Andy & Ari On3 - Is Miami (OH) a LOCK for March Madness? Bruce Pearl says NO | Kentucky AD Search | Arkansas jersey patch with Tyson Foods

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

This past weekend, Bruce Pearl had some strong comments on where Miami (OH) stands in regards to the NCAA tournament. Sitting at 30-0 on the season, the Redhawks have yet to play a Quad 1 opponent. Bruce Pearl says in order for the Redhawks to get in the tournament, they must win the conference tournament. Should Miami (OH) get an at-large bid if they don’t win the MAC tournament? Watch here as Andy & Ari discuss as March Madness is right around the corner.   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (1:26) Presenting Sponsor (3:06) Intro: Miami (OH) and the NCAA Tournament (13:43) Should the RedHawks get in? (24:08) Kentucky AD Search (34:46) Welcome Bruin Report to On3 - Bob Chesney at UCLA (38:15) Welcome Buffs Stampede to On3 - Colorado’s outlook (46:16) South Carolina OL Josiah Thompson likely out for the season (51:20) Arkansas jersey patch with Tyson Foods (1:06:47) Conclusion: Send in your best jersey patch combos   After the Miami (OH) discussion, Andy & Ari turn their attention to another school that pays close attention to basketball, and that is Kentucky. On Tuesday, news broke that Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart was expected to retire. Running the ship in Lexington for over two decades, there will be a new leader in Lexington soon. Who will lead the Wildcats athletic department? Watch here as Andy & Ari go through the list of candidates.   As the On3 network continues to grow, Andy & Ari welcome the Bruin Report and Buffs Stampede to the team. Watch here as Andy & Arigo through both teams ahead of a pivotal 2026 season.   Over in Columbia, South Carolina, the Gamecocks have caught some bad luck as of late on the offensive line. Watch as Andy & Ari react to the news that Josiah Thompson is likely out for the season.   To close, Andy & Ari take a look at another jersey patch in college football. This time, Arkansas has announced a deal with Tyson Foods for the next five years. What are some other perfect matches for jersey combos?   Thanks for watching!   Send in your questions for Dear Andy & Ari here: [e-mail] [e-mail]   Our show is also presented by BetMGM!   If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works:   1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB. 2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. 3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you use bonus code CFB when you sign up!   Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary.   See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel.   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/_AddoeEJy30   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM, it is a mega board Wednesday. We were cruising around the message boards across the On3 network. And we start with a thread examining Bruce Pearl's comments about the Miami of Ohio basketball team. I know what you're saying. A Mac basketball conversation? No, no, no, no.

This will turn into very much a football conversation, a college football playoff conversation, and a college football scheduling conversation. And I think you're going to be surprised. which side you come out on at the end. Plus, we welcome Bruin Report, the UCLA site, and Buff Stampede, the Colorado site to the On Three family. And of course, we've got some great stories talking about the Bruins and about the buffs going into next college football season.

Also, Kentucky's looking for a new AD. Who should they be looking at to replace Mitch Barnhart, the longest tenured AD in the SEC? and who will want the job knowing that Mitch Barnhart is hanging around for almost seven figures a year for the next four years. Also, the Jersey Patch Wars have begun. Arkansas has revealed who their jersey patch will be and also how much of that money is going toward the players. We'll talk about it all on Annie and RN3 presented by BEDMGM. This show is presented by BEDMGM, and there's no better place to be during March matchups than Las Vegas. This year, college basketball fans can win a VIP trip to the Court of Legends event featuring the Cavender Twins.

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Call 1-800 gambler. in the U.S. Call 8778 Hope N.Y or text Hope N.Y. 467369 in New York. Call 1-800 next step in Arizona. Call 1-800-327-50-50 in Massachusetts. Call 1-800-off in Iowa or 1-8001-801-0-2-3 in Puerto Rico. First bet offer for new customers only, subject to eligibility requirements,

rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome, Andy and Ari on three presented by BetMGM. It's a megaboard Wednesday, and the boards are popping for various reason, Ari. We've got Kentucky basketball fans.

Well, they have an AD search going on now, so they're talking about that. But also their team went from up 12 with eight minutes ago in the first half, to down 12 by halftime and lost Texas A&M. So they're all in their feelings. We're going to talk about KSR and those folks later in the show. I would like to start, though, with a thread from Bama Online. And this started out as, I think, a way to troll Auburn. But I think it's turned into a bigger discussion.

And even within the thread, it turned into a bigger discussion, probably took a different turn than the person who posted it. thought. So Gisson on the Bama online thread, posted this on Sunday, because Bruce Pearl, who works for CBS now, said something interesting that got everybody's attention in the college basketball world. So a little background, Miami of Ohio currently undefeated. They actually won last night by two to run their record to 30 and 0. But the fear is if they were to lose a game, they have one more regular season game against Ohio U on Friday night, and then the Mac tournament's next week, and they would have to win three games in the Mac tournament to win the tournament.

But if they were to lose one of those games, would they not make the NCAA tournament as an at-large. And the knee-jerk reaction is, of course, they'd make it. But Bruce Pearl says, this is when they're 29 and 0, if we're selecting the 68 best teams, then Miami, Ohio is going to have to win their tournament to qualify as a champion, because as an at-large, they are not one of the best teams in the country. this of course drove everybody nuts Ari is posted on the Bama online message board as a way to kind of troll Bruce

because his son Stephen took over for him at Auburn Auburn 16 and 14 they're on the probably the wrong side of the bubble so like I get why Bruce is getting killed for this I this might be a But first of all, I want to say that localizing basketball topics to football is genius. And I'm so happy that we found this little niche because I do think that there's a lot of carryover to what we talk about on a year-round basis.

Yeah, and the football committee selecting the teams, like they've had the committee for all these years, but it was selecting a four-team playoff. It feels like it's more translatable now that it's a 12-team playoff. Yeah, and maybe even beyond depending on how things go. But Andy, I know that conference tournament stuff is fun. And like, it's a really fun time of year because it's like the appetizer to the NCAA tournament. But like, am I the only one who thinks it's absolutely insane that the regular season champ doesn't win it, doesn't get the automatic bid? I shouldn't the regular season champ? Every basketball coach in America feels the same way as you.

And they get frustrated by it. But the conference tournaments are revenue generators. They make a lot of money off of them. So they keep doing them. I mean, we're going to. talk about the big 12 court probably all next week because it looks cool yeah i saw some really funny memes of people like saying the person who's in charge of the digital court got hacked and they had pictures that were like hilarious on the court um but yeah you know i just like that the thing that

would really bug me is like Miami Ohio may like again may or may not be one of the best teams in the country but the tournament is so large and they're 30 and oh it's like how could you possibly leave a team that's 30 and oh out um but on the other hand now i can already hear commissioners in the conferences. He's talking about canceling non-conference games against big-time opponents because getting to 25 wins or 30 wins is more important than who you play. And it's just the same exact thing.

So I don't really know where I stand on this because it's a different sport. It's like on one hand, I think getting the 30 and O probably is an indication that you're a pretty good team no matter what conference you play in. But then on the other hand, too, it's like if you're going to relate it back to Auburn, who's a few games over 500, like, who do I think would win the game? Like, it's a really tricky discussion in basketball, for sure. Well, and let's take it to football, because what have we been arguing about with football? Scheduling.

Non-conference scheduling specifically, scheduling intent specifically. And we have gone after Indiana, Texas Tech, Penn State for scheduling bad non-conference schedules. intentionally because they don't want to lose games. We went after Nebraska for dropping Tennessee because they said, what's the use of playing this game? It's not worth it.

We talked about when Texas dropped Arizona State and its fans said, okay, now drop Notre Dame, we got on them. Now, Texas is still going to play Ohio State in the non-conference and football this year. So they're still putting themselves out there. Ohio State still putting themselves out there going down to Texas.

But I think all that matters. And I think why this is interesting. So we can get into the net ratings, which is what the formula that the selection committee uses, probably the heaviest to determine where teams stack up. Care to guess in the net rating where Miami of Ohio is, Ari? 60s, 50s? 53rd.

They are 53rd. Now, for those maybe who don't follow basketball as closely, in the net rating there are these things called quad one games, quad two games, and essentially it's, you are playing some of the best teams in the country and how they determine

You think that football could adopt the quad system by the way? I don't think there's enough data points. That's the problem. I think with basketball when you have over 30 games, it's a little bit easier. But it basically it's how hard's your schedule and like the old RPI was just your record, your opponent's record

and your opponent's opponent's record. All of those are factored into the net as well. And so essentially it is a blend of your record, your strength of schedule, the strength, strength of record metric they use sometimes in football. It's a blend of all those things together. And the thing it feels like the committee relies on the most when they're making these at large decisions between power conference teams is your record in quad one, quad two games. And those are your record against the best teams on your schedule.

and there's a little extra weight if it's on the road, but it's who'd you play? Would you care to guess, Ari, what Miami of Ohio's record in quad one games this year is? I don't think I'm guessing here. Is it O and O? It is zero and zero. So part of that is they play in the Mac.

So they're not going to get a bunch of quad one games in conference. So if you play in the SEC or the Big Ten or the ACC or the ACC or the Big E, East, like you're going to have Big 12, you're going to have a ton of quad one games in your conference because the best teams in your conference are already quad one teams. So in the Mac, you're not, you have no benefit of that. But the quad, quad means quadrant, which means it's broken to four, right? So like, it's four. So, oh, you want to guess how many quad two games they played? Zero. So this would be the second group of, is it zero? They played one and they did win it. Okay. So they're 10 and oh in quad three and 16 and oh in quad four. And there's only four quads, obviously, right? Yes. How many teams are in each quadrant? This is a bad of math podcast. Well, it's a quarter of the total number, I believe, 316 Division I

team. So it's just a quarter of that scheduled a quad one game against somebody that wasn't in the top five. Like, you know, it's not like football where the numbers are, like they could have played somebody who was ranked number 31 in the country. Or they could have sprinkled quad two games into their non-carcars. Again, it's basketball. you have double-digit non-conference games.

You can't, it's not like when in football, when Boise State was really good and they were the best team of the whack and the best team of the Mountain West, people wouldn't really want to play them. Like Power Conference schools did not want to schedule them because they were dangerous.

Basketball's not like that. They're not worried about if you're a good mid-major or low major, they'll bring you and play you. They're not scale. Because if you lose to them, it's not the end of the world. And so you have the opportunity to schedule those games. They did not choose. So do you think that Miami, their schedule philosophy was designed in order to try to rig the system to get the 30 and 0?

No, I don't think they expected to be this good. I think it's just sort of worked out that way. Right. So it's like, you know, you want to penalize teams that didn't make an effort to schedule big time games. And my assumption is that Miami could have found games if they really want. wanted to, right? Because it's not, there's so many more. It is not like the really good mid-major in football where most teams won't want to play you. And there's only three non-conference slots. Like there are double-digit non-conference slots. You can, you can go take money to go play

somewhere. The thing that I think is somebody good about this is that there's a like the AP poll and football and the committee rankings in general kind of mirror each other in football. but Miami is considered a top 25 team in the AP poll in basketball and Bruce Pearl suggesting they're not even one of the 30 best teams in the at large area. But the ranking the committee uses is suggesting they're not one of the best 50 teams. Right. So it's kind of confusing because it's like,

what are reporters who are in the AP poll voting on just record? Pretty much. It's a very much of football mentality. Yeah. But there's a much wider gap between the data. and the rankings in basketball, than there isn't football. Exactly. For example, there was a game last night

between Texas A&M and Kentucky. They have, I believe they have identical records now, in overall and in conference. And Texas A&M won the game, but Kentucky still ranked higher in the net because they played a much harder schedule. Right.

So we have to form an opinion here, right? Should Miami get into the tournament if they finish? I think my knee-jerk opinion when I saw what Bruce said, was, of course they should get in. They're going to be like 33 and one. What the heck?

Why would you leave them out? But the more I look at it, I can't in good conscience complain about football schools intentionally scheduling bad to get into the playoff and then say you should let them in. They could have scheduled better. Well, here's the other thing, because that's an interesting point,

because it's like on one hand, if I say Miami should definitely get in, that I'm being a hip, hypocrite in my basketball philosophy. But then on the other hand, too, there are so many more data points in basketball in terms of wins and losses and games in times to be exposed.

Like, if a team goes 11 and 1 in football or 12 and 0, regardless of the schedule, they're probably going to get in no matter what level they play in, right? Like, there's no question about it. There's a question if they play the Mac, if they're 11 and 1. I don't know the 11-1 Mac team gets in football. No, but if a Mac team did what my, if Miami-Ohio's football team

won the Mac and finished undefeated, they would probably be. But they won the Mac. Better question, they go 12 and O, they lose the Mac championship game by one in overtime. Yeah, I mean, I guess that would also depend in football of who the Mac champion is and what their record is or what the other, I mean, it's more complicated there. But if Miami's football team accomplished what Miami's Ohio's basketball team basically has already done,

they would because like Miami's going to win the regular season Mac title I assume right like there's no question about that they've clenched it long ago then you have to assert that same accomplishments of the football team there's like there's two separate championships in basketball there's only one Miami won they didn't no no no I just told you Miami can go 12 and oh in football and lose the championship game and they are not the Mac champion no but Miami Ohio's basketball team is the regular season Mac champ yeah but that's not the way the system works You don't get the auto bid for being the regular season champ.

Right. But in the football you do. But the only way that it's determined in football is winning the game. But the football championship game is the equivalent of the basketball tournament. Yeah. Because if you go 12, let's say, oh, okay, well, here's an example. Virginia had a better regular season than Duke in the ACC in football last year. Who's the ACC champion?

Yeah. I get you. So, so yeah, yeah. I mean, one, because the seating in the tournament is based on your seating in how you did in the regular season. So what you're saying, I get what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah.

Even though it's two separate titles in basketball, it's still the same kind of system. And there's only one game in football when there's a tournament in basketball. Yeah. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, this is tricky to me because on one hand, you also want to penalize the teams that like went out of their way to like schedule, crappy so that they could game the system. But like Miami, Ohio just is a lot better and really good by accident in a way. And it's just like, do you want to penalize a team that accomplished that?

Like, it's wild to me. And also, here's the one thing that we never do, Andy in football. And it might be the difference. We never penalize the smaller teams for not picking on the bigger teams. We penalize the big teams for avoiding other big teams. Like sometimes small teams have remarkable season. But again, in football, it's different because you can't necessarily schedule those games. In basketball, there's no excuse. You can schedule them. But nobody would ever call Miami of Ohio's football team soft for not scheduling Texas. No. No. Yeah. But if they didn't try to schedule any power conference opponents, you would, you would. Yeah, I don't know. Now, they end up doing that. most of the Mac teams do to make their budgets in football.

David Saylor, the Miami Athletic Director, did come out against Bruce Pearl this week. He said you were flat out wrong about Miami, Ohio basketball when you say we'd finish last in the Big East. The disrespect is awful, and you should not be near a TV studio covering the sport when you show your true colors. Even slipped in a wee when talking about Auburn. Nice work. All right. Miami of Ohio would not finish last in the Big East. Where would it finish in the Big East? I don't know. It'd be in the, probably middle of the pack.

Would it make the tournament? If it was a middle of the pack Biggie's team? But the thing is we don't even know. We can't even make that comparison because they didn't play anybody that allows you to make the comparison. Yeah, which then makes me upset about football again because we need the cross over to compare.

There you go. And that's why my knee-jerk reaction to this, which is what is Bruce saying? He's insane. has changed to, well, I can't have the same argument about football and then be a hypocrite here. I need to stay ideologically consistent. And so Miami of Ohio, Red Hawks,

go win the conference tournament next week. If you're going to lose, lose Friday to Ohio and then win the tournament. Yeah. I mean, it looks like they've been playing in a lot of close games, right? It was a two-point game last night. Now, here's the thing that's interesting about the MAC tournament versus other conference tournaments. Other conference tournaments are built to give a very big advantage to the regular season champ.

You have like the some tournaments, you have like a triple buy where the number one seed, you know, the team that won the regular season champion is into the semifinals even. And then a lot of them, they're into the quarterfinals automatically. Now, Miami's into the quarterfinals because it's an 18 tournament, but they have to play this. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's an 18 tournament. Number one plays in the first round. I mean, and the odds of them actually winning it are probably low. I'm looking at some of the scores and I see 100 to 61 and then I see 105 to 102,

107 to 101, 86 to 84, 73, 71. I mean, it's just hard. They had a buzzer beater to beat Western Michigan last week. So it is, it's not a foregone conclusion that they're going to win this tournament. Like, it kind of makes me want to watch the back tournament next week. Yeah, no, I'm very curious to see how they land on this, Andy. You know, I get really mad at people when they start comparing football playoff to the NCAA tournament, but I wonder if there's anything to glean in terms of the similarities here.

But like I'm going to also remain ideologically consistent and say, you know, reward the teams that played harder schedules and fared well against those teams. Yeah, and that's the thing. That probably gets you more power conference teams in. It probably hurts your Cinderella chances. But again, in basketball, You can go play somebody. I go back to Loyola Chicago, the year that they made the final four,

they weren't undefeated that year. Yeah. They went on the road and beat Florida in the non-conference. Like they went and played people. They knew they had a good team and they went and challenged it. Yeah. So I'm looking here too. Like Akron is 16 and 1 in the Mac.

25 and 5 overall. So if Akron wins, right. And they're more than likely going to see Akron in the final if all goes well for both teams. Yeah, but it's not like there's like a huge drop off between, I mean, there is in some cases,

but like the second place team in the Mac has only lost one time in the Mac. And Akron, I believe, played, um, they played Purdue. You know, they played,

but they lost it by 50. So like, well, like that's the other thing too. Like if Miami would have played a tough game and then lost by 20 to Purdue on the road, would we feel like less adamant about their chances of getting in? Like it's just like it's a bizarre thing because it's like you play the game and then you

lose the game. It's a data point that says that you shouldn't make it. It is the problem is you're taking these things and you have to take them in their totality. The thing basketball has over football is the abundance of data points. Like if they played 33 regular season football games, it would be much. easier to figure out who should make the tournament. Yeah. But that's not going to happen in football.

So that said, if you have the ability to schedule good non-conference games and you think you're going to have a good team. And remember basketball, they don't schedule 10 years out like football does. Basketball, you schedule it kind of knowing the team you're going to have. So if you think you're going to have a really good team, then sprinkle some more interesting games. Like, you know, for Miami of Ohio, they went on the road and played Air Force. But that's really, like, they did not, they did not try to really challenge this team. And maybe they would have lost those games.

But maybe if they'd only lost one of them, but they played a couple of them and had some wins that bolstered it, we'd be looking at them as maybe a better at-large candidate if they had a loss in the tournament. Yeah. Wild. So it's very strange. But it's one of that, yeah, it's one of those things. where I was all on board with everybody just clobbering Bruce Pearl over this comment. And then I started thinking about it a little harder and realized everything I've said on this show,

I should be backing what he said, not the other way around. I mean, it does happen in football. If you are undefeated in the group of five in the regular season and then you lose your conference championship game and there's another conference champion with one loss, you're not going. Yeah, exactly. It happens all the time. Or if some other conference is viewed as better,

or that other conference champion played a really tough non-conference game and won it, and you didn't. Like, we did this with Liberty. How many years in a row do we do this with Liberty? Yep. So that's, it's very interesting. So Miami of Ohio, good luck. And again, if you're going to lose, lose Friday, don't lose next week.

We head to KSR. on the mega board. Kentucky Sports Radio, lots going on in the world of Kentucky sports. The big story yesterday before the basketball team lost to Texas A&M was Mitch Barnhart, the longest tenured AD

in the Southeastern Conference, started on the job in 2002. The man hired Rich Brooks as Kentucky's football coach, for goodness sakes, stepping down. And of course, KSR,

has already got a hotboard out for the next Kentucky athletic director. And what's very interesting about Mitch Barnhart's tenure is there probably was nobody who fostered the careers of more future ADs. Yeah, yeah. And so there's a big long list of people who've worked for Mitch Barnhart at Kentucky who are now sitting ADs. And it's kind of automatic to think, well, you're going to at least call and ask some of these people. The most notable of these, Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne, Oregon Athletic Director Rob Mullins, Florida Athletic Director, Scott Strickland, Mark Coyle, the Minnesota Athletic Director, Dwayne Peavy, the DePaul Athletic Director.

It's a long list. Yeah. John Cohen was his baseball coach, and John Cohen's now the 80 at Auburn. Yeah. So, Andy, when you have an – what's the temperament? right now for Kentucky. Are they ready for a change? Are they excited? Are they upset? So ready for a change. So excited about a change. Not optimistic, there's going to be a change. And the other news that we learned on Monday is why. So also Monday it came out that Mitch Barnhart has a deal with Kentucky

that runs through August of 2030 that's going to pay him 950 grand a year to have this emeritus role. and I don't know if I am the new person or if I'm a candidate to be the new person, how excited I am if the old AD who was there for 24 years is still going to be hanging around and making almost a million bucks a year. Yeah, I mean, is that like a thanks for your service pension like title or is that something that you rely on in terms of like decision making and like leadership? This is the question I have to ask. This is, if I'm a candidate for the job, this is a question I ask.

I mean, this is, so when, when Florida was open and we just mentioned Scott Strickland, who worked for Mitch at Kentucky before he went to Mississippi State with Greg Byrne, and then eventually became the AD at Mississippi State. When Scott was going from Mississippi State to Florida, that job search or that athletic director search, there were people who didn't necessarily want in on the search because they were worried Jeremy Foley, the outgoing AD, the retiring AD, was going to have to have to, too big of a voice because he's a legend in the industry. He's still there. He's in an emeritus role. And so I think Scott has carved out his own place at Florida over time. But that was a concern

among candidates when that job was open. Yeah. I mean, that's a pretty big salary for no work, right? You know, sometimes people get, you know, an office in 300 grand a year, which is also a lot of money, but are kind of more like mascots than they are like actual functional decision makers. You don't pay a mascot that much. Yeah. So I don't know. That's a good question because, you know, I'm also curious too because, you know, he just made a really big decision with Mark Stoops. That's going to be pretty expensive.

And, you know, how the timing of that's all kind of interesting to me. It is very interesting. Now, they, there may have a decision to make with Mark. Mark Pope, probably not this year. Mark Pope's their basketball coach. Probably not this year. Kentucky's going to make the tournament this year. I know the fan base is not happy with the results so far. We'll see what happens in the tournament. I don't think they have a decision to make with Mark Pope right now. But if the results are disappointing again next year, then there may be a decision for the next person to make. And obviously having to hire a basketball coach in Kentucky is a huge thing. Mitch Barnhart, it should be noted, inherited Tubby Smith, when Tomi. Toby Smith left, he hires Billy Gillespie. Now, the former president of Kentucky came out on TV yesterday and said, hey, I was the one who made him hire Billy Gillespie. He wanted to hire John Calipari then.

And then he eventually did hire John Calipari. And then, of course, there was a very public fallout, falling out with John Calipari and Mitch Barnhart. So this is going to be a fascinating search, fascinating because you have these big names who you do probably need to call, but I would argue that Greg Byrne, Rob Mullins, Scott Strickland, all have better jobs right now. I don't think they're just because they work there and they like the guy. I don't think that necessarily means that they would come.

Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Do athletic director job rankings mirror the football rankings? Like, is there close? It's like Alabama, one of the best 80 jobs in the country because Alabama, Alabama's got one of like is that how it works well is it I think it's more like do they let you do your job like I think Auburn AD probably gets knocked down because there's this this view that there's these warring booster factions I think Tennessee AD prior to Danny white was viewed as a pretty

tough job because you had warring booster factions that you had to to Texas mediate Texas same thing that Chris Delcani has kind of gotten that under control but I do think that's that's something one of the name I'll throughout is Mark Hill their their deputy A who I think it sounds like is a candidate for this job. So it's a question of do they want to kind of keep what Mitch was doing going or do you want to go outside and hire somebody new? And the other thing, well, it's just a tough timing because whoever comes in may have to make a decision on the only thing that really matters there.

I think football matters a lot too, but that decision was just made. Yeah. But like, that's it. Like you are, I think your scorecard. And I didn't mean to mean that like football doesn't matter. and I think he made a tremendous hire for football. But to come in and like already have a coach who's probably going to be on the hot seat in that job is like not ideal. But maybe it is.

And you've got to navigate whatever changes are coming in college sports. Like the other thing is this person also kind of needs to be able to predict the future and figure out how all this is going to work. How are the player is going to get paid? How are you going to manage your budgets? Andy, there are. I think that like there are probably a lot. large portion of people in the athletic industry that would be invigorated by that opportunity. Like, that's not something you would shy from. I think that might even be a plus.

And it also may widen the candidate pool. We're naming people who are already involved, who are already in high up in athletic departments. Yeah, it could be anyone. It might be that you go find somebody from the business world. It might be you find somebody from pro sports because this is a different world now. Think out how different the world is now versus when Mitch Barnhart started in that job in 2002. It is radically different. It's radically different than an AD who started in 2018 even. So you have to figure all this out.

You have to be part of that. Now, I do think Kentucky, one thing I will say, because a lot of this is it's not all the AD. You know, the university leadership plays a big part in this too. I think if we look at the way they handled the football transition, which as you mentioned, was a massive decision because Mark Stoops, firing him was going to be very expensive. Now, he did them a favor and let them pay it off over time versus all at once,

but it's still really expensive. It's a huge line item on your budget. That said, they didn't, when they hired Will Stein, they didn't go, well, we're sending all our money to Mark Stoops. Good luck finding players. They said, Will Stein, here you go. We are going to open the checkbook. Go get who you need to get.

You want to make an offer to Sam Levitt? You go make an offer to Sam Levitt. Like it was very aggressive. And it suggests to me that the president and the people who are running Kentucky are pretty bullish on being successful in not just basketball, but football also. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be something interesting to track. And I think that like every decision, like even.

when we were having this college football playoff debate yesterday and me on Twitter, it's like, and it's possible that in six years that actually 25 teams can win the national championship. But you have to make decisions now for the future when you don't really know what the future is going to hold, and that makes this job kind of tricky. And you have to hire a person that's going to be able to navigate it, and you also have to hire a person that's going to be able to navigate it. And meanwhile, this new AD may jump into the role and have to make,

make a decision fairly quickly on the sport that the fan base really, really cares about and expects a national title contender every year. And that's a tricky one. I mean, it's interesting because we mentioned Greg Byrne because he's one of the guys that Mitch helped train. But Greg Byrne, he'd been in the Alabama job a while, but he had to replace Nick Sabin. And you knew when he got the job, he was probably going to be the guy who had to replace Nick Sabin. Imagine the pressure of that. Imagine the pressure of knowing your fan base expects a national title contender every single year and you've got to go find the guy who's going to deliver that. Yeah, no, I can't imagine. So good luck to whoever gets that Kentucky job because that is probably the first

thing you're going to have to wrestle with. And I think that's going to be very interesting to see how that all shakes out. But yeah, lots of big names because Mitch Barnhart was really good at training future ADs. So we'll see if any of those big names wind up actual candidates for the job. All right, let us move on through the Megaboard to the Bruin Report. And this is where we stop to celebrate.

Well, welcome to Bruin Report. One of the new members of the On3 family. They've been doing a great job covering UCLA for years. We are so happy and proud to have them on board. and they have a lot of interesting things to talk about because they've got, well, we've played some Mick Cronin videos through the year. So he's always fascinating. Their basketball coach,

and they had a big winning against Nebraska last night. So he didn't get mad? He did not get mad. He was very happy. He didn't play great defense. It was awesome. Their baseball team's number one in the country. The women's basketball team is very good, always.

Corey Close and excellent coach. they got a new football coach, Ari. Bob Chesney, who came from James Madison before that. He was at Holy Cross. He is taken over. And I think the UCLA folks are uniquely pumped about this one. I think they're really excited and I think they should be.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they got a guy that was coveted. And he just looks like he would be, like, fit in right there, doesn't he? Doesn't he just look like an L.A. guy? that guy's got a which is funny because he's he's the most northeastern new england guy he'll ever meet like right down to the accent you know he's got the he got the surfboard he's got the shorts because he's been showing like he showed up at the beach

volleyball game the other night and like he's he's showing that he's a supporter of everybody at UCLA which is really good and by the way I was wondering when this this was going to drop this morning they have a huge interview with bob Chesney right now on Bruin Report. And so he outlines what he wants to do with this program and what comes next. Yeah. It's a perfect welcome to the On3 network.

And, you know, I would be pumped if I were UCLA fan. I think that being able to go out and get him away from some other programs that wanted him, inspires an investment in the university and in the football program that, you know, may have lacked in past years. Now, I, you know, I have always been kind of confused by UCLA at times. has felt hopeless, but I am old enough to remember when they could sign top five classes. They had top 10 classes in my lifetime. You know, they are in a very.

Yeah, like when Jim Morrow was coaching there, they were getting good talent. They were getting players that everybody in Southern California want or, you know, everybody in the PAC 12 wanted, but also players that everybody in the country wanted. It was not at the volume of some other places, but it wasn't like they couldn't get those guys. And so I do think Chesney is going to be able to. to do that. I'm laughing at the interview he did with the Bruin Report guys. He gets asked about winter workouts and he goes,

first of all, let me just say winter workouts here, like air quotes. Yeah. So this is a guy who grew up in New England. So his idea of winter and their idea of winter completely different. Good for him. You know, moving from the snow to L.A. What a life. I'm jealous of him. This is your dream. I know. It is. We got to get there, man. He's going to win more football games.

Yeah. Get the views up. While we're on the subject of welcoming, let's move to a different on three site on the megaboard. Buff Stampede. Buff Stampede, of course, the excellent Colorado site that just joined on three. And our guy Pete Nacos,

already getting the Colorado folks ready with a profile of what Brennan Mary in the new OC plans to do with the offense and with Julian Lewis, who's entering his second year as a quarterback there. And remember Julian Lewis still a redshirt freshman. You know, it was a question of whether Coach Prime was going to start Julian Lewis or Caden Salt. Remember you and I were at Big 12 Media Days and they bring Julian Lewis as a freshman.

They're like, oh, okay, he's a serious contender for this job. Yeah, yeah, he's rocking the watch. It's his job now. It's his job. They, you know, actually, he was the starter at the end of the last season, but they held him out of the last game to maintain his red shirt. and we'll see what Bryn and Mary can do with him because if you've watched the show since we've been on, we've had Brandon Mary on a couple times.

He's a very interesting guy. He was the OC at UNLV a couple years ago. He was the head coach of Sacramento State last year. And he brings the go-go offense, which is one he designed at the FCS level, basically to be effective if you didn't have a dominant offensive line. And it doesn't require, everybody thinks it's, it's, because it's got some option principles that it requires running quarterback. It doesn't really.

Jade Maiavo was really good in this offense, and he's not the best runner in the world. But Julian Lewis, if he can be accurate, can be a very good quarterback in this offense. Yeah. I wonder, too, if this was a nice maneuver for Brendan Marion, too. We haven't really talked about Colorado quite a bit, and I'm like curious, if you maneuver, go to the offense coordinator,

try to have a good year or two, and then you've put yourself as a prime candidate to take over there. Like, is that, do you think that's the thought process? To take over there or to get another, yeah, another power conference head coaching job.

Like, how many years do we think Dion has left? Like, that's the thing. Like, I mean, I have no idea how many years he's going to hang on to this thing. Well,

right, because he had that, I mean, beginning of last season, we were learning about his fight with cancer. And so we don't know. And look, if it goes the way last year did,

I don't think it matters for anybody. If Fernando Lovo's, their new athletic director. He's going to get charged with figuring out what to do after that. But if they do improve, then I would think Brennan Mary is going to get quite a bit of credit for that. They were originally going to have Robert Livingston as their DC. He left for the NFL. So Chris Marv, former Vanderbilt linebacker, who's worked at Florida State and Virginia Tech. He's the DC now. It's going to be an interesting experiment. And then Marion, this is his first chance to run an offense in a power conference.

Now, we've seen him in power conference offenses before. He was Pittsburgh's wide receivers coach when they had a Bolitnikoff winner. He then coached wide receivers at Texas. So he's coached this level before, but he's not called it at this level before. But if you look at his history, it's worked when he's called it at every level. Yeah. And he's had a really interesting quote in the Q&A that Pete did. And he said that Julian Lewis is in the same.

arm class as guys like Quinn Ewers at that age, which I think is a pretty good compliment because Quinn Ewers has a live arm. So, you know, I'm very curious to see how they bounce back. I think Colorado is fascinating, Andy, because, you know, at the beginning of the Dion tenure, you know, there were debates about whether Dion could ever lead them to the CFP or the national championship even. If you could accumulate enough talent to completely change the profile of the program. And now that we're a few years into it, you know, he had a really good second year. year. They also had two NFL starters on their team that they don't have anymore. Like, is Colorado still a team that hopes and thinks it can compete at the highest level? Or is this like a, you know, let's try to get the eight wins and keep this thing respectable type of deal? And, you know, I don't know the answer to that. I don't know how much time Dion has left. He'll ever, forever have my respect for fighting through the health issues that he's had to

continue to do this. He does not have to do this. And I think that he wants to do this clearly through his actions. But in terms of like my thought, like I thought, you know, the ceiling for that program was a lot higher than I think I currently do now. So, you know, I don't know if yours has changed, but it'll be interesting to track. And I'm certainly excited to watch Julian Lewis because he was a five-star quarterback. Well, and I think the job's getting harder because I think about guys we've had on the show recently.

We had Joey McGuire from Texas Tech. We just had Eric Morris on yesterday. Texas Tech's not slowing down. they're spending money, they're going to have a really good roster. I don't think you can come away from hearing Eric Morris talk without thinking Oklahoma State's going to be quite a bit better. Utah is probably going to stay good.

BYU is going to stay good. Kenny Dillingham's still at Arizona State. They're going to be good. The Big 12 is hard. It's a hard place to win. Yeah. So is Colorado going to put the resources in the program? And that's more Fernando Lovo than the new AD.

That's his job. He comes from New Mexico where they did a really good job with Jason Eck last year in football. But can you do that? Because Houston's going to be good again this year. Willie Fritz did a great job in Transfer Portal. We'll see with TCU. They're very excited about the Harvard transfer quarterback, Jaden Craig. So this is not a place where if you are not resourcing the program at a high level where you're going to win.

So yeah and if you look at Colorado's schedule they get Texas tech they get Utah they get Oklahoma State Colin Klein coming to Kansas state like that it's it's going to be tough there Colorado's home schedule in the big 12 is is rough yeah I mean Utah Oklahoma State Kansas State Kansas State Houston UCF that's what I mean it's it's like becoming harder to differentiate yourself in that conference

and like when he took over the big 12 was kind of there for the taking because it was during the transition of Texas and Oklahoma leaving and all that stuff. So, like, you thought, hey, well, if he can go in and get a bunch of five stars to come in, he's going to be able to situate that. You know what? Didn't exist? Cody Campbell. I mean, he existed.

He just wasn't paying like that. Yeah, he's not two years old. But, like, you know what I mean? Like, he wasn't doing what he had been doing for the past two years. So, like, I mean, the landscape of the sport has changed. And as much as I believe that Dion Sanders, could have and should go get five-star prospects, like his smile and his charisma and his legend

doesn't translate to a paycheck. So like I don't know, I don't know if the advantage that I thought that they had two years ago or the window of that advantage is closed. Yeah, it's a fascinating question. And Brennan being where he is, I think Brennan having head coaching experience helps too, that if you have another flare-up or an issue that causes Dion to have to be away from the program,

you've got somebody who has recently run a program. That certainly helps. But I'm very interested to see the evolution of Julian Lewis because he was one of those highly rated recruits that Dion did get. Now, Jordan Seton was another one, and now he's at LSU. But this is one of the guys that Dion did go out and get that Colorado probably wouldn't have even sniffed before Deon Sanders was the head coach. right and brendan marion says million dollar arm and we'll see because actually if you're a good quarterback in the big 12 it's worth a lot more than a million dollars yeah yeah yeah more than that ask britton sorsby all right or check the legal documents yes right we moved to gamecox central

the megaboard at gamecock central south carolina offensive lineman josiah thompson likely out for this season. So since we had Shane Beamer on the show, and I don't know if we're just bad luck. I feel bad. I don't know if Shane should ever come back on the show again. I hope he does. No, we're not doing that. We're not taking responsibility. It's not our fault. Good. Okay. Yeah. Because

since Shane's been on the show, Jekaris Peak, the offensive tackle they got from NC State in the transfer portal, hurt his knee playing basketball. They hope to have him back for the season, but they're not sure. And then Josiah Thompson has surgery and he's going to be out.

for the year. Shane Beamer came out on Monday and said he does not anticipate Josiah Thompson playing this season. Now, I think when we peel back some layers here, Ari, some stuff makes more sense. Remember that Shane Beamer was surprised that Josiah Thompson entered the transfer portal. Remember that Josiah Thompson came back and said, I would like to stay at South Carolina. So possibly he did not get, have the market that he expected. Is it possible he didn't, he didn't, didn't have the market that he expected because of the medicals. Because Beamer mentioned this is to repair an injury that he dealt with all last year. Yeah.

I mean, that makes sense. I don't know how it went down or, you know, if that stuff comes out into play or if he knew during the negotiations that may or may not have taken place if he was going to be out for the season or not. I just know this. Like, we asked Shane when he was on the show if, like, Chicarious Peak would have. been a person of interest with or without Josiah Thompson. And I think that he, I believe, if I remember correctly, that he said, he said they were going to get him anyway, which may have meant that they felt like they might need a left tackle anyway, not one of them is going to be left tackle, one of them

to be right tackle. But if Josiah Thompson eventually had to have surgery, that Jacarius Peak would be the left tackle. The importance now of getting peak ready for the season is massive. And I don't know, like, too, if you're like just getting healthy once fall camp starts or whatever, if like missing all these workouts and not being able to be your full self-all summer is going to, you know, hurt him in his quest to be one of the best tackles in the country. But I think he's got enough experience that this would be one thing if this was just a raw, you know,

great athlete who hadn't played very much. But he's played a bunch. So I worry less about that than him just getting physically ready and actually making it in time. time. Yeah. So, I mean, it's a tough break, but South Carolina has now dealt with injuries at two of their tackle spots. And that's not something without a second portal window that you can fix. That's all depth and recovery now. So I like Shane. I think he's an awesome guy. And I'm wishing him the best. But man, it's just a tough break for him, two tough breaks. Maybe he anticipated one of them, but the other one he didn't. And yeah, this is a brutal situation because they, The offensive line was their biggest problem last year. They did take a lot of steps to correct that, but Jacarius Peak was a huge part of that. So you've got to hope you have him.

At this point, we don't know what they're going to be able to get out of him. Well, at least their first three games are forgiving. So even if Peek comes along and it's a little bit late to the party, like they theoretically should win their first three. Yeah. Their next nine are not so forgiving. Holy crap. I think the difference between September 4th and September 25th is a pretty substantial amount of time for somebody in that in that physical condition.

So even if he's not ready for Kent State, the hope is that he should be ready for Alabama on the 26th. And you could field an offensive line that doesn't, you know, get Lenora Sellers head knocked off. Yeah. And that's it. So Alabama, Kentucky, Florida, and it goes on from there. Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, A&M, Arkansas, Georgia, Clemson. Like, that's, they've got Mississippi State open the SEC schedule, and then you better win that one at home because then it just,

it gets rough from there. Yeah. Rough. Good luck, South Carolina, because I was actually starting to come around as you being a sleeper this year. Well, and look, they still have Dylan Stewart, who is unlike really anybody else in the country coming off the edge. And the world. And they still have Lenora Sellers.

They still have Nick Harbour. where they still have people that other teams would covet, that would play just virtually anywhere else. So I'm not ready to give up on them yet. It is incredibly frustrating for them, and I feel so bad for everybody there that they're having a deal with this. Ari, we go to Hogbeat for our final megaboard story.

The patch wars have begun. that was a pretty big male. Yeah. I think we knew we're, well, we had a couple finalists for Arkansas. It was pretty easy to figure out it. It was going to be probably one of two. So Arkansas announces Jersey Patch partnership with Tyson Food. Kyle Sutherland posted this thread.

Kyle works for Hogby. Tyson Foods, Arkansas-based company, you've probably eaten their chicken. $53 billion company. they made a deal with Arkansas to put the jersey patch on all 19 teams jerseys. The red and the Tyson logo close enough to the Arkansas red doesn't look that off-putting. But what's interesting about this deal, Arkansas announced that 90% of the money from this deal will go to the athletes directly. It's huge. I'm all for it. So this is how they're going to pay.

Like the NCAA just allow these jersey patches. We've seen LSU do it with a company that not many people know. That's an energy company that does business in Louisiana. So it makes sense. We assumed it be raising Keynes, but it wasn't. This is one. Ari, it was either going to be Tyson or Walmart, right? Raisin Keynes doesn't know anything about chicken compared to Tyson.

Okay, let's be honest. Like you. Raising canes can cook some chicken now. If they were going to advertise with us, we're here for that. No, no, they've got a great chicken. They don't kill as many. Right.

Right. We started working together and we would be on road trips. I'm like, Andy, how many chickens do you think have to die to feed the world every day? Remember, I used to ask you that all the time. And then we looked it up and it is. And it was Tyson alone. Like, it's billions of chickens.

A year, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm thankful for them, honestly. Like, you know, I'm happy with my place on the food chain. But, you know, it does make a lot of sense to have a local plate. You want to indoctrinate yourself with the local businesses and stuff. And like, I feel like, you know, this is a nice partnership.

It doesn't look bad on the Jersey. And the best part about it, Andy, is that the players are the beneficiary of the income. And like, to me, like, I think that this is a, like, I have no issues here with anything. Well, right. And look, the percentage of revenue that goes to the players is just going to go up, probably until they have a CBA. And now they have to find more revenue to move because the only other way to make the percentage change is to take it away from people who are already getting it, which would be cutting people's jobs. So this is the sort of thing that will help people who are already working in athletics keep their jobs. and then it's a new revenue stream that can then go to the player.

So you may not like the idea of a patch on the jersey. I don't really care. It's not European soccer where the logo is bigger than the team logo. We see it in the NBA. It's not a regional relationship too. It's not like some random patch of something. Like, I'm okay with it. And I think it's good.

And it was interesting. So I went on the next round, the great show out of Birmingham. with Ryan Brown and Lance Taylor and Jim Dunaway. And they were talking about this topic. And Lance said something about, well, isn't it a little bit of an unfair advantage? And I was like, what? Are we really talk about Arkansas having an unfair advantage?

Like, after all these years of college football, are we really begrudging Arkansas for having a nice corporate relationship? Yeah. But I understand they're an Alabama-based show. And if you're Alabama, this scares the hell out of you. Arkansas has a multi-billion dollar company funneling money to the athletes. Like Georgia, they've got Delta or Coca-Cola. That's like- But this is legitimately what is supposed to happen. This is a legitimate use of advertising dollars.

Exactly, exactly. But if you're Alabama, who's that going to be? Because you don't necessarily have a company that's in-state that has a natural relationship. Now, it doesn't have to be an in-state company. Yeah, it doesn't have to be. Can't they get McDonald's to do it or somebody? Like, I don't know.

I would bet they could. I would bet they could. And they're a big enough brand that they absolutely can command that. But I'm fascinated to see who everybody ends up with. Our friend Gabe Eichord at Oklahoma, he put out to the OU fans. He's like, what do you want the patch to be? Now, I know Gabe. I know the family he's married into.

he wants loves baby i mean it's a great patch too it's a great patch plus the the oklahoma city thunder already have the loves patch on their jersey so at least makes sense yeah loves very high in my gas station power rankings by the way what do you think where do you think i mean i don't know because nba is kind of an international brand now and like people in china watch it but like in america the oh u logo is more recognizable than the thunder logo right I would say so, yeah. So, I mean, I mean, it makes sense. But also, as much as I like the regionality of the Tyson-Arkinson partnership,

if you are in a place, because like that, what I would have said on the radio show, if somebody asked me they have an unfair advantage. I say you have one of the most recognizable and iconic football brands in the country. It doesn't have to be a company based in Tuscaloosa. Just go find somebody that wants their patch on your jersey. Right. It's not going to be Archibald's barbecue. you.

Yeah. Go get Pepsi. Oh, I wish it was. Like, I don't know where Pepsi's located, but I mean, you could go find a company that is. Pepsi's from North Carolina. Yeah. It'd be funny if like all the Fortune 500 companies got like boxed out based on regionality and the relationships with their local team.

That would be hilarious. Pepsi is as an advertisement standpoint. Pepsi probably has a better, gets more from advertising with Bama than they would for NC State. You know what I mean? Yeah, I would much rather put. my logo on Alabama's jersey than on North Carolina's jersey even. And maybe not the basketball jersey.

I don't know. But like Alabama. That's a pretty sweet jersey too. I mean, but the Alabama logo or I mean Alabama football and then also their basketball team's really good. Like Alabama can find somebody. I'm not going to go to bed crying tonight because Alabama thinks it's an unfair. Producer Riverask us would Auburn put an Apple logo?

I don't think Apple needs to advertise. Their CEO, Tim Cook, is an Auburn grad and a proud Auburn grad at that. It would be hilarious if Auburn could get the Apple deal with 90% of the money going to the players. You know, everybody on the message boards is assumed it's going to be Yellowwood. Jimmy Rain, the CEO of, or founder of Yellowwood, I don't know if he's CEO still. He is one of the biggest Auburn boosters. So the assumption has always been it's going to be a Yellowwood patch. But I think probably see that the Tyson Foods one,

it is regional and there is a relationship there. John Tyson is the person who essentially bankrolled John Calipari getting hired as a basketball coach at Arkansas. Like that makes sense. But it doesn't necessarily mean that your biggest boosters company is going to be the automatic bid winner here. Like Auburn also would command a pretty big company. And so perhaps Yellowwood doesn't feel like it needs that everything. By the way, speaking of Yellowwood, great commercial back in the day, if anybody wants to go down on YouTube, Rabbit Hole, starring Steve Spurrier and Jimmy Rain for Yellowwood. It's on YouTube.

It's hilarious. So, all right, let's see. Let's try to, like, okay, Pepsi in Alabama would make sense, especially if Georgia gets Coke. Yeah. If you'd have the Cola Wars in the SEC. Coca-Cola patch would look really good on the Georgia logo, on the Georgia jerseys. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

What's Ohio States? I mean, Ohio State's dealing with a whole other, like, their most recognizable brand in Columbus is a limited brand. And if you're paying attention to what's going on in the world right now, that's probably not in partnership. So I don't know. And you're not going to put the Victoria's secret logo on your name. Probably not. Yeah. Producer River says a picture of Cody Campbell on the Texas Tech jerseys.

I mean, that would be pretty good. Cody's not that much of a self-promoter, though, so I don't think. And his company doesn't need the advertisement. Like, they buy oil. They don't need to advertise. Yeah, I'm like looking at the biggest corporations in Columbus, like Huntington Bank and nationwide insurance are there. Like, I mean, they have.

Nationwide insurance, which nationwide advertises a ton during college football. That would make perfect sense. And also their basketball or their hockey arena is called nationwide arena. So like that's probably like, I mean, Columbus, Ohio is a pretty big boon in industry. So, you know, the thing that I think would be interesting, too, because like Honda is like, has like plants in Ohio now. It's not just Ohio, but like, think about like, who gets Amazon?

Oh, I don't think Amazon needs to advertise, but here's one for Alabama. Mercedes. There's a giant Mercedes plant right near Tuscaloosa. And also, Nick Sabin, deals in Mercedes these days. I mean, everybody will find somebody. If your brand is big enough and, you know,

people find that to be a good advertising tool, like there are more than 60 companies for your power teams to go figure out. I'm glad you're not too precious about the Jersey patch thing. Because this, this, I, reading the message words, it really seems split 50-50s. 50% of the people, it just bobbled. others the hell out of. They just cannot handle the idea of this rampant corporat corporatization. The other 50% is like they already had a swoosh. What's the

difference? Also, you know, if you're an Alabama fan and you're fired up about this, what is the number one thing that the greatest coach of all time who spent a large portion of his career at your school did? He adapted with the times and he stayed current and you have to understand that as much as we want nothing to change, change is inevitable in life. And obviously the sport is undergoing a violent evolution in the moment. And if you want to win football games, so if this whole mischugas of a business is about,

then you have to do the things that you do to stay relevant and to stay current. And it might not be. The Mercedes logo would look pretty sweet on an Alabama jersey. Yeah. Because it's a clean logo already. Yeah. And also, once you see it on their jersey for one game, it will be like it's not there.

Could it be a houndstooth Mercedes logo? Could be pretty sick if they could like do a partnership. But I think that the people that would do that would want their logo to be representative of their actual logo. So, but like, you know, Rivers saying Disney to UCF, like, yeah, Disney is a huge brand and they need to advertise. Disney is the Orlando Magic jersey patch right now. Yeah. Like the question that I'm actually going to have is, is Disney if they get into this business going to want to advertise with a bigger brand? Like that's the thing, too.

It's like just because if it's down the street doesn't mean that they're the best harborer for their logo. The question among the Florida schools, and I've seen this on the message boards and among the fans in the state, who gets Publix? Probably the team has the biggest visibility in the best bang for your buck. Like for them, if they're doing it from a corporate. I think public, I'm not sure Publix can can decide. Like, I don't know if it's good for business for Publix to pick one over the other, though. Like, did you disenfranchise the Florida State fans by picking Florida or vice versa? Like, I don't know if you do that.

Yeah. I mean, I don't. Florida State got Publix. You have to wrap a crab leg around the pee. Is Publix its own company? Because I know that like because Grocers is kind of hard to keep track. No, it's actually a very interesting company. It is owned mostly by its employees.

So it is very Florida, like started in Lakeland, Florida. very Florida, even though it has spread out to most of the Southeast. Yeah. But, you know, that's a really interesting point, though, Andy. If your brand, like, is important to certain people in your area who happen to root for two separate schools, you do not want to disenfranchise people either. Yeah. Because if Florida state people, like, Florida state people or Florida people would probably be petty enough to stop shopping there

if they funneled money to the NIL program for the arrival school, wouldn't they? Yes, agreed. But maybe those people don't outweigh the vast number of people who will see the logo on TV when they watch it. It's much easier in Arkansas where they are the biggest show in town. What Arkansas will command is very different than what Arkansas State will command. And I'm assuming that the CEO of Tyson Foods or the people who run the show, they also have an interest in seeing Arkansas succeed. They're massive Arkansas fans.

It's not going to be the case in all the partnerships. Like I don't think that the CEO of nationwide insurance. Maybe he is or she is. I don't even know who it is. But like if they are a huge Ohio state fan, but if I were the CEO of nationwide and I were an Alabama fan, I would want to spend the money to help enrich the program that I root for or that I have loyal to.

I got one. Producer River also great minds thinking alike here. Our friends at Culvers, you got to be the Wisconsin jersey patch, don't you? I mean, I think they should rename the state from Wisconsin to Culver's. Oh, that is the most natural fit. Now, they have a blue logo, so I think you just have to go the white logo on the red jersey. But it's a perfect match.

Would anybody be upset if the state of Wisconsin got changed to Culver? Yes. It would make so much sense. they got a few other companies based there there's a lot of interesting companies based in Wisconsin so yeah isn't Johnsonville there too Johnsonville is there and as we as we learned last year when we did the draft with Culvers

the Culver CEO is married to the Johnsonville CEO that's royalty right there that's a power couple it's amazing oh well I we will keep you apprised as the Patchward continue, there will be more patches. And actually, as we call out for questions for Dear Andy and Dear Ari on Friday show,

Andy Stapleson3 at gmail.com, ari.org, R.e. Dot Waserman aton3.com. You can also hit us up on social media. Hit us with your perfect combos of company and program. Let's try to guess all the jersey patches and the power conferences. Yeah. And what was like, do you get Universal Studios? Maybe.

Although Universal's in Orlando, too. UCF could get them. Lots of options. Arizona. I see for Arizona State, though. No question. Absolutely. Not for Arizona?

I don't know. I actually don't even know if the company is from Arizona. I believe they're from New York. They are. Yeah. We're going to have to Google where these companies are actually. Everybody, everybody hit us with your list because I'm fascinated to hear what people think each program will match up with.

Arizona iced tea was founded in Brooklyn. Oh my God. What a lie. What, you liar. You thought they were getting water from spring in Tucson and then brewing up some tea. American logos on there and stuff. Like you made it, it felt totally authentically Southwest to me. Like that sucks. Listen, if y'all want to advertise this, we're here for you. Yeah, we are. We don't have a tea yet. we don't have a tea we spill tea we don't have it it's a great segment we'll talk to you tomorrow