00:00Look, the old Southwest Conference, right, everybody loved it until it went away.
00:05And then came the Big 12, and everybody said, listen, this is great.
00:08And then guess what?
00:09Texas and Oklahoma said, peace.
00:10We're going to the SEC.
00:12Things in college football continue to change.
00:14But, Mike, when you talk about inner Sandman at Virginia Tech,
00:16I don't feel like that's going to change.
00:18I don't feel like Howard's Rock at Clemson is going to change.
00:20Some things are still going to be there.
00:22But the teams that traditionally that you have gotten to know and you feel like,
00:26man, we've got to play them and we've got to beat them,
00:28the money has gotten too big.
00:31And that was our conversation with Mike.
00:32So I want to go back to you about this because you guys are going back and forth.
00:35It's Dukes and Bales Sports Radio 92.9 The Game.
00:37He was insinuating, and I think he's right, look, at some point they're going to do away
00:41with the SEC championship game.
00:43How do you make that money back?
00:45You expand the college football playoff.
00:46You have these play-in games in your home stadiums.
00:49All of a sudden, Mike, you're raking in revenue.
00:52And maybe it's not as – it doesn't feel like it's killing us as much as we think it might.
00:57Just because we've gotten so used to it over the last 25 or 30 years.
01:01Nobody knows anybody who's on any team in March Madness unless you're hardcore like Day Day.
01:05And the TV numbers are the best they've been in years.
01:07So no one really cares how the sausage gets made.
01:10As long as you're getting more football on TV, people are going to watch,
01:12especially when it's brand-name programs.
01:15It's just the reality.
01:16Look, it's an old man yelling at the clouds.
01:18I hate to be that guy.
01:19It just sucks because for so many years, it's a one-sided rivalry.
01:23Paul Johnson might beat Georgia once every five or six years in that yippee-ki-yay.
01:26And now it's like you feel like Brent Key's got something going where they can
01:29actually win these games year after year, and it's a great rivalry.
01:32You know, Florida State and Florida, I mean, it sucks when one team is terrible.
01:36You know, Clemson and South Carolina for years were so one-sided.
01:39And then, you know, it's bound to Shane Beamer since winning some of those games.
01:41I hate to see those go away, but they don't have these games in the Big Ten.
01:46There are none of these games in the Big Ten.
01:48You know, the Big Ten, it's their own rivals.
01:51I mean, I don't think anybody gets excited if Indiana plays Indiana State, you know.
01:56And to Mike Griffith's point, who joined us from Dog Nation, you can rewind on the Odyssey app.
01:59Has that changed, though, now that Indiana is relevant?
02:01No, but look, this is the old Jeremy Foley.
02:03I couldn't remember his name last conversation.
02:05He was the old athletic director for Florida, and his business model was three dog-blank opponents
02:09other than Florida State for Florida.
02:11And that worked.
02:12You know, and they're always top ten.
02:15So to Mike Griffith's point, Georgia Tech is going to get to a point where it's not helping you
02:19on the schedule if you're playing a nine-game conference schedule.
02:22And look, but it's a hard argument to take outside of our listening audience,
02:25because Big Ten fans will go, screw you.
02:27We're one, two, three.
02:29Back-to-back-to-back national champions.
02:31Because when we play you guys, we beat you.
02:34Okay?
02:34When Ohio State played Tennessee, they beat them.
02:37You know, and I get it.
02:39We feel that everybody, with the exception right now currently, maybe Miss State,
02:42is just a tougher out in the SEC than a Maryland or a Northwestern.
02:47Rutgers.
02:47You know, Rutgers, who, again, Indiana will play in addition to their patty cakes.
02:51So to Mike's point, and you just laid it out to start the segment,
02:55you're going to be making more money on the TV playoffs,
02:57because the college football playoff committee will expand.
02:59It's an animal.
03:00It's too big to fail.
03:01So there you go.
03:02So the problem is, college football goes away the way we used to know it.
03:06The rivalries, yes, I can go down to Tallahassee, I can do the chop,
03:11and Chief Osseo will come out on Renegade,
03:12and let's go play Garbage Town or whoever's state.
03:16Yeah, those traditions remain, but opponents don't.
03:19Right, and again, the worst part is, you know, the ACC, we're talking about the SEC.
03:24What is the ACC going to do?
03:25They're barely relevant as it is, with the exception of Miami last year.
03:29They're still going to do the whiteout at Penn State,
03:31but at some point maybe they won't be playing the traditional teams that you've become accustomed to.
03:36Listen, they've got 18 teams in the Big Ten now.
03:38Don't forget, USC, UCLA, that doesn't even sound right, it still doesn't feel right.
03:43Oregon and Washington's Big Ten now, that doesn't even feel right.
03:46But that's where this is, and the only reason they added those teams was because of money.
03:50Yeah, and the thing, I wanted to ask Mike, but we didn't have time,
03:53but we can scream at each other the next time.
03:55And that you do.
03:58Mike says, we've got to do a podcast.
03:59Like I said, someone's got to pay us.
04:01But as far as the argument of strength of schedule,
04:05if the college football playoff committee had something that was concrete,
04:09but it's a freaking moving target every year with the strength of schedule.
04:12Some years they don't respect it.
04:13So that's a problem.
04:15If Georgia had two or three losses, but their strength of schedule was number one in the country,
04:18they should be in the playoff.
04:19But there's no guarantee.
04:20Talk to Alabama about it a few years ago.
04:23But if you went to 24, doesn't that go out of the window?
04:26Yeah.
04:28But I don't want 24 teams because I don't need 24 teams.
04:32I don't need 12 teams.
04:33I don't need to see Boise State or Tulane.
04:36I don't need to see the small schools have a piece of the pie.
04:38And that will happen in 24.
04:39You'll expand more of that.
04:40All this means basically is six Big Ten teams and at least six SEC teams are going to be in.
04:45That's what the expanded playoff means.
04:47Or maybe more.
04:48Yeah, more money for each conference.
04:49And that's why the Big Ten is putting this.
04:50Find me the fourth, fifth, and sixth team you'd want to see from the Big Ten right now.
04:55Right?
04:56Michigan, Ohio State, and recently Indiana.
04:58Penn State's going to be going back to scratch now.
05:01I mean, it's a very top-heavy conference.
05:03Everybody thinks they've got a really good coach, and so do I.
05:05We'll see if he can resurrect and get them moving in the right direction.
05:08I just, I'm more curious to see, like, the fans.
05:13And I'm curious to ask you guys, because I think this is a college football argument.
05:16This isn't really about Georgia Tech.
05:18And Matt Campbell's a new head coach, Penn State.
05:19Correct.
05:20And from Iowa State.
05:21But I think this is more about just how much tradition do you want?
05:28Like, does it really matter to you?
05:30But do you want it to be the NFL?
05:32Where, I mean, basically, in the old days you had to be almost letter perfect.
05:35And that was silly, because you could have one loss to be the best team in the country at the
05:38end of the year.
05:40I do miss that, though, Mike, because the pressure to be perfect every week, there's something special about that.
05:45There's something special about going 12-0 or 13-0 and knowing that you're undefeated and you're going into this
05:52championship game.
05:53Like, that essence is gone.
05:55You literally can lose, as you said, two or three, and we're like, hey, we're still in the mix.
05:59That urgency is gone when you add all these teams to the playoffs.
06:02I do miss that, but that is where we're at.
06:04But the traditions, wherever you went to school, are going to remain.
06:09The opponents won't.
06:10And that's just the world of college football that we're in.
06:13And I don't know how much these traditions, Mike, I've been over for many, many years.
06:16Like I said, the old Southwest Conference, once that went debunk and everybody went, we're going to something different.
06:21Everybody had to change their mindset.
06:23And so as these college conferences continue to evolve, nobody likes it.
06:28We all have complained about why would the SEC add teams?
06:31They don't need teams.
06:32But I also think that when you talk about these matchups, for example, will Alabama and Auburn, will there ever
06:38come a day where they don't play?
06:39Will there ever come a day where Alabama and Auburn don't play the Iron Bowl?
06:42I don't know.
06:43But if it did, how ticked off would Alabama or Auburn fans be to not have the Iron Bowl a
06:49part of the tradition that has been built?
06:51Right.
06:51Built in, luckily for now, you would imagine staying because it's conference rivals.
06:54But it just, to me, to have the – we reward mediocrity too much.
06:59They're going to expand the March Madness field.
07:01That's already a done deal.
07:02I mean, you know, like I get it.
07:0464 was a nice round number.
07:05We have the planes, all the TV money, guys.
07:07But to me, as a fan of college football, I want the – there's something more special about your weekend
07:13in Athens than the long schedule of the national – at least it used to be with the NFL.
07:19It isn't anymore.
07:20Now it's just, hey, man, we went 9-4.
07:22We're in the playoffs.
07:24I don't want to live in that college football world, but that's too – tough blank.
07:27You're going there.
07:28And I hate losing something like the SEC championship.
07:30But there's no way to fold it into the process.
07:32You guys are more than welcome to hit us up.
07:34Let us know what you think.
07:35404-726-0929.
07:36It's just a really fascinating conversation.
07:39And by the way, smoke.
07:40There's smoke here.
07:42It's going to happen.
07:43Right.
07:43And Matt hits us up, by the way.
07:44UGA Matt says another reason they want to go to 24 is they don't trust the committee to get it
07:48right every year.
07:48Oh, wow.
07:49Okay.
07:49We hadn't even talked about that.
07:51That's what I was saying earlier about strength of schedule.
07:53Yeah.
07:53The college football playoff committee, there's no transparency.
07:56They always have a boob.
07:58Of all the people there, they're pretty good at speaking.
08:00They find the least capable one to explain why they made their stupid decisions only to get us to tune
08:05in next week.
08:06But I agree.
08:09If they had to really respect the strength of schedule, we wouldn't be in this mess.
08:12But they don't.
08:13What do we have coming up in Guy Talk, Mike?
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