Bill Self Is Back; Arizona AD Pushing Tommy Lloyd to UNC?

Bill Self is back at Kansas, and that immediately changes the conversation around KU basketball, the Big 12, and the future of one of the sport’s biggest brands. In this live stream, I break down whether Self can still win big in the NIL and transfer portal era, why Kansas fans should have mixed emotions, and what this means for the rest of the conference.

I also dive into the growing Tommy Lloyd-Arizona drama as Lloyd continues to avoid shutting down North Carolina speculation. Is Arizona’s AD pushing him closer to leaving? How real is the tension behind the scenes, and how much danger are the Wildcats actually in?

Plus, I discuss why Iowa State may be one of the biggest winners from Bill Self returning, what this means for the coaching carousel, and how all of it could reshape the Big 12.

Get “Open For Business” a Big 12 newsletter sending the key headlines, interviews, and my analysis straight to your inbox. No more college football news through an SEC/Big Ten lens. If you're a Big 12 fan (or just curious), sign up below!
https://bit.ly/OFBNewsletter

National college football channel: https://www.youtube.com/@OFBcollegefootball

🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/6321527093067776

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Well, guess who's back, ladies and gentlemen? Bill Self coming back. Announced it on April Fool's Day. I promise it is not a joke. He is returning to Kansas. What does this mean for the rest of the Big 12? Should Kansas fans be disappointed? Because undoubtedly there are some that are. Tommy Lloyd, that situation just won't go away, right? More North Carolina questions and more deflection from Tommy Lloyd. Not a denial. The other D-word, deflection. Is the athletic director, Desiree Reed Francois, the problem here? We'll dive into that. K-State got some bad news today. Are the Wildcats in a bit of money trouble building a basketball roster? And Cody Campbell v. Brett Yormark? Yes, Cody Campbell called out Brett Yormark pretty sternly on Twitter. I've got a strong opinion on that one. I will tell you about that on the show here tonight. Welcome into the Open for Business Big Twelve podcast. I'm your host, John Kurtz. This is where the Big 12 just means more. We are barreling toward this weekend where we will watch Arizona and Michigan in at least what is on paper, the college basketball game of the year in the Final Four. I would tell you it is the national championship game, but unfortunately, the big story continues to be Tommy Lloyd and North Carolina. All right. Like the video as you file in. Please do subscribe to the channel. That really helps pushing toward 35k subs. And you guys are helping me get there fast. Thank you very much. It continues to be a great, great year for the channel and the show. I immensely appreciate all of you. You can also check out the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter. It's John Dash Kurtz-4. Boy, I'm getting everything mixed up. It is OFBnews.com. OFBnews.com to subscribe to the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter, which now has over 6,100 Big Twelve fan subscribers. Totally free. Hit your inbox twice a week. You'll get one tomorrow. So that is a great way to support what I'm doing. You can also fill up the chat. Look if you're here, but also submit a super chat by clicking the dollar sign below the chat box if you want to make sure that you get on tonight and you can support that way. It's appreciated. John dash Kurtz-4 on Venmo as well. If you want to be a part of the next show, you leave me a question or comment there, I'll kick off the next show with it. So if you're not watching live, that's a great way to stay connected. The breaking news, ladies and gentlemen, that we have to start with, because this just came out within the last few hours. Bill Self is back at Kansas. But is that what the Jayhawks should want? After four straight seasons without a sweet 16, can Bill Self win big again in this era, this full-on NIL transfer portal era? And what does this mean for the rest of the Big 12? I'll tell you all that. Plus, one really overlooked winner in this announcement was self coming back to Kansas. And that's one really overlooked winner within the Big 12. Okay, on April Fool's Day of all days, ladies and gentlemen, we got this announcement uh from Kansas and Bill Self came out. I don't know, if StreamYard screwing things up for me. Thank you, StreamYard. Taking my audio away there uh as I switch there. Someday we'll get these scenes figured out, Streamyard. That's quite annoying. Uh Bill Self says, with renewed clarity and the ongoing support from our administration, I remain focused and committed to Kansas basketball competing for a national championship. I look forward to seeing and hearing the best fans in college basketball next season at Allen Fieldhouse, Coach Bill Self. So there was the announcement uh from Bill Self earlier. Look, I'm not surprised. The longer this drew on, the more it felt like he was going to be back. A big part of that is just looking at the reality of the calendar, which is in a much better spot, admittedly, than college football, where we have the playoff going on as the portal is happening at the same time as the coaching characters that like guys are leaving. Much more organized comparatively in college hoops. But the portal opens on April 7th. Like we are getting very close to that. So if yourself and you're sitting here like, man, if if I'm gonna wait another three, four days from this point here on April 1st to do this, then it's like it's gonna be next to impossible for Kansas to get a coach hired and in there and ready to go when the portal opens. It makes it makes life more difficult. Now, I get it, it's a huge decision for him, but I'm uh you know that he's considering that. He does not want to leave Kansas high and dry and in a tough spot. Uh, there's also the element of like, it was hard for me to see him going out on a note like that, where it's like the narrative around him is kind of like, you know, has he lost it? Can he do it in this era? Is another bad season? All the drama with Darren Peterson this past year. Hard to see him going out like that. It's also hard to see him going out, though, on a really successful season either. Like, does Bill Self seem like the kind of guy who would just be like, oh, I'm still at the top of my game. I can reach a final four. I'm, you know what? I'll hang it up. I'm leaving it in a good spot. That's just not how these coaches typically are. So it's really I he he clearly does not seem like a guy that wants to retire. He's had these heart issues going back to 2023 and still has not retired. He he does not want to do that. So I I was not ultimately very surprised by this. How should the Big 12 feel about this? How should Kansas feel about this? Let me just restate because I do know it was a pretty popular, seemingly, uh talking point within the fan base, within the Kansas fan base for a while there, of fans really frustrated and almost looking forward to or welcoming some change. And I think, look, there there are the burners that go way off the deep end and like throw a bunch of hate around there. And then there are like you could reasonably, you could be a reasonable mind, a reasonable Kansas fan, and say, hey, I love Bill Self for what he's done. I also think this is a program that will undoubtedly hire somebody who can handle this era better, and we would be moving forward if this were to happen, if he were to hang it up. I think you can reasonably defend that take, at least to an extent, and I I understand it because, first of all, Bill Self built these crazy expectations that he's now being held up to. That's the kind of the old conundrum. That's how it goes when you're a great coach. A lot of programs, it would not be a crazy thing to go four years without making a sweet 16 at Kansas. It is, and it's because of the remarkable consistency uh that Bill Self has has put together. There's also a pretty clear line of demarcation here. If you're a fan saying, yeah, I want some change because I don't know about this era. Well, Bill Self wins a national title, and then literally the next year, that's when we really started going off the rails with the portal and NIL, and it ramped totally up. So there's reason to wonder. I I understand wondering like, is he built for this? Is he going to be able to master this? Would somebody else, if we got a Tommy Lloyd, a TJ Ozelberger, a Ben McCollum, is somebody like that more well suited for it right now? Is that like hiring the Bill Self of 15 years ago? And that's another part of it. Like, this is uh The Athletic did a great piece that I would highly encourage you to check out that I was reading today, where they had 50 plus coaches across college basketball rank the jobs in college basketball, and Kansas was tied for second. Tied for second? No, maybe no, below that. I think fourth. It was North Carolina and Kentucky were tied for second, Duke was first, and Kansas was fourth. I mean, it you're a top four job in the sport. I I understand Kansas fans being like, we would pull somebody better. We could go grab whoever we want, almost. Probably not getting like Dan Hurley, right? But we could go pull some huge name. I I understand how that would be your stance if you're a fan. Now, I do disagree with that. Please do subscribe to the channel, by the way, pushing toward 35k subs, getting there day by day, and thank you for those who are helping me. Uh, if you're a Kansas fan, look, I I still think this is a win. Okay. It's no guarantee. Well, you might say, hey, we're Kansas, we could go pull somebody. You know, I do think the dynamics have shifted a little bit in this NIL transfer portal era. Like Texas Tech, for instance, got a vote in that poll that I just mentioned for uh one of the best jobs in America. That would have never happened five years ago. Nothing against the Texas Tech program, but like NIL, you get a school that's going to support you, that has a good fan base and gives you a good home court advantage. It can neutralize a lot of that gap between your what would have been before an average P4 school and a blue blood, right? So it's not as much of a slam dunk that you would get one of those guys. And even if you get somebody who you think is going to be that guy, man, I don't know, Carolina, Kentucky, like the some of these other blue bloods have gone through rougher stretches than Kansas. Bill Self still has a really high floor as a coach right now. So I also think you can make the argument. Now I realize like Dan Hurley's in a third final four in four years, but you can make the argument that blue bloods may not be, the traditional blue bloods may not be as dominant in this era because of what I just said. There's an equalizing effect with the portal and guys transferring. And certainly in this era, Bill Self dominance like he had, where he won 14 straight Big 12 titles. Like that's that's just not going to happen. So I think some of it is a recalibration of expectations here for Kansas fans that for so you that for so long were just used to rolling through this league every single year. Arizona, Houston, like they're here. That has changed the dynamic. TJ Oselberger isn't going anywhere. More on him in a moment. If you're a Big 12 fan, I think it's fair to have some mixed emotions about this, right? Like, there's the Kansas fan perspective. I would tell you, I think this is this is probably for the best for Kansas fans. Big 12 fans, look, self is scary, especially if you are if you're not one of the new Big 12 schools. You weren't here when this guy was just kicking your, you know what, up and down every single year, winning 14 straight Big 12 championships, right? There's still like a boogeyman aspect to Bill Self because of that. So, you know, there's a part of it that's like, well, it's still scary. Like we thought we thought we finally were rid of him. You wouldn't have to deal with him anymore. No, he's he's back again. But you can also turn around and say, well, if you're a Big 12 fan, like, hey, there is a reality where he retires and Kansas just gracefully hires the next Bill Self and they get the guy that's going to elevate it back up, at least closer, to the level that that self is at. There, I just said no one's gonna do that 14 years in a row anymore, but maybe he ticks it up a notch or two, is way younger, and there you go. So I think if you're a Big 12 fan, you should have mixed emotions about this. Now, if you're an Iowa State fan, I can tell you how you should feel about this. You should feel great. And that's not me saying, hey, TJ Ottelberger would have taken this job if it were open, but I think he was uh on Kansas's short list. And really the bigger picture here is that you survived, at least now it it would appear, you survived a season which the coaching carousel was going to have two of the top four jobs in the sport open. Well, you have clearly one of the best five to ten coaches in college basketball with a pretty paltry buyout, relatively speaking. And it looks like you're not gonna have to worry about him leaving, right? You're gonna survive. The storm, I would say, with the Kansas job, feels like it's much more over here, right? That's that's a big win, my friends. That's a big win for an Iowa State fan, regardless of what if you're in the TJ Otselberger, is never, ever, ever leaving camp or not. And he certainly had a very strong denial about any of the jobs. Jamie Pollard comes out looking good. TJ Otzelberger, Iowa State fans come out looking good with this whole thing with uh with self-stain put. Now, that does not mean that the Big 12 won't be replacing a borderline blue blood job head coach because Tommy Lloyd's having some issues with his AD at Arizona. Uh, is he gonna wind up at North Carolina? Click here for the latest details. That's for the people watching the clip version. Those of you who are watching live, uh just hang out because we are about to get there, my friends. Don't you worry. We are about to get there. I do love that I just peeked down at the chat real quick and see stats are for losers. Uh that's that's funny. I'm not sure what's going on in the chat, but uh that is a funny line to tune back into. Guys, keep the chat lively, keep it. Let's not get too out of control there. If you want to submit a super chat, click the dollar sign below the chat box. If you are so inclined, if you can support in that way, and if you want to make sure that your question or comment gets on tonight, appreciate everybody who does that. John dash Kurtz-4 on Venmo. If you're not watching live and you would like to do that, but liking the video, subscribing to the channel, it is totally free. So is signing up for the open for business Big 12 newsletter at ohbnews.com. Okay. Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd passed on another opportunity to say he's not interested in North Carolina. And we may have found the reason why. It sure sounds like things are rocky between he and the athletic director at Arizona, Desiree Reed Francois. So, in fact, it's so rocky that he almost took another job last year, we just found out today. So, how big of an issue is this for Arizona? Is Tommy Lloyd headed to North Carolina? In this video, I'll answer those questions and tell you why. Actually, college basketball coaches across the country think Arizona's in a better position than you might think here, all right? But it is scary. I get it. Bad AD relationships are scary when your coach is being pursued by arguably the best job in college basketball, though college hoops coaches called it the second best job in college hoops. And it's all happening well. Oh, by the way, you're preparing for a Final Four matchup with Michigan on Saturday night. Going for your second national championship ever and your first since 1997. First in a generation for Arizona fans, right? Uh, Wildcats, by the way, are one and a half point underdogs against Michigan, which I do like. I do like that. Tommy Lloyd, play that underdog card. If you're as good as Arizona, how often do you get to play the underdog card? You can do that here because Michigan is the favorite. All right. Uh, and yet, as all this is going on, all the buildup, this is a team. This is like a speaking of once in a generation, like a once in a generation team, just in terms of how good they are, how skilled they are, the pros that are on this team, and just how fun they are. Like how damn fun they are to watch, man. They are a throwback now in this era where everybody is shooting threes. That element of it, even though that sounds counterintuitive, is actually really fun to watch when all you see now is teams reliant on the three. When someone a team can just pound you inside, and like Jaden Bradley can just get to the rim. They're really, really fun, man. And Cole Peach just like dunking everything. Like, I love it, but you have this hanging over all of it. And Tommy Lloyd, we know from like reporting from Jeff Goodman, sure seems like he is at or near the top of North Carolina's list. And even if you're if you're just reading the tea leaves, you don't want to believe the reporting, you're just reading the tea leaves. Look, Carolina has not hired anybody yet, and they're very clearly waiting out what's happening in the Final Four, which yes, does also mean it could be Dusty May, but that sure would be a pretty strong indication that your head coach, Tommy Lloyd, is is heavily involved here. And that's why he got asked once again at the podium about that North Carolina opening and didn't deny it yet again. So all this happens with the backdrop of speculation ramping up about his relationship with Desiree Reed Francois, the uh the athletic director there. The wild card here, I will say, for Arizona fans, is Billy Donovan, former head coach at Florida, current head coach of the Chicago Bulls. Carolina clearly has some interest, but the reporting on that is like John Rostein reported that Donovan won't seriously entertain anything until after the Bulls season, which doesn't end for 11 days. Like you'll be like almost a week into the transfer portal being open by the time that Billy Donovan would even want to entertain that, according at least to the reporting. So I don't really know how you can do that if you're North Carolina, unless you are just like absolutely sure it's a slam dunk, he's gonna take the job. Uh now, in this quest, if you're Arizona and you're thinking about this, all right, like how likely is it the guy will stay? If it's about like job prowess, the athletics list today should actually assuage your fears a little bit because college basketball coaches across the country don't think there's as wide of a gap between Arizona and North Carolina as a job as I think most people would have guessed. Okay. So over 50 college basketball coaches ranked the best jobs in the sport. Uh, North Carolina was not number one. Overwhelmingly, actually, that was Duke. North Carolina was tied for number two with Kentucky, but Arizona was number six. All right, so we're not talking about like a quantum leap in terms of quality of the job here. That's that's a good thing. That helps. But if the relationship with the AD is no good, that's still going to be a problem. And Tommy Lloyd already raised a bunch of people's uh antennas with his comments after the Purdue win, post-game press conference, after getting to the final four, cutting down the nets. He goes out of his way to say, hey, Arizona will have a really good coach when I'm gone. Okay, Tommy. Well, that's um boy, that sure is something. Arizona will have a really good coach when I'm gone. So naturally, next time you get to the podium, he was asked a question about the reaction to that. And as I get that pulled up, ladies and gentlemen, please do subscribe uh to the channel, pushing toward 35k subs, getting closer and closer every day. And thank you to everybody who does subscribe there. All right, let's hear what Tommy Lloyd had to say. And you'll get the question in here, too, that was asked to him about his and has anything.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

I'm sure when you made that comment in San Jose about uh there's gonna be a great coach after me. I know you've made similar comments like that before about the program history, but some people were thinking taking that to think, well, maybe maybe he's gonna go. So, what do what do you make of that? And has anything changed meaning as there's still this talk out there?

SPEAKER_00 19:20

It's absolutely true. There's gonna be another coach. This is a great program. Um, I didn't say when. You know, I mean, and and people are gonna speculate all they want. Guys, this team has my full focus. Nothing, nothing, I promise you, nothing is knocking me off that path. And and and you guys might call them distractions because you're distracted. That doesn't mean I'm distracted or we're distracted. You know what's pretty cool? Once you get some experience in this deal and you're a player or your coach has been at it a while, you get pretty good at you know eliminating the distractions. So I think I'm pretty good at that. And uh, I just can't wait to get to practice today. I'm gonna go meet with the staff right now. We're probably a little bit late. That's why Nate's pushing me to get up there, and uh, and I'm I'm I'm gonna go try to have a good practice.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Okay. Well, uh, the one thing you're not hearing there is an outright denial. Okay, at this point, I do think it's fair to say like that this is clearly pretty intentional that Lloyd is not offering some sort of outright denial here. Now, why would he not do that? Because, as Wet Blanket points out, regardless, Lloyd will get paid. Yes, andor his players, his future players, will get paid because he's negotiating for more NIL, or his life will just get easier and better. Because if it is all about the relationship with the athletic director, this is the time to leverage it, man. Desiree Reed Francois, who is the AD at Arizona, has zero leverage in this moment. Tommy Lloyd is hot, man. He is red hot, wanted by North Carolina in the Final Four, chasing down the first national championship at a generation. He will never have more leverage than he has at this moment. And now, multiple times has been asked at the podium with an easy, I mean, it's like a softball. It's slow pitch softball, beer league. Reporters holding the beer as he lobs the softball up to the center of the plate. And Tommy Lloyd's just not swinging. He's just letting it pass. He's not striking out, he's just letting it pass. Not his pitch. Okay. And he he shouldn't be taking this opportunity to say, oh, Arizona fans, I'm gonna say I'll say the same thing to you that I said to BYU fans when the Kalani Sataki flirtation with Penn State was happening. I said, I get that it's very unnerving right now. Completely understand that. But this could be the best thing that ever happens because if it works out and he doesn't go, and then he gets in Sataki's case more NIL support, well, now your football program just got way better because now you have more research. Resources and the same coach. Well, here, yeah, if you're gonna get one, more resources for Tommy Lloyd, but two, improve the relationship with the AD, improve his long-term future here, your program got better. And that will be a good thing. So, what is going on with Desiree Reed Francois here, right? I listened to Jason Schear, who does an excellent job covering Arizona uh for their 24-7 site. He was on an interview with the the care, it was John Henson, I think, the former Carolina basketball player, if I am correct in that uh assumption. But I listened to him talking about this, and he basically said, you can go find it on my Twitter as well, at JL Kurtz, if you want to listen to the interview, but said that, hey, the issues are real. Like there, there are certainly issues between Tommy Lloyd and the AD, Desiree Reed Francois. Um, but he does think that they can be figured out and that they're working on solutions right now. And at the end of the day, it would be about how comfortable Tommy Lloyd deals with whatever the solution is. Now, as far as possible solutions, I know he brought up like do you bring somebody into the athletic department whose job is to just deal with basketball, which, you know, a lot of places you'll find setups like that. Like when Brian Santiago got hired at BYU, all the talk was, well, he did such a good job working with basketball because that was his baby and that was his area that he was most responsible for with Kevin Young, and you see everything that happened downstream of that, that that was a bigger reason why he got the head athletic job when Tom Holmo retired. Okay. Do you go find someone like that and take, you know, just put an extra layer between Reed Francois and Lloyd that way? I think the general thought here is like Reed Francois came in and had to clean up a financial mess, which Arizona was a financial mess, the athletic department was when she came in. And she's done a good job with that, but I would guess at times there's been funding taken or prevented from the basketball program using that Lloyd would really like, especially if he's trying to track down national titles. Like he is clearly a coach good enough of being given whatever resources he needs at any program across the country if Carolina seems willing to do that. So how do you solve that problem? May not be like money directly necessarily, but it's how much can he trust that the money that's promised to him will be there or the money that he needs will be there on a year-in-year-out basis when you have like kind of a financially conscious AD who like that's why she was brought in. And a lot of times, I mean, I saw it K-State back in the day with John Curry. K-State fans will resonate with this. Really good fundraising AD who had to clean up a financial mess when he came in. He was great at that. He was not great with the relationships and butted heads with the coaches. Frank Martin left for South Carolina because of it. Bill Snyder and he did not get along very well. That's kind of how this usually goes. You can have like a relationship guy AD, or you can have the more financially, fiscally responsible AD. So my total hypothesis would be here that Lloyd is trying to twist that knife as much as he can to get as much as he can out of a negotiation with Arizona here. And if he can't, then you got a great option to go to North Carolina. But if you can, you can stay at Arizona and get whatever it is that you want. And if you have any doubts about that man, Dan Wolken from Yahoo wrote a story where he claims I'm gonna read this to you. Lloyd has played this game before. In fact, he did it just last year, albeit under different, much quieter circumstances. After Arizona's exit from the Sweet 16, according to sources, Villanova came after Lloyd Hard. He was probably closer to taking that job than most people realized before signing a five-year contract extension last April. Though the details are somewhat opaque, it's believed that Lloyd left money on the table both for himself and in player acquisition to stay at Arizona. I mean, okay, so if the guy was listening last year to Villanova, it would stand to reason he's gonna listen to North Carolina. It's just that this time he's in the final four, so the questions are coming as he's having to make all these different appearances at the podium. You could do it much more in quiet when you're knocked out in the Sweet 16 last year. So uh someone asked me earlier, like, what's your prediction here? I mean, I'm still a slight lean toward this is leveraging Arizona and they will get something figured out. But also, I think some of that's subject to how this works out. Like, if he wins a national championship at Arizona, maybe it's like, well, hey, I got a championship here, mission accomplished. Let's go see what like is there a sense of finality there, and then you feel more comfortable going and moving on. Or does that mean, hey, I won a national championship here, I've proven I can do it here, why do I need to leave? Like maybe that sways one way or another on this. I just think there are so many variables. It's foolish of me to give some sort of prediction here. But if you put a gun to my head, I would say slight lean toward they get something figured out, and this has all been about really, really driving a hard bargain and leveraging. But hey, if you're Arizona, at least you don't have to worry about the Kansas job opening now and the Jayhawks coming to poach your guy. Click here to find out why Bill Self came back. That's for the folks watching the clipped version. Those of you hanging out live, don't worry about it. We've still got we've still got more to go here. And it looks like I got a super chat. And I am uh I'm glad to chat with an Arizona fan here. Bear down Cats26. Thank you, Bear Down Cats 26, for your support. Bear down, John. Arizona basketball is the crown jewel of Arizona sports. The Arizona president and AD will be run out of town and the state as pariahs if they lose Tommy. Arizona can be his own destiny. Now, I am someone that in this same position, bear down Cats 26. When I mentioned John Curry, the former K-State AD, I very much blamed him for Frank Martin leaving, who then went to a Final Four at South Carolina. I was furious about it for years and years and years. I would be too if I'm an Arizona fan and Tommy Lloyd winds up leaving, and it's perceived that the issue is Reed Francois. The only thing I will say is just from a neutral outsider's perspective, that thing was a financial mess, and you did have to hire someone who was going to clean that up. So maybe some of the blame should go on like past leadership that let it get to that much of a financial mess that precipitated having to hire an AD like that. But I get it. It's not fun to like think that deep into it, and you need a scapegoat. And like I understood. I get it. Um, I'm you are not wrong. I'm sure they would both be intensely vilified if Lloyd were to leave, especially if he were to leave while not winning a national championship, right? So I under I understand where you're coming from. Um and Arizona basketball right now is one of the crown jewels of the Big 12, if not the crown jewel of the Big 12. So thank you for that. Bear down cats saving an otherwise very forgettable at best Big 12 tournament or NCAA tournament performance uh this this past couple of weeks for the Big 12. Uh, please do like the video, subscribe to the channel. You can sign up for the open for business Big 12 newsletter at OFBnews.com or click the link in the description of this video. It's totally free. Twice a week it hits your inbox. 6,100 plus Big 12 fans already signed up. Drop me a super chat by clicking the dollar sign below the chat box if you want to guarantee that you make it on tonight. And you can hit me up on Venmo at John-Kurtz-4. We're talking money issues, right? Um is K-State having money issues? Because the Wildcats just lost one of KC Alexander's high profile Belmont transfers to Tennessee. And after fueling Jerome Tang's wild spending spree the last two years to not go to the NCAA tournament, uh, is the money spigot shut off at K-State? Will Casey Alexander get enough money to fund his first roster to have a real chance in year one at K-State? And is there a saving grace that can save it all? I will answer all those questions in this video. One of the real perks for K-State hiring KC Alexander from Belmont was that he sure seemed to think he could bring a large chunk of his roster from Belmont to K-State. A bunch of high major guys were transferring. Uh, there are probably going to be like five that wind up on high major rosters next year. Typical year-in, year-out experience with him because he's so good at identifying talent. The names that I think people were really keeping an eye on Drew Sharnowski, who would be number one on my list, uh Tyler Lundblade and Sam Orm. These are guys that were definitely going to be high major transfers. And the thought is, well, hey, like if you can jumpstart your roster like this, that's a huge boost, especially when you are a K-State program that has like almost completely turned over the roster each of the last two and borderline three years. Like it was there was a lot of turnover, very tumultuous uh over the last few years of the Jerome Tang era. And you're bringing in this coach that like is notorious every year for like bringing the roster that gets poached, like a great mid-major roster. So, hey, that's a great sign, right? And and things were looking good early. I think K-State fans may have been lulled to sleep a bit here because you landed the two highest-rated recruits from Belmont's recruiting class who were historically high gets for Belmont, which that's that's good. That means they're they're of caliber for K-State to bring in. They got them both, and so you're like, all right, we're rolling. This is good, this is good. Well, today, very quickly, K-State lost out on Tyler Lundblade, who is the uh deadeye shooter, one of the best three-point shooters in the country. Because he's a grad transfer, he can already be in the portal. I know you're saying, John, you already told me in this live stream that April 7th is when the portal opens. He can get in early because he's a grad transfer. One thing the national guys have missed, he did visit K-State uh before this Tennessee visit happened. It was pretty quiet. But then he visits Tennessee and now he's gonna go play for Rick Barnes. Um, yeah, it's it's a blow, but it the the reason it's a blow to me is not just because you're losing him, it's because it raises this question, okay? Did your new coach just get out recruited for one of his own guys? Or did K-State not have the money to compete here? Uh which is it, and which one would you even rather it be in that scenario? Like that's the question that you're really dealing with and trying to answer here. Please do subscribe to the channel, pushing toward 35k subs, getting closer and closer. Thank you all. Help me out there. Uh, I don't know if this is the better or worse option, but I I am led to believe that this is uh more a money thing than anything else. I think it seems like Tyler Lundblade got seven figures to go to Tennessee. I just don't think that K-State has that in the budget for what he is. This is not like a two-way uh guy that I think you build a high major team around. I think he is a great shooter and a really awesome piece on a good team. And I think the roster or the the pot of money that K-State is likely working with this year is not conducive to paying that much for just a guy who's going to be an awesome shooter, you know, to come in and be a hired gun to uh to snipe threes. And that may sound like really stark record scratch, like screeching to the ears of K-State fans who are like, what the hell? We we bankrolled$10 million rosters each of the last two years for Jerome Tang. You know, two years ago, we the the Coleman Hawkins ad late, the the PJ Haggerty ad late this time around. We spent a ton of money. How what are you talking about? Abdi Bashir got paid a bunch of money this past year to come be that guy just to snipe threes. Yeah, I think uh I think you're probably dealing with some donor fatigue here, my friends. I think that's a pretty good bet because uh, I mean, you'd feel that way too. If you had that kind of money and you just spent that kind of money, even like that much money that was like a percentage, like whatever the equivalent is that would be a percentage of your net worth that you spent on those guys. And I'm look, I won't call all the players out by name, but some of the guys who didn't even finish a full season who made seven figures, like, yeah, you'd feel pretty damn burned too, and you would not be like lining up to just go do it again, especially when it's a new coach that you don't know yet. Like, this is you haven't developed a relationship yet just because you haven't had the time, like it's impossible. So it's a tricky situation here. Like, these I understand completely how these people would feel burned, even if you're you're looking at it like, oh, well, they're rich and they got all this money. Well, I mean, think about if you're paying, you know, you spend a couple thousand dollars every year, throw it to K-State, and you think it's gonna be very helpful, and instead it just gets your team embarrassed, you're probably not gonna want to go spend$2,000 again the next year, right? But the conundrum here is that look, if you were willing, and some of this too might be hey, people are having to foot the bill for the whatever Jerome Tang's buyout is going to wind up being. I have not heard an update on that, but you're gonna pay uh some kind of substantial amount of money there, whether or not it's the full 18 plus million or not, it's gonna be a lot of money. Okay, it's gonna be a lot of money. And do you then want to turn around and then fund a roster for again a guy that you have not gotten a chance to know or hasn't proved himself? But it's a catch 22 because if you also were willing to fire him and get people on board to pay that, if you're just gonna hire the next guy and then not give him enough money to feel a competitive roster and he's gonna get off on the wrong foot, and then maybe it's like he becomes labeled, you worry about him being labeled just mid-major guy that can't hack it at this level. And how does that affect him moving forward? Well, now you've just set yourself up for more failure with the program, right? So, like that's that's the risk that you're running here. If you're not gonna give him enough money to like have a credible shot at making the tournament next year and and legitimately like turning the program around, then you're you're just screwing yourself for another couple of years. The word going around coaching circles was that K-State, in the in the process of hiring a head coach, was talking about committing like six million dollars in NIL for this upcoming year. That's both NIL and Rev share money. Like you would have six million dollars to work with for your roster. Uh point of reference, like Cincinnati reportedly told Jared Calhoun he'd have 10. So that's 40% higher, and probably a reason why he took that job over the K-State job. Understandably so. You combine that with him being able to go home. Like if six is truly the high water mark, you're gonna be in the lower third of the Big 12. Uh that's that's just the reality of this. You know, this is not a conference where teams are not spending and spending pretty rapidly because basketball does mean a lot. So, yeah, what do I have some concern there about how competitive K-State can be in year one and give KC Alexander a full chance to get off and running? I'm not expecting them to go like$12 million and say, hey, yeah, you can throw two, three, four million dollars of PJ Haggerty last minute if he comes open. I'm not expecting that. You know, it's got to be more reasonable. I thought it would be more than this. And uh it's disappointing if you're not if you're not able to get Lunblade there. Now, maybe Tennessee just grossly overspends, and here is the saving grace. Casey Alexander's been pretty good at moneyballing these rosters, and that's kind of what's gonna have to happen here. You're gonna have to moneyball it. He's going to have to evaluate really well, and that's what he did at Belmont every single year, because he's having his roster picked over, losing the talent that he identified, and then he does it again. You go back the last few years, we all just watched Tennessee, speaking of the Volunteers. Jacoby Gillespie, one of their best players, their point guard, Belmont guy. Uh Florida's national championship team, Will Richard, Belmont guy, Malik Dia, 15 points a game at Ole Miss. K Tyson scored 20 a game at Minnesota. Adam Kunkel scored 11 a game at Xavier. These are all guys that have come off of recent Casey Alexander rosters. So he's gonna have to do that for K-State at this level, which was always going to be true to an extent. I think now I just feel like that pressure has heightened a bit based on the fact that you're not getting Lunblade and based on just what appears to be the financial situation, which is, you know, like part somewhat informed opinion, but also part just reading the tea leaves here. All right. He went to Tennessee, went to Tennessee pretty quickly. If you're a school that is going to already have a pretty good roster and, you know, has the budget, like a big time SEC budget like that, it makes sense that, like, yeah, you could probably go give seven figures to just a total lights out knockdown shooter. Not the worst thing in the world for K-State to hire a coach who's one of one of his biggest strengths is the money ball. Like, I'm gonna go scout the hell out of this thing and figure out how to put together a roster for cheaper. It can be done. I mean, UCF made the tournament this past year with a very low budget. I think K-State will have more than what UCF had this past year. Certainly exception to the rule, but it it can be done. And look, K-State fans, you just experienced the total opposite: money to blow, throwing it around everywhere like a money gun that you're just shooting up in the air, and it just got you embarrassed. Uh, nowhere near the NCAA tournament. I would just leave you with this, with this. It's it's never as good as it seems. It's never as bad as it seems. All right. So I've seen some of the fan meltdown today. I just temper that a little bit. Now, there were there is one thing that is putting more pressure on Casey Alexander in year one. Click here to find out what that is. That's for those who are watching the clipped version of this. Those who are here watching live, don't worry about it. You're still here. You're still here. We've got one more thing to talk about. We're gonna branch out and get to a bit of football, football-ish here between Cody Campbell and Brett Yormark, but please do subscribe to the channel, like the video. Totally free to do that. If you are so inclined, you can submit a super chat and uh submit a donation. Guarantee that your question or comment makes it on the show tonight. You can also hit me up on Venmo at John Dash Kurtz-4. If you are into what I do and you want another free way to support, sign up for the Open for Business Big Twelve newsletter at OFBnews.com. Click the link in the description of the video or go to OFBnews.com to sign up. It is completely free. It's in your inbox twice a week. Okay, my friends. Well, uh, Texas Tech mega booster Cody Campbell is going hard after Brett Yormark. Do we have some Big 12 infighting going on here? And who is right? Who is right? Cody Campbell, Brett Yormark, the two biggest figures in the Big 12, duking it out. Who is on the right side here? I actually think there's an ironic twist that tells you the answer to that. Um, you guys know if you've watched the channel, I'm a pretty big fan of both of these gentlemen. Cody Campbell is a busy dude these days. Uh, not only his role in the Matador Club at Texas Tech, but he's running Saving College Sports, doing a lot of work to try to advocate for a better future for college athletics, just overall. Uh, saving college sports, advocating for plenty of things, but the one that's drawing the most attention right now is amending the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which would let college sports conferences sell their media rights together, right? So you'd sell college football and college basketball media rights like packaged together as one entity instead of the SEC media package and the Big Ten media package and the Big 12 media package. Right. That would be the idea. Just like the NFL and NBA do it. You don't have like each division selling their own rights separately. Uh Campbell wrote an op-ed in the USA today this past week. So he's he's been busy even recently. Like he is still pounding the pavement hard. He, of course, was at the panel that met at the White House. Gosh, has that been a month ago at this point? Something like that. Um, nothing has come of that yet, but he's Cody Campbell is still following up. Like he's gonna push the envelope and push the needle on that as much as he can. He argued in that piece, by the way, lots of the same things you've heard him talk about before. He's done commercials. Um, but the big thing you keep seeing from him now is saying, like, hey, college sports is a public trust, it belongs to all of us, and we can't let this, we can't mismanage this to the point where it explodes. Now, Cody Campbell and Brett Yormark, I'm not saying that they have always been on the same page, I'm not saying they have always been on the same side of everything. Um, Brett Yormark, for instance, is not fighting right now to amend the Sports Broadcasting Act. There was the Ross Dellinger article where it was talking about Project Rudy kicking up some momentum, and Brett Yormark was not in favor of that. He gave a quote saying that he wasn't in favor of that. So here you have two of the biggest figures in the Big 12. They are not always on the same page. Why are they at odds then? Time, please do subscribe to the channel pushing toward 35k subs. Thank you, all of you, for helping me get there. Uh, it's it's the same thing everyone seems to always have an issue with with Brett Yormark over, and that is the schedule, right? Would it shock anybody for me to tell you that it is the football schedule that has Cody Campbell pretty worked up here? All right, let's go check it out. Let's see. Of course, this happened over Twitter as any good beef does in uh the year of our Lord 2026. Cody Campbell says, uh, Friday night lights are sacred in the great state of Texas. It is absolutely absurd that the Big 12 conference in Fox Sports would consider scheduling Texas Tech and Houston on a Friday night. I know that Brett Yormark is not a native Texan, but he's been here long enough to know better. Come on, man. All right. That's Cody Campbell. Not thrilled with the thought of Texas Tech and Houston potentially playing on a Friday night. The game is currently scheduled for Saturday, but if you are a Big 12 fan or you follow Big 12 football, you are well aware there have been plenty of Friday night games last few years. That's a new fact of life. Uh, Houston, for instance, played three Friday night games last year alone. What is happening here? Well, it's you're trying to generate as much money as you can for the TV contract. And Cody Campbell, to be fair, did tag Fox in that as well. But if you're the Big 12, you want every last dime you can because places need money. I do I need to do the K-State talk again? Do I need to do the Arizona talk again? Like we just we're going through the storylines in the league right now, and two of them had to do with like maybe places not having enough money. You need every last cent. And Friday night, you get an open window with no competition. It's an extra slot of inventory for uh Fox to get a pretty good rating because everyone loves college football. On a Friday night, it's it's gonna happen. It's gonna drive more dollars back to your conference. I don't like Friday night games in a vacuum. I would prefer that they're not played. I don't like the Big 12 after dark games in a vacuum. I would prefer that they're not played and that I could go to bed at a reasonable hour on Saturday because I am an old. All right. I'd love all games to be 11, 230, or 6 on Saturday. Give me that classic. I'd love Keith Jackson to be doing the 230 game, right? The biggest game in the Big 12, 230 ABC. Make it Keith Jackson. I it would be great if we could do that, guys. That's not a reality that we live in, uh, unfortunately. And you have to make the best of the situation that you're in. So look, I I love in general what Cody Campbell is is fighting for here. I'm on board with saving college sports. I'm totally on board with amending the Sports Broadcasting Act. I think his fight, generally, anybody that's willing to fight as strongly as he has against the power out there, which is more or less the SEC in the Big Ten, I'm here for it. I am here for it. But I got to defend Brett Yormark on this one. Like, he's trying to get as much money as he can for the league, and everybody is having to sacrifice. I think a part of this here is, and I don't want to like speak incorrectly for Cody Campbell, but it seems like the vibe of it is hey, yeah, you know, it's gonna upset some, like K-State in Arizona, for instance, played a Friday night game each of the last two years. And I can remember there was some grumbling around like the Manhattan High School football program, very proud, very good football program. Like grumbling about like, uh, you're gonna play this game on a Friday, like there was one of those games as a home game. You're gonna play this Friday home game and we have a game. I understand why you'd be upset, but again, it's like what this is college sports, man. Like, there's a lot of collateral damage here, and you got to do what you got to do. Feels to me like the thought here is well, this is Texas high school football. Like, yeah, other places in the Big 12 so far have had to sacrifice their local high schools, but this is Texas high school football. And I get it, guys. I've seen Friday Night Lights, both the movie and the TV series, which are excellent. I'm not saying that it oh boy, doesn't mean a little bit more in Texas. Are you guys okay with me using that phrase? But everybody's got to sacrifice. This is this is a deal where everybody's got to sacrifice, my friends. That's just the way it is. And uh, I do think it's a bit ironic that it's like Cody Campbell's big fight, and again, I'm all for it. I love it, but is to amend the Sports Broadcasting Act so that everybody can make more money. That's his big pitch, so that everybody can make more money to save women's sports and save Olympic sports because these athletic departments are under such a money crunch. This is the same concept, it's on a smaller level, and it it just happens to be affecting Texas high school sports in this case, but it is the same concept. You're just doing what you can to milk as much TV money out of the TV contract as you can, and then everyone across the league is going to have to sacrifice. So I don't know. Maybe the solution I was gonna say is the solution like will Cody Campbell just float a bunch of his money, personal fortune around the league to say, hey, skip this Friday night game, I'll cover the money for you guys. Here you go, disperse it how you want. I don't know. Maybe that's you got Cody Campbell money beyond FU money. Maybe that's the type of thing you can do. Uh, but I just think like Brett Yormark's between a rock and a hard place here. What do you what do you want him to do? A Texas Tech is not above having to sacrifice and play a Friday night game. Like everyone in the league is going to have to do that. Um love Cody Campbell, love what he's doing. Just I'm gonna defend Brett Yormark on this one. Now, if you want more on Cody Campbell's fight to save college sports, what's the latest with that? What's happening there? Uh, click here to find out the latest. That's for everybody watching the clipped version of this. Those of you that have been hanging out live, I appreciate you all. And uh it's been a fun one. It's been a fun one tonight. Uh I understand not fun if you're an Arizona fan. I don't I don't wish this stress upon anybody. It's a tough thing. I obviously I'm rooting for you to win the national championship. Genuinely hope it's the best weekend of your lives. And I hope shortly after it's followed by you being able to dunk on everybody because Tommy Lloyd is is coming back. So we'll see. Remember what I told you. You're gonna go through some stress here, but this could be the best thing that ever happens to Arizona basketball. If you get Tommy Lloyd the resources that he needs and the relationships that he needs in the athletic department, all because of this leverage that he has, it will be the best thing that has ever happened to your basketball program. So hope that it works out like it did for BYU football. Uh, please like the video, subscribe to the channel, sign up for the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter, OFBnews.com. I appreciate all of you. This weekend, I am going to be on a little trip to Chicago. So I will have my equipment there. I'm probably not going to be doing, I will be traveling on Sunday night. So it's not going to be like your typical Sunday night show. I may get you content depending on what the schedule look looks like, what's happening. Um just bear with me on that. Bear down with me on that. Okay. Uh we'll we'll see. I'll do what I can this weekend. Uh, take care, everybody. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and I will talk to you all very soon.