1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - How Much Money is "Enough" Money on a College Football Roster? ... It's a Moving Target: October 14th, 11:25am

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

How Much Money is "Enough" Money on a College Football Roster? ... It's a Moving TargetAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You're listening to One-on-One with D.P. Brought to by Canopy Street Market on 93-7, the ticket and the ticketfm.com. We are back here on one-on-one on 93-7, the ticket, Jake Fockman, and Nick Stannert, sitting in for DP today, talking about what is, what is often? I don't think so somebody will be able to answer this back there. There's a phone call going on. We'll see if we can get to that here in a second. Yeah, you can go ahead and grab it. I would see if we give somebody on there.

You are more and welcome to call in. If you want to, give your thoughts on the current situation. 4-6-4-5-6-8-5. We've been all but imploring our athletic director here to go ahead and let this thing play out to a degree before giving an extension to Matt Rule. At least that's, in my opinion, because I think there's still a lot of moving parts to this situation with the job opening, obviously, at Penn State. one interesting thing, of course, yesterday a lot of people would say from Matt Ruhl's

conferences was again, his press conference was again talking about, you know, maybe being able to bolster up the NIL world and tried to get a $30 million roster together, which again could be kind of alarming. And he said, he kind of paraphrased, and I'm paraphrasing now, he's kind of saying, you know, it might not be the Nebraska way, you know, trying to separate the University of Nebraska and the cuts that they have to make it. with the football program, all of that. And I think all of that is true. But I think it's interesting in the realm of this discussion

because some people looked at that, you know, from the press conference and say, well, maybe he's kind of signaling, you know, hey, if you do this or if we want to be competitive, you've got to end up. You've got to be able to pay for that roster. And that could be the case. But if you listen to press conferences around the country,

that is such a common theme from everybody. And it's going to be maybe getting annoying to some people at some point in the next couple of years, but everybody's going to tell you across the board, we need more money. We need, we know, to compete with these,

these top rosters. And it's interesting because I'm trying to go through that in my own head, because obviously you're going to get a better opportunity. If you do have more money, if you have one of the top paid rosters in college football, we get that. But I want to ask you, Nick,

because we are, you know, we're just one year into the extended playoff. Ohio State won that. I think because of the roster that they can pay for year and year out, they're always going to be in the conversation to potentially win a single elimination playoff like that. But it's just kind of interesting to see and we won't know until we kind of get some more data on this, you know, going into years of the future, if this new era of college football is going to be dominated by the top rosters

and the top teams in college football that can pay the most. Or could we see something similar to Major League Baseball? where we've seen the salary cap does not always translate to who's going to win. I mean, you look at two of the teams right now still fighting in the playoffs. They're, you know, they're mid range. And as far as salary cap goes, we've had teams, you know, over the last several years that have won it, Braves in 2021 that didn't have the top, you know, salary caps and baseball, all that. But then, of course, the Dodgers are there with the number one.

Yeah, the number one salary as well. Is it, is it going to be something in college football more to that? Or will it be more to what we're seeing going on in high school? football right now at Nebraska where the top, I mean, there's such a gap between the top and the in the bottoms. And that's, of course, is what the whole pay of the $21 million is, is trying to stop. But, you know, it, we don't know necessarily right now where college football is going to land in that, in that realm, you know, that, that possibility. I have a very, probably different opinion on this after talking and having a conversation with an assistant head coach or

assistant coach one of these days. I asked him. I said, how much does the transfer portal and the NIL and the revenue sharing, how much does that all matter? And the response that I got was, you have to have good coaches. You have to have good coaches. And I'm not saying that Matt Rule is formulating this for Nebraska, because I think there is some sort of truth that Matt Rule, that Matt Rule has.

has and is speaking that you need to be competitive financially. But I think that at times, coaches can use that as a cop-out as to maybe why they can't win the big game, why they can't compete on the national level. They can compete on a much more on a lower level against the teams you're supposed to beat, but to not be able to win the big one, they're not financially competitive with Ohio State. we have talked extensively in the first six games of this college football season about how much parity there is in college football. It feels like there's more now than ever.

And I don't, I understand why we feel like there's always going to be the need for more money. I get it because the market's always going to be trending in that direction. But I do agree with Dan from Canopy right here in this text. With all this talk about needing more money, when is enough enough? Where is the money going to come from? The second question at a place like Nebraska is, I think, even more interesting than the first.

In terms of when is enough enough, I think coaches will tell you never. You can never have too much, right? Because you're always going to be able to figure out a way to spend it. Now, where does it come from? We know a couple of the outlets in Nebraska. but other than that, I'm not sure Nebraska knows where it can come from.

I think that ultimately, and this is not me, this is once again from people that are actually in the space and doing it at a high level, coaching matters. Head coaches, ability to, head coaches, ability to hire quality assistant coaches matter. And if those guys,

you know how you manage the money correctly, you don't get caught up in, and it's easy to say this because Nebraska, but you don't get caught up in transfer from Alabama. You don't get caught up in transfer from Texas. You don't get caught up in where they're coming from. You devil in the details and you identify correctly. And there's a reason why there's quarterbacks across the country

playing at Power 5 or Power 4 football programs that were playing at Division 2 schools last year and having success. It's because the coaches identified them, and then they brought him in, they were able to elevate their talent. Fernando Mendoza was not this good at Cal. Indiana made him this good.

This is not a shot at Nebraska's coaches, and it's not me saying, hey, you guys are lazy, just coach better. But in a way, that is still the first and foremost biggest part. You can bring in the most talented guys, but if you can't take them to the next level, then yeah, you're always going to want more money

because you're going to be overpaying for guys that come from name programs, and you're not going to be able to elevate. them. Coaching is, in my opinion, the first and foremost biggest issue and biggest priority. But I think it always has been. And I think that is specifically in college football as a pros to pro or college sports as a pros to pro sports, obviously where you can get an athlete and get a LeBron

James, maybe settle them in for nine years. In college, obviously, you're rotating players often. And so you're going to have to continue to be able to recruit and especially develop like you're saying there. But it's interesting because that's always been the idea. you know, it's now kind of transitioning to a degree from throw money where you, you know, in the football program before the roster, you know, Reds share all that stuff, NIL, all you could throw at was money at the coaches. Yeah. And that didn't always translate to victories, right? Jimbo

Fisher is a pretty good example of that. Lincoln Riley, who you mentioned was the third highest face code right now. They're not getting third highest paid results from it. Yeah. So, you know, that's always in that conversation. And then, you know, the same thing here with Kurt Signetti, who ruins every conversation that people try to have. at the top is he said just give me average resources and I'll give you great results. And he absolutely has. And so, I mean, he doesn't have a 30 or 40 million dollar roster. So it's, it is interesting to kind of see, you know, all that play out.

I did grab a bite here from Kenny Dillingham. So if you're kind of thinking how much is enough, here's Kenny Dillingham on just that thought. Again, this is this is every coach across the country in their press conferences talking about NIL and in the, in the constant kind of moving of that target. Here's what Dillingham had to say, of course, head coached at Arizona State. Ever, you know, the top. Yeah, I mean, I think all in is constantly changing. I think all in is saying wherever, you know, the top end is,

we're going to get, we're going to get there. I think so whatever it takes, I guess is all in. And that number is changing and that that's what all in is is constantly changing. It's like the first in, you know, in seat one goes all in. in. And the other person's like, I like my hand too. I'm all in. Another hundred bucks in there. Third person's like, you know what? I like my hand too. Four hundred bucks in there. Like, I'm all in. All in's changing. So I think in college football right now, all in is constantly changing. So where are we from that? It's a moving target. And you've got to be willing to

adapt and move and do what's necessary to hit all in. And them as a program, they're definitely all in from their facilities to coach mcguire his staff the team they've put together they've done a phenomenal job and their programs all in and and you can see the results and like i said i'm excited this should be a fun game fun environment and i'm right wrong there you have it there's kidding telling him there at the end talking about texas tech their upcoming opponent who of course is all in more than than a lot of the other programs we've seen across the country and so you heard him say it It's a moving target. I mean, 10 years from now, a $30 to $40 million roster might be at the bottom barrel of what,

what, you know, is acceptable or going to win too many games. And did you see what Greg Shiano said? He said, quote, Greg Shiano yesterday was asked about this. He was asked on Rutgers, NIL efforts to date and going forward. And he said, quote, we have not tried. Forget at the Big 10 level. We haven't done it even at the Division 1 level. The only people have done it is the guy that you're looking at.

But now we have a plan. Yeah. I mean, it's crazy. It is crazy. And it's important to have investment. And Nebraska has that. I just don't like, I will say this, we have to be careful. Head coaches.

And once again, I feel like I got to put this caveat that like Matt, I don't feel this way that Matt rules saying this. But head coaches have the ability now to easily blame that. Because it's not transparent. You could ask 100 different Nebraska fans and say, okay, how much money do you think is Nebraska's roster? And none of them would say probably the same answer. Or none of them would have clear confidence on their answer.

They could say, well, I would expect it's this number or X, Y, Z. And we'd be like, okay, yeah, yeah, sure. But there's no transparency. The only people that really know it are probably the high-level boosters. And then on top of that, the people inside the building that need to know. Well, then even they don't know how much I was spending, I'm a much Washington is spending. And so, yeah, it allows head coaches to get up there and say,

Well, we need more. We need more to compete. And that could be true. But also, are you, like a question, I think every college football program needs to ask. And this is where I do, I do appreciate Troy Danon and what he said a couple of months ago. Every college football program needs to sit down at the end of the year and say, okay, what was the, what was the contract for this player? Did we get R.O.I. Did we get the correct R.O.I on this player?

If not, we need to reevaluate. How about this guy? How about this guy? And Troy Dannon said that he's going to do that for his. major programs at Nebraska. Matt Rule and Nebraska football is going to be one of them here in just a couple of months. He's going to sit down with Coach Rule if Matt Rule is still here, and he's going to sit down and say, okay, what did you see back in January when you brought him in? Why did you value him at that? Why didn't he get to that point during the season? Where's the disconnect?

Well, what happens January to fall camp? A lot of coaching, a lot of practice, a lot of reps, a lot of strength and conditioning. It goes back to the coaching, sure, but also you can you can sit up there behind a microphone and say, hey, you know, look, school X or organization or program Y needs more money. We need more money to spend. We're just not competitive. Okay, but with the money that you are having and are receiving, are you allocating it the best way possible. And if the answer isn't a resounding yes and you have stats and data to back that up, well, then maybe it's a look in the mirror also in addition just to looking outside the doors and saying, hey, we need more.

Fascinating times, once again, in college football. We've got to take a break. We'll be back to wrap up the show one-on-one here with D-P on 93-7, The Ticket. Watch live on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. You're listening to One-on-One with DP on 93-7, The Ticket, and The Ticketfm.com.