May 13, 2025 • 7 mins
As part of our #513Day broadcast from the Lindner Center at the University of Cincinnati, we were joined by UC's Director of Athletics, John Cunningham.
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Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
ESPN fifteen to thirty, Moe egg Or five one to
three day at the University of Cincinnati. The of the
folks that you see have been kind enough to let
us broadcast from just inside the Lindner Center. The director
of Athletics, John Cunningham, is, well, this here's my first question.
So as you sat down with me, you're watching Ryan
Ford compete in the NCAA Individual Men's golf tournament. Correct,
(00:21):
how many days a year are you not paying attention
to a UC sporting event in some way, shape or form.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Boy, there's there's a couple of days in July I
think where it doesn't it doesn't happen, and I'm hoping
we have a run in baseball that gets us gets
us well into June. So yeah, you know, it's it's
it's a lifestyle. We talked about that all the time
in my household, and my wife and my kids are
fantastic being along with you know, for the ride with
(00:49):
me and going to a lot of different things and
tracking on things, and you know, they're huge Reds fans,
and so we got the Fubu package and the whole
thing to make sure we can watch it all.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
But they haven't been watching the Reds games because they've been.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Locked in on the bark at baseball games, which you know,
on ESPN Plus is so much fun to watch, and
we watch soccer on ESPN Plus and volleyball and all
kinds of things, so we were definitely tuned in on
that station.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
It has been kind of cool to watch baseball, and
you know, I think ten fifteen years ago that wasn't
a possibility.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, it's amazing. And then I you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
We've watched a lot of production this year, you know,
on road games, and I think our production here at
Cincinnati is the best that I've seen. I mean, a
multi camera, the crew that does the games are phenomenal
and just you know, they have.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
A lot of fun with it.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
But I think a lot of a big shout out
to Trevor Tole and his group in our production unit.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I think we put out great content.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
And it's a collaboration, a cool collaboration with CCM, which
involves students that you see, not athletics students, but just
students that you see that are learning to you know,
produce high level sporting events. So we're putting them out
in the market now it's really kind of a cool
thing that we need to probably promote more.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So five to one three day, right is a huge
day for the University of Cincinnati for the athletics department.
And the subtext of it is the House Settlement. So
here's what I need you to do. Because I hear
about the House Settlement and I was following some court
stuff on Twitter and I just I stopped. It didn't
make any sense to me.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
You went to screensaver, I did.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, like I'm nine years old, explained to me the
House Settlement what it means for college sports specifically, here
a you see.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Boy, complicated, complicated topic to talk to a nine year
old about, but I'm going to give it a shot. Essentially,
it's a settlement between the four conferences, five Power or
four Power conferences and the student athletes.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
And it has two elements.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
One is back damages that were paying to student athletes
from the past who did not get a chance to
earn nil when they're a student athlete. So it goes
back to twenty sixteen. Is that's far back as it goes.
And so there's back damages of approximately a million dollars
a year for ten years for each school in the
Power five.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
That's one part of it.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
The second part of it is what they call injunctive relief,
which is the go forward piece, and that's to try
to get some structure around college athletics. And the idea
is that you're going to create a salary cap just
like you have in professional sports. And so the salary
cap wind House passes. I truly believe it will soon.
It hasn't passed yet, but when it passes, the salary
cap for next year will be approximately twenty million dollars
(03:31):
and every school around the country will have that as
a salary cap for all of their sports. And then
within that twenty million, every school makes a decision on
how you're going to distribute that, and you're going to
do individual nil name, image and likeness deals with your
student athletes. So you'll do all these individual contracts and
that's how you'll compensate student athletes going forward. And then hopefully,
(03:52):
if you do it right, the cap has some parameters
and rules around it, so you can't subvert the cap,
you can't go outside the cap, and you have some
real understanding of the game being played and everybody's on
the even playing.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Field, so this feels like it's going to happen. Yes,
this is going to happen. Can I give you like
the one thing I don't like about it?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Please?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
You're a public institution, weirdos are going to look up
how much each player is making and have that information
at their disposal. I don't love that.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Don't love it either, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
We we have to put some things around our student
athlete experience that we haven't had in the past. We
have to put some real financial education. We've got to
talk to them like they are professional athletes in this town,
and that means that they've got to be aware of
their surroundings. They've got to be aware of those people
that might try to take advantage of them.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
The good thing is they're in our building.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Every day and we have we have some potential to
put some really good education pieces around them and put
some really good people around them that can kind of
protect them a little bit. So we're gonna have to
do that more than we ever have in the past.
So it's gonna be a different experience for those sports
that are receiving nil. We think that we'll have five
sports that will receive it. It's going to be slightly
different experience than than what we've had in the past.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
But we've got to adapt and we've got.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
To change, and this is the new world, and we
still have something so special with college athletics to protect
and so you know, we feel like if we put
rules around this and get some parameters, that it's gonna
it's gonna be better for everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
All Right. That makes me feel better because I know
how we talk about professional athletes and if a guy
has a bad game, I get the call, well, so
and so is making nine million a year, And I
just I don't want an athlete in any school that
has a poor performance where we can look up what
they're making and now it's it's not that they had
a bad game. It's had a bad game and they're
making X, Y and Z.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, I mean we again, we we have to we
have to be aware that a little bit of that
will happen.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
We've got to educate our student athletes. We have to
have to educate our fans that these are still eighteen
to test two year olds.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yes they are, and yes, and you know, we appreciate
everything they do and they bring value to the university,
but there's still young people that are still learning how
to deal with all these things, and they're going to
enter into a a really adult worldly and so we've
got to help them get there.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I got like two minutes here, five to one, three day,
and its significance to U SEE.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Is what Yeah, to me?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I mean, it's the city, right. We wear the city's
name across our chest. We're really proud of that. We
know that there's you know, almost everybody that's been in
this city for any period of time has a connection
to U SEE, and so we just feel that we
we represent that. We you know, we drive the brand
of UC through athletics, and so for us five one
three days a chance to celebrate Cincinnati, obviously, but then
(06:32):
also a chance to look at our athletics department and
say where where do we need to improve and how
can we improve? And one of the ways that we
can improve is just getting the masses. We have three
hundred and fifty thousand alumni and a lot of them
live in Cincinnati or close to Cincinnati. How can we
get the masses to recognize the importance of athletics and
what it does for the university and to give a
little bit right if everybody gives a little bit, we
(06:54):
can be really successful. We're going to have to fundraise
into that twenty million, and so we've still art what
we call the Impact Fund, and today would be a
great day to give to that Impact Fund. You get bonus,
you catch points, and all those good things. But really
it's just recognizing the importance of college athletics, the importance
of UC to this city.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Whenever we ask you join us, I can't thank you enough.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Well, it's it's great to have you guys here.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
You guys are remarkable, and so we're we're happy we're
to do it. And I'm excited about all the guests
you have because there's great people in this building and
you get to talk to quite a few of them today.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
So thanks for this setup.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
I wish we were out at a baseball game, but
we've got extra baseball game this weekend.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Three of them Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So let's get everybody out to those games and pack
the house for the Bearcats baseball.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Yeah, with a team that's playing for an NCAA tournament.
Berth the director of Athletics, John Cunningham, I appreciate the time.
Thank you so much, Brendanman, and Jones on baseball's next
ESPN fifteen to thirty, Moe egg Or five one to
three day at the University of Cincinnati. The of the
folks that you see have been kind enough to let
us broadcast from just inside the Lindner Center. The director
of Athletics, John Cunningham, is, well, this here's my first question.
So as you sat down with me, you're watching Ryan
Ford compete in the NCAA Individual Men's golf tournament. Correct,
(00:21):
how many days a year are you not paying attention
to a UC sporting event in some way, shape or form.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Boy, there's there's a couple of days in July I
think where it doesn't it doesn't happen, and I'm hoping
we have a run in baseball that gets us gets
us well into June. So yeah, you know, it's it's
it's a lifestyle. We talked about that all the time
in my household, and my wife and my kids are
fantastic being along with you know, for the ride with
(00:49):
me and going to a lot of different things and
tracking on things, and you know, they're huge Reds fans,
and so we got the Fubu package and the whole
thing to make sure we can watch it all.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
But they haven't been watching the Reds games because they've been.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Locked in on the bark at baseball games, which you know,
on ESPN Plus is so much fun to watch, and
we watch soccer on ESPN Plus and volleyball and all
kinds of things, so we were definitely tuned in on
that station.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
It has been kind of cool to watch baseball, and
you know, I think ten fifteen years ago that wasn't
a possibility.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, it's amazing. And then I you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
We've watched a lot of production this year, you know,
on road games, and I think our production here at
Cincinnati is the best that I've seen. I mean, a
multi camera, the crew that does the games are phenomenal
and just you know, they have.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
A lot of fun with it.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
But I think a lot of a big shout out
to Trevor Tole and his group in our production unit.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I think we put out great content.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
And it's a collaboration, a cool collaboration with CCM, which
involves students that you see, not athletics students, but just
students that you see that are learning to you know,
produce high level sporting events. So we're putting them out
in the market now it's really kind of a cool
thing that we need to probably promote more.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So five to one three day, right is a huge
day for the University of Cincinnati for the athletics department.
And the subtext of it is the House Settlement. So
here's what I need you to do. Because I hear
about the House Settlement and I was following some court
stuff on Twitter and I just I stopped. It didn't
make any sense to me.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
You went to screensaver, I did.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, like I'm nine years old, explained to me the
House Settlement what it means for college sports specifically, here
a you see.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Boy, complicated, complicated topic to talk to a nine year
old about, but I'm going to give it a shot. Essentially,
it's a settlement between the four conferences, five Power or
four Power conferences and the student athletes.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
And it has two elements.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
One is back damages that were paying to student athletes
from the past who did not get a chance to
earn nil when they're a student athlete. So it goes
back to twenty sixteen. Is that's far back as it goes.
And so there's back damages of approximately a million dollars
a year for ten years for each school in the
Power five.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
That's one part of it.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
The second part of it is what they call injunctive relief,
which is the go forward piece, and that's to try
to get some structure around college athletics. And the idea
is that you're going to create a salary cap just
like you have in professional sports. And so the salary
cap wind House passes. I truly believe it will soon.
It hasn't passed yet, but when it passes, the salary
cap for next year will be approximately twenty million dollars
(03:31):
and every school around the country will have that as
a salary cap for all of their sports. And then
within that twenty million, every school makes a decision on
how you're going to distribute that, and you're going to
do individual nil name, image and likeness deals with your
student athletes. So you'll do all these individual contracts and
that's how you'll compensate student athletes going forward. And then hopefully,
(03:52):
if you do it right, the cap has some parameters
and rules around it, so you can't subvert the cap,
you can't go outside the cap, and you have some
real understanding of the game being played and everybody's on
the even playing.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Field, so this feels like it's going to happen. Yes,
this is going to happen. Can I give you like
the one thing I don't like about it?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Please?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
You're a public institution, weirdos are going to look up
how much each player is making and have that information
at their disposal. I don't love that.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Don't love it either, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
We we have to put some things around our student
athlete experience that we haven't had in the past. We
have to put some real financial education. We've got to
talk to them like they are professional athletes in this town,
and that means that they've got to be aware of
their surroundings. They've got to be aware of those people
that might try to take advantage of them.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
The good thing is they're in our building.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Every day and we have we have some potential to
put some really good education pieces around them and put
some really good people around them that can kind of
protect them a little bit. So we're gonna have to
do that more than we ever have in the past.
So it's gonna be a different experience for those sports
that are receiving nil. We think that we'll have five
sports that will receive it. It's going to be slightly
different experience than than what we've had in the past.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
But we've got to adapt and we've got.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
To change, and this is the new world, and we
still have something so special with college athletics to protect
and so you know, we feel like if we put
rules around this and get some parameters, that it's gonna
it's gonna be better for everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
All Right. That makes me feel better because I know
how we talk about professional athletes and if a guy
has a bad game, I get the call, well, so
and so is making nine million a year, And I
just I don't want an athlete in any school that
has a poor performance where we can look up what
they're making and now it's it's not that they had
a bad game. It's had a bad game and they're
making X, Y and Z.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, I mean we again, we we have to we
have to be aware that a little bit of that
will happen.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
We've got to educate our student athletes. We have to
have to educate our fans that these are still eighteen
to test two year olds.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yes they are, and yes, and you know, we appreciate
everything they do and they bring value to the university,
but there's still young people that are still learning how
to deal with all these things, and they're going to
enter into a a really adult worldly and so we've
got to help them get there.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I got like two minutes here, five to one, three day,
and its significance to U SEE.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Is what Yeah, to me?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I mean, it's the city, right. We wear the city's
name across our chest. We're really proud of that. We
know that there's you know, almost everybody that's been in
this city for any period of time has a connection
to U SEE, and so we just feel that we
we represent that. We you know, we drive the brand
of UC through athletics, and so for us five one
three days a chance to celebrate Cincinnati, obviously, but then
(06:32):
also a chance to look at our athletics department and
say where where do we need to improve and how
can we improve? And one of the ways that we
can improve is just getting the masses. We have three
hundred and fifty thousand alumni and a lot of them
live in Cincinnati or close to Cincinnati. How can we
get the masses to recognize the importance of athletics and
what it does for the university and to give a
little bit right if everybody gives a little bit, we
(06:54):
can be really successful. We're going to have to fundraise
into that twenty million, and so we've still art what
we call the Impact Fund, and today would be a
great day to give to that Impact Fund. You get bonus,
you catch points, and all those good things. But really
it's just recognizing the importance of college athletics, the importance
of UC to this city.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Whenever we ask you join us, I can't thank you enough.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Well, it's it's great to have you guys here.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
You guys are remarkable, and so we're we're happy we're
to do it. And I'm excited about all the guests
you have because there's great people in this building and
you get to talk to quite a few of them today.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
So thanks for this setup.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
I wish we were out at a baseball game, but
we've got extra baseball game this weekend.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Three of them Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So let's get everybody out to those games and pack
the house for the Bearcats baseball.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Yeah, with a team that's playing for an NCAA tournament.
Berth the director of Athletics, John Cunningham, I appreciate the time.
Thank you so much, Brendanman, and Jones on baseball's next
Mo Egger News
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