It's time for coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day.
Now here's nick coffee. All right, let's get it started, Ladies
and gentlemen, hour number two. Here on a Wednesday afternoon, it is
coffee and company and we are fueled by Thornton's. By the way, shout
out to our friends over there at Thornton's. I stopped in last night on
the way. Uh where's that coming from? I guess yeah, I was
on the way. I'm from Mark. For some reason, I was thinking
it a little later at night, but I did stay here a little later
than I usually do. But anyways, I stopped at Thornton's filled up,
and of course, you know, I was able to save some money at
the pump because I'm a Refreshing Rewards member and you get weekly fuel discounts up
to twenty five cents, and then every day you're gonna get five cents off
for gallon. I don't know if you're somebody that's putting money and you're or
putting gas in your car every single day, but if so, there's one
of the many incentives of the Refreshment Awards program. If there's somebody that likes
to drink Red Bull. I know Red Bull is still a very popular energy
drink. Right now, you buy two, you get one free. So
again, shout out to our friends over there at Thornton's. All right,
So we'll start with what we led with, which is Coleman Hawkins. He
is scheduled to visit Louisville according to reports from On three Sports. I believe,
and I know, you know, not to discredit On three, but
I think, you know, there's some folks that you know, they want
to see it from a big name when it comes to you know, their
coll it. You know, they don't trust some of the trilly Donovan's out
there because you know they're not working for the big time outlets. But I
believe it was ESPN Jeff Borzella who also put it out there, and I
think by now if it wasn't real, we would know. But Coleman Hawkins,
we've talked about him here and there really for a few weeks. But
I just assume once Louisville landed the thirteenth player that it would be done.
The roster is set. But that's not the case because they're still actively recruiting.
I don't think they're going after a bunch of guys. I don't think
they're desperate to add another piece, but I think they know that they can
make room for somebody. I don't know how they're gonna do it, but
they clearly have a plan. And they also have some money for men for
menil available to go get a good player. And there's not many of those
guys left, but Coleman Hawkins is one of them, and on three Sports
reported earlier today that he's going to visit Loiell this weekend, and this made
it real. Doesn't mean you're gonna get him. Maybe the visit doesn't go
well, maybe he visits elsewhere and you know, ends up playing for Georgia.
I think George is making a push. I don't know if there's some
kind of a connection there, and then I can't think of it. There's
another random school involved that I was really surprised to see was Oh yeah,
SMU. SMU apparently is in play here. Maybe it's because they've got money,
but Andy Enfield left USC to go to SMU. I mean, SMU
is gonna be in the ACC this year, so you will be playing in
a in a you know, you know, you're not gonna be playing in
the American like they were last year. But yeah, I just think one
of the things that helps Louisville is apparently they do have money. I don't
know if I believe that they'll pay two million, but if they have it,
then they can afford it. Why not. But the other schools that
were believed to be, I guess in the running here have taken players in
the last twenty four hours. That makes it appear that they're getting out of
the mix. They're pulling themselves from contention essentially, or maybe they were never
in contention and that's why they took these other players U Goo and Yensue from
UK. He went to Kansas State yesterday. Kansas State was apparently in the
mix for Hawkins and then Arkansas. I mean I always thought that that's where
he would end up, and they ended up bringing back Trevon Brazil, who
was in the portal had played at Arkansas previously, and that's another big guy,
six ten six eleven big. So I think that eliminates those two schools.
So now you know, I think Louisville looks like the clear leader here.
I mean, it's going to happen, but looks good right now at
this point. And Louisville right now on paper thirteen scholarship players. I think
they've got a good team. I think fans are justified in thinking, hey,
we could make the tournament. This is going to be a solid debut
season for Pat Kelsey. You know, we believe in him as a coach.
None of us know how it's actually going to go down, but all
the components right now as we speak, make it to where you can go
into this first season being excited and feeling like you're not just a homer for
thinking your team could be pretty good. But if you add Coleman Hawkins,
it upset a little bit more. Right. I'm not going to throw some
crazy expectations to put pressure on Pat Kelsey if he lands Coleman Hawkins, but
that's a nice added piece, a guy that in the eyes of some,
I'm not sure if I believe it, but in the eyes of some,
he would instantly be your most talented player. And you already have some pretty
good talent on that team. So now we wait again. The visit is
set for this weekend, and Pat Kelsey, when he gets guys on campus
for a visit doesn't mean you know, he didn't get didn't get all of
them. There's been plenty that had visited and moved on and went elsewhere.
But you know, I like the idea of you know, putting on the
full court press here and really you know, showing out here for for Coleman
Hawkins. So that was really what we started with. And I'm not sure
if there's an added development here, but he's doing it again on Twitter.
John Coleman he's well, he's up to his antics. Yeah, I guess
that's the right. So he tweeted thirty four minutes ago, taking a break
from this app please don't believe everything you see on the internet. So I
mean, first let me say this, sorry to butt him. Oh you're
fine. I was at a loss for words anyway, because I don't want
to start, like, you know, I don't know if he's if he's
upset by the way people are maybe responding to his tweets. First, he
probably needs to be more aware of when when you when you're when you are
who you are. And I know he's not the biggest name in college basketball,
but when he's getting the attention that he's getting right now, he should
be more aware of how people, even if it is in negative ways,
how they're going to respond to some of the things that he's putting on social
media. But but like what's he putting on some like what do you mean
what he's putting like kind of just being I mean he I know, he's
having fun and that's it's it's it's really harmless whenever it's all whenever it all
comes down to it. But yeah, yeah, because because some patrolling can
be harmless, and I think that's the way he's doing it. But what
I what I don't like, what does he get out of it? Like
I guess just amusement, you know, like h like for example, he
deletes stuff, which I don't understand. Like yesterday there was somebody one of
the Arkansas sites, their official account tweeted out, you know, calib which
is actually rich to read, knowing the Calip Perry. You know, like
Cali Perry clearly has has Let's be real, Before ANIL existed, players were
making money somehow, and Kentucky was probably one of the many schools that was
doing that. But Arkansas lost out on There's two players, two transfers that
Arkansas didn't get and one of them was Hawkins, and they were applauding Calipari
for not paying the asking price, and he shared that and like mocked him,
like you know, wow lol, But again, like does that mean
they're sore losers because he was never going to go there and they're just making
it up about money or he's you know, claiming that you know, they're
I don't know, like I you know, And I think that's what he
gets out of it, is that he'll put stuff out that's kind of cryptic
you don't really like. For example, there are already people that are sharing
this tweet from Colvin Hawkins thirty four minutes ago that are asking if he's insinuating
that the visit is not real, And I don't think that's what it is.
But I don't know, like you know, I don't, I don't
know. So he's had some fun on social media. He said some things
at the NBA Draft Combine that you know, are harmless, but just kind
of seemed odd to hear somebody say, especially when you're at the NBA Draft
Combine. In a sense, you're a job interview, are you not?
I mean, like you're auditioning in every way or the NBA. So for
him to say if he goes back to college, he would never go to
the Big ten and would never play in the Big e like it just to
me it seemed odd like even if you feel that way, what's the mean,
I don't know, you gain nothing from saying yeah, yeah, and
it's not controversial, it's just it's just unusual. Yes, So here is
Sam Vessini and I talked about this earlier in the show. He was on
his podcast I Guess with the last couple of days, and he had some
interesting comments about why NBA teams may have passed on Coleman Hawkins, and I
thought in this one minute clip he did a pretty good job of kind of
describing it better than I can. And I'm clearly failing at doing it right
now because I don't act like this guy's like immature and he's childish, but
he's he does like to toy with people on social media, which again is
harmless. But you usually don't see this from somebody who's going to be going
into his fifth year of college basketball. But here here's what Vassini had to
say. I think that like teams just want to see like a little bit
more maturity. Maybe he's like to put it like in terms of like on
court, and you know, did some like did some things that like I
enjoy off the court, like give it like didn't you give like the Maryland
team like the finger like on their plane and all that stuff like there there
was like some fun things and like if the combine like said, you know,
I'm not going to the Big East. I won't go to another Big
Ten school, like I want to go to like a football school where I
can go to football games and stuff. And it's just like, well,
hm, that's all what teams want. Like I enjoy the Colemanhawkins experience.
I want to be very clear about that. I don't know that what I
enjoy personally for my amusement and clearly for Coleman's amusement, because I think he
has a blast like doing all of this. I don't know if it's what
teams want for their non amusement. Maybe it's the way to put it so
again, it's harmless. It's just hard for me to understand what he gains
out of it. Again, and the only guess I have is what you
heard there is just it's amusing to him to kind of toy with people and
get fans, you know, and either troll fans and like you know,
I guess make fun of their program or you know, get their hopes up
for only to only maybe let them down. I don't know. But when
you do that, like I said earlier, you were inviting people are insane
on the internet to say things that they shouldn't say. Oh, I mean,
I mean clearly, and you are like it's you know, it's your
doing now again you can because when you're and I've done this before, when
you troll people and you realize they don't realize you're you're you're joking, you
know, then you kind of like, you know, like for example,
if he was to and I don't even want to put this out there and
make it be real because like I don't want to act as if I'm I
don't even want to think about him like teasing us and then like not coming
to Louisville. I have no cluvie he's gonna come to Lovell or not.
But what I'm saying is like if he got Arkansas fans hopes up and really
did a lot of teasing about like how he loved you know, he was
going to go there and send out some cryptic stuff to insinuate that that's where
he was going to end up playing for Caliparia Arkansas and then he like burned
them and they all came after him. He would have to know that was
coming. You would also have to think that that's probably what he wanted,
and he would probably then continue to engage with them and just you know,
be that guy on the internet, which hey, it had. You know,
it's just unusual we'll see a college basketball player who right now probably has
the highest price tag of anybody that is available still. And you know,
but it has led to throughout the entire thing. And I guess it's been
roughly a week since it seemed as if Okay was there something here. He
deleted the big Frank tweet that he sent out. You know, he deleted
the tweet that I said earlier, that I mentioned earlier. When it comes
to the Arkansas fans that were the Arkansas site that was claiming you know that
Caliperry did the right thing by passing on this guy and not paying him,
and you know that's hard, you know, I just I feel like when
you delete it, especially when it was you know, somewhat of like a
tweet to get people roll, to get people going on something, almost as
if you didn't get the reaction you wanted, so you delete it. You
know, I don't know either way, I don't care. He can do
whatever he wants on Twitter, X, Facebook, MySpace. I don't care.
He's a really good player and he from when I you know, I
don't want to act like I'm an Illinois insider. However, he's really he
was very close to Brad Underwood. Bred Underwood's a hard coach, meeting a
guy who will you know, he's very hard on his players, very intense,
and I think Coleman Hawkins really really liked that and and responded well,
and he was a good player for him. And also he seems to be
somebody that was very well respected by his teammates. So I don't think you've
got like character issues. I just think this is somebody who likes to have
fun with fans and you know, trolls on the internet. He trolls them
back, or he you know, is I actually think it's really really refreshing
at times to see people that do not take themselves that serious at all and
like, you know, have fun but also, you know, are like
clearly competitive and really good at their craft, and I think he is that.
So if there were like character issues or baggage or something, I mean,
I think we would know that. It's just he likes to mess with
people on Twitter, which, you know, whatever, it's harmless. And
to be fair, he hasn't done any He hasn't said anything about Louisville.
He tweeted out the picture of him and Big Frank when they were in high
school together and got us. That got people at least thinking, Okay,
what's he doing here? And you know, I don't know this for sure,
but I was told two days ago that the reason he might have deleted
that was because while he was still talking to Pat Kelsey and the staff,
they wanted to keep it very quiet that they were working with him. And
then I think that's kind of been the case for the last five days or
so, and then yesterday, I believe it was Jody Demmling who kind of
put it out there that they're working on getting him in for a visit.
And Jody putting it out, I believe would tell you that they're now cool
with If they're now cool with it being public and it may be because of
those other two schools taking other players. So either way, he'd be a
big addition, no doubt. And he's going to visit this weekend unless something
changes, and we'll see. Now we wait, and some people have asked
about timeline. He can make a decision whenever he wants. I mean,
I don't think he would do this. But technically you can enroll in school.
You can roll in school in August. I mean again, I don't
think anybody would do that, especially if Nil is going to be part of
your you know, your reason for coming. The sooner you get here,
the sooner you can start making some of that in al money. So I
would imagine as soon as he decides what he's gonna do, you know,
pull the trigger, make a decision. And I hope that it's Louisville.
I hope that if you are buying and selling a home, that you keep
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you can give them a call five O two five nine nine at twenty eight
hundred. All right, before we get to our first break here in the
four o'clock hour, this story fascinates me in a major way. And this
is not a sports story at all, but there is a Minnesota trial for
I think it's seven people that are being charged with stealing more than forty million
dollars from a program that was meant to feed children during the pandemic. So
essentially taxpayers in Minnesota got cheated out of two hundred and fifty Is that two
hundred and fifty Let's see, wow? Two hundred and fifty million dollars?
Is that right? Is that a typo? Goodness? Gracious? Either way,
there are seven scumbag criminals that are being held accountable and going to trial
to face the consequences for again stealing money from taxpayers that we thought was going
to go. You know, I shouldn't say we I'm not in Minnesota,
but the Minnesotians. Is that a word? Gonna say that Minnesotans, Minnesotans
that they assumed was going to help feed children during the pandemic. In fact,
they just pocketed a bunch of you know, scumbags, right. So
one of the jurors in that trial was dismissed from the multimillion dollar fraud trial
because she claimed that a woman who's one of the well, I don't know
if she's one, but a woman dropped a bag of one hundred and twenty
thousand dollars cash at her home over the weekend with the note urging her to
acquit. So this has become a national story because it's led to people asking
would you do that? Would you take one hundred and twenty thousand dollars cash
money and do what you have to do to, you know, get these
people to be found not guilty. I gotta be honest with you, I
don't know what I would do, because I don't think you know until it
happens, right, Like there's a lot of things in life. We think
we know how we'd react, We think we know what would be an automatic,
instinctual thing to do when it comes to a lot of things, but
you never know until you're there. And I believe my fear of getting in
trouble with the law is so profound that I would be scared to death that
like, even though I'm gonna call the cops and tell them what happened,
They're not gonna believe me. They're gonna think I'm in on it. They're
gonna, like I would be. Just being in that situation would scare me,
and I would not at all. I don't believe that I would think
at all about taking that money and following through with it. I don't.
What about you, John, I feel like you're in the same boat as
me. Yeah, I like to believe that I would do the right thing,
and I think that I would, But again, like you said,
there's no way to truly know until you're in that position. But I don't
think I necessarily have the same fear of the law as you might. But
I also you do well in the pin Yeah, oh yeah, definitely better
than me. Yeah, who knows. I got a beer, you got
a beard, You look tough. I can't g's I can at least put
the look up. Yeah yeah. But at the same time, yeah,
I don't think I could. I don't think I could do it. And
you know, I am someone that has you know, never seen one hundred
and twenty thousand dollars in cash. So if it was in front of me,
maybe I wouldn't do what I think I would do because I would think,
like, oh my god, this is one hundred and twenty thousand dollars,
which you know, that's a lot of money, but it's not like,
you know, I, I don't know many people that have ever you
know, earned one hundred and twenty million dollars and just or one hundred and
twenty thousand dollars and just you know, cash being given to you. I'm
sure it's happened, but those aren't people that I run around with. Obviously,
I know people who make way more than one hundred and twenty twenty thousand
dollars year. So it's not like this is light. This put it this
way. This is not life changing money, which makes makes me think that
most people would see that as not life changing money long term, to where
you would bypass this and things like, hey, this would be cool,
but like eventually it would run out. I'd probably get caught and then my
life would be ruined because I'd probably be, you know, going to prison.
So if it's a million dollars, I think it's a much different situation.
But I think the amount of it, and I don't want to act
as if one hundred and twenty thousand dollars is nothing. It's not chump change.
I mean, in fact, to someone like myself, like one hundred
and twenty million, one hundred and twenty they keeps saying millione hundred and twenty
thousand dollars. I mean, I could invest that and potentially change my life.
But again, that's in the grand scheme of things. That's not an
insane amount of money to where I think most people probably would do the risk
reward and realize it ain't worth it. I'm gonna have to But again,
I'm such a I'm such a paranoid person in general that I would be thinking,
well, now I've got to turn them in because I don't want to
go to prison. But are these criminals Are they going to you know,
cause they're gonna get added charges right like that. You can't try to bribe
somebody on the jury. Now you got to be worried about looking over your
head because you turn somebody in like it's But I would imagine this is pretty
you know, this seems to be white collar type crime to where maybe they're
not going to, you know, put a hit out of you. But
the reason I wanted to bring that up is because one, it's a small
small town in Minnesota too, by the way, which is crazy. But
also I think people think they know what they would do. But it's one
of those things that until it happens to you, I don't know if you
really know. All right, quick break, we'll come back on the other
side. Keep this thing rolling along again. It's Coffee and Company Field about
Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. That's right, it's Coffee and
Company, feel About Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety. As the fancy voiceover
guys said there, if you guys want to join us on the show,
you can five two five, seven seventy nine hundred is the number if you
want to give us a call. We'll get back to the text line here
shortly. But let's go to the phone line, shall we. Let's welcome
in Robert. How are we doing today? Brother? Hey? Nick?
Great, and I'm kind of excited to say you get that kid. Let
me ask a question, could they pale grant that kid? I remember Coach
dum did that one, so Peep back in nineties, I think, but
I don't know if that's still in an option or whatever. There's something they
can do. I don't know what it is, Robert, but they've got
some kind of plan because uh, they're they're pursuing. Yeah, dude,
they have a maximum ride and if they didn't figure there was a way to
do it, I'm just wondering if they had like a maximum amount of kids
that carry on the roster. Yes, so you can have thirteen relationship you
can have thirteen scholarship players, and they already have that. However, two
of those guys are not playing next year because of an injury, so there
may be one of the kids be by you. Yes, he's not gonna
play next year. So I so the Waterman transfer, He's he's good to
go. Khalifa is the first b YU kid that transferred. I think the
plan is to have him set out and and get healthy and get in better
shape because he hasn't been able to really. I mean, he's he's getting
better shape from his injury. However, I think if in fact he is
in good shape and his injuries recovering nicely, like he may end up playing.
But yeah, so he's kind of a lumpy guy. But yeah,
like I said, oh, and then ask your political question. I know
it's not a political show, but first I was yes, I take one
hundred twenty grand. Yeah. Second, there's no way in the world that
guys, you're going to expose himself just close and all of a sudden he's
in a trial, so payns lay off and then now he's gonna pay something.
That's crazy. But yeah, what would you do with the one hundred
and twenty grand, Robert, I'll tell you I would probably give it to
my kids or set up put up trust for my grandchildren. I got Tiger,
and my oldest grandchild's going to nursing school there, and I probably set
it up for them and then probably ball it from them all the time.
Yeah, I hear you well, Robert, I appreciate the call. Man.
Good to hear from you. How about that, you know he would
risk potentially getting caught up in a crime because there'd be one hundred and twenty
thousand dollars and he didn't want it for himself. He wanted he wants it
for his kids and his grandkids. What a guy. I love that,
But don't you see it's not like blood money, right, but it's one
of those things where like if your kids now have the money that's stolen money,
that could be a problem, couldn't it. Yeah, Yeah, that's
true. And then like you know, I would Again, this is just
me being somebody who panics about stuff that probably I don't need to panic about.
I mean, if I did this, I would be panicking, and
I think it would be justified because I just you know, put myself in
a position where I could get caught up in this mess and you know,
potentially go to prison, which I don't want, but I would worry that,
like if I did give the money to my kids or something, then
they could somehow get caught up in the conspiracy or something like that. So
again, I'm not built for life as a criminal. You know, I
did get a speeding ticket not that long ago. And that's that's the extent
of my of my wild side, right, one of that blue mustang that's
pretty hidden on sixty five. Oh yeah you're saying that. Yeah, I
see him get some guys every once in a while, well, and he
hides out, well, and he got me. You know, there's no
doubt I believed what he told me that I was speeding and I got a
ticket and I paid it, and you know, I learned my lesson.
It was wild. So there's I don't know what the ad was for,
but you know when you go to to websites. I mean, I assume
a lot of people still use computers, but I know the majority of our
of our time looking at stuff on the World Wide Web is on our phone.
But you know, like the top ad that you see on a website
on a desktop, or you know, like the wide ad, the billboard
ad or whatever. There was one of those on one of the local news
stations yesterday, might have been wok why our Partners? And I'm not sure
if it was a specific ad for LMPD, if it was just Google ad
Sense where they're filtering different ads, but they were either promoting like applying to
be a law enforcement officer with LMPD, or they were doing something to promote
something within LMPD. And sure enough, like the officer they used in the
advertisement the ad was the guy who pulled me over. So he's he's the
man appairent in that day that I mentioned, like, you know, he
was in a Mustang. Didn't think it was a cop or I didn't see
him initially, wouldn't have known it was a cop, and he got me.
And then three days after that, I saw him the same spot on
the way to work. The next three days I saw him that he had
people pulled over in the exact same spot. So wherever he was hiding out,
it was working. He was catching people, he was giving out tickets.
But after talking about it on the show, other people like on text
line, but like I know exactly what you're talking about, he'll get you.
You better be careful. So yeah, you shouldn't speak. You should
drive safe. And I learned my lesson. Thankfully that did not come with
any any hard jailt but I did get something in the mail about verifying like
that, my well, I got something in the mail remind me that I
had to pay the ticket, but I'd already done it, but they put
it in the mail, you know, I guess before it it went through,
and you know, the letters pretty direct like if you don't get this
taken care of by this date, you will have a suspended license and there'll
be a warn out for your arrest. And I'm like, oh my god,
So I'm calling these one eight hundred numbers verifying that I did in fact
pay it off. So, yeah, you had a speeding ticket. I've
been pulled over, not for speeding. I turned so this is in he'llview,
and it was during COVID. I believe I was doing delivery driving at
the time and I turned right on a red light. It's again, you
probably know what I'm talking about in hellview that you're not allowed to turn it
right on when it's read. And a guy who was not in a marked
car got me just warning. I guess no I got a ticket for it.
You did. Yeah, that's harmless, I know it. That was
the first time I never ran a ticket. Yeah, they should give you
a warning. Burns me up. It happens. So yeah, I got
pulled over but didn't get a ticket one morning for not It was I you
know, it was ice outside, Like I here's what I was doing.
I was leaving to go in to work when I was doing the morning show,
and at that time had started icing, like not snowing, icing.
So I got right to sixty five and I just knew if I got down
there one I was gonna get stuck. But I saw me like every few
minutes I would see somebody just slide off the interstate into the concrete barrier there
or off the side of the road. So I decided to turn around instead
of making the trip downtown. And I was on Preston and there was a
yellow light, but I couldn't stop because you know, I would have slid
and there was there was an ambulance on the other side of Preston, literally
the other side, and it wasn't turning where I was crossing that intersection.
It was just going straight. But because I didn't come to a complete stop
as the ambulance was driving on the other side while there was ice everywhere.
I mean I wasn't speeding. I was probably going under the speed limit,
but I didn't want to slam on my brakes and I got pulled over and
got a warning. But I remember at that point being very irritated, not
to the officer, but like there's no way it should have taken that long
for him to do whatever he needed to do to run my ID my insurance,
only to give me a warning. Like I think they feel like,
you know, they'll be real slow in It's almost like there's a build up
for him, like the right they think you are under the impression you're gonna
get a ticket, and that's why it's taking so long. They're dragging it
out, you know, not doing anything quick. And then in the end
they surprise you with the and we're gonna give you a warning here, and
that usually will work, right because you'll think, okay, well, I
guess it was worth the wait because now I'm not going to get a ticket.
It's just a warning. But that morning I thought I was not gonna
be able to make it to my house to get connected to do the show,
which was you know, which was an issue. But anyways, drive
safe everybody. All right, let's see here the college football playoff schedule has
been unveiled, and it just gets me more and more excited about the fact
that the playoff is expanding. Who knows when one of the local teams will
realistically make the tournament or make the playoff or even really compete for spot,
because look, you're gonna have to have some things play your way. It's
not just going to be dependent upon you. It's still going to be dependent
upon everybody else. Right, Like in the college basketball they put sixty eight
teams in, right, you can control your own resume by winning. But
at the end of the day, if you're a bubble team, sometimes it
just comes down to what other people are doing right. Louis Will learned that
the hard way in twenty twenty one when they were in the tournament barely and
then two teams stole bids and that put them out. So the fact that
you can realistically see your team having a special season, a similar season that
you know they can put together because they've already done it, and if they
have those seasons, they could be right there with a shot to make the
playoff. Like the fact that there's now more inclusion the top of the sport
in this event, I think it's great for college football now. I still
believe that in twenty five years, the twenty you know, the same teams
that have been winning national championships in football for the last twenty five years,
I think it's still gonna be still gonna be those same teams. I mean,
we haven't had a first time national champion in football since Florida won it
with Spurrier. I think. So, you know, it's a very top
dominant sport. There's not a whole lot of parody at the tip top,
but if you're gonna let twelve teams in to compete for the national championship in
this event, even if it's still gonna come down to the same few teams
every year, If you're in the playoff, I think you can justifiably say
that you've accomplished something special. I think it's gonna be equivalent to a Final
four parents in basketball. Now, if you're a bam, Like, here's
one thing that I didn't think about it, and I'm glad somebody mentioned this
on the text line because it's true. But you know, my mind wasn't
going there because Louisville's not one of these teams. If you are a Georgia
in Alabama, hell even in Oklahoma, who's fallen off a little bit,
but Clemson, I mean teams that have been frequent participants in the playoff since
its existence ten years ago. Making the twelve team playoff like, it's probably
gonna it's probably not gonna be much for you, right, Like you're gonna
still feel like you did enough to get there. And I don't think anybody
would would be able to tell you that it was a bad season. But
you know, like, let's be real, we would celebrate that a lot
more than Georgia or Ohio State or Michigan, you know, And I'm fine
with that because, you know, nobody wants to think about it because it
I think you like to dream big and think like you could potentially win the
whole thing. But college football does not have a lot of parody in the
tip top of the sport, and it hasn't impacted it negatively because again,
people still watch it and love it. It's you know, outside of the
NFL, college football is what dominates viewership. So the schedule is this the
first round. Again, these are going to be home games for four different
teams. So you'll have on Friday, December the twentieth, you will have
a Friday night game at eight o'clock that'll be on ABC or ESPN, probably
ABC, and then Saturday you have three games. At noon, there'll be
a game that's going to be on T and T, which is going to
be weird to think about, but if you remember that there's there, it's
not just one network that's running the entire playoff now. And then also at
four o'clock there'll be another game on on at T and T. And then
at eight o'clock they'll be the last game also, and this will with this
one will be on ABC, ESPN, that those family and stations, So
that's your first round and then and the quarterfinals that's where you have the actual
like these are bowl games still, right, So on Tuesday you'll have the
looks like the Fiesta Bowl, and that'll be on New Year's Tuesday, seven
o'clock i'm sorry, seven to thirty. And then on Wednesday, New Year's
Day, there'll be a ton of games. You'll have one o'clock on ESPN
the Peach Bowl, and then at five o'clock the Rose Bowl on ESPN,
and then on at eight forty five it'll be the Sugar Bowl, which will
be also on ESPN, and then the Semis again. When it gets down
to just four. It'll be on January the ninth, you'll have one game
seven thirty that'll be the Orange Bowl, and then the Cotton Bowl will be
on Friday night at seven thirty on ESPN, and the National Championship Game,
of course, is going to be on ESPN exclusively, not on ABC,
and it'll be on Monday, January the twentieth. So what stands out to
me is one, it's just gonna be insane but awesome to see postseason like
college football playoff games taking place on campuses. That'll just be the first first
four games that'll be on that late December weekend. But Tuesday night college football
playoff game seems odd, but then again, it's the holiday, right,
so like it doesn't feel like your typical Tuesday, Tuesday and Wednesday or New
Year's Eve and New Year's Day and then that week for us, Yeah,
it will be weird. And honestly, the Thursday night semi final game on
January the ninth, meaning the first you know, the first day of games
or the first of the you know, when it gets to four teams,
there'll be a Thursday and a Friday game. Thursday's gonna be weird because that's
just like that'll be a normal That'll be a normal Thursday, and it'll just
kind of feel like, okay, you know, what are we Like we'll
be kicking off conference playing basketball too. Yeah, that's true, and I'm
sure when this does happen there'll be people complaining, but there is gonna be
one team that has an extra day rest compared to the other, because again,
you've got a long gap. So maybe by then everybody's healthy. But
one team's gonna play on the ninth, the other team's gonna play on the
tenth, and the winners of those games will play on the twentieth. So
if you're in the the Orange Bowl instead of the Cotton Bowl, you're going
to have an extra day arrest, which to me, by that point,
I think you've had enough time to get ready for the National championship game.
But you know, coaches are going to complain and act as if they've got
a disadvantage, because that's what they do. All right, we got to
take a quick break. We'll come back on the other side. Keep this
thing rolling along. If you want to join as you can, we'll get
back to the text line on the other side. FABO too, six five
three zero seven ninety. It's the ln N Federal Credit Union text line.
Keep it locked right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. That's right, Coffee
and company rolling along here on a Wednesday afternoon. Appreciate you hanging out with
us. So what I want to get to in the five o'clock hours Some
things I want to make sure we save some time for with schools now being
allowed to pay. I mean, it's funny to frame it that way,
schools are now allowed to pay twenty two million dollars to their student athletes,
which you know that insinuates they're allowed to like they've been begging to know,
they now have to come up. Look, if you are in the business
of college athletics, meaning you invest money and you care about being successful athletically
as university, you know you want to win and you can't win unless you're
paying players now, so it's just essentially the cost of doing business. So
there's gonna be cuts, there's gonna be sacrifices, and again, only time
will tell as far as what sports get eliminated at certain schools. I'm sure
there's gonna be some real creative ways these universities fine to get to get,
you know, to create money, rather it be you know, raising money,
rather it be cutting here and there. So it'll be fascinating to see,
at least to me because you know, I'm a nerd. But what
I want to take a look at is a good a good breakdown that really
tells you at each level G five and Power five, how many schools can
can claim that their football and basketball makes enough money to pay for everything,
right, Because there's some schools that just really won't be that big, Like
it's probably not something they want and they're gonna have to do something to,
you know, like make it to where they have that money available every year.
But then there's something that like they know right away like hey, we
can't we ain't gonna be able to pay twenty two million. I know that's
the max, but like we may be able to do twelve, or hey,
if we're gonna do this, we're gonna have to cut sports. So
it's it's it's fair. And again, only time will tell as far as
what ends up happening. But there are schools out there that I would have
assumed were in pretty good shape financially because I would have assumed that they're football
and basketball make them a lot of money. And that's that's not the case
according to this to this study. So we'll get we'll look at that on
the other side. However, before we get to the top of the hour
here, let's talk about this recent sports betting scandal in Major League Baseball.
So four players have been suspended for an entire year for betting on baseball,
while one player, a padres infielder, has been banned for life. And
you know, I'm not head on a swivel trying and I'm not following every
one of these stories as far as the reaction you get from those that find
out professional athletes that participate in some of these games that you bet on,
they're in on it. But I don't feel like there's a whole of shock
and surprise there. And I think that's because it was a given right,
Like nobody who really was in charge that that really made some moves to make
it happen to where we could bet on sports legally, rather it be you
know, each state by state who decided to make it a thing, or
rather or maybe somebody who you know is the is the commissioner of Major League
Baseball or the NBA or NFL. You know, they know going in,
Yeah, we're getting in bed with the sports betting world, and it's going
to be very lucrative. It's gonna be good for business. There's clearly an
appetite for it, and there's a lot of money there. But we know
that there's like nobody came into this thinking that there wouldn't be this kind of
an issue. Rather it be college players betting on sports or whether it be
NBA or NFL or Major League Baseball players betting on games they're playing in.
I mean, it's shameful, and you got to handle it the way they're
handling it by banning people from the sport. But I think it was such
an unheard of thing to even. Like, again, I I really got
into sports betting right around the time I started working at iHeart, But at
that time, twenty sixteen, I mean, you couldn't bet on sports legally
anywhere around here other than like Vegas maybe Atlantic City. So you know,
the Bravadas, the bet nows, the offshore sports books, they were pretty
common, but you never saw it being mentioned or featured during live sports.
And now it's everywhere, right, so you know, it's still there's still
some shock value for me when I'm like, oh my gosh, that NBA
player for the Raptors was in on it, because again, it's still relatively
new, but it came so quickly to where now you've got a situation where
this let me get the specifics of this, because the network has changed ownership
a bunch of times. Yeah, so FANDUL is nearing an agreement to purchase
the naming rights on the eighteen regional sports networks owned and operated by Diamond Sports
Group. So I believe Diamond Sports Group acquired those regional stations from Sinclair Broadcasting
and nobody's been able to make it work right. Those things have been a
mess for a while, and somehow they still have game like a lot of
baseball and gave some NBA like that's that's primarily where most of their games are
on one of those networks. And as we've learned as Louisville fans, you
can get a Bally Sports South game previously of you know, a Fox Sports
Ohio or a Fox Sports Florida or Fox Sports Ohio, you'd get one of
those games because of the ACC's agreement that you know has been in place forever,
and it they'd be hard to find because this is where you know,
I won't pretend to know how this how this works as far as the ends
and the outs, but those networks were not available, like even if you
wanted to buy, like even if we add them to your your subscription,
you couldn't do it. Like at one point, I think Dish might have
been Dish maybe direct, like they were the only providers that could even get
those channels, like even if you wanted to pay for them, like you're
a lot of providers didn't offer them because I don't even know why, but
still it was difficult. So fan To would acquire the equity stake in the
company, would acquire I'm sorry at equity stake in the company and involve its
programming for the channel. So essentially what they're doing is they're buying a big
chunk of this company to where I think the production of it will probably still
be the way that it is, but it's going to be basically wrapped in
a Fandel sportsbook from top to bottom. It's going to be on the Fandel
Sportsbook channel that is now on a lot of networks, including my YouTube TV.
And it's just crazy to think how quickly this thing has exploded to where
seven eight years ago, you never heard anybody on a platform television, radio
talking about like legally betting on sports because you couldn't do it really anywhere.
Now, I mean, in a year or two, whenever this happens,
if in fact, this deal does get closed, you may be going to
a sports books television station to watch your team play. And I'm not against
it. I love it. I mean, I love sports betting. I
think it's added and it's added an entertainment component that didn't exist previously. When
we watch sports. You can now really get into and be invested in a
game where you don't you don't have rooting interest because you're a fan. You're
rooting because you want to win money. All right, quick break, we'll
come back on the other side five o'clock hours coming up next. Keep it
locked right here on Sports Talk seven ninety