Coach Day and Drinkwitz talk at the podium to preview the Cotton Bowl in Arlington Texas at AT&T Stadium.
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00:00 Ari Wasserman with The Athletic.
00:02 This is for both coaches here.
00:03 Eli, you mentioned earlier on in the press conference
00:06 about all the stuff that you guys had going on in December.
00:09 I was just wondering, if you were in charge, both of you,
00:11 of the recruiting calendar, what would be the thing
00:13 that you would change about the way things are going
00:15 right now in that realm?
00:17 I mean, that is a loaded question.
00:21 I don't know that there's any one thing that
00:24 has to be changed.
00:25 I think there has to be a collective group that
00:27 gets together and decides that really we
00:29 have to rearrange a lot of it.
00:31 There's no other-- I mean, we've talked about the 12-team
00:34 playoff.
00:35 I mean, there's no way possible for us
00:37 to have a 12-team playoff next year
00:39 and be recruiting in an open period
00:41 and have transfer portal additions and subtraction going
00:45 on and preparing for a game.
00:47 It's just not possible.
00:49 So there's going to have to be a reset of college football,
00:52 looking back, OK, this is what we've become now.
00:55 Right now, we've got a wheel with a bike, sickle wheel,
01:00 and we've taken the middle part right out.
01:03 And then we just decided, all right,
01:05 we'll just see how it figures out.
01:06 We've got to start all over and build it back out again.
01:09 And it's going to start with having
01:11 to figure out the calendar.
01:12 I don't have a simple answer for you.
01:14 It's not as simple as, well, we'll just move signing day.
01:17 That's got consequences.
01:19 The reality of it is the decisions that have been made
01:23 have not been thought through about what
01:25 are the unintended consequences of just saying, all right,
01:28 we'll have two transfer portals.
01:29 I mean, now you've got players who are making decisions
01:32 about leaving a university, life-changing decision,
01:35 before they've even finished their finals, which, again,
01:39 is a big deal.
01:41 I mean, we're here to--
01:42 like Coach said, we're here to influence and impact people.
01:45 And the number one way we can is for them to get an education.
01:49 I firmly believe in our guys receiving NIL
01:52 and receiving payments and making financial gains
01:55 through playing the game of football.
01:57 I think I've been adamant about that.
01:59 But I also understand that getting a degree
02:02 is going to be significantly more important for them
02:05 in their future.
02:06 I think not only for having that and being
02:09 a positive contributor to society,
02:11 but for a lot of these guys, they're
02:12 going to be the first in their families to get a degree.
02:15 And now they change the trajectory of their family tree
02:19 forever, because now it's a standard for that person's
02:22 family to go get a college degree.
02:24 And so, again, unintended consequences
02:28 of all the things adding up into one month.
02:33 And it's just not possible for us to continue forward
02:36 with this cycle.
02:39 Yeah, I agree with really everything
02:41 Coach just mentioned.
02:42 I think when big decisions like this need to be made,
02:49 we struggle in college football, because everyone's
02:53 coming at it from a different point of view.
02:56 I mentioned this before.
02:57 Coach has got his issues.
02:59 We have our issues.
03:00 Different demographics, different size of school,
03:03 group of five, power five.
03:05 But we've got to figure out a way to make, first off,
03:08 December work.
03:09 December's not working.
03:12 And whether that means coaches don't
03:15 go on the road in the month of December,
03:19 moving the signing date has got to be looked at.
03:22 But it's not that easy, because I don't have a date.
03:24 Because I know what the issue is.
03:25 You do it in the summer, or you do it in June,
03:28 and there's coaching changes.
03:29 Now, all of a sudden, when would that date become available?
03:31 So while I don't have good answers,
03:34 we all need to come together and make some hard decisions.
03:36 And like Coach said, I don't think
03:39 we can just patch it up and say, let's put a patch on this
03:42 right here.
03:42 We've got to look at this thing from a big picture
03:45 and then start from scratch and go from there.
03:48 And there's a lot that goes with that.