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If it's got to be clean, it's got to be Tide Free and Gentle. Well, Matt, how are you? I'm doing well. How are you doing today?
I'm excellent. Thank you for taking the time to join us. I mean, I feel like we've had a good week of a lot of coaches speaking and talking from the Big 12 and the SEC. Any takeaways that you really have been drawn to so far? I think takeaways is just how the college football landscape has changed over the last year. Think about all the new teams that have made moves that we're going to get the chance to see in new conferences this year. You look at Texas and Oklahoma going to the SEC. You look at Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Colorado going to the Big 12.
I mean, a lot of teams are moving around. You're going to see Stanford and Cal in the SEC. I mean, it's just kind of unbelievable how much college football landscape has changed and that these new teams are kind of coming in and there's a lot of excitement for these schools and a lot of excitement in the SEC to see what Texas can do, what Oklahoma can do. A lot of excitement in the Big 12 for their newcomers as well.
So it's going to be interesting, I think, once things finally kick off in September. You know, Matt, there's so much attention that's paid to Texas and the Longhorns. Nick Saban had his old players responding to who he decided to pick in the SEC championship game. But talk to us about Oklahoma. What do you expect from Oklahoma now playing in the SEC?
Yeah, you know, I think they'll have a good start to things. I mean, again, I don't necessarily believe it's as big as a leap to go from the Big 12 to the SEC. Granted, there's a lot more talent. You know, when you look at the SEC and the teams you have at the top, you look at the Georgias, you know, you look at Tennessee, how Tennessee's played Ole Miss. I think Oklahoma, though, understands exactly what it needs to do going into this, having played against the Texas, you know, the Oklahoma State, things like that. They got a new quarterback with Jackson Arnold coming in.
I mean, he's a guy that really they they expect to step up and replace Dylan Gabriel. Offensively, this team should probably look very similar to what it's done over the last couple of years. I think what will be interesting is how losing Jeff Levy, offensive coordinator, if they change up a lot of what they do schematically, if they go back to a more of a, you know, of a pass game or they run the ball a little bit more, I think their defense obviously is going to be a key for them. Defense has always been something that has ruled the roost when it came to the SEC. And I think that's something that they're going to have to do. But again, you're Brett Venable's team, led by a guy who has a long history of defense.
I don't think that's something that he's got to worry about. Matt, Michelle is joining us from the Orlando Sentinel. You know, I'm I'm I'm still needing my brain adjusted.
I feel like I also need to take a shower. When you talk about West Coast teams playing in the A.C. I'm not don't even get me started on the Big Ten. But when you talk about West Coast teams playing on the A.C.C., like what the hell are we doing? I know where we're going and why.
But what direction are we going in? Well, I think that's the interesting part about some of this. You know, you mentioned the Big Ten, but, you know, the A.C.C., you know, adding these schools, which they felt like would give them a little more of expanded brand, maybe it helped them out a little more with came to revenue when you're adding those kind of schools. I'm not sure if that does that. You know, I think it was easy for the Big Ten to say, OK, give us USC and UCLA and then throw in Oregon and Washington and we'll make this a coast to coast conference.
The A.C.C. not so much so. I mean, it's not like you're adding, you know, so much of a brand that and these teams are like, you know, at the top of the college football mountaintop right now.
It's not the case. So to add those teams, I don't know what that's going to do. I think it's going to be interesting to see how some of the East Coast teams go across the country to play, you know, those West Coast teams.
What sort of challenge that presents. I know SMU joining, you know, the A.C.C. probably would be a huge help for them as well, considering the fact they didn't. The A.C.C.
owes them no money. It's basically a great deal for the A.C.C. But the other two schools, I think it's going to be interesting. I don't know necessarily they'll have an impact on the conference race, but more so that maybe it'll impact some of the other sports as well as in football.
How? But if we have multiple conferences, I don't even know if I should call it a power five. It's probably not going to be a power five in a bunch of years. But if we have multiple conferences that are playing coast to coast and we've now eliminated rivalries and the importance of regions and it is all in the sake of television revenue. At what point, just thinking from a business perspective, would we not have further consolidation or cooperation between the conferences? Like, what makes this different than, you know, in the pros, a National League American League, an AFC, an NFC?
Like, at what point don't we just have two? Yeah, I think that's something that we could see down the road. You know, I talked to some coaches last week at the Big 12 media days and they mentioned the fact that super conferences aren't that far away, they believe. You know, the idea of trying to get the best 64, 65 teams maybe in two different, you know, conferences, you know, play against each other would be something that is very NFL-like. And they mentioned the fact that we're kind of heading down to the NFL model when it comes to college athletics. Especially when you look at how much money is being generated, how you talk about meteorites money that's being generated by the SEC and the Big 10 at this point, you're talking about there's a lot of interest in college football.
It's not like it's going to go away. But maybe what needs to happen, you know, for these super conferences to happen is they want to come in and find a way to create their own set of rules. You know, they'd love to break away from the NCAA. They'd love to be able to handle all the things that deal with the issues of like the transfer portal, NIL, what you're seeing with the house settlement situation.
They want to be able to handle their own, their kind of own business. And that's kind of what's probably leading us down to that path of having an NFL-like league. And I'm not sure how the average college fan feels about that. You know, you mentioned we already have an NFL. Do we really need college football to be in that landscape? So that would be the only thing I think maybe would slow some things down if people said, listen, we need to sit back and think about this.
How can we make things equal? But also, let's not get to the point where we're becoming just the NFL light. And Matt, Michelle is joining us from the Orlando Sentinel.
You talk about having flexibility to do what you want and go where you want. Marcus Freeman in Notre Dame, he recently talked about the playoff expansion. What are your thoughts on where Notre Dame fits in all of this? And then the second part, what do you think about this 12-team expansion? It looks like give it a few years, that'll expand to take the juice out of the regular season. Yeah. You know, I think for Notre Dame, you know, they understand that, you know, the way the deal is kind of structured right now, they're not going to be above the top four teams that gets to buy, you know, that that's just not going to happen for them when they when they all agreed to do this. They're probably going to be in the fifth team or worse going down.
They don't at the time, they said they don't feel like that's a big issue. And I'm not sure if I agree with that. I mean, I think at any point you want to be the best in the country. You want to be able to have opportunities.
You want to be able to get that rest and get a buy. But I think for Notre Dame this year, especially, I mean, I think they're they're probably going to be in the mix for the playoffs. I think when it comes down to the idea of, you know, 12 teams, I like a 12 team. I think this is going to be really fun to watch.
But you're right. In the future, if this has some success going forward, there's going to be a lot of talk of moving to 14. There's going to be talk to move into the 16. You know, they they want an opportunity to make more money. This sport will try to do it. And that's why you make the money. And especially if you're a conference like the SEC or you're the Big Ten and you're looking around thinking, OK, we can get maybe four teams and a piece and the 12 team playoff, maybe if we go to 14 or 16, we can add more.
And then, you know, it changes everything here. I mean, the conference championships matter if you get to 14 or 16. Why have a conference championship games? I mean, the only reason they'll be doing it was to make money.
But otherwise, why why do that? Why set yourself up to have a team that your best team get knocked out and that maybe those top four spots and then find themselves having to host a game rather than then then maybe sitting there waiting till the getting to the quarterfinals or semifinals. So I think it might be inevitable.
I'd like to see the 12 team kind of go for a little while, which I think it will. But, you know, I mean, again, anyway, any reason to make more money, I think you'll see college football leaders try to do that. And Matt Marshall is here with us from the Orlando Sentinel. When you think about getting to the college football playoff, we know that you have to have a quarterback who can at least hold things down or drive you all the way there. We know Caleb Williams is gone and his team couldn't even make a ball game last year.
We know Quinn Ewers is coming back. Carson Beck, Jayden Daniels kind of came out of out of nowhere. Are there any other quarterbacks that you think we should pay attention to that don't get the attention of, say, Carson Beck or Quinn Ewers? Well, I think going into this year, I mean, I'm interested to see what Dylan Gabriel does at Oregon. You know, I mean, here's a guy who put up big numbers when he was at UCF. He put up big numbers when he was at Oklahoma. You know, now he goes to the Oregon team that, you know, has an opportunity, has a lot of playmakers around it, you know, has an opportunity maybe to put up some big numbers there as well, has a defense now. I think that'll be able to help them out and do some things. So I think he's one that definitely you could see maybe put up some big numbers going in there. I think DJ Ugo Alele, who's at Florida State, you know, he came from Clemson, went to Oregon State, and now is at Florida State. I think they have an opportunity at Florida State, you know, to kind of take that chip off their shoulder from last year where, you know, they didn't get into the playoffs, and they really took that hard.
You know, maybe they can use that to kind of help push them out as well. You know, I think those are some teams maybe you could see some big news. Cam Rydeman is a guy who's been banged up and hurt the last couple of years. If he can stay healthy and get on the field of play, I think he has an opportunity to put up some big numbers as well.
I mean, Utah, again, is a team that, you know, has won some Pac-12 championships, but now moves into the Big 12, and maybe they can make some noise if he stays healthy. DJ Ugo Alele, I feel like I've heard about this guy since, like, 25. Was he 30 years old yet? Is he 30? Is he 30?
It seems that way, doesn't it? There's a lot of guys now. Listen, I covered Dylan Gabriel when he was a freshman here at UCF, and I told him the other day on the phone, I said, I feel like you've been, it's been a lifetime since you were here. How long does everybody get a COVID, what is COVID, one year or three more years?
What is it? Yeah, the one year. I'd be glad when that kind of goes away. I think you're not going to see nearly as much, but I do think NIL has opened the door for a lot of these players to want to come back. You're going to get those fifth year guys. You're going to get guys who want to come back because they have opportunities through NIL. And I think, especially if they feel like they're not going to maybe be a first round pick, well, why not come back and make some money? You know, and I think you've seen that a lot over the last couple of years.
I think even more so now, what things are going to happen with revenue sharing in the future? Hey, Matt, it's certainly nice to have the options. Now that we have this expanded playoff, as we kind of roll through the next month into the start of the season, who are you expecting to kind of finish at the top? Well, what about my Bulldogs here?
Help me, help me, help me. Yeah, I think, I think, I think George is going to be right there. I don't think George is going to be very far from that top spot. I mean, I know they didn't get in last year, but I think they, you know, we talk about chips on the shoulder.
I think they have one as well. And, you know, I don't think you can go against Kirby smart. You know, you look at what they bring back. Carson Beck obviously is a huge return at quarterback. They bring in, you know, Florida, uh, you know, running back Trevor APN. He's going to be a big help for them in the running game. They obviously are going to have a solid defense. I think George is going to be there. I think Ohio state is going to be there as well. Again, great talented group.
They did a great, great job of hitting the portal hard. They brought in chip Kelly. He's going to be calling the play to be interesting to see maybe how they're going to be able to do that. I think you're going to see Texas as a team that's in there as well. They're going to be able to compete. Uh, Alabama will not be made at the top, but they'll be in the mix because again, even, even though Nick Saban's not there, I think Taylor, the board's a good coach and he's not going to just come in and screw things up. I think they're going to be a chance for them to do some things as well.
You know, and I think you're going to have some surprises. I mentioned Oregon before I think Oregon be in there. I think LSU obviously is a team that's going to try to make a push for that as well. And even Tennessee, you know, with, uh, you know, with Josh Heiple, you know, I think they've done a good job over the years. This is their chance to make a big push as well to get in that mix. And not as a contender, but just that a human interest, what the hell you think happens with Colorado at the end of the season? You know, I think Colorado gets better. I'm not necessarily sure that they're like playoffs contender better. I mean, I think obviously Deon's done a good job early on, but you know, I'm interested to see if his model of doing things, you know, he talks about, you know, hitting the portal and having to rebuild this roster through the portal and then trying to get some high school recruits.
I think it, I think that's good. I think their schedule is going to be hard. The second half of the schedule. I think it's going to be tough for them. Uh, but I do think they will be better. Uh, and then we'll see what happens, you know, again, you're going to have to find a quarterback once, you know, once you're going to have to find some other guys, you're going to lose a tremendous amount of talent to probably the NFL after the season. So, um, this is kind of going to be a huge season for them.
I'm not saying he's on a hot seat or anything like that, really stretch the imagination, but I do feel like, you know, people are interested to see can this team compete and contend with the system that he's putting in. Deion going to hit the portal to straight to his couch at the end of the season, man. That's what I see. Okay.
Where can people, I'm sorry, man. He's the son is going to leave. He'll hit the portal. He'll leave. He's going to, he's going to leave. He's going to leave. We'll see. Well, I'll ask you, uh, you know, beginning of the next year. Hey Matt, where can people keep up with you and your great work, whether it's UCF or nationally with your Orlando Sentinel, fill us in.
Yeah, they can go to orlandocentinel.com. You can check out the latest or follow me on social media. Oh, that's Matt.
Michelle. All right. Thank you so much. Enjoy your weekend Okay, Matt. All right. Thanks. You too. I appreciate it.
