May 14, 2025 • 37 mins
David Vassegh broke the story of Austin Barnes being let go and Dalton Rushing being called up - he joins us. UCLA's athletic department is having some major issues, with seemingly no end in sight.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, we continue on Fred Rogan Rodney Pete on
five seventy LA Sports. The big news occurred just before
we went on the air today. First it was Dalton
Rushing had been called up from OKAC about the Dodgers. Okay,
we expected to see him this year, But then I
think David Vassy was the one that broke it. To
make room for Dalton Rushing. Austin Barnes had been dfa'd
(00:25):
Dave joins us now, Dave good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hey guys, Yeah, that's the big news of the day
that a guy that spent his entire eleven years in
Major League Baseball, Austin Barnes, has been designated for assignment
and the top prospect position player wise, Dalton Rushing, has
been called up and his time is now.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Dave, you, basically, with all due respect, everybody else pretty
much know everything. Were you expecting this or did it
catch you by surprise?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It caught me by surprise when I started getting on
my drive home after Dodger Talk last night. That's when
it started to circulate among the players that they know.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
What day, Dave. Hold on a second, You've got a
bad connection, so we really want to hear this, We're
gonna call you right back. Let's try again. So Kevin
o'cay right back, and we'll let him pick it up there,
Rodney when we get him back on the air. Uh.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
So Dodger players knew last night. Yeah, Dodger players knew
last night. And that's what I was thinking, that they
had to let they had to let certain players know
that this was coming, especially the veteran players that know
him and been around him and he's been here since
(01:42):
twenty fifteen, that this was not an out of the
blue situation where they're all caught off guard because he's.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Too you know.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It's it's one thing to be, you know, some obscure player,
but Austin was a fabric of the Dodgers. And regardless
that he wasn't a starter and everyday player, a superstar,
war whatever, everybody loved him and everybody respected him, and
everybody valued him for his role. And to not let
(02:11):
people know or not let the players know what was
about to happen yet I would have been respectful. So
I'm glad to hear that they actually had conversations.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
All Right, we've got Dave back. So, Dave, you were
saying last night, players started to text you. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
On my drive home after Dodger talked, I started to
get text from players that started to hear the words
that Austin had been notified that he was being designated
for assignment. And obviously that news travels really fast among players,
so my phone was blown up all night long. Not
only current teammates, former teammates were all very surprised. But
(02:50):
the reality is, Austin Barnes has had a tough time
throwing runners out. You know my number right here, and
it's no secret that he only thrown out fifteen of
one hundred and forty one base dealers the last three seasons,
and the Dodgers just needed a better backup behind Will
Smith because the reality with Will Smith is each of
(03:13):
the last couple of years his offensive production has dropped
off significantly because of being played way too many games
behind the plate. So the Dodgers just felt like Dalton
Rushing and Hunter Fiduccia were better options to give Smith
more arrest and get him off behind the plate more
(03:34):
often than not.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Yeah, I mean the fact that you were getting text
from players, Dave, I think it also goes to show
that how much respect that Austin Barrs has in at
clubhouse because so many people loved him. But again, at
the end of the day, this is a business decision,
and Austin, you know, frankly, was not the best offense
(04:00):
to catcher in the league. But guys loved him behind
the plate. They loved the way he framed the ball,
they loved the way he received they loved all of that.
But to your point, which I didn't I would, I
didn't realize that it had fallen off in terms of
throwing runners out. Is that what ultimately was like, Okay,
this is the decision we have to make now going forward.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, because of the rules, Rodney, right, it's a lot
easier for opposing teams to try to steal. And look,
it's not all on Austin Barnes. The Dodger pitchers have
to be better at holding runners on. It, be quicker
to the plate because Will Smith has one of the best,
if not the best, throwing arm, and he's kind of
behind because the pitchers are not putting him in a
(04:43):
great position of the row runners out. But to throw
I mean, if you just watched the games, you could
see the throws weren't there for Austin And look, you're right, Rodney,
I don't want to poke holes in Austin's game. What
made him valuable was how good of a teammate he was.
That's the reason why Dodgers picked up a three and
a half million dollar option for this season. They could
(05:05):
have cut ties with him during this past off season,
but chose to bring him back because of the resume,
the track record, and how popular he was with his
teammates and the pitching staff. But it just hasn't It
hasn't gone well for him. And look, this is not
just about Austin Barnes as much as it is about
Will Smith and having another option to be able to
(05:27):
get Will Smith more than just one day off during
the week.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Dave, that conversation, to your knowledge, Dave Roberts had it
with him last night. Andrew Friedman, do you know how
it went down?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, after the game last night, they called Austin in
today Roberts's office and gave him the news day was
in there. I would imagine Brandon Goes and or Andrew
Freeman were in there as well. But that's how I
went down last night.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
And Dave, do you think that this was something that
they had had a conversation with him before for that
this possibly could happen. Or do you think that the
recent conversation in the last couple of days was something that,
I don't want to say blindsided, but just caught him
off guard. But do you think that something that the
Dodgers were thinking going into this season.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I don't believe that's something they were thinking about coming
into the season. They obviously were hoping that Austin would
be able to be the guy that he was the
last couple of years as a receiver and also a
guy that handled the pitching staff really well when Will
Smith needed a day off, But they obviously felt like
their option with Dalton Rushing was significantly better in that department.
(06:42):
It's not again, it's not just about Austin Barnes. It's
about getting Will Smith more days off and also the
emergence of Dalton Rushing. You have one of the best
getting prospects in baseball that is being blocked by Austin Barnes,
and the Dodgers don't have another position for him to play.
He's a catcher, so now it's going to be Dalton
(07:04):
Rushing Will Smith. That era begins and Dalton Rushing talking
to him in spring training, he as a young player,
already understands how important it is to have a pitcher
catcher relationship and how pitchers are very different from each other.
So just having that type of conversation with him, it
(07:26):
makes me believe that he's mature enough to be ready
to go right now. And he's not playing left field,
he's not playing first base. He's a catcher. So it's
not really just about Austin Barnes. It's about the fact
that Dalton Rushing is now ready and you're doing him
a disservice by keeping keeping him in the minor league.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, David, that that got me to think in earlier
I mean, how much is he going to play? Because
in the miners he gonna play every day, but he's
not going to play every day here.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yeah, he's not gonna you know, Will Smith is the guy,
let's make no mistakes about that. But the are he's probably,
you know, on the rest of this nine game road
trip of eight games to go including tonight, is probably
gonna play at least three times on this homestand he's
not here to sit. He's here to play, and you're
gonna get, you know, a big threat off the bench
(08:16):
as a left handed hit or something the Dodgers haven't
had when they constructed this roster. So it's not just
about him when he starts the game, but also having
that big power thread, a really good left handed hitter
off the bench.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yeah. Yeah, it makes it. It makes it a little tough,
a little tough.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
It's tough, Rodney, because Austin was a great guy. He
meant a lot to a lot of people. He'd been
here his entire major league career. But if you take
a step back and take the emotions out of it,
you kind of understand the thinking behind this. And also,
you know, you could try to find a way to
get mad at the Dodgers and Andrew Friedman, But who
(08:56):
else was going to pay Austin Barnes three and a
half million dollars for this season? Has a backup catcher,
So the Dodgers have done a lot of right by him.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, they have.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
They have, and they've kept him around for a long
long time as the backup catcher with very little offensive performance.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I agree with that. I agree with that.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Dave switching gears, Roki Sazaki and his situation and him
kind of holding back some of the soreness. What do
you make of that? And I mean I talked about
it earlier, David.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
As a young player, you don't want to always say
that I'm sore, I'm hurt, or whatever, because you want
to impress the club that you're with. But now we're
figuring out that he was pitching hurt. How does that sit?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
It doesn't sit well, Rodney, and I think it's a
cautionary tale for the Dodgers and other teams that recruit
and sign these Japanese pitchers because they're the only players
on him major league team that seemingly have their own
personal staff of trainers massuse. That's what Roki Sazaki came with,
(10:03):
and that was an understanding when they signed him. Any
team that signed him would have had to agree to
all that. And maybe having that inner circle of his
own personal training staff and messus allowed him to hide
this more from the Dodgers training staff. And I think
maybe you know, Roki Sazaki and his staffers have to
(10:24):
be held a little bit more accountable that you've got
to be more transparent with us about what's going on
with this player.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
That's fascinating to me, Dave, so, I guess what what
you're saying is they knew.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
But I don't know if they knew. I don't know
if he held it back from them. But you would
imagine in that inner circle, they have their hands on him, Yeah,
virtually every day, So you imagine they.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Were absolutely I agree Dave his internal Japanese crew. I
would imagine that they absolutely knew, and they're loyal to
Suzaki as aos to loyal to the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Right, they're in a tough spot. They're there because of Suzaki.
And look that every player tries to hide certain things
so they can keep playing. And a lot of times
I've heard managers and gms tell me players will lie
about how they're feeling. You've got to be able to
make that decision for them, and the Dodgers made it,
and kudos to them. Were saying, you know what, this
can't keep going. There's something wrong. Be honest with us,
(11:26):
your velocities at ninety four, you've got no command, and
you're putting our bullpen in our rest of our starting
staff in a precarious position, not only the days that
you pitch, but the days before and the days after.
So they made the right decision, all right.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So last night David had Clayton Kersha on the pre
game of course, a great debt. He gets ready to
go this weekend. Who do you have tonight? TBD? Fred, Okay,
we'll tell you what d That's going to be big TV?
Did could be anybody?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Dave, I'm hoping to talk to uh last night's local
hero You can appreciate this, mister Rogan's heroes. Jacob Wilson
at a Thousand Oaks High School, hoping to catch up
with him after a big night at Roger Stadium.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Hey, Dave, let me ask you that speaking of the
biginer Jagoe Wilson Thousand Oaks High to home run two
two r on home runs.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
H Maybe Holly Robinson will be back on the field tonight.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Right hey hey, speaking of that.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah, and my my Japanese son Robinson was in town,
so he got to spend time in the clubhouse with
a lot of the Japanese players speaking Japanese to him.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So that was a great experience.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
So shout out to the Dodgers, Dave Roberts, Lonrosen for
making that happen because he got to spend time, you know,
with some of the Japanese players, and and I know
he speaks the language, so that was great. But but Dave,
you know, Fred joked a couple of days ago that
the A's are coming to town. Are you surprised? Are
you at all surprised? I guess that the A's are
(12:58):
performing as well as they are are given their situation
of being in Sacramento, not knowing what the situation is
going to be in Las Vegas, whether it's two years,
three years, wherever it is, that they are actually performing
this well.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, I mean, it's tough circumstances. But maybe part of
the reason why they're able to play as well as
they are is they got a bunch of young guys
that they just called up from the minor league, so
they're used to playing in minor league stadiums and are
just happy to be in the big league. So when
you're when you're hungry, wherever you're playing, it doesn't matter.
They're not ten year veterans that you know, feel entitled.
(13:38):
They're guys that are trying to make a name for themselves,
so they're in no position to pout or feel sorry
for their stadium circumstances. But it is embarrassing for Major
League Baseball to have two of their teams playing in
minor league stadiums. I'll say that on behalf of them.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Amen, Dave, thanks for doing the trillion pre shit it.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We'll talk to you soon, Okay, guys, thanks, all.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Right, Well, there you go, Rodney. Everybody knew last night.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Yeah, yeah, And I felt that that they knew, that
they reached out to other players, that they knew that
this was possibly going to happen. It's just it's it's
tough because he's been here for so long and we
all like Austin and he has always been unselfish and
(14:30):
did whatever he had he needed to do. When he
was a guy that you rooted for Fred every time
he came to the plate. You know he was not
you know, certainly he was not Will Smith behind the
plate and offensively, but you knew defensively he was good,
and you rooted for him when he came up to
the plate to get a hit, and every time he did,
you were like very excited that Austin got a hit.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
What he's say, in the last three years, one hundred
and thirty one guy stealing you threw out fifteen. That
was it. Yeah, that was it. I'm changed. Yeah. Dalton
Rushing uh will be at Dodger Stadium tonight. I'm not
sure if he'll play. I would think it to be
Will Smith, but who knows. Dalton Rushing is on the
big club now. Uh okay. So we talk a lot
(15:16):
about Nil College athletics and UCLA is kind of in
a different place than USC is. You know, USC has money,
UCLA doesn't. And how much money is UCLA missing. Let's
talk about that next. Yeah, We've got some numbers here
(15:39):
and it will show the difference between the two schools
why they do what they do, and we'll get to that.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Uh ah yeah, come on, Roddey p Fred broken, come
on now, got man, come.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Out, tell you something. Tough. Tough to be in the
college sports business, tough to be a Division one school
right now? Nil Rodney's favorite slogan A town without a sheriff.
Anything goes, whoever's got the most money wins. The term
(16:26):
student athlete, I've talked about it in the past, doesn't
really exist at the Division IE level. They are athlete students.
The NCAA is a fraud for suggesting, well, these kids
are going here for an education. No, they're not. They're
really not. They're going to get paid at the Division
one level, the D three level. Sure, you're paying for
the right to go to school there. Division one and
(16:50):
even in some Division two situations. These guys get help
and they get paid, and that means you better have
a lot of money in your athletic department. Now, we've
always kicked around the difference between USC and UCLA, certainly
because Rodney went there, and second because it's pretty well
assumed even from when Rodney went to school to today.
(17:10):
USC's got a lot of money, a lot of money.
It's a private school, they've got a lot of money.
You Cela's a public school and didn't have quite as
much money. So you can see a distinct difference really
in how the athletic programs operate. You know, we have
more money, you can do more things. Well, you don't
have a much money. It's like, yeah, but they don't
(17:31):
get state funding either.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
USC doesn't, UCLA does, and UCLA does have a lot
of wealthy alum that donate to the program. Yeah, USC
has more money than the state. Come on, what are
we doing, well, we don't get that, we don't get
that state money. Yes, I know they got to share it.
(17:56):
I know they got to share with all the UCLA
you know, you see regents and all that. But they
still get state money. But they claim to have comparable
alum as USC. They got a prominent alum.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Those comparable alum don't spend like the USC alum do. True,
that's fair. True. And also when UCLA went to the
Big Ten, of course they now have to pay bag
money to CAL. Oh yeah, that's scrudinum right, because everybody
was so upset. How could UCLA leave and go to
the Big ten and not take col C.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, that's why CAL got all their money from UCLA.
So now they're complaining that UCLA is going to take
that money from them.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Right. So here's the bottom line. Think about this. If
you're running a business. At the completion of this fiscal year,
UCLA was running two hundred and nineteen million dollars in
the hole in the hole, so they're operating in a deficit.
(18:57):
This past year, the deficit was fifty one point eight
million dollars. That's a lot of money. And the problem here,
you see is that how can that get better without
more money? Because, as we know in life, costs only
go up. They're not going to go down. So UCLA
(19:21):
is now running at a deficit and long term Rodney
that will affect the overall program.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Martin Jerremond compete, how they compete, you know, we you
know the Bill Belichick obviously is in the news right
and you know in North Carolina, and he's in the
news because the girlfriend, and we talked about that yesterday,
but he's also in the news because North Carolina has
and the way they've set it up.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Is that they are all in now. They are going
to run this like a business, and they're going to
run it like a professional club. They brought in professional guys.
They are going to be fully engaged in NIL programs.
They're going to be they are going to take it
to the next level at North Carolina, which is I
(20:08):
guess why Bill came involved, and he brought the people that.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
He brought involved in it.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Mike Lombardi's involved in it, some other folks that he's
got as general managers. They're going to run it like
a pro franchise, whereas Clemson has now said they are
not going to engage in that. So we'll see where
Clemson goes from now. In the next five years, not
really conforming to the n NIL kind of program and
(20:35):
paying players and really trying to figure out a way
to keep.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
The players that are there.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
When those players can get more money leaving, they're going
to say, Okay, see you later. We'll see where Clemson is.
UCLA can't compete on that level. So if you can't
compete on that level, we just saw the Tennessee quarterback
leave Tennessee and now he's at UCLA making.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Less then he would have made it toennes See. He
took a pay. It doesn't make doesn't make sense. That's
not That's not the norm, Fred, That is not the norm.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
So how does UCLA compete when they are already operating
at a deficit and and don't have the money to compete.
How do they compete in the Big ten going forward?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
First, they don't, if we're to be completely transparent, they don't.
They won't. They can't. They can't. I mean, they'll be
in the Big Ten. Maybe they'll get lucky.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
But in what does that put college sports though? That's
that's the thing, I guess the bigger question.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
It puts it exactly where it's been, except now guys
are getting paid instead of secretly getting paid. That's where
puts it.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
So there's no no longer even more so now no
longer where you get the small school or the fourth
fifth school in a conference coming up to win a
national title. It is going to be Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon,
USC Washington, out West and Alabama, Georgia, Florida and you
(22:18):
know LSU.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I guess Texas.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Now, so there's gonna be about ten twelve schools that
will be competing for the title every single year.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Right, Well, it comes down to the pros. Who's got
the best roster, who stays healthy, who's got the best roster,
and can the coach coach those guys? It's pretty simple.
The best players always win. Sure there's an upset, Sure,
yeah the long shot or the Cinderella story can emerge,
but who's got the best players? Major League Baseball, especially
(22:49):
in football, I mean basketball, there's only five guys on
the court, so there are a number of guys can
go to different places, and you can always have an
upstart or some school that kind of run makes a run.
But in football, when you got eleven guys and you
got twenty two total offense, defense, money's gonna count These
(23:10):
guys are gonna go where the money is. Okay, look
at this, Who's got a better chance to win the
World Series this year? Just tell me who's got a
better chance. The Pittsburgh Pirates or the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Who's got a better chance. He's got a better chance
to win the World Series this year? The Cincinnati Reds
or the Los Angeles Dodgers. Really, if you look at it,
(23:34):
who's got a better chance to win the World Series
this year? The Los Angeles Dodgers or anybody else. Doesn't
guarantee the Dodgers are going to win the World Series.
But you know they've got the best shot. Why is
that They've got the best roster. Now, luck's involved, guys
gotta stay healthy, all that, but they've got the best
(23:56):
overall roster. The exact same thing will be true in college.
Who's got the best roster? No? Sure, there can be
a kid that goes to Marshall or Acron and if
it's your son or daughter and they want to compete
at the collegiate level, that's great. But the reality is
those kids that go to a school like that probably
are not going to be pros. It's a long shot
(24:18):
or a wild card at best. The pros are gonna
come out of the big D one schools, and the
big D one schools will get the best players by
paying the most. So if you look at UCLA and
they've got a problem with their stadium, they're not enough
suites at the Rose Bowl, they're.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Gonna use it and the least or whatever they're paying,
they don't own the stadium.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Correct number one. And then and then, like you said.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
The the sweet value, it's it's the reason why USC
paid to renovate the Colisseum because they.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Charge they did.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
They charged an arm and a leg for those suites
at the Colisseum now right, and it's a premium, but
they own the stadium. They paid and owned the Colisseum.
Now they represent the UCLA does it and there's no
suites there. They don't get the revenue from Sweet and
who knows, I don't even know what they get from
concessions out there at the Rose Bowl. Who knows what
(25:18):
that number is. So they don't get it. They don't
get it.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
They're thinking that because they don't own the stadium, they
don't have all the sweets and everything that's costing them
fifteen to twenty five million a year. So you don't
get that money, it doesn't exist. And what will happen
The halves will get stronger and the have nots will
fall further behind, kind of like the way it is
in life, fair or unfair, But in this scenario, the
(25:45):
concern is one of the have nots is in the
city with the halves, and that makes it glaring. Yeah,
you've got USC sitting here and then build.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
A new facility on campus and building a whole new
football megastructure on campus, and then there they've got their
money to afford nil not as much as Texas or
anybody else, but they certainly got more than UCLA. And yeah,
it's glaring what they're doing on campus at SC. And
then you look at UCLA because facilities matter too. When
(26:22):
guys come to be you know, recruited, you look at
it up and going, wow, look at this. We just
talked about the Dodgers' clubhouse. Right when kids out of
high school come and visit, they're like, oh, that's what
put Oregon on the map. Oregon got it when Phil
Knight said we're gonna build the best facility in college
at Oregon. We're gonna put the Nike facility at Oregon,
(26:46):
and that's when kids started to go in there. You
can't compete, can't compete. And it's clearing because if you
were to look at it like this, you have a USC,
and that's kind of the way it is, this gigantic
USC and.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Now you CLA. They're like tiny compared to them because
they can't they can't afford it, and it will only
get worse by the way. No one can operate at
a deficit forever. You're not going to be three hundred
million dollars in the hole. I gotta tell you, that's
not gonna happen. But you still want to compete because
you have kids going to school there and that's a
(27:28):
big part of the experience. So I don't know what
a school like UCLA does. They're stuck in no man's land?
What do they do? Fred? What do they do? How
did they rectify it?
Speaker 3 (27:41):
I mean, they're a state school, They're they're bound by
state parameters, They've they've got a prominent alumni. But how
do they how do they compete from a dollar standpoint?
But can't I mean, honestly, they just can't. They got
huge problems now and When you see those numbers, you're thinking, well,
(28:05):
that cannot go on forever.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
It can't. And even if, somehow, some way there are
two hundred million dollars in the hole, one of their
great alums says, you know what, I got twelve billion dollars.
I'll buy you out of this. Here's two hundred million dollars. Great,
they're operating fifty million dollars in the hole a year.
So just because it got me out of this one,
(28:30):
what am I about to do on this? Yeah? There's
another one coming right? So how do how do I
reconcile that you got me out of this one? Thank god? Okay,
my credit card is paid off. What do you mean
there's fifty million dollars more on it two days later?
I don't have that money. That's what UCLA's facing. That's
the problem. The president of the NCAA welcomes federal intervention
(28:55):
into player compensation issues. First of all, you don't want
government regulation for anything, really, folks, nothing. The last thing
you want is a government in your business. He's going
come on in, come on and help us out here.
You guys make the rules. That's fine. We're Mike Florio
(29:17):
Pro Football Talk says no, no, let these kids unionize.
If that's the case, there's.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Got to be some structure here, Yeah, there has And
that is the problem, right there's no structure right now.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Well, everybody can do what they want.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yeah, there's no governing body. There's no real structure to anything.
Nil there, you know, transfer compensation, all of that. There's
no structure to it right now. There's no regulation to
anything right now. And I'm a you know, I don't
like I don't like regulation at all either. But there's
(29:55):
gotta be some guidelines that everybody adheres to that makes
it work for.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
The majority of people.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Otherwise, again, you're gonna have there's going to be ten
schools that are competing every year.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
That's it. You don't know. If people complain in baseball
about the Dodgers and they say, we simply can't compete,
We cannot compete with their money. We've heard that. You
know that. I'm not speaking out of school here, all right,
but you understand those are professional organizations operated by businessmen.
And if you can't compete, that's your problem. You've bought
(30:32):
the wrong team, You're in the wrong market. Whatever. Those
are the pros, those are the big kids. And you
have people in professional sports saying we can't compete with them.
All right, that's fine, but that's the pros you understand now,
that's the case in collegiate athletics. Yeah, that's exactly what
this is. We cannot compete with Tennessee's nil Ohio State
(30:56):
what they paid twenty million dollars for their team last year.
We can't compete with that. What do you want us
to do? Well, maybe not compete. Maybe you would have
the schools with all the money, they will compete against
each other. Any other schools will be in little, smaller conferences.
(31:18):
There's a place for everybody. Everybody gets a shot. Anybody
that goes to college could have a chance to play
on a team. And if that's your dream, you go
to a school where you'll get to play. Just you
may not be playing at Ohio State. Okay. Is that
going to matter at the end of the day or
is it gonna matter that you played? The problem with
(31:39):
that is the schools that become to have nots now
generate less revenue because going to the games is and
it was attractive. Yeah, it becomes a problem.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
So it has to be I don't know a salary
cap a cap on an a cap on something. So
it makes it okay, you got to get to this level,
then you can compete as opposed to it's a it's
a bottomless pit that schools like, ohio, stay okay, you
(32:13):
got to that level. We're going to go deeper. Oh
you got to that level us, we're going to go deeper.
Now you got to keep going. Now you got to
and and and schools are not going to be able
to do that. There's got to be a level where okay,
you got to get to this level. Now you got
to work yourself to a what is it, twenty two
million dollar level to play player pay players. Get to
(32:34):
that level, then you can compete with everybody else. Now
you got to work to that level. But if it's
endless and say oh it's we got to twenty two.
But now oh, I'll say it's going to fifty. USC
is going to fifty, then you're like, oh my god,
we just got to the twenty two level.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Now we got to go to fifty. That's not gonna work.
It's one thing in the pros tough luck. Those are
the pros.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Yeah, as billionaires that made their money, they're all good college.
You should bought the team if you if you can't compete,
might agree with the one hundred percent. You shouldn't be
the owner of the Pirates if you can't compete with
the Mets.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, but your problem, you're the billionaire. You bought the team.
But in college, there does seem need to have some
regulation of some sort. So all right, if it's twenty
two million, if you want to be in the big time, everybody,
it's going to cost you twenty two million.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Twenty two million is the number. Yes, you got any
that's it that level.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
You go over twenty two million, you're in eligible for playoffs,
you're ineligible for whatever or is it a big pine or
whatever it may be, right, yeah, right, but there needs
to be a number. By the way, when that number
is established, it's going to be more of a problem
because there will be more teams that can pay that
number than can't. And no one's going to cap at
a ten million. The numbers ten million. You think Ohio
(33:59):
State is gonna say, yeah, we're good with that. No,
right now, you think Texas is gonna go yeah, thumbs up, Oregon, Okay,
that works for us? Oh no, they want to win
so it's bottom line is this for UCLA. It's not good.
(34:26):
Say we're back to wrap things up after this, all right?
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Then coming up on a final minutes of a Wednesday,
a hump day for Rogan and Rodney.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Come on now, all right, Rodney ready to live the
Then see Sushi Life. Well, here's your shot at an
unforgettable night in Los Angeles. Two premium sweet tickets to
a game. This may complete with gourmet food, drinks, and
preferred parking Luxury Exclusive. It's just once in a way.
Head to the zen She counter near the deli at
any participating in Ralph's grocery store, scanned the QR code
(35:07):
and interviewer chance to win this once in a lifetime
experience to tales at A and five to seventy LA
sports dot com. Then see zen She sou She Fast
Fresh easy. Find it at your local Ralphs right by
the deli.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Said that well, Fred said, well, I don't know if
I said it well, but at least I said it.
So that's got to count for something. Yeah, Yamamoto goes
tonight for the Dodgers. No, I think Yamamoto tonight. I
think it is Yamamoto. Yes, he's been. Uh, he's been good.
You know, you look up and you know, barring the
start that he had last season, which was a little shaky,
(35:43):
he ended up being very, very productive for the Dodgers.
And when Tyler glass Now went down, because we always talked,
you know, he you know, until All Star break, he
was the ace and stopped the bleeding. But Yamamoto became
the guy. And so yeah, he is, I would he's
the ace of this team right now? He really is, right, yeah,
(36:06):
by far he's the ace. Well, remember last year he had.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Some arm issues to Rodney, Yes, yeah he did, he did,
but he came back at the end of the season,
and remember he had some big time playoff wins and
starts for the Dodgers, and so yeah, he became the
ace for them. I'm sorry, Kevin, will you are you
going to say something now?
Speaker 5 (36:26):
I was just saying as far as being the ace
of the staff, he's probably the only starter, healthy starter
that they have at this point. I'm looking at their
their upcoming you know, their their probable pitchers for the
upcoming five games. We got Yamamoto tonight, I got TBD, TBD,
Kershaw TBD.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Oh okay, how fun was that? You weren't saying he's
the Ace of the staff, Kevin. You were saying he
is the staff basically. Yes, yeah, the whole staff. He's
the entire state. Pretty much. We got one guy, and
he's the man. Yamamoto. Love it, Ronnie, thank you, great job, Kevin.
Appreciate it, Ronney. We're back at it tomorrow, Yes, sir,
All right, we continue on Fred Rogan Rodney Pete on
five seventy LA Sports. The big news occurred just before
we went on the air today. First it was Dalton
Rushing had been called up from OKAC about the Dodgers. Okay,
we expected to see him this year, But then I
think David Vassy was the one that broke it. To
make room for Dalton Rushing. Austin Barnes had been dfa'd
(00:25):
Dave joins us now, Dave good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hey guys, Yeah, that's the big news of the day
that a guy that spent his entire eleven years in
Major League Baseball, Austin Barnes, has been designated for assignment
and the top prospect position player wise, Dalton Rushing, has
been called up and his time is now.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Dave, you, basically, with all due respect, everybody else pretty
much know everything. Were you expecting this or did it
catch you by surprise?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It caught me by surprise when I started getting on
my drive home after Dodger Talk last night. That's when
it started to circulate among the players that they know.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
What day, Dave. Hold on a second, You've got a
bad connection, so we really want to hear this, We're
gonna call you right back. Let's try again. So Kevin
o'cay right back, and we'll let him pick it up there,
Rodney when we get him back on the air. Uh.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
So Dodger players knew last night. Yeah, Dodger players knew
last night. And that's what I was thinking, that they
had to let they had to let certain players know
that this was coming, especially the veteran players that know
him and been around him and he's been here since
(01:42):
twenty fifteen, that this was not an out of the
blue situation where they're all caught off guard because he's.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Too you know.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
It's it's one thing to be, you know, some obscure player,
but Austin was a fabric of the Dodgers. And regardless
that he wasn't a starter and everyday player, a superstar,
war whatever, everybody loved him and everybody respected him, and
everybody valued him for his role. And to not let
(02:11):
people know or not let the players know what was
about to happen yet I would have been respectful. So
I'm glad to hear that they actually had conversations.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
All Right, we've got Dave back. So, Dave, you were
saying last night, players started to text you. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
On my drive home after Dodger talked, I started to
get text from players that started to hear the words
that Austin had been notified that he was being designated
for assignment. And obviously that news travels really fast among players,
so my phone was blown up all night long. Not
only current teammates, former teammates were all very surprised. But
(02:50):
the reality is, Austin Barnes has had a tough time
throwing runners out. You know my number right here, and
it's no secret that he only thrown out fifteen of
one hundred and forty one base dealers the last three seasons,
and the Dodgers just needed a better backup behind Will
Smith because the reality with Will Smith is each of
(03:13):
the last couple of years his offensive production has dropped
off significantly because of being played way too many games
behind the plate. So the Dodgers just felt like Dalton
Rushing and Hunter Fiduccia were better options to give Smith
more arrest and get him off behind the plate more
(03:34):
often than not.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Yeah, I mean the fact that you were getting text
from players, Dave, I think it also goes to show
that how much respect that Austin Barrs has in at
clubhouse because so many people loved him. But again, at
the end of the day, this is a business decision,
and Austin, you know, frankly, was not the best offense
(04:00):
to catcher in the league. But guys loved him behind
the plate. They loved the way he framed the ball,
they loved the way he received they loved all of that.
But to your point, which I didn't I would, I
didn't realize that it had fallen off in terms of
throwing runners out. Is that what ultimately was like, Okay,
this is the decision we have to make now going forward.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, because of the rules, Rodney, right, it's a lot
easier for opposing teams to try to steal. And look,
it's not all on Austin Barnes. The Dodger pitchers have
to be better at holding runners on. It, be quicker
to the plate because Will Smith has one of the best,
if not the best, throwing arm, and he's kind of
behind because the pitchers are not putting him in a
(04:43):
great position of the row runners out. But to throw
I mean, if you just watched the games, you could
see the throws weren't there for Austin And look, you're right, Rodney,
I don't want to poke holes in Austin's game. What
made him valuable was how good of a teammate he was.
That's the reason why Dodgers picked up a three and
a half million dollar option for this season. They could
(05:05):
have cut ties with him during this past off season,
but chose to bring him back because of the resume,
the track record, and how popular he was with his
teammates and the pitching staff. But it just hasn't It
hasn't gone well for him. And look, this is not
just about Austin Barnes as much as it is about
Will Smith and having another option to be able to
(05:27):
get Will Smith more than just one day off during
the week.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Dave, that conversation, to your knowledge, Dave Roberts had it
with him last night. Andrew Friedman, do you know how
it went down?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, after the game last night, they called Austin in
today Roberts's office and gave him the news day was
in there. I would imagine Brandon Goes and or Andrew
Freeman were in there as well. But that's how I
went down last night.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
And Dave, do you think that this was something that
they had had a conversation with him before for that
this possibly could happen. Or do you think that the
recent conversation in the last couple of days was something that,
I don't want to say blindsided, but just caught him
off guard. But do you think that something that the
Dodgers were thinking going into this season.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I don't believe that's something they were thinking about coming
into the season. They obviously were hoping that Austin would
be able to be the guy that he was the
last couple of years as a receiver and also a
guy that handled the pitching staff really well when Will
Smith needed a day off, But they obviously felt like
their option with Dalton Rushing was significantly better in that department.
(06:42):
It's not again, it's not just about Austin Barnes. It's
about getting Will Smith more days off and also the
emergence of Dalton Rushing. You have one of the best
getting prospects in baseball that is being blocked by Austin Barnes,
and the Dodgers don't have another position for him to play.
He's a catcher, so now it's going to be Dalton
(07:04):
Rushing Will Smith. That era begins and Dalton Rushing talking
to him in spring training, he as a young player,
already understands how important it is to have a pitcher
catcher relationship and how pitchers are very different from each other.
So just having that type of conversation with him, it
(07:26):
makes me believe that he's mature enough to be ready
to go right now. And he's not playing left field,
he's not playing first base. He's a catcher. So it's
not really just about Austin Barnes. It's about the fact
that Dalton Rushing is now ready and you're doing him
a disservice by keeping keeping him in the minor league.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, David, that that got me to think in earlier
I mean, how much is he going to play? Because
in the miners he gonna play every day, but he's
not going to play every day here.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yeah, he's not gonna you know, Will Smith is the guy,
let's make no mistakes about that. But the are he's probably,
you know, on the rest of this nine game road
trip of eight games to go including tonight, is probably
gonna play at least three times on this homestand he's
not here to sit. He's here to play, and you're
gonna get, you know, a big threat off the bench
(08:16):
as a left handed hit or something the Dodgers haven't
had when they constructed this roster. So it's not just
about him when he starts the game, but also having
that big power thread, a really good left handed hitter
off the bench.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yeah. Yeah, it makes it. It makes it a little tough,
a little tough.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
It's tough, Rodney, because Austin was a great guy. He
meant a lot to a lot of people. He'd been
here his entire major league career. But if you take
a step back and take the emotions out of it,
you kind of understand the thinking behind this. And also,
you know, you could try to find a way to
get mad at the Dodgers and Andrew Friedman, But who
(08:56):
else was going to pay Austin Barnes three and a
half million dollars for this season? Has a backup catcher,
So the Dodgers have done a lot of right by him.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, they have.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
They have, and they've kept him around for a long
long time as the backup catcher with very little offensive performance.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I agree with that. I agree with that.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Dave switching gears, Roki Sazaki and his situation and him
kind of holding back some of the soreness. What do
you make of that? And I mean I talked about
it earlier, David.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
As a young player, you don't want to always say
that I'm sore, I'm hurt, or whatever, because you want
to impress the club that you're with. But now we're
figuring out that he was pitching hurt. How does that sit?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
It doesn't sit well, Rodney, and I think it's a
cautionary tale for the Dodgers and other teams that recruit
and sign these Japanese pitchers because they're the only players
on him major league team that seemingly have their own
personal staff of trainers massuse. That's what Roki Sazaki came with,
(10:03):
and that was an understanding when they signed him. Any
team that signed him would have had to agree to
all that. And maybe having that inner circle of his
own personal training staff and messus allowed him to hide
this more from the Dodgers training staff. And I think
maybe you know, Roki Sazaki and his staffers have to
(10:24):
be held a little bit more accountable that you've got
to be more transparent with us about what's going on
with this player.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
That's fascinating to me, Dave, so, I guess what what
you're saying is they knew.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
But I don't know if they knew. I don't know
if he held it back from them. But you would
imagine in that inner circle, they have their hands on him, Yeah,
virtually every day, So you imagine they.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Were absolutely I agree Dave his internal Japanese crew. I
would imagine that they absolutely knew, and they're loyal to
Suzaki as aos to loyal to the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Right, they're in a tough spot. They're there because of Suzaki.
And look that every player tries to hide certain things
so they can keep playing. And a lot of times
I've heard managers and gms tell me players will lie
about how they're feeling. You've got to be able to
make that decision for them, and the Dodgers made it,
and kudos to them. Were saying, you know what, this
can't keep going. There's something wrong. Be honest with us,
(11:26):
your velocities at ninety four, you've got no command, and
you're putting our bullpen in our rest of our starting
staff in a precarious position, not only the days that
you pitch, but the days before and the days after.
So they made the right decision, all right.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So last night David had Clayton Kersha on the pre
game of course, a great debt. He gets ready to
go this weekend. Who do you have tonight? TBD? Fred, Okay,
we'll tell you what d That's going to be big TV?
Did could be anybody?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Dave, I'm hoping to talk to uh last night's local
hero You can appreciate this, mister Rogan's heroes. Jacob Wilson
at a Thousand Oaks High School, hoping to catch up
with him after a big night at Roger Stadium.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Hey, Dave, let me ask you that speaking of the
biginer Jagoe Wilson Thousand Oaks High to home run two
two r on home runs.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
H Maybe Holly Robinson will be back on the field tonight.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Right hey hey, speaking of that.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah, and my my Japanese son Robinson was in town,
so he got to spend time in the clubhouse with
a lot of the Japanese players speaking Japanese to him.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So that was a great experience.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
So shout out to the Dodgers, Dave Roberts, Lonrosen for
making that happen because he got to spend time, you know,
with some of the Japanese players, and and I know
he speaks the language, so that was great. But but Dave,
you know, Fred joked a couple of days ago that
the A's are coming to town. Are you surprised? Are
you at all surprised? I guess that the A's are
(12:58):
performing as well as they are are given their situation
of being in Sacramento, not knowing what the situation is
going to be in Las Vegas, whether it's two years,
three years, wherever it is, that they are actually performing
this well.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, I mean, it's tough circumstances. But maybe part of
the reason why they're able to play as well as
they are is they got a bunch of young guys
that they just called up from the minor league, so
they're used to playing in minor league stadiums and are
just happy to be in the big league. So when
you're when you're hungry, wherever you're playing, it doesn't matter.
They're not ten year veterans that you know, feel entitled.
(13:38):
They're guys that are trying to make a name for themselves,
so they're in no position to pout or feel sorry
for their stadium circumstances. But it is embarrassing for Major
League Baseball to have two of their teams playing in
minor league stadiums. I'll say that on behalf of them.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Amen, Dave, thanks for doing the trillion pre shit it.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We'll talk to you soon, Okay, guys, thanks, all.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Right, Well, there you go, Rodney. Everybody knew last night.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Yeah, yeah, And I felt that that they knew, that
they reached out to other players, that they knew that
this was possibly going to happen. It's just it's it's
tough because he's been here for so long and we
all like Austin and he has always been unselfish and
(14:30):
did whatever he had he needed to do. When he
was a guy that you rooted for Fred every time
he came to the plate. You know he was not
you know, certainly he was not Will Smith behind the
plate and offensively, but you knew defensively he was good,
and you rooted for him when he came up to
the plate to get a hit, and every time he did,
you were like very excited that Austin got a hit.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
What he's say, in the last three years, one hundred
and thirty one guy stealing you threw out fifteen. That
was it. Yeah, that was it. I'm changed. Yeah. Dalton
Rushing uh will be at Dodger Stadium tonight. I'm not
sure if he'll play. I would think it to be
Will Smith, but who knows. Dalton Rushing is on the
big club now. Uh okay. So we talk a lot
(15:16):
about Nil College athletics and UCLA is kind of in
a different place than USC is. You know, USC has money,
UCLA doesn't. And how much money is UCLA missing. Let's
talk about that next. Yeah, We've got some numbers here
(15:39):
and it will show the difference between the two schools
why they do what they do, and we'll get to that.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Uh ah yeah, come on, Roddey p Fred broken, come
on now, got man, come.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Out, tell you something. Tough. Tough to be in the
college sports business, tough to be a Division one school
right now? Nil Rodney's favorite slogan A town without a sheriff.
Anything goes, whoever's got the most money wins. The term
(16:26):
student athlete, I've talked about it in the past, doesn't
really exist at the Division IE level. They are athlete students.
The NCAA is a fraud for suggesting, well, these kids
are going here for an education. No, they're not. They're
really not. They're going to get paid at the Division
one level, the D three level. Sure, you're paying for
the right to go to school there. Division one and
(16:50):
even in some Division two situations. These guys get help
and they get paid, and that means you better have
a lot of money in your athletic department. Now, we've
always kicked around the difference between USC and UCLA, certainly
because Rodney went there, and second because it's pretty well
assumed even from when Rodney went to school to today.
(17:10):
USC's got a lot of money, a lot of money.
It's a private school, they've got a lot of money.
You Cela's a public school and didn't have quite as
much money. So you can see a distinct difference really
in how the athletic programs operate. You know, we have
more money, you can do more things. Well, you don't
have a much money. It's like, yeah, but they don't
(17:31):
get state funding either.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
USC doesn't, UCLA does, and UCLA does have a lot
of wealthy alum that donate to the program. Yeah, USC
has more money than the state. Come on, what are
we doing, well, we don't get that, we don't get
that state money. Yes, I know they got to share it.
(17:56):
I know they got to share with all the UCLA
you know, you see regents and all that. But they
still get state money. But they claim to have comparable
alum as USC. They got a prominent alum.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Those comparable alum don't spend like the USC alum do. True,
that's fair. True. And also when UCLA went to the
Big Ten, of course they now have to pay bag
money to CAL. Oh yeah, that's scrudinum right, because everybody
was so upset. How could UCLA leave and go to
the Big ten and not take col C.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, that's why CAL got all their money from UCLA.
So now they're complaining that UCLA is going to take
that money from them.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Right. So here's the bottom line. Think about this. If
you're running a business. At the completion of this fiscal year,
UCLA was running two hundred and nineteen million dollars in
the hole in the hole, so they're operating in a deficit.
(18:57):
This past year, the deficit was fifty one point eight
million dollars. That's a lot of money. And the problem here,
you see is that how can that get better without
more money? Because, as we know in life, costs only
go up. They're not going to go down. So UCLA
(19:21):
is now running at a deficit and long term Rodney
that will affect the overall program.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Martin Jerremond compete, how they compete, you know, we you
know the Bill Belichick obviously is in the news right
and you know in North Carolina, and he's in the
news because the girlfriend, and we talked about that yesterday,
but he's also in the news because North Carolina has
and the way they've set it up.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Is that they are all in now. They are going
to run this like a business, and they're going to
run it like a professional club. They brought in professional guys.
They are going to be fully engaged in NIL programs.
They're going to be they are going to take it
to the next level at North Carolina, which is I
(20:08):
guess why Bill came involved, and he brought the people that.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
He brought involved in it.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Mike Lombardi's involved in it, some other folks that he's
got as general managers. They're going to run it like
a pro franchise, whereas Clemson has now said they are
not going to engage in that. So we'll see where
Clemson goes from now. In the next five years, not
really conforming to the n NIL kind of program and
(20:35):
paying players and really trying to figure out a way
to keep.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
The players that are there.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
When those players can get more money leaving, they're going
to say, Okay, see you later. We'll see where Clemson is.
UCLA can't compete on that level. So if you can't
compete on that level, we just saw the Tennessee quarterback
leave Tennessee and now he's at UCLA making.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Less then he would have made it toennes See. He
took a pay. It doesn't make doesn't make sense. That's
not That's not the norm, Fred, That is not the norm.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
So how does UCLA compete when they are already operating
at a deficit and and don't have the money to compete.
How do they compete in the Big ten going forward?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
First, they don't, if we're to be completely transparent, they don't.
They won't. They can't. They can't. I mean, they'll be
in the Big Ten. Maybe they'll get lucky.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
But in what does that put college sports though? That's
that's the thing, I guess the bigger question.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
It puts it exactly where it's been, except now guys
are getting paid instead of secretly getting paid. That's where
puts it.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
So there's no no longer even more so now no
longer where you get the small school or the fourth
fifth school in a conference coming up to win a
national title. It is going to be Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon,
USC Washington, out West and Alabama, Georgia, Florida and you
(22:18):
know LSU.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I guess Texas.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Now, so there's gonna be about ten twelve schools that
will be competing for the title every single year.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Right, Well, it comes down to the pros. Who's got
the best roster, who stays healthy, who's got the best roster,
and can the coach coach those guys? It's pretty simple.
The best players always win. Sure there's an upset, Sure,
yeah the long shot or the Cinderella story can emerge,
but who's got the best players? Major League Baseball, especially
(22:49):
in football, I mean basketball, there's only five guys on
the court, so there are a number of guys can
go to different places, and you can always have an
upstart or some school that kind of run makes a run.
But in football, when you got eleven guys and you
got twenty two total offense, defense, money's gonna count These
(23:10):
guys are gonna go where the money is. Okay, look
at this, Who's got a better chance to win the
World Series this year? Just tell me who's got a
better chance. The Pittsburgh Pirates or the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Who's got a better chance. He's got a better chance
to win the World Series this year? The Cincinnati Reds
or the Los Angeles Dodgers. Really, if you look at it,
(23:34):
who's got a better chance to win the World Series
this year? The Los Angeles Dodgers or anybody else. Doesn't
guarantee the Dodgers are going to win the World Series.
But you know they've got the best shot. Why is
that They've got the best roster. Now, luck's involved, guys
gotta stay healthy, all that, but they've got the best
(23:56):
overall roster. The exact same thing will be true in college.
Who's got the best roster? No? Sure, there can be
a kid that goes to Marshall or Acron and if
it's your son or daughter and they want to compete
at the collegiate level, that's great. But the reality is
those kids that go to a school like that probably
are not going to be pros. It's a long shot
(24:18):
or a wild card at best. The pros are gonna
come out of the big D one schools, and the
big D one schools will get the best players by
paying the most. So if you look at UCLA and
they've got a problem with their stadium, they're not enough
suites at the Rose Bowl, they're.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Gonna use it and the least or whatever they're paying,
they don't own the stadium.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Correct number one. And then and then, like you said.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
The the sweet value, it's it's the reason why USC
paid to renovate the Colisseum because they.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Charge they did.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
They charged an arm and a leg for those suites
at the Colisseum now right, and it's a premium, but
they own the stadium. They paid and owned the Colisseum.
Now they represent the UCLA does it and there's no
suites there. They don't get the revenue from Sweet and
who knows, I don't even know what they get from
concessions out there at the Rose Bowl. Who knows what
(25:18):
that number is. So they don't get it. They don't
get it.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
They're thinking that because they don't own the stadium, they
don't have all the sweets and everything that's costing them
fifteen to twenty five million a year. So you don't
get that money, it doesn't exist. And what will happen
The halves will get stronger and the have nots will
fall further behind, kind of like the way it is
in life, fair or unfair, But in this scenario, the
(25:45):
concern is one of the have nots is in the
city with the halves, and that makes it glaring. Yeah,
you've got USC sitting here and then build.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
A new facility on campus and building a whole new
football megastructure on campus, and then there they've got their
money to afford nil not as much as Texas or
anybody else, but they certainly got more than UCLA. And yeah,
it's glaring what they're doing on campus at SC. And
then you look at UCLA because facilities matter too. When
(26:22):
guys come to be you know, recruited, you look at
it up and going, wow, look at this. We just
talked about the Dodgers' clubhouse. Right when kids out of
high school come and visit, they're like, oh, that's what
put Oregon on the map. Oregon got it when Phil
Knight said we're gonna build the best facility in college
at Oregon. We're gonna put the Nike facility at Oregon,
(26:46):
and that's when kids started to go in there. You
can't compete, can't compete. And it's clearing because if you
were to look at it like this, you have a USC,
and that's kind of the way it is, this gigantic
USC and.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Now you CLA. They're like tiny compared to them because
they can't they can't afford it, and it will only
get worse by the way. No one can operate at
a deficit forever. You're not going to be three hundred
million dollars in the hole. I gotta tell you, that's
not gonna happen. But you still want to compete because
you have kids going to school there and that's a
(27:28):
big part of the experience. So I don't know what
a school like UCLA does. They're stuck in no man's land?
What do they do? Fred? What do they do? How
did they rectify it?
Speaker 3 (27:41):
I mean, they're a state school, They're they're bound by
state parameters, They've they've got a prominent alumni. But how
do they how do they compete from a dollar standpoint?
But can't I mean, honestly, they just can't. They got
huge problems now and When you see those numbers, you're thinking, well,
(28:05):
that cannot go on forever.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
It can't. And even if, somehow, some way there are
two hundred million dollars in the hole, one of their
great alums says, you know what, I got twelve billion dollars.
I'll buy you out of this. Here's two hundred million dollars. Great,
they're operating fifty million dollars in the hole a year.
So just because it got me out of this one,
(28:30):
what am I about to do on this? Yeah? There's
another one coming right? So how do how do I
reconcile that you got me out of this one? Thank god? Okay,
my credit card is paid off. What do you mean
there's fifty million dollars more on it two days later?
I don't have that money. That's what UCLA's facing. That's
the problem. The president of the NCAA welcomes federal intervention
(28:55):
into player compensation issues. First of all, you don't want
government regulation for anything, really, folks, nothing. The last thing
you want is a government in your business. He's going
come on in, come on and help us out here.
You guys make the rules. That's fine. We're Mike Florio
(29:17):
Pro Football Talk says no, no, let these kids unionize.
If that's the case, there's.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Got to be some structure here, Yeah, there has And
that is the problem, right there's no structure right now.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Well, everybody can do what they want.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yeah, there's no governing body. There's no real structure to anything.
Nil there, you know, transfer compensation, all of that. There's
no structure to it right now. There's no regulation to
anything right now. And I'm a you know, I don't
like I don't like regulation at all either. But there's
(29:55):
gotta be some guidelines that everybody adheres to that makes
it work for.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
The majority of people.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Otherwise, again, you're gonna have there's going to be ten
schools that are competing every year.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
That's it. You don't know. If people complain in baseball
about the Dodgers and they say, we simply can't compete,
We cannot compete with their money. We've heard that. You
know that. I'm not speaking out of school here, all right,
but you understand those are professional organizations operated by businessmen.
And if you can't compete, that's your problem. You've bought
(30:32):
the wrong team, You're in the wrong market. Whatever. Those
are the pros, those are the big kids. And you
have people in professional sports saying we can't compete with them.
All right, that's fine, but that's the pros you understand now,
that's the case in collegiate athletics. Yeah, that's exactly what
this is. We cannot compete with Tennessee's nil Ohio State
(30:56):
what they paid twenty million dollars for their team last year.
We can't compete with that. What do you want us
to do? Well, maybe not compete. Maybe you would have
the schools with all the money, they will compete against
each other. Any other schools will be in little, smaller conferences.
(31:18):
There's a place for everybody. Everybody gets a shot. Anybody
that goes to college could have a chance to play
on a team. And if that's your dream, you go
to a school where you'll get to play. Just you
may not be playing at Ohio State. Okay. Is that
going to matter at the end of the day or
is it gonna matter that you played? The problem with
(31:39):
that is the schools that become to have nots now
generate less revenue because going to the games is and
it was attractive. Yeah, it becomes a problem.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
So it has to be I don't know a salary
cap a cap on an a cap on something. So
it makes it okay, you got to get to this level,
then you can compete as opposed to it's a it's
a bottomless pit that schools like, ohio, stay okay, you
(32:13):
got to that level. We're going to go deeper. Oh
you got to that level us, we're going to go deeper.
Now you got to keep going. Now you got to
and and and schools are not going to be able
to do that. There's got to be a level where okay,
you got to get to this level. Now you got
to work yourself to a what is it, twenty two
million dollar level to play player pay players. Get to
(32:34):
that level, then you can compete with everybody else. Now
you got to work to that level. But if it's
endless and say oh it's we got to twenty two.
But now oh, I'll say it's going to fifty. USC
is going to fifty, then you're like, oh my god,
we just got to the twenty two level.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Now we got to go to fifty. That's not gonna work.
It's one thing in the pros tough luck. Those are
the pros.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Yeah, as billionaires that made their money, they're all good college.
You should bought the team if you if you can't compete,
might agree with the one hundred percent. You shouldn't be
the owner of the Pirates if you can't compete with
the Mets.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, but your problem, you're the billionaire. You bought the team.
But in college, there does seem need to have some
regulation of some sort. So all right, if it's twenty
two million, if you want to be in the big time, everybody,
it's going to cost you twenty two million.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Twenty two million is the number. Yes, you got any
that's it that level.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
You go over twenty two million, you're in eligible for playoffs,
you're ineligible for whatever or is it a big pine or
whatever it may be, right, yeah, right, but there needs
to be a number. By the way, when that number
is established, it's going to be more of a problem
because there will be more teams that can pay that
number than can't. And no one's going to cap at
a ten million. The numbers ten million. You think Ohio
(33:59):
State is gonna say, yeah, we're good with that. No,
right now, you think Texas is gonna go yeah, thumbs up, Oregon, Okay,
that works for us? Oh no, they want to win
so it's bottom line is this for UCLA. It's not good.
(34:26):
Say we're back to wrap things up after this, all right?
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Then coming up on a final minutes of a Wednesday,
a hump day for Rogan and Rodney.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Come on now, all right, Rodney ready to live the
Then see Sushi Life. Well, here's your shot at an
unforgettable night in Los Angeles. Two premium sweet tickets to
a game. This may complete with gourmet food, drinks, and
preferred parking Luxury Exclusive. It's just once in a way.
Head to the zen She counter near the deli at
any participating in Ralph's grocery store, scanned the QR code
(35:07):
and interviewer chance to win this once in a lifetime
experience to tales at A and five to seventy LA
sports dot com. Then see zen She sou She Fast
Fresh easy. Find it at your local Ralphs right by
the deli.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Said that well, Fred said, well, I don't know if
I said it well, but at least I said it.
So that's got to count for something. Yeah, Yamamoto goes
tonight for the Dodgers. No, I think Yamamoto tonight. I
think it is Yamamoto. Yes, he's been. Uh, he's been good.
You know, you look up and you know, barring the
start that he had last season, which was a little shaky,
(35:43):
he ended up being very, very productive for the Dodgers.
And when Tyler glass Now went down, because we always talked,
you know, he you know, until All Star break, he
was the ace and stopped the bleeding. But Yamamoto became
the guy. And so yeah, he is, I would he's
the ace of this team right now? He really is, right, yeah,
(36:06):
by far he's the ace. Well, remember last year he had.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Some arm issues to Rodney, Yes, yeah he did, he did,
but he came back at the end of the season,
and remember he had some big time playoff wins and
starts for the Dodgers, and so yeah, he became the
ace for them. I'm sorry, Kevin, will you are you
going to say something now?
Speaker 5 (36:26):
I was just saying as far as being the ace
of the staff, he's probably the only starter, healthy starter
that they have at this point. I'm looking at their
their upcoming you know, their their probable pitchers for the
upcoming five games. We got Yamamoto tonight, I got TBD, TBD,
Kershaw TBD.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Oh okay, how fun was that? You weren't saying he's
the Ace of the staff, Kevin. You were saying he
is the staff basically. Yes, yeah, the whole staff. He's
the entire state. Pretty much. We got one guy, and
he's the man. Yamamoto. Love it, Ronnie, thank you, great job, Kevin.
Appreciate it, Ronney. We're back at it tomorrow, Yes, sir,
Roggin And Rodney News
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.