August 5, 2025 • 53 mins
In the Season 8 premier, Bill and Alex recap news and notes from the summer (2:10), headlined by a debrief on what’s happening with the NCAA House Settlement. Then, the first B-Side of the new season (35:20) touches on all the changes at White Hart Lane for Bill’s beloved Tottenham Hotspur before an assessment of the ahead-of-schedule Boston Red Sox.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Bill Shaves Podcast presented by Mid
Coast Sports. Another fall sports season is almost here, and
Mid Coast Sports has it covered like nowhere else this fall.
Tune in for live coverage of college football into Dakota's
including Fighting Hawks football broadcasts both home and away, as
well as some of the league volleyball and soccer, and
nsic and so much more. Watch on Mid Coast Sports
(00:21):
and streaming on Mid Coast Sports Plus. This is how
we do sports. And this is the season eight premiere
of the Bill Shapes Podcast. Let's go Welcome to another
edition and another season of the Bill Shapes Podcast. I
am Alex Seinert, proud to be joined by University of
North Dakota athletics director, the namesake of the show for
(00:43):
the last eight years, mister Bill Shaves. New season, Bill,
New Year, Excitement Budding. It's August the fourth. We're taping
this on a Monday, New Week, New month, new.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Season, Alex. It is great to see you and here
we are again season eight. Yeah, really really really exciting
time for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
It's it's almost as if, especially in athletics, we kind
of get the new year off, the new academic year
off because obviously our student athletes are here for for
much of the summer to some degree, but there's kind
of this official feeling around campus when when practices kind
of you know, you get into fall camps both for
(01:26):
for soccer and then volleyball and then football, and you know,
obviously across country it would be back and just you
know everyone, you know, it's an exciting time of year
because you know, hey, you you're always envisioning maybe we
are going to be the best in the conference that
we play in, and you know what, why not? Why
not us? Why not you know, the teams that we
(01:48):
support root for, I I work for. I mean, it's
it's exciting for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Hope springs eternal in August around college campuses across the
country for good reason. That's very much the case in
Grant Fork's here this year. Well, you mentioned practices. Beginning,
we'll touch a bit on looking ahead, not too much
of this episode, because you've got a little more time
between now and when things will really start up at
the later part of this month. We will be looking
back over the course of the next sixty minutes or
(02:14):
so about what's been going on in the summer. That's
where the direction of this particular episode is going to
be looking back over the last two months since our
last episode at the end of May and catch people
up on what's happening in your world, what's happening around
the NCUBLEA.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
In some cases, a lot has happens.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
On the other hands, we're kind of still in the
same boat, aren't we in terms of where things stands
in governance and where the NCAA is headed. We haven't
really gotten as many answers maybe as we would have
liked over the last two months.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
You know, Alex, I've thought about that absolutely. I think
it makes a whole lot of sense that we just
at least recapped the last couple of months, and obviously
we didn't have games at that point in time. So,
like you said, as we kind of look through the
front windshield, maybe next pod and on we'll start guests
in a few other things that we normally do do.
But this one I felt like you and I I
(03:04):
think we kind of closed the year last year and
then we're opening this year, and it made a whole
lot of sense. But you know, we probably need to
think of a way to say. I don't think it's
going to change for the foreseeable future. I think what
I do believe is that, you know, we just have
to be really, really comfortable in uncertainty, and so much
(03:26):
so that at times you might get direction in one
week and in the next week it might come back
and it either is softened or it's altered in some way,
it's pivoted. And so that has literally happened over the
last couple of weeks relative to you know, the whole
(03:48):
opt in opt out the process by which so so
much so Alex that we've been getting a lot of
feedback from the College Sports Commission in conjunction with the NCAA.
So we're sitting there kind of having now two entities
overseeing Division I athletics. I'm not sure how sustainable that
(04:12):
is in the long term, and so we are just
day by day we are just working things through and
making the right decisions for the student athletes that are
on our campus, and it's just it's an interesting time.
I do believe this is that we will get to
(04:32):
a more sustainable future in the not so distant future,
I would say, but when I say that, it still
could be a couple of years from now, I think
a lot of things have to work itself through, potentially Congress,
court cases, settlement cases. We're just not there yet, and
(04:53):
it just makes for a fascinating day each and every day.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
That's life right describing life Bill.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
It's not necessarily linear, and we don't always have the
instructions on what comes next. And that's what's been the
case with the NCAA now for I guess maybe the
better part of eighteen months.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I suppose maybe two years.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I feel like it's been kind of this interesting cycle
really since maybe twenty twenty three, but really even since COVID.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
If you want to even drift it back.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, you can drift it back to COVID. You could
drift it back to when I think you can pinpoint
it to June of twenty one, when we had an
NIL policy that was in play, ready to hit go on,
and our governing body decided at the last minute to say,
you know what, you either follow your state law or
create one yourself, but we're not going to put one
(05:40):
out there ourselves. From an organizational standpoint, I think from
that day on, we've been in this mode where whatever
we believed to be let's just say, policies in guidance
over the course of the previous fifty years, honestly, everything
has been kind of turned upside down, and we're just
(06:03):
you know, and some of it is long overdue and
needed modernization of what we're doing in college athletics. Others
is a point where I think people are looking for
at least some rules of engagement so that they can
have sustained stability moving forward. And you know, three hundred
(06:25):
and sixty schools that participate in Division one athletics. They
come in all shapes and sizes, and I think what
we're finding out and I think that anyone that has
tried to help this enterprise, it quickly understands that it's
just not as simple as making one rule and you
fixed it, or doing why don't you just do this
(06:46):
whatever this is. I think they find very quickly that
it's a whack a mole game and that that ultimately,
anytime you do one thing, there's probably two or three
other things that happen. And you know, so really where
we've been and we continue to be Alex is in
the court court of law, and so that is probably
(07:09):
not the greatest place to be for an enterprise continually.
And so I'm hopeful by the time I retire, we've
landed the plane where maybe there's some stability moving forward,
because I think parents that have student athletes, coaches that
are recruiting student athletes, I think the majority would yearn
(07:31):
for more stability.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I would agree with that.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yes, famous last words, by the way, that you hope
this will be resolved before before your desire you mentioned.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I want to back up just for a sec.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
You mentioned again things being in the courts, and that's
where a lot of this drama has played out. We
did get approval, if that's even the right word of
the house settlement?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Would you say? Is that?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I mean that the judge overseeing the case basically, after
some adjustments, gave the thumbs up that yes, this can proceed.
Am I am I saying that correctly?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Building Yeah, No, I think that's right. But what's interesting,
really interesting, And I'm just going to try to stay
really macro here. The house settlement occurred on a Friday,
June sixth. The thumbs up was based on the majority
(08:20):
of the items she's accepted. The one that she had
a question with was rosters, and that was the reason why.
In back in February before there was a March one,
deadline on whether institutions would be opting in or not.
The University of North Dakota decided, Hey, I'm not comfortable
(08:42):
with roster limitations and so much so that that probably
wouldn't make sense for us to opt in at that
point in time. Well, fast forward to June sixth. Sure enough,
the judge was uncomfortable with that, and so she said, hey,
there's got to be some sort of dispensation. So, sure enough,
(09:03):
there's a four year grandfathering process. And so that's the
reason why UND then decided opting in. For that particular
reason and a few others that I won't get into,
made a whole lot of sense. And so that's where
we are today. And I think we can get to
the numbers over the course of now a four year period,
and I think we can get to where we need
(09:25):
to get to. So, you know, the one last thing
I'll mention, because you said the settlement. What's interesting is
the settlement is still literally being negotiated right now by
the Power four Conferences and the PAC ten, which was
the PAC ten, which was the Power five conference, and
the NCAA, which that's where we get grouped into so
(09:50):
much of this conversation is still in play as we
are introducing the CSC into the fray, and we don't
have all the full rules of engagement of the settlement.
And so what makes me kind of sad is that
(10:10):
maybe we should have thought about, maybe we should have
thought outward, let's get the settlement details done and then
give the CSC a fighting chance, and maybe everything needs
to be in play by let's just say July one
of twenty six. We didn't do that, and so now
what is occurring is every day we're getting guidance or
(10:34):
new guidance or different guidance from the guidance that came.
Not an awesome way to start, doesn't feel that way.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
No, that's not great.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
There are several different projects happening at the same time,
but you need to do them sequentially or else the
project over here is not going to work as well
as it should and that will affect the next project
and the other project in any case. So you mentioned
opting in University of North Dakota deciding to opt into
the House Settlement as a reminder for our listeners that
have maybe been hearing these terms, could you define again
(11:09):
what that means for the University of North Dakota, for
our student athletes, for the athletics department, what does it
mean to opt in?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, in its most basic terms, and as I just indicated,
when the settlement, the finalized settlement agreement occurs, which again
some of this information is still getting the last I
dotted and teas crossed, but it basically says, hey, there
(11:41):
was a house settlement and we are going to go
forward today, and all of the permutations that come with
that settlement we are going to abide by. At this
stage of the game. Much of it has to do
at the highest level of division one, where there literally
is that's a salary cap if you will. And again
(12:04):
maybe those aren't the terms, but that's kind of what
I think people would understand. What institutions can now do
is provide internal name, image, and likeness to student athletes
up to a certain number twenty point five million dollars.
On this podcast, I can tell you we will not
get to the twenty point five million dollars. Who knows
(12:28):
where we're going to be financially in that regard, it
gives us an option to use internal nil. That's one piece.
The other piece was, so what to do with collectives
all around the country. Well, what happened is, as we
opted in, we believed that there was still going to
(12:49):
be a place for our eighteen eighty three collective, the
fourth leg of the stool, if you will, of what transpires.
The institution helps us, the alumni found foundation helps us.
Ralph Engelstadt Arena helps us in eighteen eighty three collective.
What we learned and why I say things keep changing,
(13:11):
is when the rules came out, the new director, the
new CEO of the CSC, Brian Seely, sent a note
doubt and basically said about ten days ago, any any
deal sent through the system, call now nil goal. Go
(13:33):
for external nil deals, any of them that will be
put through by a collective will be rejected. That felt
pretty specific, It felt pretty direct, and it felt really
all of them, not many of them, might have a
(13:54):
business purpose if that, if you're trying to keep from
the pay to play, which at the highest level Division one,
that's what the conversation has been. Not necessarily, I would say,
at the mid major tier where we stand, as you
might imagine, collectives have now been around for four years,
they've banded together. They disagreed with how that settlement process
(14:20):
would go. They voiced their displeasure so much so that
they thought maybe we would go to court over it.
Since then we got further clarification that well, not all
deals will get rejected, they just have to go through
and then outlined exactly what the deals need to entail
(14:41):
a business purpose, a legitimate business purpose as determined by
a group, the CSC group. So I say all this
not to bore people and not to put you to sleep.
I say it all is as we're even moving forward.
The settlement per se, all the nuances to it is
(15:05):
evolving as we speak, and so I still feel comfortable
what und did like we paused Initially, we said, if
you need to know what we're doing on March first,
seems weird to me. The judge hasn't even come back
with whether or not she's going to improve it, but
we're not going to opt in. The judge comes back
in June three months later and says, hey, I'm not
(15:28):
approving this unless you do something with rosters, which was
really our issue. So what ended up happening was that happened,
So we opted in. Now the settlement terms are literally
being evolved as the plane is flying and so I
my question is might have been good to have a
(15:50):
better deadline up ahead, like say even December one, or
you know whatever, January one, March one, whatever you want
to do to give the CSC a fighting chance to
figure out what our new normal is moving forward.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
I appreciate that recap.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I know that's like you said, it's a lot of nuance,
and there's a lot of different specific things that are
happening or that still haven't quite happened yet. But it's
as good to remember what the whole point of this
is and where this began and what this might mean
moving forward.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
And the last thing is Alex I will say, is
of the three hundred and sixty or so Division one schools,
I think all but forty have opted in. So that
was the one thing I think we said on the
pod when I came back from the NCAA convention in January,
which was you are going to opt in. It's just
(16:44):
a matter when you might. You might sit it out
one year for a variety of reasons. Each institution has
their own reasons for what they're doing. I'm not suggesting
it was good or bad. I'll be honest with you.
It's more is, and so, but I do think I
think ultimately we will be governed by one set of
(17:04):
rules at some point in time, and you're not going
to have what's happening with those schools, those fortyish schools
doing something different over the course of say three to
five years. I just don't see that happening. So I
kind of I think we're in an okay spot. I
think where we are institutionally I feel good about, and
(17:27):
I come to work making sure that any commitments we've
made to student athletes that we've just got to figure
out how to make sure that, you know, we have
everything dialed in, and that's what our staff works on,
and then we try to educate as best as possible.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
So this is I'm sure a very small part of
your summer that's been working on and thinking about, you know,
obviously a very large part what else has been going
on in your world over the last few months that
you're excited about that you've been thinking about having discussions
on our seeing come to fruition.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Give us that side of the update, though, Yeah, you know,
I would.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Say it's always project time. And so when we have
our last game of the year in a previous academic year.
You're constantly then going straight into some sort of hey,
no games for about a two to three month period. Okay,
what is it we can do in certain facilities. Sometimes
(18:21):
it's it's and I'll call it, you know, oil changes
or tune ups. You know, they may not be sexy,
but things that you need to get done. Then there's
some other things we think about too. You know, hey,
this is the time if you're gonna if you're gonna
alter maybe some you know, thoughts on end zone seating,
say at the Betty or do those types of things,
or do something for your student athletes. That's the time
(18:44):
to do it. So I would say no, no projects
really that I really need to to say much about
at this point. Except here in Memorial Village we continue
to kind of finish up, you know, the Pollard addition,
the Nodak Insurance Company Sports Performance Center was opened, and
(19:07):
then of course adjacent to that is the Memorial Memorial
Stadium turf and now are our outside track is in
the midst of getting done. And in fact, Alex it's
only striping away, that's how close we are. So I
learned a little bit about the process. It's kind of
(19:29):
like an Oreo cookie, there's layers, and so the last
layer got put on and now we have to We
had some rain here, probably much needed rain over the
course of the last you know, month or so, and
that that delayed us from getting the striping done. So
we're gonna wait until the football team heads to Manhattan
(19:51):
for game one. There's a little window there that we
can get it done, and that's when we're gonna do it.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Excellent, excellent, good for good segue by the way too,
because we do competitions coming up, football one of them.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Of course that's not that far away.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That's exciting to hear that some of those projects are
continuing to progress. And I think when people, again, maybe
students that were on campus and then left for the summer,
it won't be quite the same return and reveal and
awe of all brick Field being finished or some of
the Memorial Village projects that were concluded over the summer
last year. But there still is like it's so neat
(20:26):
to look down at the Columbia Overpass area and what's
been accomplished and how those things are still just they're
not quite one hundred percent finished. There are still a
few more things that are going to be done, just
continues to elevate the student athlete experience here at the
University of North Dakota.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, no doubt about it, I would say inside the Ralph,
and again, I think anybody that owns a home understands
that there's just maintenance that has to be done. The
roof is in play right now, and so you know
that's not something that you will visually see, but you
will feel or not feel, I would say, depending on
(21:03):
where you are, and either the Betty or the Ralph.
So Jodie's been working hard in that regard, and then
there's just different other projects that he always gets done
during this time of year, inclusive of you know, we've
actually had the opportunity today as as Alex mentioned at
the top, we're recording on a Monday, Monday morning and
(21:24):
now again it is raining here a little bit in
Grand Fok, So I don't know if this will affect
it or not, but Uhila is a scheduled to start
going down today and so that's that will be fascinating.
Sad there's a lot of emotions that will be tied
up into that for sure, but you know, we were
able to take out the stands that were it was
(21:47):
in the pool area and kind of put him over
at Bronson Field and so that will be awesome, among
a few other things that we were able to do
at Bronson as well. And you know, the last thing
I'll mention is Ray Richard's golf course. We continue to
have conversations about what to do with that plot of
land since we've got a federal a federal project with
(22:10):
the intersection of forty second and demurs in play that's
going to disrupt play for the next two years at
Ray Richards golf Course. So with that gives us opportunity
to think about what's next. And so those are the
those are the multiple plates that we still have spinning.
And you know, it never stops. I mean, I think
(22:31):
you need to keep moving forward and likes you know,
sometimes the gift could be like to say, a small gift,
but in some ways impactful and sometimes it's larger, and
so you're working on all of them simultaneously.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Always something, especially in the summertime, I feel, always something
because you transition so quickly from competition again to looking
ahead to the future and making those plans and things
that are years away. You're already working on so it'll
be fun to see again what comes next on the
U and EAS campus in the next month and year
and days ahead. So one of the things that we
wanted to discuss over the course of this podcast was, yes,
(23:10):
the excitement that comes with having student athletes who are
typically on campus in the summer but now back with
an elevated purpose because there are transitions just around the
trait and you mentioned the fall sports that have begun.
What is it like now on campus having practice underway
that is in full force for football, for volleyball, for
cross country, for track, or for for soccer.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Excuse me, Yeah, I think that's right. You know, although
you get to see the athletes during the summer, I
think there's there's a different mindset that's going on with
them at that point. I think it's, you know, very
internally focused in a lot of ways of trying to
figure out how they get their body to where they
(23:49):
want to get it, to do all the things that
you want to do to give yourself a better chance
during competition. Once these days start right now, competition you
can see it, you can see it, it's coming, and
I think there's just I think a level of energy, anticipation, excitement,
those types of words. And you see it with the
(24:10):
coaches too, right, it's a different it's a different mindset.
You just you see the coaching staff walk around and
they're just tunneled. I mean they're tunneled most of the time.
They're very tunneled at this point in time because they're
you know, they're they're thinking through, Hey, what can I
do today to get better? So that you know, depending
on you know who you're going to play, you know,
right around the corner that that where is it in
(24:32):
good a position as possible to give ourselves a chance
to win the win, the match, the game, whatever it
might be.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Of the four fall sports, most of them kick off
that final week of August. Officially, volleyball has an exhibition
on the twenty third. Their home opener is the twenty ninth.
Cross Country begins on the twenty ninth in Grand Forks
with the Ron Pin Classic. Football you already mentioned, will
go to Manhattan to play a very good Kansas State
team on the thirtieth. The only one that starts a
little bit earlier is women's soccer, and that will be
(24:58):
the debut for Hendrick Son and this new look team
already on the seventh of August against Green Bay. It's
an exhibition game in Minneapolis, but they play a game
for real six days from now at home at Bronson
against Northeast Community College.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
So they really are not that far away from really.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Kicking off competition. It's fun to think that this is
really just around the corner. We joked at the in May,
I think we were talking about when like football kickoff
times were released and how that felt like that was
still a long ways away, and now that really does not.
Six days is not that long before competitions begin.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
It's wild.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, soccer always is a you know interesting They always
get it going pretty quick, pretty quick turnaround. Obviously, you
know they've done a good job over the summer months
as well and obviously in in the spring. But yeah,
I think Henrick and his crew is excited to take
on the challenge this year. And you know, the difference,
(25:52):
as we've said many times, you play each team in
the Summit League once and it's massive, huge, whatever the
words you want to use. And we all know as
much as we talk about soccer on the B side,
you know there's not much difference between making the playoffs
and the tournament in the Summit League, and not usually
(26:13):
it comes down to the last match. That's really what
ultimately it comes down to. And so, you know, I
think he's excited about his team and he's brought you know,
he's brought a new energy for sure, and a new
thought process on how he wants to play it. And
the good news is he's been around the Summer League
a little bit too, so it's not as if he's
(26:35):
having to you know, kind of worry about having gone
to matches, what kind of styles being played, you know,
all those types of things. That's the good news with
him taking over the program.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
We'll be watching women's soccer coming up over the course
of the next several weeks. Some of league play for
them doesn't start till the end of September. Same story
for volleyball, but non conference obviously important to build. We'll
talk a lot more about the specifics of those particular
teams in the weeks ahead, of course, as we get
closer to the start of the regular season. A couple
other just random notes from over the course of the summer.
Jordan Stevens signed a new three year contract extension after
(27:11):
leading the softball program to a program tying record for
wins twenty six last season.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Jordan has done a really good job over the course
of time since he's been here with we'll call it
limited resources, and he has found a way to you know,
bring students in anticipate, you know, in a situation where
(27:38):
maybe it wasn't the most ideal for sure from a
competitive standpoint, and obviously a great institution to be at
the University of North Dakota. You're here for other reasons
as well, so I think obviously he's able to provide that.
But you know, given the fact that all brick Field
has opened up and as we mentioned, our Noteac Insurance
(27:59):
Company Sports Performance Center now houses their locker room and
weight room is in there in sports training. You know,
it's it makes a whole lot of sense that he
gets an opportunity to to i'll say, play with the
play with a different set of tools in his toolbox.
And so we're excited to have Jordan, you know, here
(28:20):
with us, and you know, and I think you know,
he knows that. I think if he was on this
pod right now, he would say this. He would say, hey,
you know, different level of expectation for the program at
this point in time. What an opportunity for us, and
so I think he's excited about it as we are too.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
It was a phenomenal year one for und with that
new facility on campus. Again, they were an extra inning
to feed away from really making some noise at the
semi of league tournament after winning a game this spring.
So it'll be fun to watch that team to have
some fall games coming up before too long, and then
of course the competition will get started in the spring.
Shifting gears you and the hockey'll obviously a lot of
news within that program over the course of the off season.
(28:58):
With a mostly new code staff, some really exciting players
have committed to the program that will be a part
of the team this season. From just an optics perspective,
they have a new kit maker, as we would say
on the soccer side, New Jersey's new sweaters this year.
But so the transition from Adidas to CCM very exciting
times for hockey. Good cool uniforms. Bill, I know you
(29:18):
signed off fun those nice job.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Well, you know it's funny, I have to admit to you,
and I'll be really candid with with folks on our
pod that doesn't do much for me, the actual uniforms,
I would say happy that people are happy with them.
That makes me happy. But and if Jody Hodgson and
(29:44):
UH and Jason at the Sioux shop are happy with
what maybe is going to happen from a retail standpoint.
Dan Johansson in the in the in the team and
UH and the coaches along with Eric Martinson. I think
they they they did spend a good chunk of time though,
you know, thinking through what might make sense, and they
did a lot of homework. And yeah, I think they
(30:06):
were well received. And you know, I think, you know,
we've had CCM before and I think, you know, they
will be uh, they'll be great for us, and you know,
hopefully it will be good on the retails side as well,
which which I have no doubt it will.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Be from the broadcast side. The numerals look fantastic. That's
all I really care about. We can see the numbers
on the back of the uniforms, so that's that's another
box that we checked.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
So appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
So looking forward to hockey season, not that far away either.
October the fourth, they'll play Manitoba and the exhibition at home.
That's really now literally two months from today, things will
get going on the ice as well.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
So yeah, let's lots of good stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
It's an exciting time I think around the University of
North Dakota as it always is this time of year,
and it's fun to catch up a little bit on
what's been happening in your world. As for the listeners,
of course, before you we are going to flip to
the B side like we always do before you decide
to listen or not listen.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
We will be back.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
This will be a Bye Wee Glee podcast again this year,
so in two weeks time we'll jump back on. I
think the plan is to shoot for Mondays with a
Tuesday release over the course of this season for season eight,
and as Bill's mentioned, special guests will begin to trickle
in probably starting in two weeks time, and we'll kind
of roll from there to have a little outside perspective
beyond just Bill and I chatting. But yeah, it's going
to be a fun year. But I'm looking forward to
(31:19):
being a part of this again with you once more.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah, no doubt about it. I'll mention one thing before
we make the flip is had the opportunity to go
down to Football Media Day the Missouri Valley Football Conference
in Sioux Falls, and primarily we were we had a
dinner for Patty Viverito and it was, you know, kind
of a passing of the torch, which was awesome. You know,
(31:44):
So we were able to you know, kind of give
Patty her just desserts after forty years leading the football conference,
which is just tremendous really when you think about it.
So that was awesome. But then it also gave us
an opportunity to me with Jeff Jackson, the Missouri Valley Commissioner,
along with Josh Fenton, who's team was there in full
(32:05):
support as was Jeff's. And then Kyle Grooms is our
new football administrator. You know, I would say maybe our
day to day so so get get used to that name,
Kyle Grooms. You know, I don't think we'll say too
much Josh or Jeff at this point in time. That's
they're kind of more of an oversight for what Kyle
(32:26):
will do. So I would say it's a little bit
different of a situation that we've had over the course
of time. But but it was great to catch up
with them, and you know, and the other the other
reason why on top of the Patty piece, which made
a whole lot of sense to go down for was
I'll start year one on the FCS Football Championship Committee.
(32:49):
So it gave me a great opportunity to meet with
all the coaches as well. And yeah, and so you know,
we'll kind of go down that path just the you know,
folks on this pod need to know that I am
replacing Matt Larson and I'm just a freshman on that committee.
So just I'll normally freshmen mainly don't say a whole lot.
(33:09):
They do a lot more listening. But you know, I
feel like I've had enough experience over time with the
FCS Committee from afar, so now that I'm on the inside,
maybe I can bring some different perspective to who knows.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Who knows?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I would agree, I think that you will and look
forward to hearing about that in lead workings of that
committee as time, going.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
As best as I can, as best as I can,
I mean, I'm sure there's going to be a lot
of pieces that I can't obviously say, but just know
that I'm excited about the opportunity and you know that
committee in that particular championship I think does does do
it right very fascinating because Frisco, Texas, where it's been
(33:51):
for like the last eleven years or maybe even longer. Honestly,
they're going through a facelift and so they're having a
two year window where the championship is going to be
played in Nashville, where Vanderbilt plays their games. So that's interesting.
So during the time frame, it's a four year hitch,
and during my time frame, that committee is going to
(34:13):
be charged for recommending where the championship goes again post Nashville.
Could maybe stay there, could go back to Frisco, maybe
something else happens.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Interesting, It'll be an interesting time for sure, because I
think it is, Yeah, twenty six and twenty seven, it'll
be in there.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Twenty eight it is TBD.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
So yeah, well, we look forward to those conversations in
the months ahead. You mentioned, by the way, to Patty
stepping away after forty years, she was our first guest
on the season seven premiere of the Bill Shamps podcast.
So that's that's just the taste of the heavy hitters
that we have on the show at times. But best
of luck to Jeff and Josh and mister Grooms as
(34:50):
they take over now running that conference. Again the first
people outside of Patty Vivarito to do so in the
history of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. They inherit a
conference that's pretty good for the polls just came out
today for the top six in the country are from
the Valley. So although again, as we have noticed around
the country, preseason polls are not really in vogue anymore.
The Big twelve didn't even have one this year for
(35:11):
the So I take that with a grain of salt,
which you will. But anything else built on your minds
or on your agenda that you'd like to discuss before
we flip.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
No, not at all. Let's let's get to the flip.
And it's been an interesting summer, like it always.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Is, Alex who it always is. Now we mentioned our
last pod was recorded at the end of May. Now
at that time, Spurs had just won their first European
trophy in forty one years. You just had captured the
Europa League over Manchester United. You would secure Champions League Football.
You're finished sevnteenth in the league, but it didn't really
matter because you still you won. The thing you sit
out to do. The conversation we were having at that
(35:49):
time was do you keep Ange Pasta coaglu as your
manager or do you get rid And at that time
you said, I think you need to give him a chance.
Let's keep him year three of Ange. Let's see what happens.
Over the course of the next basically the whole month
of June, there was a waffle of back and forth.
Should we keep you not? They decided to part ways.
You have a new manager now, Thomas Frank who comes
(36:11):
in after a really distinguished spell at Brentford getting them promoted,
become a very stable top half team in the Premier League.
Pretty impressive for a team with their resources. And in
the last couple of days you've you've lost your captain.
Young Man's son has announced that he's going to sign
with LAFC and is leaving the club after ten years.
And you maybe lost your number ten for an extended
(36:31):
period of time with James Madison getting hurt in that
sendoff match and soul. A lot can change in two
months for a football club. Bill your thoughts on the
Spurs as we sit here on August the fourth, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
You've recapped it incredibly well. Yeah, having Youngman's son, you know,
depart after a decade of really just great service to
the club. And you know many have said this Alex
service the Premier League too. I mean, really just a
class act all the way around. And the amount of
(37:06):
attention he receives in South Korea is amazing, it really is.
So yeah, Tottenham, as all English teams or many of them,
I would say, take some sort of summer tour, and
their summer tour was in Asia and finished up at
South Korea. So it was a perfect time for him
to step away. And so it sounds like he's gonna
(37:28):
head to the MLS. That might be, That might be
a good situation for him. I know he wants to
play the next in the World Cup coming up, and
that might get his body right. He's thirty three now
and I know he's had some nagging injuries the last
couple of years, but he hasn't been as explosive as
he had been over the course of you know, maybe
the first eight years of his career at Tottenham. So
(37:51):
wish him nothing but the best. Just an awesome, awesome
class act. And you know, I think when he was
leaving the field it showed what he meant to the
lead league. When even the Newcastle players were going over
and giving him, you know, some some adulation.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
I would say he got a guard of honor from
both sets of players on his way out, like that's
pretty special. Players don't, especially in world soccer. Staying with
a club for ten years increasingly rare, and he will
go out as one of the Premier League's most decorated scorers,
one of spurs most decorated players, and it was very
(38:27):
fitting that he was able to captain the side to
their first major trophy really in a long long time.
In his last official game with the club, so he
had said, I came to North London as a kid
and I leave as a young man. It's been fun
to see some of the some of the tributes pour
out about just like what this guy meant to as
he said to the Premier League, A great ambassador and
(38:47):
really the biggest star from Asia that probably the league
has ever seen to come over and be I think
some human being as he is and as talented a
player as he is. He just checks just about every
box you could possibly check.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
So yeah, I would think so to one Sun story
and then one recap to ange Is. So when my
son and I were able to go over and watch
a game a couple of years ago. It was Harry
Kane's ended up being Harry Kane's last game and they
kind of did a quick you know, walk around the
(39:22):
entire stadium and it was the last match of the year.
And but but Sun had to actually just he had
to separate from the group because that's how many media
follow him from South Korea or Asia and so and
it wasn't he did it because he had to it
just logically, there's no way he could have been part
(39:42):
of the group because it would have been too massive.
So it's just it's it's incredible, but ange, you know,
I almost kind of feel like it's no different than
Sun in a lot of ways. But it was only
a two year hitch. I totally get it. But he
leaves the club I think in a great way too,
because he did accomplish something that the club had been,
you know, looking to do for a long period of
(40:04):
time and obviously had become more of a hindrance as
every year goes on. And to really win a major
trophy first time since eight but then also do the
the European you know, forty one year drought checking that
off still was pretty good, and you know, obviously he's
(40:24):
getting compensated quite well. To depart the team, he will
be just fine. But Thomas Frank, I'm impressed with him.
I think the one thing that I was I'm excited
about is, as you mentioned, Alex, I don't know when
Brentford came up, but he's got maybe it's about six
years ago, somewhere in that range. Yeah, and so they
(40:46):
you know, ironically, that's who's Topmam was playing that game
that we played and we watched Thomas Frank's team beat
top of that at that game. Yeah, and so, but
he seems two things that are interesting. Whereas Ange had
one style to play, it would appear that he's multiple,
if you will, he's able to do multiple things. That's
(41:08):
one and two. He's already been around the league six
years now, so he knows what he's dealing with. He knew, Hey,
he knew what he was dealing with with Spurs players
having to game plan for So yeah, I think it's uh.
I think it worked out as best as it could now. Yesterday,
four minutes ago in the match and James Madison, as
(41:29):
you mentioned, looks like he's got a pretty significant knee injury.
So I wouldn't. I would suspect we're not going to
see him at all this year. So you know, the
transfer windows still open. We'll see what happens. I mean long,
the season's long.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
The season's long, and the off season short's that's a fact.
If there even is an off season.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
It is funny.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
You open competitive play on the thirteenth against PSG, the
Champions League winners and what's called the UFA super Cup
where they take the Europa League and the Champions League
winner and they play against each other. It feels like
PSG didn't have an off season, like they were in
the United States doing the Club World Cup and they
made the final, which was I think early July.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
I mean it was really like a minute ago, a
minute ago.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
It's just crazy.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
So that's coming up, and then the Premier League starts
the following weekends. So you kick off against Burnley at
home on the sixteenth, and then you get to go
to man City the following week.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
So I asked you, are you excited for the new season? Bill?
Are you ready to get back in?
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Okay, good, I've watched every friendly already on Spurs play.
I've got to figure it out, you know, it's a
as what happens with a lot of clubs, the Liverpool's,
the Tottenhams, the Chelsea's, the whatever. It seems like sometimes
you can have a little bit of a bloated roster.
(42:51):
So they've got to get some outgoings. And I think,
you know, but I think the other part of it was, hey,
Thomas Frank needed to get in there and see what
he had a little bit too. And you know, it's funny,
everyone's to some degree in the Spurs world, you know,
is losing their mind based on what Liverpool has done
and whatever. Well the reminder, just a reminder, they didn't
(43:11):
do much last.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
Year this time did nothing. They did anybody. We bought nothing.
We bought a winger that played in a handful of
games for like nothing.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Yeah yeah, and had a pretty good year, had.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
A pretty good year.
Speaker 4 (43:24):
Worked out okay, And then you know in year two
in your you know, in the year two of of
your new manager's process, he's said he's going through a
little bit of a change out to some degree, and
it'll be fascinating.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Some of it's a tragedy, of course, but I mean,
at the end of the day, your roster, you know,
you just had a really good team. Last year.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
They had a phenomenal season by all accounts and obviously
exceeded expectations. Nobody was picking them in the preseason to
win the title, and they stormed to it. They wanted
it a cancer, go.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Back to preseason polls as you just mentioned, you know,
you know what I mean. It's it's just sometimes and
you know, and we can hit on the Red Sox
a little bit as we were pre potting at some point.
Sometimes like and I look at all of our teams
here at North Dakota too. You just don't know what
teams are going to click, you know, whatever term you
want to use, right, You can tell the vibe of
(44:21):
the team or you or just they're they're they're all
in for each other. And sometimes some years it just
doesn't work out. Some years it does. And I think
last year for Liverpool was amazing. I think the Red
Sox same thing this year. It seems like they like
each other, seems like they're they're they're up on the
front step or the top step of the of the
(44:42):
dugout and every game. It's a small thing. It's a
little thing. It's not everything, but it's.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Something I think it just shows that you're dialed in,
that you care. Body language means a lot, and I.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Think I think what you're you're finding out. You know,
people would say, you know, what's the definition of leadership? Well,
I think comes at all different shapes and sizes. What
I will tell you though, is arguably arguably at least
they're probably most veteran presence, possibly best player Alex Bregman
was out for about a five week period. But what
(45:16):
he was was almost like another coach in that dugout.
You could see him going up and down. I mean,
he wasn't missing in action, so to speak. He was
trying to help the team win even though he wasn't
on the field. Garrett Crochet possibly the Cy Young Award
winner maybe.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
Who knows, fantastic, fantastic year.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Always on the front step, top step, always always, And
so you have those two guys doing that. It bleeds,
I think to the rest of the team.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
They certainly have had the results to prove it. I
think they are twenty four and eight in their last
thirty two. There are eleven games above five hundred, now
a second in the East, just a couple of games
back of the Blue Jays they've won five in a row.
They've had a couple of really long winning streaks of
late over the last two months. They didn't really do
anything in the deadline, but also nobody really did anything
(46:04):
in the deadline. Nobody other than the Twins selling everybody.
Nobody really was like all in. There were a couple
of teams that really got singled out for not being
aggressive at the deadline, but was anybody really It just
didn't really seem like no nobody really wanted to go
and make a huge splash. There wasn't really anybody to
go acquire that would put you over the top.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Yeah, so I'll finish up with this and then we
can hit a rap. But you said twenty four and eight, right,
so thirty two games, And of those thirty two games,
the Red Sox have played the league leaders in the
AL East excuse me, the NL East, NL Central, NL West,
and AL West. So so you're talking about you know,
(46:45):
it's it's some of the top teams in baseball. So
they've done okay in that regard. I think what ends
up happening you do get caught up in the moment
and a trade deadline, and I think everyone's thinking, boy,
you know X is going to happen. There is a
reason why the person's getting traded too, So like you
have to always kind of recall and remember that. I
(47:08):
think last year, I think I'm right with this. During
the deadline, no top one hundred based on whoever's rankings,
but whatever reputable didn't get traded top hundred last year.
That wasn't this year but last year. But this year,
no starting pitcher that's under team control got traded because
(47:32):
there's no doubt the market was just too much, too
rich at this point in time. I take it. Look
at a team like Minnesota, I don't blame them. They
probably were trying to hold people up for Joe Ryan
to some degree that price might go down in the winter.
We saw it with Garrett Crochet. Even though I thought
the White Sox made a good trade, I thought it
(47:54):
was a fair trade on both sides. But I think
the Red Sox made a decision that they're going forward
with the team that's in front of them right now.
And even though the Twins wanted one of the Red
Sox outfielders, so I read is I think it's something
the Red Sox would do in the off season, because
they're going to have to unlogjam that that outfield situation
(48:16):
at this point, especially as one of their top prospects
sitting in trip Lea who's an outfielder. So at the
end of the day, something's going to have to give
in that regard. But in this moment today, I don't
think you want to disrupt the chemistry.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
Yeah, and I would agree. I think maybe again, you
and I are not shock jock type people, like we're not. No,
that's just not the nature of who we are as
human beings. And it was it was, you know, it
robbed me the wrong way. I think that people were
so negative at some of the lack of movement by
the Red Sox proNT office over the course, I think
(48:50):
things they're working. It's okay, you don't want to you
don't want to mortgage the future. This is what happened
a couple of years ago. They really emptied out the
farm system and they did win a title like it
was worth it, But also, are you guaranteed to win
its titled if you make a move when you ship
off some of these guys this year, I don't know
if you are, so I think in mas sense, just
to be be patient, stated the plan.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
See what happened, no doubt, last comment. Then we then
we hit rap. But I thought this was interesting. So
they played an afternoon game last Wednesday in Minnesota, flew
home to Boston to start the series against Houston on Friday.
Not many times to teams have an off day on
(49:32):
the trading deadline day, So Alex Cora was able to
be in the room, in the room where things were happening,
and I think he was able to bring a different
perspective and convey that it wasn't from lack of effort,
it was actually, does this make sense in this moment
right now? And I think that's important. And then if
(49:54):
you look at what the Red Sox did do, and
I think the Hind Bluem era, you know, will come
back and say, boy, he did stockpile the minor leagues
pretty well. No one liked the Mookie Bets trade. I
still think it would have been great to make him whatever,
try to make him the highest paid player at that
point in time, and be the face of your franchise
moving forward. I thought he would age well. Kama Butt
(50:17):
he struggled this year. He has that might be an
outlier of no idea, but certainly Xander Bogart's has not
played all that great either, and so they've probably made
good decisions. It just doesn't sell well in real time.
It's always real time versus history, and from a historical standpoint,
(50:38):
I think they were all decent decisions, but in the
moment it doesn't feel great.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Yeah, I think you could see the Dever's move in
the moment as well. In the moment, for me, it
felt like, man, we're giving up on a guy that
has been fantastic, was the face of the franchise, didn't
get a lot back, even if he's disgruntled, etc. And
you mentioned it before we even started recording. He goes
to San Francisco and they've just gone in the tank
(51:04):
since he arrived there. And whether those two things are
an extorbally linked or if there's some other stuff going on,
of course there's more than one guy showing up doesn't
mean a team season is over. But that move looks
a lot better than it did in the moment, even
if you liked it in the moment, because of some
of the personality things.
Speaker 3 (51:20):
But it's just interesting.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
It's just so easy to make quick reactions these days
just to be the loudest person in the room, and
sometimes it's okay to sit back and wait and see.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Well, and I think you know, the media landscape, and
I use the term media however you want to define
it is so crowded that I think you're trying to
get through the clutter. So you have to be you know,
you've always have to have an immediate opinion about something
without actual the facts or the understanding of what really
was going on at that point. So you know, but
(51:52):
you know what, it always comes down to, Alex. Ultimately, ultimately,
how's the team doing.
Speaker 3 (51:56):
How's the team doing? And the ret SAX team is
doing pretty good.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
That's right. I mean, if there are ten games under
right now, it would be probably a different conversation than
being ten games over.
Speaker 3 (52:06):
I would agree with that.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
Well, with that said, we're gonna sign off for episode
one of season eight of the Bill Shaves podcast.
Speaker 3 (52:13):
This is fun. Good to be back. It is it is.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
We're back. We're back.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
I have an idea of who our first guest is
gonna be, but we will we'll keep that under wraps
and that'll be the tease.
Speaker 1 (52:25):
At this point in time, look forward to that coming
up in two weeks time. Until then, Bill, enjoy the
beginning of this new season with lots of great stuff
happening on campus.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
We'll see you soon, so good on.
Speaker 1 (52:37):
Behalf of Bill Shaves are behind the scenes team Alex
Socker Johnson and Paul Ralston. I'm Alex Synder. Thank you
for listening. Excited to get things going here on the
Bill Shaves podcast for another year. Enjoy the remains of
summer and we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 3 (53:00):
Stand in the Indolton
You're listening to the Bill Shaves Podcast presented by Mid
Coast Sports. Another fall sports season is almost here, and
Mid Coast Sports has it covered like nowhere else this fall.
Tune in for live coverage of college football into Dakota's
including Fighting Hawks football broadcasts both home and away, as
well as some of the league volleyball and soccer, and
nsic and so much more. Watch on Mid Coast Sports
(00:21):
and streaming on Mid Coast Sports Plus. This is how
we do sports. And this is the season eight premiere
of the Bill Shapes Podcast. Let's go Welcome to another
edition and another season of the Bill Shapes Podcast. I
am Alex Seinert, proud to be joined by University of
North Dakota athletics director, the namesake of the show for
(00:43):
the last eight years, mister Bill Shaves. New season, Bill,
New Year, Excitement Budding. It's August the fourth. We're taping
this on a Monday, New Week, New month, new.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Season, Alex. It is great to see you and here
we are again season eight. Yeah, really really really exciting
time for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
It's it's almost as if, especially in athletics, we kind
of get the new year off, the new academic year
off because obviously our student athletes are here for for
much of the summer to some degree, but there's kind
of this official feeling around campus when when practices kind
of you know, you get into fall camps both for
(01:26):
for soccer and then volleyball and then football, and you know,
obviously across country it would be back and just you
know everyone, you know, it's an exciting time of year
because you know, hey, you you're always envisioning maybe we
are going to be the best in the conference that
we play in, and you know what, why not? Why
not us? Why not you know, the teams that we
(01:48):
support root for, I I work for. I mean, it's
it's exciting for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Hope springs eternal in August around college campuses across the
country for good reason. That's very much the case in
Grant Fork's here this year. Well, you mentioned practices. Beginning,
we'll touch a bit on looking ahead, not too much
of this episode, because you've got a little more time
between now and when things will really start up at
the later part of this month. We will be looking
back over the course of the next sixty minutes or
(02:14):
so about what's been going on in the summer. That's
where the direction of this particular episode is going to
be looking back over the last two months since our
last episode at the end of May and catch people
up on what's happening in your world, what's happening around
the NCUBLEA.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
In some cases, a lot has happens.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
On the other hands, we're kind of still in the
same boat, aren't we in terms of where things stands
in governance and where the NCAA is headed. We haven't
really gotten as many answers maybe as we would have
liked over the last two months.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
You know, Alex, I've thought about that absolutely. I think
it makes a whole lot of sense that we just
at least recapped the last couple of months, and obviously
we didn't have games at that point in time. So,
like you said, as we kind of look through the
front windshield, maybe next pod and on we'll start guests
in a few other things that we normally do do.
But this one I felt like you and I I
(03:04):
think we kind of closed the year last year and
then we're opening this year, and it made a whole
lot of sense. But you know, we probably need to
think of a way to say. I don't think it's
going to change for the foreseeable future. I think what
I do believe is that, you know, we just have
to be really, really comfortable in uncertainty, and so much
(03:26):
so that at times you might get direction in one
week and in the next week it might come back
and it either is softened or it's altered in some way,
it's pivoted. And so that has literally happened over the
last couple of weeks relative to you know, the whole
(03:48):
opt in opt out the process by which so so
much so Alex that we've been getting a lot of
feedback from the College Sports Commission in conjunction with the NCAA.
So we're sitting there kind of having now two entities
overseeing Division I athletics. I'm not sure how sustainable that
(04:12):
is in the long term, and so we are just
day by day we are just working things through and
making the right decisions for the student athletes that are
on our campus, and it's just it's an interesting time.
I do believe this is that we will get to
(04:32):
a more sustainable future in the not so distant future,
I would say, but when I say that, it still
could be a couple of years from now, I think
a lot of things have to work itself through, potentially Congress,
court cases, settlement cases. We're just not there yet, and
(04:53):
it just makes for a fascinating day each and every day.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
That's life right describing life Bill.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
It's not necessarily linear, and we don't always have the
instructions on what comes next. And that's what's been the
case with the NCAA now for I guess maybe the
better part of eighteen months.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I suppose maybe two years.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I feel like it's been kind of this interesting cycle
really since maybe twenty twenty three, but really even since COVID.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
If you want to even drift it back.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, you can drift it back to COVID. You could
drift it back to when I think you can pinpoint
it to June of twenty one, when we had an
NIL policy that was in play, ready to hit go on,
and our governing body decided at the last minute to say,
you know what, you either follow your state law or
create one yourself, but we're not going to put one
(05:40):
out there ourselves. From an organizational standpoint, I think from
that day on, we've been in this mode where whatever
we believed to be let's just say, policies in guidance
over the course of the previous fifty years, honestly, everything
has been kind of turned upside down, and we're just
(06:03):
you know, and some of it is long overdue and
needed modernization of what we're doing in college athletics. Others
is a point where I think people are looking for
at least some rules of engagement so that they can
have sustained stability moving forward. And you know, three hundred
(06:25):
and sixty schools that participate in Division one athletics. They
come in all shapes and sizes, and I think what
we're finding out and I think that anyone that has
tried to help this enterprise, it quickly understands that it's
just not as simple as making one rule and you
fixed it, or doing why don't you just do this
(06:46):
whatever this is. I think they find very quickly that
it's a whack a mole game and that that ultimately,
anytime you do one thing, there's probably two or three
other things that happen. And you know, so really where
we've been and we continue to be Alex is in
the court court of law, and so that is probably
(07:09):
not the greatest place to be for an enterprise continually.
And so I'm hopeful by the time I retire, we've
landed the plane where maybe there's some stability moving forward,
because I think parents that have student athletes, coaches that
are recruiting student athletes, I think the majority would yearn
(07:31):
for more stability.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I would agree with that.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yes, famous last words, by the way, that you hope
this will be resolved before before your desire you mentioned.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I want to back up just for a sec.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
You mentioned again things being in the courts, and that's
where a lot of this drama has played out. We
did get approval, if that's even the right word of
the house settlement?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Would you say? Is that?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I mean that the judge overseeing the case basically, after
some adjustments, gave the thumbs up that yes, this can proceed.
Am I am I saying that correctly?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Building Yeah, No, I think that's right. But what's interesting,
really interesting, And I'm just going to try to stay
really macro here. The house settlement occurred on a Friday,
June sixth. The thumbs up was based on the majority
(08:20):
of the items she's accepted. The one that she had
a question with was rosters, and that was the reason why.
In back in February before there was a March one,
deadline on whether institutions would be opting in or not.
The University of North Dakota decided, Hey, I'm not comfortable
(08:42):
with roster limitations and so much so that that probably
wouldn't make sense for us to opt in at that
point in time. Well, fast forward to June sixth. Sure enough,
the judge was uncomfortable with that, and so she said, hey,
there's got to be some sort of dispensation. So, sure enough,
(09:03):
there's a four year grandfathering process. And so that's the
reason why UND then decided opting in. For that particular
reason and a few others that I won't get into,
made a whole lot of sense. And so that's where
we are today. And I think we can get to
the numbers over the course of now a four year period,
and I think we can get to where we need
(09:25):
to get to. So, you know, the one last thing
I'll mention, because you said the settlement. What's interesting is
the settlement is still literally being negotiated right now by
the Power four Conferences and the PAC ten, which was
the PAC ten, which was the Power five conference, and
the NCAA, which that's where we get grouped into so
(09:50):
much of this conversation is still in play as we
are introducing the CSC into the fray, and we don't
have all the full rules of engagement of the settlement.
And so what makes me kind of sad is that
(10:10):
maybe we should have thought about, maybe we should have
thought outward, let's get the settlement details done and then
give the CSC a fighting chance, and maybe everything needs
to be in play by let's just say July one
of twenty six. We didn't do that, and so now
what is occurring is every day we're getting guidance or
(10:34):
new guidance or different guidance from the guidance that came.
Not an awesome way to start, doesn't feel that way.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
No, that's not great.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
There are several different projects happening at the same time,
but you need to do them sequentially or else the
project over here is not going to work as well
as it should and that will affect the next project
and the other project in any case. So you mentioned
opting in University of North Dakota deciding to opt into
the House Settlement as a reminder for our listeners that
have maybe been hearing these terms, could you define again
(11:09):
what that means for the University of North Dakota, for
our student athletes, for the athletics department, what does it
mean to opt in?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, in its most basic terms, and as I just indicated,
when the settlement, the finalized settlement agreement occurs, which again
some of this information is still getting the last I
dotted and teas crossed, but it basically says, hey, there
(11:41):
was a house settlement and we are going to go
forward today, and all of the permutations that come with
that settlement we are going to abide by. At this
stage of the game. Much of it has to do
at the highest level of division one, where there literally
is that's a salary cap if you will. And again
(12:04):
maybe those aren't the terms, but that's kind of what
I think people would understand. What institutions can now do
is provide internal name, image, and likeness to student athletes
up to a certain number twenty point five million dollars.
On this podcast, I can tell you we will not
get to the twenty point five million dollars. Who knows
(12:28):
where we're going to be financially in that regard, it
gives us an option to use internal nil. That's one piece.
The other piece was, so what to do with collectives
all around the country. Well, what happened is, as we
opted in, we believed that there was still going to
(12:49):
be a place for our eighteen eighty three collective, the
fourth leg of the stool, if you will, of what transpires.
The institution helps us, the alumni found foundation helps us.
Ralph Engelstadt Arena helps us in eighteen eighty three collective.
What we learned and why I say things keep changing,
(13:11):
is when the rules came out, the new director, the
new CEO of the CSC, Brian Seely, sent a note
doubt and basically said about ten days ago, any any
deal sent through the system, call now nil goal. Go
(13:33):
for external nil deals, any of them that will be
put through by a collective will be rejected. That felt
pretty specific, It felt pretty direct, and it felt really
all of them, not many of them, might have a
(13:54):
business purpose if that, if you're trying to keep from
the pay to play, which at the highest level Division one,
that's what the conversation has been. Not necessarily, I would say,
at the mid major tier where we stand, as you
might imagine, collectives have now been around for four years,
they've banded together. They disagreed with how that settlement process
(14:20):
would go. They voiced their displeasure so much so that
they thought maybe we would go to court over it.
Since then we got further clarification that well, not all
deals will get rejected, they just have to go through
and then outlined exactly what the deals need to entail
(14:41):
a business purpose, a legitimate business purpose as determined by
a group, the CSC group. So I say all this
not to bore people and not to put you to sleep.
I say it all is as we're even moving forward.
The settlement per se, all the nuances to it is
(15:05):
evolving as we speak, and so I still feel comfortable
what und did like we paused Initially, we said, if
you need to know what we're doing on March first,
seems weird to me. The judge hasn't even come back
with whether or not she's going to improve it, but
we're not going to opt in. The judge comes back
in June three months later and says, hey, I'm not
(15:28):
approving this unless you do something with rosters, which was
really our issue. So what ended up happening was that happened,
So we opted in. Now the settlement terms are literally
being evolved as the plane is flying and so I
my question is might have been good to have a
(15:50):
better deadline up ahead, like say even December one, or
you know whatever, January one, March one, whatever you want
to do to give the CSC a fighting chance to
figure out what our new normal is moving forward.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
I appreciate that recap.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I know that's like you said, it's a lot of nuance,
and there's a lot of different specific things that are
happening or that still haven't quite happened yet. But it's
as good to remember what the whole point of this
is and where this began and what this might mean
moving forward.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
And the last thing is Alex I will say, is
of the three hundred and sixty or so Division one schools,
I think all but forty have opted in. So that
was the one thing I think we said on the
pod when I came back from the NCAA convention in January,
which was you are going to opt in. It's just
(16:44):
a matter when you might. You might sit it out
one year for a variety of reasons. Each institution has
their own reasons for what they're doing. I'm not suggesting
it was good or bad. I'll be honest with you.
It's more is, and so, but I do think I
think ultimately we will be governed by one set of
(17:04):
rules at some point in time, and you're not going
to have what's happening with those schools, those fortyish schools
doing something different over the course of say three to
five years. I just don't see that happening. So I
kind of I think we're in an okay spot. I
think where we are institutionally I feel good about, and
(17:27):
I come to work making sure that any commitments we've
made to student athletes that we've just got to figure
out how to make sure that, you know, we have
everything dialed in, and that's what our staff works on,
and then we try to educate as best as possible.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
So this is I'm sure a very small part of
your summer that's been working on and thinking about, you know,
obviously a very large part what else has been going
on in your world over the last few months that
you're excited about that you've been thinking about having discussions
on our seeing come to fruition.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Give us that side of the update, though, Yeah, you know,
I would.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Say it's always project time. And so when we have
our last game of the year in a previous academic year.
You're constantly then going straight into some sort of hey,
no games for about a two to three month period. Okay,
what is it we can do in certain facilities. Sometimes
(18:21):
it's it's and I'll call it, you know, oil changes
or tune ups. You know, they may not be sexy,
but things that you need to get done. Then there's
some other things we think about too. You know, hey,
this is the time if you're gonna if you're gonna
alter maybe some you know, thoughts on end zone seating,
say at the Betty or do those types of things,
or do something for your student athletes. That's the time
(18:44):
to do it. So I would say no, no projects
really that I really need to to say much about
at this point. Except here in Memorial Village we continue
to kind of finish up, you know, the Pollard addition,
the Nodak Insurance Company Sports Performance Center was opened, and
(19:07):
then of course adjacent to that is the Memorial Memorial
Stadium turf and now are our outside track is in
the midst of getting done. And in fact, Alex it's
only striping away, that's how close we are. So I
learned a little bit about the process. It's kind of
(19:29):
like an Oreo cookie, there's layers, and so the last
layer got put on and now we have to We
had some rain here, probably much needed rain over the
course of the last you know, month or so, and
that that delayed us from getting the striping done. So
we're gonna wait until the football team heads to Manhattan
(19:51):
for game one. There's a little window there that we
can get it done, and that's when we're gonna do it.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Excellent, excellent, good for good segue by the way too,
because we do competitions coming up, football one of them.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Of course that's not that far away.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That's exciting to hear that some of those projects are
continuing to progress. And I think when people, again, maybe
students that were on campus and then left for the summer,
it won't be quite the same return and reveal and
awe of all brick Field being finished or some of
the Memorial Village projects that were concluded over the summer
last year. But there still is like it's so neat
(20:26):
to look down at the Columbia Overpass area and what's
been accomplished and how those things are still just they're
not quite one hundred percent finished. There are still a
few more things that are going to be done, just
continues to elevate the student athlete experience here at the
University of North Dakota.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, no doubt about it, I would say inside the Ralph,
and again, I think anybody that owns a home understands
that there's just maintenance that has to be done. The
roof is in play right now, and so you know
that's not something that you will visually see, but you
will feel or not feel, I would say, depending on
(21:03):
where you are, and either the Betty or the Ralph.
So Jodie's been working hard in that regard, and then
there's just different other projects that he always gets done
during this time of year, inclusive of you know, we've
actually had the opportunity today as as Alex mentioned at
the top, we're recording on a Monday, Monday morning and
(21:24):
now again it is raining here a little bit in
Grand Fok, So I don't know if this will affect
it or not, but Uhila is a scheduled to start
going down today and so that's that will be fascinating.
Sad there's a lot of emotions that will be tied
up into that for sure, but you know, we were
able to take out the stands that were it was
(21:47):
in the pool area and kind of put him over
at Bronson Field and so that will be awesome, among
a few other things that we were able to do
at Bronson as well. And you know, the last thing
I'll mention is Ray Richard's golf course. We continue to
have conversations about what to do with that plot of
land since we've got a federal a federal project with
(22:10):
the intersection of forty second and demurs in play that's
going to disrupt play for the next two years at
Ray Richards golf Course. So with that gives us opportunity
to think about what's next. And so those are the
those are the multiple plates that we still have spinning.
And you know, it never stops. I mean, I think
(22:31):
you need to keep moving forward and likes you know,
sometimes the gift could be like to say, a small gift,
but in some ways impactful and sometimes it's larger, and
so you're working on all of them simultaneously.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Always something, especially in the summertime, I feel, always something
because you transition so quickly from competition again to looking
ahead to the future and making those plans and things
that are years away. You're already working on so it'll
be fun to see again what comes next on the
U and EAS campus in the next month and year
and days ahead. So one of the things that we
wanted to discuss over the course of this podcast was, yes,
(23:10):
the excitement that comes with having student athletes who are
typically on campus in the summer but now back with
an elevated purpose because there are transitions just around the
trait and you mentioned the fall sports that have begun.
What is it like now on campus having practice underway
that is in full force for football, for volleyball, for
cross country, for track, or for for soccer.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Excuse me, Yeah, I think that's right. You know, although
you get to see the athletes during the summer, I
think there's there's a different mindset that's going on with
them at that point. I think it's, you know, very
internally focused in a lot of ways of trying to
figure out how they get their body to where they
(23:49):
want to get it, to do all the things that
you want to do to give yourself a better chance
during competition. Once these days start right now, competition you
can see it, you can see it, it's coming, and
I think there's just I think a level of energy, anticipation, excitement,
those types of words. And you see it with the
(24:10):
coaches too, right, it's a different it's a different mindset.
You just you see the coaching staff walk around and
they're just tunneled. I mean they're tunneled most of the time.
They're very tunneled at this point in time because they're
you know, they're they're thinking through, Hey, what can I
do today to get better? So that you know, depending
on you know who you're going to play, you know,
right around the corner that that where is it in
(24:32):
good a position as possible to give ourselves a chance
to win the win, the match, the game, whatever it
might be.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Of the four fall sports, most of them kick off
that final week of August. Officially, volleyball has an exhibition
on the twenty third. Their home opener is the twenty ninth.
Cross Country begins on the twenty ninth in Grand Forks
with the Ron Pin Classic. Football you already mentioned, will
go to Manhattan to play a very good Kansas State
team on the thirtieth. The only one that starts a
little bit earlier is women's soccer, and that will be
(24:58):
the debut for Hendrick Son and this new look team
already on the seventh of August against Green Bay. It's
an exhibition game in Minneapolis, but they play a game
for real six days from now at home at Bronson
against Northeast Community College.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
So they really are not that far away from really.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Kicking off competition. It's fun to think that this is
really just around the corner. We joked at the in May,
I think we were talking about when like football kickoff
times were released and how that felt like that was
still a long ways away, and now that really does not.
Six days is not that long before competitions begin.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
It's wild.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, soccer always is a you know interesting They always
get it going pretty quick, pretty quick turnaround. Obviously, you
know they've done a good job over the summer months
as well and obviously in in the spring. But yeah,
I think Henrick and his crew is excited to take
on the challenge this year. And you know, the difference,
(25:52):
as we've said many times, you play each team in
the Summit League once and it's massive, huge, whatever the
words you want to use. And we all know as
much as we talk about soccer on the B side,
you know there's not much difference between making the playoffs
and the tournament in the Summit League, and not usually
(26:13):
it comes down to the last match. That's really what
ultimately it comes down to. And so, you know, I
think he's excited about his team and he's brought you know,
he's brought a new energy for sure, and a new
thought process on how he wants to play it. And
the good news is he's been around the Summer League
a little bit too, so it's not as if he's
(26:35):
having to you know, kind of worry about having gone
to matches, what kind of styles being played, you know,
all those types of things. That's the good news with
him taking over the program.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
We'll be watching women's soccer coming up over the course
of the next several weeks. Some of league play for
them doesn't start till the end of September. Same story
for volleyball, but non conference obviously important to build. We'll
talk a lot more about the specifics of those particular
teams in the weeks ahead, of course, as we get
closer to the start of the regular season. A couple
other just random notes from over the course of the summer.
Jordan Stevens signed a new three year contract extension after
(27:11):
leading the softball program to a program tying record for
wins twenty six last season.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Jordan has done a really good job over the course
of time since he's been here with we'll call it
limited resources, and he has found a way to you know,
bring students in anticipate, you know, in a situation where
(27:38):
maybe it wasn't the most ideal for sure from a
competitive standpoint, and obviously a great institution to be at
the University of North Dakota. You're here for other reasons
as well, so I think obviously he's able to provide that.
But you know, given the fact that all brick Field
has opened up and as we mentioned, our Noteac Insurance
(27:59):
Company Sports Performance Center now houses their locker room and
weight room is in there in sports training. You know,
it's it makes a whole lot of sense that he
gets an opportunity to to i'll say, play with the
play with a different set of tools in his toolbox.
And so we're excited to have Jordan, you know, here
(28:20):
with us, and you know, and I think you know,
he knows that. I think if he was on this
pod right now, he would say this. He would say, hey,
you know, different level of expectation for the program at
this point in time. What an opportunity for us, and
so I think he's excited about it as we are too.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
It was a phenomenal year one for und with that
new facility on campus. Again, they were an extra inning
to feed away from really making some noise at the
semi of league tournament after winning a game this spring.
So it'll be fun to watch that team to have
some fall games coming up before too long, and then
of course the competition will get started in the spring.
Shifting gears you and the hockey'll obviously a lot of
news within that program over the course of the off season.
(28:58):
With a mostly new code staff, some really exciting players
have committed to the program that will be a part
of the team this season. From just an optics perspective,
they have a new kit maker, as we would say
on the soccer side, New Jersey's new sweaters this year.
But so the transition from Adidas to CCM very exciting
times for hockey. Good cool uniforms. Bill, I know you
(29:18):
signed off fun those nice job.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Well, you know it's funny, I have to admit to you,
and I'll be really candid with with folks on our
pod that doesn't do much for me, the actual uniforms,
I would say happy that people are happy with them.
That makes me happy. But and if Jody Hodgson and
(29:44):
UH and Jason at the Sioux shop are happy with
what maybe is going to happen from a retail standpoint.
Dan Johansson in the in the in the team and
UH and the coaches along with Eric Martinson. I think
they they they did spend a good chunk of time though,
you know, thinking through what might make sense, and they
did a lot of homework. And yeah, I think they
(30:06):
were well received. And you know, I think, you know,
we've had CCM before and I think, you know, they
will be uh, they'll be great for us, and you know,
hopefully it will be good on the retails side as well,
which which I have no doubt it will.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Be from the broadcast side. The numerals look fantastic. That's
all I really care about. We can see the numbers
on the back of the uniforms, so that's that's another
box that we checked.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
So appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
So looking forward to hockey season, not that far away either.
October the fourth, they'll play Manitoba and the exhibition at home.
That's really now literally two months from today, things will
get going on the ice as well.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
So yeah, let's lots of good stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
It's an exciting time I think around the University of
North Dakota as it always is this time of year,
and it's fun to catch up a little bit on
what's been happening in your world. As for the listeners,
of course, before you we are going to flip to
the B side like we always do before you decide
to listen or not listen.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
We will be back.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
This will be a Bye Wee Glee podcast again this year,
so in two weeks time we'll jump back on. I
think the plan is to shoot for Mondays with a
Tuesday release over the course of this season for season eight,
and as Bill's mentioned, special guests will begin to trickle
in probably starting in two weeks time, and we'll kind
of roll from there to have a little outside perspective
beyond just Bill and I chatting. But yeah, it's going
to be a fun year. But I'm looking forward to
(31:19):
being a part of this again with you once more.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah, no doubt about it. I'll mention one thing before
we make the flip is had the opportunity to go
down to Football Media Day the Missouri Valley Football Conference
in Sioux Falls, and primarily we were we had a
dinner for Patty Viverito and it was, you know, kind
of a passing of the torch, which was awesome. You know,
(31:44):
So we were able to you know, kind of give
Patty her just desserts after forty years leading the football conference,
which is just tremendous really when you think about it.
So that was awesome. But then it also gave us
an opportunity to me with Jeff Jackson, the Missouri Valley Commissioner,
along with Josh Fenton, who's team was there in full
(32:05):
support as was Jeff's. And then Kyle Grooms is our
new football administrator. You know, I would say maybe our
day to day so so get get used to that name,
Kyle Grooms. You know, I don't think we'll say too
much Josh or Jeff at this point in time. That's
they're kind of more of an oversight for what Kyle
(32:26):
will do. So I would say it's a little bit
different of a situation that we've had over the course
of time. But but it was great to catch up
with them, and you know, and the other the other
reason why on top of the Patty piece, which made
a whole lot of sense to go down for was
I'll start year one on the FCS Football Championship Committee.
(32:49):
So it gave me a great opportunity to meet with
all the coaches as well. And yeah, and so you know,
we'll kind of go down that path just the you know,
folks on this pod need to know that I am
replacing Matt Larson and I'm just a freshman on that committee.
So just I'll normally freshmen mainly don't say a whole lot.
(33:09):
They do a lot more listening. But you know, I
feel like I've had enough experience over time with the
FCS Committee from afar, so now that I'm on the inside,
maybe I can bring some different perspective to who knows.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Who knows?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I would agree, I think that you will and look
forward to hearing about that in lead workings of that
committee as time, going.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
As best as I can, as best as I can,
I mean, I'm sure there's going to be a lot
of pieces that I can't obviously say, but just know
that I'm excited about the opportunity and you know that
committee in that particular championship I think does does do
it right very fascinating because Frisco, Texas, where it's been
(33:51):
for like the last eleven years or maybe even longer. Honestly,
they're going through a facelift and so they're having a
two year window where the championship is going to be
played in Nashville, where Vanderbilt plays their games. So that's interesting.
So during the time frame, it's a four year hitch,
and during my time frame, that committee is going to
(34:13):
be charged for recommending where the championship goes again post Nashville.
Could maybe stay there, could go back to Frisco, maybe
something else happens.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Interesting, It'll be an interesting time for sure, because I
think it is, Yeah, twenty six and twenty seven, it'll
be in there.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Twenty eight it is TBD.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
So yeah, well, we look forward to those conversations in
the months ahead. You mentioned, by the way, to Patty
stepping away after forty years, she was our first guest
on the season seven premiere of the Bill Shamps podcast.
So that's that's just the taste of the heavy hitters
that we have on the show at times. But best
of luck to Jeff and Josh and mister Grooms as
(34:50):
they take over now running that conference. Again the first
people outside of Patty Vivarito to do so in the
history of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. They inherit a
conference that's pretty good for the polls just came out
today for the top six in the country are from
the Valley. So although again, as we have noticed around
the country, preseason polls are not really in vogue anymore.
The Big twelve didn't even have one this year for
(35:11):
the So I take that with a grain of salt,
which you will. But anything else built on your minds
or on your agenda that you'd like to discuss before
we flip.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
No, not at all. Let's let's get to the flip.
And it's been an interesting summer, like it always.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Is, Alex who it always is. Now we mentioned our
last pod was recorded at the end of May. Now
at that time, Spurs had just won their first European
trophy in forty one years. You just had captured the
Europa League over Manchester United. You would secure Champions League Football.
You're finished sevnteenth in the league, but it didn't really
matter because you still you won. The thing you sit
out to do. The conversation we were having at that
(35:49):
time was do you keep Ange Pasta coaglu as your
manager or do you get rid And at that time
you said, I think you need to give him a chance.
Let's keep him year three of Ange. Let's see what happens.
Over the course of the next basically the whole month
of June, there was a waffle of back and forth.
Should we keep you not? They decided to part ways.
You have a new manager now, Thomas Frank who comes
(36:11):
in after a really distinguished spell at Brentford getting them promoted,
become a very stable top half team in the Premier League.
Pretty impressive for a team with their resources. And in
the last couple of days you've you've lost your captain.
Young Man's son has announced that he's going to sign
with LAFC and is leaving the club after ten years.
And you maybe lost your number ten for an extended
(36:31):
period of time with James Madison getting hurt in that
sendoff match and soul. A lot can change in two
months for a football club. Bill your thoughts on the
Spurs as we sit here on August the fourth, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
You've recapped it incredibly well. Yeah, having Youngman's son, you know,
depart after a decade of really just great service to
the club. And you know many have said this Alex
service the Premier League too. I mean, really just a
class act all the way around. And the amount of
(37:06):
attention he receives in South Korea is amazing, it really is.
So yeah, Tottenham, as all English teams or many of them,
I would say, take some sort of summer tour, and
their summer tour was in Asia and finished up at
South Korea. So it was a perfect time for him
to step away. And so it sounds like he's gonna
(37:28):
head to the MLS. That might be, That might be
a good situation for him. I know he wants to
play the next in the World Cup coming up, and
that might get his body right. He's thirty three now
and I know he's had some nagging injuries the last
couple of years, but he hasn't been as explosive as
he had been over the course of you know, maybe
the first eight years of his career at Tottenham. So
(37:51):
wish him nothing but the best. Just an awesome, awesome
class act. And you know, I think when he was
leaving the field it showed what he meant to the
lead league. When even the Newcastle players were going over
and giving him, you know, some some adulation.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
I would say he got a guard of honor from
both sets of players on his way out, like that's
pretty special. Players don't, especially in world soccer. Staying with
a club for ten years increasingly rare, and he will
go out as one of the Premier League's most decorated scorers,
one of spurs most decorated players, and it was very
(38:27):
fitting that he was able to captain the side to
their first major trophy really in a long long time.
In his last official game with the club, so he
had said, I came to North London as a kid
and I leave as a young man. It's been fun
to see some of the some of the tributes pour
out about just like what this guy meant to as
he said to the Premier League, A great ambassador and
(38:47):
really the biggest star from Asia that probably the league
has ever seen to come over and be I think
some human being as he is and as talented a
player as he is. He just checks just about every
box you could possibly check.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
So yeah, I would think so to one Sun story
and then one recap to ange Is. So when my
son and I were able to go over and watch
a game a couple of years ago. It was Harry
Kane's ended up being Harry Kane's last game and they
kind of did a quick you know, walk around the
(39:22):
entire stadium and it was the last match of the year.
And but but Sun had to actually just he had
to separate from the group because that's how many media
follow him from South Korea or Asia and so and
it wasn't he did it because he had to it
just logically, there's no way he could have been part
(39:42):
of the group because it would have been too massive.
So it's just it's it's incredible, but ange, you know,
I almost kind of feel like it's no different than
Sun in a lot of ways. But it was only
a two year hitch. I totally get it. But he
leaves the club I think in a great way too,
because he did accomplish something that the club had been,
you know, looking to do for a long period of
(40:04):
time and obviously had become more of a hindrance as
every year goes on. And to really win a major
trophy first time since eight but then also do the
the European you know, forty one year drought checking that
off still was pretty good, and you know, obviously he's
(40:24):
getting compensated quite well. To depart the team, he will
be just fine. But Thomas Frank, I'm impressed with him.
I think the one thing that I was I'm excited
about is, as you mentioned, Alex, I don't know when
Brentford came up, but he's got maybe it's about six
years ago, somewhere in that range. Yeah, and so they
(40:46):
you know, ironically, that's who's Topmam was playing that game
that we played and we watched Thomas Frank's team beat
top of that at that game. Yeah, and so, but
he seems two things that are interesting. Whereas Ange had
one style to play, it would appear that he's multiple,
if you will, he's able to do multiple things. That's
(41:08):
one and two. He's already been around the league six
years now, so he knows what he's dealing with. He knew, Hey,
he knew what he was dealing with with Spurs players
having to game plan for So yeah, I think it's uh.
I think it worked out as best as it could now. Yesterday,
four minutes ago in the match and James Madison, as
(41:29):
you mentioned, looks like he's got a pretty significant knee injury.
So I wouldn't. I would suspect we're not going to
see him at all this year. So you know, the
transfer windows still open. We'll see what happens. I mean long,
the season's long.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
The season's long, and the off season short's that's a fact.
If there even is an off season.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
It is funny.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
You open competitive play on the thirteenth against PSG, the
Champions League winners and what's called the UFA super Cup
where they take the Europa League and the Champions League
winner and they play against each other. It feels like
PSG didn't have an off season, like they were in
the United States doing the Club World Cup and they
made the final, which was I think early July.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
I mean it was really like a minute ago, a
minute ago.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
It's just crazy.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
So that's coming up, and then the Premier League starts
the following weekends. So you kick off against Burnley at
home on the sixteenth, and then you get to go
to man City the following week.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
So I asked you, are you excited for the new season? Bill?
Are you ready to get back in?
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Okay, good, I've watched every friendly already on Spurs play.
I've got to figure it out, you know, it's a
as what happens with a lot of clubs, the Liverpool's,
the Tottenhams, the Chelsea's, the whatever. It seems like sometimes
you can have a little bit of a bloated roster.
(42:51):
So they've got to get some outgoings. And I think,
you know, but I think the other part of it was, hey,
Thomas Frank needed to get in there and see what
he had a little bit too. And you know, it's funny,
everyone's to some degree in the Spurs world, you know,
is losing their mind based on what Liverpool has done
and whatever. Well the reminder, just a reminder, they didn't
(43:11):
do much last.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
Year this time did nothing. They did anybody. We bought nothing.
We bought a winger that played in a handful of
games for like nothing.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Yeah yeah, and had a pretty good year, had.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
A pretty good year.
Speaker 4 (43:24):
Worked out okay, And then you know in year two
in your you know, in the year two of of
your new manager's process, he's said he's going through a
little bit of a change out to some degree, and
it'll be fascinating.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Some of it's a tragedy, of course, but I mean,
at the end of the day, your roster, you know,
you just had a really good team. Last year.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
They had a phenomenal season by all accounts and obviously
exceeded expectations. Nobody was picking them in the preseason to
win the title, and they stormed to it. They wanted
it a cancer, go.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Back to preseason polls as you just mentioned, you know,
you know what I mean. It's it's just sometimes and
you know, and we can hit on the Red Sox
a little bit as we were pre potting at some point.
Sometimes like and I look at all of our teams
here at North Dakota too. You just don't know what
teams are going to click, you know, whatever term you
want to use, right, You can tell the vibe of
(44:21):
the team or you or just they're they're they're all
in for each other. And sometimes some years it just
doesn't work out. Some years it does. And I think
last year for Liverpool was amazing. I think the Red
Sox same thing this year. It seems like they like
each other, seems like they're they're they're up on the
front step or the top step of the of the
(44:42):
dugout and every game. It's a small thing. It's a
little thing. It's not everything, but it's.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Something I think it just shows that you're dialed in,
that you care. Body language means a lot, and I.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Think I think what you're you're finding out. You know,
people would say, you know, what's the definition of leadership? Well,
I think comes at all different shapes and sizes. What
I will tell you though, is arguably arguably at least
they're probably most veteran presence, possibly best player Alex Bregman
was out for about a five week period. But what
(45:16):
he was was almost like another coach in that dugout.
You could see him going up and down. I mean,
he wasn't missing in action, so to speak. He was
trying to help the team win even though he wasn't
on the field. Garrett Crochet possibly the Cy Young Award
winner maybe.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
Who knows, fantastic, fantastic year.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Always on the front step, top step, always always, And
so you have those two guys doing that. It bleeds,
I think to the rest of the team.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
They certainly have had the results to prove it. I
think they are twenty four and eight in their last
thirty two. There are eleven games above five hundred, now
a second in the East, just a couple of games
back of the Blue Jays they've won five in a row.
They've had a couple of really long winning streaks of
late over the last two months. They didn't really do
anything in the deadline, but also nobody really did anything
(46:04):
in the deadline. Nobody other than the Twins selling everybody.
Nobody really was like all in. There were a couple
of teams that really got singled out for not being
aggressive at the deadline, but was anybody really It just
didn't really seem like no nobody really wanted to go
and make a huge splash. There wasn't really anybody to
go acquire that would put you over the top.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Yeah, so I'll finish up with this and then we
can hit a rap. But you said twenty four and eight, right,
so thirty two games, And of those thirty two games,
the Red Sox have played the league leaders in the
AL East excuse me, the NL East, NL Central, NL West,
and AL West. So so you're talking about you know,
(46:45):
it's it's some of the top teams in baseball. So
they've done okay in that regard. I think what ends
up happening you do get caught up in the moment
and a trade deadline, and I think everyone's thinking, boy,
you know X is going to happen. There is a
reason why the person's getting traded too, So like you
have to always kind of recall and remember that. I
(47:08):
think last year, I think I'm right with this. During
the deadline, no top one hundred based on whoever's rankings,
but whatever reputable didn't get traded top hundred last year.
That wasn't this year but last year. But this year,
no starting pitcher that's under team control got traded because
(47:32):
there's no doubt the market was just too much, too
rich at this point in time. I take it. Look
at a team like Minnesota, I don't blame them. They
probably were trying to hold people up for Joe Ryan
to some degree that price might go down in the winter.
We saw it with Garrett Crochet. Even though I thought
the White Sox made a good trade, I thought it
(47:54):
was a fair trade on both sides. But I think
the Red Sox made a decision that they're going forward
with the team that's in front of them right now.
And even though the Twins wanted one of the Red
Sox outfielders, so I read is I think it's something
the Red Sox would do in the off season, because
they're going to have to unlogjam that that outfield situation
(48:16):
at this point, especially as one of their top prospects
sitting in trip Lea who's an outfielder. So at the
end of the day, something's going to have to give
in that regard. But in this moment today, I don't
think you want to disrupt the chemistry.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
Yeah, and I would agree. I think maybe again, you
and I are not shock jock type people, like we're not. No,
that's just not the nature of who we are as
human beings. And it was it was, you know, it
robbed me the wrong way. I think that people were
so negative at some of the lack of movement by
the Red Sox proNT office over the course, I think
(48:50):
things they're working. It's okay, you don't want to you
don't want to mortgage the future. This is what happened
a couple of years ago. They really emptied out the
farm system and they did win a title like it
was worth it, But also, are you guaranteed to win
its titled if you make a move when you ship
off some of these guys this year, I don't know
if you are, so I think in mas sense, just
to be be patient, stated the plan.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
See what happened, no doubt, last comment. Then we then
we hit rap. But I thought this was interesting. So
they played an afternoon game last Wednesday in Minnesota, flew
home to Boston to start the series against Houston on Friday.
Not many times to teams have an off day on
(49:32):
the trading deadline day, So Alex Cora was able to
be in the room, in the room where things were happening,
and I think he was able to bring a different
perspective and convey that it wasn't from lack of effort,
it was actually, does this make sense in this moment
right now? And I think that's important. And then if
(49:54):
you look at what the Red Sox did do, and
I think the Hind Bluem era, you know, will come
back and say, boy, he did stockpile the minor leagues
pretty well. No one liked the Mookie Bets trade. I
still think it would have been great to make him whatever,
try to make him the highest paid player at that
point in time, and be the face of your franchise
moving forward. I thought he would age well. Kama Butt
(50:17):
he struggled this year. He has that might be an
outlier of no idea, but certainly Xander Bogart's has not
played all that great either, and so they've probably made
good decisions. It just doesn't sell well in real time.
It's always real time versus history, and from a historical standpoint,
(50:38):
I think they were all decent decisions, but in the
moment it doesn't feel great.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Yeah, I think you could see the Dever's move in
the moment as well. In the moment, for me, it
felt like, man, we're giving up on a guy that
has been fantastic, was the face of the franchise, didn't
get a lot back, even if he's disgruntled, etc. And
you mentioned it before we even started recording. He goes
to San Francisco and they've just gone in the tank
(51:04):
since he arrived there. And whether those two things are
an extorbally linked or if there's some other stuff going on,
of course there's more than one guy showing up doesn't
mean a team season is over. But that move looks
a lot better than it did in the moment, even
if you liked it in the moment, because of some
of the personality things.
Speaker 3 (51:20):
But it's just interesting.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
It's just so easy to make quick reactions these days
just to be the loudest person in the room, and
sometimes it's okay to sit back and wait and see.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Well, and I think you know, the media landscape, and
I use the term media however you want to define
it is so crowded that I think you're trying to
get through the clutter. So you have to be you know,
you've always have to have an immediate opinion about something
without actual the facts or the understanding of what really
was going on at that point. So you know, but
(51:52):
you know what, it always comes down to, Alex. Ultimately, ultimately,
how's the team doing.
Speaker 3 (51:56):
How's the team doing? And the ret SAX team is
doing pretty good.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
That's right. I mean, if there are ten games under
right now, it would be probably a different conversation than
being ten games over.
Speaker 3 (52:06):
I would agree with that.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
Well, with that said, we're gonna sign off for episode
one of season eight of the Bill Shaves podcast.
Speaker 3 (52:13):
This is fun. Good to be back. It is it is.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
We're back. We're back.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
I have an idea of who our first guest is
gonna be, but we will we'll keep that under wraps
and that'll be the tease.
Speaker 1 (52:25):
At this point in time, look forward to that coming
up in two weeks time. Until then, Bill, enjoy the
beginning of this new season with lots of great stuff
happening on campus.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
We'll see you soon, so good on.
Speaker 1 (52:37):
Behalf of Bill Shaves are behind the scenes team Alex
Socker Johnson and Paul Ralston. I'm Alex Synder. Thank you
for listening. Excited to get things going here on the
Bill Shaves podcast for another year. Enjoy the remains of
summer and we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 3 (53:00):
Stand in the Indolton
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