Is this FINALLY going to happen?!?

There's a lot of other things we're going to talk about but first we are going to get to our friend Brian Murphy WRAL sports investigative reporter. He joins us. Doesn't have to go back to Greensboro today because North Carolina and NC State are out. Can we start with the potential for a sports gambling bill to hit the floor of the North Carolina State Legislature?

Where are we with that, sir? Yeah, I expect that next week we'll be talking about actual legislation. Next week?

Next week. I know I'm starting to feel like the boy who cried wolf here but all indications are, at least to me, that next week the bill will actually be unveiled and then we can go from there through the process. That would be fantastic if they could finally get a bill to that. What is the holdup or is the holdup the bill or is the holdup like a lot of other stuff that is going on?

Yeah, I think the holdup is a lot of other stuff that's going on. For example, there's like been 346 bills introduced in the House already and that's not to mention all the bills in the Senate. I know we have sometimes a narrow focus on the sports gambling legislation. They have a much broader focus on everything else that's happening. Also, remember Jason Sain, who's the primary sponsor of this bill and kind of the leader of it, is also the director or the head of the budget committee.

Just yesterday they introduced the Appropriations Act, which is a $26 billion budget for the state of North Carolina. Sometimes things take maybe a little more precedence than the sports gambling. No question about that, even though it's a big deal because it does mean state revenue, like a lottery means state revenue.

It's also, well, I'll just use the term quality of life issue, but it's an entertainment. It's like something for your citizens, especially as many who want something like this to happen. Do we have anything leaked about whether or not we would have any restrictions on that? Because I know last year they tried to, at the very end, they put can't bet on college sports.

Anything like that? Do we know what the tax rate would be or are we still just kind of flying blind? No, we have a lot of that information. The bill will be very similar to what the end bill ended up last year. College sports is back in the bill. The tax rate is back at 14 percent, which is where it ended last session when it failed by a single vote in the House. I think we're looking at a January 1st type of start date if this gets passed. Obviously, there's a lot of steps before that, but yeah, the fees have been raised between the Senate bill that did pass and the House bill that did not pass. They had increased a lot of the fees. All that stuff is in the new bill, which again, I expect to see next week.

All right, well, we're looking forward to that. Brian Murphy, WRAL Sports investigative reporter, is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. Did you happen to catch the Nick Saban interview with Ross Dellinger on Sports Illustrated's website, SI.com, in where Saban basically said, he said, uh, athletes no longer go to schools that will help them create the most value for themselves.

They go to schools based on where they can make the most money. Did you have, did you catch that? I did. I read, I read a lot of it, yep. What are your thoughts on Saban's problem?

He says he has no problem with NIL, but he seems to have a problem with, at the very least, at the very least, collectives. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's funny for a coach who's, you know, the most highly paid coach in, in college football and who has switched jobs many, many times. I mean, he was the coach at Michigan State. Then he left to be the coach at LSU. And I'm sure he didn't choose that because he loved New Orleans food. I'm sure he chose it because LSU was willing to pay him a lot more than Michigan State was. And then he left for the Dolphins, who were willing to pay him a lot more than LSU was. And he stayed at Alabama in part because they have a great football tradition, but also because they pay him more than any other college would pay him. I just think coaches, and this has happened, you know, since, since NIL kind of started, when coaches start talking about, players are only doing this for the money. I mean, it's the hypocrisy meter is just, you know, buzzing over and over and over again.

And nobody, you know, they don't seem to have the self-awareness to figure that out. No, I think in, in every situation like this, and we've had coaches locally who were upset at just like the recruiting calendar or when the decisions had to be made to, made to go into the draft, because it does impact the way they either do or have done for a long time business, right? Whether it's recruiting, roster management, retention, all of that kind of gets played with when the, I guess the rules change.

The, I do think that he had a point about the collectives in this regard, and I don't think the collectives are bad. This, but this is exactly what the NCAA warned against going in. When they knew that NIL and the athletes being allowed to get money from third parties, meaning not the schools, you know, could be direct from sponsors or even payments from boosters, right, are, are essentially legal now. When, when they knew that was going to be the case, they said, we do not want NIL to be used as a recruiting inducement. And in many cases, that's what the collectives are doing.

They are providing, or will pay you this out of this, out of this wing. It's not of the athletic department. It's not, it's not connected to the university, but it is loosely connected to the university. And that's what Saban is talking about. It sounds to me like Alabama doesn't have a good collective.

Well, I think a lot of it is control, right? When Nick Saban was the one making the decisions about who gets to come to Alabama, he gives him a lot of control on that roster. Now suddenly there are others out there, and maybe this doesn't happen at Alabama, but I think we're seeing it at Texas A&M and other places, when, hey, the boosters, the collective has put a million dollars to get this guy to campus. Well, that certainly puts the coach in a, in a different spot. He's not the ruler. He's not the emperor of everything anymore when people are buying players.

And, and, and again, I don't mean that in a bad way. When players are coming to campus with a paycheck, with a car, with all that, it shifts the, the coach athlete relationship. And it certainly switches the coach booster relationship when, when they're the one responsible for getting a kid to campus and not the recruiting coordinator or not the head coach. And, and I think that's what we're hearing from coaches is this change in this dynamic of we were the, the Lords of our kingdom here. And suddenly we have a lot more power centers and I'm not a hundred percent in charge of what happens at Alabama, even though I'm being paid like I'm, I'm a hundred percent in charge. And even though, I mean, quite honestly, I'm being judged on what happens at Alabama. Jimbo Fisher's being judged at what happens at Texas A&M and at Texas A&M.

And at some point, I think if you gave him truth serum, he would say, well, I didn't really get to pick the entire roster. I had, you know, boosters and other people doing that for me in some ways. Yeah. I mean, look, boosters have been underground, the kind of the driving force, especially at places like Auburn and, you know, and Texas A&M. I mean, Texas, there's the booster culture is just, I mean, it's, it's becoming more on the surface now. We're starting to see it. Uh, and I mean, it's probably not all that healthy, but it has always been there. Uh, now we're just seeing more of it. It's like the iceberg has finally broken through the surface. Oh, and now, Oh, that's what that that's, what's going on there. Uh, by the way, to tie this back to what you were talking about in North Carolina and the basketball tournament, I think, you know, in a different environment, maybe we don't see all those guys come back from last year's team, but the fact that NIL money was available, um, the fact that they could profit off their name image and like this, I think changes the decisions for a lot of players.

I'll be interested. That's a good thing though, isn't it? Sure. And I'm not, but I'm saying like, you know, so a team that may have broken up in the past comes back, gets, you know, has these high expectations and underperforms, uh, you know, or, or, or doesn't listen to Hubert or however, whatever you think happened to the North Carolina team this year. I think it's safe to say that team would not have existed in a pre, uh, NIL era that those guys would have dispersed. They would have gone their separate ways, but because of the environment, the year that they happened to, to reach the final four, there was a lot of incentives for them to come back.

Yeah. You know, it's funny that they're asking Armando Bakeout those questions. Now, are you going to come back for another year? If Armando Bakeout comes back for essentially his COVID year, then he is going to make more money at UNC than he could make playing basketball anywhere because he's not an NBA player. So he would, he could play overseas and he could make, I think he can make some pretty nice money, but I don't think he can make the money he's going to make as a fifth year player at UNC. I just don't. Uh, but he, so he does have an interesting decision to make. Uh, speaking of money, does Greensboro lose out at all because we don't have, we have Duke and Miami on one half, but no offense to Virginia and Clemson both, by the way, close enough to drive and there will be fans there.

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See Capital One dot com slash bank for details. Capital One N A member F D I C. Yeah, I was actually surprised at the number of Virginia fans there last night. Yeah, I thought, I thought, I figured it was all NC State fans cheering against Carolina, but when you looked up, it was, it was all orange.

Um, yeah, certainly Greensboro loses. I will say, and I know everyone is in love with the tournament in Greensboro and I, I'm, I'm, you know, not here to, to step on that at all, but you had North Carolina and NC State in the night sessions of both Wednesday and Thursday. And I was there for both of them. Those were not capacity venues. I mean, the, the, the place was not filled. Um, it was, it was, there was a lot of people there. I'm not denying that, but, but it wasn't jam packed. And now obviously that's a Wednesday night and a Thursday night, people got to travel.

They got, you know, kids in school and all that stuff. I understand, but I was expecting just, you know, it's back in Greensboro. This place is going to be packed. You've got Carolina and state both nights. Um, and it, and it wasn't, and it was very good crowds and, and I don't know exactly what the capacity was, but I, so anyhow, to answer your question, I think they're going to lose a lot. I mean, there were lots and lots of Carolina fans there, um, the last two nights, and I can't imagine they're going to show up to, to root against Duke tonight. Um, and so, yes, I think it's going to lack some of that and we'll see how many Duke fans travel. And if it's Duke Virginia on, on Saturday night, I do think that'll be a good crowd, but certainly not when you, you know, we're hoping for, if you could get state or Carolina into the, into the final four there. Duke has an axe to grind with all three teams that are remaining.

All of the orange that is in that building tonight. Duke has an axe to grind. They got blown out by Miami after they beat North Carolina the first time, uh, and they lost late against Clemson and they got hosed at Virginia. So Duke, I don't know if they're going to get they're going to get revenge.

I don't know about any of that. Uh, but, uh, they're playing really well. So it should be, they look like the best team in the tournament. I mean, having seen all the teams play over the last couple of days, Duke looked like the best team in the tournament and probably the team most capable of going far in, in March in the big tournament. I, they are, to me, they are a hundred percent matchup determined.

Quickness is going to bother them, but if they don't have to deal with a lot of quickness, Duke's big and they're skilled and it could be a lot of fun. You are a lot of fun. Brian Murphy, WRAL sports investigative reporter at Murph's Turf on Twitter. Thank you. We'll talk again next week, my man.

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