Ari Temkin, SiriusXM Big 12 Radio Host

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And use promo code REBAGNEW for up to 15% off your first purchase as a member. Ari, thank you for joining us. What's going on JR? How are ya?

I'm very well, thank you. I mean, it's been a robust two days. I mean, we got Brett Urimark who's quite the salesman. We got stupid comments from someone like Mike Gundy. And then we get Dion explaining what the next year is gonna look like. What has stood out to you so far now that we've got the media day launched and they get ready to play in another month? Yeah, I mean, it's wild to look at where this league has gone in the last three years. You know, three years ago, we weren't sure that this league was gonna continue.

After media days, we found out that Texas and Oklahoma was gonna be leaving the conference. And, you know, four new teams entered last year. Four additional new teams this year. So you're looking at eight teams of the course last year that are brand new in this league. It's a new league.

So I know, like, we think we know about it and we know the players and it's really hard to understand how this is all gonna play out because we don't know the factors at play that is gonna impact some of the newest members coming in. You know, the schedules, you know, UCF, Terry Malhajra, the athletic director at UCF said they only played two teams on their schedule in the Big 12 that were the same as last year, right? So that's not how we thought of conferences and certainly not the Big 12, where a couple of years ago there was 10 teams and everybody was playing each other.

Totally different dynamic at Animal this year. Well, Ari, when you talk about the old Pac-12 teams that are coming in, Colorado, Arizona State, AZ, and also Utah, you already mentioned Texas and Oklahoma. They're coming down here to the south in the SEC. Who's gonna be the cream of the crop in this new conference? There's gonna be a lot of good teams and Brett Yormark tried to sell us on, well, it's the deepest conference in America and look, he's PT Barnum.

That's what he's supposed to do. It's not the deepest league in America. That's probably still the SEC, but that doesn't mean it's not a league of parody.

And I think that's what he means when he says that. What Yormark says with the deepest league in America, what he's saying is this is a league of parody. And Utah and Oklahoma State and Kansas State, certainly the teams we expect to be competing towards the top of this conference, but there's probably four or five teams, a West Virginia, a Kansas, Iowa State, UCF potentially, that could very well win this conference.

So you could call it a conference of mids. I don't agree with that, but I think it remains to be seen who the cream of the crop is. Utah coming in is expected to be that. But Oklahoma State has won as much over the last couple of decades under Mike Gundy as Utah has with Kyle Whittingham.

That's not Kyle Whittingham, that's just the reality of the situation. So while I think Utah can be a heavy hitter in this conference, Oklahoma State and Kansas State have already been heavy hitters in this conference, the biggest things you are moving forward is public perception. And it used to be that Texas at OU set the tone for the public perception of the Big 12. And if you beat Texas at OU, that was a good win. And it was viewed nationally as such. Now the league doesn't have that.

They don't have those litmus tests. So week one, West Virginia, Penn State, boy is that a big game for the Big 12. Week three, UCF visiting Florida, boy is that a big game for the Big 12.

Iowa, Iowa State. So these non-conference opponents, these non-conference games are instrumental for this conference because of how it's going to be viewed. They're going to get a bid. The biggest question is can they get multiple bids? And that is dependent upon personal perception of the conference and that's going to be based on wins of the non-conference.

Ari Temkin is joining us, host of Big 12 Radio and Sirius XM. You know, you mentioned Mike Gundy and we know he made some of the most ridiculous comments I've ever heard in my life yesterday about DUIs and drunk driving. I know he put out that statement kind of trying to walk and dial things back. Just based on the scenario, the situation and everything around, that's in the dirt, right?

That situation has been covered and put to sleep, huh? I mean, you're 100% right, right? I mean, what he said is just crazy. Maybe it's true, probably not something you want to say publicly in front of microphones, especially we're talking about college athletics, college athletes, right? So we can all agree there.

Mike Gundy, this is a tradition like any other JR. Every year, this is what Gundy does. He wants the headlines and he gets the headlines. And you know what? Deion's still going to steal some of his headlines today, certainly, but this is what he does. And he does not give a rip. He does not care. So whatever he says and however it's perceived, he doesn't care. He never cared.

For 20 years in, he certainly cares even less than he used to care. And look, I mean, what he said in the apology, to me, like that was almost worse because you're unabashedly you. Why are you apologizing for it? And to say like, I wasn't talking about anything specific. Dude, you literally were saying something very specific. You were talking about a DWI, right?

So like, I wasn't trying to be specific. Well, you were, so don't walk it back. You know, the handling of the Ali Gordon situation was so bizarre because it was completely antithetical to how we think about how those situations are normally handled, right? Normally, the player won't come. Then the coach, when asked about it, just defers. Oh, it's a legal matter.

It's being taken care of. They did the opposite. They embraced it. They talked about it. They were, I mean, they were front and center with it.

And I think to a point that was good to a point, you probably didn't need to say what you said, though. But that's Mike Gundy. Yeah, he is. Well, I don't. Well, I think there might be some remnants issues from his playing days.

I'll leave it that way. Ari Temkin is joining us as Sirius XM Big 12 Radio. You mentioned Deion Sanders. We always know he's good for a headline. He's going to get a lot of attention. You know, Hickey and I talked about this earlier in the show. What do you see the Buffaloes doing by the time we get to November?

What they going to look like? So I didn't know if we were going to get Deion today. You know, last year he was coming off surgery and he didn't go to Pac-12 media days. He did an interview from Boulder with Fox. And so we were worried about if we were going to get him or not. And we got him for about 45 minutes. He even sat down at a point with Chidoor and Shiloh.

It was really cool. You know, look, when you invite the spotlight in the way that Deion has his entire career, you know, you're going to get the reaction that they're getting. It's easy to buy into what Deion is doing because if you look at not the margins here, right, because that's in the media what we tend to do.

Yell on either side and say he's the worst or he's the best instead of living in the real world, which is probably somewhere in between. You look and they won one game two years ago. Their win total in terms of their over-under last year was 3.5. They hit the over. Their win total this year is 5.5. I think they're going to hit the over.

So incremental steps. This is what a lot of college football programs do. But when Deion got to Boulder, they were a one-win football team. And though expectations changed because they started 3-0 and they beat up TCU and had just played the national championship and on and on and on, we still can't use the first four or five weeks of the season to say that last year was a disappointment because on the whole, they hit the over. They weren't expected to win more than three games and they did.

So I think they do hit the over this year. I do think that they're a bowl team. I mean, look, they're confident. Of course they are. Could you ever experience a Deion Sanders that wasn't confident?

No. And there's reason to believe they could win a conference title. And when you have a quarterback that is that good, that is your stealing. Now, I'm not going to pick them to win the conference title because there's far too many questions, but I think there's a bowl team. I don't think there's any question about that. Well, Ari, let's talk about the team that is the favorite.

You're in Vegas and I looked at the odds. Everybody's taking a look at Utah. Is Cam Risen, is he close to collecting Social Security yet?

I know he's been around for a minute. What are they going to do out at Utah? Yes, seventh-year quarterback Cam Risen. In fact, there are two seventh-year quarterbacks in this conference, the other being Oklahoma State's Alan Bowman. There's also a sixth-year quarterback at this conference, which is the Toledo transfer to Quants Bend, who's now starting at Baylor. So, a lot of experience at the quarterback position in this conference.

Utah is the overwhelming favorite, and for good reason. This is an elite defense. Despite being a horrible offense last year, defense still was elite.

I mean, I'm Iowa level of offensive inefficiency with Iowa level of defense at the same time, which is difficult to do. Riley's going to be back and healthy. They've got Brett Kesey, who has also basically played four games over the last two years.

He's been a huge target. Dorian Singer transferred in from Arizona and USC. They've got a ton of pass catchers.

Then, of course, the running game and the ground and pound in which Kyle Whittingham's program has been known for. The only reason why I'm saying that they're not going to win the conference is because the favorite hasn't won this conference. They're the overwhelming favorite. This has been a league of parity.

Again, I think it's going to continue to be a league of parity. Texas was a favorite last year, but they were not an overwhelming favorite. Not what Utah is. So, the only argument I have against Utah winning this conference is the ultimate argument, which is the pattern shows that Utah is not going to win the conference. But Cam Rising is a high level player.

He's extremely motivated by not being able to play last year, by what's happened in the last couple of years and getting injured during the Rose Bowl. There's certainly reason for optimism there. They are the best team in the conference, G.R.

But, again, recent history says they're not going to win the conference because the favorite doesn't and has it. I think it will stay that way. Ari Temkin is here, covers the Big 12. Man, I'm really looking forward to seeing what this means. As up in the air as this conference is, with the expansion of the college football playoff, are we getting one school in? Are we getting two schools in? That's something I'm really going to pay attention to, man.

Well, and I think, you know, it's such an unknown right now, but there's going to be things that we're going to see over time that we're going to be like, oh, yeah, I don't know why I didn't think that that was going to be the case. Like one of those, Notre Dame is going to make the playoff every year, OK? Notre Dame is going to make the playoff every year.

Their schedule is just good enough, and there's going to be enough losses around the country that will justify Notre Dame getting a bid every year. So, take a bid away. You've got, you know, obviously five bids from the power four and then one from the group of five, right? You know the SEC and the big tagger.

So, you start to kind of look at how many bids are open. And then this goes back to what we were talking about earlier, and that's perception. Last year, the Big 12 had some really bad non-conference losses. I think they sustained, over the conference, three losses to MAAC teams. Iowa State lost to Ohio last year. You had Cincinnati losing to another MAAC team last year. So, Miami of Ohio. So, you had Houston losing to Rice and now it's on a MAAC team.

That can't happen this year. We talked earlier kind of about these big games for the conference that are litmus tests. Perception matters, and how this conference is perceived is going to be based on how it does in West Virginia versus Penn State. And how it does in UCF versus Florida. And how it does in some of these non-conference games.

Many of them, they need to win. But when they're playing non-conference opponents at the end of the SEC, the Big 10 in particular, they need to win those games. And that goes a long way in helping the Big 12 get multiple bids. But I'll say this. We'll know if the Big 12 is going to be a two or even three bid league, but I doubt ever will be a three bid league.

Let's just say two. We'll know by the end of the non-conference schedule if they will because of how the league will be perceived based on how they do in the non-conference. Well, Ari, as we wrap things up, you pretty much allude to it. We know this Big 12 is not the Big 10. It's not the SEC. We know that Brett Yermak, who's the ultimate salesman and running the show right now, is trying to bring in some money to close the gap. Is there a realistic possibility that they bring in private money to purchase a part of the Big 12? Or are we pretty much just looking at sponsorships? The name of the Big 12?

Patches? Field stuff? Like, are we really going to see some dudes from Wall Street or California say, I'm buying a giant piece of the Big 12 to give you guys money in a jump? You know, JR, I've done like 15 of these interviews and you're the only person that's asked me about that. I think that is one of the most interesting dynamics at play here.

So, a couple of things. Number one, I think if Brett Yermak could get consensus, this would have already happened. I believe that Brett Yermak absolutely wants to look at private equity as a cash infusion to level the playing field when it comes to the SEC and the Big 10.

What I don't think he's getting and what I don't think he'll ever get is uniformity amongst the league. I think you've got members with wandering eyes that want to make sure that they're putting themselves in a position that if they can get an invite to the Big 10 or the SEC, they're going to be able to do it. The only way, JR, they get private equity is if they get the entire group to commit to another grant of rights beyond the one that they currently have, because private equity is going to want to have that long-term investment and have the assurances that they're going to be there. And I don't think they're going to get that. I think there's going to be pushback.

I think there already has been. I think there will continue to be pushback from schools that don't want to lock themselves in any way granted rights for that long. So, we may see that start to roll out on a school-by-school basis as they start to make those decisions individually, but I think the Big 12 wants to do it from the commissioner's office. I don't think the Big 12 wants to do it from the offices of the athletic directors, not 16 of them. No, it makes all the sense in the world. Everybody is, well, we've seen the movement. Everybody's looking for the next dollar sign, and when the time is up and when they can bounce, they'll bail. I guess, Brett, your mark will have to settle on the Big 12 sponsored by Pop-Tarts.

I have no idea. Like, hey, it might be next. Big 12 brought to you by Pop-Tarts.

While the things have happened in the world, I expect any and everything. Ari, thank you for the time. Where can people follow you and listen to you and all your great work? Appreciate you, JR. Yeah, follow me on Twitter, at AriSports. Check out Big 12 Radio.

My main man, Ari Temkin. Hey, I'll catch you. Have some good time in Vegas. You gonna have some downtime? I'm at the airport right now, my friend, and you're ready to head back after 14 hours of radio over two days. Oh, man. Don't, okay, stay away from those slot machines at the airport.

Those are terrible. I'll leave some of the jokes alone. You fly safe. I'll talk to you soon, okay?

Take care, JR. Look around. What do you see? Cars? Lots of them. And guess what? They're probably on AutoTrader.

Whether you're into timeless classics or the latest trends. Did somebody say solar-powered, eco-friendly, vegan leather-wrapped, aromatherapy-scented, disco-ball-equipped self-driving car? If you see it on the road, you can likely find it on AutoTrader. Big cars. Small cars. Blue cars. New cars and used cars. Electric cars. And one day, maybe even flying cars. With millions of options to choose from, buying a car becomes a whole lot easier. See it.

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