Mailbag! Dealing with climate change, group licenses, Arch Manning and more:

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

Sadly, I will not be going to NACDA next week as originally planned. Even though I'm feeling (mostly) fine at this point, I'm still testing positive for COVID, which means no airplanes and no huge conferences for me.

Bryan and the rest of the D1.ticker team will be making the trip, so please say hi to them if you're going to be in town. I may pop in a bit remotely, but otherwise, I'm going to focus on doing some writing here and getting healthy enough to hit the road for the Media Day circuit, which is coming up sooner than you might think.

Before half of the Going For Two podcast hits the road, Bryan and I opened things up for reader questions, something we haven't done for a minute. In this episode, we cover, among other things:

• What we think about mega-recruit Arch Manning committing to Texas. Bryan sees this as a huge development but one that just increases the already sky-high expectations and pressure in Austin, while I'm a bit more skeptical, simply because this is Texas Football and I've seen this movie before.
• How climate change is impacting how schools approach stadium construction and renovation, and what challenges keep schools from future-proofing existing facilities.
• What we're hearing on conference realignment timetables.
• How group licensing will work for the EA Sports College Football game, and what other major industry leaders think about the group licensing concept in college athletics.
• Which G5 league will end up with the largest TV deal in a few years, and why Matt doesn't think that's even the right question to ask about mid-major TV contracts.
• And more!

Going For Two is the free podcast of Extra Points, which drops every Wednesday and Friday. You can find it via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you get your podcasts. If you enjoy the show, please consider leaving us a nice review, or perhaps letting your internet friends know about it.

I also made a few other videos this week you may be interested in:

Earlier this week, I sat down with the CEO of the College Football Hall of Fame to better understand how to balance programming for die-hards and casuals, what other college football events the facility can be used for, the giant helmet wall, and more:

I also had a chance to talk with the CEO of Virtual Tables to better understand how digital autographs work, and why any athletic department, or athlete, would be interested in them.

By this afternoon, we should have two other Collegiate Sports Connect videos up: An interview with the conference commissioner of D-III's Commonwealth Coast Conference, who is welcoming former D-I institution Hartford, as well as Boise State's athletic leadership to discuss beach volleyball.

You can find all of our CSC videos by signing up, FOR FREE, at Collegiate Sports Connect.

If videos aren't your thing, we also have an update on the lawsuit between the OVC and Eastern Kentucky, a conversation with ESPN's John Gassaway about the history of Catholic school college basketball, and a behind-the-scenes look at why I charge what I do for Extra Points, and how this thing actually makes money.

Oh, and the Washington Post wrote about me last week. That's pretty cool, right?

Thanks for sticking with me during a weird week. Excited to get back into the game next week, hopefully with fully functioning lungs.

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