This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions katz R
two SAG and iHeartRadio Station at Hey. Good afternoon, everybody, Welcome to
RI on the Ball Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. You're
not Jagan's Aunes, but you're Matt Reynoldson. Back for your last day.
Yeah, glad to be back here and back in the studio. A couple
of times last week Jake comes back. I don't think you're gonna be like,
uh, what's that show? I always forgetting. I'll remember this after
a while where he gets his brakes cut and do well. He doesn't.
He lost his job and you're you're in, you know what I'm I'm ready
to fill in and anytime, though, call me a pinch hitter up on
the dugout. Yeah, show girls, showgirls. Yeah you remember that she
tripped her and she took over the job. Okay, so but you know
that's for another day. And we got our boy Ryan and Ryan, good
to see you. You scared me there for about ten minutes. Sorry about
that that's a that's age real quickly. I used to have dark hair.
No, I don't thank you Ryan for coming in. I guess did you
guys see that Tommy Lloyd's gonna have only eleven scholarship players on the roster and
you know the faithful crazy fans that Arizona has. Oh, they don't have
depth, they don't have this. What are your thoughts, because I have
mind? How many times are you playing thirteen scholarship players? Exactly? We
talked about it a little bit last week, the same thing, you know,
and Tommy Lloyd goes eight, he does, He'll maybe go ten early,
but then guess what in the big games, he's going seven or eight,
right, And they figured out that rotation pretty early on last year and
that made a big difference kind of down the stretch of that back twelve season
when they wrapped up the regular season conference title. No disrespect to Tommy,
but I don't know he knows how to spell depth because he doesn't use it.
No, but they could add to potentially it leaves open for potentially a
late portal edition or maybe even another high school scholarship piece. Another after a
five star guard and a six' ten guard and Will Riley, who could
reclassify from the twenty twenty five class to the twenty four class, so could
be another edition to the roster that could play a role in that rotation this
year. So just joking, so nobody can create a big Facebook page and
sudden, you know what I mean that Tommy was joking, of course with
a depth thing. But he doesn't. He doesn't. He doesn't use it
a whole out, not in crunch time. And guess what time it is
in crunch time in March all the time, right right, So, and
I mean it's way basketball is approached right now. You know, you have
to look at who your best players are, who your closers are, who
you can trust to make the right plays at the right times. And you
know, I think we saw it in March last year of they really shrunk
that rotation after having a lot of turnover issues against Long or against Long Beach
and against Dayton, and they shrunk that rotation a little bit in the second
half of that Dayton game and kind of cleaned up a lot of the turnovers
because they were able to run away with that. And they got yeah,
and they got a little scared because they were you know, they were doing
stuff they don't usually do with the turnovers. Like you said, yep,
they eventually pulled away, but but then came the next game and it was
over. Yeah. Yeah, it's what happens when you shoot what two for
twenty eight from three or something like that was bad and who knows that could
always happen again at any time, but it only matters in March. That's
basketball. That's uh. Yeah, we should start a podcast on something.
I'll throw this idea at you later, right. I know you're looking for
issues to get out out of town and get a job, but well,
we can do podcasts from anywhere. That's the beauty of twenty twenty four,
you know, true, Steven, Steve and I will dominate the podcast market.
You know. It will bring everybody with us and we'll have love great
listeners that follow us, just like they do here on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty.
Right. No, I like the way you're thinking. We'll bring on
Ryan to monitory our podcast and we'll be fine. Yeah, Ryan, you're
gonna keep us in line. I got it. I'll be there. Okay,
good. We need a monitor, we need a monitor, okay,
cool? Cool, Last day for you, Ryan, You not you Ryan.
But Matt Jay comes back tomorrow and we'll see how tan he is.
But we have a good show today. I've got Rocky of the Rose coming
in for the first hour. I wanted to talk to her about kind of
kind of going back to what we're doing before reminiscing about the PAC twelve Pack
ten when she was involved a long time ago as an AD, as a
player, as an AD and an administrator, talking about some of the great
stories. And I also want to get her take on what's going on today
with women's sports and obviously the hot topic with Caitlyn Clark we've been talking about
the last couple days. Obviously, did you see the game this weekend.
I'm sure you've seen enough for the highlights and all that. Yeah, what's
your take? You know, I think they women's sports have grown in such
an exponential way. I think over the last five years that it might just
discredit the overall movement in it to credit it to one player. You know,
I've seen volleyball grow exponentially to the point where there is you know,
professional volleyball taking off, you know all around this country. You know,
women's soccer has been huge, especially with the US women's national team leading the
way and then the National Women's Soccer League really having a bunch of momentum.
I know in Kansas City they built a stadium specifically for the Kansas City Current,
which is the soccer team there. And so I think, I think
we're seeing growth in those realms all across the country. And I think as
much as NIL grows and as much as the interests in the college games grow,
you start to see, you know, these athletes that are representing schools
that people love in so many different ways, carry their careers forward and maybe
do it in more of a four year sense as opposed to a one and
done sense, and I think that will create some more momentum, continue to
create more momentum and women's sports. And we see at the u of A
as well, what more momentum from you? And you're out the door there
right, just kidding and of course your guests for those who don't know,
Steve is very anti momentum in sports. But this is more of a trend
talk. You know it is and then that is it and it's trending up.
Obviously in a huge situation for kiddon car gonna ask here about that because
at no point in my life, probably no question in yours, that has
has have the women dominated the headlines like they are doing now, outside of
maybe the USA soccer team a few years back when they were doing so well,
right and taking out their uniforms and all that stuff, you know,
kind of the highlight of the teams back to back World Cups for them,
and I mean they're just they were a dominant team, and I think that
really rallied the country around soccer like it maybe hasn't been. I think with
the generation younger than me, I consider myself a back end millennial, but
with the generation younger than me, I think a lot of them have gravitated
towards soccer in the international sense. And you know, the US men are
getting better, but they they're never going to be a perennial, you know,
World Cup final contender, I don't think in my lifetime. But you
know, the women have set the stage and set the standard I think for
international soccer for a long time. And I think that was maybe a spur
of momentum in and of itself, because people love rallying around teams, and
I think that's a really unifier. They like winning teams and that's what they
were so rocky at the first hour. And then we're going to go to
Tempe and Hoad Rabino from Devil's Digest I wanted to get his take and then
we've had him on a few times before, but wanted to get his taken.
What the people on Tempe think about the new recruits for basketball? Right?
You know? The it was a trickle effect with Lloyd and with Love
coming here, Arizona losing a couple one going to Tempe and now they have
like two or three pretty good players up there. I already saw something today
that kind of struck me where they're saying they're maybe one or two people a
big deal, that the Sun Devils could be a sleeper for the Big twelve
champion or whatever. Up up, tie because they got a couple of good
players. Shut up, Shut up. Two dudes is not going to move
the needle all that much for a team that needs to get a lot more
players. Yeah, and that's my humble opinion. Take it for what it's
worth, and I'll say that two dudes, two young dudes, Good luck
with that. Good luck? You know what? And I think I know
there's a there's a very very obviously as there should be, you know,
slant toward the U of A down here in southern Arizona, and U of
A has been the better program. And I think you could say it every
sport too, because you know, the Territorial Cup stays in Tucson this year.
But you know, the ASU has quite a bit of momentum now that
they finally settled down the athletic director search, killing were mooted from it,
promoted from within. They have positive news, finally a su they got Edwards
out of the door. They have finally some recruits coming into Bobby Hurley's program.
Kenny Dillingham is a very likable guy, a good young coach, and
they have better things going their way in the Big Twelve given. But when
it comes to basketball, I can't make even any argument under the sun that
they're going to be a top eight team in that conference totally degree. There
would have to be a lot of things that go well for that to happen,
even top eight, top top half ten. Good. Weal with that,
it's not going to be easy. It's a loaded league. Yeah,
we'll see, we'll see what the optimism is up there. It's shirt.
It's very high, as it should be, but realistically where it fits into
the whole scheme of things right and basketball, they the Big twelve lost Texas
and Oklahoma, but those were not two of the best basketball programs in the
conference. I mean, you've got Kansas, Houston, We've talked about Baylor,
Texas Tech has an incredible home Homecoor State, Iowa State, West Virginia
has an incredible home. So that's already five or six. That's six six
at Colorado always going to have a tough time surviving that place, especially on
the road, tough out where guess what they're they're gonna get the kid in
Clark treatment because hey, you're the new kid in town or in the conference.
We're gonna show you how it works here and welcome in, well,
come in, come with the water's warm. Yeah, and and let's see
how this plays out. Those games will be so fun to watch. It's
gonna be fantastic because those crowds will be juiced. You're not you're not going
up to Oregon State or going to cal or Stanford where they're you know,
happy, half half sleep, half asleep, half arenas Most of the kids
are in the library. You know. No, that's not the case in
Morgantown, West Virginia. That's not the case in Lubbock, Texas or Lawrence,
Kansas. These are fun home court arenas and they're gonna be ready for
Arizona, Yeah, to come back into town, just as Arizona should.
Should have the same type of feeling with these teams coming in. In fact,
UVA doesn't pay me a cent, but if you don't have tickets to
if you have money to buy tickets for basketball, you should get them.
Do it. I'm in that schedule next year. It's gonna come out probably
in the next month or two. But you will see Duke on the home
schedule. We know that already. You know. We'll talk maybe a bit
a little bit about a potential rebirth of the rivalry with UCLA coming up later
in the show. There's a little teaser for you. But you know,
you have better teams coming in to McHale this year in conference, potentially Kansas,
potentially Houston, Baylor. They'll bring all of these teams into McHale because
they want those cash cow basketball games, because that's where the Big twelve makes
up for the gap between the Big Ten and SEC and football the Big twelve
makes it up in back skip all because it's so much better than those conferences
with the addition to these fourteams. Yeah, and it'll be a lot of
fun to go to those games. In fact, the people who've had tickets
for a long time and haven't really got their money's worth over the last five
ten years are going to start to get their money's worth now because of those
big games. Yes, well it's going to be exciting, certainly. Yeah.
The unfortunate thing is I could already see it like I saw against North
Carolina when No North Carolina came into town. The people had tickets were scouring
those babies for the big, big prices. And you're talking fifteen sixteen years
ago when Luke played the you know, coach Williamson, he brought him in
and North Carolina kicked the crap out of Arizona. Arizona Blut was on his
final years and and people sold those tickets because there was worth. They were
worth a lot of money. I hope that doesn't happen here because you know,
the loyal fans will love the will love the schedule. Yeah, and
not to put the car ahead of the horse. But how do you win
in the Big twelve? You win with grown men, and Arizona has a
roster roll of grown men right now, up class and guys that have seen
a lot of balls. And we'll find out how tough they're gonna be,
because we've seen that needs still need to get tougher. The key shot.
You lose an enforcer and Keyshot Johnson, do you bring one in and Trey
Townsend, do you bring a guy in like Tobyo Walka to be that guy?
Can Mo creeve us, you know, extend to that level of what
Whomarbala was from a physicality standpoint. That's part of the fun of the off
season. We'll kind of see that grow, right and you've toll these games
out with the guys that are coming back, you know, with Crevis obviously
be one amoment the back court. I think they're gonna be fantastic too.
It's doesn't matter from November to March tenth, because after that it's that's what
it counts. And I know they've looked more toward the transfer portal than maybe
high school recruiting, especially with losing a couple high school recruits, which we
will talk about coming up in the show. But I think with the guys
that they brought in from the high school standpoint, Carter Bryant and Emmanuel Steven,
those two guys look the part of guys that could come in and contribute
it right away. They're gonna have a nice first year because they'll play they'll
play Steven's I'm not too sure, but they will definite play. I mean
that five star with that. I love the mix. But we'll see how
Caleb Love adjusts to his new role if he does have one, or his
adjustment to his new role. Uh, and then Bradley how he fits in
with the ball in his hands most of the time. Yeah, I want
to bring that up a little bit. You talked about Caleb Love adjusting to
a new role. Could one of those roles be a backup point guard to
Jaden Bradley. Yeah, because you don't see a one behind Jayde and Bradley
on the match, and that's where the depth, that's where the concerns are.
Yes, because he'll have to be Uh. You don't know how he
adjusts to it, but guess what at the next level, guess what he'll
have to be that guy he'll be true combo so you'll have to say,
okay, as the shot not as good as the pass should be and he'll
have to pass more. And his assister turnover ratio took a big jump last
year. I think it was the best year of his career from that in
all aspect. And that's what you want for that's what you want with a
true combo guard, a true guy that's going to be in the point guard
rotation. Jaden Bradley gets a breather, right. I just my whole thing,
with the whole thing is these two guys who love the ball in their
hand. How are you going to how are you going to adjust to that?
There's always only one basket, that's right, and there's five dudes on
the court, yep, with the other dudes winning the ball too, But
the big things, you still have to have them motivated to the end result,
which is winning the ball game. It's not about me, it's not
about stats. It's about getting the ways. Okay, you millennials, you
got to you gotta figure that out, right, you gotta figure that out.
The W. It's all about the W. Okay, We're going to
take a break, get a reach going to try to tracktail Rocky and then
talk about the good old days and maybe some things that are going on today.
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evaluation Today streaming live, I'm the iHeartRadio WAPP. This is I on the
Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacin Salez on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty. Hey,
welcome back to I'm the Ball. Heare on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve Rivera. He's Reynoldson, got Ryan with us and now you have Rocky
the Rose former. You a associate A D. Is that right? Associate
Deputy a D and athletic directors just a short period of time. No,
no, yeah, right right, there's been a few here. Welcome to
the show. We've been wanting to have you on to kind of go back
in time and reminisce about the PAC twelve. Now, back in the day
Pac ten you played in it. Here was the PAC ten back then?
What was it? Actually? We were the Inner Mountain Conference. The women
joined about see the men joined in seventy eight, women joined in eighty six.
Okay that late? Okay? God does it seem forever ago or no?
It just does seem forever ago. Well, it's like all things,
you know, You're like, where did the time go? I mean,
in some ways, it seems like yesterday, right right, you must be
amazed at how things have progressed for women, women's athletics and women totally in
this league and in every other league. Oh I can't. I am so
happy and proud what's happening these days with women's athletics. I mean, we've
worked hard over the last three years to grow women's athletics and then all of
a sudden, it just seems like it's kick starting and it's taking off,
which is just wonderful. Right right, let's go to today. What's going
on today? Then we can reminisce about the ten and PAC twelve. Okay,
so you must how are you looking at the Katelyntle Clark situation. I
kind of don't want to get into the weeds, but if you can,
she's brought the game to a new level, but there seems to be some
hiccups. Well, there's no denying she's the star of women's basketball and she
has brought attention directly to the game, and I mean there's just no denying
that, and it's amazing. All these years we've said what we need is
a star, what we need is winning, you know, as much money
and marketing and TV exposure that you can throw there, you still need that
spark and Kate lends the one that has brought it right right. You've had
through the years a number of people who have come through in a number of
different sports obviously, but she's kind of been the beacon. Well, it's
kind of like, you know, all the storms came together finally, you
know, we've been building and building and building, and then she comes on
the scene. I mean, it's just been incredible to watch. It really
has been so one thing. You played sports. You played softball, very
good at it. You played a lot of different sports probably, but I'm
sure you were a tough competitor. How would you describe yourself? And today
everyone's talking about competing and being tough and being rugged. I'm sure it hasn't
changed forty years later now, it hasn't. We were just as competitive back
then. I was so fortunate to be on a national champions national champion team
for a fast pitch tria A softball and then later played for the USA in
the World Cup in Tokyo, Japan, So we were just as competitive.
I will say this, I think the difference is in softball. You know,
we were pretty strong one through six, but now they're strong one through
nine. I mean, you know, the women, the depth of all
the teams and the athleticism is so much better that there's no doubt about that.
But competitive, we were just as competitive. Yeah, well, said
Rocky matt here trying to connect it, you know, throughout the history of
women's athletics, especially you know, bringing it into a focus at the u
of a from your standpoint and seeing it kind of from the external view.
This year it was we celebrated fifty years of Arizona softball, and that got
a chance for the current team to connect with all five decades of the Wildcat
softball program, which is obviously one of the most accomplished in any level of
college athletics, in any sport, but certainly means a lot to the community
here in Tucson. How did you see that and how do you think that
the players on this current team were able to connect and make it mean something
more than just oh, this is a celebration before a few games. Well,
that was a wonderful celebration. It truly was seeing everybody back and down
on the field and then yes, seeing the connection between our alums and the
current student athletes, you could tell they were truly in awe, especially prior
to the game when we had a chance to talk to some of them,
and then after the game. Yeah, it was really it was heartwarming.
And then you know, especially to hear some of the current players that said
they looked up to, you know, some of the former players that played
on national championship teams and that they were their mentor and now they finally got
to meet them. That was really special. Back in ninety one, I
was there with Kendrea at Oklahoma City, I think it was ninety won maybe
ninety two when he won his first title. You were what was what was
your capacity? I think you may have been an assistant to said at the
time. How was that did coming of age? That's right, Yeah,
I was. As I said, Dempsey was our director of athletics. One
was our first championship. All I remember from that was I didn't ride with
the team to the stadium, and since we won, I could never ride
with the stadium from then on. So superstitious. So ninety two, I
don't know. They wanted back in ninety two too, So you didn't take
that you didn't take that trip either. Well, yeah, that became our
our second summer home, I guess, so to speak. I mean you'd
be there for like two weeks and try to avoid the tornadoes and the whatever.
How many you know, you're right, because I remember there were tornado
warnings that that that two year, those two years, how many times in
rain delay or we'd be playing at midnight? And I'm glad they've kind of
switched up some of that now and don't allow that to happen anymore. But
right, well, yeah, we had some late nights in that stadium for
you. For you though, because you played the game and you played it
here, it must have been I don't know, did you party cry or
get emotional? Because throughout the career of Kensrea, it was like, we're
going back to Oklahoma. We're going back to Lahoma. We have a chance
to win it all. Yeah, you just sort of planned on it,
you know, ut least on going to the College World Series. We never
planned on winning because you know, you had to focus on that part.
But oh, it was just tremendous. But the nerves, you know,
would get so much to me. I would end up I just couldn't sit
in the stand, So I would either be on the sidelines or somewhere somewhere
in the outfield because it just got It would be so intense sometimes and then
so exciting when it happened, And of course I'd have to whip out my
camera at the end, you know, and try to catch those special celebration
moments. Yeah, Rocky. Before we circle back on the PAC twelve,
one more thing about Arizona softball. The two teams playing for the national championship
tomorrow through Friday will be Texas and Oklahoma, two teams in the Big Twelve.
They're obviously moving to the SEC, but now Arizona has a chance to
come in and be one of the flag carriers for the Big Twelve in now
a new era of softball for the conference. Obviously the PAC twelve was so
success, but what kind of opportunity awaits the Wildcats in this new league.
Well, that's an interesting question because you know, we've always considered the Pac
twelve to be a strong softball I mean conference, right, maybe the best
with when you put together UCLA and Arizona's victories over the years, I don't
know, I don't think there are two teams that would equal up to those
national championship titles. So so I don't know, I think, well,
it's a great opportunity moving into the Big twelve and show what we can do.
You know, Texas and Oklahoma's incredible how their programs have grown over the
years. You know, they've put a lot of money into it, a
beautiful stadiums, so it'll be interesting. I just think it's kind of a
new challenge. So maybe it's take a deep breath and you know, get
at it and see what we can do. So being an administrator for all
these years too, outside of softball, you've got a couple of championships,
well a lot of them in swimming obviously, golf and baseball. So what
were some of your prouder moments to kind of be at and witness. Well,
it's always the first, I have to tell you, the first time
you win national championship, it just feels like nothing else. I mean,
it's so exciting. So i'd have to say the first, you know,
I remember winning men's golf when we were in Albuquerque. I also remember the
last I remember, you know, being at the College World Series when Andy
Lopez's team won in twenty twelve. So gosh, they're all so exciting,
you know, being with the women's golf, just seeing those athletes when they've
worked so hard and the coaches and everything they've put into it to all come
together. Those are just incredible, incredible moments. But you know what,
I also remember, I also remember winning our first Pack ten or PAC twelve
championships, because those were major steps, you know, the pack man,
that Pack ten the PAC twelve was one tough conference, and so to win
a conference championship and then to look back and know that we've won what sixty
seventy of them over the you know, over the years, amazing what kind
of a run we had in the pack Rockey. The EU of A has
a very long and good history of strong women's administrators within the athletic department,
between yourself and now in current day at Erica Barnes as well. But Desiree
Reed Francois is the first female athletic director in the University of Arizona's history.
How much does that take athletics to another realm and just open doors for female
administrators really around the country and the region, but especially at the u A.
Well you just said it. It opens the doors I mean to actually
see that and have someone as successful as Desiree and what she's done in her
career and what she's accomplished so far to this point, it just absolutely opens
doors. But we had to take all those small steps along the way.
You know, I was proud to be the first woman in the country to
oversee football men's basketball day to day operations thanks to said Dempsey who put me
in that position in the early nineties. And then you know, once some
of those little uh, positions and challenges started to fall for the women.
Uh, it's been great to see it grow and to finally, you know,
come to a head and see not only does Arae but some other women.
You know, Jennifer jan over at USC and uh, you know,
Barbara Hedges was the first A D and packed twelve. I believe what she
had been packed ten when she became the A D at Washington. Uh.
You know, slow, slow growth, but you see the win changing.
Were you the administrator in charge of basketball when they won in ninety seven?
Sure so, cheer what so then again, let's go back there because you
know, who would have thought, who would have thought? Realistically? Uh,
Arizona wins the title they're a four seed. Uh, not having a
great season in the Pac twelve, but you know packed ten at the time.
Uh. And then here they are playing the title game with Kentucky.
Yeah, had beating the number one seeds all the way up. How about
that? Yeah, I'll tell you what though. You know, I love
photography, and my nightmare was missing a shot with Now I'm drawing a blank
to coach at Kentucky, Patino Patino, So I, you know, ran
down on the court, we're celebrating, I'm taking photos, and then afterwards
I come back down into the hallway and he's walking towards me and his head
is bowed and I just couldn't lift my camera. And I'm too sick to
the day that I didn't get that. Photos are respect, the respect for
him or because Yeah, I think so. I think it is because I
know how coaches feel when you know they work so hard and it doesn't come
to fruition, and you know they get that close and they don't win.
But it's just one of those photos I can see in my mind that I
wish I had captured self estential, Where do you where do you keep these
photos? Do you have them? Oh? I've donated them all back to
the UFA and this time went I you know, gave them all my negatives
and stuff. So yeah, you know, some memories like after that,
we got invited to the White House for Yes, yeah, President Clinton and
I went there and they only allowed the official White House photographer and myself to
take images. So that was pretty special, was Matt and having the team
have a private meeting with the president. That was that was pretty spectaculars So
because I have the photo and it's one in your champions think with when Loot's
at the podium and and Clinton's to the side and Gors to the back right
next to him, and and Loot looks actually more presidential. You could tell
everybody when the President Clinton and and Lout walked into the East room, Oh
my gosh, all eyes were on Loot. It was it was it was
a magical moment. Was that your photo or the press the the But I
think that's my photo, Yeah, that's my photo. The the official White
House photos were the ones that were kind of stage with the people looking forward,
you know, I did not know that all up on the bleachers,
and I think the one when Miles presented the Jersey to uh to President Clinton.
Those were the official White House. I mean I got them too,
but I think we in that presentation in the Hall of Champions, I think
those are the official White House. That was a lot of fun. That
was a lot on because I think Santra dal O'Connor took took the us.
Yeah, so all the rest of the photos are mine up in that display.
But yeah, we met the We took the team to meet Sandradale O'Connor.
We also, yeah, we uh Congressman Colby took us around. This
is the women's softball team too. You know. We later went to the
White House and met George Bush with the softball team twice actually, and uh,
Congressman Colby toured the teams. We you know, put them on a
bus. We went around to everything, to the Jefferson, the Lincoln Memorial.
Uh actually got to get right down on the Senate floor, and so
it was. It was quite an educational trip along with just a celebration for
nice Rocky. Real quickly, before we wrap up here, I just wanted
to ask you with the Obviously, the TV contracts were a big reason that
the PAC twelve dissolved. But now that We're entering this new era of really
college athletics finances when it comes to TV contracts and il everything like that,
and the popularity of women's sports is growing with it. How much of responsibility
do these conferences themselves, who own the TV contracts now have to continue to
prop up women's sports and continue this a word Steve hates, but I love
momentum moving forward. Oh wow, that's just a huge question. And you
know, time will tell what's going to happen down the road. I mean,
yeah, they have an obligation, you know, federally through Title nine
first of all, so but just morally also right, And it's not just
the women's sports, it's the Olympic sports. It's our men's non revenue sports
that I worry about even more than the women's. At this point, more
and more money gets fed in and football more and more. The talk of
football peeling off into their own power conference, which, to be honest with
you, I am for that, and I can get into that with you
if we have time. But I'm for that. And then let the Olympic
sports have their own separate regional conferences. I think I really believe that's the
direction we should go in and they likely could go into that one last question.
So you must be very pleased that you're taking photos all over the world
and the wilderness great photos. In fact, if you ever need to see
her stuff, she's got the displayed. But very very pleased that you're no
longer an ad given the NIL and the craziness that we're going to start to
have to go through. Oh my gosh. I just said that the other
day. I said, you know, because when I was acting AD at
the university for several months and I really contemplated going for it, and I
thought, no, no, And now when I think back, I think,
oh my gosh, it was a heck of a lot easier back then
and it is now now it's just a nightmare. So all my kudos to
Desiree and all the ads out there because they have one tough job, and
not just them, the coaches. I don't know how the coaches are going
to deal with this, honestly, you know, with NIL and transfer portal
and you know, and now we're going to pay athletes if this house settlement
goes through, which I think is great, but it's just how are we
going to do that? I mean, I just don't know where the money
is going to come from. Unbelievable. That's the that's the stickler, because
twenty million from schools that don't have the money, right, but don't have
the money that are already in debt. Yes, yes, now where is
that going to come from? And sometime we're going to have donor fatigue and
they're giving to the nil And then now the talk is we'll bring the nils
within the department, so they'll have to manage that, which means you hire
have to hire more people. Oh my goodness. I honestly don't know how
we can survive. And in some ways I hope it kind of all falls
apart and we still start over again. That's that's a good talk Ageally think
it through, you know, a little bit, good possibility. I I
have, things have been coming at us so fast that it's just it's been
hard for them to really, you know, contemplate, right how we really
should move forward? Right right? Well, Rocky, thanks again for joining
me. Thank you appreciate it, thank you. Yeah, be well,
thank you see you soon. Rocky Loose, former u of a administrator for
a long time, a former athlete as well. I'll just take a break,
we're way over and then we'll come back and kind of digest some of
it. If you're airs on a man's basketball fan, you know it's been
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Sure Rocks doing cheating and plumbing. This is I on the Ball with Steve
Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Sound Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Subscribe now to the podcast
on the iHeartRadio app Just Surgeon I on the Ball. Hey, welcome back
to our on the Ball here Fox Worts fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
He is mister Matt Reynoldson's got Ryan with us. We got twelve minutes.
We went overboard, a little lushed, lush, the show lust of segment.
I have a question for you Ryan. I'm not Ryan, I'm that
both of you guys. Well, Ken, you guys have money in your
pockets. You gears are loyal to the UBA for years. You've been giving
money. Does a booster? Now you see that the school's going to have
to pay them twenty million to various athletes throughout the whole school. Do you
still dig deep? That's the question? Right it? Does donor fatigue come
into play when it comes to athletes being considered workers instead of students, or
instead of scholarship athletes, or instead of what the traditional definition of amateurism within
the NCAA is, Because as you mentioned, this pool of money. Now
under this new agreement with the NCUBLEA that came down from a legal decision in
New York just this last week, actually, it creates about a twenty two
million dollar pool for schools to both revenue share and pay their athletes on a
yearly basis. And now, does that only go towards the revenue generating sports,
because at most schools, the only revenue generating sports are football, best
men's basketball. Women's basketball at a lot of schools makes a profit margin,
but not a very big one at a very few schools. Volleyball makes a
profit margin at almost no schools. Baseball and softball make any profit margin.
In fact, they are one of the most in the red because of the
travel schedule, because of the weekends on the road, and because of the
equipment costs that come with baseball and softball. So, I mean, when
you look at the entire pie, and not just the football part of it,
and not just the media rights deals and revenue sharing, it's a very
complicated discussion. So Stephanie who's on the swim team, Margaret who's on the
softball team, are saying, Hey, I work as hard as a football
players. I work as hard as a basketball players, right, what about
me? And I think a lot of schools have good things in place already
preparing for this, bracing for this to where they do give all of their
athletes a cost of attendance stipend, which does get the base side out.
It depends on the school and it depends on the agreement with that that some
schools actually have worked that into an you know, I'm from Nebraska, I
grew up in Lincoln. I went to the University of Nebraska. And what
the football roster, what the football team does with nil there is they give
everybody on their roster a baseline nil that has you know, a certain amount
of the contribution from the collective, every single person from the very last walk
on on the roster to the starting quarterback who's you know, making a lot
of money. It's the same baseline. And then every and then people get
different things based on their individual endorsements, but also their you know, their
money from the collectives and how much they're getting paid. And that'll continue with
the extra twenty two million. That's the question, right, Doude. Does
the do the boosters and do the collectives continue to give the same amount and
continue to give at the same level when the schools are paying these athletes.
Because the way this structure is set up, with the twenty two million that
will be shared among all the athletes on campus, or that's supposed to be
shared and among all the athletes on campus and not just the football players,
is that will be the contribution. But the collectives will also continue to exist
outside of the university's realm because the university's technically I put a very big emphasis
on technically here because it's a very gray area. But the university is technically,
in a legal sense and an attack sense, have no control over the
collectives. So the collectives will still continue to exist outside of this university revenue
sharing. And see if you mentioned it at the top of this block,
how much does that just donor fatigue kind of whittle that away from the collectives.
Sure, and a lot of the donors are doing it because they love
the school, they love the purpose of the school, and they have some
loyalty to it and they want to see the kids succeed and have some money.
But now that it's been taken care of somewhere else, well, I
know what I would do. I definitely know what I would do. Good
luck, and I'm going to be cheering for you. But Steve, but
you have a very good mindset about the donors. The donor's mindset being altruistic,
wanting to help the athletes, everything like that. But what's the other
factor on the other side of this. Donors and alums that are very involved
with these programs are fiercely competitive. Sure, so they pay to beat the
other school. So if it's Arizona versus ASU, donor in Tucson wants to
spend more than donor in Tempe, sure, sure depends. Okay, no
question, I don't disagree with you. But let's assume for a second that
you're not competing as much as you should basketball. Right, I pay for
this, right, and I got this, And then it starts to be
diminishing returns. Are these athletes not living up to the money that I'm paying
And we're starting to see that a little bit too. But sure, that's
been kind of prevalent through the advent at social media too, with people having
unparalleled access to athletes and saying, well, I pay the university this much,
I pay for my seats and you're not performing. We want this coach
fire. We want this player to play better. And you see and you
see people jumping ship from their tickets exactly and not returning. But that's on
them. You know, football will see because to go to a new conference
a lot of people. You know that, you know you were here long
enough to see the football program where where there's a lot of apathy here,
but it's gaining more interest because they're winning or gonna win. Maybe here is
a fickle town. I've written the story a thousand times for the paper.
It's a fick ole place, and it's a walk up place. And if
you're good, they'll come. If you're not so good, I'll watch all
right, and they'll prove it to me. But if they prove it again,
I mean, we saw it in that four game winning straight over ranked
opponents at the end of twenty twenty three and that seven game win straight to
the end of the season. People care. Then how did you say,
if they win again? If they win again, and what's that key word?
There are no guarantees. If they don't win, you're back to where
you were before. So, of course, in two sons specifically, and
I'm sure every college town, winning solves a lot of problems or issues,
and one of them is ticket sales. But it'll never be a ghost town
inside Arizona Stadium, even if even in the tough times, what would you
be considering a ghost less than ten thousand. Oh yeah, no, it'll
never It'll never be that because I mean we've seen universities even on the West
coast here. Yeah, you know, Stanford and UCLA are jokes a lot
of times, no tendence. I think though, that the Mendoza line here
would be about forty thousand, thirty eight thousand. Yeah, that's typically if
you know, a non non good team it comes into town. But if
they're winning, yeah we'll show up. Yeah, you go, and it's
something to do, and it's something great and you want to support your team.
But at the same time, there will never be a there will never
be just a complete brush it off to the side where nobody's showing up.
No, I mean even someone era, people showed up. People showed up
and then they had the COVID year and yeah yeah, So no, I
don't disagree with you with that because that's that's not gonna happen, right,
So we'll see. Good luck with the boosters. I mean, you have
the money, that's your money, spending spending how you want to? Right,
how are you spending how you're spending your money? You're still giving the
if the if you know your athletes are getting paid, I'm definitely spending it.
There you go, see you're gonna give it to them? Oh yeah,
yeah, really yeah, definitely they deserve it. I think, you
know, I think he speaks for a lot more people than we probably think,
because you know, Steve, you make the probably a really good hard
line argument of a hardline stance of Okay, if they are getting their money
somewhere else, why do I have any motivation to pay them or go overboard?
But you know, I talked about the competitive nature of it, and
when you see somebody across the road throwing money at this, even when there's
already money there at the pot, so you're gonna throw money at your pot,
and it's it turns into like just a I guess the question is how
important is it to you and Ryan? I guess it's important to you to
see that a U of A does better than ASU, that does better than
Stanford, that is better than whomembers in the league, the better than Kansas.
Well, yeah, absolutely. I mean, you want to see your
hometown team do good, do better than their their rivals, especially like ASU.
And I'm not too sure the money is the motivator though. To me,
it's not are you playing for the money? Are you playing for the
pride of the U of A Well And I think there's a deeper level to
this discussion too, when it comes to the layers of collectives and the layers
of nil because it's not just hey, you're paying for Caleb Love to come
back to school. It's Ada Barnes saying that, hey, we need NIL
money to be competitive with the women's basketball program. Yeah. Kaitlin Lowe is
saying, you know, we have great fans support, but these softball players
need to have NL opportunities to sure, you know, Chip Hale baseball.
These baseball players need to have NL opportunities. Football saying, okay, we
need a little bit better defenders. It's not just no Fafiita and Tetero McMillan.
How many we need more guys, five hundred and fifty student athletes,
five hundred and five hundred and fifty mouths to feed, right, to make
everybody happy, and sometimes you're not making them happy, even if they're getting
paid fairly. Well, Steve Ivia kind of pie into five hundred and fifty
pieces because I never have no no. But let me tell you, I've
had two kids. I've had two kids, and I don't envy people with
ten kids. And Christmas comes and you know junior junior, junior, junior,
George Foreman, junior jun Sorry, kids, guess what Christmas is gonna
be a little tight this year. We're gonna get what we get and you
better like it because or there's no trip to Disneyland. By the way,
when does the well run dry with all of this? And that's the thing
I think she I think Rocky kind of brought that up. It's gonna maybe
eventually crash and then you'll have to kind of pick up the humpty dumpty pieces
and put them back together afresh. It's so easy to look at the finances
and say this will always be fine because the TV contracts are fine, because
the these we have these multi billion dollar deals coming in from the television networks.
But then we on the other side of that coin, we fail to
realize the kind of uncertain direction of the broadcast medium, and how do these
contracts come about when the TV networks themselves are currently wrestling within a battle of
how do we balance linear and streaming and how do we get this transition and
going, and how do we continue to monetize things that people are trying to
find for free and then at some point maybe the money crashes from the TV
contracts. So let me ask you, did you go to the baseball games?
Okay, so you saw it in person. I know that you were
on ESPN Plus here. I did not watch the game on Friday or Saturday.
I just didn't things to do. But people were bitching about ESPN Plus.
We'll have the best teams here and then the ESPN Plus. That's just
the way it is, right And if you don't see him, you don't
see them right, right, And that goes to your kind of your linear
digital blah blah blah. And eventually it's all going to go to that.
Eventually it's all going to go to especially in college baseball and college softball,
because that's just the easiest platform for ESPN to put it all out there and
not try and sandwich this on ESPNU or sandwich this on ESPN News. It's
different than when we had maybe a cable boon back in the late two thousands
or even early twenty tens. It's gone a lot to ESPN Plus. And
you know that's how I watched Saturday's game. I wasn't going out there one
hundred and five your heat to watch Arizona and Dallas Baptist in an elimination game.
And Arizona certainly made my decision worthwhile with the way they played on Saturday.
Sure, sure so, But so you didn't go there physically and on
Sataturday? Right, And I'm sure a lot of people didn't, right,
because they're already disappointed for the night before. Yeah, plus, I mean
that afternoon versus the six GM sure, first past yeah two Sona's no know
what it is if one o'clock in the afternoon, Okay, no, no
good. Let's we're gonna go to Ryan here after the break for breaking news.
There's a lot of things going on, I think, right, you
have a few things, at least, there's a lot of a lot of
big news, big news, Okay, And uh, then we have at
four fifteen for seventeen, we have Hod Rubino from Tempe to talk about Ashue
stuff, the kind of related to Arizona basketball. Everything is sort of in
lockstep a little bit when it comes to Arizona and as they're going to this
new conference together and do you follow do you follow the I'm sure you do.
We got to go. But just the Internet, the rivalry and the
hatred and the you suck. We saw tah blah blah blah and uh and
now it's the basketball. But now it's like it's got a little bit crazier.
You know, it just has to become crazier. Let's take a radio
and I don't even know what words to use it without cussing, So let's
go the break