Andy & Ari On3 - General manager Ron Rivera has the keys at Cal; will other schools follow suit?

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

In the new age of college football, the title “general manager” means something different on every campus. Several schools have hired GMs and given them something similar to the power of an NFL GM.(0:00-0:22) Intro(0:23-19:44) Ron Rivera's Role at Cal, House Settlement(19:45-20:06) Watch our show on YouTube!(20:07-35:03) How will the house settlement impact spending?(35:04-39:30) Update on the mystery at Ari's House(39:31-43:38) Putting a bow on the GM discussion(43:39-52:06) Jake Garcia signs with Michigan(52:07-53:59) Conclusion We thought that might create a power struggle with coaches, but what happened Monday suggests it also may create a power struggle with athletic directors. Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton retired with four years left on his contract, and it’s clear that newly installed GM Ron Rivera — the former Panthers and Commanders head coach — has assumed the role Knowlton had when it comes to football. Meanwhile, well-traveled quarterback Jake Garcia committed to Michigan. The former four-star recruit has been at Miami, Missouri and East Carolina. Why are the Wolverines dipping into the portal for a QB now?  Watch us LIVE, M-F at 9:30 am et! https://youtube.com/live/GVmPZAVtgq4 Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Want to partner with the show? E-mail [e-mail]

Welcome to Andy and Ari on three very fun, weird off season news topic. Hey Ari, because when we finished the show yesterday, the news was breaking that Jim Nolten was retiring as Cal's athletic director. And you know, it was one of those things where he's not really retiring. He's got four years left on his contract. What happened there? And, you know, if you've been following the Cal thing, you know, that Ron Rivera got hires at GM, he's the former Carolina Panthers, Washington

commanders, head coach, former Cal football player. And you knew there was some pressure on the AD that some of the donors wanted Rivera put in charge. They had the hand-riding the keys movement on the CalGarithm. Well, Ari, I don't know about you, but I kept thinking, oh, these GMs that have more NFL-like powers are going to be a threat to coaches. I didn't realize they're probably a bigger threat to the A.D.s. Yeah, it is an interesting thing because first of all, what the hell is going on in the Bay Area? Like there's a lot happening with the EMS in the Bay Area. I was going to say Andrew Luck has similar powers at Stanford. I actually think they probably based it on that when they hired Ron Rivera.

They saw what Luck was doing and said, OK, let's do something like this. And then because remember the couple board members of Cal's biggest collective said when Rivera was hired, they're not donating anymore to the collective until Nolten's gone. So that's pretty strong statement, but I find it interesting cause, you know, we don't know how this general manager thing is gonna work at a lot of places. Everybody's got a different idea of what that position should be. But like at Cal, Ron Rivera is going to run football. And he's essentially going to be the athletic director for football. They've got co-ADs. They promoted two deputies to co-AD, and they're going to run the other sports and Ron Rivera will run football,

including all the fundraising and everything else. That sounds like an AD to me. Yeah. Interesting. AD for football. Um, yeah. So my first thought process on this, Andy is been, there's no previous, there's no precedent for this working.

Right. And like, if you say they modeled it after the Andrew luck thing, which it seems like they did, cause that was the thought that I had. You're modeling it after something that in theory hasn't even taken off yet or gone off the ground yet. So like, as we go into this new world of what is a GM's job actually, like some are going to be more administrative, some are going to be more personnel based, some are going to be both, but like we don't even know which one works yet.

Nope. And that's what's so interesting about this is everybody's experimenting. You know, I'm kicking myself because yesterday we didn't, we didn't even mention that the house settlement got passed right as our vacation started. And I think a lot of it was because we talked about it so much. We've talked on the show about what happens when the house settlement starts

about the revenue sharing. So our audience understands everything. It wasn't like that was big breaking news to them. They knew that Judge Wilkin was going to approve the settlement eventually. But I think as this starts, as schools now have money to pay players, they're all going to try experimenting with something. And if you have something that's working, like if you're Ohio State and Mark Pantoni is your and Mark Pantoni is

the guy who effectively invented what the, the previous version of the college football GM was. He, he came up as a student, he was a student at Florida when Urban Meyer was the coach there, worked in the recruiting office there, went with Urban Meyer to Ohio State, kind of built that out. And, but that version of the GM is basically your head of recruiting. Because it used to be that you had an assistant coach who was your recruiting coordinator, and that person ran your recruiting. But now you have, you know, you have Mark at Ohio State, you have Marshall Malchow at Oregon, you have people like that who are strictly personnel people, but they, they report to the head football coach. So those places it's working, they're not going to change that. It's the places where things are not working. And, you know, Justin Wilcox is 42 and 50 in eight seasons at Cal. So I don't know if we would call that working. They were 6-6 last year. They're starting quarterback Fernando Mendoza is now the starting quarterback at Indiana. In the spring they lost tailback Jade Knott to Oklahoma. Like I don't know that you'd say it's definitely working there. So

this would be the place you're gonna get an experiment. Yeah I mean I guess if you are at a place that's kind of you know up and down the experimentation makes a lot of sense because you want to try to invent something that's different. I mean, if you look going to be the GM, that title to me has always been an implication that it's related to personnel because that's what the GM and the NFL does, right? Like they make draft picks, they make signings.

They decide- But see that's where it gets weird because it depends because sometimes the GM has power over the coach and sometimes not in the NFL. Like it just depends on the team. Does the GM ever like deal with the NFL in their marketing? Like there's a lot of stuff in this specific instance that doesn't really fall under the purview of what you would normally expect from somebody who's trying to help build a longer. Yeah, this would be more of like a president of football operations. I mean, could you imagine if Mark Pesroni had to like fundraise?

I mean, could you imagine if Mark Pesroni had to like, fundraise? It would change his job considerably. And yeah, that's what's interesting about this Rivera thing is, and he said it, and River, we've got clips of Ron Rivera talking last month, which by the way, if you watch the Ron Rivera press conference in April, you knew this was going to happen. Yeah, should have seen it coming, yeah.

You knew it. So, River, play the clip where Ron Rivera is talking about having his hands in every facet of the program. Joaquin, I will report directly to the chancellor at the University of California. Rich Lions is our chancellor and that's who I'm going to report directly to. I think the biggest thing everybody has to understand is that what I have with Justin is a working relationship. It's an opportunity for he and I to get together and discuss, collaborate, and talk about the things that we need to do as a university to help this football team become what I again believe can be and that is a very

successful program that's going to strive for excellence. I think that the opportunity to work with Justin, I don't know if you guys have been out to practice, had an opportunity to see how he and I work. It's been very cool. I really appreciate the candidness in which he and I sit there and talk during practice, how he and I get together and talk about the things that are going on in meetings and just around you know the facility. I think that's one thing people often understand. This is not about quote-unquote reporting as much as this is about working together and I think that's probably one of the most important things people

have to understand. He and I are here to work together and striving to make this football team one of the best and again the one thing everybody has to understand is I do have the opportunity working with the chancellor to make decisions on what is best for Cal football because my hands are in every facet of Cal football and that's something everybody needs to understand. He kept mentioning what everybody needs to understand. Remember, let's play one more. Let's play the one where he talks about his role with the with the Chancellor. Alright, so to be clear, you'll have an important voice in the situations that I mentioned, but not necessarily be the ultimate authority. Oh, I see what you want me to do is you want me to tell you that I have the ultimate authority.

Well, I am going to tell you I do have that other than the chancellor. That's who I answer to every major decision that he and I will always talk about. I'm not making these things willy-nilly. I'm making these gathering as much information as I can. Okay. And if that means going to the chancellor sitting down saying look, this is something that's very vital, very important, and I'm going to bring it to him. He and I will have that conversation.

And again, I would like to believe that he's going to trust me, which I believe he does because I trust this chancellor. I really truly do, especially when he tells everybody football is important. Football is important. That football is successful because that impacts, okay, not just the university and not just the athletics, but it impacts everybody that's around Cal football. If I were the AD and I heard that on April 22nd, I would have already been planning like opening a vineyard. I just walked out. That would be lovely, wouldn't it? Opening

a vineyard. Yes. Yes. opening a video. Yes. Yeah. So that isn't somebody who's shying away. Like for the first half of that, I was like, am I just closing my eyes and listening to what Jim Nagy was saying when he got hired at Oklahoma? Because it's the into, you want me to say that I'm in charge? Okay, fine, I'm in charge. You know what I mean? Like that's, it reminds me of Aids Rosting in the casino interview, you know? It's just like, I'm the boss, you know? Like, I don't know.

It's so fascinating to me because the thing that I am most driven by and the thing that I'm most interested in somebody who has a predominant NFL background is brought in to do it at the college level because it is a very different job. And I feel like in this business, there is an assumption that if you were an NFL head coach or you did something in the NFL, that you are more qualified to do that same thing in college when it's a very different job description and you're analyzing and breaking down tape from a different type of player. You have to like try to like adjust for puberty and you know who's gonna you know work hard and all these different things that you

get with children that doesn't necessarily really pertain to the NFL and it's just a huge risk not to mention that he's gonna be having meetings with the Chancellor. How many times do you think that like Marshall Malkow had a meeting with Oregon's Chancellor? Like I mean like maybe one when he got hired? Like you know what I mean? Or he just swung by the office? Hey how you doing? Excuse me so like is it good? Like do you want the person who's in charge of your football program to be bogged down by a bunch of minutia like that? I think it just depends on the situation.

Because again, he is doing the job of the AD. He's not doing the job of the personnel person that presumably you have someone underneath you. The idea that somebody from the NFL is more qualified for this, I think, is because they've dealt with salary caps and they've dealt with, you know, a budget before in terms of player acquisition. But I don't know that that necessarily is something you have to have worked in the NFL to have. And I think we're learning that with the programs that have been successful. The GMs we're learning that with the programs that have been successful,

the GMs that they have that are strictly personnel guys are handling that money piece of it just fine, or they brought somebody in who can serve as kind of a cathologist. You know what's different though? In the NFL, you have a pile of money, and that's the pile of money that you have. Like there's no change in that pile. I feel like in college, do we ever

really know, like we always say, if you had X number of dollars to fill out a roster, how would you do it? Who would you pick and who would you spend your money on? How would it all be allocated? But I feel like I don't know, and I know that we get reports and estimations of how much colleges are spending on their rosters, but I'm not even sure if a school, especially like a place that spends a lot, like does Oregon, because they're on the screen, not because I'm picking on them, decide we have X number of dollars and we're not deviating from that, or does it ebb and flow based on

who you get, who you, who wants to come, who's interested, who comes off your board, who flips like there's so many different things that happen in college. and who you get, who wants to come, who's interested, who comes off your board, who flips. There's so many different things that happen in college. I feel like there isn't even a finite number that you have to stick to or adhere to. I think you have to be better on the fly. They want there to be a finite number. I mean, that brings the house settlement into it

where they say, you have this to give to your athletes in your athletic department, and this year it's 20.5 million and the ball Do not understand and you need to explain it to me like I'm 11 because I do not get it. Okay I like I'm I know I'm supposed to be the inform. I'm informing inform me Okay, how does the house settlement? impact if at all

How much you're allowed to spend in NIL still? That is a great question. And that is the question because there's no answer to it yet. We're not going to know until we see it working in practice how it's actually going to work. And if you ask different people, they say different things. There are certain ADs that are that are true believers in the settlement, in the enforcement mechanism they've created, and they will tell you that the cap will be the cap. You have to get quote unquote legitimate NIL, and if you don't, then your deal is going to be nixed by this new arm that is going to enforce this stuff.

There are other people, football coaches, personnel people who are actually on the ground doing this, who will tell you that it is not going to change a thing on that front. They will just go get NIL donors to donate and they will go get the players they want. Now because the health settlement money is coming directly from television ad revenue it's a completely different bucket of money. Well it's coming from not just television it's coming from television ticket sales every athlete everything the athletic department brings in. Yeah. Yes. It's like, yeah, and I think that's how. One is your portfolio and one is your income. Those are two different piles of money.

Like, in the pile of money that is currently being used to buy players is not impacted at all by the house settlement. So it is. It is impacted in a practical sense. Because now, at the schools that wanna win the national title in football, there are donors who are gonna donate.

But at most places, the donors who've been giving to the NIL collective are gonna say, hey, you now have $20.5 million to spend. I donate to the athletic department. You've got my money. That's your money to spend. I think that's gonna be the case at most schools. I don't think that's going to be the case at schools that

want to win the national title. I was going to say, you think that's how it's going to go at Tennessee? No, absolutely not. That's how it's going to go at Georgia and Bama and Ohio state and Oregon. You think that's how it's going to go at A&M? Nope. I don't. I do think it's probably how it's going to go at, at Boston college though.

Okay. Well, Boston college is the team that we, or Cal, unfortunately don't talk about a lot on the show for that reason. So let's stay in the reality of it, of teams that want to compete at the highest level. And I think that this notion that the house settlement is going to even the playing field is complete misnomer. Everybody's going to get the same baseline number to work with and then whoever spends more in NIL is still going to line their pockets, uh, with the players that they want. Like you would think that like Tennessee is going to stop spending on, on the best defensive back in the country because of the house settlement.

There's no way. And then that pile of money is amorphous. It's completely and utterly different every year and maybe every month, depending on who you get and who you lose out on and what the price tag is. I mean, look at what we just saw with Nico. His price tag changed in school. You don't think the price tags are changing? They are changing.

Your price tag changed when you're going through a negotiation for a job. My price tag changed. Of course it changes when different bidders come to the table. And I do think most schools, even the ones at the highest level that want to spend and that are going to spend, I do think they go into a year thinking this is what we want to spend. This is how much we have. But to your point, you can go get more. And like in Ron Rivera's case to bring it back to the Cal situation,

it would be up to him to go find more. Like go find the people who will give you more. Which is crazy because an NFL GM would never have to do that. Right. And fundraising is a pretty taxing thing. Like that's not an easy thing to do. It's the main skill of a college athletic director. It is the most important skill a college athletic director can have. And so being an NFL head coach, something that qualifies you to do something that's very different. Yeah.

Now, Ron Rivera, in his defense, was the de facto GM when he got to Washington. So he's been in the more traditional situation, like Carolina, where Dave Gettleman was his GM and then Marty Herney was his GM. But he's also been in a situation where he was in charge of personnel, which was more like what we saw with Bill Belichick at New England. Although I find it funny that Bill Belichick, who's now a college coach, is the GM of his college team. He brought Michael Lombardi, who's worked with him before,

to be his GM at North Carolina. Yeah. Also, can we air out another thing now? Cause we didn't talk about the house settlement and I've actually been thinking about writing about this, but I want to have a better command on my opinion and I want you to help me formulate it and I might write about it right after we're done here. All right. But I've been reading comments, Andy, from different people in different spaces.

And you alluded to this five minutes ago, where people have all different applications or theories on how the house settlement is going to impede or impact spending on the other on the other branch. And I've read a lot about this enforcement arms from Deloitte, right? And I hear what people are saying about how there's going to be a clearinghouse, and they're going to go. Yep.

And it'll go through this clearinghouse and they will look and see, well, is this a legitimate NIL dealer? Or is this a pay for pay scam? And I have zero faith in the and I read athletic directors and people who are in extreme positions of power right now discussing this. athletic directors and people who are in extreme positions of power right now discussing this. And like my head wants to explode because it doesn't make sense in the sense of like is this going to hold up in court? And I don't understand how we've gone this far into the evolution of college football the last four years with how many court settlements have there been and the people who are in charge of this enforcement arm not recognizing and

understanding or even acknowledging that that's going to be a problem. Like who, like they're and the people who are in charge of this enforcement arm not recognizing and understanding or even acknowledging that that's gonna be a problem. Like who, like they're, like, I don't understand how they, this clearing house is even gonna make it a year unless they approve everything, which defeats the purpose of it even existing to begin with. There you go. They know it's gonna be a problem.

And by the way, if you wanna watch the rest of the show, if you're watching on Twitter right now, join us on YouTube, hop in the chat. It's very lively, much more fun than just watching on Twitter. So come on over here to YouTube. It's in the link below the one you're watching right now. So just click that link and we'll see you on YouTube. Okay, so I think most of the ADs,

even the ones that are saying this will be fine, everything's going to be great, I think they know it's going to be a problem. Here's the deal. The players can't sue because they're bound to arbitration, because they've opted in the settlement, they're taking revenue, share money. If they have a problem with what NIL Go says regarding their deal, they have to submit to our binding arbitration. So they're not gonna sue. The schools aren't gonna deal, they have to submit to our binding arbitration. So they're not going to sue. The schools aren't going to sue. They also have to submit to binding arbitration.

Everybody else can sue, which includes the people who would be paying the money. And so if I want to give somebody a million dollars a year, who's delight to tell me that it's not market value? What I want to pay you is your market value. So I can sue and say, how dare you tell me what I can and can't pay this person? And do you want to know what the argument is going to be Andy in court? Forget the kid. Forget the player. The NCAA or the clearing house, Deloitte is going to tell a business owner how to run their business. Right, right. Here's the other piece of it. A state attorney general could get involved too.

We've already seen that with Tennessee. We saw that when Nico was playing at Tennessee and the NCAA was going after his initial deal and they were investigating that. And basically the Tennessee Attorney General sued the NCAA and got the rules thrown out. Well, there's nothing that would keep a state attorney general from suing over this. And I can think of certain states where there's one dominant school, Tennessee, Louisiana, Ohio, where the attorney general might jump in in a case like that.

I have this house and every day I wake up and Andy, there's something wrong. Okay, wanna hear the newest thing? When I shut my shower off, it doesn't shut off all the way. Like there's still drippage now. I can't get the water. It's running hot.

So we have a plumber coming or we had a plumber come yesterday and hopefully it's just a, you know, cart cartridge. Is that what's in there? I don't know. However, I'm gonna get scammed in this plumbing deal that they're gonna do today. Sounds like a gasket.

You got a gasket problem somewhere. Gasket, cartridge, stem, whatever it is, it's gonna be a thousand dollars. So anyway, they came yesterday and I got to talking to the plumber. And this is, I know it sounds like a tangent, but I'm gonna wrap it around, okay? And this plumber walked through my office and he goes,

oh wow, you like college football. And then we got to talking about college football. And he's a huge Texas fan come to find out this is one of the largest plumbing chains in the state of Texas and this guy is the owner of the company and it has a million different branches and he's just a blue collar genius rich guy who expanded his business those people who I talk about. Huge Texas fan and apparently somebody who donates heavily both to the athletic department and their NIL fund. Okay. If this, I'm not going to, and I'm not going to tell you what

the name of the business is, but if this person decides I want to pay Ryan Wingo a million dollars so I can put his face on the side of all of my plumbing vans, whether he puts his face on the side of all of my plumbing vans Whether he puts his face on the on the plumbing van or not Are you telling me that the Deloitte clearinghouse is gonna tell this plumbing millionaire? That he can't pay Ryan Wingo forget Ryan Wingo Right. Yeah, you're infringing business owner how to run their business Whether or not you think it's disingenuous isn't up for you to decide.

Maybe he's just a bad business. You don't get to tell people how to spend their money. This is insane. This whole thing of like, we're going to enforce this. Am I the only one who thinks this is absolutely insane? No, most of the people in college football feel the same way you do. Okay, so if I wrote a column saying

that this clearing house is insane, that's just like me saying that you need air to breathe, right? Basically, but I do think there are people in the leadership structure who either believe this is going to work or just want it to work so bad because the other option is you go back to what they're doing now, which is no real rules. And I, you know, at this point, they've gone no real rules for four years. Like it's fine. They keep, they keep putting games on and TV keeps paying more for them. People keep showing up.

Vance is always in here making good points. I love Vance. The guy's always in here, you know, giving us heat. Imagine Deloitte telling Phil Knight how to do business. Exactly. Who is Deloitte to tell Phil Knight how to spend, like if he wanted to like employ the best, and like by the way, with Nike,

that money actually would probably be real if you actually used the athletes who came to Oregon in Nike campaigns. So I don't know if it's the greatest example. You might be easier to tell a plumber who has a bunch of money not to do it than you would be somebody who actually runs a business that employs athletes to market their product.

But like, it doesn't matter what the scale is, you can go to Phil Knight or you can go to the plumber. It is the business owner's prerogative to allocate their own money the way that they view is is necessary And if he thinks that Ryan Wingo is worth a million dollars to tweet about hey You know your if your gasket in your shower is broken even though your house is only three years old And you just have problems every week and you want to go have it fixed then then, you know go use ex plumbing

You know services. Here's the phone number. That's his prerogative. It's like, I feel like it's so funny. We're so aimed at the actual athlete and making sure that they don't take advantage of the system that we're forgetting that there's business owners that can spend their money however they want. It's America.

There's no we, it's the people who were defendants in the house case, which were the ACC, SEC, Big 12, Big 10, and the PAC 12, essentially trying to recreate the NCAA. The NCAA's enforcement arm has been neutered, essentially. These rules have been declared on the violations of the Sherman Act. So they're making new rules within the structure

of the settlement, which is not a decided court case. There's no court verdict here. This was a settlement. So it's not precedent. is that they want they'll believe this and then reality is going to happen everybody's been telling them what's going to happen and what you just said since this idea bubbled up a few years ago people have said this is what will happen and it is what's going to happen here's the other possibility so in terms of deciding what fair market value is, and I'm using air quotes there, this Deloitte mechanism was essentially an algorithm, is going to look at various deals and decide does this fit within the normal parameters?

What happens if every school submits all of their new deals and they all look the same but they don't fit the quote-unquote normal parameters that the algorithm has now? The algorithm is going to adjust because if a thousand deals come in that all look the same, that's the market. Well here's the other thing too, and this is a bad math podcast, but I'm very interested on how they actually programmed or set the algorithm to operate. Because if you're trying to figure out what fair market value is for an athlete, what did fair market value be compared to pro athletes that aren't getting paid a ton of money? Like how do you even decide what fair market value is? That's what they're using is they're using pro athlete deals. They have data. So then there's

going to be pro athlete deals are very lucrative. How much do you think Aaron Rodgers got from State Farm? Well certain pro athlete deals. Yes, Aaron Rodgers State Farm deal is very lucrative, but what does like an offensive lineman and Buffalo get from a car dealership? It's probably not that big of a deal. You mean Buffalo Bills? Yeah Yeah, I don't know but I that then also to who do you thinks more marketable the offensive lineman for the Buffalo Bills or the five-star receiver from Florida Correct, but here's the deal.

NIL pay has gone based on football value, not on marketability. So you wanna pay your left tackle. So you're gonna pay your left tackle, even if he's not necessarily that marketable. So that's where you're gonna run into this issue. But again, I'm with you. I just don't think they're going to be able to tell people how to spend their money. I

don't think they're going to get away with that. Yeah, I just so here's the thing and I know business Genie. I don't know anything but it what is the there's only one solution that we've ever come up with where it's like, this is how we can stop this from happening. This is how we can end the wild, wild west. Yeah. And that's to make them employees, right?

Or if you could somehow collectively bargain with them without making them employees, if you'd have them be gig employees or contractors, and you could collectively bargain with them, which I don't know if you could do that. Yes. But collective bargaining is the way where the players involved agree to this. And therefore, if they were to take you to court, the court would just say, will you agree to this and throw it out?

Okay. Lastly, if you collectively bargain, what is the stop you from taking NIL deals? Oh, nothing. I think what we're trying to get to the bottom of is how can we make NIL not so crazy? And I don't know that there's a solution to that problem. The thing is if you collectively bargain, you can have very strict penalties for it's the same reason like because people say well why doesn't Jerry Jones just supplement Dak Prescott's pay with an NIL deal because Jerry Jones would lose draft picks if he did that yeah so if you have a collective bargain agreement you can have severe severe penalties. And you can penalize actual schools and you can penalize...

And the athletes, yeah. And nobody would feel bad for anybody because they agreed to it. Right. And like the only reason why rules... Josh Pate tweeted this yesterday, and I thought it was funny because it's so obvious, but it's funny to read out loud. Of like the only point in having rules is if people are afraid to break them. So understand, too, that we live in this world of college football, and you know what's going to happen, right? If that ever comes into play, and they actually

do collectively bargain, and they have these stringent rules, the return on that. You think they won't? and they actually do collectively bargain and they have these stringent rules. You think they won't? Maybe, maybe, but the thing is, if you get caught with the bag man in a CBA situation, you can severely punish. Whereas in this situation you can't. Or you couldn't severely punish in the old days? No, not anybody who was actually involved.

No, I'm saying like... By the time you figured it out, it would be too late. In 20... I covered a tattoo scandal where people sold their own possessions that their careers got derailed from. People still did it when you were punished. Go back to 2010. People still did it when you could when you were punished. Go back to 2010. People still. Yeah, I don't it's and that wasn't even true money that was selling their own stuff.

Imagine if somebody you don't think Cam Newton would have taken that money if there was a collective bargaining agreement. Well, I think Cam Newton would have been paid a lot more money if there was a collective bargaining agreement. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I think, I think. Maybe they will be getting so much money it won't be worth risking at that point, but. Right, and again, like Cam Newton,

nothing was ever proven, but if any of the numbers thrown out around Cam Newton were true, it was the biggest bargain in the history of sports. Yeah. Cause that's the thing, the bag man money is chump change compared to all of this. Chump change. What were we talking about with Cam Newton? 180 grand, 200 grand, something like that? I think it was 180,000, yeah.

Okay, that was the rumor. What was Cam Newton worth to Auburn that year? 15 million? 20 million? Yeah, I was going to say 10 million. Come on! Let's be real. Let's let's think about these back then. That was a lot. I mean, that was a lot of money to just get. Well, sure, but it wasn't what he was worth. No, I know. I'm just saying like when you thought about it, because back in the day, like in 2010, if somebody kicked somebody 2500 bucks, that was a big deal. Yeah, but that's the point.

The bag man is such chump change. It may not be worth the risk. Yeah. Cause like, if you bring the bag man back and the bag man hands somebody 10 grand, who's already making 600 grand, he's gonna be like, I'm really not gonna risk my career over this, sir. I think I would take 10 G's if I'm in an honorable.

Okay, somebody take the 10 grand. Somebody would. But if it meant that you got caught and you'd never play again, I think you'd just take your 600 grand and be happy with it. Yeah. I just think that there are ways of doing it of like, hey, come to the school, go on an official visit, all of a sudden Billy Bob at the night steakhouse says, hey, yeah, come here. We'll also kick you $15,000 a week in your locker. And they might still do that. But I don't know that it'd be worth the risk if you're already making quite a bit more. Now, $15,000 a week, we're talking, that adds up to some serious money. Yeah, or 10,000 a week, I don't know. Anyway, you can find a way to, they've been funneling money to players.

10,000 a week is half a million dollars a year. Bagman ain't paying half a million dollars. That's the thing. The bagman doesn't have that much money. Yeah. And that's the difference. It's funny how everybody wants the bag. We romanticize the bag man.

The bag man was broke. Corporate money is the real money. Yeah. Like, now you got that grocery store money. You got that plumber money. You got that Nike money. State farm money. Exactly.

Like, that's the real money. The bag man was broke. Yeah. I just think everybody wants the bag man back. I think everybody loved the bag man. The blue song before your secret medium money, you know what I mean? Exactly. Did we solve the mystery yesterday? The mystery wasn't solved, right?

Oh, I got a lot of suggestions of people who said that if I sent a message to the girls about the underwear and Brittany didn't, that they might be embarrassed to acknowledge to me that it was their underwear. Aren't you embarrassed about that? Everybody wears underwear. No, I know. Unless you don't. Yeah, I don't know. I know these girls very well though. It wasn't that

bizarre. Although I did get a few texts from their husbands saying, why are you texting my wife about underwear? Like in like a funny way. But like it is. Oh, by the way, if you didn't listen to yesterday's show, go back and listen to the end of yesterday's show. There was a mystery at Ari's house. A pair of thong panties mysteriously showed up in the wash and they did not belong to Ari's wife. Well, the good news too, I didn't say yesterday on the show. Whole story unspooled.

Is we had a really, really great weekend as a family for Father's Day and like she's really into me right now. So like there's no, there's no turbulence in the household but she she likes me good for sure. Yeah what if the the answer to the mystery was it was just mine? Is that what you want? Well I mean you have lost some weight so you might be able to fit into a medium now. Yeah a medium thong would be an I'll try him on. I'll let you know. Actually, I threw him away.

Um, maybe, maybe I shouldn't have thrown them away. I should have kept them for evidence, but I have a picture. I have an image. All right. I was going to say you got a plastic bag, you know, you handle them with tongs. So, all right.

Hold on a second. I got it. You know, you'd spam for a second, but I have the picture I'm going to send it to river. He can show everybody what the panties look like If they're yours How did we not show this yesterday? What are we doing here?

If these are yours, please just there's a $500 reward Oh I cannot wait to see this now. Now. I'm just there. How did we not show this yesterday on the screen? Hold on, I... Sing like these eyes for me for a second. These eyes cry every night for you. These eyes have seen a lot of love and then... Okay, so you know what happened?

My brother came over to Scottsdale, Arizona. What? If you save an image that you took a week ago? It automatically goes back to the point in time that it's time stamped So it doesn't show up like right that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of mine I'm that is how that is how iPhones work. Yes, but like I want it to be at the top. All right copy undies paste Here we go. All right, I got it.

This is such good pot right here. This is the underwear. We do have a- By the way, they're not, they've been worn, they're not. We do have another football story to talk about, by the way, which we will get to. I just, I don't know if they're there, but.

The text messages come through. I'm not gonna look at it. I wanna see it when it's on screen, when the audience can see it too. Yeah. I mean, these aren't new panties. They've been through the ringer. I don't know. Whoever wore them wore the hell out of them. Oh no. Oh my lord. Oh, why are these things not showing? There they are! there they are. They are and I guess there's a cute little slit. You know right here. That's how she knew they were. Oh boy yeah OK.

A notch there's a little there you go like on the back up by the tailbone. There's like three little threads that yeah, it's sexy you know. Who's ever they are. Those are mine says those are his and he'll take the $500 reward done. OK, let's go back to the next thing All right back to actual football

But we'll put a poll on the the GM discussion because we veered into the house settlement thing But that was a discussion we didn't have anyway, but You know, like we talked about Jim Nagy at Oklahoma. I think that's a different situation Not for Brent Venables. I do think Brent Venables and Jim Nagy, that relationship, we'll see how that goes depending on whether Oklahoma wins or not. But like Jokestick Leone, the athletic director at Oklahoma, I don't think he needs to worry about Jim Nagy at all. Whereas if you're a weaker AD, you probably do need to worry about the GM. But if you're a strong coach, strong AD, you don't have to worry about it at all. Uh, Reverend, do you have the Curry Smart clip from

the SEC spring meetings where he got asked about the GM? Let's play Curry Smart. Do they ever ask you who your general manager is and what goes into structuring your organization? She did not have to have. No, no way. No way. Ask me who the general manager is. We introduce everybody to everybody in the organization and we have people that fill that role and maybe three, four people, including myself. But, um, we're very clear in the roles of our staff members and what they do. They learn that throughout the recruiting process and we utilize those.

But that the only part you ask. Just about how you structure why you did you start to have that title? We do have that. I mean, we do have that. We have people that do that. What does the general manager do in your mind? They very traditional. I agree.

So we have people that do various things instead of, instead of pinpointing the general manager, because I think if I see everybody, every coach, whether general manager does, they all do something different. So, I mean, I can't figure out what you define it as. Cause when you asked me, what does the general manager, I only know what you think it does. Cause in NFL, they do different than what they do at our level. Translation. I roll my program with an iron fist.

It doesn't matter if somebody has a general manager title. Yeah. Uh, it's also too, like, I wonder like moving forward, if everyone's going to It doesn't matter if somebody has a general manager title. Yeah. It's also too, like I wonder like moving forward, if everyone's gonna have a general manager in 20, 20, 35, and you have to like roll them out based on how successful your coach already is. Like there's like a grandfather in program. It's like Georgia might be the last one

to actually have like a real general manager because they have one, his name is Kirby Smart. Yes. And like the more successful your program currently is, the longer it's going to take to get to that. And then like, maybe when Kirby Smart retires or moves on or whatever, you know, then Georgia will institute one before they hire their next coach, and then everybody will have one. But it almost feels like, like, you know, who you don't talk about this a lot with are the teams that are winning already a lot. Like, you know, it's the teams that like, I mean, like, you know, who you don't talk about this a lot with are the teams that are winning already a lot. Like, you know, it's the teams that like, I mean, hell, hey, Ryan,

yeah, hey, Ryan day, who do you want to restructure your front office? No, why? Why would you change anything? No, so but like, that's what's so interesting about Oklahoma to me. It's like Oklahoma was a tradition is a traditionally dominant program who is undergoing a pretty drastic shift. During a time in which it's down and they have a coach that isn't Kirby smart and whether it works there or not, it's going to be fascinating because that might be the foundation of the future for every program that is of Oklahoma stature that runs into a tough few years, you know. But like if Lincoln Riley were still at Oklahoma and their last three years mirrored the previous three years, they wouldn't have a GM right now. Now, well, and USC is in the GM, by the way, speaking of Lincoln Riley. Yeah, and we don't know that those three years would have gone with what we know about Lincoln Riley now. But I'm saying if Oklahoma would have just kept humming

and Lincoln Riley never would have left and Caleb was there and one of Heisman there and all the things that we knew about Oklahoma were still true, would this have happened? No, of course not. People don't change things that aren't broken. Right. So we'll find out what happens next at Cal. Does Ron Rivera, I mean the thing is like they lost Jade Knot when Ron Rivera was the GM already. So it's not like he's a cure-all, but right now it's very clear what his role is.

Yeah. So we'll find out but. Jay Knotts at Oklahoma. You know, just everything's one big circle in this sport. Everything connects. Exactly. Jim Nagy got Jay Knotts. So there you go. In other news, we have a quarterback commitment to the portal, which very strange timing for that. Jake Garcia, former four star recruit, was at Miami, was at Missouri, was at East Carolina last year.

He is now going to Michigan, which makes me wonder what is the deal now in Michigan's quarterback room, because obviously we know that Bryce Underwood is probably the starter. We talked to Chris Ballas about that last week. It was originally gonna be Mikey Keen probably until Underwood was ready. Keen got hurt. Underwood was the guy through spring practice. It looks like Underwood is the guy.

This makes you wonder like, are Keen or Davis Warren maybe not gonna be ready at the beginning of the season and Michigan needs a backup right now. Yeah, it's an interesting addition because I don't think that anybody's under the illusion that Garcia is going to play, right? Like that's not, so it's a depth play.

Or come in to start, right? Exactly, exactly. So so it's a depth. We'll come in to start, right? Exactly, exactly. So if it's a depth play, why do they need depth if Mikey Keene is healthy? Yeah, so it might be that there's been a setback or there's been some other issues, but that is the question. And I mean, does that change anything

about how you feel about Michigan? Because I don't know for me, Ari, I'm just looking at it being cautiously optimistic that with Underwood, they're going to have a more functional passing offense. As we talked about with Chris Ballas last week, they don't really have a lot of receivers that we know about right now that wow you, now there may be some young guys that step in and become that,

but they don't bring back a ton in the receiving core that scares you. Yeah, I mean the one thing that I think is kind of interesting about this more than anything is that like Jake Garcia was once a top 50 recruit. And I know that he has been to what three schools now, and this is his fourth. Um, so I think a lot of people will punt on the notion that like this guy can play at a high level.

Um, but I wonder if this too is just like a nice insurance policy depth play with some, what Michigan views of some upside where you know you have somebody who might be able to take some snaps if you get to that point but I don't know this changes anything like my whole thought process with Michigan is I can't wait to see Underwood play then Michigan's offense will go with their freshman like is that is that where are? That's where I am. Oh yeah, that's exactly where I am. And the thing is like,

I suspect they're gonna be able to run the ball very well, which I think should take some pressure off Underwood and should take some pressure off those receivers because they're gonna get some one-on-one matchups on the outside because if you're defending Michigan, you're dealing with a bunch of heavy sets, they're still gonna be able to smash you up front. They're gonna have good backs.

So I do think with someone who is more dynamic at quarterback, and you know, that was what Chris Ballas said, everything we heard about Bryce Underwood through his recruitment is he has incredible arm talent. That's not what Michigan had last year. So if they are similar in terms of how they can run the ball to last year, that should make life pretty easy for Underwood in terms of getting started. And like, you don't have to turn him into Superman right off the bat. He just has to be able to complete some passes early and then get comfortable and then you start unleashing all that he can do.

Yeah, also too, we have some Michigan fans on the chat and I actually had this thought before that they brought this up. But like, is Jake Garcia already better than the quarterbacks that had on the roster a year ago? I don't know. He lost his job at East Carolina. Katen Hauser took over mid-season last year, so I don't know that he's better than what they had, but clearly they they feel like he gives them depth and helps them. It's a weird thing. And I know you've talked about this before.

You've got this thing where if somebody's been on high level recruit, you just will not let it go. And the possibility is always there that they'll suddenly shine. I think after three schools, you kind of know where somebody is. Yeah, you're probably right. For me, I get fixated on high level recruits

because high level recruits have high level traits. And I'm always like a big traits guy. You don't get to be a top 50 player or top 50, you know, overall player, top 100 or whatever he ended up. I know that his rankings changed a lot during but, you know, he was a big get when Miami got him by not having a good arm and good physical traits. him by not having a good arm and good physical traits. So I always wonder, I mean, like the thing is, like, if the man can't play at all, which his resume would show that he can't, then like, what's Michigan doing? Right? Just adding a body. Well, it sounds like they may need to if there's an issue. But yeah, so Jake Garcia, by the way, if the name sounds familiar to you from the recruiting process, he's the one who in 2020, his parents legally separated so he could transfer

to play at a school in Georgia. And I think- Was he committed to Georgia at one point, or am I imagining that? I cannot remember if he was committed to Georgia at any point. I thought Miami was the first school he committed to. His recruitment was very heavily covered and he was, I believe he was from California. He went to one school in Georgia and then he was going to go to another school in Georgia and that's where that came from. But it was one of those stories like, hey, that's kind of weird. Like the parents are legally separating what and it was it was to. Oh, he's committed to USC not Georgia. Oh, it was USC. Okay. Yeah, I knew that's what it was somewhere else because it was a big deal when he when he flipped I thought to Miami. Yeah. Yeah. But so it's one of those things that like what a strange I kind of want to

Have Jake Garcia on the show and just talk about his journey through college football I love what a strange journey like when you get when you lose the job at East Carolina last year like If somebody tells you you're gonna play for Michigan next year, you'd be like, what are you nuts? Well, just so you know, offer list for Jake Garcia out of high school was Georgia, Florida, LSU, USC, Florida State, Tennessee. Oh, everybody wanted the guy. Alabama, Miami, Texas.

So he, I mean, like everybody liked it. So. Yeah. this. Um, so he, he, I mean, like everybody liked it. So, yeah, you know, and from a quarterback perspective, that means you had something in the tank. I don't know if it's all gone or what goes on. The thing that I think is interesting is when everybody like Nick Saban offered this man. Okay. So if everybody, including Nick Saban thought he was good enough to come to their school, I am always very shocked when they can't thrive at East Carolina. That's like, that's like,

not kind of wrong. And maybe something else went off the rails there. Well, usually it may be that you have to have to get an Alabama offer would equate to you being a pretty high level, you know, lower tier college quarterback. But at quarterback, the traits that, that gets you the offer don't necessarily make you a star in college. When, when you jump up a level, the game goes faster, it gets more difficult. And so sometimes the, the quarterbacks just don't, they can't jump that level. And you see it when from College Pro 2. So that maybe

would happen here, but we'll see. And this is, yeah, like, like you said, this is a guy who had elite traits coming out of high school, but it hasn't worked out for him in college. But now he is at a premier program. And who knows, and who knows maybe maybe he has to step in at some point so we'll find out but Ari it's been quite a fun discussion we got to see the the panties in question so what a day maybe the mystery will get solved maybe it won't we were gonna talk about DNA tested I oh that's not Now we're getting too far. Now it's just gross. I don't want to see any black light. None of that. It was funny before. Let's not...

The line's right there. I want to be forensically cleared. That's all. Scott in the chat, you washed them. So no. Oh, we did wash them. That's right. We're taking them out of the dryer.

Yeah. So yeah, it's too late. You've already scrubbed the evidence clumped. Yeah. We're going to have to get the DNA tested. We're going to have to get the DNA tested. We're going to have to get the DNA tested. We're going to have to get the DNA tested.

We're going to have to get the DNA tested. We're going to have to get the DNA tested. We're going to have to get the DNA tested. We're going to have to get the DNA tested. We're going to have to get the DNA tested. So no, we did watch them. That's right. It's out of the dryer Yep, so yeah, it's too late. You've already you've already Scrubbed the evidence. I didn't wash them. She washed. Let's be let's be clear about that. But yes, that's true Well We were gonna talk about my experience going to a couple camps on on vacation we will do that on Wednesday show because Because that was a very interesting experience and good to kind of put myself in the shoes of some of these parents that we have to deal with quite a bit, and the players. And there's a lot of pressure, a lot of pressure on some of these guys,

these young high school guys. So we'll talk about that. And who knows? Maybe there will be another break in the case, even though Ari has erased all the evidence. Yeah, we'll find out. We'll probably stop talking about it at some point, but because I just kind of resigned myself to not being able to ever figure it out and just like moving on happily in my marriage without bringing it up again.

But it is a funny right up until you said DNA tests. Yeah, maybe that got real. Maybe that's where it ends. Yeah. We'll talk to you tomorrow.