RE Show: Bruce Feldman - Hour 2 (8-2-2023)

This is the Rich Eisen Show. Alright Mike, you did some fine work once again, tiering quarterback.

Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I don't know how Jalen Hurts after last year doesn't get tier 1 status. First year he was in it he was 30th, then he was 20th, and now he's 6th.

I don't think there's any disrespect from being at the top of tier 2. You had a great year. Earlier on the show, MLB host and content creator, John Boy. Coming up, Fox Sports College Football. Final analyst, Bruce Feldman.

Host of discoveries survived the raft, Nate Boyer. And now, it's Rich Eisen. We're thrilled to have back here from the athletic and Fox Sports, none other than Bruce Feldman. Good to see you, Bruce. Good to see you. Your media week tours are over. Where did you, which media tours? I had started out with Big 12 in Dallas, and then went Mountain West, Pac-12, and then Big 10 last week.

Couldn't squeeze them all in, but I always get something out of it. It's good to see old familiar faces, but it's also really good to kind of get dialed in more. Some players maybe you don't know a lot about, or some coaches you haven't talked to in the offseason. There's just been so much drama off the field, unrelated to actually the actual games. I just want to hear about football and the actual games, as opposed to all the other speculation. Well, that's coming.

It's coming. It seems there's a new annual cycle here for college football with transfer portals and signing periods, and how when coaches may get fired, and when players may transfer. It seems that we're in the portion of the year, the summer's always filled with realignment talk, is pretty much what it is now, right? It is, and there's always like one coaching curveball, and this year's was in the Big 10 with Pat Fitzgerald.

And I think it was a big curveball to a lot of folks, and that story's still playing out, but I think you get a lot. It used to be that once the NFL could go 365 days a year with free agency and all sorts of things, never mind just the draft, college wasn't that way. But in the last five years, college has become almost, I don't want to say almost like that, but there's just a lot of stuff going on to deal with. Well, we may have a free agency period in college football one day. I mean, it may actually happen, Bruce.

I think so. Now look, it kind of gets to the nonsense part when you start getting Congress to weigh in. There's just a lot of stupidity that swirls around the sport, but I definitely think some of those things are going to get addressed sooner than later.

All right, so let's take it one at a time here. You mentioned Northwestern. What was the conversation at the Big 10 Media Week surrounding Northwestern, and where this is all heading, do you think? Behind the scenes I think was different than probably what was being had, because I think a lot of people looked at it. Nobody looks good with what's gone on at Northwestern. And when I say nobody, I mean the school looks terrible. They've had other scandals.

Volleyball, they have a scandal going on with the baseball program. The AD, who's a relatively new AD, was on vacation when all this happened. The president, who's also a new president there, had come from Oregon.

I think he looks like he's botched this all over the place. And then you have Pat Fitzgerald, who had been the head of the AFCA, the American Football Coaches Association, was one of the most respected figures in the coaching profession. Also a guy that a lot of us in the media really feel like, OK, you know, we think Pat Fitzgerald, he's accessible, does things the right way. And then when you start to hear some of these details, I think it, you know, you kind of realize it's like, OK, we don't really know what's going on behind the scenes at anywhere unless you're actually behind the scenes with them. And I think it's hard to know exactly what to believe right now, because there's a lot of allegations and a lot of people coming forth.

There's a lot of lawsuits coming out. I think, you know, coaches, even coaches who have great respect for Pat Fitzgerald, I think they would have a hard time believing. You don't know what's going on at all in your own locker room, especially if it's going on for that long. Some of the some of the weird, creepy stuff of these like naked car wash kind of things go beyond, I think, the realm of like, OK, that's that's kind of team initiation and team bonding to like, OK, that's weird. Right.

You know, that kind of stuff. And so. So then how do you keep the staff basically intact to run the ship and bring in Skip Holtz to help the new head coach, interim head coach who is like really new to the staff, the new defensive coordinator? Right.

I don't know. Right now, I feel like Northwestern is making one stupid move after another along the way here. And, you know, look, let's be honest, this was a terrible team last year. They won one game. They've been really, really bad. You know, almost they had one good season out of the last four.

The other three have been horrific. So I don't think anyone looks at the expectations like, oh, even if Pat Fitzgerald was there, I think people thought it was still probably a two or three win team right this year. But that doesn't mean, OK, we're just going to like, you know, punt on the players and everything else is going on. I suspect, you know, now they just commissioned another and there's been no transparency, by the way.

It's just like I said, nobody looks good in it. And I think in the long term, I suspect they're going to have to clean house entirely from this. I wouldn't be surprised if Pat Fitzgerald got a big settlement going forward, but I don't know how it's going to look for him. I don't think anybody I would imagine he does not want to get deposed under oath, you know, with this either, because there's just so many people coming out of the woodwork and it feels like some of these issues predate him as the head coach at Northwestern. Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports in the athletic here on the Rich Eisen Show. All right, let's talk about my my team, my guy, because it just seems that everybody's a gym's a magnet. Let's start with what's going on with the NCAA. What what what I feel like that's the easier part to handle.

OK, so great. We're expecting a four game suspension at one point, you know, when I had talked to folks into the winter, they thought there was a chance it could be six games because I think that's what the because he denied buying the hamburgers. I think it was because they felt like whether he lied or misled to the NCAA, however, the NCAA is, you know, view of this.

That is this is the example of the it's the it's more the cover up than the crime kind of thing. And, you know, it's coming off the heels, not connected to, but where Tennessee got a heavy fine. Tennessee had massive sheet cheating going on on Jeremy Pruitt's watch. And Jeremy Pruitt was was a terrible coach and lost a ton of game. So they were they wanted to get rid of him anyway and try to get out of their buyouts. They were they were really forthcoming under that. And the NCAA likes when you come forward. The NCAA hated that Mike Garrett and USC kind of thumbed their noses at the NCAA back in the Reggie Bush days.

And so I think the fact that, oh, you weren't forthcoming and just kind of hat in hand as as the way it's been described to me, that that's that's where this kind of falls in. Now, as you know, their first four games are against really weak opponents. And it's not like he's suspended for the first four weeks of the season.

He's suspended for the first four games, meaning Jim Harbaugh can still lead the team, you know, essentially out outside of game day so he can get them prepared. And so what is this accomplishing? You know what I mean? Like, again, we have I think look, I understand if you have committed a violation and they ask you a question and you're you're like making them feel stupid, they're going to they're going to come down hard on you. I understand that.

But and I fully understand how this question is going to be viewed with NIL and everything else going on. I'm like, really? The two kids come on campus. He hears that they're there.

He goes and buys them hamburgers. Well, I think there was other things was it was during the COVID dead period you have Arizona State is dealing with. There's other schools who are dealing with, you know, sizable NCA clouds over them because of the dead period. So I think it's more than just the one thing. Is it is it? Oh, my God, this is the worst thing in the world.

No. But again, no one no one has ever said the NCA system of justice makes a lot of sense. It's totally backwards. Well, they're completely ineffectual on this NIL front right now.

I mean, completely ineffectual. We're seeing Greg Sankey at the SEC media week. He kicked it off by basically saying, hey, Congress, you've got to step in Congress. I mean, well, and then and it seemed like, you know, three different groups of senators and represent what I'm saying. So Tommy Tuberville, you know, the former Auburn and Ole Miss head coach, is talking about now that, you know, the legislation was bipartisan.

I think with Joe Manchin from West Virginia, where they were going to they had their own kind of viewpoints on this. It was also you'd have to be three years at the school. Tommy Tuberville actually wasn't a Texas tech for three full years. He bailed on Texas Tech's football program in the middle of an actual recruiting dinner, like in the middle of the dinner. He bolted to go jump at the job at Cincinnati.

He was not even there for three full years. So, again, for anybody to say, oh, Congress, help us out. I mean, really, we need you know, we're going to go to people who are, you know, as dysfunctional as you can get.

I mean, that's that's the lifeline we're looking for. That's what I was saying here, that it makes no it makes no sense to me. The thing that makes complete sense is for the SEC and the big 10 and the big 12 and then name two other, if you will, power conferences. We'll get to the PAC 12 in a second here and come up with a group of institutions that have, you know, remotely similar issues and questions about NIL. And then maybe underneath the construct of the college football playoff system, create a new Super League where NIL is handled in a manner that is commensurate to the players needs and and rights. And also for schools that offer scholarships to the kids that they feel that they're going to get some sort of certainty out of their stay, staying at the the the school and off we go. And then that's the way it's going to go. You can't reach out, as you point out, to an institution that is that makes the NCAA look well run. You know, I agree with that, but I think the part they'd have to get to be realistic.

So NIL is right now so tied to the transfer portal. And so I did a big story with my colleague Max Olson a couple of months ago about how much tampering goes on. And a lot of it goes on where, you know, the body that you would be talking about, which is really the power conferences.

It's all you know, there was one example, you know, and it's there's a lot of these that go on where it is. The big school basically sees somebody who maybe was on the radar, but they never offered or didn't get. Or maybe they just found Pro Football Focus has all these behind the paywall database information that you could find and go, this guy's a guy we may want to take a look at. So you pop his film on and like, this guy could help us on the offensive line.

This guy could help us as defensive back. And then all of a sudden these conversations happen. Now, some of them happen with like power school in the SEC to bottom feeder school in the SEC. And that's, you know, that there's, you know, the expression, there's no honor among thieves.

But I think the the thing that a lot of people have a big problem with is the poaching is going on. And I think if you just had the power schools saying, OK, this is how we're all on the honor system, they're not going to really hold to it anyway. But it's different than if you had maybe I don't know where you draw the line because people are still pulling guys out of FCS football.

No, and I and I understand that, Bruce. And you could say sit here and say, you know, holding the line. Well, yeah, if you have a smaller group of member schools and then you have a commissioner who actually will do something and sanction somebody and have teeth to it. And and the schools respect that governing body, then you won't have a coach saying, you know, but they have that in the let's use your example of the SEC, you know, they have that with Sankey, they have Greg Sankey.

Yet the poaching still goes on. Like I we did this story, like I said, a couple of months ago, I got a call. It was left on my voicemail from a coach I know not that well, but a coach, you know, as an assistant coach, there's a two minute voicemail telling me a story of how one of their better players, not their best player, but one of their better players basically got poached where the the player came into the coach's office the day after the regular season had ended and said, I have an offer from such and such.

It was for six figures, relatively those six figures, but still six figures. And and the assistant was like, wait a minute, you think it's legit? He goes, yeah, I think it's a legit guy. Well, then you should take it, because if they're offering that kind of money and they're not going to be able to pay, you know, it's like. And that happened within his within Greg Sankey's league the day after the regular day after this team's regular season.

You're saying so this is I could see the look on your face over there. So to his brother, say he was offered a million and five. Yeah, look, and I don't there's a there's another quarterback who did transfer, who I was told was offered even more than that by some SEC schools and didn't go to those SEC schools.

Hey, we all know at some point some kid is going to stay in college because he's going to make more money than what he's going to make in the first. That's happening now because of the NFL. One thing and this came up in our story as well, where you have some agents who will say before they would go, hey, come out, you know, like maybe you'll be a fourth round pick. You get ready, you know, you'll go higher than people think now these agents will tell the player will try to get them to transfer because they know they get a much higher commission. They get 15 or 20 percent of the commission of the NIL deal that that player may get in the transfer portal than what they may get as an undrafted free agent or a sixth or seventh round pick.

They're not getting 15 or 20 percent of that. Do we know it? Did Sam Hartman get a big deal to go from Wake Forest to Notre Dame? Do we know about that at all?

I don't think he got anywhere near as big a deal, I don't think, as he would have gotten if he went to some other schools. Now, he's he's definitely getting taken care of from Notre Dame's NIL collective. So they're being called now?

Yeah. And I know they've you know, they've tried to do that with a bunch of other, you know, Notre Dame athletes who were I don't think they were transfers. I just think they're part of the program.

I my understanding is he probably could have gotten a lot more from some other places. By the way, I got to shoot everyone straight here. I don't have a problem with this. I don't have a problem with it either.

Honestly, like because you point out Tommy Turbeville is just like, I'm out of here. These guys have all made fortunes off of college athletes. And I'm not saying college athletes got nothing, but they are working. I don't think the average person realizes how much time and effort is spent to do what they do. The problem I have with it is, is that offers are being made to the kids by people who either don't mean it, don't have it and don't care if their word means nothing six months later because they could be gone.

That's the only that's the that's the issue I have is there's no protection for the kids who are being offered this stuff. You know, and and it is just shocking for the way, you know, college athletics, certainly in football, has been run and policed. Bruce over the last few years to hear day after SEC regular season ends, kid goes into his you know, his position coach's office and said, I got a I got a six figure deal on the table from somebody else in this conference.

So either match it or I'm out of here. You know, like that. It's we had Sonny Dykes on the other day for TCU. He says kids come in his office and say, I'll come to your school if you match the offer I got from somewhere else. And it's it's kind of wild to hear that.

My issue is who's there to make sure the offer is legit and actually is going to get paid and backed up. And these kids suddenly wind up going to third, fourth, fifth school. Maybe don't go to the pros. Maybe it does hurt them that they're not being an undrafted free agent, although not financially. But when you're talking about high school kids, we did a big story on Jayden Rashada. He was a hyped high school recruit from Northern California, was getting shopped around, had an NIL agent, like a full on full blown agent who was shopping around the sky as a lawyer in Southern California. And he ended up getting an offer for a lot of money, you know, somewhere around twelve, thirteen million dollars from the University of Florida and its previous collective.

And some of these collectives change and go, you know, morph and go away and everything. And this I I don't think a lot of the NIL deals that high school kids are getting or some transfers are getting. This is not like, you know, you you see the transaction wire, you see pro sports, you know, the deal. A-Rod once got anything from the Texas or, you know, it's like those deals, those are legit deals. These other ones, you know, you feel like it's written on a bar napkin.

Yes. You know, and so I think that's a problem a lot of people have of transfers and high school recruits getting offered stuff. And then because what I think really happens is some of these agents are really trying to reset the market because it's not like, you know, you can go and find out, like from what I understand with the NFL side, you know, there's you know what other people are getting a lot of there's a lot more transparency in college.

There isn't anywhere like this. It's not like we can foil all these numbers. Initially, there was a college coach who told me, well, you should be able to, you know, they talk to their compliance people.

And I think this school was operating NIL in a much more modest way than most other places are doing it. But they were like, yeah, you know, at the end of the year, you'll be able to foil all this and find out who's getting paid what. It's not working like that.

No Freedom of Information Act help right there. All right. So before we take a break and then talk on the other side a little bit more football. Chris, do me a favor. Look up how much Bryce Young. Is making this year for the Carolina Panthers.

Do me that favor. I don't have that information. It's all slotted now, as we know, and then the salary cap changes and things of that nature. Bryce Young is making its four year thirty eight million. OK. Do we know how much this year is signing bonus is twenty four point six. OK. How much money is Caleb Williams going to make it USC this year? Your best estimate. I wouldn't be surprised if it's somewhere between five and ten million dollars.

OK. Now, we're not there yet. A lot of deals. He won the Heisman. He's a very high profile guy.

I don't know that for a fact at all. I'm talking about like he's got some big, legit places who are backing him endorsement wise with the idea that, OK, he's going to be. And I actually think if if Caleb could have been in this draft, he goes number one.

No, no. And of that, there is no doubt. So trust me, I'm very happy that USC joins the Big Ten after Caleb Williams is out.

I'm actually a million percent happy about that. But we're just not there yet where a kid is going to be making more to stay put one extra year in college. They're not on the front end, not if he's that caliber. Right. But I think they're like I said, there are guys who are going to probably make more NIL wise.

You know, you could have what they'll make two years from now in their first season in the NFL. Yeah. And I don't I don't think this is the perfect example, but there could be a guy and we'll use Blake Horm as an example. Sure. Where he plays a position where he's probably even if he was one hundred percent didn't have the injury, just had where he's probably not going to be the Bijan, you know, and go that high in the draft.

Yes. Whereas if he's at a school where he is more than even more the marquee guy, I could see him getting not quite Caleb money, because again, I think some of that is going into long range. This is what we see.

This isn't necessarily the USC collective doing this. This is I think Caleb's marketing team has like there's a bunch of places. And I would use there's another quarterback in town who is not a star quarterback, but is a super smart kid who has like twenty nine NIL deals and is Chase Griffin, who will is not even one of the top three quarterbacks at UCLA. But he's really smart and he is he has learned how to leverage. And and I think a lot of like he'll be successful at whatever he does. He's not a you know, he's on scholarship.

But there are certain guys who are like, OK, it's on you. You know, you're here. You leverage what you've got.

You're in Los Angeles. You can do this. I think there will be some some kids who will be able to do that in a smaller market area where it's a passionate fan base. It wouldn't surprise me if an Ohio State player could do that, because you know how big of a deal it is in the state of Ohio. I thought when you said that there's a quarterback in this town that's making more money off of NIL than their contract. I thought you meant Max Duggan or Stetson Bennett. I mean, if Stetson had stayed, I mean, he was a fifth or sixth round pick. You know, he couldn't have stayed.

He's like 30 years old. You might start a game for the Rams this year. It's entirely possible. All right. Let's take a break here. When we come back, I want to ask if the Pac-12 is disintegrating before our very eyes. And then again, you spoke to Jim Harbaugh and in a conversation, he said, we're, you know, aiming to not only be better than Georgia, but we're going to beat them in terms of how many picks we sent to the NFL.

That's Bruce Feldman of the Athletic and Fox Sports in studio. When we come back, more on this front. So switch to another podcast app and follow this show there. Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. I'm not even trying your hardest to win at football and I don't know what we're doing.

There was a lot of great players on those teams that I was fortunate to be part of. Search BLEAV podcasts wherever you listen. All right. We're back here on the show. Roku only. And our radio audience will return shortly. Bruce Feldman back here on the program. Best media week food delivered to the press was which conference? Ah, oof. Thank you. No, I don't know.

Oh, because you don't you don't you don't you don't put on the feedback. You're one of the members of the media that doesn't eat the food. I'm going to give some love to the Mountain West.

I'd OK. It was in the bison on the menu, is it? No, it was like it was it was in a Vegas casino. What's the Vegas casino that you have to be 21 and older circa all of them? No, no, no. Like they don't allow kids in the in the complex.

OK, OK. So that's where this was? That was where that was. So the players needed permission to appear? Not only that, there was a couple of teams who couldn't send some of their best players because they weren't 21. Oh, wow.

Yeah, I figured that would hit a nerve. So these players couldn't appear at the Mountain West media day because it was held in a casino that doesn't allow? Under 21. Under 21? Yeah. OK, so you but they serve good food? I thought I thought so. I don't know. All the food's kind of the same.

It's fine. You know, there's a big to do over what Michigan is serving their recruits. Did you see that? It was like chicken fingers, stuff like that. I think they're all serving the same food. I don't know. Susie's like, what's going on with your school?

You know, she sent me like this this photograph. It's like chicken fingers and a hot dog. It's something that my eight year old would love to have. I did my big recruiting book, Meat Market, a long time ago, 2006 or so. And they're in Oxford, Mississippi. And the head coach's right hand man was like, we have, you know, some really good restaurants. A lot of the recruits do not like that they were bringing in, do not like fancy steaks.

No. That's like it's they don't want that. OK. And so you're they're not recruiting you, they're not recruiting you, they're not recruiting me.

They're recruiting 17 year olds, you know, from different places. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show radio network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grange with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grange is the right product for you.

Call clickgrange.com or just stop by. Bruce Feldman of the Athletic and Fox Sports here on the Rich Eisen Show. What is the scoop with the Pac-12 right now? Is it disintegrating before our very eyes?

Do you think it is dwindling? I think we'll see what Arizona does. I think the thing. So there's so the big issue here is what is the what is the broadcast TV deal going to be? Will we be able to watch it? And let's know going in that the previous commissioner, Larry Scott, had kind of bungled around with the Pac-12 network and who could see it?

Yes. Large portions of their fans, including the ones who live here in Southern California, where, by the way, the two schools now are not going to be Pac-12 schools, couldn't see it, couldn't access, even if you wanted to. So now we've known this for a little while, whether it was going to be Amazon or Apple, but Apple had been a legit factor in this.

Then, OK, who else is going to pick it up? I think, you know, it's a diminished brand because of no USC, no UCLA, especially the no USC part. So you're taking your flagship schools out and Dion's taking Colorado. Yeah.

I mean, we can get to that in a second, because, like Colorado has been dreadful for most of the last 20 years. I think I heard Dan Lanning say something like that. Yeah.

And Dan Lanning was not wrong. Right. So they're going to be so this year. Look, my my network, Fox, we are going to be at Dion's first two games. Two years from now, you know, like after the 2024 season, I don't would not be surprised if Dion Sanders is not the head coach of Colorado. I just don't think he's going to be there that long. It'll either go really well.

They were horrible before. So he goes from one win last year to maybe four or five this year and then maybe eight or nine. And then I think he goes to a bigger school or it will not work out at all. And they will be all at odds because I think there's a lot of stuff that has the potential to create a lot of friction there in terms of how things are running. And if it doesn't go great, then I think they go in a different direction. I just don't see Dion Sanders, you know, like all of a sudden turning into, you know, Kirk Ferrance of Boulder and being there for for two generations.

I think if it goes well, he will get poached out of there at a place with a much better recruiting base in a place that feels like a better fit. And then all of a sudden, all right, like if you're if you're the Pac-12 and I just I feel like they have San Diego State on the hook right now if they want to replace Colorado. Let's hold off on Arizona or Arizona State or even Arizona State, Utah, whatever there. But if you told me it was a trade between you get you get San Diego State and you lose Colorado for the Pac-12, I think that's actually a win.

Because right now you have no schools in Southern California. San Diego State has a new stadium. They've had a strong football program. They've actually been better than Colorado has in the last 20 years. And they're much better in basketball right now.

Right. You know, they were in the Final Four last year. So I think, again, it gives them the Southern California market. Colorado doesn't have like deep roots in the Pac-12. I think Colorado in the Big 12 is a better fit.

It is a better fit. Now, the question is, Arizona, who, by the way, has not been very good, like Jetfish has done a nice job taking them from horrible to respectable. And we feel like they're going to probably take another step forward. They're recruiting well. They, from everything I've heard, wanted to be as patient as possible with the Pac-12. And hey, what do we got?

What do we got? I don't know if their patience has run out or if they're getting jumpy feeling like, hey, the Big 12 may only have 14. And if we don't take it and Utah swoops in, which I don't know. Utah has been very loyal and their leadership has kind of diffused a lot of this stuff. But I think right now people are thinking all bets are off. Is Apple coming in with a deal that appears to be subscriber based and paying out money, something that is member schools would say, OK, we're good.

Or or just everyone runs for the hills. Everyone expects Oregon at some point to join the Big 10 if they can expand. If Oregon and Washington, like if you told me that the Pac-12, you know, a month from now and I'm not talking about for the 2024, 2023 season because obviously the USC and UCLA and Colorado are going to be in this year.

Yes, sir. But if you told me going forward that they were able to keep Utah, Washington and Oregon, I would say, you know what? They're in pretty good shape because those three schools and certainly Washington, Oregon, are bigger football brands than anything the Big 12 has right now. No matter what, Texas and Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma are going to be gone after this year. But once they once they leave, those are bigger than Oklahoma State, TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech.

I mean, there just are. Is it legit to say what is Phil Knight won? Phil Knight desperately wants a national title before Phil Knight's not around. Well, we know that. But I'm just saying, but is he does he have some sort of influence as to what's going to happen? I'm sure he has influence. I'm sure he has influence on what Oregon's going to do.

I just don't know. You know, is there a huge difference between 31 million per school and 25 million per school? It's a it's a big difference. But is it like enough to make them go, all right, we're going to we're going to you got to go down this road here now of we're playing all our schools that are largely in the same footprint that we've known for generations, as opposed to now. We're going to play in the same league where there's a team from Orlando, a team from Cincinnati, team from Morgantown, West Virginia. But even beyond the newer schools, there's also teams, you know, it's not it's like it's not that easy for them to to get to Lubbock. It's not that easy for them to go to Ames.

And, you know, it's like it's it's a lot further along. Like when I hear people talking, we had this discussion on our podcast earlier this week about the possible like merger between the you know, with the ACC trying to poach Washington and Oregon. I was like, look at a map, you know, like the furthest west school is Pitt. And you got you can't get further away from Seattle to University of Miami or Oregon to Tallahassee.

Is it the Pacific Coast Division of the Atlantic Coast? Like at least with the Big Ten, there's a lot of schools that are not on the Eastern Time Zone. Right.

And so you got one in pretty much every time zone. Yeah. You're talking about other sports.

You're not just talking this isn't just a football only thing. I know. Right. And so sending volleyball and hoops.

Yeah. It just feels like there's this wild speculation going on all over the place. And I'm not sure how much how much not sanity, but how much like, OK, let's think about this.

How does this really work? Because for the L.A. schools to go to the Big Ten, Big Ten is huge money. These other leagues we're talking about are fractional compared to that. And if you you know, like if people sit there and think, OK, the ACC is going to add, even if they did add Washington and Oregon to what they have, there's nobody in the ACC that has the TV poll of Ohio State or Michigan. It's not even close. We all know. Look, you know, UCLA best get their fan base fired up because the Rose Bowl, the way it frequently looks, with all due respect to that program, that when Ohio State and Michigan and Wisconsin and Michigan State and Penn State come visiting, it's going to be you know, it's going to they're going to have they best get their silent snap count working when they're when they're practicing in Westwood.

And that wouldn't happen. You know, and I know I'm being biased when it comes to this. Because if UCLA or USC had moved to the Big 12, I mean, it's just it's just, you know, they're fan bases that are very passionate or what have you.

But I understand the move that they made in the few minutes I have left with you here. Bruce Feldman, you were going to do a piece on Jim Harbaugh, right? No, I was going to do a piece that the angle of the piece was.

Yes. Does Michigan have enough, quote unquote, talent as the recruiting people define it for five star guys to win a national title? I started working on that, talking to, you know, the Todd Blacklidge's, Joel Klatt, Jim Nagy, people have really studied the roster of this team. OK. And that was your that was your angle going in. Then I also asked some of the Michigan players and got with Jim Harbaugh and this is at the Big Ten. This was in Indianapolis and spent a bunch of time around the Michigan guys. I still did.

You know, the piece has all of the other stuff in there. But Jim Harbaugh gave it a different headline because he was like, I bet we break their record. And they was Georgia and they had had 15 players drafted, as you know, a year and a half ago. He thinks this team will have 20 players drafted. And it's a it's a huge number, obviously. And he kind of started rattling off the list and some of which, you know, Nagy, who does the Senior Bowl and runs it, was like, yeah, we have seven Michigan, you know, basically senior offensive linemen who we think are definitely on our radar.

And now whether all those guys get drafted or four of them get drafted, even if four of them get drafted, and the rest of the guys Jim was talking about, that still breaks the record, you know, handily. So what was the question that elicited that answer? Do you remember? Because we also said that they can beat Georgia this year. Yeah, that was that was a separate.

So somebody else separate. So this that came up like a couple of like two months ago. There was somebody I was talking to who's connected at Michigan and told me about the beat Georgia period.

Yes, that's right. You know, we'd reported all about this, like beat Ohio period, how it changed everything when Jim Harbaugh implemented the beat Ohio State period. But they call it beat Ohio. They do. I know I had people going, you don't play Ohio. I was like, yeah, you don't understand what they do.

It's a derogatory term. Yeah. So that got a lot of traction, that little beat Georgia period. And then so when I saw some of these guys, Mike Sanders still was the first guy, the defensive back that I had talked to kind of was like, OK, this is a lot. I was like, what is it? And he said, well, it's a lot of heavy personnel.

It's 12 and 13 personnel. This is the beat Georgia. This is the beat Georgia period. And when I talked to Harbaugh about it, he said, you know, they all use the same old Ric Flair line to beat to be the best. You got the beat the best. And to beat the man, you got to beat the man to be the man.

You got to beat that. And so into the into that, he said, well, I said, well, how is it different from the beat Ohio period? He goes, well, this is 11 on 11, not nine on seven. And I think it's just another way to frame and focus them, which is very different from what the people inside the program had told me a few years ago, where Jim had come back from the NFL and it was almost like a nameless, faceless opponent. Now he's putting he's putting, you know, faces and and devil horns pretty much on on these opponents.

By the way, I love it because I'll be honest with you. When I first arrived on the campus at the University of Michigan in 1986, when Jim Harbaugh was the quarterback and Jumbo Elliott was his protector. And everybody in my dorm and all the Michigan people I had met who had been Michigan Wolverine fans since they were, as Warren Sapp would say, knee high to a jackrabbit. And I just surfed in from New York City, started rooting for Michigan and everybody's talking about the Rose Bowl and we got to get to the Rose Bowl. And I thought to myself, why? I thought championships are the reason why you're doing this.

Nobody. When I got to campus, honestly, it was all just beat Ohio, win the Rose Bowl. That's it. I'm like, what about the national championship?

And they would kind of like blink at me like, what are you talking about? It's about the Rose Bowl. And so I kind of dig somebody who's from that era of beat Ohio, win the Rose Bowl is now talking about the bigger prize.

That's what it is in the 21st century. If you're going to go for four and five star recruits, you've got to have that attitude. Right. Even though Georgia folk like Brockman across the way and others are like, get out of here. Do you do you recall the Orange Bowl?

Do you do you recall not making it to avenge that Orange Bowl loss last year because TCU beat you? Like, that's the response. And I kind of dig that.

Yeah, let's have a beat Georgia period. So what? So what? Why is it the players he has?

You know, Sandra still is this great leader. I mean, it's funny because you look at him. He's one of the few three stars who are starting for them. And he's a he's by all, you know, he's a convert. Well, but he's a smaller guy.

Right. And he's not very big. He's a hell of a player.

And he's a really good leader. But he talked the way I ended the story we did on the athletic this week was him talking about we can't take anything for granted. And he kind of walked you through why and no disrespect to TCU, but they did not prepare the way probably they know they needed to prepare. And that can't happen again.

And so I think there's two things that are different that they have to hope work out. One is one of those five star guys that they do have, JJ McCarthy, didn't play when they played Georgia. He wasn't starter Cade McNamara, obviously was.

JJ is really, really gifted. And we saw that certainly against Ohio State when when the backfield, there was almost no Blake Orem. He played, but just, you know, for a brief bit of coffee.

Yeah. And even though Donovan Edwards had two great runs, he was also playing injured in the game as well or playing hurt. And McCarthy made big plays. And so, you know, Jake, but who obviously played for Michigan, but has called a couple of their games like 10 network, too. We got to see him, you know, in games, even though they know they're going to win, give him a chance to.

So it's not just in case of break glass, we need you to be Superman. We need to see more of that because it's in him. And I think what I kind of focused in a little bit on this story was the four teams that have won national titles in the last dozen years without with similar ranked talent, which is not like what the way Georgia and Alabama and even Ohio State have have recruited that one were 20, you know, a dozen years ago. Auburn with Cam Newton, Florida State when they had Jamis, Clemson with Trevor Lawrence and then Joe Burrow with LSU. They had talent, but not like the talent we're talking about these other schools. Well, what they do have in common is all four of those quarterbacks were elite college quarterbacks. Two of them, Joe Burrow and Cam Newton, are the greatest college quarterbacks I've ever seen. Like in terms of what they did, Cam Newton was Superman. That team was not very talented by the recruiting rank, by any metrics. It was Cam and Nick Farrelly.

And by the way, Nick Farrelly was a was a three star coming out of high school. If J.J. McCarthy plays like the you know, all the people who are evaluating him think he has that talent. I do think they can win a national title because they have really good leadership. They have obviously a terrific offensive line. They have dynamic running backs.

I think, you know, they've had some of these other guys blossom. Chris Jenkins, whose dad, you know, former NFL star. He was a three star guy. He was 240 pounds when he went to Michigan.

He's 302. And Jim Harbaugh told me, he goes, I think he'll be a top 10 pick. You know, he is the kind of guy that Georgia and Alabama are playing with. They don't have eight of him, but they do have a few like Georgia and Alabama. But, you know, and it helps them that this is the year where the three most talented teams, quote unquote, are starting first quarterbacks. And two of them were the top of the draft.

And the third guy, they're going to probably build a statue of him in Athens. That's true. Bruce, appreciate the time. Greatly appreciate it. I'd love to have you back in before the season starts and you're on a plane every single week and all that good stuff.

Every week. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you so much.

That is Bruce Feldman, everyone. Where can people get your podcast? Just go to the audible and download it on anywhere you can get podcasts.

Very good. And check him out on Twitter. Brockman refuses to let me call it X. Twitter. OK. And on Fox Sports and the Athletic as well. Bruce Feldman here on the Rich Eisen Show.

Nate Boyer still to come. I also love the story that you've told and if you wouldn't mind telling the audience here as well at the combine, when you would be pulled into rooms and you didn't know which room you were being pulled into by which. Yeah, yeah, I was I was I was you know, it come back in back in that day. Everybody was reaching for ages in the hotel. Everybody was everybody. Now it's all scheduled, scheduled structure. You can't be in a hotel. You can't be on the premises. Then it was everything as well.

So I'm backing away from crowds and people trying to grab me. I backed into this room and the Giants was there and it was the Giants room. They had people sitting down taking these tests. What do they call these things? Oh, yeah.

Like the psychology. Yes. I mean, the thing was that thick, man. And I sat down and they gave me this thing. What is this? They say it's this test. And, you know, we need you to take it. I said, oh, what do you have?

It's like the 10th. I'd be I'd be going for it. I got to walk. I'd be gone.

I'd be way gone for it. And then let's just get into it here. I mean, Belichick said he watched you run the 40th. And that you ran it and then ran into the tunnel. And is it true? That's not true. OK. You did not run into a waiting car and being taken here.

No, because I had more interviews and all of that. No, that story just grows and grows. It's like a story. It is. It is.

That's not true. I did everything that I was asked to do now. I didn't lift. I didn't do none of that because Jerry Rice to this day had laid across my arms and let me bench press him. You know, I don't know where that comes from. I love that you say that when you're watching the defensive backs.

I hate the weight reps of 225. When have you ever said, man, well, if that guy would've got one more rep, he'd have been there on that play. Never!

Of the three cone drill. This has nothing to do with nothing. So I didn't do any of that stuff. Right. Yeah. Well, it all worked out. Yeah. That's the head coach of Colorado Buffalo's football right now. Back in the day, Ronald, you're in the Rich Isaac show.

844-204-rich number to dial. All right. So what did you make of what Bruce was just talking about? It's just so much to make of it. I think that college football is just the Wild West now.

It's nuts. Any player can go anywhere for any price, really. It's, you know, kind of whoever's got the most money can have the best team. I totally understand why some coaches have a problem with that because they want some certainty.

I'm going to give you a scholarship and schools, then institutions of higher learning, school presidents, take it very seriously when you give somebody a free pass to come to your school in exchange for their athletic abilities. And then that player just gets up and leaves. And I'm sure coaches and school presidents are like, what's up with that? And the pushback is, well, you head coach, you can leave it anytime you want.

I mean, what a perfect example for Bruce Feldman to point out. Tommy Tuberville coming up with some legislation where it requires a player to have to stay at some school for three years. And it's like, hey, bro, you left Texas Tech to go to Cincinnati in the middle of a recruiting visit. Who the hell are you to sit there and require someone to have to stay at a certain spot for a while?

And that's the whole point. It's just like, well, if they're not employees and kids keep saying, you even heard Greg Sankey say, the kids don't want to be employees of the school. That's not what they want. They just want like, if you're going to put my name on your on a jersey, I should get a cut. I should get a piece. I should be able to put my own face in a jersey and sell it.

I should be able to, you know, become a spokesman or spokeswoman, spokesperson for, you know, Buddy Garrity Chevrolet. The problem is, is that when Buddy Garrity then comes in and says, here's, you know, half a million dollars, just show up to my Chevrolet spot for one time and you get the rest. You know, and then all of a sudden that kid doesn't get the rest because he's not playing anymore.

And suddenly it's like, where's my money? I'm sure that's happening. You know, I'm sure these things are happening is that there's no protection for the player who's been receiving the offer. And there's no protection for the player receives the offer to go to a school that their playing time is going to actually happen. In the pros, if you pay somebody for a contract, you know, you pay somebody for their services. And, you know, you're not going to bench that player. You're going to give that player as much time as possible, right? Because of what the salary he or she is earning.

That's usually what happens. Like, hey, boy, that'll be awful tough to bench somebody. Like the Yankees aren't benching Anthony Rizzo right now because he's making all that cash.

And plus there's past performance and things of that nature. But if it's not the school's money and it's somebody who's, you know, who has, for some reason, a million dollars to spend on some 18 year old because you want your school to win. By the way, I could could you imagine I ever come home and say to Susie, yeah, there's less money in our account. Why?

Because I gave it to somebody because he's a really good left tackle. But people have enough money to burn. Yeah, that's what's happening. And so then suddenly you're just like, I don't care that that kid's got, you know, all that stuff. And then he ain't playing. And then suddenly kid transfers. And then dude who's like spending a million dollars on a left tackle suddenly is not going to pay the rest.

Wait, you don't you think that happens? Are you saying that we should offer an NIL deal to someone? Because I think that we should. We should have our own players. We've done that before. What a pain in the ass that was. Rich Eisen specific. Oh, God. No, I'm out of that business, sir.

I think it'll be great to get a player we all can root for. I'm just saying that needs to be protections for the players. And I'm sure there's some people. Well, what about protection for the schools? You're the ones who tell the kid to come to a school and play for this coach.

And coach says, I'm out in the middle of a recruiting dinner. I'm out protections from the schools that all have billion dollar galleries like shut up. All of them.

Not all of them do the good ones, the ones that matter in college football do. So I don't know. And again, I told you the way to the way to police it is to just get a much smaller group of universities that have similar issues and concerns. Get it together. Super League.

But as Bruce pointed out. You got the SEC right now being run by a terrific commissioner with a lot of respect and a serious power structure. And they're poaching like crazy. One guy coming in the day after season's over saying, I got six figures match it or I'm out.

I'm like, oh, there's a door. Nate Boyer, our number three. And which team has the best chance to go from worst to first in the NFL? So it's going to be fun college football. Well, I mean, I, you know.

We for sure. Yeah, this is the last one with four teams in the playoffs. Then the next one starts next year. Yes, yes, yes.

Oh, yeah. Last year of Oklahoma, Texas and the Big 12. Last year, USC and UCLA and the Pac 12. Pac 12. So, yeah, it's all coming. This is kind of the last of college football kind of as we currently know it.

Michigan at USC. Oh, it's going to be insane. It's going to be wild. Oh, yeah. Get your tickets now. Oh, yeah. It'll be insane.

Oh, my God. I think we should do the show from the Coliseum on Friday before that week. Well, sure. Let's make plans.

You want to do the site survey for me? Absolutely. Me and Brockman will go. It's a good bar right across.

Is there really? We can get lunch there. Is that right?

You know about it? That's what we're going to do. Oh, how did how did you did your appliance arrive yesterday? I would have been here for 10 o'clock if the guys that came to deliver it didn't say we can't put this new one in.

It won't fit. And at the same time say we're not going to remove your old one. Hold on a minute.

Oh, we're up against the end of the hour. I need to hear. Send a picture. Send the picture to Hoskins.

I will send the paper. Come on. What was the photograph of the new one? Of course. Come on. He shows me a photo. Look at this. I mean, I have questions and you've got answers. And Bill Belichick was asked about Barbie or Oppenheimer on NFL Network today. That's still to come next hour. For over three decades, nobody has had a wrestling career like Arn Anderson.

Conrad Thompson gets all the stories with Arn. After watching AEW's Double or Nothing, Amy wants to know what this dinosaur tastes like. It ain't chicken. It's like biting into a scented charcoal briquette. But chewy. Oh, that's disgusting. It sure is. Check out Arn every week, wherever you listen.