Speaker 1: The following takes place between seven pm and eight pm.
Speaker 2: All right, here we go, seven h seven seven hundred
Speaker 2: WLW Welcome in RNL Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet.
Speaker 2: Two hours to get it done tonight. Man, do we
Speaker 2: have some ground to cover between now and nine o'clock.
Speaker 2: Let's get to it. What a weekend coming up for
Speaker 2: UC athletics. Holy cow, let's go Friday night. You see
Speaker 2: basketball in a showdown versus Louisville Heritage Bank Center Saturday morning,
Speaker 2: Big noon kickoff live from Bearcats Common, top of the
Speaker 2: top of the night at eight o'clock. Nip at night
Speaker 2: football under the lights, U see versus by you. There's
Speaker 2: women's volleyball with NCAA tournament, hopes and dreams being put
Speaker 2: on the line and a chase down the stretch for that,
Speaker 2: all of that under the umbrella of my first guest.
Speaker 2: He's the director of athletics for the UC Bearcats. Let's
Speaker 2: welcome in, John Gunningham. Are you ready for all this?
Speaker 3: I hate to be.
Speaker 4: I don't have a choice. So here it is. It's
Speaker 4: gonna be. It's gonna be a great weekend.
Speaker 3: Uh, just a lot of fun and a great time
Speaker 3: to be a Bearcat.
Speaker 2: Let me let me start with a basic question on
Speaker 2: Big Noon Kickoff, and it's probably impossible with what a
Speaker 2: dollar amount on it, but what is the exposure that
Speaker 2: What does it mean to not just a football program,
Speaker 2: but to the university. What's going to unfold on Saturday?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's really it's a combination of the
Speaker 4: two things.
Speaker 3: First, we found out, you know, earlier on that we
Speaker 3: were going to be on Big Fox at a PM,
Speaker 3: their prime spot, and you know when you get that
Speaker 3: prime spot on Fox, you know the numbers.
Speaker 4: Are gonna be huge. So there's huge exposure just in that.
Speaker 3: And it's nip at night. We love night games at
Speaker 3: Nippert That's what we do best.
Speaker 4: So obviously really excited about that.
Speaker 3: And then found out later Sunday morning that they were
Speaker 3: going to bring Big.
Speaker 4: New Kickoff to campus.
Speaker 3: We've had that once before, we had it when we
Speaker 3: played Oklahoma a few years ago, and it's just it's
Speaker 3: absolutely absolutely huge for our university. You cannot buy that
Speaker 3: type of exposure. We need our fans to show up,
Speaker 3: show out and show what we're about, that we're that
Speaker 3: we're a big time college football program right in the
Speaker 3: heart of Cincinnati and we love to show our campus.
Speaker 3: They're going to have cameras that will follow sorees, be
Speaker 3: a little bit in the indoor facility, you know, coaches
Speaker 3: on all those types of things get represented in that show.
Speaker 2: That show starts at ten am Saturday morning, ten A
Speaker 2: and renewed John. What are those who want to attend
Speaker 2: those who want to are thinking about camping out? What
Speaker 2: tell them everything they need to know about the experience.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you want to camp out, we're opening up TUC.
Speaker 3: I think that's mostly maybe for our students, but maybe
Speaker 3: there's some fans that want to do it too. So
Speaker 3: the TUC is going to be open all night so
Speaker 3: that that they can they can hang there and then
Speaker 3: get early into the into the box or whatever they
Speaker 3: call it, the little area where they're gonna have the
Speaker 3: pin where they have all the fans that are right
Speaker 3: up front. So that's gonna be the desired location for
Speaker 3: some Right, We're thinking our students are gonna want to
Speaker 3: be right up front, so they actually open that up
Speaker 3: at six am.
Speaker 4: Show starts at ten.
Speaker 3: But to be honest, if you want to show up
Speaker 3: at nine p thirty, there's gonna be plenty of Faith
Speaker 3: obviously a huge area. You may not be right up front,
Speaker 3: so you're gonna have a great a great view of
Speaker 3: what's going on and you get to see, you know,
Speaker 3: that that whole show. And you know, we're talking Matt
Speaker 3: Lighter and Brady Quinn and Urban Meyer coming back to Cincinnati,
Speaker 3: and then Dave portnoyuh and Barstool Sports and everything that
Speaker 3: he brings in the in the pizza reviews and all
Speaker 3: that good stuff.
Speaker 4: So it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: We need our.
Speaker 4: Bearcats there and so we're just asking for people to
Speaker 4: show up.
Speaker 2: Kickoff Saturday night then is at eight. It is tough
Speaker 2: to beat Nip at night. That place pops at night,
Speaker 2: specifically for those who are going to be there or
Speaker 2: are thinking about it tending. I know it's sold out,
Speaker 2: but what can you tell them about the Saturday night experience.
Speaker 3: You know, if you've been there at night with it's
Speaker 3: it's where black We black that place out. You know,
Speaker 3: it just has that different feel and it's like I
Speaker 3: said earlier, it's the thing that we do best and
Speaker 3: we need I mean by us a great team. We've
Speaker 3: got to take advantage of the fact that we're playing
Speaker 3: at night in kniffort and we need to use that
Speaker 3: to push our team to victory.
Speaker 4: And that's just what we're going to do. So we're
Speaker 4: going to be.
Speaker 3: All about making that that you know, facility, that that
Speaker 3: stadium just unbelievable and put a lot of pressure on
Speaker 3: the other team.
Speaker 4: That's that's the fun of.
Speaker 2: It, boy. And it's also senior night for Dante Corleone
Speaker 2: and others a total of I think twenty two seniors
Speaker 2: who have given their their heart and soul and sweat
Speaker 2: to the UC football program. Be nice to honor them
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really a special group. I mean, obviously Dante,
Speaker 3: you know, been with us for his whole career, through
Speaker 3: a coaching change and through a conference change. But then
Speaker 3: also you think of like a Gavin Gerhart, you know,
Speaker 3: an Ohio kid, three year starter but also a three
Speaker 3: year captain. You know, you don't hear about that that
Speaker 3: much anymore with all the transfers that are going on,
Speaker 3: But we've really done a great job of keeping a
Speaker 3: lot of our our you know, student athletes that want
Speaker 3: to be here and just love Cincinnati, love wearing Cincinnati
Speaker 3: on their chest and just represent Jack Dingle is another one.
Speaker 4: Logan Wilson.
Speaker 3: Those guys are just you know, great bearcats that deserve
Speaker 3: a lot of respect from our fans, and you know,
Speaker 3: deserve a night like Nip at Night on Big Fox.
Speaker 4: So I love giving that to him.
Speaker 2: That's all happening on Saturday. Let's back up to Friday
Speaker 2: night because it's hoops of showdown Downtown UC versus Number
Speaker 2: six Louisville and man, we're talking rivals and star power
Speaker 2: and tough to beat. A November matchup that's probably gonna
Speaker 2: have a merch vibe or certainly a tournament resume building
Speaker 2: game for both teams.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're seeing these all over the place, right This
Speaker 3: is these are these neutral site games that everybody's playing
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 4: Dude played Kansas last night and Michigan State.
Speaker 3: Kentucky and everybody's you're kind of going away maybe from
Speaker 3: the Maui Invitational where you went somewhere and played three
Speaker 3: neutrals or or you know, Bahamas or whatever. A lot
Speaker 3: of people are doing multiple, multiple site neutral games, and
Speaker 3: that's what we decided to do this year. So we're
Speaker 3: playing Downtown neutral.
Speaker 4: You know, you get you get.
Speaker 3: Per the net rating, you get more credit for a
Speaker 3: home win on a neutral and less less. Uh, it
Speaker 3: hurts you less you lose a neutral, So it's kind
Speaker 3: of the perfect scenario to play some neutral games.
Speaker 4: Obviously, we still had great home.
Speaker 3: Games versus Dayton and Xavier or you know, home and
Speaker 3: homes versus those teams. But that's what we're doing. Downtown
Speaker 3: versus Louisville, number six in the country.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: It's it's gonna be a great atmosphere and a really
Speaker 3: tough opponent.
Speaker 2: Early in the year, thirty tip off from Heritage Bank
Speaker 2: Center on Friday night. For those listening who still are
Speaker 2: making their plans for the weekend and saying, man, I
Speaker 2: think I'll go to that. Still, they can get tickets
Speaker 2: at ticketmaster dot com best option.
Speaker 4: That is correct, Yes, they can go there.
Speaker 3: I know there's some discounts as of yesterday that they
Speaker 3: can find.
Speaker 4: So, yeah, make your way down to.
Speaker 3: Heritage Bank and watch a great college basketball game on
Speaker 3: Friday night.
Speaker 2: And certainly, last but not lace, let's give some love
Speaker 2: to the volleyball program, hosting two ranked opponents at Fifth
Speaker 2: Third Arena starting tonight and then and then also on Friday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, Danielle Tomas's first year leading that program,
Speaker 3: and it's one of the toughest conferences in the country.
Speaker 3: The Big Ten probably has the top few teams in
Speaker 3: the country with Nebraska and Penn State and Wisconsin the
Speaker 3: top to bottom.
Speaker 4: The Big Twelve in volleyball is probably the best conference
Speaker 4: in the country. We're right there. We're a bubble team.
Speaker 3: Just like the NCAA tournament, it takes sixty four teams.
Speaker 3: We're a bubble team right now, battling to get into that.
Speaker 4: To get into that tournament. So a couple of home
Speaker 4: games they're gonna be huge. We're playing to night.
Speaker 3: Versus Iowa State and another one coming up Senior Night
Speaker 3: this weekend. So we got to support that program. If
Speaker 3: you come to a volleyball game, I always say it,
Speaker 3: if you come to a volleyball game at fifth Third,
Speaker 3: I promise you you will come back. It's exciting, it's
Speaker 3: great volleyball, and it's just a sport on the rise
Speaker 3: and a program on the rise.
Speaker 2: To the Bearcats very well said what a weekend it's
Speaker 2: gonna be enjoy. Best of luck with it and thanks
Speaker 2: for making time tonight.
Speaker 4: Always appreciate you, Lance. Thank you