July 4, 2022 • 47 mins
On Monday’s 2 Pros & A Cup of Joe, Jason Martin and Geoff Schwartz are in for Brady, Jonas and LaVar. Jason starts the show analyzing how Kevin Durant’s moves jumping from team to team have ruined his reputation on the court. The guys discuss USC and UCLA’s departure from the PAC-12. Geoff believes that neither UCLA, nor USC, have carried the PAC-12 like Oregon has the last 10 years. Jason says this move is all about TV deals, and could eventually lead to College Football condensing into 2 conferences. Plus, although many people have suggested a relegation system be implemented, Jason and Geoff offer their reasons why this system will not work at all.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's the best of two pros and a couple of
Joe with Lamar Areas Radio Quinn and Jonas knocks on
four Radio. Happy fourth, Welcome in Fox Sports Radio. For
the next three hours, we'll take you through um. Jonas
and the boys are taking the day off. Maybe they
(00:22):
will competitive eat. I don't know what I'm hoping is
over the next three hours. We don't have to talk
about competitive eating much. Luckily Sports has actually given us
something to talk about. Welcome man, I'm Jason Martin. Jeff
Schwartz will join me here. Momentarily huh, And I said
momentarily and literally he showed up at that very moment
and then he drive back out. We were working on
(00:44):
a little bit of a tech thing here always, uh
always can be a little bit of a headache for
everybody getting everything going. So we'll be good to go
here in a second. Sports has actually decided that on
this July four. I don't know how many of these
times we've done it. It's been a few years. Jeff
and I have gotten to work together because of our schedules,
but uh, we used to do this virtually every year
(01:06):
in the mornings on July the four and we used
to lament and just because not because the opportunity, but
because at the time, virtually nothing would be happening in
the world of sports at that point in time. And
that is no longer the case because we had some
huge stuff break towards the end of the week that
we certainly can continue to comment on the usc U
c l a deal, especially with Jeff here, Jeff being
(01:27):
a PAC twelve god, has worked on the PAC twelve
network for years on the radio on the radio side,
and and Oregon grad. I put them on my show
in Nashville on Friday, and I don't think there's anybody
in the country better on that topic over that ten
minutes span than what we had on Friday on our show.
So we're gonna get into that deeply, what it means,
what's next, what does the Pack twelve do on that side.
(01:49):
So that's obviously one of the storylines is out there,
and the other one is still where's Kevin Durang gonna
land and what's going on with Kyrie and the Lakers.
So all of that is going on. Base Balls heating
up a little bit as we're getting into the month
of July, and because we're getting into the month of
July before at the end of this month, everybody's gonna
be in camp. I do believe in the NFL. So
(02:11):
because we're on a sports talk radio station, NFL will
be discussed on this show over the course of the
next three hours, and we look forward to doing all
of that with you. Uh and Jeff will join us
here in one second. So I don't know if I
want to start with USC and U c l A
just yet, only because I wanna make sure Jeff's there
for it from the very beginning. So I guess we
(02:32):
could talk a little bit of Durant here or Kyrie.
That story from Chris Haines that came out on Yahoo
over the weekend that the Lakers were in negotiations with
the Nets to try and figure out how to get
Kyrie there, um moving Russell Westbrook out in that moment.
I wouldn't imagine the Nets would keep Westbrook, but I
guess you never know. It could be a situation where
(02:54):
they create some kind of space for themselves outside of that.
But I think the bigger story here is just what
all of this means in terms of player empowerment and
what all of it means in terms of this nets
organization that bent over backwards for I don't know years
now to make these two gentlemen happy, specifically one in
(03:16):
particular with Durant, but also something with Kyrie, only to
be basically told now it's uh, it's not us, that's you.
It's kind of how it feels, right, And that's unfortunate
because I look at this and it's just I don't
know how you're supposed to care about it n't be
a free agency at this point, really really not sure.
(03:37):
And this to this point we can just talk about
Durant because k D and what he has done and
what he has chosen to do in this moment basically
blows up the idea that contracts me anything. John Morant
signed a five year extension, right we know about Zion
signing his extension. It could be worth up to two
(03:58):
thirty one million dollars according to who is agent. All
these guys are signing these long contracts. But why would
I care? Why would I care, especially if it's one
of the biggest players in the sport. How would I care?
You explain it to me. At eight seven, seven ninety
nine on Fox six three six nine on this July four.
What why would you think that those contracts are on
(04:19):
anything other than napkins that can just be tossed aside
at any point in time. Kevin Durant signed a four
year extension one year ago and still left one year later.
He still had four years a hundred ninety two million
dollars left on his deal. And then he just revealed
real quickly, no, I've asked, so you know, I've asked
for a trade. Or that's how it came out in
(04:40):
the public. He asked for a trade from the Nets.
The Nets immediately began trying to work with his people
to find a place where he can land. So those
contracts don't me anything. They really don't. They only matter
until some star that's really good decides that they don't.
We don't exactly see this in football this fast. Like
you see a lot of movement in football, but you
(05:01):
don't see it to this degree like this one right here.
Just it baffles me because it really lays to bear
how tenuous so many of the things that we watch
in sports and really in life actually work like these
How tenuous are these things? If contracts don't mean anything
(05:23):
in sports, then how in the world can you be
a fan of a team, or certainly, I mean you
can be a fan of an athlete and just you
chase them wherever it is that they go. But in
the NBA's best players at this point can can really
just call their shot and do whatever they want. And
from year to year, they can move, they can shift,
they can change all of those things. They can make
(05:45):
different decisions, and Kevin Durant specifically has now done this
a couple of different times. And and then the question
you can ask when it comes to Katie is is
there a universe in which he is happy? Is there
a universe where he can actually be satisfied with the
(06:07):
girl he's got as opposed to looking at the girl
who's next, Because this is one part of this that
has not been discussed nearly enough relative to Durant's wishes
in this circumstance. Kevin Durant said his his two choices
with the Miami Heat and the Phoenix Suns, those are
(06:29):
the number one seeds from the East and the West
over the last NBA season, So he picked the top seats,
the ones that you know, going into the playoffs, probably
the best chance to win. He wants to do that,
but yet he's upset that Charles Barkley calls him a
bus rider, and then proves Charles Barkley correct at every turn.
(06:53):
After the fact, he joined the seventies three win Golden
State Warriors team after failing to knock them off when
they were up three one, then meaning the thunder, we're
up three one in that series. He goes to Golden State,
wins a couple of championships, leaves for whatever reason, and
we can discuss those reasons, and then he goes to
(07:13):
Brooklyn instead of the Knicks to go play with this
buddy Kyrie. They only play forty four games together over
three seasons. Now Durant of course missed the entire first
season of that deal with the recovery from the Achilles.
Then over the next couple of years he does absolutely
nothing with Kyrie. Forty four games over two years is
veriably nothing, right. That's not even half of one It's
(07:36):
barely half of one season over the course of two.
It's less. It's about somewhere in that neighborhood, not gonna
do math too much on the air um. And now
he wants to go join another top seed. He wants
to join Miami with Spolstra, and we would assume Jimmy
Butler or he wants to join Phoenix with Devin Booker.
(08:00):
So tell me, you're not a bus rider when you
were bus riding. If you don't want to be a
bus rider, win in Brooklyn. You gave that not very
long of a shot. If you don't want to play
with Kyrie, admit that. But there was still that story
out there that, oh, we'd still like to play together,
just not in Brooklyn. Well, what's Brooklyn's problem? What's the
(08:22):
issue with them? All they did was everything to try
and make you happy. Like literally, they wagered a half
decade worth of first round picks to bring in James
Harden and I was first guessing that, I don't know
about you guys out there, I was first guessing that
that was not going to work particularly well. They fired
(08:46):
the coach, Kenny Atkinson, not ready for prime time. Let's
bring in Steve Nash. That was that was them that
wanted that. That wasn't an organizational decision. That was we're
gonna make this decision as an organization to succumb to
the wishes of our two super for stars, Kyrie, who
famously two months ago after they got swept by the Celtics,
said basically, it's us and the GM and the owner
(09:08):
and we've just got to make this thing work. And
basically in effects that we're all executives here and we
all run this team together, and that we're committed for
the long haul. And two months later out and now
Durance like like Phoenix, Phoenix the number one seed last
couple of years, like Miami, Miami's number one seed last year.
(09:28):
I don't know if I've ever seen someone more disloyal
than Kevin Durant here, and I've I have been kind
of taken aback by just how often I have seen
people on television or people on radio that cover the
league trying to excuse this away. I just don't get it,
(09:52):
Like Durant is good enough that he can do this
kind of stuff. You know what, that last sentence sounds
a whole lot like. It sounds a whole lot like
the same way we talk about Aaron Rodgers. And if
you don't like Aaron Rodgers act, or if you don't
like how he held teams or held Green Bay hostage
every offseason for the past three years, then you can't
(10:13):
like what Kevin Durant is doing. He's making himself even
more unlikable because he he doesn't seem to understand the
ramifications of the decisions that he's making in the public eye.
And he always claims that he doesn't really care about
what people say and all this, Yet he always wins Twitter,
We're told, We're told he wins social media because the
(10:33):
way he claps back. No, you lose when you clap back,
because you reveal that something actually mattered to you. Kevin
Durant is such an outstanding basketball player that he literally
can just tell people, you know, screw off, I'm gonna
go do my thing by not saying a word. He's
that good. I don't know where he ranks all time,
(10:55):
but we're not We're probably in the single digits. He
could be the most gift did player all the way
around with everything that he does of all time. I'm
not saying he's the best player of all time. I'm
saying when you marry the skill sets that he possesses
to his physical tools in terms of his size, his wingspan,
the fact that he has the most unblockable shot in
(11:16):
the league this side of Kareem Skyhook because of his
wingspan and his deadly accuracy from deep. He doesn't need
to clap back, and yet he does all the time.
He has the biggest case of rabbit ears in the league.
And so if you do that and at the same
time you make just incredibly controversial or easy to dismiss
(11:38):
decisions like leaving Golden State or going to Golden State
in the first place, and now this decision with Brooklyn.
I don't know that that makes you particularly endearing. I
don't know that it makes you necessarily a villain. I
read David Aldridge and Marcus Stops Species of the Athletic.
They're like, it's not really a hero or villain thing
necessarily to me, he comes across as a villain. But
(12:01):
in general, what he's doing is just indicative of the era,
the sport, the c b A, the way everything is
set up. Because he's as good as he is, many
of the same rules don't apply to him when it
comes to this. You can't pull any of this crap.
If you're a mediocre player on the Minnesota Timberwolves, you'll
(12:23):
just get traded as part of the Rudy Gobert deal
and you'll move on right, Like that's That's kind of
the difference is Kevin Durant is a special talent. When
you're special, you get afforded special privileges, make a lot
more money. Maybe you can pay for the fast past
of Disneyland. Many of the rest of us were just
standing in line watching you go through and seething with rage,
(12:43):
being upset that we have to stand in the heat
and we're gonna get to ride maybe one quarter of
what your kids are gonna get to ride. And many
of you might be there today on July four, you
will be able to see this for yourself. But Kevin
Durant kind of walks on clouds. Kevin Durant is leaving
behind him a just burning members of a franchise. They
(13:04):
have wagered everything to try and make him happy, and
not only did it not work to make him happy,
because I'm not sure he can ever find a reason
to be happy, but that organization is now dead. We've
never seen a bigger bust that I can think of.
(13:25):
You could correct me if I'm wrong, Maybe there is one.
I've never seen a bigger bust from a franchise making
a big swing than this one. Like, yeah, there have
been individual moves that haven't worked out, but this philosophy,
this idea, and then adding to it by going for
Harden and then even bringing in Ben Simmons, the coaching situation,
everything that played into this. Even Let's not forget at
(13:49):
one point Brooklyn said Kyrie could not be around them unvaccinated,
and then he backed They backed off on that again
because Durant man to it as such and he still
wasn't happy. I would say this to end this portion
of the discussion. Whoever lands Kevin Durant, whether it is Phoenix,
(14:13):
whether it is Miami, and I do want to talk
about how he wants to go somewhere, but he doesn't
want them to lose their stars in the process. We'll
get to that a little bit later. But whoever gets
Kevin Durant, whoever lands him in this sweepstakes this year,
I don't know if I'd buy that jersey. But the
NBA at least has a buyback program, and it's almost
(14:36):
like they realized now because of the way this league
has moved and the way it's changed and the way
the player that they have, UH, they better have a
buyback program at that point in time. But I don't
know if i'd buy that Durant jersey wherever it is
that he goes, because I would see two years I
would start to be real anty if I hadn't won
(14:56):
a championship, that Kevin Durant had already found a hotter
girl and she's across the country somewhere and he's been
eyeing her. I don't know if they've actually been text
messaging or not, but I would definitely least but not
by when it comes to that house. We'll come back
out of the other side. Uh, we'll see if Jeff
was us at that point would jump into the usc
U c l A. And again there's just the Kevin
(15:17):
Durant thing and pewing it all back and looking at
the idea that this guy actually thinks he can he
can dictate where he goes because he can make himself
toxic anywhere else. But also, I'm not going to Miami
without Bam. Well yeah you are, like that's like some
way they will find out, they'll find a way, or
they won't deal with Miami. They can't even get Bam
(15:38):
back in this trade unless they include Ben Simmons. And
if I'm Miami, I say, uh, yeah, you know, appreciate
that but you guys might need him a little bit
more than us. Check if you want exclusive insight from
the biggest names in the sports game. What's good. This
is national champion and former pro bowler Chris Johnson. Let
me take you a little bit about my new series,
(15:59):
kje Hey. J Live is the only show featuring me
going one on one with the brightest basketball minds on
the planet to get the real And when I say real,
I mean that real. I got legendary Hall of famers,
elite coaches in the top basketball Inside is bringing you
a unique perspective on all things hoops culture that you
will not find anywhere. To make your next move, your
(16:23):
best move, and tap in with me on kJ Live.
Wherever you get your podcast from, be sure to catch
live editions of Two Pros and a Cup of Joe
with Brady Quinn, Lavarre Errington and Jonas Knocks week days
at six am East tern three am Pacific. Will be
back tomorrow. It is the fourth of July. Welcome man,
(16:44):
Happy fourth. Many of you not working so you're listening
to us on a way to I don't know what
you're doing. It's early in the morning. It's seven am
on the East coast. It's six where I happen to
be in Nashville, and that that's pretty much tells you
where Jeff and I are. Are Jeff Schwartz with me,
He's Twitter at Jeff Schwartz, I'm at j MAR Radio. Uh,
Fox Sports Radio here with you for the next couple
(17:06):
of hours. So I saw this just a little while ago,
and it was a comment from the Chancellor of l
s U Michael Martin, back in eleven and at the
time it sounded ridiculous, but he said back, I guess
it would have been eleven years ago. Now I think
we could ultimately end up with two conferences, one called
(17:27):
ESPN and one called Fox. And now we're looking, I
think increasingly towards two super leagues in the sport. Jeff,
and obviously this one's very close to you, very close
to your heart. We we talked to you on Friday.
I talked to you on Friday, and you never really
heard you sound down before. Dude, you were bummed like
(17:47):
you were. We were gonna send you a drink, we
were gonna send you a bottle or something after you
appear with us in Nashville, because it's just like, my gosh,
man like we we didn't realize that. Now I started
think about it's just like, well, dude, your Pack twelve
through and through from Cali. You've worked with the PAC
twelve network. You know so many people in that group,
and this felt like to me, when you lose to
(18:09):
flagship members like USC and U, C, l A, I'm
not sure what the conference is at that point. Well,
it's no longer. That's that's the problem. Um, And this
has been years and then making It's funny you mentioned
twenty eleven because you know that's when kind of conference
expansion sort of hard to happen but sort of didn't
happen if you go all back to twenty ten. Now, right,
Larry Scott, the former commission of the PAC twelfth conference too,
(18:30):
is going to get a lot to blame on what's
happening right now. Um, he tried to expand with Texas
and Oklahoma, if you recalled, they went through. It was
supposed to be the PAC ten to the Pack sixteen.
They're gonna add Texas, the Oklahoma schools, you know, Utah,
and then Colorado and one more to make it sixteen schools. Okay,
maybe it was even A and M I don't know,
(18:51):
but they're gonna add and they were very close. It
was reported on social media Texas is going to the
PAC ten conference. Okay. Text Us then said, hey, we
want to start the Longhorn network. We do not want
to be a part of the PACTOLS network, and the
PAC twelve said that's not good enough for us. Not
gonna happen, and that's why it did not happen. Essentially,
it's a shorter version of it. So this was this
(19:13):
is a situation where the PAC ten was actually ahead
of the curve. The PAC ten tried to get Oklahoma
and Texas in their conference, but did not budge on
the Longhorn network. Looking back, obviously you'd say, fine, have
your own network, we'll put the other fifteen teams on
pack towel network and will survive. Right, did happen that way?
And lo and behold, Now we're moving towards the two
conference system. Excuse me? And what is driving this, as
(19:37):
you mentioned, is is Fox in ESPN. Right. ESPN owns
the SEC. ESPN has a great deal with the a
c C conference right now, and then Fox has the
Big ten has half of the Pack twelve, which is
up for a new deal anyways in two years and
adding Es, adding Los Angeles to the new Big ten
deal which is coming up soon. This is why it's
(19:57):
happening now is because they're negotiating new TV contract. Because
you have Chicago, you have New York, you have Los
Angeles now as part of your part of your your
your area where people are watching Big ten football, um
and just adding those markets increases the value of of
your TV deal. And for a Pac twelve school like
(20:18):
you see in USC, you know you're getting like twenty
million dollars a year from the Pack twelve. It's gonna
go up probably with a new TV deal, but not
to a hundred million dollars, which is what the Big
ten reported he's gonna get. So I understand from a
financial perspective if your USC and they run apart about
this as USC fields at least with the reports are
they felt like kind of the Pack twelve, you know,
(20:39):
didn't really come to them and say, hey man, how
can we kind of make this work? And you know
what will cut you different, you know, a different part
of the revenue stream. They would haven't been good for
ten years like they did. At least the conference was
carried by Oregon. Like Oregon carried the conference for the
last ten years, they've had more. They've had more, obviously,
playoff appearances, more BCS bull goals. They never won a championship.
(21:01):
I get that. But the last time USC won a championship,
current recruits were one year old, the two thousand four.
It's a long time ago in college football, right um.
Even on the basketball side, right, I know u c
A ended up in this and then more than the
send us a gift basket for including them in this.
You know their basketball program, and I get it's a
blue blood, right it's one of the better ones of
(21:23):
all time. They voted one championships v They've made only
five final fours since nineteen seventy five? Is John Wooden left? Um?
And I think you know, the l A market obviously
is huge for the big ten ables to to to
secure that. But you know USC and u c A
complaining that they didn't get enough, you know, love from
(21:44):
the patrol of conference. You didn't deserve it. You guys
weren't winning at the level and if you were winning
at the level that blue bloods win at in football basketball,
this might never happen, right Um. But nonetheless it's happened. Um.
And now we're looking at the conference. You know, I
know people you know Twitter of course, okay, but the
pathtor of Conference. A lot of people watch the pator
of Conference. Okay, Like let's let's not pretend that like
(22:06):
no one watches it. Um is done. Like it's done.
There's it's gonna be over. Um, there's so many other
things in play here about why this is gonna happen. Um.
You know that the presidents of the pator of Conference
I think just didn't anticipate this. Um. They had a
bad TV deal. And now we're looking a situation where
you really have a couple of options, Jason, if you're
(22:27):
if you're out West, you can either merge with the
Big twelve as a conglomerate right now. So now you
have kind of this Big twelve Super Conference Pactors Conference.
You have the the you know, the Big Ten, and
the SEC. The a SEC probably gets absorbed in some
parts by both those conferences. Now you have these three
major conferences. Um, but I just don't know how, I
(22:51):
don't know how. You know, without the Eliot market, a
TV deal just is not gonna be as good. It's
not a good situation man. And then the one wild card,
this is what Organ does, right, Um, this is this
is why it was almost so sad when we talked yesterday,
assuming on Friday. It is because like Organ has done
everything they can in the last twenty five years to
(23:11):
become this this national brand, and they are a national brand,
but they play in a small TV market and it
feels like everything organ Is done to build up this
brand does not matter because they play in Eugene and
in Los Angeles, and it's frustrating as an Organ fan.
Organ Is is not does not bring in enough TV
value because their marketing not because people watch Organ play
(23:35):
and they're the most watched team in the West Coast.
Maybe it's because USC has been down, but nonetheless the
most watched team. They are very They're more valuable brand
than USC is at the moment, way more in U c.
L A. But nonetheless, like Oregon and Washington, are their
values not enough for the Big ten to be like, hey,
we want them and they're not going to lower our
(23:56):
TV deal and they're way too valuable to stay in
the big ted the big twelve pack twelve murder thing right,
Like they look like I have no man's land right now,
so a while of moving parts. Man, it's sad because
this conference been up for a hundred years. And yeah,
you can make fun of it. I get that people
with the Battle Conference, they win a lot, and I
know they're winning so much in football and basketball, but
like there's a rich tradition of winning in Olympic sports,
(24:19):
winning in the academia, putting incredible pros out in both
basketball and football. Uh, And it's just sad to see
this conference blown up in one off season. Yeah, I
mean it just I don't know, the college sports that
we have come to know just feels different. I don't
want to suggest it because I know they've already said,
(24:39):
you know, U, s C, U, C l A will
continue and all these other things will continue and all this,
but as it gets more and more complicated, some schools
are going to be left behind. And then you look
at the PAC twelve and PAC twelve was like the
last bastion of Hey, the region of the country matters,
like it's sort of it's still sort of made sense.
Now you go back and you look at the Tanner
(25:00):
or Bernie freddis Is over the weekend on these FSR airways,
a matter of fact, I think he said it to
us on on mynd tour as a show on Saturday Night,
that Big Ten. You go back and you're like, why
in the world do you want Maryland? You want Maryland
because you want a d C television market. Why in
the world would you want Rutgers. Well, you want a
New York television market. To these television markets and where
(25:21):
they're located plays a lot into this. So the Big
Ten now adds Los Angeles to that. That's a big
time deal, and it's big for all the rest of
their universities on top of it. The thing that that's
most fascinating to me is the stories of well who
get the Pack twelve then go to get to replace them,
if indeed they didn't just try to join up with
the Big twelve a couple of days, like Fresno State
(25:42):
and Boise State. It's like, that sounds nice, but you
can't go from USC to Fresno State. I'm sorry if
we're looking at this again through the lens of of
TV contracts, because again, what makes it so fascinating right now,
but I don't get the Pac twel back on the
second is that we have Okay, so the Big tests
to negotiating a new contract, right, Okay, the PAC twelve
(26:06):
at the same time as negotiating contract for the a
c C has one through. SEC just did their's right,
so did they see but they just SEC just did.
There's Oklahoma Texas and it starts up again in twenty
there's a new deal but includes Oklahoma Texas obviously coming there.
And I don't know what the Big twelve status is,
(26:27):
but what makes it so fascinating is again like the
Big Tennis, trying to acquire assets at this moment before
the new TV deal, right, because once it kicks in,
then obviously if a team comes and joins, the value
that everyone gets paid lowers, right, because they have new
more assets with the same amount of money that everyone
gets less payout. So trying to all get this done now.
(26:48):
And that's why the PAC twelve is in a tough
spot because if you are going to negotiate a new
TV deal, Freends adding Fresnel you and LV Boise, whoever
you add TENDERO States is not going to increa used
the value of that TV deal. And so the rest
of the of the the teams in the conference are
looking around saying well, if I'm Organ to Washington, do
(27:09):
I go to Big ten? You mentioned Maryland and Rutgers.
They took less money to go to the Big ten,
but the less money was more than they were getting
the A C C. So if you're Oregon to Washington,
let's say right now, the reports are a hundred million
dollars per school in the Big twelve. With the Big ten,
I keep these conferences are now it's sixteen teams that
the names are going to have to change. So you know,
(27:33):
adding you see in USC you get a hundred million
dollars per team in the new deal. Let's just make
it easy, easy, easy number um. Adding Oregon in Washington
is not equivalent to a hundred million dollars per team.
These are the reports, and that therefore each team we
have to take six million dollars less to add Oregon
in Washington. Everyone has equal share. Well, if I'm Morgan
(27:53):
to Washington, I say, you know what we'll take less.
We'll take eighty million dollars a year seventy five that
fifty million dollars more, and you get in the Pack
twelve right now, and we'll join your conference, and we
won't take a full share organism. You know, we have
organized money. That's not the problem with organ We'll take
a full share, even have a quarter share, whatever, half
a share, whatever, until five years later within them take
(28:15):
a full share instead of staying out west and taking
less money or forming this Pack twelve big twelve merger
thing like you take kind of just take the money
you can get now, I think, and figure it out later,
because again TV networks are driving this expansion, and so
the Pack twelve again as in a very tough spot.
If you notice, when I mean I noticed as I
(28:36):
had to cover it. I was just laid it back
in Charlotte on Thursday, I was at New Orleans, and
I get it like this happened like Thursday, like one
thirda I get a call from my boss that can
you do? I did four hours of radio, did another
number three on Friday covering all this. Um, it's it's
just a well. But TV networks are driving all this expansion, right,
And so again, if you're the Pack twelve, how do
(28:57):
you make this work? And the answer is you don't.
Every team out for themselves. And if you notice in
the statements put out, I've read all these statements on
the air every school, let's put out statement out. West
has mentioned themselves basically looking out for themselves first, like
we we were committed to the PAC twelve, but also
we're looking out for what's best in our in our
best interests. Oddly enough, though, two schools haven't put out
(29:19):
statements at all. Organ At Stanford and those are the
two schools looked at. It's possibly joined the Big ten.
Jason's kind of wild. Every other PACTOL school has a
statement out. Organ At Stanford has said absolutely nothing since
since since there's they're like not like not even off
the record state nothing, not the dead silence from them,
and so um, I wonder if there's a little bit
of like, you know, just kind of keeping quiet as
(29:40):
they work things out. But everyone's out for their own
because they can't there's no loyalty anymore. The two schools
that left are founding members of the PAC twelve conference.
They've been in the PCC since nineteen nineteen twenties. There
are two schools. I think that no one would have
thought those even possible, and it happened now. And if
look around the landscape and your Oregon, Washington, your Arizona,
(30:03):
your Utah, Arizona, state your Colorado. The Big twelve comes calling,
the Big ten comes calling, Why are you staying in
the Pac twelve conference. There's no loyalty anymore, like you're you're,
you're gone, and so it's sad, man, it's it's a bummer.
But the Pac twelve unfortunately kind of did this to themselves.
Um with some bad decision making. Um we kind of
(30:23):
lack of caring about athletics in a major way at times,
bad TV deal And yeah, USC, it's funny they have
a new athleticer, Mike Bone has been about two years.
He's done a fabulous job. He gets all the credit
for hire looking Riley, for changing all the culture at USC,
because for a long time it was more about, you know,
oh we're USC, We're gonna we were good, you know
(30:45):
fifteen years ago, We're just gonna be good again because
we're USC, right, and kind of that mindset of just
kind of stagnation because we've been good in the past.
And Mike Boone changed all that. But again, USC has
not been good at football and has hurt the Pac
twelve Conference to where they this happened, Right, if they've
been good for the last ten years, probably it may happen.
It may not, but the pactolves in a better spot
(31:06):
nationally because of that, because only so much organ can do.
So it's it's order the point, Jason, Now where every
couple of minutes, I look at Twitter, like, come on,
give me, give me an update, give me an update.
What's happened to Oregon, What's happened to Washington? Like, what's
up the Big twelve. It's it's a sad place to be, man.
So any other side, we're gonna keep talking about this,
(31:26):
and and I think this all goes to one point,
and this this is and this isn't just this story.
It's all these stories and us even starting to seur
kind of joking about what's usually talked about. On July
four on Sports Talk Radio, no games have been played, folks. Yeah,
baseball games are being played. F one races are happening.
There's a live calf out here with with what's happening
and all that kind of stuff. But I mean, generally speaking,
(31:48):
the sports that moved the needle, none of them are
being played right now. But sports has become seven three
sixty five. Every league, the NBA isn't being played right now,
but it's arguably more interesting right now that when it
was being played. The NFL is not going to be
played for another couple of months. Had they ever been
out of the news cycle this year, because I don't
(32:08):
think so. We haven't even talked about Shaun Watson. There's
so much to get to there. And then college sports
here we go with this, whether it's in I L,
whether it's transferred portal, whether it's coaches sniping one another
in booster meetings and things like that or whatever. Sports
doesn't stop, and it's become where exhausting. It so tiring.
(32:31):
You're like, I just want to take a deep breath.
This is the summer. It's supposed to be like nothing happening.
It's exhausting. Yeah, man, I'm supposed to be able to
talk about Top Gun for ten minutes and we keep yes,
it was okay, I want it's a it's a first
movie I've seen in the theater. I think posts like
Pandemic um and I saw Uncut Gems. I was I
think right before the pandemic started, right um, and oh
(32:53):
my god, it was like you knew what was gonna
happen and it was still so great. You're like you
knew everything was gonna happened, and it was like the
greatest thing ever. He was unbelievable. You're like, yeah, to
shoot down that Generation five migue, the fact that they
the fact that they just didn't overthink it, and just okay,
what do people want from this movie? We're gonna give
them all of that. And it's kind ever basically like
(33:18):
Star Wars. It was Star Wars. That's what it was.
It was great. It was every It was just as
good as everybody says it is. If you haven't seen it,
what the hell are you doing it? It's just like
one of those your like you sit in the theater
and like at the end, you're like, heck, yes, yes
it happened. They didn't everybody strangers. That didn't happen in movies.
It's so silly, like the stuff that happens that movie.
(33:40):
You're like, yeah, we know it doesn't actually happen, like
dead who cares? That's right? This is completely I like
that's like the like the whole thing about the it's
it's Star Wars, right, So it's a run to to
to kill the death Star, right, That's what's pretty much.
And like you're like they're like we three miracles and
you're like, they're all happy. Been Wow, what a surprise.
(34:01):
A matter of fact, we're gonna need three miracles. And
how about a fourth that you weren't planning. We're gonna
do that too, and then there's gonna be embraced at
the end. We'll come back, we'll talk more about all
of this, but talk about may come back up. There's
bells staying sounding out in Sherman Oaks because they're all fans.
We're all fans of this. Be sure to catch live
editions of Two Pros and a Cup of Joe with
Brady Quinn, LaVar Arrington and Jonas Knocks week days at
(34:24):
six am Eastern, three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app Our number three, Two
Pros and a Cup of Joe Here on this fourth
of July. I am the aforementioned Jason Martin. He is
the aforementioned Jeff Schwartz at Jeff Schwartz on the tweets.
You can find me at j mar Radio if you
would like. We're gonna talk to Sean in one second.
One thing I wanted to get to that I had
(34:46):
remiss that we didn't mention we were talking about USC
and U C l A, everything happening in college football.
Is there a universe, Jeff? When we're looking at TV
markets now and we're looking at business, we're not really
looking at tradition anymore when it comes to college football
or college athletics in general. Gone, that's done. Yeah, And look,
it started interesting enough really a year ago last summer
on July one, is when the Supreme Court said essentially
(35:09):
the end to Double AU or no more right, you
have no authority anymore, and I l started it. Ever
since then, we've seen kind of the change in college
sports where athletes have more power, um and they are
able to make a buck, which they've been should have
been able to do for a long time. And the
ended Double A, by the way I mean that then,
you know, it's sort of like the Pack twelve, Like
they just didn't really adjust with the times. They didn't
(35:31):
see what was coming ahead of them. And then Double
A could have easily said, you know what, athletes, well
we'll give you the pie, we'll give you something, and
this all would have gone away. And they just didn't
didn't have the foresight to see any of that coming.
And now in a situation where then double A is
no more and the sport is all about, you know,
making money, which is kind of always been about, but
(35:51):
it's accelerated the process. Do you see a scenario where
because of what we're discussing, the money involved, the markets,
the business partners, they are getting a line to here
and everything else. Do you see scenario where there are
legacy members of the Big ten and or the SEC
where you're starting to look at them like, yeah, well
they're just kind of hurting the bottom line. We can
(36:12):
do better than those schools. Do you see that being
anything that ever happens. You know, we've talked about this
because there's definitely case to be made that there are
teams you can throw out a Big ten or SEC
to add other teams. Um but I but I don't
really know the legal process of with with how that works.
Um but I do think we eventually end up, but
(36:33):
it might take some time, but we eventually end up
with kind of these two or three conferences, and they're
almost tiered. Like English soccer, where we have the top
league is where you're spending the most money, the middle
league is kind of in the middle, and obviously the
bottom league you spent at least amount of money, and
so you kind of have these kind of forty team
(36:54):
divisions or conferences or leagues however you want to put it,
and maybe relegations part of it, probably not, but you know,
you have forty teams at the top that want to
spend all the money possible um to win and to
recruit and for coaches and for facilities. And the in
the middle group is like way I use the team
like Utah right who um you know is is one
(37:16):
of the most enterrated teams in the last fifteen years
with with Kyle Winningham you know, but they're not probably
they're not spending the money the organ is the usc
is um to win a neal. Maybe they're in that
the upper crust of that second tier team, right, Like
that's a good spot for Utah to be and I
think and so that's I think where we're getting Eventually, Um,
I don't know when that is, but it feels like
(37:38):
sooner or later. Now I didn't think that was even
gonna happen for the next time or fifteen years, but
it seems pretty close to happening sooner or later. Yeah,
the relegation points, it's tough to say relegation in college
sports in particular, just because god's graduate. I know people
move in soccer, they move in pro sports, but you're
relegating based on past performance or her performance when the
(38:01):
roster is not going to be the same, Like everything
hap shift because guys graduate. So I've always looked at
relegation in college sports and then like, well, you're doing
that too, You're doing that for a different reason, but
it just doesn't work because all the pieces are not
the same. In fact, almost none of the pieces are
the same from one year to four years down the line.
But yeah, they're definitely. They're definitely schools in Big ten
(38:24):
and the SEC where I'm looking at them now and
I'm just like, I wonder if they're worried at all
or if they just know that they're you know, it's
almost like their grandfathered in, even though it makes no
sense from a bottom line perspective why ex university would
be there when there are better fits out there, especially
from a television perspective. No, I think you're you're right, um,
(38:45):
but again, I don't really know the legality of throwing
it too. We Ever, we've never seen a team thrown
out of a conference yet, right, we've only seen teams
added to conferences, And I just don't know what the
legal experts would be. I don't know how that works
with being thrown I'm sure they be a bunch of
loss suits and and I'm probably not even worth it
to do that, right, Like, right now, look at the
big ten. Let's say, how much value is um you know,
(39:08):
Purdue giving you, right, but but they're not hurting you
enough where like if you threw them out of the conference,
you know they would sue you, and like that it's
not worth it, right, Like, they're not at that point
where they're hurting you enough where you have to get
them out of the conference, and then you want to
endure the lawsuit, right, it makes no sense and just
leave him in the conference and he does not hurting you.
So that that's where I think the big differences, Like
(39:28):
it's not really hurting these conferences to keep the underperforming
teams in you know, uh, you mean to throw them
out of the conference. Yeah, now that makes sense. And
there's Look, there's always teams that in any sport, in
any conference, in any league, there's always teams that don't
measure up. And there's always teams to spend more money. Uh,
and so I guess you're going to continue to see that.
(39:49):
It does feel like if you don't end up in
one of these two conferences, good luck mattering in unless
unless they form that big packtwel merger thing and then
you have like a twenty team call friends that basically
consist of like every team you know west of Nebraska.
What happens though, if like, for example, like Wake Forest
is left out, or if there's a school like that
(40:12):
you mentioned, an NC state or something like, there's gonna
be some of these teams in these conferences that are
left out in the cold. I'll tell you right now,
part of that organ state of Washington State are going
to be left out. Um they go to Mountain West. Uh,
That's that's the truth of it. Um. You know, Cow's
one of those schools that you know, there's a lot
of talk about them being kind of left out. I
(40:33):
mean they're in the Bay area, don't get me wrong,
and but like they don't really I just think there's
no chance that they kind of survive this, um and
they don't end up in the Mountain West. So like
there's in wake Forest, you know, again, like if you
there's a scenario again where you have like two twenty
(40:55):
four ish you know, least you know to team league
and that everyone else kind of makes up the third
league and Awaken kind of be in that third league.
But then again, the scheduling model of that is so interesting.
And even now if you have if you have a
Big ten with twenty teams, so that includes Notre Dame,
let's say three more West Coast teams, so you would
(41:17):
have you have four pods of five teams. Okay, it's
the NFL. Right, you would play your pot every year
and then one other pot that that would get to
nine conference games. It's the NFL scheduling model. Right, you
play you play your own division twice in the NFL,
then you play obviously one division in the A and
the opposite conference of one in your conference. Plus there's
(41:37):
now actually one extra game. Right, So um, that's how
that's how it works, is you would so that's an
easy scheduling model if you get the twenty four teams
and then it changes obviously you basically become the NFL.
And that's maybe where we're going with this is NFL
scheduling model. But to your point about tradition. It does
kind of take the fun and tradition out of this, right,
(41:58):
Like I is a packed old players in the Pact
ten back then, Like I liked playing in Washington State,
I liked playing Corvall. It's like it's fun to go
these smaller places with hostile crowds and night games and
it's cold, and you know, you're just like, that's what
the tradition of college football, and that's mostly going to
be gone fairly soon. Yeah. Look, I mean I don't
(42:21):
want to lament it too much. Like I understand that
these universities are still going to have their individual traditions
and things like that, but there are certain rivalries that
have to die. Like some will. They'll find a way
to keep them alive. But there's only so many games,
and if you put yourself in a conference scheduling model,
you've got to protect certain rivalries other others, and some
are gonna get lost in the shuffle. And then it's
just it just doesn't feel the same. The a SEC
(42:42):
never felt the same when they added Pittsburgh and uh
in all the schools that they had, Syracuse and whatever
they were doing a few years ago. I understood why
they did it, but I didn't like it personally from
a fan perspective, I don't know. Maybe maybe ten fifteen
years from now, we're not gonna care. But right now
it just seems like a massive sea change and everything's
moving so quickly. But like, I don't know, outside of
(43:06):
the team you root for, how much there is a
cons like you really care about rivalries? Like sure, like
I am an Organ guy, obviously, like I we we
for those who were unaware, we despise Washington and they
despise us. That's more of a rival for us. And
like Organ State, it's even though it'd be sad if
we were not able to play a state anymore. Um,
(43:26):
you know that. That's so like I don't really care
like about I cover the conference. It's not a great example,
but I don't care like about you know Texas, who
Texas Texas rival is, or even NC State's rival or
I mean in basketball, yeah, Duke North Carolina are good games,
but I don't really care. Um, and if Duke North Carolina,
if Duke went to the SEC and the Carolina went
(43:48):
to the Big Ten, I don't know whatever, Like not mom,
you know they might still play each other nonconference schedule
wasn't in the in the a SEC. Isn't there a
situation where like we're Wake in North Carolina playing a
nonconference game every year because they're in a different division.
They were like that, you can make it. You can
make it work. Organ Organ State can still play a
(44:09):
nonconference game every year. You tak and b y u.
It's they're taking a break right now. But they played
for like eight years straight in different conferences. You can
still do it. Um, you just have to put forth
the effort to make it, to make those rivalries still happen. Yeah. Yeah,
Like I said, I mean a lot of that stuff
is still going to be there. It's not all gonna disappear.
I think we're just we're barreling down another thirty for
thirty in five or six years. You remember the PAC
(44:31):
twelve like you remember that conference the same way they
did the Big East, Because I don't think anybody has
been better off, necessarily from a viewing perspective, with the
Big East going away, Big East Basketball and what that
conference meant and it going away. Those schools have done
fine where they have gone. They've done okay, but it
it doesn't hit the same UM I would suggest there.
But when you look at this is just where we're heading,
(44:54):
This is where we're going. Everything is becoming increasingly it
doesn't it doesn't have the small town field that it
maybe once did. It's increasingly incorporatized. And you would expect that.
I mean, there's big money involved and big money and
this was the other thing you were talking about Olympic sports,
uh in the last hours, and I know packed twelve
big time in that. Uh, they're huge, and that they've
won a bunch of was over two national championships in
(45:16):
various sports and all these other kinds of things. But
when revenue is the driving factor, non revenue gets left
in the cold for sure. I mean this you know,
people were talking about, well what does this U S
at USC what does this mean for their Olympic sports?
Because you obviously travel now is again they're not always
a lot of Olympic sports aren't flying private and they
might have to now because of travel. But like there's
(45:40):
no there was no thought about US softball having to
go play at Rutgers, Like there was no thought about that. Um,
they'll figure it out. My my guesses they'll take a
two week trip out east and the way that you
can do education now via zoom and via virtual you
don't have to be in the classroom maybe as much anymore. Uh. Um.
(46:00):
You know, players are used to travel and they're used
to working remotely, and they'll figure it out. But there
was no thought about that. They claim that the Big
Ten will give them concessions with travel. I don't even
know what that means. But you move the teams closer
to you, you know, meet in the middle. Like, I
don't know what concessions there are for travel in the
Olympic sports. Um. Again, I think it's probably gonna be
a thing where you just like you go out east
(46:21):
for two weeks, right, you play Maryland and Rutgers, and
you play Penn State, and then you play someone else
and then you fly back to l A for two weeks.
And you know that's probably what it what it ends
up being. Are you just maybe have a three week
stay in the in the East coast. Um that feels like,
but no one's worried about. No one's caring about that.
They're carrying about football and basketball, how much money you
(46:43):
can make. Um. And then obviously no, it doesn't hurt
that U C l A and potentially Stanford are organ
as well, and especially track and field are good at
those sports that that doesn't hurt them. But it's not
like organ is not going to the Big Ten because
they're good at tracking field. Um, they're going there because
of what they bring on football and basketball. Yeah, I
(47:04):
mean that's just a bonus on top of everything else.
I was saying that, Yeah, basketball and much bigger obviously
is football.
It's the best of two pros and a couple of
Joe with Lamar Areas Radio Quinn and Jonas knocks on
four Radio. Happy fourth, Welcome in Fox Sports Radio. For
the next three hours, we'll take you through um. Jonas
and the boys are taking the day off. Maybe they
(00:22):
will competitive eat. I don't know what I'm hoping is
over the next three hours. We don't have to talk
about competitive eating much. Luckily Sports has actually given us
something to talk about. Welcome man, I'm Jason Martin. Jeff
Schwartz will join me here. Momentarily huh, And I said
momentarily and literally he showed up at that very moment
and then he drive back out. We were working on
(00:44):
a little bit of a tech thing here always, uh
always can be a little bit of a headache for
everybody getting everything going. So we'll be good to go
here in a second. Sports has actually decided that on
this July four. I don't know how many of these
times we've done it. It's been a few years. Jeff
and I have gotten to work together because of our schedules,
but uh, we used to do this virtually every year
(01:06):
in the mornings on July the four and we used
to lament and just because not because the opportunity, but
because at the time, virtually nothing would be happening in
the world of sports at that point in time. And
that is no longer the case because we had some
huge stuff break towards the end of the week that
we certainly can continue to comment on the usc U
c l a deal, especially with Jeff here, Jeff being
(01:27):
a PAC twelve god, has worked on the PAC twelve
network for years on the radio on the radio side,
and and Oregon grad. I put them on my show
in Nashville on Friday, and I don't think there's anybody
in the country better on that topic over that ten
minutes span than what we had on Friday on our show.
So we're gonna get into that deeply, what it means,
what's next, what does the Pack twelve do on that side.
(01:49):
So that's obviously one of the storylines is out there,
and the other one is still where's Kevin Durang gonna
land and what's going on with Kyrie and the Lakers.
So all of that is going on. Base Balls heating
up a little bit as we're getting into the month
of July, and because we're getting into the month of
July before at the end of this month, everybody's gonna
be in camp. I do believe in the NFL. So
(02:11):
because we're on a sports talk radio station, NFL will
be discussed on this show over the course of the
next three hours, and we look forward to doing all
of that with you. Uh and Jeff will join us
here in one second. So I don't know if I
want to start with USC and U c l A
just yet, only because I wanna make sure Jeff's there
for it from the very beginning. So I guess we
(02:32):
could talk a little bit of Durant here or Kyrie.
That story from Chris Haines that came out on Yahoo
over the weekend that the Lakers were in negotiations with
the Nets to try and figure out how to get
Kyrie there, um moving Russell Westbrook out in that moment.
I wouldn't imagine the Nets would keep Westbrook, but I
guess you never know. It could be a situation where
(02:54):
they create some kind of space for themselves outside of that.
But I think the bigger story here is just what
all of this means in terms of player empowerment and
what all of it means in terms of this nets
organization that bent over backwards for I don't know years
now to make these two gentlemen happy, specifically one in
(03:16):
particular with Durant, but also something with Kyrie, only to
be basically told now it's uh, it's not us, that's you.
It's kind of how it feels, right, And that's unfortunate
because I look at this and it's just I don't
know how you're supposed to care about it n't be
a free agency at this point, really really not sure.
(03:37):
And this to this point we can just talk about
Durant because k D and what he has done and
what he has chosen to do in this moment basically
blows up the idea that contracts me anything. John Morant
signed a five year extension, right we know about Zion
signing his extension. It could be worth up to two
(03:58):
thirty one million dollars according to who is agent. All
these guys are signing these long contracts. But why would
I care? Why would I care, especially if it's one
of the biggest players in the sport. How would I care?
You explain it to me. At eight seven, seven ninety
nine on Fox six three six nine on this July four.
What why would you think that those contracts are on
(04:19):
anything other than napkins that can just be tossed aside
at any point in time. Kevin Durant signed a four
year extension one year ago and still left one year later.
He still had four years a hundred ninety two million
dollars left on his deal. And then he just revealed
real quickly, no, I've asked, so you know, I've asked
for a trade. Or that's how it came out in
(04:40):
the public. He asked for a trade from the Nets.
The Nets immediately began trying to work with his people
to find a place where he can land. So those
contracts don't me anything. They really don't. They only matter
until some star that's really good decides that they don't.
We don't exactly see this in football this fast. Like
you see a lot of movement in football, but you
(05:01):
don't see it to this degree like this one right here.
Just it baffles me because it really lays to bear
how tenuous so many of the things that we watch
in sports and really in life actually work like these
How tenuous are these things? If contracts don't mean anything
(05:23):
in sports, then how in the world can you be
a fan of a team, or certainly, I mean you
can be a fan of an athlete and just you
chase them wherever it is that they go. But in
the NBA's best players at this point can can really
just call their shot and do whatever they want. And
from year to year, they can move, they can shift,
they can change all of those things. They can make
(05:45):
different decisions, and Kevin Durant specifically has now done this
a couple of different times. And and then the question
you can ask when it comes to Katie is is
there a universe in which he is happy? Is there
a universe where he can actually be satisfied with the
(06:07):
girl he's got as opposed to looking at the girl
who's next, Because this is one part of this that
has not been discussed nearly enough relative to Durant's wishes
in this circumstance. Kevin Durant said his his two choices
with the Miami Heat and the Phoenix Suns, those are
(06:29):
the number one seeds from the East and the West
over the last NBA season, So he picked the top seats,
the ones that you know, going into the playoffs, probably
the best chance to win. He wants to do that,
but yet he's upset that Charles Barkley calls him a
bus rider, and then proves Charles Barkley correct at every turn.
(06:53):
After the fact, he joined the seventies three win Golden
State Warriors team after failing to knock them off when
they were up three one, then meaning the thunder, we're
up three one in that series. He goes to Golden State,
wins a couple of championships, leaves for whatever reason, and
we can discuss those reasons, and then he goes to
(07:13):
Brooklyn instead of the Knicks to go play with this
buddy Kyrie. They only play forty four games together over
three seasons. Now Durant of course missed the entire first
season of that deal with the recovery from the Achilles.
Then over the next couple of years he does absolutely
nothing with Kyrie. Forty four games over two years is
veriably nothing, right. That's not even half of one It's
(07:36):
barely half of one season over the course of two.
It's less. It's about somewhere in that neighborhood, not gonna
do math too much on the air um. And now
he wants to go join another top seed. He wants
to join Miami with Spolstra, and we would assume Jimmy
Butler or he wants to join Phoenix with Devin Booker.
(08:00):
So tell me, you're not a bus rider when you
were bus riding. If you don't want to be a
bus rider, win in Brooklyn. You gave that not very
long of a shot. If you don't want to play
with Kyrie, admit that. But there was still that story
out there that, oh, we'd still like to play together,
just not in Brooklyn. Well, what's Brooklyn's problem? What's the
(08:22):
issue with them? All they did was everything to try
and make you happy. Like literally, they wagered a half
decade worth of first round picks to bring in James
Harden and I was first guessing that, I don't know
about you guys out there, I was first guessing that
that was not going to work particularly well. They fired
(08:46):
the coach, Kenny Atkinson, not ready for prime time. Let's
bring in Steve Nash. That was that was them that
wanted that. That wasn't an organizational decision. That was we're
gonna make this decision as an organization to succumb to
the wishes of our two super for stars, Kyrie, who
famously two months ago after they got swept by the Celtics,
said basically, it's us and the GM and the owner
(09:08):
and we've just got to make this thing work. And
basically in effects that we're all executives here and we
all run this team together, and that we're committed for
the long haul. And two months later out and now
Durance like like Phoenix, Phoenix the number one seed last
couple of years, like Miami, Miami's number one seed last year.
(09:28):
I don't know if I've ever seen someone more disloyal
than Kevin Durant here, and I've I have been kind
of taken aback by just how often I have seen
people on television or people on radio that cover the
league trying to excuse this away. I just don't get it,
(09:52):
Like Durant is good enough that he can do this
kind of stuff. You know what, that last sentence sounds
a whole lot like. It sounds a whole lot like
the same way we talk about Aaron Rodgers. And if
you don't like Aaron Rodgers act, or if you don't
like how he held teams or held Green Bay hostage
every offseason for the past three years, then you can't
(10:13):
like what Kevin Durant is doing. He's making himself even
more unlikable because he he doesn't seem to understand the
ramifications of the decisions that he's making in the public eye.
And he always claims that he doesn't really care about
what people say and all this, Yet he always wins Twitter,
We're told, We're told he wins social media because the
(10:33):
way he claps back. No, you lose when you clap back,
because you reveal that something actually mattered to you. Kevin
Durant is such an outstanding basketball player that he literally
can just tell people, you know, screw off, I'm gonna
go do my thing by not saying a word. He's
that good. I don't know where he ranks all time,
(10:55):
but we're not We're probably in the single digits. He
could be the most gift did player all the way
around with everything that he does of all time. I'm
not saying he's the best player of all time. I'm
saying when you marry the skill sets that he possesses
to his physical tools in terms of his size, his wingspan,
the fact that he has the most unblockable shot in
(11:16):
the league this side of Kareem Skyhook because of his
wingspan and his deadly accuracy from deep. He doesn't need
to clap back, and yet he does all the time.
He has the biggest case of rabbit ears in the league.
And so if you do that and at the same
time you make just incredibly controversial or easy to dismiss
(11:38):
decisions like leaving Golden State or going to Golden State
in the first place, and now this decision with Brooklyn.
I don't know that that makes you particularly endearing. I
don't know that it makes you necessarily a villain. I
read David Aldridge and Marcus Stops Species of the Athletic.
They're like, it's not really a hero or villain thing
necessarily to me, he comes across as a villain. But
(12:01):
in general, what he's doing is just indicative of the era,
the sport, the c b A, the way everything is
set up. Because he's as good as he is, many
of the same rules don't apply to him when it
comes to this. You can't pull any of this crap.
If you're a mediocre player on the Minnesota Timberwolves, you'll
(12:23):
just get traded as part of the Rudy Gobert deal
and you'll move on right, Like that's That's kind of
the difference is Kevin Durant is a special talent. When
you're special, you get afforded special privileges, make a lot
more money. Maybe you can pay for the fast past
of Disneyland. Many of the rest of us were just
standing in line watching you go through and seething with rage,
(12:43):
being upset that we have to stand in the heat
and we're gonna get to ride maybe one quarter of
what your kids are gonna get to ride. And many
of you might be there today on July four, you
will be able to see this for yourself. But Kevin
Durant kind of walks on clouds. Kevin Durant is leaving
behind him a just burning members of a franchise. They
(13:04):
have wagered everything to try and make him happy, and
not only did it not work to make him happy,
because I'm not sure he can ever find a reason
to be happy, but that organization is now dead. We've
never seen a bigger bust that I can think of.
(13:25):
You could correct me if I'm wrong, Maybe there is one.
I've never seen a bigger bust from a franchise making
a big swing than this one. Like, yeah, there have
been individual moves that haven't worked out, but this philosophy,
this idea, and then adding to it by going for
Harden and then even bringing in Ben Simmons, the coaching situation,
everything that played into this. Even Let's not forget at
(13:49):
one point Brooklyn said Kyrie could not be around them unvaccinated,
and then he backed They backed off on that again
because Durant man to it as such and he still
wasn't happy. I would say this to end this portion
of the discussion. Whoever lands Kevin Durant, whether it is Phoenix,
(14:13):
whether it is Miami, and I do want to talk
about how he wants to go somewhere, but he doesn't
want them to lose their stars in the process. We'll
get to that a little bit later. But whoever gets
Kevin Durant, whoever lands him in this sweepstakes this year,
I don't know if I'd buy that jersey. But the
NBA at least has a buyback program, and it's almost
(14:36):
like they realized now because of the way this league
has moved and the way it's changed and the way
the player that they have, UH, they better have a
buyback program at that point in time. But I don't
know if i'd buy that Durant jersey wherever it is
that he goes, because I would see two years I
would start to be real anty if I hadn't won
(14:56):
a championship, that Kevin Durant had already found a hotter
girl and she's across the country somewhere and he's been
eyeing her. I don't know if they've actually been text
messaging or not, but I would definitely least but not
by when it comes to that house. We'll come back
out of the other side. Uh, we'll see if Jeff
was us at that point would jump into the usc
U c l A. And again there's just the Kevin
(15:17):
Durant thing and pewing it all back and looking at
the idea that this guy actually thinks he can he
can dictate where he goes because he can make himself
toxic anywhere else. But also, I'm not going to Miami
without Bam. Well yeah you are, like that's like some
way they will find out, they'll find a way, or
they won't deal with Miami. They can't even get Bam
(15:38):
back in this trade unless they include Ben Simmons. And
if I'm Miami, I say, uh, yeah, you know, appreciate
that but you guys might need him a little bit
more than us. Check if you want exclusive insight from
the biggest names in the sports game. What's good. This
is national champion and former pro bowler Chris Johnson. Let
me take you a little bit about my new series,
(15:59):
kje Hey. J Live is the only show featuring me
going one on one with the brightest basketball minds on
the planet to get the real And when I say real,
I mean that real. I got legendary Hall of famers,
elite coaches in the top basketball Inside is bringing you
a unique perspective on all things hoops culture that you
will not find anywhere. To make your next move, your
(16:23):
best move, and tap in with me on kJ Live.
Wherever you get your podcast from, be sure to catch
live editions of Two Pros and a Cup of Joe
with Brady Quinn, Lavarre Errington and Jonas Knocks week days
at six am East tern three am Pacific. Will be
back tomorrow. It is the fourth of July. Welcome man,
(16:44):
Happy fourth. Many of you not working so you're listening
to us on a way to I don't know what
you're doing. It's early in the morning. It's seven am
on the East coast. It's six where I happen to
be in Nashville, and that that's pretty much tells you
where Jeff and I are. Are Jeff Schwartz with me,
He's Twitter at Jeff Schwartz, I'm at j MAR Radio. Uh,
Fox Sports Radio here with you for the next couple
(17:06):
of hours. So I saw this just a little while ago,
and it was a comment from the Chancellor of l
s U Michael Martin, back in eleven and at the
time it sounded ridiculous, but he said back, I guess
it would have been eleven years ago. Now I think
we could ultimately end up with two conferences, one called
(17:27):
ESPN and one called Fox. And now we're looking, I
think increasingly towards two super leagues in the sport. Jeff,
and obviously this one's very close to you, very close
to your heart. We we talked to you on Friday.
I talked to you on Friday, and you never really
heard you sound down before. Dude, you were bummed like
(17:47):
you were. We were gonna send you a drink, we
were gonna send you a bottle or something after you
appear with us in Nashville, because it's just like, my gosh,
man like we we didn't realize that. Now I started
think about it's just like, well, dude, your Pack twelve
through and through from Cali. You've worked with the PAC
twelve network. You know so many people in that group,
and this felt like to me, when you lose to
(18:09):
flagship members like USC and U, C, l A, I'm
not sure what the conference is at that point. Well,
it's no longer. That's that's the problem. Um, And this
has been years and then making It's funny you mentioned
twenty eleven because you know that's when kind of conference
expansion sort of hard to happen but sort of didn't
happen if you go all back to twenty ten. Now, right,
Larry Scott, the former commission of the PAC twelfth conference too,
(18:30):
is going to get a lot to blame on what's
happening right now. Um, he tried to expand with Texas
and Oklahoma, if you recalled, they went through. It was
supposed to be the PAC ten to the Pack sixteen.
They're gonna add Texas, the Oklahoma schools, you know, Utah,
and then Colorado and one more to make it sixteen schools. Okay,
maybe it was even A and M I don't know,
(18:51):
but they're gonna add and they were very close. It
was reported on social media Texas is going to the
PAC ten conference. Okay. Text Us then said, hey, we
want to start the Longhorn network. We do not want
to be a part of the PACTOLS network, and the
PAC twelve said that's not good enough for us. Not
gonna happen, and that's why it did not happen. Essentially,
it's a shorter version of it. So this was this
(19:13):
is a situation where the PAC ten was actually ahead
of the curve. The PAC ten tried to get Oklahoma
and Texas in their conference, but did not budge on
the Longhorn network. Looking back, obviously you'd say, fine, have
your own network, we'll put the other fifteen teams on
pack towel network and will survive. Right, did happen that way?
And lo and behold, Now we're moving towards the two
conference system. Excuse me? And what is driving this, as
(19:37):
you mentioned, is is Fox in ESPN. Right. ESPN owns
the SEC. ESPN has a great deal with the a
c C conference right now, and then Fox has the
Big ten has half of the Pack twelve, which is
up for a new deal anyways in two years and
adding Es, adding Los Angeles to the new Big ten
deal which is coming up soon. This is why it's
(19:57):
happening now is because they're negotiating new TV contract. Because
you have Chicago, you have New York, you have Los
Angeles now as part of your part of your your
your area where people are watching Big ten football, um
and just adding those markets increases the value of of
your TV deal. And for a Pac twelve school like
(20:18):
you see in USC, you know you're getting like twenty
million dollars a year from the Pack twelve. It's gonna
go up probably with a new TV deal, but not
to a hundred million dollars, which is what the Big
ten reported he's gonna get. So I understand from a
financial perspective if your USC and they run apart about
this as USC fields at least with the reports are
they felt like kind of the Pack twelve, you know,
(20:39):
didn't really come to them and say, hey man, how
can we kind of make this work? And you know
what will cut you different, you know, a different part
of the revenue stream. They would haven't been good for
ten years like they did. At least the conference was
carried by Oregon. Like Oregon carried the conference for the
last ten years, they've had more. They've had more, obviously,
playoff appearances, more BCS bull goals. They never won a championship.
(21:01):
I get that. But the last time USC won a championship,
current recruits were one year old, the two thousand four.
It's a long time ago in college football, right um.
Even on the basketball side, right, I know u c
A ended up in this and then more than the
send us a gift basket for including them in this.
You know their basketball program, and I get it's a
blue blood, right it's one of the better ones of
(21:23):
all time. They voted one championships v They've made only
five final fours since nineteen seventy five? Is John Wooden left? Um?
And I think you know, the l A market obviously
is huge for the big ten ables to to to
secure that. But you know USC and u c A
complaining that they didn't get enough, you know, love from
(21:44):
the patrol of conference. You didn't deserve it. You guys
weren't winning at the level and if you were winning
at the level that blue bloods win at in football basketball,
this might never happen, right Um. But nonetheless it's happened. Um.
And now we're looking at the conference. You know, I
know people you know Twitter of course, okay, but the
pathtor of Conference. A lot of people watch the pator
of Conference. Okay, Like let's let's not pretend that like
(22:06):
no one watches it. Um is done. Like it's done.
There's it's gonna be over. Um, there's so many other
things in play here about why this is gonna happen. Um.
You know that the presidents of the pator of Conference
I think just didn't anticipate this. Um. They had a
bad TV deal. And now we're looking a situation where
you really have a couple of options, Jason, if you're
(22:27):
if you're out West, you can either merge with the
Big twelve as a conglomerate right now. So now you
have kind of this Big twelve Super Conference Pactors Conference.
You have the the you know, the Big Ten, and
the SEC. The a SEC probably gets absorbed in some
parts by both those conferences. Now you have these three
major conferences. Um, but I just don't know how, I
(22:51):
don't know how. You know, without the Eliot market, a
TV deal just is not gonna be as good. It's
not a good situation man. And then the one wild card,
this is what Organ does, right, Um, this is this
is why it was almost so sad when we talked yesterday,
assuming on Friday. It is because like Organ has done
everything they can in the last twenty five years to
(23:11):
become this this national brand, and they are a national brand,
but they play in a small TV market and it
feels like everything organ Is done to build up this
brand does not matter because they play in Eugene and
in Los Angeles, and it's frustrating as an Organ fan.
Organ Is is not does not bring in enough TV
value because their marketing not because people watch Organ play
(23:35):
and they're the most watched team in the West Coast.
Maybe it's because USC has been down, but nonetheless the
most watched team. They are very They're more valuable brand
than USC is at the moment, way more in U c.
L A. But nonetheless, like Oregon and Washington, are their
values not enough for the Big ten to be like, hey,
we want them and they're not going to lower our
(23:56):
TV deal and they're way too valuable to stay in
the big ted the big twelve pack twelve murder thing right,
Like they look like I have no man's land right now,
so a while of moving parts. Man, it's sad because
this conference been up for a hundred years. And yeah,
you can make fun of it. I get that people
with the Battle Conference, they win a lot, and I
know they're winning so much in football and basketball, but
like there's a rich tradition of winning in Olympic sports,
(24:19):
winning in the academia, putting incredible pros out in both
basketball and football. Uh, And it's just sad to see
this conference blown up in one off season. Yeah, I
mean it just I don't know, the college sports that
we have come to know just feels different. I don't
want to suggest it because I know they've already said,
(24:39):
you know, U, s C, U, C l A will
continue and all these other things will continue and all this,
but as it gets more and more complicated, some schools
are going to be left behind. And then you look
at the PAC twelve and PAC twelve was like the
last bastion of Hey, the region of the country matters,
like it's sort of it's still sort of made sense.
Now you go back and you look at the Tanner
(25:00):
or Bernie freddis Is over the weekend on these FSR airways,
a matter of fact, I think he said it to
us on on mynd tour as a show on Saturday Night,
that Big Ten. You go back and you're like, why
in the world do you want Maryland? You want Maryland
because you want a d C television market. Why in
the world would you want Rutgers. Well, you want a
New York television market. To these television markets and where
(25:21):
they're located plays a lot into this. So the Big
Ten now adds Los Angeles to that. That's a big
time deal, and it's big for all the rest of
their universities on top of it. The thing that that's
most fascinating to me is the stories of well who
get the Pack twelve then go to get to replace them,
if indeed they didn't just try to join up with
the Big twelve a couple of days, like Fresno State
(25:42):
and Boise State. It's like, that sounds nice, but you
can't go from USC to Fresno State. I'm sorry if
we're looking at this again through the lens of of
TV contracts, because again, what makes it so fascinating right now,
but I don't get the Pac twel back on the
second is that we have Okay, so the Big tests
to negotiating a new contract, right, Okay, the PAC twelve
(26:06):
at the same time as negotiating contract for the a
c C has one through. SEC just did their's right,
so did they see but they just SEC just did.
There's Oklahoma Texas and it starts up again in twenty
there's a new deal but includes Oklahoma Texas obviously coming there.
And I don't know what the Big twelve status is,
(26:27):
but what makes it so fascinating is again like the
Big Tennis, trying to acquire assets at this moment before
the new TV deal, right, because once it kicks in,
then obviously if a team comes and joins, the value
that everyone gets paid lowers, right, because they have new
more assets with the same amount of money that everyone
gets less payout. So trying to all get this done now.
(26:48):
And that's why the PAC twelve is in a tough
spot because if you are going to negotiate a new
TV deal, Freends adding Fresnel you and LV Boise, whoever
you add TENDERO States is not going to increa used
the value of that TV deal. And so the rest
of the of the the teams in the conference are
looking around saying well, if I'm Organ to Washington, do
(27:09):
I go to Big ten? You mentioned Maryland and Rutgers.
They took less money to go to the Big ten,
but the less money was more than they were getting
the A C C. So if you're Oregon to Washington,
let's say right now, the reports are a hundred million
dollars per school in the Big twelve. With the Big ten,
I keep these conferences are now it's sixteen teams that
the names are going to have to change. So you know,
(27:33):
adding you see in USC you get a hundred million
dollars per team in the new deal. Let's just make
it easy, easy, easy number um. Adding Oregon in Washington
is not equivalent to a hundred million dollars per team.
These are the reports, and that therefore each team we
have to take six million dollars less to add Oregon
in Washington. Everyone has equal share. Well, if I'm Morgan
(27:53):
to Washington, I say, you know what we'll take less.
We'll take eighty million dollars a year seventy five that
fifty million dollars more, and you get in the Pack
twelve right now, and we'll join your conference, and we
won't take a full share organism. You know, we have
organized money. That's not the problem with organ We'll take
a full share, even have a quarter share, whatever, half
a share, whatever, until five years later within them take
(28:15):
a full share instead of staying out west and taking
less money or forming this Pack twelve big twelve merger
thing like you take kind of just take the money
you can get now, I think, and figure it out later,
because again TV networks are driving this expansion, and so
the Pack twelve again as in a very tough spot.
If you notice, when I mean I noticed as I
(28:36):
had to cover it. I was just laid it back
in Charlotte on Thursday, I was at New Orleans, and
I get it like this happened like Thursday, like one
thirda I get a call from my boss that can
you do? I did four hours of radio, did another
number three on Friday covering all this. Um, it's it's
just a well. But TV networks are driving all this expansion, right,
And so again, if you're the Pack twelve, how do
(28:57):
you make this work? And the answer is you don't.
Every team out for themselves. And if you notice in
the statements put out, I've read all these statements on
the air every school, let's put out statement out. West
has mentioned themselves basically looking out for themselves first, like
we we were committed to the PAC twelve, but also
we're looking out for what's best in our in our
best interests. Oddly enough, though, two schools haven't put out
(29:19):
statements at all. Organ At Stanford and those are the
two schools looked at. It's possibly joined the Big ten.
Jason's kind of wild. Every other PACTOL school has a
statement out. Organ At Stanford has said absolutely nothing since
since since there's they're like not like not even off
the record state nothing, not the dead silence from them,
and so um, I wonder if there's a little bit
of like, you know, just kind of keeping quiet as
(29:40):
they work things out. But everyone's out for their own
because they can't there's no loyalty anymore. The two schools
that left are founding members of the PAC twelve conference.
They've been in the PCC since nineteen nineteen twenties. There
are two schools. I think that no one would have
thought those even possible, and it happened now. And if
look around the landscape and your Oregon, Washington, your Arizona,
(30:03):
your Utah, Arizona, state your Colorado. The Big twelve comes calling,
the Big ten comes calling, Why are you staying in
the Pac twelve conference. There's no loyalty anymore, like you're you're,
you're gone, and so it's sad, man, it's it's a bummer.
But the Pac twelve unfortunately kind of did this to themselves.
Um with some bad decision making. Um we kind of
(30:23):
lack of caring about athletics in a major way at times,
bad TV deal And yeah, USC, it's funny they have
a new athleticer, Mike Bone has been about two years.
He's done a fabulous job. He gets all the credit
for hire looking Riley, for changing all the culture at USC,
because for a long time it was more about, you know,
oh we're USC, We're gonna we were good, you know
(30:45):
fifteen years ago, We're just gonna be good again because
we're USC, right, and kind of that mindset of just
kind of stagnation because we've been good in the past.
And Mike Boone changed all that. But again, USC has
not been good at football and has hurt the Pac
twelve Conference to where they this happened, Right, if they've
been good for the last ten years, probably it may happen.
It may not, but the pactolves in a better spot
(31:06):
nationally because of that, because only so much organ can do.
So it's it's order the point, Jason, Now where every
couple of minutes, I look at Twitter, like, come on,
give me, give me an update, give me an update.
What's happened to Oregon, What's happened to Washington? Like, what's
up the Big twelve. It's it's a sad place to be, man.
So any other side, we're gonna keep talking about this,
(31:26):
and and I think this all goes to one point,
and this this is and this isn't just this story.
It's all these stories and us even starting to seur
kind of joking about what's usually talked about. On July
four on Sports Talk Radio, no games have been played, folks. Yeah,
baseball games are being played. F one races are happening.
There's a live calf out here with with what's happening
and all that kind of stuff. But I mean, generally speaking,
(31:48):
the sports that moved the needle, none of them are
being played right now. But sports has become seven three
sixty five. Every league, the NBA isn't being played right now,
but it's arguably more interesting right now that when it
was being played. The NFL is not going to be
played for another couple of months. Had they ever been
out of the news cycle this year, because I don't
(32:08):
think so. We haven't even talked about Shaun Watson. There's
so much to get to there. And then college sports
here we go with this, whether it's in I L,
whether it's transferred portal, whether it's coaches sniping one another
in booster meetings and things like that or whatever. Sports
doesn't stop, and it's become where exhausting. It so tiring.
(32:31):
You're like, I just want to take a deep breath.
This is the summer. It's supposed to be like nothing happening.
It's exhausting. Yeah, man, I'm supposed to be able to
talk about Top Gun for ten minutes and we keep yes,
it was okay, I want it's a it's a first
movie I've seen in the theater. I think posts like
Pandemic um and I saw Uncut Gems. I was I
think right before the pandemic started, right um, and oh
(32:53):
my god, it was like you knew what was gonna
happen and it was still so great. You're like you
knew everything was gonna happened, and it was like the
greatest thing ever. He was unbelievable. You're like, yeah, to
shoot down that Generation five migue, the fact that they
the fact that they just didn't overthink it, and just okay,
what do people want from this movie? We're gonna give
them all of that. And it's kind ever basically like
(33:18):
Star Wars. It was Star Wars. That's what it was.
It was great. It was every It was just as
good as everybody says it is. If you haven't seen it,
what the hell are you doing it? It's just like
one of those your like you sit in the theater
and like at the end, you're like, heck, yes, yes
it happened. They didn't everybody strangers. That didn't happen in movies.
It's so silly, like the stuff that happens that movie.
(33:40):
You're like, yeah, we know it doesn't actually happen, like
dead who cares? That's right? This is completely I like
that's like the like the whole thing about the it's
it's Star Wars, right, So it's a run to to
to kill the death Star, right, That's what's pretty much.
And like you're like they're like we three miracles and
you're like, they're all happy. Been Wow, what a surprise.
(34:01):
A matter of fact, we're gonna need three miracles. And
how about a fourth that you weren't planning. We're gonna
do that too, and then there's gonna be embraced at
the end. We'll come back, we'll talk more about all
of this, but talk about may come back up. There's
bells staying sounding out in Sherman Oaks because they're all fans.
We're all fans of this. Be sure to catch live
editions of Two Pros and a Cup of Joe with
Brady Quinn, LaVar Arrington and Jonas Knocks week days at
(34:24):
six am Eastern, three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app Our number three, Two
Pros and a Cup of Joe Here on this fourth
of July. I am the aforementioned Jason Martin. He is
the aforementioned Jeff Schwartz at Jeff Schwartz on the tweets.
You can find me at j mar Radio if you
would like. We're gonna talk to Sean in one second.
One thing I wanted to get to that I had
(34:46):
remiss that we didn't mention we were talking about USC
and U C l A, everything happening in college football.
Is there a universe, Jeff? When we're looking at TV
markets now and we're looking at business, we're not really
looking at tradition anymore when it comes to college football
or college athletics in general. Gone, that's done. Yeah, And look,
it started interesting enough really a year ago last summer
on July one, is when the Supreme Court said essentially
(35:09):
the end to Double AU or no more right, you
have no authority anymore, and I l started it. Ever
since then, we've seen kind of the change in college
sports where athletes have more power, um and they are
able to make a buck, which they've been should have
been able to do for a long time. And the
ended Double A, by the way I mean that then,
you know, it's sort of like the Pack twelve, Like
they just didn't really adjust with the times. They didn't
(35:31):
see what was coming ahead of them. And then Double
A could have easily said, you know what, athletes, well
we'll give you the pie, we'll give you something, and
this all would have gone away. And they just didn't
didn't have the foresight to see any of that coming.
And now in a situation where then double A is
no more and the sport is all about, you know,
making money, which is kind of always been about, but
(35:51):
it's accelerated the process. Do you see a scenario where
because of what we're discussing, the money involved, the markets,
the business partners, they are getting a line to here
and everything else. Do you see scenario where there are
legacy members of the Big ten and or the SEC
where you're starting to look at them like, yeah, well
they're just kind of hurting the bottom line. We can
(36:12):
do better than those schools. Do you see that being
anything that ever happens. You know, we've talked about this
because there's definitely case to be made that there are
teams you can throw out a Big ten or SEC
to add other teams. Um but I but I don't
really know the legal process of with with how that works.
Um but I do think we eventually end up, but
(36:33):
it might take some time, but we eventually end up
with kind of these two or three conferences, and they're
almost tiered. Like English soccer, where we have the top
league is where you're spending the most money, the middle
league is kind of in the middle, and obviously the
bottom league you spent at least amount of money, and
so you kind of have these kind of forty team
(36:54):
divisions or conferences or leagues however you want to put it,
and maybe relegations part of it, probably not, but you know,
you have forty teams at the top that want to
spend all the money possible um to win and to
recruit and for coaches and for facilities. And the in
the middle group is like way I use the team
like Utah right who um you know is is one
(37:16):
of the most enterrated teams in the last fifteen years
with with Kyle Winningham you know, but they're not probably
they're not spending the money the organ is the usc
is um to win a neal. Maybe they're in that
the upper crust of that second tier team, right, Like
that's a good spot for Utah to be and I
think and so that's I think where we're getting Eventually, Um,
I don't know when that is, but it feels like
(37:38):
sooner or later. Now I didn't think that was even
gonna happen for the next time or fifteen years, but
it seems pretty close to happening sooner or later. Yeah,
the relegation points, it's tough to say relegation in college
sports in particular, just because god's graduate. I know people
move in soccer, they move in pro sports, but you're
relegating based on past performance or her performance when the
(38:01):
roster is not going to be the same, Like everything
hap shift because guys graduate. So I've always looked at
relegation in college sports and then like, well, you're doing
that too, You're doing that for a different reason, but
it just doesn't work because all the pieces are not
the same. In fact, almost none of the pieces are
the same from one year to four years down the line.
But yeah, they're definitely. They're definitely schools in Big ten
(38:24):
and the SEC where I'm looking at them now and
I'm just like, I wonder if they're worried at all
or if they just know that they're you know, it's
almost like their grandfathered in, even though it makes no
sense from a bottom line perspective why ex university would
be there when there are better fits out there, especially
from a television perspective. No, I think you're you're right, um,
(38:45):
but again, I don't really know the legality of throwing
it too. We Ever, we've never seen a team thrown
out of a conference yet, right, we've only seen teams
added to conferences, And I just don't know what the
legal experts would be. I don't know how that works
with being thrown I'm sure they be a bunch of
loss suits and and I'm probably not even worth it
to do that, right, Like, right now, look at the
big ten. Let's say, how much value is um you know,
(39:08):
Purdue giving you, right, but but they're not hurting you
enough where like if you threw them out of the conference,
you know they would sue you, and like that it's
not worth it, right, Like, they're not at that point
where they're hurting you enough where you have to get
them out of the conference, and then you want to
endure the lawsuit, right, it makes no sense and just
leave him in the conference and he does not hurting you.
So that that's where I think the big differences, Like
(39:28):
it's not really hurting these conferences to keep the underperforming
teams in you know, uh, you mean to throw them
out of the conference. Yeah, now that makes sense. And
there's Look, there's always teams that in any sport, in
any conference, in any league, there's always teams that don't
measure up. And there's always teams to spend more money. Uh,
and so I guess you're going to continue to see that.
(39:49):
It does feel like if you don't end up in
one of these two conferences, good luck mattering in unless
unless they form that big packtwel merger thing and then
you have like a twenty team call friends that basically
consist of like every team you know west of Nebraska.
What happens though, if like, for example, like Wake Forest
is left out, or if there's a school like that
(40:12):
you mentioned, an NC state or something like, there's gonna
be some of these teams in these conferences that are
left out in the cold. I'll tell you right now,
part of that organ state of Washington State are going
to be left out. Um they go to Mountain West. Uh,
That's that's the truth of it. Um. You know, Cow's
one of those schools that you know, there's a lot
of talk about them being kind of left out. I
(40:33):
mean they're in the Bay area, don't get me wrong,
and but like they don't really I just think there's
no chance that they kind of survive this, um and
they don't end up in the Mountain West. So like
there's in wake Forest, you know, again, like if you
there's a scenario again where you have like two twenty
(40:55):
four ish you know, least you know to team league
and that everyone else kind of makes up the third
league and Awaken kind of be in that third league.
But then again, the scheduling model of that is so interesting.
And even now if you have if you have a
Big ten with twenty teams, so that includes Notre Dame,
let's say three more West Coast teams, so you would
(41:17):
have you have four pods of five teams. Okay, it's
the NFL. Right, you would play your pot every year
and then one other pot that that would get to
nine conference games. It's the NFL scheduling model. Right, you
play you play your own division twice in the NFL,
then you play obviously one division in the A and
the opposite conference of one in your conference. Plus there's
(41:37):
now actually one extra game. Right, So um, that's how
that's how it works, is you would so that's an
easy scheduling model if you get the twenty four teams
and then it changes obviously you basically become the NFL.
And that's maybe where we're going with this is NFL
scheduling model. But to your point about tradition. It does
kind of take the fun and tradition out of this, right,
(41:58):
Like I is a packed old players in the Pact
ten back then, Like I liked playing in Washington State,
I liked playing Corvall. It's like it's fun to go
these smaller places with hostile crowds and night games and
it's cold, and you know, you're just like, that's what
the tradition of college football, and that's mostly going to
be gone fairly soon. Yeah. Look, I mean I don't
(42:21):
want to lament it too much. Like I understand that
these universities are still going to have their individual traditions
and things like that, but there are certain rivalries that
have to die. Like some will. They'll find a way
to keep them alive. But there's only so many games,
and if you put yourself in a conference scheduling model,
you've got to protect certain rivalries other others, and some
are gonna get lost in the shuffle. And then it's
just it just doesn't feel the same. The a SEC
(42:42):
never felt the same when they added Pittsburgh and uh
in all the schools that they had, Syracuse and whatever
they were doing a few years ago. I understood why
they did it, but I didn't like it personally from
a fan perspective, I don't know. Maybe maybe ten fifteen
years from now, we're not gonna care. But right now
it just seems like a massive sea change and everything's
moving so quickly. But like, I don't know, outside of
(43:06):
the team you root for, how much there is a
cons like you really care about rivalries? Like sure, like
I am an Organ guy, obviously, like I we we
for those who were unaware, we despise Washington and they
despise us. That's more of a rival for us. And
like Organ State, it's even though it'd be sad if
we were not able to play a state anymore. Um,
(43:26):
you know that. That's so like I don't really care
like about I cover the conference. It's not a great example,
but I don't care like about you know Texas, who
Texas Texas rival is, or even NC State's rival or
I mean in basketball, yeah, Duke North Carolina are good games,
but I don't really care. Um, and if Duke North Carolina,
if Duke went to the SEC and the Carolina went
(43:48):
to the Big Ten, I don't know whatever, Like not mom,
you know they might still play each other nonconference schedule
wasn't in the in the a SEC. Isn't there a
situation where like we're Wake in North Carolina playing a
nonconference game every year because they're in a different division.
They were like that, you can make it. You can
make it work. Organ Organ State can still play a
(44:09):
nonconference game every year. You tak and b y u.
It's they're taking a break right now. But they played
for like eight years straight in different conferences. You can
still do it. Um, you just have to put forth
the effort to make it, to make those rivalries still happen. Yeah. Yeah,
Like I said, I mean a lot of that stuff
is still going to be there. It's not all gonna disappear.
I think we're just we're barreling down another thirty for
thirty in five or six years. You remember the PAC
(44:31):
twelve like you remember that conference the same way they
did the Big East, Because I don't think anybody has
been better off, necessarily from a viewing perspective, with the
Big East going away, Big East Basketball and what that
conference meant and it going away. Those schools have done
fine where they have gone. They've done okay, but it
it doesn't hit the same UM I would suggest there.
But when you look at this is just where we're heading,
(44:54):
This is where we're going. Everything is becoming increasingly it
doesn't it doesn't have the small town field that it
maybe once did. It's increasingly incorporatized. And you would expect that.
I mean, there's big money involved and big money and
this was the other thing you were talking about Olympic sports,
uh in the last hours, and I know packed twelve
big time in that. Uh, they're huge, and that they've
won a bunch of was over two national championships in
(45:16):
various sports and all these other kinds of things. But
when revenue is the driving factor, non revenue gets left
in the cold for sure. I mean this you know,
people were talking about, well what does this U S
at USC what does this mean for their Olympic sports?
Because you obviously travel now is again they're not always
a lot of Olympic sports aren't flying private and they
might have to now because of travel. But like there's
(45:40):
no there was no thought about US softball having to
go play at Rutgers, Like there was no thought about that. Um,
they'll figure it out. My my guesses they'll take a
two week trip out east and the way that you
can do education now via zoom and via virtual you
don't have to be in the classroom maybe as much anymore. Uh. Um.
(46:00):
You know, players are used to travel and they're used
to working remotely, and they'll figure it out. But there
was no thought about that. They claim that the Big
Ten will give them concessions with travel. I don't even
know what that means. But you move the teams closer
to you, you know, meet in the middle. Like, I
don't know what concessions there are for travel in the
Olympic sports. Um. Again, I think it's probably gonna be
a thing where you just like you go out east
(46:21):
for two weeks, right, you play Maryland and Rutgers, and
you play Penn State, and then you play someone else
and then you fly back to l A for two weeks.
And you know that's probably what it what it ends
up being. Are you just maybe have a three week
stay in the in the East coast. Um that feels like,
but no one's worried about. No one's caring about that.
They're carrying about football and basketball, how much money you
(46:43):
can make. Um. And then obviously no, it doesn't hurt
that U C l A and potentially Stanford are organ
as well, and especially track and field are good at
those sports that that doesn't hurt them. But it's not
like organ is not going to the Big Ten because
they're good at tracking field. Um, they're going there because
of what they bring on football and basketball. Yeah, I
(47:04):
mean that's just a bonus on top of everything else.
I was saying that, Yeah, basketball and much bigger obviously
is football.
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