00:00I am somebody who worked in both the Big Ten in the SEC country, okay?
00:05I worked for one year in the ACC.
00:09I worked at Virginia, went to Alabama, worked for five years in the SEC,
00:15then went to Nebraska where I worked in the Big 12,
00:18covering Husker football for five years, now Big Ten football,
00:22and then went to Iowa and covered the University of Iowa for two years.
00:27I love college football.
00:30I love the fact that this sport has been, for states and regions that do not have professional football,
00:41NFL football, this has been their professional team.
00:44When you talk to people in Iowa, they're Hawkeyes and Cyclones.
00:48When you talk to people in Alabama, they are Crimson Tide, they are Roll Tide,
00:52or they are War Eagle, they're Alabama-Auburn.
00:54If you look at different states around the country that do not have NFL football in their states,
01:02but they love football, the college player is their superstar.
01:09It's their celebrity.
01:10It's the person the kids look up to when the kids are playing backyard football.
01:14It's who they're emulating.
01:15It's who they're talking about.
01:16It's who they're arguing at the barbershop, at the bars, right?
01:19It's a community thing, and it's hard to explain to somebody.
01:24And if you had told me in college that I would understand this, I would say you're crazy
01:28because I never watched college football growing up.
01:31I watched Boston College football for like a millisecond because of Doug Flutie,
01:37and my dad went to BC Law.
01:39So like I had a little bit of a taste of BC football, but BC football, I mean, come on,
01:45like Bill O'Brien's having a hell of a time right now.
01:48They's worst record in school history last year.
01:51Like, no, I mean, when you grow up in this part of the country in New England, you know,
01:57college sports, it's Saturday is something you do to get to Sunday to watch the Patriots.
02:01So I go to Virginia and I get a crash course in Saturday football and what happened with
02:11Tiki Barber and what happened with just the whole Virginia football program.
02:15That was when, you know, Michael Vick was at Vautech.
02:18So across the state, you had a historic, unbelievable football player in Michael Vick playing for
02:25the Hokies.
02:26And I was blown away by watching a Saturday.
02:30I will never forget walking in to that football stadium on a Saturday after doing my first
02:36pregame show.
02:37And I walked in and I went, wow, this feels different.
02:43This feels unique.
02:45And I loved it.
02:47And then I got a chance to go to Alabama and walking into, you know, Bryant Stadium or watch
02:52or walking into Jordan hair or any of the other SEC stadiums that I've been to.
02:58And then look, Nebraska and Iowa Memorial Stadium in Jack Trice at Iowa State and Kinnick for
03:05Iowa.
03:06These are all really cool stadiums.
03:08Okay.
03:08They're not on the level like Kinnick Stadium.
03:11And I forget what the stadium in Charlottesville is called.
03:16I forget the name of the stadium for the Wahoos, but Virginia Stadium.
03:20Very similar size, similar energy, really fun.
03:24Just an awesome place to be on a Saturday in the fall, right?
03:30The sport that I fell in love with 20 some odd years ago is not the same anymore.
03:36And more.
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