New Playoff Schedule, Big 12 in Mexico & Building a Stretch Limo

Happy Thursday! May the Fourth be with you, hehe. That's a Star Wars reference for the uninitiated out there. On that note, they're apparently making three more movies and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Also, thanks to your recommendations, Quick Slants continues to grow at a nice clip. This newsletter has helped me immensely as I try to stay on top of the latest news for podcasting purposes. Hopefully, you're getting value out of it as well. If so, please consider referring a friend. We'll throw in some perks if you do (scroll down for more).

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

1) Where will you be on December 20, 2024?

After years of theoretical gobbledygook, the expanded College Football Playoff is finally a living, breathing thing! You can refer to the above tweet from Ross Dellenger for specific dates, but I'm struck by a few things with this schedule:

• The first week of bowl games — typically reserved for barnburners such as the Cure, New Mexico, and Boca Raton Bowls — will quickly become the most anticipated week on the college football calendar. You may hate the expanded setup, but if there's anything we can agree on, it's that playing first round games on campus is a wonderful new twist. That first weekend of games is going to be insane.

• The powers-that-be settled their little rap battle with the Rose Bowl and found a way to work all of the New Year's Six games into this new format. We knew they would, but I'm a little surprised how normal it feels to see it in print. This isn't that different from the current shape of the postseason.

• Yes, they're extending the season by another 10 days. I'm taking the entirety of February 2025 as my vacation.

Oh, and to answer the question at the very top of this section, you'll be perched in front of a TV somewhere, enjoying a choice libation.

2) Big 12 south of the border?

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has yet to find a trend he doesn't like. And with a handful of games being played abroad every season... yadda, yadda, yadda... the conference is going to start playing games in Mexico, perhaps as soon as 2024. Reportedly, Yormark is targeting Estadio BBVA, the 53,000-seat stadium pictured above, as the site for its games. Notably, this stadium will host World Cup games in 2026. More importantly, it's next to the Cera de la Silla mountain, which makes for a really freaking cool view from inside the stadium.

I'm not crazy about neutral site games, but I've warmed on the random game in Ireland or Australia over the last couple years. To that end, playing in Mexico is much more practical. Monterrey is closer to Dallas than Morgantown, and the bulk of the conference can get there with a three-hour flight. Of course, there is a whole lot more nuance to this concept. Our good friend Matt Brown of the Extra Points newsletter dug a lot deeper and, as always, will make you smarter on the subject.

Bigger picture, I've silently nodded along with nearly everything Yormark has done since taking the Big 12 post. He's been very aggressive in trying to expand and has quickly stabilized the conference and we're no longer wondering whether the league will go extinct. He's also been trying to position the conference as forward-thinking, if only with little things like a unified Pro Day or games in different countries. And just yesterday, reports surfaced that the Big 12 is seeking to "modernize" its TV broadcasts with live in-game interviews, more locker room access, mic'd up coaches and more.

3) It's a Pac-12 Source-Off!

If you've been following along this offseason, you already know about the ongoing, high stakes negotiations taking place between the Pac-12 and potential media partners. If you've been reading Quick Slants, you'll also know that I've grown increasingly wary of the doomsday scenarios indicated by some reporting. That's why yesterday was so amusing!

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B (an hour later):

FWIW, I mentioned a month ago that my Dodd-plar radar was only right about 54% of the time, so factor that in before drawing any conclusions. The skeptical, conspiratorial corners of my brain wonder if the Big 12 is running an aggressive smear campaign in hopes of scaring the corner schools into jumping ship. Regardless, we should know for sure in the next couple weeks.

4) Michigan football went to Gettysburg

Look, as a native Pennsylvanian, I reserve the right to get a little too giddy about field trips to our weird state. I have no further commentary. Shout out to our Gettysburg readers and to the marketing firm that hatched #GettAway as a thing.

5) The sun never sets on NFL Draft speculation

Just as the 2023 NFL Draft comes to a close, the hype for 2024 is already underway! The Athletic dropped its appallingly early mock draft this week with a few interesting nuggets for college football fans. While Caleb Williams looks like the surefire No. 1 overall pick, four more quarterbacks are slotted in the first round: Drake Maye, Quinn Ewers, J.J. McCarthy and Michael Penix, Jr.

Here's a thought experiment: Which quarterback class do you like more: 2023 or 2024? Mark me down for 2024. If I were an NFL GM, I'd give it all away to get either Williams or Maye as my franchise quarterback.

Others Receiving Votes

• Is spider silk is stronger than steel? 🤯

• It only takes 475 man hours to transform a luxury sedan into a stretch limousine!

• So, apparently, you can make a saw blade out of wood?

THE VERBALLERHOOD

WHAT'S GOOD IN THE VERBALLERHOOD?

This week on the podcast, it was a smorgasbord of college football questions. First, Dan and I traded seven college football questions that have been weighing on us. Then, we opened the floor to the Verballerhood for 90-minute May Mailbag episode. We put the first hour of that conversation on the public feed. If you want the whole thing, you can find it on our Patreon at Verballers.com.

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.

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST EPISODES:

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