1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Powerful Minds are Meeting Up to Attempt to Save College Sports: February 27th, 2:45pm

Episode Date: February 27, 2026

Powerful Minds are Meeting Up to Attempt to Save College SportsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Back to one-on-one with D.P. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation on 93-7 the ticket. For wrapping up things here on one-on-one, I'm Jake Fockman. Thanks again to Austin Overman for jumping in. You can hear him once again on Old School later today at 3 o'clock. I'll stick around with Farrell for Bach and the Black Chart. Coming up next year on 93-7, the ticket. But I've been talking about it.

I want to get to it. Some attempts maybe to fix or rescue college sport, at least change the direction in which they're going. Powerful Conference Commissioners are expected to join dozens of sports celebrities and dignitaries on March 6th at the White House and a roundtable discussion with the president about the future of college athletics. Of course, President Trump will be there. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, New York, Yankees President Randy Levine are all listed as vice chairs for this meeting. Other people invited, it's just kind of a hot spot. So just, you know that at the beginning. Tiger Woods, Condoleezza Rice, Nick Saban,

Mack Brown, Urban Meyer, Adam Silver, Tim Tebow, Charlie Ward. Plenty of athletic directors will be in there. And two presidents with Nebraska ties. Are there? Jeffrey Gold. Okay. Nebraska president. And Dondie Plowman.

Well, there you go. So Nebraska's, Nebraska ties are going to be in on this meeting. at least Nebraska will be represented, hopefully. Also, Texas Tech booster in saving college sports commissioner, Cody Campbell, will be there. Interesting enough, no active head coaches are going to be among the people that go. I also saw... Do you like that or not? I mean, you've got at least, you've got, you know, Nick Savon and Urban Meyer and Mac Brown in there.

So it's not active head coaches. And probably at least like to have a little bit of representation from active head coaches. Yeah. I think there's a lot of deserving blame that goes on head coaches for getting us to where we're at. Now, obviously, I think you blame the NCAA first with the lack of professionalism versus amateurism, clear-mindedness, right? That goes back to it all. But, like, how many of the transfer portal, the schedule issues are because we've catered to current head coaches? You know, maybe it would be good to have their perspective in there, but also having a bunch of head coaches done enough since they get their way already.

And it's led to a lot of these issues. Yeah, you could certainly make that argument. It's just kind of strange when we talk about people that are actively working the jobs. I'm sure. Not being included. But nonetheless, again, I think, you know, we've talked about when we asked these college football commissioner questions, a lot of people would point to Nick Saban. And I wouldn't think Mac Brown or Urban Meyer would be far down that list. So it's interesting.

Of course, it's just this is an initial meeting. So there is some question about what's going to be done. and one person, that's according to ESB, and one person that is going to go there, said it's people who could be involved in the help shape in the future of cult athletics and some of the solutions and strategies to structuring the athletic world going forward. But it says it's so preliminary,

it's hard to say anything with any sort of specificity. I can't say that word. Specificity? Yes, I've tried that before. I tried to read that. This is the second time I've read into that because there hasn't been anything provided to us in writing of that sort yet.

So that's, I don't know how much will get done, but at least, you know, you're a meeting among many minds. It's most likely going to be a meeting that could have been an email, but it's also good to get these people face to face, I guess. And I'm of two minds, Buck. On the one hand, you're probably not going to solve everything sitting down in one meeting. But wouldn't it be nice to come away from a meeting of the minds like this with something tangible? Yeah. You know, I get it. We have to get the lawyers involved.

What's legal? That's the basis for a lot of why college sports. are where they're at because so much of what's happening was illegal in a lot of ways. And, you know, I think that there are enough people that want to preserve what they can of the old system, but enough people that want to just blow it up and start from scratch, that both things are going to be hard to do. You know, so you're going to have to find ways to walk that line, figure out what's worth keeping in what form.

And then fair or not, the college sports fan just sitting at home is going to have some reaction to it. And that right or wrong is probably going to guide some of the wins of change. So no matter what actually gets discussed, I wouldn't even say decided, you know, with this meeting, because I doubt much is going to happen. The court of public opinion is absolutely going to hold some sway. You brought together a lot of, you know, reputable big name people, but, you know, are they like your point, the ones that are actually boots on the ground? Do they have the pulse of, you know, what makes college sports unique? Everyone comes out of with their own perspective, of course, But, man, there's just so much to sort through.

This could be, you know, a month's long conference. And you can still get nowhere. Yeah, yeah. And, of course, a lot of these folks have been button heads already. But, and of course, the other part is that just because the names that I rattle off were invited, doesn't mean they'll show up. So we'll see. I mean, they might, they might kind of view it a similar way.

But it is kind of interesting that Saved College Sports is gaining some steam here. Because also in a separate story, the Big Ten and the SEC are urging Congress. to reject a proposal that would consolidate FBS broadcasting rights, which, of course, as we've known, as we've seen this as being done, Big Ten SEC have clearly got a big lead in that. And so no surprise that they don't want any of that consolidation. But saving college sports says pooling FBS media rights could generate billions in new revenue. The Big Ten SEC says the math doesn't add up and market-driven conference deals will outpace the proposal

without federal intervention. Who was it that said it would be? add up? The Big Ten and SEC. Really? Really? Interesting. Doesn't add up. Okay. Weird. Yeah. So it is interesting because you go through all this, you know, back in the 70s, I think, is when it started. I can't remember this exact year, but where these conferences have their different media rights and can put them out there. NBA still does a lot of their stuff kind of regionally. So it is interesting. I mean,

there's certainly an argument on behalf of the Big Ten and SEC that it could, you know, the math might not add up, but I think obviously this is more an idea to kind of pool together, save whatever structure is of all these sports that aren't in the Big Ten in the SEC. Again, those conferences aren't going to want to give up power and that that would certainly do so. So it just is going to be a battle, as would be expected. Absolutely. I'll add this.

And I know we ought to get out here and get Farley in here. I'll give the title of Blackshirt back once I officially step out of the studio. he can have it back. But I'd be curious to know if college football actually views itself in that kind of mini NFL range. Because, like, I think when you think about the media rights specifically from the NFL, it works so well because they pooled everything together. But I don't think there's that just top level national interest of, you know,

biggest sport in the country. You know, I'll just watch whatever is on in college football like there is in the NFL. Sure, we all of our teams, you all have our allegiances. but what do we talk about, you know, with conferences and in rivalries in college, it's regional. And I think that there's still, you know, as much as there is the affinity for a specific team, you know, whoever your NFL team is, you've kind of just grown to understand it's about the shield. It's about the league. It's about the bigger picture.

You know, I know when I go to CBS or Fox, but in college athletics, I think there'd be more of an argument to where, you know, maybe those top schools agree to some contract that will play X, number of times on this network or, you know, will be scheduled to appear this many times over how many years on the big umbrella media rights package. But there might be some value in doing what the NBA does, right? And having primarily local broadcast for those fans or major league baseball, where they have the Apple, the ESPN, the NBC, whatever, but 90% of the games are available just in the home market, you know, more locally produced. I think that's more the model for college sports maybe than the NFL big umbrella model.

It'll certainly be interesting. Florida State still argued for more rights out of the ACC deal. Oh, man. College TV contracts and how they have transformed college football, certainly a topic that could go on for a long time. But that'll wrap it up for a one-on-one block. Bocking the Blacks are coming up next year, 93702.