Joey Aguilar Ruling Reaction + What Would A CFB Super League Look Like? | College Football

Summary

Cover 3 College Football Podcast

Episode: Joey Aguilar Ruling Reaction + What Would A CFB Super League Look Like?
Release Date: February 23, 2026
Hosts: Chip Patterson, Tom Fornelli, Danny Kanell, Bud Elliott

---

Episode Overview

This episode of the Cover 3 College Football Podcast focuses on two major topics:

1. The fallout and implications of Joey Aguilar’s denied eligibility for the 2026 college football season, particularly with respect to Tennessee’s quarterback room and wider eligibility trends.
2. A deep-dive discussion on what a potential College Football Super League might look like—exploring predictions, the logistics, the timeline, and what the hosts (and fans) would want preserved in such a transformative scenario.

The episode is rich with both insider insight and thoughtful speculation, illustrated by spirited debate and hypothetical theorizing among the hosts.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Joey Aguilar Eligibility Ruling & Tennessee’s QB Situation

[02:24 – 12:30]

The NCAA Ruling on Aguilar

• Joey Aguilar, Tennessee’s quarterback and a "25, almost 26" year-old, was denied an additional year of NCAA eligibility.
• Bud Elliott dismisses fears of a broader eligibility sea change, noting it’s “not guaranteed that if you try to push this issue in state court that you're going to get it.” ([03:20] Bud Elliott)
• The ruling signals that courts aren’t universally siding with athletes; federal victories remain rare, prompting strategic pivots to friendlier state courts.

Tennessee’s Outlook Without Aguilar

• Tennessee now faces more uncertainty with a quarterback room including McIntyre ("low floor, high ceiling guy") and an inexperienced five-star freshman.
• High-variance season predicted without Aguilar: “Tennessee is able to go like 11 and 1—that's within the realm of possibility. I think 7 and 5 is also potentially...But if you have Aguilar, I think probably like 8 and 4 is your floor, you know, because he's not great, but he's not awful.” ([07:19] Bud Elliott)
• The group discusses whether Tennessee would have approached the transfer portal differently if expectation was Aguilar’s NCAA loss: “They might have been better served to do that and just said, look, we're gonna move on and good luck in the NFL.” ([10:23] Danny Kanell)

Broader Eligibility War Implications

• The panel analyzes differences in Aguilar’s case versus previous eligibility extensions and attributes the ruling partly to “long tail ramifications” weighed by the judge.
• “I'm kind of getting tired of these guys getting seven, eight years of eligibility. So I'm like, good, maybe we can set a precedent.” ([08:20] Danny Kanell)

---

Building a College Football Super League: Predictions and Possibilities

[15:00 – 49:00]

Size of the Super League

• Various numbers floated:
  • Chip Patterson: “48.” ([15:05])
  • Bud Elliott/Danny Kanell: “60 to 70” ([15:08], [15:11])
  • Tom Fornelli: “64 to 72 is what we're gonna end up at.” ([18:57])
• Criteria for inclusion heavily weighted toward ability to invest ("willing to commit to spend X"), TV market power, and geographic spread.
  • “This will be done mostly driven by television... based on television viewership.” ([16:05] Chip Patterson)
  • Bud Elliott raises the necessity of regional balance: “If I'm looking at [it] as like an ESPN, I have to see upside in this...I do need people in the Mountain and West coast time zones...I do need the big population centers in the Northeast.” ([17:35])

League Structure & Conferences

• Multiple models discussed:
  • Chip: Four conferences of 12 teams each
  • Bud/Tom: Eight divisions of eight teams (64 total)
  • General consensus: This will be football-only, not basketball or other sports.
• Importance of maintaining some current conference branding for tradition and easier fan acceptance: “For branding purposes, you do think they'll still be an SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, like...just for college football branding.” ([21:31] Danny Kanell/Chip Patterson)

Timeline – When Will a Super League Happen?

• Consensus around the year 2032, aligning with upcoming media rights renewals and playoff contracts.
  • “2032.” ([23:48] Tom Fornelli)
  • Some see movement possible sooner, referencing Ross Bjork (OSU’s AD): “Next two to five years we're going to be... making a lot of moves and coming up with big pivots.” ([25:53] Chip Patterson)
  • Skepticism about Congress providing a regulatory framework to accelerate the process.

Revenue Sharing & Media Rights

• Super League would likely operate as one unified media entity, negotiating a single deal with multiple TV partners.
  • “Do you think that the super league operates as a super league that has negotiated one media rights deal with multiple partners? Yeah, that's a huge part of this.” ([32:26] Chip Patterson)
• Expectation of unequal revenue sharing, reflective of current disparities: “Ohio State... we've been pretty public. Hey, like we, we make as much money like for the league as like the bottom five teams combined type thing.” ([33:23] Bud Elliott)
• FOMO would push many schools to buy-in, even at lower financial stakes.

Organizational & Logistical Challenges

• Host skepticism on how easily schools, especially outside the Big Ten/SEC, will gain inclusion.
  • “If it's 48, then it's nothing but bangers. Bangers only.” ([37:05] Chip Patterson)
  • Division among hosts whether all current Big Ten/SEC schools would make the initial cut.

---

Super League Structure Speculation: Contracts, Transfers, Compensation

[38:05 – 49:00]

• Wide-ranging debate on:

  • Adoption of professional-like contracts/free agency (“actual contracts,” free agency, possible trades, and even “buying players” like European soccer).
  • Whether a draft system would emerge: Some see it as impractical, while others argue a draft would be favored by teams lacking recruiting advantages as it controls costs.
  • Salary cap debate:
    • Tom Fornelli: “I do.” ([40:26])
    • Chip Patterson: “I don't...I think it will create a much more major league baseball environment.” ([40:27])
  • Enforcement, possible future of boosters/collectives, and potential for lasting fan buy-in in a new landscape.

• Intriguing point on administration: “Unlike owners and ownerships... everybody at these schools are just a steward. And many of them might be moving on from their job as a university president or as an athletic director five years from now, or if not less.” ([43:25] Chip Patterson)

---

What Do Fans (and Hosts) Want From the Future?

[49:47 – End]

Maintaining the Soul of College Football

• Danny Kanell laments possible loss of “playing for the school you loved,” and fears loss of emotional and communal attachment as the sport professionalizes:

  “Players that I played with and played against, you played for a lot of pride in your university and I think we're losing some of that. And what's kind of depressing is I don't know how we get that back.” ([50:12] Danny Kanell)

Roster Stability

• Bud Elliott: "If you’re willing to pay up and do that [contract], then you can get some teeth in these deals that basically don’t allow them to transfer... brings more roster familiarity..." ([51:39])

Regional Identity and Continuity

• Panel expresses hope for retaining regionality/identity via divisional or “conference” structure, noting the appeal of regular, meaningful rivalries.

Student-Athlete Campus Experience

• Chip Patterson (self-described "Pollyanna” wish): “I hope that college football players in this professionalized future are still member[s] of the college campus community, because I think that strengthens the fan connection.” ([53:52])

Promotion and Relegation

• Danny Kanell and Tom Fornelli endorse a Premier League-style system to keep late-season games meaningful and lower-tier teams engaged:

  “One of the greatest moments of my life was after Aston Villa...they finally get back up...It gives the season more...your regular season never loses meaning if there are teams that can literally be kicked out of the league at the end of it.” ([58:42] Tom Fornelli)

• The drama and stakes of promotion/relegation could greatly improve the regular season and keep fan interest high.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Tennessee’s Situation Without Aguilar:
  “Tennessee is able to go like 11 and 1—that's within the realm of possibility. I think 7 and 5 is also potentially...But if you have Aguilar, I think probably like 8 and 4 is your floor, you know, because he's not great, but he's not awful.” ([07:19] Bud Elliott)

• On Super League Size/Format:
  “48. That’s my shot.” ([15:05] Chip Patterson)
  “TV is going to want 64 to 72 teams in there just for the inventory.” ([18:57] Tom Fornelli)

• On Why Regionality Still Matters:
  “If I'm looking at this as like an ESPN, I have to see upside in this, and I don't...I do need people in the Mountain and West coast time zones to, like, Pacific time zone, excuse me, to watch this thing.” ([17:35] Bud Elliott)

• On Revenue Sharing and Buy-In:
  “I think it’s FOMO. I think you get them to agree to it by pretty much, hey, you want in or you’re stuck out.” ([32:17] Bud Elliott)

• On Future Compensation & Parity:
  “Do they really want parity or not?” ([43:25] Danny Kanell)

• On the “College” in College Football:
  “I hope that college football players in this professionalized future are still member[s] of the college campus community, because I think that strengthens the fan connection.” ([53:52] Chip Patterson)

• On Promotion/Relegation:
  “Your regular season never loses meaning if there are teams that can literally be kicked out of the league.” ([58:42] Tom Fornelli)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:24] – Joey Aguilar eligibility ruling and Tennessee’s QB outlook
• [07:19] – Floor/Ceiling projections for Tennessee
• [08:58] – Legal precedent and implications for eligibility battles
• [15:00] – Predicting how many teams make a CFB Super League
• [18:57] – Importance of regionality and TV for league composition
• [23:48] – When the Super League might launch (2032-2035 consensus)
• [32:26] – Media rights superdeal and unequal revenue sharing
• [38:05] – Contracts, transfers, and super league operational mechanics
• [49:47] – What fans and hosts hope college football preserves
• [58:42] – Promotion/relegation stakes and impact on the regular season

---

Episode Wrap-up

The hosts close with personal (sometimes nostalgic) wishes for college football’s future: continuity in fan/athlete connection, roster stability, maintaining some campus community, and preserving what makes the sport distinct from the NFL—while also embracing the entertainment and financial upsides a super league could bring.
Their thought experiment spans the practical hurdles and institutional realities that will make the transition to a super league both fascinating and fraught.

---

For listeners (or readers) who missed the episode, this summary captures both the specific news of the week and the expansive, honest, and sometimes passionate speculation that makes Cover 3 a go-to for college football’s future.

Transcript

[A]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

[B]

What if comparing car insurance rates was as easy as putting on your favorite podcast with Progressive?

[A]

It is. Just visit the Progressive website to quote with all the coverages you want. You'll see Progressive's direct rate.

[B]

Then their tool will provide options from other companies so you can compare.

[C]

All you need to do is choose the rate and coverage you like. Quote [e-mail] to join the over 28

[A]

million drivers who trust Progressive, Progressive Casualty

[B]

Insurance Company and affiliates.

[A]

Comparison rates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're

[B]

not sure where to start.

[A]

Thumbtack knows homes so you don't have to don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin or what that

[C]

clunking sound from your dryer is.

[A]

With thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro, you just have to hire one. You can hire top rated pros, see price estimates and read reviews all on the app. Download today.

[C]

Welcome Back to the COVID 3 podcast with your hosts Chip Patterson, Tom Furnelli,

[B]

Danny Cannell and Bud Elliott.

[C]

It's your call for the best college football coverage from national signing day to the national championship and everything in between. CBS Sports presents the COVID 3 podcast.

[A]

And welcome back to the COVID 3 podcast here on CBS Sports. That's Tom Frenelli, that's Bud Elliott, that's Danny Cannell. I'm Chip Patterson coming to you [e-mail] cover3 and everywhere. Get your podcast on demand. Thanks for hanging out. Smash that subscribe smash that like and come and join us in the chat aka the COVID 3 tailgate where they are wondering and we're about to get into this whether you can go, whether you can just keep reappealing, you know. You know, maybe you can find a judge somewhere who will give a four hour diatribe on the evils of the NCAA and and why you should be getting into this. Okay, so coming up in a little bit we are going to unpack a mailbag question that is too big for a mailbag episode. Because one thing while we talk about, you know, oh, there will probably be a super league one day. Oh yeah, six, seven years down the line there might be a super league. Well, well we're going to put some official predictions and petitions on the record. If we are going to have a super league in college football, what does it look like? When does it happen? And also if we have to be drug into a super league era, what do we as college football fans want to see. So this is just kind of a chance for us to call our shot. You know, we can get old takes exposed or we could be never wrong, just early. You know, this is the next hour will determine a lot. But before we jump into that, yes, some of the headlines from over the weekend. Joey Aguilar denied eligibility for 2026. A big, big deep breath for Bud Elliott there. So are you, are you furious about this? Do I think there's a, Obviously there's a Tennessee implication. Right. We got to change our thoughts on Tennessee or adjust them. And then there's also, is this a one off? Is this a pretty little snowflake, just a wildflower in the field? Or does this denial indicate a sea change in the player eligibility wars?

[C]

I don't think it denotes a sea change really. I think we can say that it's not guaranteed that if you try to push this issue in state court that you're going to get it. I would still expect your win rate in a friendly state court to be far higher than it is than you've been winning at the federal level. Which is why they switched to doing this to try to get these state court injunctions in the first place. I look clearly Tennessee logic says that they think that they would be better or at least have a higher floor with like a 25, 24 year old Joey Aguilar.

[A]

Yeah, 25, right.

[C]

He's got to be 25 years old, right? Or 24. The thing is we have the, we all have the Internet because we know, because we're live. Right. So how old is Joey?

[A]

25, almost 26.

[C]

So he's 2024 as of February 26th. So he's born June 16th, 2001.

[B]

Yeah. So he'd be 25 by the season.

[C]

No, I think he just turned 24 in February. Oh, wait, hold on. No, yes, he will. Yeah, because I, I correct.

[B]

Yeah, he turns on his birthday. Yeah.

[D]

Right.

[C]

So we were right. A 25 year old quarterback I think is inherently going to give you a, a high floor. I'm still not sure like how much better he can get, although another year in the system, more comfortable, blah, blah, blah. But obviously he's turning pro apparently in football, so we'll see how that goes.

[A]

Yeah, he's that great. I'm glad you pointed that out. For the, the purposes of our discussion, we do not see a reappeal path here. He's, he's just going to go ahead and he's going to take it to the professional ranks. So what do we think about the rest of that quarterback room?

[C]

Well, you got McIntyre, right? Who kind of low floor, high ceiling guy. And you have obviously the five star freshman they just signed, so. Oh yeah, Chip. Great jacket, by the way. That is, that is facts.

[A]

Did y', all, Did y' all see that? The snowstorm. I was talking with Tom about this. The snowstorm had to reroute the, the Olympic team's trip home.

[D]

You know, they were going down to South Florida, baby, going to 11 tonight.

[A]

They were supposed to go to New York and oh no, we have to go let these new gold medalists go to Miami. Oh, I'm sure they're so sad about having to go to Miami with those gold medals on.

[D]

They already announced the party tonight. It's at 11 South Beach. Oh yeah, they're going to be going off. Love the jacket.

[B]

58 degrees in Miami right now.

[D]

Hey, it's better than the alternative Fortina.

[A]

They're hockey players.

[B]

They don't care about the cold. They're not soft like you boys down there.

[D]

I, I think one of like the

[C]

key takeaways when I looked at this this morning is if you have Aguilar, you have a lot of games where you feel like, all right, we are decidedly the better team and if we just play our game and don't screw it up, we should win. And I think playing a super young kid brings like potential high variance to what? Like maybe if one of these young five stars hits, maybe you're able to go and, and rip off a 12 and over and 11 one. But also some games like, you know, is Auburn at home a slam dunk? Is that Arkansas with a, with an 18 or 19 year old, a slam dunk, right? Is that South Carolina? That was not a slam dunk before, but I just think it brings in like at Georgia Tech early in the season, you know, at South Carolina, at Vandy to end the year, they're probably playing a freshman as well. And Jared Curtis, you know, host, host Kentucky. I just think it brings like a wider band of variants, you know, like Tennessee is able to go like 11 and 1. I think that's within realm possibility. I think 7 and 5 is also potentially like. But if you have Aguilar, I think probably like 8 and 4 is your floor, you know, because he just, he's not great, but he's not awful.

[D]

Right? Yeah. Don't forget Martin Luther Staub is in this quarterback race also Colorado.

[A]

Thank you.

[D]

Who did play a little bit does this. So I'm curious to know What Bud thinks about this one, because I even talked. We talked about it on this show. The attorney for the NCAA who was great in the hearing, like, the reviews I were reading were like, Tennessee felt pretty good. But about Joey Aguilar's status going forward, feeling like he would get approved. But after they heard the NCAA attorney who was a Tennessee graduate saying, like, we're better than this. Everyone's like, ooh, he outshined the other attorney. Is that what we have to look at? Because I'm, I'm confused at what makes this difference than Diego Pavia case, which is also still being heard. And look, I am glad. No, no offense to Tennessee, but I'm kind of getting tired of these guys getting seven, eight years of eligibility. So I'm like, good, maybe we can set a precedent. But is this the difference that the attorney just made a better argument

[B]

or

[D]

is it that much different where there is a different precedent where he did play, you know, multiple year. He played two years juco. Three years of college football. He did have Covid.

[C]

Like, it's definitely a different argument. Right. In some ways, the judge in Tennessee seemed to. To like put special consideration on like, what are like kind of the long tail ramifications of my decision. You know, is this going to impact everybody? Is like a little state court decision here kind of all of a sudden blow up the entire system. Like, what's the true hardship here? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah.

[B]

This was. Listen, I've been giving lawyers and judges a lot of crap on this show last few weeks. This was a huge weekend for judges. Putting the home team aside and doing what's best for everybody.

[A]

Going all the way back to Friday.

[B]

Just huge weekend. Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

So very interesting to look at that. I mean, what the. The Tennessee offense with Joey Aguilar best rated as like a. A B plus last season.

[D]

I mean they won all the games. They were supposed to like to Bud's point, like the floor. Like he was good when ran the

[A]

ball well against Florida, you know, early in the season, I thought the pass attack was a little bit more successful than it was coming down the stretch. Some of that is the opponents and the way that all that's going to unfold. But it was fine. You know, like, that's a, that's a top 20 offense. Right. And now they just are dealing with the variance as we go ahead. We'll. We will see. Yes.

[D]

Danny, I think the biggest difference in this is. I do think Tennessee would have approached this differently if they thought they were going to lose. Like, I think they would have been in the market for some of the better quarterbacks if they. Like, I don't. You don't think so, Tom? So I think they would have been in the market for better guys.

[B]

How can you be in the market? Like who's going to want to come if there's a chance that Joey Aguilar is going to be your starter?

[D]

Well, that's the problem. That's my point is kind of like, and they were probably in an awkward situation because they didn't want to tell him go kick rocks. But they might have been better served to do that and just said, look, we're going to move on and good luck in the NFL. But I do think this kind of hamstrung them by having this case and why we're talking about three relatively inexperienced quarterbacks taking the helm for the Falls.

[A]

They might also feel as though the.

[D]

Yeah, the young guys they might feel really good about.

[A]

Right. Because what I'm thinking about the Ole Miss situation where if it didn't work out, it was going to be Deuce Knight. Deuce Knight is a lottery ticket. Right. Right. You know, if you, you feel like you put in the evaluation process, you've already had McIntyre at least around for a little bit, you know, you would instead of bringing in another of what you've got, then, you know, might as well stick with all your sunk costs that you've got in the the talent that is inexperienced, 100%, but definitely young. You know, Tennessee's right there. Right there on that cusp.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You could argue for them as a top 25 team going into the season. Sure. You could also tell me they're the 40th best team going into the season. Sure. I don't think they'll be bad talent levels too high. But this is, this is a big one for the Vols, certainly, as we continue to project ahead to 2026. Now, if Joey Aguilar had gotten his eligibility case appealed so that he would be in for 2026, then, then maybe we would have used this as a transition point to ranking the returning starters for 2026. No, that will be on Wednesday. So on Wednesday, a group that Joey Aguilar will not be a part of ranking the returning starters, all of us are going to come with a top 10. If you want to come with your list as well, come and join us YouTube.com cover3 he will be a part of the NFL process. Our week will end on Thursday with a little NFL Combine preview. But coming up on the other side. The big question. Okay, everyone likes to throw around the buzzword about super league, but feet to the fire, what do you actually think this is going to look like? We'll get into all that and more.

[B]

Next.

[C]

Hey, Sal.

[B]

Hank.

[C]

What's going on?

[B]

We haven't worked a case in years.

[C]

I just bought my car at Carvana and it was so easy. Too easy. Think something's up?

[A]

You tell me.

[C]

They got thousands of options, found a

[B]

great car at a great price, and it got delivered the next day.

[C]

It sounds like Carvana just makes it

[B]

easy to buy your car, Hank. Yeah, you're right.

[C]

Case closed.

[A]

Buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. My dad taught me a lot, including how easy it is to forget to cancel things.

[C]

So I downloaded Experian, my bff.

[A]

Big financial friend. Experian could help me cancel my unused

[C]

subscriptions and lower my bills, saving me hundreds a year.

[A]

Get started with the Experian app today. Your big financial friends here to help you save smarter. Results will vary. Not all bills are subscriptions eligible. Savings not guaranteed. $631 a year average savings with one plus negotiations and one plus cancellations paid membership with connected payment account required. See experian.com for details. Experian the new LinkedIn hiring pro. Can't undo your last hire the empty seat, who is actually just that, an empty chair in your office because you couldn't find someone to fill it, so it just sat there, costing you money with all its fancy ergonomic features. But LinkedIn Hiring Pro can make it easy to fill that seat with the right candidate. With nearly 60% of businesses finding someone to interview in the first week alone, hire right the first time with LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Post your first job today and get $100 [e-mail] Pandoraoffer terms and conditions apply back here on the COVID 3 podcast. Yes, as we're going through the big old bag of mail, which you can obviously jump in and you can and you can, you know, leave a five star review and in that review put a mailbag question, we will throw it into the big old bag of mail. And so this was one that came in and it just, you know, it felt like one that needed a little bit more time and a little bit more breathing room because it was a question about what a super league would actually look like. And so figured we'd bring that here to the guys and we'll be offering both predictions and petitions, both what we think will happen and what we would like to see happen. So let's start with some very, very simple stuff that you can put hard numbers to. How many teams do you think will be in the Super League? I,

[C]

I think it's probably in like the 60s.

[A]

I. 48.

[D]

I said 60 to 70 was my number.

[C]

Yeah, almost all the private equity proposals have used 70. I think there's like, the way I got to like 60 is like, I think there's probably 48, like guaranteed. And then I think they would probably have to do it to avoid like antitrust, where they can say, hey, if you are willing to commit to spend X over this amount of time and acknowledge that the revenue sharing is somewhat unequal, then you're in it basically. Like, so you're not excluding based on preference. You're excluding based on like market size, commitment, blah, blah, blah. Like, like, if you want to be in, if you want to kind of invest in us with this Super League, you have to spend a certain amount. And I think they would get, you know, kind of 12 to 15 teams on top of that 48 that would be in like, I think Houston would find a way in.

[A]

Yeah. So when you, where I get to 48 is tough decisions for Boston College, Wake Forest, UCF, Arizona, Houston, West Virginia, Cal, Stanford, Syracuse, Rutgers, Pitt, even Cincinnati, you know, Colorado. Tough decisions about whether you're going to step, you know, whether you are going to throw into whatever the buy in is. I mean, the pot. The way that I think that this will be done will be mostly driven by television. And I think it will be done a lot based on television viewership. And those schools that I just named are at the bottom of the television viewership list among power conference teams for the 2025 season. And so are these schools as institutions, either out of pride or out of the. The need to be at the big boy table, are they going to be making whatever kind of increased commitment can overcompensate for what will be viewed as not bringing value to the table? You know, like, for example, SMU does not rate well, but SMU has shown us with their willingness to take zero media rights dollars for nine years from the ACC that they are willing to, pun, unintended, pony up whatever it takes to offset what is like a value that based on television ratings and based on school size might not be that high. So if maybe we do get up to 60, if some of those schools that I just mentioned decide that they're going to up their buy in. But that's why I'm leaning more towards the 48 is I'm not sure if those decisions will be made that way.

[C]

How do you address, like, the regional issue if you go with 48? Because I feel like it is so heavily Southeastern if you do that, that, like, if I'm looking at as like an espn, I have to see upside in this, and I don't. Like, there's only so much viewership you can. And I know people are moving to the Southeast like crazy, but, like, there's only so much viewership I can squeeze from, like, the Southeast and Texas. Right.

[A]

Sure.

[C]

I do need people in the Mountain and West coast time zones to, like, Pacific time zone, excuse me, to watch this thing. I do need the big population centers in the Northeast to watch this thing. Like, I don't need Syracuse, Boston College, Western and Pitt, but I probably need like one or two of those.

[B]

Right?

[C]

Like, I don't need Cal and Stanford unless they both want to invest in, but I, I probably need some presence in, in the Bay Area. Right. You know, like, did, does that make sense? 48. 48. I think as an investor, you look at this and you say, okay, we are so saturated in the Southeast, this makes it tough.

[B]

I, I also think 48 is too small for a lot of the reasons that you were saying, chip, that maybe 48 makes more sense. Like, TV is going to want 64 to 72 teams in there just for the inventory.

[C]

Right.

[B]

Like, you don't have to be big ratings draw, but we're. They're going to want the extra games. And if you're the leagues or the league at this point, it's like, you know, Bud says, take the losses. You don't need the teams to invest as much to be in as much as having them gives you more games to sell, which therefore makes your television package larger, which means you can split it up more and there are more bidders and you're getting more money. So therefore you've got a bigger piece of the pie going. And if there is an uneven distribution of revenue, you don't really care if that one school is only putting in 75% of what the other schools are because they're only getting 75% of their paycheck compared to, compared to everybody else. So, Yeah, I think 64 to 72 is what we're gonna end up at when this does happen.

[C]

Yeah, Like, I, I, eight divisions of eight gives you, you know, seven, like divisional opponents every year and also gives you quite a lot of, of like, leeway to play other rivals that are outside of your annual pod.

[A]

I had it as 4, 4 conferences of 12 that may even allow for the power 4 conferences to run it and be able to carry over like there some switching, some swapping, but I. I thought. Because if there's going to be some seeding of power, which ultimately it is, conference commissioners will become less powerful with the creation of one super league, with the exception of whatever commissioner maybe gets to become supreme chancellor of college football. But, like, almighty. Yeah.

[C]

Are we doing only football?

[A]

I kind of think that the super league is only football.

[C]

I think so, too. Yeah. Because basketball looks a lot different. And if I'm running a basketball super league, I need some of those schools in the Big East.

[A]

The power of college basketball from the monetary standpoint is the NCAA tournament, which is what keeps all of those schools and conferences kind of bound together with that. This would be in my eyes only, sort of through the engine of the College Football Playoff. And I mean, I don't know if we want to go ahead and push it, but I was even wondering, is that how they become employees? That they're not employees of the school, but they are employees of the College Football Playoff?

[B]

Yes. Well,

[C]

I had definitely not employees of the school, either employees of the conferences, the super league or the playoff.

[A]

Yeah. I'm imagining that the College Football Playoff is.

[B]

Yeah. Whatever the entity is called at the point. Yeah.

[A]

That it is that.

[D]

I thought it was interesting what you. Because I was wondering about that too, so. Because I do think whatever it looks like is going to look entirely different. But for branding purposes, you do think they'll still be an SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, like. And maybe they look completely different, maybe retooled, but just for college football branding purposes will keep those names intact.

[A]

Yes. I think that makes it easier for fans to swallow that you. You're not trying to force the Southeast Division, you know.

[D]

Right.

[A]

You can still get Kirby up there, guys. The SEC is hard. It's. Even if it's, you know, like an SEC that doesn't have Missouri anymore or, you know, that. That maybe is off some of the Texas schools that end up, you know, sort of reorganizing. But I think for the. Selling this to college football fans, sort of grafting in the branding even of those four power conferences, I think would be something that I could definitely see happening. So that's how many teams.

[D]

Because I think. I think we will evolve into something where there is a bigger split between the current power schools and the current group of six schools. I do think that's where the split. I think that's where the line is kind of easiest to draw and say, all right, we're going to see a further separation because it's already there.

[A]

Right.

[D]

When you can't keep the players, you can't do it. And I mean, I know they still have access to the playoffs. How does that look too, I think is a big question, but I think that's the easiest line of demarcation and

[A]

that would get it.

[D]

So it 64, 72 somewhere in there.

[A]

72, yeah. Hey, listen, I'm. We're just throwing predictions down, guys. I'm on the low end here. That's okay. We will. I'll go ahead and take that with. With my 48. All right. What about the win? Everyone always says 2032. Could it be sooner? Could it be later? And I understand, like before you parse me on this, the win is it. When do we find out about it? When does it become official? When does it get put in place? I understand those are all different dates, but when do you think we would see the creation of a Super League?

[B]

2032.

[C]

That's kind of why I think so as well.

[A]

Like the next College Football playoff contract about within two years of the SEC and the Big Ten deals coming up and still five years before the ACC's.

[B]

Don't worry, the ACC won't exist at that point. Florida State, Clemson will pull the pin. That'll be done pretty quick.

[A]

Is that. Do you see it? 2032?

[B]

Yeah, I mean, it might not be exactly 2032, but I definitely think in that 2031-2035 time frame is when this is all really going to start happening.

[D]

Would you take if it was 2031, would you take. If you had to bet on one over or under or before or after? Would you lean towards after 2031 or do you think there's any chance this could get done? Like, there's been a lot of complaining about finances. You know, do they need the money faster from the TV monies?

[A]

I bet under. I'd bet sooner.

[B]

Yeah, I would. I wouldn't be shocked if. Now you're not going to believe this because college football would never do anything like this. I wouldn't be shocked if they just jumped into it and then changed things on the fly. Like maybe they came up with a playoff for 12 teams format and then after one year they just changed the format to something else and keep changing every year. What?

[A]

College football never does this. Tom, that's crazy. What do you think, bud? Are you going 2032?

[C]

Yeah, I think so. Like, I don't think you're going to get a whole lot of movement from Congress that that enables you to move faster than this. It's pretty clear this is not an issue on which people get elected or rejected. And it is an issue you can just keep stacking those lobbying dollars and hold hearings every year. So it's a nice little cash cow for the politicians. They seem really far apart on all this stuff, like they couldn't even bring it to a vote this year. So Yeah, I think 2032 is probably the most likely. There's so many issues to solve here.

[A]

I, I could see it being sooner because I think that there are a lot of college football administrators that are in the move fast and break things era. Remember like they just like that early Silicon Valley boom which obviously sometimes leads to reckless decision making and so on and so forth. But I heard Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork, he just as an offhanded comment mentioned, next two to five years we're going to be, you know, doing, making a lot of moves and coming up with big pivots. And Danny, you're nodding. So I guess you heard that same interview too.

[D]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

What'd you think?

[D]

I thought, I thought the exact same thing. I think he was pretty open about what the future of college football could look like. And when he's offering his suggestions, it

[A]

sounds like he's been sitting in a lot of no bad idea boardrooms and he's just throwing out stuff. The in the next two to five years we're going to keep making changes. Kind of has me at the place where I think it could be earlier. And even if we have to wait, I think that we're just going to continue to see the power structure get tested by those on the inside who definitely think that nothing that we have right now is sustainable and nothing that we have right now is still going to be around in 10 years. And so how they get there, I'm not so sure. But yeah, among the many data points that I considered for this discussion, hearing those sorts of sentiments led me to believe that, yeah, maybe by 2028 or 2029 we already have an idea of what this looks like, who's involved and we're already starting to get the preparation for it.

[B]

I mean we certainly see plenty of schools that are kind of preparing for it. I mean like we Sacramento State, obviously we've talked about North Dakota. Dakota State's making the jump. We're seeing a lot of the lower level schools who feel like they would have a shot, taking their shot. But you're also seeing, like, a school like Northwestern build a football stadium. And the reason they're doing it is they're trying to showcase that, well, a, they needed a new stadium because their other one was kind of just not great. But also they're trying to showcase that, hey, we are willing to invest in this. We want to be a part of this going forward. We understand what kind of money we can make going, you know, in the sport for the school and for our program. So you're certainly seeing schools making that effort. It wouldn't shock me, like, maybe the reason, and I've talked about it, like, jokingly, but maybe the reason they have, like, all these different meetings between. Thank you. And Petiti where they're discussing the playoff format. But, gee, gosh, we keep having the same thing and we can't agree. Maybe they're discussing something else. Maybe everybody's getting together and laying the groundwork for other things,

[A]

like the thing that you can't talk about, but you just continue to, like, slowly push it down the line.

[B]

Mm.

[A]

We're gonna hit a break and talk a little bit more about what we would want in a little bit. So if you were to make predictions on structure, you think it would be the conference? Do you agree with the conferences? Or do you think it would be eight? Eight teams? Divisions? You know, how do you see all that playing out?

[C]

So, I mean, this is really complicated because you're gonna have to find a way to sell this to certain teams, like Texas. Like, one of the things we heard from Texas, one of the justifications for their move was, we don't want to play TCU and Texas Tech and Oklahoma State in snu. We want to play the big brands. And I think if you go back to eight of eight, then you're probably going to try to make that somewhat regional, you know, just to cut down on travel costs and to. To keep the regionality of the sport a little bit that we've lost or, you know, return some regionality to the sport. So, like, how do you. If you pull that off, like, how do you sell that to Texas fans? Hey, you're going to play seven games against, you know, smu, tcu, Baylor, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State. That's probably your division, right?

[A]

You don't think they'd get A and M?

[C]

Sorry, A and M?

[B]

Yes.

[C]

So cut one of those out, right? I guess, maybe. I don't know, maybe Baylor gets cut out or something like that. So, like, how do you balance, like, getting the big, big teams to say yes to this? When they, the reason why they left the Big 12 ostensibly was because they were tired of playing these teams that don't have the same kind of cachet of like a, an LSU or a Bama or something like that.

[B]

You could maybe take like an MLB approach. MLB has two east divisions, two west divisions, two central divisions and two south divisions. So maybe you take the Southeast or whatever the hell you want to call it and instead of just making it the sec, you just split it into two different eight team divisions where yeah, you're going to split up some schools who are maybe together now, but maybe you base it more on Atlantic and you know, Gulf instead of Southeast. So maybe like the Miamis and the Florida's and the Florida states are in one division but the Alabama's Auburns are in another division with the Texas is in the Oklahoma's. I don't, I think that there are multiple ways you can go about it to where you try to balance it, but at the same time I, I think that the selling point would have to be if you're Texas or you're one of those schools that was like, we want to play bigger brands. It's like, dude, this is literally the Super League. Everybody's a brand now. So really the goal isn't playing brands and selling tickets. It's about making money through tv, which is our ultimate goal here and getting to the playoffs and winning games and being, you know, the Dallas Cowboys of like the Dallas Cowboys aren't crying about playing the Tennessee Titans. Like that's what they're trying to get to.

[C]

One of the things that the NFL did like 40 or 50 years ago was like they, they took equal revenue sharing on like, on a lot of the revenue, right? And like they had to convince Jerry Jones and the guys who owned the Giants and you know, the Washington and you know, San Francisco and all those dudes and they said hey, like we are stronger with an actually competitive league. I think that's harder to do in college because the gap in resources is way bigger than it was in the NFL. Like I don't think you had NFL team spending, you know, 3x what other NFL teams were spending. Maybe I'm wrong on that, but maybe some was like 50% more but not double or triple in that the only

[A]

way that you get some of those teams like 49, 50, 52, 53 to agree to this is if they're going to see their revenue payments going up. If it is a super league.

[C]

No, I think it's, I think it's fomo I think you get them to

[B]

agree to it by pretty much, hey,

[C]

like, how do you get UCF to say yes to this?

[A]

Do you, do you think that the super league operates as a super league that has negotiated one media rights deal with multiple partners? Yeah, that's a huge part of this that has to happen for.

[D]

And that makes it way more attractive to everybody. And that's where I think you could see some of these schools like a UCF and some of the ones that may not be able to afford it would be able to with some of this new money that would be found.

[A]

Would. Would they?

[D]

I think there'd be way more money in flux like to. The sport would be coming to it with a major media rights deal with multiple TV partners and expanded playoff, but

[A]

there would not be equal revenue sharing among the schools. See. Yeah, well, you have it.

[D]

You have it now.

[C]

You have it now among the conferences.

[A]

You have unequal revenue sharing among the conferences. That is correct.

[C]

Yeah. Some conferences, the ones that are down

[D]

and even inside the conferences. Right.

[C]

I mean, but I, but I think you do hear the, like the big boys in the Big Ten in the SEC also kind of saber rattle about this a little bit. Like Ohio State in particular, you know, they've been pretty public. Hey, like we, we make as much money like for the league as like the bottom five teams combined type thing.

[B]

They are free to go independent.

[C]

I, yeah, like, if they sold that mission, like, if they sold their game

[D]

against like Michigan, it's at $100 million

[C]

for just Michigan game than they would for the whole Big Ten deal.

[B]

Right.

[A]

But you can't make the whole plane out of the black box. You can't build a whole season out of the Ohio State Michigan game. It's got the one game.

[C]

You know, I got, I got a couple buddies who, who played minor league baseball and they're like, look, most of us are there, so the real prospects have somebody to play against. You know, that's not really a perfect analogy because there are real fans for, for like the teams that won't ever probably win, you know, big stuff. Which is harder to say now after Indiana won the whole damn thing. Right. Gives everybody more hope.

[A]

Like, it's so easy for us to pick the teams and sort them in divisions and try to tell you they're going to play nine, divide nine conference games or everybody in their division and this many rotations. But to unfurl the conference television rights deals and then get all of the schools that had to fight over the television rights deals to agree to A new television rights deal that they now have to agree to with 65, 70 or 69 other schools. I, that is the part that truly fascinates me and I don't have a good answer for how that happens because the only way I see it happening is for Ohio State and Texas to agree to a deal where they're going to be getting more and four schools jumping onto the very edge of this that because of FOMO or pride or whatever else are going to be signing up to take less. Which by the way, already happens in the College Football playoff with the ACC and the Big 12 having a step down position behind the Big Ten and the SEC or the big Big 12 and the ACC. Excuse me. So I, I think it has to be unequal revenue sharing if you are going to push this thing through. And that is going to be extremely uncomfortable. I think for some schools that are kind of caught in the middle and maybe not having the same view of their worth to what it would be to the person actually organizing the league,

[C]

you would have some tremendous battles in states too as to who gets in. Right. Like, I don't think USF and UCF get in.

[A]

No.

[C]

You know, but like one of the, one of those schools will organize their, their alumni better and commit to spending what it takes.

[B]

What if we just like fight?

[C]

You know, like, do you think Purdue and Northwestern both get in? I think like from a TV perspective, you already have Notre Dame in this. I know, but Indiana, which just recently

[A]

won a national title, Purdue actually gets decent television ratings. I mean, they don't make any of the top 20 graphics. But if we're doing cutoffs at 40 or 48, Purdue's going to get in that a lot more often than you realize compared to the on field success.

[C]

Yeah, if it's only retrospective, I, I agree. But like, I, I don't know, I

[A]

was looking at the last five years, which includes some bad years.

[B]

You know, I honestly, I would expect that every single school in the Big Ten or SEC will be in this because they have enough of a financial advantage over everybody else right now that

[C]

they could foot the bill if it's 48. I don't think there's a chance that you get, you get full SEC and full Big Ten.

[B]

But no, no offense if it's 70. Yeah, no offense, Chip. I don't think there's any chance in hell it's only going to be 48, right?

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Hey, but if it's 48, then it's nothing but bangers. Bangers only. You know, I mean, just.

[B]

Yeah, but then too many, then too many banger programs are losing too many games.

[A]

I know.

[D]

Gosh.

[A]

But what?

[D]

No, I was thinking, if it's only 48, you're gonna have some pissed off programs and some pissed off fan bases.

[B]

Yeah. And that's the other, that's the other part like Bud was talking about. Then you're kind of alienating a large portion of your viewership.

[C]

Right. That, that's why I think if I was running it, I would propose 48 and I would use FOMO to get them to agree to certain things and I would agree to expand it to like 60 or 64.

[B]

What if you had a 48 team Premier League and a 24 team second championship. Yeah. And then you had like a relegation, promotion kind of thing to it. So the players you could sell, you could sell like the promotion playoffs as a separate playoff and that would do very good TV numbers like, he's playing for the right to move up.

[A]

How does, how does the Super League handle transfers? It'd be your opportunity to start from scratch.

[D]

Well, yeah, then you'd have actual contracts.

[B]

Yeah. There'd probably be free agency.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And there might be trades or it could be like, you have to, if you want to take a player who's got a contract, you buy them.

[D]

Right.

[B]

Like soccer. You're, we're gonna give you 5 million for this kid. And if school agrees to do it, they do it.

[D]

I mean, we saw that with Duke. Right. Miami, we're already kind of seeing it, but I think it would be more above, above board and people would realize, hey, you know, maybe you could restructure. Maybe you could have renegotiated more money for Darian Member. I think it'd be more like professional contracts. What about a draft?

[B]

I was gonna say there would be a different way that they would do recruiting. Or would it still just be the same? General?

[D]

I think that's, I think that's a bridge too far.

[B]

So do I. I mean, are we

[A]

about to go eliminate the NBA draft? I mean, there's no way I saw that floating around like this. Just full unrestricted free agency.

[C]

I don't know. I, I, So the thing is

[B]

like

[C]

the teams, you're going to have a lot of teams that would want the draft. Draft keeps things cost controlled. Right. So they're all going to like, from that standpoint, they would all love a draft. There are certain teams where, like regionality, especially like in a salary cap era, you would really want to keep the regionality of the recruiting piece Right. Because there are certain states that have all the talent. So, like, if you actually get a true salary cap in this, where the spending is like actually controlled, the teams that have good regionality really have an advantage. Like, you know, think Miami, right? Okay. Best, like best city in the nation for talent. Maybe Atlanta, depending on take your pick. Also no state tax. Like, that's a huge advantage for, for the Hurricanes in a super league setup where everybody has the exact same amount of money to spend, you know, So I think a lot of the teams that don't have talent rich backyards would probably outvote the teams that do to implement a draft.

[A]

I don't think we'll have a hard salary cap.

[B]

I do.

[A]

You do?

[C]

Is that the way you get the top teams to vote yes on this? Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. Okay.

[A]

No, I was saying I don't think we will have a salary cap so that the top teams vote yes. And it will create a much more major league baseball environment where there's going to be a school that is the Pittsburgh Pirates and not spending but still getting pretty good revenue checks and developing players for them to go be stars elsewhere.

[C]

So, like, would you have a salary floor?

[A]

Yeah, maybe.

[B]

See, I, I think that if you were to do that, if you had a salary cap, I think that with you could keep recruiting the way it is and get the draft because then maybe the top team wouldn't have enough room under the cap to sign that five star this year. So the, you know, the Georgia Tech or the other team that's towards the bottom maybe has a chance to bring in the five star because they've got more salary space.

[A]

Man, it feels tough to enforce a salary cap though, with college.

[B]

It's not tough for the professional leagues, which is exactly what we're doing. We're professionalizing the league. If there's legitimate financial consequences for breaching the cap, you can enforce it. God knows what's going to happen to the Clippers here in the next few years

[A]

because of their true. I mean, the Clippers example is like college sports looks at the Clippers story and is like, ha, no show jobs, businesses that don't exist. Come on, come on, we've been on that.

[B]

Let's go. It's far easier to skirt the rules when you aren't all in concert with one another and have agreed to, you know, contractual things. When everybody's kind of signed in and in it together. If you're not enforcing the rules, you're going to get ratted on and you're going to get punished

[A]

what do you think? Salary cap, Danny? You think that it would have it?

[D]

Yeah, but it's. It's so hard to envision college football without somebody trying to gain an edge. Like, I wonder if there would be sweeteners, as I think one time Greg Sankey even referred to him when we were coming into the Rev share. You know, collectives aren't going away, they're just going to provide sweeteners, which we've seen. So, like. But if you actually had a system where they would get punished for those sweeteners and then you actually had true marketing deals, which is what you have in the NFL. Like, you know, you get Patrick Mahomes has a campaign with whatever headphones, whatever

[A]

shoe deals, or that Jackson Dart has more value being the New York Giants quarterback than he does being the Tennessee Titans quarterback.

[D]

Totally. And they make more, which is totally fine. And that's the way it works. I'd love to see that, but I do think it would make the playing field even. We're getting a little bit of parity, but we still have those teams that can spend more. But I think you actually would. But then, like, it goes back to Bud's question. Do they really want parody or not?

[A]

Because 30, getting 30, 31, 32 team owners all on the same page is difficult and yet easier than it will be to get 65, 68, 72 schools, you know, to all be on the same page. Where unlike owners and ownerships, which, yes, owners can change franchises are bought and sold. Everybody at these schools are just a steward. And many of them might be moving on from their job as a university president or as an athletic director five years from now, or if not less, the motivations for these decision makers at the schools, like, there is no one person who is overseeing what is best for the school quite like you have at the ownership level. It's just another place where I think we say professionalizing college sports. There's some disconnects there that I think it's going to make it really tough to just get everything to go as neatly and as cleanly as it could go because of all the competing conflicts of interest that you've got among them. Include the individuals that are making these decisions at the president and athletic director level.

[C]

Yeah, that I agree with, man. I just, I keep coming back to this idea of like, you know, how do the schools balance the factor of like, like the, the business factor versus being like competitive edge factor for winning? And then how do you project out like, okay, salary cap clearly helps our business model. But Also like continuing to max our resource edge keeps us winning which keeps eyeballs on us. Right. So maybe they go salary. I don't know, maybe it's like maybe the sour caps like a percentage of your rev share. Right.

[A]

Kind of what it is now or what it's supposed to be right now.

[C]

Well, I guess my thought is like hey, we will have a sliding scale of revenue to teams whereas the people who get the most eyeballs. This is a TV product not wins eyeballs because this is that they know that's what it's about. And it also that's how you get the big brands to sign on because you can suck and you'll still get ratings for a long time after you Wisconsin.

[A]

I see you Wisconsin.

[B]

Keep crushing it baby Cowboys.

[C]

So maybe it's that it's like okay, like hey, you can, you can spend, you know, 50% of your revenue generated on payroll and each team's revenue generated number is different based on how many eyeballs they get. Like maybe that's how you get, that's how you have a cap, a hard cap off of a percentage.

[B]

Possibly. I, I also wonder though like we're, we're still looking at it as a college football mindset. Like this is not going to be college football as it is. It's the NFL. You have to look at how it has worked for the NFL and if you're trying to model what you have done after that league, your brand doesn't matter as much as the NFL brand does. Like as long as you are part of the. Yeah. And like we mentioned it like why would these schools join? It's like because again, join or die. So if you're Texas, the super league can just look at you. If you're like saying, well we want special treatment, they'll be like, we'll just get somebody else and then you can go form your other league.

[D]

Those are, I think if you're Texas, you know, you want to be a part of that league for sure and

[B]

that's why they're going to you. I think at the end of the day it's going to be more important to be in this league than it will be to be getting special treatment. Like everybody's going to make money. And I think that the more complicated aspect of this to me is how it impacts buy in in the long term. Because like a big reason why college football is what it is and some teams have more money than others is because of like boosters who are literally bought into the program. Like they are putting their money in and they were doing it because they feel like this way they are contributing to their team's possible success. Once you go to this super League, I don't think boosters are going to be all that relevant anymore, if they're relevant at all. They might just cease to exist because you're not going to need that money because your players are being paid from the revenue that you're generating that everybody's agreed to, that you're getting from these television deals. And you're still making a profit over the top of it, I'm sure. So it'll be interesting to see how that impacts it long term, But I do think that it won't be easy. But I believe you'll be able to convince these schools to get in and to do the equal revenue sharing because it's going to be better for them in the long run. Because at some point, if you keep going along the path we're going now, the television deals you're getting in the SEC and the Big Ten is currently constructed, they're not going to be there like the NBA signed that huge TV deal last time and now they were. When they came back to the open market for the new one, they were like, crap, are we even gonna be able to get the same amount of money? Because like a lot of networks are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We really overbid for this last time to get it and we are not willing to come back in. And you just look at the way the media works where all of these networks and streaming services are kind of streamlining and coming to be one where you've got like one company buying another. I don't know how many outlets are going to be out there looking to buy it. So I, I just think if you think in the next five, 10 years, okay, argue for why you should deserve more than the other. But if you're thinking 50 years down the road, you should probably get in what you can.

[A]

I'll tell you what, there ain't nobody in college sports who's got a 50 year view. I have seen nobody.

[B]

No, I know that is a huge problem that, but that's a huge problem with everybody. Very few people are thinking 50 years down the road, right?

[A]

Well, those are some of our predictions, some of our thoughts. A complex conversation for sure. But how about a parting shot just from the heart coming up on the other side, what do we as college football fans want to see from college football's future if you're going to drag us into a super league? Well, here's what we want to make sure college football holds on to all that and more next.

[C]

This week, the PGA Tour's best players go prime time with TGL presented by

[A]

SoFi in doubleheader action.

[C]

Atlanta Drive takes on both Boston Common

[A]

golf and Los Angeles Golf Club, plus

[C]

two primetime matchups on Tuesday.

[A]

Keep up it's Golf. Tune in Monday and Tuesday at 5pm

[C]

and 9pm Eastern only on ESPN, ESPN2

[B]

and the ESPN app

[A]

back here on the COVID 3 podcast. Danny, as a college football fan, as someone who loves the sport and has dedicated his life to, to playing and, and celebrating the game, what, what do you think is important? If, if you are talking to the, the man behind the curtain who is orchestrating all of this for college football, what do you think is important that college football carries into the future?

[D]

Gosh, this is a little depressing because I think, I don't know how many, how much of this is realistic, right? We were talking about the draft. I would not want to see a draft. I think we might have to. I think that might be what's down the road. But I would, I want to keep the players that want to play for their school because they dreamed of playing at Ohio State or Florida State or Alabama or Georgia, whatever school it is. So I hope we keep that. I would love players to love playing for those schools, even if they were recruited to go there and they signed there. I would love to bring back some stability where maybe it's you have to sign two year deals where you can't go to four different schools in one year. But I almost feel like, can we get that back in? Like the college football to me was always special for two reasons. The fans were passionate, way more passionate about their teams and the experience and the game day, the home field advantage getting crazy. And they haven't lost that yet. I haven't noticed that. I do have hear a lot of fans saying, oh, I'm getting tired of this, I'm done, I'm done. But they're still there. But on the other side, I noticed players like players that I played with and played against, you played for a lot of pride in your university and I think we're losing some of that. And what's kind of depressing is I don't know how we get that back.

[C]

I, I think that's part of where the regionality of this matters. Like, like you're, you're playing well. Two things. One, if you actually are willing to pay up and pay the long term disability and pay the guys, I don't want to use the word, like, what they're worth, like, in a vacuum, but, like, relative to what the other leagues pay them as a percentage of comp. Right. Then you can get some teeth in these deals that basically don't allow them to transfer or don't transfer near as often, which brings more roster familiarity, which means you're going to be a little bit more familiar with the guys you're working with. And also you're going to have more familiarity with the guys on the other teams, like, because you played them last year. Right. And I think that's. That's the one thing that I think, like, to Tom's point about, nobody's thinking, like, the future.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Like, the whole reason we have the transfer portal is because they're not willing to actually pay up what it would actually take to put these guys on contracts. And so, like, yeah, we'll. We'll deal with all this transfer stuff, which I think hurts fan connection with these teams because the rosters are completely transient year to year. But if they're willing to pay up and do that, which they. They might be and might have to, to form this thing, then I think, like, you get more roster continuity year to year and you might have that regionality stand or point to Danny's point.

[B]

Imagine if you push a player out the door and you have to still pay them. Oh, man, that's. The coaches wouldn't be in such a rush to turn the bottom of that roster. Yeah, it's. I mean, but overall, to your. Your other point there, Danny, like, this is really. This is the situation. Like, this is not college football anymore. It's just not. It is a professional league, and how everybody will adapt to it and how everybody will take to it will be very interesting to see. I would imagine that in the short term, people our age and older, maybe a little younger, will have very much those same kind of feelings for, like, well, this isn't blah, blah, you know, this isn't whatever. But those who kind of grow up in this might not even care. Like, it might just be the reality for them and it'll always be the same thing and they'll just turn it on on Saturdays and enjoy it, and they'll keep watching it forever, and this will just be the way it was.

[A]

I have a thought that is Pollyanna, naive, head in the sand, and also hypocritical. I did not have great attendance at the University of North Carolina, but I do hope that in the future the college football players are members of the college community. I think that there's just something about. Even if the. I understand they're all online classes and I understand you're keeping them holed up in the facility, but there is something to reasons why alumni come back and continue to give and continue to have the connection. And it's because they remember when they were walking in the quad and, oh, my God, there he goes. Right. You know, or you're out and. And at the. All the football players show up and, and they're at a place, you know, in the student union or, you know, you're out on the town. Just again, I'm not going to say you have to literally be in class, but I do hope, because this is the hope part. I hope that college football players in this professionalized future are still member of the college campus community, because I think that strengthens the fan connection of the. Their peers. And I'm using big air quotes for those of you listening to audio. Their peers in the campus community. I think it keeps that connection strong in a way that would be very tough if it's like 100% disconnected.

[C]

So let's expand on it real quick. Are you saying go back to what it was like 10, 12 years ago? Because right now I don't think a lot of these guys are seen around campus a whole lot. Right. Like, I think most your big schools have these guys on majority, if not exclusively online courses.

[A]

Correct?

[C]

Right. And they're around the football facility and they're around their, their, you know, apartments or condos or whatever the players are staying.

[A]

There's a, there's another Notre Dame.

[C]

You saw that clip over the weekend, right. Where the kid who transferred from Ohio State, Notre Dame was like, yeah, the class that like going to class things.

[A]

At the risk of getting myself in trouble. There's another subset of the campus community that the football players will follow. Okay. And wherever they are flocking, that's where the football players will be. That's, you know, it's just like if, if that's, if that's on the quad, if that's on the brickyard, if that. It just. There is a subset of the campus community that I think football players will still find themselves drawn to. And so, I mean, wherever they are, you saw.

[C]

Well, I'm not going to say this on the air.

[B]

Gone are the days where your starting middle linebacker shows up at your friend's party on crutches with a cast on his foot and you look at your friends and be like, I don't think he's playing Saturday. We better. Those days are Gone.

[A]

Yeah. But I mean, I guess you could say like it is 10 to 12 years ago, but to me, it just still having some connection to the campus community, I think is something that I would still like to see as a part of college football that sort of. Any other wishes before we get out of here? I know this is depressing, Jerry, but it's. It's a conversation. Right.

[C]

Preseason against the g, against the G6. Ooh.

[A]

Like, don't play any G6 non Super League teams.

[C]

Yeah. I think if you're. If you're cbs, fox, espn, you are not bidding on. On games like where the. Where the. Like the result is almost certainly a blowout. I think you're gonna get probably 11 P5 on P5 games. It allows you to start the playoff earlier, you know, so like under my thing, you play. You play your seven annual opponents from your division of eight, and then you play for, let's say, you know, like maybe one rotating or two rotating and then two like outside of your pod rivals type thing.

[D]

I would. I would be in favor of promotion, relegation.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

And I think that's like when Bud was saying the 48, you know, and then you use a negotiation, it could that be a part of it as well? You know, hey, you want to be a part of this, but you got to earn it every single year. But then if you're a school like Texas and you're One of those 48, you're subject to it as well. Like, that puts you at great risk, which we can never imagine, you know, a Texas or Ohio State or Florida State being relegated. But I think that would mean talk about the regular season adding a lot of interest to the end of November. That could be.

[B]

I appreciate you sneaking Florida State in there at the end because I feel like I could see a world, given the last few seasons, where Florida State gets relegated.

[D]

Right, Agreed. And like, how. And then like you saw, it was embarrassing. But imagine the tense nature of that fan base, which no one really cared about the last couple games. If all of a sudden, if you're playing to survive.

[B]

I was, I was talking about this with my wife the other day, like. Or she was talking about it, like, been sports fans our entire life. One of the greatest moments as a sports fan. I mean, I grew up watching the 90s bulls, you know, like, I've seen my teams win lots of championships, given who I root for. That might shock some of you, but like, one of the greatest moments of my life was after Aston Villa, who I'd started following in the Premier League, they got relegated and they were down there for a few years before they got back up. And then they finally get back up. And it came down in their first season back in Premier League. It came down to their last match of the season. They had to get a tie or else they were going to get relegated again. And them holding on to get that tie and staying up for another year was. Was one of the happiest moments of my life as a sports fan. I don't think most American sports fans truly understand the kind of stakes that the relegation promotion really adds to being a fan. Because it gives the season more like we talk about regular seasons losing, meaning your regular season never loses, meaning if there are teams that can literally be kicked out of the league at the end of it, if they don't win enough games. Every single game truly then matters. You don't have teams tanking like the NBA is thinking of getting rid of the draft or coming up with all these rules to keep teams from tanking. I can think of a way that would get rid of it immediately.

[A]

So the Premier League officially got started in 1992. Tom, I'm guessing, knows this. 20 teams in the league every single year. Hands up, no googling Danny or Bud. Do you know how many teams have never gone down close out of 20? So there's 20 teams in every year, three up, three down, bottom three automatically go down. So how many of the 20 have never in 1992? So small sample size because there is a. One of these teams has not been relegated since 1913. No matter what you called it, they've been in the top division of English soccer. Come on. Don't Gemini this.

[B]

Yeah, that's my answer.

[A]

All right, go ahead.

[B]

Six, six, six. Manchester. No, wrong league. Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So everybody else can get it right. You know, like that.

[D]

That's out of 20. It's a one year. It's a one year relegation. So every.

[B]

You have to earn your way back up.

[C]

Right, Right, right.

[D]

But you're sent down for one year and you could win it right back the next year if you were.

[B]

Or you could be down there for.

[A]

Right.

[D]

For a long time.

[B]

Like here's there's. I'm looking back at the original Premier League right now. I'm going to read some. And nobody in America was paying soccer. Paying attention to soccer these days. So I'm going to name some teams that you probably have never heard of that were once in the Premier League. Oldham Athletic, Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich Town.

[A]

Hey, Ipswich. You Better watch out. Ipswich will be out there on that ass.

[B]

But I'm just saying, like, these are teams that were once in the Premier League, and right now they're basically in, like, the third or fourth tier.

[A]

Yeah, I think that'd be cool. How about Danny? But Danny yearning for promotion and relegation. Yeah, it's a full.

[B]

And it's. It'll make incredible content for us, too.

[D]

And I think that's a way to keep the group of six, group of whatever we call that level engaged. And I think that would be an incredible playoff for them, you know, like if your top four teams got promoted, you know, your final four teams.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

And like your number one got promoted to the SEC or whatever it was, you know, that'd be insane.

[A]

It would. It would undoubtedly create a whole other economy at the end of a season. Watching those competitions to see what the stakes would be. A lot of fun. A lot of fun to sort of imagine it a little bit. A little bit hard to get through the nuts and bolts. Boys. We ate our vegetables today, but at least now we can point to this anytime anybody's saying, what is a super league going to look like? Here are all of our thoughts. We've worked through it as best we can. We appreciate all of y' all for rocking along with us Wednesday. Once again, we'll be getting back to the nuts and bolts, ranking our top 10 returning starting quarterbacks for 2026. I'll just say, what do we want to do? We need to set a limit on starts. I don't have a quarterback in mind, but if you've started four games. Five games, that counts as a returning starter, more or less. Okay, everybody, come with your list. Ranking the top 10 returning starting quarterbacks in college football. That'll be on Wednesday, 11am Eastern time. Thursday, we'll get you set with an NFL combine preview. Lots of fun. Thanks for everybody for hanging out. And you can follow him on Twitter at Time Frail. You can follow him@bud elliot3. You can follow him at Danny Cannell. Follow me at Chip Underscore Patterson. Gentlemen, thank you very much.

[B]

Thank you.

[D]

See you.

[C]

Monster Energy. Everybody knows White Monster Zero Ultra. That's the OG it kicked off this whole Zero Sugar Energy drink for. But Ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian Sunrise, and Vice Guava. And they all bring the Monster Energy punch. So if you've been living in the White can branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe, and every single one is Zero Sugar.

[B]

Tap the banner to learn more.