00:00Is it is it an inevitability at this point that we're going to land on that 24 team, even maybe
00:07before 16 or without or I guess even, Bill, if we get to 24, 16 is merely a stepping stone
00:13on the way there?
00:15I think we'll do 16 first. But the more you said something in the last segment that the more you
00:20hear something 24, 24, and then you start to register in your brain at first, you're like, I hate this.
00:26I don't want to ever see a 2014 playoff. It's going to water down the sport. Then you read something
00:30else. Well, this isn't so bad.
00:33You know, the Big Ten gets more teams in. And by the time we go to it, you're you're a
00:36fan of it.
00:37I'm not saying I will be that way, but that's how they they're going to hit you with this, because
00:41it is based on TV and you get more money that way.
00:45And one of the things that I read in Pete Thamel story that kind of hit me was this is
00:50their plan to recoup the money that they're going to lose from the conference championship.
00:56games. And you've heard that every time you talk about, hey, we've got to get rid of these conference championship
01:01games.
01:02They're not just going to give away that money and say, oh, that's fine. We'll lose all that money.
01:05And I think this is what the 2014 playoff is. Is it good for the sport? I'm not sure.
01:10I'm not sure it does take a considerable amount of value out of the regular season, in my opinion.
01:18Some would say, well, it's you know, it's more like the NFL. What do you mean?
01:21Every game still matters, but it doesn't matter quite the same as it did when there was four teams or
01:2712 teams.
01:28If you're doubling the size of the field, your margin for error increases by that much if you're a playoff
01:33contender.
01:34Yeah, I saw a great analogy on this. I'm obviously not a fan. It's almost like putting a roller coaster
01:39in Yosemite Park, like Yosemite Park.
01:42It's beautiful. Like, and of course, a roller coaster wouldn't be put in there.
01:45That's going to be fun. But that just kind of takes away from the natural beauty of it.
01:49And yes, there are some things that need to be changed with the 12 team playoff.
01:52I would be OK with 16 and kind of eliminating those bye weeks.
01:56But 24, that's just going to water down the regular season.
02:00You're not really going to have big time ball until maybe the end of November, even December, especially with the
02:05way that they're changing the schedule.
02:06So I just don't really see the need for it.
02:09I think that this whole system was made to get the best teams in and get the best team to
02:13win.
02:13And I don't think the 24 team model is a way to really get that done.
02:18Well, let me ask you guys as players.
02:20So, you know, I've talked to Bobby about this before of, you know, not getting that swing at USC when
02:27the Trojans were the number one team in the country.
02:30Or, you know, when you get in a four team playoff situation, I always thought the four team playoff for
02:35as much as we criticized it or the BCS as much as we criticized it.
02:38It more often than not landed on the two best teams in the country in the championship game.
02:44Now, when we go to 24, the odds of that happening are going to be much less.
02:50You'll have upsets.
02:51You'll have teams like Ohio State that even though the Buckeyes were really good, their seed was what it was.
02:56They were a two loss regular season team two years ago.
02:59And Indiana, they win it all this year, but they were playing Miami a 10 seed.
03:03I don't know that you'll get that unbelievable Miami-Ohio State matchup from the Fiesta Bowl or USC-Texas, which
03:11is kind of the crown jewel of college football.
03:13And I think in some levels, we're going to miss out on those number one, number two matchups that end
03:19the playoff.
03:20And we got those in the BCS in the 14 playoff.
03:23I don't know that we'll get them as much in a 16 or 24.
03:26The value of that conference championship to me has changed.
03:30I think you get through the regular season, you get in the playoff, we start the playoff earlier, it's one
03:35last game for the players.
03:36It doesn't mean that Ohio State-Michigan or Ohio State-Penn State or Ohio State-Oregon doesn't matter.
03:42It just means that we're piling up the victories.
03:44And I've lived through a significant chunk of my life where the Big Ten didn't have a conference championship game.
03:51There were some weird tiebreakers to get into the Rose Bowl, but more often than not, it played itself out.
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