Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're once.
Again reminding you not to eat the yellow snow. It's Tuesday, December tenth, and on today's show, our friends Kalain Conahan, VP of Global Sales and creative mastermind for Legends, and Josh Bart, producer for ESPNS Around the Horn make their triumphant return to group Chat. We'll talk college hoops, the rules of engagement for coed adult sports, how to pick an unrival team, and the new women's sports show coming to Disney.
Plus, it's all coming up right after this.
Welcome Back Slices tomorrow. We're going to bring you all the news you need to know. But there was so much to chat with Kalein and Josh about. We're going to get right into that conversation.
Here it is.
It's time for another group chat where we take the tea from the text and bring it on to the airwaves. We've got to repeat appearance from my faves Collein and Josh. First up, she's a VP of Global Sales and creative mastermind for Legends. In the streets and an ultra marathoner also in the streets, but maybe in the sheets. We don't know we made homemade candles and bass scrubs together in OHI like two high class hippie bitches.
It's Clay Conahan. What's up, Klaid?
Oh, it's so good to be here. Sarah actually was burning one of the candles just like a few hours ago, so it still has that crembrulat eminence around here.
Amazing joining her.
He's a producer for ESPN's Around the Horn, eighteen years at the show and counting. When filling out the Katuba wedding contract at his recent nuptials, he accidentally signed as the bride. Now that's allyship in action. It's Josh Bard.
What's up? Josh?
Read everything twice? People just read things twice before you'd sign once.
You're a beautiful bride. Welcome back.
You two, so happy to have you. Let's start with college basketball. I had a great conversation with Alexa philipp Who the other day that really caught our listeners and me up on the biggest stories. But I want to ask y'all, as two diehards, if there's any teams or players you want to give a shout to, any storylines you've been dying to talk about or get a hot take out about Josh, Let's start with you. You're full of takes.
Full of takes. I've heard a lot of them. I've tried to pick a take that I hadn't heard too much of after listening to Let's send you. The team that I am most I would say interested in that I don't here talked about all the time, the Texas Longhorns. I really liked Madison Booker, the way she played last year. I'm super excited to see her back. They brought back their top four scores from last year. They added a chancefer from Miami and who's scoring eleven points in nineteen minutes.
I looked that up today. Eleven points in nineteen minutes. It's crazy, so effective, inefficient. Yeah, I just I've always liked this team. I think Vick Schaeffer is one of the best coaches in the country that never ever gets talked about on the level of you know, the Gino's and the Kim Molkys and the John Staleys. Of course, he's just so good. I feel like he always makes his players a lot better as a team. So, you know, they joined the SEC this year. Obviously, that changes a
lot of things about their schedule. This is just a team that I'm really going to be locked in on.
I love it.
Yeah, would she drop Texas as a team that could maybe get to number one?
I was like, Okay, we like the spicy take.
Colaine, you got any players, teams, storylines that you've been dying to gab about.
I mean, so, first off, I think one of the things as we evaluate college basketball and where where things are going to end in the end, because where we are right now I think will be will continue to be in flux. And I love the conference schedule because I just think it chews up and spits out all of the fakers, the impostors, and even some of the real ones, and it leaves us really confused. And honestly, I find that so much fun. And we're obviously getting
We're right on the precipice of conference play. The thing that I'm always looking for, because again, I think it's what bears fruit in conference tournaments as well as when we get to the march madness. Do you have two excellent guards who can carry the ball, create their own shot, and facilitate an offense, And I think you need one reliable big. So I think there's a lot of contenders, and there's a lot of teams in discussion, and Alexa
mentioned many of them. I think Yukon has that. I think if Sarah Strong continues to grow and develop, she's to me's the She's the lynchpin in that because page is gonna page right if Asy's healthy. Kk Arnold is impressive. So I think Yukon really has an opportunity, but I think it really hinges on Sarah Strong's continued development. I've been super impressed with what I've seen from UCLA. Again, that's no surprise. Notre Dame, I think, also has that combination,
and just we haven't seen us. We have not seen a super healthy Matty Westbeld and I suppose this probably won't surprise Josh or you, Sarah. But one team that we haven't heard anything about is the University of Maryland Terrapins, who number seven in the polls. They started I think twenty and have just continued eight. And oh and I just want to put some respect on Brenda Freese's name.
This coach continuously goes to the transfer portal and finds talent, and I think not only does she create an incredible team, but like there are players on this squad who are like Cheyenne Cellars is a dog. Nobody talks about her. And again, I'm a homer went to Maryland. I love this team. I have season tickets. But I'm telling you that to sleep on this team is you're gonna get showed up and spit up yourself. Because we talked about Vick.
Totally agree, JB. I think Vick Schaeffer is an incredible coach. But I think Brenda her exes and o's and her ability to get the best from her players and to find what she needs is unmatched.
Right.
There's a reason that last year, with even a weaker team in terms of personnel, that we were still able to take We were still able to beat Ohio State and still able to take Iowa to the wire. So you know, I, I just want to make sure that we're not we're not discounting the value of a coach.
Yeah, and we do get stuck on a lot of the same teams, particularly ones that had great success the year before, have those big names, and then there's those ones that are sitting in that top ten kind of sneaky style.
That we're going to have to address pretty soon before we move on.
Josh, I want to ask you quickly, did you have a similar reaction to watching Haley van lift this year where what we saw last year was so off that you're like, is it her? Is it just the program? Is it just the fit? Because she looks reborn at TCU.
Yeah. I was thinking about that and I felt like I should if I was going to bring her up, I should come and apologize for the slander I've put on her in the three by three in the Olympics. I think as soon as we talked about how bad it was, how bad it was going, they totally turned it around. They kind of looked like a team. Yeah, this is another example of like a new fit, a new space. You know, it's impossible to it feels like one.
You know.
LSU is one of the the like ultimate conundrums in my brain of like the players seem to mostly love playing there and that's confusing to me. And yeah, you know, like they certainly produced very good results there and that's inarguable, and but she it didn't work for her. It just did not work for her. It was an embarrassment I think for her and the team probably the way that season ended for them, together, and I kind of wrote her off. I mean I certainly wrote her off talking
about the Olympics. In my brain, I wrote her off. And then when I saw what TCU was doing this year and I was like, oh, that's where that's where Hayley van Lyth went. It's it's awesome. I mean, like, this is what we want. We want players to find the best fits. She was the best to watch and root for at Louisville. She had that spunk, she had that attitude she had. I mean, like Clay said, she had that dog in her for sure, and it's nice
to see her get back to that. I absolutely one of the cooler stories so far this year.
While we're on the topic of TCU, quickly, Colaine, did you have any to add to what Alexa said about handling stories like Sadona Prince of TCU, Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame. I won't repeat all the issues, but Hannah reposted a Candice Owens Instagram calling gay marriage just in
Sadona Prince accusations of physical and verbal abuse. Ashton Watkins at South Carolina wasn't even with the team for a while because of charges first degree as Salt and battery and kidnapping that were dismissed after she completed an intervention program.
I thought Alexa summed up a lot of it.
Did you have anything to add because I think it's interesting to see how we handle women who are problematic versus men in the sports space.
Yeah, I thought Alexa totally had and I know Sarah, you and I have talked about this. I thought Alexa covered it really well that you don't want if the amount of coverage of women's sports is so limited and you're having an opportunity, you don't want to dedicate it to the negative story because then the good stories don't get out there in the mainstream. But I do think that we're on the precipice of not having to play that game anymore, and I'm I can't wait for us
to be able to hold people account of right. I want my superstars to be superstars, and I want people who have growth, you know, in their future, I want them to be held accountable. I think that's important to
me as a fan. You know, I think you hear all the time a lot of you heard Caitlin Clark talking about how she looked up to Maya Moore and like, look, what a role model that is, right, So many of these athletes have a platform and an opportunity to impact the next generation and even impact older generations their own cohort, and I think that responsibility is something that journalists also
have a responsibility to call attention to. So I think we're getting to the point where, you know, your show is a great platform, for example, where there's a balance of coverage. We're already talking about the sports. So to hold people accountable is I think it's it's necessary at this point because it's not just a morsel. It's not
the only thing that we're covering about them. We can know that TCU is having a resurgence season and that simultaneously Sadona Prince is maybe not an angel, and that's okay, right, we reckon with that. How do we reconcile that, How do we recognize And I think I'm passionate about this as well, that women can be complex, multi dimensional figures as well, like we're not.
We can be villains.
Yeah yeah, And Josh, you know, you've been with Around the Horn for almost twenty years. It's a place that does a good job of covering women's sports. But certainly, it's still a much smaller percentage than the men's stories that get covered. And I'm sure at times you've had to address the idea of like, we can't only cover this when somebody does something bad or wins it all.
So how do you think about this this situation?
Yeah, I thought Clane, I agree with everything she said there, and I was going to actually just add something that made me think of is like, it's not just players, right, it's teams. It's like what's happening with the Seattle storm
right now? You know that I think a lot of people, because we love the players and the coach of the Las Vegas Aces, we look past or we didn't really delve as deep into the stuff with Dereka hanby the allegations that she had, And it's so it's not just like that same kind of call out with the same kind of responsibility that we have in holding people's feets
to the feet to the flames. Same for organizationally. I mean, you know, I just think that we, you know, like Clain said, the more we're paying attention to women's sports, the more power that the players and organizations get. The more, you know, the more responsibility they have to answer for these things too.
Yeah for sure.
Okay, switching gears. I want to talk about co ed adult sports. These can be an absolute blast. They can also be a hotbed for trash behavior and a breeding ground for completely unhinged folks who are stuck in their glory days. And you two are the perfect people to talk about this because you've been playing co ed hoops together forever, and Colaiane you worked in adult co ed sports. So I can't think of two better people to help me craft this official co ed adult sports etiquette code.
So I'm going to bring one rule.
I'm gonna need two from each of you to craft this five rule code. But first, before we get started, I need a very quick fave anecdote from your co ed sports, playing or working whatever it is. I'm gonna do mine quickly. I played co ed top ball for years and a friend of mine on the team. She played collegiately, great player, killer arm absolute howitzer. And there's a guy out in the field who just played for fun, was not an athlete.
And deep drive.
He's out there, run and run and run in to track it down, and he hits the cutoff woman next to him. In the outfield to try to make the play at the plate. She is not in the infield, she is not closer to the play than he is. He just knows that she's got an arm and he doesn't, and without thinking in that moment, he throws it about twenty yards to her, maybe ten yards to her, so that she can try.
To go home with it.
And the knowledge and the awareness that she was the person for the job. That's co ed sports at its very best. So that's one of my favorites. Also, one time, Brad I definitely gave each other a.
Concussion, both trying to get a pick.
That wasn't as fun, But that's another perfect example of.
Co ed adult sports. Just concussing your husband, all right, claim, what's your story?
So this is this goes to my recreational soccer. So I played in ninety nine, seventy seven eleven v. Eleven and I think the format that I was most proud of, and it took us eleven seasons to win a championship, eleven consecutive seasons. My team so emotional, and our premise was the typical seven on seven co ed is five men to women, and we flipped that. So we had five women and two men, and the men had to be gay, and so our this team we scrapped, got it to be gay, and it was Tuesday nights. We
battled constantly. We're always always in the playoffs. You know, we made a semi finals a bunch of times, we made the finals and lost. We were you know, the Bridesmaids a bunch of times, and then again eleven seasons and just the strife, the triumph of getting this team over the hump and doing what they said the haters wouldn't do, and to me, even the premise was fun. For a period of time, we were like, the thing is that everyone on this team has to like Dick,
and then we had less like we can't. We can't.
Yeah, no, that doesn't work.
We need but so emotional, great name, so emotional, great name, josh Uh.
I would just say that I think my favorite moments were just ones where like we had like the contributions from the women, uh sort of like like your I think your stories got to Sarah. The contributions of women shocked the men on the other team and they weren't ready for it, and they led to victory. It's like, you know, it's not so infrequent that happened. But we
played on the softball team. Our friend Janice saw the center fielders coming in and then just hit a ball right over their heads, and when she rounded into second base for a double, she was just cursing at them. And you know, things like things like that, you know, play hitting a big three in a game when they're laying off her to play down more. You know, it's things like that that just make me smile the most. You know, Yeah, win or lose, those those are the best kinds of wins, I always think.
But mostly win, but mostly wins, Yeah, mostly wins. You've let me perfectly into my rule for the five rule co Ed Adult Sports Etiquette Code.
Rule number one.
It's flag football based from my experience, but it applies to any co.
Ed sport in which there are quote unquote girl plays.
These are necessary at times because, for instance, in my flag football league multi time champions, obviously every three downs a female player had to be throwing or receiving. This rule is in place so the bros don't ignore the women in the field all game, so no problem with it. The rule that I'm creating is don't only use your women on girl plays. Not only does it defeat the purpose of playing co ed sports to leave the women out unless you're forced to include them.
It's also extremely bad strategy horror.
So many teams that we played waited until the girl and then if they didn't switch out the quarterback to a lady, then we knew a woman was going to be targeted and we could just double all of them. It also allowed our team to cover only the guys and ignore the women on the field for the majority
of plays because they weren't even looking at them. So obviously on our team we only had bad bitches, and we wanted to use our women all the time anyway, and they were better playmakers a lot of the time, so we didn't need to wait for the girl plays.
But also it's just better strategy.
So the rule is obviously draft badass bitches and then let them cook every play, not just girl play.
Okay.
Rule number two, Colaine, Mine is less of an enforceable rule and more a physics, a law of physics, which is that the best teams are going to be the ones, as you just mentioned, Sarah, that have the baddest bitches on them, and so right like realistically, the average athleticism of a co ed recreational dude, the average level is much closer. The differentiation often happens with the great women athletes and the not so great women athletes who are out there to have a good time. And by the way,
high value on all of these players. Love you for showing up. Love that there's people who are out there having fun and not being hard. O's about it. I've never been that type, but like, shout out to you for having the experience. Shout out to you. Therapy works.
But but I think you're This is again, if you want a team that's gonna win, you have to recruit women who can ball, and that's in every sport because you're gonna need them to make plays because the differentiation amongst men, like you're gonna have some off days on days. And the fact of the matter is that I as an athlete, I'm not playing on a team where I'm not getting the ball. So you better know how to
pass your women. It's you know what I mean, Like exactly to your point, whether it's a girl play or just like during regular play in soccer and basketball, whatever, know how to facilitate and include your women because otherwise the best women are leaving goodbye and you're gonna lose.
Yes, And that's so.
Rule number two is good women win championships the end, the end, Josh number three.
I think that there's a hard uh negotiation sort of in co ed players' minds, uh respectful ones at least, which are the best kinds about how physical to be, right. I mean, that's just like an obvious thing. You don't want to be not physical because that's disrespectful and discounting the women's contributions to the team and the league. But also there needs to be some kind of decord. This is not the same as in men's league. And I'm not that is I'm not even talking about the quality.
I'm talking about the physicality. And I think if you're if you are driving through people, if anyone takes a charge on you in coed basketball, you need to take a five minute time out. Like it's not not men on women, women on man or anything. If you are getting charge calls in coed basketball, you need to take a timeout and just have someone on your team explain to you why you're in a timeout. It's just it's
just too much. Again, fouling is fine being physical, trying to block shots, trying to steal, you know, aggressive press on a ball handler. All these things I am the support of. But when we're getting out of control, like player especially you know a player control foul in a literal sense, we need to take timeouts.
It is just sure so good.
Mandatory timeout if you get called for a charge in co ed basketball is rule number three. I once literally got a concussion in kickball from a guy who ran through my base and expected me to move instead of trying to.
Get the pass and get him out.
And he thought I would get out of the way because I would be afraid of him, and I just stood there and he ran directly into me and I slammed my head against the ground and got a concussion. So yeah, just a reminder of the physicality and keeping within the realm of fun sports.
And shout out to claiming my favorite teammate Ashley, who took a charge on a like six foot eight behemoth of a man a weeks ago. I think she took one into all the block, which is also absurd, and then she gets another one that's called the charge, and just like, what what are we doing? Sir, stop it.
I mean, I also want to be clear. Ashley is six to three, so don't act like it. She's not five four of my size. Actually she's she's present that.
She got a train one through her a couple of times.
It is big regardless. Yeah, yeah, okay. Rule number four, Colleen.
Rule number four is, uh this treat this like ah a single use or I guess a co ed bathroom space, which is to say, don't bring your man rules into don't there's We are not treating this like man's own like it is not. This is a shared communal space. This is co ed sports. Don't bring your super testosterone energy in here. And look, Josh, you've maybe crossed this line one or two times. I maybe have cross this
line one or two times. But like know that this is a shared space and that at the end of the day, we have to keep it neat, we gotta flush, we got to make sure that it smells pleasant, and we got to shake hands. So wash your hands, stay hygienic, and don't be a dick like that's. I feel like we got to recognize that this is not an entirely like male energy space. And if you came in here bringing that you're doing it wrong. You're doing it wrong. There are leads, there's such a good one. There are
plenty of leagues for that. But when you're playing co ed, you know, recognize who's there to ball and who's there to socialize and act accordingly, you.
Know both to be willing to be competitive for your hardest. Yes, but that energy really matters. So rule number four, don't get testerical.
Trying thank you.
Try to keep the energy as if it's a gender neutral bathroom, a shared space where you can both bring all the things that we love about sports, but also don't presume that everyone wants to turn it into manland because it's a sporting event in fact.
All right, Number five, Josh.
Yeah, my last one. I guess it's just sort of a question for you guys, is how you feel about rules that, like in a basketball league that a women's basket might count as an extra point, or a women's touchdown in a flag football league might count as extra points. I'm sort of just intrigued by that as a rule that already exists. So I'm not creating this rule, but I'm interested to know what you think is that we're on the scale from like sort of encouraging inclusion for
everyone versus condescending. Where do we fall on this one?
This is the old women's teas question in golf, Like is it insulting that there are women's teas or does that make sense based on average length of drive and things like that. This is a tough one, Colleen. You're the expert. You literally worked in this space. You probably know every rule of every sport.
Here's my if I can answer simply like, no, thank you, I don't want it. I don't want it. I don't want my threes to count as fours or my twos. No, I'm playing basketball like a regular human. Again, to your point about the girl plays in flag football, if you need a mechanism to include women, that's maybe a moment for self reflection, right, Like, are we doing this right generally right? And are we making this an inclusive space? I don't know. I do think that some rules help
to serve that and make the game better. But yeah, like in general, I find those I do find those things patronizing. I find them.
You know.
It's the same way that I feel when someone apologizes for regular fouling me. I'm like, please, please, don't like I've I find that offensive. So so I'm out on that.
That said, I'm a more competitive you know, and like I grew up playing sports, so I think maybe in like social leagues where people are just learning and they want you know, I think if you look at a lot of leagues, women are more inclined to pass than to shoot, and they don't want to be up at you know, if there's two outs, they don't want to
be the last one up. So I think again, like if you if you encourage them and say, if you walk a woman the next like, she gets two bases, right, These different rules that exist to make sure that inclusion and full engagement happen. I get them, But for me personally, I find them patronizing. Like I don't maybe you can opt in to opt out, I want to opt out.
I So I have not played co ed basketball or things like that that are a little more unregulated because it's a constant stream of play in softball. In football softball, our league didn't have any special rules for women. Everybody was exactly the same, and that's how I wanted it.
And we had women players that were fantastic and guys that were fantastic, and just like within the gender, there's gonna be people who are great, people who suck, and so I'm fine with it being completely neutral in that way. In football, I do not mind the girl play aspect. I think it forces involvement. It puts pressure on the women players to step up and then they get to do big things in big moments, which is awesome. But then when we score, we don't get more points. It's
the same points. So the rules are probably different across the land. So josh I would say, I don't mind when it doesn't change the game. So like the girl play doesn't really change the game. The points it just is a is a necessity within the context of it. But I don't want to play somewhere where I get extra points for accomplishing something, because I do think it diminishes and automatically sets it up as the girls that are here are worse than the guys that are here.
And there's a lot of co ed sports where I'm better than the guys that are there, or at least us be before my spine became dust.
None of this applies to me anymore. Sadly, what is our number five rule? Maybe it is based on the level of play.
And I don't know if in your leagues you have like super competitive versus versus competitive. Okay, so maybe like in social we can be more trying to help push for women to be validated for their successes, and in competitive it's each person for themselves.
It okay, these are great rules. These are excellent rules. We're going to print them on parchment paper with calligraphy. I feel good about that. We really accomplish something. Let's take a break.
When we come back, we're going to talk Unrivaled and Kalaiinn's brilliant idea to pick a team. We're back with Kaleain and Josh. I want to talk about the unrival League. First of all, I think their rollout has been spectacular in every way, the marketing, the name drops, the league, the teams, the everything. But Kalaine, you and some friends had this brilliant idea of hopping on a zoom to strategize where you're going to place your allegiance on a
single team. You're gonna go ham on merch, You're gonna watch every game, You're gonna make it your whole identity. Tell us everything, because we're going to steal this idea for the show, and I think folks at home might want some like tips or ideas on how to do their own unrivaled team selection event.
Yeah. I think this is a really unique opportunity. Right, it's a new league, but we already know the players, and so where are we going?
Right?
Like, Like I have the ability to kind of pine on something before it's happened. And if there's one thing I hate in sports, it's a front runner, Like I don't want to wait until I've seen a team be successful and then glom on right like that. That is not for me, especially because there's no geographic tie here, right, They're all playing in one location. So I feel the
need to proactively select a team. We know the coaches, we know the players, and because of that, I felt like, how am I going to make the most of this new opportunit. I mean, I totally agree with you. I think the whole concept is great, the rollout's been amazing, the hype is there. I think it's going to be a killer viewing experience. And so last night my friends Matt Mustrantsuono and Alison Lazarek and I we you know,
we collaborated and tried to figure out. We were like, how are we going to pick their Liberty fan and I'm a Mystics fan. How are we going to pick a team and unite have a united front? What team are we choosing? And so we did our research right, We looked at all the players and the team names and the colors, and we factored all of this in. There was no algorithm. It was just by feel. And we had a call last night and we just kind of reviewed club by club which direction, you know, where
were we feeling, like who were we into? What was our takeaways for? You know, like how do we feel about the Laces? And I, honestly I was like, Laces. I think it's the best logo, but I think it's the worst name. And Matt was like, you know what, it's a aces with an L in front of it, Like I don't think so, right, So as.
Lingerie to me for some reason.
Even no cool logo exactly. And so went through for each of them and kind of, you know, there were some teams that we were intrigued by, there are some teams that we actually loved, and then there was one player that we were like, you can't, I can't do it, yep. And so ultimately, yeah, I'm here to announce that I am a Vinyl fan. I am here big time Tea Spoon coaching energy. You know, I feel like I was
drawn to that immediately. But then on top of it, like I Arique, I want to watch her on a team and thriving, right, I think there's a chance she'll be able to do that after this next w NBA draft, should Page decide to go, but I want to see Arique, she's the team captain. I want to see her lead and growing thriving. You know, Josh, you mentioned Dereka Hanby earlier,
like I want a redemption story for her. She's been she's been playing her butt off and like she and Ryan Howard were both on the three x three this summer, there's some chemistry there that's intriguing. Feel great about that, Aliah Boston. If you don't like her, you're just wrong.
And and you know, then we kind of round out the team with Jordan Canada and Ray Burrell, and I felt like there was this gravity that really Tea Spoon and so yeah, like we then my friend Allison, she was like, we need an nemesis, you know what I mean like we're rival. Yeah, we're getting rival, and we've decided that we're out on the mist. In fact, they missed, they missed, they missed the opportunity. We hate them, we hate them.
Maybe it's I've always always hated the miss bad weather pattern.
And on top of that, no.
Yeah, exactly, this iffy and also just that one just reminds me of like a vaginal douche. For some reason, I feel like it would be called the mist.
The mist. Yeah, I don't need I don't need that kind of a pant and so so.
Already I don't want my team to be moist.
No, I don't. I don't want my team to be one letter away from being moist. I don't most exactly.
And I also feel like the Vinyl is a great choice for you because you are the best person I will ever meet.
I can guarantee it.
At Hurdle, which is the game where you are given notes to try to guess a song, and Josh, you and I are all very good at this game, but you are freakishly good in a way that feels almost like when people have a part of their brain that no one else has access to, but you do. There were songs that was just someone breathing at the beginning for the first note, and you still somehow got it. So it feels like a music based team is accurate
for you, Josh. I won't make you pick your team just yet unless you have I.
Have a team. I'm ready already. I look the ross, I look through the rosters. You know. It's fun because I think basically, like many of us choose a team based off like living in the city of the team, or where we grew up, and it's our parents team and this is a chance to start over. There is no hometown team for any of us. I chose the Laces. Although now that you say basically the Ace is taking an l on the front, I don't know that part
of it. I wish I thought of that. Kelsey Plumb lost tough, But the way that this team is just they're just tough. They're just scrappy. I mean, I think they're going to play the hardest out of all the teams. You're telling me, Alysa Thomas, Courtney Williams, Kate Martin, Steph Dolston, Dogs, you know, and Kato McBride, Stiff Diilson. Obviously we've seen her in three by three before she can do it like close inside and outside. I'm excited about who they add.
Certainly I have some ideas, but I don't know who is eligible and not eligible, so I won't just start throwing things out there. But you know, like if Gabby Williams was going to join another league late, that would be an expect for them. I'm just saying that shown up a little late to the party.
It's so funny you say that, because that was one of the we were like, Okay, these wild cards, they they definitely make it tricky. Yeah, and who is there anybody who if they were added to the mix, they might change your tune? And Gabby Williams was the runaway answer because if she joined, which I know she will, but if she did, she is nice and watching her play and I think I can imagine that her, like her size and dynamism, she'd be great for this format.
So yeah, I mean, I guess I'm rooting for her to join the Laces. Now, Josh, for your sake, there you go.
Okay, I'm not going to announce mine because we are going to do a show about this, and I famously or not famously, but in my mind famously did a show for ESPN, not a show. I famously did a series of stories for ESPN called College Football Bachelorette, where I took twenty five teams and whittled them down using various criteria and ultimately picking a college football team. I'm going to apply some of the same elements to this.
You can look forward to that. We'll do this as a show where Alex Miish and I will pick teams and then will help you find your way to selecting an unrivaled team as well. Okay, last thing, Josh, We've got you here, so let's get some inside information. News just broke that ESPN is introducing two studio shows for Disney Plus, a daily sports center just for Disney Plus subscribers, and a women's sports show that may air weekly or
several times a week. They haven't announced that yet. Both programs and development both allegedly to be made for a more casual sports fan, according to president Jimmy Patterio. Can we get your thoughts on this women's sports show for actual fans airing weekly or perhaps a few times a week with no details yet?
Yeah, so obviously, like you said, lack of details. I also don't have any information just because I work free ESPN, I don't know break information, but credit is the NBC. Alex Sherman would did break this news, so you know that that's out there and you can read all about it. I guess my question would be, and again, I think there's it seems like from the report it's still pretty roughly being developed right now. But I would just recommend
that it not be a weekly show. I think we've learned as the media age has changed, that weeklies don't do much anymore. Sports Illustrated, the magazine was once the be all end all, and now I don't know anyone who has a sports subscription. I don't even know if they've printed anymore. Weeklies just aren't the thing, and so this show needs to be more frequent than that. And there is so much their their new leagues for women.
Uh there, you know, this is not the women's sports landscape that it was that you know, our parents had, or even you know, like our old siblings would have had.
It's changing and it's changing so fast, and I think everything that we've seen is when a women's sports product is offered, it is absolutely like gobbled down by the audiences, whether that is the merch that sells out, whether it's the ratings, people realizing that, hey, women's basketball, don't tell anyone it's just basketball, you know, like figuring that out is what we've done. You know, it's not for it's not everyone yet unfortunately, but like the title wave has
crested and we're about to ride this thing. And I would just say that, you know, Sarah, you know this. You do a daily podcast, but like a weekly a weekly show just feels like sort of crumbs or table scraps, and that's not what this is about anymore. I think it wouldn't be. It's not what I would advise as a business decision, and I don't think it's sort of what women's sports deserves at this point.
I agree, And then I also am always that person who, unfortunately is so condition to be like, well, but it's better than nothing, right, But the problem is when we keep doing the better than nothing, if it doesn't work out because it was doomed to fail, then we blame the product in women's sports, which is not the problem. It's the way that we try to present it or talk about it. Claan, what do you think.
I think that if you're going to do a weekly, you have to do it the same way that last week Tonight goes, which is to say, you know, you touch on some things, but you do a deep dive on something on substantive and that takes real journalism. Look, it doesn't have to be as funny as John Oliver, but you have to commit the same level of resources as you would frankly to a daily to do that
deep dive. And so I think if that's the direction they choose to go, I could be down for that because I think there are plenty of issues in women's sports that it would be amazing for ESPN to commit
to unpacking. But I don't know that that commitment is there, And so yeah, I agree with you guys that if we're talking about increasing coverage by adding a weekly show, it's going to be like watching you know, I feel like it's going to be watching Total Request Live right Like it's going to be cheap and bubblegum and not
going to get us what we need. You could just listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain, which I think the ones already are so like going more to chew on and again, that could be in the form of a deep dive on issues or just cover us all the wall.
Yeah, yeah, I completely agree, and I think your point is avoid one. If you do a weekly you can do it by touching on a couple of things that are going to be evergreen enough not to be dated within a couple of days that after it airs. But also you can do a deep dive into a league a player tell some stories that we do want to see.
But I mean, I think not to pat ourselves on the back, but this show has proved that there's more than enough content and the way to get people to care is to give them a constant stream of players information, all the things that they need to have, the debates to talk about, the teams to get into it. And that's really hard to do if you have these long gaps in between the content and there's just not enough time to cover it. So I think your message is
the right one. Just listen to the Good Game with Sarah Spain. You really don't you don't need anything else. What are we doing here?
You guys are the best. We could talk forever.
We had other segments planned and now you'll just have to come back and do them again.
But thanks so much for the time. We so appreciate it.
Thanks Sarah.
Thanks again to Josh and Kalaine for the time we got to pay the bills. When we come back, me shops in the review chair to dish on an unexpected delight.
Welcome Bax Slices.
We love that you're listening, but we want you to get in the game every day too, So here's our good game play of the day. Now you heard our five rule official etiquette code for co ed adult sports, tell us what we missed.
Got a rule you think we should add?
Send it my way on Twitter, slash x at Sarah Spain, blue Sky at Sarahspain dot com, or Instagram at Spain two three two three, and you can always hit us up on email Good game at wondermedianetwork dot com or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two o four fifty seventy and don't forget to subscribe.
Rate and it's easy check out meshe doing it right now.
Freeze Dried Fruit rating five out of five. Is this really a Fruit Slices review? This is a go to I love, love, love, love love fruit, but sometimes I cannot stand the messiness that comes with it. Especially when I'm on the go, and freeze dried alternatives still taste impeccable without running the risk of getting juiced all over my hands and face and embarrassing myself in public. If you haven't tried your favorite fruit in freeze dried form yet,
I would highly suggest it. Matter of fact, this morning I had some freeze dried mango that well, let's just say it got my day.
Started, right.
Or if you can freeze dry your own now I've never done it, but if you're a fancy like that, be fancy like that.
See not that hard, subscribe, rate and review. Go do it right now, seriously, right now.
We'll wait for you. Okay, okay, we believe you. You're doing it.
Thanks for listening, slices. We'll see you tomorrow. Good game, Colaine, Good game, Josh. Few people who know what works for men's sports TV shows but insist on not applying that knowledge to their decision making for women's sports TV shows. Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your Podcasts production by Wonder Media Network.
Our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rudder, Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch and Lindsay Cradowell. Production assistants from Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain