Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
No, it's time for the Nile House starring Ruber and
John Brincas featuring the Kevender Twins and Brian Schuttenstein. And
now here's Rub and John. Wow, we've got an own
(00:30):
marching band. How how many n I L shows have
their own marching bands? One that's just one, the n
I L House. And not only is it our marching band,
but it's the Dunwoody Fighting Wildcats, the Dunwoody Wildcats. I'm
now I'm in love with the Dunwoody Wildcats because their
(00:50):
band is just killer. They're unbelieving are They're totally game.
I contacted Dr Eric Merritt, who's out of Synergy Sport. Uh.
He's the guy that keeps me healthy. I'm broken without
Dr Mary, and I said, we need a band for
the na L House and he made a single call
(01:11):
and boom, we have our own marching band, like every
good doctor. He had at the tip of his fingers
and marching band, which we're very happy about. Thank you doctor.
That's right, thank you, Dr Mary. All right, well, we're
gonna do the intro to the show if you remember,
and I'm dating myself the Gary Shandling Show. Uh, the
Gary Shandling Show. The theme song was this is the
(01:34):
theme to Gary Show. This song to Gary Show. This
is the song they play when they roll the opening credits,
like those are the words. So here's here's our first
segment for the n I L House. Rob Vaka explained
to us, what is the n I L House? The
n I L House is the epicenter of all things?
And I L. Do you want to know why? Why?
(01:54):
Because we said so, we did, we did, we said so.
Therefore it is is and that's the world of n
I L. It is the world of n I L.
And it's busy right now. There's a lot going on
in n I OL. That's right. It's coming fast and furious,
it is. So let's go to our first second here
called headlines. Look at that. Look at the graphics swooping in.
(02:14):
Looks like a real show. It does, say headlines. I
like it all right. What is our first headline, Rob Baka?
Headline number one is legislation, legislation, it's common. And we
got a couple of bills, there's eight so far total.
And Senator Senators Blumenthal and Booker have a bill out
(02:35):
there that's called the Athlete Bill. Of Rights, the Collegiate
Athlete Bill of Rights, and Senator Roger Wicker has another bill,
and right behind him, former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville has
a bill comming, I don't pull up the article on it. Yeah,
let's see what do we got? What? Here's what I
(02:55):
don't understand. So where were these guys before this has
actually passed, Like before the n C double A said hey,
these athletes can just do whatever they want. Where were
these guys? There is a party that started and some
people are late. So this is the late comers to
the party. They're they're they're here here just arriving late.
(03:18):
They are arriving late. And now that you arrive late,
once everybody has had the goods at the party, it's
kind of in their system. And the analogy is that, look,
the money is currently flowing and being spent, and I'm
not sure what you can do to regulate it. What
are you gonna say, Oh, you can only make a
million dollars. That's that horse has left the barn. It
(03:40):
kind of feels, though, that that these bills, at least
what we're saying now, are protectionist bills. They're designed to
help the athlete. They're designed as navigational tools so athletes
don't get taken advantage of. And the reality is you
and I having worked in professional sports for years, there
are a cadre of bad actors out there trying to
take advantage of act athletes. Right, well, yes, there are
(04:04):
bad actors who are out there. Do we think that
the bills just stop at protecting the athlete? And while
put protecting in quotes because they're saying, well, wait a minute,
we don't want you to make money in this fashion.
We wanted you to make it in this other fashion.
Is that just not code for we're gonna regulate it,
(04:24):
We're gonna tax it, we're gonna we're gonna make sure
that the school that we want to get money get
the money. Yeah. Look, most times the government gets involved, Right,
the I r S didn't just explode in terms of
number of new agents for no reason. The government wants
its peace. So whether that is in the gambling space,
which which is coming alive, the sports betting space, the
(04:47):
n I L space, where the cannabis space, the government's
going to get its peace. So yeah, tax is going
to be part of it. But there is there is
some goodness, I do see the opportunity to come in
and help athletes avoid some of this this appropriation because
you know our next headline, which we can segway right
into run in and I L and high schools and
(05:07):
so it's coming. And there's sixteen states and district of Columbia, Washington,
d C. That have uh N i L in place
for high school kids, and it's gonna be really the
while while West, when you bring in high school I
almost think there's more at stake at the high school
level because you're literally just crowning athletes and saying this
(05:32):
is the next king. Well, you're definitely picking to your point,
you're picking the monarchy. Now the challenges you have so
many coaches now that are shaking in their boots because
what does this inspire? This inspires transfers, This inspires luring,
you know, more people coming in, more of those actors
coming in, luring your best players away. Right now, the
(05:54):
big states that are in it are California, New York,
and Illinois. The big rates that are not in it
are Georgia and Florida and some others. Teas and Texas
is not in the game either. So right now, there's
something big. One of a Florida football player and athlete
is suing the state of Florida to try to get
(06:16):
to try to get his piece. It's gonna I mean,
people are moving for all kinds of reasons. One of
them is going to be can my kid get played
to get paid for playing high school sports or not?
Just today there was a breaking story. What wasn't breaking
it was it was continuing the story that broke last
week on ESPN about a high school transfer who went
(06:39):
from Georgia to California and all of the unscrupulous moves
that the adults in the room perpetuated, and that high
school athlete now is not able to play, is not eligible.
So I think there's gonna be a lot of sifting.
There's gonna be a lot of gold in the hills.
There's gonna be a lot of miners. But you're gonna
(06:59):
have to get that sifting pan out because there's not
enough goal to go around for everybody. Uh, what's our
next headline? What do you got showed on the computer?
Is collective selectives? All right? So here's the thing about collectives.
As I understand it, UM schools are not officially affiliated
(07:22):
with a collective. Is that true or false? Yes? Mostly yes.
So you're starting to see schools get more tied into collectives,
and I think ultimately you're gonna see schools and collectives
come together because right now you have school X y
Z D one, D two, D three school and in
(07:45):
a lot of cases you have multiple collectives, and those
multiple collectives want to do right, they want to help
the student athlete, but ultimately end up competing, and I
think the schools are going to have to find a
way to consolidate going forward. All right, So who are
the collectives that are making moves? Well, there's some interesting
collectives out there, and they're led by really interesting people
who have a lot of experience in the space, a
(08:07):
lot of credibility in the space. If you look at
Rising Spear, that's Will Collen. He was involved in the
Florida State World for years. If you look at the
Tiger Impact Fund at Clemson, that's Bobby Couch. He's got
a lot of experience and fundraising for Clemson. If you
look at the Foundation for Ohio States, the D D
D D D Foundations, you look at Brian Schottenstein, who's
(08:30):
got a tremendous amount of experience in business. He's tied
to Cardale Jones. Cardale, of course, is the quarterback that
led Ohio State to that two thousand fourteen national championships.
Sport Science alumni Sports Science alum. And then the other
one is Country Roads Trust co founded by Oliver Law
Andrew's dad, who's got a lot of credibit. So there
are people that are running meaningful operations and bringing a
(08:53):
lot to the table in the collective space. Uh. And
that's interesting. But what about what about our friend Jason Belzer. Yeah,
our friend Jason Belzer at Saniel Student Athlete and I
L who put together this summer's big uh and I'll
summit in Atlanta, is helping collectives like success with honor
at Penn State and others. He's helping them manage this
(09:14):
whole you know world that is new. It's new to
the space, it's new to these folks. And so when
you have an alumni come in who care, when you
have sports folks from the school come in their care,
you need somebody to pull them all together. And that's
what Jason is doing at s Neil. All right, So
Jasons and that there's also the players Lounge. Yeah, the
Players Lounge is another one. They're out of Atlanta or Georgia.
(09:36):
A couple of Georgia guys, Keith Marshall, who was a
running back for Georgia and then in the NFL, and
Aaron Murray, who was a quarterback at Georgia, said a
lot of records. Really good guy, We've known him for
a long time. Those guys started the Players Lounge to
help athlete lad collectives, and they have a half dozen
of them. Athlete led collectives gather what they need, organize
(09:58):
what they need, produced the right tent, and present that
in a fashion to two fans and alumni. That helps everybody,
all right, So all that leads us to our next segment.
Watch this graphic comes flying in boom. Top paid athletes.
Now here's my question, the top paid athletes whose lists
(10:21):
has the definitive um the definitive lists of who's actually
being paid, because I don't know how we verify this. Yeah. Look,
it's the wild wild West, right and in the wild
wild West, there is some verification and in other cases
there's not. So it's interesting for high schools and for colleges.
(10:42):
On three, led by Shannon Terry, has had predictive lists
and lists for a while. They just came out with
a new uh, a new tool for high school. And
so in high school, for example, Arch Manning, it's predicted
that his worth, his value is around four or five
million dollars. Right, Brownie Jay is leading the way the right.
Bronni James values about five to seven million dollars. In college,
(11:04):
you've got Olivia done, You've got the Cavendar twins. You
have Paige Beckers, who's a basketball player at Yukon. You
have the O'Neill brothers, Shaquille O'Neil sons. One just went
to the n f NBA. But those guys have crushed it.
And Bryce Young and c J. Stroud, the quarterbacks Bryce
at Alabama and c J Ohio State are crushing it. Two.
(11:25):
So these are just some of the names. What's interesting
to me is we have no way to verify it.
But the rule that success forgets success is gonna come
into play, right Because if you here, oh my god,
I've never heard of this athlete, or I've heard of
this athlete and I hear they're making six million dollars
a year as a brand, you're gonna say, well, I
(11:47):
gotta get in on that. I mean, I can't miss
that train. So whether or not it's true how much
someone is making, it's awesome pr and it probably will
generate that amount of money. What I'm waiting to see
is the athlete that we none of us have really
heard of that just bursts onto the scene in some
you know, giant donor just pours in ten million dollars
(12:10):
and gives it to some athletes that's totally off the radar. Yeah, look,
it's coming, and it's coming every day. Because let's use
female athletes for an example. There are so many female
athletes a who are crushing it in their sport, but
they're crushing it off the field or court because they're
they're very marketable. They do a great job presenting what
(12:31):
they care about there. They're usually more talkative, they're usually
a little more outgoing in some cases. Right, and the
Cavendar Twins who we may talk about later, are young
ladies that are crushing it. Yeah. Well, on Sports Science,
as you know, we had on the World's Greatest Athletes.
(12:52):
They all came on the show and it was it
was really quite an honor to be working with that group.
Now that's a group that was either already up on
the pedestal Hall of Famers All Stars or they were
clearly on the rise in the n i L space. Well,
(13:12):
we're looking for on this show. The n i L House,
the epicenter of everything. N I L are the people
that we think are making an impact right now. Yeah,
So what we're gonna see right this is kind of
like sports Science Sports Science in that you had the
world's greatest athletes and it was in their best interests
(13:34):
to show up and be on a sports science segment
because that created amazing content for them. It created a
viral moment for them. We're gonna do the same with
the top n i L athletes. We're gonna bring them
in and they're gonna have the same kind of moment.
All right, I want you to put your chair atte Courtney,
go to some kind of graphic because we're gonna be
(13:56):
bringing on our first guest, Um and we're gonn they
chew it up. I want to play a little bit
of the band. Let's get a little bit of band action,
and then we're gonna bring on our first guest. All right, Rob,
(14:20):
it is time for our first debut guest on the
n I L House, Who do yacht John, that's been
coming for a while. We got an incredible dynamic duo,
Haley and Hannah Cavender, the University of Miami basketball players.
They're gonna be amazing. All right, let's bring them on,
(14:41):
put them up on the screen. Hey, how are you
guys doing? What's up? We're doing good? Thank you for
having Thank you awesome. So where are you joining us from?
Right this second, we're live from Coral Gables in our apartment.
So all right, it's for be awesome. Now, you guys
(15:02):
really have blazed a trail in the n I L space.
I mean, if we go back to COVID, you guys
are playing at Fresnes State, you're making the synchronized dribbling
video that it goes crazy viral. And then in the
n C double A allows athletes to monetize their name,
(15:24):
image and likeness. And that's on June, and then on
July one, you guys pen your very first deal. Talk
to me about that journey where you went from being
just social media stars to genuine entrepreneurs, right. I think
we didn't know what to expect at first. We were
just doing TikTok for fun and something to do during
(15:46):
COVID and then we didn't know if the n c
A was gonna pass it, um, if we're gonna be
able to monetize off of the our social media accounts.
So when it did happen, it happened quick and I
think that we were just trying to learn as we go. Um,
but yeah, it's super exciting. And what brands were the
first ones to jump on board? Um? So we signed
(16:07):
first with Boost Mobile and then we did six Star
Nutrition and Go Buffs R. So those were the first
three that we did that we were just so it
was like it was just mind blowing to us because
we were just like, this is crazy. You wanted for
being starving athletes, right right? So crazy, I mean you're
(16:28):
starving athletes and then all of a sudden you're making
more money than most people ever make on an annual basis.
I mean, it's gotta it's you've got to just be like,
oh my god, what is happening? And this is just
the beginning for you guys. Yeah, definitely all happened very quickly,
but um, just taking a day by day, but it's
(16:48):
been very exciting. It's awesome. So I want to know
how has life changed now that you were already social
media stars in famous for certain, but you're now famous
on a different level. You now are actual entrepreneurs, athletes,
(17:08):
and really role models for everything else that's to come
behind you. I mean, all these young girls who aren't
even in college yet are looking at you saying, how
are they doing this? Right? I think, Um, in terms
of life changing, I think it's definitely gone a lot busier. Yeah,
for sure, Um, but just making sure you have like
the right people in your corner healing and I's like
(17:30):
developed a very good team that we trust, um, realing
on our family a lot. But I think just scheduling. Um,
we're huge planners, huge calendar girls. Like we write everything out.
We've got to know what's going on. So I mean
that helps us tremendously as well. But um, yeah, Ben
a student athlete on top of doing n I L
is definitely I'm a full time gig so um, we
didn't want any other way. But it's definitely way busier now. Wow.
(17:56):
So the calendar girls are huge calendar girls. I like
it so help us. Yeah, A very much a good
ring to it. You go from California to sunny Miami.
You're in the beach for all intents and purposes. How
do you balance life? Family, friends, business? All school tell
(18:21):
us about that, right, I think just having the right priorities. Um,
you know, you have to keep your core values and
you know who you prioritize and who you want to
talk to. You keeps you on yourself with and me
and are very big on that, like she said, relationships,
So just keeping that um always. And I think pulling
each other accountable as well, Like we're in this together,
so like learning as we go. Um, the dews and
(18:42):
downs of this whole annial journey is all new to usatives.
So I think having Hannah and holding each their accountable
and keeping the right parties is something to focus on.
On social media, there's definitely a science to it, but
more importantly, there's an art to it. What are you
finding that people respond to the most? I think the twins,
(19:10):
but talking like people just love that we're twins. I
swear like that's the most. Um, I think all I
answer like yeah, I think like being a twin helps
Hannon I a lot so now and being a twin,
do you guys finish each other's sentences? Do you have
the same dreams? Like, is any of that stuff true? Um? No, Okay,
(19:30):
I'm not even gonna lie, Like sometimes I wouldn't say
definitely finishing each other's sentences for sure, Um, dreams No,
But sometimes I'll like ask this just happened the other day.
We went into the training room and we weren't in
the same room together. So Haley walks in and asked
my trainer a question. And then I walk in like
literally two minutes later and asked the same question. And
(19:52):
my trainer was like, what just asked me that? Like,
it's just like little things like that that I think
our minds definitely think alike. So you guys are like
a real life version of Groundhog Day. Yeah, that's awesome.
What do you think's coming up for you guys? Like?
What what kind of sneak peek can you give us? Uh?
(20:14):
For what you're gonna be releasing or brands that you
may or may not be working with? What's ahead? Okay? Um,
we can't talk a little lot. I would give a
hand with caffeine water and that we like to talk.
Oh let's see now, my alloted am I allow to
try to decode what they're talking about little game show. Yeah, yeah,
(20:40):
all right, so the game show. I'm gonna say something
about caffeine. So there's an energy drink involved. Um in
my opinion, I mean doubt it's caffeine gum, So it's
probably an energy drink. Uh, it's something about talking. So
if it's talking, it's gonna be a podcast, a radio show,
a television show, something where you guys are just free
(21:01):
and open and talk, probably with some giant conglomerate, because
if you're just gonna do it on a social media account,
you wouldn't be saying anything is different. So I'm gonna guess,
and I have no insider knowledge. I don't know anything.
You've got a major sponsor with an energy drink and
there's some kind of massive national show that's coming out.
That's my guess. Okay, it's pretty good. I've been doing
(21:28):
this one. You're in the game game. I love it.
One of the things that I love to emphasize is
how important it is for young girls to be given
a shot to compete at the highest level right out
of the gate. So if you're five or six or seven,
(21:51):
I feel like boys and girls should be playing together
because it really brings out the best in everyone in
girls quite honestly developed faster than men than than boys,
so it seems like we should be blending people earlier
to play to get the best out of everyone. What
do you guys think? I like that. I think growing up,
(22:14):
Hanna and I always were playing sports. We were on
the boys basketball team or Y and C a team
with boys. We were the only girls, but we were
playing the boys, and I think that helped us a
lot um So, I mean, I'm all four it. I
think that girls can hang with guys, So yeah, especially
growing up too, and like being able to. Obviously boys
are faster and stronger, and if you can compete with
them and then go play firs girls like you're already
(22:36):
going to be at a higher level. So I think
that's a good idea. Honestly, I haven't really I thought
too much into it, but my dad he put us
in we were we were boys team, so that's awesome.
I did a ted talk actually about boys and girls
playing sports together at a young age to bring out
the best of everybody. And actually a massive supporter of
it is the late great Kobe Bryant. Kobe was like, look,
(22:59):
I think somebody like Maya Moore could play in the NBA.
Might not be Maya Moore specifically, but the Maya Moore
type bringing up the ball, being able to dish, being
able to hit you know, jumpers, like just as higher
percentage as anybody else. Just seems like you perhaps our lifetime,
do you think we will see a crossover athlete, a
(23:21):
woman playing with the men in the NBA. I haven't
thought much about it, but I think that it could happen,
and it could be potential thing, and I think that'd
be really really cool for the world to see, especially
young girls in our generation growing up. So I think
that's a great idea. I think, like going off where
he said, maybe if there was like a there's a
(23:42):
woman's NBA and an NBA, but then there's another league
or something like that could like you would come together
and play for fun at first and see like how
it would look before like diving right into like professional
I mean that's just kind of mine. Yeah. Now, you
guys on the track to go to the w n
b A, are you looking elsewhere because you're I mean,
you have a lot of options ahead of you. Yeah. Um,
(24:05):
I personally, Hannah, I'm an agree, but I personally don't
don't see that in my near future. I definitely have
passions outside of basketball that I um want to explore.
So yeah, I think that Hannah and I are definitely
looking to continue to run our business and create other
things down the road. So I'm not gonna post anything,
(24:26):
but I just think taking a day by day and
seeing where I'll leads us. Wow, it's a rob What
do you got for them to close it out? I'm
just still enamored by this whole idea of your personalities
being kind of different while you're a package deal. Right, So, Hannah,
you walk into a room and you're sizing up that room,
(24:49):
and you're gonna deliver politically correct speech. You're gonna you're
gonna get everybody happy, You're gonna you're gonna get people smiling,
and Haley, you're just gonna shoot straight. Y'all remind me
of my wife and I I'm more like Hanna. My
wife is more like Haley. How does that work? No?
You confuse this? You confused? This is more like the
(25:10):
people pleaser, gonna like try to like scale the room out.
I'm more of just like you know, it is, what
kind of it is take me as I am, or
you don't like me. It's fine, like like Hailey's more
of like, Okay, let's make sure everything's going straight. So
the beauty of me confusing that is maybe you try
it out and you flipped in the script and you
(25:31):
go to an event and y'all are flipping the script.
Try it. I'd love to see what happens that would
get me out of my comfort zone. That's exactly what
I should do. Like, it's a good balance. It's a
good balance. Do you want to know? The good news
is that Rob I'm sure is the only one to
ever mix up you guys and call one the other.
I mean, I'm sure it never happens. Yeah, where to go, Rob,
(25:54):
I've been working. I've been working this whole time to
get the Green and Hannah Green fan of Green. I
love it. Uh. Well, guys, listen, I cannot thank you
enough for joining us. Um you guys are incredible and
your real inspiration. You know, we're all gonna look back,
(26:15):
you know, on this date and time, and you know,
five years from now, we're gonna say, well, who was
really spearheading the way? And you guys are right at
the front. Of the class. Congratulations to your success and honestly,
I cannot wait to see where things go from here.
Thank you so much for having us. Thank you, you
have two new fans. We're gonna be watching you and
(26:36):
Miami basketball this season. Absolutely all right, thank you, James. Wow,
those girls are impressive. Gives me hope for the future.
Everyone's saying this generation, this generation, these girls have made
a million dollars at the time, the twenty one h
two Hannah and Haley, It's Ada and Haley show. They
(26:58):
are impressive. I'm with you, man, I love it all right,
So let's move on throwing her graphic Courtney. I like
the segment. It's called the inside Scoop. Here's what we got,
Here's what I got, free, Rob, tell me what you
got John Penn State is coming out of the shoot.
(27:20):
They're collective run by Snail and Jason Belzer, success with honors,
leading the way in media. And what do I mean
by that, Rob, Well, here's what's interesting. I think there
is a bit of a silver bullet here because if
you think about what a collective exists to do, they
exist to serve the student athletes. How do they serve
(27:41):
the student athlete. They helped the student athlete with and
ill her name, image and likeness deals. Well, how do
they do that? They do it by bringing together alumni, donors, brands,
and fans and that group has to find a way
to come together to deliver the ingredients for the meal,
to deliver the dough. Well, the fan engagement's critical, John,
(28:04):
So tell us why it inside scoop fan engagement and
what we're doing is so important. Well, there happens to
be a trailblazing company called Brinks TV founded by Yours
truly and yours truly. Um. It's the ultimate convergence of
content and commerce. And what we have found is that
(28:25):
the n I L space really is the wild wild West.
And in terms of bringing value to the fan, you
gotta have a killer media property. Brinks TV allows broadcast
level programming to also be interactive without leaving the screen,
(28:46):
So you have predictive gaming. You have the ability to
sell via retail. UH, we can create n f T s,
we can have trivia questions, we can auction items. It's
incredible and Pen State success with honor is the first
one out of the gate. And not only Penn State,
we also have the University of Arkansas. They're doing a
(29:09):
killer halftime show, pushing people to subscribe to their content
app hogs Hoggs Plus, and that show is amazing. You've
got legendary quarterback Clint Starter, right, you got kJ She's awesome.
That thing is amazing. Watching Sam Pittman throw the beam bag,
(29:30):
the cornhole bag, cornhole bag, cornhole cornhole bag. Watching Sam
Pittman throw it and predict how many points he's gonna
score from prizes, that's killer. It is killer. And you
know they had Darren McFadden, Felix Jones, guys that are
legends from the University of Arkansas on the show. Adding
(29:50):
value to the actual experience. I mean, the halftime show
used to be something you get up and you go
to the bathroom. No more. Well, the fan is looking
for inside tact content and access and willing to pay
something to do that. But you've got to bring value
and that's what University of Arkansas and success with Honor
doing absolutely. All Right, well, listen, we're gonna tee up
(30:13):
our next interview. I don't know how we outdo the
Caveners wins, but there's a really interesting thing going on
at the Ohio states. The what is it? It is
the Foundation, So that collective which was co founded by
Cardale Jones and Brian Schottenstein. Brian's got a real estate business,
(30:35):
the Shottenstein Real Estate Group, where he's the CEO and president.
Cardale the legendary quarterback that we talked about earlier who
came into that game and against Alabama and while up
helping the Buckeyes win the national championship in two thousand
and fourteen. Those guys are crushing it with the Foundation.
They're helping a bunch of athletes. They're doing a bunch
of live events. It's a charitable approach where they're doing
(30:56):
it and helping athletes exposed charities they care about. All right, Courtney,
let's uh bring on some kind of graphic wipe and
let's let's get this interview rolling. Let's go, I Rob,
this debut episode has been incredible so far. I know
(31:19):
that we need to raise the bar. Who do we
have as our next guests from the great state of Ohio,
from the great Shottenstein family. We have Brian Schottenstein, who
recently founded the Foundation, the collective that helps the Ohio
State University. Brian founded it with Cardiel, Joe, what's up
(31:41):
are you doing? We are doing absolutely amazing. How are
you doing? Do you ever have to correct the foundation
like the Ohio State University V Yeah, I always have
to make sure it's the it's the Ohio State, not
the Miami. Is the EU, right or the you It's
(32:02):
the not the from Miami, but U v A is
the university. That's that's my alma mater. So Brian, Brian
has some you and them some the Ohio State University
and them that yes, Miami is my alma mater. But
I'm definitely a guy. All Right. That's awesome. So listen,
this n I L space has just exploded and it
(32:25):
is truly the wild wild West. The Foundation is uniquely
positioned in the market to really not only benefit players,
but also charities talk to us about the mission that
the Foundation is on. So we just launched with our
five oh ones three just this past April, so we're
(32:47):
barely new what we've done a lot in such a
short period of time. We have three charity partners um
I could again like town and okay please for cancer.
So the two of them are based around kids. The
kid again helps with um kids with ternal illnesses. Lifetown
helps give life skills to kids UM who maybe don't
(33:08):
get that in their schooling. And for Cancer is for
obviously for cancer patients and cancer research. So we have
three charities we've teamed up with. We've done deals with
twenty student athletes at Ohio State, which is the most
of any collective in Ohio. UM. We're helping out a lot,
you know, attract quality student athletes, are brand is known
(33:29):
nationally UM, which is great, and we were the first
collective to receive our five oh one S three UM
earlier earlier this year, So we're really excited about everything
that's going on. And we've raised a lot of money
helping out the student athletes. And then it's not just
about paying them money to go play well in the field.
They're learning a lot about giving back to the community.
(33:50):
They're learning about financing, branding UM and really understanding what's
like to be a person after college, whether it's an
NFL or just in the real business world. So I
love it, Brian, there's a lot of value to that.
I've always appreciated the full athlete, the athlete that is philanthropic,
the athlete that is business minded, the athlete that civic minded,
(34:10):
the athlete that is education minded, and of course athletically minded.
I've read a lot about what you're doing to get
into Florida. Tell us a little bit about the expansion
of the foundation and how you see that going with
Florida and other states. Well, even though o high states
in Columbus, Ohio, like, we have a brand that goes
(34:32):
nationwide and maybe really internationally. So the first UM location
we targeted is Florida. UM. For myself, you know, I
have a lot of contacts down in South Florida, and
we got a large endowment of a hundred thousands of
dollars a year to have this office in Florida, So
we wanted to help focus on gaining you know, student
(34:53):
athletes from the that location, but also attracting alumni and
boosters to help UM you know fund our five out
one seed three to continue to be a big national brand.
So Florida was the first state we chose. We're gonna
have an annual event there in the winter time after
the season UM and then we're also looking to expand
(35:14):
into Texas, Georgia, California as well. So we're going to
see how this the state goes and then go from there. Bro,
what do you think n I L is gonna be
like six months from now. I mean, it's evolving so
quickly in front of our eyes. So I actually testified
at the Ohio State House in favor of n I
(35:37):
L when it got approved by the state because it
just makes sense. Like, if a business student can start
their own business and make money off of it in college,
why can't a student athlete make money off of their skill?
So it makes sense. But I also think I thinks
there needs to be some sort of guidelines from the
n c A when it comes to recruiting, because there's
(35:57):
a lot of like paper play and a lot of
bad stories that you hear. I don't know if they're
true or not. I don't want to call any specific schools,
but like, I really think it should be for student
athletes once they're in college, once they've already committed, they're enrolled,
they know where they're at, then you can go ahead
and you can do a fair market deal with them.
I mean we're talking to recruits now. We tell them
(36:19):
about the foundation, we tell them about High State and
all the great opportunities they have if they become a
bug guy. But I'm not doing any deals with them
until they are officially a bug guy, just to make that,
you know, sure that everything we do is above board.
That's the only issue I see with n I L.
Everything else I'm totally for. I think it's really going great. Yeah,
it's gonna be interesting. To John's point about six months
(36:41):
from now, every day you see a new state that's
entertaining bringing n I L to high school athletics. Here
in the state of Georgia, a really big football state,
and our neighboring state of Florida. Both of those states
have avoided unlike said California have avoided and I for
high school kids. It's got to be coming though. And
(37:03):
how do you think the high school thing affects the
college and I our world once that comes to full fruition. Well,
I'm actually against that now that I've really been involved
with this UM because I really think, uh, high school
sent athletes should make a decision of what college are
(37:24):
going to based on that school an opportunity and to
get with education UM opportunity and to get you know,
in football of coaching and really building themselves to the NFL.
I don't think they should be making decision based on money,
you know, I think in order to keep it even
playing field, I think it should be based on other reasons.
Then once they get there, I don't they can make
(37:45):
you know, millions of dollars a year, but I think
that decision should not have money involved in it, to
be honest, Yeah, it will be really interesting to see
how you know n I L governs itself. Um, you know,
like you saying that. Look, I think that soon athletes
should be able to uh capitalize on the fact that
the universities are making a lot of money off of them.
You know, they're free to be entrepreneurs as well. You know,
(38:07):
I've always thought that somebody could get a music scholarship
and they're allowed to put out an album outside of
the university. They can post it anywhere, they can make
as much money as they want, they can play weddings,
you know, whatever they want to do. And that was
never frowned upon. And the fact that it took us
this long to get to this point, um at the
n C double a level for athletes to arguably bring
(38:29):
schools the most amount of money just seems uh, it
seems odd it took this long. But I totally agree
with you that you do need to draw a line
at you know, before uh college because if you go
down to the high school level, eventually we're gonna be
down at the you know, pre K level, Like it
will just be a snowball going down, right, And like
(38:50):
a lot of these kids they don't understand, you know,
you know, their parents are so young, like they really
need to be looking at the contract um at sixteen
years old, like they should just be focusing on education
and getting to the best school. And if you and
if you know this does become where all the high
schools UH states can be students can be paid, you
(39:11):
know what's gonna happen in the smaller schools like you know,
Cincinnati and and dating, Like, who's ever gonna go there?
Because O high State's gonna have the most money, you know,
and they're gonna be able to to pay any any
high schools and athlete in Ohio. So it hurts the
smaller schools as well. So you know, there's a lot
of issues to that. But you know, all the positive note,
we've been doing everything right, and you know I've talked
(39:34):
to many you know, high school student athletes and told
them about you know, the foundation, and we raised a
lot of money. Um. We partnered up with many businesses,
their national brands like the Estabish, Value City, American Eagle,
and it's you know, it's it's really exciting time and
I'm happy to be involved with it, not making anything,
just you know, giving back because I care so much
about High State. The brand, the Ohio State brand is
(39:59):
so power powerful and it is international and global, certainly
national to places like Florida and Georgia and others. I
went to college in Ohio. I played football many moons
ago at a little school called Wittenberg and Springfield, Ohio,
and I'll never forget I was a kicker lining up
to kick off. They blew the whistle. It was a
(40:24):
dull moment. The announcer said, well, from Columbus the Buckeyes
thirty seven and Michigan State six. And the place erupted.
Our stadium erupted. Didn't erupt when we scored a touchdown.
They erupted when they heard that Ohio State scored a touchdown.
And the point I'm trying to make is the fan
base is rapid. The fan base loves the Buckeyes. How
(40:47):
are you capitalizing on that fandom, that connection with the fans,
the connection with alumni to grow the foundation so that
you can have more donors and you can have more
people involved to help more athletes. Well, we have a
great board, um you know, Urban Meyers on our board,
Terry McLaurin, who's in the NFL, Washington De'ando Russell is UM,
(41:09):
an NBA player who was a star at the highest
date on the Timberwolves, Cardil Jones, j T. Barrett. So
we have that viral um organic growth. If you if you, UM,
I would say, we're not spending any marketing dollars. We
don't need to. Every time we do a post. It
just we can get millions of impressions on Twitter. And uh,
(41:30):
it's amazing to see bucking Nation really cares about you know,
highest state UM in particular football and basketball. And uh,
you know we have we have people thousands of donations
coming in from all over the country. So it was
really amazing to see how quick we were able to grow.
And like a day doesn't go by where I'm not
walking on the street and some random fan comes up
(41:52):
and thanks me for putting this together. Because it is
a lot of work. I mean, I actually have another
full time job, and it's a company that our family
owns and real estate development, been in business for over
forty years. But this is almost just as much work,
and I'm not you know, getting anything for other than
just you know, giving back and feeling good about what
(42:12):
we're doing for high state sports and also the charities
and the student athletes. So it's a lot of work,
but it's also fulfilling when you when you do something
that you're passionate about, it doesn't really become work. That's awesome. Well,
Brian listen, I cannot thank you enough for joining us
on the debut episode of the n I L House.
One last question before we let you go, if there
(42:33):
is one thing that you can really message to athletes,
to student athletes specifically regarding the n I L space,
you and your family have just been total entrepreneurial trail blazers.
What is it that you want a student athlete to
take away? I would say, honestly, Um, when you're in college,
(42:59):
don't don't don't start looking forward so much to what's next.
Focus on and now, because when you're a student athlete, UM,
you can really start building your brand, you know, right
in college you can sell clothing. You can make a
lot of money off of your brand built. You know,
focus so much on the NFL. Focus on building your
brand UM, having the right people around you to to
(43:21):
build that brand, and not people that just want, you know,
a percentage of your check or or whatever. People that
really care about you and your brand. That's that's the
advice I would give. Awesome, Well, Brian, thank you so
much for joining us, and I we hope, I mean,
we wish you nothing but the best. The Ohio state
is amazing and the Foundation uh is probably gonna set
(43:43):
the stage for a whole lot of other UM collectives
to come on the Nile space, especially to help charities
that really. Thank you for being such a trailblizer. Thanks.
In our website is the Foundation Ohio dot com. And
I always have to end by saying go bucks tops
Really all right, thanks so much. Thanks. I think the
(44:05):
Foundation is onto something. Yeah, those guys have something special cooking.
They're moving to Florida, They're doing some stuff down there.
I think they're gonna go Nation one. Be interesting to
see how it evolves. Go to our last segment here,
This could be my favorite segment. We sat around and
we said, how are we going to format this show? Um?
(44:27):
From the millions of submissions that we had, I think
it was one point six million, two point six million
submissions for Mascot of the week. Guess who one week one?
Just guess I at a two point six million. If
I knew I would play the lottery, I thought, well,
let me just tell you a ready, watch this Courtney,
(44:50):
bring on the n I L House Mascot of the week.
That's my dog Zaplin. Look at her. That is a model.
Wait a second, I want to where are the judges
and where are the two point six million submissions? I
want to personally approve this. Well, listen. The judge of
(45:13):
Mascot of the Week is John Breaks. There is no
better name on the planet for a pet than z
B Zeppelin zep Zeppelin Break is known as Zeppi. The
Mascot of the Week is brought to us by our
good friends at Brutus Bone Broth. In yes, that is
a plug because brutus bone broth extends the age of
(45:35):
your dog. Zeppelin is an avid Brutus bone Broth consumer.
Consumer is look at how healthy she is, She's beautiful,
her coat is amazing, her bone her bone situations. But
I mean I need I need her bones situation. But
(45:57):
the bone situation is amazing. So listen, please support our sponsors.
Go to Brutus Broth dot com and get yourself some
Brutus bone broth or go to Target, go to Petco.
Our mask out of the Week Zeppelin Brink is. I
couldn't be more proud. So Rob Closing thought, yeah, this look,
(46:19):
this first episode was epic. We had the Cavendar Twins,
we had the the Shottenstein Cardale Jones duo from the Foundation,
and I think we had a lot of fun. I
hope you do too, I hope. So all right, um,
everybody tune in next week for episode two of the
n I Lhouse, the epicenter for everything. And I have
(46:43):
a big week that to do.