Gary Stokan, President & CEO of the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl, tells McElroy & Cubelic how this year's Clemson vs. Georgia kickoff game came about & what he's planning for future games
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All right, welcome back in. McIlroy and Kubelik in the morning, Monday, July 15th, 948 a.m. right here on JOX 94.5. Day one, SEC Media Days live on Radio Row. McIlroy and I will be here through Thursday each and every morning bringing you live coverage from Radio Row at SEC Media Days in Dallas. Ox Foundation's most reputable foundation and repair waterproofing company in Alabama, over 25 years experience with an A-plus BBB rating.

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currently serving over 350 of Alabama's cities, guaranteed to keep your foundation healthy and strong. How strong? OxStrong. 205-236-9500 or OxStrong.com. All right, SEC Media Day is back to Atlanta next year, GMAC. We heard that from the commissioner. He was asked about Florida State and Clemson. Not going to go into it, but you kind of thought that that was going to be a place that some folks tried to go and at least try to get an answer from him. Yeah, but I also think he handled it perfectly. I mean, yeah, he's keeping –

an eye on what transpires because it could mean a pretty tectonic shift

and how the grant of rights deals are negotiated in the future but at the same time just because he's keeping an eye on what's going on doesn't mean he plans on taking advantage of the possible fallout i think it's been documented i i have a hard time envisioning a scenario where florida state and clemson are members of the sec i just don't see it happening paul referenced it earlier right there's nothing i've heard that would lead me to to believe otherwise but

uh it's still obviously a huge point of contention as far as how these things are are monitored and how these things are are kind of followed gary stokin gonna join us now talk a little bit of uh chick-fil-a kickoff game chick-fil-a peach bowl gary how you doing hey there's been some talk like mackleroy kubelik t-bob a bear and uh

Nobody knows him. Jacob Hester. Jacob Hester's name. Like, who has the most powerful radio station? Oh, well, station, it's not even close. Yeah? Yeah. Personality-wise? That's what I was talking about. I think they're combined a little bit younger, so they might have a little bit of an edge there. Okay. But you guys have maturity. You have experience, right? We don't usually look over our shoulder. No.

I know you have on what's in front of us. After talking to T-Bob, telling me that he graduated in general studies, I'm sure the Auburn and Alabama programs. That's what I asked him. I said, are you sure you graduated? He said, yeah, in general studies. That's a win. Great to be with you guys. Great to be with you. Great matchup coming up this year. Yeah, thank you. To kick things off. Clemson, Georgia, I know you have to be excited about that one. Yeah, it's going to be a kickoff of a great season. Yeah.

Looking at two top 15 teams in Georgia and Clemson, four of the last eight national coaches with Dabo and Kirby. Here's a little trivia for you. In the BCSCFP era, there's been one other active coach that's won a national championship. Can you name them?

That's currently coaching? Mack Brown. Yeah. There's only three. Where are the notes? You must have read the notes. Alabama guy. I know he's a quarterback. He studied. With Jimbo, his exit, and Nick Saban's exit, that made that trivia question a little bit more manageable. It's hard to believe. It is wild. Looking at these non-conference games,

and the neutral site non-conference games. We've seen a bit of a shift for some programs moving more to a home-and-home model. Doesn't mean that things can't coexist because I envision a scenario in which you play non-conference games amongst Power 5 teams exclusively in the future. But how much more challenging is it to get people to say, hey, come play in Atlanta as compared to, say, 15 years ago?

Yeah, we've been very blessed through 2025. Next year we've got Tennessee, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech, South Carolina. So I think in 2000 and I guess it was 22 when the 12-team playoff came about and the Alliance got started and so they pushed it back until this year. Right. A lot of ADs started to see that and started to schedule out big home-and-home games, right? Yeah.

Now with some of the transition, the re-enlivenment, some of those games have gone away. You just saw Georgia-UCLA go away. I think Auburn-UCLA has gone away. Yes, and then there was a – There's been a bunch of them. Yeah, there's been a bunch of them. Ole Miss-USC canceled also. So, you know, I think some of that is related to the potential of SEC going to nine conference games next year if ESPN puts the money up.

which that inventory will shrink the availability of playing these neutral site games because as an AD, if you have eight conference games, you've got four non-conference games to schedule, four conference games at home and four away. To make your budget, you have to schedule seven home games. So the four games left in an eight-game conference schedule, you can schedule three at home and you still have one left.

You can go play with us like George and Clemson are going to make $5 million this year. And as I talked to Nick way back when in creating these games, I said, Nick, you're better off going neutral, neutral because you're going to make $5 million with us and $5 million in Dallas, let's say, the next year. You made $10 million over two years. You're doing home and home. You may net, Alabama may net, let's say, $3 million in a home game net. You go away, you make zero.

So $10 million versus $3 million, to me, pretty good math, right? And especially when you have a fan base like Alabama, you're probably going to have an advantage in the stands. And we always give them the amount of tickets they need, right? Now, not everybody can get in like an Alabama game, but if not, they can see a great game on TV versus watching a non-directional school in the first game, right? Yeah.

So, but back to your question, to go to nine conference games now as an AD, particularly in the SEC, you've got four games at home, you've got four away.

You got that fifth game in certain years is going to be away. If you only have four conference games, you got three games left, you got to schedule those three at home to make your money. So that's why the inventory is going to shrink and make it much more difficult. We have about a minute left, Gary, but I'm interested. Would you ever consider a conference game in this game?

Oh, for sure. We did a conference game with the ACC last year with Georgia Tech, Alabama. Georgia Tech, Louisville. That's right, yeah. Georgia Tech, Louisville. And then we did Clemson, Georgia Tech the year before. So, yeah, most definitely. And we're just blessed in Atlanta. We have the demographics of the number one and number two alumni bases of most, if not all, the ACC and SEC schools. You're unfair.

And an easy drive. That's why the CFP, we're going to be so successful in the CFP now with the playoff. Well, a lot of good things coming for you guys. We're excited about the games this year. Thanks for stopping by and spending a little time with us. Well, yeah, having four games, like SEC Championship, the National Championship, the Clemson-Georgia game, and then our quarterfinal game. We're going to have four games in top 15 teams in the country with four games. Absolutely. Not bad.

Great run. At least you got a decent stadium to do it in. Capital College football. Yeah. Yeah. It's still a legion field for me, though, football capital of the South. It always will be. It's never going to change. Even though that upper deck's not there anymore, it's always going to be that. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Gary. Gary Stokin joining us also. Paul Feinbaum was with us today. Richard Cross, Sophie Hudson, Melanie Shankle. If you missed any of those, go check out the podcast at joxfm.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Three Man Front coming to you next.

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 Tap or wherever you get your podcasts.

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