The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - University of Houston Athletic Director Eddie Nuñez Joins the Show

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

University of Houston Athletic Director Eddie Nuñez Joins the Show

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. It's our final hour of the midday version. Monday will be with you at 6 o'clock in the morning, and I had scheduled our next guest probably two months ago because he's so busy chasing championships and chasing dollars. That's what AD's doing in 2026. And so, Eddie, you are the last guest and the last hour of the midday version.

Thanks for coming into the Matt Thomas Love Fest. I really appreciate that. Let's turn his microphone on it. If you go on it and join him for me, I'm honored, man. This is big time. I know. We get a lot of responsibility here.

Don't crush the show here in the next hour. And congrats and good luck to you and I know you're going to kill it. Yeah, we're going to be fine. It's just some of those nights are going to be tough after Rocket Games. But you know what? Nobody's crying for me. It'll be all right. It'll be fine.

Boy, you know, as I was telling you before, the audience, I could ask you five million questions. I can sit here and talk. So let's just do, we're going to talk as much macro as we can. Yep. This is year number three for you, correct? Starting year number three. So first year, you are jumping in and you're just trying to look at the lay of the land.

I think I asked you a year ago, you've got some decisions to make good coaches and you've done a little bit of that. Now year three, your basketball coach is a rock star. Your football coach just beat LSU and we're going to be a top 25 team this year. I'm so excited about that. So just in a nutshell, what have you done that people would not have normally seen you do in a 9 to 5 situation? Yeah, so this is this, when I arrived here, many know, we embarked on a new era of college athletics. It was refs share, it was NILs, a lot of things. More importantly, it was us in the big 12 for really just understanding what that takes.

So I, for a lot for that first year and a half, really was changing the structure of our entire department, not just going through the motions and keeping it going. We had to recreate right size and level set the whole department from an external side, pushing more marketing, pushing more internal, but also taking what we've done and making it better. So, since for now, this point, and we're talking quickly before this, but at this point last year, we've added 50 new people to our department. We've added 30 in the last, and just since 33 since the spring, four new coaches, seven total in the last year. And I don't want to make changes, but changes were necessary. And I do believe that I think it's everybody that we've added. It's not just going to improve the value of who we are as a department. But it's going to help us achieve things that we've never done before.

I know it because it's already happening underneath. So it's that structure that we had to get right first and foremost. It is crazy, though, because no, two athletic departments are the same because you may spend more on marketing or less on facilities. And maybe the school down the street or down the, in the conference may do just the opposite. So are you, did it take you a long time to say, all right, I've got to put some people in these positions over here and eliminate some spots here. But what is it like creating a pie? charted, so to speak. Yeah, it's not as easy just to sit down

and say, okay, we're going to re, just start filling the holes. Because the fact is we had people that were really good, but maybe they weren't in the right position. So we've had to reprioritize who goes and where. More importantly than anything else for me was understanding where can we make the most

impact. And if you think about our teams, first, we have to make sure that we provide our student athletes and our teams with every resource available to compete. If we're going to be in this Big 12, let's do everything we have to not just be a part of it, but excel. And so what we did is from there, we started looking at all the things that people like to ask about and complain about or give their thoughts about, which is the game experience or parking or this or that, looking at every aspect of how we can generate new revenue or even improve the atmosphere, the game experience, everything else you have. So it's been a lot, and we still got a lot to go.

I tell people we had a very good year last year. I could sit here and tell you our successes, fundraising, another record year. Academics, another record year. I mean, we have more corporate partnerships now than ever. Our brand, our licensing, our merchandise, everywhere you go, you're seeing it firsthand. But that doesn't happen overnight. That's all great. But I'm also still here because I'm not content.

There's still so much more that we can do, and we're going to do. What we need is our fan base, and we need the city of Houston to keep doing what it's been doing. it's not just embracing us, but now start coming to those games. Start coming and impacting our student athletes. Give them the chance that not just to be very good, but to be excellent. All right. We're going to give some non-breaking news to you, folks. The Oregon State game was not scheduled at 11 a.m.

Because Eddie Nunez has got to get a 4 o'clock tea time in. Correct? Absolutely correct. It's not sexy. But I'm going to tell you this right now. on kookfans.com, don't get mad at me. In Alabama, at Tennessee, at other big-time places across this country,

and we're going to act like we're big-time around here, okay? I'm just going to tell you that right now. They played 11 o'clock, the building is full. And so it's going to take some work, Eddie, and you and I'm an alum. You've been around a few years now. So the reality is it's going to take some work. If you love the football team,

and what I've seen so far I was in a couple of practices, including one this week, there's a lot to love. It's a top 25 team. It's a top four ranked team in the Big 12 preseason. Not that it means everything, but I love the fact that I'm getting a lot of positive national publicity about what this Cougar football team can do this year. Yeah, there's over 130 programs in FBS. And to be a top 25 program, it's not easy. It takes a lot to build it. And what Coach Fritz and his staff have done, with everything else, to build it to the level it is today and where we're going, this is just the, next step. So you're right, though. The 11 o'clock game is a tough one. It's a tough one for all of us. We want fans to come out and tailgate. We want our fans to enjoy the whole atmosphere.

We want to be able to create an atmosphere with fireworks or lighting or everything else. But we also have, we live in a conference, just like every other Power 4 conference. And sometimes television, the majority of time, if not all, dictates the time, especially when it's a game that's attractive to them. This is filling a slot for them. We understand it. part of it, but it's also where we get our revenue for our conference. So as much we don't like it, what I ask our fans always is if you're truly

a Kuk fan, understand some of these challenges are going to happen, like in life. We all hit a hurdle that sometimes we don't want to deal with, but this is one of those that we still have to come out and support the kids. Support this team. You want to have a special year? It starts in that first game. Come on out. Do your part. Don't

make the excuse about 11 o'clock game. We understand that. And we're sorry, but we're going to make it great, and let's go out there and showcase America that, you know, what the Houston Couges are about. All right, I'm going to sell it. 713, go Couges. Call the number. Get your tickets with that, 11 o'clock start.

And I think I've asked you this a couple things about television. Can I don't, is there any point where you can just call the commission or call your television friends and say, hey, we really would like to be at this particular time? Because I can tell you, our friends in Lubbock, and we're going to be up there for that Friday game in September, they don't love playing Friday at football. So it's not just the University of Houston that maybe I'd be going, hey, can you help us out with the time. Everybody has to basically acquiesce to the television networks because they're the ones financing a lot of what you're doing on these campuses. Yeah, it's, look, last year we had,

we had, I think it's three or four Friday night games and on the road, I'm not opposed to it because honestly get home on Saturday. But I also understand why the Friday night games are interesting or actually a good window for our conference. You've got to think about the opportunity that you're watching football, you're one of the only games being played that night at that. And so to be on that channel on ESPN or Fox, whatever it is on that Friday night, it's big. Now, yes, I also do understand where it conflicts with high school football and everything else. And it's a hard balancing act, but we have to do what we can. And when we have those games, we have to do our part. Speaking of scheduling, I brought this up really during basketball season, but I guess it could also

go applicable towards football. And we're, NIL still role in this world. In fact, my daughter will like some NIL if you don't mind North Island, but that's a different issue, a different time. I've suggested playing one or two basketball games like the players era thing in Las Vegas, where the money goes to the kids. Could you see college football going to a 13th game where a significant chunk of the proceeds or guarantees go to the kids? Could you see basketball inflating their schedule to say this particular game is an NI. game because to have to come to you every single time or your benefactors that do to supply your NLI money, to keep going to them over and over again, that can cause them fatigue.

Yeah, there's a balancing act. The players here is a great opportunity. That's the first one to really come out of the gates with NIL. We're playing three other games this year at neutral sites, partly because we're playing a high-level competition. That's the only way we're going to be able to get them. But also, there's an NIL factor to it. So that is what's driving the end of the day of the train.

We've got some other things. We still have to have enough home games for our fans to be able to come and join. We still have to try to bring in high-quality opponents. And it's not easy. I'm going to tell you right now, especially when you have a basketball program as successful as what Coach Samson has built here. It makes it hard to get those high-quality opponents to come in here. They'd rather play you in neutral-site.

To answer your question about football, it's already in conversation regarding the possibility of playing games that may support NIL, but it's probably going to be a neutral side game like next year, we're playing LSU at NRG. In the future, I think you're going to see some of those games have a connection with NIL, a component of some sort, that whatever the guarantee is, you're going to get a percentage that goes to NIL. So we need both sides to be supported. We need both sides to be successful because the NIL side plus generating revenue for our department is important. We've got to be able to still run the department the way we need to.

Your thoughts about international play, I'm not huge on it to be brutally honest with you. I don't know the huge value and I know TCU will be there in week zero. Now that'll be a great trip for the kids and the staff and the broadcasters, but does it move the needle in your mind? And is the University of Houston any conversations about that? So I'll say, first of all, I know you're saying this because you're just talked about going over to Asia or something with the rockets and coming home, it's going to be a fun one for you.

I would tell you it does. If it's the right team, the right market, the right situation, it does benefit the program. But it has to work across the board. So when you think about TCU or Arizona State and Kansas that are both going this year, they're going to Wembley or England or London, I think. 102, yes. I don't know where they're from. I think they're.

TCU's at Ireland, I think. Yeah, somebody's going to Ireland. Yeah. And so both of them, all three of those teams, are going to benefit in their own way differently. I know one of the things with Arizona State, why they're going when they're going is because they're opening up a college campus, a satellite campus in London. So there's a benefit with them for others may be other things. So I do see the benefit. I do see the possibility and the opportunity of Houston playing in one of those here in the near future.

We have been an active conversation since the day I got here with several of those promoters that are doing that, everywhere from Europe to South America. and Central America. So I believe that that's going to happen, but it has to be the right time, the right opponent, because the other thing is when you go play there, understand you have to return and finish the season. So it's not like a one-off. You're going over there and then taking a whole week off and relaxing. So making sure that all those factors play into it. But we're definitely excited if the finances work and everything else works, we would be, we would do it. If you have any Questions for Athletic Director Eddie Nunez. Do me one of two things.

You can shoot me a tweet at SportsMT, and I will get that question to him, or you can send me an email at mT at Sports790.com. And it's not, obviously, we're vested because we're University of Houston here, but if you have some big picture questions about college athletics, because it's a very fascinating industry, you can let us know. MT at Sports790.com or on Twitter at SportsMT. All right, questions are coming in for Eddie Nunez. I've got about $9 million, but I thought I'll get a couple in here from the audience. Grant asked about giveaways and promotions for attending the events. Now, if you love the Cougars like we all do, and you, first of all, you get Willie Fritz on the phone, he can, that's a promotion in itself.

Maybe you should do a day of talking to people because he can get, he can fill a building up. John, then we got his microphone on? No, we tried again. There we go. There we go. It's okay. He's trying to silence me back there. He's like, no, I don't know.

Have we ever silenced Eddie before? No, that's all right. We should, we should. We should. No, no, no, no. I would say there's plenty going to be give it away this year. That's one of the things our team is doing, and they're trying to trying to come, they have all those ideas. They're ordering them anything else, but I'm definitely not going to sit here and start naming them right now because I'd like to, some of those to be surprises and everything else. So, yes, we're looking, we're doing everything we've done and more. We've got a great team. We've got a new individual that's actually

overall the game experience. He's been with us now. Came in here at the beginning of the summer. So he is, Lundus Pledge, he's been doing a great job. And so we've got several in that area that are excited about where we're going with the marketing promotions and all that area.

Can I say H-town Blue? Is that okay to say that? I want to make sure I'm not getting in trouble by anybody. Yeah. We've kind of changed, we're changing the, I don't want to say the nomenclature and how we talk about it, but it's really, it's our, it goes back to, it's just, It's just our love support for Houston.

It's our built by Houston campaign that you're seeing around the city. Built by Houston is all about our tribute back to the city of Houston. That Houston blue, for many people just would, you know, again, to keep forgetting it, they think it's just the blue game or this. No, it's our tribute to Houston and the city. But yes, it is, for most people's knowledge, it is the Houston blue. Just like two years ago, I said H-Town-Blue, I'm going to cease and assist from the Tennessee Titans, so I want to make sure I'm okay. One of the things you dig is you are very active on social media, Eddie Nunez-A-D.

Maybe sometimes you may be too active for your own choice. I try not to, but you do respond, and that's good. As people ask about apparel and buying gear, and you have made a concerted effort in the last year or so to get those shops up and running them more. Yeah, it's been one of my own little ventures that I wanted to make sure. It was something that I noticed when I first came here. And I've said this time and time again, going through the airport, going through other areas, seeing I've posted some things out there that I've seen by myself, but I've also had people send to me at the rallies.

And it's not just, yes, they had it before. Now it's two or three times the size of merchandise they had. To know that when you think of Roebuck or you think of Peter Millar, you think about all these other companies, callers and company, all these brands that are international that are now, carrying collegiate apparel, and we are one of those schools. Part of that effort is not just making the conscious effort to go out there and find companies that don't have our brand, and making sure our brand gets on there is making sure we have a licensing company that understands

what we're trying to do. And we've restructured that in the spring. The new company that is now helping us, CLC has been unbelievable and kind of really pushing the needle with a lot of these merchandise companies. Speaking of uniforms, the big 12th. signed a league-wide deal. Lapel, correct? Is it with Monster, correct? Am I right about that? Jersey Patch.

Jersey Patch. Okay, Jersey Patch. That leaves you some other opportunities, correct? Okay. Let me say this, because I'm in the NBA world. When the NBA announced it many years ago, Eddie, people were like, oh, these NBA teams are going to get fat and happy off of this. It's been more difficult than I think than NBA teams thought it would be.

So let me ask you from your perspective. You don't want to just put any Tom Dick and Harry on there, but you're also. looking to put a value on it as well. So I'm sure you're having to kind of navigate through those waters too. I would say that it is the first time, you only have one first time. And so for me, if we're going to do this right, we want to try to make sure that we hit every one of our principles. And one of them is we want to look at finding someone that match our values and vision of what we're trying to do because this is not just going to be a one year, hey, rip and replace, rip and replace. We want it to have a true value. So we're not going to undersell ourselves. We will

also would like to have somebody who is a Houston-based company. Now, if you look at 90% or more, probably, but 90% of the Jersey patches that have signed with collegiate deals have the pre-existing relationship with those schools and longstanding, most of them, this was just a continuation of what they've done. So we've had some of those, but we've got to be better because some of the ones that we've had, we haven't done a great job as an athletic department to strengthen those relationships over the years. And so we've been doing that over the last year and a half, two years. For me right now, it's finding that right partner. And when the time comes, if we've checked all those boxes, great. If one or two are not there and we have to go with a national company,

but they meet everything else that we're trying to do, then we do it. But I definitely don't want to just do it just to do it. And that's why, I mean, everybody thinks everybody's done it. There's a lot more schools that don't have Jersey patches right now. And to go back to the monster question just to answer that quickly. That is basically replacing where people saw the Big 12 logo on our jerseys. That's just replacing that logo. So we still have the ability on the other side to put what we need to do. And I know people will say this looks like, may look like NASCAR, this and that. The reality is we have to find ways to create and generate new revenue. And this is one of those possibilities. There are some great stadiums in a state of Texas with new marketing deals that

are going to have everything plastered. It's just the reality. And there's, Is there anything that's not, I mean, yard lines, have Andre at the 11, and that's not going to be touched. But we're going to see logos on field, right? I mean, as long as it's not obnoxious, you know. No, no, you're going to see it. We're looking at everywhere from the red zone to, so we have a little bit of a challenge at our stadium.

We have the Big 12 logo, you know, basically on each of the sides of the field. And then above them, we have, on the other side, we have TDCU Stadium. and then we have the John M. O'Kwin Stadium. So what we're looking at doing is, or field, excuse me, and what we're doing is we're looking at moving one of those to another location to give ourselves space to be able to have inventory availability. Not getting rid of those names, they're going to be on the field.

But for us, it's trying to maximize that opportunity. And same thing at basketball, we're not going to go. We've already have several things on the court. So we're looking at repositioning this. This will probably be happening more next year for men's basketball and women's basketball, but we are looking at the front of the benches. We're looking at on the court, different locations. You see at the NBA games already.

You're seeing it. The challenge with what we're trying to do and how we're trying to do it is what you see in the NBA. A lot of it is driven through the NBA television contract, which is one contract for all the teams, in a nutshell, and unless it's outside of that contract, they can put, with their television partner, impose camera, you know, logos, on the court that are not really there in place, but they're on there through television. And so they generate revenue that way as well. So that may be something down the road that we're

also looking and investigating as a conference. And these big deals come through televisions and eyes in 11 a.m. on the first Saturday of college football. I mean, again, say what you will about not. It's going to be hot as you know what, but that's a great spot. People all across this country that will not have any affinity to Oregon State or Houston are going to want to be on that 11 o'clock game, whatever it may be. Yeah, for all the businesses out there, And we've said this to many that we're talking to. The eyes that are on the University of Houston right now are bigger than they've ever been. The Big 12 conference in basketball is the highest viewed basketball conference this past year.

Football, we led in many categories. We had several games that were not just the highs of highs. You go back even a year before our national championship game and the game before that were the highest viewed basketball games. So you take those into consideration from a business side to know that that many views, that many opportunities are being seen on a jersey, on the court, or whatever, really resonates with many companies and how they can generate, not just exposure for their companies, but also revenue as well. Eddie Nunez, with us under half an hour here on Sports Talk 790.

If you have a question, you will like me to ask the AD. You can do so by sending me an email at mT at sports790.com. M.T. at Sports790. We're giving us a shot at your Twitter at SportsMT. More with Eddie coming up in a minute. All right, some macro stuff from our friends. And Eddie Nunez, I have to direct to the University of Houston. You can take the 80.

You're a lot of you want to. You're a football fan. You're involved in this. Thanks. What's your thoughts? I do not like... I love the 12th. Yeah.

I mean, I just do. I can live with 16. You can probably try to sell me on 20. 24 feels like it's going to be two months of battle there. Yeah. What's your general thoughts? And do you share your thoughts personally with others in the league? I think everybody in the league feels like more opportunities better.

Mm-hmm. The magical number, I can tell you positive and negatives to every one of them. I think as you grow the number, get closer to the 24 or whatever, you want to provide opportunity. What's going to happen is you've got the negatives that the bowl games are going to become even more. It's going to be less of an impact. So all those other bowl games outside of the CFP become lesser and lesser the more games you add to the CFP. So those traditional games sometimes may lose the value. And so as a team, if you're not in the CFP, does it still have that same impact to go to a bowl game?

So that's something we need to consider. The other side is if you're playing that many games, you're probably having to reconsider a conference championship game. Or does that conference championship game become a part of the CFP? So adding more weeks and continuing to play into basketball season is not something what TV wants either. So they've got to figure out between the NFL, college basketball, and everything else. got to find that happy balance, which is it's not perfect. And also playing that many games, is it the right number when you think about our student athletes and how many games and everything else associated with?

Or how many that don't play because they're worried about the draft status too. Yeah, you're going to have, there's going to be a lot of factors that are involved. I think the dollars today, because NIL may offset some of those a little bit. But I think, I definitely think more is better than where we are today. Now what that number is, we could sit here and continue to go back and forth on positive negative on each one of those. I think 24, yeah, sure. I would have liked 24 last year because we would have probably been in it. You got that right.

It's funny because in our Cougar broadcasting chat, we always like to play guess what bowl game we're going to. Oh, yeah. I think I figured it out. The closer to home, the better. And it's not just the University of Houston. It's a lot. And I know that Orlando was in the mix last year and Tampa's always in there. And there's always maybe Birmingham or Nashville or Shreveport.

I thought, and I wasn't there, unfortunately, because I had a Rockets game, but tell me LSU versus Houston inside at Reliance City and was on a joy for you not only to win the game, but to have the home kids and have moms and dads there and Houston fans in that stadium. So there's, again, there's both sides of this. As we were going through this process, we wanted to be at a place that wanted us.

That was one of the things. And the Texas Bowl from day one was, hey, we want you guys. Now, a lot of things had to work out. Everybody had to get to that place at the end of the day. What was more intriguing, but what made more sense was not just playing at home, but an ability to be able to play an SEC team. And the timing of the game and everything else just made total sense. So when we were selected to play there, it was a no-brainer for us.

Financially, sure, that's a huge benefit. First year in a bowl game, less cost on travel and other things. Our student athletes were able to, the Texas Bowl did a great job making that experience something unique for our kids, which that's the other side of this. You've got to remember, we want to give them the opportunity to go to a bowl game so they have a unique experience. Right. It's something different, something new.

And the Texas Bowl did everything and more. So coming out with a win, it even better. When you looked at that stadium and looked around and saw half of that stadium filled with red, I don't know if every one of them were coup fans or just Houstonians wearing red or maybe people that other SEC opponents to LSU that they just wanted

to wear red we have it here I like that and I'll take those fans for us at any time if their team is not playing come watch us so we're going to look

at the macro view of a college athlete when you and I were going to school or even going to 20 to 25 years ago in no particular order we carried about can this coach get me to the pros

can the stadium be filled can I get on TV do I have a cool locker room do I get to go to a cool bowl game? I never said NIL. So let's put NIL in that mix of five. Where is it for the average kid right now? Top?

The average kid or just... The elite. I would tell you the elite kids that we're looking at, at least especially in many of the sports like football and basketball, the elite of the elite NIL is higher up, of course. It's probably maybe in most the driving factor. I will say, though... I forgot education, by the way.

No, it's in there because I just met with the recruit right now for one of our sports before I came. And he was in the academic center sitting down with the academic advisor. So it's still a part and it's still important. The other side of this is what you said. I think they're seeing it more and more. You want a coach that could help develop you to that next phase of your life. If it's playing the pros or whatever it is, you want a coach that you can trust that's going to give you a chance. and look, all our coaches are phenomenal,

but let's just take football and basketball, Willie and Coach Samson, those guys have not just shown it, they've shown that they can do it, but they're also, every year they're investing more and more back into those kids and give them a chance. So I do believe Nile is important.

I do believe culture is important. I believe giving them a chance to compete at the highest level they can compete. But also, when you think facilities, you think about community, we're in the city of Houston with all the business leaders and everything else one of the biggest efforts we're doing right now

is trying to make sure our student athletes get in front of all these businesses from the energy sector to the bank sector to the real estate to the hospitality, you name it. I mean, we said this earlier, you got Landry's right across street, yes, Tom Fortita is, owns Landry's and Fatita Entertainment.

But the reality is, that is a industry that they are the lead in when you think about restaurants and everything else. having the ability to have our student athletes have that work experience or even just the students on campus, those connections are invaluable. So I would tell you, it's all a part of the whole ecosystem of recruiting. But yes, NIL now has been taking more of the lead of it.

It is crazy because I don't know when you signed up to be an 80 for the very first time or working in the athletic department's at Vanderbiltown on LSU. You were going to be money managing. I mean, you had to manage anyway because you had a budget to worry about, but you're now managing. Like the general manager tag. I mean, we talked about this even a year ago. More schools and not are hiring people, hiring very well-known people to be general managers, basically Saturday Cap monitors so you can let the coach is coach and not to worry about what's in the fund. This is truly become a CEO role.

This is not just the old athletic director. Every day I am meeting with leaders, industry leaders, not just in mind, but business leaders in our community. It is also illegal. you have to have a legal mindset because the amount of court cases that are going on today there's been three or four different changes that are happening we have to understand the legal side the business side the money revenue the sales

the customer service so add all that on top on top of what a traditional ADs because we still have to be there and we still have to make sure our student athletes represent this institution graduate and continue to do everything that we've always wanted them to do

but yes it has morphed and what we do today does not look like what it did when I was going through this business in the beginning stages. Should I be paying attention to this college sports act? Because it feels like it has been in a lot of

meetings and Congress and led to the legislature and frankly Eddie confuses me. It confuses all of us because every day they changes. And even today there's conversations about that if it's going to get to where we needed to get to, hopefully the finish line,

it's going to still have variations different from where it is today. So everything from who can leave a conference or when they can leave and transfer. The transfer one's important. I think everybody across the board understands that. Having endless transfer opportunities for our students is not beneficial to anybody. And the students as well, academically and in more ways than you we can say. But allowing them to transfer, and if it's one time that gives coaches an ability to understand how they can manage your team.

I've said this many times to those that I've talked to. it's not perfect, but it's the best we have to give us a chance to get our arms around this world that we live in right now. Nobody likes it. Everybody keeps complaining. There's too many out there always looking for loopholes, and that will always happen. But we have to have a federal structure of some sort that allows us to move with some direction. And I think that's what the Protect College Sports Act has given us a chance to. Will we see any of that?

Because the kids will say, if I'm under these requirements and I can't move as much as I want, but my coach can, why does he have the ability to do that or she had the ability and I can't do it? So there's other pieces to that puzzle. Coaches can do that, but they also under a contract. And for them to leave requires somebody to pay a buyout. So if the student athletes want that same ability, then we have to start thinking differently. making them employees and giving them a contract, then somebody ultimately is going to have to pay a buyout contract,

because if we're going to do that, that's going to be more litigation possibly or more attorney to have to. So I am all about giving students the ability to move. At the end of the day, it is, there's money that we're talking about. This is a business. But there's also an educational component to it, which makes it still a little bit different than the pro game. And so I want people to understand that there's still that,

We are under a university. We're under an educational mission. And so for us to do that, it's not going to be perfect science. There's going to be, but if you want that same thing, somebody will have to pay a buyout. And if I want to leave tomorrow, somebody offers me, either somebody's paying for it or I have to out of my pocket. But either way, which I can. But either way. You're a true.

Are you cash bragging there for me? No, no, I'm not. Those are the only two options I have. And so, but for me to be able to do that, somebody's going to have to do that if I want to. If not, I'm here. Yeah. And then at that point, if they know I'm trying to leave, they're probably going to say bye. And then I'm gone for real.

And then I'm, so I think the contractual obligations make it possible for them if you want to do multiple transfers. But since that's still way down the road, restricting this to a number, whatever it is, gives us a chance to have some, some success in the future. All right. Final song with Eddie coming up in a minute. 146 is our time. We take the program until 2 o'clock, 18 minutes after that, and it wraps up the midday portion of this radio show Monday. We'll start at 6 o'clock right here on Sports Talk 790

with a message for you after this. All right, Eddie Nunez with us for one more segment here on the program. It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Back with you Monday at 6 o'clock. Somebody asking about the renovations to TDUCU Stadium, construction in around the area. It wasn't fun last year, but I think we all left 15 minutes early. it wasn't the worst thing in the world. So where are we now

construction-wise? There's still some construction on campus actually quite a bit. And it's a testament to the university's growth and the centennial plan. Campus is going through a overhaul in many areas. One is right across the street from TDCU Stadium. They're adding a new residential

call it area there housing. And so it's moving. It's still under construction. Some of that will be in place. But overall around the actual stadium, we don't have anything that that's going to make it difficult. But I will add to what you said, yes, come early for multiple reasons, not just because, you know, it's a little bit challenging at times

to get around the city. So just give yourself time so you're not rushing and we'll have parking. But I know everybody's always asking what we're doing with parking. We're going to be coming out with our parking plan here very soon with everything that's just the changes and what do we have in store. All that is coming. I just ask people to be patient while we do that because I want to make sure we roll it out properly. Email in about congratulations the new hire the baseball coach. Any renovations to that facility? Cougar field. We're doing little things. We have to replace the field here soon or around later. So that is something that we're actively pursuing right now and seeing what we're going to do or how we're going to do it. It can last another year, but we'd like to try to get it

done when we can that turf. The other side is that we got several things within the venue that we want to improve. It's not that it needs to be fixed. It just needs to be improved. So we're looking at, but I'm excited what Coach Davis has done already in his short time here, building that team. Yes, he had to go to the transfer portal probably much more than he ever wanted to. And I know it's top five, top 10 portal class, however you want to look at it.

What he's going to continue to do this is the same thing. He's done everywhere. and he's going to build this program, just like we've talked about football, basketball, everybody else. If you look at the coaches that we've brought in, they're great people, great high character. And those that were here were also. But these coaches are going to have a real strong focus on building it

and developing and trying to do what we need to do move forward. So you've replaced the basketball coach. You've got a new baseball coach. You think I've done with softball, too, correct? Softball, both golf programs, tennis, and missing one. A woman's soccer. Is there any Nunez tennis,

any Nune's plan of how I like to talk to my guys or ladies and review resumes? Word of mouth. How does, how does, how do I get to, how does a Matt Thomas or anybody get on the top of your list? Besides winning. You better win a lot more games. Yeah, that's right.

Winning is always important. No, look, winning's a big piece of it. I also, one of the things that I pride myself on doing is making sure I watch coaches and I stay up to date as much I can with as many coaches and many sports. Maybe I've been, around them, but it's also the network, is making sure that we connect and talking to people.

I've always said this, it starts off with high character, integrity. Those two pieces are critical. Winning's going to be a part of it because if you're not winning, I'm not interested, but more importantly, I need to know that you're a good person to understand what we're trying to do, and I can trust you that we're going to do this together. When I look for, you know, Coach Skip Burtman, who unfortunately passed away this past week, he was a mentor of mine. He's somebody who taught me how to, you know,

he used to always say, coaching coaches is a very important trait. But how do you do that and do it well? So that's one of the things that I learned very quickly is how to just talk to coaches, not just coach them because they're there. They don't need somebody to coach them. They just need somebody to be there

when they need someone. September 4th, right? You got it. 11 a.m. 11am. Come on. Not 115. Not it's too hot. Let's go.

No, we need everybody out there. Let's put those excuses to bed. Coach Fritz and that team deserves everybody to come out, support. Again, it's a national televised game. Let's do it and do it right. There it is. That's Eddie Nunez. Thank you for coming by.

Really appreciate it as always. Always appreciate you. And best of luck in your new time slot. Yeah, up next, two guys that are dramatically going to miss me. Oh, look at our Wex. We're in the U of H gear. Look a sucking up. I love it for you, Wex.

Unbelievable. Up next, the ATE on Sports Talk 7.9. Talk to you Monday at 6.