February 20, 2025 • 9 mins
Eddie Nunez, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Houston, joined "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" to preview the No. 5 Cougars hosting the No. 8 Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday for ESPN's "College GameDay."
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Pride of Miami, Florida.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Eddie nunyaz Thought, a director at the University of Houston,
joining us here on the Matt Thomas Show The Ross. Eddie,
I've dropped your name here in South Florida and all
I'm getting is a discount at wahwah.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Can you help me out with something here?
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Hey, yeah, it's you're a Palm Beach, West Palm Beach
or whatever. That's that's not that's not South Florida. You're
gonna go down there. You gotta go down to Miami
and enjoy yourself some great Cuban food. I mean, I
don't know what you're doing up there. I mean to
join the beach.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Babe, what do you call? Tell me?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Wait a minute, you're telling me there's hate between Palm
Beach and Miami. That doesn't seem very nice.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
That's not hate, but it's you know, the If you
want the real soft Florida, you gotta go down to
the real South Florida. That's where you get thinks.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'll be there.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'll be there next month with the rockets. Ill I
better get some serious discounts when'm dropping your name. Hey,
first of all, congratulations on getting a college game day
back to our campus. It'll be the second time, uh
for those that just heard of us for the very
first time in the last twenty four hours. And and
this may be a long winded question for a long
winded answer, but what are some dees and don'ts. Where
do you want people to be, what do you want
(01:01):
them to park? What time you want them to get there?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
So, first off, we're extremely excited. I mean, this is
a testament to the program that coach Champson has built.
And you know, just just the season that we're we've
had the last couple of years and this year as well.
But we're asking everybody to come out. Let's let's show
America what what UH basketball with the University of Houston's about.
We're asking everybody to come out there. We're going to
start opening up the Homan Street concourse, so on the
(01:29):
home inside at seven am. And so first five hundred
students with tickets we'll have we'll line everybody up. Those
that don't have tickets will also let them in. But
we're gonna we're gonna line up every student we can,
anybody that's a fan that wants to come out there.
We're going to have another line designated for them. We're
gonna have posters so they can make signs, hopefully that
(01:51):
are respectful. At the same time, we're going to have
We're going to have our football team there passing out
doughnuts and spend other items to the fans as they
come in. And then the whole we're gonna have as
many student athletes supporting the basketball team there as well.
So it's it's gonna be a fun event. We're gonna
(02:11):
make this want to remember hopefully here for for for
Houston for a long time to come.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
And I guess, Eddie, I don't even know if the
answer to this, but who gets to take the nineteen
thousand dollars half court shots?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Somebody's gonna want to do that.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
That's ESPN I wish. I mean, I'll take it if
I could too. I've got a lot of ideas we
can put that kind of money.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I know, Man, as I've told you many times on
air and off air, you have just had to have
such a huge responsibility with fundraising, not only for the scholarships,
but the NIL has now been a huge play. Maybe
when you and I talked about it, we didn't put
necessarily a percentage on it. But now that you've had
your feet settled down on campus and then you're not
(02:54):
unlike any other athletic director, how do you how are
you bouncing your time right now on that?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Besides it's facilities.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And compliance and winning and oh, by the way, you've
got to fund this nil and you got to fund scholarships.
Where is the percentage of balance of your time on
a week to week basis on that right now?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Well, I think I think week to week it changes
quite a bit. The one thing is every week is
a little bit different. I've got to focus on certain aspects,
probably more depending on what's happening just in our industry.
So the one thing that's that's constant is we've got
to continue to right size our budget, and part of
that is increasing fundraising nil And so I kind of
(03:33):
goop all that together. Yes, it has different pods within it,
but I tried to groop it all as one because
we have to elevate our fundraising, we have to elevate
our our budget. We've got to get it so that
we're not just doing everything we can to compete at
this level. We need to make it a little bit
easier in some respects. So but even this week we've
(03:56):
got two six figure gifts from donors, and a lot
of it is because us. They're seeing the vision, they're
seeing what we're doing where we're executing it. So every
date it's a little bit different. I'm trying to even
take a little time during all this craziness and actually
continue to take care of myself before crazy running around
from one side of the city or the states to
the other. But it's been fun. It's been fun.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, I'll say this game day when it's come to
our campus for football and for basketball, it's literally an infomercial.
And so your video staff is gonna have a good time,
your marketing company department's gonna have.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
A good time with this.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
But I to have Kelvin and how well spoken he is,
and how he's beloved by the national folks, and look,
Willie's gonna build that too. I mean, if there's anybody
that could be a charmer for a national for a
national network like ESPN, you're two top coaches, not in
disrespecting anybody else you got on your staff, but your
two main guys that are the faces of your of
your athletic department couldn't be any more media affable than
(04:50):
Kelvin Sampson and Willie Fritz.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Absolutely, I mean he Willy was the first one to
raise his hand and said, what do you need me
to do? When he heard about this, he said, I'll get
the whole team there. We want to support Kelvin and
the men's basketball team. So when you have that support
from your football coach in understanding how we can really
elevate uh, the brand, not just in the Big Twelve,
(05:13):
but nationally. No, We've got two unbelievable ambassadors and many
more in our department to it's it's exactly what hopefully
our our Cougar fan base is really proud of.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I'm gonna throw a crazy idea at you were visiting
with any Unia as e thoughtic director at the University
of Houston.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Uh, the Vegas event.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
To me, when the basketball team went and played, it
was basically to fund their NIL. Let me ask you
if we added an extra football game and added one
or two.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Extra basketball games.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
And just said let's make those revenue games for the
NIL movement?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Is there any legs of that?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Does that sound preposterous or would it be too much
of a financial disadvantage to the schools because you have
to put.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
These games on.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You got to turn the electricity on, you gotta pay
the employees, you gotta pay the expenses. Is there any
part of that that says we can take separate games
and make those games where we can take the revenues
from that and give it directly to the athletes.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, I would tell you that those conversations are being had,
not just here but everywhere. What that basketball tournament in
Vegas showed was that those are possible. Now, you've got
to get a lot of sponsorships, you got to get
a lot of things to help generate the revenue that
you were able to get from there. But if you
if you're hope is to generate something, those are all
(06:39):
possibilities and it's and it does. We have to make
sure that it goes outside the normal scheduled games that
we already have that help us for our budget and
make sure that we can do things. But no, everything
right now is on the table, and we are we
are aggressively looking at ways to do more of those,
but also trying to make sure that we don't push it,
(07:02):
you know, go to other parts of the world or
the country, because we want our fan base to be
able to see it in and experience it. So you got.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
To bounce that out for I let you run this
Cougar basketball team. I beyond proud because it's not only
my good friend Covid Samson, it's my school. To win
at Arizona and Kansas in the same year, I think
no one's done that. Probably, I think I saw it
was like the late eighties of the last time it happened.
The schedule is awesome, the tournament's going to be fun.
(07:30):
Hopefully we're at least a minimum of a top two seed.
Where if people want to just get on a plane
and go, because there is nothing more electric than being
in a tournament atmosphere, whether it's the first round, the
sweet sixteen, or hopefully the final four. What's the what's
the easiest way to get on that waiting list?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Let's hang out.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I want to make sure I get tickets for these
events coming up.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Reach out to our department, just go online, any just heck,
you can call my office. I'll get you to the
right person. But biggest thing right now is reach out.
If you're interested in any way to go along the ride.
With us. We're gonna have packages if now we're gonna
find ways to make sure that we get you all
the information of how to get there. But let's start
it all starts this weekend. We've got a great opportunity
(08:14):
here at home for everybody to come out. We need
that place full of koogs and so let's let's start
that that craziness here this weekend.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Well, Eddie, I wish I was there.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I' wouldna be in Salt Lake City with the Rockets,
but man, I'm so excited. It's again a great opportunity.
And look, the guys at ESPN love our program and
I cannot wait for them to see it firsthand.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And and if you're any of you are going to
the game.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
And you don't you can't get there or can't get there,
give your seat to somebody. I want every single seat
at for Tita Center sould the better not be an
empty spot, because I we owe Iowas State for last
year and I look forward to getting that revenge coming
up on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Eddie, thank you for those Don't give them to Iowa
State fans. Don't give them to Iowa State fans.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Oh hell no, Yeah, No cyclones are under any circumstance.
Thanks Annie, we'll talk to you.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Say bet all right, that's uh, it's Eddie. Nunia is
joining us here, the vice president intercalleege Athletics. Again, if
you're an Iowa State fan, I'm sure you're a lovely person.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
You're not invited.
The Pride of Miami, Florida.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Eddie nunyaz Thought, a director at the University of Houston,
joining us here on the Matt Thomas Show The Ross. Eddie,
I've dropped your name here in South Florida and all
I'm getting is a discount at wahwah.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Can you help me out with something here?
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Hey, yeah, it's you're a Palm Beach, West Palm Beach
or whatever. That's that's not that's not South Florida. You're
gonna go down there. You gotta go down to Miami
and enjoy yourself some great Cuban food. I mean, I
don't know what you're doing up there. I mean to
join the beach.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Babe, what do you call? Tell me?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Wait a minute, you're telling me there's hate between Palm
Beach and Miami. That doesn't seem very nice.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
That's not hate, but it's you know, the If you
want the real soft Florida, you gotta go down to
the real South Florida. That's where you get thinks.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'll be there.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'll be there next month with the rockets. Ill I
better get some serious discounts when'm dropping your name. Hey,
first of all, congratulations on getting a college game day
back to our campus. It'll be the second time, uh
for those that just heard of us for the very
first time in the last twenty four hours. And and
this may be a long winded question for a long
winded answer, but what are some dees and don'ts. Where
do you want people to be, what do you want
(01:01):
them to park? What time you want them to get there?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
So, first off, we're extremely excited. I mean, this is
a testament to the program that coach Champson has built.
And you know, just just the season that we're we've
had the last couple of years and this year as well.
But we're asking everybody to come out. Let's let's show
America what what UH basketball with the University of Houston's about.
We're asking everybody to come out there. We're going to
start opening up the Homan Street concourse, so on the
(01:29):
home inside at seven am. And so first five hundred
students with tickets we'll have we'll line everybody up. Those
that don't have tickets will also let them in. But
we're gonna we're gonna line up every student we can,
anybody that's a fan that wants to come out there.
We're going to have another line designated for them. We're
gonna have posters so they can make signs, hopefully that
(01:51):
are respectful. At the same time, we're going to have
We're going to have our football team there passing out
doughnuts and spend other items to the fans as they
come in. And then the whole we're gonna have as
many student athletes supporting the basketball team there as well.
So it's it's gonna be a fun event. We're gonna
(02:11):
make this want to remember hopefully here for for for
Houston for a long time to come.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
And I guess, Eddie, I don't even know if the
answer to this, but who gets to take the nineteen
thousand dollars half court shots?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Somebody's gonna want to do that.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
That's ESPN I wish. I mean, I'll take it if
I could too. I've got a lot of ideas we
can put that kind of money.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I know, Man, as I've told you many times on
air and off air, you have just had to have
such a huge responsibility with fundraising, not only for the scholarships,
but the NIL has now been a huge play. Maybe
when you and I talked about it, we didn't put
necessarily a percentage on it. But now that you've had
your feet settled down on campus and then you're not
(02:54):
unlike any other athletic director, how do you how are
you bouncing your time right now on that?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Besides it's facilities.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And compliance and winning and oh, by the way, you've
got to fund this nil and you got to fund scholarships.
Where is the percentage of balance of your time on
a week to week basis on that right now?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Well, I think I think week to week it changes
quite a bit. The one thing is every week is
a little bit different. I've got to focus on certain aspects,
probably more depending on what's happening just in our industry.
So the one thing that's that's constant is we've got
to continue to right size our budget, and part of
that is increasing fundraising nil And so I kind of
(03:33):
goop all that together. Yes, it has different pods within it,
but I tried to groop it all as one because
we have to elevate our fundraising, we have to elevate
our our budget. We've got to get it so that
we're not just doing everything we can to compete at
this level. We need to make it a little bit
easier in some respects. So but even this week we've
(03:56):
got two six figure gifts from donors, and a lot
of it is because us. They're seeing the vision, they're
seeing what we're doing where we're executing it. So every
date it's a little bit different. I'm trying to even
take a little time during all this craziness and actually
continue to take care of myself before crazy running around
from one side of the city or the states to
the other. But it's been fun. It's been fun.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, I'll say this game day when it's come to
our campus for football and for basketball, it's literally an infomercial.
And so your video staff is gonna have a good time,
your marketing company department's gonna have.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
A good time with this.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
But I to have Kelvin and how well spoken he is,
and how he's beloved by the national folks, and look,
Willie's gonna build that too. I mean, if there's anybody
that could be a charmer for a national for a
national network like ESPN, you're two top coaches, not in
disrespecting anybody else you got on your staff, but your
two main guys that are the faces of your of
your athletic department couldn't be any more media affable than
(04:50):
Kelvin Sampson and Willie Fritz.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Absolutely, I mean he Willy was the first one to
raise his hand and said, what do you need me
to do? When he heard about this, he said, I'll get
the whole team there. We want to support Kelvin and
the men's basketball team. So when you have that support
from your football coach in understanding how we can really
elevate uh, the brand, not just in the Big Twelve,
(05:13):
but nationally. No, We've got two unbelievable ambassadors and many
more in our department to it's it's exactly what hopefully
our our Cougar fan base is really proud of.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I'm gonna throw a crazy idea at you were visiting
with any Unia as e thoughtic director at the University
of Houston.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Uh, the Vegas event.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
To me, when the basketball team went and played, it
was basically to fund their NIL. Let me ask you
if we added an extra football game and added one
or two.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Extra basketball games.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
And just said let's make those revenue games for the
NIL movement?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Is there any legs of that?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Does that sound preposterous or would it be too much
of a financial disadvantage to the schools because you have
to put.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
These games on.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You got to turn the electricity on, you gotta pay
the employees, you gotta pay the expenses. Is there any
part of that that says we can take separate games
and make those games where we can take the revenues
from that and give it directly to the athletes.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, I would tell you that those conversations are being had,
not just here but everywhere. What that basketball tournament in
Vegas showed was that those are possible. Now, you've got
to get a lot of sponsorships, you got to get
a lot of things to help generate the revenue that
you were able to get from there. But if you
if you're hope is to generate something, those are all
(06:39):
possibilities and it's and it does. We have to make
sure that it goes outside the normal scheduled games that
we already have that help us for our budget and
make sure that we can do things. But no, everything
right now is on the table, and we are we
are aggressively looking at ways to do more of those,
but also trying to make sure that we don't push it,
(07:02):
you know, go to other parts of the world or
the country, because we want our fan base to be
able to see it in and experience it. So you got.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
To bounce that out for I let you run this
Cougar basketball team. I beyond proud because it's not only
my good friend Covid Samson, it's my school. To win
at Arizona and Kansas in the same year, I think
no one's done that. Probably, I think I saw it
was like the late eighties of the last time it happened.
The schedule is awesome, the tournament's going to be fun.
(07:30):
Hopefully we're at least a minimum of a top two seed.
Where if people want to just get on a plane
and go, because there is nothing more electric than being
in a tournament atmosphere, whether it's the first round, the
sweet sixteen, or hopefully the final four. What's the what's
the easiest way to get on that waiting list?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Let's hang out.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I want to make sure I get tickets for these
events coming up.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Reach out to our department, just go online, any just heck,
you can call my office. I'll get you to the
right person. But biggest thing right now is reach out.
If you're interested in any way to go along the ride.
With us. We're gonna have packages if now we're gonna
find ways to make sure that we get you all
the information of how to get there. But let's start
it all starts this weekend. We've got a great opportunity
(08:14):
here at home for everybody to come out. We need
that place full of koogs and so let's let's start
that that craziness here this weekend.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Well, Eddie, I wish I was there.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I' wouldna be in Salt Lake City with the Rockets,
but man, I'm so excited. It's again a great opportunity.
And look, the guys at ESPN love our program and
I cannot wait for them to see it firsthand.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And and if you're any of you are going to
the game.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
And you don't you can't get there or can't get there,
give your seat to somebody. I want every single seat
at for Tita Center sould the better not be an
empty spot, because I we owe Iowas State for last
year and I look forward to getting that revenge coming
up on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Eddie, thank you for those Don't give them to Iowa
State fans. Don't give them to Iowa State fans.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Oh hell no, Yeah, No cyclones are under any circumstance.
Thanks Annie, we'll talk to you.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Say bet all right, that's uh, it's Eddie. Nunia is
joining us here, the vice president intercalleege Athletics. Again, if
you're an Iowa State fan, I'm sure you're a lovely person.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
You're not invited.
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