Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - WHERE’S THE MONEY? Jayhawks' Budget CRUNCH Threatens Roster Plans Amid Wild Times in College Sports

Starting point is 00:00:00 We've been talking a lot about transfer portal targets for KU, who could be that last final start? Do they have enough money though to make that big move, or is the budget tapped out for KU? podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What is going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you that every day is catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, including

Starting point is 00:00:40 on our YouTube page, where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of locked on Jay hawks, show me the money man, where's the money have right now for KU a lot of money talk going on. No, Jared, there's an interesting rumor going around there. I kind of want to get into you know, where I think are how this has come together for the KU roster. To this point in time. And also, I guess just some interesting

Starting point is 00:01:05 stuff and what it means for KU are they tapped out what it means for building out the rest of the roster, what it means for college athletics and kind of KU or big picture and then we'll finish up with some latest news, some interesting portal commits, as well as some KU baseball news on today's episode of the show, which is brought to you by Monarch money. Take control of your finances, the Monarch money use code locked on college at Monarch money.com for 50% of your first year with

Starting point is 00:01:31 Monarch money. Okay, so the big question here, where's the money for KU because we see this quote, it came out in the Lawrence journal world. And this this is in a story at kusports.com from Chad LaHorn. And they had a interview with Doug Gerard, the chancellor for the University of Kansas. And this is the most telling quote in the entire story. I recommend reading the whole story though, because, you know, it's very telling and talks about kind of the chaos of things and called landscape and so forth. The most

Starting point is 00:02:03 telling quote is this is from Doug Gerard. We don't have 20 million dollars a year laying around in any pockets waiting to be deployed. And it goes into the story mentioning that it has 16 million dollar deficit in 2025. Now, it's it's kind of interesting how this stuff works. If you like with college athletics, it's always been something where it's like, oh, the numbers continually go up and yet they don't. They always spend all the

Starting point is 00:02:30 money they get, right? So it's just readjusting how you spend it. And that's something they do have to figure out. But it is a little telling, a little shocking that like, are we sure? Because it's not with the old revenue share thing that's going to pass, that's going to allow schools to basically pay $20 million to different athletes in different sports. It is not a requirement that these schools have to use all 20. Some schools might use 10, some schools might use five,

Starting point is 00:02:53 some schools might use all 20, right? And if Kansas is not gonna be one of those schools that's using all 20, where does that put them in the collegiate landscape as a whole in all their sports, right? Does that put them behind the eight ball in a really big way? Does it make it of the utmost importance for Kansas to try to

Starting point is 00:03:09 do anything in their power to get to a conference like the big 10 to where then you would have more media money coming in to be able to afford that? I don't know, you know, it's just one of those things where it is it is very pressing. There was also a rumor that came out from Mike Vernon, kind of talking about that, for Darien Williams, there's a certain number that needs to be gotten to by Kansas. And there's some sort of mutual interest between the two, but they have to get to this number

Starting point is 00:03:37 to have the possibility Williams could obviously go to the NBA and is testing that sort of things too. But like, there hasn't been I guess, the green light given or they haven't gotten to that number yet. And whether that is, I think, interesting because, right. Does that come out because there's a need for more donor support? Like, is that something that leaks out because it's basically a signal to, you know, from from Bill Self or Travis Goff or something like, hey, donors, listen,

Starting point is 00:04:04 you want this really good player, we just don't have the money for right now, right? Like, that's kind of interesting. But on the flip side of that is like, there is this whole power struggle that is going to ensue now with the rev share, where it's like, okay, is this money that potentially Kansas basketball is looking to maybe add one final, you know, portal player commit or something like that. Obviously, they're looking at multiple bodies, but one final like big

Starting point is 00:04:29 name. Is that money coming from NIL donations? Or would that money be coming from rev share? And if it's coming from rev share, then it is a real like, okay, well, you know, the athletic director, whoever has to green like this, because if you're going over budget to sign this guy, that means a different team, whether it's football or baseball, whatever, loses the rev share money that they were gonna give.

Starting point is 00:04:52 And that doesn't work that way. So then it becomes a game about the NIL game. And then it's like, okay, have you tapped out the donors, so to speak, right? Like, I mean, Kansas is in an uncomfortable position that a lot of these other schools don't have to deal with right now, where they're spending a bunch of money on stadium renovations, right? And

Starting point is 00:05:10 obviously had to get done and has to get done for Kansas. But you know, that's where a lot of the funds are going. And so you keep going back to these donors for more and more and more. Eventually, there is a line that it's going to cut off, right? There was an Allen Fieldhouse renovations to write like it, the list goes on here and paying players for for most previous seasons, right? Now to play kind of devil's advocate to that. Wouldn't it? Like, it is very interesting. That I think you see some of these quotes out

Starting point is 00:05:42 there. And again, if you look at college sports as a whole, all of a sudden teams started getting more money from the meteorites deals, right? Whereas like, oh, we're operating at a $10 million loss. And then it's like, oh, but then the next year the meteorites deal new kicked in and instead of getting $20 million a year, we're getting $40 million a year.

Starting point is 00:06:01 And that's like, oh, now we're operating in a $15 million loss. And it's like, wait, what did you do with that extra money? Again, this is across the country. This is not me like saying a KU thing. This is every school like in the country, when they get more money, they find ways to spend it, right? They're not just like pocketing the money or being like, oh, good, now we can operate at the same cost, but

Starting point is 00:06:20 just make more money and use it on other areas. That's not how this works. So from that perspective, you know, it could be overselling it. It also I think is interesting because if you are Kansas, and let's say you are going to be okay with the money, let's say you are going to be okay with the rev share and are going to be able to get to the 20 million. Does it behoove you at all to come out and be like, Yeah, we're actually flush with cash. We're sitting pretty, baby. We got full 20 million. We also said, and then donors are going to be like, well, what do you need my money for? You're good to go. So, but who's Kansas from their side of things to be like, no, we need money. And then that maybe sparks up, you know, donors being like, okay,

Starting point is 00:06:59 well, I will fill the gap, whatever you kind of need me to do, right. And but this whole thing is interesting, too, right? Because if Kansas is trying to add a Darian Williams or Tyron Stokes, or you know, name your your key player, you're going to have to kind of pony up the money for it. But are you kind of tapped out? And I've seen some people kind of be like, well, where did the money go? Right? Because it doesn't feel like you have a ton of stars on the roster, like Darren Peterson is a big star. Ford Badoonga could possibly be a star for KU.

Starting point is 00:07:27 Well, it starts to go away quickly because even as I've said, I think Kansas is in a good position from NIL and he's one of the higher paying rosters. I think there was a report earlier that came out that Kentucky's paying 20 million. I don't know if that's true or not. That could be coming out from like agency side of things

Starting point is 00:07:41 to get bidding to go up in some way, right? I don't know if I'm totally buying that. But anyway, there's been a lot of reports that like the highest paying rosters are 10 12 million somewhere in that range, like, at least that puts you in the maybe like top 20 or something like that, right. And so you start thinking about this, if you're Kansas, okay, let's see, like, that was public AJ DeBots a number and I forget the exact number, but it was around $5 million. And Peterson is now a

Starting point is 00:08:04 higher ranked recruit than the bots. And I forget the exact number, but it was around $5 million. And Peterson is now a higher ranked recruit than the bots. And now when Peterson committed to KU, he was ranked one spot lower. And obviously, KU has the adidas side of things, which they might be chipping in, in some way, they might be doing some sort of, I guess, advertisement, sponsorship deal with him, right? That's paying for some of it. But let's say hypothetically, if the bots is getting five, let's say Peterson is getting five. But

Starting point is 00:08:24 let's say even two of that. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe that's that's too much. Maybe let's say one of that is coming from Adidas. Right. So let's say he's getting four million from the University of Kansas. OK, let's say for Badoonga is getting like one and a half million. Right. And again, I have no idea if these numbers are right or wrong. But that would put you at five and a half million right there. And if we're talking about 10 to 12 million being like the big NIL budgets, that's almost half your budget on two

Starting point is 00:08:49 guys, right? And then you start thinking about it. And some of maybe the rumors that come out about, you know, going out and getting Jayden Dawson and going out and get Trey white and, you know, Melvin council, I've no idea how much those guys are going forward, but based on again, kind of the numbers that national guys and local guys are putting out there about how much players are just getting in general, how much those guys are going for, but based on again, kind of the numbers that national guys and local guys are putting out there about how much players are just getting in general, how much power five level transfers are getting,

Starting point is 00:09:11 probably safe to assume they're at least getting half a million, maybe even up to one million. So you're talking about somewhere between for those three transfers, one and a half to three million dollars you're probably spending on the lot of them that puts you somewhere with the Florian Peterson between six to like eight and a half million dollars. And that is five guys on the roster. Probably wasn't cheap to bring in a five star no Marco Jackson. Probably wasn't cheap to bring in a five star and Bryson Tiller. Right. Okay. Let's say that's another million that you

Starting point is 00:09:38 lop on there. Now we're closing on like nine million dollars. Right. And then I don't know if like guys like Noah Shelby are getting anything, but if he is, maybe it's even a little bit that tax on. Jamari McDowell is probably still getting something even if it's not as big as some of the other guys, right? That tax on there. And you still have four scholarships available

Starting point is 00:09:58 at this point in time. I forgot, Samiz Calderon, like that's another guy that you have to add on. It's very easy to quickly total up all these numbers and be like they might already be close to, I don't know, eight, nine, ten million dollars that they've spent on the current roster with four spots to go. And so if your budget was ten or your budget was twelve, for instance,

Starting point is 00:10:17 and you only have two million to give out to four more players and then one player in Darien Williams, I don't know, he's probably going for if I'm just guessing based on like Rob Wright went for three and a half. OK, Darien Williams, I don't know, he's probably going for, if I'm just guessing based on like Rob Wright went for three and a half. Okay, Darien Williams is I think better than Rob Wright. He's probably going for three and a half, four million, at least three, right? Because at least you could say with Rob Wright,

Starting point is 00:10:33 he has more years of play. There goes all your budget. So that's where you get in trouble with this stuff where they could be tapped out while still being in an advantageous position in terms of they are one of the higher paying rosters and yet they are still kind of tapped out while still being in an advantageous position in terms of they are one of the higher paying rosters and yet they are still kind of tapped out and there's nothing they can do because they have all these other projects

Starting point is 00:10:51 they're working on and it was certainly a discerning comment from Doug Gerrard about where they're at with that kind of thing. So I think this is just very interesting how KU handles this how the rest of college sports handles this. So I want to kind of talk about that on the other side and And if we're going to see some coaches do something, we saw a couple of college football coaches do this past off season as well in the basketball front or more college football coaches do it as well. This episode of Lockdown Jayhawks is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder where do all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping and entertainment, it's easy to lose track. That's where Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder, where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment,

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Starting point is 00:12:03 code locked on college for half off your first year that's monarch money.com code locked on college for half off your first year with monarch money. Thank you every day is catching each and every show can make locked on college basketball locked on college football, your second listen every day. So that's where Kansas that they might be kind of tapped out at this point, which might make it difficult. But also, I still continue to believe that like, it just takes one donor, it takes one donor just being willing to be emotionally sold on I think this player can win

Starting point is 00:12:31 us national title. And I would love to see us win a national title or make final four, whatever it is. And I would also love to then afterwards, brag to my friends like I'm the reason they did this because I got my final player, you know, that's a fun way to spend your money, right? You can buy a sports car, but like, you know, get, I don't know, it's just like you can't root for the sports car, right? Like, it's just a different type of thing that you can do. So it's kind of a unique position

Starting point is 00:12:57 that Kansas in one thing that I'm curious on. So I guess multiple things that I'm curious on with this, with the big impact of rev share, like what are some of the repercussions of this? And this applies to Kansas, this applies to a lot of other teams. How is this going to affect coaches and athletic departments and, you know, coaches leaving and staying at certain schools, because you're going to have power struggles now, where athletic directors have to sit

Starting point is 00:13:24 down with the coaches and say, Hey, we have $20 million, we're budgeting out nine to you, we're giving eight to you, we're giving two to you, we're giving half to you, we're giving a quarter to you, whatever it is, right. And for some coaches, they're gonna be happy with it. Other coaches are gonna be like, I want more money. I think applies really for schools like Kansas, right? If you're a big E school, you don't have to worry about football, right? They can just

Starting point is 00:13:48 allocate however much they want to basketball and the the Olympic sports. If you're like a very big football school that doesn't care as much about basketball, like maybe that's easier to sell. Kansas wants to be good at football, right? At the same point in time, they are a basketball school. There is going to be an inevitable power struggle between Lance Lighthold and Bill Self. Now, can you work this in a way where both guys are happy? Or is it going to be either like, is it going to be a situation where one guy's happy, one guy's not happy about how it's divvied out? Is it going to be a situation

Starting point is 00:14:20 where both guys are unhappy because they both feel like they're not getting enough? Because from Lighthold's perspective, he's's going all these other schools and college football spend more than we are. But Bill self is going to view it as but we're a basketball school, I should be getting even more. Is there a way you can kind of work around this where you say, hey, we're going to give a bigger split to this sport, like maybe you give the bigger split to football, knowing that you can probably get more drummed up from NIL

Starting point is 00:14:43 from donations and big time donors from the basketball side that if you were to say, Hey, we're going to give more the rev share to football, we'll give some to the Olympic sports, and then we'll give the rest to basketball. But basketball is mostly going to be funded by NIL donations, similar to how it has been, because we feel confident we can do that. Or can you not do that until you finish funding the stadium? That's going to be very

Starting point is 00:15:05 interesting to see how they can kind of divvy that stuff out and how other schools do it. And you're going to see coaches leave for jobs that we view as like, oh, that's probably like a lateral job. Like, like, if you saw a guy leaving in football, if you saw a head coach in, in football lever, or I don't know, maybe basketball is a better example, right? Let's say you saw a coach leave in basketball. They were at like, I don't know, for instance, like, Alabama, I this probably bad example, right? Let's say you saw coach leave in basketball. They were at like, I don't know, for instance, like Alabama, I this probably bad example, just NATO has done such

Starting point is 00:15:29 a great job. But like, hypothetically, let's say your basketball coach in Nevada left for a job at, I don't know, West Virginia, the guy would just feel like kind of a maybe historically, West Virginia has been a better job. But right now that would feel like just kind of a lateral move, right. But then it came out afterwards and it was like, well, Alabama wants to give 16 million of their 20 revs share to football because they're a football school. And West Virginia is going more of a 50-50 split. So that's why I came to this school. You're going to see coaches leave for that reason specifically. So that becomes interesting here too. The other part of this that's very interesting, and this is kind of a dumb sports fan take of like

Starting point is 00:16:05 the, it's the same thing you see with like, when you convince yourself, we've all been there, we've all done it. When you convince yourself that like, I've done it myself. It's like, no, this player is not going to leave your team and free agency, they can come back to your team, even if they don't have as much money, you know, they'll get 2 million less dollars a year, wouldn't you rather, you know, be on that? And then they end up leaving right for even just a little bit more money. That's not how this stuff works. Because as much as the money is a factor, it's almost the respect,

Starting point is 00:16:34 the affirmation of how good you are that comes with the money of being like, I am the highest paid. That means I'm the best, right? Like it's kind of that side of things. But anyway, at what point does coaches in general and Bill Self could apply to this too, go, hey, you know, instead of me making, I forget the number of Bill Self's making, like eight, nine, $10 million a year, whatever, making that money,

Starting point is 00:16:55 I could comfortably live off three, four, $5 million. I will take the other part of that salary and just donate it into NIL or whatever it is. Or I'm just going to tell the school, hey, just pay me the three or four will rework the contract. I want it written into the contract though, that instead of you paying me that extra 3 million, it doesn't just go away, you're still on the hook for it. But it goes into rev share or it goes

Starting point is 00:17:18 in to make sure we have the full 20 million or it goes into the NIL fund that we're going to be able to, you know, possibly pay these players. I find that very interesting. And that we have actually seen precedent for him now. This past offseason, Brian Kelly did it at LSU. Mike Gundy did it at Oklahoma State, they both took pay cuts, and are using that money to help fund the roster a little bit more. The common theme with both those guys is they're on the hot seat.

Starting point is 00:17:42 So they're kind of in a situation where it's like, I'm desperate, I'm desperate. I need to win. I can't keep making millions if I don't, you know, win this year. So I'm going to have to do that. But it does make you wonder, like if you are Bill Self, especially if you're Bill Self going and we don't know how long Bill Self wants to coach. Could it be five years?

Starting point is 00:17:56 Could it be three? Could this be his last year? Right. And if it was your last year, wouldn't you rather be like, you know what? What's one extra year salary? I'm just going to go all out. I want this good player here. Here's my salary. Okay, you like, figure out the rev

Starting point is 00:18:08 shear thing and give me my player, give me my money. I don't know. I think that would be very interesting. But not that I'm expecting that that stuff to happen or anything. I just think it's a very interesting kind of idea and concept that kind of adds to the intrigue among all of this sort of stuff. So I think it's going to be very telling based on all of this stuff. Like what final editions does Kansas end up making? Because I think you'll really be able to read between the lines,

Starting point is 00:18:32 so to speak, like if Kansas does end up adding Darian Williams, it's probably a good sign. It's probably an idea that either a big money donor came in or actually, it's probably just that or KU is better off financially than maybe they're making it appear publicly because again, it behooves them more to work the opposite side of things. Or would you just be able to say no, it was just one donation and like that doesn't, you know, have an impact long term versus

Starting point is 00:18:59 if they do not make another big splash, and then ends up being, you know, more role player type additions from here on out. You're going to look at this and be like, okay, even though KU is in a pretty good position from their NIL budget and they have one of the higher ones in the country, it still wasn't high enough to get that final addition because of how crazy the market has been because of how much they have to kind of, I don't know, penny pinch sounds like it's it has a negative connotation. So I don't mean it to sound negative. But they do kind of have to do that

Starting point is 00:19:28 with all the things they're funding that a lot of the schools aren't having to do right now, right? Having to fund the new stadium and all these different things that once they get all that stuff done, by the way, I mean, that is going to be such a blessing for KU that they can just start directing everything to the NIL game and that sort of thing. What are some of the latest news in the transfer portal next? Thanks for joining us on this

Starting point is 00:19:50 bonus episode of Lockdown Jayhawks. Our latest news in the transfer portal, Rodney Rice, somebody we did a deep dive on on a previous episode, he ended up committing and a lot of the talk was I think we've mentioned this where we did the deep dive. Could he follow his head coach to Villanova or could he follow his teammate, Jacoby Gillespie to Tennessee? He was recruiting him as well. I think those are the two schools he did visits to.

Starting point is 00:20:10 I don't know if he visited USC or not, but he commits to USC. And I think that tells you a couple things. One, if it wasn't as done of a deal to one of those two schools as you think, the fact that Kansas didn't get a visit or make a bigger push. It kind of tells me that either maybe the NIL figures didn't line up because maybe this was

Starting point is 00:20:31 more open than you might have thought. It also could tell you that, you know, once they added Melvin Council, they're like, we're good on guards. And at this point, they're just looking for wings in a backup center and then developmental players, which I think that certainly makes sense too. But I did find that a little bit surprising. Aka O'Carreke, who Kansas had some sort of contact with earlier in the off season, he committed to Vanderbilt. He's a transfer from Cornell and kind of a good foreman who's really good on the offensive end. So he goes to Vanderbilt there. And then Boogie Fland, a former five star guard from Arkansas, he entered the transfer portal, he's gone through the draft process might stay in the draft.

Starting point is 00:21:08 I kind of view this one like the PJ Haggerty one for for Kansas right now, where it's like, if this would happen at the beginning of the offseason, I would have been all over it, like, oh, this would be a great, you know, possible pickup for Kansas. But now with where the current roster is, again, feels like you need more of a wing feels like you need more of a backup big, and especially going back to all this money conversation. Not sure you'd be allocating your money to like

Starting point is 00:21:27 Flann and Haggerty who's reporting. Haggerty is asking for like $4 million and wants to be the primary point guard, which like that would be a no go with Darren Peterson anyway. So just some interesting portal news there. And then also some KU baseball news as well as the Jayhawks lost to Nebraska at home in Hoagland earlier a couple weeks ago. They got revenge in Lincoln ended up winning and shut out Nebraska on the road so they get a good kind of split series there with

Starting point is 00:21:55 a good non con win adds another win to their belt adds to their RPI adds to their resume and that's back to the conference play upcoming this weekend as they look to continue to build off this what was I guess now four game winning streak after they are I guess five game winning streak because they won last last week too but the three game sweep over Kansas State continuing on the week 12 play really good response from KU after that three game sweep by TCU where they lost all three winning five

Starting point is 00:22:22 straight games this Kansas team continues to fight they continue to I mean the bullpen has been pitching so well of late they're getting to other teams bullpens they're hitting tanks Brady Bollinger and Jackson Howe I mean it's it's been super super fun to watch and that'll continue to be fun to watch this weekend and through the rest of the season for Dan Fitzgerald and KU baseball. I don't know for this episode locked on J-Hawks you can find our show anywhere you podcast including on our YouTube page. Don't forget to check out our bonus episode we talked a little KU football with a transfer portal edition of Leroy Harris, the third from Chattanooga. So check

Starting point is 00:22:56 out that bonus episode. Check out our bonus episode of by Joe leaving the program as well the defense fence spot there gets ready for football season which is next up even though we're the thick of portal season for KU basketball too. I'd see you next time on LOJ.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - WHERE’S THE MONEY? Jayhawks' Budget CRUNCH Threatens Roster Plans Amid Wild Times in College Sports

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