The Magnificent 7, Kirby's QB Adventure & Seinfeld's $110 Million Hard Pass

Happy Thursday! Good news, friends. We're officially inside 100 days until the start of Week 0! The season is starting to get a little bigger in the window. I'm giddy.

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A very unofficial ranking of the 5½ things that got my juices flowing over the last week of college football and beyond:

1) "The Magnificent 7"

Another week, another series of revelations related to conference realignment!

First, it was this very honest evaluation of the college football landscape from our friend Ross Dellenger. In it, Ross unpacked the current state of the ACC and mentioned that five schools had joined Florida State and Clemson for discussions about the conference's maligned grant of rights deal, which runs until 2036. Ah yes, a mystery!

Next came the reporting from Brett McMurphy — also a friend of the pod! — who filled in the blanks on the other five teams and branded the group as "The Magnificent 7." According to McMurphy, Florida State and Clemson have been joined by North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Miami in examining the language in their existing agreement. (We can talk about the nickname later.)

In layman's terms, it's a little like that scene in Jurassic Park when we learn that the T-Rex is testing the electric fences for vulnerabilities before, eventually, break out and mauling a lawyer. That's where this is all headed, right?

In the short term, you're going to hear a lot about a uneven revenue sharing model that rewards success on the field. Though this might make the deal a little sweeter for a school like Clemson compared to Boston College, we're only potentially talking about a $5 million increase for the conference's power schools. That pales in comparison to the reported $30 million gap that started this whole conversation in the first place. For the time being, though, everyone is hunky-dory. (Or maybe not?)

Longer term, this restlessness in the ACC won't simply vanish with a few financial parlor tricks. We're now squarely in the Stupid Money era of college football, which means that all outcomes are possible, especially since the grass will look even greener once Texas, Oklahoma, UCLA and USC start cashing enormous checks for their new conferences.

We have yet to discuss "The Magnificent 7" nickname with Brett, but you can count on us to get to the bottom of it at some point in the next few months. FWIW, Pat Forde also invented his own moniker for the group and landed on the "Wandering Seven," which sounds more like an indie folk album than a group of disgruntled colleges. I'll keep you up to date on any new branding attempts.

2) I'm way too excited about this video game and I don't care

I let out a primal scream when I saw the above tweet on Wednesday morning. If you read and worship at the altar of Matt Brown, the savant behind the Extra Points newsletter (links below), you would have known this was coming; however, it does hit a little differently when you see it become official. At long last, actual players will be part of the next EA Sports college football video game. Rejoice!

Though most assumed that real players would be part of the game, let us take a second to appreciate the long, strange trip it's been to get back to this point. From the days of bootlegged roster downloads off Operation Sports, to the crazy lawsuits, to the rumors of a new title and unbridled possibilities with NIL... to THIS! I could not be more excited to play this damn game.

Anyway, Matt Brown's been leading the charge and has broken countless stories on this front. If you've as 

3) Kirby Smart's Quarterback Adventure

Finally, some good luck for the Georgia Bulldogs. /sarcasm

Dylan Raiola, the top overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class, officially committed to the Bulldogs earlier this week. Raiola is the second highest rated prospect to commit to Georgia, at least since we've been keeping track, and figures to compete for the starting job as soon as he arrives in Athens next year. Though originally committed to Ohio State, Raiola opened up his recruitment and flirted with USC and Nebraska before announcing his move to the SEC.

It's worth noting that the highest rated recruit to commit to Georgia was Justin Fields, who pulled the Reverse Raiola and ended up transferring to Ohio State. Kirby Smart has been incredibly successful at nearly everything in his time with the Bulldogs, but has yet to truly develop a five-start quarterback into a superstar. We'll see if Raiola can be that guy.

4) 🚨🚨RANDOM TRIVIA QUESTION🚨🚨

We'll give a shoutout on next Thursday's episode to the first five people who tweet us the answer to this question:

Hit us up on Twitter (@solidverbal) with the answer!

5) Cincinnati athletics will be partially powered by beer

My favorite NIL announcement of the young 2023 cycle belongs to Cincinnati's Cincy Reigns collective, which unveiled a partnership with Rhinegeist, a local brewery. Per the agreement, Rhinegeist will debut its first light beer, aptly titled Cincy Light, with a percentage of all sales going directly to support Bearcats athletes. 

NIL has forced everyone to think outside the box. In this case, both the collective and the brewery are putting their creative juices to work, figuratively and literally. Cincy Light is just 4.2% ABV, which means you don't have to feel guilty about drinking a LOT of it as the Bearcats jump up to the Power 5 and inherit a tougher schedule. After all, you're drinking to support the team.

Others Receiving Votes

• I'm a sucker for any MKBHD review titled "This is the Dumbest Product I've Ever Reviewed"

• Jerry Seinfeld could've earned more than $110 million to make another season of Seinfeld

• As your resident tech dork, here's the goods on how Spotify's algorithm works:

THE VERBALLERHOOD

WHAT'S GOOD IN THE VERBALLERHOOD?

Stop me if you've heard this one before, but there was more conference realignment news this week. Obviously, we had to talk about it on the podcast. We also built on last week's concept and examined what it'll take for six different teams (Pitt, Oklahoma State, UCLA, Texas A&M, Minnesota and Kansas State) to get to a *consistent* 10-win mark each season.

Listen to the podcast by clicking here or check out our individual episodes below. You can also view full episode videos and smaller clips on our YouTube channel. If you've read this far, this is the part where I ask you to refer your friends to our show. Sorry, this job requires me to be part salesman.

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST EPISODES:

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Thanks for reading. Until next week, stay solid!-Ty Hildenbrandt