WEBVTT - SEC & Big Ten vs CONGRESS + CFP Schedule Madness 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:21.280 When people look back on June third in the history books, Jesse, 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:24.560 they're gonna see two things. They're gonna see the rest 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:29.080 of the free world plunged into chaos, arguing about super 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:33.080 leagues and Senate bills and the SEC and the Big 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:35.720 Ten and the playoffs. And then they're gonna see G 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:40.560 five Josh cruising across the New Mexico desert window down 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:44.960 shades on like Andy Dufrain post Shawshank headed to talk 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:48.840 to Jason Eck at the University of New Mexico. That's 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:53.000 how radicalized this entire process has made me. I've gone 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:56.720 full on hood up, I've gone shades on, and I 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:58.440 want nothing to do with it except that we're going 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:00.279 to lead the show tonight with it. But other than that, 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:02.240 I want nothing to do with all of this. It's Thursday, 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:05.120 June fourth, now, the year of our Low, twenty twenty six. 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:08.520 We are jam packed. We're high atop a glowing downtown Nashville, 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:11.640 Tennessee lot going on tonight. So if you're watching live, especially, 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:15.120 thank you guys, you're not wasting your time watching the show. 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:19.360 I do have just a little bit about this Senate 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.039 bill and a lot of the talk out there. Nick 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:26.479 Saban was a witness yesterday, Pete Bavakua from Notre Dame 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:28.280 said some things that got a lot of people up 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:31.679 in arms. And there are harsh accusations being thrown my 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.920 way that I've been wrong on all this, Jesse, and 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:38.199 certainly I must have heard enough to change my mind 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:42.440 about the legitimacy or the likelihood of this bill passing. Well, 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:44.960 we'll talk about it in just a second. I also 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:48.480 want to celebrate on the show tonight, and it doesn't 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:51.000 really matter what the reasons behind the thing we're going 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:55.840 to celebrate were. We're going to celebrate because one of 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.880 our home campus games that we thought was lost is 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:02.320 coming back home. Rarely do we get to celebrate a 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:04.920 campus game that's been ripped away from college football coming 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.080 back to a campus, but we will do that tonight. 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:10.800 I got a question from you about SEC quarterback rankings, 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.960 specifically the new guys, the guys that have not been 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.040 the starters yet. We'll discuss that we've got bold predictions 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.040 on the show tonight. There's an internal challenge to get 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:22.360 the show in in under an hour, and we have 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:24.400 fifty eight minutes left, so let's just see what we 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:26.919 can do a lot of throat slashes, which would be 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:29.600 a fifteen yard or Mitch if we were playing on Saturdays. 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.760 But it's just disrespect. Since it's Thursday night, they're watching 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:38.799 us in Fort Collins, Colorado, Athens, Georgia, Salinas Slash Salinas, California, 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:42.560 and Clovis, New Mexico because we were there yesterday. Why 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:44.960 not subscribe to the channel please if you have not 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.960 already that Speaker series. Man, what a spring it's been. 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:49.600 I'm going to talk about that and some behind the 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:54.120 scenes stuff later in the show. Here we go. I 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:55.679 didn't want to talk about the Senate bill on the 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.320 show tonight at all. It was my instinct not to 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:00.920 bring it up on the show, but a lot of 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.080 you asked about it, so I'm going to get this 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:05.600 out of the way. Troy from Plano Texts has hit 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:07.480 me and said, you keep saying the Senate bill will 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.720 easily pass, but everything I'm reading says that everyone is 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.320 against it, including the big ten in the SEC. Do 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:15.079 you want to double down? No, I don't want to 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:16.960 double down at all. I want to maintain exactly what 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:18.640 I've said. I think the bill is going to pass. 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:20.919 The Senate. I think it's going to pass the House, 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:22.600 and I think it's going to be signed in a law. 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.000 That's what I think. Nothing about yesterday or anything that's 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.960 been said this week changed my mind on that. Oh 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:31.880 everyone's not against this bill. A lot of the loudest 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:34.280 voices are against the bill, Troy, but then again, that's 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:36.320 the nature of a bill. Now. Fortunately, I get to 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.520 live my life ninety nine percent out of the political sphere, 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:41.640 so I don't have to talk about this stuff a lot. 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:44.920 But I have a bunch of friends who do, and 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.080 I know this is the life they live. Okay, So 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:52.160 here's what I'll say. I am very very confident in 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.480 how red in I am on this process. But I'm 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:57.640 not boring you with all that. I do want to 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:00.440 address some of the stuff that was said yesterday that 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:04.000 Troy was referencing there. But I encourage you, guys, again, 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:07.119 this is the best approach you can have. Block out 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:10.720 the noise and just think for yourself on this stuff. 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:12.440 I said this a week ago, and some of you 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:14.240 are starting to pick up what I was putting down, 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.320 because if you go into this a little unsure of 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:21.440 what you love about college football. Therefore, what you want 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.360 to see in terms of actions and rules or maybe 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.640 even laws, you're gonna allow other people to shape your 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:30.320 opinion for you. And here's the thing. There are a 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:32.400 lot of actors out there. I'm not even gonna call 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:34.960 them bad actors. There are just a lot of people 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.080 out there who have hidden agendas when it comes to 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.680 this sort of thing. And they know that you don't know. 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.120 They know you live a normal life. They know that 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:48.000 you love college football called Saturday's Awesome. You love college 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.200 football because you've rooted for that same jersey and that 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.599 same logo since you were a child. But you don't 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:55.680 want to get into the weeds of all this stuff, 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:58.960 and therefore you don't even know what half this stuff means. 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:01.800 Not because you're too you stupid to because you're too 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:03.800 busy too. You don't keep up with it. And they 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.920 know that, and that's why they understand a really really 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:10.840 bad faith quote or SoundBite, if presented to you properly, 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:15.000 can sway opinion. So don't let the late get money. 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:17.800 Just block it all out. Twitter is a very toxic 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.640 place when it comes to trying to learn about this 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:24.919 sort of thing. Just block it out, decide for yourself. 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:27.440 What you value, what you care about, and then take 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:29.679 a look at what's in the body of this bill, 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:31.800 and then ask yourself, would this give me more of 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.760 what I like or less of what I like? There 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:38.599 is no one right now talking with any kind of megaphone, 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.640 at least without some kind of hidden agenda. Some of 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:44.279 their agendas are out in the open. I at least 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:46.800 respect that, and the others they may be hidden, but 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:50.440 there are agendas everywhere. And here's how I know that. 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:53.760 I have not noticed anyone take a stance on this 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:58.640 Senate bill to date that would cost them money. Everyone's 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:02.680 taking stances it would end up making them better off financially. 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:05.719 That doesn't make you evil, It doesn't make you a 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:08.200 bad person. In fact, it makes you a normal person. 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:10.720 But just call it for what it is. There are 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.000 a lot of people on this side of the fence 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:16.240 yelling about the ulterior motives about the people on that 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.479 side of the fence, And anyone who pays attention to this, 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:23.520 knowing full well, both of you stand to gain financially 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.440 off of the direction this goes. So. As a bystander, 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:28.600 you know, as someone who's just over here a fan 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:30.680 of college football, I look at it, and I say, well, okay, 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.239 if both of you got agendas, then I'm gonna cancel 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:35.840 you out and I'm just gonna root for what I want. 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.000 I'm gonna be selfish since everyone else is, I'm gonna 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:42.760 be selfish. Nick Saban was a witness there for the 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:47.120 Commerce Committee yesterday, and he was talking about all sorts 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.080 of different things. He was sharing his viewpoint, and I 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:54.520 was on the road when it was happening, but I 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:56.920 knew it was happening. Obviously, it was scheduled. It's not 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.320 like Saban's music hit and all of a sudden, here 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.200 he comes out of nowhere. Everyone knew he was going 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:04.320 to be there, he was scheduled to be there. There 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.080 were a lot of questions about whether he was going 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:08.320 to fly in the face of what the SEC has 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:11.040 been preaching, maybe even fly in the face of what 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:13.400 ESPN wants at the end of the day, and he 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:17.360 did both of those things. To his credit, he endorsed 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:22.160 this bill, presumably because he believes in the language of 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.200 the bill. That's kind of my stance on it. And 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:29.400 then everyone that spoke up seemed to have a big 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.520 problem with what Nick Saban said. And since nuance is 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:36.080 totally absent in these sorts of conversations. I ignored most 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:39.760 of it because here's the bottom line, as best I 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:41.920 could tell from what Nick Saban said. He made a 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.920 lot of good points, and then a lot of people 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:47.440 came at it from like thirty seven different angles. And 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:49.920 I don't care what you think about Nick Saban. I 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:52.680 don't care what you think he did at Alabama. I 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:57.560 don't care about any of it. I grew up learning 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:01.320 about like the mafia in school, and I remember when 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:05.080 they taught us once upon a time about how John 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.600 Gotti finally got taken down and about Sammy the Bull 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:12.880 Gravano like turning state's evidence. And I remember as a child, 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:17.040 Jesse thinking, hold up a second, you're telling me that 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.760 they let a real life mobster in his own right 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.440 take the stand and they valued his testimony. And yeah, 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.840 that's basically the way it worked. And it turns out, hey, 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.760 if you're telling the truth, you're telling the truth doesn't 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.120 really matter who the source is. And a lot of 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:34.480 people didn't seem to They didn't seem to get on 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.640 board with that yesterday. So there was a lack of nuance. 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:39.720 There was a lack of context. I didn't even traffic 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:41.920 in it. I thought Sabin made a lot of good points. 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.400 I understand how some people think it may be hypocritical. 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:46.920 There are a lot of things people think they know 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:49.880 that they could never prove about what Nick Saban or 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:52.520 anyone else did in his time at Alabama or other 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.800 coaches times elsewhere. But it's just accepted these universal facts. 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:59.000 So why should I push back on it. Here is 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.920 the pushback that I care about, because this is what 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.800 I've seen a majority of in my inbox so far. Okay, 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.520 the status of this thing right now is it is 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.720 in commerce and it was getting marked up. It's still 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:14.120 getting marked up, and eventually I do believe that this 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.880 will go before the Senate. I still believe they're going 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.400 to have plenty enough folks. I'm unchanged on that to 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:22.600 pass the Senate. It will head to the House. I 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:24.200 think it's going to pass the House. I am in 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:26.520 the minority on this, Jesse. A lot of people think 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.720 this thing's dead in the water. It's not. I don't 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:33.040 think it is. But hey, my track record's flawless. I 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:34.920 have never predicted a bill to be signed into law 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.480 that didn't get signed into law. So I'm perfect on 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:40.600 this show when it comes to bills. Picking Indiana football games, 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:44.240 not so much bills. I'm fine so far so sterling 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:46.960 reputation on the line here, Stop me if you've heard 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:49.880 any of this. I wrote down some of the problems 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:53.560 that people have had with this bill. It doesn't cap 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:58.120 coaches salaries, it doesn't cap administrative salaries. You know, why 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.480 are you targeting what player A can earn? But you're 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.200 not targeting you know, the adults and the out of 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:07.959 control spending elsewhere. I covered this the other day. I'm 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:10.439 gonna tell you again, as much as I support this bill, 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.200 I am on board with that line of thinking. So 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:15.480 if you want to argue it should be added in, 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.360 be my guest. It's not a perfect bill. It's bipartisan 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:22.719 in nature. The very nature of bipartisanship is no one 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:25.680 gets everything they want. So you guys aren't bringing that 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:27.800 as some gotcha moment for me because I just turn 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.200 around and agree with you. That's the first part. The 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:34.360 second thing, this bill caps how much players can earn. 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:39.040 That's not true. That is not true. Dive into it 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:44.400 a little bit more. It does. It absolutely does advocate 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:49.480 for salary caps. It does not define what the caps 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:54.080 gotta be. That gets decided by decision makers at the 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:57.840 college level, that gets decided in court. But that's not 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:01.040 really what this is about. What it's about, basically, is 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.280 a piece of paper saying, all right, you guys, decide 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:07.520 whatever you want the cap to be get twenty million, 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:11.480 forty million, sixty million, but there's got to be something. Okay, 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.400 we got to have bookends that we're working with and 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.160 that needs to be signed into law. So it's not 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.640 limiting that, at least in the nature that people are 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.800 suggesting it's limiting it. And that either comes from people 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.160 who haven't read the bill or they just count on 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:29.120 you having not read the bill so that they can 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.120 lie about it. The third part, well, a lot of 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:36.640 this is just going to get challenged in court. That's 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:40.040 interesting because it sounds very familiar. It sounds like the 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:43.280 life that everyone who follows college football on a day 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:45.400 to day level has been living for a long time. Anyway, 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:47.880 you're telling me one of your biggest fears is that 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.360 stuff continues to happen that's already been happening. That's the 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.920 worst case. Because if there's a best case that even 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.040 partially absolves us or rids us of some of that, 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:00.400 or puts in some rules that can be in forced. 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:03.560 Pardon me if I'm more than willing to roll the 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:06.800 dice there. But I'm trying to take a very measured 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:11.640 approach here because what I don't want to do is 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.280 I don't want to talk about people like they're bad people. 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.880 This could be any of a number of people who 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.920 have had problems with this bill. Okay, there's one possibility 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:27.560 that someone just sees things differently than I do. That's 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:32.439 possibility number one. Possibility number two could be Tony Petiti 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:36.199 runs the Big Ten and therefore his motivations are different 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:39.440 than mine. That could be a possibility as well. The 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:44.280 point is pretty much everyone has an angle here. Pretty 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.839 much everyone has a self interest that they're trying to serve. 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:52.000 People with angles aren't necessarily bad people. They're just people 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:54.600 coming at it from a different viewpoint. So I mean, 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:59.560 for instance, I have had dislike up to maybe even 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.720 distinct for how the SEC and the Big Ten have 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.880 handled themselves and the viewpoints the stances that they've chosen 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.040 to take. Mean I think negatively about Greg Sink. You're 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:13.719 Tony Petiti, I understand it's a very very complex and 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:17.200 nuanced position therein I just happened to see it a 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.600 different way. I know that a lot of players' advocacy 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:25.040 groups have come out against this bill. Well, look, let's 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:29.840 not pretend that there aren't players advocacy groups that greatly 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:33.600 stand to financially benefit if this thing crashes and burns 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:37.480 and collective bargaining comes into play instead. I've got no 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:39.960 problem with that. Okay, I'm friends with a lot of 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:41.480 the you guys. Actually I'm not even talking to you. 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.360 I'm starting to people outside who don't really understand the 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:46.800 name of the game here. Or we don't have a 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.120 player's union, for example, in college football right now? You 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:54.000 don't think they're organizations that have been built specifically to 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:57.640 serve as the player's union one day if slash, when 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.800 collective bargaining is plugged into the wall socket of college football. 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:05.840 Of course there are of course, there's major investment. Of course, 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.720 there's big money to be made on that side. And 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.120 so if I was sitting there, I'd probably want to 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:14.040 torpedo this bill as well. So we all get it. 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.560 A lot of people have differing viewpoints, different angles. But 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.600 yesterday Jesse, it seems to me as I was on 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:23.760 the road that the word I got texted the most 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:27.680 and the word I saw trafficking the most was super league. 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.560 Is that one word? Super Leagu's one word? I write 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.000 it as one word. Boy, A lot of people got 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:36.640 really worried about a super league yesterday, all of a sudden, 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:42.000 out of nowhere, man a super League. So here's what 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:46.320 triggered this, as best I can tell. Pete Bovaqua, whose 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:49.520 name has been butchered nine ways from Sunday lately, and 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:51.800 I've been a victim of it in the past. But 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:54.160 while I still cannot pronounce the s and Clemson the 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.360 right way, I have nailed down Pete Blevoqua's name, so 0:14:57.520 --> 0:14:59.280 I deserve a little bit of credit. He's the ad 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.080 at Notre Dame. He is the guy who gets yelled 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:05.120 at constantly to join a conference from people jealous that 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:08.480 their situation is not as privileged as Notre Dames. So 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:10.160 I've never been a Notre Dame needs to join a 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.280 conference guy. So period. On the end of that sentence, 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:17.560 But Pete Bovaqua was before the Senate Commerce Committee yesterday, 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:20.920 and I'm going to pick up the SoundBite kind of 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.240 in the middle of his testimony. Do we even call 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:26.440 it testimony. We'll call it a testimony. It sounds really fancy. 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:30.600 But they were talking about revenue. They were talking about, 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:35.680 among other things, this bill providing a mechanism, in this case, 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:39.680 amending the Sports Broadcasting Act and pooling college football media 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.680 rights together to be negotiated as a block like the 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.360 NFL does, a concept I happened to be fully on 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:49.560 board with, and Pete Bovoqua was offering a different viewpoint 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:51.960 on it, and I'm going to let him talk and 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:53.960 then I'll react on the other side. 0:15:55.000 --> 0:16:00.080 My second concern is if you want to truly max 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:06.280 the media value around the largest sport in terms of eyeballs, 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:09.880 which is college football, I do think the best way 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:12.040 to do that is a super league. And I certainly 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:14.160 don't want a super league. And I'm not sure anybody 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:18.840 necessarily wants a super league flooding the market, aggregating the market, 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:23.400 bringing it to an aggregate form to major media companies. 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.800 I'm not sure that's going to drive the value. Some 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:31.080 say it will. If you wanted to maximize media value 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.840 around college football, I think you would take twenty four 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:39.360 to thirty teams create unbelievably competitive scheduling where a team 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:42.760 like Notre Dame would play Alabama, Georgia, Penn State, Ohio State, 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.000 Michigan and start to get a number that more closely 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:49.560 resembles an NFL number. I could be right, I could 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.080 be wrong, but that's why I was encouraged that it's 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:56.200 a voluntary application and that a lot more work could 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:58.200 be done over the course of the next series of 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:03.080 years to see if the value could prove itself out. 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:06.280 And Buddy, when he mentioned the words super League, everyone 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.520 stopped listening. That's about as far as they got in 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:10.840 that sound bite. I played the whole thing well. I 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:13.239 played a lengthy part of it for a reason, So 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:17.080 don't devolve into hysterics there. Let's break down what he said. 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.120 First off, Pete Bavoc was a very very sharp guy. 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.520 You don't normally rise to the level of ad at 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:24.639 Notre Dame if you're not and he has worked in 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:30.399 multiple sectors that sort of overlap with this situation. So 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:33.800 he said he himself is not really interested in a 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.280 Super League. Good he and I have that in common. 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:41.320 Part two, he said he thinks the best way to 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:45.879 accumulate the value that you're looking for here is not 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.159 necessarily pooling all the media rights. It would be forming 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:51.840 a super league. He's speaking hypothetically, you know, he's kind 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:53.879 of saying, Now, this isn't what I would do, but 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:56.200 if you really wanted to accomplish it, this is what 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.520 you do. He said. It's the way I view it 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:01.960 a little bit differently. I view it as a way 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:05.879 that meaning there are other options that would accomplish the 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:10.240 same end goal. But the entire point of the revenue 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:15.440 mechanism in this whole equation is to fund college athletics. See, 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:17.800 this is where you gotta zoom out sometimes. I'm not 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:21.320 talking about Pete Bavaka. I'm talking about anybody listening to this, 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:25.200 or anybody thinking about this. You get so far down 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.119 the rabbit hole you forget what it's about to begin with. 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.679 This is not about what's best for the University of Alabama. 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:37.000 It's not about what's best for Ohio State. Presumably, it's 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:41.480 about what's best for college athletics. The entire concept of 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:46.080 pooling college football media rights into one block and negotiating 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.879 those and bidding those out in the market is because 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:53.320 it brings a several fold increase per year of money 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:57.119 of revenue. Some would say it wouldn't. I think they're wrong. 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:01.800 I think it would, and that wall helps to fund 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:05.760 a whole lot of things that are cash strapped right now, 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:10.480 football and beyond. I'm a supporter of that concept. I 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:12.800 think it's one of the most insane things in the 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:18.400 world that a swimmer at cal Poly could end up 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:22.560 without a scholarship because football wasn't handled the right way. 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:25.399 But that's the way I look at it. I also 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:30.320 think that it's really unnecessary for Arkansas State football to 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:32.840 get left out in the cold when they don't have 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:36.359 to be. Then that brings in this whole political debate, 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.520 and it brings in this whole worldview and like ideological 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:44.160 clash of well, do you believe in free market capitalism 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:49.040 or don't you? I do, I don't in sports, I 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:52.679 don't at all in sports. It's the same thing that 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:56.280 allows me to watch the National Football League and watch 0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:00.280 the Buffalo Bills have no problem whatsoever compete with the 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.960 Los Angeles Rams. Does that occur in a free market? Like? 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:08.720 Is that really if everything operates on true free market principle? 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:12.320 Does that ever happen? Does the NFL happen no, it 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:15.760 does not, and it's because a long time ago people 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:21.679 looked at professional football and said, might we need to 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:26.520 create special conditions so that this entertainment product can exist 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.920 in its own bubble. I always use the national park 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:36.200 corollary because I love national parks. I love nature preserves. 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:38.640 We've got him in Nashville. Chances are, if you live 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:40.560 in a city of any size, you've got him there. 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.080 What if we took Radnor State Park just down the 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:46.399 road here on I sixty five, and we said, you 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:50.480 know what, We're going to govern that patch of land 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:53.480 just like we do every other patch of land in 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:57.680 Davidson County and Williamson County. Very very quickly, you see 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:01.320 development signs there for sales sign and then you see 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:05.360 bulldozers and dumb trucks, and you see yet another condominium 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.480 go up, and the units are already sold before they 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:12.040 even break ground. But we don't do that. Why Well, 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:15.040 because the citizens of Nashville have decided we kind of 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.040 like that, so we want to treat it differently. And 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:21.080 I've always viewed sports the same way I view college 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:25.680 football similarly, Probably college athletics requires an even more special 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:28.879 bubble than the NFL does, but I think it serves 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:33.199 a greater societal good to have it. So you don't 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:36.479 have the whack a mole moment with me when you 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:38.440 think I'm a free market capitalist. Well, if you're a 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.280 free market capitalist, don't you support free market principles and 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:45.960 college athletics. No, I don't, because they can exist as 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.000 they should if we exercise that to its logical conclusion. 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:53.360 So no, no, I don't believe in that. I also 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:59.840 keep looking at this super league conversation and people who 0:21:59.880 --> 0:22:02.040 are taken aback by it, and I'm like, why is 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.520 anyone surprised by this? But then it dawns on me 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:09.359 not everyone follows this stuff day to day. So Pete 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:11.159 Bavaka was speaking up there, and then a lot of 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:13.240