Andy & Ari On3 - Nebraska AD Troy Dannen has SEEN IT ALL in the past year | Wisconsin OT Jack Nelson revs up for 2024

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

We start with a visit from On3’s Pete Nakos to help translate the House v. NCAA settlement — which was submitted late last week to a federal court for review — into plain English. The NCAA and schools are trying to restrict NIL deals, but will that get approved by the judge? And even if it does, would it survive legal challenges down the road?(0:00-3:21) Intro - Georgia receiver arrested(3:21 -5:09) Previewing the show(5:10-5:46) Pete Nakos joins(5:47-19:51) House Settlement Update(26:33-42:34) Nebraska AD Troy Dannen Joins(42:35-50:18) Big Ten Discussion(50:20-57:32) Wisconsin OL Jack Nelson joins(57:33-1:00:46) ConclusionAndy and Pete will try to figure out how college sports will actually work in a post-House settlement world.Next, Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen joins the show to talk about all the recent changes in college sports — and he has an incredibly unique perspective. This time last year, Dannen was Tulane’s AD. Soon after, he was hired by Washington. While there, he worked on the Huskies’ transition to the Big Ten and had to replace a football coach when Kalen DeBoer left for Alabama. Then Trev Alberts left Nebraska for the Texas A&M AD job and Dannen was hired at Nebraska. Now he’s working on a 17-item action agenda handed to him by football coach Matt Rhule.Later, Andy talks to Wisconsin’s Jack Nelson, who is living a childhood dream as the Badgers’ left tackle. Nelson also knows how to bring a dead engine back to life. Plus, Andy asks if Wisconsin OC Phil Longo has ever quoted Bruce Lee during a meeting.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/VuRtL5eEqXEHost: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Monday. We are back, back home from Big Ten Media Days. It was a very educational trip. Got something coming out at on three on first year coaches. Talked to quite a few of those at Big Ten Media Days. You heard last week, Kurt Cignetti from Indiana, Jed Fish in Washington, Deshaun Foster from UCLA.

There was also Jonathan Smith, who just started at Michigan State. So we got to talk about those guys this week. This is going to be a very busy week for the coaches themselves, for the players, because this is the week that practice starts for most teams. Like Florida State, those week zero teams they're playing, they're already practicing. They've been practicing for a few days now. The teams that open on Thursday of week one,

they're starting today. Everybody will be rolling by the end of the week. We are very, very close to the 2024 season. We're close to actual football product. Well, I cannot wait because I don't know about you guys, but it has felt like a very, very long offseason. Maybe it's because of all the stuff that's changing. Maybe it's all the adjustments because you have all these teams moving to different conferences. Maybe it's because of the house settlement and how the sport will change around it, which we'll talk to Pete Nacos very shortly about that because there was news on that late last week.

And also because it's that time of year that stuff happens that's not good that we end up talking about and it's not something we want to talk about. Like Rah-Rah Thomas at Georgia getting arrested on early Friday morning. We didn't have a chance to address it on the show on Friday because we didn't know about it yet. But he got arrested. He's indefinitely suspended now. Three counts of second-degree cruelty to children. Three counts of family violence battery

now we don't know what happened because there are children involved that police report is not available to us so we don't know exactly what happened there was an arrest of rara thomas last year if you remember correctly it was another domestic situation he took a pre- pretrial diversion and had to take anger management and then moved on. Now, he missed the first three games last year. Hurt foot, apparently, but maybe, maybe not. We'll see what happens with this one, but he is currently suspended indefinitely. He was going to be a pretty big part of Georgia's plans. Now, they have plenty of other receivers.

You have Dominic Lovett, who transferred from Missouri last year, was probably, Lovett looked like he was probably going to be their number one guy this year. But Colby Young, the transfer from Miami, a bigger guy who could possibly fill in that role. And then, of course, they've got the guys that have been with the program. Again, it's Georgia. They're deep. But that's a situation that bears watching. Pete Nacos is going to be on shortly. We're going to talk about that house settlement and what it means for everybody because they finally got it in. Remember, there was some news that the schools were kind of being slow to approve it. Well, now they've approved it. This is the basically revenue sharing plan that

they've submitted to the court and the court has to say, yes, you can do this or no, you can't do this. And we'll find that out sometime, probably the next month, month and a half. And we'll talk to Pete Nacos about that though, because talk to some ADs, talk to some coaches about how this will work in practice. And I don't know that it's going to work the way the conference commissioners and the NCAA people who wrote it think it will. I mean, probably they know it'll actually work this way, but they wanted to write it in a different way to make it look like the NCAA might still have some control. And that's really the attempt here is to give the NCAA back some

control over NIL. Well, we'll see if that works or not, but we'll talk to Pete in depth about that. And also about the other big part of that settlement is the roster numbers changing the roster caps. And we've talked about the situation with football where what happens to walk-ons. Now Pete and I will get into it, but the numbers do change a little bit. So it does somewhat allow a little bit more for walk-ons than you think, or what we traditionally consider walk-ons, but it's not the same thing. And for Davos, when he called himself a crawl on basically who's somebody who was a student at the school who showed up and was like,

Hey, I played football in high school. I'm trying out for this team. That's the kind of person who I don't know that there's a place for in the future. And that was me, by the way. So I still want to know more about that. And we'll

talk to Pete about that. Actually, we can talk to Pete right now. We got Pete Nacos on three national reporter, news hound, scoop meister, master of the Nacosification. What's up, Pete? What's up? Similar to the NCAA, I'm in the middle of a moving process, so don't have a nice background at the moment, but here we are. Here to talk to you. Listen, nothing wrong with a nice, clean background, Pete, but yes, Pete is moving. You're going to see him coming a lot more from the studio in Nashville

at On3 headquarters very, very soon. It's going to be, it's going to be a lot of fun, but Pete, we got to talk about this settlement. It gets, it gets handed into the judge on Friday. Yeah. Claudia Wilkin. This is the judge who's handled all of these NCAA cases over the years, going back to, to O'Bannon versus the NCAA. What does she have to do now? Like how, what's her next steps with this thing? Yeah. So this is a month's long process. Now she'll review it.

She needs to certify it or deny it. She's also going to be put in charge of hearing out if there's claimants, right. If there's people who want to opt out of the back damages class. And then also if there's any more appeals, we've already had the Houston Christian one. So this is, this is the start of another long process um expect um revenue sharing in these roster caps that we're about to talk about to really start to go in effect next summer i think we'll have a really good inkling by january if she's going to certify this or not so it's interesting because there's a couple parts of it

and i didn't even mention the the major part of it for guys who aren't playing anymore. So if you played from 2016 to now, you're due for back damages. And I was listening to some folks at Big Ten Media and there was a former football player who I guess his career ended like in 16 or 17. And he was saying, Hey, I'm going to get some money from this thing. It's an average of $135,000 for a power conference football player. If,

if they basically, it depends on how much did you play? Where'd you play? And so there is some serious money in this for the folks who, who already played. So I give the example of someone like Joe Burrow, right? Like he fit perfectly in time frame. He's going to make good money off the broadcast NIL.

He's going to get the max payout for video games. He's going to get the max payout for lost opportunities probably. Then there's this pay-for-play category which is really the money that collectives have dispersed right now. They're trying to make sure that former athletes... Someone like him could,

could arguably make up to a million dollars if you like max out all four of those categories. So, um, that's going to be a really good payday for a lot of people. As, as I joked with someone, some NFL stars will probably be able to buy a new vacation house off the cell.

Yeah. I was going to say Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, probably, uh, Lamar won the Heisman in 2016. So yeah, this is, this is going to be a very interesting time. And then those former players who didn't end up in the NFL,

there is some cash to be made out of this. But I know what everybody wants to know about is what does this mean going forward? Explain what, I guess let's start with what's on paper. Explain what they would like to do in terms of NIL deals. Because remember, everybody can pay up to 22% of the average power conference school's athletic revenue, which we think will be around $22 million. And that's going to go up every year. It's going to jump to $23 million a year too and keep going. Yeah, they think it's going to be like $33 million by the end of this 10-year settlement.

So everybody can pay that. So there will be players drawing from that. Schools don't yet know or haven't yet said exactly how much of this is going to go to football. But we've been told what between 11 million and 15 million is is what we should expect yep even even maybe 17 million just depending on what school and how it all works out right because football makes all the money yeah and then what happens with collectives with what what we've come to know as NIL these last three years. Yeah. So the settlement had a few,

you'd say like chunks of texts that just were not anticipated. And are they shocking? No, but they definitely changed some things. I think moving forward one, there's this big long graph about boosters and it talks about how boosters have to be paying for like goods and services and it's going to make it very clear that um these athletes can't just enter into a

pay-for-play situation and it's also going to make clear that uh collectives and these boosters cannot operate on a non-profit uh structure something the irs has already come come against now the really i don't know about jaw dropping, but the really striking thing that has come out of this is there's going to be a new structure sort of for NIL deals. If it deals over $600, it needs to be submitted to this new NIL clearinghouse that is yet to really be established. And from there, this arbiter of sorts will have the opportunity to look at a contract, look at the details of agreement. However, the athlete does send it in and then they'll approve it or terminate it.

Now, this is something that's never happened in the last three years of NIL. And even more than that, Andy, I know some agents joked around on Friday night. Oh, we'll do a bunch of 599 deals. No, any, if an athlete signs like with a collective, for example, and like they do multiple $400 deals that put it over that $600 threshold, contracts would still need to be sent for opportunities. The cynic in me, Pete, when I saw the $600 number was, so $600 is, I believe, the limit where if it's over $600, you have to send a 1099 to the IRS. And I was like, oh, are they trying to make it where these guys don't have to send 1099s in?

But no, that's not what's going on here, as you explained. Now, that's the part that we think may get challenged here and and what's interesting so explain how this this work because this is it feels a little like their way of getting around collective bargaining because you can say that these athletes by taking the the revenue share money opted into this. They chose this. So I talked to, there's an agent, Brian Davis on the West Coast, runs the Ford Council firm and also reps a ton of athletes. And he's already told me that him and some attorneys are already exploring ways to file a suit over this kind of practice and whether it be on antitrust laws or just denying like free trade rights.

We'll have to see how that plays out. But yeah, this is just something that we've never really seen before. And you know, the other thing too, Andy, that was pointed out to me over the weekend was not only does this impact those like third party collective deals, this also means like if an Amazon wants to like pay like a top star, like a Mecca, a Buka already has a deal with Amazon, that's probably going to make that partnership a little bit more complicated because now they need to have their contract read by this third party. And then you truly start to think about, okay, how many brands are going to want to jump through all these hoops and then have the situation where their deal is terminated before, if they've already spent good cash on a photo shoot or something like that. Well, and this feels like the conferences and the NCAA and schools trying to give the NCAA some level of control back.

But the thing is, okay, you and I have talked to coaches, athletic directors. You've talked to people at collectives. No athletic director I've talked to has said this is how it will actually work. Every single one I've talked to says it's going to be the $22 million figure will be the floor. And then collectives will kick in additional money. And they're just, it feels like they are planning to operate as if there's no difference. And that's how they want to operate, Andy. I mean, they, they understand the importance and significance that these collectives provide. And, and you said it earlier, but until we get collective bargaining or maybe even employment, they're going to they're still going to be around.

So I see this this kind of like six hundred dollar system being significantly challenged in the courts. And, you know, that's just one lawsuit. There's going to be so many lawsuits that come out of this settlement. Could could Wilkin just say. Not this part, not this part? Is that pot? Or does she go back to the plaintiff's attorneys and say, here's what I like and here's what I don't like? She can say that. It's going to be a little bit more complicated, I think, than just crossing that out and crossing that out. But yeah, she will have the opportunity to really bring up some questions about language and practices she isn't supportive of. It's going to be so interesting but there's another piece of it and that's the roster caps in different sports so we've we've

talked about it as you know and i've talked about it a lot because of you know how i feel about the walk-on situation but the roster cap in football is now 105 so you can't have more than 105 players but you could have 105 players on full scholarship right which is 20 more than you had before but how is that going to actually work let's say because i imagine it's different for alabama then that's going to work for say boston college Wake Forest. Yeah. So you don't have to max the one Oh five from, from what I've learned. Right. So you can have 95 instead of 85 or something like that. You can also give partial scholarships. Right.

So maybe you go all in on 95 and then also have 10 guys that maybe you want to treat as walk-ons that you get partial scholarships to. It's going to be really interesting to see how it develops. The other thing, too, Andy, that I don't think it's ever going to truly replicate the walk-on status that we love. But like a Matt Rule, for example, is going to be able to have 140 guys in camp and then bring it down to one Oh five, uh, things like that. So that can happen. Um, but I, I do understand it's not the walk-on system that college football loves. Well, we're going to be hearing Troy, Dan, and the Nebraska athletic director later in the show. And he, in,

in our talk mentions the phrase taxi squad, which is a practice squad. And it is what, what that is in the NFL parlance. Yeah, I do think there's room for that. I think there's a way to do that. And and then you have your human tackling dummies like me. And it allows a place for that. But this is interesting because this is going to affect recruiting in a lot of interesting ways because now i would assume like in the big 10 and the sec they're fully funding those 105 scholarships and so they can take more players

now and you know there's always that saying like is it a real scholarship or like a fake scholarship right like is it can it can the four-star quarterback accept the Ohio State scholarship, for example, or something like that? Now I think there will be more opportunities where they can. And it's going to give the top schools in the country more opportunity to stack talent. Yeah, I think – but here's the thing, and this is the part everybody's like, oh, it's going to – they're just going to stockpile.

The 22 spots on the field are what regulates that. So you're going to be so freaking busy with the transfer portal. Yeah. We're going to see a lot of movement. Yep. A lot of movement. And that also comes with right that new ruling how there's like free transfers right multi-time transfers can move around as much as they want

things like that so the transfer portal is not going to slow down anytime soon yeah and now there's other sports involved in this too so especially i want to talk about baseball in particular i know we you know we got a lot of folks in the chat, big SEC school fans, big college baseball fans. Like going from 11.7 scholarships to 34 potential scholarships. Now you don't have to do it. Yeah. But holy crap, that changes some stuff in that sport.

You know, having some conversations with some administrators, it's going to be really interesting to see how some some of these other conferences approach it right like you think every sec school is going to max that 34 but then it brings up the conversation of like okay like how many like really what's the talent pool going to look like for some of these look like lower conferences right um so do they not go all in on baseball like the SEC is definitely going to? And maybe do they make, I don't know, softball or everything, you know, or do they go all in on women's volleyball, like things like that? That's going to be some big decisions and some projections I think we'll see in the future.

So yeah, I think this is, this is going to be really like the math changes so much. And it's another, it's another situation where we can't really predict how this is actually going to work. Right. With, you know, with the recruiting, with the how they're going to fund the scholarships. And we've done this the last few years, like where we thought we thought NIL might look a certain way. It evolved into this. This will evolve into something else. I did have a text from from somebody pushing back on one of your statements, Pete. And I think it's fair. So this person said, you know,

you said you think most ADs want to operate in the way where the collectives are going to kick it. I'm not sure I necessarily agree with that. I think they're resigned to it, most of them. I don't know how many of them want it, but I just don't think there's any other, like, I think there's any other, like, I think there's still quite a few true believers who want the NCAA to have some level of control. I just don't think unless you have collected bargaining,

you can have these rules. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a question I asked a lot of coaches last week at big time meeting days. And a lot of them thought collectives were going to be around. I don't know if the excitement level was necessarily like 105 when they said that yeah no and they're not excited

about the 105 i don't think they're excited about having to manage that i did you know i i do wonder like how many how many football coaches are now calling their baseball coach at their school to say, how did you manage these, you know, partial scholarships? And, you know, how do you, how do you handle that politically with, with the roster? Yep. A hundred percent. You know, there's some really other like huge jumps to like men's track went from 12.6 scholarships to 34, like things like that. Like, so all of a sudden there's, there's going to be a lot new room for growth and, and a ton of other like Olympic sports. So what schools decide to fund that and what, who do not, uh, will be,

I don't know, just something to keep an eye on. Yeah, this is, this is going to be fascinating. The other thing, and I talked to Jed fish about this last week, and I want to get your take on this with the revenue sharing there's schools that are going to have a lot more nil i don't even call it nil money at this point but they're gonna have a lot more money to pay players basically than they've had before in the collective era where they've had to you know ask donors to give more now they're gonna have so like jet fish at washington is probably a good example of this relative to some of these other big 10 schools um i always think

like dave clausen at wake forest who is a great evaluator and a great developer but they you know the way they're structured this is small school they're not going to have the kind of collective dollars that some of these other schools are. But if you, if you put them, you know, kind of in the neighborhood money-wise with all these other schools, I feel like the guys who can evaluate really are going to have an advantage in that environment. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, right.

Even if you take collectives out of it if you can scout really well, then you're still going to have dollars to spend on your roster. So it's a really good mix. And I'm not quite sure if it's really going to make it a really even and equal playing field. But I think that given these new resources, it really can make an impact. Yeah, this is going to be a wild new world here these next few. And we're already seeing it, Pete. You and I have talked about this too.

So the class of 2025 is in the midst of being put together at all these schools. And you see these commitments. Remember, everybody can make NIL or agree to NIL deals. They can't start paying on them until the guys get to campus. Right. But we're seeing, or at least hearing anecdotally about basically they're backloading these things to August of next year when they believe these payments are going to

start. Yeah. And there's some programs I've been told to write ones who maybe don't have the deepest like NIL collective bank accounts, but have also now started to like talk about revenue sharing numbers and making their NIL pitch because that can make them more competitive in some recruitments. And a lot of these deals too, I'm hearing are multi-year deals, right?

Trying to factor in like what a collective can do. And then beyond that when revenue sharing does kick in. Yeah. what a collective can do, and then beyond that, when revenue sharing does kick in. Yeah, this is going to be quite a time in college. Now, we have another season to go before all of this happens. But behind the scenes, this is all happening. So now everybody knows what's going on. We've been educated. Yep.

Thank you, Pete Nacos. And good luck with the move. Thanks. I'll be around. I'll see you pete nakos the man who gives you all your news and this was a big one this is a big one normally we don't get too far into the nuts and bolts of this stuff but everybody wants to know how this is going to work we're trying to figure it out and to be honest like the coaches in the eighties are all just trying to figure it out as well, because it's all changing stuff can

happen in the courts that they can't control. And they just want to, they just want to know, like the coaches, especially like, just tell me the rules. That's all I want to know. Just tell me what the rules are and we'll move on. But it's going to be a while before they can just say, here are the rules. This is what's going to happen. I think everybody's got an adjustment period to deal with. One guy who has done nothing but adjusting over the last year is Troy Dannen. So I normally, we don't have ADs on the show, but Troy is an interesting case. All this stuff that's happened, he's seen it through three different lenses in the past year.

So a year ago this time, he was Tulane's AD. And so he was looking at it through the prism of an American Athletic Conference school, trying to figure out how to be competitive. And remember, Tulane had been very, very good. Tulane was coming off, you know, at the last off season was coming off a Cotton Bowl win against USC. Willie Fritz had that program rolling. They were one of the better teams in the conference.

And so he gets hired at Washington. Troy Danning is hired at Washington. Now that's a little bit after they decided to go to the big 10, but he's got to deal with the nitty gritty of how do you prepare to move them to the big 10. Meanwhile, their football team goes on a magical run,

wins the pack. 12 beats Texas in the playoff goes to the national title game. Then Kalen DeMorgan tired away by Alabama. And Troy Danning's got to hire a football coach. Then shortly after that, Trev Alberts goes from Nebraska to Texas A&M as the AD and Nebraska's like, hey, Troy, we would like to hire you. Troy Dannon's from Iowa. He's always wanted to work at Iowa or Nebraska. Those are the dream jobs for him. So he takes the Nebraska job. And now he's in the Big Ten. Now, in terms of finances,

they're at the top of the mountain. They've got everything they need. They want to win more games, but they've got the money. So Troy Dannen has seen all of this from very different places. And so I thought that perspective would be very interesting. So let's talk to Troy. We're here with Troy Dannen, the Nebraska Athletic Director. And I was telling Troy, we don't always get into these big picture, what's changing in the world of college sports conversations. But when I saw you, I figured we have to do this because a year ago this time you were the

athletic director at tulane living in a certain neighborhood of college sports yeah then you get hired at washington and you've got you know you've just they've just decided to move to the big 10 you've got to deal with that transition and oh by the way your football team goes to the national championship game and your coach leaves and then the nebraska job opens and now here you are it's been a year it's been a year yeah is your head spinning you know it's starting to settle down a little bit uh you know and even if you go back a year you know we were coming off at toulaine coming off a cotton ball win over you yes so you know you haven't talked to any trash here have you uh no i i i talked i had a little trash at washington when we went back to usc there you go but uh i i've i've now swallowed

that so no no bulletin board material now now that i'm in the league but no it's i've seen a lot of things in the last year well and duringhlke, Well, and during this time of complete transformation of college sports, which how much has, how much has that changed? Like, just because you've seen it through three different prisms in the past year? Does that change how you look at how things are changing with the house settlement with revenue sharing with all of the things that are coming with the house settlement, with revenue sharing, with all of the things that are coming down the pipe.

Well, you know, sometimes your perspective is guided by where your feet are. Right. And so, you know, how Tulane was going to be affected by all of this is different than even Washington. And I think Washington, Nebraska, even a little bit different. So, you know, there's a part of this, you know, and how do you advocate for the greater good of the whole and a part of it, like what's in the best interests of, of your school, Nebraska. And some, sometimes what gets us in a problem is we're all very provincial animals. And, and when I'm thinking about Nebraska and Pat's thinking about Penn state and Ward's thinking about Michigan, we kind of get nowhere. And so at least as I'm

speaking now, I kind of feel like I have a little better perspective because I can speak to the impacts on almost every segment of college athletics. So as you're looking at it, I go back to your first press conference as the Nebraska AD, where you came out and said very strongly, hey, if you're not supporting NIL, if you're not understanding that this is a very important part of the ecosystem that we need to take care of, then you're behind. And it felt like you were trying to kind of give a wake-up call. Yeah, you know, sometimes we want to romanticize the past and quit worrying about the present. And what happened, you know, the romance,

20 years from now the romance of college athletics is going to be today. Right now it's what happened. It's whatever happened when you were 14 or whatever. Yeah, that's exactly right. But what had to happen, the five national championships that Nebraska has won were won under a different model right in a different environment a different era and we're not chasing those five championships we're chasing michigan last year we're chasing ohio state we're we're chasing george so what do

you do to chase it the world in college athletics is now evolved into x yeah nil and it's going to evolve into revenue sharing. Right. I was going to ask you because that message, while timely, might not be so timely if you deliver it in 2026. Well, and one of the things I felt we needed to do at Nebraska was get people comfortable in the fact that we're going to be compensating, whether it's through NIL or whether it's through revenue share

or maybe down the line employment. We're going to be compensating. It doesn't nil or whether it's through revenue share or maybe down the line employment we're going to be compensating it doesn't make the game worse doesn't make it better it doesn't mean you need to turn away from it but so i i'm going to need their support yeah today i need an nil next year i'm going to need the revenue sharing model well your chancellor didn't just there's not a button where they can shock you if you use the e-word i heard the e-word so just, you know, obviously the courts are going to decide that more than one individual, but, but, you know, you have to look around the corner of what might be next. And while we're still trying to operationalize this revenue sharing model, there are a lot of court cases out there that, that, that could render it moot

on the line as well so how do we prepare ourselves for what that eventuality may be now you've always been somebody who was thinking about these things and you know a lot of it was at two lane and you were trying to figure out how to put two lane in the best possible place now that you're at a place like nebraska where your voice is is pretty loud in this in this environment How much do you feel like you should advocate for what your vision of the future should be? So I've got a lot of perspectives from the Transformation Constitution Committee time. And, you know, not on behalf of Nebraska, Tulane, but to just talk about maybe devil's advocate. Here are the consequences of this.

Here are the consequences of that. And make sure we discuss all of those areas. The one thing in college athletics right now, I think Charlie Baker is doing a great job. Charlie doesn't have a lot of power because of the structure of the governance model. But we're all looking out for each other. Institutions are, leagues are, and the NCAA, who is charged to look out for the greater good, really doesn't even have that opportunity from a regulatory standpoint to do that.

So I think, and it happens a lot in the Big Ten room, what is the greater good? Now, we want to put the Big Ten in the best possible position, but the best possible position is not the Big Ten and nothing else existing. So how does the model stay in place in some way, shape, or form? So you were coming to the Big Ten one way or the other, whether you were Washington or Nebraska. What was that period like of transition at Washington? What goes into a conference transition for an athletic director? Well, I got to Washington about 30 days after the commitment to join this year. And so it was fast-tracked.

USC and UCLA had a couple of years. Washington, Oregon had less than one. So really I was trying to figure out the finances. But there was still a lot with the athletes. You know, I met with every team, and now we're asking the athletes, instead of going to Cal and Stanford, you're going to go to Rutgers and Maryland. You're going to go across four time zones. You're going to take red eyes.

You know, it's going to be challenging. So the interesting thing, the athletes, so excited. And, you know, I thought there might be a little more hesitancy with the athletes for the travel, but it was there's new. Right. Yeah. It's going to they're going different time places, different people to compete against. Yeah. Yeah. Getting different, different exposure. And, you know, sometimes I think and I saw this just in the short time I was at Washington, you do get a little out of sight and out of mind pretty quickly. And this is going to keep the West Coast schools' insight in mind where that hadn't happened.

So there was a lot of financial planning for the transition. You know, there's still, you have to have a production studio because of the Big Ten network. It didn't exist on campus because the Pac-12 schools used a central facility. So just little things like that, a lot of things that had to happen and had to happen quickly. Now, Nebraska, there are things that have to happen. I understand that Matt Rule, the football coach, has given you a 17-item action list.

How are we doing on that list, by the way? You know, that list happens almost every place. I've kind of been making a point of it that that first hour I was there, he said, these are the things we need to do to have success. And, you know, I work for the coach. Coach didn't work for me. I work for the coach. I'm glad you understand that. I don't know that most ADs do, but that is how it works in most places. Well, and it's not from a, you know, you have more authority, you make more money than I do. It is, you know, the job of the AD is to put somebody in a position to succeed.

And you don't do this. I don't coach football. You don't do that by telling Matt Rule how to coach or what to do. So, you know, it was important to me to know what Matt thought, having been at Nebraska for a year. He's been, he's had great success. He's climbed the mountain. So what needs to happen here? It gave me a great head start. Yeah. And then you know, that list gets bigger. And then there's some things that list Matt, now, is this really, is this really going to help us win? But if you look at everything through a context, does it help us win? Yeah. And does it help put our kids in a good position? Yeah. You know, those lists are invaluable. Well, we were talking about this before we started.

I'm very interested in what happens at Nebraska because it does feel like this is a year where the football program should take a nice step forward. And I've said since NIL became a thing that the person, the player who helps Nebraska take that step, whoever it is, whether it's Dillon Ryle, whoever, I hope it's like Nash Hunt. I like the big guys to get it. But that person is going to do so well in what you guys call real NIL. Like, it feels like that state is just dying to have the next Nebraska star. The level of care in the state and ownership in the state for Husker athletics, in some ways it's a different level of pressure because you're representing 1.9 million people. They're all Huskers.

Yeah. And they all own it and they all love it and they all care for it. I found this out i do a weekly radio show there's we do a five night a week radio show in the state of nebraska that's broadcast through the entire state i have a weekly show of my own that just shows how much people care and want to hear from nebraska athletics so to your point when when good things happen there are going to be a long list of people that are going to embrace those who make those good things. Oh yeah. And how do you adjust as, as revenue sharing comes down the pipe? How do you adjust the relationship with the collective? How all of

that works? Well, part of the collective was we need to get people comfortable, as I said, with, with giving money that's going to support the athletes. The collective is going to be in place, I think, when the revenue sharing model comes in. I don't know what form it's going to take. Right. But there's going to be some role now that the collectives have been established. But, you know, for us, every time we've had a new expense item,

you know, we've found a way to grow revenues. None of us have a $21 million surplus. No. So it's not a matter of new college football playoff contract uh it's a year it drags a year okay all right but but it's still not that much so you know this is one of those times when athletics we actually are going to have to manage the bottom line expenses right and and so there's there's going to be some hand wringing and tumult on campuses as we figure out how to how to provide for the top. And and, you know, we all tear sports, whether you want to say it or not, or if it's good or not, you all tear. Well, you're going to see it, obviously, in how the revenue sharing money is allocated to sports. And it's going to feel even more tiered. And I'm sure you're prepared for the action items from your various coaches not just matt yeah yeah and and you know the great thing

about every coach is a type a personality oh yeah and so and their team's the most important team and they're matter what they are going to want to make sure that that they're supported in the way that their other peers in the league are going to be supported yeah and and so uh some of those are going to be challenging discussions and awkward discussions. But part of it is you also have to lay out, this is not a pill, but this is the why. And this is how, you know, the fact that we have money,

the $21 million to share, 90%, 92% of that comes from football. Yeah. And so there's a preponderance that money is going to get allocated to football and, and we want all of our teams to win. But more importantly than that, all of the experiences of the athletes have to be good. Yeah. Tim Grahlenssasnick, Jr.: Because you still want them coming. I still want them coming. I still want them

graduating and I still want them to have a great experience while they're in Nebraska. Jim Collison, And the thing that's fascinating to me is it it, it's not always football. You guys sold out your football stadium for a volleyball game. I mean, it, it just, it, it feels like if you can create the right program, the right environment, the people will come, the people, the fan base will find it. It doesn't matter what it is in life. When things things are an event people want to be a part of it yeah when it's just a game yeah yeah we can but if your volleyball program hadn't been great for

years and years and years that's not something everybody's going to do that's exactly right but but it goes back to ownership people care yeah oh I would I would tell you I think the volleyball players are bigger celebrities than the football athletes are. I would agree that. Yeah. In Nebraska, I've seen security with our volleyball team. You know, when I got there, they said, here's what you get for tickets for football. Rev sharing NIL deal. I don't know. Well, this might violate the employment. Things might be like a work study thing.

Defensive lineman as security for the volleyball team. There's always an opportunity. We're all about synergy here, Troy. And I think we found there's always a way to do about anything. But when I got to Nebraska, they said, here are your football tickets, here are your basketball tickets, and you only get four volleyball tickets that don't ask for any more. You're the AD.

And so it told me right away what volleyball was. Well, every school has its own unique ecosystem, but Nebraska feels like just a completely different place. And you worked a lot of places. You were in northern Iowa. We mentioned Tulane, Washington. What makes Nebraska special? Well, I think that ownership.

You know, I saw it from afar growing up in Iowa. You know, I always thought, boy, that Nebraska, it's something different. And at that time, they are kings of the world in football. I mean, I would read their newspaper and they would win 35-7 and be upset that they got 7th or only scored 35. But it is their team. It is the state's team. And, you know, there's a lot of places, though, where they don't have professional sports, but they don't have the ownership of the team. And I think those national championships and what Devaney and Coach Osborne did and even what Frank did, it gave people a sense of this is mine.

And people, I don't want to say live and die by it, but when people care enough about it, that helps, in their mind, define their own lives, there is something special about it. It doesn't happen every place in that way. And you can argue sometimes maybe it's a good thing, maybe it's a bad thing. I will tell you there's nothing that beats a high give-it-or-factor. And Nebraska has not been to a bowl game in several years. And the stadium is still full, still care, 396 consecutive sellouts and people still care about it just the way they did yesterday. And I'm not, I don't know if that'll happen tomorrow. Right.

And part of our job is to break that streak and get people to embrace success. But, but people just grew up owning the program as if it was their own. Well, I got a good feeling you're breaking the streak this year. So we'll see. We've got the right guy. Matt Rules is a whale of a coach. He's done a good job of getting the program built. That list is 17.

My guess is he had his own list of about 117. Yeah, I figured it was pared down a little bit. Yeah, before I got to the 17. So he's done this before at places that I think were harder to do than at Nebraska. So I look forward to what lies ahead. Thank you, Troy. Appreciate it. Nebraska 80, Troy Dannen.

And, yeah, I do think they're breaking that bowl streak this year. You look at Nebraska's schedule, it is very advantageous. They got a nice draw in the Big Ten. That Colorado game week two is the big one. If they can win that one, then I think you're talking about a pretty good run there. And a good chance that they are bowl eligible by the time they play Ohio State in game number eight.

Now, at Indiana, you saw Kirk Cignetti. If you saw the Kirk Cignetti interview last week, or you saw him talking at Big Ten Media Days, I'm telling you right now, Indiana's going to get somebody. I don't know who it's going to be. Maybe it's Nebraska, maybe it's somebody down the line, but Indiana's going to get somebody. And Indiana also, kind of similar to Nebraska in that they've got a bunch of winnable games up until they run into Ohio State later in the schedule. Now, Indiana's got Ohio State and Michigan back-to-back. There's an open date in between those games.

But those are all games that they should be very competitive in. You know, Maryland, Northwestern, we don't know what they're going to be this year. Both of them are adjusting to things. Northwestern, you're going to hear from David Braun, the Northwestern coach later this week. He's a fascinating guy too. Remember, he gets thrown into that situation last year. Remember David Braun at Big Ten Media Days last year? Basically, you know, getting questions that he just couldn't answer because he'd been on the job essentially a week where Pat Fitzgerald got fired. Braun had been hired as the defensive coordinator, came from North Dakota state. He'd been there since January. You know, he's dealing

with all of the fallout from this stuff, just had a phenomenal first year. And if you watch them play Rutgers in week one, you thought, oh my gosh, they're never going to win a game. They ended up winning eight. They ended up beating Utah on a bowl game. It was impressive. It was an impressive coaching job. He's made hires on the offensive side of the ball now to better reflect what he would like to have happen. This is a team that won a lot of close games last year we'll see but again their their early schedule like you look at the first half of their ski it gets a gnarly on the back half because they got wisconsin at iowa ohio state michigan but they got a chance

to start out hot and like northwestern at washington that that fourth game forern, that's a big game for both those teams. That's one both those teams are going to need. And so, again, we're getting to this deal. I don't envy the folks, and this may be me sometime this month, who have to predict the results of every game. Cause I've seen, I've seen a few people who cover various conferences say we predicted the results of every single conference game and it's tough. It's tough. And this, when you realize,

Oh wait, somebody's got to win this one. Somebody's got to lose this one. They're going to be some tough seasons. They're going to be some seasons that, you know, where we, we thought a team was going to be this couple of bouts of the ball.

All of a sudden it's a very different year, but David Braun's a really interesting coach too. So there's a lot going on in the big 10 this year. There's a lot of, of very intriguing programs. You know, it feels like the better schedule. Now we mentioned Iowa has a good schedule, but Nebraska got a good draw. Rutgers got a good draw. There's a few schools that could

have pretty good records here. So we'll see how they go. Another one that intrigues me a lot is Wisconsin because when Luke Fickle took the job from Cincinnati my thought was okay Wisconsin is thinking about these things differently Wisconsin has opened the checkbook Wisconsin has said we are going to compete for the Big Ten title not the Big Ten West title and he hires Phil Longo as the offensive coordinator. So clearly a huge change from what Wisconsin had been doing. And really they'd been doing it since Barry Alvarez. So they went Barry Alvarez, Brett Bielema. When Gary Anderson was there, they ran basically the same offense.

They still were very much a power run football team lineup and just try to knock you out. And then, of course, Paul Crist, who had been a Wisconsin guy, he came in and did the same thing. Luke Fickle decided, hey, got to do something different because it's not about beating Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota anymore. It's about trying to beat everybody. And you saw that team last year. Now, the injuries certainly caused a problem. Tanner Mordecai got hurt.

They were just out of sorts. I didn't think they had enough speed at the receiver position. And I do think with this offense, the better you can throw, the better you can run. You know, we've seen it back when Sam Howell was North Carolina's quarterback and Phil Longo was running North Carolina's offense. When Sam Howell had a lot of weapons in the past game, it opened up the run game because they could just run into very light boxes. And there was a, there was a year, I believe it was 2020 Virginia tech in Miami just could not do anything with their run game. Like, and it was because they also couldn't do anything with the past game, but Phil Longo would

just run the ball as long as it was working. And in those particular games, I believe they averaged over 10 yards of carry against Miami. And I believe they were over nine against Virginia Tech. And that's the thing I keep waiting to see with this Wisconsin team, because given what they have on the offensive line, given what they usually have in the backfield, if you can really get the passing game going, then you should be able to hand off over and over and over again, because you've now scared the defense into playing you honestly. And you have the beef up front that if they are playing you with a six man box or even a seven man box, you should be able to run into that and gain yards. We're going to find out a lot about Wisconsin when Alabama comes to town. I I'm not worried

about the beating Alabama. I don't think they're going to, but my question is how do they compete against USC? How do they compete against Penn state? How do they compete against Iowa? How do they compete against Nebraska? Like where is Wisconsin relative to that? Because you look at Wisconsin in the Paul Crist era, the early part of it in the Brett Bielema era, this is one of the best programs in the big 10. And I don't know if it's a matter, it wasn't always a matter of just feasting on the big 10 West because some of that was pre-division. Some of that was leaders and legends where the divisions were mixed up a little bit. Some of it was Big Ten West. But I do think it's possible for Wisconsin to be in that elite group in the Big Ten. They have to be faster as a team.

They have, but still have to be able to block as well as they always did. They still have to prioritize developing those offensive linemen. And I think that's the key there. We were lucky enough last week to sit down with one of those offensive linemen. And I think that's the key there. We were lucky enough last week to sit down with one of those offensive linemen, Jack Nelson, the left tackle for Wisconsin. Talk to him about what it's like being an offensive lineman at Wisconsin, what it's like being an offensive lineman at Wisconsin in this offense. Here's Jack. Welcome. Jack Nelson from Wisconsin. Left tackle, which I mean, okay, you grew up in up in Wisconsin. What does it mean to be the left tackle

at Wisconsin? You've got to make sure you're ready for that pass rush, I think. I mean, if you've got a right-handed quarterback, everybody knows. You've seen the blind side. They're not looking. You've got to make sure you're protecting them over there. What's it like when you you're younger you're watching the Badgers play are the old linemen just the rock stars of the of the group as you're growing up? Well I mean Michael Dieter like yeah I mean you grew up in my household yeah yeah I mean my dad played O-line I always played O-line you know my younger

brothers play O-line so you know we're always watching them you know what's what's the latest with the Wisconsin O-line? Now, previously, in the previous iteration, those guys were also, it was the pass blocking, but also you were running downhill. You were running straight at people. How much did that change when this offense changed? How much did what you do change? It certainly passed the ball more. That being said, though, during the game there's definitely times you're like, okay, we're definitely relying on the run here. I mean, Coach Longo does a fantastic job with the offense,

but he'll tell you himself, this whole air raid stuff, it's not like we're never going to run the ball again. But there's definitely times where I'm like, oh, there's run play after run play after run play after run play. Has he quoted Bruce Lee to you yet? Probably. Be water. I asked him about that once.

Yes, yes, yes. Be like water. He has. Yes. Multiple times. Which is just take what the defense gives you, but it sounds more mystical coming from Bruce Lee, I guess. No doubt.

But that's the thing I do love about Phil Longo's offense. I remember when he was at North Carolina, they had a couple of games where they were averaging 10 yards a carry, and he's just like, we'll keep running the ball. No problem. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, like he says, be water, just go with it. And so, you know, whatever that defense has shown us,

whatever's working that day, he'll call it and we'll run it. Yeah. I mean, was it was an adjustment in terms of conditioning last year getting used to that the tempo yeah the tempo absolutely absolutely how do you how do you get yourself ready for that is is there a way in the summer to do it well um obviously with the new strength and conditioning staff coach brady does a fantastic job uh we'll uh you know do all sorts of sprints and stadiums and conditioning stuff like that but um you know i think it's i remember the first spring ball with

the new staff um you know we're doing sets of four plays during team and after those four plays i'd come out and i'd need an oxygen mask or something i was just gasped beyond belief because it's just so cool oh yeah but then you know we get into this fall camp and we're running, you know, eight play drives during team and it's not hard at all. Okay. So it's definitely kind of taper into it. So you never had the barfing his badges of honor thing? No, but I felt like it before.

I was going to say, the Tennessee guys are funny about that. The ones who, when Josh Heupel got there and they were running the super tempo and it got to where, like, the one guy barfs in the Alabama game, and they're all so used to it, they're just like, ha-ha. Oh, yeah. And you see the Alabama deal, I'm just like, no. Yeah, oh, yeah. Yeah, that being said, though, I think the tempo really has,

you can feel it when we really start picking up the pace, and the defense just isn't used to it, and they're getting gassed. Oh, yeah. So we've got to talk about these boots. This is a great look because, you know, in the NIL era, we've seen the quality of kicks has gone up at media days. But a lot of it is these hideous shoes that cost like 900 bucks a pair. You're wearing boots. Like, how long have you had these? Are they favorites? Yeah, so I always wanted a pair of cowboy boots you know like watching westerns

yeah it's cool um and then uh i think that was not last year but the year before with the guaranteed rate bowl in arizona and i went to the kova store nice and i'm looking at all these boots and you know i just figured if i'm gonna buy a pair of cowboy boots i gotta get ostrich ones of course and then i saw the fake ones and i was like, you can tell. Yeah. So, yeah, I decided to get them and I love them. Nice. So, all right. You grew up in Wisconsin. You're boot wearing. Yep. You're a licensed scuba diver. Yeah. For all the oceans around Wisconsin. Yeah. Like where have you gone diving? in a pool and then uh we went to uh devil's lake it was actually pretty cool because you know there's some uh that you just go go down there and they've got you know there's old uh carriages down there that fell back and over the ice a long time ago all sorts of stuff it's just a different world down i love i love that you get scuba certified and go diving up you know i know yeah it's incredible yeah and you also work on cars i do what what what is your like how does what's the history behind that?

Is that something you and dad did? Yeah, well, just not really cars in particular, but just really anything with an engine. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, like when I was in high school, me, my dad, my younger brother, we would kind of our thing was, you know, Craigslist deals. Going out in Craigslist and finding, you know, something for a couple thousand bucks that was a piece of junk and then you get it and you know mess with it and then you sell it and get something new just get it working again exactly like what kind of engines were you buying oh i had a back in high school i bought a uh 93 bronco okay and so you know i kind of cleaned that up and

i learned through the process of sanding it and painting it oh so you did the whole oh yeah oh man yeah but i mean that's a classic oh yeah yeah i wish i would have kept it there's there's one in my neighborhood there's like an early 90s bronco every time i drive past like oh man they're cool they did some work on that they're cool oh yeah what is it what is that like that process of you find something and it's it's done it's dead and you bring it back to life well i mean it's can be painful, that's for sure. I mean, you know, my little brother on the team, Barrett, he'll tell you. But it's more about, you know, it just started when I was in high school. I didn't have a ton of money to spend, but I wanted some horsepower or something.

So, you know, go find something for cheap that wasn't very pretty or barely ran. And then, you know, couldn't pay someone to fix it, so you had to fix it yourself. What is that feeling like when you finally get it to crank? Oh, it's the best. best it's it's it's amazing all right that that feeling versus your one-on-one like i know this situation doesn't happen all that often but your one-on-one with a d-end it's a run play it's not a reach like you're just you're just blocking him head yeah and you put him on the ground oh i mean that's a different feeling on its own i mean there's just there's nothing like it on this earth to just move somebody against their will yeah and just to finish them in

the dirt and then it's just you know i won you lost everybody knows it you know but i mean on the contrary there's times where you know you'll get caught and so it's it's definitely a balance and it's uh you know it's something i live to do i was gonna say that the as an offensive lineman you can't wind up on your back that's just yeah that's against the rules but yeah getting getting beat for a sack getting blocked in basketball i think those are among the more humiliating things in sports absolutely but absolutely but you have that pancake oh yeah as the as the counterbalance yeah i'll get you back yeah all right well i appreciate it thank you so much jack thank you very much thanks that was awesome jack nelson from wisconsin i love that you you either end up on

your back you don't it is football takes a lot of the politics out of sports there. You don't have to worry about it. It's something it's funny. I tell my kid as he starts his first football practice today, I'm like, you know, it's not like some of these other sports where you got to worry about, Oh, is it, you know, the coach's kid going to do this and maybe quarterback is like that. But really when you play on the line, you kind of have to be one of the better players to play or it becomes very obvious right away and uh i'm seeing in the chat everybody loved jack we're gonna have to have jack back on because he's he's awesome he really is and and i find that when you talk to ole iman aroundman around the country, it's very similar.

Their mindset is similar. They think a certain way. They just have a different outlook on life compared to other people. And I don't know if it's a case of you play a position that doesn't really ever get any credit and people don't notice when you do well, or as you play a position where everybody has to work as one for the thing to work. But it's just a different way of looking at the world. And I find that it sort of bleeds into everyday life for those guys. So going to love watching him play. Very excited to watch Wisconsin play. How different is the roster? What did Luke Fickle do this offseason?

You saw him on the show. We had him here about six weeks, two months ago. And he was talking about how he wasn't sure culturally they were where they thought he would be. I think he looked at the program and how many games they'd won over the recent years and thought, oh, this will be fine. All these players are exactly the kind of players that will love my style of coaching and what we do. And it didn't turn out that way. But it seems like they feel a little more confident now. Tyler Van Dyke comes in from Miami to play quarterback.

We are going to find out what happens with him. Because there was about a six-week period when he was young. Going back to Manny Diaz's last year as Miami's head coach, Tyler Van Dyke, he looked like the best quarterback in the ACC. And then you had injuries, you had changes in offensive coordinator, you had changed like all kinds of different changes for him. And it just didn't work out at Miami, but could he return to that form in a different league, in an offense that fairly similar to the one that Shannon Dawson is running at Miami now. So he should be fairly familiar with what they want. But all of that up in the air, we're going to find out a lot more this week.

Team starting practice. We're almost there, guys. Almost there. We'll talk to you tomorrow.