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July 26, 2025 • 40 mins

Colin’s top takes of the week!

First, he’s joined by Danny Parkins, co-host of “First Things First” on FS1!

They start with the WNBA and their public compensation dispute with the players, and that despite losing money for years…why the league should pay the players as its trajectory soars in the Caitlin Clark era (3:30). They compare the ratings draw of Caitlin Clark games to other sports that rate similarly, and those are all billion dollar industries (6:00).

They discuss the major changes made to college football in recent years, and why the upside outweighs the downsides (12:15) and argue that parity in the NFl  is generally a myth. They point out the predictability of knowing which teams will win their divisions, and that even the “surprise” teams aren’t usually surprising (18:30). Finally, they debate the Bears prospects in an NFC North division that has seen major reshuffling (20:00)

Then, Colin is joined by John Middlekauff, host of “3 and Out” and “Go Low” to debate how Scottie Scheffler stacks up to Tiger Woods after winning the Open Championship (28:30) and whether we could see Nick Saban returning to coaching… in the NFL (36:00) 

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume Live golf heads to the JCB Golfing Country
Club July twenty five through the twenty eight one of
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(00:23):
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So the field features a total of fourteen major champions,
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If you want to catch any or all of the
drama from the JCB Golfing Country Club, follow every shot

(00:45):
live on Fox Sports. All Right, Danny Parkins, we got
to bring him on about once a month. We've got
some personal news for him that we're gonna circle back
and talk about this and a bit. I want to
start about a story that sometimes in this business, they're

(01:07):
little shifts all the time in every business, right, little shifts,
and in our business, August used to be a pretty
fruitful month. You talked to a lot of NFL. NFL
quarterbacks played at least a little. They played a lot
in Week three, and then Sean McVay decided I'm not
going to play any of my good players. People criticize
him for it. He goes eight to no to start

(01:28):
the season, and everybody goes, yeah, we don't really need
to start any of our players. The season getting longer.
So I blame Sean mcvaigh for making August a really
awful month for sports talk radio. But filling in that
gap is the WNBA, which has now become a regular topic.
I can watch minute to minute our ratings, I can
watch my podcast, I can watch downloads on social and

(01:51):
the WNBA stuff moves a meter. So I find it
interesting that a lot of people are using this as
a reason not to pay the women. Hey, the last
twenty five years, it lost money. And my take is, okay,
I own the volume. If I had a podcast, let's
say it was an eight year contract and it lost
money seven years, and then the podcast added somebody to

(02:15):
last year of the contract and it exploded.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Well, I want my money back. I'm resigning it to
a five year contract.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
The whole part of this league is, guys, it was
a choppy, failed league. It's not for the next decade.
Who the hell wants to give up their investment after
all these years of struggling your thoughts on that.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
I find it to be fairly obvious what you're saying,
and I don't mean that in an insulting way. Like
they just signed a two billion dollar media rights deal.
They have two hundred and fifty million dollar expansion fees.
The Golden State Valkyries already have a five hundred million

(02:59):
dollar valuation and they don't exist yet. Patrick Mahomes is
openly campaigning that he wants to bring a team to
Kansas City. And his wife is the owner of a
women's soccer league team and they built the first ever
stadium that is its main tenant is a women's professional
soccer team. So he's got some real cachet in capital

(03:21):
in the women's sports space, Like rich people, powerful people
are lining up to invest in the WNBA ratings have
taken off. Caitlin Clark is able to sell out NBA
arenas I know not every other team is, and every
other player is, but like you've got a phenomenon. You've
made the Tiger Woods comparison before. I agree with it,

(03:45):
Like Ernie L's made money off Tiger Woods. Ernie Els
was playing golf professionally before Tiger Woods. But Tiger Woods
changed Erniel's life. He changed VJ. Singh's life, he changed
David Duvall's life. And those were guys that were older
than Tiger, that were on the pro tour before Tiger.
So it's clearly a great business to invest in. It's

(04:09):
clearly growth. How many startups lose money with venture capital
money for years and years and years and it's still like, oh, well,
this company's valued at eight billion dollars, what's its profit? Oh,
they're in the red. And it's like what it happens
all the time. So they're obviously going to get more money.
The question is how much more money. I don't think

(04:31):
you and I can really have an educated opinion on
that without seeing the books on everything. So I find
it all to be kind of disingenuous, like a lot
of the stuff around the WNBA. Obviously they're going to
get more money, and obviously they deserve more money.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah, I thought the real point of distinction was that
Caitlin Clark didn't play in the All Star Game and
the ratings were down a million, But the bigger number
was it was still the highest rated All Star game
in nineteen years, meaning she has risen the league's noteworthiness.
It's so redeemable now as a TV product that when

(05:08):
she's not playing, there's people know the league they I
couldn't have told you when the WNBA All Started Game
was three years ago. I couldn't have picked a month
that was in Now I know now. I watched highlights
on Sports Center this morning when I was on a treadmill.
It was well before NFL highlights and NFL camp discussions,
and it was interesting highlights. It was New York and

(05:29):
the fever. So like I think, you know the word
that's been overused as woke. It's like, guys, it's business.
Timing is everything in business. In fact, I was talking
to somebody at a company called Lion Tree when The
New York Times bought the Athletic. The Athletic was losing
forty five million a year. It's still not profitable. But
Trump wasn't in office, Biden was, and the Clicks went down,

(05:52):
and the New York Times was like, you know what,
we need more people coming to because there was a
certain standard with Trump where the clicks were through the
roof and subscriptions were up and buy you know, Sleepy Joe.
And it was all of a sudden like, oh, the
investors are like and they went and bought a company
that increased and I think it was a smart buy.

(06:13):
It still doesn't make money. It's all timing. And so
the timing's great. If they'd have been negotiating this deal
an hour before Caitlin Clark was drafted, it'd be a
totally different story.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, of course it would be. But also, like these
things take time, like the NBA. You are old enough
to remember, right, the NBA being and taped away.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
I remember watching an NBA Finals game because I strugged
my parents didn't want me to stay up late at
night if they were on after the news eleven right,
right right.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Now, the six o'clock news. These the eleven o'clock news, right, So, like,
these things take time, And your point about the liberty
right is a good one. In Chicago, Angel Reese is
a thing? Is it a thing? Like Caitlin Clark is
a thing? Obviously not, but like Juju Watkins, that's gonna
be a thing. She's obviously got the injury, but she

(07:09):
looks awesome. Asia Wilson is awesome. The league is growing,
and I will even say I don't even want to
pretend like I'm not watching every night yet, but I
do like Caitlin Clark and the phenomenon of it. And
but it's clear that I'm getting more aware of it.
And ESPN has invested into their broadcast talent and their

(07:31):
studio talent, and the college the women's college tournament, same thing.
The presentation is better, so you learn about the characters earlier,
like you learn about the characters in the NBA from
March Madness or in the NFL from college football. Like
there's a there's a lag effect on popularity and growth.
And so if someone said to you, Danny, you could

(07:52):
invest and you could own x percent of a w
NBA team. Obviously I don't have the capital, but if
someone's came to you and say you want to buy
into five percent of an expansion WNBA team, of course
you would.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
I'm trying to buy into the MLAs twice, and both
times I wanted to get at thirty five million. The
next time I tried it was eighty five million. Now
they're five hundred million. I've tried twice. Yeah, so like
it is an obvious buy.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
And I just think that so many people have made
a little bit of a cottage industry off of what
you said being anti woke, and they feel like it's
you're you're shoving it down our throat or whatever they like.
You don't have to pay attention, you don't have to
like it. But when Caitlin Clark a regular season game,

(08:49):
when she returned from injury, when that game outrates Yankees
Red Sox on Sunday Night Baseball, Yeah, sorry, I don't care.
If it's not for you, it doesn't matter. It's not
even one hundred percent for me. But neither, by the way,
is regular season Yankees Red Sox all the time, right,
Like we pick and choose what we truly love, like

(09:11):
I'll watch the valspar right for golf, Like we all
have our different things. We all have only so much
sports capacity. But it's it's an objective fact. If she
can generate ratings that are like lower level college football
games or higher level regular season baseball games, those are
billion dollar businesses. So obviously, if she's making seventy five grand,

(09:35):
she's underpaid. It's just an obvious story that people want
to get mad about for some unknown reasons.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
So when the college football Playoff was announced for twelve
teams eventually fourteen sixteen, it cut right down the middle.
There were the people like myself that are like, oh,
this is awesome. December is going to be awesome. These
bowl games are so dried up, Like we got forty
five bowl games, I watch four. I thought it was
obvious like December now is going to be even better.

(10:06):
In December's great with NFL playoffs, and we saw that
to be true. But there was another group, including a
lot of the media, that said, oh, it's gonna kill rivalries.
And my take is when Texas played Georgia last year,
it was the highest rated game, right I think before
the National Championship. That's not a rivalry. People watch good.
When Texas plays Ohio State on Fox over the Labor

(10:28):
Day weekend, people watch good, and they'll watch it a
second time. You watched the Oregon Ohio State the first time,
well it was a terrible game, but you'll watch it
the second time. So my take is it doesn't matter.
We watched NFL football teams can play three times in
a season. I remember years the Steelers and Ravens played
three times. I watched all of them, so that's like

(10:48):
to me. I was shocked by the number of people
that were college football fans, like like Diehard's or media
that were like, this is bad, it will kill urgency. Well,
what it actually did is it allows teams now like
Ohio State and Texas to play Opening Week and whoever
loses is fine. There'll be more big games in December

(11:11):
and more big games in September.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Do you think it makes the week one game less big? Though?
I watch great? I know, I know you do. You
are a super fan of college football Michigan Ohio State.
Last year, the loser of the game wins the national championship. Yeah,

(11:39):
and on some level, not to a Michigan fan and
not to an Ohio State fan, but to a guy
who went to Syracuse, it did take away, and I
watched it and I will still watch it. It did take
away a little bit of the first Michigan Ohio State
game because it objectively matters less.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
But it didn't take it away in the moment as
Michigan was shocking them as a twenty point dog.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
It didn't hurt.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Then in retrospect you look back and go, well, it
doesn't feel as big. Well that's like saying a year
after you got a Christmas present, I don't feel the
same today as I did a year ago when I
got the Christmas present.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
No, I know, but I guess. But you take the
lesson and you go forward with it, and you say
there's there is some like like the NFL has expanded
the playoffs right, easier to get in. We love the playoffs.
It's more football Week seventeen was terrible because most of
the teams were like sitting, were sitting guys. Yeah, and

(12:41):
team teams have been a limited and it's like, oh, well,
what's the difference between being the five seed and the
sixth seed? Like we're in, it doesn't matter, we're gonna still,
we're gonna sit guys, We're gonna play guys for a quarter.
So I think there is a trade off that comes
with more games and all that, and with college football. Listen,
I understood I always was more games, I am going

(13:02):
to watch, more big games, more big games I am
going to watch. But I had a hard time with
the college football. Argument for the expansion of the playoffs
was like, how many times in the BCS era even
did you feel like the fifth best team in the
country deserved a shot at being the national champion? I

(13:26):
didn't think that it existed. Like, and so if your
argument is, well, expand the tournament, get them in, and
then any given Sunday they can or any given Saturday
they can win it, that's fine. But then it does
take away a little bit of the regular season to me.
And again I will watch, but I get My guess
is as they keep expanding this playoff, people will come

(13:49):
away with it all. It'll blend together and the right
the Week six game is not going to feel as big.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
But in mid October, double the number of teams to
triple are still in the hunt for a fourteen game
playoff or a twelve game playoff. Where it used to
be if you lost a game in September, you lost
another when you were done, and so the last six

(14:17):
weeks of the season you're out and going to talk. Now,
like Ohio State loses to Oregon, then they lose to Michigan,
You're like, shit, oh, oh my god. Ryan Day's gonna
get fired if they lose to Tennessee. So the story
went from winning to Ryan Day's getting blowught. Oh they
just blew out Tennessee, Well he better beat Org. Oh

(14:37):
they blew him out, Well they better beat So the
story changed from just the game to are they gonna
blow up Ryan Day's career? So to me, it pivoted
from okay, Ohio State still going to get in, but
remember the story before the Tennessee game, Ryan Day can't
lose respired, So there was a different drama. It wasn't

(14:58):
and nobody thought Ohio State, most people even in Columbus,
didn't think they were gonna win on Natty. After losing
the Michigan people were like no, they were like going overboard.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah they were. It was insane, and now you're gonna
get games like like Arizona State's gonna you know, they
made it and it was a nice story. And then
the spread in the game was like twenty points, right
for a college football playoff game. It doesn't like it,
just it doesn't. That part of it is gonna feel

(15:31):
a little weird to me because can they win, yes,
But like you, was there any part of you that
thought that Arizona State could have gone on a run
and won the national champion. No but but okay, zero
zero part of you. So it felt a little bit
like a waste of time.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Okay, but I think there's only five teams that can
win the Super Bowl next year going into the season, I.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Think Kansas is not true. That's just not true.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Kansas City, Buffalo, Baltimore are They've just got better players,
better coaches. I think we both think Denver and the
Chargers are interesting, but bo Nick's hoisting a trophy seems rare.
We know Philadelphia is really really good, and McVeagh and
the Rams will be there, and then there'll be a
couple of really interesting teams. I don't think brock Purdy
now with an older team and a shaky old line works.

(16:24):
But I've been arguing this for years. There's way less
parody in the NFL than everybody thinks. And the reason
I know that because for the second year in a role,
I can pick the division winners easily in the AFC,
and it's getting to the point picking division winners in
the NFL six of eight is not that difficult.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Okay, but do you think Washington could have won the
Super Bowl last year.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
No, there's always a shocking team. I had picked the
Rams the year before as the shocking team. I picked,
by the way last year, Washington and Denver to be
the shocking teams. How did I do that well? Because
I think they were so poorly run with Van Snyder
that all the New Guys' easy division wins against Dallas
and the Giants. So I actually picked Washington and Denver

(17:08):
to be much better.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Like this year.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
I think it's obvious New England and Tennessee are going
to double their win total. So even the surprises are
pretty I've done four years in a row where I've
picked the double.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yr win team. It's going to be New England this
year and.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
Tennessee Tennessee. So let's let's go to Chicago. I I
I don't I find the division very weird?

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Oh listen, I mean we I we could go, we
could do the Listen, we'll We'll do a lot of
Bears at some point before the year.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Here's the thing, big advantage of the Bears.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, they got a lot better.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
JJ McCarthy, You're going to see it very quickly. Is
not what people think. And the Lions lost both coordinators
So whereas we look at the AFC West and go, god,
that's a good division, we say that about the NFC North.
We don't know about Jordan Love. We really don't. JJ

(18:11):
McCarthy is a C quarterback. You ever seen JJ McCarthy's
fourth quarter college stats and playing from behind fourth quarter
stats in college. With Michigan and Harbor on that old line,
they're terrible. Detroit's pulling back because they're O. Line in
the middle is a mess and they lost both coordinators.
That is a is a real bonus. That division we

(18:33):
think is really well, it's well coached. I think the
Bears have an opportunity to win ten or eleven games.
I don't think it's as good a division as people think.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
Well, then they would be a w win team if
they can, if they can get to double digits. I mean,
I think that having the level of coaching in that
division is just very, very very high, and so I
think that that makes the worst team in that division. Like,
let's say you're right about JJ McCarthy, he's still has
Kevin O'Connell, Jordan Addison, and Justin Jefferson. Like they got

(19:09):
Kirk Cousins to be near five thousand yards. They got
Sam Darnold one hundred million dollars, Like JJ McCarthy doesn't
need to be awesome in order for that offense to
be pretty good. And let's say Minnesota is the worst
team in the division this year they won fourteen games
last year, it's it's a pretty good worst team if
that's what they are. Or if the Bears are the

(19:29):
worst team in the division, that's a pretty tough worst team.
So like, even if they're not top heavy dominant, I
don't see there being any team in that division that's
just like straight up bad. There's no Cleveland Browns in
that division. You know, there's no there's no Jets, there's
no Giants, there's no push over there. So I think
that's what's going to make it tough is that they
each have to play each other six times, and the

(19:51):
team that does the best in that division might go
four and two. You know, they might just beat each
other up this year.

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Speaker 1 (21:24):
All right, John and I are doing It's one o'clock
Central right now as we do our podcast as Scottie
Scheffler just won the Open and really just he started
playing well early in the day and it was over. Yeah,
I want to start with this because we know he's great.
It's so funny. Bryson de Shambo said, I played with
this guy in college. He wasn't nearly this good. This
guy has really changed the projectory of his career.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
But I was thinking about this.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
People are saying, is this like Tiger because he is
the most dominant golfer in terms of leading pulling away
at majors. But I think people forget this. Tiger was
about forty yards longer minimum off the tea. Scheffler's more
in the three three ten, Tiger was three forty to
three sixty. Tiger's the best iron player in my life.
Now you're you could ask experts. They may pilled him

(22:12):
third fourth, but I thought in his prime he was
as good to iron player as the world have. And
Tiger was not only the best big putt long putt putter,
but he was a great lag putter as well. He
could set up putts. If he missed, he had a
short putt from there. Whereas Scheffler, to me, the weakness
has been putting. He's better now than he used to be.

(22:33):
But I've always felt with his putting, if he's making putts,
he's unbeatable, but he's not always making his putts. So
my take is, I know we want to crown the
hot new guy Tiger.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
I've never seen anything like Tiger in his prime. I
think if Scheffler was at his prime with Tiger, he
would be like Mickelson, he'd be on him, he'd win majors.
But I don't think you can compare anything to Tiger.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah, I think one element of Scotty that differs from
most superstar athletes, and that's I mean, truly, today was
the icing on the cake of this guy is a
complete rocket ship, way more accomplished at the same age
than Phil Mickelson. Who's easily the second best player of
the last thirty plus years is typically right quarterbacks now,

(23:18):
but NBA superstars definitely individual athletes, right tennis stars and
golfers become a business in themselves. The F one drivers
the Scotty Jordan Speith mentioned this today. He's like, you
know what makes Scotty a lot different than anyone I've
seen out here is we all do these corporate events
and kind of hustle and love that aspect, not love it,
but it's a huge part of our world. Scotty's not

(23:41):
into that at all. You know. Tiger, let's face it,
Phil Knight Foldham, if you read Shoe Dog, I think
the last like three or four rounds in Tiger's final
US Amateur victory and he turned pro immediately after winning
it for the third straight time. I mean, Tiger Woods
was a business honestly before he became a make champion
and then they just kind of colluded together. Scotty Scheffler's

(24:03):
just a great golfer, who said before this week started,
did you see him go on the ramp for about
five six minutes about Yeah, Honestly, a lot of people
had a bunch of different opinions. It reminded me a
lot of football coaches. It's like, you know, we grind,
we grind, we grind, we win, and then we're just
on to the next one. Belichick did this for twenty
five years, right you interview him, We're just on to

(24:24):
the next team. Because everyone's like, oh, Scotty doesn't like golf. No, no,
Scotty doesn't find that much value, like holding up the trophy.
It doesn't do much for him, but you don't become
this good. He likes to grind. He wants no one
to watch him and just be by himself and play golf,
which I respect.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Listen, Philip Rivers told me one time, and I was
surprised he said it. He goes I like the process
better than the games. He goes building a and Philip
was the total trash talking grinder, one of the great
guys that ever played in the NFL. Philip Rivers is like,
I love building a game plan.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (24:59):
That's how I feel.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Scott Scheffler is he loves the process of it, but
once he wins, it's like, okay, one, but it's really
about family in the process. Nick Saban talked about this forever,
and you've been in my process?

Speaker 2 (25:11):
What would do a radio show?

Speaker 1 (25:12):
I love walking in for two hours and building a show.
Once I've done that, I know the show.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
Is going to be fine.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
There is something and I think there's a lot of
people like this. I think there are lawyers like this
who the courtroom's fine, but it's building the case to
defend your client. And I think that's that's a common
thread with greatness. You really like sitting on the range
for three hours working on your seven and eight iron,

(25:40):
your rescue club, whatever it is, and so everybody's kind
of like whoa, whoa, whoa, Scotti, Scheffler, buzzkill. Now he's
telling you that the process, his love affair is with
a family, and the process more than holding up a
trophy on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
I also think it would be a turn off, right
if he wasn't literally winning every time he played. So
he says mentally showing you like I'm I'm grinding as hard,
if not harder than everyone out here. I love doing
this aspect. I just hate everything, especially in twenty twenty
five that comes along with this. You know who didn't
like that as much? Tiger Woods, Stevie Williams, his former caddy.
They broke up after Tiger had the incident in eight,

(26:17):
talked about this. Forever Tiger would win a tournament, and
he'd tell him, maybe an hour after winning and doing
the press conference, is like, see on the range tomorrow
eight Steven Williams. You know, after a while, it's like, Tiger,
what what are we talking about? Like, you're not playing
for a couple more weeks in tournament. Enjoy the week,
Enjoy tomorrow. Nick Saban Lane Kiffin's told the story forever
Jim Macka went they would win a national championship and

(26:38):
the Saban's like, see guys tomorrow a thirty in the
morning recruiting meeting. It's like, Nick, we just won the
national championship. He's like, actually it's a seven forty five.
We'll meet tomorrow in the conference and like, what do
we need to do. Tiger was notorious for that right
of just being on the range the next day.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah, and in retrospect it's easy to say, but the
truth is, because of the tour in which Tiger Woods
played with, he would have been much better served to
take time off. He sorks Ion Williamson like his torque
I can remember when Tiger was in his prime, and
you know how a guy will take a shot and
then then the analysts will look at it in slow motion,

(27:16):
the golf experts, and they'll break it down. Nothing Tiger
was doing a golf coach would tell you to do.
I mean, he was coming out of his shoes. His
torque was insane, but it worked for Tiger. He would
have been much better served, more than any golfer of
my lifetime, to actually take Monday off because it literally

(27:37):
big down.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
I think he was the opposite, right, he started lifting harder.
You know. I think I listened to Hank Haney's book
within the last couple of years, and he thought, you know,
Tiger a little like Jordan, almost became bored because I'm like,
I'm winning every tournament. Started doing the Navy Seals training,
like chasing his dad. Right, it was like a part
of his life. Like at one point in time, I
think he believed, I don't know if it was gonna happen,

(28:00):
he could be a Navy Seal. Started training with them
in San Diego and like messed up his knee and
that's what happened. A couple years later, in eight this
was in like five, six oh seven. He's going on
these long runs with the seals and boots. I mean,
these guys now are doing cold tubs. They obviously treat
their bodies. I would say golf has mirrored all these
other sports in terms of all these guys. You know,

(28:21):
the lifting, the recovery, the eating. You know, it used
to be. Let's face it, even when Tiger early on,
and Tiger had changed by the last fifteen years when
the money got so big kind of a beer drinking,
you can eat cheeseburgers at the turn. I mean that's
all these guys. Look who their friends are, right, justin
Thomas hangs out with Michael Jordan, right hangs out with
football player. I mean they are all kind of interconnected

(28:43):
now in that circle, Tiger made golf cool. But that's
where Scotti feels much more like a sixty seventies golfer,
Like he just wants to go home, be left alone,
does not want the cameras to follow him. But Colin
last year he made sixty five million dollars on the course,
and this year he's won two major. I don't think
he's gonna make the same amount of moneyotentially, but he's
going to accumulate in a twenty four month span, probably

(29:04):
on and off the course. When you factor in Nike
bonuses being the number one player, I mean you're talking
one hundred and fifty million dollars. I mean he's going
to be paid like he's an NBA a football star
playing golf. And I think the one thing with his words,
he's uncomfortable with it a little bit. He's not He
doesn't like that world. He doesn't want to be a celebrity.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
A lot of times when there's a rumor, John who
who starts the rumor? So Greg McElroy, a guy who
I respect greatly, does a great job on I think
it's w JOX radio in Alabama. Former BAMA quarterback. Greg's
really smart, really works hard. He s as good at
college football analyst and I'm talking TV networks.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
He's a good at anybody out there.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
I bring him on the show the Volume a couple
times a year. He's just sensational. And he said, there's
a lot of talk about Nick and coaching. So that's
in my opinion, I'm guessing here that's coming from his
Alabama sources.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Well, they all play golf in the same at this point,
time done there.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
Then Lane Kiffin says, and Lane's one of his closer
is close to Nick, more more close than many other assistants.
He's like, yeah, I think my guess is he may
miss you know, developing young people. He really he loves that.
So my take is, okay, this is story. So I
brought Urban Meyer on this week, who is friends with Nick,

(30:23):
and he said, I don't think he's going back to college,
but he's gonna He would take NFL calls. And this
is one of those things where and I told Urban this,
and Urban hadn't thought about it a lot. But what
the NIL has done. Coaches thought the NFL, the NIL
was trouble. I gotta pay my players. Dabosweeney's like, I'm
not paying my players. That's not college football. It's actually

(30:44):
been a beneficial additive for coaches. You can't fire Brian
Kelly or Lincoln Riley if you wanted to, because USC
just built three hundred million in facilities. They got that
from the donors. They raised eighteen million dollars a year.
NIL they got it from donors. To buy out Lincoln
would be eighty million, and then you'd have to pay
sixty million to eighty million to get the new coach.

(31:07):
USC and Southern California, the biggest economy in the country,
they can't afford it. The idea that Alabama, who is
struggling to raise fifteen million a year nil, could buy
out Kalin for seventy and then bring Nick back for
one hundred million, six year deal. They don't have close
to that money. Auburn now is raising more money. And

(31:28):
so my take is with Nick, he's not going to
college because nobody's buying out their coaches anymore.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Nick's not coming.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Back for twelve million two years.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Nick's coming back. I want.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
I want four years guaranteed, okay, and I want thirteen
million per year. That's fifty minimum, Jimmy Sexton fifty minimum.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Well, then you have to buy out your coach. It's
not happening. But Nick, like Harbaugh.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
Harbaugh had Kaepernick and Alex Smith, and it nod at
him if I can get the quarterback right, and the
owner is paying for a staff, which the Spanos family
finally opened up checkbook for the staff big you know,
jesse mentor Greg Roman. That's a pay a lot, yeah,
at and the Spanhos the knocking the Spanos it was fair.
I don't think it's fair anymore, but it was fair

(32:17):
for a long time.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
They're cheap. They're not anymore.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
They pay Herbert, they pay the staff. They built a
gorgeous new facility in Elvis. It's gorgeous, like they spend money.
That's an unfair criticism anymore. I thought it was fair
until about three four years ago. The SOFI deal is
great for them. They're spending money. But I think Sabin
looks around and I'll throw this at you. Jimmy HASLM
loves publicity. They're probably the worst team in the league.

(32:43):
Arch Manning goes to Cleveland. Manning's no Saban. He coached
in Cleveland before. They would be the most interesting team
in the league. He would give him a five year
what's fifteen times five seventy five million dollar deal? I
think Nick would do it.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
Well. Here's the thing. Belichick is a good example of right.
The NFL kind of turned on him, and he was
open to college. He claims the nil and obviously that's
an aspect. They're comfortable, but no one tells you what
to do in college. When he become the football coach
you have, you're basically the owner if it was the
equivalent of the NFL. Right, Nick Saban has answered to

(33:21):
nobody for fifteen plus years. I mean by the time
year two or three at Alabama when he won, he
answered to nobody in the NFL. You know, the ad
in recruiting is not sitting behind you on a chair
looking over your shoulder. What did we talk about with Shador?
It was Andrew Berry Stefanski and then Haslam kind of
right there in the middle. Now, Haslam has spent more

(33:43):
actual cash than any owner in the league in the
last four years in terms of signing bonus, so financially,
he would be the equivalent of like University of Texas
in terms of the pros. Right, he is spending an
ungodly amount of money, so people would be attracted to
his willingness to kind of he'll manipulate the salary cap
for you. But he's extremely involved. And Nick has had

(34:06):
I mean his nickname, right, I mean Nick Tator, Like
he answers to nobody, and in fairness, his decisions are
usually correct. I think I saw that you talked to
Breer about Dallas. I'm not saying that some of these
owners would not sniff around, probably already have made some contact. Hey,
just big picture, it's called business. I just wonder, like,

(34:26):
would he answer to Jimmy Haslam or Jerry giving him
constant football ideas? Remember Belichick. Probably it might have been
the year he was off started listing off stories. I
think to like McAfee about different times owners storm in
and give different ideas, like, hey, are we sure defense?
He used to talk about the Cleveland experience, like we

(34:47):
know what we're doing on defense, and Bill would be like,
Nick Saban's are defensive coordinator?

Speaker 2 (34:51):
You idiot?

Speaker 3 (34:52):
You know?

Speaker 2 (34:52):
So?

Speaker 3 (34:53):
I just love these guys. It's unlike any business where
a family like the Haslms, who are clearly successful area whoever,
in whatever industry they're in, even if they are football
people and love the sport, you can't speak the language
in terms of like football language, which is extremely complicated,
especially once you get in season with schematic stuff. I

(35:15):
just think it becomes really complicated for a guy like Nick,
who's you know, I don't know, made hundreds of millions
of dollars to then answer to someone, and I don't
care who you are in the NFL, you still somewhat
have to answer. I mean, you talk to all these
GMS a lot. I'm sure what they bitch to you
about is like God, the owner, he's in my ass
about this and this, And it's not always just like
the star quarterback. It could be the stupidest stuff, and

(35:38):
they spend a lot of their time. It's when GMS
go on an interview and they say, you know, you
have to realize that you can't just sit in a
room and watch film. What they're essentially saying is I'm
getting pulled in a bunch of different directions and whenever
that call or that guy walks in, you don't have
a choice. You drop everything you're doing for the owner.
So and that Jimmy has them is extremely involved. But
I'm with you, nick Abe and Jimmy haslam in two

(36:01):
thousand and what year are we in twenty five? That's
so that would be like January of twenty twenty six,
signed me up. Now we got a long way to go.
I think saving it would be more realistic then. Like
arch Manning, I'm excited as anybody, but like he's played
two games, so I know, you know, is he gonna
be a great player? I don't know. It's the SEC's

(36:21):
really hard. They're still open up with Ohio State. He
has an insane amount of pressure and he's it's not
his fault. He's saying all the right things. Stark's saying
all the right things, but it's everyone else. It's gonna
be pretty intense. And the other thing, this quarterback class
like good players at that position, even in his own conference,
that are pretty well established, that has been starting for
a couple of years. Let's just see like is he

(36:44):
uh does he throw thirty five touchdowns? Or is this
year work in progress? He doesn't need the money, so
even if he is really good, he's on a lock
to go. Bro Peyton Manninghal went back to school in
the late nineties. He easily could after nil. So I
think think he would have to have like one of
the great seasons in college football history too for me

(37:05):
to feel comfortable like he would be a lot to
come out. If you just tell me, hey, they're in
the final four, he has a good season, he's like
second team all SEC. I could one hundred percent to
see him coming back to school. His two uncles did
it like college football did that family. For a family
that's obviously known for NFL stuff and financially really successful
means a lot to that family, right, It's I mean

(37:26):
it meant a lot to Eli. Goes back to Ole
Miss all the time. His dad's a huge part of all.
Miss Peyton's constantly in Tennessee. I think I just saw
a story his son is that Marshall is Trent. I
thought he lived in Denver's gonna play high school football
in Tennessee a lot. They have a lot of passion
for college football. And I don't care who you are.
When you're around your uncles and your dad, like stuff

(37:47):
rubs off on you, and I can imagine it means
a lot. It's good to be a multi year starter
at Texas is a lot. Do you won and done not?
That's not special, But I think playing for two or
three years is a really big deal. Look at Matt
Leiner and you're you know, in LA like, He's still
a huge part of that program. He's parlayed it even
though his NFL career didn't go great. So I don't
think Arch is some lock even if it goes well

(38:07):
to go pro. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
The one guy, I said, Drew Aller's the one guy
at Penn State where I watched him a couple of
years ago. And I'm like, he's just not he's not
buttoned up, he's loose, he's not accurate. And then I
watched him last year and I was like, oh, that's
a first round quarterback. If he makes the same jump
this year and gets to like sixty eight percent completion
percentage with his size, that is a big time player.

(38:31):
He You know, we forget this all the time. These
guys are like twenty one, you know, like and now
they're in an NIOL world where there's a little bit
of pressure, like they're buying pizza, right, guys, I got
all the money so and Penn State's got an nil.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
That's you know, reasonably noteworthy.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
So no, I think Oklahoma feels that that Washington State
John Mattier. I mean, I would say the they're very
bullish on his prospects. I know NFL people are very
very excited, and obviously Oklahoma I think they think they're
going to be a lot better. They paid for a
lot of money and transfer portal they bring in this quarterback.
So you start comparing Matier and Arch and Materier already

(39:06):
has a year starting at Washington State, so he's played
a lot, and I understand Washington State in twenty twenty
four is not what it used to be. But still
he's played like Arch hasn't really played. He played the
two games against Nobody's and thrown in against Georgia, which
is not his fault. They just went with Quinn yours.
But you know that the conference in the SEC, which
I would say over the last fifteen years has been
more a positional conference. They've had a couple of good

(39:29):
quarterbacks this year. From a quarterback standpoint, Florida's got a quarterback,
South Carolina's got a quarterback, Oklahoma's got a quarterback. Obviously,
Texas as a quarterback access. It's it's gonna be a
pretty fascinating kind of little quarterback group. And then well
you know Alabama, Georgia and one of those teams at
nuss Meyer at LSU, you know, is viewed as a potential, yes,
top twenty pick. So it's a pretty good quarterback conference

(39:51):
this year. And we know they always got defensive lineman,
skilled guys dbs. I think the SEC is going to
be pretty interesting from a quarterback stamp point, because you know,
you look at the Big ten. I don't Ohio State
their quarterback. You know, it's pretty big shoes to fill,
I mean, will hour down the stretch looked like Peyton Manning. Obviously,
Michigan paid the kid twenty million dollars or whatever. It's

(40:15):
it's difficult

Speaker 2 (40:18):
The volume
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