00:00We need to try to look at the 10-year horizon of what we want this game to look like.
00:05And that, I think, is something that I've never really heard anybody say, Bill.
00:08And it's something that makes the most sense where you don't have a commissioner for the
00:13sport.
00:13So who is the true, like, steward of the game that's trying to help craft this long-term
00:18vision?
00:18Yeah.
00:19And imagine being the Ohio State coach and Ryan Day and having to compartmentalize everything
00:24you have to in December between signing day, between transfer portal and college football
00:33playoff.
00:34You're planning for that and all the intensive preparation that goes into planning for a
00:38playoff game.
00:39So it's basically a traffic jam in December.
00:42And he's right.
00:43I remember, I think it was three years ago at Big Ten Media Day, Ryan Day said, who knows
00:49what college football is going to look like in five years?
00:51And now that he's talking about 10 years, that's a really, I mean, who would have guessed?
00:56You know, we may have super conferences by then or a 2014 playoff.
01:00So I'm glad he's looking out for the calendar.
01:02I think you and I talked a little bit about it Monday.
01:05The portal kind of makes sense at the end of the spring in some ways over the December
01:11portal decisions because the season's actually over.
01:15Kids, you know, have a decision where to make.
01:17But I guess the drawback would be, OK, the portal kids you have in aren't going to be
01:22there for spring football.
01:23But maybe we push spring football back.
01:25There's a lot to talk about when it comes to the college football calendar.
01:29Well, that's the thing.
01:30Like, does spring football, here's the bigger question, Bill.
01:32Like, does it need, if the coaches are going to treat it as they do now, does it need to
01:38exist in its current state?
01:40The way that we know it, the 15 practices over basically, you know, four to five weeks
01:45because it used to culminate in a spring game, which to me, the spring game was always the
01:49event for the fans.
01:50That was a way to kind of draw the fans in in the offseason.
01:53The students are getting ready to leave school.
01:55So everybody kind of has this big little celebration.
01:57And then you go to the summer.
01:59But coaches don't treat it like that anymore.
02:01If you're not going to treat it, you're not going to televise it.
02:03But do we really need to have it in a way like that?
02:07Or could we straddle it, have some padded practices, maybe have some more OTA feel after
02:12May so you could get your team, if you do a later portal, you could get them all set
02:16up?
02:17Yeah, I think an OTA type feel would be great for college football.
02:21And you could have it even early summer if you needed to, maybe in June or July.
02:26I know, or June would probably be better.
02:29And then you get into the actual fall camp.
02:31But, you know, I was thinking about that, that spring football at Ohio State, for example,
02:36it seems like it happens like three weeks after the season ends.
02:40And that's because the calendar has been pushed all the way back to, I just kind of shook my
02:45head last night.
02:45I was looking something up that January 19th is when Miami and Indiana played.
02:51January 25th or 26th is when the championship game is next year.
02:55So, you know, it's not even so much about getting a break as does spring football in its
03:01current form make sense in this college football calendar?
03:05And the answer is probably no.
03:06And it's really interesting now because it was always about player development in the
03:11spring.
03:12And now it's almost about assimilation of trying to bring all your guys in, your transfer
03:15guys to get them on the same page.
03:17And I think you can maybe do that a different way.
03:19And it seems, you know, with some of that development might be kind of dying just with
03:23the structure of how college football is set up and how we view it as far as the student
03:31athletes and coaches view it of, okay, we're going to recruit guys from a lower tier school.
03:35They're going to train them a little bit.
03:36Then we'll train them a little more.
03:38You kind of slowly ascend that way.
03:42Bill, the AFCA, the American Football Coaches Association, came out with some, their recommendations
03:49and four things they thought that should happen.
03:52We'll get into that in a minute.
03:54But before we get there, does anybody in this scenario or in this whole thing, because people
04:01don't realize the ecosystem, I mean, the presidents and the ADs are the ones, they're
04:05the administrators, they're the ones that really make the decisions.
04:08You know, Bill Bender, you're writing an article, you're doing a great job covering
04:12content.
04:12Your editor is the one that says, yeah, too bad, Bill, we're not doing that.
04:15That's getting the cutting floor.
04:16That's basically what like the coach and the administration can be like to the coaches.
04:21You just coach the games, we'll deal with the big picture stuff.
04:24Does anybody really listen in this to what the coaches have to say?
04:29Well, we're going to find out.
04:30I mean, I thought their recommendations were, for the most part, pretty good.
04:35You know, they talk about the calendar.
04:37They talk about, you know, the playoff.
04:40Now that one I know we're going to get into and finding a window for Army Navy.
04:45So most of the things that they were recommending I was on board with, it's just the playoff part
04:52is, you know, the coach, that feels like it's coming from the coaches that we're getting
04:57into a mode where they're pushing for a 2014 playoff.
05:01And I'm not sure that's what's best for the game.
05:03But in terms of eliminating conference championship games and reducing the number, I think it was
05:09no less than six days between games.
05:11That's not a bad change.
05:13One bye week instead of two.
05:15That's not a bad change.
05:17Addressing some of the calendar concerns.
05:18I'm on board with all of that.
05:20It's just when they get to that part about the 2014 playoff, that feels like, I've heard
05:25this phrase, self-preservation, Bobby, where coaches know that pretty much the standard is
05:31you got to get to the playoff now.
05:33So why not add more playoff teams?
05:35And I'm not sure that's a good idea.
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