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Now, on with the show. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Let me break it down for you again. The Rich Eisen Show. Spain has been the best team in the tournament.
From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The way they suffocate you is unlike any other team in this tournament. Earlier on the show, Apple TV lead MLS analyst Taylor Twellman. Coming up. ESPN college football analyst Josh Pate.
Actor Jake Johnson. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Dead. All right, everybody. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Hisen Show, hour number two.
Hour one, we talked about the World Cup final and everything else surrounding that remarkable tournament that went on for about the last five weeks. Incredible stuff here. And Taylor Twellman joined us. Our friend Jake Johnson of the new Apple TV movie, The Dink. It's.
It's good stuff. Mary Steenbergen told us about it when she was here with Ted Danson a few months ago. She's in it. It's just delightful. It's a Ben Stiller classic.
And he's in it. Ed Harris is in it. It's good stuff. Jake's a die-hard Bears fan. He's in studio hour number three.
Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC, spoke at the kickoff of the SEC Media Week in Tampa, Florida, and said that the talk of the conference breaking away. Um from the NCAA and staging its own playoff, is quote unquote real. Pro. People have talked about that. They've opined about the frustrations that bring them to the point of saying we should look at something significantly different.
I do not believe that is a leverage point. I think that's just honest communication. I think what's important is those comments represent a high level of frustration in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Dang.
Okay. Amen. We've talked about it before. Bringing the soccer world into this again with the World Cup having just finished. If you recall, you remember the Super League that was created over in.
Mm-hmm. England for a hot minute. Two days. Two minutes it lasted. Where.
That super league that got created that got what? Folks in London and across the country in the streets, right? Protesting. It lasted as long as Belichick being the head coach of the Jets. Yeah.
And we're like, where could that happen here in the United States? And on the spot, I'm like, college football. It's only a matter of time that the SEC and the Big Ten get together and say, let's just do it ourselves. And who else wants in? Greg Sankey just basically said this is not a leverage play, this is a real talk.
This is a real conversation. Josh Pate's going to join us on that and my alma mater. announcing that The athletic director ward manual is out by the end of the year, based on everything that's gone on on that campus the last few years. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial. The uh open championship.
Right? What a performance by Ryan Fox. Incredible. This guy, what a story. He didn't start playing golf till high school.
17. Didn't win anything until he was in his mid-twenties, his amateur career. Never finished top 10 in a major. He is from a long line of rugby players and cricket players. His family lineage down there.
He's just from a bloodline of athletes. And for this guy to do what he did over the weekend, he was tied for 52nd after the first two rounds going into the weekend. The largest comeback in major history for the winner. Birdie's 18 at a course at a hole that was playing next near impossible.
Well, I mean, unbelievable facts. Sewu Kim looked like it was going to be his tournament at the turn. Ryan Burns got to 11 under, then he faltered. Then Siwu took the lead, and it looked like he was going to run away with it. Damn, yo.
Those guys just couldn't do it. Cam Young posted a number really early. He played when the conditions were a little bit better. It was a little less windy. Posted nine under and just sat around for two and a half hours seeing if they were going to come back to him.
And then wound up walking off into the clubhouse after watching Fox Birdie 18, which Tommy Fleetwood playing in Royal Birkdale in front of his home town, in front of his home crowd. He came up with a walk-off birdie for him. It was just only the fourth birdie on the day at 18 Hill Fox stepped up. But obviously, what he did on 18 to Birdie and what he did on 16 to Birdie as well. That's what people are talking about.
But what really impressed me is what he did in the holes before the birdies. Because For him. To step up on fifteen. Tied With Young, who's they kept cutting away to him, warming up on the range. Just in case there was going to be some extra holes.
Yep. He hits one in the par three in the bunker, and it's in one of those classic open championship pot bunkers where there's a wall. and it was right up next to it. And I'm like, well, that's it for him. And then he just.
stepped up Looked at the situation, stepped in, took his medicine. Right away. Yep. And then Said, I'll just get up and down for a bogey and and go back to work. He did.
Then he birdies the next hole and he's right back to where he was when he put the ball in the bunker. Then he steps up on 17 on a par five. And he took out an iron. And he still hid it in one of the fairway bunkers over 300 yards away. Like, what the hell's in that thing?
Course was hot. Course was baked. But he. Shots were running. I mean, he cooked that.
Yeah. And then, okay, so now. He's got to scramble to get a birdie putt, which he does, which he then misses just by a. Chiny chin chin. And he steps up to 18.
And he hits a perfect drive. And then a perfect non-iron. And then stepped up This is the thing too. He steps up, and 22 seconds after Sam Burns putts out, he's standing over. He's not wasting any time.
He saw the putt. He saw what he needed to do. And just like when he was in the bunker, On 15 and 17, just looked at the situation, assessed it, and just played it. That's what he does. He stepped up, but 22 seconds later.
He puts that thing a little side entry and he wins the... Open championship. It was awesome. If you've never seen Ryan Fox play, that's something a lot of people are noticing now. He plays fast.
He is decisive. He does not want to let negative thoughts creep in by overanalyzing, over-talking to his caddy, thinking about club selection. He has a plan: C-shot, hit shot, let's go. They finished their final round in four hours, which is unheard of on a major championship. And like you said, 22 seconds after Burns' ball hits the bottom of the cup for his par in 18, he's jarring the game-winning Birdie, championship-winning birdie.
It was incredible. And then afterwards, he talked about his thought process going through the final shots. as he's sitting next to his new claret jug. Definitely the first part. I mean, I hit two shots exactly how I wanted to hit them.
I didn't feel anything for the part, everything was shaking that much. I was just happy to hit it somewhat near the hole and to see it go in was incredible. But I did say to my caddy Dean on the tee that. We were going to take it on that. I was going to try to win the tournament and I'd live with the consequences if I stuffed it up and to go out there and execute.
That drive's not a very comfortable t-shirt, obviously. And to hit it in the fairway and give myself a chance was. Was huge and then I landed on a good number. I think I had 160 meters to the hole. The breeze was a little down off the left.
Obviously, everything's a bit jummed up there.
So it was just a solid nine, and I hit it exactly where I wanted to hit it. And I think I screamed at it, please be good in the air, and it was. And to cap it off with the putt, Everyone practices on the green, I guess. You've got a putt to hold a major championship to win the open. It's not like that in real life.
It's not a very comfortable feeling, but it's certainly very enjoyable when you see it going. Unreal. That's got to make you feel better. You talked about not being able to feel your hands, you know, playing the ACC, and then this guy's like, Yeah, I can't really feel my hands. I got to put to win the major.
So cool, man. It's very cool. Congratulations to Ryan Fox. I'd love to chat with him. Yeah, there's a cool video going around right now of him flying back to Florida, and he's got the Clare Chug in the overhead compartment.
Yeah, there it is. It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, I'm glad that. He had the cabin space above him.
That's awesome. Yeah, is that his one carry-on item? That'd be my one carry-on item. I'm not checking that out. It's not leaving my sight.
That's so cool. Pretty good. Awesome. Apparently Cam Young was on the same flight, too. Oh wow.
That's got to be tough for Cam Young. You know, you finish early, you're playing in the mid-groups, and you're waiting around two-plus hours just to see if maybe there's a playoff. You go out, warm up. Oh, what's that? No, he jarred it.
Okay. That's why it's 72 holes. No, he bogeyed 18. Yeah, he bogey 18.
So, I mean, again, that's why every shot counts. And.
Well done to Ryan Fox. Yeah, very cool. And Ryan Fox, doing what he did, took Bryson DeCambo and what happened with him completely off that radar. And certainly so did DeChambo's weekend.
Now you could say that he was thrown off his game by taking two strokes off of his score on Friday, Um And De Shambo, um shot over the weekend sixty nine and seventy two, which is not Shabby to say the least. But what he did on Friday, it It's kind of crazy that the conversation that's been around it. Is we don't know if he did it on purpose or not, or did it on purpose or not? And that's the improving Um Improving his ability to connect with a ball in thick gorse. Yeah, it was more it wasn't the lie, it was more the swing path.
Well, right, you're not allowed to improve the swing path at all. And you know, there's back and forth of like, well, he's got to get his feet set somehow. I mean, he needed to look at You know, where the ball was, and you got to step into that grass somehow. And then you look at it, and it's just like, Is he doing the macarena in there? Or what's he doing?
And then you're looking at it like, well, but still, he had to stand behind it to see where it's going, right? He had to look at it. He had to choose a spot. And then you're like, well. Do you have to lift your foot up and stamp it down?
Like, you take a look at it differently, and then you see so many of the players. Who are like, Homa's like, I'm and and Scheffler, like, I've known him, he's not a cheater, he's not going to cheat the game. Right. You know, and um and then uh others are like, Yeah, I'm not really forming an opinion on it and others are like, Well, I've got an opinion on it, and it's not It's not a great one. And then Rory McElroy stepped to the um Podium.
And um If there was a A pile of dirt. And um the shambeau was somewhere um ready to be buried. Yeah. Um Well, Rory McElroy pulled out the big dog of a shuffle. and kept shoveling.
So I was watching it live. I was up in the players' lounge watching it with a few other players and as soon as he made the step into the ball, we all sort of looked at each other and were like, that didn't seem right. And then when I heard that he was you know, he was called in by the rules officials. I think we all, it was pretty obvious for why. Um Uh yeah, I mean I think I think there's no doubt that he improved the line of his backswing.
And again, it's like whether it was careless or whether it was intentional, I don't think it matters. Hopefully, it was careless. But I think the two-shot penalty was justified for sure. What do you think of the scenes after? Obviously, you guys were delayed getting your tea times as well because of it all going on.
Late night for everyone. Um Yeah, I like I I won't pretend to be up here and defend Brighton. I'm not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it's performative. I think a lot of it's for attention.
And yeah, you know, to. Hold the tournament hostage like that and have all of us volunteers, players, everyone waiting on him to depart. I didn't feel like it was a great look. Yeah. Do you do you think he knew what he was doing?
Look, he's gonna say, like, again, I don't, I'm not in his mind, I'm not in his, but it didn't look good. The Honesty from Rory McIlroy Off the charts. That's what we want from our athletes, right? Oof. Jeez.
That's liver-related, right, isn't it? Live to a lot of people. Yeah, and I think, you know, Final Round Masters last year, they're in the group together, you know, not shaking. Yeah, there goes back a long time.
Well, in terms of the performative. Um commentary. Um That's one man's opinion. And if I'm being told, You're losing two strokes. I'm not going to take it well.
That's for damn sure. Certainly, if I'm going to be now called a cheater. I mean, uh that's going to take a while to calm me down. and get off the course. And then there is the other side of it.
The Telegraph newspaper reporting that during the conversation Bryson DeChambo, according to the Telegraph, Let me see if he will address this at any point. Warned officials at the Open that he was ready to call President Trump. An intense standoff that saw the American hit with a two shot penalty for inadvertently improving his lie. And if that's the case, A. Bryson, listen.
You're dealing with the royal and ancient. That'd be like, um. Hmm. You're going to call the President of the United States. Once upon a time, our predecessors told Braveheart he couldn't improve his lie.
Okay. This goes back centuries.
Okay. Yeah, and Bryson didn't talk to the media on Friday. He didn't talk to the media over the weekend. I imagine he'll post a video on his YouTube channel explaining everything. The one thing that you could read his lips at one point is he did seem to threaten he's not going to play the next day.
I'm glad that he did. That's kind of Rory's point about holding everybody up. They couldn't make tea times because they had to wait to see if he was going to withdraw. Being told, okay, and so many of his colleagues are like. A Every shot, because he's Bryson DeCambo, is on camera.
So many other guys could have been stomping around to inadvertently improve their line. You just didn't see it. Right. Because not every shot is on camera for that player. You know?
Thank you. But man, that was a dramatic weekend at Royal Birkdale. What a royal drama that was. It was wild. All right, let's take a break here.
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Joining us from, I believe, I don't know where he is. Maybe he's in Tampa, Florida. I don't know. But Josh Pate's going to join us next talking about SEC in my school, Michigan. Don't go anywhere.
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Plus receive four times O Rewards points now at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Coverall delivers long lasting shine. Visit your O'Reilly Auto Parts store or O'ReillyAuto dot com. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Ashpait, our friend, ESPN college football analyst, as well as big-time broadcaster right here on the program.
It's good to see you, sir. Greg Sankey, I want to start. I reached out to you this morning based on what was going on at my alma mater in Michigan. We'll get to that in a second. But to be straight up, when the commissioner of the SEC, Greg Sankey, who I like to refer to even to his face as the President of the United States of Collegiate Sports, when he says that there is Something real to the conversation of the SEC breaking away from the NCAA based on the frustrations and the rules and the regulations that aren't uniform or certainly aren't going to address the member schools of the SEC.
That's massive news. He did say that today, Josh. What's your two cents on that? I tend to believe him.
Now, it's not a zero-sum thing, I don't think. It's not like he's either totally serious about it or they're totally using that to leverage the conversation in the right way. There's probably a healthy mixture of both. It's just, as you know, sometimes it's a total bluff, and you get your bluff called, or you don't, and you get your way. I don't think this is a bluff.
And I know that because I spent the entire spring going around multiple conferences, SCC included, and a lot of off-the-record conversations sort of sounded even more colorfully in the same vein that Greg Sankey's on-the-record comment sounded this morning. And that's from everywhere from ADs to university presidents. They look at it and they say that word unsustainable. And the thing about it is, it's going to be sustainable for the SEC. It's going to be sustainable for the Big Ten.
It's just at some point, if we're the SEC or we're the Big Ten, even we look at it and say, is this even worth our time? Because we know we can survive. It's them that need us, not us that need them.
Now, me as a college football first guy, I hate all of it. I despise that we're even talking about it in these terms, but it just. It's like you and I and 500 other people are on a cruise ship, and we keep looking up at the captain's deck, and nobody's hands are on the wheel. And you figure at some point someone's going to be in charge, someone's going to make sure we don't run into the port over here. No one has their hands on the wheel right now.
So at some point, the conferences look and say, Well, okay, we've got our own little lifeboat over here. It's pretty nice, and we know we can control that, and we know we can sustain ourselves for a long time on that thing.
So, what's the line in the sand? Like, what is the magic line of demarcation past which? Forget about it. We're going to torch the barn, kill the rats, as Mima would say. We're going off on our own.
I don't know what that is. I don't know that they know what that is. I think it's one of those. We'll just know when we're there. I understand that for sure.
And I just don't know what it would look like. It would have to include. The conference from which the last three College football national champions have come from, Josh, right? I mean, the Big Ten's got to be involved in anything of a breakaway. Listen, I know the SEC is popular, but they're just going to have their own championship, and we'll.
Just wonder how they would look against the champs of the rest of the NCAA, Josh, you know?
Now I don't want that. Right, there is an alternate universe where I could see it working, but I don't want it, so I don't want to go to the alternate universe.
Okay, I will say. Because of all these threats being made, Over really the past year, but specifically the past six months, I Famously, not a legal type, have consorted with a bunch of real legal types. And I've said, the SEC and the Big Ten just go off on their own. There's that M-word. What is that?
Monopolistic. Does this fit that description? And the answer was certain degrees of, yeah, that's why they're going to have to pretend that they're not locked arm in arm for a little while if they do decide to go down that path.
So you said, I don't know what it'll look like. I said, I don't know what it would look like. I'm telling you, I don't think they know what it would look like either. But I always go back to this. Ironically, Rich, let's see, it's 2026.
This week, five years ago. There was this news out of nowhere. It happened at SEC Media Days. I would say it's the last bombshell story out of SEC Media Days, and that was OU, Texas, to the SEC. And they kept a total lid on it.
No one knew it was coming. And so I keep thinking to myself: if they were able to keep that under wraps five years ago. Might there be something that's in the oven? Pertaining to matters that we're discussing right now that none of us know? And might all of what we've been given, might the morsels that we've had thrown at us from microphones, just be flack, just be subterfuge to get us looking to the left and to the right?
Because I do think that there's still a lot up in the air, but for as much attention as has been paid to this by some pretty smart people, I find it hard to believe everyone's just waking up every morning scratching their head, wondering what the day will bring. I've got to think there's some design somewhere. And what did Sankey say about college football playoffs expansion? Anything else?
Well, they peppered him a lot. I mean, I give him full credit now. He opens himself up to wide-ranging QA at this event every year. I love it. I think out of all the power commissioners.
I don't know. I value what he says the most. Even if I don't always agree with it, I think it's really, really well-founded in logic. And so I appreciate when he does it.
So this morning, I thought the biggest takeaway, Rich, was actually when they asked him about the playoff and they asked him about you guys, the SEC, expanding to nine league games and all these coaches being upset because they thought expansion of conference schedule was going to coincide with expansion of playoffs. And that hasn't happened. Are you guys worried that the college football playoff is not going to recognize your strength of schedule the way that you hope they do?
Now, When they set out on that course to go nine conference games in the SEC, there was just an assumption that the college football playoff selection criteria was gonna change and that they were gonna value strength of schedule a little bit differently and define it a little bit differently than they had.
Now, side note, I think that's warranted. All right, now we get back up on the main road. This morning His words made it sound like they have no confidence that that group is going to, in any shape, form, or fashion, value, strength, the schedule the way they want it to. To the point where he went back to the spring when they met with the college football playoff. And I want to get these words right.
He said, We had very unsatisfactory discussions with the college football playoff, which means. And I do not agree with this, but it sounds like this is the way it's going to be. It sounds like wins and losses are going to continue to be the ultimate metric in college football. I know there's a lot of pro sports folks watching saying, duh, what else matters other than wins and losses? You're right.
It's just that 10 and 2 Air Force and 10 and 2 Georgia sometimes are very different teams in this sport, which is different than the Sunday game. And Doesn't sound like many people on that committee are willing to bend enough to the SEC satisfaction. I feel the same way about Sankey too, Josh. I mean, again, I love that you quoted him like that because his verbiage, his way of talking, it is infused. It's also a lot of breadcrumbs.
It's very smart. I'm a fan of his. When he comes on this show, it is a wide-ranging QA. We chop it up. He pushes back.
It's great. And the first time I ever met him was at the Super Bowl between the Rams and the Patriots in Atlanta back in, let me get this, back in 2019. And he's sitting next to me. And he knew where I went to school. And he starts talking about all the SEC players that are in the Super Bowl right here.
And I'm like, what is this guy's malfunction? Like, why is he in my grill about this sort of thing? And I just like, I literally just met him. And I'm like, you see 12 for New England down there? You see that guy with all the rings?
You see that guy? Like, let's just stack him up against the rest of the SEC and then we'll start talking. And like, I thought, Am I going to have to get separated from this commissioner in Commissioner Goodell's box? Like, is he going to have to have like Commissioner Gonna have to step in here? But I just, you know, I love him.
I love him. You know, so last year, it had to be during, it was either preseason or during the college football season last year. You guys had him on the show. Right. And I've told you this off air.
Like, I thought it was one of, if not the best, back and forth conversations I've heard him have publicly. I told him that. to his face at the Miami A ⁇ M playoff game.
So I've told that to all parties involved. But if you go back to the Eisen archives and you listen to that conversation, you notice it seems like 50 times you asked him a question or you posed an idea and his response was, well, now let's back up to chapter one. Let's start at the beginning. You started in the middle of the story. It was so great.
Yeah, man. Yeah, I do. You got to have your T's crossed and I's dotted and get a good night's rest before talking to Greg Sankey. All right, Josh, let's get to my alma mater. Let's get to what is happening at the University of Michigan with Ward Manual and the report that's either going to have some bullet points released, not fully released.
What is happening at Michigan Athletic and the Athletic Department? Josh.
Well, two interesting things are happening. As is often the case in college football, anytime there's scandal in a program, It seems like the sources that have the news first are Media members that mainly cover rival programs. It's just the beauty of college football.
So that's been happening. The news today, right as Greg Sankey took the stage in Tampa, I think unironically, and I credit the Big Ten for doing this, this is how you suck all the oxygen out of the room. The news out of Ann Arbor was that Ward Manual after the end of this year. will step down. This was widely rumored over the past several weeks, actually.
It's been congruent to an investigation that's been going on into the soup to nuts, top to bottom operational aspects of the Michigan Athletic Department. You said a very important thing there. Bullet points of that investigation will be released, but the totality of the findings themselves won't be released. That was one of the big questions from people who have followed this really closely is, are we just going to get full transparency on this? Are they just going to provide all of the information?
Well, it seems that's not going to happen. I don't blame Michigan. I wouldn't either. You'd have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands. But.
As it relates to Michigan.
Okay, I'm not investigative reporting this thing. I'm watching it as a dude who loves college football. You're closer to it than I am. You got maze and blue running through your blood. Here's what I hope for Michigan.
What I appreciate about Michigan. That's in short supply elsewhere in college football, is they really, really appreciate their tradition. They really cling to it. Again, I don't blame them for it, I actually credit them for that. The one downside is when you cling to that tradition too much.
You can almost Close yourself off from the world. And you can make your athletic department, you can make your football program. Feel more like pond water than a lake that's got tributaries and streams coming into it. And you got new hires from outside with fresh ideas. Instead, it's just all Michigan all the time.
And there's some good to that, and there's some bad to that. And one of the bads is when it comes time to hire a coach or an AD in this case, is it let's go find the best candidate out there? Or let's go find the best candidate. That is Michigan. Because that greatly dilutes your pool of candidates.
And so, if there's a lesson to be learned from this, well, as it relates to the future, if there's a lesson to be learned from it, I hope it's that Michigan understands it's not the worst thing in the world to open the gate sometimes. Don't break the gate down, but open it sometimes. Because sometimes there are people who are very, very tailor-made to lead your program, athletic department, et cetera. That they may reside in Boise, Idaho. They may reside in Tucson, Arizona.
Bama learned that and they went and hired Nick Sabin. I think it took Alabama going through some really tough times to do that. I think Penn State had to go through some really tough times before they finally looked external and it paid off for them. And so, look, this may end up being that you and I are talking five years from now, and we're saying, Some of that sucked, but it ended up being such a blessing in disguise for Michigan because look what we got here now. Look who we got here now.
Would we ever have gone down this road if our hand wasn't forced? And so that's that's the great remains to be seen part here. The other part of it, from the coaching perspective, Is what does Kyle Wittingham think today? Like Kyle Wittingham walked in here, and I don't, I'm sure he had a little bit better viewpoint of what was coming than us. But I doubt when he took this job and you asked him, hey, what's it gonna look like here by the time you guys kick off week one next year?
I doubt he thought all this was gonna be coming down the pike. And so I looked at Sharon Moore as a bridge coach. I thought they put him in place to get him through the Stallions NCAA stuff, and then that settle on a more permanent option. Looked like for a little while that may be Kalen DeBoer, but it wasn't him. And it ended up being Kyle Whittingham.
Kyle Whittingham's a fine coach, but he's been around for a long time.
So the other thing I wonder, Rich, is if you and I had that conversation in five years. Who's the head coach at Michigan? Do we look back on the Wikipedia page of the history of Michigan football and say Sharone and Kyle Whittingham ended up being bridge candidates? Is it, man, there was some mess right there before Whittingham ever coached a game, but boy, it put him in a sweet spot to succeed. There's a lot that remains to be seen on this thing, man.
Well, Josh, I mean, since you opened that door, I'll just walk through it. Whittingham is in a very crucial position. Moment at the crossroads here. The first thing he had to do was make sure that all the players that had been amassed of talent and recruits weren't gonna bolt.
So check that box.
Now comes the moment where he's basically the face of the football program. And, you know, the athletic director Ward Manuel, former Beau Schem Beckler player, Michigan man, if you will. He's leaving. And as long as Whittingham hopefully gets the support that he needs to keep these players. and to hire the coaches that he needs.
Why can't he be there in five years from now? I mean, this is his program now. This is it. He's going to be more tenured than the athletic director that's coming in, Josh, one would think.
So um I don't know. Like, this is this. What he's thinking today is: let's get to work, figure out who the quarterback is, and let's start winning some football games and turn the page. And, you know, I I am just thankful that there's a coach who Yeah. You know, when he hears the words only fans, he isn't thinking, you know, only but the fans that we're trying to win for, Josh, to be straight up.
I'm not lying. I said that before, and I'll say it again. It's very difficult for me to sit through all this and hold my tongue completely because there's a lot of things that I want to know about, and a lot of things that probably should never have happened, or definitely should never have happened, not probably. And if Ward Manual is going to be in a position here. till the end of the year, something must have happened for him to be out.
Like last week, he was on local radio basically saying, I'm the guy here and any any conversations about my future is is off base. And now he's out. Like these that that's that's what that's I I'm I'm confused about sitting here. To be very honest.
Well, it has, look, it's not like I've been in the room, but I mean, I think we've sat through enough of these.
Sorts of incidents in college athletics to understand what a contentious negotiated buyout looks like or a negotiated exit looks like. Right. Because it's not comfortable and the landing is very, very shaky.
So, this is what that would look like, absent us knowing all the details. But to go back to your question, there's no reason Kyle Wittingham can't succeed. There's no reason they can't win a national championship. There's no reason that he couldn't be there in five years, 10 years, whatever. The only thing I'm going to say, and I'm not pushing back on what you said, I'm going to add to what you said, is this is not the Big Ten of a decade ago.
A decade ago, Ohio State was miles ahead of anyone else up there in terms of how serious and how rabid they operated their football program. And that was back when there was this unspoken understanding that everyone was a distant second to the SEC. And they might as well just accept their fate. And when Urban came to Ohio State, they started to operate like an SEC program. No one else did.
So, like, Urban revolutionized the Ohio State approach, but he didn't revolutionize the Big Ten approach. I think that Multiple championships being won in a row. And also, everyone looking around saying, hold up a second, portal. NIL, man, this is a whole new world. And then that bullhorn being sounded from those huge media rights dollars coming in, that's signaled everywhere from Lincoln, Nebraska to East Lansing to, I mean, you watch Madison, Wisconsin really closely this year.
Indiana just won the national championship, all around the Big Ten right now. It's It's kind of like a bonanza, so to speak. Like it's like a stampede. It's a herd mentality. And so now more than ever, for the University of Michigan, you've got to get it right.
Because in a former life, you could get it wrong and still assure yourself we're going to be in the top quarter to top third of this conference at our worst. You can't assume that anymore. The floor is a lot lower for Michigan athletics as it relates to the Big Ten hierarchy in 2026 and beyond than it would have been in 2016 and beyond. Josh, I appreciate the time. You know how I feel about you, and let's bring it to the people here.
You, sir, have got a lot on your plate. You got your football show. You got your ESPN contributions. I'm sure there's lots of things happening in your world that we don't know about. Professionally, but you have been kind enough to accept a weekly invitation to appear right here on this show throughout the college football season.
And that's pretty cool for us.
So I thank you for that. I look forward to it. You're looking forward to it about a third as much as I'm looking forward. That's going to be a fun time. Thank you, sir.
It's probably going to be the most unpredictable season we've seen in a long time. And that's coming off Indiana, winning a national title in football.
So, like, consider what's included in that statement. But I appreciate it. You know how I feel about you. If you don't, I'll be happy to share it on the record. But I'm looking forward to it, man.
We're going to have a lot of fun. Me too. Josh Pate, Josh Pate's college football show, and so many other ways for you to follow this man's exploits and everything he went on, and including Tuesdays is the date that we're pegging for the most part for you to appear weekly right here on the show. I look forward to it, Josh. You're the man.
Appreciate the time. Absolutely. Appreciate it. That's Josh Patel. Program.
Can't wait. Can't wait for sure. Can't wait. I can't. Just more handsome bald men.
That's it. Can't have enough. We're trying to keep up with the Tennessee Titans coaching staff. All right, the first time LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Get started by posting a free job at linkedin.com/slash Eisen.
Jake Johnson is in going to be in our studio an hour at number three. The dink soon to be showing up on Apple TV. It's as good as the title sounds, by the way. The title just makes you laugh. It's so good, man.
844-204-RICH. Number to dial here on the program. Rich Eisen here. Running a small business means every hire matters. A bad hire costs time and money, but the right one helps your business grow.
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Everybody. Just had a nice chat with Jake Johnson in our green room. He is not wearing. His Ditka Buddy Ryan sweater. I'm wondering if it's finally falling apart at the seams.
He had that, he said, since youth.
So that's the 85 Bears. Yeah. So that's. Let me see. How how old is he?
He's not that old. Right? I shouldn't say that as a 57-year-old man. No, so he would have been seven or eight at the time.
So okay. Seven? The fact that he still exists and still fits very impressive. Very impressive. Let's go.
All right. Derek in Missouri's been hanging on since jump. What's up, Derek? How you been, sir?
Okay, Rich, and I just want to say happy early birthday to Broxman and TJ there in studio. But I'm not mistaken, your birthday is on Thursday. Correct? Yeah. Right.
Correct. July 23rd, coming up. Indeed. Didn't even think about it, but thank you. How about that?
723 Club.
Okay. What's you want to know where they're registered, Derek? Is that what it is? No.
Okay. That's just my memory. That kicks in, Rich. You know me. Sure, I appreciate it.
It's very kind of you to remember that sort of thing. I wouldn't have, but it's okay. It's on your mind. Burger draft wins. It's got to pay me to say this, Rick.
Besides, speaking of Brockman, I have to sign with him on the whole abroad situation. I just. You know, as much as I have appreciated watching LeBron for as many years as I have and everybody else. What more does a man have to prove? I mean, great, he's going to come back for another year, but yeah, if he does go to Miami, you're not gonna be ten years younger like you did fifteen years younger with uh when you had Box and D-Wait by your side.
I j I don't know. I I really I mean it let's put it this way. Demand is on my not much more best Of all-time NBA players, along with Jordan and Kobe, and a fourth I'm still scratching my head on, but Brunson. What are you laughing about? No, not quite.
Not quite there yet, but that's just my take, Rich. I just I really don't know where I stand on the whole. But We'll see how it pans out, I guess. And I mean, we'll see. We got what, an hour and nine minutes of showing.
Well, until we're off the air. But LeBron, thanks for the call, Derek. I don't think LeBron is using our showtime as a deadline. What are you laughing about? You're not allowed to laugh.
A clipper six or fan, you're not allowed to laugh. As an NBA basketball fan, I can't laugh at someone. You're not allowed to laugh at someone of the storian of the game. I can't laugh at that. Dar dare you.
Come on. How dare you? Stop it. That's looking crazy now. Kareem, it's on Mount Rushmore.
Who did call anything? Nick's showed up at WWE, right? Yeah, Saturday night's main event. Right. That's where Brady's going to wind up.
That's funny, maybe. And it's trending. I do realize. I know I'm trying to bait you into because you're like, wait a minute, let's talk about an Overreaction Monday on a Tuesday, which is on tomorrow's show. We already recorded Overreaction Monday Today, our first ORM in about a month.
So it's wherever you get your podcast right now. It's going to be on ESPN2 later in the day, I'm told. At any rate. You do realize that if anybody else started doing what Brady's been doing right now. You would be all over them, right, TJ?
All over. And for what? Like, what if, like, my all-time goat, whoever that would be. I've never rooted for somebody that's won seven times. You root for Jeter.
He's one foot five. He's close. Jeter's close. What if Jeter started doing this, started slapping around Logan Paul, started showing up like the Undertaker coming out of a crypt? I would be.
What about that? What would you be doing right now? I would be, you know. Unmerciful.
Okay. But why? It's at Fanatics Fest like that. Oh, no, Fanatics Festival. It's one of the best athletes of all time.
I understand. As fun as it gets. We've been there. We liked being there. I'm sad to hope.
We couldn't be there again next year. We couldn't make it this year. I would. But still. He just doesn't want to talk about him.
It's okay. We'll talk about it. Is he going to fight him at SummerSlam? Like, what is going on? Yeah, what's the end game here?
I okay, I'll be honest with you, I have no idea. Is Tom Brady gonna be in Royal Rumble? Are you gonna start covering it on No Contest Wrestling? If it's wrestling-related, you know how we do. He's already there.
It's already there. He's giving him double birds at the World Cup.
Well, that's not wrestling. Adjacent. He's like one fanatic's fest away from cutting a promo. Look, like I said, it happened. Not all, but so many of the great wrestlers or athletes of all time have gotten involved.
You go back to Muhammad Ali, WrestleMania, how many football players have become Brock Lesnar, Tom Brady, you know. Dude. Thanks for listening to the Rich Eisen Show Podcast. You can watch and listen to The Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from noon to 3 Eastern on ESPN Radio, Disney Plus, and on the ESPN app, The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast.
