. At this point, you want
to be entertained, and if you want to be entertained
(24:05):
and watch these games and have them play, we're going
to have to accept some weird stuff is going to
happen here, all right. You see, you know what the MLS.
The two teams now can't play, right, Dallas and Nashville.
I think it is they got trust by COVID. MLB
has done some weird rules. You play sixty games, you know,
the schedule is bastard eyes where we're gonna play tenant
games against one team, but seven home games for one team,
three for the other. If it makes no sense what
(24:27):
they're doing. The same thing is gonna happen in college
football with all the voting, with everything else you mentioned.
Heisman can go on this with NFL, m v P baseball,
it's saw Young and all this other stuff. You're gonna
have to accept that it's really guesswork because the schedules
are gonna be uneven, not what they're supposed to be.
Some teams are gonna played very hard schedules. Some teams, right,
So off schedules, you can give it different percent or
(24:47):
different weights depending on who they're playing. But in the end,
the most important thing for us as fans that we
want to watch the games be entertained root for your team,
and I think that's what's going to be. You have
to accept that, you know what, there's gonna be some
weird stuff happen. Stuff you're not going to like, but
you're gonna have to accept if you want a season
to be played. Yeah, Joe, what do you think what's
(25:08):
the percentage now that we can get through these Let's
just take the Big Ten since we know they're playing
the ten games conference only. What's the percentage that we're
able to get through all of this? Give me a
percentage I'd say right now, I'd say fifty fifty because
the other fact that we didn't even throw this in
the group of five schools that are gonna lose money
group of five like the MAC Conference. Absolutely, it's really
(25:30):
good point brill teams like f AU they're gonna wind
up possibly suing the Big Ten because they didn't confer them.
So that's revenue out of those schools that they're gonna
lose because they cancel the game. Now play right, So
if it goes to court, what happens then? Does that court?
The season on halt until we figure this situation out
(25:52):
in the Supreme Court. I hope that a pandemic clause
like Wimbledon did. Wimbledon is just looking like geniuses are
all this though every in the world nobody has pandemic
insurance except Wimbledon and they cashed in. So, um, yeah,
I don't know. I don't know, man, that is generous.
What do you say? Yeah, I got one in three,
(26:15):
you got and I think it's I think it's going
down in those daily Yeah, I'm under that. I'm under that.
I don't even know if it's one in five. We'll
come back with more depressing football talk Football Full Circle
after this. On the Grade sports grid dot Com betting
insights and entertainment at your fingertips seven as our team
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(26:38):
predicted betting models, expert picks, and more want the edge
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you're watching sportscreen, Get on the Grade. I call on
(27:02):
Football Full Circle the COVID edition. It's Uh, the optimistic edition.
Now we're doing our best, but it's been a rough
week for everyone. Football is like the least of a
lot of people's concerns. Understand that, but um, we're trying
to get through the news as best as possible. And well,
(27:26):
I'll do this two stories really in this segment. One
is we referenced earlier about the IVY League and the
IVY League deciding to cancel all full sports. They are
talking about Joe playing football in the spring. Um, the
IVY League has the benefit of trying that because of
(27:47):
the reasons that you've mentioned. It's not necessarily tied into
the local economy. It's not as big an impact on
the individual institutions, you know, people that go to see
the games everything else. Um, But the they are looked
at as a little bit of a guiding light within
college athletics because they have so many sports. They have
(28:08):
like forty sports that they put on. It's the most
of any conference by far. Uh, packed twelves close. But nonetheless,
I really puts on all these sports and they would
conceivably just move it to the spring. Would you? Did
you think that was ever a reasonable plan? I didn't
think so. For the power of fives, because I thought
all the draftable players would say peace out, I'm not playing.
(28:30):
It's not just the players, it's the television revenue going
up against March madness. Who would televise the games and
the playoffs. Yeah, you have SEC football Alabama l s
U April one that's on CBS usually for the most part.
Or Georgia Alabama that's an SEC game Channel two, you know, CBS,
(28:52):
same night as the Final four exactly. So that is
a huge monkey in the room that no or elephant
in the room that nobody wants to talk about. And
the Ivys can afford to do that because they sort
of set themselves aside as the conference. They decided to
play Friday night games to get the exposure, get the
eyes on them. I wouldn't mind seeing then IVY League
(29:13):
spring football, but a Power five game specifically just to
Pack twelve. They're gonna lose members, They're gonna lose players.
If the PAC twelve takes a stand and says we're
just playing in the spring, you're gonna have possibly potentially
top ten draft picks like Keaton slogan saying well, why
why do I want to play in a conference that
(29:35):
doesn't get any recognition I might transfer. You know, I'm
a I'm a top twenty pick potentially in the NFL
draft in years to come. I'm not getting the exposure
I need. I want to play out a winner. That
could be the residual effects of that decision as well.
And you know the SEC is not is gonna be
the last to give in to spring football. Yeah, and George, uh,
(29:57):
what everything Joe said is certainly possibility. I also think
those draftable players just won't play. Um. Plus, you're also
potentially having two football seasons inside of an eleven month period, right,
you'd have these guys playing their ten games or whatever
in the spring, taking a few months off September, assuming
(30:21):
we have a vaccine by then, September, they're kicking off again.
So you're having those guys play. Let's just pick a
round number twenty games between feb One and Thanksgiving. That's
I mean, nobody's doing that. No, nobody's done that. Pros
(30:41):
don't do that. Pros would be up in arms if
they wouldn't do it. I mean, they just wouldn't be
They wouldn't do So how can you make college kids
do this? I mean that's ridiculous. Would you have to
then cut both seasons and half really to give them
some break? We make one season six games, one season
five or six and six something like that. And you
don't want to do that, right because you still assuming
(31:02):
next season we can have a regular season. You want
to have a regular season. You don't want to make
that a bastard I had season. So you just don't
want to do it, So I don't. I don't. What's
it I think when they when these colleges or conferences
are talking about a spring schedule, they're not thinking of
the ramifications. Joe already brought up the financial ramifications. Who's
gonna watch? Because I was obviously if you can play well,
(31:23):
then March Madness can play. The professional sports are playing.
So you're going up against everything. And there's a reason
the TV rules everything right, because they have the money,
they control things, and there's a reason they told me
Major League Baseball, no, we don't want you playing in October.
We have other stuff in October. We want you to
end in September. I just have your playoffs in October.
We don't want your regular season there. You know, we
(31:44):
got other stuff. TV rules everything and they're gonna tell them, no,
we have other stuff. We have golf championships, tennis championships,
as a college basketball, the NHL, whatever is going on there.
We don't want you here. We can't make the money,
we won't pay you as much here, so it'd be
a complete mess. But the most important thing I keep
saying this over and oregain guys who watches out for
these players, who was thinking, oh god, they're gonna play
(32:05):
twenty games and nine months, can't have that. Yeah, it's
there's I mean the spring football thing, Joe also brings
into play where you're talking about earlier in that, like
what happens to the awards, what happens with who plays
in the college football playoff? You would be a limit.
If the Pack twelve hypothetical said, you know what, we're
(32:29):
not going to take part in all this stuff, We're
just gonna do spring ball, then it jams everything up
as far as the college football playoff is concerned, which
I understand to some people watching seems like a pipe dream.
To others watching saying, what's the problem. If you guys
are gonna get sick, they're just gonna push through this.
I just think college athletics. You're gonna get really sensitive
to it at some point. And even look, you know,
(32:52):
I we're laying a lot out there, but for one conference,
they really would be isolating themselves to do something like that.
They would. And here's another potential scenario that that just
raises its head is the fact that you know, you
look at these conferences as a whole, and the SEC
in particular, and you look at the PAC twelve there
(33:13):
can be the lead. And I've said this that this
season should be already postponed for the most part, is
gonna lead to super conferences. It's gonna lead to conference realignment,
make no mistake about it. The SEC is not happy
about this decision. But you have other schools playing in
other conferences that could possibly jump. Where if we see
Notre Dame jump to the A SEC, we could potentially
(33:35):
see Texas joined Texas A and M and the SEC.
We could see Oklahoma jumped to the Big Ten. This
was a huge discussion about ten or fifteen years ago,
and now this opens the door. And let's keep in
mind as well, what about the group of five teams,
Teams like Boise State, Central Florida. If they go undefeated
they're gonna want to have their say in terms of
(33:56):
the possible college football playoff season this year more so
than years passed. Does that open up expansion for the
college football tournament as well, But they'll even have less
of an opportunity to play those marquee opponents, right like
a Boise playing out of conference, they're not gonna have
playing a Mountain West schedule only doesn't really give them
(34:16):
that opportunity to have any marquee wins that would potentially
boost them. So um, since we've been talking packed often
talking about these other things, and we're talking about the
cascading effects of losing football, one cascading effect which I think,
to be honest and my experience in working with college
athletic departments was going to happen at some point, but
(34:40):
the pandemic and its impact have made it a more
shorter term. Priority. Is Stanford cutting those eleven sports? Like
Joe mentioned earlier, they had thirty six sports. It was
the second most in FBS. Actually don't know who the
most is. My alma mater. Actually all always carried a
lot of sports. That's always been a discussion about BC
(35:04):
potentially cutting sports. But the reality is Stanford is cutting
sports that we're producing Olympians and big time athletes in
some of those non revenue generating sports. So there's a
competition called the Director's Cup. The Director's Cup is a
(35:26):
measurement of all college athletic departments across the country d
one that measures their success of their athletic departments top
to bottom football, basketball, down through golf, field, hockey, swimming,
the whole kit and caboodle. It has been around since
(35:47):
North Carolina one that first year. Stanford has one every
time since twenty five years in a row. They are
the most successful athletic department top to bottom in the
country and they're doing it so George It obviously states
that there's a revenue issue here. There's always been a
(36:08):
revenue issue here. I think people see so much money
being thrown around at the conferences. There is a suggestion
that these departments are flushed with cash, but the reality
is they aren't. They have a lot of staff, they
have a lot of coaches, There's a lot of support
that goes into it in order for them to be successful,
new facilities and everything else, and the revenue they bring
(36:31):
in really doesn't cover what they're doing. Stanford was expecting
due to COVID a seventy million dollar shortfall over the
next three years. Without COVID in the mix still would
have been in the thirty five to forty range. It
doesn't matter whether they're flush with cash or not. Think
about it. Think about what a baseball do? All right?
(36:51):
When what's the gate that started be canceled? They were
firing employees making their minor league is making four ds
of week. These are billionaire owners doing this. College is
gonna do the same thing. Where do you go after
you got there? You mention the non revenue generators? Those
are gonna go first. You know you're not making money
of these things anyway, So where can we save money?
(37:12):
It's all it's it's running a business. And I'm not
saying I wouldn't do the same thing. Maybe I would,
like I think it was a billionaire, i'd have the heart,
but you never know. But in college is you're going
to look at the bottom line. Go, we can cut this.
This is not making any money for us. We got
to cut this seventy million loss. We gotta make up
some money somewhere. You know, we don't know. So a
football is conna I don't know if anything is coming
back this year. Hell, we don't know it's gonna come
back in the spring eye that for that matter. But
(37:33):
they're gonna look for any way to cut courts anyway.
As if we've seen the pros do it, you know,
think college is going to do it too. This is
not SURPRISINGCT to be in the least, Yes, Joe, Stanford's
will still have twenty five Division one varsity sports. Those
sports can't compete on the club level. Uh, it is
possible that a donor, and Stanford has obviously very wealthy donors,
could come in and say the sport or two or
(37:55):
three by it fully endowing it. That would be expensive
but depend on the sport, perhaps doable for said wealthy person.
But um, and look, twenty sports is still a lot
larger than many other Division one schools. Most SEC schools
don't have as many as twenty five programs, So Stanford
would still be carrying a large number of sports even
(38:16):
though eleven less. But the fact that it's Stanford, Mike right,
Stanford has a recognizable name and they made the decision.
If there's let's say a D S or s I
departments on the cusps, and they're starting to look at
their bottom line and their revenue sheet and they're saying,
you know what, if Stanford did it and they were proactive,
we should be doing it. And that's gonna be the
(38:38):
residual effect of that as well or the decision, and
and schools like the MAC Conference, Unfortunately, you're gonna see
huge hits because there are a number of schools in
that state of Ohio that really football drives the bus
for the most part, and they really depend upon those
games against Ohio State, Michigan, Iowa to get that you know,
(39:00):
nine hundred thousand dollar paycheck, and without the revenue coming
in teams like baseball, waterfolo, soccer, they could be cut
immediately for not just but women as well. Yeah, there
was absolutely this. This Stanford cutting in sports affected a
lot of eleven teams and a lot of athletes. They
will honor whatever players were on scholarship for the remainder
(39:21):
of their time at school, which is a solid thing
to do, but long term they will be saving money.
So the one two punch of IVY League in Stanford,
I really think put a lot of athletic administrators on notice.
Sports grid dot Com betting, insights and entertainment at your
fingertips seven as our team covers the most important topics
in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks,
(39:43):
and more. Want the edge than get on the grid
sports grid dot Com take closing out this hour of
Football Full Circle. Thank you to Joe Leasy for joining
us UH during the earlier part of this hour. George
(40:06):
and I closing it out here. A couple of little
tidbits on the NFL, and we're talking a little bit
about fantasy football as well, which I'm sure many of
you are going to be entering into draft sometime within
the next month. Sure you'll make some adjustments. We can
get into that a little bit too. But one story
about Matt Brida, George. The Dolphins have not engaged in
contract extension talks with running back Matt Breda, according to
(40:29):
Barry Jackson the Miami Herald UH. Jackson cites the uncertainty
of the salary cap in one is the reason why,
and the that falls in line with something I read
earlier this week about John Robinson of the Tennessee Titans
talking about that that the pandemic has created and the
(40:49):
uncertainty of the salary cap have created this delay on
the extensions. It is ironic considering we've talked about Pat
Mahomes receiving a five hundred million dollar contract extension or
four d fifty million dollar extension. So uh, but we
have said all along it's got to be creating some
issues with long term extensions. And here with Matt Brida,
(41:12):
they signed a draft pick. They signed Jordan Howard to
a two year contract that seems like it's probably only
the last one season. Um, but Brita's only under contract
for this year. He's been paid three point to five
nine million. They had non engagement contract talks, so that
probably doesn't bode well for him. But Matt Brida and
Jordan Howard is a pretty decent one to punch of
(41:35):
veteran backs here, George, it is Listen, I think a
lot of teams are gonna sort of treat it like this.
If you're not a superstar, well then we're gonna play
a little cautious here. Yeah, we don't know what's gonna
happen with really with this season and obviously with next season. Yeah,
we don't know if we're gonna play with a fans
be in the stands. We're gonna play sixteen games this year.
What's gonna happen is the cap gonna go down next year?
(41:56):
How much the cap gonna go down? So I can
see why a lot of teams played very cautious with
players that aren't superstars. And another thing that you, Matt Brie,
do you think about someone like him you traded to
a new team. They don't know for sure how he's
going to mesh in in this offense with this a
little bit. That was the next thing. He's only missed.
Looking at he has only missed two five games over
(42:17):
the past two seasons. Not terrible, but man, Mike, he
seems to come out of a lot of games. And
I went doing the in game live on Sundays. I
see those you're writing down bringing a left game with
an ankle injury always, you know, the left thing of
this Every every week, Breeda was always out with something,
and that's gonna be weighing on their mind as well,
that his body may not be able to take the
grind of a sixteen next year, seventeen game football season.
(42:40):
So we'll see how this works out. But I can
understand why the Donal wants are playing at safe here. Yeah.
Uh so we'll see, we'll track that. I mean, I
think he's a better option longer term than Jordan Howard.
But I think the combination of those two guys, along
with Miles Gaskin Kaylin Blage, I think it's a pretty
good quadrant or running back certainly capable, and I think
(43:01):
they're more about building up that offensive line and keeping
too a healthy. And you know, we we both liked
the Dolphins to kind of compete this year, maybe make
that seventh playoff spot, but really this is a two
or three year build and last year was year one.
So that's it from Matt brita Um. Only other story
really that's come out this week that uh is of
(43:24):
any notice. Seattle Seahawks Shakeem Griffin. He's the twin brother
of starting outside corner Shaquille Griffin. He hasn't really claimed
the starting role after a couple of seasons in the NFL.
He's obviously known for UH for having a missing hand
and being this underdog story. But right as of yet,
he has not made a huge impact with Seattle Seahawks,
(43:44):
and he could be on the roster bubble. What's interesting though,
George is we've talked about these roster bubbles throughout the
pre um the off season and how the normal business
of having the ninety players in camp has not really happened. Um.
So it is interesting to see roster bubble players being
(44:05):
discussed when there has not really been any competition for
all these months. To these players, it's weird. They're actually
took going down to eighty, you know, have an eight.
And I understand the reason why is because they don't
they want to separate the players. We're gonna put all
these players when they need six ft awake from each other.
But they got addressed, they got to eat together and
everything else. I understand that, But what are you gonna
(44:26):
do when these injuries happen and COVID happens here? I
wonder are they gonna do something like have a couple
of football teams in whatever state in Nebraska playing XFL
did that. The XFL had a ninth team practicing at
all times as a reserve for any injured players that
happened to the eight XFL teams. I thought it was
a good idea. Does the NFL need to do something
(44:47):
like that? I think it's it's worth considering if I
was a fringe guy, would certainly be thinking that this
is my chance, because a lot more players could go
down for a variety of reasons. The what J C.
Treader talked hi with the compacted off season and injuries
potentially spiking A and B guys having to take two
weeks off because they're quarantined because they showed symptoms related
(45:10):
to COVID. I also listen, this goes to all sports,
by the way, I think it's gonna be a lot
of players who get hurt, no rush to come back.
Oh the pull pulled hammy, I think, I honestly think,
even if my prediction of spot worth of baseball players
um opting out, even if it comes up light, I
(45:31):
think there's a few guys that are gonna pull a
hammy in week one and be like, man, I'm not
gonna make it back. That's a few guys, not a
lot a lot. I think there'll be a decent amount
pictures shoulder, Yeah, my help was a little little little
wonky hurt. I don't know why you can't see it
in the m R. I weird shoulder, you know, And
so I think I see a lot of that and guys.
(45:53):
They're gonna get paid, you gonna get their service time,
and they'll be safe. Yeah. So anyway, so we'll see
how that goes. George, and I want to have a
little fun with this last segment since I'm involved in
an industry league um Scott Fish Bowl. It's a slow draft.
And for those of you out there that normally get
(46:14):
together and you're maybe you're in a couple of leagues,
but you draft and you're you maybe you have a
draft party, which is fun. It's just really the genesis
of fantasy football was kind of getting together to do it.
But now you get to play with people all over
the country. You can do it online. You knock out
a draft in an hour and a half two hours.
You've done your research, you've done your draft, and everything else.
(46:36):
A slow draft is particularly popular with industry people that
have to conduct a lot of drafts obviously can't attend
all of them in person. All of the time, are
producing content, are doing all these other things. I didn't
do any slow drafts, George, until I got into, uh,
the fantasy football world in a significant way. Was always
(47:00):
just drafting, even if I did it online and we
knocked it out an hour and a half two hours
and we were good to go. But I love slow
drafts now because it does not uh take over my time.
I don't have to schedule out a specific night, a
specific to three hour block in order to draft a
larger team. Um. I don't do auction drafts typically because
(47:23):
they take a long period of time and it's a
dedicated period of time. So uh, here you with the
slow draft. You can do an auction slow draft. I guess,
uh to some extent, but I haven't really I haven't
done that. Have you didn't do that when you want
in the league that Jim Day Fantasy task set up
other platform. That was a slow draft. The auction. Uh,
(47:45):
that was why. I don't remember all the details, but
that was a slow draft auction. Think of if no,
we've been on a player for like twenty four hours,
well done, the highest pick. He have ten plays after
Wolks and at once nobody been on a certain plate
with twenty four hours. Well then hey, that player now
became Blootes. You had the list bid twenty four hours, agoes,
you got it for that price, and then whatever the
next in line, we'll put up a guy. So it
(48:07):
worked out pretty, but what was interesting was fun. So
the slow draft really is useful for those of you
watching out there when schedules can't come together, there's just
no possible way to get everybody together. You can do
a slow draft. You can communicate. Some drafts can go
really quickly in a slow draft. But you put a
timer on it. It could be four hours, to be
six hours, we eight hours. You turned it off overnight
(48:28):
so nobody gets screwed in the midnight hours are the
wee hours of the morning. But but anyway, it does.
It does also, George present some challenges, as you just mentioned,
pre drafting. So if you see the pick is coming
your way, you load up a few players, uh, and
(48:49):
then it'll pick the guys who's ever left on that
list that you've ranked. Um. But the problem is not
everybody does this right or a few people do it.
I mean, listen, I get it. It's a slow draft.
And you know, Dave Martinez and I talked about this earlier,
and you and I told about it during the break
and I asked you, do you take all your time?
It's an eight hour pick? Do you take all eight hours?
(49:11):
And I think you said no, but you should and
you're right. I mean, if you if you I understand
the lodge, you take all it? How was the case
news breaks you want to take I don't know. You
want to take whatever a Rodgers, but you know, maybe
you don't take him in the first five minutes because
you want to take all it out. You find out
an hour seven and Rodgers breaks his leg or Davante
(49:31):
Adams out for the because it here's his a c
L Now you don't want hoverages anymore. So I understand
why you wait, Mike, But I never do. The only
time I wait, as if I'm talking, it's you can
trade in and I'm talking trade with somebody. Other than that,
I make my pick and I want to move on.
I prefer live drafts. I think most of us do.
I like to get together with the guys, girls whatever,
you know, whether it's just talking smack and hanging out
(49:53):
with the boys and whatever. I prefer to live drafts.
But it's rare nowadays. Everyone wants to do it online
and slow. If you gotta do it online, you might
will do a slow draft and take your time. Yeah,
so here's the thing. I think he should have your
your pre draft pick lined up right, But in the
last two years in this exact league, the scott Fish
(50:17):
Bowl League, I have benefited from breaking news. Last year
it was the pick was leading up towards me in
this slow draft, and Melvin Gordon announced that he was
not reporting to camp. I think people had either already
drafted their running backs or they missed the story. And
I ended up with Austin Ekeler, probably three rounds ahead
(50:39):
of where he would have gone because I was like,
he ain't coming. I'm picking Austin Ekeler and it was
a huge win for me this year. This week, uh
Raheem Moster announced that he was getting traded. It was
about two picks before I was going right now in
the proud owder of Tevin Coleman. So in that sense,
(51:00):
uh the timing can impact. Even though it seems like
what's going to happen in eight hours, I don't know
one thing could happen. It might not be that Javante
Adams tearing is a c L. But we go over
news stories here that seem make it significant every week.
But you know what, he most requesting a trade that
(51:20):
might not happen could put him in the doghouse, even
if he stays on the Niners, Tevin Coleman gets the
ball more and then I got him for steal in
seventh round. There real people take advantage. I mentioned. The
most frustrating to me that drive me insane about a
slow draft is the person on the turn when you
know they take six hours, then they finally make their
(51:40):
twelve pick, Well they're tick, and then they take seven
more hours before they make the third pick. You can't
be doing that. Oh my god, you know. Uh, it
drives me insane. Make what you make the first pick, please,
for the love of God, make the second pick too.
So as much as you can wait it out for
the news, don't wait it out forever, Repick. Just be
ready to go. Have a couple of guys that you
(52:02):
think are reasonably going to fit onto your team, and
just just keep it moving. Keep it moving. If you
want to do it for strategy, I get it. Don't
do it for every pick. You don't want to be
that guy. You don't want to the guy. You don't
want to be the guy that's taken eight hours for
every pick. So you've got some guys you like, line
them up Otherwise, if you don't got anybody you hope
somebody holds out and then you get their back up.
(52:23):
So that's where I'm at now. I'm open to do
a little fair, a little bit better than I did
in that league last year and not cut Ryan's anno
like I did a week before he got the starting
job and went off to have a three month tirade
on the NFL. But that's it. Appreciate you all watching
this hour on behalf of Joe Leasy, producer Brian Ronkowski
and George Kurtz and everybody else behind the scenes on
(52:44):
Mike Lewett. Thanks for watching FFC. We'll see you on
the grid next time. Get on the grid take here
sports grid dot Com betting insights and entertainment at your
fingertips seven as our team covers the most important topics
in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting model is
expert picks and more want the edge than Get on
the grid Sports grid dot Com MHM
Sports grid dot Com Betting insights and entertainment at your
fingertips as our team covers the most important topics in
sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks,
and more. Want the edge than get on the grid
sports grid dot Com. Hey, everybody, welcome to this hour
(00:34):
of Football Full Circle, joined by Joe Leasy this hour,
he's the co host of College Football Today along with
Like a Padre George Kurtz. Joe, First of all, how
you doing, Bud, How's how's the summer going? How are
things in New Jersey? Things are going well? Mike from
a from a summer perspective, food, great weather, but then
a big week of college football in terms of news,
(00:55):
tumultuous week. So we'll see how it plays out in
the coming weeks of July. Yeah, so look, there's no
easy way to transition. It's been a massive week in
college football. I think news continues will continue to spill
out over the weekend as we are recording filming these shows.
(01:17):
So news is breaking by the moment, and the big
one was really with the Big Tent, right, we expect
similar news with the A C C in the pack
twelve to be announced, But the Big Ten is really
the one that put it on the line. And here's
their official quote. The Big Ten Conference announced that if
the conference is able to participate in fall sports men's
(01:40):
and women's cross country, field hockey, football, men's and women's soccer,
and women's volleyball, and based on medical advice, it will
move to conference only schedules in those sports show this
is something that was rumored to be happening potentially to
these Power five conferences and beyond, and now this interest
that they had twenty eight different FBS opponents scheduled outside
(02:04):
of the conference, so those games all sort of go away.
But did you I mean, I I assume that it
just got to the point where we expected that this
is the best we were going to do. It was
the best that I guess we were going to do.
I think what I was surprised about it started with
the IVY leagues earlier in the week where they canceled
the season completely. But then the Big Ten didn't take
(02:27):
into account any of the other Power five conferences, the SEC,
the Big Twelve, the Pack twelve. I mean, they were
completely blindsided by the development. So that was where I
was surprised. You would think that with these big games
on tap Oregon, Ohio State in terms of September twelve,
Michigan and Washington Alabama USC on the in terms of
(02:49):
sec Pack twelve, they all have huge repercussions by their
decision and for them to just take the front and
center stage in terms of the lead, I was shot
by that. But again, and we'll see how it plays out.
Everybody wants to be first in terms of, you know,
showing that they have a plan in place, but this
could have a domino effect in terms of not playing
the season at all. So George, Joe brings up an
(03:11):
interesting point in that they want to be seen as
a leader here, but there isn't really a plan in place.
This is a reduction of games, but this isn't really
this is how we're going to do this. This is
how we're going to get past this. This is just look,
this is the best we're gonna be able to do.
So we're not making people travel that far around the country. Yeah,
(03:33):
I think Joe used through the important word their domino effect.
I wonder if this is the first domino. It's an
important word in that set in that little law statement,
they made there if the conference is able to participate.
They're not even saying it's definite there. But as Joe
is pointing out to me, you know, the first thing,
oh yeah, we're gonna play a full schedule, will battle
through now conference only next with seeing debate, that's that
(03:56):
we can't play. It's canceled, you know, And I wonder
this is going to start other conference. He get the
same thing. I know that the IVY League sort of
was the first Domini don't because I think Joe brought
up in a tweet earlier this week. No one cares. Yeah,
for the most part, very few people cared. Now this
is bigger, and I wonder this is going to be
there now these other conferences will be looking at it
on the Big Ten. They may not be the biggest conference,
(04:16):
but it's still the Big Ten. It's still a major conference.
And I wonder if that's going to force other people
to think the same things. It's what I keep saying
that how does the NFL play or college football play?
If Major League Baseball has to cancel their season in
middle August, how do you then justify, oh, yeah, we're
gonna play anyway. How do the other conferences justify continuing
their schedule. There at a conference schedule, and you already
(04:37):
have one confidence says, you know what, it's not safe.
We can't do this. Yeah. There there's some sense apparently
from the SEC institutions that they were a little blindsided
by this this week. They didn't expect an announcement like that.
But given the fact that the a c C in
the pact we all have seen ready to follow suit.
I don't know what other choice the SEC had. It
would have put that out that you Alabama USC game
(04:59):
on ice and many others that were scheduled as well.
You know, I would push back a little bit on
the thought that the IVY League doesn't matter at all. Granted, look,
there are some IVY League players that make it to
the league, right we still have Ryan Fitzpatrick playing there,
and there's Cameron brad and other Harvard players and probably
a couple of other um IVY leaguers as well. I believe,
(05:22):
just for Horstead that bears tight end. I believe these princetons.
So anyway, there's a few players that make the NFL.
I understand and everybody watching understands. They're not a premier
football conference. However, in my experience in working in and
around college athletics and with college athletic departments, the IVY
(05:42):
League is still seen as a prestigious conference for the
history that they've provided, and obviously the academic guidance and
the commitment to student athletes that they still put forward
in a very real way. In a in a much
more real way it frankly then the Power five conferences,
which are big business operating as if everybody is still
(06:06):
a student athlete. Right, we can agree on that, but
I do I have noticed in my experience that the
IVY League is still seen as somebody that they look
to for guidance on these issues. Now, Big ten is
gonna play football or try to even if the IVY
League doesn't. That that is a separate issue. But I
(06:27):
will say that once the IVY League did say something, Joe,
I think it led to other people to be like,
you know what, we have to say something and do
something about this. I think to your point, the biggest
thing is that the IVY Leagues are private schools, right,
and we're talking about state local schools like l s U,
like Alabama. That's the biggest difference because it directly it
(06:48):
ties to the local economies. Alabama not playing four games
let's say most of them at home for the most
part for out a conference, right, Yeah, one of them
would have it in Dallas. The other three are home
games almost right. So that's a direct impact on the
local state economies. And that's the biggest difference I think
(07:08):
between the IVY leagues and the Power of five conferences.
But to your point, from a health perspective, they do
take every precaution because they can afford to. I mean,
at the bottom line, they're smart institutions. They charge a
high tuition, and they want to protect their student athletes,
and they're doing the right thing. I just think that
the other Power of five schools, when they look at
(07:30):
the big picture, they're saying, hey, it's not just our university.
We have a possible effect where in one like Stanford,
we're gonna drop eleven out of thirty six programs, and
there are other programs that are gonna be hurt by
this decision. And where do they go from there from
not just football but other varsity sports. Yeah, we'll we'll
(07:52):
get to Stanford in the next segment as well. But
it's a it's an important point it's all part of
this discussion and the reason that some of these decisions
are being made. George, I'll take you the next pathway
on this specific discussion about the Big ten, and it
is regarding a quote from Jean Smith. Now, Jean Smith
is the athletic director at at the Ohio State University.
(08:13):
He is amongst the most powerful and recognizable athletic directors
in the whole country. If you were doing a ranking,
he could be number one. Kevin White at Duke amongst
them as well. But I would say this quote here
from Jane Smith, I'm really concerned. This is via Ari Wasserman.
Ari Wasserman is the Ohio State beat writer for you
(08:35):
Athletic I'm really concerned, said Jean Smith when asked about
his optimism that football will happen in the fall. When
you look at the behavior of our country and we
and in May we were on a downward trajectory. Now
if we're not the worst in the world, we're one
of the worst in the world. There's additional quotes from him,
but him saying he's really concerned. George, this may all
(08:57):
be for not all this planning is my just go
down the tubes We've all been talking about it each
and every week. We've been on this roller coaster ride
where look, we said two months ago, George, you and
I said, no way than a month ago. We're like,
you know what, six chance this might happen today? I'm
having your confidence is very low, and I think it's accurate.
(09:20):
I think we're trying to say it changes almost by
the week or by the bye week, you know, multiple
weeks here. I don't have the belief. I think most
of these sports football, I might might be a little
bit different, but baseball, hockey, basketball, they're all going to
try and play. Maybe because they're three weeks away, right,
so I think they're going to try football. You talk
more seven weeks away, almost two months away, so we'll
(09:41):
have more information then. I think they're all going to
try and start. I just don't think any you're going
to be able to complete it football. This virus has
made for football. I know the nfl X actually believes
the virus will bend to them that they can change this.
How are you going to change the huddle? How are
you going to change the tackle? How are you going
to change blocking? The panting? You have that dirty is
(10:01):
old as anything. I mean, this is device is made
for football. I don't see how they're gonna be able
to get through it. You are they planning is good,
you want to try and start fine plan everything out here.
But what do we see in baseball this weekend? They
screwed up all the tests all the tests for screwed
was there was a holiday and the tests didn't show
up at certain ballparks. Football, they better learn from baseball's mistakes.
(10:22):
Baseball keeps making, keeps making them. Football better learn from
them and not think, well, we're the NFL, we're better
than everybody anyway, we don't need to pay attention. Yeah,
there's one positive out of the baseball there's only one
eight percent uh positive rate on the intake testing. But
as you said, tests are being delayed, there's a lot
of logistics that still need to be worked out. Players
are testing positive than negative. So all this stuff is
(10:45):
is happening in real time. Football does have the luxury
of watching the mistakes play out from other leagues, but
they may have they may maybe at the disadvantage of
watching other teams or other leagues fold before it even
gets to them. Again, Joe to George's point and what
I was saying earlier, I really don't have a problem
with them planning to do different things. I think it's
(11:08):
indicative of the fact that they're being diligent about all
of this. This is what it looks like with fans.
This is what it looks like without fans. This is
what it looks like with the full season, this is
what it looks like when we're only playing conference games.
So I don't really have a problem with them planning
it and people can say this is ridiculous, it won't happen.
I think you have to act as if until the
(11:29):
moment where you say, you know what, everybody isn't safe
and we're not going to do it, even if it's
down to the last day and they're ready to kick off.
If you say we're not doing this, I'm not having this,
student athletes travel, We're calling it off, I'm frankly, I'm
okay with that. I don't think it's a waste of
time to plan ahead and try to act as if. No,
you have to. I agree with that point wholeheartedly. And
(11:49):
and with Ohio State, Mike, they were affected by the
COVID test this week. They had an exorbitate amount a
high amount of COVID test they they suspended violent terry workouts,
so they were in a position of weakness where maybe
they stepped forth to the big tenant said, you know what,
we're taking charge. We want to play the season, but
it's got to be conference only games, and this is
(12:12):
the best way it could happen, because maybe they did
see the writing on the wall. Yeah, and look, these
players are reporting this week. You're watching this show on
the weekend, and the players are reporting. July is the
day when the formal workouts are allowed to begin. They
(12:33):
moved normally it would be later in the summer, obviously
due to the shutdown of spring practices. They moved it
up to allow for extra time. And now, unfortunately, it
seems to be going right back into a wave of
outbreaks within several teams, certain states obviously, and now we
find ourselves in this position. I was talking to a
(12:53):
friend from an A C. C school and athletic administrator
in a SEC school. Their players are board on Sunday,
two days before workouts get started. Walks pretty dice. But
we'll come back talk more about this Stanford specifically after
this right here on the grid Sports Grid Dot com betting,
insights and entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers
(13:17):
the most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds,
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back on the grid along with Joe and George right
(13:38):
here on Football Fool Circle. Follow us all at sports
grid and on on Twitter and sports Grid TV on Instagram.
Joe can be found on Twitter and Instagram. I go
for the two. George is at George Kurtz right there
on Twitter. I'm at Mike Blewett. So please feel free
to send your your hate mail to George only, all
your nice comments directly to me and I'll siphon them
(14:01):
down as necessary. So we're talking about Yeah, I know
it's a it's highly concentrated percentage of hate mail versus positive.
I get it. But what I'm gonna say so h
a CEC. We talked about other conferences. The a c
C has delayed fall sports and via Brett McMurphy uh Stadium,
(14:25):
a CEC football also expected to play conference only game,
sources told Stadium last month. A SEC Commissioner John Swafford,
who's the outgoing commissioner, told Stadium if Power five schools
played conference only schedules that a SEC would assist Notre
Dame with as many games as it needed. They already
had six games on the slate. We'll get to them
a little bit more in the moment. But you're Joe.
(14:48):
You brought up something interesting during the break as we
were talking in terms of wiping out non conference games.
So bring up what you said about the Syracuse b
C game. Yeah, that's Week one and they're a CC opponents.
So if they're only gonna play conference games, does that
game get pushed back to October? Do we start the
(15:09):
season October one and give these kids an opportunity? Nobody
really knows. And we talked about Notre Dame. They have
six games on the schedule that could force them into
joining the a c C specifically if that decision is made.
So there are residual effects, and not just from the schools,
but from the gambling aspect. Some some books Fan Duel
(15:29):
in particular put up the Week one games. I mean,
they're gonna have to pull those back now because those
half of them are non conference, So they're all repercussions,
and how does that affect the wagering aspect, not just
week to week, but the college football playoff as well.
My keep in mind it's a top heavy type of
dominance by these Power five teams. You look at Ohio State,
(15:51):
they were tenant oh last year in the conference, won
by thirty three points per game. They're forty three and
four over the last four years within the Big Ten.
Clemson forty nine and four against a CEC opponents since
two thousand and fourteen. They won those games last year
in the a SEC thirty six point seven points per game,
(16:11):
l s U by twenty two points per game in all,
Oklahoma by fifteen point seven points per game Oklahoma's and
we've lost four conference games since two thousand and fifteen
as well. So if we're gonna have a college football playoff,
you can only look to maybe five or six teams
to crack that because conference games matter. It's sort of
the way it is anyway, though, There's really not a
(16:33):
lot of teams in the mix every year, and they
very rarely lose the out of conference games. However, some
of the teams have played these schedule, these marquee games,
right oh how State Oregon was going to be exciting.
I would have liked Alabama over USC, but that's not
a cake walk, certainly for either team. Um, and it
does take away some of those interesting ones. But George,
(16:54):
to Joe's other point about this, just take the Syracuse
BC things, since he brought it up, and it's my
alma mater, so be it. They play on September four,
which I guess it's a Saturday before Labor Day, right.
Then the BC is scheduled to host Ohio University, then
(17:16):
go to Kansas, and then host Perdue. So their first
conference game with September four three non conference, and their
next game Clemson at BC October two. Now, the fact
that it's a conference only schedule, you wipe those three
games out. You have to start moving things around. But
(17:37):
you know, it's stacked for teams like BC that maybe
we weren't going to have a huge season. Now they
are in the conference only gauntlet. It's like everybody else.
So it's it's equitable in that sense, but uh, it
certainly doesn't line up the way they want and schedules
are going to get shifted around, even conference wise, to
make it more or less favorable. For other teams than
(17:58):
otherwise would have been. Danny Joe meant you could push
it back to October. Now you could do that, but
do you want to do that? I was going to
say no, I would say lop lop off the November
games and move them in. That's where I'm going with this,
because once again we live up north cold getting colder,
and that's when they expect the second wave to hit,
(18:19):
and soon we're out of the first wave by that,
which we may not be. It may not matter, but
either way, they expected to get worse again uh in
the Northeast as they see as the year goes on.
So I would think they wouldn't want to do that
They want to get as many games in as soon
as possible. So I would wander the opposite if they could.
I have to generate the schedule. Who has games for you?
If you want to move those games up to September?
(18:39):
If you can get that once again, get the season
oh as soon as possible. So I think they would
do the opposite there. But I listen, I do understand
the theory there. Or let him start a month later
two to get things under control more if you're not
ready to play by September, by the first Saturday in September.
You can go both ways here, but I think if
you want to get the games in, you gotta start
as early as possible. Dude, I say, Lacy, I say
(19:02):
ten weeks. No, buys, let's do it, like, if we're
gonna do it, we just got to get this thing done, like,
we've got to give it, get it over with. You
want to give them one by all, one by right
in the middle of the season, fine, but at ten
games they should be able to do it. A lot
of the teams have an early by and don't really
get a break after that anyway, they play eight or
nine games in a row, right' I'm for that. Let's
(19:25):
kick it off. But the problem is is that what
is the internal uh mandatory you know, uh incubation period.
I mean, you're if a player or you have a
handful of players that have to wait two weeks, well,
if they're starters, that's gonna put a huge detriment for
the offense or defense for a respective team. Right. So
(19:46):
that's why I say let's start it later. Let's get
in eight weeks October November. We're done right at Thanksgiving
and then now we could have conference tournaments more, you know,
December three. I mean, that's the way I would do
what It saves them more time. We're gonna inch it up.
Players aren't even ready at this point. I mean it.
And the more I talk about it, the more insane
(20:08):
it seems. Honestly, I'm just being honest Live Show. I'm saying,
I'm talking through this. This is crazy talk. I don't
see how they're gonna be able to do it. I
have never seen how they're gonna be able to do it.
And this doesn't change anything. You can make it argued
both ways. Joe's argument makes sense. I understand where he's going.
I just think the people are gonna I don't think
you're gonna be able to stay a start of the COVID,
(20:31):
the virus, it's gonna come back. What are you gonna
do that? And you lose anyway? And I think no
matter what they do, they're gonna lose. I don't know,
you can't beat this. The virus is going to win.
I just think if you want to get his many
games as possible, you need to start earlier, as early
as possible. You know, that's week one of those season's
week one. You know, I understand they won't be ready.
They won't be we know they won't be. But if
(20:52):
you wait, you might lose those games completely. You might
have a five game season. You know what's good. It's
what I worry about with baseball that I jokingly have
the over runner August eighteen. I don't even think we'll
get the football before baseball has to cancel and once't
at college football. How does college football or any college
sports justify playing a season if a non contact sport
like baseball has to cancel? How do you how do
(21:13):
you do that? How do you justify that? Well, the
elephant in the room there, we haven't even talked about yet.
There's no kids on campus, right, they've been saying they
athletic directors, including Notre Dames on athletic director who will
talk about in a moment, has said, if there's no
students on campus, we can't play football. It's a terrible look.
It's gonna be an even more terrible look when everybody
(21:34):
now knows, all right, we just need this for the cash,
So let's run these guys out there. Uh ten games.
UH will bastardize this season? But whatever, who cares who
the national champ is. We got paid for the ten games.
That's sort of all it's about at this point. Show
they're gonna have to figure it out because it's not
(21:56):
just not what are they playing for? I mean what's
the selection process? And that's another factor that people are
gonna want to know, Like, obviously, okay, you have five
teams that are undefeated, how do we differentiate which is
the stronger conference? Obviously SEC Big Ten. Now the Pac
twelve goes undefeated. What are they gonna have an argument?
(22:16):
Do we just take the four best teams independence like
Notre Dame or Hurt huge with those out of conference
games there and I have a conference game against uhh,
well technically Clemson that they'll still play, but Wisconsin in
lambeau Field, I mean that resume builder. I mean that
Hurts Oregon needed that game against Ohio State and Walks
in Michigan. So that that is a huge impact on
(22:39):
those schools. We mentioned the economies and the college football Playoff,
the Heisman, they're all affected from from this decision moving forward,
and unfortunately other sports as well that we'll get into. Yeah,
So a SEC commissioner, John Swofford has said at the
league adopts and conference football schedule for twenty and Notre
Dame like it will be in the mix. Irish already
(23:01):
had six opponents on the docket. We mentioned that earlier.
That's courtesy of David Teal. He covers a c C
for the Richmond Times Dispatch. So, uh, George, again, this
is where where I hate to keep going in circles.
But you know, this does start to put as Joe said,
it starts to the walls start crumbling down, and you're saying, well,
(23:23):
how are we gonna do the Heisman? How are we
gonna Are we even gonna do the conference championship games?
Do we just play it like the it's the English
Premier League and we'll just play the regular season games
and then we'll figure out who makes the tournament from there.
Or do we just say we're scrapping postseason. We just
need these games on TV. But the payout for the
the football, the college football playoff is massive too. They
(23:45):
don't want to give up that money. If they're playing
for this money, they're gonna want to play for that money.
I think what we have to understand, what fans have
to understand, and this is not just college football, it's
NFL football, NBA, NHL, m l B, MLS. This this
season is now screwed up. At this point, you want
to be entertained, and if you want to be entertained
(24:05):
and watch these games and have them play, we're going
to have to accept some weird stuff is going to
happen here, all right. You see, you know what the MLS.
The two teams now can't play, right, Dallas and Nashville.
I think it is they got trust by COVID. MLB
has done some weird rules. You play sixty games, you know,
the schedule is bastard eyes where we're gonna play tenant
games against one team, but seven home games for one team,
three for the other. If it makes no sense what
(24:27):
they're doing. The same thing is gonna happen in college
football with all the voting, with everything else you mentioned.
Heisman can go on this with NFL, m v P baseball,
it's saw Young and all this other stuff. You're gonna
have to accept that it's really guesswork because the schedules
are gonna be uneven, not what they're supposed to be.
Some teams are gonna played very hard schedules. Some teams, right,
So off schedules, you can give it different percent or
(24:47):
different weights depending on who they're playing. But in the end,
the most important thing for us as fans that we
want to watch the games be entertained root for your team,
and I think that's what's going to be. You have
to accept that, you know what, there's gonna be some
weird stuff happen. Stuff you're not going to like, but
you're gonna have to accept if you want a season
to be played. Yeah, Joe, what do you think what's
(25:08):
the percentage now that we can get through these Let's
just take the Big Ten since we know they're playing
the ten games conference only. What's the percentage that we're
able to get through all of this? Give me a
percentage I'd say right now, I'd say fifty fifty because
the other fact that we didn't even throw this in
the group of five schools that are gonna lose money
group of five like the MAC Conference. Absolutely, it's really
(25:30):
good point brill teams like f AU they're gonna wind
up possibly suing the Big Ten because they didn't confer them.
So that's revenue out of those schools that they're gonna
lose because they cancel the game. Now play right, So
if it goes to court, what happens then? Does that court?
The season on halt until we figure this situation out
(25:52):
in the Supreme Court. I hope that a pandemic clause
like Wimbledon did. Wimbledon is just looking like geniuses are
all this though every in the world nobody has pandemic
insurance except Wimbledon and they cashed in. So, um, yeah,
I don't know. I don't know, man, that is generous.
What do you say? Yeah, I got one in three,
(26:15):
you got and I think it's I think it's going
down in those daily Yeah, I'm under that. I'm under that.
I don't even know if it's one in five. We'll
come back with more depressing football talk Football Full Circle
after this. On the Grade sports grid dot Com betting
insights and entertainment at your fingertips seven as our team
covers the most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds,
(26:38):
predicted betting models, expert picks, and more want the edge
than Get on the Grid sports grid dot Com. M
you're watching sportscreen, Get on the Grade. I call on
(27:02):
Football Full Circle the COVID edition. It's Uh, the optimistic edition.
Now we're doing our best, but it's been a rough
week for everyone. Football is like the least of a
lot of people's concerns. Understand that, but um, we're trying
to get through the news as best as possible. And well,
(27:26):
I'll do this two stories really in this segment. One
is we referenced earlier about the IVY League and the
IVY League deciding to cancel all full sports. They are
talking about Joe playing football in the spring. Um, the
IVY League has the benefit of trying that because of
(27:47):
the reasons that you've mentioned. It's not necessarily tied into
the local economy. It's not as big an impact on
the individual institutions, you know, people that go to see
the games everything else. Um, But the they are looked
at as a little bit of a guiding light within
college athletics because they have so many sports. They have
(28:08):
like forty sports that they put on. It's the most
of any conference by far. Uh, packed twelves close. But nonetheless,
I really puts on all these sports and they would
conceivably just move it to the spring. Would you? Did
you think that was ever a reasonable plan? I didn't
think so. For the power of fives, because I thought
all the draftable players would say peace out, I'm not playing.
(28:30):
It's not just the players, it's the television revenue going
up against March madness. Who would televise the games and
the playoffs. Yeah, you have SEC football Alabama l s
U April one that's on CBS usually for the most part.
Or Georgia Alabama that's an SEC game Channel two, you know, CBS,
(28:52):
same night as the Final four exactly. So that is
a huge monkey in the room that no or elephant
in the room that nobody wants to talk about. And
the Ivys can afford to do that because they sort
of set themselves aside as the conference. They decided to
play Friday night games to get the exposure, get the
eyes on them. I wouldn't mind seeing then IVY League
(29:13):
spring football, but a Power five game specifically just to
Pack twelve. They're gonna lose members, They're gonna lose players.
If the PAC twelve takes a stand and says we're
just playing in the spring, you're gonna have possibly potentially
top ten draft picks like Keaton slogan saying well, why
why do I want to play in a conference that
(29:35):
doesn't get any recognition I might transfer. You know, I'm
a I'm a top twenty pick potentially in the NFL
draft in years to come. I'm not getting the exposure
I need. I want to play out a winner. That
could be the residual effects of that decision as well.
And you know the SEC is not is gonna be
the last to give in to spring football. Yeah, and George, uh,
(29:57):
what everything Joe said is certainly possibility. I also think
those draftable players just won't play. Um. Plus, you're also
potentially having two football seasons inside of an eleven month period, right,
you'd have these guys playing their ten games or whatever
in the spring, taking a few months off September, assuming
(30:21):
we have a vaccine by then, September, they're kicking off again.
So you're having those guys play. Let's just pick a
round number twenty games between feb One and Thanksgiving. That's
I mean, nobody's doing that. No, nobody's done that. Pros
(30:41):
don't do that. Pros would be up in arms if
they wouldn't do it. I mean, they just wouldn't be
They wouldn't do So how can you make college kids
do this? I mean that's ridiculous. Would you have to
then cut both seasons and half really to give them
some break? We make one season six games, one season
five or six and six something like that. And you
don't want to do that, right because you still assuming
(31:02):
next season we can have a regular season. You want
to have a regular season. You don't want to make
that a bastard I had season. So you just don't
want to do it, So I don't. I don't. What's
it I think when they when these colleges or conferences
are talking about a spring schedule, they're not thinking of
the ramifications. Joe already brought up the financial ramifications. Who's
gonna watch? Because I was obviously if you can play well,
(31:23):
then March Madness can play. The professional sports are playing.
So you're going up against everything. And there's a reason
the TV rules everything right, because they have the money,
they control things, and there's a reason they told me
Major League Baseball, no, we don't want you playing in October.
We have other stuff in October. We want you to
end in September. I just have your playoffs in October.
We don't want your regular season there. You know, we
(31:44):
got other stuff. TV rules everything and they're gonna tell them, no,
we have other stuff. We have golf championships, tennis championships,
as a college basketball, the NHL, whatever is going on there.
We don't want you here. We can't make the money,
we won't pay you as much here, so it'd be
a complete mess. But the most important thing I keep
saying this over and oregain guys who watches out for
these players, who was thinking, oh god, they're gonna play
(32:05):
twenty games and nine months, can't have that. Yeah, it's
there's I mean the spring football thing, Joe also brings
into play where you're talking about earlier in that, like
what happens to the awards, what happens with who plays
in the college football playoff? You would be a limit.
If the Pack twelve hypothetical said, you know what, we're
(32:29):
not going to take part in all this stuff, We're
just gonna do spring ball, then it jams everything up
as far as the college football playoff is concerned, which
I understand to some people watching seems like a pipe dream.
To others watching saying, what's the problem. If you guys
are gonna get sick, they're just gonna push through this.
I just think college athletics. You're gonna get really sensitive
to it at some point. And even look, you know,
(32:52):
I we're laying a lot out there, but for one conference,
they really would be isolating themselves to do something like that.
They would. And here's another potential scenario that that just
raises its head is the fact that you know, you
look at these conferences as a whole, and the SEC
in particular, and you look at the PAC twelve there
(33:13):
can be the lead. And I've said this that this
season should be already postponed for the most part, is
gonna lead to super conferences. It's gonna lead to conference realignment,
make no mistake about it. The SEC is not happy
about this decision. But you have other schools playing in
other conferences that could possibly jump. Where if we see
Notre Dame jump to the A SEC, we could potentially
(33:35):
see Texas joined Texas A and M and the SEC.
We could see Oklahoma jumped to the Big Ten. This
was a huge discussion about ten or fifteen years ago,
and now this opens the door. And let's keep in
mind as well, what about the group of five teams,
Teams like Boise State, Central Florida. If they go undefeated
they're gonna want to have their say in terms of
(33:56):
the possible college football playoff season this year more so
than years passed. Does that open up expansion for the
college football tournament as well, But they'll even have less
of an opportunity to play those marquee opponents, right like
a Boise playing out of conference, they're not gonna have
playing a Mountain West schedule only doesn't really give them
(34:16):
that opportunity to have any marquee wins that would potentially
boost them. So um, since we've been talking packed often
talking about these other things, and we're talking about the
cascading effects of losing football, one cascading effect which I think,
to be honest and my experience in working with college
athletic departments was going to happen at some point, but
(34:40):
the pandemic and its impact have made it a more
shorter term. Priority. Is Stanford cutting those eleven sports? Like
Joe mentioned earlier, they had thirty six sports. It was
the second most in FBS. Actually don't know who the
most is. My alma mater. Actually all always carried a
lot of sports. That's always been a discussion about BC
(35:04):
potentially cutting sports. But the reality is Stanford is cutting
sports that we're producing Olympians and big time athletes in
some of those non revenue generating sports. So there's a
competition called the Director's Cup. The Director's Cup is a
(35:26):
measurement of all college athletic departments across the country d
one that measures their success of their athletic departments top
to bottom football, basketball, down through golf, field, hockey, swimming,
the whole kit and caboodle. It has been around since
(35:47):
North Carolina one that first year. Stanford has one every
time since twenty five years in a row. They are
the most successful athletic department top to bottom in the
country and they're doing it so George It obviously states
that there's a revenue issue here. There's always been a
(36:08):
revenue issue here. I think people see so much money
being thrown around at the conferences. There is a suggestion
that these departments are flushed with cash, but the reality
is they aren't. They have a lot of staff, they
have a lot of coaches, There's a lot of support
that goes into it in order for them to be successful,
new facilities and everything else, and the revenue they bring
(36:31):
in really doesn't cover what they're doing. Stanford was expecting
due to COVID a seventy million dollar shortfall over the
next three years. Without COVID in the mix still would
have been in the thirty five to forty range. It
doesn't matter whether they're flush with cash or not. Think
about it. Think about what a baseball do? All right?
(36:51):
When what's the gate that started be canceled? They were
firing employees making their minor league is making four ds
of week. These are billionaire owners doing this. College is
gonna do the same thing. Where do you go after
you got there? You mention the non revenue generators? Those
are gonna go first. You know you're not making money
of these things anyway, So where can we save money?
(37:12):
It's all it's it's running a business. And I'm not
saying I wouldn't do the same thing. Maybe I would,
like I think it was a billionaire, i'd have the heart,
but you never know. But in college is you're going
to look at the bottom line. Go, we can cut this.
This is not making any money for us. We got
to cut this seventy million loss. We gotta make up
some money somewhere. You know, we don't know. So a
football is conna I don't know if anything is coming
back this year. Hell, we don't know it's gonna come
back in the spring eye that for that matter. But
(37:33):
they're gonna look for any way to cut courts anyway.
As if we've seen the pros do it, you know,
think college is going to do it too. This is
not SURPRISINGCT to be in the least, Yes, Joe, Stanford's
will still have twenty five Division one varsity sports. Those
sports can't compete on the club level. Uh, it is
possible that a donor, and Stanford has obviously very wealthy donors,
could come in and say the sport or two or
(37:55):
three by it fully endowing it. That would be expensive
but depend on the sport, perhaps doable for said wealthy person.
But um, and look, twenty sports is still a lot
larger than many other Division one schools. Most SEC schools
don't have as many as twenty five programs, So Stanford
would still be carrying a large number of sports even
(38:16):
though eleven less. But the fact that it's Stanford, Mike right,
Stanford has a recognizable name and they made the decision.
If there's let's say a D S or s I
departments on the cusps, and they're starting to look at
their bottom line and their revenue sheet and they're saying,
you know what, if Stanford did it and they were proactive,
we should be doing it. And that's gonna be the
(38:38):
residual effect of that as well or the decision, and
and schools like the MAC Conference, Unfortunately, you're gonna see
huge hits because there are a number of schools in
that state of Ohio that really football drives the bus
for the most part, and they really depend upon those
games against Ohio State, Michigan, Iowa to get that you know,
(39:00):
nine hundred thousand dollar paycheck, and without the revenue coming
in teams like baseball, waterfolo, soccer, they could be cut
immediately for not just but women as well. Yeah, there
was absolutely this. This Stanford cutting in sports affected a
lot of eleven teams and a lot of athletes. They
will honor whatever players were on scholarship for the remainder
(39:21):
of their time at school, which is a solid thing
to do, but long term they will be saving money.
So the one two punch of IVY League in Stanford,
I really think put a lot of athletic administrators on notice.
Sports grid dot Com betting, insights and entertainment at your
fingertips seven as our team covers the most important topics
in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks,
(39:43):
and more. Want the edge than get on the grid
sports grid dot Com take closing out this hour of
Football Full Circle. Thank you to Joe Leasy for joining
us UH during the earlier part of this hour. George
(40:06):
and I closing it out here. A couple of little
tidbits on the NFL, and we're talking a little bit
about fantasy football as well, which I'm sure many of
you are going to be entering into draft sometime within
the next month. Sure you'll make some adjustments. We can
get into that a little bit too. But one story
about Matt Brida, George. The Dolphins have not engaged in
contract extension talks with running back Matt Breda, according to
(40:29):
Barry Jackson the Miami Herald UH. Jackson cites the uncertainty
of the salary cap in one is the reason why,
and the that falls in line with something I read
earlier this week about John Robinson of the Tennessee Titans
talking about that that the pandemic has created and the
(40:49):
uncertainty of the salary cap have created this delay on
the extensions. It is ironic considering we've talked about Pat
Mahomes receiving a five hundred million dollar contract extension or
four d fifty million dollar extension. So uh, but we
have said all along it's got to be creating some
issues with long term extensions. And here with Matt Brida,
(41:12):
they signed a draft pick. They signed Jordan Howard to
a two year contract that seems like it's probably only
the last one season. Um, but Brita's only under contract
for this year. He's been paid three point to five
nine million. They had non engagement contract talks, so that
probably doesn't bode well for him. But Matt Brida and
Jordan Howard is a pretty decent one to punch of
(41:35):
veteran backs here, George, it is Listen, I think a
lot of teams are gonna sort of treat it like this.
If you're not a superstar, well then we're gonna play
a little cautious here. Yeah, we don't know what's gonna
happen with really with this season and obviously with next season. Yeah,
we don't know if we're gonna play with a fans
be in the stands. We're gonna play sixteen games this year.
What's gonna happen is the cap gonna go down next year?
(41:56):
How much the cap gonna go down? So I can
see why a lot of teams played very cautious with
players that aren't superstars. And another thing that you, Matt Brie,
do you think about someone like him you traded to
a new team. They don't know for sure how he's
going to mesh in in this offense with this a
little bit. That was the next thing. He's only missed.
Looking at he has only missed two five games over
(42:17):
the past two seasons. Not terrible, but man, Mike, he
seems to come out of a lot of games. And
I went doing the in game live on Sundays. I
see those you're writing down bringing a left game with
an ankle injury always, you know, the left thing of
this Every every week, Breeda was always out with something,
and that's gonna be weighing on their mind as well,
that his body may not be able to take the
grind of a sixteen next year, seventeen game football season.
(42:40):
So we'll see how this works out. But I can
understand why the Donal wants are playing at safe here. Yeah.
Uh so we'll see, we'll track that. I mean, I
think he's a better option longer term than Jordan Howard.
But I think the combination of those two guys, along
with Miles Gaskin Kaylin Blage, I think it's a pretty
good quadrant or running back certainly capable, and I think
(43:01):
they're more about building up that offensive line and keeping
too a healthy. And you know, we we both liked
the Dolphins to kind of compete this year, maybe make
that seventh playoff spot, but really this is a two
or three year build and last year was year one.
So that's it from Matt brita Um. Only other story
really that's come out this week that uh is of
(43:24):
any notice. Seattle Seahawks Shakeem Griffin. He's the twin brother
of starting outside corner Shaquille Griffin. He hasn't really claimed
the starting role after a couple of seasons in the NFL.
He's obviously known for UH for having a missing hand
and being this underdog story. But right as of yet,
he has not made a huge impact with Seattle Seahawks,
(43:44):
and he could be on the roster bubble. What's interesting though,
George is we've talked about these roster bubbles throughout the
pre um the off season and how the normal business
of having the ninety players in camp has not really happened. Um.
So it is interesting to see roster bubble players being
(44:05):
discussed when there has not really been any competition for
all these months. To these players, it's weird. They're actually
took going down to eighty, you know, have an eight.
And I understand the reason why is because they don't
they want to separate the players. We're gonna put all
these players when they need six ft awake from each other.
But they got addressed, they got to eat together and
everything else. I understand that, But what are you gonna
(44:26):
do when these injuries happen and COVID happens here? I
wonder are they gonna do something like have a couple
of football teams in whatever state in Nebraska playing XFL
did that. The XFL had a ninth team practicing at
all times as a reserve for any injured players that
happened to the eight XFL teams. I thought it was
a good idea. Does the NFL need to do something
(44:47):
like that? I think it's it's worth considering if I
was a fringe guy, would certainly be thinking that this
is my chance, because a lot more players could go
down for a variety of reasons. The what J C.
Treader talked hi with the compacted off season and injuries
potentially spiking A and B guys having to take two
weeks off because they're quarantined because they showed symptoms related
(45:10):
to COVID. I also listen, this goes to all sports,
by the way, I think it's gonna be a lot
of players who get hurt, no rush to come back.
Oh the pull pulled hammy, I think, I honestly think,
even if my prediction of spot worth of baseball players
um opting out, even if it comes up light, I
(45:31):
think there's a few guys that are gonna pull a
hammy in week one and be like, man, I'm not
gonna make it back. That's a few guys, not a
lot a lot. I think there'll be a decent amount
pictures shoulder, Yeah, my help was a little little little
wonky hurt. I don't know why you can't see it
in the m R. I weird shoulder, you know, And
so I think I see a lot of that and guys.
(45:53):
They're gonna get paid, you gonna get their service time,
and they'll be safe. Yeah. So anyway, so we'll see
how that goes. George, and I want to have a
little fun with this last segment since I'm involved in
an industry league um Scott Fish Bowl. It's a slow draft.
And for those of you out there that normally get
(46:14):
together and you're maybe you're in a couple of leagues,
but you draft and you're you maybe you have a
draft party, which is fun. It's just really the genesis
of fantasy football was kind of getting together to do it.
But now you get to play with people all over
the country. You can do it online. You knock out
a draft in an hour and a half two hours.
You've done your research, you've done your draft, and everything else.
(46:36):
A slow draft is particularly popular with industry people that
have to conduct a lot of drafts obviously can't attend
all of them in person. All of the time, are
producing content, are doing all these other things. I didn't
do any slow drafts, George, until I got into, uh,
the fantasy football world in a significant way. Was always
(47:00):
just drafting, even if I did it online and we
knocked it out an hour and a half two hours
and we were good to go. But I love slow
drafts now because it does not uh take over my time.
I don't have to schedule out a specific night, a
specific to three hour block in order to draft a
larger team. Um. I don't do auction drafts typically because
(47:23):
they take a long period of time and it's a
dedicated period of time. So uh, here you with the
slow draft. You can do an auction slow draft. I guess,
uh to some extent, but I haven't really I haven't
done that. Have you didn't do that when you want
in the league that Jim Day Fantasy task set up
other platform. That was a slow draft. The auction. Uh,
(47:45):
that was why. I don't remember all the details, but
that was a slow draft auction. Think of if no,
we've been on a player for like twenty four hours,
well done, the highest pick. He have ten plays after
Wolks and at once nobody been on a certain plate
with twenty four hours. Well then hey, that player now
became Blootes. You had the list bid twenty four hours, agoes,
you got it for that price, and then whatever the
next in line, we'll put up a guy. So it
(48:07):
worked out pretty, but what was interesting was fun. So
the slow draft really is useful for those of you
watching out there when schedules can't come together, there's just
no possible way to get everybody together. You can do
a slow draft. You can communicate. Some drafts can go
really quickly in a slow draft. But you put a
timer on it. It could be four hours, to be
six hours, we eight hours. You turned it off overnight
(48:28):
so nobody gets screwed in the midnight hours are the
wee hours of the morning. But but anyway, it does.
It does also, George present some challenges, as you just mentioned,
pre drafting. So if you see the pick is coming
your way, you load up a few players, uh, and
(48:49):
then it'll pick the guys who's ever left on that
list that you've ranked. Um. But the problem is not
everybody does this right or a few people do it.
I mean, listen, I get it. It's a slow draft.
And you know, Dave Martinez and I talked about this earlier,
and you and I told about it during the break
and I asked you, do you take all your time?
It's an eight hour pick? Do you take all eight hours?
(49:11):
And I think you said no, but you should and
you're right. I mean, if you if you I understand
the lodge, you take all it? How was the case
news breaks you want to take I don't know. You
want to take whatever a Rodgers, but you know, maybe
you don't take him in the first five minutes because
you want to take all it out. You find out
an hour seven and Rodgers breaks his leg or Davante
(49:31):
Adams out for the because it here's his a c
L Now you don't want hoverages anymore. So I understand
why you wait, Mike, But I never do. The only
time I wait, as if I'm talking, it's you can
trade in and I'm talking trade with somebody. Other than that,
I make my pick and I want to move on.
I prefer live drafts. I think most of us do.
I like to get together with the guys, girls whatever,
you know, whether it's just talking smack and hanging out
(49:53):
with the boys and whatever. I prefer to live drafts.
But it's rare nowadays. Everyone wants to do it online
and slow. If you gotta do it online, you might
will do a slow draft and take your time. Yeah,
so here's the thing. I think he should have your
your pre draft pick lined up right, But in the
last two years in this exact league, the scott Fish
(50:17):
Bowl League, I have benefited from breaking news. Last year
it was the pick was leading up towards me in
this slow draft, and Melvin Gordon announced that he was
not reporting to camp. I think people had either already
drafted their running backs or they missed the story. And
I ended up with Austin Ekeler, probably three rounds ahead
(50:39):
of where he would have gone because I was like,
he ain't coming. I'm picking Austin Ekeler and it was
a huge win for me this year. This week, uh
Raheem Moster announced that he was getting traded. It was
about two picks before I was going right now in
the proud owder of Tevin Coleman. So in that sense,
(51:00):
uh the timing can impact. Even though it seems like
what's going to happen in eight hours, I don't know
one thing could happen. It might not be that Javante
Adams tearing is a c L. But we go over
news stories here that seem make it significant every week.
But you know what, he most requesting a trade that
(51:20):
might not happen could put him in the doghouse, even
if he stays on the Niners, Tevin Coleman gets the
ball more and then I got him for steal in
seventh round. There real people take advantage. I mentioned. The
most frustrating to me that drive me insane about a
slow draft is the person on the turn when you
know they take six hours, then they finally make their
(51:40):
twelve pick, Well they're tick, and then they take seven
more hours before they make the third pick. You can't
be doing that. Oh my god, you know. Uh, it
drives me insane. Make what you make the first pick, please,
for the love of God, make the second pick too.
So as much as you can wait it out for
the news, don't wait it out forever, Repick. Just be
ready to go. Have a couple of guys that you
(52:02):
think are reasonably going to fit onto your team, and
just just keep it moving. Keep it moving. If you
want to do it for strategy, I get it. Don't
do it for every pick. You don't want to be
that guy. You don't want to the guy. You don't
want to be the guy that's taken eight hours for
every pick. So you've got some guys you like, line
them up Otherwise, if you don't got anybody you hope
somebody holds out and then you get their back up.
(52:23):
So that's where I'm at now. I'm open to do
a little fair, a little bit better than I did
in that league last year and not cut Ryan's anno
like I did a week before he got the starting
job and went off to have a three month tirade
on the NFL. But that's it. Appreciate you all watching
this hour on behalf of Joe Leasy, producer Brian Ronkowski
and George Kurtz and everybody else behind the scenes on
(52:44):
Mike Lewett. Thanks for watching FFC. We'll see you on
the grid next time. Get on the grid take here
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