Andy & Ari On3 - ESPN's Paul Finebaum Talks new co-worker Nick Saban | Florida State DT Braden Fiske joins the show

Episode Date: February 9, 2024

Today's show is brought to you by PrizePicks, the easiest way to play daily fantasy. All first time users that deposit and use the promo code ANDY will receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. If you deposit $100, PrizePicks will give you $100.Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/ANDY(0:00-5:45) Intro - Warde Manuel Named Chair of CFP Committee(5:46-10:46) SEC Announces Their Total Revenue(10:47-38:20) Paul Finebaum Joins to talk Nick Saban, Tim Tebow(38:21-42:59) Andy Goes Down a Slap-Fighting Rabbit Hole(43:00-49:31) Tulsa Head Coach Kevin Wilson(49:32-59:16) Florida State's Braden Fiske Joins(59:17-1:01:18) Conclusion - See you Monday MORNING!ESPN’s Paul Finebaum joins the show to discuss when he knew former Alabama coach Nick Saban would be joining the network. Finebaum also explains why SEC commissioner Greg Sankey teamed up with Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti. Later, Andy and Paul imagine how amazing Paul’s co-worker Tim Tebow would be as a WWE wrestler. Plus, Paul names his most angst-ridden SEC fanbase.Next, Andy breaks down the clip of Tulsa coach Kevin Wilson reading NIL requests from a text message from a transfer recruit. This is an educational moment for the recruit and for fans who think NIL spending is out of control.Later, Andy interviews former Florida State defensive tackle Braden Fiske, who made the most of his single season with the Seminoles after spending most of his career at Western Michigan. You’re going to love this guy, and you’ll be rooting for him on draft day.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIOSuTe2D-c

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Very fun show for you tonight. We have a wide range of conversation with Paul Feinbaum of ESPN and the SEC Network. The Paul Feinbaum show, of course. And he talks his new coworker, Nick Saban. He talks about coworker Tim Tebow and how he made a mistake not accepting a match at WrestleMania. He talks about Tennessee versus the NCAA. Greg Sankey, who just went on his show on Wednesday. And the partnership with the Big Ten, the advisory committee.

Sorry, advisory group. Since we're underselling this and also we talked about the most angst-ridden sec fan base as evidenced by the calls he gets on his show and it's he's got a pretty interesting selection there and his reasoning for it is very sound and i'm curious to see what y'all think about that. But we have some news first. New members of the college football playoff selection committee. So you can blame different people next year.

Ward Manuel, the Michigan AD is named the chair. He's also one of the new members. Boot Corrigan, the NC State AD who served as the chair is rotating off. So he's done. Mitch Barnhart, the Kentucky AD is off. Mark Harlan, the Utah AD, Gene Taylor, the Kansas State AD, and then Joe Taylor and Rod West, their terms have expired. So your new members of the committee, Ward Manuel is now the chair. They've also added Patrick Chun,

the AD at Washington State, basically choosing one of two ADs in the two-pack. It was either going to be him or Scott Barnes from Oregon State. You had to pick one. Randall McDaniel, former great defensive lineman at Arizona State. Gary Pinkle, former Missouri coach. And listen, I would be remiss if I didn't just mention this every time Gary Pinkle's name comes up. I'm not sure we fully appreciate how good a job Gary Pinkle did at Missouri. We're seeing it now with Eli Drinkwitz having a great year last year there. But Gary Pinkle had multiple of those years in a row at Missouri, turned them into a pretty powerful program at the end of their time in the Big 12 and the beginning of their time in the SEC.

And I just want to say, again, let us appreciate Gary Pinkle. Go back and watch some old James Franklin playing quarterback for Missouri, Missouri. Some Chase Daniel, Missouri. It was a lot of fun back in those days. Rant over. Also, Mack Rhodes, the Baylor Athletic Director, Carla Williams, the Virginia Athletic Director, and Hunter Urechek, the Arkansas Athletic Director.

Those are the people you can yell at if you don't like the selections for the college football playoff in 2024. Now, what is interesting about this group is they get to do the 12 team one. So they will not face a decision like the one last year did where they had to decide, do you go with 13 and 0 ACC champ Florida State or 12 and 1 SEC champ Alabama? They will not have to deal with that situation. They'll both get in. The cut line that they will be making people mad about is probably the number 11 spot, which would be the last at-large spot, most likely, unless the highest ranked group of five champ is ranked higher than that. And then also it would be

picking the highest ranked group of five champ because you saw it this year. Liberty gets selected. They went undefeated. But Rhett Lashley at SMU, who just won the American, is going, hey, I think we played a tougher schedule than they did. And so that will be a fascinating discussion, deliberation, because that will put a team in the playoff as opposed to putting them in a new year's six bowl. So lot for this group to deal with, but probably not as controversial a selection as the one that the last group had to make. Because when you're leaving somebody out who was undefeated, who won their conference, who didn't do anything wrong the whole season, other than have their quarterback get hurt, you're going to piss a lot of people off. I don't think this group can piss that many people off. Now it's interesting for the Michigan fans who remember throughout all the Jim Harbaugh drama, there were a lot of Michigan fans

who were like, well, if Ward Manuel did his job, Jim Harbaugh would be staying in Michigan. That's also not true because Jim Harbaugh was always going back to the NFL, but there's a significant portion of the Michigan fan base that not the biggest fans of Ward Manuel. And now they're like, oh great. Now we're going to see him on TV all the time. But I will say when Ward Manuel speaks, which is not frequently, he's not a big talk to the media kind of guy, but he's very fun when he does. The scrum after the national championship game was hilarious. When he gets asked if he was going to look internally, if Jim Harbaugh leaves, which obviously he did, he said, no, I'm going to look at a drink tonight. I'm going to look at my family and then I might look at another drink and I appreciate that so hopefully we'll get some more interesting interviews after those college football playoff ranking reveals in October

November and early December than we got the last two years but Ward Manuel I think the Michigan fans were like oh man I don't know if I wanted to see more of him, but you're going to. Also in the news on Thursday, the SEC announced its revenue distribution. This is what they, they announced this every year. Here's how much money we split up among the schools. So it was 741 million to the SEC's 14 schools for the 2022-23 fiscal year, which ended August 31st, 2023.

So that total includes $718 million distributed directly from the conference office, an additional $23 million retained by universities that participated in the bowl games. So it's about $51 million per school. And next year's probably will look fairly similar because it'll be the last year of the CBS contract. Because remember, the football season that just ended is part of this current fiscal year. So it'll be before Texas and Oklahoma show up. But the following year, when Texas and Oklahoma are in the league, when the new ESPN contract starts and the new college football playoff television contract starts, the numbers are going to get significantly bigger. So I did a little back of the envelope math pointing out, as always, this is a bad at math

podcast. Don't forget, this is a bad at math show. So extra 250 million a year or so from ESPN. Remember they were getting 55 million a year from CBS. The number is about 300 million a year for ESPN and for the CFP. So it is going up to the way they split the money in the CFP is the power five, when there was such a thing, don't hit the X on me, River Bailey, my producer, because the power five, when there was a power five, got about 80% of the CFP money. So I'm assuming the core four are going to get about 80% of the CFP money. It might be slightly less, but we'll go with that number for now. And the number we've heard for the deal with a 12-team playoff per game

adds up to about $1.3 billion to televise that event. So that's another about. So if they get a fourth of 80%, that'd be 20%. So they're probably getting getting about another 250 million from the CFP. So you add those up. Now I'd realize again, bad at math show. This was my mistake because I need to be adding the additional amount over what they're already getting from the CFP. So again, bad at math show, but if they were getting one fifth of 80%, they were getting 16% of 500 million.

Let's do some quick math on that. It's a lot of money. So they were getting about 80 million. So they're getting an additional 170 million or so. So we're talking about in the high sixties, low 70 millions per school. Once Texas and Oklahoma joined the league, that's pretty penny. Big 10, big 10 schools. We'll get more probably, uh, because they do have a bigger TV deal. So now they have more schools.

They're going to 18 schools. But remember, they also took Washington and Oregon on a little bit of a reduced deal. So Mintberry Crunch in the chat says, what's up, Andy? Florida State fan here. Did I miss Braden already? You did not miss Braden. I should tease that as well. Braden Fisk, former Florida State defensive tackle,

joining us later in the show, caught up with him at the senior bowl practices. I'm telling you right now, obviously if you're a Western Michigan fan or you're a Florida State fan, you already love Braden Fisk. The rest of you guys, he may be your favorite draft eligible defensive lineman

once this is all said and done, because he's just awesome. So much fun to talk to and such a great outlook on things. We're also going to talk about Kevin Wilson's comments. I don't know if you saw those during his national signing day press conference, where he basically read a text message from a transfer recruit or a potential transfer recruit from his phone about what the guy was requesting in NIL money. It was hilarious, but I think it's a good lesson for players out there and also for people who think schools are just spending willy-nilly on NIL. It's very educational. But first, we got to talk about Nick Saban going to ESPN. We got to talk about Tennessee going nuclear on the NCAA.

We got to talk about Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti teaming up to form an advisory group. And we got to talk about the most angst-ridden SEC fan base. Who better to do that with than the great Paul Feinbaum? As a kid, I always wanted to say this, and I'm so glad I get to do it now. Paul! Paul Feinbaum joins us now. Still can't believe the guy I used to hear on the radio talking to Tammy and Iman

actually talks to me. What's up, Paul? How are we doing? What happened to that guy? He, as a critic, he clearly has been ESPN-ized, Andy. Well, I mean, that's the thing. You guys, it's clear. I mean, you have the SEC network and you're out to get everyone, including the ACC, which also has a network with you. But not the Big Ten, which doesn't, which confuses me. I would love to be in on your ESPN conspiracy meetings where you talk about who you're going to screw next, because I feel like I don't understand the reasoning. Yeah, that's your early morning conference call. And we just go down the list. And now that we've conquered the world, Andy, we're moving to other countries.

Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, so I can expect ESPN to meddle in cricket in India now? Is that the next frontier? If Taylor Swift can have international appeal, why can't the Finebomb show on SEC Network? Paul, there's a billion people in India. Can you imagine the uptick in audience? We could use one right now after the last few weeks.

Well, listen, I would ask, you do have a new co-worker coming on board. One, Nicholas Lou Saban is joining ESPN. He's going to be on the college game day cast so that's my biggest question is like how soon can your co-worker Nick Saban come on and take calls from Jim from Tuscaloosa like when is that going to happen yeah I had somebody ask me earlier today like what are you guys going to do any one-offs I'm here hey listen you, listen, you just don't walk up to Nick Saban and say, hey, you mind doing an hour here, coach? But I think it is what really bugged me today, Andy. I had a couple of my friends call me and say, were you shocked? I'm like going, what? I mean, how long have we known about this?

I mean, this is, we didn't know when Saban was going to retire, but did anyone in the working media that covers college football not know that he was going to game day? I mean, that was like a foregone conclusion, but apparently some of my closest friends didn't hear that. Yeah, this has been telegraphed for a long time. You don't have to be too deep into it. You don't have to be reading Andrew Marchand and Richard Deitch and awful announcing to to know that this was 10 years in the making but I will say I'm very I'm very excited to see him on on television because he when he's been on before he's been all pissed off because he's not in the playoff like now he's just doing it because he's there and and I I'm I told the story once and I'm sorry that I ever told it. But in 2013, Andy, I had just hired a new agent.

I had left my job in Birmingham and I was sitting out a three month period. And my new agent called me and he said, hey i'm gonna be in birmingham he worked he was out of beverly hills uh could you pick me up and drive me to tuscaloosa so i got pat smith somebody you know very well oh yeah but pat had never met uh nick khan and head of the wwe yeah so we picked up uh nick khan at the birmingham, drove him to Tuscaloosa. We knew what was going on, but we had to act like we didn't. And deposited him at the football office. And within 10 minutes, I had gotten a text from Kevin Steele going, hey, I heard you're in on the big secret down here.

I said, yeah. So long story short, inside of Nick Saban's office after we dropped him off was Nick Khan, Nick Saban, and Jimmy Sexton, who then went to Saban's house to meet with Miss Terry, where the first offer, this is now may 2013. uh that was the first conversation about nick saban ever working at espn and then i happen to be with khan again uh at the langham hotel someplace you've probably heard of in pasadena in january of 2014 auburn and fsu of which saban was working for espn after losing the kick six game and the Oklahoma game and they met again. So that was what, 10 years ago? And we're all surprised today that Nick Saban finally went to ESPN. Well, that and Nick Khan is a big ideas guy. As we mentioned, he's now the head of the WWE. When he was at CAA, he helped the SEC with its meteor rights deals. He told a story on the Pat McAfee show a few weeks ago

about trying to get Tim Tebow to do a match at WrestleMania. I mean, you work with Tim. Is that something you'd want to see? You think he could pull it off? I think Tim made a mistake. I think Tebow, can you imagine Tebow in that world? Oh, tremendous. And listen, we've both been around Tim a long time.

He's one of the most electric personalities, but I think he would love it. And I don't think Tim has any other comebacks up his sleeve. But man, would I like to see that. We know he could cut a promo. We saw what he said after the Ole Miss game in 2008. So he got that. He's still jacked. It's perfect.

So get on the horn with Nick. You hold sway with the man. Make that happen. Listen, I was the first person the SEC Network hired. And then Khan called me and said, it was the day after Thiebaud got cut by the Patriots in 2013. He said, hey, by the way, you're about to get a new teammate. And so I met, I had interviewed Thiebaud when he was in Florida. So I got together with him quite a few times, as you can imagine, before the SEC Network launched. And Andy, the guy has picked me up and three other people at the same time. He would be great in the ring.

All right. So we got that figured out. Speaking of in the ring, you had Greg Sankey on your show yesterday, and he is in every ring there is right now because he's in the advisory group with Tony Petitti from the Big Ten. One of his schools is trying to nuke the NCAA using the state attorney general. When you talk to Greg about the decision to partner with Tony Petitti in the Big Ten, What was the vibe you got about that last straw? Why they finally decided, okay, the grown-ups need to take the wheel here? You know, I think it's a couple of things.

I think the fact that the Pac-12 still has a seat at the table. I think, you know, that combined with the NCAA conventions, which you have been to, where you actually have to sit back and listen to Slippery Rock and Elon and Southwest Texas have a voice. I think it's a combination of a lot of things. I think the biggest issue are all these court cases that that scare everyone inside the arena, so to speak and I just think uh it was inevitable and I think obviously it's Kevin Warren leaving the Big Ten Andy uh Sankey went to Kevin Warren in the past and Kevin Warren thought he was always the smartest guy in the room and he never was uh so I think ultimately uh Tony Petitti had a history with the SEC, with some of his other jobs, and he reached out very quickly, as you know.

So you're a Tennessee grad. How do you feel about your school going nuclear? I mean, this has been quite a multi-pronged attack on the NCAA since the NICO investigation became public last week yeah i mean i i think it's i i think uh dante plowman and everybody else there has won you know they've won the uh they won the battle but that's not what this was really about uh andy and i i think ultimately they'll prevail in court but i don't know if if this was i don't know if all the strong language was really necessary i think it might have been more effective just to not to say a word than to fire away a lawsuit that you had a pretty good chance of winning. Lawyers always say, if the facts are on your side, you don't need to bang the table. You don't need to scream and holler. And I think Tennessee has the facts on their table.

The fact on their job. Spoken by a man who had a lot of conversations with former lawyer Mike Slive, who was a big under-promise, over-deliver kind of guy. Yeah. And I think if you read between the lines, I didn't hear Sankey hugging anyone from Tennessee during that conversation. No. But he did reiterate something he said last week when he was on your show yesterday. He said that the cases, the individual cases involving NIL, which were Tennessee, Florida, two of his schools, Florida State, not one of his schools. And there are others out there. We're just waiting to find out which ones they are. He said they were distractions from the bigger picture, which that leads me to believe, hey, just leave my schools alone here. Yeah, no. the bigger picture which that leads me to believe like hey just leave my schools alone here yeah no i mean anyone who who believes that tennessee is going to spend a day in jail simply ncaa jail doesn't understand what's going on here this this is a this is a non-starter for the ncaa

and i think i think that's really what thank you trying to say uh i mean i think greg would have always preferred to handle things behind the scenes. But, you know, he I think it also I think it also the funny thing was all these statements came out, Andy, while the A.D.'s were meeting last week, including the Tennessee A.D. in New Orleans. Yeah, yeah. I mean, all of it. That's the thing people don't understand. And Dondi Plowman, the chancellor of Tennessee, is tight with Greg Sankey. None of this was done without his knowledge. And I don't know about blessing, because I don't think Donde Plowman feels like she needs a lot of credit. I mean, she I mean, I realize a lot of people tried to chisel it down to where they were trying to save money on Jeremy Pruitt. Well, that was part of it. But she also didn't have to go as far as she did in throwing Tennessee under the bus. You know, did they get away with it? Yeah. I know all the conspiracy theorists are out there. But in the end, I think she deserved credit for her stance and I think in some ways

she saved Tennessee so Paul I you have all of the the fan bases from from the SEC and actually from from everywhere else calling you had a dude from Maine calling in yesterday but I'm curious which SEC fan base right now do you think is experiencing the most angst um Florida I figured you're gonna say that uh look at I mean I I am used to a Florida fan base that always felt like it was on the same level as Alabama what's that old, you remember the old Dan Jenkins? Dan Jenkins, that's right. The arrogance of Alabama, the tradition of Wake Forest. Yeah. It's one of the greatest lines ever. And by the way, when Dan wrote that, it was before Urban Meyer and really before Steve Spurrier, wasn't it?

It was before Steve Spurrier. Yeah. And so I think the tradition level has risen considerably. The arrogance level was at an all-time high, I think, after Urban Meyer's second national title. It's dropped quite a bit since then. Yeah, and I hate that. I mean, when you do a show like ours, you don't want to go, okay, there's Mildred from Sarasota. Paul, you think we're going to be any good this year? I mean, I want them to call in and want to bust chops.

And that is, I mean, I can't imagine living in that community right now and trying to be a journalist. The apathy level is crazy to me because I dropped into this as a freshman in college, you know, 17, 18 years old, when they are at the height of arrogance, they've just played for the national title and lost it about to go win the national title. And it's just, it's amazing to me to hear people say, well, I don't know. We'll just, eventually they'll, they'll do something right. Everybody thinks I'm the biggest Alabama flag waver in the world, Andy. But let me compliment Alabama fans. I did a show there, as you know, when they were losing six straight to now Senator Tommy Tuberville,

they never backed down. Alabama fans, whether they were on probation, whether they were losing under Mike Shula, Mike DuBose, even the glorious eight or nine months of Mike Price, they either talked about the past, hey, we won under Bear Bryant and Gene Stallings, or they portended the future. They never threw in the towel.

And it seems to me, and I'm not looking for headlines here, but Florida fans have given up. They just say, okay, whatever happens, case a-ra-sa-ra. That's not good. And I'll defer to you. You're a Florida man. We cannot have Florida fans being apathetic. No.

I always say that anger, if you're an AD, a ad a school president you want anger apathy is what you don't want apathy means you you can't get it back anger means people still care and I'll point another fan base as you brought up the Alabama thing during the lean years Tennessee oh going through all those dark times those people never stopped believing that the next year was going to be better. Yeah, you know, I went to school in Tennessee during a down period. And so I got a good taste of it. But it was always about what used to be and what was about to be. And I was there when Johnny came marching home my final year. And it was the biggest thing I'd ever seen of course until at the time i mean i was i was not i was 20 years old uh but yeah i mean that and and i i think i don't know what the solution or or the or the magic bullet for for florida is but it's not saying well i hope billy napier can get to a bowl game next year

yeah it's it's not that and because that not even, that shouldn't be the minimum requirement or that should be the bare minimum requirement, not the thing that makes you happy. And yeah, it's interesting. But when I see Steve Spurrier, I mentioned he spoiled everybody. He made everybody forget that it's not always easy to win at Florida. And I love the story, but Spurrier literally left Gainesville for a bad job because he was burned out. Andy, you were there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. His final year, he won the Orange Bowl and finished third in the country. And that was considered an absolute failure. Yep. Yep. And he went to South Carolina and they started thinking they could beat Clemson every

year. So he just spoils people. That's what the man does. He's ruined two programs. Exactly. By turning them into winners. Spurrier, you shouldn't have done that. Exactly. I mean, I wouldn't object if Spurrier just coached this season for the Gators as they rebooted. I mean, I want to see somebody down there that has a pulse. You know who wouldn't object to that? The head ball coach. Yeah.

That may be in the offing depending on what happens. If things go poorly the first few weeks. I don't want to waste your time. I really like Billy Napier. He's been a failure, okay? Can we just all agree on that quit making excuses it is not where it needs to be and i think he'll tell you he's got to get it better and i think everybody knows he better get it better this year or that's probably it maybe

maybe well i mean listen they got a couple of good recruits two that's right three out of what 20. I love I love how you you start with the compliment and then plunge the knife in that's I just I'm just trying to I mean I watch these recruiting analysts on my network and everyone and they're all oh I mean you talked you talked to somebody yesterday about Florida well they got the best quarterback they got the best quarterback. They got the best. What else do they have? And who left in the interim? Well, and that's the thing. Now, I will say, as a person who now works for a company that covers a lot of recruiting, you don't want to be a jerk and say mean things about 17-year-olds. I draw the line there. Although I do think LJ McC and dj laguerre are a reason for excitement my first job was my my first couple weeks in birmingham it was 1980 i think and this wasn't that you know national uh there was an early recruiting period back then yeah i'm there one

night at about seven o'clock at night and and some father and son show up there, and they go, we're looking for the prep editor. And I go, they're out right now. They said, well, I'm here to commit. I said, commit to what? He goes, I play high school for whatever high school, and I want to commit to Auburn. And I said, why?

I mean, I said it the wrong way. I mean, I wasn't really there to interview the guy. I was just like, why? Because Auburn had just been like given a letter of – what's the letter of enforcement, the infraction letter? Yeah, the notice of allegations, yes. The notice of allegations, I've already forgotten because they don't do it anymore.

This is around the time Pat Dye left his pants on the golf course, I think. Yeah, exactly. And Dye had not gotten there yet. This was the end of – Oh, this was before that. And they said, well, I love Auburn. I said, oh, okay. I said, well, can you take it down?

I said, yeah, okay, whatever. I started writing the name. I said – and I never interviewed a high school player committing before. And I said, well, you are aware that Auburn just received the notice of allegations, and you still want to go there? And the kid got very upset, and they left. And they called the editor to complain, trying to act like I was trying to talk the kid out of going. By the way, I realize that's in the news these days.

I didn't know any better. So I never do that again. How dare you, Paul? By the way, that was not the first time somebody called the editor trying to get you fired. So you were used to that by that point. I'd only been there two weeks, though. Yeah, they take that a little seriously but it didn't go on. Yeah, I it's II just remember when I was covering high schools when I was the prep guy

that the that person was looking for a swimmer's father says you are hurting my child's chance of getting a college scholarship. I said sir, your child is a swimmer. The clock is hurting your child's chance of getting a scholarship. I have nothing to do with it. That didn't go over very well. But it but it was a good education. I I did a couple of investigative pieces in in Birmingham about high school stars and I I got to see the underbelly of it back then

when a couple of bucks here and there would put your school in harm's way. Now we call it NIL, baby. It's about to be completely legal. God bless your alma mater. I spoke to the, they call it the Red Elephant Club, Andy. Well-known group. I spoke to a girl, Laura Rutledge and I, a proud Florida girl.

What a team. We spoke to this group two years ago, I think, in Birmingham. And I said, 40 years ago, I was investigating half of you for illegal payments to Alabama football and basketball players. Now I'm sitting here as your guest of honor, actually getting paid to be here to entertain you. And what you did then is perfectly legal now. And so congratulations, the statute of limitations is gone. I'm sure all the Dodge Chargers in the parking lot just roared to life in celebration. And then they trampled over me to get their picture made with Laura Rutledge. That's as one does. She was florida you know paul thank you so much not not a single selfie the whole night um anyway andy

it's always a pleasure to be with you that is great paul feinbaum and it is crazy to think about in the 80s in the 90s how obsessive we were about these NCAA investigations and they this player received six hundred dollars you're about to hear some audio and watch some video from Kevin Wilson the Tulsa coach the Tulsa coach by Tulsa, not Auburn, not Alabama Tulsa. So it makes me laugh thinking about Paul Feinbaum investigative reporter. I hope he was wearing the hat with like press in the, in the, in the hat band going around asking about Alabama and Auburn boosters, giving $100 handshakes. I'll bring you down. I'll bring down the program.

What I want, now that the statute of limitations has definitely expired, and now that the, well, the judge has told us he's going to declare the NIL rules from the NCAA illegal. So barring a massive upset in court, that's going to happen. What I want is those guys,

if the ones who are still alive, who were dropping the bags, can we have a full accounting? Can we do that? Can you guys come on the show and just tell us how all of that worked? I want the stories because all I heard, we all heard the rumors about this is how this school did it. This is how this school did it. And this one school had a dentist's office and you went

in there, the player would sit in the waiting room and then somebody would call them back and they would get a bag. I want to know how all of that works or worked in real life. I want to see how close it was to the rumors that we heard. And nothing's going to happen to you that's bad now. In fact, they're basically begging you for money to give to the players now. So I feel like it's story time. So I'm going to put out the open call. If you were a bag person, if you had a hand in that, whether you were funding it or delivering, come on the show and tell us how it worked. I'd say we'd grant you anonymity, but we don't need to at this point. It doesn't matter. It's completely out in the open now. So please, please, please come on the show. Mintberry Crunch in the chat.

Give Reggie Bush's Heisman. Yes, do that too. Please give Reggie Bush's Heisman back. That wasn't even a go to USC. That was agents trying to sign him for when he went to the NFL. Goodness. Yeah. Paul's appraisal of the Florida fan base, I find very interesting and very correct because I think about, I hadn't thought about it until he brought it up. I have talked about it on this show that it feels like the Florida fans are very apathetic right now, but I have not thought about it in relation to other SEC fan bases because he's exactly right about Alabama during the Mike Price, Mike Shula. Well, Mike Price wasn't even years. It was months, but the Mike Shula years, they were losing to Tommy Tuberville every year in Auburn,

but they still got fired up. They still would scream and yell about how they're better than everybody else. And Tennessee fans, I mean, we know about Vol Twitter. We know how Vol Twitter handled the decade of the 2010s. They weren't slowing down. They weren't giving up. So Gators, don't give up yet. We need some irrationality coming from you guys. Have some fight, some fire. No, this may not work. Yes, you may have to fire Billy Napier, but keep the passion intense because think about it this way. Your next coach may be watching right now, maybe watching how you handle this. Now I realize this is a fine line because I am one of the people who's been telling you guys you're crazy and your standards are too high and you shouldn't just fire

everybody. But I also understand. I understand where you're coming from. I understand the mentality of schools that have won national titles fairly recently. And it's hard when you've gotten that taste in your mouth, it is really hard to accept mediocrity over and over and over again. And I joke, I'm not sure I'm joking most of the time. But when I say that in the SEC, your job is to win the national championship, if you are at certain schools, like Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Tennessee, Florida, I think we can put Texas A&M in this group.

We can definitely put Texas and Oklahoma in this group now. But your job is to win the national championship. And every time you don't win the national championship. And every time you don't win the national championship, you have failed. And I realized that's harsh, but that's what the money's for. And I was thinking about that as I was in the gym. I never watched these shows with the sound on, so I have no idea what they were actually saying, but the chyron at the bottom of the screen was they were talking about the Superbowl and it was if the 49ers don't win the Superbowl, did they fail? And I'm like, man, if this, if that's at Alabama or Auburn,

the answer would be simple. Yes, they did. According to everybody. So Florida fans, I get you. I don't think you're crazy for wanting your program to be good. I am a little shocked that you are as tame as you are about this right now. Although I do understand that the lack of ability to do anything about the situation right now. And I think that's probably frustrating people, but Paul, Paul was right on that one. And, you know, I wasn't sure he was going to go there. Because Kentucky is pretty angsty right now because of basketball and because of what's going on with the offensive coordinator situation. But Paul's right.

In a macro sense, definitely the angst is more centered in Gainesville. All right. We got to talk prize picks. Before I play you Kevin Wilson's comments about NIL at Tulsa, we got to talk prize picks. Download the app. Best fantasy platform in America. Use the referral code Andy.

It will instantly match your first deposit up to $100. Guys, I am revealing my picks for Sunday's big game, but I'm also going to reveal my picks for the Power Slap competition on Friday night. We'll do the game first. I'm sure there's more people interested in this football game, but I went down a rabbit hole for this Power Slap thing, which is the UFC's version of the slap fighting that we've all seen on YouTube.

And the bouts we saw on YouTube early on are like random Eastern European prisoners slap fighting each other. Not a lot of weight class situations going on there. This is a much more professionalized version of it, even though some of these dudes are like, what, like one runs a moving company. One is a welder making nuclear submarines. So there's a lot, lot going on, but I went down a rabbit hole and I made a prize picks play. I did a two square play because I'm not entirely educated on this subject yet, but I did watch quite a few fights involving these gentlemen. And so Dallas Marin against Robert Trujillo, and the number is three and a half

total slaps. So what does that mean? One slap is, it looks like an arm wrestling table, essentially. And then one guy stands across from the other other and one dude just rears back and wails on the other dude and then the other guy gets to wail on that guy and so it's what you're trying to decide is how many total slaps will will be in the bout and so i was watching this thing Robert Trujillo has a chin made of steel. Like he was getting slapped as hard as these other humans could possibly slap him. And he's like, did I ask you to wipe my nose?

So I said more than three and a half slaps. And then I went and watched Vern Cathy and Delvin Hamlet. And both of these guys slap like the side of a shovel. There's no way this thing's getting to four slaps. Somebody's going down. So that's my picks for that. Now, something we all probably know a little bit more about, the Chiefs and the 49ers. I got my bonus Patrick Mahomes pick, 0.5 passing yards. I'm going more than. That's the discount

that we all get this week. Harrison Butker, more than one and a half field goals made. I think this is going to be a bit of a defensive struggle. So as you'll see, the kickers, I'm very high on here. Debo Samuel, more than 59 and a half receiving yards. And Brandon Ayuk to score at least a touchdown, essentially. My other one, because I think the defenses are going to be pretty good, field position is going to be at a premium. Tommy Townsend, Kansas City's punter, over Florida Gator and Mitch Wischnowski, the 49ers punter, both of them more than one and a

half punts inside the 20. Field position is going to be at a premium. I just, I don't know that these offenses are going to run up and down the field on each other. The truth in the chat says, really slap talk. Yes, the truth, really slap talk. There is a slap. There is a power slap event on Friday night and I got a prize picks play on it. And guess what? We're probably going to be a slap fighting show

for a little bit of the off season for like five minutes a week during the off season. Because I mean, i was watching these the slow-mo videos after the slaps it's crazy it's like and the lips just go like a chin and the teeth the cheeks go flying if there are jowls it's if it's a heavyweight guy, just everything moves from one side of the face to the other and then moves back very quickly. It's incredible. Go to PrizePix, download the app, referral code Andy, they'll match you up to $100 and you can start picking squares for slap fighting. All right, we going to talk about what Kevin Wilson said, because it was hilarious. So Kevin Wilson did his national signing day press conference,

and he is going into his second year at Tulsa. This is his first full cycle recruiting class at Tulsa. Uh, for those who don't know, Kevin Wilson was at Ohio state as the tight ends coach and kind of consigliere to Ryan day, former Indiana head coach, former Oklahoma offensive coordinator when they had those great years with Sam Bradford, worked with Randy Walker at Northwestern when they basically pioneered the spread offense at the turn of the century. seen some things in college football, but this is all still new to him, just like everybody else. And he was explaining that there's not a ton of NIL money at Tulsa. The collective is just in its infancy. He said that they have the Austin money that they give, which is basically money that can be earned for academic achievement, that sort of thing. So he talked about explaining that to recruits. But then, obviously, recruits do want to know about NIL. And so he just started reading a text message. Can you first kind of lay this out to them?

Can you tell a little bit more about a young man when you present that to them and you can kind of see it? So here's a great text message right here. Typical in first questions is, what do you get? I go, you'll get nothing like it. That's what they said and that's what they told Spalding, right? So here is a text from a guy saying, hey, coach, just asking about money.

I'm not a money hungry person. Don't need a ton of money. But this is a transfer. I've been getting about $6,000 to $7,000 a month. I got three dogs and a girlfriend. So what do you think I'll get there? And I said, the first thing you need to do is drop the dogs. And I'm not sure about the girl.

I go, we'll explain our incentive-based plan that we use. It's based on academic success, not allocating any, any NIL funds. We're starting it now. We'll have a clear direction if, and when we get anything, but I have not, and will not promise anything until I know for sure what I got. I'll discuss you on a visit, how we do our academic base plan. And that's how we recruit it. Cause the best way to recruit is to be honest and to be transparent. That is tremendous, that text conversation. And it happens.

And Kevin Wilson didn't do anything wrong, by the way, if you amateur NCAA cops are out there, even though those rules are going to be declared illegal in a few weeks anyway. But because he didn't offer anybody anything, he didn't offer anybody anything, he didn't promise anybody anything, but this particular player who's getting six to $7,000 a month or says he is, that may or may not be true because that is a negotiating tactic, but I'm going to assume that this is a player coming down from a power conference school, from a core, possibly a core four school, maybe an old power five school. from a core, possibly a core four school,

maybe an old power five school. Don't X me river because I'm talking about when there was a power five. And so this could have been true about getting six to $7,000 a month. So again, this is a bad at math show, but that would be 72 to $84,000 a year. You ain't getting out of Tulsa. Like have some self-awareness. Do not hit up the Tulsa coach for 80 grand a year. You are not getting that at Tulsa. I swear sometimes I question the intelligence of the younger generation. What are we even doing here? You know me.

I hate the rules. I'm Mr. Pay the players. But if you think you're going to get 80 grand a year at Tulsa because you're transferring down from somewhere where you probably weren't playing, you've lost your mind unbelievable so let this be a public service announcement to you players i do realize you know this is on three we got some dudes that are checking their rankings they're checking their their rank their high school rankings they're they're you know getting ready to go off to college or they're in the transfer portal, checking their transfer portal rankings. Be realistic. It's like we talked about with Dukes of Scoop the other day. People need to take a hard look in the mirror before they get in the transfer portal. One of the things they need to think about is what am I going to ask for financially? Because

if you are moving down, particularly if you were moving down because you could not get on the field when you were up, you're probably going to have to take a pay cut. Like that is probably the bare minimum there. You're getting a pay cut. But hitting up the Tulsa coach for 80 grand a year, that takes some cojones. By the way, there is a 0% chance

that that particular player knew that Kevin Wilson was quoting Judge Smales from Caddyshack in that text. 0% chance. But man, I would love to see the look on the guy's face when he's like i'm gonna i'm gonna shoot my shot and try to get 80 grand a year from tulsa read the room guys read the room all right a man who always knows how to read the room and who when he entered the transfer portal, was highly sought after. One of the great transfer pickups from Mike Norvell at Florida State, and there's a long list of those, but this is one of the best ones. right there on beautiful Lake Michigan, right near South Bend.

Played at Western Michigan, entered the portal, had a very nice pick of schools, went to Florida State, had an incredible season, and he's just tearing it up still. Tore it up at the senior bowl practices, and what a joy to talk to. You're going to love this guy. I know if you're a Western Michigan fan, Florida State fan, you already love him. But get to know Braden Fisk.

He's your new favorite draftable defensive lineman. Joined now by Braden Fisk, Florida State defensive tackle for a Western Michigan defensive tackle. Is this one of those things where you got to rep both, you got to claim both? I still like to. I spent five years there, so it's not, you got to claim both? I still like to. I spent five years there, so it's not like I can't claim them. I still have a ton of gear. I mean, yeah, I had such a special time there in Kalamazoo.

I mean, the relationships that I built there will be forever, and just the time I got to spend was awesome. And they were the ones who found you in high school, 6'3", 240, right? Yeah, they were my only offer coming out. And, you know, I went to a one-day camp. I've probably been to like 50 of those satellite camps. Yeah. And luckily, you know, Coach Esposito, my D coordinator, he came to my high school and said,

Hey, just come try this camp out. And luckily it all worked out. I mean, they offered me on a Monday. I committed on a Friday. I mean, it was that quick. And, you know, I knew the first school to offer me must love me. And your transfer experience was interesting too because, like because you go from getting one offer from Western Michigan to your finalists as a transfer are Florida State, USC, and Notre Dame. Yeah.

I mean, that's something I wouldn't wish. I can't believe 18-year-olds go through that process of recruiting just because of how crazy it is. I mean, it's nonstop. I mean, for two weeks, my phone probably didn't stop blowing up. And I mean, I'm grateful for the experience because I always wanted to as a kid and realized, oh, I'm cool. I could have stuck to, you know, what I did. Well, at least you only had two weeks of it. Some of the like the five star guys do it for like a year and a half. That's absurd. Yeah, I don't even I've asked guys who went in the portal and had a lot of interest in it's like their phone either

overheated or they just had to shut it off. off yeah that's basically what happened i ended up shutting my phone off and just like so i could go to sleep you know i mean it would be from you know seven in the morning to ten o'clock at night it's like crazy it's like i mean i get it though yeah it's such a short time period that you have to yeah you know go it's really like a month i mean from the end of november to the early january it's like all right make your make your decision. Well, and for you, you know, you've got the one year to go somewhere, to show what you can do. I mean, that's a really important choice for you. How did you decide with, you know, fairly limited information?

Yeah, I mean, I did the best I could to vet the process and kind of, you know, figure out what the best fit was for me. You know, like, I mean, I went through multiple rosters just to kind of see retention and, you know, where I could have the biggest impact right away but it was really coach norvell i mean yeah when he came into uh or came to michigan city to my parents house i mean i tell people this all the time like we mean probably like a two and a half hour staring contest it's just you know looking at each other and he's banging on my table telling me you know this is why you

need to come to florida state and i just fell in love with him he can be intense uh to say the least yeah i mean he's i mean that's just who he is i mean this is how he does well what's it like when you meet odell haggins for the first time because this is a guy who's coached oh yeah legends for sure and i think what people you know that is the greatest man like on this planet just you know how he goes mr florida state oh 100 yeah i mean hey this is a way to go i mean he can't go out in public you know somebody you know taking a picture the first time i met him we were in an airport and or like got to see him we were in an airport i mean somebody was trying to take a picture there i was like oh yeah he's he's that guy did anyone ever show you the seminal rap oh for when he was a player i've definitely seen the seminal rap yeah

it's one of the greatest and you're like oh my god that's that's dion right these people right so but yeah odell's versus uh it's fire for sure for sure yeah we'll say that you you're not allowed to say anything bad about odell haggins no we can't we can't do that but how was that experience for you because it seemed like you found your role immediately it was exactly what they they'd said you would be doing and really i mean that's you were kind of what that defense needed yeah i mean i think know, I say this all the time. Going to Florida State was the greatest decision I ever made. I mean, it changed my life.

I mean, absolutely. And I think going into it, like, I wanted to make an impact right away. You know, going into my last year, I got to have success, but I also wanted to be able to, you know, give back in the best way I can and just, like, show people this is how I do it. You know, the pro mentality that I was going to bring in and just the versatility and, you know, the way I play the game is, was super important. So how did you go from that six, three, 240 pound kid to six, five, 300, some of the best get off in the country? Uh, six, five might be a stress,

but we're up six, four and a quarter, whatever, whatever they want to measure me up. But, uh, I think just being consistent and kind of, you know, you know, playing to my abilities and, you know, focusing on the things that are going to set me apart is, you know, just focusing on my strengths, which is, I think, you know, my motor and my get off and being able to attack guys and just be violent. That's what sets me apart. It just seems like it's such a valuable skill to be able to rush the passer from the inside because it just, I mean,

shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and that can mess up a quarterback pretty bad definitely and I think you know that's something I'm just always trying to add to my game and keep attacking because I know how valuable it is you know what it can mean to a program to be able to do that so I just keep on trying to sharpen that and just keep moving so you weren't there for some of the harder times at Florida State but a lot of your teammates were yeah what did it mean to you guys to be able to to have the kind of season you had i mean it was super special to finally you know because florida state is a historic program and to be able to i wouldn't say necessarily bring him back but you know to be a part of it yeah bring him back is probably legit yeah i mean it could be i think we should have been in that playoff but i mean yeah um yeah i mean to see even when we beat

clemson to see the look on those guys faces of just like wow like you know just getting over that hump was huge and when they and they pushed you as hard as far as they could push you for sure i mean it took us over time you know just to see everybody that was like the breath of fresh air like ah we did it all right now like now we can attack this season and this is what we did man it was awesome so let's go back to the acc championship game because yeah you had one of your best games of the year then. For sure. Did you know going into that night that you would be able to have a game like that? Or was that one that once the game starts, you're like, okay, I'm in the zone here?

I mean, a little bit of both. I mean, I always go in a game thinking I can play a game like that. I mean, sometimes the cards don't unfold that way. But, I mean, as a defense, we knew going into it that we had to have it on our backs. I mean, we're playing short guys. I mean, Jordan Travis is hurt. I mean, the defense has to step up. This is, you know, the end-all, be-all of our season.

And, you know, we had to step up. And luckily, I mean, I was put in position to make the plays. I mean, the scheme-wise and playing next to verse, I mean, just feeding off each other and just playing ball at the end of the day. Well, that next day when you find out that you're not, what was that like? I mean, it made it worse because we're still riding the high of being 13-0 and winning the ACC championship. I mean, me personally riding the high of the game I just had and kind of how that was a game changer for this where I'm at right now. And, yeah, I mean, it was brutal.

I mean, it sucked. But, I mean, just knowing that we're never going to play together again was even worse well that's it and you guys like you and jared verse you you mentioned him i mean he's a guy who transferred in before last season and you guys made an incredible team like i mean yeah that's got it how what is it like when you have a guy on the edge like that who gets that kind of attention i mean it's huge for me i mean and it was even better because the way me and him compete with each other made us so much better players and like just what we would see i mean we would study the film together we would i mean just the way we would attack the day together was like i mean we were bound to have success just

because we're always around each other but it got to the point where i mean we didn't even have to talk to each other about what we were going to do we just felt it like it was so is it now do you do you try to match his energy or does he try to match your energy because you guys are both pretty high motor i could never i could never talk as much as he does but he no he definitely tries to match my energy on the field i think i got him running to the ball a little bit better than he did i would say jared is one of those people you meet him and it's like and he's like it's like he's known you for 20 years oh for sure like hey wait wait i didn't have we met before yeah that's his who yeah i mean that's his character i mean he's a little bit more mouthy behind closed doors but uh oh yeah he and and some of your offensive

linemen were going over their their trash talking skills for sure meach getting a little daily a little taste of it right Right. He does research, he says, for some of the guys he plays against in the game. So, but yeah, I mean, it sounds like this was just an incredibly fun year for you, but it was awesome. When you look back on that season, what are you going to think about? I just think what we were able to accomplish with the guys that we did. I mean, you look at that team and look at the amount of guys that were transfer guys like myself. I mean, whether it was team and look at the amount of guys that were transfer guys like myself. I mean, whether it was last year or two years or three years that they came into the program,

just the culture that was already established that we were able to just grow on. And, you know, to be able to do what we did there, I mean, I think that's going to be something looked at for a long time. And that thing is special. So you now doing the big job interview. Yeah. What's it like? I mean, it's everything I dreamed of I mean it's really no pressure to me because I mean I've been waiting on this opportunity for so long it's just like it's finally here and I finally get to take advantage of it and I mean being around

people that know ball it's easy for me because I love ball so it's easy just to talk and like go you know have an easy conversation because they kind of get where I come from and kind of get you know what I like to do having the chance to play at the Senior Bowl practice against some of the best playing and some of the best in front of the NFL Scouts is that I mean it seems like you're the kind of competitive guy who that's what you want oh yeah I realize these opportunities just to be you know because you know I the word the best the best is thrown around yeah kind of loosely in the boat you get here oh yeah these are really the best guys out there

and you know just be able to compete with them and show to myself and the thrown around kind of loosely. But you get here, you're like, yeah, these are really the best guys out there. Just to be able to compete with them and show to myself and to show the world, yeah, I'm a great football player too, and I'm willing to go out there and attack it as well. So it's a lot of fun. So if you'd have told that kid who was at the one-day camp, satellite camp, trying to get that Western Michigan offer, that you'd be here, what would he have said? I'd have believed you because this is what I've dreamed of for a long time. I mean that humbly too. It's just something like I have a lot of goals in this game,

and this is something I've had a dream of for a very long time. So, I mean, I haven't stopped chasing it since. I'm still chasing it. I mean, I'm obsessed with it, and I'm not going to stop. Well, good luck, Brayden. I appreciate it. I appreciate you so much. Thank you.

How can you not love that guy? That's a dude who knew he, he was more than what people thought he was coming out of high school. And just watching him play like the back half of the season was incredible. His ACC championship game was unbelievable. And then at the senior bowl last week, if you were watching those practices, there were moments where he was just,

I mean, off the ball when the offensive lineman had barely even flinched. And it's a load. It is a load to deal with. And he's 300 pounds. Like, he's a legit 300 pounds. So your usual, like, gap shooting NFL three, like the Genino Atkins archetype. Those guys are typically two 75 to 80 to 85. Like he's 300 probably could put on a little more. And so a lot of versatility,

lot, lot that Braden Fisk can do at the next level. It'd be fun to watch and fun to keep, keep up with him guys Guys, what a week. Boston College still doesn't have a coach yet. I assumed we would be talking about that in the inevitable dominoes if it does indeed wind up being Bill O'Brien, but we'll have to see what happens. Now, the next time you see this show, barring any emergency shows, of course,

will be Monday morning. So we are switching the schedule. So instead of 8 p.m. Eastern time, we will now be on at 8 a.m. Eastern time. Most shows will still be live and we'll be talking about everything happening in the world of college football, just like we always have been, just a little bit brighter and earlier. So we will talk to you on Monday morning.