Is sending a Rose Bowl thank you note in the works?

Let's get to my friend Tim Brando, one of the voices of college football.

I would have to say that there is nobody on this earth who advocates for the sport more than Timmy B. Mr. Brando, how you doing? How's Boise? Oh, it's beautiful. The blue field may be white.

Who knows? Well, we'll get it in. We should have some fun.

And thanks for that kind introduction, Adam. And it looks like some of what I've been pounding the pavement for for the last 30 years is finally going to come to fruition. The game is, as I tried to say back during the summer, when a lot of fans were jumping off cliffs because of NIL and transfer portal news, I said, this is going to get better.

Trust me. And I think it is going to get a lot better now with the announcement that we are expanding to 12 and I actually espouse the notion that we'll actually go 16 instead of 12 before any ink dries on television contracts. So we'll see. But if it does stay at 12, that's fine. I just think there's a lot more money available to the schools if they start out with 16. Wouldn't add to the calendar at all. It would involve the top four teams getting to play at home.

How exciting would that be? I don't want to get to that element, but first, do we have to send the Rose Bowl a thank you note? Because this is the second time in our lifetimes that the Rose Bowl needs to be thanked for clearing the way to whether you like it or not, progress in the sport of college football. And you know, the former Big Ten commissioner, Jim Delaney, is behind that.

You know, he he had negotiated for the Rose Bowl, their television exclusivity of that date, uh, held it near and dear and, and, uh, kept the Big Ten in a very powerful position as a result. But, uh, he has turned into sports side. One of the smartest men in intercollegiate athletics I ever came across. And I think in a lot of ways, uh, Adam, he's doing more good out of the position of commissioner, uh, than he did as commissioner. And he was the best commissioner in college football. I mean, he was, he put the Big Ten in a special place at a time when their league was not winning championships, not national championships, anyway.

Right. Um, so now in a, and he's kept a low profile, you know, you don't hear his name bantered about very much, but behind the scenes, uh, he's creating a lot of good that's taking place for the sport. He is the guy though, that said basically that if college athletes started getting compensated, that maybe he would take the Big Ten to division three.

So, well, we live in a world Adam of images and impressions, right. And, and, and I think that, you know, he wanted to paint that image, uh, that they do it a certain way in the Big Ten and that, and I know it infuriated a lot of fans of the SEC and ACC. I get that, that, that reaction from, from people all the time, hell I live in the SEC and the ACC. So, you know, that's the part of the country that I come from and my roots are in, but, but he, he clearly like everybody else could see the writing on the wall and knows that some things cannot be stopped and, uh, college football was going to have to change. And while he probably didn't want to be in the position of a commissioner of the Big Ten, as it was changing, he, he is an influencer now.

Sure. And, um, I think that's a beautiful thing when you think about it. I can't think of anyone I'd rather have as an influencer for the growth of the sport than Jim Belaney, Tim Brando Fox sports, joining us here on the Adam Gold show at Tim Brando on Twitter, where we have diversity in teams, at least in names this year. And I realized that Georgia has become one of the powers and Michigan two years in a row now in, but this is the first time we are having a college football playoff that does not involve. And I sort of am going to speculate here, Alabama, Clemson, Ohio state, because they clearly could be involved if Southern Cal stumbles and maybe even if TCU stumbles, uh, and Oklahoma. So those have basically been like 80% of the teams in the playoff have been those teams.

I am curious. This is a hypothetical question, but if we had more diversity were Southern Cal, Florida state, Notre Dame, who has been in a couple of times, Texas, if someone, if there were other schools that continuously fought at the top and we had more diversity in the teams in the final four, do you think there would have been as much push for a, an expanded playoff? Wingstop's doing what they do best, taking flavor to the next level. So when chicken sandwiches only came in spicy and plain Wingstop said, nah, make it 12 flavors. Lemon pepper chicken sandwich, OG hot mango habanero.

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See additional terms at one Peloton.com. It's a really good question, but I think the answer to it is yes, there still would have been because the colleges need more money at them. That's right.

No, that's the answer. I mean, in the post COVID era, everyone hemorrhaged money. I mean, everybody did. And that revenue. And that's one of the reasons I think that by the time we get to the we get to the nitty gritty of negotiations for this contract, and it's going to be multiple networks involved, you know, likely likely ESPN and Fox. But, you know, who knows? Somebody could surprise us and also get involved. But more than likely, it's going to be a combination deal with ESPN and Fox.

I don't think the networks will offer necessarily the kind of money that that they're expecting. You know, the school presidents are expecting. Remember, the conference commissioners have been at odds for months.

OK, they're not they can't be in the same room for very long. Right. Without having to without having to adjourn, because since the realignment issue started with the FCC in Oklahoma, Texas, and then the big tens moved to get UCLA and USC, there are some really hurt feelings. The presidents of these schools, the ones that were always standing in the way in the past, they're the ones that are pushing this across the finish line and telling the commissioners, get off your rear ends and get this done because they need the money. OK.

Yes. Institutions of higher learning are about education, but they're also about what? Making money. And without additional revenues coming from college football, they're going to continue to suffer. And they know that the players through NIL and beyond, especially with a TV deal that could be in the billions, players are going to want a piece of that pie, too.

Right. So, I mean, the ratings on the semifinals, especially when they're played on New Year's Eve, that's going to happen again this year. The ratings aren't good.

And and the advertisers are are getting make goods from the network because they they're not delivering the 20 million viewers that they thought they would because the games have been blow ups. OK, so I think I think that the television executives are likely to say, hey, you know, we need more inventory. If you want this kind of money, you're going to have to have one, two, three and four play that opening week. And then you'll get more eyeballs to the sets and you'll have excitement on the campuses. Think about an additional home game. What that would mean in a playoffs for teams like Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, LSU. We will be off the charts. What what they could do if if those were the teams, it could be true at any other school, you know, at a place like Oregon, by example, Nelson, they have SRO in that in that building there.

Yeah. So I think the potential is there for that. But we'll see if it is 12 to start. I still think it's going to be a lot better and it's going to be far more entertaining to think about all the games of November.

That'll be worth more. And people will be watching for playoff opportunities that they don't like now. So I think it's really, really a good time for college football economically and certainly in terms of generating national interest. We're going to make college football more of a national sport and we're going to force these daytime debaters on television to talk about it.

Something besides LeBron, this I read that Tom Brady, you know, stop enough. Let's talk some college football on a daily basis. They talk about popular sport in America. I know they only talk about the NFL, Tim.

I'm I'm on your side with that. They only talk about the NFL. And that's just unfortunately, that's the reality of the team here. It's easier. It's laziness on the part of the media.

I don't disagree with that at all. Tim Brando is joining us here from Fox Sports. He's doing the Mountain West Championship game and he's in snowy Boise. By the way, we had a guest today on from Qatar for the World Cup. We're in Boise. I've never had a guest on from Boise.

I've never had a guest on from Qatar. So we are just checking boxes off here. I want to ask you a question, though, sir, based on your affiliation and your status with the Independence Ball and Shreveport.

Because here's my question, because I agree. I think we're going to have I do think we're eventually going to be at 16. And the first the round of 16, those eight games will have to be on campus sites. I actually think that it would do the whole sport well to have the quarterfinals also at campus sites. So my question is, what kind of an impact is there to the bowls, especially bowls like yours that are so community supported? Now, I'm not I'm not trying to do a commercial for the virtues of the bowl system, because they're all they're different. Like what you guys do in Shreveport and what they do at the Sun Bowl in El Paso is different than a lot of the other bowls. But I am curious what the impact will be.

And I don't think anybody really knows. Well, you got to remember, our friends at ESPN own, I think, what is it, 11, maybe maybe 13 or 14 of the bowl games, right? I think they do. Yeah, great ones. Those are the ones that are going to fold.

Okay. Or more likely to fold. Because they're really made for television games. They're not true bowl games, in the sense that the communities are really involved. They lease out a stadium, okay, like the Armed Forces in Fort Worth. They play a TV stadium. ESPN is going to have to put all that money into the college football playoff.

Okay. Why keep those games? I think the bowl games like the one here in Boise, the one in Shreveport that are community owned, and have sponsors that their bowl people have procured. I think those are the bowl games, frankly, Adam, that we need and we want, because the players are treated like rock stars.

And the schools are made to feel that their game is the only game going. You know, the local press is all about those games. And I think that the ones that have been around, say, over 30 plus years, like the Independence Bowl are going to be okay.

I do. But those that have been popping up, you know, the Jimmy Kimmel bowls, you know, that kind of stuff. I think they could go away. I think they could go away.

Isn't that opportunity for athletes? Oh, sure, it is. There's no question.

But I do think that economics is going to play a role here. How many do we have now? Is it 52? 41. We have 41. It's great.

I love it. I love all the bowl games. I don't want to see any of them fold.

But I'm just giving you the economic realities, I think, of the situations. We may lose fewer bowls if they don't play the quarterfinals on campuses. And I think early on, they're going to try to protect those bowl games that way.

It may be a longer period of time before we get quarterfinals on campuses. I don't know if you've ever listened to Dan Wetzel's podcast or read his stuff at Yahoo Sports. I love Dan.

He was a go-to guest when the Tim Brando show was on radio and TV, as you know. Absolutely. Now, Dan has been advocating not only for campus sites for the opening round and the quarterfinals, but he says for the semifinals, too, that he would have all of them on campuses. And I don't think he's wrong. I don't think you'll ever see the semis go to campus sites, but I don't think he's wrong. The atmosphere of college football is better than any other atmosphere in sports.

It is. But here's the thing that Dan overlooks, and I don't agree with him on that, especially for the semifinals. I think growing the sport, somebody says to me, and I hear this a lot from fan bases, okay, who historically believe that if they're not in seats at these games, shame on college football. Guess what?

Okay. Exposing the game to people that don't have that opportunity to go into Bryant Denny Stadium or to go into, you know, the family stadium at Gaylord and Norman, Oklahoma. Those people need to be exposed to college football. I think that college football isn't the NFL. I don't want it to turn into the NFL.

And I think that notion is sort of an NFL mindset that's brought to bear. Bowl games are part of the history of college football, therefore should be involved, in my opinion, in the national championship construct. Certainly the semifinals and finals. Listen, I'm all for the opening round on campuses, and I would tend to agree with you.

The quarterfinals would be good. But I think you have to draw the line at some point there, because we need to hold on to the history and tradition of great college football bowl games having, you know, existence. You know, the holiday bowl has a great image or, you know, scoring 45 and 50 points to win, right? You know, the Sun Bowl and our goal at home for the great hospitality that's given.

So, you know, hospitality that's given and what it means to those communities. And I think the same is true here in Boise. All right, final thing. We're going to have to let you go here in a second, Tim. But real quick, we agree that if Southern Cal loses, Ohio State's going to take their spot in the Final Four.

Right. If TCU loses, what is the argument really for Ohio State over TCU other than Ohio State? They can't wait to knock TCU out. They can't wait. The committee wants TCU out. It took forever for them to get into the top four, and they were playing the best football of any team in the country.

And it has been waiting for them to stub their toes. TCU is the odd man out. If USC wins, then, you know, Ohio State is probably still left out.

Right. I think there's a good chance that USC could still, you know, lose a close game to Utah and still get in because of their brand. But if TCU stubs their toe, Ohio State's definitely in. Alabama would like to think if both USC and TCU lost that they would get in.

Well, I don't think so. They don't have a good enough signature win to warrant jumping over USC with two losses. They don't have, they shouldn't go ahead of Tennessee.

No. I don't even understand why they're not, why they're listed ahead of Tennessee right now. All good points.

All good points. But I think the Horned Frogs will win. By the way, have you noticed the line on TCU has dropped to one? And the reason for that is Ohio State money is going big time. Okay. It's going big time for K-State. You can always buy down the line.

It's sort of like a mortgage. Tim Brando, you're the best. I appreciate your time. Enjoy, enjoy Boise. And we'll talk to you soon. Happy Hanukkah.

Merry Christmas to all in the Raleigh area. Okay. You got it.

Thanks, Timmy. Wingstop's doing what they do best, taking flavor to the next level. So when chicken sandwiches only came in spicy and plain, Wingstop said, nah, make it 12 flavors. Lemon pepper chicken sandwich, OG hot, mango habanero.

You get the picture? Every famous Wingstop flavor. Now on the new Wingstop chicken sandwich. Try all 12 and find your favorite at Wingstop where flavor gets its wings.