Softy & Dick 5-20 Hour 2: Jon Wilner on Lawsuits, & Fun with Audio

It's time for our weekly Pac twelve conversation with Sen Jose Mercury News reporter John Wilner, brought to you by Simply Seattle. Our friends at simply Seattle dot com have the most amazing collection of all things Seattle Seahawks gear. UW had some of the largest selection of Sonics gear anywhere in the world. Learn more at simply Seattle dot com.

Oh, you know, John, it doesn't seem like in your profession covering college athletics that you have had a down time in like four years maybe pre COVID. I mean, didn't you used to have a job where you had an on season and an off season, and now it just doesn't seem like the offseason even exists in college football and basketball anymore.

I would, I would, You're totally spot on it.

And certainly I've been carrying my computer with me pretty much everywhere I've gone June thirtieth, twenty twenty two, and we all remember what happened that.

Day with the LA schools.

Since then, it has been NonStop. And I would actually argue though, that the stuff that happens from say, April first to September first, is in some ways more important than the on field stuff.

It certainly has.

A huge impact on what the fans see from their teams.

The offseason is when all the big decisions get made, and it is You're right, it is non stop.

Now, I'm not complaining because the content is great, not good.

Content is king, but it is not good for my health at well being. I gotta be honest.

Well, there's so many directions we can go.

Let's just start with this PAC twelve versus Mountain West mediation.

Where we are and that where are we on that situation?

My guess is right now they're still in mediation, and it's multiple lawsuits. It's all being handled at one time by one mediator. And I think what the deal is the two suits, people who are representing each suit or in their own rooms, and the mediator kind of goes back and forth and is trying to come to a resolution that will work for all entities in both cases.

And it's complicated. They started yesterday.

I think they went all day yesterday and my sense is they're going all day today.

Now.

Nobody's talking because there are very strict confidentiality requirements with something like this, and if you talk to the press, it can actually hurt your case and your leverage. But my guess is, either this evening or maybe tomorrow, we're going to get some kind of news that either they have come to a resolution or they have not. And if they don't, then I think we're headed toward a trial. I just don't know how many months that'll be.

Well, and John Wilner with us give us the synopsis of the meat of the lawsuits, kind of just a general overview for those not aware.

Yes, sure, well.

One is the so called poaching penalty lawsuit, and that is the PAC twelve has sued the Mountain West over fifty five million dollars, but the Mountain West says is owed to it by the PACK twelve for taking the five schools Utah State, Colorado, Fresno, Boise, San Diego, right fifty five million dollars. The Mountain West is trying to get from the PAC twelve for poaching those schools. PACTOV says,

The big thing is Wellether. There's two big pieces. One is the money involved. If you total up what's at.

Stake, it's over one hundred million dollars, right, and they're trying to everybody's trying to negotiate to get a better deal on their own, but we're talking about at least one hundred million dollars at stake in total.

The other piece is.

That the Mountain West has promised the UNLV and Air Force a certain amount of money for remaining in the conference, And if they lose this negotiation, or if they lose court trials and they don't have as much money as they thought, they won't be able to pay air Force and UNLV what they promised. And at that point there is some question as to whether UNOV and Air Force will remain committed to the Mountain West or will look elsewhere UNLV to the PAC twelve, Air Force, to the American.

Well, John, if there's a case that the Mountain West has following the departures of Boise State, Colorado State, present state standing state, Utah State, would that not set a precedent for the Big Ten to be liable for poaching the PAC twelve schools?

Well, in my I mean if the PAC twelve had bothered to try to file a lawsuit, maybe it would have. I you know, nobody that I know thinks the poaching penalty is gonna stand up.

I think that they're.

Gonna end up coming to a negotiation. The PAC twelve told chose, you know, two years ago, not to pursue any legal action, either against the Big ten or against Fox.

I know that there were some discussions about it, and they chose not to. My sense with these.

Lawsuits is that the PAC twelve has got a really good case on the poaching penalty lawsuit, and the Mountain West has got a good case on the exit fee lawsuit. So I would say, if you kind of figure the PAC twelve ends up paying twenty five cents on the dollar and the departing in the poaching penalty and the departing schools pay the Mountain West seventy five cents on the dollar in the exit fee suit, that's kind of where we're gonna end up.

John Wilner joining us.

John, you broke down the tax filings of the PAC twelve. It wasn't good, and you said in the mail bag this week that, simply put, the PAC twelve is a secondary player in the CFP structure actually make that a tertiary player and has been relegated to the same tier of influence as the Mountain West and the Sun Belt, et cetera. And I'm gonna I made a comment this last week.

I'll make it to you.

I said, the PAC twelve is basically minor league football. Right now, what I'm reading from you in that quote right there is that you agree that the FACT twelve is minor league football.

Now is that correct? Is that fair?

Well?

In terms of the CFP, Yeah, I mean, the PAC twelve is basically part of the Group of six and there along for the ride.

They don't have much say.

But I would hustle argue I'm not sure that the ACC at Big twelve have all that much say either. The CFP going forward is basically three entities in control. It's the Big Ten, It's the SEC, and it's ESPN. Now, the ACC and Big twelve are part of the negotiations over the format for the twenty six season, but ultimately the SEC and Big ten have the authority, and it's written into the CFP governance structure. Those two conferences have the authority to set the format. You know, ESPN's got

John Wilner with us. John, Okay, that's a lot of legal stuff. Let's let's get to a story you wrote about. You have your way too early Power four Conferences ranking and you have SEC one, the Big Ten, two, Big twelve, three, and the ACC number four. So I got two questions for you. The SEC you have at one, they had they had an off year, you know, primarily because of Alabama. You don't think maybe the Big ten's right on the

Yeah, I think that the SEC, like coming out of spring practice, I would say the SEC is substantially ahead, and then the big headed Big twelve to me, are pretty close at this point. And a lot of what I'm basing it on is, you know, the depth, how many good teams, how many top twenty five, top thirty teams are there, and what's the quarterback play like? And I thought that last year the SEC quarterback play was kind of down in Alabama.

And Georgia were two good examples of that.

But I suspect, based on who they've got lined up, that the SEC is gonna have really good quarterback play this upcoming season. And I'm a little bit skeptical about the Big Ten. A lot of Big Ten schools, you know, including Washington and Origin and USC and UCLA for that matter, have unproven quarterbacks.

Either it's a kid.

Who was on on the roster like Williams and played sparingly, or it's a transfer.

Whereas to me, the SEC has got.

More guys that are proven, and I think that's where there's a difference, and the Big twelve, I think also has pretty good quarterback play, which is why I think it's fairly close to the Big ten.

John, I'm taking the whole family on a trip to Pullman on Saturday, September twentieth to exact a pound of flesh on the Cougars after what they did at Lumenfield last last year. So what time is that game gonna be and when are we gonna get these tbds off the time column on my Washington Huskies football schedule, Well, I thought.

They announced the time of that game. Maybe they haven't, but I.

Thought all of Washington State and Oregon State's home games had times. I don't have it in front of me, but they may have announced it, or they gave a like a window like four or four thirty or three or three thirty. But my understanding is most of, if not all, of the Cougar's home games have times attached. The rest of them, though we will find out on May. I believe it's gonna be that next week eight twenty ninth,

A fair out of that.

Oh there you go. You know, I'm seeing a late afternoon window. You're exactly right for the Apple Cup. They don't have a time solidified yet, but it'll be the late afternoon window on CBS.

So that's a good Yeah, CBS is good.

The good one that that that is, That is good, no question about it, Johnny Uh.

I mean that's a big time game, you know that'll that'll be a national game.

It's good for good for the Apple Cup, and it's nice like.

I would imagine that late afternoon is Is that ideal for Washington fans going over there?

Yes, absolutely ideal because you don't really have to spend the night if you don't want to.

You could make it a day trip if you wanted to.

And when's the last flight out you what are you gonna drive back to Pullman or to Spokane after the games?

That can fly out.

I'm staying there. I'm gonna stay there the whole weekend.

I got I got lodging their in Pullmans, so I'm I'm one of the few that that I got lodging in the in Pullman, I got buddies there, So that's good.

Oh nice?

Okay, Yeah, I mean it should be a good game, and it'll be it'll feel like a big time atmosphere because it's gonna be on CBS.

Absolutely.

Yeah, we're questioning Dix buddies that they would choose to have.

Yeah, that's red flags right now.

But Johnny, what's the question we're not asking here? It is late may, relatively slow.

Period of time.

There must be some fire you got going. What's what's good content that we haven't touched on?

Well, I mean the big thing, and I know fans don't like the legal stuff, right, but uh, that's where it is. Everything is right now, waiting for the judge to rule on the lawsuit and waiting for the power

You can't sue them. And if you don't sign the oath, your subject to potentially get kicked out of the conference. Now, that is the threat. Do I think that will hold up in court? I do not, But that's where things are.

In other words, Washington is going to be required by the Big Ten to sign a form that says, yes, we will abide by whatever ruling the NIL Enforcement Agency says about Demand Williams nil deal, and even if we disagree with it, we will accept the ruling and will not file a lawsuit. And if Washington doesn't agree to those terms, in theory, they would be liable to be getting kicked out of the Big Ten.

That is where we are right now. Folks.

That sounds like an anti trust Uh, yes, it does that. That just doesn't sound American to me. You know, pledges of both for future rulings that have economic impact.

I don't know that. Just that my antennas go up when what you just described, John.

Well, that's why the NCLBA is in the situation. It is because of all these anti trust lawsuits and and I know it's it's not very sexy for fans and all that, like talking about quarterbacks and power rankings.

And the CFP.

But it is a huge deal and it is going to affect the on field product across the country for many years to come. We'll see how the whole thing plays out in the next few weeks. The judge could rule on that House lawsuit any day, and it's going to have a huge impact on college football for a long time.

John, if you were made college football czar and and you had carte blanche to run it, like Roger Goodell runs the NFL, what would be your primary tenants both for for NIL and just the state of college football? What are the things that that you see as paramount like this, this, and this absolutely have to change and they have to be like.

This, well, I think the transfer portal has to change. It's just absolute madness and they the problem. What I first do is I force the university presence. There's best I could to agree to have the athletes declared employees, because if you do that, you can then collectively bargain a deal that will solve the transfer portal, that will solve anil, that will solve revenue share.

Everything would be solved if they could just collectively bargain.

But they can't do it unless there's a union, and there can't be a union unless they're employees. Now here's what I would say to you, guys. There's probably a student assistant working in the UDUB football office for twenty hours a week, making twenty five bucks an hour. Right, that student is technically an employee. But there's still a student of the University of Washington. So what's the problem with making Demand Williams an employee.

He's still going to be a student.

But the university president's fear that designation of employment for the athletes, and that is the problem at the root of all of this madness.

Great stuff, John, we appreciate it. We will talk to you next week.

I'm sure we'll have eighteen different things that happen in college sports, even though no games are being played between now and then.

Thanks man, Thanks black guys.

You bet Sean.

That's John Willner joining us on a weekly basis. Sor right, more humillan coming up. Textimonials at four forty five. Brian Schmetzer at five point forty five, after what Jackson called an okay tie fine a fine tie against the Portland Bastards and Monte Kohler has tied sid Otten as the winningest high school football coach in the state of Washington's history.

It's now time for someday. In Digg's Fun with Audio, Jimmy g pawn Star, Jimmy mister garoppolo. Now let's have some fun with audio. Yeah, usually we do.

Fun with Audio at three forty five, but at three forty Hugh was rolling, said sorry, it's so had we had to bump it. He was rolling, and I just had to make an executive decision and we moved Fun with AUDIOO four thirty to let Hugh roll.

And by the way, Dick, you know you kind of commandeer at the end of that three forty five seven asking asking if people to want me to do a YouTube breaking down place. Yeah, fun with Audio is gonna sorry, textimonials is gonna be littered with texts regarding that people are getting creative. Uh, there is one person who doesn't want to see it and he'll explain why coming up in Texas.

Interesting because I just got that. I just got a tweet.

It's not gonna go on textimonials, but this tweet from Jesse Jacob. Hugh Millan is radio gold. I could listen to that dude talk about anything all day. I want a serious channel all Hugh Millan monologus.

How about that? And that's what you could name it. We could just name it the Hugh milland.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, fast.

Oh my goodness, all right, time with fun with audio and din a different time today, Jackson, you got my little dropper and a go.

Just got it?

Hugh?

Did you hear that? What's that?

Dick?

Bill Belichick did an interview with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America on ABC last week to promote his new book. Apparently it wasn't a hard hitting interview because Chris mad Dog Russo sounded off about it while joining Susie Schuster, who filled in on The Rich Eisen Show Monday morning.

Mike was Strahan was not Mike Wallace On Friday on Good Morning America, I might add one of.

The more awkward interviews I've ever.

Seen in my life. ABC.

What ABC did there? ABC gave carte blanche to Belichick.

They'll be want seoan, Well.

You tell us what questions you want to ask, and that.

Is at you can't do. Horrific.

ABC was horrific that essentially they sold their journalisms, their journalism chops to make sure that Belichick is he was in the news, was on the air. That was a horrific job by a worthy news organization. And then they put stray in a tough spot because we all know Strayane is again, he's not Mike Wallace, he's an ex football player. No knock against Strayan, but that's an impossible situation.

It was an oh my god, it was bad.

Well, I agree, I got nothing out of the interview, and and but but Hugh, I prepared myself because my expectations of a Michael Strahan Good Morning America interview with Bill Belichick on a scale of one to hard hitting is like a point four.

And I don't even know if it got to a point four.

I didn't hear it. So what was it? Just awkward?

Just just I'll soft it's good. It was good Morning America. It was Good Morning America. Softballs.

Well, he's he's under a lot of siege about the manner in which his girlfriend has apparently commandeered aspects of certainly his commercial life, and and or is it like a ven diagram? Is it creeping into his his capacities as the head coach at North Carolina, Things like, you know, coming out on the practice field wearing stripper boots and.

Boyfriend.

He hasked a very innocuous question about his girlfriend, just to show that he brought it up, and and Belichick shut it down. He says, my relationship with Jordan is great, and you know, she really doesn't have anything to do with North Carolina football.

And that was it.

That's all so okay.

At least that's why he's in the news lately.

Oh yeah, there's no question about that. I saw a rumor today where they're engaged. Nobody can confirm it yet, but that's the newest. That's the newest rumor that's flowing around on the internet.

Apparently apparently Jordan is telling people. So she's.

Oh my god, boy, So we've got what's Belichick's kid, Steve Belichick.

Yes, he's gonna be coaching a little longer than he thought. Yeah, she gets her claws into that.

Will I got one.

I got one word for you, Bill. Maybe it's a hyphenated word. Maybe it's two words. Pre nup. That's for Bill Belichick. Hey, Hugh, did you hear that?

What's that?

Dick?

John Rahm finished eighth of the PJA Championship after boguing.

The final two holes.

It might not have mattered with Scotti Sheppler running away with the tournament, winning by five, but in his post round press conference, Rom talked about getting advice from Charles Barkley.

I always like to go back a little bit on something that Charles Barkley likes to remind basketball players all the time, like, like I played golf for a living. It's incredible, right, Am I embarrassed a little bit about how I finished today. Yeah, but I just need to get over it, get over myself. It's like it's not the end of the world. Like it's not like I'm a doctor or a first respond there is somebody where if they have a bad day, truly bad things happen. Right,

Yeah, really good perspective.

And in the prior show, Greg Bell actually played another top thirty second quote from that press conference where Rom said, yeah, hey, you know, this is the first time I've ever been in contention at a major where i haven't won, and he's like, it's hard to win. I've been in contentions in a major a couple of different times and I ended up winning both of them. So it happens, and so it was a really I thought it was refreshing.

I mean, I think I think John Rahm is very very live for the US Open this year.

Well, I don't know what the evidence is that he's trying to be liked other than I think as a general rule, we default most people. I would prefer to be liked than not liked, right, But I would say that quote is just beautiful, absolutely gold. That quote should be preserved. I think there's a lot of players, a lot of you know, I would say there's times in my life, you know, playing uh you know that that

In my absolutely the prevailing that reason I say that about Rom is the prevailing thought amongst golf Twitter, and I'm and I'm unfortunately too deep into into golf Twitter, is that, you know, his move to live has affected him more than he thought it was going to be. And I think he is a guy. You know, certain people out there love to be liked. Other people really don't care that much whether they're liked or whether they're not liked, and and Rom is one of those guys

So I think, you know, he he had an interesting take, a reversal, I should say, because he had a great quote when he was number one in the world and he was talking about reasons why he was going to stay on the PGA Tour. So as as inspiring as that quote was that Jackson just played, you had an equally inspiring quote about him, essentially taking a position paralleling Rory McElroy and in terms of his commitment to the PGA tour and for him to have flopped on that.

Uh.

And people are entitled to change their minds, you know, new things come up. But I would imagine he's gone through a multitude of emotions with with his with with his moving on to live.

Hey here did you hear that that with the a's moving to Sacramento. We're wondering what are we supposed to call him now? Well, NBC Sports Bay Areas Mike Kruco offered a suggestion during Sunday's Giants broadcast.

We are going to the bottom half of the fourth inning and Oaklamento leads San Francisco two to one, then here's bet partner, our Hall of famer John Oakleamento, that you could win.

I like, OK, that is I mean maybe because we're on the West coast, we realize how big it is. I don't know how big that people around the country, how big a debacle this actually is with that team playing in that stadium in that city, having no real place to go in Vegas.

It's not like it's not like the Vegas stadium is. Oh, we're just we're almost ready. We'll be ready to play, and we'll be ready to play in April in Vegas.

And this is just a temperate no, we have no idea where the A's.

Are going to be playing in three years.

Yeah, good place to play. Yeah, it's it's been pathetic for years. And you know, as somebody who can remember them with the Vita Blue and Reggie Jackson days, and you know, they were the ones, you know, they were kind of cutting edge. They were the only ones wearing white shoes, and they had the kind of the I don't call them tank tops, but kind of like the muscle jerseys, Charlie sleeves, and they were just they were

And what's amazing about the A's, what they always do is, no matter how bad the situation is, the team on the field actually plays capable baseball.

It's just unbelievable.

You would think that these guys are just like, oh, I just forget this, nobody cares about us, but

They just seem to hang in there every single year.