00:00Because you have that second tier right now, Penn State, USC, Michigan's kind of oscillating back and forth.
00:06But that's kind of your next three teams.
00:09And maybe even Iowa is in that mix to a certain extent.
00:13And then you start looking at Washington, but then it's like, hey, the Wisconsin's, the Nebraska's, you know, Minnesota, Illinois,
00:19like how good are those schools?
00:20But then you get to the bottom.
00:23And the question is for me always is like in the SEC, like South Carolina, there's years where they believe
00:30they can win the SEC championship.
00:33Vanderbilt last year believed they could.
00:35They had a shot at winning it.
00:36Auburn, who's been, you know, won national championships, but also has been kind of down at times.
00:41They thought they could do it.
00:42And you always look around and who are the teams that are struggling?
00:45There's always these cycles.
00:46I mean, there's been some teams that have been down for close to 20 years outside of intermittent boosts in
00:53the Big Ten.
00:54And Greg Sankey was, or Greg Sankey, Tony Petiti was actually asked about that.
00:58And his response, Bill, was crazy because usually you talk about, well, we're always trying to get parity.
01:03We want like an NFL model where everybody's good.
01:05And he basically said like there's some teams that aren't, they're just not going to be very good.
01:09Like he was very matter of fact that no matter what you do, like there's always going to be teams
01:13that struggle no matter the investment.
01:15And it was, he didn't put anybody's name on it, but it was crazy to hear him actually, Bill, kind
01:20of admit and cop to the fact that like, I mean, Purdue's been Purdue for a while.
01:25If they want to get out of it, they can.
01:26Indiana did.
01:27Maryland, kind of the same.
01:28Rutgers, like some of these schools, it's their choice and their option to try to ascend.
01:33Well, Maryland should be better given the high school football in that area.
01:37And, you know, they, they should be a little bit more of a player, but that bottom third of the
01:41Big Ten can be problematic.
01:43You know, whether it's Maryland or Rutgers or Purdue, there have been some miserable Purdue teams the last couple of
01:49years.
01:49And like, but like you said, it's on them to pull themselves out of it.
01:52Will Michigan State, they've kind of slipped into that third.
01:55And I'm wondering with Pat Fitzgerald, who will be up on the podium today, if that changes.
01:59I think Pat always, I'm glad he's back in the Big Ten.
02:03I'm glad he's coaching again.
02:05I think he's been the ultimate do more with less kind of coach.
02:08And that, I think he will change the culture at Michigan State, but it, it's not going to be an
02:14overnight deal, right?
02:15That's going to take them a couple of years to build that program back to even close to what it
02:21was under Mark D'Antonio, who was the best coach they've had in such a long time.
02:25But yeah, I mean, to his point, the dirty secret of college football sometimes is that you want a couple
02:31of schools out front that are just head and shoulders better than everybody else.
02:35They can get you into a national championship type scenario.
02:37And I think in the Big Ten, as Jake Butt said yesterday on the telecast, the top three are kind
02:43of the kings of college football in some ways, whether it's Indiana or Ohio State coming off the national titles.
02:49Oregon, tremendous amount of pressure for the Ducks to go get theirs, but they are a national championship contender.
02:55You can't say they aren't.
02:56And I found it interesting, Bob, that they, those three schools I just mentioned, Ohio State, Indiana, Oregon, three, top
03:04three schools with the most wins of the last two seasons.
03:07You know, Notre Dame is fourth.
03:09Then, then you get into everybody else.
03:11So I think that's the pressure point on the SEC.
03:15Do you see this being a reason for him bringing up the 2014 playoffs for all those middle of the
03:20pack teams, maybe in teams in the bottom third, where if there's a 2014 playoff, maybe there's a little more
03:25incentive to push a little more money to the football team.
03:28So, I mean, if you get to an eight and five, 93 season, maybe you're able to squeeze in there.
03:33If you're, I don't know, a Purdue that just has some crazy years.
03:36Is that maybe why he's bringing up that 2014 playoff?
03:39Well, yeah, and we looked up the hypothetical steal.
03:44If there were a 2014 playoff the last 12 years, Iowa would have been in six times.
03:49A school like NC State would have been in six times.
03:51And those are exactly the schools you're talking about, where Dave Doran's had a lot of nine and four seasons
03:57at NC State.
03:58Solid teams, tough out to play there.
04:00Been down to that stadium before.
04:01It's not easy to win there.
04:04Same thing with Kinnick, right?
04:05You go to Kinnick, it's not an easy game.
04:08Oregon and Indiana found that out firsthand.
04:10But the 2014 playoff is built for schools like that, where an NC State or an Iowa or a Pitt,
04:17Penn State would be a playoff regular in that format.
04:20I still think James Franklin would have his job if we had been in a 2014 playoff the last 12
04:25years.
04:25I still don't love it.
04:27I get why he's selling it.
04:29I get the money, and it's going to replace the conference championship games.
04:32But I'm still a fan of make the playoff just a touch more exclusive.
04:36If we went to 16, I could live with that.
04:3824, I feel like I'll adjust to it and learn, like everything else.
04:43And you'll learn to love it in some ways.
04:45But I still feel like it's too many teams.
04:48I think 16 is a good number.
04:50It doesn't substantially change the format right now, which I like.
04:53You know, you keep it fairly consistent, and then everybody can get a home game.
04:57The thing that I was thinking about, Bill, is with this, there's two teams this year that got left out,
05:04in Texas and Notre Dame, that I think could have conceivably won the national championship.
05:09But very rarely, when teams get left out, do you think this team deserves to be in versus this team
05:15can actually go win it?
05:16And part of it is the format this year, you know, in the past of who got in, who was
05:21left out.
05:22And, you know, I know people are like, well, maybe eight was the number.
05:26I'm like, well, Miami was 10th, and they could have very easily won.
05:30I mean, they're probably a blocked punt away from finding a way to win that game.
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