GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap the last few days for the Florida Gators in recruiting as they landed two top targets in the Class of 2021.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down how the Florida Gators landed Jason Marshall and Corey Collier, plus what’s left for the Gators on the board.
Andrew and Nick also talk about the latest news surrounding the football season for the SEC and other college football teams.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:​What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, we’re back. Right now, SEC football’s still on. We’ll see where it goes. Big 10, PAC-12 says hidey-o’s, but they’ve been doing that pretty much for the last 10 years or so, so what’s new?
Nick:​Probably felt great about it until Friday, and then all this news starts coming out Friday that the Big 10’s going to cancel, and the PAC-12’s going to follow them. The MAC does cancel, and you’re kind of just left there sitting with like a pit in your stomach, and you’re thinking would the SEC and the ACC play by themselves? If you have the minority of the Power Five, would two conferences just do it? I don’t know. Just optics wise, probably not, but the Big 12 comes out and says, our doctors say they want to do it. Our players say they want to do it.
There’s going to be some extra stuff that they do. They’re going to look at heart monitors for players, stuff like that. I think it’s all what the SEC’s been saying this whole time. It’s really just we’re giving ourselves time. The NCAA came out with mandates, and the SEC is like, cool, those are fine. We have stricter ones than the NCAA even wants us to have. As we sit here taping this on August 12, it looks like we’re going to have three conferences playing football.
Andrew:​Don’t forget, my boys in the Sunbelt said they’re still playing.
Nick:​Three Power Five conferences. Sunbelt, yeah. Three Power Five conferences. There are some Group of Five. Who else? The AAC is going to be playing ball too.
Andrew:​Conference USA is playing still. A few. Here’s what’s going to happen. It’s going to be the Power three, and then maybe one of those Conference USA or Sunbelt teams go undefeated, and they get a playoff bid too. Guess what? They make some extra money.
Nick:​I’m not even worrying about bowl games. I’m not worrying about College Football Playoff. Cool. If we get to that point, let’s run it. Just give me September 26 and that first game.
Andrew:​Our good friend, Trey Wallace, that covers Tennessee for Fox Sports up there, we’re all in a little group chat together, and we were talking. I said, listen, have those three conferences go play, and then have two at large or three at large and go for it. Play a little playoff that everyone’s been hollering for. Everybody wanted a bigger playoff than four, so go get it and make it happen.
​This is what I’m going to say. We’ve always talked about the NCAA being dumb on decisions, but, Nick, this in my opinion is the dumbest thing they’ve ever done. As the president of the NCAA, Mark Emmert has done an awful, has done just an awful job in general. What president of an institution or an association can honestly sit there and say, you know what, I’m not making a decision? That’s what you get paid millions of bucks to do is to make a decision, a uniform decision for college football. What are you doing?
Nick:​Yeah. I think everything we’re going through right now is going to cause some change.
Andrew:​Oh, 100%. It’s coming.
Nick:​I don’t want to call it a conspiracy theory, but the PAC-12 players come out. We were all kind of heading towards college football, all five Power Five conferences. The Power Five was heading towards football, and then the PAC-12 comes out with a list of demands. I think you and I have talked about it. It’s like, that’s good you’re using your power that you’re getting right now,