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Speaker 1: Eleven thirty one Sports Talk seven ninety. It is the

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Matt Thomas Show, Wood Ross and we are very pleased

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to be joined by the best dressed sports writer in America.

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Great fedora game. Uh what are other types of headwear?

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It is a Sam Con weard. Did you think have

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you seen Samon fa on TV doing some appearances here

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and there?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I think he had one of those cheese graders, the

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anti pas. No, no, no, he's is at a cagle before.

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What are you wearing right now? Sam Con? I'm not

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talking about your hat.

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Speaker 3: I'm wearing sweat because I just walked my dog out there.

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Speaker 2: Just a tad.

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Speaker 3: Tad warmer than you would expect for January. But but yeah,

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I'm were in sweat right now.

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Speaker 1: It's great to have you on the show. Thank you, friend.

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He's the University Houston graduately is a fine young man.

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He's also covers college football, especially with an emphasis on

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roster management and transfer portal. Sam con Junior s k

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sam con Junior on Twitter. So you are externally busy?

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Was your timeline as crazy as mine was on Sunday?

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With players going left and right from one score the next?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean really a lot of it was the

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build up to the opening of the portal on Friday.

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A bunch of players hit really at midnight when the

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clock struck.

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Speaker 2: Mint and on Friday, I think we were at a thousand.

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Speaker 3: Players in within the first hour, and a lot of

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that I think was done ahead of time and just

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ready to go as soon as we started. But yeah,

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the Sunday was especially busy because a lot of players

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made their initial visits on Saturday. And these visits are

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not like traditional recruiting visits where you go spend forty

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eight hours at a place as a high school recruit.

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These are more like NFL free agent type visits. You're

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in there for a day, they do your physical, you know,

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maybe you get a quick tour, talk to the coaches,

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and then you know, you talk contract and get it done.

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So yeah, Sunday was a pretty fast and furious and

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I wouldn't say that it slowed.

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Speaker 2: Down a lot.

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Speaker 3: It's a lot has happened since then as the domino

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start to shift, but.

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Speaker 2: A busy first few days with I think more than

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I think a.

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Speaker 3: Few thousand FBS scholarship players in the portal, and even

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more when you add the FCS in there as well, So.

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Speaker 2: It's definitely been hectic.

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Speaker 3: We've got about a week and a half left. Next

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Friday is when this thing closes, but a lot of

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activity going on, for.

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Speaker 2: Sure, Sam.

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Speaker 1: I know many of these young men, maybe all of

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them are being represented by agents, and Ross and I

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were talking earlier. Some are with legit agencies and some

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are with friends of friends of friends. How many have

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you dealt with and what is it like talking to

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these representation this representation group talking about getting eighteen nineteen

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twenty year olds multimillion dollar deals to go from one

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school the next.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think it's just like anything did

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you come across. There's actually a lot of pretty good ones,

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and then there's someones who are not initialily the most

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qualified or maybe you're not going to get the best

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guide in. I would say most of the ones I've

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dealt with are pretty solid. And you do have more

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NFL agents, NFL player agents coming to the college side.

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I've come across paths with a lot of guys who

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represent NFL players and are now stepping into the college game.

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Speaker 2: Even with the bigger agencies.

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Speaker 3: You know your CAAs your athletes first, You're you know

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some of the big ones out there that people know

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they're getting into this game as well. So I think

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it really depends on what kind of choice. Obviously, obviously

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the families and the recruits are making the choices on.

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Speaker 2: Who represents them.

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Speaker 3: But I will say there is a cry amongst the

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coaches and the staffers who are managing this of they

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wish there was some type of certification. Like in the

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NFL level, you have to be certified by the NFLPA,

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and there is no real baseline for that. In college

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some states have certification requirements that you have to do

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to be able to represent someone, but not every state does,

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and I think there is the desire for across the

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board certification to just establish some minimum standards that people

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have to meet to be able to represent a player.

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Speaker 4: Do you think there will be change coming with that, Sam?

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As far as I mean, what exactly is the solution?

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I know NCAA tries to keep their hands off of

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this stuff so they can still claim amateur athletics, But

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you do you think there will be some kind of

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solution coming with that or like federal legislation.

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Speaker 1: What would it take?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think he would have to be either the CSC,

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the College Sports Commission, which was established by the powerful Conferences,

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which is supposed to be managing all the salary cap

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and the enforcement of everything that's going on. I think

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you would have mixed results and different claims on how

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well that's going so far. Or I think some federal

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legislation possibly could be in the mix for that as well.

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I don't sense I think it is something that is desired.

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I don't sense that it is the highest priority on

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the list though. I think there are other things that

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people want to solve before they get to that. But

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I do think at some point it is possible, but

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it would take either either the CSC or sometime federal

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legislation we get there.

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Speaker 4: I think Sam Khan Junior of the Athletic with us

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here on Sports Talk seven ninety and I kind of

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need this explained, Like I'm five, Sam, Like we're talking

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about these agents and these players and they hit the portal, Like,

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what what are the you can go through the legal

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and then maybe the illegal procedures. If if there is

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a player who has an agent and they're thinking about

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hitting the portal, I mean, how much of that is

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negotiated or talked to other teams as far as tampering

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with other schools before deciding to enter the portal. Also,

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you have guys who enter the portal when it figures

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out that maybe somebody else is coming, so they're gonna

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their playing time is gonna go down. Like it just

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seems like a big mess from that standpoint.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it absolutely is.

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Speaker 3: And again when I talked about the CSC, everyone hasn't

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agreed to what the enforcement model looks like. Like there's

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you know, we have a body and we have you

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know that their task was trying to enforce this stuff.

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But they sent out an agreement for everybody to sign,

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and not everybody signed it and it doesn't go intoffect

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unless everyone signs it. So at this point we don't

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have an enforcement all the real piece yet and so

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tampering run has been running rampant for years and continues

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to do so.

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Speaker 2: Many of these players.

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Speaker 3: The portal didn't until Friday, but many of these players

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announced either after their regular seasons were over sometime in

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December that they were going into portal. And I can

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promise you and I know because I've been talking to

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these people. As soon as some of the bigger names announced,

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they were going in, we already heard where they were

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likely going, and that that is an issue that I

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think coaches and general managers complain about, but there also

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doesn't seem to be anybody really stopping it at this point.

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I think that the tampering issue is probably one of

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the top complaints you get, and it is these are

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things that happen right away, And to your point about

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a player having to jump in if somebody happens, I

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talked to an agent last I who said he had

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a client at an ACC school who was a tight

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end and he was gonna stay, he was gonna resign

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our repshare contract to come back for twenty twenty six,

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and then his team took a tight end in the portal.

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He's like, well, now I got to get in. Now

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I could get in the portal because now my playing

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time is gonna be getting eaten into. And that's what's

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gonna be fascinating to me, especially as we get outside

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the portal window, because this year we only have the

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winter portal window. There is no spring window. So to me,

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I'm curious to see what happened when we get to

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spring football and depth charts are getting set and you

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find out, Well I'm not where I thought I was going.

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Speaker 2: To be on the depth chart. Well, there's no spring

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portal window anymore.

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Speaker 3: So what are you gonna do? Are you gonna stick

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it out? Are you gonna withdraw and then hope you

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can end up enrolling somewhere else? But there's no really

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guarantee you can end up somewhere else at that point.

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So it is very messy at this point. And that

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is what I think makes it so difficult, not just

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for the people involved, but even the fans to follow,

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is that these things can change in a blank and

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the guy who may be your star quarterback today may

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be on your rival school tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: Sam, if you were in Times Square yesterday, you happen

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to see a big billboard video of Brandon Sorosby welcomed

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to Lubbock and Texas Tech after assigning his deal going

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to there. Take me through the process. So Brandon Sorosby's

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quarterback at Cincinnati and Ward travels that he is open

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for free agency. Does Cody Campbell, when he's the most

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recognizable nil donor probably out there in the college courts today,

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does he lab a phone call to Soorsby's representation says Look,

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I know the school can't give you the money directly

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because they can't give you five million. They could, but

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that's a budget that they don't want to spend. But

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I'm going to put you in terms with my group,

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with my collective, and we're going to make sure that

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five million dollars reaches your client's piggybank by the time

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he arrives in Lubbock.

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Speaker 3: So that that is the part that is a little

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bit unclear at this point with some of the bigger

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deals because the what is the divide between the rest

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share pool in the aisle pool, Because as we know,

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the rest sharepool is capped at roughly.

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Speaker 2: Twenty million dollars.

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Speaker 3: It'll go up a little bit this year by four percent,

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but it's still going to be around twenty one twenty

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two million dollars. And that's for all sports, not just football. Right,

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So a Power four roster is probably somewhere in the

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fourteen to seventeen million dollar range. So if you are

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suspend five on a quarterback, that only leaves maybe nine

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to twelve for the rest of your roster, which is

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a lot. So certainly, but if you are trying to

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compete for a national Championship, it's not enough.

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Speaker 2: One of the biggest.

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Speaker 3: Things that you see big time programs trying to do

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in this cycle is take money off the cap, and

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doing that is through the third party nil beast. The

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interesting part about that is the CS just sent out

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guidance in the last couple of forty eight hours that

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they're saying that if you promise someone nil money ahead

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of time from the third party, whether it's from your

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in house multimedia rights deal or whatever other collective that

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you have, that cannot be counted, that cannot be taken

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off the cap. If you promise it, it's got to

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be counting toward the cap, whether or not you pay

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them out of your rep share pool. Now again I

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go back to is that going to be enforced? And

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they send out that guidance with it being backdated to

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December first, so saying that basically, if it's anybody in

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this portal window, that you can't take money off the

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cap that way. So I don't know how that's going

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to work out. I don't know if they can even

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enforce it, but that is the way that a lot

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of programs that are operating above the.

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Speaker 2: Cap, they're doing it that way.

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Speaker 3: Is trying to figure out, Okay, how much do we

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put into third party nil and how much do you

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guarantee through refshare because you've got ultimately they're going to

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do whatever they got to do to get the player.

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Speaker 1: So a big picture, I know you've got still another

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week or so left of the portal. Who is killing it?

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Obviously when you get the number one quarterback and texta

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tech is not afraid to spend money. We've already seen

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it in the last couple of years. Beyond Tech, is

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there anybody else is in your mind, has really made

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a lot of significant movement by grabbing kids in the

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portal because of the money they're offering.

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Speaker 3: In Indiana, Indiana did really well. They landed there, the

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TCU quarterback, Josh Hoover, the landed Nick marsh the Michigan

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State receiver, a couple edge rushers from Kansas City who

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are really really talented. I mean, they're the number one

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team in the country right now and clearly paying at

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a high rate. I think Josh Hoover's deal, from what

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I understand, is set in the similar ballpark to Brendan

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Swaresby in that high four to five million dollars range.

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So they definitely broke the bank to get Hoover, and

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I think he's a really good system fit for them. Tech,

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as you mentioned, has done really well. I think Texas

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A and M has had a really quietly. They haven't

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made a bunch of splash editions, but made a lot

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of really solid additions, and they didn't really lose a lot.

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They were tinged a lot of their guys. They only

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lost I believe one full time starter into the portal

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this year, so they're in good shape. And the other

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one is Oklahoma State. Eric Morris, who we know was

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the coach at North Texas and took them to the

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conference championship game.

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Speaker 2: He went up there to Oklahoma State.

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Speaker 3: He's brought his quarterback Drew Messimaker, his running back Kaylea Hawkins,

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his top receiver y Young, and several others with them.

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That's a team that was one and eleven last year,

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maybe had one of the worst rosters in the Power

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for and they look like a much improved team so

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far on this first weekend. So they've done that. All

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those schools have done pretty well. I would add Penn

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State to that list too, since Matt Campbell got over there.

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Speaker 2: Obviously he's brought a lot of his.

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Speaker 3: Iowa State guys with them too, But I think Penn

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State has made some waves early in the first few.

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Speaker 2: Days of the portal.

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Speaker 4: Sam conn Junior of the Athletic with us here more

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of a general question. Sam, We've talked a lot on

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this show, myself and Matt and argued about donor fatigue,

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and I thought it was going to come pretty soon.

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It doesn't look like it's coming anytime soon. But I

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guess to ask you to predict the unpredictable. I mean,

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for example, Cody Campbell, as Matt mentioned, shelling out a

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bunch of money. I mean, if he's not seeing the

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results year after year, how much does he continue to

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pour millions? And these other schools as well, whether it

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be Texas or A and M. Where do you see

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as far as I mean, just the the long term

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economic ecosystem of this nil money potentially drying up or

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it just keeps It seems like it's a full steam ahead.

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Speaker 3: I think it becomes a case by case basis on

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a couple of factors. One, what does your institutional want

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to how badly do you want to win? And and

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by proxy, how badly do.

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Speaker 2: Your donors want to win? Two?

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Speaker 3: Do you have someone to that degree? Because there are

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I think a lot of the SEC and Big ten

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programs are going to be in okay shape because of

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where they are in terms of their media rights and

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how big their budgets are just from the start. But

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it's your when you get to your maybe middle tier

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power for lower to your power forwards. Do you have

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a booster like a Cody Campbell? Like if you're Kansas

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and you have David Booth, you're in good shape. But

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if you're Iowa State who is struggling to reach the

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revenue revenue share cap, they're not operating over the cab.

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They're They're having a hard enough time just trying to

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get to the cap which they are at. That's hard

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enough for them. They don't necessarily have a Cody Campbell

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in their back pocket to help them. So I think

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in a case by case issue with them as far

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as do I see donor fatigue long term? Maybe in

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some spots, but I'll just say this this. We are

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in twenty twenty five, almost forty years ago SMU got

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busted for paying players and got the death penalty.

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Speaker 2: It was nineteen eighty six, nineteen eighty seven.

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Speaker 3: That was almost forty years ago, so if and that

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was obviously a different era. But paying players or trying

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to do the most to get the best players on

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your team is a tradition, as it's a tried and

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true tradition in college football for as long as college

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football has existed, alumni have always won. Boosters have always

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wanted to get players for their teams and wanted to

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make sure they had the best team to whether it

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was coaches, whether it's facilities, whatever the mechanism was that

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they told you how to do it. For as long

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as I I can remember, and as long as I've

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been covering this sport, there's always been somebody who's wanted

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to push the envelope to do that, and.

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Speaker 2: I don't see that changing long term. Now. With the

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money getting as high.

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Speaker 3: As it is, could it get a little bit unsustainable, Certainly,

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I do think there is a degree to that, But

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I don't think we're ever gonna come to a point

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where people say, well, I don't care about my school

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enough to pay.

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Speaker 2: This money for this player. There's always gonna.

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Speaker 3: Be Cam Coleman, that everyone receiver in the pointal right now, everybody,

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everybody in on Earth wants that guy. And I cannot

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see a donor saying no, I'm gonna walk away because

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he's not that important. Ultimately, these guys want their teams

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to win on Saturday, and they're going to want to

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do what it takes to get the players to make

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that happen.

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Speaker 1: I got forty more questions for you, but I'm gonna

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leave you with this, and I thank you so much

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for your time. Daleen Austin's a guy that no one's

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ever heard of, and at least here. He was a

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cornerback at Oregon. Didn't play a whole lot. Apparently numbers

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are just okay, but he did play. He didn't have

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an iront this year for the Ducks. Ducks are still

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playing for a chance International Championship, and he's leaving. He's

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going to leave the team because he.

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Speaker 3: Entered the portal.

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Speaker 1: It may be a much more high profile name that

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does is. But I have a feeling, and this is

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kind of the sickening. Part of the spirit of trying

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to win and compete is we're going to have other

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players like this down the road. Do you agree or

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disagree that we're going to see kids that are still

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playing for a national championship or in a deep playoff

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run saying you know what, I got four million dollars

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waiting for me to school down the road.

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Speaker 3: I think having it happen with starters is not going

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to be something that becomes a trend.

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Speaker 2: I think it's more.

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Speaker 3: Going to be typically guys who are backups or who

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are guys who don't have as big roles and they

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stand to make a lot of money and get a.

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Speaker 2: Bigger role on another team.

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Speaker 3: But I will say this, we long didn't think a

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coach would do it, and Lane Kiffin has done it,

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and so once you kind of cross that threshold threshold,

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I think anything goes. So I wouldn't say I would

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never say never on that front, but I do think

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having a starter do it, if it were a starting

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quarterback or starting n back or starting corner, I find

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that would be very either rare or unlikely to happen.

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But with backup players, and we already saw it last

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year both Privula the backup quarterback at Penn State, when

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once Drew Aller decided he was coming back, he went

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ahead and gotten the poro and obviously ended up starting

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in Miszoo last year, so that part has already been

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going on with some playoff teams. It's not again, not

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high numbers. It's only really a small handful. But I

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do think that the reserve players that stand to have

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bigger roles at other teams that I don't think is

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going to stop.

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Speaker 2: I do think seeing.

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Speaker 3: Star players do it. I think it would be a

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real shock to the system if we saw it. But again,

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Lane Kiffin did it, so who knows?

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Speaker 1: All right, Sam, how are you a gift card to

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a hat store, my friend? Thank you so much for

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the time. Happy New Year and thank you and we

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look forward to seeing many more articles on the athletic

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website very soon.

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Speaker 2: No problem, Thanks for having me.