Brendan Sorsby Leaves Texas Tech!! | Others Receiving Votes

All right.

Welcome to the show.

Others receiving votes, I'm Pat 40 joined as always by my Sports Illustrated colleagues, Brian Fisher and Kevin Sweeney.

And, uh, we're declaring victory today because we have had absolutely terrible timing taping this podcast regarding Brendan Soresby news.

And, uh, finally, we've lucked into something.

The, the, Defining and final, it looks like a chapter in the Soresby saga came down Monday night, and we are taping this Tuesday morning, and that's, of course, going to be the main element of conversation here.

But, but we got a couple other topics to hit off the top.

Personal notes here.

Sources, sources tell me.

Sources report .

To Pat 40 and the Sports Illustrated that Kevin Sweeney.

has become engaged.

Is this true, Kevin?

Yes, I am, uh, I'm officially off the market.

The portal was a wild experience, but I'm happy to, uh, happy I made my commitment and hopefully got lock up a long-term, long-term NIL deal to make sure nothing, uh, nothing goes awry later on.

There you go.

Congratulations on that.

I, I'm sure you had to overpay to get a yes out of her, but that's OK.

Uh, at least it happened.

Happy to hear it .

Is there a wedding date set?

Uh, yes, tentatively it'll be a late July situation.

I gotta avoid peach jam.

That was the big, that was a big topic of conversation.

I'm, I, yeah, yeah, I don't know whether that's a good start to the marriage if you're working around peach jam.

Probably not.

Probably not.

You, you go through Peach jam, uh, and say, sorry, I can't make it to sit in the 14-degree air conditioned gym on a 100-degree day in Augusta.

Anyway, congratulations to Kevin.

Uh, big news there, very big news.

Uh, secondly, Brian Fisher is out touring the country in his true labor of love here as a soccer reporter.

Uh, Brian, first of all, tell, tell everybody what your itinerary is here, where you are now, what you're doing, and then I've got a question for you on the back end of that.

Well, uh, I'm, uh, here in lovely Kansas City where it is, is not burning hot like it usually is, uh, this time of year.

So that, that's good news.

I'm head, uh, headed to, uh, Algeria versus Argentina tonight.

I have, uh, England versus uh Croatia tomorrow in Dallas, and then, uh, obviously, I just got back from Houston as well, uh, I made a little side trip on, uh.

Bit of a personal one, to go see Germany versus Curacao and the, uh, the lovely 7-1 there.

So, busy week.

I got some more games next week, but, uh, that, that's the opening group stage, uh, week for me, uh, here at the World Cup, which has been a phenomenal experience and, and it is special for me, um, you know, not only as, as a soccer fan, but to see, see this event, you know, in, in my home state, no less, um.

Uh, they're, they're in Houston and, and later in Dallas, like that's, that's pretty special, and, uh, can't, can't, can't wait for the, uh, the rest of these games and getting to see Messi tonight.

There you go .

Big stuff there.

And, uh, yes, if you, if you're into the World Cup or you're into soccer at all, follow Brian for that because he's, he's way, he's into that like I'm into swimming.

So, uh, my one question, why is every game a tie?

That was, that was only one day where they were all tied.

Otherwise, they have all been pretty, pretty dang entertaining, and , uh, I mean, this is, this is kind of the part of the issue, you know, we, we talked about tournament expansion on this podcast, whether it be college football playoffs or, uh, certainly the basketball tournaments that are coming, um, you know.

Sometimes there's some teams that are maybe not worthy of inclusion.

You get some lopsided results like we saw with that 7-1 against Germany and Kurzau, but, um, you know, other times you do see some of these , uh, teams just kind of stand up and, and have seen these, uh, remarkable wins, uh, like we saw, uh, certainly with uh Cape Verde and Uh, some of the other ones out there as well.

So it is a random tournament a little bit.

That's just kind of the nature of soccer, but, uh, I, I, I'm excited.

I don't think we'll have as many, uh, uh, draws, not, not ties, draws.

Yeah, sorry, I gotta get my language right.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I'll work on that, see if I get it right this summer.

All I know is I'm glad we no longer have ties in football.

Those are out and have been out and shall remain out.

And what we also have in football, as I mentioned off the top, is definitive news on Brendan Soursby, the Texas Tech quarterback, who was declared ineligible for a whole lot of impermissible gambling, including wagering on his own team, uh, but then won a, an extremely dubious court decision that declared that he could play after a whopping two-game suspension.

And then everything else happened.

Uh, it's been quite a week, a kind of whiplash week, and the final result, after a lot of pressure, a unified front from the rest of the Big 12 in opposition to Texas Tech playing Soresby, he and Tech relented.

Monday, and he's gonna put his name in the NFL supplemental draft.

We'll see what happens there.

Check the Albert Breer and uh Connor Orr podcast for that because they'll be covering the NFL end of this thing as we hand off this hot potato to them.

But, Uh, pretty major developments over the last week there.

Obviously, Soursby was considered the top quarterback in the transfer portal coming out of Cincinnati.

He went to Texas Tech for a reported 4 to $5 million never got.

On the field there.

We'll talk about the football implications of that in a bit.

But, uh, in terms of just the, the landscape of college sports, this to me feels like a win, an important win, a needed win in terms of being able to Govern itself.

But the interesting thing is this was not the NCAA doing the governing.

This wasn't the court saying it.

This was the Big 12 saying, no, we'll police our block, and coming up with this, uh, this resolution here, laying a lot of pressure on Tech and on Soresby, uh, filing a lawsuit in federal court Sunday night, Monday morning that I think really it was a bit of a game-changer here.

Uh, gentlemen, just let's get first reactions on this.

Brian, uh, just the way this thing all went down.

Surprised, uh, just general, what, what's your general response?

I, I think we're kind of headed there.

Just the amount of pressure throughout the Big 12 and the reaction to the news that he got the injunction and, and how strongly Texas Tech came out in support of him.

I, I think that was just at some point, the pressure became too overwhelming.

And, um, you know, kudos to Brendan Sosby for kind of reading the room uh and understanding that, look, not only do I have to worry about You know, the, the deadline for the supplemental draft, and, and that is coming.

But, you know, you, he's got some high priced lawyers on on retainer that, that have been helping him out, and they probably all said as soon as this Big 12 decision to file with a very high priced law firm to represent them in terms of this, this legal matter, uh, in terms of their conference , uh, you know, that the writing was kind of on the wall from from that point.

Forward and um you know, he, he read the room and understood that look, for, for the best situation as, as much as he wanted to play there in Lubbock this year and collect his $5 million paycheck, that was probably not gonna happen.

And, uh, you know, I think at this point he understood that look, I, I, I could run out of options here, uh, moving forward.

That, that's how the freight train was moving in the Big 12 and Um, you know, I, I think this is a big win for, for Brett Yourmark, uh, in terms of his leadership in the, in the Big 12, and, uh, how strongly he, he, he supported basically 15 other members and, and came out in front of that.

Uh, you know, this is kind of, I don't wanna say this is kind of his Adam Silver moment, um, you know, from a couple of years ago in the NBA, but I think it kind of reinforced his, his position there in the Big 12, and, um, you know, I think this is, uh, also leaves Texas Tech.

I mean, holding a little bit of a bag and, uh, a lot of anger directed at them now.

I'm sure Joey McGuire is gonna use that, you know, for the actual team itself and, and kind of rally the troops and say, look, look at it, everybody, they're, they're, they're going against us, and, and I'm sure that's going to be a, a constant presence, uh, throughout this Texas Tech season.

But frankly, you know, the, the school leadership is, is still gonna have to come out and explain themselves and uh try to mend some fences because there are a lot of them broken right now, uh, in, in, in the Big 12, and, uh, a lot of it could have been easily avoided, and I think.

You go back to the original decision.

I, I, I'm not convinced that everybody in Lubbock was prepared that this was going to be the ruling from the judge , right?

I think that's, that's the one thing to keep in mind is, uh, I, I, I don't, I don't think that anybody thought that he was going to be allowed to play by the Tarrant County judge , and I think that kind of caught everybody's surprise, surprise, and then they said, all right, well, now we, now we've got a circle of wagons, and that led us to this, this current route and Uh, again, kudos to uh Brendan Sozy for at least reading the room and, uh, kind of extricating himself from this situation because uh it could have gotten even messier, uh, throughout the rest of this week.

Yeah, I, I, I think you're right, Brian, that like the The probably fairer view of things is not that Texas Tech was like scheming behind the scenes for weeks and, like, lining up the friendly judge, maybe associates of Texas Tech were were doing that.

Well, however, they, they, they navigated the situation, but I do think that Texas Tech thought, we can support our guy, he will lose, and then we will make a clean break with this.

And when that didn't happen, tech was put into a tricky.

The PR position that that that they then handled as poorly as I think you probably could have.

Um, I don't think any of the, um, oh, we just care about the student athletes' well-being.

Like, it was , it was the most flimsy straw man you could have possibly come up with.

I, I don't know if there was a good way to explain all of this, but it certainly wasn't that.

And I think for a program and an athletic department and an institution.

That has already been sort of branded as the, the renegades of this conference, the ones that are willing to push the bounds in ways that others may not, or, or set the tone of how everyone is going to push the bounds in many ways.

Um, this, this was a bridge too far for, for, for them.

And I, I, I think you're right, Pat, that, you know, the fact that it was the Big 12 that was able to pull this off and not the NCAA is significant.

I do think it will be much harder for Maybe your run of the mill eligibility lawsuit, you know, think about like a Trinidad Chambliss situation.

I don't know that you're gonna find the strength and support of, you know, 15, you know, conference school presidents, ADs, etc.

to say, hey, we're gonna push back strongly and try to pull something like this when someone tries to steal a 5th year, or size tries to, um, you know, maybe with like a Bettiaco situation, you could see this again, but I don't know that this is necessarily the.

Playbook that's going to solve all, all problems for the NCAA.

I know there's been a lot of talk about self-governance and individual individual conferences moving things.

I, I think it was just very obvious and, and maybe Texas Tech didn't read the room well enough that this was going to be a bridge too far for just about anyone.

And any neutral observer was going to say, this cannot be part of our conference.

We cannot have this program be the face of our league this season with this guy as the face of our of the of that team.

It just, it just wasn't gonna work.

Uh, and so to me, that's the probably interesting question moving forward is, is this something that's replicable, or is this a, a unique situation?

And I'm probably more of the belief that it's a unique one-off, like, You're never gonna find everybody this aligned about the rules, uh, in , in college sports, but nevertheless, I think a good thing for, um, a, a, a good thing for the Big 12, and I think long term, probably a good thing for Texas Tech, because I think the image was bad, it would have been worse if they played out this season, and, and just the negativity that their team would have been surrounded with all season long, I think would have been really hard to deal with, and, you know, in time, they will be able to, I think, um.

Benefit from the clean break that they've been able to make here, uh, after weeks of, of public relations nightmare.

Early on that you said that you mentioned associates of Texas Tech.

Anybody in mind?

Anybody come to mind there that you might be thinking of, Kevin?

The, the, I, I, I, maybe the guy who made the statement, uh, not, not long, long statement.

I, I was shocked, by the way, especially given how it was the president that had led after the initial ruling.

I was shocked that it was Campbell that kind of took the lead and then like the school was referencing Cody Campbell's statement.

That was, that was all very bizarre to me.

I don't know, I don't know if I've ever seen that where the school is like, oh yeah, the, the, the chairman of the board of regents, here's his statement, and then we're just confirming it.

Like, that was, that was definitely, you know, that the PR ducks were not in a row on that one.

Uh, as somebody put it to me over the weekend, Texas Tech cannot control Cody Campbell.

They can't.

I mean, he is his own force, uh, sometimes for good for the school, sometimes not.

Uh, he's a bull in the china shop.

That's kind of how he operates.

He's basically acting like he's in charge of everything.

There was a point, uh, a few weeks ago where, Brett Yourmark declared that Cody Campbell is not the commissioner of the Big 12, because I think that almost needed to be said.

Uh, so, yeah, this, this is interesting.

When you, when you have I think something of a, a one-man power play.

Things can get a little bit messy and a little chaotic, and I think the rest of the school comes off looking weak, uh, feeble, overly indebted to a billionaire.

And we all know money talks, and money has never talked louder than currently in higher education and in college athletics specifically, but, Uh, Lawrence Skane, the school president, Kirby Hocutt, the athletic director, and everybody else who was part of that 21 minute, um, video, the, the PR masterpiece that that was, uh, they, they, there, it almost seemed like there was a little ventriloquism involved at times.

They're, like, Cody Campbell was, was pulling some strings on them.

So, we'll see if this in any way.

Helps Texas Tech's administration actually uh regain some semblance of control of their own school.

I don't know.

Maybe, maybe not.

But, uh, to me, this, this, I, Yes, all right.

Good for Soresby for reading the room.

Nothing personal against him.

I hope he gets his life together and goes on and has a successful NFL career.

If I'm the NFL and I've said this more than once on this podcast, I would be concerned about having him on the franchise.

Now, doesn't mean it's, you know, a lifetime, no, you're not gonna play, but I don't know what, what his chances are in the supplemental draft.

Having a gambling addict quarterback is problematic.

It is heavily problematic.

So, They've, there's gotta be, I think, a lot of Diligence done there, and, and slow playing this thing from that standpoint.

And that's one thing that Texas Tech did not seem willing to do, at least publicly.

They communicated to the Big 12, they intended to play uh uh Brendan Soresby.

Were they gonna make him sit out longer, with that, you know, what was gonna be the real elements of checking his well-being, which was the whole canard of this thing of, we're just trying to protect his mental health here.

Boy, we sure need him at quarterback for that 3rd game on a Friday night at Houston, you know, we need him to play then.

Um.

And, and that, that was the most bothersome part of this to me, and it's really, it's a, it's part of the playbook that colleges have used forever, whenever they're trying to play somebody who's done something they shouldn't have done, and faced a backlash.

It's like, what, you want us to throw them out on the streets?

No, nobody wants you to do that.

But that doesn't mean you just shove them in the lineup and play.

If you wanna actually, if you're concerned about them off the court, off the field, then make that the priority.

That's the whole thing with all of the um The, the old transfer waiver requests, well, the, the great uncle dialysis situations, you know, well, my uncle's on dialysis, I've got to go transfer to this school to, to be near him.

Do you need to , OK, sit out.

You can sit out of here and be near him and spend time with him, or you're just trying to get on the field and catch passes.

That's been the, that, that, that's why people get so tired of this game, is just the, the dishonesty that's gone into.

Uh, the quote unquote, you know, well-being of the student-athlete.

So, I think that this was, they, they put a pretty big harpoon in this, and the Big 12 did it.

And I'm gonna give Brett Yourmark a lot of credit, and I'm gonna give the rest of the conference a lot of credit.

I wrote about it Monday night for SI.

You can see the column on SI.

com.

And I think this was a great moment for those two things, for taking care of your own backyard when nobody else is going to do it, for banding together for a common purpose that everybody truly believed in, for a league that has been on the ropes and saved itself by believing in unity.

And saying, you know what, we don't have a Bell Cow College.

We don't have a, you know, a, a, somebody that's gonna just stand up and lead this league.

We gotta do it all together.

We gotta stay together, and we gotta build this conference back up together, some sensible, um, expansions.

Uh, first of all, when they took in Cincinnati's UCF, West Virginia, Houston, and then secondly, when they took in the Four corners schools from the Pac-12.

And then your mark, look, he came in in 2022, and everybody said, ah, that guy's just a flimflam artist, a wheeler dealer, a mover shaker, he's just gonna try to make some money, and then he's leaving.

He may still leave, that's fine, but if he's put in 4 years of work, the league is stable, and I thought he handled this really, really well in terms of applying.

Pressure that wasn't overt public pressure.

And then getting that lawsuit into federal court.

And I think Britt Yourmark comes out looking really good out of this as well, in addition to the Big 12.

Now, on the other side of that, obviously, Uh, some big L's for some people at Texas Tech.

We mentioned Cody Campbell, uh, the administration, Ken Curry, the judge who actually made this ruling, like, I have no idea what he was thinking.

Uh, that, to me, that, that, that's, I, I guess that, that, I, I guess that is what threw everybody off.

I, I do give tech benefit of the doubt that, yes, they were surprised this happened.

I don't think their response was necessarily the best to it, but I do think that they were like, 00, he can play.

OK, he can play.

And so, he was gonna play.

Uh, Ken Paxton, the the Attorney General, here's one for you guys.

The, the Attorney General of Texas.

Kind of opened the door for the Big 12 to fire back with this federal lawsuit by coming up with his own suit preemptively.

Like, if you try to sanction Soarsby, we're coming after you.

Oh, well, if we're going to court, let's go to court, let's go to federal court.

Um, you guys mentioned that this may actually be good for Big 12.

I think Kevin, you, you said that.

Uh, what do you see as Texas Tech's standing in the league going forward from here, Kevin?

You know, look, I, I, I think it changes their perception a little bit.

Um, I do think that They have been OK with being branded this way in the past, right?

Again, I, I don't think pre- Brendan Soresby, the perception of Texas Tech was, man, these, these guys are, are doing it right.

These are the upstanding citizens of this conference that we all wanna, um, identify with, but at the same time, right, like, They need each other, right?

The, the, the, the SEC is not coming calling for Texas Tech.

I don't think that was happening before, it's certainly not happening now.

So, the Big 12 needs, the Texas Tech needs the Big 12, and the Big 12 needs a school like Texas Tech that is willing to uh push the chips in.

Invested in winning at a championship level, both in football and men's basketball and in other sports as well.

We've seen it with softball, we've seen it with a number of, of, of their teams.

They, they, they, they are clearly invested in being a power player in this modern state of college athletics, and at the end of the day, the Big 12 needs that cause they haven't had enough of it.

And, and so, I, I do think that things will go back to relative normal.

I do think that, uh, The any sort of dalliances that the rest of the conference has tried to have with Cody Campbell, and hey, maybe this guy is actually helping us too, it'll be good for the whole Big 12 if we can get these things.

I think that has probably changed.

I, I think it will be more difficult to work with him, you know, again, maybe, maybe things work out because at the end of the day, if, if, if the uh Protect College Sports Act is able to get across the finish line, then.

He will get his win, the Big 12 will get a win in that, because I think that would, would, would give the Big 12 a lot more than it would take away from the conference, but I think.

His power encroach is probably over.

I think that is the ending from this, less so, um, the Big 12 and, and Texas Tech's relationship.

I think Texas Tech will, will go back to what it has been.

I think the, the league will benefit from them, and look, Texas Tech is gonna be really good at football with or without Brendan Torsby.

We've talked about this when we thought he was going to be ineligible.

They still might go undefeated.

They still might be like a top 4 team in the in the playoff conversation.

As long as Will Hammond's healthy, and, and that is obviously an if as he comes off the ACL, they're gonna be really good, and when they're really good in November, I, I'm sure that, sure, sure that Brett Yourmark will be out there, um , playing, playing PR man for, for, for this team and how great they are, uh, to help them politic their way towards the playoffs.

Oh, you, you definitely know that, that, that's coming.

Uh, that, that's like a, a certain thing, uh, and look, I, I wouldn't say that Texas Tech was, you know, just best of buddies with the rest of the league before this, like even before this entire Soby saga.

Look, they obviously have pissed off Cincinnati, you know .

Which, uh, stole their quarterback, you know, and, you know, that's why Cincinnati filed a million dollars lawsuit, which is still out there, uh, hovering over Brendan Sourcesby that he's gonna have to deal with, uh, down the road as well.

I, I think the rest of the league, especially the football coaches, certainly do look at what Texas Tech has been doing in terms of.

Just inflating the market, uh, for a lot of these, you know, salaries for , for players, like that's not gotten them, uh, you know, on the Christmas card wish list at this point, um, from a lot of folks.

You look at, uh, you know, certainly Cody Campbell has been a big thorn in the side of a lot of administrators in terms of why is he always the go to.

When somebody needs to represent our conference, why is, uh, you know, certainly folks in Washington, whenever there's a, a, a, a committee that's, he, he seems to be the face of the league at this point, and I, I think that has ruffled a lot of feathers as well moving forward and we'll see what, whether that, uh, ultimately ends up being the case, and it is a little bit different from.

And he, he's not just Buddy Garrity.

He is, he is a board of regents, uh, the, the chairman there.

So like there's, there's actually some, some ties to the school that, um, do kind of make him, uh, front and center for, for a lot of these things.

So I think there's, there's gonna be some fallout there, um, you know, I, I do look at the reputations of from the school president, um, you know, Kirby Hoca, who I, I would have said, you know.

Three or 4 years ago, probably would have been one of the more respected ADs, um, you know, in, in the conference, and I, I definitely don't think that is the case anymore, especially going through this saga.

I mean, you, you talk about somebody who's going through it, you know, chairman of the CFP selection Committee, you know, spoke, spoke, uh, you know, for, for the committee itself, uh, on a lot of those TV, you know, uh, shows on, on Tuesdays.

Like he was kind of, uh, one of, one of the guys that you would turn to, you know, for serving on an NCAA committee or whatnot, and I think those days are certainly over for Kirby and Um, curious to see where, where his kind of future lies after going through all this.

So, it, it, it's an interesting time.

Uh, I, I don't think , uh, you know, Texas Tech as, as much as we kind of do think they are kind of that team that could replace the, the Texas and Oklahoma in terms of carrying the banner nationally, uh , for the Big 12 moving forward.

Um, you know, I think there's some uneasiness with that, uh, for, for the rest of the conference, how they're doing it, number one, but also, uh, you know, this, this being Texas Tech and.

Pat, I'd be regress to not bring up the fact that you, you mentioned Ken Paxton.

Uh, he, he's, he, he's, he's playing, you know, he, he's going up for Senate, uh, later this in, in, in the midterms there, and, uh, interesting, uh, case , uh, for him to get involved in this and really kind of get some egg on his face, um, you know , locally in, in that state because obviously there are a lot of Texas Tech fans that sure, they, they would probably support this.

He's a Baylor guy, uh.

You know, he, he went to undergrad at Baylor.

I, I don't think the legions of Texas and Texas A&M fans and TCU fans and SMU fans throughout the state, uh, you know, were exactly thrilled that, uh, their state AG was stepping up on this, and I, I think that could be an interesting, uh, point of contention, uh, through, throughout the fall, really, um, you know, in the great state of Texas as a very interesting, uh, Senate race gets, gets underway and really gets going.

Uh, I would imagine Brendan Soursby is gonna come up in, in some sort of debate or whatnot, uh, and, and it's gonna have a little bit of political football, uh, in, in the state of Texas moving forward.

So, this story is gonna have some more legs, you know, we, we are not done with it by, by any stretch of the imagination, both from a Texas Tech standpoint , from a Brendan Soby standpoint, uh, going into the supplemental draft, and, um, even going into this fall because I think, uh, you know, every time Texas Tech is going to be shown on TV, uh, whether it's Will Hammond, whether it's Kirk Francis.

Their, their other backup they got through Tulsa, um, you know, this is gonna be a constant presence, and, and I think it's even gonna leak into, to basketball season in terms of some of that animosity, uh, throughout the, throughout the league.

I, I think you're gonna hear it.

You're gonna hear some student sections and have some creative signs at, at, at college game day, uh, when, uh, when, when Texas Tech might make an appearance there.

So it, it's gonna be an interesting thing to keep track of, not just this week, but, uh, certainly moving forward for Texas Tech, the Red Raiders, and everybody else in the, in the Big 12 moving forward.

Yeah, I think they can handle some signs on game day and stuff like that, uh, you know, at this point, they, they, they, they brought this on themselves, they said they wanted the smoke , they got the smoke, but they've diffused the fire.

The fire is out.

So, now, yeah, how do they perform?

And here's the other thing, you know, the Big 12.

I think risked here, and again, I think this is your mark listening to his constituents, it's like, if you want to say, look, Taking Brendan Sorsby out hurts our chances of playoff success.

The rest of the league says, well, we wanna go to the playoffs too, but you may have a lesser team in the playoffs, whether it's a lesser Texas Tech or whether it's somebody else, and they're willing to take that on.

And we did discuss the Big 12 and how it stands in all areas, uh, June 1st.

our podcast on that, if you wanna go back and look at, listen to it .

We also, we did SEC Big 10, ACC and then the Notre Dame Group of 6.

So that's all out there .

I actually got pretty good response from those things.

So, check them if you have specific interest there.

But I, I do think Texas Tech can still be very good without Soresby.

I mean, they still should have an absolute baller defense, maybe not quite as good as last year, when they were truly uh overwhelming, especially in the front seven, but still very good.

Linebacker Ben Roberts was darn near as good as Jacob Rodriguez, who was the guy that was touted for the Heisman.

Uh, 280 career tackles, uh, cornerback Bryce Pollock, 5 interceptions last year, uh, defensive tackle AJ Holmes, 22.5 tackles for loss in his college career, tight end Terrence Carter, really good player on offense .

They've got, you know, they did well in the portal as well.

They just need some quarterback play, and we're gonna find out a little bit more about Joey McGuire as a coach, because I think He's been popular, he's been successful, but a lot of that was, well, did you just buy a team?

And this now adds an element, a degree of difficulty maybe for them to, to him to show that, that he can coach himself through that or around that.

I'm gonna say Texas Tech is no longer the Big 12 favorite.

What are you guys thinking?

Who would you say is the favorite, Brian?

Well, I, I, I think I'd still keep them as the favorite cause like, you know, as you kind of detailed there, I mean, they, they still have the best roster in the league.

You know, if you're talking about like, if uh we're sitting here at Big 12 Media Day and we're looking at the kind of 1st and 2nd team all-conference preseason, uh, you know, Texas Tech's gonna have the best representation on both sides of the wall.

And yes, a lot of it is going to come down to Will Hammond, but I, I know that coaching staff really likes him.

Uh, we, we saw it in, in those flashes against Utah.

He is a very good quarterback.

Uh, you know, there's a reason that, you know, outside of the injury concern with him, and it does seem like he's going to be in line to possibly start that game against Houston.

And and make his season debut after tearing his ACL, um, you know, if he, if he's fully healthy and, and ready to go, like, uh, I don't, I'm not saying that there's , there's a massive gap between what, what he would be able to bring to the table and, and what Brendan Soby would have, um, you know, I, I just, maybe just, that's a little bit of bias seeing him up close in person for that uh Texas Tech Utah game last year, but, um, you know, I, I think he's an excellent quarterback.

I think Kirk Francis, the, uh, the Tulsa transferee, they can keep him afloat those first couple of games, uh, you know, if need be, but it's a good roster from, from top to bottom.

So I, I would still kind of put them.

Favorite, um, certainly BYU is just gonna be right there, um, you know, and I think that is gonna be those two.

They don't meet in the regular season, so that's a big thing, I think , for the conference to kind of get those two aligned to where maybe you could possibly get to, you know, 11 and 1 or, or even, uh, better than that teams, uh, in, in your conference title game to, to potentially get two bids to the playoffs.

And, and look, you know, BYU certainly have a returning starting quarterback in, in Bear Bockmeyer.

He, he's gonna make, maybe make that leap.

Uh, they're, they're hoping there, uh, in Provo to, to be the, the sophomore quarterback, especially as a passer.

Um, you know, certainly some question marks at wide receiver, but, you know, they're gonna be good at on, on defense.

Um, you know, they've got some guys, uh, LJ Martin's back in, in the backfield as well for the Cougars, so it's, it's kind of them, but I mean, this is a coin flip league.

That, that's the other thing that , that's probably working against Texas Tech at this point.

It's just like.

You know, that game against Houston, you know, when, when you play TCU, you know, like, I mean, there's, there's just so many games that could get you on that schedule that could end up knocking you out, uh, based on those conference tiebreakers.

So, I, I would still have them as , as, as the, as the favorite, but it, it, it's just gonna be, it's gonna be a little bit closer, that that margin between them and everybody else in the league is definitely, uh , thinned out.

A little bit when you don't have, not only don't have the quarterback that you were kind of hoping on to kind of elevate you, but like what happens if Will Hammond gets hurt again?

All right, that's the, that's the other issue, you know, he was, he was supposed to be the safety valve, uh, a little bit at, at the position this year in case Bryn Sosby did get hurt, um, you know, they felt pretty good about him, but, uh, now that's kind of been taken away.

Um, you know, they're, they're gonna have to make sure that, that offense line is up to snuff and, uh, you know, can, can protect them because, um, that now becomes the big key, uh, for the Red Raider season moving forward and I think it makes, makes, makes for the Big 12 even more as an interesting league, uh, football-wise, uh, in terms of, you know, who, who, who can be that foil, uh, to this Red Raiders team.

I think, I think you're, I think you're right that it will be competitive, but I, I just look at the schedule and I see.

5 road games on the schedule, at Oregon State, first year head coach, probably not gonna be a very good football team, uh, at Colorado, probably one of the worst teams in the Big 12 on paper, uh, at Cincinnati, hot seat coach, at Oklahoma State, first year coach, at Baylor, hot seat coach, like, I'm not saying those teams couldn't beat them, and I'm not saying they couldn't lose at home, they could.

But it just feels like they're still gonna be favored pretty substantially in every game they play.

Like, long as Will Hammond is healthy in some form or fashion for that Houston game, they'll be.

10, maybe 2 touchdown favorites in that game.

I mean, I'm sure we could ask some Vegas people to help us with that, but like, they'll be substantial favorites, they'll be substantial favorites at home against Arizona State, they'll be substantial favorites at home against Arizona, as long as Will Hammond's there.

I think you're right that it removes a safety valve, um, and, and look, that Big 12 championship game will be, will be very difficult if it's BYU or it's someone else, but I'll be very interested to see what happens if Texas Tech is a 12-0 team heading into the conference championship game, like.

Are they in automatically in a twelve-team playoffs?

Especially if their quarterback plays kind of look shaky and they've just kind of beat up on , on the bottom, like, I, I'm fascinated to see how their resume is perceived, and, again, these are, these are non, not necessarily, these, these are not computers making these decisions.

How does the College football playoff committee look at the Texas Tech team and everything that they've gone through this year?

It'll be a fascinating storyline to watch, but I, I still believe they'll be playing for the Big 12 conference championship and, and probably be favored in that game, if I had to guess.

Yeah, I mean, the schedule, um, is advantageous, no doubt about it.

I, I'm gonna say Utah or BYU could end up ahead of them, and neither of whom Texas Tech plays in the regular season.

Those two, and, uh, you know, we'll, we'll see what Arizona State has.

I, what I, what would not shock me is if we see a season like 2 years ago.

In the Big 12, where anybody can beat anybody on a given week .

And, you know, this maybe just brings tech back closer to the pack, and the pack is, is tightly packed, and, and all kinds of things happen every Saturday, which would be fun.

That would be fine with me.

Um.

One other thing I wanna bring up on, on this front, on the Soarsby Tech, Big, Big 12 NCAA jurisprudence beat here.

Uh, and I alluded to it earlier, and, and Kevin made some points about it, as precedent, whether this could be.

Something that Uh, other conferences look and say, OK.

When somebody goes to court and checkmates the NCAA, we now maybe have something, have a recourse, as opposed to just sitting on our hands or complaining anonymously and saying, this is ridiculous.

I can't believe player X or Y or Z is eligible, blah, blah, blah.

Uh, in particular, Kevin RJ Luis at LSU, in a case, the basketball player.

Somebody who seems on the face of it to be completely ineligible.

Uh, Is this a chilling effect for LSU?

Is that even possible ?

Is it at all even remotely possible to back down Will Wade and that school administration and that governor from saying, yeah, maybe we shouldn't even try this?

Does it empower the rest of the SEC to limber up?

Uh, does it, uh, activate Greg Sankey, who filed an affidavit against Bettiaco's eligibility in court?

And I asked Sankey at SEC spring meetings about Luis, and he's like, I'm not getting into the specifics of that, but I'm willing to bet that he would do the same thing at least.

Is this a possibility in that case in particular, and then beyond that, you've already pretty well answered in general , but tell me about the Luis situation and what could possibly happen there.

I do think that's the exact type of situation where maybe we see that type of test.

Now, I don't think you'll have quite the same um overwhelming support for it, in part because It's not just Alabama and Charles Bettiaco that have pushed the bounds of this, right?

Um, you know, there's, we, we, we spoke about the international, uh, rule changes, um, I, I, I've reported on that at Sports Illustrated and how that could, could impact things.

There's been talk, uh, of a lawsuit that could potentially impact that.

Um, Auburn and LSU both potentially involved with that, um.

Oklahoma has a G-Leaguer that they're working their hardest to get cleared, but he's 23.5 years old and has done all the things you can't do except for playing an NBA game, but he signed an exhibit 10 for, for 4 days, I might add.

He had a 4-day exhibit 10 contract that may keep him out of college basketball.

Um, and then even Texas A&M has a, has a G Leaguer , Bryson Warren, he signed, I believe, in exhibit 10.

So, um, I think the SEC has been sort of aligned in trying to push this rule to the bounds.

Now, you know, the specifics of RJ , yeah, I think it bothers a lot of people, it bothers a lot of coaches, but I don't know that you would, I, I, I bet that if the athletic directors in the SEC started to, to, to drum something like this up, there might be a couple of calls from the coach.

Hey, like, we, we might need this at some point.

So, so maybe not, right?

And, and that is the challenge, right?

We've talked about this in so many forms.

At, at its core, college sports programs do not want to be governed.

They can say they do, they can say they need rules, they need, they, they don't want this.

So I, I, I would be a little surprised if we got to that level with, with RJ Lewis, but I think it's certainly a lot more possible than something like a, a JCO waiver or something like that, that's relatively benign that has brought us to the courts a handful of times.

Yeah, I, I, I'm just wondering like, where, where would the consensus be, you know, like where, where's that line, you know, everybody in the SEC in particular, I mean, they are so cutthroat in terms of the competition, um, and they constantly wanna wanna up each other, not only on the field, but, but off it, like, where, where is that line of consensus gonna be?

I, I think there's just such a unique, uh, scenario where really all of college sports fell on one side of the line, um, you know, and I don't know if there's, there is going to be, you know, kind of that, that.

Uh, you know , here, here's the actual line in the sand, uh, in the SEC where nobody's gonna be able to cross it.

And so that, that to me is gonna be the big thing and look.

I'm not saying anything about Greg Singy at this point, but like, I, I mean, I, I think the league is, is pretty fractured in, in general, you know, in, in terms of, you know, we did the, the episode a couple of weeks ago.

I mean, like, you know, you're hearing a lot more dirty laundry out of the SEC in terms of the infighting than you ever did.

And I think that's, you know, a reflection on, on, on Greg and also a reflection on how everybody wants to do things on their own.

And so I think that's gonna be the, the, the.

on this, um, you know, if anybody, any conferences do want to kind of start to say, all right, you asked to be governed, this is what it's going to look like, and this is what it's going to take, and it's going to take the commissioner suggesting some of these, uh, potential punishments and then everybody voting on it, you know, like I, I, I, I think you're gonna see some, some, some fault lines, uh, developed there, especially in the SEC.

I think less so in, in the Big 10, uh , but, uh, I think just the nature of the SEC at this point.

Given the schools, given the money involved, um, given some of the, the boosters in the 80s and, and some of these big personalities, like I, I, I just, uh, I, I would be curious to see if we ultimately reach this point with somebody like RJ Louis, you know, is, is, is there gonna be enough pushback collectively from, from everybody else, uh, to ultimately make a difference.

Uh, uh, I , I'll, I'll see that and, and believe it when I do.

If nothing else, it might just scare people from making the run to the courtroom, right?

I think that would be my hope.

It would be, look, I think I think a lot of people felt like, yeah, there's, there's no risk in this, right?

And, and Texas Tech probably felt that with, with Sosby, right?

It's like, all right, we'll see.

Maybe we get 20% chance of, of pulling this off.

If we pull it off, great.

If we don't, well, uh, no problem.

And there was a lot of problems when they pulled it off.

And, and I wonder if, you know, I, I don't know if it'll be RJ Lewis or someone else, but there, there will be guys where, you know, schools have said, oh, maybe we can push the bounds, and that maybe, maybe this causes them to think twice.

That's it.

I mean, if anything, it might be a chilling effect of just, you know what, Do we, do we want to align everyone in the conference against us, including the conference office?

Is it worth it, uh, if we go try to make the, the end run to court?

Uh, fair points you guys make.

I mean, this, it is a very unique situation.

Obviously, this is, this is an egregious gambling violation we're talking about.

It's not, well, he had this extra year at Juco that we're trying to get back.

Uh, he was a pro, kinda, he was in Europe.

This is, this is a, An absolute black and white rule in the eyes of everyone.

And so it may not be replicable.

But I do think it will continue to spur conversation within league offices and within league memberships of like, you know, we're kind of sick of what School X has been doing.

And if they try anything, maybe we need to, to pull a Big 12 here.

I would say even when the Big 10, Took on Michigan during the Connor Stallions thing.

And that was, there was several schools , maybe almost all of them that were like, yeah.

Do something, Big 10.

But that was, that was even a tougher call than this, partly because it was Michigan, for one thing, and they had a national championship team.

But still, uh, it's not that easy, I think, to get everybody lined up in a really clearly defined, uh, stance, uh, as happened there.

So, fascinating times.

It's been, uh, kind of the story of the spring in college football.

Certainly the story of the last week, but not the only story.

Uh, as alluded to in the beginning here, on Thursday, the Protect College Sports Act.

Gets the markup treatment in the Senate Commerce Committee.

Uh, wherein they will try to decide what this bill should really look like, what needs to be in, what doesn't need to be in.

Can we get it closer to passing?

Uh, if you remember this, this was put forward by Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell, bipartisan bill, which gave it a chance.

The SEC and the Big 10 have lined up in opposition , at least to parts of it.

The most impertinent part being Uh, the potential pooling of media rights, which they want no part of, because they have better rights than anyone else, and they don't really want to share.

Uh, there's other things involved.

We've got a little bit of update on, on some of the, the modifications here from Ross Dellinger, Yahoo Sports, who reported Monday night that, uh, this is something I, I like, a notable change.

Schools earning at least $80 million in revenue are required to maintain current scholarship slash roster levels for non-revenue sports.

I like that added, added thing in there, and that uh uh is believed to have been largely a Cantwell-driven change and a Democrat-driven change, uh, but we'll see where that ends up.

But if that helps swing people to The side of, of, uh, pushing that bill forward, so much the better.

But, uh, I, I, we're not, we are not congressional scholars here.

Let's, we, we acknowledge that off the top.

But, If you want to put a ballpark on chances that this bill moves forward through Thursday and it is still a viable bill and what it looks like, uh, Brian, what do you think?

Oh, that's a good question.

We needed, we needed to have a producer Kent play the, uh, the jailhouse Rock, you know, the, the househouse Rock.

That's it, yeah, uh, we need, we need to have that jailhouse does also fit for this show.

That, that's true.

And especially nowadays after, uh, everything going on with Brendan Soarban, look, like the speed of things, I think, is working in its favor.

The fact that we're still debating this after, you know, a couple weeks after it's actually introduced, um, you know.

I think there's just so, there's, there's a lot of pressure to get this done basically in the month of July.

Um, you know, look, the, the summer recess, everybody kind of puts, puts that down as kind of the dividing line, um, in terms of if you can get, get something done, uh, you know, in July before Congress goes on recess, you got a shot and, and at least get it to the floor and then get it over to the House , um, whether, you know, the, the markup on, on Thursday, whether that ultimately satisfies, you know, the Big 10, the SEC.

I, I'm not gonna say that it is, uh, but they might get enough changes, enough tweaks, enough amendments to where maybe it's, it's more tolerable, and, uh , and, and then maybe they can get some, some help in the house, uh, to hopefully get that, uh, you know, resolved in terms of some of the language that they're ultimately looking for.

And look, I, I, you know, I, I think that the revenue sharing component is, is definitely the one that, uh, gets everybody's eyes, uh, open a little bit wider, but I mean, there's, there's definitely.

The, the details, you know, the Olympic sports, how are, how are athletic directors now gonna have to look at, you know, how, how they budget, you know, if this ends up passing, right?

If you're on the, on the line there, you're $78 million in terms of budget, you know, are, are you going out and raising another $2 million in order to, to fall under these, uh, you know, the, the potential bill, and what it might impact, you know, your, your revenue, sports, your scholarship costs, that sort of thing.

So I think there's a lot of like second order effects that are still being studied by the industry, um, and, and look, it is still moving.

So like there's.

There's no final language where they can say, all right, how's this, this gonna impact me?

I, I, I do think that, um, you know, in, in general, uh, the, the fact that they are at this stage though, uh, this quickly, I, I, I think it gives it a shot.

I, I'm not gonna say that it's, it's going to definitely get over the line.

We've seen politics come into play too many times, uh, on , on a whole lot of other issues, much less saving college sports.

So, um, it, it's got a shot, but, uh, as, as to whether it ultimately gets on the line, I don't think it means anything, uh, that, that we're here.

Uh, on Thursday, but, um, you know, positivity, uh, is at least up and, you know, running a little bit higher than, than it was last week, uh, especially going into what, what I think a lot of people thought was the Sosby thing, it could end up distracting from this process or it could end up helping it, and I think we're probably falling on the line of this they actually end up helping it because it's, it's definitely getting talked about a lot more that, hey, you know what, maybe the, the NCAA does need that antitrust, you know, exemption here or there, uh, and, and I wanna be very curious to see.

If they can at least slim the bill down a little bit, that, that's probably gonna be key in, in my mind.

Can they slim things down, take some stuff out that we know is gonna be controversial, but could at least help, uh, potentially getting it over the line in terms of getting enough support, um, because we've already seen some senators come out against it as is.

Uh, I'm sure we're gonna see even more on Thursday come out either for or against it.

So it's, it's gonna be uh something to track, but, um, again, in general.

Setting the politics aside, the fact that we're at this stage, I think is at least a positive sign for the industry itself in terms of getting the ultimate help that they wanted from, from Congress.

Uh, I'm, I'm curious to see if at some point here soon, we get more comprehensive either support or pushback.

My guess strongly would be pushback from some sort of player entity, as much as they don't exist at the moment, um, because there's a lot in this bill that like, Would not necessarily be great, at least for, again, I, I, I do think sometimes we, we talk to grandiosely, oh, you know, the players are benefiting so much right now, like, well, Power 5 football players are benefiting quite a lot right now.

Power 5 men's basketball players are benefiting quite a lot right now.

Whether the system itself is, is stable or healthy, I, I think it's open to, to, to question, but, you know, look, I, I don't think we're gonna be, like if this bill passes as written, we will not be in a world where a Brendan So we could make 4 to 5 million.

Uh, or a basketball team could have a $20 million roster, or even a $15 million or probably even a 10.

Like, like, there would, there, there, there is the potential with this bill to pretty substantially, uh, narrow the scope of what the roster budgets look like, and I don't know that that that has gotten a lot of attention in the, uh, all, all the other details that that exist in it right now, of, like, this is a chance to, like, pretty substantially cap earnings in a way that I don't think.

Uh, even maybe the people writing the bill understand, because they may not understand just like the, like I, I, I saw a report that between football and men's basketball, Florida's 50+ million dollars in the hole on its rosters.

Like, we, we're so far removed from the $20 million cap, it's not even funny at this point.

And, and.

I, I, I, I'm curious if it comes up Thursday, or if it doesn't come up Thursday, if it comes up soon after, like, what are we looking at here and what types of changes?

I, I do think that's a change that's probably gonna have to happen if this bill is going to, uh, go into effect, is that there's gonna need to be some, some agreement that the cap is moving, if there's going to be a cap at all, that the cap is coming closer to where the market actually is, because if we're moving to a world where the cap is back to the house cap, there's gonna be a lot of people taking some, a lot of angry players and angry agents taking substantial, substantial pay cuts.

Right.

And so that's where we'll see if there is enough of a unified voice on a player advocacy.

And there, there are a lot of Democrats that, that are advocating in that area, saying, you know, we, we, this is still a non-athlete friendly bill.

Um, to that point, it, it is specifically a non-Power Five football and basketball athlete-friendly bill.

Um, It is fascinating because that horse has gotten out of the barn and it is running around the field, and can you get the horse back in the barn, and what does the barn look like?

Is it the, the small, Somewhat austere barn of house, the original house settlement, which is really funny to say when you think what the barn looked like a couple of years ago.

Like then it was just hay and oats, that's all was in the barn.

And now, hey, you know what, you got, you got a pretty good stall in the barn.

But, Is it the stall that the market bears?

I don't know.

The market may bear a Taj Mahal stall for said horse here.

Uh, I'm probably pushing this analogy way too far.

But, That's the fascinating part of this is, I, I, I agree with you, Kevin.

I don't think you can go back to a 20.5 million cap or something thereof, when we're talking about 40, 50 million over here.

There probably needs to be a middle ground there.

And again, still, you're going to have people saying you are, you are applying an artificial limit to the market.

That's, that's where the tension lies, and I don't know where this ends up, but I do think that's probably gonna be.

The most significant pushback, uh, when it comes to actually applying the economics of this, uh, of this situation.

So we'll see what happens there.

Uh , The other thing here, obviously, with, with the, the, the bill, I, I mentioned, Big, Big 10, SEC not so excited about it, NCAA very excited about it.

And kind of use the, the Sosby thing and sent a, a memo to conference commissioners out there saying, we can fix this if we're empowered by this bill.

So, uh, that's another element to keep an eye on in terms of What this does for the NCAA.

That's, I'll ask this question, I'll ask you, Brian, um, The NCAA has come off looking quite powerless because of one crackpot judge really in Texas, but there's been another, a number of rulings.

Where does the NCAA stand with Sosby's out of the equation now?

What is the power level that the NCAA still has, and how much does it need a Protect College Sports Act to, to remain viable?

Well, I, I, I definitely think we've seen the, the cracks in the system, uh, certainly in terms of their, their legal standing.

I, I mean, even the Sosby case, you know, a couple of days later in South Carolina was cited by another judge, you know, like that's.

That's where they're at, you know, in, in terms of getting Tristan Smith, uh, you know, Clemson football player, uh, getting his, uh, year of eligibility back, and look, it's, it's, uh, definitely a tenuous ground, you know, they, they had, you know, a lot of success, I think, you know, in general, in terms of some of the eligibility stuff.

But there's been a door open and you can probably thank Tom Mars and Trinidad Chambliss for opening it in terms of some of the contract laws that they're, they're finding success now in local state courts, and they would love to be able to enforce these things and look, it's, it's just down to local judges at this point and, and they do need help.

So like, there's a reason why the National Office in.

Charlie Baker.

Number one, why Charlie Baker was hired was to get this over the line, um, and, uh, the reason why they're, they've been pushing for it so long, and, uh, because it, it is untenable, you know, the rules are as much as they are on the books.

They, they don't mean much when easily, uh, a school or, or a player can go on to a local judge and get them overturned.

And I think that's, that's kind of the situation they've been trying to kind of push and, and tell, you know, Congress and All the, all the folks on the hill, uh, like, hey, look, this, this is where we're at right now.

I, I think it's, they have more real-world examples that they can point to that is, I, I think, probably helping them in terms of making their case that they do ultimately need something, uh, you know, whether it's the, the state, uh, College Sports Act or, or others, um, you know , the, the, in order to exist at this point, um, because, you know, it's, it's frankly, make it up as, as you go along at this point, uh, and.

In terms of, uh, who's actually following these rules and what they can do for them, uh, moving forward.

So, uh, definitely, uh, some excitement, I would say, uh, in terms of, all right, maybe, maybe they, they got something, uh, there in the national office and look, even if they, they, they don't get something over the line in July, they're still gonna keep trying, like, uh, you know, whether it's, uh, you know, heavily Democratic Congress or whatnot, yeah, the, the shape of, of what they might ultimately be able to get, um.

Out of Washington DC might look different, but, uh, you know, there's still some hope that even down the road, whether it's, uh, you know, either in the, in, in the lame duck Congress or, uh, potentially a new one for, for next year, maybe, maybe they can get, get something.

And I think there's, uh, you know, at least some, some progress in terms of, all right, they understand the.

Situation a little bit better, uh, now than than they say they did, uh, even a couple of months ago because of these high profile cases and, uh, we'll see if ultimately the, the bad PR, uh, around the NCAA being able to, uh, or being unable to enforce their own rules, uh, will actually help them, uh, there in DC.

The, the Soresby situation is, I think, a perfect example of how the NCAA can win a lot in court, and every time it loses, it's so much worse than every 10 wins it gets, right?

And You know, they, look, you could have went to 50 different states and had 50 different judges and had, you know, I don't know, every, every quarterback in America have to go to court and try to fight that they should be allowed to gamble and and play college football, and like, all it takes is one to destabilize the system, and I think that is sort of the potent message that um that they can communicate to, you know, lawmakers, people in Congress, people who make, you know, people who are making the decision whether to vote, vote for this bill or not.

It's like, look, Even if you can't give us everything we want, we need some degree of protection, so we don't keep ending up in this cycle, right?

I mean, again, the, the, the Tristan Smith case you mentioned, uh, Brian's a great example, right?

Like, how many lawsuits now have in some form or fashion addressed five-year clock, junior college, does that count?

Does it not?

Who applied, who, who, who can get a Pavia waiver, who can't?

What is that waiver even a waiver or is that a 1-year exemption?

How, how does it, like, uh, Like, I would say half the cases I see these days are in some form, a, well, this guy played junior college, should it count, should it not?

Like, what an unsustainable and ridiculous way of operating that every week, there's a new lawsuit that says, well, this guy should be allowed to, and he won his injunction, this guy lost his injunction, this guy won his uh injunction but needs a restraining order.

This guy won, you know, it, it, it doesn't work, and I, I, I think that is what the NCAA needs to be hammering home if they want this bill to pass.

It's like, Again, you don't have to solve every problem for us.

We'd love it if you did.

But if nothing else, we just, we can't be in a courtroom every week in a different city fighting a different battle.

Right, with an arbitrary judge who may just come up with something on his own or something that benefits his home state school.

So, uh, interesting times there.

Final story, guys, we'll get everybody out of here on this one.

we're going back to the World Cup.

Uh, And we're talking about Mexico.

What do they call their team?

El Tri.

Yep.

All right, El Tri, uh, they got off to a good start, right?

Beat South Africa, I believe it was.

But the big thing, they got a duck.

They got a 2 year old duck named Merlin, who wears the, uh, the kit.

Am I, is that, that, that correct terminology again here, right?

OK.

And, and he wears socks like the green kit, and, uh, waddles around, and, and he's kind of like the , I, I guess he's in Mexico City.

The unofficial mascot of the team.

People seem to think he's delightful.

It's fine, go duck.

Uh, Oregon may wanna see if they can co-opt him, bring him into the fold there, as opposed to just using the Donald Duck thing that rides a motorcycle.

My question for you guys, uh, we'll start with you, Kevin, and we'll go to Brian.

If, if you could come up with some live animal that isn't already in use to represent your favorite team, doesn't have to be World Cup, but anything, what, what, what animal are you going with?

Man, now this is, this is a real challenge, um.

You know, I would love to find, I, I, I think, I think given the Knicks' championship, and given, given the, the city's .

Uh, love-hate relationship with rats.

I feel like it's, it's a real shock that the Knicks do not have an honorary rat that celebrated the championship.

There probably is .

The videos are everywhere, the pictures are great.

I know people, uh, I know I tweeted a bunch of really cool shots from, from the celebration, it's only just beginning, but I, I, I, I, I believe there could be a rat that could be the star of the show, uh, at the parade on Thursday, so stay tuned for that.

Where is Pizza rat?

Didn't we have pizza rat from, from the city, uh, a while back that, that, that could be the, the certainly the unofficial mascot of New York City, uh, as much as I love the place, uh, you know, I, I also noticed, you know, speaking of the World Cup, like, uh, I think it was Cabo Verde or, or some of the others, they were using goats.

So like that, that could be a good one, you know, tie in there.

Uh, I know Navy has a goat, uh, you know, a couple of others.

Obviously there's a whole billy goat thing with the, with the cups.

So I'm thinking goat might be the, uh, the way to go with this, but.

Uh, you know, kudos Pat.

Like this is the definitely the most esoteric thing.

I thought we were gonna talk about, uh, the, the German guy Freddie and his road trip through the SEC, uh, some of the cool things that we've seen like all the Scots taking over, uh, they're in Boston and drinking, drinking the place dry.

It is, uh, it is at least, uh, reaffirming, at least, uh, to, to me, uh, to see, to see everybody from, from Europe and, uh, all these other places, uh, embrace the Americanism, uh, if, if you will, uh, and how, how we live.

A little bit large, um, you know, like all the, uh, all the people are excited about, uh, you know, the barbecue here in Kansas City, like, uh, the places are packed, uh, certainly last night, uh, with, with Argentinian fans, and, uh, everybody's got the chance, but they're also embracing America with, with this World Cup, which is, uh, you know, nice to see and a little bit reaffirming.

So I, I don't know if they're gonna keep, uh, keep picking animals, uh, here to, to, to keep on the, on the bandwagon, but, uh, it is nice to see, uh, uh, a second order effect, if you will, from, from this World Cup .

Yeah, that's, you know, the Argen Argentinians going to the barbecue spots in KC.

That's, that's a clash of meat powers there, you know, I mean, Argentina, they know how to make steak and, you know, the big meat restaurants there, so that's, that's good stuff.

I wanted to see, like, I think Morocco is in Morristown, New Jersey.

I want them to go to the food trucks at, like, at, at Rutgers, you know, or up in North Jersey, um, take them there, probably not the night before a game or anything, but, uh, There's a lot of possibilities there.

The, the, the, the German people were freaking out over Buc-ee's.

Uh, they were going to the, uh, Waffle House.

So, the Whataburger before packed with, with Germans.

So yeah, I bet that I wonder what they thought of the UFC thing.

Never mind, I don't wanna know.

Um, I, but I would like to see, I honestly, I'm, this is not a double entendre or anything else.

I think somebody needs to embrace the beaver.

We have a cabin on a lake with a beaver that is an absolute badass.

This thing swims around with giant branches in its mouth at high speed, slams its tail down, and it sounds like a gunshot.

I would not mess with these things.

So if you want an aggressive, tough-minded, hardworking animal to represent your team, go get yourself a beaver.

That's enough of this show.

Thanks for listening.

We'll be back next week.