Jay Bilas: UConn Has Separated From The Pack

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See terms at discover.com slash credit card. And now, it's Rich Eisen. That's right. Welcome to this edition of The Rich Eisen Show, live on the Roku channel. This Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate Sirius XM Odyssey. Our podcast listeners, we say hello to you because you deserve to be said hello to. It's the Cumulus Podcast Network is what puts on our show every single day, all three hours, that re-airs on the Roku channel. There's our YouTube page, youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show, The Rich Eisen Show collection page, as well as a fancy way to say, hey, we're on demand on the Roku channel as well, channel 210. I'm excited about today's guest list.

Jay Billis is on this program. I'll be straight up. I'll be straight up.

It's February 20th, 2024. We're nine days removed from the Super Bowl. And this is the time I'm like, oh, what is happening in college basketball? Certainly since I'm a Michigan Wolverine fan, and there's really not much to follow on that front to be straight up.

So here, well, I mean, it would be and that was, by the way, I think two wins ago on January 15th when they beat Ohio State. So that said, I'm going to get Jay Billis on this program because it's also one of those things where last night I'm sitting around like, who do I want to talk to on the program? And Jay was the guy because I'm curious to know what he's got to say about everything going on in college athletics. We saw the college football world have a guy just up the 405 from us and Chip Kelly saying, you know what? Don't be a head coach anymore.

That's so crazy. And, you know, and and so he's now an offensive coordinator at the Ohio State. Jeff Halfley of Boston College, he's like, you know, I'm going to go I'm going to go to the Green Bay Packers and be the defensive coordinator.

And it's like, what's up with that? And is that sort of stuff maybe going to happen in the college basketball world where NIL and transfer portals and things of that nature are definitely taking root as well? Clearly, we'll also talk about the men's college basketball season and what's going on in women's college basketball with Jay Billets. And that is going to be in just about 18 minutes time on this program.

I'm also genuinely excited to be talking with a gentleman who was royalty in my household back in the day, certainly amongst my brother and I as diehard Nick fans. Bill Bradley's on this program. And Bill and I, if I may say, we once starred in a SportsCenter commercial together with Stuart Scott. Really?

Back in the 90s. Yeah. So we did that. That's cool. We did that together. And he was a senator from across the. I guess what would be the the.

I forget what's the name of the the body of water that has three bridges going over the Kilvan call, I believe, from between Staten Island and New Jersey. Bill Bradley will be joining us on this program. His movie, Rolling Along, an American story is available on Max, available on Roku. He wrote and performed it. And I can't wait to talk with him about everything going on in his world and of course, basketball with Bill Bradley and then Makai Pfeiffer's on this program.

I love doing this show, man. Who's going to throw J. Billis, Bill Bradley and Makai Pfeiffer in the same guest list? I'll just say, like the Harbos would say, nobody.

Nobody. And Makai Pfeiffer's in studio. We'll talk eight mile with him. We'll talk about E.R. with him, clockers with him. And and of course, his new venture, Lights Out, what's available in theaters on digital in demand. It was released last week.

He'll be here in studio. I also have a top five list about the National Football League every single year. It's kind of a tradition unlike any other. We have J. Billis come out and say, hey, what is going on in your world that you're locked in on? I'm going to basically insult you by asking you what?

Update me. And so that's a tradition unlike any other. And he's kind enough to do it again for us. And another one is is to look at the non playing season, as we say in the NFL, top off season storylines. And I figure we're what this is. We're officially in the off season in the NFL.

I'll explain why as well in a second. Good to see you, Chris Brockman. Hello, scene.

It took me five minutes to say I'm good. Rain again. So, you know, I know we're collecting animals by two again. Kind of wacky.

We should rename one of the franchises here, the atmospheric rivers. Man, seriously. Good to see you, Jay.

How are you? T.J., good to see you, sir. Handles already been lit candles. This is no movie.

It's no Mackay Pfeiffer. Nice. OK. Oh, my life. This is going to be fun later on in this program.

We've got a great celebrity, true or false in the kind. So by the way, eight four four two or four, which is the number to have a chat with us. They were eager to chit chat with you if if you like, if you like. OK, so here's the deal.

Here's a deal for you. In the off season in the NFL, we're hunting and pecking for everything. Not going to lie. We're hunting and pecking for anything to see if there's anything that can shed any light on anything. And frequently it happens by somebody getting bored.

Somebody is bored enough to essentially notice what's going on with somebody's social media accounts. Now, somebody might make it obvious, like, say, if you recall the Super Bowl that the Rams beat the Bengals in right here in this town. That week began on the Monday of Super Bowl week with Kyler Murray blowing out his entire Instagram.

That's right. Photo collection, with the exception of, I think, him with C.D. Lamb at the Pro Bowl. And then just a picture of him and just blew out everything to do with the Arizona Cardinals and anything else that he had done with the Arizona Cardinals in his first few years there, because he wanted the bio. He wanted a new contract. He wanted a new everything. He wanted a fresh start, it appeared. And sure enough, if you recall, things kind of blew up and then he did get a contract and so on and so forth.

So, some players make it obvious and then others need to be bored. Like, a handful of individuals, for some reason, went on Justin Field's Instagram account and searched his following column for the word Chicago. And came up empty. And came up empty with Bears, too.

Came up empty. Now, forget that he may never have followed the Chicago Bears Instagram account. We're assuming he did. But somebody also then decided to pop in, I guess, Action Network HQ did this part. Kyle Pitts, Drake London and Bijan Robinson follows them. Now he could be tight with them. Might be friendly with them.

I don't know. Did somebody go down the entire Falcons roster? Those are the three players that kind of stand out. I get it. On that team. Well, Kyle Pitts physically stands out.

He's a very tall man. You know what I mean? I don't know.

I mean, if you're Tyler Algier, you're like, what? I mean, don't you remember I used to? I'm the vulture around here.

You know? Are you popping it in there, too? I am.

I'm looking right now. You don't even know what his Instagram handle would look like anyway. He's actually typing in his name. Okay, very good.

I mean, maybe he wants to vulture this segment. He does not follow Tyler Algier. Okay, how do you know? Well, I just typed in Tyler in a Fields following. Okay, great.

But, okay. Like, you know that that's the word Tyler would be in Algier's handle. You never know.

At any rate, we're looking for anything. Did Justin Fields never follow the Chicago Bears Instagram account? Because this is the time of year where underneath the radar, remember I keep saying that there's always an iceberg and we only see the tip of said iceberg? This would be the time of year where the Chicago Bears would give Justin Fields a slight heads up that they are going to be grinding tape on the quarterbacks in this year's draft. And I bet you they had already told him by this point last year, you can exhale. We're not going to go for any of these kids in this year's draft. What we're going to do is we're going to stick with you and we're going to find out what we can get for the first overall pick. They might have already grinded the tape.

They might not have even been interested in grinding the tape. And just understand, let's let everything marinate at the combine and then strike when that iron gets hot when the Carolina Panthers call up and say, we'll give you all of this for your first overall pick. And at the time, nobody thought in a million years that would mean the Bears would get the first overall pick again this year, too.

Because this one's a different ball of wax because this one has Caleb Williams in the draft. And I believe the Bears are not going to just tell Justin Fields by this point in time, you're in the clear. And now you've got to wonder, has he already been informed of this? You've got to wonder anything like this off of again. We have no idea if he followed Justin, if he if he didn't follow the Bears, he doesn't. How many people does he follow?

A seven hundred and seventy eight. Well, you have to figure. Did you pop in Falcons to pop in Atlanta in there as well?

No, no Falcons. OK, there you go. But it would be too obvious. No, bottom line is. Let's be straight up. Caleb Williams and starting the clock again with Caleb Williams works.

It makes sense by starting the clock again. I mean, you're paying him year one of a five year deal. OK, and you're you know where you're you have contractual control for him for not just five years, you could even franchise tag him six and seven. You could basically tell Caleb Williams you're coming to Chicago and you should buy not rent. And you tell Justin Fields, listen, we enjoyed our time together.

Where do you want to go? Or we'd love to send you to the AFC or something along those lines. And then you figure that out.

And then I'm I've always looked at this timeline. The new league year begins March 13th. That is around the corner. That is when teams like, say, the Falcons are going to make a decision on do we go the free agent route? They're grinding whatever their decision making with their new head coach Raheem Morris right now about.

Their quarterback situation. Are they going to go and try and run it back with Desmond Ritter? Or are they going to go ahead and figure out what to do with their draft? Do they go and move up for a quarterback? Do they stand pat and go take a quarterback?

That's not till late April. You've got to make a decision on a free agent situation right now. And if you're the Chicago Bears, you're going to want to use.

That moment. Around the new league year to try and strike while the iron's hot, you're going to use that. Does Denver want Justin Fields? Sean Payton told us at the at the Super Bowl Friday of this rule, they haven't even had their meetings on the quarterback situation yet. And and if their quarterbacks in the building, he says it considered he would consider Russ still.

You have to is what he said. I did point out to him that, you know, it seems like the train left the station because you benched him. And he basically said Russ wants to be here, which counts for something we'll see.

And then, as we know, Russ put his monster manse up for sale. But what I'm saying is that if somebody wants to wait till the draft, that's their decision. I don't believe Justin Fields is going to go into draft week still being a Chicago Bear.

I just don't think so. And so that decision is going to have to be made in the middle of March by the middle of March. And it would make sense, however, for Chicago to, if they want, let the combine go through and let everybody see all the kids and maybe they're not sold on as many of them. And they're like, OK, Justin Fields makes a lot of sense for us. And then they can get a little bit more for Justin Fields. What I'm saying to you is, though, if the Bears are up front, if Fields has asked or his representatives have asked, what are you going to do?

And the answer isn't coming back. Hey, he's our guy. Just sit tight. We're just going to extract as much as we can from Washington because Caleb's from there. They would love to have him. Cliff Kingsbury is sitting there.

They're attached at the hip last year in USC. Hey, guess what, Justin? You're going to be the guy. We're going to get a whole Kings ransom. We'll just not go for Caleb Williams. We'll get you Marvin Harrison Jr. How do you like Marvin Harrison Jr. to go along with D.J. Moore? And then a whole host of draft choices that we might use to get your offensive line beefed up.

We'll pick up your 50-year option and you continue to buy, not rent. Don't know if somebody who's potentially unfollowed Chicago on the Instagram account and somehow follows the three most important offensive weapons in Atlanta has been told such a thing. All speculation. All I'm seeing is the chit chatter starts now. Behind the scenes. So when somebody's bored and starts popping into their Instagram search engine, names like Chicago and Bears and London and Drake and Kyle Pitts and Bijan. Both.

You got something to talk about on February 20th. He still follows Darnell Mooney, I'm just saying. Mooney? He still follows Mooney. You can't unfollow Mooney, baby.

Can't do it. I mean, you can still be friends with these guys. D.J.

Moore, I'm always scrolling on. You don't hold it against them. No, I understand.

Also, I have friends I don't follow on Instagram. But you can't sit here and say the Bears have just already made their decision. We're not even going to go into the combine. I mean, they got us to meet the kid, right? He follows Mike Vick.

I mean, come on. Falcons. There you go.

Walk it in. Taylor Heinecky. He follows Heinecky. Does he follow Duckett and Dunn too? D.J. Dunn, nice.

Is Jamal Anderson on his follow? Nice. All right, stop.

Now we've taken it too far, guys. Why? Because J. Billis is waiting.

That's fair. Let's take a break. We'll talk NCAA future present and obviously the men's game and where things stand now that I'm paying attention. That's next. Our buddy J. joins us from South Florida, apparently.

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See terms at discover dot com slash credit card. Back here on the Rich Eisen show. OK, so Bill Bradley is going to join us in the middle of hour two. We're going to go down memory lane with him, man.

Nice. Do you know he won the gold medal in the 1964 Olympic Games in Japan? You know, was on his on his team was a five foot 10 guard named Larry Brown. Whoa.

Yeah, man. Eighteen years in the Senate as well. And then, of course, man, I mean, it is his neck years were just that was it. Growing up in New York, he was a legend. Him and him and Clyde. I can't wait to hear his opinion of Brunson.

I'm sure it'll be as glowing as it should be. He goes to every now and then I'll see on the broadcast. He's there. Nice. Oh, yeah. Why wouldn't you? He doesn't pay for tickets, right?

You just walk right in. But he just uses his face the same way I cover mine to get an energy. Exactly. He uses his face. He's like, by the way, speaking of speaking of that, I saw at the Fanatics Super Bowl party, Charles Oakley. Oh, nice. I mean, he's been here.

So I forgot how absolutely. Monstrously large that he is. He is he six ten. Is he that big? Six nine.

Six nine. That was listed and just built like the old proverbial brick. You know what house? He just looked honestly, this is the tallest I've seen another human being. He looked like Jonathan Ogden.

Big. We saw Ogden walking around at the Super Bowl. Yeah. I asked Chris, why are they carrying him? And he was like, no, he's just walking.

He's just walking. Oh, yeah. He's just the guy who's just up there. Yeah. He was there, too.

Good Lord. He's all of that. Oakley wasn't afraid. He's not.

He's not hunched over. No doubt. Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call click Grainger dot com or just stop by. You know, now that the Super Bowl is over, this just in nine days. It's been apparently one hundred eighty nine days until the opening game. But who's counting? Sixty seven until the draft.

Oh, gosh. So having this man on is kind of like a tradition, unlike any other where where we we surf back into the world of college basketball. And there's nobody better. The premier voice for it is back here on the Rich Eisen Show. Our good friend Jay Bilas joining us here. How are you, Jay?

I'm doing great, Rich. And that's a standard SportsCenter line after the Super Bowl at the SportsCenter, I could say. And now we turn our attention to college basketball as if we haven't been playing all this time.

Well, you know what? And I know it's somewhat of an offense since obviously that's your life, you know, an era. I'm like, hey, you know, I've really been paying attention to what you've been up to.

So let me ask you what you've been up to. And I've been offending people that way since 1996 when I first said those words on SportsCenter, Jay. So, you know, way back in the day, I probably Dick Vitale once upon a time was like, what the hell is he talking about? But at any rate, but UConn is sitting at the top, right? Like a colossus right now, the second longest streak at number one in the history of their program.

Jay, correct? Yeah, UConn's kind of separated from the pack. And early on in the season, they had some injuries. Stephon Castle, their big shot freshman, was out.

They had Donovan clinging out for a period of time. They lost at Kansas with guys injured. And still, I think early on in the season, everybody was saying, you know, schleps like me were saying their offense is Final Four good, but their defense has a ways to go. And now both their offense and defense are Final Four good. I think they're asserting that even though they have different parts than they had last year. They lost a lot, but they replaced it.

And they're legit. They're the best team. Now, whether Purdue or Houston or Arizona can catch up to them, everybody's subject to getting clipped in the tournament.

That can happen to the best teams. But, you know, in a seven-game series, I think the smart money would be on UConn. So then, in terms of clipping somebody, I mean, at this point last year, if I say, tell me who can come out of nowhere and win it, would you have said UConn, right?

I mean, so, but that said, I'll still ask you where things currently stand mid-February with you. Well, I mean, I think we have more, I've always recoiled when I heard the word parody years ago, because I felt parody was something that coaches said to excuse losing. And because there wasn't parody, I mean, parody essentially means equality. And there's not equality across the board among the big shots in college basketball. But this year, I'm starting to say, you know what, it's starting to look like that. It's harder to win this year on the road than it's been in past years. It's always been hard. But this year, the numbers prove that it's been harder.

And I think there's not enough data, Rich, to make a conclusion here. But my sense is that the transfer portal and to some extent NIL have spread talent around even more. And that's what most fans said they wanted.

You know, they wanted parody and they haven't. But UConn is just a little bit better than everybody else right now. Purdue is not far off. But, you know, they're not the most athletic group. And I think their subject gets beat a little bit more than UConn would be in a tournament setting. I would say that we've got a bunch of teams out there just below the top four or five that all kind of look the same.

And as far as what they've accomplished and what they're capable of, I do think that obviously getting hot at the right time and being healthy at the end of the season, that, you know, fresh mind, fresh legs are going to be important. But as far as selection and seeding, the committee is going to be, I would guess, is going to be relying mostly upon, all right, who's stacked up more quality wins than the other. I mean, how are they going to tell these teams apart except saying this team had a better road record, therefore they're a four seed, this other team's a five seed.

There's really no other way to do it. You can't look at these teams play and say, OK, Texas is better than Texas Tech because their records are so similar. Jay Billis here on the Rich Eisen Show.

That was going to be my follow up question. You kind of hit on it, so let's expand on it, is how NIL and transfer portal has affected college basketball so much being focused on the world of college football, the SEC and the Big Ten getting together, saying we're going to have an advisory committee on so many of these subject matters. So how do you see it hitting the college basketball world, Jay?

Well, I think it's going to do the same thing it's done in football. I mean, the transfer portal has meant that big shot players that are playing on a lower level, maybe mid-major or below, are transferring up. And one of the best examples of that is Dalton Connect at Tennessee. He was at Northern Colorado. And the truth is, Rich, I saw him play two, maybe three times. And the reason I did was I was watching the game because there was an NBA prospect playing on the other team. And that's how I saw Dalton Connect.

I wouldn't have seen him otherwise. So he transfers to Tennessee. He's the best player in the league. And he's going to be a lottery pick in this year's NBA draft. And there are a number of stories like that where these players who were under-recruited out of high school, went to a mid-major, have transferred to major college teams, power five, power six teams. And they're their leading scorers. They're great players.

And we're seeing that more and more. And in today's landscape, you know, you hear the coaches at a mid-major level saying, look, we invested all this in this player and the player gets really good and then he leads. Well, isn't that what coaches do at the mid-major level?

They win and then they, you know, of course they do and they should. Why should a player be relegated to a certain level based upon where he was projected out of high school? So that's helped. And you've seen major conference players that didn't play as much go down to the mid-major level and they're doing really well. So I think it's been overall a good thing for the players. Coaches don't like it because they claim, you know, you always hear the thing about, well, there's no loyalty anymore.

It's transactional as if it wasn't transactional before. And how do you build relationships? You know, you think all these guys should go coach in high school if they want relationships. It's business and the players are participating in the business now.

And I think it's worked out just fine. What we're seeing in college football, Jay, Chip Kelly just left UCLA as the head coach of UCLA to take a gig to be an OC at Ohio State after knocking on the door of the NFL to become an offensive coordinator. We saw Boston College's head coach leave to be a defensive coordinator in Green Bay. And the general sense is that they went from one form of football where there are fewer rules to the pros where there are more rules as to where you can have a free agent or when you can have a free agent. And that it seems to be an easier gig in the pros. I'm wondering if you're hearing that from college coaches as well. You're hearing it as an excuse. My thing is, hey, if you want to leave your job, go ahead. If players getting paid is so difficult for you to wrap your head around, then go. I mean, nothing's stopping you.

Go ahead. I mean, I don't know the Chip Kelly situation at UCLA. Did he leave before he was pushed or was he leaving because of NIL?

I think it was a little bit of both, Jay. And it's not just, I don't think they have a problem with kids getting paid. I think they just have a problem with kids being told it's an inducement.

You understand how NIL wasn't supposed to be really an inducement. And then there's really no rules. A kid could be told, hey, you can get paid this. And then somebody comes in in a transfer portal. That kid then doesn't get paid.

He doesn't get the job he was promised and things of that nature. And that there's really no rules around how you pay the kids and when a kid can actually leave. And they're having some issues with that. And that's why there's commissions being formed on the subject matter. That's fine. That's fine.

And good luck with it. But the solution is simple. And the NCAA and the member institutions just don't want to do it. The solution is sign the players to contracts.

They're employees. And you can sign them to a contract and put a buyout in it if you want, just like with coaches. I mean, the Boston College coach left to go to the NFL. First of all, he had NFL ties before that. He was in the NFL before he went to Boston College.

But then you saw somebody leave from the NFL to go to Boston College. So what does that say? This to me is just kind of and I love all these coaches, but it's just more coach complaining. They're making a ton of money. Things have changed.

Adjust to it. And it's not that big of a deal. But if the NCAA wants to fix this, they can fix it tomorrow. All they have to do is take off all restrictions for schools paying their athletes. And they would sign the contracts just like they do coaches and administrators and all that.

It's really not that difficult. But we're trying to walk the line of maintaining amateurism, which is dead. And then we're complaining about NIL. It's not what we thought it was going to be. What did they think was going to happen?

You know, like I knew this was going to happen and you and I talked about it. The schools want to pay the players. They want to have the best players and they're going to do what it takes to get them.

And they're going to compete in the marketplace to do it. And once players are allowed to be paid by this unilateral wage restriction that the NCAA is using, which is violative of federal antitrust law, things will normalize. And we won't have to worry about the transfer portal. You sign a player to a contract, put a buyout in it, put conditions in it that are bargained between the player and the institution.

It won't be a problem anymore. Just like they don't worry about coaches transferring from one school to another. They pay their buyout. It's orderly. And everybody knows what the market is.

It's just not that big of a deal. And Rich, the NCAA has got a freight train coming down the tracks right at it. And it's called the House case. And it's being litigated by a lawyer named Jeffrey Kessler, who won the Olson case. And that's for damages for TV revenues and the like. So the NCAA is looking at a judgment in that case of four or five billion dollars. And that means their rules are going to be tossed out as well. So they're going to do this. It's just a question of whether they're forced to do it by the courts, whether they're forced to do it by state and federal legislation. But their only hope right now is to and they're spending a ton of money doing it. They're lobbying Congress to get an antitrust exemption so they can continue doing what they've been doing, which the courts have said is illegal. The Supreme Court said, you know, the NCAA is not above federal antitrust law. And that was a pretty clear signal that that it's over and they don't they don't want to admit it.

Jay Bell is here on the Rich Eisen Show. Yeah, I mean, so many fans here about collectives, right? At schools, collectives in that where folks are getting together and raising money, essentially, and helping keep teams intact where players might not go pro earlier than that. I mean, how does I guess collectives would be over under the concept of just a collective bargaining, correct? Yes. Yes. And the collective.

Yes. The collective spring up, Rich. I didn't anticipate this.

I knew it would come at some form. I just didn't know it come in the form of collectives. The collective spring up so that schools could offer money to players under the NIL rules and do it in a way that made it seem like it's outside the school. It's not like these collectives are going out and recruiting players that the coach doesn't want.

They are working in tandem with these collectives. And but but it's really no different than when a fan base wants to get rid of a coach. The coach has a big buyout. The fans raise the money for the school to do it in certain instances. So that's the way to hear people use the term unsustainable. It's unsustainable for the schools to have to go back to the well to all these big donors and raise money every year. Well, if it's unsustainable, then don't do it.

I don't I don't understand the problem here. The schools want to pay the players. That's been proven by the fact that these collectives are all over the place. And you have coaches now that are going to their fan bases saying, hey, to remain competitive, we need you to give money so we can fund our collective and pay the players. It's not a big deal to pay them.

They know they're going to do it and they just need to bite the bullet and go ahead and do it. And I'm telling you, Rich, like this will not be a problem. The problem will be administrators know what's going to happen. They know that that once players are allowed to be paid, that the business is going to start being run efficiently and they're going to start putting money where it matters, which is on the field or on the court and player acquisition and paying the best coaches. All these administrative positions that are basically bank vice presidents are going to go away.

And when private equity comes in, when these schools start selling their programs to private equity, private equity is going to come in and say, hey, man, we bought this income stream. You are going to eliminate all these needless expenses and we're going to see an efficient business like you see in the NFL and the NBA. It's already the NFL and the NBA. The only difference is the the NFL and the NBA do not restrict what the players make. And and there are salary caps, but those are bargained between the players in the league and the players get 50 percent of the league revenues. And college sports doesn't want that.

They don't want to give 50 percent of their revenues to the players. But we're headed more in that direction. I don't know that we'll ever get to collective bargaining or there be there be a union or a trade association to bargain with.

But that's where we're headed. Well, I mean, isn't, if I'm not mistaken, Dartmouth already trying to unionize or has gotten the green light to do something like that? I mean, so the question is, is, is when does all this happen? I mean, you mentioned the name of the lawyer, Jeffrey Kessler. Anybody who follows the NFL and their labor battles and collective bargaining agreements knows that the word Jeffrey Kessler is potentially a four letter word for a lot of owners in the NFL.

So he means business and he usually gets the way that he wants. So what's the timeline on all this is we're getting set for a college football season with 12 playoff teams and yet another men's. And by the way, the women's game is absolutely exploding.

As we saw, Sabrina UNESCO against Steph Curry, Kaitlin Clark setting a major record and then sparking a conversation as to whether she's great or not and things of that nature. I mean, this is all exploding right now. What's the timeline on it, Jay? It depends, Rich, if we continue to go the legal route through the courts and through legislatures, that'll take a little bit longer. The House case is the linchpin in all this. So it's a group of players that are suing in a class action for damages, for being cut out of sharing in revenues over all these decades. And the damages are going to be in the billions.

And then in antitrust cases, those damages are triple. So the NCAA is going to lose that case. I think they know it.

In fact, I know they know it. So the best thing to do for the NCAA is go to Kessler and settle the case and say we're going to they know they're going to have to pay a lot of money. They'll be able to settle it short of the four or five billion dollars. They're very likely to lose a trial. And who gets that money, Jay?

Just not interrupt. The players. Who? The players that are members.

Like players for the last 10, 20 years and things of that nature? Yes. Yes. They're members of a class. So it's a class action. So anybody who gets certified as part of that class is going to share in that judgment. And, you know, there's a there's a big question as to where's the money going to come from, like how the school is going to pony up, but they're going to be liable for it.

And but I think the best thing to do is go to Kessler and say, look, here's the money amount that we'd like to propose paying. But also we're going to change. We're going to we're going to work with you to change the system and say, here's what we're going to do going forward. There's nothing stopping the NCAA from changing their rules tomorrow. They just don't want to. But now they're going to have to you know, they've got this they've got this weight on them with this house case and other litigation, and they're going to lose an absent Congress coming in and giving them a federal law that preempts all these state laws and and make some of this litigation. I don't think there's any federal law that could stop that litigation.

So they may be on the hook for those damages anyway. But going forward, if they got some kind of federal law, they may be protected and not subject to antitrust problems in the future. But given that Congress can't pass anything right now, what's the realistic hope that they're going to come in and take on college sports and how would they enforce it? Like the federal government doesn't want to be overseeing college sports and have to enforce any law that they pass so they can talk about a new law all they want to. The issue is going to be government enforcement of that law. So the timeline, just to put a point on it, would be what do you think? Where things completely change and blow up and and we're going to have to take a look at the athletics differently. The house case is scheduled to go to trial at some point in 2025. So we're looking at a period of a few years here.

I think the prudent thing is to do things now and and get moving on it. But when has the NCAA done the prudent thing? They've made so many just horrific mistakes, including petitioning the Supreme Court for the Alston case. That was profoundly stupid. And they got they got crushed nine to nothing, including a concurring opinion by Justice Kavanaugh that the NCAA said, well, that's not law.

You may not be law, but every lower court is looking at that and they're taking direction from it. So, I mean, look, it's over. The players are going to be paid. The question is, you know, how soon will the NCAA wake up to this and take their heads out of the sand and do something about it? And right now it looks as if they're just trying to, you know, keep going as long as they can and hope that there's some miracle out there for them from Congress. And I'm not sure it's coming.

I don't think it is. Well, in the meantime, Duke, Miami. Right. Coming up. Yeah.

Yeah. You're doing that game. You're you're ready to do that.

Wednesday night in Miami, you get to do a game with good weather where I don't have to worry about snow and all that. It's kind of nice. Fantastic. Jay, I really appreciate it. Like I told you off camera, I'll say it here, too. You know where I'm like, I have not spoken to Jay in a while.

And who do I want to talk to on this Tuesday? And you were that guy. And I appreciate you taking my call.

You're the best. Well, you're speaking. You're speaking to all my fellow actors like Dolph Lundgren. I figured, you know, the star of that movie should have been in it. You texted what you were.

What is this again? You were in what film with Dolph? The film was called I Come in Peace.

It was around 1988, 89. It came out. I played an alien cop in the movie and had a death scene with Dolph Lundgren and Brian Benben in the back of a car where my head exploded. And and it was Oscar worthy.

I got snubbed by the Academy and I'm still not over. I can see. So you and Dolph, any chitchat when the cameras weren't on? Jay did one of those. A little bit.

Yeah, a little bit. I mean, he was the best part was, you know, Dolph was a martial arts expert and he had a fight scene with a bunch of stuntmen. And he had to do a roundhouse kick and he was wearing cowboy boots and he missed. He didn't execute the kick as as precisely as he wanted to. And he wound up kicking the guy in the face.

And it was pretty, pretty jarring. I mean, that dude, that dude could fight. OK, so who'd you learn more about acting from? Dolph Lundgren or Ken Howard in your White Shadow? Oh, Ken Howard. OK, Ken Howard. He was a he was a savant. So that's really where it all started, was with the White Shadow.

That's the origin story. Jay, you're the best man. Take care. We'll chat again soon, please. Always a pleasure.

Right back at you. The great Jay Bilas of ESPN right here on The Rich Eisen Show. So it all started.

I will take a break. Eight four four two oh four. Rich numbered down my top five top spring NFL storylines before Bill Bradley joins us. McKay Pfeiffer in studio an hour three.

So much more to come on this rain Tuesday in Los Angeles. This episode is brought to you by Pepsi Wild Cherry. Pepsi Wild Cherry is bursting with delicious cherry flavor and a sweet, crisp taste that gives you more to go wild for. Getting wild may look different these days, but whether it's opting for a solo Friday binge watch or a big night out, everyone can indulge in their wild side with Pepsi Wild Cherry. Also available in zero sugar.

So grab a Pepsi Wild Cherry and get wild. On the Bigger Pockets real estate podcast, co-host David Green and Rob Abasolo interview real estate investors and entrepreneurs about successes, failures and hard earned lessons. Joined by author Dave Meyer, who wrote a book. I did write a book. It seems like you're coming out with a book every four minutes. You're one to talk. You've released two books this year.

I've done half as many as you. It is more about strategy than it is about just finding whatever the new buzzword happens to be. Bigger Pockets real estate podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen. Is that like a flamethrower situation or is that like a ray gun? He really lost himself in character. Let me just say here. Was he bald back then? I was about to say this.

I was about to say this. He played good alien Azak. Good alien. As opposed to the bad alien.

He was fighting four piece. But I would just say this next time we talk, I'll just tell the J. If I'm going to play an alien. Right. Which means.

Clearly, I'm not me. Wouldn't you want a little bit on top of coverage? Right. Fighting for his hairline.

That's what I'm saying. It's just like even even as even as alien version of himself is still bald, still bald. He'd been less intimidating with a full head of hair like that haircut tells me I want to mess with. Guess what? If I was an alien playing an alien, I wouldn't care about the intimidation factor.

I'd say put something on top. Yeah, but you're an alien trying to raise a ruckus like. But also, I can't be afraid of you. There's no I can't ever make anybody afraid of me ever.

What kind of hair would you ever even even when I'm serious with my kids, they start laughing at me. Have you ever taken the ever made him go get a switch off a tree? Definitely didn't one time. That's all it'll take.

Definitely. No, no, no, no. That's not the way it works. They work for me. OK, good enough.

Didn't work on the great escape either. Trying to be mysterious. Everybody's like, really, this guy? I'm not scared. Back on the Rich Eisen Show 844204 Rich numbered down here in the program.

You need a neck tattoo. So by the way, during during the conversation we just had with J. Billis, the college football playoff committee got the green light from a group of. Let's get this correct here. The group of.

All the FBI commissioners and the Notre Dame president were all zooming. OK, and agreed that the 12 team college football playoff format will have five teams, regardless of record, ranked one through five because they are all conference champions. They will be ranked one through five and then there's seven at large bids and whoever is the lowest ranked of the five.

Will not have a bi-week. They'll be the ones as the five seed hosting the 12 seed, the lowest seeded at large. They're calling it five plus seven. It was six plus six. But the Pac-12 kind of what's the word for it?

Went kablooey. And who's the fifth conference now? They're not naming it.

They're there. It's kind of going to be whoever's the highest ranked of the mosh pit of the other. You know, Conference USA, American Athletic Conference, Mountain West, Sunbelt or Midat. So because there's a chance that a champion of one of the four power four conferences finishes ranked below the top champion from one of those. For instance, in twenty twenty one, Cincinnati was undefeated, but the ACC champion Pitt Panthers had two losses.

In this case, Cincinnati will be ranked lower than the ACC champion. I see. So as usual, they're kind of giving you a heads up to try and make it clear.

But it's not complete. Somebody might get screwed. Because there's four buys and then there's going to be a first round of five versus twelve, six versus eleven and so on and so forth. While the top four seeds chill out. So, again, like I keep pointing out to my Ohio State friends, part of the Ohio State friends were like, hey, listen, our collective was on fire. We kept a whole bunch of players and then we got a whole bunch of transfers and we are coming to beat Michigan's ass this November.

And I'm like, OK, if that's what you say, obviously, when Tom eats ball, you'll be just as nervous as me or I'll be less nervous because guess what? It's not going to be do or die. You know what you think? You don't think the second place or third place Big Ten team would be in the mix for one of these seven at large?

Totally. And Washington State and and Oregon State, you know, the ones left behind for the Pac-12, they're the ones who were saying, hey. You know, if we're not going to be potentially one of those teams, because congratulations, one of those two is going to win the Pac-12 next year, whatever they're calling it. But they're not they're not going to be in the mix for one of these top.

See, it was six and six. So they decided they weren't going to be in the mix for one of the top six. So if they're added an extra at large bid, maybe that's the one that they can get. So they just in their minds by saying yes to this, improve their chances.

And I'm sure Jay's point of view here is like, so, you know, what are we doing on this whole front? When the 10 commissioners and Notre Dame's president get together, maybe you should be talking about all the stuff we just talked about with Jay. Because this stuff just shows you this is a professional sports league. Twelve teams are making it.

Yeah, it's been unofficially. And the regular season is make is being made less than. And I understand that that's been a lot of people's points of view is how they used to love the BCS and the arguments back in the day, because every week meant something. You had to be undefeated to have a shot.

But this is the way of the world right now. So great. Ohio State snapping its three game losing streak to Michigan. Congrats, you get a bye. And I guess Michigan might get a home date in in the big house in the opening round against what?

Like a 10 seed, an 11 seed, a 12 seed? That's the way of the world right now in college football. And Jay's point of view is like, hey, guess what? At some point, everyone's going to have a contract and everyone's going to have a collectively bargained fee. And this is the way it's going to go. And if you want to transfer, there's a buyout clause and some other team might not pay it. It's called professionalizing the system.

Long time coming. How about him saying all the coaches that are complaining about the relationships are are tough to have when kids are coming in and transfer portal or leaving in transfer portal. He's like, you want relationships? Go coach in high school. I just love the way Jay just plainly puts it out there for people to understand that this can be done today by the NCAA. And they're just holding on to the sense of amateurism, as he called it, which is dead.

Anybody wonders about amateurism? This is basically what? Like a 16, potentially 17 game schedule for teams? Because they're not getting rid of conference championships. Those games are going to determine who gets a buy.

Right. And that's game 12 or 13 in most cases. And in the big 10 now, it's not going to be the winner of one of the lesser divisions getting a shot at some team that's undefeated like it's been in the last few years. It's going to be the top two teams. Michigan could play Ohio State, pardon me, the Ohio State. The loser winds up just being the away team in the conference championship game the following week. And even that game isn't an elimination game because the loser just has to play a game the next week and the winner goes on a buy.

So you could play each other maybe three times in a season? Yeah, potentially. Yeah. Just like, by the way, where have you heard that before?

The NFL. Right. That's Jay's point. This conversation was being had while we were talking about professionalizing the sport with Jay. Man.

Talk about crystallizing a point. Bill Bradley, hour two coming up. And by the way, I'm just using my personal rivalry as an example. This could happen between name it. Name Alabama and Georgia. Well, they don't play each other during the regular season.

My bad. Who else? Name it. Texas and A&M.

Could be. Oh, by the way, I've been told Alabama and Georgia play each other this year in the regular season. What happened there? Did lightning strike somewhere?

Oh, in Alabama. OK, great. I don't know why you act like this.

I don't know. I'm not acting like anything. You are.

Every single time. I'm being myself. You know how the schedule is made and how far in advance it's made. They have divisions in the SEC. I don't know why you make me defend the SEC all the time. Because you like defending the SEC.

You like it because it's the best conference in football. Not this year. Not this year, sir. One team sent Nick Saban into retirement and that team was from the Big Ten.

Sent into retirement. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed.

Yes. And then after creating the job opening, sent the guy to Alabama to fill it from the Big Ten. Same school.

That's the through line. Not this year. SEC not the best. Big Ten's the best. And this year and Ohio State fans, you got a cape for it, right? That's the conference, right? Am I living my best life? You sure are. Rolling Stone Music Now, wherever you listen.