2025-07-11 - BBI

UK raising ticket prices for students; Texas Tech hits an NIL gusher thanks to an alum; (11:00) the value of a huge hat at a ball game; (18:00) Noah Cierzan, new face at WLEX Sports; (39:00) WLAP's Billy Rutledge on skyrocketing cost of college sports; (59:00) a look back at a busy Week That Was; (1:07:00) Heroes, Fools and Flakes and inspiring words from a successful (but fictional) coach...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Big Blue and Sider. Dick Gabriel with
you on a Friday edition of our show. Coming up tonight,
we're gonna meet one of the newest members of the
election in sportscasting community, that is Noah Searson from LAX eighteen.
There are some new faces in town and he is
one of them. So we'll have a chance to chat
with Noah coming up at the bottom of the hour.

(00:21):
But also one of the old hands, not the old
heads because he's not that old, but our own Billy
Rutledge joins us in our number two. Haven't had a
chance to chat with Billy much about what's been going
on of late. We like to check in with him
now and then you hear him of course each and
every day on this very radio station on the chs
our pregame show with our pre show, which I call
Billy and the Dude. He and Shannon follow the Leach

(00:42):
Report here on the WLAP. So we'll talk with Billy
a little bit and we'll chat about an upcoming special
edition of the Leach Report for next week which will
kind of carry over into The Big Blue Insider, but
we'll explain that a little bit later on We're gonna
talk here off the top about money because money is

(01:04):
front and center now. Well it always is, and always
has been and always will be when it comes to
college athletics, but more so now than ever, what with
the new rulings about players being paid, the amount of
money that schools have to come up with now twenty
million dollars plus to pay players, and in one way

(01:24):
or the other, they got to figure it out. One
of the ways UK is trying to figure things out
is raising ticket prices on students. UK has a sports
budget and athletics budget now of one hundred and fifty
million dollars. I've talked about this more than once and
again I've been around forever. I remember when a top

(01:45):
fifty million. I remember when a top to one hundred million.
I had not covered board meetings in a while, and
I was stunned when I heard it was up to
one hundred and fifty million. But you've got prices escalating,
You've got inflation. I talked about this all the time.
The more trips that your teams take via charter, your

(02:07):
athletics department has to worry about the cost of jet fuel,
which is going up. But again, Larry Ivy told me
this many many years ago, more than twenty years ago.
The item that was climbing the fastest in terms of cost.
What he was the ad and I'll promise you it
it's not stopped or backed up is insurance. People forget

(02:27):
about this when these idiots talk about how, oh, scholarships
aren't worth much of anything, you know, beyond a free education,
room and board, clothing, high priced clothing, all of that housing.
These kids and good for them, are covered when it
comes to insurance, full medical and dental while they're on scholarship.

(02:53):
And those prices climb as you know, those of us
who are fortunate to have insurance we know goes up
every year, every couple of years. So these dollar figures
are escalating. And now and the UK's got you know,
decent enough pockets, not super deep, but a lot of

(03:13):
responsibility when it comes to its athletic budget. Now you
tack on twenty million, what is that twelve to fifteen
percent more, it's inevitable that ticket prices would go up,
including for students. And I know back in the day,
students either got in free or they had to pay
five bucks to get into a basketball or a football game,

(03:36):
and they can still get in free to other events.
But now for the twenty five twenty sixth season, basketball
season passes for students will cost three hundred and forty
five dollars. That's still a great bargain, but for a student,
and that's up from two hundred for last year. That's

(03:57):
a seventy percent increase. Now you can buy a single
game ticket, but the cost of that ticket will range
from fifteen to forty dollars instead of eleven to twenty
for last year. Football season pass one hundred and forty
five dollars, more than sixty percent increase from ninety bucks

(04:19):
during the last year. And I will tell you and
you know this if you go to UK football games,
and sometimes you'll see it on TV, student sections are
the first ones to show up empty for whatever reason.
And that's my man, Jep Pikoro. It's a constant source
of frustration for him as he says, what else is

(04:41):
there to do on a Saturday? Well, apparently there's something,
but if it costs money, then you've got to make
a decision if you're a student. I happen to think
it's still a pretty good deal, but I like going
to football games. Now again, I don't have to pay,
but I did go to football games as a student
as a fan when I was at UK before start
to covering games. So anyhow, we'll see what the fallout is.

(05:04):
It's going to be interesting to see how the ticket
price increase affects the eruption zone in rup Aerna. Of course,
that is kind of the heart and soul of Kentucky basketball.
The fan base, especially in the big games, always announced
as the sixth man in rupp Aerina. But it's going
to be interesting to see if there are empty spaces there.

(05:26):
There are already empty spaces at football games and the
student sections at some of the games. The biggest games
still draw good crowds from the students and they still
make it a great event. And Mark Stoops makes it
a point to mention that after big games about the
atmosphere Kentucky football games. But you got to think that
this will eat into the crowds even more at football

(05:47):
and perhaps at basketball. And it won't take long to see,
because there are some games early in the season for
the basketball Wildcats where they aren't necessarily the highest profile opponents.
So we'll see what the students have to say, will
they speak with their wallets, will they speak with their
Venmo accounts? It won't be long now. I got to
think around the country when this news gets out. It's

(06:10):
already out that there will probably be some people in
the world of college athletics that say, hey, Kentucky just
raised prices on its student tickets for basketball. Wow, let's
keep an eye on that. Everybody's keeping an eye on
everybody else. And one of the schools that is really
casting a wide broad shadow is Texas Tech. Texas Tech

(06:35):
out there in West Texas, that's oil country, is spending
a lot of money. You probably know. They spend a
million dollars on a softball pitcher and it paid off.
They got to the championship game. They lost to Texas.
Didn't buy a championship, but bought in appearance in the
championship game. And they're spreading it out. And why is

(06:58):
this happening, Well, there is a company out there called
Double Eagle Energy, led by a man named Cody Campbell.
He was a three year starter not that long ago,
on the offensive line at Texas Tech from twenty oh
one to four, so a little more than twenty years ago.
He and a man named John Sellers who was a

(07:20):
teammate of his both at Kenyon High School and Texas Tech.
They were the Canyon Eagles. That's why it's called Double
Eagle Energy. And they began to buy the land when
the housing market collapsed back in twentyh eight, and they
scoured the Permian basin looking for leases and looking to

(07:46):
buy mineral rights with no guarantees. And according to his
story on cbsports dot com, they were closer to bankruptcy
than billionaire status. But timing was perfect. Oil prices crashed,
Double Eagles snapped up huge chunks of land out there.

(08:07):
And when you can do that, trust me in West
Texas and you can figure this out for yourself. I
lived in Texas. I knew people who owned land in
West Texas and were hoping to find oil. But the
more land you have, the better chance you have at
finding oil. You can drill here, drill there. And they

(08:29):
hit it big and earlier this year, Campbell and Sellers
they made one of their biggest deals ever and sold
land for more than four billion dollars worth of cash
and stock. So now you got a guy like Cody Campbell,
a fourth generation Texas Tech Red Raider. His grandfather was

(08:53):
part of the first ever class at Texas Tech in
nineteen twenty five. His brother and his father both played
at TeX's and he is now chairman of the board
of Regents. So he is a big deal, not just
financially but in terms of clout at his alma mater.

(09:17):
I think you spent a little time playing for the Colts,
but he came back and is pouring money into his
alma mater. So I read an anecdote on cbsports dot com.
Last year Tech lost to Colorado and a fan apparently
jeered at him on social media and said, hey, buy

(09:39):
us an O line, and Campbell tweeted back simply I will,
and he spends. CBS sports dot com is where you
can find it. If you want to just google it.
Just type in cbssports dot com Texas Tech. It'll come up.
All in on the nil and the billionaire Landman Responsible.

(10:04):
I know there's a series out now. It's a really
good one with Billy Bob Thornton called Landman. Not the
same guy, not the same story, but interesting nonetheless. Up next,
we'll talk more wildcat sports, which Kentucky players might leave
via the Pro draft. Wildcats playing in the summer leagues

(10:24):
at in Vegas. And Livy Dunn, the girlfriend of Paul Skens,
the well known gymnast from LSU, former LSU Tiger who
was one of the first to jump on that nil money.
A little bit of a stepback for her. We'll talk
about that and more on The Big Blue Sider six
point thirty WAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Sider.

(10:49):
Coming up as the Major League Baseball Draft, and it's
not in terms of being in a high profile event
as big as of course the NFL Draft or the
NBA Draft, but to baseball fans and college coaches, well
baseball people everywhere pro in college, it is a big deal.
But especially to college coaches, head coaches, their assistants, it's

(11:11):
a huge deal because it has a lot to say
in some corners about what your team's gonna look like.
I do remember, and I've said this before, Keith Madison
back in the late eighties really amped up his recruiting
when his program was growing well. One year he had
eight kids really good class signed, six went pro late
in the summer, and it crushed his recruiting efforts for

(11:33):
the next couple of years because you know, you start
recruiting kids when they're sophomores. But you've got some guys
on the UK roster right now who may or may
not be drafted high enough to turn their head. You
got a left handed pitcher, Connor Essenberg. He's actually a
two way player, but a lefty pitcher. You could hear

(11:55):
him go. You got a right hander, Josh Flores. You've
got Owen Jenkins, a catcher. You've got another catcher, Jace Mitchell.
These guys all have four years of eligibility coming in.
They might get drafted, they might not show up on
the UK roster. Then you've got transfers. Tyler Serne, the
Indiana infielder, might be drafted, might decide not to play

(12:19):
at Kentucky. You got the kid from Northern Kentucky, Caden Eschman,
right handed pitcher. Maybe he's drafted and decides not to
play anymore college ball. And of course, off the UK
staff Ethan Walker, a good left hander with one year
of eligibility remaining. So yeah, you better believe Nick Manngione

(12:40):
and Austin Kuzeno and Dan Roselle they're going to keep
a close eye on what's happening. With the Major League
Draft mentioned Livy Dunn, girlfriend of Paul Skeens, made a
ton of money nil dollars, still making good money with
endorsements and her own line of clothing. But she try

(13:00):
to purchase an apartment a co op in New York
City and they shot her down. She was ready to
pay one point six million bucks get this for the
apartment that once belonged to Babe Ruth when he played
for the Yankees, and they turned him down. She told

(13:20):
her eight million TikTok followers. She is very upset, but
she will She is a babe herself, but will not
be able to buy Babe Ruth's apartment. I'm guessing she
will bounce back. She and boyfriend Paul Skenes, who for
now pitches for the Pirates. They got to build around
him or they're going to lose him. But for now,

(13:43):
Livy Dunn has no apartment in New York City. Trust me,
She'll rebound. Wanted to share with you a clip from
the coverage of the Mets Orioles games last night on
Mets TV. Gary Cone and Keith Hernandez, whom you know
from Seinfeld probably, but I wanted to bring this up

(14:06):
because my man Darren Hedrick had shared with us on
the Chain Gang Text Chain an interview with Joe Buck
who talked about broadcasting baseball on television versus radio and
how it said. He said, it seems like dead air
is never allowed anymore. That if there's anywhere that dead
air is acceptable in sportscasting, it's baseball on television. And

(14:32):
he's right, And again I do both, but primarily UK
baseball on SEC Plus, and the pace of baseball and
the nature of the game allows broadcasters not to necessarily
lay out. You lay out when there's a big moment
and the crowd's going nuts, and the pictures tell the story.

(14:52):
But what I'm talking about is just between pitches, you
don't have to fill the silence. And talks about that
a great deal in this article. I thought it was
really fascinating. Baseball on the radio, different animal. And I've
said this before. When I do a baseball game, I
don't do a radio call. I don't say here's the pitch,

(15:14):
he whinds, he throws, there's a ground ball to the shortstop.
If you can see that on camera. Ninety five percent
of the time, I'm not going to say anything like
that I find a different way to approach it. But
and I've been told by a couple of guys in
our line of work they don't like that. They don't
like the fact that I don't talk all the time.
One of them said, you should be talking all the time.

(15:36):
I'm like, no, I don't agree. And another one said, now,
you're just way too laid back. I said, well, that's fine,
that's your opinion, but I like to use the pictures
that are there. We spend a lot of money on
cameras and people. Let's use the pictures on television anyway.
I bring that up simply because there are times and

(15:56):
these guys have more fun I think than anybody on
local TV Baseball. Cone and Hernandez never met. Hernandez worked
with Gary Cone two or three times on the NCAA
radio network. He's terrific. He's got a great sense of humor,
kind of snide New York type, but he's great. They
got a shot of a Mets fan in Baltimore wearing

(16:16):
a Mets jersey and he had on a huge styrofoam
oversized like a cowboy hat. It was even bigger than
the one you saw Norm McDonald wear on Saturday Night
Live and Hernandez had some fun with it, and then
Cohen chimed in said, oh, look at this guy.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
It's funny because it's bigger than a normal hat.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
What are those hats called? Right there?

Speaker 3 (16:47):
I'm never going to hold the norm McDonald hat. I
never was a Panama un foul outside first, they're called
funny hats.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Wouldn't catch me dead in one? Well, I didn't mean
that literally. We can bury you with what if you'd like.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
Or they could put me and incinerate me with it.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Oh that's a happy thought.

Speaker 4 (17:18):
Should I set a forwarding address for the Ashes?

Speaker 1 (17:22):
That was fun? And again, you don't have to fill
every moment, Bud when you're going to do it with
something like that. That's TV Gold. Jerry Gold, all right,
up next, no A series in the new sports anchor
Reporter from ELIX eighteen. I remember two Billy Rudlis Jam.
We'll look back on the week that was here on
six thirty WLAP welcome back to the Big Blue Insider
joined down our celebrity hildline for the first time. He's

(17:44):
new to the market. In fact, Noah seriesan of l
e X eighteen. You see his work over there and
on BBN tonight. I got to think, Noah, welcome. I
assume you'll be all over the channel. Correct, We'll be.

Speaker 5 (17:56):
All over the place, Dick, appreciate you having me on today,
a kind of do it a little bit of everything,
a little bit anchoring, a little bit of reporting. I'm
very excited to kind of expand upon the different experiences
I've had up to this point. And I haven't been
boots on the ground here too long, but it's very
clear how passionate people are about their sports.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
All right, Well, I want to get to that in
a minute, but let me backtrack. You know, I Noah,
like so many people in our line of work, is
already at a young age, a bit of a nomad.
You were from Minneapolis but went to school in Syracuse.
That was kind of a big move getting away from home,
wasn't it.

Speaker 5 (18:33):
It was a big move. Very proud of my Midwestern roots,
still got family friends back in Minnesota, and when I
was trying to figure out kind of what my posts
high school plans were going to look like. Had an
affinity for sports and in affinity for journalism, which took
me out to Syracuse. But to your point, it was

(18:54):
quite the adjustment moving so far away, but I was
able to learn so much from the experience, kind of
thrown in the fire right away, so to speak, and
that's kind of where I was able to develop, you know,
some of my skills that I'm still trying to develop.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
It excited well, and coming from Minneapolis. I mean, that's
what a huge sports market look. People like to say
such and such as a great sports Every town is
a good sports town. But when you've got a big
market like that Minneapolis Saint Paul, You've got all the
pro sports represented, including hockey, You've got a huge college
there more than one. Was it inevitable that you'd be

(19:32):
a sports fan.

Speaker 5 (19:35):
You know, it kind of always was that way, and
you know, it was playing sports when I was younger,
but it was also you know, a lot of it
was my family. My grandpa was a big basketball player.
He played at a small Division III college called Wernona
State back in the day, and you know, I was
able to bond about the Minnesota Twins.

Speaker 6 (19:54):
And he was a big.

Speaker 5 (19:54):
Simperwolves fan as well, which is always hilarious to me
because for the better part of most of my life,
they've been terrible, really until the last couple of years.
But yeah, that's kind of where a lot of my
sports fandom, whether it's you know, going games at the
Metronome at the time where I really grew up on
college basketball, and my little UK connection is that I

(20:19):
was a big Golden Gophers fan growing up. And when
Tubby Smith came to town, it was a big, big deal.
I was actually able to, you know, go to the
camp that he did every summer, and he was very
beloved in the Twin Cities.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, and just bad luck. I mean just seemed like
every time he had a good team, someone would get hurt.
You know, I remember when all this point guys got hurt.
Her his best big guys would get hurt. He just
couldn't catch a break up there. And but yeah, he
he kind of turned the market on its ear here
the Big Moon Nation when he took off to become
a Gopher. We're talking in Noah's ears and he is
a series and he is one of the new hands

(20:56):
on deck and l e X eighteen. There's been a
lot of movement in this market, but that's that's cyclical,
and the longer you're in this business, no way you'll
learn that that it just if somebody leaves the market.
I don't know if it's in threes or whatever, but
there's always movement. And after college you were able to
stay up East and you worked in Vermont, which had
to be interesting. I would bet yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
Vermont was.

Speaker 5 (21:19):
You know, I really loved it there up in the mountains.
Got to see a lot which was fun, and you know,
I was always accustomed to the winters, but you know,
that was a really cool program to follow as well.
University of Vermont is it's kind of the main thing
in that market. You know, everything from being able to
go to March Madness a couple of times. John Becker

(21:39):
has done a phenomenal job with that program for over
a decade and really kind of have a good thing
worked out in the America East. And then you know
stories like the men's soccer team ended up winning the
national championship life wow, I remember that, yeah, which following
that run was pretty insane. And even seeing the parade

(22:00):
down Church Street, which is the main street in downtown Burlington,
over five thousand people getting excited for that that men's
soccer championships. So I had so many awesome experiences there.
Also got to go Lake Placid was in that market
as well, and you know, got to do things like

(22:20):
go visit with Mike Ruzioti as he took his grandchildren
back to relive the miracle on ice. So I think
that's what you know. One of the things about Vermont,
and you know this business, like you alluded to, that's interesting,
is you never know what you're gonna stumble upon and
where you're gonna stumble upon it.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
You know what, Vermont's on my bucket list, and here's why.
It is one of four states that I have never
been in. I only need four. Vermont's one of them, Minnesota,
North Dakota, and Hawaii or the others. But I've been
every other New England state, but I've not been to Vermont.
And I remember I was in one of the sportscaster

(22:59):
gap Rings National and talking to in his name escased me,
this legendary Vermont sportscaster, and he was telling me about
hockey up there. And I know how hockey is in
certain parts of the country, but so crazy college hockey
at Vermont. He told me, he said, think about Kentucky basketball,
that's Vermont hockey. When it comes to the fans, have

(23:21):
you found that. I know you haven't been here very long,
but is that accurate?

Speaker 5 (23:25):
I would say so that that might have been George
Como you're talking to me, might have been who is
a legend in Vermont has called everything from University Verma
men's hockey has been legendary for years. So there's some
really really quality Division III programs Norwich Middlebury that the
communities get super invested into. And I think that's very

(23:46):
true that in Vermont it's really competitive skiing that people
really like to follow as well as hockey, which you know,
as a native Minnesotan was a pretty natural transition to
you know, be able to cover that. Although do not
ask me to get on skates. My career in hockey

(24:07):
was very short lived. I prefer to watch from ringside.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
All right. Well, that brings us to moving to lectioningon now.
And I know that you know, market size and money
have things to do with it, But in terms of
researching the market, you know, what did you know? I mean,
clearly as anybody in sports knows about Kentucky basketball, But
what made this move attractive to you?

Speaker 5 (24:31):
You know, I think there are a lot of things
that you know made it attractive not only Kentucky basketball,
but the University of Kentucky in general, you know, is
just a massive program, and I think right now is
one of the most interesting times really in a long
time to be following college sports this closely. With the

(24:51):
transformation of name, image, likeness, the transfer, portal, player empowerment,
there's like new stories coming out every single day, and
I think, you know, being able to sing my teeth
into some of those are you know, that's the sort
of opportunity.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
I was looking for.

Speaker 5 (25:06):
But on top of that, it was really the team
at l e X eighteen and the sports team that
drew me in. There's a bunch of fantastic people that
were already doing awesome work there, and you know, being
able to go to a team that is already having
success and then being able to kind of add on
to that learn you know, I think I bring a

(25:29):
lot of storytelling elements to the table, and you know,
I'm very confident in my skills, but I also realized
I'm just kind of in the infancy of my career
at this point, so I also just want to be
a sponge and learn from everybody else, not only at
the station but in the market. Overall to better my
quote unquote game and serve the market the best. So

(25:50):
I think it was a combination of just you know,
the station, It was a really I feel like a
really good match for both of us, and then the
cover opportunities from UK and also high school sports, like
I am absolutely excited for high school football and specifically
high school basketball because I've never heard of, prior to
moving here, anything like the Kentucky High School Basketball Tournament.

(26:15):
So it's just kind of all all of the things
that encapsulate this market. Of course, forts racing is another
key part of that as well. I think all of
those made it such a unique opportunity, something a little
different than what I've been doing before and gives me
an opportunity to grow and you know, give a service

(26:35):
to the sports fans in the area.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
You will love that. And you hear reference to the
Sweet sixteen with regard to the nca tournament, but the
Kentucky High School Tournament is the Sweet sixteen, which has
been trademarked. That title has actually been trademarked for the
Kentucky Tournament. Not that it matters, but yeah, you're gonna
love that. We're talking with Noah Susan. He is one

(26:57):
of the new sportscasters over at WLA xlaxa team the
home of bbn TO and I will talk more in
a minute on the Big Blue Sider here on six
thirty WLAP Welcome Back, We're talking with Noah Siarsan. He
is one of the new faces over a WLAX Channel
eighteen sportscaster who moved down from the northeast Vermont in
the upstate New York area, originally from Minneapolis, attended Syracuse

(27:20):
where I think when you were there was Beheim was
still the coach.

Speaker 5 (27:23):
Am I right, that is right, And I feel fortunate
to have crossed over with Beheim because sitting in a
press conference with Jim Bayheim, helly boy, you want to
talk about earning your pinstripes as an eighteen year old
just getting into the business. It doesn't get much tougher

(27:44):
than that. So I was able to cross over with him.
I was also able to, you know, one of the
coolest college experiences I had is I went down to
Cameron Indoor for the final matchup between Jim Beheim and
Coach K. Coach K last season, so to just be
able to see those two legends one more time. Yeah,

(28:08):
you know, as a college basketball junkie, that was pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
That's very cool. Did you ever have to field any
barbs from coach Beheim?

Speaker 5 (28:18):
You know, I was, I would say I was largely
someone who came out unscathed. One day, maybe little running
at a press conference after a game in bust In College.
I think I'd asked something to the effect of, like,
who's the clutch shot maker on this team? Nobody had

(28:40):
to that point on that year's team really established themselves.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
And I think he.

Speaker 5 (28:46):
Maybe thought otherwise, But I came out pretty unscathed, which
I chuck up as a win because not all students
who went to Syracuse can say the same.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
And I'm assuming you asked more than one question in
your time there, so yes, you just shrink back and
now but now you've got he's almost the anti Beheim
in Mark Pope. Uh, you know, I mean, he just
he just couldn't be more different.

Speaker 5 (29:14):
Yeah, yeah, which is why it's it's you know, you're
you're really with the experience of Jim Beaheim. You're you're
jumping into the deep end, and then you're almost swimming
to the shallow end. Like I said, John Becker and Vermont.
He was super awesome, uh in press conferences and just
to work with. And you know, I've heard great things

(29:35):
about coach Pope as well, So it'll be a little
different than at least by time in school.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
And by the way, you may already know this, but
Jim Beaheim's wife born in Miami but raised in Kentucky.
He met her here in Lexington. He was in town
playing in a golf tournament and that's where he met her.
She has a degree from u k uh. So, yes,
Ju Beheim was basically a Kentuckian.

Speaker 5 (30:03):
There you go. Yeah, they're well. And the interesting thing
now is that they're in their you know, quot coaching
days and he's kind of taken on the media thing
a little bit, which is kind of funny to see
that that transition for him as well.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
Well.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Let's talk a little bit about what's coming up for Kentucky,
and of course it's SEC media days. Marks if you
dropped into a situation where Kentucky football had been one
of the great stories nationally when it came to Southeastern
Conference football and the success mark Stoops has had here
with multiple bowl games like eighth straight and ten win

(30:42):
seasons and all that, and a place thought to be improbable,
if not impossible, But now it seems like it's all
of a sudden. Mark Stoops is going to be answering
a lot of tough questions down on SEC media days,
So I guess you gotta circle the wagons on that,
don't you.

Speaker 6 (31:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (31:00):
And I think the first and foremost thing is, you know,
they recently for those who didn't see, they recently released
the couple of players that are going to be down
there for SEC mediad's with Coach Stoops, and maybe unsurprisingly,
there's not a quarterback. And I think actually Maggie Davis

(31:25):
dug out the stat that eleven of the sixteen SEC
teams are bringing a quarterback, so a bit of anomaly,
like when you're not bringing a quarterback in to this
sort of event. You know, that in itself is.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
A big question.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
Is it going to be Calzado who they brought in,
or is it Cutter Bowley who saw some time last year.
Could it even be someone else in that room? I
think that's a big question. But there's numerous questions, especially
when you've got a team that has so many newcomers,
both freshmen in the transfer portal on this year's team.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
I kind of would have been surprised if they had
taken either one of those guys, because all they would
have been able to do with a couple of exceptions.
But Bully is speculate, you know, and really there's so
much speculations surrounding this team anyway. But you know, we
could have asked Cutter Bullie, well, what about the Texas game,
that's about it, you know, or you had a big
run against Murray, but it kind of spared them the

(32:22):
need to do that. But there are so many question
marks anyway, no about this team. We're gonna have a
new lead on this story, probably for the first four
or five weeks of the season, don't you think.

Speaker 6 (32:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (32:34):
And I think that Week one game against Toledo will
speak volumes about you know, what are what are the
strengths of this team going to be? It looks like
you know, they bolstered up the offensive line, kind of
invested a lot of resources in that is just gonna
be a run heavy attack again, the quarterback situation, what
does the defense look like? The play calling? You know,

(32:56):
I think that game is going to be a bit
of a barometer for not necessarily what the overall record
of the season will be like, but what the team
is actually going to play like on the field and
whether this is like last year's team that you know underperformed,
is not necessarily the same quality of a team that

(33:19):
e Tucky fans have become used to during the Stoops era.
But the good news is at least in the last
month or so that there have been some off the
field wins in terms of recruiting that you would imagine
what at least by him a little I guess positivity
from the fans.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Yeah, we're talking of Noah Seriesan. He is a new
sports personality over at LAX eighteen, and of course he'll
be covering everything as is all local sportscasters, who's already
talked about looking forward to the high school basketball Sweet sixteen.
High school football cranks up shortly, as you know. But
we've also had a chance to chat with and I
don't know, forgive me if you've been involved in any

(33:59):
of these interviews with basketball Wildcats that they've made available
to us, but once again, you signed on at a
fascinating time for UK basketball with the second year of
the Mark Pope era. But almost an entirely new look
for this team. You got to be looking forward to that.

Speaker 5 (34:15):
I would think, yeah, and I think this year, you know,
last year with you know, coach Pope's team, it was
so intriguing because he, along with you know, several others,
so essentially put together entire roster from scratch and not

(34:37):
so ideal time when some guys had already transferred and
other freshmen had already committed. And while there are a
lot of new faces on this year's team, and there's
at least a little more stability in terms of you
got a couple of returners, but also having a full
cycle to recruit this year's team. And I think, you

(34:58):
know so secret they went very very hard into the
portal investing in this year's team.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
And there's just.

Speaker 5 (35:06):
A lot of interesting guys like somebody like Jayden Quainton
from Arizona State, Like he was an animal out there
last season up until his injury, So it's how does
he rebound? Where does he fit into this year's team,
along with the rest of the bigs that are on
this team as well, somebody like Jasper Johnson. A lot
of people just got to watch him in the FOBA.

(35:28):
You nineteen World Cup can shoot the lights out like
nobody else. He's got almost I think I actually tweeted
something out about it, like a James Hardens stepbacker ability
to make his own shot from behind the arc is
a lefty. So there are so many intriguing storylines with
this team as well. And you know, I've been to

(35:50):
a couple of press conferences and all they talk about
is just how deep they are and how confident they are.
So what does that depth actually look like, and how
does Pope handle them in year two of his regimes?

Speaker 1 (36:01):
And what also amazes me is how much they've talked
about defense. And I don't know if they've been prompted
to do that. It seems organic, but I think based
on what we hear in the video we've seen that
UK releases from the scrimmages, Uh, there's a lot of
shots going up that aren't making it to the rim,
that are blocked, that are rejected, and as we know,
and then you may have caught into this last year.

(36:23):
For the first maybe sixty seventy percent of the season,
defense was a problem. They were one of the worst
in the country statistically, and then did a huge turnaround
in time for the tournament. So if there as good
defensively Noah, as they think they are, this could be
really fascinating.

Speaker 5 (36:42):
And I think that's you know, that was the big
criticism of last year's team. Absolutely, you know, Mark Pope
sat down after the season, you know, solid first year
going to the sweet sixteen. I would really hope that
he made a phone call to his college coach, who
obviously knows defense exceptionally well, in Rick Patino, and kind

(37:03):
of feel some of the elements, you know, both in
practice and just kind of like getting that intensity up
in practice and really taking that bus, taking that responsibility,
which I think you've heard, you know, like you mentioned,
you've heard from the guys they want to make sure
that they're one of the best defensive teams in the
country and they're taking a lot of pride in that,

(37:24):
and while you want to see it on the court,
that's a really good first step at this point in
the season.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yeah, Yeah, it's going to be really fun, especially because
you've got these huge games. So we're going to find
out quickly, aren't we what this team's made out of?

Speaker 5 (37:41):
Absolutely, And this schedule is yeah, absolutely loaded first of
all with exhibitions against teams like Purdue and Georgetown, but
you've got Louisville at the beginning of the season, Michigan State,
North Carolina, and Zaga. You're really loading up the not
even into December, not even past Christmas, You're really loading

(38:04):
up that November slate. And you know, I think that's
something that's strategical in terms of when you're talking down
the line in tournament time and positioning yourself to grab
a couple wins. But I think that also signals, at
least in Mark Pope's mind, that he has confidence that
this team is going to be in a good enough

(38:26):
position in November to take on some of those really,
really exceptionally tough tests.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
He is Noah seris In. He is a new sports
personality reporter anchor at WLAX eighteen and you can follow
him on Twitter at en searis In cie r z
A N. You'll get the hang of it and I
watch more on the ear. Thank you, sir, appreciate Nick
Power Number two is up next with their own Billy

(38:52):
Rutledge back in just a few Auto Big Bloinsiders six
point thirty, Wipe.

Speaker 7 (39:19):
Tact Tact the spect.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
Welcome back to the Baby one side. I joined now
by a guy who joined us every week on the
State Wide show, Billy Rutledge and uh he and Tom
Leech and Darren Hendry and I were together early this
week for a project coming up next week we'll talk
about but before we get into ticket prices in UK
football and all fourth of July holiday came and went

(41:11):
with the eating contest. I am not a fan at all.
I don't call it a sport. I don't call these
folks athletes. But that's all well, I'm good at least Billy.
Now as they stuffed themselves, they are making donations to
food pantries and things like that. That's what bothered me
the most, you know, And I know I'm an old
school guy on that, but people like it. And are

(41:34):
you are you a big fan of the hot dog
eating contest and all that stuff?

Speaker 3 (41:38):
I love it, Dick, but I'll tell you what, I
still can't watch it. I don't know what it is,
but I will give you all the preps for it.
I will get excited for it, and then when those
ten minutes come, it's almost like I tried not to look.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
At the screw man.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
And there's no doubt I love the Great American Hero
and Joey Chess not doing what he does, and he
returned this year after missing his contest last year. But
like you know, there's probably a reason why there's only
one contest that popular. You don't want to watch the
hard bullow egg eating contest or the mac and cheese
or the donut contest, which is kind of what we've
been doing this week on KSR with Ryan trying to
eat ten donuts in fifteen minutes. So that was a

(42:12):
lot of fun earlier today.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Perfect perfect guy to do that in Ryan. Yeah. But
shifting over to the more topical news, I talked on
the show earlier about the fact that student ticket prices
are going up, and Channel twenty seven interviewed me about
it as well. In the first word that came out
of my mouth both there and on my show earlier

(42:34):
was inevitable. I mean, they've got to find ways to
make more money to cover this twenty million dollars the
price tag that has come due. And I know there's
going to be you and cry about it. If I
were a student, I would complain as well. But should
there be some level of understanding? What did you guys
say about it?

Speaker 3 (42:56):
Well, you know, I have to agree that this is
eventually a hole. When athletic departments and universities are going
to have to pay players directly, they've got to find
way to find that money. And that's why we've seen,
you know, a number of ticket changes with Kentucky. Like
you know, kids over the age of two, having me
had their own ticket at UK basketball games. They used
to be able to sit on their their parents lapsed.

(43:18):
You know, Kentucky's got to find that money. It just
thinks that it's getting passed on to the consumer and
in this case, the students. You know, it was a
core memory or really defined my college career being able
to go to sporting events with my student ID, you know, Dick.
And while the price isn't raising that much, obviously, it's
a lot cheaper than what it would be to buy
regular season tickets or go to the game normally. You know,

(43:40):
I remember how broke I was in college, and you know,
it's not easy to pay up that extra fifty to
fifty seventy dollars. So I understand that we got to
find twenty million somewhere just to think that the students
are going to be the one that gets pass that bill.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
You know, well they won't be the only ones though.
I mean, prices are going to go up everywhere. But
when you were at Western Kentucky you had your student idea.
Did you pay a flat fee at the beginning and
the beginning of the year that got you in or
did your ID simply get you into all the sporting events?

Speaker 3 (44:09):
No, the idea got me into every single sporting event
for free. And obviously Western's different than Kentucky, you know,
being in the sun Belton Conference, you say, compared to
the SEC, I get it. And to stay competitive in
the SEC, you got to find every single dollar that
you can to be able to give these nil deals.
But man, like you know, and you go to a
baseball game, you go to check out what the softball

(44:30):
teams do, and it was just create a sense of community.
And I'm afraid that we're getting farther away from that day.
We obviously already have people that work from home after
the COVID stuff. You know, most people do classes online.
You know, we've got to continue to have you know,
common things that we do together, like sporting events, and
you know, unfortunately a lot of people are already priced

(44:51):
out up in basketball games because of the price, you know,
and now I think where students are going to have
to be, you know, brudging a lot of that new cost.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
Well, and we talked about this back years ago when
you were producing my show and co hosting that with
every game on TV. Now it's inevitable that crowd sizes
will shrink. And it used to be, well, Kentucky gets
twenty three thousand every night. Well, first of all, they
can't get twenty three thousand in there anymore because of renovation.

(45:20):
But it's rare now that that place is a hard
sellout and more and more sit home watch your big
screen TV right right.

Speaker 3 (45:29):
And then you know, on the flip side, you know
it's not directly correlated, but you see coaches have these
huge salaries and you know, hopefully that's something that probably
comes down a little bit. But that's the market, right.
I mean, if you're going to pay for the value
of these guys, and they're going to bring in wins
and bring in the TV dollars, and they're getting paid
for that for a reason. But you know, when cal
Perry or even Pope are making these millions of dollars

(45:52):
every single year, I wonder if the price or the
salaries of coaches will start to change over these years,
as that's a department's prioritized paying the point years instead
of the coach. And let's be honest, if they're gonna
have to cancel some sports, I mean, you're gonna have
to decide which sports you want to contribute money to.
And at the same time, that's gonna take away a
lot from the Olympic sports, the non revenue sports. You know,

(46:13):
I would expect Kentucky to have probably shut down some
teams in the next few years.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
Yeah, and that's something Mitch Barnhard has pledged to try
to avoid. He can't speak in absolutes, but he said,
we don't want to do that. Nobody wants to do that.
But I worry about places like You're alma mater, like
the place twenty five miles down the road EKU, you know,
and around the state, Murray State, which just had the
great run with baseball kN Murray State. How much longer

(46:41):
can it afford to field a baseball team, things like that,
And that's gonna hit it. It's already hit home in
some schools, hasn't it.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
Yeah, And you know, I think the transfer portal and
NIL has created some parody. It's allowed the majors like
Western Kentucky to be able to recruit guys. Yeah, you know,
let's say Alabama, Ohio State just go to transfer portal guys,
you know Rich Patino in basketball, not even coaching freshman
that it allows other mid majors to get these more
talented freshmen. Now they eventually leave because you campaigns right,

(47:09):
or maybe they're looking for NBA or NFL aspirations and
that's not the right school for you. But we just
have to and we have been over these five five years,
just radically change the way that we think about college athletics.
The NCA hung onto amateurism for as long as they
could and and I mean they eye on their face sick. Yeah,
I mean it was you know, it was an embarrassing

(47:30):
that these last three or four years has been a
while less and unfortunately that cat is already out of
the bag. We're starting to see some measures to try
to put some rules in place. But you know, as
we've been saying for years, you know, the sticks, it's
just there's been no rules and it's hard to bring
back the rules once they's an absence of them.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Speaking of rules, what did you think of the College
Sports Commission's memo to universities yesterday. It basically said, we're
not going to deal with these augus nil deals because
you knew that was going to happen.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
Yeah, you know, like I said, it's been the wild West.
So this is a big step in the right direction
to regulating this and making sure that people are actually
getting paid for their name, image and likeness. You know,
we've gotten to a point back where it's you know,
how much money can you give me to go to
your school. It's not about really about exciting autographs at
a local bar or you know, doing a commercial for
a local lawnlowing company because your name has you know,

(48:29):
you're a Southern guy and you know you're along. Like
it's gotten two players coming to their coaches mid game
or mid season thaying, if i don't get a million
more dollars, you know, I'm just not going to play.
I'm gonna go to the trans report. That's not sustainable. So,
you know, ultimately a big step in the right direction.
But back to my last point, you know they can't
already been that.

Speaker 6 (48:48):
Out of the bag.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
It's tougher to put these rules and regulations in place
after all this craziness that's been going on. But they
will give it a couple of years and hopefully we
find ourselves in a much better system. But obviously the
right thing to do, because this is kind of control.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
Oh yeah, and I don't know if I'll still be
doing this show. You'll be working somewhere. But I'm curious
where we're going to be in five years with this,
because the pendulum certainly is swinging wildly and now more
and more rules are falling into place. But that's that's inevitable,
right right.

Speaker 3 (49:19):
Well, you know, probably the next inevitable thing is to
recognize these players as employees at the university so they
can have a collecting bargaining agreement and you know, they
can have a much more standard rate and much more
I guess, more firm handle on these things. But I
don't think that's something these universities want to do yet.
Like we're at a weird time. We have it over
the that two years, but this is this is even

(49:41):
stranger as we try to change with pappening right now.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
Well, that might make it easier, but as I understand it,
you can't have collective bargaining without a union. So when
you think about, you know, college players and a union,
and the next thing you know, somebody will advocate for
a strike and we'll be stuck with no college sports.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
Get complicated.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Yeah, well, but something for talk show host like us
to talk about. We're talking with Billy Rutledge he of course,
and Shannon the Dude appear every morning on this very
radio station following the Leach Report and the KSR pre show.
I like to call it Billy and the Dude that
hasn't really got any traction yet, but Billy, I'm working
on it. We'll come back and talk more in just

(50:18):
a minute here on the Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP.
Welcome back. We're talking with Billy Ruttliche. He and Shannon
the Dude appear every morning on this very radio station
following the Leach Report. One of the things Billy I
have talked a lot about with folks over the last
week or two, and I will ask you about Mark
Stoops and his upcoming appearance at SEC Media Days. I

(50:39):
think he has gotten better and better at dealing with
the media, which you would expect a guy has been
doing it as a head coach as long as he has.
He still likes to kind of put up the hands
and say, well, you're not going to get me to
talk about that, or you're not going to get a
headline out of me on this. But you can only

(51:00):
controlled the narrative so far, and really the narrative, unfortunately
around UK football is the hot seat. You know how
much goodwill has he banked? I mean, his teams have
won what twenty four games going into last year, and
they threw in a clunker. What do you think it's
going to be like for him down in Atlanta and
how do you think you'll handle it?

Speaker 6 (51:20):
Well?

Speaker 3 (51:20):
I do think a lot of the fan base has
grown restless, and I think a lot of that goes
back to that winning home games. Yeah, that suit exactly
simply haven't done over these last two or three years.
But I think he already said what I think he's
going to say a lot of is I don't want
to make a headline. It feels like this entire offseason
they've gotten away from pushing their chests out and calling

(51:40):
out the sunglasses and TikTok dances. It seems like they
want to get back to the basics and change the
culture a little bit, and so I am fully expective
to be optimistic and talk about some of these guys
at the bank selling and training camp. But at the
same time, it'll be I think on the next Thursday
when the USCC Media Days or maybe he talks that,

(52:01):
I think it's going to be a lot of I
don't want to get into that. We're going to be
talking about the future and what we're doing this year.
And and look, the I think excitement started to grow
in for Kentucky, but you know it's obviously it's going
to be I got to see it before I believe
it for a lot of people. Oh yeah, And unfortunately
you've got to lead a week one that's a good
non power for school that beat I believe Missippi State

(52:22):
last year, so you can't take that lightly. And right
after that's Ole miss So you know, the beginning of
the season can really dictate the tone of a lot
of people. And when season ticket prices are going up
and you're getting less home games, it's you know, there's
there's some viable frustration out there. But you know, Dick
winning tears off and if you know they can get
to a bowl game, I think that would go a

(52:43):
long long way for Barnhart confidence and Stoops and and
what the kind of thinks of a coach that's been
here for over a decade at this point.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
Well, you're right about winning, you know. And if they
can get out of the gate, they've got an opportunity,
even though it's a tough schedule, they got on an
opportunity to make people happy, and it's relatively happy. So yeah.
But you know when you talk about Stups wanting to
look to the future, not the past, Well it's his
future people wonder about. But it's going to be so speculative,

(53:14):
isn't it because of the quarterback situation to begin with?
You know, And they're not taking either one of the
qbs down there, which is understandable, Cutter Bowli or Zat Calzata,
you know. And when you talk about a college football team,
that's where you got to start, even though you really
need to talk about defense. But when you've got a

(53:34):
big question mark over your quarterback spot, that just kind
of glows in the dark, doesn't it.

Speaker 3 (53:40):
Yeah, And especially when last year Rock vandergriff I think
left you wanting a lot more and he retired from
the sport that the season went so poorly. You know,
I as much as Mark Soops is on the hot seat,
and I'd hate to be him and answering these questions
at media day. I'd not rather be Stoups than Hugh
Freis on STC media day, with him playing so much
golf and losing all these bring battle stick it's going

(54:01):
to be. I think he's gonna hear nothing but these
tall questions. But unfortunately I probably did the same if
I was in his sition. But you can't, I know,
you do that, Dick in the prime of recruiting season, right,
you can't play it all ten times in fourteen days
or whatever.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
Now, I know you'd be out there on the wings
because coach head coach Billy Rudlives would be invited to
play everywhere and you'd have a hard time turning him down.

Speaker 3 (54:24):
Exactly, Yeah, down, We have a few.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Minutes left with Billy Rudgligs. Billy was basically the producer,
the board operator, if you will. When we got together,
Darren Hedrick and I got together with Tom Leech. Tom
looking ahead to when he was taking some time off
and he is going to have a show in the
can for July eighteenth on the Leads Report, and I'm
going to take advantage of that with some of the spillover.

(54:46):
We'll get to that in a minute. Well, we all
got together and talked about and used clips from great
sports casting moments of the past, and I mean going
way back, Billy entire times in the forties and fifties,
and not just the Giants, wind the pen at that
kind of stuff, a lot of local stuff, UK stuff.
But I can't wait to hear Tom's finished product. You know,

(55:07):
that's going to be a lot of fun. And you
were the one laying in the sound bites when Tom
would set up and then Darren and I would discuss
some of these great clips from not just UK games,
but games throughout the history of sports.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
Yeah, it was awesome, It was it was an honor
to be part of that. You know. Tom went and
found some archives with some old calls. You brought some,
Darreon had some, So it was it was a cool
melting pot of of a lot of different sports, football, baseball, basketball.
I really loved the old SEC calls that was played,
including the announcer from Georgia. His name was Cantair Harry Munson.

(55:42):
His enthusiasm on a couple of calls that we played
the herschel Walkers first touchdown. Man, it was incredible and
at the same time breaking a lot of rules that
I've been taught broadcast. You know that we and you
know the you know, just the way that he was
doing it. Maybe not what you would learn by the book,
but you know, somebody's whose joy was easily translated over
the radio. And it's about connection and you know, to

(56:04):
hear you know, some old Haywood calls and or even
just some iconic moments that I had seen before but
had never heard on radio calls. Was really cool. And
we had so much stuff that you got to we
kind of went a little overtime. We had we got
some extra stuff for Big Blue Insiders, so you're right,
I'm excited for all that to come out, and you know,
being in this industry, I have a lot for us

(56:25):
things like that, so it was really cool to be a.

Speaker 6 (56:26):
Part of it.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
Well, fortunately we have a little more airtime with a
Big Blue Insider, so Tom's formats a little bit tighter.
I didn't have time enough to run every clip that
we brought, and so we decided and I'm going to
excert Tom show get some of the UK stuff from
the int Report on my show, but the great number
of leftover clips, uh Tom to a degree, and then

(56:50):
Darren and I uh will use the rest of them,
which we're just going to call Least Report overtime that
will appear on the Big Blue Insider one week from tonight,
and so we'll promote the living daylights out of that.
But but I'm like you, some of these I had
heard before. Some of these I lived through, but some
of these I had never heard. But to me, you know,

(57:12):
I've got some in my computer bank. Time's got a
lot more than I do. But I wanted to. And
I dug up the two Oklahoma games from last year
that you'll hear on the Leach Remort. I thought those
were great moments, didn't you.

Speaker 6 (57:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (57:26):
Yeah, And you know we didn't get to play.

Speaker 6 (57:28):
The away oh way, your way.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
There's been a lot of good stiff with OTAGA this
last year. So it's another reason why I'm excited he
came back. And you know, we even had like a
play where we had the radio and TV call think
you was the Sully do it once and then the
TV guy do it and you know, it's it's cool
to look back like that. So yeah, looking forward to
listening for sure.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
And I didn't have a chance to dig out. He
would have just you know, filled the whole show. But
I love it when Jack Gibbons just loses his mind
when there's a big shot. This goes in and again
it kind of a breaks a rule, but it doesn't
when you're talking about the color guy. And Jack and
I have talked about this on the air, especially the
Tennessee game. He loves beating Tennessee because that was a

(58:13):
rival when he was here. And you've been in that studio.
You're not always there, but you've been in that studio
and you've listened when Jack Gibbons just giggles over some
big shots or big moments, and I always think those
are special as well, you know.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
Oh yeah, And that also translates in the postgame interview
that Jack will do courtside with these players. It just
seems like it's a proud uncle talking and it's really sweet,
like honestly, like you can really tell that Jack gets
talk to these guys beforehand and they've worked on things
and he's seen growth in them, and it's like a
proud moment for him. So it's not only does that

(58:52):
come out when he's giggling or he's or you know,
when something crazy is happening, but also in his analysis.
And he's done a great job replacing my prap well.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
And what's great about him is he and Mike did too,
although not quite as much as Jack. But Jack told
me he is basically told you know, jam I in
UK and anyone who would listen, I'm a fan. You know,
he was nineteen years on the Orlando Magic at work
and he had to play it pretty much down in
the middle of low He could say we and they
and all that. But when it comes to Kentucky and

(59:24):
you can excuse this with Jack, you can give him
a pass. He's a fan first, but you know he'll
be critical when he has to. But I love that.
I love hearing him talk to the players too, you.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
Know, yeah, no doubt. And you know Tom seems like that.
You know, his post game interviews with Mark Cope always
bring a little something in something I didn't speak of.
Or I will say Pope is not happy or really
ready to talk after a long so hard that he'll
get some two word answers. Tom after a half laws.

(59:56):
So yeah, the guy who's enthusiastic also has those down there.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
He is Billy Rutledge. He and Shannon the Dude. You
hear every morning after the Leaves report on Billy and
the Dude from nine to ten the Casur pre Show.
Thank you, sir, and appreciate your hard work on the
Leach Special. Can't wait to hear the finished product.

Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
I always enjoy joining you, Dick and working on getting
that name change to Billy and the Dude. I like
it as much as you, dude, so appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
Want to come six thirty WLAP. That was the week.
Wah Over, let it Go.

Speaker 3 (01:00:33):
That was the week Doc was It's.

Speaker 6 (01:00:36):
Not it way up talk but he's playing low.

Speaker 7 (01:00:41):
That was the week.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. It has been
a good week. That was. And generally this is the
time of year when things are pretty slow, but we've
talked about this in the past. Summertime it can be
slow if you're a sportscaster, but things do pop up.
It's easier for me than it is for the TV folks.
And as you know, I worked in TV for a

(01:01:03):
long time because they gotta find local stuff. To shoot.
You know, action sports going on, and you know you
don't want to watch Little League highlights with all due
respect every night, so or any night really, but lots
of stuff to talk about. And the week tipped off,
or I should say kicked off with news for Kentucky
football that the Wildcats landed four star recruit, high profile

(01:01:27):
guy who was recruited by a lot of the bigger
when it comes to football names, bigger schools, there aren't
that many with Kentucky of course in the SEC. But
the Wildcats landed Matt Juntoski, a kid from Cincinnati Archbishop
Moeller two sports star, a quarterback and a two way
player in baseball, an outfielder and a pitcher. So Nick

(01:01:50):
minjiones happy, and he talked about why he chose to
become a Kentucky Wildcat.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
Kind of a surreal moment because my family has been
a big part of the for a really long time
now and I don't know where I'd be without him,
And that was a big reason why Kentucky was the
place for me, because they can come watch me pretty
much on any saturdayday they want to. You know, the
other places they were really good places and that's why
I was really considering, and this is why it took

(01:02:17):
a pretty long time to make a decision. But Kentucky
is the right place for me. It's about the people
for me, and they had phenomenal people.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
And as we talked about earlier in the week, that
is why, whether you've got Vince Merrow and your staff
or whoever, you got to get into Cincinnati, because there
are kids there who want to play in the SEC.
It's not all Big ten country. And it used to
be anybody from Mohler was going to Note or Dame
or whatever. Those days are long gone. But the SEC

(01:02:49):
being what it is, Cincinnati, that area of Ohio fertile
recruiting country. And as Matt Plenatowski pointed out, now he'll
be playing in the SEC CF all goes well, and
his family can drive down all the time to watch
him play football or basketball. Landed an interview with Matt

(01:03:09):
Norlander or cbssports dot com. He has passionately written about
and researched reasons why it will be a huge mistake
to expand the NCAA basketball tournament from now sixty eight
teams but sixty fours, he's pointed out, is the perfect number.
One of the arguments is that more schools are playing

(01:03:31):
D one basketball now than back in nineteen eighty five
when they expanded the tournament from forty eight to sixty four.
So yeah, more teams, they need more of an opportunity
to get in, et cetera, et cetera. Nor Lander broke
down the numbers. He crunched the math and explains why

(01:03:52):
his argument holds up and that one doesn't.

Speaker 8 (01:03:54):
So I have a two part argument. So that's the
first one that I hadn't heard anyone say in the
past three years, and that is the size of Division
one is irrelevant as it pertains to how big the
tournament is. I you know, while you know Division one
was never this small. If Division one was only one
hundred teams in nineteen eighty five when they went to
sixty four and well over half of Division one got

(01:04:15):
it doesn't matter. It's the size of the tournament. Sixty
four it is the perfect number. It is six rounds.
It's perfectly symmetrical, and for a national basketball tournament across
forty nine states, Alaska being the only one without a
Division one institution, sixty four has always been the perfect number.
It's never been how big sixty four is in relation
to the size of Division One overall. So there have
been ninety one schools that have joined Division one since

(01:04:38):
the tournament went to sixty four teams in nineteen eighty five,
and there has been the other part of the argument
here on behalf of expansion lobbyists, low as their number
may be, but influential. Nonetheless, they as they are still
is that those conferences are looking for increased access for

(01:04:58):
teams that they think are willing and deserving of having
a chance to crack in. And they use examples like
UCLA getting into the first four and twenty twenty one
and making it to the final four. Well, I so
UCLA can get in that year and make it all
the way, Like who's to say the eleventh best team
in this league shouldn't be able to do it. But
the access argument is not death the hold wire man.

(01:05:21):
Ninety one schools have joined D one since nineteen eighty five,
only one school out of more than fourteen hundred at
large bids. I'm not talking the automatic invites. I'm talking
to the teams that if you don't win your conference tournament,
you get in that large bid. There's been more than
fourteen hundred of those handed out only once in forty
years at the school new to D one since eighty

(01:05:42):
five gotten that large. It was the twenty nineteen UCF team.
UCF went D one after eighty five, that's it. And
then even beyond that, the schools, So the argument is, Okay,
D one was smaller when eighty five, when we went
to sixty fourteen. Now we have so many more teams
competing to get into the tournament. All those teams that
have been added to the pool are still competing for
the same exact bids they're they're not taking any at

(01:06:04):
large bids away from the power conferences from the big boys,
from the high majors. Just isn't happening. So it's a
false argument on its surface. And even beyond that, those teams,
those schools that have made the tournaments, only two of
them haven't reached at least of Sweet sixteen. That's fau
to the Final four Awesome Cinderella Story two years ago
and an FGCU Dunk City back in twenty thirteen. It

(01:06:25):
was the first fifteen to make the Sweet sixteen. And
then beyond that, all every single team that joined D
one since eighty five every single one. They have won
nineteen total games in the round of sixty four beyond
nineteen total out of more than twenty two hundred.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
And again, if you'd like to hear the entire discussion,
just pull up. It was a Tuesday show, the Apple
podcast or the LAP website and you can hear the
whole thing. He is just so passionate about it, and
as I told him, I am too, but he is
doing God's work the way he's writing about it. Speaking
of passion, Sean Woods, the and Forgettable guard he joins
us every week. He is passionate about defense, and in

(01:07:03):
our weekly visit with Sean, who was coaching the Lafama
unit for the TBT, he talked about the fact in
response to my question about Mark Pope's team, this upcoming
team seems to be spending more time pre season working
on defense.

Speaker 6 (01:07:20):
I went over and watch practice. Did you listen to
the sound, Dick? It was slow refreshing to walking there
and the walls of sweating guys are getting after it, competing.
You're not just running up and down shooting threes playing
for nets basketball. These dudes was getting after it and

(01:07:42):
banging and.

Speaker 9 (01:07:43):
Playing and jumping out those screens and getting over screens,
you know, download Malaca, Marino and the other guys having
trained wrecks.

Speaker 6 (01:07:53):
And going there. Oh man, it felt so good watching
that practice. I have you have no idea how happy
I will. And now I just looked at Mark Pope
and I said, you're a smart guy. You went through
your first year this SEC gauntlet. You thought that your
offense is going to offset anything that you do. Everybody
can scout, everybody stops offense. The name of the game

(01:08:16):
is scoring basketball. And if you can stop the other
team from scoring with your prolific offensive system, now we're
cooking with some grease. And you know what, our Kentucky
Wildcats are cooking with grease because they went out and
got some personnel that likes to play defense. That it
comes from programs that were really good defensively.

Speaker 10 (01:08:39):
So now you got the mindset within the kids. Now
you can teach defense, whether you're good or not, just
from a competition standpoint. Now you put your scouting in.
Now there's no beeline basket to the rim, there's no looking.

Speaker 6 (01:08:52):
At guys shooting threes.

Speaker 10 (01:08:54):
There's not we're not getting out rebounded by you.

Speaker 3 (01:08:57):
Know, six and seven or eight.

Speaker 6 (01:09:01):
Dale's so so from nast standpoint, we've already gotten better
from last year.

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
I love that round of applause. That was so great.
He stepped away from his phone and gave Mark Pope
and his staff a round of applause. As always, we
talk with our West End Bureau chief, Gary Moore. He
always has a lot of great clips, ideas, comments, and
he brought up an idea that I had not seen.
Somebody out there proposed that might bring some sanity to

(01:09:30):
the way these conferences are now laid out. There are
anything but geographical. This makes a lot of common sense.
Fourth swig in the six pack. Major League Baseball trading
deadline coming up as usual three weeks from tomorrow, July
thirty first. But here's a trade you and I would
love to see in college football. Dig this.

Speaker 4 (01:09:50):
Stuart Mandela the Athletic got this great email from a
guy named Andy J. In Columbus, Ohio. He said, what
if the ACC and the Big twelve made a trade.
ACC gets Cincinnati West Virginia and UCF Big Twelve in
turn gets Stanford Cal and SMU. Think about it. Stanford
and Cal reunite with Arizona ASU Colorado, Utah. They'll probably

(01:10:12):
playing b YU all great geographic kind of games. Then
you've got SMU meeting up again with TCU and Baylor
in Texas, Tech and Houston. You've got Cincinnati and West
Virginia reuniting with four former Big East foes, including Louisville.
UCF gets bus rides to Tallahassee and Miami instead of
ridiculous flights to still Water and Aimes. And I guarantee

(01:10:33):
you bigger crowds at all of those more than likely
makes perfect sense. In fact, probably too much sense, which
which means it probably will never happen, you think, or maybe.

Speaker 1 (01:10:43):
That's a great idea. It's a great idea, and you
took my words. It makes too much sense, you know.
Now the question is will the money even out, you know,
TV deals, things like that. And that's that's understandable because
especially now we're schools have to come up with millions
to pay players. The money has to work. But if

(01:11:05):
it did, as you said, this would get more money
because you don't have to book so many plane rides.
That's the key. I just wish there were more common
sense involved like this. That's from our two guys in
a six pack segment with Gary Morey. You hear from
him each week and again, too much common sense involved,

(01:11:25):
so it likely won't happen. Up next Heroes Fools and
Flakes as we wrap up the week and six thirty
wlap let it Go. Welcome back to the Big Blue
Inside Air final segment of our show thanks to Billy
rut LED's thanks to know a series and time now
for Heroes, Fools and Flakes and our hero tonight is

(01:11:47):
whoever is overseeing the nil collectives the College Sports Commission,
which is now rejecting some athlete nil deals. This is
what the College Sports Commission was designed to do. This
is why they formed this group. And you can roll
your eyes at this, but keep in mind, it's all

(01:12:08):
about just trying to keep I don't want to say
the level playing field, because it's never going to be level,
but let's just try to keep things as fair as
we can, shall we? And I'll get back to that
in a minute. But what is happening is this new
agency in charge of regulating NIL deals in college sports
sent a letter to schools yesterday saying it had rejected

(01:12:29):
deals between players and donor back collectives that have formed
over the last few years, including one here a UK.
I don't know if they got a letter or not,
but they're designed to funnel money to athletes or the schools.
And that's fine. But according to this commission, these arrangements
they rejected to hold no and I'm quoting valid business

(01:12:53):
purpose according to the memo and don't adhere to rules.
They call for outside NIOL deals to be between players
and companies that provide goods or services to the general
public for profit. This may sound like a lot of
BS to you, but look at it this way. Let's
say your school, let's say Kentucky was trying to sign

(01:13:17):
a quarterback or whatever. Let's just say a quarterback. Well,
let's say this guy gets a great NIL deal at
University X and decides to go to school there. What
about you find out that his NIL deal is similar
to back in the battle days in college sports, when
a kid would be paid for a job that involved

(01:13:40):
driving past the football stadium to make sure the lights
are off, something bogus like that. And if you shrug
that off and you say that's fine, I don't care,
that's your business. I think I happen to think that
there should be guidelines like this in place, just to
try to keep things fair. Because again, what if your

(01:14:00):
school's trying to do things on the up and up
and say, Okay, we've got a collective for you, and
it's a company that makes this good or that service,
and you can be the face for it. You can
work there, you can be the endorsement guy and make
X amount of dollars. But a school over here is
offering basically a phantom job with a huge amount of money,

(01:14:22):
and you can't compete with it. That ain't right and
to me, and some schools can do that, other schools
that might want to, they can't. I'm for the advancement
and the survival of college athletics. I love covering college athletics,
love being a part of it. They got to do

(01:14:42):
whatever they can to make sure it survives in these
fast changing times. So the College Sports Commission doing what
it can. Something may end up in court, it seems
like it always does. But this was a big step
I think in the right direction. Collectives already affiliated with Colorado, Alabama,

(01:15:04):
notre named Georgia, and others have announced they're shutting down Georgia,
Ohio State, Illinois. They are making plans with lear Field,
which is of course a media company with a lot
of licensing experience. I think that's the way of the future,
quite frankly. Our full tonight is ESPN. A while back,

(01:15:26):
ESPN was airing corn Hole, which it has in the summertime. Yeah,
I know, and you're hurting for something to put on
the air, and Cornholl's popular. I get that popular enough
to be televised. Okay. They delayed the All Star Major
League Baseball All Star Selection show to finish airing a

(01:15:50):
cornhole tournament. And we've talked about this in the past,
where people are enraged that there's a basketball game going
on in the UK, game about to start and they
have to move with the ESPN News. They don't cut away.
I'm good with that. I'm okay with that. You can't
cut away from a ballgame, a legit ballgame in my opinion,

(01:16:10):
to show to it, because you've got people who invested
their time in following that game and the next thing
you know, it's off the air. How would you like
it if that happened in your game? Well, I know
you could say that about cornhole fans, but come on, cornhole.
But here's the X Factory this is the Major League
Baseball All Star selection show, and ESPN has given up

(01:16:32):
on Major League Baseball, so basically the network. You could
wonder where they thumbing their nose again at major League Baseball. Hey,
take your business elsewhere. We're going to show corn hole
and delay the start of the All Star selection show.
Are you serving your viewers the best you can by
doing that? Probably not. But there's the off the field

(01:16:57):
boardroom element involved in all of this. Say goobye to baseball,
Say goa bye to the coverage our flake tonight. This
is a weird situation. I don't know if you've ever
heard this, but Tommy Lesorta was a scout way back
in the day for the LA Dodgers, long before he
became the manager, of course, and he scouted a twenty

(01:17:17):
year old pitcher at the University of Southern California right
down the road, a kid named Tom Sever. Dodgers drafted
Sever into tenth round in nineteen sixty five, sixty years ago.
Sever and his people wanted fifty thousand dollars to sign
Losorta countered with a two thousand dollars signing bonus, and

(01:17:41):
of course Sever declined. He was pre dental at USC.
Maybe wanting to be a dentist and not a ballplayer. Well,
you're studying pre dentistry, at which point Tommy Losorta said,
good luck with your dental career. So on February twenty
eighth of six sixty six, Sever signed with the Braves

(01:18:03):
for forty thousand dollars. The bonus succeeded at that time
only by Arizona State signing Rick Monday, an outfielder, for
one hundred grand. Now, draft rules prohibited a player signing
a pro contract after his high school or college team
season had begun. USC had already played a handful of
games before sever signed with Atlanta in late February. This

(01:18:28):
is back when you could play as many games as
you want and play them whenever you want in college,
and the Commissioner of Baseball at the time, Spike Eckert,
voided Severs contract. Because of that, every other team in
the league, which at the time was nineteen, were allowed
to submit bids for sever of at least forty grand,

(01:18:51):
and the winning club's name was drawn out of a hat.
Three clubs tied for the amount of money they were
going to sign used to sign him. The Indians the
Phillies and the Mets, and Eckert pulled the name of
the Mets out of the hat. That's why Tom sever
the future Hall of Famer, the guy who helped the

(01:19:12):
Mets win the sixty nine World Series, played in New York,
not in Los Angeles, not in Philly, not in Cleveland.
Ay were I gotta do it for now? Thanks so much.
That's you have a great weekend. Good night from the
garage in luxore E. Know we heal now as a team. Well,

(01:19:34):
we will die as individuals, as football guys. That's all
it is.

Speaker 7 (01:20:01):
Out Statuta spat out station at tops tips intact donating

(01:21:33):
to the