This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen, powered by Nova Insurance Services. Make sure your most prized possessions
kat z R two side and iHeart Radio Station Yet. Hey, good actornoon.
Everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jagon Zos. Got a guy Jason in today
for a couple of hours. Welcome to Tuesday. A lot of things going
on as usual. Let me ask you, Jay, So, so for
thirteen months, a lot of people hemmed in hot and stowed and wondered what
and all this did the did the hype of the change or possible change meet
the expectations when it's all over, I think it did. I think,
you know, as much was written said about it for all all those thirteen
months that once it got, you know, once we find out what it
was, I think it was. I mean, I think what happened was
monumental for for for not just college football, but college athletics. And I
think it was I think if I think if the Pac twelve would have held
together and that and we would have kind of stayed where we were, it
would kind of been anticlimactic, but since there was this huge change of what
this thing's gonna look like, I think it, it became an even bigger
deal, actually than than than it seemed that it was going to be.
In fact, before the show started, you were talking about Sanky and what
he was talking about. Then everybody's either as their opinion right over whether it's
good or bad or what it means for football. But tell me what he
was saying and how you and your thoughts about well. Greg Sanky was on
Paul Feine Bob Show today on ESPN and he said that he goes, I
know that we're the ones that went and got Texas in Oklahoma, but you
know, we were kind of like, you know, we're still geographically aligned,
YadA, YadA, YadA. And he said, but what's happened since
then and make has made me feel really uncomfortable. And I wouldn't say you,
but had you started this he started this uncomfortable way, what I think
what is what his exact words were, Uh, let let me find what
his exact words were. Uh, but it was basically that I was uncomfortable
with what happened last week. It's funny. It's okay that we did it,
but I didn't want to see everybody else, right, But then everybody
else did, and that now that now it's a bad deal because everybody else
did did what we did. I find that the hypocrisy on in that is
just incredible. Let's remember that. And it's incredible but typically typical. Let
me say this too, though, in the next few years, I don't
know how many years it's gonna happen again, and it's gonna expand even more
and and and that's fine I and I, you know, all along,
I kind of felt like at some point this was going to I think this
is gonna blow up again in five or six years when these contracts are and
that's when I think we get to where there's like, you know, what,
what we've talked about, you know, sixty teams in four conferences or
whatever, you know, relegate potential relegation and and and all that kind of
stuff where you know, not everybody gets to play in the big boy sandbox.
And I think that that's ultimately where we're headed. But what I've got
a problem with right now is that you know what happened happened, but don't
sit there and say, well, we did it and it was okay,
but now these other guys did it and that was crap. That is,
but that's typical of the arrogance of the SEC. It really is. He
said, I didn't like to see the PAC twelve falling apart. Well,
you helped it fall apart. You pulled the street, right you. You
pulled the first Jengle you know, Jengle block out of there, and then
the Big ten pulled the last one. So don't tell me you're sorry to
see what happened. When what you did led to all of this, let
me say too. And I don't know much about the media rights and all
that stuff. I know it's worth a lot of money. I didn't know
that Apple was in bed with the Fox on TV. I guess it is
ourselves watching the rally, the Rally on Valley or Belly on Rally, whatever
it was. Uh and and Jay and John said yesterday that in time.
I know he's just talking but he doesn't know. But it could very well
happen where Apple comes in and buys does everything right, I guess what will
stream. Well, that's the way the tea maybe the way it is.
And yeah, right, I will pay one hundred bucks whatever a year to
watch these things. Uh and for different teams. I guess they do that
at MLB. I did not know that because I don't watch m MLB,
has A has a two MLB mls and then don't forget there's there, there's
Sunday ticket. You know. That's a streaming thing. That's a totally streaming
thing. Now. Whereas before, if you had direct TV, you could
channel Surf on Direct TV to the games, now it's on YouTube TV.
It's one hundred percent streaming and it costs more. Yeah, it costs than
it did. So you're gonna have to really be a big fan right of
doing You're wanting to get used to doing that. Yeah, you're gonna get
You're gonna have at some point you're gonna have to get used to. I'm
not gonna be able to channel Surf the way I do now because if I've
got Comcast or Cox or whatever cable company that you have, I found,
he said, Greg sank you said it wasn't a great feeling to see what
happened last week. I would say you launched on that. Sure, No,
he did. So, JA shouldn't just be aware you might have a
job after you graduate. It might be me and figuring out how to fix
my phone, how to find these games. Little tutoring. Yeah, yeah,
but no, no, I'm just gonna it's like I told you yesterday.
It's like fixing my BCR or my little thing. You know, did
your program this for me? Please? You know, look, I'm I'm
not dabbling in this. I mean, I've got some streaming services. I
do have Apple TV, right, but I got what do you get from
it? Movies? There's some you know, there's an MLB Game of the
Week, so there may be a Dodger game on a Friday that's blacked out
everywhere else. The only place you can get it is on Apple TV.
So I've got that, and I pay for an Apple TV subscription. It's
only eight bucks seven bucks a month. Not a big deal. According to
when Robins talked yesterday, he said that the PAC twelve might might have cost
a hundred hundred bucks a year. Whatever that is. Yeah, so,
uh, you know, I I do that. I've got I've got well
through my cable, I've got HBO Max, I've got ESPN plus, I've
got I've got subscriptions because I because I get them through my cable, but
I would have I think I would have those subscriptions if I didn't have cable.
I've done the math to see if I should go to YouTube TV and
then all these other streaming things. But the problem again is I'm a channel
sir. I'm not ready to do that yet. And it's more well,
part of what was holding me back was that you couldn't get the PAC twelve
network on YouTube TV. If I'm not going to need it started in twenty
twenty four, I may go ahead and cut the cord. It's say it
would save me money. But what was holding me back was PAC twelve network
wasn't on YouTube TV. And you can channel Surf on YouTube TV, but
so many of the things that you're gonna channel Surf two aren't on YouTube TV.
God, I'm glad I don't know anything about any of that. I'll
tell you what if if we can hold this show together for a couple more
years, I'll show you how to works. No, No, Jay,
I mean, Jason, how do you watch TV? I don't watch TV.
You don't watch I don't watch I mean you watch stuff on your phone?
Yeah? I watch you know Okay, you watch programs on your phone?
YouTube, Netflix, that's to me, that's TV. Okay, you
know I'm talking about watching programming that's on the screen. How do you watch?
So yeah, I'll watch like streaming like you know Hulu. That's what
I'm talking about. Yeah, right, No, my dad does your dad?
Well, okay, somebody pays, but you watch it just on your
phone? Do you have an iPad on your computer? Computer? And my
phone? Okay, that's how you watch. Yeah. But when I say
television, I'm talking about you're watching programs that are on a screen and not
just Yeah, I came for sure, but that all everything you watch is
streaming. Yeah, I just remember, Yeah, I mean Steve, he's
the future. No, No, of course, anybody under thirty, probably
your son is that way. He's he's broken it. He's the only thing
he's He's got Comcast Internet, uh, the fastest speed he can get.
I remember when I was I was the remote. Did you see there was
a thing on h Do you ever do you follow super seventy sports on Twitter?
I'm gonna send you. You gotta follow him. He's hilarious and just
a couple of days ago, he posted a picture of one of those big
giants TVs that sat on the floor, big cabinet, and he said,
he said, from back in the day when I was the remote control.
I used to be the remote son. Get up and turn the channel.
But the good thing is only a three channels, so you don't we had
four, actually five we had. We had Channel eleven, which is with
the local cheap. I don't out there because we never went there. Hey,
we had championship wrestling on that local and that's where all the Arizona games
that weren't broadcast on well they're almost never any Arizona games broadcast on network.
That's where we got our Arizona sports on on the local. Uh channel eleven.
It's KAZYAZ at the time. I think it's CAMSB now right, okay,
anybody want to call Phillison, what's going on in your lives? Whatever?
Five? Two, four, one, six, seventy four forty good
show today, A lot of news type of stuff today. Right. Brett
Ferrock, we saw him at the press conference at the Tommy Lloyd and not
Tommy Lloyd, the uh Bobby Robbins Dave Hicky press conference as him to come
on. We just want to talk to him about you know, he's a
sports editor at theaters on the daily start, well what's in store for the
for them covering the Big twelve and not so much talking about all the travel
and stuff. Just you know, we're now we're talking different deadlines, uh,
you know, different teams, just what this is going to be like,
you know, getting up to speed on on the on the Big Twelve.
And then at four four fifteen, Bruce Pasco, who's heading out with
with the basketball team to uh Israel on their trip. You say he's gonna
be out on the layover when we talked about Yeah, he's no, No,
that was supposed to be Tomorrow's fine, So he's he's still in town.
They I guess they head out. He's gonna be covering the basketball team
on their trips. We're going to pick his brain about about that trip,
and it's gonna be very secretive. They have yet to announce any any viewing
because of that, they're not gonna tell people where they're at. I think
Bruce has been not that they dictate the media, but it kind of be
Watch what you're saying about the team, right, Bruce, It sounded like
yesterday, I know Tommy was poking at him a little bit, but he's
on a little bit of a leash in terms of what he can and can't
say about this trip. The thing he was poking him about was, you
know, you can't be reporting back that you know that this guy started,
so that makes him a starter. Everybody's gonna play and so don't you know,
don't be reporting back that this five started. So that's some sort of
a starting lineup for them, right, So that's why he's gonna be,
well, not why he's gonna play. Everybody. Everyone's gonna have equal time,
different starters at all different points. So to the this is just more
of a trip getting together, bonding, uh, seeing how the guys react,
stuff like that. I probably the more valuable thing in all of it
was the ten full practices that they got very much that they wouldn't have gotten
if they weren't doing this pretty much to get a look at his team.
So, I mean, there's some value to this. And I know,
you know from not I know, but we saw from the conversation with Palt
Larson and Umar ballis they're more interested in the basketball and yeah, they're gonna
go do all the cultural stuff that Tommy's got. Come on, dude,
you're going to you go to San Francisco, you go to disnealand with the
family. The kids don't care about the trip. Are we there yet?
Let's get there and let's get on space. Sure, sure, they don't
care about the quitterre we eating today? You're paying for it. So they
just want to get out there and play some basketball. And as you said,
some of these guys are in the national players Internationals like a regular thing
for them. Sure, sure, well, which is great, you know.
The good for the domestic guys, fantastic. Many of them haven't left
the country. I know. I would have been very fun. It would
have been very fun to have you been overseas Australia and Greece. Those Olympics.
Not on my own, but those were Olympics. Those are Olympics.
Thankfully I got someone else paid for otherwise I wouldn't. I'm not a big
after all these travels, I'm a big traveler. I'm not a big traveler
either. I mean I've been I've been overseas for some work, been to
China a couple of times, went to the those China basketball games. Those
are controlled. They were they were. I was with the group. But
my wife and I did go to UH, to Italy and Germany and Austria
as a sort of a kind of a late honeymoon kind of thing. It
wasn't really a late honeymoon. I got extorted, I got told that we
weren't gonna have any kids. But I took my wife to Europe. So
I immediately signed us up and we went to Europe. It's called marriage,
yeah, those low poles. Yeah, And I'm and I'm telling you the
the actual language of that was not too far off of what I just said.
You give us a call. That's true. It's a true story.
And UH. And so for our I think it was our first anniversary.
I got I went and I booked us a trip UH and gave it to
her, you know, as as a present, and then we played oh
really so that that would have been in October, and then we went on
this trip in UH in March. It's been thirty one years now since we
went on that trip. And we had a great time. Do you have
clinics? I want to cry, give me some And it was cool,
dude. Maybe you know, maybe by doing stuff like that, Steve,
you might still be married some lady who maybe like get you. I couldn't
say any Chris the next subject, next subject question. Okay, so let's
get ready to take a break. We can have a fara on today.
Brett Farah. Come, he's fresh off, fresh starting this job of walking
into something right, right. But he's very thankful because he was unemployed for
a war right before this kind of layoff and reapplied for that job, got
it back and working again. And then he's Greg Hanson's boss. Yeah,
which I don't even Greg. Greg still writing this around? Yeah, hero,
Hero a Sunday column. He's in parts unknown. Come on, he's
well, he's up. He's up in Colorado, man place. Greg,
good by us over here. We'll do the show from there exactly. Okay,
Okay, let's get out of here and we'll be back with Brett Farrell.
For more than twenty years, the Window Depot has reminded the best price
and the biggest inventory on in stock vial windows. And now the Window Depot
is more than a window store, offering homeowners and contractors, a one stop
warehouse offering interior and exterior doors ranted in courts, countertops, in stock cabinetry,
and skylights to finish your project. Their team of professionals will help with
everything from pre kitchen design to custom orders for leading manufacturers like mill Guard and
Gelwyn. Order online or find a location near you at a window deepot dot
com. Steve Rivera here to talk about Doroto Rock and Materials. I needed
a lot of gravel from my driveway, so I called Eric at Dorato Rock.
He found out the amount and color I needed and boom, it was
taken care of and at a great price. How do I know radio commercials
work? I heard one of his on the radio. Doroto Rock and Materials
provides a wide range of landscaping materials, including decorative rock, boulders, gravel,
soil, and sand for residential and commercial use in the Tucson area.
They are locally owned and have been around for more than fifteen years. Give
them a call at five to zero four zero zero four two three three.
Where do you buy exercise equipment? Arizona Health Arizona Health Arizona Health. Of
course, to feel better and look better, it makes sense to buy your
fitness equipment from the people who know it better than anyone else. At Arizona
Health, our goal is to help you choose the equipment you need to reach
your goals, your health and fitness to serve the fact you deserve Arizona.
How the lead nits An exercise records on twenty seconds is busted will not.
If you think now is not a good time to buy a refinance at home,
think again. Interest rates are at all time lows on most loan programs,
and Paul Volpi of Nova Home Loans is ready to help you find the
option that best fits your needs. If you're looking for your dream home or
want to get cash out to refinance on a current home, visit Volpe team
dot com. That's Volpe team dot com a cave six two six Today it's
summertime. In the summer leagues are wrapping up. Volleyball, softball, baseball,
swimming, and pickle ball are coming to their season end. Come down
and visit the cool and relaxing Creative Awards idea center to pick out your awards
for the champs and MVPs. It's also time to replenish your corporate apparel with
new Polos caps and safety t shirts with your corporate logo to make your team
look sharp. Creative Awards also has a large selection of brand names like Key,
Eddie Bauer, new Era, and Carhart, just to name a few.
Believe it or not, it's corporate holiday gifts season time for your clients
too, with over one hundred thousand items to choose from. Come visit Creative
Awards, Inc. Two twenty eight West Drachman Street or online at Creative Awards
az dot com. Neck pain, back pain, car accidents, headaches,
sports injury. For Nella's Chiropractic's goal is to help our patients achieve a healthy
lifestyle. Combining chiropractic care with physical medicine modalities, therapeutic procedures and massage therapy
not only reduced pains, but helps the body heal itself as well as provide
other health benefits. Or Nelli's Chiropractic will use a natural approach to improve an
individual's health and wellbeing. Don't suffer any longer. Call or Nelli's Chiropractic today.
Did you know sports cards that memorabilia are setting record sales last month of
nineteen fifty two, Tops Mickey Mental sold for twelve point six million, Lebron
James Rookie sold for five points six Also, collecting cards a family fun hobby
that can be very profitable. If you want to start a collection or expand
your collection, check out Showtime Cards. They are one of the leading card
shops in the country and have served our local community for twenty five years.
They are located on e Speedway. That's Showtime Cards. It's Christmas in July.
Pyramid Federal Credit Union is celebrating a month of great rates and returns for
our members. All new accounts open in July are entered to win a cash
prize of two hundred and fifty five hundred and one thousand dollars, stay tuned
for weekly limited time new member referral bonuses, auto refinance rebates, and Tucson's
highest credit union rate certificates. For promotion details, visit Pyramid FCU dot com.
Slash Christmas in July federally ensured by NCUS. That time of year Summer
in Tucson. Time to take control with Temperature Control for all your air conditioning
needs. We'll keep you cool during all the hot streaks. All you have
to do is stay in control with Temperature Control, where we handle everything you
need with prompt response, affordable pricing, and sound solutions. We also excel
in plumbing and electrical work. We handle everything you need. Give us a
call at five two o eight one five five six six five or visit our
website at temp dashcan dot com and remember stay in control with temperature control.
Need concrete, Hardworks Concrete has it. We have more than twenty five years
of experience with all things concrete. Installing sidewalks and patio floors are our specialty
and handle masonry work and retaining laws. We're locally and family owned. Just
let us know what you need, how you want it, and we'll take
care of it. Leave the hard work up to us. We're Hardworks Concrete.
Call us at five one two nine six two five six six zero or
visit our website hardworks Concrete dot com. We'll put the work in for you.
Steve Ravera and Jakinsalis they have their eye on the ball on two psalms
Sports six Jeff Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live on the radio, Warm Welcome
back to our of the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen. Cookie, Steve
Ribera, he's jackins Oz. You know we're trying to get a hold of
Brett at a little late in the in the break before we started dialings we'll
get him here in a second. But you know, just again, man,
what's the what does all this mean? Now? There's a lot,
I mean, so many impacts of of this, you know, whether it's
you know, we talked about all the stuff within the you know, the
schools, the travel, all those things. But then you know guys like
the guys you know, covers who cover sports, you know, the media,
the TV networks all that stuff well as you know, and we'll talk
about this one when it comes from but a TV isn't traveling as much as
they used to. Uh, you know, given the COVID situation, They're
they're doing games from home or not from home from the studio. Jason,
I'll have him call us from the studio. In fact, I ran into
the hike today after the press governs in the halls, and he talked about,
you know, the changes. I said, yeah, the changes,
and I said, you know, realistically, over the last few years,
there are only three dudes that trans traveled with the team. It was me,
Bruce and Greg consistently for all these years. The periphery people didn't travel
until Vegas or sent or whatever. So they can talk about the Big twelve.
They ain't going to the Big twelve. They're not going to those sites.
Yeah, you know, I mean, you know, you'll go to
the conference tournaments and stuff like that. But I don't see how you know,
where where the where the news media is financially how they can travel to
those places. Yeah, not anymore, and and and and it might be
tough for the Star given the frequency of the trips and things like that.
Right, so we'll see. Hey, Brad, is that you okay?
Brad? Sorry about that. We're having trouble dialing you from our lot over
which happens from time you are on the air, So we appreciate your colleague.
All right, So, well, we just wanted to get into this
with you about first, just give us you're you know, you're a sports
fan. I assume you are, since you're a sports editor. Just some
of your thoughts about all that maybe went on for the last thirteen months,
you know, do you hate it? You know? Are you okay with
what we wound up? What overall thoughts about everything that's happened. Well,
I think and I know, Ma that going a lot of people's sentiments.
I think losing the Pac twelve and what we've known it as a PAC twelve
fact and for so long is a shame, and I think that echoes what
we all think. I think that echoes what Robert Robbins has said with Dave,
he has said in the end for Arizona. Of course, I think
it's the right move considering everything that happened. I may be in the minority
on this. I believe Robert Robbins was what he said yesterday that he was
ready to sign in blood for the PAC twelve on Friday morning. I actually
believed him. I have no reason to say I believed him or not.
I just heard him say it, and he becomes off believable in that thought.
That doesn't mean that would have even been the right decision, but I
believe that's what he intended. I think that he comprehends sort of the second
to market strategy of you know, let somebody else take that poise until first,
and when Oregon and Washington did it, you know he was ready.
It was interesting when we were able to ask him about how the decision making
process when you mentioned the thirteen months, it feels like for how much they
were able to sort of prepare for twelve and a half months that the last
two weeks was just break next pace as well. Yeah, so I guess
as prepared as you can be, you can't ever be too prepared, because
it sounded like B and DPP were in a room with whiteboards and you know,
pizza boxes and just banging out ideas NonStop until they came up with option
one, Option one D and Option one C. And you know, one
of those ultimately ended up being the Big twelve. So, Brett, we've
been talking about streaming and linear and all that stuff. You're about what forty
forty yeah, forty forty one. So so are you? You're right on
the custom of of the TV era and now the online era. It's gonna
go eventually to the online era. How are you? How are you feeling
about that? And and the and the newspaper business has changed dramatically in the
last ten years too well. I think I think if I use this in
terms of the Pact swelve, if the Pacwelves CEOs the presidents would have decided
to stick around and give it a go, I think it would have been
growing pains before the success. I don't think in this one area that Larry
Scott was wrong eight nine years ago when he talked about non linear programming.
He has the future. It's just to get there you have to be willing
to risk the pitfalls and the values. And the PAC twelve would have struggled
for a few years. Whether the pacwelve network would have failed in the process
of that, whether the schools themselves would have been able to withstand the financial
problems that that you know, potentially could have been if those numbers weren't what
with being or if the escalators were in place the same way. That's obviously
something we'll never know. But eventually, at some point, the idea of
a non linear solid structure to one of these deals is going to be the
deal. It's just that the pactweal presidents weren't ready. The one fit departs
weren't ready for that today. So the linear and nonlinear packaging that the Big
twelve and Big ten offers these schools was good enough for today, tomorrow,
and at least the next couple of years. So, so Arizona is in
the PAC twelve, I mean in the Big twelve next starting next year.
Is there something or some things that you guys have to do to get ready
for that or you just kind of take it as it comes and do what
you need to do. I mean, how do you prepare for something like
this. It's such a major change to not only what you cover, but
who you cover. I think it's actually fun in this sense because for the
next eleven months we now have any different pieces of different angles to go with
on this story. Justin Spears, who's really good at sort of touching that
younger than millennial way of looking at things in you know, a top twelve
list or a top fifteen list, things like that. He's he's working on
kind of really breaking down all the cities in different ways. And I think,
I think from a coverage standpoint, it opens up a lot of fun.
I think to what you guys were saying before I got on the air
about travel, and think that's TV for to be seen and that's going to
affect us too. I think, I know my issue with travel and not
travel is not so much our bety outlets there anymore. In person. I
think that from a TV standpoint, what Fox and some of these areas have
been able to do by having folks in studios and saving the dollars and things
like that is not a problem, except that they're lying about it on the
air. I don't think they're purposely lying, but they're they're making it look
like with backdrops that they're in the booth looking down at the stadium, and
at some point, be honest. Everyone is going to figure it out in
this era of social media, and so we have to follow the same path.
If we don't send people the games, we have to be honest about
where we're getting our information from and our reporters. If that ends up happening,
I don't foresee that to the same degree. But if it's not,
there are plenty of sports. We don't get to spend our reporters to everything
at We have to come up with a way to be unique and offer them
something beyond the television broadcast, and that's that's a hard thing. But I
don't see that as as a problem as much as just the challenge we have
to work through. And I don't believe that for sends basketball, football,
and even women's basketball in the city now, especially being in a conference that
includes Baylor and enough competition in the Big twelve, and god forbid, they
expand and add Yukon basketball like has been talked about a little bit and by
a little bit. You know, women's basketball would be huge. We talk
about hands, it's coming up the sale. What if someday it's Yukon and
Arizona going back and forth between stores and Tucson. I think those three sports
we are going to travels is going to continue. It's not going to change,
but it's going to be interesting. You know, we the three of
us, talked about this yesterday. You know, the idea of the packwelve
tournament being gone out of Black Vegas, at least in terms of Arigona's playing,
Kansas City is going to be the home. That's ku stopping ground.
That's a big change for fan travel, media, travel, the teams,
everything involved. So I think all of that is going to be really fascinating
to watch how it plays out once so they's going. So I arrived here
in eighty seven, it was an intern in at the daily start at eighty
five. I want to throw a number out here. Maybe in in this
toll time, six or seven sports editors have come through, Jay. I
think you provide six or seven a number of them. You're at at the
doorstep of a new era with the Big twelve. Obviously changes new staffs and
smaller staffs. How are you feeling about all this? You know, I
wish we had a bigger staff. I think anyone would say that, just
because it would be amazing to be able to staff everythingle event that is important
and big in the city. But at the same time, I don't think
that there is a point in watching sports. You know, you guys said
something interesting when I came on. He said that I'm you would assume I'm
a sports fan. I am a fan of sport. I struggle to be
a sports fan because I have personal connections to a lot of things, but
the concept of sport and what it is to society, and we only have
to look back three years ago and sitting on our count is wondering what are
we going to do with ourselves while we're all quarantining, sitting around waiting,
trying to sneak into grocery stores at off hours so there's not a lot of
people there. And as soon as Major League Baseball came back, the amount
of hours I spent watching Major League Baseball for the first time. I mean
I always watched baseball, but not to that degree. It was important and
it was vital to my own well being, and I think coming out of
all of that into this. I take what Jed Fish said the heart to
his players. He told us this on I believe it was last Friday.
He said, you know, I told my players that they are not just
seeing a historical moment right now, but they're the group that went through how
sports impact or pensive pandemic impacted sports, and I l and the changes to
that. Then you throw this on top, It's pretty amazing how much massive
change has happened in the shortener design. And for that, I'm excited and
I feel very lucky to be one of the handful of people, not as
many as fifteen twenty years ago, but the handful of people in this town
are going to be a part of it. So, you know, there's
been a lot of talk, you know, not just you, but I
think sports editors everywhere about how, you know, you cover stuff differently because
as you said, you don't you know, you don't have the staff to
go cover everything, so you try and find it interesting things to cover about
a given you know sport or you know you know, uh players or whatever.
It's just different now. I mean, how important is you know,
the record, you know, the box score to what you guys, do
now or are you letting people get that from wherever they get it from and
you kind of get deeper and use your staff that way. I think that's
a great question, and it depends on the sport and it depends on how
our You know, people ain't talking about this because we should be able to
just cover the most important things, but there has to be an understanding of
what is more important than of one thing to another to the audience, and
digital analytics really help with that for us to be able to be able to
sit here and say that, look, the end result in terms of the
minutia of how a game ended. In Major League Baseball, when there's one
hundred and sixty two games, isn't as important as the fact that di'mond backs
to law sixth straight and are falling out. The Angels haven't won in the
month of August's quite deciding to keep ocnning. So covering things that I'm talking
on twothon level obviously, but covering things has to go deeper than the numbers
like that. You guys, I know, I believe are having Bruce Pass
go on in the next hour, and I believe Bruce is going to get
to talk about where he's heading tomorrow, and that's part of it. You
know, we're investing financially and sending Bruce to the Middle East on this script
where the UF basketball team is going to Israel Nabudhabi. It's not just because
Bruce gets the cool strip out of the deal, but it's because, you
know, access has changed to players and being able to introduce athletes in situations
and coaches who are accessible, like Tommy Lloyd, but in different ways,
in unique ways. I'm not we're going to send Bruce the whole season,
don't get me wrong, but this is an important investment for us financially to
pay for a plane ticket and hotels because what he can bring back to Tucson
by being one of the only media outlets there. It's not the only one,
it's so unique compared to being one of thirty they're in the teams.
So it's understanding the balance point of those two things and knowing when Tony Enup
is worth it to bring an audience that cares so much about a topic,
something different and unique and new compared to the same thing every day. We're
still going to cover the team every day in the same way, but This
is just one example where we are putting a premium on those unique moments and
elements to the sports. So here's here's the rub though, And I know
that the UA doesn't dictate what you guys write or what can or can I
write. They're kind of limiting what he can write in a weird way.
Do you mean in what sense, like on a day to day basis covering
a team? Right? Yeah, no, And that's exactly why. Like,
that's why in a case like this, going on this trip for eleven
days and owning that coverage for our audience, meaning making sure that we're delivering
that to an audience that wants something beyond conference realignment talking things is really important
on a day to day basis. You're actually right, you guys are there
the same kind of storylines get shifted between the different outlets around town. How
they write AM is different, and that's actually kind of fun from a sports
media standpoint. But the audience has much less of a connection to the athletes
than they did many years ago. I remember, and I might have shared
this with you guys recently, but I remember when Ed granted there was the
Sean Miller situation and book Richardson Saga and all of that going on at the
time. But I member when Justin Spears talks to DeAndre een in the locker
room at the Packs Flow basketball tournament in Las Vegas for the first time anyone
talks to DeAndre eighteen in like seven months, and he was a stand up
comedian in that room, and yet no one knew it and no one got
that opportunity. So, you know, situations like this, the chance to
send Bruce and have him get to potentially interact and we don't know how that's
going to be on the trip, but he's going to work his magic and
potentially interact with these young people in a way that we won't necessarily see during
the season. It's really important to a captive audience in Suson and so you're
right, we constantly have to look at different ways to tell the stories of
not just what's going on in the business side, but who these dung people
are. You know, I don't love the term seing athletes, but they're
students and their athletes and they're interesting and I think we have more wanting eyes
and ears to that, but less opportunity to tell it. So the creativity
is huge to your point. Yeah, no, no, perfect stuff and
very act you're Yeah, thanks Brett as usual, Thank good luck, than
you have fun with the job. I laughed. Yeah, okay, cool,
Yeah, Bruce's gonna come on the other side. Bruce is more to
day. You know, he's more a matter of facts, you know,
you know, and I you know, i'd be interesting to see what you
know. I mean, they clearly well you would think that if they're gonna
invest this kind of money to go on a trip like this, they've kind
of mapped out how they want to cover it, sure, what they want
to do, what's gonna come back. They're gonna get clicks because people are
gonna want to read about it because nobody else is going to cover that.
Right, But you know they're not being followed by the athletic right, you
may get scores of games which you're not going to get, you know.
And we'll talk to him, because Tommy has been very adamant, if that's
right word to him saying this is you're not gonna be able to have access
like you think you're gonna have access to uh, but you're gonna have access.
Yeah, you know, he's only gonna have more access than you're sure,
sure, so let's the money worth the trip? Probably? Yeah,
but dot dot dot we'll see. Okay, let's take a break, all
right, take some calls. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you
know it's been successful for newly forty years. Now take a look back at
the Ludolson era. In my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was
a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches,
and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them,
competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five
years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Loot is an insight to how he
built the program into a national powerhouse. Want one, Email me at Steve
dot Rivera ninety five at gmail dot com. Hey walk at Nation. Jake
Fisher here, I gotta tell you about my winning team over at Arizona Health
Insider, I was able to get accustomed private health insurance plan with no deductibles,
no co pays, nationwide coverage, and I get to pick my own
doctor for lessons two hundred dollars a month. If you want to avoid getting
gouged on the exchange and you want real health insurance, call Arizona Health Insiders
five two zero eight five zero six eight six six five two zero eight five
zero six eight six six far down. What's your goal a new career or
career advancement? How about transferring to a four year college. PEMA Community College
can help you make Someday today and reach your goals affordably on your schedule.
With over one hundred programs to choose from and financial aid available, it's time
to earn the degree or certificate you need to prepare for the career you want.
PIMA offers free career exploration classes so you can choose the field that's right
for you. Learn how at PIMA dot etu slash someday. It's so hot
and sticky. I can't stand this humidity. I'm melting. So you can
either check for hot flashes and duck or call Picture Rocks Cooling, eating and
plumbing. It's not hot flashes. We're calling Picture Rocks Cooling, heating and
plumbing right now at five two zero or for zero or zero six nine.
Need more affordable auto and home insurance while making sure your family has the courage
it needs. When mayhem happens, They've got you covered at the Edmund Marcus
All State Agency. Go see Edmund Marcus. He's born and raised in Tucson
and a proud graduate of the University of Arizona. He's been an All State
agent for twenty five years and has an award winning agency which takes care of
his clients. Home today at five two zero three two three nine three three
three for an auto and home quote and let him save you money and make
sure you have the courage you need. You're in good hands with the Edmund
Marcus All State Agency. Do you want to be part of a winning team?
A Team Security is looking for friendly, outgoing event security guards and events
staff to be a part of our team. We've been providing our outstanding services
to some of Arizona's biggest sporting events and concerts for over twenty years. We
want you to join the action. A Team offers a one an exciting opportunity
to work in the sports and entertainment industry, with flexible schedules that are perfect
for those looking for a part time job or a second income. Come be
a part of a winning team the A Team. Apply online today at a
Team security dot Net. Its Stringy live on the iHeart Radio Whip. This
is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen. Hey, welcome back to on the Ball here at Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. I'm Steve Rivera here, Jakin's always who got thirteen minutes? Anybody
want to call? Please do five two zero, four one six seventy four
forty we'll push something for Sigma. So how does cal and Stanford in the
Atlantic Coast Conference sound? Yeah, it's just strange. It's just strange.
Honestly, it's just strange. During the break, I was reading in a
pad forty column on on Sports Illustrated and just like it just everything's just been
thrown into the wind. You know, well, being regional, uh you
know, you know, the whole the whole footprint thing, your tradition,
rivalries, Uh, you know, the academics, it's just all out the
window. Now it's just like who can get us the most money? All
right, let's take this call. Ah, you're on there and I on
the ball. Yeah, how are you guys doing? I had a idea
for Bruce on his big strip. It seems like part with part of the
reason why they don't want a lot of reporting for d Force security. Yes,
that's definitely the case. I wondered. Could could he do a blog
or a journal that could be published after he got back. I'm sure he
can. They're not gonna limit him totally. They're not gonna say and you
can't do this. But but security is one of the reasons why he's gonna
do his job. There's no question about it. It's just gonna be limited.
Yeah, there's gonna be some questions as to how much he can say
on a given day. Yeah, Like, but for us sports fans,
it would be interesting to read even after the fact. Oh yeah, of
course, of course. I think. Well, if you stay tuned for
Yeah, we're gonna have Bruce in about a half hour and he'll explain more.
We just throwing it out there, and thanks again for all your your
coverage during all the chaos last week. What do you make of it?
What do you make of it? What do you make of it? Well,
you know, I think it's inevitable, and you know, you gotta
trust Robbins and hekey and you know, the one thing I wondered is you
have a wanted to go with or without AFU and UH and Utah. Well,
what would have happened if they've holed Big ten and when all the corner
schools go head us add at a discount? I guess I'm not sure understand
your questions to say that again, So Washington and Oregon went to the Big
pen at a discount? Well, I was. I was a firm believer
in what uh doctor Robbins was saying, is we want to go, whether
ASU wants to go or not, whether your pa wants to go or not.
And when we all bundled, my only concern was maybe, uh,
they wouldn't give us full value. No, I think I think all along
Arizona going to the Big twelve was always going to be at full value.
But Robbins had said a number of times they could go without a SU although
they didn't really want to. And then well that was that was fine with
me, as long as we could always have the Territorial Cup at the beginning
of the year. And Uh, it would have increased the rivalry. Did
your name again? I know you call every now and again. I'm John,
So John, you sound like one of us, an older guy.
I'm sorry if I'm wrong with that. But would you would you be okay
to do the streaming stuff? Are you good at that? Well, I'm
seventy four and I do stream, but uh, but it's difficult, you
know what I mean. I've tried different streaming services and I've had troubles.
And my son who helps me is in Phoenix, so I don't always have
a young person to help me do it. And uh, I really understand
the whole linear thing beyond the streaming, that for the exposures for the athletes
and the conference and the brand and the benefit for the new time zones,
and uh, you know, I think it's going to be interesting. But
to answer your question, I do know how to stream, and I don't
have I don't have table interesting all right, I'm hanging on me. I'm
hanging on I might have to borrow your son from a moment or two.
Yeah, but I mean it's your business, so you guys got to have
of it all. And I certainly understand the bouncing back and forth from linear
to yeah, in linear as opposed to streaming. And I probably would have
bought Apple. I never Yeah, I didn't have direct TV. Yeah yeah,
okay, well I did have. I did have streaming problems with the
back twelve. Yeah, okay, John, thank you very much, appreciate
the call. I think he's typical of you know, yeah, we're gonna
stream at some point because we have to. And I streamed some, but
I still my basis is around cave. So so in listening to some of
the other presidents and talking, I'm sure you listened to some of the others
and they were talking about it was kind of like, uh, scientific stuff.
They were talking about stuff they didn't understand right, kind of like me.
But they were saying and yesterday or two days ago, when doctor Robbins
was talking about the stats, how they'd have them kind of come up and
they'd have highlights and things like that. That sounds real cool. Events it's
gonna be George Jetson the type of stuff. No, it is, and
that that's where we're here to. I mean, we're we're at to a
point where and part of this is being accelerated by the whole gambling aspect of
this. You know, there's gonna be like, like I just saw that
somebody's putting is gonna be going excuse me, pretty soon or maybe already is
where you can bet on every golf shot in the tournament to what to what
to do whatever. You can say, this guy's gonna hit it on the
green or he's gonna miss the green, or you know, like there's a
golf shot coming up, and if you're quicken up, you can put a
bet down. Well, don't they do that in football? He did in
Vegas whether they can run her pass or yeah, yeah, there's something.
There's something that going on and in different leagues are looking at doing stuff like
that where you can bet not just on a game, you can bet on
a play and those kinds of things. And that's the kind of stuff where
you know, we're you know, again, the technology has to be that
you know, if you're watching it live. Let's say you're sitting in the
stadium and you're seeing a play as it happens, that if somebody's in their
living room, they got to be seeing it at the exact same time.
You know, if you ever saw the staying right, you ever see the
sting that they were what they called pass posting, and that's how they set
up there, the scam that they that they had. But you know,
I mean, you know, I just today I'll tell you. So I
had I had Dan Patrick on my on Peacock on my TV streaming, and
and then I was in another room and so I had it on on my
phone and I'm listening to it off of the iHeart app. And they were
not simultaneous, they were not the same. One was ahead of the other.
Why are you doing this? You're gonna you're the guy who studies too
much and forgets everything. No, I was just listening to the show.
But he left right. No, they were the same show. So they
do that at home. And I was listening to you she's listening to what
they were talking about, and I was. I had to leave the room
for work on TV, so I wanted to keep hearing it. And it
was it wasn't that happens to be in my living room, in my bedroom
where it's not. They're not. I don't know what it is, but
it's not. Like I was watching the Dodging game, right, I had
the Dodge Game and so I had it on my computer screen. But then
I had the game cast on my phone because and I was getting the play
on game cast before I was seeing it. Oh yeah, because someone takes
me. Hey, the Orioles won or lost, and I'm thinking it's not
over. You know it's over. Or if you ever tried to listen,
you don't do this, and I do this. You know, I put
I take headphones to you a football game, right and Brian Jefferies is just
a scoche behind the play. Okay, you don't just look. And that's
if you're listening to it directly on the radio. You know, I take
a little radio things I hooked to my belt. If you put him on
the app, you're sometimes you're seconds delayed, crazy, Okay, okay,
And that's where we're headed, Steve, I mean we're headed, no question.
And then and the technology is just gonna get better better. You know,
my brother talks about he did not go to the Arizona Ble this year
for the first time. I'm not even sure why, but he didn't go.
So he watched the Barstool Sports. Yeah. Yeah, there were problems
with the with the buffery and that's the number one reason. That's the number
one thing. And some people talked about who was it, uh that would
direct TV. There's some real worries about that because the direct if he's gonna
be on YouTube TV, YouTube TV did a game of some sort, and
they were having trouble, uh, you know, staying up with it.
You're watching direct TV. You want to see you know, you don't get
it. Of course, of course it's like phones were back in the day.
You just had to kind of catch up. Can you hear me?
Can you hear me now? Blah blah blah. So it is what it
is. I mean, I think that Brett explained that very well. Where
in the early stagees had backpacked when taking the taking the streaming thing, there
would have been hiccups, hiccup hiccups. Eventually got it worked out. Years
later it was oh, what a great deal we came across. I mean,
I remember when we went from uh from dial up you know, internet
to sure you know, sure, sure you yeah, Well come on,
just in our business alone, we had we had the bubbles, right,
I had to. I worked with the bubble. We worked to TRSA,
the RSA, the radio show which were now you just think, how how
did we do that? We had four lines of texts to be able to
see it right right and then and then they moved on to the kind of
computers and now now we have what we have, well, we have what
we have yeah, no, those and that was just within the last twenty
five years, thirty years. Yeah, you know, because in yeah,
eighty eight, eighty seven eight, we were carrying the bubbles and then the
TSA and then couplers and the couple I remember a card that I told the
Arizona NLV game nineteen eighty six, eighty seventeen, so it was eighty six,
and they had one of those bubbles for people don't know what the bubbles
it was. It was kind of a big box with a teeny little computer
screen and a keyboard and you could trans at your story, but you had
to hook it up to an actual phone. So I had to take the
headset of a phone and stick it on the thing, and the UNLV I
had to lift up my my thing, go to a pay phone in the
media room and plug it in and then make the call on the pay phone
and plug it and hold it. Because they didn't have phone lines in the
media did any disconnect or whatever when the line was it would right if you
got a glitch or something like that. No phones in the media room.
Wow at UNLV in that day time, in that day, so how often
did you have to do that? Like every every game, every game,
every game in every time you follow the story, right, wow, yeah,
when you were working from home or something, Yeah, yeah, you
had that thing. It was about ten pounds or whatever it was. It
was a little box. Yeah. And then don't forget about the photographers.
They had their little litmus. They had their I don't even want the thing
that spuned. It was it was a fact. It was. It was
a yeah, you put you put the photo, the color photo on this
roller and it would spin like a fax machine and transmit the yeah, the
color. The suitcase too, they had to do. Yeah, yeah,
we stay you know when we traveled, it was with the photographer of myself
and then he'd be up doing that stuff and I'd be upwriding on those things.
Right, Okay, man, the good old days. Say so,
I mean it sounds like carving, you know, break you know in a
stone or something too. When I was you had to dictate if you didn't
have one of those yeah oh yeah, oh yeah yeah. The r s
as were like one thousand dollars. Yeah, google it. It's it's funny.
Just the twenty are were calling us the bubble bubble Google. You'll see,
like really they worked with this. And it's funny because you talked about
the typewriter. Yeah, that kind of there was a typewriter this and then
uh yeah he just like carried all that around. Oh yeah yeah, yeah
yeah. I got my terror Stated run over by a car once and it
kept working. It fell off. I had on the trunk of my car
and I took off. It fell off the back. Somebody ran it overyos
for the little keys to pop off, and yeah that kind of stuff.
Yeah, okay, all right, man, dumb memory lane. All right,
let's let's take our break top of the arm. Jason'll be back breaking
news and uh we'll get after it, so we'll be right back