00:00Looking out now, Bill, do you think that that's something
00:02that still ultimately happens, that these games get played,
00:06given that the SEC is going to a nine-game conference schedule?
00:08I hope so.
00:09And I think you and I are on the same page with this,
00:12that I understand the logic in scheduling,
00:16like a mini preseason almost, when you play group five G6 schools now.
00:22But, you know, the best part of September is the matchups like that.
00:25I mean, think about the buildup we had around Ohio State, Texas last year.
00:28That was a – you know, somebody that's covered a lot of non-conference games
00:32at Ohio State, that was as cool an atmosphere as I've ever seen, you know,
00:37on the field, before the game, after the game, everything around Lee Corso.
00:41It was amazing.
00:42So I get the logic, though, that if the college football playoff
00:47is only going to be about, hey, you've got to get 10 wins,
00:50your strength of schedule, we'll consider it,
00:52but we're still going to take the 10-win team, then I understand it.
00:55Because if you look at Ohio State's schedule next year,
00:58especially with nine games in the Big Ten, they don't have many easy ones.
01:02You know, when you're playing Oregon, USC, Michigan, Indiana,
01:05who am I leaving out?
01:06I feel like there's somebody – I mean, even, you know,
01:08some of the other games are tough.
01:10That you pile a trip to Texas on top of that,
01:12it's going to be a very tough schedule.
01:13Bobby, you guys were competitors.
01:15Didn't you want that game against, you know, the Oklahomas, the Texases,
01:20the big non-conference game that probably made, you know,
01:23summer camp a little bit easier automatically?
01:24It does.
01:25Well, it gives you something to kind of focus
01:27and look forward to all offseason.
01:30You know, that's the big game you have circled.
01:31And obviously, you want to win against your Big Ten foes.
01:34Yeah, you said Ohio State.
01:35Obviously, the Michigan game at the end of the year,
01:36they have Iowa at Iowa earlier in the season.
01:39And then you have both Oregon and USC and Indiana in there.
01:44So it is robust.
01:45You throw in a trip to Texas, and all of a sudden,
01:47that's a beefy schedule.
01:49Hopefully, they do maintain these, and they do kind of continue with them
01:54because it makes college football fun.
01:56I think it does a great job of also giving you something
01:59to look forward to early in the year.
02:01You have to have good content.
02:03I mean, Bill, they're basically TV shows,
02:05and it's always something that kind of gives you that ability to compare.
02:08Now, you could argue, you look at Notre Dame,
02:11they scheduled two really tough games, and it's tough to see.
02:14They don't have a traditional schedule, so it's different.
02:16And so they got penalized for that.
02:18And I'm hoping that the committee begins to value that moving forward
02:23of playing those tough non-conference games,
02:25or else I do think they kind of go by the wayside.
02:28And that's the one thing I think our 16-team tournament,
02:31I think Bill will help alleviate some of that.
02:34So if you do lose one of those games, it's not the end of the world.
02:37If I was making a schedule as a Power 4 athletic director,
02:40I understand we've got to play nine at home or nine Big Ten games.
02:44You start there, some years you'll have five home games,
02:46some years you have four.
02:48Some of us think they should go to ten Big Ten games,
02:50which would be even better.
02:51That way you can do five and five, and there's 18 teams,
02:54and it unbalances the schedule a little bit.
02:57But in the current format, you play nine, then you play two G6 schools.
03:02I like Ohio State's relationship with the MAC.
03:05I think those games actually help the MAC schools.
03:07I know the scores aren't always close, but it generates a little excitement there.
03:11And then you play one Power 4 opponent, play somebody from another conference
03:14so we can have those matchups.
03:16I remember a couple weeks ago I was texting back and forth
03:18about the NC State-Ohio State game 20-some years ago with Phillip Rivers.
03:22You know, like we remember those non-conference games
03:25because you don't get to see those matchups enough.
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