Bill Chaves Pod_EP 164

This week, Bill and Alex are joined by Summit League Commissioner Josh Fenton to address the constantly evolving NCAA landscape and discuss the changes to the league’s basketball championship schedule (1:51). Bill then adds closure to the football and volleyball seasons before looking ahead to Thanksgiving week plans for hockey and basketball (28:57). On the B-Side (50:44), Spurs beat Man City AGAIN, while Liverpool stay top of the EPL after another road win.  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Bill Shaves Podcast, presented by Mid
Coast Sports. It is a great time to be thankful
for Mid Coast Sports Plus, which happens to be the
home of cchatv, the only place you can stream you
and D hockey at Benidgie State this Friday, November twenty ninth.
That's mid Coast Sports Plus, also the home of the
Summit League Network, where you can find this week's some
of the league volleyball championships and literally hundreds of some

(00:22):
of league basketball games throughout the season. Subscribe today at
Midcoast sportsplus dot com. This is how we do sports,
and this is the Bill Shaves Podcast. Welcome to another
edition of the Bill Shaves Podcast. We are taping this
on a Monday morning, the twenty fifth of November Thanksgiving week.
Alex Seinert, Bill Shaves. Happy Early Thanksgiving. Bill.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, same to you, Alex. You know, it seems like
we always because who knows who's listening. They could be
listening from all around the world, Alex. And so at
the end of the day, we do have snow on
the ground at Grand Forks. So snow has come.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
It was time, you know, it had been a wonderful fall.
You're never quite ready for it when it arrives, but
that's okay. The fact that it is late November, it's
okay to have snow on the ground, makes it feel
more like the holiday season it is.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
It's a little bit more festive, right.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
What are your Thanksgiving plans before we dig into it?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, pretty simple, just staying with our little nuclear family
here and then Friday, Eric and iill drive down to
Bumidge so go see the guys play. And then we've
got hockey back at the Ralph against Bamigie on Saturday night,
so that's always fun. And I'm sure you know the

(01:35):
old turkey football all that kind of stuff, Alex.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
That sounds fantastic. That sounds a lot like my Thanksgiving
coming up this weekend as well. So a little little football,
a little hockey, little little turkey, it's going to be good.
So enough of that, we should get into the crux
of this pod, Big Pod Today. A lot of stuff
to talk about from a fall sports, winter sports perspective
from un D and a ton of NCA landscape stuff.
And to do that, we are really proud to be

(01:59):
joined by repeat guest on the podcast. He is the
Summit League commissioner approaching his two year anniversary. By the
way of being appointed to that job, he's one of
the best you're gonna find. It's Josh Fenton. Josh, thanks
so much for being on the podcast.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Always good to be with you two on this wonderful podcast.
I really enjoy this, so thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, thanks, Josh, I really do appreciate it. You've been
on multiple times. But you know, you sit in a
chair that provides us some opportunities to at least give
perspective from your point of view. So I'll let Alex
fire away on question one and then we'll get into
some Summat League stuff after that.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, Josh, you join us at a really unique time
for college athletics. We could have said that probably anytime
over the last five years, but especially now. There are
so many things happening with house settlement stuff and big
picture in CW landscape. From your chair right now, what
are some of the things you are monitoring as we
drift into the month of December here in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, no, I mean there's a lot to that question.
The Division one landscape has changed significantly.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
You know, we're we're in a time.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Of transformation, obviously a lot of it through the legal system.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
You reference the House Settlement.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
We're certainly monitoring the House Settlement, which has received preliminary
approval from the Judge on the Ninth Circuit in Northern California.
We have a date that's scheduled for potential final approval,
which happens to be, ironically, maybe not ironically, I don't know,
the Monday of the men's basketball National Championship games.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
So there's been some there's some been some jokes.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Made out there that that the Honorable Judge Wilkin may
have the honorary tip off between whoever is facing off
in the final of the men's Final four. So that
on the side, we're certainly monitoring everything that's that's coming
with the House Settlement. We put together a small group
of athletic directors, presidents, s w A to kind of

(04:05):
look at the impact of the settlement as it relates
to us in the Summit League. And you know, I
think there's a lot more unanswered than than answered questions
at this point, and so we're trying to take a
very pragmatic and kind of prudent approach and not rush
into anything. But that's probably the biggest thing, Alex. You know,

(04:26):
there's also other things legally and kind of across the
congressional aspect of college sports employment matters. In particular, we've
got n l RB cases that that are still out
there with Dartmouth and USC BAT twelve and the NCAA,
and then we have what's called the Johnson case. And
the Johnson case gets more specifically into f l s

(04:50):
A and and the federal labor standards, and so you know,
there's a lot in the legal system. And then and
then the last thing I'd offer to you, as you know,
our our environment continues to change from a conference realignment standpoint,
whether it be at the top of the system, you know,
down through kind of the rest of the division one.
And so trying to be attentive and mindful is to

(05:13):
institutions and movement on on conference realignment and what that
may mean for the summer league.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Thanks Josh. That's a really good overview from your chair
and you sit with your colleagues from around the country.
I guess what are some maybe what's something that maybe
we're not tracking. I know you did a great job
kind of you know, giving us an overview, But is
there something else that that some you know, folks at

(05:40):
the University of North Dakota or O our fan base
should be either concerned about or just maybe things that
might be keeping you up at night to some degree.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't know that there's
anything that people, fans listeners of this podcast should be
concerned about. I mean, there's some insight baseball stuff that's
going on as it relates to the future of Division one,
more so the structure of Division one. We think that
there's going to have to be a reset in the
structure of Division one just based upon the dynamics of

(06:16):
some institutions and the environmental realities that they live within,
in particular economically that are very different and significant gap
between those and the rest of Division one. And so
the commissioners, the CC twenty two, which is representative of
the commissioners of FCS and one Triple A with so

(06:37):
the non FBS commissioners have been talking quite a bit
about kind of the future structure of Division one and
kind of how we believe that there are some important
aspects to that structure that we hope to see in
the future. You know, Number one would be access to championships.

(06:57):
You know, the national championship structure is really important to
every institution, every conference across Division one, and the manner
in which our institutions can access championships and how that
relates to their brand association of being Division one is prioritized,
and so we need to ensure that there's access to championships.

(07:21):
You know, from a financial standpoint, you know, we want
to manage our athletic businesses as you do Bill at
the University of North Dakota, in a sustainable and crudent,
reasonable manner, and so access to and sea revenue distributions
that are currently in place, in maintaining those revenue distributions
and you know, maybe finding ways to grow those revenue
distributions in the futures is also prioritized. And then the

(07:45):
last thing, and maybe I should have started with this
is just kind of how does this structure work? How
do we share in commonalities with those that are at
the autonomy five level or maybe even fbs. But then
where are we different and how do we need rules
and regulations to allow them to do what they need

(08:05):
to do without you know the rest of the Division
one quote unquote holding them back, and what are the
things that the rest of the Division one needs to
have kind of control over. So, you know, thinking about
a structure where there's some shared elements and then there's
probably some viifrecation that comes in the structure. And so
it's a lot of inside baseball into the world of

(08:27):
Division one college athletics. But it's a significant thing that's
behind the scenes that we'll have to get itself worked
out over the next six to twelve months or so.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
No, you've done a great job giving us that synopsis,
and I think it is important for our listeners to
at least just to understand those are some of the
things that you're discussing with your counterparts around the country.
Because at the end, we know, we know that the
love of college athletics, you know, connected to a university
is tremendous, but we are going through a time of transition.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, no doubt. I mean, I think you know, I.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Briefly mentioned it, but this brand association of being Division
one is prioritized by everybody in Division one, certainly those
at the.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
Top in the autonomy five all the way.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
Down to you know fcs kind of one triple A institutions.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
You know, I don't. I don't know that anybody.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
Wants to be told that, hey, your your Division one
status or your brand association of being Division one is
going to change to something less than And I'm not suggesting,
you know, a relegation to Division two or or something
of that that stature, and and it's with all due
respect to Division two and Division three other divisions. My

(09:44):
point is that our institutions across the country have prioritized
being Division one. There's been intentional decisions made about being
a Division one institution, and so we want to ensure
that the important aspect to being Division one and championships
have a lot to do with it is kind of

(10:05):
prioritized and held sacred into into the future because if that,
for whatever reason, were to change, you know, I think
you're talking about something very drastically different across Division one
for a large portion of institutions that you know, I
don't think would be great for the overall ecosystem and
Division one college athletics.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
Our listeners, I think will be pleased to hear that
that conversation about access to championships, in the ability to
be able to play in March Madness for men's and
women's basketball, et cetera, versus having this kind of super
league format where the top teams will sort of go
off and do their own thing and everybody else will
almost become basically Division two. Again. I think that's really
positive that at least that still is. It sounds like

(10:46):
still is the goal amongst commissioners that are in your
chair and kind of in your position.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah, no doubt, And I think it's it's you know,
it's been referred to in the past.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
As everybody under the big tent.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
And you know, to my call is that oversee Autonomy
conferences or FBS conferences, I, in my heart of hearts,
believe that they would like to continue to preserve the
Big ten approach. I respect and understand that they have
challenges within those conferences, frankly because they've grown in size
and so there's maybe more mouths to feed there. But

(11:21):
I don't know that creating a structure where the Summit
League or Light Conferences are relegated into some other kind
of level or division is the right structure for the
health and just kind of overall well being of Division one.
I mean, Alichi reference the basketball tournament. I think it starts,

(11:42):
and I don't want to say ends, but it really
starts with the men's and women's basketball tournament.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
If there's one sport.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
That I can call everybody's attention to that you have
to sponsor to be Division one, it's basketball, men's and
women's basketball.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
And so.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
The thing that kind of ties us together. And we
all know how special March is.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
After we get through the conference tournaments, those of themselves
are special, but after we get through them and we
get to really that first weekend of March Madness, both
on the men's and women's side, you know, it just
kind of captivates the country in totality, and I think
it's kind of you know, it's interwoven within the fabric
of our sports society. I mean March Madness that that

(12:27):
is a central component like a Super Bowl is, like
a World Series is that's in the sports fabric of
our society. And so the mystique of it, the special
nature of it is because it's populated by sixty eight
teams that are represented from those that are at the

(12:47):
top of the economic food chain of Division one all
the way down into the mid majors. And so that's
something that needs to be preserved because I think that's
what the American public wants. I think I think people
have stated that very well, and I think all commissioners,
all thirty two commissioners, also believe that that's an important part,
and so I remain optimistic that that will be maintained

(13:10):
long into the future.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Well, Josh, let's stick with the basketball theme. Then, in
basketball is the through line for all three hundred and
sixty five plus schools that do play Division One. Talk
about the Summit League a little bit of a tweak
this year on the tournament schedule. We're going to finish
on a Sunday, and that I think will be good.

(13:33):
I do you know, I'm always optimistic that any sort
of tweak that we make, we're doing it for I
think the right reasons. But talk about that a little bit,
and then anything you want to talk about basketball as
that season has begun with some non conference play.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah, I know, we're excited about the change that you
reference Bill, just to kind of level set everybody. So
you know, previously our tournament span, if we start on
the quarterfinal day, I understand that we've.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
Got a kind of a day prior to the quarterfinal.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
Day, but the quarterfinal day historically had been Saturday Sunday,
and the semi finals then were on Monday, and the
championship games were on Tuesday. And so the adjustment that
has been made is that the quarterfinals will be on
Thursday Friday at the playing game games one of the
men one on the women's side, Wednesday night, semi finals

(14:23):
on Saturday, and championship games on Sunday. And we went
through a pretty exhaustive process before making this decision.

Speaker 4 (14:33):
As people can appreciate, there's a lot that goes into this.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Number One, your venue partner and ours the Dennis Sandford
Premier Center in soup Ball, South Dakota, and so that
was number one to make sure that obviously we could
get the available dates within the venue.

Speaker 4 (14:50):
Too.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Was your media partner, CBS Sports Network. We're entering our
second year with that partnership and their availability to kind
of project and broadcasts give us the widest possible exposure
in particular semi finals and finals. They had that that
window available. Uh. Three is just kind of what what

(15:12):
what do we think is best for the fan experience,
in particular maximizing ticket sales and giving people a chance
to enjoy the tournament during a timeframe that you know.

Speaker 4 (15:23):
Made sense for a fan.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
And this is a bit anecdotal, but I think a
lot of people verbalize to us that Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
Sunday felt better than Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. I had
a lot of people locally in super Balls tell me
that they got to Tuesday it was kind of hard
to get up in the morning and go to work
and then still find a way to go go to

(15:46):
basketball game. So I don't know if the long weekend
approach on Thursday Friday, compared to adding Monday Tuesday, is better,
but we had a lot of people say say that
it was better, And so you know from from those
apps specs and then also and probably most important, we
think that this structure provides our student athletes with the

(16:08):
best experience just given the days of the week kind
of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
So we're excited about it.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
From a media exposure standpoint, the championship games on Sunday,
women in the afternoon and men in the evening have
some highlighted spots in the national media sense in terms
of what's going on on other networks, whether it's CBS
Sports Network. Obviously our games will be on there, but
whether it's others like ESPN, Fox Sports.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
One of the like. You know, we're going to have
a kind.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
Of somewhat of a standalone kind of time frame or
time frames during these spots, and so that's exciting as well.

Speaker 4 (16:48):
So we're looking forward to the adjustment.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah, I know in the past, you always would go
up against the West Coast Conference championship on that Tuesday night.
Now you don't have to worry about going up against
Gonzaga versus Saint Mary's or things like that. Those a
little things help sometimes when you're trying to draw eyeballs.
In Josh, speaking of championships, you've obviously got the some
league volleyball championships going on right now in Kansas City
again on Monday, as we're potting this is happening, the

(17:11):
semi finals are going on. You've got a couple of
men's soccer teams that are now in the sweet sixteen
of the national tournament. That's the first time that's ever happened.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Cool And by the way, I know I'm talking to
two soccer officionados. I know it is not sponsored at
the University of North Dakota. But you guys got to
be just as excited as I am to see two
of our teams in the final round to sixteen.

Speaker 4 (17:32):
That's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
It was very cool. I had a chance to do
the some of League men's soccer preview this year, and
it was so fun to chat with the men's coaches
and here their outlook for the season. And then to
see it play out like this with Denver being a
top team in the nation, number three in the country, etc.
Getting a bye winning their second round game, and then
for Kansas City to make this great run to to
be basically everybody in the state of Missouri to move

(17:54):
on to their sweet sixteen. That's been really cool. It
just feels like and especially due with Basketball's star arting it.
Oral Roberts women beat Arkansas by twenty the other night.
Southcota States men and women have both had great starts
to the There's been a lot of success stories across
the league. It feels like, I'm sure from your chair
as you look out, it's been a pretty good fall,
pretty good start to the semester and to start to

(18:15):
the school year for all of these SEMA League programs
that have just been I think really having kind of
historic type seasons or historic runs this year.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
Yeah, so let me give you a little perspective from
a data standpoint. So the three fall team sports that
in some sense with men's soccer still are going obviously
with their volleyball championship this week. So I'll start with
men's soccer. Men's soccer finished the regular season. We were
the third highest rank conference in terms of URPI.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
In the country and now not all thirty.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
Two conferences at men's soccer, but it's over twenty and
so you know, that speaks to just obviously the program
success of those that compete in men's soccer, and then
volleyball and women's soccer finished I believe fourteenth. Both both
sports finished fourteenth in terms of conference RPI, and that

(19:09):
is representative represented across all thirty two conferences. So, you know,
we talk about in our strategic plan kind of marking
this kind of fifty percent marker within you know, above
fifty percent across all conferences in college athletics, and certainly
there are others that are spending a lot more money

(19:31):
than our institutions are in certain sports. But to have
the fall that we had in our team sports was
pretty impressive.

Speaker 4 (19:37):
And then I will give a shout out to.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
A couple of cross country runners on the men's side
that qualified for the finals this past week, one for
more Roberts and one from South Dakota State.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
And so the.

Speaker 3 (19:51):
Fall season was very exciting and it's can continue to
be exciting here with our volleyball championship and then men's.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
Soccer programs still compete.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
Oh by the way, in volleyball, the South Dakota State
jack Rabbits, I've only lost one match the entire season,
and so they compete in our semi finals.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
In our championship today. But you know they've had a.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Historic season just in and of itself. I mean, yes,
basketball has to be done. It's hard to keep track
of who's playing who and what days everybody's playing on
in the non conference season. Bill, you think it's hard
for you with two programs trying with eighteen programs, and
so you know we've had some really good wins. You
reference or Roberts women over Arkansas last week. I was

(20:39):
at a game a week and a half ago and
Brookings where South Dakota State women welcome Duke to Brookings,
South Dakota, which was pretty special.

Speaker 4 (20:48):
They got beat but it was a great women's basketball game.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
You know, we've got some really good results both on
the women's and the men's side, and there's been some
games also where you'd like to say we had a
different result than that one, but well, early to tell
and kind of how things are going to play out
on the basketball side, but it's it's been exciting th far.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Yeah, no doubt about it. Are our men going to
a West Coast Conference school and beating l m U
was a good one, right, Those are those are some
Those are some good ones. And uh, we had a
really good it was a it felt like a conference
type game against Utah Valley here in Grand Forks, and
those can get you better as as as life goes on.

(21:30):
And those are good ones for our our our summit
league as well. As you reference the r p I
later on in the year.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
Just if if the University of Our Dakota's men's team
can find a way to win that game against the
University of Alabama in a couple of weeks, bill, that'll
really help the Summer League RPI.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
So yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, Well, if you need a ticket,
don't ask, as.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
You already know I will be up there, so I'll
just be a fly on the wall.

Speaker 4 (21:56):
I don't need a scene.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
That's okay, you know the corner I sit in.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
We're good.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
We're good.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
I love that. Yes, December eighteenth, Yeah, you talk about
just some of league hosting some big time programs. Again.
Cool to see Duke at the new First Bank and
Trusty in Brookings. So cool to see Alabama preseason number
two to come to the Betty just it's neat to
see the leagues and the programs within it really raising
their game, raising the level. A lot more of the
same to come. So, Josh, we appreciate you so much

(22:26):
for taking some time. I know, busy weekend with championships
and everything going on. You're the best.

Speaker 4 (22:31):
Always great to be with you, guys. Thanks for having me.
Appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Thanks Josh.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
So great to have Josh fentanhon again. Just to guys,
as we talk all the time. He's at conversations with
thirty one other commissioners around the country and he's involved
in the nuts and bolts of what the future of
the NCAA is going to be. It's awesome to hear
his perspective on that and to hear him talk a
little some league stuff as well.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah, and I think he referenced it, well, you know,
a lot of i'll call it behind the curtain stuff.
But that's what we like to provide here. I mean,
those are things that are hard to type out in
write out, and you can get perspective when someone like
that is in those conversations and he's relaying what he

(23:13):
hears to all of us. And then of course I
do my own kind of recount around the country with
a lot of folks that I have, you know, in
my speed dial slash rolodex or whatever. In the reality
of it is, I think it's incredibly important for us
to keep our eyes and ears open kind of they'll
head on the swivel if you will. And because you know,

(23:36):
I say this over and over, Alex, but I'll continue
to say it. We did it one way for the
last fifty years, from pretty much seventy three to twenty
twenty one, when we did not did not go forward
with an NIL guidelines policy. We now are in this
moment where I do think we're searching for how it's

(23:59):
going to be for the fifty years. But we're in
that middle section right now. And truly it's an uncertain
landscape right now. It's literally that's what we're dealing with
from a governance standpoint, So it kind of makes all
other sometimes decisions and thoughts. You have to be really,
really thoughtful about where we are in Division one in

(24:23):
this moment today, because it's been different. It's different, it's
different than it was just a few years ago. And
I know many folks are just seeing the games, but
there's a lot of stuff happening. It's what is that
that the duck thing underneath the water, right, I mean
kind of there's a lot of things happening underneath the
water or whatever you want to call it, right, like

(24:44):
those types of analogies, but I think that's what's actually happening.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
You reference the fact that if you were just watching
a game on CV, you wouldn't really understand all the
machinations that have gone into roster construction and who's getting
paid we and all the different things that are going on.
Like just this past week, I think I saw in
quick succession an article about Kansas State's men's basketball roster

(25:10):
and how much money was spent and how they're underachieving,
and then flipped over in The next article I saw
was about this giant nine million dollar nil basketball tournament
in Las Vegas that's coming up with some of the
top you know, men's programs in the country that are
going to earn this this giant pot of money. Basically
they'll be able to split amongst their players. And it's

(25:30):
just unique. This is a unique landscape that we're in
right now when you're seeing those sorts of things, And
we didn't have that five years ago, we didn't have
that two years ago, eighteen months, So this is new
territory that everybody's still trying to figure out.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah, and I think the reality of it is, at
least from my perspective, is you'd like to have a
better understanding of the rules of engagement. And at the
end of the day, there just really isn't much right now.
And I know, you know, some folks are calling it
the wild wild West whatever, But I the reality of

(26:04):
it is, we have to get to a place where
there we understand what the actual you know, what's transpiring,
because right now it's hard to know what is real
and what's not real. And I think you know, who
knows what the presidential election going from Democrat to Republican
whether that will make a difference, you know, from a

(26:26):
congressional standpoint, those things are all kind of in play.
I think, you know, more more to come. But someone
you feel good when you have someone like Josh Fenton,
that's that's kind of the head of the ship, if
you will, in our multi sport conference. And he does
a great job. He's a great communicator, as you can tell.

(26:49):
And all of that is just you know, just coming
out because he's dealing with it on a day to
day basis.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
He's been in our lives in some capacity for eleven
plus years, nine years in the NC and now I
think when I looked and saw that it only been
two years for him in charge of the summit, it
was almost surprisingly, that's all it's been.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Twenty two it does, but.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
A very steady hand at the rudder, mister Fentons. So
it was great to have him on and here his
perspectives today for sure.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Well. And the thing is, there used to be a
time frame where you know, we talked about a lot
of other really minor details in some ways in college athletics.
Now you know, we're layering major major changes one on
top of the other and I'm not suggesting that it's
hopefully no one's getting a feeling that this is bad

(27:39):
by any stretch. We just need to get to a
better place where we all know literally what we're dealing
with moving forward, because right now, certainly I know third
parties have always played a role in college athletics, but
they're playing a significant role, whether you're calling a agent, family, advisors,

(28:01):
or consultants, and our life changes based on those folks.
And so we're here trying to help our student athletes,
support them, try to provide them opportunities and get them
to a great place after they depart the institutions. But

(28:23):
there's a lot of other moving parts surrounding all of this.
We'll spend a little bit of time probably maybe after
Eric Martinsen and I will be down at the NCAA
convention in January, and when we get back, maybe we
talk a little bit more about the whole concept of
this opting in and what it would look like from
a house settlement standpoint. But let's put a pen in

(28:45):
it until I get back and really can do some
recon down there.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
From an NCAA conversation to more of a U and
D conversation now as we look through what's been going
on around you and d athletics this past week's on
the end of the season for both football and volleyball.
Both entered the fall with positive outlooks. Both started their
seasons well, football was five and two, remember volleyball was
seven and four in non conference, and then things took

(29:12):
a turn for the worse over the last month and
a half or so. What are your thoughts on both
of those programs now as the seasons have come to
an ends.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah, you know, thanks for the question, Alex. I would
say the one word that I can only keep revolving
in my head is disappointing. I mean, you know, I think,
you know, the teams had high expectations and you know,
unfortunately we didn't fulfill them. And you know, I think
on the volleyball side, I don't think that's the way

(29:42):
coach Tupac envisioned year three. I think he envisioned it
the way it started. For sure. I know we had
an injury early on in the year that was fairly significant,
but every team has to go through challenges and you know,
and so that's it's literally no excuse. But at the
end of you know, where we finished. You know, we

(30:05):
were just good enough at times to just lose in five,
it felt like, and you know, we just couldn't get
over the hump in that sport. And you know, I
look forward to literally again debriefing and he's going into
year four off his his project, if you will, and
you know, he took over a challenging situations, there's no
doubt about it. But you know, we do have, you know,

(30:25):
greater expectations. That program has had some success in the
past and there's no reason why it can't have success
moving forward.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
It's hard when you look at the group and you
can see the potential and see those, as you said,
making it to five against good teams, but not getting
over the hump. And they obviously had a good year
last year. To a matter of yes, trying to recalibrate
and figure out how to get back to the successes
of really just five six years ago when they were
winning Big Sky championships. Not an easy thing, easier to
say than to do, but certainly possible. The infrastructure is

(30:55):
there to make that happen, hopefully.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
My last comment on volleyball is that Josh referred to
it that the conference had a really good year, excellent year,
and when you dig into the numbers a little bit,
our our RPI did improve this past year. I mean
we did it. We did. We took a jump, but
it's not good enough when you're not getting it done
in the conference. And let's face facts. You know, we're

(31:18):
judged on what's transpiring in our conferences. And you know
that was, you know, something that hopefully our team, uh
you know again, with a good recruiting class coming in,
hopefully can take the jump next year. That's at least
the anticipation.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah. So volleyball finishes the season with that four set
loss in North Dakota State. They finished tied for eighth
in the Summit League. Football kind of a similar story,
tie for eighth in the Valley this year. Again, a
great start to the year, but those difficulties on the
road mid season and then some really tough opposition at
the end of the year. They end up losing five straight,
of course, culminating with that defeat on the road at

(31:53):
Illinois State. Just your thoughts on football right now, Bill, Yeah, you.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Know, our our our thought process, Alex every year is
now now, given what's transpired with the new seating system,
is to be a top sixteen team. I mean, the
one thing the top sixteen will provide for you, I
would say, yeah, be a top twenty four team. Well,
of course you want to be in the playoffs, which
we had been for the last five years, which is good.

(32:18):
But at the end, you still want to make a
run too. And I know there's frustration, or at least
some frustration out in the fan base, and quite frankly,
there's frustration in this pod right now. I'll be honest
with you. You know, we've got to be better. We've
got to get better, and we've got to make a run.
And you know, I look forward to rolling my sleeves

(32:38):
up in doing what I do every year with our
coaches is to evaluate everything and really think through what
should we be doing now. I will say, you know,
the program improvements that are occurring right now with moving
into the Hitslupup Memorial Village one and to have the

(32:59):
North Insurance Company Sports Performance Center opening in January, those
are going to be game changers. They really really are.
Now will they be such a game changer that, you know,
all of a sudden boom, we're wherever we are next year?
But I've seen enough in FCS you can you can
you can move up pretty quickly if you have a
great off season and that includes you know, roster construction

(33:23):
and understanding all of those things. So as you know,
as I heard Josh Fenton speak of the uncertain landscape,
I think many many in my chair right now are
thinking through, you know, what is the right thing to
do at any particular moment. And in this situation, we've
got to dig in. We got to dig in and
just get better. I mean, you know, it's frustrating for

(33:44):
me to see the other three Dakotas in the top
four seeds. I'll be honest with you. You know, good
for them, I guess, but at the end of the day,
it's not, you know, not great for us. So I'll
leave it there. And if you can tell, I'm not
entirely excited about where we are. You know, it's part
of the reason why you know, you play games too,

(34:05):
and you know we were you know, we're a possession
and or a play away from probably turning this season differently.
But that's not what you know. We're staring at here
on a Monday morning, after the brackets came out on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
There's some sliding door moments in the season, a two
polk adversion success here, a defensive stop here, and you're
in the playoffs. But those things obviously didn't happen, and
you finished five and seven and you're on the outside
looking in. If you want a positive and these numbers
just came out today, you and need to finish twenty
first in the nation in total attendance. You averaged over
ten thousand in the Ularis at home this year. That

(34:38):
was third best in the valley, only behind NDSU and STSU. Obviously,
the support for the program has never been better. You
mentioned the infrastructure, with the new facilities, it just feels
like the program is ready to take that next step
into make a push. And like as you mentioned, it
was tough to see them not be able to take
advantage of some of those things with the home games,
the home crowds, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
This year, Yeah, no doubt, and thank you to our fans.
I mean they came out and uh, you know, our administration,
I thought it led by Chad Kartauser did a great
job of putting together a seven game home schedule. So
those are the things that you know, we're we're trying
to do to support the program for sure. You know
that was on the heels of having a home playoff

(35:20):
game last year against Sacramento State. So those are the
things that we're trying to do for the program, you know,
I think as as as we move forward, you know,
I think we're excited about you know, some of the
other things that we've got, you know, potentially working. But uh,
but at the end, it does come down to, you know,

(35:41):
a play here and a play there, and then all
of a sudden things things can change on a dime.
And unfortunately, once the momentum went one way, we couldn't
we couldn't, we couldn't necessarily stop the bleeding.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
Football and volleyball now done. Our fall sports have concluded,
with the exception of hockey, of course, which is a fall, winter,
and spring sports. So we'll dig into now like that.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Some would call it a summer sport too.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
So it's it's you know, all all year round. Speaking of,
let's just get into that now. Hockey comes off sure
a difficult sweep against Denver the previous week, with a
good bounce back performance, maybe not a great performance on Friday,
but gets the result against Robert Morrison and completes the
sweep with the one nothing shut out. It's just, you know,
two sweeps now for the program in the past three
weeks after supering Minnesotada Louth on the road two weeks ago.

(36:27):
It's just still the early days of this program, is
they as they try and manage all of these injuries
with six guys now on the shelf, including their captain's
two big wins though, for this team to at least
get the result and now move ahead with Mimidgie State
coming to town next week.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
Yeah, I think the guys did what they had to
do this past weekend. I mean, you know, we can
talk statistics and pairwise and all those types of things,
but you know that there's certain games that you know
are are not gonna be good ones down the road
if if you don't get it done. And you know,
we found a way to get it done, I would
say on Saturday, and I was in the air with football,

(37:03):
so I landed and there was ten minutes left, so
I was literally just listening to Tim and Mike Lemoyne
as I was, you know, driving home. Anytime you shut
someone out, it can be it doesn't matter, it could
be one nothing eleven nothing, you still shut somebody out.
And you know, right, Alex, we watch enough, we watch

(37:24):
enough soccer that when you have a clean sheet, it's
hard to lose a game.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Team teams are unbeaten when when they don't allow a
score that is that is true. And yes, I thought
Saturday's performance was good. I thought they played well. Even
though if you look at it and say, well, you
just scored one goal and it was, you know, off
off a funny bounce. They still felt like they dictated
play though, and they really, like Robert Morris, really, outside
of one breakaway chance, didn't have a ton of great

(37:52):
a opportunities. I thought the structure for U and D
was really sound on Saturday. I thought the effort they
won a lot of puck battles. They were awesome on
the face off all weekend, like really dominated that and
that's sometimes an effort stat more so even than a
skills stat. It just seemed like they Friday, I know
they were. They gave up two third period leads and
they should have won that game in regulation, and there
was some frustration amongst the team after that. It got

(38:13):
to that point. Saturday, though, had a very different feel
to it. Of like, you know what, Yeah, it was
a one goal game, but it felt like we really
did play the way that we wanted to play for
the most part to get the job done.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
So I would say, if I look back now in
my time here, and I've watched a number of our teams,
when you have health, which of course every team wants
to have health, sometimes it is difficult to get let's
just call it five players in in some sort of

(38:46):
a rhythm, I think, not gon Wood. If we can
get some of our guys back. As we move forward here,
we've got now some depth across the board that have
gotten reps in games there's a chance otherwise they may
not have. And and so there's some positive to all
of this, because you never know when you're gonna need

(39:08):
someone moving forward. I mean, let's look at Dane. I mean,
holy cow, Dane has taken I mean he's a Swiss
Army Knight for us right now. And you know what
his role from what it might have been, let's just
say in July to what it is right now. That's
why you play the season. So it's yeah, I hopefully
we get a few guys back for sure, and uh,

(39:30):
but you know, We're going to be thoughtful, you know,
I know, you know Mark Pullman will be you know,
he'll make sure and do what's right, and we will
not rush anyone back because the last thing you want
is to rush them back and then potentially get re
injured again. That that's not good for anybody.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
Especially with a large break coming. You know, there are
a hundred percent left three week Christmas break, and you
know that they'll be smart about how they handle guys
like Bennett's Mole like that have been out since the
first game of the season, and Andrew Strathman and Cody
Crawl got banged up in the Cornell series, and Cameron
Berg that is still kind of finding his way back,
and then Louis of course, who just got hurt this
past weekend. It's it's just a long list of guys,

(40:09):
each dealing with different things, and they will be smart
because I think Bradbury has said even before the season started,
we have the big picture in mind this year. This
is not necessarily about going all out to winn a Penrose.
We want to be at our best in March. We
will see that with how they'll handle these injuries over
the next couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
But what I'll say is, we know how difficult the
NCH is HC is. I mean, it's no different than
Missouri Valley Football Conference saying the same thing with the
Summit League with a lot of our sports. But you know,
there's a lot of good performances going on around the
conference right now, and so there'll be no uh, you know,
there'll be no easy weekends for sure. So but as

(40:49):
long as we get better and get guys back, you know,
I like, I like the I guess the ceiling of
the team. It's just you know, we've got to get
a little bit healthier and then we got we gotta
stack a few weekends together. So this past weekend was good,
but we know we get another tough series against BAMIGI
this week.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Yeah, home and away coming up against the Beavers. We
mentioned in the intro the game on Friday at the
Sanford Center is going to be live on Mid cost
Sports Plus. C CCHA TV is a mid cost Sports
plus offering, So if you can subscribe to that, if
you can't make it to Bimigie, you can watch that
game on Friday night and stream it, I should say.
And then Saturday's game of course will be live on
Mid Coast Sports and an NCCHD Dot TV at the Ralph.

(41:31):
Then it's a road trip to Miami, and then it's
a home series against Saint Cloud and then it's the break.
So six big games, yep, four more to come against
unranked teams. But we know Babigi is capable of beating
anybody in the country. They just beat Minnesota two weeks ago,
they swept Saint Thomas this past weekend. That's always a
physical rivalry series. A couple of tough games coming up there.
And then even though Miami is on this difficult stretch,

(41:54):
Oxford's a hard place to go to. So not even
though you look at this and think, all right, four
more games to go against these unranked teams, these aren't gimmes.
Certain Oh you'll have to play well too, as you said,
start to stack some of those wins heading into Christmas.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Hey, Alex, there's no gimmes in college hockey.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
Sixty four teams. They're all pretty good, really, even a
team like stone Hill who last year like was just demolished.
They've beaten some teams this year, linden Wood, these new programs,
there's a lot of talent and that, by the way,
is only going to increase. This might be a good
segue to talk about the CHL news. Now we have
potentially this huge pool of players have the opportunity to

(42:31):
be eligible to play in the NCAA moving forward. What
a wild turn of events that we kind of could
see coming. Yeah, it officially became official just two weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
That's trade ox And I think it kind of lends
to the uncertain landscape right like at the end, it
seems like a lot of things that we've known for
a lot of years is being upended, it's being evolved,
it's being changed, and so here we are, you know,
the one that Brad sh Lassman wrote about and you know,
and I've spoken him in regards to this as well,

(43:01):
is you know, coming down the pike, could be you know,
some effects on delayed enrollment too, And so that that's
another thing that I'll be interested when I'm at the
NCAA convention to see where that lands at this point
in time, because I think basically what's happening is our
folks in Indianapolis, our governing body of our association, I
think is looking through all of the rules that potentially

(43:24):
could be looked at and ultimately challenged, and so I
think that's what's transpiring. So, yeah, you're right, this one
didn't come out of nowhere. But with the news that
we heard from American International College where they're going to
go from Division one to Division two, you know, there's
you know, and again, I actually when we flew to
BU last year, Jody Hodson's son's place for Bentley, so he,

(43:48):
Eric Martinson and I drove down to on that Thursday
night to watch a C play and I think a C,
I could be wrong, might have had plus thirty plus
on the roster somewhere in that range. And so that's
thirty less spots Alex on top of more coming in
and then who knows what's going to be happening with
the delayed enrollment. So there's a lot of moving parts

(44:10):
going on. So what was traditional for a lot of
us to think through, like, well, this is what should happen,
you know, with our programs. And I'm just not sure
what is normal right now. I'm not sure we're living
in normal. I think we're kind of living an abnormal
and we're trying to get to normal.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Yeah, yeah, it's a process currently, and if you want
to learn more about if this is all new to you,
if you're listening to this podcast and saying what yes.
Brad s Lassman has a couple of articles on grand
forkshrald dot com where you can kind of look and
get more of the details. He went into depth on
this with Jason Felban on the und Hockey podcast I
think two weeks ago or so in this news broke

(44:48):
But essentially again, this is the three major junior leagues
in Canada that have now been given license for their
players to be eligible to play in CUAA hockey, because
this is just sort of the next step. Previously, they
weren't able to because they were compensated. Even though it
was a lot, it was a marginal number. It wasn't
like they were getting paid thousands of dollars. It was

(45:08):
living expenses essentially, but that was enough to make them ineligible.
And now that that is not an issue.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
Because they were on the ice with others that were
getting so that was kind of the reason. Now there's
I think other international type potential prospects that might have
the door might have been loosened as well for them
to play college hockey. So all to be said, college hockey.
It's unbelievably competitive as it is as we speak right now.

(45:37):
I think it's only going to get more competitive.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Feels that way. Yeah so, which again, it's a great product.
Now just wait, it's just going to continue to get
better and better. Correct basketball quickly. Men's and women's soups
now are underway. The men, as you mentioned with Josh,
just got a big win over Loyal and Merrymount out
in Los Angeles. They've now made the four thousand mile
track to can Kuhn to play a couple more games
than they can can challenge. They're taking on but Dune

(46:01):
Cookman tomorrow three and two. For Paul Sather's side, thoughts
on men soup.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
So far, yeah so, And just so, for those of
you scoring at home, this is a multi team exempt event,
so you can play. It gives you another game. It's
almost like playing a Hall of Fame game in hockey
to some degree. But it started on a campus site
in LA playing LMU and then it's gonna end up
for two games and then they'll I think to stay

(46:26):
there probably for Thanksgiving and then head back. But a
lot of basketball teams try to do tournaments around Thanksgiving.
Time because you try to leave campus. Makes makes total sense.
So yeah, we've got a couple I would say games
that are in our we'll call it our weight class,
and so we'll see what happens. But yeah, I think

(46:47):
we're deep on the men's side, and I think we're
uh he's trying to figure out his rotation a little
bit at this point in time. But it's been uh,
it's been good. It's been good. I think, uh, you know,
it's it's exciting and there's there's a lot of up
side in that program.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
Yeah, we've seen Traasa and Eagles staff have some big
gass thirty one the other night, you know, they played
Notre Dame fairly close for about about thirty minutes. This
yourself played well and then and the Irish kind of
pulled away at the end. There have been some good
signs from that group.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
I really liked that guard from Notre Dame. He was
really good, a really good player. I think he was
the ACC Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year
last year, Freshman of the year. He was really good.
But yeah, and you know, I think, you know, we
just they went on an early run in the second
half and got us but I thought, you know, we

(47:36):
played decently and then bounced back and played well on
the road against Loyal against the West Coast Conference school,
which you know, you know they again they don't have football.
So at the end of the day, they're putting no
different than Utah Valley. They don't have football, right, and
so when you're playing non football schools, you know where
the majority of their resources are going. And so and
then you know, as Chad Krthauser went to Occidental in

(47:58):
LA and played football there, say, you know, there's no
doubt they're going to have a transfer to from like UCLA.
I mean, that's just how it goes. And so so
it was it was a good win for the for
the guys.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
Yeah, seventy seven seventy three on the road, as he said,
against the WCC team, That's that's one that you're gonna
bank on or you will look back on and say,
that was a nice statement with help show. The course
of the season, Malory Bernhard's squad now two and three,
they've lost a couple in a row to pretty good teams.
Close games against Green Bay, close game on the road
the othernight against Western Kentucky, a tough one at home

(48:29):
to Montana. They also have a Thanksgiving Weekend Classic coming
up this week. They'll take on Valparaiso coming up on
the thirtieth, and then the winner of Lehigh Maris the
following day before coming back home for the Big Sky
Summit Challenge against Weaver State against kind of the similar story,
some some positive things, some growing moments as mal tries
to figure out what's my best five, who's coming off
the bench first, etcetera.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah, I think, you know, we've had this conversation. I
think she's pretty comfortable with the five or six at
this point in time. But with stylistically, there's no doubt
we're trying to move the pace. We're trying to do
some things a little bit differently than we did certainly
last year. And I think we're trying to get up
and down the court. But I think whereas Paul might
be trying to try to contract his figure out his rotation,

(49:14):
she's trying to expand it at this point in time,
and so I think there's some some uh, you know,
possibilities there, but they've got to show it in games.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Kira Pemberton's been really good. She's been taking a step
as a sophomore double figures in everything.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Mikhayla Homer has been good.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
She's been good too in the bad court ye now
a junior, Yep, she's kind of growing into that role.
They've been a fun team to watch again, the same thing.
It just feels like turnovers. That's kind of been the
bugaboo for this team. The last hand. Yeah, I put
that down.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
A little bit and she and she she made a decision.
Of course, we were lucky to get a local product,
but really gave the ball to a true freshman and
h And at the end, you know she We're going
to watch her grow right before our very eyes. But
you know, Jossy's done very very well. But you know
she's going to go through some uh pace of game

(50:01):
situations and I think you're going to see a different
Josse Shiller in November than you will see her in February.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
Yeah, I would agree with that. And she has been
pretty good, I mean yeah, yeah, I mean as a
true freshman, you know, with the ball in her hands
a lot, she's made some plays and has been really
impressive right.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
From the underd percent.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Well, good luck to those two programs as they really
get into the meat of their non conference season three
with Thanksgiving anything else from a un d perspective, Bill,
As before, we make a quick flip over to the
b C.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
No. I always appreciate Josh Finton coming on. He always
gives us perspective and you know, we'll always have him
on it once or twice a pod just because he's
always involved with a lot of different things and he
can always educate us and hopefully our listeners. So yeah,
let's do it, just a quick.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Flip besidewise, positive things to talk about on the soccer front. Bill.
We come off an international break, the last one until March,
and Spurs go out and beat Man City four nil
on the road. Yeah, fifty two game home winning streak.
That you What can you say about a and the Spurs.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
Style right the way Man City likes to play, it's
you get opportunities, and I think when you when the
Spurs lose, they they get frustrated and teams frustrate them
and then they give up on a counter and next
thing you know, you're down. And you know I was

(51:24):
going to say to Josh, you know, with the two
men's soccer teams on the summit side, there's kind of
a little bit of a parallel for sure between hockey
and soccer. You know, you score first, and all of
a sudden, the game takes a different turn. I more
than likely it takes a different turn and you start
chasing a bit, and that can be frustrating. And I

(51:48):
can see, you know, that's what's happened with Tottenham. Well
that's what I see like at times when they score first,
they are kind of full of themselves and they go
and then when they don't it becomes challenging. So but
you know, I mean City, you know, and I look
at you know, you know what happened to our football
team losing five straight going out? Well, City's in the

(52:09):
same boat. And for those of you that don't know
much about, uh soccer at the international level, they've won
what the last five out of six Premier leagues five
out of six and uh maybe four straight. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
I think that's right, unprecedented, unprecedented success.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
They're one of the winning yeah, and and uh, you know,
they're going through a little bit of a time. And
Pep Guardiola is a great, great He's probably renowned as
the top one of the top coaches in the world
in anything and so even this, you know, you look
at it and you go you know, you go through things,

(52:47):
and as he said, it's gonna make it's going to
challenge you for sure, but you got to dig in,
got to dig in and figure it out.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
A fifth straight loss for City, as you said, that's
the most step I think fourth. Paul Pepp had never
lost four in a row ever, and you gave him
his fifth. It was your second win over City this year.
We talked, I think on our last part how Spurs
were second in goal difference. They're now leading the league
in goals scored bill twenty seven on the season. Nobody
else has scored more. Second in goal difference, still only
to Liverpool.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
So I like to connect our aside and the B side.
Like we said with beating Robert Morris on Saturday night,
it's different when you shut someone out, you know. That
was the most impressive part of They scored four times,
which was obviously awesome, but at the end of the day,
getting a zero was probably just as big, I'll be

(53:36):
honest with you, because they tend to sometimes get leaky
and give up that goal like in the eighty eighth minute.
But there's something mentally to be able to get out
of there with a clean sheet.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
You're in sixth place. Things are good, and all the
pressure it just feels like that and have been heaping
on now feels like it's it's.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
A week by week I mean. And they've got a
big one on Thursday in the Europa Cup against Roma
and Roma has not had a great year this year,
so we'll see what ends up happening. And then they
play Fulham at home on Sunday and you know here
we are. I mean, we'll see, we'll see if they
can stack. I mean, it got a stack. I mean,
that's what you need to do. But your Liverpool, I
mean that there's two leagues going on right now, one

(54:18):
that Liverpool's playing in, and then everybody else feels that way.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Speaking of stacking. Yeah, Liverpool now with eleven wins of
twelve or whatever, eleven positive results. I think they've won
ten of their first twelve. They had to fight the
Southampton here's the bottom team in the league. But it
was a cold, windy, rainy day on the south coast
of England's yep, and Liverpool went up and then they
gave up a penalty that was kind of like borderline
penalty right on the edge of the box, and then

(54:44):
Southampton went up to one in the second half and
a couple of most solid goals rescue it for Liverpool.
So they just continue to roll. They're eight points clear
now of the rest of the league. A lot of
time to go again, this is a long season. You
play thirty eight games, they've only played a dozen, but
the early returns have just continued to be fantastic. They

(55:04):
have a big week ahead though. They will play Real
Madrid midweek in the Champions League and then they will
play City on the weekend, so a couple of big
ones coming up. But it feels like they've they've passed
every test so far.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
Yeah, they have, and they've they've looked good doing it
for sure. But you know, as we know, it's it's
still not even Thanksgiving, so there's going to be so
many fixtures coming here and as you said, before the
next international break, so which we love a good international.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
Break, he says, tongue in cheek.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
Oh, let's just do it every week.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
It's great.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
Built anything else in your minds, Yeah, I'll say this.
I want to thank everybody for what they do for
the University of North Dakota. So obviously it's it's that
week for sure, So I want to make sure that
everybody has a great, great Thanksgiving. Safe travels. It's a
always uh you know, can be busy out there, so

(56:06):
make sure you take a deep breath and think about
the ones around you and uh. And that's that's what
hopefully Thursday can be for many of us. Hopefully we
do that the other three hundred and sixty four days
as well. And the last thing I'll say is, yeah,
let's get a holiday President of Juan Soto under the
under our respective red Sox.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
Tree, keeping his fingers crossed, thankful, thankful for Scott Boris
today and hopefully his his kind, his kind, generous heart.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
Hopefully it's not so hot out there. He does it,
he uses he uses a suntan lotion. I want to
just make sure he's in great spirits.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
Happy Scott. We want a happy Scott going into negotiations.
So awesome. That's a good way to end this pod. Yes,
Happy Thanksgiving to everybody out there. Enjoy this really special
time with your loved ones, A great chance to think
back on all the blessings in your life and thanks
to be thankful for every day for sure. So we're
thankful for We're thankful for podcast.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
Thankfu for Bill what, thankful for Alex that's right, thankful
for Midco for sure for sponsoring Amen.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
Yes, so on that note, we will we will say goodbye,
good you Ado for another pod this week. But yes,
big thanks to Josh Fenton for taking some time to
join us in the midst of a really busy time
for him. Thanks to Paul and Alec on the back
end for getting things set up for us and Bill.
Thanks to you, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours same
awesome thanks again for listening everybody. We'll talk to you
next time.