It's time for Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day. Now here's Nick Coffee. All right, let's get it started, Ladies and gentlemen, Hour number three, the five o'clock hour on a Wednesday afternoon. Coffee and Company. Myself, Nick Coffee, the company man,
mister John Alden alongside, and we are fueled by Thornton's. Make sure you sign up to become a member of the Thornton's Freshman Awards program if you haven't already, a lot of incentives to come with it, including saving money every time you go to the gas pump. I want to give him a shout out real quick, because you know, I'm a bush Light guy. That's my go to beer. And you can find bush Light in most places if you want to buy it, like you know, gas station, liquor store,
whatnot. And you're now able to find that actually at restaurants more so than used to. Like it's not that uncommon to find out that the sports bar or just the restaurants you're going to, they they might have it on tap. Hell, the Louisville football game sold it last year, and which was you know, I was a big fan of But most places just have the cans, which is fine, but I prefer either the aluminum bottles or the glass bottles a bush like, that's my preference. And Thornton's the one
that's near me. They've got it every time, and you know, just another reason why they're great. And I'm sure they didn't, you know, make it available in their beer cave because of me, but you know, I can at least think they did and say thank you, so thank you Thornton's, and thank you all for hanging out with us today. We've got two hours in with one more to go, but a busy show thus far.
And I hate doing this because I know a lot of folks are just now getting in their vehicle or maybe you know, ending their work day. I don't know what you're doing, but a lot of people joining in. Right around five, right the audience turns over, so I don't want to, you know, start discussing something you just missed. But we were discussing the interest that Fan Duels Sports Book has in purchasing the previous you know,
the regional sports networks. The Valley Sports South used to be the Fox Sports South, those channels, which is just crazy to think that you could be watching your team play and it be on a sports books network. I mean, it's just the rapid growth of sports betting in this country is awesome and also kind of unreal. And what I think about more than anything is there was clearly always an appetite for it. But one of the things that led
to me discussing this was the latest scandal. And I guess, I mean, I guess you would call it a scandal, but Major League Baseball has had to suspend four players for an entire season, and then there's one player that has now been banned from Major League Baseball for life. And I would say, this guy clearly has a betting problem, you know, and that's not good. But these numbers are insane. So Jeff Passon, who covers
Major League Baseball, the infielder for the Padres. His name is Tukupeda Tukipeda Marcano. That is, that's the guy who's banned for gambling. He only won four point three percent of the two hundred and thirty one Major League Baseball related bets he placed. Guy sucks at gambling. I mean, I feel I feel better about betting on sports whenever I realize these guys who you know, play the sport, they are terrible at betting on it. Same thing
with the Javonte porter who's been banned from the NBA for life. But the total amount that this this young man bet when he was in the major leagues with the Padres fifteen thousand dollars. Actually, I'm sorry, Wait a second, I'm sorry. No. Total amount bet on baseball one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Total amount bet on major League Baseball eighty seven thousand dollars. In some change. I guess he was betting on other baseball too. Average
amount per bet three hundred and seventy eight dollars. Number of major League Baseball bets was two hundred and thirty one bets on pirates games, UH twenty five and he only won again four point three percent of those bets. So I mean unfortunate. Clearly, this guy's got a problem. I would say, I don't think you end up in that situation unless you are in fact addicted to gambling. Even the uh the you know, the Javonte Porter, the
Raptors player who also had the same treatment. He was betting on his own team and betting, you know, betting on his team to lose and betting on his own props. The story came out yesterday, the details that the reason he you know, how this happened was he was so he was so much in Have you heard this story, John, I heard some of it this morning, So he's he was so much in debt to a bookie,
meaning he wasn't just betting with the sports book. He was betting in like, I don't know if you don't, can you bet in New York City or New York State? I don't know if you can. Yes, yeah, well probably just like Kentucky. It's relet like we haven't eve been able to bet legally in this state for a year yet, so I'm sure New York was either around the time. So long story short, he was probably betting in New York when he was living there when it wasn't legal, and
he was using a bookie. So the bookie who was arrested at at At I think it was JFK the airport with I think it was sixty thousand dollars in cash, a one way ticket to Australia and two cashiers checks that were like over one hundred thousand dollars so he was on the run trying to get away before they got him, but they did apprehend him. But he he he was owed money by porter, so he's the one who told him,
Hey, here's what we're gonna do to make up your debt. You're gonna fix these you know you're gonna you're gonna make sure these prop bets for you go this way. And you know, I know there are some who see this and think, well that these guys have these guys ruined their lives because betting is illegal. This guy was already this guy was doing it when it wasn't illegal. And I don't want to get too worked up. It's the
five o'clock guy. We're having fun. But when people get addicted to something that is legal, there's a really good chance they would be addicted to it if it wasn't legal. Heroin last I checked, not something you can purchase at the store. But there's a lot of people unfortunately addicted to it. It being legal or illegal. Really, I don't think has any impact on
people getting addicted to it now if it's more commonly. Again, like clearly, sports betting is in your face everywhere now when it comes to sports stuff, so maybe you got into it because of that, but I mean you probably could have gotten into it at some point anyway. And because there are some that can't control themselves and you know, may ruin their life. I mean, that's what's happened with these young men who were professional athletes making a
lot of money and now their careers over. I mean, that's unfortunate, but that's not like those isolated incidents are not worthy of you taking it away from everybody else one, because we all enjoyed a lot of people do it responsibly. It's not about making money or a second gig. It's just having
fun. It's entertainment. And also a ton of money is being made by everybody involved in this sports betting world, right the league's I mean the NFL, major League Baseball, in the NBA, They're incentive to be in bed with these sports books is because of money. And last I check, that matters a lot, all right. I actually I'm going to bet on the finals, though I don't know what I'm gonna do, but I ended up doing a two leg parlay for the Game seven Sunday that the two game sevens
we had on that Sunday before I left Town. I took both Dogs money line, Pacers Game seven money line and the Wolves money line against Denver and both hit. It's like a twenty five dollars parlay two legs. It paid like one to sixty and I haven't touched it since because I went to Florida, as you guys know, and you can't bet there, which is just weird to open up the app and be like, oh, what can't bet? There's one app in Florida, and I think it has something to do
with hard rock. Yeah, it's hard rock, but that's weird that and I think you have to be there or something. You have to be there.
I don't know how they work that out, but yes, there's some and in a weird way, there's some kind of a loophole to where like it's betting, but it's not like I don't I don't do a lot of like the underdog fantasy stuff or like there there's some there's some creativity out there where you can use an app and do like daily fantasy and win money and I guess technically it's not gambling, but yeah, there is some level of
Uh, hard rock has some kind of connection. I don't know how they pulled it off, But eventually it's gonna be legal just about everywhere, right, I mean, I can't imagine that in ten years we will have I mean, in fact, do you have a guess, I'm gonna google it. I'm gonna guess. I'm gonna say that there are twenty three states that you can gamble and legally, what do you think I was gonna say, thirty six? That's probably You're probably no, You're probably closer to being how
many sports can how many states can you dead on? Just like whatever? Guess Indiana's preseason ranking from Jeff Goodman. That's the case. I'm gonna have to start. You know, did you say how many? Did you say is a thirty six? It's thirty six? Is it? Kind of? So here's what it says. This is from Forbes. There is a patchwork of laws and regulations. The industry has grown thanks to a twenty eighteen US Supreme Court ruling. Since then, thirty eight states and the District of Columbia
have allowed some form of sports betting. Among those betting states, twenty nine permit wagering online. So I think you are kind of pretty close, correct, Yeah, you're the man I'm just I'm just just gonna start, you know, I'm just starting saying things confidently. How can we shift this over though, to like, you know, where it makes us money, where we bet on what you're just guessing. I guess you've got You've got to
give me matchups. Here's what I'm gonna do tomorrow. I'm gonna ask you, put you on the spot, give me the total score of game one of the finals, and then we're gonna make a wager off of that as far as the over under. Right, So it's like, your total score is four points over what the total is and we're going over. I mean that thing. That's what we're gonna do. No pressure, but you've been
on fire lately. It's impressive, no doubt. All Right. So the big news today for Louisville basketball fans is that they're gonna get a visit from a guy who I happen to believe is the most highly the top ranked guy available in the portal, which really isn't saying much because there's not that many guys left in the portal. But Coleman Hawkins, even if everybody who entered the portal was available right now, he'd still find himself ranked in like the
top thirty, right, I mean, maybe even higher than that. I don't really know. There's been so many guys that hit the portal and all the rankings are kind of different, which is interesting. But he's going to visit Louisville. This is really happening, not meaning that, like we know for sure it's really happening. He's gonna come to Louisville. But last week he threw out a little bit of a hint, quickly deleted it, and
then from there it sounds as if folks did some digging. I don't have the ability to, you know, call Pat Kelsey and ask him, Hey, you're gonna go take this guy, But people talk and they were still they want to put it this way, they were still to add a player, and they had money to go get a good player, and there really aren't another options. I mean, to be honest with the the young man who's in the twenty twenty four class, a freshman to be Jiggie Phillips.
I mean, he would be a nice edition as well. But whenever I heard that, they were prepared to, you know, make another big splash if they can make it work. One that told you that they're not worried about the scholarship limit. They clearly have a plan to bypass that, and they have money available, and I'm thinking, okay, well, if that's your mindset. Like the only person that I feel like made sense was Hawkins, because again, most guys that hit the portal are not still available.
So yesterday Jody Dimmling I believe, is the one who broke the news that you know, and others I guess had hinted at it, but you know, Jody is as connected as anybody when it comes to these kind of things, and he said on his board that Louisville was actively trying to get it finalized, meaning a visit. And then today on three Sports, I believe it was Joe Tipton actually broke the story that he is going to visit this
weekend. So Louisville right now on paper thirteen scholarships that have been filled with all the guys they've added since Pat Kelsey got here, there's a lot to
like. I think this team right now, just with the pieces you have, and not just the fact where these guys come from and what they've accomplished in their contributions, but just the way they I just think stylistically, like this seems to be like clearly Pat Kelsey wasn't just out there going and grabbing a dude who said he'd wanted to come here to put up decent stats. I think he went after guys who fit the way he wants to play.
A lot of versatility, a lot of shooting. You've now added some good defense that sort of came later in the process of adding these thirteen players. And these guys win, right, Like, I'm sure I'm pretty sure everybody but two that are on this roster right now. The thirteen played in the tournament last year. I guess twelve because Kahani Roos didn't play in the tournament.
He's a freshman. So I already feel good about where Louisville is and I'm excited about year one of the Pat Kelsey era, and I think this could be a tournament team. None of us know how it's actually going to play out, but it's just nice to be excited again and know that it's justified. Right, we're not just being Homer's thinking that Louisville is going to
have a solid team next year. I think he'll be better than solid, But if you add Coleman Hawkins, that takes it up a level, not to where we're scheduling hotels booking hotels for the Final four, but he would be, in the eyes of some the best player on your team. I don't know if I would agree with that, but he's certainly in the conversation. A six to ten, two hundred and twenty pound big who has played in the Big Ten for four years, and he's been pretty damn good since
he's been there. I mean, as most guys do. He got better every year at Illinois, and this past year he was all third team Big Ten twelve point six boards, three assists, and at six ten he shoots at thirty eight percent from three, So we'll see. I know SMU and maybe Georgia are believed to be trying to get a visit as well, and I guess they've got some money to spend. But you know, I think Louisville. I mean again, those who cover recruiting are claiming Louisville is in
the lead here, They're in the driver's seat. They look to be the most likely landing spot. And I don't usually get caught up in like where Louisville is in preseason rankings that are from you know, I mean, it's nice to be ranked in the actual rankings because you know, actually it is silly. I mean, I'm as guilty as anybody, but seeing that number next to your team's name when you're playing on TV, it does give you a sense of like, you know, we're ranked, especially if you haven't
seen it in a while. Yeah, And that's actually what I was getting to is, like these rankings that are put together by the field of sixty eight, ESPN, the Athletic Sports illustrated these off season college basketball rankings. You know, even though I respect a lot of the opinions of those who put these together, like I never I don't really care. I can't fake
outrage or emotion if they're not included. But I mean, because it's been so long since we've had any real legitimate buzz and optimism around louisvill basketball, I am like hoping that they get Hawkins, not only because I think it would make them a better team, but like there would be like they I think they would be a top twenty five team in the eyes of just about everybody, which again, if they don't go out there and play and you
prove that they're good. None that matters, but little things that we used to take for granted that used to not really even be something we'd notice or it was just an expectation as far as like expectations in the offseason, like we haven't had those in a while. And by the way, one guy who we actually talked about on the show already is not real impressed with what Pat Kelsey's done so far, because I think not having Louisville as a preseason
top twenty five team right now is totally understandable. I don't even know if I would have him in the top twenty five. I was being a objective and most don't. It's just Jeff Goodman who put him out there, and others have said, you know, this could be a top twenty five caliber team with what Pat Kelsey's done. So it is not egregious to say Louisville's not a top twenty five team, trust me. But John Rosstein he does a forty five and he still doesn't have Louisville in the top forty five.
Am I am I justified in saying okay, like you're you're in the minority here, Like he has Georgia, Wisconsin, Saint Mary's. I mean, I think it's Mississippi State again. I know these teams were better than Louisvill last year because everybody was, but like these teams got gutted by the portal Louisville put together. I think, on paper a pretty good team. So now that I find myself feeling like, Okay, am I letting my you know, it's card Boy taken over here? Am I letting my fanhood get
in the way of me being fair and objective? And you know it's I think it is happening a little bit, which tells me I'm back, Like you know, we're I'm I'm like this is It's just nice to be excited legitimately about Louisvill basketball again and not having to try to like psych yourself up as a fan, like, hey, no, we won four games last year, but next year is gonna be different. We're gonna be good and nobody believed that, but you said it, because what are you gonna do?
Be miserable? Let me give you a different perspective. So earlier this week you talked about Leonardi leaving Louisville. They were like the first team out right Yeah, so you think about the teams that get at large bids, you get three four four teams for each seed number. This is gonna involve a little bit of math. Most of the at large bids go to the top eleven, you know seed lines. If you do that times four,
it's forty four. So if you're that forty fifth team, you're that first team out, and I guess you do have the twelve seats use of the playing games. Yeah, so that goes up to forty six or something like that, forty forty eight. Maybe, So if Louisville's just on that outside line for LNARDI, maybe that's where Rothstein realistically has Louisville as well. That's
a good point. And you know, I'm looking at other teams that are ranked in this top forty five, some that are even ranked, you know, like UCLA's number sixteen, and I'm thinking, you know how and they by the way, I mean, their their roster features one guy who you know was here at Louisville, and you know, fine, fine player, But like Scott Clark, if he's going to be the key catalyst in UCLA
being a top twenty team, good luck mc cronin. I mean no offense to Sky, but like, he's not that big of a game changer. So and by the way, UCLA did get better, but if you remember, at one point last year, they were at like the same boat that Louisville was in. So again I'm not this is not me claiming that Louisville should be ranked ahead of UCLA. But when I see them at top fifteen and they're coming off of a sixteen and seventeen year, like, I don't,
I don't mean, how do you do that? And here's one other thing I don't like about roth Stein's list, at least other than he's a psycho. Other than that, like I'm looking at Indiana's line specifically, he has the key newcomers and key losses. I don't think he has them really listed as key newcomers or key losses. They're just people that are leaving and coming in. Because when I look at the key losses, a few of those guys I'm looking at, I don't really care that they're gone. They
were really key impact players. I think you can I think you can have again. Indiana is the best example. They don't have a key loss. The only key loss is to the NBA with with where Yeah, I do like how with Rostein in his top forty five he he actually shows you like the projected starting five because then because that you know, because let's be real, I can't tell you for sure, I mean I don't. I don't
know what a lot of these teams have done top to bottom. I know, like big additions like for example, you know, I know that who is it trying to find? You know, like Arkansas? He has Arkansas number nine now, so like I'm aware of and by the way, Arkansas a little different because I'm more more prone to pay attention to what Cal's doing just because of the connection there. But I can at least see, okay,
why would you have Florida there? And then I can look at okay, wow, they do bring back some good players that I'm familiar with and know by the way, their bench looks pretty good, you know, via the portal. So yeah, these are things that I would just purposefully avoid looking at because it would just make me sad to know that we once used to be in the mix, and you know, then we weren't. Then
we weren't. All right, real quick, I wanted to get to this text that came in earlier, and then we'll take our first break here in the five o'clock hour. This text on the Ellen N Federal Credit Union text line says, Nick, do you worry that if, in fact he does get two million dollars it could create some real jealousy within the roster. That's one of the most untalked about things with NIL that I think is a real issue players here. What other guys are gonna get and get jealous? I
mean, I don't I don't think it's ignored. I just think that's now a big part of the staff. I mean, and in fact, there are positions created within universities to kind of handle this, right, like an in between with the university. And I don't know what the title is, but you know there are schools out there that have that have hired someone that is the in between, right, like the coach will tell And I'm not even sure if you're allowed to do. I mean, nobody really knows,
I think what you're allowed to do and what you're not. But if a coach knows what the NIL collective has to work with, I guess they're not supposed to have any involvement. But yeah, I mean they're gonna like they're gonna have say so, Like, let's put it this way, the FIBO two circle is not going to decide how much money. I mean, I
guess technically that's probably the way it's supposed to go with the rules. But you know, Dan Furman, the president of FIBO two circle, he's not the one who decides if Coleman Hawkins gets two million and you know Chucky Hepburn gets five hundred k like he you know, wow, you know, no offense to Dan. I love Dan, but I'm just saying, like this world where coaches have no involvement, they don't even know what it is, they don't even know how, you know, it's just not realistic. That's
not Planet Earth. So there's an in between that is really there to you know, be the middleman between the collective, the player and I guess you know, the coach and the staff. So yeah, that's something you got to worry about. Jealousy, and I think that's I think that's happened here at Louisville with football. I mean, I think some of those guys that Jeff Brohm packed their stuff and told them to you know, kick rocks and
get out of town. It wasn't just because you know they were going to be leaving anyway, but it's because they were created beating a toxic environment to where they were trying to kind of create jealousy. And you know, players are going to lie about what they make. That is the one thing where it would be beneficial for it to be public internally because it would eliminate somebody
claiming they're making way more. Now again, you also could have the realization, I mean, I think from the player's perspective, it being public could be beneficial to where nobody's lying within. Again, like at work, at your job, that's not I mean, that's a no no in most businesses.
I mean, I'm sure employees talk and they share what they're earning, and that way you can know if somebody that's doing the same job you are, maybe you've been doing it longer, and somehow they're making more money than you. If they've told you that, then you can you know, you can take it up with with your employer and they don't have to match that salary of the other person. But yeah, I mean to answer your question, I'm sure there would be some jealousy, but you know, what are
they going to do walk and not get any money. I mean, you know, like and by the way, I don't believe two million. I just have a hard time thinking two million dollars is actually going to be the amount of money that Coleman Hawkins would receive. But again, if they have the money to do it, and they choose to do it, that doesn't matter to me. Make it happen. It's not my money, all right, we'll come back on the other side. Keep this thing rolling along.
And I haven't talked about it much this week. I think I mentioned it briefly on Monday, but there seems to be some real genuine worry that if South Carolina offers their job to Dan McDonald, he'll leave Louisville. And I don't have any inside scoop or anything like that, but I do have some thoughts on you know, if that did in fact happen, and maybe how it could end up happening, because that'd be a big deal, no doubt.
But I think at some point it it, you know, it's sometimes at some point it kind of seems inevitable that he may just want to go elsewhere and be somewhere where baseball is a bigger priority. I don't go anywhere, keep it locked right here on Sports Talk seven ninety right. So we don't have a whole lot of time left, but thirty minutes. I mean we actually we have time left. It's just I got a lot of things I want to try to get in a little bit of rapid fire here before
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a call. All right, So, South Carolina they've got an opening for a head baseball coach and Dan McDonald has been mentioned for a while now because a couple of weeks as far as somebody that could potentially be the guy they want to hire. And I've always thought that there was a scenario where Dan McDonald could eventually leave because you know Louisville baseball, I mean, they haven't had a lot of success in the last couple of years, but you know,
they were in the College Baseball World Series. I mean, how many times has Dan been there? I mean I feel like it's at least at least four. Let me see here, and what I'm getting at is, since this is something that you guys probably already are well aware of. Dan McDonald, I mean, he is Louisville baseball. I mean there was a program before he got here, and you know they had moments, but I
mean when it comes to the yeah, they've Yeah. So as far as College World Series, he has been to the College World Series one, two, three, four, four times I'm sorry five times, including in his first season. So you know, Louisville had really no NCAA tournament history in baseball prior to his arrival. And he's now been here. And even though they've struggled to the standard that he set in the last few years, I mean, he's still won sixty nine percent of his games in his career.
You know, won the Big East four times, when the Atlantic Division of the ACC five times, like despite the twenty eight and twenty two season in twenty twenty one, they did make the Super Regional in twenty twenty two, but you know fell short there and then the last couple of years they did not make the tournament. So back to back years Dan McDonald not playing in
the postseason has unheard of it, It never happened. For this is the first time they've gone back to back seasons with no postseason, not making the NCAA tournament, so clearly not heading in the wrong direction. But he's done enough as as a coach here to where any talk of like moving on from him is acidin, to be honest with you, and I don't hear anybody saying that. But I think, like every sport in college athletics, the
portal and in IL has has changed things. The job is a little bit different, and I know that there are some that think, you know, Dan is resistant to using in IL and he doesn't like the portal, and I think the portal. Maybe that was true early on, but you know, lately they've been active in the portal. I don't know if they are
crushing it into the portal compared to some other teams. But I think the changes to college athletics, which again includes baseball, has made it more difficult for Dan McDonald, and that may potentially make him want to go to a different school where it wouldn't potentially be It's difficult, right, I mean,
first of all, we'll start with the facilities. I mean he was told that in fact, they cut they had a ceremony, they cut a ribbon, big donation from Kroger to get the new facilities over there, and it still hadn't happened. And I know some folks who are close to the baseball program. I know some folks who played for the baseball program over the years, not recently, but you know, they're early during Dan's tenure at Louisville. So you know, I don't say this because I'm like dissing the baseball
program, but it's just the reality of it. With the recent settlement with the NCAA and the anti trust lawsuit, and we now know that schools are going to be on the hook paying student athletes if they want to win, Like baseball's not getting money anytime soon for an ail. It's just I mean, and it's just clearly not a priority for U of L right now. And I don't mean that they are thinking the hell with it, you know, Dann McDonald, you can if we don't need you, we're gonna shut
up. We're gonna shut down. It's not that, it's just, you know, when it comes to prioritizing resources, meaning money, U of L and other schools are just not gonna do it for baseball when it doesn't it's it's not a money maker, it's not personal, So I don't know if
he's gonna end up leaving. I've always said that if he stays here for the rest of his career, nobody can be surprised because he this is his program, right, I mean, Louisville Baseball has a brand within the sport that is strong because of him and of course all of his great players. But I mean him going elsewhere, I've always felt like, deep down wouldn't happen, because look, why would you want to go start over? Like he has everything he needs to win at Louisville, He's already doing it.
There was a stretch there where if they broke through in the College World Series and won the whole thing, it wouldn't be considered some crazy surprise. Well now I think they're trending in the wrong direction, and with the recent changes to the sport, it's making it even more difficult for I think him to
kind of get back to where he was. So it sounds like there are folks close to ul that do believe that, like this is a real threat, and I think there's been real threats before, But he's always decided to stick around, and I hope he does stick around. I think Daan McDonald is a legend around here. Again, we talk mostly, especially on this show, about men's basketball and football. I mean we talk about other sports too, right, I Mean it's not just those two, but those move
the needle and those lead the conversation more so than anything else. But the two most successful coaches at Floyd Street since I've been around, you know, as a fan and covering this, you know, meeting guys who I've seen start their career and still have their careers active here at Louisville. It's dam McDonald with Louisville baseball and it's Jeff Walls with Louisville women's basketball. I mean, so you know, I hope they never lose it, either of those
coaches. But there are other schools out there that as much as U of L does prioritize women's basketball. Jeff makes a lot of money. You know. The fan attendance, the fans support here is crazy for women's basketball. Most schools, and I mean most schools out there and women's college basketball do not have the fan support that Louisville does. In fact, a lot of
men's programs don't have the attendance numbers that Louisville women's basketball does. In baseball, again, attendants was really bad the last couple of years, and you know, the success hasn't been there. But U of L has paid Dan McDonald a lot of money his pitching coach. I don't know what his exact salary is, but I know for a while now he's been one of the
top paid assistant coaches in college baseball. Maybe that's changed and others have been making more money, but there's clearly been an investment in both of these sports. But when you're sacrificing and you're trying to figure out how you're gonna use the money, you have to go towards things that are a priority. You know, those two sports just don't usually mean they're they're behind those two right like they're behind men's basketball and football, and that's just the way it is,
and that'll probably never change. But now it's going to be it could potentially become a bigger issue for you because again right now, again, like the SEC has got more money than most schools in any other conference, So you know what, they could probably give Dan McDonald more money to pay baseball players than Louisville will and can. I mean, I hope I'm wrong, but we'll see again. I won't claim to have any any kind of inside info, but if they offer Dan McDonald the job at South Carolina, I
wouldn't be shocked if he takes it. And it's sad because you know, it'd be an end. It'd be the end of an era where he again, whoever you go higher, the interest level in the Louisville job would be strong. And it's all really because of the era that he was here from from two thousand and seven to you know, twenty twenty four, if in fact, it does come to an end. So I haven't talked about it much this week. I don't have any inside info, but I really do
hope that he sticks around and they can get things back on track. But i'd say the mass exodus in the portal that somebody you've probably already seen is not a good sign as far as you know where this is headed. But again, we shall see. All right, we've got one more segment here to go, and I was going to try to get to something else before we take a break, but let's go ahead and get a break now that we have a little bit more time before we have to wrap it up and
say goodbye. Stick with us right here. It's coffee and company feel. But Thorton's on Sports Talk seven to ninety. One of the things we discussed earlier is the schedule that's been released for the expanded college football Playoff twelve teams now, making it where it's been four for a while now, and it gives you a chance to dream big and not be completely out of your mind. Now, if you have the expectation of being there every year and you're
a Louisville or a Kentucky fan, I mean that's delusion. But now you know, if you had just said, hey, we could be a playoff team when there's four, I mean, like the likelihood of that is insane, meaning insanely tough. Like even last year Louisville was was rolling, right, I mean they were, I mean they were undefeated, manageable, scheduled, there was nobody out there you felt like they couldn't beat. I mean, they slipped up in a pit, which meant there was no way they
were going to make make the playoff. But even when they were rolling, I still felt like, yeah, that's just that's just not I can't I can't. I can't believe that, Like I can't realistically tell you that I believe there's any chance they make it. Well, when it's twelve, it's a totally different story. That means's gonna happen. But again I've mentioned it
throughout the show. I think that's the best benefit of expansion is for programs like the local ones around here that every now and then we'll have a special season and that would usually just lead to you maybe get into a New Year six Bowl. Now a special season, you know, ten wins for one of these two teams in the regular season, which both have done in the last five years, that could, if some breaks go your way, put
you in the playoff. But one thing that I do like like the schedule for Louisville, Like, let's be real, I know that Louisville plays in a weaker conference than Kentucky, and there's some games against conference opponents in the ACC that you know they're not you know, there's not many like the bottom feeds of the AC, aren't you know, one two win teams like you've had previously, But still like you know, when you play Boston College, when you play Syracuse, when you play who else. I mean, you
know there's Virginia. I mean, there's teams that just typically are not very good and it's not gonna be that tough of a game for you, and you benefit from that, there's no doubt about it. Like Louislle winning ten games last year, like that was probably their ceiling. You know, if they played other schedules where they have won ten games, I'm sure they wouldn't have so, like I'm well aware of that. And for Kentucky, you know, I think they always believe that if they played in the ACC that
they would have every year be a ten win season. I mean, I'm sure some believe that I'm doing a little bit of exaggeration. However, they play in a tougher league now. Sometimes it breaks out to where their non conference schedule is is weak and the SEC East only has like two good teams, and then at the end of the year, strength of schedule it actually
favors Louisville doesn't matter because anytime Louisville Kentucky played recently, Kentucky's one. But what I'm getting at is, even though it's at twelve teams now with Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC and other teams getting better, like Missouri took a huge step forward last year. I don't think Shane Biemer is going to be
the guy at South Carolina. But clearly Georgia is not going anywhere. I mean Tennessee with hypel I mean, they're I don't know if they're going to be elite, but there's certainly they've got some you know, some stability now, So could Kentucky get there? Like I still think the best days of Kentucky football under Mark Stoops are in the rear view, mostly just because again it's going to be harder to compete other teams, Like other teams are getting
better and they have better resources than you do. And you've added two programs that typically have been way better than you in Texas and Oklahoma. So Kentucky, you know they have according to A three Let me make sure I have this correct. Yeah, according to On three Sports, this is ESPN.
Well, yes, on three aggregated it, but it's using ESPN's FPI when it comes to strength of schedule, and this is the Kentucky has the fourth toughest schedule in the country right now, which it looks like every one of these schools in the top ten as far as the toughest schedules are in the SEC, and then Georgia Tech is at number nine, which is extremely random.
But you know, like if Mark Stoops starts going six and six every year occasionally seven and five, and that becomes the ceiling just because again, they do play a tough schedule, and the schools that have traditionally been better than them are back to being better than them, right Like South Carolina. That's the one school that I could kind of see you guys going back and forth with. But if Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, even Missouri now when
they're thriving, you might get him every now and then. But the fact that Stoops wanted to go to Texas, say, and m at least I believe he did and he didn't work out. I mean, I'm just curious. He's always been a made man and I get why. And I'm not saying Kentucky fans should like want him to be gone, but like if he did just become this guy who's making a ton of money win in six maybe seven every now and then, like would that be sustainable or would they want
to change? It's fascinating, But yeah, they have the fourth toughest schedule in the country this year. All right, we're out of time, you guys. Enjoy your evening, Stay safe. We'll talk to you tomorrow right here on Sports Talk seven ninety