Tracking the Cats
Wide ranging discussion of Western Carolina University athletics hosted by long time alumni and supporters, Bob Sabin & Steve White.
Tracking the Cats
Copy of Tracking the Cats - Talking NIL with Kevin Stanberry & Eddie Wells 4/30/2025
Welcome to Tracking the Cats. I'm Bob Saban, our co-host Steve White, the unofficial historian of all things Catamount. Can't be with us today, but we do have a great show for you. We've got the guys from Colory Collective are gonna be coming on here in just a second. First I was really looking forward to having Steve talk a little bit about baseball because they've come on strong over the last couple of weeks. Finishing strong, which is what you always wanna have. And dang. Two out of three with league leading Sanford and then taking a big one from Gardner Webb yesterday. The bats are finally connecting and baseball's doing pretty well. So we're excited heading into the last couple of weeks and then into the Southern Conference. Tournament track and field, both men and women did pretty well. They're performing well. Looking forward to the end of the season there, and of course, softball's gonna be wrapping up pretty quickly as well, but. Tracking the cats today, sponsored by Stanbury Insurance with offices in Silva, Highlands and Waynesville. We happen to have Kevin Stanbury with us this this afternoon. We also have Eddie Wells who left government job and went into real work in the private sector. And both these guys are leading forces with the color we collective. Welcome once again, guys. Glad to have you with us.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Thank you.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Glad to be here.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:So just for those who have just kind of tuned into what's happening with the Color Week collective and NIL in general, can you tell our guys a little bit about why and how you guys were created? Who all's involved and how does it work?
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah. Kevin, you want me to take this? You.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:go ahead, Eddie. Yep,
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah. So yeah, Kel Collective, we've been at this for just a little over a year. I wanna say we started this last, last spring. We met with a lot of administration. We, we knew, we knew just from the landscape of college athletics that we needed to, you know, try to put something together to have an option for, for some of the, you know, athletes that. You know, that are coming to Western or even some that we wanna retain to have an option for their NIL. And so we put a collective together, you know Kevin and I kind of led the, led the charge at the very beginning and, and. Conjunction with athletic administration. We then met with, you know, a couple adss. We, I mean from, from different schools, really just kind of across the country and trying to figure out the best way to do this. And, you know, Kevin and I kinda early on knew we wanted some help with this. And, you know, we I think everyone knows Mike Crawford. We brought him on and then we brought on Nathan Airwood, have someone on kind of the attorney side too. And then we also brought on Mike Wade. So there's five of us that are involved. We filled out the, you know, the LLC paperwork, got everything you know, put forth because we had to have this separate from athletics, and I know we'll. Get into some of the future about that later. But yeah, we just, you know, really just five pasted cat amounts. I think what's really great about it is we're just trying to help, you know, no, none of the funds are going to, any of us, you know, we're just trying to get it in the hands of suiting athletes and help us translate that into some wins on the courses, on the course and field and everywhere else. So.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:So how do you guys feel with the progress of the program? Pleased the struggle. Help us understand that
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:I would say that we are probably, we're, I think we're pleased, but we would like to see, see more. It, it, it's progressing. It, it could definitely be doing better. I think we, we have, we have a lot of people that are involved. We would like to get more people involved at all levels. No, no level. Too small. No level. Too big. But, but, we, yeah, we don't put a cap on either side. On either side, but got a lot of, we, we, we have a good amount of people that are involved but we would like to have more. So it's, it, it's progressing. It, it's a process. Just, just getting it out there and making people understand what it's about. How it works. You know, there's still a lot of people that just don't quite understand, you know, NIL and all that, what it's about. So still a lot of that going on.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Understood.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:sorry, just gonna echo some of those comments and just say too, I mean, you know, even no matter how you feel about this, and you know, a lot of us have opinions that are even on. they're part of this collective. I mean, it's something we have to do to, to move forward with athletics and, you know, so if you like it or not, it's, it's, it looks like it's here to stay for at least the, the, the time right now. So whatever we can do to build some support around that, we're trying to do our best job and put our best foot forward on that.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Yeah, the lid has been opened on Pandora's Box, so it, you're right, it looks like it's here to stay. How many student athletes are, are receiving funds this year? And can you tell us a little bit about which sports and, and how that's all working? I know it's gotta be an incredible balancing act without upsetting some people and, you know, get so help, help us understand a little bit about that. How, how are the dollar spread and how many.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah. I'll say just from a, we're kind in a transition right now, I would say too, because. You know, we, we still got, you know, some athletes under contract, you know, that were under the contract for the year that we're still have signed. I'll say last year we had, you know, when I say last year, the current fiscal year that we're still in, you know, that started at the beginning of school through the end of the spring semester. We had 23 athletes that we had signed and those kind of. I mean that, obviously basketball is a big piece of it. And, you know, basketball is the biggest part right now. For, for, for our collective and really just what we see in SoCon, you know, mid-major level. It's, it's really basketball followed by football. Baseball's in there, but, you know, we very much wanted to try to reach out to, to other sports as well too. So we did, you know, we had athletes and. basketball. We have baseball. We have from women's soccer volleyball. Kevin, I, maybe a
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Softball. We had a
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:softball. Yeah.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:So I think the, the total number, I'm not sure if I have the exact number off the top of my head, but it was in the 20 plus, you might have said it, but 20 plus
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:23 last year. Yeah.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:23, sorry. Yeah. 23.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Not bad for first year just getting started, right?
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah, and we're in the process of signing, you know, we're, you know, we just got out of both of the sign in periods for football. We just, we actually just signed two football players that may be on the website by the time people actually I think they're on the website now, so I actually just went and took some checks there today for, for them. And then we're, we're working with basketball right now. You know, they just finished, you know, their, their kind of signing period and, or at least when the portal was, the portals now closed, you know, so we're in the process working with coaches on that.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah. They're signing players or getting commitments from players and, and working on finalizing their their roster for the, the coming year as we speak.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:So what.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:part of that process.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:What does a commitment look like? And you know, the, the next question is a reaction of our students, but what does a commitment through the NIL collective look like from the student side of things?
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Well, I'd say for them, we, we typically do an annual contract on most,
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:I.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:unless it's some situation where someone just needed a little additional funds at, at, at, at one time. But typically we, we do an annual contract, you know, from a commitment on the student side. We do ask them to, you know. If we have any events, they may have to come help with that. If we we also ask'em to promote the color we collective as something they're, you know, really, you know, part of their contractors, them to help promote us. And then, you know, really for them just to be good ambassadors of Western and. Kind of, kind of help us along the way too. They are, I mean, there is NDA stuff in there too, so we don't really talk about amounts. We tell them don't share that with the other players because let's be honest, in this world of NIL, there's players getting all different amounts, you know, and so that's kind of an expectation on their side too. And, you know, obviously. I mean, they gotta, they gotta stay on the team, you know? They gotta be on the team. They gotta make the grades, you know, there's, you know, they, and, and really from, if we sign to where there's a. That is, that is opening before their contract is over. Then we have, we have language in there too, that if they go into the portal to go to another school, then they may not get that last payment, you know? So we're trying to honor, I mean, we're trying to, our, our goal is to pay the, pay the student athletes as much as possible and, you know, make sure that we're, we're good stewards of the funds and everything. But that is something that's kind of on their side too, that they can control.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Yeah. And I, I imagine that it's difficult to balance but is there kind of a percentage of new folks that we're assigning to bring in versus students who have been here and have excelled in, in a particular, is there like a ratio of existing students to new students that you can share?
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:I think it's, it's probably about half and half, wouldn't you say, Eddie?
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:probably close to that students that were using NIL to retain versus students were using NIL to get to come, Bob, is that, that's basically what you're asking, right?
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Yes.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah, yeah. I'd say right, right now it's probably half and half and half because, you know, in basketball know, with, with the, the world of the portal, you know. You know, you, you're, you know, you have NIL and the transfer port portal now in both basketball and, well, in all sports I should say. You know, you're having to having to use NIL to get kids to, to come in some cases. So you are using that get kids to come to play at Western. Well, like all schools are our numbers are just much smaller than the numbers you see at some of these larger schools,
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Sure.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:still the same, still the same game, just at a smaller level. So yeah, probably about 50 50. Yep.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:here's gonna be something that, that I don't know whether, you know, people like to wear on their sleeve. We're Western Carolina, we're color. We, we have a tough time raising money on anything because of the there's no large commercial, not many large commercial supporters in our area. How does that affect you guys as far as raising money from, for these students?
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:I, I think what's, what's good about Kavanaugh and the other members of the collective, we're all. Very much passionate alums. You know we're, we're very clear that we're not trying to take money outta any of the other buckets. We've got the, you know, facility upgrades going on here. We've got the Oun Club. Kevin and I are both on, both on the Oun Club board, Mike Crawford's on the foundation board. I mean, we're all very much in tune to the fact that, you know, we, a lot of bucks out there and everyone needs, needs money right now. So we're not trying to take a take away from that. I'd say from a corporate standpoint, we've, we've had a, I mean, we've had some sponsorships. I don't think we've had it take off to the point where someone, you know, a really huge, large amount of money from some businesses coming in and saying, Hey, we. You know, we wanna, we want to give you this this major donation to try to, you know, to use one of your athletes in that perspective. I mean, we've had a great, we'll talk a little bit, I'm sure about the Nashville event, but we had a great partnership with Ingles on that was huge. And they've been, they've been amazing. But we've just not had that. I mean, we've got some sponsorships, you'll see it on our website. But I don't think we've had that big group come in to, to say, this is what we wanna use these NIL athletes for. So.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Okay.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:haven't, we haven't had some, like some of these large universities you've seen where somebody. And I won't say names of these other corporations that have come in and dropped insane checks
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Right.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:use this for NIL money. We have not had that happen. We are open to that happening. We,
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:would imagine you are.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:we're prepared to go on record. Right now, Eddie and I are to say, if a large corporation would like to come in and write us a large check, we are prepared to take that sign really, really good players. So.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yes. And, and Bob and I know your audience is worldwide at this point.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Oh yeah.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:yes, yes.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Anyone out there that wants to write
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Anyone?
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:some, some large six and seven figure checks, send'em our way. Yeah.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yes. we'll use your money Well,
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Great. Well, yeah. Well as we transmit this through YouTube, I, I'm sure the millions of viewers will be able, oh, oh wait, it was 600 last week. Sorry about that. Yes, yes. So, let's say I, I'm, I'm thinking about giving money to you guys, but I've got some questions. What's the most common question you get from, folks that, that are looking to work with y'all.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah, I think probably one of'em is can I give to a specific sport? Can I give money? That just goes to signing. Football or basketball or soccer or whatever. And the answer would be yes, absolutely. Yeah. The money would go into their piggy bank. What else, Eddie? What's another question? We get a lot.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah, there's that one. There's also, is it tax deductible? Obviously we're not, we originally were trying to look at that route on doing a 5 0 1 C3. We're glad we didn't because the legislation has kind of changed on some of that, on it being tax deductible because it, I mean, let's be honest, there's a little bit of a stretch now looking forward. I guess there'll be some opportunities with that, with some revenue share in on opting end, which we may talk about in a little bit. But yeah, that's a big one, and. How much you pay Blair. That's what everybody wants to know and we
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Yeah.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:we can give people like a general ball ballpark sometimes, but we don't, we try not to share that too much.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:that information'cause it's in our contracts
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Sure.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:don't, so we don't either. So, yeah. Yeah.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:So how does that work? Do, do most people give to a sport? Do they give to the collective? Do they give towards a player or is it kind of spread off across the board? I.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:It definitely, definitely a mix. Definitely a
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah, have what's called a general fund in there too. So general fund would be just kind of going into the overall bank, I guess, that we can divide and go into other sports or if we need a little extra for one of the players in, in one sport, it can go towards that. I. But then, you know, a lot of people will just, they have the sport that, and that's why we really wanted to kind of do all sports because we knew there's people that like a certain sport. And if you're hearing this right now, and that's something you want, you know, you wanna, even if it's something you wouldn't think of for NILI always say that. We should be looking at some of the sports that are not big yet, so we can be ahead of the curve. You know, we can, you know, we could pump a lot of NIL into some of these other sports that maybe don't have much yet. But yeah, a lot of people are given directly. We've got a, a group as Iron Cat Society as directly for football. So those guys are given a hundred dollars a month and we're trying to get the, the plan on that is to get a hundred guys given a hundred dollars a month.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:that goes to, that's all. Past football players John Martin had kind of got that spearheaded doing a great job of that. I think we got about. 6, 7, 8 guys that have already signed up for that. And so all that money is, goes into the the football pot. You know, if you, if you do the math on that, if, if he, if he ever, if he ever hit his his get playing a hundred guys at a a hundred month, that's 120 grand. That could be in the the football pot. And that's a lot of, that's a lot of money for FCS football.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Yeah, that would, that would be really nice. I like the concept. Yeah, that might even be something for a future show to, to talk to a couple of those guys about, kind of be fun.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:yeah, definitely. So, and all that's done through the color We collective. That's something, he came to us with an idea. And so if you go to our website, there's actually one of levels you can pick is, is iron cats. So,
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Cool. Very cool. So you mentioned early on a little bit about the singer songwriter gathering that we had. Tell us how, how that went and do, do you plan on maybe making that an annual event? Tell us a little bit more. I know James Hogan was involved in that.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Great Yvette first.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah, he had, yeah, he was there. He attended it. Yeah. And a big thank you to advancement. They've been great partners on everything that we've been doing with this as well too. Understand, I'll say it was, it was an amazing event. hats off to Chad Garrity. He worked so hard on this men's basketball, I mean, we're really, we kind of felt like it was men's basketball's event that we were assisting with which, which was great. I mean, they, they had all hands on deck helping, but angles can't say enough about them. Not only did they pay for the entertainment, they also paid for all the food at the event too. So help us get in a position to where we could raise more funds on that. But it, it was a great event. I've not heard anything bad about it. We think we're around 32,000 on a first year event, which is really good.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:That,
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:know,
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:not 32,000 that we, we brought in. That's 32,000 that we cleared. Yeah, so that's, that's 32,000 straight into the NIL budget, which is.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:nice.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:we think it's For a first year event, we were really, really excited about it.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:That's great. So what else do, do you have planned?'cause things like that can have, you know, bumps in, in and, and bring in chunks at a time.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:right.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah. Yeah.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:ahead, Eddie.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Good. got the golf tournament that's, that's scheduled for June 2nd and Waynesville Country Club, that's on our website as well too. And we've talked about trying to maybe do some other events. I mean, obviously we need, we need help. We're both, we're everyone that's a part of this is, you know, working full-time too. So, you know, really takes some of the sports and that's where. You know, Tim Kraft and his and his guys, all the coaching staff, I mean, they've just been very forthcoming on saying, look, we, we need this money and, you know, we're gonna help make this happen. And they've come forward and, and, and really helped with some of these events. They're helping plan in the golf to tournament. That's gonna be on June 2nd. But yeah, we've we've toyed around with maybe doing some raffles at some of the games, like some cash raffles. You know, there's some leg, you know, some laws around, some of that on doing on campus. And,
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:North Carolina has laws that are restrictive. Come on.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah, no, I
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:go ahead.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:needed.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Coach Kraft has been great very communicative. He's, he markets these things. I get emails from him, get a monthly update from the basketball team. He's definitely kicked in and, and doing his part. A little note to my lamb, Deka, lamb Chop Brothers, guys, you, you have a good golf group of guys that like to golf, so maybe we get a team or two from Lambay out there for the, the golf tournament in June. So what do we think about with the SoCon and how other teams are doing? I mean, that's always, you know, part of what our next ad's gonna be thinking about and what each of the coaches are, are dealing with. How are, how do we stack up on that? And, you know, I don't expect to hear that we're top of the conference or.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah. So, so I think the thing regarding the SoCon right now that, that you hear the most about is, is basketball. Men's basketball is where it's the most Where, where, where you hear the most about money being spent. And I would say that we're definitely around the. Around the middle, wouldn't you say Eddie? You know, maybe upper middle of the NIL what we hear and you hear a lot of, you know, there's, I mean, it's not like somebody, there's somewhere you can go look it up and see how much money anybody's spending.'cause it's not anything you have to put out there. When you talk to different people that are kind of in this what people are spending you know, the Sanfords of the world are kind of towards the top. They got, they got a big budget. Furman's got a pretty large budget. I think maybe Greensboro maybe has a pretty good one.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah, I'm not, yeah. Maybe
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:is decent.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:kind of, maybe close to where we're at too. I mean, yeah. I'd say we're upper middle right now. I would say mostly for basketball is what we always try to gauge this at.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:right. I think everybody's trying to figure out football kind of how it, how it's going to work. I don't think anybody is just. Out CS football, NIL just yet.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:There's some, there's a couple teams that are doing, doing larger amounts, but I, it's mainly like Kevin had mentioned earlier that, you know, a big donation came in and directly to football and they're able to, you know, sign like one. Big guy or, or keep retain some, some guy that probably could have went Power four potentially. But what I always say too is rarely are you, are you saving those kind of guys? Like, I mean, we've had guys get just amounts of money at Power Four and we're, we're happy that they're going on and getting that. I mean, they're.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:not, we, we can't keep, we can't keep a kid that's going to get an opportunity to go to Oklahoma and get paid.$500,000 or whatever. You know, you hear numbers and once again, those numbers are things we hear. We don't really know what these kids are getting paid. These are just numbers. These are rumors that you hear.'cause most of these contracts are not out there. These that, that things We also have to understand in this NIL world, most contracts have in NDAs in them where these. You're not supposed to talk about'em.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Right.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:these numbers out in, out in the wild, these are just rumors. These aren't real numbers for sure.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:That's gotta act on the kids' heads though. You know, you've got one, one guy you know, maybe work gets around on one of the teams. Let's say it's football. Oh man, this guy's getting a$150,000 or he is getting$50,000 from us. Why am I not? Does that, is that a problem that, that the coaches have to deal with?
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah, I would think so. And I,
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:yes.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:there's, there's a lot of misinformation out there. Hear stuff from people saying So-and-so got this amount. So I'm like, and I'm like, that's just, I mean, it's just honestly not the truth, you know? But like Kevin mentioned, I don't, some of these like full amounts and stuff, I don't know how anyone really knows unless the, the, you know, the actual player's go out there and saying, this is what I was offered, you know?
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:And there's probably some of that, you know, I mean, some of these kids are, they're kids, they're 18, 19 years old, and they don't know how to keep their mouth shut.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Right,
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:On the other hand, you know, they, they've been, I'm sure well briefed on the legalities and, and the importance of this.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:right. And, and, and, and, I can't say a hundred percent sure that some of these numbers aren't true. I just feel like some of'em are being, definitely being exaggerated
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Yeah,
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:and some of them are negotiation numbers. As in, in, yes, you're throwing numbers out there because you're trying to negotiate with someone else.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:sure.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:offered this much here. So when you're talking to this school, trying to get a little bit more, though that school really only offers you whatever,
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Right.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:it's part of the game. It's
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Absolutely.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:else, it's like trying to get a job in the world, right? You're, you're trying to get as much as you can, so really fault anybody.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:And it really does re reflect the real world because you know what we've got to work with on offering the, these kids money, or the coaches do. And you know, if, if a kid says, you know, I need 30% more and you don't have it you know,
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:right.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Hey, go great. Take the other offer. And sometimes.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:two options. Yeah. We, I mean, right now, I mean, you know. We have, we have budgets, and just like anything else, we have to run, you have to run this kinda like a like a business. And the option is, you know, coach Kraft comes back to us and goes, is there any way we can try to get more? And that'd be us calling around trying to find more, or Coach Kraft goes, I'm sorry, that's, that's my limit. That's, that's what I have.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Right.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:You know, and you can't, you can't spend more than you have. That's just the way it works.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:So referring to the legalities and, and the signatures on the line that indicates to me that it may actually help with the portal situation. If a kid says, I'm in this thing for the full year has that, do you think that that's stopped anybody from stepping out and testing the waters or.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:I think it depend on, I mean, know, if you've got someone that you've got signed and they're being offered. Or, you know, a, a significant amount more. They're not so much concerned about a final payment as much. So I don't, mean, for us it's good to kind of, you know, you know, bring that money back in to, to, to give to someone else. But, yeah, I don't, I mean, I, it's a small deterrent, I guess. Yeah. I mean, we. know you know, like I said, we wanna be good stewards of the money and stuff and try to do as much as we can with everything. That's why we put that in there. But I don't know how much it's, it's not stopping someone from going to a power force situation and, you know and to know that we're, I mean, I always say too, I mean, imagine us having no recruits that no one wanted. I mean, I mean, it is nice that we've, we've got players that are, that are exceeding at a level that. Is attracting, you know, some of these other schools as much as it hurts to see people leave and the, the nature of college landscape right now where people are just jumping from one school to the other that no one is a big fan of. But, and it does say something about the, our programs that we've, you know, we've got, you know, talent here that's wanted at the next level, you know.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Yeah. So do you see the NCAA snugging down on, on these rules a little bit and making it trying to keep it from having a guy with four or five schools on his resume at the, the end of his college career.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:I hope so.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:I, I, I would love to see it, but I, I have zero insight on that one.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Yeah.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:I just, I don't know. I really don't know.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah,
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Okay.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:see what happens with, you know, the house settlement and everything too. I mean, don't think there's gonna be any legislation that's gonna any of that, but, there's a lot of things that are unanswered, you know, with the, you know, with this settlement once it finalizes. I mean, there's a lot of information out there right now that all the things they thought were gonna be in there, maybe, maybe. It might be a little bit different now, you know,
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Well, I think about half of the schools in the, so. What's the term? Went ahead and
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:opted in.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Opt it in or opt it out. Yeah.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:in. And Western did not,
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Right.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:one of the ones that did not. and I think we just kind of, which I think was probably smart.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:I.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:I think it's better to do a kind of a wait, wait and see, kind of see what it all, how it all plays out. So, so the good thing about it is if we do opt in in the future, which I think if it all plays out the way, it probably will, will be a good thing. Because,'cause if you do give to NIL in the future and we have opted in, will be tax deductible money at that point, which will be a lot easier for people to give.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Yeah, and I, I'm glad that Alex made that commitment before he, before he left, so.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah. Yeah. He, he was, he definitely was smart with, with that decision and, and thinking through on that one. You know, and, and the, and I think the color we collective, I don't think we'll go away but we'll just have a much, much smaller role at that point. There'll still be some things that we'll be needed for, I think. But just, eddie and I'll have more time to enjoy stuff.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Well, we appreciate the time that you've given us this afternoon. Give us the website again and I'll put it up on, on the screen as we're closing out.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah, it's collective.com. You can go in there, you can see all the different levels of giving and you know, you can do onetime donations and I think everything from like$10 to, to infinity if you.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:I like that infinity number.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah. And, and the golf tournament information is on there as well that we
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Cool.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:at the, in early June. so, and then hey, and everybody, most people know Eddie and I call us anytime with any questions. We love talking about Western. you just wanna talk about Western, call us. We love, we're, we're available for that as well.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah. Bob, thank you for, for you and Steve for putting this together. I mean, I think I, I've been, I've been one of the six.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:That's right.
eddie-wells_1_04-30-2025_150954:I enjoy it very much and you know, geeks like me and Kevin, we, we love anytime there's information out there, so we appreciate.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Well, thanks.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:this was needed and you guys are doing a great job. I hate Steve wasn't with us today. I was looking forward to that. But you do a great job, Bob. We, we appreciate you man.
bob-sabin_1_04-30-2025_151029:Well, thank you. I, I've been having a lot of fun with it. We're coming up on our one year anniversary. I don't know if Steve and I'll have little cupcakes in front of us or what, but it's hard to believe. We've been doing this for almost a year now, and I'm, I'm glad it's catching on and people are enjoying it. And guys thanks again. This about does it for tracking the Cats This edition with Kevin Stanbury, Eddie Wells, sponsored by Stanbury Insurance in Silva, Waynesville and Highlands. Thanks guys.
kevin-stanberry_1_04-30-2025_150954:Yeah.
