Andy & Ari On3 - Why the Big Ten’s latest 24-team College Football Playoff plan is bait for the SEC | Jerome Tang FIRED | Joey Aguilar vs NCAA latest | LSU's new Jersey Patch

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

Over the weekend, it was reported that the Big Ten was floating around a 24-team College Football Playoff idea, eliminating conference championship games. Andy & Ari dissect this piece of news to ponder if this would ever work. Watch here as Andy & Ari explain why the 24-team CFP idea may need to be shelved for now. (0:00) On Today’s Episode(1:28) Presenting Sponsor(3:17) Intro: Happy Contract Extensions!(5:20) Big Ten’s 24 Team CFP Idea(25:39) ACC & Big 12’s Stance(29:06) Non-Conference Games(31:52) Kansas State fires HC Jerome Tang after Rant(43:02) Candidates to replace Tang in Manhattan(48:09) Joey Aguilar vs NCAA latest(56:04) LSU announces jersey patch(1:09:49) Sacramento State joins the MAC(1:11:45) Conclusion: Thanks for watching! After the Big Ten and CFP discussion, Andy & Ari dive into the world of hoops, where Kansas State has fired Jerome Tang before the conclusion of his 4th season in Manhattan. Will Jerome Tang end up being fired for cause, or will he receive his buyout? The fellas discuss. Next, Andy & Ari go from the hardwood to the courtroom, where Tennessee QB Joey Aguilar is fighting for another year of eligibility in Knoxville. Will Aguilar play for the Vols in 2026? Watch here as Andy & Ari dissect the latest in this case. As many changes continue to be introduced in college football, another element will be introduced later this fall: jersey patches. LSU announced Monday morning that Woodside Energy would be on all jerseys for the Tigers. What others will be introduced in college football? To close, Andy & Ari break down the latest in conference realignment. In this bizarre situation, Sacramento State has been accepted to join the MAC as football-only member in 2026. Thanks for watching! See you tomorrow - get your Dear Andy & Ari questions in early! For Dear Andy & Ari, send in your questions here:[e-mail]@on3.comOur show is also presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code ON3 and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code ON3.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code ON3 when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/Z45gOf5MIO8 Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: 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 episode of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM, the Big 10, has yet another proposal for a new college football playoff format. Spoiler alert, it has 24 teams. But this time, the Big 10 may have found the bait to get the SEC to agree to that. The question is, will the SEC hold the line? Because the 2014 playoff is just too big and nobody wants it. at least I think nobody wants it. Also, Kansas State fires basketball coach Jerome Tang after his rant last week.

The twist in the story is they fired him for cause saying the rant violated his contract. How much would they owe if they didn't fire him for cause? $18.7 million, R&I will discuss why they did it now and if they have any chance of saving that money or if they're just going to have to pay up. Plus, Joey Aguilar has his day. in court, the Tennessee quarterback trying to get another year. It did not go as smoothly as the

Trinidad Chambliss situation, but we still don't know the answer. We'll talk about that. Plus, jersey patches. Yeah, logos, ad logos on jerseys. They're here. LSU has debuted. It's logos and there are more to come. We will cry a little bit over that. All on today's Andy Nareon 3 presented by BetMGM. We are presented by BenMGM. We use BetMGM lines, totals and futures on this year show. And if you're not signed up for BetMGM, now is the time because if you sign up using a bonus code on three, you can get up to a $1,500 new player offer plus 50% off an annual subscription to the On Three College Sports Network. Here's how that works. You download the BetmGM app. You sign up using the code on three. That's the letter O, the letter in, and the number three.

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Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code on three. That's the letter O, the letter in, and the number three. And get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to Andy and Ari on three presented by BetMGM. Happy President's Day. kids are out of school but we're here. Andy, you're burying the lead, dude. Happy Extension Day.

On 3 has signed Andy Staples, Pete Nacos, and J.D. Backel to new contract extensions. Congratulations, boys. Job well done. That just hit the internet. That just hit the internet right. Oh, I don't know what that is. That's Larry David.

I did not know when that was coming out. If I had known, I would have. It just came out right now. My phone just buzzed. two minutes ago. Wow. Big time. Handsome fellas. Congratulations. NACOS and JD, too?

Yeah, all three you. What a list. NACOS X, Andy Staples, X, J.D. Backel. Honestly, congratulations, Andy. You've worked your ass off since we started this, and I'm really happy for you. You're stuck with me forever. Congratulations, Ari. Well, I didn't sign an extension, so we'll see. You're signing an extension, buddy.

I'll make sure of that. I'm going to strong arm it. You know, no, for really. though, Andy, like holiday, we're going to get into a good show. It's been one of the best professional occurrences of my life to be able to work with you. And I'm super happy for you. So anyway, well, I appreciate it. And I am so happy to be here. This has been so much fun working for this company. I love the energy here and the kind of ground, building from the ground up, being there kind of on the ground floor has been incredibly fun for me. And I've worked for a lot

of different types of companies so far, and this has been the most fun. And I cannot wait to see what we do next because, yeah, we're pretty much taking over here on three. By the way, you're not subscribing to On3 yet. Now is the best time on3.com slash join. You can follow along on Megaboard Wednesday. You can get into the playoff discussion that we're about to have on the message boards. Let's have it now because this was an interesting story that Pete Thammle from ESPN put out on Friday. And it was. was after our show had already come out. But, Ari, we got to talk about this because the Big Ten is floating a 2014 college football

playoff plan with no conference title games, which we had a feeling somebody is going to say eliminate these things. But the 2014 college football playoff plan, which they have said multiple times they won a 2014 one, this one seems to have the kind of bait that might convince the SEC to say yes. That's what I think is interesting about this one, because this one, remember, Remember the Big Ten, whether it was 16 or 24, is like, we got to have auto bids. Got to have a million automatic bids for our conferences. Well, now they're saying 23 at-larges and the highest-ranked group of 16 if they are below number 24.

That strikes me as we're putting this on the hook and we're going to throw it down to SEC country. We're going to see if they bite. So with this situation, and I don't know if I'm alone here, Andy, you tell me how you feel about this, but the second I heard 24, I'm like, no, like, are there things about this proposal that make you think twice or is 24 an automatic no for you? It's an automatic no for me because I don't think it's exclusive enough. I think 12 is really a good number. It's a good, happy medium in terms of exclusivity.

I can live with 16. I think anything bigger than that, it becomes not exclusive enough. And I want it to be difficult to make the playoff. I don't want you to be able to go eight and four and make the playoff. I would like it to be difficult. So I think that's my issue. Now, here's why I think this is bait for the SEC, because remember I was in Destin last year and the SEC coaches were talking about

playoff formats. And at that point, like the SEC ADs and even the SEC leadership was kind of down with the idea of the automatic bids, like the SEC getting four automatic bids into a 16 team playoff. The coaches were like, absolutely not. Screw that. It should just be the best 16 teams. Why have automatic bids at all? And that's when people started to turn and the other leagues started to turn as well. And the Big 12 said, hey, look, two automatic bids might be better for us, but we feel like we got earn on the field,

and the ACC said the same thing. This one is meant to get the SEC to say yes, because the SEC believes that there's 23 automatic bids that the entirety of the SEC will get in. And if you go with last year's playoff rankings... I mean 23, 23 at-large teams, you mean? 23 at-large, yes, yes. And you go with last year's CFP rankings,

seven SEC teams would have gotten in. Yes. And you know what I think is interesting. And I've had a bunch of discussions about scheduling the last, you know, week or so as you've seen. But I think that when you make decisions for the future based on the status quo, you get yourself into hot water because what if the viewpoint of who's the best shifts? Right.

If the rankings are done in a way that doesn't benefit your league as much as they used to. And then all of a sudden you find yourself agreeing to something based on what's true today and you're not in the spot that you want to be. So, you know, and that said, this is an unequivocal fact. The two best conferences and the two most respected conferences in college football are the Big Ten and the SEC. Like, I don't care if your favorite team is in the ACC or the Big 12. That is an undisputed factor with me so far. Also, they have it in writing that they can control the CFP. The Big Ten and the SEC control the CFP.

The other leagues gave them that power. So if there's a 24 team playoff, plan, I would assume, just based on the way that I understand that the sport works now, that you would get seven and seven or eight and five or eight and six, you know, most years. So the number of teams that will get in will certainly grow because as the field grows, the two most conferences stand to benefit, the two best conferences stand to benefit the most from that. Now, my question to you into the audience and to anybody who wants this is, why do you think

the Big Ten wants this so bad. And is the reason the Big Ten wants this so bad servicing the audience? And I think that, you know, that is the heart of the issue. And I think that the answer is television money and no. So like that's exactly. Why does the Big Ten want this so bad? Here's the reason. Here's the reason.

So the TV contract for the CFP is done through 2030. It's been signed. The conferences all agreed to it. Now we can ask a question of why the Big Ten agreed to this in the first place. It's with ESPN. And the language in the contract says that ESPN owns all games up to a 14-team format. So that would add two more games to the current format if you went to 14 teams. So ESPN owes the number of games in the current format, which is 11, and then two more.

So 13 total games. If you go to a 2014-format, you've created an eight-game first round. because you've got teams that have buys, but you've created an eight game first round and an eight game second round. Now suddenly you have something you can sell to another television network. Ari, what television network

has a very vested financial interest in the Big 12? I'm starting in the Big Ten? Fox? That would be Fox. That's right. That's right. Fox actually owns all of the Big Ten's football content

and then sub-licenses out to other networks. Do you think that the Fox would be interested in buying that remaining inventory, Andy? You know, I think they might. You think they would spend a lot of money for it? You know, I think they would. College football be better after they spent all that money? Probably not.

Now, here's my question. Like, the question I want to ask, and Tony Petiti doesn't like to answer questions, so I don't know that he'd answer this. Why did you sign the deal in the first place with the SPN? Why didn't you say, let's sell some of this stuff to Fox? Yeah. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question, Andy. I wish I could tell you.

But, you know, as we go. This is the problem. Everybody, like, the reason all of these things exist is not because they're trying to make the sport better or trying to make it more interesting or trying to make it make sense. They're trying to do the thing that is most advantageous for their league right now. And, of course, financially. And listen, I don't even know if you can get mad at Petiti for doing it because it's his job to be. the usher. No, no, it is his job. You're exactly right. But the thing that I think that is more interesting to our audience and to me, frankly, is what do propose changes mean for our viewing experience? What does it mean for the sport? And like, who gets richer and all those things doesn't trickle down to us. So, you know, it's the reason why things happen. I think it's important that you explain them. But, you know, trying to envision that world is very interesting. And here's

the thing that I will say for me personally. Because I'm always quick to. have a very strong opinion and sometimes that opinion is right and sometimes it turns out to be wrong. I'm a human being. But I had a very strong opinion when they went from four to 12. And you remember, we used to argue about it incessantly, right? Like what's the point of doing this? There's only five teams that can win it. Why are we needing 12? It's all excess, all that stuff. Well, it turned out, Andy, that the sport actually has 12 teams that might be able to win the championship in a given year. And maybe more. Not when you were arguing about it, though. Right. Not when I was arguing for it, but the sport changed. And I think that the playoff actually got,

better as a result of the accidental change. Like they didn't, when the 12-team playoffs started, it was stupid, but the way that the sport evolved actually formed into the picture quite well. And I think Miami was the perfect instance of why that's the case. I don't know that Miami makes that run or beats those teams the way that the sport was constructed in 2020, but they certainly do now. Now, the question I have, and I think that the thing that I would want to do if I were in charge of, I don't want to steal Josh Pate's bit of if I were the commissioner, but if I were

in charge of college football, I would be like, 12 is functional right now. And I don't know about you, Andy, but I had a freaking blast last year. I would say stay with 12 through this TV contract. Through this TV contract. And then make it whatever you want to make it. But also, it's an important data for the next five to six years to see if we get to a point maybe where the sport continues to evolve. Because remember, we're still in the infancy of the evolution.

Like things changed very rapidly. Right. How competitive is it? What is it? Because it may be, it may be that by 2029 or 2030, we're sitting back and looking at the sport and going, oh, maybe there are 24 teams that can win the national title. But I don't know if we're going to get that far. So I think that we should make the decision, though, with that information. Now, you might anticipate it, you might get lucky.

They already got lucky once changing the playoff in a nonsensical way and then it turning out to round into form. That wasn't by, like, if you think the 12-team playoff last year was highly, functional, entertaining, and perfect. That wasn't the plan. Wasn't even the plan when they made it. Conference realignment changed what that was going to be. The NIL and transfer portal and all the other evolutionary things that happened along the way. But now that we're back in the driver's seed and things are good, like, you know, this is a pretty common saying, but don't fix it if it's not broken, right? And it's not broken right now. So what is happening here is we are getting a sales pitch for why 24 is better for the sport,

when really it's just a guise for them to make more money, which then might also be detrimental to the sport, because I do think that there are some people who still are on my side of the initial four-team argument, which is, let's get regular season sacred. Lots of people. Let's make the, and like, listen, I think that a lot of people have,

I mean, my evolution in that has changed. But I think people have seen the new system, seen how it works. If a team as good as Notre Dame, last year can be left out, then there's not enough teams. or there's not too many teams in it. That's my opinion.

But if we get to a point where in 2013, the team ranked number 24 could go on a run. And the difference between number five and number 18 is not as as drastic as it's been historically, then I will have a conversation about that. But for the time being, we are not far enough along in the 12-team era or in the evolution of what's happening in the sport

to make any wholesale decisions about what the playoffs should look like. And also there's a good chance that by the time they come around to the negotiating window for the next contract, more conference realignment might have happened. Some did already today. Right. I don't know if that's going to have any impact on or over the weekend. It's not going to have any impact on the playoff most likely. But guys, isn't there kind of like an expiration date on the ACC? Like what's the what's it going to look like? Well, maybe, but the the the stopgat measure they took actually. worked out great for Miami, which was one of the ones that would probably want to leave.

So we don't know. And then in Florida State doesn't get good. Like, Florida State needs to get good again. Clemson needs to start being good again. So we don't actually know what's going to happen in the next six years on that front. Wow, four years on that. Ari, 2030 is four years away. Oh, my God.

Really old, dude. Like, I don't know if you like to realize. It's crazy. I got locked out of my Instagram permanently. I'm sure I've complained about this to you already. but I was like looking back at like just like your timeline and missing like having access to it. And it's just like incredible to me because I like feel like the day that my daughter was born was yesterday. And now she's almost five or pushing six months away from five.

And it's just like it's that season last year went by so fast. It was the fastest season of my professional career. It started and ended like that to me. And I don't know if you felt that way. I know a lot of people. And it was it was really fun. It was a really fun football season. I think that's part of the reason why.

And the thing is. worry about this conversation, Andy, is that if it worked so, like last year was awesome. Like, honestly, if you go back, this may be a future offseason discussion. What were all the things that sucked about last year? Was there, like, does anything pop into your head? And if it doesn't, then why are we fixing it or fiddling with it? Right. Yeah, I thought last year was pretty funny.

I think a Texas fan would be mad because they feel like, and this speaks to what we've been talking about. If they hadn't scheduled Ohio State, they might have made the play off. And we want them to play Ohio State. like they're going to play Ohio State. They're going to play them this year. Again, we've talked about the Alabama, Ohio State thing, which by the way, that series is still on, as far as we know, Paul Feynman floated,

that they're working maybe to not be on. But I don't agree with this. I don't think this, the 24 team, solves that. I think teams will still run scared from good non-conference games because a lot, as long as they select teams, strictly looking at the loss column. If they actually take a critical look at schedules

and leave somebody in, you know, somebody gets in because they scheduled a harder game and somebody's left out because they scheduled weaker games, then that would help. But this doesn't help that. This doesn't incentivize scheduling good games. So that's another reason why I'm saying, don't do it.

Because they're going to make the argument that, oh, this incentivizes scheduling good games because if Alabama lost to Ohio State, they could still get into the, to the playoff at 8 and 4. But you still wouldn't schedule it. Like you still try to get out of it. I don't want to drag you.

Am I allowed to drag you into the pits of hell of this discussion or do you want to keep it moving? Because like you're tempting me right now. We can have that whole discussion later in the week if we want to. Right now, again, that game is the series between Alabama and Ohio State is still on. As long as it's still on, it's fine. Yeah.

But yes, if they're going to cancel it, we have a, There's a big discussion to be had. But I don't think that helps that. I think the number one question about this, Andy, is this question to you. Do you think in 2031 the number 23 seed could win the national title? Not right now, but if you'd ask me in 2020, do I think the number 10 seed could win the national title or play for it or be seriously competitive for it? Because this is the thing that I never thought would happen. Or so Miami was the 11 seed this year, right?

10. 10. I used to say there would be no Cinderella's in the 12-team playoff at the beginning of this and that the only Cinderella's that you would have would be like the Georgia's, Ohio States or Bamas that had a rough game or an injury issue that got hot at the end of the year and went from the 9 or 10 seed. I think that Miami was a pure 10 seed this year. Right, because they had lost two games.

They were not good losses. And it wasn't a traditional power like, you know, Alabama at nine going back and doing it. It was a new team, at least new to this era, who snuck in at the end and made a run and was legitimately one of the two or three best teams in college football without question. And because that existed, like going back to Ford, even if I had the power to do that, I wouldn't want to do that now with the way that the sport is constructed. 12 is good. but I also am still very much against having playoff games that that include teams maybe not maybe outside of the group of five because I still think there should be a G5 rep every year because I think that inclusion is important for the entire sports health but I don't want to

watch playoff games between two teams that aren't good enough period and right do get some of those games now right and I want the games I want the games to matter like the Texas Ohio State game mattered this year like it mattered so So I think that's the issue. Even in this system, we do get some matchups between two teams that aren't good enough to win it. I think Alabama, Oklahoma was the perfect example. Neither of those teams was going to advance. But I also think that their inclusion is necessary because at the beginning of the road,

you might not have said that Miami could do it. We shouldn't make those liberties until after. Right, exactly. You need let them play. Yeah. Part of it is you need to let those teams play. it out. And so I'm just, I like this number and I realize it is completely subjective. You may like a bigger number. You may like a smaller number. I get it. I think this is the right amount

of exclusivity. Now, could that change for me, as already pointed out, by 2029. Yes, it could. But why not just late, we've had two years of this. And there was a major tweak in the seating between year one and your two. Why just let this play out a little bit long? Yeah. We only had one year of it actually working the way it was supposed to also. We've had it for two years, but one year of the right seating. Yeah. So let it play out for a few more years. So SEC hold the line, hold the line, HOD, and I get it. The other part, and I don't want to, I don't want to blame the Big Ten only for wanting more money, because if Fox pays, they all get to keep the money. So a lot of this is a way to make up for the money you lose if you eliminate conference title games, which is what

probably needs to happen. But, you know, here's the other thing that has to be taken into account, too. Andy, why does Greg Sanky want as many SEC teams in the playoff as possible? His job? That is his job. And when that happens, though, what happens for the SEC? They get to say they're the best conference, and they get to maybe have the best chance of winning the national title. He also has a very deep vested interest in making as much money as possible for the SEC.

Absolutely. That goes back to what I said. earlier, that is his job. And if they give him a plan that allows him to get more teams in and also, this is the best bait. Like this is like if you're fishing off the dock and the keys, this is live shrimp. This is one all the fish won't eat. Yeah.

But I also think there's some danger too of expanding it so much where it feels like like everybody gets in. And then there's no exclusivity. That's my issue with it. Yeah. Now this particular, the one, and it's being circulated among big 10 ADs and coaches. So they haven't said, we're bringing this up at the meeting yet. But my guess is the big 1080s and coaches are going to be like,

that's something the SEC might be interested. It would start as a 16 teamer and then expand to 24 by, I believe, 2029. 2029 is the year. Yeah. Yeah. So I just, I don't know. I think I would rather like, we'll both steal Josh Pates bit. If you made me commissioner of college football, I would rather just see this play out for,

the rest of this contract at 12 teams because I like it. I've enjoyed it. I think it's the right number. I think it hits the sweet spot in terms of exclusivity. But I don't think they're,

they seem hell-bent determined to change this. The difference between you and me, or sorry, the difference between us and them is that when we have this show and we talk about these things and our preferences and what we like and what we dislike, we're at least

making a good faith attempt to represent the consumer. We're trying our best, because we are consumers too. We talk about it and we cover it, but like we also have our preferences and we get excited for the games just like you do. Can we do a little market research though?

There's two groups I'm really interested to hear their opinions of this. And that's Big 12, fans of Big 12 schools, fans of ACC schools. This would get you guys more access here. Yeah. Significantly more access. Yeah.

How do you feel about that? And I think that this is an attractive model for teams that don't typically get in, but it also goes back to the initial point that I made about the expansion of the 12 team, Andy, which is when you get in, it should mean something. You know what I mean? When you get in, it should be an accomplishment. And I still think that I had some doubts about this, but I still think making the 12 team playoff is an accomplishment.

I think that Texas A&M last year, a team that expects to win or compete for the national championship, might have been disappointed by the way that their season ended on their home field this past year, but they can go into the offseason feeling accomplished in making the playoff for the first time. I think there is a number where you get bad results or declining results with what kind of change. One thing they're going to say is, oh, if these teams are scared to schedule good non-conference games, we're just going to make them play each other in the playoff. I don't think that's a solution. I don't think you should water down the product for any reason.

Right. And I also think that the lack of, and this is the one thing that never gets discussed in the should you schedule hard games or not discussion is the more hard games and the more games that are played between good teams or even middle tier teams and multi-conferences. That's more context and more information for the committee to make a better decision at the end of the year. Yeah. Also, playing that hard game and you do get in, it may help you in the long run because you've played a hard game. even if you lost it. Yeah, I think Ohio State probably, everybody keeps talking about how Ohio State didn't have a really tough non-conference game.

Ohio State had a tough non-conference game this year, and I think you could make the case that they wish they played another really good team this year, and they would have maybe been better off for it. And that's even with Texas on their schedule in the open. Yeah, the Big Ten did them no favors this year. The Big Ten, I think, is going to help them next year. But I just don't have to get through. They're going to have to get through the gauntlet the Big Ten's put in front of them.

But yeah, and the thing that, The canceling of non-conference big-time September games does is it silos the sport again. If you have a bunch of SEC teams who only play SEC teams and only play, you know, a few big-time non-conference games instead of a ton of them, then how is the committee supposed to sift through whose schedules are tougher? Like, it's harder if the Big Ten and the SEC are completely separate. Yeah, it's basically you screaming into the void. My schedule is the toughest.

The SEC is going to say that. The Big Ten is going to say that too. but there's no way to tell. Yeah, and base, the only way to tell will be on the rankings that the committee makes, which will be predicated on wins and losses within conference play. So they'll be watered down and it'll be wrong. So like to me, my whole thing with the season is I want it to be entertaining. I want the games to matter and I want the committee to have as much information at the end

of the road as possible in making the right decisions and putting the right teams in so that the actual playoff is the most robust and perfect version of itself. I don't want fact-finding to be happening in the playoff. The season is fact-finding, and then the playoff is go win a championship. If you start siloing off these conferences, the playoff is going to be fact-finding, and it's going to make a worse product. And I'm telling you, and this isn't just for individual teams. This is just in general, non-conference games are important and integral to the health of the sport.

So, like, you know how I feel about it, but the fewer we get, the less entertaining it is. And more teams are. I'm going to put out a plea here. for better non-conference scheduling because there's there is a way to to guarantee they do this that they schedule these games and play these games. ESPN and Fox give them more money for the good games. Yeah, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, the television contracts and the properties and how they're agreed upon better than I do.

So explain. They don't have to. The ESPN and Fox don't have to do this. I'm saying if you would like better games and they would, they don't want crap. at the beginning of the season. If you'd like better games, give them more money, and they'll give you better games. But how are the television contracts accounting

for non-conference games at this point? Is it kind of just luck of a draw? Like you... It's based on historical ratings, and here's what we usually get. But you can put a bounty on them. Like, add a clause to the deal that says, if you play a top five opponent from another conference,

you get a X number of dollar bonus. bonus for playing that game. Correct. You can do that. Andy just solved it. You have the power. And then it makes the games better, more entertaining, more context

for the committee and everybody. And all of the arguments that they're making about, oh, we want to make sure we're getting the playoffs. They're not going to make that argument. They're going to be like, thanks for the money. Yeah. Because I think a lot of this is about grandstanding and being the best. And like, when I ask you, like,

what is Greg Sanky's number one job? You're like to make sure that the Sanky's number one job. You're like to make sure that the C looks the best. Yeah, I'm sure that's a big portion of his job. But in doing that, the actual route of the... Yeah, to make sure the SEC makes the most money and is as financially healthy as possible. Absolutely. That's every CEO's job. And like, we don't care. Like the consumer doesn't hear how much Fox is paying. We just want the game. Exactly. Exactly. So the moral of the story, as usual is not everything can be solved with money, but a lot of things can. Yeah, it's like

that saying, you know, money doesn't create happiness. And then that person was like, I'd rather crying a Porsche. It's like, yeah, me too. Yeah, well, I know you're not allowed to talk about Kanye anymore, but they say money isn't everything not having it is? Yeah, I can still talk about it. He doesn't like me. I can't talk about him. He's not a fan of yours. No, actually, he's actually back. He apologized. Oh, is that true? Yeah. Yeah, he issued an apology. So he could make more money because you realize that was hurting the bottom of money?

I don't know if we should buy it, but, you know, right now, so far, we're back to being friends. So we'll see how that goes. Speaking of every decision being made about money, we have some news. On Sunday, Kansas State fired head coach Jerome Tang, who we talked about on the show on Friday, he had that viral rant after they lost to Cincinnati.

And basically how you reacted to the rant probably depended on how much you've been paying attention to the actual best. So here's what Jerome Tang said. And K-State fired him for cause, meaning they don't want to pay him as $18.7 million buyout. And they're saying this brought ridicule and disrepute upon Kansas State University. I believe that's the contract language they're trying to use here. I'm going to honor Christ like I always do.

blessed to do this, but this was embarrassing. These dudes do not deserve to wear this uniform. There will be very few of them in it next year. Like, I'm embarrassed for the university. I'm embarrassed for our fans, our student section. You know, it is just ridiculous. practice at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning and and and and we will we will get this thing right I I have no answer no word so you got you got two questions so whoever want to ask two

questions I'll answer them to the best of my ability right now but right now like I'm like pissed and and did this this this yeah this this is this is All right. Questions? Kind of because of your road at home splits, classical road means. Yeah, I don't know. I asked the staff this week that same question. And, you know, they said that, you know, more the opponents, you know, you play, I don't know.

Like, you know, because, I mean, I followed Minnesota last year closely and they played great on the road and struggled at home. So then they started staying in hotels at home, like treating it like. a road game and so I even talked about hey do we need to change that that change but like no there's that none of that crap matter man there's these dudes got to have some they got some pride man they got some pride it means something to wear a case state uniform means something to put on this purple man our like everything this university is about and all that it's been about why I love this place man like they they don't love this place so they don't deserve to be here Yeah, I'd wear a paper bag too if I was done.

Thanks a lot, Phil. God bless. All right. So, Gene Taylor, the athletic director, after firing Jerome Tang, this is what he said, according to the Topeka Capital Journal. There's language in his contract about certain things that could potentially bring embarrassment. Basically, his comments about student athletes and the negative reaction to those comments from sources both nationally and locally is where it kind of felt like I needed to make the decision.

Ari, you were exactly right on Friday. This was the guy, you know, popping his head above the tall grass and getting it locked off. Yeah. Because he just drew attention to the, to the situation at K State and not in the way that he thought he was. I've been watching more college hoops now that the college football season is over with. So I'm trying my best to gear up for March because we're going to be, you know,

involved in some stuff. I would not have known this happened if he didn't say anything. like the general. Because they're so far down in the Big 12 standings, we're not paying attention to them at all, at all. Yeah. But I think that it does draw this question. And you and I have had a lot of conversations about this

when coaches and the football aspect of it have made similar remarks about their actual players. And I think it's an interesting discussion because now that players are being compensated in many times or many instances greatly, Does that allow you to criticize the performance more? Like for instance, I agree. Short answer, yes.

Back in the day, like when I was a beat writer for a newspaper, if the team played poorly or a player played poorly or a position group played poorly, I never wrote, X player stinks or this guy isn't good enough or whatever. It was always why did the coaches put this team in the position to not have the personnel that it was always framed as the coaches responsibility. And I think that that still is largely true today. Even though players are being compensated, I even saw a response that you had on Twitter over the weekend, which is everybody gets paid. Not everybody's dysfunctional. So like you do have a, you do have a duty as the coach who is cashing those checks to ensure that- He's still cashing bigger checks than the players.

We're sure that the people that you are employing, I use the word employing. You get it. But the people that you're paying still stay bought into the system. That's a character situation. That's a, that's a, that's completely under the coach. That's part of Jerome Tang's job is to figure out in the recruiting process, who's going to, who's going to stay with us if things go bad and who's going to quit? He messed that up. But do you think that up for multiple? So he went to the elite eight that first year with Marquis Soel and Keonti Johnson,

and that was a really good team. And remember he, you may not remember this, sorry, but this was, they beat Kansas that year in Manhattan. And right before the fans storm the court, Jerome Tang gets on the mic and goes, you get one court storm from now on we plan to win. The following year, in IT. The year after that, nothing.

The year after that is this one. Like, they're not doing what they're supposed to. He's not earning his paycheck. Now, that's a badass moment, I'll give him credit for that. That is. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

His paycheck got significantly bigger, and his buyout got significantly bigger because Arkansas came sniffing around before they hired John Calaparry. Now, if you're Kansas State, you're kicking yourself because you put yourself on the hook more more money. And I bet, I'm curious. I'm trying to remember the timing of that search,

but I don't think they would have hired him. I don't think they necessarily had to pay him that because Arkansas was going to get Cal. I mean, when you go to the elite aid of Kansas State, that, I mean, you deserve raises. Like, you know, we always say don't give unnecessary. But it's not when they gave it to him. That was the following year after they'd been to the NIT.

No, I know, but still, like, that probably carries you for a few years. It does. But that's the problem, that's the problem in college basketball specifically. Somebody can get hot for a weekend or two. Yeah. And suddenly you put yourself, you either hire them or you extend them in a way that puts you on the hook. Like Paul Hewitt was the coach of Georgia Tech years ago. He got Georgia Tech to the national title game.

were they were they were they the second best team in the country probably not he got an extension that was essentially ironclad kept rolling over and georgia tech finally just had to eat it yeah you know and i think that is an interesting point that i never really discussed like usually in college football the teams that make the runs are built the best like there's not a lot of like this team's not very good but they got hot in football because it's too physical to do that but in basketball if you have some shooters or whatever like you can get hot and win some games but to go back to the initial question i was going to ask you andy is after now we've discussed about, you know, how much players who are being compensated

deserve criticism individually. Do you think it's inappropriate for coaches to throw players under the bus in a way that it maybe would have been not kosher five, six years ago? I think if the coach is doing his job, then he's probably in position to be able to do that. Because we- But Paul Tang was not doing his job effectively. We got into this discussion two years ago with Hugh Fries and the quarterback comments he was making. It's like if that quarterback is getting paid $4 million and he stinks, is Hugh Fries allowed

to throw him under the bus? Like that's the question I'm basically asking. But what and Hugh Fries also picked that quarterback. That's the other part. And the same with Jerome Tang. He picked these players. Like if we ever get in a situation where the GM is just handing you the roster and you have as a coach have no say in it, then maybe we can have another discussion. But right now, Jerome Tang picked all of those players. Hugh Fries picked those quarterback. Like, Ufries not only picked Peyton Thorne, he stayed with Peyton Thorne when he could have gotten somebody else. And not only stayed with Peyton, he also made a comment in the offseason while sticking with Peyton Thorne that spending a bunch of money on a quarterback is stupid. You remember that, right?

Right, right, which turned out, no, actually it was smart and you should have done it. Yeah. And now Hugh Freese is out of a job. Jerome Tang is out of a job because he did not identify competitive character correctly. in the recruiting process. Basically, to summarize what we just came to, because I agree with this is, it's probably not nearly as taboo now

to throw your players under the bus as it maybe was five years ago, but it's also still stupid because you're still like, you're still like, you still gotta live with them for the net. Like, because if Jerome Teng doesn't get fired, he's got to live with them for another month. Like,

but he did get fired. Here's the thing about the buyout. 18.7 million dollars. And I think K State probably is sitting there going, okay, we'll, we'll settle with him for less. because he won't want to fight this out. I can tell you right now,

Jerome Tang is evaluating which attorney he's going to hire right now. He's going to get his money. He's going to get the money. Like you put yourself on the hook for this. Maybe don't. Maybe next time you hire a coach, don't put yourself on the hook for that much money. Do you think that throwing players under the bus

could be written into future contracts as conduct that's unacceptable? And if you put it in the contract, specifically, then by all means. But that's not in this contract. That's just boilerplate language that says don't bring embarrassment at the university. Well, losing brings embarrassment to the university too, but nobody ever gets away with firing somebody for cause for that.

So they're going to have to pay him unless they've got something else on him and I don't think they do or they would have said it. Yeah. But I mean, I think that this was their best ditch effort to try to get out of a coach. coaching situation they know is no longer tenable without trying to get out of the This is a tough one.

This was similar to Mark Stoops at Kentucky and football, to Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M in football where it's never going to get any better. You've realized now you've made a mistake that you're stuck and it's going to be very expensive to get out of this. They're trying to get out of this without paying. They're going to have to pay. Our Joe Tipton, Tipton edits, he's got a lot of. list of candidates.

So we got Josh shirts at St. Louis. Does he bring Larry Nerd with him is the question, Robbie Avila? Because he brought him from Indiana State to St. Louis. Louis, Louisville has got one more year of eligibility. But. Yeah, all the same.

All the same luggage is happening in basketball too, I assume. That's all Louis Luggage is a thing. Louis Luggage. Casey Alexander from Belmont, Chris Jans from Mississippi State. Those are those are your your potential candidates for the K-State, which is a pretty good job. So here's the other part with Jerome Tang. This is why I've not been particularly sympathetic and why I said how you reacted to what happened

probably depends on whether you've been paying attention or not. If Jerome Tang had been in a situation where K-State gave him no money, no budget to get players, I would have much more sympathy. But K-State gave Jerome Tang a budget that is very competitive within the Big 12, which is a very competitive basketball league. He had the resources. He just used them improperly. That may be a reason to fire somebody for cause,

but it's not in his contract to do that. So again, if you want to fire somebody for cause, write the causes in the contract that you might actually fire them for. Yeah. How about misallocation of funds? Yeah, being a bad GM. Like, because that's really what it came down to. He was a terrible GM.

Terrible. They'll never get written into contracts because the hot shot coaching candidates that get into those contracts will make sure that they're not in them or they won't go. And their agents will never let, yeah, there's reason. They have leverage when they're making these deals. So that's, but that's it. He was a terrible GM. He brought those players. He's not capable of putting together a good roster.

He got very lucky with Marquis, Noel and Keonté Johnson. By Keonté Johnson, by the way, they had because they were the ones willing to medically clear him. Keonti Johnson played at Florida. He collapsed on the court at Florida State. It was a very scary situation. And not many schools would even consider him because they were scared of a medical situation. So they got lucky on that front. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, he's going to get paid. I'm telling you right now. You're going to pay him. I mean, I'm trying to think of like some of the more famous college football. throw under the bus situations. But what do when coaches get to that point in college school? I mean, Dion threw everybody under the bus the first day.

Yeah. But everyone's happy with him at that point. I'm thinking about post-game news conference or radio show on Tuesday fall. Usually when a coach starts saying those things, they're driving off the cliff. And the, you know, the. Yeah, I'm trying to think in football and basketball, I don't remember. Like, Rick Petino can be pretty negative about his team at times. Yeah.

And then he turns around and praises him the next second. Yeah. And there also is a clear line between saying things to the media to hype up your team and being an asshole. Like, you know. Yeah. Dan Hurley can be very negative, but he can also have his players' backs. And he wins. That's the other.

The trick with all this is just win and you can pretty much do whatever you want and say whatever you want. Yes. But if you're getting your ass kicked by teams at the bottom of the league, this is what happens when you go off. And I think you're exactly right, Ari. Because I think I think K-State would have had to make this decision at some point. I think they made the decision now because he put them in the news. And we would have completely ignored them the rest of the season.

Just as we ignore almost every team. I couldn't tell you the teams in the bottom third of the SEC, of the ACC, of the Big Ten, because I'm not thinking about them. They're not a threat to make the NCAA tournament. Think about how many minutes we've spent today and late last week talking about Kansas State basketball. Right. They made it easy for us.

Jerome Tang made it easy for us. But it's good, too, because I think that, you know, as a college football show, Jerome Tang's situation has a lot of parallels to football. And, like, we're not just talking about Kansas State. It's pretty universal. We're going to see this. Yeah, it's almost like we're going to see this in football from somebody.

So this is a good prep for how to react to it. Yeah, and we already have. I mean, Hugh Freeze literally did this. And I wrote this is true. Yeah, I mean, like this. It was one player and not the whole team, but yes. There was, I think it was the position room, if I remember correctly. Yeah.

Yeah. But anyway. Well, we'll see. Because Jerome Tang is going to hire somebody and they're going to fight this out. And I bet you he gets every dollar. Yeah, unless he just wants to end it and takes it a little bit less, but he's going to get paid. Speaking of guys trying to get paid, Joey Aguilar, trying to get another year at Tennessee, last year's Tennessee quarterback, hoping to be this year's Tennessee quarterback.

He was in court on Friday. The great Brent Hubs from Volk West was in the building. And as we discussed after the Trinidad Shambliss thing, do not assume because Trinidad Shambliss had such an easy time getting his injunction that everybody's, going to be able to do this because Joey Aguilar is sitting here as of Monday without any decision made. And the judge in this particular case seemed fairly skeptical. And he wanted, the judge wanted somebody, whether it was Aguilar's counsel or the NCAA's counsel, to tell him what are the actual damages here? Like how much money does he stand to lose? What is the market for this guy? And he's like, don't guess. He's like, I want to know. And that's the.

other problem is we don't have a lot of data on these contracts. Like, Darien Mince's contract has been put in the court record, but all the dollar figures were redacted. We think we know what they are. But that wouldn't be admissible in court. They don't have anything other than the only thing they can give them is Joey Aguilar's contract from last year. Yeah.

What does he stand to make? Yeah. Right. And so, because the judge is trying to determine, are there real damages here? What are they? could he like one one thing with the charles bettiaco case is the judge in that case who by the way same same deal state court local judge everybody assumed that because he was a local tuscaloose county judge that he would rule for albama he didn't he said you can define the damages in this case and he can sue for them

and that's a legal remedy the injunction is only if he can't if there is no legal remedy if it's irreparable damage if he doesn't get to play. And so the fact that this judge is looking for the actual damages, well, he said I don't just grant injunctions. It's fair to assume that Joey Aguilar is probably a seven-figure salary guy, right? Yes. But there's a difference in this case in the Trinidad Shamless case. In the Trinidad Shamless case, he was arguing that the NCAA did not grant him a medical

hardship waiver when it would have done that for other plays. and has done that for the players. No one has ever said, oh, you played all this juco, the juco just doesn't count. No one's ever said that. Yeah. But if Joey Aguilar is a seven-figure quarterback, what are the likelihood, if any,

that he could make seven figures playing football next year if it's not at Tennessee or somewhere else in college? Zero. So can you sue for that? well yes you can but here's the thing can you get an injunction for that the injunction remember is what would allow him to keep playing while the cases being handled in court they could not grant him the injunction and say you can keep suing for this and you may get paid because you may win but if the judge isn't sure he's going to win or doesn't think that because one of the standards

for an injunction is you think the plaintiff's going to prevail on the merits Right. If you think it's a 50-50, if you're the judge, you can say, okay, you're welcome to sue for this, figure out what the damages are, put a dollar figure on it and sue for this. And you might not win. That'll be your financial loss if you don't because you have to pay for the money to sue and all that. Right. And if you win, you're going to get the money that you're seeking. And the rule is going to get overturned.

But it's not going to probably come specifically. But here's the thing. none of these guys suing in state court want to try the case. They want the injunction so they can just complain. If I were Joey Aguilar, I'd want to try the case because it's a lot of money for somebody who's not going to make that again. But if I were the judge, I might not grant the injunction and just say, okay, try the case. Even if I were Joey Aguilar, and I was not granted the injunction, I think I would still try to push it because that's a lot of money for somebody that's not going to make that much again. Well, and I think people who dealt with the NCAA waiver process would love if Trinidad Chamblis keeps pushing his case.

I don't know if he's going to. Yeah, but if Joey Aguilar decides, no, and this is hypothetical, but if he does not give him the injunction, and then he sues for a million dollars or whatever his salary is, and then is ultimately successful and gets a rule change, that changes the, he doesn't have to play in order to change the college football. I would change, yeah, but I don't think he wants to be that trailblazer. I think he wants to play for Tennessee this year. So that's the question is, what's the judge going to say? Is he going to grant the injunction?

Or is he going to say, you're welcome to continue this lawsuit? You're welcome to sue and try to get this rule overturned. But I don't want to be the one who opens the floodgates on this. Because, again, there have been lots of cases involving medical hardship waivers where the person disagreed with the NCAA's decision. on it. And the NCAA has granted extra years at times and not granted extra years at times. That's what makes the Trinidad Chambliss case different than the Charles Betiaco case and the Joey Aguilar case. Charles Betiaco and Joey Aguilar, the NCAA has never bent on any of these rules. It has never been negotiable. It has never been, we're going to do this thing for this

person and this thing for this person. They've never said that. They've always said you can't do this. And I think that's the difference. So this one, like, because everybody's like, oh, after the shameless case, oh, that opens the floodgates. It doesn't open the plug gates. But this one would. If he gets the injunction, it will. Basically, everybody who ever played juco, who's got some time left if they take their juco time out of it is going to be like, okay, I'm going to court. Let's go.

It seems likely, or I mean, it seems in going into these cases, because Chambliss and Aguilar are very different, that it always felt like Chambliss had a much higher likelihood of succeeding than Aguilar, right? Is that fair to say? Yeah, I would think so. So I, and Chambl's going to play this year. What are we expecting a result on this?

Any day now, though today is a federal holiday. So it may be that we don't. And it's also interesting, as producer River, who has evolved for life points out, I don't think the Tennessee fan base is super optimistic about this either because they're not, remember the Ole Miss people, we're all in on this thing. Like we need him.

We need it. We got to have him. I think the Tennessee fans are like, it'd be great if he can come back, but we kind of want to see Faison or George McIntyre if that works out. Yeah. We'll see, but yeah.

We wait on the judge for college football than it does for Aguilar, frankly. Exactly. Exactly. And I think that's why this one's different. And that's why, you know, it may not be the same thing. It may be that the judge says, I don't want to be the one who sends everybody running the courthouse. Right. Because the judge in the, in the case with Trinidad Chambers, it wasn't going to be that way because you have to replicate the circumstances. And there's just so few good players who are old who just didn't see the field for two

straight ears. Like, it's rare. Yeah. All right. One more thing. About a month ago, the NCAA approved putting advertising patches on college uniforms. And we knew it was coming. We knew the patches were coming.

We knew the ads were coming. We have the first ones at a major school. LSU has unveiled its partnership with Woodside energy. You ever heard of Woodside Energy? You ever bought any Woodside Energy? I mean, I might have. I don't know. You probably have at some point through somebody else. Woodside Energy is an Australian petroleum company that why why does this matter with LSU? They have a significant natural gas operation in Louisiana. Yeah. So this is more of a political play. I was shocked it wasn't Raising Cains. I was thinking Raising Cains would be the ultimate.

That's too bad. It's not. Or are we going to- At least I know what that is. Are we going to engage now in a five-minute discussion about whether patches on jerseys and traditional uniforms are in bad taste? Well, I think they probably are in bad taste, but they've been advertising the apparel company for years. And also, as word manual, the Michigan athletic group pointed out about a month ago

when somebody asked him about it, he's like, every time we go to a bowl game, the sponsor's names on the podcast. patch what's the difference yeah i mean listen i know that with many years that you and i covered teams that were very precious about their tradition like i remember arguing about whether playing night games was good for the game like you know you that's the most big ten argument ever by the yeah big ten argument there were two big ones it was should we ever play a night game and uh i think we're going back to like 2010 here but like the other one was are alternate or throwback uniforms distasteful when we should

just be right. Those were the two. And like I just feel like guys, it's pro sports. It is. It is pro sports. And this is done through Playfly, which is LSU's MMR partner multimedia rights. Basically what this is is a pass through for them to pay players. That's what this is.

And everybody's going to do the same thing. And be honest. everybody's going to have LSU fans if you're all wound up about this. No, and I'm not saying LSU's doing anything wrong. I'm saying LSU's taking advantage of the system as it is. I'm assuming that there are people in Louisiana that are like, how could they possibly desecrate the beautiful Taiga uniform? You know, did I sound like that?

Absolutely, and there are going to be people in Michigan who say that, and people in Auburn fans and Penn State fans. They're all going to say that. Would you rather have good players wearing patches or bad players without them? There you go. Well, here's my thing. don't become the Premier League. Don't become the Premier League.

Okay, here's the Premier League where, as you see, I don't even know what teams these are. Emirates is Arsenal, I believe. It's hard for me to tell because I can barely see the little cannon. I legitimately thought that the team was just Emirates Airlines. I didn't know it was Arsenal. There's also a reason for that, because there are no commercial breaks in soccer

because they're not smart enough to stop to actually press a button and stop a clock. Which, by the way, how have they gotten this far into the evolution of that sport and not had commercial breaks? It's wild to me. But this is what they do. They put the Jersey logo, you know, front and center. So all you see over and over again is Emirates Airlines

or Superbet or whatever it is. And so it's not as important in American sports. So let me ask. Because we have commercial breaks. Would you rather have a. have a Love's gas station patch on your favorite team's ass crack. Oh, there it is. There's the Oklahoma City Thunder with a Loves patch.

Because I bet you that people would be like, if you were an Alabama fan, would you rather your team wear a Loves uniform? Or would you rather sit through? Well, I mean, Love's is going to be Oklahoma. No, I know. I'm just, yeah. If it's anything.

But I do, I do hope that, like, I'm assuming that like if you ever did an Alabama uniform and made it like, what's a big Alabama brand that is big down there? Connect a sausage. Okay. And it was just a sausage. Then you never had to watch a commercial again. You might, there might be some people would be like, yeah.

But you're not going to, you're still going to have to watch commercials. So I hope that the patches that, because all teams are going to have them, like, I'm not going to yell into the wind about like the end. But at least make them like regionally relevant. Like River pointed out in our. chat just now that like they're going to have pilot patches on Tennessee uniforms. It's like, well, if the patch on the uniform is like from one of your biggest boosters and from a person that's from there that created the business there, like that makes sense to me too.

At least there's like a at least a regional connection to them. Yeah. I have seen Florida fans say, okay, well, we want a Publix patch. Well, I don't, at one, I don't know if Publix would do that because they're big throughout the state and I don't know that they would pick one between Florida, Florida State and Miami. But I just don't want state farm patches on like an Ohio State. Jersey, like at least do something that's like regional. Well, like Georgia, I mean, I would assume it's Coca-Cola or Delta, which are both

companies that started in Georgia. Yeah. Or that are based in Georgia. So they should put Nike pets on Oregon jerseys. They've already got the patch. They've had the patch for years. That was the joke. Yeah.

Yeah. But yeah, it's, I think this is not something I'm particularly wound up about. I would like it to be, I don't know, personally. I'd like it to be something I know what it is. Like, yeah. Producer River, can you show the Lakers jersey? I have no idea what company sponsors the Lakers. What's Bibi go?

I don't know. Now, granted, the Los Angeles Lakers are a global brand. So if you're, do you know what it is? I have no idea. It's a Korean frozen food plan. Okay. You can get Korean food frozen delivered to your door, I think.

So I get frozen bibimbab? The steam dump. Thanks, LeBron, for telling me about the frozen Bibimbap. I mean, that's the point, right? You're supposed to put something on the logo where somebody goes, I don't know what that means and then looks it up. I'm like, oh, well, actually, these dumplings look kind of fire. Like, I'm like, I'm not going to lie to you.

Although I feel like half of these logos, it's like, you look at it. You're like, well, if I ever fly to Dubai, and now I know where I'll put my tickets. Yeah. You know, maybe there maybe, because there is a correlation between bowl sponsorship and uptick and revenue, right? from the company that sponsors it for the most part. Yes.

So, but like, I don't know. Like, we used to play the, the bowl game discussion of like, what, who sponsors this bowl and what is that company? And it's like, if it's some random energy company, does there actually like a benefit to that company? I think there's a political benefit for the company being the, the one that helps LSU pay its players. And they have to, they have, there has to be a benefit or they wouldn't do it.

So I'm sure because that company, I'm sure with a big natural gas operation in the state of Louisiana probably wants to be. as friendly to LSU friendly politicians as possible. And wants the people in the state government and the people of the state to like them. And I think that makes sense. I actually called somebody years ago when I worked in the newspaper,

because I couldn't, like, why does Bell helicopter sponsor the Armed Forces Bowl? They don't anymore, but they did. Because like, there is no consumer that's going to watch the game. Why is not going out to buy a Bell helicopter? Right. I was going to buy a Sikorsky, but now I'm going to buy a Bucorski, but now I'm going to buy a

Well, that's not it. It is they're a defense contractor. They would like to stay on the good side of the armed forces that gives them these contracts. And that's why they did it. It might not always be. The benefit might not always just be like as simple as straight line increase in sales. Correct. Now, but it does help when it's a major company based in your area.

So show me the Orlando Magic jersey. River. There you go. Disney. There's a giant theme park in Orlando called Disney World, Walt Disney World. That makes sense. The magic are essentially named after it. Like that one makes sense. Just so you know, the Disney conversation has sparked in the Wastervin household. Oh, oh. Also, Britt and I might be standing. You might be making the trip. Yeah. And like, we've gotten to the point now where it's like, all right, now we've got to start planning this deal. because like all of her friends are going and you know they're having the breakfasts and stuff and it's like Disney has done such a good job uh Disney has done such a good job of not only marketing their brand to everybody and it's like if you have a kid you can't buy like toothpaste without Disney on it like Disney's on everything

but they've done it so that you're a shitbag parent if you don't take them to Disney world like that's kind of like how we've gotten to it's like if you're if you don't take your kid to Disney there's something wrong with you as parents like that's their number one sales well and just wait until you get there because it's like they put a vacuum cleaner down your pants and just siphon all the money out. Well, the thing that I'm actually. There's so many ways to take your money there. The thing that I'm so worried about is apparently if you go to Disney World with a toddler, you have to have that thing lined up like you're like it's an itinerary like you're like invading. Oh, yeah.

You need the the wedding planner from the movie the wedding planner. Like we have to hire somebody to like plan our day for us so we don't miss out on things because there's nothing. Apparently, if you go to Disney World completely raw dogging it without drawing anything, like you have a terrible day. Oh, you do. You have to do it six months in advance to make sure you get the reservation so Cinderella can give you your pancakes. Yeah, so you fortunately, we're not going to name any names, but you know a Disney adult. You have a Disney adult in your life?

I do. But I also don't know if that Disney adult can help me because that Disney adult wouldn't be concerned with getting into the events that I would be concerned. That's true. Yeah. You're going to have to talk some other your friends. But, okay, that's a corporate partnership that makes sense. Well, can you like Orlando Magic and Disney? Makes sense.

The Milwaukee Bucks, Motorola. I don't know. I've never thought about buying any, like, that doesn't make me want to buy a Motorola product. I don't even know what Motorola, Motorola products. I mean, the razor. They make phones. They still make phones. I thought that they were like more into like the cellular space, but I didn't know

they actually made consumer phones anymore. Yeah, that's the thing. I like the more consumer-facing things, which is why a Raising Keynes-LSU jersey would have made a lot of sense. I also listened to a four-hour podcast about how Coca-Cola became like ingrained in Christmas and ingrained in American in society

and even the world society now. And I think that like marketing genius, like if you want to look at marketing genius, Coca-Cola is certainly like the brand to do it. Like they've made it, they've marketed Coca-Cola so well, that weight staff will apologize for not having it. Exactly.

Which, by the way, is an affront. Like, if you don't have Coke, like, just get out of it. I mean, I actually like Pepsi, to be honest. Ari. Ari, Pepsi is spending a lot on podcast advertising right now, so we're going to say really nice things about Pepsi. Do you what I just said? I do like Pepsi.

Keep going. I've always been confused by once you've already conquered the mountain. Like, Coca-Cola is, I think, one of the five most recognizable. brands on the face of the planet. Like why continuing to spend on advertising is even necessary at that point? Because Pepsi's still coming after you. Yeah. And by the way, Pepsi.

If you'd like us to do the Pepsi Challenge on the air, we would love to do the Pepsi Challenge. What is the Pepsi Challenge? The Pepsi Challenge was in the 80s where they blind taste test Coke and Pepsi and everybody always pick Pepsi. If you are a human being on the face of the Earth right now,

don't do it! Don't do it! don't stop. No, I'm not doing what you think I'm going to do. But if you can't put Coke and Pepsi next to each other and identify what it is, then you're the problem. Your taste buds don't work. Yeah, no, like Pepsi is great. They do taste different.

Yes, I agree. If you taste different, they both taste great. I'll drink both. I'm not one of these people that gets upset when you have Pepsi in them. But Coca-Cola has won the marketing game so far. So if you need help, sure. But yeah, we're here for you. We'll put you over the top.

It's like a Coca-Cola put a patch on a Georgia's jersey. It's like, okay, well, now I know Coke's good. It's like, I get it. Like, Coke's awesome. Like, everyone knows that. The race between Coca-Cola and Delta to put the patch on the Georgia jersey is going to be. Because that's pretty valuable real estate. We're going to get dollar figures on some of these deals eventually.

But that's going to be pretty valuable real estate right there. You know, I'm actually Googling. Alabama football jersey, the Ohio State football jersey. To go back to Pepsi for a second. They do own the most delicious soda on the face of the earth. Do you know what that soda is? Which one? Mountain Dew.

I'm a Mountain Dew guy. And that's something that Coke can't compete within a million years. Coke tried. Speaking of Mountain Dews and people who consume lots of them, we need to get Phil Steel on the show. Yeah. As he gets the magazine together. I love Mountain Dew.

Ari. It's been very educational. Everybody enjoy the LSU patches. We're probably going to get lots more patches here in the next few weeks. Oh, one more piece of news. Yeah, don't forget. Sacramento State's joining the Mac. Remember, Sacramento State said,

hey, we're joining the FBS, come hell or high water. Couldn't find a conference to do it last year. Now they're going to do it. The Mac is taking them. The best meme I saw all weekend, and I wish I could give the person proper credit. I'm sorry, I don't have it in front of me. But it was a picture of somebody on an airplane next to a picture of somebody else on an airplane.

And the caption was, just Sacramento State players on their way to play conference opponent UMass, passing Northern Illinois players on their way to play conference opponent, Hawaii. That's right. Sacramento states in the same conference as UMass. Northern Illinois is the same conference as Hawaii. Good for the Mac getting in on the coast to coast action, because for a while there, the Mac was like the same campus.

I've gotten in trouble saying this before. Ari. All in the same area. Ari. We just opened up a new. a new TV window from action. Love it. Think about the degenerates.

Monday at 2 a.m. Tuesday night, 10.30 p.m. Eastern time live from Sacramento State. Do you get that void, like that like, I almost call it withdrawal of like the second the national championship game is over

and then like you're just on at home on a weeknight. Or get it with each night as the things, disappear. So the first Thursday with no Thursday night games, the first Friday with no Friday night college games. Like it's, it's just, it's a little bit more sadness. And then the Super Bowl finally just rips my heart out. Rips your heart out. There's nothing left. And then now you're stuck with some other stuff. But, you know, basketball is going to carry us through a little bit here through the next six weeks. Hey, listen, if everybody wants to go Jerome Tang, by all means, we'll have shows for days. Yeah, I will plead for any college basketball program to do things that we can

also equate back to football while also highlighting what's happening in basketball. So keep doing that. You're doing great so far as a sport. Doing great. We'll talk to you tomorrow.