WEBVTT - Chatting with Stewart Mandel 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:04.720 Welcome to the Solid Verbal. 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:08.200 I'm that for me. I'm a man, I'm forty. 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:10.119 I've heard so many players say, well, I want to 0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:13.000 be happy, you want to be happy for dake Ado State? 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:19.239 Is that whoo whoom? And Dan and Tye welcome back 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:21.840 to the Solid Verbal. Boys and girls. My name is 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:27.400 ty hilden Brandt. Dan Rubinstein actually not joining me this evening. 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:31.880 I got the week off last week, and so it's 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.160 only fair that Dan would take his turn this week. 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:36.760 He will be back with me next week, I promise. 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:41.000 But in the meantime, it was my duty to go 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:43.800 out and find an esteemed guests to bring on the show. 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:47.440 As you know, a week ago Dan interviewed our friend 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:52.080 Bruce Felban, one half of the Audible podcast. So this week, 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:55.680 why not continue the trend. I'm going to bring Stuart Mandel, 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.080 the other half of the Audible podcast, back on the show. 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.480 It's been a long time actually since we had Stu 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:05.120 on the podcast, and that's not for any reason. We 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:08.280 love Stu. It just hasn't worked out. And in case 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:10.880 he didn't know, he's also been a very very busy man. 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:14.880 He has now become the frontman for the All American 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:19.800 which is part of the athletics push into sports media, 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:23.600 more specifically college football. So Stu's been a busy guy. 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:25.840 I want to talk to him about that. I want 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:29.440 to talk to him about some other topical college football 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:33.320 items that some folks have emailed in about over the 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:35.720 last week or so. And also I put out a 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:38.160 call on Twitter a short while ago to get some 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:41.320 questions for him, and we'll talk about some of those 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:44.280 as well. I also may have a surprise for everyone 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:46.480 at the end of the podcast, so make sure you 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.640 listen the full way through. Don't forget to follow us 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:54.720 on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, don't forget to subscribe 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:59.000 on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere where you can find podcasts, 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.160 because we really truly have a lot going on over 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.200 the next couple of months. Got a new website, Cooking 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.839 in the Oven. Dan's working on some new shirts. We've 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:13.040 got a live show in the works in Chicago in 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:17.919 early to mid August. And just make sure you keep 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:21.000 in touch over the next couple of months because we're 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:23.880 really excited about what lies ahead. And if you like 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:26.040 and listen to the show, we know you will be too. 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.080 Without further Ado let's talk to our friend Stuart Mandel 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:33.480 from the All American and the Athletic All right, joining 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:38.160 me now an a steamed guest of the program. His 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:40.959 name is Stuart Mandel. You know him from the All 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:45.520 American on the Athletic family of sports websites. Stu, how 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:47.400 are you great, Ty? 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:47.919 How are you? 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:51.000 I'm doing well. You've been a busy guy since the 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:52.240 last time we had you on the show. 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:57.560 Yeah, it's a much busier role that I've taken on 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.720 now where I'm both writing and managing an entire enterprise. 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:03.720 But it's a good kind of busy. 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.240 All right, talk me through this, because what was it? 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:11.640 Last year? Fox Sports decides rather infamously that they're going 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.240 to try this whole pivot to video thing that leaves you, 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:18.440 that leaves a bunch of other talented individuals kind of 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.520 on the outside looking in. You're in this place where 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:23.960 you've obviously got a lot of name recognition within the 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:29.600 college football community, among college football fans. Presumably you're like 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:31.720 looking for a steady source of income like the rest 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:33.959 of us. What happens next? 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:39.400 Well, so the Fox pivot to video didn't become public 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:43.640 until late June of last year. But we myself rust Ballman, 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.320 we knew about it. We knew that's where it was headed. 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:48.600 Nody had outwardly come out and said, like, you guys 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.320 won't have a place to write, but we knew that 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:54.880 was where it was headed, probably from mid January, so 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:58.440 I'd had a lot of time to, you know, both 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:00.520 think about what I wanted to do next, and. 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:02.160 Obviously started talking to people. 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:06.000 And then in the course of that, I think it 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.760 was late April, ESPN had their massive layoffs. S I 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:14.040 laid off a bunch of good people, and it was 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:16.320 just so depressing in our industry at that time. It 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.200 felt like the whole thing was just dying. And I 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:21.279 just kept saying to myself, it doesn't make any sense. 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:25.640 There's still a huge demand for what we do. People 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:32.599 are voraciously consuming written sports journalism. If Fox or ESPN 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:34.640 or whoever can't figure out how to make a good business 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:39.080 model out of that, like somebody else should, and fortuitously, 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:41.240 that's what the Athletic was starting to do at that time. Now, 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:44.039 at that time, they were only in a few local markets. 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:47.799 They hadn't really attempted to do anything on a national level, 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:49.800 but they saw an opportunity. 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:53.920 They talked to Seth Davis for that college basketball. 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:55.760 Site as soon as he became available, and then it 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:57.480 was just a lot of good fortune in that I 0:04:57.520 --> 0:04:59.840 live here in the Bay Area. They're based in San Francisco. 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:03.239 I had already really started sketching out what a college 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:06.640 football vertical would look like. It's something that myself and 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.479 Dan Uthman, who's our managing editor who came from USA today, 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:12.440 had kind of talked about in theory for a long time, 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.600 and when I was going through my transition, if you will, period, 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:17.960 I really started putting more thought into it. So it 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.040 all came together very quickly because it's something I was 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:25.440 already thinking about, it's something this company was already heading toward, 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:28.599 and it all you know, next thing I knew, I 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.480 went from writing doing much the same thing I've been 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:36.960 doing for my whole career to getting hired and then 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:39.279 immediately turning around and start hiring other people. 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:42.040 So is it fair to say that you're the frontman 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:44.920 of this operator? Were you a frontman in your band 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:45.400 in college? 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:50.200 By the way, No, that's I was the guitarist and 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.520 I kind of consciously avoided being the front man. 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.120 Did you secretly want to be the front man back then. 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:02.839 Well, I think everybody, whether they're whether they're in a 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:06.520 band or not, right, everybody fantasizes about being the lead 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.840 singer of the front man, the ultimate rock star. But 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.000 I was also very very much aware of the fact 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:13.760 that I could not sing to save my life. 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.640 So it was never it was never really a realistic option. 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:19.800 In this case, you can write, and you do have 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:22.919 some degree of credibility within the college. 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.720 Thinking Eddie man Halen maybe the only guitarist who's the 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.159 actual frontman of a or the most recognized person from 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:29.520 a band. 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.040 But anyway, it's not just the writing. 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:37.680 I just I've been you know, well, I've been writing 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:42.120 and also just kind of being part of college football 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:44.920 on the internet and the digital space basically almost since 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:48.120 the start of the internet, since the nine and I 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:49.800 felt like I had a pretty good pulse of what 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:56.080 fans want, what's worked for me. Over the years, Increasingly 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.880 we've seen the direction some sice are going in that 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.400 I frankly just kind of could tell anecdotally, like people 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:05.200 are kind of turned off by this, People are turned 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.080 off by auto play videos. Why do you guys keep 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:10.360 doing it? And so That's why I really like the 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:15.360 athletics approach. And I guess I did have kind of 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:18.120 an entrepreneurial spirit, Like every so often I would always 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.800 have like kind of hair brained business ideas in my 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:25.560 head that I just never quite followed through on. This one, obviously, 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.520 is one where you actually or I could actually bring 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:29.400 something to the table. 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:30.120 I have that. 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:34.280 I think the startup lingo is what's your unfair advantage? 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.280 And I guess my unfair advantage was just having a 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:40.720 lot of experience and a lot of relationships built up 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:41.640 in this space. 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:44.640 And a lot of pop punk and emo knowledge right 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:45.200 to boot. 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:47.160 Do you know that hasn't really come in handy in 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:49.200 this new job yet, but hopefully soon. 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:51.360 Do you find that you're watching a lot more Shark 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:53.320 Tank now that you're officially an entrepreneur. 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:57.200 I think the thing that not Shark Tank, I mean 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:00.120 being in Silicon Valley obviously. I mean I was watching 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:03.760 to show Silicon Valley before, as long before I was 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:08.000 involved with this company, But this season has just felt 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.640 so much different. It's just, you know, it's real life now. 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.960 And then you know, I don't think this is a coincidence. 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:18.440 You ever heard the Gimlet podcast startup of course, Yeah, yeah. 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:22.480 I listened to that probably within a few months of 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:26.080 when I first kind of got aware of the Athletic. 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:29.520 So when I had those first conversations with the founders, 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:31.520 I could at least speak a little bit of their lingo, 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:34.000 a little bit of startup speak. 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:36.400 It's cool. 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.480 I find that I really enjoy much more than I 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.320 would have imagined the business side of it, and it's 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.360 actually taken up a lot more of my time than 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:47.920 I would have guessed. Like I just kind of naively thought, Okay, 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:49.160 we'll get the thing up and running. 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:51.360 Dan Uthman is. 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:54.240 The guy who actually does the day to day editing 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.680 of the stories and coordinating with the writers. I'll just 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.040 be a writer that happens to have an editor in 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:02.120 chief title. That no, like, there's so many from a 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:05.679 strategic standpoint, from an operation standpoint, there's so many things 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:07.320 that come up on a day to day basis. 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.000 And now we're hiring again. So it's just like last 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:11.880 summer all over again. 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.200 I spent find myself spending a lot of time on 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:16.040 the phone with prospective candidate. 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:18.400 Let me play Devil's advocate for a second, because you 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.160 talked a little bit about what the fans want. I 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.079 think there's always going to be someone out there covering 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.480 college football for free. And I guess I should say 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:30.839 probably because we don't know where this whole thing is 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.200 headed ten years from now. But I guess my point is, 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.280 is a subscription model sustainable. 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.440 It's amazing, it's sustainable. And what's amazing is how quickly 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:43.240 it's become normalized. When we got this thing off the 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:45.040 ground a year ago that, yeah, I mean, there was 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:46.920 still a whole lot of why would I pay for this? 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:49.920 You know, you guys are crazy. You're so many places 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:52.120 you can get this for free. And I noticed that 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:56.040 when Seth Emerson, our new Georgia writer, started in mid April, 0:09:56.679 --> 0:10:00.840 he came from the Ajac Landial Constitution. I had told him, 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.080 you know, when you tweet out that you're coming to 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:04.720 the Athletic and that people are going to now have 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:06.599 to pay to read you, you're going to get a 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:08.640 bunch of snarky tweets, just be prepared for that. 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:09.959 And he really didn't. 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.560 You know, it was really in that short amount of 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:15.440 time people have come to kind of accept that, you 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:18.120 know what, Yeah, I mean, that's what we do now. 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:20.360 We pay for good good not just sports writing. 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:22.280 I mean a lot of newspapers are now going to 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:27.120 a much harder paywall. I just thought Bloomberg is going 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.880 to be doing one, Banity Fair is doing one, And 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.080 so what we're seeing is you're right, there will always 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:36.080 be free. 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:35.400 Sports writing out there. 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:38.080 I don't disagree with that notion, but I think where 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:39.720 we're headed, and I don't know how many years this 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.520 will take, it's going to be the same model, much 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:45.120 the same model you see in TV, where if I 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:48.679 wanted to, I could just watch ABC, NBC, CBS and 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:52.440 Fox for free and they have TV on around the clock. 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.079 Right theoretically, I don't need any more than that, but 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.040 most people pay extra for table and then a lot 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:01.880 of people pay extra on top of that, HBO, Netflix, 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.000 Amazon Prime, things that are doing what is considered to be, 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.800 you know, high quality TV. And that's that's where we 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.439 have to distinguish ourselves. Has to be really high quality journalism. 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:14.480 That's where're thanking for. 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:18.959 The two factors that really seem to be disrupting the 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:24.679 business of college football are A attendance is dropping, and 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.360 b we've got this whole cord cutting thing going on 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:31.000 where it seems as if that's accelerating as well now 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:33.400 that you're kind of in the business of sports media 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.520 on a couple different fronts. Where are we at ten 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.280 years from now, How do you think the landscape will 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:41.920 have changed in the way that the game is covered, 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:46.000 in the way that consumers go out there and get 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:47.240 their college football media. 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.440 Well, the attendance thing is fascinating to me because Michael 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:53.720 Weinrad wrote a story for US about I Guess a 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:59.080 month ago now on it, and it was started with 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:01.400 his kind of first handed count of his own parents, 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.000 who are a long time Penn State season ticket holders, 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.400 who decided they'd had enough and canceled. And the response 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:09.320 we got to that story, not just in terms of 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:11.760 how many people read it, but the comments and the 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.040 emails and the tweets of people saying same thing. I'm 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:17.520 fed up, I've had enough with the it cost so 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:19.800 much to park and it takes forever to get there, 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:23.920 or the concessions are terrible or whatnot. You know, all 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.000 getting back to I'm going to stay home and watch 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:28.840 it in HD on my TV. So I think colleges 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:30.560 have a real problem there, and I don't think they've 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.440 even begun to figure out how to deal with that 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.559 in terms of cord cutting. You know, it'll be fascinating 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:42.199 the next time all these conference deals come up. And 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:43.720 I don't think it's going to be for another five 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:46.440 or six years. But once the first one comes up, 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:49.080 which I think is the either the PAC twelve or 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:51.800 the next big ten deal, they all come up within 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:55.079 a three or four year span. And who knows who 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:57.360 the players will be. You know, I'm sure ESPN will 0:12:57.360 --> 0:12:59.000 still be a major player, and Fox will still be 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:02.840 a major player, but so will Netflix, so will Amazon, 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:07.240 so my Facebook and Twitter. Who will be actually winning 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:10.839 the rights to those contracts? You know, I think I 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:12.360 think we can't really say right now. 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.560 Well, and the question I guess next is does that 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:21.160 sort of jockeying for rights lead to any kind of 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:25.559 expanded playoff or any kind of conference alignment? Conference realignment? 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:29.840 Well, it's crazy, I mean, cord cutting has accelerated, you know, 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:33.880 so quickly that we're only we're not that far removed 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:38.199 from the last crazy realignment cycle of twenty or you 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:40.040 know what, twenty ten, twenty eleven, when. 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.080 People talk about it like it was a blizzard or 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:43.600 an earthquake, right, yeah. 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:47.319 But also the main or one of the main reasons 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.040 behind it was cable households. You know, the Big ten 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.800 wanted Rutgers so they could add to the Big ten 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:56.240 network cable households. And you know when Larry Scott tried 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.040 to make that huge play for the Big twelve teams, 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.360 it was when he was starting the actual network. And 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:03.320 I say that because by the time that next round 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:04.880 comes up, that might not be a factor at all. 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:09.920 That might be in a completely outdated metric how many 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:11.199 cable households do you have? 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.800 So it could go on in two ways. 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:17.199 It could be that everybody just says we're happy the 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:19.800 way we are. We frankly, in some cases went a 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:24.240 little too far. Last time we got fourteen team conferences. 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:29.000 That's a really awkward number. So that's the moderate end. 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:31.520 But it could also be pretty radical. And I've written 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:36.000 about this. In a world where you're not bound by 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:40.760 cable households and geographic footprint and whatnot, what's the stop 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:47.720 Ohio State, USC, Michigan, Texas, Alabama, et cetera, from forming 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:51.280 their own confederation, their own champions league, if you will, 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:55.920 right and marketing that product nationally because right now you know, 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:59.920 it's just kind of a accepted practice. It's been this 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.440 for one hundred years at Ohio State whatever, you know, 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.680 one hundred thousand seeds, stadium, massive TV audience, and all 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:09.920 that gets shared with Purdue. At some point, aren't they 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:11.720 going to say, like, wait, wait, we should be keeping 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:13.760 this money to ourselves. 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:17.360 Who starts that? Is that? Is that something that athletic 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:21.040 directors band together and form on the sly or where 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:21.840 does that come from? 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:22.280 Yeah? 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:24.960 I mean it can't you know, obviously probably not going 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:26.920 to come from conference commissioners who want to keep their 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:30.080 conferences intact, and those tend to be the most powerful 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:31.120 figures in our sport. 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.000 Jim Delady not dialing that one up. 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:35.720 I think it would come from Frankly, I think it 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.440 would come from external factors. I think it would come 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:42.080 from a TV executive somewhere coming to approaching the schools 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:46.120 preemptively and saying, you know, hey, what would you guys 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.200 think about this? Here's how much money we would pay 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:52.640 you for this. Maybe things move very slowly in college sports, 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.120 So even though we're still talking about something against eight 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:57.200 or nine years away, maybe that's still too soon. 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.640 I don't know. And there's other things that will influence that. 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.880 Will the rules about paying athletes change between now and then, 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:07.280 because if so, that's going to give those schools extra 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:11.080 incentive to make more revenue and frankly keep more of 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:13.680 it from themselves because they're the ones that are going 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:16.280 to have the most marketable athletes. 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:19.680 Well, specifically now with college football's offseason, do you have 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.600 a favorite story that you've been following so far. 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.600 I know that every year in this time of year, 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:30.240 certainly in the spring, we're focused on quarterback competitions, so 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:33.400 that's not necessarily novel, but these are some really unique ones. 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.680 I mean, to go into a season where the defending 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:41.720 national champions have a competition between the guy who's taken 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.000 them to two straight national title games and the guy 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:45.840 who came in the second half and won it, I mean, 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:50.480 that's crazy. Clemson, their quarterback Kelly Bryant takes them to 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:53.560 the playoff the year after Deshaun Watson leaves, and now 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.640 he's fighting to save his job from the next hot 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:00.720 shot pressurean same thing at Georgia. These are you know, 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:07.400 these are high profile programs with very unusual circumstances. Right 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:11.280 usually when a school has a quarterback competition. It's the 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:14.920 little clumpson last year right to Shaun Watson leaves who's 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:16.960 going to be the next guy to replace de Shaan Watson. 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.560 This is the guy who's already proven he can replace 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:23.200 to John Watson's competing for his job against the next guy. 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:24.679 Those stories all fascinating me. 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:28.640 The shape Patterson thing to me at Michigan is sort 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:33.480 of fascinating because I think much like at Florida, where 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:36.640 it's always felt like they were a quarterback away from 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.680 getting to a different level, I think the same thought 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.879 almost applies to Michigan. And now Shaye Patterson moves up 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:46.520 from Ole Miss He of course wins the ruling he's eligible. 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:51.840 Immediately there's either an assumption that he can take Michigan 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:56.199 to some new height or that they're going to be 0:17:56.200 --> 0:18:00.480 stuck in this third place vein in the Big ten 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.280 East and it's not going to mean anything. Jim Harbaugh 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:04.640 is going to wear out as welcome and it's all 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:05.640 going to go bust. 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:07.520 I think that's I mean, I think you're right. I 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:09.159 think that's kind of the states that are about to 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.159 play out. This is this is the no excuses season. 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:14.880 Now he has a quarterback we've seen him, We've seen 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.399 Shape Patterson play at a very high level in the SEC. 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.200 He is, without question, upgrade from what they've had. 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:26.000 And and that's not to say that Brandon Peters couldn't 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.359 eventually develop into that kind of player, But I don't know. 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:30.840 I just find a hard to imagine he's going to 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:33.800 come out and beat out Shape Patterson. So, I mean, 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.000 offensive line is still a big question mark for them, 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:40.280 it has been for seemingly many many years now. But 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.960 they have the quarterback, they have good receivers, good running backs, 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:47.119 great defense, and so you're right. I mean, if it's 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:49.199 ever going to happen for Harbaugh, it would would think 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:51.400 it would be this year. And yet you look at 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.280 that schedule and it is absolutely not set up for 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:55.720 a breakthrough. 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:57.639 Win kind of season. 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.159 It's an absolutely brutal schedule and they could be a 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:04.160 better team and still go nine to three. And obviously, 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:06.399 people like those Ohio State fans, unless they have just 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:10.000 beaten Ohio State in that will be mocking him for 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.280 being the nine million dollar coach that can't finish higher 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:13.760 than third. 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.000 Do you think that Harbaugh is truly wearing out his 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.439 welcome at Michigan because there were rumblings towards the end 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:24.040 of last year that that was already starting to take place, 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:27.200 and that was kind of his m O at other 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:29.080 stops that he'd been. 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.919 I mean, you're always going to have that fringe in 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:36.560 the message boards on mg vlog who aren't happy and 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.280 want to go on to the next guy. But I 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:45.840 think the bigger picture, reasonable people know how much he 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:48.760 succeeded his previous stops, how fortunate they were to get him, 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:51.080 and that it would be kind of ridiculous to blow 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.679 the thing up after four years, you know, just like 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:55.520 you did with Brady Hope, just like you did with 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:58.160 rich Rod, Like at some point you got to pick 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.240 a guy and stick with him. Now, I've been watching 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:05.240 so that Michigan documentary, and you could see what you 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:08.720 can absolutely see where his act would get old at 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:12.800 some point. He's well got a lot of cheesy dad cliches, 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.280 to say the least. But I didn't since, and I 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.040 know it's an edited down product or not seeing everything, 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:21.600 but I didn't get any sense that the players had 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.240 tuned out on him or anything like that. They just 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:27.720 so many of their problems last year were because of 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:31.280 that quarterback. Situation, so it'll be interesting to see how 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:32.280 it plays out this year. 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:32.680