Dennis Dodd, national CFB writer for CBS Sports, tells McElroy & Cubelic why the Rose Bowl doesn't want bigger postseason games & gives his major takeaways after covering both SEC & Big Ten Media Days
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McElroy and Kublik in the morning starts now. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kublik in the morning. Appreciate you guys tuning in. Talk some more Big Ten media days. A couple of big ticket items in college football that we haven't really got a chance to get to with Dennis Dodd here in just a moment. But quickly, I'll tell you about your CBD store. If you need a better night's sleep, if you need more energy throughout the course of the day, better focus throughout the course of the day, your CBD store can help. They've got those products at the largest brick-and-mortar CBD retail in the world. They've got those products at the largest brick-and-mortar CBD retail in the world.

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The Rose Bowl seems to be playing hardball, so to speak, again, being a little bit stubborn again. What is your opinion on, based on what they are saying, is going to be next for the granddaddy of them all? Yeah, I apologize for Dallas, you guys. Oh, no, it wasn't on you at all. Not your issue at all. Yeah, no, you know what? It's all about the parade. I was just talking to somebody on the phone this morning. I said, forget everything else.

This is all they've cared about for 90 years, for 100 years. The parade is bigger than the game. They would rather have the parade on, I think it's NBC or whoever has it, traditional tournament, Rose's Parade, keep it January 1st, game at 5 Eastern, than care more about the implications of Cincinnati-Tennessee at quarterfinal, if you know what I mean. That's what this is about, totally. And...

I wasn't really overly surprised, frankly. I thought it was kind of obvious that it would trend in this direction. But what does it mean for the other five that are all vying for contention to host those semifinal games? Well, the Rose Bowl is giving up their rotation in the semifinal. Obviously, they never will host the championship game.

So what it means, and I can't figure out the math, but within the six-year rotation of those bowls, the other five college football playoff bowls now have two more semifinal games to be distributed. Just don't ask me how the math works or who's going to get them. But the Rose Bowl is basically giving those up. This all has to be approved. But the more I talk to people and the more I think about it, I think it's basically non-controversial.

If they want to keep January 1st at 5 o'clock and a quarter, that's fine. The tradeoff is just what we talked about, two more semifinal games.

Dennis Dodd joining us from Big Ten Media Days. And before we get to the actual Big Ten, one other thing that appears as though it's coming is the implementation of new scholarship limits, football going to 105. What will be, I guess, the ripple effects or maybe even the underbelly of this if it happens, Dennis, that we're sort of not talking about, which usually seems to be the case when the NCAA makes a massive change?

Yeah, and this is all in the House settlement response, so it's in response to that. The thing that got me is that football turns into an equivalency sport. In other words, they don't have to give full scholarships. So I think the walk-on to me – I haven't done any reporting on this – the walk-on issue will be solved where, okay, out of those 105, you can give – if you're a coach –

You could give 10 guys one-tenth of a scholarship, another 10 guys a quarter of a scholarship. You've done that in baseball for years. And there's your scout team. There's your walk-ons right there. Now, that doesn't account for injuries during the season, academic attrition, portal losses. I talked with Troy Dannen at Nebraska yesterday, and he went through that, and he basically said,

Given the averages of all those, you might be down to 60 guys at some point, I guess in December when the portal opens or something like that. But haven't we kind of seen that already where you just have to restock? Now we just have a cap on rosters instead of a cap on scholarships. How would that kind of trickle down to the other levels of football, you think? You think that could have unforeseen consequences on the G5 or other schools that are not involved in that scenario? Yeah.

Yeah, more separation. But, you know, there's schools, I don't want to name, you know, Sunbelt and a pick a conference, I don't know. It'll be hard for them to fully fund 105 scholarships, you know, if indeed that's what schools do. And that'll be a drag on the budget.

But, look, we've already got massive separation. We've got de facto separation right now, recruiting, resources, physically, everything. You know, we're about to have probably, when the House settlement clears, a group of four conference governance, which has never happened before. That's a big story. The four commissioners or the four conferences basically establishing a council that would run –

their, you know, their terms of government, what they need out of everything. And that could be a lot. It could be a little. But I think the separation has already occurred. I don't think there's any doubt. Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports joining us on the Buyer's Right Hotline. He's live at Big Ten Media Days. I'm interested, Dennis, to get your thoughts on Penn State. Most of us are pretty clear on Ohio State. I think Michigan kind of goes both ways. Maybe we get to them in a moment. But

Should it be playoff or bust for Penn State this year? We laid out yesterday James Franklin against top ten teams, James Franklin against Ohio State and Michigan. However, he's had his team in the top 12 more years than not as the Penn State head coach. Playoff or bust, in your opinion? Yeah, you would think so. Look, the playoff meets them in the middle. This is where they should succeed. In other words, they don't have to play in the East anymore. No more automatic Michigan-Ohio State. They play...

one of them this year i think they have michigan i'm not sure but but that mere fact uh should help them a lot to get to that 10 and if penn state gets to 10 i'm sure they'll have every consideration from the committee for the playoff in some ways i think some of these schools that finish third in their league have it yes they don't have to play that extra game they don't have to get ready and risk their season in a championship game and i talked to uh

I talked to Tony Petitti about it this week. I'm posting a Q&A. He said that he said for years, the bar has been too high. 11 and one, 12 and O to get in now. And I reminded him, I don't have to win your conference. He said, exactly. And then I started thinking, well, how far is this going to go? I mean, he's, he's already kind of dropping breadcrumbs that like, well, if you don't have to win your conference, then we have to get as many teams as we can in. So I would watch,

larger picture on this answer. I would watch after the season when the commissioners take up structure and format for the playoff for 26 because I keep hearing, and now I'm convinced, this thing ain't going to stop at 12. Where do you think it will ultimately end up based on what you've heard? 16 because 14 is kind of that middle ground where you go, eh, that doesn't get it done. The structure is already there.

for 16. You play two more games on that Friday. You don't go head-to-head against the NFL, so there's nothing to risk there or upset them anymore. Then it's just up to the SEC and Big Ten to figure out, okay, do we want the 16 best? Are we going to bang our shoe on the table and demand more automatic qualifiers?

But look, this is just like the expansion of the NCAA tournament. There's not going to be more Fairfields in there. There's going to be more fifth-place teams from the SEC and ACC and Big 12 in there. And that's what this is going to be if it is a 16-team playoff. Biggest takeaway from Big Ten media days for you thus far? Anything that sort of changed your opinion one way or the other on a certain team, certain player, certain coach? Well, Deshaun Foster went viral yesterday, right?

And that was low-hanging fruit. Actually, our guys did a great story on it. Brandon Marcello and John Talty followed him around, and that thankfully didn't define him. It looks like he's had anxiety issues, which, look, we all have. Part of me thinks that he wasn't prepped

properly for, yeah, you're going to be in this giant stadium in front of hundreds of media and national TV, talk for five minutes and take questions. Well, I mean, you saw what happened, but he's not that guy. That wasn't my biggest takeaway. Lincoln Riley was as open and frank as I've seen him in those kind of settings.

going into a new conference. You know, you have a situation where Joe Castiglione kind of trolls him on the SEC network, and he comes out firing not against Joe C., but said, we're behind. We're behind in every way you can think of. We're behind in facilities. We're behind in resource. I'm going, whoa, whoa, whoa, how's that going to resonate with the AD at USC when they're paying him $10 million?

to get it done. And so far, he hasn't. 19 wins and a Heisman winner. So I thought that was... Story's posted now. I thought that was my biggest takeaway so far. A lot of people jump at the conclusion on Lincoln Riley. Not saying it's not unjustified, because there has been something that is left to be desired with the performances up to this point. But I still think it's a little early to write off his tenure as a complete failure. Yeah.

No. But how quickly can he get things back on track and what needs to happen for those steps to be taken? Real quick, you just jogged something in my memory that was in my story. Look at Lindy's annual.

that we all end up getting before this season. The opening paragraph of the USC preview literally says, who would have thought that a year ago that Lincoln Riley would be on the hot seat? And I went, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. That's kind of your question. I don't think we're there yet. Yeah, does he need to get better defensively? Absolutely. Did he address it? Yeah, and that's kind of what yesterday was about. Danton Lynn from UCLA, gangster move, getting the rivals DC from across town.

I thought a key indicator, I guess, is the word. He said the defensive line room has gained a total of 300 pounds. And I went, okay, that's good. Divided by what, Lincoln? And he said, like, 14 guys in the room. Well, that works out to an average of 21 pounds per guy, which is number one significant. And number two shows that he kind of gets it. You're going to have to bulk up.

in the Big Ten to accommodate. I mean, if there's anything the Big Ten's known for, it's big offensive and defensive linemen. If a team like Michigan is going to make noise this year, or keep making noise, it's going to be because of that defensive line that's there, been recruited and left over from Jim Harbaugh. So I gave him credit. I mean, he gets it in that sense. Yeah, can we criticize him for going too long with Alex Grinch? Absolutely. But when he pulled the trigger, I think he made the right move.

Dennis, great stuff. Appreciate the time. A myriad of topics there. And thanks for running the gamut with us. Enjoy the rest of Big Ten Media Days. We'll catch up soon. All right, guys. Thanks. There you go. Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports, joining us on the Buyer's Right Hotline. For all your insurance needs, look to Buyer's Right Insurance, a member of the WRM Group, where relationships matter.

So we've kind of covered the majority of Big Ten Media Days. Maybe something else we'll try to jam in before the end of the show today. I want to leave Big Ten Media Days. A couple of you want to get into the show, 800-239-9569. We'll get to your calls on the other side, get to some of your tweets as well, feedback that you've had for us here on the show. But obviously, we want you to continue to be a part, 800-239-WJOX if you want to get in.

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Go check out gamedaymenshealth.com to see what they can do for you. All right, some of your feedback on a few of these topics when we come back. And Jalen Milrow making the rounds on some of the major media outlets up in New York. You hear from him.

Right later this hour as well on Mac and Cube in the morning. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than a player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Gap or wherever you get your podcasts.

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