Andy & Ari On3 - The Protect College Sports Act EXPLAINED: Will the SEC & Big Ten support the bipartisan legislation?

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

On Wednesday, Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell proposed The Protect College Sports Act. Watch here as Andy & Ari discuss the ins and outs of this bill and if the SEC and Big Ten will get behind this proposed idea. Do you think this is the right way to fix college athletics?   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (1:20) Intro: Protect College Sports Act (11:50) Main reason schools don’t want to collectively bargain (16:12) How would the bill work? (24:40) Pete Golding responds to Lane Kiffin (33:01) Golding on Tampering (39:21) Who am I? (53:02) Brendan Sorsby denied reinstatement (1:01:25) Conclusion: See you tomorrow!     After the fellas discuss the bipartisan legislation being proposed, the guys head down to Destin, Florida, where Andy is covering the 2026 SEC Spring Meetings. Today, Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding met with the media and had some comments regarding Lane Kiffin and the tampering situation in college football.   In this week’s edition of Who Am I, Andy asks Ari a series of questions in what may be the toughest edition of the game yet.   To close, Andy & Ari cover some more news surrounding the Brendan Sorsby case. As the NCAA has denied his appeal for reinstatement, what’s next for the Texas Tech QB?   Send your questions to: [e-mail] [e-mail] Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/YTY-BbzHvR4   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's Andy and Ari on three, two senators, one Republican, one Democrat introduce a bipartisan bill that purports to fix everything in college sports. Will it actually fix everything? Will it even pass? And, well, the two biggest conferences, the SEC and the Big Ten, I'm here at SEC meetings right now. Well, they even want it. This one's wild, guys. Absolutely wild. Plus, Ole Miss Coach Pete Golding sounds off after being.

the subject of multiple controversies involving his former boss, Lane Kippen, who's now at LSU. Pete Golding is enjoying this, I think, a little bit. Not a ton, but a little bit. We'll hear from Pete Golding. Also, Brennan Soresby, Texas Tech quarterback denied reinstatement by the NCAA. We expected that. What happens next for the Texas Tech quarterback as he tries to get eligible for this season, despite having gambolns. on his own team while at Indiana.

We'll talk about it all. And today's Annie and Ari on three. I am in the spring meetings. Ari's back at home, but the action is in the district of Columbia, Ari. We don't always talk about the stuff that's going on in Congress. It's sort of been going on in the background for the last few years. But I think today we need to talk about it. Various parties have tried to draft legislation.

that would quote unquote fix college sports. This is the closest thing to something that might actually have a chance of passing. And it's absolutely fascinating because it is a compromise and it is not going to give everybody, everything they want, unlike some of the other stuff. And I think that is what makes it very interesting. Specifically, there's a poison pill in there that I'm not sure the SEC and the Big Ten are going to be real fond of. but ari let's talk about ted cruz and maria can't well the two senators one republican one democrat who have created a bill to address a lot of the stuff going on in college sports yeah i read

through a lot of the stuff before we recorded here on wednesday andy and i found it to be kind of fun to read because as a consumer of college football i found myself being like well that would be great or thinking well that would be that would be cool or that would help um but one thing I don't know because I'm not an overly political person and I'm not, as we've pointed out on the show, 100% up to speed with how the wheels of government work is how likely any of this stuff is to happen. It seems like quite the undertaking. There's a lot of different things that have to happen. I think people have to relinquish power. You have to compromise. You have to, you know, come to an agreement of some sort on nine different things that are super important. And given the way that college football has been working outside of Washington, D.C., it seems highly unlikely that we're going to arrive at this place. And it seems like they want to arrive at a system that has rules that would function like they would if they collectively bargained with the players. Yes. And it's pretty interesting because it leaves that open.

And the one thing it doesn't have that is something the conferences and the schools all wanted was something saying that athletes are not employees and can never be employees. It doesn't say that. And in fact, Maria Cantwell was talking to Ross Dellinger, who is our friend from Yahoo, and said, hey, there is a path to collective bargaining here. And this is a situation where, like, they have this revenue share cap, which they would allow schools to enforce. They would allow the, you know, the system that's put and put in place by the house settlement to be enforced. But because they would give them some legal protection from getting sued over that. But there would be a mechanism where the players could come back and say, hey, cap needs to go up. We need to get more of the revenue. And that sounds an awful lot like collective

bargaining. And we just got done talking to Roger Denny, the new Oklahoma athletic director. And he said like, hey, collective bargaining made me an option. You know, Tennessee's AD, Danny White has said the same thing. And so I think they're coming around on that idea more than they have been. But part of that, I think, is because I'm not sure are the SEC or the Big Ten are going to be fans of this thing at all, this particular bill. There is a piece of it. And I wrote a column about this for on three, Ari. And we've talked about this.

We've talked about the Sports Broadcasting Act. We talked about how the leagues could make more money if they pooled all their TV rights together and sold them as one, and they sold the regular season and the postseason together. But they can't do that right now because it would be an antitrust violation. But if they were protected by the Sports Broadcasting Act, they could. Well, they could be protected by the sports broadcasting.

the Sports Broadcasting Act, if they got together. Very interesting the way they wrote this, though, Ari. So the SEC and the Big Ten have been resistant to that idea. They don't really want to give up the power that they have being the two most lucrative leagues. And even if the money was good, even if they made more money, anything where they're in there with the ACC and they're in there with the Big 12 probably would reduce that power gap. well, here's how they wrote this thing. So Ari, I'm going to throw some numbers at you. We're a bad at math podcast, but our friend Pete Nacos has helped me.

He's good at math. He's good at math. Yeah. So when you add Sacramento State and North Dakota State, you didn't think we were talking to talk about those two programs today, but when you add those to the FBS because they're joining, you have 138 FBS teams. So the way this bill is written, if it were passed into law, which, again, that's a big hurdle. but if it were passed into law, if 75% of the schools in the FBS wished to get together and sell their TV rights as one, then they would be covered under the Sports Broadcasting Act. They would be allowed to do that. They would have antitrust exemption, so you could sue them on antitrust grounds, but you would not win, probably. And that number is important.

Ari, we're bad at math podcast. What is 75% of 138? Are you kidding me? Like 87 is my guess? 103.5. Matt and podcast again. You ready? How many teams?

I think I know where the question is. How many teams are in the Big 12 and the SEC? I'm sorry, the Big 10 and the SEC combined? How many teams are in the Big 10 and the SEC combined? 34. What is 138 minus 34? Whatever the answer was, the first question. 104.

Exactly the number. Exactly the number you'd need to do this. There's a reason for that. Because if the SEC and the Big Ten don't want to do this, then the other leagues will get together and do it, which will make the SEC and Big Ten do it. Because the SEC and the Big Ten will make more money doing this. Like, there's a reason the NFL makes,

the most money, yes, it gets the most eyeballs, but it also makes more per eyeball than college sports. The NBA doesn't really get more eyeballs, but makes more money because they can sell by themselves as a single seller. It's not the Big Ten and the SEC both going to market and saying, okay, well, we can make a better deal with you. No, you just set the price and whatever people want to pay, they're going to pay, and you can set the price a little higher in that case. So the Big Ten in the SEC would do this, but this eliminates the possibility of a Super League. If there's a Super League, it's 104 teams, minimum. Sounds good.

Can I just hit you with a snag, though, as somebody that... Oh, this is nothing but snags. I'm explaining the snags. I want you to explain something to me like I'm four. Sure. And I'm too egotistical to admit that I'm too stupid online to understand this. but it seems like this bill would result in a system that would create what all the SEC coaches are currently complaining about where you are right now, which is there's no rules that are enforceable and everybody, you know, everybody wants one.

Well, right. It would eliminate that. It would create the rules. One time transfer for undergraduates. Five years to play five eligibility. No professional. Like you can't be a, you can't have sign a. two-way contract in the NBA and come back.

Like all of the things. Enforcing the cap, all those things. Yeah. But the thing that I don't understand about the government's involvement in this is they are coming in and creating a bill that basically is outlining what the rules of the Super League would be. But college football, if they weren't stubborn and actually worked together functionally, could do this on their own. Uh-huh.

could come to this conclusion on their own. Ding, ding, ding, ding. So why is the government even involved in this? Because they asked them to be involved. The SEC and the Big Ten and the Big 12 and the ACC went to the government and begged them to be involved. So they said, solve our problems because we're not capable of solving our own problems. And then the government's solution to the problems are the solutions that they all crave. And if this goes through, it's not what they all crave, though.

So it's what some of them crave. Yeah. I had a Texas A&M friend text me and said, did Ted Cruz just let Cody Campbell write this bill? Yeah. Because what has Cody Campbell been trying to do? And remember Cody Campbell has been very active. This is the billionaire.

He's the chair of the Texas Tech Board. He's helping fun Texas Tech roster. We've had him on the show. Cody Campbell has been trying to combine television sales for all the programs in order to ensure the Texas Tech would be included in a Super League if and when that and then. And now there is a mechanism for that law to get changed that would have Texas Tech in the club. It is interesting to me because in this bill or what I read in the proposal today was that

players could still potentially earn as much. This isn't about an income. This isn't about taking away income. I don't think. it would reduce player pay at all. But it gets to the second point of this, Andy, which is that the cap can be petitioned to be raised. You follow me?

So how far can the cap be raised before it's no longer financially tenable for the programs to want to adhere to this system? Like at a certain point, the people in charge of college football have to understand that eventually it's going to be more expensive than it would be just to collectively bargain and just do it the easy way. Well, it's the same, though.

I mean, the thing is, all markets have a level, Ari. The level is the level. We already know what the level is. The level is whatever the NBA and the NFL players get in terms of revenue from their leagues. That's the level. That will be the final point. It will get there because we already know that because we've already seen it happen. So whether the schools want it or not, that's where they're going.

It's just a matter of how they want to get there. What is the main reason schools have been apprehensive or flat out not wanting to collectively bargain with their players? Stubbornness and stupidity would be the best guess. It's not to try to save money. It's not to try to shift the burden of expense. Of course it's to save money. But everybody wants to save money. Everything's about cost control.

But I also feel like doing it in this regard could wind up being more expensive. So they might as well bite the bullet and do it. it'll wind up being as expensive as it was always going to be. Because again, there's a level and the market always reaches its level. So now, it could have started out cheaper for them. If they had decided to, if they'd had a mechanism to collectively bargain, the moment the NIL state laws got passed in 2021 and people could start getting paid, I think a player's union would have agreed to like 20% of the revenue.

and been cool with it for a few years. But it was always going to eventually go up to whatever it is the NFL players make and the NBA players make. Right. Not per player, but in terms of overall. But then if they would have done that way, Andy, how many hundreds of millions of dollars would have been saved on all this other ancillary crap that they spent their money on? Over years, yeah, it would have saved them some money. Maybe a billion dollars. Yeah, they would have arrived in the same place, but they would have saved some money along the way.

But yeah, so. But I find it hilarious that these people have been begging Congress for a solution. And I'm really interested to see. We're going to talk to Greg Sankey in the afternoon on Wednesday. And I don't know how much he's going to talk about this because it's 111-page bill. It's a lot to digest. But obviously, he's known for a while that it was coming. I want to see, does he offer full-throated support of this?

Does he say, there's some parts of it we don't like? Or does he say, hey, you know what? Maybe we don't need Congress to solve it. problems because I don't think this is something the SEC is going to want. It's funny if the solution to your problems is the thing that has stopped you from doing it on your own. Well, I think they might finally decide they can do it on their own. If the result is the same, why wouldn't they just do it on their own?

They'll look like giant hypocrites, but they won't have to give away something they're trying not to give away, which is they want that power over the other leagues. The Big Ten of the SEC enjoy a significant power down. up. And is this something that the fans of schools in these other leagues are frustrated by? And so if you're like, if you're a fan of an ACC school or a Big 12 school, you want this thing to pass. Like you're like, this is awesome. Let's go. Pass this sucker. But I'll be curious to see because the score act was the bill that was in the house. And all that did was essentially give the schools exactly what they wanted is basically turn back the clock to the old system. It was never going

to pass. It was never, ever going to pass. And it never even made it to the floor in the house. I have been reading a lot of the stuff from people in our position online since this news broke this morning. And, you know, I even read a tweet from your Yahoo co-host, Stephen Godfrey, who basically said, all you need to know about this is Congress won't accomplish anything. Can you, as somebody who's more plugged into this world than I am, kind of give me an idea of where you stand on, and you're not supposed to know any odds or anything, but just a blind guess in the dark of that hallway that you're in right now, the odds of this ever getting to a point where it could pass? I don't think it's going to pass. I think it is the most possible

to pass of any of these things, like any way you could do this, this is the way that you could pass one. You would want it coming out of the Senate. You would want it to be bipartisan from the start. You'd want the compromises to already be made. And because remember, in the Senate, they have the filibuster. You need 60 votes to break the filibuster. If they even put this forward, it means they think they get 60 votes in the Senate. And then presumably, if it's a bipartisan bill, a Republican as powerful as Ted Cruz has signed off on, it would pass the House. We think, I don't know if that's true or not, but you'd think it would. And then Donald Trump would sign it because he's, this is a lot of the stuff that he's said he wanted in that executive order.

So theoretically, that's how it would work. And I read this in Ross's story, too, that given the divisiveness of the political climate in America right now, that may be a bill that is bipartisan would have more support than it would in the past, given the fact that people are just wanting one for both. Oh, absolutely. But the thing is, it's bipartisan, but it's not giving the two most powerful entities in college sports what they want. In fact, it's making them do something they don't want. and that's why I think they're probably going to resist it or just hope to run the clock out on this thing. The clock is important here. They go to recess in August.

The midterm elections are in November. The makeup of the Congress will change based on all of the representatives in the House are up for election. Multiple senators are obviously out for election. And so the makeup of the Congress will change. It will look completely different when it reconvenes in January. And it may not be so easy to. pass anything. And so if it gets to that point, if it goes another few weeks, months, it's probably not going to pass. It's probably going to die. And so what I'm curious about

is, because I think if the SEC and the Big Ten were to get behind this and say, you know what, we are willing to make this compromise. This is giving us a lot of what we want, even though it's not all we want. And we're willing to make this deal. There's a chance. There's a chance it could pass. But the fans who listen to this show should be rooting for this, though, right? If you don't want a Super League, if you would like some semblance of regulations and rules, but you also don't want the clock turn back to when players couldn't get paid,

yeah. I mean, this hits a lot of the sweet spot. This is, because I think, I think fans, no matter how you feel about the player payment stuff, it feels to me like most fans want some real rules around eligibility. They want something that makes sense. They don't want people playing nine years of college sports. They don't want ex-pros coming back in and playing college basketball. Like that seems like a pretty commonly held belief. I don't think there's a lot of division on that.

Yeah. The consumers. I want to be the dude who just walked through SEC spring meetings with a shirt off behind you. I know. I was that that guy is is the man. He's coming straight from the pool. He's going to go watch some fine bomb. Yeah, good for him. Andy, I was going to ask you one of the thing before we move on, if you're ready to move on, is I have been kind of amused. And I'm not there, unfortunately. And by the way, watching you and Pete Naco's do our show yesterday was quite the, the, the FOMO experience. He did well, though. Good job, Pete. Thanks for stepping in. But I did listen to him. it during a six-hour delay. And it was a really good show. But I am amused by SEC coaches all agreeing on one thing, which is not being able to

have a set of rules from a salary cap perspective, from a transfer perspective, and, you know, the lawsuits, all the things you've heard what they've said. When these are the programs, the more powerful ones that have been able to benefit the most from said lack of rules. Well, they agree. They want as much money as possible to spend on their rosters. That's what they want. And if their school is not capable of raising it, they would like a more strict rule.

Yeah. But I've heard people say an SEC team spends $60 million on their roster or $40 million on their roster. And a team in the Big 12 only spends 12. Like, we need to do something about this. It's like, why would you want to do something about this if you were them? They don't. They would like the cap to go up. The Big 10 coaches would like the cap to go up.

they just want it to go up similarly and they want it to actually be enforced because like if you're Mississippi State you want to see the cap go up but you don't want it to go so high that you can't afford to yeah act it out like that's that's that's you want to spend more than you but you know you also want to be not so so right you don't want LSU spent so much more than you yeah but what do you think the because I wanted to ask you this yesterday before this news dropped about the but what do you? you think the rule is that SEC coaches wish were in place for fair game within their own conference? What rule do you think irritates them the most? Because we keep hearing, like,

I thought, no, I was ready to vote Mike Oco for president yesterday. Yeah. But like, they're all like, well, we're not following the rules. And if you don't follow the rules, you can just sue your way out of it. And it's like, okay, Texas A&M. Okay, Georgia. Okay, Texas. What is the thing that is occurring within the confines of the SEC with your direct competition and your geographical region that you think is being abused, that needs to all be on the same footing? Because I don't know the answer to that question. They're never going to be on the same footing.

That's the thing. They never will. They want to be, but they're not. Somebody's always going to have more money than somebody else. But if you're Steve Sarkesian right now, and I'm using him as an example because he's been fairly outspoken this summer. Okay.

But he wants to different, like that's the thing that you're talking about them like they're a monolith. They're not. Steve Sarkesian wants one thing. Pete Golding wants another thing. Jeff Levy wants another thing. What Steve Sarkesian wants, and he talked about it, and we're actually going to hear from Pete Golding in a second

because he caught astray from Sark not long ago. He would like similar rules about who can transfer, where, and who can be let in. At Texas, you can't just bring every credit you earned at another institution and then get a degree being there one year. You can only bring so many credits. You need to spend so many years or take so many classes at Texas to get a Texas degree. And Ole Miss, for example, does not have that requirement. That was the genesis of his basket weaving comment. Yeah. So what he wants is for him to have the same rules as far as who he can

take in transfer as Ole Miss. But that's up to the individual school. That's not. up to the league why is he voicing it at cc can you just call the president of the university he could yeah he just like i just have a hard time and this would be the same thing if it was occurring at big 10 uh it's just like i don't need to hear ryan day complaining about the rules like you're well it was kirby smart who's kirby smart said it here last year and it's one of my favorite quotes no crying from the yacht they're all crying from the yacht there right now i i don't know the kirby was yeah Yes, that's the thing. Because I wasn't here yesterday to talk about this.

I would literally write in Mike Elko's name for the next president. Yeah, he doesn't want it, though. He's like, I'm a football coach. No, I mean, of America. Yeah, hire a real Fortune 500 CEO is what he said. And I like the way he came at that. I thought that was very smart. There cannot be a single person.

And I know there's plenty of Texas and, you know, oh, you and tech people that probably, how do you not like that, man? God, he just gets it, man. I actually saw a lot of, I saw a lot of Texas fans in my mentions after I sent out that, that quote. A lot of Texas fans are like, he's an Aggie, but I like him. What's not to like about this guy? Anyway, I didn't get to, I didn't get to, that was the worst part about listening to the show yesterday was that like Mike Elko, when I saw the video clips you were tweeting, like almost brought me to the knees.

And I'm just like, why doesn't everybody think like this? Because he basically summed up our entire show in like 30 seconds. no, he's he's he's very smart and look, Ivy League grad, successful coach at many different levels. Ivy League grad and consummate football guy. Yeah, definitely football guy. So this is going to be fascinating to watch. We're going to talk more about the Senate bill.

We'll see what happens with it. I don't know what's going to happen with it. I will tell you if a bill is going to pass, this is how it has to start. But I still think there's a lot of hurdles and I think the way it's written. I think the SEC and the Big Ten are going to be highly resistant to it. So we will see what happens next with that one. It is Megaboard Wednesday, Ari, and I'm going to go to the OEM Spirit message board to tee us up for a conversation

that happened kind of over my shoulder here a few minutes ago. This is from O.M. Spirit, and the title of the thread is Lane Kiffin-Dashian taking shots at Pete Golding. And it was about a quote that Lane Kiffin had in a USA Today story. Lane was here yesterday, so it didn't happen yesterday, but Lane sat for an interview with Blake Topmire from USA Today. And one of the things that Lane said was, Ole Miss would have made the national title game

if Lane had been the head coach and Pete Golding had been in the box calling defense, which I get what he's saying. If I'm Pete Golding, that's got to piss me off a little bit. Andy, this show sucks without me. Yeah? okay do you take offense to that uh no yes yes i do take offense to that because that that show with pete nekos yesterday was fire and you were not anywhere near it that's literally what happened with this right which is your show or our show continued without me yesterday yeah it was a highly

successful show i think it would have been funnier if i were on it i think you may be right but i still think we uh we won the as a show. So we didn't need you. The question I have and the reason why I bring this up is you go to Josh Page show for all I care. The reason I bring this up is I am a human being. Yes.

And I think on three is the best college football website in America. Yes. 100%. I worked there. Everybody on earth thinks that their presence or their contribution to anything makes the thing better. I'm glad you said that, Ari. Like, of course he thinks that.

Could you imagine if he didn't? Here's Pete Golding talking about this. Yeah, man, I really don't have a response to it. I mean, obviously there's a laying side for us that we're buddies and our friends and there's professionals that I have to get on his ass, you know, about a little bit sometimes. But I think, you know, every time he gets a front of a camera, they're bringing up Ole Miss and all that. I think, you know, the breakup wasn't perfect.

I don't think any of them ever will be. but, you know, for some of the last kind, you know, comments that he made, I think anybody that's been to Oxford, you know, knows that's not where we're at right now. And I've lived all over the southeast. We all got our own issues, you know. But I think the biggest thing is make sure people come to Oxford and see it for themselves. So you win the one in the national title if you just coached from the booth? Well, I don't think you're going to find any coach saying, hey, they were better off with me, you know, with me not being there. I'll think you're going to see any football coach say that. So, no, I don't think that had any impact on a lot of winning again, Miami.

But I'm glad he's having fun with this, by the way. I am. But, Andy, I went and read the USA Today's their story, as I'm assuming you did. Yes. And my takeaway was Lane wasn't saying I'm a better coach than Golding. He was saying because they had to switch up their coaching mechanisms that they all became accustomed to and found success through in the year on top of the distraction.

None of that would have happened. Ari, when all those mechanisms are in place, they played Georgia's football team. Who won that game? Georgia. And when Pete Golding was the head coach and they were doing it the other way, Ole Miss played Georgia.

Who won that game? Ole Miss. Huh. Huh. Do you think that that's like definitive proof that Lane is wrong? No, but I think it's. funny as hell. It is funny as hell. I think it's funny as hell is what I think.

You know, I want to, I want to ask you about Lane here in a second. But the overall question here is, and we just said Pete was a good sport about this, but do you think that he should have taken offense to that? I would have taken offense to it. And I would bet that deep down he does. But also, the other part of this, and this is the part that we don't, we don't see. And he got to that. He spoke on that. he and Lane are still in constant contact. He's worked with Lane for a long time. They worked together at Alabama. They work together again in Ole Miss.

They know each other. They understand one another. It's a little bit different. There are things you and I text to one another that if people saw them out of context or we said them to a newspaper reporter, people would be like, oh my God, they hate each other. Yeah.

You know, these guys must despise one another. and that's not how it were like this is this is their relationship but it's a it's a lot different when you are saying this in the media versus saying it to one another and that's why he's like I got to get on his ass sometimes but I also I also think that River brought up a good point here behind the scenes and I agree with him which is I think part of Pete Golding's job description at Ole Miss in my opinion is to A never let Lane Kiffin get under his skin at least overtly or publicly. And I also think that his job description will also be to get the better of Lane Kiffin. So, like, and whether that's fair or not, that's not fair to him. He didn't control the

timeline of everything. He didn't control what Lane Kiffin says. But there will be a certain unfair benchmark of comparison that Pete Golding is going to not only beat or have to beat what Ole Miss did while Lane Kiffin was there the previous, you know, five, six years. But he, also is going to be measured against LSU's results, which certainly isn't fair because LSU has more resources and a more advantageous geographical footprint. So you take the job signing up for it. But if you left the show and then you went to another show and said some of the things that Lane Kippen said about the old show, I would be like, well, you just shut up about me already.

Like I would just be like, enough. Oh, absolutely. And you would want to have a better show that did better numbers, that sold more advertising. You would want to stick it to me. You'd want to show me. And he never brings up Lane on his own. Have you noticed that? It's the person who left that keeps bringing up the other place.

But Pete Goldie never brings up Lane on his own. People keep asking, but he also doesn't have to answer. So that's- So that brings me to the next thing I wanted to ask you. Do you think that everything that Lane Kiffin says is just so fascinating because he's Lane Kiffin? in the situation that he's in right now, or is he just that fascinating of a human being or both? I think the situation is fascinating.

And now he created the situation. So I think it's fascinating. But every time he doesn't... Of the circumstances. Every time he does an interview, he says something that is the quote of the week. Yeah, although he talked here yesterday. I wouldn't say we got a quote of the week out of that.

But he was trying to be on his best behavior. Yeah. And look, I... I get and I'm not going to criticize anybody or ask anyone to dial it back. I want you to say all of it is on your mind. I want you to the diarrhea of the mouth is great for business for us. So I don't want to to prohibit anyone from saying that or limit anyone from saying stuff like that. I want him doing that.

And I think it's a net positive for the sport that that exists. Like we had this conversation when Jim Harbaugh retired and Nick Say or left and Nick Sabin retired and all these coaches that were huge pillars in the game left and like we're like do we have a personality crisis like I think that it's a net positive to have villains I think it's a net positive to have shitsters I think it's a net positive to have people who when they speak moves the needle

in an interesting way because you know what without Lane Kiffin without his actions without his comments without his general aura as a human being September 19th isn't nearly as entertaining as it would have been otherwise exactly exactly I'm all for But also another one of those coaches, those needle-moving coaches who, whenever they say something, we talk about it. Dabo Sweeney, you know, he and Pete Golding have now collided because Dabo Sweeney has accused Pete Golding of tampering.

The player's name is Luke Ferell. He's a linebacker. He was at Cal. He visits Ole Miss. They don't have a spot for him. He goes to Clemson. They do have a spot for him. He decides to go to Clemson. old miss's situation changes the portal's still open and you've seen what dabo suini said you've seen

you know he he said he's got evidence of text messages and all this so he's accused that the NCAA is investigating we're going to find out more about that but pete golding addressed this situation a little bit he said you know we're going to let the NCAA do what they're going to do i wouldn't be shocked if pke golding if if they do hit him in this thing that he comes out guns blazing on everybody else. But here's Pete Golding talking about that specific situation, which is he was only asked about the calendar. He wasn't even really asked about the situation.

He brought this up on his own. Yeah, I mean, I think the calendar of what the calendar was last year, right, was not in a good spot where when you land from winning a quarterfinal game to official visitors coming under campus that day, right, with having to play a game in seven days. All right,

you're talking about the kid that, we're talking about this tampering was on an official visit that weekend. All right. And you're talking about not 10 days later from an official visit all the sudden that now this is a wrong to reach out to a guy that OVed you that wanted to be there. You didn't have a spot for that I had no idea where the hell he had signed or not. So I've been getting ready for Miami and playing a fiesta bowl. So like, and we're not comparing that to a guy that's been a three-year starter somewhere, right?

That wasn't in the portal that I said new school now after going to some of the way. Like, what do we do? And so I think that's the piece where everybody's at. So there's an enforcement of this that just took an OV, but there's not an enforcement of this. They just ruined his brand over three years, that he's been tampered with an entire coming. Like, what are we doing? Does that make – So that's Pete Golding talking about that particular situation where he's coming back from a game.

They have an official visit the next day. They have to get ready for another extremely high leverage game. And look, the calendar is what it is. The rules are what they are. You know what they are. And we will see what happens with that. that. And I, but I again, would not be shocked because at the same time, Pete Golding was defending against Ole Miss players being pillaged while trying to coach the team still.

Do you buy what he said, though? I think he knew what he was doing. I don't, I don't think it was, it was a case of there's this much stress with the game, then I don't know what I'm doing. He knows what he's doing. Yeah. But I also buy that he was defending that same. action from multiple programs at the same time. So if he's going to get dinged for it, what about everybody else? Is the question I would ask if I'm Ole Miss. If I'm Keith Carter, their AD, if I'm Pete Golding, if they single me out, I'm taking everybody with me.

Here's my estimation of how many minutes of sleep Pete Golding has lost worrying about this. Zero. I would agree with that. because he knows he knows if you go if you go get him he's got the receipts on all these other people yep i don't and i don't i would not blame him one bit would not blame him one bit it's kind of like doesn't it kind of feel like um if you are on a highway and everybody's going 15 over that like you kind of have to go 15 over is it kind of the same deal in this world i would agree with that it feels unsafe if you don't because you don't like resuming past you but then

if you get pulled over for going 15 over and the cops like well you know the speed limits clearly posted there you're you're frustrated as hell because what about everybody else i think that if you were a fan of i mean we've actually seen somebody go slower than traffic dabbo sweeney ironically has gone slower than traffic traditionally and has been completely bludgeoned over the head by his own fan base over it you have to go with the flow of traffic now going with the flow of traffic doesn't guarantee that you won't get a ticket you might just be the unlucky person that gets that gets that gets you know, a citation, but it's negligent and wrong to not go with the flow of traffic if you are the SEC, if you're an SEC head coach, period. Like, it's irresponsible and maybe even a fireable

offense. I would agree with that. And so that's what makes this situation so fascinating. Pete Golding's one of the most interesting people in college football. He really is. He is. I actually think he's handled this all of it, not just the Davo stuff, but the Lane stuff. I think he's handled it pretty well. They got Trinidad Shameless and Key Juan Lacey back. they should be pretty good. For someone who got thrown into a pretty chaotic situation, I actually think he's managed it really well. A plus across the board.

A plus on how we coached the games in the playoff. A plus on how he's dealt with multiple PR nightmares. A plus on roster retention. Now, we don't know what it'll look like in three years, but in this big SEC discussion of which newly hired head coach has a chance of being the next star, Don't you think that Pete Golding has the most early returns? Sure.

He's got a couple of playoff wins. Who else has that? Not Lane. Not Lane Kiffin. Not John Somerall who Pete Golding beat in the playoff. So, yeah, I think this is going to be. It's not, but it's what happened. If you put me in a Porsche 9-11, I could beat a NASCAR driver if he was driving a Honda Civic.

It's true. But it happened. That's what I'm telling you. If we're saying who of the first year SEC head coaches has playoff wins, it's Pete Golding. He has two of them. That is what happened. It's going to be interesting to watch this, the tampering thing because I don't think they're going to do anything to him. And if they do, I think we're going to have a hell of a show that day.

Great show. Like, yeah, great show. Ratings. Exactly. Ari. It's time for what has quickly become. my favorite segment of the week. Who am I?

Who am I? I just got so much. I think this. Are you nervous winning your turn? Yes. Okay. So I'm not crazy. If you're new to this segment,

we alternate weeks on who gives the clues and who has to guess the player. This is an all-time great college football player that I'd say most people who identify as college football fans will know who this is. And we come up with a set of clues. and yes, I, Ari, when it is your turn to give the clues and my turn to guess, I puck her up every time because I'm going to look like a moron if I can't get this with all the clues you give me because you always get to a point where it becomes fairly obvious. In fairness to you, I am far more comfortable looking like the idiot of the show than you are. So like I shouldn't be as nervous as you. But you are, but you should be nervous because this is, this is what we do.

And we should be able. And I think you're going to get this one. My concern with this one is I made the initial clues too specific. Because I think this is one, I think fans of the school this person played for probably might get it on clue number two. And I think you might get it on clue number two. But I think if you don't get it on clue number two, you may be down to eight or nine before you get it. All right, Andy. Well, I'm ready to go.

Here we go. I think. I played for the same high school that produced Fred Taylor. and Santonio Holmes. Okay, so we went to high school in Florida. Okay, specific part of Florida. Yeah, I'm trying to remember where Antonio Holmes went to high school. My younger cousin Anquan Bolden played for my high school's rival.

Oh my God, I don't know that. So this was supposed to be the clue that I was supposed to maybe get. This is the, that was the one. That's, there's a bonus, also cousins of Brent Schaefer, who played quarterback at Tennessee and Ole Miss. Okay. Bonus clue. official clue number three i originally signed with ucf out of high school but i left after redshirting

okay clue number four i moved on to hinds community college in mississippi where i played receiver as a freshman uh okay i moved to quarterback as a sophomore and threw for two thousand 192 yards and led Heinz to the state Juco title. Okay. I transferred to a Big Ten school where I threw for 582 yards and four touchdowns in 10 games as a junior. Will you read that one again? Sorry.

I transferred to a Big Ten school where I threw for 582 yards and four touchdowns in 10 games as a junior. Okay. As a senior, I threw for 2,573 yards and 27 touchdowns. I also ran 81 times for 423 yards and five touchdowns.

I'm starting to get a little bit nervous that I'm not going to get this. As a senior, I was the runner up for the Heisman Trophy. I was a first team All-American and I won the Davey O'Brien Award. I still don't have any years, right? Nope. Okay. It would be too easy. I will give you the year if we need to.

Okay. My team's only regular season lost my senior year, which was 2002, was to Iowa State in week three. Is it Brad Banks? You got it. Yeah. Good job.

I'll give you the last clue just for the social, make sure everybody gets all the clues. We lost 3817 to a Pete Carroll coached USC team in the Orange Bowl in my final college game. I had no idea. I had no idea that Brad Banks was Anquan Bolden's cousin. Yeah, so Brad Banks did. I didn't know if you knew. it or not. Brad Banks is from Glade Central High School in Bell Glade, Florida. They call it the

Muck. Glade Central and Pahoki are rivals. Anquan went to Pahokie. Brent Schaefer, actually, he went to Deerfield Beach High School, but like he was, remember, he was a starting quarterback in Tennessee, and then he transferred and actually played for Coach O at Ole Ole Miss. Like, this is, if you're a college football nerd, the Brad Banks of it all is, is fascinating. But Brad Banks, I would argue the best quarterback to ever play for Kirk Ferrence at Iowa? Is that, am I? I'm not slandering Ricky Stansy there.

I thought he was really good. I also had no idea that Brad Banks went to community college. Yeah, it's a really interesting path because I didn't know he'd gone to UCF at first. I knew he was a Duke co transfer, but I did not know he'd gone to UCF out of high school. But Brad Banks was,

if you were a college football fan during that time. Iowa was so much fun to watch. And this is one where, you know, we talk about Kirk Ferrence and we make jokes about the offense. Like, if Brad Banks had played in the Mark Grinowski offense last year, Iowa was a playoff team. They're competing for a national title. Like, that's how good Brad Banks was. Yeah. I was thinking Big Ten quarterback Heisman back up from Florida. And that's how I got there. And it took a minute. But when you said Iowa State, I'm like, okay, he wouldn't have brought up the Iowa State thing if he wasn't an Iowa. So I think that like sometimes in this game, funny enough, Andy, there isn't a single clue that gives it away, but there are little pieces of information in multiple clues that you can piece together.

And that's how I got there this time. But I'm so happy. I felt like I was going to get stumped there for a minute. No, I knew you were going to get it. Because you, you know, covered Ohio State for a long time. You're a good student of your Big Ten history. And I just, the Brad Banks thing is amazing to me because you, you saw what a real good dual threat. quarterback could do in the offense that Kirk Farrant's runs. And it really took until,

CJ Beth was a good athlete, but he wasn't really trying to run the ball that much. It took until Grinowski last year for them to say, you know what, the quarterback run game can really help us. And Brad Banks was like a true dual threat quarterback at the beginning of dual threat quarterbacks existing. Like he was right. Right. So sometimes I wonder how good would Brad Banks be if you dropped them off in his prime at Iowa in Iowa right now. He would dominate right now. Like Iowa running the offense they ran last year with Mark Grinowski, Iowa would have dominated with Brad Banks and quarterback.

Yeah. So this might turn into a bonus segment for 30 seconds about Iowa, but why do you think it's so impossible for, is it just because once you get branded as the team that plays pro style punt football, it's harder to attract or could Iowa conceivably pay or even overpay a ton of money for a true dual threat quarterback that can make something happen in those Big Ten West vintage games.

But they didn't. The two guys that are competing for the job this year, Hecklenzky and Hank Brown, they transferred in last year. They've been in the program. But I don't know that either one of them is the same as Grinowski from a skill set standpoint. So yeah, they could. Maybe this is a terrible example. because the quarterbacks coach left the program and he followed his coach.

But let's just say Alex Golish stayed put and never went to Auburn. Do you think- Oh, and you bring him Byron Brown? Is there any way that Iowa could go get Byron Brown? You would think so? Or someone like that? Yeah, you would think that they could just pay that there's somebody in the group of six who is a really good dual threat athlete with a good arm that you could

run and again, they had an offense last year that took advantage of a dual threat skill set. It's not impossible. And it's not even that far-fetched. Because I think as a player, I would be scared because I think a large part of transferring is obviously ending up at a place that,

you know, has an offense that will cultivate your skills and develop you into an NFL player. So I understand that. the challenge or the fear that a player would have if Iowa came knocking on the door and said we want you to play quarterback for us. But on the other hand, I also could buy into the sales pitch of we've struggled tremendously offensive.

We have gotten better. We have evolved our offensive philosophy the last few years. You are the missing piece to get us into the playoff. Like I think that's also a compelling thing. So like Byron Brown left USF and followed his coach to Auburn. But like, is there a place in college football where if Auburn wants you or Mississippi state wants you or an SEC school wants you that Iowa could win that battle both financially and from an appealing standpoint. And I don't know the answer to that. Maybe, maybe. Yeah, I feel like

you should that they should be able to like if you're if you're being smart about it. And they're making a competitive offer. They win. Like being on a team that wins matters. And this is obviously revisionist history. But like, is there a Trinidad Chambliss out there? Like a Trinidad Chambliss Light who plays at that has shown great skills and runs around a lot and can extend plays and like doesn't have a starting opportunity that Iowa could take a shot on as maybe a backup or something like because like Iowa was better than Temple right like I mean I just I feel like they could find someone right they should be able to find someone well I think it'll be interesting as producer river brings up Colton Joseph the new quarterback at Wisconsin who came

from Old Dominion last year. Yeah. Who's a very good runner, and the threat of him running allows him to be a better passer. So. Yeah. But you know who else comes to mind? Sorry. I know you're limited on time, and I don't know how to shut up, but like a guy like Devin

Dampeer. Yeah. Could I will take a Utah quarterback from them when their coach leaves? It's a good question. It didn't happen. And Devin Damper stayed. And like his OC left, which I thought was interesting. And then he, but he enjoyed being at Utah.

he decided to stay. So, because I think, I would imagine he had options. You know, I don't know exactly what the options were, but I would imagine he had plenty of options when Kyle Winningham left. So, yeah, I think I would be fascinated to see it because I keep, I go back to Brad Banks as what Iowa can be offensively. So, but I'm so glad you got that because that's, when I sent the name to producer river and the clues to produce River,

he didn't know who it was. So I'm glad there's a generation maybe that is now going to look up. Hopefully some listeners and viewers are going to YouTube after this show and looking up Brad Banks highlights. You're going to enjoy it. I thought you picked Brad Banks because we got some flack on Twitter for not selecting him in our quarterback draft last week. No, no, but I sympathize with those people for saying that.

Yeah. because I love Brad Banks. I think he's awesome. Isn't it great when you have to work with producer River on the clues to the guy? And he's like, and then you realize that Producers is, Rivers like nine years old. Well, when Brad Banks was a senior in college, River was four years old. So I don't blame him for not remembering. I don't remember everybody from the 80s. All you guys, Rivers Age, that are listening to this right now, go to YouTube and look up the Brad Banks highlights.

You're going to, you're in for a treat. I'm just telling you right now. You're going to enjoy it. It's fun. Do you think that River views highlights from the 90s the same way that, like, I view highlights from the 60s? Like, he like feels like they're black and white. It'd be like you viewing highlights from the 80s. That would be the same situation with you.

So, yeah, I think it's fun. I like learning more about the sport. And I like being able to show people that, you know, the people who I, when I was younger, I really loved watching. And so I think that's, that's one of my. favorite parts of this segment that we get to kind of dip into the memory bank sometimes and bring back people that we loved. We're going to start doing to Andy. I'm going to say it on the show because I think we should. Random ranking guesses where one person has to rank something and the other person gives you five things. You don't know what order they're coming to see if you can get

going. Because like doing that with quarterbacks would be fun. Doing that with college football playoff teams would be fun, all these different things. But I do like the game because like I learned something every time we do it because I remember the clues. Like, I'll never forget now for the rest of my life that Brad Banks is Anquan Bolden's cousin. I know, right? Yeah. Like, I didn't know that. Also, just cool.

Just cool. Because Anquan Bolden was a dog, too. Like, I was the Cardinals guy for a while. Well, I also think if Anquan Bolden had maybe, well, obviously had a great career at Florida State, but he was a quarterback in high school and was a big time quarterback recruit. He might have wound up playing quarterback in college and being really good at quarterback. had he gone somewhere else. But also, he was unbelievable.

He became one of the best receivers in the NFL. So I think Bobby Bowden knew he was doing. I don't think anybody's ever questioned that. No. Bobby Bowden. All right. Next up, go to the megaboard from Red Raider Sports. Sorsby denied by the NCAA.

This happened on Tuesday. The NCAA denied Texas Tech quarterback, Brendan Sorsby's petition for reinstatement. Obviously, we know the basic circumstances of this case. Brendan Sorsby caught gambling on various events, including Indiana football games when he was a member of the Indiana football team. And we suspected that this is where it would go. That when he did petition to be reinstated by the NCAA, they would say, no, we will not reinstate you. Because that's how these things have happened in the past.

Hunter Decker's is probably the most similar case. he put down a bet on Iowa State when he was the red shirting backup at Iowa State, and he ended up getting permanently banned and never got to play in the NCAA again. So now what happens next for Brin and Sorcery? Because it's not over for him yet, because this is the age of, if you can find the right judge, you have a chance. So in Lubbock County Court, we talked about the lawsuit last week. The hearing is June 1st.

The hearing for a temporary injunction is June 1st. And so they are going to argue in front of a judge. The first judge, the one that, are you remember, within hours of the case being filed, there was a picture of the judge who got assigned giving the guns up next to the mascot. That judge has recused himself. And I think people are like, wow, you know, he couldn't have been objective about it. If I were him, I would have recuse myself because I don't want to rule against him. Texas Tech. And I think there's a chance I may have to. That's probably what happened.

Yeah. So, because you have to think about this from, from the judge's perspective, do you want to be the one who opens the can of worms where the next time somebody's banned for gambling, they just go to court and find a judge. And you've set a precedent now. But also, we're going to get the arguments from Brendan Sorsby side. And I'm curious to hear how a judge takes these arguments, because maybe maybe the judge will take this seriously where I think Brendan Sorsby side is going to argue that hey this are some really mixed messages you're getting from the NCAA which does sell real time data to gambling

companies that's a revenue stream for them you have schools that have deals with casinos you have casino names that are that are on football fields you have casino names that are on football stadiums this is not just black and white cut and dried even though we think the rule of don't bet on your own team is black and white and cut and dried.

But we're going to see what that argument does and how a judge processes an argument. And really what this comes down to, Ariane, is will the judge grant the injunction or not? The case itself is never going to trial.

They're never going to have the case. Nobody's intending to have the case. They want the injunction. If they get the injunction, he'll be able to play for Texas this season. If they don't, he won't. And he needs a decision made pretty soon because he has

to decide whether he wants to enter the NFL supplemental draft and the deadline for that is June 22nd. My understanding of whether you get an injunction or not is based on the judge's view of whether you're... I learned this from the Andy Staples Law School University.

The judge thinks that your case has a chance of succeeding or winning based on its own merits. Yes. That is one of the one of the three prongs that you need for an injunction and probably the most important one. I don't know why anybody would ever think that this case could pass on its own merits. It sounds to me like he's a dead duck because like you say it's not cut and dry and I understand like, okay, well, you know, maybe there's a casino del soul, you know, signed somewhere in Arizona Stadium,

but like you broke the one rule you cannot break. And I don't think there's any getting around it no matter how you try to rationalize it. And that's what the NCAA said. And like, yeah, my suspicion is that first judge recused himself because he does not want to go against that. But, hey, I'm about to go on Feinbaum, Ari. And Paul Feinbaum said it should have just been a three-game suspension. But they got it wrong. I couldn't disagree with him more on that.

But you can tell him I said that. I will. I will. And I'm sure Brad from making will be, we'll be listening in and have some very strong opinions on it. No, read the replies to the tweet that On Three put out about this. Like everybody's on board here. Yeah, I think this is a, this is another one. We talked about it at the beginning when we were talking about the Senate bill and the eligibility rules and the not having professional athletes come back and play college sports.

Like this one too, don't bet on your own team. Feels like one where there's not a lot of disagreement among the consumer base. Like everybody seems to feel like that's a fairly important rule to have. Yeah. I think that my number one thought, process with this has been unchanged since this came out, which is the one thing that college football absolutely could never survive is if the people watching the sport weren't certain that it was, the result was arrived at in good faith. Yes. And that is, that's not just college football.

That is every sports league that sells tickets, that broadcast games. The fans need to know the outcome is not fixed. And the only way you guarantee that is you have rules. like this. Yeah. And you still can't always guarantee it. I mean, we, we had a scandal,

recently with, with guys who were point shaving in college basketball games so that people could win prop bets. Yeah. It's not, it's really hard to police. There's a lot. And it's harder and harder,

the more pervasive gambling gets. And I get, like, everybody's going to say, oh, but you guys are sponsored by a sports book. Yeah. Yeah.

The sports book that sponsors us, also wants the games to be on the up and up, because that's how they stay in business too. We also don't play the games. So what we do has nothing to do with that. So, I mean, I know people are like, gotcha, BetMGM sponsors. It's like, well, that's, that's, that's, right,

we don't play. We're not, I'm not on Cincinnati's football team. This is a piece of news that Brett McMurphy put out. I'm sure you heard this too, Andy, about 35 minutes ago. He said the SEC will require all student athletes to view new custom design, mandatory sports gambling educational video prior to the start of their team's first regular season game during the upcoming athletic year. So, I mean, I guess they're doing everything that they can.

I was a walk on football player in 1996. Behind every door in the facilities, there was a poster that said, don't bet on it. Yeah. And I'm assuming that's still the case. I'm sure that they're more prevalent now. And, you know, we have, I mean, I've encountered gambling discussions in the workforce, too. I think that it's not an obscure rule. So I do understand like the leagues doing stuff like this like what the SEC announced today.

Do as much as you can. Educate as much as you can. All that can do is help. Yep. I mean, I think we have to do like a sexual harassment training video at on three here pretty soon. So like I don't know if you've done that yet or not. But shoot, man.

Well, there goes my Wednesday night. That's all right. But I understand the point, even if you think it's not effective, every single time it goes through the years. it's an important reinforcement of not doing this. Absolutely. I'm not making fun of it. And I'm also operating under the assumption and have been since this news broke that he'll never play a snap in college football. And I'm just going to take the waves of information as they come and the news breaks.

But like, I don't think that anybody should be like sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for him to get this injunction. I don't think it's going to happen. Well, who knows? Maybe we even know by the end of Monday show. Maybe the judge waits. Maybe they take a while to think on it. We'll find out. But that's something we'll be talking about probably early next week, Monday, Tuesday.

We will cover that habit for you. You will know when we know. And yeah, stay tuned to On 3 because that is where you get all the coverage of the court hearings, the playoff discussion, the bipartisan bills being introduced in the Senate. You name it. We do it all. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Thank you.