Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy Connell on KOAM ninety four one FM.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Song Godly.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
They mane.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Sad base.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I want a song. Tell them No one's written a
song for me. Hey, I'm John and Caldera in for Mandy.
Check out my little organization, Independence Institute. Go to thinkfreedom
dot org. That's thinkfreedom dot org. Sign up for a newsletter.
At the very least, for nearly four decades, we have
(00:51):
pointed to true north in Colorado when it comes to
limited government, personal and economic freedom. If you like our
flat tax, if you like that the flat income tax
has been lowered to what it is now. If you
like the taxpayer Bill of Rights, if you like term limits,
if you like educational choice, if you like concealed carry permits.
(01:13):
All of these things were made possible by the work
we've done at Independence Institute. Also, we offer a great
news service called Complete Colorado dot Com. Check it out
every day Complete Colorado dot Com. We aggregate stories from
around the state and make sure that they are paywall
(01:34):
free for you, So definitely check it out Complete Colorado
dot Com. You've been hearing on the news breaks the
excitement about my Alba mater Cu going to the Alamo Bowl.
I'm about ready to weigh into a topic which I
have very little knowledge.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
It is.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
It's exciting to see the Buffs in a bowl game.
It's great to see them ranked. It's been fun to watch.
But there's something about new college football I really don't like,
and it's that these players are now multi millionaires. It
(02:23):
used to be a kid would go to college and
if he got a scholarship, that helped him. Are you
ready for this? Get an education? I know it's crazy.
It would help that kid get an education he could afford,
so he'd play on a team. In exchange, he'd he'd
(02:47):
get a free education or discounted education. That's pretty cool.
And then money perverts it. You've got superstars who are
now selling what are is it called image, likeness and
name something like that. That they they have control of
(03:12):
their own image, they have control of their likeness, they
have the control of their name, and if they want
to sell those things for endorsement purposes, well shouldn't they
be able to? I mean, come on, Caldera, you like
all this liberty stuff and free market stuff. Isn't that
really what we're talking about? Like, yeah, I see that.
(03:34):
I particularly see that for some sports. Think of I
don't know, gymnastics, gymnastics where by the time you hit eighteen,
you're over the hill. It's not like some gymnast who's
out out of school is going to graduate and then
(03:59):
have the peak of her career afterwards where she can
then trade in and get those endorsements and get paid.
She's gonna be She's going to be top of her
game when she's sixteen, sometimes fourteen, So if she doesn't
cash in, then she might not be able to cash
(04:22):
in on her celebrity. I get that, really, I really do.
I get that. And so why not let this person
cash in while they're hot? Even though college had these
rules that you couldn't you couldn't do that, or if
(04:44):
you made money, you couldn't be in the Olympics, And
so you had a lot of people who skipped college
or deferred college so that they could go off and
do their sport and do some advertisements and make some money,
maybe use that money to go to college. All Right,
I see it, I really do. I get it. I
(05:04):
can see that point. But there's something that just rubs
me the wrong way. Of football players driving around in
their maseratis being multi millionaires while they're students. So you've
(05:24):
got you've got a very good quarterback at CU, You've
got a Heisman Trophy winner at CU. These guys are
cashing in money and they haven't even gone to the
big leagues yet. They're not they're not professionals yet, they're
not getting paid to play ball, they're getting paid to
(05:49):
do advertisements. And I just think the purpose of college
sports is college more than it is sport. Help me
wade through this one three h three seven one three
eighty five eighty five seven one three eight five eighty five.
(06:11):
If you could, would you go back to the way
back before times where hey, if you wanted, if you
wanted to make more money and you're in college, you
gotta wait until you're a pro, particularly in football, football
and basketball, the big big ones. I really miss that.
(06:36):
It has taken away the oh, I don't know how
to put it. It's taken away the magic of the
game of it being about a college. So you've got
all these kids in a stadium and they're no longer
in the same boat it used to be. That. You know,
(06:56):
the guys who are the cheerleaders throwing girls up in
the air. Maybe they're getting a scholarship for being on
the cheer team. Maybe some of the folks on the
marching band also get a scholarship. I don't know. And
they're all the same, They're all in the same boat.
They all go and live on the same campus for
the first year or so, they're all taking the same classes,
(07:19):
they're all going to the same student union. They're all
having a shared experience. And then you know, some kids
get a job on campus. I had a job on campus,
and you make a few bucks an hour working at
the student center, or I used to work security at
some of the ballgames or things like that. All right,
(07:41):
so there's a way to make a little extra money.
But then that guy over there, because people love what
he does, is getting paid millions millions, you know. So
now now you've got a hierarchy in college that didn't
(08:02):
exist before. I don't know how it doesn't mess up
college educations, that it doesn't put the emphasis on the
wrong thing, which is making money rather than learning and
going to school. And also just I don't know, it
just feels so ugly. Help me with this one three
(08:26):
h three seven to one, three eighty five, eighty five.
Let's talk to Mike. Good, Good afternoon, Mike. You're with
John Caldera.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
John, nice to talk to you. Thank you, long time listener.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Glad to have you.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, so I was kind of weigh in on what
you're talking about here with the college athletes. You know,
I received the Division one scholarship to play basketball in
the late nineties, and that was it.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
You got what school?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Three school? I'm at the Boise State.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Ah, the mighty mighty Boise.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
State, good old Broncos. With the blue field. I hate
that thing. I used to run up and down that
thing all the time.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
That is so weird, isn't it. It's just yeah, I
mean I like the concept of a different colored field.
If you're gonna have fake grass, why not do something
something crazy? Maybe maybe zebra stripes, well, something something that
really weird. Did you get a full ride?
Speaker 1 (09:19):
I got a full ride and you played and I
you know, I wasn't the best player up there. I
played here and there, you know, had some injuries and stuff.
They sold my jersey number, not my name, because we
didn't have our names on our jersey but they sold
my jersey. I think they sold maybe one and then
had one return good.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
So your mom bought it and then returned it.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
My mom bought it and it was too small, so
you returned it. But yeah, I mean that was the
big deal.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I didn't have a lot of money coming out of
you know, we weren't rich college. Yeah, that's that's what
you know. And I took advantage of it. I got
my degree up there and and uh but yeah, now
these this portal situation and all these kids you know
making money off there, like me, like me, Like.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
You say the portal situation, Educate me a bit on that,
because I college football still confuses me. The whole playoff
system confuses me. The conferences confused me. The rankings confuse me.
So why I like the NFL. I can understand the NFL.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I'm with you one hundred percent. I'm with you one
hundred percent on that. I like NFL football and I
like college basketball. I'll me crazy.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
So when you say the portal.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I don't know too much about the portal system, but
it just seems like every year there's a handful of
kids who can go to as many as can you
go to four different schools and four years do that system.
I don't know how it works very well. But I
remember back when I if I wanted to transfer, if
if my head coach didn't get fired, or I wanted
to transfer. So if if you lost a head coach,
(10:49):
you could transfer without losing a year because you went
to that school to play for that man or woman.
Now it seems like you can just pop around. So
I don't like this guy, or I don't like my
situation here, I'm going to go here.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
So it's almost like they're free agents. Now. Yeah, the
idea of be true to your school doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
How do you hear that last part?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I'm sorry, I was just saying that the old Beach
Boys song be true to your school, No, doesn't. It
just doesn't happen anymore because you're thinking about money. You're
thinking about you know how I can make more money
right now? And I get some of that. You know,
you're one injury away from from losing your livelihood.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, but isn't payment for your livelihood to make you
to the next level of free education? How much does
school cost these days? You said you went to see you.
I miss hear that.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I sadly went to see you. Let me, let me,
let me put myself in the group of what a
waste of money from that communist factory. So, I mean,
if you're an engineer, great, maybe their business school, but
their liberal arts program is just there to perpetuate socialism.
And I you know, so I love it when they
(12:07):
call me for money from the alumni association and I'm like,
are you kidding? Let me tell you why I'm not
going to give you money. And then afterwards I always say,
would you like us to take us take you off
our solicitation list? Like no, I love having this yearly
conversation to complain about what you teach at to see
you anyway, But if you had to do it over again,
(12:30):
would you.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah? I think so? Why not? You know, I probably
would have done you know, obviously few things different, but
you know that's from a young age. That was you know,
I went to a family where you know, sisters were
getting volleyball scholarships to you know, Nebraska and Arizona State,
and basketball scholarships to Arkansas for my brothers and some football.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
So it was like it came from a jock family. Yeah,
so you got a jock family, and you got a
college education paid for. Your parents must have loved that.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah, And then you look at the professional athletes in
the as a whole. They're broken five years after they're playing.
You know, that's why they get paid so much money
up front, is because their their work history is going
to be potentially very short, and you need you need
to make those first three million dollars for the first
three years last. And it just it doesn't work that way,
(13:26):
you know. Whereas with my degree, I got it for free.
I was I was a midrage player, got to go
to school for free, and I got a great degree,
and I've got a great career, I've got a great family,
and I'm not a multi millionaire by any means. But
but you.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Also you also must have had a great memory of
being on a college basketball team. Would would be you know,
you're kind of living the classic American dream of Yeah,
I played it, got through school playing sports.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
It was so great. It was so great, state of
the art equipment. I mean when I was in school,
Boise was just switching over. Their football program was just
switching over from one double A to one A and
state of the art equipment. Multi million dollar investors in
the nicest court TV almost every night, the only show
(14:18):
in so how first class flying you know, per deems
during the day. And that's another thing too which I
kind of struggle with, is these kids can make a
lot of money on their likelyhood. But when I was
in school, if you made more than twenty five hundred
dollars during the summer, you weren't allowed. Right.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
It was the Mexicans.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
They didn't want boosters giving you money to do nothing.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah, exactly, And so now boosters can give money by
by renting out your likeness. There's just it just feels
so very wrong. And I understand the logic behind it.
I understand that somebody's somebody's making money off you, So
(15:01):
why can't I make money off of myself? I mean,
I get that, but I think it just spoils, spoils
the college education, and it spoils college sports. Hey, Mike,
thanks for the call. Let's chat with Bill. Bill, welcome
you with John Kelder. Glad to have you Bill.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Hi.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Hi, I'm in Western Nebraska, so I'm a Husker fan.
But we'll forgive if your thing goes, say, yeah, the
same thing goes. Are these guys that are getting engineering
degrees and paying for their credits. Are these football players
and athletes are they going to pay for the credits
that the college is teaching them.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
A career well, their career.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Are they going to be charged? Yeah, Well they get
out and they go to the pros, and they're making
all this money. Just like an engineer would if he
paid for his credits and went out and got a job.
These athletes need to start coughing up and paying for
the training that the college has given them.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
That's an interesting thought. Let me see if I'm understanding you.
So you go to school and you get a degree
in engineering. You've got a bunch of engineering professors who
get paid and you are paying them, and they teach
you stuff. You then take that knowledge and get a
career out of it. Here the college player, the multi
(16:23):
millionaire is getting a free ride scholarship. Yet the other kids,
the other tuition givers or boosters or somehow else people
are getting paid to train you how to play football.
That is your stock in trade, not engineering, and you
take that knowledge with you when you leave and go
(16:43):
become a pro.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Yeah, or even the coach somewhere they're learning their trade
of from the athletic side of the college, and they're
not paying. I don't know what you call it. I'm
a the tuition part of it that the normal guy
(17:05):
that has an engineering is going for engineering is paying.
They're getting a free ride from the taxpayers and the
supporters and stuff, and not putting back into the for
what they were getting trained for.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
It's it's there's something that perverts education. And I know
we don't want to talk about education because we love
college football so much, but there's just something that treats
one kid differently than the other kid. And there's just
(17:43):
something weird about I'm I'm going to class with somebody
and next to me is this guy and he's making
five million dollars a year in school and I got
a part time job, you know, for fifteen bucks. Life life,
you know, it just doesn't. We no longer have a
(18:04):
shared experience as colleagues in school.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
That's what I'm saying. I mean, if you're getting if
the college is teaching you to become something in athletics,
like I say, a coach, a player, anything like that
that you learned by by playing the game, you should
pay the tuition for it, not just have the taxpayers
(18:31):
pay for you.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
That's an interesting It's like, all right, Sanders, you're you're
making millions of dollars off your likeness. You're only making
that millions of dollars because you're playing football, which for
our for our team. So how about you pay your
own tuition? At least I could get behind that there.
You know. The idea of tuition was to help people
(18:54):
who couldn't pay. The Sanders family can pay their tuition
and their room and board. They could sell one of
their cars and do that. That's an interesting point. The
other the other thing that's kind of weird for me
is when I went to college, they had the college uniforms.
I even remember those powder puff blue and gold uniforms,
(19:18):
see you had, and they were awful. They were just awful.
Black and gold is much better. But they played the
same uniform the whole year. My god, these guys seem
to have a different uniform every game. Who pays for
you know, five different styles of uniforms and helmets that
(19:40):
seems to get switched up every game. It just it's
mixing school football with professional football, and I just don't
like that mix. All right, Hey, thanks for the call.
I appreciate it. What am I getting wrong on this one? What? What?
What am I thinking wrong? Would you go back to
to the way where you could not sell your likeness?
(20:03):
And if so, who are you to tell somebody else
what they can do with their face? Three oh three
seven one three eight five eighty five. I'm John Caldera
in for Mandy. You're on KOWA thirty four minutes after
Good Afternoon. I'm John Caldera in for Mandy. Please be
part of the conversation at three three seven one three
eight five eighty five. I'm trying to make sense of
(20:28):
this relatively new system where college football players can become
millionaires while they're still playing college ball. I think it
really taints the game. I think it really perverts education.
(20:49):
But I'm also struggling with it this way. I mean,
come on, I run a not for profit that pushes
freedom and free markets, free people in free markets. And
if a guy wants to sell his services as a
spokesman for Kentucky Fried Chicken, who am I to say
(21:10):
he shouldn't? Can I just say I don't like it?
Help me understand this one. Let's go down to a
fountain and talk to Bob Bob, Welcome. You're with John Caldera.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
John, it's just one more step in the march that
we are doing towards commercializing everything. I got a free
ride for college education back in the sixties from the church.
I had to serve the church a certain number of
(21:47):
years to earn that.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I mean, you had to like be pope for a while.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
It's the wrong church, but that's the right idea. But
the whole thing is that back when I was a
kid and young man.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
Growing up, there was a loyalty to my school that
I could not participate in a portal if that even
existed back then, because what's.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Upon a time. I was good enough in high school
to play varsity ball, but I wasn't good enough at college.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Interesting, Yeah, the idea of I guess there's a couple
of different factors going on.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
On a bunch of money.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yeah. One of them is is you know, the idea
of a portal if if you're really kind of a
free agent in college, you don't have to make a
lasting decision. I don't like it in this school, I'll
go to the next school. It'll be good for my career.
Now you can do that if you're going to business school,
and you're going to business school at you know, Idahost
(23:01):
State or something, and you go, you know what, I
just got offered a scholarship to be at University of
Denver's Leeds or Daniel's Business School. I'll think I'll take that.
No one would blame you for giving up your old
school to get a better education at a higher rated,
(23:23):
better school that's going to help you. So why would
it be different If I'm a football player and my
career I plan on is professional football, and I got
an ability to go pay a play for a better
team that will highlight me more, that will increase my marketability.
(23:44):
Why shouldn't I be able to go and go play
for that team.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
The way you've explained it, you could all goes persuade me.
The only thing is that I still have but Broncos
whether they're winning or losing, And here lately they started
winning and I don't have the tears that I used
to have. You know, there's at the same time, commit
(24:17):
but these more than just the ability to change your
mind easily.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, there's there's And I might be thinking this too
too much here, but there is a growing age of emancipation.
I think about kids during World War Two. I've met
some older gentlemen who snuck away at fifteen years old
(24:45):
to try to go join the Navy, only to get
turned back and sent home to mom and dad. And
I think, my god, kids became adults so early by
today's standards, and now you can stay on your parents'
health insurance plan until you're twenty six years old. It's
(25:08):
really pretty wild. In the same way a high schooler
would make a decision, I'm going to take the scholarship
offer from this college, and I'm there for four years now.
It's like I can make that decision, but I can
get out of it if I want to, So the
(25:28):
cost of making decisions like an adult are less and less.
I keep thinking about this from the college kid's point
of view. What is best for the college kid, and
not just the football player, but all the college kids
and other than you were able to make more money.
(25:50):
I'm having a hard time coming out why this is
good for you for all college kids.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
The whole thing is I changed my major while I
was in undergraduate school. I ended up with an MD
degree and I've never used it, never practiced once, never
completed any of my medical work, But at the same
(26:22):
point in time I did not enjoy the money that
would be created as a medical practitioner. I feel that
we sell too much of ourselves for the price or
(26:46):
for the income that we get. And I wonder whether
or not that applies to our college professors as they
earned more and more. And I also wonder about the
tuition and the scholarship. If I got a free ride
(27:07):
as a player, I would play. And if a school
table around an offer be bloor, I don't think I
could accept that as a person.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Although when you get older and you have a job
and one of your company's competitors starts to pursue you
and offers you more money, you could take it. So
are we saying kids shouldn't grow up sooner? If you're
more of a free agent, isn't that more like being
an adult? I mean, this whole thing confuses me. All
(27:43):
I know is I don't like it. I don't like
kids becoming multi millionaires while they're still in a dormitory.
But at the same time, I don't know if I'm
just being some nasty, grumpy old guy and I just
don't like Jay And that might be the case. All right,
(28:05):
good stuff. Thanks for the call. Three all three seven
to one, three eighty five, eighty five. I'm thrilled see
who's going to a bowl game. But it just seems
it just seems like we're missing some of the innocence.
Maybe that's it, some of the innocence of college football.
(28:29):
Help me understand it. Three all three seven one three
eight five eighty five. John Calderic, keep it right here.
You're on KOA. Got about eleven minutes to the top.
I'm John Caldera. Thanks for spending some time with me.
I hope Mandy is having a great time on our
day off. My job is to scare away her audience.
I'm doing a good job. Give me a call. Three
(28:50):
oh three seven one three eight five eight five. Big
big football day tomorrow. Glad I've got a big screen TV.
It's gonna be oneful. But as I've been talking about,
I just feel really queasy about these new new college
rules that allow kids to cash in while they're college kids.
(29:15):
And I'm finding myself in that unfamiliar area where my
logic goes in one direction, but my old man crankiness
goes in the other direction. I get it, if a
kid wants to make some money on the side. Who
am I to say, don't do it. It's his face,
(29:38):
it's his voice. And if Colonel Sanders wants to give
him money to sling chicken, ain't my business. More power
to them. But there's just something that feels like it's
taking away the innocence of college sport. I've had this
(30:03):
fight with my daughter, who is into gymnastics, and she's like,
come on, man, and her very best Joe Biden, come on, man.
Her point is a a college gymnast has a remarkably
short career. I mean, you're eighteen years old and you're
(30:26):
over the hill. So if you have to wait until
after you get out of college to cash in, there's
nothing left to cash in. It's like, well, that's that's
a pretty good point. I don't have any problem with that.
If you know, the guy on the college ping pong
team wants to endorse his very favorite paddle, great, it's
(30:50):
not like that's big stuff. That's that's small peanuts. This
track and field guy wants to do a commercial for
his running all right, fine, It's different when you've got
Hunter and Sanders making millions and millions of dollars everywhere
(31:11):
because football is so ridiculously popular. We can keep going
with this and say does it anger any of the pros?
What I mean by that is Colonel Sanders needs someone
to advertise his chicken. Yeah, he could go to bow Nicks,
(31:35):
but now he can get the quarterback Sanders. Get it,
Colonel Sanders, Man, I could I could write this ad
copy right now. Anyway. I wonder if any of the
pros think I don't want the competition in the endorsement industry.
I make my money off of endorsements. I just I
(31:58):
just hate the high cost of everything, particularly sports. We're
chatting in the previous hour about three hundred dollars plus
lift tickets for ski resorts now, so regular people can't
enjoy them. College players, professional players make so much money
(32:22):
it becomes unheard of, absolutely unheard of. As a complete aside.
Let me give you my thought on equality. So we
keep hearing things like teachers are underpaid, teachers are underpaid,
(32:43):
the sun comes up in the morning, teachers are underpaid,
to which I say, there's actually not really proof of that,
because we have enough teachers to fill the spots, and
if not, well, then then we raise the price and
we get more teachers. Football players make so much more
(33:07):
than teachers. Why is that because to do what bo
Nicks does or Peyton Manning did is such a rarefied talent.
There's not much there. There's not a lot of competition.
They are worth it because they bring in more than
(33:29):
that in money. The reason these guys make this much
money is because it is worth it to the owners
to pay them that much and their operations get more money.
It's an investment. If they are only a handful of
teachers that could do teaching, they might be in the
same situation. I also like to think about the diversity issue.
(33:57):
Having a couple of minority owners of the Bronco, those
who are African American, including Condolleza Rice was largely performative.
It was largely for show. It's not like the Waltons
really needed that extra investment money to pull the deal together.
They needed the pr cover And I think, why couldn't
(34:21):
we do the same thing on the field. You know,
so the NFL does all this talk about equality and equity,
Black lives matter, and you see it on the helmets
and on the sidelines and on the end zones. How
about this? Would you like the Denver Broncos to have
the same racial makeup as the nation that you know,
(34:47):
you could only have twenty percent African Americans on the team. Yeah,
you'd have to have so many of this race on
the team. Even the most craze socialists will go, well, no,
you can't have that, Like, well, why not? Are you
saying that racial diversity isn't important? Well, it's important in
(35:10):
your office, but apparently it's not important on the field.
Someone explained that to me. All right, let's take a
quick break for news. I'm John Caldera three oh three
seven one three eighty five eighty five. Keep it right here.
You're on KOA
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy Connell on KOAM ninety four one FM.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Song Godly.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
They mane.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Sad base.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I want a song. Tell them No one's written a
song for me. Hey, I'm John and Caldera in for Mandy.
Check out my little organization, Independence Institute. Go to thinkfreedom
dot org. That's thinkfreedom dot org. Sign up for a newsletter.
At the very least, for nearly four decades, we have
(00:51):
pointed to true north in Colorado when it comes to
limited government, personal and economic freedom. If you like our
flat tax, if you like that the flat income tax
has been lowered to what it is now. If you
like the taxpayer Bill of Rights, if you like term limits,
if you like educational choice, if you like concealed carry permits.
(01:13):
All of these things were made possible by the work
we've done at Independence Institute. Also, we offer a great
news service called Complete Colorado dot Com. Check it out
every day Complete Colorado dot Com. We aggregate stories from
around the state and make sure that they are paywall
(01:34):
free for you, So definitely check it out Complete Colorado
dot Com. You've been hearing on the news breaks the
excitement about my Alba mater Cu going to the Alamo Bowl.
I'm about ready to weigh into a topic which I
have very little knowledge.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
It is.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
It's exciting to see the Buffs in a bowl game.
It's great to see them ranked. It's been fun to watch.
But there's something about new college football I really don't like,
and it's that these players are now multi millionaires. It
(02:23):
used to be a kid would go to college and
if he got a scholarship, that helped him. Are you
ready for this? Get an education? I know it's crazy.
It would help that kid get an education he could afford,
so he'd play on a team. In exchange, he'd he'd
(02:47):
get a free education or discounted education. That's pretty cool.
And then money perverts it. You've got superstars who are
now selling what are is it called image, likeness and
name something like that. That they they have control of
(03:12):
their own image, they have control of their likeness, they
have the control of their name, and if they want
to sell those things for endorsement purposes, well shouldn't they
be able to? I mean, come on, Caldera, you like
all this liberty stuff and free market stuff. Isn't that
really what we're talking about? Like, yeah, I see that.
(03:34):
I particularly see that for some sports. Think of I
don't know, gymnastics, gymnastics where by the time you hit eighteen,
you're over the hill. It's not like some gymnast who's
out out of school is going to graduate and then
(03:59):
have the peak of her career afterwards where she can
then trade in and get those endorsements and get paid.
She's gonna be She's going to be top of her
game when she's sixteen, sometimes fourteen, So if she doesn't
cash in, then she might not be able to cash
(04:22):
in on her celebrity. I get that, really, I really do.
I get that. And so why not let this person
cash in while they're hot? Even though college had these
rules that you couldn't you couldn't do that, or if
(04:44):
you made money, you couldn't be in the Olympics, And
so you had a lot of people who skipped college
or deferred college so that they could go off and
do their sport and do some advertisements and make some money,
maybe use that money to go to college. All Right,
I see it, I really do. I get it. I
(05:04):
can see that point. But there's something that just rubs
me the wrong way. Of football players driving around in
their maseratis being multi millionaires while they're students. So you've
(05:24):
got you've got a very good quarterback at CU, You've
got a Heisman Trophy winner at CU. These guys are
cashing in money and they haven't even gone to the
big leagues yet. They're not they're not professionals yet, they're
not getting paid to play ball, they're getting paid to
(05:49):
do advertisements. And I just think the purpose of college
sports is college more than it is sport. Help me
wade through this one three h three seven one three
eighty five eighty five seven one three eight five eighty five.
(06:11):
If you could, would you go back to the way
back before times where hey, if you wanted, if you
wanted to make more money and you're in college, you
gotta wait until you're a pro, particularly in football, football
and basketball, the big big ones. I really miss that.
(06:36):
It has taken away the oh, I don't know how
to put it. It's taken away the magic of the
game of it being about a college. So you've got
all these kids in a stadium and they're no longer
in the same boat it used to be. That. You know,
(06:56):
the guys who are the cheerleaders throwing girls up in
the air. Maybe they're getting a scholarship for being on
the cheer team. Maybe some of the folks on the
marching band also get a scholarship. I don't know. And
they're all the same, They're all in the same boat.
They all go and live on the same campus for
the first year or so, they're all taking the same classes,
(07:19):
they're all going to the same student union. They're all
having a shared experience. And then you know, some kids
get a job on campus. I had a job on campus,
and you make a few bucks an hour working at
the student center, or I used to work security at
some of the ballgames or things like that. All right,
(07:41):
so there's a way to make a little extra money.
But then that guy over there, because people love what
he does, is getting paid millions millions, you know. So
now now you've got a hierarchy in college that didn't
(08:02):
exist before. I don't know how it doesn't mess up
college educations, that it doesn't put the emphasis on the
wrong thing, which is making money rather than learning and
going to school. And also just I don't know, it
just feels so ugly. Help me with this one three
(08:26):
h three seven to one, three eighty five, eighty five.
Let's talk to Mike. Good, Good afternoon, Mike. You're with
John Caldera.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
John, nice to talk to you. Thank you, long time listener.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Glad to have you.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, so I was kind of weigh in on what
you're talking about here with the college athletes. You know,
I received the Division one scholarship to play basketball in
the late nineties, and that was it.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
You got what school?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Three school? I'm at the Boise State.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Ah, the mighty mighty Boise.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
State, good old Broncos. With the blue field. I hate
that thing. I used to run up and down that
thing all the time.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
That is so weird, isn't it. It's just yeah, I
mean I like the concept of a different colored field.
If you're gonna have fake grass, why not do something
something crazy? Maybe maybe zebra stripes, well, something something that
really weird. Did you get a full ride?
Speaker 1 (09:19):
I got a full ride and you played and I
you know, I wasn't the best player up there. I
played here and there, you know, had some injuries and stuff.
They sold my jersey number, not my name, because we
didn't have our names on our jersey but they sold
my jersey. I think they sold maybe one and then
had one return good.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
So your mom bought it and then returned it.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
My mom bought it and it was too small, so
you returned it. But yeah, I mean that was the
big deal.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I didn't have a lot of money coming out of
you know, we weren't rich college. Yeah, that's that's what
you know. And I took advantage of it. I got
my degree up there and and uh but yeah, now
these this portal situation and all these kids you know
making money off there, like me, like me, Like.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
You say the portal situation, Educate me a bit on that,
because I college football still confuses me. The whole playoff
system confuses me. The conferences confused me. The rankings confuse me.
So why I like the NFL. I can understand the NFL.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I'm with you one hundred percent. I'm with you one
hundred percent on that. I like NFL football and I
like college basketball. I'll me crazy.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
So when you say the portal.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I don't know too much about the portal system, but
it just seems like every year there's a handful of
kids who can go to as many as can you
go to four different schools and four years do that system.
I don't know how it works very well. But I
remember back when I if I wanted to transfer, if
if my head coach didn't get fired, or I wanted
to transfer. So if if you lost a head coach,
(10:49):
you could transfer without losing a year because you went
to that school to play for that man or woman.
Now it seems like you can just pop around. So
I don't like this guy, or I don't like my
situation here, I'm going to go here.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
So it's almost like they're free agents. Now. Yeah, the
idea of be true to your school doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
How do you hear that last part?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I'm sorry, I was just saying that the old Beach
Boys song be true to your school, No, doesn't. It
just doesn't happen anymore because you're thinking about money. You're
thinking about you know how I can make more money
right now? And I get some of that. You know,
you're one injury away from from losing your livelihood.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, but isn't payment for your livelihood to make you
to the next level of free education? How much does
school cost these days? You said you went to see you.
I miss hear that.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I sadly went to see you. Let me, let me,
let me put myself in the group of what a
waste of money from that communist factory. So, I mean,
if you're an engineer, great, maybe their business school, but
their liberal arts program is just there to perpetuate socialism.
And I you know, so I love it when they
(12:07):
call me for money from the alumni association and I'm like,
are you kidding? Let me tell you why I'm not
going to give you money. And then afterwards I always say,
would you like us to take us take you off
our solicitation list? Like no, I love having this yearly
conversation to complain about what you teach at to see
you anyway, But if you had to do it over again,
(12:30):
would you.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah? I think so? Why not? You know, I probably
would have done you know, obviously few things different, but
you know that's from a young age. That was you know,
I went to a family where you know, sisters were
getting volleyball scholarships to you know, Nebraska and Arizona State,
and basketball scholarships to Arkansas for my brothers and some football.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
So it was like it came from a jock family. Yeah,
so you got a jock family, and you got a
college education paid for. Your parents must have loved that.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah, And then you look at the professional athletes in
the as a whole. They're broken five years after they're playing.
You know, that's why they get paid so much money
up front, is because their their work history is going
to be potentially very short, and you need you need
to make those first three million dollars for the first
three years last. And it just it doesn't work that way,
(13:26):
you know. Whereas with my degree, I got it for free.
I was I was a midrage player, got to go
to school for free, and I got a great degree,
and I've got a great career, I've got a great family,
and I'm not a multi millionaire by any means. But
but you.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Also you also must have had a great memory of
being on a college basketball team. Would would be you know,
you're kind of living the classic American dream of Yeah,
I played it, got through school playing sports.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
It was so great. It was so great, state of
the art equipment. I mean when I was in school,
Boise was just switching over. Their football program was just
switching over from one double A to one A and
state of the art equipment. Multi million dollar investors in
the nicest court TV almost every night, the only show
(14:18):
in so how first class flying you know, per deems
during the day. And that's another thing too which I
kind of struggle with, is these kids can make a
lot of money on their likelyhood. But when I was
in school, if you made more than twenty five hundred
dollars during the summer, you weren't allowed. Right.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
It was the Mexicans.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
They didn't want boosters giving you money to do nothing.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah, exactly, And so now boosters can give money by
by renting out your likeness. There's just it just feels
so very wrong. And I understand the logic behind it.
I understand that somebody's somebody's making money off you, So
(15:01):
why can't I make money off of myself? I mean,
I get that, but I think it just spoils, spoils
the college education, and it spoils college sports. Hey, Mike,
thanks for the call. Let's chat with Bill. Bill, welcome
you with John Kelder. Glad to have you Bill.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Hi.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Hi, I'm in Western Nebraska, so I'm a Husker fan.
But we'll forgive if your thing goes, say, yeah, the
same thing goes. Are these guys that are getting engineering
degrees and paying for their credits. Are these football players
and athletes are they going to pay for the credits
that the college is teaching them.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
A career well, their career.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Are they going to be charged? Yeah, Well they get
out and they go to the pros, and they're making
all this money. Just like an engineer would if he
paid for his credits and went out and got a job.
These athletes need to start coughing up and paying for
the training that the college has given them.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
That's an interesting thought. Let me see if I'm understanding you.
So you go to school and you get a degree
in engineering. You've got a bunch of engineering professors who
get paid and you are paying them, and they teach
you stuff. You then take that knowledge and get a
career out of it. Here the college player, the multi
(16:23):
millionaire is getting a free ride scholarship. Yet the other kids,
the other tuition givers or boosters or somehow else people
are getting paid to train you how to play football.
That is your stock in trade, not engineering, and you
take that knowledge with you when you leave and go
(16:43):
become a pro.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Yeah, or even the coach somewhere they're learning their trade
of from the athletic side of the college, and they're
not paying. I don't know what you call it. I'm
a the tuition part of it that the normal guy
(17:05):
that has an engineering is going for engineering is paying.
They're getting a free ride from the taxpayers and the
supporters and stuff, and not putting back into the for
what they were getting trained for.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
It's it's there's something that perverts education. And I know
we don't want to talk about education because we love
college football so much, but there's just something that treats
one kid differently than the other kid. And there's just
(17:43):
something weird about I'm I'm going to class with somebody
and next to me is this guy and he's making
five million dollars a year in school and I got
a part time job, you know, for fifteen bucks. Life life,
you know, it just doesn't. We no longer have a
(18:04):
shared experience as colleagues in school.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
That's what I'm saying. I mean, if you're getting if
the college is teaching you to become something in athletics,
like I say, a coach, a player, anything like that
that you learned by by playing the game, you should
pay the tuition for it, not just have the taxpayers
(18:31):
pay for you.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
That's an interesting It's like, all right, Sanders, you're you're
making millions of dollars off your likeness. You're only making
that millions of dollars because you're playing football, which for
our for our team. So how about you pay your
own tuition? At least I could get behind that there.
You know. The idea of tuition was to help people
(18:54):
who couldn't pay. The Sanders family can pay their tuition
and their room and board. They could sell one of
their cars and do that. That's an interesting point. The
other the other thing that's kind of weird for me
is when I went to college, they had the college uniforms.
I even remember those powder puff blue and gold uniforms,
(19:18):
see you had, and they were awful. They were just awful.
Black and gold is much better. But they played the
same uniform the whole year. My god, these guys seem
to have a different uniform every game. Who pays for
you know, five different styles of uniforms and helmets that
(19:40):
seems to get switched up every game. It just it's
mixing school football with professional football, and I just don't
like that mix. All right, Hey, thanks for the call.
I appreciate it. What am I getting wrong on this one? What? What?
What am I thinking wrong? Would you go back to
to the way where you could not sell your likeness?
(20:03):
And if so, who are you to tell somebody else
what they can do with their face? Three oh three
seven one three eight five eighty five. I'm John Caldera
in for Mandy. You're on KOWA thirty four minutes after
Good Afternoon. I'm John Caldera in for Mandy. Please be
part of the conversation at three three seven one three
eight five eighty five. I'm trying to make sense of
(20:28):
this relatively new system where college football players can become
millionaires while they're still playing college ball. I think it
really taints the game. I think it really perverts education.
(20:49):
But I'm also struggling with it this way. I mean,
come on, I run a not for profit that pushes
freedom and free markets, free people in free markets. And
if a guy wants to sell his services as a
spokesman for Kentucky Fried Chicken, who am I to say
(21:10):
he shouldn't? Can I just say I don't like it?
Help me understand this one. Let's go down to a
fountain and talk to Bob Bob, Welcome. You're with John Caldera.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
John, it's just one more step in the march that
we are doing towards commercializing everything. I got a free
ride for college education back in the sixties from the church.
I had to serve the church a certain number of
(21:47):
years to earn that.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I mean, you had to like be pope for a while.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
It's the wrong church, but that's the right idea. But
the whole thing is that back when I was a
kid and young man.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
Growing up, there was a loyalty to my school that
I could not participate in a portal if that even
existed back then, because what's.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Upon a time. I was good enough in high school
to play varsity ball, but I wasn't good enough at college.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Interesting, Yeah, the idea of I guess there's a couple
of different factors going on.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
On a bunch of money.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yeah. One of them is is you know, the idea
of a portal if if you're really kind of a
free agent in college, you don't have to make a
lasting decision. I don't like it in this school, I'll
go to the next school. It'll be good for my career.
Now you can do that if you're going to business school,
and you're going to business school at you know, Idahost
(23:01):
State or something, and you go, you know what, I
just got offered a scholarship to be at University of
Denver's Leeds or Daniel's Business School. I'll think I'll take that.
No one would blame you for giving up your old
school to get a better education at a higher rated,
(23:23):
better school that's going to help you. So why would
it be different If I'm a football player and my
career I plan on is professional football, and I got
an ability to go pay a play for a better
team that will highlight me more, that will increase my marketability.
(23:44):
Why shouldn't I be able to go and go play
for that team.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
The way you've explained it, you could all goes persuade me.
The only thing is that I still have but Broncos
whether they're winning or losing, And here lately they started
winning and I don't have the tears that I used
to have. You know, there's at the same time, commit
(24:17):
but these more than just the ability to change your
mind easily.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, there's there's And I might be thinking this too
too much here, but there is a growing age of emancipation.
I think about kids during World War Two. I've met
some older gentlemen who snuck away at fifteen years old
(24:45):
to try to go join the Navy, only to get
turned back and sent home to mom and dad. And
I think, my god, kids became adults so early by
today's standards, and now you can stay on your parents'
health insurance plan until you're twenty six years old. It's
(25:08):
really pretty wild. In the same way a high schooler
would make a decision, I'm going to take the scholarship
offer from this college, and I'm there for four years now.
It's like I can make that decision, but I can
get out of it if I want to, So the
(25:28):
cost of making decisions like an adult are less and less.
I keep thinking about this from the college kid's point
of view. What is best for the college kid, and
not just the football player, but all the college kids
and other than you were able to make more money.
(25:50):
I'm having a hard time coming out why this is
good for you for all college kids.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
The whole thing is I changed my major while I
was in undergraduate school. I ended up with an MD
degree and I've never used it, never practiced once, never
completed any of my medical work, But at the same
(26:22):
point in time I did not enjoy the money that
would be created as a medical practitioner. I feel that
we sell too much of ourselves for the price or
(26:46):
for the income that we get. And I wonder whether
or not that applies to our college professors as they
earned more and more. And I also wonder about the
tuition and the scholarship. If I got a free ride
(27:07):
as a player, I would play. And if a school
table around an offer be bloor, I don't think I
could accept that as a person.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Although when you get older and you have a job
and one of your company's competitors starts to pursue you
and offers you more money, you could take it. So
are we saying kids shouldn't grow up sooner? If you're
more of a free agent, isn't that more like being
an adult? I mean, this whole thing confuses me. All
(27:43):
I know is I don't like it. I don't like
kids becoming multi millionaires while they're still in a dormitory.
But at the same time, I don't know if I'm
just being some nasty, grumpy old guy and I just
don't like Jay And that might be the case. All right,
(28:05):
good stuff. Thanks for the call. Three all three seven
to one, three eighty five, eighty five. I'm thrilled see
who's going to a bowl game. But it just seems
it just seems like we're missing some of the innocence.
Maybe that's it, some of the innocence of college football.
(28:29):
Help me understand it. Three all three seven one three
eight five eighty five. John Calderic, keep it right here.
You're on KOA. Got about eleven minutes to the top.
I'm John Caldera. Thanks for spending some time with me.
I hope Mandy is having a great time on our
day off. My job is to scare away her audience.
I'm doing a good job. Give me a call. Three
(28:50):
oh three seven one three eight five eight five. Big
big football day tomorrow. Glad I've got a big screen TV.
It's gonna be oneful. But as I've been talking about,
I just feel really queasy about these new new college
rules that allow kids to cash in while they're college kids.
(29:15):
And I'm finding myself in that unfamiliar area where my
logic goes in one direction, but my old man crankiness
goes in the other direction. I get it, if a
kid wants to make some money on the side. Who
am I to say, don't do it. It's his face,
(29:38):
it's his voice. And if Colonel Sanders wants to give
him money to sling chicken, ain't my business. More power
to them. But there's just something that feels like it's
taking away the innocence of college sport. I've had this
(30:03):
fight with my daughter, who is into gymnastics, and she's like,
come on, man, and her very best Joe Biden, come on, man.
Her point is a a college gymnast has a remarkably
short career. I mean, you're eighteen years old and you're
(30:26):
over the hill. So if you have to wait until
after you get out of college to cash in, there's
nothing left to cash in. It's like, well, that's that's
a pretty good point. I don't have any problem with that.
If you know, the guy on the college ping pong
team wants to endorse his very favorite paddle, great, it's
(30:50):
not like that's big stuff. That's that's small peanuts. This
track and field guy wants to do a commercial for
his running all right, fine, It's different when you've got
Hunter and Sanders making millions and millions of dollars everywhere
(31:11):
because football is so ridiculously popular. We can keep going
with this and say does it anger any of the pros?
What I mean by that is Colonel Sanders needs someone
to advertise his chicken. Yeah, he could go to bow Nicks,
(31:35):
but now he can get the quarterback Sanders. Get it,
Colonel Sanders, Man, I could I could write this ad
copy right now. Anyway. I wonder if any of the
pros think I don't want the competition in the endorsement industry.
I make my money off of endorsements. I just I
(31:58):
just hate the high cost of everything, particularly sports. We're
chatting in the previous hour about three hundred dollars plus
lift tickets for ski resorts now, so regular people can't
enjoy them. College players, professional players make so much money
(32:22):
it becomes unheard of, absolutely unheard of. As a complete aside.
Let me give you my thought on equality. So we
keep hearing things like teachers are underpaid, teachers are underpaid,
(32:43):
the sun comes up in the morning, teachers are underpaid,
to which I say, there's actually not really proof of that,
because we have enough teachers to fill the spots, and
if not, well, then then we raise the price and
we get more teachers. Football players make so much more
(33:07):
than teachers. Why is that because to do what bo
Nicks does or Peyton Manning did is such a rarefied talent.
There's not much there. There's not a lot of competition.
They are worth it because they bring in more than
(33:29):
that in money. The reason these guys make this much
money is because it is worth it to the owners
to pay them that much and their operations get more money.
It's an investment. If they are only a handful of
teachers that could do teaching, they might be in the
same situation. I also like to think about the diversity issue.
(33:57):
Having a couple of minority owners of the Bronco, those
who are African American, including Condolleza Rice was largely performative.
It was largely for show. It's not like the Waltons
really needed that extra investment money to pull the deal together.
They needed the pr cover And I think, why couldn't
(34:21):
we do the same thing on the field. You know,
so the NFL does all this talk about equality and equity,
Black lives matter, and you see it on the helmets
and on the sidelines and on the end zones. How
about this? Would you like the Denver Broncos to have
the same racial makeup as the nation that you know,
(34:47):
you could only have twenty percent African Americans on the team. Yeah,
you'd have to have so many of this race on
the team. Even the most craze socialists will go, well, no,
you can't have that, Like, well, why not? Are you
saying that racial diversity isn't important? Well, it's important in
(35:10):
your office, but apparently it's not important on the field.
Someone explained that to me. All right, let's take a
quick break for news. I'm John Caldera three oh three
seven one three eighty five eighty five. Keep it right here.
You're on KOA
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.