Too Much Noise, Not Enough Weirdness with Richard Johnson

Episode Description

In this episode, we welcome back our friend Richard Johnson from CBS Sports and Split Zone Duo for a conversation about the college football topics we talk about too much, and the ones we probably do not talk about enough. As preview season creeps closer, we zoom out on the sport’s offseason discourse and ask which arguments are useful, which ones are exhausted, and where the weird, fun, meaningful parts of college football might be hiding.

We dig into College Football Playoff format fatigue, the role of TV money and conference power, the constant hope that Congress can somehow “fix” college sports, the growing presence of gambling in broadcasts, and whether the Arch Manning conversation has swung too far in the other direction. Plus, we get into teams and coaches who deserve more attention, including Florida, UCLA, Michigan, and the broader world outside the SEC and Big Ten.

And because this is a Richard Johnson episode, the conversation also wanders into West Coast scheduling weirdness, the need for more strange bowl game energy, Sacramento sports sadness, college football media golf rankings, and the inevitability of major news breaking whenever Richard goes to Europe. follow, subscribe, and check out Verballers.com for more from The Solid Verbal.

Cleaned Transcript

Ty Hildenbrandt: Dan Rubenstein, welcome back to the show, my good friend. How are you today? How you feeling?

Dan Rubenstein: Pretty good. It was a rough start, but I'm feeling pretty decent right now, especially given what we're doing today. I'm very excited for this show. I'm very excited for this guest. But yeah, a lot of sun, a lot of activity this weekend, a lot of sports. And so, you know, I'm not in my mid-30s anymore, as you know, once again, late 30s, early 40s.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Sure. Sure, sure, sure.

Dan Rubenstein: So, you know, I really have to pace myself, get my sleep, get my fluids. So I'm there. I'm feeling pretty good.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Well, our guest of honor today is one Richard Johnson, our good friend from CBS Sports, from Split Zone Duo. Dan, he used to work, he used to do a show with Richard.

Dan Rubenstein: I did.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Back in the day. So we go way back with Richard, one of our favorite friends in the entire college football industry complex, media universe, whatever you want to call it. We're pleased to have him back on the show. This is a concept you came up with.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Things that we talk too much about, things that we don't talk enough about, right?

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah, basically, and I include ourselves in this. I include anywhere I am looking for college football conversation information, discourse, whatever. A lot of this is obviously driven by engagement and what people respond to and what people have opinions about and what people can argue about. But this is a tapestry of a sport. We can go in a number of interesting directions, and hopefully we try our best to do so.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Tapestry.

Dan Rubenstein: But yeah, this is whether it's a team, a specific team, whether it's a specific player, a topic, a line of thinking, a way that a sport operates in a certain area, I think we should acknowledge what collectively we spend too much time on and what we don't spend enough time on. I know you have a sound, right, Ty?

Ty Hildenbrandt: I do have a, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: So as we head into, it's almost preview season here, we're going to do our best to follow our own guidelines, and I think we should spend some time examining.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I'm excited, not just looking outward, but looking inward a little bit, Dan.

Dan Rubenstein: Exactly right.

Ty Hildenbrandt: A little introspection here goes a long way. Hit follow, hit subscribe if you are new here. We would greatly appreciate having you with us. We will kick up our preview season once we get to next month. Before we do, though, we've got the show today with Richard. We've got the show coming a little bit later this week. We are bringing Sark Tank out of retirement. Actually, I guess it's not officially retired, but we just do it once a year with our friend Andy Staples from On3 from Yahoo Sports and the shows that he does with our friends Ross Dellenger and Ari Wasserman and Andy's all over the place.

Dan Rubenstein: Mm-hmm.

Ty Hildenbrandt: So he'll be back giving us his investment advice on our Sark Tank episode that will follow.

Dan Rubenstein: He's our lone Sark on this episode, right?

Ty Hildenbrandt: Well, generally, the way we do it is I pose the concept and then you and Andy discuss whether or not you want to invest.

Dan Rubenstein: Uh-huh. Oh, okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt: So I...

Dan Rubenstein: I'm a fellow Sark.

Ty Hildenbrandt: You're a fellow Sark. I play the affable host. I am doing the pitching, and then you guys react to it.

Dan Rubenstein: Yes. You are the 27-year-old pitching weird rubber socks to put on your toes to help your posture.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Right. I'm the one coming out with the costume on doing sort of the little pun thing that they do to try and whet the appetite.

Dan Rubenstein: Yes, okay. Dun dun dun dun.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: And we have the sounds.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I do have the sounds.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: So, anyway, that is to follow. We've got a lot of fun in store for you here throughout the month of June before we get into our preview season. So, if you like what you've heard so far or along the way of this interview, follow, subscribe, rate, review. You know the drill.

Dan Rubenstein: Sidebar, I absolutely would wear rubber socks to help my posture. As I get older, I'll take whatever I can get, Ty. Posture is important. I'm hunched over a computer too often. I try to stand in the standing desk option. But to any potential inventors out there, solidverbal@gmail.com to help me improve my posture.

Ty Hildenbrandt: You're only as comfortable as your feet.

Dan Rubenstein: And with that, we are pumped, excited, thrilled to have on Richard Johnson, CBS Sports, Split Zone Duo. Check out their Substack, correct?

Richard Johnson: Yes, Substack, SplitZoneDuo.com, YouTube channel, Split Zone Duo, at College Football Podcast. We're all over the place.

Dan Rubenstein: There it is. Yeah, Richard is now at this point in his, what, mid-20s, well seasoned.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, yeah, mid-20s.

Dan Rubenstein: Richard has been around for a minute, and Richard and I worked together. We watched a ton of games in Brooklyn together. We are now living in different places, but we celebrate and cherish all things Richard Johnson. And we are today going to do an exercise in sort of what we, and that's hard to define, but what we are speaking about perhaps too much as a collective college football conversation-haver, and perhaps not enough. Ty, does that sound right? Is that

Ty Hildenbrandt: It does, and I actually have a sound for this, Dan.

Richard Johnson: Okay, so Ty, as I know, is our audiophile here. Like, what's the bar for how much of that audio you were going to play?

Ty Hildenbrandt: Unclear.

Richard Johnson: Because we don't want to get got here.

Ty Hildenbrandt: It is unclear. And I prefer we not talk about it at all, to be honest with you guys.

Richard Johnson: Absolutely. All right.

Dan Rubenstein: I think we can use it incidentally.

Ty Hildenbrandt: This is, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: We try, this is peeling back the curtain in the kimono a little bit, we try to find the almost like isolated vocals track.

Richard Johnson: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: Because that's a little bit cleaner both for the listener, and I don't think it will get the attention of the digital ears in the same way.

Richard Johnson: The bots will not find it.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Right, and also I believe if we frame it such that we are critiquing the song

Richard Johnson: Yes. Right. I think it's tremendous key register.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: Yes.

Richard Johnson: The acoustics, to my ear, sound very good.

Ty Hildenbrandt: If we frame it such that we're critiquing the song at least every so often. I think we're good. I think that's the way this works. So, Dan, what is it exactly we're doing here on this today?

Dan Rubenstein: So I think we are just going to present topics to each other and to Richard. And I mean, obviously, it's a vague descriptor, talking too much. We talk too much. Obviously, our job is to figure out what to talk and not talk about. But like, I think these are we're going to go through some general college football topics. We can dip into teams as well if we'd like to. that, okay, we're spending too much uh digital ink uh talking about blank, when really we should be talking more about blank. And these are this is highly opinionated answers, but We're going to try to defend our positions. Richard can come down on a side. I mean, it's not this is not like you and I arguing one or the other, but like we're just sort of introducing discourse about the discourse, Ty?

Ty Hildenbrandt: Discourse about the discourse. All right, where do you want to go first?

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah. All right. I have down here on my list, we speak too much about playoff format.

Richard Johnson: 100% agree. I mean, it is the only major sport of its size, scale, approximately, that does this, which is not just every now and then. Obviously, the NFL playoff expanded the other day, baseball expands every two, three years. It feels like whatever. It's every year. It's every single year. And look, I guilty, all right? Sports illustrated, former Sports Illustrated journalist, CBS sports journalist, got it. Guilty. It's dumb. It's like. And it's dumb from a coverage standpoint. It's dumb from an administrative standpoint. It is silly. Nobody asked for twenty-four. I actually think 12 is fine. I've always thought 12 is fine. I think maybe you stretch to 14 with two byes, two teams with byes, and I can live with it. Sixteen, twenty, twenty-four, forty-eight, thirty-two, what like ridiculous.

Dan Rubenstein: What I'm saying is, and I agree with everything you've said. What I'm saying is, I think even us talking about, or we even talk, I don't know, the conversation about. Playoff format is kind of futile. Like, whatever is gonna happen is gonna happen. It doesn't matter if literally every single human feels one way. It's whatever the SEC and Big Ten can kind of agree on together.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: We can't call our local congressperson. We can't write letters. We can't demonstrate in the streets and effect change, right?

Richard Johnson: Well, I will say this.

Dan Rubenstein: So.

Richard Johnson: If you did demonstrate in the streets, I do think change could possibly be affected.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I think they would cower. They would fold like a cheap suit.

Richard Johnson: Exactly.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah.

Richard Johnson: This is my thing. The American sports fan is not about it, about it enough. There was a Super League proposal. In European soccer, that would have benefited the Manchester Uniteds of the Worlds, if you're not a soccer fan, the club soccer teams that you can name. Those teams would have been in such a super league. And the fans of many of those clubs marched in the street to their effective financial detriment, if you really want to call it that. Like, marched in the streets. We are not about it about it, sending our little tweets and making our little videos saying that we don't like whatever format Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti are about to jam down our throats.

Dan Rubenstein: Exactly. So we have to we have to gather people to go to Rosemont, Illinois and march in front of the Yeah, okay.

Richard Johnson: And Birmingham.

Ty Hildenbrandt: So here's my theory. And maybe this is just like a galaxy brain take on this. I don't know. I agree with everything you guys are saying, obviously. I agree. And to your point, Richard, you know, I'm fine with 12. I'd be as fine. I'd be fine up to as many as 16, but that's sort of the hard cutoff for me. How much of the playoff discourse do you think is driven by the fact that It comes up every year in March, April, and May when effectively nothing else is really going on in college football. It's not like this in, say, the NFL, where they've got a constant 24-7, 365 news cycle. Each month has a A new thing, but college, there is this huge, gaping void of content, and that's when this seems to sort of come up every year.

Richard Johnson: Ty, I'm about to speak against my own interest and our own interest. College football is not a 12-month sport.

Ty Hildenbrandt: No.

Richard Johnson: The NFL I don't think the NFL actually is, but they get way closer because everything about the NFL's offseason points back to the football.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah.

Richard Johnson: The draft is football. Free agency is football. Even, and boy, do I hate this. Even the schedule release, which I hate. With the white hot fire of a thousand suns as a concept, that points back to the football. Everything about college football's offseason, once we, especially with no spring portal. Once we get done with the portal, I mean, if you're into spring football, hey, I'm not going to yuck anyone's yum. Outside of spring football, we don't have anything from February until August that's actual football. That's our issue. And so we've got governance, boy howdy. We've got Mr. Sankey and company going to Washington, which is another thing that I'm sure we talk too much about.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I just feel like if they maybe gave us a little bit of a message, One of those photo ops like the NFL head coaches get when they all get together in Hawaii or wherever it is, and Andy Reid's wearing the Hawaiian shirt, you know

Dan Rubenstein: Well, we get the like destin we get like the SEC coaches wearing breathable fabrics on the Finebaum set.

Ty Hildenbrandt: We do get that.

Dan Rubenstein: We get stuff like that

Ty Hildenbrandt: We do get that. Yeah, if we had more of those, maybe it'd be easier to feel better about some of this offseason discourse. But as such, I agree with you guys. It's a little bit much.

Dan Rubenstein: All right, so let's let's go positive, sort of. Not enough. On the flip side, I don't think we talk about, even still, the corporate TV network influence, you know, vis-a-vis, you know, Fox and Disney or News Corp and Disney, and even talking about like the. I don't think we do. I think we talk about like, oh, it's what the SEC wants. It's what the Big Ten wants. I don't think we collectively realize that this is really an ESPN Disney and Fox conversation about like expanding the playoff for inventory and the behind the scenes tension we have

Richard Johnson: So one is twenty-four team, too.

Dan Rubenstein: between these two conferences, because this is not just a competitive competition anymore on the field. This is a corporate competition behind all this.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Richard, did he frame this up as a positive?

Richard Johnson: No, he said we don't talk enough.

Dan Rubenstein: No, I'm saying we're not talking about it enough that this is like the central warring behind the scenes thing with this sport.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Okay.

Richard Johnson: Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Okay.

Dan Rubenstein: And I touched on this, and I got a lot of push back when Alabama was selected for the College Football Playoff. When I said basically anybody talking about college football on ESPN, what was the word I used, Ty?

Ty Hildenbrandt: Is compromise.

Dan Rubenstein: Compromised?

Ty Hildenbrandt: Chris Fowler loved that.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: He loved that video.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah, we did get some messages from ESPN people saying, like, tell me what I've said that's not accurate or something, you know. I just think, and I've said this before, and this goes for Fox people too: like, you can't talk about the sport and the structure of the sport in any sort of meaningfully

Richard Johnson: Uh yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: unbiased way because you are hosting the sport. Your bosses are paying for the rights to broadcast the sport. And so, how am I going to believe an ESPN person saying like an SEC team absolutely belongs in the playoff in the same way that how am I supposed to believe a Fox person saying like, oh, well, you have to put, I don't buy it.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, I wouldn't, yeah, but I think you get like, look, first of all, as a person who works for a television network, like if I would have told you a Big Ten team belonged in the, you know, whatever, pick sixth Big Ten team to get in the playoff last year ahead of Alabama, like, I I'm not having conversations with the big bosses on 57th Street about, you know, about that. Like, that's not, but what I...

Dan Rubenstein: But I think the CBS NBC employee conversation is different, all due respect.

Richard Johnson: Because we don't own the plan.

Dan Rubenstein: You're not as heavily invested as a company.

Richard Johnson: Sure.

Dan Rubenstein: Yes.

Richard Johnson: Now, what I will tell you, and which is just interesting, is that I asked ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips in May What is ESPN's position about a more than 14-team playoff?

Dan Rubenstein: Mm-hmm.

Richard Johnson: And he was like, they don't want it.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah.

Richard Johnson: He said it, literally said it. We're in a press conference.

Dan Rubenstein: Mm-hmm.

Richard Johnson: They do not want it. Fox, who is obviously in league with the Big Ten, as is CBS, as is NBC, from a contractual rights agreement standpoint.

Dan Rubenstein: Mm-hmm.

Richard Johnson: Fox is the one that's jamming the 24-team playoff or that's trying to jam the 24-team playoff down everybody's neck here. Obviously, if the playoff goes past, I think it's fourteen teams, it has to go out for bid. ESPN would own it if it went to 14, I think, or 16, but check me on that. If it goes higher than that, it has to go out for bid on the open market, in which case the price goes up, which is the point. Because if the price goes up, basically the problem is we've got to bridge the gap between and when I say we, I mean the conferences, have to bridge the gap between the revenue that they are going to lose Because they're going to get rid of conference championship games. That's $200 to $250 million. You've got to find a way to bridge that gap with whatever the early rounds are going to net of the expanded College Football Playoff. That is the that's the bug of it right now.

Dan Rubenstein: Ty, do you agree? Do you think we speak about it enough that this is a TV sport?

Ty Hildenbrandt: I think you and I have spoken a lot about it.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I think we have talked a great deal about it. You referenced it at the top here when you introduced this question. So I think to that end, yeah, I mean, at least on this show. We have definitely gone in on that angle of it, that it's there's a little bit more than meets the eye.

Richard Johnson: I would say this, though, guys. What is a much clearer conflict of interest or whatever is like Nick Saban talking about Lane Kiffin.

Dan Rubenstein: Yes, of course.

Richard Johnson: During November. That to me is the much clearer like line that like, not only did Lane Kiffin consult Nick Saban personally, but as we know, Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin shared the same agent, yada, yada, yada. Like that, to me, is the much more like, what are we doing here? Versus the playoff thing, which I'm like. ESPN's got a studio show. They have to talk about the sport. Like, it is what it is.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah, I don't

Dan Rubenstein: I would like to know, by the way, on that note, I would like to have more conversations about who is in business with whom, like who's sharing an agent, right? I want to know more about connective tissue, not because I want to. Sort of form conspiracies out of thin air. I just like to know, right? I would just like to know the business connections behind the scenes in this sport as much as I can.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I feel like you and I have talked a lot about it. I also feel like I've seen a lot of discussion about it, and most of it has been in a negative connotation. This is never the kind of conversation that people are going to feel great about. Because what you're talking about is the business underpinnings of college football, and nobody gives a rip about that. People just want to talk about the football. So I don't think I fully agree with you that we don't talk about it enough. I feel like I've seen a lot of it out there, and I know we have obviously addressed it here. Can I switch gears and give one of my own for Richard?

Richard Johnson: I will say point to Ty point to Ty on that one, though. I will be in league with Ty on that one.

Dan Rubenstein: Okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Okay, Richard, I don't want to make this a political discussion.

Richard Johnson: Oh boy.

Ty Hildenbrandt: As I smile, we always love when we have that disclaimer.

Richard Johnson: We always love we are right. We always love when that one comes up.

Dan Rubenstein: Where are you going? City Council? What are we talking about here?

Richard Johnson: Dude, I can't even go. Game three NBA Finals tonight. I can't even go down by MSG right now because Yuman is deciding to show up for Game 3, and so they've shut off 31st, 32nd, 33rd Street.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Do you have any predictions for the not for that, but for the actual game? Is it going to be a sweep? They're up 2-0?

Richard Johnson: I actually want them to I want them to sweep or win in six or seven because I'm not going to be here for game five.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Okay, right.

Richard Johnson: And I was so I just need the series to not end in five is basically what I what I need

Ty Hildenbrandt: I think we talk too much about the government's ability or perceived ability to fix the quote unquote problem with college sports. Agree or disagree?

Richard Johnson: Yeah, yeah, wholehearted I mean, wholeheartedly agree. It's guys, if they don't have this bill signed, sealed, and delivered by the August recess, basically, when Congress says we're good for like a month or so. This thing is not passing because they're not going to pass this during the fall and then have, frankly, the Republicans, Trump and the Republicans. Say we saved college sports while they're trying to win seats on both sides of the legislature in midterm elections. So you better get the job done now, or I don't know if we're going to get it done until next year. Football term, it's their Hail Mary, right? Their Hail Mary is Congress. Is Congress help us? Congress save us because we've got 150-odd years of built-up, pent-up problems that nobody's wanted to solve piecemeal. So we're all trying to solve it basically wholesale after the fact.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Does this even solve it though? Is my question. Like, that's, I think, yeah.

Richard Johnson: It's something. It is something.

Dan Rubenstein: It is something.

Richard Johnson: It is something. I don't know that it solves it, but it is something.

Dan Rubenstein: It also, and people who are smarter about the way people vote and the way things do or don't move through Congress, they've put this at such a small percentage of ever passing anyway. And we are talking about this so much without there being a clear way that this can actually pass? Like, I don't know. Everything I've read about it says just the way that people vote and the way that people prioritize how they want Congress to oversee various aspects of American life. It does not seem like it has any chance of actually passing any time soon as written.

Richard Johnson: I also think this this strikes me as

Dan Rubenstein: So.

Richard Johnson: Something that if I were a, I don't know, hypothetically, a billionaire who basically is trying to buy my team into the College Football Playoff. Well, basically, did buy my team into the College Football Playoff, which, by the way, that's not negative.

Dan Rubenstein: Right.

Richard Johnson: That's the game. Congratulations, Cody. If I was that person and I was leading a very public charge to save college sports, I would use this as a bona fide, whether it passes or not, I would use this as a bona fide for My political future, whether that's running, whether that's continuing to be a kingmaker in the state of Texas or the Republican Party, I would use this as a staking point for my reputation moving forward because at least I tried to do something. But again, that's a hypothetical billionaire conversation.

Dan Rubenstein: Right. Of course, of course.

Ty Hildenbrandt: All right, let's switch gears here.

Dan Rubenstein: Not enough.

Ty Hildenbrandt: This is more of a question for you, Richard, because I actually, in a very, very weird way, feel like, I could cut this one both ways. The broad topic of conversation here is Arch Manning. And I bring up Arch Manning. Here's why I bring this up. At the start of last year, everybody talked way too much about Arch Manning. Then Arch Manning sort of, at least initially, fell short of ridiculous expectations, right?

Richard Johnson: Fair, also fair.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Got his head bonked, came back, end of the year, finished the year really strong. Now going into the year, obviously Texas has gone out. They've spent money. Texas is going to be one of the eight to 10 teams we talk about as a real contender, not just in their conference, but also, I would say, within the framework of the College Football Playoff. I don't feel like, for whatever reason, in the run-up to this season, I have heard as much this year about Arch Manning as I did last year. And so I put the question to you: where are we at in terms of how much people are talking about Arch Manning? Should we be talking about him more? Are you still picking up signals that we're talking about him too much? Where are you at on this spectrum of Arch Manning discussion?

Richard Johnson: Yeah, I actually agree with you. And it's been like me and Alex have kind of joked about it on our show that, like, if I have to be the person that buys low on Arch Manning, so be it.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Like, it's fully swung in the other direction in like kind of like a weird way, right?

Richard Johnson: Like, I am still. Yeah. Yeah, I actually would tend to agree with you. And I tend to agree with you because when you talk to people about Arch Manning, You can tell basically who had one opinion or the other.

Ty Hildenbrandt: That's right..

Richard Johnson: And then calcified their opinion after the Ohio State game and did not come back to it at all. First of all, first start ever against that defense, which certainly we didn't know at the time, was as great as it ended up being. Obviously, it's Ohio State, going to be good, but it's Matt Patricia, for God's sakes. Like, how good could they really be relative to sure? Okay, all right. Approximate best defense of the country in his first start on the road. I feel nuts when I tell people that, like, The throw he had to Jack Endries in the fourth quarter, or the touchdown he had to Livingstone in that game, as good as you want. And that was the first game. So, yes, if you want to tell me that the first half of the season he did not meet expectations, sure. We've got to talk about the fact that he had like me and you at left guard. Like you've got to you've got to couch those things. You've got to give the context around the situation. Maybe he did not, maybe he was not the sun, moon, and stars in the first half of the season. But you can't watch the back half of that season and tell me that that's not right about what you want from the guy. Now, I also think they are going to light on offense at least. I think they are going to light the sport on fire this year. I think they are going to score a ton of points. I think Cam Coleman is going to make a ton of money based on what his connection will be with Arch Manning. And I think you're going to see it. I'm still as in. And if I have to buy low on him, I'll be that guy.

Dan Rubenstein: I think there is uh there's probably too much conversation around Arch that is too general. That is too much like, oh, I thought he was supposed to be this and that, without and not having enough conversation about The context of Texas's offense last year. Now, maybe that's a product of like, okay, there's just not as many people writing and doing video about college football at major places. That are assigning somebody like, okay, watch every single one of Arch Manning's snaps and chart, okay, what am I putting on Sark, right?

Richard Johnson: Damn, people don't know Ball. You can say it.

Dan Rubenstein: Well, it's not just that people don't know ball. It's just that it's much easier to reduce Arch Manning to this throw against Ohio State or this interception against Florida. And it really has seemingly fallen on like the NFL draft industrial complex. To like go through a lot of his throws and say, look at these drops from his receivers on tough throws where he's had messy pockets.

Richard Johnson: Sure.

Dan Rubenstein: And just to go through the context, I'm positive Texas writers and bloggers have done a pretty thorough job of this.

Richard Johnson: People also also people really

Dan Rubenstein: But

Richard Johnson: Want to dislike him because of his last name. And like, I like Obviously, I was not old enough for like Peyton and Eli that whole industrial complex. But like when I sit back and like you like look at the Mannings Like, what more do you want? Like, there's no overhype of either Peyton and Eli. Like, sure, you could pick nits with Eli, but like, all right, man, two Super Bowls. Like, I wouldn't vote him for the Hall of Fame, but like, he's probably going to get in. Sorry, that's kind of how it works. Uh, and then Peyton's like approximately the best quarterback ever. So I You can't tell me that the guy's sons didn't live up to any reasonable, or even not so reasonable, expectation you could possibly have had for him. All right. So now it's his grandson, Archie's grandson. It he seems like he stays out of trouble. I understand that, fingers crossed.

Dan Rubenstein: Right, totally.

Richard Johnson: He's not like on social media doing this, that, and the third. It doesn't sound like he like extorted These schools for RevShare and NIL money, like he certainly could have during his recruiting process. I'm Texas is paying him, and he got plenty of third party. But like, when I look at Arch, I'm sort of like, I don't really more what you more I don't know what more you could reasonably expect from a young man who is like who he is Doing what he's doing. Sure, you want him to play better, and I think he will this season, but like he's kind of what you want. To this point. And sure, as he gets more exposed during the draft process, maybe I may eat those words, but like the way I look at it now is he's 21, probably 22. I don't know. Like, this is pretty much. This is pretty much it. Like, he didn't transfer. He stayed.

Dan Rubenstein: No.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Gentlemen, I have breaking news.

Dan Rubenstein: Oh.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby was granted a temporary injunction against the NCAA on Monday in Lubbock County Court.

Richard Johnson: Jesus Christ.

Ty Hildenbrandt: The court ruling allows for him to play the 2026 college football season. Apparently, there will be a two-game suspension. This is just breaking from our friend Pete Nakos over at On3 about 20 minutes ago. So I am doing my best to scan this. I don't know where it goes from here, where the conversation and where the court situation goes from here, but this would obviously be a bit of a 180 based on What we have been seeing with regard to Sorsby in his case, or his, to use Richard's term, Hail Mary, to try and get back in the game here. and avoid going into the NFL supplemental draft. So at least at the time of recording, and I'm sure there will be many more details to follow, Richard, we may be seeing Brendan Sorsby after all.

Dan Rubenstein: Was it the Honorable Judge Masked Rider who made this ruling?

Richard Johnson: Yeah, I know No, no, no, by the way, Dan, by the way, you know, the judge who was the Texas Tech booster used himself.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah. I I know, yeah. Yes.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, I well, it looks like I'll be doing some work on this here Monday morning.

Dan Rubenstein: Um yeah.

Richard Johnson: I haven't read the decision and haven't really called anybody about it. I'll do that after the show. But like the NCAA Is going to appeal this. This is not over, just for our folks.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Correct.

Richard Johnson: As we say, it is 10:30 Eastern time on this Monday morning. So by the time you listeners and watchers see this, you'll have more information than we do right now.

Ty Hildenbrandt: It's hard to believe that we're at a point now with this where apparently we have not talked enough about Brendan Sorsby, because there's going to be much more to follow.

Dan Rubenstein: Yes. Yeah.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: By the way, on the last arch point, just before another Texas quarterback came into the fray. There's a weird element to all of this where, and Richard touched on this a little bit, where he came in. And the sort of the narrative around him, aside from like, oh, look, he's athletic and he throws a great ball and look at his family lineage, whatever, is. He's different than all these other quarterbacks, right? That like he's not on social media. He didn't take NIL money or RevShare money at Texas, right? So there was this air of like. Yes, he's the golden child chosen one because of his last name, but also he's not like regular quarterbacks, right? Like, there was this like weird gotting up how different he was. And so when he struggled in some of those games, you're like, oh, it looks like he's human after all, right? That a collective we are also to blame. For the way that he was perceived, right? That he didn't transfer. Oh, he's different. In this era of constant change, he's a throwback, right?

Richard Johnson: But that's what y'all want.

Dan Rubenstein: I know.

Richard Johnson: That's what all y'all want.

Dan Rubenstein: I totally agree.

Richard Johnson: All y'all want them to stay and stay for four years and play for the badge and play for the logo. Okay, you got it. And you got it from a guy who frankly doesn't need to do that.

Dan Rubenstein: Right. But also that sets him up for you know, it's building somebody up to tear somebody down.

Richard Johnson: Sure, sure. Sure, 100%.

Dan Rubenstein: I would love there to be more, so this is in the not enough category, more like, you know, the Texas offense was kind of a mess, right? And we had Cole Kublik on. He was like, guys just got tackled in open space all the time. The offensive line was not particularly good.

Richard Johnson: Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: There were drops, right? That he was not put in a position to succeed all of the time. And so. It's hard to say, let's extend him some grace when third-year starting guy, right? He's number one, whatever. And it's much easier to say like, look at this dirt, he dirted a throw against Ohio State than to like point out everything that went into his season. So, I don't know. I wish we lived in a world where there was more of that and it could be, you know, synthesized quickly. But alas, Ty, do you have another one? You want me to go to another one?

Ty Hildenbrandt: I have more, but you're up. You go.

Dan Rubenstein: Okay, I guess this is an easy transition with the Brendan Sorsby stuff. Too much gambling, just in general. Like, it's not great. Like, I don't need to see another commercial with Jon Hamm or Kevin Hart. I just don't. Like that makes me feel weird like these highly produced what take-your-pick casino It feels kind of icky. I don't have a problem with people wagering on sports. Let's be clear. I think that is a fun way to responsibly include some sort of outside thing with your sports fandom. I think it's fine. I think, like, the weird prop bet stuff and like the pervasive nature of broadcast networks trying to work it in, and it's not even just college football, it's NFL. I would just watch the French Open. And they were just like going through, like, oh, well, these are like the odds for the second set.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: And you're just like, guys, why? I know these things are expensive and you have to find sponsor dollars and stuff, but like. At a certain point, you are just jamming in. This isn't like doing like the Pontiac game-changing moment. I don't know, that feels a little bit more organic, right? You throw in something like the, I don't even know if Pontiac still exists as a company, but There is something that has gone too far with, and I'm sure you see it when you watch golf majors. I'm sure you see it when you watch any sport you're watching. But like the Brendan Sorsby stuff, I think for me has really highlighted when they talk about the depths of him like wagering on strikes and balls. You're just like, oh, God. I don't know, man. That's how I feel every time I see Jon Hamm not as Don Draper on my TV.

Richard Johnson: I mean, that like it's a treatise on capitalism, baby.

Dan Rubenstein: It is. It totally is.

Richard Johnson: It's the world you live in. It's the society you live in. Unless you're going to borrow them or ban them, which you're not. And you, you, and when I say you, I mean leagues, networks, whatever, they're going to take the money. And the operators themselves, the DraftKings, the FanDuels, the what have you. They, I, the thing that I like a lot of people don't. I think people intuitively realize this, but don't actually realize this. It's really it is hard for these operators to gain more of a foothold than they already have in whatever state they're in. That is really difficult because if you think about it, If you're a person who wagers, you don't switch apps. I mean, maybe you're a shark looking for the best odds, but 98. 5% of you don't do that. You just throw $20 on whatever. And so, because of that, you are brand loyal in a way you don't realize. And so, because of that, the promo stuff and the one-upness and the prep and the props and the You know, I'm sure people realize this and don't really care, but like same-game parlays, like those odds aren't real. They're just making it up. Like regular parlays aren't awesome, but the same-game parlays, like, actually, shouldn't exist, in my opinion, because they're just not real at odds. So do I agree with you that it's too much? Yeah. Do I really think it ever changes? Probably not. I mean, I think this thing is a feature at this point in time, not a bug.

Dan Rubenstein: Totally. I'm just talking about the user experience of Watching content. And look, we have done content around it. We likely will again. But it's more just like, hey, Ty's bad at gambling, and here are his picks, right?

Ty Hildenbrandt: Right. Yeah. We're going to put in our game this year, we're going to put a badge on any game that I pick so people know to go the other way.

Dan Rubenstein: And Yeah like

Ty Hildenbrandt: That's what we're gonna that's what we're gonna do. I mean, I've Dan, to your point.

Richard Johnson: Generational run, generational run from you.

Dan Rubenstein: By the way, I'm totally good with viewing the sport through like, okay, this is the three and a half point spread or these are the win totals and using it as a device to talk about how we view a game or a season or something like that. I think that's interesting. But I'm more talking about, you know, Jim Courier on the set at the French Open, or, you know, Chris Fowler trying to force it in, or Rece Davis, or Joel Klattt, or something like that. It's like, guys. Just, I'd much rather hear about Arch's left guard than forcing this.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah. I mean, I think the issue that I have with it, I mean, because we've seen this come of age, right, in the span of time that we've done this show. There was this moment, I don't remember how many years ago it was, guys. It was a couple of years ago when suddenly it was very in vogue. And this was the thing. And I remember watching the opening week of the NFL, and it was literally every commercial.

Richard Johnson: You remember and that was when I remember that was when DraftKings was not really gambling, but it was just the daily fantasy stuff.

Dan Rubenstein: Fantasy, yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: It was just, but but all of a sudden, and it was like, holy crap, what is going on here?

Richard Johnson: Everyone, I remember that. I remember that. Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: They clearly have funded this so much that we have to eat it. And that feeling of being force-fed this as a new reality to me was very uncomfortable. And I'm with you. Like, Dan, I've been a proponent of it for a while. Like, dude, spend your money however you want to spend your money.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah, for sure.

Ty Hildenbrandt: You know, we will continue making content around it to some extent. We've always found that betting lines are at least a useful data point to help convey and communicate just how two teams compare to one another.

Richard Johnson: Yes, yes. Especially in a big sport like we have, yes.

Ty Hildenbrandt: And I think. Yeah, absolutely. And I think a lot of our listening and doing audience is there with us. But certainly now, as it has found its way into other ways, broadcasts, the way that games are covered, things of that nature. It's one thing to use it, I think, as a tool to help convey which team is better. It's another thing to use it as a rather innocuous, hopefully source of entertainment. It's another thing to just have it be front stage center where you can't avoid it. And so to that end, Dan, yeah, I would agree with you.

Dan Rubenstein: By the way, shout out YouTube TV 4K option that doesn't show commercials.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Hell yeah, hell yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: If you watch on YouTube TV and you watch so, well, you're essentially paying to watch it ad-free.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, but I've never, I don't buy the, I haven't paid

Dan Rubenstein: Because if you click on that 4K stream on, I think it's both ESPN and Fox, this is the case, right?

Ty Hildenbrandt: I believe so, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: They just show a wide shot of the stadium.

Richard Johnson: Wow.

Dan Rubenstein: at commercial. So you can see the like TV ref who has the orange armband and everything.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: You just see that. And that's why I think I forget which game it was. Was it you could see people making out in the stands during commercial?

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: Because of the 4K stream, that they were just, it was just a wide crowd and field shot.

Richard Johnson: Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: So that is an option for people.

Richard Johnson: But size

Dan Rubenstein: If you happen to pay for it, you know that you are not watching. You know, Jamie Foxx, all due respect, a huge talent. You know, extol the virtues of whatever casino.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, I it does seem like, I will be paying for the 4K package this fall when I'm back on YouTube TV.

Dan Rubenstein: You can find those extra five to eight, ten dollars.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Dude, it's a business expense.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: You guys are doing pretty well.

Dan Rubenstein: That's true.

Ty Hildenbrandt: It's a business expense.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah. Should I do a not enough to sort of balance out the universe?

Ty Hildenbrandt: Go ahead, do it not enough.

Dan Rubenstein: How about this one? I think this is something we can all agree on. Well, most of us can agree on. Fun ACC Thursdays. What happened to fun ACC Thursdays?

Richard Johnson: Yeah. What happened is you got the shield on Thursday nights.

Dan Rubenstein: I know. I know. And it's a bummer and the NFL eats everything. But Lane Stadium on a Thursday night, or Louisville, NC State, or Florida State, Boston College, if Boston College is pretty good. I don't know. That was so fun. And this is just me, like old man yelling at clouding this whole thing. But I like having it. And there's a little bit of the Friday night thing with Fox Now. You get some like pretty decent games, especially out on the West Coast. But. I like Friday nights. Thursday nights, I'm around. I'm doing bedtime. I'm doing whatever I can to live my life. And to be able to come downstairs at 8 p.m., 8:30 p.m., and just. m. catch Louisville and North Carolina, who are both five and two, and the score is 17-14, and they're going back and forth. I want to figure out how to get that back in my life. Because I would pay more attention to the ACC, especially living on the West Coast when I did, than I otherwise would have because I got to watch basically uninterrupted. Views of a conference, just like we can with the MAC on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. And there was something cool about quality Thursday night college football.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, Alex and Godfrey do the same thing on my like, I am I do not necessarily bemoan college football seeding Thursday night.

Dan Rubenstein: I'm sure. Yeah, I I don't know. I just am who I am. I'm in my what, late 30s, early 40s Ty, and these are the things that I don't feel like we have enough of.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I would be totally cool with nobody playing weekday games.

Dan Rubenstein: Really?

Richard Johnson: Yeah, I I am I am more of the traditionalist and like ties.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah. Like just because you brought up the NFL, did I see I think it's the Seahawks are opening the season on a Wednesday this year.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, that's because it's because the um the Friday game is the is in Australia. So, they want those teams to get back with enough time to reset their body clocks because they're going to lose the day and everything like that coming back. So they're kicking the original Thursday opener to Wednesday, yes. Which has happened before, by the way. People don't realize.

Ty Hildenbrandt: It's happened before.

Richard Johnson: That happened.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah.

Richard Johnson: It happened. It was like a, I think it was like a Democratic National Convention. Week or something, and they the convention was on Thursday, and so the NFL moved an opener to Wednesday. It has happened before.

Ty Hildenbrandt: But my point here, the reason I bring this up, this is when the NFL sort of lost me. When I stopped being able to keep track of when all the games were. You know, it used to be, and this is, I think, part of why football is so popular. It's a once-a-week thing.

Richard Johnson: Scarcity, scarcity.

Ty Hildenbrandt: It's a once-a-week thing. You only got so many of them. It's a Sunday. It's sacred for a multitude of reasons, especially if you're an NFL fan. That's when the games are played. You can build your whole week around it. It's something to look forward to on the weekends. Then we move on with our work week and we do it all over again seven days from now. But now I can't even keep track, you know?

Richard Johnson: Yeah, the you know the one that's going to kill The Thanksgiving Eve game. Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: Oh, yeah.

Richard Johnson: No, no, thank you.

Ty Hildenbrandt: So it's just it's too much for me.

Richard Johnson: No, thank you.

Ty Hildenbrandt: And so I would say, listen. I love myself a good MACtion game. If there is a good game on on a Thursday night or on a Friday night, clearly I'm going to watch. This is, you know, this is what we do. But I think we talk too much about the weekday games. Personally, I'd be cool with like, let's just play them all on Saturdays the way we used to.

Dan Rubenstein: I have as another not enough because you want to steer this to a positive place. I want more West Coast teams playing each other. We get some of it.

Richard Johnson: Well, you know, Ty, there used to be a league. Time before time, you might recall where they did all play each other.

Dan Rubenstein: Thank you for explaining this to him.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah. I'm going to write this down.

Richard Johnson: I do, yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I have a notepad around here somewhere. Continue, please, Richard.

Dan Rubenstein: We get sort of like these one-off non-conference stuff with I just wish there were conversations behind the scenes to make sure

Ty Hildenbrandt: This is insightful.

Dan Rubenstein: Washington and Cal would play more. So I can see Marshawn Lynch in the cart, right? So I can sort of relive so many great West Coast moments. I wish that. There would be like a former Pac-12 membership conference. They probably can't afford Terranea like Fox and the Big Ten, but they can afford some sort of Holiday Inn Express in Santa Cruz or something. They all get together and hammer out a bunch of Oregon State, Arizona, Stanford, UCLAs, right? That like everybody is going to need non-conference matchups. I don't know why. I mean, I know why, you know, we have a bunch of these games scheduled way out in advance, but I want to see a steady stream. Oregon doesn't need to be playing Oklahoma State all the time. Oregon doesn't need to be playing, you know, or not all the time, but home and home. If we could get the West Coast teams just keeping the money out West in September, I'd be all in on seeing a steady drip of those home and homes announced.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, here, here, considering what we have here with Oregon flying to Wisconsin on October 25th.

Dan Rubenstein: I want that. Exactly right.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, yeah, I'm into that.

Dan Rubenstein: Okay, please.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I've got one. If you want to stick with things that you don't feel are being talked about enough. This is a team that I have discussed with a new coach that I am maybe unrealistically high on this year. And it also is a team that I think our good friend Richard Johnson has a personal connection to. I don't believe people have talked enough about the Florida Gators, and in particular, one Jon Sumrall. Agree, disagree.

Richard Johnson: I agree partially on Sumrall.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Where are you guys at?

Richard Johnson: I think Sumrall is awesome, to be honest with you. Just like as a personality. I think that in a...

Ty Hildenbrandt: Like if I told you that Jon Sumrall six months ago was at a bar and bit the head off a live bird, you would probably believe me.

Richard Johnson: Yes, absolutely. As someone who has spent, I don't want to say significant time at Jon Sumrall, but spent an amount of time with Jon Sumrall one-on-one. Yes, absolutely. There is little to nothing you could tell me in that vein. That I would not buy. So, in on Sumrall, especially in a day and age where coaches are sanitized personality and all that sort of stuff, yes. Regarding the 2026 Fightin’ Florida Gators, though, I would let's let's let's relax. Let's check back in in 2027.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Okay, tell me why. Tell me why. Tell me why, because I think it's a good roster.

Richard Johnson: It's funny. I don't.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Okay, you're a Florida guy, so you can tell me why.

Richard Johnson: I think it's funny. It's funny because I think they might have the best receiver room in the SEC, to be honest with you.

Dan Rubenstein: It's quiet.

Richard Johnson: And they have one of, if not the best running back rooms, at least running back in the SEC. It's mostly who's going to be blocking for the gents and throwing to the gents that is a very open question. Now, I do think that Brad White and Buster Faulkner, offensive assistant, Faulkner is the offensive coordinator, Brad White, the offensive line coach. Excuse me, Brad White's the defensive coordinator. Good lord. I do think what Florida has on offense from a coaching standpoint, and the bones of it at the skill positions, what you want. I do think it's going to take a little bit, especially with a quarterback competition that's undecided. I don't know what this offense is going to look like. Is Faulkner going to try to run the Haynes King adjacent offense where quarterback was battering ram? Or are they going to try and do something with a that's a little bit more wide-open? And are Philo and Tramell Jones are they capable of doing that? Don't know. There were some people who wanted to tell you that Tramell Jones should have played after DJ had the, what was it, six interceptions against LSU, whenever that was, last year in last September, and it became apparent that Florida wasn't going to get where it wanted to go. I think on defense, they're going to be sneaky, really, really physical and tough. I think they're going to resemble more of a Muschamp Florida, which is both derogatory and potentially complimentary at the same time. Than they will anything you've seen from a Mullen or a Napier outfit.

Dan Rubenstein: So to be fair to Ty's point, Florida, and I think everything you said is obviously correct, FAU, Campbell, and Florida State in the non-con. Not terrible. There's not a lot to love about any of those teams in this moment. New coach and quarterback at Auburn. New full-time head coach, Ole Miss. New quarterback, Mizzou. South Carolina, hopefully it's a better year for the Gamecocks this year. But you can see some issues, obviously, with South Carolina, and that's at home. Texas is going to be really good. Georgia is going to be really good. Oklahoma is probably going to be really good. Kentucky new coach and quarterback, Vanderbilt new quarterback, possibly true freshman. So I'm just saying.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Also, also Ole Miss coming to town one week after the game to end all games with LSU coming to town.

Dan Rubenstein: The LSU.

Richard Johnson: Oh, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah, it's a great letdown spot for Ole Miss and for Florida, obviously.

Richard Johnson: Oh, yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Right.

Dan Rubenstein: So situationally, I'm not saying it's great. I'm just saying it's interesting for the game.

Richard Johnson: It is. It will be. But as I like to say on our show, you're an SEC team. Your schedule's hard. Big Ten team, your schedule's hard. Deal with it. You want Texas and Oklahoma in the league? Live with it.

Dan Rubenstein: They cash the checks.

Richard Johnson: Yep.

Dan Rubenstein: As far as I can tell, the SEC and Big Ten teams who have difficult schedules, those do clear those checks. That's okay. That's what the money's for. Ty, you have one? You want me to go through one? All right. I'm going to say Well, we'll stay on topic here. Too much Big Ten SEC, not enough everyone else. Okay? I understand why we talk about the Big Ten teams and SEC teams. These are the biggest teams in the sport, however, you want to quantify big. I'm just saying there's an incredible opportunity to be a college football hipster in a way like never before, right? We've got the Weirdass Pac-12. We've got the Mountain West, we've got the American, we've got the Big 12, we've got the ACC.

Richard Johnson: So

Dan Rubenstein: I'm not intentionally lumping in the Big 12 and ACC with other conferences. I'm just saying, everyone else, there are, you can get a terrific plate from this buffet of tasty food. All season long. And I understand, again, why we're talking about it. The probable national championship for years to come is likely coming from one of those two conferences for quite some time. Or Notre Dame, I guess. If you're going to sort of, Notre Dame obviously is fits in that size of program. I'm just saying you have an opportunity as a college football fan, root for your team and then pay attention to whatever the hell is going on in TCU Houston. Right? There's so much meat on the entirety of the college football carcass that you should explore alt cuts, is what I'm saying.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, because I think that what people are missing and bemoaning the wackiness, the weirdness, like it is still there. Like it is still there in the ACC, which just sent a five-lost team. its conference championship game because its best team and its nominal best team lost an extra non-conference game, but it didn't count because it was Or excuse me, lost an extra conference game, but it didn't count because it was a non-conference game.

Dan Rubenstein: We're tiebreakers, yeah, yeah.

Richard Johnson: Sorry. Like, that wackiness is still in there. It's still inherent. It's been cracked quite a bit. It's been, you know, it's. You know, you can say what you want about Cody Campbell. I had on this show, but like Texas yahoo billionaire buys College Football Playoff team. That's awesome. Like that that's that's what you want. You know that that like that's that's that is in a way The soul of the sport that a lot of people feel is lost. It is still there, but yes, Dan, you do have to go find it.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Texas Tech, maybe for all the wrong reasons, but Texas Tech has very much been one of the primary stories of the offseason. Miami had a real shot to win that game against Indiana in the national championship. Miami obviously had a really good year. Miami is reloading this year.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah. Sorry, I should say SEC Big Ten Notre Dame, Miami right now is national championship caliber.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Right.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, yeah, sure.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Two group of six teams made the College Football Playoff. We could debate the merits of how they performed once they got there, but I think it's meaningful to your point, Dan, of being a college football hipster in the year of our Lord 2026. It's meaningful that they got two teams in. So the rest of the sport is nothing if not interesting, even on that high level of conversation with regard to the national picture and how all of these teams fit into the playoff National championship side of it. But I would contend even a step beyond that. We've got new teams coming into new conferences this year. Like the North Dakota State story is going to be really interesting for people who genuinely care. About college football, the fact that Sacramento State is apparently a rec team. I don't know how good they're going to be, but there's that, to your point, Richard, of it still being kind of weird. The weirdness is abound. And the weirdness is still omnipresent in all of the other college football conferences outside of the Big Ten in the SEC, which, by the way, has its own share of weirdness for sure. So I'm with you. Like we always try to talk it up on this show that there are other conferences. I mean, just because we've got the biggest teams, I guess, in those two is the reason that we have to spend so much time talking about it.

Richard Johnson: We'll be Ty, it's because I think it's and this is, I think, unfair, but it is the way of the world.

Ty Hildenbrandt: But

Richard Johnson: It's now more incumbent and inherent on the viewer to go find it, right? Like you have to go find I mean, they put Big 12 games behind the ESPN Plus paywall. You know what I'm saying? Like, you got to go find that now versus channel surfing and, you know. Sorry, type Penn State's losing to whoever the hell in some weird, snowy game.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Sure.

Richard Johnson: And you're like, what the hell's going on here? Like that, you know, that's on Peacock now sometimes. You know, like it, it, it, it. The weirdness is still there, but you got to go find it. And, you know, a lot of treatises on capitalism on this show, but that's treaty. There's another treatise on capitalism.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Okay.

Dan Rubenstein: So my sidebar is there is real potential if Sac State is a mess. Because look, they lost their head coach who decided to now, what, Brennan Marion is now the offensive coordinator at Colorado, right?

Richard Johnson: Yes, yes.

Dan Rubenstein: So they lose their head coach. They make a change there, obviously. If Sac State does not work out in year one, the city of Sacramento could have The Kings, a bad MAC team, and they're in the weird middle holding pattern of the Oakland A's between Oakland and Vegas, all in the same geographical place. Sacramento might have a case as the saddest sports city in America if Sac State does not work out in the MAC.

Richard Johnson: Where the Kings were decent last year, but missed the playoffs this year.

Dan Rubenstein: Or excuse me, if MACramento doesn't work out. Yeah, they missed the playoffs this year. They were good with Mike Brown a couple years ago when it was like De'Aaron Fox and

Richard Johnson: Yes, okay.

Dan Rubenstein: They had traded Tyrese Halliburton before then, but they made the playoffs for the first time in like 19 years, you know, two or three years ago, and played the Warriors.

Richard Johnson: Yes.

Dan Rubenstein: And then immediately

Richard Johnson: Rejected, yes.

Dan Rubenstein: didn't work out. Yeah. So yeah, Sacramento does have a weird opportunity here.

Ty Hildenbrandt: All right, so I have two guys here that I'm curious to get your opinions on. Two new coaches. Richard, I know you've done reporting on Kyle Whittingham. I'm curious, have we talked too much or not enough about Whittingham? And secondly, Dan, because I know you and I both have a thing for this guy, I'm curious to get both of your takes on one Robert Edward Chesney out at UCLA.

Richard Johnson: In on the ladder Tepid optimism about the former. I am I think I cannot wait to watch Bryce Underwood in this offense given the structure of this offense. Given that they are going to run the piss out of the ball with him. What I'm a little concerned about Is the throwing aspect of offensive football? I don't know how that's going to work for Michigan. And I do think maybe they got a little bit better at receiver. I like Andrew Marsh as a receiver. So I like sort of what they have, but the returns, if you talk to some folks up there in Ann Arbor, about the passing game, is that we're not going to really like what we see. So when Brent Venables comes to Colin in week three, two, I think I don't know that that is going to go so well for the boys in maize and blue. But UCLA, yeah, man, let's do it. I'm interested.

Dan Rubenstein: Their UCLA is you can you can tell a lot by recruiting and it's not just who's committing, right? They're getting visits. There's energy there. They're trying in a way that they really didn't, obviously, the last couple of years, but certainly under Chip Kelly, that they thought they could. They just did a worse version of the Curt Cignetti Indiana thing. And in retrospect, Chip did a pretty good job at UCLA. Like, without trying to recruit to the full power of the UCLA brand, he did pretty well.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, without actively recruiting.

Dan Rubenstein: But they just I think they just hosted a five-star receiver from New Jersey at UCLA. And you know what? They should. It's UCLA. It's a big name program and a big conference, and there's a big opportunity to play early. And they have like a, I mean, they'll finish with a top 15 class or something like that, which we haven't been able to say in quite some time about UCLA. I know they're higher than that right now, but there seems to be a good amount of energy at UCLA for the first time in a while. And so. I still don't think we're talking enough about it. Like there's just a huge opportunity, given the size of that school and given what they've done in sports in general, for them to make a serious move in this climate of college football where you can get better in two years significantly.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I think the Chesney thing is very underserved right now, and I'm hoping that this goes as well as it I mean, the vibes are good. So if the vibes are any indication as to what's to come for UCLA this year, it will very much be the case three months down the line where you and I are like, yeah, we didn't talk enough about Bob Chesney and UCLA. The Whittingham thing to me is just really interesting, and I think it's more a matter of which topic you're choosing to address when you talk about Whittingham. Because clearly, we talked about him a great deal. When he stepped in, the timing all aligned. They needed somebody who was more of an adult than the previous guy, right? They get Whittingham. Whether he falls off the back of a truck because Utah pushes him out or maybe he just wanted to jab, whatever the case. We talked about it a fair amount When Whittingham took that job. But now I almost feel like we're not talking about it enough with respect to the whole Bryce Underwood thing, as you brought up, Richard. What is that going to look like? We know they're going to run with him more. They've already sort of gone on record in saying we're going to use his athleticism as part of the offensive attack. But Whittingham developing a quarterback, the likes of a Bryce Underwood, who obviously came in with much acclaim. I don't know if we have a whole like, there's not a lot of body of work for that with respect to what he did out at Utah. And so I'm just curious to see what that's going to look like moving forward. This to me also feels like the kind of thing we're going to get a month into the year and we're going to be like, oh man, we probably should have talked about the ramifications of this hire. A little bit more. The counterpoint, I guess, would be: Dan, you're a huge beckhead, right?

Dan Rubenstein: Of course, always.

Ty Hildenbrandt: So, um You know, there could be a nice little like meeting of the minds. They could find a way to unlock Underwood in a way that we haven't seen previously. But I just, I'm very curious to see how this goes in the first couple of weeks of the season. and think back to maybe this conversation, put a pin in it and think maybe in retrospect, maybe we should have addressed it in a more meaningful way in the offseason.

Richard Johnson: I think a lot of it is going to come down to how they show in that Oklahoma game. Like, it's gonna be the only game in town pretty much that weekend because the September slate is just not good. And you're going to have a lot of I don't there's no way Oklahoma plays anybody week one if you're playing Texas week excuse me if you're playing Michigan week two So, Oklahoma is going to be able to come into that game having not really shown anything. If Michigan goes out there and Venables throws the fastball and they score 13 points. it's gonna I think it's gonna tank the conversation. But if they go out there and he shows and they play well, okay. Then I think you really rocket ship take off as far as Underwood stock and Whittingham and all that sort of stuff.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah, I okay. So when you look at Michigan's schedule this year. In terms of what we are or not talking enough about, yes, they have the Oklahoma game week two. That's September 12th. They have Iowa, a couple of weeks of not obviously excellent defenses. Then they have Indiana, and it's at home. Rutgers and Michigan State, Oregon on the road, whatever UCLA's defense is this year before Ohio State. There are kind of development, I don't want to be insulting to any of those teams, but

Richard Johnson: Um

Dan Rubenstein: There's no gauntlet of like incredible defenses that could really smash Michigan's offensive attempts if they're trying to throw the ball downfield. Like, you will have some moments. To take shots and develop a passing game against this schedule. That's an optimistic way of looking at what their offensive upside is, I think. That's something. I don't know. Ty, do you have any more? Or are we good?

Ty Hildenbrandt: I'm good on my end.

Dan Rubenstein: Okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt: How do you want to close this out?

Dan Rubenstein: I have confidence scheduling, not enough. I have Pac-12 name-shaming. I'm okay with the there being this conference of teams. We don't need to call it the Pac-12.

Ty Hildenbrandt: You know what I realized when I was

Dan Rubenstein: The Pac Yeah.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, it's just not.

Ty Hildenbrandt: When I was putting together some of our kind of like the skeleton for our previews this year, Dan, all eight teams in the Pac-12 have state as a suffix in their team name.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah. Yeah, that is true.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I didn't realize that.

Richard Johnson: The the Pac-12 shaming that goes under the radar is their absolutely farcical like brand identity thing. That they released a couple months ago, maybe at this point in time.

Dan Rubenstein: Yes.

Richard Johnson: That really went under the radar as a thing that should have been just pilloried to high heaven.

Dan Rubenstein: Yes, agree. But yeah, there's I don't know. I take your like premium. We can take Sports Illustrated, right? When a premium brand is like, no, we're still in business. And it's just going to look a little bit different. And we're going to try to like sell you on this, even though it's not nearly as premium. I'm not I'm just not okay with a five-star restaurant starting to sell like dollar chalopas.

Richard Johnson: Well, I can't imagine Sports Illustrated doing that.

Dan Rubenstein: Like, of course not. I have down here weekly travel, grind, and scheduling talk. I didn't dip into this until like a few years ago, and you mentioned this too with like some NFL scheduling stuff. Like, I think we should be talking more about. Because the coaches will talk about it. I think we should just be putting more attention and spotlight on the weird play a late-night Saturday game on the road and then have to play a Thursday game the next week.

Richard Johnson: Oh, oh, okay, all right. Thursday game. Okay, I will give you.

Dan Rubenstein: Right, Thursday, like short week after late night road game, right?

Richard Johnson: All right, all right, all right.

Dan Rubenstein: There's the weird stuff that you're just like.

Richard Johnson: I will

Dan Rubenstein: I'm not saying we should make excuses, but we should just, we should show the realities, especially as these teams are, you know, as Cal is playing at Wake Forest or something. Like, we should talk about that.

Richard Johnson: I will allow you short week.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah.

Richard Johnson: I will basically not allow any schedule complaining, travel complaining from football teams for anything else. Don't care. It's one game of the week. You fly charter. Like, talk to me about your softball team that's flying.

Dan Rubenstein: Totally

Richard Johnson: From Wisconsin to Eugene on a Tuesday in March. Like, that's what I want to hear about. I do not want to hear about football teams, but I will grant you a short week.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah. Yes.

Richard Johnson: Okay. All right.

Dan Rubenstein: The weird short week stuff, I I at least want to acknowledge some weird even flying west coast or east coast I want to say clemson is playing like a a cal game at something like 10 or 11 p. m clemson time like body time There's something just there's just the weirdness of it all. I'm not saying we should feel bad, but we should acknowledge the weirdness of some of these scheduling decisions and challenges that a lot of these teams are going to have. I don't know. I think that's kind of it for me. The last one I have here to end on a light note: not enough bulls doing weird stuff. Guys, lean into it. Like, we're going to talk about games where offensive lines are decimated because of transfers. We're going to talk about games. Where secondaries are gone. You're going to talk about a game that should have featured Notre Dame, but they just got a little bit mad.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I will stop it.

Richard Johnson: Yeah, oh Dan, absolutely. Yeah, can you believe that Notre Dame famously anytime, anywhere, any place just

Ty Hildenbrandt: I think that's all the time we have for today, boys.

Richard Johnson: Took their ball and went home.

Ty Hildenbrandt: It's weird. It's we're we're going to run out of time here on this little thing that we yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: They got a little bit upset.

Richard Johnson: Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: Play the game.

Richard Johnson: Exactly.

Dan Rubenstein: Play the game.

Richard Johnson: Play the game.

Dan Rubenstein: I know that they were going to have like 45 opt-outs or something like that.

Richard Johnson: I don't don't care. Don't care.

Dan Rubenstein: Play.

Richard Johnson: Don't care.

Dan Rubenstein: And that was one of the fun games.

Richard Johnson: Florida State played it. Florida State played it and got absolutely decimated by Georgia.

Dan Rubenstein: They showed up.

Richard Johnson: Is what it is, man.

Dan Rubenstein: They showed up. Yes, there is something. I'm just saying, just in general, Bowls, if you are going to be looked down on as a lesser thing compared to the playoff. Great. Have crazy mascots. Have crazy stunts. Do weird things with your CEOs who nobody really understands why there's a CEO of the what do you, the Motor City Bowl or something like that. There should be you should lean in to the absurd with these bowl games. We should be dumping more mayo on more people, even if the game sponsor isn't mayonnaise. That should just be a thing. I'm just all for turning this into. just lowering stacks of bills in a giant birdcage onto midfield, right? Do whatever you have to do. I love like the minor leagueization, the, you know, when the Fresno team is the tacos for a night. I'm all for all of this. Give me a reason. So that's my last thing that there's just not enough of.

Ty Hildenbrandt: All righty, why don't we leave it there? His name is Richard Johnson. He does fine work, of course, for CBS Sports. Go and check him out. Split Zone Duo, a wonderful show he does with our friend Alex Kirshner. And I guess on occasion, Steven Godfrey still pops by.

Richard Johnson: Every now and then, every now and then.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Godfrey pops by. Make sure you check him out. Richard, what is it? I guess what is your schedule looking like now over the next however many weeks and months as we sort of round the bend into preview season, getting ready for the college football season, there's a lot going on.

Richard Johnson: There's going to be a trip to Europe coming up here pretty soon. Last year, obviously, we knew this was happening for weeks in advance, but last year I was literally on the tarmac. about to taxi and take off to go to Barcelona when the house case like got like announced as like it went through. The year before I was in Portugal When Pat Fitzgerald got fired. Like, I remember I got the alert from whatever, and I was like, damn, that's crazy. Super not my problem. Went to the beach.

Ty Hildenbrandt: So, what you're saying is you're going to be away, and something else is going to happen that we don't know about yet.

Richard Johnson: So yes, when I am in Amsterdam at the end of July, something will pop off, clearly.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Okay.

Dan Rubenstein: So what did when you were on the beaches of Portugal, what did Cristiano have to say about Pat Fitzgerald?

Ty Hildenbrandt: Okay.

Dan Rubenstein: And how that was going to affect the Big Ten hierarchy.

Richard Johnson: That's uh that's between me and uh me and CR7.

Dan Rubenstein: And Mr. Ronaldo.

Richard Johnson: Exactly, exactly.

Dan Rubenstein: Okay, fair enough. Just Richard Johnson hobnobbing with the stars overseas. I love it.

Richard Johnson: Obrigado, fellas.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Take care. All right, there you go. Richard Johnson. Check him out. CBS Sports split zone duo does a fabulous job. As I said at the top, one of our best friends. In the industry, a really, really good dude. I didn't get a chance to get out and play golf with Richard.

Dan Rubenstein: Oh, that's right.

Ty Hildenbrandt: This year. I I guess, yeah, I don't we didn't last year

Dan Rubenstein: You had your your inter-college football golf outing. Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt: And I'm assuming we won't be able to work it in this year either. So we got to make that happen at some point in the very near future. I miss playing with Richard.

Dan Rubenstein: Where do you think you stack up in the greater digital college football universe? Like, do you think you would be on the leaderboard if it was a full, like 32 person field. Do you think you'd be like finished top 10?

Ty Hildenbrandt: You mean like how they do like a creator classic for golf influencers and creators, but you're talking

Dan Rubenstein: Yes. But I'm talking Nicole Auerbach. I'm talking Bruce Feldman. I'm talking take your pick around

Ty Hildenbrandt: Oh, wow.

Dan Rubenstein: The universe, the tapestry, once again, that makes up this spore, right? You've got Dave Revsine here. You've got Chris Low there. Take your pick, right? Of all the people who potentially could golf?

Ty Hildenbrandt: All right, so are we are we including like Joel Klattt in this?

Dan Rubenstein: Is he like a scratch golfer or something?

Ty Hildenbrandt: I think Klatt's like a scratch golfer.

Dan Rubenstein: He has a podcast that does appear online, so he counts as digital college football person.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah. So he's, I mean, he's definitely better than me. And I think I saw that Kanell's pretty good, too.

Dan Rubenstein: Okay. Okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Two former quarterbacks, so maybe it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that he's good at everything athletic.

Dan Rubenstein: Right. You're a former second baseman. Continue.

Ty Hildenbrandt: But I I could hold my own. I don't know how many people were talking here, but if we're talking like 20, 25, 30 people that are kind of involved in this whole content thing that we do.

Dan Rubenstein: Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I think I could find my way into the top 10. Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: I don't know what his handicap-ish is.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: I'm just, golf is a very popular game, and I think you mentally, I think you would do pretty well. I think there's an even keel to you.

Ty Hildenbrandt: No, not on the golf course.

Dan Rubenstein: I know, well, you have to work on your irons, right?

Ty Hildenbrandt: No.

Dan Rubenstein: That's the current.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I'm a head case on the golf course. No.

Dan Rubenstein: Oh, well.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I mean, I'm not throwing clubs, but I'm just. I'm good for like eight blow-up holes throughout the course of like a full golf season. And I just don't know when they're going to happen, but they always ruin around.

Dan Rubenstein: You know what we could do for this? We could get that tourism board from Ireland who has the game every Aer Lingus Classic.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. They wanted us to come out right.

Dan Rubenstein: And they're trying to get people out there to cover it. So let's get it. Let's get one of the open links-type courses that's in Ireland, and let's get this as a sponsored event.

Ty Hildenbrandt: What I would want is a two-round event.

Dan Rubenstein: Okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt: A two-round, if there are any golf course superintendents out there at like a reasonable course that's easy to get to, I would like a two-round event. We could put together a field of like 30 people, and I don't know what the prize would be. There doesn't need to be a prize. It's pride, not prize. But I would play in it and I I I think I could hold my own. I don't think I would win it. I think the other guys would win it. They're better. But I could I could finish top ten, maybe top five if I'm having a good weekend.

Dan Rubenstein: Where is ACC Media Days this year? It looks like in Char, it's in Charlotte.

Ty Hildenbrandt: It's usually in Charlotte, right?

Dan Rubenstein: There was a Pinehurst year. I don't know how far away Pinehurst is from Charlotte. I don't think it's terribly far, but I don't know. I don't know my geography off the top of my head.

Ty Hildenbrandt: If someone wants to put it together, I'll play in it. I'll find a way there. We'll write that off.

Dan Rubenstein: Big Ten Media Days is here.

Ty Hildenbrandt: That's going to be a business expense.

Dan Rubenstein: We could get you up to Wisconsin. Didn't they do the Ryder Cup up in Wisconsin?

Ty Hildenbrandt: It did, yep, yep.

Dan Rubenstein: I just, I don't think you can take an ordinary course for something this important. I think we need to get you at what's the one up there, Whistling Straits?

Ty Hildenbrandt: Whistling Straits, that's a long course.

Dan Rubenstein: I think you have it in you.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I mean, I have it in me. I don't know about the others, but

Dan Rubenstein: Get a shuttle of just absolute internet dork college football people from Chicago up to Wisconsin?

Ty Hildenbrandt: Yeah, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: I think it's a great idea.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I mean, I'm in.

Dan Rubenstein: That's all.

Ty Hildenbrandt: If somebody out there wants to organize it, I'm in.

Dan Rubenstein: If the powers that be in Kohler are listening, you, yes, you could have Stewart Mandel on your fringes.

Ty Hildenbrandt: If somebody wants to organize it, I'm down. Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein: I don't know. I don't know who if Stu golfs or not.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Thank you to Richard for stopping on by. We did get a bit of breaking news throughout the course of this episode about the Brendan Sorsby thing, which to me is, I mean, it seems like it's madness. It seems like it's madness that they would allow him to play, and that's not because I have anything against Brendan Sorsby, but you got to set a precedent here. You got to set a precedent that you can't do that. And I think it sort of undercuts a lot of the honor and spirit of what the NCAA and we as college football fans are going for with this whole sport. It sounds like they will appeal this in rather short order. They have to do so given the calendar. If they let it go too long, then it's going to be something that Sorsby could claim is doing him financial harm by not being able to enter the NFL supplemental draft. So there will be a lot more on this. And I think as more details become available, it's clearly something you and I are going to have to unpack further. So, given that this broke while we were recording with Richard, please give us the benefit of digesting it a little bit further before we offer further comment. But at least at first blush, it looks like madness to me. So TBD.

Dan Rubenstein: Do you know what else can also cause irreparable financial harm?

Ty Hildenbrandt: Uh gambling.

Dan Rubenstein: Wagering like crazy on sports all of the time, every waking moment of your life.

Ty Hildenbrandt: I know. I know. Just seems like a really, really bad precedent.

Dan Rubenstein: Also a consideration. Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Really bad precedent. But we need to read the full legal filing before we.

Dan Rubenstein: Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt: Before we talk about this at any length. So, know that that's to come. Know that Sark Tank is to come. If you made it this far, again, thank you for stopping on by, for downloading, for supporting what we do. Hit follow, hit subscribe, rate, review. You know the drill, all the usual stuff applies. We drop a free newsletter every Tuesday morning. SolidVerbal.com/newsletter is where you can go if you want to sign up for that. Tyler's been doing an awesome job rolling out original content every Tuesday morning. Just quick, digestible, easy to read, and it gives you something that you can take with you to the water cooler. We would encourage everybody to sign up for it. Dan Rubenstein, that's all I got for today. For that guy over there, Dan, for our guest of honor, Richard, from myself, Ty, over here in Eastern Pennsylvania, we'll catch you all a little bit later on this week. In the meantime, stay solid.

Dan Rubenstein: Peace