July 23, 2024 • 14 mins
Dive into the dynamic world of college sports with our latest episode. In this thought-provoking session, Criag unravels the complexities of athletic recruitment, the strategic moves beyond state lines, and the unifying efforts of conferences in the face of legal challenges. Join us as we dissect the SEC’s banner of unity, the Big 12’s expansion, and the ACC’s legal skirmishes with Florida State and Clemson.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Checking the text line. We hadsomebody asked the question, will Greg Tepper
be a weekly guest again this year? It's must listen for me. Yes,
he will be. He was onwith us. I guess, well,
what was in conjunction with the releaseof the magazine. It was like
about a week and a half agohe was he was on with us.
(00:21):
But yes, he will be aregular weekly guest. In fact, I
think we're due to visit with himagain this week, but once we get
into the season, he'll be onwith us every week. So yes,
and obviously you'll talk high school footballsince he's the editor in chief, but
also college football is well. Wehad him on to talk a little bit
about the differences in the magazine thisyear and how they had to add an
(00:46):
Atlantic Coast Conference preview because SMU isin the ACC now. And today,
by the way, it was SMU'sday at the ACCU. I think,
what do they call it? Justthe ACC cough? I think it is.
Yeah, it's their media days andit's in Charlotte, and today was
SMU's day and rhet lash he wasthe coach is the coach, and he
(01:11):
was discussing how they're ready for itthey're ready to go in And he was
one of the obviously one of thethirteen Division one FBS college coaches in the
state of Texas who participated in thatpanel discussion a couple of days ago on
Sunday in San Antonio at Coaching School, and I moderated that event and also
(01:33):
at Craig Bowle, the former Wyomingcoach who is the new executive director of
the AFCA. And we had allfourteen of those guys on stage, including
Sark, including Mike Elco at Texas, A and M including Joey McGuire Texas,
Deck Dave I Rant Baylor, SunnyDykes of TCU, Eric Morris of
North Texas, GJ. Kenney atTexas State, Scottie Walden, the new
(01:56):
coach at UTEP, Mike Bloomgrim thehead coach at Rice, Willie Fritz the
new head coach at Houston. Wehad every single Division one FBS coach up
on the panel, and that includedRhet Lashly, and he said that,
you know, he said they're ready. He was addressing the question about dealing
(02:16):
with dealing with NIL and transfer portal, and he was pretty confident saying,
you know, even though just likeall the other coaches, and this discussion
started with sark talking about the importanceof maintaining the identity with and connection to
(02:40):
high school coaches in the state ofTexas. And of course, obviously all
the college coach is going to saythat when you have a room full of
nine hundred high school coaches, butit is true because that still needs to
be the life blood, whereas thenil or excuse me, where the transfer
portal is. They're in putting playersin, filling some gaps, and I
(03:00):
think and Rhet Lashley talked about that, and Sartin did as well. He
said that it was a SoundBite weplayed yesterday from there where he said,
you know, in a perfect world, we'd love to be able to get
all of our scholarship players in fromthe state of Texas. But that's not
(03:22):
the reality for several reasons. One, not every college high school student athlete
is be a shock to some people, but not every high school student athlete
wants to play at the University ofTexas. There's some who want to play
in different places, and that's allwell and good, and there might be
a certain need that they need tofill that of the available student athlete recruits
(03:51):
who could and would commit to Texasmight might not be able to fill that
particular need. So, as Sartalso added, he said, our responsibilities
the University of Texas put the bestfootball team on the field as possible,
and if that means going beyond theborders of the lone Star state, then
they have to do that sometimes.And obviously they've got some key contributors from
(04:15):
beyond the boundaries of the lone Starstate when you think of a guy like
CJ. Baxter or you know otherguys who are you know, big time
recruits who are at Texas as well. So the coaches all talked about that,
but there was unanimity among them,and there was unanimity last week in
(04:39):
the Southeastern Conferences SEC media days whenwe were in Dallas for that. So
there was unanimity on that. Everybodyseemed to be on the same page of
building the SEC up. What wasit the sign said camp they had the
big banning up something like sixteen strongsomething. There was we know about the
(05:00):
it just means more bannered. Thatwas up. But there was another one
It said something like that now sixteenmore sixteen strong, sal sixteen strong or
whatever it was. The point isis that they were all on the same
page and trying to build up theconference. And you'll hear that, like
say, in the Big Ten,you'll hear that, You'll hear it in
(05:25):
the Big twelve. There are big, big battle cries going up of how
they're all together. Whereas the SEC'sdeal was, it just means more.
Of the Big Twelve is of we'rebigger than twelve or something like that.
We've always been bigger than twelve orsomething like that. That's their big logo
(05:47):
now, is something like we're biggerthan twelve or something like that for the
Big twelve, And of course itis in terms of the size of the
league since they now have sixteen.Texas and Oklahoma went twelve. Beyond Borders
also there's that, yeah, andthey have an initiative with the beyond Borders
thing as well. In their TVspots they said, we've always been bigger
(06:11):
than twelve. Well, no,you had ten for a long time.
It wasn't always, but at leastnot a number. But now with the
addition with Texas and Oklahoma pulling out, but with the additions of Colorado,
Utah, Arizona and Arizona State nowthey sit at sixteen. The point is
(06:38):
is that there's this unanimity among thesePower five conferences, all except one.
It's getting nasty in the Atlantic CoastConference, getting pretty nasty in the ACC.
The nastiness surrounds what's going on withFlorida State and Clemson. They're wanting
(06:59):
out or they're wanting release from thegrant of rights, which A plus B
equals C. If they want releaseof the grant of rights, that means
they want out. They want toexplore where they can make more money and
go to another league. The SEChas really not shown any interest in having
those schools. The Big Ten reallyisn't showing interest. It would appear that
(07:19):
their target would be the Big Twelveif they were going to go there.
So they've been trying to sue toget out of out of the grant of
rights, which would then allow themat that point to leave whenever they wanted
to leave to go. The ACChas countersuit and they pretty much said,
hey, leave whenever you want,but you're going to be stuck for the
(07:42):
Grand of Rights. All the wayto twenty thirty six, and things got
pretty interesting with the Commissioner of theAtlantic Coast Conference. Jim Phillips, who
had been very deferential and very Idon't know, you might say methodical politically,
(08:07):
you know, is trying to benice. Well, he's kind of
taking the gloves off now. Soyesterday, on the first day of media
days, he the gloves came offand he went full on and talking about
how they intend to fight to upholdthat rights agreement, whether Florida State and
Clemson decided to stay in the leagueor lead leave the league. He is
(08:30):
quote, every member of this conferencewillingly signed the grant of rights and quite
frankly eagerly agreed to this television contract. Either you believe in what's been signed
or you don't. This conference isbigger than anyone school or schools, so
the particulars are Florida State and Clemson. It's financially motivated, of course.
(08:54):
According to recent tax filings, theACC distributed a record average of forty five
million dollars per school in twenty twentytwo to twenty twenty three, most of
which stems from the ACC's current televisiondeal with ESPN, but that figure still
was well off the annual distributions forboth the Big Ten at sixty million and
(09:18):
the SEC at fifty one million,so it was still behind it, and
with the recent conference alignment realignment movesfinally taken effect this year, namely Oklahoma,
Texas joining the SEC and USC,Ucla, Oregon, and Washington joining
the Big Ten, that revenue disparityit figures to just grow wider with these
(09:43):
new lucrative television contracts for the BigTen and the SEC when they begin to
take full effect. The ACC's grantof rights mean while locks the league into
this present deal through the year asI just mentioned, twenty thirty six,
and even the ACC's third place finishamong average which conference distributions isn't quite safe
because the Big Twelve, which distributedan average of forty four million per school
(10:07):
in twenty twenty two to twenty twentythree, is adding Arizona, Arizona State,
Colorado, Utah for the coming athleticheere So this growing revenue gap is
kind of at the crux of whatthe ACC's last two national championship winning programs
in football, Florida State and Clemsonare arguing in court that the financial disadvantage
(10:28):
of remaining in the ACC will inthe immediate future become prohibitive to competing at
the highest level of the sports.Well, Phillips took that head on yesterday.
He said, quote, we willfight to protect the ACC and our
members for as long as it takes. These disputes continue to be extremely damaging,
disruptive, and incredibly harmful to theleague. The ACC deserves better.
(10:52):
He also, and this is wherethings really kind of got kind of sticky.
He also defended the four commissioner,John Swafford. John Swafford was really
an ACC lifer. He had beenan athletic director at North Carolina when Mac
Brown was there and then became commissionedto the ACC. But he had been
(11:13):
criticized for quite a bit for thiscurrent television deal. And here's why they'd
had this deal, he said,this TV deal, according to Phillips,
he said, it doesn't have tobe evil, it doesn't have to be
that. But he was. Hewas heavily criticized for doing the deal that
he did because back when it wasdone, Raycon was still alive and his
(11:37):
son was working for Raycon two.So he got a lot of he got
a lot of criticism over all that. But in addition to discussing these ongoing
suits, two of which are takingplace in North Carolina, one in Florida,
one in South Carolina. Phillips wasasked about options the league has to
explore to close the revenue gap,especially two potential routes that other conferences are
(12:00):
investigating, and you've heard them bynow selling the naming rights to the league
and allowing private equity firms to providesome push financially now. Phillips decline to
provide specifics of conversation he's had withother a SEC officials, but he didn't
deny that everything is on the table. He said, I wouldn't be doing
my job if we aren't exploring everyarea that's available. I would just say
(12:24):
we're looking, and we've continued tolook at all options as it relates to
revenue. That sounds very similar towhat Brett Yormark was talking about at Big
twelve Media Day. So these discussionstake place on top of the league introducing
a success initiative in the coming athletichere. That's the first time for a
power conference to do this with unequalrevenue distributions, meaning the more success you
(12:50):
have, more money you're going tomake. Phillips confirmed the schools could earn
up to twenty to twenty five millionbased on exceptional performance including coll Let's football
playoff appearances, participation in bowl games, top twenty five finishes, and making
and advancing in the NCAA basketball tournament. He said that was something we wanted
(13:11):
to do. I felt like weneeded to do. As we walk through
it, it will reward the teamsthat have the most success. It's not
an absolute correlation, but those thatinvest more have a higher chance to have
success. So they're going to goto this unequal revenue distribution model. The
SEC is vehemently opposed to that andsaid, nope, you're going to You
(13:31):
know, we're all for one andone for all. And we're hearing the
Big twelve safe similar things, andwe're hearing in the Big En say similar
things as well. So this isgoing to be really interesting to follow to
see how this fight continues to goon between Florida State and Clemson and the
ACC. You hear a lot ofvitriol coming from Florida State and Clemson.
(13:54):
You hear a lot of confidence comingfrom the ACC going we've got an Ironclan
deal. They can't out of thedeal. Now, the other side of
that is we're hearing that there's enoughprivate equity firms willing to invest in Florida
State and Clemson to help them buytheir way out of this deal. We're
(14:16):
talking to hundreds of millions of dollarshere and that they're willing to do.
We've already seen rolling this all theway back. As I'm bringing it full
circle SMU. SMU is joined inthe ACC and SMU is not getting any
any TV money for a decade becausethey've got enough in endowments and in their
boosters to say we got this,we just want in, we want in
(14:39):
the ACC. That's mind boggling toconsider, but that's SMU's route going on
that all right, We've got moreto get to. We'll do that when
we continue on Sports Radio AM thirteenunder the zone of the iHeart Radio app.
Checking the text line. We hadsomebody asked the question, will Greg Tepper
be a weekly guest again this year? It's must listen for me. Yes,
he will be. He was onwith us. I guess, well,
what was in conjunction with the releaseof the magazine. It was like
about a week and a half agohe was he was on with us.
(00:21):
But yes, he will be aregular weekly guest. In fact, I
think we're due to visit with himagain this week, but once we get
into the season, he'll be onwith us every week. So yes,
and obviously you'll talk high school footballsince he's the editor in chief, but
also college football is well. Wehad him on to talk a little bit
about the differences in the magazine thisyear and how they had to add an
(00:46):
Atlantic Coast Conference preview because SMU isin the ACC now. And today,
by the way, it was SMU'sday at the ACCU. I think,
what do they call it? Justthe ACC cough? I think it is.
Yeah, it's their media days andit's in Charlotte, and today was
SMU's day and rhet lash he wasthe coach is the coach, and he
(01:11):
was discussing how they're ready for itthey're ready to go in And he was
one of the obviously one of thethirteen Division one FBS college coaches in the
state of Texas who participated in thatpanel discussion a couple of days ago on
Sunday in San Antonio at Coaching School, and I moderated that event and also
(01:33):
at Craig Bowle, the former Wyomingcoach who is the new executive director of
the AFCA. And we had allfourteen of those guys on stage, including
Sark, including Mike Elco at Texas, A and M including Joey McGuire Texas,
Deck Dave I Rant Baylor, SunnyDykes of TCU, Eric Morris of
North Texas, GJ. Kenney atTexas State, Scottie Walden, the new
(01:56):
coach at UTEP, Mike Bloomgrim thehead coach at Rice, Willie Fritz the
new head coach at Houston. Wehad every single Division one FBS coach up
on the panel, and that includedRhet Lashly, and he said that,
you know, he said they're ready. He was addressing the question about dealing
(02:16):
with dealing with NIL and transfer portal, and he was pretty confident saying,
you know, even though just likeall the other coaches, and this discussion
started with sark talking about the importanceof maintaining the identity with and connection to
(02:40):
high school coaches in the state ofTexas. And of course, obviously all
the college coach is going to saythat when you have a room full of
nine hundred high school coaches, butit is true because that still needs to
be the life blood, whereas thenil or excuse me, where the transfer
portal is. They're in putting playersin, filling some gaps, and I
(03:00):
think and Rhet Lashley talked about that, and Sartin did as well. He
said that it was a SoundBite weplayed yesterday from there where he said,
you know, in a perfect world, we'd love to be able to get
all of our scholarship players in fromthe state of Texas. But that's not
(03:22):
the reality for several reasons. One, not every college high school student athlete
is be a shock to some people, but not every high school student athlete
wants to play at the University ofTexas. There's some who want to play
in different places, and that's allwell and good, and there might be
a certain need that they need tofill that of the available student athlete recruits
(03:51):
who could and would commit to Texasmight might not be able to fill that
particular need. So, as Sartalso added, he said, our responsibilities
the University of Texas put the bestfootball team on the field as possible,
and if that means going beyond theborders of the lone Star state, then
they have to do that sometimes.And obviously they've got some key contributors from
(04:15):
beyond the boundaries of the lone Starstate when you think of a guy like
CJ. Baxter or you know otherguys who are you know, big time
recruits who are at Texas as well. So the coaches all talked about that,
but there was unanimity among them,and there was unanimity last week in
(04:39):
the Southeastern Conferences SEC media days whenwe were in Dallas for that. So
there was unanimity on that. Everybodyseemed to be on the same page of
building the SEC up. What wasit the sign said camp they had the
big banning up something like sixteen strongsomething. There was we know about the
(05:00):
it just means more bannered. Thatwas up. But there was another one
It said something like that now sixteenmore sixteen strong, sal sixteen strong or
whatever it was. The point isis that they were all on the same
page and trying to build up theconference. And you'll hear that, like
say, in the Big Ten,you'll hear that, You'll hear it in
(05:25):
the Big twelve. There are big, big battle cries going up of how
they're all together. Whereas the SEC'sdeal was, it just means more.
Of the Big Twelve is of we'rebigger than twelve or something like that.
We've always been bigger than twelve orsomething like that. That's their big logo
(05:47):
now, is something like we're biggerthan twelve or something like that for the
Big twelve, And of course itis in terms of the size of the
league since they now have sixteen.Texas and Oklahoma went twelve. Beyond Borders
also there's that, yeah, andthey have an initiative with the beyond Borders
thing as well. In their TVspots they said, we've always been bigger
(06:11):
than twelve. Well, no,you had ten for a long time.
It wasn't always, but at leastnot a number. But now with the
addition with Texas and Oklahoma pulling out, but with the additions of Colorado,
Utah, Arizona and Arizona State nowthey sit at sixteen. The point is
(06:38):
is that there's this unanimity among thesePower five conferences, all except one.
It's getting nasty in the Atlantic CoastConference, getting pretty nasty in the ACC.
The nastiness surrounds what's going on withFlorida State and Clemson. They're wanting
(06:59):
out or they're wanting release from thegrant of rights, which A plus B
equals C. If they want releaseof the grant of rights, that means
they want out. They want toexplore where they can make more money and
go to another league. The SEChas really not shown any interest in having
those schools. The Big Ten reallyisn't showing interest. It would appear that
(07:19):
their target would be the Big Twelveif they were going to go there.
So they've been trying to sue toget out of out of the grant of
rights, which would then allow themat that point to leave whenever they wanted
to leave to go. The ACChas countersuit and they pretty much said,
hey, leave whenever you want,but you're going to be stuck for the
(07:42):
Grand of Rights. All the wayto twenty thirty six, and things got
pretty interesting with the Commissioner of theAtlantic Coast Conference. Jim Phillips, who
had been very deferential and very Idon't know, you might say methodical politically,
(08:07):
you know, is trying to benice. Well, he's kind of
taking the gloves off now. Soyesterday, on the first day of media
days, he the gloves came offand he went full on and talking about
how they intend to fight to upholdthat rights agreement, whether Florida State and
Clemson decided to stay in the leagueor lead leave the league. He is
(08:30):
quote, every member of this conferencewillingly signed the grant of rights and quite
frankly eagerly agreed to this television contract. Either you believe in what's been signed
or you don't. This conference isbigger than anyone school or schools, so
the particulars are Florida State and Clemson. It's financially motivated, of course.
(08:54):
According to recent tax filings, theACC distributed a record average of forty five
million dollars per school in twenty twentytwo to twenty twenty three, most of
which stems from the ACC's current televisiondeal with ESPN, but that figure still
was well off the annual distributions forboth the Big Ten at sixty million and
(09:18):
the SEC at fifty one million,so it was still behind it, and
with the recent conference alignment realignment movesfinally taken effect this year, namely Oklahoma,
Texas joining the SEC and USC,Ucla, Oregon, and Washington joining
the Big Ten, that revenue disparityit figures to just grow wider with these
(09:43):
new lucrative television contracts for the BigTen and the SEC when they begin to
take full effect. The ACC's grantof rights mean while locks the league into
this present deal through the year asI just mentioned, twenty thirty six,
and even the ACC's third place finishamong average which conference distributions isn't quite safe
because the Big Twelve, which distributedan average of forty four million per school
(10:07):
in twenty twenty two to twenty twentythree, is adding Arizona, Arizona State,
Colorado, Utah for the coming athleticheere So this growing revenue gap is
kind of at the crux of whatthe ACC's last two national championship winning programs
in football, Florida State and Clemsonare arguing in court that the financial disadvantage
(10:28):
of remaining in the ACC will inthe immediate future become prohibitive to competing at
the highest level of the sports.Well, Phillips took that head on yesterday.
He said, quote, we willfight to protect the ACC and our
members for as long as it takes. These disputes continue to be extremely damaging,
disruptive, and incredibly harmful to theleague. The ACC deserves better.
(10:52):
He also, and this is wherethings really kind of got kind of sticky.
He also defended the four commissioner,John Swafford. John Swafford was really
an ACC lifer. He had beenan athletic director at North Carolina when Mac
Brown was there and then became commissionedto the ACC. But he had been
(11:13):
criticized for quite a bit for thiscurrent television deal. And here's why they'd
had this deal, he said,this TV deal, according to Phillips,
he said, it doesn't have tobe evil, it doesn't have to be
that. But he was. Hewas heavily criticized for doing the deal that
he did because back when it wasdone, Raycon was still alive and his
(11:37):
son was working for Raycon two.So he got a lot of he got
a lot of criticism over all that. But in addition to discussing these ongoing
suits, two of which are takingplace in North Carolina, one in Florida,
one in South Carolina. Phillips wasasked about options the league has to
explore to close the revenue gap,especially two potential routes that other conferences are
(12:00):
investigating, and you've heard them bynow selling the naming rights to the league
and allowing private equity firms to providesome push financially now. Phillips decline to
provide specifics of conversation he's had withother a SEC officials, but he didn't
deny that everything is on the table. He said, I wouldn't be doing
my job if we aren't exploring everyarea that's available. I would just say
(12:24):
we're looking, and we've continued tolook at all options as it relates to
revenue. That sounds very similar towhat Brett Yormark was talking about at Big
twelve Media Day. So these discussionstake place on top of the league introducing
a success initiative in the coming athletichere. That's the first time for a
power conference to do this with unequalrevenue distributions, meaning the more success you
(12:50):
have, more money you're going tomake. Phillips confirmed the schools could earn
up to twenty to twenty five millionbased on exceptional performance including coll Let's football
playoff appearances, participation in bowl games, top twenty five finishes, and making
and advancing in the NCAA basketball tournament. He said that was something we wanted
(13:11):
to do. I felt like weneeded to do. As we walk through
it, it will reward the teamsthat have the most success. It's not
an absolute correlation, but those thatinvest more have a higher chance to have
success. So they're going to goto this unequal revenue distribution model. The
SEC is vehemently opposed to that andsaid, nope, you're going to You
(13:31):
know, we're all for one andone for all. And we're hearing the
Big twelve safe similar things, andwe're hearing in the Big En say similar
things as well. So this isgoing to be really interesting to follow to
see how this fight continues to goon between Florida State and Clemson and the
ACC. You hear a lot ofvitriol coming from Florida State and Clemson.
(13:54):
You hear a lot of confidence comingfrom the ACC going we've got an Ironclan
deal. They can't out of thedeal. Now, the other side of
that is we're hearing that there's enoughprivate equity firms willing to invest in Florida
State and Clemson to help them buytheir way out of this deal. We're
(14:16):
talking to hundreds of millions of dollarshere and that they're willing to do.
We've already seen rolling this all theway back. As I'm bringing it full
circle SMU. SMU is joined inthe ACC and SMU is not getting any
any TV money for a decade becausethey've got enough in endowments and in their
boosters to say we got this,we just want in, we want in
(14:39):
the ACC. That's mind boggling toconsider, but that's SMU's route going on
that all right, We've got moreto get to. We'll do that when
we continue on Sports Radio AM thirteenunder the zone of the iHeart Radio app.
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