Andy & Ari On3 - Which SEC coach runs the meeting now? | Saying goodbye to Bill Walton

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

It’s day one of the SEC spring meetings in Destin and also day one of the On3 Elite Series in Nashville, so Andy has a lot to talk about with On3’s J.D. Pickell and Pete Nakos.0:00 Intro2:19 SEC Spring Meetings Begin from Destin6:11 SEC Spring Meetings Discussion11:29 Billy Napier, Florida Discussion21:58 Being a top recruit in 202438:40 NIL Discussion44:10 12 Team CFP49:00 Future of College Football51:52 In-N-Out Fries and USC's Defense55:08 Remembering Bill Walton58:37 ConclusionAt the SEC meetings in Destin, commissioner Greg Sankey spent Monday night discussing all the big changes coming to college sports following last week’s House v. NCAA settlement. Tuesday will bring all the SEC’s football coaches to their meeting, which will be the first since 2007 without Nick Saban. Florida coach Billy Napier is likely to get asked about quarterback Jaden Rashada’s lawsuit against him.Meanwhile, the On3 Elite Series starts Tuesday. Dozens of the best recruits in the class of 2025 will join us in Nashville. Andy, J.D. and Pete discuss what it’s like to be a top recruit in 2025. They also imagine their ideal official visit.Also, the guys pay tribute to UCLA legend Bill Walton, who passed Monday at 71. Walton was a generational player for John Wooden’s Bruins and an accomplished NBA player, and his work later in life as a commentator on Pac-12 basketball games brought joy to everyone who stayed up to watch.Want to watch the show instead? Join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/kxFjxknnzXIHost: Andy StaplesGuests: Pete Nakos, JD PicKellProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Tuesday. Good morning. Greetings from Nashville. We are here for the elite series, the on three elite series. We got some of the best members of the class 2025 coming as we speak. They're working their way here from the airport. I got Pete Nacos.

I got JD Piquel. It's an all-star cast, star studded, and the real stars are coming later. They're the ones that you would like your team to sign. And gentlemen, we're going to talk about what it's like to be a top recruit in 2025 today. We're going to talk about ideal official visits. These guys are about to embark on something pretty fun. Now, they've been recruited for a while now, but it's about to get hairy. The uncommitted guys, JD, I think may be committed here by the end of the summer, a lot of those.

Yeah, I think we're getting to that point where you're slowly but surely starting to narrow down the list. Whenever you're dating a girl, you go through that talking phase, and then it becomes a point like, hey, what are we? Kind of determine the relationship. I think those guys are getting close to that. But this is awesome, man. Twitter timeline come to life for all the on three people.

This is phenomenal, and I'm glad to be here with you. Look, Pete's got the quarter zip already. We're ready to roll here. We're ready to roll here. I mean, yeah, in a big month coming up, David Sanders, the top uncommitted prospect in the nation, five-star offensive tackle coming off that Tennessee visit. Ohio State's in it as well.

Going to be an interesting couple days trying to catch up with him and see what's on tap in June. It's a good offensive line class this year, too. I was doing some reading. I was watching videos of Will Black, the Notre Dame commitment from Connecticut. How do they create these giants who can move like this as 17-year-olds? These people, and J.D JD you know and I remember from high school from college like seeing these people as they were being recruited they didn't look like

this yeah the the Wheaties formula has changed a lot in the last five years but they are starting to I think put some extra juice in those things and so it's good for us as college football fans because that makes the Saturday product 10x more enjoyable. I'm excited for that. It is so much fun. We'll get into what they're about to be doing and who we're going to see. There's a lot of really good people coming. We're going to talk about what's going on down in Destin, Florida. Sandestin to be specific. We always argued about what the dateline would be from the SEC spring meetings back in the day.

So Greg Sankey, the SEC commissioner, talked on Monday night. Obviously, every question was about the House versus the NCAA settlement. What happens now? Pete, you and I talked about this a bunch last week. Greg Sankey saying to the assembled crowd, and Ross Dellinger from Yahoo posted this, I've not had one athlete call me and say, I want to be taxed like an employee. Do we need to explain to Greg Sankey how 1099s are actually much more

difficult to file than W2s? Greg Sankey's comments Sunday night set off another social media firestorm of people questioning why college leaders believe this. And then Greg Sankey goes on to say, Andy, social media firestorm of people questioning why college leaders believe this and then greg sankey goes on to say andy and i know you and i also talked about this that congress needs to step up the same thing we've heard for the last 33 months or or so and and um he also made sure though to mention that he doesn't envision anything happening until after the november election so yet again we're on an elongated calendar yeah maybe i think he's just sort of prepping everybody to let them know what's going to happen like this is going to drag out some more

the other thing i think because greg sankey learned a lot from mike's life his predecessor mike's life was a big under promise over deliver guy work in the shadows and don't say what you're actually up to. I do wonder if some of this is threat and trying to thread a needle with Congress, because you've talked to some folks, Jason stall and Jim Caval, who want to organize athletes.

And they have said, you could do this. You could have collective bargaining without the athletes being employees, but that might take an act of Congress. Could that be the needle they try to thread where, cause the schools definitely don't want them right. Employees, right.

I mean, it could be a needle they want to thread, but I think there's a lot of hesitation that there's going to be momentum behind that. Talking to Jason saw on Jim Cavella, he mentioned. And, and I think part of that reason is there's still a huge dividing college

athletics. We saw right after that have a settlement, Notre Dame officials came out and called for congressional action to make sure that athletes are classified, not as employees, which is something that everybody wants. But I just think that there's still a significant divide. And yet again, we're going to have to go see if Congress wants to get anything done. And obviously, that's going to take some bipartisanship. Thomas in the chat, 1099 is no more difficult than W-2. Yeah, it is when you got like six of them. And nobody's helping you with social security either.

You're paying for all of that. So yeah, it's funny. All the folks in our business who've been freelance writers are like, no, I like the W-2 way better. JD, did you imagine you'd be talking tax forms today? Every single time I get something like having to do with NIL or anytime like Congress is in the headline, I'm like, hey, Pete, what are you doing in 10 minutes? Can you jump on the show and explain this to me so I can understand what's going on? My whole thing is like, can we get more adults in the room? Can we get the adults in the room that know how to manage money and kind

of have a gauge for what's going on? I don think the u.s congress is the people we're going to talk about i mean i mean i'll take i'll take i mean head coaches if they got the right idea greg sank you've got the right idea so uh pete i defer to you nine times out of ten eleven times out of ten on this topic but uh yeah it's it's a wild place in college athletics and here we are it is it is crazy i mean that's the thing like these sec coaches get her so let's talk about the sec spring meetings in destin because this is an event i've covered a lot of times and it's it's always interesting uh perhaps my favorite moment the year lane kiffin was tennessee's coach they had a meeting downstairs they moved where the football coaches meet but back then the football coaches met downstairs and there was an elevator

that could take them directly up to their rooms and that's what they would try to escape through when their meeting broke and i just remember watching lane kiffin walk out of the meeting and everybody's running to the elevator to try to interview lane kiffin behind him is steve spurrier who was then south carolina coach, yelling at Lane Kiffin. Like, I don't know what Lane had said, but it had irked Steve Spurrier. And it was like Steve Spurrier basically laying down the law of like, you think you're the person who needles people in this conference? I am the person who needles people in this conference.

What a room. It was spectacular. So this is interesting because this is the first year since 2007 that nick saban is not in that room and you add steve sarkeesian exactly texas oklahoma are there their their coaches are there their ads are there yeah uh we get to see the 16 team sec kind of in its full glory and that makes it feel a little more real like seeing seeing the burn orange and seeing the crimson and cream there uh jd when you think about a few years ago it was 2021 when we learned that texas and oklahoma were going to join the sec it felt so far away yeah they're going to play an sec season in a couple of months. The weird thing that I think the on three main Twitter account tweeted out was they're starting to put the SEC logo down on DKR.

It's like, oh, this is happening. This is not just going to be a thing that we talk about for the next two, three years. Like, it's really happening. And I mean, it's going to be so bizarre. We look at the conference standings October and we're like, oh, Texas and Oklahoma. Here's where they stack up next to Alabama, Georgia. Like, that's going to be so bizarre. But at the same time, it's like, OK, we're like oh texas and oklahoma here's where they stack up next to alabama georgia like that's going to be so bizarre but at the same time it's like okay we're here like the new era has started and we're jumping into this thing head first so who runs that meeting pete who do you

think because i imagine nick saban's words held a lot of sway i i've been told that when ed orgeron was at lsu he was pretty in a you know a very active participant in all those because some coaches just kind of want to hang back some coaches want to be very much in control of all the issues that they're discussing who do you think is the one that that talks the most i'm putting my my money on lane kiffin you think so well in in this new era of the sec i'm i'm thinking lane because you look at it um i mean i I think Shane Beamer's getting there maybe a little bit, but at the same time, like Steve Sarkeesian, Brent Venables, maybe aren't 100% sure what they're about to walk into today. Yeah.

Taylor DeBoer needs to feel this out. Yeah. I mean, and Lane is probably one of the more proven winners right now in the SEC. Yeah. Well, and the other thing about Lane, and I think part of this is lane when he talks to us or when he talks to any, any media entity about NIL,

about all the changes going on in college sports, he just says what he thinks. Yeah. He says out loud, what all of them say behind closed doors. So I do wonder if the conversations may be a little more robust, like Kirby smart is very calculated about all this stuff. Anything that involves money going to the players, he's like,

we'll do whatever the rules say we can do. We're good with that because he doesn't want to get painted as someone who's anti-paying athletes. That's, you know, all these coaches want to be looked at as somebody who's going to make sure you get what you, what you deserve. So I, I do wonder with those guys, like who's like Brian Kelly,

you know, we've talked a lot about Brian Kelly and him saying, we don't buy players. I guarantee you, Brian Kelly in that room speaks very differently than he does in an interview. Sure. Yeah.

100%. I think the person I'd want to sit next to during those meetings would be Lane Kiffin because I bet he's hilarious. Like the off-the-cuff, like under, like, you know, Steve Sarkisian saying stuff. He's like, this guy just freaking got here, man. He doesn't know about the SEC. You don't know SEC ball. Like, I bet he is a riot to sit next to.

Kirby, it definitely is like the king of the quarter. Rush chair. Yeah, yeah. Like, there's no doubt in that. But like but like jd mentioned like just sitting next to lane hearing his banter i'm sure he's gonna mutter something greg sankey says something i mean that's that that's who i kind of look to at the moment i think sam pitman would be awesome to sit next to at this oh yeah can you imagine he's definitely got the running commentary going and especially in his situation right now, he does not care.

No. Because he's got to win a bunch of games or they're going to, they've already hired the interim, essentially. So we know what's going to happen there. So he's going to be kind of don't care. Nothing can bother me here. Whatever I want to say say i'm going to say so i i would love to have him miked up yeah this meeting we get i think sam pitman miked up would

be amazing i think drinks on the up and up too oh yeah huge yes took kate and green from oklahoma yeah yeah yeah yeah mizzou's looking really good entering Destin. What's he wearing to this thing? Because I mean, last year at media days, Andy, he pulled up and sat down with you. He's got gold Jordan once and not like,

like Matt gold. It was like Chrome gold. And I was like, Oh, Missouri is about to do something this year. I can only imagine the silver ones are about to drop by the way. Okay. I don't know if you,

if you follow those apps with the silver, silver Jordan ones. I need to follow those. I need to follow those if I'm not yet. Yeah. But this will be fun. The one coach I imagine will not have a lot of fun on Tuesday is Billy Napier, the Florida coach,

because we've not heard from him since he got sued by Jaden Rashada last week. There's not going to be much of a choice. I'm curious, does he say anything beyond, well, I can't talk about pending litigation which by the way is the best cop out ever because you can use it for anytime you're involved in anything legal to just not say anything so andy we were speculating last week does billy napier come out with a statement ahead of sec meetings just so he doesn't have to answer questions he hasn't done that he's obviously going to be asked the question we'll have our eyes tuned in ears tuned to see what he says but

i think beyond that too um greg sank he mentioned last night he's not a fan of litigation well obviously jayden rashad has sued uh billy napier the the booster hugh hathcock um and the former florida staffer marcus marcus castro walker so it's gonna be interesting to see how this plays out it's clear that um obviously they haven't reached a settlement or anything in the last week um so i think i think billy napier is definitely gonna have the spotlight on him at some point today yeah and i've had people say well you know jayden rashada doesn't want to get this to get to discovery they're just they're just angling for a settlement.

I'm sure they would like a settlement. I'm sure they would like some money. But here's the thing you got to think about when it comes to Jaden Rashada. He's a very dangerous person to have suing you because we have already painted him as greedy. We've painted his camp as incompetent. We've painted them as, you know, you name. Yeah, they've been painted as villains. Yeah, you name it. We've already painted them as you know you name yeah they've been painted as villains yeah you name it we've we've already painted them in a bad light they can't look worse than they've

already looked so they could drag this thing into discovery and then it gets really messy because there there are things i'm sure that florida would rather nobody asked about anymore, especially not under penalty of perjury. And just speaking with some sources, obviously, the lawsuit alleged that Billy Napier promised a million dollars if Jaden Rashad is signed on National Signing Day. That lawsuit at the moment doesn't have any evidence to support that other than a text message from Jaden Rashad's father, Harlan. At the same time though talking which does not count right um but talking to sources i they they would like to depose billy napier i mean sources um on the rashad i can't i said that so yeah of course um so so that's going to be something to watch and see if anything comes from it well and you can ask anything you want in

a deposition it's not like you're in a courtroom where where the judge is going to very narrowly you know control the line of questioning yeah so that's something that i i don't think there's any sitting college football coach or any none of us want to get dragged into to a room and deposed no because a lot of times the opposing lawyers just picking at you trying to get you to say something you shouldn't so i i definitely if i were really naper would not be thrilled about this whole situation because it's just another jd we've talked about florida a lot it's another black cloud hanging over a season where they're he's he's already under a ton of pressure yeah and i'm thinking about like walking into that room with the rest of the sec coaches like from a group chat social dynamic standpoint like how do you play that if you're

really in the eight period yeah i mean like i'm thinking back to high school something embarrassing happens do you just you know face it head on and address it right off the bat in the room do you kind of act like nothing happened like how do you even go about that with all your peers you know he's got to throw out a well time well kirby's uh backup QB sued me. Right, yeah. Something like that. It's kind of subtle. That kind of gets the room laughing, breaks the tension. It's out there now. That would be my play as well.

Billy Napier is very popular among his fellow coaches. That's one of those things. You talk to other coaches. They love him. Kirby Smart likes Billy Napier a lot. I don't know. I've wondered about this. You guys probably thought about this too.

Kirby Smart is such a ferocious competitor. Yeah. know i've wondered about this you guys have probably thought about this too like kirby smart is such a ferocious competitor yeah does his friendship with billy and apier how does that reconcile with his desire to beat florida at everything every single day i think that's probably the overriding concern for for kirby smart yeah if i'm kirby smart i think there's probably a level of we're indestined let's have a good time but understand now when we leave this building yeah we are not friends like that like i am not gonna have your back i'm not telling jayden rashada to call the dogs off no pun intended like we are we are going after you and that's what i'm talking about on the

football field uh have to imagine that that's the same when it comes to this whole situation around rashada and the thing i've been thinking about this Rashada's situation is like how far does it drag out right yeah it's about to be June 1 uh Paul Camp is not very far off um and obviously Billy Napier would not like this to play out during the season so um how do the next two to three months play out yeah that's that's the tough part and you know I would try to push, delay it if I'm Billy Napier as much as I can and just get this season going because we'll know, I think we'll know in the first half of the season whether he's going to make it through this season or not. Because here's the deal. Florida's schedule is so hard that if you are 7-5,

that's great. It is improvement. You've beaten somebody who probably can compete for the SEC title at that point. If you're 8-4, for sure. There's no question about that. You're good. 7-5, I think you're good too. So anything 6-6 or below is the issue. And those first five games are probably the most winnable. And this is the situation that makes me fascinated by that 6-6 scenario because I wonder how much this impacts benefit of the doubt for Billy Napier. 6-6, you're having a conversation about, well, how did they look versus those top three teams? What was the margin of victory? And if it gets to a 50-50 split

and you legitimately have the room divided on how you feel about Billy Napier, do you go back to Jaden Rashada and say, well, but we can't keep things in order when it comes to NIL. Let's kind of hit the refresh button. This is what I always talk about in terms of PR with coaches, about how they deal

with people like us. Because I always say, if you're going to go 1-11 or 11-1, it does not matter how you deal with us. You can be as nasty to us or as nice to us as you want. None of it matters. You don't need any friends in the media. You don't need any friends in the fan base. Like you're either going to succeed, get extended or get fired. It's when you're six and six, when you're, you know, different situation, different schedule, seven and five, that you've

got to have some friends somewhere, whether that be in the donor base or if the fan base loves you, that might help you get another shot. But Billy Napier is in that situation where I think he's done enough to make the friends he needs to make. He's got to win the games at this point. That's the hardest part is he's six and seven and five and seven and four. Do we think going six and six and making a bowl game is enough? I think it depends on the games. It depends on the six wins. And it depends on how you look at the losses.

I mean, if you play the back half of this schedule with Georgia, Texas, LSU, Ole Miss, Florida State, if those are close games, I don't – because the idea is you want to be competitive against those things. That is the goal. So if you can do that, I think you're fine. If you can't do that, then we know what's going to happen. Right. Get that win against Georgia, though.

Have that better than the cat. I'm just saying, if something crazy happens, I'll take y'all back to 2014. Florida's going to the Georgia game. They have the press release written to go out on Sunday. We'd like to thank Will Muschamp for his contributions as Florida's coach. We'll be looking for a new coach. The press release was written.

They threw a fake field goal to a grocery bagger who then became a doctor, by the way. But a walk-on grocery bagger scores on a fake field goal. They beat Georgia, and will muschamp lives to fight another day now he's they lost south carolina a few weeks later that was the end of that but that's to jd's point that can happen crazy things to finish at florida state like those win-loss goggles they come out and you're like well actually you know what we did be florida state yeah hey hey we kind of that january shot a thing and i always knew it's an outlier the guy that was a staffer is

on the staff anymore like let's let's run it back you know we did beat georgia after all exactly well and i say i think now especially that rings even more true because in 2014 it's mark rick georgia's in that mode of well we're kind of underachieving we could be better now georgia is the center of the college football universe yeah like they are considered the best program in the country yep year in and year out so that would absolutely make a huge difference if they were were to be able to win that game in jacksonville which by the way not the only big neutral site SEC game this year because now you got that game in the Cotton Bowl yes that's right okay Oklahoma is it like they don't have

SEC logos on the field for that that took me a second I was like Clemson and Georgia that's that's gonna be bizarre and they're back to back yeah's not it yet texas has oklahoma and then they play georgia that is brutal not to get sidetracked but that is a wild wow it's also f1 weekend in austin so cherry don't have a hotel room already god bless hopefully there's a nice campground somewhere guys we are in a lovely lovely place here the w nashville and it's time for the elite series we've got a bunch of the biggest recruits in the country coming and i wanted to talk to you guys about what these folks are about to embark on because you know pete you've done a lot of reporting on this about what it's like to be an elite college recruit or transfer portal recruit either one

in 2024 because the world is completely different now than it was three years ago. And you've been reporting on these transfer portal guys. Right. And they have their own kind of, this is what I need. When they go on visits, a lot of times they're just going straight to the facility. Here's how we're going to use you. Here's a one-hour super cut of how we'd use you. And they are like, yay or nay, based on the NIL offer.

But the high school guys yeah how much more is it like the traditional old days where guy's gonna take his five visits now it's obviously the calendar's been moved thank you mac brown for that but what are they looking for what are these guys looking for when they go to meet with coaches and end up meeting with collectors i view it as like almost a hybrid model right you take what you you see during the portal and then the traditional high school and melt the two together and i think that's a really good description of the current high school experience in in the terms of uh athletes some athletes do want to talk nil on day one in their recruitment it's a case-by-case basis every athlete is

different um nil for some is just factored in like facilities used to be um but yeah i mean at the same time too these guys coming in today have sat in coaches offices and talked to collectives and had their agent or representation uh speak to those folks and and they know what their value is they obviously use the on three nil valuation but they also have gone through this process, have an idea of what they're worth. And the other thing that I am looking forward to today is talking to some guys about the experience of it. I mean,

I've talked to parents and I've talked to players in the last few years and everyone's different. Some people say I had a parent last year with a top recruit, say a donor had to call in the top baseball recruit to get the package together. Oh, and that was kind of when the parent knew maybe this wasn't the best spot for us um on the flip side though some some athletes feel really comfortable talking about it and others feel like they've been lied to repeatedly

by coaching staffs now i think a lot of that is going to change in the years to come just where the college sports model is headed um but that that is the norm where we're living right now. This is the first time collectives can actually give them something in writing. Correct. Because of something that happened in a federal court. Right. Where basically you have the lawsuit filed by the states of Tennessee and Virginia. Other states have since joined. This was over Tennessee getting investigated basically by the NCAA.

They had it ready. And the collectives, and I'm talking to people from collectives saying, we hate this that we can't negotiate in writing. We tell people stuff, and then they come back and say, well, you lied to us because it's just verbal. But now there is no rule against them negotiating. Now they can't pay them anything until they get on campus, but they can negotiate the deal now, and they can have pay them anything until they get on campus no but

they can negotiate the deal now and they can have it in writing yeah i mean i've heard a lot about that i've heard about some collectives exploring going on visits with coaching staffs and homes um i've heard of offer letters being sent out so so that an athlete and their representation have a concrete idea of what they're going to make i I mean, and these guys coming in today, I mean, they've experienced it for a stand. I'll be surprised if not most or not all of them know exactly what they're going to be making when they enroll because it's completely legal now. And as we know, the NCAA is really powerless over this at the moment.

J.D., what are you demanding if you're a top flight recruit right now? Do you do the Van halen rider with the uh the green m&ms i don't know what the van halen rider is but i probably would so i think so here's they demanded an entire bowl full of uh well i think they said a bowl of m&ms with no green m&ms and the reason they there was a reason for this because if they saw green m&ms it means nobody read the writer okay and they had a bunch of pyro and electrical stuff and so they're thinking okay we got to be extra careful because we might get electrocuted on stage because these idiots didn't read the writer so because that that's mostly what it covers chess move yeah i like that exactly smart i mean this is an hour

long show uh we could fill the next two hours talking about what I would demand in my NIL contract. I mean, I'm talking like cars, living situations, signing bills. You've thought this through. Payments. Like, nobody asked me this when I committed to Cornell, so I've had some time to think about this. The NIL situation has come to reality. Cars got to be top of the list, though, right? I just bought a car from a situation a situation down here in nashville it was phenomenal but i'm thinking the whole time i'm

like man if i were a five star plus quarterback my price range the cars i'm picking from might be a little bit oh yeah so that would be i think right below whatever i'm making on a on a monthly you'd have to find out how much an oil change for a lamborghini car sure yeah i think i'd say to the gm whoever's paying the bill hey you cool with this oil change you good with it all right i got i got some bad news for you if you're asking for a lambo i think you're probably only making five figures a month tops really okay it cuts out of yeah it cuts out really okay so these guys have to manage their budget that's what i wonder is like how much how much are these guys learning the real world stuff?

We didn't learn until we were into our late twenties, early thirties. Pete, you'll, you'll know when you get there, but you'll know when you get there. I was just saying, I'm in that boat with you, Pete. Yeah. So certain things like what a car loses when you drive it off the lot. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I, I have noticed, like, I remember, you know, knowing guys from high school and

guys that I played with and you, you see them again after they've been in the NFL for 15 years and they all sound like CPAs because they've been dealing with all of this, this high finance stuff. Right. And that's a lot to throw at you when you're, when you're that age. And cause as a 17 year old,

like I would have had no idea. Right. What to do. And my parents wouldn't have known what to do. They were high school teachers. We wouldn't have known what to negotiate. I'd be like, well, I got a Toyota Corolla. It runs.

It's cool. I'm a good coach. I don't need it. I want an apartment. Count me in. Yeah. Yeah. I probably would have been like, well, maybe if I get a new Camry, would that be okay?

Wait, I can ask for a Corvette? What? That's a thing? Walk-on Andy Staples didn't have that? No. Nobody had nice cars back then. And this was University of Florida. That news has been out for years.

There was an agent paying a bunch of the really good players back then, but it wasn't massive sums. It was like 800 bucks a month. Yeah. And that's, that's where everything's changed. And that's, I mean, you're looking at five to six figure payments a month. Um, I just reported this past week of, I knew a top transfer portal target was asking for six figures a month plus an apartment and a car. And I mean, that's, that's a huge, um, ask. So the, the, the athletes coming through here though, are going to, uh, have some, some top flight, uh, discussions, um, with financial advisors, some agents, and, and, um, they get to bring a parent to, which I think is really invaluable. Massive. Yeah. And this I'm, I'm glad we're doing this and having some people who understand the

business talk to these guys because they are getting plunged into something that is very difficult to understand. You know, I just remember, I don't know how you felt about it, JD, the recruiting process for me, like mine happened before the internet era.

So you couldn't go, there was no on three to look at, to even see how the process worked. It was very mysterious. If you didn't go, there was no on three to look at, to even see how the process worked. It was very mysterious. If you didn't know people, like we had people at my high school who'd gone through it, you know, a year earlier than me. So their parents were helpful, but like, we didn't know anything. And now you're being plunged into this world where there's agents coming after you.

There's real dollar figures attached to all this it's it's scary and it's exciting at the same time but there's a lot of people that that can try to rip you off and so we're going to have some of the folks who know how this world operates how it works talk to these guys about how to how to navigate it because i that's something that you've got to be able to do that and I know a lot of the schools have financial literacy programs that they've added that since an IL came in, but you can't, you're not getting that till you get to a school. There's nobody who comes in and says,

right, but everybody's got advice for you now. And, and, and now you've got to decide who you can trust and who you can't. Yeah. So I came out when we were just starting to like put offers on Twitter, like less to receive offer from after

a great conversation with coach x and x the guy's probably like why does this kid keep tagging me but the thing that i think is fascinating to watch with this whole nil era if you're a quarterback in this generation where i'm assuming you're making large charms large sums of money as a senior in high school going to be a freshman in college i think the filter if i'm a coaching staff i run through the neck up portion with these kids is it's got to be drastically more intense i mean at this point like you are the face of a franchise so to speak like you are our first round pick in a lot of ways to be the future of this college football team we can't have someone out there who wants to get a lambo and make x amount of money and is going to have poor decisions

that you know we don't feel good about when it comes to NIL. So I think that is really fascinating how that's going to evolve in the future. Well, I also think it is a filter. I think it's a filter that coaches use. And I've talked to coaches about this. Because not every player is the same when it comes to NIL.

Some of them don't care about it at all. Most of them care about it some. But there are a lot of really good players who are like, whatever the standard deal is, I'll do that. And then if I'm good, we'll talk about it at all yeah most of them care about it some but there there are a lot of really good players who are like whatever the standard deal is yeah i'll do that and then if i'm good we'll talk about it yeah and and it's not it's not that out of the ordinary but those are the ones that like if you were kirby smart if you're kayla nabor if you're ryan day yeah those are the guys that that you want because they're going to come in and they're not going to be like, I'm so special. I don't have to compete for a starting job here.

No, if you go to Georgia, you have to compete for a starting job. And things have changed too. We talk about Jayden Rashada. We talk, obviously, the deal with the Athletic Report on with Nico Aymaleva. Things have changed. A lot of those funds have now been allocated to the portal with the really instant impact guys i think you've seen the market kind of reset collectives have continued to get more professionalized so i think with i mean the

top 100 recruits do make good money but it's not it's still life-changing money but it maybe wasn't the average seven-figure deal that we saw two, three years ago. Which is, I thought the market would adjust. I didn't know it would adjust as quickly as it did. It's interesting. I'm sure there are economics majors who will write papers on this. There will be case studies on this someday about how this economy found its level so quickly. And that is one of the things. And we talked about it before nil came into into being

and i remember writing stuff saying are you sure you want to bet on 17 year olds like this does that seem like a very smart move like wouldn't you want to pay more to retain your best players yeah which as we found that's what the best programs do they pay the most to retain their best players yes they don't pay a ton on the front end unless it's somebody they feel like is truly special. It's crazy how the tenor of the conversation has changed. I'm sure we'll hear about it a lot this week. The three of us are going to talk about it a lot in the next 18 months. Revenue sharing is coming.

How does that impact how athletes' deals are constructed? What is the role of collectives? We continue to hear they're going to be really imperative, but, um, this, these, this 2025 class is going to have to worry about that. Um, and trying to figure out how they get their share of their revenue and things like that. I mean, we don't know the answers and they're going to have to go through this process. Ferris kind of the chat, the $20 million quote unquote salary cap is actually pretty low. If you split it amongst all student athletes, men's women's's sports, we've got 60,000 an athlete. If it's just football, it'd be 150,000 an athlete.

That's the thing, Ferris. It is very low if you think about it in different terms. What does $20 million buy you in the NFL? One year of one good edge rusher. That's it. And we're talking about that for an entire athletic department.

So yes, the numbers here are not anywhere near what they're, what they are in the pro sports. I mean, some of these NBA contracts that are being thrown around are just sound absolutely ridiculous. Like they're talking about Luka Doncic being like a hundred million dollar a year player at some point in the next few years. That's not what we're talking about. We are talking about relatively small numbers compared to the professional counterparts now that look they are professionals yeah when you once you get paid to do something you're a professional yeah and the ncaa can say they're banning pay-for-play all they want it is what it is someone asked me this last week hey do you think college sports is going to turn into a career because they're going to start making six seven johnny manziel's hanging in like like will ferrell in old school. So my response to that was for some, yes. But not overarchingly because only such a small percentage go to the NFL and stuff. But the same elite talent is still going to go to the NBA or the NFL fast.

Because at the end of the day, that is where the most money is going to continue to be. Yeah, those dollars are so much more. It's not any incomparable. Now, you can do the sam hartman like there will be outliers like sam hartman who that year at notre dame for sam hartman was probably more lucrative yes than his first year as a as an undrafted free agent in the nfl sure will be but his beard did him a lot oh man the hair the flow uh willie says it's actually going to be more like a $20 million floor versus a cap. The schools are going to be expected to spend the entire $20 million versus capping out at that number. I agree with Willie on that.

And also, unless they get a Hail Mary from Congress that I don't think they're going to get, there will still be NIL. There will still be collectives because they can't dial that back. They still have to let the players like your Caitlin Clarks of the world will still be doing state farm ads. But until they just let the schools pay them for their ability as players, which I'm telling you they're going to get to, some collective, some body is going to fill the void where they're not getting their market value. And this enforcement arm included in the settlement terms,

I mean, yes, they have some teeth. Yes, they could limit collectives. Yes, it could reshape the NCAA, but they're all non-existent unless Congress does something. We all know how Congress has been the last 33 months. Yeah, Greg Sankey said the enforcement piece of it was, the House settlement was confidential, and he'd keep that way that when he talked to reporters last night yeah because you don't want to talk about the details that and also he and i were texting

about this which i find this hilarious and this is another reason to believe that congress is not going to bail them out do you want to be the congressperson who sponsored the law that got your school in trouble because it's all fun and games until they go after your school you're thinking oh i have my school doesn't do that all the others your school does it because all of them do like a great campaigning mechanism yes yeah oh man i would smear that person so badly if i run it i would primary their ass in a heartbeat. You got our guys on probation. What are you doing? You kill college sports.

Yeah, those sorts of things will be hurled at people. It's a tough soundbite. It's a tough soundbite to hear in court, man. Imagine the attack at them. It would be amazing. Specifically in SEC country. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's brutal.

Yeah. If you got those. Oh. Imagine running for office in this fine state of Tennessee. If you enacted the law that got the volunteers in trouble. Come on. You're never getting elected again. The current state AG is going to bat to save the volunteers.

Exactly. Exactly. And you notice he hasn't dropped that lawsuit yet. No. He put out a press release full of football analogies, I think. Yep. The word playbook was used. Yep.

Maybe something like full court press or something like that. Okay. Yeah, we're not. He was mixing his metaphors. Yeah. I mean, all forces go kind of thing. Good for him. Well, here's one thing I want to get y'all's opinion on.

I feel like the thing we heard a lot about revenue sharing and with a cap revenue share was okay great you'll allow more resources for more schools but i'm doing the math here and i'm not great with numbers but i'm like okay virginia tech probably still has less money than florida state you give them both 20 million dollars roughly we just change the numbers the gap is the same what you've done is that you've actually widened the gap yeah with certain schools because it's a percentage of the average revenue for the power conference schools so basically the average whatever the average school is and i i don't know exactly where that you know if we were to go to the middle we'd be probably somewhere at the bottom of the big 10 of the sec which is still a lot of money like that school will be paying 22

percent right of its revenue some other school that is below that line is going to be paying 38 percent of its revenue yeah and the big ones 13 right 16 exactly which is a huge difference and one thing we don't know the answer to and it kind of gets to your question jd is like okay does virginia tech decide to only grab share 50 million a year right right which you can do it's right it's not a requirement right on a set salary floor the 20 mil is a cap not the the starting gotcha so then there's like the questions okay like does a group of five say bye-bye to the collective and only do two million or do they save their pennies and go to the dollar i mean go to the donor and and really try to invest in the collective those are those are strategies that are gonna have to be worked

out in the future this is why i text both of y'all whenever something like this happens i'm like hey what's going on explain this to me i've seen suits but i don't know exactly how we're how we're going about this right now i do love how it always comes back to suits it does man it does what would harvey have done in this situation but i i am i am curious how schools handle this because a lot of this is because of donor fatigue right they do not want to be asking the donors to fill the coffers of the collective and the the message from the ad from the head coach when they're when they're saying if we can't compete it's because you're not digging deep enough like that does not go over well no so they don't want to be sending that message anymore but you're still probably going to have to do that a little bit you're definitely digging deep enough. Like that does not go over well. No. So they don't want to be sending that message anymore,

but you're still probably going to have to do that a little bit. You're definitely going to have to still do it a little bit. And, and, and the other really big key thing about donor fatigue is, I mean, like if you're not winning a lot on the field, I think there's really legit concerns about maybe like,

why would a booster want to continue to pour their personal wealth into something that isn't working out on the field? I think this year is really going to be telling, too. You look across the board, a lot of that top 10 that you wrote about, and JD, Texas, Oregon, Miami is up there, Ohio State. Those are all schools who spent eight figures on their roster. It's interesting that you bring that up because I would say Oregon, as good as those rosters have been, has not broken through.

They were the best, they were the most talented team in the Pac-12 the last two years. They did not win the Pac-12 either of the last two years. Miami has spent and spent and spent since they hired Mario Cristobal, whether it's on coaches, on NIL. They have not broken through. Texas has broken through.

Texas made the 14 playoff last year. They have the highest projected win total along with Oregon, Ohio State, and Georgia this year. But I would argue that making the 14 playoff constitutes breaking through for them. So that's the question. Are these schools going to say this is worth it? Like Ohio State, JD, they are all in on this roster this season. This is a national title or bus season. If you get to the end of the season, and Ohio State didn't win a national title,

and Oregon didn't win a national title, and Texas didn't win a national title, and Georgia, which certainly does NIL as well, but has not been as aggressive as some of these others in trying to improve the roster. Georgia wins again, or Alabama wins again. The ones that were doing it just had the advantage already. Do you go, maybe this doesn't actually get it? Yeah, I think there's probably some disappointment there, obviously.

And there's also some, you go back to the drawing board and say, okay, where did we go wrong? Was it the staff? Was it the roster? My gut reaction is if I am a person with a lot of money that wants to see my football team win, what can I control besides throw more money at it? Or do I throw more money in different parts of the roster? So I think you probably still would feel some responsibility to keep throwing money at it? Or do I throw more money in different parts of the roster? So I think you probably still would feel some responsibility

to keep throwing money at things. But I think the interesting part about this, you talk about the schools like Kentucky, after they played Georgia last year, they're saying, well, hey, Georgia's got X amount of players. We've got to have more resources. From a booster, I'm saying, I've got to see you win more games to feel good about knowing where our money's going

is going to serve the ultimate purpose of us beating the Georgias eventually. So it's kind of this chicken or the egg situation another school that we're going to keep an eye on too is old miss right yeah absolutely retooled that roster nil is strong there they're definitely operating in the eight figures as well and and does lane kiffin crash the 12 team playoff i mean that that is easily one of the top headlines they've got to they've got to make it because they would have made it last year. They've certainly upgraded the roster, especially along the line of scrimmage. They worked very hard in Transfer Portal to get this roster where they want it to.

You've got to make the playoff. But the thing is, you also have got to make the playoff at Missouri. You've got to make the playoff at Tennessee. You've got to make the playoff at Georgia. You've got to make the playoff at LSU. You've got to make the playoff at Missouri. You've got to make the playoff at Tennessee. You've got to make the playoff at Georgia. You've got to make the playoff at LSU. You've got to make the playoff at Alabama. And this is just the SEC. Yeah.

We're doing the math here. Okay. A lot of people got to make the playoff. Yeah. Only 12 spots. And oh, by the way, the G5 is getting more spots. So there's 11 spots for y'all. Exactly.

And don't forget about the ACC and Big 12 too. Yeah, exactly. I mean, now it's interesting. The SEC is meeting in Destin. They will not be having the existential discussions about perception and all of that that the acc did like we're not going to have that discussion of well how many at-larges can the sec get will they get any at large right they're going to get at-larges but the question is is going to be three is it going to be you know three at-larges in their champ right is it going to be two at-larges in their champ that we don't know and that's that i think is is weighing

heavily yeah yeah and and it's you mentioned it right like acc uh meetings uh uf coaches telling you andy like we need to change our perception about football well meanwhile i don't think the sec could really have a stronger brand identity yeah i think everything is good at the pool with the head coaches from the SEC. I think there's not a care in the world. And it's funny because the expanded playoff, when we were, well, let's say 10 years ago, people were saying, got to expand the playoff. The SEC will get what's coming to them, and it's going to make sure we get more parity. Like those folks that were saying that 10 years ago, you're going to watch a playoff with what?

It's all fun and games until the fourth place team in the sec beats your conference champ in the playoff it's gonna be a rude awakening that's that's the problem and well it's not going to be necessarily a rude awakening it will be if they do that but i think it's great because we finally get to test that theory out yes because you had the people saying the sec is a media construction the teams aren't really that good except the ones at the top yes the alabamas the georgias are good but are they really that deep yeah and now we'll find out because we'll find out if the fourth best sec team is in there and whoops up on the second best big 10 team right like that that tells you something but if the second best sec team gets

whooped by the third best big 10 team well all, all of a sudden, we're going to be looking at things differently. And this House settlement that we continue to talk about has nothing in it from our understanding about the future of college football. Those questions still need to be sorted out. Is there a Super League? Does the SEC and Big Ten break off? Does everything go under the CFP umbrella? Those are questions that we're going to continue and need answers to in the next months and maybe even years to come.

Well, and in the playoff, we've got this 12-team playoff. We've not even seen one of these happen yet. And they're already talking about going to 14 by 2026. And I would like to see this first. But I'm fascinated by the dynamics of this, by how expectations change, because I just made a list of schools in the FCC who feel like they have to make the playoff this year. So I still don't think it's going to be just making the playoff.

If you're James Franklin at Penn State, you're now expected to make the playoff. Because you've got to win in the playoff too. Is the, right, make the playoff and at least make the quarters? Is that the expectation of the sport? I think it's if you give a mouse a cookie. It's going to want some milk. Like, hey, Ole Miss, if you get in the playoff, we're going to want to win a game or two. If we get to the quarterfinals, gosh dang it,

we're going to have to win a natty, right? It's that whole, if you give a mouse a cookie, they're going to want to win a playoff game. And one more thing I'll say about the SEC. I love those books. It's a great book. Great book. It's a whole series.

Real page turner. Yeah. Real page turner. But I will say, if the SEC is this big media conspiracy construction, the NFL draft is in on it. So that's where we have to go. Listen, but you can't convince some people. When you say here, look, these people's jobs rely on them picking the best players,

and year after year they pick the most from this one league like it's common sense everybody but but people don't want to believe that and now we're going to see it we're going to see it in action because yes i i get it if you're a fan of a big 10 team i'll go back to 2010 2010 that that Fletcher Cox-led Mississippi State team finished 15th in the country and 5th in the SEC West. It was a deep league that year. There were other years, like 2014,

where the league was not that deep. But it has been fairly deep. It feels fairly deep this year. Though I would argue that the ACC feels a little bit deeper at the top than it has. The Big Ten, thanks to what it has added, is much deeper than it was.

But yeah, we're going to find out if that theory is true. Is the SEC really that deep? The playoff will tell us that. And how deep is the Big Ten? We don't really know the answer at this point. This is going to be a huge barometer. Well, you just made barometer of that. Well,

you just, you just made me think of something because I've said, I've said all along, let's say Florida state and Clemson managed to get out of the ACC. What, what happens next? Because they don't have an obvious landing spot. You know, we,

you know, they don't have a standing in right to the big 10 of the sec, but I've said over and over again, if you're the big 10 and you look at your schedules and you look at the sec schedules you you would like to sprinkle some more in there to make that your schedule look more like the sec schedule also in terms of the depth of your league at the top i think you kind of need that yeah yeah and and that's why all the conspiracy theorists believe that that those schools will go to the big 10, we obviously need to see how that plays out, and if it does. And then, yet again, it brings up the conversation we talked about last summer.

What happens to the bottom teams in the league? Do they stay put? Do we see teams get cut? We don't know the answer. I'm not saying it's happening. I'm just saying. I don't. Okay.

Tell me if I'm crazy. Either one of you. Yeah, absolutely. I don't see anybody getting cut. Like, I don't see Vanderbilt or Indiana getting cut from their leagues because they're kind of grandfathered in. And I also think

the psychology of this for the bigger schools, somebody has to eat the losses. You don't want to. Yeah. Yeah. No. Who's carrying the academic weight, too? Like, and how much does that matter?

Because I'm like, hey, Vandy, there's some prestige baked into that. Hey, he just just got texas baby yeah texas that's helpful yeah that's not an easy school to get into either there's a lot of factors that i'm like do we really want to cut vandy from this whole thing are we sure that's the best for everybody involved here i don't know that it is yeah and that's that's the question that we're gonna have to get answered and pete i i think we don't know the answer to that probably until some of these court cases get decided. If there's congressional action, all of that will guide the next waves of realignment.

As we talked about all this stuff, my head is still spinning as I wrap my brain around all the Texas and Oklahoma people being in Destin for the SEC meetings. And then they just had meetings out in California with the Big Ten. They had Oregon and Washington and USC and UCLA. Everybody keeps talking about

NIL, the house settlement, all that being disruptive to the fans. What's happened with realignment is far more disruptive to the average fan than how they ship money to the players. Without a doubt. No questions there.

Man, the Big 12 is going to look different. I can't really wrap my head around about Stanford and Cal and the ACC. Oh, I know. So, guys, if you didn't watch, because it was on a holiday, so you might not have seen the ACC Ceilings and Floors show

with Roddy Jones that we ran yesterday. Stanford's schedule? Holy crap, they got hazed by the ACC ceilings and floor show with Roddy Jones that we ran yesterday. Stanford schedule. Holy crap. They got hazed by the ACC, but it is it is nuts because they are going like they go to Clemson. They go to NC State like Stanford rolling into Raleigh. Brutal. I guess absolutely brutal. I guess but it's just going to look so weird. And then Cal and Florida State play this year. It's going to be bizarre.

In a conference game. Yeah. Cal and Florida State. I haven't looked at SMU's schedule. And Red River, our producer, can help me out here. He's going to pop it right up on the screen. But in the near future, SMU and BC are going to play. And it's going to be a conference game.

And that's just going to be wild. Not this year. So their first ACC game is florida state in dallas and they're at duke smu at duke in durham uh they're at virginia they're going to charlottesville smu cal yeah is it is a conference game in dallas that's a great stadium by the way yeah for folks who haven't been like that's been, to be in a stadium that you get to see a game involving the Florida State Seminoles, it's not

a day for our game time, but I'm telling you right now, if you go to game time and look that up, you can see some pretty good deals on tickets still for that game. That is going to be a really, really fun game. SMU's first big 12. I tried to get in the big 12 for so many fun game smu's first big uh first as i said big 12 i tried to get in the big 12 for so many years smu's first acc game sm and smu is the walk-on yeah of

conference real life absolutely absolutely that's a great call it's so great highland park is cool too like if you're a florida state fan yeah if you're loaded yes if you're there for the weekend you're like hey let's go to In-N-Out. Let's go. It's a different topic. Lots to do in Dallas. Oh, no. Okay, let's go there.

Let's go there because I have not had J.D. on the show since he said this on his own show. The hard count was J.D. Fickel. This was not planned, but we got to talk about this. You called USC the In-N-out fries of college football. Absolutely. The in-and-out fries of college football. Absolutely, yeah. So in-and-out fries, for those that are unfamiliar, are garbage.

Get a bit of a bad rap. A bit of a bad rap. Now, if you grew up in Southern California, you understand you go in and out. You give yourself a double-double. Get some animal fries. The key for me, Andy, with in-and-out fries, because I agree, there are better fries at other establishments. All other establishments.

For me, if you order them well done, you add some salt, game changer. So my thing with UNFD is defense. Then why don't they just make them like that? I'm with you. Hey, if I were running in and out, we'd do that every single day of the week.

However, you add some salt to that defense with Danton Lynn, a little more experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of try and work the court a little bit. Long, rangy corners. Gavin Meyer from Wyoming. Big get.

You're adding some salt. We can just get a little more well done. We can put it in the oven, maybe in the fryer. I don't know how they're doing those things over the Indian Out Kitchen, but if we can just get a little more well done during the practice periods, might be, not world class, might be in better position. Here's the thing. When you said that, and out kitchen but if we can just get a little more well done during the practice periods might be not not not world class might be in better position here's the thing when you said that

it occurred to me well that i was mad because you made the perfect analogy it really was the perfect analogy and here's why my issue with in and out fries is this in and out makes probably the best fast food hamburger available don't don't talk to me about five guys. That thing costs like 12 bucks. Like that's not the same thing. Different category. Sure. So In-N-Out makes this incredible burger. They pair it with the crappiest French fries in the world. All you have to do is make better fries and you're the best in the world yeah you are world class you know other places make better fries you know better fries exist so why don't you just make better fries and this is my issue with lincoln riley you know your team stink at playing defense they have

always stunk at playing defense whether it was mike stoops is the office of the defensive coordinator or alex grinch is the defensive coordinator. If Dan and Lynn comes here in here and that you still can't play defense, it's not Dan Lynn's fault. Nope. It's Lincoln Riley's fault. Yeah. Like, you know, Georgia exists, you know, Alabama exists. They have practice schedules. There are people who've worked with those schools. You can say, Hey dude, who was the 75th analyst on Alabama staff? How'd Nick Saban run his practice on Tuesdays? How'd he run his practice on Wednesdays? What about in November? And just do that. Yes. Standardized recipes is a massive thing in the fast food industry. Let's standardize the recipe a little bit. Let's like, just like

you said, let's go talk to people that are in that kitchen in that building. Let's tinker with a little bit because the offense, go back to that comparison. The burgers are great. The offense, I mean, nobody's questioning Lincoln Riley.

Like Miller-Boss is going to be a first-year starting quarterback and we're all kind of assuming he's going to be more than fine. You know what I mean? I got some follow-up questions, but we'll hold them

for another day and time. I love it. Speaking of the West Coast, we're going to talk about somebody from USC's rival. Yep. Rest in peace. Bill Walton passed away at 71 after a battle with cancer on Monday. And just one of the shining lights in the world of sports.

Incredible player at UCLA. Obviously, we're all too young to remember him as a UCLA player. I was around when he was on the tail end of his NBA career, but these guys weren't. We mostly remember him for his work at NBC, at ESPN, calling college basketball games, and especially the Pac-12 games in later years, when he would talk about the Conference of Champions. And I don't think people were making light of Bill Walton's death when they said this yesterday, but it's true. He wound up not having to live a day without the Conference of Champions in his life. Because one of the saddest things I thought about when the Pac-12 kind of disintegrated and crumbled,

and you knew it was going to be over come June 30th of this year. I remember thinking this on the day it all fell apart when Oregon and Washington went to the Big Ten and the other schools went to the Big 12. What's Bill Walton going to say about this? This is the Conference of Champions. And I just love the Conference of Champions. He's doing a game from the McHale Center in Tucson it's unbelievable and all that the tributes from Bill Walton's broadcast partners like Dave Pash the photo he put out of Bill Walton like I don't even know what he's wearing

in the photo that Dave Pash put out it looks like a like a a gymn gymnastics singlet or wrestling singlet maybe. And then Jason Benetti, who's now at Fox, who, who worked with ability SPN and he said, Bill sent him an email in 2020. It said, put the music on as soon as it doesn't seem right. Change the music, change the station, but don't turn it off. Like that's the sort of thing you got from Bill Walton, uh, Grant wall, who I, uh, the late the late Grant Wall uh I used to work with at SI had an incredible story when Bill's kids were all playing college basketball where he he's in a van with Bill Walton like going around all these games and just nobody

nobody squeezed the juice out of life no more than Bill Walton yeah I think one of the things that sticks out in my memory of Bill Walton is the way that he just was so obviously enjoying himself every single broadcast. In a world of television where you can kind of tell, okay, people are coached up, people are trying to be polished and trying to be a certain way. Like, Bill Walton is just having the absolute time of his life

calling UCLA, Arizona State, or whatever game it was. I think that is rare it's infectious it's special and it's something that uh we're gonna miss a lot in the sports world oh yeah if you have not looked the clip this is one that has made the rounds on social media and I'll find it and retweet it today there's a clip from a documentary of Bill Walton when he played for the Boston Celtics so he's playing with Larry Bird, Robert Parrish, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge, Dennis Johnson. He takes them to a Grateful Dead concert in Boston. It's the best story. It is incredible.

Him talking about them meeting Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir and him explaining to the Grateful Dead the logistical challenges of having the best Boston Celtics at your show in Boston. It is awesome. And so please rest in peace, Bill Walton. Thank you for all the time you gave us. And yeah, it was unbelievable, as you would say.

Guys, thanks for today. Pete, JD, thank you. You bet. We're going to have some fun here. We'll be talking some of the best recruits in the country. We'll be talking about that on the show. We'll have them on the show in the next few days and weeks. And we've also got a star studded cast of on three folks from our team sites, from the national site. We checking

in with all of them and you can see it right here at Indy staples on three. We'll talk to you tomorrow.