The "Mass Exodus" Edition

The SEC placed 13 teams in the 2025 NCAA Baseball Tournament, and 9 of those teams were eliminated in the first round, including No. 1 Vanderbilt and No. 2 Texas. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Each time for Clemson Sports Talk with Lawton swanany.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Finally, Clemson Sports Talk has come back to drive time.
Hello everybody, Lowton Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the show that Shakes the south Land. Clemson
Sports Talk for you each and every afternoon as you
make your way on the great state of South Carolina
and beyond, listening to us on incredible radio stations like

(01:05):
Fox Sports Radio fourteen under the middlands are around the
world on the iHeart Radio application download today, it's free.
The website. Put the dot com on it, doggonnet. That's
Clemson Sports Talk dot com. Aight O three four five
zero zero eighty six. That is the text line in

(01:26):
the phone line. And don't forget the show The shakesa
Southland brought to you apart by good friends over at
METS Plumbing seven three two drip Drip, drip drip, you
know the jingle seven three to two drip. That's mets Plumbing,
mets Plumbing dot com. That's the website as well. And again,

(01:47):
thank you for being a part of the program, and
we think METS Plumbing in all of our sponsors for
supporting us here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred. All right,
so the stage is set. We now know the eight
super regional matchups for college baseball. We also have a

(02:08):
verdict on the SEC in terms of baseball this season.
And it's apparent and clear at this point that the
Southeastern Conference was incredibly overrated based off of the results

(02:28):
in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. During the
regional round, the Southeastern Conference set an all time mark,
set a new mark with the number of teams that
were in the NCAA Tournament. And then again when you
expand and you had Texas and Oklahoma, and it's really hard,

(02:50):
it's complex, I think to try to balance out or
measure sess of the past in a league. I mean
you could do it by percentage, like what percentage of
the teams got in et cetera, et cetera. But make
no mistake about it, when you get a record thirteen

(03:11):
teams in regardless of who's hosting necessarily, and then you
even have a team like LSU be on the brink
of elimination, Tennessee on the brink of elimination. Both of
those are survivors from the thirteen, I think it's fair

(03:35):
to say that it was a disappointing NCAA tournament for
the Southeastern Conference. Vanderbilt eliminated Texas, eliminated Ole, miss eliminated Georgia,
eliminated Alabama, eliminated Florida, eliminated Oklahoma, eliminated Mississippi State, eight

(04:00):
eliminated Kentucky eliminated record setting numbers in terms of how
many SEC teams made the NCAA tournament in a mass exodus.
I would assume that's a record as well. Nine teams
eliminated in the first round from one conference, but I

(04:22):
don't think you're gonna see that coming out of the
Southeastern Conference's media wagon. As for the ACC, the lowly
ACC how about no conference with more teams in the
Superregionals than the Atlantic Coast Conference Duke, Florida State, Louisville, Miami,

(04:46):
and North Carolina all advancing to the Superregionals in NCUBA
tournament play. So here are the eight locales, start dates,
and times of these games. Things in the super Regional
round will get started on June the sixth, at high

(05:06):
noon on ESPN two in Chapel Hill. As the fifth
overall seed, the North Carolina tar Heels will host Arizona
they'll have a game on Saturday, June the seventh, at
noon on ESPN two, and a if necessary game three
matchup on Sunday. No time available yet for the you know,

(05:27):
if necessary contest at three o'clock on Friday. Louisville's Super
Regional will take place, as the Cardinals will host fellow
Atlantic Coast Conference member Miami Friday's game at three on
ESPN two, Saturday's game at eleven am on ESPN and

(05:47):
Sundays to be determined if necessary contest at six o'clock
on Friday. Another Atlantic Coast Conference team will be under
or will be playing, as Florida State will go out
to Corvallis for the Corvallis Superregional Friday at six o'clock
on ESPN two, Saturday at nine o'clock on ESPN two,

(06:09):
and then Sunday if necessary against Oregon State, so the
Oregon State Beavers hosting the Florida State Seminoles in that one,
and then the nightcap is the Auburn Superregional nine o'clock
this Friday, ESPN two, the four seeded Auburn Tigers hosting
the thirteenth overall seed in the tournament. The Coastal Carolina

(06:32):
Chanta Clears. They'll also play Saturday at three o'clock on
ESPN two in Sunday's games if necessary. Saturday a full
house loaded slate of college baseball. It'll get going with
the opening of the Durham Superregional as the Duke Blue
Devils hosts the Racers of Murray State, who raced out

(06:54):
of the Oxford Regional Saturday, June seventh, one o'clock on
ESPN U s on Sunday, June eighth, at noon the
network to be determined, and then Monday for that game
three if necessary at the Durham Super Regional. On Saturday
at two o'clock. It'll be the Baton Rouge Super Regional,

(07:17):
as LSU survived last night as Little Rock pushed them
to the brink. LSU I think at one point was
down five to one, maybe six to one. They end
up winning ten to six. I think it was five
to one. I can go back and pull that box
score up right now. Yeah, five to one into the
top of the fourth inning and LSU scored three to

(07:39):
make it five to four at that point. But LSU
did end up winning that game. They did end up
surviving the Baton Rouge Regional. They match up with the
winner of the Clemson Regional that was West Virginia Saturday
at two o'clock on ESPN, Sunday at six o'clock on
ESPN two, and Monday, June the ninth, if necessary that

(08:04):
game to be determined. Then at five o'clock on Saturday,
the Fayetteville Super Regional Arkansas, the lowest seed available for
remaining the third seed in the tournament and the betting
favorite right now to win the NCAA tournament. They kick
off at five o'clock against fellow SEC member Tennessee, who

(08:25):
was the fourteenth overall seed the Volunteers yesterday getting past
Wake Forest five pm on ESPN, Sunday at three o'clock
on ESPN, then Monday if necessary, and then the final
game on Saturday. In the eighth Superregional will be the
Los Angeles Superregional as UCLA the fifteenth overall seed, at
seven o'clock Saturday on the ESPNU will host the University

(08:49):
of Texas San Antonio road Runners, who advanced to the
superregional round out of the Texas the Austin Regional as
Texas the Longhorns hosted Sunday at three PM is Game two,
and then Monday if necessary. And think about this from

(09:12):
the standpoint of college baseball for a minute. The Racers
of Murray State, the road Runners of UT San Antonio,
and Coastal Carolina. And again, Coast is a little unique
in the sense that they've got a national championship under
their belt. But three, and if you want to include

(09:36):
Oregon State, I know it's tough still, but three of
the remaining teams in the NCAA Tournament from non Power
five schools excuse me, non Power five conferences, right, And
of course we'll see how it all ends up shaking
out of the long haul. Four the Atlantic Coast Conference

(09:58):
in the Southeastern Conference. Again, with these matchups pitted the
way they are, both leagues will at least eliminate one
member because of a matchup between conference foes, Miami and
Louisville will eliminate each other, or one will eliminate the other,

(10:21):
I should say, and Tennessee and Arkansas one will eliminate
the other, meaning that it guarantees a singular member from
the Atlantic Coast Conference being in Omaha and a singular
member from the Southeastern Conference being in Omaha. But I

(10:43):
think a lot of people, myself included, would really like
the chances that the Atlantic Coast Conference outside of the
Louisville Superregional will excuse me, easy for me to say,
outside of the Louisville Superregional where a ACC school will
be eliminated. I feel good about the chances of the

(11:07):
Duke Blue Devils versus Murray State, even though the Racers
are forty too and fourteen. I like the fact that
Duke's playing at home. Honestly, you know, I think the
Atlantic Coast Conference, based off of five teams still being
in the mix out of sixteen tells you everything you
need to know. I like North Carolina's chances against Arizona,

(11:30):
especially at home. And then I also feel pretty good
about Florida State going on the road to Oregon State.
And granted there is a level of disappointment that I
certainly have and the way things ended for the Clemson
Tiger baseball team this season, I would love to have
the intrigue of a matchup coming up with Clemson and

(11:54):
LSU and football kind of being the the what would
you call this would kind of be the precursor to that.
Had Clemson come out of their regional and then ended
up going out to baton Rouge for Little College Baseball,
but it clearly was not in the cards for the
Tigers this season. And again, you just take a look

(12:16):
at what's happened over the past week with the shift
in terms of the Southeastern Conference and the conversations that
I think will and rightfully so will fairly be talked
about next year leading up to the selection of the

(12:37):
host sites of regional play in the NCAA Tournament, and
quite frankly, the top eight seeds, like that's the other
thing that's significant about what happened to the Southeastern Conference
is that the top eight seeds in the NCAA Tournament,
or of the top eight seeds I should say in

(13:00):
the NCAA Tournament, the top four all went to Southeastern
Conference schools and number one Vandy and number two Texas
were both eliminated. Additionally, Georgia, who was also a national
seed the seventh seed in the tournament, was eliminated. Three

(13:22):
of the Southeastern Conference, three of the Southeastern conferences national
seeds were eliminated, not to mention Old Miss who was
a host team being eliminated. And I think when you

(13:44):
like when you do what I do. When you have
this role and you're constantly looking at the balance of power,
so to speak, in the world of sports, and maybe
even more so, the presumption. I think that's probably the

(14:05):
best word for it, the presumption of power and who's
the best. I mean, we see this all the time
with college football. I would argue we're beginning to see
this in college basketball with the Southeastern Conference. The SEC.

(14:28):
I've always struggled to deny how good I think they
are in football, I really have. I've always struggled. But
I think what the Southeastern Conference has realized is that
marketing is the number one factor to benefiting your league

(14:52):
from top to bottom. I'll tell you fill my head
with such a propaganda, it's facts. I think the Southeastern
Conference does a better job than any other league in
making the presumption of success and greatness be the biggest

(15:14):
factor in how they are perceived from the standpoint of
RPI and metrics and on and on and on. Because
think of it like this for a minute, and maybe
maybe I'm just not smart enough to understand it. That's possible.

(15:39):
But if we take a look at the surface, right
of a blind sample of teams, random and we don't
put a name behind them, and we just had games played,

(16:00):
mythical games or mythical teams. Even how do you truly
know who's the best of the best, right, Like, if
you put a blind sample of every team in every
name in the country, how do you produce a resume. Well,

(16:27):
you'd say, well, Swane, team A beat team B, and
team B beat team C, and team C beat team D,
or so on and so forth. And I get that,
but I find it incredibly difficult to believe that in
the minutia of the computers and the RPI and the

(16:50):
rating systems and the things of that nature, that there's
not an inherent human bias to it all. And I
think that human bias leads the designers of the mechanism
that you know, creates these these rankings and and RPI

(17:14):
and all that, to think that a win for say
Georgia over LSU is greater than a win for maybe
Florida State over North Carolina. Again, we're talking for the
most part about outside of the Georgia teams that are

(17:36):
still playing baseball but throughout the year. And I think
because that perception exists, it bolsters resumes for those teams
that are in the Southeastern Conference. And I don't think
it's solely bolsters Southeastern Conference resumes don't don't get me right,

(18:00):
It's not like it influences one versus the other. But
what the Southeastern Conference has managed to do, and kudos
to them, they've managed to make people across the board
believe that that's the case in multiple sports. But yet
this year when the rubber met the road in the

(18:21):
NCAA Tournament, and it's not like you know, a college
basketball field right sixty four teams, it's not set up
similarly at all with the way they do with the
way they do the regional play. But and in fairness
to the Southeastern Conference too, I want to say, not

(18:43):
every team that we've talked about was a host site
of those thirteen those teams shouldn't be advancing. But I
think when we talk about how do we get to
a situation where that many teams are in from the
Southeastern Conference, I think a big part of that comes
down to the perception of greatness that has been exacerbated

(19:08):
by the Southeastern Conference, to which none of the teams
in that league ever stands down because they understand the
benefit that it brings them by lifting each other up.
And in the end, here's the thing, I don't know
for certain that maybe it's not a mirage. Maybe the

(19:30):
Southeastern Conference absolutely unequivocally is the best and those teams
all deserve to be in. But after one round, nine
of the thirteen had to pack their bags and go home,
which begs the question next year. At the same time,
is it fair to go man? The Southeastern Conference deserved
their X amount of seeds in the NCAA Tournament or

(19:53):
did they quick break? We'll come back with more here
on a Tuesday afternoon, Clemson sports stalllowt and swam with
the on Tuesday afternoon to get in the NCAA Tournament
Super Regional Round is upon US five teams from the
Atlantic Coast Conference advancing to super Regional play Duke, Florida State, Louisville, Miami,
and North Carolina. And again, bitter pill, a bitter pill

(20:17):
to swallow watching that Clemson Tiger baseball team this past weekend,
especially when Eric Backache.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
Went to.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
Lucas Malstead. You know, I don't know what happened, but
I've talked to several people and ironically, not one person,
not one has said to me, you know what, I

(20:58):
was surprised that Mastead gave up the big hits that
he gave up, And it makes me wonder, you know,
the Florida State Series. I feel like William Qualkinbusch talked
about this yesterday, the Florida State Series, the blown saves

(21:19):
in that game. You know, athletes are unique in this
respect that it's it's not always a physical issue. It's
not always well, you know, late in the season, maybe
his arm was worn out. It's not always that. Sometimes

(21:40):
it's mental. And I don't know if Mostead's issues that
we saw late in the season came solely from you know,
wear and tear, from mental you know, the mental asspecs
of the Florida State Series or mind you, there's also

(22:06):
the possibility that team's simply adjusted. And yes, the throwing
angle and which he pitches the ball is certainly something
that you have to become a little bit accustomed to.
But it got me thinking about like college softball, and

(22:33):
I know the correlation and again, I hate we're not
talking about the Clemson Tiger softball team at the Women's
College World Series. I know there's a level of disappointment
they are kind of given the way the season played
out for John Ritman's squad, it was a great year,
no doubt. The future incredibly bright for those young ladies

(22:58):
in Tigertown. And we'll get to what's going on at
the women's College World Series here in a minute. But
one of the things that Malstead's style and watching softball
got me thinking about is this. So while arm angles
and picking up where a ball is coming from is

(23:20):
certainly something that a batter has to deal with, much
like in softball, one of the top things that is
always discussed is about like the speed that the pitcher
throws the softball with and whether you know rise seventy
five percent rise balls, you know, and all of that.

(23:40):
I started thinking about, like the ability to really slow
things down for a softball player. So let's take the
baseball correlation for a minute and talk about a pitching
machine and say you crank that thing up to where
it's humming the ball at one hundred miles an hour,

(24:01):
Maybe you want to go to one hundred and five.
I don't care wherever you want to go. Just kind
of knowing that there's not a whole lot of people
or anybody out there that's really touching that number so
that when you're at the plate, the perception is the
ball's coming in much slower. I feel like in softball,
because the top speed that some of these girls are

(24:22):
pitchings like seventy two, seventy three miles an hour. I
feel like the more I thought about, like the number
of at bats you get in batting practice, etc. That
you get softball, to me, it would seem like you
could speed that thing up and say, have a pitch
humming in at eighty six, so that when these young

(24:43):
ladies are getting sixty five, it's like creeping to the
plate and giving them a chance to adjust right, like
you wouldn't want to see eighty five and then go back,
but just so that when you get into the game,
that ball is so much slower, don't no, And again
I didn't play enough baseball to know, and I haven't
been around the game enough to know. I don't know

(25:04):
if you can properly replicate or that's not the right word,
that you can probably create, that you can properly create
a decided mental advantage by throwing a pitch so much
faster than what a guy might see on the mound.

(25:25):
But I do wonder with a situation like Malstead, is
it possible because of his style, is it possible to
simulate that via a pitching machine. And then ultimately, because

(25:46):
it's not this overall just blow the ball past you
when the top end of that kind of submarine style
for him is maybe in the mid to high eighties.
So if you're just patient, and you're a batter, and
you're accustomed to, you know, one hundred miles an hour,

(26:09):
and you're patient, you're probably gonna get something that looks
like you could put it into the middle of the
next week. And that's what happened, and he got tattooed
his first two pitches, and that was against two different teams.
But it really felt like either a the opponents no

(26:30):
longer really feared or were worried about his submarine side
arm style, or he felt that teams weren't you know
what I mean, like he felt And again that goes
back from the physical side of things to the mental
side of things that maybe he felt like teams had

(26:54):
kind of caught up to him, and thus in betwixt
his ears, maybe must its or caught up to himself
so to speak. I don't know but it did get
me thinking about the speed in which he pitches, and
that kind of carried over to softball and whether or
not it was pretty easy to adjust to him because

(27:18):
he doesn't have that elite speed given the style that
he pitches. Wit a quick break I mentioned the Women's
College World Series. Will tell you what's going on there
when we return. Clemson Sports saw the show of the
Shakes to south Land on a Tuesday. Mike, you'va coming
up in hour number two. All right, So, Oklahoma's reign

(27:39):
at the top of women's softball or just softball. Guess technically,
at least for this season is over, as Texas Tech
topped the Sooners to reach the Women's College World Series final.
I mean, Oklahoma won four consecutive titles, was looking for
a fifth consecutive title. They were like Hulk Cogan in

(28:03):
the nineteen eighties in a lot of respects. Every time
you'd get them down, they'd start hulking up and then
they'd come back. And throughout the tournament, throughout the season,
throughout the Women's College World Series, every time I looked
at the score, you know, I'd see Oklahoma maybe down
or run, and the next thing I know, bam, three

(28:23):
run shot and they're up and you just can't get
rid of them. And I thought for sure that Oklahoma's
gonna find a way, but their run now done as
Texas Tech topped the Sooners and it was just like
I expected it would be. Seventh inning, Oklahoma's nine hole batter,

(28:50):
Abigail Dayton at the plate, hit a two strike, two
out home run over the right field wall off of
Texas Tech's superstar pitcher Najorie Kennedy. But unfortunately for the Sooners,
that was just the top of the seventh inning, and

(29:13):
in the bottom of the seventh Texas Tech took advantage.
They got a single from Mahia Davis. Hayley Tony then doubled,
putting runners at second third, and then Lauren Allred walked
it off with an RBI sacrifice fly to allow Texas

(29:34):
Tech to advance to the Women's College World Series Final
with a score of three to two. The best of
three championship series will begin tomorrow as Texas Tech will
face Texas. It'll be an all Texas matchup in the
state of Oklahoma, as the Longhorns eliminated the Tennessee Volunteers

(30:00):
yesterday in their game as well. But for the world
of college softball, the big story is the fact that
the Oklahoma Sooners are now out and again, remember Oklahoma,
in their first year in the Southeastern Conference did not
win the Southeastern Conference championship because the Southeastern Conference didn't

(30:25):
play the championship game. They split it because of weather
between Oklahoma and Texas A and M, which A and
M ended up getting the number one seed in the
NCAA Tournament and lost in the opening round. But more
than anything, you know, I think the consistency of the

(30:48):
Oklahoma program and Patty Gasso and the way she's built
that thing is tremendous.

Speaker 4 (30:56):
And when you.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
See a giant right go down, when you see a
legendary streak snapped. Not only that, but it's the first time,
get this that you talk about crazy and talk about
Oklahoma's success in softball. This is the first time since

(31:22):
twenty eighteen that the Sooners are not playing for the
national championship. Playing for it doesn't mean you win it.
But to win four in a row, to be in
the championship every season since twenty eighteen, I mean, that

(31:46):
is a monumental run. And as that top half of
the seventh is playing out and they get the home
run to tie the game, much like when Clemson played
at Oklahoma two years ago and they end up scoring
a couple of runs late to I think that was

(32:08):
in the seventh thing as well. Again at the bottom
of the seventh against Clemson, and you end up winning.
I believe they won that game in nine innings against
the Tigers. You go, you just can't get rid of
these guys. You just can't get rid of the Oklahoma Sooners.
But Texas Tech had the advantage of batting last, which

(32:36):
brings up an interesting topic because you know, I was
putting in the scores of the games this past weekend,
and so in Clemson's final game against Kentucky, the Tigers
were not the home team, and even though it was
a game played at Clemson, when I'm building it out,
I couldn't decide do I put that it's a home

(32:56):
game or do you put that it's an away game?
Like what would you do? So you're building the schedule
and you're playing it's the Clemson Regional, but the Tigers
are the road team or the team that bats first.
Would you call that a road game or do you

(33:20):
put it as a home game, because ultimately, you know,
that's a huge determining factor on how you look at
a ball game and how you might manage things a
little bit differently depending on whether or not you've got
that additional you know at that at bat where you

(33:43):
know what you've what you've got to do, and what
you've you know, how many runs you need and how
aggressive you need to be. Like, there is a big
difference in how you coach a game in the ninth
inning and for that matter, maybe even in the bottom

(34:03):
of the eighth inning versus how you coach it in
the top of the eighth inning and certainly in the
top of the ninth like it's night and day, the
aggressiveness that you can have. But yeah, for the Sooners,
I mean, I think the bad news was they didn't

(34:23):
have the last at bat and the Texas Tech Red
Raiders did and they capitalized on it. They pushed Oklahoma
to the brink. Oklahoma fights back and ties the game,
but the Red Raiders had the last at bat and

(34:43):
they took advantage, and that's how the cookie crumbled for
the Oklahoma Sooners for the first time since twenty eighteen.
Not playing for the national Championship in women's softball. Stay
with us final segment of our number one to show
the shaxsare south Land. Don't forget. If you're up in Tigertown,
stop by our friends at Alumni Hall on the corner

(35:05):
of Campus on College Avenue, right there in downtown Clemson.
It's Alumni Hall for all your officially licensed Clemson merchandise hats,
t shirts, tailgate gear, and Moore Go check them out
today Alumni Hall or online in Alumni Hall dot com.
It's Alumni Hall where Tiger fans shop. All right, So
big news out of the world of college baseball as

(35:28):
former National Championship winning head coach for the Virginia Cavaliers
Brian O'Connor is leaving Charlottesville to be the new head
coach at Mississippi State. Now, what's interesting about that first
Mississippi State. If you've been paying attention, they were one

(35:49):
of the teams in the NCAA Tournament. They fired their
head coach, Chris Chris Luminous back in April, and he's
no chop liver head coach. He also had the College
World Series championship just a few years ago. Back in
twenty twenty one and additionally took Mississippi State to the

(36:14):
College World Series in twenty nineteen. Now, following that championship,
a couple of miss years in the NCAA Tournament made
the NCAA Regional play in twenty twenty four. Again, was
fired on April the twenty eighth this season after a
twenty five to nineteen start the year seven and fourteen
in the Southeastern Conference. So it'd been four years in
the doldrums and they wanted a change of pace. But

(36:37):
what I think is most interesting about this is just
how quickly it was done. There is no doubt that
Mississippi State had tabbed their guy. They knew they wanted O'Connor,
and as soon as the box score was in basically

(37:00):
of Virginia's final game, Brian O'Connor had a new gig
and he's expected to be one of the highest paid
coaches in the Southeastern Conference as Mississippi State tries to
get back to where they once were, which was at

(37:21):
the top of college baseball, by going out and getting
one of the top coaches in college baseball. Additionally, what
that's kind of filtered into is the transfer a portal
at Virginia and this is one of the things. With
the portal and its existence and players not having to

(37:42):
sit out, that will be something to follow, Like how
many of these guys from Virginia end up in Starksville
end up really anywhere else in the country too, Like
that's the other thing. And also with the changing of
the guard at one of the top programs in America
with the Cavaliers, you know, the question becomes, what do

(38:05):
those dominoes look like once Virginia identifies who they want
to bring in, And you know, replacing a guy with
the success that O'Connor had in Charlottesville is certainly going
to be difficult. I mean, he was there from what

(38:27):
like two thousand and four. He won eight hundred and
eighty five games, and during that time, Virginia had never
been to the College ROWLD Series. And he took him

(38:49):
in nine, he took him in twenty eleven, twenty fourteen,
twenty fifteen, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four,
seven College World Series appearances, runners up in twenty fourteen,
National champions in twenty fifteen. I mean, for that matter,

(39:15):
Virginia prior to O'Connor arriving had only been to the
NCAA Tournament three times seventy two, eighty five, and ninety six.
He gets there, They go to the tournament in four
oh five, oh six, oh seven, eight oh nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen,
fifty sixty, seventeen, twenty one, twenty two, twenty three, and

(39:37):
twenty four. This is pre transfer Portal era, you know,
pre nil Like. He took a program with I guess
at that time like one hundred and fifteen years of

(39:58):
ineptitude and turned it into one of the best programs
in America. They won two Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championships
under his tutelage, but just an incredible amount of success

(40:22):
and consistency. And now the Mississippi State hopes that after
twenty one years in Charlottesville, there's still a lot left
in the tank for O'Connor to come in and get
that Mississippi State Bulldall program up to the expectations that

(40:45):
they have. And again, they were in the NCAA Tournament.
They were one of those thirteen or one of those
nine Southeastern Conference teams that were eliminated this past weekend.
But they've got an incredible head coach and oddly in Stark, Vegas,

(41:06):
to support the Diamond Dogs, they set up some exclusive
gifts that their fans could get. One hundred dollars for
a commemorative baseball, two fifty for a custom pennant. You
can pay five hundred dollars and get yourself a branded
mini bat. Or how about one thousand for an exclusive cooler,

(41:27):
or you know what, twenty five hundred will get you
an annoying commemorative cow bell. And for five thousand dollars
to support Brian O'Connor at Mississippi State, you could get
a Mississippi State baseball jersey. You got to contribute though,
by Monday, September the fifteenth to receive your gift. Oh

(41:50):
and by the way, even though that stuff's expensive, the
pictures above are not the actual gifts. Final designs will
be released in the near future. I think you might
be better off just given those gifts the way they are.
I don't think people want to pay five grand for
something to be designed later. All right, quick break, Mike,
you'vea joins us around the band. Stay with us.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
Each time for Clipson Sports Talk with lowten Schwan.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
It is our number two. That's drivetime. Riter on the
show that Shakes to South Lay and Clemson Sports. Swan
ain't know with you, Mike Eva. Gamecockcentral dot Com joins
us every Tuesday and again the show The Chakespare South
Lam and brought you in part by our good friends
over at METS Plumbing. Seven three two drip, drip, drip drip.

(43:15):
You know the jingle seven three to two drip, that's
METS Plumbing, mets Plumbing dot Com. I drove by mets
Plumbing yesterday. Also saw one of their trucks over at
my neighbor's house getting the job d o any the
job done? Taking care of you. Mets Plumbing. All right,
Mike Youva joining the program. Mike, welcome in my man.

Speaker 5 (43:33):
I'm doing well, Swane.

Speaker 4 (43:34):
How you doing?

Speaker 2 (43:35):
I'm good. You know. I know you're up in Massachusetts.
Here in South Carolina it's unseasonably cool, and I'm okay
with it this time of year because I know you've
been down here during some of the sweltering, uh summer days.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
I'll tell you what.

Speaker 5 (43:51):
So it's seventy nine today, man, I don't know what
it is. I'm no scientists, I'm no Bill and I
but having a fiance that the sumpting girl she'll bey.
Even the first one to admit it. She's like, I
don't know what it is, like it feels warmer up here,
like seventy nine feels warmer here than it does in
South Carolina.

Speaker 4 (44:09):
I don't know why that's the case.

Speaker 5 (44:11):
I don't know if there's something scientific to it, but
certainly Boyett and this is the reason.

Speaker 4 (44:16):
Why you live in New England for these days.

Speaker 5 (44:19):
Because the weather you don't have that care dryer belowing
on you when you have that breeze like you do
in the Carolina, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Mike, you've again. He's on Twitter at Mike Underscore UVA
and game Cock Central is part of the A three network.
You can follow him on Twitter there at Mike Underscore UVA.
All right, Mike, let's talk a little bit about college baseball. Obviously,
we have now advanced to the super regional portion of
the baseball season and for the Southeastern Conference, which set

(44:46):
a new mark. And I think there's a little bit
to it. Right when the leagues expand and leagues grow,
you're gonna begin to set new marks. You know, there's
gonna be an all time number of teams that got in,
but thirteen teams out of the Southeastern Conference received bids
into the nc DOUBLEA Tournament. I think most notably though Vanderbilt,
the number one seed in Texas, the number two seed,

(45:07):
the number one and two overall seeds, both being eliminated.
Nine of the thirteen teams out after the regional round,
and not all of those. I've tried to make it
very clear, Mike to everybody listening. Not all of those
teams were hosts, so they weren't necessarily expected to move on.
But how surprised are you at the fact that the

(45:27):
Southeastern Conference just has four teams remaining after one round
of the NCAA baseball tournament.

Speaker 5 (45:36):
No, I'm very surprised, and I think I'm gonna put
some anti.

Speaker 4 (45:40):
SEC people their brains.

Speaker 5 (45:43):
And a Fretso when I say this, I think when
it comes to baseball more so than even football, I
think the SEC has top to bottom best conference, and
I think it's the toughest thing to go through when
you're talking about SEC baseball in comparison to anything else,
because the margin of error is just so thing in
comparison to some of these other sports. So I say
that because as difficult as the SEC is for baseball,

(46:07):
I've enjoyed a lot seeing a lot of these SEC
schools fault simply because what it shows me is is
that we're not getting this top heavy Okay, just this conference,
just these couple of conferences, like maybe we've seen some
other sports and it's just dominating, right. You're seeing some cinderellas,
if you will, which we didn't see as much in basketball.

(46:29):
So it's one of those things that's I'm very surprised
because there's no question of the talent there. But maybe
when you try to break it down, Swannie, maybe it's
the fact that the pitching has just not been there.
And we know that when you come to this time
of the year, you're pitching has to be top notch.
You have to be able to have not just aces,

(46:49):
but you need to have depth. So I don't know,
I'm sure if we break it all down, we could
try to find a way to be able to make
sense of it. But it's been enjoyable to watch despite
the SEC falling fly out on their face. I mean,
let's call for what it.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Is well, and it would have been a lot worse too.
If Little Rock beat LSU yesterday in that winner take
all matchup, because that Little Rock team they had like
twenty three wins I think coming into the postseason play
min they were like twenty three and thirty four. I
mean they were way under five hundred for the season.

(47:23):
And really, I mean they were up five to one
to guess LSU yesterday, and when I saw that score,
I thought, holy cal, I know, those fans down on
the Bayou are absolutely sweating right now.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
No in Little Rock.

Speaker 5 (47:33):
I mean, there were a couple of teams I paid
close attention to, especially once you get into day two
and it's like, all right, like this team maybe has
a chance to be able to make some noise covering
Rhode Island. I paid post attention to Little Rock taking
on Rhode Island in that.

Speaker 4 (47:46):
Elimination game on Saturday, and Little Rock put.

Speaker 5 (47:50):
Up twenty two runs on twenty two hits, and I
was like, all right, I don't know if they're gonna
beat LSU, if they're gonna be able to beat them twice,
but there is something to be said about this Little
Rock team. So they were fun to watch. Certainly, you
look at what UTSA did against Texas and other sme
and not just beating them twice this week and twenty.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
I wasn't aware of this because I don't.

Speaker 5 (48:12):
Pay attention, especially with my situation being up north right now.
I didn't pay close attention year round to college baseball
like I used to in the past. I'll just pay
attention to a couple of teams. I wasn't aware that
UTSA beat Texas in the regular season. So not only
did they beat them twice this weekend, they swept them.
They swept them.

Speaker 4 (48:30):
So, I mean we've seen in say.

Speaker 5 (48:32):
To South Carolina, we know that there's smaller schools. People
can say, okay, little brother schools if you will, when
you're talking about Clemson in South Carolina.

Speaker 4 (48:40):
That should never happen.

Speaker 5 (48:42):
If you're the University of Texas, and I can only
imagine the conversations. I'm not saying they're gonna, you know,
press the blow up button over there, but I can
only imagine the conversations that have gone on since this
past week. And if you're Texas, after the amount of
money that goes into that program from nil standpoint, and
just that money in general, when you're talking about just

(49:03):
the program.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Yeah, Look, they not only beat Texas in the regular season,
they beat Texas A and m as well, So everybody
out there in Austin certainly knew that when they got
that draw it wasn't going to be easy to knock
out the road Runners, and they advance to the super
Regional round, one of the other teams that's made a
name for themselves and won the national championship. While you
were down here in the state of South Carolina, Coastal Carolina,

(49:27):
the Chanta clears Man, they just don't go away. You
just cannot get rid of this program. It's been pretty incredible,
the consistency that's being You know that baseball is being
played down in Conway, and you could probably argue as
good as Clemson was this year and has been in
recent years, and as good as South Carolina normally is, Mike,
that maybe the best baseball in this state has been

(49:49):
played over on the coast for six seven seasons now.

Speaker 5 (49:52):
Yeah, and they're one of the hottest teams too right now.
I believe they have what twenty one to twenty two
wins in a row. You mentioned that, you know, they
played Clempson well this season. Maybe South Carolina fans are
happy that they didn't have to play Coastal this year
with how things went the baseball, but certainly Clemson fans
though how good Coastal was from playing them this season.

(50:12):
I think the thing with Coastal is this because they're
in the Sun Belt, because of the stigma that surrounds
some of these smaller conferences, they got, you know, the
shafts of things where they weren't going to.

Speaker 4 (50:27):
Be one of the top eight seeds. And when you
look at.

Speaker 5 (50:30):
What they were able to accomplish this weekend, they certainly
looked a hell of a lot better than a thirteen seed.

Speaker 4 (50:36):
And when you see the teams that were in.

Speaker 5 (50:39):
That regional as well, I mean there were a lot
of people saying, hey, man, Florida might be the team
that comes.

Speaker 4 (50:44):
Out of that regional, right man, what.

Speaker 5 (50:45):
A gift of Florida, Like, look at what's going on there,
and you look at some of the other matchups that
took place. So I say that because Coastal they just
continue to find ways to battle East.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
You just that.

Speaker 5 (51:01):
Pitching duel on Sunday, right, I mean the day before
Coastal Carolina they hit lights out and then the next
day they find a way to beat you in another
way and I mean, we talk about pitching and certainly
needing to have the quality arms in depth and bullpens
because as we know, you might have to play two
games in one day or certainly you're gonna have to.

Speaker 4 (51:22):
Play the next day.

Speaker 5 (51:22):
So you need to be able to rest those guys
up and be able to have some guys ready to go,
but to be able to win in different ways. I
think that's another thing that was something to pick on
Rhode Island for a little bit. They were a team
who put up a lot of runs, but they weren't
a team that had a lot of pitching, and that
was something that hurt them in that LSU regional. So
that's just one example of what you can talk about

(51:43):
multiple teams. But Coastal Land they're a fun team to
watch if you haven't paid.

Speaker 4 (51:46):
Attention to them, and certainly this past weekend.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
Mike you've again he's on Twitter at Mike underscore UVA.
Now for the Clemson Tiger Faithful. Obviously a disappointing finish
to the season, Mike falling on Sunday in their final
matchup against Kentucky, the Wildcats busted out the whooping sticks,
so to speak. Against Clemson really took it to him
sixteen to four. You know. For the Tigers program, though

(52:11):
it's been since twenty eleven, I think that they've had
seven regionals, only one Super Regional in that time and
haven't been back to the College World Series since twenty ten.
As an observer peeking over the fans at Clemson, what
are kind of your thoughts on the state of that
baseball program after three years under Aeric backage.

Speaker 5 (52:31):
So I think the thing is, more than anything is
you want to see consistency, but you also want to
see being able to take that next step. And I
know we can't compare or we shouldn't compare sports like
baseball to football, but it's tough not to win a
state like South Carolina.

Speaker 4 (52:49):
Where football is just it's king right.

Speaker 5 (52:52):
I look at Comer did at times, and you know,
I'm not saying that Clemson took a step back this
year by any means, but I think sometimes you got to,
you know, put things into perspective of Okay, look what
they were able to accomplish, and let's not forget.

Speaker 4 (53:08):
What took place during the regular season.

Speaker 5 (53:10):
Now, again, he can't compare the two sports completely because
it's just different. There's an expectation to make it to
regionals every year for your school like Clemson. There's expectations
to make it to a regional every year if you're
a school like South Carolina. But I bring those comparisons
up with Beam or with football to baseball with Clemson
simply to say it's okay, maybe this year they weren't

(53:32):
able to make the most out of it, and certainly
that's been a narrative. It feels like going back, now,
what for the last I don't know seven times they've
hosted a regional, They've only been able to make it
out one set of those last seven, right, So I
think it's a bigger cloud that's hovering over the program.

Speaker 4 (53:52):
As a whole.

Speaker 5 (53:53):
And it might not necessarily be fair to Batch.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
It's simply because he wasn't.

Speaker 5 (53:56):
There for all those years. Some of those years, of
course was Monty elite. So I think more than anything,
when you have a narrative surrounding your program, I think
it makes the situation look worse. And again, it's not
to take make any excuses for this past week. And
there's no reason why Clempson didn't come out of that
regional with how they played this season and how the
chips were lined up and in their favor and everything

(54:17):
else like that. But again, I think you have to
put things into perspective and realize when you take a
step back, this is not just the situation that has
happened with a coach has on been there for a
couple of years. This is something that's been the problem
with the program as a whole. We're going back over
the last decade now.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
On Twitter at Mike Underscore UVA, part of the Only
three network. He's here with us every Tuesday, chopping it up,
talking a little college sports, and might will turn to
college football because you know, the conversations about the different
playoff models from a four to four where the SEC
and the Big ten get four spots, the ACC and
the Big twelve get two, then there's a singular spot

(54:55):
for a non Power four team and then three wild
cards spots versus now where the momentum seems to be
in this five plus eleven model with the four Power four,
you know, champs getting a spot in the playoff and
then the best or the best ranked non Power four

(55:16):
team and then eleven wild card teams getting in. What
are your thoughts like on that debate and where would
you stand if I made you the cizar of college football.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
I think the.

Speaker 5 (55:29):
Tough thing is this, whatever model that they decide to pick,
it's just not going to be perfect. And the reason
being more than anything, is you cannot compare these football
conferences the way to each other the way that you
can with other sports. And I'm not saying, okay, every
conference in baseball, every conference in basketball is the same.

Speaker 4 (55:50):
I'm certainly not saying that, but there is a major.

Speaker 5 (55:53):
Major difference when we're talking about football and SWANI. As
much as we've talked about it over the years about
the ACC and the ups and downs of the conference
has had, it is still a very very good conference.
It still produces some very talented teams. And I think
when you look at certainly the SEC, certainly the Big Ten,
but you throw in obviously the ACC, and I mean,

(56:17):
with all the movement that took place over the last
couple of years, Big twelve, but everything going on, I
look at those three conferences first, though, right, I look
at those three conferences first, the ACC, Big Ten, and
the SEC, and there's no question that because of the
schedules that they have to play, because of the teams

(56:38):
that are in their conference. It is going to be
a gauntlet now when you measure it. Okay, the SEC
to the ACC. Maybe the SEC does have a tougher
schedule some years, or the Big Ten to the ACC.

Speaker 4 (56:51):
Wherever the case may be.

Speaker 5 (56:52):
Right, no two conferences are going to be the same,
but I certainly am in favor of rewarding teams that
do have a higher strengt to schedule. I also think
it encourages teams to go out of conference and schedule
those suffer matchups as well, and more than anything, it
would encourage maybe some of these smaller schools to.

Speaker 4 (57:11):
Go out there.

Speaker 5 (57:12):
I do want to see, you know, teams that are
part of the Group five. I do want to see
one of those teams in there. If not too, I
want to give the small schools an opportunity. Maybe we
don't have that Cinderella the same way in baseball and
basketball because we're talking about football and is totally different.
But I do want to see those conferences get rewarded.

Speaker 4 (57:32):
I don't want to see it just be all SEC.
I don't want to see it just be all Big Ten.

Speaker 5 (57:36):
But I certainly do believe that you have to reward
these conferences who are playing tough schedules simply because of
the teams that they have to play each week.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
Mike, what's the vibe on whether the SEC will eventually
go to nine conference games? Because I know that's a
big deal for really everybody, for Clemson fans certainly looking
at their future schedules, which is part of the reason
that they buttoned up this deal with Notre Dame because
there's a possibility with nine conference games. You know, Oklahoma

(58:06):
and LSU and other teams Georgia, they're not going to
want to play Clemson as a tenth Power five games,
so to speak.

Speaker 5 (58:15):
Now, the vibe I get is that, certainly we've talked
about this on your program before.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
It will come down to money.

Speaker 5 (58:23):
Will this benefit our teams? Will this help put our
teams in a better position to be able to succeed
because they'll be able to gain more money, which will
go to that nil cap, which we're all going to
continue to learn more of, certainly this year as that
goes into effect with the TV deals playing a big
role in helping a lot of those programs. But number

(58:45):
two doesn't help our conference stand out more, and as
we all know, right now with the way things are
going it it has certainly been a two conference race
with how things have been going over the last couple
of years because of some of these TV deals. And
I'm talking about the SEC and Big Ten. That's not
saying I'm overlooking the ACC. That's just calling a spatas base.

(59:06):
And I think more than anything, when you look at
these situations and you have to ask yourself, Okay, this
could help us financially number one, but number two, this
could continue to get our brand out there, and this
could could help This could.

Speaker 4 (59:21):
Help our conference out as a whole.

Speaker 5 (59:23):
Why are we going to go help another conference out?
Why are we going to have one of our schools
go out and play one of their schools? And maybe
depending on well the game being on, you know, this
network first, another one not being able to generate as
much in comparison if it's two SEC schools playing. So again,
at the end of the day, I think where this
school all boiled down to is what, unfortunately or fortunately,

(59:45):
depending on how you're looking at it, think from a
fans standpoint, Unfortunately, it's all going to stem down to
how is this going to benefit the conferences in the
schools financially with those TV deals.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
My final thing you know that would impact I guess
games like South Carolina and Virginia Tech, which is the
I mean obviously not this year's game, but like in
the future. But when you think about those neutral site
matchups to open the year over in Atlanta and South Carolina,
what's kind of the thought process that's a Sunday game,

(01:00:18):
pretty regionalized in terms of getting together to face off
or your thoughts on that matchup being on a Sunday.

Speaker 5 (01:00:24):
I think it's it's different. It's funny you say that
because I haven't talked to enough fans, because I want to.

Speaker 4 (01:00:30):
Know what the fans feel like about it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:32):
I've talked to some administrators over at South Carolina.

Speaker 4 (01:00:35):
I've talked to some of the coaches and.

Speaker 5 (01:00:36):
Players, and the way they look at is the way
that I look at it, which is the NFL season
hasn't started yet, so this is an extra opportunity to
show off the game and to be able to be
a primetime game, right kind of like Monday night Football.
And you're you know, I don't know if it will
be a standalone up to go back and double check.

(01:00:58):
Maybe during that window it might be a standalone But
I think it's a tremendous opportunity to promote your program,
tremendous opportunity to promote your players, and I think that,
more than anything is is invaluable. I think the tough
thing is from a fans standpoint, do they like it,
because you know, they look at the same way that

(01:01:19):
we're looking at it. As I'm sure some people are
gonna have to go back and work on Monday, some
people are gonna be making that drive out to Atlanta.
So I'm sure from a fans standpoint, not every single
one of them is gonna like it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:29):
But guess what.

Speaker 5 (01:01:31):
I think back to a couple of weeks ago when
we have the spring game and South Carolina has a
spring game on a Friday night, and this was what
during Easter weekend, and some fans are upset about that,
but there was still a tremendous turnout. So at the
end of the day, as we all know, Swani, whether
it be sports or be politics, whether it be the weather,
could be whatever it is, there's always gonna be people

(01:01:51):
that will be upset about something. So I think at
the end of the day, this will be a good thing.
Even if there are some people that aren't crazy about it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
Mike, You've a game Concentral dot Com. Mike, have a
great week. Thanks my man, there is Mike. You have
a quick break. We'll come back. We'll take a look
at where Clemson baseball is after three years there, Back
at stay with Us, back at it the show, the
Shakesta south Land Clemson Sports Talk. All right, So we
were talking earlier about Mississippi State and Brian O'Connor, former

(01:02:18):
Virginia head coach, going to Starkville to take that job,
and I couldn't help but start thinking about the consistency
that we mentioned with the job that he did at Virginia,
and you know, I get it from the Tiger standpoint,

(01:02:43):
from Clemson standpoint, the expectations on what Clemson baseball should
and shouldn't be. And I was talking to my buddy
Eric earlier today about this, and he was saying that
one of the crew criticisms of Eric backache at this

(01:03:04):
point in the mind's eye of a lot of people
Clemson fans, right is the fact that his record at
this point, three years in is incredibly similar to Monney
Lee's during his first three years one thirty three and
fifty three for Backage one thirty three and fifty seven

(01:03:26):
from Monnie Lee. And there's some irony in this fact
as well, in that both of the coaches won Atlantic
Coast Conference tournaments in year one, much like Jack Leggott
before them, and I believe Bill Wilhelm before him. But

(01:03:47):
when people focus on the history of Clemson baseball, that's
what we talked about yesterday, like how consistent the Tigers
were from the mid seventies, like nearly fifty years of

(01:04:13):
consistency in the sense of making the NCAA tournament. People
want to pay that off with regional championships, and that's
an area where you know, you kind of look at
it historically there have been some major letdowns and regardless

(01:04:38):
of the coach, that's the thing like, yes a year
ago Clemson made it to super regional play, but the
Tigers under Mani Lee never made it to super regional play.

(01:04:58):
And that gap in consistency of how often you make
the NCAA Tournament versus how often you're making Super Regional
and then ultimately the College World Series is the thing
that I think has so many people visibly frustrated with

(01:05:24):
a similar one to thirty three and fifty three resume
and a one thirty three and fifty seven if at
some point along.

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
The way.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
Monty Leave, for example, had made a run to the
College World Series, or even if a year ago instead
of things come into a screeching halt losing two games
to Florida in a home regional last season, you know,

(01:05:56):
if that team advances to Omaha, I don't think that
the vibe on You know, if you switch a couple
of games around thirty you know, say they were thirty
five and go to and barbecue at Omaha. So one
thirty five and fifty three at that point, right, so

(01:06:19):
they win both games against Florida and then lose two
games at Omaha. You know, people are feeling different about
the results because for fans, it's not as much about

(01:06:40):
the overall record, which is what everybody wants to compare
right now, and really more about can you take me
to the dance? And that I think is the reason
that there are more people out there that are frustrated
with the situation right now with Clemson baseball. It's not
so much that one thirty three and fifty three is

(01:07:03):
so bad. It's another year without that carrot of a
trip to Omaha, and I've done this show. Think about that,
I've done this show since twenty thirteen. Clemson's never been

(01:07:24):
to the College World Series in my existence on the
radio here in the Midlands now doing my show via
you know, the podcast that we used to do twenty years. Yes,
but since I've come on the air, maybe I'm the
bad guy here. Maybe I'm the Jeans. Since we got

(01:07:47):
on the air here in twenty thirteen, I mean, Clemson
has only escaped regional play one time, and that was
last season. Every other year, outside of a couple of
years where they didn't make the NCAA Tournament, they've been

(01:08:08):
defeated in regional play. And that I think has carried
over from the back end of Jack Leggott's tenure to
Monty Lee's tenure to now the start of Eric Beckett's tenure.
And the frustration is not with the record or even

(01:08:30):
the results. I mean, two years ago, Eric Backetch takes over,
they win the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, much like as
I mentioned, Moni Lead did, and then they follow that
up by winning the Atlantic Division. Mani Lead did the
same thing the second year he was at Clemson, and
then you host a regional And it was almost as

(01:08:50):
if you knew, as you like, almost watching that West
Virginia game slipped through your fingers, I knew in that moment.
I don't think there's any way clemsones winning three games.
I don't think they got the goods to win three games.
So regardless of how it all played out in the
afternoon on Sunday, did anybody think you were gonna win

(01:09:14):
Sunday night? And if you did, did any of you
think you were gonna win Monday?

Speaker 4 (01:09:19):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
But because you expect to get to Omaha and get
a taste every once in a while, and you still
have it in all this time, one thirty three and
fifty three doesn't feel good enough, And honestly, I don't
blame you for feeling that way. Quick break, we'll talk
a little bit about the possible four mats for college
football's future in the playoff. Right after this, Clemson Sports

(01:09:40):
saw the show The Shakes of South Holland Fox Sports
Radio fourteen hundred the Midlands, around the world on the
iHeartRadio app. Don't forget about our friends in Alumni Hall
on the corner at campus on College Avenue in downtown Clemson,
or online at alumni Haul dot com. It's Alumni Hall.
Get all your officially licensed clemps at merchandise, c limps
and hats, T shirts, tailgate gear, those fancy It's for

(01:10:00):
your vehicles. All that and more at Alumni Hall right there,
just the stones throw away from historic Riggs Field. It's
Alumni Hall. Check them out online today at Alumni Hall
dot com. A lovenie hall where Tiger fans shop. All right,
So the college football playoff future and what it's going

(01:10:21):
to look like. Man, it's something you get a new
story every single day. And at one point, the Southeastern
Conference and the Big Ten, it sounded like we're wanting
to give themselves four automatic qualifiers each. Right, that would

(01:10:42):
be eight teams plus two from the ACC, two from
the Big Twelve, and then four wild cards in a
sixteen team playoff at some point down the line. But
now it appears, and again I vehemently disagree with that.

(01:11:06):
I said it a couple of weeks ago. That format
doesn't make any logical sense to me, because there is
no guarantee that four teams in any league consistently would
be deserving of those spots. And that's the crux of

(01:11:27):
the matter when you start to weigh you know, the
number of spots that are absolute to one league versus
the other. If you want to say to me, we
are going to guarantee three and three and three and three,
you know, three from the SEC, three from the Big twelve,

(01:11:49):
three from the ACC, three from the Big ten. We're
gonna guarantee everybody the champ and two more. Whatever the
spots go for it. That's balanced from the Power five
league standpoint or the Power four league standpoint, and how

(01:12:11):
you would hash out the other four spots, that's up
to you. But it sounds like more and more that
the Southeastern Conference has looked at it and maybe recognized
based off of kind of what we talked about earlier
with baseball that maybe just maybe given away RPI and

(01:12:33):
given away the Southeast. The Southeastern Conference is somewhat viewed
that it's not the worst thing in the world for
that league if you went with a five guaranteed and
eleven wild card, and therein lies maybe the rub of

(01:12:55):
it all is that in so and certainly in a
larger format where you had four and some spots available,
you still might get five or six teams in. But
it sounds like that after some brushback nationally, some brushback

(01:13:17):
even from some coaches in the Southeastern Conference, that the
league might look at and might support a five plus
eleven model, which, you know, I don't know what the
best solution is. I certainly don't think that just the

(01:13:41):
top sixteen teams should be in. I think we do
have to consider conference champions and that's precisely what this
would do. It would grant five places reserve for conference champs,
and then eleven at large bids chosen by the selection committee. Now,

(01:14:06):
according to reports, one of the sticking points on this
deal is the Big Ten and the Big Ten's belief
that because the SEC currently plays an eight game conference schedule,
that the Southeastern Conference has a decided advantage in the

(01:14:26):
final couple of weeks of the season where and really
it's that week before the final week of the season
where a lot of those teams are playing what we
would deem kind of the cupcake games, and the Big
Ten would say, well, we're playing Big Ten conference games.
And the Big Ten has one hurdle that they don't

(01:14:49):
like about this, and they want the Southeastern Conference to
play nine games, nine conference games, Feeling like the SEC
gets a little bit of a bump by virtue of
playing some less than opponents late in the season. Perceived
pushovers might be one way to put it. And so

(01:15:11):
barring the Southeastern Conference maybe making a move to a
nine game conference schedule, which is not going to impact Okay,
it's not going to impact Clemson to South Carolina in
my opinion, but it is the reason that Clemson secured
that deal recently with Notre Dame because it may very
well impact future games for Clemson against say Oklahoma or LSU.

(01:15:36):
Not necessarily this LSU game, but maybe the return game
that Clemson would have with LSU. And again, you don't
know when this stuff's going to take place, but if
this kind of model is adopted, you know the one

(01:15:57):
thing it does do it basically says to everybody across
the board, you you have to go earn it. And
you know, I think when we talk about metrics, whether
that's the S and P plus, you know, rating, the
Massy ratings, RPI, all that, Like I, as I mentioned

(01:16:19):
with with baseball, I don't know how much I really
trust the way those things work out. I kind of
like the mind's eye of it all, and I like
the committee looking at teams and saying this is who
I think are the top teams. I like, I can agree.
I can deal with that, But I can't deal with
a model that puts an ignor an inordinate amount of

(01:16:40):
teams in and it's based off of Oh, these are
the data points. I want people making those decisions. And
if in a year X, my team's out and you're
why my team's in. As long as humans are the
determining factor, I'm okay with it. I'm good with that.

(01:17:05):
Take those ratings into account for sure, but deliver me
honest results. Final segment, flip side. Stay with us.

Speaker 3 (01:17:16):
What have you done for me lately? It's a fair question.
Just don't lose sight of the bigger picture. Don't forget history.
Lucky for us at Clemson, the answer to the questions
what have you done for me lately? What have you done?
Always are the same. We win.

Speaker 2 (01:18:29):
Final segment on a Tuesday afternoon. Glad to be back
man a week ago jury duty. Who ee, that's rough.
We were talking about the five plus one model for
the college football playoff. You know, I think one of
the things that we have found is that the proposed

(01:18:53):
four plus four that's sec Big Ten with four acc
and Big twelve with two plus one, with the non
Power four leagues getting a spot their highest rated team
and then three at large. Is that preassigning spots to

(01:19:17):
the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten at a much
larger clip, regardless of how you feel about those leagues.
I think humans justifiably see the problem, and I think

(01:19:38):
that's why that model is not getting a ton of
support nationally. And I think furthermore, coaches who might be
in the league that are against it also recognize, and
this is a key, you're not gearing to always be

(01:20:01):
coaching in the Southeastern Conference. You're not always guaranteed to
be coaching in the Big Ten, and they recognize that,
creating an imbalance right off the hoof and not allowing
it to be an earned imbalance. Right. So, in any

(01:20:27):
given scenario, let's just take the Big Ten here with
a four four two two one model with the other
potential qualifiers. If you don't have four teams worthy of
being in at all, let's say you have only three

(01:20:47):
teams legitimately worthy of being in the playoff. A fourth
team is just randomly in, right, So what are we
rewarding what is that rewarding nothing? It's not yo mediocrity maybe,

(01:21:10):
but what about a year where you have six teams
that are worthy well in the scenario with the four
to four two to one model, four would get in,
two would have a shot to get in, two more
right to get six. That doesn't change in a five

(01:21:34):
plus one model a man five plus eleven model one
gets in and five others have a legitimate shot at
getting one of those final spots. And that, to me
is the crux of the matter. Do you as a coach,

(01:21:59):
do you as a conference want to And I know
money's involved and you want to make as much money
as possible, but are you interested in having a season
where what if only two teams in your conference look
like they're good enough to be in the College Fotball
Playoff and you've got to fill four spots? And how

(01:22:22):
do you justify that over the long haul? And again,
if you're coaching at Michigan this year, there's nothing to
say that you're not going to be coaching at Florida
State next year. And if that's the case, do you
want to sign up today for a scenario that creates

(01:22:47):
an incredible imbalance down the road, and it could be
that you're on the other side of the road at
that point. And I don't think people are interested in that.
I don't think coaches are interested in that. I don't
think there are a ton of administrators that are interesting
in that, that are interested in that, et cetera. I
really don't. I think for the most part, because we've

(01:23:10):
all grown up with sports and you've wanted fair and
competitive balance that when you present four four two two
and one, nobody and nobody cares. And this is the
other thing too, and I think this is fair. Nobody
should care that. Oh well, this league is tougher, this

(01:23:33):
league is you know, whatever the conversations are about why
a league would deserve more, nobody wants to hear that.
If you want your league to earn more, then go
with the five plus eleven conference champs are in and
everybody else earns it. And if your league has four

(01:23:55):
or more teams worthy of being in the playoffs, that
model will allow it, whereas the model with an imbalance
in spots doesn't protect that interest across the board, and
it should. That I think is potentially the crux of

(01:24:20):
the matter. All Right, we'll be back tomorrow. To talk
more about it at four o'clock. At two then it's
always I'll take care now and coat tigers.