Spain, the Group of 6, and Power Outages

Welcome everybody to taking on sports imtv.

That is Greg.

Greg, how you doing, man?

Pretty good, how are you doing?

I'm pretty good, man.

We got a world champion now.

Spain wins their second ever World cup and really dominant fashion.

Even though it took extra time and it was only a one nothing win.

Never.

Yeah, exactly.

Easily.

Yeah, it could have been 3, 4, 5, nothing.

Just a maybe.

Like I said, dominant's the only word you can really use.

And it never really felt like Argentina.

Even with their penchant for late magic.

This tournament just you never got that sense.

Like if, sure it was possible, but you never really like, I don't know, something like in that Egypt game or you know, the England game.

You know, it's just like the pressure kept building.

You're like, oh, they're gonna score.

Like, yeah, those ones.

You just had a feeling.

You just kept watching because you knew something was gonna happen.

Yeah, the magic just ran out.

Yeah, but sometimes it happens.

I mean still, I mean overall Spain is a better team and it showed yesterday.

Yeah, they really proved to be the best team in the tournament.

You know, they didn't just get hot and win it.

They, you know, best defense by far.

I mean that's impressive in itself.

And dominated France too.

Maybe even more so than they did Argentina.

Yeah, it was funny too, you know, thinking, you know, they had of course the draw with Cape Verde to start it and everyone, you know, and they didn't look great in the group stage and it was like, I don't know, you know, Spain might be gettable here and I mean I, I laugh at myself now because even thinking after the group stage, you know, like being like, man, like I think, yeah, it's like, I think we can get him.

I think you can get them.

I had that thought smoked.

It's like, I think we can sneak to the semis and then, yeah, Belgium,.

We would have got annihilated.

Yeah, it would have been, it would have been.

Yeah, it would have been just the same like this.

It would have been, you know, maybe our defense would have held up.

Probably not.

But you know, it probably would have been more like 2, 3.

But yeah, 2, 3, 4, nothing and just we wouldn't have been able to generate anything.

But yeah, Spain worthy champion.

Like I said, second ever.

They now are on a similar run as their like all time best international team.

The 08 through 12 when they won a Euro, the World cup and then Euro again went like that 40, 50, some game unbeaten street like a 20 or 30, something like just straight winning Streak that was ended by the US of all teams.

But they.

Yeah, they.

They are the reigning European champions.

They're the reigning World cup champions.

They are the reigning women's World cup champions.

First time one country's ever held both of them at the same time.

And, yeah, deservedly so.

That's a one.

Yeah.

Got there, like you said, dominated France in the semis.

Argentina, another late win.

Magic against England.

Who.

I mean, Thomas Tuchel, he does not need to come back for England.

You know, he was already a divisive character, but you cannot play the way he did for, like the last 30 minutes of the game.

Just you sit so far back, you just let Argentina barrage your goal and you knew eventually it was going to come in and.

And gonna go eventually.

Yeah.

By that time it was too late.

Just terrible manager job, terrible tactics for England and shame because you saw what they're capable of.

And that third place game was wild as hell.

Wow.

Crazy.

Yeah, six four win over France.

They went up four nothing in the first half.

Got a bakayo saka hat trick, which, you know, makes you wonder, where was he on.

What was it, Wednesday in the semifinal, where was he?

He didn't even see the field.

You know, Tuco never put him in.

You just don't know what the hell they were doing there.

But, yeah, like we said, Spain, worthy champion.

A fun.

Just an absolutely great tournament.

Overall, the expansion was a success.

They're talking about going to 64.

That might be a bit too much,.

But.

Yeah, I mean, I get it, but I don't know why.

Why?

Yeah, you know, we know why, but.

It's obviously money in there.

But still, yeah,.

I. I think what people.

I think what.

What I'd rather see them do is I'd rather FIFA make a bigger deal.

I know they don't run it, technically.

The other, you know, the individual associations and a regional.

I'm trying to think of groups, whatever, confederations, that's the word.

They all run their own qualification.

But I think instead of just expanding, you know, like, put more emphasis into qualifications, get better TV deals for it, show it, play up the importance of it, you know, because you say it's about, you know, including more teams.

I mean, every single team in the world has a shot to get to the World cup, man.

Like, you start in qualification, technically part of the tournament qualification, you know, that's why they call it the World Cup Final when they talk about the whole tournament itself.

But that's like.

But when you keep expanding, then every time someone's gonna be like, well, let's go to this or yeah, exactly, like cut it off.

Where does it stop?

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, just.

It just still feels special that you made a World Cup.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Yeah.

You want.

Still wanted to feel special.

And I think 48, you know, I was skeptical at first, but I think it work out in the end.

I think 48 was cool because we saw people that never been to the World cup before and the excitement that they had getting to the World Cup.

Oh yeah.

And it does open up spots for, you know, something like Norway where, you know, a team that normally wouldn't make a 32 and you know, you.

Then you don't get to see one of the world's biggest stars.

And Aaron Holland, who became even bigger star this tournament.

He made, you know, fans worldwide, but he, a lot of times, I mean, look at a guy like Zlatan, you know, he didn't play in too many World Cups with Sweden, you know, you know, you see that a lot.

You see it with, you know, African stars sometimes.

And now, you know, this, this opens it up a little bit more.

So I think that's a, that is a good thing.

And like.

But yeah, like you said, like where does it, you gotta, you gotta put a cap on it somewhere.

And I think the way to do that is help as FIFA, you know, help the individual confederations, help UEFA, concacaf, all them, you know, get better, better TV deals for their qualification, you know, get people more excited into it.

You know, you think if you're rooting for Cape Verde in the World cup, you know, root for San Marino and European qualification, you know, team that went like 10 years without winning a game, you know.

Yeah, we overall a great tournament.

Fantastic tournament.

Yeah.

You know, hiccups here and there.

Of course, as always, hydration break.

Wasn't a winner.

Obvious cash grab.

Obviously a lot of people introduced to the frustrations of var.

But you know, as I've said before, my stance is that it's more about the rules and implementation than it is var.

You know, VAR does a lot of good things.

It does.

I mean, as a US fan, I can point to the 2002 quarterfinal match against Germany.

You know, a blatant handball that cost us a.

A goal and again we lost one, nothing.

So with var, that's, you know, we see the handball and we get a penalty shot, you know, so.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Thinking back, man, I remember waking up just ass early for that one because it was the Japan, South Korea one.

And I remember that Mexico game specifically me and my friends Are all at the beach and me and my buddy Joe woke up early to catch it.

Like.

Like three in the morning or something crazy.

Like three or four in the morning.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Didn't think we had a chance.

We were just going.

I'm like, dude, are we gonna pull this off?

He's just watching.

Is this our chance?

Is this our time?

But yeah, yeah, that's it.

You know, like I said, Spain very deserve a champion.

You know, two years from now, they'll go try to defend their European title for Argentina.

You know, it's the end of an era.

Messi's.

Maybe he could be done.

He could come back.

You never know.

But.

But sounds like it's his last.

Yeah.

And it does feel like it's time.

If you're Argentina, you do you look at Portugal and Christian Ronaldo and Cristiano or not, and you.

And you go, you know, we don't want that.

We don't want to be just catering to our star, even as legendary as he is, at the expense of the team, you know, and help the team.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think you.

You focus on, you know, reinventing yourself and you got.

Obviously, it's Argentina.

You're always going to have plenty of talent.

You got a guy like Julian Alvarez who can score goals.

So.

The talent's there, right?

Yeah, yeah.

But really, I mean, if you think about it, I mean, you got.

It's crazy.

Just the end of year for a lot of people.

I mean, Ronaldo and.

Ronaldo and Messi and.

Neymar.

Three.

Three huge names.

Yeah.

And then, you know, who knows who else.

Zlatan is not coming back to the announce desk, he said.

But then on top of that, I mean, we got so many young stars that are going to step into those roles.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Lamina Mall, obviously there for the champions in Spain.

Young, you know, young U S Stars that you're excited about.

You know, Baligan.

Absolutely.

You know, Holland obviously took over.

The took came and took over with his personality.

Of course, we.

Mbappe.

Everybody knows about him, but, you know, he's still a young guy.

Yeah.

But Jude Bellingham for England, you know, he really burst on the scene.

Yeah.

So.

Yeah.

But it was a fun tournament, a good time.

It's sad to see it go.

Of course, as always, four more years, but, you know, we get the women's next year.

Right.

And is it next year?

I think so, yeah.

Blanket my memory.

And of course, like we said, we always have, you know, qualification.

The Euros look forward to the Gold cup, so plenty of international Soccer still out there.

If you've been hooked, if you're newly hooked to international soccer and of course club soccer is always great.

It's all over tv.

You know.

Everybody.

That's the best thing about it.

The best league have TV deals.

I mean you have a way to watch it whether it be on NBC or Peacock Paramount.

Yeah.

And if you.

If you really like really gotten into the game itself and you just want to see the edits highest level.

It's actually probably something like the Champions League.

That's where, you know the best leagues in the world are.

That's you know, the best teams from those leagues.

And these are guys and they're the teams that get to play, you know, year round with each other for the most part as opposed to international, you know, where you get two weeks at a time here and there, you know, most years.

So yeah.

Other than that.

Let's see.

That's all I got for the World Cup.

You know, like I said, sad to see it go but it was.

It was a really good one.

It actually went way.

I don't know.

It was.

I. I thought it was gonna be way more issues than what it was just because of our issues in the U. S. Yeah.

But I.

For everything that's going on here, it actually went pretty smooth.

I'm sure there was some stuff but overall I think it went a lot smoother than what maybe I thought it would.

Yeah.

The only thing that I and obviously didn't deter people.

But I'm still man just to.

To get into that championship game yesterday was ridiculous.

I will say that like they got to figure out how to make it a little more obtainable for the regular fans because that's crazy.

Face value for the lower bow.

This is just the face value.

Not the.

Yeah.

Not the second.

Yeah.

Aftermarket price.

Yeah.

Wild.

It's just like man.

And that's why, you know, I made a post about like that's so impressive.

You know, people literally here a month and still pro.

Some, you know, some Argentinian, some span Spanish fan probably went around the whole thing with their team.

No telling how much money they spent.

All right.

Yeah.

Stay in places.

Your fly over here, fly home your game tickets.

Good God.

You probably spend 30, $40,000.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely ridiculous.

But you know, like everything else in the world, it's too damn expensive.

Didn't deter people because I mean great crowds everywhere you went.

No.

Yeah.

A good atmospheres, great crowds.

We look forward to 20, 30 and all over the place.

Six different host countries.

The main hosts are you know, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, but then it being the 100th, you know, anniversary of the first world cup, got special games in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.

Yeah, Uruguay, of course, the site of the first ever world cup or the first champions I think they hosted too.

Check that now.

Used to know that easily.

The other thing that I was wondering and you, you know, they had the third place game.

Would that work in u. S. Sports at all, you think?

Ah, man, I don't, I just don't think so.

I just think people just surprised things too much.

Just.

Yeah, but yeah, it is interesting.

I think they used to have it in certain, like I think the final four years,.

I think before my time.

But.

College football in the old traditional bowl system kind of basically had, you know, third place games like that, but, you know, structured so differently that it didn't feel like that, you know.

Right.

But yeah, it was crazy, you know, I thought for sure, I was like, man, the way that the, you know, France being the favorite and crashing out, like they're not going to care.

England another just heartbreaking loss.

They're going to be, you know, just mentally checked out.

Yeah, didn't see my friends care, but they came alive in the second half and bought.

They put that team on his back and he said we're not gonna go.

Yeah, did.

Ended up winning the golden boot too.

And he's also now the all time leader in world cup goals too.

It's insane for a guy as young as he is still.

But yeah, they really came out, played hard, put on a show.

Probably both sets of fans asking, you know, where the hell is this?

They're no semis.

Combined one, one goal.

Yeah, but yeah, this week it is.

We talked about last week, we're starting our college football previews and we said this week we'll do our group of six preview.

What we do with this, we don't go as in debt as we do with the other conferences.

You know, we just don't have the time.

Again, if you want that, we'd love to do that, but we need money to do that because we have jobs and stuff.

Yeah, but so what we do with the group of six is we go to each conference and we just talk about a thing or two that just interests us.

Could be a team, a coach, a player, a storyline, you know, just something about the conference that, you know, we'd be interested in watching this year.

So let's go ahead, start with the American.

Greg, I'll let you kick it off.

What's, what's the first thing you look at the American, what jumps out at you?

I just see, you know, we have a lot of new coaches.

I mean a lot of people took jobs.

I had that too.

The new coach will have a new coach.

North Texas will have a new coach.

North Texas also got rated.

I mean obviously the whole team went to Oklahoma State.

Yeah.

So you know, just transitions of, of good teams and you know, it's so hard sometimes to rebuild and you know, it's amazing Tulane did such a good job rebuilding because really I thought after, I thought they might fall off after the Houston coach, you know, after he went to Houston I was like, oh.

And you know, Tulane Summerall came in and kept it rolling.

Yeah.

And so, you know, can these teams keep going?

Now Memphis is faces a couple of times and have.

Has come out, you know, okay with it.

But as you know, it's always interesting just how these transitions happen.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Tulane, Memphis, usf, UAB sort of to a degree with Morten's in there taking over full time now.

He of course took over interim last year.

But.

And those aren't, you know, those are top tier teams, top of the conference teams really, you know, interested.

Like you said, two lane.

You know, they were, you know, after Willie Fritz moved on, they just kept it rolling with John Sumrall.

Now he's gone and you know, Memphis, same thing.

Ryan Silverfield off to what you call it, Arkansas.

Yeah.

Like who I know who went to.

So yeah, the same thing with me.

I had that.

I was like, how are they going to, you know, Will hall in Tulane?

How's he gonna do?

Charles Huff moving up from Southern Miss to Memphis, which actually I really like to hire for them.

That's about as good a hire as you could have gotten right there.

That's phenomenal hire.

Yeah.

Brian Hartline at USF taking over for Alex Golish of course isn't on the.

Planes now, which is interesting because I mean, obviously, you know, he's been a hell of a recruiter at Ohio State.

I mean one of the leading recruiters, wide receiver coach.

But one was it one year as the OC or something.

But yeah, Ohio State.

Yeah.

Right.

And it's a big jump.

It'll be going to be the head coach doing that.

So I think, you know, Goldish took a lot of the people, people with them from South Florida as well.

So.

Yeah, so.

So yeah, we'll see what then they got a tough schedule this year too, so we'll see how that turns out.

But yeah, it's, it's interesting that you get so much upheaval.

You know, you small conferences lose coaches all the time.

But that's you know, some big ones, three particularly big ones.

And now you know, the other note I had.

Yeah.

At the same time was crazy.

Yeah.

One or two.

But you really had all.

All of your big guys outside the service academies.

All.

All left.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No North Texas.

They got a new one, Neil Brown coming in.

You know, former West Virginia coach there.

So.

Yeah.

So you look at.

Yeah.

Place like Navy or UTSA with Jeff Traylor still there.

You know and his name is always comes up in these, you know, coaching searches too.

So the other.

Yeah the other thing I had mine is like is this the year of the academies?

You know we flirted with it the past couple years of the.

An Army Navy championship game and you know, because when they actually play the Army Navy game it does not count as a conference game that you know they decided to keep that non conference.

You know just.

But now it is going to be, you know they could play a conference game by making the championship and it's a real possibility this year.

It really is because I don't know is the Navy their quarterback?

He graduated, didn't he?

I believe so.

Yeah.

But they still have.

Yeah.

Hord.

That's gone.

Blake Horvath.

But they still.

They have a lot of starters coming back.

I think army does too.

I think both of them have most of the offense coming back.

See.

And I think they have decent schedule.

I think Navy probably has the easiest schedule in league and I think Army's got a couple breaks on there too.

So could be.

And then always run into both usually running to Notre Dame at some point and that's the one down.

Yeah.

As far as their playoff chances.

Yeah.

That's where.

But other than that.

Yeah.

Navy schedule.

That Notre Dame game is the only one there.

That's.

The crazy thing is two years ago and both of them like oh this is.

Maybe they catch Notre Dame.

They're playing so great.

Yeah.

A couple years ago Notre Dame worked them both.

Seem like a back to back weeks.

Yeah.

Is that.

Isn't that when Notre Dame and Army played in Yankee Stadium or something too?

So it seemed like it was.

You know man, this is good crazy day.

No.

Army avoids them this year.

They do not have a big.

They don't out of conference opponent.

Oh wow.

Yeah, that's.

They're out of conferences.

Bryant Latex, Air Force.

Oh man.

Watch out for the Black Knights.

Oh that's a. Wow, that's a nice schedule.

Yeah.

In Conference that American's always st.

But yeah.

Yeah.

Out of conference.

That's.

That's something.

Yeah.

You got anything else in the American that interest you?

Something that jumps out?

I think we covered it pretty well.

All right.

Yeah.

Let's go to the pack 12.

Now it's back.

It is not the same.

The first thing that jumps out at you is just that every school in the conference is a state.

Just really weird.

But other than that, the only remnants of the old PAC 12, PAC 10 pack 8 is Washington state and Oregon State.

And Oregon State might be the worst team in the league this year.

Washington State's probably okay.

I don't think either of them really threaten at top, you know, so what I had was just like, what's going to be the new identity of this conference?

You know, is it.

Conferences usually kind of carved out identity for themselves, you know, what's the new PAC12 going to be interested.

See what happens there.

And then, you know, the other thing I just had was, you know, is this.

Is it Boise or bust?

Yeah, I mean, it might be.

That might be something.

I mean, Boise, you know, the new team moving from Mountain west and really, I don't know what the benefit of moving from the non west to the PAC 12 IS.

That really helps you or not.

You know, the other thing there.

Yeah.

You would think Boise State should come in and be fun and do what they do.

Yeah.

And then of course, my biggest thing is.

And I.

The pride thing, I don't care.

The Mountain west and the PAC 12, they have to come together, figure things out.

That's your best chance to be the best.

The best conference out of the, you know, a group of six.

I mean, if you have, you know, there's still good teams in the, in the Mountain West.

Of course, 12, you know, I have some, these.

Some teams that we don't know a lot about, but you know, they're, you know, they're.

They much better together than apart.

They got to figure that out.

Put egos aside, call yourself the Pack west, the Mountain 12.

I. I don't know.

Was it.

Figure it out, come together.

Yeah.

I always thought the Pack west, you know, was perfectly fine.

Yeah.

It should have just.

Oregon State, Washington State, should have just joined from the get go.

I know they were extended the opportunity.

You know, geographically it makes sense.

I mean, I know they have their pride and like, oh, we were major conference teams.

It's like, yeah, but.

And they kept it for the branding.

But I'm like, what people?

What's the brand worth?

You know, if USC's not there, of Oregon's not there, Washington's not there.

Yeah, I mean you.

Nobody cares.

You don't have that affiliation with the Rose Bow anymore.

Like unfortunately, the Pac 12 is dead.

Yeah,.

You saw the history.

But it's dead.

Unfortunately.

That's just where we're at.

Yeah.

You have to rebrand yourself.

You have to make something new.

And until they join each.

Until they.

They're better together apart doesn't make sense for either conference.

That's my other thing with the impact.

Well, interesting enough I guess their response, their TV deals with USA Network or whatever it's worth.

I don't know how much that.

How many eyes that'll put on it.

And they're leading comp.

The lead commentator is Ryan Leaf.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah.

I wonder if that comes with a Paramount or not Paramount, a peacock thing too.

Oh, no, that's interesting.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, I'm with you.

It just, I mean I would, it would have made more sense if they brought back the whack and you know, the teams that used to be in that.

It was, you know, you're a little more west coast there.

That was your Boise, Nevada, Hawaii, San Jose State crowd there.

But yeah, I'm with you.

They figure it out.

Tell Texas State to go back to the Sunbelt or Conference A or something and then tell Northern Illinois that you're a Mac team.

Go back to the Mac.

Why are you here?

Yeah.

Oh, weird.

Mountain West, Northern Illinois, it's.

It's never gonna make sense.

It's like it is one of those.

A. UTAP is also Mountain west team now.

Yeah.

UTEP's in there.

That makes a little more sense to me.

I mean they're far, far.

I mean.

Yeah, they're out outskirts of Texas.

I mean, yeah, they're close to New Mexico, New Mexico State, you know, all that kind of.

Well, New Mexico State's a fact that,.

You know, it's west enough that it's in the mountain time zone.

El Paso.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'll be honest.

When I like do custom conferences in like the game I. I usually moved UTEP and New Mexico State over.

It made sense to me.

But.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just.

Yeah.

Like I said, tell Tech State in Northern Illinois to go back to where they came from and you got a 16 team conference right there.

It's fine.

Do divisions, you know, 8 and 8, whatever.

Like I said, it almost make more sense to bring back the whack.

But.

Or maybe one day, I don't know, maybe we'll have some crazy amnesty period.

And we'll get our together and go back to regional conferences and we can see the old PAC12 return.

But now I have her talk now, and it was just on car sports radio and xm and they're always talking about it, but there's always these talks about every other square but football going back to regionalized things.

You can put that two base back in the tube.

Yeah.

As far as football, but other sports, it makes perfect sense.

You know, maybe you could pull basketball, but your Olympic style sports, I mean, anything.

Baseball, even softball.

I mean, some of these things.

I mean, if you're going, you know, you're going to LA to rut to New Jersey and then they expect you to be in class, you know.

Yeah.

Right.

Really, it's wild.

It's unrealistic, it's crazy.

And yeah, they figure that part.

Part of it out because, you know, obviously football is making.

I mean, outside of football and men's basketball and I guess some women, realistically, the rest of the sports are negative.

Yeah.

They're the ones that are traveling the most.

Yeah, exactly.

And.

And it's.

It takes a toll on them too.

You're.

You're a college kid.

Yeah, yeah.

You're a college kid.

You got the stress of class, you're an athlete.

So there's that added stress.

You got such a full schedule and then like.

Oh, yeah, we gotta track me on the.

On literally the other coast of the country.

Right.

Wow.

Like, that's.

Yeah, that's ridiculous.

I mean, I'm sure sometimes you.

You think it's cool, you know, in the middle of the winter you're going to LA and stuff.

But you know, on the, you know, when basketballers, you know, something like that.

But.

Yep.

But overall, they should definitely figure that out.

Regionalize, I guess, about the Mountain West.

Now, Sam, we could talk about the Mountain west and be, you know, kind of linked with the pack 12 in a sense.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, yeah, that's.

That's perfect.

What do you have for the Mountain West?

Just interesting to see what North Dakota State moving up to the.

Finally today, whether, you know, do they take over the Mountain West?

I mean, obviously the most dominant team in.

In fcs.

You know, all the titles and all the wins that they've had over FBS teams.

I mean, you name it, they beating them, you know, middle of the pack teams.

So do they come and immediately take over the Mountain West?

We shall see.

Other interesting thing.

Always interesting anywhere he goes, especially when it's not as much pressure on him.

I'm still high on damn mold in the unlv.

He brought in another quarterback this year, Jackson Arnold.

Amanda does, you know, one of the most highly anticipated guys in OU history.

Didn't work out well.

Kind of a tough situation within a freshman year with all the injuries.

Yeah.

Last year was dumpster fired.

Auburn.

Yeah.

But you know, partly where he's been.

Yeah.

Not all his fault.

You would have to think everybody's going to figure out his damn Mullen.

I'd better say he.

That this he is the classic case of a kid that didn't break it, you know, in the, in the big league, but then goes to a little bit of a smaller league and figures it out and then plays up to his potential but.

But against lesser competition.

Yeah.

Excuse me.

And has a monster year.

Like just puts up absolutely so many stats and yeah.

In that offense he absolutely can.

A battering ram type of runner.

Yeah, I agree with you.

I had the North Dakota State thing too and I tied it into my other one which was just, you know, who fills the Boise vacuum.

Boise is, you know, ran this league for a while now and they're gone.

You know.

Is it Dan Mullen, unlv who have such, you know, a lot of talent on that team like you said, Jackson Arnold, bringing in former five stars, someone like New Mexico.

They're a talented team.

Hawaii, Timmy Chang's got the, the, you know, the Bows playing tough again.

They can figure out how to win on the road.

You know, that's always a good team.

You know, teams that have been up, you know, newcomers, you know.

How does UTEP do?

How does Northern Illinois do.

That?

Traveling's gonna gotta be rough because.

Yeah.

Who's the closest team to them?

Is it.

I guess North Dakota State.

It's crazy to think about other than that,.

I guess other than that.

Would it be either be Wyoming or Air Force?

I guess maybe New Mexico.

Yeah, that's.

And you know, they're in their mid major team with mid major money and.

That's a lot of.

That's a lot of.

And then like, you know, obviously if you're, you know, if you're a big.

When I lost you there, buddy, I.

Hit the wrong damn button.

I was trying to add a screen and I clicked out of the whole thing.

Oh my goodness.

But what I was trying to say, it's time on Northern Illinois.

I mean if you've been part of the Mac forever, I mean you have certain rivalries, probably your fans have certain game that they're interested in.

I mean, are you Interested when these other teams come to town that you really probably have no interest in seeing other than maybe.

I mean, if North Dakota State comes in town, that might be cool.

But how excited are you as a North Illinois football fan?

I don't know.

No.

When I think of these realignment scenarios and think about the fans and stuff, I always think back.

I think it was a Reddit post I saw, and someone proposed a question about, you know, stuff like this, you know, realignment, and a West Virginia fan answered and it was like, man, it was kind of cool at first, you know, new teams, you got to see all these, you know, like, oh, Texas is here.

Oh, Oklahoma came in, you know, when they joined the Big 12.

And then.

But he was like, honestly, after like the initial wave, the first one or two seasons, he's like, it was like, okay, now what?

Because like, you.

You're not getting excited for 3 and 8 Oklahoma State to come to town.

You know, there's no history there.

You know, you know, if you're playing Pitt and it's three date, that's.

That's your rivalry.

You know, if you're playing Syracuse, Boston College, you know, Virginia, Maryland, Virginia Tech, you know, teams in your area.

You know, he's like, that's the special thing about.

Yeah.

College football is that, you know, those old rivalries, they, even if you're not having a great season, like, they mean something.

And.

And that's what we're killing with realignment.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's all I got in the Mountain West.

You want to move on or you got anything else?

No, that was pretty much it.

Yeah.

Let's bounce to the Sun Belt now.

The fun Belt.

Always a good small conference.

New member this year.

Law Tech.

Right.

Their first year.

No.

Yeah.

First year back, I think.

I don't know if they.

Were they ever Sunbelt?

I don't think so.

They were whack way back in the day.

Yeah, I remember that when they.

When old Tim Rete and Latex upset Alabama late 90s.

Yeah, they were a whack team, if I remember right.

Yeah, my.

The one story, the big story I had was Billy Napier, James Madison, Kenny come in and continue the success.

The coaches before him, you know, Kurt Signetti and Bob Chesney.

Now, Right.

Yeah.

He went to ucla.

Can Billy Napier come in and have that success?

You know, can.

Coming back to the Sunbelt?

Of course.

Former Louisiana coach.

Can that get him back on track after, you know, crashing out at Florida?

Just never being able to really take that program back to the level they want to be too.

Can you come back in and he was a good coach and, you know, is it still there and can he do it at a program like jmu?

Yeah, I mean, you would think.

You would think he could.

I mean, obviously, like, he's had success.

You know, he was successful before he went to Florida.

You know, some of Florida is probably on him.

Some of it's also just the situation Florida is in.

Yeah, I think the things in Florida still are very unrealistic.

You know, they've gone down a level.

They're not the same, but.

Yeah, I mean, you still got to win there.

How they has ran its course.

It didn't end well.

You know, he probably got last season.

Excuse me.

Maybe.

Maybe he shouldn't have.

You know, maybe they still should have got rid of him after the end of the 24 season.

You know, they kind of went on a winning streak, but you can kind of tell.

Still shaky ground.

Maybe move on then.

I don't know.

You know, maybe it's hard to do at that point.

But.

Yeah, I mean, if.

But the thing is that he did.

If he went somewhere where there's expectations.

I mean, he.

The.

The expectations are there.

I mean, they've had two.

Two fantastic runs in a row there, you know, including a playoff birth this past year.

So, I mean, obviously they.

Expectations are high.

You know, if he doesn't get it, if he doesn't get them to the playoff this year, you know, are they still competitive?

You know, are they, you know, 10 and 2 or what?

You know, what does the record look like?

That'll be interesting.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What, did you have something else?

Yeah, the other team.

I'm interested.

They had a hell of a year.

Last year was Old Dominion.

Yeah.

You know, they had a great offense last year, but they're replacing another offense.

I think their quarterback went to Wisconsin, running back when they're replacing a lot of parts here.

So just interesting to see, you know, if.

If it is still Jenny's Madison Conference, you know, who's gonna, you know, their biggest, I guess their biggest block or who.

Who can give them the biggest competition.

All the meaning was it seemed like they were, you know, on that.

On that pathway, but, you know, replacing a lot of people.

And that's the biggest thing, you know, with these group of six programs is unfortunately, I mean, it's kind of always been there, but even more so now that you have a hell of a year.

One or two.

One or two years.

Unfortunately, there's no way they can keep these guys, you know, yeah.

You know, the SEC or the Big Ten comes calling and they got a million there.

Not only, you know, at one point maybe it was easier because hey, hey, I mean, I must start here.

People know who I am.

I could stay.

And now on top of that, legally the SEC or the Big Ten program can give you a million dollars on top of coming to the big time.

Well, I mean, it's almost impossible to say no.

Yeah, Yeah.

No, yeah, it's, it's, you know, that's the new name of the game for the little guys is, you know, you're going to lose your stars and you just hope you find new ones and you know, you become.

Yeah, it's kind of like small clubs and European soccer or something, you know, where maybe every once in a while they might make a run and threaten the big boys.

But they're mostly there to, you know, you got to have your right expectations.

You got to decide what's a great year for you.

And you got to understand at some point your homegrown star is going to leave.

Yeah.

Because some other team's just gonna.

The price is going to be too high.

Yeah, I have.

ODU is a good one to watch.

App State.

Too rare back to back losing seasons for them.

I think they've only had like four losing seasons in the past 40 years or so.

Very consistent winning program interest to see if they get back on track this year.

They get, you know, JMUS at home, ODUS at home.

So.

They do have to go to rival Georgia Southern.

But.

Yeah, it is, you know, Shout out co founder Caleb Johnson, he's a professor there at Boone in.

At Appalachian State.

Uh, but yeah, it's, it's a beautiful play.

I'd love to go see a game there one day.

Keep telling him I've got to get out there.

He's got to get me to a game.

But yeah, you know, I've been to Asheville before.

But still, you know, it's still, I think about an hour from Boone, I think.

But beautiful stadium if you've ever seen that overhead shot of it just buried in the woods there in the mountains.

So yeah, I'm interested to see them if they can get back on track.

And same thing with Tulsa Carolina.

They've had a few down years after being one of the conferences top teams.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You got anything else for the fun belt?

That was kind of it.

Yeah.

All right, let's go to our.

The Mac.

I'm still.

Wait.

1, 2, 3, 4.

That's the one.

I was like, I'm missing one here.

It's on the next page of my notes.

That's why td.

Anyway, let's go to the Mac for the Mac.

I got that.

It's a dart throw conference.

It's kind of just like.

I have no idea how to read it.

You kind of know who the top teens were.

You're, you know, Western Michigan, Miami, they're always in the mix.

Toledo's always in the mix.

Yeah.

Ohio, the Bobcats, you know.

But then which one comes out on top?

No idea who's, you know, there always seems to be out of nowhere team in the Mac.

Don't know who that is.

Which makes it fun to watch, you know, a little action.

Of course, you know, it was a big.

It was a fun thing for us when we were in school to watch on those Tuesday, Wednesday games.

Or I guess they didn't do Tuesday back then, but definitely Wednesday, Thursday games.

Right.

You know, Big Ben, Omar Jacobs at Bowling Green.

A lot of great quarterbacks came through that conference back in the day and they really did.

But yeah, that's what I had.

Just it's the fun nature of there being a good top tier but having no idea really who's going to win the conference.

It, you know, from week to week, it makes it fun.

And of course it's weird with Sacramento State joining.

Just so desperate to join, so desperate.

To get into the FPS ranks.

So shout out to them for making it.

But.

Yeah, but ridiculous deal.

It's something like they're.

They're paying for all the opposing teams, like travel cost.

They're not taking TV money or taking discount for like four years.

I don't know.

It's really crazy like how much they're gonna pay just to get in the FBS at.

Like, why not just start as independent or try to get into more geographically, you know, the Mountain west or the Pac 12.

Yeah.

It's just weird.

They not.

I mean, did they try.

I wondered did they try that and they got shot down or, you know, are they trying.

And I get it from the PAC 12 or Mountain west perspective.

They're like, hey, we're already.

We're already low on the totem pole when you're the new guy.

We.

It's just not.

Yeah.

It makes me wonder if they're just there until they can get a better.

Something better for them.

But yeah, it's like Northern Illinois and Sacramento State should switch.

Yeah, they really should.

I mean, obviously.

But like you said, I mean, it's kind of the same teams.

I mean, Western Michigan, Miami Ohio, but I had Toledo, just the Bobcats, Ohio itself.

You know, I think former Alabama player Lance Taylor there, Western Michigan, you know, I think one of the next big name coaches, if he, you know, won the Mac last year, if they win another Mac, someone, I think maybe this year or a couple years, someone's gonna come calling looking for him as a.

As a big name there.

So.

But always a fun conference.

You know, I'm glad that they still have the, you know, Tuesday Wednesday night games, because honestly, I mean, who doesn't want to watch some football midweek.

College football.

Count me in.

Every time.

Right.

And, you know, it gives them the, you know, I guess they're fun and you know, their moment in the sun.

I mean, they're really the only thing going usually those nights.

So, you know, people gonna put on eyes on a game that they probably never would any other time.

So.

Yeah, love a little midweek action.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

That's all that really happened.

And they're.

They're always a tough one for me because I don't really follow them too closely to know.

But.

Yeah.

Let's move on to Conference USA here.

If I can flip my notes around.

There we go.

Found them.

Uh, what do you got for Conference usa?

You know, obviously we talked about a little bit.

I mean, they lost you Taps of the Mountain West.

They lost a lot of tech to the Sunbelt.

I don't know how big or big.

I don't know how that really affects the conference.

Neither one.

I. I don't think it's terrible losses.

I mean, I don't know.

I don't know how I mean, I get for a utep.

Why you would think going to the Mountain west would be a upgrade from Conference usa?

Why take one to the Sun Belt?

I mean, obviously they've seen the Sunbelt.

James Madison, maybe they more up and coming.

So maybe that's what they're looking at.

But that move and then, you know, really I want to see.

Can Kennesaw State keep it going?

Obviously, you know, they had.

They were first.

First year in the conference and they won the conference.

I mean, story year before they were terrible.

You know, they come.

Come in the first year, win the conference.

Other things to look at.

You know, Liberty was kind of down last year.

How they look, do they bounce back and of course.

And you have another team that, you know, has been successful, put some guys in the league as of recently, you know, the Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky, usually a very solid team.

You know, what do they look like kind of things to look At.

Yeah.

No, yeah, a lot of similar stuff along with Kennesaw State.

State I had same thing like Ken Delaware and Missouri State.

Dugan both went to bowls last year.

Kind of surprisingly in their first year.

Yeah.

FBS level.

Can they get back, you know or you know, even make a push?

Liberty.

Yeah.

Like you said, can they bounce back?

Jamie Chadwell there used to be one of those names that was always kind of hot and then talks for a major conference job.

Yeah.

Can he get his name back in there?

Can he get Liberty the Flames back going?

And then I got Rich Rod at Jack State still or.

No, he's.

Sorry he's left now.

You know, he went back to West Virginia last year of course.

But you know what he built there.

They were hosted the conference title game.

Yeah.

Former.

Who is their coach now?

It's.

I just saw his name.

I was just.

Charles Kelly.

Right.

Yeah.

We've been around the game many spots everywhere.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Defensive back at Auburn back in the day actually.

But yeah.

Yeah.

Auburn.

He.

I think he wasn't here.

I think he was on an Alabama staff at one point.

On Alabama staff.

Yeah.

You know he's been in Florida State.

He's been.

He's one of those guys.

He's been everywhere.

He's been in the SEC a few times.

Yeah.

But.

And just had them.

Kaden Creel, their quarterback, fun guy.

Runs kind of running a very similar offense to it.

Rich Rod ran not quite, you know, not exactly the same but uh, got some exciting players.

Uh, Deandre Johnson, Ronnell Johnson at receiver.

Their team.

You know, I caught a couple of their games last year.

They're fun.

They begin this.

Yeah.

They begin the season at North Dakota State.

They will welcome the Bison to the.

The big league, so to say.

Yeah.

And so they're just another one of these teams.

Keep an eye on in this conference for me.

And then like you said.

Yeah.

Up there in west western Kentucky, they're.

They're always up there and they got Tyson Helton manning the sideline there.

And then you know, can Sam Houston do some.

Anything better?

Just terrible.

Yeah.

So yeah, another kind of balance conference all over the place.

Geographical and kind of, you know you have your top tier but you're.

You know, it's hard to pick a winner.

Which always makes it fun to watch.

Right.

You know, Compressor like if accomplish usa they usually can get give you some great games throughout the season.

Yeah.

A lot of high scoring games a lot of late, you know.

So I mean it's a fun, fun conference.

I mean if you're a car football head and you know, you'll watch some.

But you know, for you guys just watch, you know, power.

Power four football, man.

I would say definitely check out some Conference USA football.

You know, enjoy it.

Yeah.

That's.

That finally does cover all of our small conferences.

We know we never really know where to fit and independence and I guess we usually talk about Notre Dame with the Big Ten or so you get.

The Big Ten or ACC with ACC.

Yeah.

UConn of course is the other independent that they would fit somewhere around the Conference USA whatever mold that was.

That's what I forgot to mention.

You mentioned Yukon.

What's his name left Yukon.

And where did he want something?

Jim Moore Jr.

Went to Colorado State.

Kind of an odd move.

Kind of a weird move there.

But maybe it gets the.

Maybe gets Colorado State going because I mean they have a history.

I mean.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean for a while.

I mean for a while they were always in contention for whatever conference they were part of, whether it was the Mountain west or the.

The whack.

But I mean always a solid, solid team.

In the, you know, late 90s, early 2000s, I had to run there where they were a great team and you know they're.

But yeah, I mean obviously Jimmy Jr did great things at Connecticut.

I mean he put them on the map somewhat.

So we'll see what it.

But yeah, that's what one I forgot.

Okay.

No, yeah.

You come back to back non win seasons bringing in Jason Candle over from.

Where is he at Toledo?

Yeah.

So you know we know he could win and build a strong mid major.

So yeah, we'll see if Yukon.

I'm interested to see if they stay independent or if they, you know get into like a Conference USA or American or something.

They.

They were an American for all and then got out because mainly driven by basketball to go back in the Big east for basketball.

So.

Which makes sense.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which I mean still not the old Big east, but.

Yeah.

But they.

They.

When they.

They were terrible in the American.

It was so weird when they were in the American.

Yeah.

It wasn't right.

Yeah.

They're playing Wichita State and stuff.

It's like what are we doing?

Oh, it's so strange.

Just Yukon there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But you would have.

I don't know.

I would think it's hard for a school like Yukon to stay independent for football.

Yeah.

Some.

You need some help.

Even though this may not be as big money, but a little TV money is better than no money.

Yeah.

So I would think it might be easier to see what you can do, you know, football wise.

Then again, too, sometimes, unfortunately, on the east coast, do people care about car football?

I don't know.

I guess if you have a winning product, they'll show up.

But overall, the NFL king, college basketball is big when you're college football.

Just.

I'd have the appeal to the east coast that we know.

Yeah, yeah, that's.

Well, that's all I got for the group of six preview.

Next week we'll do.

I don't know.

What do you want to do?

ACC, Big 12.

Start with ACC and we'll do ACC.

All right.

Start out, no alphabetical.

The ACC with, you know, traditional Atlanta Cubs teams like Stanford and Cal and smu.

Yeah, yeah.

If y' all remember from last year, what we do with our power conferences, we a little differently.

We'll.

We get basically divided into, like three tiers.

We have our contenders, our wild card teams, and then our basement teams.

So we kind of break them up.

I'll throw some teams out there, you know, we'll talk about each one, decide where they really belong, what tier, and then that's that.

A little more in depth than this one, but.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, go ahead.

Yeah, yeah.

No.

Very interesting conference as much as it's.

Yeah.

You know, much maligned and talked in a bad way when it comes to college football.

I think they're on the up, honestly.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think, you know, definitely probably be.

You know, it's kind of a.

Is it Miami and then who else?

Conference.

But yeah, we'll get into that next week.

Trying to think.

Anything else from this week in sports?

Of course, SEC media days kicking off.

I guess the most notable thing today was that Greg Sankey said there's always a possibility, a real possibility of the SEC splitting off.

And God, I just really do not want that.

You know, the sec, Big Ten, whatever.

Even if it's the four major ones, I just don't want no, this, like, weird minor league, you know, that's all it would become, would be an NFL minor league.

And then they talk about, oh, you could see the big teams against each other all the time.

But.

And we've talked about this before, but, you know, once it stops being special after a while.

And.

Eventually someone's going to become the, you know, the basement dweller, the, you know, the bottom feeder there.

It's just the law of nature.

Someone has to eventually, you know, someone's going to become the worst team in the league.

Someone's going to become the perennial worst team in the league, you know, and it's going to ruin those fan season.

And what makes college sports and college football so special is the big guy versus little guy and these weird little rivalries you have.

And so yeah, hopefully that's just some bluff for better TV money or something to get their way.

But we do not want to see the split off and looks like we lost Greg again here.

So I'll just try to keep talking here.

But and to me a major problem with it too is that you know, what's to stop the rest of the NCAA if you know, say the NC SEC and Big Ten split off, what's the stop them from saying, all right, well then you're out of all your sports are out of the ncaa.

You know, what are you doing to your Olympic sport?

Athletes there dreamed of, you know, playing, you know, winning NCAA titles and now you got to create this new league and you call it, what are you going to call it?

And it's not as true, you know, prestigious.

It doesn't have the tradition, the story to it.

You know, you're not playing in the real Final Four anymore.

So yeah, it's just, it's a bad road to go down and you know, it's a bunch of people doing it for, to line their pockets and you know, screw the rest of us.

Which is, you know, not uncommon in this day and age.

There he is.

Yeah, we had a power surge.

I don't know.

We've been hot for like, we've been over 100 for like six days.

So wellness, I guess it's been rough on the day.

Damn hot up here.

Today's our what's supposed to be the last day.

But yeah, suppose this thing that power and then kicked the Internet.

I was like, what the hell, reset the Internet.

I'm like, Jesus, not one thing, it's another.

Yeah, I was just talking about SEC media days, what Greg Sankey said about.

Yeah, yeah, I don't like that.

I don't like the idea of.

The.

Power forever moving to a super conferences and leaving everybody else out.

I don't know, I don't like it.

Obviously some people do.

I mean I think at that point we might as well just not even have college football.

You know, I would just say I, I don't know, I, I just don't see it fully transpiring.

What I said while you were gone too.

I what's to stop the rest of the schools, the NCAA from kicking all your sports out, being like, all right, well if you break away for football or basketball, then like your Olympic sports Aren't welcome.

And so none of you are.

And then all of a sudden like you're not playing in the real Final Four, like your Olympic athletes aren't competing for NCAA against the best of the best, you know, because, you know, Olympic sports, there's more spread out.

So.

Yeah, it's just, it only helps a few people in the end, was my point.

It only helps the guys getting richer and not the fans or the athletes.

Yeah, most definitely.

Hopefully it gets shot down.

I mean, obviously.

I mean the big conferences are getting a lot of what they want anyway, when you think about it.

I mean, they've gone to a 12 team playoff.

Obviously that's been for the big teams.

Well, anyway, I mean, that's pretty much the end of what we got to talk about this week anyway.

You know, baseball, the all star game was there.

It was nothing special.

I enjoyed that.

Oh yeah, the derby.

Yeah.

Battle was amazing.

Could actually be on the road after an awesome 11, 11, 11 shot performance there by the, by the home team guy.

You know what, and the Philly fans are hilarious for stuff like that.

Just booing everybody.

Only in Philly.

Right?

Funny stuff though.

Yeah.

Other than that, Red Sox remain the hottest team in baseball.

Fourteen in a row now.

And he had no big NBA news.

Still don't know where LeBron's going.

I think he's gonna sit on that for a while.

Yeah, I don't think.

Yeah, he's in no rush.

He has no motivate.

I mean, really, what would be his motivation to do anything early?

And plus, you know, he likes a little drama and a little.

Yeah, yeah.

So.

But yeah, unless you got anything else, I think that does it for us.

Yeah, you know, we've come out of a good sports time, but kind of the low period.

But hey, we're in media days and now there's some new days.

I, I consider that to start the club football season, technically.

Yeah.

You know, fall camps will start soon enough and you know, we'll get a little preseason action sooner than later and camps open up there and hey, you know, this, the, that's the beauty of the World cup is a low is very short this summer.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, and even, you know, with just baseball, what like 10, 11 days, the trade deadline, so, you know, you at least have some newsworthy stuff going on.

Absolutely.

And plus we're in the second half of the season when things start to matter, so.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Especially, you know, this is always such an interesting stretch, that little stretch between the All Star game and trade deadline.

Because so many teams that are kind of on the, on the fence about which way their season is going to go, you know, they could get on a little winning streak.

I mean, look at the Red Sox.

Actually, we just talked about them.

They were like that, talking, you know, trading a couple of their aces and stuff like that just two, three weeks ago.

And then all of a sudden, all.

Right, getting back in Kentucky for the, for the east, unfortunately.

Yeah.

Now all of a sudden, again, maybe they'll actually be buyers in the trade market, you know, so, Yeah, I mean,.

A 51 of 48, only six back out of the.

And a couple out of the.

Wow.

Right there in the wild card.

So, hey, let's see.

Yeah, exactly.

But yeah, folks, that does it for us.

Next week we come back, we got our ACC preview.

Like we said, we, we divide the teams into tiers, we look at the contenders, the wild cards, and then the.

The basement teams a little more in depth.

Go team by team.

Pretty much.

Yeah.

As always, keep it done up real good out there, folks.

Greg, buddy.

Let's see then.

Yep.

Thank you once again for listening, folks.

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