Hey, hey, where you been, look I talk is about to begin, hey, hey, hey, come on in, welcome back it's your Friday buck I talk

to you through the weekend, Doug Lynn, Reese and Nathan Beard and we are talking more about USC UCLA joining the big 10 we have a little more information Nathan we had a news conference at 8 a.m. on Friday morning with Ohio State president Dr.

Christina M Johnson and Jean Smith, yeah, for director we had about half an hour and I thought we got I don't know that we learned anything new from that Nathan I think we got some

confirmation of stuff there is a little bit of a headline that people want to talk about what's worth talking about that Jean Smith said he pondered the idea of Ohio State going independent during the pandemic he said it was more like an irrational thought in a moment of frustration and anger in lasted a couple minutes after

we did talk about it with his boss but that was in response to me sort of looking to ask a wrap up question which is something we talked about on the pod on Thursday which was like imagine the reverse of this man like imagine if Ohio State Michigan were leaving for the pack 12 like why aren't why aren't we in that world why are we in this world you know did you ever think about that and then he said oh well you know no we're solid we're stable in the big 10 the only time I ever thought about anything was in a flash of frustration and anger

over not playing in the pandemic think about going independent then but that's really it's kind of like a nice little side story the main thing Nathan I think I took away was their idea is this was too good for the big 10 to pass up and that's the bottom line USC and UCLA other than geographically it makes no sense geographically for how we think of conferences now but in every other way to them it does make sense and so you figure out the logistics and you take him and that's it yeah you know very early on in the

press conference gene said something along the lines of well this wasn't a response to the SEC in Texas local home which I think is my borderline

disingenuous I think I don't think what happens this week happens without that happening but I think what the conversations we had today did

reinforce things that we talked about a time things that I was kind of saying as we were you know a lot of like scenarios are

flying around like what's the big 10 supposed to do in response and my point at the time being like well you can't just grab something it's got to you have to do the most strategically important or the most

strategic thing there has to be some some real thought behind it can't just be a reaction and what I heard today from both

Gene Smith and Christina Johnson was this really entrenched belief that the big 10 is right there that you know from a competitive standpoint the SEC is certainly I think

ahead but from a revenue standpoint they're really neck and neck right like after this next rights thing and after the SEC's next rights thing those should

probably both be in the same ballpark and then everybody else is is is well below so the big 10 is considered self in a great

situation and then what the way Gene Smith put it today was you know we're already strong and we just got stronger and that they saw this not as again like just some grab or a reactionary thing but

that they looked at it methodically and saw the ways that UCLA and USC were the teams that needed to come in as opposed to all those names

got thrown out last year Kansas West Virginia whoever you wanted to float I do I think the idea that this is not a response to Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC

obviously it is in some ways but I do think so here's the big 10 kind of started this right kind of with Penn State in 93 and then with Nebraska a

decade ago sort of kicked off this latest round and they just did that because they wanted to do that a decade ago decade plus now when they went and got in Nebraska I don't

think they would have gone to try to get UCLA and USC because it would have been like what California that's crazy and the further we get into this that's become less and less

and less crazy so we stop thinking geographically and once you don't think geographically anymore which they kind of already did with Rutgers Maryland now you're open to anything and then if you get there I couldn't

envision a world where they if USC in US UCLA called the big 10 and they started it in Texas and Oklahoma had never happened I could see still see the big 10 saying yes to this

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