LC, Paul, and Justin dissect the group behind the scenes trying to create a CFB super league, the major recruits coming to visit this weekend, and how intense the SEC recruiting landscape is. Subscribe to Inside Texas to stay locked in with your favorite team every single day https://www.on3.com/teams/texas-longhorns/join/
Inside Texas Football
IT Roundtable: Super League Plan, Key Weekend Visitors, SEC Recruiting Landscape
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our Saturday round table. We've got, well, you know what, we're just going to mix it up today. I've got, I've got my friend Justin, we've got Paul here, Paul's also my friend, but Justin's really my friend. And we're going to talk about this concept of a super leak, right? This was an article that recently came out in the athletic. We wanted to break it down for you because ultimately what we're trying to solve here, I say we as the collective football fan is avoiding ultimately a collective bargaining agreement, which is probably already going to happen or the lawsuits that are already in the court right now, restricting players' ability to earn money. So let's break this down for you. What is being proposed is a super leak, one leak, one leak that encompasses all 130 teams. And the way that this is being broke down is really kind of interesting. It's got some, some NFL elements, it's got some English Premier League elements. And I think it's really, if nothing else, if it helps us to stretch the elasticity of our cognitive dissonance, I think that's the reason we should have this conversation. So let's, let's look at it for a second. What they're proposing is that there are 70 teams. Those teams are comp, composed of last year's power five conferences plus Notre Dame, as you might expect, and then inexplicably SMU. They sit up on there, which is really good. Good for them. I mean, apparently because they're moving to the ACC, they, they snuck in somehow. But when you think about it, if you really think about this, an organization that has the most experience playing, paying players is probably SMU. They're very, very good at it. And I think they should be brought into the modern game, because that's what we're doing legally now. Right? So we've got these, these 70 teams that are being brought in. That's important. Then the remaining 50 teams are going to be compiled of basically everybody else, right? They're all going to be brought in making it a 130 team league. Now, that league is going to be broken up into two tiers. What we have right now is something like this, right? This was the former power five divisions. They are going to be breaking that up into eight regional divisions composed of 10 teams each. Now, wait a minute, you're probably doing the math there and you're thinking to yourself, all right, there were 70 teams. How do we, how do we come to 80 in an eight region set? Well, those lower division teams have the opportunity to be promoted. This is where the EPL comes in. They can be promoted up. And when they're promoted up, they get the opportunity to play with the proverbial big boys. Now, what's really fascinating about this is that concept of giving mid to lower tier teams, the opportunity. But the word opportunity here is a little bit misleading because those 70 teams, the teams that we talked about that were in the former power five conference, those teams are locked in. There's no relegation, there's no promotion, they are in the league. There's no opportunity for them to drop down. So congratulations, Vanderbilt, you're in. This means that there are going to be 10 teams from that lower division that are going to be brought up. And those 10 teams will then comprise or be spread out individual over that region to bring up 80 teams. Now, that's a lot. There's a lot going on in that little section right there. And I think a lot of math, they'll see. That's a lot of math. It's a lot of math. And here's the thing that I don't quite understand. First of all, this plan is not very clear. But if you're one of those 10 teams, does that mean that the 10 teams are broken up regionally? Or do let's say you've got four of those teams from Florida, how does it work if they're being promoted? Those are a lot of the things that haven't been decided yet. But I would love to hear your thoughts on this as we move forward. Paul, do you anything? I know we've talked about this idea of a super league before. And I'm just really curious where you land on this type of stuff. So it raises probably more questions than answers, right? The first is, you're going to have to assign a modifier, even within those 70 teams, right? So, Texas on a revenue, they're going to have a 1.5 revenue modifier versus a Maryland, which will have eight or whatever, right? Which is also in the plan. That's exactly right. Yeah. Other part is, how long do those 10 teams that rise up from poverty, how long do they stay there in their new league? Or if you don't go 500 in your first round robin in that league, are you dropped? Are you relegated? Is it a three-year cycle, one-year cycle, 10-year? I don't know. And then, how are you going to cut in the universities, right? Because this is a big moneymaker for some universities. But for a lot of universities, football is the only profitable activity. So how are other sports going to play into this? How's title nine going to play into this? Are you just going to say this exists in a world outside of title nine? Because it does. You're about to end a bunch of women's sports and a bunch of men's sports as well. Because football pays the bills entirely. I appreciate the women's March Madness and Caitlin Clark and all that. Women's basketball is a money drain. There's maybe two or three schools a year who make money playing women's basketball. So, and the rest are a significant trick. So there's that. The other part is, we have network contracts. And they are tied to leagues. And the argument of these, this league, I think, is that we're going to actually maximize revenue even more, right? Because what college football needs is more money, right? That's the problem where it's too little money. But these networks are going to be very low to come to the negotiating table unless they could be made whole and more with their existing contracts. Most of which run through the 2030s, I believe. So that's exactly right. I'm not sure, like, if these guys just ideating, or if they're trying to find a proposal to deal with the conundrum of the current situation, which is not, I mean, people call it free agency in college football. It's not free agency. Free agency is very strict and structured. And you only get it after a certain amount of time, and you have a window, and you only get it in certain, and you have to honor your contract, et cetera. College football is the wild west, right? It's barnstorming 1930s football, where you'd have guys play for Notre Dame one week. And then the next week, they'd show up, you know, playing for Indiana, because an Indiana alum, you know, promised them a fur coat, an opponent that they can live. Right. So I'm thinking of a fog or a leg horn cartoon there. So anyway, I have more questions than answers on this. It is interesting. I do wish if this is proposed or actually done, I do like the idea of relegation. I wish that was part of it. And I know that it wouldn't be accepted if it was, but I like the I'm a carrots and sticks guys. And I think there needs to be carrots. And I think there needs to be sticks for teams that don't perform or pull their way or just or a disaster. Plus it would be hilarious. I mean, there's the tension of a big game for a national title. The tension of a team in the in the minor English soccer league, they're about to get relegated if they don't win this game. It's a huge deal. So I don't think that would be an interesting element to it. Absolutely. And I think one of the things that is telling here is exactly what you pointed out is who's involved, who's pushing this, right? We've got the owner of the 76ers who also owns the New Jersey Devils. He we've got Roger Goodell's second hand man, which is the executive. I'm trying to Brian Rolapp is involved. We've got a couple, the university presidents involved. And it's the university presidents that's the key here. Because what has been also reported, and this article again came from the athletic, we want to give them their their due credit here. What we're what they have pointed out is that this group, which is called, let me bring this up here, they are called college sports. No, no, missed it. They're called CST, which is an acronym for something I can't come up with right now. They they have been trying to meet with Sankey. They've been trying to meet with the SEC and the Big Ten conference presidents, right? And they're not able to do it. Now, here's what's really fascinating. Those league presidents, those commissioners of the SEC of the Big Ten of the ACC, they are not incentivized in any way to do this. This is a decision that's going to be ultimately made by the presidents of the universities. Because ultimately, if they do, their job goes away. They become a moot point in this entire enterprise, which is another reason why I don't see this happening. Because right now, there are so many people making money and they figured out how to do it. And when you have a new model coming in telling you that, hey, we're doing this for the betterment of the sport, generally, those people are not going to be making money anymore. So they're they're no longer incentivized to do these things. But that's that's probably enough on this fun little exercise for a Saturday morning. I'd love to now talk about what's happening this weekend in terms of recruitment. And it's a big weekend, Justin. We've got a lot of players coming in and I'd love I'd love for you to tell us who's coming in, what we should be looking for and the significance of this weekend. It's it's on the surface. It's similar to a junior day. If you were able to get 20 or 25 of your top targets in one class, and they were all four and five star prospects for the most part on campus at one time for one event. And so Texas is doing it big. And this is SARCs using the momentum for 2023. How do you build a recruiting class after a great season in football? You use that momentum into the off season in the spring and in the summer. And they're bringing a lot of guys in and it starts at the top. You've got DeCory and Moore, the number one receiver in the country out of Duncanville, LSU commit. You got Zion Williams, big time defensive lineman out of Lufkin, Texas LSU battle. You got Jonah Williams, five star athlete, safety, left-handed pitcher, center fielder, does a little bit of everything, probably mozier yard. He's a dude. You got Cade Phillips, outstanding headhunter at a four-bin high tower. You've got Nick Townsend, big time tight end out of spring to Caney. Jordan Davison at a modern day, Ricky Stewart, tailback out of Chapel Hill in Tyler. I mean, the list goes on. You got to go to insidetexas.com for the latest. Eric Nahline and I posted a percentages post on Thursday. Be sure and check that out to kind of get an idea of where we think Texas stands with a lot of these guys. And then yesterday is a humidor. I broke down news and notes about each guy. All that to say, they're treating this scrimmage like a junior day. They want to bring in as many guys as possible because here's what we're learning. Kids love to take visits, but they really like to watch football in practices. On the ground, college practice means so much more than touring facilities, meeting advisors, meeting all the people in the football offices, things of that sort. They're actually going to get to sit. That's what the players love. You just ask them. They love watching a practice. And with the guys hitting each other and pat it up and in a scrimmage setting, that's big. That's actually really big for these guys. And so, Sarkin and this staff have done a great job of cultivating that momentum. You know, a lot of these guys are actually going to be back in two weeks for the spring game, but you can't visit too much. When you've got five stars on the hook, you can't get them on campus too much. Decorian Moore was at the Texas relays last weekend running. Now, he couldn't come over to the facilities because of the NCA guidelines, but his mother could. So, she goes over there and hangs out with the Texas coaches. And so, again, it's similar to a junior day. It's so many big names. And there's not too many because a lot of times with a junior day, you get 50, 60, even 70 prospects. You know, four fifths of them won't get offered, but they're there to meet the staff and see things. These guys, almost every guy that's going to be on campus holds a Texas offer. That's unique in this scenario. And so, it's going to be fun. We'll be there Saturday. I can't wait to get a scrimmage report. I can't wait to talk to these guys after their visits. I think a few individuals being there are really important, including Zion Williams. He's been to LSU a couple of times already. Bo Davis built that relationship when he was in Austin. He carried it to Baton Rouge. Now, it's Kenny Baker's turn. And they're not going to put all that on his shoulders. These guys never really recruited at a high level. And so, to make him responsible for that recruitment would be negligent. And so, I think they're going to do this by a team effort. But at the end of the day, yeah, I think it's going to be similar to a junior day. You've got a lot of big targets, a lot of big names. And Texas, like SART does, he doesn't push. He plays the long games in this recruitment. And in some cases, some of these recruitments are just now getting started. And in Decorian Moore's case, it's not going to get started until probably November or December, but it sure is fun, you know, along the ride. One of the things that you've written about Paul is, and I want to take this, this idea of recruiting, especially how Texas is doing it now at a high level, and expand that out to the SEC and what that means in maybe a little bit more general terms. I know you wrote about that earlier this week. I did. So, a little teaser. I don't want to bury everything because I still want to incentivize you folks to go join inside Texas. But I took a look at the SEC and how they finished in 2024 recruiting rankings, according to all in three. I'm not going to pretend recruiting is the end all and be all of success in the football field. But if you look at the last few national champions recruiting counts quite a bit. Michigan was considered one of the least talented teams. And of course, Sarba routinely actually turned the worm at Michigan because he started signing top 15 classes instead of top 25 classes. That's part of it. But if you look at the SEC and the level of talent that they're accustomed to in that league, seven of the top 10 in the 2024 final recruiting rankings were SEC schools. If you expand that, you get to 25, 13 of the top 25. And by the way, Mississippi State is 26 and Arkansas is 28. So 15 of the top 28. Arkansas finished second to last in the SEC and recruiting rankings. And they would have finished second in the current big 12. So again, that's not the end all of the game played on Saturday. But it is a big portion of it. And if you if you don't have the requisite athletes in the SEC weekend and week out, you're not just going to get outgunned by the big boys. You're going to leave yourself potentially open to upset by an old miss that is seventh or something in the SEC and recruiting rankings. And they're 18th nationally. In other words, if they develop their guys and you don't do a very good job recruiting and development, they'll go beat you on the field. The big 10 doesn't have an equivalent of that. Ohio State, they're not losing to Purdue, right? It's not happening. So that's kind of what's important about this junior day and all those to follow that Justin is right about. I know that you did a very good job of tempering this particular idea with the idea that it's not the end all. But if we're looking at these teams and we're looking specifically at the SEC, which traditionally has been an incredibly top heavy leak, what does that actually mean? Because if all these recruits are going to these particular schools, but they're in a league wherein it's very, very top heavy and the middle competes pretty competes very well against the middle. And then the lower end is a non starter. What does that actually mean? Obviously you're competing against great players, but I think the thing that you're really focusing on here, and maybe this is the thrust of the article itself, is the key differentiator there with this is entirely development, because you're getting the horses in the stable. But if you're not developing them, they're not hitting that track like they need to be. Well, Texas fans are aware of how that works. We've made a decade of that and now we're out of it. Thank God. And the NFL draft, and not just the results on the field, but the NFL draft is about to be an attestation to that theory. Here's the interesting thing though, LC, that's different about the SEC. And I hate to become, I'm already transforming into an SEC homer here. It's just different. It means more. Here's what's different about the SEC. Auburn has wandered the will wilderness for a while. Hugh Freeze went five and seven. They got blown out at home by New Mexico State. They lost to their bitter rival on a fluke play at the end of the game. And they went to the bowl and got blown out by Maryland in which Hugh Freeze admitted he was too busy recruiting and didn't review the game plan. The response of the Auburn fan to that LC as you wince is not, forget these guys, forget it. We need a new coach. I forsake the program. The response from Auburn was, we signed a number seven class in the country, a top 10 class, and we had more NIL growth than any other school in the country other than maybe Ohio State. So the response of SEC schools who fail on the field is to double down on trying to succeed. Well, there's just seems to be, maybe it's just, sorry, go ahead. No, I'm just saying that what that says to me is that they all have just an overwhelming sense of optimism. These are glass full people. It's like getting kicked in the shin and saying, Oh, I've got shins. I mean, I get it. I understand why they're excited about it. But what does that actually tell you? Is it just a cultural thing? Is that what that tells us is that they're so keen on things they're willing to look in the silver lining, whereas the Texas fan would probably be burning things in effigy. Well, so that's an interesting contrast. The other part of it is I think it's tied so deeply to their culture and their Saturday. It's a cultural thing in that region, tailgating their family, like their state pride. South Carolina is the whipping boy of the SEC guys. They went five and seven again. Okay, they signed the number 20 recruiting class in the country. They're selling hope. They're also selling cars to recruits, but that's part of it. But they're they are manufacturing and selling hope. The truth is most of the SEC is just showing up and getting the check. But every now and then, Auburn breaks out and they get Cam Newton and they go win a national title or they go win the SEC with Gus Malzant and they beat Bama. So they see that it's possible and they live that dream. LSU, before Nick Saban showed them that they could win a national title, was sort of a nice team that was a perennial sort of underachiever. It's that sleeping giant that never really awoken. And then all of a sudden, it got woken up woken up, got waked up and suddenly, LSU's a top seven, top eight football job. Absolutely. If not higher. Yeah, so many kids of this generation want to go to LSU. Absolutely. And 30 years ago, well, because you're not going there to play school for one thing. And then, and they don't want you to play school at LSU. I don't even think they care if you go to class. They have online classes. They don't darken the halls of a school corridor like at Texas. So the bottom line is these things are changing. And the point is it's not that the SEC has dominated the last 20 years, which they have, it's that it's probably going to increase. These things are accelerating, not broadening. But how do they increase? Expand on that a little bit because it's Oklahoma. Well, right. But do they do they increase from the middle out? Do those middle teams get better? Or does it still stay heavy? They pillage the middle ground programs who might develop, see a kid early in a recruitment, get in on him with a foundation early. He turns out to be a four star. He's committed to Baylor for a year because they found him first for Oklahoma State and TCU who are really good at early evaluations. They swoop in and take it at the last minute. They give him a nice sweet NIL deal. They tell him, we'll put the SEC patch on your jersey. You'll have a chance to get to the NFL because if you watch the draft, it's essentially the SEC draft. All of those things, that's how they pull it and get stronger. And also, to that point, that's a great point, Justin, where they have what I call elite depth. So we typically would define depth. Kentucky. We would define depth as you're good top to bottom. No, the SEC, the standard bearer of that conference was Florida. They were the team that was the standard bearer early. Sure. And then they fell off and then Bamba. And then Auburn would have years where they'd rise up. LSU. I mean, Tennessee, at the very beginning of the 2000s was what the standard bearers and they fell off and now they're back. The point is, there's always a program that's going to rise up and be elite or at least a couple at all times in the SEC. Whereas at the Big Ten, if Ohio State hits the skids, if Michigan hits the skids simultaneously, they're in trouble. You're ending up with the '90s Big Ten, where Northwestern and Illinois were winning. Went to the Rose Bowl. Yeah. So Purdue, with Drew Brees, won the freaking Big Ten. That can't happen in the SEC because the elite teams, although you think they're static, they actually kind of go up and down. And so you have one of the greatest teams that ever played in LSU, right, with Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase. The next year, they were jacks. They phoned it in. Yeah. But you know what, they immediately replaced them and you still won the national title. So they do have depth and talent top to bottom, but the elite depth that they have is unmatched. And that's what adding Texas and OU provides. In the off year that Bamba might have because they have a new staff and all that, Texas could be the standard bearer. Georgia is the new standard bearer, right? Listen, that's the example right there. Georgia, they had a great, they've had depth for since Matt Stafford, Mark Rick, David Gibson, all those guys. They had depth, but they didn't have elite depth. It took them to get 22 NFL players on defense to win a national championship for Kirby Smart. So they did exactly what Paul was talking about. They had the depth and then Georgia went, they ascended. And now you got to try to catch up with that level of depth. It's a lot to think about, guys. We've got super leagues. We've got how now the recruiting is happening from the middle of the middle of the Super League. I wanted to say one thing about the Super League, how they brought SMU in. You know, I don't want to go on too much about it, but you know, Craig James, every time I think of SMU, I think of Craig James. And so it's almost, it's endearing that they would include them because you talk about one of the greatest, from Sherwood Blunt to that group, the Pony Express in the early '80s. But every time I see SMU, I think of Craig James. I think what did Craig James sacrifice for SMU to make this jump? Or what, you know, what girls, dead hookers had to happen for SMU to jump up into this. You've got to give Craig James a lot of credit here. I don't think many people are. The guy, the guy is responsible for a lot of that success for SMU. I wanted to make that noted. You think this was a sacrifice to like ancient, older demigods, like Mott. It has to be. That's what those really gave up. It's all about this. You got to see it. C G K five H. C G K five H. Okay. Remember the five. That's my reach. Tried to tell us. He tried to tell us guys, but we didn't listen. This and much more can be found at inside texas.com. And if you use the promo code IT1, we're going to give you two months for the price of one dollar. So yeah, yeah, we're really, really going forward here guys. So two months inside Texas.com, lots of insight and especially as we're going into spring ball, this is really the time to jump in because recruiting is about to get buck wild to go on and get in there and check us out at inside texas.com. We appreciate as always you spending your Saturday with us. Thank you so very much. And we'll see you later. Take care.