It is the JR Sport Reef Show here with you coast to coast on the Infiniti Sports Network. Here in Atlanta things have been very busy. Beyonce's in town, Major League Baseball, All Star Game, and Home Run Derby, WWE. And the SEC has already taken time to Roll out. It's media days.
Okay? We're hearing from Commissioner Greg Sankey. Hearing from coaches and players, and of course, the playoff is up, and what's next, what we can expect. Of course, there's so many stories. We had the Big 12 last week to talk about everything going on in college football.
What we can expect now, tomorrow, a month from now, a couple of years. And joining us right now is Brandon Marcelo, covers all things college football, National College Football Reporter for CBS. Brandon, how are you, man? Doing very well. How are you?
Very well. Thank you for the time. Maybe they're not doing well. We heard last week all the The conversations from your mark about the potential college football playoff, and now we've heard from the SEC. They're the big boys, but apparently they don't even agree on what a college football playoff might look like.
What's the latest on that? Yes, the latest is that everybody's still at a standstill. And for that matter, it really looks like it's the big 10 against everybody else. And we're just trying to see if there's going to be some type of. compromise reach.
You know, the SEC and Big Ten hold voting control over what this future format is going to look like. And right now, the Big Ten wants their format to be with four automatic qualifiers for itself and for the SEC. with the Big 12 and ACC getting two a piece.
Meanwhile, the SEC is more open to having more at-large berths in a future format, and the ACC and Big 12 want a 5 plus 11 format, which is 11 at large teams. And then you saw today, Greg Sankey, the SEC commissioner, say that, listen, we could stay at 12 even. And keep it the way it is right now. But the one that's really pushing this idea of doing these multiple automatic qualifiers is the big 10. And for a couple of months, the Big Ten's ADs were on board.
with the SEC's ADs to get this pushed across the finish line. But down in the SEC spring meetings back in May and June, There was a change in tenor in the SEC, and now all of a sudden it's it's put a A big kind of spike in the road here, and it slowed everything down. Um your guess is as good as anybody's is what resolution they're going to reach, but here's all we do know. They have to make a decision before December first, because that's when this whole new contract goes into effect for the next six years for the college football playoff. And ESPN, the broadcast partners, are waiting to hear what's the format look like and are we going to owe you more money for having more games?
Brandon Marcello is joining us from CBS Sports. What do you think the likeliest outcome is? Or what do you think is the best situation? We saw the adjustment. Already made when it comes down to the playoff seedings.
But what do you think would be the fairest given we have the big four, quote unquote, and everybody else?
Okay. I think that because of the SEC stance of their wanting more at-large spots, that some type of format, if it goes to 16. needs to be close to that five plus eleven where Only the five highest ranked conference champions are assured a spot, but they're not necessarily assured a first-round buy. And that format is pretty much what we're going to see this upcoming year, but just with 12 teams. But if you're going to expand to 16 and you have more at-large spots, It gives you some more opportunities for scheduling.
Also allows some maybe some more leeway there. Because the big argument that the Big Ten is really having right now, as well, is that they want the SEC to move to nine conference games. The SEC plays eight right now. They want them to move to nine. They want uniform scheduling among all these conferences, but it's not that way right now.
And the SEC's argument is we want to stay with eight really because we have the toughest conference. We have the toughest schedule anyway.
So why do we need to add on to that with another Another game.
So again, You're in this position where all these commissioners are in their own silos, their own bunkers, battling for themselves more or less than. what they should do for college football. And at some point, they're going to come together and reach a resolution. But the longer this goes on. It seems to me that they'll probably just stick to 12 teams if this carries on through September and into October.
And September 24th, by the way. To me, it is kind of the end date for me. And by that, I mean that's when all these commissioners are scheduled to meet in person again in Chicago to discuss everything. And if they can't get some common ground there, you know, shrink it down to like, hey. We have an idea of maybe what we want to do.
We have to do some tweaks here. If that doesn't happen by late September, I don't see how they change the format. And if they don't do it by September, I think they stick with 12 teams in the format we see this upcoming season. Yeah, that appears to be most likely when you talk about trying to get everybody on the same page and just kind of continue on with the status quo. We're being joined by Brandon Marcelo, National College Football Reporter from CBS, to talk about another story that kind of popped up out of nowhere, courtesy of McElroy earlier today, is that Nick Saban might return.
I mean, we just talked about all the uncertainty just from a college football playoff perspective, haven't even gotten into NIL and transfer portal. Do you see a way in hell where Nick Saban is just going to go backwards? I don't see it. I mean, listen, he's going to be 74 this Halloween. Um, he partially left college football because he didn't like what it was transitioning into.
It was leveling the playing field for a lot of reasons with NIL and also allowing some of the programs that weren't accustomed to getting like four stars or five stars. They were able to get that if they had a big-time booster stepping up in the NIL collectives. But Things are changing again when we talk about revenue sharing. And now you're seeing a lot of deals that have been set up by NIL collectives being turned down and not approved by this new College Sports Commission that started up July 1st after this house settlement. Um, but having said all that, he's got a pretty cushed life right now.
Yeah, I know there's this desire, like, oh, I want to compete, but. Where could he go? Where he would be assured that he can win right away and then win maybe a national title or compete for one in the next three years there, because he's not going to be somewhere more than five years, let alone maybe three. What program out there can give him that? I don't necessarily see one out there that's going to come open anytime soon.
And, you know, the clock's ticking on him. I mean, he's going to be 74 this season and He's got a good life at ESPN, getting paid millions of dollars to do what he does. I mean, he's got the president's ear about what college sports should look like right now. I just don't see that happening at all. But hey, it's nice media days fodder, I guess.
It's talking season. Yeah, why yeah why why why add a Stress to your life in the process. Speaking of stress up, Brandon, Brian Kelly. This man did a lot of talking when he left Notre Dame. It sounded like he changed his accent a little bit too.
Now he's here at LSU. He has to be one of the most stressed coaches where results are needed this upcoming season, no? Yeah, and it all starts with the opener, too, because LSU just loses opener after opener in these big games. And You saw him today at SEC Media Days how they've changed their approach with it. They've got Clemson tiger paws all over the LSU facility to motivate the players, that they're focusing on that.
They're treating it almost like a rivalry game in some ways because whatever. they've done in the past LSU, even before Brian Kelly was there. For these season openers, for whatever reason, they just do not show up and they can't win the games. And a lot of them have been very tight and they haven't been able to come through in the fourth quarter.
So, if he was to go out again and lose the opener again, which may very well happen, I mean, Clemson's going to be favored, it's going to be on the road and everything. You're going to start some more heat on Brian Kelly. I mean, this is a guy that. Went into last season. Leading the nation with an active winning streak of 10-win seasons, and he fell short of that last year at LSU.
He has said in the past that it's easier to contend and win a national title at LSU than it is at Notre Dame. And yet so far at LSU, he's doing exactly what he did at Notre Dame.
So This year he needs to break through there. And by breakthrough, I mean win 10 or 11 games and get into the playoff and make some noise. Yeah, well yeah, you put he put his foot in his mouth on that one. Uh Brandon Marcello's joining us here on the JR Sport Re Show. Speaking of putting a foot in the mouth, Lane Kiffin, um he hasn't said anything too outrageous yet, huh?
He's been kinda quiet on the Twitter front too. Yeah, you know, he's still poking a little bit at the bear, and not necessarily a bear, but Hugh Freese down at Auburn. About his golfing habits, which I mean, I think everybody's kind of poking him for that. You know, apparently, Hugh Freeze loves to golf, golfs often. And Lane Kippen was trying to explain himself today, saying, Oh, I wasn't really poking fun at Hugh Freeze, that was more of an inside joke.
But we all know what Lane Kippen's doing. He's the king of trolls. I mean, he calls himself the transfer portal king. He's also the SEC's troll king, and that guy. is always out and about and everything's very cool and calculated with him and uh It continued once again today, and I'm sure it'll continue throughout the season once they actually get into some of these game weeks.
I think you'll start seeing hearing more from him.
Well, as we creep cl I can't believe we're going to we're going to blink in the college football season is going to be underway. What teams are you really paying attention to? We've had a lot of turnover over the past couple of years as it relates to coaches and, of course, guys getting drafted. What's really capturing your attention to pay attention to this upcoming season? Does Penn State become the Ohio state of last year?
They've gone all in on this year with the transfer portal, retaining a lot of players from last season's team, not going to the NFL. With some NIL money, this should be their best team they've had yet under James Franklin. They've got to not only get in the playoff, but get to the national championship game to live up to expectations. And that's a tall, tall task. Also, I look around, even say in the big 10, Ohio State, how do you?
Bounce. Back from what you did last year, getting to the national championship, winning that thing, doing so with generational talent. And now you're replacing your quarterback in Ohio State, as we know. I mean, they go from cool to hot in a moment, the fan base there. I mean, what if you win nine games this year?
Are we talking, I mean, not necessarily Ryan Day on the hot seat, but everybody just going, oh, Ryan Day was a flash in the pan just that one year. That's interesting to me. And then look around in the SEC, it might be the deepest conference. Do we really have What we used to have there in the past, where we had three or four like big-time blue bloods that can contend. The SEC has not been in the national championship game in back-to-back years for the first time since 2004, 2005.
What happens if that stretches into a third year? I I think y in a lot of ways this offseason, You've seen the SEC. reacting to a lot of people instead of standing tall and saying, we're the best. I mean, even today, Greg Sankey is saying, you know, we hold the best hand and he's reacting to what Brett Yormark at Big 12 Media Day said. And in the SEC spring meetings, you've got the.
Commissioner and his people handing out pamphlets to me and others explaining why the SEC is still the best. They're campaigning, they're politic, they're being political with all this. I've never seen that from the SEC. I think they're a little uh I think they're scrambling a little bit, and someone needs to not only emerge from there, but they need to have their top three or four blue bloods so that they're worthy of getting in the playoff this year instead of just counting on maybe one or two teams. Oh, we're gonna we're gonna find out sooner than than later.
The season's gonna be upon us. And last question for you, Brandon. If I have to think about What happens in September, October, November, when we actually get to the football? Is Bill Belichick's story and all this surrounding his life gonna kinda fade to the background? He's he's gonna be in uh a little obscurity, no?
A little bit? I think so if they're winning. If they're losing. Hell no. I mean, they're going to be bringing up any little thing they can.
to knock him down to peg his personal life, anything like that. It all starts week one, man. They got to play TCU. And TCU's been no stranger to some big season opener games. Remember, two years ago, Deion Sanders era at Colorado started by beating TCU on the road.
And now Sonny Dykes has got to take TCU on the road to North Carolina on week one. Um that's to add some intrigue to it, but You know, North Carolina on paper does not have a very good team. They look like a team that's going to have a losing record this year. How does Bill Belichick deal with that in year one? I mean, there's a lot of questions there.
If they're winning, they're going to get a lot of attention, but it's going to be the attention because of the coaching and the playing. If they start losing, You're going to get all the wrong type of attention. And man, it's going to be interesting to see how Bill Belichick handles that if that's the case. Yeah, wow world. I don't know.
Maybe Nick Saban can give him some advice from the TV studio. We'll we'll find out.
sooner than later on that one. Hey, Brandon, thank you so much for the time. Please tell everybody where they can follow you and all your work with CBS. Yeah, at B. Marcelo on X and just check out cbsports.com.
Hey, Brandon, thank you so much, man. Don't work too hard, okay? All right, man. See you, JR.
