Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - CASH IS KING: Kansas' Financial SUPREMACY Revealed + Jayhawks' Baseball Falls in NCAA Tournament

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

Kansas Jayhawks reign supreme in Big 12 finances. How will this impact their future in college athletics as the richest team in the conference?Host Derek Johnson breaks down KU's staggering revenue, dwarfing second-place Baylor by a whopping $67 million and more than double that of the Kansas State Wildcats. Why the numbers are what they are with KU's new stadium, and why despite the cash that KU Athletics appears to be struggling with money. Plus, why it puts Kansas in a favorable future position, including in potential SEC or Big Ten realignment.The discussion also covers the Jayhawks' baseball season finale in their NCAA Tournament losses to Creighton and North Dakota State, their impressive 43-17 record, Dan Fitzgerald's impact on the program and a critical offseason for Travis Goff with the team.Will KU's financial dominance translate to on-field success across all sports? Tune in for expert analysis on the Jayhawks' path forward in the ever-changing landscape of college athletics.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

A new report came out and turns out Kansas got some money. They're the richest team in the Big 12. Why this puts them in a very favorable position moving forward and why maybe it might not feel like that's been the case so far over the last, I don't know, 365 days or something like that. Maybe even more recent than that. We get into Kansas being moneybags. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the locked on podcast network, your team

every day. What's going on Derek Johnson here. This is locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you the everydayers catching all of our episodes including on our YouTube page or anywhere that you listen to the audio side of things here with LOJ. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to talk a little bit about the KU baseball season ending and some of the latest news Fred Kordelbaum out as director of ops from KU and getting to some of that and some of the latest NBA draft and transfer portal stuff. But we're also going to talk about KU is the

richest team in the Big 12, at least according to one report what that means why that puts KU in a very favorable position, especially in the near future. But what does it exactly mean right now? Is it helping them to a big extent right now? Is it not? We'll get into all that on today's episode, which is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLege at MonarchMoney.com for 50%. That's half off your first year

with Monarch Money. Okay, so there was a report coming out from the it's the EADA, which is the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, I believe that is the name of it report and this tweet was from one Jeff Fuller who is I don't know, he's just does some contributions with like one of the the ESPN sports, I think radio teams for like BYU or something like that. And he was basically just reporting the info. But I believe that stuff is is kind of public, I believe. Anyway, here's the tweet if you're watching on YouTube, if

not, you know, we'll talk about it and mention what's happening. He tweeted out that the new Big 12 schools EADA grand total revenue figures for the fiscal year of 2024 in millions. And then it has in parentheses what it was in 2023. So Kansas tops the list of Big 12 schools, the grand total revenue was $215 million for 2024. That is about a $9 million increase from the previous year in the 2023 fiscal year. You go to second place on the list, and it is a pretty sizable drop off to second place on the list, and it is a

pretty sizable drop off to second. I mean, Baylor sitting in second with 148 million, they're up 11 million from the year before for what it's worth. The school that gained the most was BYU who went up 24 million. I don't know if that just has to do with you know, being in the big 12 for another year. But Kansas actually going up 9 million from the year before is one of the it's on the upper half of most gains from the year before. But again, if you're just talking baseline, they, you know, the grand total revenue number being 215 million, that's the most in the big 12. Second most Baylor

148. So you're talking about a $67 million gap between Kansas at first and Baylor to second Colorado's not far behind 147 million TCU at 142 Arizona 139 then you have Oklahoma State BYU Arizona State all between 127 and 132 another little bit of a drop to Texas Tech at 115 now they have incredible donor support and a lot of oil money that's helping them out there that you know that's this stuff is obviously different than NIL. NIL is a different thing than this, right? Then you get to Utah 112, case state at 106. So think about that case state, you double it.

Kansas still has more money for this, you know, revenue figure, right? And you go on and on and down the list and, you know, we could get to the rest of schools, but this is a Kansas show, so we're gonna talk Kansas, right? So the difference between Kansas and Baylor, though, from first to second is bigger than the gap between Baylor in second, and Cincinnati in last and the reason

Cincinnati is in last, they're getting half share payouts for the big 12 because of, you know, joining the league. That's part of the thing that happened to Cincinnati, UCF in Houston for a certain amount of time. The gap between second and last in the Big 12 in this revenue figure is smaller than the gap between Kansas in first and Baylor in second place. That is absolutely remarkable to talk about that, right? And it's one of those things where it's like, I know there's some fans that feel like with how this offseason has gone for Kansas basketball with certain things that are going on, you almost don't feel like that is maybe necessarily the case.

Now it is mentioned in this post if you scroll down a little bit by Jeff, he says that, you know, this is likely related to the huge capital campaign fundraising towards the recent rebuild of their football stadium. But even if you take that out of account, it shows that they can be in very good position. And so what I find the most interesting with this is a couple things because again, you look at okay, maybe KU being outbid for Darien Williams and I don't know if that was the case for Dom Esar. Maybe it was seemed like he wanted to go to Duke regardless if KU was going to be outbid there or not.

And like, you know, maybe being a little bit more patient with their off season portal approach, like, again, NIL is different than the revenue stuff, right? Those are different pools of money that you're kind of tapping into different people who are donating here and there. But it also is interesting when you talk about the layoffs, KU athletic department just had, you know, a bunch is interesting when you talk about the layoffs, KU Athletic Department just had,

you know, a bunch of layoffs that I forget the number was, was like 30% or something like that. It was like $3 million worth of, you know, people's jobs. And so you see that and you're like, wait, how are they so flush with cash? How do they have all this money? Again, a big part of this is the fundraising that is going to the football stadium. And I guess that's kind of the big takeaway here. Building a new KU football stadium building a new football stadium in general is

very, very, very expensive, right. But I think the other way of looking at this is this. Kansas is in an extremely valuable position. And I know, you know, conference realignment is one of those touchy subjects, especially with Kansas, because, you know, there have been you know, conference realignment is one of those touchy subjects, especially with Kansas, because, you know, there have been, you know, there are rumors going back with Kansas in the Big Ten, whether they were true or not, there were rumors going back. I think was it this past off season where there were a couple like

then again, some of these can end up being like, I think this one, I forget if it was just throw away like message word stuff or if it was actually coming from somebody, whatever. But it was like, could can I think it was from like a guy who did like a YouTube show or something like that, which like, you know, not denigrating that I do a YouTube show. I just mean like in general, like I'm not, you know, somebody plugged into that. I don't know anyway. But it was like the SEC stuff. Point being, if this conference

realignment stuff goes to another level, and SEC and Big Ten are looking to poach more schools from the Big 12 from the ACC. Obviously, there are going to be other schools. I mean, certainly in the ACC, you think of Florida State and Clemson and North Carolina and stuff like that. But as you're looking at that from the potential of Kansas, it's hard not to view this as like, oh, Kansas is in a favorable spot because of something like that. Again, the gap being so different. And once

they do have the stadium, sure, maybe some of this revenue stuff goes down. But they're still so far ahead of the rest of the pack there, that it makes you think, okay, even if some of that revenue stuff goes down, then all of a sudden, now it's just more NIL money that because some of those donations that are coming in for the stadium are then going to be directed to NIL money that they can compete with the big boys in that area. And so I think it's just a reminder that like, as tight as things

are right now, the reason why is mainly because of the football stadium, because it's very, very expensive. At the same point in time, once that stuff gets done, because this is something that is overdue, this is something that should have been kind of worked on probably before Travis Goff even got before Lance Leipold even got here, right. And so they're the ones having to kind of pay the price on it. And, you know, you can talk about it having an impact on the KU basketball season and having an impact on

people's jobs. And that stuff sucks. But it also puts kids in that valuable position in that favorable position that, you know, when they are finished with the football stadium, where is that going to put them the sky's kind of the limit, right? That it's not just that you're going to have the shiny new object, you're going to have the shiny new football stadium, it's that you are going to have, you know, the toys to go with it, so to speak, right? You didn't just build a new house, you also have the Ferrari, you also have the you know, this, this and

that that kind of goes with it. So very advantageous position. And I do think it's interesting, because it does kind of juxtapose to what we've seen here recently with some of these news stories. And there's some of the lack of offseason stuff with Kansas. I guess it's just a reminder that maybe a little bit of more short term pain. And I don't know how long this is gonna go right. I mean, they still have potentially the other side of the stadium that they're gonna have to do. Is this something where this is going to eat into Kansas's ability to do other things for three years down the

road? Is it something where it's going to be okay, a year or two more or this will be the last big off season of it. And then the other stuff will be more doable and then they're going to soar from there. That I don't entirely know. But you know, whether it's a short term five year thing, a one year thing, a three year thing, or whatever, once they do get out at the other end of the tunnel here, Kansas is going to be in a very advantageous position. Our KU baseball season came to an end with the NCAA tournament crummy week, but an unbelievable season. Let's discuss next. season. Let's discuss next. This episode of Lockdown Jayhawks is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder where'd all my money go between dining out online shopping

and entertainment. It's easy to lose track. That's where Monarch Money comes in your personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money isn't just a budgeting app. It's a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments and spending financial command center. You track all your accounts, investments and spending in one place, you stop just managing your money and start building wealth. It has all in one convenience where instead of juggling multiple

apps, you can use Monarch to check finances, track your spending and even plan long term goals. Take control of your finances with Monarch money use code locked on college at Monarch money.com for 50% off your first year. That's Monarch money.com code locked on college for monarch money.com for 50% off your first year that's monarch money.com code locked on college for half off your first year with monarch money. Thanks for joining us on this episode of locked on Jayhawks. So the KU baseball season unfortunately came to an end. This past weekend, they lost their first two NCAA tournament games was

unfortunate that they didn't at least get that one win under their belt. You go back to the previous time they were in the tournament in 2014, they did get a win under their belt. So it's not like you have to say, okay, they haven't won a tournament game. And, you know, a couple whatever they actually won their first game, I think they were playing like a ranked team and then ended up losing the next two after that. But point being the Creighton game was was kind of a back and forth early game. And it felt like maybe, you know,

Dominic vaguely was kept in maybe a little bit too long. But you understood it, at least I did from Fitzgerald, because it was like, what's been the one thing with Kansas this year, it's that they have these two frontline guys and vaguely and Cooper Moore, who at times have been, you know, have had some volatile adding outings. And then at other times have been dominant and the other teams haven't been able to hit them. Unfortunately, this is one of those more volatile really weeks

for vaguely and more of them. You'll both of them kind of battled through a little bit the sixth inning got ugly on vaguely but they were both able to get out of some jams, you know, here and there. But overall, the bullpen has been a little bit more shaky for KU baseball that it's here was I guess, this season so you understood Dan Fitzgerald, you know going with his horse Yeah, you're gonna ride the ones that brung you there right and unfortunately it didn't work out and Then you get down big after kind of going back and forth

Obviously the bats weren't there to kind of they were early But they kind of faded as the game went on. And you lose 11 to four. And then the next game, that's the one that that's the real kind of disappointment because you lose four to three to North Dakota State, a game that you never led in. You only led for one of the 18 innings you played this week. And North Dakota State was what I think 20 and 33 coming into the game. So that was that was certainly disappointing that that was the case. And again,

Cooper Moore didn't have his best stuff. He battled through as best he could got out of a couple jams. So that was that was certainly disappointing that that was the case. And again, Cooper Moore didn't have his best stuff. He battled through as best he could got out of a couple jams. But that was something where it was like, okay, KU doesn't have like a ton of pitching depth. So a lot of times the starters can be awesome. But if they're not, it's going to be trouble for KU. And unfortunately, this was just one of those weeks where just wasn't happening for the pitchers. And obviously, it wasn't just them like the defense wasn't great for KU. They probably made too many mistakes to, you know, win games and make noise in the NCAA tournament.

The top of the order certainly struggled for KU as well. I mean, you go back to the first game against Creighton and you're talking, let's see, Ballinger and Osoria each had a hit and And then how he was over for Council was over three, those are the top four in your lineup. So collectively, that's what two for 14 from the top four, your lineup in the Creighton game. And then you go to the North Dakota State game and how he got hot, he had two hits Council had one. But ball and Bollinger and Osoria end up over

nine combined. So you total it up and you end up three, four 17. So what does that put you at five for 31 in the top four of your order. So if you're you're starting pitching isn't on its a game, and your defense isn't on its a game, and then the top of your order is only going five of 31. What's what's the average here? Let's see plug this into calculator. That's eating 161. You're not going to win games. You're just not and so baseball is kind of a fickle sport where it's like, you know, it's it's

it is at least double elimination here in the tournament, but it is a very fickle sport words like on any given day anybody can beat someone. I mean, unless you're the Colorado Rockies, then you can't really beat anybody. But like even then you go and obviously majorly baseball different than college baseball. But I guess point being like sometimes there's randomness to baseball. And sometimes you have unfortunate cold and hot streaks at different times. And it just felt like nothing really they couldn't really gather momentum in this one. So crummy week and

It certainly wasn't the showing that I think was indicative of the team all season and I certainly think Was disappointing to the regular season they produced right but at the end of the day It's one of those things where it's like, yeah the ending sucked But at the end of the day, it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, the ending sucked, but the ride was awesome. They go 43 and 17 that tied the second most wins in school history. It was the first NCAA tournament appearance since 2014. They set a school record for home runs in a season and most conference wins this season. The thing that really sucks is going back to the fact that if West Virginia would have

played those two other games against Oklahoma State, if they go over and two or one and one. Kansas would have won a big 12 title and you would have you would have had that tang your hat on as well. You could have said we were big 12 champions, which for school like Kansas would be a very, very big deal. Right. So that is unfortunate that you don't get that. But in my heart, they were big 12 champions. So that is what it is. But you know, it's one of those things where they have gotten better each and every year in the Dan Fitzgerald era

You go back to year one and you know, you're kind of getting your your your toes wet toe in the pool whatever you want to say so to speak and You know you're showing you're more competitive you're showing some good things and then last year you win 31 games you get to 500 in conference play which the 31 wins at that point were the most since 2019. And then this year you break out even more. Now the big key for Kansas is gonna be keeping Dan Fitzgerald around. I know there were some rumors and you know,

whether it was him having interest or them having interest in him or a little bit of both, who knows, but you can understand it's an SEC job, which is very big from the baseball perspective. But the Mississippi State had some interest in the Mississippi State hired the Virginia coach, what is Virginia gonna do? And then whoever Virginia hires, what is that school gonna do? Right? Are they

gonna have interest in Kansas and Dan Fitzgerald, and especially in this age of rev share, where a big thing with this is going to be okay, how much of the rev share you given to football, how much are you given to your basketball, how much are you given to baseball, right? One school might say, Hey, we're not given any of our rev share to baseball. Another school might say we're given a million dollars of our rev share. Another school might say, Hey, you know, we don't even have

football team, we're gonna get 4 million to baseball, I don't know. And I don't know what that is for Kansas, if they're giving it all to baseball and, or to basketball and football, if they're giving up a little bit to, you know, some of the sports like volleyball and soccer and baseball. I have no idea. But that could be a reason that a coach would leave. You know, Kansas certainly is due for, we talked about the money stuff and the football upgrades, and it's gonna be hard to do baseball upgrades now too while you're doing football, but you do need to at some point address, you know, beefing up the facilities there. And then you have the standpoint of like, can you keep some of these guys on the

roster? Because if Kansas can keep this roster together, they've got like a lot of their stud players from this past season, are players that can, you know, come back for another season for KU. And I just think back to Maui Ahuna, who was a Kuna or who? Maui Ahuna, who I think Ronald Akuna anyway, Maui Ahuna, who was like the stud hitter for for KU. I forget if he ended up being like a he was like a top 100 pick and then we'll be

draft. He transferred from KU into his next season. I forget if his Tennessee or who and the rumor was like, he's getting like 200,000 to leave in the transfer portal. And I don't know that that's everyone, and I don't know how that, you know, some of that stuff works, but you look at it right now, like Brady Ballinger was KU's best player. He was a first team all big 12 player.

He's a sophomore, and he's gonna have his draft year coming up. Like, can you find some NIL money to, you know, keep him around? Daniel Osoria is a junior, and he was, he had a 960 OPS this year. You know, unfortunately, you lose Jackson Howe, he was a graduate player coming from D2, but like Derek Serta will be a senior. Tommy Barth who,

no, he graduates, so he was a senior. But you've got other guys coming in too, like they continue to accrue well from the Juco ranks. Cooper Moore is a sophomore. Dominic Vaguely is a sophomore. So there are going to be other teams trying to poach some of these players. Can you hold on to Dan Fitzgerald? Can you hold on to some of these key players? If you can, there's no reason Kansas can't, again, get even better next season, right? And so that is the encouraging thing here as long as you make the right steps.

And I'm confident Travis Goff is going to try everything in his power to do that. But as we talked about earlier, the money conversation, Kansas is in a very good spot right now. They've done a lot with money. But even then, because the football stadium is so darn expensive, you can have all this revenue in the world. It's just eating it all up. And that makes things very, very difficult here. Let's get to some of the latest news. This is locked on Jayhawks. Feel like Ron Burgundy there locked on Jayhawks question

mark. I latest news for KU Fred Kordelbaum, who is the director of ops for KU and like, one of the most awesome people your meets, you'll meet super, super positive dude, and I know it's big and like helping to try to keep that culture with KU and stuff like that. So he stepped down from the director of Ops role. KU followed it up with an internal hire, Lexi Price got promoted. And so I don't know if that'll be the final change of the staff or anybody else is leaving or what.

As far as Fred Kordalbaum, like I said, nicest guy, whatever, I've had interactions with him, been a super nice guy. I don't know what he's doing, I don't know if he's getting out of basketball, staying in basketball, whatever. I do know one of his kids, Mason Cordalbaum, who was, he had multiple kids that,

you know, good basketball players and stuff, but Mason went and played, he was at Lawrence High, then he goes to Kennesaw State, and then he basically ends up free for his leukemia or what it was some sort of like cancer diagnosis and he's fought through that and now he's playing another year I think he's at a D two level that he's going to play his final year of college basketball this year. So that'll be the cool

thing that like, I'm sure he gets to go see more of his kids basketball games this year. So really cool for that. And certainly he will be missed around the team and being such kind of a positive dude. Other news around the world of college basketball, Jameer Watkins and RJ Lewis are both staying in the NBA draft. Now, as we've kind of progressed this offseason, it is seemed like Kansas didn't really have interest in either guy, you weren't really hearing a lot of connected dots between either player.

And maybe part of that was just that both players were signaling they were going to stay in the NBA draft. Maybe part of it was they just didn't get along with the KU coaches and quick conversations or that maybe there was some more stuff there that we do or don't know about. Maybe they just didn't think there'd be good fits, whatever. The point being that is two less options on the board, even though it didn't really seem like Kansas was going to go there. But it certainly ones that at one point down, we're like, would this make sense to Kansas and we did deep dives on them. And obviously, that didn't end up being the case, right. The other one was LeBaron Phylon is returning. That was a bit of a

surprise. Because he might have been a late first round pick, he he's gonna end up going back to Alabama, which, I mean, first of all, makes Alabama a much better team. But it's it's interesting from a couple lights one. There was some scuttlebutt I don't know how true anything ever was. But there was some scuttlebutt they're like, Oh, could LeBaron Phylon come back to school and enter the portal, right. And then at that point, if he would have you would think Kansas

would certainly want to be involved. But the bigger thing this is, it just it sucks for KU that they let I hesitate to say they let him get away because I don't know how much was that? How much of him? Basically, signing with KU getting out of his national letter of intent going to Alabama, like how much of that was on KU? Because even though his national letter of intent, going to Alabama. Like how much of that was on KU? Because even though you could say, okay,

if you don't bring on this portal player and this portal player, he doesn't leave. It's not like they were bringing in point guards. You know what I mean? Like they're bringing in Stor and Ryland Griffin and stuff. And maybe honestly in another world, like if Riley Kugel never commit, because the Riley Kugel thing, unfortunately for KU probably made it more likely that LeBaron

Phylon would leave because he was like, Okay, well, that guy is going to take up guard minutes, even if he's more of a two, three than he is, you know, more of a point guard type. And obviously, Kugel ended up just never coming to KU. It just didn't work out. It just couldn't connect the dots. You do I do wonder like, if that commitment never happens, because obviously, he never played at KU anyway, just final on stay it. Okay, you know what I mean? I don't I don't know.

Maybe he wanted to go somewhere that the avenue to playing time was more to begin with, which sounds silly anyway, because it's like, oh, Kansas was 17 and Alabama was one of the best teams in the country this season. It's like, wait, why was he able to get more playing time at Alabama than he would have been able to at Kansas? And that's like, Oh, well, Bill Self was gonna play to one here. So you know, Joe, it just it almost hurts even more that you didn't end up with a baron phylon because you would have now it's like, Oh,

you you had one season, not only where he was really good. This season, LeBaron Phylon might be like an all American, you know what I mean? And it's like, Oh, could you imagine a backcourt of a potential all American LeBaron Phylon might be like an all American, you know what I mean? And it's like, oh, could you imagine a backcourt of a potential all American LeBaron Phylon and Darren Peterson? That might be pretty fun. So yeah, the offseason hits just keep on coming, man. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere.

You get your podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We'll be back later this week. Some more player deep dives, more offseason talk for KU basketball, maybe even a little KU football. This is L.O.J. See you next time.