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November 26, 2025 63 mins

Sports & political commentator Clay Travis joins Chuck Todd for a candid conversation that spans the worlds of politics, sports, and media. They explore the shifting boundaries between culture and athletics, the pressure of serving a politically-charged audience, and what Clay learned from stepping into Rush Limbaugh’s former timeslot. Clay discusses the importance of distinguishing fact from opinion, the challenges of modern political incentives, and how law school shaped his worldview. The two also talk about the realities of online hostility, audience expectations, and Clay’s belief that influence in media can outweigh influence in elected office.

The episode also digs deep into college football: conference realignment, the CFP committee’s biases, southern schools’ growing appeal, and how cultural and political trends—from Gaza protests to regional identity—shape the sport’s landscape. Clay and Chuck debate how to fix the playoff system, what makes college football uniquely personal for fans, and which major sports league Nashville could attract next. Clay closes by sharing the presidential contenders he wishes would run in 2028 and why treating political opponents like rival sports fans could be a healthier way forward.

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Timeline:

(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)

00:00 Clay Travis joins the Chuck ToddCast

01:30 GW’s near win over the Fab Five 

03:30 Thoughts on McAfee interviewing Trump on ESPN?

04:15 If the president wants to do your show, you do it

05:30 Are you a sports guy that does politics or a politics guy that does sports

06:15 Taking over Rush Limbaugh’s timeslot for Premiere Radio

07:30 Balancing sports content vs. politics content

09:00 Sports used to be separate from culture, now they’re intertwined

10:45 Having the audience you want vs. the one that you have

11:30 Clay’s audience is people who voted Trump, love football, hated Covid masks

12:30 Not letting your audience be your editor

15:00 Learning not to care too much what people think about you

16:15 Everybody is mean on the internet, you have to have thick skin

18:00 Going to law school was the best decision Clay ever made

20:30 We need better distinction between fact & opinion in politics

21:15 Politics doesn’t attract the best & brightest due to low pay

22:00 Too many people in politics just want to be famous

23:15 Nick Saban could have been great at anything, including politics

25:30 Non SEC & Big Ten schools get no notice from the CFP committee

28:00 It’ll be interesting to see which big conference ACC programs try to join

29:30 Southern schools have become a huge draw for northern students

30:30 Gaza protests have affected student recruitment at some schools

32:00 Lane Kiffin will be the hottest name in the college coaching market

33:15 CFP committee cherry picking results, not acknowledging ACC

34:15 College football is the sport we’re always arguing about

35:00 Playoff selections need to be non subjective, needs a new system

36:15 Dems focus on what America did wrong, R’s focus on what went right

38:00 Quality wins should matter more than quality losses

38:45 People feel a closer personal connection to college football compared to NFL

39:30 Best way to reconfigure the college football playoff?

41:15 College football should start in August prior to NFL kicking off

43:00 What’s the next major sport coming to Nashville? MLB

44:00 There are more NHL, NBA and NFL teams in SEC footprint than MLB

45:30 Sports is unique in that the competition IS the business

47:30 Four people Clay would like to see run for president in 2028

50:00 Pitchforks are coming for corporate America & business candidates

51:45 Any interest in running for office?

52:45 Can have more influence and impact in media than in politics

53:45 Paul Finnebaum mulling run for office

55:15 We’d be better of

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (01:43):
So joining me.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Now is somebody that some of you may listen to
a lot. Some of you may not know who he
is at all because of the way our media filters
and bubbles live these days. It's Clay Travis. Otherwise, some
of you may know him as a sports guy from OutKick,
Others may know him playing Buck. I know him through
a different variety of ways. We're both GW guys, and

(02:07):
I know the coach of GW basketball is trying to
get the two of us to raise more money for
their nil.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
So here we are, Clay. I appreciate you coming on
the podcast. Well, thank you. For having me on. Yes,
hopefully the colonials of you returning to the NCAA tournament
tournament listen to colonials. Colonials. Well, yeah, well that's a
good point. The Revolutionaries, whatever the heck they're calling them now.
I was at GW ninety seven to one, and so

(02:35):
we went to the tournament ninety seven and ninety eight
I guess that would have been ninety eight ninety nine March,
and then really enjoyed the Caarl hobbs Errow when we
had a lot of wins there. But I was at
the end of Mike Jarvis and Tom Penders. For those
of you who are diehard college back, I got there.
I was there. I was ninety to ninety four, and
so I got the sweet you were ka da a

(02:57):
you were? I got Yanka.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
I was at the game in the Kingdome, the old Kingdome.
GW's in the Sweet sixteen playing Michigan, the Great Michigan Team,
the Fab five team.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
The time out.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, this is the team that does the timeout. Two
games later, if Yinka Dare boxes out Chris Weber once,
just once because they couldn't hit a free throw.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
It was that.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
It was that and we narrowly lose that game. If
we win that game, we should have won that game
just one rebound.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
We win that game.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
GW's playing temple for the right to go to the
final four. That's what that would have been an eight
all at the time, in all eight ten.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Do you remember the year that GW went twenty nine
to one, yes and lost terrible schedule. Yeah, you wouldn't
see Wilmington in the first round, then lost to Duke
in the next round. I was there for both those games,
which was which was a lot of fun in Greensboro,
North Carolina, if I remember correctly. But that year George

(03:57):
Mason went to the Final four.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
That was a real stomach punch to the They came
out of nowhere.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
So that was the year I think GW had the
best talent since I was a student, to be able
to make an actual run, and instead George Mason went
to the final four with Jim Lair and Aga who
would later take what Miami to the final four, I
think as well.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
And had that assistant coach named Chris Caputo who we're
now were you living with now?

Speaker 2 (04:21):
And I you know, GW's not so crappy this year.
I think again. I mean, I think they should be
a twenty one team. And yeah, I had a good
dinner with Chris, and I hope that I hope he
can put us in the mix to be back in
the NCAA tournament. Come come March.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Hey man, I wrote my check. Jake Sherman of our
punch Bowl wrote his check. We need you to write
your check. Brother, I told him I owe him a check.
I've given a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
I've also grew up a huge University of Tennessee fan,
and I've given quite a bit of money to their
in il fund.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
I'm a hurric I'm a University of Miami. But you
know it's fun about I do University of Miami. That
way I can give GW seems much more appreciative sometimes
than my friend's at the You, well.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
There's a lot less people who are donating money than GW,
I think for athletics. So that you're at a hire,
even if you're not necessarily given crazy amounts of money,
you're a higher or see mayor for that. So let's
talk about the It's so funny.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
My son didn't even know I was interviewing you today,
and he threw it and I'm gonna bounce the same
question off of you that he said me, And he goes, hey, Dad,
what do you think of McAfee interviewing Trump? And then
he answered his own text. He goes, I think it's
kind of cool. Then on Veterans Day, you interviewed the
president and then he goes, but I wish Trump wouldn't
do politics. When he did the interview, it was just

(05:37):
interesting the way him to receive it. Are you a
sports guy that does politics or you a politics guy
that's doing sports and politics?

Speaker 2 (05:45):
How do you describe yourself? So I think I'll go
on McAfee first. I would imagine you probably feel this way.
If the President of the United States is interested in
coming on your show, you have to say what time?

Speaker 1 (05:57):
What time do I get there to do the interview?
You know, I don't who the president is, right, You're like, yes, please, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
When I did local sports talk radio, we requested Barack
Obama because he was going to be in Nashville. And
what you learn is the President's always being requested for interviews,
and he picks and chooses whoever he would like to do.
And I've interviewed President Trump eleven times. Now I've interview
him at mar A Lago, Bedminster, the White House, Air
Force One. I feel like I've probably talked to him

(06:27):
as much or more than almost anybody in the media.
But the first time I had him on, I got
a phone call. I thought I was getting pranked, and
they said, hey, we would like to put President Trump
on your sports talk radio show, and so I said
immediately yes. So McAfee made the right choice. I don't
think it's a difficult one. Oh. I don't either. When
you interview Trump, I mean, he's a little bit of

(06:48):
a bull in a china shop. He goes in so
many different directions. Even professional political interviewers can be challenged
by trying to corral that. So I thought he did
a fine job. I went and watched it. I give
him a credit. I think a lot of people who
are criticizing him are jealous because they haven't had the
President of the United States on their show, and I

(07:09):
suspect almost all of them would say yes. Now, the
second part of your question, I think both look sports
and politics became so inextricably intertwined during COVID that it
became impossible. I mean, whether or not you were going
to play sports was connected with whether schools were going
to be open, which was whether And I did a
sports talk radio show for three hours every day in March, April,

(07:32):
May June of twenty twenty with no sports, which is
something that nobody ever really prepares for, and our ratings
and our audience skyrocketing during that time. And then Rush
Limbaud died in February of twenty twenty one, and I
had the same bosses. Premiere Radio distributes Fox Sports Radio
Colin Cowherd, Dan Patrick for those of you who know

(07:54):
those guys. I was their lead in and my boss,
Julie Talbot came and said, we'd like for you to
go with buck In takeover this this new radio shows.
So at some point in time, maybe the world gets
back to being sane and I go back. I mean,
I've got a daily show on FS one, weekly show. Sorry,
I'm done daily shows on f S one that aren't

(08:15):
entirely pretty much sports. I love college football, It's my
favorite thing in the world of sports. I love the NFL.
But ultimately, when I had that opportunity, they pitched me
and they said, the biggest sports show that you could
ever do in the history of the country is going
to have a pinprick as influential as what you can
do if you take over this new radio show. You know,

(08:37):
it's interesting.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
You know, Rush was a political guy who clearly wanted
to get into sports. Yeah, and you know, we had
that brief moment at ESPN and it became a thing
and right, you know, and look they made a you know,
I have any I think publicly traded companies just shouldn't
own media companies because they're two.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
They don't have any spines.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
Yeahary, they're going to be rare and they're always going
to be reactionary us, right, and that is what it is.
In some ways, the halo of independence is better for
the person in the actual media seat. You've essentially taken
the time slot. And do you when you think about
the three hours, do you say to yourself, we're going

(09:21):
to do seventy percent sports, thirty percent politics, or do
you really just sort of let the zeitgeist of the
day decide.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
Well, Buck, my co host is not a sports guy.
So there are lots of shows where we do almost
no sports at all. Now I do a show called OutKick,
the show that comes on as soon as I finish
the radio program, and it is, to a large extent,
especially during football season, very much sports driven. So I

(09:51):
would say, you know, and obviously OutKick, which I'm still
involved in fairly substantially editorially, and everything else. The site
that I sold the five four years ago. I think
if you pulled it up at any given time, for instance,
right now, I think you would see seventy five or
eighty percent, particularly during October, you know, in November, when

(10:11):
we're in the middle of football season, that would be
very clearly sports driven. So I think day to day,
depending on the stories, I'm not an x as an
O's guy. I've never been an x as An O's guy,
but I still think of myself as someone who does both.
And the bigger context I would say is we've always
done at out Kick a lot of everything. So whatever

(10:32):
is popular in pop culture, sports, politics, we kind of
do it all it is.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
I mean, look, Bannon said it right. You know, culture
is downstream from politics, and you know sports is a
bigger part of our culture today than it was when
you and I were kids. Sports was important, but it
was weirdly separated. Now I would argue sports ism is
weaved in to culture the way movies and music the

(11:03):
way we would have that would have been described as
culture before, and sports always was considered separate.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
I don't think we do that anymore. Yeah. Well, I
also think there's a huge demand for authenticity and a
profoundly and authentic age, and so I think sports matters
even more because there's less frankly bullshit in sports, like
you either can.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Winter you lose, like there's no subjectiveness to.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
It, right, Like in the book I just finished, I
have the argument you probably would sign on to this
that the scoreboard is the last trusted objective measure of
reality in American society because you try to get it right.
There was a guy on a three point line or not?
Was the guy put in or not? Everybody aspires to
the same goal, and both sides still start scoreless, right,

(11:53):
You still start on an even playing field, and everybody
doesn't mean we don't have officiating controversies or gambling controversies,
everything else, but the objective reality of the scoreboard. At
the end of the game, we have a winner and
a loser, and people accept the result.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
How much Because I think about this a lot, there's
an audience and that I want and then there's the
audience that you have.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Have you thought about that?

Speaker 1 (12:18):
There's the audience that you have versus the audience that
you want, and how hard is it to.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Well, let me before I follow up, do you have
the audience that you want? Or do you have the
audience that you have? I think I have the audience
that likes me, and you know that's maybe my wife's
answer is, you know, like, I don't know why anybody
likes this guy. You know, I think for a long
time I wanted an audience. Period. So I started writing

(12:48):
online in two thousand and four as a practicing attorney
with an audioboard attorney that was like this, I got
an audience with an audience of zero. And I remember
writing articles and thinking, boy, if I could have a
hundred people reading me a day, a thousand people reading
me today, ten thousand was a pipe dream. You know.
I talk to millions of people every day now across radio,

(13:10):
TV and certainly the Internet. And what I would say
is my audience, if I had to characterize them, is simply,
if you love football, if you vote in Trump, and
if you think wearing masks was bullshit, you n I
have one hundred percent name recognition with that group. Now,

(13:31):
I think my arguments would appeal to lots of people
that have no idea I exist, And that has always
been the challenge I think for any person out there
is how do you reach I don't worry about people
who are going to hate me. They can find me
or not find me, it doesn't really matter. But I
do still think quite a lot about, Hey, there's people

(13:52):
out there that are in an SEC football stadium that
might love everything that I do or everything that out
kick does, and they still don't know that we exist.
How do we reach those people? I definitely think about
that quite a lot, because.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
That's something that I, you know, as I've looked as
my first year sort of being independent, and you sit
here and you're like, it's you can. You can grow
an audience fast, But sometimes then your audience is in
charge of your editorial. Yeah, how often do you think
about that that I'm going to say something that is
going to piss off my audience? Now, my guess is
you're established enough that, in fact, you probably enjoy zagging

(14:30):
every once in a while because it's kind of fun.
And you strike me as somebody that actually would prefer
a debate than an amen choir.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, one hundred percent. And also, remember I came out
of the Internet, and the analogy that I made in
my most recent book, and I'll sometimes make it on
shows too, is the Internet's the ultimate meritocracy because you
are competing against everybody. There is no group ABC or
CBS or NBC or Fox News or CNN or MSNBC.

(14:59):
Isn't saying we have chosen this guy or this gal.
We believe they are successful and we're going to present
them to you. I started with nothing, as I said,
and I had to convince people that they should care
what my opinion was. And so when I started doing
a lot more of Fox News, which really only was
about four years ago, that dynamic changed because suddenly we

(15:23):
were getting the people who had known me from the
Internet for a long time and the people who were
being exposed to me on television. And so, but don't
I don't think about that at all, because I think
Charles Barkley gave me a great line on this a
long time ago, said, if you worry about the opinions
of people who don't like you, then eventually the people

(15:43):
who do like you won't like you either, And so
I think my you know, my wife says my gift
to the extent that I have any is I say
exactly what I think, and then I leave my shows
and I have no weight on my shoulders because I
said everything that I want to say. And I just
don't really care. I mean, I care if my kids
like me. I care if my wife likes me. I

(16:05):
care if the people who are in close proximity to me,
Like I'm not an energy vampire, right, I don't want
to make their life miserable. But if a random person
agrees or disagrees with me, it doesn't really change my
life in any way. And I just don't particularly care.
When did you, uh, how did you get there?

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Because everybody, look, everybody in this business at first cares
a lot, and then I did, and then I didn't. Yeah,
And it was just this moment, and you know, sometimes
it's security in your job, sometimes it's security just in
your life, whatever it is. Do you remember when you
decided where it just was like, man, I really don't care.

(16:44):
And in fact, I'm not checking mentions, I'm not looking
at that stuff anymore.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah. So I think a couple of things. One, when
I went to college at GW, I'm born and raised Nashville. Nashville,
everybody's very friendly. Everybody on the East Coast I thought
were assholes, and.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
So for me for those of these because we think
everybody in New York's the asshole.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, and it screws up. I remember, like almost everybody
at GW is from New York, it felt like, and
a lot of them are from from Long Island, and
I had no idea what I was walking in.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
I was a Miami boy. I felt they thought I
was a Southerner. It was really funny. They put me
with two freshmen, one from Louisiana, one from Alabama because
they thought, well, you guys will have something in common,
and we kind of sure we were all from the South,
but it was like, I joke, when you're from Miami,
I'm from the six Borough of New York.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah right, you know. So yeah it was so it
toughened me up, and I cared a lot when I
was a freshman in college about what people thought about me.
By the time I was a sophomore, I didn't even
care what people really thought about me in college. So
I think that was important for me because it prepared
me for the Internet, and on the Internet, everybody's mean
as hell, So when you're coming out of the Internet,

(17:59):
people are me to you from the get go. So
I didn't really ever have that world where I was
seeking affirmation. Remember, I was a lawyer. Writing online was
my escape. It was my sanity.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
And even that's a job that everybody hates lawyers but
until they need one.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yeah, And also being a lawyer is a really tough job.
So I was unique in that the Internet was my serenity,
was my escape from the serious things in life, because
I'm a twenty five year old kid dealing with a
lot of complicated legal issues, and frankly, I didn't love
that job. So even though people might be mean on
the Internet, I had to creative freedom to be able

(18:40):
to write and say whatever I thought on any issue,
which was a lot different than being a young lawyer,
where your job is to advocate for anybody who's paying
your salary. Right, So young lawyers have to come to
grips with this because you go to law school for
three years and it's amazing. You sit around and you
debate Marbary Madison Brown smart Bia. Yeah, and then you

(19:03):
get into the practice of law and It's like, Hey,
you've got twenty eight days to have a response on
this procedural mechanism that you don't care about at all,
and the client is only caring about you and the
context of are you making their life better? So I
put all that out there to say, For me, media
was my happy place where I went to get away

(19:25):
from the serious things that were going on in life.
So I think I got tougher in college. But then
also I wasn't looking for affirmation in the media space.
I was a lawyer who was doing media, which was
a different dynamic.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
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going to law school knowing what you're doing now or

(20:47):
do you love that you had that education.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
I think it was the best decision I made because
it prepares you first saw I met my wife. I've
got three boys now because of it. But I loved
Vanderbilt Law School was the best, most fun three years
of my life. Many of my best friends to this
day are people that I met in that class in
those three years. And really what you learn is how

(21:13):
to analyze arguments, how to analyze different perspectives and come
to the right conclusion. What I would say now is
I basically am a judge right, I look at all
the evidence, I consider all the arguments, and then instead
of having to be bound by whoever's paying my paycheck,
right as a lawyer would be, you advocate for one

(21:36):
side or the other, I look at the facts and
I say, hey, this is where I come down on
this issue, and let me tell you why. But I
don't feel bound or obligated to be in any particular
decision when it comes to that. In fact, I think
of the arguments that I make in many ways in
the context of a judge, where you have to be

(21:57):
aware of the precedent you're setting every time you adopt
a perspective, And I think if you went through all
my positions over time, you would say, hey, you know,
this guy has built opinions that stand on the precedent
over time that sometimes cut across in a significant way
political lines.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
Is there a one of the things you noted is
how with sports there's you know, the scoreboard is the
ultimate yeah, arbiter. What could we do in the world
of politics and government to bring that to bring that
kind of Is it possible or should it not be?

(22:38):
Should it always be? Because ultimately, in a democracy, there's
never going to be one hundred percent consensus. If you
have it, you're probably not living in a democracy. So
are we Just does everybody need to accept the premise that,
guess what, sometimes you're on the sixty percent side and
sometimes you're on the forty percent side, Welcome to America.

(23:02):
Or do we need a better way to cover politics
that creates a.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
That allows people to see what's right and what's trump.
I think the distinction between fact and opinion is one
that is not established as well as it could be.
To me, you may disagree with a ton of my opinions.
That's healthy, that's happy, like, let's go. But if I
get a factor wrong, I feel sick to my stomach.

(23:29):
So because to me, opinions are only as good as
the facts upon which they're based. And so I think
and again there, I think a lot of times even
the fact checkers very vere into the opinion space. But
I think the distinction there is super important. My biggest
concern in the political sphere is and I don't know

(23:52):
how much time you spent on this, I don't think
we're represented by the best and brightest of us. And
I think there are tons of super smart people who
have success in other facets of life, and success in
business pays so much better, success in media pays so
much better then. I think a lot of people who

(24:13):
would otherwise be very skilled in politics actually just say
it's not worth the cost that both financially and personally.
This is the biggest a problem going No. I mean,
the joke about DC was Hollywood for ugly people. Yeah,
and you.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Know, I look at a guy like George Santos and
this is a guy who just wanted to be famous. Yeah, right,
you know, and we have these people, right, you just
want to be famous. I mean, there's this new mini
series about Garfield on Netflix where and I've done a
lot of research on that assassin and that guy who
assassinated him in good Toe, and that's all good tooe

(24:49):
was he was desperate for relevance and fame. And it
does feel as if if you can't find the fame
in a nice space like Hollywood or entertain politics, you know,
because anybody can do.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
It, right.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
The only requirement there's an age requirement for Congress, but
basically that's it, right, There's no other there's no other
thing you have to have other than citizenship and residency
at some form and I do worry that politics now
because it if you win, you get a platform that

(25:24):
suddenly it is become the easier way to find fame
if you have failed in every other part of your life.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, I think if in an ideal world, people would
be politicians only if they have been super successful at
something else first. And I'll give you I could make it.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
I could make an argument that I'd rather see our
state legislatures filled with people who are doing it like
jury duty works that everybody should have to do a term.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
What I look at is, you know Nick Saban, You're
a sports guy. I think Nick Saban would have been
hugely successful at anything he did in life, right, He
is a supremely talented guy. He could have been a
CEO of a company, He could have been a great senator, governor.
Instead he ended up coaching football. And I've made jokes
about this before. Sometimes I think we waste guys like

(26:12):
Nick Saban because, yeah, if you're an Alabama football fan,
it's great he won a bunch of Nationals.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Saban, Jimmy Johnson, Belichick, these guys had really nimble minds.
Why do we waste it on football?

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Yeah, Like, imagine if Abraham Lincoln instead of being a
president had been a basketball coach. Like in retrospect, maybe
he would have won some NCAA tournaments. But you know,
like ending the ending.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
We may have had that that maybe John Wooden. The
more I've read about John Wooden, the more I've read it,
You're like, man, this guy, well, we wasted him.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
And wasted because sports is the toy chest of life.
But what I mean there is there is a culture
of success that would translate I think, and I worry
that both parties have ended up with not the best
among us representing US.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah, college football, I am.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
I am obsessed myself. I look.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
I part of it always is, you know, your formative
years or your formative years. I grew up going to
University of Miami football games when nobody was going, you know,
but we win every game. Odos Anderson was my first guy.
I got to live the eighties that was you know.
I remember getting an autographed picture of Jimmy Johnson before
he ever coached a game because he was doing a

(27:30):
meet and greet at the Jordan Marsh at Dailion Mall
in Miami. And there weren't a lot of people online
because that's just sort of what Even after Miami wins
a title, they were like, who the hell is this guy?

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Right? You know, all that thing.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
So I'm obsessive about it and I am glad to
see it's more popular today than it was in the eighties.
And I think Miami had a lot to do with that,
because I think we modernized football. It was a ship
game in a lot of other conferences, and Miami brought
sort of in Florida State, sort of brought more excitement
to it. But how do we I hate what's happening

(28:08):
here the SEC and Big Ten, the super league business.
I think it's terrible that a college football fan in Spokane,
Washington doesn't have relevance in the college football landscape.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
And I think that's a mistake.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
And I think that that is I think the two
conferences have made a massive business mistake here by trying
to shrink the world of college football. Rather than say
to themselves, hey, we can do something the NFL can't.
We can sell out a game and spoke Cane they can't.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Well, I think the result is going to be what
you just said and has become basically the Big Ten
and the SEC are the AFC and the NFC of
college sports. And if you're not in one of those
two conferences, I think you're going to struggle immensely to
cut through the noise in the Big Ten.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
At this point, Miami, Florida State, we're going to the
Big ten. Miami's got all the academic requirements now, AAU,
all that business. And the only region the Big ten's
not in is essentially the only important place.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
And I think that's going to be an amazing battle
is the ACC television deal is going to come up
for people who are not in the weeds on this,
and I suspect that there's going to be a flight
of the best schools in the ACC into Big ten
and SEC, and that's going to be the last kind
of cultural marker there. Maybe you see a couple of

(29:35):
Big twelve schools also get opportunities to make the move.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
I think Arizona, when you look at the markets, right,
there's Phoenix. You're not going to let Phoenix go, right,
So yeah, I wouldn't you know, Arizona State in Arizona
should be feeling alive. I wouldn't want to be in
Oklahoma State. I wouldn't want to be an Iowa state perhaps,
and then you see North Carolina and Virginia, those are
going to be the two big prizes. Then that'll be

(29:59):
priced fight.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
And it's interesting culturally because the SEC has still, even
at sixteen, a unique cultural connection. Eight wasn't it sixteen? Still?
But I thought Oklahoma next has made it eighteen. I
guess they made it's sixteen from fourteen after Missouri and
a and at it. But if you look at it,
they're all red states. And if you compare, say the

(30:23):
difference between Georgia, I would argue Georgia's are bad. Well,
Brian Kimp won by eight, but yes, you're right, they're
the only it's the only one that's not right that
potentially in question. Maybe going forward now North Carolina Virginia
to your point, culturally, there might be a little bit
different feel there, but there's a big difference between Oregon

(30:46):
and Iowa, between Iowa and Maryland. I think the Big
Ten has got challenges in that respect more so than
the SEC does. And so I think it'll be interesting
for the Uvas, the North Carolinas of the world, and
that eventual day comes which conference, because I think the
money is going to be somewhat similar. Which conference do
they feel is a better cultural fit for their athletic

(31:09):
programs And how does that shake out?

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Do you think that will matter? I mean, I think
I think they want to be national brands, not regional brands.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
Well, the SEC has become a national brand. I mean,
I've got a son who's applying to school, who were
talking about when we went to GW. When I went
away to GW and I talked about the University of Tennessee,
it might as well have been like they have outhouses there,
like do you still have running water? University of Tennessee
has a thirty five percent acceptance right now because all

(31:37):
of these kids from New York families, Chicago families, LA families,
they're desperate to send their kids to SEC schools. Vanderbilt
has a five percent acceptance rade now. It's almost impossible
to get into Vanderbilt. It's really not.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Look Miami's experience said, look all the southern any southern
school with an the football or basketball atmosphere particularly, this
is something I think is a COVID hangover because we
saw it at the at this you know, they've shown
some how pre COVID the Northeast schools were still and

(32:15):
even the Upper Midwest schools were still arguably, at least
in the DC area, more popular than going south. And
in the last three years it's Southern schools from Georgia
particularly like Georgia has been a popular landing spot. Miami
and Tulane and the private my son's at SMU, you
know that's in the private space, and the obviously ut Alabama.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
We've seen this really Ole Miss.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
I think two of my son's closest friends are at
Old Miss from from high school. So you do see
this appeal, and it's in all of it seems to be, Hey,
I want more than just academics, you know, I want
an atmosphere to no I think that's called that's a factor,
and that all kind of plays in in a significant

(33:03):
way too.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
And I think it's also cultural. In the wake of
October seventh, I think a lot of people who are
Jewish have said, hey, you know, I don't know how
I feel about Columbia or UCLA or some of these
schools with the huge protests, even GW compared to the
SEC schools where look, they had freedom of speech. But
if you look at Vanderbilt, the chancellor just said, hey,

(33:28):
you could protest, but you can't come take over our
Central Kirkland Hall building like you're.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Out Interesty, mimmy had nothing. My daughter is Jewish and yeah,
puts it on her profile and there were no issues.
It's also a private campus they didn't allow. This was interesting.
She works in student affairs and she said, hey, Dad,
I hope you're not offended by this, but the university
won't let any media on campus without permission. I said, well,
they're a private institution. They can Public institutions don't necessarily

(33:58):
can necessarily do that.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yeah, the standard is again, this goes to the principle.
As long as you establish whatever the principle is when
it comes to protest on campus and apply it in
a content neutral fashion. I think that's how you win.
And I think the culture you mentioned old Miss. It
used to be the case that, you know, you would
send your kid to Ole Miss if they couldn't get

(34:19):
in anywhere else. Now you got families in Manhattan Beach
and you know, Westchester begging for their People love the velvet.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
I have a cousin who teaches there. People love the
velvet ditch. It's my favorite description of Oxford. Yeah, you know,
and the beauty of Oxford. You know, if you live
in Oxford, the beauty of Oxford is you're still thirty
minutes from Mississippi.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
Yeah, that's true, and it's a great spot. I was
just down there interviewing Lane Kiffin, and the big question
for coaching carousel talk is, you know, everybody is waiting
to see what Lane's going to do, basically, and if
he goes to Florida, or he goes to LSU, or
he makes the move, then everybody else starts to adjust
their decisions as a result as well. What would be

(35:00):
the motivation for him to leave? I think that he
believes that he can't get to the championship level at
Ole Miss and only he knows. I mean, he certainly
has proven I think that he can get to the playoff.
But he may see that if he wants to get
to the Ohio State or Alabama next proverbial level, so
to speak, where you can win multiple playoff games and

(35:22):
win a title, that maybe he needs to go to
Florida or to LSU. I'm not sure that an answer
is that he does, but I think that's actually a
sign of how the expanded playoff has maybe convinced people
that they don't need to move. But I think that's
the thing that he's wrestling with right now. How do
we get rid of the because my beef.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
Look, I am coming at this with my Miami bias
about the committee. Excuse me what I refer to as
the ESPN Invitational, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
Because it is.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
I mean, the fact is, the guy went on Tuesday
night and talked about how Miami is the only one
that's won any significant non conference games. Conveniently forgetting that
Florida State beat Alabama? Are we supposed to not count that.
I'm sorry that a mediocre ACC school defeated Alabama, but
those are the facts. And you can't cherry pick when
you decide to hold the ACC scheduling to account and

(36:16):
when you don't and then conveniently leave stuff up. This
is why if I were the commission of the ACC,
I'd be pissed off that my business, biggest business partner, ESPN,
doesn't doesn't give a damn about me. Well, that's where
I get upset about the ACC. It's I understand ESPN's
they're in business, but they're also in business with you.

(36:38):
And the fact that the ACC has done a terrible
job of reminding ESPN to that, and if they don't care,
then find a better way out of it.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
Well. I think there's certainly a lot of tension for
the networks about all of that, and ultimately what they're
looking at is ratings and money. It's a TV show.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Tony Korneiser loves to say this, it's a TV show, folks.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Yeah, you knows sports is a great television show. What
I would say is college football is the only sport
where we end up arguing all the time all the time, right,
because nobody sits around in debates, Hey, is the AFC
East better than the NFC West this year?

Speaker 1 (37:14):
Because you might the committee decided the NFL playoffs, Would
Dallas ever not make the playoffs? No?

Speaker 2 (37:19):
And what also we would You can argue maybe it
would be incredible for fighting based on which teams are better.
But they designed the system that I ultimately think would
be the best in college football, which is you take,
let's say right now, the SEC has sixteen schools. You
take four divisions of four and you say, if you
win the division, you're in the playoff, right and the

(37:41):
Big ten. Now design what those divisions are going to
be becomes challenging and all those things. But then you
have a known expectation and sometimes you can end up,
as happens in the NFL, the team that happens to
win a division sometimes they have a losing record and
you look at it and you say, boy, you know
that's screwed up. And people may be upset about it
for a short period of time, but you know already

(38:04):
going in what the rules of engagement, so to speak,
are when it comes to playoff you know determination.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
Well, and that's the thing, like what you hate about
this committee. And to me, nobody has ever answered this
question with real clarity to me, which is what matters
more who you beat or who you lost to?

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah, And I mean I think the answer is. My
buddy likes to say, you know, college football is just
a cake baking contest. So we all and then we
all stand around and look and we're like, well, look
at the frosting on this one. Look at the depth,
look at the moisture of this cut. Right Like, ultimately,
you know, I think it's kind of evocative. This is

(38:43):
my big, you know, sort of metaphorical take on American society,
and I think it applies to college football too. It's
do we judge people by their ceilings or their floors? Right?
My argument would be the Democrat Party of the last
generation or so looks at the floor, like what did
America get wrong? What did we screw up? What should

(39:04):
we be ashamed of? And sort of forces people to
marinate in that failure. I would argue the Republican Party,
this is my take, tends to focus more on the ceiling.
What did you achieve? You know? Or when you talk
about Thomas Jefferson, how long do you take to mention
Sally hmmicks you know? Or do you focus on Hey,
Declaration of Independence kind of a good deal, Monticello impressive,

(39:26):
you know, Fridge the Louisiana purchased kind of a kind
of a significant accomplishment. And so I think it kind
of goes in what's college football? Too? Right? Are you just?

Speaker 1 (39:37):
There are some of us who sort of like all
of that, And that's always been my prest at the bottom, Right,
My frustration is like I sort of love the fact
that everybody's complicated in our history and that ultimately that
complication and history does sort of inform the future, and
it always does, both good and bad and indifferent. But

(39:57):
in some ways, the complication, the fact that Jeff person
is complicated is.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Actually very American. Yes, And also by the way it
sort of jumps into what I think is fascinating is
you know, if you look at prestige erat television, almost
everyone that is a significantly successful show, whether it's Walter White,
whether it's Tony Soprano, is you know, filled with substantial

(40:26):
measures of light and darkness, as we all are. And
so that's a big metaphor for college football. I mean,
I think it does turn into a question. Ultimately, I
would say I'm more likely to judge a team by
the body of work, but I would if I had
to choose what's more significant, quality wins or bad losses,
I would go with quality wins. But here's the deal,
there is no criterion. The committee can decide whatever is

(40:49):
the best argument to do whatever the committee thinks they
should do. And so that's why I think, you know,
there's Florida State fans that are probably watching this right
now so furious over Jordan Travis and the way they say.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
It's not just any Florida State fan that's going to
be watching this, it's my wife who's a Florida state alone.
Her anger at kirk Kurbstreet is on a level that
will never like you know, Visceral. There's no political figure
that would garner as much hate for her well.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
And I think that's why college football is so popular,
because unlike the NFL, which I love, you don't feel
that close personal connection to it. And for college athletics,
it is all person It evokes an emotional response that
is very different than what happens I think candidly with
anything in professional sports.

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So you would go, what would you like to see

(43:04):
a sixteen team playoff? Because the other thought I had
is because I'd love to see like I think it's fun.
I'm glad a group of five team is in there,
but I actually would like to see a mini tournament
of those four conference champions they play each other, the
winner gets to come into THEIA. Maybe it's an eighteen playoff,
and maybe the SEC has its own tournament, Big ten

(43:26):
has its own tournament acc and then you sort of
you do it that way way.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
I would go sixteen, and I would eliminate the conference
championship games, and I would finish it by Jan one.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
I think, don't you think the CC wants more revenue
for I assume the SEC and the Big Ten? And
this is where I think the media partners come in.
Does Fox want a Big ten tournament allah the basketball
tournaments right? And does ESPN want that out of SEC?

Speaker 2 (43:54):
And so there's been a discussion where you say, hey,
we're going to guarantee four spots for the SEC and
four for the Big Ten, but we will have three,
four and five six do play in in other words,
one and two in the conference automatically in the playoff.
And then to replace the conference championship game, you actually
add two playoff games, but you played and I guess

(44:16):
it would be three six four five probably is the
way that it would make sense. And then the two
teams that win those games advanced. So from a capitalistic perspective,
you double your value, and what I would like to
see is a done.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
But oh, by the way, I get more football and
you make money. Okay, then we all win.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
So I think there's an argument that something like that
could happen, but I think it's ultimately going to end
up sixteen. And what I would like to see them
do is actually start college football a bit earlier and
you know, like a week or two earlier than they
do now, and be able to finish it all on
jan one is the national title game.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Get out of the NFL's way, or I'm never going
to beat the NF.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Correct And I don't like when they're playing games on
random Tuesdays and Wednesdays to try to avoid the NFL schedule.
And I think if you drag it on for too long,
it makes people, you know, just kind of lose interest.
So I would get it done. Jan one is a
traditional heavyweight of day for college football.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
The other thing I would do in my if, if
you would, if you in your magic world, if you
let me to orchestrate the beginning of the season, is
I would take all of the bowl games that are
not part of the national title, not part of the
whole playoff structure, and I would make those matchups play
each other at the start of the season.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
I would that.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
I'd look at the calendar right now, and the month
of August is up for grabs. Every month has a
sport that they own, right but the month of August
sits there, and you know, college football has already done
a pretty good job of grabbing the last sort of
week or two, and those become like people are.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
Dying, they're sturturday. They do a great job of playing
games Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. But I would start
it even earlier and make that the focal point of
the early part of the season.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
If I had my Bowl, if you matched up fun
little interconference matchups and all that stuff that you did
it at the start of the year based on last
year's records or whatever. But hey, that is suddenly those
games mean something. You're not going to agreat players get
out of it. And I think you could, and these cities,
I think people would. It's August, it's the end of

(46:22):
summer vacation. Maybe it's the last trip you take with
your family. Yep, you know to go see you know,
you go to l Paso to the Sun Bowl. You
appreciate the choir on this.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
I think that the college football brain trust need to
get out of competing with the NFL, and preseason NFL
is garbage. So the more time you can create a distinct, unique,
awesome product without having to compete with the NFL, the better.
And I think starting in August a little bit earlier

(46:53):
and finishing on jan one is that window.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
Let me get you out of here. On Nowashville is
a major league market. What's the next major sport that's coming?

Speaker 2 (47:04):
It's fuzzy. I'm going to a meeting about Major League
Baseball at Nashville. Legitimately, when I hang up the phone
with you, I think we're going to get major League
Baseball and the NBA. Uh, Well, Memphis has got the NBA,
and I think that gets into a politically no, it's
hard for Nashville to take Memphis crown jewel of professional athletics.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
So that you wouldn't right, I agree, So you wouldn't
see it. And you don't think Tennessee can support to NBA.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
I don't think they can support too. And I don't
think I think the political tension there is such that
that would not be tenable. I think we're going to
get major League Baseball. And I'm not sure what the
other city. Maybe Salt Lake, because I think they want
one west of.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
The Lake and Charlotte. There's salt Lake, there's Charlotte, there's Portland,
there's Montreal. I have heard the Charlotte has some real
money and that, you know, But but i've heard the
Salt Lake thing.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
So let me get you with a couple of stats
that blow my mind. And you may may not have
thought about this. There are more NHL, NBA and NFL
teams in the SEC footprint than there are MLB teams.
It's crazy. And yet so the Braves are kind of
the team of the SEC because this is a sport,
this is a baseball crazy footprint they haven't served. So actually,

(48:18):
Nashville and Charlotte should both get them. I don't know
that they'll do it, but that that stat really kind
of jumps out, And so I think they want to
give Nashville a team. And here's the other thing about this.
I am told there's likely to be a lockout, shut down.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
What everybody has said, Please, I got my Nationals season ticket,
guy said, I said, give me the best case of
why I should sign up for next year, he says,
because we probably won't have baseball in twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Yeah, no, I mean so that. And I think one
of the ways that they will reach an agreement going
forward is by saying to the players, hey, we're going
to add two teams, which is going to add you know,
sixty jobs or whatever. The math is to the overall
Major League Baseball environment, and haven't expanded very much baseball
compared to the NFL, compared to the NBA, compared to hockey.

(49:09):
So I think Nashville is going to get one. I
would bet on play starting I don't know, twenty thirty one,
twenty thirty two something in that arena.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
They do have a financial problem, though, right, because unlike
the other major sports, baseball teams don't share their revenue.
That's right, right, And the Dodgers Japanese media rights are
worth more than anything the Minnesota Twins can sell, that's right,
and you cannot have And you know, if the NFL

(49:41):
worked the way baseball worked, there'd be no Jaguars, that's right, right,
There'd be no Packers.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
And yeah, the way to put it is sports is
a unique business where the business itself is the competition, right,
Walmart wanted to put kmart out of business, right like
hol Depot wants to knock the low was out of business, Coke, PEPSI, whatever,
dueling businesses. The quality of the sport is entirely determined

(50:07):
by the quality of the competition. And if, for instance,
the Dodgers, because they have SHOWBA and all of the
money rolling in from Japan, are able to spend far
more money than anybody else and they win eight titles
in a row, it's not beneficial in any way for them.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
No, it's like, why, you know, there's a reason college
football wasn't popular in the forties and fifties because it
was Notre Dame, and Army and Navy had all the talent,
and it wasn't a way to share it around.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
Now, look, this has been my concern. We love college football,
but that somebody, the Elon Musk of college football, he
doesn't care. But if he did, just suddenly comes in
and says, I'm going to give a billion dollars to
school inil funds. I think that's why they're trying to
set up some form of salary cap inside of college athletics.
I was at the University of Illinois doing a talk.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
I was happen to be hanging out with the coach
of the basketball team. Were there when when they found
out Larry Ellison, a University of Illinois alum, wrote a
check to Michigan to sign to sign the quarter under
Brice Underwood Bryce Underwood, and they were just like apoplectic, Yeah,
like what what?

Speaker 2 (51:14):
What? What? What? He needs to give us money? What
do you? Why are you doing that?

Speaker 1 (51:18):
And it was all because you know, he had the
girlfriend who was going to be upset if Michigan football
wasn't story of life right right? The things men will
do for what we'll do for love? Uh, let me
get you out of here on this. Who's four people
you'd like to see to run for president in twenty.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Eight Oh that's a fantastic question. Well, let's eliminate people
that we know are going to run. You know Jamie Vance, Uh,
you know Marco Rubio. I think there's a good chance
that they run as a tandem ticket. Gavin Newsom's clearly
going to run.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Do you think anybody the last name of Trump runs
And I'm not talking about the sitting president, I'm talking
about junior or Eric or I don't.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Think that I know those guys. I don't think that
they wanted that could change. But I think they like
the life that they have now, and I think they've
seen what the life is required to have. And I'm
not sure that you know. It's very there's a lot
of fancy, awesome parts of being involved in politics. You've

(52:16):
been there. There's also a lot of standing and posing
for photos on a ropeline for an hour and a
half and making small talk with every person. Like I
don't think that actual It reminds me, honestly of kind
of what people think the practice of law is, and
then what the practice of law actually is. They think
you're going to be Tom Cruise all the time and

(52:36):
a few good men, or they think it's going to
be a time to kill in your Matthew McConaughey talking
to a journey and the reality is you're sitting in
front of a computer screen on dock review or filing
emotion now, ay, I'll do all that for you, right,
and maybe civil procedure related. So I would like to
see successful people in the world of business. I would

(52:56):
have liked to have seen he's getting older now. I
would have liked to have seen Nick say even in politics,
because I think he would be really good at it.
I think he's gotten a little bit too old. I
think Brian Kemp, Governor of Georgia, really really sharp guy.
I think he could be a great unifying candidate. I
love Ron DeSantis and what he did. I understand that
there's issues there. I love both those guys on the

(53:19):
Republican side. On the Democrat side, I'm somewhat impressed by
what I've seen from Rama Manuel because he seems to
be rational and be willing to talk like a dude,
which I think Democrats are struggling with in general. Just
have a beer and watch a game. Who would I
like to do that with. I've been a bit impressed
with Marama Manuel and his ability to cut through there.

(53:41):
And then I would like people who are not professional
politicians to potentially get involved, who have had success in
other industry, not unlike Trump did. And you know, there
are the mayor Bloomberg's of the world. I would like
to see them just kind of look at things analytically

(54:01):
and analyze facts and just say, hey, let's run the
company a little bit more like a business. So, uh,
there are some of those figures that I think could
be uh, could be very helpful.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
Do you think I have a feeling that pitchforks are
coming though for corporate America left and right is profound anger. Yeah,
And I don't know if a because I you know, instinctively,
I'm always looking at for business leaders and I'm starting
to think that even if they're good, it doesn't matter.
Like I think Jamie Diamond in another era could be

(54:31):
an interesting, yeah, candidate for office. But I think I
think the pitchforks would come for a banker, right, you know,
I had Steve Jobs had a personality maybe yeah, you know.
But again, so I wonder though if the world of
business just in the next ten years, if that's just
going to be a like like that, that it's an

(54:54):
anti halo effect on somebody.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Yeah, look, I think you're going to see. Let me
give you a couple of media Meg Kelly, I think
is uniquely talented. I don't know if she would ever.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
Run, I could see, You're right, a media personality is
gonna is going to try and do it.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
My big take on twenty eight is I think men
have been won by the Republican Party, but I think
women have been won by the Democrat Party. I mean
talking broadly, I understand.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
Oh it's pretty it was pretty sharp. I don't know
if it'll stay that. What'll be interesting is do both
parties attempt to fix their problem?

Speaker 2 (55:24):
That's right, So if they do, then there's an opening
actually for someone who is a woman that is able
to talk to women and say, hey, the Republican Party
flip side. Is there a man that is just like
a dude, just a normal guy. Maybe it's Wes Moore,
you know, who rises up on the Democrat side and
can have normal conversations with men. I think Gavin Newsom

(55:46):
is trying to do it, and so to me that
that may well be the way the election is decided
is who's able to talk not to their base, certainly,
but to the opposite gender. You ever wanted to run
for off? My wife is has forbidden it. Look I
love what I do right now. I don't ever want

(56:08):
to leave Nashville. I've got seventeen, fifteen, eleven year old boys.
When all my boys are out of the house in
seven or eight years, I'll look around, I'll have, you know,
hopefully had four years of seasoning and everything else, and
see how things look then, but I don't think for
the next eight years or so. And here's honestly the
thing that I've thought about. I think a lot about

(56:30):
how do I be? How am I the most efficient
and effective version of myself? And I'm not trying to
be egotistical here, but with our show with Clay and
Buck without kicking everything else, people know us a lot
more than they do a lot of governors, and a
lot more than they do certainly a lot of congress people.

(56:51):
So I feel like I can have an impact in
a positive way in media in a way that I
remember Scarborough saying that pliticians can't.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Early on Scarborough, the show was going pretty well and
somebody was trying to get him to run, go run
for Senate again in Florida. Yeah, this was more this
is pre Trump era, so it was sort of he
was still sort of a more comfortable Republican and he
came to the conclusion that he had more influence doing
what he was doing than to be a senator. And

(57:20):
I remember thinking that sucks. I'm sorry, like that's not
the way it should be, but he's right.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
I mean, the senators and the governors asked to come
on the show all the time so they can talk
to our audience and reach it.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
They want to be seen as normal people, So they
desperately don't want to be on a political show. They
want to be in a non political show. That's right,
And so they want to do you know, events with us.
And so look, I mean, I think Paul Finbaum's going
to run. You didn't ask me about this, like he
sat down and talked with me. I don't know how
well you buy it you think he's going to run.
I just don't think he's going to be able to

(57:59):
sell MAGA that he's MAGA. I'm sorry, I don't buy it.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
I think I think he would run. If he runs,
I think he'll win. So I think college football matters
more in Alabama than anything. You've got Tommy Tupperville who's
going to be the governor. You got aj Mccaerron who
might be the lieutenant governor. You're right, I mean we
may see an entire entire fate aspired to Wesley Britt,
who's a former offensive tackle for Alabama and an NFL guy.

(58:25):
I think people look at it more. Their parties are Alabama, Auburn.
They're not necessarily Democrat Republican. Uh. And the one thing
I'll say about college football but makes fun of me
about this, but I actually think America would be better
if we thought of each other more like college football fans,
because I innately trust other college football fans more than

(58:47):
I do people who aren't college football fans, even if
they are rooting for different teams, because I know we
speak a common language and it's a tribe.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
You know, it goes back to you know, the best
part of being an American is if you're a member
of multiple tribes. That's right, and you're right, Like, you know,
there's my University of Miami tribe, and there may be
people in there I politically can't stomach. But when we're
watching a game together, we're high five.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
And there's their college football tribe, and there's a media tribe.
You know, there's you know. The only thing bad is
if you're a member of only one tribe, and one
tribe only well, and.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Also if you decide what I always say is I
have tons of friends who think that my political opinions
are crazy, and I'm open to being convinced that I'm wrong.
I wish that more people were open to being convinced
that they were wrong, because part of being a lawyer
is at some point you look at the argument, you're like, hey,

(59:44):
they got a better argument. Like you have to be
rational on some point, because that's the job, is to
look at arguments and decide who makes the better one.
I wish more people did that, and that's why maybe
maybe college football is the perfect approximation of that, because
everybody is too p passionate. But in the end, we
all argue and then we come to the conclusion. People
may not be satisfied, but they but they end up

(01:00:07):
still being engaged as much, if not more every year.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Well like, look like eventually there's a vote, eventually there's
a game that's played.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
That's right, That's exactly right. I appreciate you doing this, man,
Hey man, I appreciate you having me on. We got
to get you on some of our shows as well.
And good luck to the Hurricanes the rest of the
way you name it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
If they look I just wish they wouldn't hold Miami's
coaching staff against the team. The team itself is probably
the most talented or as talented as any team in
the country.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
Don't have it. We can't get the most out of them.
But I hope camer Woord develops. He was a lot
of fun to watch last year with Miami. So far
it hasn't gone very well.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
Man, he's already you know what happens these anytime. Look
what happened to Trevor Lawrence when he had to go
through multiple coaches early. This is such a bad sign.
I'm so worried about this for him.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
That sucks. They have to go through a uh oh, Tim,
think about it. He's had four O season four years.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
I do think he is high level thinker because he's
gone through so many OC's in college. Right, three different systems.
I think you're going to be okay. But man, that
sucks that he got drafted into a terrible situation with
the guy that probably doesn't belong in the NFL. In
the meantime, something I never would have believed as a
Nashville kid growing up. We're going to host a super

(01:01:27):
Bowl in this new stadium, and I think we're going
to have a Major League Baseball team too.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
So it's not a bad spot to live. You'll have
to come down and visit. No, it's Nashville.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
What is it that you guys, are the new Vegas,
the new Austin, the new You're always the Nashville feels
like it gets the It's the new this, it's the
new Hollywood, It's the new that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
When I started out Kick as a media company here
based in Nashville, everybody told me you can't succeed, you
got to move to New York or LA. Now everybody's
moving their media companies to Nashville. Yeah, you and Taylor Swift,
you guys do something I appreciating than.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
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