Steve Rivera and jaygn Salez. They have their eye on the ball on Tucson
Sports Big Jet, Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean, iHeart
radio wams Hey, welcome back to Ie on the Ball here on Fox Sports
fourteen. Cookie, I'm Steve, he's Jay. Now we have said with
breaking news, his eye on the ball, breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. All right it We'll start off our breaking news with the big stuff
related to the Coyotes as they won their last game yesterday. The move to
Salt Lake the official now, and we just got word of some other news.
The Tucson Roadrunners will also be moving. They'll be going to Phoenix,
Coyote's owner said. Right. The NHL made the official announcement on the Coyotes
a little earlier today that they are moving to Utah. A little kind of
thing hanging in there is that the Coyotes franchise will be declared inact, meaning
it's still part of the NHL. It's just inactive. The owner retains the
owner rights and as soon as he can get an arena built. If he
gets an arena built, they can reactivate the team. But in the meantime
it was. He also said, what's the name of Marulo? What's the
first name? I can't remember. He said apparently on a radio show in
Phoenix today that they are going to move the road Runners up to Phoenix,
are playing that arena, the a s U's Hockey Area. Before the season
started, didn't we have the was it was it this guy? We had
an owner, we had the president, the president of the team. Okay,
yeah, he was a Hispanic guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you had a lot of fun with yeah, yeah, no, okay.
So you know it impacts people here now down here right with the move now
right decision, you have one less you know, you're well, Arizona's two
sons lost another professional franchise and one that's been pretty successful. They've been around
for a while and and they're you know, they're they're going to be gone.
How that affects something, Well, you know, I think the maybe
abodes a little well a little bit, I guess for for both the f
C Tucson and the Sugar Skulls, because that's you know, less one one,
one less place to divvy up the entertainment dollar. But you know,
look, the Tucson fans have done a good job of supporting this team.
You know, the crowds were good. It's been the team's been here for
a while, it's lasted, and yet it gets pulled out. You know,
the rug gets pulled out again from Tucson, and no fault of their
own through no fault of it. It's it's through the fault of what was
going on up at the Coyota. Sure. Sure, now the guy could
keep the team here if you wanted to, But you know he's sure.
He's dug in up in Phoenix because that's where the where the franchise is.
So he said, Okay, we're going to keep hockey going in Phoenix so
that when we get our NHL franchise back, people have continued to have hockey.
That it makes sense. I'm not saying it's not a good business decision.
It probably is a good business decision. It just sucks for two soon.
Yeah. Looking into basketball news, Pella Larson has announced he's declared for
the draft, kind of as most expected. Some say he's probably the most
ready NBA prospect out of the guys on the roster last season. Yeah,
I didn't realize he's He's in the mock drafts. He's he's a second round
pick. He's like in the forties as a as a draft pick. So
he'll get a shot. You know, he'll get you chance to go over
there and show if he can do it or not. Right, what do
you think? I just golad' say, not me too. I I he's
he's not He's not big enough to be the you know, the the four
guy that can step out, uh make threes and stuff like that. He's
a he's a decent shooter. I think he's a little undersized for the position,
maybe not cook enough for the position that he would have to play.
And didn't you think apples to apples when he came here from Utah that you
thought that he would be better overall better shoot. Well, it's too consistent,
consistent, because he was really good at times, Steve. You know,
there were no no, he played some incredible games, but he just
it just didn't come game in and game out, And there were some games
where he was just not only was he inconsistent, he was bad. Some
games he'd have four turnovers in the first half, stuff like that. And
we've talked about it a number of times. He was the guy with the
best numbers throughout the whole year, kind of across the board the straw that
started to drink, but the drink tasted bad at times. It did,
and and part of the reasons why they lost against the Clemson was he didn't
have to have a good did not have a game defensively or offensive. Right,
speaking of defense, Uh, Morosquez, the former Arizona forward, is
moving to Saint Marriage. Reportedly yep, right, another good a good player.
I mean, Jay mentioned that he probably didn't play defense very well,
and there's a reason he didn't. I don't disagree, but maybe there just
wasn't a spot for n because he played a little Uh, and he can
shoot it. I like the way he played that way. And that's the
thing, Steve, he was such a good shooter. He had to be
really bad at something else to not be able to get on the floor,
right, And that's that's the thing people have to take. Oh, we're
losing Morosco. So he was such a great shooter, and Tommy never played
him. Well, Tommy didn't play him because he's probably a liability in other
areas. Right, Maybe the only thing he could do was shoot, right.
So you know, you go to a place like Saint Mary's. Yeah,
of course he's gonna go off. He's gonna be one of the best
three point shooters in the country at Saint Mary's. But at Saint Mary's you
don't have to guard NBA guys game in and game out like you have to
do when you're at Arizona. Yeah. I think most of the time when
coaches don't play someone pretty good reason. Right, Coaches want to win.
If a guy, if they think a guy can help him win, they're
gonna play the guy. And sometimes they play them too much to a fault.
Yeah, right, right. Moving into Arizona football, they got a
big visitor in town today. The top player in the portal form, Oregon
Stay running back Davian Martinez is visiting Arizona and he has them in their top
four. We'll see where he winds up. But overall, good sign for
Brent Brandon and he's able to bring in a guy uh that caliber for a
visit. Yeah, he's a he's a guy. Certainly when you know the
beginning of the year last year, when we were thinking that that Arizona game
or the Oregon State game here was likely a loss. He was one of
the big reasons they had both DJ and then they had him, and you
thought he's really good. I don't. I really don't want to see him
run all over Arizona and he I mean he you know, he did well.
But Arizona won that game, so I'm certain. Well, remember,
I know some guys who would be very happy to welcome Damien Martinez UH to
Arizona next next season. Sticking with the Arizona Sports News softball, their last
home series starts tomorrow. They play Arizona State here. So last home series
already, yep, yep, get out? Come on, man. What's
happening to the year, Steve. You're getting older. I'm getting older.
I'm getting great. Time is going too fast as you get older. I
want to collect some some money before I die. I have to look up
their schedule to see where they go. I mean, they've got they've got
to have stuff. After that, we gotta call, we gotta call.
Let's take this call. HI are on there and I on the ball.
Hey, good, good, good day, gentlemen. How you doing Rick?
What's up? Good? Steve? Uh? This nil stuff? When
the guys said that, or what I guess Jay looked it up? If
I'm paying somebody to do advertisements for me, that is a business expense,
but I don't know if it qualifies for n N I L right, that
was specifically donating to a collective. So you know where money goes into a
collective, then it goes to athletes and whatever program that collective supports. But
if you have a contract, like like Bert Lopez has a contract with TAMAC
as part of his business, there's probably some you know, he can probably
claim something of that on his taxes. But in terms of is it a
is it a tax deductible donation when you donate to a collective, That's what
it's saying. It is not right and then and so and the question is
is the university making these payments based on what factor that That's the question that
we have for Ray Wells right that you know, like like like you go
you go to the U of a collective website and there's a jersey for whoever
wears number twenty on the team. You buy that jersey. Whoever wears that
jersey gets a piece of that money. That's what that's what we're talking about
over there and supporting those collectives. Or you go to the collective you say,
I want, I need two athletes at my event on such and such
a day. They come to your event and then they're paid out of the
collective for that. All right, So, and I guess if I'm a
business person, I am, But why would I want to donate to a
collective that has the university making these payments when I could just make them directly
myself? Well you can, I mean, that's that's some guys. Some
people do a lot of people do that, and that's the problem with but
for instance the bird. Again, we keep referring to the Bert Lopez thing
because only because we talked to him and he told us about it. Bert
Lopez has has TEMAC on a on a contract and TAC has to go do
certain things that are a benefit to Bert Lopez's business. You know, He's
got housing developments and he does different things. He has community events through his
business, HSL properties, those kinds of things. So part of Tmac's contract
is to make these appearances and do these things, uh and represent his business.
That's a direct contract with him on that right, Like with Boswell.
Boswell had a contract with whomever rent of the rita. But again, why
would the if I want to make a donation in the university to the education
Foundation. That is totally that is a dig. So why would again.
I think n C double A needs to figure out a way to take care
of these people because they're asking him for money and there's no tax benefit and
making these donations exactly another reason why this is not sustainable. Another reason it
really isn't and it's what's frustrating is if I'm a student and nobody's buying my
jersey, I'm I'm I guess s O L and so. But anyway,
well, you guys figure it out and you let us know when you got
it all done. Okay, horses there, Yeah, don't be waiting into
the bus stop for that one. Thanks a lot ricks, all right,
Yes, sid Man, I was looking at this kid. I forgot.
They've got to pack off tournament. Yep, that's why I'm surprised that the
last regular season series is still is in April. Then the after ACU they
go to u C l A. They do have a home game with Frank
Cannon. Yeah, that that will be the final one of the year.
Here, I wanted to mention some women's basketball news before this breaking new segment
heads out of the Hayley Van Lift heading the TCU transferring over there even after
from l s U right l s U. So we'll see how that works
out. There's also un work to see you that's the place so they needed
they felt like Arizona because they only had like seven players on the roster had
the suspense and that isn't yeah okay, yeah, the other player the player
she went to Madison Connor right then that where she was at right at TCU,
okay, yeah. And then related to that, Kaitlyn Clark is expected
to land an eight figure deal with Nike, which is somebody said I saw
a tweet that said it was twenty million, twenty million dollars. I'm guessing
that that stuff like that's gonna make it hard for her in the NBA.
Right, there's gonna be some it's some a little resentment, I would say
for some of these other other players who have come before her, who kind
of laid the groundwork. But you also can't mess around with the Golden Goose,
No, because she's elevated the game right for everyone, right, she's
bringing Yeah, she's bringing something to the game, but that's harder to see
than a stack of money. Jay if I'm opening holes for you when you're
making money, I'm a little pissed. Yeah, exactly. Some NBA news,
Jimmy Butler is expected to miss several weeks. As yesterday, the Heat
lost to the Bulls, so now they'll have the playing game to get into
the playoffs. The Heat will face off against the Bulls and then on the
other side you have the Kings and the Pelicans, so we'll see how they
shape out. But that's that's big news for Miami because if Miami were to
win that game, they they would play the Boston Celtics without without the Pelicans
are without well, they'll be without Zion. So so next on, one
gamer, right, one gamer? When to get in before your season's over.
It's the big news there. I don't know if you guys. I
have one thing and I want to bring this up because the height of hypocrisy
in this statement. There's a Diamondbacks put out a statement the entire Diamondbacks organization
is disappointed in the non official news of our NHL team being Oh, let's
take this call. I'll get back to this maybe later. Hi, you're
on there, aren't on the ball. They just wanted to make a point
about this. I have a question at the end. Okay, go ahead,
Uh this is right, are you right? Go ahead? Any So,
I heard a spell about all of these former athletes invested in the community.
You know, they were here for four or five years and they come
back the locks of the community. It's true. And I know a lot
of those guys, high character guys. I mean, I know you know,
Bob Elliott and Gary Harrison and a lot of them. Man, But
I just don't The point I want to make is we can't lose sight of
what goddess in this position, because I've been to restaurants and places and I
know guys that can't even They didn't even know how to take their girlfriends out
because they didn't have cast to do so. Man, the NCAA and the
University of Arizona and all the US of the universities have used these kids for
years and years and years, and no one was screaming anything about it.
And so I can't blame those kids for doing what they're doing. I know
it's short sighted, but you can't put the blunt all of the blame on
them because their kids, right, And so I I think we should emphasize
or not forget what God is in this position in the first place. And
the second point I wanted to make is, man, we should be focused
on solutions. I mean, somebody's gonna hear a great idea. I don't
know if it's going to be a lawmaker or one of these athletes or someone
from the n C double A. I'm not holding up rough about that,
and institute some guidelines the restrictions, man, about limiting you know, we
can't have free agency every year, maybe every three years or something. Some
something ideal that will get us back on an even keel, that puts some
consistency to this this n I l because it's here to stay in some shape
or fashion. No great points. Yeah, you're correct, no work.
I'm not blaming the kids for wanting to get the money, for saying,
is just the way this has come about, the way it's happening, the
way it's taking place, and how so out of control it is, and
I don't know how they're ever going to get it back under control. That's
the that's the issue, all right. Ray, Hey, thanks a bunch
man. We got to go to break so we appreciate the call problem.
Thank you, the program, Thank you all right, we got to hit
the road. Steve's officially hitting the road. Steve's not going to be here
the rest of the show. He's got to go down and cover some stuff.
But I'll be here. We're gonna have John Wilner here after the break
and we'll get into some of the issues related to the finances of Arizona from
a story that he a column that he ran in his Wilner Hotline column.
So stick around for John Wilner and then we'll take your calls after that.
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I mean iHeartRadio app. This is I on the Ball with Stebrivera and Jacob
Salez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Welcome back on the Ball here on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Jacob Dallas. My partner Steve Rivera had you duck
out for another work related assignment, so he's not here right now. But
I do have John Wilner on the line from PAC twelve Hotline. John who
covers all the business angles of sports and developed quite a niche for himself and
gives it brings a lot of expertise, not only to us in the PAC
twelve footprint, but all over the country. John, how you doing today?
I'm good, So you're flying? So wherever is that on the side
of that and all you can eat buffet? He well, I'll give him
the benefit of that. Dould say, he's not unless he stopped at one
on the way to his assignment. He's actually on his way to cover the
ribbon cutting for the new uf A Golf facility out of Tucson Country Club.
But he yes, he did leave me hanging, and he left me hanging
a whole bunch of the NCAA tournament. So I haven't forgiven him for that,
but he is. He is on a legitimate assignment this time, so
we're well, well good. Yeah. So anyway, so I was mentioning
that, you know, you do cover a lot of the business side of
athletics, particularly around the PAC twelve and today, and there's a Daily Star
ran a column that you actually put out yesterday talking about the financial situation at
at Arizona as you as you noted in the lead of the of the of
the column that you know, the the financial problems over there probably contributed to
Dave Dave Hickey leaving and a new athletic director coming in there. Bobby Robbins
has made a decision to step down at the end of his contract. So
things have happened likely because of this. But you were kind of your take
on this was kind of what's the big deal? Right, So tell us
what you thought or your thoughts on what you found in terms of Arizona's financial
situation. Well, yeah, it was there was a little bit of sarcasm
in them, but basically I wanted to see exactly how much Arizona used of
institutional money, right, and the NCAA allowed schools to allocate student fees to
athletics, and it allows schools to make direct transfers to athletics. And to
what extent was Arizona's athletic department relying on school support? And what I found
is basically that when you add up the student fees and the direct transfers plus
an additional thirty one million dollar loan, Arizona rang up about forty three forty
four million dollars in school money for athletics and it needed that money to balance
its books. Now that's a lot of money, and I can understand why
there was an uproar, But if you're comparing to the rest of the PAC
twelve, Arizona's not actually an outlier. In fact, ASU would be running
a bigger deficit than Arizona if you removed ASU school support from the athletic department
budget. Cal and Colorado and UCLA, all those schools are thirty five forty
million dollars in the hole without school support. Arizona's in the whole about forty
three million. So it's not really an outlier when you compare it to a
lot of other schools in the in the PAC twelve. So the point of
the article was, you know, what on a comparative basis, Arizona situation
is not as bad as maybe some people might have thought. But I will
say in somebody, you know, I've been here for forever and ever,
and there was a point, you know, back in the history of athletics
where you know, one of their points of pride was, you know,
we're we're we're we're self supporting, self sustaining. We don't need money from
from from the campus in terms of bridge loans or or you know, you
know, funds that are coming over. Yes, they've always had student fees,
I mean, all the way back to when I was in college.
It's a whole lot more now than it was back then. But so I
don't know if it's that people are hanging on to this ideal that athletics should
be self supporting and shouldn't be relying on the campus to help fund athletics.
There's a lot of people who just absolutely hate that. Yeah, well,
unless you sell seventy five thousand season tickets to football games or count Phil Knight
as an alum, you're probably gonna needed school support to balance your books,
right, And you know there's Cal thirty. I think I just list off
the school support. But the bottom line is last year, the eleven PAC
twelve schools that I was able to get data for, so all of them
except USC one hundred and fifty million dollars in collective school support for the athletic
departments. And that's with Oregon not taking any. Oregon's the only school in
the conference that doesn't take any campus support. But the bottom line, too,
is is it really a bad thing? It's great to claim that you're
self sufficient, but is it the worst thing in the world for the university
to help fund athletics because athletics does so much in return for the university.
I mean, Arizona's basketball program is better known than anything else about Arizona nationally,
and you could say that about Colorado football or the football, UCLA basketball.
Right these programs are the most visible aspects of the school and they do
a lot of good for the school in terms of national branding. So if
the institution wants to support use ten to fifteen to twenty million dollars a year
to support athletics. I don't know that that's necessarily the wrong thing, And
I agree one hundred percent with that. I mean, how many times have
we heard the term that you know, Arizona basketball or Arizona football or athletics
are the front porchs of the university. I mean there have been University of
Arizona people have said that. I think Robbie Robbins has said it sometimes all
the athletic directors say it. And you're right. I mean what they contribute
back, you know, with the value that these universities are getting back.
I mean I'm in person green. Look, I'm a sports guy. You
know, if if the campus is supporting athletics, I'm okay with it.
You know, I put a whole bunch of money into the university through tuition.
You know, three kids, myself, my wife. You know it
to me, and you took nine years to graduate. Now, that was
our That was our friend, our dearly departed friend, Ray Martinez. That
wasn't me. I got out in five because I knew if I didn't,
my dad was gonna kick me out of the house. I mean in four,
I got out in four. I didn't even know. I didn't even
take a chance on that. But but you know what I'm saying, It's
like, yes, there is some value to that. So why why is
it wrong for the university to support that if they're getting something in return.
You no, I don't know that it is. I yeah, I mean
I guess it is. It. Let me ask you this, though,
I don't know how much of an analysis you got to do with this,
But you know how much of this, maybe across the board for all the
schools is a COVID hangover because we all heard the numbers that that the programs
were losing, you know, during those during those times where they didn't have
games and and you know there was an n C double a tournament canceled,
and you know, seasons were you know, uh, I mean yes,
they played a abbreviated a football season and all those kinds of things. I
think the number that that Dave Yiki gave us about where how far under Arizona
Athletic was going to be for that COVID year was forty five million dollars.
Well, that number kind of matches up with what the deficit is, it
does, I think that's a little bit of it, says. My sense
is so the numbers that I pulled were for the most recent reporting year.
The way it works is, you know, the fiscal year ends at the
June thirtieth end. The schools are required to report their revenue and expenses to
the NCAA by January of the following calendar year. So the numbers I've been
looking at are for the fiscal year that encompassed the twenty two football season and
then the twenty three spring twenty three right basketball season. So in the twenty
two football season, I think that most of the COVID hagover had kind of
week between the PAC twelve certainly well, obviously the fall of twenty was completely
wilved by COVID, right, and then the fall of twenty one I think
also was hit pretty hard because there was a lot of campuses that still had
you know, you had to have proof of VACCA they and all that kind
of thing. But by twenty two, I think it had mostly worked its
way through the system. So to me, those numbers are are pretty real
in terms of the post pandemic landscape. Yeah yeah, So any idea what
schools can are can do are trying to do? Maybe should do, you
know, but then you got all this chaos with you know, changing conferences.
You know, UCLA's expenses are going to go up. USC's expense is
going to go up. Stanford and Cow's expenses are going to go up with
all the travel that they're going to have and just you know, managing all
their all their athletics. Is it going to get worse before before it turns
the other direction? Well, it's certainly going to be harder for some schools
than others, depending on travel costs. But the media deals are also a
huge part of the whole thing. And you know, the Big ten schools
have got more travel costs, but they've also got a better media deal.
I don't think that all of a sudden going into the Big twelve is going
to solve Arizona's problems or asus problems financially. I mean, it's going to
help, but they're still going to rely on campus support unless they are able
to make major breakthroughs in other avenues like fundraising and ticket sales, right,
I mean, I would imagine that that Arizona's you know, the fall of
twenty three, which will be uh, we'll see which Arizona made and ticket
sales next winter for this past fall. You know, that'll help, but
they got to sustain that, and they've got to certainly improve fundraising and be
more efficient with how they spend money in order to you know, consistently be
less reliant on campus support. Just going into the Big twelve. It's not
going to solve all the problems. Well, and then you mentioned fundraising,
right, because we've been talking this week about fundraising and the you know money
now that is being asked for to support a school's you know, collectives and
in their NIL programs, and you know, at the same time that are
asking with the other hand, for the for the boosters to support facilities and
scholarships and all those kinds of things. And you know, and we,
I mean, we had a long conversation you say, about how sustainable is
that going to be going forward? We had a da Barnes on the show
and she basically said, we are at the low rung, one of the
lowest rungs for NIL for women's basketball. And she said, we are not
going to be able to compete if we can't raise more money for that.
So you've got people out there asking for money for women's basketball at the same
time they're asking for money for like I said, scholarships and facilities and all
those operational type things that the school needs. It just seems like this I
don't know if there's a big crash coming in the future because of NIL,
or if it's already crashed, or where we are in that. I mean,
where do you think on that? Well, what's going to happen is
the NCAA is going to allow schools to take over basically broker the NIL deals
between the athletes and the third parties. That might help create a little bit
more of an efficient market, But the bigger issue is that athletes are going
to get paid. They're going to become employees at some point here, probably
in the next two three years, is my guest. And if the schools
don't do it willingly, the court system is probably going to force them to
do it. So they've got to come up with a model, and I
think the SEC and the Big ten are trying to do this. They got
to come up with a model that is going to work. They've also got
this lawsuit to house lawsuit filed by a former ASU swimmer Grant House. It's
gonna cost billions and damages for the conferences, which means for the schools.
So the expenses are going to only increase, And especially in the ACC and
Big twelve. I don't know that the revenue is gonna dearly keep pace with
the increase in costs. It's gonna be interesting to see how the whole thing
plays out over the next three or five years. It just sounds also scary
to me. I feel like all of athletics is almost at risk, not
all of it. We know that the Texas Is and the well the secs
and the Big tens, they're gonna make it through this because you know,
Michigan gets one hundred and ten thousand people for football, and so does Ohio
State, so does Alabama, So you know all those schools. But you
know Arizona that if they get forty five thousand to one of their games,
that's pretty good, you know, pretty good day How those programs are gonna
survive. When you think of Arizona shouldn't be just barely trying to survive.
I feel like, you know, they're a well established major Division I program,
But where's that money going to come from? I don't know. They're
going to have to hope they could generate more with fundraising and ticket sales,
but it's it's going to be very difficult. And the Super League, which
a lot of people think is eventually coming, is going to further create a
tiered system in major college football. Arizona is a school, so's Arizona State
that probably borderline on making it into the Super League, depends on how big
it is. I happen to think that it's only going to be thirty or
forty schools, and that you know, the Arizona schools would not make it
in that case. But what college athletics is now compared to what it's going
to look like, say, twenty thirty two, twenty thirty four, completely
different animal. And it may be that, you know, thirty schools are
basically a mini NFL, and everybody else is playing college football in a manner
that looks more like what we have come to know. But it's all the
changes happened in the last few years is going to look like amateur hour compared
to the changes coming down the bike here. Oh my god, God,
now you're depressing me, John, you're depressing me. What you know,
it's partly the NCAA's fault because they refuse to change until the court's forced it
to change. And now the courts are forcing all kinds of change. I
mean this week, right, they just ncbly just approved immediate eligibility for players
who transfer a second and third time. I happen to think that we're getting
close to the era where the four year eligibility clock is increased, right,
I mean, the average student needs more than four years to graduate, So
why shudent an athlete get five or six years of eligibility? And then if
if that's the case, why why couldn't an athlete play for five schools in
five years? With the media eligibility each time, it's gonna it's gonna keep
changing. It's it's gonna be unrecognizable. Oh god, well yeah, well,
I mean, and then with the unrestricted free agency that goes with it,
right, guys who are who you know, going to shop themselves around
after every year, try and get as much money as they can because in
a lot of cases, this might be the only time that they make money
playing playing the sport. And that's particularly it'll be interesting to see how the
NIL market adjusts if and when the athletes are employees and they can collectively bargain
and they are subject to getting cut from rosters under employment law, and they've
got a set salary. You know, I don't know, It's impossible to
predict exactly what it's gonna look like. But it's possible that the NIL situation
will will change once UH employment status is granted. Right, Okay, I
missed the old days, I really do, I really do, but I
get it, you know, because of all the money that's that that's become
a part of this, with coaches making seven, eight, nine ten million
dollars a year, something had to be done, and as you said,
the NCAA just completely dropped the ball on it. Well, and also,
I mean Jetfish goes to Washington. Why should Jetfish get to transfer employers and
Arizona football players are locked into staying in Tucson, right, I mean that's
not really fair and that's unfortunately the nc DOUBLEA didn't realize that until too late,
and the courts are forcing this this change. But I mean, really,
why should a band member be able to go work at in and out
Burger at night and make the money when a football player can't generate income on
their own? Right? These a lot of the rules were unfair, and
the court system's forcing the change. All right, John, Well, appreciate
your time. You know, I loved your perspective on the thing. Like,
Okay, yes, it's a lot of money. But everybody's in kind
of that situation. So if you want to read that, it's in the
Arizona Daily. Start today John's column packed off hotline out of the Bay Area
News Group and the Mercury News. And John, I think you're about to
get spread all over the place right covering what three, four or five conferences
anymore. Yeah, it's gonna be fun those shortage of things to write about
exactly. Well, John, again, thanks for your time. We know
you're busy. Guys. We appreciate any time we can get from you.
So thanks about be well. Thanks you're an Arizona men's basketball fan. You
know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at
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dot Net. Breaking down all the exes at OHS. It's Steve Levera and
Jagen Salvinz. This is I on the ball on Fox Sports fourteen different.
Welcome back to the balling on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Jacob Zalas.
My partner Steve Rivera had to to go cover an event. He's at the
ribbon cutting for the new U of A golf facility at Tucson Country Club.
But I've got sid here to wrap things up with us. Today got about
a little over nine minutes. If you want to give us a call on
any one of the issues that we've been talking about. Still want to sit
here every break, there's something else. There's something else happening that it just
hit on. Three Sports is reporting that ASU's quarterback Jaden Rashada is planning to
enter the transfer portal. And they're saying planning to enter, so apparently it's
not in it yet. But Rashada, if you recall, was the quarterback
from he was at Florida. He'd committed to Miami, Florida came up with
allegedly came up with a thirteen point eight million dollar NIL deal for him.
He went to Florida, signed a letter of intent. Then it turned out
Florida, the Florida Collective it did not have the dough and he was released
from that from that nil and and I national letter of intent and he wound
up at a s U. He became the starting quarterback last year, played
in uh uh uh you know all season, got his butt kicked by Arizona
and looked bad doing it, and now he's entered the transfer portal. Yeah,
it's to me, it's strange that it happened. This is happening this
late into spring ball, right right after you know, they've introduced Kenny Dillingham
and all the coaching staff, and to leave basically right right, as as
the school semester is gonna end going this summer right right? And so uh
but you know with the portal, with the portal window open again and you
know, players have an opportunity to do that after spring break. Who knows
what into that? Did he not like what was going on? Uh?
But I mean he had a year under Dillon Hansel was not It's not like
he didn't know him. I mean he wondered if he was going to transfer
Wheney transfer when he leave, you know, when the season ended. And
so there's a whole lot of stuff there. But I mean Jaden Mashata,
the quarterback at ASU, apparently going into the portal and then a lot of
back and forth between the Arizona ANDSU people on Twitter. So anyways, let's
take this call. Hi, you're on the Aaron eye on the ball that
well, it's hard to believe that ASU doesn't have a great football program a
school that big, with that kind of resources. You know it. But
anyway, we don't care. One thing we haven't realized what's going on right
now, Jay, is that I don't know if you've noticed that Notre Dame
has the number one class for twenty twenty five, it's pretty apparent that the
Vatican has decided you're going to buy a national championship as a sooner, we
want to issue a warning right now to them if they're going to go down
that road. We've got plenty of money right now, but once we pull
the evangelicals in, we won't have more money than God. Well, you
know, if you if you go back to Godfather part three, you know,
how much does the court your own family have to do with what Notre
Dame now is doing if it goes through the Vatican. Right, so we
can we can connect that way back. But yeah, you know the craziness
of all this and what's your name, Richard? The craziness of all this,
Richard is that it's like every day it's something new, right, it's
you know, the money, the you know, the decisions that coaches and
players are making, just the chaos of all of this, it's it's hard
to not to just drive yourself crazy. And I agree, Jay, and
you know, in many ways, I'm actually for that. For the free
market. Yeah, for Freeman. You know, Nick Saban had his way
his whole career and now he's complaining he was a freeman could leave any day
of the week, just like Jed did h. So there's there's certainly that
aspect, and they made fortunes off the players. These players, by the
way, by the time they get out of high school, now there are
professional athletes by the time they get to college. Right right. Here's one
thing I would want to bring the people's attention that's related to this, and
it's this battle between if you're an independent contractor or an employee, and it's
called California AB five or the pro Act, and it's going to be very
detrimental to independent contractors to across America if you get a ten ninety nine if
you are a gig worker, freelance worker, and that's part of that,
that ruling that said that people have decain were actually employees so they could join
a union anyway. It's a long story, but I would urge anybody out
there that's an independent contractor does ten ninety nine work to study that it's very
going to be a big, big deal. Yeah, really good points because
well, you know, they if they make the the athletes employees, now
everybody's going to get them. There's going to be so is somebody's still going
to be able to make a million five when when well when the centers and
that would be you would think right now, we have Caleb Williams probably has
an LLC, many of them probably do, some may have for prior ships,
some may be employees. I'm not sure the entire dynamics of that,
but there certainly is an attempt right now movement in our country, uh to
force independent contractors to become employees. Right so they have to eventually vote to
being a union or not. The unions are okay for marge companies or marger
entities, but it's down to the micro level. So that's why I'm bringing
up and this doesn't this is not sports talk. I don't want to get
into it too far, but I would urge people to study it. Well.
Unfortunately it has become part of sports talk. Richard. Yeah, really,
that's really unfortunate that. I mean, we're economy, we're a self
self employment economy, and Tucson's damn packful of contractors who do and many of
them subcontract and have done very well at it. And that's you know,
uh, that is the American we are now, and I don't think that
should be changed or attacked, right right, Right, Richard talks a bunch
of good good background. They appreciate it now he may he makes a lot
of good points and and you know the business. And then you think about
you're eighteen years old and you're entering into this. You know, how do
you do that? And how do you do it in a way that you're
not vulnerable to stuff? Right? We hear about you know Shohio Tani,
right, tens of millions of dollars taken you know, by by you know,
a trusted advisor, a trusted person in his in his uh uh,
in his circle. Yeah, you know, you're eighteen years old. Somebody's
paying you three hundred thousand dollars to play football at Arizona. Maybe your parents
don't know how to handle some of that stuff. How do you you know
what there's some pitfalls there that are going to be a real problem for some
of these guys. Yeah, it just has added. I mean, like
you said, a new dynamic every every day, every year that we keep
going on with it, there's gonna be more dynamics that go into it.
And there's gonna be there's gonna have to be a time where the n C
double A comes to a point where they can organize this in a in a
better, better manner for for both the people giving the money and and the
athletes as well. It's yeah and see, and that's it. That's the
thing. And again you go back to you know what what what some callers
have said, what Steve has said, what John Wilner said, The n
C double A couldn't have messed this up anymore than they did. And this
is why we are where we are. I mean, even the NFL has
you know, salary caps and has uh you know, free agency period and
stuff like that, it's just completely wide open for thousands more athletes and for
people athletes who don't really know this business. Yeah, they don't. And
as we talked about earlier in the show, at one point, at some
point, I think the only solution may be to make this yeah an NFL
model, right yeah, yeah, And that's where we're headed. Yeah,
you know, that's where we're headed. If you know, if the athletes
do ultimately get made become employees, and then like I said, then you
go, okay, how are you going to pay the quarterback two million dollars
a year? And the center you're gonna pay him fifty thousand, one hundred
thousand, whatever. How's that going to work? Or can that work?
That's why there's a lot of there's a lot of college athletes who don't want
to be employees. They want, as Richard, they want to become they
want to remain independent contractors so they can negotiate their own deals. And we've
seen them already have agents for themselves. And at eighteen years old, you
have an agent. It's sixteen years old. These kids are getting agents so
they can negotiate their deals and go to college, to go to It's it's
crazy, you know, do you have Barnes on the show said yesterday said,
you know, when she was talking about the fact that you know,
I asked her, when does the nil come up in the conversation? He
said immediately, and it's you know, it's it's item one, two,
three, four, five and six. And it's the parents, you know,
And what they want to know is how much money do you have?
Not how much am I going to get? But how much do you have?
So they kind of get a sense of how much they think they can
get. It's crazy. The trickle down goes all the way down to high
school coaches, who now at the theat levels they're gonna have to be dealing
with, right, professional, Right, they're gonna have to deal with parents
who want their kids to have the best financial opportunity coming out of high school.
It's crazy. All right, Hey, we're done with the show.
Thank you for being here. Steve will be back tomorrow. We'll get after
it some more tomorrow. So thanks for being here, and we'll we'll get
back on it. So thanks for being here.