Andy & Ari On3 - The Gator Boys stayed HOT: How Florida won the national title

Episode Date: April 8, 2025

Florida has won the national championship in basketball, and Andy’s faith in the Gators paid off — for Ari.(0:00-17:27) Intro: Florida's incredible tournament run(17:28-32:44) How Florida assembled its roster(32:45-34:38) Tougher run: Florida in Basketball or Ohio State in football?(34:39-39:45) UConn defeats South Carolina for the women's title(39:46-46:45) Story Time, Florida, Top QBs(46:46-1:05:44) House v NCAA settlement(1:05:45-1:08:45) Texas A&M introduces Bucky McMillan(1:08:46-1:09:14) Conclusion: Top 10 Qb's Tomorrow The guys discuss a classic national title game and what comes next. Plus, Andy watched hours of the House v. NCAA settlement hearings so you didn’t have to. He’ll explain what happened and what to expect from here.  Watch us LIVE on YouTube, M-F, at 9:30 am et: https://youtube.com/live/6dqYS_o1cuk Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail]

Welcome to Andy and Ari on three. The Gator boys stayed hot. Florida is your national champion. My faith in my alma mater. I don't know if it did anything for me, but it was pretty good for you, Ari. Yeah, I mean, I thought you were wrong the entire game. So just a little behind the scenes here.

Andy River and I are in a group chat. Okay, and during sporting events and things that we're gonna talk about on the show, we are engaging in conversation behind the scenes. And at halftime, when I didn't bet at all, believe it or not, because I had stuff going on at my house, I didn't bet on the game yet. Funny enough, Andy goes, are you gonna bet this live?

And I was like, yeah, this is, so halftime. Florida's just missed a three pointer at the buzzer at halftime that would have tied it. So they're down. I was 31 28. I think at that point, Walter Clayton Jr. has zero points. Will Richard is carrying Florida. He's got 14 of their 28 points at that point.

Yeah. And Andy goes, are you going to bet it live? And I said, I don't think, I think Florida turns the ball over too much. And I don't think that they're going to get away with it again against the team this good. And he goes, okay. And I was like, do you think Florida is going to win?

And he goes, yes, I do. And then I put a chunk on Florida plus 110 or 107. And he goes, I thought you were going to get better odds. And I was like, well, it was better odds than before the game. They were one and a half point favors before the game. But why is like, what did you think gonna get better odds. And I was like, well, it was better odds than before the game. They were one and a half point favors before the game, but why is like, what'd you think it was gonna be plus 160? They were only down by three at halftime

and their best player hadn't scored much. So I did it. And then the second half starts and like Florida has six fouls. Like, did they have six fouls in three minutes? Like- They had four, they had 14 fouls in about a, I wanna say about a 45 second span.

And what, what turned out to be wild is actually Houston or Florida got into the double bonus before Houston did in the second half. So it caught up, but there was a stretch there where Florida was fouling like crazy. Houston was scoring. Nothing was going right for Florida. So they get down 12 with 1624 to go. I believe it was 4230 at that point and it looked like the game was over. So yes, and at that point I was like disgusted because I was like I

knew this was going to happen. They turned the ball over too much. They're sloppy and because I felt like they were kind of sloppy in the Final Four game too. I know that you and I have a little bit of a disagreement. They were but it was it was because Auburn's a really physical defensive team like Houston is. So I expected that and and this is this is exactly what we talked about in the preview. Houston's gonna make you play its game like you have to be able to beat them

playing their game. You can't make them play yours. And that's what Florida did is they play they were willing to play Houston's game and they played it just a little bit better. But here's the genius part. I, as somebody who is really into dollars cost averaging was like, well, Florida's down 12 there's 17, what is it? 16 minutes left in the game at that point. And they were catching five to one odds. So I hit it again at five to one to bring my terrible odds from halftime into like more three to one range. And then Florida went on a run, ended up winning the game. And it was an exciting, really amazing game.

The last possession, obviously, you know, you would have liked to see a shot go up just from an entertainment. I like, I'm thinking I'm the only person on earth who loved the way it ended because it encapsulated the game. It was how it should end with this Houston team playing because that's how Houston plays.

That's the game Houston drags you into. And Houston is usually the team that does that stuff well. Like the Walter Clayton Jr. closeout on Emmanuel Sharp that caused him to not shoot and then go, oh crap, I'm gonna travel so I gotta drop the ball. Walter Clayton Jr. teleported from the middle of the lane to five feet away from the top of the key. I don't know how he got there as fast as he did.

And then he's just flying into Emmanuel Sharpe's face and Emmanuel Sharpe breaks out like he didn't. I didn't understand until I watched the replay two or three times. And that's what I got it. The reason Emmanuel Sharp bugged out and didn't shoot is he didn't think Walter Clayton Jr. could get there. When Walter Clayton Jr. appears like fully formed, fully stretched out in front of him, Emmanuel Sharp was like, what the hell just happened? Are you magic? And he drops the ball. And I think too, like the way the game ended was fine.

I just think people like to see buzzer beaters go up. You know, like, you know, it, but the fact is, is you're down to with four seconds left. Like that's, you know, the final possession, you know, that's because of that. The roller coaster of the game was really awesome. And it was cool to see like, I mean, Florida deserved to win the national title just because there were certain times in this tournament where I felt like they were cooked especially in

that Texas Tech game and they never gave up and I mean I guess the truth could the same thing can be said for Houston and what they did against Duke but yeah miss Ari was sitting next to me the whole time and she was actually watching the game I told her what was going on. She knew what was at stake and she was a good sport about it. But Ms. Ari also knew that we leveraged quite a bit of money on Duke to win the national title and that missed the night before. So for two nights before. So we're not rolling around in dough right now, but we're closer.

I thought I made back the Lincoln Riley bet for you. I thought that's all I was doing. You made back, so I made enough money. I made 1200 bucks because I got five to one basically. But yeah, Andy paid back his USC Lincoln Riley dinner bet. That came back okay. But what didn't come back was the thousand that I lost the other night when Duke blew it to Houston. So but if Duke wouldn't have blown it to Houston, then you know, I would have been in better position but either way like that was an entertaining game. And like it's sad because now we have

baseball until football season again and baseball is fun. But I don't know if it's if it gets quite the drama like I just like that was really awesome to watch that second half of that game and the thing I'll say to in the thing that never is lost on me and I'm assuming isn't lost on anybody who watches these games is imagine how much work it took for Houston. Imagine how much sweat, blood, you know, tears, laughter, all the work that goes into it. And when the margin of the game, and you called this, you knew the game was going to be a two-point game, like at the end of this, to be one bucket, a few free throws, one possession away from glory and fall short has got to be the most gut-wrenching feeling, not just for the people who are experiencing it, but also the people who are watching.

And the same thing would have been true if Houston would have made a three on that last possession for Florida, right? Right. Exactly. You make it to the end of this long, grueling tournament that takes a hell of a lot to get to the end to. And then you are one bounce of the basketball either way, away from either being champions forever or falling short and being a footnote in the story of the season. And I think that that is just, you know, that's the that's the stakes of sports. And that's what makes it so compelling. But at the same time, too, whenever I see it happen, it just it makes me I feel terrible for Houston after the game was over as I was cheering. But yeah. And

I watched I watched the press conference afterward and I just like The guys that juan roberts who's been at Houston for five years and and really? Kind of they found him he came from the virgin islands like it really good story and and just an amazing Transformation of him into like the one of the most important players on one of the best teams in college basketball He's just into like the one of the most important players on one of the best teams in college basketball. He's just devastated. And it was hard to watch because you know how much work he put in to get there.

And they were that close. And he had a bad night. Like he missed some shots in the post that normally he makes. And a lot of that was Florida's got some. Pretty big post guys that are fairly good defenders. Ethan in the chat says I don't think Mike a hand lot and gets enough credit for returning broke his leg at the end of last season and burned his red shirt to return the team gave Florida

some huge depth. He sure did. He was not supposed to come back this season and then came back in the middle of SEC play. And he was he was in there in crunch time last night. Florida only played eight players. They can go 10 deep, but they only played eight players and every one of them made major contributions. You're supposed to come back for a season like that. I mean, if your team is a one seed caliber, why not? Like, you, you know, it's something special and you want to be part of it.

And the thing is they needed him. They, they needed him to do that. And this was, I think of every player who played last night, and I can think of a moment where they made a big play, like Denzel Aberdeen, who he's a good backup guard. But when you're playing with Walter Clayton Jr. and Will Richard and Elijah Martin, you don't get a lot of shine,

but Denzel Aberdeen is in there at a crucial moment. So we talked about this after the Duke Houston game and I said I think if Florida gets in a position where they've got to inbound the ball and Houston's pressuring them that Florida won't melt down. Well, guess what they almost did.

Now Walter Clayton gets the ball in and then gets it back in the backcourt and just chucks a pass that I think he thought was going to connect. But he overthrew Denzel Aberdeen and desire. Aberdeen had a sprint to get it and he just beat the Houston player to the ball. The Houston player had a foul at that point. But like that's that a huge, if Denzel Aberdeen does not track that ball down, Houston steals it and it may be completely different outcome.

And that's what I loved about this game, whether it was Houston or Florida, it was the ultimate team game. The ultimate team win for Florida, it would have been an incredible team win for Florida. It would have been an incredible team win for Houston. There was no, there was no one just dominating the game. Will Richard probably for Florida in the first half. But the fact that Walter Clayton Jr. had zero points in the first half, Houston was doing everything possible to take him away and he found ways

to contribute. He had seven assists. Again, the closeout on Houston's last. It wasn't even shot. He made sure it wasn't a shot, so it was just spectacular to watch two teams that look. I think Walter Clayton Junior is probably good at NBA player. I don't know who else here is a good NBA player. Yeah. You know the thing that stuck out to me about Walter Clayton Junior that was, you know, I don't know who else here's a good NBA player. Yeah.

You know, the thing that stuck out to me about Walter Clayton Jr. That was, you know, not gonna be talked about much, I think, just in the actual discourse of the game is that even on a night where he wasn't shooting well and wasn't scoring at the rate that you expect him to score, like he made the defensive play

that caused Florida to win the game in that closeout. And like when you talk about draftable players or talk about players that you want on your team, I mean, he knocked down some big three free throws down the stretch. I know that he was having a historic free throw, you know, percentage run here in the tournament,

but like, you know, a player in his position, maybe his experience and all that stuff played a part in this, but like he never like got down on himself. And yeah like realize that you can impact the game in ways that have nothing to do with putting the ball in the bucket and like he made the biggest play of the game which is that insane close out that no one saw coming like even watching it on tv i was like holy crap are they the fact that he had a look. I would he pulled up the shoe like you thought he was gonna try i't, I don't know how Clayton got there. I have no idea. I, because I didn't realize watching it live how far he came from. And then when I watched the replay, I'm like, how did he do that? Like, did he, did he call Scotty and have him beam him there? Like that, that shouldn't have happened. And I also, I assume too, like during the NBA draft,

cause everybody was talking about this on Twitter when we were together the other day. But like, here's like another player who's probably gonna fall to the back half of the first round and then in two years is gonna be an NBA All-Star and everyone's gonna be like, how did that happen? It's like, oh, you're a blue and the other green tweet you read.

Robbie Callan from CVS, said that's that. That's what he said. He's like, he's like the NBA draft is going to happen. And then Walter Clayton Jr. is going to be a good player and everybody's going to be like, how in the world does this happen? And our friend Tom Fornelli from, from CBS goes, if his name, if he was French and his name was Maxime Lachance, maybe it's a five pick. It's true.

It's true. It's because he's American. He played at Iona first. He came to Florida. But that's, you know, if you look at how Todd Golden built this Florida team, and it's kind of similar to how Kelvin, well, a little different than Kelvin Sampson, because like Kelvin Sampson goes and gets LJ Cryer, who'd been a really good player at Baylor before last season. But, and Kelvin Sampson was more homegrown. Kelvin Sampson's team looked more like an old school, like I recruited a lot of these guys at high school kind of team.

Todd Golden gets to Florida in 2022. Mike White's just left for Georgia. The roster, there's no roster essentially. Will Richard was the first player to even visit Florida. How crazy is it? Is this Ari? So he gets Will Richard in that spring of 2022. There was another player that they were close on. There was a guy who grew up in Plant City, Florida, which is a suburb of Tampa. He was transferring from Morehead State and he had it down to Florida and one other

school and he picked the other to Florida and one other school and he picked the other school. Do you know who that person was? Who? Jani Broom. Oh, that would have been a minute. But that's what Golden seems to have a real knack for being able to look at these mid major rosters and see where guys can fit together because it's not, it's not just a case of

he went out and got the highest profile guys in the portal, he went out and got the guys that would fit together the best. So, and it wasn't all in the same year. So he gets Will Richard before his first season. He gets Walter Clayton Jr. before the 2023-24 season. Because remember, Walter Clayton Jr. is playing really well for Iona, which is in New York. You go above like New Rochelle, that area. But he's from Lake Wales,

Florida. And Rick Pitino goes to St. John's. Clayton considers going to St. John's with Pitino, but he gets the chance to come back home because he's from Lake Wales, Florida. and considers going to St. John's with Patino, but he gets the chance to come back home because he's from Lake Wales, Florida. I did that, that was huge. Ruben Chinulu this year had played one season at Washington State and he's the only one that came from a power conference program.

And it wasn't a power conference program anymore once they got him. So you got him, you got Mike Hanglott was from Marshall, Elijah Martin was from Florida, Atlantic. So they did a really good job figuring out how these pieces fit together, because this was a team that played well together, that played like a team that had been together

for five years, even though that's impossible to have in today's college basketball. Yeah, and what a job, coaching, right? I mean, doing it, finding pieces that gel together that well and putting them together in one season the way that they did, you know, a lot of that is evaluation and knowing that that would work.

But then also the, you know, I come across this stuff in my life. Like, it's like, oh, I found this really good deal on something online, but then I have to assemble it. And like sometimes the deal isn't, is great. And then the assembly is the problem. Right. Like, and if you know me, Andy, like this curtain up here, for instance, it looks like somebody that, uh, has never done anything in their life did it, but you know, it was a good deal. It's doing the job. Yeah I know look at this you know River

helped me out with my camera settings. I think I have to zoom in a tad more because your face is a little bit bigger than mine. You look amazing. Here I'll tell you what I'll move back. How's that? Yeah we're lined up now right? And like now the camera is like looking at me in the eye so you can see the cool pictures and And I took these pictures, by the way, shot with an iPhone, if you want to buy one before they're four grand. You should. You should sell that. The Ari Wasserman press box collection would do really big numbers. Yeah, I've got some good ones. I've got the men Ohio State from my time covering them.

Up here I have the national title game. I've got a Nebraska picture, Penn State, which is my favorite. Is the contrast of the way out. Uh-oh, Ari, uh-oh. Mike in the chat has just given us a point to pivot on. Okay, let's do it. To get to the sport we cover a lot. And I don't know if,

I'm not sure I necessarily agree with him, but I want to talk this out because I think it's an interesting conversation to have relative to football and also relative to Florida. So we're talking about how Todd Golden built this national championship team and he's got some guys out of high school like Thomas Howe was a giant Tim Tebow fan living in Pennsylvania who when Florida came to offer me like, Oh my God, I can go where Tim Tebow went. And you know, Alex Condon is

Really got made their college decisions based on that On another like the guy played a different sport You know when I got you remember Jonathan Hankins the Ohio State defensive? Yeah, that was like 340 pounds but could run like a like the wind and the first recruiting call I ever called him on after he committed to Ohio State, he said to me on the phone, I like their shiny helmets. Wow, it's a good thing he never saw a Notre Dame game. He might not have gone there. Yeah, but that's what he said to me on the phone. I'm assuming that more went into it than that,

but like I was like, why did you choose Ohio State? And he said, I like their shiny helmets. I'm like, that's a choice. It worked out well. He's had a long and successful NFL career, but it's a little bit more complicated now, but go ahead. Here's what Mike said. Billy is doing the same in football, referring to Billy Napier in Florida football.

Now, I don't think it's quite the same because Napier has not been as reliant on the transfer portal because it Golden had no choice when Golden got there and this is bad. This is also the difference between basketball football the roster sizes, but Golden had no roster essentially when he got there. So he had to use the portal a lot, but Napier has built

But Napier has built mostly through the high school recruiting. But it is similar in that he's got a sort of I like my guys situation. And he said that last year, and this is where I just crushed Billy Napier all last offseason and early in the season when they lost a couple of games early is why didn't you do anything to make this roster better? And his thing was I like these guys that I have. They fit together well and when they when they completely mesh you will understand. And by the end of the season, it wasn't just DJ Lagway coming in and being better. It was the fact that the offensive line looked, um, just a ton better as the season

went on. The defensive line got a ton better as the season went on. And then we, you get to the end of the season and they're on an upswing. Their trajectory is looking good. And you go, okay, well, I bet they're going to just go all out in the portal and get whatever stars are available portal to just make this super team for next year. And they don't. And you're like, Oh, well, what are they doing to improve the team? And I saw Billy Napier at the senior bowl and he's like, I like my guys. I like these guys. And yeah, I was talking to somebody who talks to the

LSU folks and LSU took Jack Piper from Florida, the edge rusher. And the, they had asked the question basically, Hey, you know, how'd you steal this guy away from Florida? And the answer was, it wasn't stealing. They were so deep that they couldn't keep everybody at EdgeRusher. So maybe what Billy Napier is doing is working. I don't think it's necessarily the same as Todd Golden, but it is similar in that it's not just go get the biggest name out of the transfer portal. It's find the people who fit together well. Well, there's a lot that works. This is an

interesting, you know, talking point because like, a, is there any mad scientist thing going on in Gainesville from a football perspective that you could buy into? Like, and I think that like, the difference here is that Florida's best player wasn't a transfer. And he's the person who's been, they're building the entire team around. That's obviously quarterback DJ Lagway. But also too, with the locker room sizes and how many people are actually on the team.

I think I buy into the gelling, meshing, playing together, all being like simpatico, everybody love everybody in basketball more because the locker room is so small. Like, right? I don't know, like, if I buy into the notion of like, well, you know, I really like my guys. And you know, we have a good thing coming here. And it's building. But it's like, you think if you added a transfer receiver or amazing safety that that would like somehow hinge or derail your ability to... I'm glad you mentioned that because that's going to be the test. We're going to find out because we don't have the answer to that. We're going to see if Billy Napier had the right idea or the wrong idea once they start playing. I mean, he's betting his career on it. So that's the thing the thing. Like you're, you know, it's not like low stakes.

Well, let's hope this works. It's like either this works or I'm not gonna have a chance to do it the other way. Yeah. Cause the thing is you come out of that season and people saw DJ Lagway, especially against LSU and Ole Miss. Like if you were a receiver, you're like,

I want to play with that guy. I think about Elijah Badger and Shamir DK Were good college receivers. I don't think anybody would say they were elite college receivers They're not going to be drafted super high, but he made them look pretty great I think and I think it was him doing that because they didn't look that same way with Graham You know in football too, like if you have a Superman quarterback, you really do overlook a lot of the other things about your team that make like, I mean, it's an eraser, like, right? Like if you have an issue somewhere, your quarterback will help

you erase those things. And I really do believe and like we've been talking a lot about Florida when we talk a lot about Florida. And I think that it's because for whatever reason both you and I have bought into the notion that they're gonna be very good and we're gonna see well we bought into DJ Lagway I think I more than anything else well I also think too that we bought into the end of the season last year the improvement on the lines like you cannot look past okay like no and they bring most of those guys back but right but what Billy could have done is they could have probably

thrown all of their their money for the off season at the biggest name receivers in the transfer portal like it like you would have felt I think I would feel like 20% better like I think I would be all in banging the drum if like KC Concepcion or somebody was in the fold or somebody like that, like a Zach Branch. We don't know. They got J. Michael Sturtevant from UCLA

who all reports from string practice. He's gonna be pretty good. But they use most of that money to flip Dallas Wilson for Morgan. That's the thing that they're betting on. They're betting on this freshman can come in and be as good. And Dallas Wilson was one of,

I'm trying to remember in our industry rankings, I think he was the number two or number three receiver in the country. And he's a top 15 overall player. So That's the bet like that's the bet that Billy Napier is placing and and like you said He's betting his career on it. The kid McFly in the chat goes. I think the football team will jump in lagways junior year Here's the thing about that If it has to jump in his junior year, he's playing for somebody different. Like they have to do it now or

they're going to make a change. It's like also the question too is like, how good do you think Dallas Wilson has to be? Like if Jeremiah Smith is a 10, what does Dallas Wilson need to be? Other freshmen a 7 7 and a half. Yeah, 8 would be there in really good shape if that happens,

because servant seems like he's going to be pretty good. And then they get Eugene Wilson, the third back who has hurt a lot of last year. Yeah. They got a kid named Aiden Mizell who showed some flashes last year that could be, that he could be pretty good. So I am really interested to see what happens. But I thought Mike made a really interesting

comparison there between the building of these two teams because it is like Todd Golden. When those guys signed, nobody said, oh my God, Florida got so and so like Walter Clayton Jr. They knew he was a good player at Iona. Everybody knew he was a good player at Iona. Everybody knew he was a good player at Iona. The question is, could he did people know he would be this and that by the way? How good is Rick Patino? But he ID Walter Clayton Jr. Yeah, at Iona.

I think that the reality of that is is he's very good. One of the best coaches that ever coach. One last point I wanted to make about the football team. Yeah, name that we never talk about when we talk about Florida. Jade law is awesome. But yeah, he's really good. People talk about him ever rising sophomore running. They talk about him a lot here.

Okay, I mean like not on podcasts and we don't even talk about them. No, and so I'll like another behind the curtain producer River and I were waiting on Ari to get down to San Antonio the other day. I had picked River up at the airport and we had a few hours to kill and we're sitting in the rental house and we just we got talking about the end of the football season and games that were really interesting. Like we talked about the Alabama South Carolina game. And so we watched the condensed version of that.

And then we watched the condensed version of LSU Florida and Ole Miss Florida and Tennessee Florida to get another look at DJ Lagway and see, do we remember it right? Was it really as shocking as of a difference once he got in? And yeah, like that LSU game when he makes the throw with the guys draped all over him. There's there are a bunch of throws in those games where you're like, nobody makes these throws. throws in those two games where you're like, nobody makes these throws. Yeah. Yeah, alright, so like we're drinking the Kool-Aid

guys and like I think there are certain teams that I latch on to in the offseason and sometimes I'm right and sometimes I'm terribly wrong. But you know Notre Dame was my team last year and I was right. Obviously they got all the way to the National Championship game and then the year before was Texas, which wasn't much of a limb to go out on. But if you remember at the time it was because people are like, oh, they always suck and they always let you down and it's preseason hype

and they made the playoff. And I think that like I'm I haven't made my pick yet this year for like who my squad is going to be going into it. But like Florida is the front runner right now. Yeah, Florida is one of those and they're they're flying dangerously close to the sun too, because they're as we've said, they're probably the lowest floor in the highest ceiling. There's probably the probably the biggest gap between floor and ceiling of anybody in the country. Like this 100 per chest year. How negative was I about Florida this time last year? Every time they came up, I was like, but what did they do to get better? Show me what they did to get better. Yeah.

And like I also buy into freshmen can change your team. So if you have multiple receivers at a position that you are kind of iffy on, and I know J. Michael Sturtevant is a player and people are excited about what he's been doing this spring. I don't know if I'm sold, like that's enough. But if you have one of these two freshmen come in

and have really productive freshmen years and DJ Lagre reaches his potential, the line plays as well as they did. And Jayden Ball runs like a bowling ball like he's been doing. I really do believe that Florida's offense is going to be very good. They get after the passer on the edges. I think they shore up their secondary. They have the combination and the pieces there to be a really good football team. Now they have a hard step more and it's going to be hard to go over. We to go. How does Miles Graham develop at linebacker? He showed some flashes as a freshman

at the end of last season. Caleb Banks comes back. He was awesome at the end of last year at defensive tackle. So yeah, it'll be really interesting because we do not know and River throw the schedule up there again. It is brutal. It is brutal. It is brutal.

Like, starting with LSU in Baton Rouge in week three, it just did not let up there. I'm gonna keep banging the drum on this though. It looks brutal. It's not guaranteed that it is brutal. This is a great point. This is a great point. It looks brutal. There's a lot of flashy logos there. And you know what I actually think you could make the case that if they go like we're the three

hardest games right now, if we look at it, we would think our LSU, Texas and Georgia, right? Like, because we know, we know Texas and Georgia are going to be in the national championship content in the national championship conversation. But LSU has a chance to also be there. And then we don't know what A&M is. We don't know what Ole Miss is. Texas A&M is the agent of chaos. Like we did that whole show.

They are the agent of chaos. But like, we don't know how good Tennessee is. We obviously don't know what Florida State is and what Florida State is. We don't know what Ole Miss is. Completely different at the end of the year than what we're going to see when they play Bama, you know, at the beginning of the year. But, you know, but like how many games here are absolute layups?

One, two, three. Are we calling Mississippi State a layup or are we calling Kentucky a layup? I'm calling Kentucky, Mississippi State and Kentucky is a way. So I don't know if that's absolutely a layup or we calling Kentucky layup? I'm calling Kentucky, Mississippi State and Kentucky is a way so I don't know if that's absolutely a layup. So that would be four if you're concluding Long Island and USF. USF, Long Island, Mississippi State are the three layups. Yeah I wouldn't say Kentucky is a layup because Lexington has been a house of horrors for Florida of late. But if the SEC is like it was last year that has a lot of really good teams, but not a lot of great unbeatable teams, I think that bodes well for Florida, especially considering the fact that

last year Florida was in the game and probably should have beaten Georgia when Georgia was the best team in the SEC. So like they've already proven that if they're playing well behind Lagway, that they can, I mean they were non-functional against Texas last year But like that how do you even analyze that game? They didn't have their quarterback. So like it's just It's it's there ten and two is there and I think ten and two is guaranteed playoff and like and eventually we're gonna have to Do this I was listening to Kings of the North on the way back from San Antonio and they did like the who are your locks to make the playoff and who are your uh you know we got to do like locks and and most likely and no way and all that stuff about the playoff. Maybe we'll do that closer to. Yeah, that's funny because we didn't do that last year because we weren't conditioned yet, but that's the sort of thing we do with the basketball tournament every year, and we should definitely do that with football. Another football basketball question, this is from Willie,

who had the tougher playoff run, Ohio State football or Florida basketball? That is a great question too. I'd say it's Ohio State football because they got every possible Football. Because they they got every possible. Hard opponent they could have gotten. I mean, that is Notre Dame beat Georgia, so Notre Dame was the better version out of that side of the bracket. And they got the they they landed on the hardest opponent they could

have played in every single round. Yeah, I mean, it's the first time ever that a football playoff could even be in the same part of that question, right? Cause like going through the NCAA tournament is just awful. I think I would actually lean Florida if Florida had to play. So Florida, you know, obviously the first games of one 16, but Florida having to play Yukon in the, in the second round was brutal.

And Dan Hurley had them ready. Florida was better, but UConn fought like hell the entire time. Maryland was a really good sweet 16 opponent. Texas Tech had Florida absolutely cooked and the Gunners came back. And then Auburn was the best team in the country most of the season.

So I think it may be rough because it was definitely rough. And like the thing too, is that like how it's not often that you get to the final four with four ones. So having to be two ones in a row is not a typical thing that anybody has to do, let alone, you know, uh, so just that on it. And then you play Yukon, of course, and I'll never say Yukon women's basketball actually had to be three ones in a row because they were in the number two seed in their region. And you want to tell them what happened to me on Sunday.

Yeah, let's do that too. So I've actually been on a good run of giving Ari advice. I know I'm not the greatest advisor for gambling picks most of the time, but I've been on a decent run. So we're watching the women's final four games on Friday night and South Carolina and Texas are kind of deadlocked in Texas. I think Texas had a little bit of a bleed at the time.

I was like Gamecocks winning this one. And so Ari throws some shekels on the Gamecocks with a decent, decent money line and we're going to two to one. When I think it was like two to one. I want others right? Because yeah, Texas was was up fairly significantly. Yeah, I think it was like two to one. I want others right because yeah Texas was was up fairly significantly. Yeah so he he texts me on Sunday and he's like so this is half time of Yukon South Carolina National Championship game. Yukon's up 10. I was that text me. He's like what's that? I was at Dave

and Buster's with my daughter playing video games and I looked up at the because they have you know they have that like it's like a quasi sports bar now right for now the game was even on I was locked into family time um and I saw that South Carolina which you told me on Friday was the like big bad bully of women's college basketball and I saw that they were down by 10 and they were getting six to one odds to win down 10 with the entire second half at halftime. I was like okay I just blindly put a few hundred bucks on it because I was like I'm like don't do it Ari. Six to one. They played two months ago in Columbia and Yukon won by 29 like it's

a bad matchup for South Carolina. You gotta put yourself in my shoes. Like again, like you think I, I don't know anything about women's basketball, like less than zero. Um, and, but I saw the number one seed and the South Carolina team coached by Dawn Staley that like is supposed to be like the, the, you know, big bad team that nobody can beat. They play physically, they have players on their team except UConn beat them by 29. I know but like you don't think that's six to one down 10 at half times an attractive bet to a team that beat them by 29 two months earlier on their home court.

It's sports sometimes things happen six to one is like a lot it's pretty long shot. It's a pretty long shot. It's a long shot for a reason because South Carolina is a bet or Yukon is a bad matchup for the South Carolina team. Well, I put the phone and we were playing, uh, you know, the, you know, the tickets, by the way, this ticket, this baby casino, I told you, this is a baby casino. I got locked in because she wanted, uh, she wanted some slime from, from the, uh, by the way, David Buster's hasn't figured out they put like an Xbox controller and like a

PC monitor up there and then everything else is just crap. Like everything is just like literal crap. And the amount of tickets that you need to exchange for even crap is insane. So like my I was playing like these beanbag games that you have to throw the beanbag into you've been to David Buster's and like she plays ball buddy. I got to the point where I was like taking them out of her hand and throwing it for her because I was like, I want to get the slime, you know? So we ended up paying 80 bucks for slime because it took us all afternoon to get the 800 tickets that

you needed to get the slime. We got it. Um, but I looked down at my phone and they were down my 27 and I'm like, Oh my God. And you're like, I told you so. And it's like, well, you didn't tell me so, but like I put the bed in before you told me not to like in fairness. I tried. I can't help that you're impulsive. I'm impulsive. I'm nothing if not impulsive, but like that again, one seed down 10 in basketball is like being down a touchdown at halftime. Mm-hmm. Except when they're playing the team that kicked their ass. What have we said, Ari?

Like, actually, I was thinking about that the other day when UConn went ahead and routed South Carolina. Because we talked about this last week on the show. Was it on the show or were we just talking about it when we were together? You were telling me about the football ladder and how awesome they are. Oh yeah, this is on the show.

If you got your ass kicked at any point, you're probably not gonna win the national championship. That was the thing. It was- You can actually go back and look that up though. Has anybody who's gotten their ass kicked during the season in football ever won the national title? I'd say no.

Basketball I'm sure they have because they play so many games and also because teams have injuries and there's different situations. Football. The only reason I could excuse it is say a massive star player, probably a star quarterback didn't play in that game. That's the only way you can probably excuse that. But like when we left Oxford, Mississippi, after Georgia lost 28 to 10 to Ole Miss, I think you and I both were like, Georgia's not winning the national title. Yes, and that's was kind of the impetus to picking Notre Dame to go on the run that everybody freaked out about. Like if you remember like when the bracket came out and we had to do

our brackets and I had Notre Dame Georgia, like the entire internet was like, you're an idiot, you don't know what you're talking about. Notre never wins those games like I just don't think George's the Georgia that we think then I and I'm very curious We have to have an offseason discussion about this of like what is Georgia now? What's a good question? I mean, I don't know if you want to do that now or you want to do it later in the book We can do it later. We have a few we have a few of those discussions We need to have actually I had an idea when we were talking about DJ Lagway. We just need to rank our top 10 quarterbacks going into the 2025 season.

Let's do that tomorrow. Yeah. Ohio State. Let's do that tomorrow. Did Ohio State get blown out in 14 by Virginia Tech? Do you count that as a blowout? No, it was not a blowout. Virginia Tech won somewhat comfortably

at the end of the game, but I don't feel like it was a blowout. It was 28-14, I think, was the score. And I was there, like it was a blowout. It was 28 14. I think was the score. Yeah, and I was there and like it was the first time like Ohio State's code like I've ever heard of team be like they had a defense that we didn't know what to do against. Yeah, that's their front defense. Yeah, yeah, and everybody was like we've never seen this before. We didn't know

what to do and I was like. There was not that uncommon. It was a very that was a very strange reaction, but whatever, it worked for them because they learned something. But that's probably the best example in recent years. You know, I got one. Well, no, because they didn't win. Georgia didn't win the national title in 2017. Alabama lost to Auburn in what felt like a fairly comfortable win for Auburn in 2017.

And then in the Alabama went on to win the national title. I'm trying to remember the score of that game. I covered it and I remember it felt like Auburn was going to win the entire time. Yeah. Yeah. But that I think that's the number one. They won 28 14 or 26 14. So I think it's gotta be more than two touchdowns.

It's gotta be like 17 or higher. I feel like blowouts, blowouts, it's not always just the score. Like you get a sense, I don't remember what the final score of the Ole Miss Georgia game was. They ran away with it. But that game felt 42 to 10. And it's not always just like how big was they were. But if that game felt 42 to 10, and it's not always just like how big was the score.

It's whether or not you were competitive for four quarters, and I think that Georgia was beaten in all aspects of that game from start to finish. Now I think you're right, and so we'll test that theory and I think it might be one of our rules for the show. Because you got your ass kicked. You can't win the national title. That's a rule for life, really.

But last year with Georgia, I think that they were, they came into the, and I remember one of the first episodes that we did together when we got back together on three. I had a top 25 or whatever, or you did, or we were talking about it. And I pushed back on the notion of Georgia. Cause last year if you go back to this time everybody assumed and put Georgia in as the number one team in the country. And I think that they did that because they were programmed into just blindly believing that Georgia is going to be the best because they're Georgia.

because they're Georgia. And I pushed back on that notion and I said, and I thought that Ohio State was the best team and number one in the country because of all the pieces they brought back and I knew what they were. Um, Georgia just didn't scare anybody offensively. And it's like we looked past that. And I think that like this year we really need to like try to focus not me and you. I just mean as a country looking at these rankings of like it's more important now than ever. Like how much can a team coast in the preseason rankings based on the logo on their helmet? Because I think that used to be able to do that five years ago pretty comfortably. Now I think you have you're in danger of being very very wrong because the middle of the SEC in the middle of the Big Ten are so much better because of how the players move efficiently within the market that.

It's not the same. You you cannot roll over those teams. And even if you beat those teams, you may there there may be some sort of cumulative effect of playing that many hard games touched on this too of like, you know, teams that you think might be overvalued right now. But I think that there's a general assumption that Alabama and Georgia are going to be very good. And one of my outrageous predictions in the offseason has been that one of those teams is going to be bad, or one of these and bad based on them, not bad.

What about their standards? So you're thinking 84, 93? 84, 93, but no, 84. Bad. I mean, like, because nine and three, we're going to learn next year too, which kind of goes into another outrageous prediction, but we're going to learn next year too, that I think a nine and three team is going to get it. Like I think it was kind of an interesting, like the fact that Indiana existed, like isn't going to happen every year. So I did, we were watching when we were rewatching that Florida Tennessee game, I asked River, I said, what if Lagway had started

this game? Who wins? He's like probably Florida. And I thought about it. Well, okay. So what if like, we doesn't get hurt against Georgia. You're going to beat them up. If you said no, I don't care that much, but, but what if Lagway doesn't get hurt against Georgia? Did they win that game?

So what if they had beaten Tennessee and Georgia? Like a nine and three team would have made the playoff in that situation. It might've been Florida at nine and three, or it might have been somebody else. But Tennessee would have had three losses. Georgia would have wound up probably wound up with three losses at that point. Like so it would have it would have changed the dynamics of are there going to be seven teams in the SEC that could win the conference in week 10 like that's what we were dealing with last year. I don't know if that's maybe it'll play out like that all the time because the teams are more evenly matched.

But I thought like that was a, a typical, yeah, seven teams were in the, were in the mix there. So it's just a- Well, I mean, A&M, they're, and I don't think these final standings are correct because I believe actually Ole Miss had the tie break for the fourth spot. But A&M going into the Texas game,

if they won the Texas game would have played for the SEC championship. Yeah, so your team, although the only team that was kind of boxed out there at the end was South Carolina because I think that they were playing a non-con game that didn't help them. But like it was, everybody was kind of alive. And like you can't.

You can't parse through things when there isn't a line of demarcation in the sand of like here are the teams that are good enough. Like everybody's pretty good. And then like if Indiana lost one more game, they would have lost to Michigan or something. They would have. Yeah, it would have changed the math of all of it. So, yeah. So, you know that I think nine and three against Georgia like Against Florida schedule means Florida's in I think that a nine and three SEC team will make it next year. I

Think there's a chance. I yeah I mean We'll see as this thing goes for especially if they're gonna go to 14 or you're definitely gonna see nine and three teams get Then you would have seen three teams get in you also have to acknowledge and three teams get in you would have seen it. Three teams get in. You also have to acknowledge that at that point when that happens that the world is going to melt down because there's gonna be three other nine and three teams

who don't get in that are gonna be mad about it. So like that, like that's gonna happen eventually. Feature not bug Ari, feature not bug. Yeah, it's like if they would have picked Alabama or Ole Miss last year, there would have been a, you know a riff there because it was hard. And even South Carolina felt like they like South Carolina like accepted the fact they didn't get in last year because

Nobody else in the SEC did but if if one of the SEC nine and three teams would have gotten in over Indiana Yeah, somebody else there would have been a complete meltdown Absolutely, but whether that was South Carolina Ole Miss or Alabama one of like whoever the two were that were left out would have been Like what the hell like our resumes just as good as theirs Vance in the chat. I am very interested for us to discuss the house settlement and all that comes out of it All right, so I watched the worst pregame show in the history of the national title game a Seven-hour hearing in an Oakland courtroom About the house versus the NCAA settlement. It

was very interesting at times. It was very boring at times. So I watched it so you didn't have to. You're welcome. Here's what happened. Basically, Judge Claudia Wilkin is telegraphing. She is going to approve this thing as long as the lawyers don't screw this up. She's told the lawyers there's a couple things she would like them to tweak. And then she's going to approve it. The NCAA attorney was acting at the end of the hearing yesterday like they don't want to do that. I don't think they're that stupid. But it's the NCAA so you never know.

But here's what she would like them to tweak. First thing, the idea of these roster caps, 105 in football, I think 15 in basketball, basically, you can have scholarships at that point, but you cannot, if you opt into the settlement, you're paying players directly, you cannot go over that number of players. So this is causing, especially in football, a lot of walk-ons to get cut.

And she's like, why do you have to cut them? Why don't you just phase this in over a four-year period? And everybody who's on the roster now gets to stay. And then once they graduate, once they age out, then you just keep, then the cap is firm. And they're like, well, you never thought of that. Well, yeah, that seems to be the most humane way to do it. So-

And reasonable because they're not having an impact on the game. Yeah, yeah. So they're gonna make them do that, which is great. Sucks for the walk-ons who've already been cut. Like Kirk Farris was talking about. He decided, hey, we want to be fair to everybody. So we're going to tell our walk-ons who might not have a spot in December that they might have a spot in case they want to transfer somebody somewhere else and go through spring practice.

Like Kirk Farris was trying to be fair to his players and He's gonna get screwed out of this and hopefully some of those guys hung out on campus at Iowa and could just rejoin the team because There it sounds like they're gonna get grandfathered in which again common-sense solution which again, Common Sense Solution, Common Sense and the NCAA have never really worked well together, but Common Sense Solution, hopefully that's what they do. The other piece of it that she thought needed to be tweaked, she kept bringing up this hypothetical 10 year old

playing basketball on the asphalt right now, who at some point is gonna to be a star recruit who doesn't have any say in this. And this settlement is supposed to create a essentially 10 year labor piece is what they're hoping is going to happen. That they're creating a system where the schools can pay the players, the amount the schools can play, pay the players will go up every year. And so what she's hoping, what she's wondering is what happens when that person is a 17 year old recruit is about to go into the system and feels like the system is unfair.

How do they object? Like they can't just go get a lawyer now and object to this. They don't even know if they're going to be a college basketball player or college football player. And that's a legitimate concern. So I think what the judge wants is there to be a mechanism for each year. The new members of the class can raise objections and the court can hear those objections and they can decide if it's fair or not. Instead of somebody saying, well, you have to opt out or you have to just sue. It makes sense, though I will say like Jeffrey Kessler, who's the plaintiff's attorney, and he was involved in the case where the NFL had to let the players become free agents.

So he's been doing this a long time and he's really good at it. He's like, Hey, you know, when when there's a CBA, the future members of the union don't get a vote like the guys who are in college right now. Let's say there's a freshman in college right now who's going to be in the NFL in a couple of years. When they negotiate the new CBA, they're not going to get a say they're not going to be a union member when that happens, but they'll be bound by those rules. So there are examples in other walks of life. But the problem here is it's not a CBA. The

players didn't get a chance to vote on it. Really. It was the plaintiffs that had a seat at the table. So that one will be interesting to see. But she seems pretty adamant that they have to tweak that or she's not going to approve it. Yeah. The thing that jumps out to me about that, Andy, is that like when you think about the hypothetical 10 year old is that the entire existence of college sports, the hypothetical 10 year old has had to live within the confines of what the rules were. And those rules were unfair for 100 years. And like, I think that people will just,

like anything that they can do from a compensation standpoint, I don't know like from the annual objections, you know, thought process, it's like, well, if you get paid, like, it's just the rules are the rules. And I think people will conform to them when they understand what they are,

much the same way that they did. Well, the thing that's gonna be interesting, and she just sort of blew through this yesterday, is this third party that's gonna police NIL deals and say whether they're fair market value or not. She was basically like, okay, sounds good. Like that's where the problem's gonna come in because that's gonna get blown up.

Yeah. Or it's gonna be, the other thing I thought about is, they're gonna have so many deals that look like the NIL deals now, that when Deloitte, the accounting firm that's supposed to be looking at this, when they look at it, they're gonna go, well, we just got 2,000 of these deals

that look exactly the same, that's the market. And the schools are like, oh crap, that's not what we wanted. Yeah. Yeah, oh crap, that's not what we that's not what we want to do. Yeah. Yeah. So like, are they going to look at it from the standpoint of how much a someone else in the same position and profile would make doing something similar? Like, are they going to try to? Well, they also have they also have information with with pro athletes and what they get in their deals. And so Who do you compare it though to? Do you compare it to pro athletes and what they get in their deals. And so. Who do you compare it though to? Do you compare it to pro athletes?

Well, it's a different market. And the thing is like, the biggest problem is they're still not admitting they're paying them for football and they keep saying pay for play like it's a bad thing. Like pay for cook isn't a bad thing, pay for teach isn't a bad thing, pay for layering isn't a bad thing, pay for podcasting isn't a bad thing.

Like they're football players and that's why you're paying them. thing, pay for a ring isn't a bad thing, pay for podcasting isn't a bad thing. Like they're football player players and that's why you're paying them. But the thing I don't, I just from an economic standpoint and you know, I'm confused about a lot of things economically this week as we all are. But the thing that I don't know is that if you are going to police these NIL deals and you're going to try to assert fair market value, how do you do that? Like when you said, like as you said, like when all those deals are going to look similar, and then if they don't look similar, like how do you compare them? And the only thing that you're comparing them to are NFL deals or other pro sports deals where they're making a ton of money too. Now, like the thing is like, if you don't remember the thing that

jumps out to me is like the coldest Crawford remember that that air conditioner Oh, yeah, yeah It's like that if he got paid Five million dollars to do that which he didn't but if he did in this fake scenario That would probably be above what we would think is fair market But and that's what they're gonna do that that what is gonna happen is compare it to though Like that's the thing. I don't understand right if we we come to the, cause you and I can sit here and say, yeah, the coldest Crawford probably wasn't worth $5 million to do that. Like low budget air conditioning commercial. But if you assert that in court, you have to have precedent of similar deals. Whose deals are you going to look at in order

to decide? And who are you to tell me that I can't pay him what I wanna pay him? I'm not party to the settlement. Right. So I'm gonna sue you, saying you are restricting my rights to pay what I would like to pay. So that's really all there is to it.

And as Vance points out in the chat, how soon before every state has laws similar to the Oregon and Nebraska ones to decap the clearinghouse? And what Vance is referring to is, like there's a law in the state of Oregon that says that athletes do not have to disclose these deals. So if it violates state law to force them to disclose it,

guess what, they're never going to disclose it. Yeah, and here's the other thing here. It's like, do we know it's not public information, how much state farm paid Patrick Mahomes to be in their commercials, right? No. Any more than my salary or salaries, public information. Right. Right.

It's, it's interesting because the NFL does it because it, the teams and the players find that transparency tends to make them make more money. But I don't know we're going to get there here. We'll probably get there in terms of some of these deals that the players are getting from the schools. Yeah, because I do think the schools want accurate information about what what other players are getting paid. It's It's really the people that do this. They just want to know who's getting what and they want to cheat to do that. Like our boss, Shannon Terry, knows what people who do what we do make at every company.

Why does he know that? Because it's his job to know that. Like he doesn't have the police go in or the government go in and say, CBS, tell them what you're paying Josh Pate. Like that's not how it works. Like it's his job to know how much people who do that job get paid so that when he wants to hire somebody new or he's dealing with us or he's dealing with another, like one of our writers, he knows what to offer and what's fair and also what's going to get him blown out of the water or if he's wasting money.

Like, yeah, I can come in and say, you need to give me five million dollars a year. He's going to laugh at me because he knows the market. Yeah. And I think it's important to it's like when it when it comes to you and your own deals. You kind of wish that they didn't know but then when I come to the company in the business because like you and I are both very much on board and hopeful and working hard to help promote on three success as a company. You know what I mean? And I felt that way since the day I started. So if I found out that our owner of our company didn't know what fair market value was for the people he was hiring, that would be highly, you know, troublesome.

He doesn't have anybody submitting those required to submit those deals from other companies to know. Like he doesn't know what, ESPN doesn't send him a list of what everybody, what they pay everybody. Like, you just gotta figure it out. And that's what everybody in private business does. Right. Yeah, no.

And it's just like any sort of policing of income is not gonna work. I don't care how you phrase it or who you hire or what. It's just not gonna work. Because the capping of income is anti-American. Period. Unless you negotiate it with the bargain. Yeah. But that's not what's happening here. So in this certain stopgap to when we eventually get to that point, which we will, because it's the only way that a system like this can work without it going haywire, you're

not going to be able to tell a person that their NIL deal is not fair market value. It doesn't matter what they get paid. It fair market value is what some, like I got a bunch of cards in a dresser over here that are cardboard with pictures printed on them and I can sell them for what they're worth. And you might think it's insane that somebody paid $6,800 for a Patrick Mahomes rookie card, but you have no business to tell that person that they didn't, they don't have the prerogative

to spend that much money on a card if they don't want to. And that's the same way it goes with everything. You're worth whatever someone is willing to pay you. And that's, there's one thing we're learning about this is, is this is like a truly open market. So it's, it's been interesting to watch. And I'm sure once they do get their arms around it, they probably ultimately will get to CBA in some way, shape or form. I'll be

interested to see this study because there will be business school studies on this period in college sports because it's really interesting because as an experiment, because you had a market that was arbitrarily capped by a cartel. It got busted by the government. Then it became a fully open market. And I think there's a lot to learn from that. And then there's a lot to learn from, from what's happened. So like again, in the market now, whatever people are paying for players

is what they think they're worth. And if you don't think a player is worth that, you don't pay it. So this is the purest form of are these guys getting what they're worth? Yeah. Yep. They're getting exactly what the schools think they're worth. Yep, and if they actually perform, this is the thing too that we never talk about If they perform and are awesome and their teams are good they are more than worth what they're being paid Like yeah, like and then if they don't perform they're not and that is the same with every Employment or what it's not even employment every time someone purchases a service or purchases the work of someone else, sometimes they give you what you want. Sometimes you

get exactly what you want. Sometimes you get more than you bargained for. Sometimes you get less than you bargained for. It's just how it works everywhere. Now, if they get to a point where they have contracts and they're there, I think you probably have to be employees to get to this point. But Gramley coach Mickey Joseph brought up a really interesting point the other day. And we're, I think we're going to have Mickey Joseph on the show this week to ask him about it because he's lost some players to to FBS schools and his thing is rambling should be compensated for that and there is a real world example of this and it's actually the pro sport that is most similar economically to college football it's international soccer it's that's what a transfer fee is international in international soccer,

where if Arsenal wants to take a player from Real Madrid, they have to pay the player, whatever they're going to pay him. But they also, there's a set agreed upon fee that they have to pay Real Madrid to sign the player. And so that I think would be very interesting is how would that work? Now I do think the players probably have to be employees, but could you protect 10 or so players on your roster

with transfer fees and say, you can like Tulane can say, you can have Darian Mensah, whoever wants him, but you're gonna owe us 5 million bucks. So let me ask you this. And this is a whole rabbit hole of economics and you know, maybe I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, but could Darien Mensah sue because under the guise of limiting his income potential based on rules, because you would have to be collectively bargained

to do that, right? Like you can't just like- But it's not in soccer, but the thing is it goes across different countries. And the thing is the players, the players get theirs. Yeah. But if a team is less likely to take Darian Mesa because the fee is too much,

both for him and what they would owe Tulane. That's where you may have to have. You might have a problem there in terms of like, hey, I have all these opportunities. I'm worth a lot of money. I didn't get these opportunities because Tulane enforced a fee in order for me to leave and teams were not interested, not because of my ability. And that's why I think you have to be, you have to have a situation

where the players are under contract because the player probably would have to agree. Like the transfer fee would be part of the contract. Of the contract, yeah. Yeah. So the player would have knowledge beforehand and could say, no, I'm not signing that or okay, that's fine, that's a fair wage relative.

And that's a negotiating point. Like higher salary, higher transfer fee, lower salary, lower transfer fee. So that's, listen. Yeah, you take on the risk of not being able to move on with the higher compensation in the meantime. Right, and then when the contract runs out, the player can just leave.

But if you've signed them to a deal that that is the entirety of their eligibility Then Somebody would have to pay so well Yeah, we're hoping to talk to Mickey Joseph about that and I don't know that he when he brought it up I don't know that he's brought thought it through as far as that. I Understand where he's brought thought it through as far as that. I understand where he's coming from because he's like how am I supposed to do anything? How am I supposed to ever keep a player?

We don't have the budget to do this and that could be a good revenue stream where if you become a an FCS coach who is great at finding good players and developing them in a year. Like you could, you could have the biggest budget in your conference. Yeah. As outgoing players, you know, get you paid. So there's a lot to talk about. There's a lot going on. This settlement winning is how good you are at identifying talent in developing them. Cause you make more money from that than actually winning football games. But that's the whole other question too. So this house settlement is going to be approved unless the NCAA just says we're not making those tweaks to the, and I think it'd be to the roster cap situation,

which they cannot possibly be that stupid. And also what a bridge to die on that would have been. Oh my God, can you even imagine? No, I can't imagine because the assembly has been that stupid in the past I don't think they'll be that stupid this time we do not let this go through because why would we have opportunities for walk-on yeah it's like you have you have an opportunity to not be a holes here choose to take it. It's simple, nobody does. Alright, one last thing. We always love the introductory press conference where new coach is exposed to very weird school tradition. The greatest of

these of course is Bobby Petrino calling the hogs after midnight when he took the Arkansas job, but new Texas A&M basketball coach Bucky McMillan.ing them off for the first time. Here's your moment of Zen. Varsity and why are we sawing his horns off like what are you doing here? uh I gotta say that video the camera angle was terrible for for a and m like that didn't work out well for them uh like being right underneath the yellow leader yeah you look great yeah no they're always buff but but like, it's just like,

I gotta tell you, I gotta tell you, Ags, this is just part of the deal. This is just part of the deal. You know who, you know that your place is special and different, and you're gonna get made fun of a lot. That's it. The key as in anything else is to just do it confidently.

Yep. And so if you're sawing them off confidently. No, you have pride in who you are and what you do. But you also understand that being made fun of publicly is just part of the deal. And if they don't understand it, that's their problem. I do understand it a little bit, being married to an ag, and having gone down there a few times.

I also have to acknowledge that if you are a coach who isn't from College Station or don't know what you're getting into, that that might be an oh shit moment. But you know what? What have I done? You know, it's like, where am I right now? But you know, I think that's part of the charm of A&M.

And like, that's how I, that's what I learned about my wife. She had a one month long oh shit, where am I moment, her freshman year when she went there and it grows on you and it becomes a part of who you are. So I got a story to tell you, Ags. It's okay. I'll rock the good Ag.

We'll have him on the show later too. We'll have a yell leader just telling stories. But tomorrow, top 10 QBs for 2019. show later too. We'll have a yell leader just telling telling stories, but. Tomorrow. Top 10 QB's for 2025. You're going to hate it. I already know you're going to hate it. Some of you gonna love it. Most you're going to hate it. You're going to yell at us. I'm ready. It's time. Ari, it's time. It's time for red meat football conversations. Yes, yeah, I'm It's time for red meat football conversations.

Yes. Yeah, I'm ready to get back into it. We've been into it, but I want to get into it. Let's talk to you tomorrow.