May 24, 2024 • 59 mins
College Football Apostles talks about the Legal and Business issues CFB. Jaden Rashada’s lawsuit against Florida Gators NIL Collective and HC Billy Napier, Drew Weatherford is trying to get private equity money into college athletics. The NCAA Antitrust lawsuits are finally settling for $2.8 BILLION dollars. Why are the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, and Pac-12 settling? Because if they don't, they're going to get smoked in court so bad that it might mean the end of amateurism altogether. ACC Breakup is coming so we are calling this the Better Call Saul episode.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The College Football Apostles is here and this is the
better Call Saw episode because the legal and business issues
are dominating college football. Make sure that you guys like
to subscribe, tell a friend about the show, and most importantly,
share so we can keep bringing you dope college football
content because this is the spot for college football. Here
(00:23):
on Unafraid show on the College Football Apostles. Let's get
to the show. Baby. I'm George Reister. He's Ralph Amsden,
and the first topic today is Jaden Rashata. Boy, oh boy.
(00:48):
There is a lawsuit out against the University of Florida,
against their booster and against Billy Napier. And I've known
that this is coming for quite some time. Whoever, when
it hit the airwaves, it kind of reignited the whole
Jadeen Rashada saga and kind of the narrative about him
(01:09):
as a kid. But Ralph, I've been looking at this
as more the entire time, as a as an issue
of why name, image and likeness is so important and
why it needs to come out of the dark alleys
and the dusty corners and everything else because of reasons
like this, And it's not just for the protection of
(01:32):
the players, but it's for the protection of the boosters
and the school and everybody as well. When when you
have a contract that you sign that is not enforceable legal, well,
technically it's enforceable legally potentially because you are now having
a lawsuit about it, but it's not something that you
(01:54):
would bring the light because technically it was an inducement
and technically it can get the school in trouble. So
nobody wanted this. But if everything is out on front
Street now, it's a whole different story.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, you know, as somebody who covers Arizona State and
went to Arizona State, it's been interesting watching, you know,
people say that, like there's there's been a group of
Arizona State fans that have said, like, I'm glad Jane
Rashott has gone because look at this drama you would
have brought to us suing Florida former Arizona State offensive
(02:33):
coordinator Billion Napier, you know, while while he's at Arizona State.
I beg to differ on the grounds that, like, what
is dramatic about someone said they would pay you money.
You both signed a contract and then the money didn't come. Yeah,
in any situation you would want to recoup that or
(02:55):
at least protect the next generation of football players that
are coming up from getting them. I was into situations
like that, and unfortunately legislation. Civil legislation is a good
way to make sure that a lot of those rules
can get short up because technically, like you brought up,
a lot of things that were happening weren't necessarily inside
the bounds of what nil was meant for. But if
(03:18):
you told a kid he was gonna get paid, they
both signed on the dotted line and then the payment
did not come. What are we doing here?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, because they made Jane Rishata out to be this
unstable switching schools like that. It's very interesting to me
because he was committed to Miami first, then he flipped
the floor. How uncommon is that.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Ralph, That's very common. But I don't think he would
have ever flipped in the first place had there not
been the biggest offer in the history of college foot Yes,
his way exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And then so and then he ends up asking for
his release and then going to Arizona State. And this
is late in the game, like the signing period has
already passed. So the amount of spots that are available
is very narrow at this point in time.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
So then he had dad was there. Yeah, And they
didn't tell him that he could have anything. Nope, they
just said like, hey, we got a spot for you
to come in and compete if you want to.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
And that's the thing is that is that he went that, Like,
this is the problem with this whole narrative is that
he was painted out to be this this money hungry
kid when he went to Arizona State without promises of
huge money and all of this stuff. He went to
Arizona State because he knew Arizona State there were limited options.
(04:48):
Like it wasn't even necessarily that that was going to
be the best fit for him. It just kind of
worked in the moment and if it worked out, cool
and if not, no, And when he left and went
to Georgia, there were bigger offers on the table, like significantly,
because the way Kirby Smart handles his whole roster is
(05:10):
is that like Georgia has about a little under thirteen
million dollars that they have in their collective for the
year to be able to divvy out to players, and
you have the top of the food chain, which is
back the quarterback seven figure guy. Then it goes down
(05:32):
from there and Kirby and the way that they do
it at Georgia. This the way they used to do it.
At Ohio State they've switched up just a little bit,
and a few other places Bama has been similar. Typically
is that there's a base amount that your you know,
that your highly recruited guys get, which is a very
low amount compared to what is out there in the media.
(05:57):
And then once you become a guy, now you have
opportunities to make significantly more money just from the collective.
And that's not coming from outside and that's not including
you know, getting a Zagsbi's or a car dealership or
any like. This is just coming straight from their collective
that's associated with the school. So now back to the
(06:19):
Rashata thing for a second. There was a payment due
in the beginning of December, according to their lawsuit, of
like five hundred and somei thousand dollars. He signed the
letter of intent towards the end of December, around somewhere
between the eighteenth and the twenty first, somewhere around there,
(06:43):
and the payment was missed and then promises were made. Okay, no,
the money's coming to money's coming, to money's coming, and
we have fans talking about, oh man, oh we want
kids that want to be here. You shouldn't be here
for the money. And like, imagine if you showed up
(07:05):
at a job right that you wanted, like you wanted
to be there, and then there were and then they
were supposed to give you your upfront signing bonus because
some people get signing bonuses for regular jobs or or
you know they'll they'll they'll start your pay early because
you are because you were recruited and you're finishing another job.
(07:30):
You want to take some time in between, anything like that,
and then that money does not show up on time,
even though it's a job that you want. How are
you now going to feel about the potential for everything
that you were promised in this job and the truthfulness
of those involved to be there?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
You wouldn't you wouldn't. And the most sinister part about
all of this is the hope from Florida's end, And
I maybe so one will come along and disagree with me,
but it seems to be consensus. The hope on Florida's
end is that he would break his end and leave. Yep,
they didn't want to be on the hook for thirteen million.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Dollars exactly what happened, nor was it wise, No, it
was not wise to set the market with with with
a high school kid. Yeah, well, well it started with
the yeah with yeah, with Nico Iamalava, which was reported
to be about eight million dollars. And I've talked to
(08:35):
like been out here in Cali. You have access to people,
and people are in your circles and stuff like that,
and it's well, let's just say that what's reported is
not all what has you know, what exactly it was? Okay,
but check this out now. So the market was initially
(09:02):
set there and now with that, and then you had
an arms rates like yeah, we're gonna do this, this
this with with the collective and people people pledged money
to these collectives and then didn't pay that money because
obviously in twenty twenty we had a twenty twenty twenty
(09:24):
twenty one, like we've had some financial crisis in certain
areas of the of the country and in certain sectors,
and people's businesses have downturned. People have I mean like
people who pledged money have personal events, they get divorced,
like and all of a sudden in pledges turned to
zero or they turned to different amounts of money. And
(09:47):
I think that this brings up a legal issue for Florida,
right because, on one hand, Billy Napier, who's named in
the lawsuit, coaches are aware of everything that happens in
their program, or at least generally aware, or they're like, listen,
I understand that that's going on. I don't want to
(10:09):
know about it, so I can have plausible deniability, which
to me is knowing about it. If you're saying nope, nope, nope, nope, nope,
have that conversation outside the door. You know, the conversation
is happening. M hm, so, and and Billy Napier, from
my understanding, is not really on board with that whole system, right.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Of of of the inducements and like especially at this
amount of money like that, he's that he wasn't down
with it.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
However, he's in charge of the situation. And when you
are in a position like Billy Napier is in where
Florida has not achieved the level of success that Florida
fans had hoped up to this point in time, can
we agree on.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That that is absolutely true? Yeah, he's on the chopping block.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yes, proof so, and they're over under which we went
over in the other episode which you guys can check
out here on on a Fraid Show, is five games.
They have an extremely tough schedule on paper, and if
they win five games, seven games, he's probably like, there's
a potential that he can get fired. Well, if they
(11:29):
win five games, he's probably getting fired. So couldn't the
school use this as an opportunity because mind you, nil
is legal now, but it was not at that point
in time, and he's not winning enough to where they
can pull what Kansas did and just throw the middle
(11:53):
finger up to the NC DOUBLEA and the Infractions Committee
and everything else and keep their head coaching basketball Bill's self.
They're probably more in line to do what LSU did
with Will Wade. And if you can fire Billy Napier
for cause and keep the and say we did something now,
(12:17):
you get a chance to keep that buyout money, and
you get a chance to put out a public face
of listen, we're doing the right thing and we're fixing
it around here, right, and you get a fresh start
with a new coach, which will then energize the fan
base a little bit. But you can't fire him now, Ralph,
(12:37):
you can't fire him now. Why because we're too far
away from the season and that opens up the transfer portal.
And if you fire him, you may lose dj Lagway.
You hell, you may lose Cormoni McClain who just signed there,
like you can lose a lot of your roster, of
your high end guys just bouncing to places that they
(12:58):
know that they can go in and start that immediately.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
But you know that there's administrators at Florida who are
looking at this lawsuit right now and they're saying this
might get us out of a buyout. Yep, yeah, that's
what you got. That's what you gotta understand. Like, there
are players on all sides of this chess game that
is college football, right like you It's similar to who
don't like you? You know who this is mean? But
(13:24):
you know who's looking at this Florida situation with with
with the eyebrows raised Jeff Fish And if there's enough
people at Florida who are like, maybe this Jaden Rashada
lawsuit that named Billy Napier in saying that he promised
a million dollars to Rashada.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
No, Ja's not leaving Washington for Florida knows say it ain't.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
So that's I'm a monor my guy. And so it's
one of those things that if if somebody at Florida
is like, man, we could get Jetfish, especially if we
don't have to pay a buyout.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
But and use what we were gonna pay to buy it,
because his contract at Washington is very Jetfish friendly in
terms of buyout.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, but then it's like, well, how much are we
going to be liable for to have to pay to
the shot of family? Yes?
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Oh yeah, because because this lawsuit is going to settle.
This lawsuit is going to settle.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
It has to you don't want discovery in.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
This no no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Like you don't want to find out what somebody. So
collectives are not allowed to coordinate with coaches.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yes, you were going to open up a can of
dusty corners that nobody wants opened up.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Every collective in the country is coordinating with the coaches,
every single one. Yeah, and so uh and that's why
that's why everybody needs to be careful because if you're
out here lying to kids and you miss payments and
they decided to take it to civil court and then
you get put in a position where your texts are
(15:07):
gonna get called into question. And then you have X
figure head of collective and you have head coach regularly
text messaging back and forth about the amounts that they
want players to get paid. Why do you think they're
trying to move the collectives in house so that they
don't they're not subjected to these technical illegalities. But you don't.
(15:30):
You just don't want to be found out in Discovery.
While the NCAA still has enough.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Here's the other program, here's the other problem. Is that
Discovery is the boogeyman because think about what happened in
the college basketball book richardson scandal. Do you know how
that started? It started because a financial advisor in Atlanta
named Marty Blazer was getting investigated biton. He was a
(15:58):
financial advisor for a bunch of profess athletes, got investigated
by the FBI for stealing money and doing some stuff
that he wasn't supposed to do. And Marty was like,
I know what's going on over over here. That's how
Hugh Freeze got caught at oh miss of you know,
doing doing stuff Discovery of something completely different, and now
(16:22):
all of a sudden somebody runs across the text message
unrelated and they're like, why the why the hell did
he say the one time that he said something texts
something that he shouldn't have text And then they're like no, no,
no other other phone or oh my bad. And now
you're like, what the hell does this mean? Now I'm
(16:44):
searching through texts for other stuff and now and gone down.
And you know how investigative people are like the like
I'm talking about the people that can't be bought like that,
the people that can only be bought by the truth.
That where I alwould say everything is for or sale,
Everything is not on sale. And the price sometimes is
not money, it's not what you can pay, it's something.
(17:08):
Sometimes the price is something that you can't afford or
that you don't want the most.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And then you and maybe you identify with this too.
I always tell my kids, I'm like, you know, something
as simple as as throwing your dirty clothes on the
floor is gonna invite your mother into your room to
start cleaning up.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Ye finds the newdy magazine, the comn the joint. Now
I'm not I'm not saying that that's what your kids
can do. It but I'm just saying like that, like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
That's my point, Like you're gonna you're gonna invite the corsation.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Because yeah, they're just like they're not even looking for
anything in particularly. Oh let me pick pick up this shirt. Wait,
hold on, what's what's that yellow thing sticking out? Are
these panties? Are this? Is this? Is this a or like?
Or like why is this fork up under here? Oh?
Let me let me get this fork? Wait? Hold up?
(18:08):
What the oh my god? Now all of a sudden, Hey.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
You know who the best drivers in the world are?
Who drug mules?
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Drug mules well, sometimes because they them food. Sometimes they
be breaking laws driving and speeding.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, well that's what I'm saying. Were you gonna speed
with drugs in the car?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
So that's what I'm talking about, is like you you
never want to invite any like a scope creep of investigations.
It's such a good point that you made because it
can always go sideways always. Yep, they got al Capone
on tax evasion exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
And this is why the whole NCAA anti trust lawsuit
is significant. So up to this point, the all the
power five schools have agreed except for the PAC twelve,
which they're expecting is going to as well. And this
is going to be two point seven two point eight
(19:03):
billion dollars in settlements and you're like, okay, so why
are they even doing this? And this goes to future
and past payments of players for their nil and things
like that. They're settling because they have to settle. The
NC double A has gotten their ass kicked in court
(19:25):
by Ed Obannon over ten years ago. They've gotten their
ass kicked Austin versus the NC double A every other time.
So the value of a scholarship used to be capped
at the cost of attendance, and now it's not. So
that means they can buy computers, they can buy any
ancillary thing that you need for school, and your stipend
(19:48):
can technically be higher than whatever it was, right, So
you so you have that on one hand. Now on
the other han hand, you have Yeah, so you have
that on one hand. Now on the other hand, you
(20:08):
have the NCAA, which has not like it was built
upon a system of amateurism where the value of a
scholarship used to outweigh the revenue that the players were
generating to bring in. But with the TV money since
(20:28):
I was playing has increased, increased, increased, The donorship has increased, increased, increased,
coaches salaries increased, increased, increased, and the people generate and
and players couldn't even make money on their own at
that point in time. So that was never going to
hold up to a legal challenge because there is no
(20:49):
other place in the in the country where that is okay.
So now this antitrust lawsuit which is going to be settled,
and this is going to bring collectives in in house,
there's gonna be more transparency, which to the jadenbershot a point,
(21:11):
this is necessary for the protection of the schools, for
the protection of the players, because if you actually have
real contracts that are above board and enforceable, you know
what's gonna happen. Ralph, there is going to be like
they're not gonna be able to promise one guy coming
out of high school a half a million dollars when
(21:34):
they're starting running back is getting two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. Like now you're actually gonna like it's actually
gonna bring things to a more equitable state, which is
what fans really want. Like it's the same thing that
happened in the NFL because when I came into the NFL,
you had the Sam Bradford. You had all these young
(21:55):
hot shot quarterbacks getting drafted, making more than the players
who were winning Super Bowls and going to Pro Bowls
and being All pros, and they hadn't taken a snap yet.
So then the players were like, nah, we don't like this,
and the owners were like, cool, we don't like it either,
because some of them don't pan out. So then the
rookie wage scale comes in, and now the players who
(22:18):
produce on the field, or at least you know, in
some cases that they believe will produce, those are the
people who get the huge second contracts. And then the
players who are rookies and still earning them and younger
players they can't get a new contract until after three years.
(22:38):
So it's created a more equitable system, even though it's
not perfect. It's created a more equitable system where there
is a tiered system for where you are in the
pecking order, which is going to create less drama and
also allow teams to keep their their rosters more in
(23:02):
order because of the lack of jealousy and transparency.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
What would you think of this and I know this
is complicated, but I want everything to be about board.
I don't think billion eight years a bad guy. I
know Jaden Chatte is a good kid. So this whole
idea that we're that there's even a villain involved in this, like, no,
this is a dispute that needs adjudicated the end. So
what what would you think of this that somebody comes
(23:27):
in uh to college on a two year contract, two
year contract and the third year team option, fourth year
player option. Absolutely not is typically if you're good enough. Typically,
if you're good enough, you're gonna leave school after three years, right,
(23:49):
So and a lot of these kids come in with
college credits or have a way to graduate in three years.
It's becoming more common than not.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah yeah, Justin Martin just graduated UCLA this spring.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, your boy Tyler Shuck's about to get his like
fifth college degree. Yeah, turning twenty four at Liutleville this year.
So and he was an early enrollie too. Yeah, so
you know this whole thing of like, Okay, if you
sign a two year deal, everything's above board, everybody knows
what you're making. And then the third year would be
escalating quite a bit, like you're a starter your all conference,
(24:26):
the team can option you into that third year, or
you can transfer to try to get a different contract elsewhere.
But if you spend three years, you had your team
option inacted, it was an escalator. You got a lot
more in NIL. You go into your fourth year and
you're choosing NFL or stay in college. It's a team
option or it's a player option. You could continue what
(24:48):
you got in year three, or you could go to
the NFL. But it's up to you.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
I don't hate the idea, but I think it's a
I don't think that it's gonna work it and and
for and I wouldn't want my kid to sign that
for multiple reasons. One is what what what happens if
you're Caleb Downs and he's a and he's a first
year starter All American? Now right now? What him? I mean?
(25:16):
And I know that that's the outlier and not the norm.
But and then two I am and and legally it
would never hold up for players to unless there are
out in these contracts. For if coaches leave like that,
that be a similar thing because coaches are under contract too.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, I'm only talking about obligating the school, not the player.
So the player could still transfer at any point. It
would just break the contract.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Oh oh okay.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
But it would see that's but it would obligate the school.
Because the primary issue that we're dealing with right now
is the fact that people, the people who the people
who want things to stay the same, or the people
who want coaches to still be able to why the kids. Yes,
because that's what we're talking about. A lot of college
football was built on coaches line to kids. That's it,
and now that.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Is what I'm gonna be here. I'm gonna be here.
I'm committed. You need to be committed. We want people
to and then pop out out the door and.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Are we see you? We see you getting reps at
running back in year one when you know that they're
in a meeting talking about moving this kid to safety. Yes,
Like those are the levels of anything to get a
kid in the door, because coaches are financially incentivized to
lie to kids. If you can build a reputation as
a collector, you're gonna climb in this business. And if
(26:40):
you can build a reputation as a winner as a
head coach, you're gonna have generational money. You're incentivized to lie.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, it should.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
What we should what it should come down to is
we should be able to find out who the best
coaches are. You should always be about finding out who
the best coaches and developers are. And if you introduce
a legislated monetary amount the kids are getting, we're going
to find out who the best coaches are and the
best people are.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yep. So now there's another component to this anti trust lawsuit,
which is who pays the money. So the way that
the Power five schools have all agreed to and yes,
the Power five because the PAC twelve is still counted
in this because it goes backwards.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
They were like, hell, you're talking about all so we
just the letterman, know, we switch topics to the anti
trust lawsuit. That is like house versus the NG you're
talking about paying back people, yes, quota revenue stator and
in the future.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yes, yeah, that's what we're talking about. Yeah. So there
are two hundred and eighty three schools that come from
the non Power five schools to the non Power five schools,
twenty two conferences and then there are the five conferences
plus Notre Dame and you know a couple other independence
So you're talking about sixty nine schools, and the proposal
(28:06):
was for those sixty nine schools to pay forty percent
of the bill of this two point eight billion dollars
two point seven two twenty eight billion dollars, while they
make ninety some percent of the money, like in between
eighty five and ninety percent of the money that is,
and the and so when the proposal came which they
(28:28):
were influencing, came out for them to pay forty percent
and then the other sixty percent to be paid by
the two eighty three who make a fraction of the money,
and it would be reduced by an equal percentage, like
point eighty eight percent for everybody. They were like, hell yeah,
hell yeah, hell yeah, sign us up, sign us up.
(28:51):
And they and the other twenty two conferences were like,
hell no, you pay fifty eight percent and we'll cover
the other forty two And it's funny, how and this
just goes to show how people act out of their
own self interest because when the college football playoff came
out and they were negotiating how much each conference was
(29:13):
going to get as far as making the playoff and
all of that, what if the big ten in the
SEC say oh, we should. We should do this by
historically we've made the most college football playoff appearances, so
we should get the most hypocrisy.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
And then just hitting me yeah, and now hitting me
that they played both sides of the fence. Yes. And
then and then the non Power five schools like Sincy, Oh,
you haven't really made it, so we'll give you a
fraction because you only contributed just a fraction to the
college football playoff. Oh but now when it comes time
to pay it back, Oh, listen, guys, this should be
(29:53):
equal point eight eight percent. The difference is is that
the SEC and the Big ten are having record rep
news and while the FCS conferences are saying, we're looking
at cutting ten percent of our budget to fund your
former players. So it's like the hypocrisy knows no bounds, Ralph,
(30:23):
the hypocrisy knows no bounds. Oh well, we need a
bigger share of the new money, but at the old money. Listen,
this should be equal. We're partners, right, and the and
the and the twenty two conferences are like no, but
the but the five are going to say yes. And
do you know what's going to happen. It is going
to be a yes.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, so you have the So the way that the
other twenty two conferences, like you said, two hundred and
eighty three teams, uh, like their view of this is,
first of all, like we're backdating money that we didn't
even make, and it's coming out to be about five
to six percent of our budget, while you're only paying
(31:04):
two percent of your budget and you make a lot
more money. So, and I understand why the sixty nine
schools that make up the Power five would say, no,
that's too much for us, because what the proposal from
the smaller schools was talking about was moving the bigger
schools from about a one million dollars a year obligation
(31:26):
to about one point four So it's a big bump,
it's about four hundred thousand dollars. But what the little
schools are saying is we're paying five to six percent
of our revenue. You're paying two. Make that make sense
when you guys are the ones historically that made the
most money.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
And and you're right, you're right, like the two hundred
and eighty three schools are going to get railroaded in
this because the majority of the revenue that comes in
goes through the power five. The funniest thing about all
of this to me is, you know, for Charlie Baker
to lead the effort to say, like, yeah, you know what,
(32:04):
based on these lawsuits that were getting crushed with, we
do need to have a revenue share model because everything
that we've ever accomplished is on the backs of the players.
How about two percent?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
They could have done this so long that Ralph had
the old commissioner, just leaned into this instead of spending
one hundred million dollars litigating these things, just saying all right, dude,
we're in trouble. It's a long shot. We're like that,
let's figure out a new model. Because they could have
(32:35):
actually had a model that was in place that would
have lasted another probably ten fifteen years before that got
blown up ten.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Years ago when we were talking about trust funds y'all.
How how much do you think that would have delayed
this process?
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Oh? My yea as much dude, it would have put Yeah,
such a yep, dude, you put this is such a
lose move.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Yeah, you could have put escalators in place for spending
three to four years at a school for getting your degree.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
And it would have cost you way less money.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Way letna drop all that money on them when they
were twenty three or painted over a graduated. You're in
a twenty three to twenty seven years old.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
The NFL literally does this when they are negotiating the
collective bargaining agreement because there are over two thousand players. Yes,
there are the guys who make one hundred million, but
the vast majority of the players are at a medium
or below level. So if you raise up their salaries
a lot, which is gonna cost you way less than
(33:37):
the top money, then those guys are going to vote yes,
even if you're creating subpart like we talked about the
NFL schedule, which you guys should go check out that
video and how unequitable it is for the NFL and
bad for the player's health and all of that stuff.
But they agreed to it and are gonna get eighteen
games soon without another bye week, probably because they raised
(34:02):
this salaries. And then the people at the bottom they're like, ooh,
I get a chance to collect more money now, and
they're not looking at the big picture because they're not
a part of the long term solution. So that's what
that they should have done. From the beginning. Okay, so
now that the NCAA antitrust awsuit, but now there's another Well,
(34:28):
there's another part that's factoring into this, which is there's
a name that you may want on Google, but we'll
tell you who this guy is. His name is Drew Weatherford,
and this guy has been having conversations in private with
over fifty athletic directors and power brokers in college football
about private equity money. And you're like, George, how does
(34:52):
this factor into this? Well, remember a few years ago
when the PAC twelve was trying to find it of
the Larry Michael Scott. Larry Scott, the commissioner at PAC twelve,
was like, listen, we're gonna own all our rights. We're
not gonna sell them. We're not gonna give somebody fifty percent.
We're gonna own all our own stuff. Well that was
(35:13):
a screw up. And then once he realized that, he
was like, ooh, maybe maybe we'll go get private equity money.
And so that's really where the first time that it
came out in the in the media. Then Florida State
trying to get out of their acc granted rights, private
equity money came into effect. So We've been slowly hearing this,
(35:35):
but now it came out that this is happening. So
this is just a feeler to see how this is
gonna work for people to investigate it, because the schools
have already been looking at this so and they're looking
to invest fifty to two hundred million dollars into what's
say five to ten programs or something like that. So
what this means is private equity money. That's Wall Street money.
(35:59):
That is that is like private equity is about returns.
I belong to a private equity group, an invest in group,
and you know what I care about money. I want
my returns on the back end. So you know what
that means. That means that these athletic departments that you
(36:19):
guys want to be happy, go lucky. Let's let's amateurism. Nah, bro,
that's big boy business. Now, Like that's even the literally.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
The thing that you've been pushing back against this entire time.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Yes, this is big boy money. That's not even like that.
It takes what the business of the better call saw
episode now and can exes it because as an investor,
I don't care about I don't care about the coach
because a lot of them aren't going to be college
football people like that, like, oh, it's in my heart.
They are invested in returns. So so now if I
(36:55):
am invested into an athletic department one hundred two hundred
million dollars, I get a huge say so. So that
means I get to say so on who the coach
is and what that contract looks like. So if we
are hiring let's say over it over at LSU, we're
hiring Brian Kelly. He's got one hundred million dollar contract,
(37:16):
two million dollar buyout if he leaves. There is not
a snowballs chance in hell that if private equity money
comes in that coaches contracts are going to look like
they look with these buyouts where they're one sided. Because
I know for my money and I know the people
that I work with, they're gonna give a giant middle
finger and be like, listen, we fire you because you
(37:39):
ain't doing your job. Ain't not a nine dollar we
paying you, fam or it is gonna be a nominal buyout.
So you're gonna have coaches contract change. You are going
to have the spending on non essential functions go down,
like it is going to be run like a.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Business your recruiting budget's gonna drop.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Like or or it'll stay the same if you're able
to justify, like, if you can show why this turns
into this, then you can get all the money in
the world. Like, if you can show me how if
I spend an extra half a million dollars a year,
that this turns into two million dollars a year in
an additional revenue, or even a million a million and
(38:27):
a half, which would be incredible, or even a million.
Now okay, cool, if you can generate me an extra
million for my half million, sign me up.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
But I would I would rather, I would much, rather,
much rather. For the equity thing, yes, there are some
people that are concerned with returns George, but they're also
there's also private equity that isn't not concerned as much
with returns. And that's the one that scares me. What
do you mean, like, were gonna invite the Saudi prints
(38:58):
into the sec Ooh you think live golf is getting returns? Like,
and what's going to stop some of these colleges from saying, like, no, no,
let's just go get the most money we possibly can't.
I would rather the sixty nine top schools go public.
(39:19):
I would rather them just be able to. I would
rather the rules change as far as athletic budgets where
you don't where it doesn't necessarily have to be dollar in,
dollar out, and they were able to if if I
was able to buy one hundred shares of Vanderbilt Baseball
or something like that, or Vanderbilt Athletics. Right, I'm able
(39:41):
to buy one hundred shares of Vanderbilt Athletics. I'm now
a Vanderbilt Athletics stockholder, so it's not private equity, but
you actually trade on a collegiate athletics stock market. And
that can be affected by like the way that that
a school recruits, the way that a school wins, or
it could be affected by the deals they signed with
(40:03):
apparel companies, the amount of merchandise that they move. If
we're going to take this thing like and put it
on the marketplace, let's just put it all the way
on the marketplace.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
It definitely would Man, it would be a very different scenario, dude,
very different scenario. But it's people that.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Don't know what Oregon how much? How much would you
go deep in on Oregon if Oregon was publicly traded.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Oh Man, because the the future is bright. Dude. If
this was a stock, I would have bought it when
I was playing. I would have bought it when it
was a penny stock, and it would be worth hundreds
of dollars now, so I would own I would be
a very very rich man.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
So what about that though? What about taking it public
and giving your players stock options so that they're actually
invested in your college program?
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Oh my gosh, and use it, yes, so like you
get stock options the longer that you stay there, or
as bonuses and stuff like that. Yep, that would put
you in that Dan Landing category because he got it.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
I take all this over private equity. And for the
people who don't know. Drew Weatherford, former Florida State quarterback
thirty nine touchdowns, thirty two interceptions, was he was in
college just after you, just after you. He was in college,
and he, you know, he formed this private equity group
with his brother, and you know, we're familiar with it
(41:34):
because Larry Scott had said that he wanted to sell
off ten percent of the PAC twelve for like fifty
million or whatever, and he was never able to get
that done. But I do wonder what the interest in
market would be to just take this whole thing public,
Like you could see the interest in major collegiate athletics
through how people are choosing to invest in them and
(41:59):
the successful pros, their stock would be higher, and that
could actually help influence recruiting because to get stock options
in Alabama would be a lot, you know, better than
stock options in like a Maryland or something like that.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
No offense to Maryland, and now square all of everything
that you say, Ralph on top of all of that,
and the people who are like, oh, goege football, the nostalgia,
the the the people being invested in it, why are
the players not invested in because everybody else is treating
(42:34):
it like a business, and so the players are like,
we're the goofies for still pretending like it is how
it was. So now there's a pushback, and especially when
you look up at the news. Seven hundred million dollars
(42:54):
Penn State seven hundred million dollars invested into an upgrade
of Beaver Stadium. So if you're a player and you're
at Penn State and they're like, oh, there's no money,
or you're a player at other and you see a
three hundred million dollars stadium, upgrade at Texas A and
(43:15):
M plus booster money going up and everything else, enrollment everything,
Why the hell are you not when you are Johnny
Manziel or you are a or you are at Penn State.
And if drew all their balls out this year and
decides not to go to the NFL, if he's like, nah, bro,
I need like three million dollars about you, fam like
(43:39):
or the the other first round picks are like, I'm
gonna neath that bread up about you. I don't know
what to tell you otherwise I'm out of here. And
people look at that and they're saying, there's something wrong
with the player. But it's not anything wrong with the player,
because you at your job if you know that, even
though you love your job, you're happy with your job.
(44:01):
If you bring in a contract or a deal, help
bring it in and you're a significant part of that,
and it's a seven hundred million dollar deal for the company,
and they give you and they not even not even
acknowledging it. They're like, hey, yo, we're gonna give you
(44:24):
a couple of extra steaks at dinner time. You're like,
I'm happy with the steaks. School I appreciate that, but uh,
where to check at though, because you can't feed like
the trail three way. I can't feed my family on
this money, bro. So I mean, and this is going
(44:51):
on all over the country because there's an there was
that arms race to upgrade facilities all over the country, right,
and then players and then they're like, there's not enough
money to pay the players. Our coach is getting one
hundred million dollars or eighty million dollars, seventy million dollars,
hundreds of million dollars upgrade. Yeah, but but but my
(45:12):
parent is getting a bill for a medical procedure that
I had while I'm at school, or my wisdom teeth
being pulled. How that makes sense?
Speaker 2 (45:28):
Yeah, and it's it's crazy to me. And I used
to get in trouble all the time when I was
like on the Arizona State beat because they went underwent
a four hundred million dollar, four year stadium upgrade.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
And I used to say, all people care about is
they don't want to piss in a trough and they
want to be able to tinker around on their phones
when they're in the stadium.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Make sure people could get a good sci fi yep. Yeah,
make sure people have access to bathrooms that don't make
them feel gross, and if you can, if you can
come around to maybe selling some alcohol in the stadium
so your students don't leave to go to Mill Avenue
and then come back, and instead they make the entire
place super fancy. They say that it's going to be
(46:08):
multi use, even though I think the only content that's
ever been there is Kanye West Sunday Service, and they
say that it's going to be multi use. They invest
all this money into this thing and then like, no,
we don't want to pay players. So you invested in
your fans wanting to be more comfortable, which you're never
going to be comfortable in that stateium. It's one hundred
and fifty degrees outside. So you invest all this energy
(46:31):
in your fans being more comfortable. Yet every single thing
that you and every college in the country does is
actually to bow to the god of television.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
YEP.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
A lot of these upgrades to stadiums that have been
made aren't even necessary because every school has been doing
everything they could to be more attractive to TV stations,
and they are actually neglecting what the fans actually want,
are neglecting the game day experience. Because if you can
get a giant check for your game being on TV,
(47:05):
you're not worried about every single seat being sold out
every single night. And you're also not worried about people
being able to make plans or take their kids to games.
You got packed twelve schools kicking off at eight thirty pm. George,
How am I gonna take my kids to a game
at eight thirty when they're bedtimes nine?
Speaker 1 (47:23):
Hey man, you you better let your kids stay up late.
That's all I tell you. During football season.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
Everything they do has been in service to the God
of Maam and to get that money and it comes
from the you know, it comes from TV. And then
on the on the other end, you're trying to make
people happy that invest in your program by saying we're
gonna give you comfortable digs to sit in, but we're
not gonna respect you with trying to have consistent kickoff
(47:51):
times and stuff. A lot of how the NFL got
very very popular because expectations were set. I know the
NFL is moving away from that. They got all the
money in the world to play with. College are crying broke.
They'll tell us they don't have the money. And at
the same time we're reading these headlines. Beaver Stadium is
gonna get seven hundred million dollars if used into it.
The whole thing is crazy. If all you ever read
is headlines about how there's hundreds of millions of dollars
(48:13):
coming in and you're the product, you're the player speaker
supposed to do exactly.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
And speaking of one hundred million dollar headlines coming in,
we found out that TNT is now going to broadcast
multiple college football playoff games and you're like, wait, hold up,
hold up, I thought ESPN bought those rights. Yes, ESPN did,
and they got smart. They were like, oh, because they're
(48:39):
because them and Fox are actually combining on an app
and all of this stuff. They were like, oh, we
can sub this out to people like TNT who pay
big money for college sports. They already do it for
the NCAA tournament and they see a major return. So
they're like, oh, yeah, let's get into that business. You're
gonna have Netflix or Apple. I'm gonna tell you in
(49:03):
the next ten years. Netflix which has three NFL Christmas
Day games coming up. Netflix, which is trying to get
into live programming. They just had two live programs with
Tom Brady and then with Kat Williams. Those were testers.
That is all they were about. It was not about
(49:26):
anything else besides that being a test because they got
to figure out if people will watch and how to
support live sports. Apple wants in They already got the
MLS and Major League Baseball on Fridays. They want in
this more. They want all in it. And that means
(49:49):
that that's going to happen because they got more money
and the college football Playoff, whether it's that, oh those
networks is going to get and then you got Amazon
for the NFL exclusive streaming on what's that Thursday nights.
You are going to have one of these leagues be
(50:10):
their primary place be on Netflix or Apple TV in
the next ten years, probably in the next seven years yep.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
Which is what the PAC twelve thought would save them
as if they jumped over to Apple TV.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Yep, And it probably would, and it would have if
USC and UCLA had had stayed, it would have worked.
They would have been ahead of the curve and then
on the like it would have been the Larry Scott
where it would have actually worked on the back end,
but not on the front end. All right. So the
(50:47):
final thing that we got to talk about today is
the staying on the business of sports. So the ACC Ralph,
the ACC implosion, which we've been trying to get in
for a couple of weeks. This feels like the PAC
twelve enplosure, where people wanted to deny it. They were like, oh,
(51:08):
there's no way, and whole time if schools are continuing
to invest in this legally and their smoke private equity meetings,
all of this stuff, there's fire. It's happening. It's just
a matter of what it looks like. And they're trying
to see whether it's going to be legally that they're
(51:29):
gonna be able to get out and get their granted
rights like Florida State, Clemson, all of them, and that
man if Florida State and Clemson get out first, or
Virginia or whoever else is named in these lawsuits, you're
in a PAC twelve situation because they signed a horrendous
deal with ESPN, and ESPN is like, we're not giving
you extra money to like, because we can just do
(51:52):
what Fox did with the PAC twelve. Break this whole
thing up, take it and put it in other places,
and now we can maneuver this in a different way man.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
So the we knew that Clemson was unhappy because they
had traditionally been a powerhouse. Yeah, we knew that Florida
State was unhappy because they consider themselves to be the
traditional cornerstone of the ACC. Correct, And then you know
they turn around with thirteen to zero in football before
(52:32):
you know, getting blasted by Georgia last year and prove
that to be possibly still correct. They also have the
twenty fourteen I believe National championship with Jimbo right yep.
So those two schools, believing themselves to be the cornerstone
of the conference kind of have taken on the role
of the UCLA and usc IN in trying every legal
(52:54):
avenue and testing the fence in every possible way to
try to get themselves into what they believe will eventually
be a two team league with competition between the Big
Ten and the SEC, with the Big Ten actually just
surpassing the SEC and persco payout if I'm not mistaken.
The surprising thing about this has been that no one
(53:18):
else in the ACC has really voiced their displeasure until
now North Carolina is jumping on the bandwagon. And why
that's scary is the ACC just moved its headquarters to Charlotte,
North Carolina, which means tournaments are played in Charlotte, which
(53:41):
means two RISM dollars for the state that University of
North Carolina is supposed to represent. If the president of
the University of North Carolina, let's see what this man's
name is, Martin Nadelman, if he's not on the same
page with with the ACC, who has an outgoing president,
(54:03):
which it's it's going to be interesting to see, you know,
how all of this U shapes up. But if University
of North Carolina isn't down with the ACC, that's a
huge problem, yep, because they're supposed to be simpatico the
a CEC being headquartered like is is is University of
North Carolina really so displeased with their situation that they
(54:27):
want tournament games to be played in Indianapolis or Atlanta
or or somewhere else, Like are they willing to cost
their own state money to be able to get out
of this contract. That's the fascinating thing to me because
I think the ACC, you know, I've been pushing back
because and the truth is, I don't know as much
about the a CEC as I do about the PAC twelve.
(54:48):
You and I saw the PAC twelve disaster for what
it was the entire time, the.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
Entire it was obvious, it was written on the wall
like a blind man could see it.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
But you have the same energy about the ACC. I've
noticed you. Do you believe that it is inevitable that
the ACC goes into the dust.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
Yes, one, that their only hope is to merge with
the Big Twelve. That is their only hope at this point.
Speaker 2 (55:18):
And the Big Twelve is open to that.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
Yeah, the Big Twelve is like, come here, come on,
you know you want to. And that's what you're gonna
end up having for most of the ACC schools because
Florida State and Clemson are not going to the to
the Big twelve. They're gonna end up in the SEC probably,
and then you're gonna have North Carolina and some other
(55:40):
team probably end up in the Big Ten. And then
you're gonna have most of the ACC like the Syracuses
and the you know, uh, it'll be interesting to see
where my Miami ends up. You're gonna have some of
these schools end up in different places, and then you're
gonna have somebody has to be the cal in Stanford,
(56:04):
which end up somewhere. But they're like, I will take them,
and then you're gonna have the Oregon States in Washington States.
Somebody in that conference is going to get Oregon stated
in Washington stated. And that's why, like Rutgers and and
these other schools that are in the Big Ten already,
(56:25):
they're like.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Yeah, because Maryland Rutgers should be ACC schools.
Speaker 1 (56:30):
Yes, And they're like, hey, god, we jumped on the
right boat, buddy, because if we jumped on the other boat,
we will be like who would like Rutgers would be
would end up getting treated And this is no Disparaisment's
Ruggers Fine University, all of this stuff. They're they're they're trying.
They're like, it's no, no disparaisement to them, but the
(56:51):
reality is they're not as TV attractive even though they're like,
we're in one of them. We're in New Jersey. That's
like saying that that Stanfords in California.
Speaker 2 (57:06):
Right, Yeah, but I mean Rutgers. You can absolutely disparage
Rutgers because they got a sixty million dollar payout as
part of the Big Ten. Meanwhile, you know, your your
University of Washington going to the national championship, you're getting
like thirty one. You can absolutely with those bozzles on
(57:30):
look at Rutgers and be like, you know what, screw
you guys?
Speaker 1 (57:34):
Yep, yep. So we're gonna see because because the ACC,
their either survival or not, is going to impact because
what's then gonna happen with Wake, Boston College, Georgia Tech,
Virginia Tech, Sarahcuse like those types of schools. Now, if
(57:54):
Virginia Tech was doing what they had been doing in
the Frank Beamer days and the you know, the Michael
vic days and all of that, then maybe it would
look different. But now the question is how does the
future look for those schools?
Speaker 2 (58:12):
Yeah, I worry about a Georgia Tech. I worry about
a Virginia Like the high academics.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Well, well, Virginia is gonna be fine because apparently they
are highly attractive to people.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
Well they got that hoops program. Yeah, that goes back
and forth between losing in the first round and winning
national championships. So I just I don't know, don't I
wish that that wouldn't happen for the ACC. I don't
wish what happened in the back twelve on anybody. I
hate it every minute of that. It was just obviously
it was gonna happen. My whole thing is, I think
(58:45):
they could probably weather the Clemson Florida State storm, but
this North Carolina thing, like they just moved the headquarters
to Charlotte. If North Carolina, if Florida State's looking at
North Carolina saying you're the key to getting this whole thing,
you know, broken up by piling on, because then you
got like one seventh of the conference is upset, including
(59:06):
one of the flagship schools, you know, and then God
forbid NC State or something like that jumps on board too.
Speaker 1 (59:12):
Then it's over, and it is over, like this episode
of The College Football Apostles. You guys, make sure that
you like subscribe, tell a friend about the show, and
keep it locked, because this is going to be the
best spot for college football all year.
The College Football Apostles is here and this is the
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are dominating college football. Make sure that you guys like
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content because this is the spot for college football. Here
(00:23):
on Unafraid show on the College Football Apostles. Let's get
to the show. Baby. I'm George Reister. He's Ralph Amsden,
and the first topic today is Jaden Rashata. Boy, oh boy.
(00:48):
There is a lawsuit out against the University of Florida,
against their booster and against Billy Napier. And I've known
that this is coming for quite some time. Whoever, when
it hit the airwaves, it kind of reignited the whole
Jadeen Rashada saga and kind of the narrative about him
(01:09):
as a kid. But Ralph, I've been looking at this
as more the entire time, as a as an issue
of why name, image and likeness is so important and
why it needs to come out of the dark alleys
and the dusty corners and everything else because of reasons
like this, And it's not just for the protection of
(01:32):
the players, but it's for the protection of the boosters
and the school and everybody as well. When when you
have a contract that you sign that is not enforceable legal, well,
technically it's enforceable legally potentially because you are now having
a lawsuit about it, but it's not something that you
(01:54):
would bring the light because technically it was an inducement
and technically it can get the school in trouble. So
nobody wanted this. But if everything is out on front
Street now, it's a whole different story.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, you know, as somebody who covers Arizona State and
went to Arizona State, it's been interesting watching, you know,
people say that, like there's there's been a group of
Arizona State fans that have said, like, I'm glad Jane
Rashott has gone because look at this drama you would
have brought to us suing Florida former Arizona State offensive
(02:33):
coordinator Billion Napier, you know, while while he's at Arizona State.
I beg to differ on the grounds that, like, what
is dramatic about someone said they would pay you money.
You both signed a contract and then the money didn't come. Yeah,
in any situation you would want to recoup that or
(02:55):
at least protect the next generation of football players that
are coming up from getting them. I was into situations
like that, and unfortunately legislation. Civil legislation is a good
way to make sure that a lot of those rules
can get short up because technically, like you brought up,
a lot of things that were happening weren't necessarily inside
the bounds of what nil was meant for. But if
(03:18):
you told a kid he was gonna get paid, they
both signed on the dotted line and then the payment
did not come. What are we doing here?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, because they made Jane Rishata out to be this
unstable switching schools like that. It's very interesting to me
because he was committed to Miami first, then he flipped
the floor. How uncommon is that.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Ralph, That's very common. But I don't think he would
have ever flipped in the first place had there not
been the biggest offer in the history of college foot Yes,
his way exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And then so and then he ends up asking for
his release and then going to Arizona State. And this
is late in the game, like the signing period has
already passed. So the amount of spots that are available
is very narrow at this point in time.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
So then he had dad was there. Yeah, And they
didn't tell him that he could have anything. Nope, they
just said like, hey, we got a spot for you
to come in and compete if you want to.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
And that's the thing is that is that he went that, Like,
this is the problem with this whole narrative is that
he was painted out to be this this money hungry
kid when he went to Arizona State without promises of
huge money and all of this stuff. He went to
Arizona State because he knew Arizona State there were limited options.
(04:48):
Like it wasn't even necessarily that that was going to
be the best fit for him. It just kind of
worked in the moment and if it worked out, cool
and if not, no, And when he left and went
to Georgia, there were bigger offers on the table, like significantly,
because the way Kirby Smart handles his whole roster is
(05:10):
is that like Georgia has about a little under thirteen
million dollars that they have in their collective for the
year to be able to divvy out to players, and
you have the top of the food chain, which is
back the quarterback seven figure guy. Then it goes down
(05:32):
from there and Kirby and the way that they do
it at Georgia. This the way they used to do it.
At Ohio State they've switched up just a little bit,
and a few other places Bama has been similar. Typically
is that there's a base amount that your you know,
that your highly recruited guys get, which is a very
low amount compared to what is out there in the media.
(05:57):
And then once you become a guy, now you have
opportunities to make significantly more money just from the collective.
And that's not coming from outside and that's not including
you know, getting a Zagsbi's or a car dealership or
any like. This is just coming straight from their collective
that's associated with the school. So now back to the
(06:19):
Rashata thing for a second. There was a payment due
in the beginning of December, according to their lawsuit, of
like five hundred and somei thousand dollars. He signed the
letter of intent towards the end of December, around somewhere
between the eighteenth and the twenty first, somewhere around there,
(06:43):
and the payment was missed and then promises were made. Okay, no,
the money's coming to money's coming, to money's coming, and
we have fans talking about, oh man, oh we want
kids that want to be here. You shouldn't be here
for the money. And like, imagine if you showed up
(07:05):
at a job right that you wanted, like you wanted
to be there, and then there were and then they
were supposed to give you your upfront signing bonus because
some people get signing bonuses for regular jobs or or
you know they'll they'll they'll start your pay early because
you are because you were recruited and you're finishing another job.
(07:30):
You want to take some time in between, anything like that,
and then that money does not show up on time,
even though it's a job that you want. How are
you now going to feel about the potential for everything
that you were promised in this job and the truthfulness
of those involved to be there?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
You wouldn't you wouldn't. And the most sinister part about
all of this is the hope from Florida's end, And
I maybe so one will come along and disagree with me,
but it seems to be consensus. The hope on Florida's
end is that he would break his end and leave. Yep,
they didn't want to be on the hook for thirteen million.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Dollars exactly what happened, nor was it wise, No, it
was not wise to set the market with with with
a high school kid. Yeah, well, well it started with
the yeah with yeah, with Nico Iamalava, which was reported
to be about eight million dollars. And I've talked to
(08:35):
like been out here in Cali. You have access to people,
and people are in your circles and stuff like that,
and it's well, let's just say that what's reported is
not all what has you know, what exactly it was? Okay,
but check this out now. So the market was initially
(09:02):
set there and now with that, and then you had
an arms rates like yeah, we're gonna do this, this
this with with the collective and people people pledged money
to these collectives and then didn't pay that money because
obviously in twenty twenty we had a twenty twenty twenty
(09:24):
twenty one, like we've had some financial crisis in certain
areas of the of the country and in certain sectors,
and people's businesses have downturned. People have I mean like
people who pledged money have personal events, they get divorced,
like and all of a sudden in pledges turned to
zero or they turned to different amounts of money. And
(09:47):
I think that this brings up a legal issue for Florida,
right because, on one hand, Billy Napier, who's named in
the lawsuit, coaches are aware of everything that happens in
their program, or at least generally aware, or they're like, listen,
I understand that that's going on. I don't want to
(10:09):
know about it, so I can have plausible deniability, which
to me is knowing about it. If you're saying nope, nope, nope, nope, nope,
have that conversation outside the door. You know, the conversation
is happening. M hm, so, and and Billy Napier, from
my understanding, is not really on board with that whole system, right.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Of of of the inducements and like especially at this
amount of money like that, he's that he wasn't down
with it.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
However, he's in charge of the situation. And when you
are in a position like Billy Napier is in where
Florida has not achieved the level of success that Florida
fans had hoped up to this point in time, can
we agree on.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That that is absolutely true? Yeah, he's on the chopping block.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yes, proof so, and they're over under which we went
over in the other episode which you guys can check
out here on on a Fraid Show, is five games.
They have an extremely tough schedule on paper, and if
they win five games, seven games, he's probably like, there's
a potential that he can get fired. Well, if they
(11:29):
win five games, he's probably getting fired. So couldn't the
school use this as an opportunity because mind you, nil
is legal now, but it was not at that point
in time, and he's not winning enough to where they
can pull what Kansas did and just throw the middle
(11:53):
finger up to the NC DOUBLEA and the Infractions Committee
and everything else and keep their head coaching basketball Bill's self.
They're probably more in line to do what LSU did
with Will Wade. And if you can fire Billy Napier
for cause and keep the and say we did something now,
(12:17):
you get a chance to keep that buyout money, and
you get a chance to put out a public face
of listen, we're doing the right thing and we're fixing
it around here, right, and you get a fresh start
with a new coach, which will then energize the fan
base a little bit. But you can't fire him now, Ralph,
(12:37):
you can't fire him now. Why because we're too far
away from the season and that opens up the transfer portal.
And if you fire him, you may lose dj Lagway.
You hell, you may lose Cormoni McClain who just signed there,
like you can lose a lot of your roster, of
your high end guys just bouncing to places that they
(12:58):
know that they can go in and start that immediately.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
But you know that there's administrators at Florida who are
looking at this lawsuit right now and they're saying this
might get us out of a buyout. Yep, yeah, that's
what you got. That's what you gotta understand. Like, there
are players on all sides of this chess game that
is college football, right like you It's similar to who
don't like you? You know who this is mean? But
(13:24):
you know who's looking at this Florida situation with with
with the eyebrows raised Jeff Fish And if there's enough
people at Florida who are like, maybe this Jaden Rashada
lawsuit that named Billy Napier in saying that he promised
a million dollars to Rashada.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
No, Ja's not leaving Washington for Florida knows say it ain't.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
So that's I'm a monor my guy. And so it's
one of those things that if if somebody at Florida
is like, man, we could get Jetfish, especially if we
don't have to pay a buyout.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
But and use what we were gonna pay to buy it,
because his contract at Washington is very Jetfish friendly in
terms of buyout.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, but then it's like, well, how much are we
going to be liable for to have to pay to
the shot of family? Yes?
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Oh yeah, because because this lawsuit is going to settle.
This lawsuit is going to settle.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
It has to you don't want discovery in.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
This no no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Like you don't want to find out what somebody. So
collectives are not allowed to coordinate with coaches.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yes, you were going to open up a can of
dusty corners that nobody wants opened up.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Every collective in the country is coordinating with the coaches,
every single one. Yeah, and so uh and that's why
that's why everybody needs to be careful because if you're
out here lying to kids and you miss payments and
they decided to take it to civil court and then
you get put in a position where your texts are
(15:07):
gonna get called into question. And then you have X
figure head of collective and you have head coach regularly
text messaging back and forth about the amounts that they
want players to get paid. Why do you think they're
trying to move the collectives in house so that they
don't they're not subjected to these technical illegalities. But you don't.
(15:30):
You just don't want to be found out in Discovery.
While the NCAA still has enough.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Here's the other program, here's the other problem. Is that
Discovery is the boogeyman because think about what happened in
the college basketball book richardson scandal. Do you know how
that started? It started because a financial advisor in Atlanta
named Marty Blazer was getting investigated biton. He was a
(15:58):
financial advisor for a bunch of profess athletes, got investigated
by the FBI for stealing money and doing some stuff
that he wasn't supposed to do. And Marty was like,
I know what's going on over over here. That's how
Hugh Freeze got caught at oh miss of you know,
doing doing stuff Discovery of something completely different, and now
(16:22):
all of a sudden somebody runs across the text message
unrelated and they're like, why the why the hell did
he say the one time that he said something texts
something that he shouldn't have text And then they're like no, no,
no other other phone or oh my bad. And now
you're like, what the hell does this mean? Now I'm
(16:44):
searching through texts for other stuff and now and gone down.
And you know how investigative people are like the like
I'm talking about the people that can't be bought like that,
the people that can only be bought by the truth.
That where I alwould say everything is for or sale,
Everything is not on sale. And the price sometimes is
not money, it's not what you can pay, it's something.
(17:08):
Sometimes the price is something that you can't afford or
that you don't want the most.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And then you and maybe you identify with this too.
I always tell my kids, I'm like, you know, something
as simple as as throwing your dirty clothes on the
floor is gonna invite your mother into your room to
start cleaning up.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Ye finds the newdy magazine, the comn the joint. Now
I'm not I'm not saying that that's what your kids
can do. It but I'm just saying like that, like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
That's my point, Like you're gonna you're gonna invite the corsation.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Because yeah, they're just like they're not even looking for
anything in particularly. Oh let me pick pick up this shirt. Wait,
hold on, what's what's that yellow thing sticking out? Are
these panties? Are this? Is this? Is this a or like?
Or like why is this fork up under here? Oh?
Let me let me get this fork? Wait? Hold up?
(18:08):
What the oh my god? Now all of a sudden, Hey.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
You know who the best drivers in the world are?
Who drug mules?
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Drug mules well, sometimes because they them food. Sometimes they
be breaking laws driving and speeding.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, well that's what I'm saying. Were you gonna speed
with drugs in the car?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
So that's what I'm talking about, is like you you
never want to invite any like a scope creep of investigations.
It's such a good point that you made because it
can always go sideways always. Yep, they got al Capone
on tax evasion exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
And this is why the whole NCAA anti trust lawsuit
is significant. So up to this point, the all the
power five schools have agreed except for the PAC twelve,
which they're expecting is going to as well. And this
is going to be two point seven two point eight
(19:03):
billion dollars in settlements and you're like, okay, so why
are they even doing this? And this goes to future
and past payments of players for their nil and things
like that. They're settling because they have to settle. The
NC double A has gotten their ass kicked in court
(19:25):
by Ed Obannon over ten years ago. They've gotten their
ass kicked Austin versus the NC double A every other time.
So the value of a scholarship used to be capped
at the cost of attendance, and now it's not. So
that means they can buy computers, they can buy any
ancillary thing that you need for school, and your stipend
(19:48):
can technically be higher than whatever it was, right, So
you so you have that on one hand. Now on
the other han hand, you have Yeah, so you have
that on one hand. Now on the other hand, you
(20:08):
have the NCAA, which has not like it was built
upon a system of amateurism where the value of a
scholarship used to outweigh the revenue that the players were
generating to bring in. But with the TV money since
(20:28):
I was playing has increased, increased, increased, The donorship has increased, increased, increased,
coaches salaries increased, increased, increased, and the people generate and
and players couldn't even make money on their own at
that point in time. So that was never going to
hold up to a legal challenge because there is no
(20:49):
other place in the in the country where that is okay.
So now this antitrust lawsuit which is going to be settled,
and this is going to bring collectives in in house,
there's gonna be more transparency, which to the jadenbershot a point,
(21:11):
this is necessary for the protection of the schools, for
the protection of the players, because if you actually have
real contracts that are above board and enforceable, you know
what's gonna happen. Ralph, there is going to be like
they're not gonna be able to promise one guy coming
out of high school a half a million dollars when
(21:34):
they're starting running back is getting two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. Like now you're actually gonna like it's actually
gonna bring things to a more equitable state, which is
what fans really want. Like it's the same thing that
happened in the NFL because when I came into the NFL,
you had the Sam Bradford. You had all these young
(21:55):
hot shot quarterbacks getting drafted, making more than the players
who were winning Super Bowls and going to Pro Bowls
and being All pros, and they hadn't taken a snap yet.
So then the players were like, nah, we don't like this,
and the owners were like, cool, we don't like it either,
because some of them don't pan out. So then the
rookie wage scale comes in, and now the players who
(22:18):
produce on the field, or at least you know, in
some cases that they believe will produce, those are the
people who get the huge second contracts. And then the
players who are rookies and still earning them and younger
players they can't get a new contract until after three years.
(22:38):
So it's created a more equitable system, even though it's
not perfect. It's created a more equitable system where there
is a tiered system for where you are in the
pecking order, which is going to create less drama and
also allow teams to keep their their rosters more in
(23:02):
order because of the lack of jealousy and transparency.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
What would you think of this and I know this
is complicated, but I want everything to be about board.
I don't think billion eight years a bad guy. I
know Jaden Chatte is a good kid. So this whole
idea that we're that there's even a villain involved in this, like, no,
this is a dispute that needs adjudicated the end. So
what what would you think of this that somebody comes
(23:27):
in uh to college on a two year contract, two
year contract and the third year team option, fourth year
player option. Absolutely not is typically if you're good enough. Typically,
if you're good enough, you're gonna leave school after three years, right,
(23:49):
So and a lot of these kids come in with
college credits or have a way to graduate in three years.
It's becoming more common than not.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah yeah, Justin Martin just graduated UCLA this spring.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, your boy Tyler Shuck's about to get his like
fifth college degree. Yeah, turning twenty four at Liutleville this year.
So and he was an early enrollie too. Yeah, so
you know this whole thing of like, Okay, if you
sign a two year deal, everything's above board, everybody knows
what you're making. And then the third year would be
escalating quite a bit, like you're a starter your all conference,
(24:26):
the team can option you into that third year, or
you can transfer to try to get a different contract elsewhere.
But if you spend three years, you had your team
option inacted, it was an escalator. You got a lot
more in NIL. You go into your fourth year and
you're choosing NFL or stay in college. It's a team
option or it's a player option. You could continue what
(24:48):
you got in year three, or you could go to
the NFL. But it's up to you.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
I don't hate the idea, but I think it's a
I don't think that it's gonna work it and and
for and I wouldn't want my kid to sign that
for multiple reasons. One is what what what happens if
you're Caleb Downs and he's a and he's a first
year starter All American? Now right now? What him? I mean?
(25:16):
And I know that that's the outlier and not the norm.
But and then two I am and and legally it
would never hold up for players to unless there are
out in these contracts. For if coaches leave like that,
that be a similar thing because coaches are under contract too.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, I'm only talking about obligating the school, not the player.
So the player could still transfer at any point. It
would just break the contract.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Oh oh okay.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
But it would see that's but it would obligate the school.
Because the primary issue that we're dealing with right now
is the fact that people, the people who the people
who want things to stay the same, or the people
who want coaches to still be able to why the kids. Yes,
because that's what we're talking about. A lot of college
football was built on coaches line to kids. That's it,
and now that.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Is what I'm gonna be here. I'm gonna be here.
I'm committed. You need to be committed. We want people
to and then pop out out the door and.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Are we see you? We see you getting reps at
running back in year one when you know that they're
in a meeting talking about moving this kid to safety. Yes,
Like those are the levels of anything to get a
kid in the door, because coaches are financially incentivized to
lie to kids. If you can build a reputation as
a collector, you're gonna climb in this business. And if
(26:40):
you can build a reputation as a winner as a
head coach, you're gonna have generational money. You're incentivized to lie.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, it should.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
What we should what it should come down to is
we should be able to find out who the best
coaches are. You should always be about finding out who
the best coaches and developers are. And if you introduce
a legislated monetary amount the kids are getting, we're going
to find out who the best coaches are and the
best people are.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yep. So now there's another component to this anti trust lawsuit,
which is who pays the money. So the way that
the Power five schools have all agreed to and yes,
the Power five because the PAC twelve is still counted
in this because it goes backwards.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
They were like, hell, you're talking about all so we
just the letterman, know, we switch topics to the anti
trust lawsuit. That is like house versus the NG you're
talking about paying back people, yes, quota revenue stator and
in the future.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yes, yeah, that's what we're talking about. Yeah. So there
are two hundred and eighty three schools that come from
the non Power five schools to the non Power five schools,
twenty two conferences and then there are the five conferences
plus Notre Dame and you know a couple other independence
So you're talking about sixty nine schools, and the proposal
(28:06):
was for those sixty nine schools to pay forty percent
of the bill of this two point eight billion dollars
two point seven two twenty eight billion dollars, while they
make ninety some percent of the money, like in between
eighty five and ninety percent of the money that is,
and the and so when the proposal came which they
(28:28):
were influencing, came out for them to pay forty percent
and then the other sixty percent to be paid by
the two eighty three who make a fraction of the money,
and it would be reduced by an equal percentage, like
point eighty eight percent for everybody. They were like, hell yeah,
hell yeah, hell yeah, sign us up, sign us up.
(28:51):
And they and the other twenty two conferences were like,
hell no, you pay fifty eight percent and we'll cover
the other forty two And it's funny, how and this
just goes to show how people act out of their
own self interest because when the college football playoff came
out and they were negotiating how much each conference was
(29:13):
going to get as far as making the playoff and
all of that, what if the big ten in the
SEC say oh, we should. We should do this by
historically we've made the most college football playoff appearances, so
we should get the most hypocrisy.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
And then just hitting me yeah, and now hitting me
that they played both sides of the fence. Yes. And
then and then the non Power five schools like Sincy, Oh,
you haven't really made it, so we'll give you a
fraction because you only contributed just a fraction to the
college football playoff. Oh but now when it comes time
to pay it back, Oh, listen, guys, this should be
(29:53):
equal point eight eight percent. The difference is is that
the SEC and the Big ten are having record rep
news and while the FCS conferences are saying, we're looking
at cutting ten percent of our budget to fund your
former players. So it's like the hypocrisy knows no bounds, Ralph,
(30:23):
the hypocrisy knows no bounds. Oh well, we need a
bigger share of the new money, but at the old money. Listen,
this should be equal. We're partners, right, and the and
the and the twenty two conferences are like no, but
the but the five are going to say yes. And
do you know what's going to happen. It is going
to be a yes.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, so you have the So the way that the
other twenty two conferences, like you said, two hundred and
eighty three teams, uh, like their view of this is,
first of all, like we're backdating money that we didn't
even make, and it's coming out to be about five
to six percent of our budget, while you're only paying
(31:04):
two percent of your budget and you make a lot
more money. So, and I understand why the sixty nine
schools that make up the Power five would say, no,
that's too much for us, because what the proposal from
the smaller schools was talking about was moving the bigger
schools from about a one million dollars a year obligation
(31:26):
to about one point four So it's a big bump,
it's about four hundred thousand dollars. But what the little
schools are saying is we're paying five to six percent
of our revenue. You're paying two. Make that make sense
when you guys are the ones historically that made the
most money.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
And and you're right, you're right, like the two hundred
and eighty three schools are going to get railroaded in
this because the majority of the revenue that comes in
goes through the power five. The funniest thing about all
of this to me is, you know, for Charlie Baker
to lead the effort to say, like, yeah, you know what,
(32:04):
based on these lawsuits that were getting crushed with, we
do need to have a revenue share model because everything
that we've ever accomplished is on the backs of the players.
How about two percent?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
They could have done this so long that Ralph had
the old commissioner, just leaned into this instead of spending
one hundred million dollars litigating these things, just saying all right, dude,
we're in trouble. It's a long shot. We're like that,
let's figure out a new model. Because they could have
(32:35):
actually had a model that was in place that would
have lasted another probably ten fifteen years before that got
blown up ten.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Years ago when we were talking about trust funds y'all.
How how much do you think that would have delayed
this process?
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Oh? My yea as much dude, it would have put Yeah,
such a yep, dude, you put this is such a
lose move.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Yeah, you could have put escalators in place for spending
three to four years at a school for getting your degree.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
And it would have cost you way less money.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Way letna drop all that money on them when they
were twenty three or painted over a graduated. You're in
a twenty three to twenty seven years old.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
The NFL literally does this when they are negotiating the
collective bargaining agreement because there are over two thousand players. Yes,
there are the guys who make one hundred million, but
the vast majority of the players are at a medium
or below level. So if you raise up their salaries
a lot, which is gonna cost you way less than
(33:37):
the top money, then those guys are going to vote yes,
even if you're creating subpart like we talked about the
NFL schedule, which you guys should go check out that
video and how unequitable it is for the NFL and
bad for the player's health and all of that stuff.
But they agreed to it and are gonna get eighteen
games soon without another bye week, probably because they raised
(34:02):
this salaries. And then the people at the bottom they're like, ooh,
I get a chance to collect more money now, and
they're not looking at the big picture because they're not
a part of the long term solution. So that's what
that they should have done. From the beginning. Okay, so
now that the NCAA antitrust awsuit, but now there's another Well,
(34:28):
there's another part that's factoring into this, which is there's
a name that you may want on Google, but we'll
tell you who this guy is. His name is Drew Weatherford,
and this guy has been having conversations in private with
over fifty athletic directors and power brokers in college football
about private equity money. And you're like, George, how does
(34:52):
this factor into this? Well, remember a few years ago
when the PAC twelve was trying to find it of
the Larry Michael Scott. Larry Scott, the commissioner at PAC twelve,
was like, listen, we're gonna own all our rights. We're
not gonna sell them. We're not gonna give somebody fifty percent.
We're gonna own all our own stuff. Well that was
(35:13):
a screw up. And then once he realized that, he
was like, ooh, maybe maybe we'll go get private equity money.
And so that's really where the first time that it
came out in the in the media. Then Florida State
trying to get out of their acc granted rights, private
equity money came into effect. So We've been slowly hearing this,
(35:35):
but now it came out that this is happening. So
this is just a feeler to see how this is
gonna work for people to investigate it, because the schools
have already been looking at this so and they're looking
to invest fifty to two hundred million dollars into what's
say five to ten programs or something like that. So
what this means is private equity money. That's Wall Street money.
(35:59):
That is that is like private equity is about returns.
I belong to a private equity group, an invest in group,
and you know what I care about money. I want
my returns on the back end. So you know what
that means. That means that these athletic departments that you
(36:19):
guys want to be happy, go lucky. Let's let's amateurism. Nah, bro,
that's big boy business. Now, Like that's even the literally.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
The thing that you've been pushing back against this entire time.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Yes, this is big boy money. That's not even like that.
It takes what the business of the better call saw
episode now and can exes it because as an investor,
I don't care about I don't care about the coach
because a lot of them aren't going to be college
football people like that, like, oh, it's in my heart.
They are invested in returns. So so now if I
(36:55):
am invested into an athletic department one hundred two hundred
million dollars, I get a huge say so. So that
means I get to say so on who the coach
is and what that contract looks like. So if we
are hiring let's say over it over at LSU, we're
hiring Brian Kelly. He's got one hundred million dollar contract,
(37:16):
two million dollar buyout if he leaves. There is not
a snowballs chance in hell that if private equity money
comes in that coaches contracts are going to look like
they look with these buyouts where they're one sided. Because
I know for my money and I know the people
that I work with, they're gonna give a giant middle
finger and be like, listen, we fire you because you
(37:39):
ain't doing your job. Ain't not a nine dollar we
paying you, fam or it is gonna be a nominal buyout.
So you're gonna have coaches contract change. You are going
to have the spending on non essential functions go down,
like it is going to be run like a.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Business your recruiting budget's gonna drop.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Like or or it'll stay the same if you're able
to justify, like, if you can show why this turns
into this, then you can get all the money in
the world. Like, if you can show me how if
I spend an extra half a million dollars a year,
that this turns into two million dollars a year in
an additional revenue, or even a million a million and
(38:27):
a half, which would be incredible, or even a million.
Now okay, cool, if you can generate me an extra
million for my half million, sign me up.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
But I would I would rather, I would much, rather,
much rather. For the equity thing, yes, there are some
people that are concerned with returns George, but they're also
there's also private equity that isn't not concerned as much
with returns. And that's the one that scares me. What
do you mean, like, were gonna invite the Saudi prints
(38:58):
into the sec Ooh you think live golf is getting returns? Like,
and what's going to stop some of these colleges from saying, like, no, no,
let's just go get the most money we possibly can't.
I would rather the sixty nine top schools go public.
(39:19):
I would rather them just be able to. I would
rather the rules change as far as athletic budgets where
you don't where it doesn't necessarily have to be dollar in,
dollar out, and they were able to if if I
was able to buy one hundred shares of Vanderbilt Baseball
or something like that, or Vanderbilt Athletics. Right, I'm able
(39:41):
to buy one hundred shares of Vanderbilt Athletics. I'm now
a Vanderbilt Athletics stockholder, so it's not private equity, but
you actually trade on a collegiate athletics stock market. And
that can be affected by like the way that that
a school recruits, the way that a school wins, or
it could be affected by the deals they signed with
(40:03):
apparel companies, the amount of merchandise that they move. If
we're going to take this thing like and put it
on the marketplace, let's just put it all the way
on the marketplace.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
It definitely would Man, it would be a very different scenario, dude,
very different scenario. But it's people that.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Don't know what Oregon how much? How much would you
go deep in on Oregon if Oregon was publicly traded.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Oh Man, because the the future is bright. Dude. If
this was a stock, I would have bought it when
I was playing. I would have bought it when it
was a penny stock, and it would be worth hundreds
of dollars now, so I would own I would be
a very very rich man.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
So what about that though? What about taking it public
and giving your players stock options so that they're actually
invested in your college program?
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Oh my gosh, and use it, yes, so like you
get stock options the longer that you stay there, or
as bonuses and stuff like that. Yep, that would put
you in that Dan Landing category because he got it.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
I take all this over private equity. And for the
people who don't know. Drew Weatherford, former Florida State quarterback
thirty nine touchdowns, thirty two interceptions, was he was in
college just after you, just after you. He was in college,
and he, you know, he formed this private equity group
with his brother, and you know, we're familiar with it
(41:34):
because Larry Scott had said that he wanted to sell
off ten percent of the PAC twelve for like fifty
million or whatever, and he was never able to get
that done. But I do wonder what the interest in
market would be to just take this whole thing public,
Like you could see the interest in major collegiate athletics
through how people are choosing to invest in them and
(41:59):
the successful pros, their stock would be higher, and that
could actually help influence recruiting because to get stock options
in Alabama would be a lot, you know, better than
stock options in like a Maryland or something like that.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
No offense to Maryland, and now square all of everything
that you say, Ralph on top of all of that,
and the people who are like, oh, goege football, the nostalgia,
the the the people being invested in it, why are
the players not invested in because everybody else is treating
(42:34):
it like a business, and so the players are like,
we're the goofies for still pretending like it is how
it was. So now there's a pushback, and especially when
you look up at the news. Seven hundred million dollars
(42:54):
Penn State seven hundred million dollars invested into an upgrade
of Beaver Stadium. So if you're a player and you're
at Penn State and they're like, oh, there's no money,
or you're a player at other and you see a
three hundred million dollars stadium, upgrade at Texas A and
(43:15):
M plus booster money going up and everything else, enrollment everything,
Why the hell are you not when you are Johnny
Manziel or you are a or you are at Penn State.
And if drew all their balls out this year and
decides not to go to the NFL, if he's like, nah, bro,
I need like three million dollars about you, fam like
(43:39):
or the the other first round picks are like, I'm
gonna neath that bread up about you. I don't know
what to tell you otherwise I'm out of here. And
people look at that and they're saying, there's something wrong
with the player. But it's not anything wrong with the player,
because you at your job if you know that, even
though you love your job, you're happy with your job.
(44:01):
If you bring in a contract or a deal, help
bring it in and you're a significant part of that,
and it's a seven hundred million dollar deal for the company,
and they give you and they not even not even
acknowledging it. They're like, hey, yo, we're gonna give you
(44:24):
a couple of extra steaks at dinner time. You're like,
I'm happy with the steaks. School I appreciate that, but uh,
where to check at though, because you can't feed like
the trail three way. I can't feed my family on
this money, bro. So I mean, and this is going
(44:51):
on all over the country because there's an there was
that arms race to upgrade facilities all over the country, right,
and then players and then they're like, there's not enough
money to pay the players. Our coach is getting one
hundred million dollars or eighty million dollars, seventy million dollars,
hundreds of million dollars upgrade. Yeah, but but but my
(45:12):
parent is getting a bill for a medical procedure that
I had while I'm at school, or my wisdom teeth
being pulled. How that makes sense?
Speaker 2 (45:28):
Yeah, and it's it's crazy to me. And I used
to get in trouble all the time when I was
like on the Arizona State beat because they went underwent
a four hundred million dollar, four year stadium upgrade.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
And I used to say, all people care about is
they don't want to piss in a trough and they
want to be able to tinker around on their phones
when they're in the stadium.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Make sure people could get a good sci fi yep. Yeah,
make sure people have access to bathrooms that don't make
them feel gross, and if you can, if you can
come around to maybe selling some alcohol in the stadium
so your students don't leave to go to Mill Avenue
and then come back, and instead they make the entire
place super fancy. They say that it's going to be
(46:08):
multi use, even though I think the only content that's
ever been there is Kanye West Sunday Service, and they
say that it's going to be multi use. They invest
all this money into this thing and then like, no,
we don't want to pay players. So you invested in
your fans wanting to be more comfortable, which you're never
going to be comfortable in that stateium. It's one hundred
and fifty degrees outside. So you invest all this energy
(46:31):
in your fans being more comfortable. Yet every single thing
that you and every college in the country does is
actually to bow to the god of television.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
YEP.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
A lot of these upgrades to stadiums that have been
made aren't even necessary because every school has been doing
everything they could to be more attractive to TV stations,
and they are actually neglecting what the fans actually want,
are neglecting the game day experience. Because if you can
get a giant check for your game being on TV,
(47:05):
you're not worried about every single seat being sold out
every single night. And you're also not worried about people
being able to make plans or take their kids to games.
You got packed twelve schools kicking off at eight thirty pm. George,
How am I gonna take my kids to a game
at eight thirty when they're bedtimes nine?
Speaker 1 (47:23):
Hey man, you you better let your kids stay up late.
That's all I tell you. During football season.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
Everything they do has been in service to the God
of Maam and to get that money and it comes
from the you know, it comes from TV. And then
on the on the other end, you're trying to make
people happy that invest in your program by saying we're
gonna give you comfortable digs to sit in, but we're
not gonna respect you with trying to have consistent kickoff
(47:51):
times and stuff. A lot of how the NFL got
very very popular because expectations were set. I know the
NFL is moving away from that. They got all the
money in the world to play with. College are crying broke.
They'll tell us they don't have the money. And at
the same time we're reading these headlines. Beaver Stadium is
gonna get seven hundred million dollars if used into it.
The whole thing is crazy. If all you ever read
is headlines about how there's hundreds of millions of dollars
(48:13):
coming in and you're the product, you're the player speaker
supposed to do exactly.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
And speaking of one hundred million dollar headlines coming in,
we found out that TNT is now going to broadcast
multiple college football playoff games and you're like, wait, hold up,
hold up, I thought ESPN bought those rights. Yes, ESPN did,
and they got smart. They were like, oh, because they're
(48:39):
because them and Fox are actually combining on an app
and all of this stuff. They were like, oh, we
can sub this out to people like TNT who pay
big money for college sports. They already do it for
the NCAA tournament and they see a major return. So
they're like, oh, yeah, let's get into that business. You're
gonna have Netflix or Apple. I'm gonna tell you in
(49:03):
the next ten years. Netflix which has three NFL Christmas
Day games coming up. Netflix, which is trying to get
into live programming. They just had two live programs with
Tom Brady and then with Kat Williams. Those were testers.
That is all they were about. It was not about
(49:26):
anything else besides that being a test because they got
to figure out if people will watch and how to
support live sports. Apple wants in They already got the
MLS and Major League Baseball on Fridays. They want in
this more. They want all in it. And that means
(49:49):
that that's going to happen because they got more money
and the college football Playoff, whether it's that, oh those
networks is going to get and then you got Amazon
for the NFL exclusive streaming on what's that Thursday nights.
You are going to have one of these leagues be
(50:10):
their primary place be on Netflix or Apple TV in
the next ten years, probably in the next seven years yep.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
Which is what the PAC twelve thought would save them
as if they jumped over to Apple TV.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Yep, And it probably would, and it would have if
USC and UCLA had had stayed, it would have worked.
They would have been ahead of the curve and then
on the like it would have been the Larry Scott
where it would have actually worked on the back end,
but not on the front end. All right. So the
(50:47):
final thing that we got to talk about today is
the staying on the business of sports. So the ACC Ralph,
the ACC implosion, which we've been trying to get in
for a couple of weeks. This feels like the PAC
twelve enplosure, where people wanted to deny it. They were like, oh,
(51:08):
there's no way, and whole time if schools are continuing
to invest in this legally and their smoke private equity meetings,
all of this stuff, there's fire. It's happening. It's just
a matter of what it looks like. And they're trying
to see whether it's going to be legally that they're
(51:29):
gonna be able to get out and get their granted
rights like Florida State, Clemson, all of them, and that
man if Florida State and Clemson get out first, or
Virginia or whoever else is named in these lawsuits, you're
in a PAC twelve situation because they signed a horrendous
deal with ESPN, and ESPN is like, we're not giving
you extra money to like, because we can just do
(51:52):
what Fox did with the PAC twelve. Break this whole
thing up, take it and put it in other places,
and now we can maneuver this in a different way man.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
So the we knew that Clemson was unhappy because they
had traditionally been a powerhouse. Yeah, we knew that Florida
State was unhappy because they consider themselves to be the
traditional cornerstone of the ACC. Correct, And then you know
they turn around with thirteen to zero in football before
(52:32):
you know, getting blasted by Georgia last year and prove
that to be possibly still correct. They also have the
twenty fourteen I believe National championship with Jimbo right yep.
So those two schools, believing themselves to be the cornerstone
of the conference kind of have taken on the role
of the UCLA and usc IN in trying every legal
(52:54):
avenue and testing the fence in every possible way to
try to get themselves into what they believe will eventually
be a two team league with competition between the Big
Ten and the SEC, with the Big Ten actually just
surpassing the SEC and persco payout if I'm not mistaken.
The surprising thing about this has been that no one
(53:18):
else in the ACC has really voiced their displeasure until
now North Carolina is jumping on the bandwagon. And why
that's scary is the ACC just moved its headquarters to Charlotte,
North Carolina, which means tournaments are played in Charlotte, which
(53:41):
means two RISM dollars for the state that University of
North Carolina is supposed to represent. If the president of
the University of North Carolina, let's see what this man's
name is, Martin Nadelman, if he's not on the same
page with with the ACC, who has an outgoing president,
(54:03):
which it's it's going to be interesting to see, you know,
how all of this U shapes up. But if University
of North Carolina isn't down with the ACC, that's a
huge problem, yep, because they're supposed to be simpatico the
a CEC being headquartered like is is is University of
North Carolina really so displeased with their situation that they
(54:27):
want tournament games to be played in Indianapolis or Atlanta
or or somewhere else, Like are they willing to cost
their own state money to be able to get out
of this contract. That's the fascinating thing to me because
I think the ACC, you know, I've been pushing back
because and the truth is, I don't know as much
about the a CEC as I do about the PAC twelve.
(54:48):
You and I saw the PAC twelve disaster for what
it was the entire time, the.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
Entire it was obvious, it was written on the wall
like a blind man could see it.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
But you have the same energy about the ACC. I've
noticed you. Do you believe that it is inevitable that
the ACC goes into the dust.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
Yes, one, that their only hope is to merge with
the Big Twelve. That is their only hope at this point.
Speaker 2 (55:18):
And the Big Twelve is open to that.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
Yeah, the Big Twelve is like, come here, come on,
you know you want to. And that's what you're gonna
end up having for most of the ACC schools because
Florida State and Clemson are not going to the to
the Big twelve. They're gonna end up in the SEC probably,
and then you're gonna have North Carolina and some other
(55:40):
team probably end up in the Big Ten. And then
you're gonna have most of the ACC like the Syracuses
and the you know, uh, it'll be interesting to see
where my Miami ends up. You're gonna have some of
these schools end up in different places, and then you're
gonna have somebody has to be the cal in Stanford,
(56:04):
which end up somewhere. But they're like, I will take them,
and then you're gonna have the Oregon States in Washington States.
Somebody in that conference is going to get Oregon stated
in Washington stated. And that's why, like Rutgers and and
these other schools that are in the Big Ten already,
(56:25):
they're like.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Yeah, because Maryland Rutgers should be ACC schools.
Speaker 1 (56:30):
Yes, And they're like, hey, god, we jumped on the
right boat, buddy, because if we jumped on the other boat,
we will be like who would like Rutgers would be
would end up getting treated And this is no Disparaisment's
Ruggers Fine University, all of this stuff. They're they're they're trying.
They're like, it's no, no disparaisement to them, but the
(56:51):
reality is they're not as TV attractive even though they're like,
we're in one of them. We're in New Jersey. That's
like saying that that Stanfords in California.
Speaker 2 (57:06):
Right, Yeah, but I mean Rutgers. You can absolutely disparage
Rutgers because they got a sixty million dollar payout as
part of the Big Ten. Meanwhile, you know, your your
University of Washington going to the national championship, you're getting
like thirty one. You can absolutely with those bozzles on
(57:30):
look at Rutgers and be like, you know what, screw
you guys?
Speaker 1 (57:34):
Yep, yep. So we're gonna see because because the ACC,
their either survival or not, is going to impact because
what's then gonna happen with Wake, Boston College, Georgia Tech,
Virginia Tech, Sarahcuse like those types of schools. Now, if
(57:54):
Virginia Tech was doing what they had been doing in
the Frank Beamer days and the you know, the Michael
vic days and all of that, then maybe it would
look different. But now the question is how does the
future look for those schools?
Speaker 2 (58:12):
Yeah, I worry about a Georgia Tech. I worry about
a Virginia Like the high academics.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Well, well, Virginia is gonna be fine because apparently they
are highly attractive to people.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
Well they got that hoops program. Yeah, that goes back
and forth between losing in the first round and winning
national championships. So I just I don't know, don't I
wish that that wouldn't happen for the ACC. I don't
wish what happened in the back twelve on anybody. I
hate it every minute of that. It was just obviously
it was gonna happen. My whole thing is, I think
(58:45):
they could probably weather the Clemson Florida State storm, but
this North Carolina thing, like they just moved the headquarters
to Charlotte. If North Carolina, if Florida State's looking at
North Carolina saying you're the key to getting this whole thing,
you know, broken up by piling on, because then you
got like one seventh of the conference is upset, including
(59:06):
one of the flagship schools, you know, and then God
forbid NC State or something like that jumps on board too.
Speaker 1 (59:12):
Then it's over, and it is over, like this episode
of The College Football Apostles. You guys, make sure that
you like subscribe, tell a friend about the show, and
keep it locked, because this is going to be the
best spot for college football all year.
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