Welcome in to the newest edition of the Justin Timesports podcast.
I am your host, Justin Jackson.
In this week's episode, we'll be talking about the fast changing and ever changing
landscape of the college football and college athletics conference realignment.
We'll be discussing the NFL as it is officially back with the Hall of Fame game on Thursday
night and we will have our best for last.
Now, as always, don't forget to like, rate, and subscribe to the Justin Timesports podcast
on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And don't forget to follow and turn on your post notifications on Twitter, Instagram,
Facebook, TikTok, threads, all of your social media, Justin Timesports is on there with
the social media handle at JTimesports.
We'll pull up everything that you have on social media.
Now, as always, don't forget to sit back and get ready to learn something.
Welcome into the show.
So excited to be back with you guys.
Recording this per usual on Friday night.
And you guys will get this, of course, Saturday morning.
So hopefully nothing breaks overnight.
That kind of throws off anything I'm saying right now.
But of course, we'll have, or I guess you guys don't know, we will have some schedule
adjustments until when the podcast comes out.
As you guys know, if you guys are faithful listeners, I do coach football myself.
And so coming into the season now, getting close, ramping up, the show may come out a
little earlier.
Plus the NFL, I want to try and get you guys a show Thursday morning so you guys may, you
know, I may record Wednesday night, get it out Thursday morning, or so on and so forth.
We'll be adjusting the schedule.
But I will let you guys know how the schedule adjusts.
I will do my best to do it the week or two before it adjusts.
So probably that last week of preseason, I do the big NFL preview show.
Probably it's going to be the last Saturday show all the way through the NFL season.
Because then I want to get you guys a show before the next week of the NFL starts.
So a Wednesday morning show, Thursday morning show.
That way you guys will have all of your previews and your recaps before the NFL week even kicks
off.
Plus if it's a little better into my schedule, in perfect honesty with you.
But we are here today.
I woke up this morning, I'll be honest, right to the show, right to the show.
I woke up this morning completely and totally honest with you.
I was going to leave with the NFL.
And I was also thinking in my head, it's not going to be the longest show.
I was like, not a lot is happening right now.
It's kind of in that dead period of sports.
Major League Baseball is in the middle of the summer.
They're still playing day games, like one o'clock games.
They're still dead heat in the middle of the summer.
The WNBA is ramping up.
They're nearing their playoffs.
So that's going to be covered probably in earnest, probably next week on the show.
I mean, honestly, they might have got it in this week, but then so much stuff started
happening that they kind of got bumped out.
You know, I was thinking maybe it's going to be a 25, 30 minute show.
NFL news, touching some signings, touched on the Hall of Fame game last night, kind
of preview, maybe share a couple of stories about the Hall of Famers since we're now getting
to the age group.
I'm a fairly young guy.
I'm just kidding if you're a loyal listener.
I'm 26.
So a lot of these Hall of Famers now, you know, Ray Lewis is prime.
I don't remember if that makes sense.
And being not a Ravens fan, I don't remember that 04, 05, 06 Ray Lewis.
I'm a Patriots fan.
I barely remember Teddy Brueske on the field.
Like, one of those things was like my first real football memories probably, I remember
Teddy Brueske, but I can't say, oh, that specific play.
Like, I, you know, like I'm not, yeah, I can in some of the Super Bowls, some of the
Avers title games, but that's because I was a Patriots fan.
And of course, the Randy Moss years and stuff like that.
But, you know, I know the history of the game.
I've seen the highlight packages, but not being a Ravens, being not that I wasn't a
Ravens fan, I can't really pinpoint, bam, when certain stuff, Ray Lewis happened.
Just for instance, Ed Reed, same thing.
But now with this Hall of Fam class, I can tell you a lot about the Arribas.
I can tell you a lot about Joe Thomas, you know, so we're starting to get to guys, even
Trey Palamalu, like I was a little bit more of a Steelers fan.
I can remember, I remember vividly watching when he jumped over the line and tackled the
quarterback.
I can't really remember that, right?
And so we're now getting to the Hall of Fam class.
I was going to do stuff like this.
I see how this is already naturally taking off and I find even how I'm starting the show.
That's kind of how I was going to go into the show.
And then the bottom fell out of college sports.
And really college football is the headline, of course.
Nothing moves in college athletics without football, of course.
That's why Duke doesn't move.
That's why North Carolina doesn't move.
That's why Gonzaga, no one cares.
And conference realignment, that's why no one's clamoring over getting Gonzaga in to
a conference.
They don't play football.
They'd be more of a detriment than a help.
You know what I'm saying?
No one's clamoring over at the basketball schools to get in conference, St. John's,
because they don't play football.
And so the bottom fell out of college athletics.
If you guys are driving or listening or walking or running or whatever, and for some strange
reason you're starting to hear bells and singing, that's because the funeral song of the Pac-12
has officially started.
The rumors of the Pac-12 demise was told to us last year, right around the same time.
Greatly exaggerated.
USC and UCLA were heading out of the front door.
They weren't even going out of the side door.
They were going out of the front door and they were heading their way to the Big Ten
in 2024.
Simultaneously, the reason why the Pac-12 can kind of stand on their laurels and stand
like, we're standing ten toes down, is because the Big 12 in 2025 was losing Texas and Oklahoma
to the SEC.
But I want to go back in the story of conference realignment since the world's kind of shaking
out and we're pretty much going to find out what's happening.
I want to go back about a decade.
Maybe a little more than a decade.
Remember the world of the four super conferences?
Who was the first conference to say to get the 16 teams?
There's going to be four 16-team conferences.
64 teams, pretty much the football powers, the top 64 of the football world, were going
to play in four conferences.
Those teams would basically, remember the playoff was remembered even back then.
Those four champions was going to, I mean they were talking about those four champions
automatically being tossed into a playoff or a tournament or whatever, but effectively
playoff.
The winner of the Pac-16, the winner of the Big 16, the winner of the SEC, and the winner
of the ACC would play in a tournament.
Those four teams would battle for the national champion.
I'm old enough to remember this.
This is probably 10 years ago, maybe 12 years ago.
I remember vividly getting used to saying the words Pac-16, Big 16, the super conferences
and stuff like that.
I remember trying to train a younger version of myself to say these things.
Of course, when there's four super conferences, someone has to die.
Now me, I wasn't old enough and I'm still, I'm old enough now, but I'm not really into
the TV contractual language and stuff like that.
And why there can't be five super conferences, and I kind of understand a little bit more
now with the Pac-12 and that situation.
Why there couldn't be five super conferences.
If everybody's TV deal isn't at the same time, and everybody's going to renegotiate and
move around, 80 teams and five conferences, the rest are scraps.
It fits, that works in my brain.
It was going to be the four super conferences, anywhere from 16 to 18 teams, 16 to 20 teams
in these conferences, the I-Man, I-Be, and the Big 12.
This idea dies.
The Pac-12 couldn't, at the time, Texas was trying to make the Longhorn Network.
Oklahoma and Texas were going to move together wherever they went.
And the Pac-12 couldn't get it to work.
The Longhorn Network and them, they were trying to keep the Longhorn Network out and all kinds
of stuff.
It fell apart.
Another bunch of public heat, by the way, it fell apart.
Fast forward to January, 2020.
The Big 12 has a problem.
Texas and Oklahoma are on their way out the door.
Now Texas was already out the door, probably to the SEC a little before that.
But again, the Longhorn Network is an issue.
When the Longhorn Network no longer became an issue, due to the Longhorn Networks ultimately,
but they were going to use the Longhorn Network for, I think, the NCAA and the Big 12 kind
of smelled out.
That's when the Longhorn Network basically became unimportant.
Oklahoma and Texas began to flirt with the SEC.
Now the Big 12 has a problem.
Their two top money makers, looking elsewhere, looking east, already have gone east from
the Big 12, was Missouri and Texas A&M.
Now, like I said, their two cash cows, the pillars on which the SEC was built, sorry,
the pillars on which the Big 12 was built, my apologies, was looking to join Missouri,
Texas A&M and the rest of the SEC.
They had the biggest revenue share.
They had the best athletes.
They had the best recruiting.
And frankly, A&M and Missouri was making handover fits financially with not really a whole
bunch of success.
I think Johnny Menzel had a spell at A&M.
Kyle Field is the house that Menzel built, especially that top section, literally.
Missouri came in and won the east, I think, their very first year in the conference.
But after that, Missouri's been below that.
Missouri's been average, six to seven win team.
A&M's anywhere from eight to 10.
Good, good competitive teams on both sides, not the cream of the crop of the SEC.
In Oklahoma, we're looking to join the SEC.
Okay, so the Big 12 commissioner goes to the Pac-12 commissioner because now there's the
beginning of embers and smoke flying up at USC and UCLA, maybe looking to go elsewhere
too, specifically the Big 10.
So the Big 12 commissioner goes to the Pac-12 commissioner and say, hey, let's talk.
How about we combine?
USC and UCLA haven't gone anywhere yet.
Oklahoma and Texas haven't gone anywhere, or they're out the door, but USC and UCLA
haven't gone anywhere yet.
We have some big brands, especially, we have big football brands, Oklahoma State, Baylor,
but we also have basketball brands, Kansas, Baylor.
You know, Oklahoma State's getting basketball, like West Virginia.
We have big basketball brands and we've got big football brands.
USC and UCLA are probably out the door, but they haven't gone yet.
Maybe even if they walk, we still have an 18 team conference.
The Pac-12 is still viable.
It's the biggest conference in the country, all this stuff.
All right.
The Pac-12 commissioner says no.
So now fast forward about a year, USC and UCLA, adios amigo, we're going to the Big
10.
Texas and Oklahoma, adios amigo, not only are we going to the Big 12, we're not only
going to the SEC, we're going to the SEC early.
We're going to 24 instead of 25.
UCLA and USC, that's a good move, Texas and Oklahoma.
We're going to go into the Big 10 in 2024, not 25.
Why is 2024 the year people are joining?
You don't have to pay an exit fee when there's a new TV contract.
So if the TV contract ends, you don't have to pay the conference an exit fee.
The Pac-12 and the Big 12's TV contract ends in 2024, which means as long as Texas and
Oklahoma, USC and UCLA don't put their names to a new TV contract, they're free to go.
Which is why they're joining in 24, which is why USC and UCLA are joining the Big 10
in 24.
So ultimately, it became the SEC's strongest, the Big 10 is the second strongest because
now the Big 10 goes coast to coast.
USC and UCLA are in LA, California, Rutgers is in New Jersey.
The Big 10 officially goes coast to coast.
Of course they have the middle of the country, Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, Iowa,
Iowa State, whatever.
They're officially coast to coast.
It's going to be very interesting when USC basketball on a Tuesday night has to fly to
Rutgers to play and then go back to school.
Well, most of their damage be done when on school in the spring.
It's going to be interesting when UCLA football has to play at Michigan in the big house in
November and it's a blizzard or Happy Valley, Pennsylvania and it's a blizzard.
Well just vice versa when Penn State has to go to California and it's 80 degrees and they've
been playing in 20 degree weather and their bodies are sweating bullets.
It's going to be very interesting how that works.
But ultimately, and the ACC, back to the story, the ACC is sitting there as the third strength
team in the conference easily.
They have their top dog in Clemson, which is how they're football.
They have a building in Florida State.
They have Duke in Carolina as far as basketball.
They're in a good spot.
Pac 12 and the Big 12 are hurting.
Then the Big 12 takes a swing and not only do they take a swing, they hit that swing
because the Pac 12 commissioner said, man, yeah, we don't have USC, UCLA, but we have
something they don't.
We have Deion Sanders.
We have the biggest star in the game.
We have Deion Sanders at Colorado.
The Big 12 says, originally Corso, not so fast my friends.
They get Colorado to join the Big 12.
Colorado is originally Big 12 school, but they get Colorado to rejoin the Big 12.
Then the chirping from other Pac 12 schools start.
They're just chasing the money and Deion's leaving the Pac 12 behind dry and all of a
sudden, bunch of Colorado slander.
Right?
Then the dominoes over the past week begin to fall.
We start hearing rumblings, the Pac 12 is done.
We start hearing rumblings, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah.
Along with Oregon and Washington could be looking to go elsewhere.
The Big 10 have officially decided to bring in Oregon and Washington to be an 18 team
conference.
Now for basketball, I don't know how you do that.
You only played 30 some odd regular season games in basketball.
You can't play everybody twice now.
Usually in college basketball, you play 12, 12 to 14 non-disclosure conference games.
Then you play everybody twice in your conference, 30s, four games, and you go into the tournament.
At 18 teams, play everybody twice, that's 34.
So unless you basically have no non-conference games, you can have like three no non-conference
games, or you don't play everybody twice, I'm not sure how they're going to do that
basketball because baseball is easy, it'll fold into itself.
Football, you'd have two big divisions.
19 divisions, you play to meet 10 conference games, you have to.
You play an automatic cross-unrivaled two non-conference games.
But anyway, they become an 18 team conference.
Oregon and Washington will not see the immediate financial jump that the other schools as USC
and UCLA will see when they took the conference from 14 to 16.
Oregon and Washington will not see as big of a jump.
They will get half portions of the Big Ten media share.
Still a good amount of money, and it will raise every single year through about 2029
when they will still be able to receive full portions.
But anyway, they're joining into the Big Ten.
Nike with Oregon, gone.
Washington, one of the bigger brands and rising brands, gone.
So UCLA is gone.
USC is gone.
Nike with Oregon is gone.
Washington is gone.
Within a couple of hours of each other, Arizona State, Arizona, and Utah all become voted
in members of the Big 12.
The Big 12 swells now to 14-ish teams, I believe, because they were back up to 12.
Oklahoma, Texas, they added two more teams.
So they could be a 16-team, and with 14 to 16 teams, I came out on top of my head right
now, conference themselves.
Which leaves the Pac-12 with Stanford, Cal, Washington State, and Oregon State in their
conference.
Now, normally schools have to stay together.
The only problem is, normally state schools have to stay together.
The only problem is, in order for the state schools of Washington and Oregon State and
Oregon to stay together, they have to go to the Big Ten.
And I'm not sure if the Big Ten is ready to have a 20-team conference.
They're already giving out half media portions to Oregon and Washington.
I mean, they might give quarter portions to Washington State and Oregon State.
And then that basically, to me, cripples the Pac-12.
Because my brain immediately went, okay, we'll go get Mountain West teams.
One problem.
Mountain West has a $32 million buyout fee per team in their conference.
So if they were to say, okay, let's just buy, let's just say we're going to go to
Mountain West and get 17 out of Mountain West, and immediately go back up to 11 teams.
Okay, we're going to have to pay over $360 million to do that.
Either the conference has to fork up $360 million, or they have to convince teams who
already don't have a lot of money in the universities to pay $32 million a piece to exit and go
to the Pac-12.
I don't see that happening.
So now you look at teams like Fresno State, and you look at the WAC, maybe, getting some
of those teams in there.
You're calling FCS teams.
You're dying.
You're no longer a power conference.
It's over.
The Pac-12 mishandled this probably for about 12 to 13 years now.
From the era of not securing the first super conference to not, I mean, I remember just
on a super conference though, ESPN was doing the dream matchups of Texas, USC, and the
Rose Bowl in November.
Winner, ghosts of the Pac-12.
I mean, just all kind of stuff.
These dream matchups were coming together.
The Big 12 was supposed to be the team conference that died, and then there's going to be the
Pac-12.
So there's a lot of ramifications flying around.
Of course, again, you're adding Oregon and Washington, along with USC and UCLA, to the
Big 10 in 2024.
You're adding Arizona State, Arizona, Utah, along with Colorado to the Big 12 in 2024.
Texas and Oklahoma head to the SEC in 2024.
The Big 12 also does their realignment in 2024 as well, making up for the loss of Oklahoma
and Texas.
What is the ramifications in different areas?
So in Angu I didn't think about it when child Clay Travis for this.
We just ran a lot, but he made a hell of a point on this.
What does the Rose Bowl do?
And I kind of said that the Pac-12 would survive because of the Rose Bowl.
It's in LA.
It's played in the Rose Bowl Stadium.
UCLA shares a stadium like.
You know those stadiums where it's nine miles from USC.
It's right around the heart of the Pac-12 offices and the Pac-12 epicenter.
What does the Rose Bowl do?
I think that the Big 12 should get involved with the Rose Bowl.
I think the Big 12 should be the host team for the Rose Bowl now.
One last year the Pac-12 champion going representing it and it'd be the end of the Rose Bowl as
we know it.
But I think that the Big 12 ought to get involved.
Clay Travis suggested Big 10 SEC meet at the Rose Bowl.
Big 12 champion, SEC champion, if they're not in the playoff they meet at the Rose Bowl.
There's one problem with that.
The SEC has the sugar bowl.
The Big 10 is linked to the cotton bowl, the Big 10 is linked to one of the New Year's
six bowl.
I can't even think right now.
It's the one in Indianapolis.
I know the SEC is linked to the orange bowl.
SEC has the sugar bowl.
The Pac-12 has the Rose Bowl.
Big 12's cotton bowl.
Oh man, I can't think right now.
But the Big 10 to me, if the Big 10 isn't bowl affiliated then I think that, let me
do a quick Google search guys.
I know it's a little odd but let me do a quick Google search to find out what bowl they are
linked to.
By linked I mean this team has an automatic conference tie in.
No matter what happens this conference champion goes to, okay no, so the Big 10 is linked
to the Rose Bowl.
Okay, then the sugar bowl is SEC versus the Big 12.
The orange bowl is ACC versus either the Big 10, the SEC or Notre Dame.
The cotton bowl, the fiesta bowl and the peach bowls have no conference tie ins.
So that's intriguing.
So in that case, I think the Big 10 changed my point.
The Big 10 should be the whole school and I think it should be Big 10 versus at large.
The Big 10's been going out there versus the Pac-12.
Oh god, feels like my entire life.
So probably before that it's been Big 10 versus the Pac-12 going out to the Rose Bowl.
I think I remember seeing when Joe Paterno was in the Joe Paterno special he was playing
for the Rose Bowl and it was like in the 80s, 70s and 80s.
So I think the Pac-12 should drop it and the Big 10 becomes the host and I think it should
just be Big 10 versus whoever.
If you want to automatically link I would say Big 12 but the Big 12 is tied into the
sugar bowl.
So I think the Big 10 should just be like the Orange Bowl where the Orange Bowl is the
ACC champion versus whoever.
The sugar bowl, the ACC Big 12, they want to keep that going.
They can keep it going especially because the zones are merging with the Big 12 going
from the center of the country to the east coast.
The ACC going from the east coast to the center of the country.
The zones are kind of merging now.
So they want to keep the sugar bowl as their catch all spot.
They're not in the playoffs that's fine and then the Big 10 hold down the Rose Bowl.
So I think that is what the situation should be.
The Big 10 holds down the Rose Bowl.
The Pac-12 drops claim to it and it's more like an at large thing to get to the Rose
Bowl.
But this is a situation where...
Oh one more point before I go into the major overarching point.
What is the ACC doing?
Now the ACC is adding two dogs in Texas.
I mean the financial amplification alone for that is massive.
What is the ACC doing?
They've kind of sat and chilled for like a better term and just played defense in this
whole conference realignment movement as opposed to playing offense.
They didn't get aggressive at the Big 10 and added four great brands.
They didn't get aggressive like the Big 12 if they lost their dogs and added three great
brands and then a great superstar.
Or two great brands and a superstar.
And Deion Sanders.
They didn't make a move like the ACC and get two of the biggest brands in college athletics.
I mean out of the top five brands, out of the top seven brands of all sports, the ACC
holds four of them.
Top eight, the ACC holds four of them.
The Big 10 might hold the other four because USC, UCLA, Ohio State, Michigan came to mind
immediately.
That's all in the Big 10.
LSU, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma came to mind immediately and those are all in the ACC.
So they split the top eight of brands.
And then you got Georgia in the ACC but you've got Michigan State in the Big 10.
So what does the ACC do?
I've named 10 top brands and I haven't mentioned the one ACC school.
Probably your biggest brand out there would be Florida State or Clemson.
I would say Florida.
Probably Florida gives them a run for their money for 11th.
Iowa State suck.
Oregon's actually up there.
So Oregon and Florida is probably the fifth biggest brands in each conference.
Texas A&M's up there too.
And they're competing with the top of the ACC.
So what does the ACC do?
Do they look at the American Conference with Louisville, maybe at Cincinnati, getting those
guys in the ACC just expand in number and try to match some of the sheer size of the
Big 10 and the SEC.
I hear the Big 10's at an 18.
The SEC is going to be at 16.
I wonder if the Big 10's going to change their name.
But just to match the sheer size of those two conferences, I wonder what the ACC decides
to do.
Also with the Big 12, I wonder if they play a year or two and then they say, okay, let's
buy two of the best Mountain West schools and go to 16 teams and just match that size
since they'll be pretty much coast to coast as well.
They won't reach all the way into California, but let's say they get a San Diego State and
a BYU with those two Mountain West teams.
$32 million apiece.
The 16 teams pay $4 million apiece and they buy them out.
And then they bring in those two schools, their 16 team conference and their coast to
coast.
So that would be huge.
The Big 10 gets the distinction.
They're the only coast to coast conference.
Rutgers is in New Jersey, which touches the Eastern Seaboard.
USC and UCLA, Oregon and Washington all play in the Western State teams, all play in states
that touch the Pacific Ocean.
Actually, all three states that touch the Pacific Ocean in the West are Washington,
California and Oregon.
The University of Washington, University of Oregon, USC and UCLA, all in the Big 10 now.
So they're the first coast to coast conference.
A distinction I'm sure that they're going to kind of thumb their nose at the SEC about
because although the top right now, you said the top may not be as good, but USC, UCLA
or Ohio State, Michigan, like you can put that up against Georgia, LSU, Alabama, Texas,
Oklahoma.
You can put those brands at each other and say, we got this the biggest brand as you
do.
But absolutely huge for collegiate athletics.
The Pac-12 is dead.
They're going to be the first conference, the first power five conference to die.
We've seen smaller conferences fade in and out, up and down, but this would be the first
of the power five conferences probably since the term came to be.
But definitely I remember since the Big Eight and really the Big Eight became the Big 12
to just flat out die.
I don't see an out for the Pac-12, especially this day, a power five conference is probably
going to transition into being a power four conference, power four situation because what's
the Pac-12 going to do?
The easiest answer would have been the Mountain West, but they'd have to basically absorb
the Mountain West.
And with the Mountain West having a $32 million per team buyout fee, unless they came to some
sort of joint agreement and became the Pac Mountain or Mountain Pac-12 or something like
that.
I don't see an answer for the Pac-12 to even begin to hope to remain a power conference.
So the Pac-12 race is going to be incredibly interesting this year because it's the last
one.
USC, UCLA going forward, Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah.
It's the last time they can automatically probably bid into the Rose Bowl.
So these conferences are going to go forward.
If you're here in SC Oregon, my bad, Oregon and Washington too, they're gone.
So it's going to be very interesting to see how these teams link up, even though Oregon
and Washington are going to end up in a conference.
Along with USC, UCLA that can put the Big Ten logo on their chest and go to the Rose
Bowl, but that'd be the last time they could do it as Pac-12 members.
So it'll be very interesting to see how this all shakes out.
Like I said, I was really crazy out.
I thought I was going to lead into the show with the NFL and it turns out I'm spending
about 30 minutes on college athletic realignment and just it changed over a course of about
24 hours, 48 hours at the max.
The whole world of collegiate athletics changed.
The West has no, the King has, there's no crown in the West.
The Emperor has no clothes.
The Pac-12 commissioner, he has nothing to stand on.
His crown, his entire conference came from under him in 72 to 96 hours.
Absolutely insane quickly.
And Dion spoke about it.
He's speaking about the hypocrisy now.
Last point on this.
Dion saying that, hey Coach Colorado Buffaloes, he's speaking on the hypocrisy now because
Oregon, Dan Laning at Oregon, Washington, I think one of the Arizona schools in Utah
had the loudest, oh, they're just running and they're what has Colorado done to say
they changed anything in the conference?
That was Oregon said, um, what, you know, they're just running for the money and they're
just da da da da da.
And so when all this happened, Dion went, what happened?
It's about the bag.
He said it by NIL too.
He said it's about the bag.
These collectives want to win.
They want to get their money.
It's about the bag.
So it's super hypocritical cause Dan Laning in school within a week of Dion moving, moved.
What is Oregon?
Oregon got a Capaceo title.
I'll give them that.
But, and they've been in NADD.
Lost it.
They've been to a NADD.
Um, so very hypocritical of some of these schools to jet less than a week after criticizing
Colorado for doing it.
Um, but we're going to move on.
We're going to definitely keep our eye on this situation.
I could probably do an entire show on conference realignment.
Actually, I probably did an entire show on conference realignment.
I said about a 30 minute segment.
My apologies.
Being a little long winded, but now we're going to shift to the NFL and talk about how
football is back.
Fucking gym.
Welcome back into the show.
My apologies.
I just, I know I apologized in the last segment.
My apologies for the long-winded segment.
I actually thought about something else about the conference realignment that the ACC should
probably scoop the last four of Stanford, Cal, Washington State, and Oregon State.
Go Coast to Coast is like the Big Ten.
But we're going to leave that there.
We might discuss that again next week because conference realignment moves, it seems, every
day.
So we're probably be discussing that next week.
But moving on into the NFL.
The NFL is back people.
Hellman's pass.
Referees giving penalties.
Crowds cheering.
Legends.
Guys looking at bus.
Bus playing on the field.
That was everything.
Football's back.
My God, it's been such a long dark one.
Oh, I love this.
Look, I love the NBA like the next man.
I love baseball just like the next person.
God knows I love the WNBA.
Oh man, I'm an LSU fan.
I had a great women's basketball year.
I had a great college baseball year.
But it's something about helmets, shoulder pads, girdles, knee pads, cleats, crowds,
that oblong shaped brown ball.
100 by 53 and a half yards.
Goal posts.
10 yard end zones.
Pylons, holding calls, penalties, flags, referees, six of them.
53 man rosters.
Hell, 120 man rosters for college football, 85 for an acting scholarship.
It's just something about it.
Hell, high school ball.
I'm a high school coach myself.
I love high school ball.
High school ball, Friday nights.
It's something about it that just brings out the passion in every man, woman, child.
If you don't love football, potgall, you might not be alive.
But enough of the dramatics.
Enough of the whatever.
Football's back, people.
The Hall of Fame game.
Yeah, I call it week zero, college football has something similar.
It's called week zero, where it's like the games exist, but they're not in the traditional
12 week calendar of college football.
14 week calendar of along, 15 week calendar of footballers.
It's only week zero of the preseason.
It's only like Hall of Fame week now.
Everyone has their issue with the Hall of Fame game.
Right?
We all have the same issues.
It's the first game of the preseason.
It's a standalone game of the preseason.
No one cares who wins.
No stars played.
You get all these legends there to watch bad football.
Okay, let's go over to that.
First of all, let's talk about it.
I think the Hall of Fame game should die.
Just like the Pac-12.
I think it should die.
Get rid of it.
In the way it's set up now.
Why oh why on a weekend celebrating the greatest players to ever play this game?
There's 300 and some odd Hall of Famers and 103 and counting years of football.
That means on average, there's three Hall of Famers a year.
We've been playing NFL football for over 100 years.
I don't think there's 400 Hall of Famers.
There might be a little 400 Hall of Famers.
I know there's not 500.
So there's less than five Hall of Famers for every year the NFL has existed.
There's less Hall of Famers than there are players in the AFC right now.
About half.
Because every time it's 53, it's three times, 10 and 500.
So there's less Hall of Famers than there are players in the AFC conference right now.
And we're subjecting those people who come every year for the Hall of Fame to what we
saw last night or two nights ago for 10 years.
Now I watched it.
I watched three quarters of it quite vigorously.
Fourth quarter and then I was out.
But I watched three quarters of it quite vigorously.
Dorian Thompson Robinson kept me glued for the most part.
But I was excited all day to watch Zach Wilson versus Kellen Mond.
I mean that's what got me going.
I didn't know most of the receivers.
A couple of the names kind of stood out to me when they said them.
Oh, I know that person.
He's from wherever, wherever.
I was so excited to watch Kellen Mond versus Zach Wilson.
You know what the best part about the game was?
I saw Dorian Thompson Robinson's amazing performance.
Shout out to him.
He secured himself as that spy.
Him and the mom were battling for his spot.
Give it to Thompson Robinson.
It was interviews.
It was hearing from Joe Thomas.
It was hearing from Daryl Reavers.
It was hearing from Ann Rogers.
That was the best part of the game to me.
Chris Collinsworth, commentary and Deshaun Watson notwithstanding.
Now I'm going to talk about the game because again it was football.
It was back.
I loved it.
But I think the Hall of Fame weekend should be the Hall of Fame ceremony.
I think they should have a Hall of Fame ceremony, have a big blowout party Thursday night, party
it up again Saturday night, have the Hall of Fame presentation Saturday or Sunday when
they want to do it.
Wait six weeks or push the Hall of Fame back.
Push the Hall of Fame induction back six weeks or just wait six weeks.
Thursday night the Super Bowl champion opens.
Every single year they open.
Period.
Doesn't matter.
Every single year the Super Bowl champion opens Thursday night.
They get their rings.
They run the right to host week one.
Monday night doesn't exist in week one I think.
No they just open the button.
Thursday night one of the nights you don't exist.
I say make a special Saturday night time slot.
It's before college football kicks off for real for real.
Make a special time slot either a Friday night time slot, Saturday night time slot or make
the Sunday night opener the Hall of Fame game.
You still playing in Canton.
Tom Benson filled all of it.
But you play it with real people.
You play the Hall of Fame game with real talent.
So whether you want to play it at Tom Benson's eight in McCann Ohio week one or whether you
say you just say okay the legends are gonna fly to this game we're deeming as the Hall
of Fame game and the commissioner will come and little five private jets and their gold
jackets and one last big who-rom-a-me-in-the-NFL.
I don't know.
Right?
I say playing in Tom Benson's stadium you already have teams.
My first half my brain was saying what about the revenue from the home game?
You already have teams giving the revenue going to Germany and London and Mexico City
and giving up a home game.
Why not have that go to Canton Ohio?
All the money goes into the NFL Hall of Fame.
You probably build a bigger stadium because you know you're gonna probably sell that stadium
out.
The two teams, Hall of Famers get to be sideline pass members.
Make it a thing and it's real football.
That was real football last night and I loved every freaking second of it.
I was glued.
Like I said about two and a half, three quarters I'm honest.
I was glued.
Right?
I was watching.
I was critiquing Kellen Maughan very closely.
Watching Zach Wilson very closely.
During Thompson Robinson popped off my screen.
He's a UCLA legend.
He popped off my screen at quarterback for the Browns.
Trying to get a move, trying to get a feel of what Ann Rogers was talking about with
the Jets.
Listening to Joe Thomas, listening to Rell Reeves, you know talk about their glory days.
Football was back and you can tell it has a lot of contact.
A lot of broken titles.
A lot of running game.
Way in front of the passing game.
But that's because it's easier for foul fence alignment to take a good zone step to the
right and block their assignment.
And then the run back read it and cut through.
As opposed to the quarterback with timing with their receivers.
You know we talk about, oh man you can't throw a ball in front of a guy?
Well if you haven't been working with that receiver, the slightest mistake in the NFL
can be an interception.
The slightest mistake can be an interception.
Even against cover two, two high safety all night.
Like the Jets, it's the preseason so the Jets wasn't throwing anything crazy.
I know it was a four man rush.
I think I saw two or three extra rushers.
Two high safety all night.
12 yards deep.
Nothing cheap, nothing deep.
Cover two man or just straight up cover two.
And that was pretty much what the Jets ran.
The Browns pretty much did similar.
And so the quarterbacks not being able to be successful in that would worry me.
Kellen Maughan had a decent night.
The interception he threw was awful.
It wasn't an interception where, oh how come you didn't see that safety screaming towards
the, I couldn't even see that safety screaming towards your receiver over that post and
picked the post or under throwing ball.
The pick that Sean Kaiser threw, the one that stuck out to me was the one he threw to the
linebacker where the linebacker literally mirrored the receiver in front of him so the
person behind the intending target.
And then from the time the receiver started his break, the linebacker who caught the pick
was in between them.
It wasn't like he was trailing or trying to cut off in front.
He was literally underneath it the entire time and Kaiser hit him right in the chest.
That pick was so bad that when Kellen Maughan let that pass go, the receiver started jogging
because he knew there was no chance that ball was getting him.
It was a pure bully right into the chest of the linebacker running the route for the receiver.
I mean, that was an awful intercession by Kellen Maughan.
Absolutely terrible.
Like I said, then you get a situation where DTR comes right in off the bench and looks
pretty good.
Leads two touchdown drives and you have that awful pick on the film.
That's one of those things that you can decide who's a practice squad quarterback and who's
an active roster guy.
Which to pay is significantly different.
So that could be something huge to look out for in Cleveland.
Huge-ish.
But who's the guy behind Deshaun Watson?
And then Jess had some good signs.
Their first round pass rush sure dominated against non-Innerfield talent.
Those guys would be ex-FL all-stars, good backups in the league or practice squad warriors.
He dominated.
He had several big players that popped off the screen as soon as he came in the game.
He did what he was supposed to do against that level of competition.
Zach Wilson looks like he's grown up.
Now again, it was simple reads, again simple coverages, no real pass rush.
Nobody should be too, too concerned about killing him.
No real pressure.
But just from live bullets, he looked like he's grown up.
He threw a beautiful ball down the sideline.
He didn't do his usual take one read and take off that he used to do with turns of running
with the football and scrambling.
Showed better pocket presence.
So kudos to Zach Wilson.
Both of these teams have high expectations, the Browns and the Jets.
That's the one benefit of being in the Hall of Fame game to me is that you get the old
school fourth preseason game schedule.
So for guys, 85 through 90, who might be trying to fight to survive that first cut, that Hall
of Fame game could mean surviving that first cut.
Chris Collinsworth spoke about it on the broadcast.
It was like the Jets have a lot of linebackers and safeties.
And so the preseason matters a lot to those guys because they're not even fighting for
actor roster spots.
They got so many of those guys, they're fighting to be on the practice squad.
Like there's so many linebackers and safeties on the Jets.
They're fighting for literal practice squad spots along with actor roster spots, they can
get it.
And of course the Jets have the influx of Aaron Rodgers with his newly reworked contract,
giving back 30 to $35 million.
Signing a book to his old Packers buddies.
They have sky high expectations, not as high as the Lions, but they have sky high expectations.
People are picking them to win the AFC East.
They are popular bet for the Superbowl champions through the Superbowl trophy.
I mean, they have sky high expectations.
On the Brown side, they're looking to compete in the division.
This is Deshaun Watson in his first four years since 2020.
I think 2020, yeah, 2020.
Where last time we saw him in the full season, he was 70% completion in the universe, regarded
as one of the best five to seven quarterbacks in the league.
And now, of course, he set all his 121.
He was suspended for 11 games in 2022.
When he came back, he was okay.
Went three and three, had some moments of greatness, has moments of awfulness, but sitting
out a year and a half, especially at the quarterback position in the NFL, that's going to happen
to anybody.
And so now he gets a full off season, a full mini camp, a full training camp.
The second year in his offense, he gets to really learn how to make this offense work,
how to be successful in this offense.
And so he gets an opportunity to now really begin to earn that $230 million full guarantee
contract.
They did some mechanizations in the first year of it to keep it out of harm, most of
it out of harm's way.
I think his base salary for year one was $1 million or something insane or something insane
like that, just so they can keep his suspension loss money to a minimum.
But Deshaun Watson gets an opportunity to lead this Browns franchise with the deal being
fully guaranteed for the next four seasons is his franchise.
Quick hitters before we touch, we're going to wrap up the segment.
Our team we got to touch on, but quick hitters.
Alvin Kamara suspended three games by the NFL following his fight at a Las Vegas club.
He gets three games at the meeting with the commissioner, Roger Goodell.
So he will miss the first three games of the season.
Josh Sills of the Philadelphia Eagles has been acquitted of rape and kidnapping charges
placed on the commissioner exemplists in 2019, but he did make one appearance last season
against the Cardinals.
He has been committed, removed from the exemplists and will be on the active roster per the Eagles
starting tomorrow.
Malik Hooker, safety of the Dallas Cowboys have agreed to a three year, $24 million contract
extension with the team with $16.5 million guaranteed basically the first two seasons
and also has an $8 million signing bonus.
So it pretty much guarantees the first two seasons.
I'm sure some of us had a roster bonuses, but good deal for Malik Hooker as he has been
impressing the Cowboys throughout camp and with his play last season.
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver, Dwayne Eskridge, along with newly acquired Kansas City Chiefs
defensive end Charles Amenahue have been suspended since games of peace for violating the league's
personal conduct policy.
I don't recall what Amenahue's situation was, they got him suspended, but Mr. Eskridge
of the Seahawks was suspended for an incident involving a woman.
Uniquin Gakwe has joined the Chicago Bears on a one year, $10.5 million deal with $10
million of a guaranteed.
So big news in Chicago, they look to try and take advantage of the first times in 25ish
years, 20ish years for sure that the Green Bay Packers don't have a Hall of Fame quarterback.
Between Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, the Bears look to try and jump up along with trying
to see what Justin Fields truly has and if he can lead the franchise.
Elm Cam Jordan for the New Orleans Saints extends two years, $27.5 million guaranteed
contract, this contract is basically what I would like to consider a retirement contract,
it's the last bill he'll ever sign.
He flew his father in to help watch him sign the contract, he extends through 2025 and
ensures that Cam Jordan retires as a Saint.
He'll be one of the rare players that over a long career spends her entire career with
one team, 15 seasons will be the mark that he will have with the Saints.
He's the franchise's all time sack leader, he holds the NFL record as well for the most
time sacking one player, that's former Falcons and Coats quarterback Matt Ryan and so he
will retire a New Orleans Saint.
And then there's been a strange, or to me, a strange uptick of injuries in training camp,
a lot of ACLs, a lot of lower leg injuries, many people are contributing this to a lot
of artificial fields during training camps, a lot of non-use surfaces a lot, because these
places a lot of the time only get used if people do training camp offsite during training
camp.
And then you have a lot of guys who use the training camps to play their way into shape.
They may lift weights in the off season, but they don't do a lot of cardio, do a lot of
football workouts, or if they do, it's not at the intensity of a full speed training
camp.
So you're seeing ACLs go left and right.
Big names have gone down, small names have gone down.
Guys that won't affect anybody's season, Jaylen Ramsey is out with a meniscus.
So a calf strain too, Joe Burrow with a calf strain.
So you see top guys going down along with guys that won't affect anyone's season.
Our fans in football leagues with these training camp injuries.
But wrapping up the NFL segment, the Detroit Lions, I just want to give a shout out to
the Lions.
For the first time in the forward field era, which is 21 seasons, they have sold out all
of their season tickets for this season.
First time ever, they have a waiting list for season tickets for the first time since
they moved into the forward field.
And like I said, it's been 21 years, they have a waiting list for season tickets for
the first time ever.
The excitement around that team is palpable, which is huge for a city like Detroit.
Parts of it are completely deserted and abandoned.
I mean, it's just old closed businesses, busted out windows, no movement in parts of the city
like it just doesn't exist.
It's like I am legend during the day, Will Smith's walking around and there's nobody
else but him.
You know what I'm saying?
It's like there's just parts of the city completely abandoned.
And so situation, a great team in Detroit.
That team went into their last 10.
Jared Goff over his last six or seven starts, 15 touchdowns, no one exceptions.
They were a top five offense second half of the year.
And there's a lot of excitement around that Detroit franchise, the Detroit Lions franchise.
Ding dong, the witch is dead in terms of Ann Rogers is gone.
He's a jet.
So now the best quarterback in the division is to me, it's Kirk Cousins, but you can make
out Jared Goff argument pretty easily.
And so there's an opportunity to win the NMC North because the Packers have had a strangle
on them for 20 some odd years.
The Vikings have popped up and won it.
The Bears have popped up and won it.
The Lions haven't.
And so huge opportunity for the Lions because I just want to give a shout out to Dan Campbell
and the rest of the organization for just changing the culture in Detroit.
And again, bringing excitement to the city that obviously has not been seen since they
moved the forward field at minimum.
But up next, we're going to shift to our best for last and discuss Anthony Davis contract
extension with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Right before I talk about Anthony Davis is Dan Campbell.
Welcome back into the show and now we're going to touch on Anthony Davis' contract extension
with the Los Angeles Lakers.
AD signed the biggest average annual value extension in NBA history at over $62 million
a year and he signed a three-year extension for $186 million.
This extension won't start for another two seasons.
It ties him to the Lakers through 2028.
He signed this deal as soon as he was eligible to sign it.
Had he waited a season, he could have gotten more money.
He could have super maxed it and been down to one year left, did a four-year max extension
maybe signed, maybe went over $230 million extension, maybe $240 million.
He's already in his 60s, maybe a $250 million extension.
Especially if he qualified for the super max extension, we could have been looking at a
possibly $70 million a year extension.
Who knows what the dollar amount would have gone.
But AD, just like he did when he first got to LA.
He showed up on a one-year deal or two-year, one year left on his contract, extended four
years instead of waiting to go to free agency and then signing back for the five years with
the 10-year and all the other rules.
He could have got way more money when he first got to LA.
He took the quick, fast guarantee money.
Now as soon as he was physically able to sign the extension, I think he went and felt he
was eligible either today or yesterday, he signed three-year max extensions.
The man in Davis known to do, he knows his body.
He admitted it in 2020 when he signed the four-year extension.
He admitted it.
Yeah, I know my body.
I know that I have injury concerns.
Pretty much admitting like I know at any given moment I could be banged up.
I want security.
He didn't want to put on that last year the deal.
He gets a really bad injury and the Lakers don't give him the money.
Ask Demarcus Cousins.
It happens.
Demarcus Cousins popped his quad New Orleans and went from a max guy to the Pelicans in
the Mafia in two years 40.
Basically give him time to rehab and come back.
He said, no, went to the Warriors on a one-year prove it, so on and so forth.
He's never seen that money.
And so those things can happen.
Anthony Davis on that New Orleans scene that that happened to Demarcus Cousins too.
If anybody knows how a big man can go from a max to nothing overnight, it's Anthony
Davis because he watched it happen to Demarcus Cousins.
He took the extension.
It brings his total contract to five years north of $270 million on what's left on his
deal.
He had a weird contract.
Anyway, he didn't have a player option.
He had an early termination option.
It's not quite the same thing.
Same function.
The player option, you can either pick it up at a client.
The early termination, if you don't do anything, you just keep playing a contract.
You ETO it, you turn it into a four-year deal.
You just got the deal a year early.
But I don't know if there are options during this contract.
I'm sure it may have another ETO or another player option.
But like I said, it brings his total deal to five years, $270 million.
It also completes the Los Angeles Lakers offseason.
I would grade it an A. And no, they didn't bring back a Damian Lillard.
If they traded for Damian Lillard and kept LeBron AD, that's an A plus.
Plus, plus, plus.
But they probably went out on their board and they had retained these guys and extended
these guys.
Ruhajah Moore is on a four-year deal.
Austin Reeves is on a four-year deal.
Anthony Davis, now it's high-troubling his for five years.
Gary Vinson, it's three years.
LeBron James is back.
I think I might have mentioned Ruhajah Moore, but Ruhajah Moore, if I hadn't mentioned him,
he's on a four-year deal.
Like they went out and got back.
D'Angelo Russell is on a two-year deal, effectively waived his no trade.
So he's an asset.
That's going to be $19.5 million a year or $19 million a year that is tradable.
That's a big trade piece.
So you're looking at the Los Angeles Lakers.
Jerry Vanderbilt is back.
They had a hell of an off season.
I think their off season is done, but I do think they make an early to mid-season trade
with D'Angelo Russell's contract.
Austin Reeves to me is a starting point guard in the NBA.
Ruhajah Moore to me is a starter in the NBA.
Jerry Vanderbilt is a starter in the NBA.
Anthony Davis, LeBron James, obviously.
Gary Vinson can start at the two.
We're going to do Austin Reeves, Gary Vinson, LeBron, AD, insert person here.
That could be a starting lineup.
Jackson Hayes is on that team.
Torian Prince is on that team.
So I think that the Lakers make a move with D'Angelo Russell early in the season if it
doesn't happen before the season.
But I think they want to go into the season and see how it goes and then possibly make
that move with D'Angelo Russell.
Like I said, $19 million a year is a hell of a contract.
That's a center and that's Vujicic.
I mean, literally almost dollar for dollar, that's Nikola Vujicic.
Vujicic signed for 20 million a year, I want to say in Chicago, three years, 60.
D'Angelo is two years, 37, 18 and a half versus 20.
Max Christie is on the Lakers team, but D'Angelo Russell throw in some random two-way guy to
make the dollars work could turn into Nikola Vujicic.
And then you make it start Austin Reeves, Gary Vincent, LeBron, AD, Vuj.
That's a hell of a starting five.
So there's different options out there for the Lakers with that 19 and a half million
dollars.
I think their big piece is going to be D'Angelo Russell, the trade deadline.
But congratulations to Rich Paul, he did big again.
Rich Paul today gets 3% of contracts.
So Rich Paul today made $5.58 million getting his contract extension signed with Anthony
Davis.
So shout out him.
Shout out AD again for securing his future.
He's due $270 million over the next five years.
The Lakers have their centerpiece into the future post-LeBron era.
They also have a pretty solid team around them, like I said, multiple guys with more
than two years on their contract.
That is all I have for today.
I hope you guys have a great rest of your weekend.
As always, don't forget to like, rate, and share, and subscribe to the Just In Time Sports
podcast on iTunes, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts.
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But that is all I have for today.
This is your host, Justin Jackson.