July 29, 2025 • 14 mins
Todd interviewed the commish at MAC Media Day in Detroit and they discussed the College Football Playoff, rumors of Ohio looking to leave the MAC and other issues.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
But American Conference Commissioner John Steinbecker joins us and been
American Conference Football Media Day here at Ford Field. And
first of all, the having the event at Ford Field.
It's been here most of the time, but it's moved
around a little bit, but being here in the preseason
is always a greater reminder of the conference's connection with
this building and the championship game. And really you've built
(00:21):
up a strong relationship with the Lions and the NFL
and Ford Field for the Mid American Conference football.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, we have the longest us in the SEC, have
the longest relationships with single venues for our championship games.
You know, we've been this has been here twenty one
going on twenty two years now. It's phenomenal. Really thankful
for that, and it does kind of set the tone
we're starting out of the gate today. This is where
(00:47):
we're going to end up in one hundred and thirty
five plus days.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
And of course you have been very front and center
with a lot of the discussions in college athletics with
your tenure as the commission of the Mitimory Can Conference.
The changes maybe to the playoff and nil and now
paying players directly, and the changes. It's been very tumultuous
as a commissioner, probably hard to keep your head straight,
(01:13):
and for our institutions as well, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, it's been very very dynamic, and the rate of change,
much like in a lot of areas, has accelerated, and
so you've got to I talked about it in my speech.
It's not about good beat or otherwise. It is what
it is. Let's figure out how.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
To manage it.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And part of the challenge are ads and schools are
dealing with right now is we're moving into this post
house environment where you have a roster cap and additional
benefits under that, you have anil outside that has to
go through a review.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Process and all that.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
All these mechanisms are being built on the fly now,
so it's essentially a startup entity outside that's overseeing and
governing it.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I mostly it's.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Causing problem, but there's some challenges because you don't have
answers to everything right now.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So it's a work in progress.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Why most of our ags haven't seen a vacation this
summer they've all been grinding with their stabs is they're
trying to roll this out, put things in place so
that we can support our student.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Athletes and let's get through all that. Let's play some games.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Well, speaking of the playoff, there's talk maybe it'll expand
to fourteen or sixteen. I know that you've been pretty
passionate about how it should be set up, but you
also mentioned today if it stays at twelve, okay, what's
best for the non autonomous conferences such as the Mid
American Conference the current setup or fourteen and or sixty.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I'm not sure it changes dramatically with any of twelve, fourteen, sixteen.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
The biggest issue is how do you populate the field.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And what I'm gratified at is every discussion has said
we're going to make sure we include highest rated champion
from the non autonomous FBS conferences. That's kind of the
first and foremost on any media walk in and out of.
That's got to be on the board, and I need
to make sure I walk.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Out with that. That's going to occur.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Beyond that, let's again let's set up the championship for success.
I think it should be forward facing. We should be
focused on what did teams do that year, not what
what's the past ten year history or twenty year history
of your league, and we're gonna allocate slots because of that.
I think that's the way to go about it is,
let's get our selection criteria in panel, a really good
(03:30):
selection committee, and give them the tools to do the job,
and then let's go get it and enjoy the conversations
around it.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
It is going to be controversial.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
There's gonna be people who aren't not happy because they
didn't get in. They weren't upset, then it wouldn't be
a very valuable championship, would it.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
That's a good point. Controversy means people care. You don't
want apathy. We're talking with MAC Commissioner John Steinbrecker. Another
point you brought up in your I think answering a
question from what the media panel was. The question dealt
with MAX schools trying to keep up. When you know,
with these bigger schools and all the problems. You said,
do you think the higher level schools are going to
(04:06):
have more trouble than schools like those in the MAC
by what were you referring to there?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Well, they're all full trying to fully fund their additional benefits.
Those benefits are going to grow exponentially depending on how
this ruling around, how collectives fit into this and the
benefits they provide, all of that's going to just amp
up the pressures they have on them to continue to
fully fund those things. I'm not sure the players were
(04:33):
getting are significantly different today than they were a decade ago.
Same thing with big ten schools, SEC schools. What's different
is who's paying.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
What for them.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
The cost has gotten significantly different. In fact, I would
say we're probably getting some better student athletes than maybe
we've gotten before through the transfer process. You know, transfer
process taketh away. It also give us a lot too.
Their expenses have grown exponentially more than ours have.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
We have to continue to manage.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It doesn't mean we don't have financial challenges and pressures
on us.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
We do. But if people think the upper end of.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
The food chain doesn't have those pressures as well, they're
flat out wrong. And that's why I get back to
the fact, if we would all collaborate, we could exponentially
grow the business. That would give us more resources to
invest into our student athletes.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, when you talked about collaboration and your address to
the group here, you talked about collaboration specifically among the
non autonomous conferences mid American Conference Sunbelt. What kind of
things do you envision could help the conferences if they
group together a little belt and I would.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Say we start with the five or six of us,
but we need to include all ten fbis that's the goal.
But whether it's governance issues and how we manage ourselves,
we need to be more forceful and let's do what
we want to do and how we want to do it.
Are there scheduling things we do? The sun Belt challenge
that we have in basketball is a prime example that
(06:06):
are there business opportunities we have either through marketing rights agreements?
What if we instead of each of us having our
own TV contract, we figure.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Out a way to all go together and build out.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
A contract collaboratively that maybe has some scheduling components that
add value into it that elevate the rights fees for everybody.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
What about the postseason?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Are the ways we could work together again to make
our postseason more valuable?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I think what it's about.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Is reimagining the whole business enterprise of college sports, and
let's quit thinking about it as a bunch of single entities.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
But we have to come together.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
The best analogy I give is really compare the NFL,
and compare Major League Baseball NFL.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Every one of those teams they're.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
All partners, they're all in on everything, and that's why
the behemoth there are and they don't have winners, and
there's business wise in that league there are green bays.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
As strong as Dallas is.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Right, look at Major League Baseball you got the Dodgers
and got the Yankees, and then look at some of
the small market teams. You have definite winners and losers
because how they operate differently. I'd prefer the other the
first model, and let's figure out a way to work together.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
That raises at for all of us.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Commissioner, there was some rumors about one of our member
institutions looking to leave with Ohio, and they didn't officially
say that, but is there any concern that there's further shakeup,
that maybe you lose a member or the air forced
to bring in another member. Where does that stand?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Well, let's start with that rumor, and there was nothing
to it.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
It was picked up from a blog and what people
started doing was quoting up. Well, this newspaper says that
da da da right, So it's poor that that got
out that way. Ohio clearly said, no, we're not exploring that.
You know what, there's going to be movement out there
amongst some teams.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I think we're fairly stable.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
People need to be where they think they need to be.
What I ask people to think about when they hear rumors,
think about the value propositions involved, and so you know,
you think about Conference USA and sun Belt, which are
really the two primary conferences.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
In our footprint, that would make some sense.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Even though our contract is now we're going into year
eleven of a twelve year deal essentially, or excuse me,
we're going into year nine of a ten year deal.
Although we had a couple of years before it, it
still has a higher payout than either Conference USA or
Sun Belt. Have you look at our geography, Well, we're
much tighter than either of those two, so less travel
(08:50):
expense types of institutions were much more homogeneous than any
of those conferences. So why would you move if the
business this proposition isn't there?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Rumors get going.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Everybody needs to step back and say, okay, does this
make sense? They're not not necessarily recognizing the conference affiliation
and membership and all that.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Isn't always a rational process. And I understand that, but I.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Think we provide a pretty darn good home for our membership.
We need to continue to look for ways to grow
our enterprise, continue to see if we can't grow resources
to put back to our institutions. All of us are
fighting that, but again, I think the long term solution
to that is our league's working together and again let's
(09:39):
compete on the field and let's collaborate in the boardroom.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Speaking of growing, UMass is now officially a Mid American
Conference member, and some people would say, well, that comes
out of left field a little bit, although they were
previously a football only member, now they are a full member.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
I guess, how did you sell.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
That and how does it makes sense in the totality
of the Mid American Conference.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
It didn't really have to sell it.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
First off, they approached us, and so you start digging
into it, and you know, the easy stuff was all
the academic stuff, world class research institution boom.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
So get into that. Then you start looking at the numbers.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, they stretch us a little bit, but even with them,
we are still the tightest most compact FBS conference by
more than half of any other league in the country.
Their tradition around their programs is really strong. They've been
poor in football recent history. If you go back and
(10:38):
research them, when they've been in a league, they've been
a good contributor. They've you know, won national championship, it's
been conference championship where they've been. I expect in short
order they'll get there. They've invested in their football program.
When you get there, and you'll see the facilities they
now in in place.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
And support structures and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Really nice basketball tradition that I think people and enjoy
will help us lift there, will help lift us in
other sports and raise the level of competition all the
things we want to We kind of seize it.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
For me to say and talk about it.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
But you want to bring in people who are going
to raise the level of competition.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
We're all competitive.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
It's going to amp up the intensity among our programs
and what we do. And as it turns out, we'll
have a twelfth next year, now, won't we.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, Northern's leaving, of course, Northern Illinois after this year.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Final thought on the UMAs thing.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Some people are concerned that they'll come in basketball basically
be the bully on the block. They've certainly had a
better tradition there. How concerned are you about them competitively
in men's hoops in particular.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I hope they come in and they are really strong.
I think if you go back and study their metrics
and what they've been doing, I'd be surprised if they
come in and run away from the field.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Top teams in this.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
League are really, really good, So I expect we'll have
really robust competition, and what it provides us is another
strong team. I would expect we'll find out again Mid
American Conference is pretty good basketball. The metrics don't always
spell that out, but you've been around a long time.
Top teams in this league can play with anybody. I
(12:20):
expect more of the same.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Final thoughts with MAC Commissioner John Steinbrecker. You mentioned you've
been to Washington several times over the past year. They've
just advanced something called the Score Act. I know there's
been talk about presidential executive order all toward the idea
of trying to provide more clarity for everybody on a
nationwide federal level. How much help do you expect you
(12:42):
could get from Congress.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Well, that's the magic question, right, Can we bridge some
divides that exist and if we're unable to get something done.
It may have nothing to do with the bill itself
or athletics, it may have to do with other political realities.
We'll find out. What I'll say is people on both
sides of the aisle are very interested in it. They
(13:04):
understand better understand now the issues at play. And again,
we've got NIL that's governed by state laws. So we
have thirty eight different state laws. And that's problematic because
states are getting competitive and so they're drafting or rewriting
their rules to provide a competitive advantage quite frankly, and
(13:27):
that's probably not healthy for any of us. So we
need a unified NIL standard. We need the ability to
have eligibility rules and transfer rules that we can in
fact enforce without fear of being sued. You know, we've
got kids suing us right now because they want to
play more than five years or they transferred in and
all we should get X, Y and Z. We had
(13:49):
transfer rules that made sense, but we stepped away from
them because we are unwilling to go to court to
say this works right.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
So we need some help on that.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We need greater clarity on our student athletes employees. Are
they not I don't think they are. Our student athletes
would say they don't want to be employees, and there's
a litany of reasons for that, but we need clarity
around it so that we can continue to build out
the structure and figure out how we're going to run
this enterprise so that in fact, we do have student athletes.
(14:21):
We're balancing this new world of economic opportunity for student
athletes with We need to do everything we can to
ensure educational success for our student athletes. Those outcomes are
important to us in part and parcel of what we're doing.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Commissioner.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Great to talk with you again, Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Look forward to seeing you in to game soon.
But American Conference Commissioner John Steinbecker joins us and been
American Conference Football Media Day here at Ford Field. And
first of all, the having the event at Ford Field.
It's been here most of the time, but it's moved
around a little bit, but being here in the preseason
is always a greater reminder of the conference's connection with
this building and the championship game. And really you've built
(00:21):
up a strong relationship with the Lions and the NFL
and Ford Field for the Mid American Conference football.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, we have the longest us in the SEC, have
the longest relationships with single venues for our championship games.
You know, we've been this has been here twenty one
going on twenty two years now. It's phenomenal. Really thankful
for that, and it does kind of set the tone
we're starting out of the gate today. This is where
(00:47):
we're going to end up in one hundred and thirty
five plus days.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
And of course you have been very front and center
with a lot of the discussions in college athletics with
your tenure as the commission of the Mitimory Can Conference.
The changes maybe to the playoff and nil and now
paying players directly, and the changes. It's been very tumultuous
as a commissioner, probably hard to keep your head straight,
(01:13):
and for our institutions as well, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, it's been very very dynamic, and the rate of change,
much like in a lot of areas, has accelerated, and
so you've got to I talked about it in my speech.
It's not about good beat or otherwise. It is what
it is. Let's figure out how.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
To manage it.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And part of the challenge are ads and schools are
dealing with right now is we're moving into this post
house environment where you have a roster cap and additional
benefits under that, you have anil outside that has to
go through a review.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Process and all that.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
All these mechanisms are being built on the fly now,
so it's essentially a startup entity outside that's overseeing and
governing it.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I mostly it's.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Causing problem, but there's some challenges because you don't have
answers to everything right now.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So it's a work in progress.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Why most of our ags haven't seen a vacation this
summer they've all been grinding with their stabs is they're
trying to roll this out, put things in place so
that we can support our student.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Athletes and let's get through all that. Let's play some games.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Well, speaking of the playoff, there's talk maybe it'll expand
to fourteen or sixteen. I know that you've been pretty
passionate about how it should be set up, but you
also mentioned today if it stays at twelve, okay, what's
best for the non autonomous conferences such as the Mid
American Conference the current setup or fourteen and or sixty.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I'm not sure it changes dramatically with any of twelve, fourteen, sixteen.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
The biggest issue is how do you populate the field.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And what I'm gratified at is every discussion has said
we're going to make sure we include highest rated champion
from the non autonomous FBS conferences. That's kind of the
first and foremost on any media walk in and out of.
That's got to be on the board, and I need
to make sure I walk.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Out with that. That's going to occur.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Beyond that, let's again let's set up the championship for success.
I think it should be forward facing. We should be
focused on what did teams do that year, not what
what's the past ten year history or twenty year history
of your league, and we're gonna allocate slots because of that.
I think that's the way to go about it is,
let's get our selection criteria in panel, a really good
(03:30):
selection committee, and give them the tools to do the job,
and then let's go get it and enjoy the conversations
around it.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
It is going to be controversial.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
There's gonna be people who aren't not happy because they
didn't get in. They weren't upset, then it wouldn't be
a very valuable championship, would it.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
That's a good point. Controversy means people care. You don't
want apathy. We're talking with MAC Commissioner John Steinbrecker. Another
point you brought up in your I think answering a
question from what the media panel was. The question dealt
with MAX schools trying to keep up. When you know,
with these bigger schools and all the problems. You said,
do you think the higher level schools are going to
(04:06):
have more trouble than schools like those in the MAC
by what were you referring to there?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Well, they're all full trying to fully fund their additional benefits.
Those benefits are going to grow exponentially depending on how
this ruling around, how collectives fit into this and the
benefits they provide, all of that's going to just amp
up the pressures they have on them to continue to
fully fund those things. I'm not sure the players were
(04:33):
getting are significantly different today than they were a decade ago.
Same thing with big ten schools, SEC schools. What's different
is who's paying.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
What for them.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
The cost has gotten significantly different. In fact, I would
say we're probably getting some better student athletes than maybe
we've gotten before through the transfer process. You know, transfer
process taketh away. It also give us a lot too.
Their expenses have grown exponentially more than ours have.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
We have to continue to manage.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It doesn't mean we don't have financial challenges and pressures
on us.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
We do. But if people think the upper end of.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
The food chain doesn't have those pressures as well, they're
flat out wrong. And that's why I get back to
the fact, if we would all collaborate, we could exponentially
grow the business. That would give us more resources to
invest into our student athletes.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, when you talked about collaboration and your address to
the group here, you talked about collaboration specifically among the
non autonomous conferences mid American Conference Sunbelt. What kind of
things do you envision could help the conferences if they
group together a little belt and I would.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Say we start with the five or six of us,
but we need to include all ten fbis that's the goal.
But whether it's governance issues and how we manage ourselves,
we need to be more forceful and let's do what
we want to do and how we want to do it.
Are there scheduling things we do? The sun Belt challenge
that we have in basketball is a prime example that
(06:06):
are there business opportunities we have either through marketing rights agreements?
What if we instead of each of us having our
own TV contract, we figure.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Out a way to all go together and build out.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
A contract collaboratively that maybe has some scheduling components that
add value into it that elevate the rights fees for everybody.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
What about the postseason?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Are the ways we could work together again to make
our postseason more valuable?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I think what it's about.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Is reimagining the whole business enterprise of college sports, and
let's quit thinking about it as a bunch of single entities.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
But we have to come together.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
The best analogy I give is really compare the NFL,
and compare Major League Baseball NFL.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Every one of those teams they're.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
All partners, they're all in on everything, and that's why
the behemoth there are and they don't have winners, and
there's business wise in that league there are green bays.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
As strong as Dallas is.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Right, look at Major League Baseball you got the Dodgers
and got the Yankees, and then look at some of
the small market teams. You have definite winners and losers
because how they operate differently. I'd prefer the other the
first model, and let's figure out a way to work together.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
That raises at for all of us.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Commissioner, there was some rumors about one of our member
institutions looking to leave with Ohio, and they didn't officially
say that, but is there any concern that there's further shakeup,
that maybe you lose a member or the air forced
to bring in another member. Where does that stand?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Well, let's start with that rumor, and there was nothing
to it.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
It was picked up from a blog and what people
started doing was quoting up. Well, this newspaper says that
da da da right, So it's poor that that got
out that way. Ohio clearly said, no, we're not exploring that.
You know what, there's going to be movement out there
amongst some teams.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I think we're fairly stable.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
People need to be where they think they need to be.
What I ask people to think about when they hear rumors,
think about the value propositions involved, and so you know,
you think about Conference USA and sun Belt, which are
really the two primary conferences.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
In our footprint, that would make some sense.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Even though our contract is now we're going into year
eleven of a twelve year deal essentially, or excuse me,
we're going into year nine of a ten year deal.
Although we had a couple of years before it, it
still has a higher payout than either Conference USA or
Sun Belt. Have you look at our geography, Well, we're
much tighter than either of those two, so less travel
(08:50):
expense types of institutions were much more homogeneous than any
of those conferences. So why would you move if the
business this proposition isn't there?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Rumors get going.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Everybody needs to step back and say, okay, does this
make sense? They're not not necessarily recognizing the conference affiliation
and membership and all that.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Isn't always a rational process. And I understand that, but I.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Think we provide a pretty darn good home for our membership.
We need to continue to look for ways to grow
our enterprise, continue to see if we can't grow resources
to put back to our institutions. All of us are
fighting that, but again, I think the long term solution
to that is our league's working together and again let's
(09:39):
compete on the field and let's collaborate in the boardroom.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Speaking of growing, UMass is now officially a Mid American
Conference member, and some people would say, well, that comes
out of left field a little bit, although they were
previously a football only member, now they are a full member.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
I guess, how did you sell.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
That and how does it makes sense in the totality
of the Mid American Conference.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
It didn't really have to sell it.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
First off, they approached us, and so you start digging
into it, and you know, the easy stuff was all
the academic stuff, world class research institution boom.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
So get into that. Then you start looking at the numbers.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, they stretch us a little bit, but even with them,
we are still the tightest most compact FBS conference by
more than half of any other league in the country.
Their tradition around their programs is really strong. They've been
poor in football recent history. If you go back and
(10:38):
research them, when they've been in a league, they've been
a good contributor. They've you know, won national championship, it's
been conference championship where they've been. I expect in short
order they'll get there. They've invested in their football program.
When you get there, and you'll see the facilities they
now in in place.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
And support structures and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Really nice basketball tradition that I think people and enjoy
will help us lift there, will help lift us in
other sports and raise the level of competition all the
things we want to We kind of seize it.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
For me to say and talk about it.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
But you want to bring in people who are going
to raise the level of competition.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
We're all competitive.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
It's going to amp up the intensity among our programs
and what we do. And as it turns out, we'll
have a twelfth next year, now, won't we.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, Northern's leaving, of course, Northern Illinois after this year.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Final thought on the UMAs thing.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Some people are concerned that they'll come in basketball basically
be the bully on the block. They've certainly had a
better tradition there. How concerned are you about them competitively
in men's hoops in particular.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I hope they come in and they are really strong.
I think if you go back and study their metrics
and what they've been doing, I'd be surprised if they
come in and run away from the field.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Top teams in this.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
League are really, really good, So I expect we'll have
really robust competition, and what it provides us is another
strong team. I would expect we'll find out again Mid
American Conference is pretty good basketball. The metrics don't always
spell that out, but you've been around a long time.
Top teams in this league can play with anybody. I
(12:20):
expect more of the same.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Final thoughts with MAC Commissioner John Steinbrecker. You mentioned you've
been to Washington several times over the past year. They've
just advanced something called the Score Act. I know there's
been talk about presidential executive order all toward the idea
of trying to provide more clarity for everybody on a
nationwide federal level. How much help do you expect you
(12:42):
could get from Congress.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Well, that's the magic question, right, Can we bridge some
divides that exist and if we're unable to get something done.
It may have nothing to do with the bill itself
or athletics, it may have to do with other political realities.
We'll find out. What I'll say is people on both
sides of the aisle are very interested in it. They
(13:04):
understand better understand now the issues at play. And again,
we've got NIL that's governed by state laws. So we
have thirty eight different state laws. And that's problematic because
states are getting competitive and so they're drafting or rewriting
their rules to provide a competitive advantage quite frankly, and
(13:27):
that's probably not healthy for any of us. So we
need a unified NIL standard. We need the ability to
have eligibility rules and transfer rules that we can in
fact enforce without fear of being sued. You know, we've
got kids suing us right now because they want to
play more than five years or they transferred in and
all we should get X, Y and Z. We had
(13:49):
transfer rules that made sense, but we stepped away from
them because we are unwilling to go to court to
say this works right.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
So we need some help on that.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We need greater clarity on our student athletes employees. Are
they not I don't think they are. Our student athletes
would say they don't want to be employees, and there's
a litany of reasons for that, but we need clarity
around it so that we can continue to build out
the structure and figure out how we're going to run
this enterprise so that in fact, we do have student athletes.
(14:21):
We're balancing this new world of economic opportunity for student
athletes with We need to do everything we can to
ensure educational success for our student athletes. Those outcomes are
important to us in part and parcel of what we're doing.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Commissioner.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Great to talk with you again, Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Look forward to seeing you in to game soon.
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