Speaker 1: Comedy Off Broadway in Lexington. Welcomes David Cross July twenty
Speaker 1: fourth and twenty fifth, Then catch Jeff Allen July thirtieth
Speaker 1: through August first, and don't miss Brent Turhoon August seventh
Speaker 1: and eighth. Comedy UF Broadway opened in downtown Lexington in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven and they're still bringing the best and
Speaker 1: stand up comedy to the area thirty nine years later.
Speaker 1: Four tickets called eight five, nine, two seven to one
Speaker 1: joke or visit Comedy off Broadway dot com co off Bay.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: Welcome everyone.
Speaker 4: It is Kentucky Sports Radio here live at Kroger Field
Speaker 4: on an absolutely perfect day, overlooking the stadium where hopefully
Speaker 4: this season gives us a ton of excitement.
Speaker 3: You can give Shallock Clarks Puppy Shop full line A five.
Speaker 4: Nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven, a vision
Speaker 4: Auto glass text machine seven seven two seven seven four
Speaker 4: five two five four In this edition sponsored by the TJ.
Speaker 4: Smith Office. If you call TJ, He'll make them pay.
Speaker 4: Today is Miracle Treat Day. It is for the UK
Speaker 4: Children's Hospital, Golisano Children's Hospital at UK and Norton's Children
Speaker 4: in Louisville and.
Speaker 3: Why does that matter?
Speaker 4: Tell me today, if you buy a blizzard at any
Speaker 4: of the sixty dairy queens across Kentucky, there will be
Speaker 4: a dollar from every blizzard soul given to Children's hospitals.
Speaker 4: So all across Kentucky you want to get a blizzard,
Speaker 4: get your coworkers, get your friends, get your family, go
Speaker 4: out on the street by people blizzards. A dollar goes
Speaker 4: to Children's Hospital for everyone in Kentucky. I hope there
Speaker 4: are lines at all of them for these for the
Speaker 4: good work of the folks at Children's Hospital. And in
Speaker 4: order to celebrate that, Yes UK invited us to do
Speaker 4: a show on a UK campus for the first time
Speaker 4: in years.
Speaker 5: Can't remember the last time we were on outside.
Speaker 3: Of Media Day.
Speaker 4: It's probably been since before COVID, and they invited us
Speaker 4: here and you, the fans, get a chance to do
Speaker 4: something you would otherwise never do.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: I know we weren't allowed to give notice beforehand, so
Speaker 4: you're gonna have to be spontaneous. But if you can
Speaker 4: get in your car and you can get to Kroger
Speaker 4: Field by noon, you'll be able to come up to
Speaker 4: the UK Football recruiting room, which the public is not
Speaker 4: allowed in correct.
Speaker 3: You're gonna get to see what they do with recruits.
Speaker 4: You will get a little mini tour of this stadium, Mary,
Speaker 4: and you can come out here and take a picture
Speaker 4: on the veranda in front of the field, which is
Speaker 4: about as good of you as you can get. You
Speaker 4: have until noon, and the first hundred people will get
Speaker 4: a free blizzard from.
Speaker 5: Dairy Queen while they're here.
Speaker 4: While they're here, you look like you're genuinely surprised, like
Speaker 4: you know, like you genuine I thought you were gonna
Speaker 4: like sell that, but now I know that's not faking.
Speaker 3: You didn't know that was happening.
Speaker 5: Of course I knew it was had I'm trying to
Speaker 5: play the part.
Speaker 3: Okay, it is at all right, it is radio. You
Speaker 3: did look surprised, though. It was a good acting. Thank you. Okay,
Speaker 3: sold me. So there they are. They're right there.
Speaker 4: The blizzards are sitting in that cooler waiting for you
Speaker 4: to uh to come. There are volunteers standing outside of
Speaker 4: Gate twelve who will escort you up the elevator. You're
Speaker 4: getting a tour that only the big donors get. But
Speaker 4: as long as you're here by twelve, you will get
Speaker 4: to do it. And you can meet us if you want. Yeah,
Speaker 4: very nice if you k to, ay, just let us
Speaker 4: do the show here. But to open the doors of
Speaker 4: the recruiting room to fans to come by, I mean
Speaker 4: this is a nice area that you otherwise don't get
Speaker 4: to see. You should absolutely take advantage of this. And
Speaker 4: if you walk away with Blizzard, and if you get
Speaker 4: here before eleven, you'll be able to meet Jay Batt,
Speaker 4: who's going to be joining us the new ad.
Speaker 3: So, so like, get in your.
Speaker 4: Car, I mean, don't wreck, Okay, like drive slow, but
Speaker 4: if you can get here, Uh, it's very exciting and
Speaker 4: I wish we could have announced it earlier, but they
Speaker 4: didn't want to have, you know, a swamp of people.
Speaker 4: And so now uh to the victor go the spoils.
Speaker 4: So skip out of work?
Speaker 3: Why not?
Speaker 5: It's miracle tree.
Speaker 4: Tell you what, if you're a boss out there, bring
Speaker 4: your whole department if you like give people the morning.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and bring your department. I'll give you a shout.
Speaker 5: Out there you go.
Speaker 3: Free publicity, yes, but only one hundred people will get
Speaker 3: these Blizard.
Speaker 5: Well, this recding room is really cool. They you know,
Speaker 5: for a years we talked about how it was it
Speaker 5: was the worst. They had some folding chairs and some
Speaker 5: folding tables stuck over here in the Nutterfield house.
Speaker 3: But this is awesome.
Speaker 5: This is very nice. Yeah, and it's always packed every
Speaker 5: home game day with recruits their families. You know, they
Speaker 5: get to sit out here on the right here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so, uh, Billy, I hope people will come by
Speaker 4: and uh, you know, they'll even get to meet you,
Speaker 4: which is I think a great bonus.
Speaker 6: We'll shake some hands, kiss some babies if you'd like
Speaker 6: me to h It is absolutely a beautiful day out here.
Speaker 6: Recruits actually can't be here. This is the one place
Speaker 6: where recruits can't be. They have to sit down under
Speaker 6: the deck, on the deck actually on game days. Yes,
Speaker 6: what do you mean they can't be per rules? Is
Speaker 6: they actually can't be on this deck that you could
Speaker 6: come out here.
Speaker 7: And experience before the game, to hang out here during
Speaker 7: game during the game.
Speaker 3: They kind of NCA rules that I don't know. You
Speaker 3: can't tell me there's not okay.
Speaker 4: There are people making five million dollars a place, Moore,
Speaker 4: and there's a rule they can't stand on the deck.
Speaker 3: Guess that'd be a recruiting violation. What a ridiculous rule
Speaker 3: got get out here when he kicks off.
Speaker 5: But they can come up here before the game. They
Speaker 5: can walk through it to go to the bathroom. There's
Speaker 5: food in there when they during game day, but they
Speaker 5: can't walk a dame deck.
Speaker 3: You cannot sit on the deck.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 5: Have you been in here many times with Dane? Dane
Speaker 5: and Josiah both Ojojo Siah went like game day visits.
Speaker 5: You know, we come up here and we would sit
Speaker 5: right down here behind the.
Speaker 3: Gold which you couldn't sit on the deck.
Speaker 5: I didn't realize that you committed recruiting violation.
Speaker 3: Maybe we did.
Speaker 4: I think the first time they bring us back here
Speaker 4: in years and Ryan's already self reporting.
Speaker 5: I didn't know that the recruits could not be on
Speaker 5: the deck during the game.
Speaker 3: There's a sign right there. I'm just reading the sign
Speaker 3: of wow, okay breaking today.
Speaker 4: So the Children's Hospital of UK and Norton's Children in Louisville,
Speaker 4: every Derek Queen around the state, a dollar Mark Pope
Speaker 4: is involved, will Stein, Jay Batt. Everybody is encouraging. Want
Speaker 4: get to your dairy, queen. The machines are going to work.
Speaker 5: Everybody likes Blizzard, right, So if you just take the
Speaker 5: day to go get it man, Today's your day.
Speaker 4: Today is the So Jay Batt will join us here
Speaker 4: in a few minutes. Until then, I want to talk
Speaker 4: a little bit about the TBT. Oh yeah, the Cats
Speaker 4: to the finals. I need more exciting. Won the championship.
Speaker 4: He won the alumni Championship over an old Mario Chalmers
Speaker 4: and uh and Carlton Bragg retired Civil War general and uh,
Speaker 4: what a great victory.
Speaker 7: Another fun night there. I've been to all of them.
Speaker 7: That might have been the most energetic. The crowd really
Speaker 7: like from the start. They were into a lot of
Speaker 7: trash talking, lots of trash talk. Kansas did lots of
Speaker 7: jawing the refs. They're just giving it to the refs again.
Speaker 7: Those poor guys. They're thinking, why are you all yelling
Speaker 7: at me in July? But Kentucky fans were locked in
Speaker 7: from the tip and then had a pretty big blowout.
Speaker 7: I guess they narrated a little bit there at the end,
Speaker 7: but it was mostly a fun night of just piling
Speaker 7: on Kansas.
Speaker 4: It looked awesome. I mean I was watching I went
Speaker 4: to the Reds game. Decision cut edwin Royo, but I
Speaker 4: watched it on my phone and it was fun to watch.
Speaker 4: I mean we yesterday it looked like everyone on the
Speaker 4: team was good. Like, we had a bunch of people
Speaker 4: play good. I mean, Archie's the best, but a lot
Speaker 4: of other guys stepped up.
Speaker 5: There was no doubt who the best team was. Last
Speaker 5: night they destroyed Kansas. I mean it was more than
Speaker 5: a twenty point game most like and a half felt
Speaker 5: worse than that. But Drew's right. We talked about it.
Speaker 5: The crowd felt like almost like an SEC tournament crowd.
Speaker 5: They were so into every single possession. These are a
Speaker 5: lot of fans that don't get to go to rupt,
Speaker 5: you know, so they go to this game. So they're
Speaker 5: enjoying themselves. I sat in the up arena and enjoyed
Speaker 5: every second of it.
Speaker 7: Is this the football team, yeah, ty, Bryan, that's the
Speaker 7: tennis team.
Speaker 4: If that's a tennis team, we're not gonna be very good.
Speaker 4: I don't think some of those guys have tennis builds. Okay,
Speaker 4: So that's another thing. If you come, I mean, don't
Speaker 4: tell anybody, Billy, but it looks like you can watch
Speaker 4: a little football.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: I've been watching it ever since we got out here.
Speaker 7: I didn't first look at him for me.
Speaker 3: Why wouldn't you just get in your car and come here?
Speaker 3: A blizzard in Kentucky insight, and now you're gonna get
Speaker 3: to watch, Like, I haven't even watched the team. So
Speaker 3: who are those people?
Speaker 7: That's all of them?
Speaker 5: Hors Ty Bryant is one of the ones in the front.
Speaker 7: There was up there leading.
Speaker 3: Oh he's yelling. Yeah, look at Todd Bryan. He's leading
Speaker 3: the jumping jacks.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we're about to get okay if they can.
Speaker 4: If they kept jumping jack I was gonna make you
Speaker 4: go out there and jumping Jacksonith.
Speaker 5: Well you know, I think they want me to kind
Speaker 5: of go through the recruiting process while we're here.
Speaker 3: Well, you're on the deck, so that really that's really
Speaker 3: the team?
Speaker 7: Yeah yeah wow, Summer workouts camp starts this Weekend's huge.
Speaker 3: He could beat you up, Billy. Well yeah, probably all
Speaker 3: of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not a fighter. I'm a lover.
Speaker 4: We're gonna get so again, you could watch workouts and stuff.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be interested to see who the first person
Speaker 4: is that they get to the door, comes see the.
Speaker 7: Door seeing the current football team. But back on TBT,
Speaker 7: the current basketball team was just as into it. Last
Speaker 7: night as the fans.
Speaker 3: Dude, they were sitting on the front row.
Speaker 7: Yeah, well four of them are on the front row,
Speaker 7: the Hawthorns, Alex Wilkins and Mason Williams. And they weren't
Speaker 7: kind of into it. They might have loved it more
Speaker 7: than anyone else. Archie's pointing out him every time he scores,
Speaker 7: they're pointing back. They're jawn with Mario Chalmers and they
Speaker 7: weren't even born yet when he was playing. I couldn't
Speaker 7: believe how much they were into it. They've attended every game,
Speaker 7: but last night they were all the way locked in.
Speaker 7: I'm ready to get job Obbs.
Speaker 6: The spot on the coaching coach Hooden is absolutely like
Speaker 6: he's killing it.
Speaker 3: I mean, what and what and what a great job
Speaker 3: he's done.
Speaker 5: Colin plays like the winning bucket. They tried to set
Speaker 5: up play try to get Willy to have an Ally dunk.
Speaker 5: So he's trying to do the right thing. But you
Speaker 5: mean he drew me into the former players, the old players.
Speaker 5: Shagary was as much as a sighty.
Speaker 4: Cam is maybe my favorite part of the games. I mean,
Speaker 4: he's out there and the picture which I went to
Speaker 4: the game with the Turkey utter and he highlighted Shagary
Speaker 4: standing over top of Kelly Kraft. Yeah, it is quite
Speaker 4: a side Schregary gets into.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I've got like five minutes worth of video of Schregary.
Speaker 7: I record him while the game is going on directly
Speaker 7: in front of me. I'm turning to getting Shaggari, but
Speaker 7: he's just so into it. Wu was just a couple
Speaker 7: of things down from him. I needed Wu to get
Speaker 7: up and join him. If we had those two over the.
Speaker 4: Say, I remember when Shagari played. I feel like he
Speaker 4: has a lot more energy now than when he played,
Speaker 4: don't you.
Speaker 5: There is no doubt, but he is. He is into
Speaker 5: it as anybody standing up most of the game. Even
Speaker 5: when we're up twenty he's up there standing up, talking
Speaker 5: trash and.
Speaker 3: And like he's putting it himself in defensive posture. Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, he's telling him stop ball, stop ball, stop ball,
Speaker 7: Like you have Hood coaching this end and he's coaching
Speaker 7: the defensive end.
Speaker 3: Hood. Man.
Speaker 7: They're up twenty five, still still lighting them up for
Speaker 7: you know, not guarded.
Speaker 4: What did you see Drew's clever little tweet? No, it
Speaker 4: was he said coffee and Mayo.
Speaker 3: Will Levis would be proud because you get it. There
Speaker 3: was like, we haven't guy coffee, ye, and he's guarding Mayo.
Speaker 5: Yeah, do you get it?
Speaker 3: Hey, we got our first guy. Hell yes.
Speaker 7: My other one was Searon Collins, who coaches Kansas. He
Speaker 7: only coached the team because he heard he could have Mayo.
Speaker 7: You don't know if you saw him.
Speaker 5: But I could not believe that was him.
Speaker 4: I mean, Sean Collins, as my great aunts would would say,
Speaker 4: got a side bit stout.
Speaker 7: Yeah, more than a side bit.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 5: I didn't know that was him.
Speaker 7: Yeah, he had that build when he played. He thought,
Speaker 7: you know, he could balloon up a little bit when
Speaker 7: he retires. I didn't know that was him.
Speaker 3: Got a little got got a little you know, habit
Speaker 3: all of us.
Speaker 4: You know, maybe we could use him out here to
Speaker 4: stop the run, plug the gap.
Speaker 7: Also, like two of their players got kicked off Kansas,
Speaker 7: Billy Preston was in the FBI.
Speaker 3: I love that like that.
Speaker 4: I mean that would be like next year we bring
Speaker 4: in Kerr. Yeah, Prust never played there. He got him
Speaker 4: in trouble and then now he's on their alumni. There's
Speaker 4: something the chaos of TBT makes me so happy. You
Speaker 4: don't know what's gonna happen. People at any moment might
Speaker 4: get in a fight. There is just absolute like the
Speaker 4: rosters come and go, and like.
Speaker 3: The TBT is way more enterta every year.
Speaker 4: I think, well, now if the tbt's times passed, and
Speaker 4: then Billy, they continue to make themselves entertaining.
Speaker 6: To me, that wasn't there last night, but they sat
Speaker 6: on the broadcast. The Kansas team had to bust overnight.
Speaker 4: See that it's crazy. So they took a bus from Lawrence, Kansas. Lawrence,
Speaker 4: Kansas is fourteen days for me. I mean, it's the
Speaker 4: worst drive we've done it.
Speaker 3: It's awful.
Speaker 6: And they bust, Yeah, bust overnight, got in at six
Speaker 6: am and then had to shoot around at like eleven
Speaker 6: that morning.
Speaker 3: Well, no wonder they look sleepy.
Speaker 7: Chalmers played ten years in the NBA, has several rings
Speaker 7: on his finger. He's busting as a forty year old.
Speaker 4: But there's something kind of beautiful about that that he
Speaker 4: wants to do.
Speaker 3: Yes, right, I mean I like that. I like that.
Speaker 3: These guys, I mean we talked about it.
Speaker 4: Khalil Whitney and Archie Goodwin have completely changed the way
Speaker 4: fans will.
Speaker 5: Look at them, no doubt.
Speaker 3: And then Andrew Harrison playing I just I really am Willie.
Speaker 4: Willie's got one leg and he's out there walking around
Speaker 4: like it's awesome.
Speaker 7: But on the other side of it, I feel like
Speaker 7: we've we've kicked some former players out of BPN for
Speaker 7: not showing up.
Speaker 8: Yes, Marcus Lee can't ever come back. You know, if
Speaker 8: you show up, you're good. But if you don't, we
Speaker 8: want you to volunteer. Actually you can be better volunteer.
Speaker 8: But then when we do, I love it.
Speaker 3: I think it's great. And now they play Sunday at
Speaker 3: what time?
Speaker 7: One the one part of this is they've knocked out Louisville, Syracuse,
Speaker 7: Kansas in order, and now we might be playing the
Speaker 7: local steel mill.
Speaker 4: Now we're playing a steel mill run by two brothers. See,
Speaker 4: that's another thing that's great about DVD. You get Mario Chalmers,
Speaker 4: you're out. You know, Louisville you're out, Syracuse you're out. Oh,
Speaker 4: by the way, here comes Davis Steele three Davis and
Speaker 4: whoever his brother is.
Speaker 5: For Russell Springs, Kentucky.
Speaker 3: Well, we'll see they played tonight. Yeah, I kind of
Speaker 3: hope we play it.
Speaker 4: We got that storyline we need UK versus the Steel
Speaker 4: Company all right, we are here. We already have It
Speaker 4: looks like four people have already showed up during the
Speaker 4: first segment.
Speaker 3: You can join us.
Speaker 4: There's ninety six blizzards left for the next hour and
Speaker 4: forty five minutes and get one. And the UK football
Speaker 4: team is sprinting. They like to yell, don't they getting
Speaker 4: fired up? Getting fine? I'm getting fired up. We'll take
Speaker 4: a break of be right back. It is Miracle Treat
Speaker 4: Day here at Kroger Field, working back. It is Kentucky
Speaker 4: Sports Radio. Folks continue to show up. See I knew
Speaker 4: if you if you build it and give away blizzards,
Speaker 4: they will come.
Speaker 5: Free food, wreathe the crowd out every single time.
Speaker 3: That's right, Are you UK or you you you work? Okay?
Speaker 4: So he was our first visitor there. So eight five
Speaker 4: nine two A zero twenty two eighty seven. First of all,
Speaker 4: a couple of things. This is a Miracle Treat Day
Speaker 4: by blizzard. Today dollar goes to Children's hospital in Lexington
Speaker 4: or Louisville. Jay Bad is going to join us here
Speaker 4: in just a minute. I want to thank you K
Speaker 4: for setting this up. First of all, letting us back
Speaker 4: on campus.
Speaker 3: That was awesome. I think there's been a change of
Speaker 3: the mine set.
Speaker 4: There, but they and Billy worked into the night last
Speaker 4: night to get this to this idea came about it
Speaker 4: like five o'clock yesterday and Billy and Jake with the UK.
Speaker 4: You guys worked and you I think you didn't get
Speaker 4: it finalized till eleven o'clock last night.
Speaker 3: So thank you very much.
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely, thank you for having us out UK, and
Speaker 6: thank you to Tom Leach who joined me on the
Speaker 6: pre show.
Speaker 4: Each came Tom Leach. You had to wake him up
Speaker 4: out of bed and tell him to come here this morning.
Speaker 6: No, no, he just had to change some plans late.
Speaker 6: But this is a really cool place to see and
Speaker 6: happy we can get it done.
Speaker 5: I'm telling you we got an itinerary with a parking
Speaker 5: map last night.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: This is way beyond professional. He set this up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so come on up.
Speaker 4: This is you're gonna you got a chance here to
Speaker 4: see what you which you otherwise couldn't see. They now
Speaker 4: have the players climbing the steps. Are you watching this?
Speaker 4: They're look at these workouts we're doing. You're climbing and
Speaker 4: walking the steps.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think our fans are already here to get
Speaker 7: blizzards are really enjoying the sneak.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this team honestly didn't know that the football sneak
Speaker 4: peak was part of this, and adone was sitting there
Speaker 4: watching them work out. I didn't Who knew that getting
Speaker 4: to see the football team would be part of this?
Speaker 7: Didn't tell me that they're had some chair backs up
Speaker 7: there in the in the upper level.
Speaker 3: And the stadium looks really fiel you think, don't you.
Speaker 3: I mean, this looks really really it's beautiful.
Speaker 5: You know, everything's blue out here. But they've they've improvised
Speaker 5: it and improved it so much over the years. It's
Speaker 5: now one of the better places to go to.
Speaker 3: Do they make the play They still make the players
Speaker 3: front of the steps.
Speaker 5: All conditioning stuff.
Speaker 3: Yes, boy, that would be terrible. I hate it.
Speaker 7: It's about to get real hard for him when camp starts. Yes,
Speaker 7: this is I guess the workout before you start leading
Speaker 7: right up to it, and they are they're adding chairbacks.
Speaker 7: How much of this place is going to be chairbacks now?
Speaker 7: Because it's what is that the first five rows of
Speaker 7: the top.
Speaker 5: Section, so these two sections you'll have bleachers, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So the first five rows of the top sections
Speaker 4: on both sides now look like they're gonna have chairbacks.
Speaker 7: I can't wait to get out here when it's official.
Speaker 7: This is just adding to it, And what a great
Speaker 7: weather day. It already feels kind of like football weather
Speaker 7: out here.
Speaker 4: One person says, Matt, I don't want to say it,
Speaker 4: but I'm gonna say it. I think TVT games might
Speaker 4: be more fun in person than regular games. I absolutely
Speaker 4: love it. We bought our tickets for Sunday immediately.
Speaker 7: I'm not gonna agree with that, but I will say
Speaker 7: several people came up to me last night and said
Speaker 7: that it's not that one texture. Lots of people thought
Speaker 7: I'm having more fun here than I did with the
Speaker 7: real thing.
Speaker 3: I don't know why.
Speaker 7: It just maybe a little more loose Chigari's on the court.
Speaker 7: The elimning does add to it. If this was the
Speaker 7: guy's dribbling out and shooting free throws, I don't know
Speaker 7: it'd be nearly as fun.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: The ad stress because even though we were up twenty,
Speaker 4: You're like, well, we still got to score.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you still got to score the points. You can't
Speaker 3: just stand around.
Speaker 7: But if that fourth quarter had just been passing the
Speaker 7: ball around and drawing fouls and going line that wouldn't
Speaker 7: have nearly the excitement.
Speaker 5: There's definitely a buzz last night, And like we talked about,
Speaker 5: I think it's just fans. They don't get the opportunity
Speaker 5: to come watch the current catch play. They got a
Speaker 5: chance to come watch this game, and they're into it.
Speaker 5: Every single person was into the game last night.
Speaker 4: One person writes, the Davis steel team is a little
Speaker 4: bit like the Simpsons episode where mister Burns loads up
Speaker 4: the company softball team with Ken Griffy Junior, Jose Conseco,
Speaker 4: and Darryl Strawberry.
Speaker 7: They're a good team. They've loaded up. We can't sleep
Speaker 7: on them just because they're the local steel.
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, we can't let the steel mill
Speaker 4: that decided to change from Kentucky.
Speaker 3: We can't let them win.
Speaker 5: They went and sponsored the team that beat us last year.
Speaker 3: I mean, how do you do that? How do you
Speaker 3: do that?
Speaker 5: But they listened to KSR.
Speaker 4: And I'm not mad at you, but I'm mad at
Speaker 4: you through Monday. Yes we could, and I'm giving you
Speaker 4: free publicity, David Steele, this is what you wanted.
Speaker 5: I mean, they're located on the right from Casey Canty's
Speaker 5: on the right.
Speaker 3: And you know me, I'm on the left, that's.
Speaker 5: Right, and Ryan calling him out yesterday a little bit.
Speaker 4: So by the way, you just I like how you
Speaker 4: just said, uh, good to see you guys. I like
Speaker 4: how you just said that Ashley Davis was mad. You
Speaker 4: didn't even know that to be true. Hurt feelings, you said,
Speaker 4: hurt feelings.
Speaker 3: You need to talk to me.
Speaker 5: I trust my source on my text machine that that's
Speaker 5: exactly what happened.
Speaker 4: How you, first of all, you don't even have a
Speaker 4: text machine. I have the text machine.
Speaker 5: We have the a vision glass alternate text machine.
Speaker 3: And you you take those even when oh, I.
Speaker 5: Think there's nothing but serious and truthful on there. Where
Speaker 5: do you think I get all my scoops from?
Speaker 3: It's always supposed to be one text machine.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but we were when you when you haven't asked
Speaker 5: a question. I looked at the clock and it was
Speaker 5: like fifty four, Like we just got a couple of minutes.
Speaker 5: We got to get right to it, and I know,
Speaker 5: pussy footing around, We got to go after it.
Speaker 3: Goodness, grapeos, we're on campus.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but when it's this is by beat that next
Speaker 4: to my parents, that might be the most religious man
Speaker 4: I know, and you're just out here throwing words around.
Speaker 5: It's it's football season. It's time to get nasty. Championship
Speaker 5: week here.
Speaker 7: Nasty is peakern women today.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 4: Somebody asked me yesterday literally they said, is Ryan Lemon
Speaker 4: see like one hundred percent back? I think the answer
Speaker 4: is now yes. I'm not sure if it was yes,
Speaker 4: but maybe today it's yes.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of things I'd like to tell you,
Speaker 5: but I can't.
Speaker 3: Please don't.
Speaker 5: I think there's some stories that will never ever be told.
Speaker 4: I think I think we can. We can leave it there,
Speaker 4: all right. So Jay Bat's gonna join us here. Oh,
Speaker 4: there he is. He's out there.
Speaker 3: Boy.
Speaker 4: He does the blazer, the blazer, no tie, Yeah thing,
Speaker 4: he does that very well. That's pattern blazer he was
Speaker 4: wearing one last Yeah, they're gonna make you get up
Speaker 4: here and he's gonna join it.
Speaker 3: I think they're going over the last minute notes. Yeah, Brian,
Speaker 3: do you.
Speaker 4: Have a question that you're wanting to ask We have
Speaker 4: him for about twenty or twenty five minutes.
Speaker 5: I'd love to ask him a question like what's his
Speaker 5: forty times?
Speaker 3: You're not going first, okay, we're trying to have Davis Steel.
Speaker 3: He's heard of them.
Speaker 4: See look, Amy's gonna see this is what I like.
Speaker 4: He walks in here. First thing he does, he goes
Speaker 4: and shakes the hands of the people who's coming here
Speaker 4: to get the fancy.
Speaker 3: I like that. That's a really you know what, that's
Speaker 3: a really good start.
Speaker 7: It is also the sneaker blazer combo.
Speaker 4: But that's me the sneaker blazer combo. I think is
Speaker 4: is really good. But see so I I genuinely think
Speaker 4: people who do that that is a that's a really
Speaker 4: good sign. He was at TVT last night making the
Speaker 4: rounds too, with the crafts.
Speaker 7: Setting between the crafts, knew where he needed to go
Speaker 7: with the fansy. Mario already met him. You know, Mario
Speaker 7: just walked right up introducing, wait, wait minute you I'm excited.
Speaker 7: This is going to be your first age nearly two
Speaker 7: decades on the job, two decades on the job, this
Speaker 7: will be the first Why do you they got war
Speaker 7: a polo.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be so exciting for you. But you would
Speaker 3: get to Mario needs.
Speaker 5: To capture the moment, this historic moment.
Speaker 3: Yes we do. So I go for the hug. You know,
Speaker 3: I think I go a long hug.
Speaker 5: Gott dap him up.
Speaker 7: I think I hold him for like three seconds, A long,
Speaker 7: awkward hug.
Speaker 4: This is I think it's a combination of the sugar
Speaker 4: from the blizzard and being here when we didn't think
Speaker 4: we would be, and watching our new football team. Who
Speaker 4: uh oh, I think they're headed off the field. So
Speaker 4: see you had to get there early. But they may be. Oh,
Speaker 4: they're saying they may be coming back at eleven. Okay,
Speaker 4: I I two A twenty two eighty seven. If you
Speaker 4: have questions that you would like to ask the new
Speaker 4: athletic director, I'm going to look at the text machine
Speaker 4: during the break. I certainly have mine. And this is
Speaker 4: his debut in front of the state audience.
Speaker 5: It's kind of historic knowing that he's been on the job,
Speaker 5: what now, two days, three days, and he's already gonna
Speaker 5: come on KSR.
Speaker 3: I know that that is very historic.
Speaker 4: Could also remember miracle treat Day UK Children's Hospital, Norton's
Speaker 4: Children's Hospital. If you buy a blizzard anywhere in the
Speaker 4: state today, a dollar of it will go to the
Speaker 4: children's hospital. We're going to take a break. Beautiful Kroger Field.
Speaker 4: This looks amazing today. The blue popping off the sun
Speaker 4: and we will.
Speaker 3: Be right back. This is KSR.
Speaker 2: Welcome back.
Speaker 4: It is Kentucky Sports Radio Miracle Treat Day and now
Speaker 4: joined by athletic director Jay Batt. Jay, thank you very much,
Speaker 4: first time on KSR.
Speaker 3: We appreciate you taking.
Speaker 9: The time, glad to be here, fellas, appreciate you guys
Speaker 9: having me and good day for all of it. So
Speaker 9: appreciate you being here. It's a beautiful day, my goodness,
Speaker 9: beautiful day.
Speaker 4: And I liked you getting to meet some fans that
Speaker 4: stopped by, well on short notice. We only gave them
Speaker 4: thirty minutes notice, but that's BBN. They get here in
Speaker 4: thirty minutes.
Speaker 9: Well, I tell you what I got to experience a
Speaker 9: little bit last night.
Speaker 2: We were talking about it.
Speaker 9: All fair, but it's incredible BBN showing up in July
Speaker 9: for basketball, thirty five hundred people, loud, intense, you know,
Speaker 9: lot familiar gets a w a big one on Sunday.
Speaker 9: But that just speaks to the power of and the
Speaker 9: importance of BBN.
Speaker 3: It's awesome. So you decided to come here.
Speaker 4: I interviewed you the day it got announced, and you
Speaker 4: talked about what made you see the job as attractive. Okay,
Speaker 4: now you've been here a little bit. I know you
Speaker 4: just started, but you kind of see the Kentucky fan
Speaker 4: base just in those last few weeks, your preconception of
Speaker 4: what it would be to now what's happened.
Speaker 9: You know, I think it's I think it's a promised, given, promised,
Speaker 9: answered kind of thing, and that I think everything I
Speaker 9: expected Big Blue Nation to be, you know, and again listen,
Speaker 9: I got all of forty eight hours here, so we'll
Speaker 9: say that you know, early, early, early and often, but
Speaker 9: just you know, whether it's you know, externally, I walked
Speaker 9: into my office, I had a whole stack of male
Speaker 9: of welcome, hope you do great, glad you're a part
Speaker 9: of it.
Speaker 2: Pieces.
Speaker 9: So I would say I expected it to be passionate,
Speaker 9: expected it to be, you know, kind of give your
Speaker 9: all for Kentucky. And that is what I have experienced early.
Speaker 9: I mean last night, first event I've been to on campus,
Speaker 9: to your very.
Speaker 3: First event was TBT. It was I love it, yeah,
Speaker 3: show it was so yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I mean it's it's great.
Speaker 9: But even you know, I tell you what, whether it's
Speaker 9: BBN our student athletes, like I was walking around the
Speaker 9: building last night whether it's meeting some of the football guys,
Speaker 9: basketball guys, women's basketball, volleyball, over and craft center, like,
Speaker 9: we've got great kids too. And So, to answer your
Speaker 9: question directly, BBN's been exactly what I had hoped and
Speaker 9: what it's been billed to be so far.
Speaker 4: Now you have a lot of have to do today,
Speaker 4: So I kind of want to ask you some very
Speaker 4: like specific questions that I know fans kind of want
Speaker 4: to know the answer.
Speaker 3: Let's start with football since we're here. Okay, the question I.
Speaker 4: Get from fans the most in the new era is
Speaker 4: do you think the revenue exist and the structure you
Speaker 4: do this to make Kentucky not just a competitive football
Speaker 4: program but a top level one. It's changed in the
Speaker 4: last couple of years. I kind of think it makes
Speaker 4: it easier for schools like Kentucky in some ways.
Speaker 3: What do you do you think this is a place
Speaker 3: that can do it?
Speaker 9: Yes, I think for sure, I think I'm gonna answer
Speaker 9: that emphatically. Yes, And frankly, I wouldn't be here, neither
Speaker 9: would will Stein if that was if that wasn't the answer.
Speaker 9: You know, I think it's it's a couple of things, right.
Speaker 9: We have a tradition. We have championship excellence in this
Speaker 9: athletic department broadly, that's the base on which all of
Speaker 9: this is built. I think part of it is we
Speaker 9: have already done some of the hard work to build structure.
Speaker 9: Right we talk about champions blue you know, we can
Speaker 9: talk more about that, about the nimbleness that creates This
Speaker 9: is constantly changing, right, you know, we're we're we're dealing
Speaker 9: with everything from legislative things to rule making that's happening
Speaker 9: on the fly, and NCAA is continuing to evolve in
Speaker 9: its approach.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 9: We just five for five just popped, you know, came
Speaker 9: out here shortly. All of those changes. The structure is right,
Speaker 9: the tradition is right, the tradition of excellence is right. Yeah,
Speaker 9: we're gonna have to lean in now and again. I
Speaker 9: think part of the you know, when we were together,
Speaker 9: I made the point to say, and I mean it,
Speaker 9: big Blue Nation is the most important thing we have here.
Speaker 9: It is the most important part of what we will
Speaker 9: do to be successful in the future. And so part
Speaker 9: of it is like it's our job to build structure,
Speaker 9: to to go and find and do. But at the
Speaker 9: end of the day, like it's a partnership. And so
Speaker 9: I think the answer to your question is absolutely positively. Yes,
Speaker 9: We're gonna have to continue to evolve, and.
Speaker 3: So you could see a world that they host a
Speaker 3: playoff game in this state.
Speaker 9: I love that we took a walk today and we
Speaker 9: were talking about one of my first big facilities. Walked
Speaker 9: this morning six am. We had a great crew that
Speaker 9: was walking with me. We walked the stadium and it
Speaker 9: wasn't just where's sec Nation going to set up? Is
Speaker 9: where's college game day?
Speaker 3: Upset up? A right nice happened once.
Speaker 9: Let's let's make that happen again, because that says is
Speaker 9: we're in this thing and we're doing it, and that
Speaker 9: at the end of the day, like we're thinking there, right,
Speaker 9: And so I think to your point, yes I want to.
Speaker 4: Come back to football, let's but I want to make
Speaker 4: sure I get some other stuff basketball. Mark's Story had
Speaker 4: a story yesterday that said, just historically, this has been
Speaker 4: the toughest decade for UK basketball since its beginning. Do
Speaker 4: you think, in terms of basketball, what have you seen
Speaker 4: from afar or that needs to happen to get Kentucky
Speaker 4: to where it has been historically?
Speaker 9: You know, I think part of it is, so we
Speaker 9: talked about the same things, right, history, tremendous, standard of excellence, tremendous,
Speaker 9: big blue nation behind basketball tremendous. And I think Mark's
Speaker 9: got a great team on the floor. I've been to
Speaker 9: a few practices, will say that. You know, I like
Speaker 9: the fact that he's evaluating talent every day. Not me,
Speaker 9: but I think we're in a great spot to have
Speaker 9: that success. And listen, like, you know, I think Mark
Speaker 9: was beyond with you guys where he said he understands
Speaker 9: the mission. He's not going to shy away from the
Speaker 9: fact that the standard is the standard for Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 9: And Mark knows that. And I also have that same standard,
Speaker 9: right like, we need to be there.
Speaker 4: The structure of both football as a gem, Yeah, basketball
Speaker 4: does not, do you think it should.
Speaker 9: I'll tell you this, it's high on my list to
Speaker 9: dig into our player management strategy broadly. And so, you know,
Speaker 9: I think part of what you look at is we've
Speaker 9: made this evolution in college sports from where that was
Speaker 9: never a part of the equation at all to today
Speaker 9: where we'll call it broadly player managements super important. There
Speaker 9: is delta to be had, there there is margin of
Speaker 9: excellence to be had by investing in that space. And
Speaker 9: so listen, I'm gonna ge with Mark, I've got with Will,
Speaker 9: We're gonna get with got with Kenny. And you know, listen,
Speaker 9: there's there is nil and revenue share across a bunch
Speaker 9: of different sports, and so adding capability, expertise, value around
Speaker 9: player management at the department level is important.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you look from afar and decide whether to
Speaker 4: take this job, and one of the things you look
Speaker 4: at is, Okay, what can I be of help for
Speaker 4: You told me when we first talked, you have a
Speaker 4: lot of comfort and experience generating revenue, et cetera. So
Speaker 4: let's put that piece to the side. Because you've talked
Speaker 4: a lot about that. What are two or three other
Speaker 4: things you looked at and said, that's something that needs
Speaker 4: to happen there that I think I can help happen.
Speaker 9: You know, I think part of it is one listen.
Speaker 9: You look for spots where you can, you know, hopefully
Speaker 9: help and have an impact. I think part of it
Speaker 9: is my number one job today, yesterday and in the
Speaker 9: in the very new future is I got to go
Speaker 9: listen and learn, right, And so whether that's meeting with
Speaker 9: every one of our head coaches meeting with our staff.
Speaker 2: Like this is Kentucky.
Speaker 9: We got great staff, and so absolutely there are places
Speaker 9: where I'm gonna dig and get deep. But at the
Speaker 9: same point in time, you know, you've only got so
Speaker 9: many hours in the day, and so we'll have to
Speaker 9: pick those as we go, Matt. But there are definitely places,
Speaker 9: you know, whether it's gaming experience, Listen, I've been to
Speaker 9: a lot of different venues across a couple of different leagues.
Speaker 9: I think we can new different ideas. Certainly look at
Speaker 9: some of those things. But you know, listen, this is
Speaker 9: not a broken place. This is a great place. And
Speaker 9: I hope I can add to that, but this is
Speaker 9: a good spot.
Speaker 3: Do you.
Speaker 4: I was looking. The baseball team has a top ten
Speaker 4: recruiting class. The volleyball team is obviously the favorite in
Speaker 4: the SEC. The women's basketball team is going to be
Speaker 4: really good. There's been a concern I know from people
Speaker 4: in sort of the secondary sports, can't I mean schools
Speaker 4: to some extent almost have to choose do you agree
Speaker 4: with that statement or do you think you can be
Speaker 4: excellent at all of these and do you think you're
Speaker 4: gonna be able to keep all the sports in the
Speaker 4: modern era.
Speaker 2: Keep all the sports for sure.
Speaker 9: Okay, that would be you know, I've got history of
Speaker 9: when I was at the University of Maryland we cut
Speaker 9: seven sports. Worst day I've ever had in college athletics.
Speaker 9: I will do everything I possibly can and don't see
Speaker 9: a world in which that changes. I think, you know,
Speaker 9: part of the the insight question is part of what
Speaker 9: makes Kentucky.
Speaker 2: Special is we have had that broad based success.
Speaker 9: We have built that championship standard of excellence more broadly
Speaker 9: than maybe in previous let's say, decades before it exists. Uh,
Speaker 9: my goal would be to keep that and so part
Speaker 9: of that, Matt would be But in order to do that,
Speaker 9: we have to be hyper focused on driving ROI back
Speaker 9: to the department, not just the sake of you know,
Speaker 9: we talked about how like you know, some things I've
Speaker 9: done the past to drive revenue, that that will be
Speaker 9: a focus of mine, certainly, but not simply just to
Speaker 9: drive revenue. You're gonna, you know, work with our tools.
Speaker 9: Right this big stadium we're sitting in, you can drive
Speaker 9: revenue here Rub Memorial. There's there's the ability to drive revenue,
Speaker 9: but not just to do it, but to do it
Speaker 9: to spread and and build. You know, I think you
Speaker 9: know you talked about you know, was with with with
Speaker 9: Menes morning listen, like top ten in the country eighth
Speaker 9: and yes it's a tough neighborhood, but dog gone it
Speaker 9: like we can continue to have success in places like
Speaker 9: that volleyballs with Craig this morning as well, like that.
Speaker 2: What an incredible program he's built.
Speaker 9: What now it's going to continue to take more as
Speaker 9: the as you know what that takes evolves. But we're
Speaker 9: in a really good spot for it. So yes, we
Speaker 9: can do it, and we plan on it. We'll have
Speaker 9: to keep pushing it. BBN is gonna have to step
Speaker 9: in there with us, which I know they will, but
Speaker 9: we it's it's very doable.
Speaker 5: You walked in here and the first thing you did
Speaker 5: was shake the hands of the fans, not your staff members,
Speaker 5: not us, You shook the hands of the fans.
Speaker 3: How do you.
Speaker 5: Generally monitor the pulse of the fan base when you're
Speaker 5: that like director.
Speaker 3: Good question, A great question. Yeah, who knew.
Speaker 5: I slept the holiday and expression that.
Speaker 9: You gotta listen, you gotta listen, and you know part
Speaker 9: of that is uh, you know to you know it
Speaker 9: it will not be the only time that I shake
Speaker 9: the hands of the fans, you know, whether it's inbound
Speaker 9: contact from emails or whatever. Listen, Like, I value very
Speaker 9: much what the fans have to say, and so people
Speaker 9: will have very candid conversations with me, or they'll provide
Speaker 9: feedback that's okay. I'd like that, we want it. That's
Speaker 9: how we get better. But it'll be one on one.
Speaker 9: I'll listen when when folks are saying, you know, part
Speaker 9: of that is we're really fortunate BBM will tell us
Speaker 9: what they're feeling.
Speaker 4: I do think in the past generations in this I'm
Speaker 4: not no dispersions to people, but a lot of people
Speaker 4: in BBM didn't feel.
Speaker 3: Like their voices could be heard.
Speaker 4: You know, how do you think you can make it
Speaker 4: to where they don't feel that detachment? Because I know
Speaker 4: a lot of our listeners over the years that was
Speaker 4: their biggest complaint to me, I don't feel like my
Speaker 4: voice is heard.
Speaker 9: Well, you know, listen, I think part of that is,
Speaker 9: you know, there's millions and millions and millions of voices,
Speaker 9: so every single one we're not gonna, you know, be
Speaker 9: able to immediately and irrevocably address. But I think listen,
Speaker 9: like this opportunity for us to be together and you
Speaker 9: just to communicate some of that even on behalf of
Speaker 9: I'm here to listen and to learn and listen. We'll
Speaker 9: make best efforts. Like we might not hit a home
Speaker 9: run every time, but we're gonna be up here and
Speaker 9: we'll be we'll get to the plate.
Speaker 7: Before you're even a candidate here or even in being
Speaker 7: an athletic director, maybe growing up, what was your perception
Speaker 7: of UK athletics or maybe a memory of watching Kentucky.
Speaker 7: I know you're from Virginia nearby. I went to you
Speaker 7: and see did you have any early early thoughts of
Speaker 7: UK even though you weren't a part of it.
Speaker 9: I think what you think of when you think of
Speaker 9: UK is I'll say this one. You know, I was
Speaker 9: in Nashville for a SEC tournament and you know, was
Speaker 9: with a different team, lost early, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 9: out of everywhere, Big Blue Nations just showed up and
Speaker 9: took over the entire town. That that's what I know
Speaker 9: of big like it is the incredible passion in the
Speaker 9: fan base, and that that permeates all of college sports.
Speaker 9: That's known across college sports. So growing up in a
Speaker 9: college town, in an acc town like Kentucky basketball and
Speaker 9: the fan base that goes with it, the football, all
Speaker 9: of ours.
Speaker 3: It is. It is known.
Speaker 4: Since you've been facing me, just look at what's shown up.
Speaker 4: Since you've got now, you got now. You've had a
Speaker 4: lot of people, a lot of people come right. I
Speaker 4: got some questions from the audience, other people have asked.
Speaker 4: One person says, I would like to ask Jay Beatt
Speaker 4: when it comes to negotiating contracts. We've had some issues
Speaker 4: over the years where long term contracts have made it
Speaker 4: feel like we were trapped in situations. What is his
Speaker 4: philosophy on contracts for coaches and whether to have them
Speaker 4: long with big biles.
Speaker 9: Well, that's a that's a that's a that's an interesting one.
Speaker 9: You know, I think there's a I've had certainly a
Speaker 9: lot of experience across a lot of years with coaches contracts,
Speaker 9: and you know, those coaches contracts that work well are
Speaker 9: ones where you are mutually incented for success, and so
Speaker 9: finding a way within those contracts to incent success provide
Speaker 9: that you do have some backside protection. That's important being
Speaker 9: smart kind of what I talked about earlier in the
Speaker 9: player management side, you've got to be smart about it,
Speaker 9: and you've also got to have relationships in the business.
Speaker 2: When we were able to deliver on.
Speaker 4: That, got some just have a few minutes. Got a
Speaker 4: bunch of questions about scheduling, So let me do both
Speaker 4: sports basketball fans. I hear two complaints on scheduling. One
Speaker 4: is can we play in a cool tournament? We don't
Speaker 4: ever get to play in these cool tournaments. Now there's
Speaker 4: one starting I believe you may that we start in
Speaker 4: next year home up games, non conference. A lot of
Speaker 4: people say, can we get that schedule?
Speaker 3: Better? Thoughts on that, I'll just.
Speaker 2: Tell you that.
Speaker 9: So we're really fortunate that this is a national brand
Speaker 9: and that we participate in some you know, one off games,
Speaker 9: right we're playing you and C in New York, or
Speaker 9: we're in champions That that is a that is a
Speaker 9: say in some ways that that's a privilege, would be
Speaker 9: a way that really helps us nationally from our brand perspective.
Speaker 9: So we're gonna have to figure out how to continue
Speaker 9: to maintain that. But big picture, what you'll hear from
Speaker 9: me is I want our best content in front of
Speaker 9: our fans in our venues, and part of what we're
Speaker 9: gonna do. Listen, we're in the football stadium. We spend
Speaker 9: a lot of dollars in here to renovate suites, which
Speaker 9: you've seen. We've got plans on the deck that I'm
Speaker 9: gonna look at here shortly around adding some additional spaces
Speaker 9: in the stadium.
Speaker 3: Go forward.
Speaker 9: Part of that is if we're going to ask people
Speaker 9: to step forward, take on new premium seats, give generously,
Speaker 9: et cetera. They want great content in the building, and
Speaker 9: so that'll be something we'll work on.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 9: We can't walk away from really unique, incredible opportunities that
Speaker 9: drive our brand nationally. I mean Kentucky, as you guys know,
Speaker 9: I mean we are known nationally for who we are
Speaker 9: and what we do.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 4: You were at Michigan State. They do the Champions Classic
Speaker 4: with us every year. That's obviously, that's obviously good. I
Speaker 4: think some people go, look, our only good home game
Speaker 4: is Louisville this year, because they're not a way to
Speaker 4: do that.
Speaker 2: I think that's something we'll look at.
Speaker 9: And again i'll give you the without answering the hey,
Speaker 9: we're gonna do X, Y and Z today or tomorrow. Philosophically,
Speaker 9: I'd like us to have our best content or some
Speaker 9: of our best content in front of our home fans game.
Speaker 9: We're gonna ask BBN to step up and do more.
Speaker 9: We got to continue to deliver value for them in
Speaker 9: our buildings.
Speaker 4: Foot football SEC is going to and goes to nine games, right,
Speaker 4: you got the Louisville series?
Speaker 3: Yep, let's start with that. Are we going to keep
Speaker 3: the Louisville series? No matter where this goes.
Speaker 9: I've had no conversations where that wouldn't be that, that
Speaker 9: wouldn't be the direction.
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, Do you see a world in which what
Speaker 4: happens beyond that is it? Do you think the world
Speaker 4: stays where the other two games are kind of less
Speaker 4: marquee but you know, and I understand why people play
Speaker 4: those games, or do you think there's a world I've
Speaker 4: heard some people in the SEC say I think we
Speaker 4: should play all good twelve twelve?
Speaker 3: What do you think?
Speaker 2: I think?
Speaker 9: You know, Listen, the SEC is the best football league
Speaker 9: in the country. I think we'll make Some of that
Speaker 9: will happen as we go forward to figure out what
Speaker 9: is that level? Right, and and and part of that
Speaker 9: is at the end of the day, we will get
Speaker 9: to that decision making as we go at.
Speaker 2: First forty eight hours. I'll get we're not to that point.
Speaker 9: But I think part of what makes the SEC so
Speaker 9: rate is that one to sixteen is so quality, and
Speaker 9: so as you know we're moving to the nine games,
Speaker 9: we'll continue that that will create a certain say, evolution
Speaker 9: that will continue to and I think it's a positive
Speaker 9: having really great games, certainly those in this league, and
Speaker 9: having more of them is a positive.
Speaker 4: They're telling me, you have like two minutes. I have
Speaker 4: two quick questions. One, I know it's been forty eight hours,
Speaker 4: but it's right now on it the bill before Congress?
Speaker 3: Yep? Are you for it? Against it? Do you not
Speaker 3: know yet? I mean, what do you think?
Speaker 9: What I would tell you is, I think one, I
Speaker 9: very much appreciate the fact that we have such national
Speaker 9: attention on an evolving college athletics landscape.
Speaker 2: That's really important.
Speaker 9: I think we as a college athletics enterprise, our elected
Speaker 9: leaders have worked really, really hard to get us to
Speaker 9: this point where we've got something that's in process. Now,
Speaker 9: what I would tell you, Matt is it continues to evolve,
Speaker 9: and so we can't tell you I'm not going to
Speaker 9: give you a one or a zero here that we're
Speaker 9: you know, supportive or not, but I think is we've
Speaker 9: got great leadership with the league Commissioner Sankie's working his
Speaker 9: tail off to make sure to put us in a
Speaker 9: position to have that discussion, and I think, you know,
Speaker 9: we'll see where should we go.
Speaker 4: Last question, I want to give you like a minute
Speaker 4: without answering my question, just to address that there's a
Speaker 4: lot of people who are hearing your voice for the
Speaker 4: first time to address the BBN before you go.
Speaker 9: Gosh, that's an incredible opportunity, and thank you for that.
Speaker 9: What I would just say is, first and foremost, really
Speaker 9: humbled and blessed to be a part of it. Our
Speaker 9: family is excited to be here. I'm ecstatic to be
Speaker 9: here and to be a part of this athletics family.
Speaker 9: So that's first and foremost. I think secondly, I think
Speaker 9: everybody should hear that we're in a really good place.
Speaker 9: You asked a question at the beginning. The answer is
Speaker 9: emphatically yes. We are built for the fact that college
Speaker 9: athletics is changing and is going to continue to change.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 9: I think some of the questions we talked to today,
Speaker 9: we asked about we're dealing with one set of facts that,
Speaker 9: but a month from now, six months from now, a
Speaker 9: year for now will be very different. Part of what
Speaker 9: I think is so important is that we are prepared
Speaker 9: for that. We've done a lot of the hard work.
Speaker 9: The third part of that is it's where you and
Speaker 9: I ended last time. I want everybody in Big Blue
Speaker 9: Nation to know emphatically directly from me that whether they
Speaker 9: come and they do I one ticket to one game
Speaker 9: a year, whether they never make it to RUP or
Speaker 9: Kroger or Memorial, they matter. Because when I said earlier
Speaker 9: that the Big Blue Nation is our delta, that might
Speaker 9: be that we have folks that step up and give
Speaker 9: dollars or buy new premium seats, or buy new season tickets,
Speaker 9: or add one more preseason ticket. But doing a little
Speaker 9: bit more for Kentucky Athletics, that's all that matters. And
Speaker 9: Big Blue Nation as we go, listen, I look forward
Speaker 9: to spending more time with you guys in helping define Hey,
Speaker 9: what does that mean? How can I help? If I'm here?
Speaker 9: How do I get that one more notch up? Big
Speaker 9: Blue Nation is the delta. And so I just want
Speaker 9: everybody in Big Blue Nation to hear for me directly
Speaker 9: they matter the most. This place is special because of
Speaker 9: them and because of the people, and I'm really lucky
Speaker 9: to be here.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much for doing it, Jay Batt. We
Speaker 3: appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Good luck all right, thanks Guysure to take a quick
Speaker 4: break and be right back here at Crogerfield's KSR.