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We are number one. The Rich Eisen Show. Deion Sanders spoke at the Big 12 media day.
Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I'm judged on a different scale. I can't win nine games and our GPA suffers. He just knows that if he wins without the GPA, he'll get criticized for it.
I don't think anybody or fans care about grade point average. Earlier on the show, Bears cornerback Jalen Johnson still to come. Fox Sports college football insider Bruce Feldman. And now it's Rich Eisen. Our number two of the Rich Eisen Show on the Roku channel. This Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio affiliate, Sirius XM Odyssey Tune In is on the air. We say hello to our podcast listeners when you're downloading us.
We greatly appreciate that. I think we all feel it when you download our pod. Like you ever walk around, Chris, you're like, what is that feeling?
Oh, somebody's downloading our second hour of the podcast. I feel that all the time. You and I are like that. I'm sure, TJ, you feel the same way, right? We're plugged in like that. I'll be walking out.
What is that? And then Mike doesn't care. He literally just told me I don't check emails during the show. I'm like, well, then how are you know that there's an updated open social media and emails?
The whole email is not social media. This guy, our number two is on the air, basically. And we appreciate everybody who's downloading our podcast all three hours through the Cumulus podcast network. There's our YouTube channel if you miss anything. Speaking of missing, I missed our next guest.
And I'm not just saying that because he's sitting here, but from Fox Sports and the Athletic with a great article out today. Good to see you, Bruce Feldman. How are you, sir? Good to see you. You're fresh back from Las Vegas, Nevada.
I am. Yeah, it was like a balmy one hundred nineteen degrees there. The Big 12 is having their media day in Las Vegas, Nevada. What's going on in our college football? Hey, they're kind of the last couple of years that either been in in AT&T Stadium or the star, you know, Jerry Jones properties.
Well, that makes sense. Texas, right? The state of Texas.
Think about this now. You got Arizona, Utah, Colorado, you know, so you add add four schools from, you know, obviously issue two. So you add them from the Pac-12 or what was the Pac-12. And let's move a little closer to the West Coast.
So they did it in Vegas. Well, you're an East Coast guy, right? Growing up, I am correct.
I don't mind the 40 minute flight. No, I know that. But the reason why I'm saying that is I kind of feel like we're beginning a new world where folks like you and I who grew up on the East Coast talking about how you're a Met Jet fan because they played in Shea Stadium together, right? Or you're a Yankee Giant fan because they played in Yankee Stadium together. And and you're dating yourself when you say that sort of thing, that the comments of man, the Big 12 is in Nevada and the Big 10 is in Los Angeles.
We're going to wind up dating yourself saying, I remember when this is it. Like we are we are we are living in the watershed moment of collegiate athletics writ large and football right now. Right. And I think there's the majority of fans do not remember the old Southwestern Conference.
They do not remember. The SWAC. Well, that was the Southwestern. Yeah, there's the SWAC was, you know, one of the HBCU conferences, that one, which was the one that obviously had the all the Texas schools and was like infamous for, you know, like the SMU cheating and all that.
You know, that was a long time ago. But even the Big Eight was a long time ago. Then it became the Big 12.
And, you know, I sometimes catch myself and I'll say the Pac-10 when I mean the Pac-12 because it changed. You know, speaking of the Northeast, like you and I remember when Penn State wasn't in the Big 10. They were independent like Notre Dame.
Like, well, yeah. And they were independent like Miami was. And before the Big East, you know, Big East, you know, have like great special feeling for Big East basketball.
Right. You know, because I mean, we're of that era of the 80s of Louis and and Boeheim and John Thompson. But, you know, then the Big East was football. But then that went away and people adjust.
I think this will be a little harder for a lot of folks who are, you know, at the end of. So you're talking about the media days. So it was it was Big 12 was there and then the Mountain West was there. And then there was at the end of it, there was there was like a cocktail party for the two remaining schools of what was the Pac-12. That's Oregon State and Washington State.
What do you mean? There was a cocktail party for? There was an event. The mascots were there. The players, some of the players were there. I mean, look, Washington State, as much turnover as they've had to deal with for all sorts of reasons. You know, they beat Wisconsin the last two years, you know, and and, you know, Oregon State had some really good teams under Jonathan Smith in recent years, but they got left behind. And now they're playing some hybrid schedule of, you know, their old teams and the teams that they're probably lumped in with.
But that's, you know, they're the they're the saddest part of this, I feel like, because. Did you go to this? I did. I popped in there before I left. Was there a cash bar?
There was not a cash bar. Everything was set up. They treated it well. You know, Merton Hanks, who I'm sure you know, well, you know, Merton was a long time, you know, the guy behind football in the conference. And I see still connected to it.
And so you see a lot of familiar faces. And I think the product of those two schools, you know, they still have good coaches. They still have some good players. But it's just, you know, I don't think they're going to completely fall off the radar because you have to keep in mind you have Stanford and Cal along with SMU who are now in the ACC, which the Stanford and Cal piece feels like the most random of this. But who knows how stable the ACC is? And so could there be another swing of conference realignment?
I suspect there will be. I don't know why I'm so fascinated by the fact that you would like to be at that cocktail party. You damn straight I would have. Washington State, Oregon State, the mascots. What were the mascots doing?
The trade pass for the food? The mascots, I think, had the sunglasses on. It was a kind of cool look. And it was in just an establishment in Las Vegas? It was like, you know, in the Bellagio, there is the Spago. Well, on the other side, I feel like I'm name dropping big here.
On the other side was Big Sweets. And it was a nice set up. It was like I give them credit for leveraging the people who were there and I thought it was good. I think they're going to do the best they can. What are they going to do? They're going to try to keep playing. I mean, they're going to get money from somehow how this is all cycled out.
But I would use this example. So last year, again, Washington State, they start out pretty hot and really good quarterback. They had at the time is now transferred more money to go to Miami. But last year they got off to a fast start. Then they go on to have a bye week. And then the bye week from talking to coaches who'd been there, they just said it was almost like the players kind of everything hit them of all the transition that they were going through that they were no longer going to be. There was no longer a Pac-12. It was like while the games were being played and while they were in the middle of it. But that like bye week, there was a hiccup. And from that point on, it just it just felt like their season unspooled.
So what you you you mentioned moments ago that you think there's more expansion coming, like what? I think there's more turnover because what do you think? The ACC just does not feel stable at all. You know, you have all this saber rattling between Florida State, Clemson. You know, you have other commodities, but whether it's North Carolina, Virginia, Miami, I mean, we'll see how it plays out.
But I just it just feels like it's a it's a weird situation right now. Does that mean the SEC is going to want any of those teams? I mean, the Big Ten is going to want any of those teams. I suspect the Big 12 would love a couple of those teams because they're bigger brands than anything they have right now. Which teams? Florida State, right?
I don't know. You know, I don't know how Florida State would love the move to the Big 12, but I think they would love the other two power conferences. You know, if it's Florida State, if it's Clemson, if it's Miami, if it's North Carolina, I mean, those are all those are all bigger brands. Now, some of those schools haven't had the success that, let's say, Utah has over the last decade in football. You know, I mean, Miami's run, you know, it's, we know all the legendary football players who came within five national titles. But in 20 years, to this point, they've had, you know, one really good season. Oklahoma State's had a bunch more than that, a bunch of these other schools in the in the in now in the Big 12 have. And so we'll see.
I mean, this could be a big year, I think, for Miami, but we'll see. We've heard that. Yeah. And I want to get into some of that stuff with you in a bit.
Bruce Feldman here on The Rich Eisen Show. And again, you mentioned Florida State might not like the Big 12. But in terms of what you and I do for a living, could you imagine Deion Sanders coaching Colorado into Florida State? It's a conference game. Oh, man, you know, who would that be?
There would be a lot of people in the Big 12 who would love that. Big time. I mean, for sure. Yeah.
I mean, I'll say that. So there's two days, the first day and then the second day of the Big 12. And the star power showed up the second day because we know who who came in.
And prime time. Yeah, there's something we'll see. They got to go from four wins to at least probably eight, I feel like for it to feel like, OK, this is backing up what we're expecting or some of us are expecting. But what was the general sense of Deion's conversation? We saw a sound bite that he mentioned how his wins are measured differently. And and I'm sure that that landed in certain parts of the Big 12 landscape potentially is like, OK, you won four games last year. I just know how Deion is is where he's coming from. I don't disagree with him that his wins are actually measured.
Everything is different, right? Like, I work for Fox Sports and the first month of the season we got insane ratings numbers. So did ESPN. So did this show any time we talked about him. And also when we wrote about him or anything kind of connected to him, not always, but sometimes, you know, the response was very strong and people are like, well, why are they sick of the coverage?
Well, somebody's not because they're tuning in to watch. Right. And look, in the first few games, almost nobody outside of probably, you know, a handful of people in Boulder expected them to beat TCU at TCU last year. They did. And after that, you know, they beat Nebraska, they beat Colorado State. And then it, you know, it got sideways from them. But look, they didn't have they weren't really good in the trenches. They were really bad in the trenches, to be honest. And that came back to bite them. They had a bunch of close games that they lost, which was a big difference from the year before when they got blown out of almost every game in a big way.
But again, it's it's wins and losses. And I think, you know, talking to it's interesting because like one of the coaches I know in the conference who I talked to Thursday morning or Wednesday morning, and he was like, you know, Dan's been good in our meetings, but everybody's but I think they also most of them at least acknowledges, if not all, that this is good for their business. You know, they they would much rather have people talking about them, then you know what was going on across town in Vegas with, you know, if you're in the Mountain West, where it's just, you know, maybe there's some good football there, but it's just not getting people's attention.
Right. You know, whereas love them or hate them, you probably have an opinion on Deion Sanders. Well, Deion was again, I love what you're hearing, like people like he's great.
He's he's he's he's great in the meetings. It was the same way when he first showed up NFL Network. It's just like, well, Deion is all going to be about himself.
Maybe people were saying that in our in our own world. Then he showed up and he's like, he's the greatest teammate you can possibly have. He totally understands about business. He totally understands what makes something work.
He totally understands what he brings to that equation and how he can leverage that for his own business. I mean, honestly, that doesn't surprise me. The question is, is you said it's got to go from four to eight. What do you think in terms of wins? I think they can do that. I mean, because I think they've looked, it's hard. It would be hard not to get better considering how bad they were on the offensive line last year either. But from everything I've heard from the people I talked to in there, I think they will.
They have upgraded those areas in part. Now, the schedule to me, even though, you know, you would think, OK, the the Pac-12 as it had, you know, a national title contender team and a bunch of really good quarterbacks in it, their schedule was actually feels harder, harder this year than it was last year. If you look, there's like a hand, even there's their opener. They play an FCS school, but it's North Dakota State. He's joking about that too. Like, yeah, good luck.
Yeah. Thanks, Rick. You didn't. Rick George, you did me no favors because you, because they, they win that game. It's like, yeah, you beat an FCS school. You lose it. And it's like, Oh my God, that's who you lost to.
Well, it kind of sounds like Michigan versus Appalachian State. You can't win. You can't lose. You can't win for losing.
Yeah. And then look, they play Nebraska, I think the next, the next week, I think Nebraska is going to be much improved year or two under Matt Rule. And then all of a sudden you face a pretty steady diet of good teams, but that's what you want. I mean, I think if they can protect Chador better than they, much better than they did last year, they have really good skill guys. You know, I talked to Chador for a little while, a couple of days ago, and he was very high on the upgrades they had in the offensive line room and what they brought in. And I suspect they will win a bunch of games late because they do have playmakers and they have, I do think he's a terrific quarterback. So as long as he's healthy and as long as he's not under just total duress all the time, I think they'll get to eight wins. I don't know if they'll, I don't know if they can do more than that. I mean, who knows with, you know, confidence is a crazy thing, right? Once you get on a roll, you know, who knows where it goes? I mean, I don't think there's any team.
Like we talked about this on, on the Audubar podcast a couple of days ago. I think there's 11 teams in the big 12 that can legitimately win that conference. That's how wide open it is. Cause there's no Ohio state in there.
There's no Georgia, no Texas, no Texas, you know, there's nothing close to it. Right. You know, in terms of like a roster that's that stocked. I mean, there's really good teams there.
I don't know if there's anything close to a great team. Yeah. And what about a Prime's statement that he thinks the Colorado could have the first and second overall picks of next year's NFL draft? Did you hear that one?
I don't know if I, that one I might've missed. I mean, look, you know, Travis Hunter's a really gifted two way player. You know, I'm sure I imagine it will be as a cornerback.
And then you have obviously Chidor who it's, he's also all over the map. Even when you talk to coaches who coached against them last year, some really like him. Some are like, eh, you know, but they also felt like they think he's a NFL quarterback, but then they're not seeing maybe top 10 pick, but he was also running for his life last year.
Right. You know, like it'd be hard to find a quarterback who somebody would say, Oh yeah, that guy is a top 10 draft pick who had as bad an offensive line as he did last year. So this will be an interesting season for him, I think from, through the NFL lens. But I mean, he's obviously really smart. He is, he is hangs tough in the pocket. He's accurate, throws a good deep ball.
There's a lot of stuff to like about it. Well, and you know, who hopes Dion is right about, or even remotely close to getting the first two overall picks in the draft being Colorado players, including Chidor, every single draft broadcast. Oh yeah. Every last one of them. I'll raise my hand at NFL network, everybody at ESPN, ABC, anybody that has anything to do with the NFL draft first round in Green Bay, Wisconsin. If Dion rolls in there with two guys at the top of the draft and it could go Colorado, Colorado to start the draft. You know, who else would hope that? Through the roof. You know what else would hope that?
Probably everybody who's in the bosses in the, in offices at Fox, everybody who's in offices at the big 12. Because if they end up anywhere near the top five overall picks, those both of them, that means Colorado had a terrific year. And that means the ratings aren't just an October thing.
There are three or potentially four and a half month thing. Which is why Dion says that his wins are viewed differently. It's the truth.
It's a fact and the, and the, and the numbers support it. Can I get a few more minutes out of you right here? Okay.
Very good. Bruce Feldman is here on the Rich Eisen Show. We'll talk about the great piece that he and a couple of his colleagues posted on the athletic about the ripple effect of Nick Saban's retirement. And we'll talk about this upcoming college football season.
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That's OReillyAuto.com E-I-S-E-N O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. Back on here on the Rich Eisen show with Bruce Feldman. So Mountain West was there. Big 12 was there.
The remaining two were there. Okay. Any shows? Do you go to any shows?
Anything? No, there's no time for shows. What are you talking about?
No, you know, the closest thing to a show was I sat across the dinner table on a couple nights ago from from Bill Raftery because NBA USA basketball was there. His stories are great. You know, his stories are great. So it was like we had a we had a fun group of people, one of your old buddies who used to work with you and now works with me. This is Bardia. Bardia was there. Now that's a show. Bardia, Bill Raftery. That's like your own little, that's like your own little Cirque du Soleil.
Fox du Soleil. So it was, yeah, brought the entertainment and it was red wine with Raph. Oh yeah.
It was like Italian food till midnight. Oh, by the way, let me tell you, an Italian red wine meal with Bill Raftery should be given out for some sort of charity auction that off. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm serious. That would be something else.
That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Because he was in town to do the the showcase with Gus. Yeah.
USA basketball. And so, yeah, it was it was a fun night. So that was the show.
But a buck 15 outside, right? No, no, it was crazy. So I get in the it was worse. So I get in the Uber to go from a Big 12 to Mountain West and I'm sitting there with a buddy and I look and I was like, whoa, it's 121 degrees. And I'm looking at the guy's clock. He goes, no, no, no, that's it's 121 in the afternoon. It's 119 degrees. It's 119 degrees. And he goes, you're looking at the wrong one. Oh, my God.
The time is now being misconstrued with the temperature. Back on the Rich Eyes and Show Radio Network. I'm sitting at the Rich Eyes and Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry.
Grainger is the right product for you. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. If you're on hold, stand hold. We'll take your phone calls here. Steve Young joining us in hour number three. Bruce Feldman from the athletic and Fox Sports still with us here. You and a couple of colleagues.
Pardon my for not knowing off the top of my head. Max Olson and Sam Khan. OK. Yeah. Why did you decide to start following the ripple effect of the big, huge stone in the pond of Nick Saban deciding to retire?
Yeah. So so Max Olson, I've done a couple of these kinds of stories where it's just like, let's wait and see just how much how far out the ripple effect or the domino effect of this is. And Max, to his credit, started charting and charting.
And it was, you know, over 420 people all over, like 420 people. What with Nick Saban retiring and what happened that their jobs changed hands because of it. Many of them had no idea that they like one of them. And to Sam's credit, he found this one coach who's at Cisco College in Texas Junior College that he had no idea that he got the job he got indirectly because Nick Saban retired. Nick Saban retiring set off, you know, the obvious domino effect that people can see is, OK, Kalin DeBoer left Washington replacement that Jed Fish left Arizona to replace Kalin DeBoer. But because Alabama has such a massive staff, you know, one of the people I talked to is Amy Bragg. She's their head nutritionist. She won five national titles with Nick Saban. Was there only two people in this program were there longer than her on Nick Saban's run?
So, you know, it's people like that who if they don't get retained and Kalin DeBoer brought his nutritionist, you know, and then it's like, what what happens to all these people when they go from there? And the other part of it that was like added layers to this, because you'll you'll get some you get some turnover, but you won't get 400. You had two specific coaches who are now at Alabama as assistants who gave up head coaching jobs in FBS football, one at South Alabama, one at Buffalo to go work at Alabama. So that creates another, you know, like other rounds of jobs. And the article, again, pardon me for not knowing the name of the South Alabama coach.
And you told the story of how where he was when he found out getting ready to grill steaks. And then he's like, I just hope it doesn't affect my program. Meaning Saban retiring, yeah, affecting his program. How like that they poach someone from his staff or something or something or somewhere somewhere along the way, he ends up losing, you know, some players because somebody ends up getting recruited someplace else. And instead and instead his old buddy Kalin DeBoer, they were coordinators together at like Indiana, one of their best seasons ever. The two of them, one was offense, one was DK was the defensive coordinator. Kalin calls him and was like, I want to pick your brain about because, you know, Kalin's not from the deep south.
He's from the Midwest. And but Kane is, he grew up, his dad was a really good defensive coordinator in football, college football. And he was like, I want to pick your brain about the, you know, this job. And then he was like, by the way, would you be interested in joining the staff as a defensive coordinator?
And, you know, this is a real thing. Like, so when I talked to Kane, he's only been a head coach for three years. He's the, he's, he's the only coach who's ever had winning seasons at the University of South Alabama. And he had a 10 win season a couple of years ago. He's a really good young coach, but he was like, it's a lot harder. And he's not the only one who's told me this. It's a lot harder to be a group of five head coach now than it was just a couple of years ago because of NIL and because of the portal.
And what that's done is a lot of their really good players get poached. And I just found that fascinating. He's at a barbecue grilling steaks. He sees on his phone and alert that Nick Saban's retired. He's like, oh, I hope it doesn't affect my, my situation. Like it's, it's his, one of his assistants goes, hey, Nick Saban's retired. He doesn't even see it. He doesn't even see it.
And he's the first thought is like, I hope it doesn't adversely affect my situation. And he's the one that gets poached. Unbelievable. And then you found like a high school coach, like it rippled down all the way to high school. Somebody got a gig because so many pieces moved.
Yeah. There's a, there's a town in North Florida, Fernandina beach and their high school, a lot of it got overturned, the coaching situation, all because somebody went to, you know, it was like the South Alabama head coach who became major Applewhite who got promoted up into the job. You know, he hired Paul Petrino who, you know, like there was like all these layers fell into place.
And then all of a sudden that opened up jobs. And the, like, the guys who end up having this are like, wait, I got, like, I got this job because of Nick Saban retiring. And because like, some of us have told those guys, oh yeah, you're a part of this.
And it just kind of blows their mind about how widespread this is. So fast forward a couple of weeks ago, or rewind a couple of weeks ago, I'm in Seattle working on, on this story. And I sit down with Steve Belichick and I said, what would you have thought if I had told you like a month before, you know, in, in December that you'd be a college coach? He was like, I'd roll my eyes, you know, like kind of in the, and he just, but because Jed Fish got the job at Washington, Jed was looking at hiring. He saw your alma mater, you know, how it had, how well it had worked when Jim Harbaugh hired Mike McDonald, who'd been an NFL assistant. He saw Danton Lynn, NFL assistant, goes, these guys become coordinators.
He's like, I want to, I think that's the way it could be the way to go. And then he, here Steve Belichick, because as Jed Fish told me, he was like, wow, a crazy week is what he thought when Saban retires was the day after he carols out at Seattle and Jed, having worked in New England, kind of had a hunch that Bill Belichick was going to be out the next day. Jed had no idea that the Washington job would be open. He thought they were going to promote Ryan Grubb, who had been the offensive coordinator. Ryan Grubb ends up becoming the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator for Mike McDonald. And now this is like, not for the story, but like both the two guys who are probably most similar in coaching and Jed's path is so different from everybody else is Mike McDonald. Neither guy, like both guys are really smart and the guy played college football. They worked their way up and, you know, found paths through Harbaugh's and, you know, and Jed had a bunch of other stops, but now they're in the same city.
Same city. It's unbelievable. Bruce Feldman here.
Everybody should check out that article. And, you know, just to bring this kind of full circle here, starting by saying, I feel like we are at the watershed moment of, of a totally different new world in college football. And over in the spring, you know, Greg Sankey, who I think is going to wind up running the whole damn thing, personally, he kind of already does.
I know he kind of already does, but I think at some point they're going to do this. Okay. And they meaning somebody's going to get together and, and, and, and look at him and say, you gotta be a commissioner.
Correct. Of a new entity that is 60 something schools strong and split it up into a couple of conferences. And all of these schools have the same issues and sensibilities, the issues and sensibilities surrounding NIL, transfer portal scheduling, all of that stuff, because, and, and, and the latest sort of bellwether for this was Sankey at the SEC media days, telling a story of how he got to call Tony Petitti, the big 10 commissioner to say, let's start our own working group together. And it was, I guess he's telling the story in January, prior to the national championship in Arizona, that they were going to, or, or, but prior to, prior to something that was going down and prior to the national championship in Texas, obviously, but long story short, he said he was at a working group conversation on NIL and they got a report and they threw it open for questions to the group. And he backed, I'm paraphrasing here. He backed up to let's see what other people are going to ask questions about. And nobody asked a damn question. And he's just like, really? Nothing like that's what's happening here. And he just said, I got to basically I'm paraphrasing.
I got to call somebody and he called Petitti because who's as close to the SEC with the same issues on and same issues on NIL and everything else and sensibilities. It's the big 10. We're so close. We're getting there. We're inching our way towards there and tell me I'm wrong. I don't know.
I don't know that you are. I think there's a lot of entanglements right now with TV contracts that I think those things need to be sorted out. So, so is it, who's the one that's going to say we need somebody?
Cause it's not going to be school presidents. Is it, is it ESPN? Right. Where ESPN is just going to basically say ESPN is not going to do anything that's not primarily suited to ESPN's interests. Well, which, which would be like, it's running pretty well right now for ESPN because they have, you know, they gave a little of the playoff, but they didn't want Fox to have any of it.
Right. Full disclosure, obviously I work at Fox, but like, you know, they don't have the big 10. They do, you know, they're all in on now the SEC. You know, we're going to see how the, how the playoff works for the next couple of years. Like right now you know, the big 12, like the big 12 could have a nine and three champ or guess it'd be 10 and three.
And they could be slotted. They would be a slotted ahead of, you know, the second best sec school and, you know, and get a, you know, get a first round by, you know, one of the four seeds or, you know, it's, it's going to be interesting to see how much fallout there is depending on how the playoff starts to shake out. And I think because that's the, that's the big ticket item that everybody who is in the sport looks at if you're the S if you're Tony Petitti at the big 10, or certainly if you are, or if you're Greg Sankey, because they're the ones who have the most influence. I mean, like we had, right, your mark is one of the smartest people I feel like who's come into college sports. Big 12 commissioner came from, you know, I'd been in the NBA and just a really sharp guy. And I feel like, I don't know if I would necessarily categorize it as he saved the big 12, but he's been a godsend for the big 12. So that's what I'm saying is that there's schools in the big 12 schools in the big 10 schools in the SEC schools in the ACC, which you say is already beginning to be shaky. You've got Notre Dame, you've got Notre Dame as well. Yeah.
Find some other schools that might be able to be poached. I think those are the throw it in there 64. And then there's other teams that may not make the 64 that can be relegated in or out. Just like, just like the premier league. What I'm getting at is it needs to be something where, where Greg Sankey, especially and Tony Petitti, but especially Greg Sankey needs to have the motivation to go, this system is not good enough for what we, for our interests. The current system.
The current system. Well, it isn't, it's going to, at some point, it won't be because there's too much wild, wild west when it comes to Portal, when it comes to NIL. And plus, it's also maybe not good for the kids.
I think it's the transfer, right? It's not good for the kids. I think it's the transfer portal is good for the kids. But when NIL is good for, certainly good for the kids, unless the kid is being told, come here and you're going to make X and there's no like real way to back that play up. And then the kid's left with no NIL money that he was promised that he was promised and no roster spot that he was promised. And then all of a sudden he's just sitting, what the hell just happened?
Because some other kid comes in from a Portal, like there has to be some sort of conification for these kids too. Right now it's the wild, wild west. I mean, you work specifically in a, in a, in a fully flown business that, you know, with the NFL, I forgot, you know, there's one owner I heard who was like, you know, roots for the Dallas Cowboys because he knows that's good for their business. You know, like, you know, his team, you know, I don't know if that's his second favorite team or whatnot.
I don't know if that's a joke, like he's joking or being half serious. Sure. But I think that's the, that's where things are headed. I don't know how fast they get there because there's so many balls up in the air, whether it's lawsuits, you know, there's some stuff that's going to get sorted out. The paying of players too?
Yeah. I mean, but you know, like we had this conversation, I was going to say with your Mark, where it was about, you know, whether it becomes like the all state 12, as opposed to the big 12, you know, like with, with naming rights, you're also talking about private equity. I don't know, the private equity thing he said seemed to indicate we'll, we'll be moving faster if it's going to happen, then, then it's a timeline. Well, certainly if, if schools are going to have to pay players.
Okay. Where's the money coming from? Private equity probably. I, I've heard some people telling me that there are definitely some schools that would say, we are just, we are not equipped for this. We're not equipped for this. So you private equity, you run our school program and pay us a licensing fee to use our team, our school name, you know, like we're, we're, we're out, we're out of running athletics personally.
You run it, you fund it, you pay us a fee for using our, our school name and marks and logos. I do feel like that's the way this is going. I do feel like there are, there are now, and again, I say this with your mark in mind, I feel like there are smarter business people running the conferences than there were a generation ago. I'd agree with that.
So, but I think they're also way more open to being outside the box. I mean, in his case, he comes completely from outside of college sports. Tony Petitti is a guy who is a TV guy, you know, at the core. He gave me one of my first post ESPN jobs at CBS. He put a, he put a blazer on me, a CBS sports blazer for the US Open. So I'm, yeah, that actually happened. Really? Yeah, I got that call about a month after I left ESPN.
I was in Italy on a honeymoon with my, with my wife. That's who I'm a honeymoon with. That's so stupid for me to say that. But yeah, I got that call from him. I've known him for a long time and I respect the hell out of him, despite what happened with my coach last year. I do. It's actually in my closet in the green room.
I still have it. Before I let you go, Bruce Feldman, I'm going to throw this one out. This'll be some fun sports talk radio fun. We just mentioned NIL World. I think we're in year three of that now. It was July 1st. Was it 2021 we were on the air when that actually happened? When they first states in our football loving unions. So it's 2024, so it's 2021. So it's three years now.
We're in our fourth year of NIL World. Transfer portal, all of this stuff. Collectives, blah, blah, blah, so on and so forth. Name me the five schools that are best equipped to succeed in this new world right now, right now for the next few years. Give me the five schools that are best equipped in this world with collectives and NIL and transfer portal and administrations all together. What do you got? Two of the ones are Oregon was the one that jumped into my head.
That's one for me too. They're going full blast. You got Phil Knight and they have a professionalized operation.
I think Dan Lanning does a really good job with it. I think Ohio State has gotten to that point. I don't know if they, I don't think they were. I mean, you had kind of two, sorry, two dealing collectives or warring collectives or, you know, the inside that I don't think that was an optimum situation, but they seem to be equipped and functioning well. You know, Ole Miss, like the Walker Jones is their guy who runs the show. He is a former, he's former Ole Miss player who had worked with Jimmy Sexton at CAA and then worked at Under Armour.
He knows what he's doing. He knows the landscape and they've been really, really strong coming out this off season, right? I don't know if I would put them, you know, on the NIL side, yes. On some of the other things that go with it, you know, like I don't think they have the advantages that Texas has. I don't think they have the advantages. So Texas is one of the schools then? Yeah, I mean, I think because it's not just the NIL thing.
It's all the other things you can leverage, right? You know, like Georgia, I don't know how you can't put Georgia in except it's not like Georgia. I don't know.
I would say this. So Georgia, the biggest commodity in the, in the free agent market, this off season college football is Caleb Downs, terrific freshmen, defensive back at Alabama. Most people assumed he was going to go to Georgia. I think even Georgia thought he would.
He ended up at Ohio State. Ohio State. So I don't know if I'm going to put that much weight into, okay, Ohio State's there and maybe not Georgia, but I mean, Georgia right now is like the king of college football, even if they didn't win the national title the last year. All right.
So I'm writing this down. So are we including Georgia in this? I can't not include Georgia.
You got Georgia. You mentioned Oregon. Ohio State. Ohio State. Ole Miss. You mentioned Ole Miss. I'm mentioning Ole Miss because the NIL operation I think they have is running strong. So you think the Ole Miss is one of the top five best equipped football programs to negotiate the next five years over Texas? No.
So I'm factoring, I'm probably putting too much stock in just the NIL component. So you're putting Texas in this? I would put Texas in there given where they are right now. And how about that?
We haven't mentioned Alabama. You would. Yeah. Okay. Look, I mean, he's recruiting really well. Kaelin DeBoer?
He is. Now we'll see how, you know, the season goes and everything like that. You know, if you go eight and four, I don't think they will. I don't think they'll struggle like that. But if they do, then it, you know, but to me, those are the ones between the combination of NIL and the combination of where they are at from a resource standpoint, where they're at from a leadership standpoint and stability.
I think stability does matter. That's why I put those five. Okay. So over the next five, it's three SEC teams because we're including Texas now. Yeah, they are. And two Big Ten teams because we're including Oregon.
You would say, I need to get ready over the next five years for Oregon to supplant Michigan in the annual battle with Ohio State? Is that what you're telling me? I don't know.
I mean, I don't know if there's a huge difference, but I think right now they have a more aggressive NIL operation. I'll say that. So we need our Phil Knight. That's what you're saying.
Yeah. Maybe that needs to be you. Schefter. Why not?
It doesn't. Schefter and I together probably don't have maybe 10 pairs of Nikes together. You know what I mean?
I shouldn't assume what Schefter's shoe closet looks like. Stephen Ross? Well, I mean, yeah. Jeffrey Ross. Here's your connections. Whoever.
No, I'm Brady. So yeah, because again, you know, this is the way of the world. This is it. Obviously, there's 12 teams that can make a college football playoffs as of right now. But these are the five teams based on the current new way of doing things and how the next five years will look. The five schools currently best equipped to be successful as consistently as we're used to seeing them.
Georgia, Oregon, Ohio State, Texas and Alabama. That's it. All right, sir. Thank you for joining. Thank you. Good to see you. And I'll say this again. You and I were texting each other. Excited to have you on Wednesdays during the fall. Yeah, me too.
Back again. And I get to see a lot of people tell me they see it. So that's really. Isn't that great? Thank you very much.
I appreciate hearing that. That's Bruce Feldman here of Fox Sports and the Athletic. Check out this fascinating Kevin Bacon like piece trying to follow the along the ripple effect of Nick Saban's retirement. Best dad ever. Bruce Feldman, his daughter's been watching this entire conversation. Big sports fan over there.
Here you go. Big sports fan. Riley Feldman's been sitting here saying, when are we leaving, daddy? Now, Riley, now. Good for everybody. Just search Believe.
That's BLEAV podcast wherever you listen. When you see the video of you throw into Tyree, OK, what do you think of when you see that? I just smile. I'm just thankful. Thankful for David Tyree, man. There's not a better person and a guy who just, you know, who has the worst week of practice in the history of all practices on that Friday and dropped every pass. And, you know, thought he was gonna be the starting receiver. And it's like, oh, you know, comes back and plays that game. And then sure enough in the game, David Tyree has a touchdown catch. And then they beat catch, you know, Rodney Harrison hanging all over them. You know, Bob Popper given the call saying, you know, he's got a wide open receiver, you know, and I guess that's wide open in the NFL. And, you know, David Tyree, just the will, the desire was there and just catching off the helmet. Just what a what unbelievable story.
And, you know, never get tired of watching that play. All right. Chris Brockman, my on air compadre here. What do you tell him? Go ahead. Tell him what you say every time now that he's here. You can say it to his face.
Go ahead, Chris. Well, usually I say it to Sean O'Hara because Sean is here. But I mean, there are 14 different holdings on that. What do you say to that when he says holding? Yeah, he sees how can you get holding? They didn't block anybody. You know, they let them run in, you know, get stacked by four, all four players.
You know, they kind of blocked them off. I think, you know, holding the guys, holding me, you know, like a defense player is holding me. I think you're allowed to do whatever you want to the hash rusher at that point. If I'm in the grass, they can just grab them also and pull them off. It's kind of free range at that point.
I agree. Chris, you see holding Eli sees grasping. That's what he sees.
I see the greatest play ever. That's right. I was sitting right there. I was there in the building. That's it.
Man, seeing the old setup in your corner. Pretty wild back here in the rich eyes and show game time tickets. Get game time on a phone or a mobile device near you and start buying tickets to the top events in your area because every top event is available through game time. You can especially buy Major League Baseball tickets using the game time app. We love using it. I use it to buy tickets to both Southern California teams here.
You would have used to go down for Braves Padres, but I heard you actually hit up Daniel Jeremiah for tickets. I did. Okay. Bringing that to the people.
Rich, use what you got to get what you want. He's using the Daniel Jeremiah time app. Very good.
If you don't have that outlet, is what I'm saying, game time can help. What was my promo code? Last minute tickets all in prices.
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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Jeff in Detroit, one of our favorites has been hanging on since jump. What's up, Jeffrey? What's going on, cousins?
I even got Mikey today. I want to pass on a message. First of all, I have a client that I was riding with yesterday and he remarked about how he just loves your show, how you and Stuart got him through tough times when he was in college and just you guys are awesome and he always appreciates your show.
He just doesn't have time to call in. So I'm calling in Jim Holmes in Birmingham, Michigan, who is a U of M guy and a big fan of yours. I appreciate it.
Obviously, he's smart in so many different ways based on what you told me about his background. As you know, I would say for sure. Now listen, I got a couple of things for you. Number one, the American Pop South 5 NFL team compared to characters, Detroit Lions, Jim, that is so on, man. I'm telling you, I was laughing my butt off.
Number two, Lenny from Panama City, Florida has to be the highest rated caller of the year. Yes, sir. Well done. No, I picked up on that as well. And I have a question for you.
Quick question. Which one is the biggest snub to you guys? Isaiah Thomas not making the Olympic team or Jaylen Brown? I thought Isaiah at first, but I'm thinking more Jaylen Brown. Jaylen Brown won every award that you can win this year, except MVP. No, I'll go Isaiah because that was personal. That was the juicy, I don't like him. I don't want him here. And so Michael nuked him. He was the second best point guard in the league at that point in time. That is true. And with all due respect to Steven A as well, and he may be spot on that Jaylen Brown is not one of the more universally liked individuals in the NBA. I don't think this was personal. I don't think it was let's leave him home because he's just going to annoy a bunch of people in Paris.
I don't think so, but who knows? So I'll go Isaiah. Great point. Thanks for the call, Jeffrey.
Thank you, sir, for passing along the nice information. Let's keep going. One of our favorites, Jimmy in San Antonio, joining us here in the program. What's up, Jimmy? What's going on? What's on your mind, Jimmy?
I've got some things I want to get to, but while I'm on hold, all of a sudden I hear these things and I get observations. One, so, Rich, you can confirm Suzy was with you on your honeymoon. I don't know why I said that. I was on my honeymoon with my wife, which is kind of like the opposite of Del Tufo telling Mr. Wonderful. I was just sitting alone with all my friends. I don't know why I said that. So yes, I can confirm, Jimmy, when I was on my honeymoon, Suzy was there.
Yes, I can confirm that. Guys, how cool is Bruce Feldman? He sounds so snooty and cool. He's like, if Andy Warhol digs sports every time I love listening to that guy. No, I do have to tell you, whatever his voice sounds like, the word snooty is, I would never use that for Bruce.
No, he's mad laid back. Well, no, that was what I used. It was my bad. I'm sorry.
All good, Jimmy. What else is on your mind? I have a what's more likely regarding Brockman and the red carpet at the SBS. Okay, in advance of a third hour, Friday, what's more likely? Jimmy and San Antonio, what do you have?
What do you have? What's more likely, Rich? The reason that Chris skipped the red carpet is one, he was going to be introduced as Sarah Tiana's baby daddy, or two, he was going to be introduced from The Rich Eisen Show, B-Man. I gotta go with B-Man. I don't think you would mind being known as Sarah Tiana's baby daddy.
Definitely don't mind that at all. No, I will go with B-Man. B-Man is no disrespect. It's there forever. Thank you, Jimmy.
I appreciate it. So, Mike, hold on a second. Are you saying that you had you had nothing to do with B-Man?
I had nothing to do with B-Man. I believe it was one of our engineers. Yes. Oh, I decided to put down because again, I came here. Yes. And I saw on our new setup where we can all now talk to each other off off air while we're on air so we could communicate with each other in a way while we're adjudicating the live show and the folks at home don't hear what we're saying to each other that I showed up and all the folks who I can now speak to in such a manner have been labeled like an actual label machine.
Yes. I thought you were the ones who labeled this stuff. No, because what I would have done for myself, it would have said Emmy Mike.
Like I said that and they laughed at me. So Mike Del Tufo would have said Emmy Mike. You guys gonna call me?
Emmy Mike? Yeah. And they said no. Okay.
That's why the TJ is very big. All he really needs is two letters. Mike Hoskins could have said I have now found out. Yeah.
Who has done this? Uh oh. It's RJ. R. Has copped to calling you B-Man. See? That's what I'm saying.
Our Jack of all trades. You doing Brock. Has he referred to as B-Man? Never. It's the first time anybody in my whole life that ever has ever used to call me that.
Yeah, like I wouldn't have said that. So that's what's more likely is they were going to introduce you on the red carpet as B-Man of B-Man. I would never call you B-Man. S-Man.
Steve Young in hour three. What's up R-Man? Dude. That's what I'm saying. You guys, I'd never seen you.
RJ with B-Man. I should have brought my ticket. Red carpet access closed at 4.15. I didn't get there till 4.35 and they were already ushering people in to sit down. Yeah, you gotta go. It's live at five.
They need everybody in their seats. I would have put Champ because the Celtics won this year. I would have done more like funny stuff. I want it changed to Champ. See, there you go.
That's what I would have done. See, now the thing is though is it's now been memorialized. It's not, it's not now an actual piece of tape. It's not, it's not a label machine thing. Like this is now, no, this is, this looks much nicer now. Look at that. It's now underneath, it's underneath the actual plastic. Yeah, but they could be changed.
Of course it could be changed. Oh, you rip the plastic out? Like the whole Mike Del Tufo thing, like why my whole name? What? Like you guys don't know my last name is Del Tufo? Actually, it would be, it would be more appropriate to label you mute. Exactly.
You could admit anything. My, my entire name is there. That button is never, never here. That button is like, like pay attention.
Yes, something, but that button works because that isn't actually a, the pug, a mute button. Still a terrible nickname B-man there. You know, that is the, that's the label. So thank you to RJ for giving us endless amounts of, uh, entertainment content and this perfect week for it. It's been a chicken salad week.
There's nothing going on in sports. Well, there's a lot going on. We're making the news with Justin Jefferson and George Kittle.
Dan made it with Paul Skeen saying, you know, the pros are doing it. Welcome to Talkville, the ultimate Smallville rewatch podcast from season four. I'm glad that it's over. I'm glad that it's over. Um, as, as we know now that season five is supposed to be one of our better seasons, obviously the tattoo storyline, you know, how I feel about that. You hating that storyline, probably a lot of joy because I kept waiting to see how it was going to keep going and then how they would somehow settle it in seasons one through four of Talkville before season five begins, wherever you listen.
