Should College Athletes be able to Sports Bet

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us to start the top of the hour.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
First and foremost, get the word check c hgc K
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We would love for you to be a winner in
our nationwide keyword contest. Sean Callahan for some musker buzz
is with us today, Sean, how are you feeling on
your Wednesday?

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Doing great? As we get ready to travel here in
a couple of days. On Nebraska, we'll have just tomorrow
and Lincoln before they get on the plane tomorrow afternoon
to head out the College Park. So kind of a
quick turn for Nebraska as they go on the road,
and you know, back to back weeks and you know,
this is kind of notable. Nebraska hasn't won back to

(00:41):
back weeks on the road since two thousand and six,
and they have Maryland and Minnesota great opportunity to do it.
I mean, obviously they got to do it, but you
know it's just a you don't play back to back
weeks very often and b you know, went back to
back weeks on the road very often either. So it's
a unique challenge ahead forque on the road.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, so let's go ahead and discuss the offense of
Maryland and how that is going to challenge the Huskers.
You mentioned they have a great young quarterback who's a
part of this. And while their offense sputtered in the
second half against Washington, and that would be a little concerning,

(01:23):
they were undefeated and looked great up to that point
against pretty much everybody they had played. This is not
a typical young quarterback, though, it's a guy that likes
to sling it around from inside the pocket.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah. It's a Maryland team that beat towns in northern
Illinois and Florida Atlantics, and nobody really took them too seriously.
But then they went into Madison and obviously not just
beat Wisconsin, they handled them and they won by seventeen points,
and I think they got a lot of people's attention.
But then they blew on the other end a twenty
point lead against Washington. So they don't have I mean,

(01:58):
Wisconsin's their best win obviously by far. They didn't play
a power for non conference opponent. You know, there's some
things about this team that match up well for Nebraska,
though they don't run the ball well. I mean They're
leading rushing game for a running back is sixty two yards.
They've come. We're nowhere near one hundred yard rusher. In fact,
they don't average a hundred yard rushing per game. Malik

(02:20):
Washington is not a dual threat. He has a big arm, strong,
physical quarterback, but not a runner. And the receivers have dropped.
Now it was twenty two the Pro Football Focus updated
to say twenty one this morning. They're one of the
leading teams in the country in terms of drop passes
at twenty one on the season. So they've got some

(02:41):
flaws on their offense, and I do think all those
flaws do match up well against the Black Shirt defense
that at times has struggled mobile quarterbacks and at times
has struggled against the run. We're not going to see
that this week. And guess what, they're number one at
defense in the country passing defense, So I think that
element matches up well this week for a bra as well.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
We're speaking of John Callahan some Husker buzz here. The
only thing that I would retort is the pass rush.
Are they going to be able to get there and
can they affect, you know, game plan wise, what Malik
Washington is going to be able to do because, for
whatever it's worth, like you mentioned, not super mobile or

(03:21):
at least he has an attempted to really run that much.
But he has been solidly accurate for the most part
this season. They have hit some big plays, including against Wisconsin.
What time do you think be a factor because you
know when he's upright and he's thrown it.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
They have thrown it a lot in five.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Games, right. I think Williams Nari is where you start with.
I mean, he he led college football last week with
six quarterback pressure plays, so he's gotten hot, and I
think McCollough has gotten hot as well. Those two guys
you know, are going to lead the edge rush. But
I think for John Butler, you can be a little

(03:59):
bit more aggressive with your blitzing this week knowing that
you don't have to really worry about Washington out running
the blitz. So I do think Nebraska will get creative
with their line of scrimmage looks, their coverage looks, and
I do think they're going to disguise pressure and try
to confuse the true freshman. And you know, John Butler's
a former NFL guy. He knows what he's doing and

(04:20):
he's going to put together I think some schemes and
looks to try to maybe cloud the vision of the
young quarterback and force him a new mistake. And I
think he can be aggressive with him not having to
worry about him out running your blitz like Aiden Childs
did last week or even Brendan Swersby did in week one.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
It's very interesting. So College Park.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
You mentioned this, and I just wonder if this is
going to become a even just a tiny factor because
they'll have some people there. They'll actually have a solid
crowd because the team seems to be competitive. I'm sure
it's a little bit of a different environment versus what
it would have looked like had they entered this game
five and zero. But you mentioned is going to have

(05:01):
a presence in this stadium. Do you think that could
help and aid the Nebraska defense because of how loud
and rowdy Nebraska fans can get in this, you know,
in any environment, but especially in the first true road
game as they attempt to try to get in the
head of a freshman QB and also try to make
a statement with their first road game of the season.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
Yeah, it's really unique. I mean, most outsiders wouldn't expect
there to be a lot of Nebraska fans in Maryland,
but there will be. I was there in twenty nineteen
and it was packed. And I've got lots of people
I know in that part of the country that are
going to be at the game. You know, an ego
from Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, or New York City, North Carolina, Virginia, Baltimore.

(05:43):
I mean, all these areas are drivable into this game
for those fans, and there's strong pockets of alumni, whether
there's military reasons why they're out there, or government reasons
or if their lives take took them out there and
for them, this is the one time the Huskers come
to them, just like the Pinstripe Bowl. It's kind of
that way too. A lot of people in that area

(06:04):
went out to that game in New York, more than
probably most would expect for a rainy, cold December Saturday
in Yankee Stadium. And you know, I talked to a
friend today, He's like, yeah, we have a massive tailgate
set up in the prime area of Maryland, like with
a giant circus tent. I mean, so there's there's gonna
be big Nebraska tailgate parties and setups out here too.
I think more than most people that are casual fans

(06:27):
would even expect.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
It's gonna be kind of fun. You know, it was
a trip before the season. I was thinking, like it'd
be kind of fun just to catch a flight out
there and make a little weekend out of that. But
you know, I think a lot of people are, like
you mentioned, a lot closer to Maryland than they otherwise
would you would think. Now, Sean, I last thing, this
is not Husker related specifically, but I saw this and

(06:49):
I'm going to talk about it a little bit more
of this hour. But there was a committee and it
was adopted with a proposal to allow student athletes and
staff of athletic departments that it would make it legal
or acceptable for them to bet on pro sports, which
is quite an interesting change up from you know, the
Iowa and Iowa State staffu with the betting. Now, those

(07:12):
guys were betting on college games, but they were being
investigated and people couldn't quite understand why they were targeted.
With the advent of sports betting and it continuously getting promoted,
and now this adjustment potentially being made to allow student
athletes at Division one or NCAA schools to actually bet

(07:34):
on professional sports. What does this change and does this
kind of open up like a tiny crack into what
could end up becoming a bit of a problem if
some of these guys decide they do want to bet
on some college sports as well.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
It's just so hard to patrol. I mean between the
sports fantasy apps that are technically not gambling, but more
games of chance, which those are all legal in Nebraska,
to online our actual sports betting, or it's legal in
a lot of these states down Nebraska, it's not legal
on your phone to bet like true gambling. You have

(08:12):
to go into the casino and you actually, I believe
you can't bet on Nebraska if I remember how it
works in our states. So but it's just kind of
one of those things. It is a problem. I was
actually just talking to a Michigan state writer about this today,
just the issues with young people and the access to
gambling on their phone. And you know, it used to

(08:33):
be so much harder to gamble. I mean you had
to kind of do it through a bookie or illegally
or however you would do it. Where now it's so
accessible anywhere you're at at all times. Of the day.
So it is so hard to police. I don't know
if anybody is truly a big enough enforcement body to
look into every single gambling transaction. So I don't know

(08:54):
what you do. And the Iowa thing was such an outlier.
How and why that happened to the level Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Mean, guys lost their eligibility for their college career there
and we never heard it pop up with any other
program or any other state. It was somebody in the
state of Iowa's government. Essentially, it decided they were going
to do this investigation and found a bunch of inconsistencies
and it got a lot of guys. So, but now
it's not able to bet on college they would be
bet able to bet on professional sports. But it is

(09:24):
an ever changing world, to say the least. This is
going to be something we'll pay attention to. And of
course we'll have more of a Husker breakdown tomorrow with
Husker Buzz with Sean Callahan. Shawn has always appreciate the time.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Today, All right, Emory, thank you, all right, it is.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Five point seventeen. I got some thoughts on this, and
I will talk about this because what I have gambled
on sports legally from the state of Iowa. Of course,
while I have some interest in the activity in and
of itself, even though I don't do it very often,
I feel weird about this.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
We have our.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Principles in our lives, and I know a lot of
people of my parents' generation where gambling was really an
off limits thing. Casinos were really starting to pop up
when I was a kid around the state of Iowa
where I'm from, but they were all far enough away
where it wasn't something that you felt like it was

(10:22):
really that big of a deal.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
It was never like a temptation.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
It kind of sounded fun when you're a kid because
the games, like you just like the idea of playing games,
and you see James Bond, you know, sitting at a
craps table or something, or playing poker, and you're kind
of like, oh, yeah, that looks like a lot of fun.
But you know, I was raised in a house that
my parents never really ever thought of doing anything like that.
Fast forward, you know, twenty nineteen comes around, Iowa gets

(10:48):
on the bandwagon of legalizing sports betting, and they make
it very easy. At first, you had to go actually
create an account at the at the casino and then
once you created the account, you could bet from your
phone anywhere in the state of Iowa. That is still
the rule. They are making millions and millions of dollars
as a state on basically lost sports bets. But it's entertainment, right,

(11:13):
and if you're willing to like, you should only bet
what you're willing to lose. That's what they always say.
I know that some people it turns into an addiction,
just like alcohol can, just like drugs can, just like
tobacco can. This is a vice. This is something that
you know, people just want to go to the horse track.
People just want to go and bet on sports. People
just want to go and they think that they'll win

(11:34):
a bunch of money on the roulette table, like all
that stuff. It's an app It's one hundred percent factual
and true that that is a legitimate concern, and I
totally get it. But are we the land of the
free or are we not? Which would be my thing.
And this is why I have no problem with gambling
being legalized to the extent that it is in Iowa.
I don't think it's that big of a deal. I
don't think it's a problem. If it was a problem

(11:55):
for people on a personal level, that is something they
have to reckon with themselves. I'm not in a position
to tell people what they should or shouldn't do with
their lives. If you're willing to sports bet, and you're
willing to lose or gamble away one hundred dollars a
week or one thousand dollars a year or something like that,
but you're willing to do that, know when your limits
are and then maybe you make money, maybe you don't,
but at least you had fun while you played. If
you're that kind of individual. This is exactly the kind

(12:17):
of individual that gambling is for. But the money is real,
and I understand it, and I was certainly rolling in
the dough because of it. Nebraska's taking a completely different stance.
You know, you have warhorse, but I mean that's really
the only spot you have, and you have to be
in there to make any bets whatsoever. And we're still

(12:37):
seemingly far enough away on the whole mobile phone sports
betting situation that you know in Nebraska would make a
lot of money on it, but the tom Osborne's of
the world just are not interested in lobbying for that.
And as long as there's a lobby of people who
are important individuals like him saying that it's probably not

(12:58):
going to happen. I mean, you're really gonna need a
lot of various pressure points. One thing that's going to
work against its legalization is probably what's going to end
up happening to more collegiate athletes once this passes. The
Division one Administrative committee in NC DOUBLEA today adopted a
proposal that would allow student athletes and athletic department staff

(13:19):
to bet on professional sports. And I don't understand what
the parameters are like, Sean said, of how you would
even begin to police this Division two, Division three. They
are expected to consider the same proposals in their meetings
at the end of the month. If approved by the
lower divisions of NC double A, the rule goes into

(13:40):
effect November the first. How many college kids and by
the way, it depends on your state most of the time,
it's twenty one. You have to be twenty one years
old to bet, to gamble, and trying to come up
with an answer to how you police that is going
to be one problem. Another issue that you are going
to have to work through and to set up is

(14:03):
what happens when somebody decides they're going to gamble on
college sports as well as professional sports, but if they
use somebody else's name. That's what really got the guys
in Iowa, in Iowa and Iowa State that were found
out that they were gambling on sports, which they're not
supposed to do. But that wasn't the problem. The problem
was they figured out that it was college students, college

(14:23):
student athletes specifically, that were gambling by using other people's names,
other people's likenesses, or they were underage. That's what ended
up getting them in trouble more than anything else. And
that's a completely different topic of conversation. Now you can
go in and you can be like, well, the quarterback

(14:44):
of Iowa State was betting on this, that and the
other thing. Okay, you know he was betting on the
Iowa basketball team, or he was betting on you know,
the Atlanta Falcons or whatever. Is that a big deal?
Do we care that much about some of this stuff.
He's not playing for any of those teams. It was
mostly the issue was he was pretending to be somebody else,
or he wasn't twenty one years of age, so he

(15:06):
was lying in that situation and breaking the law by
doing so, and in turn his integrity and with that
his eligibility ended up getting halted. It's going to be
a completely different mindset here. And while I think that
it should be legal, sports gambling and gambling of all
types should be legal in a bunch of different places.

(15:27):
Because we are the land of the free, we should
have the ability to make those decisions for ourselves. Yes,
may it may be a temptation that people decide that
they are going to abuse, But my perspective on it
is why not let people live their lives and make
the choices that they want if they're a full grown
adult and they have the legal ability to spend their

(15:47):
money how they want.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
Enough people who live in Omaha.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Just go across that bridge and decide that they're going
to go into Iowa just so they can lay some
bets down, and then they come right back. Why do
you think little Bob was designed? College World Series? A
bunch of people from the CWS walk across that bridge,
get into the Iowa side, lay their bets down, and
then walk back to the next game. It happens, I'm
telling you people, not the baby Bob's that like a

(16:12):
gambling you know, baby, he wasn't born just because of gambling.
He was born for plenty of convenience. But it's still
an observation that I made, and I know a lot
of other people have made too. The problem is when
you start letting college kids and you give them kind
of the green light publicly that hey, it's not that
big of a deal, just make sure you're only betting

(16:33):
on pro sports, that could end up becoming a slippery slope.
These guys can create their own accounts, they can use
their own names. The problem would be, can you go
through every single one of those accounts across the entire
country of guys who are in legal places to bet,
of legal age to bet, and they can bet on anything.
What if they accidentally or potentially have some sort of

(16:56):
scenario where they throw a couple of bucks on a
random college game that they're not even playing in. What
does that do to their eligibility? What does that do
to their reputation? It's going to be a dangerous game
to play. And hopefully all of the colleges and the
schools do a good job if this passes, to educate
the kids as to what's at stake. A story that

(17:17):
is now starting to develop in North Carolina. Is Bill Belichick,
the legendary NFL coach many considered one of the great
NFL coaches of all time, if not the greatest NFL
coach of all time. Won six Super Bowls as the
head coach of the New England Patriots. Had been the
head coach before that, we coached the Browns in the nineties.

(17:38):
Was a defensive coordinator in multiple stops, including the New
York Jets and the New York Giants. Along with his
pal Bill Parcells. He mutually agreed to part ways with
the Patriots a couple of years ago. The team had
not performed very well and it was time. I think
everybody saw that it was time. But for a guy

(17:59):
who's in his mid seventies, there's a is he gonna
come back and try to break the all time wins record.
He's pretty close to passing Don Shula for the all
time wins record in NFL history. What he ends up
deciding is he goes to college. After a year of
not coaching, he becomes the head coach of the North
Carolina tar Heels. He never coached college football before. I

(18:21):
felt like it was a very odd fit. A strange
thing to do. And then all this girlfriend stuff started happening.
This Jordan girl that was hanging around him, and he's
on her social media and all this stuff, and she's
acting very strangely when they're in interviews, doesn't want to
talk about their relationship, doesn't want him or doesn't want
to allow him to talk about their relationship. She's fifty
years younger than him almost, so I mean, just put

(18:44):
that on for size. That is a crazy age gap.
It's not on precedent for famous people to date women
younger than they are, but it's very strange.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
It's very odd. Right.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
It has not worked At North Carolina. They are five
games in. That first game against tc was supposed to
be like this huge deal, like this major big thing.
Michael Jordan, so many of these other big alums show
up in support of the team. They lose forty eight
to fourteen at home. The TCU people didn't really know

(19:18):
if they were really that good. They beat teams like
Charlotte and Richmond. Charlotte really bad FBS team. Richmond is
an FCS team, beat them up and then played UCF
for old friends. Scott Frost in the Central Florida Knights.
They lose to that game, thirty four to nine, and

(19:38):
they play Clemson in their first ACC game and lose
thirty eight to ten. They have a bye week this week,
and now there's reports that are leaking out that says
that there's a chance he may not coach that game.
They may be looking to find an exit strategy for
him immediately, for him and for North Carolina because the
way they did the contract is a five year, fifty

(19:59):
million dollar contract that's a ten million dollars annual salary,
and the way they did the contract was if they
fire him at any point, they owe him every dollar
that's on that contract. So if they fired him now
five games into a five year deal, they would still
owe him the entirety of the fifty million dollars. Now, though,
they are trying to figure out some violations of improper

(20:22):
benefits and things like that that they can potentially utilize
to lower that buyout rate and try to find a
way to get out of it and get him out
of there now. I don't know if you saw this news.
Hulu was doing this big documentary. Maybe it was Netflix,
I can't remember, but there was a big documentary that
they were going to do following Bill Belichick' first year

(20:42):
as a college head coach. We found out this week
they have canceled the plans to release that. So they
were planning on following this guy, this legendary NFL coach
and him recruiting college kids and being around college kids
for the first time as a coach in football after
spending the last forty plus years in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
And the.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
Whatever documentary is supposed to be, it's been quashed by
North Carolina and maybe even the producers. And this Jordan
whatever her name is like, she like She's been kind
of quiet on social media lately. I haven't heard much
from Belichick, but what an odd situation. If he is

(21:31):
fired before we get to the sixth game of the
college football season, that has to be one of the
most epic failures of any coach of any sport ever,
with any reputation. I remember the in hockey there was
something similar. Barry Melrose, who used to be a fantastic

(21:51):
hockey analyst for ESPN. He got out of the analyst
game to jump in and be the head coach the
Tampa Bay Lightning in like two thousand and seven or
eight or something, and after thirteen games they parted ways.
It's like it wasn't working, team wasn't very good. He
probably had second thoughts about wanting to do that, probably

(22:12):
like I want to go back to my analyst job.
They were like, we made a mistake hired in this
guy who hadn't been coaching for a decade. We want
to do something else. This is like the biggest buyers
remorse I think I've ever seen in coaching. And if
Belichick does not coach against Cal next Friday, because the
next game is next Friday, they have nine days between
now and then, if they let him go, this is
going to be an all timer. Nick Saban, amazing college

(22:34):
head coach, did not work out in the pros and
he was a coach multiple times in the pros. Belichick
and others dropping down from the pros to the college game,
it just doesn't work out. They're two completely different sports.
Even now, they're completely different sports. Matt Rule, we saw
what the Panthers didn't work out. He dropped right back down. Yeah,
that's a good point, right. Some guys are built for

(22:55):
the college game. Some guys are built for the pro game.
Fred Hoibert, Iowa State coach down the Nebraska basketball coach.
He left Iowa State to go coach the Chicago Bulls.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
That didn't work out.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Some guys are great college coaches and it just doesn't
necessarily translate to the pros. I don't even know how
many times it actually has. Pete Carroll comes to mind.
He won national championships at USC and the Super Bowl
with Seattle. I mean, he's an example, I guess, of
a coach that made it work at both levels.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
But I don't know. This Belichick thing is a train wreck.