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Now, on with the show. This is the Rich Eisen Show. What is happening at the University of Michigan? Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Are we just going to get full transparency on this?
Today's guest. CSPN college football insider Pete Thamel. Six-time Pro Bowler Gerald McCoy. Open Championship winner Ryan Fox. And now, it's Rich Eisen.
Hey, everybody, welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. We're live on Disney Plus, the ESPNF, ESPN Radio, coast to coast, and Sirius XM Channel 80, wherever you get your satellite radio signal. 844204-Rich is the number to dial. Pete Thammel is going to be zooming in first in 20 minutes' time from the SEC Media Week. He just finished sitting down an interview with Kirby Smart, so we'll talk with him about the Georgia football head coach's thoughts coming into the season.
And Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC, saying yesterday, hey, it's not leverage if we're going to break away from the NCAA. We're thinking about it.
So much to talk about with Pete when he joins this program. Ryan Fox, the open champion winner, fresh back from Royal Berkdale. He'll join us in hour number three of this program. And we've got ourselves an overreaction Monday on a Tuesday. We got a lot going on here on this day.
844204-Rich is the number to dial. Again, to have a couple of. Conversation with us on the show. Good to see you over there, Chris Brockman. How are you?
Hey, Rich, what's happening? We're good over there, Mike Del Tufo. What's going on? I see a lot of chatter starting the program. I'm checking some stuff.
Good to see you, TJ Jefferson. What's going on over there? How are you? I'm chilling, man. How are you doing?
I'm doing very, very well. Nothing like having communication issues sit around for an hour and you don't hear about them and then you go on the air and now you do. Hey, that's the way things go in this business. You're right. Hey, so let's start this program that with.
The latest from LeBron James. LeBron James. And the latest from LeBron James is there's nothing from LeBron James. And we're closing in on the, you know. uh third week of July.
Um and um LeBron James is Had the entire month to make a decision. And he is yet to. And the only decision he made. Quite decisively, was essentially to tell the Lakers we're not going to be Business partners any longer. We're done.
I'm not playing for you. I had an opportunity to talk with you exclusively. That didn't happen. because I didn't want to, and now here we are. Um Coming up on this weekend in July, still wondering what's going on.
And um The commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver at Fanatics Fest last week, basically essentially saying, hey. Pulling up business. Can we pick it up here? Can we decide? Let's go.
Come on, man. Because we'd like to decide On the National Television schedule when LeBron James is going to be playing. And we can't figure that out if we don't know where LeBron James is going to be playing.
So LeBron's kind of holding the league hostage, right?
Now we have to, you know, here's what we do. Here's what we do while we're waiting for LeBron James to make a decision, which is helpful for us while we're waiting for football to be played in this country, quite frankly. Because I'm not going to sit here and talk about a Boston Red Sox 14-game. I mean, what are you talking about? All right, well, we'll talk about that.
We're so close.
Well, I'm not going to lead the show. I'm not going to lead the show with that.
So here's where we are. Where are we, Ricky? When we're searching for information. We go to social media, right? Where yesterday Mark Spears, who's very respected in our business, is looking towards the preseason basketball schedule to figure out: well, if the Lakers are the first preseason game scheduled for the Warriors, well, obviously, LeBron's got to go to the Golden State Awards.
And meanwhile, everyone in the comments was pointing out that they play each other every year in the preseason. There you go.
Well, listen, so the googly eyes can be out there on social media and we're paying it to Pat Bev. We've been in Pat Bev's social account. I'm saying, hey, I'm hearing that LeBron James is making his decision today, and then that didn't happen.
So So, social's not helping us.
Now, we just turn to the podcast world. That's right. Certainly, when a podcast is being produced and co-hosted by the guy who would know, because his name is Rich Paul, and he's LeBron's guy who would know. And he's sitting with Max Kellerman on the set of Game Over, which is weird. Is it a video game podcast?
Yeah. I saw that a lot in high school. Playing video games and looking for a prom date. But listen, listen. Shout out to the red.
Those are change's turn. Those were decisions of different eras. Maroon limo? Maroon limo. I get the color wrong.
Yeah. Yeah. I tell you guys too much about So Rich Paul had the floor and Max Kellerman brought up the fact that, hey, even the commissioner of the NBA is asking you for An answer and Rich Paul said he went up to Adam Silver. And talk with him about that comment. Roll it.
I saw Adam in New York, and we discussed it. And, like I said, it's still his choice.
So, if he doesn't really know, Can't rush it. Can't rush it.
So, right now, the vegan is aware of this, that he's not there yet. And we're not going to be rushed. It doesn't matter. I don't want to sit here and sound. Like this.
I'll just say, we're not going to be rushed. That's totally fair for you to say. It is his choice to make. And when he makes the choice, he's making there's a report that the decision is going to come in the next 48 hours. That's so false.
These people don't know anything, man. Um, well, all these reports doesn't make sense. Like, I don't know, I don't know when his choice is going to be made, but Okay. It could be 48 seconds, it could be 48 minutes. I don't, I don't know, like again.
You can't make somebody know something that they don't know.
Okay, there you go. First of all, I love Rich Paul. I love him. I love his story. I love who he is.
I love he was wearing a Yankee hat. I love all of that. But he. He says it's false. He's got to make a decision in the next 48 hours and then gives two periods of time that would actually fall into the next 48 minutes.
Right. 48 seconds. 48 minutes. Actually, fall into the next, the first hour of the 48. We are confused, Rich.
Don't keep confusing us more, okay? Maybe Rich don't know. What is the NFL equivalent of this? Like, who would hold up the NFL schedule? You lost hair over Rogers.
Rogers back in the day. I wouldn't say that. Rogers never held up. Never held up his schedule. Uh I don't know.
I mean, somebody obviously of LeBron's statue just named two first Battle Hall of Famers. But but Farve Watch didn't go into you know, the schedule always comes out in May. It didn't go into June. Oh, yeah, it did. Yeah, dude.
Oh, don't you remember? He said, I'm going to be done. And then he's like, I'm not done. And then they're, and don't you remember McCarthy? He's like, we've moved on.
You don't remember that? We've moved on. Rich, you lost count. I even told you we heard that Ted Thompson went down. Mooch told me, no, isn't Mooch told me that?
Who told me this? I don't know. I heard from somebody that. No, that was.
Somebody told me that Ted Thompson went down to Favre's. House in Mississippi, and I thought he was going to ask him back and told him, We're willing to send if you want your locker, actual locker. From From Lambeau Field. We'll cut out your actual locker and send it to you in far, you know. But the NFL is essentially like what I'm saying is LeBron is literally holding up the TV partners and the league.
But I don't blame him. What do you mean you don't blame him? I don't know, because you just got to make a decision. He's thinking about it. He's not thinking about it.
Well, this is what Rich Paul started. Hey, Max started going down this road with him. That um That this is for show. Yeah. None of these people know anything.
Nobody knows nothing. And I say that respectfully because. We haven't Made it to where anybody knows anything. But let me take your temperature on something. Sure.
But no, let me finish first. Let me finish.
So I think it's important for people to understand: we're not making this about attention and a spectacle. It's not about a decision or anything like that. He has a choice to make, he has a business choice to make. We're not going to sit here and decide or allow someone else to decide when he makes that decision. Of that choice.
It's a business choice that he's making. And I think, as an athlete, why is it that an athlete has to rush his choice?
Okay, I want to answer. Because from a business perspective, From a business perspective, you are making a choice between jobs. High-level jobs.
Okay. And you have the, and you've earned the right, you're a big-time executive that's with an unbelievable, arguably the best resume. In the history of your job, Who's rushing you?
Okay, nobody. I know what you're thinking. I know what you're thinking. It's not the LeBron James Basketball Association. I know what you're thinking.
So what? What do you mean it's not the LeBron James basketball? This is so disrespectful to the 300 other players in the league, every other team. I will push back vehemently on that one. I'm sure 299 players don't even care about that.
I don't blame him, man. He's got one more shot at figuring this thing out. We have no idea. You think he knows? You think he knows and he's just drawing it out.
Is that what you're saying? I think he knew a month ago.
Well, Rich Paul had this to say because Max went right there. He hit the nail right on the head for you about whether this was for show. What do you say about that? That people are like, LeBron loves the attention and that's why they're doing this. It's the lowest-hanging fruit.
For when you don't have the information. That's just what it is. Commissioners here saying we can't even set the schedule until we know. He must be flattered by the attention. And we understand that, though.
Is he flattered by the attention, do you think? I don't know. I don't talk to him about that. Are you proud of it? Are you proud of it?
I understand it. I understand it. I think he's earned it. Yeah, when you've been a partner to the NBA the way LeBron has been. He's earned it.
The seat he sits in today, he's earned. Let me tell you, man, you know who's going to wait to see where LeBron James lands? And be fine with it. You know who's going to wait? Amazon.
Yeah. And NBC. And E S P N A B C Name them. You know, the local networks who cover the five teams that are apparently in the running. They can wait.
Well, they shouldn't.
Well, I mean, it doesn't matter at the end of the day. If it's another week. You can still figure it out. You can still figure it out. You know, so let me ask you this question.
Do you think the Philadelphia seventy sixers With Jalen Brown, right? The heat with Giannis Okay. Who else is in this mix? Oh, the Golden State Warriors with Steph. and dream on.
Okay. The the Minnesota Timberwolves. with Anthony Edwards. Or the Cleveland Cavaliers with Spider Mitchell and James Harden, whatever. Do you think that they're right now All of 'em.
Or most of them. Off the table for Christmas Day. Off the table. Yeah. They're only Giannis and the Heat are only going to play on Christmas Day if LeBron comes.
You know what I mean? Yeah. So the fact that obviously they want to know. But who cares if he's going to figure it out over the next week? What if this goes into August?
Nobody cares, huh? What if this goes into August? It goes into August, and then we all adjust. And it's just, you know what? It's so earth-shattering that we.
We don't know who's going to be playing on this day or that. I understand that everybody wants to get plans and they got to figure it out and sell them tickets and. I mean You got to figure that out as to who's playing on this night or this nationally. televised broader they we flex into games now. Inflection of games last minute.
Who cares? He better do this before training camp starts because once football hits, no one is going to care. I think he's going to want to. For his own for his own deal. But right now, it's been a few weeks.
Who the hell cares? Really? At the end of the day, I know Adam Silver said we'd like to know, and they would like to know. Everybody wants to plan, I get it. I get it.
But he's got one last shot at this thing. And I if I'm him, I'm I don't, I mean, you're you're weighing. You're not weighing the aspect of business outside of the NBA, because once upon a time, Maverick Carter was sitting right here when he was going through this the last time, right? And I'm like, wow. you know, he's gonna want to be maybe here in Los Angeles for Purposes of your shingle and production company.
I mean, this is where production takes place mostly, right? And Maverick Cart is like Rich. You don't think you can take a meeting about a movie or a TV show in Detroit? And I'm like, eh. Good point.
Good point, Mav. Thanks for coming on, Mav. You know, so for real, it's just like. The home front, does he want to be closer to Southern California? You know.
What does his wife think about this? But does the rest of his family think about this? Who cares? Let's have them figure it out.
So How about this? If he doesn't decide by next week, I'm calling Rich Paul and I'm like, let's go. Ha ha ha ha. Either way, I'm calling Rich Paul and saying, Let's go. You should.
Why not? It's a good move. I agree. Thank you. I only make good news here.
I like to think Overreaction Monday on a Tuesday. Is any of this on the part of that? O'Bron? Yeah, yeah. Oh, good.
Um is Tom Brady um Part of it? Because you said yesterday you didn't want to hit that subject better. You wanted to hit it. It's on reaction Monday and a Tuesday.
Okay. Anything slap around those? Any other topics you want to? I know. I'm just asking.
It's called teasing, Chris. What else you want to know? What else you want to know? Thank you. All right.
We'll take a break, and Pete Fannell is going to join us the latest on the world of college football. Everybody, get into the Hyundai Getaway sales event and get away with the deal so right it almost feels wrong. Right now, you can get great deals on our most popular models, including our adventure-ready SUVs like the Hyundai Santa Fe or Santa Fe Hybrid and the Tucson or Tucson Hybrid. Plus, there's our bold and stylish Elantra loaded with the latest tech. Or go all-electric with the IONIC 5 or IONIC 9.
So, get down to your local Hyundai dealer and get away with a deal you'll love during the Hyundai Getaway Sales Event. Visit HyundaiUSA.com. Four details. I guess I should tell you, this has been a perfect time to tell you that we did invite Rich Paul on, but he sent back 22 crying emojis. That's weird.
Pete Thamel, when we come back on the Rich Eisen Show. 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. The challenge?
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Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Um The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Here on the Rich Eisen Show, Ryan Fox is going to be joining us, fresh back from Royal Berkdale in hour number three. Do I need to form my questions?
Fast. We'll set a timer. You got eight seconds to get each other. I've got eight seconds to edit. Like, I can't be ponderous.
Can't do a lot of ums or uhs. Like, I've got to formulate the question. Just fire it out. Don't think about it. Yeah.
Yeah. See it. Go do it. And the thing also about him. You look at his swing, not that I'm a swing doctor, but I do play one on TV.
You know, with the performance golf people and my guy, JT, who really gave me some great tips for. The American Century Championship, and he's now part of the legion of individuals I've patently let down with my results. Um Just the way that he brings his club down and hits the ball. is not Normal. Yeah, they're not.
And I mean, he bends his knees as he's meeting the ball. He gets very low to the ground. He's very, you know. It's not a conventional swing. It's kind of awkward looking.
You wouldn't teach your son or daughter to model your swing after his. But, you know. You know, the name of the game is hit it straight, hit it in the hole. I know. Man, he does that.
He did that. And he's going to be joining us in hour number three of this show. That'll be great. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial right here on the On the program. He's checking in right now from the SEC Media Day where he just got out of an interview.
With Kirby Smart for ESPN. It's been a while since we've had this man on. Ladies and gentlemen, back here on the program, Pete Fammell. Good to see you, Pete. How are you?
What's up, Pete? Rich, never been better, man. Never been better. We're in day two of four at the SEC Media Days, week three of four of Media Day season.
So we are right in the throes of complaining season. Sit around and point out the problems in college athletics without any imminent solutions.
Well, this is my question for you, just the macro to start this thing. Yes. What is the general tenor at a media week, right, for a conference as big as the SEC? And what are people talking about? Are they really talking about the state of college football, certainly based on Greg Sankey's comments yesterday, that don't.
Don't think we're playing around if we're Thinking of taking our football and going somewhere else? Pete?
Well, when you have four full days of media days, you get a little bit of everything, right? You get some macro talk, like Kirby Smart just came in and talked to us in the ESPN.com room. And I would say up as 15 minutes, 13 of them were talking about, should the SEC break away? What it looks like, all that. It was like big thought stuff.
And like the last question was like, hey, your team, you won back-to-back SEC titles. Like, think you'll be good? You know, and then there is somewhere you get, you know, the Kentucky safety and the Auburn kicker and like some of the, you know, really dialed-in micro stuff too. The Auburn quarterback Byron Brown just came and chatted with us. And, you know, that's obviously like dialing into the minutiae personnel and different things.
So they end up being a really good cliff notes for how the season is going to unfold in the micro. And then just generally, We cover a billion-dollar business that's fundamentally unstable and many would tell you unsustainable, although it seems to be sustaining pretty fine year after year.
So there's always looming questions because this has always been my theory, Rich, the setup of college athletics, like the way it is right now with I think 138 FBS schools right now, four power conferences, six non-power conferences. It's never, there's never going to be like a time of peace. Does that make sense? I think we've all embraced like there is never going to be a time of certainty. I think we're in a very specific moment of uncertainty right now, and we're on the precipice of significant change.
And no one knows if that's going to happen in six weeks with this bill. Probably not, but it could. No one knows if it's going to happen in a year or six months. Like, there are myriad options, myriad problems.
Solutions and paths are much more elusive. All right. So let's take this one step at a time. The bill you're referring to. Yeah.
You want to let everybody know, you know, a lot of people are reading about it, hearing about it, and how it is kind of. um either messing with the order of things or is helping uh at least usher some decisions to get made to find some order. Pete?
Yes. So the Protect College Sports Act, Rich, is right now. Potentially could reach the floor of the Senate in the upcoming weeks. Whether that happens or not, there is still a lot of ambiguity around that. There is no certainty to this bill.
And as I think the minutiae of it is debated and language is debated and talked about and written about, it When you pull away, it's like, okay, this thing probably still has about a 10% chance of ever becoming law, right?
So every iteration is going to deal with a reaction, especially the realignment portion, right? Realignment is essentially the paradigms of a multi-billion dollar business. And so that is obviously, you know, the amount of energy, focus, and time spent around that is really, really significant. There are a lot of things about the bill that everyone agrees on, right? That antitrust exemptions, in terms of more certainty in terms of transfers, in terms of protecting rights state by state, some cost certainty, as they would call it in the industry, where the, you know, it is not sustainable for the cost of talent to keep going up by 40% every year, right?
Even the NFL, which makes gobs of trillions, you know, has a cap and it's moved up.
Now, again, we're pointing out the problems. The bill could offer some solutions to short-term sanity, especially the protection from state courts, right? Like we've just seen the entire industry in a whipsaw over. Over eligibility decisions and such.
So, those are the things everyone agrees on. The problem is when you invite Washington to fix your problems. Everyone's going to have their own spin on it. And this particular bill was really pushed forward by Senator Cantwell in the state of Washington, which has Washington state aggrieved from. From realignment, right?
They got left behind and they're in the Pac-12. They're not in a power league anymore. And then you have Senator Cruz, who's tied tight to Cody Campbell. Private equity has had a significant stick in voice in this bill.
So that helped everything push forward to this moment. And the bill was essentially written despite. The SEC and Big Ten's participation.
So now. Those two leagues obviously cover 26 states, right? And they have, you know, it would be hard to pass a bill. That the SEC and Big Tent don't support. And Congress has realized that in the last few weeks.
And there have been a lot of conversations. I would say the conversations have picked up between Congress and those sides more maybe in the last three weeks than ever. Cantwell herself has been hands-on calling coaches, calling athletic directors. There is a sincere desire to get it over the goal line. But what we're seeing in the past few weeks, Rich, is people who are uniquely unqualified in Congress to fix college sports problems are now having to become experts.
Whereas the people who have failed to solve college sports problems at least know the general tenor of the issues and solutions.
So the congressional folks are being caught up. They've stepped in it a few times with different realignment things, and they've gone sideways with the Big Tent.
So it's just. It's a big quagmire right now, where it is. And we will see in the upcoming weeks if. the bill can get enough momentum to maybe make the Senate floor, but it's still four steps away at that point from becoming law.
Well, then let's turn to somebody who can actually do something about it in short term and long term. And that's Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC. Pete Fammell here on The Rich Eisen Show. In the.
Well, geez, let me put this: 14 years of this show's history, and then the three years of the podcast that it was before the 11 years that we're doing this. Uh I I don't recall anybody that I've interviewed that I need to be on my toes for more. Than talking to Greg Sankey. Because Every question I ask, he's already like a machine figuring out the 15 different possible ways he could answer it in a way that he doesn't want to answer it, or it could be a problem for him to answer it, or and then and then he'll also correct my. Suppositions because they're unfounded in his mind.
I mean, you know what I mean? Like, you've got to be on your toes talking to him.
So, every word that comes out of his mouth is curated and has a meaning to it.
So for him to basically say This is not posturing. for us to say at the SEC, we would Take our football and leave the NCAA. and start something new. Which he said. basically on Monday.
What does that look like, Pete? And when? Like, that's a whole set of hypotheticals that I appreciate him saying it out loud. And he is certainly calculating, right? That is not a man who does things impromptu, Greg Senke, as you just intimated, Rich.
That is not that. And you can look at it a couple ways.
So, first of all, just if they are to break away, would the television contract that goes through 2036 allow that, want that? Would the house settlement that everybody signed up for for I believe nine more years, the multi-billion dollar settlement that really runs college force right now in a lot of ways that people don't acknowledge? Like, can you break out of that and start your own thing?
So, there are significant headwinds to that idea.
Now, there's two, there's two. Paths here, right? There's self-governance. which is a real path. And that's a path I think that's very viable if this bill fails and the percentages say the bill will fail.
And then the other path is like the complete secession. Leave the union, if you will. The complications of the leave the union path, you know, we could do like a five-part mini-series on. I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but I am just saying, boy, there's a lot of it.
So I do think that in this moment, as the Big Ten and the SEC are essentially negotiating with Congress to try to get this bill to be less prohibitive to them and less headwinds to them, I do think reminding people of that, what the SEC can do and the power of the SEC isn't like an unwise thing for Greg Sankey to do.
So while. that road could be tilled someday. I don't think that is an imminent option, like the take our ball and go home option. Although I will say this: Kirby Smart just sat in a room and talked about, like, you know, his frustrations being in the SEC, being a coach, and not like simple things, like rule changes, right? Like everything is complicated with the NCAA.
And I do credit Charlie Baker for making things less complicated. The age-based eligibility that's commonly known as five and five that just passed, like that, that's a significant accomplishment for Charlie Baker. Charlie Baker has noticed the fat in the NCAA and the rules-making process, decision-making process, and tried to streamline that and has done a good job of streamlining that, but it still needs a lot more streamlining.
So, you know, it's. Mm. All of these things, Rich, from the macro are starting to look less like each other. The Big Ten and the SEC, they look a lot like each other, right? And everything else is starting to look a lot less like them.
And that is only going to be amplified as the years go on here. And those are the fundamental tensions that are driving some sort of next iteration. But What that next iteration is is just really unclear at this point. You know, so speculating the SEC could go do that on their own, that's fine. But do they just would it be of national interest if the SEC didn't play anyone else and only played each other?
Now, certainly, like, look, the ratings bear out. You know, the Big Ten has been the dominant league the last three years. That's not arguable. That's happened on the field. The SEC has wildly dominated ratings.
much disproportionate to the you look at the four zero record that the SEC the Big Ten has against the SEC in the playoffs. The SEC has dominated ratings, so the interest is there. But would that interest grow or dull if the SEC operated by itself? Right. And just didn't interact.
Again, I'm not a television expert. I'm not a consultant, but my theory would be it would lessen, not more. No, there would still be interest. I mean, the regional passion of the SEC is unbelievable. The national interest is unbelievable.
But if you don't have that cross-section, like I don't know if that, like, if you really start going multi-hypotheticals down the road, I don't know if that's the best way for them to grow. I don't think they'd be able to, like, let's just, you hit the nail on the head here, Pete. I mean, I don't think they'd be able to go off on their own and just do an SEC football season because we'd all sit here and you in your spot at ESPN, me on my spot here, would you be like, well, could they have taken on the Big Ten champ? Could they have taken on the Big 12 champ or the ACC champ if they're clearly head and shoulders above everybody else? And we'd be sitting now.
Now we're back in like the BCS era.
Now we're back in the before the BCS era. We've turned the clock back in a way that. That's not very good, but you hit the nail on the head. He might be also sending a smoke signal in any way, shape, or form to Tony Petiti before he has his media day, and the same thing's going to be asked to him. And he'll be like, Yeah, we're thinking the same thing.
And then now, suddenly, you got the Big Ten, you got the SEC, and you're more than, in all honesty, two-fifths of the way there. You're super league in this thing. And that's the question: is when and what's the impetus of it? Because you said Big Ten and the SEC look more like each other, and the divide of them and everybody else is getting larger in many ways.
So that's. That's the question is where's the big ten on all this? P Yeah, so the Big Ten has similar frustrations to the SEC in terms of rules making, in terms of process, in terms of governance, right? But there's also, you know, there was a lot of rhetoric out of Washington of like it was like fear-mongering about super leagues and about those guys breaking away. And again, Rich, just to like throw all the different hypothetical wrenches into this, if you break away and the SEC runs on its own, what do you do with the NCA tournament?
Like, look, what do you do with Omaha? Right? Like, if you really want to break away, are you going to give up? Like all of the very powerful platforms for your non-revenue sports, football would be fine in the SEC. I'm not diminishing what football could be, but it would be regional and it wouldn't be national.
So there are just like when you really start to unwind, like breakaway, you know, chatter makes a nice headline. And certainly nothing traffics on the internet better than realignment talk. Like that's any editor would tell you that in any place, right? Just because it's the fundamental basis for the billion-dollar industry, right?
So, and the potential of it, the looming thought of it, like nothing sends the clicks through the roof like realignment, like realignment shifts. It's just a reality of, you know, if you look back at the last 20 years. But for, And I have a ton of respect for the SEC and the regional passion, and I live it every week on game day, and it is awesome, and it's unbelievable. And it's certainly due for the Big Ten. But what you mentioned, the BCS earlier, Rich, which warms my heart.
Our friend Dan Wetzel wrote Death to the BCS, right? Hey, man. I was there. I was there. Those are my sports center days, right?
Where Brad Edwards was part of the Brad Edwards was part of ESPN Sports Center Research. He was the king of like breaking out his slide rules and his protractors. And this was 1.2%. And I'm like, come on, can we just like suit up and play football? You know what I mean?
Like, that was it. Yes. And the BCS, though generally remembered as wildly unpopular, I really think almost like a missing part of the legacy of the BCS was that it taught us that this sport that has such regional passion can be a national sport. And I do think the BCS lit the fuse for college football being the second most popular sport in America right now. The ratings are through the roof.
But here's what you need. I remember going to cover a game at Oregon. It was either Piloti or Chip in like 07 and sitting at a bar, McMenamin's there in Eugene and watching a South Florida Louisville game, you know, on a Thursday night or a Friday night when they were like both in the top 10 and DC. Like what it did, and I tell this story because like I'm in Oregon and there's Oregon fans, they were ranked highly watching South Florida, which was number two in the BCS at the time. And like it connected everything together.
Does that make sense, Rich? And if you remove that connection, it's not going to help you. Football would still be great, don't get me wrong, but that's not going to help you grow. And Just like the beauty of college football is the big, to me, my opinion, is that it's this big circus tent, right? It's this giant circus tent, and you never know, you know, who's the next lion team or who's next to be.
Like, if I had come on your show three years ago and said Indiana was going to go 28 and two under Kurt Signetti in the next two years, you would have like an ambulance rush to my house to have me like health checked, right? Right. And, you know, that's the great thing. Like, that's the great power of this sport is you do just never know, right? And in the whole, you know, the ambition of I went over to South Florida yesterday to see Brian Hartline and to see Rob Higgins, the athletic director there.
And they're dreaming big. They're building a stadium. They're in the number one market in Florida and they want to grow, right? Like it, it's sort of the power of belief and possibility fuel college football maybe more than any other sport in America. And what the BCS did was I think it connected everything coast to coast.
Like USC fans were watching Rich Rod's West Virginia teams, right? Like it just. It had never had that connectivity before in that. And I think that's grown and it's got the playoff to where it is now. And it's got the popularity to where it is now.
So, a retreat to regionalism would, I think, like, honestly, would hurt the bottom line, right? And it would hurt the overall popularity of this sport because you want that interconnectedness. That only helps it grow. No doubt. In the few minutes I have left, Pete, not to go personal here, but on Monday, this show is going to emanate from Kyle Winningham's.
Golf tournament.
So I'm going to be right there.
Well, I mean, I'm going to be in the middle of everything. What. What am I going to find? When I go to Michigan, Pete, walk me through what you think I'm going to find when I get there. on Monday.
Well, I think look look, Rich, Michigan made an unbelievable hire. Like Kyle Whittingham is one of the best football coaches in the last generation in college football. He took Utah from the Mountain West with barely a blip. To the Pac-12, made them a contender, made them a conference title. He has been one of the most consistently performing football coaches in college football in the last 25 years.
Period, end of story. One of the telling stats at Utah was they did this. Do you know the last quarterback from Utah drafted in the NFL draft, Rich? You would know this because you know more about the NFL draft than anyone. Do you know who it was?
Alex Smith? It was Alex Smith, number one overall, who played for Urban Meyer. Kyle was the defensive coordinator.
Now, they've had good quarterbacks since then, don't get me wrong, but he has almost done it despite. Elite production at that position, not because of it. And usually, when you grow and flourish, you have a couple guys like that who can sling the bill or move it around a little bit and help you.
So I really feel like there will be. A consistency and professionalism at Michigan football that is going to permeate through that program that was perhaps not there in the past few years.
So I think it's an unbelievable hire. It's such a good fit in the Big Ten. They've recruited really well. He has a strong front office there, and he's going to maximize the resources. He's a high-end game day coach, right?
That guy's coached a ton of high-stakes games, just a lot of college football games. They have an elite OC, a Jason Peck J. Hill at BYU, who's one of the better defensive coordinators in that part of the world and in the Big 12 the past few years. Look, the resources at Michigan that are available right now, there should be a through line to success. And I'd be stunned if Kyle Whittingham doesn't succeed highly there.
All right. But the rest of the morale, the next athletic director, everything else that's going on there. Yeah, I mean, look, like, to me, Ward Manual is kind of the last vestige of the controversial era of, and, you know, pick your scandal, right? Whether it was Connor Stallions, which, you know, whether it was recruiting stuff under Jim Harbaugh, and then obviously there were the more serious things that happened with Matt Weiss, and then obviously the ending of Sharon Moore. And they're really rich.
I think you're going to look around and be like. there's really no one that was here in 2023. There are people, don't get me wrong, and there's people in the athletic department, but the principles, if you really look at the core principles from that title team in all the controversies to right now, there's a few assistant coaches that have carried over and their football staff. And that athletic department hasn't had much turnover underneath Ward.
So there'll be familiar faces there. But I think the. My takeaway from Ward Manual was it was surprising he lasted this long. Not necessarily it was surprising that he elected to step down at the at the end of this year. Look, he won big, and the scandals, unfortunately, for him were bigger.
And you step back, he had a really successful run. It's hard to do it with 2016 to now, right?
So that's what, 10, 11, 12 years we're talking about. I guess 11 years as an AD, that's a long time to be a modern college athletic director in a high-pressure place like that. And his exit by letting him stay the year means that they don't have to, look, if they had reason to fire him for cause, they would have fired him for cause and it would have saved him millions of dollars, right? There wasn't enough in the report for there, so they'll hold hands and have one more football season and kind of let him go out gracefully. He clearly, President Grosso clearly has an affinity for Ward Manual, and you saw that in his comments.
So this is sort of like the negotiated point where Michigan came out and said, we did a lot of bad stuff, but we're really not going to tell you. You, what it was, other than we're going to use like weighty rhetoric to tell you it was bad and it's going to change. And, you know, with the video that they released, it's sort of right from the scandal, let's move on playbook, right? We have to admit fault. It's sort of like a mad lib when you, when you look at it, like they did, they checked all the boxes and did all the things, admitted just enough.
Have something punitive. With the decision on manual, and then they will press on and move on. But the beauty, Rich, I know you're obviously a big Michigan guy, of these big brands is they are set up and poised to win. In Michigan, this is not going to slow Michigan down. They are set up and poised to win again.
Pete, thanks for the time. Greatly appreciated. Travel safe. Look for more of my texts. You're the man.
Appreciate it. Thanks, Pete. Yeah. Thanks, Rich. Appreciate it.
Thank you for the panel, everybody, from the SEC. Media week, we got to beat it on down the line of the break. We'll be back in a sec. Mm-hmm. Save money on your next oil change with O'Reilly Auto Parts.
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Terms and conditions apply, NMLS 696891. 844-204-Rich is the number to Donald here on the program. Brian and. Is it called Santiago? Is that the way you pronounce it?
Brian, you there? Let's keep it classy. What up, Rich? How are you, Boris? How you doing?
What up, man? What's on your mind? They're in San Diego. Oh, really? I would.
You know, just trying to survive the heat. I don't got AC in my studio, so I'm just. Roasting it in here.
Okay. How are you guys doing? Bride? Traffic's okay. I mean, you know, I bike everywhere.
I work remotely. There we go. All right. We got two minutes for you. What do you want to do, Brian?
You want to chat? What do you want to do? What kind of thing? Oh, I want to do the LA Chargers win or loss. Before I get started, I wanted to say last time I called you guys, I didn't contemplate, but that was like the first time I ever called in a radio show period ever.
So. I just want to thank you guys for doing all you do, you know?
Well, Brian, here's what I'm going to do for you, Brian. I'm going to put you back on hold because we no longer have the time to fit it in right here. And I promise you, on the other side, we're going to do this.
Okay?
So just put it in back on hold. There goes Brian. In San Diego. That's why Koenheiser never wanted to say hello to anybody. He didn't.
You just want to get all that?
Well, 'cause then you just to chit chat. Yeah. Yeah. What's wrong with chit-chat? That's all good.
Nothing's wrong with chit-chat. By the way, you know, when I say San Diego, like that's the reference, and we leave it at that. You don't have to take out the hammer and then pop down on top of it. Maybe some people don't get that. That's their problem.
Dan Patrick said on his show today, DP, that if he's LeBron, he chooses the Sixers if MB is healthy. TJ. Wow. I mean, so he's not going to choose the six.
Okay. It's a healthy thing. If MB was always healthy, we'd have at least a ring. MB is healthy. Maybe.
And you've got Edgecombe, and you've got Maxie, and you've got Jalen Brown. JV, yo. And you wanna be like the king of a town before you go out. Philadelphia would be the spot. Come on.
I think Josh Shapiro would figure out a way to Yeah. for this statue next to us. Mm-hmm. The the diehard sports fan uh governor of Pennsylvania would We proclaim it LeBron James Day on the spot. If that means anything, you can throw that in there.
We're talking about practice. Yeah, all that good stuff. Hour number two: overreaction Monday on a Tuesday is coming up. 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.
