Colin Cowherd Podcast - Cowboys Potentially A Disaster, Bears Win Total, College Football Playoff Expansion, John Rahm LIV Champion

Colin is joined by John Middlekauff, host of “3 and Out” to talk all things football!

Colin starts with an airline horror story of a Spirit Airlines pilot flying into Hurricane Erin and a positive airline story of using American Airlines “Flagship Suite” (4:00). They also swap Vegas stories and remark on how expensive it’s gotten and why they’ve priced out most of their customer base (8:15).

They pivot to the NFL and Colin predicts a potentially “disastrous” season for the Dallas Cowboys and that Jerry Jones undervalued Mike McCarthy’s success as head coach (17:15). 

They discuss the penalties handed down to Michigan for the Connor Stallions scandal and why they don’t make any sense since Michigan was winning before and AFTER the scandal (30:00). They look at the potential expansion of the college football playoff and Colin argues he doesn’t want to see it expand beyond 16 teams and see nothing but blowouts (35:00). 

They talk about why a league of “haves and have-nots” in college football isn’t a bad thing, and why the most important thing for college football is “big games” (39:45). 

They go through the Bears schedule and predict their record either 9-8 or 10-7, and debate whether that should be considered a success (1:02:00).

Finally, they end with Jon Rahm repeating as the individual champion of the LIV Tour,  why the live experience at LIV is great, and why LIV is starting to find their niche in the world of golf (1:08). 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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So I got to do something. This is this is
you know, John, I have to fly a lot, and
because of that, I always have takes on airlines. I'm
like a bad nineteen seventies comic. I've always got airline material.

(01:10):
So story today, I have this theory. I always tell
my kids don't fly any airline that has bright colors,
and so Spirit Airlines is one of those airlines. It's bankrupt. Today,
a Spirit Airlines plane flew into Hurricane Erin, into one
of the bands of Hurricane Aaron, some idiot pilot. He

(01:31):
had to make an exit stage right to get out
of the hurricane. He literally, you know when a hurricane's coming. Basically,
if you base, if you stay fairly aware of what's
happening in the skies, they will tell you, you know,
stay away from the bands of a hurricane. A Spirit
Airlines pilot flew into it. Today. I can't even imagine
being on that flight. Can't even imagine it. So that's

(01:52):
the first thing. Now I want to compliment an airlines.
This is not an ad. So I used to be
an a Delta guy. I think I probably travel more
than you do currently. I could be wrong, but I
think I do more long travel Boston to LA.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Is that right, you're jests enter, Yes, Okay.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
So I was always a Delta guy, mostly because I
went to Park City a lot in Utah and LA
and Utah Salt like our big Delta hubs. So now
I'm in Chicago and Boston a lot and they're United
and American hubs. American Airlines has come up with something
called the Flagship Suite. Now I know it sounds really bougie,

(02:33):
but yesterday I was just and they've done this on
some of their airbus you know, I wrote it down
Airbus three twenty one XLR. They're using it on this.
So it's a smaller plane. The first eight rows are
you get your own cube. That's privacy doors, more personal storage.

(02:55):
I was in the next twelve and you shared it
with somebody, but it was it was like you know,
your classic Comfort plus when you go in an airline
behind first class. It was so good. And then there
was only about thirty percent of the plane max. Maybe
twenty five that was even economy and those look better. So, folks,

(03:16):
if you're flying American airlines and you want an elevated
experience and you don't want to buy first class, I
am telling you Flagship Suite is what you fly in
American airlines. You do not have to fly first class.
Even the economy had better seats. I was in like

(03:36):
the the economy plus seats they were unbelievable. They had
a live flat beds. It's a smaller plane. It doesn't
look like my entire life. That's when you fly to
Europe or something, you know, or Delta one, you get
these massive planes. It's a fairly small plane, and American
figured it out. Our domestic travelers want that too, not

(03:56):
just European jetsetters. So I know that sounds like incredibly bougie,
but I'm on planes constantly, avoid planes that fly into hurricanes,
and keep your eye on American Airlines flagship sweet.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
I'm actually going to Hawaii Saturday through the following Thursday,
and we're taking American Airlines there. I think like any
young person, I definitely in my twenties, because you just
go to Orbits or Expedia and Frontiers, you know, the
cheap airlines. You just always oh, I can fly here

(04:33):
for to Nashville or Chicago for one hundred bucks.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
When I was in my twenties, I flew Vegas in
the summer to San Diego for twenty nine, twenty nine
or thirty nine dollars. I did it about four times
this summer. I lived on Southwest Airlines in my twenties.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
But the one thing you learn in Southwest is like this,
and spirit is like this. Southwest is now charging for bags,
and they now you have to pay for a seat.
They're not just lining up, you know how they did it.
AB and C spirit always screwed you that way. You're like, oh,
I just got one hundred dollars flight. Well, then they
charge you an extra one hundred and fifty dollars to
take your bags each way, so they screw you that way,

(05:09):
and then the experience is I mean terrible, right, I
mean it's it couldn't be any worse. And I do
think Southwest used to be able to fly really really
for those of us who live to California, whether you're
flying to Vegas or Los Angeles, southern California, you can
fly for like forty ninety nine, but those are done.
I mean we go back to northern California and see family.
Sometimes it's hard to find a ticket for less than

(05:30):
two hundred and fifty dollars, so you might as well
just fly the nicer airline if it's a difference between
fifty one hundred dollars and get the way better experience,
because before it used to get a really good deal
that anyone that flies Southwest occasionally you can. It is
much harder to find.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Well it's like Vegas. Everybody you're reading all the rushed Well,
there's two things. Number one is I lived in Vegas
in nineteen ninety ninety one, ninety two ninety three. The
reason you went to Vagae was for deals. That was
the market, that was the brand you went there because
he didn't have to go to Paris. You could go

(06:06):
to a hotel that kind of looked like a knockoff
of Paris for one fourth the price. I noticed this
my kids were with their mom several years ago, and
I would go to Vegas and I would take my
son to the fountains is at Bellagio and we would
go to eat dinner at this nice restaurant overlooking the fountains.

(06:27):
Now that was I think it was, I forget what
it was. It was one of those famous la chefs Spago.
So it was kind of my treat to him. Whenever
I was in town, like Friday night, we would go
have an early dinner and look at the fountains. He
loved it, you know, he's thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. We loved it,
and it was expensive, like that was a treat. That's

(06:51):
like the norm now, like they they have Rodeo level
rodeo drive shopping like the last couple of years. I
went to Vegas. I told my son, I'm like, cause
you can see the prices of food sometimes out in
front of these restaurants, I'm like, this is higher than LA. Like,
Vegas just got way too expensive. And remember these are

(07:13):
five thousand seat hotels, so they're you know, I mean,
we know what we're dealing with here. Everything's packed. You
went to Vegas for a good discount, but you never
got like scarcity. You never got it was never exclusive
or premium, but it was pretty darn good for an
incredible price. It's more expensive half the time than New
York and LA.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
You and I talked about this when I was in Chicago.
Most people that go gamble in Vegas are not Charles
Barclay or Michael Jordan. They're not gambling fifty thousand dollars
a hand. You cannot go to one of the main
floors of the casino, especially in the evening, and find
a blackjack table for under fifty dollars a hand.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Impossible.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
So that to me, when I went to cal Paly
used to be able to get a flight from Santa Maria,
I think it was like forty nine to ninety nine,
and you could go with no money as a college kid,
maybe a hundred dollars to your name, and have a
good weekend there. You might have to do a credit
advance if you were loans of money, but you could
spend easily a couple hundred dollars between your hotel eating.

(08:12):
You could eat really cheap from I haven't been to
Vegas now and since the Super Bowl a couple of
years ago, but me and Maria went to a Toby
Keith concert and we spent a couple of days there
as well, and I just remember everything being extreme, Like
you said, La Scottsdale, New York. It's like what are
There's nothing even I can't find a piece of pizza
for under twenty dollars a slice.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Well, the big draw now is the Sphere. They say,
the Sphere just signed a deal. They're going to show
the Wizard of Oz, the Wizard of Oz the movie
in the Sphere. And they think that fifteen percent of
people now that go to Vegas will go to the Sphere.
It's about ten percent now, So they think the Wizard
of Oz movie in the Sphere, which I'd love to
see because I watched that ten times as a kid.

(08:55):
They're gonna put it there. That's the big draw for me.
John Again, this was six years ago when I was
going to Vegas and I would go to like Mandalay
Bay and maybe during the day I didn't watch. I
try to avoid the casinos because I'm not a smoker,
so I just try to stay out of those things.
And that's the place they had a great pool. I
take my kid to the wave machine out back. We
had a really really good time, and the pool was expensive,

(09:17):
so I would never look at the floor during the day.
But like once when we would go to dinner at
night at the Mandalay Bay, we would walk through and
I would look at the tables. Nothing under fifty bucks
a hand. I've never in my life. I don't think
i've ever. I shouldn't say that. If I did, it
was infrequent. I've never met fifty dollars a hand in

(09:37):
my life on blackjack, and I lived in Vegas for
seven years. Never once. I mean, I'm like a twenty
dollars guy, maybe thirty double down occasionally. I just it's
it's just incredible. These executives. Can I give you a
theory on what happened to Vegas. So Steve Win built
the Encore and Win like high end art real luxury

(09:58):
villas by the golf course, and it was unique, like
if you had some money from Europe, Southeast Asia or
New York, you know, you'd stay at Encore or Win.
And then I think a lot of the executives, with
their egos, felt like, well, we don't want to have
second tier operations, so they try to compete with the

(10:20):
Encore and the Win. And then the so you know,
Caesar's is like, well, we want to do that, and
then the people just below Caesars thought, well, we're falling behind.
We want to do that, and so these companies got
into debt. They spent way too much money on their suites,
and now there's very few places to go in Vegas

(10:41):
in the better parts of town where you can get
a reasonable deal. Everybody copied Steve Win, but Steve Win,
even Steve Win made a huge mistake twenty five years
ago when he started he said, you know, the future
of Vegas, we want to bring families here. And then
about two years later he's like, yeah, kids, don't gamble.
I made a mistake, and he went back to like
high end places, and I think Vegas tried to copy

(11:01):
him out of they they didn't feel like they didn't
want their properties to look second and third tier, and
they priced out their demographic.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
I also think the internet obviously sports gambling. I mean
it was a really big deal when I was young
to go to a sports book in Vegas. It was
the only place you could do that, and it was
a thrilling experience for a guy in their early twenties
that love sports, and it's something that for most people
up until it became legal, you had to go there

(11:29):
to bet, right, unless you had a bookie, but there
was nothing like them walking into the MGM or one
of the big casinos to the sports book. Well, I
live in Arizona. I just used DraftKings on my phone, right,
I mean I actually down the street from my house
have a Draftking sports book that is five minutes away
from where I live. It's right next to the golf course.
So that world has been changed. I also think the

(11:50):
consumer now which it's not this is not a positive,
but spends so much of their entertainment value. This is
why isolation has become a just on the internet and
on their phone. So going to Vegas was a treat
people out to get. I think less and less people
travel for entertainment because now we I mean, just think
of what we have access to on our TV for entertainment, right,

(12:11):
I got a million apps with a million different shows,
and I just think all the combination of sports betting.
You can also play cards and stuff on the I
think there are way more cards games, isn't Nick right,
he plays card games all over them. It's way easier
to find stuff now that way. I think the I
think the Internet really hurt Vegas. It took a little time, right,
I mean we're's twenty twenty five. The Internet's been around

(12:32):
for thirty plus years. But it's I don't think there's
any coming back for them.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
No. And I also this isn't even a political thought,
but I think Canadians, you know, they have cut their
travel to the United States because of like tariffs and
the negativity and kind of the aggressiveness of you know,
our current president. Canadians have and I've seen this in
the grocery store business. Canadians have just decided, you know,
they're gonna thumb their nose. Well luck in the winter,

(13:01):
you know, thumb in your nose at Florida. But I
think there's a you know, international travel is down to America,
Canadian travel is down the internet, the sports gambling angle,
and I just I know again, when my kids were there,
about six years ago, I would go and I just
remember thinking, Jesus, there are no discounts. And it's funny

(13:23):
because when I would check in, you know, you sit
in that line and you look around the line and
it's not a rich it's not a ritzy crowd. It's like, oh,
just it's Iowa, It's it's Madison, Wisconsin. It's just like
regular people in T shirts and jeans or flip flops
and board shorts, and they're they're pricing stuff like it's

(13:44):
a European travel. It's like, what are you doing here? Well.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
The other thing is the indie casinos in California, and
there's one in Scottsdale is extremely nice. Talking stick in Scottsdale.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Is I mean you, oh, talking sticks going.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
You could put it in Vegas and it would fit
right in. So these casinos, if you want to go
play cards, you just you don't even need to leave
your state anymore. So think how many people that from
California or whatever. I mean. There are a ton of
Indian casinos in northern California, in the valley in Fresno,
so I just I do think big picture though Vegas,
with their tax benefits, a lot of companies are moving there.

(14:20):
The city and the area might be okay. They just
have to transition away from the casino business. I think
is seen its heyday all right.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Time to look at this weekend's tasty this matchup in
this week's Sunday Night food Ball brought to you by
Uber Eat, a company I use all the time. Looking
at this cowboy thing we were talking about on the show.
So John Middlcoff is going to be on FS one
all week and one of the rants I did today

(14:51):
was about Mike McCarthy. I think the Cowboys are going
to shit the bad week one. I think it's going
to be a disastrous season. I don't like their defensive person.
They've got two or three things that get in the
way of winning. One, their division's gotten better. Two, their
offensive line is really in flux, and they don't have
elite running backs to begin with, so it's going to

(15:12):
be very Dak Prescott dependent, which is not good. I mean,
he's not the kind of quarterback that can carry a franchise.
He needs help. No run game, O line work in progress,
and the defense was terrible last year. But if you
go back and look at Mike McCarthy, and this happens
all the time. It's a big brand, and you run

(15:33):
people out of town. I mean, the Lakers have run
through a lot of coaches, and a lot of those
coaches have gotten good gigs. But Mike McCarthy went twelve
and five, twelve and five, twelve and five, and then
Dak got hurt. He won more games that he lost
with Cooper Rush. They had the second best offense in
the league behind Josh Allen and the Bills in his
tenure in Dallas. And I think if the Cowboys are awful,

(15:58):
and I think they will be this year, I think
Mike McCarthy is going to go from the Packers to
the Cowboys. I think he's going to get another job
in an offensive league. Am I not saying that?

Speaker 2 (16:07):
Well, why do you think he wasn't a bigger candidate
this offseason? Because I thought, you know, those three straight
years of twelve wins, what he did last year, I
mean most an average to below average coach last year
with Dak being injured, they end up winning two or
three games, but they went seven to ten and Cooper
Rush was good. There's a branding issue with Mike right,
kind of bigger guy, kind of goofy guy. When he

(16:29):
got fired from the Packers, it felt like his relationship
with Aaron Haad deteriorated. Aaron's kind of pivoted and is
like a supporter of him. Now sometimes a year away
with coaches will do him well. You could argue, I mean,
the Giants are going to match up really well against
the Cowboys, right because they have a really good defensive
line and at that offensive.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Well, they have a dominant defen they have second best
d lines arguably in the show.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, I mean it could. It's really I thought was
a little premature a couple of years ago. But the
Al Davis comps, I mean, the Al Davis thing, it
got ugly because he started hiring coaches that had no
business being the head coach. And that that's what Brian
Schottenheimer feels like right now. And what's going on there.
I mean, if they if they're an injury or two
away from being a disaster, and unlike Mike McCarthy that

(17:13):
knows what he's doing. Who's to say that they couldn't
just unwrap? I mean, what if Dak rolled an ankle
all of a sudden, You're like, oh my god, here
we go, and Brian's acting tough. Here's the other thing
to play. Like with Al Davis, the players know that
Jerry's in charge, so it's like, why am I going?
Why am I gonna listen to Brian? And that Mike
Lombardi talked about this forever. Once everyone realized, like the

(17:34):
coach doesn't matter here. Just go to Al, you know,
like you do that, you know how he's the boss.
You know mcveigh's the boss or Kyle's the boss. Obviously
they don't sign the checks, but the owners to deal with.
Even Jimmy Haslam was like Miles Garrett was like, I
want to trade. He's like, deal with the GM. Talk
to him. He's in charge of football. That is not
the way it works with the Cowboys. And when you
get one thing, Mike had a Pelts on the wall

(17:55):
right had coached Aaron Rodgers, had won a Super Bowl'd
like Brian Shott and I. Some of these young coaches
had never heard of his dad. So it's not like
he's this famous coach's dad. I mean he is to
me and you, But if you're twenty two years old,
you don't remember Marty Schottenheimer coaching the Browns, right or
coaching the Chargers, and so some of his credibility with
that name doesn't resonate like it does for an older

(18:18):
person or even Jerry, who I've heard Jerry say part
of the reason he loved I think he thought, maybe
I'm getting a Kyle Shanahan or a McVeigh, you know,
from a football family. I think that's what he's thinking.
It's like Jerry, that's yeah, it ain't quite the same, no.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
I think I was talking to Matt Moseley on one
of my pods and he said, like, Jerry doesn't respect coaches,
and there's a very clear line. He hires coaches who
will be indebted to him. I like Jason Garrett didn't
think he was great, thought he was good. Jason Garrett
would not have gotten another head coaching job. Mike McCarthy
was on the beach. Jan Jan Gaily was not a

(18:52):
hot prospect. Nobody was even offering a top oc job
to Brian Schottenheimer. The coaches, Jerry doesn't respect the coaching position,
which is really weird considering Jerry usually has a pretty
good sense of valuations of properties. He's a very very

(19:13):
good businessman, and I think Jerry overvalues his football IQ
and feels like, by and large, we could win twelve
games with Mike McCarthy. I can win. I can win
ten to eleven games if Dak comes back healthy. It's
just remarkable to me that in the most important sport

(19:40):
for coaching, football, where the league has gotten much more
sophisticated and intelligent with its offensive coaching, Jerry's going the
other way, which is coaches don't matter. It's really remarkable
to me everybody. Now, maybe it's this he looks at
Nick Siriani and thinks if they won a Super Bowl

(20:01):
with Nick Sirianni. Maybe he looks in his own division
and says that, I mean, I mean Sarahannie. To me,
he's a bit of an outlier where I understand Dan Campbell,
who I wasn't initially a fan of. I don't really
get Sariannie still, but it works.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
He's got Howie Roseman. I mean, I mean, he's got
a guy that's gonna be probably a first bout Hall
of Famer one day as a general manager. I think
Jerry is just he had an opportunity. Sean Payton worked
for him, Dan Campbell played for him. You could argue
a couple of years ago Dan Quinn, who was this
rising star. If you're gonna get rid of Mike McCarthy,
just fire him then and hire Dan Quinn. I think

(20:39):
a mistake he made is two years ago when Mike
lost to the Packers and everyone freaked out and he
got his ass kicked. He'd let him coach on that
that year where his contract ran out. He probably should
have just given Mike like a three year contract extension
after that year. Wouldn't have had to be crazy money.
But Jerry, prideful wasn't gonna do that after they lost,
and now he's in a position where Brian Shottenneimers is
head coach. I'm not as down on the Cowboys roster

(21:03):
of being some choke like two to three win team,
but the way they're built, I mean they are an
injury to a way, and if the coach is over
his head. This is a sport where it's like it
can get ugly, and it can get ugly fast. And
if Dak were to get injured, and he has a history, now,
who's to say they can't end up like a four
win team and be last place in that division. If
the Giants just the quarterback plays stabilize a little bit

(21:26):
in their defensive solid we know, Washington, the Eagles are good.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
Well, I think you nailed it. I think the New
York Giants are a Say what you want about the
Giants that defensive line. Now again, Philadelphia's O line is
good enough to keep it at bay. I think the
Giants D line could overwhelm the Cowboys. I think Abdul
Carter Fobota on the other side, Dexter Lawrence. I'm trying

(21:50):
to think of defensive lines I like more than the
New York Giants. There's not a lot of them. There
are some individual players that are great. I think the
Rams defensive line is really really good in getting better.
Philadelphia is, obviously, but you know there's some teams in
this league in the Giants are one of those teams.
I actually think they're a quarterback away. I think if

(22:12):
you gave them the right quarterback, you'd look up in
the Giants, they wouldn't be flashy. If Malik Neighbors could
stay healthy, they could actually win eleven games. That's why
you know Dable. I think it works a little bit
with his franchise because he is good at taking average
B quarterbacks and making them a half great higher. But

(22:33):
I don't know. I just I history repeats itself, and
I think we're going into a really dark cowboy stage.
That was this week's Sunday Night Foodball, brought to you
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deals on Uber Eats. I do every week, the official
on demand delivery partner of the NFL. Order. Now I

(22:56):
just did. Okay, So I think we're both so fired
up for Texas Ohio State. You and I love college
football and I can't wait for that game. So the
Michigan penalties came down, and basically Harbaugh can't coach in

(23:16):
college football for the next decade. He won't. They're probably
going to have to write, you know, thirty million dollars
in checks. They didn't have to vacate any wins. The
best punishment you can give a huge brand is cash.
I mean, they can make payments, but I I gotta
tell you, John, I know I'm supposed to really be

(23:37):
outraged when the NCAA says, hey, listen, they were out
of control, they didn't follow rules. John the coaches I've
talked to with the transfer portal, it is so sketchy,
and the NIL is the wild wild West that connorstolellions.

(24:01):
I know I should be bothered, but I think I
think the penalty of a pay like twenty to thirty
million dollars, I'm fine with it. And I know I
sound like I'm a big ten homer here, but I
would say this. We all know the SEC was paying
guys for years through the church. I mean Nick Saban

(24:22):
basically stopped recruiting late cycle Ole Miss players because if
he couldn't get him committed early, he knew he'd lose late,
he knew he had no chance to win. They'd get
paid out. So and then you know, Hugh Freeze got busted.
I mean it was I went on the air multiple
times there were Ole Miss was not the only school,
but they were the worst defender with Hugh Freeze, who,

(24:42):
by the way, gets rehired again because nobody really cares.
But in the end is if you can pay high
school football players, I don't care. It's nothing's illegal. I
don't care. Do you feel as strongly as I do?
Or are you bothered that they were a little bit
of an outlaw program with Hart?

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yeah? I mean, I do not care at all. I'm
actually surprised that people still listen to the NC Double A.
You know that they're not in charge of the money
generation of college football. Obviously they have more of a
poll when it comes to basketball because they have a
lot with the NCAA tournament.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
But it's much madness.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, it's not called the NC Double A college football playoffs? Like,
so why think how stupid it is that Sharon More
got suspended for games three and four because they play Oklahoma? Like,
what are we doing? How does this make any sense?
And the NC Double A is it's been laughable for
a long time. It's like, No, I witnessed John Calipari
go to the finals, Like, you can't just take that

(25:39):
away Reggie Bush. I saw him. He's one of the
best college football players I've ever seen. Can't take away
his heisman. What were we talking about? Because he took
some shoes and an apartment from an eighth Think how
dumb that sounds? Now? You talked about that today. But Michigan,
who has a quarterback which I would imagine is going
to start the Underwood kid who they stole from LSU
because Larry Ellison cut a fifteen to twenty million dollar check.

(26:03):
And we're mad about a guy with binoculars and an
iPhone sitting in the seventieth row at an Iowa Michigan
state football game. And the other thing is I always
did defended Belichick when I got to the NFL with
Andy like stealing signs because technology changed a lot over
the last ten years. Now it's like everyone's in the headset.

(26:24):
But before stealing signs, everyone was doing it. Now Belichick
was a little more brazen on the sideline, but he
was doing something no different than everyone else was doing.
Everyone had signed stealing ability and tried to decode everything
and had people with cameras, so no one you notice
people in the NFL weren't that offended. Who was offended?

(26:45):
Fans Roger Goodell, who's never you know, And this is
the pushback with NFL people with Roger great with business,
but he doesn't know like the inner workings of play calls,
player acquisition, the strategy of football, and that's not his
so sometimes like bounty Gate and things with Roger Goodell overreacted.
I think a lot of people in the NFL, it's like, yeah,

(27:06):
this is football, you know. I think a lot of
people in college football. Now, did Michigan just beat Ohio
State when he was gone with Bill Connor? Stallions? Like,
It's just they got really good players. They got a
bunch of NFL guys. But I just can't get over
people still listening to the NCAA. It baffles me, like
why does football need them? And at this point in

(27:26):
time in twenty twenty five, I don't get it because
clearly they had to just wave their hands and wave
the white flag on all of the money stuff, So
why are we listening to them about anything else?

Speaker 1 (27:39):
I will make a prediction in the next three years,
some venture capital group will buy March Madness and they
won't change much. They may shrink it a little bit
to like fifty eight teams or something that, you know,
fewer teams is probably better for a little leaner tournament.

(28:01):
But you know, I just heard a story yesterday from
a very good network source that there is a lot
of momentum to have like a twenty four or twenty
eighteen playoff, and my loyalty has always been to more
big games, and you just can't get me worked up.
I Auburn Alabama. It's great, but it's regional and the

(28:25):
highest rated game last year. I think it was Texas Georgia.
That's not a rivalry. It wasn't Texas Oklahoma. So I don't.
I'm not when I heard everybody say, well, you're going
to kill the rivalries. Listen, if you're a Michigan fan
in Ohio State, did that game feel smaller last year
to you? And Michigan upstate Ohio State? It didn't feel
smaller to me, you know. So I mean the reality

(28:47):
is when the Rams play the Niners, it's intense. They
could play three times a year. Years ago, when the
Steelers and Ravens and Ray Lewis was around and so
was Big Ben. They play one year three times. The
game felt bigger than the first two because it was
a playoff game. So I there's just certain things in

(29:07):
twenty twenty five. I can't get worked up over somebody
having pot in their car, you know, same sex marriage,
NCAA coming down on payments to players, or any kind
of scandal like we've just graduated to just understanding the

(29:28):
world we live in. I said it today. Unless you're
like a cop from Reno nine to one to one,
you got a roach in your car. Nobody cares. That
mattered in the seventies, and I just if you can
buy high school players. I don't give two shits about
somebody with an iPhone in the crowd. I don't care
if you have forty of them, I don't care.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
I do think the twenty four twenty eight team college
football playoff, that's where I might get a little worked up.
You know, we saw the twelve team that first round
was a blowout. You know, you know there have been
arguments about sixteen tw again more. I love football as
much as the next guy, But that doesn't that feel
a little extreme? And we get a lot of average
to below average teams in the dance in that situation,

(30:10):
it's been your argument.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
I think for March.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
Madness forever, we always scream over first in last out
or whatever. Those teams never matter, right, who are your
one and two seeds? They usually determine the tournament.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
So I think you'd have to make it half the
size of March Madness. Because football is a sport of attrition.
So the little guy it has no chance in a
twenty eight team tournament to ever win like a third
straight game against a bigger, deeper roster. But I think
I've said I think the perfect number is about sixteen.

(30:41):
I wouldn't be bothered by twenty. I think if you
get to twenty eight, you'd have to give the top
like four seeds. You know, I don't want I don't
want Georgia playing Liberty. I'm just not interested in that
at all. I mean, Notre Dame played Indiana and that
was kind of embarrassing for the Hoosiers.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
I thought it was very I mean, Boise State in
state had a guy drafted in the top ten at
running back and he had no chance. You know why
because the offensive lineman had no chance to block the
Penn State guys. And that's always going to be the
big problem you get a twenty eighteen playoff. But here's
the other thing. It's like it's one team thing. At
the fourth or fifteen from the Big ten and the

(31:19):
SEC get in. But when you're taking the third and
fourth team from the Big twelve and the ACC, that's
when it could get really ugly. And that's I we
don't need to see those teams play now. I get
it's all about television ratings and football. I was thinking
today watching Sunday Night Football with Kleb Williams, what do
you think the first thirty minutes of that football game did?
I mean, it just had to blow everything out of

(31:40):
the water on Sunday night on Fox. Right. So the
advantage I never argue against, like more of these games.
I completely understand or argue against the people that want
more football in terms of working at the networks or
part of the revenue generation, because it's only going to
bring in more eyeballs. It's like, listen, I hate the
double header on Monday Night. I think it's I think

(32:02):
a huge part of playing Monday night football or Sunday
Night football is getting the solo game. But their argument
is you put the double header. It accumulates millions upon
millions of more people watching football, and that's the business
Roger an, ESPN or Fox or whoever's in. But sometimes
the product does get worse when I get a double
header on Monday night. I don't know who's asking for it.

(32:24):
Beside we're just gonna get more people. We can sell
more ads and make more money.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Yeah, I mean, I know people get worked up over
my take on college football. I'm not a traditionalist, but
I've always truly felt that if you're absolutely honest with
yourself Alabama fan, Ohio State fan, you get bored with
the season. Because the Michigan game is great, the Penn

(32:49):
State game is great, the Oregon game was great. But
there's about six times that you're paying for a game
that is over at half. And if you're really honest,
I would and this is something I'd pay attention to
on any given Sunday, the one o'clock window, those are
not the best teams in the league. Those are. That's
a lot of Tennessee, that's a lot of Carolina, that's

(33:13):
a lot of you know, Chicago, Saints, Washington, Saints Washington
pre Jaden Daniels. Any given Sunday, there are four electric
finishes in the one o'clock window. And then you're getting
standalone Fox games, CBS game, Sunday Night game, Monday Night

(33:34):
game thirty. You get at least six tremendous games every
weekend in the NFL. And that's out of how many games,
I mean, how many total games do you have? Like
fourteen twelve. So in college football you have one hundred
and what is it, one hundred and thirty five, one
hundred and forty Division one programs. There are weekends that

(33:58):
you get. Now, again, you probably get close games with
teams nobody's watching, but you may get six great games
a weekend, and a lot of times for the six,
you know, can be like Army against you know, Boston
College and it goes down to the wire. That's not
the highest quality of football. So to me, I'm rooting

(34:18):
for anything that gives me. You know, like I said,
I get now Oregon against Michigan and Penn State and
Ohio State or Oregon against Washington State Callen Stanford. To me,
it's just not a hard choice. I want more quality.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah, I'm probably more of a traditionalist than you when
it comes to college football, but it's over, Like the
battle has been won and those traditions are done. Right,
we are going to continue to merge, and I think
we have to acknowledge how do we get the best games.
I'm all for not allowing some of these matchups anymore,
basically mandating that you have to play your peers in

(34:57):
the non conference games, and maybe that if we go
to a bigger playoff schedule of twenty or twenty four teams,
then Alabama would never play a mercer because remember Saban
used to bitch and moan about no one being in
the stadium a kickoff. It's like, well, Nick, you're playing
col Paly, the Sisters of the Poor and UC Davis,
And then he'd go, well, our schedule is so hard,

(35:18):
And it's true, your SEC schedule is hard, but you
still got three or four other home games that no
one cares about. And let's face it, there are a
couple of SEC games, you know, Vanderbilt was before last
year in a Mississippi state where you're gonna kick the
crap out of them. So it's not gonna be an
enjoyable experience for the consumer. So how do we fix
that and maybe go into twenty four teams? Enables us

(35:40):
to because where we're headed is is gonna be the
NFL White Right, We're gonna have two major conferences and
they're all gonna play each other. And that's where like
the even the Boise States and the New Mexico's, they're
eventually just gonna be playing like there's just gonna be
Division one. And then there's gonna be like Division one,
double A, and right now there's still kind of that
middle ground of some of these teams. I don't think
they will exist in five ten years because financially they

(36:03):
won't be able. It's like it's like business, right. I mean,
think how often Amazon or Target or some of these
you know big companies Oracle Meta, you know, have just
wiped people out. And that's kind of what like Ohio
State and Alabama and USC and Oregon. And it's why
I read a story recently like Duke in North Carolina,
we're trying to get to the SEC. Well, they're not

(36:24):
gonna let Clems in Florida State just go like we're
coming with you. You know, we've got to follow the
money if we want to survive.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Yeah, And I think change is inevitable. I mean, you
and I I think are pretty safe when it comes
to AI. But I mean, look at what's happening in AI,
Like if you I would. I just read a story
in the Atlantic today how AI has changed universities in

(36:51):
academia and one hundred percent of students use it and
you know universities, and they were quoting some of the
kids talking about it and they're like, listen, man, I
work hard, but sometimes I just want to go lift weights.
I don't want to write another sixteen page essay. And
which is you know a lot? I mean, do you

(37:13):
remember anything from college? A lot of it's nonsense, I
really do. I think finally, over the course of my life,
people have come to terms with a lot of college
and a lot of universities as status unless you're a
doctor or unless you're a lawyer and you're getting a
certain license or degree. But in a lot of instances,
you know, you end up getting in sales. But I think,

(37:33):
like AI, job displacement, like this is the way of
the world, and sports fans like I never got adults
that collected baseball cards. I guess there's a financial benefit.
It's a water down, deluted market now, But I think
you just have to get comfortable with sports are going
to change. And I felt for years that boxing was

(37:54):
screwing the fans, and here comes UFC and knocked it out.
And I felt for years that college football was the
worst run, eight billion dollar year sport. Boom the network
stepped in Fox in the ESPN, NBC and said, yeah,
we're gonna take it over. We're gonna make the decisions,
and so I don't have a problem with it if
you're a well run company. Like people can bitch about

(38:17):
the NBA. They just signed a seventy six billion dollars
eleven year deal. You can complain about the NBA, but
nobody in venture capital country is going to buy the teams.
The league is incredibly profitable. College football was a poorly
run mess. Boxing was a mess. Horse racing is a mess.
Golf with a PGA being a charity never took care

(38:37):
of it stars, So get look at what's been upended.
Poorly run college football, poorly run boxing, and the poorly
run PGA. Stuff that's well run. Nobody's buying Meta right,
like nobody's buying Amazon, like they're buying companies that are
you know, vulnerable so or significant smaller. So I don't

(39:01):
feel bad for sports that change. They only change when
they're poorly run.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
But my question then is when does it never end?
Like in the NFL, we can make fun of the
Brown family or I feel like the Davis family. Mark
has pivoted much better with Tom and his group coming in,
so they got more financial backing. But at the end
of the day, the Cowboys and the forty nine ers
and the New York Giants their partners with the Cincinnati
Bengals and the Arizona Cardinals. Right, But if you're Ohio

(39:28):
State and now USC and Oregon come, you start looking
around like why are we carrying Maryland and Minnesota? And
that's the problem in Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Florida, go, what
do we need Mississippi State for Vanderbilt great academics, who
gives a shit. We're not even gonna be associated. Our
kids aren't even going to go to school in five
or ten years. We're just gonna have a siloed football program.

(39:49):
And that's the problem with college athletics is there is
a lot of kinks in the business plan because how
many programs truly carry it and can and can splinter
where Jerry can say all he wants is like we're
the most watched team or the Chiefs now But you're
in business with all these other people, and that's how
you sell the business model to the networks. In college football,

(40:12):
you buy the big ten. But I mean you've been
at Fox like they've rowed Michigan, Ohio State. If Maryland
disappeared tomorrow, besides Scott van Pelt, who would notice? And
I and that's what like that that still matters to me.
I mean, I grew up around cows. Read the Athletic
article on Andrew Luck It's it's pretty good about him
going to become the GM and a lot. It's a

(40:33):
it's a really good article came out today. If Stanford
football just disappeared tomorrow, no one would notice. And it's like,
how long is this sustainable? When everyone is just kind
of backstabbing? You know, the big guys are just constantly
backs Like ultimately Jerry can't ass out Mike Brown, He's
he just can't write, or Jed York can't just screw
Michael Bidwell, like they're all in business together and in

(40:55):
college they kind of are, but kind of not. I mean,
why did USC and UCLA u CLA just kind of
gebacked off USC? But USC was just we're not caring
Washington State anymore, screw you. So why can't USC and
Ohio State and Michigan just go? Why are we carrying
Minnesota and Maryland? I'm picking on Minnesota. Maybe they're bigger
than I give them credit for, but and we just
start trimming the fat and that's it's the fat's gonna

(41:16):
keep getting trimmed until we have twenty five programs. This
is Alabama, Florida, Clemson, That's what That's where it feels
like inevitable, right.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, I mean, but like, listen, the English Premier League
has relegation, like I I just think like major League
Baseball right now has and and for my entire life
has had six to eight teams that can't really compete
when the season starts. I don't know, I let me

(41:46):
rephrase that. So baseball has no salary cap, no salary cap.
So this should really be a sport in which big
markets dominate. Yet the Milwaukee Brewers are clearly the best
team in baseball. The Dodgers until they just swept a series.

(42:09):
We're reeling. The Yankees and the Mets. You know, they're chasing,
you know, the Blue Jays. The Yankees are, the Mets
are no longer in first place, not really a very
good baseball team. So I think in the sport of baseball,
in which it really should be a have and have

(42:30):
not sport, if you look at the last eleven World
Series champs, the Yankees aren't in there. The Dodger and twice.
One of those is sort of the much maligned COVID
World Series title. It's the Rangers, the Astros, the Gnats,
the Royals are in there, and the Yankees aren't. And
so my take is is Iowa football has never run

(42:54):
the sport, has never been hugely valuable to the sport,
but will always produce quality teams because it matters to
the people of that state and they'll always be a
viable seven to eight win program. And that's what they've
always been. And if you look at the history of
college football, you can go back thirty years. There's only

(43:17):
one new top ten program, Oregon. That is it. It's
always been ridiculously top heavy. But the difference is when
it was top heavy and we were paying guys behind
the scenes, or it was top heavy because of topography,
geography or population centers, everybody was okay with it. But
when things get lobsided because of money, we feel it's

(43:40):
very unfair. And the truth is, Ohio has always had
far more good players in it than Indiana, and Indiana's
a basketball state and Ohio's a football state, and the
Buckeyes and Michigan have been kicking everybody's ass in that
Conference for my entire life. But now it feels like
it's money that's separating them. And I think people get

(44:01):
worked up over money. They just especially men, they don't
like people don't like to talk about money. And the
truth is the Big Ten has been lobsided my entire life.
Since I started watching sports in nineteen seventy two. It's
been I mean for years Penn State was independent, they
joined it later. It's always been. There's been the occasional

(44:22):
Barry Alvarez Wisconsin team or Hayden Fry had a good
Iowa team that goes to the Rose Bowl. It's been
Buckeyes and Wolverines my entire life.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
I do think part of sports, though, especially college football,
which is you know in the NFL, a big upset
is in the playoffs or the Super Bowl. Upsets happened
all the time in the regular season. Regular season games
don't One game doesn't determine your success. We're in college
football now it determines less of your success. Ohio State
lost to Michigan, it didn't ruin their season. They still
won the National championship. But some of the biggest moments

(44:54):
in my life have been app lash and State beating
Michigan has been you know, some of the Aaron Rodgers
almost beating the undefeated Pete Carroll team and then Vince
Young fin like an upset happening in college football and
the little guy and whether that's you know, Minnesota or
a Maryland beating Ohio State once every six seven years.

(45:16):
Last year, Vanderbilt beating Alabama for the first time in
fifty years. And you do need like Tiger Woods needed
Chris de Marco every once in a while to give
him a run for his money. That's good drama. Ultimately,
this is the drama of Michigan. Ohio State can't play
every single game, right, So who's Ohio State or Alabama
or Oregon gonna play? I mean last year, I was

(45:37):
on the edge of my seat thinking, is Ashton Genty
and Boise State gonna beat Oregon, which is ironically used
to they beat him multiple times in the past with
Chris Peterson. But it felt like this is gonna be
pretty nuts, and you just wonder if that goes away
and it just becomes which it feels like it's gonna
become like forty teams, it's just gonna be every single week.
It's like, well, Ohio State plays they're non conferences now Florida, Georgia, Clemson,

(45:59):
and but I'm.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
Gonna argue, you're gonna watch that and it's gonna get
bigger ratings than playing Purdue again. And that's my takeaway.
Like I watched so much college football last year. I
loved college football last year. You and I both really
are heavy college football leaners. We love the sport. John,
I went through about an eight year cycle with Clemson, Georgia, Bama.

(46:23):
I was watching less. The sport was incredibly lopsided. Well,
now Texas gets to play Bama, LSU, Georgia, Florida, I
get usc schedule, Penn State, Michigan. Like to me, I
had more fun watching college football last year than I
have had in a decade. And so I'll go back

(46:45):
to this. I know it's money and it makes people uncomfortable,
but if you're telling me Ohio State, I mean, let's
just do this. Let's let's do this. So I'm gonna
read Ohio State schedule, Texas, Grambling State, Ohio at Washington,
at Illinois at Wisconsin, Penn State, Purdue, Ucla, Rutgers, Michigan.

(47:13):
You know the two games you'd get rid of tomorrow
Grambling State in Ohio, and everybody says, oh, that's part
of the fabric. Those are the two games you would
eliminate immediately, and the third game that you'd probably eliminate
would be Minnesota at Ohio State because it probably be
a blowout. So my takeaway is, in the new world,

(47:34):
if we have a bigger playoff, you're gonna get more Texas,
Ohio State, more Ohio State, Washington, more Ohio State, Wisconsin,
more Penn State, Ohio State, and more Michigan Ohio State.
You're just gonna get more of those games, are you not.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yeah, I'm not arguing for Grambling or Ohio to be
on the schedule. I do wonder there has to be
some hierarchy though, of like, eventually are they backstab in
the p dudes, the Minnesotas and Marylands and killing them
all off and we're just talking twenty five thirty teams
just playing in college football. I mean, that's that's that's
what like D one double A almost feels like right

(48:10):
North Dakota State, Montana, and I just wonder like there
has to be some sort of balance. I have no
problem with you're not allowed to play Grambling. If you're
Ohio State and Ryan Day would be like, well, we're
opening up against Texas, I'd say great. Ask Sean Payton.
He's like, yeah, we open against the Chiefs, then we
play the Chargers. Welcome to football. But that's the way
college that's the way college football works. And that's that's

(48:32):
always Saban's excuse. It's always and I respect all these
programs that play real non conference games, but they do
that and then they justify their other three non conference
games or against me, you and the dude down the
street and they're like, see, we played Texas on a
neutral field. I'm like, great, then you played three teams
that I mean, you feel bad for those kids. Is

(48:52):
it safe for Grambling in Ohio to play Ohio State?
I mean, I don't know if it is. But that's
just the nature that I guess. That's my ultimate thing
is And this is why college football has been you know,
it's it's been really successful in me. It's the second
biggest sport in America in terms of viewers, but in
terms of it's chaotic a lot like golf. The leadership

(49:13):
everyone just kind of stabbing each other in the back,
out for themselves we're in the NFL, even the NBA,
you're kind of with it as a group, and there's
just and maybe that's just the nature of their business
model with these conferences. It was always destined as it
got this popular, to be so fractured and be through
this period of time. But I don't think we're even

(49:35):
close to being done like the traditionalist they lost, But
I don't think we're close to being done, to being
situated like I think we still got five, ten, twenty
years of a lot of moving parts here.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Okay, I want to play a game. I'm going to
go through the Bearer schedule because I did this flying
back Boston to LA yesterday and I was surprised at
what I landed at. Okay, I'm gonna give you the
game and just your kind of gut instinct winner lose

(50:14):
for the Bears. Minnesota Vikings come to Chicago on September eighth,
Brian Flores against Caleb Williams. Win or a loss. Win, Okay,
you have a win. Bears then go to Detroit in
one of the louder environments against Dan Campbell and two

(50:34):
new coordinators.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
Loss.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
Okay, they get a host of Dallas Cowboys and Brian
Schottenneimer win. I think that's one of my favorite wins.
Then they go on the road to face Pete Carroll, Aston,
Jenny Brockbauers and the Raiders.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
That's a tough game, going to be loud. Seattle's going
to have a fast start. Raiders, oh peaky out nevermind
win win.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
Okay, so you have a win win. I think it's
I think it's a really good game. Bears then go
to the Commanders.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Side of the crime last year, right the Hail Mary.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
It's a late NBC level game. It's a five to
fifteen start, so that's a big Washington at home late game.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
I'll go l.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
That's what I did. Okay, Sat scot to Chicago, win
out a win. Bears at the Ravens lost. Yes, Bears
at the Bengals.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
Win. I think the Bengals could just be not as
good as people think.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
Okay, Giants at the Bears.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
That's one of those sneaky, tough matchups where I think
most fans would give the Bears a w. I could
see an upset city. They're gonna get upset where every
they might start feeling themselves, you know.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
Okay, you give them an l Okay, this is getting interesting.
Now the Bears are at the Vikings hel Okay, Stealers
at the Bears, win for the Bears. Okay, Bears at
the Eagles, probably a loss. Yes, Bears at.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
The Packers, they've beat them once in like thirty years, right, yeah,
going out loss.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Okay, Now get near the end and we'll see what
this means. Brown's at the Bears. That's probably a w.
Packers at Chicago. Now I'll go split here win, Bears
at Niners, win for.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
The Niners, lost for the Bears.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
And finally Lions at the Bears.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
Win.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
Okay, what do you think their record is? What have
you predicted.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
Nine and eight or ten and seven?

Speaker 1 (52:59):
Nine and eight got to eight to nine. And so
I went through it last night and I said, instead
of predicting, I'm gonna go every win. And I was like, you,
they're gonna split with Green Bay. I think I had
him losing on the road. I think I had him
like losing to a Giants. I thought the Commanders was
a loss. So here's my thing is they're a nine

(53:21):
and eight football team and they're out of the playoffs.
And my question to you is, will you deem that
a success at nine and eight if Ben Johnson and
Caleb cut the sacks in half. He does make mistakes,
he ad libs, but they're a nine and eight football team,
and Caleb looks like a top twelve quarterback, maybe number twelve.

(53:45):
Do you think it's a successful season?

Speaker 2 (53:47):
One thousand percent. They just fired the entire coaching staff.
They drafted tenth overall. They have been losing for years straight,
nine and eight in that division. Even if you missed
the playoffs, which I would think the last couple of years,
you've had a decent chance in the NFC.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
Till last weekend. Year determined that.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
That means you play important football the entire season. That
is one percent a win.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
Okay, I don't think people in Chicago agree, but I
agree with you. I got to eight and nine and
I was like, wow, and I feel pretty good about it.
You won the games at home. You should win.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
I would say this eight and nine and nine and
eight might be the difference of a fumble bouncing your
way or bouncing in someone else's arms. So it really
might not be that big of a difference over the
course of a season, but that number there, it feels
pretty big when you say it out loud. I do
think going over five hundred. I also think eight and
nine with the seventeen games, it's kind of the old

(54:45):
seven and nine. Like seven and nine, a lot of
people got fired seven and nine and eight and eight
was actually much more respectable. It's like, oh, the five
hundred they were solid football team, or seven and nine
felt like, ah, they kind of sucked, even though again
it might have been one tipped ball that landed in
another guy's Hanford of pick six. But I do think
going nine to eight is one hundred percent of success,

(55:07):
where eight nine I think people would be a little
just because the hype on Ben Johnson. I mean, let's
face it, he's he's considered immediately the next Shanahan, McVeigh,
Kevin O'Connell, like he's he's very highly regarded by fans
and football circles. I mean, he's just impressive. I've been impressed.
He's not just some pushover. He's kind of a hard ass.

(55:28):
And he even talks like I've been hard on Caleb
and he hasn't liked it all. I was like, I
kind of respect that, you know, he's been he's been
very I mean, you're back there seeing as local press conferences.
He's he's pretty candid about like it's not he's not
running some it's a pretty tight ship. I would say
he's got some Dan Campbell qualities, which I did not
expect from an offensive guy.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
Wrap it up. John Brahm repeats as the Live Golf
League champ eighteen million dollar check to him. That's pretty handy.
The team champion will be determined this coming week in Michigan.
Did you see the attendance in Indianapolis?

Speaker 2 (56:08):
I did, look fantastic.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
I sold fifty thousand seats, so that's almost double Chicago.
So I was talking to an executive at Fox today
and I said, I don't know if it works on TV.
I don't know. Some stuff does, some stuff doesn't. You know,
boxing is captivating in person. It doesn't necessarily work on
network television. You know, for whatever reasons, hockey doesn't work

(56:29):
on TV. It's unbelievable in person. But the live I
mean to sell fifty thousand seats and the merchandise they
sell as you and I saw crushes, so literally they doubled.
In a smaller area, they doubled the ticket sold. So
this weekend they wrap it up in Michigan, and I

(56:52):
think they're onto something with this sort of Midwest swing
invulf because it feels like the PGA has gone very coastal,
very Florida, and I think they've I think they've kind
of found a little bit of a niche. It took
them a while to do it, but I think they've
found it. In the States.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
Well, I think you could probably work six or seven
events in that Midwest swing. You could find somewhere in
Missouri or Kansas City area. Obviously Chicago's an easy one.
I mean going to Michigan, Indianapolis. I do think. And
I've told a couple of people that have asked me,
like what do you think, And I said, listen, I've
been to I've been to US opens, I've been to
multiple PGA events. This was unlike any event I've been

(57:31):
to every baseball, basketball, football, This was very unique with
the music in the vibe. If you're a young thirty
year old, you and your buddies want to go have
some drinks, if you want to bring like just go
hang out. It's just an easy event for a couple hours.
It doesn't it doesn't take a lot of time. They
all tee off at the same time, you know, so
it's like you go for a couple hours and leave.

(57:53):
And I do think they've struck something with the with
the musical acts. They had a Riley Green as a
country star, played all of DJ and Paulina. They're all
taking pictures with them, so I think they kind of
got something going there. I disagree Scott, And you know,
talking about the team element, you know, I don't know
how big that. You know, Golf's an individual sport. It's why,

(58:14):
I mean, think about why they've had some John Rahm
is an individual star, Bryson's an individual star. So they
got something there in the Midwest. And I would keep
hammering home the individual aspect. But they're big on the team,
which I understand that was kind of their point of difference.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
But I'll tell you what, they're selling a shit ton
of merch they are selling. Oh my god, they sell
a lot of merch.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
They really do, and it's it's been a lucrative move
for some of these I mean eighteen million dollars, I mean,
that's very John.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
The only merch I've ever seen in my life sell
for golf is the Augusta hats. Yeah, those are all
over the country. But if you take out the Augusta hat,
I don't see golf birch. The merch they're selling there
is incredible.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Yeah, they're doing. I mean, he's got something going. I
was impressed how many people were at the Chicago one
we went to, and obviously the visuals in Indianapolis just
people go there and it all kind of younger people
just there to screw around, have a few drinks, eat
little food, watch a little golf.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
It's the Phoenix Open. Yeah, it's the same thing, all right, John,
Good stuff, Talk soon, see tomorrow

Speaker 2 (59:22):
The volume