Trump's EO on NIL, Big 12 Rejects Memphis, is Pac-12 a Power Conference?

July 31, 2025 00:34:31
Trump's EO on NIL, Big 12 Rejects Memphis, is Pac-12 a Power Conference?
College Football Lifer Podcast
Trump's EO on NIL, Big 12 Rejects Memphis, is Pac-12 a Power Conference?

Jul 31 2025 | 00:34:31

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Show Notes

Welcome to the latest episode of the College Football Lifer Podcast! In this one, we talk about Trump's Executive Order to try and slow down NIL, the Big 12's rejection of Memphis and their $200 million, Maryland losing their locker room over NIL money, and more. Hope you enjoy!

 

0:00 Intro

0:55 Trump Signs Executive Order

4:34 Memphis Tried to Pay #200m to Join Big 12

11:53 Memphis DB Gave Playbook to UTSA

13:32 American Rebrands

14:30 Is Pac-12 a Power Conference?

18:53 Maryland Lost Lockerroom Over Money

21:39 Justin Fuente Returns to TCU

22:45 Jimbo Joins ACC Network

23:31 Doak Campbell Reduces Stadium Size

25:48 ACC Field Storming Policies

27:55 Northwestern QB Leaves Team

28:34 CAA Adding Sacred Heart

29:16 Big Sky Moves to 9 Game Schedule

30:04 Reveille Has Surgery

31:06 New Game Announcements

32:01 Ole Miss Player Dies

32:42 More Arrests

 

Thank you so much for listening! You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at YeahThatDustin

 

SOURCES

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/breaking-news/article/president-trumps-executive-order-on-college-sports-heres-what-it-actually-means-001007183.html

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/breaking-news/article/memphis-proposing-lucrative-offer-to-join-big-12-but-it-lacks-support-from-conference-leadership-sources-175519540.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2025/07/22/memphis-200-million-bid-join-big-12-conference-rejected/85322342007/

https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-football/report-fedex-may-pay-bcs-league-10m-to-add-memphis

https://x.com/munzly/status/1947378633372537029

https://www.on3.com/sites/tiger-sports-report/news/sources-messages-between-former-memphis-safety-utsa-qb-surface/

https://x.com/rossdellenger/status/1947277845979336799

https://www.idahostatesman.com/sports/college/mountain-west/boise-state-university/article310959975.html

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/45799979/maryland-locksley-lost-locker-room-player-compensation

https://gofrogs.com/news/2025/7/21/football-tcu-adds-fuente-to-radio-team.aspx

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/45793839/ex-fsu-coach-jimbo-fisher-joins-acc-network-weekly-analyst

https://247sports.com/college/florida-state/article/doak-campbell-stadium-capacity-looks-to-have-reduced-by-over-12000-due-to-new-renovations-251926376/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/1m6egdu/chapel_fowler_acc_commish_jim_phillips_details/

https://bsky.app/profile/mattfortuna.bsky.social/post/3lunoo2gyzk2u

https://x.com/SamHerderFCS/status/1947673561910378521

https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/1m5udtg/victor_flores_big_sky_moving_to_9_conference/

http://kbtx.com/2025/07/23/reveille-x-has-eye-removed-after-glaucoma-diagnosis-texas-am-says/

https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/college/2025/07/21/tennessee-state-football-schedule-tennessee-georgia-vanderbilt-mtsu/85310152007/

https://www.on3.com/college/ole-miss-rebels/news/corey-adams-shooting-death-ole-miss-releases-statement-on-tragic-passing-of-freshman/

https://sports.yahoo.com/article/georgia-football-recruit-arrested-disturbing-020025850.html

https://247sports.com/college/georgia/article/georgia-offensive-lineman-jahzare-jackson-arrested-on-charges-including-felony-possession-of-marijuana-251905404/

https://247sports.com/college/georgia/article/georgia-defensive-line-commit-seven-cloud-charged-with-domestic-battery-251874377/

https://247sports.com/college/florida/article/florida-football-offensive-lineman-devon-manuel-arrested-for-dui-weapon-charge-251877978/

View Full Transcript

Episode Transcript

[00:00:01] Hey lifers. Dustin here. Welcome to the College Football Lifer podcast. We talk about the past, present and future of college football and we have a jam packed episode here. We have arrests, we have an executive order. We got Memphis trying to buy their way into a power conference. [00:00:19] We got all kinds of stuff, discussions about what even is a power conference. So we'll get into all of that. As always, thank you for joining. You can give me thoughts on the show or topics or anything else on Twitter or Instagram at. Yeah, that Dustin. So always make sure to reach out and we are less than a month away from the start of the college football season. Could not be more excited, could not be more ready to actually dig into college football. So let's start with the news of the week and the top one is that Trump has signed an executive order on nil, of course. Name, image and lightness. Most of the information here comes from an incredible write up from Ross Dellinger of Yahoo. Sports. The link to his article, along with all the other resources and links that I have to generate my topics here is in the show notes. Basically the executive order, brilliantly titled President Donald J. Trump Saves College Sports helps direct his Attorney General, Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Education and others to take a look at a litany of issues surrounding the NCAA and NIL pay for play, including protecting scholarships for non revenue sports. It prohibits third party pay for play, which essentially eliminates booster collectives and reinforces the recent house settlement that mostly ruled on the side of the ncaa. King clarifies the status of NCAA athletes as whether they are employees or not, which he and the NCAA does not want. Neither do the players I feel and may very well lead to a college football collective bargaining agreement like the in, well really every professional sports league, but notably in this case the NFL has as well, where you have former players that represent the the players unions and they have deals and contracts on pay scales and all, all kinds of things also could imply a limited liability protection for the NCAA and conferences when it comes to things like roster limits, transfers and booster payments. There will be no immediate changes to the rules, but there is 30 days for proposals and it creates more dialogue around the topic. This is definitely something that we have seen move in this direction over the last year or two. The NCAA is fighting like hell for preservation because well, frankly without any of this there's no reason for the NCAA to exist. They are a governing body and if you don't have any need for governance, why would you need a governing body? So the NCAA views this rightfully as life or death for them, but also genuinely for the health and safety and the future of the sport that we love so much. I am not a fan of pay for play. I'm not a fan of what NIL has turned into. I'm a fan of what the original proposal for NIL is. [00:03:18] If you get a sponsorship, you can get paid for that. If you have a YouTube channel, you can get paid for that. I don't like the idea that Miami pays more than, I don't know, Vanderbilt. So you, you jump ship. That's not what this is supposed to be. I actually, I. This might be kind of controversial to say. I don't even care about the legality of it. I think that there should be a special case made for the NCAA because they are technically paying you with an education and I think it helps create, you know, like a non compete clause. I think it helps create a healthy work environment and a healthy employment. They're not employees, but a healthy. What is the word? I'm trying to say balance to, to college football. So you can go to Miami if you think you're going to make more money there's because it's a bigger market, right, or you have more eyeballs or whatever and therefore you would have more opportunities to be in a car commercial or what have you. But I don't know. I really don't like the way NIL is going and I, at least in this one instance, applaud the president for trying to take some kind of step to help. [00:04:34] Next up, the. The Memphis Tigers and the University of Memphis have basically tried to bribe their way into the Big 12. This came out that they tried to pay $200 million to the conference in order to join and it was rejected. This is also from Ross Dellinger at Yahoo. Sports. Quote, the proposal for Memphis, one of the most aggressive membership propositions in college athletics history features hundreds of millions of dollars in sponsorship commitments to the Big 12 from UM affiliated corporate partners, I assume likely FedEx as well as the school issuing revenue distribution league for at least five years. This particular effort began more than a year ago. Memphis president Bill Hargrave has spent at least 14 months visiting with the presidents and top athletic administrators of many Big 12 schools in. In, excuse me, in individual on campus meetings that have culminated in a membership offered to the league that is expected to be high as. As high as $200 million over the next five years, end quote. [00:05:39] So $200 million over five years, $40 million a year. This is from the big wigs at Memphis from their alumni, from their donors, they are willing to put together a package to deliver $40 million of extra revenue to the Big 12 each year for the next five years. [00:05:59] So we know the Big 12 has reached out to UConn and Gonzaga to join in, at least basketball. [00:06:07] We know that they are interested in trying to bridge that gap between themselves and the ACC and then also the SEC. Big 10 as kind of a power four, but really there's a power two and then a middle two and then a group of five. It's kind of the way it feels right now. [00:06:27] That chasm that they're trying to bridge could definitely be helped by $40 million extra to the league. [00:06:35] Now you start splitting that out between 16 schools, you know, it's what, two and a half million? Maybe per school? But yeah, two and a half million. I wouldn't turn down two and a half million dollars. [00:06:45] The problem, I think, is Memphis's academics are not great. I think there's a lot of programs that, I mean, clearly don't want them there. [00:06:55] And it seems to have landed on deaf ears. Also, you'd have to expand to one extra team, right? 16 is. [00:07:03] Is nice. It's nice around. [00:07:05] Mentally satisfying number. It's probably easy to schedule. [00:07:09] 17 is awkward and goofy. I think it's a prime number. It literally doesn't make any sense. Acc, so you would have to probably add at least one more to get to 18. And at that point, who is it gonna be? Is it gonna be Yukon? Do you take someone else from the middle of America or try to poach a Mountain west team? I mean, American team, maybe to Lane? I really don't know at that point if it's something that they are interested in, and clearly they are not. [00:07:38] Dellinger continues. Quote, Memphis proposal is described as a no risk concept according to some in the Big 12. And it also sets a standard, perhaps of expansion fees to enter a league. The school would take zero distribution for the final five years of the league's new television deal with ESPN and Fox and add the sponsorships in excess of $150 million over five years and subject itself to expulsion after 20, 30. 31, if Big 12 deems it is not adding value. [00:08:10] So I think that's a really interesting caveat. They're literally like, well, kick us out in five years if you don't think we're bringing. If we're not pulling our weight, if we're not bringing viewership for not increasing revenue in the leak, then kick us out. [00:08:24] Which, you know, I mean, I'm Be honest, I don't, I don't really know why they're not taking them up on this offer. [00:08:33] This seems, I mean, it really is a no risk concept. You just get a bunch of money. [00:08:38] If Memphis isn't that good, which, you know, they fluctuate. You might get a couple of extra easy wins and then you can kick them out in five years if you don't want them. They do have a nice basketball program. [00:08:50] They do have a long history of a football program. They're in a new state, they're in a big city. Maybe not a city that a lot of people are desiring to go to at times, but they are in a big city. [00:09:00] Have to imagine a pretty big alumni base. You get the Liberty Bowl Stadium inside of your footprint. [00:09:07] I think it's fine. I would do it, but I've been on the Memphis should be a Power 5 school, Power 4 school for a couple of years now. So I, I, I think it's kind of odd that they're not doing it, but there doesn't seem that much interest here at all. [00:09:23] Remember last year, SMU bought their way into the ACC by agreeing not to take league revenue for nine years, but they didn't pay anything. This is Memphis saying, we won't take anything for five years. You can kick us out after that five years and we're going to give you like $200 million. [00:09:41] I don't know, man. I, I think they should really think about it. I think it's weird they shot it down. And of course now the, the idea is, will Memphis just go to the ACC and pitch the same thing? [00:09:52] And I think the ACC should listen to it. I think they should drop Notre Dame, that scheduling partner in Notre Dame, and, and do Memphis instead. And Notre Dame can survive on their own in the wild. [00:10:05] I did not know this, by the way. Apparently Memphis tried to do this again or exact same thing in 2010 when Fred Smith of FedEx told BCS conferences he would give them $10 million per year every year to accept Memphis as a member. Theoretically, you track that out, that would have been over $150 million extra by now. Imagine the ACC with an extra $150 million. They would have dispersed to their member institutions. Maybe Clemson and Florida State wouldn't have been so upset as soon as this leaked, of course. And the Big 12 shot them down, but Memphis posted a big, you know, status on Twitter and Instagram and everything that was like, we're a proud member of the aac. So, yeah, okay, I bet you are. [00:10:48] I don't know. I think it's something that should give people a little more pause. I think it's something that they should absolutely look into, especially if you're going to try to grow here in a couple of years. [00:11:01] One thing I am wondering is the big, the Big 12 might just be like, well we're waiting around for the ACC to implode because in four or five years the ACC is going to lose North Carolina, which came out this week, that they and Clemson are actively just saying we're leaving for the SEC in a couple of years. Pretty much behind the scenes. [00:11:21] Florida State, Miami, maybe Georgia Tech, Virginia. Those teams are probably going to be split among the Big Ten and SEC and the Big 12 might move in to try to gobble up the Louisvilles, the Virginia Techs, the Pittsburgh's of the world. So maybe they don't want to add a Memphis right now in case they need some space to have a power three, you know, three 20 team leagues or something and gobble up some from the ACC that are more valuable than Memphis. But that's just speculation at this point. [00:11:53] Speaking of Memphis, an absolutely wild story broke Thursday from on3.com stating that former Memphis safety Taj Rael had leaked the defensive playbook to UTSA quarterback Owen McCown ahead of the team's early November meeting. And on three showed the messages. They showed Instagram messages from Rael that shows the playbook and he says, quote, here you go though that's all the signals before McCown sends crying emojis. Like crying laughing. [00:12:20] Rael then explains, quote, far left is coverages. I'll send you a better list showing you the call. But they run quarters and none of their safeties can cover. By the way, no reroutes on the slot. The field safety is the weakest link in the defense, his hamstring hurting, but he's running out of eligibility. So when you play him he's number zero, end quote. That's crazy. I've never heard of espionage double agent like this before. [00:12:46] Ryle was allegedly dismissed from the team in October. So there's your motive. Utsa was 4 and 4 at the time, won the game 44 and 36 against the then 71 Tigers at home, including 30 straight at one point during the game. For the record, that number zero that he was talking about didn't end up playing in the game, but he did give them the calls and it had to have helped, right? Like imagine being Memphis and you make some audible or some coverage call and UTSA audibles And counters. Exactly. You have to be like, what? We're not even playing Michigan. How'd they know that? So absolutely crazy. [00:13:29] Really, really odd story there. [00:13:32] And to just kind of keep it where we are. We'll talk about the American. I said earlier that Memphis had said they were a proud member of the aac. [00:13:39] Well, there is no AAC anymore. The American has officially rebranded. So the American Athletic Conference is no more. It will now just be called either the American Conference or the American. They're dropping the Athletic. No more aac. It probably sounded a bit too similar to the acc. [00:13:58] That's the only thing I can think. But, I mean, it took them over a decade to figure that out. The American also have a new mascot, for whatever it's worth. Soar. The Eagle. An American Eagle with human legs and arms and a full football outfit, complete with shoulder pads and cleats. American sports are so weird. I don't actually know if any other conference has a mascot. [00:14:20] I can't, off top of my head, think of any other. So, you know, there you go. The American rebrands and officially goes by what a lot of us have been calling it this whole time. Anyway, next up, the question must be asked, I guess, is the Pac12 actually a power conference? Looking ahead at the 2026 season and seeing who Oregon State and Washington State have added from the Mountain West, Mac and Sunbelt to actually complete an FBS conference in the Pack 8, it will still be called the Pac 12, but the Pack 8. [00:14:56] Are they a power conference? This quote comes from Boise State athletic director Jeremiah Dickey, and the actual quote was in the Idaho statesman.com', when you think about power four now, which I say is power five. When you think about it, it's the teams that are representing the NCAA Tournament and the College Football Playoff and bowl games that are having success, I've been very vocal about what are the parameters, what are the rules, tell us what it takes and then let us do it. That hasn't been defined yet. It's a group in a room sitting there defining what our future looks like without really giving us a set standard or defined expectations of what it actually means, end quote. [00:15:38] Yeah, he's right in that regard. The power brokers here are the SEC and Big Ten into a slightly smaller degree, ACC and Big 12. And they are sitting around dicing up the college football world, making agreements for the playoff and ncaa, you know, trying to decide what nil looks like in the future of the playoff. [00:15:58] He's right that they are kind of are at the whim of these Power 4 conferences. [00:16:03] However, the next thing is what I have a little bit of problem with. So. This quote is from the Idaho Statesman. Dickey said that Boise State football is aligned with the Big 12 in terms of competitiveness, investment and innovation. A cnbc study from December 2024 showed that Boise State athletics was valued at around 176 million in fiscal year 23, putting it on similar footing as new Big 12 teams, Cincinnati 216 million and UCF 181 million. [00:16:35] Since then, the university has announced the Pac 12 move and earned 8 million for reaching the playoff quarterfinals last year. End quote. [00:16:45] Okay, like, you are, like, well, we're, we're in the same neighborhood as, like, we're what, about 40 million, 50 million below Cincinnati, which means you're really at 80% of what Cincinnati is. [00:17:01] Cincinnati is barely considered a Power 4 team. Central Florida, they, Cincinnati and Central Florida just moved up to the Power four. They've barely been there. [00:17:12] So call it saying we're just like them. I mean, that's, I mean, sure, you might be Boise. You've had a reputation for about 25 years of being a really tough team, of being a draw, of being a team that people want to pay money and go see. [00:17:29] It's not the same, unfortunately for the Fresno States of the World, the Colorado States of the World, the utsa, it's just not. And the answer to all this is perception. [00:17:41] Perception, perception, perception. People view Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, Duke, Louisville, Miami, Pitt. [00:17:50] They view, you know, Oklahoma State, tcu, West Virginia. [00:18:00] They view them on a different level than they view Fresno State, Colorado State, Boise State, even. And that's going to take some time to maybe change. But by the time we would get around to even possibly assuming that change and kind of maybe coming around to it, the entire college ball landscape is going to look different anyway and you're going to be left even further behind. So, you know, I appreciate the effort. I appreciate trying to put your university and new conference forward. But unfortunately, the PAC 12 did lose its power status when it lost USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, to be honest with you. And definitely after it lost Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State. So it's just the way it is. Sorry about that. It's not fair, but that is the way the world works. [00:18:54] Next up, Maryland apparently lost the locker room over money last year. At least that's according to head coach Mike Loxley and what he told espn. [00:19:04] I own the fact that I lost my locker room. And this is coach locks the locker room king telling you this landscape. I had to choose between paying young players who were coming in or reward the older players that have been through the fire. Three bowl wins. And I tried to do both with limited resources and, and that's what you get. A locker room with the haves and have nots. You go outside my locker room now and I have a sign that says, leave your Louis belts, leave your financial statements and your car keys outside of this locker room. Because in here we're all going to pay the same price for success or failure. So I think this statement has three intended purposes. One, it does. I think it is probably true. I can imagine there is a vast difference between the players getting paid to be there and the players that are just there on scholarship. Scholarship and the walk in walk ons. Those players that are getting paid millions of dollars to go to school and play football probably feel entitled, right? Like I can imagine if I was 18, 19 years old and you gave me $3 million, I'd feel like an entitled prick, to be completely honest with you. So I imagine that he had to deal with that. It is an actual problem in college football. Other coaches deal with that. It's a big reason why Coach Saban retired. So there is that. [00:20:22] I also think he a little bit was like, hey, don't fire me. Like, you know, look what I'm dealing with. You know, they went 4 and 8 last year. [00:20:31] Their only Big Ten win was against USC by a point, weirdly after previously having three winning seasons and like he said, three bowl wins. So I think part of it is also like, if things don't go well this year, just have some patience with me a little bit. And then the third thing also is I'm doing this with limited resources. [00:20:53] Get me money, let me pay players so the locker room doesn't become dysfunctional, the locker room doesn't become disproportionate and unleveled between the haves and the have nots. And we can pay more people and more people are happy and they can work more harmoniously instead of possibly holding grudges against each other. So I think that's all that I do think this is proof that the culture of college football is changing. I don't agree with the direction it is changing too. But if he can't manage that, maybe that's also an indicator that he's not in the right spot anymore. Maybe college football isn't something he should be doing. So a lot to unpack from that little nugget. But I thought it was interesting and wanted to talk about it. [00:21:39] Next up, we got a couple of former coach moves. We'll start with Justin Fuente returning to TCU. This is from gofrogs.com's Justin Fuente, a former TCU assistant and head coach at Memphis and Virginia Tech, will join the Horn Frog Sports Network for football games starting this fall. Fuente will be the lead color analyst for all TCU football games, joining Brian Estridge and Elvis Gallagos Gallegos hopefully I said that right, so that's interesting. You know, you'll be turning into tuning into TCU Football Radio and hear Justin Fuente giving updates. That's, I mean that's pretty invaluable resource during a game. He can probably break down things pretty well. I would like to believe he was an assistant coach at TCU from 2007 to 2011, including co offensive coordinator from 2009 to 2011 where he helped coach Andy Dalton to a Fiesta and a Rose Bowl. So you know, he, he brought kind of the first little golden age of TCU football there and helped get them into the Big 12 with his offense. So pretty cool. Next we'll talk about Jimbo joining the ACC Network. [00:22:49] ESPN announced that Jimbo Fisher will join the ACC Network as a college ball analyst weekly on ACC Huddle. Of course, Jimbo won a national championship at Florida State and one of the most successful program handoffs ever, taking over for the legendary Bobby Bowden, coach to Heisman Trophy winner and Jameis Winston there as well, brought them into the first ever college football playoffs in 2014. [00:23:11] So he certainly has some knowledge and expertise in the acc, though he left for Texas A and M and the sec. But tomato, tomato, it's kind of the exact opposite of Mark Rick being on the ACC Network even though he was at Georgia all those years before finishing his coaching career at Miami. And while we were talking about Florida State, Dote Campbell has reduced their stadium size from 24.7sports.com's Florida State's home football stadium Doe Campbell Stadium looks to have reduced in capacity by over 12,000 seats due to new renovations, according to FSU's 2025 season media guide, which was released last Monday. The new capacity listed in the Stadium Facts section of the guide is 67,277. The stadium's previous listed capacity was 79,560. So from 67,000 or from 79,000 to 67, that's a difference of 12,283 seats. FSU underwent renovations to dope Campbell Stadium this offseason, which will cost upwards of $265 million. [00:24:20] I hate this. So I think that giving more fans more opportunity is always better. [00:24:28] I don't know exactly what the amenities they swapped out 12,000 seats for, but I can tell you I went there in 2014 for the Clemson game. Awesome atmosphere. It felt like I was in like the Roman Coliseum. It was like this college football castle that I was in and I thought it was great. And to take out 12,000 seats of that, to decrease your stadium noise by 12,000 seats, that is a lot. And the interesting thing about it, the most interesting thing is that drops Florida State from having the 16th stadium with the most capacity to the 26th in the FBS behind Pitt, if you want to count them. Even though they're actually at the Steelers Stadium, Iowa and Michigan State, every single team in the top 23 in capacity Stadium capacity in the country now is either in the sec, the Big Ten, Notre Dame or Clemson. Clemson kept their capacity. I always wanted Clemson to be over 100,000, but I don't quite think that's ever going to happen. They're probably about as capacity out as they are going to be. [00:25:39] But of course, several Big Ten and SEC schools, over a hundred thousand and now Florida State down into the 60s. [00:25:46] Crazy. Speaking of ACC stadiums and fields, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips detailed the fine structure for schools violated, violating the new league court storming rules. This also applies to Fields. $50,000 for the first offense, $100,000 for the second offense, $200,000 for the third offense. The timeline for those fines will reset every two years. Fines go to the ACC's postgraduate scholarship fund, which, you know, good. Cause I guess the thing is the SEC has done this for like a decade or more and it just doesn't matter. [00:26:21] Fans don't care. No, I don't know a single fan that's like I would rush this field, but I really don't want my billion dollar university to have to pay $50,000. Like they don't care. [00:26:33] It doesn't matter to them. [00:26:36] So I think the, I mean the SEC is more steep in their fines and it hasn't stopped them at all. So I don't understand the point of this. If you really, really, really, really want to get rid of it, the only way to do it is to forfeit the game is to say if, if you, if I don't know if Miami beats Florida State and Miami fans storm the field or storm the court, Miami immediately loses that game. That is the only way it's going to happen. [00:27:05] Money? No. Who cares. It doesn't matter. [00:27:08] As a lifelong Clemson fan, I was very worried about this when I heard about it. Clemson football has a pretty proud tradition forever of letting people come on the field after the games. That is still going to be a thing. The gather at the Paw is still going to be there. They're just going to make people wait and hold off for a few minutes until the opposing team actually leaves the field first. [00:27:32] Then you can come down through the hill and come into the stadium and walk around on the field. Really cool tradition, the gathering at the Paul. If you've ever been to a Clemson game, especially one where Clemson wins a big game, it is really, really cool. So glad that's sticking around. Hopefully that won't affect Clemson at all because that's a really good tradition that I would like to keep. [00:27:54] Moving up North Northwestern Quarterback Leaves Team Per Matt Fortuna on Blue Sky Quote David Braun is up next at the Big Ten media days podium. Expect him to announce that quarterback Jack lausch, who started 10 games for Northwestern last season, is leaving the football program to focus solely on baseball. End quote LA for 1700 yards last year, 17 touchdown or sorry, 7 touchdowns, 8 interceptions and completed 53% of his passes for the Wildcats who went 4 and 8. So pretty interesting turn of events there to announce that in late July. But what are you going to do? Best of luck to him and his baseball career. We'll move to the FCS here for a little bit. So the Coastal Athletic association, formerly the Colonial Athletic association, is adding Sacred Heart as a football member in 2026. That is per Sam Herder on Twitter, the CAA lost Delaware to the Conference USA moving up to the FBS and Richmond who left for the Patriot League this year while William and Mary and Villanova moved to The Patriot in 2026. This would give the Coastal 13 members for next season, so they may look to add one more. So a little conference realignments down in the FCS and keeping in that division or yeah, division is the right word. The Big sky has moved to a nine game conference schedule, so they announced that they will move to a nine game conference schedule in 2026. So your move SEC. [00:29:26] The Big sky will move to 13 members next year with the additions of Southern Utah and Utah Tech and the departure of Sacramento State. Really interesting case here. They initially left thinking they could get into the fbs, but that was shot down by the ncaa. So maybe they'll come crawling back and make it a 14 team conference. I don't know. Kind of weird, but the Big sky is moving to a nine game schedule. Again, all conferences should do that. [00:29:52] FCS maybe not as much depending on how many schools you have, but some of these FCS conferences are now ballooning to 13, 14, 15, 16 schools so I think that is totally fine. Texas A and M mascot Reveille has had eye surgery, so Reveille 10 has had one of her eyes removed this past week. That's sad. I really, I hate it when animals have anything like this happen. This came while the vets were having surgery of her were having surgery on her eye and realized it was necessary. [00:30:24] Not sure if we'll see Reveley 11 soon or not, or if 10 will just power power on through with one eye. [00:30:31] For whatever it's worth, Reveille 10 took over as the ASCII Askies Aggies mascot in April of 2021 that she was there when the Aggies be number one Alabama that season they upset number five LSU to end the 2022 season, saw the end of Jimbo Fisher in College Station and the start of Mike Elko and saw college game Dave come to town to kick off last season against Notre Dame, plus the return of the Texas Texas A and M rivalry. Hopefully she's doing well and she can be back on the sidelines or live out a very good life regardless of whether she's on the sideline or not. [00:31:05] We did have a couple of new game announcements so future scheduled games this past week. Tennessee State and new head coach Reggie Barlow announced some new games this week. They'll play at Georgia in 2026, at 20 at Tennessee in 2027, though they want it played at the Titans Stadium and kind of a neutral site game which the FCS and FBS teams playing in a neutral site game is interesting concept and at Middle Tennessee in 2028 at Vandy in 2029. The Tennessee game is especially interesting for athletic director Mikey Allen. Mickey Allen, who played for the Vols and was on the 1998 National Championship team along with Tennessee State. Meeting in 2028 Middle Tennessee announced they will play at Auburn on September 11, 2027 in the first ever meeting between the two teams, even though their states touch each other. So always interesting for first time matchups. I love that. [00:32:01] And we'll end on some sad slash bad news for the podcast this week. [00:32:06] Last Saturday night Ole Miss freshman edge rusher Corey Adams was killed in a shooting that also injured four others. Adams was pronounced dead at the scene in Shelby County, Tennessee, the county that also hosts Memphis, where I hear things aren't great Adams was just 18 years old and came in with the class of 2024. So thoughts and prayers out to his friends and family dealing with that. You know 18 years old is, I mean unbelievably too young. So hopefully they can find peace and healing and be able to move on at some way, shape or form from that. [00:32:42] There were also a bunch of arrests over this past week. You know it's the off season tis the season for people to not be near the team and to be near bad influences and make bad decisions. [00:32:56] Another day another Georgia football player arrested for a driving related charge. UGA commit Chase Calicut was charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The court report says another car had to stop abruptly to avoid a wreck and someone from Calicut's car shot at them. The incident took place inside of a car, so the UGA commit should feel right at home on the team. Georgia sophomore offensive linebacker offensive lineman Jazir Jackson was arrested this week on felony marijuana charges but was released on bond. Georgia defensive lineman 7 Cloud great name appeared in front of a judge this week on domestic battery charges from an April 20 incident in Kansas where he played JUCO football. [00:33:39] And Florida offensive lineman Devin Manuel was arrested for DUI and second degree felony charge of a possession of a concealed weapon. He is a redshirt senior so we inch closer and closer to the college football season starting we'll get more and more quotes. Modern media days have passed. Now we got some sound bites but now we start to turn our attention to the actual games and and what's coming up. So we'll see what the next month holds in store for this podcast. As I try to do it every week. Please make sure to like and subscribe and rate helps out. Unbelievably, you wouldn't even be able to understand how much. And again, you can always follow me on Twitter and Instagram at yeah, that Dustin. So thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it. Hope you're having a great day and I'll see you in the next episode.

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