Breaking down the hall the exes at all. It's Steve Lavera and Jagin Salas.
This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. They we're
back. We have breaking news on the ball, breaking news on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. Breaking news that we have breaking news, breaking it was breaking
news to me. It's news. It's news. The news that there was
breaking news coming up. Wait to go, Steve. So we'll start with
the most positive thing I think I saw today coming out of Arizona Sports Leaf
Magnuson. He came out with a post today on X that said pretty much
indicated, Hey, Tucson has been home to me for four years, treated
me well, and now I would like to announce that anyone that buys a
Leaf Maguson jersey, he says, all proceeds will go from the percent of
what he receives on what he received a Tucson children's charity, and then the
tickets will be donated to the same charity so that those kids can go watch
him play. It was fantastic, fantastic. Did you see the price socks
stuff with the jersey? Talked about what did you make? We didn't know
what to make of it. We don't know what to make there. We
didn't know if it was but then he commits and then maybe a much to
do about nothing but maybe not. I don't I don't know which weird it
was, just it seems like something weird. It's all of that is such
a new you know, Leaf Magnuson gives you a sense of hope, right
that some good will come out of this, but so much crap is coming
out of this. Uh and what we'll talk to Ray Well is about some
of that. But you know, just some of the things that go on
like that, right, you know, but uh, great, Unleaf Magnuson.
That's he's gonna, you know, donate his proceeds. I'm sure he
can. You know, he'll have to get a pizza or whatever with you
know, a couple of percentages from the jersey sales. But also you know
he wants, hey, man, you get your jersey out there. People
are buying it because it's it's for a good cause. That'd be pretty cool.
Yeah. And then Arizona sophomore edge rusher Russell Davis the second has announced
that he will officially transfer out of the program, and we also lost Raheem
Wright and he commit. He was a recruiter command, he was a commit.
Yeah for next year. He was granted his release from his national letter
of it. Oh he did have it and okay, yeah, so yeah,
the Arizona Arizona Wildcats have lost a couple of recruits, at least three
players. We've gone to Washington. We had the three star running back Adam
Mohammad, and we had the corner Jordan Shaw and Demon Williams. So the
list is slowly it is. It's fourteen more days, right probably. Yeah,
you know you're you're gonna lose guys and you go fill them up man
that you know, the portal will open again for everybody. Uh, I
think in April early April, and uh, you know, Brent Brand will
have to go out and get some guys to fill some of these holes that
are being created. But not not a surprise. It hasn't been an avalanche
of guys like it happened at Alabama, but it's been some guys and some
key guys like Joana Coleman and stuff. So yeah, yeah, definitely some
retooling that will be coming the next year or so. The Sixers, Joel
Embiid, I know this is a little bit out there. But the Sixers,
it's kind of interesting the six of Joel Embiid is going to miss tonight's
game against the Portland Trailblazers. But it's also kind of putting his MVP candidacy
at risk because they're with the new rule you have to play sixty five games.
He has now missed twelve games on the season. If he misses five
more, he'll become ineligible for the MVP. Uh And they have quite a
few games remaining on their schedule, so it's kind of interesting to see if
he'll if he'll be able to stay healthy break we no, no, no,
they just voted captains got a ways to go. Yeah, And but
he's having an absolutely he I mean getting better by the Yeah, he's just
got to play enough games. Yeah, and he's got to play again games
against good teams as well. Speaking of good teams, that has to play
at the same level of other good teams. Arizona has fallen out of the
top ten and the latest ap pole, coming in at number eleven, behind
Kentucky and Marquette. Would it And I posted this to the on Facebook and
I just said, and still all the world has been fine, Uh if
there were six, what what I mean nothing and the eleven does not exactly
but we're talking about it. But definitely, at the end of the day,
what does it matter in late genuine the team doesn't team shouldn't care.
So beyondest if I was waiting for here from fans, well, recruiting and
stuff, you're Arizona. You don't need strankings to be to be recruiting,
now, you know. It's just it's just you said, it's conversation.
It's fun. It's not fun being eleven. To the Cats who think they
should do number one. I whoa it is me? I wanna die.
Oh we're six, We're only six, We're just number one two weeks ago.
Oh man. I will say though that you brought up how it's it's
unimportant to recruiting. I think it's a side effect of the things that actually
matter for recruiting, Like if your team has a good play style, people
are watching them, they're succeeding in the games that people are watching them,
you'll be higher ranked, and so in that way it does matter for recruiting.
But the number itself has nothing to do with if you're fifteen or if
you're seventeen. What's the difference. What sells is Arizona, which sells as
Tommy and the Style. Yeah, McHale mkale. Right, it's historic,
historic, you know, the eight, the brand a still still I mean,
wait when you're if you're let's say, can't state it matters, yeah,
right, right, that you're in the rankings, there's a big deal.
Sure, but you know yeah Arizona, Yeah, they're beyond the rankings
behind Tommy Way is not walking into anybody's literally saying, hey, do you
know how many weeks we spent in the top ten of the eight? People?
Come here? It was new thirty five years ago and that's so new
now exactly exactly We were talking about this a little bit off air, but
there has been some reporting going around between Forbes and Fortune that Taylor Swift has
brought an additional three hundred and thirty one and a half million dollars in revenue
to the invalue, in value, sorry value to the Kansas City Chiefs through
just obviously marketing social media highlights and obviously just the viewership in general has skyrocketed,
and just just saying she'll be doing the halftime show, well they call
it brand value. And what they're saying is that you know, when you
when you quantify or monetize, Yeah, you know, all that you know
is happening because of her, whether it's in you know, print or digital
social media, here on highlights, you know, every time they show her
on television, you know, all those things that it adds up to three
hundred and thirty one and a half million dollars in almost like advertising right value.
For it's like when they have a golf tournament here, you have eyes
on on the city and right it's it's kind of kind of like you know,
you have your title, a title sponsorship, you pay x what you
expect to get much more in value out of that group being on TV commercials,
through having you know, your name mentioned every time a bowl game,
when the bowl game is played, and all those kinds of things. So,
but you know, she's I mean, she's uh, you know,
I mean, she's as visible as anybody. It's her, it's her time.
You know, people are comparing you know, what's going on with her
to you know, Michael Jackson, Prince, you know when they were you
know, those kind of artists or you know, we're huge and at their
at the at the top of their popularity, that she's kind of in that
neighborhood. I question that she's to the Michael Jackson level. But you know,
she filled up a whole bunch of stadiums this last year, and it's
crazy. That's how funny. A funny post on social media showed a picture
of her at a concert when she was just getting off the ground. You
wouldn't even call it a concert. She was playing at a beach. There
was the stage and her band is on this stage and there's like a banner,
you know, hooked to the stage and as Taylor Swift, and then
it showed a picture of one of the full stadiums. It went from that
to that, Yeah, well, you know, don't date her. You'll
have a something about you don't. Well, she's gonna be in Japan the
night before the game, so she has like twenty minutes to get to the
game. Yeah, he said something with the where the Jets travel, and
I guess she's got a fast playing. There's a song about that. I
don't think there was with this flying economy. No, she's not. She's
not going Southwest videos. Oh heyse on my flight to Vegas. Yeah,
that's not happenying. Who is going to be in Vegas on time and not
in Tokyo the night before, hopefully as Patrick Mahomes, who became the first
ever quarterback to start in four Super Bowls before turning the age of thirty.
He is the third quarterback to start in four Super Bowls in a five season
span, joining just Tom Brady and Jim Kelly. His fourteenth playoff win puts
him behind only Brady and Joe Montana, and his fourth Super Bowl start puts
him in the class of just Brady and John Elway, who have more than
him. But he's still young. Yeah, only Brady John Noway have more
than him, have more than super Bowl Star because Terry Bratch I had.
Yeah, Okay, he's into crap. He didn't even he didn't do the
show this weekend either. He was not part of the program health. That's
what they said. I did not know that. Actually, I thought this
stat was also pretty crazy. That the the Eagles led the NFL with seventy
sacks last season, they had zero versus Patrick Mahomes and the Super Bowl,
and the Ravens led the NFL with thirty one takeaways this season and had zero
yesterday against Patrick Mahomes. The Ravens were just bad. Yeah, they were
not the team They went away from what got them there. They had six
rushing plays I think for at least designed for running backs, which is unbelievable.
They were just they were just it was me. You you could tell
early on they didn't have Yeah. Yeah that that that that Lamar Jackson didn't
have it. The team didn't have it. Yeah. So so I have
something real quick. Uh, one of our sponsors for this show will not
be operating this spring, the track, the Little Downs will not be operating.
No, maybe in the fall. I guess there were some audits that
needed to get done before the paperwork. It was not going to be ready
before they were going to be starting here in two or three weeks, So
that's the question. So they might move it to the fall, which could
could being being conflict with the football. Yeah, who's gonna go out there?
Yeah when well, it's a different audience, Jay, you know,
and you know what, I know, it's a different audience. Yeah,
but there's still some of us that like to do both. Well, Sundays
you set your Sundays for that. But apparently that's going to be moved to
the fall. I got Sunday ticket, I'm not going to so you won't
be going. You will be going. So that's been moved to the bad.
Yeah, so that will be to the fall. No reaching this semester
of this this spring. And I have this just from the daily start.
I guess the doctor Robbins went on the tube today or YouTube whatever you went
on to do like the state of the whatever his finances are, there should
be a five to fifteen percent of layoffs. There are one hundred and seventy
seven million dollars one hundred and seventy seven million deficit with five to fifteen percent
layoffs expected. Who whoa, I'm worried about the kid man. Yeah,
I mean, no job is probably safe, right, Unfortunately bad You said
sixty one of eighty one units of the university did not make their budget.
Wow, that's that's a bad number. That's a bad number. You just
wonder how it got out of hand like that, right, I mean that
was my first thought. And I was like, you know what, that's
not even not even close to my pay grade. Yeah, yeah, I
mean you just wonder how long it's been going in that direction, and and
and and how it got that bad. You know, somebody wasn't paying attention.
And I don't know who, who's whose feet you lay that at?
But dang, yeah, So just it is what it is. Now?
Oh what time is it? Six twelve? You have anything? No?
I did? Did we talk about Joe Lenardi? No? No? No?
No? Oh? Okay, Well, Joe Lenardi came out with a
new bracketology and for those of you fans who were losing your minds at Arizona
is is headed south on the on the bracket, he's got still got Arizona
as a two seed, and comfortably as a two seed. He's got them
as the sixth, which is a seed in the tournament. His number one
is Purdue, his number two is Yukon, number three is Houston. Number
four is North Carolina. So those are your four number one seeds. Then
his number five is Tennessee and followed by Arizona, then Wisconsin, who Arizona's
beaten, Marquette, Kansas who lost again is down on the three line.
Alabama is on the three line, another team that Arizona beat. Duke is
on the four line, another team that Arizona beat, And so you know,
look there's a long way to go. He's still got Oregon out.
He's got Washington as the first four out in, Washington State first four out.
Oregon is the next four out. He's got Colorado the last four in,
and he's got so I'm presuming he's got Utah in because he's got he's
got three pack twelve teams. I haven't seen the whole bracket. He's got
three pack twelve teams in there, so okay, oh yeah, well he's
got he's got Colorado in, so he must have Utah in. And then
he's got Washington State and Oregon out. Okay, good stuff, Thank you
guys. All right, we're coming back. Ray Wells Uh he's the executive
doctor of the Desert Takeover Collective that helps Aarazona football. We'll talk to him
about the festivities of the last few weeks and yeah, how busy that's made
his job. So stick around for Ray Wells. Swash's better for you to
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to schedule your free evaluation Today. Streaming live on the iHeartRadio app. This
is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. Hey, welcome back to Why on the Ball hero Fox Worths fourteen
fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera. Hee's jakinsaus known if we have Ray Wells with
the Desert Takeover Football Collective. How are you Ray? Oh? I'm doing
great guy. How are you doing? We're doing well. Thanks for joining
us. Uh you wanted a touch base and because of the changeover with coaches,
are you as busy as ever or how is it for you right now?
You know what, we are definitely busy. I think it's interesting.
I told someone, you know, when someone leaves you, you kind of
have that new, renewed energy to make sure things are going to be good
for the future. And I think that's what's happened to in Tucson. We've
had a lot of interest in supporting a collective since around the fifteenth through the
month. So ray when when something like this happens? And you know,
we saw that at the other schools. Everybody who pretty much you know,
a coach leaves. There's a lot of churn. Players leave, players come.
What kind of role does the do you have or does a collective like
yours have in do you know what? I think? Yeah, we've got
some feedback. What kind of role do you have in helping the coach kind
of hold things together? Can you hear me? Yeah, we can hear
you. Yeah, yeah, you know, our our job really was focused
on to focus on the roster. I think everyone involved in the collective really
roster and making sure that we could keep letting the players know we were here
for them and we wanted to support them and keep them here in Tucson.
So I'm sure you were spoken to a lot to buy the players or who
who goes to you? Do the players go directly to you or coaches?
Or how does this work? So yeah, we primarily as a collective deal
with just the student athletes. So for us, it was there were some
conversations and they were honest, I think I won't divulge what some of the
players said, but I think there were some honest conversations about what they would
like to see happening going forward, and and uh yeah, and as it
turns out, we were able to do a great job and keep you know,
most of our players are in Tucson. Could you ask him about the
geist in the in the because yeah, well, you know, here here's
here's something that you know, you want to wonder how you know, because
you know, when you're talking about a collective altogether, you know, friends
of Wilburn Wilman, and how you're trying you're trying to support all the athletes,
but you know, even the athletes within the program, Like we talked
to Jordan Geist, we talked to uh uh Jilaney Schanelle who both said,
you know, NIL is more really football and basketball and that that you know,
they might get some sponsorships and get some gear and things like that,
but they don't seem to get a lot that it's really centered around football and
bassketball. I mean, is that you agree with that? And and how
how how can other athletes take advantage of some of this stuff? You know
what, I think that there's their support for all sports. I think we've
we've worked at this point from friends of Olbern Wilma's standpoint, and as a
collective, we've worked with women's swim and dive, soccer, women's basketball,
baseball, tennis, and and I'm actually currently working on a deal for track
and field. So I think that those sports the opportunities are coming. And
then also you look at you also look at what happens in athletics in terms
of revenue generation and kind of how that has to trickle down effect and negotiate
other sports. You know, you look at men's basketball and football, and
then there's kind of trickle down in terms of the revenue and how that's split
to be able to support some of other sports. I think that's not necessarily
purposely what happened with N I L. I just feel like it's kind of
taking that same path where you're gonna see some trickle down effect as we get
going. Yeah, NIL is only this is only a third year of NIL.
There's going to be a shift where you're trying to see more Olympic sports
to get more NIL and more support. All right, getting back to the
festivities of the last couple of weeks, we had em Bert to Lopez on
on the show last week, and he talked about how he developed an arrangement
specifically with McMillan Tetro McMillan, you know, other athletes obviously had to get
you know, they had to you know, find opportunities elsewhere. How much
of that in terms of you know, boosters or Colum booster supporters or whatever
is going on directly with athletes versus athletes getting nil opportunities through the collective,
And there's room for both. I'm assuming right there is absolutely room for both.
Berta Lopez has been a huge supporter of the collective census inception a couple
of years ago. I think he's so compelled to be able to find a
way to get a deal done with Timac. But there's opportunities for for any
local business owner to be able to engage in IL as long as they go
through the proper paperwork and procedures. They don't necessarily have to go to the
Collective to be able to get a done bill done. If they want to
do a direct you know, business to students transaction and that's actually allowed,
and do you do you provide any kind of guidance on that or are they
kind of on their own on that. So the beautiful, the beautiful thing
is in UH. The Athletics department actually has the Athlete Marketplace where student athletes,
where locals can engage with student athletes to that website. It helps in
terms of give you the dos and don'ts. All the compliance rules and regulations
are kind of laid out there, so it helps everyone involved from having any
kind of missteps or any possible violations. So let me give you a hypothetical
rate. So I have one hundred thousand dollars in my pocket. Of course,
it's a hyph athetical happen So, so given the situation that you've a
now financially and I'm a booster and mister x uh and I want to help
out, help out the university, get out of their mess, help with
the kids, help with collective and all that, at some point my wallet
is gonna go My bucket is going to go empty. How is that because
everybody's trying to reach out to me to get the money. You know what,
I think it's donor centric. That's the one that's been the one thing
with NIL is that donors that want to support NIL have been able to do
that and it's not an and or it's just an addition too. So if
you're given to the athletics department, or you're giving some excuse or some unit
on campus, you have the ability to be able to give to the collective.
And that's what's happened. I don't think it's anyone had to choose either
or it's been I want to support this, I fully back and I want
to back to student athletes. I also want to be able to support the
College of Medicine or the athletics department or somewhat of the NC on campus.
And and so you're finding the people are doing both. Are they spreading it
around, you know as similar you know, like are they giving more or
are they kind of spreading what they've had. I would say there's a combination.
There are some that are giving more than what they've ever given on top
of what they've done in the past, and there are some that are kind
of spreading it around. Like there's some donors that want to be equal between,
you know, helping supporting the football program but then also supporting the basketball
program. But then they're also supporting the athletics department. So I think what's
going to be interesting is you have the university starting uh, the university.
I had a little feedback there. You have the university in their campaign,
with everything that's going along with campus, You're going to see more donors start
to step up and make sure that all that needs are taken care of.
I feel like more was just like on Barcelopez, see a need, have
the means to be able to help and support and then do that until then
the bleatings. So you have your heart here, you played here, you're
now working for the school and I've just been reading. You know, it's
a case of where the haves have and the have nots don't. Have.
You talked about Ohio State and Michigan doing really well with all this, but
what does Arizona fit Because you guys have to kind of maybe even think out
of the box. Or am I wrong? I would say most of the
universities that you see the strong in IL programs have also had strong development programs
and then you just kind of or booster programs and you've seen that support kind
of continue on what I said before, they're choosing to be able to support
in a different way. When it comes to the University of Arizona, I
think we are, you know, in terms of the PAC twelve, which
is the conference we're in currently, we do pretty well. I'd say we're
probably in the top half of the conference in terms of collectives and we do
well have and so as we moved into the Big twelve, I think there's
already been the valuation of what was to do and kind of going forward.
Our goal this year was to raise four million dollars just for football. It's
an aggressive goal, but I think that's the number that that was everyone was
comfortable that we felt would give us the opportunity to have a strong NIL program
to support football. Wait when you say that and you're comparing yourselves to others,
I mean, the competition out there has to be incredible. You know,
when you see an athlete say, Okay, well I was getting this
here, but I'm going over here because I've got this opportunity over there.
I mean how I mean, how difficult does that or how how do you
guys you know, work through you know and avoid you know, being in
a bidding war for players and that kind of thing. The quotea phrase,
we we just kind of moneyball the hell out of it and just do the
best we can well what we have and we kind of know who we are
and what our niche is. We know the type of players that we want
to recruit because now it's not just about recruiting people to get them on campus.
You have to from to keep them on campus, right because you all
know what was happening lately. Yeah, but you know one of the things
that Coach Brennan he was, you know, making sure you also have a
developmental portion of your program, but you actually can go get those kids that
maybe did get the offer, but there's still you know, a solid three
star kid that can come here and be a stud and be an all conference
performer. And if you have that type of antalitude where you're constantly going to
try to backfield with some developmental players and then you kind of have those stars
and studs that you you know, TL deals are going to be out there
for, you can keep a very sustainable program. How quickly after Brent Brennan
got here, did you meet with get a chance to meet with him?
And what was that conversation? Like it was actually a reunion. Coach Brennan
was the graduate assistant my first year here in Tucson on the staff and I
spent a lot of time. Uh. One of his gaduties was he was
in charge of the Scout defense. I read shared to my friend on campus,
I was on the Scout defense. So I spent as much time with
him as a coach that I did with my own position coach. So it
was great. You know, Brad Brennan and his brother, Brad and I
were teammates and we've been we've been in touch and over the past twenty plus
years, we always talk and chat and to each other. So it's been
nice to actually have him here, just like a homecoming. It's it's quite
a change. Was twenty three years twenty four years now since you guys have
worked together, these times have changed. You were a player. How is
it because it's like they say, the wild wild West, is it?
Is it more difficult than people think in terms of coaching? No, no,
no, In terms of getting the moneys that you need doing what you're
doing, Yeah, no, I would say it's not. I mean everything
is difficult when you're asking someone to give us their own, their herd own
money. Yeah. I think the value as long as people, as long
as any individual seeds the value and what you're asking what the money's for.
They're willing to give. And you know, two years ago we started a
collective. We were in a you know, coach Fishers, in a mass
rebuild and NIL was new and I think after that first year, you saw,
you know, we got some players, we got a little bit of
different, you know, better on offense. Our record improved from one win
to five wins, and then you know, we kind of went all in
a little bit more and you get a ten win season out of that.
So now it's easier to say, hey, this is what is possible.
Would you be willing to help us and support us? And now you have
a just tangible proof that yet if I give, we can we're able to
be able to use these things and there's a positive outcome that's going to come
from it. Are you getting more of the average fan, you know who's
saying, Okay, I'll give you twenty bucks a month or forty dollars a
month or whatever, you know, not the I mean, you're always going
to have the big money boosters who say I'm committed to this. But are
there more people involved with giving both to NIL and as well as the university
as a whole. In the last two and a half three weeks, we
have had a huge swell end donations and they range the amounts are are you
know, anywhere from twenty five dollars on up? But I think there is
there is a huge push to support the program and that's been great, Like
you know, and I think by presetting your show throughout the summer, like
everyone can get involved. We just want to have as many people as possible
supporting our NIL program, and supporting does a takeover, and that message is
really starting to sink in and we're definitely starting to see more people sign up
with more donors. Are I'm gonna call it the I'll get back at you
Jetfish fund, I'll get back at you. We're gonna honestly, but you
could call it that, and it would be great because I would say that.
That Tuesday and Wednesday after his departure, I got a lot more phone
calls than I had been getting. But you know what, it wasn't necessarily
so much about hey, we're going to stick it to this guy. It
was more hit. I really want to support the players, and I want
this team to stay together. I believe in them. There's a special group
and we want to keep this group here in Tucsons. Do you worry much
or do you pay much attention to what the other schools are doing and how
they're doing it and how well they're doing and you know how much money some
of these other schools have. I suppose there's not a whole lot you can
do about it. But where where is your Is there any angst with what's
going on elsewhere? Do you try and measure yourself to other schools? How
do you how do you approach all that you know? What you you can
waste time? You really could, it was a waste of time to try
and compare yourself to everyone else's see where you fall. I think we just
focus on being the best that we can be and kind of like I said
before, we know where our niches and our niches and where we try and
fit in and that's okay. We're comfortable in our space, I think,
And that's always been kind of that's the lay of the land across college athletic.
You're going to have Oregon, who you know, has supporters where they
can build one hundred and eighty million dollars facility, Well, our facility was
seventy five million dollars. So it's a great building and it does exactly what
begin to do here in Tucson. So you know, Texas A and M
is another example of that text dam as well as the best collectives. And
they just fired their coach and paid them seventy five million dollars to go away.
Yeah. Yeah, you can have a lot of money. That doesn't
necessarily mean you know what to do with it, and it's it's going to
equate to success. We would rather make sure we get the right people in
place to en ship, you know, to keep our brand and our style
of football and our young people that we get here that are solid individuals,
solid student athletes. That's what we want as what's most important. Ray Wells,
we appreciate your time and starting to tell you, Ray, you were
born twenty years too early. Yeah you know what, Like I said,
I would be one of those guys. If somebody was willing to pay me
to do something that I absolutely love and I got to sign a couple of
autographs and show up and wave my hand and shake some hands, I'd be
happy to do it. But I mean, and that's the thing we have
when we talk about money. Our kids love football, and they love being
here. They love Tucson, and I think that's if I could say one
thing about our student athletes. They love being here and they love being Wildcats.
And that's why it makes what I do so important. That's why I
enjoy what I do. Great, great Tinky Ray is always thanks about man.
You guys have a good one. How do they find how do they
find race? Okay, Desert Takeover is the you go to the friends of
Wilma and will Friends of Wilma and Wilbur website. I think you can find
them there. Uh. There's also there's also a basketball collective as well.
Yeah, you can go there, but uh, friends of Wilbur and Wilma
is it's Friends of Wilburt and Wilma dot com. I think Desert Takeover has
its own website for football. For football, Desert Takeover is football. Uh,
and then there's then there's the basketball one, but it's a Desert Takeover
dot com. That's a collective you can go on. You can make donations
right on their website and and give them a hand. And it sounds like
people are doing that. So you can get tax deductible donations. You can
also provide opportunities for the for the athletes to have a chance to make a
little bit of money. Well, I'll get back at you, jigfish.
Watch they're doing that. They're doing that, all right, Hey, stick
around, We got one more segment to go. Give us a call.
Five to two zero four one, six, seventy four forty one. Right
back. Don't believe, just fla. Don't believe, just fla, don't
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez sound Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen. Subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app Just Surgery, Eye
on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to my in the ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve, he's Jay. Got Kevin with us
today, got about thirteen minutes. You know. One of the things Jay,
I saw this earlier today the gymnast from LSU. So she's missed a
couple of the last meets. She gets paid a ton of money. So
if you're not working, I mean, I would imagine there has to be
something in the contract that says you got to be doing the stuff you're supposed
to be doing that gets you the visibility that we're paying for, right,
right, I think, But then again, I don't know. I mean,
like, okay, Like, we know TMAC has a as a as
a contract with Burt Lopez. There has I mean, if he gets hurt,
there's there's you know, there's nothing you can do about that. But
let's say TMAC gets suspended, yeah, or let's say he quits the team.
Yeah, Or let's say something happened when he is no longer what happens
to the you know, is there a provision in the contract that says if
this happen depends you know, the contract is you know, in valid not.
I'm not suggesting that any of that's gonna happen. It seems like a
good guy, but you know, you never know, you get in trouble
off campus or whatever, and the next thing you know, you know,
you're not on the field. You wonder if those contracts have something that deals
with that. Sure. In addition to what you're saying, Jay, I
think I think you're talking about Olivia Dunn, right, Yeah, yeah,
I think Olivia Dunn's main draw is her social media presence. To be honest,
she's an alright gymnast. She's obviously a high level gymnast. I'm not
taking anything away from it, but so that's off her level. She's you're
not watching her go to the Olympics. You're paying her because she is a
social media draw. She's got millions of followers. Everyone's gonna go to her
meets pretty much regardless of whether she's to your point or not, because she's
gonna be in the room. That's what you're paying for. Yeah, and
Tam Mac, you're paying him to be on the field and be an elite
wide receiver. Maybe not necessarily because he's the most interesting guy. I'm not
saying he's not interesting, but he doesn't put that out there for us to
really see. So we'll talk about this. So this movie, you jay
a lot one on one with the Robbie Benson, right. One of his
jobs, one of the player jobs was cutting the graphs or more turning on
the sprint, turn on the spring and they were automatic. Actually had a
friend who that was actually his job at a baseball So they're automatic. Uh
so what if the team Mac and we're using him because we know he's an
agreement, Uh, he has to do the work. I would think,
well is there is it illegal if he doesn't, Well, there's there because
of the money that's involved, there has to be more to it, right.
I mean, let let's say, you know, I mean t mac
he's he's not getting paid to be on the field his he I mean he
is, but he's not. You know, the contract is for him to
do, as Burt, like I said, provide some sort of service,
which you know, according to like Ray Wells was just saying, you know,
he's signing autographs, he's doing appearances. Sure, he's doing a community
food bank. Uh uh event those are the things that the contract hays him
for. But you know, part of that is that he's got to maintain
the level of visible ability as a football player, sure, so that those
appearances have value. Right. You know, if George Mitt is our our
our friend at it's at the sports cards place, if he's paying somebody to
come and be at his at his shop, that guy's gotta have some visibility.
Let's take this callee. Are you guys, Hi, you're on the
air. This is hey Gabe. How you doing pretty good? You are
you? Are you feeling better? Yeah? I am. I'm very happy
that there is on a bounce back when against finally beating Oregon in their duck
the gold Matter court. So so everything's right with Gabe. Now, yeah,
so far, so good. The dirt dominated Bay Area schools this weekend,
so they need to stack up wins on top of each other. So
I just really love to see you hopefully, Kayla. I hope hopefully bos
Well and bollow Uh think about well about what they did on Saturday and just
think just not getting into their own minds. Just just control what you need
to control and just find your asses off. So yeah, okay, he's
just said and done. Gay But thanks, Yeah, I know, I
know. Thanks go cast. Thanks you guys all doing well. Yeah,
we're doing fine. Thank you. We're still on the air. Appreciated.
He sounds better. He was angry last week. It was a quick call
to he was really bad. Yeah, I don't blame I mean that was
you know that Oregon State game was still so bad. It was well it
was eighteen point favorite. You know whatever, you got another collar. Hi,
you're on the air and I and the ball games, James. Hey,
Hi, you guys doing We're doing well. Are you keeping up with
the women's basketball team? We that was your Yeah, that's what I was
kind of calling about. When you guys are talking about nil and stuff,
and you know, if like if team that gets hurt, does he still
get paid or whatever? I have a some of our question. You know,
we had that standout Maya nausey. She's like off the team now to
focus on academics. My question is, isn't she on an athletic scholarship?
She was? Now if she's smart enough to go to medical school, maybe
she's you know, that's become a you know, an academic scholarship or something
like that. It's hard, it's hard to know what kind of an arrangement
they make in a situation like that, but I would guess that you know,
at some point that that's that's on. You know, she's got that
in mind when she does whatever whatever she did. Yeah, it's just unfortunately
she took you know, a sports scholarship and now she's not using it,
and you know, my you know, idea could have potentially recruited another person.
Now we're down to seven people with all the injuries. But do we
know that for a fact that she is on an athletic scholarship? She was,
I mean, she obviously was. Whether she still is that that we
don't know. I guess maybe we just haven't asked, right, right,
I mean, maybe if we ask it you, Okay, what happened to
my Nagy scholarship? That might be a question, you know, but I
don't James, I don't have an answer for you on that. We I
don't think any of us know specifically specifically what what happens there if there's an
available scholarship athletic scholarship now, because my energy is no longer with the team,
but it is at I was at the game on on Sunday, and
you know, they started off pretty decent, but unfortunately, you know,
Stanford's deep, they have a great coach, they have a lot of stellar
athletes on the team. It just unfortunately, you of eights just couldn't compete.
Yeah, yeah, what do you hope for rit By? They're they're
eleven and ten right now, three and six in the conference. What are
you hoping for? I'm hoping for an n I T and hopefully these players
can gel together and build up some uh chemistry and go forward to next year
and hopefully have a better squad next year and put a good, good season
together in the Big twelve. James, I'm gonna ask you a slanted question
because you do you do follow the girls the women's team. Do you think,
and this is this is a tough question, do you think that Ada
will get them back to that level she had them at a couple three years
ago. I think she can. It just obviously comes down to you know,
Harry McDonald's who was an awesome athlete. She's gonna have to find something
similar to that, like a Kate Reese or or not Kate Reese, that
other girl from Iowa that's really good. You have to have stand out altum
athletes, just like in the men's you have to have some good players.
And I think the nil kind of took its toll on the team last year
and not getting enough playing time. I think she's learning and I think she
can get us back to the tournament runs. Okay, well that's fair enough,
that's good enough. Okay, James, thanks for calling, man,
thanks for listening. Appreciate it. Right, we've got about five minutes left.
We can get another call or two. Yep, no problem, Yep.
It just throws such a hope. It makes everything such a whole different
picture. Uh and I can't you know, I've been listening to a whole
bunch of stuff about you know, all this, you know, the Congress
is involved, and you know, are the athletes going to become employees?
And it's like, and I get it, there are laws in this country
that say, you know, if you're you know, if you're that's just
if you're an athlete, and and a college is making a whole bunch of
money because of what you're doing, that you should be compensated for that.
Somehow I get that. But with with where things are, I feel like
just where things are headed, like I said, all of a sudden,
you know, our college is just going to be minor league sports, which
they have been. Right now we're talking about you know, you're you're paying
them, you're signing contracts with them, and how are these how are these
programs going to serve? How is the Division III program? Yeah? Because
so Jay, there was a major, major deficit, right major. I'm
sure that other schools are like this, not to maybe this degree, or
at least they hasn't come out publicly. How are the schools going to pay
the kids when they themselves don't have enough to put the light keep legs?
See that? And that's what worries me, Steve, is that is that
what it just worries me I'm you know, thinking of the worst possible scenario
is that at some point there's only going to be a handful of schools who
can afford to have sports. And so where do all these kids who are
growing up playing high school sports go? Right? If once they get to
college, the law says, there has to be money to pay you you
know, how many how many athletic programs across the country can afford to do
that? Right? Right? So let me just say this because I said
this off the era I think is for the start the stary of the story.
Talk to Arnold, who's the the the A board guy, and he
says, he said that the whole athletic model is just flipped upside down over
the last four or four or five years. Right, they're going to try
to modernize athletic operations from the ground up. Yeah, but how so what
does that mean? How and does every you know, I mean, it
has to be the entire all of n C double A athletics. You have
to go through that. And why would Alabama change what it's doing? Right,
They're not going to Arizona is not a lone ranger in this wor right,
No, they're not. But but what I'm concerned is that the programs
like Arizona they're just hanging I don't want to say just hanging on, but
are kind of in the middle of the road. And if you know,
if they can't afford to do this, are we left with thirty schools who
can play football and raise the money necessary? Is that? It is that
all we're gonna have for college sports? Sure, And who's going to determine
that, Well, it's gonna be determined by who can who's the financials and
financials, who can who can handle the financials, who can who can get
one hundred thousand people into their stadium to allow them to fund But even in
Alabama or Georgia or in Ohio state state's got sixty sports, they're not gonna
able to keep How are they gonna able to kee pull sixty sports if they
have to pay them all? Yeah, And that's what worries me is that
who has sixty six state sixty teams? Six zero six zero teams? Really
that's three times more than they've got. Dude, they have what kind of
teams? They've got? Every pig pong teams, you know, bad men?
Who who the hell know? Sixty teams. Holy crap, I would
that's a shocked to me. Everyone has twenty one? I think it is
just took on the triathlon and some of the other ones. Yeah, so
some of the some of the men's sports that Ohio State has that aren't,
you know, part of the Big Four. For example, out the Spirit
program, we got obviously tennis, lacrosse, haka. I heard it wrong.
It's thirty six thirty sixties, but still it's almost twice as many.
Yeah it's thirty six, but still, how do you do that? Who's
going to pay the rifle team? And alright, they might have to no,
but we talked about and then guess what the TV revenue is going to
be. It is what it is, and eventually they're gonna say we don't
have any money either, right at some point that runs out. It just
it just worries me with all that's happening. And again it's it's all about
you know, this is America, and there's a law, and there are
laws that say you do this, you get this, you know, I
get it. But how somewhere along the line, there's gonna have to be
an exception to that, so that all these all these programs can survive,
and I don't know if anybody's willing to do that, and it just it
worries the hell out of me. And maybe none of this will happen before
I kick so maybe it won't even matter. But it's it's not to you't
matter to me, It'll matter to my kids. All right, let's get
the heck out here. Thanks for being here very well. Thank you for
being here, Brian Peterson, Thank you for being here. We'll be back
tomorrow more great guess, so be sure to come back