00:00A day that we have feared, potentially a day that maybe we have looked forward to for the
00:09last few years.
00:11Conference realignment, the big boogeyman in college athletics is now official.
00:17As of today, July 1st, 2024, Oklahoma and Texas, now members of the Southeastern Conference
00:25in their wake in the Big 12.
00:28We officially welcome Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah.
00:33The new West Coast newcomers to the Big 10 do not officially join the conference until
00:37August 2nd, 2024, but it is still conference realignment in a big way.
00:44And the Atlantic Coast Conference, no longer just the Atlantic Coast.
00:48How about the Pacific Coast in Northern California, Cal and Stanford, now officially member institutions
00:54of the ACC, along with the name of the heart of Texas and Dallas, that being SMU.
01:01And the Pac-12 is no longer, the Pac-2 still exists, the left behind programs of Oregon
01:08State and Washington State.
01:10DRS, a day that we have talked about for many years after Oklahoma and Texas made the move
01:15back in the summer of 2021 to announce their departure from the Big 12 to join the SEC
01:22that was followed by UCLA and USC.
01:24Last summer, everything with the dissolution of the Pac-12, Oregon and Washington joining
01:30the teams from LA in the Big 10 and the four corner schools making their way to the Big
01:3512.
01:36A day that we have looked at for a very long time is now official.
01:41College sports, as we know it, forever altered on July 1st, 2024.
01:47And there are some pros, but way more cons that are coming away from this.
01:50The pros are the Pac-12 is gone, hurray, celebration, hallelujah.
01:54The worst conference in the history of sports here has gone away.
01:56We love that.
01:57But having said that, we love to have the East Coast, West Coast bias, the North versus
02:03the South, and we're losing that.
02:04And it is a shame at that point because there were regional rivalries that you love to see.
02:09And I can't stand it.
02:10The one thing that has to go away next is the Rose Bowl, but that's maybe for another
02:12show at this point.
02:13But there was something about the Big 10 matching up against the Pac-12 in the Rose Bowl.
02:18Even if it cost those two teams a national championship, because the rest of the bowl
02:22season went along, that is what it is.
02:24But that was still tradition.
02:26It gets harder and harder, Ben, for years and years and years.
02:30You could just name a team and know exactly what their conference is going to be in and
02:33who they actually played.
02:34Now you take a look at the Big 10, which I think is hilarious at this point.
02:37Like, honestly, honestly, guy, like, why is it the Big 10 with 18 teams in it?
02:41Why is it the Big 18?
02:43The Big 12?
02:44Why is it the Big 16?
02:45Like, isn't it just common sense at this point?
02:47Like, I have no idea why that still happens here.
02:49So I'm getting hung up on things that aren't even on the field at this point, which makes
02:53no sense.
02:54Now, granted, pretty soon the Big 10 will probably have 36 teams, and then it'll go
02:57away as just the Big 10 is only one conference and includes every team in college football.
03:01We're heading down that path.
03:02You have to get used to it.
03:03Football, though, by the way, this could have been disastrous.
03:06Let's just say if we are still in a four-man playoff or the BCS era, I would be screaming
03:11from the top of the heels here.
03:13But I got to tell you guys this one thing.
03:15College football season next year is going to be absolutely phenomenal.
03:20All the talk, the conjecture of all these added playoff teams with more meaningful football,
03:26it's going to be so much fun to watch.
03:28So even though I say to myself right now, I can't stand alignment and change, change
03:32everything up.
03:33Get rid of every conference.
03:34You just give me an expanded playoff.
03:36It's a win-win for the people out there, Ben, including myself.
03:40I never thought in the history of doing the early line that I would ever agree with my
03:46co-host Donny Rightside on a point that he brings up about any change or altered landscape
03:52in college sports.
03:54And yet here we are.
03:55See folks, you can adapt.
03:57You can make evolutions.
03:59You can learn that change brings a positive benefit as well because it is new and it will
04:05take an adjustment period.
04:07And oftentimes change can be a little bit scary.
04:10But Donny is correct.
04:12Sure, we miss some of the pageantry and the tradition that we associate with our favorite
04:17college conference or what we have known for decades in collegiate athletics.
04:22But with change comes benefit as well.
04:26And that is the expanded college football playoff to 12 teams starting in 2024.
04:32There are many sweeping changes that over these summer months, we will break down for
04:36you here on the early line to get you ready for the college football campaign that starts
04:41on August 24th in 2024.
04:44Conference realignment being one of the big ones.
04:46Of course, the expanded field of 12 schools now reaching the college football playoff.
04:51And DRS, the reason they keep these names in the conferences at the moment, although
04:56we got the reports of the Allstate Big 12 or whatever that's going to look like in probably
05:01just a year or so, as you always look for that bottom line to increase in college football
05:07being the main driving economic engine.
05:09That's why you have the changes that we do.
05:12But you've heard of branding.
05:13It's why when the morning after myself and you on the early line came together to form a new
05:18morning show, they're like, well, DRS is bringing in the big bucks.
05:21Let's keep it TEL.
05:22Let's stay with the early group now.
05:25It makes a lot of sense at that point.
05:26And also, we're at a point in college football madness where it is about the almighty dollar.
05:31So I don't mind.
05:32Like as soon as we you know, I don't want to see like, you know, the Michigan Wolverines,
05:35you know, helmet go away for a visa sign like we don't want to see that on the helmet.
05:38We have to understand the time and you have to give and take some like for me, you know,
05:43college kids shouldn't be paid.
05:44It should be on the you know, the sanctity of the sport here.
05:47Just forget about all that.
05:48We are in a much better place in college football, even though you have the transfer portal again.
05:52It's a give or take on both sides here.
05:54If you just give us more meaningful football at the end of the season, and I say this out
05:57to the people who I don't know where they came to this agreement on where it's like,
06:01well, now that you have expanded college football playoff, it's going to be watered down in
06:05the regular season.
06:06Doesn't matter.
06:07Are you kidding me?
06:08It used to be back where he has any fun like me being a Miami Hurricane fan losing opening
06:11day to Florida State.
06:12My God, season's over at this point.
06:13You play like imagine if we did that in the NFL, like if the Chiefs get upset on opening
06:17night, can't win the Super Bowl.
06:19Are you nuts, man?
06:20Put more fan bases in more big games late in the season with chances to get to the playoffs.
06:25Who is going to hate on that?
06:27Only the idiot would hate on that.
06:30I think it's a poor argument because if your argument was it legitimizes the regular season
06:35because of how important each and every game was the end of the four team era last year,
06:40the 10th and final year just got rid of that completely because Florida State won every
06:44single game in the regular season and it's conference championship game and it ended
06:48up meaning nothing where the regular season has its drawbacks as well.
06:53To Donnie's point, the games that we love in non-conference play that are often seen
06:58as college football playoff games in years past now still have that legitimacy and relevance
07:04relevancy.
07:05Excuse my misspeak there and they still present an opportunity that if you lose your season
07:11is not done and you can build up once again to keep going the entirety of the year.
07:17It's a beautiful time in college football, albeit a new one.
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