Speaker 1: You weren't very excited when I laid on my idea
Speaker 1: about the bumps today, when I said, hey, let's go,
Speaker 1: let's do a little jam band. Just do a little
Speaker 1: Northeast style jam band. Now this is the Grateful Dead.
Speaker 1: But today I need a little I need a little guster.
Speaker 1: I want a little fish, I want a little string
Speaker 1: cheese incident. You could throw a little Dave in. You know,
Speaker 1: Dave technically is a jam band. You didn't seem very
Speaker 1: enthused about my idea.
Speaker 2: They've definitely a jam ban.
Speaker 1: There was tone there. What was the tone? There was
Speaker 1: tone there? Watch your tone?
Speaker 2: How do I put this?
Speaker 3: Just put it kindly.
Speaker 2: I like most jam bands, and in fact, I'm a
Speaker 2: big fan of the Dead, much like our next Guest album.
Speaker 2: But but there is a time when the song could end.
Speaker 1: I didn't say we're gonna do a little psilocybin in
Speaker 1: talk in for a seventeen minute guster guitar solo.
Speaker 3: They're bumps. They're thirty seconds.
Speaker 2: I know, so for bumps we're doing great. But just
Speaker 2: my overall.
Speaker 3: Thoughts, you're not wrong. Kyle vone gera definite jam band fan.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out on a limb Kyle and say
Speaker 1: you enjoy a good jam band, I.
Speaker 4: Would say, generally speak, I'm very specific to you the
Speaker 4: Grateful Dead, I don't. I don't venture out much but
Speaker 4: beyond beyond them. So that's kind of where I sit
Speaker 4: on the whole conversation of jampans.
Speaker 1: All right, fair enough, we can move on immediately, all right, Kyle,
Speaker 1: So ultimately on the show yesterday and to start the
Speaker 1: show today, we've been discussing kind of the fallout from
Speaker 1: the Matthew Sluka Nil dispute with UNLV And after the
Speaker 1: show last night, I got a couple of messages from
Speaker 1: some people to work up at the U, and it's
Speaker 1: just pretty clear that nobody knows what they're doing. But
Speaker 1: this one kind of sent shock waves across the landscape
Speaker 1: of college football. What's what's your take on how this
Speaker 1: all went down.
Speaker 4: I think it's kind of a window into what is
Speaker 4: wrong with the system and kind of what's going to
Speaker 4: be possible in the true I think we'll see more
Speaker 4: of this, not exactly how how this one played out,
Speaker 4: but I do think you're gonna see more kids leaving
Speaker 4: at this at this stage of the year. You know,
Speaker 4: my understanding is like, look, it's the offensive coordinator made
Speaker 4: a verbal offer of you know, a we can get
Speaker 4: you one hundred thousand dollars, but it wasn't really a
Speaker 4: formal deal. It sounded like maybe it was just in conversation,
Speaker 4: and then there was no real follow up. Yeah, I
Speaker 4: think we're still kind of waiting on more of those
Speaker 4: details and to like show it to me and writing like,
Speaker 4: let's let's get a better sense of what really happened.
Speaker 4: And then look, if you're the kid and you are
Speaker 4: one hundred percent under the impression that you're getting one
Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars and you don't get if you put
Speaker 4: yourself in the in the kid's shoes, you could be
Speaker 4: you could understand why he would be upset if he's
Speaker 4: under the impression he's going to get a hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: But if you're the coach and you don't know the
Speaker 4: deal exists, you could also understand while they are, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, kind of pissed off by this whole situation
Speaker 4: as well the collective if they weren't looped in. It's
Speaker 4: it's really just, you know, really poor communication all the
Speaker 4: way around. And I'm having a really tough time trying
Speaker 4: to figure out who's faultier other than the NCAA and
Speaker 4: kind of letting the sport get to this point because
Speaker 4: there's just not a clear process for you.
Speaker 1: Know, Kyle, it's kind of I was just thinking about
Speaker 1: this tongue in cheek as a as a big college
Speaker 1: basketball fan, dating all the way back to you know,
Speaker 1: the nineties. It's kind of ironic that it's UNLV that's
Speaker 1: not paying their players correctly because they were like the
Speaker 1: school under Tark that paid everybody and didn't really back,
Speaker 1: you know, shy away from it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. That's the funny thing, right, is that UNLV is
Speaker 4: the school with his reputation of being able to make
Speaker 4: these shady deals, and now that it's legal for them
Speaker 4: to be the school that's having trouble with it is
Speaker 4: certainly a kind of a funny development.
Speaker 1: Sure, And speaking of a funny development, I asked you
Speaker 1: and probably ten other college football guests, Hey, do you
Speaker 1: think there's any shot in do you think there's any
Speaker 1: shot any chance that the PAC twelve falls enough wrongs,
Speaker 1: falls down enough wrongs after trying to you know, recruit
Speaker 1: schools to their conference that they land on Utah State right,
Speaker 1: and you know, everybody said no chance, right, and so
Speaker 1: obviously things have changed, and you guys have been great
Speaker 1: with this over at the dot com side of things.
Speaker 1: What do you make of where we find ourselves now
Speaker 1: with the PAC twelve And how surprised are you that
Speaker 1: Utah State found their way to get an invite?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been a crazy couple of days for me
Speaker 4: tracking all this stuff and having those conversations to try
Speaker 4: to figure out what's going on behind the scenes. If
Speaker 4: you asked me a month ago if if Uta State
Speaker 4: would be in the PAC twelve, certainly would have been surprised, right,
Speaker 4: But you know when it happened, I was kind of
Speaker 4: expecting it because they were the next they were next up.
Speaker 4: Once those AA schools all passed, it was pretty clear
Speaker 4: that Utah State was going to be in the you know,
Speaker 4: in the crossairs of the PAC twelve, so to speak, right,
Speaker 4: And I think you know, when I was gaming it
Speaker 4: out the AA school the AAC schools that passed like that,
Speaker 4: that didn't surprise me at all because the amount of
Speaker 4: money that the PAC twelve was going to be able
Speaker 4: to offer them to entice them to leave, it was
Speaker 4: a gamble without a real media deal. You know, with
Speaker 4: the signals buyouts that they were gonna have to pay
Speaker 4: to leave, there was not a guarantee that that situation
Speaker 4: was going to be a whole lot better. So, you know,
Speaker 4: once you started looking at the numbers, it kind of
Speaker 4: made sense that Utah State ended up there.
Speaker 1: What do you make of the decision for both the Air
Speaker 1: Force and UNLV to stand pat stay in the Mound
Speaker 1: West Conference as opposed to jump ship.
Speaker 4: It's it's it's really similar to the decision the aa
Speaker 4: AAC schools made. The Pactal just wasn't able to offer
Speaker 4: them enough money to justify what they were going to
Speaker 4: be getting from the Mountain West. You know, I don't
Speaker 4: have the numbers nailed down, but there is a significant
Speaker 4: financial incentive being provided by the Mountain West to stay
Speaker 4: in the conference. You know, this is kind of a
Speaker 4: more of a short term deal, right, and that just
Speaker 4: made it worth their while. You're gonna look at those
Speaker 4: schools now, you're gonna have a chance to you know,
Speaker 4: be at the top of that conference for you know whatever.
Speaker 4: It looks like it certainly won't have the appearance of
Speaker 4: a very strong football conference, but they'll have this you know,
Speaker 4: call it twenty twenty five, thirty million dollars from the
Speaker 4: Mountain West. That was only possible because of the exit
Speaker 4: fees that the other schools in the Mountain West were
Speaker 4: responsible to leave, right, and so they could either go
Speaker 4: be the eighth team in the PAC twelve. You know,
Speaker 4: the PAC twelve kind of made it clear early on
Speaker 4: that they didn't believe that un LB should be a
Speaker 4: part of that first wave. So you could either be
Speaker 4: the eighth school in this new look PAC twelve, which
Speaker 4: still isn't a power conference, or you could kind of
Speaker 4: be the you know, the top of the heap in
Speaker 4: this new mountain, new look Mountain West with all the
Speaker 4: money that they've they've been incentivized with to stay. So, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's a it's it's an interesting dynamic, and you know,
Speaker 4: there's still a lot more moveing that has to happen
Speaker 4: because both conferences are still below the minimum threshold to
Speaker 4: be to be a conference by NCAA bylaws.
Speaker 1: And that's where I wanted to follow up. Both need
Speaker 1: add one more member institution. Any thoughts on who those
Speaker 1: schools could be?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's what I've been spending the day trying to
Speaker 4: figure out and there's not a real consensus yet. I
Speaker 4: mean they think if you game it out, there's a
Speaker 4: you know, a couple of places you go Texas State,
Speaker 4: you know, other Conference USA schools, I mean New Mexico
Speaker 4: State to the Mountain West, makes makes some sense. Utah
Speaker 4: is a school that you know, look, they don't have
Speaker 4: much in the way of football history. But you know,
Speaker 4: that's kind of where we're at here, right. This is
Speaker 4: the this is the trickle down effect of all this realignment.
Speaker 4: So we're talking about schools that don't really you know,
Speaker 4: relative to you know, the schools we're used to talking about,
Speaker 4: don't have a lot to offer. But that that's how
Speaker 4: far down the list we are. And I guess we
Speaker 4: should have expected that, right that the realignment was never
Speaker 4: going to really stop and eventually those schools were going
Speaker 4: to be brought into the mix. But I think we're
Speaker 4: going to see is you know, eventually some FCS schools
Speaker 4: are probably going to have to elevate, are going to
Speaker 4: be enticed to do so, to fill to fill out
Speaker 4: all those conferences. You know, eventually you're going to run
Speaker 4: out of schools, and so I think, you know, it's
Speaker 4: it's time to start vetting some of those FCF schools
Speaker 4: that might have some interest.
Speaker 1: When the dust settles, what happens with Gonzaga, you know,
Speaker 1: because there's all this like misinformation out there. A report
Speaker 1: was actually tweeted out then refuted, and now I'm just
Speaker 1: kind of wondering, you know, when the dust settles, where
Speaker 1: there's where they're going to end up?
Speaker 3: Kyle, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't be surprised if they ended
Speaker 4: up in the PAC twelve eventually. And I know the
Speaker 4: pactwelve has had conversations with them. I you know, confirmed
Speaker 4: that they had conversations with Saint Mary's also in the WCC, right,
Speaker 4: but where that conversation. When that conversation was taking place,
Speaker 4: the PAC twelve was also optimistic it was going to
Speaker 4: get the four AAC schools, right, and so keep in mind,
Speaker 4: if they had brought those four schools in, then the
Speaker 4: media evaluation for a potential deal was going to be
Speaker 4: different than it will be with wherever it settles on
Speaker 4: the football side, right, And so the amount of money
Speaker 4: that they could offer Gonzaga is going to be different
Speaker 4: now than it would have been with the AA schools
Speaker 4: in the mix of the AAC schools and potentially un
Speaker 4: LB in the mix, And so now Gonzaga has to
Speaker 4: then look at it again and say, Okay, like we
Speaker 4: have a pretty good thing going here. We've been able
Speaker 4: to turn ourselves into a national brand playing in this conference.
Speaker 4: Do we leave for whatever it is the pack this
Speaker 4: new look PAC twelve has to offer. I think it's
Speaker 4: a little bit of a different conversation than it would
Speaker 4: have been with those AAC schools, But yeah, I think
Speaker 4: once it's set, once football is settled, those conversations can
Speaker 4: get a little bit more serious again and they can
Speaker 4: kind of work out if it makes sense for both parties.
Speaker 4: I think the PAC twelve would like to have gun
Speaker 4: Zaga and potentially Saint Mary's if it just for like, uh,
Speaker 4: for numbers purposes for basketball, their payouts will be different
Speaker 4: than the football schools. Of course that should be pretty
Speaker 4: well understood. But yeah, I think we have to just
Speaker 4: wait a little bit before that those talks can really
Speaker 4: heat up and see how real they'll be.
Speaker 1: One more quick expansion question, because then we'll actually get
Speaker 1: to games that are being played. What's the latest as
Speaker 1: far as you understanding goes with Yukon and their flirtation
Speaker 1: Brett or Mark East Coast guy. He wants the New
Speaker 1: York market and if somebody grew up back there, I
Speaker 1: can tell you Yukon basketball moves the needle in a
Speaker 1: way that's saying John's doesn't, or you know, even Syracuse
Speaker 1: obviously they're upstate. But Yukon basketball would help the Big Twelve,
Speaker 1: you know, at least kind of sneak in a little
Speaker 1: bit through the side door to that New York market.
Speaker 1: You think that's a union that is inevitable given time.
Speaker 3: Where are you at with that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know. I don't have any great like
Speaker 4: first hand insight and reporting, like only the only inside
Speaker 4: I have to that is just what I've read as well. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean it's it's an interesting proposition, right, But the
Speaker 4: problem is that is that Yukon also has football, and
Speaker 4: I don't think the Big Twelve has any interest in
Speaker 4: bringing Yukon football into the mix. I know the Pac
Speaker 4: twelve has had some discussions with Yukon, like preliminary discussions
Speaker 4: about bringing them in as a football only member to
Speaker 4: try to get to try to get them to the
Speaker 4: necessary amount of schools too. Right, So Yukon's in a
Speaker 4: weird place fitting into this whole mix. I mean, the
Speaker 4: conversations have been ongoing for a while. My understanding is
Speaker 4: that a lot of the schools in the Big Twelve
Speaker 4: were not really in favor. I mean, Yukon entered the
Speaker 4: league and that probably carried the day as far as
Speaker 4: setting those conversations to the side for the time being.
Speaker 3: All right, good stuff there.
Speaker 1: You guys have done a great job and you specifically
Speaker 1: on kind of helping us understand all of this.
Speaker 3: Let's move over now.
Speaker 1: To the Utes who start out four and oh one
Speaker 1: and oh and Big Twelve play and you know, Cameron Rising,
Speaker 1: it continues to be a question mark and Isaac Wilson
Speaker 1: has been under centered the past couple of games, but
Speaker 1: they've been able to get it done.
Speaker 3: And they go to Stillwater where no one wins.
Speaker 1: I mean, Oklahoma State is tough to play in their stadium,
Speaker 1: but a four and oh start one and oh one
Speaker 1: conference they welcome in Arizona coming up on Saturday night,
Speaker 1: and Kyle, as you know, Arizona stopped them pretty good
Speaker 1: last year and the coaches and players have talked a
Speaker 1: lot about that throughout the course of the week, watching
Speaker 1: Arizona K State. Watching k State kind of bully them
Speaker 1: around the field gives me a lot of confidence that
Speaker 1: you talk and do the same. So where yet with
Speaker 1: the start of the utes season and what do you
Speaker 1: think happens on Saturday night?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean you have to be happy with four
Speaker 4: o obviously, right, and the fact that yeah, I mean
Speaker 4: you look if you looked at the schedule to start
Speaker 4: the year, and I think the Oklahoma State game was
Speaker 4: the game that was like, oh yeah, that's that'll be
Speaker 4: the toughest game on the schedule. It's Oklahoma State. They
Speaker 4: you know, came in with with high expectations. That's on
Speaker 4: the road. And to win that game without Cam, I
Speaker 4: think is a statement of intent about what's possible this season.
Speaker 4: I still I still think they need him back to
Speaker 4: make a real run at the playoff and to accomplish
Speaker 4: the things that they think they can write it that
Speaker 4: I think they can. But you know, at the same time,
Speaker 4: it's I feel so like gunshy now about like what
Speaker 4: do you make of it? Right? It's been the same
Speaker 4: story for for a long time with with Cam and
Speaker 4: is he available? Is he not available? This one doesn't
Speaker 4: seem as serious, but at the same time, you know,
Speaker 4: there was a there was like early last year, we
Speaker 4: also thought he was a week away, right, And so
Speaker 4: it's hard to really try to make sense of it.
Speaker 4: I'm sure that you guys have a better read into
Speaker 4: it just being there and and and hearing from players
Speaker 4: and coaches during the week, but you know, from a
Speaker 4: national perspective, trying to monitor it is it has become
Speaker 4: really difficult. Arizona interesting team because I mean I was
Speaker 4: really high on Arizona coming too the year. They have
Speaker 4: a lot back from a team that you know finished
Speaker 4: the finished last year with seven straight wins. It was
Speaker 4: one of the best seasons in school history. You got
Speaker 4: this quarterback who was playing at a Heisman level down
Speaker 4: the stretch, best receiver in college football. But the last
Speaker 4: two weeks that the offense just hasn't hasn't clicked. I mean,
Speaker 4: they didn't move the ball at all outside the first
Speaker 4: drive against Kansas State and even against Northern Arizona it
Speaker 4: was it was it was pretty dire on the offensive side,
Speaker 4: and so they had the talent to be good and
Speaker 4: to give you tall all it can handle. And you saw,
Speaker 4: you know McMillan and I know, if it Beata last
Speaker 4: year and what they can do. But you know, here
Speaker 4: we are three games into the year and they kind
Speaker 4: have kind of reset expectations on Arizona. So I'm excited
Speaker 4: to be there. I'll be there in Salt Lake this
Speaker 4: this weekend for this one. So excited to check out
Speaker 4: both these teams in person for the first time this year.
Speaker 1: Oh very nice, Well, travel safe, You're gonna enjoy some
Speaker 1: great weather. It's a late kick, but it's supposed to
Speaker 1: be like seventy degrees at eight o'clock on.
Speaker 3: Saturday, so it should be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you your opinion on because you know,
Speaker 1: we've discussed the as you can imagine here in Saul Lake,
Speaker 1: we've discussed the Camra Rising Isaac Wilson dynamic quite a bit. Look,
Speaker 1: the bottom line, Kyle is money does change the equation.
Speaker 1: It does change the conversation and folks around here like
Speaker 1: if Camera Rising is really being paid seven figures to
Speaker 1: play quarterback for the University of Utah. I think it
Speaker 1: changes the way people view how this stuff has been handled.
Speaker 3: Now, I am of the opinion that he's hurt.
Speaker 1: We had coach went on the show yesterday and they're
Speaker 1: trying to get him back, and when he's right, he's
Speaker 1: going to play.
Speaker 3: That's where I stand now.
Speaker 1: You referenced last year, it was the same stuff every week,
Speaker 1: getting close you know, needs to be cleared by the doctor,
Speaker 1: doctor Neil Atrasha, And that was a real thing.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying it wasn't.
Speaker 1: But do you think we're high speed ahead to college
Speaker 1: football adopting the pro model of reporting injuries? Because until
Speaker 1: Kyle gets the email from the Big twelve saying you
Speaker 1: gotta report, he's simply gonna do everything he can to
Speaker 1: do his one job, which is to win football games.
Speaker 1: And if he thinks holding some information back gives him
Speaker 1: an advantage, he's going to continue to do it. At
Speaker 1: some point, do you think coaches will be mandated to
Speaker 1: report like they are in pro football.
Speaker 4: I do think that's going to be the case, and
Speaker 4: it's already happening in the SEC. I believe. I think
Speaker 4: that policy this year, right, and so look, it's it's
Speaker 4: once it starts, Like I think a lot of those
Speaker 4: policies kind of fall into line across the country. So like,
Speaker 4: I can't imagine there's a world where the SEC is
Speaker 4: the only conference doing that interperpetuity, right, I think it's
Speaker 4: reasonable to have that policy in play. But look, I
Speaker 4: covered the forty nine ers when Jim Harbaugh was the coach,
Speaker 4: and he said something that always stuck with me is like, look,
Speaker 4: if we think something is going to give us, you know,
Speaker 4: a one percent chance to be better, to have a
Speaker 4: better chance, so when we're going to chase that one person.
Speaker 4: And it was like something really insignificant that he was
Speaker 4: talking about at the time, But I think that applies
Speaker 4: with the injury stuff. I mean, if you can force
Speaker 4: another team to prepare for two quarterbacks that are kind
Speaker 4: of different in style, like, yeah, there's probably some benefit there.
Speaker 4: Like is it going to swing the game? You know,
Speaker 4: I don't know, Probably not right. But at the same time,
Speaker 4: if you're adding a little bit more to the other
Speaker 4: team's plate during the week that they have to prepare for,
Speaker 4: like that's not a bad thing. And I don't know
Speaker 4: if there's a real tangible benefit to announcing your starter
Speaker 4: early and so yeah, like I want to find out
Speaker 4: who's playing. I'm it will generate interest, right. It certainly
Speaker 4: helps speading lines and those sort of things, and gives
Speaker 4: everyone a better sense about what to expect. But yeah,
Speaker 4: I think Kyle's wealth and his right to operate that
Speaker 4: way is as frustrating as it might be.
Speaker 1: So we might have two very elead college football teams
Speaker 1: in our state.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: I am a pump the brakes guy on BYU for now,
Speaker 1: just because of the way the game went down last
Speaker 1: weekend against k State. But k State rolls in a
Speaker 1: provo as the number thirteen team in the country and
Speaker 1: BYU just smoked them. Now, there was a insane punt return,
Speaker 1: there was a scoop and score, there were two picks
Speaker 1: inside of the red zone. I think BYU had like
Speaker 1: two hundred and forty nine yards of offense. But it
Speaker 1: is what it is. They get to win. It wasn't close.
Speaker 1: They're four and oh now, they were three and oh
Speaker 1: a year ago. They get into Big twelve play last
Speaker 1: year and it was just a catastrophe. They will tell
Speaker 1: you there were one or two plays from winning three
Speaker 1: or four of the games.
Speaker 3: That's great.
Speaker 1: I don't hand out participation trophies on the show. They've
Speaker 1: never won a Big twelve road game. They're zero to five.
Speaker 1: They've lost their last ten Day games. Crazy enough, it's
Speaker 1: a ten am kick at least Mountain Time style at Baylor.
Speaker 1: So before I set you loose, same question I asked
Speaker 1: you about Utah. What do you make of BYU's clean start?
Speaker 1: What do you think happens coming up on Saturday?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I think they're clearly a better team
Speaker 4: than Baylor. Right, Like the early morning thing is interesting.
Speaker 4: I wasn't aware of that, but yeah, I mean you
Speaker 4: have to it four to oh. I think the SMU
Speaker 4: win actually looks pretty good. It was a kind of
Speaker 4: a not any very exciting game. But look, they held
Speaker 4: a team to fifteen points that went out and scored
Speaker 4: sixty six the next week, right, And so there's something
Speaker 4: you know to like about that. I mean, the rest
Speaker 4: of the schedule, you know, make up with what you will,
Speaker 4: but I you know, to be here at four oh
Speaker 4: to have the win against K State and look as
Speaker 4: kind of unusual as the game was against K State,
Speaker 4: I mean you laid it out well with just all that.
Speaker 4: It wasn't the traditional domination, but it was still a
Speaker 4: lop sided win against a ranked team that had just
Speaker 4: had its way with Arizona the week before, right, And
Speaker 4: so yeah, I mean I think it's this is always
Speaker 4: the case. Early in the year, right, it's like, Okay,
Speaker 4: we're watching, we're paying attention. Now you've earned the right
Speaker 4: to kind of be in the conversation, and now at
Speaker 4: this point of the season is where we kind of
Speaker 4: really separate, you know, and try to figure out, you
Speaker 4: know how, what to make of those early non conference results.
Speaker 1: Cole, appreciate the time man, enjoyed the weekend ahead, and
Speaker 1: enjoy your time out here, and we'll get you back
Speaker 1: on again soon.
Speaker 3: Okay, sounds good, all right.
Speaker 1: Kyle Boneger covers college football for ESPN. Get him on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Voneger at ESPN. He's been really really good
Speaker 1: with the expansion stuff PAC twelve Mound West Conference style
Speaker 1: be in town for Utah Arizona, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: you can hear that game on our radio station beginning
Speaker 1: at four point fifteen with pregame coverage with Porter Larson.