The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Wake Up! Taking The First Game vs Orioles, MLB Realignment Talk, Eddie Nunez Joins The Show

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

Astros Wake Up! Taking The First Game vs Orioles, MLB Realignment Talk, Eddie Nunez Joins The Show

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 10. And welcome to a Friday edition of the Matt Thomas show and Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. If you don't know who Barry Sanders is, you don't get to host a show on ESPN. There you go. Hi, gang. Good morning. 10.03 on a partly cloudy, partly rainy, partly sunny day throughout southeast Texas. It is about Top of Show with Ross without Ross.

Ross is shooting barbecue videos of places he goes. You know what? I don't need to know every meal you're having there, Ross. The hell's going on? You folks do not need to follow Instagram. It's an Instagram account. It's just plates of barbecue. Okay, I know what brisket looks like.

Now, I did it the other day when we went to Ruth, but because you guys think that I don't like brisket, which is just not true. It's not my top shelf, top of the list thing, but I figured you don't, what? When in Rome, you put the food up. I don't want to look at that. I don't need to look at his

food. I mean, baked beans look good, Koso looks good, sausage, brisket, onions, pickles, boom. That's barbecue. If you really want to follow something interesting, follow my Instagram account at SportsMT. We're going to have a massive party at 3,000. Massive, massive, massive party at 3,000 when I get the 3,000. So, there you have it.

Hey, I hope you guys are in a good mood today. I would hope so because your Your beloved Astros now have a huge two-game lead in the America League West. Come on now. There you go. Let me see a few of you smiling. You know what? I know there's a few of you bumping around town today, fist bumping your buddies at the office.

Those of you that are going to work on Fridays, our sales staff does not, but that's not here and over there. Come on now. You got to be happy. You got to be happy the Astros exploded for 12 hits and beat up on a pitcher that you nearly got perfect hit by the week before Brandon Young and that long mane of his Astros got to him and Hesu Sanchez

give me the parallel on this that cat goes 0 for 27 I mean oh for 27 and then he goes five for five last night. Jonathan, that's like me in college at 250 plus pounds trying to go get some loving and strike it on every single time. And then a supermodel wants to hook up with me the next night. I may not have been the greatest analogy, but I'm going to go with it. I was like, I don't know where we're going with this. Yeah, there's nowhere to go with it. It's fine. I can live with that. You know me? They call me Mr.

analogy. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I'm all the above. I'm all the above. Okay. I am Mr. Texas and Mr. Analogy. But yeah, it was fun. And Christian Walker gets the two-run, home run early in the contest. Astros are up 7 to 1 after 3. That don't score again after that, but that's on the here nor there. And again, the Astros with the win. The Mariners were off last night, so that means it is a half-game advantage.

Is Jason Alexander get you another win? Is Jason Alexander low-key are like Syung of the second half of the Astros? I mean, five and a third innings yesterday, giving up three earned runs. I should say two earn runs and what three strikeouts gave up the one home run that cat's four and one how many of you on your bingo card had jason alexander at four in one as a houston astro how many of you on the bingo card had jason alexander under bingo card it is going to be a fight to the finish gang and it's going to be a lot rougher than I thought it would be.

I thought, I think I told you all about a month ago, two months ago, the Astros were going to win the American League West by five games. That ain't happened, I don't think, unless the Astros go on some sort of halacious run a la Milwaukee or the Mariners continue to lose. And by the way, they still haven't once since CJ put the cap on. Now, that

might change because they have the A's in town this weekend, but one can hope. All right. So, that's topic A on the radio program today. We want you to be involved in this radio show all the way to 2 o'clock. And again, Ross is off today. So when in doubt, let's make fun of his Instagram account.

Let's get some followers dropped off of that. Because again, do you want to look at? How many pictures of brisket do you want to look at? Follow me on Instagram at SportsMT. And I will have a big party at 3,000. I don't know what we're going to do it, but we'll have a party. Today on the show, Gordial stopped by for his 1050 stop by. And we will discuss with him, the SEC's,

decision to go to nine conference games starting next year. I like it. I mean, I don't have a dog on the fight because my school is not in the SEC, but I think playing in your own conference, especially when your conference is a powerful conference, makes a lot of sense. And oh, by the way, you still have to play a power four. So that means 10 of the 12 games that SEC teams will be playing

will be against like competition. Now, granted, you can also go get a power four school that's not good in it particularly. I mean, maybe if you're LSU, you're running to go play Wake Forest as soon. as possible, but you get my drift on this. At least you're playing power four. So we'll get to that. 1130 will say our sorries for the week. I'm going to have to apologize to a group of hardworking people,

Jonathan, that you're going to be a little dismayed at. It's going to be those hardworking people that run spam phone numbers. You're going to apologize to the spam. I'm going to apologize to them. No way. No shot. Because my material this week has been so good. I drove yesterday to the Woodlands to see my daughter play volleyball so I had about a 45 minute drive and I was like I'm going to have some fun with this I'm going to turn my non silence off and any spam call that comes in I'm going to mess with

their lives and I did and I think I think they've caught on because now when they ask me how I'm doing I say I'm doing fine and they hang up on me right away actually I think so so I think I've got to owe them an apology for being rude to them and saying crass things to them so they can call you back okay I don't know because I kind of I kind of missed them like they asked me the name of the insurance company I'm with and I was giving some vulgar phrase. Some of them go, some of them say, excuse me, sir, and I'm like, no, and then I say it again. And then I start better laughing and then they hang up on me. So I'll be saying some of sorries to the spam callers out there. I'm excited. All right. We have the news at noon today. And at 1 o'clock, very excited about this.

Eddie Nunez, who's the athletic director at the University of Houston is going to be in studio with us, hang out for an hour to talk some University of Houston athletics and talk about the big picture of what's going to happen with college athletics over maybe the next five to ten years, especially when it relates to University of Houston, the Big 12, and all of college athletics. And we'll hopefully get a dummy's guide to NIL and Transfer Portal and paying athletes. So Eddie Nunez, I thought director at the University of Houston, will stop by in studio between one o'clock until two. Now, as is the case every Friday on this radio program, and isn't anything goes Friday. And that means you get a longer leash on this show than you normally would.

We give the longest leash into business Monday through Thursday as it is, but the leash is even extended on Friday's even more. So if you want to get into anything, whether it be your Astros, whether it be showers and thunderstorms all throughout southeast Texas, not hitting your area. We haven't got a drop in rain in Kingwood yet. All we do is our grass is all brown. I mean, I've been watering it, but still that's big money.

I keep seeing this threat of rain every day. We haven't gotten jack squats since so far. So if you want to get into that, if you want to get into a little preview of Iowa State, Kansas State, the big college football game the weekend. I use big as a relative term. If you want to do a deep dive into Texans' Lions preseason game, remember

if it's sports, if it's not sports, it doesn't really matter. It is in anything goes Friday. Especially with Ross not being here. I'm going to give you probably the longest leash out there. 713 212-5-790. 713-212-5-7-90. Also, one of our

great listeners and Twitter folks at King Tarrel 34 created, and this is the second time it's ever happened in the history of this show. This show has been on for 15 years, about to hit 16 in January. Jonathan, I don't know if you saw my Twitter account earlier today, but there is a Matt Thomas show with Ross Bingo card that was put out there. Actually? It actually was. And I'm going to, if those of you that don't have Twitter, I will read to you what's on the Matt Thomas show of Bingo Card. And, of course, you can play along.

But it's a second ever bingo card made for this radio show, which means we've got great listeners. And for that, we certainly appreciate it. Remember, it isn't anything goes Friday on the show. So if you want to get into the Tour Championship, if you want to get into baseball, you want to get to Texans, you want to talk about your beloved Texas Longhorns or your Houston Cougars. You want to get into the Micah Parsons controversy still going on in Dallas as we speak.

It is an anything goes Friday at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-7-90. Nothing can stop me. I'm all the way up. Carlos Correa, two for five. A couple of ribbies. Christian Walker with a home run. His two RBIs.

Jesus, Sanchez, five for five. It's kind of crazy, isn't it, folks? That you're middle of the line up. That's four, five, six, Walker Sanchez-Diaz combined for eight hits. Five RBIs. Kind of crazy how things work out in Major League Baseball, is it not? 1018 sports talk 790. This is a Matt Thomas show without Ross today,

and we are looking forward to hanging out with you at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. All right, so the Astros made a move yesterday, signing Craig Kimbrel to a deal, and not only is it a deal, but it's a major league deal, after he only pitched one time for the Atlanta Braves this year, Then he got released. I guess the I don't need you,

we don't need you, was in play. He then gets signed by the Texas Rangers and spent two months in Ron Rock where he had 28 strikeouts over 21 innings with an ERA at 3.86. I mean, I'm not holding any sort of celebration.

I'm not necessarily going, man, this is the missing piece to the puzzle. This is a flyer. This is a, does lightning strike twice? This is a, let's take a chance. And if it doesn't work out, he'll be gone like Hectoraneris. I mean, to be brutally honest with you, this bullpen has been used a lot. It's going to be used a lot more, especially if the starters. don't go deep in games.

It is great as Jason Alexander has been. I think he's got a couple of six-ending appearances under his credit, five and a third yesterday. So, you're going to be asking a bullpen that has been used a lot to be used a lot more over the next month and change.

Realistically, there's only two guys in the current rotation that you'd consider guys that could give you at least six on the regular. And yeah, I'm including Fromber, but boy, he's, looked very sketch of the last month or so. So put it this way.

When I saw the announcement yesterday, I didn't go, oh, what are you guys doing? I was like, all right, Dana, scrap heap time. And that's what you have to do. Hoping that something you bring in on a veteran minimum gives you some sort of help. Now, back in the day,

when Kimbril was closing games for a variety of teams, he was one of the best. Now, the Astros got to him, But hell, the Astros got to all the great relievers back in the day. So my expectations, honestly, are minimal, as should yours. But we see this all the time in sports, whether it's an additional linebacker or an additional water receiver or a team grabs a running back or a NBA team grabs a guard and signs up to a 10-day contract or some. I mean, you do this because you're trying to find some combination. You've got guys

Ocurt, KING, those are the three guys that were used yesterday that are being put into situations where they probably haven't been overly familiar with. They're probably pitching more than they ever had before in their professional careers for the most part. And you can't use Brian and Brayu every single day.

And is Bennett-Susa the next best closer in terms of getting leverage guys out in games? If for some reason Brian and Brayu is unavailable, you know, I don't know. that's the problem when you lost Josh Hader is that your bullpen, which was good, was also slotted properly in terms of who could do what. Now you move everybody down a spot,

and then that sixth inning guy becomes the seventh inning, higher leverage guy. That seventh inning guy who is a bridge guy to your two big guys becomes a guy that's now needed to get crucial outs in the eighth inning of games. That's where it hurts. You weren't worried about whether or not, at least as I see things, you're not worried about whether or not Brian and Bray you can do the job. You're just perhaps more concerned about the guys behind him and whether they can do the job in probably more crucial situations

that have been put in in previous appearances over the course of the year. So Kimberle signs, it'd be nice because here's the thing. You want leverage guys, and you also need guys that their arms aren't worn out because this starting rotation just hasn't given you enough. And even if the Astro starters gave you seven innings every single time out, you'd still be asking to figure out if you can get an extra arm in that bullpen that's not worn out. That's got some freshness to it. As compared to guys, they're going to be pitching as much as they have over the last couple of months.

But Alexander doesn't go overly deep. Hunter does. Frommper, when he's on, he's good. He can get you deep in the games. But that wasn't the case a couple days back. McCullors hasn't done that and you're just trying to figure out what Christian Javier brings the table

especially after he was short in his last appearance. So not a conversation point, not a give me your predictions on what Craig Kimball is going to do. I would just say, give him the opportunity because I think we know what Hector Nerris did and that didn't work out. And we know that Taylor Scott did and didn't not do and now he's gone.

You got to find something. You got to keep as many fresh arms in that bullpen as possible. And hopefully Kimbril can bring you something over the next handful of weeks. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Isn't it crazy, though? And I saw this on the social streets last night. I mean, I like the win, obviously.

And it was fun seeing Jesus-Sanchez break that 0 for 27 with a 5-for-5-5-day. And it was obviously good seeing, Christian Walker hit the home run and the Astros score more runs in that first game against Baltimore and they scored in the previous three against Detroit combined. And I don't know if it's because my glasses have full on this and maybe I'm just a nut.

But I was artificially beating my chest because the Astros leads now two games. You know, the big picture, they're in a hill of beans. That's nothing. That could be erased in a matter of days. But hell, we were saying that the last week or so when the Mariners were hard charging against the Astros. Well, the Astros better get on this road trip. They better win some games. They better go win a

couple in Detroit. They better not lose a series to Baltimore at home because Seattle's so hot. Gang, they've been sitting on this minimal size lead for like two weeks now. And it certainly isn't because they played well. It's because the Mariners have been equally horrific. That's why, to me, this next stretch and look every stretch is important the rest of the way I'm not going to hide

that you guys know the exact same thing but you got three more with Baltimore you got three with Colorado and you've got three with the angels if it was meant to be you're going to go seven and two against that

right now you can go five and four and still maintain your lead at the Oriole if the Mariners don't do their job I understand that but just think how good we'll be feeling around these parts that the Astros can win 7 to 9, especially against three teams that will not be sniffing anything close to a playoff spot. And in Colorado's case, one of the worst teams in baseball. I mean, last night was not like, oh, what a wonderful surprise.

It was, where the hell have you been? That's exactly what it was for me. You're supposed to beat up on the Orioles like this. You're supposed to beat up on that young pitcher. who's got an Ernie of six, who has one major league going to his credit, or at least this season with the Astros. You're supposed to do. That's what you're the freaking Astros.

You do have Christian Walker. You do have Yarn Air Diaz. You have Carlos Corre. You got Jose Al-Tubei. You're not supposed to be, you know, being no hit and perfect game for seven innings against that, Gibroni. No chance. So I wasn't pleasantly a surprise.

I was like, by damn time. And that's why this next stretch of games is about, you know, let's go. You had your little phase of inconsistencies and quiet bats and self-recognition and conversations and whatnot and staying in the course and trying to stay cool. How about the Astros be who the Astros are, especially if Yorna Alvarez is available to this team either late in this Baltimore series or perhaps as early as next two or as late as next Tuesday when they take on the Colorado Rockies. and he did have a couple of hits again yesterday. The slug is there with Alvarez. Now, granted, it's double A pitching, but at least I didn't hear him waking up this morning with sore hands

because that's what I feel like every time I see any highlights of, Jordan Alvarez playing for Corpus Christi. There's only been two games. The first thing I think of is, how are you feeling that a big fella? Have those hands. Can you get a hand massage? I mean, I'm not asking for, you know what I mean? No, no.

You know what I mean, right? If you could get a foot massage. I'm sure you get a hands off, right? Does anybody? This feels like a loaded question. I ought to back off a little bit. I mean, is there a hamousous out there? I mean, there's a special that takes care of your arms,

your shoulders, your knees, if you got a sore neck or a sore back, or maybe you want your legs. I mean, it got to be something for somebody, right? Right? Let me tell you, when I go get a deep tissue massage, when I go to my therapist, which is not very often, Don't you

Jonathan, don't you ever Have your hands massaged? Feels good They pull your fingers And they rub the mid The palm area I don't think I can say I have

Actually I've been to a chiropractor But that's close to the same That's not close at all Don't account that I would like a hand massage right now They have businesses For hand massages

That's crazy I'm a Google hand massage That's a real thing That's a real thing But they put some lotion on there I probably sound so ignorant right now. No, it's fine. It's fine.

We're all ignorant on the show. I'm looking at these hands. These hands have been through a lot. I've been writing a lot of stuff in my life. You have the worker hands? I don't have the worker hands. My hands are actually pretty good. If I said I had worker hands,

that I'd be lying, do you? These hands have been, these hands have been on my head a lot of my life going, what the hell am I doing? I've been doing a lot of that. All right, 10, 29. Everybody had a man. You know, don't add.

Don't answer that question. I was going to say, you ever had a hand massage? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. And don't tell me what you call it. You know, I know what you're going to say. Don't do it. We're a PG radio show here, gang.

713-212-5-7-9 of you. It isn't anything that goes Friday. 7-13-212-5-7-90. I'm sorry, as we're looking for you to come in and apologize at 1130 today. We have the news at noon and any noon yet. Athletic Director of the University of Houston will join us today in studio 1 o'clock until 2 right here. On these airwaves that we call sports. Sports Talk 790.

It is and anything goes Friday here on Sports Talk 790. I'm sorry, he's at 1130. I wake the strippers up at noon. Astros with a very impressive win yesterday. Calming the nerves of some Astro fans. You don't need to calm down. It's like a long way to go here, gang. Leads only two games.

My philosophy was they played like they needed to play. Like, is they're the better team of the Orioles and the Astros or a team that should be acting like a first place team? All right. 713212-1257.9. I mentioned this a minute ago. King Tiro 34 on Twitter, friend of the show, put together a Matt Thomas show

with Ross Bingo Card. And for those of you that don't have it yet, you can always get it off of my Twitter account at SportsM-T. And if you want to play the show ever, you're more than welcome to. I'll go quickly through the list of what is on the bingo card. Upper left-hand corner going left to right, B-I-N-G-O.

Matt references a game show. Okay, whatever. Ross says very busy. That's every damn day. I say it's fine. That's every day. Listener with an awful take calls in. Ross uses old-timey news at noon voice.

You better not hit the day on the next one. Bad MT food take. Okay. I see where you're going. Shot taking to Adam Clinton's work schedule. That's easy. Ross makes fun of Matt. Matt or Ross makes a movie reference?

Yeah, I do. O. West bit with names. Yeah, we do that. This guy, King Tara, we love you. You know this show. Hey, listener every day. All right. Ross plugs his Instagram.

Again, go look at Brisket. That sounds very exciting. Fancy Matt moment. I mean, it's a lifestyle I live. I can't control my lifestyle. Believe it. Free space. Matt has producer play old music?

Yeah, but I'm trying to get you involved in the music of yesteryear to appreciate it. You usually like the stuff that I tell you to play. Yeah, no, I've been liking it. Recently, though, you've been missing, but... All right, well, I promise to get you back. Producer brings show to a halt. Hosts make fun of Cajunic accent. That's true.

Brad calls in, but this is... This show... Seriously. I got a few more here. Matt and Ross make a bet. No question about that. Either host uses the Michael Berry voice. Hell yeah.

Remote. You ever listen to Matt Thomas show with Ross Bingo game? Ross says that's a shame. That is true. Believe it. Matt gets distracted by Lauren Shihadi. Accurate. Gordy drop us by the show.

He'll be drowning us in 15 minutes. That's an automatic. Here's one for you, Jonathan. Phone line technical difficulty. Two more. A yay, yay, yay, sounder from Ice Cube. Yes, of course. Hell yeah.

And Matt rant about the fake media. That's all. Let's say out to it. It's a good list this one. Isn't that a good list? There's probably 15 or 20 more we can get to, but I just feel for the sake of the show. That's pretty much spot on. So shout out to you, Samuel, for that outstanding Matt Thomas show at Bingo Card and play it with your friends.

Have a couple of pops. You can day drink, I guess. It's Friday. What are you going to do? All right. 713-212-5-790 is the way you can reach the program again if you want to join us. 7-13-212-5-7-90. This college football weekend, they call it week-zero.

Look, I love sitting back and enjoying a Saturday college football just like anybody. But here are the week-zero games. There are a total of three. No, there's only Let me see here. I'm going to look at all. There's only one top 25 matchup. But here are the week zero games. You got Iowa State playing Kansas State.

That could be for Big 12 bragging rights. That's in week number one. Not bad. That's in what, that's in Ireland, I believe. Other games in the week zero card. Iowa State, oh, excuse me, Idaho State at UNOV. Fresno State at Kansas. Sam Houston at Western Kentucky

Stanford at Hawaii. I mean, if it's on, right? Yeah, I mean, you know, if the game's close, and scores close, you can tune in. There's a better chance of me catching Iowa State because it's 11 o'clock. It kind of gets you in the mood for the college football season coming up. I don't know if I'm in front of a television for Fresno State, Kansas,

and Sam Houston at Western Kentucky. Now, the Stanford Hawaii game could be curious because that's a 630 start time. I mean, you're sitting, now you get the Astros plan on Saturday, too, which I'll be doing the on-deck and 10th inning show so forth. But I don't know, if you're really going to build this up, I guess, do you, do you, I mean, does Iowa State, Canada State move the needle? I mean, there's two top 25 teams. And then after that, the next college football game, Thursday, August 28th.

Mm-hmm. jam-packed T-DUCU Stadium, the lumberjacks and the Houston Cougars in the, what, would you call it the Highway 59 robbery? Yeah, it's kind of has a nice ring to it. Cougars 22 and a half point favorites. If you want to predict, this is Vegas, it doesn't mean it means everything.

But if you wanted to make a bet, Jonathan, on your beloved lumberjacks, to beat the Cougars. Europe, if you just said flat out, I'm going to go to a betting window, and I'm going to say SFA is beating Houston. I don't need points. I don't need any sort of advantage. I just want to say straight up, and the game is done,

SFA beats Houston. The Vegas folks would give you plus 1,200, meaning you spent $100 on the game. They would hand you back $1,300. All in. Oh, yay, yay! well okay all in i don't know what your financial situation is i mean i know what you make here so all in of like 15 bucks there you go oh you're gonna bet 15 now that's still a pretty good payoff

exactly exactly that's not a terrible payoff you know what i'm saying so if anybody would like to help jonathan win plus 1,200 on his bet loan the boy some money you get to take the long ball here i know we're gonna go for it and imagine coming that to the studio i just got i just got i just got i just that paid. Let me take you something. Before pay a? Now, if the lumberjack somehow, some way win, I will not be on the air Friday. I will, I mean, I'm not going to take a vacation.

I'm just going to call it because I don't want to burn a vacation. I'm just going to call it sick. Because if you aren't going to annihilate me enough, the person to my left will be doing it as well. All right. So we said that if you wanted to bet SFA to win the game straight up, you'd win plus 1,200. Let's say that you wanted to bet the Houston Cougars. on what they call the money line, that is just with no point spread, right?

Right. The Cougars are a minus 3,000 to win the game. You sure is? Oh, it is the line, yeah. So for those that don't know, if you bet the Cougars on the money line, you'd have to bet $3,000 to win $100. $3,000.

Listen to Vegas, Jonathan. and they're not lying to you. They don't know, no. They don't know. Vegas has been wrong. No, Vegas is very rarely wrong. Rarely, see? Rarely.

Rerely. Minus 3,000. That's insane. So how many people, do you know anybody's from your SFA nation coming to the game? Yeah. Will it be thousands of SET? I mean, think about Lumberjacks are, there's a lot of alums here in Houston, right? You would think of any alum that would give two craps about their athletic program would be at the game.

I see a lot of, like, flyers, people going and everything. So let's put it in perspective here. Will it be 5,000 or 6,000 fans at the game on Saturday, Thursday night? 5,000 or 6,000? Nope. Will it be 4,000? Nope.

3,000, nope. 2,000. No, no, no, that be like 525. Yeah, no, no, I'll give it 750. 750 jacks. All the jacks in this town. No, worst in the section. Come on now.

Represent SFA. Let's go. All right. The SEC is going to nine conference games. Do we read any more into the fact that they're going to play each other and give themselves a better chance to play in the college football football playoff? We'll discuss that next. 1044, Sports Talk, 790.

1050, this is Gordy's time. I can't believe he's late already. That's fine. Can't wait for him to come in and brag about the SEC and all the nine game alignment and how you're going to have regional rivalries and guaranteed games. We'll see what kind of his initial take on that is. We'll do that in a minute.

713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. We're looking for you to apologize coming up in 40 minutes here on the radio program. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Let's talk to James with us on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. James, good morning. Yeah, about the U of H game against the Lumberjacks. Yes.

You know, this isn't Cougar. We're the University of Houston. Yes. We're not going to lose to a team from the Southland Conference. I'm not sure what conference are in anymore. But we're not going to lose to a team like that. I know that we lost to Texas State, but this is the University of Houston. It's going to be 31 to 7 is my prediction.

31 to 7 feels about right. By the way, they're in the Southland Conference. They're in FCS school. Okay. I guess it changed. Okay. No, they've been there for a while. Okay.

I think. James, they changed to the whack and then came back to something. Yeah, but there's no such thing as a whack, right? Just using it. Oh, please. Thanks, James. Yeah, y'all went to the whack and then you came back? I think for basketball and football reasons, yeah. They won the whack, like, conference for football, but every other sport was fine. Good. That's great.

Yeah, you can still consider FCS with the juggernauts of East Texas A&M, Baseby, Texanatatian, Commerce. I've already gone through this. McNeice, Nichols, Northwestern State, UT, are UTRGV? I didn't even know if it had a football team. I think this is their first year. HCU, that's formerly HBU,

Southeast Louisiana, UIW and Lamar. All right. Well, you know, I'm going to do it once around through a TDCU Stadium. I'll check out your alums. Just to make sure what you all got over there. Just check them out. Yeah, yeah.

Now, a very good friend of mine, she lives in California as a big SFA grad. It's a great school for teachers and education. It's got a lot of our teachers have come from SFA. I don't know. What else do you all have? Big nursing program. Is that right?

Yeah, very big from nursing program. And you already know the music program is big. You already... No question about that. Big fine arts over there. You wouldn't expect that. Yeah, you got way more celebrities than I thought you all would have. I mean, hey, you know, when we looked it up, that was my first time looking it up, too.

And I was surprised myself. You see them on the wall when you go in the buildings, but you don't know what they do. Are you trying to get him... You already get our guy booked on the show? I'm going to try to see. Because he's kind of cranky sometimes. So we're going to see again. What I mean?

So the guy used to be, for those of one of his professors, used to be on Three's company. He worked at the Regal Beagle for a while. Yeah. And he was also a Tony Allen on General Hospital. That's a long time deal for him. Yeah, that was like he was that whole character. Now, how would he feel if he's listening to show right now and you just went on major market radio and said the guy's cranky?

No, I say, he's a real cool professor. But he's more those like old guy when he's not doing work, he's going to be in his house like, you know, like mine in his business. But he won't respond to your email until it's his like work hour type of thing. Oh, is that right? So yeah. When he turns a computer off. It's off. You can't reach him type of thing.

You know what? That does buy. I'm glad you brought that up. We are in 2025, right Ross? You know, Ross. You're not asking him. Right, Jonathan. Right.

And I'm going to assume that not everybody has their emails attached to their phone. Yeah, it's a hard assumption. What's a good percentage? Do you think 75% of Americans have their emails attached to their phone? Maybe, I want to say 85%, maybe a lot. Because it doesn't Gmail already, and the mail app on the iPhone already comes in. I know for Android, it does the same thing. Same things, just put your mail in, so I don't know.

But even if it's not a company email, you've got some sort of email. I'm going to look this up. You talk firstly. What percentage of people have email on? their phone. You might have to do a demographic, maybe older people have it on email or like younger people because they already know they need, you know, for like high school and everything, but or because they think about people that work in an office like corporate America, they're going to have to have an email on their phone. That's my point is that if you work at any sort of

corporate world, well, here it is. It's what AI says. Now you can't always believe what AI. approximately 81 to 91% of email users access their accounts via their smartphone. Yeah, I said I knew it was higher because it was like, even in college you have that that's my point. If I send you an email at 745 at night, do I have to put on there at the top of the page urgent important? No, because it should be the first thing that pops up when you use. That's right.

I feel like the percentages of people that, I don't need a long, like, hey, tomorrow at 930, can we do this? That can be, you can respond to that at 7.45 at night. I know that most people that are within our audience are eight to five workers or nine to six or whatever the case may be. Right, a lot of truck drivers too, yeah. But truck drivers don't run the same schedule. But I think if you send me, Jonathan, if you sent me an email tonight at 645, what are the chance of me responding to it? About 100%, right?

Yeah. Would I neglect that email until Monday morning when I, I wake up to come to do the show with you? No. But some people would do have that mentality. If I'm clocked out, I'm clocked out. They don't want anything to work. I'm going to give you something for you young ones out there.

This is including you, Jonathan. You're never clocked out. Now, you can be away. Right. You cannot intimately be thinking about your office and the next sales call or the next appointment or the next project. But if it's an email, take five seconds. That's a hot take.

I don't know. It is hot. I'm going to give you that. I'm going to tell you that right now. if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. You can call me out on it. But imagine, okay, imagine you're just in bed. Or maybe you're at a movie theater. No, no, no, no. Forget the movie theater. The bed's a great example of that.

Go to bed. Laying in a bed. You're looking at your Facebook reels. You're looking at those kids with the AI audio that are put in there that are really funny that I know that only dads look at now. Shut up, Ross. You watch that too. I was right. If you got an, like, I email Gordy sometimes after 5 o'clock. Gordy works all the time. He responds. God love him. I respond to people like our sales manager, Bo Brown, after five o'clock, I can't get a hold of him. He's off. Five o'clock is off. Don't talk to me. But I can't even if you're getting to respond to me at 11.30 in the morning.

That's a different idea. So I'm just going to say something. A little maddy advice to y'all. As long as it's not in the middle of the night, and it's not as long as you're not at a show or a concert, if you're just in the bed, watching TV, catch a bunch of your Netflix, look at your Facebook real, somebody said you an email, just be courteous and send that email back. So that'd be an hour long. Just acceptance, oh, got this, talk to you

about this Monday morning. That's my little personal key to success is that the less you spend time working on a clock and the more you think about your entire career, the better off you're going to be. And if your boss or a coworker sends an email, take the time to respond back. Like, I'll be at the volleyball

match tonight. My beloved Kingwood Mustangs are taking on Lake Creek. You all send me an email tonight at 615? Chance, sorry, I got to, you'll get some sort of response back. You've got to respond. Not a guarantee, but a good chance. Is that because you're going to be bored watching the game, or is it because... That could be true.

We could be down a couple of points. I could be checking my emails during timeouts. 1057. Gordy has made his way in. He was late for his 1050 segment, which means he'll be joining us, I think, at the top of the hour here on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. All right, I got a little pushback already. That's fair.

Pushback is the key to life and sports in life. I told you. About my email take. Aaron on Twitter says, I disagree. I work as a caseworker for CPS. If I answered my text and emails from parents, I'd never have any time off. Work-life balance matters for that job.

You know what my response was? Sorry for that. It feels like your emails are a lot deeper than mine. And that's fair. I wasn't trying to talk about every single thing. But, Aaron, you got a point? I get it. Ryan Fortson says,

SportsMT has insane email policy, LOL, just text or call, responding to emails outside of work hours are crazy. I don't know. Again, it depends on what your job is. So I wasn't trying to paint with a broad brush, but there's just,

I think there's too, how do I delicately put this? To my man, Aaron, I get you. Some of you others, I don't get. Gordia responds his emails, for the most part, unless you're at some Broadway musical. Yeah.

Do you go to the show last night? Would you go see? So we moved our tickets. We were supposed to go last night. We moved them to tonight. We're going to Life of Pie. Excuse me? It's a musical.

See you guys at Hobby Center if everybody's going. So Gordy and his lovely wife, Lauren, go to more theatrical things, musicals, shows that I know anybody else. Darry and I are the only two people who share an equal love for sports and the theater world. Now, wait a minute. I knew you before you got married.

Did you love the theater world before you got married? Yeah, I was a theater minor in college. You're an actor? I was a stand-up comic and actor at 15, 16, 17. That's what I wanted to go do. S&L was the dream. And then when I got to school, it did broadcast journalism. It shifted over.

But it worked because I was comfortable in front of a camera. comfortable for a microphone. I think that helps. You could be a character on SNL. I could have done some. You could have done, I mean, you go up there into your shaggy impersonation? That would have crushed. I did see, last weekend we saw James

Austin Johnson was in town. Very funny. Great Trump. He, and he hates doing it, but he's so good at it. And he's pretty hardcore. Like, he's not a fan of Trump. But it's so good. Is anybody in the SNL a fan of Trump's at all? I don't think so, no. But he's so good at it. And it's like, I mean, like, we were falling out of the chair laughing at how, I mean,

he's got him pegged. Okay. So I want you to give me, uh, evaluation. When, what's the name James, what? James Austin Johnson. He's one of the middle name guys. Okay. When he's not doing his Trump stuff, were you laughing in his other material? Some. But it wasn't as good as you thought. Yeah. I mean, well, he, at the end, he did, all right, I'm going to do some other impressions. They won't let me do on SNL or have auditioned or tried to get on, but, haven't gotten them on yet. He does a really good Billy Bob Thornton. Really?

It was really good, yeah. Okay. So I think Saturday night we're going to see Marcello from S&L. He made famous the Domingo sketch. Did you see that one? No. I'll send you the link. No, no.

Okay, I just, yeah, you are, if there's anything the fine arts of the world, you handle it here on sports talks and many. That and LSU and SEC conversation. Yes. All right. It's a big news yesterday, too. Again, maybe I'm misreading this, but I think nine games is a good thing for the SEC. Yes?

This is all, like, understand the two motivations behind this. One is money because ESPN already ponied up the cash and said, we will pay you for an extra week of games. That was the big thing. And a lot of the coaches are pushing for it because revenue share being a thing. What was that in light? Every SEC school got about $20 million of revenue share to spend. Well, you go from eight to nine conference games.

Guess what? Next year is going to be $22, $23 million to share. So that's the first part of it. But two, there's all these questions about the future of the college football playoff. Are we going to expand? I think most people want to go to 16. A lot of the conferences in schools, well, basically the college football playoff committee said, we can't agree on what we're going to do with the future unless we have uniformity amongst our power for conferences.

Like, if y'all all get on the same page and say, you all play at nine conference games, it's this, it's that. Then we can agree to move forward what the model is going to be for who makes the playoff, the expanded playoff and all that. So that was the other dominant of fall. So the SEC said, okay, we'll fall in line with the Big Ten. We'll go to nine conference games. And now the next step is apparently the ACC said they're going to agree. Again, they haven't done it yet. But the next domino is ACC will agree to go to nine.

And so the power four, we're all playing nine. And we have a little bit of an equal playing field. Now here's the only problem I don't like. Since Greg Sankey took over, he requires all SEC teams to play one tough, power four non-conference game. It's a requirement. Tough is a relative term. Well, but a power 14.

Right, right, right. Majority of them are scheduling tough ones. Ole Miss was the only one. I was like, oh, we'll go play Wake Forest, but, like, LSU is playing Clemson. Texas is playing Ohio State. Oklahoma's playing Michigan. Like, they all went out and scheduled.

And so the SEC has had these big marquee games in week one and all this. While the Big Ten, the last two national champs, Michigan, two years ago played Bowling Green, ECU, and, like, Western Michigan. Last year, Ohio State, their three non-conference games were, I think, Marshall, Easter, it was like three slapies. So my problem is, the SEC should not do those anymore. Get rid of, if we're going to go from eight to nine conference games, go schedule three slapies as your non-conference like these other,

like all the Big Ten schools are doing. Indiana, if you see some of their future non-conference games, it's a joke. But you're getting all upset about the difference between two slapies and three slapies. Because you have nine conference games, you play a power four, that's 10. you play too slapy. Well, let me give you an example. Like Alabama's four non-conference games scheduled for next year are Florida State, who was?

It's Florida State at West Virginia, USF, and somebody else. Why would you play those? Go schedule the Citadel, Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky, you know what I mean? Like, so you're going to look like there's this common misconception that so many SEC teams in November play some sloppy, but they've been tested nine. weeks up till that point with tough teams, yet everybody wants to harp on the one November, you know,

crappy team that they're playing. So anyway, I just think we're going to lose a lot of these marquee week one games now because why play them? The committee is not giving you credit for losing those games. They say they're going to now. They say this year they're adding the component of strength of schedule

to the college football playoff. I'll believe it when I see it. See, I do believe that you can lose three games now if you're playing a nine-game conference schedule and still get a chance to get in the playoffs. But forget eight, nine-game conference schedule. Tell me how many ranked teams you play. That's what should matter.

See, here's the problem. Last year you had South Carolina played six top-25 teams and went three-and-three against them. Indiana played two top-25 teams, lost both of them. But Indiana got in the playoff because they went, oh, 10-and-two is better than nine and three. But my argument is, stop harbbing on who you lost to and tell me who you beat.

Who you beat, that's how you build a resume. We do it in March Madness, right? And when we get to tournament time, we say, oh, you of age, they beat Auburn back in November. That's a quality resume win. I almost think we should go that route to college basketball and football and say, quad one wins. You have three quad one wins in football. Like, that should be how you build a resume for the college football playoff.

Not just, oh, you went 10 and 2, so you're in. I don't care if you went 10 and 2. Did you play anybody good? If you didn't play anybody good, you don't deserve to get in. I think you're going to see a change of that. They say they're going to, they say they are. There's enough people. There's enough people that believe you.

There's no way you're going to go into a room and have an Indiana squeeze out somebody else now, especially when you go to a ninth conference. Well, that's the problem is they were hurt last year with SMU getting their ass kicked, Indiana getting their ass kicked. Boise, you know, was not great. I think they're looking at it and going, we got to get the good teams. Well, college football makes adjustments. they made the adjustment, you don't have to guarantee,

you're not guaranteed a top four spot anymore, so that's gone. I mean, they're not stupid. They understand. I guess. I just, I don't like it because every move is motivated by money, and I get that's what makes the world go around, but we're losing some of the pageantry and tradition.

There's no more pageantry. There is. I mean, you go to a game day, and the band marches down the hill and your tail getting and all that. Ole Miss is playing Mississippi State for the Egg Bowl. There's no problem with that. It's just,

Alberta and Alabama are playing the Iron Bowl. Nothing wrong with that. The portal. There's, like, how many kids girls? up in Houston going, I'm dreaming of playing for the coogs. Some of them now to go, you know what, I'm going to the highest bidder. Oh, Baylor paid me more. I'm a

lifelong Coog fan. My mom and dad went to the U of H, but you know what? Baylor paid me 100K, so I'm going to Baylor. I just don't like that. I think there should be some sort of allegiance of, you want to go to a school because you love that school. No, that's long gone. Why are you

speaking such silliness? No, no. There's No, hey, my dad went there, I want to follow that. No, it's, who's got the biggest check for me? So you of all people to follow the sport closer, anybody else here. I mean, you know, this is all business. It's not all business. Now, here's the thing.

Saturday afternoon at 2.30 or 6 o'clock or 11 o'clock, what are we doing? We're watching in front of our televisions or right at the game, and we don't care about NIL, we don't care about the portal, we don't care about the biggest bidder. That all goes away. It's the other five days, six days of the week that we focus on it. Honestly, because once Saturday goes around, like when my U.S. Cougars destroy SFA next Thursday, 72 to 7, I'm not worried about how much Connor Wigman's making at University of Houston. I don't care.

That would be awesome if they can do that. It's going to happen. But yeah, don't. It's a must win. Of course it is. Are you kidding me? I told Jonathan, I'm taking Friday off if they lose. Oh, is that where Jonathan finished?

SFA. Yeah. He started at West Kentucky, which is the Harvard of. Western Kentucky. That's a good school. The Hilltoppers? Yeah. It's fine. Media school, yeah. You got a good media program over there at West Kentucky. Is that how you learned to press all the buttons here?

You know. You don't double press anymore. Do you? It doesn't sound like it a whole lot. No, you are... It's ten times better than Trey was. Cray, you, Chris, you or me five years ago. I'm just so over it. I don't want to hear about the purity of it. I don't want to hear about how there's sanctity.

I don't want to hear about there's a group of people out there that are looking for the spirit of the sport. It's all gone. Here's the other thing that's being rumored about is that this whole thing of the SEC's requiring their schools to play a powerful team and the Big Ten doesn't is that they're going to partner up and we're going to have an SEC Big Ten challenge every year, non-conference and that will be your non-conference game.

Now, we say we love it because Texas, Ohio State is awesome, but you're going to watch Mississippi State Minnesota? Yeah. You're not watching that game? But I wasn't going to watch Minnesota anyway. You're going to watch Purdue Vandy? No, but those people will. I mean, they're going to rotate it around.

Yeah. You know what? The bottom of the Big Ten sucks. Yeah, but you're not going to get 16 sexy matchups. You're going to get three or four. And you know what? If you can give me Penn State playing A&M, I'm in. I'll watch.

You want to give me Alabama versus Michigan every four years? I'm in. I'll watch because I don't have a dog on those fight, but I'll watch those games. Yeah. I think the other tough part is, too, the SEC has a lot of those non-conference rivalries. Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky versus Louisville, Florida, Florida State. What happens to those?

And I think there's a chance to those go by the wayside. South Carolina Clemson is an awesome rivalry, but it's probably going to go away. We lived without A&M, Texas for 25 years. We did, but it's back. Because we appreciate rivalries. Yeah, but it wasn't back because we appreciated their series.

We appreciated it because the Longhorns left to go the SEC. Look, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, one of the Bedlam, one of the greatest sports rivalries in college football. It's gone. I mean, I know people they're upset. At what point? Well, yeah, if we're playing non-conference games,

it doesn't really behoove you to go schedule Oklahoma State. All right. Astros against Baltimore all weekend. You got the college football, Iowa State, Kansas State, Clash. If you're sitting in front of your television, what are you going to be doing? I went to the store, Randalls two days ago,

loaded up, got some, a fresh pack of Crawford box to stock my fridge upstairs to watch some asses, Astros action, watch some college football, and get ready for this weekend. Hopefully you guys do the same. Enjoy the ice cool taste of the Crawford Bach from our friends at Carbach-Brew. Right here in Houston, Texas goes perfect with Astros baseball. Let me tell you, it went down smooth last night as I'm watching, Hesu-Sanchez. Not one, not two, not three, not four, but five hits?

Let's go. Lance McCullors on the mountain night. I'll make a prediction. Five innings, two-run ball for Lance. Get your Crawford-Bock. That's some serious. You got some bravado in that voice there. I mean, they need something.

So somebody asked if it was a slum buster that helped the situation with Hesu Sanchez. That's funny. People get kind of wiry about slumpbusters. Yep. Your thoughts generally speaking about slum busters? Yeah, do you do what you got to do? You got to do what you got to do. Like Brian Lulima out there.

He's had a lot of those. Yeah, but he's also like a little league coach. He can get slump bus with like divorce A's. Oh, Brian, I hope you're listening. I swear to God, I hope you're listening. 1114. I'm looking for some of my sorries coming back in a minute. 1114, sports talk 790.

All right, if you want to apologize to somebody, and Lord knows you do, because I'm going to apologize, people. We'll be doing it in 10 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. 118 is our time. 713-212-5790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. If you want to follow me on Twitter,

I'd greatly appreciate that. It's at SportsMT. If you want to follow me on Instagram, that would really make my day because I'm not going to bombard you with food items. I'm just going to give you good stuff. And I want to get some shoutouts. So if you want to follow me on Instagram,

God love it, appreciate that. At SportsMT on Instagram. And I'll shout you out because that's what I'm doing. I'm just a nice person. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3. 212-790. And again, if you want to follow me on Twitter or Instagram, it is at SportsMT. Let's go to the phones. And when my phone system is down, so would you go, oh, I can pop it up now.

Let's go to Aggie Doug. Hi, Adi, what do you got today? Hey, Matt. I heard you and Chris knocking around the whole NIL thing and lack of pageantry and all that. And man, I am so right there with you. I used to get chisd deals every time, you know, before the A&M team ran out and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, it might happen for the first couple of minutes now, but, dude, it's like you're in your phone checking, okay, what's this guy getting paid on his NIA deal, the guy that just dropped the ball or who this guy fumble that he's getting paid for? As far as my kid is concerned, if, honestly, I think it's more parent-driven than it is anything

else with a lot of these kids. And it's a lot of parents going, hey, if you can get one more dollar at this place, it doesn't matter where you get a degree from or it doesn't even matter if you get a degree. You're getting paid multiple millions of dollars for an NIL deal. Just from a personal perspective, I mean, whenever I always, you know, kind of advise our soccer team, I would always tell them, and they weren't looking at Division I school, so they were looking at NIA, Division II, and I always told them, I said, you've got to make the best deal for you.

And it doesn't have anything to do with what's on the front. it's what's the name on the back as far as whenever you go to college. Look, it's hard for us, A.D., to try to get into the minds of every 17-year-old. But, yeah, I would think parents have a huge influence on it. You know, I went through the process with my daughter, but my, but she plays in a non-revenu's... Yeah, but, you know, I can't speak to it because my daughter plays in a non-revenue sport, so I can't speak to that. But if she was playing in a sport where, let's say, a school was... offering her money and she couldn't decide which one of the two, what would I probably lean her

towards and say, well, if you have four or five schools that love you and one's offering you 15 or 20 percent more money, I would tell her probably go to that spot. I mean, I'm going to be honest with you. Or same situation with her, like our big thing was books. Like there was a lot of schools that offered scholarships, but they didn't offer anything about books or a meal plan or anything like that. So especially like you were saying for non-revenue sports, I mean, you've got to make sure that stuff taken care of. Or that ends up being out of your pocket. So I can even imagine if somebody puts down a contract that's $100,000 plus in front of my kid, I can even imagine what those thoughts would be in my brain. So, I mean, I know it's just so much money,

chains in hand, and it just seems so crooked. But also, Matt, you and I went to school in the early 90s, we knew that this crap was going on beforehand. It wasn't obviously to the extent that it is now, but I mean, hell, I've been to dinners with football guys and it wasn't paid for by anybody other than the brown bag they got.

So it's definitely, I mean, stories about Eric Dickerson driving around SMU campus with the Corvette that A&M bought him, you know? So it's, you know, it's maroon and white. but you know so it's been going on forever it's just seems so nasty now that it's out to open i guess it's like it's like exposing the mob books and all the mob's business to everybody and everybody going it's legal now yep it's legal now thank you ad for the phone call i mean i'll give you i'll

give you a case and point here and i don't want to talk too out of school about my daughter's situation and so you got to be honest it doesn't it doesn't match the football side of it but my daughter had a school She went to go visit and she loved every part of it. She's like, this is my spot. She loved the coaches. She loved the players. She loved the campus. She loved the academics.

She loved the vibe. Everything was spectacular. Until the moment of truth came in and said, we are willing to offer you this, meaning scholarship. And it took her, it knocked the wind out of her. because when someone loves on you in a recruiting situation, that's one thing. But when someone says, all right, let's put a pen to paper to this now, what are you really willing to offer? It made her think. And she was very disappointed.

And so, you know, she had to tell them, hey, I might go find something else. And she did. And she was able to find a school. the University of Rhode Island where she'll be playing college volleyball next year. Did the same sort of thing. Loved on her and took her around campus and met to school and got to have some nice meals. All the things that you do on an official recruiting visit. And at the end of the day, when that final offer came through, that was an offer that she found acceptable, which was, you know what?

We'll take care of your college. Boom. Signs he'll delivered. Now, in college football, it's significantly different, especially if you're a super high-end recruit. you're going to be whined and dined. You're going to have four or five or six or 15 schools checking on you and love it on you. And it's not going to be just about the scholarship. It's going to be about what we can do or what we can put you in front of that can help you get more money.

Now, at this point, I still don't think they can directly give you the cash when it comes to NIL, but they can put you in the right direction. And that's what the kids will want. I mean, how many kids, not everyone, I can't. can't blanket statement this. But if you were to take 20 kids, the top 20 Houston kids that play high school in 2025 about to be the two class of 26 or 27, if I pulled those kids aside and said, which offer did you take? My guess is, and this is just a pure guess on my part, that 18 of the 20 and said,

I went where the bigger money was. There was maybe one where I love. it more and there was no amount of money that school could offer me, I don't want to play for that coach. I don't want to go to that school. I don't want to go that far away. Or maybe there was a parental relationship where my dad played there, so I wanted to play all in the same lines. But all that stuff's gone now. And I think Aggie Doug is right. I think it's also, yeah, I'm sure you're going to give my son a great education. I'm sure you're going to give my son a great place to live and work and thrive and learn to become a young man. But what's it got on

the side for him because that would be a factor for me. I mean, I'm going to be honest. It's not going to be because my daughter doesn't play in a revenue sport that NIL is prevalent in, but if it ever was, I'd listen. And she'd come to me and she said, well, if school A, B, C, and D all love me the same, and I love them all the same, which I guess, I guess could happen, but largely kids will start to separate what they do and don't like. But a lot of this, and I've learned this through the recruiting process for my daughter is that the school the girls and the boys these young people they love the schools that love them the most back and in high-end college football it's who's writing me the biggest check or who's going to offer me the best NIL deal that's what

typically loves you back all right we need to say I'm sorry to some people you've done something this week that you want to apologize for you know where to find us 713 212 570 if you were rude to if you were mean, if you were unkind, if you cut somebody off, if you said something wrong to somebody, time for you to say, I'm sorry. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-21-2-5-790. Time for you to apologize. Say your sorry's next here on Sports Talk 790.

Time to cleanse your soul, ladies and gentlemen. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Come in, call in, and utter these very very, very simple words. I'm sorry. So sorry. I didn't know. This is a half hour that we take for an opportunity to,

you know what, just tell the people in our life that we may have wronged. I made a mistake. That's the key young Jonathan, I could try to give you that we're not always right about everything. I want to hear this. I'm just saying, the ability to apologize and say, say you're sorry. When you get married, you'll be able to sleep in the same room for two consecutive nights. You'll be able to maintain friendships.

You want to argue with your family. And you'll be able to get along with general population of the world. But just once in a while saying, I'm sorry. So I will start with, I want to apologize to those people that work for spam risk companies. They call me and ask about if I have Medicare part A and part B. and when I, they ask me what insurance company I use, I give them violent, laced, swear word laced companies that don't really exist.

Like, I will say to them, they'll say, what insurance company you use and I will say, shut the F up, you blanking B, you nasty ass B. Suck my B. And they hang up on me. I want to say to those people. that I use on the spam risk to use such a violent language.

I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. They're just doing their jobs. Of course, they live in a country that's 6,000 miles away and they use AI to generate the phone call to begin with and litter my voicemail with... Let me check my voicemail account, Jonathan.

This is such good growth from you. It is, it is. Right now I have 44 voicemails The average voice mail is two seconds long. So I want it once again, just to be safe and tell you, as I lost my earphones here for a second, I'm sorry for being rude to those people and violently swearing at them and attacking their heritage. I'm so sorry. Thank you. My second, I'm sorry, and this is where you, this is, I don't have a lot of them.

So come on in at 7-13-21, 2, 5-7. I can't do a half hour by myself here on this. You got some people out there They need to cleanse your palate 7132-1-2-1257-90 I want to apologize to some of the tentating callers Oh really? Because some of them like to call Joe Espada a coach

Which is a taboo term Some of them want to say the Astros suck And they'll never watch again And yet that person Mike Shout out to you, my friend, you send me 10 emails a day About how bad the Astros are When in fact you told me two weeks ago You weren't watching anymore

And then you have the fans that will call in and say that the Astros would bunt more that they would win and I immediately forget about them and don't give them much time. I'm going to start respecting more of the butt callers that call the 10th inning show, of which I'll be hosting on Saturday. So for those of you that have ever attacked you

for your endless rants about bunting in 2025, I say to you, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. Wow. So, you know, that separates me from other hosts. I try to lead by example. I make mistakes.

I apologize. I apologize to some of you that have tough jobs that you can't return emails all the time. I told you that was a hot take. But it's funny, the same guy just sent me another tweet and said, yeah, I have two phones, one for the work stuff. And I'm not work. He's trying to get at you. That doesn't count. So what I'm saying is for that second phone, that's where your bros are, your hose.

Respond to those quickly. Not a long paragraph, but just, hey, I got your email. Talk about it Monday. If you got a tough job that doesn't require simple emails like that? that, I'm sorry. And thank you for your service. 713-212-5-7-0. Jonathan? You don't live a perfect

life. No. You know, today, this week is a little longer I had to think about, but then I went to my Instagram. I have my notifications off on my social media because I don't like that noise. Distracting. Yeah. I checked my DMs.

Someone DM you. Oh, let's see. Mm-hmm. And my mom has been sending me reels for the last week and I haven't responded to not a single one of them. So I got to go call her and I wanted to say Mom, sorry. I didn't know you were sending me reels. I didn't know we were doing this.

I feel bad now. So I just want to say, I'm sorry. Sorry, please forgive me. So your mom sends you DMs, okay? You send me the funny Instagram real she finds. I know. I'm the same way. So here's how you solve that. Just send her a love

emoji back. Or a hot. or love it. What if she asked me about the video? Don't into the phone call. I'm not asking you to get to you. I'm trying to say, I'm sorry. You're trying to give you more in trouble. No, no, no, I wouldn't do that to you.

I mean, I kind of would, but. Oh, bad goodness. Yeah, the key to having a great email slash text relationship with someone is to just give us a quick response back. Like, I always say, if you respond to me, mean with an emoji back, like a like or a love, that means I got it.

I don't have time to have a deep conversation with you about it, but I got it. Yeah, I'm glad to add that future in the Apple. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's all good. So, yeah, but not responding. It's just, as I'm saying, my national policy on texting is if you

don't text me back within two hours of me sending you the text, your phone gets locked up. Not a long conversation, but just a, hey, I acknowledge your text. Especially if you have a red feature. I know that you read it and you didn't respond? Ooh, Lordy.

Not good. All right, so if you want to apologize again, 713-212-5-790, I want to apologize some of you that don't like the term slump buster. Oh, you had some negative reaction to it? We had a few. Couple. I don't think they were tongue-in-cheek or they were really upset, but we kid here on the show.

First of all, Jonathan, as you know, everybody needs love. Everybody needs love. Everybody needs love. And if you're a little heftier than others, it's, you know, it is what it is. You kind of know your role. You still got to find love. Yeah. So if a guy is on an 0 for 27 like Hesu Sanchez and he went to go run around Baltimore last night before the game and found him a little afternoon delight, did it work out for a five for five?

I say I'm pro slump buster. But for any of you that finally the term slump buster offensive, I want to tell you I'm sorry. And I'm not sorry that Cracker Barrel's stock prices fell 15%. yesterday. You get rid of the logo, you deserve a massive penalty. So there you have on that. What else I want to say? I'm sorry for I'm trying to think what else I've done because I feel

like I've done a lot of wrong things. This is the half hour amount. I'm trying to, I apologize to oh, I embarrass my daughter all the time at volleyball games, which is one of her volleyball buddies or their teams. So to Carly, my beautiful daughter who's playing in high school volleyball right now when she's playing her opponents and they beat

us unfortunately. And I go over there and tease them. I say to Carlis' opponents, I'm sorry. And I apologize to my daughter as well. I try to dad joke my way through life because my squad's not very good. So I say, I'm sorry. Hmm.

I think I cut off somebody again this week. On the freeway? Or on the phone lines? No, not on the phone lines. I did it all the time. I apologize to y'all, but sometimes like... Sometimes it has to... Sometimes you'll get a little talkative.

Oh, you know, I can say sorry to this caller earlier, uh, it was yesterday. And he started out the show. It was 10 minutes in. Mm-hmm. And he just, I felt like he just wanted to rant about the show. And he was ranting. He was mad at Ross. And I was gonna let him on there. Was he mad at me?

He was mad at both of you guys. What I do? What I do? I, he was just saying how rude you guys were, how you were apologizing earlier about Yeah. Yeah. And he was just going on and on on. And got like 40 seconds in. He was just yelling at me. So I hung up the phone. But then I thought about it.

No, no, no, no, you don't need to apologize to that guy. First of all, you gave him 40 seconds of his life that he probably didn't deserve. But I'm just, you know, I'm just feeling, I'm feeling a forgiving mood right now. Okay. So, I'll say this. I'll, I will join you in this. If I've ever treated you rudely on this show, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry.

I just got to give my apologies out. But you know what the problem is, so, Jonathan, this is the balance we have here. If we don't attack certain callers, people go on our social medias and say, why did you let that guy talk? Why did you let that guy go on and on and on? So we have to balance between what is right for the normal sports fan and the caller that was tried to come on and with his perhaps awful take. A man who never has a terrible take is Roger with us, who's been calling five times.

You got a bad phone line, Roger? What's going on with you? Probably. All right. What's the matter with you? Who do you want to apologize to? I want to apologize to my wife. I usually call her on lunch every Friday.

She normally told me what's going to happen for dinner tonight. And I didn't realize she was on the speakerphone. So when I asked that she wanted pizza and she said, yes, I said, pizza these nuts. She was on the office on the speakerphone, so I did not know that. I was so sorry about that. Sorry. So you dropped these nuts on a speakerphone? Sorry.

Ooh, Lord. No comment. Yeah, I try to stay away from speaker phones in general because you'd never know who's there. And even if they say, are you by yourself? They could be lying, right? That's true. They could be lying. I didn't even think about that.

So just, I would say, anytime you're on a phone, make sure you can, you get full clearance that you're talking to just that person, that person alone. So the speaker phone does not work. Thank you very much for that. 1143 on Sports Talk 790. If you have an apology to get to, look, let me tell you some, Houston. We've got six million people in this town. You guys are not that nice.

Time to apologize. You want to apologize for the asteros and how rude you were to them this week after they've only scored a handful of runs? 713-212.5-7-90. On Twitter, Brandon says I want to say I'm sorry to my wife for ignoring her tomorrow because of college football. I'm so sorry.

Brandon, first of all, I get it. I think she gets it, but damn, dude, it's not a great sleet of games. If you're going to ignore your wife, you're going to ignore your wife over Iowa State, Kansas State. Idaho State, UNLV, Fresno State, Kansas, Sam Houston, Western Kentucky, and Stanford, Hawaii? No, no, no, you got to save that for like a week one where you don't want to speak to her. Like, week one of the season is going to have like Texas, Ohio. State.

You don't talk to her that week. What else is there a top 25? Let's see if games that mean something here. Syracuse, Tennessee. You don't speak to her during that. You don't talk to her during... What else is you don't talk to her during? There's a bunch of crappy games.

North Carolina, North Dakota. I mean, there's, maybe week one isn't as good as I thought it was going to be. Let me look at the top 25 in week one. Do you speak, you can speak to her during West Illinois versus Illinois. Oh, Alabama, Florida State? You don't talk to her then. You don't talk to anybody. You just watch the game.

So Brandon's wife, shout out to you, but man, I pull the, I'm sorry I'm not talking to you card until a game of some decent matchups. Ronnie on 790, Ronnie, what do you want to say you're sorry for in for what? Well, Matt, I called my daughter. My daughter called me. She had a flat tire. I told her, okay, Jack, get the lug wrench, get the donut. I don't have a donut. I don't have a jack, and I don't have a lug wrench. And so I chewed her out, went and took care of her. Everything's fine. But karma came back and bit me, but I did call and apologize after this. I bought a used car and had a flag on it about two weeks later, opened up the trunk. There's no

Jack, there's no lug rich, and there's no spare tie. So to my daughter, once again, I apologize. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Did you say this to her? Are you using the radio station for this opportunity? Did you talk to her about this since? Both.

Both, because I know she listens to y'all. Okay, well, Ronnie, first of all, you're a good father for doing that. Do you know that if my kids ask me to change their attire, I couldn't do it? Well, Matt, do you have talent with your vocal cords? I know. but I'm a lesser man because of Ronnie. I don't know how to change a tire, Ronnie. And I feel like I, you know what I'm going to apologize to my kids right now and my wife.

You know what I would tell them? Call AAA. That's what I would say. Because I'm sorry, kids. I'm sorry, wife. Ronnie, I applaud you from knowing how to do it. Well, thank you, Matt. I appreciate that.

By the way, y'all still have the best show on the radio. Well, thank you very much. Shout out. What's your daughter's name? Kelsey. All right, Kelsey. Shout up to you and a lady. and your dad called to apologize on a major market radio show.

And for that, we appreciate that. Thank you, Ronnie. There you go. Jonathan, you know how to change attire? You know, I do not, actually. You know, I like you more and more ever. Because when I told Ross, I don't know how to do it, he was like, you have to know how to do it. But it does make you feel less of a man because he don't know how to do it.

So I get that. But I just never, no one taught me, I mean, you know. You and I are born of the same, my friend. Brothers from another mother. Can you ride a bike, though? Yeah, I can ride a bike. Okay, okay. Do you know how to ride a bike?

Of course I'm not to ride a bike. I'm just making sure. What's the most simplistic thing in your life that you cannot do? Juggle? Juggling's not simplistic. I can talk about daily activities. Hmm. Do you know how to swim?

I know I swim. Okay, me too. Can't too tighter. Do you know how to cook a turkey? Can't cook a turkey. No. By the way, I tried to cook baked potatoes the other day for the first time in a while. I didn't put them in long enough

and they were not ready when the steaks were ready. I heard it from the family. So I want to say to the family that was looking forward to steak and baked potatoes, I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. It's almost like I'm using this show as an opportunity to speak to my family

in a collective group. It sounds like it. I just realize now that if it's a big baked potato like, you know, the big ones, you've got to put them in for 90 minutes, 60's night long enough. You're telling me this more out, the more I know. See?

That's not here for you. I want to make sure you don't make those same mistakes. Because cooking isn't my forte. I like to say I can grill, you know, grow chicken, right? I can't make an omelet. There you go. You can't make an omelette? I always mess it up.

I got to really practice it. I don't know. I can't make French toast. How about that? Okay. Okay. See, look. We're getting somewhere.

We're getting somewhere. All right. I don't know how to change an oil in a car. I don't think most people know how to do that. Yeah, I would think the biggest efficiency in my, life is I'm unable to change an air to change the tire. Now I can put air in the car, but I like to go those places that have the automatic where you put the pressure in what you got on your pressure and your tires should be and you need to stick it in there and you just wait for it to go beep beep,

beep, beep. Oh, like on the side of the gas that's yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the, that's the play. All right, before we get to wake, we got to strippers up in six minutes. Are they ready? Are they awake? This weather's kind of dicey today. I don't know, yeah. It's kind of cloudy out there. Jill. Hey, guys. So I would like to say, sorry to someone. So let me preface by saying I bought my pregnant wife a brand new Monda, C-RV, 2026, beautiful vehicle, and it's going to last us.

So, you know, when you go to the dealership, the sales rep is all, you know, butterflies and walks in the park. But once you get to the finance office, those guys really try to grind you for everything you got. So he asked me for a cashier's check to make it easy on him, a $13,000 down payment that I made. I just told him to hold on real quick. Let me go to the bank, and I'll get him a cashier's check. But instead, I asked the bank teller for $13,000 in all 50s, and I went back and gave him $13,000 in all 50s. So I'm sorry.

Who are you apologizing to the bank? The person that works at the bank or the guy you gave the money to? The finance guy, because he was kind of grinding. me for everything I had and I didn't like the way he was kind of you know trying to trying to pressure me into getting this that and the other thing you know so to make it hard on him he had to literally count $13,000 in 50s while I sat there and watched him. Hell yeah! You know what? I, Geo, I kind of got respect for you. It's kind of bother, right? I like it. I don't know what you're apologizing for.

I mean, hey man, you know, life's shooting me good. I just like having fun with it, man. But great show, man. I love it. the show, man. Thank you, Gio. Nice and here for me. I'm sorry. Yeah, I don't think you need to apologize. If the guy wasn't being a deed to him, make his life difficult.

Ah. That's, that was nice. Are you ready for something I've done in the past that makes me mad? Go for it. That I'm not sorry for. It's kind of reverse. You go to the drive-thru and you order something and it's $4.564. Right.

You give them the $64 first, then you hand them the $10 bill, so you get $6. back, right? 1064 minus $4.64 is $6. And then you come back and she's giving you a $5 bill with a bunch of change. I said, I just gave you $64 cents. Oops, I'm sorry, sir. And then she gives me the right money.

I roll my window up and I swear at her. If I had real stones, I'd swear directly to her. She just messed it up a little bit. How do you do a little bit? How do you do a little bit? I say, here's the $64. Here's the $10. But yet, I don't have the stones to tell her

I think about her to her face. I wrote the window up and tell her to her off, so she can't hear me. So for that woman at the Rick Ronalds at Wesley, New York in 59, I say, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's probably going to happen again, though. I don't even think about doing that. I would just try to find four strand dollars and just put the coins on top. Well, I don't, I like change.

I just know that I have to be careful with it. And so if I had the change and make a nice, even $6 out of it, I thought I would do it. Like, I'm helping her. That's true, yeah, you're right. How old was she? Like, she was like a young teenager? Yeah, you know, they work in the drive-thru. They were 17, 18 years old.

So I used to working the drive-thru back in the day. Really? And McDonald's, absolutely it did. I worked all throughout high school at McDonald's. Do you remember what you say when they come to the... Yes, welcome to McDonald's, man. Frye, man, take your order, please. I did everything.

I haven't told you my off... I told the audience before. If you've messed with me in the drive-thru, I get you back. You spend their food or something? Oh, hell, yeah. See, I tell people that, and they don't believe me. I tell people don't mess with... That's why I wasn't rude to her face, because I was thinking, if she's mad at me,

she's going to tell the guy organizing my food, you know what you can do with Matt's fries. Oh, I've got a spitburger. Oh, I've done it all. I've refried food. I've done it all. I'll tell you all fair more stuff. Oh, God. All right.

The news at noon is up next. Plus, we wake the strippers up 1158 on Sports Talk 790. is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 12. In H-Town. Number three on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. For reference, the big tech commissioner they've ever again,

because that gets us in trouble. Hope you guys are in a good mood. We are down the home stretch. The weather looks terrible. What the hell is going on outside? I don't know, man. Is it Armin getting or what? It says right at our Sires Studios is light rain with thunder.

I mean, it's dark. It's pitch black. I'll put a step outside and see. Don't leave me. Ross Luffy for a few days, I need you to stick with me. All right. 713-212-2-5-790. It is our number three of the show.

We got some phone callers to get to. We've got coming up at 1 o'clock. Eddie Nunez, I thought a director at the University of Houston's going to stop by and visit with us for an hour to talk all things. University of Houston, the college football landscape, college athletics in general. And I'll be with us coming up at 1 p.m. Right now, it's time now for the news, a dude. Such good news if you're an Astros fan. The Astros beat the Orioles last night by a final score of 7 to 2.

A couple of highlights, Brandon Walker with a two-run, home run. As the Astros score 2 in the 1st, 2 in the 2nd, 3 more in the 3rd, and a 5-hit day for Jesus Sanchez, who went 0 for 27 before going 5 for 5 yesterday. Jason Alexander gets the win again for the Astros. Five in the third innings, giving up two runs, eight hits, three walks, one home run. He's now 4 and 1. Astros, back in action tonight. On-deck show begins at 5.

First pitch will be just past 6 o'clock. Yarnan Alvarez was a couple of hits yesterday for Corpus. Christian, his second rehab appearance. Don't know if he's going to make it to Baltimore by the end of the weekend. But if not, I would think the very latest he makes his way back is the Astros game Tuesday against the Colorado Rockies. The Astros, by the way, gaining a half gain on the Mariners in the American League West because the M's were off yesterday.

The Astros won. So right now, your beloved Astros owning a two-game lead in the American League West. Other news, college front. I mentioned there's a top 25 matchup tomorrow. between Iowa State and Kansas State that will kick off the college football season as we played in Ireland. Those are two teams in the Big 12 and in the SEC. They made an announcement they're going to go to nine conference games next year. You'll play a 10th game against an a fellow power for school.

So schedule is starting to tighten up. Reaction generally is positive because you do want to see your schools playing more of the same teams in the league every year. By the way, they're going to keep three guaranteed regional rivals. The regional rivalry in one quote unquote quad will feature A&M, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas playing each and every year. And one other baseball note that I want to bring along to you, and this is kind of thinking about what you do with a guy like Bryce Matthews. The Baltimore Orioles had this young catcher who's been a major leagueer for exactly one week. He was the number four overall prospect. He went from low A to double A as an 18-year-old, AAA after last year,

and just after his 20th birthday, he gets called up for the Orioles. He signed a new contract locking him up, buying out arbitration years, at eight years and $67 million. Well, the Astros do that with somebody like a Bryce Matthews. That'll be one of the things that I'm sure Dana Brown will be discussing in the offseason for the Astros. my friends is your news at noon. 20 years old making $8, $8.67, that's not bad. Eight years, $67 million. It's not bad.

But you know these NBA players are making crazy money, too? They're 19 years old. They're out of school one year. They're making the big first round money. Samuel Bacelo is his name. He is a brand new member of the Baltimore Orioles. Big contract buying our arbitration. You know what? the Astros might have been able to keep some guys around long term if they ought to

bought some arbitration years out. They did buy arbitration for Bregman. They did buy arbitration out for Altuve. They certainly bought some arbitration years for Yordon Alvarez, Christian Javier. It's not like the Astros don't do it, but they've been a little bit more selective. But that's something to be keeping an eye on in the offseason if they tried to maybe even buy out some years of Jeremy Payne, who's got a couple of years of arbitration left after this season. 713-212-5-7-9 if you want to jump into the conversation 7-1-3-212-5-7-90 as the case each and every Friday here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. It is in anything goes Friday, meaning anything you want to get to. And again, the leash is a little longer on a Friday than it is during the course of the week.

Let's talk to Mike calling us from Lake Charles. Mike, what's going on? Hey, I'm actually in Cyprus. I was in Lake Charles Gambling when I called you last time. Oh, wow. How did you do, by the way? Average. So that was a few weeks ago.

So anyway, I want to talk to you guys about MLB alignment. I keep telling these social media posts everything. I got a proposition for you. Please. So let's dump AL and NL. I know the baseball peers will turn over in the grave, but just listen for a second. Just dump AL&L, call it done. Have eight divisions or whatever we want to call them.

Yeah, divisions will be good. Like they're propositioning. And they just short it like a typical play. playoff, one, four, five, eight on one side, two, three, six, seven on the other side. And then the question goes, do we add, like, four more teams to have, like, a round one? But put them more like a college football playoff series, because the problem is, when you go A&L, let's say you get three stacked teams, like right now the NL is loaded. Okay?

Well, this, if you just call them eight divisions in America, name the divisions, whatever, one through eight, and categorize it like geography. I like that. But then just pick the division winners, get one through eight, and sort them, one, four, five, eight on one side, you know, two, three, six, seven, at the other side, by records, and then possibly add the four next best records. So you get like 19, 11, 12, and then create a bracket as such. Maybe the top four get buys and the bottom four got to play three games series,

something like that. But I want to dump the AL&L and just go record sorting, period, by division winners. Well, I'm going to fight back a little bit on some of the things. Mike, I do believe that you're right, that American League and Nationally if it gets in limited people, that the old school baseball fan will lose their mind. I think you and I would agree on that, right? I do have a belief. Yeah, they will lose their mind, but it's also suppression, right?

I don't know, I don't know if it's a, I don't think it's off limits, put it that way. So I'll agree with you on that. The thing that I got from the conversation involving Commissioner Rob Manfred, Mike, was they want to keep teams playing teams in their fellow time zone as long as possible. And I think that's where we're headed. they do not want Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington playing an opening round series in San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle. I think we're going to see a situation, this is just a pure gut feeling on my part, where you're going to be playing as many teams in your neck of the woods, you're part of the country, as long as you can until it gets to the championship series and the world series. So whatever you said, which could certainly make some sense,

but you got to remember, I think they want to keep people playing in the time zone as long as they can. So just keep that in the back of your mind. No, that makes sense. I hear what you're saying, and it makes some logical sense. I'm sure there's a way to even do the just 1-8 ranking and probably still try to keep at least the opening rounds local, but I have to think about that one. But if they're going to do that, yeah, you're right.

they won't do that because one versus eight could be New York playing L.A. Correct. Yeah, they want no part of that. Thanks for the phone call. And sorry about your trip to Lake Charles. Hey, so here's my situation. Now, it all depends. I think first and foremost, if they do a massive realignment in baseball,

they're going to have to go to, they're going to expand to 32 teams. And you could do exactly what they do in the NFL. You could have eight four team divisions. My thought would be this. Now, again, this is just me thinking out. loud and it may be hard to comprehend because you're driving around trying to fight this weather. So I'm going to say it as slowly as I can. You have eight divisions based on parts of the country.

You play, if you win your division, you play the second place team in your division in a wild card. Okay. The winner of that represents your division. You then would play the division next closest to you. you in a division series. The winner of that matchup, you would then play the next closest in a championship series, best of seven, and then you then play the other league's best seven, who went through the same process and playing the World Series.

So, for instance, again, I'm probably losing 80, 90 percent of you and I apologize. Astros playing the Southwest Division. They played, let's say the Astros won the division. division, they'd play the Rangers. They beat the Rangers in a wild card. Then they would play the Mountain Division. They would play the Arizona-Colada winner. Let's say they beat Arizona. Then they would play the winner of the Pacific, which would be Seattle or San Francisco. Then they would go play the World Series against one of the teams in the east. So you could have 16 teams in the West, 16 teams in the East. You play the rounds as close as you can, the opponent's closest

to you as possible. Then ultimately, Ultimately, you'd have an East versus West World Series. Did I confuse you? Yes or no. Have I confused myself? Absolutely. But that's how I think you do it. I think the tenor is they want as many Dodger Giants,

Dodger Mariner, Astro Ranger, Astro St. Louis, New York, Philly, Mets Boston Series as possible. Keep it regional as long as you can. and that's where I think the complete overhaul of the divisions and leagues would come into play. I'm sorry for confusing in Houston, Texas, but I just had to get that off my chest. Jonathan, I'm blessed. You are blessed. We have the greatest audience in the world. We don't always agree with them 100% of the time, but generally speaking, we love them, correct?

Of course, of course. We got another Matt Thomas show with Ross Bingo card that was just created. Are you serious? Yes. Okay, okay, we gotta go through that. Shout out to R-S-J-R-D-K. I know what that means, but bless you, my brother. Here we go.

Real quick, the Matt Thomas show, and we'll go back to the phones in a minute here. Gordy saves the show. Not one ever hits that. Gordy doesn't save the show. He's just coming with SEC takes. Matt walks out of studio after a terrible take. I do that quite a bit.

That's true. Hell yeah. Ross loses composure off mic audibly. Yep. NIL talk, duh. Late Charles mentioned, yes. Celebrity death segment. Yeah.

Hell yeah. Do we do a lot of celebrity deaths? I guess we do. Last couple months, yeah. NASCAR on the moon reference, that is a deep, that's a deep cut. Instant poll, which is really insta, but that it works. WFAN for our friend James and Garden Oaks. Hell yeah.

During break, convos spills into segment. That's absolutely the truth. Let me just tell you something. If you ever heard with Ross and I discuss All Fair, I would have lost my job many moons ago. Kingwood Studios mentioned. I love the Kingwood Studios. Matt complains about traffic, yes.

Believe it. Free space. Ross brings out the Nosterongas file. That's not true. That's no such thing as a Nostarongest file. The McRib is mentioned. Hell yeah. McRibb is mentioned, of course, it's America sandwich.

Ross's the computer freezes. Yes, of course, it's our engineering. Excuse me, Matt? I say excuse me? Yeah, I do that. Volley- You said that a lot. Wait.

Hell yeah. Argument about what's on the studio TV. Fair. Host, rhymes, name, and brand. We did that yesterday with Rakarrel. Airline Hotel Points Talk. Yep. Hell yeah.

Pregnant pause, certainly. Crush City trademark. Yeah, I've lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on that. You know, Jonathan, that's me that did that. Yeah, you told me that. It's a God's honest to Ruth. I created Crush City and I got nothing out of it. I was like you told me that one of your biggest regrets.

Oh, my God. I got a lot of regrets. That's one of the biggest ones. And the last one is the Cal McNair slash Forrest Gump, which, again, I don't think it's a good impersonation. You don't think so? No, because Ross sounds like Forrest Gump. It didn't sound like Cal. If he took his Forrest Gump impersonation and sped it up a little bit,

it sounded more like Cal, but it doesn't. It lets me down. Asking to improve it every day, he won't do it for me. Andre at 1226 on 790. Andre, good afternoon. Hey, good afternoon. How's it going? Good.

Hey, thanks for letting me on the air, man. I just wanted to weigh in on this MLB talk, this playoff talk. Sure. Yeah, I mean, the only thing I'm really, that really, sticks out to me is the fan experience. I mean, I know TV ratings are big, and I know it keeps the league going. But if you really think about having to play the same four teams every year, I mean, the typical fan is going to go to the game. I mean, it's going to get quite boring, you know, year after year. I think that's one of the best elements of having the league rankings

is not really knowing who's coming to town. And it's a good way to, you know, encourage tourism and all that good stuff, too. Tourism? You mean like going to different cities? No, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that's going to be gone for the regular season. But here's what I do believe, Andre, I think you will be playing if you massively realign. This is a big if here. If you are a massive realignment, you're going to see more local regional rivals. You're going to play Texas more. You're going to play the Cardinals more. You're going to play the Royals more if that was where the Astros quadrant was. And you're still going to play the Rockies. You're still going to play the Orioles. You're still going to play the nationals. You're still going to play the Marlins. But I think that Rob Manford wants to keep these rivalries close. They want to limit the travel. Now, that could be just Mambi athlete saying that, or he could be saying, hey, I get more value of watching the Yankees play the Red Sox 15 times a year than I do having the Yankees play Tampa Bay 10 times a year. You see where I'm going with us? Yeah, I do. I do completely. But I mean, like just talking about the Rangers and the Rockies,

I mean, you know, they're not the same franchises as, like, for example, the Red Sox coming into town or Anaheim or things like that. So, I mean, I'm curious to see how it goes to, but right off the bat, I couldn't imagine having to see these teams more frequent that don't have the same star power. Well, but what if all of a sudden Kansas City and St. Louis are always winning 90 games every year and it's a nasty rivalry for the next decade? You would change your mind on that. I mean, look, the Astros, three years ago, we're playing the, we're playing the, we're playing. 17 times a year against the A or 17 times against the Angels. It wasn't out of the ordinary. I like what it

is now. I just know that when you do expansion, it gives you a pause and an opportunity to rapidly change things around. And I do believe again, I don't disagree with Rob Manfred that he would rather have Seattle play the Giants in round one of the playoffs than having one of his East Coast teams

go west to play the Giants because he's going to lose a large segment of his population that are going to say the games are on too late at night. Yeah, yeah. I completely agree. I completely agree. I see where all sides are coming from. I'm curious to how plays out. I think my mind kind of jumps to, I mean, the NFL, for example,

you look at like the NFC, where every team in that division is just kind of sorry. They're kind of working on things. But yeah, no, I mean, thanks for letting me weigh in. That's really all I have to say. I mean, I love the show, love tuning in. Thanks, Andre. Have a good weekend. I appreciate you joining the program. Look, you know,

the hardest thing I think is going to be whether or not they get rid of the American and National League. because baseball, it's got a few people out there that are like, we've been watching baseball since the 1940s, and we would never believe this. Well, things change. They didn't have the DH in 1943.

They didn't have 162 games scheduled back in 1943. Everything changes. If you don't adapt to things in sports and in life, you are going to be at the outside looking in. if you change the way of the game is played, that's where you lose me. Like if the baseball went to seven inning games, screw you by.

If you said we're going to add two more position players on the team to make 11 guys in the lineup, you're done. I'm not for changing how a game is played. Subtle things can be changed. Pitch clock, instant replay, ABS. those are subtle things to me.

But I'll give you an example in basketball. If all of a sudden I'm calling a Rockets basketball game and there was a spot on the floor with a big circle behind it, you can make four point baskets. Screw you. I'm out. I'm not doing that. I'm not going to make a touchdown that's more than 50 yards worth eight points

as compared to six. I don't need those kind of rule changes. But subtleties? Scheduling, making the game fan-friendly or making it more technologically advanced for the time in which we're in, I'm all for that.

1230 on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790. And y'all are in some creative mood today. Jonathan, we have an Adam Clayton, Adam Wexler, Bingo Board that was just created. Now they're competing against me. It's only three-by-three, though.

They don't have enough to... Come on now. You all going to get better. than this. You got to put the effort name if you're going to do it. Here it is. Clinton talks about argument with his wife. Clinton does a Trump impression. Clinton

trashes Jeff Passon. Clinton rants about how other teams cheated to. Wexler challenges Clinton's take. Wexler narrates an entire segment. Clinton makes a movie reference. Wexler is sarcastic.

Clinton tells Wexed he can't him. That's why I love you, people. By the way, Eddie Nunez, our great athletic director, University of Houston is sending me traffic text. He's in the same situation. He hates traffic, too. Let me tell you something. When we are making oodles of cash, I'm going to get to Eddie a full-time limousine driver after me.

Seriously, if I could give something up, if somebody came to me and said, you can never drive again. Even if I was going to the cornerstone to buy lottery tickets and milk, I would give it up. Now, would I mean, oh, is somebody at my availability to take me somewhere? Yes. Would I do it? Absolutely. I picked the wrong city to hate traffic in, because this is the worst. Let's say, this is probably the worst.

L.A. is, the only city I've ever driven in that's worse is Los Angeles. Chicago I can live with. I don't drive in New York. I've never driven to New York in my entire life. But Los Angeles is god awful. And Houston, we're right there. Even Dallas traffic doesn't piss me off like, Houston traffic does.

So thoughts and prayers, Eddie, as he makes his way over here to the station. Let's talk to Charles on 790 at 1238. Charles, thank you for holding and good afternoon. Good afternoon.

How are you doing? Good. Just want to weigh in on the Major League Baseball realignment. I think you're on kind of the right track with the East Division, West Division, or whatever, but 162 games is a lot

different than 17. So I think, think they're going to have to follow more like what the NBA does with their alignments and their playoffs and things. Yeah, I don't know what they're going to do. I think it's going to take a long, exhaustive situation, because it's going to be very hard for me to convince 30 owners or 32 owners what will be best for baseball if indeed they expand to 32.

You know, I think maybe, you know, if you're an old school owner of a, if you're a Steinbrenner, Do you want to maintain the rivalry being an American League East team? Or do you think about the fact that playing the Mets every year sounds cool than playing the Phillies every year? So I think it's going to be a very long, exhausted process. And a lot of it also has to do, Charles, with what two cities get the expansion teams, whether those two cities are in the southeast or if they're in Salt Lake City in Portland. It's kind of up in the air right now, but it's kind of fun just to kind of think about it at this point. At this point, I think one's going to be in Mexico City.

that I've not heard I mean that wouldn't surprise but the problem is Charles is that it's going to be hard to get a baseball team in Mexico City because the scoring is going to be astronomical you're not going to find any pitcher that's going to want to go there because the ERA is going to be 10 times what it would be somewhere else

no doubt about that but just you know with the way things are today I mean I've been watching baseball since 1970 wow with the with the removal I mean with

with the designated hitter being in both leagues now and the real events and everything. I mean, realignment makes sense just from a statistical and a cost standpoint for travel and things like that. But, you know, the league really doesn't matter that much. It doesn't make as big of a deal as it did even 15 or 20 years ago, where you had the designated hitter in only one league. Well, think about this, Charles. 35, 40 years ago, no one would have ever thought a million years, the Astros would be playing the American League

or the Astros will be playing teams outside of their league. So as long as we grow up and understand these things, that things do change, I think we're going to be fine. I think it's going to take a massive adjustment, especially if you get rid of something called the American League and something called the National League. But if it's good baseball and your team wins,

you don't care what division they're playing in. And that's true. I mean, I hated it when the Astros went to the American League because I loved watching the rivalries with the Braves and the Dodgers. and, you know, Cincinnati Reds. But we survived and, you know, we kept going and baseball lived on, and it'll live on after whatever they do here.

That's true. That's right. Thanks for the phone call. Appreciate it, Charles. You know what it's funny, there are two things as a sportscaster for as long as I have been that has made me giggle a little bit. In 1994, when Major League Baseball had their strike and eventually cost the season, I was a young sportscaster at the time, but I would take a lot of phone.

calls that were saying, I will never watch baseball again. I will never, ever, ever watch. You cost me a season. I'm done with you. But you came back. You did. And you came back bigger than ever. A lot of that might have been because of Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa in their chase

for home runs and later Barry Bonds, but you came back. And then there was a huge section of the population that when the Astros left to go from the National League, the American League, I grew up watching National League baseball with my Astros. There's no way, no hell, no chance I'm ever watching the Astros again. And then all of a sudden the Astros started getting good again and going to the playoffs in 2015. And then one of the World Series in 2017.

team. We are a finicky bunch. We will never, ever, ever do things again until something is really good and we can't wait to miss out. There are people, I'll give you a current reference. There are people that are losing their damn mind over rackerel changing their logo. I'm not a fan of it. But I do like their eggs and I do like their bacon and let their hash brown casserole and their pancakes. I'm still going to eat it. It's good food. It's good food.

Cinnamon apples. They're a bank. If you will. Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes at 4.30 in the afternoon? Yeah, I'm eating that time. Shut up. I don't like what they're doing, but I'm still going to go. Especially if those prices drop, you'll definitely be wanting to go. Just throwing that out there.

1243 on the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. 713-212-5-7-90. Not only do we have the esteemed traffic director for Southeast Texas, Eddie Nunez with us. You came in early? Seriously, what is up with this? This is such a pleasant surprise. A guest coming in early to the show. Well, if we got to turn it as a microphone on.

Okay. You're on. You're on. You're on. All right. If you're going to do it, do it right. So I just, you know, traffic. I mean, it's a Friday afternoon.

You would think it wouldn't be as bad. But lunchtime, getting through 59, 69, 69, the city decided it wanted to do some road work. Okay. It makes it always interesting. So I love it. We should reference that you lived in Aberkirky and Baton Rouge. Not huge traffic metropolis is. the last two times. No, no, there you can actually average a lot, a lot higher in your

miles per hour than many places you're, because you've got runways to go. Man, it's good. See, I haven't seen you in a long time. I know. You've been on vacation. That's about time to come back to work. That's not true at all. I wish it was the case. You're out there raising money all over the place. I'm trying. I took this summer to do everything I could possibly do to meet with as many people. And we still got a lot of work, but it's been, it's been a great response by the community. Really great. And any's with us for our next hour and change. If you'd like to come in and say hello, 713, 212, 5, 790.

And look, everybody knows this audience. I'm unabashed University of Houston, so I will over-expose the program when I can. But I do want to get into some bigger picture issues about the industry and stuff. But let's just go to you first. And you've been on the job just a little over a year, which is you got in. What was the first thing you did? Was it the right thing you had to do right away? and take us to the last 12 months without spending the entire hour talking about your last 12 months.

Yeah, I think when I first got here, more than anything else was understanding what was in place and knowing that there was a huge change coming in our industry. And so I had to look, take a step back, look at my staff, understand who they were, what their responsibilities were, but were we set up for where we were going. As an industry, that was what was more important to me. and then trying to get a bunch of great wins. When I looked at our department, there were a lot of things

that were just going through the motion. And so everything, and I know people talk about all time, but the merchandise licensing, little things that made a big difference for our fan base. It wasn't hard. It was getting with the right people

on campus making things happen. So when I first got here, my initiative was to get to know people, build trust, understand what was in place, and that process of restructuring the department, which is ongoing, going because it never changes.

And establishing a culture, setting a standard, it is something I started then. And we just honestly really emphasized it over the last, probably six months more than anything else. As I told you when you first got the job, I thought the biggest benefit you had, didn't worry about your head coaches, at least at the football and men's basketball side.

A lot of times, AVs will come in, survey the territory. Now you had to make some changes in other sports, but to have those two spots, Willie's great reputation, comes in, doesn't do it right away, but turns everywhere, he goes into winning programs.

You got Calvin Samson sitting there playing for national championship. So that had to be a huge weight off your shoulders. And I'm to worry about, man, I'm the new guy in town. And I got to figure out if I'm going to keep my football and basketball coaches. Yeah, they, and I've said this before, those two coaches, I had the privilege to sit down with them before. I was actually sitting in front of everybody else. They were two that were part of the process at the end there where I got to talk to them.

I knew many people who knew them. So I got to understand a little bit more about both of them. I'm fortunate. Fortunate to have two coaches that have unbelievable experience, have had success everywhere they've gone, are supportive of each other. You know this very, very well. You can be in an athletic department where those two coaches don't communicate,

they don't talk, and it becomes a really tough time getting everybody else to buy in. So when you see those two coaches, and then we do, we have a great group of coaches right now. We have exceptional coaches that have a vision where we're trying to go, but it starts with those two on the top. And I've said this before. What Willie has done in his time here in establishing the culture, the expectations, going into Kansas State, going into TCU, excuse me, both of those wins last year,

even though it was only four wins at the end of the year, those two were program changers. And I truly believe it because it helped establish what he's doing today, the recruiting and everything else. And I'm fortunate, fortunate to have those two guys working alongside me. And then the basketball squad says we're going to win the entire region. We're going to go to the national semifinal. We're going to play for a national championship. Obviously, the end result was not what we wanted. But, I mean, what a fun aggravating, but still an amazing ride.

And the fact that, and look, I literally flew into San Antonio the day of the game for that game to see the city, the Alamo area. And you've been to San Antonio plenty of times. I mean, you could not walk two steps without seeing University of Houston people. though. That may have been the greatest group of people at a neutral side event that I've ever seen the University of Houston at. There are a lot of things fell into place. When we were moving

through the process of the NCAA, we were trying to focus on how do we maximize that exposure. We're fortunate to get there if coach finds a way with that team and we found a way to get there. And in a hard environment, going into Annapolis, coming out of that bracket, was a

very challenging task. And we put our effort and okay if we get to this point, let's put all our eggs in this basket to push it, push it hard. When fans were driving through the city all the way from here to San Antonio and seeing signs that said go Coogs

all the way up to when you got, when you arrived in San Antonio, that first couple days it was, it was a good mixture of Auburn fans and Florida fans and everything else in Duke. But what started and kept going and kept going and kept going was our fans

kept coming in droves. and I it was so I remember walking around I was actually walking the day the day before the championship game and I stopped at a church and I just walked in because it was an old church downtown

and I decided had gone for a run walked in there and take a look at somebody some a Kug fan walks by and goes are you going to do your prayers for tomorrow's game? And I said if it helps

I will stop in here and do it but more than anything else he was so excited to see me and taking pictures and I just realized it was 8 in the morning and here are Kook fans fans just supporting each other. So great experience.

Now we just got to keep building off it. You always hear about how sports gives publicity to a particular college and everybody with those economic firms say, hey, this is the money that indirectly we got this out of that. Do you buy into those kind of things? And if you do, which I'm going to assume that you do, what did you get out of that? When someone says that the University of Houston received $12 million worth of exposure because of this, not necessarily do you have monetize it, but how do you go, okay, now that we can put this money in the areas

or we can say, hey, this experience has given us a chance to raise money for our other schools, for our enrollment, for our academic program, our athletic programs. So I can take it back all the way to, you remember this, Boston College with the Flutie effect. When that game, even since then, you've seen Boise,

you've seen others that have had that success moment either be in football or basketball, and it's allowed the university to grow. Now, athletics, the university as a whole. And so when we started, again, embarked on this NCAA journey, one of the things that I want to do is work with our conference office, the Big 12, work with an independent company, work with campus to collect as much data as we can

to see if these numbers really jive. And there's four numbers that I always tell everyone. There's the viewership and there's exposure. And if you start with that viewership number, you think 21 million people watched our basketball game. That is the highest viewed basketball game, not college, pro and college last year. The third, 18 million. Then you go to that next bracket where I tell people all the time, okay, we had 28 million

engagements on our social media platforms just in athletics and basketball. Add another figure. The enrollment applications increased 14% in the last two weeks, and it's only continuing to get better. then I add the last one which is most important 6.1 billion dollars worth of advertising value and that's where you're going with this and you're like what does that mean well that means if I with everything and all the exposure from media to print to television

independent company who does this came back presented those numbers it wasn't me in the corner over there saying okay let me add these two things together it was giving us the data us being able to put it back out there and so what that equates to is it's not going to just help us today. There's not somebody who's writing a $6.1 billion check said, hey, thanks, congrats. But what it does is it allows our partners, our donors, everyone understand that if athletics is done properly, it could be a window to the world. And we have produced a great opportunity with our men's basketball time and time again

that it's shown it's presenting opportunities for this university, for our partners, and for the city. So this is not something that's going to pay back just today. this is going to be residual. It will continue to build and build and build. Enrollment will get better and people will say, well, you probably have a cap with enrollment. Well, you know, what you're also doing is you're raising the quality of the students that are interested

because now it doesn't become just a regional or city. It becomes a national, international. And so everything we can do to lift this university is part of the process. And I believe those exposures give us a chance. And in Nunez with us for until 2 o'clock this afternoon, if you want to come in and say hello, you may do it two ways through my Twitter account. that's sports m t or you can call us at 713212-5-790. Eddie has been worked at some of the great institutions in this country and give us a perspective

on the landscape of college athletics and we'll do that and talk some more U of H until 2 o'clock right here on Sports Talk 790. All right, our good friend Eddie Nunez, Vice President Intercollegiate Athletics with us this hour on the radio program to talk all things about college athletics. So I tease the audience. I said, you know, I'm going to ask you to bring me a dummies guide to NIL and paying athletes and what you can do and when you can't say and what you can do and how you can leave them to your collective. I don't know if there's a book like that, but when there is one, can you send me a copy? Because I'm confused as hell right now.

Well, I think you're in the same basket as a lot of people. And I feel bad because people ask me about it. And I don't have an answer because my general response is that, But if an athlete wants to go somewhere, they'll figure out a way to get it done. And the schools will figure out a way to find that money for the kid. So there's real, the Cliff Notes version of it is NIL has come a long way. Even in the last several years, if you think of back when this first, it happened with Ed O'Bannon. And he challenged NAC and that opened up Pandora's box.

And last several years we lived in a world of NIL. That NIL world that we lived in started well with a lot. of unknown. It went into a whole different era of kind of more paying, got close to pay for play, but it wasn't. There was still a lot of business actions that were working. And then where we are today, that opened up many lawsuits, of course, throughout the last several years in the House case, the settlement, opened up an opportunity called RefShare. And this is where we are today. RefShare is basically an opportunity for every athletic department. If they choose to revenue share up to a certain percentage

with your student athletes. That percentage, that amount is roughly about 22% of the Power 5 or Power 4 now, athletic department revenues. So it equates to this year $20.5 million that we are allowed, that is our cap,

to revenue share with our student athletes. You can spend all 20.5. You can spend zero. I can spend zero. But as a Power 4 member, that is the ACC, the Big 12, the Big Ten and the SEC, those four conferences

are mandatory. If you are a member, one of those that you are going to be revenue sharing. Again, doesn't say how much, but I have to revenue share something. We made a decision at the University of Houston to be all in, just like everybody else in the Big 12 and basically everybody else in the Power 4.

That's going to give us a chance to compete. Now, it was hard. We had to do some things within our budget. We had to work with our campus. We had to work with our board to make sure we were able to do what we are trying to do. That revenue sharing, how it's distributed to every one of our teams, it depends on each institution.

But across the board, there's a pretty basic standard that football is your highest revenue sport, basketball, men's basketball, and so on and so on and so on all the way down. And so those two are going to always have the higher percentages. Some schools will always do football at a much, much higher revenue distribution than what what others do. For us, we want to invest more in basketball, still keeping football at a high, high level. At the same time, being able to do something for most sports. We've also added scholarships. That's part of this process, too. For with this, has allowed us to open up some scholarship limitations that were there in the previously. So some sports have been able to add scholarships.

Others have been able to do revenue share. So that's the revenue component. The old NL, the NIL that we are today, though, is true business purposes. If you as a business owner wants to do an NIL deal with a student athlete, we will give you that access to those student athletes, be able to go out and they'll will, if it's perform a commercial or do something for that work purpose, as long as it's within that market value, that... The clearinghouse allows.

The clearinghouse, revenue, you know, everything else, they have a chance to be able to do it. So we're coming a long way, but the one thing that is evident, and I keep saying this to everybody, we don't have all the answers. And we won't have all the answers until this continues to get closer and closer to some federal legislation that allows bigger guidance and direction than we've ever had. So the $20.5 million, that's per season, correct? Per academic year? Yep. And for the next two years, though, it's going to go at 4% in the next two years.

And that's money that is at your disposal that you will choose to spend on programs according to what you as an athletic director in your department says. Yep. And I basically tell a coach this is what your revenue distribution is. You can distribute it accordingly with your team as necessary. I don't get into the minutia of if he wants to give this quarterback or this running back or this power forward or this point guard. For me, it's about this is what it is. This is your cap. You can't go over it.

And when do you give the caps? Have you given your caps to your coaches yet? Yep. So that began. So starting July 1st of this year, we were able to start this process. So every program and in our department that was going to be doing revenue sharing started that process. What if one of your coaches and we'll throw your football and your basketball, let's say your women's basketball coach, you've got a brand new coach. Yes, sir.

I've got this top 25 kid that wants to come and I can't get NIL because it's going to be harder for the non-rebs sports, but you had the 20.5. that says, look, I need an extra $250,000. Can they come to you with that kind of stuff? They can come. They're not going to get it. But so you feel like you have to withstand a number that cannot go over the top. You can't make adjustments on the fly. This is every institution.

So what I've done with every program, as I've said, this is what you're getting. Understand, if you spend it all, then I don't have any more to give you. Because we're going to maximize our revenue distribution. we're going to do everything we possibly begins. And I'm going to try to split it out now. If I save $20,000 at the end of the day and say, okay, I'm going to hold $20 over here just in case somebody needs a little sprinkling. We can do that. But because this is all still very new to us, we don't know what that's going to mean, how it's going to look.

We also are using some of that money because part of this House settlement, $2.5 million of your $20.5 has to go to scholarships. So when I say that, any new scholarships that I open up, you have to utilize up to $2.5 million. So in essence, I have $18 million that we can share within our department. And so our coaches within that distribution, this is what they know. And so the likelihood of them coming at the last minute saying, hey, I need $100,000 more. Well, they already knew where we were when we started this. And come next July 1st, there will be a whole other process. And so this is, they are in a very challenging position because it's not just that they're coaching their team.

They're managing their rosters. They're doing everything they've been doing for years. It's a salary cap, too. It's a salary cap. It's everything. And then they're saying, okay, this young man or young woman, they're going to be leaving at this point. Okay, at that point, do their contract, how much have we paid them? How much?

So there's a lot of nuances that everybody's going through. And they have to have great coaches around them. every one of our coaches is assigning somebody that's helping them within their own staff in our department. We have people that are helping them in all these different aspects. But, you know, and I use men's basketball because the success they've had, if you look back at the success they had, there's many reasons. But one thing that I keep referring to and I keep telling everybody, the consistency of his staff, the continuity of who he has and what they do and everyone knows their role

and they all do a great job with it allows coach to maximize. how he communicates who's responsible for what? Ultimately, he's his hands on everything. But he also has trust within Kellyn and others to be able to maximize and do things that they can do well. And these kids are getting these dollars on a yearly

basis. Can their number fluctuate? Yeah, oh yeah, everybody's done. So these are all negotiated with their representatives or their agents. Some coaches decide, you know what, I'm going to do use a roundabout number, $1,000 for every kid. Well, that's great. Some people will say, Matt, you're worth 10,000, Eddie, you're only worth 1,000.

Yeah. Great. That's a decision that was worked. And when I come in and that's what I decide with my representation and coach, if I say, okay, this is good, I'm going to sign it. You sign a contract. Everybody's on a contract. Because they're one-year deals, essentially. They're all one-year deals, essentially. So that's the reason why, frankly, we're seeing so many general managers now in college football. Absolutely.

Because, I mean, I love Willie, but I don't want Willie Bounds in the books. I want Willie drawing up plays and go recruiting kids to come to school. You need others that have more of, I don't want to say expertise. I mean, that's the easiest way to say it, but that have an understanding of what managing this. And that's why I spent this summer time with a lot of the professional organizations here in town and others outside of the city, asking questions, trying to understand rescher and how all that works. And I mean, I sat down with Patrick Furtita for a little while because, and many times, but one of the times was to understand some of the dynamics and the nuances that that, they deal with with the rockets. This is in an essence what they do.

And so, and they do a great job of it. They maximize their, their, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the most out of kids. Well, if you talk to him next time, tell him his radio broadcaster, could use a little bit more money in his next contract. So, I don't know if you're going to see Patrick or not. If you could drop that in. I will, I will, I will try to do what I can.

Uh, on the NIL, which is completely separate. There's a clearinghouse. Yes, sir. That will say, we don't think you can pay. a golfer, $75,000, when there's really no marketability towards that golfer, unless the program is very popular and this person doesn't have an Instagram follow of $250,000. The clearinghouse tells you no, but if I want that kid bad enough, should we be concerned that there's going to be the backroom deals? There's going to be the handshake deals. There's going to be, well, this kid wants to come here, even though the clearinghouse said no, we'll take care of that person.

Well, again, the clearinghouse is saying no to that deal. the first thing they do is you're going to if let's just use an example Coca-Cola is a great partner of ours I'll throw a plug in for them there sure and so they if they if they come to you Matt say hey Matt we want to sponsor a any one of your players okay well I have to get this young man or young woman Coca-Cola's willing to put $5,000 just say into an NIL deal the NIL deal will be written up you'll put in there or they'll put in there what they expect from it that's submitted to the to the to the cleaner house will basically say okay is it a true market purpose business purpose is it in the range of compensation

now this is where you're where you're going with this yes we have a bigger range of compensation probably because of the city size here in the demographics and everything else so it should help you yeah it should help us and that's what we're looking to partner more with some bigger partners here in the city not just the small and the mediums but everyone at the same thing time, there's other schools that it can help as well. When you have brands like other schools at other institutions or other conferences that have a lot more tradition or their fan bases are more robust, they might have a same claim. They could say, we have a stronger fan base. Like Alabama has the entire state as compared to your competing with all these Texas schools.

And they have had success in a certain sport and they show it in this. And so that's the dynamics that we don't know yet how it's going to come to life. I do believe this first. part is going to be a little bit rocky and bumpy with everybody as we go through it. They're going to come back and say it doesn't meet the range of compensation. Can you please redo this or it's not accepted? So we have a chance. Once we get it back the first time, we can redo it, add some more things that the student athlete has to do.

It's resubmit it. And if they see it then and say, okay, this now makes sense. You're doing a lot more work. That money equates to that. You're good. If they reject it at that point, then it's done. So you have an opportunity to address it and modify it before it's officially null-in-void. And as a clearinghouse process works pretty well so far?

So they've had about, I want to say, about 4,000 deals that they've cleared. They've probably not cleared about 120 and 130 that I've heard, roughly. And there's some that are still in the middle going back and forth. So you're not concerned about somebody being mad about the amount of money. giving to a kid on this on this nil and worrying about backward back room deals no i'm worried about it i think everybody's worried about it there is there's going to be penalties now there's going to be penalties with all this and um the the c cc the college sports commission is going to have that's going to be their task to make sure that everybody plays within the rules and and and it stays within the guardrails

our coaches are worried but i will say this now too at the same time as i'm worried and everything else, I can't sit here complaining or just frustrated because we have to move forward. We have to evolve. And coach said this the other night. Coach Samson said this on the night and I thought it was great. You know, he said, you're not going to steal my joy. And I think that resonates so much in what we do. We love what we do and our kids love what they do and our coaches and everybody else. And so we're going to have to find a way to do this, but do it right. All right. More with Danny Nune. Nune. Coming up here on Sports Talk 790, there's something that you think I should ask the athletic director at our beloved institution. You may do so at SportsMT on Twitter and

713212-5790. 117.19. We are very happy to have Eddie Nunez with us, Vice President in a collegiate athletics with us on the show. Football Operations Center opens up. There's been some soft openings. A few things here and there. But today, as the media gets an opportunity, I would assume that most of us will not be able to get in there unless you, you know, you want to. Unless you know. Unless you know. somebody. I know a few people, but that's neither here nor there. You have to have it. I mean, there's

no if fans or butts. I mean, this is 15 years ago it was about facilities, and still it is, but now it's obviously the NIL and all that kind of stuff has moved along. But to have a palace like that, and the videos in the social media department is on a fantastic job of kind of getting

a little things inside of it. I mean, from your perspective, are you blown away by this thing? It's, first of all, it's a necessary evil. As much as we understand the sometimes when you look and say, well, is it worth it? Absolutely, 100%. Because where you see where we were and where we are today, it's night and day. They've been in the same facilities for a long, long time. I can go back six coaches ago probably.

Exactly. And so our weight room, and they've done a great job. Our weight room is shared by every sport except men's basketball and women's basketball because they had their, when they built the Guy V. Lewis, they were able to add a weight room there. But when you think about the ability to do everything in one location, the everything from the locker room, the training room, recovery, nutrition, academics, everything in one-stop shop. It's, it makes everything more efficient, more effective, and our coaches are in heaven right now. And so if you compare it apples to apples with every other school, I think,

were better than most and probably will compete with all. So I would tell you that. And that is privately held companies coming in, helping out the cause. I mean, I don't think you're in your budget. You had maybe some foundation for it, but it feels like to me, and any look, you've never shared your day timer with me or what you're doing on a day-to-day basis, but the year plus I've known you, it feels like you have had to just be a really good salesman, which part of being an AD is all about, but you have really, and I think that Renew probably wanted you and Timman wanted the same thing. We need to get, some cash influx into this program and I think you've done a very good job of that and so is that ever going

to not be a part of your job no no look we all knew this even 20 years ago it was part of the job maybe some did it better than others and and they were able to put more back into their programs we wouldn't be where we are today with the memorial herman's and our donors and some of these others that have really stepped up immensely to help us get to where we are today this summer i've I've said this of many. I mean, my month of June and my month of July, I had 41 events in the month of June, 42 events in the month of July. I wasn't trying to have a certain number, but somebody asked me this, and I went back

and I started counting them up. That's breakfast, lunch, is, dinner, events, functions. Right. And I look back, and many of these are with Fortune 500 companies, Fortune 200,500,000. I am trying to get in front of everybody so I can show them that we are the university for Houston. And that means we're hoping to elevate everything around us. And so trying to show them the impact that they can be, how we can partner with each other, help their companies.

But this isn't just about athletics. This is about the university. I mean, Centerpoint, many of these companies have, you know, hundreds and hundreds of employees that are U.H grads. So we want to continue that pipeline. Let's partner up. Let's do more. And so the more we can do that, we're going to set a record this year with fundraising. outside of a cap without a capital project, it's going to show everybody that there is an intent that people want to see college athletics moving and especially Houston Cougar athletics.

Is it a hard sell for you to walk into a group, a business, a company that doesn't have any Cougar ties? No, no. I mean, we've got probably three partnerships right now that we have gotten in the last, probably a month or so, that have no U.H ties. And it's purposeful. Why? Because I want to show them that this is beyond be, hey, you want to be a Florida graduate, you want to be a Kentucky graduate, you want to be a Texas graduate. Wonderful. Here you've got A&M and all those other ones. Great. But if your home base is here for your company, you probably have a good number of employees that are UH grads. Or if you're trying to bring people to work here, you want to have a great community that they could sell them. And if our university, what our present chancellor has done, What she has done to elevate this camp, this university, to the rankings that it has, it should, we should be, they want to be a part of it. They need to be a part of this. And so me going in there and trying to sell them and showing them what we can do, how we can do things, where we are today and where we're going. The vision of our department is, we're not here just to be where we are today.

We're here to be, you know, we're going to continue to grow. We're going to make this place great. And so we haven't had any challenges at all. I have sat many a time with my Cougar brethren, especially in my age group. And you tell me this is a fair understanding. fair conversation point. When I was going to the University of Houston in 1990s, we were dormant in football and basketball for the large part.

I mean dormant. I mean, Hawfine's, Robertson, not winning games, empty buildings. That was a generation of University of Houston graduates that didn't go to athletic events, that did graduate, that made lots of money, that were maybe generational guys. But because they were not in tune with the athletics of the late 1990s, it's hard for them to get into 2025 to come say, oh, I remember. back when I was going to the games and I wanted to make sure that I promised myself I was going to

donate. Do you run to that sort of issue because there was such a large dormant period in the athletic program? That young group never gravitated towards University of Houston Athletics and thus doesn't have the emotional attachment that other kids that watched Penn State, Michigan, Alabama,

LSU, USC, UCLA, have that sustained success run no matter what decade it was? Yeah, yes, we have. We have come across individuals that have that feeling, that understanding, that's no different. Honestly, even when I worked at LSU, you have people that you come across that didn't have a connection officially to athletics. They went to school there, and even with the history they had there, you often scratch

your head and say, do you understand why? And so for us here, that period of time where maybe there was some people that weren't as intuned or connected to athletics, that's okay. We are here to bring you back to enjoy and enjoy what we've been able to build. Our athletic departments had success in every sport. They have had an air sport. Me and heck, we've got one of the most championships in golf, men's golf. And people often forget those kind of things. And so we just want anyone who has had an opportunity to come through the University of Houston, make sure that they understand that they can show their affection, their joy, their passion for the coogs by just coming and enjoying a game.

And so we've got it, we're doing more to try to improve the fan atmosphere. We want them to come and enjoy it. I say it often. It's not just about the money that you can give, but coming out and supporting the coogs whenever you can at all events. Because that's going to make an impact more on our student athletes and how they play and how they perform than anything else. with Eddie Nunez coming up in a couple of minutes. We're going to talk about our relationship with the school and the Big 12 conference. If he has a thought or two about the SEC going to nine conference games, the landscape of the college football playoff.

We'll discuss that coming back. Our time is 132-713-213-2-5-79. If you've got a question for Eddie, we've got some people coming in on Twitter. I want to ask a couple of things. We'll get that in as well. 136. A couple more segments here with Eddie Nunez, Vice President Intercollegiate Athletics at the University. City of Houston with us here on Sports Talk 790.

Cougars are going to take on SFA next Thursday, 7 o'clock, a lone star Sampeed. How much have you gotten involved in football scheduling? I'm just curious. Actually, quite a bit. The good part is there are just one or two pieces that we had to add over for the next several years. So we don't really have an opening until 2030. So right now I'm working on 2030, 2032, 2032. So when you think about scheduling, I'm that far ahead right now because of some of the things that we're already in place.

And so, yeah, some things that we already added. But, yeah, we're looking at Power 4 programs in the ACC, the Big Ten, the SEC that we can look at partnering. I mean, next, I think next year, maybe. We got LSU. At NRG, right? Yep. How do you feel about those, the NRG folks writing you a check? I mean, it's nice checks, but there's also a part that says, you know, like when Texas came to play a couple of years ago, there was no way, no how.

game wasn't going to play anywhere, but Petities you, how do you balance the, you really offer me this to put the game there? Okay, maybe we can talk. Yeah, so it's, it's harder to get some of those premier games on your campuses. Yeah. And the money that the television plus those bowl groups are pushing really make it intriguing that you have to consider it. We understand why else you wanted to play this game. They want to, they have a strong, fan base in this community. I work with 80% of them here. And I get it. I came through here quite a bit when I was there.

But for us, if we're going to play that game, I mean, the reality is LSU wasn't coming to TDCU Stadium. So to have this and be able to make hopefully more, that's what's anticipated from that game than what it would be for a home game, then it makes sense. And we're just driving down the street. to do this in Vegas or Atlanta or one of these other major cities they're all possibilities but it has to offset all costs and actually make you more

money than you would make. And part of that though, if the kickoff classic wanted you to play a game against I don't know Auburn and week one and start the college football season that'd be hard to turn down but just to take a rando game it's got to be special. Big 12, Brent Yormark's been around a couple of years

now. He is always spinning the wheel unconventional would be the term I maybe would use for him always thinking about things some things I go man that makes a lot of sense some things I don't give me a couple of things that you you and I've talked to him talked about that said oh that makes that makes some sense

and I'd like to kick the tires on that no I'm probably the one that's scratching my head a lot of the times because you know as a purist you kind of look at things you're like okay why why so you start questioning it until you start realizing okay there's a I see the way he views it

Yeah. And he goes in. I mean, that's the one thing that you got to love. He's not doing anything half-ass. He's going to go in there. He's going to work to figure out how we can do something that's going to generate more revenue for this conference and more exposure. And, you know, even the basketball court,

many people first, when they saw our tournament court, our conference tournament court for men's basketball, and all the big 12s all over it, everybody thought it was crazy, but everybody was talking about it. And it was on everything and every social media. and it generated exactly what he was looking for. People talking about our tournament outside of just basketball. It's not just basketball.

It's everything surrounds it. So I've been very impressed with the way he approaches opportunities and sees them differently than many others. It's helped us in this league continue to make strides where probably others have not. I mean, the PayPal deal that we did, that's going to bring us each institution, you know, seven figures It was something at the time was hard for everybody

to wrap their arms around, but this is something that makes sense. And so we're fortunate to have someone that thinks the way he does. Do you think he wants to expand? I think he doesn't want to stay flat. Status quo. Yeah. And I agree with that. The last thing we can do is just keep going through the motions. We're never going to succeed if we just keep going through the motions.

And so continuing to always look to see what's best for the conference, how we can continue to grow. I mean, people heard about the Memphis. I'll throw that out there. I mean, it was intriguing, but there was still a lot of questions and actually probably more questions than answers. And so for us to be able to, as a league, to go down a path with an institution or something like that, it has to make sense. And it's not just about that one institution. It's about the next one and the next one of the next one of the next one. Yeah.

am I supposed to as a college football fan and especially someone that likes to take small digs with the Big Ten SEC think they run the world? Am I supposed to appreciate a 16 team playoff ultimately or what am I supposed to? How am I supposed to feel right now? I don't know.

Tomorrow might change again. Somebody else will throw another plan out there. That Big Ten one with 24 to 28 I was just shaking my head on that one. That was crazy. It's, they all have, again, they're positive as a negative. I mean, you're going to think about it. you have to start thinking to do that many games

how do you balance the bowl the other bowls that are in there how do you balance conference championships how do you balance every league the group of six everything else so there's a lot of nuances and look the SEC and the Big Ten have done their part and they're pushing a certain way but we're all in this together

so it has to be all of us coming to to the finish line with something that we all can support and that's that's why right now I think there's a lot of back and forth I brought up football scheduling uh do you like the current rotation for conference opponents do you like the way that goes or you want to see I'll play the politically correct answer that's okay I'm still I'm still appreciating and I've only been in in the league for a year so um for me I understand the rotation understanding how things I've got questions of course both good and bad on the on the

football side and the basketball side I mean I think there's things that um That could be done a little bit differently, but that's part of me just over-analizing certain aspects of it as a new person, fresh set of eyes, looking at things. But it's good. It's fine. What has been your biggest adjustment? You were a senior associate at LSU. You had your own ship, your shop at New Mexico, and now at the University of Houston. Can you describe unsettledies beyond the leadership responsibilities the changes from working at a mid-major to now working at a P-4 school? So having had the ability to work in a Power 5 back in the days when you thought about Vanderbilt to understanding an SEC job with way less resources like Vanderbilt, going to LSU, a lot more resources and seeing it grow over the 14 years that I was there to being one of the top tier institutions financially, competitively, leaving there and going to New Mexico.

That was a great learning opportunity for me. I got there and because of my time at Vanderbilt allowed me to understand the differences and finances and everything else. But it was, it's allowed me as a leader to be able to come in here and see things differently and know that I've been at the Power 4, Power 5. I understand what we're striving for. But we don't have the resources. So I can build it and we can grow this. So everything that I've been a part of has been. a growing experience.

And I also reflect that you have to take some risks. And I've been able to take some risks that have been strategic and have helped us succeed. All right. Final second, we've got a lot of random questions that are coming in through my account. So we'll get a few of those in before we wrap things up. Final segment with Eddie Nunez, Vice President Intercollegiate Athletics with us here.

On the Matt Thomas Show with Ross with the word right now for the Shell Federal Credit. Brian McTaggart, MLB.com. Proud of University of Houston Ground like myself. Want to know about the future of the future baseball stadium. Any ideas on that? We're going to implode it next week? No. Oh, there you go. That's what we don't need. We don't need the Cougar message boards

are going crazy. No, no, no. Look, there's several things that we can do there that we need to improve. First, first, the priority out there will be making sure the playability stuff for the student athletes or where they need to be. So the turf's going to be one of the things in the future. Lighting, the video board needs to be improved, but also the stands. We've got to continue to creep in there somehow some way to keep modernizing the whole stadium. So we've got ideas.

All those wonderful ideas come with this quite great little thing that has a dollar side associated with it. Ask Eddie about the progress of the merchandising and what's next in that area. If I have seen anything from you on social media is I got to get the Cougar gear out.

That's good. I like it. Yeah. I'm doing it right now. I, this is one of those areas that I think I've bought, because I took it upon myself in the beginning to push hard with merchandise and work with the university to get it where it was. And now we're starting to see these great successes, all these wonderful companies that have decided

they wanted to partner up with us. And we've grown it. It will be an all-time high in licensing and merchandising over seven figures. And again, it's not just that we're making money. It's we're opening up our business. brand exposure everywhere we go. I actually walked into a store the other day and they didn't have, they had other universities

and I actually stopped and said, can I speak to your manager? And I started asking about. You know you were or no? He had no clue. Okay. And, but the funny part is I said, can we get you somebody in contact with you H? And he said, yeah, absolutely, I'd love to. He decided no.

I said this to a group that I spoke to a week ago. I walked when I first took this job, I remember coming here for the interview and a couple A couple days after for the press conference, you know, walked hobby airport and IAH and not one item you can find anywhere that was UH Cougar stuff. Well, obviously you change it because I'm flying all the time and I see U of H stuff all the time. That's my point. And an emphasis is really pushing people to push more merchandise. So we're doing a lot of great things. Got great partners.

Yeah, no, my social media, I think most of the comments at times are where can I get X, Y, and Z when it comes of merchandising and everything else. We've got a local group that's done a great job with the merchandise. And they love going back and forth. And so anybody that's willing to do something and get licensed properly, and let's go. Let's make it happen. All right. I just added you as a follower, 8,800 followers. You've got to get more.

We're going to get you in a power for school. Come on now. Hey, I do have a lot of people, but the reality is I probably need to spend more time on it, too. And I choose that. That's interesting. Quick thought. I mean, you kind of briefly glossed it. Any thought about general managers for your particular sports?

to manage the NIL stuff. Yeah, at this time, I will work with our coaches if and when the time becomes that we want to broach that subject further. We will. But at the same time, that means we have to create positions. And at this point, we're not trying to create positions. We're trying to maximize who we have. The coaches have trust within those within their staff to make it to get what they're choosing to get to. So I'm good with it.

Any rough problems with the NCAA trying to convince you guys not the host at South Regional at TOTA. next year. No, but I hadn't been the chair on the men's basketball oversight for two years. I took it upon myself to push in the right ways and question why the women's basketball can host and their teams can play in their own tournaments.

Every sport in the NCAA, the institution that hosts can play in their own tournament. Why men's basketball has to be different? You can do it in football, the CFP. Now, so there's no reason, rhyme or reason that we shouldn't

be able to host and compete in that regional. But if they told us, they said they're going to look into it in the future. For me, I want the ability for Coach Samson and our student athletes to compete here in our city. And if it means not hosting, so be it Rice. We had a great conversation with their AD and I have known each other for years. They were extremely willing and ready to help out. So we're going to support them however we can. Does that financially hurt a lot, a little bit, not at all?

Yeah, there's an honorium that comes with it. it's roughly about $250,000 and it's great. It helps you pay for some of the work that you're putting into it as well. So it's frustrating that we have to give that up. But at the end of the day, more important than anything else

is giving our kids the experience to be able to play at home and our coaches. I appreciate coming by very much. It was great conversation. I'm fully up to speed now on NIL on the portal. We didn't even talk about the portal. That's for another time.

Oh, look at Adam. Looks at him. I'm looking at him. I saw him walk in. Coog Red. Good job. You're such a posy. And you're supposed to be the U.S. guy. I get it. Kingwood, volleyball. I get it. We got a mask.

We got a hat. I mean, can we get a hat or something? Well, I should have brought it. We need some fresher gear, but that's another issue for another time. University of Houston against SFA this Thursday, 7 o'clock. UH tickets, UHcougars.com, or 713 go coupons. Plenty of tickets. Please come out. We look forward to seeing you, and not just this one, but all of them. Every single one of them.

That'll be a lot of time. All right, up next, Wexler, our fellow U of H brethren, along with Adam Klan, the A team is up next. Talk to y'all tomorrow for Astros on 790.