Speaker 1: It's time to celebrate the fringest team sport known to man.
We're modern day gladiators, collide for all the glory on
the Gridi. Let's talk some college football on Cougar Sports
with Ben Cridle.
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point three ESPN the Fan.
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We were behind the glass at each time for a
little college football on Cougar Sports. Signs some BYU, some
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Speaker 2: Let's get out to the hotline. Welcome in.
Speaker 3: Ari Tempkin, co host Big twelve Radio on the tune
in app.
Speaker 2: What's up? Ari? Are you there? Brother? I got you? Yeah?
Speaker 4: You there?
Speaker 2: H I got you now, loud and clear.
Speaker 3: Appreciate you joining me, all right, give us an update, man,
what's new with the Tempkin family.
Speaker 4: Appreciate you asking man. We actually happen to spend some
time during the New Year and Christmas around Delray Beach, Florida,
which worked out perfectly for the Orange Bowl. Nice so
got to go to the Orange Bowl, which was a
lot of fun right up until the game kicked off
and then yeah, no, it's I mean, I'm as same
with Ron, your producer on we were your producer. I'm
a Bears fan, grew up in Chicago, so super excited
about the Bears getting back in the playoffs. I'm ready
to be hurt again, Ben, I'm ready to be hurt again.
Speaker 2: I love it. Man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you've had to You've had to stay silent for
too long.
Speaker 2: For so long.
Speaker 3: I mean, how how loud were you during like the
Jay Cutler era, Like there were some good times, right, yeah,
I mean how long have you been silent then?
Speaker 2: I mean it's been a minute.
Speaker 4: Historically, you know, the Bears have just they've been a franchise.
It's both of some of the best defensive players in
the in the history of the NFL, you know, and
and our friend Jim McMahon not was standing here. I mean,
Mike Singletary, Dick Bud Case, Brian or Locker, you know.
I mean, there's just an a you know, Ron Rivera,
just an insane amount of great defensive players. This year,
Caleb Williams was like twenty forty yard shy of setting
a record for the Bear Well, He's said a record
for a single season passing for the Bears this year,
but the Bears still have not had a four thousand
yard passer. Some franchises have had three or four four
thousand yard passers. The Bears have never had one. And
Caleb almost did it this year. So, I mean, offensively,
this is a I mean the Bears. This is the
best context I can give you on this, Ben. The
Bears finished top five in total offense this year for
the first time since nineteen seventy seven. Crazy Ben Johnson
was right higher. That's all I know.
Speaker 3: Shout out to Ben Johnson, and I know you and
Ronald you guys can celebrate once again and not be
so silent about your Chicago Bear. Speaking of Bears, BYU
got Bear Bachmeyer back in the fold, our favorite bear
here in Provo. I don't think there was any question
that he was coming back, but the fact that the
true freshman All American is coming back to b YU
to lead the Cougars into twenty twenty six, that's big
time right to be able to retain your quarterback this
day and age, after a tremendous season to start.
Speaker 4: Off well, and especially considering that you know, I mean,
he was a late addition to the roster he's in
Stanford and comes to BYU, and I mean it's huge,
you know. And I've been asked Ben already by a few,
you know, different people, like who's the favorites for next
year in the Big Twelve? And I mean, I think
you've got to start with the teams that finished towards
the top of the Big Twelve at the end of
last year, and and you know BYU obviously a part
of that. So I think with what BYU brings back
the biggest question, and it's you know, I mean, it's
it's crazy to think that the decision making by Mark
Harltan and Utah has led to some friendly fire here
from losing j Hill. That's going to be a huge loss.
And you know, I mean I love Kelly Papinga and
hopefully he's able to pick up right where Jay Hill
left off, but that obviously remains to be seen and
we'll see how how good this defense can be. But
I'm excited for BYU next year. You know, I've been
shouting from the rooftops something you and I have talked
a ton about, which is, you know, the the Southeastern Conference,
which you know is way more of a paper tiger
now than it used to be, had five bids the
College Football Playoff this year. They won three games. Two
of them came against itself when Alabama knocked off Oklahoma
and All missed then knocked off Alabama, and then the
other win was All miss beating Too Lane. So they
in last three years the SEC has had has gone
three and seven in the college football playoffs. Now that
everybody can pay players, the SEC no longer has their
own strategic advantage. And you know, I say all this
to say that the Big Twelve every year gets judged
on one football game. One. They play thousands of games
a year, the entire conference, and they're judged on one
football game. And meanwhile, the SEC somehow has you know,
continues to assert itself as a dominant dog in college football,
continues to prove that it shouldn't be. So, you know,
regardless of what Texas Tech did this year in terms
of you know, the Orange Bowl, Like, to me, this
only enhanced the notion that the Big Twelve should get
more bids. Aren't we sick and tired of watching the
same SEC teams lose and lay an egg every single
year in the college football playoffs? I mean, this is
not the Alabama that we used to know. This is
not the Georgia that we used to know. These are
not top dogs anymore. They look average and that's because
they are, and like I would have loved to see.
I know we talked about this leading up to it,
but like BYU should have gotten a bid now in retrospect,
because we've seen these same the same song advance every
year from the SEC. It's a joke that they continue
to get a pass.
Speaker 3: Do you remember the conversation we had at Big twelve
media days about the Big ten and specifically the SEC
and what they were doing with their scheduling, what they
were trying to do with their brand equity that they've
been built over the last thirtiies. You recall that combo
all that we had somewhat yeah, look this is the thing, Okay,
what they just want to play each other, right, this
is the thesis.
Speaker 2: That's all they want to do.
Speaker 3: Like that way they protect themselves because why over the
last twenty five years they've been the best conference.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: Nick Saban retires for a reason because he sees.
Speaker 2: The writing on the wall.
Speaker 3: The bagmen that built the SEC no longer make an
impact because everybody can have bagmen now and they just
want you to trust them, be like, hey, we have
a gauntlet, you know in the SEC. Because we've done
all this thing the last twenty five years, that brand
equity is no longer is powerful because everybody knows the reality.
They got the best clay, that the best talent because
they're paying players and doing what and Ordern said is,
you know, having the bagmen come through the back door.
Speaker 2: Now they can have him come through the front door.
Speaker 3: But they not as many are coming through the front
door in the SEC anymore.
Speaker 4: You're exactly right now that you bring it up. I
do remember a conversation about you, right, like the Big
ten and the SEC are trying to stack the deck.
And if I'm the Big Ten, I'm on the verge
of winning a third consecutive national championship. It would be
the third consecutive different team to win a national championship.
I don't need to partner with the SEC as much
as the SEC needs to partner with me. And like,
I think, you know, the last couple of years, you
could chalk it up to whatever excuses you wanted. This year,
it's so glaring, like it's beyond belief. The fact that
Bama would lay an egg like that and lose thirty
eight to three, and that after they knocked off Oklahoma
in their first Dround game. I mean, how about Miami
finishing third or fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference and
going on the road against an A and M team
that was eleven and oh and holding A and M
to just three points. They're not just good and elites
because they say they are anymore. And I think, Ben,
to your point, like this year proves more than without
a shadow of a doubt, five teams is far too
many for one conference that believes it to be as
as alpha as it used to be, and it's certainly
more beta now than it's been in a long time.
Speaker 3: Ari Tempkin Big Twelve Insider here on ESPN the Fan
talking from college football. Where has your bandwidth been allocated
over the last week in regards to college football the
topics he'd been broaching.
Speaker 4: I mean the transfer portal, right, I mean, it's it's
so hot in terms of the movement. I mean, Texas
Tech is continuing to you know, bring in top level talent.
They've you know, they've gone fishing now within the Big Twelve.
They've landed Brendan Soresby, wh's, you know, one of the
highest paid players in college football. Next season, they added
Austin Romaine. It looks like they're on the the precipice
of adding the freshman stud pass rusher from Oklahoma State,
Wendel Gregory, who in his first career game had three
and a half sacks in a half, albeit against the
inferior opponent. But still, so, I mean, and it's not
just that. I mean they're just loading up, you know,
in watching the Orange Bowl then, I mean they were
so dom minute on defense, but they just could not
do anything on offense. And when they lose David Bailey,
when they lose Ramelo Height, when they lose some of
the guys that made that defense to elite, you know,
it's one thing to improve on offense, but they also
then have to improve improve on defense too, because they're
not getting those guys back that made them so elite
on defense. Jacob Rodriguez has gone, Romelo Height has gone,
David Bailey is gone, and so I think they needed
to re up on defense to make sure that they
don't take a step back on defense while keeping their
eyes on the prize because their offense was not good enough,
and they did. They are going to bring back their
three running backs. Quinton Joyner was the biggest name last
offseason when when they added him, and he missed the
entire season. So he, along with Dickey and Jacoby Williams
be back if they can, you know, aside from matting Soorsby,
and look, there's legitimate questions about Thoresby too and how
last couple of years have gone in terms of the
finish for Cincinnati. But if they can add that that
Auburn receiver who's a legit NFL wide receiver, they look
like they could be even better next year than they
were last year. So you know, look, I do think
a rising to I lists all boats of the Big Twelve.
You know, it's one thing for the Big Twelve to
lose talent to other conferences. So I think, you know,
even if k State fans or you know, Oklahoma State
fans or Cincinnati fans are upset the Tech is poaching
their players, I mean, I feel as a member of
the Big Twelve conference, I'd rather lose them internally than
lose them to the SEC or the Big Ten. And
it's good to see Tech spending on the level of
those teams, because remember, as much as we talk about
how much Tech spent Oregon, they who beat Tech spent
outspent them. I mean, it's funny how that wasn't even
brought up as part of the conversation. All anybody want
to talk about was how much Tech spent. So yeah,
I mean, the focus right now I think is full
on off season for the Big Twelve in terms of
the transfer portal, and then you know, as a huge
piece to that, just how horrible the schedule is. They
need to change the off season calendar. And I think
like there's two parts to this. There's the off season calendar,
which which again obviously needs to change, and then there's
the question of whether or not they need to change
the regular season calendar. And I don't think those two
need to necessarily go together. I think if they have
to this offseason change the calendar, we cannot have the
early signing period anymore. I think we go back to
the February signing period and that being the only one,
and the transfer portal opening up on January second is unbelievable.
That needs to also be follow the NFL's offseason calendar.
You go, February should be you're not your signing period,
then shortly after that the portal should open. Maybe that
changes what Springs Football looks like. Maybe it's more of
an OTA's I know, college football has to change the
name of things that it steals from the NFL, so
it probab with some different name, but it's basically what
it would be. And then you can look at all, right,
what are we doing in the regular season. Do we
move the season up a week? You know, Joey maguire
and Dan Lanning talked about, you know that they think
that this thing should be done by the start of
the new year, as opposed to playing playoff games here,
you know, the second week of the new year and
then into the following week for the championship. So I
don't think I think the two parts to this, like
you could change the off season. You must change the
off season because it's ridiculous what's going on right now
concurrently with the playoffs. And then I think you can
take a long, hard look at what changes might happen
to the regular season in terms of everybody starting a
week earlier or not, you know, whenever you gonna have
rivalry games, or you can have a conference championship games.
Will there be an expansion of the playoffs, Like, we
can't be prisoners of waiting for the regular season calendar
to change without changing the offseason calendar, because the offseason
calendar needs to be changed immediately.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I just wanted to build off this playoff discussion.
The Big Twelve has gotten one team in the last
two years of the twelve team playoff. The first year,
you could make an argument that it was understandable the
Big Twelve only gets one team in. But this year
you have Texas Tech and then a twelve or an
eleven and two BYU regular season, one lost team. What's
it gonna take for the Big twelve to get two
teams in? Or is this gonna to be in every
every year occurrence where we just see one team year
in year out.
Speaker 4: It's a great question. I mean, I think the number
one thing is continue to build consistency at the top.
And so two years ago, you know, when you see
an Arizona State team go and win the Big Twelve
kind of coming from nowhere, you know that does a
disservice to the narrative at large, which says that the
Big Twelve is kind of a mid mid tier league
and anybody can win it because it's a League of Parody.
So I think this year fixed that because now we
saw league become a lot more top heavy. There were
more dominant teams, and I expect those teams to stay
to a degree in dominance, specifically Texas Tech. I do
expect do Yu to be really good again next year,
but like Texas Tech is going to be at the
top of the conference again. And that's the litmus test.
Like when regardless of how good Texas or oh you
were on a year to year basis in the Big Twelve,
when they were in the Big Twelve, that was always
a litmus test. You could always say, oh, well they
were good because they beat that this team that's Tech
now and could potentially be BYU as well. Moving forward,
there needs to be more consistency at the top. And like, look,
perception is reality as unfair as it is, and perception
takes time to change, and the perception of the Big
twelve are now has not caught up with reality. The
League of Parody is the SEC's that's the mid league
right now, with just beating up in each other and
then showing up to the playoffs and laying an egg.
So the Big twelve is more top heavy than it's
been and I think it needs to continue to stay
that way, and certainly looks like Tech will once again
be a behemoth based on what they're doing in the portal.
And you know, and then like BYU, if you're stringing
together really good recruiting classes, like that's also a huge
key here.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: One of the things, guys, that I think is such
an important subplot to the final four here the semi
final games, is there's two teams right now that are
playing in the Final four, Indiana and ole Miss. They're
not blue chip ratio teams. So quick refresher teams that
have won national championships in the modern era have have
basically always had every single champion has had fifty percent
of their roster before five star recruits over a four
year period, every single champion. So there's two teams left
that are blue chip ratio teams and two they're not,
and they're both playing each other. You know, you've got
Oregon playing Indiana one, the blue ship ratio team on's
not in Ole Miss playing Miami. One's one is and
one's not. Right, So if Miami plays Oregon, right, it
sort of goes back to that blue ship ratio thing.
But if Indiana goes and wins the national championship, I
think this says a lot about where the future trajectory
of the Big twelve is because there's been this history
that says Big twelve team can't win a national championship
because of these None of these teams are blue ship
ratio teams. And even if Tech or BYU or Colorado,
who kind of was on a trajectory to be there,
it takes three or four more years of doing what
they're doing in order to get there. So if Indiana
or Ole miss goes to winnes A National Championship, I
think it shows that in this era of the Transfer portal,
you can build a championship caliber team through the portal,
which I think would be huge, huge piece for the
Big Twelve.
Speaker 3: Ari Tempkin Big Twelve Insider here on your Utah ESPN
Radio Network, want to ask you about what you've heard
about this hold him on Williams situation.
Speaker 2: His agent has dropped him.
Speaker 3: He's hired lawyer to try to get out of his
nil deal that he signed just a day before he.
Speaker 2: Entered the portal.
Speaker 3: How do you think this this plays out legally? I
know there's been efforts to maybe hold young men accountable
that have signed an IL deals and have maybe rescinded
on that, trying to get out of the deal, but
they signed it. You know, certain teams are trying to,
you know, try trying to hold them accountable in some way,
shape or for him.
Speaker 2: How do you think this thing plays out?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, you know, as I think we all
can agree, like when you're living in a society, there's
certain rules you probably a bye bye, and you know, contracts,
you know, should probably be a little bit more you know,
set in stone than how they're being treated in college
sports right now. You know, Williams is one example, and
it's an obvious, glaring example, but there's plenty other examples
of this. I don't I'm not going to say that
rob Wright signed a deal with Baylor, but according to Baylor,
rob Wright had agreed in principle to a deal and
then turned around and went to BYU. So this happens
all the time, and it's it sucks, right, I mean
it even if it benefits you, it sucks. And I
think the Williams thing is just such a glaring, Like
it's almost as if he signed a deal, realized his
market value was higher than it was, and then rescinded
the deal. And I mean, you're totally right. Then I'm
holding people accountable. I mean, this is kind of how
things work, right, Like if you sign a bad deal,
that's sort of how negotiations work. Sorry, but that's just
how these things go. At the end of the day, though,
the reality is we need collective bargaining. That's the only
way to fix this. And I don't know how this
will go into court of law. The problem is in
a court of law, these things drag out. And meanwhile,
Williams can just, you know, like other players have before him,
you know, enroll in a different school and hey, I'm
a student, I can play football. Can I come play
in your football team?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 4: So, like there's there's major ways around the transfer portal
and you know, easy loopholes right now to jump through
in order to that, guys are going to get their way,
Like he's gonna leave, He's not going to stay at
Washington because the system is set up for him to
take advantage of loopholes that will allow him to leave
and potentially go to LSU or wherever else he wants
to go. So you know, the only fix to this
is collective bargaining. You know, the reality is collective bargaining
is not good for the student athletes because I mean
they can leave at any time and not and not
a buye bind an these contracts, they're constantly free agents,
so every year they go back into free agency. So
and it's not it wouldn't be an easy and dev
either collective bargaining. I mean, there's so many athletes, how
do you get them to organize. It's a mess, There's
no doubt about it. But you know, and I'm not
a lawyer, but it seems like within contract law, the
only viable opp here is for two sides to come
to the table and then it goes back to leadership.
There's just no leadership here, Like there's nobody in charge.
And all anybody could say is that that nobody's in charge.
And so you know, there's there's nobody to complain to,
there's nobody lobby to. So at some point, like we
need somebody to be a commissioner, We need a collective
bargaining agreement between you know, the the administration and the
student athletes, and I mean, there's really no way around it.
It's the only six you know, Congress isn't going to
save this. It's been years now and they haven't even
gotten a bill past committee hearings. I mean, they're they're
not even close on a bill. So and even if
they did, who knows that that would even hold up
and get signed into law. And we're five years in
without a build geting out of committee. So we've got
to get collective bargain. It's the only fix to this
to really rein it in. And then you get deals
that are you know, not going to go be held
up in court like this, and you have a little
bit more uniformity, and it it's it's horrible, it's awful.
I get why say and are upset about it. I
get why everybody's upset about it. It's it should it's
not how the world functions, and it shouldn't be how
college football functions.
Speaker 3: I will say this though, and I agree there's a
there's a lot of things I can say that that
that are broken about the current system. But the free market,
capitalistic college football landscape that we're operating in has allowed
Ole Miss, who has been a middling SEC team for
a long time.
Speaker 2: In Indiana, who has.
Speaker 3: Never seen double digit victories in its like in its
one hundred year career.
Speaker 2: You know, like lifespan there.
Speaker 3: Indiana may be your national champion this year, Ole miss
maybe your national champion. Oregon doesn't have a national championship.
They could win it. I don't think they have it.
I don't think they have a national championship. Miami won
one in the in the nineties. They've been irrelevant to
last twenties, That's what I'm saying, Like Miami really hasn't
been overly relevant since the late eighties and early nineties,
you know what I mean. So like we are seeing
in a leveling of the playing field. That's actually a
good thing, I think. Uh, But to your point, it's like, Okay, well,
how long do we want this leveling of the playing
field to play out? Like I want more data points
of free market capitalism college football wise, and then maybe
we allow the pendulum because the I'm willing to let
this play out for the next five years and then
bring the pendulum back. I'd like to see the pendulum
keep swinging this way, just to just to see what
happens from a evening of the playing field standpoint.
Speaker 4: And look, I'm one hundred percent with you on the
like evening in the playing field and the fact that
what we've had right now at transpired had allowed for
the playing field even I mean, I made the joke
earlier and it's one hundred percent truthful. The sec is
not as good as it was because they everybody else
is paying players now, and there's a lot of truth
to that. But I also don't think if you you know,
have viable contracts and there's collective bargaining, that that necessarily
would be the end of that you know, equity across
the board, you know. And I think what's maybe most
interesting about this this dynamic is is like, Okay, Indiana
had the twenty fifth ranked transfer portal class in twenty
twenty five. In twenty twenty four they had these thirtieth
ranked transfer portal class. Right, So it is obviously an
extremely inexact science in terms of the players you're going
after in the portal I mean twenty four to seven
sports on three sports. The companies that are creating these rankings,
they have the science of the high school rankings down
way better than they do the transfer portal and like
we're as media and analysts and fans, you know, glue
to these transfer commitments and then we look and we're like,
where are they ranked? And it seems more inconsequential in
terms of the ranking than anything. Like Indiana has put
together a behemoth by for the most part, adding age.
You know, their average age is twenty three. The Bears
are going to play the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night.
The average age the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 6: Is twenty five.
Speaker 4: So Inana, regardless of how the players are viewed from
a star standpoint, are performed like they've found a formula
that works. And I think that is what to me
is the most intriguing aspect of this is, you know,
the science within the science where it's not just about well,
everybody've viewsed this guy as being the best player. This
guy's got the best measurables. Like, there's other aspects that
other teams are strategizing to look for. Joey McGuire wants
guys at play, so some, you know, some in the
portal are going to look for guys that are you know,
former five stars or four stars that maybe didn't get
on the field as much at Obama or at Georgia
or a LSU. But McGuire's approaches. I don't want guys
that haven't seen the field. I want guys that have produced,
have been on the field. So everybody's got their own approach,
their own strategy. There's there's no one size fits all.
I think it's clear and that part, to me is
what's so intriguing about it.
Speaker 3: Ari, best way to support you what you do, how
you do it. For all of our listeners today, she.
Speaker 4: Had that very much, Bud. Yeah, I mean you can
follow me on social media, but I also started a
YouTube channel where I'm talking about Big twelve in college sports.
So just search my name Ari Tempting or ARI Sports
on YouTube and subscribe and like the channel there, and
then of course check out Big twelve today from seven
to ten am, or I guess that would be eight
to eleven am your time on tune in and on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Love it man, great stuff is always Ari Tempican ladies
and gentlemen. We'll catch up a again soon.
Speaker 6: You're the best.
Speaker 4: Bend Take care brother, be well.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir.
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go to break.
Speaker 2: But what was it?
Speaker 5: What was your question going to be? I'll text them
I was gonna bring up the idea. You've heard the
the phrase we need to rein in NIL the last
few years. I have a theory that's coming from the
SEC teams, mainly the Bamas and the Georgia's of them,
who just want to be able to go above a
salary cap that they propose under the table. Again, I
don't I haven't really heard that they want regulation. They
want regulation so that they can circumvent it.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 5: Like I hear a lot of people say NIL is
ruining college football, but I've yet to hear somebody actually
convince me how it is doing that, because I still
go to games on Saturdays, and I still see the
same amazing sport that I grew up in love for
the most part. Obviously, there are things that have changed
about it, but the product is still amazing. I'm yet
to be convinced what the real problem is. If your
quarterback leaves, which I don't know BYU had go get
a new one, like you can do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5: I don't see the problem with it, to be honest.
Speaker 3: Those that think it's ruined they are those who are
either on they were winning in the former system and
they want to continue to take advantage of the system
through their traditional bag man liquid cash means because they're
going to circumvent the rules because they're going to do
anything to win, or they're the people that thought that
they were living under a rock they're ostriching and didn't
know that everyone was cheating.
Speaker 2: Yep, they just didn't know. And they're like, well, it's
going to ruin the sport. These kids, well, these kids.
Speaker 5: I just think they underestimated. I think they all thought
that they could establish more dominance with the money, because
that's what they've been doing. I think they underestimated what
happens when you let fans impact the sport. Yeah, and
I do think you're gonna see market correction because I
think there's going to be in the next few years.
I think there's gonna be a lot of teams where
boosters are tired of paying millions and millions every year
and like they're not getting paid back, not they're doing
it out of them. I think you're going to see
a correction if you.
Speaker 3: Get billionaires involved that can actually pay their players.
Speaker 2: It's nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I don't know how many billionaires there
are in Tuscaloosa, not many.
Speaker 2: Not many.
Speaker 3: But then you had a lot of fans that were
willing to give a little bit of you know, do
little side deals to little side hustles.
Speaker 2: Come on down to the come on down to the
car dealership.
Speaker 3: We'll get you a little something some you know, and
enough money, you know, gets in those hands. I remember
hearing back in twenty seventeen when we were with BA was.
Speaker 2: Going out to LSU.
Speaker 3: I was having a discussion with the recruiting guy and
he's and I was like, Hey, what's the market rate
in the SEC for like a d N. He's like
probably ninety thousand to one hundred and twenty thousand annually.
Can you imagine this day and age having a four star,
five star d ND and you're only paying them ninety
one hundred and twenty thousand.
Speaker 2: That's what they were paying them when they were cheating.
Speaker 3: Now LSU's paying a lot more than that now, but
you got to realize that was what their cap was
less than a decade ago.
Speaker 2: What they were willing the SEC was willing to pay
at that time.
Speaker 3: And those donors, right, that's what they were used to.
That's what they're paying Now they're willing to pay a
little bit more than that, But eventually those donors will
get a little bit of donor fatigue because it's not
necessarily all tax deductible anymore.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna I'm going to say this, I'm gonna make that.
I'll be very declarative. NIL has not ruined college sports.
It's fixed college sports. I believe that wholeheartedly. I think
Indiana fans will agree to Ole Miss fans. I think
most fans outside of Tuscaloosa would agree with that.
Speaker 3: Signetti is unique in the sense that I mean, I
think it's coaching culture and I mean his roster was
ranked like seventy second for their recruiting rank.
Speaker 5: Texas Tech the Oregon should agree to because Oregon was
not relevant for most of college football. It's only recently,
mostly the twenty first century, that they've been relevant at all.
Speaker 2: Sure, I think there's a lot of a lot of
truth to that.
Speaker 3: Like I said, you look at the Final Four right now.
Miami has been irrelevant for you know, thirty years. Oregon,
you know, only in the last decade has it really
become relevant in college football with Phil Knight started allocating
a ton of money to it, and and then obviously
Indiana has never won any football games. And you know,
you're just looking at oh Miss. They've always been at
bottom of the wrong middling SEC school because remember they
tried to cheat with Hugh Freeze and they got caught
and they got reprimanded, castigated from the power brokers they
were trying to they were starting to win and they're
doing what everybody else was doing and they got their
hands slapped.
Speaker 5: Just look at the playoffs over the last few years.
Any given Saturday is more is alive now more than ever.
You had Arizona State in the playoff last year. Arizona
State has been horrible Texas to most of my life.
This year, it's crazy so I think you're right. I
think it's fixing college football. Most people just say it's
not sustainable.
Speaker 2: We'll see how sustainable it is. Let the pendulum swing.
Speaker 5: It's like, what do you mean it's not sustainable? The
market will correct itself. We're still gonna have college football. Yeah,
I don't see the I'm yet to be convinced what
the real issue with NIL is.
Speaker 3: We'll go to break, please don't go anywhere. Coming up next,
do we want to get into this Cougar byte? Ronald
the three Man Weaver, Yes we do. Okay, we're gonna
get into a little cougar byte.
Speaker 2: H Not all as well.
Speaker 3: Out in Kentucky, Lexington is in an outrage right now
for regarding their basketball team. They've spent twenty two million
on their roster and their ROI is not what they're.
Speaker 2: They're not happy with their ROI.
Speaker 3: That coming up next, this is Cougar Sports on one
of three nine nine eight point three ESPN.
Speaker 1: We're listening to Cougar Sports and it's time for a
Cougar byte. In Crittle breaks down the latest sound bites
from Cougar Athletics. Wow here on one O three nine
at ninety eight three ESPN.
Speaker 2: The Fan.
Speaker 3: Welcome Back Cougar Sports one of three nine ninety eight
point three es Ben the Fan, I'm int tital broadcasting
from our band Rewilth Studios Banderwealth dot com. Get on
that three Q and A no obligation to a bes
Q and A without tax more Wealth.
Speaker 2: Advisor sertify financial planners. Today.
Speaker 3: It is time for a little little Cougar byte if
you will, little SoundBite coming out of ESPN six't eighty
in Louisville. Uh, listen to this Kentucky basketball postgame show
with t J. Walker and your boy ZC. This is
immediately after the game ends. Uh, we'll tune into it
here momentarily. It's going to be brought to you by
Utah Protective Films Utah Protective.
Speaker 2: Films dot com.
Speaker 3: If you're looking for a fantastic car wrap on your vehicle,
Little Facelift Protective Films is going to provide the best
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also does Window ten and Chrome Delites. Okay, so Kentucky's
not doing two good guys. Last year they did make it, didn't.
I mean, Kentucky made it to a Sweet sixteen last year?
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? That had a good season
last year, right, Sweet sixteen? Solid they did.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I do remember. I don't remember who they played
in the tournament, but I remember looking and it wasn't.
It wasn't an impressive two wins. But Sweet sixteen is
still tough to get to.
Speaker 3: You got to the Sweet sixteen, they they ended up
with Troy I think, and the fighting a Lion.
Speaker 2: I that's who they beat in order to get Sweet sixteen.
Speaker 3: They ended up losing to Tennessee and it was a
sixty five seventy eight loss. So, you know, not a
bad first year for the Kentucky Wildcats under Mark Pope,
former BYU head coach. But things are not looking too
hot right now in Kentucky. Okay, right now, the Wildcats
are nine and six and they're they're the twelfth place
team in the SEC.
Speaker 2: They're Quad one opportunities.
Speaker 3: They're two and five with losses to Louisville, Michigan State
North Carolina, Gonzaga, and Alabama. Their only two wins and
Quad one opportunities are Indiana and Saint John's. They lost
a Quad two opportunity versus Missoo recently, and then they
have seven Quad four wins. So after this Quad two
loss to Missou at home, this is what ensued. A
Kentucky fan called the postgame show on ESPN six eighty one,
five point seven.
Speaker 2: This is what he had to say.
Speaker 6: Oh, we're gonna pay.
Speaker 3: It's a tragedy. Mark is not even the dang points,
even if you would have found a way to win
the game.
Speaker 2: It's not the dang point total, Mark.
Speaker 4: It's everything you can get in beclean.
Speaker 3: The point total that matters.
Speaker 4: We could see the writing on the wall. The James
suck and we pay a lot of dang money for it.
Some boosters and people did and people that also pay
for their time. I'm gonna have a start on attack
with this Crest.
Speaker 2: He's gotta go, TJ, He's gotta go, Zach, gotta go,
same man. This is crazy. Uh.
Speaker 3: Barstool Sports put out an article the Mark Pope era
at Kentucky is a disaster, and uh, I'm sure cow
coach Cal's over here, like, hey, hey, I told you so,
you had it good with me, you had it better. Look,
I'll say this much. It's still early. It really is January.
Speaker 2: I know it's getting later, but it's still early.
Speaker 3: There's plenty we have opportunities to get into the NC
DOUBLEA Tournament, and I very well could be that Kentucky
finds a way to hit its stride in February. They
have some quad one opportunities. Okay, you got Arkansas.
Speaker 2: You can make it all right with a win against
Arkansas January thirty. First, you got that opportunity. You have
Tennessee February seventh.
Speaker 3: Another top twenty five opportunity, Georgia February seventeenth. There's a
lot of opportunities here, like Florida twice, Vanderbilt. He's got opportunities, guys.
He can rite the ship. And as long as you
get to the NC DOUBLEA Tournament, depending on the seating,
depending on your opponent, you can make a run and
all will be well. And I'll never doubt Mark Pope
like he's gonna put in the work. He's They've spent
a pretty penny though on this roster, and it's just
not coming to pruition like he would hope for twenty
two million dollars roster.
Speaker 2: That's a that's a big roster cap right there.
Speaker 5: I want to agree that he I agree he definitely
has the opportunities to write the ship. I don't know
that this team will. If I'm remembering correctly. During Mark
Pope's time at BYU, if a BYU team started off rough,
it didn't usually fix itself.
Speaker 2: It started hot and then waned.
Speaker 5: That's how it usually went. The only exception I'll say
is that twenty nineteen twenty twenty team. But it got
better because at the beginning, due to NCAA sanctions, the
only child wasn't allowed to play. So I don't know
that Mark Pope necessarily has the track record of writing
the ship. Usually it's been that he assembles a good
roster and they they click.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So Kentucky Bluegrass, interesting fact, I promise I'll connect it.
Need the temperature needs to be between sixty and seventy
five degrees, and Mark Pope might find that the hot
seats getting a little too hot for that Kentucky Bluegrass
to stay green. Yeah, at the end of the season.
Because big time programs like Kentucky rarely have patients for
bad seasons.
Speaker 3: Mark Pope said this to Kentucky fans, they have the
right to do whatever they want. It's a hard space.
Pope said, this is tough. This is not the way
we intended to start the SEC play. And that's exactly
what we have in our hands right now. When you
go through hard times, which everybody does, the question is
how much does it take to break you. I'm not
about to break. This group's not about to break. We're
no place there. The only thing you can do is
grieve as quickly as possible and move on to the
next incredibly challenging game, which we have on Saturday, Mississippi State.
The effort and trying to get better, and these guys
will BBN right the you know, the the fan base
has the right to do and say and act however
they want. They're their greatest fans in the world, and
I'm sure they they are incredibly incredibly frustrated and upset.
They have the right to do whatever they want. In
terms of this team, we don't have this opportunity. Our
job is to suffer all night long, figure out how
to get better, get a little bit tougher dig a
little bit harder, execute more, more well, and move on
and win games.
Speaker 2: Thoughts commentary your reaction to his quote.
Speaker 5: I think he's handling very well. That he knows this
team's not great. That he's got. There's a lot of
talent there, like guys like Colin Chandler that b by
You would love to have a guy like Colin Chandler.
Speaker 2: He's a player.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's got a lot of good players, but they're
not coming together. And and I think I think they've
got some It's exactly what's said. They've got some long nights.
They've got to figure some things out because nine and
six just doesn't cut it for Kentucky basketball. It doesn't
even cut it for BYU. It didn't when he was here.
And he's at a much let's be honest, it's a
higher profile job than when he was at BYU. So
I think deep down Mark's starting to feel the pressure.
I really do. And I want to be very clear.
I hope he writes the ship. I think Mark's a
good I think he will.
Speaker 2: I think he's gonna write this.
Speaker 5: I think I think he's a great guy. I think
he deserves this is his dream job, and I never
want to see a guy fail at his dream. But
it's gonna be tough.
Speaker 3: Yep, he's got opportunities, my friend. Can he seize the day?
Can he seize those opportunities? That is the question, Ronald
the three man Weaver, I don't know if you want
to chime in on this, your thoughts to comics Cherry,
your follow.
Speaker 7: Up to this, I'll chime in. There's a chance he
could be gone at the end of the year. I'm
just gonna straight up say what it is. Look, when
you got twenty two million dollars on the table band
and you're in these premiere conferences, no one cares.
Speaker 6: They don't care if it's his dream job. And this
is just the facts and the power brokers.
Speaker 7: Though, look what they did to James Franklin like that
was that was unacceptable, but they did it.
Speaker 2: That.
Speaker 6: That's just where it has been. So Pope could be
out at the end of this year.
Speaker 7: Like and you're right, if he gets into the tournament,
makes a run that gets to swey sixteen, you mess around,
you're in the lead eight all all that's forgiven. People
will forget all yet like that that will that will
save his job. But the way this is looking starting
off owing to a conference to play nine and six,
losing that match up to you gotta win that matchup.
You can't lose like that and I and I appreciate
him fighting for us guys.
Speaker 6: Getting teed up, doing everything he can.
Speaker 7: I appreciate that he's out there battling, but that doesn't
matter at the end of the day. Like you're getting
paid to win games, and then people are paying their
money and this roster's not coming together. So if you
don't figure it out, they're gonna go find someone that will.
That's what happens, and that's the that's the danger when
you pay so much. That is the negative aspect of
when it doesn't come together. Right, it's a great thing
and the athletes are able to work hard and get
themselves compensated, and then coaching staff's are put together.
Speaker 6: But when it doesn't, this is what they do.
Speaker 7: They pull the trigger on you after a year or
on a great coach in football because it's national championship
or bus And look, he hasn't failed Colin channel. Colin
Chanler's played very well, is averaging eight point two points.
He's had multiple games where he scored in double figures.
I think he's had nine games this year already and
two games where he's just scored fifteen or more like.
Speaker 6: So it's a good basketball player that's on that roster.
Speaker 7: But I'm gonna be honest, Ben, if this doesn't go well,
and if it's bad for Mark Pope and they fire him,
I could see Colin Chanler going into the portal and
potentially maybe coming back home. Look, I always thought he's
a big twelve guard. I thought he would do well.
I think this Kevin young Staff could develop him really well.
I think better than Kentucky. And that's because of the experience.
It's nothing against Kentucky. They have good people, but just
Mark Pope, excuse me, Kevin young Staff, I think it's
more robust in that regard and everything that they have.
Speaker 6: But we'll see.
Speaker 7: I hope he does figure it out. Right, he was
at BYU, and look, it's very interesting Mark Pope Lee's BYU.
B YU gets better, Mark Pope gets Kentucky, and it
seems like Kentucky's getting worse. That's the unfortunate part. But
that's just the reality of the situation. And I want
to say something about the twenty nineteen team it's not
a shot at Pope. Pope inherited a lot of that team.
He did not build that team himself. He did not
go out and recruit that all the way. That was
something still the Dave Ross era. I'm giving credit to
Mark Pope Hafley of it because he had it, But
a lot of those guys weren't Pope guys. Alex Barceolo
was a Pope guy, but like Joli Child's was not
a Pope guy.
Speaker 6: Has is not a Pope guy.
Speaker 5: So that did he did have to re recruit Juli Child.
Speaker 7: He did one hundred percent, I'm giving you, But you
also have to think about Okay coming back from the NBA,
and partially that was Joly didn't get good feedback on
what he needed.
Speaker 6: They needed to see three point shooting.
Speaker 7: If you go look at Yoli's numbers his first three years,
they were not great, and from three he was able
to shoot better. So yeah, you re recruited him. But
it also was a match made of heaven. Yoly wasn't
gonna go anywhere else. His wife was also from Utah
and was local, and he needed to improve his three
point shot. So again, Pope to me inherited that now
I feel everybody, media members and fans will robbed because
I felt like that team was a.
Speaker 6: Legit Sweet sixteen team.
Speaker 7: But at the end of today, Ben, he's had some
tough riots and look, no one's gonna I'm not gonna
feel bad for the guy that's he has he has
eliminated in I l like b YU.
Speaker 6: You know, it took to.
Speaker 7: Get the coach there for it to be able to
get there, and he overachieved here at b YU and
he put himself in this situation. Now he has access,
he's not getting it done. That's on him and the staff.
They got to go into the locker room, get into
the coaches room or whatever, look themselves in the face
and turn it around, which they have the ability to
do because if they don't, I truly believe that Mark
Pope could be out of a job at the end
of the season if he doesn't make a run in
the tournament.
Speaker 3: There you go, that's a little cougar vite there, and
uh uh.
Speaker 2: It was a fiery one. It was.
Speaker 5: Fire and brimstone everywhere. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, we stand up
and we we sing and dance to this show and
this church.
Speaker 3: Oh man, crazy stuff, man, Uh, those postgame shows. Uh,
they just hit a little bit different out in Kentucky.
Like if we had like call ins like that, I mean,
we'd be getting phone calls from from certain people, wouldn't wouldn't.
Speaker 7: Wed Dude, Hey Ben, we would get so many And
I just want the people that are listening to you.
Speaker 2: Got it so docile?
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, I think you'd get rants like that
from fans if we let Collins. Let's call it how
it is. People would give you a call like that
every time. Every time you loses, they blame a rod
for some reason. But but I don't think it's warranted.
It's the thing. I don't think it's warmed.
Speaker 7: Even if it is warranted, I'm I'm with Ben. Look,
there are those that do listening tune into the show.
Speaker 6: I know that they do. I'm just gonna say it.
Speaker 7: I'm not going to say any names, but I don't
want those people calling and get into it because that's
not that's not what we do. Like right, fans are
allowed to be emotional upset, but it's our job to
bridge that gap of the truth and you know, the
accountability to pat trot of accountability.
Speaker 2: And we do have it.
Speaker 7: But if you let fans like that call in which
I think is a great thing. I think it should
be allowed. I don't want to take it away. But
if you do that, you facilitate that too much. It
starts to then make us look like, Okay, we entertain
that type of behavior, and that's our narrative and it's
not our behavior. Is we give credit where credits due,
we give constructive criticism. When constructive criticism, it's also do
we have a balance of bolt And sometimes fans they
aren't balanced their emotional for a reason, and that's their job.
Speaker 6: Their job is to be emotional fanatics, baby fanatics.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, that's why it's loud in the stadium. But I
want to say this about a Rod.
Speaker 2: I think he earned his money.
Speaker 6: That's all I got to say.
Speaker 5: I think he is responsible for the return of the
quarterback factor.
Speaker 6: I v yu, I agree.
Speaker 5: That's that's my take.
Speaker 3: I think it's I think it's a valid take. I
remember he came in in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 5: And he's turned out NFL quarterbacks ever since.
Speaker 7: No, but remember Andrew It saw Kalanie Ay. Rod had
nothing to do it. They remember that, Jaron.
Speaker 2: Hall, you have.
Speaker 3: Baylor Romney, well, I forgot about Baylor. Yea, Now he
was really good when he was at b Yu.
Speaker 7: Remember the Bowens had sold Jaim out of Peavers cooking
rem off.
Speaker 3: We could bear Bachmeier. Guys, why wild they hate no.
I think this year they came around. I think this
year they came around. But they're very they could be fickle.
They may turn on them this next year. We'll see
as soon as Bear gets injured and then they have
to resort to the back of Ah.
Speaker 6: I know he sucked.
Speaker 2: I knew it. I knew it. Rod was the worst
O seeing while we're doing this.
Speaker 3: Why we should have out got you know, somebody else,
Darren Bebo.
Speaker 2: We should have got Jason back. We should have got
you know anyway.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean a lot of times you're one
injury away from something bad happen.
Speaker 6: Everybody has been, even at the highest level. Can I
be honest?
Speaker 2: Without l J. Martin, we weren't nearly as good. Like
let's be like, well, can I bring this up. We
kind of got lucky Bear bach mart LJ. Didn't get
injured at Allah.
Speaker 6: This is true.
Speaker 7: That's why you gotta go get gen and White to
have that, you know, the West Virginia running back.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you shout out to Sky the
Main and and and and Kolby Clawson and Ryan Phillis
in Ryan Phillis like for keeping our guys healthy, bro
LJ L.
Speaker 5: The difference between it b YU with LJ and without
LJ is a three touchdown Bowl Pop Tarts Bowl win
versus a four point win because we were in the
red zone every darn time we have the ball.
Speaker 7: There you go, I'm but then you said one injury away. Look,
the great Andy Reid, we call him. What happened his quarterback?
What got hurt? And that's all it was. It took
one little slip of you know, pulling down the leg
on a run and guess what, his season was over
and he missed the playoffs for the first time since
like twenty fourteen.
Speaker 5: Being I think that happened, missed the playoffs.
Speaker 7: Yeah, but let me have the argument to fit the
narrative of that, your one injury away from it happened
and they were gonna lose that game. They were gonna
they were't gonna win that game because yeah, but you
know what I mean, one injury away and it's over.
But yeah, go rebuild, go retool, Look quarterback deup, you
got young guys. I think you should go get the
running back from West Virginia or someone with the also
Devon Ecka. Rebuild it, go get two more running backs.
Ben have a depth. You know, Javesa obviously proved and
earned and he's coming back. But go get guys. So
LJ just doesn't get beat up. Let him go get
the rushing record and be as healthy as possible and
offload that man. I would love to see nothing more
Ben the next year, to see Buy you run the
ball seventy percent of the time and throw the ball
thirty I know that's not possible. I'm storing numbers. That's
a little hyperbole, but I'm serious. I would like to
see them have forty fifty, maybe fifty five touches on
the ground and really let the running backs work and
let LJ kill again.
Speaker 6: I want to see LJ do what Tyler Algier did. Ben,
That's what I want to say.
Speaker 7: I want to LJA see him close out games with
seven to eight minutes left in the fourth quarter where
we're gonna run the ball like we did against Oklahoma
State and the second half down your throw tenth straight
times that you can't stop it.
Speaker 2: Let's go to break.
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Speaker 2: We'll go to break a little sports cord.
Speaker 3: Coming up next are nil contracts.
Speaker 2: Okay, are they enforceable? If you try to get out
of them?
Speaker 3: Can you be sued by the school or the conference
when you try to bounce after signing Demm Williams, the
starting quarterback for the University of Washington, signed a contract
a few days ago and then entered the port and
said peace, I'm out. His agent dropped him, said we
do not align and we wish him nothing but the best,
and DeMont has hired a lawyer.
Speaker 2: Let's discuss these.
Speaker 3: Occurrences with Handy and Handy, your local injury attorneys that
do the best work along the wasatch front. Coming up
next is Cougar Sports on one O three nine ninety
eight point three