April 15, 2025 • 19 mins
Jon Wilner of The San Jose Mercury News and Wilner Hotline joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about Colorado retiring Shedeur Sanders’ number, the wild Nico Iamaleava situation and fallout of that, plus UW basketball and Demond Williams hype.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time for a weekly PAC twelve conversation with San
Jose Mercury News reporter John Wilner, brought to you by
Simply Seattle. Our friends at simply Seattle dot com have
the most amazing collection of all things Seattle Seahawks gear.
UW had some of the largest selection of sonics gear
anywhere in the world. Learn more at simply Seattle dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
By the way, you got your eye on something at
simply Seattle dot com. It's called kjar fifteen for fifteen
percent off anything on the website at simply Seattle dot com.
Here he is the Pope of the pack, the big
ten Bear, and our friend from the San Jose Mercury News,
Johnny Wilner. John, how are you man?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I am good? Thanks? How you guys good?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Not as good as Shador Sanders. Uh, he's getting his
number retire eye by Colorado. That's the same reaction I
had yesterday. By the way, when I saw the news.
Oh gosh, are you kidding me? I mean, John, the
floor is yours. What do you make of this?
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I mean, its nepotism at its finest, It is ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
It is an offense to all of.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
The great Colorado players who have not had their numbers retired.
Cordell Stewart, for instance, Darien Hagen, quarterback, was a quarterback
on Colora's national championship team and National Player of the
Year during his career. His number hasn't been retired. It's
I think it's it's an offense and if I were
a former.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Colorado player, I'd be pissed that said.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
You know, this is what happens when you basically give
Dion Sanders the keys to your kingdom. And in a
lot of ways, that has been a very smart move
by Colorado.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
He's done a lot of good things, so you got
to take the bad with the good. This is bad, but.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
Dion is certainly not the most powerful head football coach
in the history of college football. There's been a lot
of college football coaches that run every facet of the
football program in the past. Why is it happening here?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Well, if you look at what has happened to Colorado
under his during his two years, the uptick in interest, attendance,
TV ratings, merchandise sales, applications for admissions to the university,
applications for admissions to the university by black students, all
(02:24):
of those things are off the charts, and so he
has an enormous amount of influence there and they've got
you know, I don't know what the internal dynamics are
with with Sanders and and Rick George, the athletic director
who's been there for a long time, but they're basically
letting Sanders run the show.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
And I guess he thought it was important to do this.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
For sure, I can understand Travis Henry won the Heisman, sure,
but the Sanders has done a lot of good things
in such a short amount of time.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
He's I mean, he's like the.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Face of the state actively, so I can kind of
see how his influence would grow to the point that
you associate with like a Nick Saban right at Altabum
or Bobby Bowden at Florida State back in the day.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, yeah, I mean I guess it was a dog father. Yeah.
I just can't imagine Don James ever wanting his kid's
number retired, for going thirteen and twelve and never winning
a bowl game and never beating a ranked team. I mean,
I think it's humiliating. I think it's embarrassing for Colorado.
I think it's embarrassing for Shador. It's actually embarrassing for
Dion to be honest with you, that he would allow,
(03:34):
like for a guy that preaches accountability, you know, do
your job, be a great teammate, Blay and then just
handing over a number retired to his son. It's just,
I mean, it just grinds me. I don't know. Maybe
it shouldn't bother me as much as it does, but
it's just it's borderline ridiculous. Like sooner or later, Deion
Sanders won't be there and he's not going to be
(03:54):
the head coach at Colorado and somebody will look up
in fifteen years and see that number and say, oh dad,
what nothing really right? You know.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
So the other thing that's interesting about it is putting
this type of treatment of Schadur in the context of
the NFL draft, right, and the criticisms or critiques that
are out there about sense of entitlement, you know, that
kind of thing. I think it's very interesting just because
of the way he's being evaluated and how there's certainly
(04:25):
a wide range of opinion and if you're looking for
the negative, this fits into that narrative.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
John, do you have the spring transfer portal window opening tomorrow.
How much movement do you think we'll see? Will it
be a trickle or will it still be a cascade
like it was in the winter time.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Not to the extent that it was in the Winner,
But I think it'll be more than a trickle for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
And you know there's gonna be some good players.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
It's not gonna be a lot of really good players,
but you know, if you're Washington, you may you may
see a guy that you think can help you the
offensive defensive line, for instance.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I think there'll be.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Some some players there. There'll be some opportunity depending on
how much money the schools have still available. Lot of
a lot of schools went all in with their nil
money on the winter transfer portal, understandably so. But if
you've got some cash available, I think you can find
some help, some immediate help.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
John Wilner with US, I know you do like a
way too early preseason top twenty five for college football.
You do your Big ten predictions, obviously, but will you
do a early Heisman prediction segment and will Demand Williams
be on your list of long shots?
Speaker 4 (05:39):
I am gonna do it, but I've been waiting for
the spring transfer window to close and spring practice to end,
so probably early May. The portal is open for ten
days till the end of next week, and then most
schools will wrap up practice, and so I will do
one for sure. I just didn't make sense to me
(06:01):
to do it earlier when we don't know exactly where
everybody's gonna be, and will Williams be on it. I
think that I would probably put him on the you know,
the dark first candidate list, a guy that could you know,
come out of nowhere for a lot of folks who
haven't seen him play, especially if the Huskies have a
(06:21):
good season.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
John is the Nico Yama Lajeva situation, just one of
many like it to come. And do you think he's
gonna end up losing money in this whole deal when
he finds a home that's not Tennessee?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
He might.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
I mean, that whole thing is so indicative of what's
going on now, and I have equated it to the
Nick Saban retirement in January of twenty twenty four that
shut off two chain reactions. One was the coaching chain,
which obviously hit Seattle. The other was the contract extension chain.
(07:02):
You know, Steve Sarkisian Mike Norvel.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
A whole lot of coaches got got pay.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Raises because the schools wanted to keep them all their
coaches away from Alabama.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Right, same thing's gonna happen.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Tennessee is going to go out and start looking for
a quarterback, and they got the money to poach almost anybody.
At the same time, schools are gonna who have quarterbacks
that might be in you know, desirable by Tennessee. You
may have to come up and offer a raise to
your quarterbacks. I'm not saying Washington would with demand Williams, right,
(07:34):
but you know, pick the school that's got somebody who
who's established, Like just hypothetically, ASU was Sam Levitt, Right,
Tennessee might go after Sam Levitt.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
It's as you may have to come up with a
raise for him.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Well, I think that brings up an important point about
kind of what's allowed and what's not allowed, which is nothing.
You can do whatever you want, I guess, But like,
what's keeping Tennessee from going after DeMont Williams. I mean,
Caleb Williams left Oklahoma to go to USC. For God's sakes,
this is Oklahoma one of the premier programs in the
history of college football. So there's there's nothing tying demand
(08:10):
Williams contractually to Washington if somebody comes calling over the offseason.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Not that I am aware of now, I don't think
it'll happen because I think the Tennessee's gonna, you know,
they feel like they got a playoff roster and they're
going to want to try to get.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
A proving quarterbacks.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
But you know, there is no as far as I know,
Williams and most of these other kids do not have
binding contracts. We just saw what happened to Tennessee. Now
that is but that is an aspect of this whole
thing that needs to be examined. Can the schools improve
the state of their NIL contracts to create any kind
(08:46):
of binding agreement? Obviously, the scholarship that Williams is getting
from Washington is a year to year thing.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
He can break that.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
I'm assuming he does not have some kind of massive
buyout in his NIL contract act that would give Tennessee pause.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
Are we done with the with the lawsuits because of
the settlement? You know, we had the Regimen Bush and
the Terrell Prior and the Diego Pavia like or.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
We're not done with this?
Speaker 3 (09:14):
This is just tip of the Iceberg.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
Okay, tell me more. No.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
In fact, I just published about an hour ago an
article on that very topic. Okay, if they there's going
to continue to be in I trust lawsuits unless one
or two things happens.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Either there's a collective.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Baring agreement with between the schools and the players, or
Congress provides anti trust protection. There's no indication either way
that either of those things are gonna happen anytime soon.
Just ten days ago, a couple of kids in North
Carolina football players at North Carolina and Duke, filed the
loss in trust lawsuit against the instabla.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
They want to basically get they've had, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Their five years to play four and their argument is
we're better now than we were as freshmen. We are
worth more in nil money now, so the five to
play four shouldn't apply to us. We should get another year,
even though we don't have a good reason for it
except for our nil market value. So that's an example
(10:15):
of what's going on in the courts right and how
the NCAA is under assault constantly, and even though this
House deal is going.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
To help, it is not going to stop the lawsuits.
So I'm sorry David.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Are we going to get to a point maybe where
college athletes can play as long as they want.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
That's one of the things I addressed in the article.
I talked to two sports sports law experts. The three
nightmare scenarios that I see potentially coming down the pike
are unlimited eligibility, being able to transfer in season, and
(10:54):
we've talked about that the three of us have, and
also turning pro playing in the NFL for five years,
and then I'm went back and played in college, and
the notion of amateurism is under assault the extent that
you can't rule any of those things out.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, I mean, I could see a situation where you
don't even need to be in school to be playing
for these teams down the road. I just don't think
anything should be dismissed as stupid as it sounds. John
Wilners with us. John Danny Sprinkle was on with us.
We're going to replay it coming up in the six
pm hour for those that missed it, because I thought
he was really good. He's putting a lot of expectations
on himself, by the way, for the upcoming season. We
(11:34):
asked him, what does he expect that of Husky basketball
in twenty twenty five years.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
What he said, my expectation is to be in the
NCAA tournament and not just get there, like you know,
we gotta win games in the Nskavuay Tournament.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I've never been so motivated. In fact, I'm pissed off.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So he's putting the bullseye squarely on himself John for
next year. Right, what do you make of that decision
by Danny Sprinkle?
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Well, I think that's good just to raise the bar
for his players and for himself, and he's he's done
a nice job. I have been very impressed with Washington's
roster makeover, a little bit surprised by the resources available
for Washington Basketball's nil.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Bank account. It's pretty impressible.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I don't know all the details of who's behind that,
but somebody is really helping that program out. And he's
going to have a roster that I think is probably
gonna be picked, you know, six to eight to ten
in the Big ten next season. And if you're in
that window in the Big ten, you've got a good
chance to make the intblas.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Oh, if you're six to eight, you're pretty much a
lock in the Big Ten.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Right, they got They had eight teams in this year,
so yeah, yeah, they've done a nice job.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
They have done a really nice job remaking that roster.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Hey, John, do you like the timing of Speaking of
tournament basketball, do you like the timing of the women's
tournament or should have happened before or after the men's tournament?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I think it's good because it is.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
I think they piggybacks in terms of interest, and they
play off each other, I think, and if they tried
to move it either before or after, there would be
so much outrage that it was getting unequal treatment that
I mean, I can't even see it happening, honest with you,
I think they should move both of them.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
To be honest, I think they should move back a few.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Weeks and start the thing at the very end of March,
because that would now allow them to move the start
of the season foward into December and cut down on
the overlap of football.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Right right, John. Remember those old things that you'd go
into a motel in the middle of nowhere and you
put a quarter in the bed would vibrate. Remember those
things back in the day, one of those hotels. No, no, no, no,
I'm just saying that John's phone for whatever reason. Every week,
about fifteen minutes in you start to sound like this,
he's better now, and you just did it again. It's
(14:02):
not your fault. It's like it's like, we only get
fifteen minutes before somebody's got to put a quarter into
your phone, so we got we gotta find a way
to check that.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
But John, I don't know what's going on. It's very odd.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I know it's not your fault. No, I get it.
It's just really weird. I mean, Jackson confirmed this. Every
single week it comes on like fifteen minutes into this
same damn.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
It's only for five seconds. It's only very weird seconds
each time.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Can you just start to carry some dimes or nickels
with you, by the way, and just feed the machine
for crying out loud? John Wilner is with us again
right here on ninety three three kJ AIRFM. I want
to go back to the Demon Williams thing for a second,
because I think that there's a question about this is
a guy in jed Fish that purposely put Jonah Coleman
(14:45):
back into a game a year ago to have him
get one hundred yards. And I see CSU meaning Colorado State.
You see Davis and Wazoo in the first three games
of the year. Don't want to look past anybody. Obviously
we all know what happened last year at Lumenfield. But
Jetfish the kind of guy who's already been talking about
New York and the Heisman for demon where he would
(15:07):
load up his numbers in those first three games of
the year just to get this guy on the Heisman radar.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Absolutely, I think he would, and I think you know
we saw he he he will do that. He did
that in Arizona to a certain extent with with Tenero
McMillan right, in terms of getting the ball to his playmakers.
I mean, it's certainly not entirely motivated by just the
Heisman spotlight. It is, but it is an offshoot of
(15:38):
given your best players the ball with the chance to
make the greatest impact. And you look at Williams's you know,
run pass, dual threat skills and that schedule, and you
can you can certainly sketch out in your head that
he's going to be one of those surprise candidates there
(15:59):
are every year.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
There are some. The big issue will be if he
does have a hot start, right, what kind of play.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Is he going to get on the big ten TV
windows right in terms of maximum exposure, And there's no
way to know now, but certainly they got you know,
if he plays well at home. The Ohio State game
is like late September, right it's I think it's the
same day that Oregon.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Plays PENNSA September twenty So, yeah, same day Oregon plays
Penn State. Huge day right there.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
If he has a hot start and then they get
that game on, you know, assuming it's not on Peacock,
that could be a huge, huge.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Game for Williams for the Heisman.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
John was Washington State and Oregon State happy with their
exposure last year? And you wrote this last week about
the PAC two meteor rites for this year and what
it looks like tell us about it.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Yeah, they were very happy with how it went with
the CW and it was you know, given the circumstances,
I think they were right to be happy with it.
That is the one of the big questions for the
new PAC twelve is if you have a choice, if
the option is let's take a TV deal that gives
(17:13):
us a little bit more money but a little less
exposure on linear TV, or more exposure on linear TV
and a little less money.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
I think they need to go for the exposure.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
I think they got to get as many games on
broadcast or table as they can, whether that is the
CW or Fox, ESPN, Turner. That's what they need to
focus on because the next five years is a tryout.
It's an audition for a lot of these schools to
get into whatever happens next.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Hey, so I saw this the other day on social media,
and I'm telling you, man, there's rumors and sometimes stories
are born on X and Twitter. Right, I mean, as
crazy as and nonsensical as things sound, sometimes things just
kind of come out of nowhere. Have you seen this
crazy rumor about Utah ditching the Big twelve for the
(18:03):
Big Ten.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
I did see it, and I got a good laugh
out of it. Okay, good. So, I mean you're not
buying that. I don't know. No, I'm not buying that
at all.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
That is rooted in the fact that Utah didn't really
want to go to the Big twelve, right. Utah really
wanted the Pac.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Twelve to stay together. And Utah also.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Thinks that it is a Big ten worthy school football
academically and in some ways, Utah is a Big ten school.
I agree with that assessment, more of a Big ten
school than a Big twelve school. But no, I have
no reason to think that that's true. And they've got
a contract with the you know, a grant of rights deal,
(18:45):
so it's it's ridiculous. There's gonna be a lot of
ridiculous realignment stuff the next three or four years, and
then things will get real serious in like twenty eight,
twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah, just ridiculous stuff like Stanford and cal go to
the a CEC. That's crazy. I don't never happen ever.
All Right, John, you're the man, great stuff, and we're
talking a week, buddy, appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
John, Thanks guys.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
All right, John Wilner with us on the radio show
We're gonna break. Brian Schmitzer we'll join us coming up
five pint forty five right here on ninety three three KJRFM.
It's time for a weekly PAC twelve conversation with San
Jose Mercury News reporter John Wilner, brought to you by
Simply Seattle. Our friends at simply Seattle dot com have
the most amazing collection of all things Seattle Seahawks gear.
UW had some of the largest selection of sonics gear
anywhere in the world. Learn more at simply Seattle dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
By the way, you got your eye on something at
simply Seattle dot com. It's called kjar fifteen for fifteen
percent off anything on the website at simply Seattle dot com.
Here he is the Pope of the pack, the big
ten Bear, and our friend from the San Jose Mercury News,
Johnny Wilner. John, how are you man?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I am good? Thanks? How you guys good?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Not as good as Shador Sanders. Uh, he's getting his
number retire eye by Colorado. That's the same reaction I
had yesterday. By the way, when I saw the news.
Oh gosh, are you kidding me? I mean, John, the
floor is yours. What do you make of this?
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I mean, its nepotism at its finest, It is ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
It is an offense to all of.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
The great Colorado players who have not had their numbers retired.
Cordell Stewart, for instance, Darien Hagen, quarterback, was a quarterback
on Colora's national championship team and National Player of the
Year during his career. His number hasn't been retired. It's
I think it's it's an offense and if I were
a former.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Colorado player, I'd be pissed that said.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
You know, this is what happens when you basically give
Dion Sanders the keys to your kingdom. And in a
lot of ways, that has been a very smart move
by Colorado.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
He's done a lot of good things, so you got
to take the bad with the good. This is bad, but.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
Dion is certainly not the most powerful head football coach
in the history of college football. There's been a lot
of college football coaches that run every facet of the
football program in the past. Why is it happening here?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Well, if you look at what has happened to Colorado
under his during his two years, the uptick in interest, attendance,
TV ratings, merchandise sales, applications for admissions to the university,
applications for admissions to the university by black students, all
(02:24):
of those things are off the charts, and so he
has an enormous amount of influence there and they've got
you know, I don't know what the internal dynamics are
with with Sanders and and Rick George, the athletic director
who's been there for a long time, but they're basically
letting Sanders run the show.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
And I guess he thought it was important to do this.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
For sure, I can understand Travis Henry won the Heisman, sure,
but the Sanders has done a lot of good things
in such a short amount of time.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
He's I mean, he's like the.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Face of the state actively, so I can kind of
see how his influence would grow to the point that
you associate with like a Nick Saban right at Altabum
or Bobby Bowden at Florida State back in the day.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, yeah, I mean I guess it was a dog father. Yeah.
I just can't imagine Don James ever wanting his kid's
number retired, for going thirteen and twelve and never winning
a bowl game and never beating a ranked team. I mean,
I think it's humiliating. I think it's embarrassing for Colorado.
I think it's embarrassing for Shador. It's actually embarrassing for
Dion to be honest with you, that he would allow,
(03:34):
like for a guy that preaches accountability, you know, do
your job, be a great teammate, Blay and then just
handing over a number retired to his son. It's just,
I mean, it just grinds me. I don't know. Maybe
it shouldn't bother me as much as it does, but
it's just it's borderline ridiculous. Like sooner or later, Deion
Sanders won't be there and he's not going to be
(03:54):
the head coach at Colorado and somebody will look up
in fifteen years and see that number and say, oh dad,
what nothing really right? You know.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
So the other thing that's interesting about it is putting
this type of treatment of Schadur in the context of
the NFL draft, right, and the criticisms or critiques that
are out there about sense of entitlement, you know, that
kind of thing. I think it's very interesting just because
of the way he's being evaluated and how there's certainly
(04:25):
a wide range of opinion and if you're looking for
the negative, this fits into that narrative.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
John, do you have the spring transfer portal window opening tomorrow.
How much movement do you think we'll see? Will it
be a trickle or will it still be a cascade
like it was in the winter time.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Not to the extent that it was in the Winner,
But I think it'll be more than a trickle for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
And you know there's gonna be some good players.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
It's not gonna be a lot of really good players,
but you know, if you're Washington, you may you may
see a guy that you think can help you the
offensive defensive line, for instance.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I think there'll be.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Some some players there. There'll be some opportunity depending on
how much money the schools have still available. Lot of
a lot of schools went all in with their nil
money on the winter transfer portal, understandably so. But if
you've got some cash available, I think you can find
some help, some immediate help.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
John Wilner with US, I know you do like a
way too early preseason top twenty five for college football.
You do your Big ten predictions, obviously, but will you
do a early Heisman prediction segment and will Demand Williams
be on your list of long shots?
Speaker 4 (05:39):
I am gonna do it, but I've been waiting for
the spring transfer window to close and spring practice to end,
so probably early May. The portal is open for ten
days till the end of next week, and then most
schools will wrap up practice, and so I will do
one for sure. I just didn't make sense to me
(06:01):
to do it earlier when we don't know exactly where
everybody's gonna be, and will Williams be on it. I
think that I would probably put him on the you know,
the dark first candidate list, a guy that could you know,
come out of nowhere for a lot of folks who
haven't seen him play, especially if the Huskies have a
(06:21):
good season.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
John is the Nico Yama Lajeva situation, just one of
many like it to come. And do you think he's
gonna end up losing money in this whole deal when
he finds a home that's not Tennessee?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
He might.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
I mean, that whole thing is so indicative of what's
going on now, and I have equated it to the
Nick Saban retirement in January of twenty twenty four that
shut off two chain reactions. One was the coaching chain,
which obviously hit Seattle. The other was the contract extension chain.
(07:02):
You know, Steve Sarkisian Mike Norvel.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
A whole lot of coaches got got pay.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Raises because the schools wanted to keep them all their
coaches away from Alabama.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Right, same thing's gonna happen.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Tennessee is going to go out and start looking for
a quarterback, and they got the money to poach almost anybody.
At the same time, schools are gonna who have quarterbacks
that might be in you know, desirable by Tennessee. You
may have to come up and offer a raise to
your quarterbacks. I'm not saying Washington would with demand Williams, right,
(07:34):
but you know, pick the school that's got somebody who
who's established, Like just hypothetically, ASU was Sam Levitt, Right,
Tennessee might go after Sam Levitt.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
It's as you may have to come up with a
raise for him.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Well, I think that brings up an important point about
kind of what's allowed and what's not allowed, which is nothing.
You can do whatever you want, I guess, But like,
what's keeping Tennessee from going after DeMont Williams. I mean,
Caleb Williams left Oklahoma to go to USC. For God's sakes,
this is Oklahoma one of the premier programs in the
history of college football. So there's there's nothing tying demand
(08:10):
Williams contractually to Washington if somebody comes calling over the offseason.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Not that I am aware of now, I don't think
it'll happen because I think the Tennessee's gonna, you know,
they feel like they got a playoff roster and they're
going to want to try to get.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
A proving quarterbacks.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
But you know, there is no as far as I know,
Williams and most of these other kids do not have
binding contracts. We just saw what happened to Tennessee. Now
that is but that is an aspect of this whole
thing that needs to be examined. Can the schools improve
the state of their NIL contracts to create any kind
(08:46):
of binding agreement? Obviously, the scholarship that Williams is getting
from Washington is a year to year thing.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
He can break that.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
I'm assuming he does not have some kind of massive
buyout in his NIL contract act that would give Tennessee pause.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
Are we done with the with the lawsuits because of
the settlement? You know, we had the Regimen Bush and
the Terrell Prior and the Diego Pavia like or.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
We're not done with this?
Speaker 3 (09:14):
This is just tip of the Iceberg.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
Okay, tell me more. No.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
In fact, I just published about an hour ago an
article on that very topic. Okay, if they there's going
to continue to be in I trust lawsuits unless one
or two things happens.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Either there's a collective.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Baring agreement with between the schools and the players, or
Congress provides anti trust protection. There's no indication either way
that either of those things are gonna happen anytime soon.
Just ten days ago, a couple of kids in North
Carolina football players at North Carolina and Duke, filed the
loss in trust lawsuit against the instabla.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
They want to basically get they've had, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Their five years to play four and their argument is
we're better now than we were as freshmen. We are
worth more in nil money now, so the five to
play four shouldn't apply to us. We should get another year,
even though we don't have a good reason for it
except for our nil market value. So that's an example
(10:15):
of what's going on in the courts right and how
the NCAA is under assault constantly, and even though this
House deal is going.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
To help, it is not going to stop the lawsuits.
So I'm sorry David.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Are we going to get to a point maybe where
college athletes can play as long as they want.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
That's one of the things I addressed in the article.
I talked to two sports sports law experts. The three
nightmare scenarios that I see potentially coming down the pike
are unlimited eligibility, being able to transfer in season, and
(10:54):
we've talked about that the three of us have, and
also turning pro playing in the NFL for five years,
and then I'm went back and played in college, and
the notion of amateurism is under assault the extent that
you can't rule any of those things out.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, I mean, I could see a situation where you
don't even need to be in school to be playing
for these teams down the road. I just don't think
anything should be dismissed as stupid as it sounds. John
Wilners with us. John Danny Sprinkle was on with us.
We're going to replay it coming up in the six
pm hour for those that missed it, because I thought
he was really good. He's putting a lot of expectations
on himself, by the way, for the upcoming season. We
(11:34):
asked him, what does he expect that of Husky basketball
in twenty twenty five years.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
What he said, my expectation is to be in the
NCAA tournament and not just get there, like you know,
we gotta win games in the Nskavuay Tournament.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I've never been so motivated. In fact, I'm pissed off.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So he's putting the bullseye squarely on himself John for
next year. Right, what do you make of that decision
by Danny Sprinkle?
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Well, I think that's good just to raise the bar
for his players and for himself, and he's he's done
a nice job. I have been very impressed with Washington's
roster makeover, a little bit surprised by the resources available
for Washington Basketball's nil.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Bank account. It's pretty impressible.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I don't know all the details of who's behind that,
but somebody is really helping that program out. And he's
going to have a roster that I think is probably
gonna be picked, you know, six to eight to ten
in the Big ten next season. And if you're in
that window in the Big ten, you've got a good
chance to make the intblas.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Oh, if you're six to eight, you're pretty much a
lock in the Big Ten.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Right, they got They had eight teams in this year,
so yeah, yeah, they've done a nice job.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
They have done a really nice job remaking that roster.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Hey, John, do you like the timing of Speaking of
tournament basketball, do you like the timing of the women's
tournament or should have happened before or after the men's tournament?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I think it's good because it is.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
I think they piggybacks in terms of interest, and they
play off each other, I think, and if they tried
to move it either before or after, there would be
so much outrage that it was getting unequal treatment that
I mean, I can't even see it happening, honest with you,
I think they should move both of them.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
To be honest, I think they should move back a few.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Weeks and start the thing at the very end of March,
because that would now allow them to move the start
of the season foward into December and cut down on
the overlap of football.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Right right, John. Remember those old things that you'd go
into a motel in the middle of nowhere and you
put a quarter in the bed would vibrate. Remember those
things back in the day, one of those hotels. No, no, no, no,
I'm just saying that John's phone for whatever reason. Every week,
about fifteen minutes in you start to sound like this,
he's better now, and you just did it again. It's
(14:02):
not your fault. It's like it's like, we only get
fifteen minutes before somebody's got to put a quarter into
your phone, so we got we gotta find a way
to check that.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
But John, I don't know what's going on. It's very odd.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I know it's not your fault. No, I get it.
It's just really weird. I mean, Jackson confirmed this. Every
single week it comes on like fifteen minutes into this
same damn.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
It's only for five seconds. It's only very weird seconds
each time.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Can you just start to carry some dimes or nickels
with you, by the way, and just feed the machine
for crying out loud? John Wilner is with us again
right here on ninety three three kJ AIRFM. I want
to go back to the Demon Williams thing for a second,
because I think that there's a question about this is
a guy in jed Fish that purposely put Jonah Coleman
(14:45):
back into a game a year ago to have him
get one hundred yards. And I see CSU meaning Colorado State.
You see Davis and Wazoo in the first three games
of the year. Don't want to look past anybody. Obviously
we all know what happened last year at Lumenfield. But
Jetfish the kind of guy who's already been talking about
New York and the Heisman for demon where he would
(15:07):
load up his numbers in those first three games of
the year just to get this guy on the Heisman radar.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Absolutely, I think he would, and I think you know
we saw he he he will do that. He did
that in Arizona to a certain extent with with Tenero
McMillan right, in terms of getting the ball to his playmakers.
I mean, it's certainly not entirely motivated by just the
Heisman spotlight. It is, but it is an offshoot of
(15:38):
given your best players the ball with the chance to
make the greatest impact. And you look at Williams's you know,
run pass, dual threat skills and that schedule, and you
can you can certainly sketch out in your head that
he's going to be one of those surprise candidates there
(15:59):
are every year.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
There are some. The big issue will be if he
does have a hot start, right, what kind of play.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Is he going to get on the big ten TV
windows right in terms of maximum exposure, And there's no
way to know now, but certainly they got you know,
if he plays well at home. The Ohio State game
is like late September, right it's I think it's the
same day that Oregon.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Plays PENNSA September twenty So, yeah, same day Oregon plays
Penn State. Huge day right there.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
If he has a hot start and then they get
that game on, you know, assuming it's not on Peacock,
that could be a huge, huge.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Game for Williams for the Heisman.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
John was Washington State and Oregon State happy with their
exposure last year? And you wrote this last week about
the PAC two meteor rites for this year and what
it looks like tell us about it.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Yeah, they were very happy with how it went with
the CW and it was you know, given the circumstances,
I think they were right to be happy with it.
That is the one of the big questions for the
new PAC twelve is if you have a choice, if
the option is let's take a TV deal that gives
(17:13):
us a little bit more money but a little less
exposure on linear TV, or more exposure on linear TV
and a little less money.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
I think they need to go for the exposure.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
I think they got to get as many games on
broadcast or table as they can, whether that is the
CW or Fox, ESPN, Turner. That's what they need to
focus on because the next five years is a tryout.
It's an audition for a lot of these schools to
get into whatever happens next.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Hey, so I saw this the other day on social media,
and I'm telling you, man, there's rumors and sometimes stories
are born on X and Twitter. Right, I mean, as
crazy as and nonsensical as things sound, sometimes things just
kind of come out of nowhere. Have you seen this
crazy rumor about Utah ditching the Big twelve for the
(18:03):
Big Ten.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
I did see it, and I got a good laugh
out of it. Okay, good. So, I mean you're not
buying that. I don't know. No, I'm not buying that
at all.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
That is rooted in the fact that Utah didn't really
want to go to the Big twelve, right. Utah really
wanted the Pac.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Twelve to stay together. And Utah also.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Thinks that it is a Big ten worthy school football
academically and in some ways, Utah is a Big ten school.
I agree with that assessment, more of a Big ten
school than a Big twelve school. But no, I have
no reason to think that that's true. And they've got
a contract with the you know, a grant of rights deal,
(18:45):
so it's it's ridiculous. There's gonna be a lot of
ridiculous realignment stuff the next three or four years, and
then things will get real serious in like twenty eight,
twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah, just ridiculous stuff like Stanford and cal go to
the a CEC. That's crazy. I don't never happen ever.
All Right, John, you're the man, great stuff, and we're
talking a week, buddy, appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
John, Thanks guys.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
All right, John Wilner with us on the radio show
We're gonna break. Brian Schmitzer we'll join us coming up
five pint forty five right here on ninety three three KJRFM.
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