Bill Bender, Sporting News

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2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. Bill, thank you for taking the time to hop on. Hey JR, thanks for having me on.

Let's do it. Most certainly. I guess the biggest question is what the hell is going on with all of these coaches leaving? Is it all related to NIL and and the transfer portal, free agency, etc.? I think that's part of it certainly.

In each case is different. I mean Nick Saban, nobody's going to blame him for retiring. You mentioned Jim Harbaugh. I just don't think he got the Super Bowl out of his system.

And then the latest ones though are a little more concerning. For Chip Kelly and Jeff Halfley, the case where you're coaching at a power four program that probably isn't going to, isn't built to win a national championship or get to the college football pleb. The more concerning one was today though with Sean Elliott, Alabama poached two group of five coaches.

So I'll ask you this back. I think it's easier to become a power four coach by being an assistant in a power four school by being a group of five head coach. And I think the path is probably as an assistant at one of the power schools. So why do you think we have that shift though Bill?

That's what I'm really curious to find out. I'm going to dig into those numbers and find out just how many guys were group of five coaches that made the jump up. I'll point to a couple examples where Billy Napier hasn't had the success at Florida that we thought he might.

And you know there's others like that. That they coach in the group of five and then they struggle when they make that move up and then you get leery of it. A bad example maybe because Josh Heiple did the exact opposite. He's done a great job at Tennessee from UCF but I think as we get into this next chapter of college football and the haves start to resemble NFL franchises which they already do. It just makes sense that you would want to be on them those stabs like Sharone Moore and some others that you can slide over and take that head coaching job.

Ryan Day did the same thing. Bill Bender is joining us here the chair of sport re-show on CBS Sports Radio. You talked about the changes that we're seeing and it's not just coaches moving around. We have teams that are leaving conferences or for bigger money. Seems like buyouts don't matter anymore whether you're a coach or whether you happen to be a team.

What's that reorganization look like? It's college football already looks different than it was five years ago and five years from now there's going to be an even bigger difference. Yeah it is and I think the next couple years are going to be an experiment of sorts and I would start with the college football playoff. What if the first round's bad? I've been asking that question the last couple weeks and I say bad in terms of when you and I watch March Madness that first round and UConn is beating the 16 seed by 40 points it's easy to change the channel.

The college football playoff is going to have less games so if it looks like a week one blowout we're going to sit and watch. I think the recruiting calendar needs to reorganize. I think we need to consider revenue sharing and if you fix those two things the transfer portal will fix itself because I'm all about letting athletes have the choice to play where they want to play. When my son gets to college and he wants to go to a different college why wouldn't you want him to do that?

Well without a shadow of a doubt Bill Bender is here with us from the sporting news. It seems that from the introduction of NIL and the player movement players now have the option to go ahead and chase money. I mean if they knew that they were going to get money in cash at their current college wherever they're playing they wouldn't have the same need or feeling to have to go out and chase it. It took forever for players to even get to this point. How long before you see any possibility of any revenue sharing?

It's going to be an uncomfortable conversation because it's taken so long to get to this point. I think it makes sense. I've always thought it makes sense but do you make them employees of the university? I thought the path to go with these as I mentioned college football programs that are more like NFL programs why wouldn't you run that like an NFL franchise, salary cap it and let those schools do their own thing? I get the dangers of it but I think if we've already opened NIL why wouldn't we go all the way and do something that benefits them because you and I all we all know how much money is being made from the sport and the student athletes if we want to call them that still have to get a piece of that there's no doubt. Has the the NCAA run away from responsibility or organization or structure where have they they've been lacking in this process because it seems like everything just went went to shreds and went for free for all very quickly here over the past couple of years?

Well they're easy to target but I always think that's a little bit of low-hanging fruit because that's what we wanted. We wanted athletes to be able to transfer we wanted athletes to be able to benefit from their likeness. We wanted the 12-team playoff we wanted real I don't think we wanted realignment personally that's the one that's got me because I hated seeing the pack 12 buy. I just and I'm in Big Ten country right so I just hated seeing an entire region of the country go away in terms of the the conference but yeah so I think the NCAA we can target them and say where was the leadership and part of that is maybe the need and we've said it for years I don't know that it'll ever happen to have a college football commissioner but in order to do that all of these conferences have to be on the same page and that's been the hardest part as well because they're protecting their own interests the SEC and the Big Ten and they may have a joint venture committee but at the end of the day they're looking out for themselves. It's wow wow Bill Bender is here with us the JR Sport regional on CBS sports radio coming to us from the sporting news with all the things that are wrong with the college football system what are some of the positives what can we look forward to moving forward? Well I think this new rendition of realignment is going to be interesting because I look like I said I live in Columbus Ohio State's right here there'll be better games on a more consistent basis I mean when you watch Ohio State there's really only two games they could possibly lose I think the SEC without Nick Saban becomes much more interesting especially with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma Dion and the Big 12 alternative programming to the SEC and Big Ten and I think it's going to be fun you know and with the wide open 12-team playoffs combined with Nick Saban leaving yeah Georgia and Ohio State will be prohibitive favorites but see wait and see if they can get through I mean the NFL playoffs we always think we have it figured out well now we do because we just have to pick Patrick Mahomes to win the whole thing with the Chiefs every year now.

Well Bill you mentioned Dion Sanders we had mentioned him earlier as well we know he made a big fuss when he came into Colorado about what players will still be there and who will be gone what do you think his second full season will look like at Colorado how how long do you think he'll be there what do you expect? Well more growth from Chidor when your son is that good that helps and a little more depth on the offensive and defensive line I think they'll get to a bowl game I think it'll continue to be fun that first month of the season was unlike anything we have ever seen in college football in the last 25 years and then yeah the bottom fell out a little bit but the fact was he took over a one-win team and got four wins almost got to five and and improved the program I think he will still be in the spotlight in the Big 12 it'll be fun because look at the parity that you're going to have in that conference I don't think there's a domineering power like Utah, Arizona, BYU, Colorado, PCU those will be fun games and somebody will get into that playoff out of that conference maybe two teams. As an overall Bill and as we wrap things up with all the movement amongst coaches with all of the quarterbacks who are going to be moving on to the NFL and the draft we know the usual suspects when it comes to who's going to be competing for the playoffs we also know about the expansion who would you say what what teams would really be in the lead to go ahead and and compete for the national championship next year? Well I'll start with four teams that that most people will pick it would be Georgia obviously and there's a big upset right uh Ohio State with the additions they made uh Quinshot Judkins, Will Howard killed down he might be the best player in the country next year on defense Texas that no more no more jokes they're good and they've got Quinn back in the loaded roster and then Oregon those are the four I would pick it off the top Oregon going to the Big Ten could create a really good rivalry with Ohio State and uh you know Michigan and Alabama obviously they're still going to have talent even though they lost their coaches so I wouldn't like write them off just yet so but I think Ohio State and Georgia is where that conversation starts they played a great game a couple years ago I think they'll play another one next year. Well Bill final question for you you mentioned Texas we know that Arch Manning is sitting behind Quinn who said I ain't going anywhere what is the most likely scenario for Arch? I think he sits for one more year and you know there was a lot made about the competition he played in high school so why not develop for another year behind Quinn Ewers? Quinn Ewers also has missed time in the last two years I think he's missed four or five games so Arch might get his chance I think the Manning family you've seen patience with Eli way back to Archie you know Peyton was the third stringer when he started and had to wait for a couple injuries to get in so I won't be surprised if he stays put and I've had no indication that he's going anywhere but when he does get on the field it will trend I mean I can use our side as proof whenever he got in those articles they went right up on chart beat. Yeah everybody wants to see Arch Manning out on the field. Hey Bill thank you for taking the time to hop on where can people follow you and all of your work with Sporting News? I still bender 92 on Sporting News and you can find all the work there I really appreciated the conversation tonight it was good college football's a long way away but as you know it'll be here before we know it. A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring but the runners-up get nothing one retired cop return that's one retired quarterback read the script oh sorry one retired quarterback returns to claim what's his um that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter but you're on a roll the ring of comfort coming soon to a Super Bowl new you. Okay picture this it's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever or I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road with available h-track all-wheel drive and three-row seating my whole family can head deep into the wild conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details Hyundai there's joy in every journey 2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. Dana Carvey and David Spade here you might know our podcast fly on the wall featuring guests from across the entertainment industry we decided to do a spin-off called Superfly and it's fun it's just two of us riffing on current events pop culture catching up impressions Joe Trump's trying to be a dictator yeah she says you know bump on tater tots Joe no listen to and follow Superfly on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast