8-5-23 Matt & Tommy from P1, UNH AD Allison Rich

This week Justin chatted with Matt Gallagher and Tom Bellingham from the wildly popular P1 Podcast about F1 at the Summer Break, and also UNH Athletic Director Allison Rich about her first year at the helm of UNH Athletics, and what's on the horizon for the 'Cats!

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Welcome to Overtime, the only radioshow that joined the Big ten and then
got a better offer from the Bigtwelve and joined the Big twelve instead,
Have you gather stagingly handsome host Justinmciaac. On today's program, we talked
to Alison Rich the athletic director fromthe University of New Hams, here talking
about her first year on the job, great year for UNH athletics and now

(00:27):
what's to come in the year andyears head. She also was a big
market tease about what's going on atthe track that surrounds the football field of
Wildcats Stadium, so we talk aboutthat and so much more. Also talk
to two of my favorite guys thatcover Formula one, the guys from the
P one podcast, Matt Gallagher andTom Bellingham straight out of the UK,

(00:49):
talking about these seasons so far inFormula one and what they think they might
see coming ahead in the season tocome. Also what they're up to with
their P one podcast, a YouTubechannel which does big numbers covering Formula one.
They're pretty entertaining dudes, and uhyeah, I had a really great
conversation with those two, so myold guy thing of the week and as
as a forty five year old.As it turns out, I won't be

(01:11):
getting any younger. They did somemath on this, and I will only
be getting older, which was disappointingto hear. But the old guy thing
this week has been yelling at carsgoing too fast down my road. Now
I live in as most people know, in Rochester. There's some construction going
on a Rochester. There's a newroundabout being built at the end of Washington
Street. There's a detour in place, so in sending cars from Washington Street

(01:33):
down to where I am actually likethe end of the detours, like right
in front of my house and thenon down my street and off, you
know, into into the downtown area. But anyway, people coming down the
detour are annoyed by the detour.They get to my street and they just
haul ass down. What's a residentialneighborhood where there's like kids running around and
stuff like this. So of courseI walk Cujo around the block and I

(01:57):
just see these cars going way toofast and I'm like slow down, and
followed by a number of expletives.But it's it's getting the point. There's
a school in this neighborhood that opensup earlier the other. It's a magnet
school. So they're gonna be openingup like next week or the week after.
Someone's gonna die because these these peopleare maniacs. They're coming down the
road going I don't know, it'slike, what was it supposed to be

(02:19):
like a thirty mile an hour speed. There's no actual room to drive that
fast, and you wouldn't want toany because there's kids around. People are
going on this thing like forty fivefifty fifty five miles an hour and it's
like a residential neighborhood. And itused to be that I would ignore that
because I'd be young and be like, oh yeah, driving task cool.
Now I'm like, hey, hey, hall, it's a neighborhood. Not
to mention, there's a part ofmy street which it's two ways and then

(02:42):
turns into a one way after anintersection, and I don't know how many
people have gone the wrong way downthe one way. I was coming up
the one way and somebody was goingthe wrong way down the one way and
had the nerve to give me thestink guy because I like yellow. I'm
like, hey, it's a oneway blank and he blank. But I
should probably stop smaring at people whenthey're doing dumb things in cars because eventually
one of them is going to bestrapped and that's probably gonna turn out bad

(03:06):
for me. But that's my oldguy think of the weak is yelling at
people in cars. I'm not yelling. I'm not old man yelling at cloud
although we've had enough rain at thispoint where that's probably in the post.
But I am old man yelling atcars, and I'm looking for a solution
to turn that off, but sofar I haven't found one. I am
threatening to put up a sign inmy front yard where the people taking the

(03:28):
turn off the detour see it thatsays like, hey, detour a holes,
it's a neighborhood and slow down orsomething like that. So I don't
know. If you see something inthe paper about somebody getting a fine for
a sign screaming at people driving toofast, it was, it's probably me.
So just just be forward, allright. Now, let's take a
breakaway, come back. We'll talkto the guys from the P one podcast,

(03:49):
Matt Gallagher and Tom Bellingham talking allthings for me. The one that
is next this is overtime, keepit here, joining us here on overtime.
I would say this is just myopinion, but mine is the one
that counts to most, as Ihave the microphone. The two guys that
have the biggest and best over theone podcast in the world Matt Gallagher Tom

(04:13):
Bellingham of the P one Podcast.Guys, thanks so much for doing this.
Thank you for having having us onboth for the first time. You
had me on a while ago,didn't you. But it's great to be
back and thanks for the warm welcome. I think it's pretty deserved. And
you guys we were talking before beforewe started recording. Matt, you guys
have been all over the place.You're hanging out with Ferrari, You're beating

(04:36):
Damon Hill and carting. I mean, it's really, uh, it's really
been a whirlwind the last few monthsfor you guys. Huh, Yeah,
it's been it's been a crazy noteven six months since we launched. Some
of the things that we've ticked offalready. Is is crazy to even say
out loud as too Formula one fansthat are just living and breathing the sport.

(04:58):
Yes, you say, you knowcarting again former Word World champions and
we were on the main stage atSilverstone doing our podcast for half an hour,
which which was the craziest thing we'veever experienced. Not only that,
but we were the voices of theTanoi, so everyone that would enter and
leave the circuit would hear me andTommy thanking them or to get their tickets
ready or whatever it might be,which we thought was actually going to be

(05:20):
a good thing. Turns out thatthe campers were being woken up to our
voices on the Tannoi every single morning. So some people hate us dearly,
but but overall really good. Tommy, what didn't that sound like? Can
you give me your best welcome toSilverston Points? You don't have to do
that, just yeah, it's veryWe were asking about like bag checking and

(05:43):
all that, but yeah we did. We actually ended up doing like a
little Q and A in like thiscampsite, and some guy came up to
us and they were like, Ijust want to say, like my son
up seat, he loves your podcast, but I hate you guys because I've
been hearing you since five am.It was a tug in cheek, but
yeah it was. Silverstone was unbelievable, and you know, me and Matt

(06:05):
both both of us have like beenthere since who are kids like going to
say for us to be able togo really surreal like hearing our voices and
then obviously being on the main stageas well, I was like, what
is this is crazy? That's that'sgreat as you might have gathered the folks
of the audience, Matt Tommy joiningus from the UK if that wasn't clear

(06:27):
by now. And the Formula Oneseason is at the summer break. The
championship competitive portion of the season hascome to a close, not officially but
in everything but um Max for Stappanwho Tommy's a fan of, is uh
is going to win the World Championship, could win the Constructor's Championship. All
buy is lonesome. Do you guysthink this will push away some of the
newer fans because this seems to beI think people might join the sport.

(06:50):
Lead might have got the wrong impressionfrom twenty twenty one, but it seems
to be there's eras of dominance inFormula one and we're in the middle of
the Max for stapp and Era.So do you think it'll push away some
of the new fans. It's weirdbecause I, yeah, I sort of
think that Formula One is very muchat the tip of the top of the
mountain right now, There's only oneway, and it's down. With the

(07:12):
fact of twenty twenty one being oneof the most amazing seasons, the fact
that we lived and breathed that wasjust ridiculous. But unfortunately that was sort
of a blessing and a curse becauseas much as we did enjoy that,
we had a lot of fans cominginto the sport and then thinking, ah,
it's like this every year, lovelywe get level on points going into
the final race. Oh, thisis an amazing sport. Turns out no,

(07:35):
that was that was an anomaly.Usually it's dominance from one team.
So but it's weird because I thinkTommy you were speaking about was on a
podcast we did today that actually ormaybe we're just chatting because we just talked
formal one all the time. Thatthe viewing audiences at least in America has
actually gone up for SPA this yearcompared to last year, despite the dominance.

(07:56):
Yeah, it was up about elevenpercent or something, which is quite
quite crazy because you expect, yeah, maybe the domination is actually quite boring,
um like for for a lot offans that you know, we've we've
seen a whole season of the samealmost just the same driver, but the
same team winning every single round,including all the sprints and everything like that.

(08:20):
But it's crazy that it still seemsto be growing across America despite that.
So yeah, I think in thein the UK in particular, maybe
you know, we're we love anunderdog story and that kind of thing,
and I think, you know,we have seen frustration, but it's one
of those things where we'll all complainthat it's really boring, but we will

(08:43):
be there every session no matter whatbecause we absolutely love it. You're not
wrong about that, Tommy. Andthe way I compared to American college football,
we're at the highest levels. There'slike there's two or three teams that
can win the national championship every yearand everyone knows it. But there's so
much to watch for, you know, underneath that at the you know,
in the black and from the midfield, and I feel like American you know,

(09:05):
American college football fans and maybe we'rewatching up one kind of kind of
see a similarity there. Yeah,it's an interesting It's I mean, it's
not too similar to like, youknow, Premier League football or soccer if
you will, like I've overheard,like you know, the same teams are
going to win. Like you know, I support a team that I know
could have the best season they've everhad and they will never come close to

(09:28):
like winning. Like it's just youjust know that. So to say who
it is, Tommy, come onleads they got relegated. Actually it's even
worse. So this is my thisis my Ferrari pain that Matt has.
I have it in in football instead. But yeah, it's it's interesting that
you know, you have those momentsof dominance, but yeah, this I

(09:50):
think it's been more extreme than normal. You know, even we're talking about
it that even in the Mercedes era, Matt still won quite a few races.
He won like I think like tenraces or something during that season.
No one else has had a kindof a sniff of victory this year and
Red Bullet just absolutely you know,crushing it with everything we're talking about it

(10:15):
today that you know, they couldbe the ones that go, oh,
you know, what doesn't matter aboutour pit stops because we're forty seconds in
the lead. We don't need tocare. And they're still banging out like
under two seconds and staff and theyjust they're just like, you know,
the peak of their powers at themoment. We're talking about Matt Gallagher and
Tom Bellingham with the Pee one podcastsubscribe where you get your favorite podcast,

(10:37):
and also watched them on YouTube,which is where me and my daughter do
most of the content viewing. It'slike a little bit about McLaren. I'm
a McLaren fan. At the beginningof the season, Matt could tell you
I was crying into my beer.They were driving a tractor around, lugging
around Oscar Piastri's steering wheeled in awindows update in the middle of the Botary
and Grobrie or something like that.But now suddenly they're good again. And

(11:01):
Lando Norris, I think the loudestI've heard enough one crowd might have been
when Lando took the lead at atthe at Silverstone at the British Grand Prix,
a couple of second places. Thata great weekend last weekend, although
Oscar did good in the sprint races. Is that one of the things that
that's going to keep people watching evenduring the rebel dominances. Maybe to see

(11:22):
if McLaren and a traditional, youknow, British team that has such a
long history and people really seem tolove Landowner started like Oscar. I think
is that going to keep people interesteddespite the dominance. I think it needs
a sort of shift in the mindsetfrom Formula One fans, and you know,
even myself and Tommy. Even Tommystruggles to do it, which is

(11:43):
weird because he shouldn't try and shifthis mindset because he loves Max for Stapping,
but he also loves more the factof Max for Stapping actually racing someone,
but shifting that mindset and looking aroundthe storylines. Because funnily enough,
we recorded the podcast today which wasall about what the former one season for
twenty twenty three would look like withoutRed Bull, and it's one of the

(12:05):
best seasons you've seen in a longtime. Alonzo dominating at the start,
and then you've got Hamilton coming throughpicking up lots of great places, and
you've got McLaren, as you sayin this mid season, just picking up
randomly, and you've got this thisclose championship fight. So there are there
are many storylines in the Formula One. There's Daniel Riccardo coming back and how
can he do an Alpha Tari.So as long as you don't fully focus

(12:28):
on the battle for the lead,which I accept for me, for everyone
is the most exciting thing, thebattle for the lead, the battle for
the championship. But when we don'tget that, you have to just look
elsewhere for action, and the midfielddoes usually deliver when when we are lacking
at the front. And yeah,it's it's one of those where you just
need to not look at the stappenand it's actually really good. Well what

(12:52):
do you think Tom McLaren rising goingto keep you blooterested? Yeah, it's
it's very exciting. Like I thinkthey came out of nowhere. I think
the famous thing was micahackenan and everyonelaughing at him saying, oh, they're
gonna they're gonna be, you know, fighting with Red Bull. And this
was when he said it. Youknow, they were languishing at the back.
I think Lando maybe just finished aboutsixteenth or something and everyone was going,

(13:16):
what on earth are you talking about? And then we get to Silverstone
and you know it's Lando leading intoturn one. Oscar was fighting the staffen
as well. It was unbelievable.And yeah, the fact that McLaren alike,
yeah, back at the back atthe front, there is a lot
of excitement there because we're getting tosee, you know, someone like Lando

(13:39):
Norris. We saw this at Silverson, Lando Norris taking on Lewis Hamilton like
two Brits from very different eras.Got Lando talking about how he grew up
watching Hamilton and Steffan. Now they'reracing wheel to will, which is quite
cool. I have to say.When he was trying to hold off Lewis
Hamilton, I was actually in Indianapolisfor a balling tournament with my son,
and the poor people sharing the housewith us thought I was going to have
a heart taggling, why is hea hard tires? What are we doing?

(14:03):
But it all turned out all right, So that was that was good
to see the flip side of thatcoin. Missus mciac is an Alpine fan,
and they seemed to be in atailspin, not I mean kind of
on the track. They had tworaces where both cars suffered DNFs H and
last week was a little bit better. But you know, they fired uh

(14:24):
atmar whose last name I can neverpronounce, a safnauser. I believe they
might not be right, but theyfired up yeah, close enough. They
fired a bunch of people. Uh. They even the CEO, Laurent Rossi,
was relieved of his duties, Ithink, is how they put it.
They just seemed like a dumpster fire, as we say in the States.
Uh, well, can Alpine kindof recover here? Or what's what

(14:45):
do you see on the horizon?For them, it's hard, it's hard
to predict. It doesn't look fromoutside looking in that it's going too well.
Perhaps though Alpine, maybe they hada toxic environment and they all that,
right, let's just get rid ofeveryone and start again, because that's
genuinely seems like what it looks like. You've got Mattia Bernotto very very heavily
rumored to be taking that team principalrole at Alpine, which would be a

(15:09):
very strange thing for my brain toprocess as a Ferrari and char Le Clair
fan seeing Bernotto at Alpine. Andthen you've got rumors again that Carlos signs
if he doesn't get the contract thathe wants with Ferrari, then he might
go and rejoin Bernotto at Alpine andthings like that, so that the rumor
mill is starting to turn. Andlook, I think Bernotto, he was

(15:31):
as much as I many times lastyear, I was incredibly angry at Ferrari
and Bnotto for certain calls that weremade that were wrong, and Cosh Charleclair
many victories. He also did pushFerrari forward and he turned them into a
team that could win races. Sofor him to have then lost his job
was maybe a little bit early onthat side, because we've not seen any

(15:54):
difference with fred Vas and if anything, Ferrari have gone backwards. So yeah,
it could be it could be interesting. Well, but yeah, that
they will come back. It's justand they've got two good drivers, k
and Gasli a decent We saw thatin the sprint at this time at Spas,
So yeah, it's it will takea bit of repairing if they're changing
the entire team, but they'll befun. Yeah. I wonder if Alpine

(16:18):
and maybe suffering a bit from we'veseen this in the past actually that when
you get like a car manufacturer anda Formula One team, sometimes they cannot
tell very well together. And Ido wonder with all these changes and things
happening and then people getting fired,if it's like a war between the manufacturer

(16:41):
trying to do their thing and theF one team. You know, I
had someone mentioned this actually that youknow, the Renault's success with and also
when they were like Bennetton all camefrom essentially them letting Flavio Briatory, Michael
Schumacher, let let them do theirthing, and they kind of take a

(17:02):
step back and just let them doit. And I do wonder if maybe
you know, they're getting too muchinto the polity and that's something that you
know Ferrari as well, like peoplementioned that road car manufacturers, if they've
got like you know, the toppeople there trying to stick their nose into
a run a Formula one team whenthey don't have to run a Formula One

(17:22):
team, and I do wonder ifAlpine might have suffered from that a little
bit. Well, hopefully for missusmccaac's sake, they can pull out of
that, because a few weekends she'safter two laps, she's been like,
Okay, I guess I can takea nap. But so for the the
sanity of my householdlet's hope they canpull out of that. Speaking of sanity,
Matt is a Ferrari fan. Matt, can I can I do a

(17:44):
mental health check on you? BecauseI see the videos. I see I
see how you post the shorts whenFerrari has a blunder, and quite frankly,
you know this only the second timewe talked. I'm worried for you,
my friend. I'm a little word. Yeah right, how's your how's
your mental health? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what most
of our viewers are actually here for, is the fact that of my mental
health dipping with Ferrari, they tunein, they all they come in their

(18:07):
thousands when when something goes wrong,and yeah, you know, there's none
of them are there to actually checkhow I am. They're just here to
see if my table has been flippedor something. So but yeah, look,
expectations when they're through the floor,you can't be disappointed. And that's
kind of where I am at themoment. You know, it's Charlottelare getting
a podium was was was a miracleI felt in Spa. So for him

(18:30):
to only have had three podiums thisyear signs having none. It's one of
those seasons where I'm like, look, we'll we'll get back on the deluded
hype train for twenty twenty four.When that then inevitably derails in round one,
We'll then go to twenty five andone year, it'll it'll stick,
Tommie if you had to get acounselor's license just to make sure Matt's in

(18:51):
a safe place, that he's inan okay place, because I do worry
about the young men I know,I mean Ferrari have haven't helped themselves or
you know, like mental state likewe say, I mean even the first
race, um it was we actuallydid a live show, I want to
say it might even been after Australia, and one of the things we put

(19:12):
in it was like a compilation video. And obviously we'd only started P one
for about two months and we alreadyhad enough clips of maths Ferrari pay from
three three Grand Prix weekends to fill. And now just think, just think
about how many the end of seasonvideo that we're probably going to make of

(19:32):
all those moments because it's been quitea few. Yes, a few too
many for Mats likely. But westand with you, Matt. That's that's
That's what I'll say. We standwith you. Not we're not laughing at
you, we're crying with you.That's sure. Sure, we're talking with
Matt Gallagher. Tom Bellingham of theP one podcast Real Quick, Danny Rick
back with Alpha Dowry not a wholelot of not a whole lot to judge.

(19:56):
So he said two races. Ithought, I think he's been pretty
good, considering that is not allthat great. I saw this personally,
I thought this was a business moveby Alpha Tweri. They're gonna be looking
for new sponsorship. Danny Rick andYuki Sonora are a very marketable duo,
much more so than Nick DeVries.No offense to Nick, but I think
those who are are the comedy duoof the season. Was this a business

(20:18):
move? Are they trying to puta little pressure on Sergio Perez? How
did you see this? And howdo you think Danny Rick's going to do
the rest of the season? Thequestions to both you guys. But oh,
I mean, yeah, it's aninteresting one because Alpha Towery will always
the junior team. They used tobe Taurossa, and it felt like they
put the young guys in and thenthey work their way up. Now we're

(20:41):
sort of seeing Alpha Tawi maybe evenbe a completely separate team that's not so
much about youth development and making theirway up because we've seen, you know,
Sergio Perez, they got him innot from the main team for example,
And yeah, like there's rumors thatI think Helmet Marcos even confirmed that

(21:02):
they won't be called Alpha Towery soon, they're going to completely ditch the name
and they're going to be a newteam. And you do think, you
know, with Daniel Ricardo joining,Yeah, like that is a very exciting
team that's going to get a lotof eyeballs on them because at the end
of the day, Red Bull arethere to win, but also as a

(21:26):
big marketing and they're certainly doing verywell by winning a lot with the main
team, but you do wonder whatthey get out of having a completely like
spending all that money on a smallerteam that barely even notice. So yeah,
Daniel Riccardo coming back certainly got moremore eyeballs on and I'm sure Drive
to Survive in particular absolutely buzzing atthe fact that he's back. Yeah,

(21:48):
yeah, because that was the bigstory. Like it was same with us,
you know, we've we've been starvedof kind of breaking, exciting,
breaking news. And boy, whenthat Daniel Ricard his story came in,
was it like it escalated very quickand was a big, big surprise to
do it not even in the summerbreak to kind of Nick Devriez immediately,

(22:10):
Yeah, what do you think.I mean, first and foremost loved Daniel
Ricardo to the absolute core of thathuman being. He's an amazing man.
Whether he's still got it where we'reyet to see. There's been glimpses of
hope and glimpses of not great driving, all in the space of him coming
back. So I'm not sure whereto measure him right now in terms of

(22:32):
whether he's got rid of these habitsthat he had, these bad habits that
had formed at McLaren and whether hecan then shake that away. And realistically
he needs to come back into thesport and needs to make a name for
himself, and that's by beating UkiSonoda. In my opinion, he can't
really be matching or slower. Ifhe wants to genuinely rocket himself back into

(22:52):
contention into a seat that isn't theninth or tenth slowest car, he's going
to have to beat Uki Sonoda toit, and also beat other hype juniors
like Liam Lawson and whoever else thatmight be might be trying to slot into
those those higher up teams. Butyeah, what they're going to do about
where they I don't know. Imean, look, it's it's worth like
nine hundred million. I think,just just sell it, just sell it,

(23:15):
you know what I mean? Andrettiin I have some you know,
Andretti are absolutely chomping at the bitto come into Formula one it'd be called
to rather than Red Bull clearly havingthe second team that they're it's like just
like the ugly brother, like youjust what should we do with this?
Any public do we do? Wedo? We need this team? Like
it almost feels like it's like anunloved sibling. So it's it's it's a

(23:36):
bit sad really, because I meanthey're Their performance as well would suggest that
perhaps the shift and any sort offocus in that team has has kind of
gone. So what they do nextis an absolute unknown. The fact that
they're changing the name, I don'tknow what they're going to change it to.
What red Bull too? Like,what are we going for here?
I don't know because Alpha Tarre isobviously their fashion brand, so I don't

(23:57):
know. It's a bit of aI mean, if al Pen is a
dumpster fire, I think I thinkalf of Terry is also quite close.
I'm all enough to remember when PeterGhastly was dragging that car in a fourth
and fifth place almost every week.Oh that was only two years ago.
Yeah, yeah, now it's they'vekind of been left behind. But Matt
and Tommy from the P one podcast, I can talk to you guys all
day. You've been very generous fromyour time before we let you go.

(24:18):
You have the merch that's out Matt. You can't see that Sin's on the
radio, but Matt's wearing the Pone T shirt. What else you guys
have coming up? More live shows? So you're doing a Q and A
with Oscar Pastro, You doing answersome cool stuff. What else should we
look for from from P one?Well, we're in the summer break,
so slightly a bit of I guess, just a breath for a moment,

(24:41):
Yeah, just to relax, Butno, we're obviously still pumping out lots
of content. We've got a bitof reflective stuff over the summer break.
Look back at our preseason predictions,have a look at how accurate they've been,
just saying back to Pastro from thebeginning whatever. And I also I
also predicted that Daniel Ricardo would replaceVic Defrees midseason, that is something I

(25:02):
will take to my grave as thegreatest prediction I've ever made. But I've
also made many many wrong ones.So broken block is right twice a day.
So so yeah, we got that. You mentioned the merch which we've
just released and our first drops actuallyending today. We're live shows. We're
starting conversations again to do some morebecause we absolutely loved the first one.
It was really really special. We'regoing to Zanvil, which would be very

(25:23):
exciting. I'm partnering with with TommyHill Figure and doing some cool stuff out
there which is going to be amazing. And yeah, it's then it's just
content podcast, Twitch streams. I'llwatch alongs on Saturday and Sunday for every
qualifying and race, and yeah onYouTube as well. It's it's busy and
I'm no marketing guru, but Tommy, I think if you put your dog

(25:44):
Frank in a P one dog harness, I think that might do numbers.
I'm just staying that good idea.We'll get the P one dog Merch next
Frank and the model who knew MacGallagher Tom Bellingham. He won a podcast
downloaded on you Tube. Down letardon your favorite podcast app. Catch these
guys wherever you go. Thanks somuch for being on overtime. I appreciate
it. No, thank you forhaving us. It's always always good fun.

(26:07):
Jay as justin come we go.Next, we talk to Alison Rich
for the University of New Hampshire.This is overtime, keep it here.
Joining us today on overtime is theathletic director of the University of New Hampshire
Wildcats, the one and only AlisonRich. Allison, have you been.
I've been great, Nice to seeyou. Nice to see you, and

(26:30):
we're kind of chatting before before Ihit record here. It's it's the one
year anniversary and I think almost tothe day that you and I spoke under
Hampshire today about you taking over asa d Here at you and H and
uh, what was that first year? Like kind of like dog years?
I think sometimes it felt long andsometimes really really fast, but it was
great. It's been a fantastic year. I've had a chance to meet a

(26:53):
lot of really wonderful people who alllove you and H and they bleed blue
and they're very supportive. So it'sbeen a lot of fun and we've had
a lot of great success and I'msure we'll talk about that more, but
it's it's been a really good year. I've enjoyed it, indeed. Yeah,
and the fall season, you steppedinto the job and suddenly, I
don't know if it was you,of a something in the water, combination
of both, but the fall sportsteams just took off like a rocketship.

(27:15):
Football had a great year, men'sand women's soccer had a great year.
A cross country it's usual fantastic season. I mean what you must have been
thinking, Wow, this is easy, right, Nah, you know,
I figured it's all me, right, I get so many things I don't
do, I might as well takecredit for the no kidding, But it's
fantastic. I mean, it's justa lot of really hard working people and

(27:36):
you know, came together really well. Soccers both won, both won their
leagues and went to the NCAA's andthat's the first time that's happened in the
same year. And football came backfrom a little bit of a drought and
had a fantastic season to share theconference championship, and you know, volleyball
made it to the league championship,and so there were just so many great
things happening in the fall and thenthroughout the year. It was really fun
to be a part of it.And one of the things I I noticed

(28:00):
right away as you go to yougo to every event, it seems like
you're everywhere all the time. Youand your husband Mike, who I got
to know a little bit over thecourse of the football season, and you're
very active on social media, andI thought that brought like a real a
real sense of pride and community toUNH athletics. Was that just your own
you know, what inspired you tokind of like, you know, be

(28:22):
that active on social media. Isthat just something you think adis are doing
or should be doing now or whatwhat brought that on? Well? Thank
you, thanks for noticing and forfollowing. It's you know, it's I
took this job because I learned alot about UNH and a lot about Wildcat
athletics, and I loved everything Ilearned. There's such a great tradition here,
there's such a great experience that everybodyhas. We do some amazing things

(28:44):
on the field in the classroom,and it's important that everybody know that.
And that's the one thing I thoughtwe were missing was just not people weren't
aware of all the great things thatwere happening even on our own campus.
They didn't know what was happening.And so it's important for me to be
engaged in the community anyway. That'ssomething I like to do. It's fun
for me, but to share allthe great messaging, share all the great
news that's happening, and so socialmedia is a great way to connect with

(29:06):
people also and talk about the amazingthings that our coaches and student athletes are
doing and what's happening at the universitiesoverall. So it's been it's been a
lot of fun. Yeah. Oneof the things I noticed, I've been
on the radio crew for football fora few years now. One of the
things I noticed is that, youknow, the coaching staff for football,
they really like to know what's goingon, you know with like with women's
soccer, or men's soccer, orvolleyball or or all the coaches from all

(29:26):
the different sports are really engaged witheverything else that's going out on campus,
and I thought you would fit rightinto that very nicely, being everywhere all
the time. Well, thank you. Engagement is one of our keywords,
right, It's it's all about engagementon campus in what you're doing in the
community, and we consider ourselves twentysports but one team. And that's that's

(29:48):
been a great part of the yeartoo, is connecting with the group as
a whole. We have regular allstaff meetings, regular head coaches meetings,
and just a lot the support foreach other. You can see it and
the relationships are real and and thatmakes you and so much time here working
that it makes it a whole lotmore fun when you like the people you
work with and support each other andyou can really see everybody enjoying each other's
successes. Indeed, we're talking toAlison Rich, the athletic director at the

(30:11):
University of New Hampshire. So whatare the challenges your first year? You
had to make a decision as faras men's basketball went. Take me through
that process. What is that likeas an ad when you have to,
you know, make a huge decisionlike that. It kind of comes with
the gig. But what's your processas far as things like that go.
Yeah, it's it's never easy.I mean, you're dealing with people in

(30:32):
their lives and that's something that Ithat I don't take lightly. But I
also needed to look at at theprogram and see where we could be and
I think this program again has agreat amount of potential. I saw what
our kids were able to accomplish thisyear. I've got to know them pretty
well. And so when I wasgoing through the process when we made the
year, before we made the announcement, I met with the student athletes and

(30:52):
I talked to them on I waszoom because it was over spring break,
but just to make sure that therewas nothing that caught them by surprising.
Communication so important and transparency, andI didn't want anything to get out where
they didn't know what I was doing, or didn't know what was happening,
or somebody else was telling them thethings that I should be telling them.
So we had a good conversation.We shared information with our alumni or donors,

(31:14):
our supporters, are, our fans, our season ticket holders, just
so again everybody was in the loopof what was happening. And then just
trying to find the best person forthe role. I mean, there's a
lot of coaches out there, andtalked to a lot of people, and
I talked to our student athletes too, and I asked them to talk to
me about the things that were importantto them. And a head coach and
a lot of what they were sayingreally aligned with the things I was looking

(31:34):
for, which is fortunately, Iguess, and worked really well. And
we found a fantastic guy in NathanDavis, who has been amazing. He's
already come in, he's working withthe student athletes. They built these relationships.
They're working incredibly hard, but they'rehaving a really good time. They're
building relationships off the court. He'sbought in a great staff who all become

(31:55):
part of our team, and Ireally care about all of them. So
it's it's been, it's been fun. So um, it's it's an opportunity
I think for for the students nowto push in a different way and do
things a little differently. But wehad a great success and a history of
tradition to build on, so itwas great this this week especially we've seen
in some of the higher levels ofcollege athletics, it's been when it comes

(32:16):
to football, well, I guess, just conference free alignment, it's been
insanity, including like up to theminute we're conducting this interview, so who
knows what's going to happen afterworks.But your nation has really faced those types
of challenges, not you know,not being like a PAC twelve school or
a Big twelve school were joining Bigten tomorrow break some news on the show.

(32:37):
But what sort of challenges as atwenty first century athletic director? Uh,
do you face that people might notbe aware of or might not know
that really even comes up in yourday to day? Yeah, it's a
lot. I mean it's it's twentyfour hours a day, seven days a
week, all around the year,you know, year long. People say,
oh, you have your summer off, like, yeah, that would
be nice, but it's it's youknow, it's important. We're doing really

(32:59):
important things here and with our studentathletes and our coaches. So we want
to continue to strive for excellence andeverything we do. But there's there's a
lot of things going on, Likeyou mentioned a name, image likeness and
I L is big helping our studentathletes, you know, learn how they
can promote themselves, what it meansto build a brand, and have a
little bit of education on financial andfiscal integrity and what does that mean?

(33:20):
And how do you balance not onlybalance your budget, but how do you
pay taxes? You know, whatare your requirements when you when you do
things? How do you start abusiness? You know, all of this
is an educational opportunity as well asa chance for them to be out there
and promoting their brand, So helpingthem with that and we're we're trying to
give them as much support as possibleand as many opportunities as we can.
Um there's the transfer portal where youknow, now a student athlete can decide.

(33:44):
There are windows, but for themost part, they can decide at
any point I want to transfer andput themselves in the portal and then everybody
can see them on the other sideand start talking to them about coming to
their to their institution. And sowhile it's always been important, I think
if now it's more important than everto rerecruit your same students every single day
and remind them of why they're thereand how important they are to us as

(34:05):
a team, as a department,as an institution, and what they're getting
out of their education and their experienceat UNH. So that's important. Mental
health is huge, you know,coming off COVID where people were stuck in
their bedrooms basically unzoomed all the time, to be able to come back and
engage in our student athletes their publicfigures, so they're on social media the

(34:25):
trolls are out there. If theydon't cover spread, if they don't win
a game that people think they shouldhave, if they're doing something, whatever
it is, they're constant subject toscrutiny, and so to be able to
support them with mental health resources,coping resources, resiliency, all of that
to be able to be successful andeverything they're doing, and then really just
helping them with the performance overall,Right, that experience. We want them

(34:49):
to have that best possible student ethicexperience that they can. But a lot
of that is going to be developingthe healthy habits that they need to be
successful in their sport as well asin the classroom as well as in their
careers. Proper nutrition and sleep andhydration, but also athletic health and medicine,
strength and conditioning, all of thosepieces and really trying to give them
the best base possible to be assuccessful. So everybody sees, you know,

(35:12):
what they do on the field orin the classroom, but there's a
lot that goes into it. Yeah, and it's funny you mentioned the Nile
on the transfer portal. I startedwith the football team on Radio twenty seventeen.
I think the transfer portal came alongin twenty eighteen and people ask me
about you know, all these worldwould have changes, and I just have
to talk about it. I don'teven have to be an administrator, and
it's still you know, it makesmy brain short circum sometimes just trying to

(35:34):
piece it all together. I canonly imagine you know, having to,
yeah, having to you know,deal with the compliance and having to know
all these things and execute them likelike you and your staff have too.
Must be h it must be sometimesthe eight hundred milligrams of ibyprof at night
at the end of the night.Right, It's it's a lot. It's
a lot of things to know andremember. And then you know, we're
trying to protect our student athletes aswell. Right, we don't want them

(35:54):
jumping into the portal for something isn'treally a true experience, true opportunity,
you know, we want them againto have that great experience. And so
it's it's a balance. There's there'sa lot that goes on, a lot
to think about. Our and mystaff is fantastic. I mean they they
work like crazy and they're always thinkingahead to the big picture and planning ahead
so they things don't catch them bysurprise, and so things don't catch us

(36:15):
student athletes are our coaches by surprise. I'm really lucky. We're talking with
Alison Ritch, athletic director of theUniversity of New Hampshire. A couple of
couple more questions for me. Letyou go Alison. First of what's you
know? We're looking at your headhere to the twenty three, twenty four
year and into the future. Whatdo you see on the horizon for your
nahe athletics? What are your whatare your big plans or you know the
ones you can reveal, maybe youget some that are you're still working on

(36:37):
in the lab. But what doyou see for the future for your nature
athletics. Yeah, we've got allkinds of exciting things happening. I mean
academically, we had a fantastic yearand we planned to do more of the
same. You know, at athree point four one overall GPA, which
is amazing and ten teams over threeto five, we had obviously great success
on the fields and the court,so we're looking to continue doing that.

(36:57):
UM trying to provide again the resourcesthat our teams need. We had a
two hundred and forty three percent increasein Athletics pledges and donations this year,
which is amazing, and we're sograteful for the support of our of our
alums and our fans and our donorswho are excited to help us move forward.
And so some of that is goingto be and we're continue moving in
that direction with some exciting opportunities we'regoing to roll out in the fall and

(37:21):
that's a little teaser, but youknow, for the chance to we're looking
to renovate and refresh some of ourfacilities. We you know, the project
at the Wittemore Center, being ableto really refresh and redo the underside of
that, the locker rooms, thestudy area, all of the straight and
conditioning, the areas that most peopledon't see but that are critical to the
success of our teams and even therecruiting of our teams. So that's we

(37:43):
had some major support towards that we'rerolling things out on that. We've had
a lot of different donations for variousareas. You know, the ski facility,
we're looking at doing some things withtucker Field. We're in the process
right now of replacing the track outdoors, which is amazing. The rubber is
about to hit the row if therain hole. So that's gonna be exciting
and it's gonna look really cool.Just the teaser, the color is going

(38:06):
to be very different, and Ithink, yes, So we're just we're
really looking to make this, asyou know, continue to make this even
more of a special place. Imean, to come in to a place
that had such great tradition and somereally great things that are happening and be
able to just continue to build andmake it better. I'm just excited,
you know. Right now, we'vegot season tickets and individual tickets on sale
for football, and we had athirty percent increase in sales in just the

(38:30):
one day from last year. There'sthe first day they were out there.
So better hurry up and get yourtickets people, because they're going fast.
But it's going to be great gamesto watch, a great atmosphere. We've
got some new excitement in the tailgatingarea, some new activations and some opportunities.
So there's a lot going on.There's a reason I don't sleep.
But yeah, for all y'all thathit me up for football tickets. It

(38:51):
might be a little harder this seasonbecause nine starters back on offense and I'm
back on defense look gonna go evenfurther this year. So yeah, exciting
stuff for the should go. Thisone's a two part or easy one.
Ay, are we going to seeyou and Mike on the road with football
this year. He's really enjoyed seeingyou guys, and b are we building
a bubble around Mike Murphy so hedoesn't tear up as achilles again doing something
stupid. Ah, that's great.Yes, you will see me on the

(39:15):
road. You'll see me on theroad football. I'm gonna try to get
on the road with some of ourother teams as well. Last year was
a blur and a sea of meetingsand travel. I was met with hundreds
and hundreds of people, which wasamazing for me, but a lot of
time. But I will definitely beon the road with football and with some
of our other teams. Were excitedfor what's happening there Mike Murphy. Yeah,
we definitely need to bubble wrap him. He's but he's back. He's

(39:36):
back in the office, so we'reexcited. Oh yeah, yeah. Listen,
I was on constant contact with Murphduring his achilles injury, and I
feel like I should invoice him fora counselor. Bill but nonetheless, Alison
Rich, you an h athletic director, think so much for taking some time
and looking forward to seeing you soon. Right, happy to see, happy
to be here, always happy totalk and look forward to seeing you as
well. Thanks a lot. Welcomeback to overtime, fourth and final segment

(40:05):
of the program. And it's beenbanana landing as far as college football goes
the FBS teams. It looks like, as I record this at this moment
at two thirty one PM on Friday, it looks like Oregon is gonna go
to the Big Ten. There's gonnabe eighteen teams in the Big Ten.
It's been changing moments a moment.When I got out this morning, it
looked like Oregon was not going tothe Big Ten. I guess Washington's going

(40:30):
with them. So and when Iwoke up this morning and they were not
going to go, and then rightaround at noon when I was talking to
Alison Rich, it flipped and suddenlythey were going again. So this could
flip four more times by the timeyou actually hear the show at ten AM
on these fine iHeart news talk stationsover when you listen to the podcast,
who knows, but it's crazy andI talked with Ryan Anny about this a

(40:52):
few weeks ago. With all theseteams moving conferences, college football to me
is losing a lot because part ofthe fun of college football is the regional
hatred. Like you and H andMaine play every year. It's fantastic because
they're, you know, the teamsthat are closest to each other, and
they hate each other because they playedeach other every year. Like if you

(41:13):
and AH played Eastern Washington every year, who cares, Like, I'm never
gonna see people wearing an Eastern Washingtonhat around, Like I have buddies that
went to you made and when thegame comes around we bust each other's chops.
They're like, oh, the musket'scoming back to Orno. It's like,
no, it's not pal and soforth. You know, Ohio State
Michigan, that's a great rivalry.Do I care if Ohio State plays Oregon?

(41:36):
Not really. If chim Kelly wasthere, I guess I'll play.
I'll care in Ohio State plays Uclabecause there's two U and H guys that
are the head coaches of those programs. But generally speaking, like, if
you're a Purdue fan, are yougetting fired up to play Washington, I
doubt it. If you're a Perduefan, now you're getting fired with them.
But that's neither here nor there.The point is this, like I

(41:57):
think college football is, uh,there's fumbling the bag here because in my
experience, and granted, New England'snot a college football hotbed. I mean,
we have unh we have Dartmouth.Those are the the FCS teams in
New Hampshire. There's a Umane forFBS schools. What is there? There's
the Boston College, UMass Yukon.Those teams haven't exactly been lighting it up.

(42:22):
I mean when I was a kid, Boston College was popular because it
Dug Fluty, but haven't done awhole lot sense. So the point was
this, and not coming from acollege football hotbed, but in my experience,
the regional rivalries are what makes thesport fantastic. Like Texas and Oklahoma
they hate each other. You know, all the Florida schools they hate each

(42:43):
other. In Arizona, Arizona State, North Dakota State, South Dakota State,
they played for the mark, theDakota Marker every year. That's one
of the unique things about college footballthat makes it so fantastic and I don't
know, you know, I knowthey're getting all this TV money for football,
but when the volleyball team for UCLAhas to travel to Rutgers on a
Tuesday night, I don't know ifthat's going to be worth all the football

(43:05):
money you get, you know whatI mean, or the track team or
whatever. It's. It seems sillyto me, but it's it's the networks
and the money that are driving thesethings. And I think at the end
of the day, they're they're gonnafumble the bag lead too much there is
so much is too much of agood thing, as anyone who's ever eating
a large pizza in one sitting cantell you that I've ever done that.
But we're gonna gonna show. Iwant to thank my guests, Alison rich

(43:29):
To, the Athletic director of theUniversity of New Hampshire. Of course,
tickets for UNH football games, individualgames and season tickets are on sale at
UNH Wildcats dot com. Make sureyou get those. Also thinks to uh
Matt Gallagher Tom at Bellingham. Checkout their stuff if you're into f one
on YouTube or download their podcasts whereveryou get your podcasts and Of course,
if you miss this show, youcan download it in podcast form Wherever you

(43:51):
like. To get your podcast,just search for Overtime with Justin mccisick.
Like the podcast, give it areview of five star. Review helps people
see it, helps people find it, more people listen to it. You
can say you liked the band beforethey were popular, or something like that.
All right, we gotta run.Don't forget boys and girls. Hippies
are bad people pretending to be good. Pumps are good people pretending to be
back. I see you later.