Andy & Ari On3 - How Bruce Pearl's success coach SINKS Jeremy Pruitt's $100 million lawsuit

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

Bring home the W with the ultimate tailgate package. The Burger Box from Whataburger is perfect for every occasion. It comes with 10 single or double burgers (with or without cheese), your pick of sauces and all the fixings (which you can customize — did someone say grilled jalapeños?). Keep it basic or go wild, it’ll be a slam dunk. Order online from April 4-7 and earn double reward points.(0:00-11:32) Intro: Jeremy Pruitt suing NCAA(11:33-13:14) Whataburger(13:15-19:27) Recapping Thursday's Games(19:28-22:16) Previewing Tonight's Games(22:17-29:30) What will Kevin Willard do?(29:31-30:53) Kent State coach placed on leave(30:54-48:07) How attractive is the Stanford job?(48:08-55:05) On campus CFP games in the Quarterfinals?(55:06-58:30) TV Deals for NCAA instead of Conferences?(58:31-1:07:22) Speculation in May? (1:07:23-1:08:12) ConclusionOn Thursday, former Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt sued the NCAA for $100 million. One particular coach working Friday in the NCAA Tournament is probably the NCAA's best defense in the lawsuit. Auburn coach Bruce Pearl faced a similar situation and re-emerged and got a new job even before his NCAA penalties expired. One coach was good at Tennessee and one coach wasn't. That's the difference. Half the Elite Eight is set, and we’ve got four incredible games on Friday. On Thursday, Duke survived a scare from Arizona with an all-timer from freshman Cooper Flagg. The Blue Devils move on to face Alabama, which set an NCAA Tournament record for three-pointers made. Florida wore out Maryland, and the top-seeded Gators will face Texas Tech, which stormed back from a huge deficit to force overtime and then beat Arkansas in the extra period. Friday, we’ve got Kentucky-Tennessee, Ole Miss-Michigan State, Michigan-Auburn and Purdue-Houston. We’re also on Kevin Willard watch. Will he take the Villanova job or stay at Maryland? Meanwhile, college football news keeps coming. Kent State coach Kenni Burns was placed on administrative leave. Next, Andy and Ari answer your questions, including… How good is the Stanford job? Is it possible the College Football Playoff quarterfinals could move to campus? Watch us LIVE, M-F, on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/live/OK_9FpK_CSs Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Annie and Ari on three. Ari will be by later to help answer questions from you. I am here now and I am laughing because we have a thumbnail that has the Jeremy Pruitt in the checkerboard Babushka photo because Jeremy Pruitt made news Thursday and did my favorite thing that you can do during the NCAA tournament gave me a football basketball crossover story. I love that I love. When the worlds of college football in the worlds of college basketball collide during the NCAA tournament because this is a great tournament. The games last night were fantastic. Duke Arizona was awesome. Texas Tech, Arkansas was amazing. Texas Tech Arkansas was amazing. Texas

Tech was down huge, came back, beats Arkansas. Texas Tech going to play Florida in the Elite Eight in San Francisco on Saturday. Duke and Alabama in the Elite Eight in Newark on Saturday. And we've got a bunch of great games tonight. We've got Kentucky and Tennessee in the sweet 16 in Indianapolis. That is followed by Purdue and Houston. We've also got Ole Miss and Michigan State, the toughest team versus the team that got really mad about being called frauds because they're not frauds. And then we got Michigan and Auburn in Atlanta for a spot in the elite eight. Now, why is Auburn in Atlanta for a spot in the Elite 8.

Now why is Auburn important to the college football story I was talking about the Jeremy Pruitt $100 million lawsuit against the NCAA? Because Auburn coach Bruce Pearl is the perfect defense against Jeremy Pruitt's $100 million lawsuit against the NCAA. So we'll back up and I'll give you a little background on the whole thing and then I'll explain why Bruce Pearl is the ultimate defense. And you know me, never particularly a fan of the NCAA

will tell you when I think the NCAA is gonna lose a lawsuit which is most of the time. I think they're okay in this one, I do. So Jeremy Pruitt is suing the $100 million figure is basically what his attorneys believe he would have made over a coaching lifetime had he not been hit with these NCAA penalties. They are concerned that he may never get another job again

in the coaching world. And I get it. It's a very stiff penalty. You received a six year show cause. And for those who are in, in, in CA parlance, a show cause is you hire this person. You have to go before the committee on infractions and show cause as to why you should be allowed to, to have them on your staff and do their punishments get mitigated, do they get extended? Jeremy Pruitt

attached to his show cause has a one year suspension. So he's pretty tough to hire right now. He's in the middle of a six year show cause that was handed out in 2023. And his attorneys argue that, Hey, the stuff that they said he did, which was improper benefits, payments to players, is not against the rules in the NCAA anymore. And they're right. It's not. Now, their timeline's a little off. They said that by the time he was punished in 2023, what he was accused of wasn't against

the rules anymore. That wasn't quite true. It was actually 2024, when ironically the Tennessee attorney general sued the NCAA because the NCAA was trying to come after Nico Iamaljava's deal. That's when the rules got defanged. So it wasn't quite what they said. But here's the thing about that lawsuit. It's probably not got a chance because again, the NCAA attorneys, they are the Washington generals of the legal profession. They get their asses whooped constantly, but they got a shot here. And here's what they do. They print out Bruce Pearl's Wikipedia page and they hand it to the judge. Or if they want to do this quickly, which I realize the legal system does not move that quickly, they just say, hey, judge, watch the Michigan Auburn Sweet 16 game tonight and you will see a guy

who, like Jeremy Pruitt, was fired during the throws of an NCAA investigation by the University of Tennessee, who received a multi-year show cause that included a fairly stiff penalty on top of it. Who is still coaching or is coaching again and making millions of dollars to coach? and making millions of dollars to coach. What is the difference between what Bruce Pearl did at Tennessee and what Jeremy Pruitt did at Tennessee? I'm not talking about what the NCAA punished them for. Bruce Pearl, remember, lied to NCAA investigators about whether Aaron Kraft was at an event as a recruit aircraft, the future Ohio State point guard, the NCAA incorrectly labeled that event a barbecue. It was actually a cookout,

but that's neither here nor there. Bruce Pearl did lie to them. So he got punished for that. The reason Bruce Pearl is coaching now and this punishment did not end his career is Bruce Pearl's a really good basketball coach. At Tennessee, Bruce Pearl was either the best coach Tennessee has ever had or he's the best one since Ray Mears. Either way, that's really good. Auburn hired Bruce Pearl

before his show cause even ran out. And again, I said he had a pretty significant penalty attached to that show cause. He was not allowed to recruit at all. He was hired with four months to go on his show cause and Auburn's like, just don't recruit, it's okay. We want you coaching. And what has Bruce Pearl done since he's gotten to Auburn? He's been the best basketball coach

that Auburn has ever had. He's made it to a final four. He has taken an arena that was built in part with an eye on football tailgating, like what role it could play in football tailgating, turned it into one of the most feared venues in college basketball. It's pretty incredible what Bruce Pearl has done. And he's done it because he's really good at coaching basketball.

So where does Jeremy Pruitt come into this? Well, the problem for Jeremy Pruitt is as a head coach at Tennessee, one very good. He was 16 and 18 overall. That's the problem. He was 16 and 18 overall. That's the problem. If you break rules and you're really good, you get hired again. Also, another thing that's hampering Jeremy Pruitt here is he didn't treat the people at

Tennessee when he worked there or Georgia when he worked there or Florida State when he worked there particularly well and so they were more than happy to throw him under the bus when the time came. I totally agree with Jeremy Pruitt's attorneys in this lawsuit when they say that Tennessee made him a scapegoat, they made him the Patsy, they made him the fall guy, they absolutely did because they hated him. They were more than happy to pay the NCAA in a fine most of what they would have paid Jeremy Pruitt in a buyout because they didn't want to give him the money. So that's what happened. Now, here's the other thing. No one is stopping an NFL team from paying Jeremy Pruitt to coach football.

No one is stopping ESPN from hiring Jeremy Pruitt to talk about football. That's what Bruce Pearl did when he was on his show cause. He was on his show cause. He was on his show cause. hiring Jeremy Pruitt to talk about football. That's what Bruce Pearl did when he was on his show cause. He worked for ESPN talking about basketball and he was really good at it. You get, you sensing a pattern here?

Jeremy Pruitt of course has television experiences in Dennis in the chat points out. course has television experiences in Dennis in the chat points out. The defensive coordinator Hoover high on MTV's two a days. Remember, there's that scene where he doesn't know what asparagus is. He claims he did know that was all for the cameras and I I kind of believe him on that too. But I don't believe he has much of a chance in this lawsuit. Because. Again. I don't believe he has much of a chance in this lawsuit. Because again, all the NCAA's attorneys have to do is point

to Bruce Pearl. A guy who got fired during an investigation by Tennessee got a lengthy show cause and his sitting there making millions coaching right now. But he was good at it. Jeremy Pruitt is a good defensive coordinator was a not good head coach. Jeremy Pruitt can probably get a job as a defensive coordinator. And even with this penalty, this one year suspension, if somebody wants to hire him as their DC, maybe they've got an older DC who's going to retire.

You hire Jeremy Pruitt, you park him as an analyst for a year to serve the suspension. And then you have him run your defense next year. This is all stuff you can do right now. But. Jeremy Pruitt's results at Tennessee. And the way he treated people over the course of his career. Have put him where he is right now. That has put him in that situation, not the NCAA. There are avenues where he could be making money right now, either coaching football or talking about football.

But nobody wanted to hire. People like Bruce Pearl. He's had his issues for sure. But people like him. He's good on TV and he's really, really freaking good at coaching basketball. So that's the NCAA's best defense. And who knows? I mean, this might be the only court case the NCAA wins for like 20 years. So we'll see what they do, but I don't actually disagree with a lot of the points that Jeremy Pruitt made and his attorneys made. Like the standard of evidence in those NCAA hearings,

very low. The fact that they never seem to follow precedent, the fact that it all seems engineered to arrive at an outcome. That's it. Vance in the chat. Wouldn't Jim Tressel have an even better case? I think he might Vance. You might be right. That's right. Jim Trestle chased off at Ohio State, gets a show

cause from the NCAA, becomes the president of Youngstown State University and now the Lieutenant Governor of Ohio. So yes, if people like you enough, there are plenty of avenues for employment out there. That might be Jeremy Pruitt's problem. All right guys, we gotta talk about this basketball. If you're watching on Twitter, we're cutting that stream off. Come join us on the On3Sports YouTube page. We'll see you there. If you're listening to podcasts

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points order now and just earn deliciousness. Bring home the W with water burger. Alright, let's talk hoops. This was a fun night of games and on Thursday night, Alabama just bombing away from three point land, setting an NCAA tournament record for three pointers made in a game. They hit 25 of 52.

They beat BYU 113 to 88. You rarely see a college basketball game. Go over 200 points total. You saw it. I believe I don't have the final score of the Duke Arizona game in front of you, but I believe the two games in Newark total went over 400 points. I'm bad at math with we had 100. We had 193 in the Duke Alabama game. We had again making me do math here.

We had 201. Now we didn't go over 400. We were so close. Did not go over 400 for both games. But I think the rims in Newark are pretty forgiving. I think that's what we can take from this. Now what we can also take from this is BYU, their coach knew that stylistically Alabama

was gonna be a terrible matchup for them. And so they they went under every ball screen. I know I'm getting a little exito happy with basketball for a football crowd, but that's pretty simple. I mean, if you've played pick up hoops, you know, you've got your guy at usually at the top of the key. He's dribbling. Somebody comes up and sets a pick on his defender, you have to decide as the defense what you're going to do, are you going to switch so that the other person comes in and guards the ball handler? Or are you going to stay under that screen? And then that way you

protect the lane from somebody who could be rolling into the lane and you keep them out of the paint. BYU said, look, Alabama, the way NATO it's works. He wants dunks or layups. He wants three pointers, either one. Those are the only options. Not a lot of mid range jumpers. And they said, we're going to keep them out of the paint because they make 60% of their shots from two point range.

And we're going to force them to beat us from three. And by God did the Alabama ever beat us from three and by God did Alabama ever beat them from three. Alabama just buried them. Meanwhile, Duke, Cooper flag is awesome. You saw against Arizona all the reasons why Cooper flag is going to be number one pick in the NBA draft. He does it all. He can defend, he can handle, he can distribute, he can finish, he can block shots, protect the rim. I mean, he's everything. He's everything.

There was a play where Arizona was trying to come back. They start pressing. Cooper flag breaks the press by himself, sets up an easy dish for an easy score. It's set up a lob. And you're're like OK, what can you do this guy and Caleb Love for Arizona was fantastic. Remember we talked about Caleb Love

when he played at North Carolina scored 28 against Duke in coach case final game in the final four. He loves score 35. Last night it didn't matter. Didn't matter. And then Cooper flag, you know we look as good as he is, he's playing with other NBA players and they have NBA size.

I mean they go 666667 6972 in their starting lineup. There's not much you can do with that, and so I think we'll see a different game in the lead eight when Alabama and Duke play. I think I think it'll be a little bit different, but. It's it's going to be so much fun. Duke is Duke is not going to go under screens. Duke is going to switch.

And I don't that they're going to be challenging three point shots. Alabama like Mark Sears is going to have to shoot from the logo to be able to get it over these guys. But Alabama also might go back to its normal game plan. They normally shoot 29 threes again. So they're they're really good at spacing the floor. They're really good at finding holes in your defense. So I think what we're going to see is a more standard version of Alabama. I just don't know if that's going to be good enough to be

due. We'll find out. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Florida beats Maryland pretty much wore Maryland out. This is kind of what you expected when you looked at these two teams because Maryland they've got a great starting five, the crab five, but pretty thin on the bench. Haven't got much production from the bench all year. Florida goes 10 deep even even after Alex Condon goes down, Todd Golden still rolling crazy line,

you know, different lineup combinations in there. Condon comes back with 12 minutes to go and Florida just wears him out. Arkansas, Texas Tech was the thriller. That game was awesome. I am so happy that we're gonna hear Kevin Harlan say, Federico, Federico! Even more, we'll find out if chance McMillan comes back for this Elite 8 game because he was putting up shots before the

games you're talking about a 14 point a game scoring guard and we'll see about that but. Daring Williams was just awesome for the Red Raiders down the stretch because they were done. I mean Arkansas had been beat Arkansas was crushing them midway through the second half. And Texas tech just refused to go away. And Arkansas shot stopped falling for a little while. Texas tech gets back in the game.

They forced overtime and that's it. It was a fantastic game. Arkansas had a chance. They had a final shot. Cal didn't call timeout. I was wondering about that because it seemed like there wasn't a terrible sense of urgency as they came down the court, even though I believe they amounted the ball with seven seconds to go. It was it was something

Vance in the chat says is a Memphis grad gonna have to walk away for a few minutes due to PTSD. Cal didn't like timeout in that situation. Look, you gotta be who you are. He doesn't like timeouts in that situation. His thing is just go and maybe the defense doesn't gather itself and you catch him off guard. It wasn't the worst shot in the world. I thought it was defended very well at the end of the game. Which brings us to tonight.

These games are going to be so much fun tonight. I it's I get it was a lot of chalk first weekend and that's not fun when you don't have a lot of upsets, but. Purdue playing in Indianapolis against Houston and this is Houston team. They've been highly seated in the past few years, but this is a much better version of Houston where you know they can defend and rebound, but this one can also make shots. And then we're going to see Braden Smith for Purdue. I'm assuming he's be jacking up a lot of threes.

Auburn, Michigan. Jani Broome, Chad Baker-Mazara, like what version of him do we get? Does he get thrown out? Michigan's got those towers. Bruce Pearl helping the NCAA win its lawsuit against Jeremy Pruitt, even though he doesn't probably even realize that happened.

Ole Miss, Michigan State, two teams that kind of, I feel like this March, they felt perpetually disrespected. You know, you had that Michigan, Michigan State game where the Michigan State players, it was their last home game of the year at the Breslin Center. They're trying to kiss the ass and they're pushing the Michigan guys off there.

Ole Miss got called frauds by the guy at CBS and just came after him. And then of course, Kentucky, Tennessee, we've talked about Kentucky, Tennessee quite a bit already. They've played twice this year. Both times Tennessee's been favored, both times Kentucky's won, both times Kentucky has been really hot from three point range. Not Alabama against BYU hot, but hot.

50% from three point range in both games. I think it was 12 to 24 in both of them. And Tennessee could not make a shot. Tennessee is once again the favorite. So does history repeat or does Tennessee finally figure out how to defend Kentucky on the perimeter? Lamont Butler is healthy. I have a video at the on three sports YouTube channel where

it is a prediction. We break it down. Seth Davis helps us break it down. I think Kentucky's gonna win again. I think they're gonna play a similar game and Kentucky's gonna win again. Speaking of prediction, speaking of previews, if you want a deeper look into Florida and Texas Tech into Duke and Alabama, those Saturday Elite 8 games, those will be up

on the On3 Sports channel on Friday. Both games, the number one seed favored by six and a half points. Both games the number one seed favored by six and a half points. I think both of them could be kind of close. It would be very interesting to see how that how that shakes out. But that Florida Maryland game ended with with some interesting news out of the Maryland press conference and we've talked about the Kellan Kevin Willard situation at Maryland. I'm fascinated by this because Villanova wants him. He, I think wants to go to Villanova

because Villanova as a school that plays FCS football is not going to spend a whole lot of its revenue sharing dollars when the schools are allowed to pay the athletes directly after this house settlement gets approved, which is supposed to be in the next couple of weeks. The schools that either don't have football or play FCS football, which is the Big East schools, for the most part, where they take basketball very seriously and they either don't have football or

they play in the FCS, they're going to put more money into basketball into their payroll than most of the big time power conference schools can in basketball because well, Mike Locksley's football team needs payroll at Maryland too. They just lost their starting quarterback in Wisconsin because they couldn't compete for it. So how's that going to work? I think Kevin Willard's been stringing this along. We'll find we will probably find out Friday. We'll probably get a resolution to

this on Friday. Maryland apparently making a last digit to keep him Villanova still wants him. The fact that Villanova hasn't hired anybody yet tells you that's who they want. But it's very interesting. So the folks in the Maryland media unearthed the clip last night from Kevin Willard after his last game at his last school right before he came to Maryland.

So this is an NCAA tournament. He's lost at Seton Hall. He's coaching Seton Hall, they've lost. And then he gets asked about the Maryland job. Zach Brazillo, New York Post. Kevin, there's been a lot of rumors in the last day or so of you potentially going to Maryland. Do you want to comment on whether that's accurate or not? I'll give you exactly what I can tell you. I have an agent who I haven't talked to yet. I haven't talked to.

I don't know who he's talking to. I have absolutely no idea. But when I get home tomorrow, I'll talk to my agent and discuss things with my agent. OK, interesting. Well, he clearly discussed things with his agent and left Seton Hall for Maryland. Now, he may have already taken the Maryland job when he said that.

Maybe flash forward to last night. He gets asked a similar question. Here's the answer. So I have not even no, I don't I don't know what I'm doing. I'll just be honest with you. I haven't talked to my agent. I haven't talked to my wife. I haven't talked to my agent, I haven't talked to my wife. I made a promise to this team that I was going to just focus on this team and that's all

I've done. So I haven't talked to anybody. Right now, my biggest concerns in life right now, you know, I don't know who my boss is going to be. It's the guy that brought me here who I really like and appreciative of him bringing me to College Park, is not here anymore. And I don't know who we're going to hire. And that's as in today's day and age, that worries me a little bit just to be, I'm just

being honest. My honesty got me in trouble, and my honest will keep getting me in trouble. So this is going to be a family decision. This is, I love College Park. I love Maryland, you know, but there's when you're at this point in your career and you're looking at things, I have to take everything into consideration about what's going moving forward. But I have not even talked to anybody. So I don't know what I'm doing I'm gonna timestamp this

956 a.m. Friday morning, and he's going to Villanova Pretty sure that's what that sounds like cuz it's basically the same script. I haven't talked to my agent I don't know who my agents talk. Yeah, you do I've had an agent. I always talk to my agent when things were going fast when somebody else was interested. So I'm guessing he's going to Villanova. Now he was much more specific and has kind of an out here because his AD, Damon Evans, did just leave Maryland. He's, Damon Evans did just leave Maryland. He's Damon Evans went to SMU.

So maybe, maybe Damon Evans with SMU cause he knew he's going to lose his basketball coach to Villanova. But very interesting situation there. It's been fascinating to watch because again, you had all these years where the, the basketball centric Big East schools sort of got dragged around by football. Remember the Big East broke up and then it split. The American Conference formed.

They reformed the Big East without the football league. It is sort of no fun when the rabbit got the gun situation now when Villanova and St. John's and Georgetown and schools like that can just put more money into basketball payroll. Because the way that the revenue share works, if you opt into the house settlement as a school, you can spend up to, it's 22% of the median power conference athletic budget. And this year that's going to be $20.5 million. You can split that up however you want. Now, I don't even think those schools in the big East are going to hit the $20.5 million figure. I don't think they're going to spend that much money. I don't know that a lot of them have that much money to spend,

but they don't have to because. At most power conference schools. 12 to $15 million of that is going to football. And then some of it's going to go to the other sports too, so you're looking at a pot of about 3 1⁄2 to four million. For basketball at a lot of these places. Villanova's going to probably spend $6 million on on payroll, maybe even more. So. If you're Kevin Willard, that's what you're looking at. And if you're we just showed Mike Loxley on the

screen, the Maryland football coach. you're like, hey, you don't don't be taking 2 million for me to keep him. Now, Kevin Wellard, if he wants to stay at Maryland, he's gonna say, look, who of us who among us has a better chance of winning a national title? Me or you? And the answer is Kevin Willard. The answer is basketball at Maryland because even if Maryland spends more on football, they're still not going to outspend Ohio state, Michigan, Penn state, Oregon in their own conference. But Maryland can be a national title contender in basketball. That's the situation they're in. We will see what Kevin Willard chooses. contender in basketball. That's the situation they're in.

We will see what Kevin Willard chooses. Little more football news. Kent State will start spring practice without head coach Kenny Burns. He's been placed on administrative leave ESPN reported on Thursday night. We've not gotten an official reason for that yet. But. It doesn't look good. Very similar to when the news leaked about Troy Taylor at Stanford. We said he's probably not going to be there next year.

Troy Troy Taylor is not going to be at Stanford next year he got fired. So we'll find out what happens at Kent State. We'll see if that job winds up opening or if it's an interim situation, but. If you're a college football coach who believes things come in threes, you're not. Not feeling real confident this weekend. You're kind of nervous.

But hopefully for everybody else's sake, this is it. That there's not any more of this. All right. It is now time to answer your questions. My favorite time of the week. We love your questions. Ari and I sat down and answered some really good ones. And I just talked about the Stanford job being open now. And I just talked about the Stanford job being open now. First one is about that Stanford football job. So here are Ari and I answering your questions. Okay, Ari is that time of the week where the viewers listeners readers.

We have a lot of ways to interact with the folks, but where they help us by driving the show, asking what they want to know, trusting that our answers will be correct, which I can't guarantee. But I feel like these questions, I like these questions. I want to start with one from outside zone pod. How attractive is the Stanford job? Now this is the only job that's open right now. We don't at this point know what's going to happen with it. We think there will be an interim

or an acting coach appointed, whether that's someone who's on staff or not on staff. But the question is, what does it mean when they can go hire a coach? How good a job is this? I'm very curious to know what you think because, Andy, I think it's a pretty attractive job. Now, doesn't mean it doesn't have challenges, but what there are 15 total jobs in college football that don't have challenges. I mean, like what, like, it like, to me, it's the jobs that quote unquote, don't have challenges also have challenges because you have to win like 11 games a year to succeed. Yeah. And if you're even average one year, you're a loser. Um, you know, and so the thing

that I think is interesting is five years ago, your geography was an obstacle if it was bad that you could not overcome. You can't change where players are. But as NIL and the internet and all the things that have changed our society have come into the picture here, overcoming geography is more tenable now than it was. Now the thing that I was going to ask you is, from an academic standpoint, how much do you think the limitations of who Stanford is able to recruit to begin with stack up with other challenges that other places faces, like West Virginia and other programs that come to mind from a geographical standpoint? Do you think it's harder to overcome,

or do you think that it's something that you can actually flip and turn and make an advantage? Like, because like, I, maybe I'm naive. But I actually think that Stanford can get a top 25 recruiting class while also getting Stanford kids. Like, I don't think like, this like notion of every high school football player out there is an idiot who can't pass his SAT is just wrong and racist. Like there are a lot of very, very smart, talented, test-taking, awesome young football players out there. And I think they could probably find 20.

You know? And there are a lot of players, they're parents too, but also the players themselves who are looking at this like, okay, I do care about the degree I get. I do care about the academics at the school. Some people just say it and we know when they're just saying it because we'll see who they're actually looking at. But there's an awful lot and not just smart players who

aren't good enough to play at other places. There's a lot of smart players who are good enough to play anywhere who care about their academics. Andy, I'm going to put you in on the, uh, on the hot seat here for a second. Okay. You have a son who is bench pressing the weight of, I told you the answer. It's the other day. I don't know if they know this. Yeah.

I'm curious. And his offer list is UCF, West Virginia, Stanford, TCU, and Arizona. Where is he going? If his offer list is Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, and Stanford, he's still going to Stanford. I don't think that's true, but he's good enough to have an Alabama offer. You'll be thinking about the NFL. This is what I've been. Okay. Well, we'll get that in a second. I have said in my house and my kids will attest to this since they were like five years old,

if Stanford offers you a scholarship in anything, you are taking it. Anything. So, but like the reason why I pushed back on the Alabama thing here, Andy, is I don't want to go too far in the conversation. No, and you're right. Realistically, here's the thing. If you're in the Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State sphere of recruit, what's the idea behind going to college? And I don't wanna hear from the lifetime academics who have seven degrees but aren't qualified to work anywhere with Starbucks.

Like I don't, that's not what I'm thinking about. You go to college to, to find a career or, or train yourself for a career so you can have a good job and a good paying life. Okay. Yeah. If you're good enough to be recruited by Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, that good paying job might be in the NFL. That's right.

You're probably gonna, you're probably gonna take one of those. And here's the thing though. So the reason why I put that offer list out there to you is interesting because if you think about it, they're all power five jobs that we perceive to have fewer obstacles than Stanford. And I'm trying to get people to think about the type of player, the type of teams at times. at Arizona went to the fiesta ball a few years ago. West Virginia's had its seasons where they've been pretty good. UCF won the national championship a few years ago. Like we are, you see the joke there I just I tossed in.

I did. But I still have a lot of t shirts off that national title Ari. off that national title Ari. Andy, what I'm telling you though is like this perception that Stanford is a dead-end job because it can't get kids into school is wrong. There are going to be a lot of kids out there that will have power five offers that don't include Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson, and Georgia that are choosing between the second and third tier players. Why you go to Stanford? And on top of that, there probably are a few kids out there like, you know, five star offensive tackles that may consider Stanford over Alabama. Also, once you get it rolling, like, I think it's a, so like, the question is-

That's what happened. That's what, Jim Harbaugh initially tried to weaponize the academics at Stanford to say, and remember he got in trouble for criticizing Michigan because he was recruiting for Stanford and he was saying, hey, look, I played at a really great academic school but it's not Stanford. And it's not. And the Michigan people got mad at him, but he was not lying. He's telling the truth there.

So that's the theory aspect of this, Andy. Now the application theory is different, but I'm wondering if Stanford is going to have a huge come up in application because one, the Stanford education is what, a half a million dollar investment for normal people when it's all said and done between traveling back and forth and dorms and food and books and class and tuition, all that stuff. So even if you want to do 350, whatever, I don't want to quibble over what the actual cost of that is and how many years it takes. But if you actually apply the actual cash value of the education at Stanford, it is worth more than all the other places that we're talking about. And then you can revenue share with them in a power league.

They're not in the big 12 anymore, but shouldn't that be like, shouldn't being an ACC school with an elite level academic reputation, like you're basically Harvard. Like seriously, you basically are Harvard. Like they're in the conversation with Harvard, Yale and Princeton. And none of the other schools

that play big time football are. Yes, Duke is a really good school. Vanderbilt's a really good school. Northwestern's a really good school. Notre Dame's a really good school, but they're not on that level. So back to the original question, how good of a job of Stanford? I think a really good job right now. Well, I'm going to take you back to 2017 because I think this is really interesting. So the top four rated recruits in that class for Stanford, Foster Sorrell, five-star offensive lineman, Walker Little, five-star offensive lineman. Both of those guys were in the top 13 in the country overall. Davis Mills, 5 star quarterback, number 22 national rank. Colby Parkinson, tight end. Number one in his position, number 28 in the nation.

They've done it before. Now it was not the NIL era. Here's the thing. Now, it was not the NIL era. Here's the thing. I believe all these guys played in the NFL. I know Foster Srell played in the NFL. Walker Little starts in the NFL. Davis Mills still has a job in the NFL. So, you can get to the NFL from there too. Christian McCaffrey's pretty good.

He's pretty good. Now, look, if they don't have serious NIL dollars, I don't know that top 13 recruits are gonna go there because there will be significant NIL money thrown at them. They are smart enough to get into Stanford. Which is defeating the purpose of setting yourself up. Well, and they're also, but this is where being smart enough

to get into Stanford is gonna bite Stanford in the ass. They understand the time value of money. They understand, like, they are probably more apt to invest it wisely. They are probably not the guys you want to say, hey, you can come here, but we're not going to pay you, you know, we're going to pay you $500,000 less. Like, that's not going to work. You have to be somewhat competitive. That said, you don't have to have the highest monetary offer because Stanford's education is going to do some of that work for you.

Yeah. And here's the other thing too. We, I don't know what the actual breakdown is on the top of my head, and I'm sure you do sure you do. But when you talk about the revenue sharing, how much universities in general are going to be able to share is a lot predicated on how lucrative their television deal is, right? Because that's where the revenue is coming from. Remember, that's capped because you opt into the house settlement. It's capped at 22% of the average Power Conference Athletic Department's revenue. So the first year, it's's gonna be 20.5 million. Your revenue share and everybody else's revenue share is the same. It's whether you can supplement with NIL above that. Which means, I mean that's a whole other discussion, but like that to me is gonna get off the rails because all the revenue sharing schools are

still gonna go bonkers with NIL and they're just going to take over. And if you're either in that equation and you're not, so maybe from that standpoint, Stanford's kind of a, you know, between a rock and a hard place. But at the same time, too, so is 80% of the power five. Who has more billionaires in their in their alumni base, though? You don't just need billionaires. You need billionaires who care about sports. And I don't think that there's the Venn diagram. There is not a circle.

Right. Texas Tech is very lucky that it's two most recent billionaire graduates happened to play football there. Yeah, but also too, of all the states in the union that would have a billionaire that cares about football, it would be the state of Texas, right? Like that's right. I mean, like what are we talking about here? Yeah. Like, Palo Alto is, like, they walk around with sandals and hemp in their mouth, right? Like, isn't that what I'm talking about? I don't know. I've only been there once. I went there for an Ohio State game when they played on the road there. And it was 90% Ohio State fans in the stadium. I had never seen anything like that before. I went to a couple, I covered a couple Stanford games when they were really rolling in the Shaw era. Covered one game against Washington, one game against USC

and it was majority Stanford fans. When they're playing well, and it's not a huge stadium. So when they're playing well, people show up. I made a huge mistake. I just made a huge mistake. The road game that I went to for Ohio State was Cal, not Stanford. I just put that in.

Oh my god. I think Stanford and college and they have granite countertops for the working areas in the press box. Yeah, Cal, Stanford not the same. Very much hated rivals. Yeah, no, no, I know. I just like the same area of the country and same. Cal's views a lot better. Yeah, Cal is a nice. I'd say that. But like also too, you're also getting same. Cal's views a lot better. Yeah, Cal is a nice view. I'd say that. But like also too, you're also getting people to come play in a beautiful area of the country where the average home value is like $2.5 million, right? And the weather's perfect all around.

Yeah, it's pretty spectacular. There's a lot to sell. So let's answer the question. 10 is the best job, 10 is Bama in Ohio State, Texas, and all those. Stanford, one to 10 on your mind. If you can engage, if you can get some alums engaged, and I don't even, I'm not talking about Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon type NIL.

I'm talking about being able to compete with North Carolina and Duke, and those types of schools in the ACC. Then it's a 7. It's a solid 7. Yeah, I would say 6 or 7. I would, I would want it. If I were, if I were a head coach looking for that first Power Conference job, or even if I were at a Power Conference school that's kind of at the bottom of my league I would want to move I would consider Stanford to move up Syracuse fans you needed you need to start getting used to this because if you guys have another good year and

everybody wants Fran Brown but I'm just saying they're gonna get you and that's a good thing but like Fran Brown going to Stanford would be an improvement right oh yeah yeah, yeah. And I wonder how many- Fran Brown would sell the hell out of the Stanford education. I think Fran's just really smart and understands what works

and what buttons to push when he's recruiting. And obviously he's got a really good education to sell at Syracuse right now. He absolutely would kill it at a place like Stanford. Is there a single job in the Big 12 that you would say is better? Well, I like Texas Tech with my billionaires right now. Yeah.

I mean, I'm not the Texas tech-tee, okay? I'm an oil man. I could do it, but like, you think it's a better job right now? I like Texas Tech with the billionaires right now. I do. I think TCU and Baylor can be that type of job to Arizona State. In the ACC, I think SMU can be that type of job. And you saw you see right lastly, kicking ass there.

Yeah, I mean, I guess if we're gonna start ranking college football jobs based on how many billionaires care about their football program, then that's probably where we're at right now. But like, I just, I feel like Stanford is viewed as a seller-dweller impossible place to coach, and I think we both agree that it's probably better. It's just, it's not, with the right person.

And it was viewed that way when Jim Harbaugh got the job. Which is interesting, because Walt Harris had had fairly recent success there. Yeah, I mean, was it? Well, maybe not. Maybe you gotta go back to Ty Willingham. Probably Ty Willingham had had fairly recent success there. But it is possible.

And now look, Harbaugh is an all time great coach. We're gonna find out that David Shaw is an all time great coach. But the right person can win there. Yeah, yeah. I remember when the hoodie that Jim Harbaugh was wearing in that picture was in style. I had an Arizona one.

You know like the old logo, or like the old Nike team wear. Oh yeah, and that's when, I think that was his first year there when they upset USC in 07. I remember nobody gave a chance and Tavita Pritchard led them to the win against USC. Weren't they 40 point underdogs or something crazy like that? I think it's still the single biggest point spread upset in college football history because I think Appalachia State was not as big of an underdog against Michigan that same year. Jim Harbaugh is a handsome man.

I want to throw that in there. We talk about handsome coaches. I know he's getting up there in age, but he's a good looking guy. Well, you don't have to be handsome to succeed at Stanford. You just need to understand what you're selling and you need to engage some some rich folks if you can. But I do think it's a place where people can succeed. I don't think it's a hopeless job at all and I'm excited to see what happens with it. Obviously, you know, I don't think you can hire somebody right now. I think what Kansas did with Lance Lighthold, that's lightning

in a bottle. Like they hired Lance Lighthold on the last day of spring practice in 2021 and he's been awesome there. I don't think that's gonna happen most places. So they may wanna go and do a full search and have the whole season to figure it out. But if they choose wisely, I think they can pick a good person. And look, Andrew Luck is the GM. I think that's pretty exciting prospect too.

Like he's a really smart guy. He seems very reasonable. He seems very engaged. He clearly loves the program. He knows what it takes to win there. Like that would be an incredible resource, I would think. Yep. I'm with you. I'm with you.

I think, yeah. So I think we're in agreement here. All right. Next question comes from Justin. Is there a legitimate chance that the CFP quarterfinals will be on campus instead of bowl games at some point? I do think there is a legitimate chance. I'm hopeful that it's in 2026 because the contract that requires the quarters to be in bowls runs out after this season. They're not done Finalizing the details of the next one. They're gonna have to finish those details pretty soon. I

Still think We may be one generation of leaders away from kicking the bowls out of this thing entirely because they don't they're not necessary We don't need them. The only ones that really matter are the Rose and the Sugar anyway at this point. One because the Rose Bowl is the Rose Bowl and the other one because going to New Orleans is fun, but I don't think you need the other ones. And Ari, you and I did two days in a row where we were in South Bend and Columbus for home playoff games. There's no bowl environment better than that. Yeah, I was. Yes, I was today years old when I realized that the women's

NCAA tournament does road games. Did you know that? They do. It's funny, cause they stopped and then they went back to it because they realized that pure neutral sites. Nobody would come. You need to have those games in Columbia, South Carolina or in Hartford to have the people show up. Well, that was cool too. Like what? South Carolina, or in Hartford to have the people show up.

I thought that was cool too. I mean, I don't want to, I know that it might be sacrilegious to mess with the perfect NCAA tournament, but how sick would it be if the first round games were at home? Well, it would. You're a half seed. If you're a one through six, you get a home game.

Yeah. Oh, no, no, it would uh it would certainly incentivize playing well in the regular season. I mean I I think anything to increase the interest in who wins and loses regular season games in college basketball I think is a net positive for the sport as somebody who just doesn't know anything about it but like well and in football it certainly increases the the importance of the regular season games because getting a home game, getting multiple home games would matter. I actually, I think it should be on campus in the first round, the quarterfinals and the semi-finals. I think it should really matter if you get home field advantage. I think that one seed and that two seed, like that should be critically important. You can't do it in college football that way I

don't think. Why not? Because the seeding is messed up and you can't fix it. Oh but if you change that if you if you make the seeding. You can't fix it. You don't think so? What Ohio State did this year is prove it cannot be fixed. You don't think that if they just seeded it straight, didn't have any rules about conference champions being in the top four. I think it might help improve it, but so Ohio State would have been the sixth seed in that case. That's what I'm saying. So I say it would have what would have had one home game.

Yeah, I mean, same as this. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, same as this. Yeah, yeah, I don't know, but the college football seating is such a disaster because the best team in America can be the 6, 7 or 8 seed in given years. Just based on circumstances, injuries,

weird upsets at home. But that's the same thing in the NFL. I don't know, the NFL isn't is separated between the top and bottom as it is in college. It's different, but you've seen teams have to go on the road like the chiefs Not this not this past season, but season before Andy had to go on the road to make it a no ball Yeah, and I guess maybe if you lose and that's your punishment

Like I mean, I don't I'm not saying I'm against it But like I feel like if you make it to the semis in college football, you should get a neutral side game Like it's not fair to send. That's fine. And and that's what if you want to do it that way Like it's not fair to send somebody. That's fine and that's what if you want to do it that way, then you make the Rose and the Sugar, the two permanent semi-finals. Yeah, and then you can have the national championship game. And you'll just bid out the national championship game

wherever you want to put it. The thing that I want to go back to is that like Ohio State wasn't just the best team in college football this past year. The difference between them and the team that was supposed to be the number one overall seed was massive. Like it's like it's not even like, you know, it's not just, oh, Oregon and Ohio State or Ohio State was better.

Was the difference that massive? I mean, one of the they went one and one against each other during the season. I know, but when Ohio State, who forgot how to play football for two months, remembered how to play football, you saw the difference. Like that's why Ryan Day was in such hot shit all year, because everybody knew what was under the hood. They just weren't getting the production out of it. But that's gonna happen. Like that's gonna happen with teams every year. I know, but in the NFL,

you don't get much out of them or they evolve. And then they're just like, the teams that they're playing can barely compete with them. Like it's just a different sport. But I don't know. We've agreed that they're not gonna be able to stock those rosters like that much anymore. Yeah, maybe if the sport's changing, but't know. We've agreed that they're not going to be able to stock those rosters like that much anymore. Yeah, maybe if it's changing.

But I do think it should be at least a 40-mile. How does that have anything to do with whether the game should be on campus or not? I just mean teams are going to get screwed and have to go on a road game or have a home game. Don't lose then. Pretty simple. I know. I feel like, I feel like

when you say fix the seating, you're trying to prevent people from being screwed and I'm trying to tell you that the seating is so messed up in college football. If you got screwed because you lost, you didn't get screwed. You lost. Yeah, I guess so. If you got misceded because there's a dumb rule that says the champion of X conference has to be here and even though you're better than them, you have to be doesn't. That's the problem. The problem is not that Ohio State had to go on the road or would have had to go on the road in that situation. Ohio State lost.

Well, Ohio and Michigan. I guess they didn't want to go on the road. They should not have lost. Yeah, Ohio State in this scenario is the team that's being screwed. So I don't know want to go on the road. They should not have lost. Yeah, Ohio State in this scenario isn't the team that's being screwed. So I don't know why I went on that tangent actually. But the thing that I think is interesting though is that Oregon got screwed and they never lost. And I guess if you see it straight, then you are

fixing that. But you're not seeing Oregon's not seeing Ohio State in round two. And maybe Oregon sees Ohio State at Austin. And maybe that's different than seeing them pass the I don't know. But Oregon should have gotten a game at Austin, Georgia should have gotten a game in Athens. Like that doesn't it doesn't feel like it's very rewarding. So Yep. But in the hope is that because those environments were great that the more of that the better. But I did you agree with

cutting it off at the semis? No, I think it should be on campus through the semis, but I am willing to concede or I'm willing to compromise here. Just make the Rose in the Sugar the permanent semis. I'm good with that. Or just make the Rose the permanent national title game and take all the bulls. I would good with that. Or just make the Rose the permanent national title game and take all the bulls out. I would love that too. See, that would be my other thing.

You could rotate the semis and make the Rose the permanent national title game. That'd be fine too. I don't think they're gonna do that because they like to strap cities over a barrel and make them bid. Yeah. So, but I'm all for that.

All right. Next question from Brooks. With the likelihood high that rev share becomes a thing in the NCAA with the student athletes and more streaming options getting in on sports, can we see a shift back to an NCAA television deal instead of conferences and teams? No, it will not go back to the NCAA.

It will go to whatever super conference, either the Big Ten in the SEC form, or the teams all leave the Big Ten in the SEC to form their own super conference, and they will then sell to all the various entities. And I don't think revenue share has anything to do with it. Obviously the players are gonna get a cut of that. They're gonna get a cut of the TV deals now,

starting this year. But Ari, it's just a matter of is it formed within the structure of leagues that exist already? Or is it Alabama and Ohio State call each other and be like, Hey, you know what? It's just let's just pick. We'll pick our teams ourselves and then we'll form a thing and we'll sell it. we'll pick our teams ourselves and then we'll form a thing and we'll sell it. Question should be, is it possible the NCAA is no longer going to be a thing in the future? Oh yeah. I mean, they've already got a third party system to police NIL deals in this house settlement. Now look, all they basically did was recreate the NCAA enforcement staff, which is stupid and it's not going to work and they're going to get sued in oblivion. But, you know, they'll figure it out eventually and do collective bargaining and that'll be with whatever this organization is, which will then sell TV rights to whoever, whether it's, you know, NBC, Fox could be Netflix. I mean, Netflix is doing these NFL games now that you saw the Tyson fight like they're they've dipped their toe

in the live and I think they like it. So yeah, I think there's a chance they're they're they're a player come The second you can buy red zone on netflix. It's over. I don't know if that'll ever happen because it's on the nfm I mean, that's a great thing because people wonder why is there no college football red zone? It's because the leagues sell things separately Yeah, nfl red zone exists because the NFL can force that into the contract and say, look, I know this game's on CBS and this game's on Fox.

I don't care. We are gonna show when a team gets inside the 20 on our own channel. Cause it's our stuff. This is a hijack of this question, but would you watch college football red zone? I think I might have a seizure. Cause I mean, the NFL whoops around pretty fast. Yeah. Can you imagine? In red zone. I think I might have a seizure because I mean the NFL whoops around

pretty fast. Yeah, can you imagine red zone and now Cooper de Jean would be so fast. I mean because there's so many games going on at once updated. Iowa never gets in the red zone. They just score outside of the red zone on

defense. Yeah, yeah, it's like because like I feel like on one hand, I love watching red zone because I love gambling and fantasy football like everybody else does on Sundays, but on the other hand, it's like are cause like I feel like on one hand, I love watching red zone because I love gambling and fantasy football like everybody else does on Sundays. But on the other hand, it's like, are you even watching football when you're watching that? Like, what do you, like, you're not even,

you're stripping the game away. You're playing fantasy football is what you are. You're watching fantasy football. You're not watching football. You're watching fantasy football. Red zone is for fantasy players. Yeah. For being real.

I like it just because I like it. It gives me a nice taste of the whole thing, but I also like having red zone on one screen and having a game by itself on another. Yeah, yeah, but I feel like if we had college football red zone, that would be a good way to keep up with the day. But if anybody's watched anything

on college football Saturdays, you know that a lot of crazy stuff happens outside of the red zone too. My head would explode trying to watch college football Saturdays. You know that a lot of crazy stuff happens outside of the red zone too, so my head my head would explode trying to watch college football red zone. I can tell you that right now. Last question comes from our friend Lisa. She's a. She's a fitness influencer.

She got a picture of herself planking on Twitter. I'm guessing she held this plank for like a solid three hours. What speculation will you speculate on in May is question one. Question two, what kind of demon possesses Ari? I was looking at the picture, I had to lean in there. I guarantee you this plank was held for at least 10 minutes

I mean, how long are you supposed to hold a plank before you pass out because I'm like at 45 seconds as long as you can how long you hold it for my daughter and I will compete and So we've gotten I've gotten to where I can get over two and a half minutes or so But she's much stronger through the core than I am now. So she just humiliates me now. Yeah, she also weighs less, so she's got an unfair advantage. Yeah, but all right, Lisa, what will we speculate on in May? It's a good question. Now, we were just talking about the new playoff deal. I don't know that we'll be speculating on that as much as actually getting some concrete information about it at

that point, because they have to have it set before next season starts, not this coming season, but before the 26th season starts. They don't like to have those things up in the air with a year to go. So I think they're going to have to have some more concrete. Some television networks are pretty interested in how that's going to work, I think. Yeah, so I think you're gonna need some concrete information on that. We're gonna have some, the results of the spring portal, which I don't think is gonna be too hectic. I don't think it's gonna be that bad. You're not gonna have a team just get gutted, I don't think.

And so- It's gonna be starting quarterbacks, Andy. It's gonna be, well, it's gonna be guys that aren't starting going places where they think they can. Yeah Well, I also like we'll be like what's happening at Alabama's quarterback position Once we get this watch them in their spring games and you know, see, yeah I mean Fran Brown told us this week that He didn't say it but probably somebody from Syracuse going to the portal because he says he's gonna pick a starter. So that's That helps

What else might we speculate on in may? I think We'll probably revisit season win totals for sure and and hopefully, you know, I think the the the folks that Across the the gambling spectrum will be revising them as the rosters get fully set. So I think that'll be. A source of of speculation. I don't. I don't think we're oh oh producer River points out Cinco de Mayo announcement day for the number one QB in the class of 2026 Jared Curtis between Oregon and Georgia. So

we'll we'll speculate on which one he'll pick and then he'll pick and we'll analyze it. Yeah recruiting is 24 hours a day, 2365 days a year. We'll always be speculating on recruiting and that it was like actually having Steve on the show this week made me realize we need to do it. I think we need to have a recruiting segment at least once a week because like we still yeah we need to we need to embrace our where we are it's just a little three this is what we talk about like people always ask you like so what do you ask me like two people ask you like well now the football season's

over what do you do all year and it's like yeah well there's a whole other world out there that has even more interest in the actual game yeah now these existence that we work for living where live, I don't get that question as often because there's a larger percentage of the people who aren't that sick about it. Like they're deeply invested 24 seven 365 and wanna know exactly what's going on with every recruit, with every transfer portal person. So yeah, I think that's a good one.

Now I'm much more interested in Lisa's second question. What demon possesses you are? I don't know, man. That's a good question. I wish I could have an exorcism of some kind. I mental illness probably is in there somewhere. I don't think it's mental illness. I think you're fine. I think you are, I feel like Jim Carrey, you are tuned to a different wavelength than the average person. And that's what makes you so good on the show. Like you don't think about things the same way most people think

about things. Yeah. So like I'll have, I'll have things in sports and everything else where my first thought will be I wonder what Ari thinks about that Because it will not be the thing that I'm thinking about it And that fascinates me. Let's go. Why does your mind go to these places? It's an important thing in sports writing because I think the hardest thing in sports writing and Podcasting is just talking about the same things that everyone else talks about all the time And it's just like story angles and all that stuff. So like, I do kind of like that you think that about me. I think that my environment that I grew up in probably, you know, shaped that. I think I view things a lot the same way that my father would. But we appreciate this. But I do think that

I'm a little off too. Like, let's be honest, like I'm not. Oh, you're definitely a little off. I mean, I knew that first time I met you, but. But also being off and recognizing that you're kind of off means that you're not off, right? I mean, your dream meal is a food court poo poo platter at the mall. And you acting like that's not brilliant makes you the sick one in my mind. Is that what you want?

I'm not saying I would turn it down. I'm just saying it would not be my first choice. Your first choice is like the meal that we had with River for the USC pick. Yeah, it's up there. It's up there. Well, and you asked me the other day, like if you could pick one food that didn't have any calories

and make it where it didn't have any calories and you eat as much as you wanted of it with no bad health effects, I pick pizza. Because of course, what'd you pick? Mountain Dew. Yeah, that's just stupid. Like why would you do that? You could have pizza! Over and over. Think about how much Mountain Dew. Yeah, that's just stupid. Why would you do that? You could have pizza! Over and over!

Think about how much Mountain Dew you could drink for somebody who loves Mountain Dew and the equity that you would get from a caloric savings standpoint than you would not get from pizza. See, but I'm not calculating it that way. I'm looking at it like I can call these different kinds of pizzas. It would be zero calories. What a stupid answer would be. I would make banana zero calories or grapes something that already is low

Mountain Dew is not much better. I realized Mountain Dew has a lot of calories, but that's the point of all the things you could pick. The thing you like the most. That's the worst for you. I love pizza. It's my favorite food, but I don't think that I could weaponize like if I if I lost a governor, which I did once in my life and I don't think that I could weaponize. If I lost a governor, which I did once in my life, and I don't know if people recall this, but part of the reason why I got so big in the past is because I was addicted to regular soda. And part of the reason why I've gotten off of this weight situation, I mean, this is

what drinking too much Mountain Dew does to you. Okay, now I get it. I get it. It's too recent for you. So I stopped drinking regular soda 20 years ago. So I don't even think about it anymore. Now I'm starting to understand it. Yeah, I mean, it makes sense because I would drink, if they were zero calories, I would drink 20 a day. Like I would drink it like water. I love it.

It's my favorite thing in the entire world. But like I could eat pizza every day, but even if you ate pizza for dinner every single day, you would not gain weight at the same rate as you would as if you weaponized the regular soda. And it's something that I enjoy. If you ate pizza the way I used to eat pizza, because I used to have a rule that if there's a pizza I'm eating the whole pizza.

I mean if you have six or seven cans of Mountain Dew in a day you're having 1400 calories of pure sugar. It's pretty awful. So to me it's like, and then if I have a Mountain Dew that takes the edge off of like wanting to eat like crap because there's sugar in it. So like you know I don't know. Yeah but the thing I'll say about me Andy is I have opinions and you'll be like whoa why would you pick Mountain Dew? That's stupid. I can always back it up with thought. I might not be right. But like, you're like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And I was able to rationally explain to you why I did that. And then you're like, Oh, okay, well, that kind of makes sense. And like that. So I take pride in that I hate when people have

strong opinions and takes. And then when you start, you know, questioning them, they fold like a cheap, you know, camping tent, you know, you got to you got to stay strong, you got to fight, and you got to explain and rationalize with all the information possible. And I think that's what makes me a good podcaster. tuning in watching listening. Great time. This week. Lots of fun. We got more sweets. They seeing games tonight. It's going to be amazing. We got the Elite 8 this weekend. We got. Lots of speculation coming. We got potentials. Who knows? Maybe it's spring games. Maybe maybe the rules will change and we'll get actual

spring games between teams. Who knows? We'll talk about it all when we come back next week. You know how to find us Monday through Friday, 930 a.m. Eastern Time on the on three sports YouTube channel. Everywhere you get your podcasts. We'll talk to you on Monday.