I'm live today seven to seventy West Riverdale Road in Ogden. We are out and about for the thirteenth Daniel Memorial did weekend tent sale with our friends at Wassatch Front, Kia. We are giving away a great lone Mountain one tenqt cooler from Pitmaster Supply Company and we will draw a name about one hour from right now. All you have to do is come by an enter to win, and we're gonna hook you up coming up at.
About five o'clock.
All right, a random amount of college football storylines to get to today, and no better guest to break it down there. I got Matt Brown, the founder and publisher of Extra Points and front of the program.
Matt, Happy Thursday, buddy. How are you doing?
Hey, I'm doing great. It's always a pleasure to spend a little bit of time here with you.
I appreciate the time. Appreciate the time.
So the CFP has approved a new seating model for next season.
Am I wrong to say?
This appears to be something that is just so basic that I don't know why they did this all along.
I get I get why they did it. I mean, we've had the NFL had postseason formats where preferential seating was given to people that won divisions, and then other professional leagues have done it before. Honestly, I wish they hadn't done it, just because I think this is a little bit of an overreaction to Arizona State and Boise State last year. But I don't think I don't think
fans are going to complain. It's probably not good news for the Big Twelve, but it should lead to more equally matched early postseason games for next season.
Yeah.
I mean not to just draw a parallel, because sometimes it's an exercise and futility to say, well, basketball does this, so football should do it. Football does it, so basketball should do it. But it's not like the NCAA tournament is seated based.
Off of conference champs or what have you. Like.
It just seems in my pea brain that the best team should get the highest seats, is all I'm saying.
Yeah, now that I think about it, I don't think any other NCAA championship event does guaranteed seating for conference champions It's either done by net or pair wise or RPI or anything else. I mean, this isn't clean inc double event. But if you want to make things standard. That does make sense, all right.
So let's stay in this space for a moment, because the other conversation that is out there is what twenty twenty six will look like, and you know, expanding to sixteen teams seems.
To be inevitable.
But then there's the conversation about four auto bids for the SEC, four auto bids for the Big ten, two for the Big twelve, two for the ACC, one for Group of six, and then three at large bids.
That's kind of been bandied about.
There's a little bit of pushback going on, as you would expect, So give me your thoughts on this and how you think we land well.
I mean, my personal thought is I hate it.
I hate it. I hate it.
I think that the part of this is again a dramatic overreaction to the results from one season. This was I think a major problem that college football had with the BCS. Or you would set a formula, it would work, it would work out one way. We all decided we didn't like that, so we'd immediately change the formula and then things would You never had enough consistency or ability
to make a real data and form decision. It's also a money grab and and not to sound you know, hysterically hyperbolic, but I think, I think this proposal is almost anti American and how it completely removes meritocracy and it is built to lock in advantages from a couple of these other largest institutions. And honestly, the biggest obstacle to us moving toward to a world with automatic bids is not so much the Big twelve or the a CEC, who I don't think can meaningfully stop this given the
voting control. It's it's going to be Congress, and it's going to be politicians because of enough lawmakers and enough you know, politically influential people who are tied to Big twelve or ACC or G six interests are able to waive you know, you know, uh raised concerns about anti trust.
Then I could I could see an outside entity forbidding this sort of thing from happening, and that was that was you know, Cody Campbell, the the Texas tech billionaire and who was going to co chair the White House College Sports Commission until that got postponed, has raised concerns
about this. Outside of the government doing something, It's difficult for me to imagine this unique and to put back in the puddle, which is good news if you're a fan of fifth place SEC teams, probably less good news if you like anybody else.
All Right, Matt, we're gonna need you to walk us through this because it has been a chaotic back and forth with some legislators and lawmakers on the state level passing some bills kind of quietly, quite frankly that would allow their schools to circumvent rules put in place by the House first NCAA settlement, And now it looks like there's legislation on the table or.
A contract that would bind schools to the new enforcement rules.
And require them to waive the right to sue over decisions despite the state legislation. I just want the damn settlement, dude, so I can understand where we're at.
So the time is yours. Walk us through this what's going on here.
So the bad news is, and I've written about this a little bit, is that I don't think any of this matters regardless of what Judge Wilkin does in the next thirty six hours, regardless of what state lawmakers do, because either Judge will can approves the thing before you know, I log off and close my computer on Friday, and then we have the next lawsuit two weeks later, or she doesn't approve it and the SCLA changes some rules,
and then we have another lawsuit. You can have, you can have the college Sports Commission or whatever you want to call this, this new group ask tell schools you got to sign, you got to wage your right to sue, You got to agree to this other forum for or I'll kick you out. You can make them sign that, but someone can still sue and say it doesn't matter. That contract's unenforceable. This is unconstitutional, this is illegal. And the only way that you have clarity is, well, let's
let's see what some judges think. Let's see what the federal government decides to do. Let's see how some parts of this settlement are tested in court or in Congress. So all that's frustrating, because I know you're sick of talking about it. Candidly, I'm a little bit sick of writing about it. Most of the ads and coaches and presidents that I talked to are tired of having somebody from something completely outside of their universe dictate things to
them unseemingly our arbitrary bases. But that's the reality. It's not just Tennessee that's passed one of these loss. Oregon has done it too. There's others that are considering it. And we won't know how enforceable any of this house stuff is until somebody who isn't Judge Wilkin takes the look at.
It good insgrations.
So I'm going to reduce it even more, be reductive even more. When are you expecting the settlement to be passed? When are you expecting this to actually go down?
I'm expecting an update from the judge before the end of this week, before the holiday weekend. It's been two weeks. All of the motions have been filed, all the PaperWorks on our desk. I've actually posted in a couple of meetings that I've had because a lot of these things
end up happening late in the afternoon specific time. But it would not shock me if it's four thirty specific time and all of the other national reporters are two beers deeps heading into a three day weekend and then suddenly we all have to run to our desks and write something. Even though I think functionally whatever happens with this case doesn't actually matter.
Okay, let's dig into that, though, because I think most people have been waiting for this case to be settled in order to understand the landscape of what college football, specifically in college athletics as a whole, will look like. So tell me, and you already alluded to this with your previous answer, let's unpack it a little bit more so.
If I'm understanding correctly, you're expecting the settlement, then you're expecting lawsuits, and you're expecting lawsuits against the lawsuits and appeals and like so, So how does this end?
How does this ball of yarn unwined?
It ends in one of three ways? Right, It ends because the federal government, through Congress or even potentially executive action. I guess if the balance of powers doesn't really matter anymore. But but somebody in Washington, d c. Passes a law to create clarity clarity meeting and anti trust exemption clarity meeting. We're throwing out the settlement clarity to end the legal exposure or limit it one way or another's that's one option.
Option two is the federal government doesn't do anything, and this just plays out two courts, and courts will either affirm the settlement and establish some kind of precedence in the NCAA will be able to enforce some of these NIL restrictions, or they won't, or the case goes to trial in case the whole thing, the whole sediment completely blows up, and then we have another three years of
kind of kind of navigating about this. The third would be the settlement gets torn up and another one is proposed, which is which is the least likely thing. I know, it's frustrating. What's gonna happen in two and a half weeks three weeks. Is that one way or another, administrators at Utah and BYU and Utah State are going to
make preparations to pay college athletes directly. Either it will be under the terms of the House settlement, which will you know, will probably be executed and not stayed under appeal, or the thing gets blown up and they're going to pay people anyway, and the NCAA is just going to change their rules, just like they did over NIL in twenty twenty one. I would love to not think about this anymore, but I do not think the legal realities are going to allow me.
To do anything else, which brings us to another situation.
I need your help here.
So the Presidential Commission on College Sports, President Trump has I guess, at one point decided this was a good idea. The Kedy Campbell, businessman from Texas is involved.
In.
My understanding is they had started to look at recommendations for membership.
Of course, the story.
That they spoke with Nick Saban about it advisor role is out there, and then I guess today they're pausing it. I mean, I don't know if this is like another like we're gonna tear if everybody and then wait, we're not, like what exactly is going on here?
So I mean, we can't we can't rule that out. Really, like I think, not to be partisan, but one thing that's been pretty true of this particular administration, there's a little bit of a ready fire aim approach to a lot of things. What happened was the Trump White House decided first by leaking to the Wall Street Journal what they were considering a college Sports Executive Order and then creating this commission. They didn't tell anybody about that until
until they decided let's let's all systems go. And many of the issues that Senator Tuberville is concerned with and Saban's concerned with that, Campbell is concerned with and many lawmakers are the exact issues that are trying to be resolved in Congress, and the point person for that. The most likely bill to pass is Ted Cruz, who's been negotiating for six months with Senator Moran out of the Republican out of Kansas, Corey Booker, Democrat from New Jersey.
I think I think Blumenthal and Kune Senator from from from Delaware, and I've seen part of this bill. I've talked to staffers in a couple of those different Senate offices and Senate committees and their goal and then you know, Cruise's people and and Kuon's people have said, yeah, we think this can get bipartisan support to finally get get something through. Whether it gets sixty votes or fifty six or fifty eight, you know, we don't know, but it's
something like that that contracts of support. And I think what's happened here, you know, based on the phone calls I've made today, is two things. One, big money from the big ten in the SEC and their lobbying efforts have kind of gotten into Trump's ear and said, hey, Cody Campbell wants some stuff here that we don't watch, and maybe we don't want him to have as much influence, namely potentially curtailing the Big ten in the SEC's overwhelming influence.
Not good if you're a Texas tech fan. The other thing is, it's going to be much harder for Ted Cruz to get six Democrats or any Democrats to support something if President Trump is out in front of it. The smaller role that he plays, given how politically readio active he is right now, the easier it's going to be to find a couple of Democrats to get this
thing over the line. So what I believe is happening here is a bunch of other people have gotten to the President and they're like, no, actually, it makes more sense to defer to Ted. Let's give him a few more weeks. Let's see what Judge Wilkin does, and then
we'll go back to this commission. Because there are issues that the President is concerned about and Senator Trumberville are concerned about that don't have anything to do with NIL, and those might be something that is addressed by an executive order commission independent of this bill.
I'm trying to think of having any Edd in my bag just so I can pop a couple of advil or something here.
I know it's the thing that every sports fan is really excited about in late Nay, It's like I can't wait to talk about Ted Cruz, but this, this is the reality.
Well, ultimately, do you foresee this commission essentially at some point existing permanently. I mean the bypart is the nature of what has to happen here doesn't seem to be possible.
And I'm no political.
Expert, but I keep track of it because I'm a human who lives in the United States of America, and with all the things that seem to be a little bit more important on the table, with our leaders in charge unable to come together from pretty basic things, do you think this is something that actually will exist when the dust settles?
I do, actually, And I think an interesting question is going to be what does this commission ultimately end up studying? One thing that I've written about and supported for a couple of years, as have other athletes. Activists have pushed for a commission to study the Olympic movement, just like we had in the late seventies. Right if whether it's the House settlement or revenue sharing or nil. All these other things are changing the ability for smaller schools to
sponsor Olympic sports. I mean, just a few hours ago, I think Steven F. Austin just dropped four. I have a story about all of this coming out tomorrow. It makes sense for national experts in business and military and athletics to figure out how are we going to fund elite athlete development? That would that would absolutely be something that would be the purview of a college sports commission.
I think that would be a good idea. There are issues, and I know this because I've talked to Republican staffers and lawmakers who have asked my opinion about some college sports reform. Like I know that there are the lawmakers who are concerned about the number of international athletes who are competing right now at the highest level, and are
they taking spots of American athletes? Obviously, you know, a very animating issue among servatives is the potential participation of transgender athletes in women's sports, and and how can that be limited or curtailed or eliminated. Even more, there's a reform of Title nine. These are all things that are not going to be in the TED Cruz Bill that are not about nil, not about athlete compensation, but are important to Republican politicians and could be a part of
a commission. So could the reform of the of the Sports Broadcasting Act, which would you know, which is what prohibits the NFL from you know, playing games on Saturdays in October. That could have changes. So all of this is possible. The difficult thing for good or for ill, love the guy or hate him. President Trump's unpredictable and at a lot of his actions depend on who got in his ear last or what he saw on TV
at ten o'clock at night. And if I could predict exactly what he's going to do sixty days from now, my newsletter would be much much more expensive.
All Right, one more thing here than there is a local story involving Eyu's quarterback I wanted to ask you about, and you know it's a very sensitive things, so if you don't have much on it, we can quickly move on. But and I know I revisit this with you quite a bit. But of course, the conversations about the Big ten and the SEC wielding the power that they do in the half of the auto.
Bids, and the sixteen sixteen team CFP.
At one point it felt like we were high speed ahead, and honestly, part of me feels like we should do this, but of course there are so many pieces of red tape and legal jargon and anti trust this, and the courts have to settle that that are Are we still moving into a situation where you do think at some point there will be.
Two power conferences?
Or have we just settled into like college football is what it is right now and we're just going to continue to traverse these legal spaces until we actually land on something that is either these two conferences or is it just this now in perpetuity for a while.
I would not bet on this in perpetuity for anything. Right this is an era of seismic change, and we're not done with that seismic change. It would not surprise me if we are moving towards the world where we have a separation between the Big Ten and the SEC, or for that matter, potentially a separation that's even smaller than that, a separation of thirty two or forty elite college programs or brands, most of which are in the
Big Ten and SEC. But maybe that doesn't include Northwestern maybe that doesn't include Rutgers or Vanderbilt, or for building a new super league. We could be moving to a world with that separation of sixty five teams and maybe includes a bunch of Big twelve institutions. We could be moving towards the world where that is halted because of new anti trust enforcement or new federal legislation, or what
happens with private equity. It's a terrible sports radio answer to say that you're not sure exactly where it's going to go. I do know what the current status quo is untenable financially, legally, morally, and politically. I think how this sport is configured and looks in four years will look very different how it is now.
All right, man, before it set you loose. About ten minutes before we cracked the mic yesterday to do.
The show, the Salt Lake Tribune has.
Reported it's a civil case has been filed in Salt Lake County alleging that BYU quarterback Jake Rhetz laugh raped and strangled his accuser in November of twenty twenty three. It's a bad look all around. It's a bad look for the Provo Police department. Jake's attorney, BYU and the Provo PD have all released their own statements.
This is not a criminal charge. It is a civil charge.
And now we kind of wait, it's you know, it's been unfortunate, you know the deal. I mean, college football fans are why you and I have a job. But this puts a mirror in front of people, and then you know, you see YOUTE fans doing victory lapse, you see BYU fans victim shaming.
It's been a.
Rough twenty four hours or so in the new cycle out this way. I don't even really know what to ask you because ultimately it is such a sensitive situation that really shouldn't have a lot to do with football. But Jake is a starting quarterback at BYU. So what's your reaction to this? And you know, BYU, how do you think they proceed?
Yeah, I mean, the most important thing to me after reading that story is that I hope for the safety of Jane Doe, and I hope that Jane Doe is able to uh to obtain justice whatever the facts of this ultimately and and end up being like that that thing. I think that's the most important thing for anybody that's reporting and an incident like this, right, I would also say, just for the benefit of news consumers in regardless of
what college football you know, fandom you come from. I say this as somebody who doesn't you know, isn't gonna ride or die for any of these places. But it's just been reporting on this for a while. The initially the facts of the case, as reported by a complaint and by what police initially say right right after this are not always what actually happened. I hate to say this, but police lie and and in fact, you know, not irregularly about things that might make them look bad.
Uh.
Sometimes the the complaints is not always accurate either. So the I think the difficult thing is to tell people you have to let this play out and not immediately seize upon what what what you read within the first
twelve hours, as as the gospel truth. The third thing to think about, which is unique in this particular situation and be right because it's it's not criminal, is you know, b YU has A has a different standard of conduct for athletes, and somebody could be innocent of any criminal wrongdoing and still very clearly violate the standards that they signed up for to represent this particular program. And that
doesn't violate someone's due process. Brother, you don't have due process the same way that we might with the courts, with with the Honor Code. I'm not telling anybody what to do. I'm I'm, I am, I am simply like preparing fans for for for what that might mean. You can be, you know, innocent of criminal charges and still
be in violation of the Honor Code. Beyond you know, the things could be interpreted like they were in twenty twelve, they could be interpreted like they were in nineteen eighty one. They could be a completely new interpretation. I have no idea. I hope everyone is safe, and I hope justice has served.
Well, said Matt. Where can people go at your work?
You can find my work at extra Points mb dot com. I have a story coming out tomorrow on why mid majors are dropping sports and why one in the West is adding them and hopes to add even more over the next eighteen months. We're going to have some more analysis of what's happening in Washington with college athletics over the next couple of days, and then some other reporting on the business of college athletics to drop in the near future as well. Can also find me on Twitter at Matt Brown EP.
Thank you, my friend. You always expand my intellectual horizons. I feel like I'm interviewing a professor. Have a great Memorial Day weekend. Love to get you back on soon.
Okay, all right YouTube, Be well and safe, everybody, all.
Right, the Great Matt Brown.
Extra Points is the college football newsletter, and he's a really bright guy.
Sometimes I just feel like I'm tread and water to keep up. Appreciate his on