This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen Howard by Nova Insurance Services, make sure your most prized possessions kat
z R two, SAG and iHeart Radio Station. Hey, good afternoon,
everybody. Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sparts fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera. You're jagn Zaliz. Jay. You do know I'm Steve
Riverta. You know what. That's practice. I'm not ever calling you fast
for a name again. Jason, you're Jason today? Yeah, I got
you. Jason. I remember his name. Yeah, I remember his name.
He's making fun of me because I couldn't remember the name of one of
our previous interns. Okay that he just saw that, ye Devin, Devin,
Okay, Devin, if you're listening, I couldn't remember your name.
Yeah. No, it was funny because so what I wait, you hesitated
too, don't don't. No, I didn't know which one you would talk
to him. Then I realized it was only Devin at the damn thing,
and we have Jason here. Yeah, I think, what are you talking
about? What one of the guys at the at the practice today, which
I melted and I'm lost about ten pounds. UM said, hey, good
show, funny blah blah blah. But she never remembers names. He said,
yeah, that's about right. You didn't say neither do I no,
no, I'm not. It's not about me. It's not about me.
And I said, yeah, he's always remember that guy. Yeah, you
know what, I've done that to my daughters. Uh, yeah, that
work. I've done that. Hey, welcome to today's show. I think
we're officially, unofficially wondering what's happening with the back Well, well, I
think you know, it sounds bout you know, by reporting by people that
we know, Um, it sounds like it's done. I mean, Oregon
and Washington have accepted at least I just saw that Oregon has accepted its invitation.
Yeah, so Washington's gonna accept its invitation. So Arizona is gonna accept
its invitation. What happened with Utah and a s U. I think we
can all guess that they're going with Arizona and then there's just scraps left.
It was funny, It's not funny to you. Very good answer by by
the guy that's coaching the football team, jem Fish about the times we live
in. Right, and Ediot will go into any specifics about stuff, but
he talked about the time, the times that we live in and the players
are involved with Right, I'm sure you have that, we haven't we you
know? Funny. I mean, it's the first practice that the media could
go to and the first three questions we're about about. So we'll just play
him in order because he was just you know, asked, you know,
what what he thinks of all stuff? Okay, go ahead and play the
first class. I try to tell the players what I know, and so
they're aware of what I'm aware of, which isn't much. And they're aware
that our president is um you know, sitting in the catbird seat and gets
to make some great decisions for our program and for the university. What I
love is that all eyes are on Arizona football. And you can't open up
an article, you can't read anything on social media, you can't see anything
on ESPN without an Arizona helmet. And that tells me that our brand is
growing. It's getting better. More people are talking about us, more people
want to know what's happening with Arizona, and you can't beat that in our
situation right now, go ahead and play the second one, because it was
I did to our team this, I said, you guys are literally living
through history. If you think about the guys that played college football from let's
call it twenty twenty to twenty twenty five, you live through a pandemic and
how that worked in college football, the uniqueness of playing in front of no
one. You went through a transfer portal rules that no one really ever thought
would ever happen, the way the amount of exchange of players then nil,
you started getting paid. And now you're sitting there looking at conferences that were
historically a group of twelve ten, ten, twelve whatever they were turning into
sixteen mega conferences. You know, sixteen team mega conference. You know,
the Big ten's getting bigger and bigger. For one, I understand, the
SEC is doing their deal, bringing in Texas, Oklahoma. Whatever happens with
us will happen with us. But it's a change. Everything is just new.
It is truly a new frontier of college football. I love it.
I mean, I love the fact that we are just sitting there in a
position where everything right now is gonna be better for the athletes. The athletes,
especially in football, are going to be seeing significant change in regards to
the financial impact of college football. The CFP is gonna bring probably another billion
dollars into athletics, and um, we're gonna sit there and these kids are
gonna play some teams maybe they haven't played before, They're gonna see some things
they maybe haven't seen before. And all of college football has changed and I
think it'll probably change again in the next three to five years. So,
Jay, this is funny. I asked you yesterday book you guys, oh
will you yestere? Yeah, yeah, yeah, So but the percentage you
thought that things could change in in a day or so, right, pretty
much zero percent? Right. We talked very little, very Okay. So
I was up till two in the morning, dude and whatever, out with
some guys in and out. Um came back. Felt comfortable with, you
know, telling people because you get asked what's gonna happen, and they're going,
They're going, They're going. And then a week up at seven,
look at Twitter, they maybe not be going. And I'm thinking how in
five hours this old change overnight? Thinking that, oh I told people some
bad information, and thinking that they're gonna vote again. They're gonna vote again
and try to maybe the last Hell Mary that they had. I thinking,
hell, I've been giving bad information. And then an hour later it's all
back. I'll say this has been this has not become a circus, but
it's become a circus. No, it has been a circus, Steve.
And and that's that's the unfortunate part of it. I mean, in the
end, if you get to a place where it's stable and everybody is,
you know for the moment, not everybody's gonna be okay with where they wind
up. Yeah, four schools that are gonna be and maybe six left behind
in the pac twelve or gonna be, you know, not happy. But
this became an every man for himself thing, right, And and that's what
it became. An Arizona had had and has to do what it has to
do for itself. And I think there was a period it sounded like the
meeting last night that Michael Crow, the president of ASCU, was trying to
hold it together. I think of that scene, if the scene at the
end of Animal House where the where it's Kevin Bacon and he's the he's like
the cadet and the whole the riot is coming at him and he's holding his
hands up saying, please be calm, Everything is gonna be okay. And
that was Michael Crow last night, and there were it got some legs.
It sounded like, um, everybody's kind of hold up, there might be
something here. And then the next thing, you know, we were back
to where we were this morning. Right, Um, it looks like he
lost some oop. He's looked bad. He's looked um like, like he's
just not very uh forward thinking. You know that all this stuff is happening,
the college athletics landscape is changing, and he's trying to hang on to
the you know, to the old guard. And it didn't realize he had
no chance at this. You know, he wanted that he won the league
to take this Apple deal, and it was like, you know, and
you know, for a time last night I thought I could see the path
to that. Only from the standpoint that when you think about and I don't
know if I mentioned this on the show yesterday, when you think about all
these like the Big ten conference deal goes through twenty thirty, Okay, the
Big twelve deal goes through twenty thirty one. I thought, maybe the PAC
twelve will look at this. Okay, look, let's go and take the
deal. We're gonna still get a spot in the College Football Playoff. We're
gonna get some money there. We'll find other ways to recoup the thing.
If we can just hang on as the PAC twelve until the next round of
realignment, that maybe the league could hang on and then be in a better
spot by that point. I thought that for a minute, and then I
you know, I just heard that that, you know, the Arizona was
gone. And then again then you say you woke up this morning and also
in Arizona was not gone, and then Arizona was gone, and now it
sounds like they are gone. Yeah, as a student, what do you
think? Is what Jed said? Yeah, I mean kind of just whatever
happens happens, you kind of paying attention to as it all is of his
happening, but you know, just kind of let the you know, however
the far but you know, whatever happens happens really So yeah, I think
that's if I try to call him, I probably will eventually. Um,
this is a freight train and reading to happen. You could not stop it.
There was no stopping it. Yeah, there was no stopping. There's
one more clip from Jed just talking about you know what this means for for
athletes and whatnot. Here's what he had to say. No, I don't
know where we're headed um or what we're doing. I would just say that
as you look around the landscape of college football, you see Texas playing Alabama
every year, Oklahoma back, you see Nebraska, you know in the Big
Ten. You see Ucla. I know Nebras has been there a few years
now. You see Ucla flying across the country to go play Ohio State.
Things that these kids have never thought they could ever experience. And we all
know there'll be more changes that go on, whether it be new teams coming
in or US going out, but there's gonna be just something new that our
kids have never thought of experience and that that is true, and that that's
and as a fan too, you know it's gonna be new for fans all
of a sudden. You know, Kansas comes to play some basketball, you
know, once a year every other year, depending on how the scheduling does,
you know, in some of those other schools. So basketball is going
to be different than Arizona and in that regard, it's gonna be better,
right, You're not You're not gonna have a crappy cal team. And I
know Washington State in Arizona hit home last year, Washington State team. You're
not gonna have crappy Washington teams coming around. You know you're gonna go You're
gonna have I mean, you're losing the the UCLA. Uh, but that's
the only one. Yeah, that's the only one of the that's only one
of the rivalries at this point because Stanford's not a rival anymore. Right,
They're terrible. So the basketball is gonna become great and there's gonna be I
think there's gonna be more excitement for Airzona basketball in this town than maybe ever.
Steve, let me ask you a question that might create some controversy.
So, um, I'm gonna ask you, Um, do you Arizone has
a pretty good strong fan base, right? Yeah? Basketball basketball specifics.
I don't want to go fotall because because it's football, we we know it's
good whatever it is. Um, do you think Arizona fans travel well?
Travel well? There's key wards in there. Well m overall, No,
they travel well to southern California Okay, okay, they travel well. He's
in Vegas, easy, easy trips driving. They don't travel well to Stanford.
They don't travel well to or in state there because those places are far
sure. Sure. So the reason I say that is because I see this
all the time. Ever, was gonna travels Well, No, they don't
know. They don't because you're they're not gonna go to stay fastball does best
one. But let me say this, the reason why you hear a lot
of the error zone rors is they have they They're a lot of fans in
that area. We've seen it. We see it all the time and see
on the travel Well, no, those are dudes that live there. Yeah,
those are I don't know what they're gonna live in the Midwest. You'll
see it in Texas, yes, right, Dallas. You'll see him in
dadasas him in Dallas. You may even see him in Waco. You'll see
him in Love The Arizona fans will go there. But I don't know that
you're gonna see him at Oklahoma State. I don't know that you're gonna see
him at Kansas and Cannon. Well, they'll go to Cama games. You're
not gonna go to Kansas, but I can see him at at Iowa State
and whatnot. You're you're correct, and football fan and the football fans travel
to u C L, a USC A, SU and then to Vegas,
to Vegas, Vegas, that's the biggest Vegas. At least the Big twelve
does something and they're not there. You know, there was a that got
thrown out there on social media and all the Big twelve fans were come around
saying, you guys have no idea how cool it is, how cool the
tournament is in Kansas City. You have no idea. Vegas is cool and
it's a great place, but you have no idea how cool the tournament is
in Kansas City. It's not going anywhere. Imagine that tournament, imagine that
turnament. It should be fun, it should be fun. I have to
guess. I have to say my money to get there for the next year
in two twenty four. But but I just want to throw that out there
because it's it's a fallacy that they travel well because they don't, especially certain
places. But they have a lot of the lums out there. Now,
we gotta call, we gotta let's go take this call. H you're on
there and I on the ball. Hello, Hello, we hear some background
news. Go ahead and try to call us back those like a radio show
or something. Yeah, yeah, probably listening. He didn't turn off his
radio or something. I'm looking at the buttons to see if there's some buttons
on that shouldn't be on. No. Um, But that tournament in the
Big two in Kennas City should be a lot of fun. Yeah, a
lot of fun. We don't know about I shoo yet, right, they're
they're not they're not as Utah are not in yet. Now. I think
they want in and a su is coming kind of kicking and screaming. But
at this point they should want in, and I'm guessing if I'm Mark Harlan
up at Utah, they want it. And that's so funny because of all
the teams football wise, they are the they are the jewel for that for
the group. Okay, let's see we can take this. Hi, you're
on they are on the ball. What's going on? Man? How y'all
doing over there? Good? How are you doing? What's up? Who's
this? Hello? I think you need to turn off your radio. Yeah,
I don't know what they do turn off? We can hear you.
I think you're ray is your Are you you have your radio on? Yeah?
What's going on? How you doing good? Good? Turn off the
radio and then give us a holler yeah, or just turn off the radio.
Talk to us that. Yeah, what what's happening? How y'all doing
the day? Good? What's on your mind? Let's talk about Apple Joy.
He was listening to the radio and it's a seven second delay. Yeah,
that's weird. Yeah, okay, if if if you call in,
you can't have the radio on in the background. No, you can't call
until after then, guest, go hit the busy button right there at the
bottom, No, at the very bottom. Well, no we can.
We can go to break because we gotta get Let's go to break. We
got a good job. Yeah, we got Jake Fisher coming in. He's
he was a little vocal on on social media. Jake is our our usual
Friday guest, former player at Arizona UM. Well, we'll get his take
on all that happened over the last twenty four hours, because it's been kind
of crazy. So we'll be right back. For more than twenty years,
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all the xs and os. It's Steve Rivera and Jakin's summits. This is
I Am the book on Fox Sports fourteen Differy. Welcome back to im the
ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, he's Jakins us
and Jenkins all us and now we have Jake Fisher. What's going on,
Jake? Are you guys doing? Is it pretty hard to signs all the
last name? Or why we're you know, we're we're getting names really bad.
And we've been out in the sun today at practice and it it's just
it's just killed everything. Let me ask you, Jake, Um, So
we're out there for like two and a half hours, you know, waiting
for football. How was it during those hot days for these these practices any
pads? Oh, we'll imagine around two thirty imagine being in a full tend
of practice with rich Rod with how much they made us run. With the
Stoop's regime, it wasn't all that bad. But as soon as rich Rod
and his guys to like a runnion so you feel like you're going to throw
up every day, it got really bad. So completely different deal. But
yeah, it's not fun. Especially, I mean I can't even imagine these
guys doing it right now with the heat that we have this year. I
mean up here in Channel we had I think twenty five straight days was at
least one hundred and thirteen. So it gets bad with that mind because we
talked when we talk to you last week, we talked to you about,
you know, the anticipation of you know, opening camp and first practice and
the excitement of it and stuff. How quickly did fall camp become more of
a grind. It becomes a grind right away. I mean the first couple
of practices or either in helmets or you know, you're in shells or you
know, spider vests or you know, whatever you want to call it,
whether it's you know, soft pads or whether it's your actual shoulder pads.
But as soon as you start getting me the full gear on and you start
happen to try to you know, go against one two sometimes even you know,
a triple team of grown men or three hundred pounds as a linebacker,
it starts to really hurt. So, you know, you get used to
it early. There's a reason why they have you running and working out as
much as they do prior to camp. But the first couple of weeks it's,
you know, let's try to get as much out of you as we
possibly can. And then as soon as we get about a week and a
half out of that first you know, away from the first game, that's
when you start kind of settling down just a little bit to get the body
back in shape or at least the body back where it needs to be to
go into you know, a game where you might be playing between seventy five
and ninety snaps. So a week or a week and a half prior to
the first game, they'll start, you know, swimming it down a little
bit. Yeah, Okay, let's get down to today's news, like yesterday's
news and every other day's news. What do you think about lament and what's
going on. I'm glad that President Robbins and Heke are getting us out of
this conference. Ever instance, Larry Scott took the helm, and a lot
of the presidents they're not big into sports. So you know, I'm just
really happy that we have a president who loves sports and he's gonna go ahead
and get us into conference that actually loves sports and not still academics. And
you know, they don't put their you know, they don't put their nose
up high and just kind of look down upon the rest of the colleges.
These guys want to go out and compete. They want to be good at
football, basketball, every other sport. Um, you know, I see
a bunch of people that you could tell they're they're Pack twelve folks. They
keep saying, we'll look at all the small towns and the Big twelve,
et cetera, et cetera, and we have well they used to have that
way, but you know, we have Seattle, we have uh, you
know, San Francisco, et cetera, et cetera. And it's like,
you know what the money's following in the smaller towns right now? In the
Big twelve. They want to see a good product on the field. They
want to see a good product out on the basketball court. They want to
see these guys at the highest level. And so I'm just glad that we
are. We're getting out of the dumpster fire in my opinion, that is
the PAC twelves. Well, it certainly became that, Jake, I mean,
I wanted the Pac twelve to survive. But when it became to a
point and probably over the last you know, several months, that it just
it just wasn't going to not survive, but it just wasn't going to be
up to the standards of the other conferences. I don't want to be in
a subpart conference, and so when that became appared to me, I'm like,
let's get the hell out of here, right. And this is the
thing, like I don't need to talk down upon any university is the only
university because I actually stay plugged into this subject because I think we should have
left a few years ago, to be one hundred percent honest with you.
But you know, the fact that they're going to be bringing in maybe as
Presido State, maybe an SMO, maybe you know, I don't know Colorado
State. You know, some of these these schools, it's like, okay,
well, you guys are kind of you know, I mean, it's
kind of the last bitch effort to just get a few more teams in there,
you know, just to kind of safe face. I mean, when
you're going all streaming with Apple and you're gonna get paid you know, probably
like between twelve and fifteen million dollars less a year to be in the conference,
I think it's time for you to boat, especially if you want to
be competitive. I mean, imagine, you know, not being able to
keep Jed Fish, you know who him and an entire staff they've been including
like crazy. Obviously you guys have seen, you know, the wonderful work
that he's done. But imagine you know someone in a different conference who's able
to pay them just a million dollars more and has more visibility, and you
know they're on ESPN as opposed to being you know, streamed on Apple.
I mean I would leave the files a head coach too. And then you
know, once you start getting some of the notoriety and things of that nature,
you're able to recruit at a higher level. So it makes all the
sense in the world. And when you have teams like you know, Washington,
Oregon who are probably gonna end up going to the Big ten. You
have Colorado who already left, you have LA schools who have left. It's
a thinking ship man. So don't get left behind. Don't get into some
sort of deal where you have to wait another four or five years before you
can actually leave to go to a better conference. And then if you're recruiting
goes down, if you're not able to retain good coaches, there's not going
to be a better confidence not want you at that point. Let me ask
you, what can you say if you see any negatives to the move maybe
the travel or whatever, any negatives and maybe the biggest positive. I just
think the biggest positive, like I said, you're gonna be on the estn
you get guaranteed money, you're gonna have you know, obviously, it's going
to be more of a national thing where you're not gonna have to wait till
nine PM for a football game or a basketball game. You're gonna have more
than just folks on the West Coast watching your games if it is a later
game. And so I just think, you know, the biggest positive is
you're gonna be seen more. You know, you're gonna become more of a
national brand. You're gonna become more relevant, especially if right when we get
there, because the way that the football and basketball program are going, I
think that they're gonna, you know, I think Arizona's gonna become more of
a national brand. You have a great basketball product, you have an up
and coming football product. I mean, just look at the football team.
I mean, you've got two potential first round draft picks on the offensive line.
You've got you know, two or three receivers who are going to play
in the NFL. You probably have a couple of your backs that are going
to play in the NFL, and to be honest with you, a Big
twelve that has been a lot about offensive lately. So I think we're gonna
sit in perfectly. The biggest negative is I mean, and it's just going
to be like one of those deals where it's like, ah, I wish
the PAC twelve would have survived, But at the same time, as these
folks aren't doing what they need to do in order to keep us around,
then who cares. You know, go where the money's at. You're gonna
get guaranteed money. It's gonna be a hell of a lot more than where
you're gonna get with the Pac twelve. And you have incompetent people up at
the top that has been leading this proke or at this conference for the last
what eight nine years? So get out, I'm gonna say so, I'm
gonna I'm gonna start to turn the page right now. Jake to Arizona being
in the Big twelve, the football program being in the Big twelve throughout all
the time, and that Arizona was in the Pac twelve, we always always
always thought that they were at a recruiting disadvantage against Washington, USC, UCLA,
and then more recently Oregon and that we were never going to be able
to outrecruit those guys. I don't see one school in the Big Twelve that
Arizona can't recruit with no and especially with the track record that these guys are
going to continue having putting guys into the league. I mean, like I
said, you have you're starting free receivers, and I'm that's just me assuming
that, uh you know, Limonious Crag or I forget what the heck of
name name, but I think the starting pre receivers are all going to be
playing on Sundays. Yeah, and you know, you have so many quarterbacks
that you've brought in that are awesome. Um, you know, one of
those four stars is gonna you know, one of those four stars as soon
as you know our guy eventually goes to the next level, is going to
step up and they're gonna be awesome. Um. You know, like I
said, offensive lineman, We've already gotten great offensive line in there. I
think Toledo is going to eventually be another one that ends up, you know,
being a first or second day draft pick. And then you know,
if we can continue getting some of these cranswers on the defensive side of the
ball. As long as you're able going to keep up scoring in the Big
twelve, you're gonna be fine. And the other good thing is going into
the Big twelve. You know, we have a really really good track record
of accruiting kids from uh, you know, southern California and just California in
general. But now that's going to give us a bigger foothold in the state
of tenn Right, So if we're still able to recruit in California, we're
able to you know kind of uh, you know, turn page and we're
able to recruit really well out of Taxis. I don't see a reason why
we couldn't be one of the upper echelon teams in the Big twelve football wise,
basketball wise, we will obviously the brand, you know, it doesn't
matter where the hell we go, the Arizona basketball brand is going to be
there. So, um, you know, I like to move quite a
bit. It's funny. I was just gonna ask you and Jay, so
Arizona has typically been you know, seventh, eighth, ninth in the lower
half of the Pac twelve. If you have this this this list, now,
where do you think they're gonna Land. Who do you think right now,
right now kind of in the middle here. What I was trying to
get at with what I said a man ago is there isn't anybody in in
the Big twelve that Arizona should be afraid of. It doesn't feel like they
can compete with where There's was always usc There was always Washington throughout the whole
time they were in there, and to a degree Ucla, although they didn't
do anything with it, but they were. You know, we're getting out
recruited by Useley. I don't see one team in the football, one football
team in the big in the Big twelve that Arizona can't recruit with No now
Oklahoma and Texas, it comes down to Kansas, Kansas State, we cannot
recruit them. When it comes to Oklahoma State, we can out recruit them.
You don't have Oklahoma in Texas anymore. So the fact of the matter
is, I mean, our biggest competition is going to be who, Like
I mean, Texas Tech has been doing really well recruiting Whitely, Baylor's been
doing pretty damn good. Um, you know Houston obviously with them being in
the Big twelve, that might you know, Pump up their recruiting as well
in the state of Texas, you know, because I mean Houston's what the
third largest city in the entire country. So I mean, I think we're
gonna be able to capitalize it. And I think that we'd, like I
said, we're still going to be able to recruit on the West Coast,
but now we're gonna be able to get a foot in the door in terms
of Midwest recruiting Texas. Midwest recruiting is where you find the hosses that actually
moved the line of scrimmage. You know, the size the Midwest. You
know, if you want to go down to George, Alabama, Florida,
but um, you know, obviously that's going to be hard to bring guys
from there. But you know, like when we went against Sokol the state
they had a bunch of farm boys and as soon as they get their hands
on you, you can't get them off of you. You know, they
have that farm boy strength. You have some of those big boys that you
can bring in. You can still continue to recruit the athletes out of California
and you know, just the West Coast in general. And then once again,
if we make the move, I think just because we were the ones
that potentially brought ASU with us, and just because we're in a different position
than as do is right now, I think we're going to get the better
of the Phoenix area too. So there's a lot of good things happening,
and I think it's kind of the perfect timing. Yeah, and again,
there's no USC, there's no Washington, there's no Oregon or in the Big
twelve. There's not and you know, people say, oh, well,
you know, it would have been easier to win in the PEC public.
I would never have wanted Arezone to go to the Big ten, but I
really think that they can be they can become very competitive in the Big twelve.
And you could sense a sense of excitement about that from Jet Fish.
Well. No, well, now that if Arizona State does not go in,
if they do not go in, yeah, they have to go in.
If they didn't go in, how much advantage would it be recruiting?
Way? Oh yeah, totally if Arizona States in the back or something or
the Mountain West, right, Yeah, Well, think about it. The
brand difference between a Big twelve now versus a Pack twelve. Who's going to
bring in you know, four or five teams that just one percent, you
know, being honest, probably shouldn't be Pack twelve caliber. And then the
second thing I want to go over the fact that you know, we did
have se Oregon, Washington, and I mean, you have ASU, who's
in a spot where there's like over five million people just around the area in
general. I don't know how the hell they haven't become one of the top
ten, uh, you know colleges in America. I just say, they
just dropped the ball all the time. But which is good for us.
But the fact that Utah has been able to become a top five or six
team in the country over the last you know, five six years, and
they were in a conference like that, there's a I mean, there's a
there's a way that you can get it done. And so I think that
Jetfish when he came in, he was talking about how he wants to be
more like Utah. I think that if we're able to kind of do the
same things that Utah did in the PAC twelve and we still have you know,
footprints in California just anywhere in the West coast, Phoenix, Texas,
Midwest, I think we can be, like I said, one of the
top tier programs in the Big Twelve. I mean, Oaklahoma State's always going
to be competitive. Texas Tech right now, it's probably going to be competitive
for a while. I think Houston's probably in the next team that's going to
become more competitive in that conference. But I don't see a reason why,
you know, we shouldn't go into every game think that we can win.
I mean, I agree, I just think I assuming that the progress that
the Jetfish has made continues, I'll actually believe that Arizona can win a league
championship in the Big twelve, where the odds against them doing that in the
Pac twelve have been minimal every year. I mean, there a couple couple
great teams. Twenty fourteen teams tendered out to be a really good team one
up backed off South championship. The ninety eight teams should have or I think,
year in and year out, if Jake Jake Fishing Jed Fish, if
Jed Fish, you know, keeps doing what he's doing, I think Arizona
can be competitive, you know, all the time, because all those teams
they mostly are, you know, I mean, TCU came out and won
the Day League, and tc is not going to be their year in.
They're not USC or Washington or Oregon. So right, I like they gonna
have some of those teams that just kind of poked their head out for a
couple of years and they're really really good. But it's going to be more
cyclical. I think they don't have the brand that you know, an SC
Washington, Oregon, whoever it is has. I mean, just imagine Arizona
going into Lubbock or going you know and beating Baylor going into Houston and you
see a high flying offense for a bunch of potential, you know, NFL
players, You're going to get a heck of a lot more attention out of
those kids that are in Texas. I mean, you're gonna have people on
visits all the time at those games. And if we go in and perform
like I think we will, I don't see a reason why we can't have
more of a foothold in Texas, you know what I mean. So it's
just going to open up more doors. We're going to continue to recruit like
we are now. But you know, I think because of how aggressive you
know a lot of the coaches are in terms of recruiting, I don't see
a reason why we can't. You know, I don't see a reason why
we can't win a Big twelve. Like I said, TCU, Oklahoma State,
Texas Tech, Houston, Kansas State right now is really good. But
I mean none of them are burn Burns. You don't have an Alabama or
at Georgia in that conference. You don't have an sc at their highter,
Oregon at their you know, in their prime in the conference. So I
think it's gonna be a lot easier to get some wins you know football.
But at the same time, you don't have any doormats. You know,
you don't have Um, I mean, you do have a Colorado now,
but you know you gotta be on there, but you don't have you know,
a Colorado. Like over the last few years, you're only winning one
game a year and it's you know, non conference, so it's gonna be
competitive. We're gonna have to bring it every week. But um, you
know, if we do come to play, I don't think there's anybody in
that conference that we're not going to be able to beat, especially with some
of the talent that these guys are bringing in. There's nobody in the conference
that scares me. No that I say we can't we that Arizona can't beat
you know, I'm not gonna say year in, year out, but have
a chance to beat you know, if if they if the program gets going,
if you know, you know who's a sleeping giant though as UCS.
Yeah, I mean I had a buddy that went to UCF, but you
guys probably know him, Ray Cottman, And the year after you graduated,
they went to the FSA boot and beat the brakes off of Baylor. So
if they're able to get some of the talent down there, you know,
pick them over Florida, Miami excepta, et cetera. Every now and then,
you know, it's probably like once every six or seven years they're a
ten win team and they're good. But once again, it's somebody cyclical.
You're not gonna have somebody that wins ten games a year every single year,
because it's gonna be competitive and everyone's going to be kind of on the same
level. Okay, Jake, thank you. Man to have a good hut
weekend. Of course, we're going to be in the pool the rest of
the day, all right, tell us tell us where people can find you.
Yeah, just go ahead and look at our website www dot airs on
the healthinsider dot com or give us a call find two eight five six eight
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higher level of care. All right, Jake, thanks, Thanks by man,
have a good weekend. Yep. All right, Well, Jake was
on the phone. The announcement both from Washington, Oregon and the Big ten
came out that they are now in the Big ten, and then Brett McMurphy
reporting that the Big twelve will will approve UM the membership for Zona, Arizona,
uh Arizona State, and Utah tonight. Okay, so then by sometime
in the next couple of days. Ye. So, so the Arizona,
Utah Utah is kind of still I think they're they're underrated to Utah can go
in and grab and grab this conference by the throw, Yes, from a
very at least from a football standout. Yeah, okay, if you're if
you're asking me, Okay, Now you've got sixteen teams. You know who's
the best football team in the in the conference? It's Utah, not Oklahoma
State. Let's go, let's take a break, and I'll ask you the
question that you can think about it. Don't you think that some of the
some of if not all, the teams in the Big Twelve as it stands
out, should be afraid of what's happening with the influx of Utah and Arizona
and even to Degree Asu. You know these these are you know these teams.
Well, let's let's go and take our break. Well, we'll have
this conversation because we're already wait long, so take a break. We'll come
back and we'll take your calls. Five to zero, four, one seventy
four, forty. It looks like Arizona's headed to the Big twelve. If
you're an Arizona Name's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty
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on the I Heart Radio AAP. This is I on the Ball with Steve
Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen Big Day. Hey, welcome back
to I on the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen. Fookie Steve Rivera, you're
Jagon's also got about ten minutes If you want to call us, I'll be
sure to turn off your foot your radio radio because you get some background noise
that you don't know what you're talking to. Right, It's it's hard.
It's hard to be on the phone with us right and with us in the
background on a delay. So that's it. It's five two four, one
seventy four forty give us a call. We have some time for you.
Now is second hour. We're gonna have Damian Elimimi elimiated. We'll get a
get his take on just how all this is unfolded, you know the meaning
of it for Arizona. But you know, Steve, we're starting to kick
that around a little bit. And now that the reality of this is starting
to hit, I like, I like Zona that I do year later I
do now I like it. I like it a lot. And I said,
whatever they do, whatever they do, but I like it because,
well, I'm not gonna go to the games. I might go to the
pack the Big twelve tournament. Yeah, but you know it's gonna be games
few and far between. Yeah, you know, we won't be we won't
be going on the road to games, you know, because not because they're
you know, we don't like the towns or in the cities and stuff like
it. Just they're they're far, they're expensive. I mean, you maybe
can go to one trip a year. Maybe you know, we again,
you know talk, you know, we could get in the car, you
know, when the USC game comes out, we're gonna jump in the car
and Friday we're gonna get tickets. We jump in the car on Friday,
get a hotel room and go. And you can't do that with any of
the road trips in in the Big Twelve. That's the only unfortunate thing.
But when you think about where Arizona now sits as a football program in the
conference, it's gonna be in Like I was, we were saying to Jail,
I think that Arizona is in a way better position to compete for a
championship by going to the Big Twelve than it ever was going to be in
the in the in the Pac Twelve, because of USC, because of Oregon,
because of Washington, and to a degree, because of UCLA. All
the way up until last year, it has been a big deal to beat
UCLA because you know, they've always got better players, they've always recruited better,
you know, and then Utah came along and started beating the hell out
of everybody. You know, we don't I don't see anybody in the Big
twelve that Arizona is afraid of, because I think Arizona can ultimately compete with
Uta, because they have in the past. There's nobody in the Big twelve
from a football standpoint that I go Arizona can't be better than them. Oh,
I'm gonna remember to stay in a year or two, two years now
to see if they do compete against him, because I think it's gonna take
a little bit. No, I'm not saying it's a little this year,
but I'm saying two to three years down the road. If the progress that
you're seeing in Arizona and jet Fish sticks Aroun and keeps pull you know,
pulling this thing through, they will be able to compete over there. I
really believe that. I think we have a caller. Hy you're on the
air around the Ball, how you guys? This is Gabe Kasarian. Hey,
um, I just want to say, um, Arizona is in the
PID twelve. Let's go up. Yeah, I am um. So I
have a lot of things to talk to you of guys about, So let's
get started. You got YouTube, just lovely gentleman on the perfect guys to
talk about and I really appreciate you guys Heavier radio show, and so,
UM, I just want to say, um, I think it was last
last year or no, a couple of months ago, I kind of predicted
that Arizona would be in the bit twelve between June and the and the start
of uh college football. So I'm not gonna be broncodoshous but but anyway,
but anyway, UM, I think Arizona made the right choice. It was
amount of survival. I don't want Arizona to beat in the Mountain West,
and so I'm happy. And I think Jetfish basically said, uh when when
he would he if? I think Jeff Fish basically said that he wants to
be here. And if if he if Arizona it was in the Mountain West,
I think he would decide to leave and go to some other play like
some SEC school or even Big ten school. And um, so let me
get to the scum Devils and and then Oregon, Washington and then um and
Bill Walton all those jokers by anyway, to the scum Devils. Um listen,
listen you guys. UM You're welcome, and uh how about you said,
uh say two words, um, thank thank you, and UM who
who's I don't I think you too, basically said, um. Some Tom
devil basically said, oh, uh you know the Bittel was the goaling after
Arizona. We were the Bittel was going after Arizona. Um. No,
first off, shut up, steck off, steck off. Arizona runs the
states. You're you're mainly uh the ginger kids. So UM, how about
you, um please shut up and let us Uh let's the grown ups deal
with the business. And so so anyway, Uh to Oregon and Washington,
UM, have fun, um plane half fun, have fun getting beaten by
Ohio State Michigan. And I'm not going to miss um Arizona plane in their
uh in the duck uh fecal matter h court, which is um the phil
Knight Court in Eugene. And so so Bill Walton, UM, I don't
like you, and so I suggest you retire. And I'm really happy that
Arizona is. I'm really happy that I'm not announcing Arizona game. So um
and to John Werner and John Kazano and Tony Altimore and uh George col coff
um by Felicia car down Arizona coachoun you just listen to the game show.
All right, man, Hey Gabe, we appreciate and I'm happy that you're
happy. I think Arizona sets up really well to go to Who are you
gonna complain about now this week you're gonna well, you're gonna be now you're
gonna call him, you have fun. Right, I'm still gonna call you
guys, just love man, We love you, Gaye, Hey Man,
thanks a bunch. You appreciate it. Like there was a lot there.
There was a lot there. But you know, I mean, there's no
doubt that Arizona gets you know, it winds up in a better place,
and especially now with you know, Oregon Washington on that. I mean that
we're just dumbed even talk about that anymore, because it's a no brainer at
this point. Yeah, I'm glad you come. It's a no brainer for
Time. It's a no brainer for you Time. No, I think they're
they're not the sleeping giant. They're an unknown beneficial of this right beneficial.
Well, so I did say somebody said, you know, somebody said the
big you know, saying to the Big twelve and social media, Hey guys,
you really don't have any idea what's coming at you? You know with
with you know, I agree with Utah football, Arizona. I think they
do know about basketball, they do, but it's gonna be fun. I
think they're excited about Baylor, Kansas, um ilays Ilwa staying now. Basketball
is pretty good, Um Texas techts has been pretty good lately. That's gonna
be Arizona is another great game for the fans. Yeah, Big twelve right,
No, it's gonna be a lot of fun now that if I were
covering the team, i'd be looking forward to. Tommy Lloyd is fired up.
Um yeah. The thing is, the thing is with that is you
can now you're gonna bolster your home court, right he. I don't know
what's gonna happen with the non the non conference schedule, because it's good this
year, right after years after years. Maybe he'll reduce it, maybe he'll
continue it. I know I would venture to guess um that Lout would say,
let's continue to keep going, keep going with the same. Yeah,
I don't care if I'm twenty four and eight going to the tournament. But
I know what I have right, and I've played good teams, and I
know where you're exactly. I know who I am and and you know,
I think I made this point, uh the other day that you know,
playing in the Big twelve now Arizona, will you know, we'll play that
physical style of basketball that you feel they don't get enough of. And then
they get to the ncuble A tournament, they get pushed around, they know
they'll know what to expect, right, yeah, right, you know,
because they'll have been playing it all year long enough for the finesse basketball.
Yeah. Yeah, you know they're gonna have to They're gonna have to play
TCU and play Houston and play Kansas and play these teams that are physical.
I could already hear it. Oh those refs really did us in. Yeah,
you know you're gonna hear we're gonna have Big twelve refs in the league
instead of Pac twelve refs. Those refs did us in. Is there any
difference Pack twelve and Big twelve refs? Huge difference? Oh? Okay,
you play, they let you play, They let you get to Pack two.
Refs are just they're soft. I just create they call it every right
now, I just created a foul on you. Yeah you didn't feel it,
you didn't see it, but I found you right, Okay, all
right, let's let's hit the road for this hour. We're gonna come back.
We'll have breaking news, and then we're gonna have Damian alimated from Cholen
thirteen. We'll be right back