Future of Two or Three Super Conferences // Pete D' Arruda On The "Dickie V" Documentary

This is the best of the Adam Gold Show Podcast, brought to you by Coach Pete at Capital Financial Advisory Group.

Visit us at capitalfinancialusa.com. This is the Adam Gold Show. We had, you know, Brent's a really, really skilled guy. I mean, if you watch the kind of goals he scores, it's not like he stands at the blue line and just rips shots. You know, he can do that, but at the same time, amazing hands. I mean, you know, can make plays in tight that you wouldn't expect from a guy that size, especially a defensive end.

So there's that, and then I think just the bigger body. I mean, I know the NHL's moving more toward, you know, this size maybe isn't as important, but you can't, you know, you put a 6'5 guy in front of your own net in the defensive end, and that helped. It's the Adam Gold Show, I'm Adam Gold. Yesterday we talked to Corey Lavallett, North State Journal, about where the Hurricanes are. I personally believe that the roster isn't as good as it was a year ago, even though they certainly upgraded it a couple of spots, but overall, I think there's still some room. I don't know what they're going to do between now and the start of the season, but that's another story for another time. I am Adam Gold, this is the Adam Gold Show. What we do at 2 o'clock is we kind of run through a lot of the sound from yesterday, because a lot of stuff came from SEC Media Day, and it's worth your time.

The wall of sound is a function of this studio. There's no doubt about it. Alright, I want to start with the commissioner of the SEC, Greg Sankey, who I think is, first of all, it has been a given for the last, probably longer than 15 years, but it has been a given that the SEC plays the best football. They have the best football. Maybe we could joke around and say, it just means more. It does. But they simply play the best football. And that's been the case. That doesn't mean they always have the best team.

Oftentimes they do. Ohio State has won national championships. Clemson has won national championships.

You don't have to go back that far. Southern Cal won a national championship. But the SEC has played the best football. And because of that, their television package has, until the Big Ten will eclipse them this year, and they will, the television package has been the best, and they have earned the most money. They will be second, but it really doesn't matter.

They'll be second to the Big Ten, but they'll both be right around or north of $100 million annually. Anyway, the commissioner, Greg Sankey, is kind of feeling himself these days. And here's Sankey on, I guess it's the aftermath of the Southern Cal UCLA defection from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten.

A lot of it you could foresee, but there are elements that the Big Ten move was obviously a surprise, I think, collectively. And the reality is things change. It's not as if we can just sit back and not expect that there won't be more change that will come. And now we've got the transformation committee.

I don't even know if that was a thing a year ago, rewriting the Constitution. You're co-chair on that group. What is left to decide? Oh, a lot.

Really a lot. So if you go back, the Constitution committee was formed and announced, and when you look at the language, a bit of hyperbole it seemed to me, because the Constitution of the NCAA is 43 pages, and it assigns authority and process. So the real issues were in Division I, and the charge to the transformation committee was about direct financial benefits to student-athletes, governance and decision-making, membership, regulatory culture. And to walk through those and deal with process issues just takes some time.

And Dennis, you have to think through the membership part. Division I hasn't dealt with that effectively in decades. So to think it would be wrapped up in six months, I think, was inattentive to all that had happened before. That was an interview with Greg Sankey and Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com, and he was talking about the transformation committee in the NCAA. I'm not sure what any of that really means for what's going on right now in college sports, because the only thing that really matters is how much money these conferences can get. And we're going to hear from Nick Saban in a little bit. My read on Nick Saban is that he's not happy with what's going on in college sports. That he really isn't happy about what's going on.

But we'll get to that in a second. First of all, Dennis Cox is checking in. He missed place your bets, but that's okay.

He's at the Westin in Charlotte. Did you trip a fire alarm? What did you do down there? No, I did not trip a fire alarm, Adam. I believe what happened was Jim Phillips arrived and he realized, oh no. And I think that's really what went through his head, and that's what tripped the fire alarm. I think it's been a fire alarm. It's really, you know, I guess you could say, for lack of a better term, the feeling around the ACC right now. Because Notre Dame wants a lot of money, and I don't know if the ACC can give it to them. It's a figurative fire alarm.

Yeah, it's figurine and literal. All right, all right. What else? Do you have anything else to report from the Westin? Well, I was trying to confirm if it was Jim Phillips or if it was Notre Dame that tripped off the fire alarm, but I'm still trying to work on contacting my sources right now. People are still now just actually coming back into the building.

So that's something I got to try and figure out who actually set this alarm off because I want to get to the bottom of this, and I think we got to get the scoop on this out. So what happens, did you ask anybody, what happens tomorrow if we're in the middle of the show and the fire alarm goes off? We all got to go down the stairwell. That's what I learned. We all got to go out the stairwell. Everyone has to leave. Well, it's not that far. It's like one flight. True, true.

But if you're coming up from a parking garage, it's a little bit further than that. But yeah, I think we're all just going to have to clear it out, which I don't know that's what it's going to mean for us tomorrow, but I know Jim Phillips talks at 9.30. I'm setting, I know Place Your Bets was the last segment. I'm going to place the over under a number of questions about the future of the ACC with Jim Phillips.

Setting the over under at one and a half. I want somebody to ask Jim Phillips a question about live golf. You can. I won't. No, I'm not going to be in there asking questions. I'm going to be a voyeur. I'm not going to be an active participant. Okay, that's fair.

I respect that. Well, I'm glad glad you were not the cause of the fire alarm. I don't know. Maybe I was kidding.

I wasn't. Okay, good, good. Anything else to report?

No, nothing yet. There's just a lot of signage. You know, ACC is here way better than it was in Brooklyn. I mean, granted, there's a lot of signage around Brooklyn, but people around here care. Nobody in Charlotte cares about the ACC football media day.

Nobody. I know there are big bowls of oranges, right? I actually haven't seen bowls of oranges yet. They'll be there. I mean, I began the crew here setting everything up was delayed with a fire alarm.

So no bowls of oranges yet. They'll be there tomorrow. All right, man.

I'll see you in a little while. Thanks, Adam. All right, Dennis Cox, who is reporting live from the fire alarm at the Westin in Charlotte for tomorrow. I'm glad I'm glad we got that.

All right. Here's Nick Saban. We'll play this. We'll come back and talk about it on the other side because I if you listen to Nick Saban, he does not sound like he is a happy camper based on what is going on around college sports. This is from get up with Mike Greenberg. Not get up with Mike. It was a get up.

The migrate. Yeah, I think it's get up with Mike. This is from get up from yesterday show or maybe it was earlier today with Mike Greenberg on what's going on with conference realignment. Think that, you know, mega conferences may be something that, you know, we all have to deal with in the future. I think, you know, probably, you know, money probably drives a lot of this. I can't blame people for that sort of above my pay grade, though, to know, you know, what we should do as a league in the SEC or what any other league should do. But I think as we progress forward, the mega conference will create a little more of a caste system, maybe in college football. And I think everybody's got to decide if that's the direction we really want to go or not. I think your opinion is as important as any. Is that a good change or a bad change in the long run and the big picture for a sport that you've basically dedicated your whole life to? I think probably for the halves, which obviously at Alabama were one of the halves. It's probably a good thing for some of the have nots.

Some of the sort of I don't know what you would say. Second half of each league. You know, maybe it won't work out as well. Maybe there's some system like, you know, the pro soccer league in Europe where you can play your way into it.

I don't know how it all works out. I know that one thing that we've always tried to do is keep competitive balance in college athletics. And I think this could affect that, you know, significantly for, you know, some people in college football.

So if I don't know if it's easy to tell just listening to it. But if you're looking at it, if you're watching Nick Saban and I saw the video, he doesn't sound like a guy who is in favor of what is happening. And I'm not I could be wrong. I could be completely. He's right in that it's not going to impact Alabama negatively.

Can't. Alabama's basically at the top of the food chain. George's.

George is at the top of the food chain. The schools like that. These are the schools that make all the money and they recruit at the very top and they win all the time. And Ohio State is there and Clemson has been there. We'll see if Clemson stays there.

I don't know. But something in there that Saban said that was really, really important. And we'll isolate that what we come back because there is a downside to this and we'll hit that on the other side on the Adam Gold Show.

There are people in their cars right now going out there. All right. Great track. If I want to mess up on the production side of things every now and then, I feel like I should at least get the bump in music.

That's pretty good. Pretty good track. Very, very good live. Incredible song live.

Actually, all dead songs are better live than they are in studios. The Adam Gold Show. I'm Adam Gold. That is Graham Hell on the ones and twos. Very cool stuff.

All right. SEC Media Day gave us a lot and we listened to Nick Saban a second ago. And in a couple of minutes, you get a clip from Kirk Herb Street from ESPN about where he sees the future going.

I actually think Kirk is a lot more right than most of these people that we have heard from. But Nick Saban did not sound like a happy camper. It's great for Alabama. The amount of money coming in is great for Alabama. Although if you can't pay the players. Right now, colleges aren't directly paying the athletes.

Then it's just excess. So we're just going to have like super duper locker rooms and they could have 47 quality control coaches. They're gonna have to bury the money somewhere or maybe the athletic departments will just fund, you know, women's hockey. University of Alabama will have a women's hockey team because they have so much money coming in. Anyway, so Saban was talking about it's great for Alabama. It's great for the like the schools at the top. But there's a cautionary tale here.

And this is what he had to say. I think probably for the haves, which obviously at Alabama were one of the haves. It's probably a good thing for some of the have nots.

Some of the sort of I don't know what you would say. Second half of each league. You know, maybe it won't work out as well. There you go. Maybe there's some system like, you know, the post hockey league in Europe. Oh, he's talking about relegation here. Relegation might work, but at that point you would have to have like 30 teams in each conference.

Maybe not quite 30. It'd be like 24 teams in each conference to have relegation work. To have relegation be a viable option. I don't think we're headed to that.

Although you could do it in college. You can't do it in professional sports in the United States. For all the people who think that, oh, that's what MLS needs. We need relegation.

Nobody has ever explained how that would work. Teams are trying to win. Teams are trying to win and you're not going to tell me that somebody is going to pay.

David Tepper paid what? 300 million dollars for Charlotte FC? You're not going to tell me that he's going to pay 300 million dollars to get into MLS and then all of a sudden be playing in MLS too.

Sorry, that's not going to happen. It's not the way this works in American professional team sports, but theoretically it could work in college. But what Saban was referring to there was that if we keep growing as conferences and ultimately you end up simply playing yourself. Because if you have a 20 team league, which is where a lot of people think that the SEC and the Big Ten are headed. Well, you're going to play your entire schedule against yourself.

I mean, I've wondered for years why if you're excluded from everybody's party, why you would partake, why you would help them out by scheduling them. So I don't think that's going to happen. So if the SEC is just scheduling themselves, somebody's got to lose. And even even before we get to that, I mean, wait till Texas and Oklahoma get a load of whatever division they're going to be in. The SEC West, I don't even know.

So again, somebody's got to lose. And I think that's what Saban was talking about right there. All right, Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN was asked about how he sees the future of college football now.

And he went beyond two power conferences. The more I listen and the more I'm talking to people, I wouldn't be surprised if we settle ultimately in three power conferences. You know, those teams that are left out of joining the Big Ten, I don't know what's going to happen with Notre Dame. But just for argument's sake, if they eventually give in and go to the Big Ten, that put the Big Ten at 17. You know, the Big Ten is going to go get one more or two more.

Right. So that will change things up drastically. But whoever's left when the dust settles, they don't go into the SEC. They don't go into the Big Ten. I think there's a good chance we're going to end up with three power conferences with right around 20 teams. And what I want to know is what will happen to the teams that are left out of those 55 to 60 teams that ultimately are going to kind of be in this new world that we're headed towards.

Where a college football playoff is kind of dictating it. Adam Golden Studio with my man Coach Pete DeRuder with the Capital Financial Advisory Group. We are talking retirement. Coach, let's say I have more than a million dollar balance in my 401k. Congratulations.

Thank you very much. How can that actually come back and bite me? Well, because, and this is the thing that we, it's a mirage. You see mirages.

I've written in the desert before. You see what's water ahead, but it's not there. Well, your financial mirage is thinking that that total balance in your 401k or your IRA is yours. We have two people that want to get a hold of it. Two uncles.

Uncle North Carolina and Uncle Sam. Right. Both of them are going to do some damage to that balance, depending on what kind of other income you have. You could lose 40% of your value.

So if you're looking at a million dollar IRA, maybe it's only worth $600,000 to you. So how do we get around this? Well, you don't get around it because you end up in jail if you try to do that.

Ah, I see. We need tax planning to minimize the effect of taxation into the future. The tax train is coming, Adam. We need to make sure to minimize the effect of the derailment of our financial accounts. And for the next 10 people, we'll do it at no cost or obligation. Put together your very own tax and retirement plan.

800-661-7383 or text ADAM to 21000 for coach Pete DeRuta. If we are headed to a world where we have three power leagues, they'll all have 20 teams, roughly, and Notre Dame will be in one of those conferences. Because if that's where we're headed, then we'll have three, you know, essentially three seats at the table. And the teams that are playing football at that level will be part of the playoff. And if Notre Dame wants in, because there won't be anybody left to play, Notre Dame will be in one of those leagues. I'm not even assigning them to a league at this point, but that's what will likely happen. I don't know.

Maybe. I don't know that anything can happen for another seven, eight years. Everything's going to hinge on the ACC's grant of rights. We're going to talk about that a lot tomorrow and the next day, and people will try to explain why teams can or can't leave. But if the ACC's grant of rights proves legally sound, then the ACC will not disintegrate until somebody is willing to take a three or four year financial hit with a sledgehammer. I'm not saying that won't be possible, but so we're talking about until like 2032. So we're talking about another 10 years before something like that were to happen if the grant of rights proves legally binding. If it doesn't, then the teams will exit tomorrow. And that's a fact.

There's no middle ground here. And it won't be one or two teams. It will be a lot of teams. And the ACC will be picked over like the deer on the side of the road by vultures. That's what will happen. That's what is happening to the Pac-12. That's what will happen, what has happened to the Big 12.

If what you have is non-binding, you're fair game. That's all it is. It's kind of the way it is.

It's what mergers and acquisitions are in big business. And that's what it's ultimately going to be in college sports. Then you have to decide, is it healthy for college sports as a whole? It's okay if you've grabbed your piece for you, but it's probably not great for the sport as a whole.

But that's where we are in college athletics. There is a new, a documentary on Dick Vitale that is coming out in about a week. I think it's next, not this Saturday, but the following Saturday, I believe. No, it might be this Saturday.

I think it's this Saturday. So, we know the executive producer of the documentary. Dick Vitale has been on this show a lot.

Vitale will be honored at the ESPYs. I actually texted with Dick earlier today. He thought I was inviting him on the show. I was just telling him that we were going to talk about the documentary, but we're going to talk to the executive producer of that documentary. And look, Vitale is a really interesting character. We'll talk about Dick Vitale and what he has meant, not just to college sports, certainly meant to college basketball and ESPN.

Next. It's the Adam Gold Show. I'm Adam Gold. Sucking up to the host will get you far, Graham.

Graham is on the 1s and 2s today. Coming up on Thursday, following the ESPYs, if you are a subscriber to ESPN Plus, you can check out the Dick Vitale ESPN films. And we have the executive producer who's going to join us in a second. Here's a little, here is the official trailer for the Dickie V doc. Check this out.

What a big time move, super scintillating. Why the hell were you concerned about college basketball? Because Dickie V made you concerned. 80s, 90s, Dickie V was everywhere. I've never seen anything like it.

It's just, it's a firestorm coming at you. People don't realize Dick was a coach. He won back to back championships, high school coach Rutgers, and then became an NBA coach and got fired. It's really an amazing story. I was a boy, a ball, a dream. He's overcome a lot of adversity in his life, you know, from losing his eye.

Probably scared as I've ever been in my life. Look at the mirror. Look at my eye.

Just hated it. Now with this fight against cancer. I'm in the last chapter, man. I'm in the last chapter. It does not work.

It's doing something alone. Pete, we call him coach. I'll just call him Pete. This had to be an absolute blast. You've been working on this for a long time. It's been going on for two years, Adam. We're very happy to be releasing it right when Dick Vitale gets that award on Thursday night.

That's right. He gets the Jimmy V award for perseverance. And I actually, I texted with Dickie earlier today. I don't know why I just called him Dickie. I texted with Dick Vitale earlier today and thought I was inviting him on the show.

I was just saying hi because it made me think of him. And he said, I'm saving my voice for the SPS. And he should because I know like we've talked to Dick a lot and he makes himself very available.

So explain your involvement in this, why you wanted to do it and how he was to deal with. Well, we had a private screening in Chicago last week and Dick Vitale could not make it. He had throat surgery just a few weeks ago and then the doctor told him he could not talk for two weeks. I don't think his wife, Lorraine, said he can't stop talking for five minutes.

So we didn't want to get him around the big crowd in Chicago. But the reason I did it, I've had him on my show before. He does tremendous research for children's cancer research and the V Foundation. And everyone knows who doesn't know the V Foundation, Jim Valvano. And so he likes to concentrate on children's cancer research.

And if you've ever had a friend or family member who's had cancer when they're young, it's not fair. So I'm trying to fight that. And then this idea came along with Nick Nanton, who's the director of the movie. Good buddy of mine. He's won over 20 Emmys in his lifetime. And I've piggybacked with him as an executive producer. One three, one for Rudy to walk on about the movie Rudy.

So right now it's free online on Amazon, I think, or Netflix to go back and forth. But that's a great movie, too. But this one, I mean, we have people lining up, people that you see on TV, superstars like LeBron James, Shaquille O'Neal, which we couldn't get into time because ESPN rushed the deadline. But we've got like Stephen A. Smith, anyone you've ever seen on TV. Coach K was very generous with his time. Very.

He was good buddies with Jim Valvano as well. But it's just been a great movie. Nobody left that movie cinema without a tear in their eye. Some people admitted crying more than once. I'll admit I cried. I cried three times and I and I was behind the scenes watching the movie being made.

Here's the thing about about Vital. And I know it was alluded to, like he was a very successful high school coach. And I think he went to the University of Detroit, had a great year, had a great run there, and then got the job with the Pistons and didn't make it out of season one. And at that point becomes he gets an offer from ESPN to be a college basketball analyst. And he took it. He didn't know what to do. And I don't think he intended to keep that job forever. But I think you could make an argument that he is as responsible as Magic and Larry for the ascension of college basketball to what it is today.

I agree. Well, think about back then. We were just getting out of the back of the day. If you want to watch a basketball game, you had to turn the TV, the three channels you had around, see if one was on for the week. And then ESPN started showing them all the time.

And then this guy, the stick by tail guy. I mean, I tuned in sometime just to see what he was going to say. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you know, he's exciting. He's got a thousand books. I think he writes all his books with the same guy. Dick Weiss is another guy I know.

The longtime college basketball writer in New York and Philadelphia. But he's with the sayings and the showmanship. But he really was a salesman. And like I'm not I'm not comparing him to Tiger Woods. But in this regard, I think it's fair because Tiger made the sport of golf a incredibly more popular than it's ever been.

And also he made it more money than it had ever been made. And Vital's personality put college basketball on everybody's television. It just like I'm not saying that Coach K should give him a cut because he probably has probably made a bunch of donations to the V Foundation.

I know he has and he's done a lot of work for that. But, you know, like there's a part of everybody's salary that is probably owed to Vital. Well, I was talking to Mark Cuban and Mark Cuban gave half a million to the to the V Foundation because of Dick Vital. He said he was so infectious. And then Mark started researching and he said, I can't give enough to this foundation now.

Yeah, Vital has done so much. And you talk about childhood cancer and he's got the V Gala every year at his house. And they raised tons and tons of money. And then when he got his diagnosis, you know, he has come through. He has made it public. I don't know how many people would would essentially live this publicly like he has. But I just wonder what sort of an impact that has had on everybody else that he has decided to essentially share this with everybody else. Yeah, there was a time where you couldn't say college basketball without saying Dick Vital.

I don't know that that's still not the case, to be honest. Still today. Yeah, so it's been fun.

It's been a really fun project and I'm really excited to get it out. I think everyone listening will benefit by watching the movie. Oh, I don't think there's any question about that. The one thing that I don't know if if within the movie there are long snippets, but I used to watch the speeches he made at camps to kids and he would go on for a long time and he gets I mean, it is an athletic event when Dick Vital got worked up in these speeches. So I don't know how much of these speeches are are contained in the documentary, but I'm sure if you if there isn't you can find them online and they are inspiring, inspirational messages that he gives to kids who are really very impressionable.

And there's a lot of different things in the world today than there were maybe 25 years ago. We'll let you go. Pete DeRuta, executive producer of the Dickie V, ESPN 30 for 30, which drops on ESPN Plus Thursday night after the ESPYS and then Saturday at three at four o'clock on ESPN. Thank you for your time, sir. I'll talk to you soon. I'll see you soon. Take care, Adam.

You got it. Pete DeRuta, executive producer of the Dick Vital documentary. Look, I'm not I'm not lying. There are people who don't like Vital because it's all a show. And sometimes you think he's not paying attention to the game. I get it.

I get it. That happens a lot with a lot of a lot of analysts. But if you are a college basketball fan.

You have to look past that style. And thank Vital because when he started in 19, what, 79, I believe he started with ESPN. I mean, ESPN was showing Australian rules football, which I kind of like. But college basketball wasn't that big a deal. It was it was a big deal here, but it wasn't a big deal nationally.

Man, did he build that sport. Good for good for Vital. And it should be interesting to to check all of that out. All right. Let me ask this question. We have talked.

I don't I don't necessarily want to talk about the live golf tour. But there are there is one thing that it's not official yet, but nobody is denied it. So it's going to happen.

And there is one thing that might happen that are going to be game changers for a lot of people. David Farity was reported yesterday that he is going to leave NBC and work for live golf on a three year contract. Going to do eight to 10 events per year, which right now are not on TV. They're on your Internet. So in a week from this Thursday at the next event.

I don't even I don't I don't even think Farity is going to be working this year, but maybe he will at the next event. You can go online and watch the shotgun start in the 54 hole event. You can you can watch all that. And that's fair.

I've checked it out. It's golf, golf on your screen, whatever the screen is. It's just golf. But here's what's likely going to happen.

We can talk about Farity in a sec. Charles Barkley is meeting with live golf this week. And if they are meeting with Charles Barkley, it's it means that they would like Charles Barkley to go work for them. And if he does, it's very possible that he will not work for TNT. I'm not saying that's a done deal, but it's possible. If they want Barkley.

They are going to pay. For Charles Barkley. And Charles Barkley said this recently on Pat McAfee's radio show. Listen, you're right. I think I looked at the board. Dustin's the only one in contention.

I would love to see Dustin against Rory and Justin Thomas, because, man, that would be so awesome for TV. Because, like I say, I don't judge other people. Listen, if somebody gave me $200 million, I'd kill a relative. All right. That's it. I'm not sure we could do anything else after that.

I don't know what the next question would be, but we appreciate the hell out of you, Chuck. Hey, I'm serious. Hey, they say they've got $200 million. And Dustin Johnson got $150 million.

Hey, for $150 million, I'd kill a relative, even one I like. Hey, I think that's just signing bonuses, by the way. I think there is. I think it's anyways, your golf game's getting there.

You might be getting the same thing. See, that's all very funny. And it's part of the reason why this series was always going to work. Off of the crossbar! And the Hurricanes have won the Stanley Cup! June 19th, 2006. But it all started May 6th, 1997, with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina.

It's a story of transition, of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Cane's Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move, presented by the Aluminum Company of North Carolina. Listen now.

Find Cane's 25th Anniversary wherever you get your podcasts. Now, it doesn't have to work to the level of everybody going. It just has to work enough. Right?

There are different levels of need with this. But if Charles Barkley, if they want Charles Barkley, they're not going to offer him $100 million. But they could offer him $30 million a year. And it's going to be difficult for Charles Barkley or anybody to turn that money down. Like, this is what I was told that David Farity got to leave NBC. And I think he was making between $5 and $10 million annually at NBC. Farity.

I was told that Farity is getting between $20 and $30 million a year to do 8 to 10 events. Of course you're going to consider that. Look, I'm not even going to get into the morality play because I don't think that's, I don't think that's, it's not that it's not proper. It's just that it creates too many, well what about?

So I don't want to play any what about games. If you don't care the source of the money, and a lot of people don't, then fine. If you had an opportunity to make $25 million to work, I'm just going to do the math here in my head, let's just say 10 times 3, 30 days a year. Huh. I'm just saying, a hell of a lot more people would than wouldn't. Right? I mean, that's why, look, from a broadcaster's perspective, now what I am curious about with David Farity is, will we get to the point with Farity that we did with Arlo White, who is a complete shill for what is essentially a middling golf tournament. It's not a great golf tournament, it's just okay.

He is overselling a mediocre product. If you think that what we have seen is amazing, then you don't know what amazing is. Amazing was what we watched this week at St. Andrews. Middling is what we watched at Pumpkin Ridge, which was better than the first one at Centurion in London. And is not unlike, I'm not even saying that it's better or worse than some of the lower PGA Tour events. I'm not singing their praises.

But it's just not that great. But Arlo White, man, is selling. Like, I'll be curious if Farity goes that route. If he tries to, because I'm sure they have marching orders.

I'm sure they're told this is what we're going to do. We'll see how that plays out. But would NBA fans miss Charles Barkley from inside the NBA on TNT? I'd certainly miss him. But then again, I didn't expect to see him do as much NHL coverage as he did on TNT. Well, he didn't do coverage, he just loved it. He loves the NHL. He's a huge hockey fan, which is awesome.

Absolutely awesome. And it was great that TNT got part of the package it chose, so they could involve Barkley. But I think NBA fans would miss Charles Barkley from inside the NBA, if that's the route that TNT chose to take, or if that's the route that Barkley chooses to take. He might, $25 million to work 14 events?

I'll do that. Because I think they're going to, if they want Charles, they'll pay for Charles. Yeah, they'll pay for Charles. And Charles is, look, when those made for TV matches are on, on TNT, Barkley's part of the golf coverage, right? So, I mean, he knows the game, he understands the game. Barkley, and certainly, Faraday, would be way more important to live golf than almost every player who's playing their tour. Almost every single one.

Alright, let's get into where we run. So, Duke University men's basketball has been notorious for a lot of things. One of which, I shouldn't say notorious, I should say known for a lot of things. I don't think they're notorious for anything. But they're known among rival fans for not playing road games on an opponent's floor. Unless, of course, it is the Big Ten ACC Challenge, in which case, every other year they do. But John Shire has scheduled a home-in-home with Arizona, which starts not this upcoming season, but the next season. First game will be at Cameron, but in November of 2024, they will play in Tucson.

Interesting. Steve Wiseman, who covers Duke for the NNO, talked about it with us. They're going to bring that team to Cameron to beef up the home schedule, which is usually filled with lesser end of Division I, for the home fans to see.

So, it's a change in two ways. It's something that Coach K kind of got away from, particularly playing on an opponent's home court. You mentioned, we don't know how long it's been since they did this. I mean, they used to do it regularly in the 80s and 90s. I remember, you know, Christian Laitner and those guys going out and playing Shaq on a Sunday in Baton Rouge, right?

In February. But, you know, the last time that I found they did it was when they played, I mean, let's exclude, obviously, the ACC Big Ten Challenge. Right. And the St. John's Series, right? They used to play St. John's. And that game was at the Garden. So, Duke likes to play in the Garden every year, so we're going to remove that. It's a home game. They played at Georgetown.

Yeah, it's the second Cameron, right? So, but they played Georgetown in 2010 up in D.C. and they lost that game, if you remember. And that was the championship team's year. But that's the last time I found that they played like another, you know, name brand, power level, you know, Big East team, Big Ten, whatever, on the road in that situation. So, John Shire is one of the first things he and John Jackson, the sport administrator, talked about was this is something he was interested in doing. And they got their deal with Arizona this week.

That's pretty cool. Arizona's great. You know, it's a high level program. Those games will get major national recognition. And I think the most important thing is there, and I know some season ticket holders at Duke, like the home schedules have not been great. If you don't catch, you know, the Big Ten ACC Challenge when it's the home game year, I think the schedules is a whole, no offense to Elon, but it's a whole lot of Elons. Once upon a time when they were the second ranked team in the country in Kevin Keats' first season, NC State was able to upset them.

So yeah, they're a very historic program. Seems like that's the last major upset that Kevin Keats has gotten in his tenure. But no, this is a great non-conference scheduling pick that they've brought in, minus the ACC versus Big Ten Challenge, as you mentioned. Look, college basketball scheduling, it gives you a lot of freedom because there are enough games where you can play. I mean, a loss to a good team on the road isn't going to keep you out of the NCAA tournament.

It's just not. I mean, I've never asked Mike Krzyzewski why he stopped doing it, because I don't really think it matters. Because these, for the whole, the notion that it gets you tougher, Mike, whatever, you play a lot of road games in conference play. That gets you tougher too. So you're going to play, the ACC plays 20 conference games now, so you're going to play 10 road games in a league.

That makes you tough. One game at Wisconsin doesn't suddenly make you tougher. And NCAA tournament games are all played on a neutral court. So maybe it's even smarter to play high-level games on a neutral floor, because that's what really gets you ready for March, because these games are being played on neutral floors. But in the grand scheme of things, it's better for your fans if you bring in somebody who they don't normally see. Yeah, absolutely. And you get more TV coverage out of it.

I don't know if you get more. I think the TV coverage is the TV coverage. I don't think it matters. It's better than if you're bringing in Central Michigan. But if you play Arizona on an aircraft carrier, who's Michigan State playing? Carolina. No, well, they did play on an aircraft carrier a long time ago. Michigan State's playing another aircraft carrier game this year. I thought it was going to be Carolina again.

I thought they were going to do it twice. So it doesn't make a difference. If you're playing on an aircraft carrier or in an arena in the middle of Kansas, it doesn't matter. It's still going to be televised.

But it's better for the people who buy tickets to be able to have one of those every year. And look, I've always praised Roy Williams. Now, Roy Williams has taken it to a different level, and I try to bring this up as often as possible. They will go to places you can't believe they will go. North Carolina will play at College of Charleston. They opened up a new arena a few years ago. They'll play at College of Charleston.

They played at Elon when Elon opened up their new building. And all credit to Roy Williams for being willing to do that because it costs you money. Because that game would normally be on your floor. So you would get the ticket revenue.

You are essentially donating it to them. Never mind. I was going to say Carolina is going to play at UNCW, and I thought they were going to go down to Wilmington to play that game. I think it's back in Chapel Hill. Well, did they not play the game at UNC Wilmington? I was at a game in which they played Wilmington in Myrtle Beach.

Really? Still can't figure out why they did that. I think it was for Ray Felton.

I think it was for Felton. But yeah, they played a game in Myrtle Beach in what looked like a high school gym. It was like at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. It wasn't even in a real arena. It literally looked like a high school gym. It was weird. Very weird.

But it allowed me to cover a game in Myrtle Beach in December and expense it. Who's winning? Did you get on the Skylight or the little Sky Circle thing that they had down there? You mean the Ferris Wheel? Yeah. No.

I did not do that. No, I just kind of sat on the beach, brought my two dogs down there, sat on the beach, and maybe enjoyed a little nightlife in Myrtle Beach. In Myrtle Beach, which everybody should do. Alright, so tomorrow we're going to be originating this show from Charlotte. The ACC Football Media Days, tomorrow and Thursday, live from Charlotte. Very interested in what Jim Phillips has to say. His commissioner's forum is tomorrow morning. That will be a very interesting chat with the commissioner to everybody. Graham Hill, well done. See you down the road. See you tomorrow from Charlotte. I am Adam Gold.

Peace. This is the Adam Gold Show. Off and across the bar! And the Hurricanes have won the Stanley Cup! June 19th, 2006. But it all started May 6th, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina. It's a story of transition, of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Cane's Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move. Presented by the Aluminum Company of North Carolina. Listen now. Find Cane's 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcasts.