December 27, 2025 • 40 mins
In a new episode of Project NIL with Anthony Gargano & William Penn Charter School Director of Athletics Danny DiBerardinis discuss the wild west of NIL and the transfer portal in big programs vs small programs, how Congress plans to intervene and much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You don't listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Happy happy, Uh Saturday, Fox Sports Saturday to all across
the country. Hope everybody's Christmas was beautiful. Everybody's how they
season going spectacular? Danny DBA D is with me. I'm
Anthony Gargana. We are the uh of the Fellas and
together it's Project Nil and you heard the man. We
(00:30):
dive into all things from youth sports through high school
and college and UH dive everything around this ever changing landscape.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Good morning, Danny.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
D what's going on? Cause how we doing?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Brother? Merry Christmas?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Merry Christmas. How was your Christmas? You have a good one.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, we're very low key, relaxing.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
We did the cooked the fish Christmas Eve. What happens
is we do we do Christmas Eve and like we
go deep into to the night. So because we go
deep into the night, Christmas is usually a relaxed.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
We'd of a relaxing deck.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Gotcha that was yours? It was good, It was It
was busy. I had thirty people at the house, a
lot of Yeah, it was good, but it went well.
It was it was tiring, right, everyone kind of had
some family come in. So you know they're they're wrapping up,
they're leaving now. So over today.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
So what did your father make?
Speaker 4 (01:25):
He had made a lot of cutlets. We had a lasagna,
We had some pasta, We had some stuff shells.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yeah, all the goods, all the cutlets and the stuff shells.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
So that's a good day. It's a good day.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I love it, love it, love it, love it.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
And uh we all watched some sports, some good football
from actually some good hoops. Actually the NBA was it
was on display. I thought Christmas Day.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Yeah, I loved it. My only my only beef is
when these football games are on and they're on Netflix.
You can't bounce back and forth, you know. Yes, that's
my that's my great with it. I love the FEAT
was on. But if you want to get a little
football action, you want to switch during the breaks or
the quarters, you can't. Well you can, it's just it's difficult.
You gotta you gotta change.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
You're gonna get out of it. You gotta get out
right like that's that's the biggest problem. You gotta get
out of the app.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
A little frustrating when you're trying to enjoy a beautiful
sports day. You know, so I'll they'll figure it out.
They'll figure out ways to split the screen better with
the apps. I don't know. Netflix is mind everything, so
who knows that they'll have a couple.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Of years and everybody's heavy into sports.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
That's the that's the one lesson and that you know,
you talk to anybody in television and uh, you know,
streaming and everything, and they all want sports content, everybody
because we are a nation that's wild over sport. And
that's why we do this show because we follow all
this stuff from a young age. Hey, real quick, Kyle
(02:58):
Whittingham goes to Michigan. I think, listen, under the circumstances,
that's a good hire. He's a good coach.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
It reminds me of PSU. Like I thought, they ended
up getting a really good coach. I did to process
with sloppy right now they got you know, they landed there.
Michigan kind of fell in the same boat where like
it looked like it was going to be disaster and
they ended up getting a really solid coach who was
going to be like, who would have been a top
five to top ten guy on her board? Initially I
(03:25):
would think right, but just the way it played out.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It was.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
It was a weird process, much like Penn State.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
But yeah, bothtate to go with Matt Campbell, and you're right,
like both both pets stake Michigan wind up kind of
I think luck it out in a big way.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
You're right, it could have been. It could have been
a disaster. How does it work now?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Like you come in now and you got the clip
for a year, it's a lot of clean up just
because of where the portal is, where the recruiting a
windows are.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Yeah, I think I think you try to taining some
solid amount of the previous staff who've been working on guys.
So therefore, when this portal opens, you guys are ready
to go. You have a board, and then you kind
of you pick from where you were. You're trying to
take the best if you're going up like they both
kind of went up level, you go take the best
(04:18):
the way you had, and then you try to flip
some recruits because since he left, he can the guys
who committed to Utah are now open because they committed
when he was there. Right, Let's similar to Matt Campbell.
He I think you were flipped seven or eight kids
who were Iowa State commits have already flipped to Penn State.
So they had a recruiting class of two on signing day.
(04:41):
Now they're up to ten of incoming freshmen. And then
I guess they'll be incredibly active January second, the day
the portal opens. They're gonna be shopping. They're they're gonna
have the book open, and they're gonna be throwing some
money around, and they're gonna be very aggressive in the portal.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Well, it's gonna be wild because it's January second, which
means it's Friday. It's it's basically this coming Friday, Yes,
and it's gonna be wild. The amount of money that's
gonna be spent. I don't think we understand that. It's
like free agency in the NFL. You know when the
free agent periods open in the NFL in March, and like, oh.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Free agents open.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
It's gonna be like we're gonna get to know a
lot of these kids through it, Like this is the
this is the first real wave of free agency in
college football.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
And it's exactly. That's a great example. And the funny
part is, you know an NBA they're like, how did
these guys sign? The second it opened? Up right, like
how did they?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
How was it?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Who was talking to who? Right? Like the second it
opens there's contracts. There's gonna be like that in n
C DOAA and college football, no visits. They're gonna be
signing because it's just gonna be money, right, I'm sure.
And they've already had these conversations like this is unwritten rule.
We're like we're you know, we're not talking. We're not
talking to anybody in free agency. You know, we're not tampering.
And then you know, the window opens and people have
(06:06):
already having an agreement signed.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
For five years.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Right, It's going to be like that in college it's
going to be.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
So it's funny. I heard.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I heard, like you got guys that are like sneaking
their cell service and they're not tracked.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
There's all kinds of stuff going on.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
But because the gphones out there, man, yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Mean it's unbelievable. It's like, uh, it's almost like the
other world. It's it's crazy stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
It really is. Hey.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
By the way, feeding off the success of our college
for our college basketball bracket challenge each March, we decided
to hear Fox Sports right here to do a bracket
Challenge for the College Football Playoff.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
With eight teams left standing in college football, it's Bracket
Challenge time. Compete against our Fox Sports Radio hosts and
fellow listeners to see you as the best college football
Playoff bracket play for your chance to win a thousand dollars.
You can visit Fox Sports Radio dot iHeart dot com.
The register, get roles and fill out your bracket. Entry
(07:09):
will open just before kickoff seven point thirty on New
Year's eve Eastern. By the way, again, fill out your
bracket Fox Sports Radio dot iHeart dot com for your
chance to win a grand Who you like there, buddy, Ah,
I don't.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
I think it's it's pretty open, man. I wouldn't be
surprised if anyone at this stage took it, to be
honest with you, yeah, I mean I think there's a
lot of parody. I in the bracket. I filled it out.
I got Georgia winning in the bracket, but you got Georgia. Yeah,
it had to be a little different.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Again, I wouldn't be surprised. I think there's four or
five teams that all could win it.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I think there's five team I mean, look, obviously, Ohio
State and Indiana and Oregon and Georgia, and I like
Texas Tech.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
I was gonna say, Texas Tech. They're legit, man, this
tech is legit.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I like to see it. I like to see Texas
Tech and make that run. It be something new, you know,
I like to say it. I Andy, Look, that's what's
the portal.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And you know part of project down Al is when
the portal opens on Friday.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
All that money.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Now, we always hear of a salary cap, but in essence,
there really is no cap and what you could pay kids.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Yeah, so they say there is, but there's not, right,
So there's We touched on this a little bit before.
But the way it works now, as of July one,
NCAA says the schools have twenty one million dollars to
spend across all sports. Right, So that's what the school's
allowed to pay people. However, there's a secondary market called
the collective right, which is where boosters fund and there's
(08:50):
a lot of money that comes into it, and it's
there's oversight by a third party, which is Deloitte consultant company,
So they'll have oversight and they'll have to say you
don't have to justify your deal. So if you're saying, hey,
we're going to pay this sky for advertising for a
car dealership, they'll say, okay, well, this is the value
he brings. He's this star recruit, he is this social
(09:11):
media following. Okay you can do this, or no, this
is too much money for this thing. The way I
see it is that the loophole is coaches and universities
will push kids who have big followings to the collective,
and the people who have small followings they'll pay from
their twenty one million, right, So there's a way to
kind of get the best of both worlds and spend
(09:31):
you know, like LSU and these schools when they get
these new coaches, they're saying, oh, we're committing to spend
thirty to thirty five million each year on your roster.
So right there, they're fifteen million over their cap for
the school, right just on football. So that's coming from
the collective that over.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah, do say you can spend twenty one million well
across all sports and LSU spending thirty five one football alone.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Thinking about that, Yeah, it's.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
It's crazy, right. So again they're basically saying now they'll
have to justify it through this third party and through
the collective. But it's it's a wild setup. And I
understand they're still figuring it out, and you know, we'll
touch on stories that they're still trying to figure out.
But it's a wild it's a wild scene, and I
think every year for the next couple it's still gonna
(10:17):
be wild until we actually really settle in on this.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Have you now any denials? I don't think it's a lloy,
which is the accounting friend that you talked about. Have
they I have not read of any denials of deals.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
No, I think because I think the universities are smart
about it, like they're playing the kind of how I said,
like they'll push the big social media following people towards that. Right,
if you have one hundred thousand followers, you can justify
paying someone called million dollars to advertise for your car
dealership or you know, yeah your business.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah yeah, and therein lies not just the loophole. It
really just makes it. There's really no difference. I was
having this conversation with a buddy of mine who who
actually wrote the movie Blue Chips. All right, his name's
Ron Shelton. He's an incredible guy. Did bull Dorm with
(11:14):
a bunch of movies. So Ron and I were talking
about this, and it's interesting because you know, back then
it was The Card Dealer.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Think about that movie. Did you just see the movie?
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Okay, so you know it's the nineties, all right, So
it's you know, thirty years ago, and it's college basketball,
and it's Shack and Penny and all, and they're buying players.
And the premise of the movie Blue Chips is there's
a coach played by Nick Nolty and it looks like
UCLA and he's trying to rebuild the program. So they've
(11:49):
gotten by these players, but they get shock from the
you know, the Bayou, they get Penny hard away from Chicago,
they get a kid from Indiana would shoot the ball,
and they right like they're they're they're getting bags of money.
There's a big car dealer who's the number one booster
Happy and Happy is got all the cash and he's buying,
(12:12):
you know, a tractor for the kidd Indiana, his father,
I love the tractor, a duffel bag full of cash,
like all this stuff. And in reality, there is no difference.
Now like what what are you really doing? Except now
it's above board and that you're gonna kids will pay
(12:34):
taxes on.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
The money exactly exactly, No, you're right, I mean they're
paying taxes. It's going to be taxing. Yeah, it's just
it's just out in the open. Now you don't have
to there's no bags of cash anymore, right, well, there
still might be who knows, like if they want to
go over and the collectives saying no, maybe they will
start slipping bags of cash, right like.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
You know, and in this world like what like it's
it's crazy, damn it stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Yeah, I mean again, and we talk about a weekly story.
It's wild. We start the show and we talk every week.
There's more stories that we don't even get to that
are still coming up each week. Like they're giving us
more content than we ever could even talk about in
the year because of how just how it changes every
so quickly every week.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Well, and this leads us to the big story I
want to talk about this week. And this comes from basketball,
all right, because this is wild. Now, there was a
G League player and it just came out that this
G League player is going to now go to college.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
James Naji.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
It's unreal, it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
So he's twenty one years old. He was drafted in
two thy and twenty three as a thirty first overall pick,
so he hasn't he never played college basketball, came from Overseas,
was drafted thirty first overall, played professionally Overseas, never signed
(14:07):
with an NBA like a full contract, you know, he
just they just had his rights. He played in the
G League but never played an NBA game, So therefore
he is eligible in these rules to go to college
and play now. So he just committed the ball and
will be playing the second half of the season for them.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
So how old is he?
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Twenty one? So he has four years, but soon coming
down they're just going to say you have five years
of college, you know, coase the red shirt. They're they're
moving towards that. There's a lot of steam behind.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
It, right Basically, it's like you get a five year window,
that's it.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Yeah, So this dude's gonna be playing until he's twenty six,
twenty seven if he stays, like, if he gets over
five years, and that is it's going to be you know,
it's legal, it's real. And this is where I think
college sports is kind of heading right now, and it's
scary and it hurts the kids, you know, it hurts
the high school process. It's it's just it's just a
(15:08):
crazy thing that you know, this is allowed. And this
is not just about him, Like we don't want to
trash James Nauge. He's this is the system. This is
about the system, man, Like this system is broken a
lot of ways where we're this can happen, Like this
guy was drafted thirty first overall three years ago and
(15:29):
he's not violating any rules now, but he's coming in.
He's because you make more money in college than you're
doing the G League.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Well, it's so it's funny. You and I were texting
about this last night. I had a buddy of mine
who's an agent, and Derek, can you Derek Brooks, We
are a great guy.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Right.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So he's an agent and he has a lot of guys,
a lot of like a lot of kids on the frame. Right,
there's a lot of European contracts. He's got like a
ton of kids and a lot of G League kids.
And there was a player.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
That he had.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
That he was trying to get on a two way
contract and the max to two way contracts a million dollars.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
That's the max and that's it.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
They like make it you hit the max amount of
games and they make it a full contract at the end.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yes, right, Well, the father of this kid one A
two hundred and fifty thousand. His name is London Johnson.
So the father wanted two point five million, and he's like,
there's no way in the world. So because of that,
(16:48):
he said, We're gonna go to Louisville to play because
Louisville will pay offs the two five crazy, right, Like.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
How about that?
Speaker 4 (17:01):
And it's crazy because this has always existed. NCAA eligibility
is tied to like contracts, not experience, right, which is
which is wild. So it's like based off the NBA
contract means, you know, if you don't sign the NBA contract,
you still have eligibility nil money doesn't count as professional pay,
which is wild. Right, So the rule book never imagine
(17:22):
this scenario when these rules were made, right, no one
ever imagined the scenario. You played overseas you're making so much.
You know you're making a couple hundred grand, Well, you're
done with college, right, You're never coming back over you're
getting paid every year because you're not getting paid in
college So like no one ever did this, This always existed,
which I was baffled by. I didn't know this ever existed,
but it never made sense to do it.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Well now it does, right because now because colleges are paying,
and they're paying good money, why would you why would
you play overseas? Why would you go?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Did g league?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Well, it has to fold, there's no place for it.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Oh greed, I don't know what's going to turn into.
And like NIL didn't break this. Nil just exposed this
flaw of this rule. Right, Like this isn't like an
NIL rule. This existed. It's just NIL just exposed these
rules that we had in place for college basketball forever. Right,
this money now being able to be paid. They didn't
(18:24):
think about these rules that they already had in place.
It's gonna it's gonna hurt their smaller schools even more, right,
just gonna struggle. They're going to struggle even more. The
power programs they're gonna benefit. You know, it's gonna be
the haves and have not. So we've been talking about
this and youth sports and training and recruiting is like
we just talked about it's free agency. Eh, it's literally
(18:46):
becoming free agency.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Well, you know it's wild too, Like to your point,
did you remember a few years ago there was a
there was talk that kids bypass college and they playing college,
they would just go play the G League or go
overseas right and and college basketball was going to take
(19:10):
a huge hit and the game was gonna was going
to shift to more of an amateur game where you're
not gonna have your elite of the elite, we're not
going to play college basketball.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Brandon Jennings, Emmanuel Moodier. Remember they like going overseas right
right out of high school, top prospects.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
And it would happen. It flipped back on it's ear yep.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
And now it's like all these other places don't exist.
Why would you when you could go to BYU get
get back.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Oh one so more And these guys, these more drafted players,
but unsigned players, they're coming back to college. Like for
the foreign guys, like there's still like a window we
have to say if you're staying interstaying out, if you're
coming out of college. But these foreign guys can just
entered your raft freely. They don't have this window. And
if they get drafted, and they're saying Hey, you're not.
(20:05):
You're not going to guarantee contract. They're gonna bounce. They're
gonna come to college. Now, they're gonna come to the
States and get into college.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Yeah, it's wild. All right, Let's take a pin, put
a pending that will come right back. Continue. So what
is Congress rolling in this thing? So is that the
next step? We got to ask that and then what
happens You talked about the disparity. I want to dive
into it between the bigger schools and.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
The smaller schools.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
And you know, let's look at it for football too,
because we saw what happened to James Madison. What's the
future there. It's all intertwined. This is Project do Il
Danny dba D. I'm Anthony G the sports Dad. One
of the fellas is. We hang out every week Project
(20:54):
do Il on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 2 (21:09):
Polly Fools Gohea with Tony Foodsco.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
Yeah, as everybody knows, we're the hosts of the award
winning Polly and Tony Foodsco Show. Yeah, but instead of
us telling you how great we are, here's how Dan
Patrick described us when he came on our show.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Quick, knowledgeable and funny, opinionated.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
What what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
We were interrupting our promo.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yeah, you wasn't talking about you. You took those clips
totally of context.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Oh yeah, well after this promo, I'm gonna take you
out and beat you.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Let me put this into context. Shut up.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
Anyway, just listening to the Polly and Tony Foodsco Show
on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts O wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, welcome back.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Project Nil, Denni Di Bernadidas, Ad Penn Shorter, I'm uh,
Anthony Garganta, the Fellas together to Project Nil right here
every week ont and Fox Sports Radio. So let's kind
of dive into what it means for the high school athlete.
(22:12):
Right Like, we're having this conversation and all of a sudden,
you got European kids coming over that are twenty six
years old that could legitimately play up until the twenty
six years old.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
How does that impact high school kids?
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah, it's tough, and I mean, and we've talked about this,
you know, pretty weekly, we kind of touch base on
how it's affecting these kids, and it's it's again, it's changing,
so it's this week, it's different, right, These rules keep changing,
so again there's less spots. And the message for me
to a lot of student athletes is, I believe if
you know, if you're a divisional athlete, you could be
(22:52):
a Division one athlete and not get a Division one
scholarship right now. So if that's your dream and that's
your goal to play at that level, you have to
look at it and have it more open to a
different route.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
You might have to go Division two, you might have
to do a junior college, you might have to do
JUCO right, and be patient with this process. And it's
not fair, I don't think, and it's not right for
these kids to have to deal with it because it's
just changed. But that's the landscape we're in. And you know,
the system changed, and the language hasn't caught up yet,
(23:26):
right because they opened up Pandora's box and didn't really
put the parameters on it. Now, and like the story
about this guy coming over, you know this, James Naji,
this is this is a deception. This is like a
warning sign right. I mean college sports is becoming professional, right,
whether we want to admit it or not. And we're here.
This show is great, I think for a lot of
people because we're trying to give them people an understanding
(23:48):
of reality and how to try to navigate this. Like
we say, ever changing landscape, right, it changes week to
week right now, So it.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Almost feels like if I got a kid, well, actually,
let's go back even further. It feels like there needs
to now be a two year like a junior collp
like you talked about Juco. You just mentioned Juco. Maybe
there needs to be a new system where kids can
(24:19):
go from eighteen to twenty so you could go play
Juco now. I know it doesn't count against eligibility, which
will help the Juco landscape, but maybe there needs to
be more of a junior college landscape, more of a
two year kind of landscape where it's like the minor
(24:41):
league to college.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
And you were just read, in my mind, this is
professional sports, right. This is we're talking about a farm system, man,
you know, like having a two year farm system to
develop and grow, right. I mean that's the way it
clicked in my brain when you were saying it. Like
it makes sense to me and your right, But the
thing my mind is automatically goes to, yeah, it's a
(25:03):
farm system.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
So because there needs to be like a way station,
there needs to be something for people to go, for
kids to go and hone their skills. Like I get it,
there's going to be lower rung programs that they can
go to, but it almost makes more sense to have
(25:26):
a JUCO landscape or I don't know, or maybe you
have a two tiered system where you have you know,
Division two, Division three schools kind of fill that bill,
but they shouldn't be allowed, but the clocks shouldn't run
on them.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Agreed. No, I completely agree with that, and I think,
I mean, there's been no proof of this, but I
think teens might start like stashing kids right like you
used to, like put him at a JUCO right that's
closer to school, Say hey, we want you a couple
of years develop, keep developing, and you know, we'll stay
close to you at our programs like Ivy's have done
that historically because you can't red shirt at an IVY
(26:06):
League school, right, So historically, if an IVY League school
wanted you, but they thought you needed some development they'd
put you at a JUCO or you know, you know,
a graduate school for a year to kind of statu
you Ivy's have done it forever. I think it might
become more prominent across all colleges to try to do that.
(26:26):
And I think there's gonna be a more of an
explosion on the JUCO market, right, These JUCO schools are
going to become more prominent because they're needed.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah, yeah, whi's going to add, which is it's going
to add another light, right, so another wrinkle. Right, So
so let's say.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
There is an explosion in the juco world, all right,
and there's I don't know, fifty junior college programs that
just kind of pop up. Then all of a sudden,
you know what's going to happen, right, Like it's gonna
be pretty good basketball. So so how long until they go? Well,
(27:06):
we also have a tournament with these fifty juko right yeah,
and you know whatever, you gotta give a few bucks.
Like it's like never ending because as long as games
are televised, No, I don't see any end to the
(27:27):
sports explosion, but I guess it could top off. But
the issue and it all goes back to TV right,
because the issue is nobody the only time people will
watch a commercial is if it's in sports, if it's
a live event. Otherwise you want to watch a TV show,
(27:50):
that's great, nobody's watching it at the time it's supposed
to be on, right, So that's why it's all demand
and nobody wants to watch commercial rather not watch the show, then.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Sit through a commercial.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
You nailed it, right, and then it's just it's going
to continue to grow. I mean, we talked about this
last week, forty billion dollars as you sports. Right now,
it's a forty billion dollar industry, you sports, So just
imagine how that's gonna look like and continue to trickle
down from the college level. So that's why I think
(28:25):
the ceiling we don't know what it is yet, right,
this is is this massive industry that's just you know,
we don't we don't have the we don't have the
answers yet on how it's going to play out.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Well, I'm almost like wonder ain't like if you're a
kid that's a decent ballplayer, but you know you're not
gonna be able to go to a school right away,
Like you're not gonna be able to go to a conference,
big power five conference right away.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
What do you do?
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I guess we got to continue
to see how it plays out. I think there's gonna
be a lot of changing. You know, we people are
just going to keep evolving, and we just got to
kind of buckle down and get in for the ride
and see you know me and you keep digging and
figuring out ways to educate you know, listeners and people
across the country on how it changing, because I don't
(29:16):
people don't know the answers to this, and it's it's again,
it's a we're writing, we're writing history. We're in history
right now. We are writing history right now. This is
uncharted territory.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
So you sent me a piece.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
It's interesting because, uh, one of the ads that you're
close with, Jill Bodensteiner from Saint Joseph University, testified before
Congress when they were talking about reclassifying NCAA athletes as
employees and how that would have a disastrous effect on education.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Yes, so I think education is the the hill that
they're going to try to fight on to try to
put more parameters on this because ultimately, at the end
of the day, we only we're saying it's professional, we're
saying it's you know, pro am or whatever it is.
It's still college and you can't transfer four times and
get a degree because transfer credits don't always bounce around
(30:15):
and it's really hard. So at the end of the day,
it is college. It is school. I think that's how
they can put parameters on it without violating you know,
these these student athletes civil rights with pay to play,
you know.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yeah, but like I get it, and that's nice, but dude,
what does that mean?
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Like, because ultimately it is it is. It is professional
basketball and football. Like they could sit and argue all
day long. Well you know the nine revenue sports. Well,
you know, basketball and football are big time revenue and
some in baseball to some extent, and they almost need
(30:59):
to be. It's separate. They're your own separate business, you know.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
And on that like, there has been Congress is starting
to get involved in it, right, so good or bad, right,
But there's bills that are in progress. Nothing has been
put in the law yet, but there's multiple things that
have been raised this year to try to, you know,
create some framework for rights and competition rules in college.
(31:25):
They're trying to put you know, deals around and set
rules on how institutions and agents interact with these deals.
So there's a lot of different things that are again
we're in history seeing them play out at this you know,
government level where you know Congress is involved in your statement.
You know you're gonna have your governors involved, and there's
going to be something that you know is just again
(31:47):
we're we're gonna see it for the first time.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Yeah, it's just it's wild, man, It's funny. Every week,
I think, while can't get more insane, the chaos of it,
but it does, Like this is every week now. Meanwhile,
the trickle down effect is what you just said. And
next week we have baseball workouts. Yeah, like we're just
(32:15):
starting the basketball Like I think my team's played two games.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
We're one on one all right, all.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Right, but like baseball starts and then and then shortly
after that, football training, like all season football training starts.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Yeah, it's that money yet behind it, right.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Why, it's just crazy, Dad, It's nuts.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
How do you I'm real curious kind of how you
look at this from a from a high school a
d standpoint. All right, so kind of take me into
your world for a moment as all this stuff starts
to explode right around us, and then we I I
do want to touch on college football and should there
(33:03):
be two separate leagues? So let's kind of start let's
go there. I mean, the show flies by, so we
got one more segment to hang and this is Project
Nil hanging out right here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Don't listen to Fox Sports Radio Radio.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Welcome back Project Nil. Danny dibertadinas d A D Danny
d Dad. I'm Anthony Guard. Getto your sports parent and
fella coming up Jeff Schwartz and I will take you
through college football playoffs and all the NFL stuff. Hey, Danny,
(33:45):
don't forget you miss any today's show. You can check
out the podcast. Search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get
your podcasts. Right after the show, today's podcast will be posted.
Be sure to follow the podcast right at five stars.
You can even provide a review. So I want to
get Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcast.
You'll find today's full show posted right after we get
(34:06):
off the air. So where does this go on your desk?
But how are you impacted?
Speaker 4 (34:15):
Yeah, I mean it's it's dealing with frustrated you know, kids, right,
Like I'm dealing with it right now. I have a
kid who's definitely a Division one level football player, and
he just has to be really patient. He's a senior, right,
And I'm telling them be patient. He wants to know
what's going to happen next year, right, And I'm just
I'm just saying, hey, we have to be patient. We
have to see how this portal goes.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Right.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
These kids are getting pushed and pushed and pushed to
figure it out. And I'm saying to them also like
I know it's your dream, but also like let's think
about it. Like there's really good D three schools that
have your major right that you know, you know, and
kids don't want to hear that, right they I'm a
Division one player, you know, but I'm trying to, you know,
preach patients, and I'm trying to, you know, just show
them other avenues that can really help them and grow
(34:59):
as a person. Right, And I tell them our truth.
I'm a numbers guy, say, hey, one percent of one
percent are making it professionally, right, and if you do
great at D three, you're gonna get the nod. You're
gonna call you up, Bud, so like, stick it out,
be patient, and I know it's not fair, like just
empathizing with them but also telling them, trying to give
them a plan to try to work through. And I'm
(35:20):
telling them it's new to me too, right, So there
is no playbook right now. We're writing it as we go,
and that could be frustrating for a seventeen year old
kid to hear. Right, he's they wanted, They want the answers, right,
they they've Why is it different for them now than
it was for everyone that came before them?
Speaker 2 (35:38):
So do you think he so? You think he is
a Division one player?
Speaker 4 (35:41):
I think he can play. Yes, I think he is
a mid to low Division one player. But the portal
is real, and teams in those areas, even the smaller colleges,
wait to see, right, see how it all shakes out,
see where their roster goes. So offers are coming much
later for kids who fall in that low division one end.
(36:02):
I have another kid who decided to prep a year
to get outer an extra year, and he has an
offer as a twenty seven college they're offering. You say, hey, okay, yeah,
we like you, but we're not going to offer he's
a twenty six, we offer he's a twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Wow, a twenty seven, you know, so they're now doing that.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I didn't know that they're actually doing that now.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
Yeah, So he's an offer as a twenty seven. So
he's going to prep do like a fifth year of
high school at a school where he can do that.
And you know, he says, I wish I would have
reclassed when I came in as a you know, as
a seventh grade or eighth grader, right, but the rules
weren't what they are now, right, So you didn't know.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Well, that was my next question that you just took
from me, which is what about the reclass Like if
they do reclass almost now at some point you're you're
almost forced to reclass.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Yeah, and a lot of states sociations don't allow it,
so like you have to be at independent schools. It's
tough to do it at public schools. There's a lot
of rules around it, which I think isn't fair. With
the college landscape changing how it is, I think they
need to reevaluate that and look a little deeper into it,
saying what are we doing, Like why are we putting
such parameters on this ability? You know, these kids eligibility
(37:20):
when there's no real rules at the next level. But
we're want to have these we want to be stickers
about rules right now. You know you have you evaluate
the landscape.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, that's not fair to kids now, No.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
Agree, And that's that's what they're saying to me. Answer.
That's the tough conversation I'm having right is you know,
I'm trying to empathize and you know, be there for
them and you know, try to give them the guidance
and advice that they need. But it's also you know,
kids are literally he literally said to me, like, why
is it different from me than it was?
Speaker 2 (37:49):
You know, Oh my god, your heart had to break.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
It's awful. Yeah, it's really it's difficult, and you know,
I just you know, just try to be there for
them and be positive and just say, hey, we're going
to work through this and are going to figure it out,
and you know, patience. Right That's That's what I'm just
preaching right now.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
I mean, what do you tell it. Here's the other thing.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
It's easy for us as adults to say reclass, but
you're talking to kids that have friends that you know,
you matriculate together, like the reclass you know I'm facing
that as a parent myself with two kids, yep, and
exactly when to do it, what's what's the best period
(38:29):
of time.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Change. It's tough on kids, right, So, I mean, how
a thing the unknown is. It's tough for anyone, especially
someone who's you know, fifteen, you know, ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, Right,
It's it's difficult. So but at the end of the day,
I do think it's best for them if they're really
if sports is a passion and something they want to
do in college, it's important, right at any D two,
(38:54):
D three, you know, it doesn't matter. It's not just
a vision one, right, It's trickled down. So at any level,
if your goal is to play college sports, it helps,
you know, but you know you mostly do it at
private schools and then tuition comes in, so not everyone
can do it, right. There's a lot of factors that
go into it.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
It's wild, man, it really is. So the one thing
I want to I want to because we're up against it.
Should major college football be split up into basically two leagues?
And like you saw James Madison not have a chance yep,
And it almost feels like, all right, we got to
(39:34):
cut the nonsense. It just create two leagues.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Yeah, I don't want to ever just pigeonhole them say
they never can compete. But it's difficult right when they
just get out there, like I think every they'll catch
lightning in a bottle every you know, ten years or
so where they can't compete, where they have a magical team.
So you don't want to just say they can't ever
do it. But also like you just took two spots.
You took Notre Dame and you know Texas or you know, yeah,
(40:01):
you know Vanderbilt. Right, you took these teams out that
could have won a national championship because they're that good.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
So that looked like yeah, and the and the problem
is is you know O line D line, Like I don't.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Know if you can.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
That way the trench piece something anyway, Uh, that's gonna
do it for us, Danny d great stuff. My brother
will be back to talk, uh the whole thing of
all the playoffs coming up next week.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
YEP, can't wait.
You don't listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Happy happy, Uh Saturday, Fox Sports Saturday to all across
the country. Hope everybody's Christmas was beautiful. Everybody's how they
season going spectacular? Danny DBA D is with me. I'm
Anthony Gargana. We are the uh of the Fellas and
together it's Project Nil and you heard the man. We
(00:30):
dive into all things from youth sports through high school
and college and UH dive everything around this ever changing landscape.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Good morning, Danny.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
D what's going on? Cause how we doing?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Brother? Merry Christmas?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Merry Christmas. How was your Christmas? You have a good one.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, we're very low key, relaxing.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
We did the cooked the fish Christmas Eve. What happens
is we do we do Christmas Eve and like we
go deep into to the night. So because we go
deep into the night, Christmas is usually a relaxed.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
We'd of a relaxing deck.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Gotcha that was yours? It was good, It was It
was busy. I had thirty people at the house, a
lot of Yeah, it was good, but it went well.
It was it was tiring, right, everyone kind of had
some family come in. So you know they're they're wrapping up,
they're leaving now. So over today.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
So what did your father make?
Speaker 4 (01:25):
He had made a lot of cutlets. We had a lasagna,
We had some pasta, We had some stuff shells.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yeah, all the goods, all the cutlets and the stuff shells.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
So that's a good day. It's a good day.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I love it, love it, love it, love it.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
And uh we all watched some sports, some good football
from actually some good hoops. Actually the NBA was it
was on display. I thought Christmas Day.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Yeah, I loved it. My only my only beef is
when these football games are on and they're on Netflix.
You can't bounce back and forth, you know. Yes, that's
my that's my great with it. I love the FEAT
was on. But if you want to get a little
football action, you want to switch during the breaks or
the quarters, you can't. Well you can, it's just it's difficult.
You gotta you gotta change.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
You're gonna get out of it. You gotta get out
right like that's that's the biggest problem. You gotta get
out of the app.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
A little frustrating when you're trying to enjoy a beautiful
sports day. You know, so I'll they'll figure it out.
They'll figure out ways to split the screen better with
the apps. I don't know. Netflix is mind everything, so
who knows that they'll have a couple.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Of years and everybody's heavy into sports.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
That's the that's the one lesson and that you know,
you talk to anybody in television and uh, you know,
streaming and everything, and they all want sports content, everybody
because we are a nation that's wild over sport. And
that's why we do this show because we follow all
this stuff from a young age. Hey, real quick, Kyle
(02:58):
Whittingham goes to Michigan. I think, listen, under the circumstances,
that's a good hire. He's a good coach.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
It reminds me of PSU. Like I thought, they ended
up getting a really good coach. I did to process
with sloppy right now they got you know, they landed there.
Michigan kind of fell in the same boat where like
it looked like it was going to be disaster and
they ended up getting a really solid coach who was
going to be like, who would have been a top
five to top ten guy on her board? Initially I
(03:25):
would think right, but just the way it played out.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It was.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
It was a weird process, much like Penn State.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
But yeah, bothtate to go with Matt Campbell, and you're right,
like both both pets stake Michigan wind up kind of
I think luck it out in a big way.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
You're right, it could have been. It could have been
a disaster. How does it work now?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Like you come in now and you got the clip
for a year, it's a lot of clean up just
because of where the portal is, where the recruiting a
windows are.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Yeah, I think I think you try to taining some
solid amount of the previous staff who've been working on guys.
So therefore, when this portal opens, you guys are ready
to go. You have a board, and then you kind
of you pick from where you were. You're trying to
take the best if you're going up like they both
kind of went up level, you go take the best
(04:18):
the way you had, and then you try to flip
some recruits because since he left, he can the guys
who committed to Utah are now open because they committed
when he was there. Right, Let's similar to Matt Campbell.
He I think you were flipped seven or eight kids
who were Iowa State commits have already flipped to Penn State.
So they had a recruiting class of two on signing day.
(04:41):
Now they're up to ten of incoming freshmen. And then
I guess they'll be incredibly active January second, the day
the portal opens. They're gonna be shopping. They're they're gonna
have the book open, and they're gonna be throwing some
money around, and they're gonna be very aggressive in the portal.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Well, it's gonna be wild because it's January second, which
means it's Friday. It's it's basically this coming Friday, Yes,
and it's gonna be wild. The amount of money that's
gonna be spent. I don't think we understand that. It's
like free agency in the NFL. You know when the
free agent periods open in the NFL in March, and like, oh.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Free agents open.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
It's gonna be like we're gonna get to know a
lot of these kids through it, Like this is the
this is the first real wave of free agency in
college football.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
And it's exactly. That's a great example. And the funny
part is, you know an NBA they're like, how did
these guys sign? The second it opened? Up right, like
how did they?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
How was it?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Who was talking to who? Right? Like the second it
opens there's contracts. There's gonna be like that in n
C DOAA and college football, no visits. They're gonna be
signing because it's just gonna be money, right, I'm sure.
And they've already had these conversations like this is unwritten rule.
We're like we're you know, we're not talking. We're not
talking to anybody in free agency. You know, we're not tampering.
And then you know, the window opens and people have
(06:06):
already having an agreement signed.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
For five years.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Right, It's going to be like that in college it's
going to be.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
So it's funny. I heard.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I heard, like you got guys that are like sneaking
their cell service and they're not tracked.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
There's all kinds of stuff going on.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
But because the gphones out there, man, yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Mean it's unbelievable. It's like, uh, it's almost like the
other world. It's it's crazy stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
It really is. Hey.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
By the way, feeding off the success of our college
for our college basketball bracket challenge each March, we decided
to hear Fox Sports right here to do a bracket
Challenge for the College Football Playoff.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
With eight teams left standing in college football, it's Bracket
Challenge time. Compete against our Fox Sports Radio hosts and
fellow listeners to see you as the best college football
Playoff bracket play for your chance to win a thousand dollars.
You can visit Fox Sports Radio dot iHeart dot com.
The register, get roles and fill out your bracket. Entry
(07:09):
will open just before kickoff seven point thirty on New
Year's eve Eastern. By the way, again, fill out your
bracket Fox Sports Radio dot iHeart dot com for your
chance to win a grand Who you like there, buddy, Ah,
I don't.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
I think it's it's pretty open, man. I wouldn't be
surprised if anyone at this stage took it, to be
honest with you, yeah, I mean I think there's a
lot of parody. I in the bracket. I filled it out.
I got Georgia winning in the bracket, but you got Georgia. Yeah,
it had to be a little different.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Again, I wouldn't be surprised. I think there's four or
five teams that all could win it.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I think there's five team I mean, look, obviously, Ohio
State and Indiana and Oregon and Georgia, and I like
Texas Tech.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
I was gonna say, Texas Tech. They're legit, man, this
tech is legit.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I like to see it. I like to see Texas
Tech and make that run. It be something new, you know,
I like to say it. I Andy, Look, that's what's
the portal.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And you know part of project down Al is when
the portal opens on Friday.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
All that money.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Now, we always hear of a salary cap, but in essence,
there really is no cap and what you could pay kids.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Yeah, so they say there is, but there's not, right,
So there's We touched on this a little bit before.
But the way it works now, as of July one,
NCAA says the schools have twenty one million dollars to
spend across all sports. Right, So that's what the school's
allowed to pay people. However, there's a secondary market called
the collective right, which is where boosters fund and there's
(08:50):
a lot of money that comes into it, and it's
there's oversight by a third party, which is Deloitte consultant company,
So they'll have oversight and they'll have to say you
don't have to justify your deal. So if you're saying, hey,
we're going to pay this sky for advertising for a
car dealership, they'll say, okay, well, this is the value
he brings. He's this star recruit, he is this social
(09:11):
media following. Okay you can do this, or no, this
is too much money for this thing. The way I
see it is that the loophole is coaches and universities
will push kids who have big followings to the collective,
and the people who have small followings they'll pay from
their twenty one million, right, So there's a way to
kind of get the best of both worlds and spend
(09:31):
you know, like LSU and these schools when they get
these new coaches, they're saying, oh, we're committing to spend
thirty to thirty five million each year on your roster.
So right there, they're fifteen million over their cap for
the school, right just on football. So that's coming from
the collective that over.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah, do say you can spend twenty one million well
across all sports and LSU spending thirty five one football alone.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Thinking about that, Yeah, it's.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
It's crazy, right. So again they're basically saying now they'll
have to justify it through this third party and through
the collective. But it's it's a wild setup. And I
understand they're still figuring it out, and you know, we'll
touch on stories that they're still trying to figure out.
But it's a wild it's a wild scene, and I
think every year for the next couple it's still gonna
(10:17):
be wild until we actually really settle in on this.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Have you now any denials? I don't think it's a lloy,
which is the accounting friend that you talked about. Have
they I have not read of any denials of deals.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
No, I think because I think the universities are smart
about it, like they're playing the kind of how I said,
like they'll push the big social media following people towards that. Right,
if you have one hundred thousand followers, you can justify
paying someone called million dollars to advertise for your car
dealership or you know, yeah your business.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah yeah, and therein lies not just the loophole. It
really just makes it. There's really no difference. I was
having this conversation with a buddy of mine who who
actually wrote the movie Blue Chips. All right, his name's
Ron Shelton. He's an incredible guy. Did bull Dorm with
(11:14):
a bunch of movies. So Ron and I were talking
about this, and it's interesting because you know, back then
it was The Card Dealer.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Think about that movie. Did you just see the movie?
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Okay, so you know it's the nineties, all right, So
it's you know, thirty years ago, and it's college basketball,
and it's Shack and Penny and all, and they're buying players.
And the premise of the movie Blue Chips is there's
a coach played by Nick Nolty and it looks like
UCLA and he's trying to rebuild the program. So they've
(11:49):
gotten by these players, but they get shock from the
you know, the Bayou, they get Penny hard away from Chicago,
they get a kid from Indiana would shoot the ball,
and they right like they're they're they're getting bags of money.
There's a big car dealer who's the number one booster
Happy and Happy is got all the cash and he's buying,
(12:12):
you know, a tractor for the kidd Indiana, his father,
I love the tractor, a duffel bag full of cash,
like all this stuff. And in reality, there is no difference.
Now like what what are you really doing? Except now
it's above board and that you're gonna kids will pay
(12:34):
taxes on.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
The money exactly exactly, No, you're right, I mean they're
paying taxes. It's going to be taxing. Yeah, it's just
it's just out in the open. Now you don't have
to there's no bags of cash anymore, right, well, there
still might be who knows, like if they want to
go over and the collectives saying no, maybe they will
start slipping bags of cash, right like.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
You know, and in this world like what like it's
it's crazy, damn it stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Yeah, I mean again, and we talk about a weekly story.
It's wild. We start the show and we talk every week.
There's more stories that we don't even get to that
are still coming up each week. Like they're giving us
more content than we ever could even talk about in
the year because of how just how it changes every
so quickly every week.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Well, and this leads us to the big story I
want to talk about this week. And this comes from basketball,
all right, because this is wild. Now, there was a
G League player and it just came out that this
G League player is going to now go to college.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
James Naji.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
It's unreal, it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
So he's twenty one years old. He was drafted in
two thy and twenty three as a thirty first overall pick,
so he hasn't he never played college basketball, came from Overseas,
was drafted thirty first overall, played professionally Overseas, never signed
(14:07):
with an NBA like a full contract, you know, he
just they just had his rights. He played in the
G League but never played an NBA game, So therefore
he is eligible in these rules to go to college
and play now. So he just committed the ball and
will be playing the second half of the season for them.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
So how old is he?
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Twenty one? So he has four years, but soon coming
down they're just going to say you have five years
of college, you know, coase the red shirt. They're they're
moving towards that. There's a lot of steam behind.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
It, right Basically, it's like you get a five year window,
that's it.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Yeah, So this dude's gonna be playing until he's twenty six,
twenty seven if he stays, like, if he gets over
five years, and that is it's going to be you know,
it's legal, it's real. And this is where I think
college sports is kind of heading right now, and it's
scary and it hurts the kids, you know, it hurts
the high school process. It's it's just it's just a
(15:08):
crazy thing that you know, this is allowed. And this
is not just about him, Like we don't want to
trash James Nauge. He's this is the system. This is
about the system, man, Like this system is broken a
lot of ways where we're this can happen, Like this
guy was drafted thirty first overall three years ago and
(15:29):
he's not violating any rules now, but he's coming in.
He's because you make more money in college than you're
doing the G League.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Well, it's so it's funny. You and I were texting
about this last night. I had a buddy of mine
who's an agent, and Derek, can you Derek Brooks, We
are a great guy.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Right.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So he's an agent and he has a lot of guys,
a lot of like a lot of kids on the frame. Right,
there's a lot of European contracts. He's got like a
ton of kids and a lot of G League kids.
And there was a player.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
That he had.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
That he was trying to get on a two way
contract and the max to two way contracts a million dollars.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
That's the max and that's it.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
They like make it you hit the max amount of
games and they make it a full contract at the end.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yes, right, Well, the father of this kid one A
two hundred and fifty thousand. His name is London Johnson.
So the father wanted two point five million, and he's like,
there's no way in the world. So because of that,
(16:48):
he said, We're gonna go to Louisville to play because
Louisville will pay offs the two five crazy, right, Like.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
How about that?
Speaker 4 (17:01):
And it's crazy because this has always existed. NCAA eligibility
is tied to like contracts, not experience, right, which is
which is wild. So it's like based off the NBA
contract means, you know, if you don't sign the NBA contract,
you still have eligibility nil money doesn't count as professional pay,
which is wild. Right, So the rule book never imagine
(17:22):
this scenario when these rules were made, right, no one
ever imagined the scenario. You played overseas you're making so much.
You know you're making a couple hundred grand, Well, you're
done with college, right, You're never coming back over you're
getting paid every year because you're not getting paid in
college So like no one ever did this, This always existed,
which I was baffled by. I didn't know this ever existed,
but it never made sense to do it.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Well now it does, right because now because colleges are paying,
and they're paying good money, why would you why would
you play overseas? Why would you go?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Did g league?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Well, it has to fold, there's no place for it.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Oh greed, I don't know what's going to turn into.
And like NIL didn't break this. Nil just exposed this
flaw of this rule. Right, Like this isn't like an
NIL rule. This existed. It's just NIL just exposed these
rules that we had in place for college basketball forever. Right,
this money now being able to be paid. They didn't
(18:24):
think about these rules that they already had in place.
It's gonna it's gonna hurt their smaller schools even more, right,
just gonna struggle. They're going to struggle even more. The
power programs they're gonna benefit. You know, it's gonna be
the haves and have not. So we've been talking about
this and youth sports and training and recruiting is like
we just talked about it's free agency. Eh, it's literally
(18:46):
becoming free agency.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Well, you know it's wild too, Like to your point,
did you remember a few years ago there was a
there was talk that kids bypass college and they playing college,
they would just go play the G League or go
overseas right and and college basketball was going to take
(19:10):
a huge hit and the game was gonna was going
to shift to more of an amateur game where you're
not gonna have your elite of the elite, we're not
going to play college basketball.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Brandon Jennings, Emmanuel Moodier. Remember they like going overseas right
right out of high school, top prospects.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
And it would happen. It flipped back on it's ear yep.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
And now it's like all these other places don't exist.
Why would you when you could go to BYU get
get back.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Oh one so more And these guys, these more drafted players,
but unsigned players, they're coming back to college. Like for
the foreign guys, like there's still like a window we
have to say if you're staying interstaying out, if you're
coming out of college. But these foreign guys can just
entered your raft freely. They don't have this window. And
if they get drafted, and they're saying Hey, you're not.
(20:05):
You're not going to guarantee contract. They're gonna bounce. They're
gonna come to college. Now, they're gonna come to the
States and get into college.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Yeah, it's wild. All right, Let's take a pin, put
a pending that will come right back. Continue. So what
is Congress rolling in this thing? So is that the
next step? We got to ask that and then what
happens You talked about the disparity. I want to dive
into it between the bigger schools and.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
The smaller schools.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
And you know, let's look at it for football too,
because we saw what happened to James Madison. What's the
future there. It's all intertwined. This is Project do Il
Danny dba D. I'm Anthony G the sports Dad. One
of the fellas is. We hang out every week Project
(20:54):
do Il on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Polly Fools Gohea with Tony Foodsco.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
Yeah, as everybody knows, we're the hosts of the award
winning Polly and Tony Foodsco Show. Yeah, but instead of
us telling you how great we are, here's how Dan
Patrick described us when he came on our show.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Quick, knowledgeable and funny, opinionated.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
What what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
We were interrupting our promo.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yeah, you wasn't talking about you. You took those clips
totally of context.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Oh yeah, well after this promo, I'm gonna take you
out and beat you.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Let me put this into context. Shut up.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
Anyway, just listening to the Polly and Tony Foodsco Show
on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts O wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, welcome back.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Project Nil, Denni Di Bernadidas, Ad Penn Shorter, I'm uh,
Anthony Garganta, the Fellas together to Project Nil right here
every week ont and Fox Sports Radio. So let's kind
of dive into what it means for the high school athlete.
(22:12):
Right Like, we're having this conversation and all of a sudden,
you got European kids coming over that are twenty six
years old that could legitimately play up until the twenty
six years old.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
How does that impact high school kids?
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah, it's tough, and I mean, and we've talked about this,
you know, pretty weekly, we kind of touch base on
how it's affecting these kids, and it's it's again, it's changing,
so it's this week, it's different, right, These rules keep changing,
so again there's less spots. And the message for me
to a lot of student athletes is, I believe if
you know, if you're a divisional athlete, you could be
(22:52):
a Division one athlete and not get a Division one
scholarship right now. So if that's your dream and that's
your goal to play at that level, you have to
look at it and have it more open to a
different route.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
You might have to go Division two, you might have
to do a junior college, you might have to do
JUCO right, and be patient with this process. And it's
not fair, I don't think, and it's not right for
these kids to have to deal with it because it's
just changed. But that's the landscape we're in. And you know,
the system changed, and the language hasn't caught up yet,
(23:26):
right because they opened up Pandora's box and didn't really
put the parameters on it. Now, and like the story
about this guy coming over, you know this, James Naji,
this is this is a deception. This is like a
warning sign right. I mean college sports is becoming professional, right,
whether we want to admit it or not. And we're here.
This show is great, I think for a lot of
people because we're trying to give them people an understanding
(23:48):
of reality and how to try to navigate this. Like
we say, ever changing landscape, right, it changes week to
week right now, So it.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Almost feels like if I got a kid, well, actually,
let's go back even further. It feels like there needs
to now be a two year like a junior collp
like you talked about Juco. You just mentioned Juco. Maybe
there needs to be a new system where kids can
(24:19):
go from eighteen to twenty so you could go play
Juco now. I know it doesn't count against eligibility, which
will help the Juco landscape, but maybe there needs to
be more of a junior college landscape, more of a
two year kind of landscape where it's like the minor
(24:41):
league to college.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
And you were just read, in my mind, this is
professional sports, right. This is we're talking about a farm system, man,
you know, like having a two year farm system to
develop and grow, right. I mean that's the way it
clicked in my brain when you were saying it. Like
it makes sense to me and your right, But the
thing my mind is automatically goes to, yeah, it's a
(25:03):
farm system.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
So because there needs to be like a way station,
there needs to be something for people to go, for
kids to go and hone their skills. Like I get it,
there's going to be lower rung programs that they can
go to, but it almost makes more sense to have
(25:26):
a JUCO landscape or I don't know, or maybe you
have a two tiered system where you have you know,
Division two, Division three schools kind of fill that bill,
but they shouldn't be allowed, but the clocks shouldn't run
on them.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Agreed. No, I completely agree with that, and I think,
I mean, there's been no proof of this, but I
think teens might start like stashing kids right like you
used to, like put him at a JUCO right that's
closer to school, Say hey, we want you a couple
of years develop, keep developing, and you know, we'll stay
close to you at our programs like Ivy's have done
that historically because you can't red shirt at an IVY
(26:06):
League school, right, So historically, if an IVY League school
wanted you, but they thought you needed some development they'd
put you at a JUCO or you know, you know,
a graduate school for a year to kind of statu
you Ivy's have done it forever. I think it might
become more prominent across all colleges to try to do that.
(26:26):
And I think there's gonna be a more of an
explosion on the JUCO market, right, These JUCO schools are
going to become more prominent because they're needed.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah, yeah, whi's going to add, which is it's going
to add another light, right, so another wrinkle. Right, So
so let's say.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
There is an explosion in the juco world, all right,
and there's I don't know, fifty junior college programs that
just kind of pop up. Then all of a sudden,
you know what's going to happen, right, Like it's gonna
be pretty good basketball. So so how long until they go? Well,
(27:06):
we also have a tournament with these fifty juko right yeah,
and you know whatever, you gotta give a few bucks.
Like it's like never ending because as long as games
are televised, No, I don't see any end to the
(27:27):
sports explosion, but I guess it could top off. But
the issue and it all goes back to TV right,
because the issue is nobody the only time people will
watch a commercial is if it's in sports, if it's
a live event. Otherwise you want to watch a TV show,
(27:50):
that's great, nobody's watching it at the time it's supposed
to be on, right, So that's why it's all demand
and nobody wants to watch commercial rather not watch the show, then.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Sit through a commercial.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
You nailed it, right, and then it's just it's going
to continue to grow. I mean, we talked about this
last week, forty billion dollars as you sports. Right now,
it's a forty billion dollar industry, you sports, So just
imagine how that's gonna look like and continue to trickle
down from the college level. So that's why I think
(28:25):
the ceiling we don't know what it is yet, right,
this is is this massive industry that's just you know,
we don't we don't have the we don't have the
answers yet on how it's going to play out.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Well, I'm almost like wonder ain't like if you're a
kid that's a decent ballplayer, but you know you're not
gonna be able to go to a school right away,
Like you're not gonna be able to go to a conference,
big power five conference right away.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
What do you do?
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I guess we got to continue
to see how it plays out. I think there's gonna
be a lot of changing. You know, we people are
just going to keep evolving, and we just got to
kind of buckle down and get in for the ride
and see you know me and you keep digging and
figuring out ways to educate you know, listeners and people
across the country on how it changing, because I don't
(29:16):
people don't know the answers to this, and it's it's again,
it's a we're writing, we're writing history. We're in history
right now. We are writing history right now. This is
uncharted territory.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
So you sent me a piece.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
It's interesting because, uh, one of the ads that you're
close with, Jill Bodensteiner from Saint Joseph University, testified before
Congress when they were talking about reclassifying NCAA athletes as
employees and how that would have a disastrous effect on education.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Yes, so I think education is the the hill that
they're going to try to fight on to try to
put more parameters on this because ultimately, at the end
of the day, we only we're saying it's professional, we're
saying it's you know, pro am or whatever it is.
It's still college and you can't transfer four times and
get a degree because transfer credits don't always bounce around
(30:15):
and it's really hard. So at the end of the day,
it is college. It is school. I think that's how
they can put parameters on it without violating you know,
these these student athletes civil rights with pay to play,
you know.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yeah, but like I get it, and that's nice, but dude,
what does that mean?
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Like, because ultimately it is it is. It is professional
basketball and football. Like they could sit and argue all
day long. Well you know the nine revenue sports. Well,
you know, basketball and football are big time revenue and
some in baseball to some extent, and they almost need
(30:59):
to be. It's separate. They're your own separate business, you know.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
And on that like, there has been Congress is starting
to get involved in it, right, so good or bad, right,
But there's bills that are in progress. Nothing has been
put in the law yet, but there's multiple things that
have been raised this year to try to, you know,
create some framework for rights and competition rules in college.
(31:25):
They're trying to put you know, deals around and set
rules on how institutions and agents interact with these deals.
So there's a lot of different things that are again
we're in history seeing them play out at this you know,
government level where you know Congress is involved in your statement.
You know you're gonna have your governors involved, and there's
going to be something that you know is just again
(31:47):
we're we're gonna see it for the first time.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Yeah, it's just it's wild, man, It's funny. Every week,
I think, while can't get more insane, the chaos of it,
but it does, Like this is every week now. Meanwhile,
the trickle down effect is what you just said. And
next week we have baseball workouts. Yeah, like we're just
(32:15):
starting the basketball Like I think my team's played two games.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
We're one on one all right, all.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Right, but like baseball starts and then and then shortly
after that, football training, like all season football training starts.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Yeah, it's that money yet behind it, right.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Why, it's just crazy, Dad, It's nuts.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
How do you I'm real curious kind of how you
look at this from a from a high school a
d standpoint. All right, so kind of take me into
your world for a moment as all this stuff starts
to explode right around us, and then we I I
do want to touch on college football and should there
(33:03):
be two separate leagues? So let's kind of start let's
go there. I mean, the show flies by, so we
got one more segment to hang and this is Project
Nil hanging out right here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Don't listen to Fox Sports Radio Radio.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Welcome back Project Nil. Danny dibertadinas d A D Danny
d Dad. I'm Anthony Guard. Getto your sports parent and
fella coming up Jeff Schwartz and I will take you
through college football playoffs and all the NFL stuff. Hey, Danny,
(33:45):
don't forget you miss any today's show. You can check
out the podcast. Search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get
your podcasts. Right after the show, today's podcast will be posted.
Be sure to follow the podcast right at five stars.
You can even provide a review. So I want to
get Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcast.
You'll find today's full show posted right after we get
(34:06):
off the air. So where does this go on your desk?
But how are you impacted?
Speaker 4 (34:15):
Yeah, I mean it's it's dealing with frustrated you know, kids, right,
Like I'm dealing with it right now. I have a
kid who's definitely a Division one level football player, and
he just has to be really patient. He's a senior, right,
And I'm telling them be patient. He wants to know
what's going to happen next year, right, And I'm just
I'm just saying, hey, we have to be patient. We
have to see how this portal goes.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Right.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
These kids are getting pushed and pushed and pushed to
figure it out. And I'm saying to them also like
I know it's your dream, but also like let's think
about it. Like there's really good D three schools that
have your major right that you know, you know, and
kids don't want to hear that, right they I'm a
Division one player, you know, but I'm trying to, you know,
preach patients, and I'm trying to, you know, just show
them other avenues that can really help them and grow
(34:59):
as a person. Right, And I tell them our truth.
I'm a numbers guy, say, hey, one percent of one
percent are making it professionally, right, and if you do
great at D three, you're gonna get the nod. You're
gonna call you up, Bud, so like, stick it out,
be patient, and I know it's not fair, like just
empathizing with them but also telling them, trying to give
them a plan to try to work through. And I'm
(35:20):
telling them it's new to me too, right, So there
is no playbook right now. We're writing it as we go,
and that could be frustrating for a seventeen year old
kid to hear. Right, he's they wanted, They want the answers, right,
they they've Why is it different for them now than
it was for everyone that came before them?
Speaker 2 (35:38):
So do you think he so? You think he is
a Division one player?
Speaker 4 (35:41):
I think he can play. Yes, I think he is
a mid to low Division one player. But the portal
is real, and teams in those areas, even the smaller colleges,
wait to see, right, see how it all shakes out,
see where their roster goes. So offers are coming much
later for kids who fall in that low division one end.
(36:02):
I have another kid who decided to prep a year
to get outer an extra year, and he has an
offer as a twenty seven college they're offering. You say, hey, okay, yeah,
we like you, but we're not going to offer he's
a twenty six, we offer he's a twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Wow, a twenty seven, you know, so they're now doing that.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I didn't know that they're actually doing that now.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
Yeah, So he's an offer as a twenty seven. So
he's going to prep do like a fifth year of
high school at a school where he can do that.
And you know, he says, I wish I would have
reclassed when I came in as a you know, as
a seventh grade or eighth grader, right, but the rules
weren't what they are now, right, So you didn't know.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Well, that was my next question that you just took
from me, which is what about the reclass Like if
they do reclass almost now at some point you're you're
almost forced to reclass.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Yeah, and a lot of states sociations don't allow it,
so like you have to be at independent schools. It's
tough to do it at public schools. There's a lot
of rules around it, which I think isn't fair. With
the college landscape changing how it is, I think they
need to reevaluate that and look a little deeper into it,
saying what are we doing, Like why are we putting
such parameters on this ability? You know, these kids eligibility
(37:20):
when there's no real rules at the next level. But
we're want to have these we want to be stickers
about rules right now. You know you have you evaluate
the landscape.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, that's not fair to kids now, No.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
Agree, And that's that's what they're saying to me. Answer.
That's the tough conversation I'm having right is you know,
I'm trying to empathize and you know, be there for
them and you know, try to give them the guidance
and advice that they need. But it's also you know,
kids are literally he literally said to me, like, why
is it different from me than it was?
Speaker 2 (37:49):
You know, Oh my god, your heart had to break.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
It's awful. Yeah, it's really it's difficult, and you know,
I just you know, just try to be there for
them and be positive and just say, hey, we're going
to work through this and are going to figure it out,
and you know, patience. Right That's That's what I'm just
preaching right now.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
I mean, what do you tell it. Here's the other thing.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
It's easy for us as adults to say reclass, but
you're talking to kids that have friends that you know,
you matriculate together, like the reclass you know I'm facing
that as a parent myself with two kids, yep, and
exactly when to do it, what's what's the best period
(38:29):
of time.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Change. It's tough on kids, right, So, I mean, how
a thing the unknown is. It's tough for anyone, especially
someone who's you know, fifteen, you know, ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, Right,
It's it's difficult. So but at the end of the day,
I do think it's best for them if they're really
if sports is a passion and something they want to
do in college, it's important, right at any D two,
(38:54):
D three, you know, it doesn't matter. It's not just
a vision one, right, It's trickled down. So at any level,
if your goal is to play college sports, it helps,
you know, but you know you mostly do it at
private schools and then tuition comes in, so not everyone
can do it, right. There's a lot of factors that
go into it.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
It's wild, man, it really is. So the one thing
I want to I want to because we're up against it.
Should major college football be split up into basically two leagues?
And like you saw James Madison not have a chance yep,
And it almost feels like, all right, we got to
(39:34):
cut the nonsense. It just create two leagues.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Yeah, I don't want to ever just pigeonhole them say
they never can compete. But it's difficult right when they
just get out there, like I think every they'll catch
lightning in a bottle every you know, ten years or
so where they can't compete, where they have a magical team.
So you don't want to just say they can't ever
do it. But also like you just took two spots.
You took Notre Dame and you know Texas or you know, yeah,
(40:01):
you know Vanderbilt. Right, you took these teams out that
could have won a national championship because they're that good.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
So that looked like yeah, and the and the problem
is is you know O line D line, Like I don't.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Know if you can.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
That way the trench piece something anyway, Uh, that's gonna
do it for us, Danny d great stuff. My brother
will be back to talk, uh the whole thing of
all the playoffs coming up next week.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
YEP, can't wait.
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Jonas Knox
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