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