This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Salis on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services. Make sure your most prized possessions Katie z R. Two Side and i Heeart Radio Station. Good afternoon, everybody, welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jagon's also got a guy Jason. And today, uh for Friday, A long week. For some reason, it's tired today as I normally am in a five day week. You know you need a vacation
from the vacation. Still right, we're not even done with today. We'll have a good show today, I promise. UM. Good to have everybody here listening to us. And on a Friday, we have a good show slated, the Broncos, the Nuggets play tonight. A lot of news on breaking news we have locally, so we have a lot of things brewing. If you want to call. We had a great some great calls yesterday. Yeah, we have some good stuff. Um, so give us a call.
Five two zero four one six seventy four forty so interesting conversation today. Well today we are first hour. We're gonna have Jake Fisher, our usual Friday or Friday guests, to come in and just weigh in on the stuff we've been weighing in on all week. Jake's always got some great opinions. Former linebacker at Arizona back in the early twenty tens. It seems so long ago, I know what, ten years ago, ten years since he's been
out so um, but Jake's always got He's always got an opinion. He's also one of our great sponsors, so we appreciate having Jake in yere H every week. And then we're gonna bring in Andy Lopez. The super NC DOUABAA Baseball Superregionals are under way. Uh Andy went to a lot of those one two national championships when a Pepperdine went at Arizona. He was a coach
at Arizona from two thousand and two to twenty fifteen. He's been we've we've engaged in some conversation about all the stuff it takes to be a head coach these days, and he's said more than one occasion he would not would not like to be coaching with all the stuff that they've got a yeah that they got to take care of anybody. I'm gonna give him the right to be the boss of the NC double A. How would he handle all this crap that's going on, Yeah, crap editorial. Well, you know the thing,
the thing of it is, Steve. It's like you know that, it's like that big old rolling ball in Indiana Jones, Right, it's rolling and you get in right and if you get in the way, you're gonna get run over by it. And then that's really what's happening. And you know, everybody's trying to figure out ways to do stuff about it. You know, there's even you know, this week there's been a bunch of college people up up on Capitol Hill, you know, lobbying trying to get uh,
the federal government to step in and do something about this. But again, I don't know how how, I don't know how they could change what's already going on. I know, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube, right, Uh, He's gonna use a lot of the toothpastes that you have about So we'll see, we'll talk more about that. A lot of things going on again, with transfers and things like that. I saw some more to day, right everybody's and Arizona basketball progress, so we're well
breaking. So I'll just leave it at that. You know, well, you know we're still we're still have we still have guys because of the short time frame. We still have guys who are um, uh you know, he's getting six years you know, six seven years in in uh you know, in in uh in college and uh um you know, I just don't know how they do that. Well there it's a by U approach. Yeah, I mean, I know, I get it. There was there was that one year of um of uh, what do you call it? COVID?
Was that one year of COVID. But it's it's still hanging around, and you know, we'll we'll talk about it later. There's a transfer guy who's here at the UFA. However many years ago, when he's going for a six year at his fourth school, it's like, how the hell can they keep doing that? Right, Well, that's the money cost of a cost of a scholarship things like that. Then you wonder why people or or the universities are going after the money. They have to go after the money.
You got to pay some of their bills. Yeah, yeah, you know, and I guess you saw it. You saw it today. Uh, some of the stories out of the Washington State President. I think the president talking about the money that's possible for the PAC twelve. Yeah. Yeah, but now you're getting clarifications that he wasn't really quoting numbers. I just saw one. What was you quoting? Well, he was kind of clarifying that he doesn't really know what the deal is. What the hell did why
you say something? Yeah, I don't know. I just so he missed. He didn't miss spoke, He just kind of just said something and had to walk him back. That's not the stuff that we talked about yesterday. They're saying stuff and then other sources are saying, well, that's not true or kind of have to cover up, not cover up, but clarify what they're saying, and they're not saying anything right. Yeah, it's it's just it's just the ongoing thing. Um of it changes every day, and you
don't know what to believe. Even the dates, you know, the lightning, the sand or whatever, it moves constantly. Well, we'll we'll hear something about the end of the month, end of the month. Eleven months later, we're still waiting for the end of the month. I wish Bills would be able to pay like that. Get back to you at the end. Yeah, alright, alright, um, what else, Jason, you have anything? How about the Lakers? Um? You know, off season
right now. So we're just what we're gonna We're gonna do as a team. A lot of moves to make, so a final off season. But you know, just watch the final thoughts on my thoughts on my might my rented Nuggets looking really good, looking really good, look good. We'll see what today. I said this when you were here last Game four was the right. Absolutely think the Nuggets win Game four. They most likely cause it out on five. Maybe the heat, can you know, take find a
way, find a way to extended a game. But the Nuggets won this series. I think they eat need to win today and yeahn't want you any chance of winning the series. And I'm very capable. I think I think they played better when their backs against the wall, So I do expect them to step up to the play and you know, get this win. So okay. And then the base softball team last night obviously Oklahoma one going away. I didn't even watch it. It was they dominated very good, very
good team. Obviously uh Floria State game a game for a little bit, but of course it's not always. It's not so easy to beat Oklahoma. Fifty three street games, fifty four street games they won, still fun well, it was it was such a fore gone conclusion, you know, even you know again, when they were still in the bracket and Stanford had him in that game, it was too nothing. That game goes for extra ayes. I watched that. I picked it up kind of late in the game
on the hopes to watch watching Oklahoma lose. But I'm sitting there thinking, okay, even if they lose, Stafford would have to do this again. And it's kind of like I lost interest. So I was. I had very little interest in the College World Series this year, and that's a it's sort of a routine for us when we're down in Rocky Point to watch that. A lot of times Arizona is in it, and even when they haven't been, you know, we we we watch it and we we we paid
zero attention to it down there. I'm again more interested in baseball, even though Arizona is not in the baseball one either. But you see, you feel like there's no one team that's you know, killing it and it should run away with it. It should be interesting. So yeah, we'll see what happens. Um with a lot of things. You can if you want to call, get us called five two four one, six, seventy four forty. As we kind of get through the first segment here before we talked
to Jack Fisher. Um anything else that's clear this? No, you know, I think uh, I think, uh, you know, we're you know, ongoing with with the realignment stuff, and I feel like you feel like there's something different every day, but it's kind of the same every day. Yeah. Right, it's somebody says something and it sounds different, but
then you break it down and it's really not. You know, this thing with the with the the Washington State Uh, was that the president of the athletic director who reported to the to their board of regents, uh, basically saying that he thought that that the the deal, the TV deal would be flat you know, basically whatever what the schools have been getting, which you
put them in line with about what the Big twelve is getting. But then kind of clarified that, well, we've really not seen the numbers, so we don't know. It's like, then, why did you say that. Yeah, well, get right, And why did you say so when you were talking about just to go back the sixth year? Who are you talking about just anybody? Jordan, He's gonna beginning six Remember him back in the day years ago? Well remember we transferred? What what remember he transferred when
Tommy Lloyd got hired after a meeting with Tommy Lloyd. What Tommy Lloyd said, you're the guy. Remember that we had that meeting. Yeah, we we we had that lunch with with Tommy and he tells us, you know, I had a meeting with Jordan and told him everything was great. Uh you know, we told him, you know, he's the guy. We're counting on you. And he transferred the next day. He drunk in the portal the next day and went off and played Louisiana. What was going on?
There wasn't any nil going on back then, so what the hell was going on? So he stayed there for a year that I was leaving somewhere else. Yeah, two years. Actually that was that was very funny because he is gonna be one hundred years old though. Yeah, well you know, yeah, this is gonna be his sixth year of called basketball and his fourth school if he if he goes to another school, if you want to stay in that world, that's fine, that's cool. You guess eventually you
have to come into the real world. You have to, you know, if you're a coach, so you have to wonder, you know, how committed is this guy to you, right to your program to win for him? Yeah? But but you know what I'm saying, though, You know, a guy who's bounced around, bounce around, bounce around, does he care what school he's playing at? And is he gonna give you a little
extra by playing for that school? And you just don't. And that's been my beef with a lot of these guys, you know, especially the one and duns. You don't feel like they ever were committed. Well, it's like Aaron Gordon, everybody's all he's gone when I'm okay, he's one. He stayed here for six months. And yeah, Aaron Gordon, DeAndre and all those guys. Stanley Johnson. Stanley Johnson's one that sticks out to me.
He was he was never here. Neither was DeAndre Ayton, you know, but at least DeAndre Ayton for up until that last game, he felt like he got a lot from him. Now that you know, we talked about how he took games off and stuff, but he had a he had a run in that PAC twelfth tournament like almost nobody ever had, right, and so you thought, okay, you know, he's given you everything. And then they go laid down completely in that in that uh NC double A
tournament game. And that's the kind of stuff that, whether whether it's true or not, whether it's actually the case or not, you feel like you have to think that they didn't have the They weren't. They weren't all in on that right, even though it's the NC Double A tournament, And I'm like, how can you not be all in on an NCAA tournament game? You know? So I don't know, it's uh, it's it's just where
we are, Steve. Yeah, sometimes it's disappointing when you when we get to talking about it like this, you kind of hate what everything has become. But then the games start and you're everybody's playing in You're fine, sure, Yeah, when you get over it, you have no choice. Okay, um again he wants called five two, four, six, seventy four forty here we are. I thought the Daily started a good story. I think it was maybe Justin who did a story on all the transfer portal guys
who've left, kind of where are they now kind of story? Not where you know, the three guys that you would see uh vegas, Um, all these places are all over the place, all over the place, you know. I mean sometimes you wonder, you know, when a good player leaves, the guy who's playing a lot leaves, you know, like like happening in football, you know, and why you know, if you're if you're if you're going to a place to play from a place that you're already
playing, why why why are you doing that? Well, we talked about this yesterday. I don't blame him now because you know everybody school's an Oregon donor. You talked about the quarterback, the you know, the former quarterback super Bowl quarterback that um he's another coach at Alabama. Tell me Alabama where he's well aware. Yeah, these guys are, if they're any good, they're gonna stay there and then go somewhere, gonna go somewhere else, go
somewhere else for money or for visibility or whatever. Right, and and that I get that I get with some of these other guys that like Jordan Jordan Brown going from Arizona. He's a starter at Arizona. He's getting all the pub he's getting all the attention, he's getting all the playing time. And then he goes to LSU Louisiana, Lousia basically Louisiana Lafayetta was what it used to be called. He goes to Louisiana. That that's one of those.
It was a real head scratcher for me, especially after being told by the new coach, Yeah, you're my guy. You wonder what goes into a guy. It's so long ago, man, three years ago. That's when Tommy Lloyd kind of said, you know, hey, yeah I'm here. He's gonna play yeada YadA. Okay, Yeah, so I I know, you just you just kind of wonder what And again, you know, they're seven, they're eighteen, nineteen twenty year old kids were doing this stuff and
you who knows who's in their ear? Yeah, and all those things too, who's in there and who's in the pocket. There's something that you just scratch your head in that. I know, we have like ninety seconds left, but Jason, Jason, Jake is already kind he's ready to go. Okay, well, take the break and then we'll tell him we're good to
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Jakin's Summits. This is I Am the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen. Different and welcome back to the back Fox Sports fourteen fifteen times Steve Rivera, He's Jakin Saus down the phone. We have former U of a football player and one of our spos, Jacob Fisher. Jake. How are you going? Wonderful? Happy Friday? Ye? Same to you. Hey? How old are you? Thirty two thirty two? If you were twenty six twenty seven, would you still be wanted to play football? No. Halfway through my
senior year, I kind of knew what was going to happen. If I did try to go on to play, so Nie started giving out and started getting old. They always used to call me old Man my samior year, because I was probably one of the top two or three oldest people on the team, just because I have that wretch your here. So no, I don't think I would have lasted at age twenty six. We'll just put it that way. What do you think about all the guys are staying five or
six seven years playing NC double as football, basketball, whatever. Hey, if they can play, they're not gonna be able to do it for the rest of their life by playing prone, you know, making some money. I would do it, you know, if they love the game that much, go for it. And we're gonna help some team somehow. And you know, like this guy that we're going to talk about obviously that was at Nevada and Arizona, then you know, letting me out of the schools.
If he can help a good team being a backup center, I mean, as a coach, you take him, right, Yeah, I get it. I get it, especially if you can help him. And every coach needs a good player or at least a veteran player. Oh yeah, well, I mean right now, thankfully. Our situation is good. But for a couple of other teams, they might just need a guy to throw him
for ten minutes of the bank. Oh you talk about hour, but yours you have a basketball team, right, So at the end of the day, when everybody was complaining about stuff in April, you know, me, this tim me that I think he's let it on a feet pretty good. I think he did extremely well. He got a big four that was athletic, that can play defense, a little bit older, played in the National championship game last year. Obviously got Caleb Love, who played in a championship
game you know a couple of years ago with North Carolina. Last year didn't go the way that he wanted. But you know, even though he was a little inefficient, still average between sixteen seventeen points. Then you get Jaden Bradley, and it's like, I don't know how it's all going to shake up, you know, when it comes to who's gonna start and what's going to happen there. But obviously all these guys signed off on bringing in Caleb Love, you know, so now they're just gonna have to go and see
who's gonna start, who's gonna play. I have a feeling those top six guys are all gonna play starters minutes, So I don't think it's gonna necessarily matter if one of those guys comes off the bench. But at the same time, I'm excited for those guys because you have some guys that are battle tested, Like I said, two guys that came from national championship contenders that
have actually played in the game. Now it's just about finding out who's some of these young guys, you know, which one can step up and then the development of you know, the big man in the back they sar. If he can step up in a big way, I think we'll be good. Jake, you know when you were playing UM and I'll see you know, while you were there, you know, five years and new recruits are coming in and you know, way different from now right because there's no transferport
and stuff. But as guys came in and you knew those guys were coming in to play your position, what was you know, what were your thoughts, what was your approach? How you know? Because so often, for instance, we see, oh he got recruited over and that's why he left, you know, and it's more you see that more in basketball than football because sometimes the football it takes longer to get to a place where you can
play. But once you knew a specific guy, maybe even it might have been a great recruit, was coming to take your job, how did you approach that and how did you treat the guy? Well, the coach, it's on the coach to tell him, Hey, listen, we're going to recruit the best players, and the best player is going to play. So I mean, I think I took two or three different linebackers on recruits,
you know, when they came into town. And to be honest with you, you have to have the mindset of I know he's coming to take my job, but it's not going to happen. And so you know, if the coach makes that known from day one, hey, we're going to recruit guys as good. We're better than you, and it's all about who's gonna,
you know, perform, who's gonna play. Then, honestly, if you have the right mindset, you're not really gonna mind because what are you gonna do recruit a bunch of bad guys and then when I leave, you know, you guys aren't great. It makes no sense you know what I mean. So as long as the coach is very upfront, honestly, he's saying, hey, listen, you know, we're recruiting this guy, as you know, at the same position as you. He's very highly you know,
talented. Best man's gonna win. And if you're a competitor, you're okay with that. You know where I think of that more than anything, at least as it released your football his quarterback, right, remember rich right, he collected, as he would say, I'm collecting quarterbacks. You know, you go out in if you're north Ffida, all right, you're coming in. You're expecting to be able to get to get get the job after Jayden Delora. But then they've got this kid from Colorado who was a you
know, a four star recruit. I think, who's sitting there? And then you know there's more quarterbacks that are you know, in the next class and the next class, and they are recruiting quarterbacks for the twenty twenty five class, you know, and you're going, wait, you know, I haven't even gotten my shot yet. I mean, you know, how do you how do you handle that? Well? I think that if you bring in a bunch of good quarterbacks, you kind of know that there's going to
be a little attrition and a couple of people might leave. But you know, if you do have a good player leave and you promised him a position and uh, you know he's going to be the starter and then he decides to leave, well you just made that kid a promise. So it's like, you know, it's a it's a double edged sword here. You got to recruit good players to back up other good players because you might get burned if you don't do it that way. So from the coach's standpoint, obviously,
I understand. From the player's standpoint, I understand, but it's got to be, you know, a mutual thing. Hey, we're going to be burning in really good players. You know, the best man is going to play and then if you know, if things don't work out, obviously, because a coach can leave whenever he wants. That's why the transfer portals
there. If you know, somebody, because they're not going to play their last year, wants to move closer to home and they can start, you know, so that their parents can watch them and stuff like that there last year. I love the fact that they can do that, So I apologize now Jake for this question. But but no, no, because you you were a long time ago. You're a smart dude. That's why we would like you a lot. I think I think the world smart dude, very
nice. I think the world of you. But you know, this, this NL stuff, and it was back in the day when you were kind of on the front front line talking about this. It's not what you thought or what you had hoped or or or is it. I think it's perfect at first. It's kind of a wild, wild last and they they'll they'll put you know, they'll get the reins on it here eventually. But you know, I'm just always one that says, hey, listen, A coach can go down to you know, Jim Click and do a car commercial and
make extra money. They can do a commercial for a federal credit union down the street. They can do all this extra stuff to bring an extra money. But a player who literally works the same amount of hours does more physical activity. They're hitting each other in the head, in the face every single day. They're doing extra conditioning, extra workouts. They also had twelve credits of class, some of them fifteen to eighteen. Because they're smart people.
Why the hell can I get a check for just you know, talking to Jim click and getting on the screen for fifteen seconds makes no damn sense. Like you have a guy like a DeAndre Aiden who if he would have been able to capitalize on nil, he may have been able to send money back to his family and they would have been you know, okay. So it's like one of those things to where coaches can do it, Why in the
world can't players do it. Then he had some of these coaches, like I think it was you know, Dabo Sweeney at first, who is pissed
off about it. You have a couple of his other coaches that come out against it, and then I forget the you know the idiot's name, but the president of the NCAA Emmer, he comes out and he basically says, hey, you guys are getting an education, and I'm sitting here like ninety percent of the team, you know, whatever the heck they're studying, they're not going to do that after football, so let him make some money while they're hearing. No, it makes it makes all the sense in the world.
But the structure, But what's happening, how's happening? I think you said it will be events that you figured out. Yeah, I think it will. You know, it's everything when it first starts is not perfect. So I think they're going to get together kind of figure it out, you know, whether it's you know, whether it's kind of making it a little
bit more equal for the players or what. But I'm one of the you know, people that think, hey, listen, in a capitalistic society, I think the people that do the most work are the people that you know, mean the most of the university or you know, if you have like an Andrew Luck or a cold Demon carry, I think they should get paid more than that. Like me, you know what I mean. So,
hey, I go out and make some money. You know, you're gonna have some people they get an NIL deal and it might be smaller, but they're still getting paid. Yeah. So let me go with that example. We had geist, right or maybe a couple of weeks ago. Obviously he's done a lot, maybe a few, a few national titles. You just had another one, and we type duston, how's the nil stuff going? He says, Oh, that's not for me. It's for football and basketball.
And I'm thinking, here's this celebrated dude with all these titles who doesn't have much maybe one thing. He said, yeah, well possibly you know the face right now, the face of you know, Arizona Athletics, right because he's winning national championships and stuff, him and Delaney Schnell, the swimmer, you know. And he said, and he said, yeah, I got a couple of things. You've got some equipment, got some gear. But you know, he's not making any money off off nil, even though
he's probably the best athlete or the most accomplished athlete on campus. Yeah. Absolutely, And that's that's something that kind of drives me up a wall too, because I mean, the exposure of this guy guy, especially with you know, how his season ended and how his career ended and all these other different things, and he's probably going to be an Olympi and all these other different deals. He's gonna get some of that, thankfully when he graduates.
I wish there was a way, and I still haven't figured it out one hundred percent that you know, whether it's the athletics department instead of going and building you know, a brand new fifties million dollar facility, or whether it's you know, a basketball games he takes some of admissions or whatever it might
be like some of these big timers. You know, you want to have all of the athletes being able to support this or whether you know, you have a couple of guys that are captains on you know, the basketball and the football team coming together and say, hey, listen, like, let's put together our own collective because a lot of these athletes in only football and basketball are getting paid. So let's go ahead and like, you know, see what we can do for the rest of those athletes. But it's going
to be up to the athletes. It's going to be up to the athlete department. Because you know, you sell a great book and you're not You're well known. You know, you're going to sell a hell of a lot more copies than someone that you know might not be. Um let me say, uh, you know, I can Andrew Tate where it doesn't matter what he says, people are going to gravitate towards him. It's going to be
somebody that isn't on television every single Saturday. So they're going to find a way to be able to put money back into those athletes hands as well. I just don't you know, I haven't quite figured it out yet. I've been thinking about that a lot lately though, you know, with with the you know as much as you've been you zeroed in on this, you know all the way back your days and playing college. Is the federal government? Is that the right entity to make this work? To the federal government?
Yeah, you know, because they get them. They pass up on every single thing that they try to do well. So, uh No, it's definitely not going to be It's going to be the athletes because the athletes know what it's like to go through and not make a lot of money. And it's going to be the folks in the athletic department. Um, if you have a very engaged president like the U of A does, he's obviously going to be in talks with it because he's a big sports guy. But no,
absolutely no, it's a federal government. Yeah, I think youventually. It's gonna take a while. Like you said, it's gonna take a while, and I don't know if you can do it, but do it properly because the women. If you're paying the guys a lot of money, the women are gonna want some of that. Yeah, And I'm not it's the way the athletic department is built too. So does that mean everyone's gonna have to come together and kind of figure it out? But that's just kind of
the model of sports right now. And unfortunately, some people who are going to eventually be Olympians, like are not getting paid very much, and there's only enough money to go around, unfortunately. But you know, if you have let's say you have a superstar, you know, like a Marcus Mariota or someone like that at a prominent school like an Oregon who's back by Nike, there should be some way that a lot of those folks can get paid as well as Mariota, you know what I mean. So, I mean
you can find creative ways. Who knows. Since it is the you know, kind of the wild West in nil, I'm sure that some of these guys that are a little bit more smart than I am are going to be able to figure out a solution, but you know, it starts with them. So I've heard a couple of different takes on this, and I don't know if we've talked about it with you before. Probably have, but I don't remember what we said. But put yourself on Arizona football team right now.
You're a linebacker, you know, on the football team, you're getting whatever the basic that everybody else is getting, you know, wherever you getting from this stipend and then maybe another five thousand dollars in nil money. And then you find out Jayden Delora is getting you know, one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. Is that going to upset you or not? And you know, no, okay, no, I know the rules of the game, the quarterbacks, the face of the entire team, or if you have a hometown hero like Akadeem Kerry who you know, the you know, back to back seasons is an All American? You know, why why should I get paid as much as him? That makes no sense? You know? So Um, and then you got to also remember like back when they were selling
folks jerseys, like they were selling Nick Foles jerseys. I think at one time they were selling Griggsby jerseys, they were selling they sold my jersey, they were selling Codeem jerseys. Um, you know after I left, if they were selling Scooby jerseys. You know, the athletic department got pretty much all of that, and obviously Nike got from that. But it's like, why should the athletes who's wearing that number out there on saturdays not get a
piece of that. Yeah, so you have a lot of different ways that you can create income over a lot of these players. But once again, you know the corner guys not including me obviously need to get together and figure it out. Okay, So think back to when all this started. It was it was largely, wasn't it because of like video games, right, the college football video game and in college basketball video game. So now Ea Sports is coming out with their game again and they're going to give guys five
hundred bucks apiece. Everybody gets five hundred bucks. Would you just laugh at that? Or would you go what the hell? To be honest with you, I would you know, get a team meeting together and um, you know, kind of figure out what the best course of action is. If if you've got a bunch of guys that are going to be on there that aren't making an eye on mine, you know, the five hundred dollars to
them will make sense. You know, if you have the star quarterback of the team, you know that thinks he can happenis on a little bit more, obviously it makes sense for him to say no. So m everybody has to kind of come together and say Hey, listen, if you're going to take the bigger money, like, let's try to figure out a way to help some of these other folks. Because I mean, half of my teammates that I was with it at Arizona, they didn't come from like huge backgrounds
of money. So it's like you, you know, as a team, and this is not for like, like I said, for other people to dictate, but as a team, sometimes you might want to come together and say, hey, listen, like we can go ahead and we can distribute a little bit more of the money up at the top to help those that are working their tails off. You know, if you have a brat in the room, obviously you know forget them. But I mean there are some guys that work just way too damn hard to not get paid. No,
I agree, I agree with you. It's okay, Jake, thanks a bunch. Anything else do you want to talk about? Talk about your your stuff? Real quick health insurance, life insurance. We can go ahead and shop for your we're brokers. We're the best in the state of Arizona. Felo. While okay, I give me a call. I've already got three guys from listen to your show over this last week guy, So I appreciate
on the radio again and they're down. Have a happy Friday. It is actually my mind and my wife's anniversary today, so we're going to go and enjoy some her here after we get done working. But uh, you know, thank you guys for having me on. Could tell her she's going to heaven by putting up at you. She knew that Tessidation, have a good week in happy anniverse. That's really good, guy, see one of the smart dude. Yeah here really is. All right, let's take a break.
We'll come back with well take your calls five two zero, four, one, six, seventy four forty. If you're an Arizona man's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty years. Now. Take a look back at the Ludolson era. In my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspired them twenty five chapters for his
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for those looking for a part time job or a second income. Come be a part of a winning team the A Team apply online today at a team security dot net streaming live. I mean iHeart Radio LAP. This is I on the Ball with Steve Ribera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty for Welcome Back Toying the Ball Hill, Fox sportspoorteen Tookie. I'm Steve's Jay Jason in the household US today fifteen minutes. If you want to give us a
quick call five tool for one six seventy four forty. I'm looking forward to talking to coach Slopus to talk to him a ball. I know he doesn't have a fix for this, but what he would do if he could fix this because it needs fixing is not true? Yeah, well yeah, I mean, but I don't know. Yeah, I mean the one the thing you keep hearing from everybody is what's going on right now is not sustainable. Right, whether it's transfer portal, whether it's it's nil, whether it's all
the realignment talk and stuff going on. At some point, all these things got to settle to some sort of normal normalcy that everybody can just deal with and move along and have some certainty to what you're looking at. First, as I'm sitting here during the break, I was looking at John Wilner, is the latest PAC twelve hot line? Uh column that it ran in the
Star? Um, just it got posted in the Star literally fifteen minutes ago, talking about the revenue that the PAC twelve is getting and the things that come along. Right. The Comcast thing with with PAC twelve when they initially announced and say we screwed up. They overpaid US fifty million dollars and we kept it. Well, he's reporting now that it's more like seventy Well who
was the original twenty fifty fifty? Yeah, so he's your twenty see with it's more like seventy because of you know, just the costs associated with it, plus a in the in figuring out how they overpaid. There's less there there now there there's there's less coming in from Comcast. So the overall impact of that whole thing was seventy million dollars. So what he what he's saying is that, uh, and this won't you know, the actual numbers won't
come out. But for the fiscal year twenty twenty two, each school got thirty seven million dollars from from the PAC twelve that it comes from three, that comes from media rights, it comes from the College Football Playoff, comes from the NC Double A Tournament. Okay, they got thirty seven million dollars. Based on his as he called it, back of the envelope calculation, um that for fiscal year twenty twenty three they're probably gonna get three and a
half million dollars less. And then if you extend that to twenty twenty four, another two point two million dollars less. So over the next two years, that thirty seven million dollars becomes thirty one and a half. You know, and and you know, because these things keep coming along that they are different, you know, you know, pack twelve hasn't been able to get a team in the in the in the college football playoff. You know, they haven't had a team in the final four, while UCLA went you know,
a couple of years ago. But you know, it's just the numbers on all these things are you know, they're just they're all over the board. And what what I think more than anything, and like we we just want to know what's ahead of us and not be you know, have all these grenades being lobbed in from all these different directions, and that's kind of what happens, right well, so we'll see eventually. My thing is,
are you talking about the money? Um, if you're a fan of UVA or any other school, uh, any other school like Uvea's status, you have money. You have donors given to the university, and then you have donors. You have donors given to university. Now you have to have those same donors, if not more, given to n I led you need more donors. At some point those pockets go dry. They go your dad and
you have your wife who makes money as well. If it's not more, and like me, you sorry, son, I can't get you that Christmas gift because we run out of money, right, at some point you do. At sometimes at some point you do. Yeah, no, you do. And and yet you have to figure you have to figure out either where you're gonna get more money or where are you gonna cut costs? Right, And that's what a lot of these you know, a lot of these programs
are doing. Although you know, I heard a thing today. Um, you know, Texas has read put seven and a half million dollars into their football locker room that they put ten million dollars in two six years ago to compete, I guess, to compete or to you know, to keep guys happy. You know. So we're talking in in in six years, they put twenty million dollars into the football locker room. I bet you, I bet you my two dollars a year, one dollar. The Bejean Robinson did
not go to Texas because they had nice locker rooms. So what the hell does it matter? I mean, you know what I'm saying, it's Texas. Yeah. Well, in that and that was one of things they were saying. Okay, so it was they said that the current the current um upgrade each locker, each locker cost seventy five hundred dollars he said, if
you ask a player, are you one seventy five hundred dollars? So you ask every player, would you rather keep the locker you had and thus give you the seventy five hundred dollars or do you want the seventy five hundred dollars into going into your locker? And why are they spending that money? You know, and they're spending And the thing is they're spending that money then saying we don't have any money. Yeah, right, we need more, right,
and we need more. That's crazy to me that that, you know, you know, it's six years ago that they they upgraded their locker and that much by ten million bucks, and then they already then you know, each locker has a thirty four inch TV in it. For what, don't you just put one big screen TV in the middle of the damn locker room and everybody watches that? Why does it each Why does each player have to
have their own television in there? You don't have time to you don't have time to watch it anyway, you're trying to get ready to go practice or whatever. I never heard of that before. Yeah, you know music too, you know whatever, video games in there, and you know the whole bit. You're sitting in your locker playing video games. Are certainly not studying, are you? Let me say that too, because if you're not a good point, because I wanted to go there. So studying when do people?
When do the kids have time to study? And is and I'm gonna be just stupid extremist here. Isn't that what it's all about? At the end of the day, You're supposed to go to school to study. And I'm being an old man. Well, listen to what Jake said though. How many of those guys that whatever they were studying in college while they were playing football, How many of those guys went on to do what they were studying in college? No, no, I tell I tell our guy here.
I mean there's a few, right, like David Renchards, the aerospace engineer, some of those guys back in But this all the time. And you you have kids who went to UVA, and I have kids went to school too. You you have to make your own breaks. You have to do and do it as early as you can. Because guys, we've had interns here who've left here who are very good, but they have no jobs, so they're doing something else. Because they have no jobs or or they
didn't do it. Well, you know what I'm saying, They're going to school and do this, but there's no this there. Yeah, no, I hear you. It's I don't have an answer, Steve. I mean it's like somewhere along the line, though, something's got to get Yeah. Again, there has to be there has to be a normal. Right. Let me ask you something too, because everyone talk Okay, you know, was there a time and in your my age or a work stage, what
it was? What it wasn't normal? Um? Because every generation or every time frame has a Oh back in my day it was this and that and did your dad talk about stiff like this? Do you want to say? Because what was it normal? Ever? Uh? What? It depends on what aspect of it. Like, you know, was my was my financial life, my financial picture, you know, my livelihood kind of normal?
Yeah, you know you had. I'm talking you're talking personally, right, Okay, I'm talking about just in general for all of us as No, No, I'm talking athletically for you, not you specifically. Um. You know, I thought things were pretty stable through really through the nineties into the into the early two thousand because because you had Luke, you had Dick Tomy, right, they were just cruising along. Was doing really well, Dick was doing pretty good, not great, but you know it was you were
happy with what with with what was going on? Um and and it wasn't It didn't seem chaotic like it is now. No, No, you're we live in a chaotic time. Well, yeah, there's, well there's chaos for a lot of different things, and there's and the thing of it is is that without you know, getting on a soapbox. Here, there's so much chaots going on and so many aspects of our lives that it's just hard.
It's hard to catch your breath at any point. I mean I feel, you know, walking in from the parking lot to him, I'm like, I'm tired, and I shouldn't be tired. Right, No, I guess what are the guys who I'll ask again with Lopez. Was there a time anywhere, maybe when he was at Florida or whatever, when things were just kind of You're happy to go to work, You went to work, you taught kids, you talked about a play baseball, and you put you know what I'm saying now, it's like, well he got out of it
because it wasn't normal. Yeah, because yeah, because it's not being normal, or he knew it wasn't going to be normal anymore. Mike Andrea got out of it because it wasn't gonna be normal anymore. And it's not. David Rubio got out of it because it's not normal anymore. And it's not. And you know, it's it's it's it's taken an it's taking a new mentality to make it in some of those fields, like like you know you, I mean, would you want to be would you want to be a
newspaper sports writer right now? No? Absolutely no. Deadlines would kill. Deadlines would kill. Uh, the accommodations in terms of access to the players. I was with a guy twenty four hour aspect of doing social media as a as a reporter. Plus you can't tell the kids stories. You're almost
not allowed to. Yeah, but but but but even beyond that, you know whatever, the access is just all the things that come with being a sports writer, you know, because you know, you're constantly getting an ask to go on dumb ass radio shows like right, you know, we're we're always getting the radio guys to come on who got perfect timing? For a game. You're on the arena in the ball Jay, don't be so depressed today, you know, I know you are, because and it's about the
wildcast world. The dominant team of softball for a long time is this Richard. Who's this Richard? Yeah? But Steve and Jay? You know Patty Gasso, a California girl who's now coached OU for twenty nine years. She's the new Mike Andrea and she has taken the great players from UCLA and you of A and to Oklahoma. I mean there's ten or eleven of California and Arizona girls on the Sooner roster out in the middle of America. I'd be bummed too. Well, she figured out, Yeah, she figured it out.
But I'll tell you I'm bummed as a Sooner fan because of our football situation. Right. Imagine we're leaving our one hundred year old conference to go play down in the SEC into the Southern States. We have no interest in it whatsoever. I could care less about any of the teams in the SEC, just like the same way you feel about the Big Twelve. So it's a disaster. I think I don't know what's going to happen. I hear you, because you know that's the thing that about that bothers me about what's
going on here is that. Look, I keep saying, if farz Wind's up in the Big twelve, it's not the end of the world. But that's not where I would rather be. You know that. You know I don't. I'm not interested in going to Ames, Iowa for a for a football game, right, I'm not interested in going on to West Virginia. Well, you know, I grew up in Oklahoma. I'm a fourth generation Okie, but I'm in Arizona now. I've been here a long time, and uh, you know, the PAC twelve is a superior conference in so
many ways. I mean academically number one, but geographically and physically is there's not even any comparison. It just doesn't act like Actor Richard to me. That's how I know it's Steve Well. We've got some bad leadership out here. Larry Scott hurt. Yeah, this guy, he hurt the conference and he absconded with all this money. And that leads me to the point that
I think these decisions are in the hands of too few people. It's not very democratic for universities to pick up and move to other conferences and break down a one hundred year old traditions and when the decisions in just a handful of people's hands. Yeah. So, Richard, how long have you been here and followed the PAC twelve thirty seven years? Perfect? Good found you. I'm getting pretty old. So I'm asked. We got about a minute from
you for your answer. So I asked Jay this, I've asked people who've called in, who would have some background, who's had it better? That's a super second Arizona leaves to the Big twelve, and as who stays in the Pack twelve? Just assumption who had it better athletically throughout the PAC ten and PAC twelve years. I think to you, have they did because basketball, softball, baseball, swimming, golf, and track and field. You looked at the overall balance of the USA over the years. I think they
they they topped out a issue. I think it's pretty close, but I think you they definitely have had it best. You know, I think the last greatest football team in college football in the state of Arizona, though, was the nineteen seventy four Arizona State Sun Devils. Yeah. He went undefeated, beat Nebraska and if he has the bowl they got. They didn't get to play for the national championship. Oklahoma slipped into the national championship because somebody
else lost because they would have been a great game. Well good, that's good, some insight. That's it's pretty much leading to Arizona where we are. Yeah, all right, Richard, Hey, thanks much. We got to go to our break. Join it. You guys appreciate it, Thank you, thank you. Good call Richard. Yeah no, look, Patty Gas has become you know, over at Oklahoma, they become Arizona UCLA.
They lost one game this year that it's gonna it's a strange. She's gonna have a strangle hold on this, Yeah, for a while, for a while, like like Yukon in a women's Best m similar kind of thing, and it's gonna take a while for everybody to do catch up, but ultimately they might. All right, let's go ahead and take our Top of the break. Jason has a lot of Top of the hour break, a lot of break news, and we'll be back right after this