July 11, 2025 • 22 mins
UConn Athletic Director, David Benedict, joins the boys to discuss the house settlement and whats the future of UConn athletics.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right, signed out for a weekly conversation with the
one and only David Benedict.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
He is the Yukon Athletic Director.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
And the house settlement came out I think it was
June sixth, and now they have to figure out how
to rework all this money into giving it out to
the students. Also two point eight billion in damage claims
that have to go out to victims from twenty sixteen
to twenty twenty four. David, So, how has this changed
like your summer I mean you're preparing for the fall semester.
(00:32):
You probably have kids in summer school. Has anything changed
for your department?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Obviously with the house settlement finally being approved, a lot
of work had to be done between the actual approval
from Jidgewelton and to July first, Just a lot of
administrative work that's never been done before. And obviously we
had some idea that this was all moving in this
(01:00):
but there were some things that you really couldn't do
and put in place until the approval was made. So,
you know, a lot of that's been going on still
going on so that we can be supporting our student
athletes in this new era relative to revenue sharing and
(01:20):
then yeah, look, we've got the normal planning for our
fall sports getting ready for that, which is hired a
tennis coach, which I think the announcement just went out
because our longtime coach retired. So yeah, there's never a
dull moment.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
The one number I think that's the sticking in everyone's
head from the settlement is twenty point five million a
year that schools are allowed to share revenue directly with
student athletes. This is kind of the first time thing,
twenty five, twenty six, just sticking with that number, like,
how did they come about that number?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And is that number were fair.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
In your eyes for the big schools and the little
schools to compete equally.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Oh man, that's a that's a that's a huge that's
a huge can right there. You just opened up you
know how the NCAA and the the four Commissioners of
the Power conferences, because that's really who was at the
table negotiating all this. You know, they took a formula
(02:28):
that that input you know, all of the typical revenue
streams that athletic departments have and came up with some
type of average of the power for you know, budgets,
and then they applied some type of percentage to that,
(02:48):
which ultimately came out with this twenty point five number.
You know, is it the right number? You know, it's
certainly significantly more than what was being shre previously, which
was zero.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
And so twenty point five, you know, at Ohio State
or Texas is a much lower percentage than it would
be as some of.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
The smaller schools that have maybe one hundred and twenty
five to one hundred and fifty million dollar budgets. So,
you know, I think time will tell, things will evolve.
I think the bigger challenge is, you know the fact
that there is no really structure to it from one
(03:36):
school to the next. It's totally up to each school,
which you know, that might be a positive thing. I mean,
every school is unique and different. Every school has its
own traditions in different sports, and so it gives you
the flexibility to invest where you want. But you know,
is it the right number? Is it going to grow?
We'll see. Time will will be the dictator relative to that.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Talking to David Benedict, the Yukon Huskies athletic director, this
is probably a very difficult question. But so two point
eight billion, it's supposed to be distributed between former athletes
between twenty sixteen twenty twenty four. My question for you, David,
how do you track them down? How do you even
know how much to pay each one? I mean, is
(04:23):
there anything in this settlement that gives you any kind
of parameters to work under?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Well, we don't do that. That's all between the judge
and the attorneys that were, you know, settling this case.
And the judge was the arbiger of how the money
was going to get distributed, and so you obviously had
(04:49):
to you know, put your name in as part of
the class to get paid, and I'm sure you probably
still can. But there there is a description for how
the money is being distributed. But the money is being
paid to the attorneys, and that group that was representing
(05:11):
the defendants in the case will be the ones distributing it.
So we'll never see that money.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Yeah, I've seen like claims resources, Like people have put
links out there. If you are one of these student athletes,
like you could still like state a claim that you're
owed some kind of revenue sharing. Is that like how
they're tracking them down and trying to find all these
student athletes like you actually personally have to put in
a claim in order to be compensated.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah. I mean, listen, we've provided all of the names
of our athletes to the NCAA, and so you know,
certainly it was required by all the schools to provide
all that information. And I'm sure that you know, like
many of us who try to keep track of our athletes,
it becomes difficult because young kids, you know, move around
(06:01):
and change addresses and phone numbers, you know, about as
much as they change schools these days. But you know,
this obviously has gotten a lot of coverage. So I'm
sure that as a student athlete, you're aware of this
and would would have, you know, put your name in
the class so that you could be considered for it.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
My biggest fear on this with the twenty point five
million per school, and just like we've done this so
many different ways where we see somebody or see another
school and I shouldn't say we, another school sees another
school doing something they shouldn't do.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Whether it's tampering or paying extra.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Funds that shouldn't be done, and then that school says, hey,
that school is not doing it right, and then nothing
ever happens, Like the enforcement issue on this I'm just thinking,
you know, you're throwing out Ohio State, Texas is using
them for example. They're going to compete as much as possible,
and they're going to try to push the envelope as
much as possible if one of them breaks the rules
(07:01):
in this world, who enforces those rules.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Well, his name is Brian Seeley, and he was formally
working with the Major League Baseball Organization, so he is
he was doing enforcement for MLB and now he's going
to be doing enforcement with respect to revenue sharing, NIL
(07:25):
deals and roster limits and so this is outside of
the NCAA, so he is going to be his own entity.
And he was really hired by the four Power Conference
commissioners and you know, time will tell I think it.
You know, the unique thing about college sports, unlike I
(07:47):
think the professional sports, where you've had collective bargaining and
generally the league has come up with rules to create
equity to a degree. It doesn't mean that you know
they're they're their salary caps and all these different things.
But you know, I'm not an expert in all of that,
but I know that there is the ability to go
(08:07):
over the cap. But you get you know, you have
to pay a penalty. College sports has never really been
driven by creating equity, and so even within a league structure,
while things may have been distributed a little bit based
on equity, you can see that pendulum starting to shift
all of the ACC and what they did with respect
(08:29):
to creating a new environment so that Clemson in Florida
State feel like that they're getting a fair share of
what they are generating from a revenue standpoint for their league.
And so I to your point, look, are people always
going to try to to, you know, push the envelope
with respect to the rules to create the best situation
(08:51):
for their own institution and sport programs. I don't see
that changing. So, you know, Brian Seally's got his work
cut out for him. And I think until we see
some real penalties and enforcement that that is swift, that
doesn't take years to come up with with whatever the
(09:13):
penalty structure is, and by that time you have different
coaches and all these these things that have happened over time.
I don't think anything will change, but I'm certainly hopeful
that this new situation with the College Sports Commission that
that there will be a change and we will see
(09:35):
the bad actors penalized in a way that will reduce
people's interest in going down that road.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
How complex has your life become now that the colleges
can directly pay athletes and I l money.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
DIDs? I mean, life is complicated in college athletics. It
was before this. You know, it's just a new a
new type of puzzle that we've got to figure out.
And you know, I think the winners are going to
be the one to figure out what is the best
way to do it at your university. You know, paying
(10:15):
the most is not necessarily going to ensure anything. I
think there there definitely is a new floor to what
you have to spend to be competitive, but it's not
just going to be based on who spends the most money.
So it's you know, how do you create a roster?
How do you construct a roster differently? You know, are
you recruiting more transfers, less freshmen, or you know, are
(10:39):
you building it through development like it's always been done?
So I think, you know, I don't know that it's
that much more complicated than what it always has been.
You know, building building a championship level program is not easy.
Does this make it a little bit more complicated maybe,
but not not that much different.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
The one thing that I keep on thinking about as
well is when I see the twenty point five million,
I just hear the stories, and we're here in July,
and the next sport on my mind's college football. And
that's the biggest nut here in the in the whole
equation that we're talking about, that money's not all for
football players, like that's per school, not per sport. And
(11:22):
then when you get into that world, now we're talking
about slicing that pie. And that's where I think your
job gets really tough, is because Hurley's going to want
something and coach more is gonna want something else, and
you only have that pie to spend. Does that become difficult?
Have people been knocking on your door already? Politicket on,
I need this, I need that for money, And I'm
(11:44):
sure that that's already happened months and years ago.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yeah, well, Ben, Yeah, it's I mean those conversations have happened.
We were having those conversations a long time ago. In
preparing for this. I think the difference and we're probably
not going to see it really play out, is that
up until up until just July, one revenue sharing didn't exist,
(12:11):
and so from July one to June thirtieth of next year,
that is when you can spend the twenty point five million.
Everything that was spent before July one doesn't count towards that,
even though a lot of those individuals may have been
compensated that are going to play within that period of time.
You hear about all these schools that prepaid or front
(12:33):
loaded payments so that they could go over and above
the twenty point five So I think the market was
probably inflated in a way that is not going to
be necessarily typical of what happens next year in the
year after. So we're going to go through some evolution here.
(12:55):
I'm hoping that some of it settles down to a
little bit more realistic numbers, because there was no way
to really understand what the market is. But one of
the aspects to opting into revenue sharing is that by
opting in, you are required now to provide the NC
(13:17):
double A all of the information relative to revenue sharing.
So you have to basically say, hey, this is the
roster for this sport, and these are the individuals that
are being compensated or for the rights to their nil
and this is the amount. And so while you won't
(13:38):
ultimately be able to go into a database and see
what individuals are making, you'll be able to see you
aggregate information so that we can be much better at
understanding what the market is versus being on the phone
with an agent that really doesn't have a lot of
professional experience. They're giving you numbers that don't make any sense.
(14:04):
And so this is going to be really helpful over
the next year to have some sort of database that
you can go into, just like we did when we're
hiring coaches or we're signing new contracts, you want to
look at what the market is. You want to understand,
you know, what are the coaches And we did this
with with coach Hurley. As he won championships, you start
(14:27):
to compare him to a different group within the marketplace,
and you want to pay people appropriately for what you
expect from them. And it's going to be no different
for our student athletes.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
How do you do that with the high schoolers?
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Well, I, you know, it's really going to be based
on what position they play, and it could be any sport.
What the production you expect from that individual maybe in
year one, but over a period of time, which you know. Unfortunately,
I think that's one of the big your challenges is
you know, you can't necessarily plan to have kids over
(15:05):
four years. But I think this is going to be
a new era because you have an agreement that you're signing.
I'm not sure you want to call it a contract,
but you have an agreement that you're signing that will
have you know, there will be some teeth to these
agreements that if you leave early, you may have to
(15:26):
pay some of that back. So lot, lots to lots
to learn. Still, I think the environment is going to
continue to play out over the next couple of years.
And while I believe that there's progress that's been made,
I'm not sure that we've gone far enough. You know,
(15:46):
there's there's some people beginning to really start talking publicly
about collective bargaining, and I think it's a worthy conversation,
I really do. I don't know how you create a
set of rules and apply them to the group of
individuals that really aren't participating in the process and expect
that that's going to be a long term solution.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
How excited you and coach early on, how well Jacob
Furfey and Eric Reebe played in the foba U nineteen.
I mean, Reeb helped Germany get a silver medal. He
was awesome. Furfey the same for Australia. I mean, that's
got to be cool for your incoming freshmen to look
like that on the world stage.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Yeah, I you know, I have not been able to
see they. I think they call him Tazzy Furfey because
like he's a Tasmanian devil or something. I love it.
But so I hear him referenced around work as Tazzy,
but you know, obviously really exciting. I'm not surprised, only
(16:48):
because I know our coaches were really high on him.
But he never he never made it to campus where
Rebe actually was. Was on campus for a little bit
before he left, and I will tell you when I
saw him, I was I don't know if I was
blown away, but I was really really impressed with his
(17:11):
athleticism and how he moved for a big kid that's
probably eighteen years old. I mean, Donovan, we all know
how great Donovan was for us, and he's, you know,
probably one of the best freshmen sophomore big guys in
a long time. But Rebe moves as well. As Donovan did,
(17:34):
if not better than Donovan did as a sophomore. I mean,
he has unbelievable athleticism and footwork. I don't know if
he's as long as Donovan was, but he is. He's
really exciting.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I was.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
I was very very I wouldn't say relieved, but you know,
that kid's going to be able to put in just
like Donovan did as a freshman ten to fifteen minutes
a game and be a force. He's not going to
be you know, he will be much different than Terrorist Reid,
but I'm really excited to see him develop. And look,
(18:10):
you get a kid like Daz that can shoot the ball,
that can get the mid range and as a grinder
that will go in and fight for a board inside.
I mean, you love to have those kinds of kids,
and you know that's what that's what coach Early loves.
So to have two freshmen coming in, that's we're gonna
be really deep next.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Year, very deep, and yu kind representing all over the world.
And speaking of that, we talked about this with yukon
women's basketball like a couple of years ago when you
and I were chopping it up about nil and foreign
student athletes.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Have we figured that out yet?
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Are these foreign student athletes going to be able to
partake in NIL next year or anytime soon?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
They they're going to be able to take and be
a part of receiving revenue sharing, and it's going to
be it's going to be in the area of what
is being referred to as passive income. But then, to
(19:11):
be honest with you, I think, no, it really hasn't
been taken care of. And I don't I really don't
understand how you can go from being a college athlete
and not having the appropriate green card to be able
to get paid or compensated or receive rev share, but
(19:34):
a week later you can get drafted by a professional
team the g League or the NBA, and all of
a sudden you can get a different green card that
allows for that. I don't know in today's day, with
kylege Athletics, especially with revenue sharing being approved by the
federal courts, why the student athletes cannot now file for
(19:56):
a similar type of green card as professional athlete too.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Well give your other example.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
I give the one that you gave to me a
couple of years ago about students that aren't student athletes,
but they're students and there may be working for another
company at the university and they can receive a paycheck
that way. But for some reason, if you play a sport,
you're you're on the other side of it.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, it's you know, it's all based on the fact
that you're coming over on a student visa and there's
limitations within the federal law for student visas. I just
think that there needs to be another you know, there
needs to be another designation for these college student athletes
(20:40):
because compensation now is a part of college athletics and therefore,
why why is it that you can a month later,
you know, be gone and have a different designation for
your your visa. So I'm hopeful. I think certainly there's
a lot of people talking about it. Federally, it's just
(21:02):
not a priority and there's a lot of things going
on obviously in our federal government these days. This is
just not gotten to a place where it's a priority
for people. But you know, we've certainly talked to our
representatives in DC and we're going to continue to need
their help to get this done. But we have a
lot of international kids, and you know, we want them
(21:25):
to have and be afforded the same opportunities. So they
can participate in the REV share through passive income, but
they can't do nil deals on US soil. They can
go do an nil deal in their own country or
out of the United States, but they can't do an
NIL deal in the way that our other student athletes can.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
That's crazy. Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
David, as always my friend, Thank you so much. Thanks
for the extended time today, and we will talk to
you next Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Sounds good. Guys, have a great rest of the week
and we'll see us soon.
All right, signed out for a weekly conversation with the
one and only David Benedict.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
He is the Yukon Athletic Director.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
And the house settlement came out I think it was
June sixth, and now they have to figure out how
to rework all this money into giving it out to
the students. Also two point eight billion in damage claims
that have to go out to victims from twenty sixteen
to twenty twenty four. David, So, how has this changed
like your summer I mean you're preparing for the fall semester.
(00:32):
You probably have kids in summer school. Has anything changed
for your department?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Obviously with the house settlement finally being approved, a lot
of work had to be done between the actual approval
from Jidgewelton and to July first, Just a lot of
administrative work that's never been done before. And obviously we
had some idea that this was all moving in this
(01:00):
but there were some things that you really couldn't do
and put in place until the approval was made. So,
you know, a lot of that's been going on still
going on so that we can be supporting our student
athletes in this new era relative to revenue sharing and
(01:20):
then yeah, look, we've got the normal planning for our
fall sports getting ready for that, which is hired a
tennis coach, which I think the announcement just went out
because our longtime coach retired. So yeah, there's never a
dull moment.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
The one number I think that's the sticking in everyone's
head from the settlement is twenty point five million a
year that schools are allowed to share revenue directly with
student athletes. This is kind of the first time thing,
twenty five, twenty six, just sticking with that number, like,
how did they come about that number?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And is that number were fair.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
In your eyes for the big schools and the little
schools to compete equally.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Oh man, that's a that's a that's a huge that's
a huge can right there. You just opened up you
know how the NCAA and the the four Commissioners of
the Power conferences, because that's really who was at the
table negotiating all this. You know, they took a formula
(02:28):
that that input you know, all of the typical revenue
streams that athletic departments have and came up with some
type of average of the power for you know, budgets,
and then they applied some type of percentage to that,
(02:48):
which ultimately came out with this twenty point five number.
You know, is it the right number? You know, it's
certainly significantly more than what was being shre previously, which
was zero.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
And so twenty point five, you know, at Ohio State
or Texas is a much lower percentage than it would
be as some of.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
The smaller schools that have maybe one hundred and twenty
five to one hundred and fifty million dollar budgets. So,
you know, I think time will tell, things will evolve.
I think the bigger challenge is, you know the fact
that there is no really structure to it from one
(03:36):
school to the next. It's totally up to each school,
which you know, that might be a positive thing. I mean,
every school is unique and different. Every school has its
own traditions in different sports, and so it gives you
the flexibility to invest where you want. But you know,
is it the right number? Is it going to grow?
We'll see. Time will will be the dictator relative to that.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Talking to David Benedict, the Yukon Huskies athletic director, this
is probably a very difficult question. But so two point
eight billion, it's supposed to be distributed between former athletes
between twenty sixteen twenty twenty four. My question for you, David,
how do you track them down? How do you even
know how much to pay each one? I mean, is
(04:23):
there anything in this settlement that gives you any kind
of parameters to work under?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Well, we don't do that. That's all between the judge
and the attorneys that were, you know, settling this case.
And the judge was the arbiger of how the money
was going to get distributed, and so you obviously had
(04:49):
to you know, put your name in as part of
the class to get paid, and I'm sure you probably
still can. But there there is a description for how
the money is being distributed. But the money is being
paid to the attorneys, and that group that was representing
(05:11):
the defendants in the case will be the ones distributing it.
So we'll never see that money.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Yeah, I've seen like claims resources, Like people have put
links out there. If you are one of these student athletes,
like you could still like state a claim that you're
owed some kind of revenue sharing. Is that like how
they're tracking them down and trying to find all these
student athletes like you actually personally have to put in
a claim in order to be compensated.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah. I mean, listen, we've provided all of the names
of our athletes to the NCAA, and so you know,
certainly it was required by all the schools to provide
all that information. And I'm sure that you know, like
many of us who try to keep track of our athletes,
it becomes difficult because young kids, you know, move around
(06:01):
and change addresses and phone numbers, you know, about as
much as they change schools these days. But you know,
this obviously has gotten a lot of coverage. So I'm
sure that as a student athlete, you're aware of this
and would would have, you know, put your name in
the class so that you could be considered for it.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
My biggest fear on this with the twenty point five
million per school, and just like we've done this so
many different ways where we see somebody or see another
school and I shouldn't say we, another school sees another
school doing something they shouldn't do.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Whether it's tampering or paying extra.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Funds that shouldn't be done, and then that school says, hey,
that school is not doing it right, and then nothing
ever happens, Like the enforcement issue on this I'm just thinking,
you know, you're throwing out Ohio State, Texas is using
them for example. They're going to compete as much as possible,
and they're going to try to push the envelope as
much as possible if one of them breaks the rules
(07:01):
in this world, who enforces those rules.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Well, his name is Brian Seeley, and he was formally
working with the Major League Baseball Organization, so he is
he was doing enforcement for MLB and now he's going
to be doing enforcement with respect to revenue sharing, NIL
(07:25):
deals and roster limits and so this is outside of
the NCAA, so he is going to be his own entity.
And he was really hired by the four Power Conference
commissioners and you know, time will tell I think it.
You know, the unique thing about college sports, unlike I
(07:47):
think the professional sports, where you've had collective bargaining and
generally the league has come up with rules to create
equity to a degree. It doesn't mean that you know
they're they're their salary caps and all these different things.
But you know, I'm not an expert in all of that,
but I know that there is the ability to go
(08:07):
over the cap. But you get you know, you have
to pay a penalty. College sports has never really been
driven by creating equity, and so even within a league structure,
while things may have been distributed a little bit based
on equity, you can see that pendulum starting to shift
all of the ACC and what they did with respect
(08:29):
to creating a new environment so that Clemson in Florida
State feel like that they're getting a fair share of
what they are generating from a revenue standpoint for their league.
And so I to your point, look, are people always
going to try to to, you know, push the envelope
with respect to the rules to create the best situation
(08:51):
for their own institution and sport programs. I don't see
that changing. So, you know, Brian Seally's got his work
cut out for him. And I think until we see
some real penalties and enforcement that that is swift, that
doesn't take years to come up with with whatever the
(09:13):
penalty structure is, and by that time you have different
coaches and all these these things that have happened over time.
I don't think anything will change, but I'm certainly hopeful
that this new situation with the College Sports Commission that
that there will be a change and we will see
(09:35):
the bad actors penalized in a way that will reduce
people's interest in going down that road.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
How complex has your life become now that the colleges
can directly pay athletes and I l money.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
DIDs? I mean, life is complicated in college athletics. It
was before this. You know, it's just a new a
new type of puzzle that we've got to figure out.
And you know, I think the winners are going to
be the one to figure out what is the best
way to do it at your university. You know, paying
(10:15):
the most is not necessarily going to ensure anything. I
think there there definitely is a new floor to what
you have to spend to be competitive, but it's not
just going to be based on who spends the most money.
So it's you know, how do you create a roster?
How do you construct a roster differently? You know, are
you recruiting more transfers, less freshmen, or you know, are
(10:39):
you building it through development like it's always been done?
So I think, you know, I don't know that it's
that much more complicated than what it always has been.
You know, building building a championship level program is not easy.
Does this make it a little bit more complicated maybe,
but not not that much different.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
The one thing that I keep on thinking about as
well is when I see the twenty point five million,
I just hear the stories, and we're here in July,
and the next sport on my mind's college football. And
that's the biggest nut here in the in the whole
equation that we're talking about, that money's not all for
football players, like that's per school, not per sport. And
(11:22):
then when you get into that world, now we're talking
about slicing that pie. And that's where I think your
job gets really tough, is because Hurley's going to want
something and coach more is gonna want something else, and
you only have that pie to spend. Does that become difficult?
Have people been knocking on your door already? Politicket on,
I need this, I need that for money, And I'm
(11:44):
sure that that's already happened months and years ago.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yeah, well, Ben, Yeah, it's I mean those conversations have happened.
We were having those conversations a long time ago. In
preparing for this. I think the difference and we're probably
not going to see it really play out, is that
up until up until just July, one revenue sharing didn't exist,
(12:11):
and so from July one to June thirtieth of next year,
that is when you can spend the twenty point five million.
Everything that was spent before July one doesn't count towards that,
even though a lot of those individuals may have been
compensated that are going to play within that period of time.
You hear about all these schools that prepaid or front
(12:33):
loaded payments so that they could go over and above
the twenty point five So I think the market was
probably inflated in a way that is not going to
be necessarily typical of what happens next year in the
year after. So we're going to go through some evolution here.
(12:55):
I'm hoping that some of it settles down to a
little bit more realistic numbers, because there was no way
to really understand what the market is. But one of
the aspects to opting into revenue sharing is that by
opting in, you are required now to provide the NC
(13:17):
double A all of the information relative to revenue sharing.
So you have to basically say, hey, this is the
roster for this sport, and these are the individuals that
are being compensated or for the rights to their nil
and this is the amount. And so while you won't
(13:38):
ultimately be able to go into a database and see
what individuals are making, you'll be able to see you
aggregate information so that we can be much better at
understanding what the market is versus being on the phone
with an agent that really doesn't have a lot of
professional experience. They're giving you numbers that don't make any sense.
(14:04):
And so this is going to be really helpful over
the next year to have some sort of database that
you can go into, just like we did when we're
hiring coaches or we're signing new contracts, you want to
look at what the market is. You want to understand,
you know, what are the coaches And we did this
with with coach Hurley. As he won championships, you start
(14:27):
to compare him to a different group within the marketplace,
and you want to pay people appropriately for what you
expect from them. And it's going to be no different
for our student athletes.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
How do you do that with the high schoolers?
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Well, I, you know, it's really going to be based
on what position they play, and it could be any sport.
What the production you expect from that individual maybe in
year one, but over a period of time, which you know. Unfortunately,
I think that's one of the big your challenges is
you know, you can't necessarily plan to have kids over
(15:05):
four years. But I think this is going to be
a new era because you have an agreement that you're signing.
I'm not sure you want to call it a contract,
but you have an agreement that you're signing that will
have you know, there will be some teeth to these
agreements that if you leave early, you may have to
(15:26):
pay some of that back. So lot, lots to lots
to learn. Still, I think the environment is going to
continue to play out over the next couple of years.
And while I believe that there's progress that's been made,
I'm not sure that we've gone far enough. You know,
(15:46):
there's there's some people beginning to really start talking publicly
about collective bargaining, and I think it's a worthy conversation,
I really do. I don't know how you create a
set of rules and apply them to the group of
individuals that really aren't participating in the process and expect
that that's going to be a long term solution.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
How excited you and coach early on, how well Jacob
Furfey and Eric Reebe played in the foba U nineteen.
I mean, Reeb helped Germany get a silver medal. He
was awesome. Furfey the same for Australia. I mean, that's
got to be cool for your incoming freshmen to look
like that on the world stage.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Yeah, I you know, I have not been able to
see they. I think they call him Tazzy Furfey because
like he's a Tasmanian devil or something. I love it.
But so I hear him referenced around work as Tazzy,
but you know, obviously really exciting. I'm not surprised, only
(16:48):
because I know our coaches were really high on him.
But he never he never made it to campus where
Rebe actually was. Was on campus for a little bit
before he left, and I will tell you when I
saw him, I was I don't know if I was
blown away, but I was really really impressed with his
(17:11):
athleticism and how he moved for a big kid that's
probably eighteen years old. I mean, Donovan, we all know
how great Donovan was for us, and he's, you know,
probably one of the best freshmen sophomore big guys in
a long time. But Rebe moves as well. As Donovan did,
(17:34):
if not better than Donovan did as a sophomore. I mean,
he has unbelievable athleticism and footwork. I don't know if
he's as long as Donovan was, but he is. He's
really exciting.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I was.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
I was very very I wouldn't say relieved, but you know,
that kid's going to be able to put in just
like Donovan did as a freshman ten to fifteen minutes
a game and be a force. He's not going to
be you know, he will be much different than Terrorist Reid,
but I'm really excited to see him develop. And look,
(18:10):
you get a kid like Daz that can shoot the ball,
that can get the mid range and as a grinder
that will go in and fight for a board inside.
I mean, you love to have those kinds of kids,
and you know that's what that's what coach Early loves.
So to have two freshmen coming in, that's we're gonna
be really deep next.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Year, very deep, and yu kind representing all over the world.
And speaking of that, we talked about this with yukon
women's basketball like a couple of years ago when you
and I were chopping it up about nil and foreign
student athletes.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Have we figured that out yet?
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Are these foreign student athletes going to be able to
partake in NIL next year or anytime soon?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
They they're going to be able to take and be
a part of receiving revenue sharing, and it's going to
be it's going to be in the area of what
is being referred to as passive income. But then, to
(19:11):
be honest with you, I think, no, it really hasn't
been taken care of. And I don't I really don't
understand how you can go from being a college athlete
and not having the appropriate green card to be able
to get paid or compensated or receive rev share, but
(19:34):
a week later you can get drafted by a professional
team the g League or the NBA, and all of
a sudden you can get a different green card that
allows for that. I don't know in today's day, with
kylege Athletics, especially with revenue sharing being approved by the
federal courts, why the student athletes cannot now file for
(19:56):
a similar type of green card as professional athlete too.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Well give your other example.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
I give the one that you gave to me a
couple of years ago about students that aren't student athletes,
but they're students and there may be working for another
company at the university and they can receive a paycheck
that way. But for some reason, if you play a sport,
you're you're on the other side of it.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, it's you know, it's all based on the fact
that you're coming over on a student visa and there's
limitations within the federal law for student visas. I just
think that there needs to be another you know, there
needs to be another designation for these college student athletes
(20:40):
because compensation now is a part of college athletics and therefore,
why why is it that you can a month later,
you know, be gone and have a different designation for
your your visa. So I'm hopeful. I think certainly there's
a lot of people talking about it. Federally, it's just
(21:02):
not a priority and there's a lot of things going
on obviously in our federal government these days. This is
just not gotten to a place where it's a priority
for people. But you know, we've certainly talked to our
representatives in DC and we're going to continue to need
their help to get this done. But we have a
lot of international kids, and you know, we want them
(21:25):
to have and be afforded the same opportunities. So they
can participate in the REV share through passive income, but
they can't do nil deals on US soil. They can
go do an nil deal in their own country or
out of the United States, but they can't do an
NIL deal in the way that our other student athletes can.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
That's crazy. Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
David, as always my friend, Thank you so much. Thanks
for the extended time today, and we will talk to
you next Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Sounds good. Guys, have a great rest of the week
and we'll see us soon.
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