Chris Plank & Arnie Spanier Debate Combine Popularity, Lakers & Arizona

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listening to Fox Sports. Oh let's go, stick go
and my New York Knicks are kicking some booty. Let's go,
let's go. It's only the first half. Long way, okay,
long way to go making a playoff run boy, We've
got a long way from bing bong and the Knicks
are back, han't we? I mean, bottom totally fell out

(00:23):
of that, But congrats on the one night of relevance.
Gotta thank you when when the Knicks were two and one,
I was so excited. That was a long time ago.
You you, you tend to get the card a little
bit ahead of the horse, and I did get Yeah.
You you you tend maybe already to get a little
bit too juice about your team's early on. Have you
noticed that or is that just a me thing and

(00:44):
noticing that so far? Maybe I already like the way
the Dolphins look for next year. So I see what
you're saying. You know what, Um, I gotta tell you
something I don't. I've been sitting here thinking about the
Dolphins a lot today and the whole Chris Gray our
no longer interested in into Shaun Watson. I'm thinking to
myself that ain't your call, man, that's that's fun. I'm

(01:05):
glad that you think that, but I don't think you'll
get the final call on that. So it's gonna be fascinating,
stinking genius to see how that off season plays up.
But listen, yes, I know you're here to break down
forty times and hand sizes the un You're all over
you and I and I got a bad thumb. I'm working,
I'm working, hurt. I tell you, Danny G how long

(01:26):
did I tell you that it would take for the thing? Wow?
Two minutes into the show, Annie will bring up his stuff.
Go ahead, tell everyone you're saying, did you tell the
last night too? I told the last I was playing
basketball and a guy just barreled into me and just
smashed me. So I think I broke my thumb. So
I didn't know what to do. So the doctor got
back to me. You know, of course, when when we
have an injury, reach out to our best friend Dr Chow.

(01:48):
So I was talking to Dr Chow and uh, not
really much they can do for it. Looks like I
reached my hand. I robbed the bank and I reached
my hand into the money, and like the blue pack
went off, and there's blue stuff all over my end.
Now you know, it's kind of wild about this. Uh,
kind of breaking down the fourth wall here with Arnie
and Plank on a Fox Sports Sunday. Bubbo is back,
So it's awesome to have Bubbo back after a week off,

(02:10):
even though probably schedule wise it worked better for him.
Don't don't let him know that Danny g is here
tonight as his Steve Disager on updates. Uh, breaking down
this fourth wall here on the show. Arnie typically handwrites
every single note for the show, and he sends it
to Danny and I usually in a very difficult to
read yellow notepath that he takes a picture of again

(02:33):
old school. But it's fine. I can kind of read.
It's like it's like chicken scratch. Somehow you were able
to text but weren't able to write today. Am I
getting this right? Well? I can text. I can text
with my my pointer finger. I I can't write without
my thumb though. But I mean, you're you're still so
you're saying you're poking. I almost said pecking, but that

(02:54):
could be used out of context. You're basically poking every
single letter as you send it to me, is what
you're doing right? And I when I text anyway, I
never used my thumbs. What's wrong with you? You don't
use your thumbs to text? No, I don't use my
thumbs at all. I'm thumbless. Your thumb looks like a grape. Yeah,
I know it's pretty bad, is it not? Or what?

(03:14):
Oh my god? Have you not gone to the doctor
for this? What are they gonna do? What do you
think they're gonna do? Tape it up so you can't
move it. The more you move, and you're gonna make
it worse. Tape it up? Yes? Whatnot? You're an athlete?
Have you ever played sports before? Yes, I'll talk to
you every Sunday. Well, i'll go hold on, we bury

(03:36):
the lead here. You don't text with your thumbs? So
I mean because he's old, he doesn't know. Okay, all right,
Well I just wanted to say, because I mean, listen,
if that's not a normal thing, I don't know about
you guys, But the phone is is with the pinky
finger underneath like where the charging area is. Um, I've
got three fingers that are kind of supporting the back

(03:58):
of it. And I'm always he's texting with my thumb?
Isn't that like how normal regular humans do it? Or no,
I'm not normal, and no that doesn't seem very comfortable.
I'm not I'm thumbless when I text Okay, well sorry
about the thumb? Did you finally? And and Bubba given
me a grief. I should go to the doctor. Dr
Child said, there's probably little they could do for me. Um,

(04:19):
you know what am I gonna I'm gonna wear splint
on my thumb? Okay? Why not? Why not? Why not?
Like seriously, why not? I really need about it. When's
the last time you two guys ever, like stepped on
a basketball corner or anything point any sports. I'm just curious.
When's the last time you scored? I mean, I played golf.
I mean, that's why I wrangle around an eight year old.

(04:41):
That's kind of like, when's the last time you talked
to a woman. It wasn't your wife. I guess I'm
more curious. You think that you're playing basketball is some
sort of athletic endeavor. It's where I'm maybe a little
bit more confused. What's the last time you didn't take
a blue peel? Oh god, he's got the blue thumb
to go with this blue pill. But I just I
think the point is we worry about you, Artie. Whatever,

(05:03):
whatever your thumb. Did you put the picture on Twitter yet? No,
I I did it yesterday, but I just said it
to Bobo and Danny. I'll have Danny put it out
on Fox Sports. You know. The guy ran into me,
saw me standing there, and he just didn't give a damn.
So next time, like most people, right, so, I'm gonna
put my elbow up and put it right in his
throat next time. Then then you'll probably never play in

(05:24):
because we'll knock your ass out. I don't really have that.
You have a broken thumb, and you'll be a broken job.
But so in case you haven't been able to notice tonight,
and it will be brought up quite a bit because
that's how Arnie rolls. Arnie is playing hurt this evening.
So kudos to you, Artie. When you when you have
a hot take and you and you have to pound
the table, you'll have to be a little extra careful tonight, right,

(05:45):
have to do it, Lefty. So is the combine the
biggest story in your world? Like it is mine? Or
am I the only one? You're the only one? I
don't know You're the only one that gets excited how
big somebody's hands are, what they're four the end, what
the shuttle time is, what the shuttlecock is, or whatever
it is. You're the only one that cares about that.

(06:06):
Matter of fact, you would not be watching it on
television if there was a good NBA game, on a
good college basketball game on I I didn't stop it.
But yeah, you're you're probably one of the few that
loves this stuff. They're absolutely great college basketball and good
NBA games all weekend long, and I still watched it.
I'm willing to bet about every penny in my bank

(06:26):
account that any time they put it on regular TV
or maybe even on on the NFL network, Arney, I
betted Outdaws, your beloved college basketball. I bet the combined
numbers might have tripled what Arizona put up last well,
they were they even on broadcast TV. We're on the
plat packed Well network last night. Get out here. If
nobody cares about the combine, now you know, I can
we do without the incessant over analyzation of hand side

(06:49):
you bet? But it's become where news happens. It's become
where news starts to break in the NFL. I I agree.
I heard Hartmann saying this. I'm I'm taking this Marma,
but I agree with him. You know, do some stuff
that if you want to go ahead and have me
tuned into this, do the Oklahoma drill. Let's see that.
Let's go ahead and see that there. Let's let's get
a little let's rough it up a little bit. Let's

(07:10):
see what you got out there. Big boy. You know,
it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life.
The heart been zetens. I gave him grant. You guys
are on a level playing field. Yeah, let's let's go
in the biggest job interview of our life. Whenever we
decided we wouldn't play in the bowl game, if we're
not to get hurt, and let's do an Oklahoma drill
in the middle of the field. Nobody sarcasm, but nobody

(07:33):
would be going to there's no reason for sarcasm. Arty.
This is a combine. It's life or death. Come on, man,
don't you know what's going on here now? I would
like to see things that art as I don't know
what's the best way over dramatized. Maybe I mean, we
we sit there and you might get more. There's more
talk today about Tae Kwon Thornton than there was to

(07:57):
an entire Nobody would realize this guy had like two
catches in a in a very important game that they
had late in the season. But they'll shure enough point out,
well do you see what he did against West Virginia
And now you find all the great moments from these
guys in the Jordan Davis is of the world. The
most important stat to you in the in the Combine.
In the Combine, I think the shuttles are pretty important.

(08:20):
I think the forties. Okay, no, no, it's it's who
could pick up the most trash and who could be
nicest to the homeless? Are those are the two most
important things? I think? Do you think that that's going
to prove Malik Willis's trap stock that he went and
gave a shirt to a homeless dude and one of
them one of the most orchestrated things I've ever seen

(08:41):
in my life. Some dude just randomly taping a guy
walking across the streets like, oh look, homeless person. Well
here's one of the eight hundred T shirts I get
from the Combine. Maybe I'm a little bit cynical on that,
but I would rather not hear about dudes throwing one
hundred yard bombs when there's no one defending. I think
it'd be kind of nice to maybe throw a fender

(09:02):
out there or two at least to give us that aura.
But I mean, come on, Arnie, we lost our mind
when JaMarcus Russell through for eng yards in the air
against air. I mean, there's certain parts of it that,
to be honest with you, I love, and there's certain
parts of it when you over analyze it, and I
just despise. It's like put on the game tape for
some of these guys and you'll see what they really are.

(09:23):
I love Jordan Davis. I have Jordan Davis as a
top ten pick, and I had before the Combine. But
if you watch the game he played against Alabama the
first time around Artie, he disappears. He's he's not part
of the game. Now do you hold that one performance
against it more than then what you saw at times
throughout the season. Does it get magnified because it was

(09:43):
around such freakish athletes throughout the season. I don't know,
but I will tell you this much. There's a lot
of people that are going back and doing their due
diligence on Jordan Davis tape that are picking in the
top five after the numbers that he put up. That's
that's what I think came out of this weekend. So
you think a lot of people increased their style, can
you know? Handful of Yeah? Yeah, you know again, I

(10:03):
know we make fun of it, and we make fun
of the hand size would pick it and everybody's like,
oh my goodness, he's gonna have the small he has
burger king hands, and so they have small Burger King.
Had you ever see that commercial in the Burger King? Yeah,
I mean, okay, I'm sorry. There there's Burger King, there's
Charlie's uncle from all We Sunny in Philadelphia. You know,
there's a lot of different small hand analogies you can

(10:25):
use here. So well, well done Arnie on that one.
But I'll tell you what I dig about the combine.
It's Arnie a Plank on Fox Sports Radio. It was
a Fox Football Sunday. Yes we're opening with football where
a Fox Sports Sunday and Bernie Fratto is coming up
here in just a bit to talk about the Major
League Baseball negotiations that are ongoing, we think, But Arnie,
to me, what's happening at the combine? With so much,

(10:51):
so much time you get after the combine, right, you
have pro days at schools, you have visits, you can
bring these guys in. I think more than anything, And
I think we talked about this even last week in
advance of it, and I think it played out. I
think the combine becomes a place where maybe a coach
can talk to another coach or an agent, and a
general manager can kind of be involved too. I know

(11:13):
Sean McVeigh wasn't everything, don't have any draft picks, but
I think it's a place where you can start laying
the foundation for potential deals. I think you find out, hey,
you know, Pete Carroll got a couple of pops in
this man, you're really making Russell Wilson available. Where you
can get in the settings that are away from kind
of the public eye, and you can start kind of
going back and forth on who's really available, who's really

(11:35):
out there and aren't. I think it's become really, more
than anything, a big gossip session to find out who's
going where and who's gonna end up with what team.
That's the best part of the combine. Now just look
at all the different news tidbits. I'm you're probably right
about that. I'm sure pretty of deals have been have
been struck when uh, you've visited the jarnal after dinner
and sure, hey, you know, maybe we should talk about

(11:58):
this type of trade, and you know, boom boom boom,
you're working it out and something happens. So I kind
of agree with drawn that I I buy that for
And listen, this is gonna be a really rough analogy,
but I'll try to keep it as generic as I can't.
And then you've got like the Washington football team who's
sitting at the corner of the bar, hammered, just willing
to do whatever it takes to get a quarterback. It's like, hey, hey,

(12:20):
what what do you need? You need draft picks? Got drafting?
He chakes young. I mean literally, Arnie Washington is calling everybody,
and I mean everybody to see if their quarterbacks available. Bay,
I mean, by the way we found out if we
officially this, have you officially made up your mind? If
Aaron Rodgers is coming back to the Packers after what
you've heard the last couple of days, I think it
changes day by day, don't you. I mean, one day

(12:42):
I'll sit there and I'll hear from um, I'll hear
from someone that, Oh my gosh, this was This was
absolutely the best day because Brian guten Kiss is starting
to work on the contract with Mark Moseley. And the
next day it's a Rodgers has picked the three places
he wants to go and he right. And then the
next day it's like, man, Aaron Rodgers is really excited

(13:03):
about Davante Adams contract and what might look like. I mean,
I don't know, I don't know what to believe anymore
with this. Aaron Rodgers saga, Arnie, I feel like it
changes every single day. No, I agree with you there.
I mean, one day I'm like ninety percent certain that
he's gone. Then I'm like, you know what, maybe not
so quickly. Maybe he's gonna come back. What are we
supposed to find out about what Tuesday, Wednesday or something

(13:23):
like that. Yeah, you would think so, you know, the
start of the league gear is March sixteen, so that's
supposed to be a big date. But Aaron Rodgers has
made it very clear, or at least he had in
the past, that he'll have a decision well before that moment,
whenever it comes to what he wants to do. So
we'll find out. Yeah, by the way, we if we
we're gonna get into some of the tweets tonight, we
have to start with authentic Allen. We're going in alphabetical order.

(13:46):
And it says Arnie is absolutely right. There were great
NBA games on TV this weekend. Lebron scored fifties six. Yeah,
we didn't even bring that up. And Durant and Tatum
was a great game. Even the Sun's Verse Bucks and
Jana's was a good game. Nobody gives a damn about
forty times. Coach k is a better topic Planks and
NFL Fred boy, Sure, yeah, of course I am and

(14:08):
and And there'll be more people that are watching and
want to reply to that than than one game where
the Lakers look like a competent team. And oh, by
the way, the combine was long gone before that one
game when the Lakers actually looked like a real bas well, well,
you didn't see the Lakers celebration after the game, when
they were pouring water on Lebron after the after the
interviewer ding you've got to celebrate. You don't win many games.

(14:30):
Are you talking about making fun of it? Get out
of here authentic? Allan, you were watching it as well too.
To try to find anything racist, you can cherry pick
from the combine. All Right, when we come back here,
it's already in plank. On Fox Sports Sunday, we're gonna
talk about maybe the biggest story beyond just the sports
world involving sports, and that's the labor negotiations with Major
League Baseball. Bernie Fratto was coming up next on Fox

(14:51):
Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart
Radio app. Search f s R to listen live. Hey,
I'm Doug Gottlieb. The podcast is called All Ball. We
usually talk all basketball all the time, but it's more

(15:12):
about the stories about what made these people love their
sport and all the interesting interactions along the way. We
talked to coaches, we talked to players, We tell you stories.
You download it, you listen to it. I think you
like it. Listen to All Ball with Doug Gottlieb on
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or ever you

(15:32):
get your podcast. All right, let's roll it's already in
playing the Fox Sports Radio shows brought to you in
part by Indeed Hiring heating up. Indeed bring platform makes
it easy to attract, screen and interview candidates all in
one place. Sponsor a post and instantly receive a short

(15:52):
list of quality candidates on Indeed whose resumes match your
job description. Visit indeed dot com slash credit. We're joy
it right now by the Great Bernie Fratday. You hear
him Saturday nights in the Sunday morning here on Fox
Sports Radio, straight out of Vegas. He covered the MLB
strike and I gotta ask, right out of the gates, Bernie,
are you seeing similarities that would cause concern for how

(16:13):
long this bad boy could last? As compared to ninety
four point Chris. I've seen similarities for the last eighteen
months in terms of the angst and the animosity, in
the general distrust from either side. I've characterized these negotiations
as non negotiations. They are a test of wills. It's
a game of chicken. Now. Do I think a World

(16:34):
Series is gonna get canceled again? No? I don't. But
what I do think is that there will be games
that will be canceled again this week. I don't think
we'll see baseball until sometime in May at the earliest.
And I can tell you that both sides this has
become a crusade more than negotiation. Yeah, Bertie, Why do
I feel though that the owners though, realize they can

(16:54):
just end this anytime they want, and they're just waiting
for April to miss all of April's games and those Okay,
now we'll move forward, we'll make some concessions, and we'll
get this thing going on. Why do I feel it's
going that way? Yeah, it's an excellent question. It's maddening.
You really can't apply common sense to these guys. And
by the way, there are twenty one new owners that
weren't there in nine and my understanding, they're even more

(17:17):
hardass than the previous group. So what started this thing?
Baseball revenues have doubled since two thousand and eight, but
the CBT has only growing twenty seven in the last
four years. Revenues have grown, but salaries have dropped four
point seven percent on the aggregate. Salaries in one were
the lowest since So things are going the wrong way

(17:39):
and the players can prove it. I'm not so sure
why the owners are so obstinate this time because they
had an econometric model that was working for twenty five years.
It was a one billion dollar industry in n together
they grew at two and eleven billion dollar industry, and
now they're going backwards. So today the group's met for
ninety minutes. There was a glimmer a whole because the

(18:00):
two hotly contested aspects of the c b A are
one the luxury tax, which is now called the CBT
the Competitive Balanced tax. The players want to hire a threshold,
but it was joined at the hip to the fourteen
team playoff that the owners want. Right now, that appears
to be dead. It appears to be a nonstarter for
a couple of reasons. One, if the players agreed to that,

(18:22):
they would want this quote ghost game, which means if
you're the higher seed, you start out in five game
series with the one on leads to the copying what
Korean baseball did. Secondly, the players believe it dilutes it.
Uh in the last ten years, six teams with losing
records would have made the playoffs under this scenario, and
you only need to win eighty two eighty three games.

(18:42):
You also believe it could be an indirect dragon salaries. Meanwhile,
the owners got a little egger on their face because
they have a sitting agreement in principle with ESPN, a
lucrative TV deal to the tune of a hundred million
dollars predicated on a fourteen team playoff. So they've got
to go back to ESPN. So that's not off the table.
So they've got to find middle ground in other areas.

(19:02):
And I didn't even get to the pre RB bonus
and some of the other issues on the table. You know, Bernie,
this is gonna be cherry picking, so you can beat around.
But I have a hard time and you're like, oh man,
the players just aren't making any money. When Mookie Betts
sign at three hundred sixty five million dollar deal and
Bryce Harper had a three hundred million dollars de I mean,
we're not talking about dudes that are in the breadline.

(19:24):
I understand that the minor leagues are a mess right
now as far as what they're doing there, but I
feel like if you if you're worth it, you're getting
paid right now as far as the players are concerned.
I mean, Mookie Betts isn't seemed to be lining up
to give back his money orders Bryce Harper. Okay, you
bring up a really excellent point, So let's drill down
on that. Because the mission of the union heading into

(19:44):
these negotiations was to take care of what they called
the zero to three guys until you get to arbitration
after three full years in free agency. After six full years,
you don't really get a chance to be a Mookie
Bets or a B. S. Harper. You've gotta pay your dues.
So two of the things that the union brought to

(20:05):
the table where one they wanted the minimum salary increased,
and frankly, this has been a huge win for the players.
They need to take their w here. At the beginning
of the last CBT, the minimum salary was five and
thirty five thousand. They've now got that negotiated up to
seven hundred thousand. That's a thirty increased. To take your
w there. The other thing was what's called the pre

(20:26):
r bonus. So you said, young Chris plant goes out
hit forty home runs his first year, uh, leads the
Houston Astros to the you know, you know, the World Series,
and but he's making the minimum. So let's create a
bonus pool so we can give him a million dollar
bonus or something along those lines. And the players said,
why don't we put a hundred and twenty million dollars
into the pool and habit of factors many as a

(20:47):
hundred and fifty players. Whenners go, okay, we'll agree to
that concept, why don't we do ten million dollars and
only have it, you know, effect thirty players. So they're
not really negotiating, they're peeing on each other's shoes. Fast
forward to today, the players are down down to any
million and the owners are at thirty million, So there's
still fifty million apart in terms of what they agreed
to on the pre yard a tax. So what's my conclusion.

(21:09):
I think this is also a win for the players
because you have a situation now where this has found
money that thirty million was never there before. It's now
a pool to reward players who haven't performed yet. Maybe
you negotiate that up and you know, incrementally over the
next five years, which leads us back to the CBT.
This is the elephant in the room, the luxury tax.

(21:30):
The owners have been using the luxury tax competitive balanced
tax as a de facto salary cap for years. And
there's the problem. Only two teams exceeded the luxury tax
last year, the Dodgers and Pondres, and multiple teams came
right up to it and stopped short. So what you
have is a situation here where there has to be

(21:51):
some give and take and that's why I call it
a game of chicken and attested wheels. So someone's going
to have to bling first. Is there are certain owners.
I was reading like there's what like eight uh eight
the specific owners holding everything back or not really? Well, no,
here's okay. So here's what you probably heard. Even the
deal that the uh the Major League Baseball owners, they're fast,

(22:14):
they're lasting. Final deal in quotes last Monday night at
two in the morning, was tender to the players. Four
owners didn't even like that deal, but it would have
been ratified had the players accepted it, because you only
need twenty three or the thirty owners to give a
thumbs up. So the four owners that did in their minorities.
But that's also a problem because they thought that two
and twenty million the CBT threshold was too high. So

(22:38):
you know, there's there's speed bumps all over the place.
So with that in mind, hanging up Bertie Fratto talking
about the kind of crossoverce that we've met. Final thought
for me. Karl Ravits Tonight, who does Sunday Night Baseball,
tweeted this moment ago that he's concerned that we may
not have a major league season at all in two
As he put in both sides, I believe they have

(23:00):
a significant concessions to other. Each side points at the
other as having not done nearly enough. As has been reported,
the word of the day is deadlock. What is Bernie
Fratto c as the biggest thing that could help break
this deadlock right now? Time? And I'll tell you why,
because Karl Ravage is half right. But that's really sensational

(23:23):
news to proclaim there's not even gonna be a season
when you haven't even gotten opening day yet. Here's why, guys.
Every game that's actually lost, the players Union cumulatively loses
twenty one million dollars and collective salary. That's not chump change.
And meanwhile, as you get into April, you're gonna have
a situation as games are lost, those owners are gonna

(23:44):
have to tender rebates back to the regional TV broadcast
partners they have contracts with. So I think a little
bit of time will pass, both sides will determine how
much pain can be inflicted. And remember what happened in
it was never settled. Judge Sonya Soda Meyer, a federal judge,
issued an injunction ordered the players back on the field.

(24:04):
And what they did is they reverted the c b
A back to the year before, and they went out
and negotiated and the game went on after two w
than thirty two days and a and the World Series cancels.
So we're a long way from even having kind of
a silly conversation about whether a season is canceled. At
this point, my belief is it won't go past June one.

(24:25):
But I'm plugged in every day and if I get
other updates, I'll find out. Right now, they're in the
area of splitable differences. They just have to swallow their pride.
But like I've said, this is not a negotiation. It's
a game of Chicken, Bertie, what's the next day? We're
looking for? What? What? What? What? What would you keep
your eye on for? Well, you know what's it? Well
two answers to that question. But I think by Wednesday.
You'll see Manfred canceled in other weeks of games, so

(24:47):
as soon as they could be his April fifteen, I
think that will happen by Tuesday or Wednesday. The Union today,
as they were breaking up their ninety minute meeting, offered
to meet the owners again tomorrow. My understanding. There's been
no response yet from the owners, but they'd be smart
to get back to the table tomorrow. Good stuff, Bernie,
appreciate your time out. I know it's been along in
a busy weekend for you, but hopefully we'll get this

(25:08):
thing figured out soon and we'll be able to get
baseball started sooner rather than later. You're most and get
my best. Sister Jean. At least she's back. She's in
the tournament again. Go and Dance and NBC Champs Loyalist Chicago.
Thanks Bernie. Here, I'm straight out of Vegas. Every single
Saturday night into Sunday morning here on Fox Sports Radio,
and every single Sunday night, you're Steve di Seger, who

(25:28):
jumps in here with the latest goings on in the
world of sports. What's up, Steve? They said Sister Jean
at that Loyalist Chicago game today and she was there
is a hundred and two years old now, and yes,
her team won the final in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament,
so yes, they're going dancing again. And Longwood won the
Big South final, so congratulations to them. There are baseball

(25:50):
things to unpack. His labor negotiations resumed in New York today.
The union offered written responses to the owner's last proposal.
MLB claims today's proposal from the players was than a
week ago. One thing that, as you guys were just
talking about, there are owners that don't want to go
up much at all on this luxury tax threshold. The
so called maximum that you could spend on your payroll

(26:13):
kind of acts like a salary cap that the other
sports had. But you know who cares if Artie Moreno,
the Angels doesn't like it because I think the union
once we get to an actual agreement to vote yes
or no on and we're not there yet certainly, but
once we get to that, I think the owners only
need twenty three votes out of thirties. So they could
have seven owners that disagree wholeheartedly with whatever number on

(26:35):
the luxury to and they could still pass the thing.
And then we could get on with a spring training
and went to school University of Arizona. I think it
was in my fraternity. I don't remember. I'm just kidding
at the school of poverty apparently. As far as the
luxury tax, yes, it's a two million dollars per team.
You go over that, you have to pay attacks like

(26:56):
the Dodgers. And yes, there were many teams this past year,
including the Yankees in Boston, who were just under two
million on purpose. I'm sure so they didn't have to.
So the current league offer is, how about we start
the luxury tax anything over two d twenty million per
team and then will go up incrementally over the next
five years of this labor deal. Well, they're not close

(27:16):
on this because the union wants to say, how about
we started about two d million and go up past
two hundred sixty million per team. There are players union.
They want owners to spend money on players. There are
fundamental differences from the two sides on this issue. R
Ken Rosenthal, writing in The Athletic Tonight, said MLB is
willing to increase its tax threshold from to twenty per

(27:39):
team if the players union moves on other areas. One
thing the owners definitely want is the ability to make
rules changes and change the on field product more quickly,
because the way it's been, if they propose a rule change,
it's it's still another year down the road before it
can be implemented. They want like within forty five days
of the end of the sea and we can say

(28:00):
yeah and the off season, get it all set and
boom spring training. We go in with you know, the
base is an inch or two larger, or you know,
a pitch clock or ban the shift or whatever, making
the bases bigger. That's crazy. It is a little crazy.
I know that theoretically safety, but I think they already
with outlawing the Chase Utley slide at second base, I

(28:21):
already think they took care of the safety. But if
they want, like you know, a robot strikes owner or
something er, let's make it permanent to start. I thought
for the next year. For no, there's no, this is
not for next year. It's like would start. But any
of these rules ideas that the owners have, they want
to be able to implement them in one off season
and not have to wait a full year. So what

(28:43):
we saw is the temporary extra innings rule. If you
start with a run on second base. If the owners
are married to that, they want to get that through
committee in one offseason and boom, go for it. One
that I heard was outlawing the step off rule for pitchers.
You know how so often they don't actually throw a
pickoff throw to first, They don't throw the pitch on
They literally just stepped back off the rubber and the

(29:03):
game gets too late. Again. Well, what if the owners
want to utive that? Good? Great the player there There
will be a few players on the committee to talk
about rules changes, but I'm sure there will be more
owners than players of that. But they want to. They
are at least thinking of the on field product and
not just all this money here. NASCAR was on Fox
again today from Vegas. Alex Bowman took the race, Scottie

(29:25):
Scheffler won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, and uh
we had in college basketball, not only Loyal Chicago winning,
but tonight on FS one, Illinois finished its regular season
beating Iowa sev seventy two, and Wisconsin had lost today
at home to Nebraska. See that means Illinois finishes in
a tie for first with Wisconsin in the Big Ten

(29:46):
and the e lina I get the one seed for
the conference tournament. A lot of conference tournaments coming up
this week in the majors. And as for the NBA,
we've got the late game and the Knicks are up
seventy at the Clippers in the third quarter. The X
ready to end a seven game losing streak. Houston ended
a twelve game losing streak beating Memphis and Boston today

(30:07):
got fifty four points from Jayson Tatum defeating Brooklyn. Final
note about the NFL Combine. There was no combine therefore
no ratings for the combine last year. The ones I
found from Sports Business Journal for the year before. NFL
networks viewership over the four days of coverage they have
was just under two hundred fifty thousand, which would be

(30:29):
lower than the NHL ratings of ESPN this best week,
so pretty low. There was, however, right ABC an hour
or two yesterday, so maybe that would bring things up,
but it would be for example, uh Thursday. This past week,
NFL Scouting Combine on NFL Network, which not everybody gets,
was about two hundred twenty thousand viewers. FS one College

(30:52):
basketball over three I love combine lost to college basketball,
but once again a thing when they share it, like,
I will be curious to see when they put it
on ABC yesterday, did that bump it up significantly? Going
on a real channel that everyone gets. Thanks Steve. By
the way, I will tell you that there is nothing

(31:12):
in the world more boring than the combine. The thing
that I love about it is whenever they start talking
about the rumors and the inns and the other things,
that's good. So funny you mention, did you see the
rumor about a Marii Cooper he's getting cut? No about
the four teams expected have interested him? I saw that.
I've seen thirty one teams that apparently have interested in him.
So it was the four that you heard. Well, so

(31:33):
I've reading getnounced. It's four teams expected to have interested
I guess, I guess. I'm sure like the Baguiars are
on there, right, because okay, we'll go ahead. Then Dolphins
are one of them. Sure, the Bears, okay, the Chiefs
of course, and the Patriots, um, definitely, the Patriots definitely

(31:58):
see them. Okay, here's my question. Then what's his market, Like,
what's he gonna get because he's making twenty mill now
and the Cowboys are cutting him. Is he gonna make ten?
Is he gonna make twelve? Is he gonna be in
a situation where he's kind of just having to take
I don't think you'd have to take prove it deal.

(32:20):
Not with the Patriots, though, you know they want they
want to get you on rock bottom, so that's why
they're probably interested. See, I don't And again this is me.
I think that I think a team like the Jaguars
and the Bears are more legit. But then again, if
the Bears aren't gonna pay, if the Bears aren't gonna
pay Allen Robinson, why would they go out and get
Amari Cooper? Well that's why if I'm him, i'd go

(32:42):
to the Chiefs. So would you take less money to
go to Kansas? Is gonna have to take less money anyway?
That depends on how much other people canna offer you.
But I mean, if it's all right around the same,
I'd probably want to go to the Chiefs. So I
guess that question would be, would you rather go to
Kansas City take a little less money, probably be in
a position to in a a super Bowl, or would

(33:03):
you rather go somewhere you can make a little bit
more Coin be more of a factor. I mean, you're
probably third wheel on Kansas City, right, Uh in Kansas City.
I don't know where that would come from with a
Mariy Cooper. I really the quarterbacks from though, Mac Jones,
Patrick Mahomes. Uh, just two fields and to h Yeah,

(33:23):
I mean to three and one veteran Uh. And I
guess it's really okay quick Mari Cooper take And I
know someone say, well, you're a Raiders fans, you're gonna
about it. Not at all, Not at all. I'm a
realist when it comes to Mary Cooper, and the problem
has been there's just moments where he's impossible to figure out.

(33:45):
It's just I think a Cowboy fans will tell you that.
Raiders fans will tell you that. I don't know if
Alabama fans ever had this issue, but there's games where
he just can't catch anything and can't hold on to anything,
and then he'll just disappear. You can't pay a dude
twenty million dollars and have them disappear on you, like
like Mary Cooper do. You can't pay your second or
third best receiver twenty million dollars. I mean, Ceedee Lamb's

(34:08):
clearly the best guy in Dallas. How much to get
with the Rams? Well, is O'Dell playing next year? Yeah,
but as assuming he was healthy, Um, is that the
same amount of money you're gonna pay Am Mariy Cooper? Now,
I don't know, probably not. I think, you know what,
just real quick prediction on this. I don't think, Um,

(34:29):
I don't think that O'Dell is gonna get a lot
of money this year. But I wonder if the Rams
would reward him with like a two year deal and right,
and they kind of and again, I'm not gonna pretend
to be a contract guy on this show, two or
three year deal where they pay him a little bit
more next year to kind of help the books this year.
I don't know a lot of guys smarter than me,
But I think the big question with the Mariy Cooper

(34:50):
will be what's his motivation? Is it gonna be a
situation where team like Jacksonville comes in and says we
need to number one. We'll give you a fifteen mill
and that'll overshat. I just I don't know. Only he
was something going to look like only if somebody smart
could have seen this and said that the Cowboys needed
a wide receiver. Oh wait a minute, that was me,
Remember that when I said they should go after owing
Dell Beckham Jr. Now, now look at the mess German

(35:12):
right now, they're only letting Amari Cooper go because they
feel good about their younger receivers. Arnie, right, if it
wasn't the twenty mill, he'd be on listening. Looks exactly,
if Amari Cooper was making ten or twelve million dollars,
you're a bragg But he makes twenty million dollars, so
he's gotta go. And I'll tell you what. If he

(35:33):
was making twenty mill and he was the leading receiver
on the team and he was one of the top
receivers in the NFL, he'd still have a job. But
you'll pay you do that kind of money for him
to be elite. Now, the story to night about Lawrence
potentially being gone wild offseason already, Dallas cowboy fan, Alright,
a lot of good tweets on baseball will get to
hit us up at stinking genius one at Plank Show.

(35:54):
It's a busy Sunday night with Arnie and Plank on
Fox Sports Radio. All right, it's Arnie Plank on a
Fox Sports Sunday. Listen, we had a night last night
in Cameron. We'll talk about it to kick off our
number two. I'm sure Arnie was just heartbroken from Lebron.
Don't forget about Lebron. What about Lebron? The Lakers are back, Yeah, Arnie,

(36:18):
We're onto a Sunday in the regular season in the NBA.
Done it happens last night? Were we got? We're moving on.
We're onto Cincinnati. What are you doing celebrating? That was
one of my predictions. Lakers are gonna go eight and
two of their next ten? The hell games? Have you
been watching? But but do you believe this scrap? But see,
here's the thing. Artie sees one game, one highlight, probably

(36:40):
fell asleep after as soon as he was yesterday. Okay, okay,
so you were you were paid to stay away, sees
one game since his team has returned from the from
the from the All Star break, and suddenly he's like,
are gonna win eight of their next ten? Have you
seen the previous four games? Even going back to before
were the All Star breaks? To score every time? That's it,

(37:04):
that's all. It takes five in each half of the
first time for a guy his age. Ever, so I
will say I will say, Arnie in your defense and
because I'm a complete and total homer. San Antonio, Houston,
Washington the next three before a trip to Phoenix, which
one the Phoenix games, well, they The sad thing is

(37:28):
they've been so terrible this year. Even at eight and
two right now, it wouldn't get them probably too much,
terribly closer to the Clippers. You see their five games
back of the Clippers and the standings five full games.
I know the Clippers are. I had to turn the
game because it was so ugly. I love this game.
I'm watching Sports Center now. But I mean, even with

(37:49):
if the Clippers lose tonight, they're they're still five games
behind them. They're seven games behind the Timberwolves. The Lakers
are nine eight and a half excuse is me? Or
nine and a half behind the Nuggets for the sixth spot.
Come on, I mean, even winning eight of ten right now,
you kind of just shake your head and you're like,
does it even doesn't even really matter for this team

(38:10):
right now? I don't even seem as like a dangerous
seven or eight seed. I think even if they get in,
if I'm Golden State or Phoenix I know Lebron's there,
but I'm kind of looking at my chops. I just
I'm so downtrodden, even after the fifties six last night,
I guess you must have forgotten Anthony Davis is gonna
be coming back. You're gonna join this team only to
get hurt again. Have you not watched history repeats itself?

(38:33):
Welcome back, Anthony Davis? When you say history repeats himself
to you being like winning a championship two years ago?
Are we going back two years on everything now? Oh?
My goodness, two years ago. The Dodgers won a World
Series two years ago. Hey, they wanted two years ago,
so they're gonna win it again. Come on, Arnie, I've
watched this team too much to get excited about him.

(38:57):
Watch the games well again once there? Bringing back a
guy that gives you twenty three points the game, uh,
is not something you just shrug off. So watch what
he gets. You should have seen the Laker fans last night.
Would we be on the air Jason Martin's beings sarcastic?
But I mean we're getting texts or tweets. Um, this
is great, We're back. This is hid. I mean, people
are excited about that, about that Laker win? Why why

(39:22):
do this to yourself? It was a great night for Lebron.
He scored fifty six points. The Lakers stink, They're bad.
Anthony Davis can't stay healthy? Why are you doing this?
Why are you trolling them so you can next week?
Come on there? And I, like a fan, get all
excited for no reason? Is that what you wanna do?
Is are you setting the stage for like your next
troll or something? Is that? Like I said that the

(39:43):
one win now gets Golden State. They'll go uh seven
and two in their next night, probably lose their next
game to Washington. All right, let me get a couple
of tweets in here. It's the best way to stay
in touch with the show at a stinking genius one.
I'm at Plank show and everybody shouldn't be following us
at Fox Sports, right, you don't forget that Danny g
Radio and at a a Ron Bobo RNL is uh

(40:04):
how you follow Bobo quick one? Here? Uh? Emmett ak
the blind Sehawks fan rights. I think Amari Cooper will
end up on the Patriots. Get Mac Jones a weapon
who can be a number one. Yeah, they need one
badly for him. And again, if they could get him
on the bargain basement price, I would figure that that's
the direction that they want to go. And then Eric

(40:24):
from Cincinnati rights Cooper is a non factor in playoff
games and uh in a win to get him in
the playoffs, it's hard to play him like Hopgar pay
him like Hopkins going forward. I agree, Yeah, you you've
got to be consistently elite to get paid that kind
of money. All right, when we come back, let's hit
more of your tweets, a lot of check ins on

(40:46):
Major League Baseball and some coach Ka talk. Next on
Fox Sports Radio. Oh, let's go our to Uh, it's
Arnie and playing. If the Knicks lose, I'm quitting. Wait music,
getting close hold on? I think it's twelve, now twelve, Oh,
hold on, I can watch again. I can turn off
the eighties six airing. I think it was a fourteen

(41:06):
two Clippers run that went from fourteen down twenty four down. Dude, twelve,
you get nervous yet, I'll quit. You don't give up
a twenty four point lead, your dog. If you do that,
do you realize how many well your your Nicks are
a dog but um, I mean, you realize how many
times you've quit this show now, So I don't even

(41:28):
think that's like a fair thing to say. You're gonna
do is quit the show because you no way, you
blow a two. No way again. I know you watch sports.
I know you watch a lot of sports. This is
a twenty five and thirty eight team. That's six games.
I don't care. They've lost seven straight games there, one

(41:49):
in nine in their last ten. You're acting like there's
some sort of title contender here, holding onto a lead
in an NBA game that is always close in the end,
regardless of what happens in the first three quarters. And
by the way, I'll say this, I'll say that it
pains me to say the Clippers are kind of spunky. Man.
They's as much as they miss Kawhi Leonard and Paul

(42:12):
George captain obvious. But they go out, they grind, man,
they don't they don't tap out. So I'm gonna miss
not doing this show with you if they blow it.
But I'm not gonna be surprised at all if they do.
But I will say I didn't think Julius Randall deserved
to be tossed. The other night. Were you on? There
was that Friday night ors? Everything's running again? I don't
remember anymore. I don't remember when I was on the arrow.

(42:34):
What game is? What? I believe it was Friday night?
He and Johnson got into it for the Phoenix Suns.
They ended up finding Randall for it. But I just listen, man,
I thought it was too grown ass man having a disagreement.
The NBA is unless there's a history there with Randall.
And I saw a couple of Suns fans are like, oh,
you should be kicked out of the league. You soft

(42:54):
stop it. I mean, it's the NBA. Don't we wanted
to be gett getting a little bit more physical? Why
are we? I mean they special coming up, you know, right?
I mean gosh, and well, I mean not for the Knicks,
but for Sons. You know, after last year and they
had such a great run and that that first round series,
and you know, the Garden was going ballistic, and I'm like,

(43:16):
I mean going down there for a game and now
I'm like, yeah, I forget about it. I don't want
to do that. You don't want to do that? All right,
We've got our buddy Todd Firman coming up. In our
next segment, So let's let's craft some college basketball talk
here are were you of the group of peeps that
were satisfied by watching Duke win get beat last night

(43:37):
in coach Case home finale, or were you in that
group that was a little bit heartbroken by the way
it played out. I want to do to win again.
I had no dog in the fight. Didn't make a
difference to me. I'm not a Duke fan, I'm not
a North Carolina fan. Um, I just wanted to see
him go out as a winner. You know, you you
see how many people were there. It was quite the spectacle,

(43:58):
did you They were in like half the arena maybe more,
was filled like eight hours before tip off. That was wild.
What did they say? They had like nineties six former
players there, about a hundred. I mean, it was just
it was just absolutely fantastic to see. And um yeah,
you know, overall, really doesn't make that much of a

(44:19):
difference in winn or lose, but you do want to
send them out of winner, and and they had at
at halftime. I thought they were gonna blow him out
in the second half, but um yeah, you know, it's
it's a small damper, but you're you're looking at forty
plus years of what he's done. So I don't think
one games can over it. Look that, you know, So,
I thought the funniest part of all of this to

(44:41):
me was if you're just and again, I know you
could flip over and what the the app had it
from the start or whatever it might be, is what
had to be taking place somewhere at some level of
the four letter network, Arnie, because of that Kansas Texas
game before. I mean, I understand that college basketball usually

(45:03):
fits into a nice window, but I don't understand making
that such a tight because again, I would have watched
the pregame ceremonies. I grew up hating Mike Tachevski. I
can't stand Bobby Hurley and Christian Lightner and Johnny Dawkins
and Mark Allery and Jay the list goes on and on.
In a Cherokee Parks of dudes, I couldn't stand who

(45:24):
ruined my childhood because Duke won everything. But with that said,
I still respect it. It's greatness. It's probably one of
the greatest runs you'll ever see as a coach, and
yet we're stuck watching the overtime of Texas Kansas, which
was fantastic because then someone thought, well, let's do a
double box. I don't want to see what's going on

(45:45):
at Duke North Carolina, Arny, I want to hear it.
So now you've got the game going on over the
box of what you're missing and you just ed had
to be in raging because someone just said, oh yeah,
that game will be over and plenty of time and
it wasn't even close. It wasn't the close it was.
It was the backup from the start. It really was. Um,
everybody was tuning in to see was what was going

(46:07):
on with the pregame ceremony with coach k had to
say what was going on with do who the stars
were in attendance? Um, where they were sitting. I saw
that one of Silver and Jerry Seinfeld. It was just
everything about it was great. So, yeah, the last thing
they needed was a game to go in the overtime
right before that one, you know, oh absolutely, So here

(46:27):
was my favorite clip from the post game, because then
you had the game, You had my guy Brady man
a go nuts. You had a North Carolina team that
was probably firmly on the bubble two weeks ago, and
now like went on a night. That's a great win,
I mean, absolutely amazing one. So, um, here was coach
k after the game. This was my favorite. Uh, this

(46:49):
was my favorite moment of his speech, part of the program.
This is impromptu by me. I'm sorry about this afternoon.
No please, no, please, everyone be quiet. Let me just
say it's unacceptable. Today was unacceptable, but the season has
been very acceptable. Do you know what's great about that, Artie?

(47:13):
What what's great about that is Mike Schefski just shushed?
What twenty thou people are a romani were in there
and they all shut up. No, I thank you. I
knew I was procrastinating over exaggerating a bit. Yeah. He
basically said, no, no, no no, stop, everyone be quiet, and
they all just like be quiet? What it was? That's right?

(47:36):
But I did I did like this too. Whenever he
turned to his former players and said this, we didn't
play well and there are times when you didn't either.
That long that LIDIA players that we all grew up despising. Uh.
And then there was one more kind of marquee moment
from his postgame speech. We need to fight for Duke,

(47:59):
we need to fight for the brotherhood, and we need
to fight with all of our my through the remainder
of this season. All right, then I'll be ready to
get the hell out here. All right? You didn't know
that not only were you getting Mike Schefski's farewell speech,
but also his opening act that like Chuckles Comedy Club.

(48:21):
Whenever he's done, then I'll get out here. I said, hell,
you got it. But again, it was it was so
satisfactory and and so that took so much satisfaction from
being like the anti duke guy, right. And I know
it's bitterness, it's jealousy, you can call it what it is.
But for someone who has seen them have so much
success in that moment, in that moment, it was I

(48:44):
I was cracking up. I loved every second of it.
Now I also know this, he's got four potential first
round picks and he's starting five. If they get the
right jaw Arnie, look out, they're they're gonna make a
run and they might be troubled from the n c
A tournament. Am I wrong? But I did even think
that whole coach k retirement, um the game all that

(49:06):
didn't get enough um pub like it should have been.
You know what I mean? Were you not watching ESPN
at all this No no, I meant being hyped up
during like it should have been hyped up for like
two weeks straight and um, you know, like multiple channels
and stuff like that and gone all out. I don't know.
Maybe it's it's maybe you thought it did. I thought

(49:27):
it could have done a little bit more, you know. Um, okay,
I just want to quickly pause here. It's Arni and
Plank on Fox Sports Radio. You don't agree with me
on that one, No no, no no, I just you don't
think that this was promoted up enough or talked about enough.
With Mike Shachevski's final game at Cameron Know, all you
heard was so much how much the tickets were costing,

(49:47):
and the students were out there like a month ahead
of time. I would have loved whether I didn't see
any interviews with the students, um camping out like a
month ahead of time. I would have loved the sea
Maybe I missed that one. So because Duke's students are dorks,
that's why I mean no offense. But you all nerds
know it. I mean you're you're out there because they're
going to school, aren't you. They don't have time to

(50:09):
be sitting out too much. I can't get on board
with you on that. I felt that this thing was
crammed down in my throat like nobody's business. I felt
like everywhere I turned its like Coach K's final game
against North Carolina, And then I had that other group
there's like, oh, it doesn't matter because North Carolina sucks,
and like I just like college basketball. I want to
watch a good game. So I thought it got plenty
of pub but if what did they not have? Like, oh, okay,

(50:31):
how about this not necessarily giving it the soup? Did
you think it deserved like a super cast like a
Cameron coach K the whole time and one of those
overhead cams and maybe a chance to listen to the
Duke radio network as well. Is that kind of what
you're thinking? That that that that would have been a
good start. Also, yeah, now you're thinking outside the box.
I like that. Yeah that that maybe have you know
people former players called different halves or something. I don't know, but, um,

(50:56):
you really could have done a lot of things outside
the box for this game. Well, um it was still
a big game though. I even North Carolina Duke um
and by the way, is one of the greatest driver
eas in sports. I wonder how much of the luster
is gonna lose now that John Shire is gonna take
over and Coach K isn't gonna be there anymore. It's
still gonna be like Yankees Red Sox. Yeah, I think

(51:16):
it will be as long as they're both still good now.
If they if they fall off the map, which again
based on the way that John Shire appears to be recruiting,
doesn't look like that's gonna happen. But I will say
I don't know about Hubert Davis. I think it's kind
of been a rough start. He said, a nice job
with some patchwork and some transfers, so we'll see how
the future looks for him. But as long as they

(51:38):
don't fall off a cliff arning, yeah, I think it's
still gonna matter. It's still not gonna have that intensity
when you have Coach K and you know, Dean Smith
and people like that Roman the sidelines, you know the
way nature Boy just had the tweet of the night. Uh,
you can hit us up on Twitter at Stinking Genius one.
I'm at Plank Show and everybody should be following us
at Fox Sports Radio. Nature Boy, it's the O. J.

(52:00):
Simpson chase got less coverage than the coach k retirement.
Where have you been, Arenie, You're like, I think it
could have deserved a little bit more coverage. I'm like,
what are you kidding me? I feel like everything died
though with the loss. And I don't mean that, you know,
obviously in a real world way, but it just it
was almost as if it hit a brick wall and

(52:21):
all these tributes. It's like, al right, guys, can the tributes?
They just got smoked down the stretch. Let's let's roll
the black. Let's get out of here as quick as
we can. This this indoor, this Cameron indoor stadium stinks anyway,
it's too small, rap. But I got blue paint on
my shirt from the students section. Let's go, Let's get
out of here. But I don't think it looks you're

(52:44):
not saying that loss is worse than like an n
C double A loss. People were talking about that. Now
now come on, man, they're still going to the tournament.
They're still probably gonna be a two seed. It did
lead me to task this, Arnie, do you now get
a little bit more intrigued by any of the conference
tournaments because there appears to be such a large bubble
this season on North Carolina is in in right, but

(53:07):
there there could potentially be a rematch with Duke if
if both teams kind of get a little hot in
the in the a c C tournament. Now that Duke
North Carolina game, let me see here, would that be
in the finals? Yeah, they would have to play each
other in the finals if they made it. But Duke
enters as the one, North Carolina enters as the three.

(53:27):
So you could have a rematch of Duke North Carolina
in the a SEC championship game, a rematch of that
or Wisconsin Michigan. How well does Michigan have to kind
of think? It's like Listen, we've talked to John Howard.
Do we have extended his suspension throughout the Big Ten
tournament because they're playing good basketball? Now? That one today

(53:49):
was huge? Did you see how many spots were up
for grabs in the Big Ten Tournament today? Think about
this just in general, all right, in a league that
has fourteen teams that like college basketball, fourteen teams in
the Big Tin play college basketball. Do you know how
many seeds or decided heading into today the final day
the regular season for the fourteen team Big Tin Tournament.

(54:10):
How many too? That was it? The fourteen seed, Minnesota
was gonna be DFL and Indiana was set as the nine.
Outside of that, everything was wide open today. And then
what Johnny Davis gets hurt, So you have to wonder
about where Wisconsin is going forward after seeing him go down.
But that wouldn't be too bad. All right, here's let
me get another one ahead. Oh. I just want to say, uh,

(54:33):
maybe I agree with Eric on this. Maybe this is
one of the reasons why I said it wasn't highly pubbed.
The six pm Eastern tip was a weird time for
UM because I wonder how thrilled the a c C
is with their best game stuck in this slot. That
was another six o'clock tip off that I just wasn't
ready for that one, you know what I mean? Sometimes
I think that it's very short sighted on on ESPN side,

(54:56):
and I think, and I don't know where these decisions.
These guys make a lot more money than I do,
and I could help them out for just a small
consulting fee. You don't have to start a game at
the same time every single week. What the hell are
we doing. We get caught up in these times slots
with college basketball. Push push that in college football, push
that back to seven o'clock eastern, you know, think about

(55:18):
or maybe maybe even eight o'clock eastern on a Saturday night.
Isn't it seven? No? It is six and eight? Right?
Is that the way it is? Or what I I mean?
It seems like every single big game starts at six
o'clock eastern on ESPN for college basketball, it always and
I've never understood it. It's like, listen, push that bad
boy back. People will stay up for Duke and North

(55:39):
Carolina eight o'clock eastern, seven o'clock Central, five p Pacific.
I mean, you're tipping this thing off at six o'clock
Eastern time. And I don't have to be the math
guy here for you, but that's what three o'clock on
the West coast on a Saturday. Yeah. That that that's
They could have moved it back to easily to eight
o'clock eastern and probably could have gotten a lot more coverage.

(56:01):
Tanner says it was the most type event, Um what
do I mean that that he's ever seen? Arenie, You're crazy,
and even had coach coach camera you see that, we go, Yeah,
what are you talking about? I just would have liked
something outside the box, not something, you know, something a
little bit different with the announcing and all that stuff.
You know. I think that you got just about everything

(56:23):
you could possibly want or get on that front. All right, Hey,
when we come back, we're gonna have to Vegas. I
got all kinds of conference tournament questions for Todd Ferman,
as always aren't in Plank has brought to you in
part by Indeed. If cold candidate calls aren't turning into
hot hiring leads, then you need Indeed because Indeed's powerful
hiring platform makes it easy to attract, screen and interview

(56:44):
candidates all from one place. Find your next grade higher
visiting Indeed dot com slash credit. We're heading to Vegas
next on Fox Sports Radio, starting playing on the Fox
Sports Sunday. Let's head to Vegas? Shall we are? Man?
Todd Ferman joins us. It is a big week. It's

(57:06):
a start. Well, I guess some conference tournaments already underway.
Loyal to Chicago winning the NBC, But Todd, are we
seeing as much buzz? Are even more so around some
of these conference tournaments, and especially now with legal wagering everywhere,
does it kind of amp it up a little bit?
It will amp up betting handle a little bit. But
at the same time, conference tournaments pale in comparison to

(57:27):
the betting handle that you're going to see this time
next week when the field of sixty eight is announced
and everybody decides that they're going to be a college
expert for the span of about three weeks. So well,
conference tournaments cater professional betters, and there is a massive
volume of games to kind of comb through. It won't
get anywhere close to the kind of betting handle that
sports books will expect once the tournament field is known.

(57:49):
Todd they say, it's wide open. What do you do?
Bet the dog? Bet the dog, Bet the dog, take
as many points as you can, and then bet like
twenty to one long shots to win the whole thing,
or what you know. Honestly, I feel like we said
this over the last couple of years that there's parody
in college basketball, that the field is wide open. Yet
it's Gonzaga and it's Baylor getting to the national championship
that the cream rises to the top. Because we do

(58:10):
see the upsets in the early few rounds. A Cinderella
that's seated in that twelve or thirteen line is gonna
win two games and get through to the second weekend.
But it's so hard to catch lightning in a bottle
and keep it there for the span of six games.
Despite some of the parody that we've seen in some
of the jockeying for position, as far as the top
overall seeds are concerned, in my opinion, the SEC has

(58:30):
done more than any other league to assert themselves as
far as being top heavy. I'm not going to rule
out the Big twelves. I think the biggest conference that
I have question marks about is the Big Ten. You know,
are they truly elite or are they just beating up
on one another? I think proof is in the pudding,
and there's a reason that that league hasn't really been
able to capture a national championship since the Flintstones Michigan
State back in the early two thousands. This is a

(58:52):
lot of Big Ten teams, though, that are going to
get a chance in the Big Dance. I I know
the Big East Tournament has lost some of its lust
right never you no longer have Syracuse competing and listen,
nothing says Madison Square Garden Big East Tournament like a
good old fashioned Butler Xavier matchup in the first round.
But I don't know, Todd, something about Providence has to

(59:13):
be so curious about this league and what I think
as a potential will be one of the most competitive
conference tournaments. Yeah, I mean, I think when you look
at it, I mean, we know what Jay Wright brings
to the Garden every year with Villanova. This is a
team that shown flashes of being elite, but they've also
shown that they can be pedestrians on any given night.
I think Yukon is one of the more enigmatic sides,

(59:33):
a team that we've seen in its absolute best, they
can go toe to toe with any team in the country,
but when they were dealing with some injuries, they really
struggled for stretches. And you mentioned Providence when you dig
into the Friars resume, and this doesn't take anything away
from what Ed Cooley has been able to accomplish. I
wonder if there's an asterisk that should be placed by
their regular season title when they've played fewer games and
they're all against teams that they may very well have

(59:55):
had chances to lose against. And when you look at
their record and games decided by very slim mark, they've
been rather fortunate. So when I look at the overall
body of work for a team like Providence, it's the
team that could be the poster child as a four
seed that draws a South Dakota State or a Murray
State coming out of those mid majors. Where you're talking
about Providence a modest favor where maybe even an underdog

(01:00:17):
given where they stack up in some of people's power numbers. Oh,
I love Murray State, Absolutely love Maurray State. Let me ask,
because are we off by a week or something like?
That's only three teams have clinched spots in the tournament.
A lot of the mid majors are usually get their
tournament stunner at least get into the finals by now. Um,
we're gonna see everything this week, the mid majors and

(01:00:38):
the majors. So I don't know where we off a
week or something like that's hot or what. No, you
have a lot of games that will get to find
tomorrow night. I mean when you look at the big board,
I mean the Southern Conference and the Sun Belt will
see you know, a couple of their best teams do
battle the Horizon Legal Crown of Champion on Tuesday night,
the same night to the Summit League will. The West
Coast Conference has been one of the more interesting leagues.

(01:00:58):
They've tried to create more was and I know Gonzagger
for years pushed back saying that they were off too
long before they had to go into the n c
A Tournament. So they've tried to move their schedule accordingly
as a result, so that championship will be on Tuesday
night and then you'll see the big boys take center stage.
A lot of the Power Conference teams, especially those with
double buys, you know, won't tip off until Friday, and
you'll see a couple of teams play on Sunday, but

(01:01:20):
no real major changes to the schedule. I think the
one good thing for fans of college basketball that we
can take a little bit of solast in is a
team like Murray State that probably would have been on
the bubble, not sure the resume would have held up,
is able to punch their ticket get into the field
of sixty eight Loyala Chicago. They had double revenge against Drake.
They get through the Missouri Valley Conference championship today and
a team that will be a debutante in the n

(01:01:41):
c A tournament in Longwood finishes the year twenty four
and six. So at least we're seeing the best of
the small major conferences get in, and I think that's
what makes the tournament a lot more fun than when
you see a team come out of the Northeast Conference
that finished ninth during the regular season. You know, happen
to get hot for one day and the best team
with the full body of work at sent packing. What's
that in mind, Todd, Are we gonna put a little

(01:02:02):
bit more emphasis you think for maybe getting in for
some of these bubble teams base on the based on
the tournaments, or do you think it's still going to
be kind of same as it ever was. I think
we always fall victim the recency bias. And when I say,
you know, we do, it's general public, but the committee
does as well. They look to try and make a
case for some of these blue bloods that are out there.

(01:02:23):
And I'm sure we're gonna hear all week long that
with two wins in the Big Ten tournament that somehow
Indiana is going to be relevant with despite their record
sitting at eighteen and twelve. I know where some of
the leaders in the clubhouse, as far as Ken Palm
and the other college basketball ficionados having them, But for me, Chris,
it boils down to I don't care what league you
play when you finish the regular season two and seven

(01:02:44):
in your final nine games. I don't care if you
win two games in the conference tournament unless you get
your automatic bid. I'm not buying into your current form
or your overall strength of resume when you've been beaten
up by all of the teams that actually have a
pulse within your conference. What's better in Vegas being out
there for Super Bowl Sunday or being out there for
week one of the tournament. It's all such a different

(01:03:06):
atmosphere super Bowl Sunday, everything is a build up to
one event, so that's a little bit anticlimactic. But at
the same time, there's a lot more passion pageantry around it.
There's typically more, you know, higher end parties, and you
have more lucrative betters that are coming out here. The
n c A tournament that first forty eight hours Thursday
and Friday, and we can even go into Wednesday night.
It feels a lot more like a fraternity party than

(01:03:27):
anything else. People meet up with their bodies from across
the country. It gets raucous, and when one game is over,
I mean your investment. You have a chance to bet
over and over again. So you have a laundry list
of games, and if you're staying for the full four days,
you essentially have forty eight games to plunk down your
cash on. So if you didn't know anything about the
jack Rabbits going in, suddenly they win one game and
you happen to know who the first two guys coming

(01:03:49):
off of their bench are. When I look at some
of the other things though about Vegas, as we're talking
about sports weekend, I think one of the bigger times
if you're a huge college basketball fan is this week
because you have so many tournaments out here that you
can attend, whether it's the Mountain west of Thomas and Mac,
the West Coast Conference tournament at the Orleans, the Pack
twelve that is at t Mobile, So you have so
many options live in person that you can bet. But

(01:04:11):
I also personally gravitate towards the Sweet sixteen and the
Elite eight because you can sit by the pool all
day long and you can watch the great basketball when
the sun goes down in late afternoon or le evening,
talk all night with you, Todd. But I'll let you
go on this. Um. I know it's gonna be there
in Vegas, and I know Arnie's probably already bugging you
about the Pack twelve and getting out there. But I

(01:04:32):
just I get this sense this continues to be that
audition that not they really not as if they really
need one. It's just a matter of time before we
get an NBA team that arena, isn't it. Yeah, I
think it's gonna happen. But you know from some of
the folks that I've spoken to there of the mindset
that there could be an additional arena built out here
if the NBA were to bring a team and find

(01:04:52):
other investors to get involved, and maybe put it somewhere
in the suburbs attached to a casino. We know that
the station's family of casinos, the Fatida brothers, have very
deep pockets, so it'll be interesting to see which ownership
group would be out here. I'm not sure how the
city could potentially support as many as four major sports teams,
despite the discussion about an MLS team, Given that we
have a team in the US l out here now,

(01:05:14):
but Vegas is continuing to grow. It's a sexy destination
and if they can get the right people behind it,
I mean, any of these teams can be a success,
and it'll be interesting to see how quickly the NBA
decides to move an existing franchise here or maybe even
expand since Las Vegas over the next three or five years. Yeah, man,
thanks Todd, appreciates. Always love the conversation. You got a
boys always a pleasure, and aren't if we talked this

(01:05:35):
time next week. I expect your Arizona Wildcats, regardless of
how they perform in Vegas, to be one of the
number one seeds because it will make it that much
more enjoyable if they get upset by any I don't
think you remember this when they weren't even in the
top twenty five. I told Plank they're the number one
team in the country, and now look who's Ryan. I'm
I'm I'm Mr College Basketball. I also believe you told

(01:05:59):
Plank at the same time and that this was going
to be in the year that the New York Knicks
could capitalize on the momentum that they started last year.
And as I look at the Knicks. Despite a dominant
performance with a win out right tonight at the Crypto
dot Com Center, that five and thirty eight soon to
be twenty six and thirty eight record probably not going
to have them punching a ticket to the Eastern Conference. Fine,
but father, what can I get my Arizona Wildcats to

(01:06:19):
win the n CUB Like five to one? No numbers
a little bit higher than that. They're kind of in
that stop around, But a money line rollover if Seeds
were to hold, would take substantially better than the hundred
and a hundred and fifty to one that was wildly
available before the started. Oh my goodness, could have been
like Clay Travis had got in the summer home. Oh
my good Absolutely all right, Todd for him and go

(01:06:41):
follow him on Twitter. I got from it. Bet the
Board podcast, Talk to you next week, buddy. Always a pleasure. Boys,
that's a hundred and one. Oh my goodness, too shabby, Right, well,
you probably would have bet him every year. All right,
Steven Seger comes rolling in with everything going on in
the world of sports, and it's a final already, doesn't
have to quit. Yeah, we were all hoping that they're
the next did win one at the Clippers, So everything's

(01:07:03):
final in the NBA. As we talked about Arizona Wildcats,
by the way, keep in mind it could be very
good for both Arizona and Gonzaga the way the field
is with the host cities this year. Gonzaga as number
one overall, could stay in the West Region and that
first week of games being Portland, Oregon. But the other
West games are at San Diego State, so Arizona could

(01:07:25):
just go to Southern California, not very far. They could
have a lot of fans there and be one seed
in the so called South Region. But you know, with
that pod system, they'd be playing in Southern California. The
Jerry Palm, I love his bracketology for years with CBS,
he has San Diego State making the field for example,
but being sent to the East Region. He has all

(01:07:45):
of these teams as of today together in the East Region,
San Diego State, U C. L A, Baylor, Texas, Kentucky,
and Duke. That's the case, you know, and somebody's gonna
have to have a region like that, but good luck
getting out of that. You will have earned your way.
One of the matchups I saw was Vermont against u
c l A in the first round of the tournament.

(01:08:07):
Really really, he had New Mexico State against u c
l A. For those who don't know, Vermont is eighteen
and one against America East teams after winning the conference
quarterfinals and then on fire today. Talked to your boy
Tom Brennan today. He's good. He's good. He thinks they've
got a shot. Thanks for gonna make a run. Former
Vermont head coach By Selection Sunday for March Madness is

(01:08:30):
next Sunday. The n c A Tournament starts with the
first four games in mid March. This year's final four
will be in New Orleans. The regular season ended tonight.
There was a good game on FS one from the
Big Ten Top twenty five matchup. Illinois beat Iowa seventy
four seventy two. You mentioned that seatings weren't decided until
the last moment for the Big Ten tournament counted up
this week. That included Iowa, which had a chance to

(01:08:53):
get a by all the way into the quarters. Instead,
apparently Rutgers gets the four seat and a bye to
the quarterfinals. This is good. Iowa on free throws tonight
they lost a two point game in Iowa was ten
for twenty two on free throws, and that included two
misses late in the game. They lost by two. Illinois
finishes tied for first with Wisconsin and conference. Illinois gets

(01:09:15):
the one seed tenth rank. Wisconsin lost at home to
Nebraska seventy four seventy three. Nebraska had been three and
sixteen in league play. The Huskers had a late twelve
oh rund. The bad news potentially for Wisconsin is that
a guy who averages twenty points a game for them,
Johnny Davis, left with an injury early in the second
half and he was hurt on a flagrant foul on

(01:09:35):
a layup. Wisconsin is off until Friday's conference quarterfinals. What
if he can't play and then they don't do well
this week, you know the committee would take that into consideration.
Michigan won at number twenty three Ohio State seventy sixty nine.
So Michigan goes eleven and nine in conference. Will they
get in Michigan State was eleven and nine in conference

(01:09:55):
after beating Maryland today. Well, Michigan does get coached Jowan
Howard back now he has finished his five games suspension.
I mentioned the Spartan's beat Maryland. Michigan State will play
Maryland this week in the conference tournament. And in fact,
that Jerry Palm listing had Memphis as one of the
first four teams having to play the so called playing games,
and then Memphis win and destroyed fourteen rank Houston today

(01:10:19):
seventy five sixty one Houston with twenty turnovers in the lost.
Memphis was up twenty points at the half. The Memphis
Tigers have won ten of their last eleven games, including
two wins against Houston, so yeah, I think they're in
loyal of Chicago takes the Missouri Valley Conference final beating
Drake fifty eight. Attendance was five thousand in St. Louis
for Arch Madness, as they call it. The Big South

(01:10:41):
Final went to Longwood, set eight over Winthrop. Longwood from
Virginia went eighteen and one in its conference and goes
to its first ever NCAA tournament. The late game in
the NBA, not only did the Knicks win that ends
a seven game losing streak, they beat the Clippers in
l A one sixteen ninety three r J Barrett twenty
four points that ends the Clips five game winning streak.

(01:11:03):
Denver and overtime beat New Orleans ended the Pelicans four
game winning streak for the Nuggets. Nicola Yokich, he'll get
m VP votes again. Great again tonight triple double including
forty six points. Houston ended a twelve game losing streak
beating Memphis at Boston today fifty four points for Jayson
Tatum and a win over Brooklyn one one twenty. The
Brooklyn Nets record thirty two and thirty three. The Clippers,

(01:11:27):
who have essentially nobody on the roster this year thirty
four and thirty two. A couple of games over the
five mark NASCAR win for Alex Bowman, golf victory for
Scottie Scheffler, and Yes, Baseball's labor negotiations resumed today in
New York. That's about the only positive news. The amount
did not. MLB did not have a good response to
what they were giving back to you. Thanks a lot,

(01:11:48):
Steve Yeatt, and we really appreciate Bernie Fratto coming on
with us back an hour one. If you missed any
of that, you can find it on the podcast. However
you consume podcast, I heart Radio, great podcast page, sir
Fox Sports Radio weekends, both you can find Bernie Fratto
talking about some of the concerns he has, because listen,
we haven't talked a ton about it tonight, but there

(01:12:11):
there was a very interesting tweet thrown out by one.
I almost said, Steve Levy, Carl Ravage. Now, um, Steve Levy,
I'd be like, oh gosh, this guy again. I'm kidding.
But Carl raviats through this out and I'm curious to
get your take. Now. Is it a little bit over
the top? Maybe, but he tweeted, it is becoming increasingly

(01:12:32):
apparent this is the voice of Sunday Night Baseball. It
is becoming increasingly apparent that we may not have a
major League season in two Both sides believe they have
made significant concessions to others. To the other, each side
points at the other is having not done nearly enough.
As has been reported. The word of the day is deadlock.

(01:12:53):
Now that could be a little bit melodramatic, but already
have you reached that point of concern? Surprising say that.
I know he's Mr Baseball and he has better information,
but he didn't say. According to my sources, he said,
based on everything we've heard. Now, so everybody has the
same information. I don't know why he would say that.
I I feel like, um, we're gonna miss a Briland

(01:13:14):
will play about a hundred and thirty five to forty games.
Vegas has put the number at one forty I believe,
or on one. So UM no, I'm shocked at it.
I g I I still think we're gonna get it
done and we'll get things started made first or something
like that. So in other words, if you were to
set I feel like when we did shows, not to
bring back kind of tough memories, but when we would

(01:13:36):
do shows during COVID, it was very much list season,
but we would also be setting all right, hey, next Sunday,
is this the week when we get baseball backs? This
the week whenever we actually start restart at the NBA season.
And we'd always kind of set an over under added date,
and I think, by the way, I think we we
absolutely missed the very first date, which was late May

(01:13:57):
when we did that. If you were to set a date,
would you make it as soon as May first, or
do you think it might span into the middle of
May for an over unders to win the season starts
that I think the season is gonna start in May.
I don't know if it will be May first or
halfway through. I'm assuming within the first week or two.

(01:14:17):
You can't just start getting rid of a whole bunch
of games here. You've gotta be a little bit cognizant
of what's going on um with the fans, and you
know how many games you want in. So I think
sometime in May. But I'm completely disagree with Carl Rabat
who was thinking that there might not be a season. Yeah,
I don't think we're we're quite there yet now, Arnie, Uh,

(01:14:37):
talk to me in a month and maybe we'll have
a completely different conversation. But that March thirty one, April one, it.
I know we've already canceled the first two series, but
I don't want to get to the point where we
start canceling that third in that fourth series of the season.
Then I'll start really panic in a bit as a
baseball fan. All Right, let's we gotta take a break.
When we come back, let's dive into all the news

(01:15:00):
of the day. Gets caught up in some of your
great tweets as well. Here on Fox Sports Radio, Hiring
heating up, Indeed, hiring platform makes it easy to attract
screen and interview candidates all in one place, Sponsor a
post and instantly receive a shortlist of quality candidates on
Indeed whose resumes, matcher job description, visit indeed dot com,

(01:15:24):
slash credit Arnie and playing on a Fox Sports Sunday.
What's going on Steve Seger, Well, a lot to get to.
We mentioned the Clippers don't have famous people on the court.
Let's just put it that way. And there's still a
couple of games over five hundred who who knows when
we'll see Kawhi Leonard again. They keep saying Paul George
getting better and better. Okay, fine, but in the meantime,
you've got people like Reggie Jackson as a starter for

(01:15:46):
the Clippers tonight, four of eighteen shooting from the floor
from three point range oh of eight on the court.
He was a minus thirty three when he played. The
Clippers got outscored by thirty three against the Knicks in
this game too. And I must mention the game for
Utah's boyon Bogdanovich tonight he had not just thirty five points.

(01:16:06):
The win was at Oklahoma City. For Utah from three
point range, he was eleven for eighteen Oklahoma City as
a team was only eight of forty from long distance.
In fact, doing the math the Thunder, if you just
look at the Thunder starters, they were one of twenty
five from three point range. And here one guy on

(01:16:27):
the other team made eleven three pointers and by the way,
he was oh of one from two point range, which
means Bogdanovich is now the first player in league history
to make at least eleven threes in the game and
not make a single two pointer in the same game.
Denver's won ten of twelve. They got the overtime win
tonight against New Orleans Nicola. Yokich great again with the

(01:16:47):
triple double. These were his points in the fourth quarter
in overtime. It was thirty points from the fourth quarter
on tonight. He wound up shooting sixteen of twenty two.
So it's a rare triple double with that many point
points and shooting seventy I mean, he's like Wilt Chamberlain territory.
It was really incredible. But this These were the final
totals for Yokich tonight, forty six points, twelve rebounds, eleven assists,

(01:17:11):
plus three steals and four blocks. In the fifty years
or so since steels and blocks have been added to
the stat sheet in the NBA. Literally, no one in
NBA history has ever had a stat line like that
with those totals in those five categories. Until Yokich tonight.
We have NASCAR on Fox again next Sunday. The event
will be at Phoenix today on Fox from Vegas. Alex

(01:17:34):
Bowman was the winner and he only led for sixteen laps,
but one in overtime by less than two tenths of
a second. It's his seventh career victory last weekend. If
you compare the TV ratings, Sunday St. Petersburg, Florida was
the IndyCar Series opener last weekend on NBC that got
one point four million viewers. NASCAR got over four point
four million on Fox for the return to Southern California.

(01:17:57):
And also last weekend there was another TNT hockey game
they had the NHL starting this year, they had one
of the outdoor games in a football stadium Nashville hosted
last weekend. The ratings were about six hundred thousand for that,
or I should say up to six hundred thousand for
that because it's things have been so bad for National
hockey ratings that was actually t nts best ratings since

(01:18:18):
the Winter Classic on New Year's The ESPN hasn't been
getting much in the way of that either. It's one
of the lowest rated US outdoor games that they've had
as for golf. And I must tell you two items
specifically about the money that was at stake in Orlando
this weekend. The guy who won, and he only won
by one stroke, was Scotty Scheffler taking the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

(01:18:41):
He earned over two point one million dollars this weekend.
Two point one mill is more than Arnold Palmer himself
earned from all fifty years on the tour combined. Oh
my gosh. Billy hors Oll shot a final round seventy
five today, and you know tonight he is saying, man,
if they just had one shot here, or one if
if I just shot at seventy four instead, he failed

(01:19:03):
to a tie for second place, and the difference between
first and second place money was more than one million dollars.
Rory McElroy shot seventy six today. He falls to a
tie for thirteenth place. A tie for thirteen still got
you nearly two hundred thirty thousand dollars for one weekend's
where the Masters is one month away. Only ten doll

(01:19:23):
furs finished this week's tournament under par. Some tough scoring there,
and as we get toward March Madness, keep in mind
as you're filling out the brackets. N c A itself
was pointing this out since they expanded the field of
the tournament back in the mid nineteen eighties, two thirds
of the champs were number one seeds. There's usually somebody

(01:19:43):
that breaks through. It's almost never all one seeds in
the final four. In fact, that's literally only happened once
two thousand eight. But don't go nuts on the underdogs
getting all the way to the final four, because if
you go back the last thirty years, just over ten
percent have been seated number seven or worse that made
it all the way to a final four. Like u

(01:20:03):
c l A last year Loyal in Chicago a few
years ago, they used an example of a bracket challenge
game from a decade ago that nationally the top four
finishers in that game they each only got half of
their final four picks right, but the key was they
got the championship matchup correct predicting both teams correctly and
predicting the national champ correctly. You get big points, of

(01:20:26):
course later in your rounds, later in the brackets. So tips.
As we head toward March madness, and it is Selection Sunday,
next Sunday, next Sunday night. Selection Sunday is already here,
all right. I got college basketball good stuff to Sager
and some incredible tweets to kick off our final hour.
Plus Artis picks right around the corner. It's already in

(01:20:47):
playing on Fox Sports Radio Final Hour, already in playing
Fox Sports Radio. You got you gotta feel pretty good.
I mean, think about it. Your team is as bad
as they've been the last two or three years. They're
pretty much a lock to be a one seed next week.

(01:21:08):
Not again, it's I shouldn't say a lock. They're in
a good position. We are a lock. Were a lock,
I don't know if I'd go that far. Well, again,
we're the best team in the country. All right. Why
do I even try to talk college basketball with you?
You're not a lock to be a one How many
people said Arizona was the best team of the country
when they were outside the top every single year. This

(01:21:32):
isn't This isn't one of those shoot a gun in
the air enough times, eventually you hit a duck. I'm
telling you, you've got an opportunity to be a one seed.
But as Joe Lenardi is pointed out, and by the way,
I don't know which bracketologists you buy into. There's two
hundred of them on Twitter now, but he said, there's
six legit contenders right now for a one seed. And

(01:21:54):
you gotta feel good that you're right there in that mix,
right I feel good? Well good. Zigon is probably gonna
go ahead, so they might as well just go ahead
and give them the number one. I'm assuming it's gonna
be Baylor, Arizona, Kansas and the other two? Is he
thinking about, um All, Kentucky. I'm not sure what what

(01:22:14):
Wisconsin is not gonna do it? Maybe Duke, but they
just had the loss to UH North Carolina. I think
right now it's it's Auburn and Duke that they're looking
at as the teams that are potential one seats. And
and I'm curious what I mean, do these teams have
to go win their conference tournaments in order to to
be that one seed? I don't know the other conference tournament.

(01:22:35):
Hope one of the teams ahead of the UH the
other one seeds lose. So in other words, they with
their loss today, Wisconsin's out from being a one seed.
They're gonna be probably either the last two seed or
the first three seeds. But your six are Gonzaga, Bay
and I think Gonzaga is pretty slam dunk. I think

(01:22:56):
Baylor is okay, Arizona in Kansas in a pretty good spot.
But then the next to Auburn and Kentucky with Duke
kind of trying to scratch and claw to be in
that mix. So I mean, dude, from where you were
the last two years, if you just kind of pause
for a moment instead of just trying to say like
you're the best, you gotta feel pretty good about where

(01:23:17):
this team. I do. By the way, do they this
is probably stupid, but do they if it's borderline, do
they make Duke number one because of the coach k
factor or no? I hope not. It's not possibility, or
I'm sure it is. They can always say, well, in
this metric here, Duke was more impressive, so that's why
they got the nod. Well, if you if you lose

(01:23:39):
a player there, they downgrade you. So um, I guess
they have the right to move you up and move
you down. I just didn't know if they were gonna
move Duke of was borderline to a number one, give
him a favorable matchup. By the way, a couple of
things that happened tonight. Wisconsin losing today means that they're
out of the mix for a one. See this is
according to Joe Leonarty, Illinois with its win and Big

(01:24:03):
Ten Championship coach Championship. I guess, uh, because Illinois the
one scene hanging into the tournament. Artie, Illinois up to
a four seed now, so they've kind of shot up
a little bit. And I still don't know if Kentucky
is any good in their three seed heading into the tournament.
So next week the brackets will be out. You won't
have to watch any of the tournament games because Arnie

(01:24:24):
will have his whole bracket filled out by the time
this show starts next Sunday night, and there won't be anything,
and I mean anything that changes his mind once the
bracket is filled out. I'm gonna, yeah, I think I'm
picking Arizona, but don't help me do that. I guarantee
you're gonna pick carrots, pick Harris don't want their nine seats,

(01:24:45):
so we're not looking terribly shocked by I was looking
at the Narties matchups. If Arizona wins the first game,
they would probably play the winner of North Carolina Iowa State.
I don't want to have that. I don't like that matchup. Yeah, well,
there's an update to the update. Then you you need
to refresh that bad boy, because in his most recent
update he has you in the second round potentially. Wait,

(01:25:05):
hold on, hold, he's moving. Oh no, you did earlier
today it was TCU that you could have had in
the second round. Now it this most recent up. There
you have North Carolina and IWA State. Both teams might
be better than you. Oh my god, you lose in
the second round. Damn. I don't like that matchup. Yeah,
I don't like to play North Carolina in the second round.
Iowa Stay. It's funny because I thought I was Stay
was good, and then they went to Oklahoma State like

(01:25:26):
Wednesday or Thursday night and scored like twelve points and
a half. It was one of the most abysmal offensive
performances I've ever seen in my life. But March Madness
this here we all read like we care about college basketball,
and they were extra experts about it for a week.
We were talking about it yesterday. They Jason Martin I think,
said that they they feel like there's gonna be more
mid majors this year than ever before. So you're not
gonna get that seventh team or the or like the

(01:25:49):
nine team from the Big Ten or eight team from
the Big East or something like that. I disagree. There's
three teams from the Big Ten, there's seven teams from
the Big Gears, there's six from the SEC, there's five
from the A c C. I mean, the American had
a Final four team last year. The Mountain West has
consistently gotten multiple teams in. I guess maybe I reject

(01:26:11):
the notion that there's even this delineage between majors and
mid majors and and lower. I mean, obviously there's the
one bid league that's out there, there's a handful of those,
but I kind of feel like we've been trending in
that direction for quite a while in college I just mean,
like ed Murray State lost, they would be in. Yeah,
they would have, they would have still got it. But

(01:26:32):
in the years past, we've seen teams like that get eliminated.
You know, well again years pasted, like ten years ago,
I mean more now, more and more. I think the
Missouri Valley Conferences of the world. We've seen them be
a multiple bid league. We've seen the American, we've seen
the O v C be able. So I again, I
I don't necessarily know if that's one of those hills
where I'm like, my god, we're seeing more mid majors

(01:26:55):
because we've been seeing them, right, I mean, it's been
a trend. But I will also say I still would
fight and say that I would much rather see another
man major get an opportunity than like a Texas A
and M or a Florida. Right, two teams that are
playing in the first round of the SEC tournament. That
if either one of those teams won their first two games,

(01:27:15):
which their second round game would be I believe against
Auburn Arty, they might be in the Big Dance, right,
and and that would give the SEC a seventh team.
And I don't know if that spot would be better
suited for say a team like Florida or maybe a
team like VCU or Dayton. So I can see who
that would be fair. I was looking at the playing games,
not nearly as sexy as his last year's playing games

(01:27:37):
when you had some major teams out there. You know
what you're not saying that Cleveland State and would do
it for you. All those are the sixteen seas, Xavier,
Wyoming and when Rutgers and SMU. That's what Joe Leonardi
is projecting right now. I don't even know. I wonder
historically because I know we've probably done this the week
after and then I completely forget about it. How right

(01:28:00):
is he the week before the big the conference sermon? Right?
I know that they're pretty tight whenever it comes to
the to get in, but Arnie, as far as the
matchups are, they usually close in what they can't No, no,
not at all. They can't even be right. I well,
I shouldn't even say that, but yeah, I'm probably a

(01:28:23):
ride right a on there. Yeah, I take that. Hey,
that's better than what an NFL GM's hit rate is.
Un of the draft. All you want hit a few
tweets here before we get too carried away. I'm I'm
all in. I've tried to sell you guys in the
past that I think that this year could be one
of the most competitive tournaments. I don't necessarily disagree that, Hey,

(01:28:45):
Mormon majors are getting an opportunity, but I feel like
we've been doing that for the better part of the
last five to eight to ten years. But I'm just
I think we've got a chance to have a truly
unpredictable March Madness after a year, Arnie, when we had
a pretty predictable one. Right last year, we all kind
of thought it was a collision course for Baylor and Gonzaga,
and those two teams ended up playing in the National

(01:29:07):
Championship Game. Alright, alright, some tweets here we go. I
like this in talking about baseball from Mike first guy,
Mike Rights, the top players are getting paid the average
salaries four point to mill. However, the median salary is
only one point one mill. Salary structure is way out
of whack. But it's the rich players on the players committee.

(01:29:29):
They need a salary floor and a hardcap or will
be right here. It's good take from Mike. And Jacksonville
thought of money too. And I was told there wouldn't
be any finances when I started covering sports, but it
seems that's why I'm always confused, right, And and Bernie
did a great job breaking it down, but you have
people all their salary. It's so unfair that I get
paid enough. I'm like, I just saw what Cory Sieger

(01:29:50):
got from the Rangers. I think, you know, that's kind
of that hard sell I think for the players when
they've got to really go out there, Arnie, and you're
having Max Scherzer be a sp oakes person from the
negotiating room, and Max Scherzer has probably made close to
half a billion dollars in his career, that's a hard
sell to me about Boo who the poor players aren't

(01:30:11):
getting paid. I know I understand the background, but to me,
I think the aesthetics of it aren't a good look.
You know. And when people say, well the owners are
making enough money also, um, they own the team, they
took the risk. Um, they're the ones that put their
financial backing behind it and said if we lose money,
then we're in big, big trouble. So you know, that's

(01:30:33):
the way America is. The owners make the money. That's
the way it's supposed to be. Yeah. Absolutely, UM, A
couple of others here, Let's see a lot of good
baseball stuff. Ronald Ronald White rights in English, why will
they keep meeting if no one is willing to budge. Also,
neither side is willing to meet in the middle, maybe

(01:30:53):
they should take what's on the table for one year
and try again next season. Optics. That's why they keep meeting.
They don't want to be the bad uh person, so
they're like, hey, will continue to meet. We're ready to
fix this thing, so public opinion, the public court won't
blame the owners. But again I kind of stopped, and
I think both sides are losing. I do like the thought, hey,

(01:31:18):
let's let's just get going, let's get playing, let's get
back the spring training, let's get this season started, and
maybe we can reignite this in the off season. The
problem is owners will drag their feet. Players will drag
their feet. I mean, aretie, go back to last May
when they were trying to restart the bait or two
mays ago in the middle of COVID. I mean they

(01:31:41):
they would have meetings and wouldn't accomplish anything about when
they're gonna play again. I don't. I was like, oh,
the Baseball Union is the strongest union in sports. I
get that, but also I wonder sometimes are they the
most stubborn are the owners and as Rob Benford truly
acting in a position where he stops and as guys,
maybe we need a budge on this a little bit.

(01:32:02):
We gotta get back. I mean, they've got to get
back on the field. I don't care about missing the
first two series, but future Chris sure as hell is
gonna worry about it in April when I'm like, I
want to watch baseball and it's not there are someone's
got to be an adult in the room right now.
Other than that, why must they get back on the
field by April or in April? Why why do you
say it like that but just because you want to

(01:32:23):
watch it? But um, what's what's the stake here? People
are still gonna go back. The game's not gonna be heard. Um,
there's still gonna a hundred forty plus games in so
Um what what exactly? Why do they have to get
back so soon? Okay, then let's just have them sit
out the rest of the season, or why do they
have to come back? I mean, listen, don't play baseball

(01:32:45):
at all, be jackasses and sit here and fight billionaires
fighting with hundred millionaires and try to make me feel
sorry for either one of you. Yeah, you know what already,
Let's just do it baseball alright. I already got yelled
at for trying to talk combine. Let's just not have
base Will that be better? For Why why even do
the at why even have the season? It's it's you
said at yourself. It's the optics of it, right. It's

(01:33:06):
a sport that's fighting for its spot on the depth
chart and it's shooting itself in the full. You know
I I said this before. Um, you take a look
at the NFL. It seems like the game has grown significantly,
the players are better. Same thing. In the NBA, they've
grown significantly. You can even say that about the NHL.
I don't know if I can say that about baseball,

(01:33:27):
that they've grown the game. Maybe I'm wrong on that.
I just don't feel like they have. Sorry, if my
connection dropped there a little bit, I got too mad
and I hit the equipment. One more from JP here
before you grab a break. If MLB expands the playoffs,
they shouldn't be surprised if interest in their sport drops
during the regular season. Look at the NBA, in the NHL,
no one cares about these sports until the playoffs start.

(01:33:50):
You agree with JP. You know a lot of people
are like that. I mean, regular season certainly is um
being watered down when you have a lot of teams
making the playoffs. But that's what I like, so um
now it's all about the playoffs. So get more teams
in there. I have no problem with Major League Baseball
getting fourteen teams in there. Uh you know, let's just
clear out all the baseball talk here, Pete Riots, If

(01:34:10):
MLB has most of the season canceled, would you really
miss it? Fair question? Kind of along the lines of
what you were saying, right right, if there was a
d plus games, I think people if there was a
hundred games, I think people would be absolutely fine. Fer
and rights. Here you go. MLB starts in June, plays
a hundred games, and starts the playoffs. Four months of
baseball is good, not seven months. Well that's what I

(01:34:33):
just gave you. Yeah again, if we're not gonna do
the split season, and I told you that storry way
to keep people, you know, interested, you're gonna have to,
you know, knock off somebody of the games. But that
money is gonna kill them. By the way, split seasons
are kind of awesome in minor League Baseball. Two other
quick ones here Brandon rights, owners and players arguing about money.

(01:34:55):
What's new? I guess MLB stands for Major League bums.
I'm beyond Matt. I'm trying to stay optimistic about it,
right I mean again, I try to stop every now
and then think, oh, it's only a it's only a
couple of series right now, they'll get it figured out.
But man, it seems like we got a lot of
Debbie downers on this front right now. Let me let
me ask you a question. I know that I'm not
really up on the whole TV contracts and stuff like that,

(01:35:17):
but you've got to assume that Baseball gets their worse
ratings in April UM because of everything going on with
the NBA playoffs and HL playoffs stuff like that. What
would happen if they didn't play in April, just picked
it up in May UM and got better ratings when
they get more money for the TV revenue or what.
That's That's what I'm trying to figure out. So your
theory is they don't start until later they expand the

(01:35:40):
playoffs and get better ratings. Is that kind of what
you're laying out? Well, I would make it more valuable
in the future is what it would be. I mean,
you're not gonna get more money just based on Wow,
we had great numbers right now, You've got to show
growth over a couple of years, I think for baseball
more than anything. And they're still gonna get paid a
lot of money because there's nothing else on in the summer.

(01:36:01):
They got all the programming and then one more quick
one that will move on from Major League Baseball. Let's see.
This one was from Sharon, who writes, I want to
see a rule put an MLB m l v P
a agreement that any picture that hits a batter is
immediately ejected, or maybe even since spending a game and

(01:36:22):
battle flips are permitted. Too bad at the hit was
an accident pitch? Better? Well, you can't throw someone out
of a game, Sharon, for hitting a batter. I mean
that half the pictures in baseball would be thrown out
of a game, if not all of them, And that right,
it takes staff. Maybe that's what they're going to all right,

(01:36:43):
A lot of really good baseball stuff. So when we
come back here on Fox Sports Radio, let's hit some
of the NFL notes. There's a lot of buzz around
Russell Wilson and is this week the week where we
get an answer from Aaron Rodgers. Will dive into it
next with Arnie and Plank on Fox Sports Radio. Areni
and Plank on Fox Sports Radio. Brought to you in

(01:37:05):
part by Indeed. If cold candidate calls aren't turning into
hot hiring leads, then you need Indeed because indeeds powerful
hiring platform makes it easy to attract, screen and interview
candidates all from one place. Find your next great higher
visiting Indeed dot Com, slash credit. He's already Spanie on

(01:37:25):
Chris playing uh. Two other quick baseball notes before we
hit some football talk. Jason writes, one was the year
I fell in love with baseball, and it was a
split season because of a work stoppic. I would be
okay if they go back to that. Heck, I don't
care what rules change. I just want games. I don't
trust either side to bid if if I remember correctly, though,

(01:37:47):
wasn't that the year that the Reds had the best
record in baseball if you added both halves and they
didn't make the playoffs? Is that was at the rule
and the MGI, yeah, they didn't win, Um, they finished second.
I believe in both halves. Then the rules, sorry, everyone's
got to play by him, all right. And then there
was one more here baseball that I thought was pretty

(01:38:09):
Then why would you say it? I don't know. Sometimes
they come right once in a while, usually of your stories. Right,
you know that one time there was like a player
and he had he didn't have a thumb, but he
like throw this awesome curveball and like Sayer has got
to look it up. No, it wasn't him, wasn't him?
And then come to find out it was John Hayman
tweeted this earlier. By the way, my new favorite thing

(01:38:32):
in in sports media reporting, Arnie, is how now diehard
baseball fans have decided certain reporters of reporters are pro owner,
certain reporters or pro player. I guess something. All John
Hayman's a mouthpiece for the owners. Jeff Passon is is
telling players that today it's it's wild now that this
has turned into. But kind of along the same line

(01:38:56):
of what Karl Ravage said, there's a concern you at
all with John Hayman tweeted saying owners seemed quite upset
about players Union's move today still suggest official offers are below.
Ranges discussed just before the first deadline and characterize talks
as deadlocked. More games in jeopardy, and they're making it

(01:39:17):
sound doom and gloom. There's no doubt about that. But
I still feel like if when they want to get
it done day Cannon's not that it's not that far away.
It's not that tough to get these things done. We've
seen that before in the past. I've I'm optimistic. Look
at this one. You're right. The Cincinnati red season. The
Reds finished with an overall record of sixty six and
forty two, but because of the split season, they failed

(01:39:40):
to make the playoffs. So I have no problem with that.
That's that's that you can't do just for that reason alone,
that that would what what one piece of example somewhat
thirty Yeah, I mean, so we can't have a split
season and then the team with the best record not
go to the playoffs. But then again, if we're gonna
go and expanded, then you really don't have to worry

(01:40:02):
about that. No. I I don't think you allowed. You're
the king of trying not to kneed your changes, right,
It's like, oh, we can't suddenly have a team that
wins a division playing a road game in the first game. Yeah,
if they do it, great, If they don't, it is
what is what you got? Steve Well? What people don't
mention As a second sentence to that, Yes, the Reds

(01:40:23):
wound up with the most wins in one but every
team that won the first half of the season had
no great incentive to do well or to go hard
in the second half. So that's why I don't think
the players, this year's players would like that, because their
whole thing is, let's to the end, have everybody trying hard.
Let's stop with the you know, stop paying people and

(01:40:43):
you know, go four or five years just loading up
on draft picks things like that. If they agree to
fourteen total teams in the playoffs, like MLB wants, the
owner's plan is your division winner with the best record
and in each league gets a buy and go straight
to the division series. Is your other two division winners
in each league will get to choose their first round

(01:41:04):
opponent and play at home for the entire best of
three first rounds. And by the way, with the fourteen teams,
that's that's gonna be. When a matter of fact, isn't
it that. From what I heard, someone said to say
that the TV contract is based on fourteen teams go
to the playoffs, right, No, they have to negotiate that.
In the owners hope this exact thing that they're dead

(01:41:27):
lucked one at the moment. The players that only said
okay to twelve total teams in the postseason, they'll go
to fourteen if they get concessions elsewhere. And as far
as the TV contracts, remember most of your games are
on your local channel. If we're missing games into late
April and May, then teams will start half two issuing
rebates to their local channel because the contracts, once you

(01:41:51):
start missing fifteen to twenty five games, that part's written in.
Now national TV money you get about sixty million dollars
per team for the future TV deals, but some clubs
get more than sixty millions just from their local channels,
so they're not gonna be owners are not gonna be
happy issuing rebates if if we go into May and

(01:42:11):
still don't have any baseball games, and of course already
missing the first week or two of the season, players
are not going to get their full salaries because there's
not a full season. This is true all truth from
Steve to Sager and then one, gosh, you guys have
been all over baseball tonight. I mean, we would have
brought this up much earlier if we knew you were
so fired up about it, though we did have Bernie
on in the first hour. Minnesota man Kevin asks a

(01:42:33):
very good question. I don't know why the MLB wants
to cancel the seat the first six games, but they're
suddenly wanting to expand the playoffs. Well, the theory is
the money, That's what that's But I thought it was
the money and the TV was a matter. I think
Hartmann said that today. Well they haven't. There's nothing, Dawn.

(01:42:55):
I mean you can't say oh, yeah, we'll do fourteen
games or fourth teen playoff teams when you when you
don't have them. I mean, well that's not done. Just
like the draft lottery which is coming is not done.
There's nothing done in this contract. You can sit there
and say, oh, it's part of the deal, is it,
because if it doesn't happen, then it's not going to
get done. Because where we stood is the players have
said okay, up to twelve total teams. Beyond that, give

(01:43:18):
us something, and as far as the draft lottery. Okay,
the bottom five teams, Yes, we'd like it more. Maybe
we're gonna have to give you something there you go. Um,
But I will say there are many that thing that
owners don't like April baseball. There are many that think
that April baseball is is the time when the owners
don't make their most money, so they're competing with other sports,

(01:43:40):
and they kind of wouldn't mind if this season then
start until May or maybe even June. So there is
that theory that this has been a long term play
for the owners for a while because there's just not
a lot to be gained in April, outside of maybe
for the diehard fans. So which I brought that up
to you before, I just don't read into go ahead
and get it done in April. That's why that's why

(01:44:02):
I said May first are the first week of May
is a look more realistic. Except the longer you go on,
the more ancillary things you have to settle, such as
the players not getting full salaries. So now, how long
will the season be? That's another dispute. How many games
am I going to get paid for? Are you saying
that the more games you cancel on me? I don't

(01:44:24):
get any money from any of those games, and then
the players will say, what about my service time? You're
locking me out. I was ready to serve at the
beginning of the games. You'll get service time. One of
the good proposals was you know how they've delayed major
league debuts of top prospects like Chris Bryant when he
was coming up with the Cubs. One of the good
proposals because players don't want this whole service time manipulation. Oh,

(01:44:47):
they're not bringing him up in an opening day because
that'll make him wait longer to be a free agent later.
If a player finished his first or second in Rookie
of the Year voting, he would be credited for a
full year as if he was on the opening day roster.
That's a curious one. We'll get you Artie pro owner Spaniard,
Why don't you just go be um? Who was I saying?
John Hayman, what's up? John Hayman? All right, listen, a

(01:45:11):
lot of good baseball stuff. I owe you some NFL talk.
So when we come back, we'll dive into the latest
buds on Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers. But first, one
final time, tonight, Steve to say green to get you
caught up on everything in the world of sports. What's
going on, Steve, NFL in a moment, but yes, In
New York Baseball's labor negotiations resumed today. They met for
about ninety minutes. Union wants to meet tomorrow. We'll see

(01:45:32):
because the owners say things are deadlocks, so losing more
games as a possibility there for. MLB claimed that today's
proposal from the players was worse than a week ago
and was quote not designed to move the process forward.
At the NFL Combine, which you mentioned at the start
of the show, tonight's baby defensive back Kaitlin Barnes ran
the forty and four point two three seconds, one of

(01:45:53):
the fastest times of the last twenty years. There on
field workouts concluded today the NFL Draft in Vegas April.
Of course, baseball is rung by such idiots. They'll probably
eventually get something done with the union deal and then
try and have opening weekend opposite the NFL Draft. Way
to go. Who picked up the most trash at the combine?
Do you have that? Unless they go through cones to

(01:46:17):
do it? Then no, If that's that's not part of
the thing. The Packers resumed negotiations with defensive back jayro
Alexander on an extension recently. He will finish his rookie
deal after the upcoming season. Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers
is likely to inform the team of his future plans
by Tuesday. According to longtime reporter Michael Silver, the Packers
do have until Tuesday to franchise tag wide receiver Davante Adams.

(01:46:41):
The new league year doesn't start till March sixte and
the USFL schedule comes out tomorrow. It's a ten week
regular season with all the games played in Birmingham, and
it starts in mid April. Playoffs will be in Canton,
Ohio at the Hall of Fame Stadium. Don't quite have
that NFL fuel when they released the schedule, you don't, Yeah,
not quite the same. Come on, Stallions, the Masters, every team,

(01:47:04):
every game every night. There's no l A Express or
you know, the Washington Federals or whatever. The fact that
it was, because I remember people were joking this Saturday,
it's the Federal Express game. The Masters is one month away.
Scottie Scheffler won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando by
one stroke, taking over two million dollars. This weekend, Alex

(01:47:27):
Bowman won the NASCAR race in Vegas. Kyle Larson finished second.
Next Sunday's event is at Phoenix, also on Fox TV.
As for college hoops, the regular seat is He's done.
Illinois beat Iowa seventy four seventy two. Tonight Nebraska with
the upset win and a hen ranked Wisconsin seventy four
seventy three. Michigan won at Ohio State. Memphis rip fourteenth ranks.

(01:47:48):
Houston Loyal to Chicago took the crown, taking the Missouri
Valley Conference Final onto the Dance. Longwood won the Big
South Final onto the n c AS for the first time.
And we've got I believe it's three conference title games
tomorrow because in the semis in the Patriot League today,
Navy one and overtime coal Gate advanced Southern Conference semi's
wins for Furman and Chattanooga, Sun Belt semi's Louisiana and

(01:48:11):
Georgia state selection Sunday for March Madness next Sunday, and
the number one team in women's houp South Carolina lost
the SEC tournament in a late three point or sixty
four sixty two to Kentucky. The New York Knicks seven
game losing streak is over. They dominated the Clippers TONI
one sixte Houston's twelve game losing streak is over after

(01:48:32):
beating Memphis, and Houston trailed by ten at the half,
Utah and Cleveland each one Denver one in overtime. Nakola
yokes triple double victories for Washington, Milwaukee, and Boston, which
saw fifty four points from Jayson Tatum, and it win
over Brooklyn one to one. Twenty. Head coach Steve Nash
cleared health protocols and got sick watching this, because then

(01:48:53):
that's record is thirty two and thirty three this year,
they've lost six of seven. Kevin Durant thirty seven points,
eight US seven turnovers. Yeah, thanks, Steve. Have a great week, buddy.
All Right, it's Arnie in Plank here on Fox Sports Radio,
as always, brought to you in part by Indeed Hiring
Seating Up. Indeed Hiring platform makes it easy to attract,

(01:49:14):
screen and interview candidates all in one place. Sponsor a
post and instantly receive a short list of quality candidates
on Indeed whose resumes match your job description. Okay. So
do you get this sense, Arnie, this is the week
we'll hear something from one Aaron Rodgers. Yes? Absolutely, I
thought that it was a guarantee that we're gonna hear

(01:49:35):
from by by Tuesday or Wednesday. Do you get the
sense that anything with Aaron Rodgers is guaranteed? No? Okay, again,
I guess I shouldn't say guaranteed, but yes, I feel
like we're gonna hear this week by Wednesday. Tuesday or
Wednesday the latest on what he's going to want to do.
I'll give my prediction, but um gosh, as much as

(01:49:56):
I want to say he wants to go to another team,
I think he'll end up going at the Green Bay
when it's Peter King just released his Football Morning in America.
Remember Big Fan, uh in the off season, not really
so much in season. Here's what he writes. There's one
narrative out there that Rogers will make his call by Tuesday,
but I don't know why that matters, writes Peter King.

(01:50:19):
The Packers are very likely to franchise another good Rogers
Pal wide out Davante Adams. If Rogers goes, I still
think it's to an a f C team. And as
I wrote in December, Denver is most likely the Broncos
are most desperate and will pay the Packers a boatload

(01:50:40):
of picks and at least one good player for the
thirty eight year old quarterbacks. But I thought then he
doesn't want to go to that division based on how
tough it is and all the quarterbacks that are in
that with Herbert and Mahomes and and car that He's like,
forget about that. Apparently he doesn't care. Um, I'm just assuming, right,

(01:51:01):
And how much of this will be green Bay doing
him a solid and saying you want to go here,
we'll send you there? Right? Will they do the Stafford thing?
I don't. I don't know. Now. Again, Detroit didn't give
away Stafford, right, They l a had to give up

(01:51:21):
a lot to get him, and it's worth it. They
want the Super Bowl? Right. I don't think Green Bay
has given up Aaron Rodgers, and I mean good and
kisteven said, hey, you know, we never promised that we're
gonna make some godfather or some brother in law deal
with Aaron Rodgers. So I don't know, Arnie. I think
I think we could buckle up here, for this is
not gonna be like the Patriots trading Jimmy g to

(01:51:44):
the s Francisco for a second round pick. Here's your
here's your second round pick. Joy him for the rest
of the way. Hey, can I just get your take
on one more thing before we break and get to
your picks? Are you buying that Russell Wilson is on
the block right now? Yes? I am absolutely one. Okay,
where where is he going to go? Or who's interested

(01:52:05):
in him? Either works? I think, you know, I think
there's about a good like four teams really really interested.
Maybe the rest just kind of want to feel it out.
Um gosh, if I'm gonna guess right now, I really
feel like you know that the Giants want to move on,

(01:52:26):
move on from Danny Dimes. He'd be a great fit there,
But I don't think he'd want to play there. I'm
trying to figure out where he'd want to play. He'd
probably want to play maybe in Miami, but what about Washington.
I'm not so true you'd want to play there. Certly
interested in having him d C Story franchise, new name,
new image. I mean, if you're not too far from

(01:52:48):
about anywhere right in in d C on that East coast,
so why And I think they'd be willing to do
whatever it takes in order to get a quarterback. I think, Arnie,
I truly believe this. I think Washington is the team
that is being talked about in in trying to get
Derek Carr. I think Washington and India the two teams
that are big time involved in doing whatever it takes

(01:53:09):
to try to get far from Vegas. Do you believe
denn Russell Wilson is going to leave a Seattle or
are you not buying into that room. I'm not buying
that one right now. I know you are, and I
know you're all in, and I know you've been all
in basically since a week eight. You have to go.
But I will say this, I think if he goes
and if they make a move, Arnie, if I'm Seattle,

(01:53:32):
I call Houston like, hey, what's up Deshaun Watson. I
don't know what's gonna happen with Deshaun Watson. I know
this is again apparently a big week, but if your
Dolphins are out and I don't really see I mean,
maybe the Broncos make a phone call if things with
Aaron Rodgers fall through, or maybe Green Bay makes a

(01:53:53):
phone call. If Aaron Rodgers moves on and they get
a little capital and they can move that on to Houston.
I don't know. Just it seems like that's as much
as it's not forgotten. I feel like it's not being
talked about very much about where he could inevitably end up.
And Shawn Watson, what about the trickle down effect? We
always talking about Aaron Rodgers, Deshaun Watson, Um Russell, Wilson, Baker.

(01:54:19):
Mayfield's going back to Cleveland, So that's not going to
be a problem anybody else that we're missing that that
could go ahead. And we we talked about Car, but
it doesn't look like he's leaving the Raiders, is he?
I don't know. I don't think so. But you know
there's here, here's a quick little side on on car
not the way Minnesota man Kevin said Russell wasn't the Vikings. Okay,

(01:54:40):
well maybe, but are you? I mean, Kirk Cousins has
one more year left on his threat and it's like
thirty mill It's ridiculous. So I thought it was all
the money in the world. It's it's ridiculous. But Dave
Ziegler and Josh McDaniels have said all the right things
about Derek Carr so far, right, he's our guy. We're
gonna we're gonna coach him up. How do we know that.

(01:55:02):
I mean, they've they've been around him like twice. So
I mean, it's just who's the first guy that's getting
a raise for the Raiders. It's not Derek Carr. It's
Max Crosby, and I I just I don't know what
to think about that, except the first thing that Josh
McDaniels did whenever he took the Broncos job was trade
away Jay Cutler. He's saying all the right things right now,

(01:55:25):
but I don't know if what's going on behind the
scenes Arnie might match what they're saying publicly. So that's
why I'm not ruling out a Car move. I wouldn't
like it. I know Danny g would, but I just
I haven't quite ruled that out yet. I think they're
very much in play for about any quarterback albums. And
then I think there's a lot of teams that would
like to pick up Car. I think there would be
a lot of yeah to pick it him up. All right,

(01:55:47):
when we come back, let's wrap this bad boy up
Arnie's picks, We'll take us on next on Fox Sports Radio.
Final segment for us Big Ben Mallar is coming up
next here on Fox Sports Radio, Big week Ahead. March
Madness in full swing. So the crew has been engaged.

(01:56:08):
Great stuff from Bobo on the Wheels of Steel, Danny
g producing a great program thanks to Steve to Sager
for the updates and the millions and millions of editors
behind the scenes getting us all the great sound fun
night um. By the way, any chance Arnie Spanier watches
a little bit more college baseball or maybe even some

(01:56:31):
of the miners that they're gonna be showing during the
baseball lockout or now, and they watch a little bit
more college baseball, but not a whole heck of a lot.
Do you want to hear the dumbest thing ever? You guys,
I'm not kidding, the dumbest thing in the history of ever.
You ready? So they put the Oklahoma well it was

(01:56:52):
there was a lot of Oaklahoma l S U Tennessee, Texas,
U c l A. All we're playing down in Houston,
all right. They were playing at minimate part. So the
MLB network was like, we we don't have anything going on,
We'll put it on the MLB network. Right, guess what,
they blacked it out. It was still subject to Major

(01:57:14):
League Baseball's blackout ruleslous? How could how could a college
baseball game, Arnie, be subject to the League Baseball blackout rules?
I don't I don't even know how that works. How
do they get so? They just make stuff up as
they're going along. I guess so, I guess so. So anyway,
welcome to the dumbest thing you've ever heard in the

(01:57:35):
history of ever MLB network blacking out college games. That's
what happened this weekend. All right, we owe you picks.
Take it away, stinking genius. What you got for us? This? Alright,
not a whole heck of a lot. But we start
with Aaron Rodgers. He should be given his decision by
Tuesday Wednesday. Um, and when it's all said and done,
it's gonna be easier for him to go to the

(01:57:55):
back to the Green Bay Packers than do anything else.
So many more years this guy left. Does he really
want to go to the Denver Broncos or start all over?
After the last couple of years, he's had his best
chance of winn against Super Bowl is staying right where
he is, so you're gonna find out. Aaron Rodgers goes
back to the Green Bay Packers. Now major League Baseball.
I've been saying this from the very start, Chris, Um,

(01:58:17):
there'll be no games in April. They'll probably start up
either May one or in that first week in May. Um,
the owners really don't care whatsoever. Congratulations to my Arizona
Wildcats for winning the pac twelfth Championship this week. When
are the finals on that? Chris? Do you know why?
Hold on? I've got all of the tournament fields pulled
up right here. We March twelve. Well, congratulations to my

(01:58:42):
Wildcats her for winning the PACT twelfth Championship. No doubt
we win it. And the Lakers, after beating Golden State
go on to win seven of their next nine to
go ahead and show people they're ready to compete once
the playoffs start. There you have my picks, two of them,
as you please. No longer strictly for entertainment purposes only,

(01:59:03):
Oh nank cap bank cap All right, Well, let's ask
um a little bit deeper question. Who is Arizona playing
in Saturday's finals? Either U C L A U S C.
Does a Washington State maker run. No, I think it's
probably gonna be U C l A though only three

(01:59:24):
teams from the pack trouble make it will be Arizona,
U C A, U s C. I don't think Oregon
is going to go ahead and get on it, so
they gotta make a run in the tournament now they do,
that would be at the expense of your Arizona Wildcayes.
Oregon makes the run. I think we're gonna get a
Duke North Carolina rematch in the a SEC championship game.
I really do, and I think Duke's gonna win at
this time. I'll tell you what might be the best

(01:59:44):
tournament is the SEC. The SEC's Auburn is the one,
and they have to play probably Florida in the second round.
Arkansas has gotta deal with L s U and its
first game they're doubled by. How about Tennessee and potentially
Frank Martin and South Carolina and Kentucky Alla mamma as
a game that could end up being played if no
one gets upset. Yeah, I'm I'm all in. I don't

(02:00:05):
I don't know what it is this week, Arnie, I'm
all in on the I'm all in on the conference tournaments.
Let's go, all right, my man, have a good week.
Dulations to your Arizona Wildcats. Thank you, thank you, thank well.
Well done for Bobo, for Danny g for Steve Di Sega,
for Arnie Spaniel. I'm Chris Plank, Big thanks to all
of the hard workers behind the scenes, the millions and

(02:00:25):
millions of editors. Everyone have a great week big Ben
Mallory's coming up next, and enjoy March Madness. This is
Fox Sports Radio.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Fox Sports Radio News

Host

Jonas Knox

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Chris Plank & Arnie Spanier Debate Combine Popularity, Lakers & Arizona