Roger Goodell & the “Trojan Horse” offering to College Football

Always College Football with Greg McElroy

ESPN

Football, Sports

3.9 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2026

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Everyone agrees that college football needs a little help, whether it’s with NIL, the overall calendar or the College Football Playoff schedule (which is a whole other story in itself). McElroy lays out the reasons why anyone associated with college football should say “thanks but no thanks” to Roger Goodell and the NFL because it could be a Trojan Horse waiting to limit the sports potential. Plus, we continue our series on title contenders in 2026 with Michigan, Oklahoma and BYU. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	College football is messy. There's no doubt it's chaotic.
0:03.0	It's got the transfer portal, the NIL, and there are a million things that absolutely need fixing.
0:10.0	But at least college football is ours.
0:13.0	The second we let the NFL come in and quote help us with a CBA or a salary cap, when we become the NFL light. Like we need to fix our own house.
0:26.3	Welcome in. It's always college football. I'm your host Greg McElroy. And today we are drawing a
0:31.6	line in the sand, ladies and gentlemen, first we're going to start by talking about the NFL
0:37.1	commissioner.
0:38.1	Because on Monday, Roger Goodell took to the podium and offered to, quote, help college
0:43.7	football finds some clarity.
0:45.4	Now, I don't know about you, but when the most powerful man in professional sports starts
0:51.8	eyeing our, quote, lane, I don't necessarily see an olive branch being extended.
0:57.9	I see the possibility of a hostile takeover. So we're going to break down why the NFL is paying
1:03.4	attention to our growth, why the free farm system that we've been giving them for a very long time
1:09.4	could potentially be adjusted at some
1:11.6	point in the future. We're also going to dive into the 2026 and 2027 college football
1:17.3	playoff schedule. Those two, you're probably wondering, NFL, college football playoff schedule.
1:22.9	What do they have to do with one another? They might be related a little bit because if you want proof that
1:29.1	we are currently in a defensive crouching position, look no further than some of the dates
1:34.8	at the college football playoff gave us just last week. What about, you know, quarterfinals on a
1:39.8	Wednesday. How about that? Sounds out. How about a two-week momentum killer gap between quarterfinals and semifinals? Great. We're going to evaluate whether it's a smart survival strategy or just a surrender of the January calendar to the NFL. And of course, we will continue on with our contender series. We'll head to the bayou and check in on Lane Kiffin and his number one transfer portal
2:04.8	hall.
2:05.6	We're going to go to Norman, Oklahoma and see if Brent Venables has actually built the Oklahoma
	...

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