The Hidden Stories Behind the Bush Push
Welcome to the College Football Newsletter, where we have two requests this week, plus a catchup on everything we recorded.
1. Watch our 13-minute history video about 2005 USC vs. Notre Dame. Alex wrote and voiced this project about the many hidden stories that led up to the Bush Push. Somehow, this was arguably not even the best game of that afternoon at 3:30 p.m.? We’ll talk about it:
Let us know in the YouTube comments, or here, which game you’d like to see next.
2. Subscribe to our channels, especially our new one.
Two YouTube channels? What will they think of next?
We’re changing our strategy a bit over on YouTube, an important platform for getting podcasts out into the world. We started an episodes-only channel where you can get full-length video versions of every free episode we put out. Our old channel will now be dedicated to special video projects. Subscribe to both!
We are especially eager to get people subscribed to the new podcast channel, because we can monetize that channel after we cross 1,000 subscribers.
Back in January, Richard and Alex wrote about how YouTube fits into what we do here. tldr: We are not pivoting to video and will always be a podcast, but we think we can discover new listeners by doing more video. Your views and subscriptions help!
Now, some thoughts on this week’s much more serious CFB news
On the free show this week, Alex and Richard went in-depth on the story surrounding (for now) Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby, formerly of Indiana and Cincinnati.
Placing a bet on your own team’s game is a cardinal sin in sports. But what comes next? Will NFL teams consider him in next year’s draft or the upcoming supplemental draft? The Shield hasn’t been immune to gambling stories. Calvin Ridley bet on NFL games in 2022 and was subsequently suspended for a season. He later admitted he was in the wrong and has gotten back on the field. Sorsby’s talent could lead him down the same path, but we’ll see.
If he makes an NFL roster, his journey will be unlike most. Going through rehab for gambling and then immersing yourself back into football in a league that is inundated with gambling ads is its own challenge. (As Alex and Richard discuss at some length on the show this week, this podcast has also aired sportsbook ads in the past.) Instances of fans harassing players on social media because they lost money betting on a player are only increasing. Sorsby would have to deal with a whole separate genre of those comments while attempting to separate himself from any semblance of gambling.
It’s going to be difficult, and there’s no tidy way to package all this. It’s a convoluted situation for Sorsby, and for the people who have had their lives consumed by the unregulated world of sports betting and prediction markets. All we can do for now is throw ideas at a wall and hope we collectively figure out a way to rein in at least some part of the gambling apparatus.
Here’s what Alex and Richard dropped into your podcast feeds this week:
Richard and Alex spend a lot of the free episode talking about Sorsby’s reported gambling and what it means for him, the policies behind why gambling is so easy now, and how you should not fall for Texas Tech trying to play the victim in all this. There’s also an NFL Draft postmortem at the tail end of the show, which includes Cade Klubnik fulfilling his destiny as a late-season starting QB for the New York Jets. Alex called it a month ago.
Godfrey joined the pod for a subscriber-only show to talk about a big batch of offseason stories, including the potential move of Week 1 to the current Week 0.
Some recommended reading:
Alex talked a little on the podcast about the policy aspect of the Brendan Sorsby gambling scandal, but he goes into additional detail in his article over at Slate.
The current state of gambling has made a lot of facets of life notably worse, especially war. Alex wrote about the abuse of prediction markets earlier this week.
2025 Clemson had more NFL Draft picks than wins last season! At CBS Sports, Richard explains why that should motivate the Tigers to improve their evaluation and performance for the upcoming season.
Arkansas dropped men’s and women’s tennis, which is a surprising move since it’s in the SEC. Did the programs generate a ton of revenue for the school? Not really. But the school also wasn’t in a dire position to cut the programs. Matt Brown explains how messy the process and math was over at Extra Points.
The Big Ten has been the recent conference of champions, but the SEC still has them beat in one category — NFL Draft picks.
Thanks for reading and watching, and we’ll see you next week.
Push Bush?