Big 12 Transfer Portal CHAOS; Big 12 Stars Joining Conference Rivals?

The Big 12 transfer portal is getting messy, and in some cases, it could turn into full-on rivalry fuel. In this live stream, we break down the wildest portal storylines in the conference, including Rob Wright leaving BYU, the possibility of Kansas losing a top player to a Big 12 rival, and the growing drama around in-conference movement. We also get into Brett Yormark vs. Cody Campbell, Sonny Dykes getting dunked on by Curt Cignetti, and why help from Washington D.C. could matter for the future of the Big 12.

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In this stream:

Rob Wright transferring from BYU and whether the Cougars got burned
Why BYU may still be built to survive portal chaos
Kansas losing major pieces and the Flory Bidunga rumors
Could Texas Tech or BYU land KU’s best player?
Whether Kansas fans should actually panic
Brett Yormark, Cody Campbell, and the latest Texas Tech tension
Joey McGuire stepping into the Friday night football fight
Sonny Dykes, Josh Hoover, and Curt Cignetti firing back
Why D.C. may be moving toward changes that could help the Big 12

If you’re a Big 12 fan, this is one of the biggest questions of the offseason: are conference teams about to start stealing stars from each other at an even higher level? The portal has changed everything, and the next wave of roster movement could make rivalries even nastier.

#Big12 #CollegeBasketball #TransferPortal #KansasJayhawks #BYU #TexasTech #BrettYormark #BillSelf #FloryBidunga #RobWright #CollegeSports

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

You guys ready for some transfer portal chaos? The portal is open. It has been open since Tuesday. And my friends, things are getting wild. A man who declared after the NCAA tournament that he would be returning to his Big 12 school is now in the portal. That's got, I know, at least one Big 12 fan base laughing. And you have almost the entire Kansas roster seemingly in the transfer portal right now, including Florey Badunga, highest profile player that we do not expect to go to the NBA from that roster. And he may stay in the Big 12. Yeah, we're going to talk about that. Also, Brett Yormark and Cody Campbell seem to have made up a little bit, at least judging by Cody Campbell's public comments. And uh Kurt Signetti dunked on the Big 12. And I'm not gonna lie, I had to just look up, tip my cap, and say, touche sig. That's a pretty good one. I can't fight that one too much. That's what's coming up on the show today. This is the Open for Business Big 12 podcast. I am your host, John Kurtz. This is where the Big 12 just means more. As you file in tonight, please do like. Please do subscribe. That really helps. You can also subscribe to the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter by going to OFBnews.com. That is OFBnews.com or clicking the link in the description of this video. Either one of those things works. You are invited to be a part of the chat tonight. Obviously, fill up the chat as you are here, respectfully, of course. And uh if you want to guarantee that your question or comment makes it on the show tonight, you can click the dollar sign below the chat box. That is how you submit a super chat if you are so inclined. Those are always much appreciated. You can also be a part of the show on Venmo at John-Kurtz-4. If you submit a donation there, I will kick off the next show with your question or comment. So uh that is another way to get in touch, particularly if you're not watching this live. That is a a very, very good way to do it. Okay, uh, let's let's get rocking and rolling tonight, everybody. Um BYU just got played by Rob Wright, point guard from last season. Did the Cougars actually deserve this? Did they deserve their fate that was handed to them by Rob Wright? This is the most shocking transfer portal edition to me so far from the Big 12. He had just said he would either stay at BYU or go to the NBA. So what gives here? Why is Rob Wright leaving? And do Baylor fans have a right to be laughing right now? Okay. Let me just answer that one first. Yes, Baylor fans. Not that you needed my permission, but yes, I can understand you having a good chuckle over this one. All right, this is gonna be a really different looking BYU team next year. Uh, I think we can officially say that. Richie Saunders not gonna be around. Obviously, he has graduated and wish him the best in the healing process from his injury. AJ DeBonsa, I mean, regardless of what he's been saying, teasing, like, oh, you know, I might come back. AJ DeBonsa's gonna be in the NBA. So there goes the second of the big three, and then the third of the big three. You're counting. One, two, three. Just count him with me. That's Rob Wright. And um, boy, he's now transferring. He has headed to the transfer portal. And this one, this one surprised me, man. This one surprised me to see. I know Baylor fans will call me naive for that. Um fans, I'm sure for BYU were already looking forward to the portal because you knew, hey, AJ's gone, and yes, we have Brian Branch, but like we're gonna need to go get some firepower in the portal, and we've got the finances, we have the resources, we have the reputation now to do this. Okay, and at the same time, looking around like I want some reinforcements here, I want something different. I did not like what I saw at the end of last season, which was BYU going four and eight in the final 12 regular season games and losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Texas despite a Herculean effort from AJ DeBonsa, who was doing his damnedest. Okay. Uh I would imagine though, it sure seemed like everybody was counting on Rob Wright being back, man. Especially because, and again, I will I will say here, Baylor fans, I know what happened last year, but it was not that long ago. I saw this J. Drew quote, man. I saw this J. Drew quote, okay? Let's check this out. I didn't get my scenes set up well today. Sorry, guys. Um, little tidbit from my chat with Rob Wright last night. The sophomore told me that if he does leave BYU after this season, it will be for professional basketball and not for the transfer portal. Now that was on March 11th, that was less than a month ago. Here we are now. What's happening? Uh he's leaving, he's going to the transfer portal. Uh, so look, all is fair in love, war, and the transfer portal these days. That's just the bottom line. There's not much you can do about it. It's a pretty lawless place. You've got to understand that things like these can happen. But to me, it was still jarring, okay? Like, I mean, I we just this was not that long ago. Now, did BYU deserve this? And will BYU survive the hit? Please do subscribe to the channel. Pushing toward 35k subs and getting there. Very close to 32, everybody. Thank you very much for helping. But a ton of you are watching the channel right now who are not subscribed, just one click, it would really help me out. Uh, Rob Wright was a contentious ad last year for BYU. Okay, this is why I asked the question did the Cougars deserve this? He transferred within the conference, first of all. That's always going to be more contentious, that's going to ruffle some feathers. And second of all, as Baylor fans will vehemently tell you, and it was reported, uh Rob Wright had signed an NIL agreement with Baylor last year. Not just like, hey, I'm I'm gonna be here, I'm in, like verbally, but had signed something. We've now seen this play out a couple of times. Most of the time, the eight student athlete still was able to get out of it, like you know, Darien Mensa, for instance. Um, this one, Rob Wright was gone. He was he was a BYU cougar, and this in some ways wrecked the Baylor roster. I mean, it really hurt. That was a team that struggled this year, struggled to like find much of an identity and consistency, and uh I think it was ready to be built around Wright. That was certainly the the narrative last year when he left for BYU. So Baylor fans are gonna feel no shame in laughing as this happened, and I saw that in my Twitter mentions, which again I understand. Did BYU really deserve this? I will just say, again, all is fair in love and war in the transfer portal. And there's the old saying, like in relationships, right? Uh you leave them like you found them. You leave them like you found them. And that that typically is relating to if you get together with somebody who is cheating on their spouse or girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever at the time, you're probably gonna lose them that way too. Like you leave them like you found them. Wright makes a commitment to Baylor, leaves, makes at least a verbal commitment to Jay Drew in the locker room after the NCAA tournament, leaves. Um you just have to be prepared for that. You got to be prepared that that's a possibility. Like you had certainly seen that before. And this is I'm not trying to like specifically attack the character of Wright here either. It's just the reality of where we're at. It's just the reality of where we're at. Like these things are going to continue happening as long as there are no guardrails. Now we'll see about the uh, you know, President Trump's executive order, how well that'll be enforced and one-time transfer and all that. But for right now, anything goes. And if you're gonna play in this game, if you're gonna swim in these waters, if you're gonna go after the Rob Wrights and A.J. DeBonsas of the world, and you're gonna be bringing in players of that caliber, you're gonna deal with this sometimes. So I would just say, to an extent, yes, I suppose you deserve it, but also you're gonna win your fair share going the other way. And it's just gonna happen and it's gonna be painful sometimes, it's gonna be awesome others, and uh it's just the way of the world right now. Whether you like it or not, it's the way of the world. Now, honestly, I don't know that very many people do like this at all. Why is he leaving? And this is again why I will say if you're gonna swim in these waters, you're gonna deal with some of this. Well, look, some of what we have seen, the the reporting on what Wright is going to do now, is potentially go to Kentucky or Arkansas. Okay, now I got something to tell you. I got some news for you. If Kentucky or Arkansas are involved in this, if that's where he's gonna wind up, Rob Wright's getting a bag. He's getting some money. There's going to be a lot of money involved. Kentucky, very well publicized, whether Mark Pope wanted to admit it or not, uh, had a $22 million roster last year. Now that did not get them to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament, but they had a $22 million roster last year. It's a ton of money. They're gonna have some money to splash there. Um, I don't know if you've been to Northwest Arkansas. If you've been to the Fayetteville area, Bentonville, like there's quite a bit of money there. Uh Tyson, Walmart, all that. They've got some money. John Calapari's also there as their head coach, so uh they're they're bankrolling him right now. He's probably going to get paid. And I suppose there's an extra layer of twisting the knife here if he goes to play for former Cougar head coach, Mark Pope. But look, BYU can certainly survive. Like BYU should be should be fine. This is definitely not ideal, uh, but they should be fine. I'm not going to say this is some addition by subtraction scenario, mainly just because like the teams that we've seen have real success, like legit great success, have generally been teams that have a very good mix of experience and transfer portal then sprinkled in, right? Like it's the sprinkles, it's not the actual cake itself. And you're now going through like replacing that big three. It's just that there's so much production that you're gonna have to replace in the transfer portal now if you are if you are BYU, that I worry a bit about what that does to the ceiling of the team next year. Or maybe it's is it more apt to say what it does to the floor of the team next year? Like you know, a team with a lot of returning production probably has a higher floor. Maybe that's the better way to say it. But um, at the same time, I mean, look, when when Richie Saunders went down and you really needed DeBonsa and Wright to carry you two, the season didn't go that well. So I don't know. I mean, you can I can see how you would look at this and just be like, you know, we'll be okay. I would just say you'll be okay because I do think you have a very good coach, even though he took a lot of flack, and I had opposing Big 12 fans tell me I should be more critical toward him. Maybe that's still true. I still think Kevin Young's a pretty good coach that dealt with a ton of injuries last year, and we'll see how it goes. I still think you got a good coaching staff. I still think you got a lot of um NIL support there, and I would imagine they're gonna put together a pretty darn good roster. But we do know it's gonna look it's gonna look a lot different. I pretty darn good roster. I think solid roster for sure. Solid roster for sure at BYU next year. We'll see beyond that. Uh now, despite the fact that I think BYU is set up to still be a player in this era, which they I mean they've already shown by pulling in another five-star top-of-the-line recruit for this next year. Um ESPN Stephen A. Smith still took a big shot at BYU. Came after the Cougars with a pretty ridiculous take. Uh, click here to find out what that is. That's for everybody watching the clipped version of this. Those of you hanging out live, just sit tight. We've got a lot more to talk about. We've got more portal chaos to talk about here. Uh, it's gonna start with what's going on at the University of Kansas. But quick reminder, please do like the video, subscribe to the channel. I appreciate everybody who does that. Just one click. So many of you watch, but do not subscribe. It helps me out if you can get that subscriber number up. Uh also, if you would sign up for the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter, it's a great way to support me as well. It's twice a week. It's free. Straight to your inbox, OFBnews.com. To sign up for that, ofbnews.com. Click the dollar sign below the chat box to submit a super chat or hit me up on Venmo at John-Kurtz-4. Almost the entire Kansas roster is in the transfer portal. And the Jayhawks best player, other than Darren Peterson, who we know is going to be in the NBA, right? Jayhawks best player who was set to come back might actually now be playing against them. Yes, staying in the Big 12. Will Texas Tech or BYU be able to land Florey Badunga? And is it time to panic in Lawrence? Let's talk about it all. Uh, it's been a wild offseason already for the Jayhawks. They were on Bill Selfwatch like immediately after the season ended because of his health situation, what he said at the podium after the St. John's loss. And so that was the initial conversation here. It started gravitating toward, all right, well, are we are we chasing Ben McCollum? Are we chasing Tommy Lloyd? Like, what are we doing? Matt Norlander, by the way, from CBS Sports insinuated in a hit that he did the other day within the last 48 hours that Ben McCollum is somebody that perhaps there's some mutual interest there whenever that time comes. Anyway, Kansas got what I would tell you is some good news in the short term, and that Bill Self is returning simply because of the floor that you have with him as a head coach. It is quite high. But that so far has not led to Kansas keeping the roster together. You got you got a lot of Jayhawks in the portal right now. El Marco Jackson, Bryson Tiller, former five-star prospect, who had a nice stretch at least this season. Jamari McDowell, uh Paul Mbia, the other big that had a nice game uh against St. John's last we saw him. And then Florey Badunga. Yes, that's the big one. Big 12 defensive player of the year, first team all Big 12. One of the best bigs out there, arguably the best player in the portal. Depending on where you look, I've seen him at one or two in terms of being the best player in the transfer portal right now. Now, yes, you could look at this and say, well, John, Flory Badunga was in the transfer portal for like a week last year, and then he wound up coming back to Kansas. True, but I this feels different because one, there was already the flirtation last year. Two, there were a ton of rumors throughout the season about his camp shopping him around. And uh now we're here and he's actually in the portal. And there have been rumors. Now, again, I will stress here rumors that he was asking for five million dollars. I I did just see Jeff Goodman from Field of 68 tweet that after pulling, I it was 10 or 20 GMs and head coaches across the country on what the price is of a frontline big, like an elite big in the transfer portal, it did say four to five million dollars. So maybe that is a legit ask, maybe it's not. Some have thrown some cold water on that, but either way, if that's the asking price, as much as you know, I mean Kansas is certainly not under-resourced, but I don't know that they're gonna be paying five million dollars to compete on on keeping Flory around there, right? So it it feels it feels different to me this year. It feels feels pretty real, and that's that's a big blow, man. He's a stud, he's a good player, great rim protector, elite rim protector, and then elite finisher. Like you just lob it up to him, and the guy's gonna dunk absolutely everything. So who's gonna be involved here, right? That's now the question. And how much trouble is Kansas in trying to replace the vast majority of its production from last year? Please do subscribe to the channel, pushing toward 35k subs, getting there. Ton of you watch, but don't subscribe. It does really help if you just give me that one click to subscribe to the channel. Duke has been the long-rumored name here. When I go back to the rumors that were popping up during the season, uh, a lot of people were talking about Flory Bedonga to Duke. And they certainly seem to be in the picture right now. No matter who you're looking at, whatever reporting you're looking at on this, Duke is one of the teams that is mentioned. There is there is really a core four that are getting the most mention, but this has been a bizarre saga that involves a couple of Big 12 teams, right? You're trying to cut through the noise and decipher who's reporting is accurate, who's right, what's going on here. Michigan, Duke, Louisville, St. John's. Those four appear to be like firmly in it. Jeff Goodman has reported that. 24-7 Sports has reported that. It's beyond that where it gets uh a little bit murkier because even before, like before we saw the list from Jeff Goodman there, 24-7 Sports had somebody crystal ball him to Texas Tech on Tuesday. So that means putting in an official prediction that he would be going to Texas Tech. Now, let's start doing some math here. Okay, I'm a communications grad, but I can do a little bit of math. I just said the rumor was Florey asking for five million dollars. Who has more money than anybody in the Big 12? Arguably the country, Texas Tech. So is that a crystal ball just from a two plus two equals four? Tech's got a ton of money. They've seen him play up close. They'll throw a massive bag at him, or is it like, oh, oh, okay, like tech really is a place to expect him to land because they they did. Like that's legit throwing that money out there. I don't know. I don't know. There was that crystal ball out there. And then, well, and first of all, just let's pause and imagine that, right? Like, you got some underlying tension between tech and Kansas after the you know, the knife gate incident last year in uh in Lubbock. And then those are two rabid fan bases with, I think, the two rowdiest environments in the league in terms of home courts. Imagine a game played between those two, right? Flory coming back to Allen Fieldhouse or something with Texas Tech. Boy, Kansas not a place used to losing players like that and dealing with betrayal like that. That'd be fun. A lot of animosity in the building there. But Jeff Goodman does not list Texas Tech. It was just that that list of four that I brought up earlier, right? For him. And then Travis Barr uh Branham of 24-7 Sports listed those main four Louisville, Duke, St. John's, Michigan, and then threw BYU into the mix as well. All right. BYU mentioned with Florey Badunga. Uh now we saw last year, as I mentioned earlier, Rob Wright went from Baylor to BYU. That was an intra-conference transfer that the Cougars were willing to stick their neck out for and go grab. So, I mean, the precedent has been set there. And when I say all's fair and love war in the transfer portal, here you go. BYU also certainly would have some funds to splash around. We can debate how much it was they actually paid for AJ DeBonsa. It was certainly a lot of money. It was certainly multiple seven figures for AJ DeBonsa last year. I don't know whether or not he's going to actually end up at tech or BYU. It seems like the four schools have all been mentioned more consistently than just those two, but the one for tech was a crystal ball. So, like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what's going on there. If you at the end of the day, if you put a gun to my head, I would say Duke just because that was the rumor that we've been hearing for a very long time. Now, should Kansas panic about this? I mean, no, like it's Bill Self. Once again, I think he got a pretty high floor, but I'll go back to the same thing I said about BYU. When you're flipping over so much of the production on your roster, it becomes, I think, less likely that you reach your true potential as a program or a team. And think back to like the whole theory, at least my whole theory on Bill Self. I know most people boil it down to well, Kansas used to pay players through Adidas or whatever, and Curtis Towns and the bag man. Now everybody can pay players, and that's I think it's more the portal aspect of it, where it's you cannot hang on to guys like this for four years anymore. Like in the past, Bryson Tiller would have stuck around for four years, and he would have worked through some of the issues that plagued him at the end of the season last year, and Bill Self would have turned him into a monster. And by year four, he would be a monster, and you'd have three or four of those guys. And and now that doesn't happen anymore. That's my premise as to why Self has taken a step back a bit. It's probably more complex than just that, but to me, that's a huge part of it. Well, now you're talking about all right, just flip the roster around. Over again, like not being able to rely on any of that that was self's strength. And maybe all of this is just kind of a paradox, and it's like, well, John, nobody's really going to be able to do that in this era. So Self just has to learn how to do it differently, and that will tell the tale of whether or not he's ultimately going to have success. Fair enough. That may well be true. I would still say I think he's got a pretty high floor. Uh, there's also this. I mean, this will lessen some of the sting of this. Uh Kansas is going to have plenty of talent because they're the perceived leader right now for Tyrant Stokes, who's the number one high school player in the country. So, you know, I guess Kentucky may have something to say about that, but it when Bill Self announced he was coming back, you got a was it an eyeball emoji tweet from Stokes? And like much of the speculation has been that if Self came back, Kansas would be landing him. Now, that's uh that's a young buck. Darren Peterson didn't work out this past year in getting Kansas back to where they wanted to go. I mean, certainly he was a good, effective player and had great moments and got a ton of attention, but there was also the health stuff, and then even when he was healthy at the end of the year, then he wasn't playing as well, and it was not what Kansas envisioned that it would be. And generally, when Kansas has had those types of players, Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, Josh Selby, it has not worked out the way they've wanted it to in the NCAA tournament, at least. Um, but they're gonna have talent. They'll give Bill Self a ton of money to go build a great roster this year because he's coming back. Nobody wants him to go out the way that he would have gone out had he retired this past offseason. So we'll see. We'll see. But I certainly would not panic. Now, Bill Self stayed at Kansas, he did not retire. Tommy Lloyd, also staying at Arizona, he turned down North Carolina. Click here to find out why. That's for everybody watching the clipped version. Those of you watching live, uh, continue hanging out. Rest easy. Thank you, my friends, for being here. Uh, we'll transition out of the transfer portal a little bit, but as I do that, let me remind you please do subscribe to the channel. It helps me a lot. And like the video. Sign up for the open for business big 12 newsletter at ohbnews.com. That's ofbnews.com, or click the link in the description of this video twice a week, straight to your inbox, totally for free. Uh also click the dollar sign below the chat box if you want to submit a super chat. If you are so inclined, that support really, really helps. Like my guy, Jay Jazz Forge. Thank you for being here. Triple J. Do I say triple J? Uh Kansas' coach staying is mere self-preservation. Oh, wow. Maybe they can sign a Darren-like player for a first half price. Chalk doesn't talk, scratch does. This was kind of fun. I feel like this was almost like a riddle that I was reading here, but I I do like Kansas's coach staying is merely self-preservation. Uh, well, there it sounds like Kansas is going to sign a Darren Peterson-like player. Uh, I don't know if it will be for a first half price. I assume the is the dig there, like, hey, if Darren Peterson was only going to play the the first half or like half of a game, could you have gotten him at the 50% discount? Yeah, I don't. It's probably not going to happen. I'd imagine they'll pay full price uh for uh for Tyron Stokes, but he'll he'll be another, you know, fabulous player to watch next year in the Big 12. We'll we'll see what happens there. We shall see. I mean, Kansas has made big splashes, like seemingly every year in the portal. Like going back a few years, Hunter Dickinson, he was the number one player, and everybody was everybody was really, really thinking that was going to be the thing. And then Hunter Dickinson didn't get him where they wanted to go. And I don't know if it's fair. That next class, I mean, they had some high-profile guys, but like AJ Storr, I don't think, is like quite on that same level, but there was a lot of excitement about him. That didn't work out. Why am I blanking on the Alabama kid, the Alabama transfer they brought in as well? Uh, and then this past year, it's Darren Peterson, and again, it ultimately does not get KU where they want to go in the postseason. Uh, thank you, Triple J Jazz Forge, uh, Pacific Northwest Ute, not to be outdone. I was thinking of you as I was reading that from Triple J Jazz Forge there, Pacific Northwest Ute. I was like, man, kind of taking your bit. Kind of taking your bit, giving puns and speaking in riddles almost. So here you go. Kansas doesn't want self to go out like say wit. Oh, this wasn't. I I saw the dashes and I thought it was going to be some sort of pun or riddle. But am I am I missing the pun there? Are you just saying, like, you don't want you don't want self to go wind up coaching Michigan? Is is what you're saying there. Um, or is it like Kyle Whittingham coming back for one more year after they had struggled the previous year? I think either one of those scenarios could fit. Let me know, let me know uh which one you're thinking there, and where I may or may not be off on that. Thank you, Pacific Northwest U. Uh, okay. The fireworks between Mega Donor Cody Campbell and Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark have died down for now, at least. But should we trust that there will continue to be harmony? And what do we make of Joey McGuire, Texas Tech Head Coach, now entering this fray as well? All right, let's break it all down. Most of you, I would imagine, probably saw my video last week about the original beef between, you know, I call him Texas Tech Mega Booster. He's a lot of things. He's a multi-billionaire. He is a Texas Tech Mega Booster. He is in charge of saving college sports. He is a seemingly a friend of President Trump, who has a lot of influence in DC trying to get some sort of legislation put in place to help college sports. He's got a lot of hats and a lot of titles, which will be very important in this story. And he was upset with Brett Yormark. Now, this is coming back from a wide saving college sports perspective into a Texas Tech sphere, right? We're talking about the Texas Tech Houston football game. I guess now technically still currently scheduled for Saturday, apparently moving to Friday. And Cody Campbell, not happy about that. Tech, not happy about that, which I do understand. But this all started with Cody Campbell tweeting about how brutal this is for Texas high school football and that Brett Yormark should know better. And you know, on and on and on. Brett Yormark then simply responded by saying Cody Campbell doesn't run the Big 12. Cody Campbell came back and in a very emphatic tweet said, I guess Brett didn't hear that everything runs through Lubbock. So that was the sparring match that we had there. Now, as far as the game goes, I tried to be very diplomatic here because I do understand, like, of course, Texas Tech's not going to like that. Nobody in the Big 12, I think, really likes playing a Friday night game. It's not ideal. Well, it may generate you a little bit of spotlight by being a standalone game. It's it makes it harder to recruit because you obviously can't bring recruits into a home game if you're playing on Friday night. It also hurts when you're trying to get alums to come to the game, right? Out of state alums, out of city alums, even like making that trip on a Friday becomes much more difficult. Texas Tech is playing on the road at Oregon State the week before, anticipating a late night game there. So they lose some prep time. These are all things that are not ideal, right? Missing out the businesses in Lubbock, that's even been mentioned too, or whoever's playing the Friday night game, your college town, you lose some of the business that you would pick up if the game were on Saturday and you were getting, you know, the the whole the juice of an entire college football weekends squeeze. But you're not getting any of that. So I get why Texas Tech doesn't like this. I think my whole point was nobody likes it, and everybody agreed to it because everybody signed the TV deal that included these. It's no secret that this has been coming. So what happened here? We got some mixed messages because Cody Campbell backed off a bit, and Joey Maguire took his place and came in by talking about this. All right. Please subscribe to the channel, pushing toward 35k subs. Many of you watch, not all that many of you subscribe. It would help a lot if you just click one button. And I appreciate everybody who does that. Here's what Joey Maguire said. Now, to set the stage here, this was at a press conference. He's being asked about it. Um, Joey Maguire said the disappointing part that we're not taking into account is that we're going to put a lot on our fans to make sure that game is sold out. How much money are we losing in the city of Lubbock playing on Friday night? How many people are going to be at the Friendship Games, the Lubbock ISD games, Lubbock High, Lubbock Cooper? He's talking about all the high schools. If they're playing out of town and then just any of our alumni outside of this area. So he lays out a lot of the logistical issues there. Now, I will give him credit. I didn't read it in that specific quote, but Joey Maguire did also say, like, he prefaced it basically with like, look, I get it from a TV standpoint. Like, I understand why we do it, but I don't think we're considering XYZ enough. If this were all we had from Texas Tech in this, like I would have no real issue with it at all because Joey Maguire is different, not only in like stature and position than Cody Campbell, he also went about it a different way. And Joey Maguire has a vested interest in doing this and saying it this way. That guy not only is a former Texas high school coach, so he's a part of that fraternity and needs to stick up for his guys, his brothers, in that respect, but also he wants their players. Like he's trying to recruit Texas high school players. He's got to be the one to go out there and use his platform to say something about it. Like that makes all the sense to the world. He's got every right to do that. You know, Chris Kleiman said a little something about that when K-State, as a ranked team, by the way, had to play a fellow ranked team Arizona on a Friday night two years ago in Manhattan. He said the same thing about the high schools and how much of a bummer that was. Like the coach needs to say that, which I'm sure they believe it, but also because they need to recruit those players. Like they need to maintain those relationships. Those are important to them. It very much behooves them to do that. Different when Cody Campbell's tone was much different, first of all. Taking it to Twitter was much different. And he like specifically called out Brett Yormark. He's also, you know, I mean, you're talking about Texas Tech board member, you're talking about Guy nationally fighting to save college sport. Like there's just it's it's much more layered with uh Campbell and the way that he went about doing it. So that's why it that's why to me it was much more of a story. Like Joey Maguire saying that it's like, look, yeah, of course, that makes sense. Joey should do that. And when he's being asked about it at a press conference, he definitely should do that. Okay, but tweeting and coming straight after Brett Yormark, it's a little bit different. Now we've got, you know, we're we're playing a bit of a different game here. But uh Cody Campbell has walked this back a bit, all right, uh, for what it's worth. So let's go, let's go take a look at that. Uh Cody Campbell says, Points of clarification. I will reiterate, Friday nights are sacred in Texas, and high school football is an integral part of our culture. It's different here than in other states. Uh, Texas Tech's alumni base is largely centered in the DFW area, which is 300 plus miles from Lubbock. Puts a lot of strain on them to attend the game. Tech plays a late game. Here's the late game in Oregon prior Saturday. We're technically in the window. It's only by a few hours. Brett Yormark and I are friends and have a very good relationship. We work well together on many fronts, and tech is very committed to the Big 12. Brett and I have had our disagreements, but I like the guy and respect his hustle. However, I do stand by a quote I made. The commissioners work for the presidents and the presidents work for the boards. The commissioners have not been vested in unilateral authority to do whatever they want. This is an issue throughout college athletics. Yeah, for the most part, like I think this is fine. He's outlining the issues again. He's at least showing some contrition and being like, because part of the problem is when Cody Campbell goes out and just acts like a Twitter burner and goes after Brett Yormark, then all the actual burners are out there, like, just we're leaving the Big 12, this conference, the SEC, Yormark, F this. At least that's like bringing the tone back in a little bit, guys. Like, okay, like we can rein it in. Uh again, where are you gonna go, Texas Tech? You don't have a place to go. So let's just chill on the leaving the Big 12 stuff. Um, so I appreciate that he did that. I also will acknowledge like those points are all fair. I will just again say other Big 12 schools have to deal with those, have already had to deal with those, and will have to deal with those. This is playing your part when you sign the same TV deal that everybody else did. And then, you know, the last the last piece, all right, the commissioners work for the presidents and the presidents work for the boards. Well, okay, does Brett Yormark work for the Texas Tech Board of Regents, or does he work for all the boards of regents? Does he work for all the schools who signed this TV deal that says we will have to play 12 Friday night games? And so that's like a collaborative thing. That's not, he's not working specifically for Texas Tech. So again, I would still take some issue with that statement, but it's fine. Like, I don't think this is, I think when it when it hits Twitter and it becomes a thing where everybody's talking about it and it's a little, it has a tendency to get a bit sensationalized, and everybody gets emotional and in their feelings about it a bit. And this I at least respect and am happy with because it just it dialed back the temperature on it and the tone of it just a bit. Uh so you know, we would still, much like Cody Campbell saying, hey, Brett Yormark and I would disagree on some of this. Cody Campbell and I would disagree on some of this, but that's fine. Doesn't mean we couldn't have a reasonable conversation about it. And it doesn't mean that I don't think the Friday night games kind of suck too. Like, I get it. I mean, that Saturday is going to be all about Ole Miss LSU. But outside of that, there are not a ton of great games. It it would have been nice to have Texas Tech play that game on a Saturday. I wish every game was played on if you gave me, let me just bring it back here. If you gave me my choice, I'd have every game played at 2.30 on Saturday, and Keith Jackson would clone himself, you know, however many different ways we need to have Keith, like Keith Jackson and Bob Greasy, whoever, uh doing the game at 2.30 on ABC. That would be every college football game. I if I could do that, if I could make a wave of magic wand and make that happen, I would do it. I can't. I cannot do that. Uh the Big 12 needs to be creative in generating TV money. That's Cody Campbell's whole push with saving college sports is to amend the Sports Broadcasting Act so everyone can make more TV money so that they can save Olympic and women's sports. This is on a smaller scale because the Big 12 can't pool its rights with the SEC in Big Ten right now, but what they can do is play some games on Friday, which will increase the value of the TV deal a bit. And so even the bigger brands have a responsibility to do that because everybody signed the deal. So that's that's my position on this. Uh I I just I think this has all been a little bit silly, and everyone's a bit guilty in all corners of you know making it happen. It's also the offseason, right? It's the college football offseason. We got a long way to go until football starts, and so things like this are going to happen. Uh yes, totally understand. Cody Campbell's on the board of regents at tech. There are board of regents at every school in the Big 12. So if the point is the commissioner works for the boards, okay, he doesn't solely work for Cody Campbell and the Texas Tech Board of Regents. He's working for everybody. That that was that was the point there. I'm I am aware that he is on the board at uh at Texas Tech. Uh okay, I got one more topic for you tonight. Please do like and subscribe. All of that really helps, especially subscribing because I was looking at the one of the videos they had recently on the back end. It was like 90%, it got 20,000 plus views. 90% of you that watched it do not actually subscribe to the channel, which tells me that had some great reach. But if you just click the button, subscribe, it would help me a lot. Thank you. Subscribe to the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter at OFBnews.com. That is OFBnews.com. That is also extremely helpful. Those of you who want to support in that way, but it's not just supporting, you're getting something out of that too. It is straight to your inbox twice a week, and it is totally free. You will not pay a dime if you sign up there. You can click the dollar sign below the chat box to submit a super chat if you are so inclined. You can also hit me up on Venmo at John-Kurtz-4 if you have a question or comment, and you are not watching uh live. That is also very helpful for those of you that are able to do that. This is a funny one, okay? I gotta chuckle a little bit here. Reigning national champion Kurt Signetti just dunked all over a Big 12 head coach. And after trading barbs back and forth, we do need to ask the question which which coach won this battle? Who won the battle? And uh, was this Big 12 coach out of line? Those are the questions I want to answer here for you in this video. Kurt Signetti, man, national champion. He's pretty untouchable right now. Like he's already forced us just a couple of years after taking over the Indiana Hoosers to put him in the conversation for greatest college football coach of all time. Winning the national championship with Indiana and doing it in as dominant a fashion, unbeaten as he did, is one of, if not the most astounding thing I have seen in my life in college football. It's an unbelievable accomplishment. And oh, by the way, Signetti went ahead and signed the number one portal class in the country, according to on three at least, after that, for a nice little uh sign that he's probably not going anywhere. He's certainly not somebody that right now I would want to go at if I were another coach. Not just because of how damn good he is, but the guy can cut a promo, right? You know, we're I'm not a huge wrestling fan, but I I've been around enough throughout my days, particularly in radio, to know what it means to cut a promo. Kurt Signetti can cut a promo. He did it right away when he came in and said, I win everywhere. Google me. The guy can do that. He's not somebody I would want to get into like a war of words with through the media or otherwise. He's he's got some bars, man. He's got some bars. And I'm not saying that this Big 12 coach was like trying to go directly at Sonny Dykes, or well, okay, I just blew who it was. Sonny Dykes was not trying to directly go to Kurt Signetti with this, he was digging at his former quarterback who now happens to play for Kurt Signetti. But this did come across like a little bit of sour grapes, which are fair. I mean, I think you should that way. And I will extend some latitude to Sonny Dykes because of the fact that in this day and age, when your player can just up and leave you after saying, Why would I ever want to leave TCU? And he can just up and leave and go play for the national champs and get a bunch of money. Like, I'm gonna extend you some grace and like, yeah, you're probably gonna be a bit frustrated. I I do understand and I do get it. Boy, Sonny Dykes. Sonny Dykes got himself into uh some hot water with what it is that he had to say about his former quarterback Josh Hoover. Uh let's let's get to this. All right. So he's doing an interview and decided to drop this on everybody. Uh boy, if I could ever get these figured out.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

Sorry. Stats are stats, and I think you know, you look for us, and I think Josh started 31 games here as a quarterback, and we turned the ball over 40. He turned the ball over 42 times in those 30. Stats are stats. And I think you know, you look for us, and I think Josh started 31 games here as a quarterback, and we turned the ball over 40. He turned the ball over 42 times in those 32.

SPEAKER_01 42:35

So, okay. The the funniest part of that clip, by the way, is him saying he starts to say we turned it over 42 times in the 31 games that Josh Hoover played, and instead has to stop and correct himself and say, no, no, no, he did. Not we, he did. Josh Hoover turned it over 42 times in 31 games. And I mean, look, like Josh Hoover had a turnover problem. I'm a K-State fan. Go back and watch the games that Josh Hoover played against K-State in his career. I think he turned it over more in those games than he did in any other games in his college career. I I am as aware as anybody of the turnover problems that Hoover has. But the the way that comes across, and the stopping and saying we and then changing it to he, I mean, it's it's hard not for that to come across like a little bit of sour grapes, which again, I understand. I will grant some latitude there on that, but that's of course going to get clipped. It's of course going to make the rounds on social media, and it did. Oh, it did. And Kurt Signetti made sure to stick up for his guy. All right. Please subscribe to the channel, pushing toward 35k subs, getting close. Many of you watch, don't subscribe. It helps a lot if you do. You knew Kurt Signetti would have something to say. Mr. Google me. He was not going to be afraid to uh fire back a little bit here. Stick up for his guy. Which you know, I can appreciate that, but stick it up for his guy. This is what it looked like. Okay, we're gonna hear from Kurtz. This now Kurtzignetti at the podium, all right. So he's getting asked about this, and he has a pretty long response here. You can see I'm starting this like 52 seconds in. He has a pretty long response detailing Josh Hoover, what he profiles at, what he needs to do, what he needs to work on. And this is where he gets to the uh turnover part of the equation.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

Uh got to clean up some of the turnovers, obviously, which uh Coach Dykes made light of. Uh, but you know, when Josh got here, he met his two new best friends. Uh great defense and a really good run game. And he was never the same after that.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

I mean, complete with the little you know what eating grin at the end of that, you do have to laugh. Like, I you can tell by my answer here who I thought got the best of this little sparring match. I mean, that's funny. That's funny, and much like we would say, hey, Josh Hoover has turnover problems, that wasn't really an inaccurate statement by Sonny Dykes. Yeah, it's pretty fair point by Kurt Signetti, too, while also turning it into a funny way of saying that, right? Meets his two best friends, and then he's he's never the same. I mean, the whole conversation that I was having about TCU last year was like, well, they don't run the ball enough. Like, they don't, they they couldn't figure out an actual running game and too much got put on Hoover's shoulders. And some of that is Sonny's fault for not like literally calling the run plays more in the game. Remember the Arizona State game where they jump way out in front and then they ran the ball like four times the rest of the game and just would refuse to try and actually grind some clock there. So that's fair and legitimate criticism. We know that the defense at TCU has generally been behind the offense as well. Uh, so I gotta just tip my cap there. Okay. I do. I do. Uh, and if you're asking me, like in general, any kind of war of words, war of press conferences, I'm I'm gonna take Kurt Signetti 10 times out of 10 over uh Sonny Dykes. Not a battle that I would suggest getting into. Though I will say, I am happy that both of these coaches did this. I think it's generally harmless and it's a lot of fun, and it's a little more revealing than what we typically get from coaches. I'm not even saying this from a, hey, it gives us content standpoint, which obviously it does that. I will admit that, and that's generally a good thing. But it was just, it was fun content. Like it's fun for everybody. Coaches can be such robots a lot of times when they are behind the mic at a press conference and they never give you anything, and it's so dull and boring. This was fun and real, and you know that these guys have these thoughts about their players, their former players, other coaches. You know that they have these thoughts, but most of the time they don't actually let that out into public. And I understand obviously the strategy behind that and why they wouldn't do it, but it's fun when we get a peek inside the curtain like this. So at the end of the day, I would extend a big thank you to Sonny Dykes on that front and say, I appreciate you starting this. I appreciate your candor about Hoover, and I am happy that this then drew the response that it did from Kurt Signetti. And hey, Sonny Dykes can't be that upset, right? Because he just got a contract extension. We just learned that within the last week. Got a multi-year contract extension. He was already making $7 million, so I mean, that which was pretty damn good for the Big 12. I know he was trailing Coach Prime. I feel like that might be it. He was toward the top of the Big 12 in terms of pay. And now, uh presumably making more or at least has more job security here. That's not bad. It's not a bad gig. I think Sonny Dykes will be okay, even if he got dunked on by Kurt Signetti. Now, Dykes, to me, is a really interesting test case here. If you're asking me what I think about that extension, I think Sonny Dykes is a bit of a roarshark test. You know, the inkblot thing. You can two people can look at it and see the a different thing. You can look at it and say, well, he's 36 and 17 in four years. He's basically averaging nine and four every year. He's averaging nine wins a season. That's about as consistent as anybody in the Big 12 if you take it in that respect. And he also has a national championship game appearance. Nobody else in the Big 12 has that. So how can you really? But I would also I look at it and say, well, it's you know, that's very heavily skewed by that first year. Magical run with Max Duggan, and full credit to him for that. Uh that was great. Only by the way, after Chandler Morris got hurt and then he was forced to play Max Duggan, but it did happen, and you got to give him a lot of credit for that. I just don't know if I'm an opposing fan. Sonny Dykes really scares me that much. If I see, oh, TCU locked up Dykes to an extension. I'm I'm not looking at that and being like, oh, well, crap, we're gonna have to deal with this guy for a while. Maybe that's unfair. He's for the most part at a higher fall. I mean, he's probably gonna win eight games every year, but I don't I don't know. He's got to prove it to me that he can get back to up to the level of actually like winning a Big 12 championship. I think that, you know, he's gotta he's got a lot to prove there. And you know, it'll be very interesting to watch on this subject how Josh Hoover does under the tutelage of Kurt Signetti versus what he did at TCU. Do the best friends defense and run game make so much of a difference that all of a sudden Hoover looks like a a different dude and he's playing like Fernando Mendoza and he's a Heisman candidate. And you know, that may tell us something about that too. But uh, hey, for now, congrats to Sonny Dykes for getting that contract extension, man. Go get yours. Uh, okay, let's check in with I saw Alan pop it in here real quick. Uh Alan says, John, until we have NIL rules, uh self should spend all the booth money at once and sign Enbeat, Enbead, Brown, White, and Abhagy. Crazy, but why not? Rock chalk jayhog Allen. You know, I like this, Alan, because as long as you, if you know a good lawyer, Alan, they could just go sue for all the eligibility there. I don't I don't know what uh Embiid's contract is these days. I'm sure it's a lot. Um, that's gonna take a lot of guaranteed, but you did. You said spend all the booth money, which was $300 million. So yeah, go go take all that money and throw it at these guys and have one incredible run there. I the problem with Joel Embiid is he might still get hurt. You could run into the same thing where he gets hurt in the NCAA before the NCAA tournament and can't play again. So you you would have to keep that in mind. But this is funny. I mean, these days, like what? I you know, there you can't transfer outside of the transfer window, supposedly now, but they're like gearing up for lawsuits about that and for players to just try and do it anyway in the spring in football, uh, even though there's no more spring transfer portal window. You can just do what you want and then sue. That's you know, America and right now college sports. So it's not a terrible theory, Alan. I see where you're coming from on that. I uh I appreciate you, my friend. Thank you for being here. Uh okay, that's gonna do it for me. Oh, Mike, I see. Okay. Uh happy birthday. Happy birthday, Mike Smith, Backwood Sexy. That is a that's a great picture, by the way, too. I like that. Uh happy birthday, Mike. Thank you for being here. I did not see this until just now. So I hope you're still around. You sent that at 9 20. It's now 9 22. Everybody wish Mike a very happy birthday. Uh, and thank you for being here, Mike. Thank you for hanging out for the show. Uh okay. Like and subscribe on your way out the door. That would be much appreciated. Make sure you're signed up for the open for business big 12 newsletter, OFBnews.com. Glad to be back home. Glad to be back in the saddle for a live show tonight. Thank you all for joining me. Take care. Enjoy the rest of your week, and I will talk to you all very soon.