In a new episode of Project NIL with Anthony Gargano & William Penn Charter School Director of Athletics Danny DiBerardinis talk about the impact of private equity after the University of Utah approved a private equity deal for the athletic program, the sociological impact of high school players day to day lives in the transfer portal, & more!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, Happy holidays, everybody.
This is Project Nil with Danny the Bernardinas, the ad
for Penn Sharter High School, one of the oldest high
schools in the country. I'm Anthony Gargano from The Fellas
and we dive into Project NI. L and uh. By
(00:29):
the way, every goal starts with an assist on and
off the field. That's why heyleon at in US soccer,
launching for the Assists the celebration of everyday acts of
support that help people achieve their goals with iconic brands
like Centsinnine, voltairean Advil Centrum. To learn more, go to
(00:56):
Hellyon Assists dot com. Good morning, Danny, d what's going on?
Because how we doing? Baby? Good brother, good good good.
This is an interesting week in college and we got
a lot to go over today, all right, because I
want to go over private equity. Because private equity is here.
(01:21):
It's going to change the entire landscape of college sports,
and it's here in the great state of Utah. So
we're gonna touch on that. I want to touch on
this new phenomenon of high school kids now leaving their
states and going from school to school. Remind you anything,
(01:41):
just like college. All Right, I got some mail bag
stuff we're gonna get in the camps and we're gonna
get the whole bunch of stuff. So lots of go
over today during the show. Let's start my brother with
private equity. PE is in the college landscape, and it's here. Ah.
(02:01):
The more it's amazing every day, the more convoluted this
world gets.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
It's it's ever we always say every week, it's ever changing. Right,
we don't know what's gonna happen next. And this is
just another example of it. Utah is the University of
Utah is you know, merging or you know, having a
partnership with Otro, which is a capital private equity firm
to give an infusion of cash about five hundred million dollars,
(02:33):
which is crazy, right, Like I thought private equity might
come into the mid majors first, right, because they need
to find a way to compete.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
They might not have the boosters or they might not
have you know.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
The collectives to support these college programs and these nil deals.
I didn't think it would be at like a Power
five conference, right, because they have huge alumni bases and
they have money. So this is just a first domino
to fall. But it's gonna continue, right, I mean, they're in,
so we'll dive into.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
A little bit more.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
But it's it's something that I never foresaw, you know, happening,
and now it's here.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
So for I guess for layman terms, what we're talking
about is private equity groups come in and they basically
buy or lease. It's really a lease of the athletic
program and it's basically owners. Now I'd heard that some
(03:31):
of the bigger Power five schools were being looked at
by billionaires. Yeah, so if you look around at the
NFL and some of the groups like Josh Harris, say,
let's look at Harris Blitzer Entertainment. They own the Commanders.
They also own the Devils in the NHL and the
(03:53):
Sixers in the NBA. They also own a soccer team
and that's Yats. Harris is the UH is the chairman
of Harris Blitzer Entertainment. And like I, you know, I
had heard that they're they were looking into college that
you know that there's some there's some talk about the
(04:15):
billionaires and then the private equity firms going into colleges
and basically leasing their programs. So they would control everything
from parking into concessions to the gate right to they
would provide structure to the program, right, Like, so they
(04:35):
would own the football program. Now in Utah, you know that, Uh,
it's just it's just is it just football and basketball?
How's it working?
Speaker 3 (04:48):
So the private equity group, they're creating this entity called
Utah Brands and Entertainment LLC. So that will run all
the revenue generating operations through all their sports, so sponsorships, ticketing, licensing, media, hospitality, right,
all that stuff kind of like what owners do and
(05:10):
and you know professional sports, right yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's over payroll.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, so they're going to give this influx of cash
that's going to help you know, raise with you know,
help with the costs of arising and financial deficits due
to nil right, And it's like a revenue sharing, right,
it's going to offset it. So Utah's president and athletic
director will still control major decisions around coaches and operations,
(05:35):
you know, schedulings and student athletes, but.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
They're kinda in every other spot.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
So this firm will have hire a president that will
work hand in hand with the athletic director and president
in school. So it is there's a group, you know,
they they kind of have someone answer to. They're giving
them this huge influx of cash, you know, to help
them compete. But also like they're not doing it for anything.
(06:01):
It's not just some billionaire's given back to their school.
They're expecting returns on this money. Right, This is an
investment much like professional owners, right, like they buy the teams,
but they also do it because they have a passion
or love. But also they do it because it's a
really smart investment.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
These entities grow and have a much larger evaluation down
the end. So there are obviously a lot of opportunity
for UTAH, but also there's a lot of risk at
the same time.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, the risk is on the private equity, right, I
mean because look, what we're talking about basically is a
rev share of the conference money for TV. Right, Like,
that's your biggest check. So your biggest check is coming
from television and the conference is and it is a
(06:51):
novel thing too, because how soon until these private equity
people go wait a second, you know, we could join
the common for it's but you guys aren't going to
control who we are. There is gonna be a The
next thing is the CBA with the players, and then
within the within the order of the conference, because right
(07:15):
now the conference is making make it bank ye right right, Like, well,
who's to say to these teams like it? All they
are is a structure in the league, like the league
itself is its own entity.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, and they're gonna come in and help. Well, they're gonna,
you know, with these conferences, they're gonna have more of
a say. These firms are gonna come in with these
teams and they're gonna try to maximize the dollar. Right,
So there's gonna be the investors. You know, they think
there's so much more probably potential that they're not touching.
So that's also something that are gonna come in and say, hey,
like we're gonna help you grow this. We're gonna be
(07:52):
like your agent on this part. Right, We're gonna negotiate
with conferences. We're gonna negotiate these media deals for you.
We're gonna help you, you know, grow the revenue staff.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
We're going to help you grow the marketing branding teams.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Right, We're gonna help you be more strategic with your
an IL impact.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
On things.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So it's again a whole new world we're diving in
with a wild man, so much about it every single time,
and like so like the one question for me is
like what's the what's the oversight look like? Because this
is a new entity that might not have the same
like public reporting rules as a university. Right, so they're
super involved, but like where's the transparency, Like who's I mean,
(08:31):
there's governing bodies that I'm saying that loosely now, but
like who's to say like what what that looks like?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Right for them? Yeah? Well, all right, because like what
do you think the NCAA's gonna have power over these
over these private equity firms?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
That's what I'm saying, right, I mean that transparency question,
like where where does that look like?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, and now like here's the on the rasue right,
Like so these private equity firms now go all right,
you know there there's no real rules with salary cap yep.
So it's like anything else, it's gonna go wild. Like
(09:11):
so you get these players that are so good they're
gonna say, well, it's worth taking loss here because I'm
going to make it up with you know, my marketing
deals my shoe deals right, Like it is unbelievable, Like
we are living in a wild time, Like this is
(09:33):
the Like we we're living through the change of collegiate
sports in the most dramatic way. Like we're actually living
through I can't, I can't fat of it, Like we're
actually Like think about you're an athletic director, when you
(09:55):
first get into you're thirty seven years old. Think about
when you first came into the field. I mean, the
A D in college was like the god. Yeah, Like
the A D was the most powerful guy at the
university with the president, you know, I mean it was
(10:18):
legitimate president, but the A D wielded real power. Then
when sports blew up, like you go to these you
go to these a lot of these states, like look
at look at Louisiana.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yeah, who's who's the who's the power?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Right the governor? The governor's but they got you know,
because sports got so big that all of a sudden,
the governors evolved. Now you got private equity. So you go,
where's the A D. The A D is been neutered.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
I'm in Louisiana. We talked about it.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
The governor came out and said he didn't like the
contracts that he made. He was fired the next two
days later.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, you know, yeah, he didn't like the Brian Kelly contract.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Yeah, so and he said, I don't like the you know,
the Jimbo Fisher one. I liked Brian Kelly. So you
know what, he trashed them publicly and then two days later.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
The guys without a job.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
But another thing is like the university on paper, you know,
they have control, right, but revenue pressure increases the expectations.
You know, these investors timelines, right, they have these timelines
and expectations they're laying out for their for their company
that could, you know, clash with what the school academic
wants to do or how they want to invest their money, right,
(11:33):
they might those timelines have to match up, and then
these decisions are making now are going to be directly
influenced by these financial goals, which universities at its core
always didn't do.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Right.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
They obviously wanted to be profitable to have long term.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
But it was about education at one point, even though
like there was always like a well, you know, he's
taking basket weaving. That was like the big deal, like
in the nineties, right, like what classes is he really
taking hey is he? There was a movie written by
(12:10):
a great, great writer, great friend of mine, Ron Shelton.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Called Blue Chips Lot.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
All right, so Shaq Petty Hardaway, Uh the are it's
basically been Nick Nolty's a basketball coach and he takes
over like a U. C. L. A type of school,
and you know, like it's it's the card dealership. The
card dealer. Uh, the guy who owns five car dealerships.
Happy right, he's the he's the big money guy. He's
(12:40):
buying players. You know, he gets the he gets the
guy from Fritz Lick, Indiana, like the Larry Bird character
gives a fill the track there, you know, bag of cash.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Right like now like foresight look at that dude, right like,
look at he. They knew it, they knew it was coming.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Well, that was going on back in the day, like
LB right like like that like that was the nineties.
But when you think about it, it's almost like like
cute like Shaw, Well, look at the car dealer guy.
He's giving it away. You're giving some of some cars
and players. Now you're talking about millions of dollars, like
(13:20):
you're talking about real, real money to kids. And then
now the agents We're gonna have an agent on next
week and an il agent. I mean, this stuff is
this isn't like cute anymore. This is real big sports business. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Coach oh is on a podcast this week and he
said he was joking, but they so, he said, someone
asked me, like, how I'm gonna adapt to this nil error.
He goes, well, the main difference is I'm gonna walk
in the front door with the cash, not the back door.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, well it's true. Well it's true, but now the
catch it's just a bit right, and it's a it's
a big.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Fat check and I pay taxes on it.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Now, Yes, this isn't you know, Hey, you know I
got I gotta I got to ten dimes in the
bag and a brown bag. This isn't anything like that.
This is real money, real big business and television and
uh you know media deals like you know, when you
think about it, the media deal, the media deals for
(14:31):
some of the schools are huge. Like take Indiana, all right,
Like when you think about it, what's your competition? You
got the colts, you got because now you got the
whole state, right, you got the pacers And what's that
not a fever? A little bit the fever, right, right,
(14:53):
But you got no baseball and no hockey. Right in
the university it's still the biggest thing. Like you got
Notre Dame up north, but Indiana University's a big deal, right.
You know many people in that state you don't have
gone there. It means something. The brand that the colors,
(15:16):
you know, all that stuff means something. It's a valuable entity.
So the media rights, you know, Indiana, the media rights
are going to be worth more than the Pacers.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Oh for sure.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
I mean they just paid their coach, football coach who
whatever thought that a football coach in Indiana would be getting
a hundred million dollars, right, I mean Signetti, I mean
he is, like he's one of the best in the business.
But I never would have thought that Indiana football would
have that type of investment in it, right.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
But that just shows you the power these universities.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
The other question I have in is like what's the
trip the ripple down effect from this right to sports
in the youth world? And I some things is like,
you know, branding starts earlier. You know, we're rooting is
going to start earlier. These families are still going to
feel this pressure to treat now high schools like minor leagues.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
It used to be the college was like this, you know,
rev up to professional. Now it's going to start even
younger and younger.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
And I think for.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
High school and for people like me and my profession,
like transfers are still going to happen much more. There's
going to be people who have these questions about nil constantly,
right and have realistic and very unrealistic expectations of it.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
So I think this is this show is great because
we're trying to inform parents about this landscape which no
one really knows how it's changing. Like this is brand new.
We're winness in history, We're in history right now.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, so what and again that that trickle down effect
to the to the parents of these athletes, you know,
I mean, you know, one of the things I think
you need right away is representation. You're you're gonna have
the influx of private equity model sports that now that
(17:06):
means all right, well, now you've got the agents involved,
you know, like the expansion of the agency has to
be now involved, right, Like when you look at that, and.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Like, what what do I take away from this? Is
like schools are admitting.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
That this is broken.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Right, that the fact that they have to go out
and like basically show us part of it, right, Yeah,
and you know college athletics. It's it's we've talked about
each week. This is another step to be professional sports.
This is just another huge step into saying, hey, this
is a professional sports thing, right And what's next?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Right?
Speaker 3 (17:47):
We don't know, but it's it's continued to change, Like
there's what's the next thing is gonna drop?
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Who knows?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
You know? So, like, well, it's it's grown too big.
It's grown too big. Now you start to think about it.
Do these universities lose their tax execs? Like you know
there their tax eempt status? Right? Because now your your business? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Right, so how does that work? Right? Like how does
how do we govern this? Or how do we even
look at it?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Like it? Yeah, because you'll think it too is like
what happened to education?
Speaker 5 (18:18):
Man?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Like that's a real question.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
And we've talked about this one hundred percent before.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
One percent of high school athletes play at a high
level college.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
One percent of that make it pro. So it always
was fall back on your education, fall back on your network.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
You also have to yeah, you also have to value it, right.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Yeah, so like that or like going for fit right,
like going for what's best for you long term. This
nil money has people, you know, so driven on it
that those things are just getting pushed aside. And I'm
curious to see the impact of these kids who go
and chase his money and get some money, but not
life changing money to set them up for the rest
(18:57):
of their lives. How are they what do they fall
back on afterwards? Because we don't know yet because we
haven't seen it.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah, well, because you're also gone now you're gonna get
a degree from somewhere, you know, we presume that you're
gonna take it a little bit serious, and that's always
been in that case. It's just it's wild. We're gonna
take quick t o. I do want to get involved
in the trickle down effect of what we're seeing at
the college level to high school because suddenly the portal
(19:28):
is wide open in high school. It's just a little different.
We'll discuss that coming up next. Danny D the a
d I'm and the sports Dad. All right, this is
Project nil back in the moment.
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Back there, It's mighty Mark. Hey. Spirit Every goal starts
with an assist on and off the field. That's why
Haleon and US Soccer are launching for the Assist, a
celebration of everyday acts of support that help people achieve
their goals with iconic brands like Censidine, Tom's Voltaire, and
(21:00):
Adville Centrum. To learn more, go to haley On Assists
dot com. All right, I want to turn this into
I want to I want to actually address some of
the high school stuff going on off of this. So
we see the Professoral's ace of college and it's it's
only a matter of time before it trickles down to
(21:21):
high school. So here's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing a portal,
only in a different way. Kids leaving their high schools,
going out of state sometimes for what Danny d tell
us about this phenomenon.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah, they're no longer just transferring schools, right, They're relocating
teenagers and their lives, you know, because they think it's
going to set them up right. And you know, there's
a lot of different factors for it, right, why you know,
and there's so many different people in it, right. And
it's more so football and basketball, right, the two big
(21:58):
money driving sports.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
But kids are moving right before.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Season, during a season, you know, they're moving from Ohio
to California, right to these bigger states where there's a
lot of high level competition. So it's always it's happened
at a very small Equlip, but now it's growing, and
now it's happening more rapidly, and it's just a this
is a trickle down of this nil culture.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
So the montstory that you know has triggered this for
me is Tyron Stokes, number one basketball prospect in the country,
still uncommitted, elite basketball player, six seven sixty eight, two
hundred and twenty pounds, just you know, absolute specimen, just specimen.
But he was in California at Notre Dame Academy and
(22:48):
right before the basketball season started in November, he transferred
to Seattle, Washington to play for Jamal Crawford's high school
where he went and is like, you know, they just
named the gym after him and his son, JJ Crawford
is a freshman but an elite prospect as well, and
he moved literally mid midyear to another school and is
(23:11):
playing because he wanted he felt like he needed more exposure.
He's already number one player in the country, right, But
there's a lot of factors, like, you know, it's it's
the trainers, it's these circuit coaches, it's these you know,
brand people who are tied and there's so many different
people who have their hands out in this business. Because
it's more a business now than ever. Everyone wants a
(23:32):
piece of the pie, so they're pushing people for their
own you know, gain opposed to saying, hey, this is
a kid.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
What's best for him and his family? Right now.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
There's so many people who are trying to get a
piece of this pie, and it's it's scary for these
kids to navigate it.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
And if you don't have these if.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Your parents or your guardians, or you know, your circle
isn't aware or you know, isn't you know, isn't stable
enough for you.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
You're moving everywhere, You're all over the country, and you're.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Not you're not experiencing, you know, these great years of
your life because you're on the move.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
You're fifteen sixteen.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
I got a question about this thing. So if the
kids in Notre Dame, what do you where are you
going from there? It's like, that's a great school, plays
great competition.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Yeah, and you're in California. It's a great state.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
You know. That's my question. So what's the goal?
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Yeah, more exposure. I don't know, maybe being closer to Nike.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Like I don't know what what the factors are playing
Jamal Crawford, You're already the number one player in the country, right,
You're already in your senior year. You've four or five
months left of school, right, so why relocate at that time?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Right?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
So there's who knows what he's being told or who's
pushing this on him and his family. But it's crazy
to happen. I mean, you see it.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Kids are moving across country. We We've highlighted Chris Henry
multiple times. He's an elite you know, son of former
NFL player, I think, the best receiver in the country.
He's staying committed to Ohio State, but he's from Ohio.
His after his sophomore year he moved to California to
play for Modern Day. Moved across the country in high school. Right,
(25:20):
he would have been elite no matter what. But I'm
sure people said, hey, you got to play here, You'll
get on ESPN. Morris will help your progression. You need
to be around you know, this coach or that coach
and again the people involved in it.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
But what gets long, Llian?
Speaker 4 (25:34):
What does it mean?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Like what does it really mean? Like I guess that's
you know, uprooting and moving across the country. Like I
got a buddy of mine and I think you know
him who has a son who's a very good player.
He's a football player, very good player, and he's thinking
about moving to another state, right, And what happens to
(25:59):
like like like why what, why are you doing it like,
I I don't know why you would do it. You know,
I guess there's a chance that you're in a better state,
Like if the state's Texas, if it's football, does that
mean you're going to get bigger offers from bigger schools?
(26:22):
But man, it feels like a lot when you know
kids are good, If the kid is good, what do
we do it?
Speaker 3 (26:31):
And I think, you know, there's these rare scenarios that
it's like, hey, this really helped. But and I think
the majority is you get lost in the shuffle, right,
You're chasing something that's not there, and you might end
up playing less. You know, you're not you know, you're
going through this transition where you're you know, your life's
geting up rooted. You're not putting yourself in the best situation.
And what what gets lost in it is like these
(26:53):
are kids. They need stability. Right, You're going to a
new school, you're getting a new coach, you're gotting new teams,
you're living a new house. You have to figure out
how you're getting to him from school.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Right.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
It's disruptive for an adult. I can't imagine for a
teenager going through this.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
And this is not college, right, like where they're a
little bit more Look, and we know now I just
read a story that adolescence doesn't end until we're now
thirty one years old. Yeah, I just read this story,
so all right, so I get it. In college, it's
(27:30):
right a passage you know, for those who go away,
those who can, who can afford it and go away
and whatever. They go to college. They're eighteen years old,
you know, you're you're a kid, fifteen, sixteen, Like I
have a sixteen year old at home, right, he just
turned sixteen. There's no way in the world that he's
(27:53):
equipped to live without me or my wife. He can't
like you know, like he is school, right, he's a
good student, right, sports and it'll plays video games with
his buddies. That's his life, right. Yeah, when it comes
(28:15):
to food, you know, that's us right, clothing like just
you know, the teaching game, the way of the world.
He's not ready to be out by himself one hundred and.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
Like we talked about it earlier.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
At the education piece gets lost, right because curriculums are
different at schools. You're bouncing around like you're not really
fully getting experienced, and the reality that no one really
talks about is for every kid that jumps the rankings,
it's probably five extra.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
The kids will.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Disappear because they'll move, they'll sit, they'll transfer again, they'll
get burnt out. And now they're seventeen eighteen with you know,
like no network. Right we talk about I know, friends, friends, network,
Like how who you're going to rely on later in life?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Right, Like, now are seventeen with no.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Real home base, no real network to fall back on,
our you know community to to really connect to.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
And that's the most important.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
I mean, like me talked about it like I became
an ad very young. It was because of my network
and having the sense of community and being around you
know things. I got an opportunity.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
I was very blessed. But you lose all that when.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
You're when you're bouncing around, and for one kid that
is successful for it, there's probably twenty or thirty that
get lost in the shuffle.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah, I don't think it's healthy. I don't. I don't.
I don't see where I don't see what good it does.
Now the flip side is and let me let me
throw it. Because I did have this conversation with somebody else,
the hockey people, the hockey people when you're fourteen fifteen,
(29:55):
you're out playing juniors and you're living across the country.
Friends of mine from South Philly, all right, which is
a very tight neighborhood, you know, en clave hockey place, which.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
You wouldn't expect, big hockey community.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah. Uh. In fact, their son was playing out in
uh in Nebraska.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Bechican Minnesota, you know, yeah, people you know, Midwest. And
then also you know obviously it was closer to Canada, Michigan, right, yeah, Boston,
but he lives with a host family.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Another one from South Philly lives in Tri Cities, Yeah,
and lives with a host family. And they're like fifteen
years old. And I know what the mother. The mother
is like this old school kind of woman who's like
freaking out, flying out there every other week and bringing
(30:54):
pots of sauce. So uh, you know, my baby, my baby,
I mean, so the flip side is that, like, but
that isn't that kind of part of the culture, the
whole family, as opposed to the basketball football thing where
you're just leaving an uprooting the school and you're not
(31:14):
going some network of people.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
That's the hockey culture, and it's it's difficult to get
recruited out of these high schools because.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
Hockey is more of it.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
It's a niche sport in the United States. It's not
this you know where it is in different states or
you know, in Canada, So hockey to navigate it. You're
kind of pushed to do that to get a college
scholarship and if you play that level just because we
don't have the leagues to support it. Now, that's not
true for these bigger sports, right, Like hockey is very
you know, you know, it's very unique in that situation,
(31:44):
and I want to make it clear I don't I'm
not against moving, you know, like or I think it
works out sometimes, right, you know, I've been kind of
down on it, but you know, some moves absolutely make
sense and for some kids they need new environments and change.
But my thing is the system pushes this. It's like
a default solution now and that wasn't it, And that's
where it becomes dangerous. Before it wasn't this default you
(32:06):
have to do it, you know, it was you know,
if it's a fit or you know, there's a better
opportunity for you. My thing now is it's just becoming
a default situation. Or default solution. And that's where I
that's where my problem comes in with it.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yeah, I you know, I just I don't like robbing kids.
Is their childhood? Right, Like, especially when I don't know
what it does for you. I mean I think we
all have stars in your eyes their money.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Like are we building kids, players, people or building assets?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Right?
Speaker 4 (32:41):
That's the question, right, what are we doing right?
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Commodity is at the stage man, It's it's it's really
it's distressing.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
You move your family around and then like you might
get an nil deal for one hundred thousand hours. Great,
you have a huge head start, but you did all
that sacrifice and you moved and you kind of uprooted
your family, and I brought you your childhood.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
At the end of the day, it's you're not Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Mean you make you're done. You make your lifelong friends
in you know, high school, Like, what are we talking?
I had another question for you. We gotta take quick
to you. But I've already seen this, like we're seeing professionalization.
How long does it the filter down the high school?
(33:27):
Will we see a national high school league? I'll explain
and ants Danny coming up next, This is Project nil
Danny d the A D. Penn Charter or the oldest
high schools in the country. I'll Manethondy gar Gantta fellas
are coming up next as that we hang out here
(33:47):
on Fox Sports Radio. All right, welcome back. This is
Project Ni L Danny de Bernadine. That's the A D
Danny D D A D. I'm Anthony Gargana, year resident
sports Dad. Hey for the best pregame shows every weekend.
I'm sure to tune into Fox Sports Radios Countdown the
(34:08):
Kickoff presented by BETMGM every Saturday and Sunday morning, going
to count you down to all the biggest games for
three hours right up until kickoff, for all the best
plays and up to the second injury news tuned into
Countdown to Kickoff, presented by BETMGM every Saturday and Sunday
morning right here on Fox Sports Radio on the iHeartRadio app.
(34:28):
All right, Dan, I gotta run this by you so
a lot and you and I both did another show,
my local show, and we looked at two local Philadelphia
teams that won the state championship. We talked to their
coaches and both those teams play a national schedule. So
(34:50):
there's a handful of programs in every city region that
play a national schedule that will play the big schools
you know Florida, Texas, neighboring states. How soon until there
is like a national kind of league and they just
(35:14):
play a national a national schedule that then gets a
TV deal.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Yeah, I mean, it's kind of already happening, especially in basketball.
There's these national you know tournaments at the end of
this year with the Geico and you know Geico, you
know big basketball tournaments in New York where they invite
the sixteen top you know prep schools in the country
to come. There's national prep events. So like the teams
(35:41):
like the Mount Verbs, the IMGs, Sierra Canyon's prolific Prep
Link Academy, Oakhill. Right, there's these teams that recruit nationally,
they can board, they travel nationally, and they play only
national games. That's kind of already happening in that level.
It's a small group of teams, but they're basically a
national league without saying it's the power league. It's difficult
(36:04):
for teams to afford it consistently. So like the teams
we just talked about, they play two or three non
league games where they travel like that probably one hundred schools,
maybe one hundred and fifty schools high schools in the
country are able to do that. But it's a large investment.
I mean, I'm at my previous stop at Saint Geoege Prep.
When we would play these national games. It's one hundred k.
(36:26):
You have to fly kids out. You know, you're flying
eighty to one hundred kids, You're putting them up in
a hotel for three four days, you're feeding them. It's
a large investment. Now that being said, are these people
gonna get behind it. There's gonna be money that's gonna
you know, continue to push it.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Well, I mean I could draw it out for you, like,
you know, I can go grab one hundred the top.
I don't know what's that called sixty. Let's start with
sixty of the biggest schools. Now there's predominantly It is
only interesting too because they're private schools. A lot of
(37:04):
them are Catholic schools. Right, So you have these schools
and then you go, you know, have an agreement, and
then you go to TV and you go, listen, we
want to create the first national This is an American entity,
the National High School Football League, And we're going to
(37:25):
go to you know, Fox one is going to televise
it and we're going to cover this stuff. Just thought
it I means no, but but I got news for you,
like I would watch it.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Yeah, oh, I would watch it one hundred percent. Right,
the thing that the hurdles are.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Forbid, I just started thinking about the you know, then
I'll be sport the sports books on it like crazy, No,
you're right to travel. The travel is a big deal.
But like you you would have division like anything else.
So you know, let's stay East coast so you know, uh, Philadelphia, Meryl,
(38:07):
you know, Baltimore, Maryland, Delaware, Jersey, like you have those
regions and then then you have a national playoffs for sure. No,
I mean it's I mean your trips.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
At one point, it was a crazy thought that would
it's it's you know, it seems like it's trending that
way because there's just so much money. And again we
talked about it just being this billion dollar industry U sports,
so just going to continue to trickle down. I'd be
curious to see how it all shakes out. But again,
like this weekend, just in and down in d C.
(38:43):
They're having one of the biggest high school showcases at
the Matho.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
They have teams to Mathews Legendary Legendary school basketball.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Yeah, and they host this event.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
It's a showcase where IMG Prolific Prep Oak Hill was
the Tide from Utah.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
They're all coming in for just a showcase. They're flying
in from all over the country and it's down d C.
And there's a lot of local schools that play at Philly,
New York, you know, a lot of at Florida.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
But then we're getting teach from Utah, California, you know,
like crazy that teams fly in for the showcase.
Speaker 4 (39:13):
So just kind of touching on that.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Well, here you go. I mean the travel, we go
to the shoe companies. Yeah, I mean you're gonna get sponsorships.
It's like everything else. How does the college trump they're
big ten is in. It's from usc U c l
A to rud Curse, right, and they're playing in every sport.
(39:40):
So how does that happen? Right, it's the same model,
only of smaller one. But that's that's only Horizon Dan d.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
I know, it's again we're witnessing history and we're going
through things that are just happening for the first time ever.
Speaker 4 (39:56):
And you know we're here. We got a front row
seat for it.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
We too.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
It is.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
It's amazing to me, it's unbelievable. Uh, it's such a
fascinating world.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
We'll continue to do with Danny. Do you have a
great week, my brother, They love you, guys. Stay tuned.
Me and Schwartzey come up next
You don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, Happy holidays, everybody.
This is Project Nil with Danny the Bernardinas, the ad
for Penn Sharter High School, one of the oldest high
schools in the country. I'm Anthony Gargano from The Fellas
and we dive into Project NI. L and uh. By
(00:29):
the way, every goal starts with an assist on and
off the field. That's why heyleon at in US soccer,
launching for the Assists the celebration of everyday acts of
support that help people achieve their goals with iconic brands
like Centsinnine, voltairean Advil Centrum. To learn more, go to
(00:56):
Hellyon Assists dot com. Good morning, Danny, d what's going on?
Because how we doing? Baby? Good brother, good good good.
This is an interesting week in college and we got
a lot to go over today, all right, because I
want to go over private equity. Because private equity is here.
(01:21):
It's going to change the entire landscape of college sports,
and it's here in the great state of Utah. So
we're gonna touch on that. I want to touch on
this new phenomenon of high school kids now leaving their
states and going from school to school. Remind you anything,
(01:41):
just like college. All Right, I got some mail bag
stuff we're gonna get in the camps and we're gonna
get the whole bunch of stuff. So lots of go
over today during the show. Let's start my brother with
private equity. PE is in the college landscape, and it's here. Ah.
(02:01):
The more it's amazing every day, the more convoluted this
world gets.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
It's it's ever we always say every week, it's ever changing. Right,
we don't know what's gonna happen next. And this is
just another example of it. Utah is the University of
Utah is you know, merging or you know, having a
partnership with Otro, which is a capital private equity firm
to give an infusion of cash about five hundred million dollars,
(02:33):
which is crazy, right, Like I thought private equity might
come into the mid majors first, right, because they need
to find a way to compete.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
They might not have the boosters or they might not
have you know.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
The collectives to support these college programs and these nil deals.
I didn't think it would be at like a Power
five conference, right, because they have huge alumni bases and
they have money. So this is just a first domino
to fall. But it's gonna continue, right, I mean, they're in,
so we'll dive into.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
A little bit more.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
But it's it's something that I never foresaw, you know, happening,
and now it's here.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
So for I guess for layman terms, what we're talking
about is private equity groups come in and they basically
buy or lease. It's really a lease of the athletic
program and it's basically owners. Now I'd heard that some
(03:31):
of the bigger Power five schools were being looked at
by billionaires. Yeah, so if you look around at the
NFL and some of the groups like Josh Harris, say,
let's look at Harris Blitzer Entertainment. They own the Commanders.
They also own the Devils in the NHL and the
(03:53):
Sixers in the NBA. They also own a soccer team
and that's Yats. Harris is the UH is the chairman
of Harris Blitzer Entertainment. And like I, you know, I
had heard that they're they were looking into college that
you know that there's some there's some talk about the
(04:15):
billionaires and then the private equity firms going into colleges
and basically leasing their programs. So they would control everything
from parking into concessions to the gate right to they
would provide structure to the program, right, Like, so they
(04:35):
would own the football program. Now in Utah, you know that, Uh,
it's just it's just is it just football and basketball?
How's it working?
Speaker 3 (04:48):
So the private equity group, they're creating this entity called
Utah Brands and Entertainment LLC. So that will run all
the revenue generating operations through all their sports, so sponsorships, ticketing, licensing, media, hospitality, right,
all that stuff kind of like what owners do and
(05:10):
and you know professional sports, right yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's over payroll.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, so they're going to give this influx of cash
that's going to help you know, raise with you know,
help with the costs of arising and financial deficits due
to nil right, And it's like a revenue sharing, right,
it's going to offset it. So Utah's president and athletic
director will still control major decisions around coaches and operations,
(05:35):
you know, schedulings and student athletes, but.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
They're kinda in every other spot.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
So this firm will have hire a president that will
work hand in hand with the athletic director and president
in school. So it is there's a group, you know,
they they kind of have someone answer to. They're giving
them this huge influx of cash, you know, to help
them compete. But also like they're not doing it for anything.
(06:01):
It's not just some billionaire's given back to their school.
They're expecting returns on this money. Right, This is an
investment much like professional owners, right, like they buy the teams,
but they also do it because they have a passion
or love. But also they do it because it's a
really smart investment.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
These entities grow and have a much larger evaluation down
the end. So there are obviously a lot of opportunity
for UTAH, but also there's a lot of risk at
the same time.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, the risk is on the private equity, right, I
mean because look, what we're talking about basically is a
rev share of the conference money for TV. Right, Like,
that's your biggest check. So your biggest check is coming
from television and the conference is and it is a
(06:51):
novel thing too, because how soon until these private equity
people go wait a second, you know, we could join
the common for it's but you guys aren't going to
control who we are. There is gonna be a The
next thing is the CBA with the players, and then
within the within the order of the conference, because right
(07:15):
now the conference is making make it bank ye right right, Like, well,
who's to say to these teams like it? All they
are is a structure in the league, like the league
itself is its own entity.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, and they're gonna come in and help. Well, they're gonna,
you know, with these conferences, they're gonna have more of
a say. These firms are gonna come in with these
teams and they're gonna try to maximize the dollar. Right,
So there's gonna be the investors. You know, they think
there's so much more probably potential that they're not touching.
So that's also something that are gonna come in and say, hey,
like we're gonna help you grow this. We're gonna be
(07:52):
like your agent on this part. Right, We're gonna negotiate
with conferences. We're gonna negotiate these media deals for you.
We're gonna help you, you know, grow the revenue staff.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
We're going to help you grow the marketing branding teams.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Right, We're gonna help you be more strategic with your
an IL impact.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
On things.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So it's again a whole new world we're diving in
with a wild man, so much about it every single time,
and like so like the one question for me is
like what's the what's the oversight look like? Because this
is a new entity that might not have the same
like public reporting rules as a university. Right, so they're
super involved, but like where's the transparency, Like who's I mean,
(08:31):
there's governing bodies that I'm saying that loosely now, but
like who's to say like what what that looks like?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Right for them? Yeah? Well, all right, because like what
do you think the NCAA's gonna have power over these
over these private equity firms?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
That's what I'm saying, right, I mean that transparency question,
like where where does that look like?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, and now like here's the on the rasue right,
Like so these private equity firms now go all right,
you know there there's no real rules with salary cap yep.
So it's like anything else, it's gonna go wild. Like
(09:11):
so you get these players that are so good they're
gonna say, well, it's worth taking loss here because I'm
going to make it up with you know, my marketing
deals my shoe deals right, Like it is unbelievable, Like
we are living in a wild time, Like this is
(09:33):
the Like we we're living through the change of collegiate
sports in the most dramatic way. Like we're actually living
through I can't, I can't fat of it, Like we're
actually Like think about you're an athletic director, when you
(09:55):
first get into you're thirty seven years old. Think about
when you first came into the field. I mean, the
A D in college was like the god. Yeah, Like
the A D was the most powerful guy at the
university with the president, you know, I mean it was
(10:18):
legitimate president, but the A D wielded real power. Then
when sports blew up, like you go to these you
go to these a lot of these states, like look
at look at Louisiana.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yeah, who's who's the who's the power?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Right the governor? The governor's but they got you know,
because sports got so big that all of a sudden,
the governors evolved. Now you got private equity. So you go,
where's the A D. The A D is been neutered.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
I'm in Louisiana. We talked about it.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
The governor came out and said he didn't like the
contracts that he made. He was fired the next two
days later.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, you know, yeah, he didn't like the Brian Kelly contract.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Yeah, so and he said, I don't like the you know,
the Jimbo Fisher one. I liked Brian Kelly. So you
know what, he trashed them publicly and then two days later.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
The guys without a job.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
But another thing is like the university on paper, you know,
they have control, right, but revenue pressure increases the expectations.
You know, these investors timelines, right, they have these timelines
and expectations they're laying out for their for their company
that could, you know, clash with what the school academic
wants to do or how they want to invest their money, right,
(11:33):
they might those timelines have to match up, and then
these decisions are making now are going to be directly
influenced by these financial goals, which universities at its core
always didn't do.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Right.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
They obviously wanted to be profitable to have long term.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
But it was about education at one point, even though
like there was always like a well, you know, he's
taking basket weaving. That was like the big deal, like
in the nineties, right, like what classes is he really
taking hey is he? There was a movie written by
(12:10):
a great, great writer, great friend of mine, Ron Shelton.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Called Blue Chips Lot.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
All right, so Shaq Petty Hardaway, Uh the are it's
basically been Nick Nolty's a basketball coach and he takes
over like a U. C. L. A type of school,
and you know, like it's it's the card dealership. The
card dealer. Uh, the guy who owns five car dealerships.
Happy right, he's the he's the big money guy. He's
(12:40):
buying players. You know, he gets the he gets the
guy from Fritz Lick, Indiana, like the Larry Bird character
gives a fill the track there, you know, bag of cash.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Right like now like foresight look at that dude, right like,
look at he. They knew it, they knew it was coming.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Well, that was going on back in the day, like
LB right like like that like that was the nineties.
But when you think about it, it's almost like like
cute like Shaw, Well, look at the car dealer guy.
He's giving it away. You're giving some of some cars
and players. Now you're talking about millions of dollars, like
(13:20):
you're talking about real, real money to kids. And then
now the agents We're gonna have an agent on next
week and an il agent. I mean, this stuff is
this isn't like cute anymore. This is real big sports business. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Coach oh is on a podcast this week and he
said he was joking, but they so, he said, someone
asked me, like, how I'm gonna adapt to this nil error.
He goes, well, the main difference is I'm gonna walk
in the front door with the cash, not the back door.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, well it's true. Well it's true, but now the
catch it's just a bit right, and it's a it's
a big.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Fat check and I pay taxes on it.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Now, Yes, this isn't you know, Hey, you know I
got I gotta I got to ten dimes in the
bag and a brown bag. This isn't anything like that.
This is real money, real big business and television and
uh you know media deals like you know, when you
think about it, the media deal, the media deals for
(14:31):
some of the schools are huge. Like take Indiana, all right,
Like when you think about it, what's your competition? You
got the colts, you got because now you got the
whole state, right, you got the pacers And what's that
not a fever? A little bit the fever, right, right,
(14:53):
But you got no baseball and no hockey. Right in
the university it's still the biggest thing. Like you got
Notre Dame up north, but Indiana University's a big deal, right.
You know many people in that state you don't have
gone there. It means something. The brand that the colors,
(15:16):
you know, all that stuff means something. It's a valuable entity.
So the media rights, you know, Indiana, the media rights
are going to be worth more than the Pacers.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Oh for sure.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
I mean they just paid their coach, football coach who
whatever thought that a football coach in Indiana would be getting
a hundred million dollars, right, I mean Signetti, I mean
he is, like he's one of the best in the business.
But I never would have thought that Indiana football would
have that type of investment in it, right.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
But that just shows you the power these universities.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
The other question I have in is like what's the
trip the ripple down effect from this right to sports
in the youth world? And I some things is like,
you know, branding starts earlier. You know, we're rooting is
going to start earlier. These families are still going to
feel this pressure to treat now high schools like minor leagues.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
It used to be the college was like this, you know,
rev up to professional. Now it's going to start even
younger and younger.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
And I think for.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
High school and for people like me and my profession,
like transfers are still going to happen much more. There's
going to be people who have these questions about nil constantly,
right and have realistic and very unrealistic expectations of it.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
So I think this is this show is great because
we're trying to inform parents about this landscape which no
one really knows how it's changing. Like this is brand new.
We're winness in history, We're in history right now.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, so what and again that that trickle down effect
to the to the parents of these athletes, you know,
I mean, you know, one of the things I think
you need right away is representation. You're you're gonna have
the influx of private equity model sports that now that
(17:06):
means all right, well, now you've got the agents involved,
you know, like the expansion of the agency has to
be now involved, right, Like when you look at that, and.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Like, what what do I take away from this? Is
like schools are admitting.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
That this is broken.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Right, that the fact that they have to go out
and like basically show us part of it, right, Yeah,
and you know college athletics. It's it's we've talked about
each week. This is another step to be professional sports.
This is just another huge step into saying, hey, this
is a professional sports thing, right And what's next?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Right?
Speaker 3 (17:47):
We don't know, but it's it's continued to change, Like
there's what's the next thing is gonna drop?
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Who knows?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
You know? So, like, well, it's it's grown too big.
It's grown too big. Now you start to think about it.
Do these universities lose their tax execs? Like you know
there their tax eempt status? Right? Because now your your business? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Right, so how does that work? Right? Like how does
how do we govern this? Or how do we even
look at it?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Like it? Yeah, because you'll think it too is like
what happened to education?
Speaker 5 (18:18):
Man?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Like that's a real question.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
And we've talked about this one hundred percent before.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
One percent of high school athletes play at a high
level college.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
One percent of that make it pro. So it always
was fall back on your education, fall back on your network.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
You also have to yeah, you also have to value it, right.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Yeah, so like that or like going for fit right,
like going for what's best for you long term. This
nil money has people, you know, so driven on it
that those things are just getting pushed aside. And I'm
curious to see the impact of these kids who go
and chase his money and get some money, but not
life changing money to set them up for the rest
(18:57):
of their lives. How are they what do they fall
back on afterwards? Because we don't know yet because we
haven't seen it.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah, well, because you're also gone now you're gonna get
a degree from somewhere, you know, we presume that you're
gonna take it a little bit serious, and that's always
been in that case. It's just it's wild. We're gonna
take quick t o. I do want to get involved
in the trickle down effect of what we're seeing at
the college level to high school because suddenly the portal
(19:28):
is wide open in high school. It's just a little different.
We'll discuss that coming up next. Danny D the a
d I'm and the sports Dad. All right, this is
Project nil back in the moment.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
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Speaker 4 (20:31):
Is killing it with the tunes again.
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Back there, It's mighty Mark. Hey. Spirit Every goal starts
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Haleon and US Soccer are launching for the Assist, a
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(21:00):
Adville Centrum. To learn more, go to haley On Assists
dot com. All right, I want to turn this into
I want to I want to actually address some of
the high school stuff going on off of this. So
we see the Professoral's ace of college and it's it's
only a matter of time before it trickles down to
(21:21):
high school. So here's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing a portal,
only in a different way. Kids leaving their high schools,
going out of state sometimes for what Danny d tell
us about this phenomenon.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah, they're no longer just transferring schools, right, They're relocating
teenagers and their lives, you know, because they think it's
going to set them up right. And you know, there's
a lot of different factors for it, right, why you know,
and there's so many different people in it, right. And
it's more so football and basketball, right, the two big
(21:58):
money driving sports.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
But kids are moving right before.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Season, during a season, you know, they're moving from Ohio
to California, right to these bigger states where there's a
lot of high level competition. So it's always it's happened
at a very small Equlip, but now it's growing, and
now it's happening more rapidly, and it's just a this
is a trickle down of this nil culture.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
So the montstory that you know has triggered this for
me is Tyron Stokes, number one basketball prospect in the country,
still uncommitted, elite basketball player, six seven sixty eight, two
hundred and twenty pounds, just you know, absolute specimen, just specimen.
But he was in California at Notre Dame Academy and
(22:48):
right before the basketball season started in November, he transferred
to Seattle, Washington to play for Jamal Crawford's high school
where he went and is like, you know, they just
named the gym after him and his son, JJ Crawford
is a freshman but an elite prospect as well, and
he moved literally mid midyear to another school and is
(23:11):
playing because he wanted he felt like he needed more exposure.
He's already number one player in the country, right, But
there's a lot of factors, like, you know, it's it's
the trainers, it's these circuit coaches, it's these you know,
brand people who are tied and there's so many different
people who have their hands out in this business. Because
it's more a business now than ever. Everyone wants a
(23:32):
piece of the pie, so they're pushing people for their
own you know, gain opposed to saying, hey, this is
a kid.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
What's best for him and his family? Right now.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
There's so many people who are trying to get a
piece of this pie, and it's it's scary for these
kids to navigate it.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
And if you don't have these if.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Your parents or your guardians, or you know, your circle
isn't aware or you know, isn't you know, isn't stable
enough for you.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
You're moving everywhere, You're all over the country, and you're.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Not you're not experiencing, you know, these great years of
your life because you're on the move.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
You're fifteen sixteen.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
I got a question about this thing. So if the
kids in Notre Dame, what do you where are you
going from there? It's like, that's a great school, plays
great competition.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Yeah, and you're in California. It's a great state.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
You know. That's my question. So what's the goal?
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Yeah, more exposure. I don't know, maybe being closer to Nike.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Like I don't know what what the factors are playing
Jamal Crawford, You're already the number one player in the country, right,
You're already in your senior year. You've four or five
months left of school, right, so why relocate at that time?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Right?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
So there's who knows what he's being told or who's
pushing this on him and his family. But it's crazy
to happen. I mean, you see it.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Kids are moving across country. We We've highlighted Chris Henry
multiple times. He's an elite you know, son of former
NFL player, I think, the best receiver in the country.
He's staying committed to Ohio State, but he's from Ohio.
His after his sophomore year he moved to California to
play for Modern Day. Moved across the country in high school. Right,
(25:20):
he would have been elite no matter what. But I'm
sure people said, hey, you got to play here, You'll
get on ESPN. Morris will help your progression. You need
to be around you know, this coach or that coach
and again the people involved in it.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
But what gets long, Llian?
Speaker 4 (25:34):
What does it mean?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Like what does it really mean? Like I guess that's
you know, uprooting and moving across the country. Like I
got a buddy of mine and I think you know
him who has a son who's a very good player.
He's a football player, very good player, and he's thinking
about moving to another state, right, And what happens to
(25:59):
like like like why what, why are you doing it like,
I I don't know why you would do it. You know,
I guess there's a chance that you're in a better state,
Like if the state's Texas, if it's football, does that
mean you're going to get bigger offers from bigger schools?
(26:22):
But man, it feels like a lot when you know
kids are good, If the kid is good, what do
we do it?
Speaker 3 (26:31):
And I think, you know, there's these rare scenarios that
it's like, hey, this really helped. But and I think
the majority is you get lost in the shuffle, right,
You're chasing something that's not there, and you might end
up playing less. You know, you're not you know, you're
going through this transition where you're you know, your life's
geting up rooted. You're not putting yourself in the best situation.
And what what gets lost in it is like these
(26:53):
are kids. They need stability. Right, You're going to a
new school, you're getting a new coach, you're gotting new teams,
you're living a new house. You have to figure out
how you're getting to him from school.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Right.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
It's disruptive for an adult. I can't imagine for a
teenager going through this.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
And this is not college, right, like where they're a
little bit more Look, and we know now I just
read a story that adolescence doesn't end until we're now
thirty one years old. Yeah, I just read this story,
so all right, so I get it. In college, it's
(27:30):
right a passage you know, for those who go away,
those who can, who can afford it and go away
and whatever. They go to college. They're eighteen years old,
you know, you're you're a kid, fifteen, sixteen, Like I
have a sixteen year old at home, right, he just
turned sixteen. There's no way in the world that he's
(27:53):
equipped to live without me or my wife. He can't
like you know, like he is school, right, he's a
good student, right, sports and it'll plays video games with
his buddies. That's his life, right. Yeah, when it comes
(28:15):
to food, you know, that's us right, clothing like just
you know, the teaching game, the way of the world.
He's not ready to be out by himself one hundred and.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
Like we talked about it earlier.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
At the education piece gets lost, right because curriculums are
different at schools. You're bouncing around like you're not really
fully getting experienced, and the reality that no one really
talks about is for every kid that jumps the rankings,
it's probably five extra.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
The kids will.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Disappear because they'll move, they'll sit, they'll transfer again, they'll
get burnt out. And now they're seventeen eighteen with you know,
like no network. Right we talk about I know, friends, friends, network,
Like how who you're going to rely on later in life?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Right, Like, now are seventeen with no.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Real home base, no real network to fall back on,
our you know community to to really connect to.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
And that's the most important.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
I mean, like me talked about it like I became
an ad very young. It was because of my network
and having the sense of community and being around you
know things. I got an opportunity.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
I was very blessed. But you lose all that when.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
You're when you're bouncing around, and for one kid that
is successful for it, there's probably twenty or thirty that
get lost in the shuffle.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah, I don't think it's healthy. I don't. I don't.
I don't see where I don't see what good it does.
Now the flip side is and let me let me
throw it. Because I did have this conversation with somebody else,
the hockey people, the hockey people when you're fourteen fifteen,
(29:55):
you're out playing juniors and you're living across the country.
Friends of mine from South Philly, all right, which is
a very tight neighborhood, you know, en clave hockey place, which.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
You wouldn't expect, big hockey community.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah. Uh. In fact, their son was playing out in
uh in Nebraska.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Bechican Minnesota, you know, yeah, people you know, Midwest. And
then also you know obviously it was closer to Canada, Michigan, right, yeah, Boston,
but he lives with a host family.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Another one from South Philly lives in Tri Cities, Yeah,
and lives with a host family. And they're like fifteen
years old. And I know what the mother. The mother
is like this old school kind of woman who's like
freaking out, flying out there every other week and bringing
(30:54):
pots of sauce. So uh, you know, my baby, my baby,
I mean, so the flip side is that, like, but
that isn't that kind of part of the culture, the
whole family, as opposed to the basketball football thing where
you're just leaving an uprooting the school and you're not
(31:14):
going some network of people.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
That's the hockey culture, and it's it's difficult to get
recruited out of these high schools because.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
Hockey is more of it.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
It's a niche sport in the United States. It's not
this you know where it is in different states or
you know, in Canada, So hockey to navigate it. You're
kind of pushed to do that to get a college
scholarship and if you play that level just because we
don't have the leagues to support it. Now, that's not
true for these bigger sports, right, Like hockey is very
you know, you know, it's very unique in that situation,
(31:44):
and I want to make it clear I don't I'm
not against moving, you know, like or I think it
works out sometimes, right, you know, I've been kind of
down on it, but you know, some moves absolutely make
sense and for some kids they need new environments and change.
But my thing is the system pushes this. It's like
a default solution now and that wasn't it, And that's
where it becomes dangerous. Before it wasn't this default you
(32:06):
have to do it, you know, it was you know,
if it's a fit or you know, there's a better
opportunity for you. My thing now is it's just becoming
a default situation. Or default solution. And that's where I
that's where my problem comes in with it.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yeah, I you know, I just I don't like robbing kids.
Is their childhood? Right, Like, especially when I don't know
what it does for you. I mean I think we
all have stars in your eyes their money.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Like are we building kids, players, people or building assets?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Right?
Speaker 4 (32:41):
That's the question, right, what are we doing right?
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Commodity is at the stage man, It's it's it's really
it's distressing.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
You move your family around and then like you might
get an nil deal for one hundred thousand hours. Great,
you have a huge head start, but you did all
that sacrifice and you moved and you kind of uprooted
your family, and I brought you your childhood.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
At the end of the day, it's you're not Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Mean you make you're done. You make your lifelong friends
in you know, high school, Like, what are we talking?
I had another question for you. We gotta take quick
to you. But I've already seen this, like we're seeing professionalization.
How long does it the filter down the high school?
(33:27):
Will we see a national high school league? I'll explain
and ants Danny coming up next, This is Project nil
Danny d the A D. Penn Charter or the oldest
high schools in the country. I'll Manethondy gar Gantta fellas
are coming up next as that we hang out here
(33:47):
on Fox Sports Radio. All right, welcome back. This is
Project Ni L Danny de Bernadine. That's the A D
Danny D D A D. I'm Anthony Gargana, year resident
sports Dad. Hey for the best pregame shows every weekend.
I'm sure to tune into Fox Sports Radios Countdown the
(34:08):
Kickoff presented by BETMGM every Saturday and Sunday morning, going
to count you down to all the biggest games for
three hours right up until kickoff, for all the best
plays and up to the second injury news tuned into
Countdown to Kickoff, presented by BETMGM every Saturday and Sunday
morning right here on Fox Sports Radio on the iHeartRadio app.
(34:28):
All right, Dan, I gotta run this by you so
a lot and you and I both did another show,
my local show, and we looked at two local Philadelphia
teams that won the state championship. We talked to their
coaches and both those teams play a national schedule. So
(34:50):
there's a handful of programs in every city region that
play a national schedule that will play the big schools
you know Florida, Texas, neighboring states. How soon until there
is like a national kind of league and they just
(35:14):
play a national a national schedule that then gets a
TV deal.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Yeah, I mean, it's kind of already happening, especially in basketball.
There's these national you know tournaments at the end of
this year with the Geico and you know Geico, you
know big basketball tournaments in New York where they invite
the sixteen top you know prep schools in the country
to come. There's national prep events. So like the teams
(35:41):
like the Mount Verbs, the IMGs, Sierra Canyon's prolific Prep
Link Academy, Oakhill. Right, there's these teams that recruit nationally,
they can board, they travel nationally, and they play only
national games. That's kind of already happening in that level.
It's a small group of teams, but they're basically a
national league without saying it's the power league. It's difficult
(36:04):
for teams to afford it consistently. So like the teams
we just talked about, they play two or three non
league games where they travel like that probably one hundred schools,
maybe one hundred and fifty schools high schools in the
country are able to do that. But it's a large investment.
I mean, I'm at my previous stop at Saint Geoege Prep.
When we would play these national games. It's one hundred k.
(36:26):
You have to fly kids out. You know, you're flying
eighty to one hundred kids, You're putting them up in
a hotel for three four days, you're feeding them. It's
a large investment. Now that being said, are these people
gonna get behind it. There's gonna be money that's gonna
you know, continue to push it.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Well, I mean I could draw it out for you, like,
you know, I can go grab one hundred the top.
I don't know what's that called sixty. Let's start with
sixty of the biggest schools. Now there's predominantly It is
only interesting too because they're private schools. A lot of
(37:04):
them are Catholic schools. Right, So you have these schools
and then you go, you know, have an agreement, and
then you go to TV and you go, listen, we
want to create the first national This is an American entity,
the National High School Football League, And we're going to
(37:25):
go to you know, Fox one is going to televise
it and we're going to cover this stuff. Just thought
it I means no, but but I got news for you,
like I would watch it.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Yeah, oh, I would watch it one hundred percent. Right,
the thing that the hurdles are.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Forbid, I just started thinking about the you know, then
I'll be sport the sports books on it like crazy, No,
you're right to travel. The travel is a big deal.
But like you you would have division like anything else.
So you know, let's stay East coast so you know, uh, Philadelphia, Meryl,
(38:07):
you know, Baltimore, Maryland, Delaware, Jersey, like you have those
regions and then then you have a national playoffs for sure. No,
I mean it's I mean your trips.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
At one point, it was a crazy thought that would
it's it's you know, it seems like it's trending that
way because there's just so much money. And again we
talked about it just being this billion dollar industry U sports,
so just going to continue to trickle down. I'd be
curious to see how it all shakes out. But again,
like this weekend, just in and down in d C.
(38:43):
They're having one of the biggest high school showcases at
the Matho.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
They have teams to Mathews Legendary Legendary school basketball.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Yeah, and they host this event.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
It's a showcase where IMG Prolific Prep Oak Hill was
the Tide from Utah.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
They're all coming in for just a showcase. They're flying
in from all over the country and it's down d C.
And there's a lot of local schools that play at Philly,
New York, you know, a lot of at Florida.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
But then we're getting teach from Utah, California, you know,
like crazy that teams fly in for the showcase.
Speaker 4 (39:13):
So just kind of touching on that.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Well, here you go. I mean the travel, we go
to the shoe companies. Yeah, I mean you're gonna get sponsorships.
It's like everything else. How does the college trump they're
big ten is in. It's from usc U c l
A to rud Curse, right, and they're playing in every sport.
(39:40):
So how does that happen? Right, it's the same model,
only of smaller one. But that's that's only Horizon Dan d.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
I know, it's again we're witnessing history and we're going
through things that are just happening for the first time ever.
Speaker 4 (39:56):
And you know we're here. We got a front row
seat for it.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
We too.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
It is.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
It's amazing to me, it's unbelievable. Uh, it's such a
fascinating world.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
We'll continue to do with Danny. Do you have a
great week, my brother, They love you, guys. Stay tuned.
Me and Schwartzey come up next
Fox Sports Radio News
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Jonas Knox
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