REShow: Pete Fiutak - Hour 1 (7-6-2022)

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That's 877-ASK-DELL to save up to 48% on our latest technology. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Welcome to the program. Great to be sitting in for Rich, fired up and feeling good on this Wednesday. But it's a holiday week, so I can't blame you if you're a bit askew on a big warm Wednesday. What day is it?

Where am I? I hope you have Monday off. Everybody should have had Monday off, and I hope you could extend it the additional day yesterday. But it's one of these weird zombie weeks where people are drifting around trying to get their bearings. The good news is, I'm with you for the next three hours to make sure we cover everything going on across the world of sports. And as a veteran of working holidays, especially this week, I can tell you, we have a lot more content to get to than normally.

Because I could have gone back deep, deep, deep in my archives and dusted off the classic topics that, especially a fill-in hack like myself would have to utilize when we reach the dead zone of July. Not the case. So, we're going to hit the NBA hard, the latest on Kevin Durant, now the perception is shifting. What if this is all a bluff by Durant? What if he's playing 12-dimensional chess to try to motivate Kyrie Irving to act like a rational human being? And that's a large what if on a variety of levels.

We'll get there. Looks like James Harden is closer to signing a deal that's leaving money on the table. And I'll tell you why my view of Harden, specifically since he came over to Philadelphia and read the room well in Brooklyn. However you size up Harden, and he does have prodigious size to measure, you got to give him credit for having a business acumen and just a good sense of a BS detector.

He figured out that Brooklyn was not going to work. So, we'll talk about Harden, the Sixers, the balance of power in the East. We remain on Kyrie Irving. Watch, watch, watch, watch, watch. I come to you from our Regal Studios in Southern California.

We'll connect the dots as to the likelihood that Kyrie can get to his preferred destination of playing on the Lakers and teaming up with LeBron once more. But hopefully you were with me on July 4th. If you weren't, you're going to have to make some better decisions in your life. I'm not asking for much, but as the fill-in host, and you're probably wondering who is this guy now making demands of me during a holiday week. I just need three hours whenever I'm on the air.

But if you missed the show on July 4th, I did my best to avoid three hours of repetition. Okay, Durant goes to Toronto. Somehow Donovan Mitchell winds up in Brooklyn, part of a five-way deal with 19, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing Brian Windhorst, especially because we don't have the simulcast today. It will not be all NBA all the time, but I do have the mindset of being interactive because we designed the program to give you maximum opportunities to chime in. You know the phone number, 1844204rich, 18442047424. I take phone calls selectively, so in all candor, your best bet whenever I'm in the chair is Twitter. That's B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's, but to reinforce the notion that I do want to have a conversation with you however we achieve that goal.

We only have two guests joining me over the course of our three hours together. Coming up in 40 minutes, the latest on college football consolidation. Don't call it realignment.

This is a power grab motivated solely by greed. And if you follow me on Twitter, you can see a variety of Pac-12 mentions. I'm a proud alumnus of two Pac-12 schools. One is going to the Big Ten. I'll give you my thoughts on USC later in the program. But we're going to bring in Pete Futak, who has covered college football for decades. He is the publisher of collegefootballnews.com. Pete is entrenched in Big Ten country. He's got excellent sources, so we'll talk about the future of Notre Dame and the report yesterday from Dennis Dodd, who I've chatted with on the radio for a long time, highly respected college football writer for CBSSports.com, that the Big 12 left for dead, we thought, when Texas and Oklahoma bolted for all of the SEC cash. Now, here comes, like a zombie, the Big 12, reportedly trying to poach up to six Pac-12 schools, including Oregon and Washington.

I think that's a reach, but we'll talk about the possibility of the Arizona schools, Colorado, Utah being in play. In 20 minutes, just a little bit of golf, because Tiger Woods played yesterday. And any time Tiger's on a course in a competitive setting, it is worthy of conversation. He wrapped up a pro-M in Ireland. That's not important, but he's getting ready for the Open Championship next week, and we'll connect Tiger to the folks, speaking of greed and just picking up every dollar you can, the folks who defected from the PGA Tour to join Live Golf.

So that is the overview. I am always multitasking, scanning the Twitter machine, B.W. Weber, Weber TubeBiz. It's a shame we're not on Peacock, because the simulcast with the outstanding production values would have a camera finding their way behind the desk, because I'm on not only Kyrie Irving, watch, watch, watch, watch, sciatica, watch, watch, watch, watch. So I'm in the studio where I used to host my very own show, one of several versions of the Brian Weber show that I drove underground.

And it's a wonderfully classic, that's a good way of saying it, a traditional setup. But because I'm still dealing with this throbbing leg issue that kicked in when I was in for Rich on Memorial Day because I was a fool and so energized, I stood for three hours and in the process, destroyed my back, I now have a garbage can underneath one leg, a flexible plastic setup to give me just enough resistance. So forgive me if you hear me knock into said garbage can or I'm doing a yoga pose. No Deshaun Watson references. We're in a good mood on a holiday week.

Here's the latest on Durant. And I watch all of the lousy talking head shows. So you don't have to my goodness, though. Can you imagine being a producer saying, all right, well, what happened last week? Can we milk anymore? Jalen Brunson is going to be the latest savior of the Knicks topics and start building those graphics. Katie and Kyrie have handed all of these shows a runway for the foreseeable future. And if you're tired of this topic, I don't blame you. That's why I'm talking Tiger Woods in 15 minutes. That's why I'm talking college consolidation in 25 minutes, 30 minutes. I can't do three hours of NBA speculation and feel good about giving you a quality program. At the same time, I can't ignore what is the biggest subject out there.

But if you're already full, to use the Joey Chestnut metaphor, I got bad news. We're not going to get clarity on Kevin Durant nor Kyrie Irving for a long time, especially. Let's start with Durant due to the complexity of any deal that would liberate free KD from Brooklyn. And this is all contingent now, not only on his status as a superstar, one of the five best players in the league.

I don't think that's debatable. This is the fallout from the Rudy Gobert trade. And I mentioned Brian Windhorst.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, this is when we should be on TV. Or Rich will do it when he comes back because he's got all the talent around him, like my guy Del Tufo and Brockman and TJ Jefferson. You need an ensemble to recreate the greatest moment of performance art that Windhorst had last week on ESPN as he was in real time telling you what Danny Ainge was putting together as the Kaiser Soze, the master of deceit across the NBA.

But if you don't know what I'm talking about, forget about the histrionics of Windhorst. Utah got a hole for Rudy freaking Gobert. Two parts there. Danny Ainge is a shrewd negotiator who loves to tackle a rebuild as we saw in Boston when he jettisoned the remnants of that championship team. The Doc Rivers is always going to mention whatever we bring up in the media. Hey Doc, how about squandering another 2-0 series lead? Hey, I won that championship! We got KD! Paul Pierce!

That's the worst Doc impersonation of all time. But remember, Ainge sent, and what do you know, to Brooklyn, Hall of Fame talent like Garnett and Paul Pierce and you know the rest of the story. So Utah is blowing things up to rebuild.

They're going to trust the process. In the process, they got a boatload in return for Rudy Gobert because I don't think Minnesota knows what they're doing. You can justify the trade if you want to and say that there's a master plan here and this is all supporting Edwards and Karl Anthony Towns.

I don't see it. Rudy Gobert is a very nice player. We know about his defensive prowess. You can't make a Herschel Walker type trade to mix sports for Rudy Gobert. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich Eisen. 1-8-4-4, 2-0-4 Rich, the number to call.

1-8-4-4, 2-0-4, 7-4-2-4, coming up in roughly a half hour. The latest on college football consolidation with my pal, Pete Futak, from collegefootballnews.com. So with the precedent of Gobert getting all of those picks and players in return, what would be a realistic expectation for Brooklyn to trade Kevin Durant? Don't you have to start with the Gobert details as the baseline and to achieve that goal and to accomplish that aim if they want to. Another reason why this could take much longer than a lot of pundits are throwing out there because they want to talk about this every day and are taking a step back to be more logical with the analysis. There are going to be multiple teams involved and I love NBA Twitter and I'm in my early 50s and I'm trying desperately to stay relevant.

Nothing better than pouring a cold one, logging on to the old Twitter machine and going through all these wild scenarios. Four and five team deals and I mentioned, somehow, every trade I've seen has one endgame, whatever the other trading partners might be. Donovan Mitchell, I don't know him well enough to call him Spider, get your shine box out Spider, Donovan Mitchell winds up on the net.

Everything else you can just find fill in the blank talent just as a placeholder but that's a serious concern for Brooklyn. They have to, at this point, save some face and have a shred of dignity after their owner, Joe Tsai, and to a lesser extent their GM, Sean Marks, who I covered when he played for the University of California at Berkeley. I think they're still in the pack, whatever. And candidly, where's Cal going?

I say as a Stanford grad. Early cheap shot on a Wednesday edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Joe Tsai believed in Kevin Durant and he believed in Kyrie Irving and what did he get? Right now, his franchise is dealing with massive ambiguity.

They're the best team that never was and he allowed. And I really think if we're going to play the whodunit game here, this is more Kyrie driven than Durant and there's a theory out there that Kyrie is the reason this whole thing fell apart. Not just Durant somehow either getting disenchanted with Brooklyn's management for letting Harden go or picking up Ben Simmons. This really is all Kyrie driven. That Durant had the moment of clarity and said, what am I doing? I'm wasting prime years on a guy who has not been available for a myriad of reasons.

Among them, he wouldn't get vaccinated. Do I really want to place a bet on my future that is contingent on Kyrie Irving acting like a rational individual? You are what you consistently do and Kyrie has been a different cat.

I'll be kind. It's a holiday week ever since we really burst upon the scene coming out of Duke. But if you're Brooklyn and we all have human emotions and even the owner, Joe Tsai, what a great name to sum up the unmitigated disaster the Nets have become. Joe Tsai had a cryptic tweet the other day about team before individuals. What's he saying? I want my franchise back.

Give me back my team. So in the process, maybe he wants to stick it to Durant and make him sweat it out a little bit. There's no reason to get this done now, especially given all the complexity and the different teams that might have to get involved.

And then secondly, maybe Tsai is a deeper thinker or Sean Marks is involved, too. We don't know how hands on the owner is, but it's his money, after all. Now, no need for a bake sale and a franchise in New York City with or without Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving is still going to have a multibillion dollar valuation. But maybe they think Durant is either venting because Kevin, by his own admission and his own behavior, he's probably tweeting at me right now through a burner phone, is sensitive.

He allows the noise occasionally to get to him. So maybe this will pass. Maybe Durant was just reacting emotionally.

Take a time out and let's talk in a week. Or maybe Durant has taken things intellectually to the next level. And maybe this is all a grand game of poker, but it's not the dogs playing poker.

That lovely portrait hanging on the wall of my luxurious one bedroom apartment here in Southern California. It's really a game of one on one. Kyrie and Durant. Maybe Durant reacted the way he did after Kyrie opted in, knowing that Kyrie is now on a one year deal to get a few things done. Maybe he's signaling to Kyrie. Now, I don't know why he wouldn't just pick up the phone. These guys talk on podcasts. But again, I'm old.

I can't relate to the young people like I used to. Maybe, though, beyond even words, you have to do something dramatic. You have to signal in a profound way. This is Durant saying to Kyrie, hey, listen, clean it up a bit.

You can be an iconoclast. We know Kyrie, as he tweeted out, is not ordinary like me and you. That's why he's able to achieve these mystical things. But maybe he's saying, hey, if you just cut down on the knucklehead factor and we actually play together for a season and maybe get something out of Ben Simmons, and that's a huge maybe, we can still be a factor in the East. Let's see how it works on the court.

And in the process, I'll get you paid. Because don't move past the details of the contracts. I know it's boring. I'm not going to read you the actuarial tables.

That's deadly sports talk radio. But the overall element you should be aware of, Durant just started a four year contract. So he's locked in.

Kyrie is in the final year of his deal. He has the ultimate motivation to try to change the perception of him that, yeah, maybe he's a flake, but at least he's going to show up for more than 30 games a year, whatever the reason that has prevented him from being on the floor. So and I love your observations on Twitter, B.W.

Weber, Weber with two B's. Do you buy this new narrative? Don't love the word, but it's a way of summing up a new way of viewing the never ending soap opera in Brooklyn, that this is all Durant trying to get Kyrie Irving's attention. Durant has no intention of leaving. Brooklyn would love him to stick around because for all the reasons I just laid out, pulling off a fair trade in their mind, getting multiple first round picks, an established all star and a rising young player is going to be just too challenging to make sure that everyone's satisfied. And finally, and we'll get back to this coming up to tip off our number two. Spare me the Kevin Durant has a contract and the Nets should enforce it. I understand what you're saying.

You and I have to play by the rules because we're not one of the five best players in all of basketball. And we're not talking about the NFL where Debo Samuel can be upset or Aaron Rodgers. We spent the entire summer last year talking about the future of Rodgers. What happened?

Nothing. He got paid. And in retrospect, that was all just a cash grab by Rodgers in the NBA going back for decades. Kareem won it out of Milwaukee. He got it done. The NBA is run by its superstars.

And if Kevin Durant really doesn't want to be there, he will get out at some point. I'm Brian Weber in for rich. You can give me a call. 1-844-2-0 for rich Twitter machine heating up. B.W. Weber.

Weber with two B's coming up. We'll talk just a little bit of golf and then in 20 minutes, we will dig into all of the details and we'll focus on mighty Notre Dame as the dominoes keep falling in the realm of college football consolidation. Looking forward to chatting with my friend Pete Futak from collegefootballnews.com. But straight ahead, as mentioned, Tiger Woods back on the course yesterday. First competitive round since he unfortunately had to tap out of the PGA Championship when he was limping around in Tulsa.

We'll talk Tiger and we'll expand the focus. Could his image rehab be a blueprint for the live tour defectors who walked away from the PGA Tour? And since we're talking golf, a reminder from our friends at Callaway. When Callaway engineered ChromeSoft to be the best tour ball, it didn't just make the best players better.

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Find out which ChromeSoft is right for you at CallawayGolf.com slash ChromeSoft. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich. It's a Wednesday edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Does your antiperspirant keep you dry all day? Dove Men Plus Care Dry Spray goes on instantly dry for a cleaner feel and offers 48 hours sweat and odor protection.

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Clean feel all day. Brian Weber back with you. Always a pleasure to be in for Rich. It's the Rich Eisen Show. Hop aboard one eight four four two oh four Rich.

That's one eight four four seven four two four. Conversation never stops on Twitter. My handle is B.W.

Weber Weber with two B's. A reminder, you can take us wherever you go and catch the show wherever you might be, especially during a holiday week. Hope you have plans to get out the house. Get out the house. Get out the way.

Show always available wherever you might wind up through the Odyssey app. In 15 minutes, we talk college football. And normally I would start talking college football during the first week of July because we're just a couple of weeks away from SEC media days.

I used to mock that notion. Now, everybody that has any substance as a conference has multiple media days. And when the SEC goes to what, 20 teams, 22 teams, they're going to have an SEC media week. But normally I'd be looking ahead to how is the final four going to come together? Coaches that could be facing some urgency. We love hot seat conversation.

And sports talk radio. Instead this year, it's all about who's going where. How is the power structure going to continue to be defined? Effectively, we move, speaking the word power, from the power five to the big two. SEC, big 10, everybody else now trying to find a path forward.

And Notre Dame is the white whale for everybody. We've got the latest coming up in 15 minutes with one of the best in the business. An old friend of mine, Pete Futak from collegefootballnews.com. We'll get back to the NBA coming up, start of hour number two.

And just one more guest after Pete in the final segment of the upcoming hour, 1.40 Eastern time. More NBA analysis from Eric Pincus, a bleacher report. And when we get to the NBA part deux, I will examine the notion that the Nets might be testing Kevin Durant because they know how important basketball is to him and that may seem counterintuitive, right? These guys do it professionally. I've been around enough athletes across many sports who don't love to play anymore. It's become a job, but it's the check that matters. Durant is the type of guy who plays pickup on his day off.

I don't know that he would, for example, emulate what Ben Simmons did and just sit out a year. We'll get back to that coming up in the second hour. Wanted to spend a little bit of time, not too much because I know golf is not a sport that moves the needle. Unless I'm talking about Tiger Woods, and you can argue with a high degree of rationality, more people listening right now are fans and supporters of Tiger Woods than care at all about golf. That's just what he does. They believe in Tiger so much because of everything that's made him so unique, all of the championships.

I think when he got to major number 15, dealing with the latest round of adversity, it made him even more appealing because he was human, because he was fragile, and because we love a comeback. And I have to be upfront with you. I've mentioned Stanford. I'm very proud that I've squandered a prestigious education. We've got to figure out what we're going to call our conference, the Conference of Champions in the future as well. We're going to lose a few championships, a lot of championships when UCLA leaves.

I'll remind you, Stanford has more national championships than anybody. But when I was fortunate to be a young broadcaster in the San Francisco Bay Area, somebody put me on TV when I was 21. I sounded 13. I looked like I was 9. I got a quote-unquote exclusive with Tiger Woods when he arrived on campus at Stanford because I was the host of the Stanford Sports Magazine, the Emmy Award-winning Stanford Sports Magazine. You know how much mileage I've gotten out of that cheap award I think I had to pay 70 bucks for in 1998?

Right there on my Twitter account. I have no shame whatsoever. But Tiger, when I met him, was very guarded. And I felt like I was talking to a robot. And it could not have been a friendlier interview setting. We're talking on campus at Stanford. I'm introduced to him by the athletic director as an alumnus. I'm not doing Mike Wallace. This is not Jim Gray trying to be a prosecutor to Pete Rose at the World Series. Plus, he's Tiger Woods and he's 18 years old.

What dirt would I be looking for? I didn't know how his life would progress. I'm asking easy, friendly softball questions and he's giving me 8-word answers. So, we're not live. We didn't do it live then. I knew I could cobble everything together on tape.

We wrap it up and once the microphone came off and the camera turned off, he was engaging, he was funny, and he's bright. So, I've had a difficult time putting that out of my memory because I saw the shift, as I try to snap my fingers poorly. Good thing I'm not on West Side Story. When you're a Jet for Life. I saw that radical transformation within the span of 30 seconds. So, I was always suspicious of the Tiger who was so guarded, who was so on script. And I'm not in any way saying, oh, I knew there was a double life, but when all of the salacious details came out. And remember, that was Thanksgiving weekend 2009. I'll never forget, I was on the radio. And you see the breaking news on CNN. Tiger Woods in a one-car accident.

One-car accidents, my friends, I hope you avoid them. They typically don't have a good backstory. And you know all of the events that happened after that. But here's what occurs to me. And we'll link it to what's going on in golf right now.

Tiger Woods has become more popular, more appreciated, more beloved because of his humanity and his fragility. He's a divorced dad. How many divorced moms or dads do you know? Well, last time I checked, the reason why I'm single, I'm married to being a filming host, especially during the holiday week. Fifty percent of marriages end in a divorce. He's now middle-aged with severe back and knee issues.

I've already mentioned my sciatica. That's all we have in common. Although I actually graduated from Palo Alto.

He didn't need to stick around for the degree. Get the point I'm making here? Tiger, for all of his transcendent ability and remarkable accomplishments, has become, for lack of a better term, more like us.

And he's let us in. Yesterday, I'm watching on Golf Channel, this meaningless program in Ireland. Good field, though. Must have been a hefty appearance fee. Although hefty didn't show up.

He's too busy spending the Saudi money. Afterwards, Tiger wasn't good. He had rust. And at this point, we don't know what Tiger is going to achieve any time he is able to get on the course. But he seemed much more grounded. He talked about having a sense of gratitude. Tiger Woods would never have uttered those words 10 years ago. And clearly, the latest chapter, when he winds up at the bottom of Ravine in Southern California, that could have been a lot worse.

And just as an aside, if you and I are in a car and we drive down a hill and the police show up, they probably take my blood if I'm behind the wheel. They didn't do that to Tiger. Just saying that being a celebrity has its privileges, especially since we know his legal history.

But that's more of a footnote. Tiger Woods has managed to appeal to so many fans who don't care about golf because he finally let us in. Because he probably realizes that 15th major at Augusta and all that came with it was the peak, the apex, especially now after the car accident. But he's going to be out there and he's going to try and he's going to grind, just like me and you.

He's going to go to work when he can. So, to sum it all up, if Tiger Woods could have that kind of transformation, going through trauma, but whatever the motivation is, people can change. And I've been extraordinarily critical of the Live Tour guys because I think they're motivated solely by greed. You can say, hey, Phil and Hack, whoever you are, if the Saudis started a radio network and offered you $100 million, would you take it?

The answer is probably yes. But here's the difference. Dustin Johnson doesn't need the money. Brooks Koepka doesn't need the money. Bryson DeChambeau doesn't need the money. Mickelson probably does, if you believe all of the details.

And I can't recommend enough Alan Shupnick's terrific book on Mickelson. Phil might need the cash because not only is he a consistent gambler by his own admission, he's a terrible gambler. But you don't have to take every dollar in the process, destroy your tour and change what you're fundamentally doing. The Live Tour is not competitive golf because there's no cut and they're all getting guaranteed money.

Where's the motivation? It is no different than the silly made for TV events, the Skins game years ago on Thanksgiving weekend. So if Tiger Woods can change how many of us perceived him, I do think there is a possibility for these guys. And here's where they're going to have the best of both worlds. They've gotten this money.

Presumably a lot of it's guaranteed. At some point the Saudis are going to realize they're throwing money away because nothing's going to change about the perception of an authoritarian regime with some brutal human rights abuses. But they're trying to sport wash. They're trying to throw money at the English Premier League and now golf to say we're a different modern society.

Don't worry about the beheadings or women don't have equal rights like the rest of us do around the civilized quote unquote world. At some point that's going to end. And you have this suspension on tour, it'll be lifted. Because the PGA desperately needs guys like Dustin Johnson, Koepka, DeShan Bowe back. And if they do something akin to Tiger Woods, if they admit they made a mistake, if they have the moment of clarity, you want to bet that suspension was not ever a lifetime suspension.

It was a temporary ban and they'll be welcomed back because it is mutually beneficial. They need a place to play and the tour needs them. So maybe I'm reaching, but as I watched Tiger at the podium yesterday on Golf Channel, it occurred to me that there is a path moving forward for the live guys.

But like Tiger, they're going to have to show some humility and actual contrition. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. You can be a part of the program.

1-844-204 Rich, 1-844-204-7424. More NBA coming up to tip off our number two straight ahead. We talk college football consolidation.

What do we make of the report? That the Big 12 of all conferences now is trying to poach up to six teams from my beloved Pac-12. And what's next for Notre Dame? We'll cover it all when we say hello to Pete Futek from collegefootballnews.com. I'm Brian Weber, always having a good time with you. In for Rich on the Rich Eisen Show. On top of the hour, we will tip off our number two, getting back to the NBA conversation, talking Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

Because I think we're going to be talking about them for a long time with no clarity in sight. Now, let's say hello to an old friend with a lot to discuss across college football. Pete Futek, collegefootballnews.com. Pete, how are you today? I'm doing just fine.

How you doing? Want to talk about my Pac-12 conference? I was looking for a little sympathy there, pal.

I can try. Look, I'm not one of these doomsayers when it comes to the Pac-12. Last year, I remember during the summer, it was the end of the Big 12.

And whenever these things happen, it's like, oh my gosh, well, that's it. How's the Pac-12 going to figure this out? These are big conferences, multi-billion dollar businesses that sort of figure it out. So yes, losing USC and UCLA, you take away those two from the L.A. market.

That obviously stings competitively, at least in football. Remember that between the two of them, they've won a combined one Pac-12 conference championship in the last 13 years. But if the Big 10, I should say, when the Big 10 takes Oregon and Washington... Oh, well, when? OK, I'm active listening. Hang on, let me jump in because you had me feeling better for a moment.

Well, let's just hit pause right there. What do you make of Dennis Dodd's report for CBSSports.com yesterday? And others have confirmed that. Now suddenly, the rejuvenated Big 12, as you mentioned, left for dead when Texas and Oklahoma took the cash to make their intentions clear to go in the SEC. Here comes the Big 12 going after Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah. That makes sense to me. But how in the world could they land Oregon and Washington?

In my view, just as an informed observer. I'm not talking to anybody at the conference office, even though I work for Pac-12 Network. If Oregon and Washington are going anywhere, it's the Big 10. And I think they're more likely to stay on the West Coast and have an affiliation with the remaining teams. Whatever we're going to call it. The Pac-8, the Pac-10. You can jump in there. Let me put it this way. I don't think the Big 10 would just get UCLA and UCLA without having a plan to get at least two other schools that are relatively close by. I don't get into the whole, oh my God, the plane travel and stuff.

I mean, whatever. You get on your chartered plane, you put on your headphones, you take a nap, you have some pretzels, and then all of a sudden you're there. I don't think you're going to see a lot of USC versus Rutgers games going forward. But look, I don't want to do this trip for two days. It's like four hours from Chicago. It's just not that bad. But with that said, there are other sports to be considered and there are other markets to be considered.

So Oregon and Washington make sense. But you're right. If you're the Pac-12, let's go back to the original concepts here. How do we make Brian Weber with two B's feel better? Thank you.

Let's say if you're George Krivokov, you are saying, all right, we lost you to LA. How do we fix this? Well, what's the Big Ten doing? It is increasing its footprint and it doesn't matter where it comes from.

You first you've got to find schools in the time zones where people are awake on Saturday night. That would be a plus. You need market so you can just expand your brain a little bit and you just need more.

It's like Monopoly almost need more property. I would think San Diego State, even though they're not a tier one research school, would be a no brainer. I would think UNLV would be a no brainer because he has wanted to forget the fact that their football team's been awful.

They want that hub. Well, the Pac-12, as you know, already has the basketball tournament in Vegas. And George, our commissioner, has deep ties there because he's been in the casino business. And speaking of basketball, basketball doesn't move the needle here. It's all football. However, I am shocked. I will still push this idea that Kansas is one of the most attractive schools out there.

It is kind of on its own. You still get the Kansas City and St. Louis markets. Football being bad is not necessarily an awful thing because some of these schools aren't going to want to bring aboard the killers that absolutely crush them. And of course, basketball is a national brand and legendary. And for the Pac-12, that makes a whole lot of sense.

And it moves your product over a little more. So I would think there are ways to do this, but there just aren't a lot of options unless they can figure out a way to keep Oregon and Washington and figure out how to get Notre Dame to like them more. Talking college football consolidation with one of the best in the business, my pal Pete Futek.

Check out his great work, collegefootballnews.com. And to reinforce your point, Pete, you saw yesterday the Pac-12 effectively, with an emergency announcement, even though the media rights aren't up until 2024, they've already started negotiations with ESPN and Fox, just trying, I think, to signal primarily to Oregon and Washington, there's no need to look around. We're all going to get paid. Yeah, we lost the L.A. schools, but to your point, we can pick up Vegas, we can pick up San Diego.

Everything's going to be just fine. Now, Notre Dame, you and I could do an hour on it. Let's just start with what we know about the particulars of their tie-in to the ACC understanding all of these contracts seemingly can be broken. Yeah, the problem is that Notre Dame at this point, if you're the Big Ten, you're not going to give them any, you know, you're not giving them a cookie for this. Because if you're saying, hey, if Notre Dame's saying, hey, we want this, this, this and this, Big Ten's going to be like, all right, no, because Ohio State's going to want anything Notre Dame would get. And Notre Dame doesn't want, I'm not, you know, school shaming here or anything like this, but look, let's be honest, Penn State and Nebraska are now just, you know, teens. They're just schools in this conference. I mean, obviously the Big Ten's the biggest brand going business-wise. But Notre Dame doesn't want to be kind of lost among the Ohio States and Michigan and Wisconsin and Penn State.

They like being who they are. So I just don't see the egos all quite coming together to make this work. Now, if you're the ACC, look, your friends with benefits thing has been nice to put a ring on it. You know, figure it out.

Figure out how to get that. I mean, look, 2020 was fun. We had a fun ACC season in that awful year overall where Notre Dame got to go to the ACC championship. It got to go to the college football playoffs. And I think that would be the move that the ACC wants. Once some crafty lawyer figures out how to get those schools out of their grant of rights deal, the actual bigger white whale overall here is North Carolina that everybody wants. You got to do something to get the ACC to keep everyone happy. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich.

Rich Eisen's show, Wednesday edition, talking college sports with PFUTech, collegefootballnews.com. So Pete, if I heard you correctly, you're not fully buying the conventional wisdom that it's going to be the SEC and the Big Ten running the sport. You think the ACC might be viable and could survive? Let's put it this way. What do you think it is now? Yeah, you're right. De facto, you're right. Oh, my God. The super conference.

Right now we're talking about, what is it, July 5th or 6th? I mean, basically, if you're telling me you're going to give me, let's say, Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, and let's just throw in a random SEC number two, and you'll take the field, or I'll take the field, however you want to do this. Those four other teams, that's it, you know? I mean, it stinks.

It's boring. We already have the super conferences, as is, I think it's something crazy, like the last 12 years, 40 to 45-ish percent of the NFL drafted SEC Big Ten. So that's what it is. However, the ACC can be more than just viable.

They can stay together. And the other thing to remember in all this, too, is it's business, not college. Where everyone thinks, oh, well, the SEC, you just say Clemson and Miami and Florida State.

It doesn't make any sense. From a business perspective, you already have those markets. Miami's not a big school. Florida State, you already got Florida. You already have the University of South Carolina. Look what the Big Ten's doing. Again, it's expanding its footprint coast to coast. If you're just keeping this a regional thing, it doesn't work for the SEC just to get there. Now, North Carolina, that's the one. Because now you've got an entirely new market that's kind of untapped by the bigger conferences.

And North Carolina, school-wise, again, we haven't gotten into the academic side of this, completely fits everything the Big Ten is. That's the one everyone wants. Pete, great information as always.

Thank you for offering clarity. I feel better about myself. I'm caught in like a stuttering rage there. I'm so emotional. Finally, as you know, because you follow me on Twitter, I'm not just a radio guy. I love calling college soccer volleyball.

Yeah, you're Mr. Olympics. We've talked about this before. Do you know anybody at the Big Ten Network? Because they're going to be an L.A. person in two years.

Can you help me out? They are. Actually, the funny part you say about that is like, you know, what does everybody who's ever covered Big Ten football say ever? Oh, you want me to make that trip to L.A.? They're not spending the dough.

I know they're printing money. They're not sending anyone on a plane for USC Volleyball, pal. That's how I make a living.

I'll take that deal. Exactly. There's something out there. I'm sure they will figure out a way to make sure that, you know, whatever non-revenue sports that no, you know. Don't say nobody cares. I care. I care.

Pays the bills. All right? This isn't high school. You don't need those sports. All right.

Stop. Title IX matters and Brian Weber has to pay the rent. Pete, always appreciate your insights and I'll chat with you soon. Pete Futek, CollegeFootballNews.com, taking shots at my livelihood.

I'm not going to read you my resume, but if you follow me on Twitter, B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's, when I'm not here, I have an eclectic broadcast portfolio. I'm big in the tennis world. I'm not talking about Rafael Nadal and Taylor Fritz. What a riveting match they're playing. Right now, Wimbledon.

I'm not going to give you the score because I don't want you to flip away. But you can't just yada, yada, yada through the Olympic sports. Football pays the bills for everyone. But Title IX is real, as it should be. Equity is important. Hundreds of student athletes across campuses, school by school, have a terrific experience because they can play at a high level. And that matters.

And I'm not trying to be a Pollyanna. But my goodness, when I woke up and heard USC was leaving and UCLA is going because they need the money. It really was a betrayal because this conference has had a few key elements for over a century. And I know you just follow the money, but USC doesn't need the loot.

Still, these are the times in which we live. As we get deep, especially for a filling host, one hour down, hour number two on the way. It's going to be primarily NBA. And we'll bring in our second and final guest, taking you across the association with Eric Pincus from Bleacher Report. If you want to chime in, about to check my Twitter feed.

Let me know how much you enjoy me screaming over a women's soccer match. B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. I'm Brian Weber.

Always a pleasure to be with you and for Rich Eisen as we roll our busy edition of the Rich Eisen Show. For the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments, it's something to wrestle with Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson, too. All time Hogan opponents, Macho Man's got to be in the conversation. Where's Andre for you? I've always said Andre was number one. Wow. Because even going back before, you know, Hulk Hogan was a babyface, Hulk and Andre were able to go in and headline at the New Orleans Superdome at Shea Stadium in Japan. Wherever they went, that was an attraction. Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.