#4 - I Want the Truth!

After taking a a week off your hosts dive right back into the action discussing the media and sports reporting today. Diving in depth with what is destroying the sports journalism world as well as keeping you up to date on the transfer portal.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

And we are live back at it again with another episode of Future Funds on the Halloween. And yeah, we got an exciting episode this week. Unfortunately, missed out on last week.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Had some wild week.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Yeah, had some car issues on my end. So uh couldn't make it happen for the uh podcast, and honestly, just overall busy week in general, but really excited to get back at it again this week. Gonna start off with a fun, interesting topic that I feel like we've touched on a lot, but haven't really dove into. And we'll probably take the first 15-20 minutes here about this. But honestly, it's not exclusive to sports, but has been, in my opinion, and I'm sure you have the same viewpoint that hogwash. It's been detrimental.

SPEAKER_04 1:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

And has crushed everything just as much as NIL, just as much as trans reportal and eligibility. Uh, but yeah, the media, man, like I just feel like it isn't truthful anymore. I feel like it's very opinionated and like I said, it's not exclusive to sports. You see it everywhere where reporters are more and more opinion-based and not truth-based. But I feel like for sports, man, it's difficult be especially when people are fans of certain teams.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

It's tough. It's tough, like you said, not just in sports. I mean, I even look at like, you know, not to date me, but like I was in college when Instagram and shit came out, and like now looking at it, that's a form, it's social media, right? Media. Yeah. How confident do you feel as a single man that the person you're seeing in the picture is the person you're going to meet? And I'm not saying that in like a negative way to each their own, like, your look is your look, but I'm just saying like that false narrative exists. The problem, I think, that like media as a whole has right now is straight up you you said it right, you're it's opinionated. But the difference is is now I don't think people have the bandwidth nor the intelligence to have an opinionated conversation. Like, you should be able to say the sky is green, and then that other person goes, Well, the sky is blue, and then have a good conversation about it and just be done with it. But now it's fucking half the people go, it's blue, eat dick. We'll kill you if it's in the other way, and then the other people are like, it's green, right? Like, there is no sports media, show me a good one. I have not seen shit where I'm like, oh man, I love that article.

SPEAKER_03 3:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

It's bad, dude.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

I also feel like the only truth behind it is like statements like uh like sham at the in the NBA, and I mean um who's also been wrong.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Yeah, but but I feel like not to knock the dude, like we're not knocking people here. Like, I don't one, we're not fucking famous and work for ESPN.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

No, definitely not.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

We're two dudes who love sports and talking about it, but like based off of what we see, like prime example, scrolling men's basketball page today on ESPN. One of the top articles, media, was the blue bloods and how they're basically failing at the fucking portal. Well, who writes that?

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Like, I know they don't, I know it's a story. Okay, we're not stupid. It's their job, it's their job to nitpick, it's their job to uncover. The problem is, and maybe you agree with me, tied in with NIL, tied in with all this other shit going on with student athletes. You're writing those articles about these schools, and now people in the portal are gonna see them and go, Eee, they were on my list. Not if that's happening, though. You're literally turning the narrative for these kids.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Oh, yeah. Well, and I'll add on to that where the person who writes that story, I don't want to say has zero intention of reporting the truth, because I'm sure he's like, oh, I've got I've got a good bit here where maybe someone's successful. Very rarely is it about them being successful, but this is XYZ isn't going right here. And their idea isn't, oh, let me exploit this. Well, it is, but let me exploit it for my own benefit because I get paid for clicks. Bingo.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Clicks. It's what's crazy is these wild out there YouTubers used to be ridiculed when it first came out and made fun of, and that's what media's turned into. And now those YouTubers are like, well, we learned in the beginning. Now we've grown. It's taken a step back in media. Like, here's another great platform that media has given the fans, dude.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Stop. Like, you want to talk about a player's game he had, or you know, oh man, like Jeremiah Love is a beast. If he would have seen that hole, he would have gone for 300 yards. Whatever. Like you're talking about the game. I get it. The minute you start attacking young men, young women on social media because they had a bad game, cocksucker. There is nobody worse than people who criticize the individual. I don't care, man. These are 18, well, nowadays, 18 to like 23, 24 year olds.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

But like bump that number up a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

You know, but at the end of the day, I get it. I know. And IL has shifted the landscape to where you look at them and go, pro. Yeah. But they're not. At the end of the day, they're not. And I I get the money has complicated everything. Stop with the false narratives on the media. You're creating a monster. Think about the employees in sports, too. Yeah. These media outlets that write about athletic departments that are all this one's dog shit. This one sucks. I think I saw it on Twitter about uh the governor of Kentucky got, I guess, a jab in about the AD situation over there, or something like that. There's employees that have families that don't make what these student athletes are making, and you're shitting on them. And when that happens, people start cleaning house trying to get rid of the problem.

SPEAKER_03 6:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Where are they supposed to go? It's not a pro. I'm not making millions of dollars if I work for Cal State Baptist. No, absolutely. Or fucking poopy butthole. Like, I'm not making that. So you're firing me because of a media spin to cover your own ass to clean house and try to rectify the situation, which makes it what? What did the media member gain out of that? Yeah. A click.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Yeah.

unknown 7:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

You know?

SPEAKER_02 7:33

I I think too, like media members get access. They get to go to the press conferences, they get to ask the questions, they get the backstage backstage passes, they get courtside seats, stuff like that. And then it's almost like, okay, well, why are they getting that if they're now reporting stats, that's one thing. That I get it. But if you're at a press conference, I think, or at least what I was taught when I took journalism classes in college, you have a responsibility, just like if you're running a company, a fiduciary responsibility to do what's best for the shareholders. Your shareholders are the people who read your article, who watch your videos, who read your tweets, stuff like that. So for you to leave out important details just so you could spin the story. Or, okay, well, maybe XYZ, we're gonna highlight, and then yeah, we'll we'll write that the good part of it, the positive of it at the bottom, but we're not gonna highlight that. We're gonna push this narrative again because of clicks, because of XYZ motive, so that we gain popularity. And I don't think it's something new that the negative is what people want to read. It absolutely isn't, honestly. Like since day one of the media, I'm sure, you know, gossip has been around for ages. I'm sure since the dawn of time. So there's nothing new there. I think to our point, it's become more and more opinionated, and it's becoming more and more of if it's not negative, if it's positive, let's put it that way. If it's positive, why would we bother reporting it?

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yeah, yeah. It's you always knew it was there, like you said, right? Negativity, people feed off that disgusting shit. Where are the morals and ethics of like, you know, back in the day when Stuart Scott and like these people that were reporting for ESPN, they were reporting sports news. Yeah, and I'm sure there were probably some negative stories thrown in here and there, like it's a natural kind of part of it, but like you would tune in because they were a personality and they made it like watchable. And now the one guy who's watchable, Pat McAfee. Yeah, I always ask the question, like, he's such a good dude. Again, don't know him based off of what I see and stuff like that. Like, cool story, but you watch him, will he ever turn to the quote-unquote dark side when it starts becoming something like pressing where they're like, you can't do this anymore, you're fucking out millions. Like, does that happen? Or, you know, some of these other people, like the crazy story in the media. You can can you trust somebody who's on vacation behind her husband's back, jerking a dude off? Diana Rossini, yeah, or whatever the hell her name is. I know it's Rossini, right? But like with Vrabel. Yeah, nothing against her. Do you for the story or other people in that case? But like, how do you want me to trust you? Look, let's call a spade a spade. You hear the stories all the time, they're out there, people have done that for information for a very long time. I'm not, but it doesn't make it right. No, and we live in a world now where your phone is constantly buzzing, there's something at your fingertips, you're seeing it constantly. Instead of following it, why not try to rewrite the narrative? I don't I don't know where I'm on a fucking rant, but I don't I don't know where we became cowards. Yeah. When did people become cowards to just sit back and let it take fold? Like these student athletes have no voice. It's an agent, a family, a coach, a school, a fan base. Yeah, sure, they're making millions, but what can they say? Everything they open their mouth and say is being persecuted at the highest level. Yeah. It's crazy, man. These are kids, high schoolers that don't want to play, you know, in the NBA. They just want to or don't want to play college, they want to go straight to the NBA. Well, you're not, you're not this, you're not this, you're not this, you're this, this. There's a million things. Tyrant Stokes, I know a lot of people are waiting for him to make a decision. And he's a well, he's a punk ass kid. No, he's not. I would do the same shit. Yeah. Give me millions. Money, money, money. All right? Look, that's the world we live in now. Is he doing anything wrong? No. Why are you writing it that way?

SPEAKER_04 12:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

That's a legal thing he's doing. If you want to complain about something, maybe a G League player shouldn't be allowed to come back and play. Facts. Texas AM just signed one. Yeah. He was at the Heat and the Knicks. That's wild. Nothing against the kid at all. You're an adult. You were making a paycheck, you're working a job. You shouldn't get to come back just because you sucked ass later down the road and couldn't compete with the competition that is now coming in the G League.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Again, not knocking you as a person. That's that's you're just getting it out, man, because you got lapped athletically. It's okay to hang it up. Go overseas if you want to make money. They make money overseas. They do. Go.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

I mean crazy. I I think the other thing too is if you're gonna go back, uh I mean, I wouldn't even bother. Okay, me personally, I would say if you're gonna decide it's time to hang it up, go back to school. But don't play ball.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah, go back, be a GA. Yeah. Get into coaching. Yeah, absolutely. How here, you ready for this? Future funders, I'm about to blow your mind. Answer me this question. How are they eligible? You have not been in school. There's no way if you were that good, you were, let's call spade a spade, man. Maybe one semester, but when second semester rolled around, there's no way you were going to class. There's no way. There's gotta be an eligibility rule somewhere where you can't. You're telling me at my age I can go back to school right now and try to go make millions of dollars to play ball? That's what you're saying.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Why not? Let me go work out crazy hard for a year.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

And then take grown man strength and go play football or baseball or something like that. I mean, that's what you're saying.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

And the media is just like reporting it so poorly on everything. We don't know what NIL is, we don't know what anything is right now, so don't report about it. No. If you don't know, don't say anything. If you know, write the article. Yeah. It's not that complicated.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

All the numbers, speculation, and stuff like that. Like, well, I think what makes it even more frustrating, too, is it's one thing when you go into MBA free agency or you go into NFL free agency because there's those players, I mean, granted, unless you sign a one-year deal, you're not doing that every go-around. Now, if you're LeBron and you're smart, you do. But you go in with a plan of, okay, I know, like LeBron did it right. Three-year deal at the end of year two, I get a player option, which I think now it's he signs a two-year deal and gets a player option each year. But he knows what he's doing, he's just negotiating for the most amount of money. Yeah. You know, like these players who sign extensions or who sign, like, especially in the NFL when it's a running back that wants to get taken care of, a linebacker, because you know, you could get injured at any moment in the NFL. You're really susceptible to injury. Um, you know, like you're not going through free agency every year, you're not negotiating, you're not moving. Like, so this idea that these agreements essentially are like just by word, or handshake agreements, we'll say, is kind of ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Yeah. Dare we say tampering? That doesn't exist though.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

No, no, it could never.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

That doesn't exist. And this, honestly, we just kind of jumped right into it. Normally we introduce you guys to the next one in Segway, but we just jumped right into portal. I mean, what's uh I'm I'm just gonna say the kid from Baylor because I'll butcher his fucking name. It's like Toonday Yusuf or something like that. The guard who's a stud, ball player. Explain to me if you aren't supposed to talk to schools, right? Why does he have a do-not contact? Why are we allowing these players to enter the transfer portal with a do not contact clause? Tag. That doesn't make any sense, man. And then you're not supposed to tamper, but instead of him like enforcing the rules, they're just going, nah, that's okay. Literally, it was proven. Proven old miss tampered this for football this year.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Yeah, with the Clemson linebacker.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Proven. And then have you heard about it? I haven't. Oh. Like since? Nobody talks about it. We know Lane Kiffin was tampering with Old Miss guys.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Nobody said it was.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

They went, it's illegal, he's doing it, and then nothing. Crickets. It makes no sense to me. And the only thing I can think of is that the portal's gotten so out of hand with NIL and shit. NIL is so wild west, they went portals wild west too. Fuck it, we can't police it. That's the only thing I can think of. That's the only logic that I can come up with, other than you straight up just went, money's money, dude. Whatever.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

I I I think that's part of it too. They're like, well, what do we do to police it? Are we are we gonna make Kiffen sit out? Honestly, I would I don't even know what the death penalty would look like.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Nowadays? I don't know. Like USC got hammered with the death penalty when they got caught with all that shit and like missed bowl games and reduced scholarships for years.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

But like now you can't even what you don't spend money in NIL.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Yeah, I honestly but see, okay, well, you can't do that though, because guess what? There's a house settlement. Yeah. So there's a cap, and you still get NIL money through the house settlement. Not to mention, like, there's definitely old school ways of getting people money.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

So like the portal has become this nightmare. You miss out on this guy, agents are fucking backwater. There's so many deals going on. I think like you want to go in the portal, great, you get three schools to visit. That's it. Yeah, just no, like five. Let's cap it. You get three schools, and here's the thing that I can't stand right now about this portal bullshit is that you give them two weeks to enter. So you've tried to shorten the window, but then as long as they're enrolled before school starts, they can wait however long they want to make a decision. And what they're doing is the really good players are just milking that for more money all the way through. You're missing summer workouts, you're not being able to bond with teammates, you're not being able to do those things. I'm not wanting the kid to not get enrolled and not get an education. I think that's incredibly important. You should have to be enrolled and take a summer class. Yeah. One summer class. Or something like that to keep something honest, man. If it's not gonna be the NIL and you're gonna let them transfer however many times they want, because you and I both know Trump's thing's not gonna get passed. Yeah, no, it was a great idea, it won't. Because I'll tell you exactly why it won't. Nick Saban, have you seen the comments he's made about it? Like it's definitely like other people have spoken out. It's a problem, it's this, it's this, it's a broken system. I think somebody in like politics just said something as well about it. Or used to be at work in the former, used to work in the SEC or something like that. I can't remember the guy's name. I just saw it today, too, but it's broken, it needs to be fixed. And I'm like, cool. If you're making those comments, that means you guys have no fucking plan to fix it. Yeah, that's like me coming over to your house. Your gutter is dumping water during the rain. I look at it and go, damn man, that's a lot of rain. Like, yeah. No shit. What's our solution? I don't know. Rain should stop soon. Like, that's where we're at right now with college sports. There's a hole in the gutter and no solution. It's just a free-for-all, and the portal is the portal to hell. There's nine gates of hell, there's one. That's a gate to hell, the portal. Because it's ruining the game we love, dude. And I'm not just talking about basketball, I'm talking about baseball, I'm talking about football, I'm talking about women's volleyball. I've seen transfers there that are like program altering and like four seed Texas AM goes and wins a natty. Yeah. And like those things and like women's basketball.

SPEAKER_03 21:41

Dude, women's basketball. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

And like that's why I'm such a fan that UCLA won the Natty for women's basketball, because they were seniors and they had started there. And they put the work in, they grinded for a coach that had been there fifteen seasons with okay success. And they want an ad. That is how it's done. And I love that shit. You go play for Gino because you want to do that shit. Yeah. And as much as I respect Don who disrespected our boy. I didn't love the disrespect. But like as a coach, she's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

But she is kind of hitting the men's side of things where players are leaving South Carolina because she's bringing in so many good ones. They're just like, nah, I'm out. Yeah. Unless she's the same way. So like this portal, man, we talk about the media, but like, if we can't get a rein on this, if you're not going to get a rein on NIL, which I think is way too late. I think if you pull NIL, there could be some unions formed with student athletes. Then you're really shit out of luck.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Yeah, you're screwed. Dude, you're really screwed, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Where do you go? Because who was it? Dartmouth? A couple years ago, tried to unionize. I think it was an Ivy. Look it up. But I think it was Dartmouth tried to unionize. And it's crazy, man. If that's where we're going, we're in huge trouble.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

Was it basketball? I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, Dartmouth College men's basketball team made history by voting to unionize in March 2024. Although in December 2024, they dropped the effort to unionize to avoid unfavorable legal precedents from a shifting national labor relationship board. Yeah. Players voted 13 to 2. That's wild. They were seeking compensation, hourly wages slash scholarships, health coverage, and safer. Now okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

That is wild. That's wild. We'll say I expect it because they're smart. Not saying that other schools are dumb, but let's be real. You really think a uh basketball or football player at Insert Big Ten SEC school here really has I don't want to say the mental capacity again. I don't want to call them stupid, but it they're not playing at Ivy League for a reason.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

I think the big difference is the P like the P4 programs, even some of these group of five schools, they're gonna get paid. Yeah. The best players are gonna make millions. Why the hell would they want to unionize? They can just go make millions. It's the Ivy Leagues who are like, well, we don't get paid. So now how do we get paid? We do this. So where we have a say.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

Do you think this might be coming way out of left field? Do you think they notice the trend, not just in college sports, college admissions? Because like, let's be real. I I haven't looked at numbers or anything like that, but I can see trends and posts on media. Again, these are stats though. So I believe the stats. They're not gonna be like, oh, well, XYZ.

SPEAKER_04 25:47

Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

But between the money you're getting from the athletic programs that then is probably also being pumped back into the university, that is increasing enrollment, that is increasing people or students rather that want to go there for the college football program, the college basketball program, now your acceptance rate, you don't need to accept all those students. Now you can get more selective. And guess what? Now that 1200 SAT score that you were accepting three years ago, now it's 1400. And now your GPA needs to be five points higher, right? So do you think the Dartmouth guys and Ivy League guys aren't like because you're getting an Ivy League education for free, right? They don't have athletic scholarships in Ivy League. They have academic scholarships. And when you go to play a sport there, they just put you on an academic scholarship. So you're coming out with a degree from Harvard, Princeton, pretty much set up. Yeah, you're not gonna go to the league, but you're set up with private equity job, uh, investment bank job, like something big that you're getting paid, maybe not millions, but out of school, you're getting paid 150k a year. So do you think now they're kind of seeing like the sports catch up? And it's like, okay, Texas, Ole Miss, they're getting more selective with their students and they're pulling more people, and their alumni bases are becoming more and more wealthy with bigger opportunities. And now, just because I go to Harvard doesn't mean I'm gonna get the job I want out of school because now there's five other kids from Ole Miss because they're double the size. Yeah. Do you think that that might be part of it going into their decision?

SPEAKER_01 27:43

I'll be honest, why not? Look at the Ivy League as a whole right now. It's under so much scrutiny from the government, Trump wanting the cut funding and so forth like that. I mean, you look at uh I don't know if they are still Columbia became unaccredited because Trump wanted eat dick. Right? Because they refused to play by the rules, so to speak. So, like, I mean, now in a world where more and more people are turning to sports, more and more people are watching, you already had your global sports, right? You had soccer, which I still think might be the world number one, obviously, because it's fucking everywhere. Uh, you have your NFL, you have cricket, you have these massive global sports. Yeah. Wouldn't where in college now, where are more people did more people not just turn into the college, tune into the college football playoff than ever before this year? Yeah, they did. What about March Madness? Yeah, they did. Women's March Madness. Yeah, they did. I'm sorry. Am I gonna watch you guys just fucking pro-tractor each other to death in a fucking classroom setting? And look, I think it's incredible on record here. You're hearing it first, little future funders. Any college degree is an incredible accomplishment. Oh, yeah. I don't give a shit if it's a two-year technical degree and you're going to be an EMT. One, thank you for your service. And two, that's amazing. I'm not knocking that. What I'm saying is we put this huge precedent on Ivy Leagues. To your point, not anymore. I'll go to Alabama and that shit carries more weight than it does going to Harvard. I know that sounds crazy to say, and there's gonna be a lot of people who are like, you're nuts. What I mean by that is exactly what you said. Alabama's more known because of football than Harvard is known for academics in a modern world. Why is that? I'm gonna step outside of sports for a quick second.

SPEAKER_03 29:46

Lay it off.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Everybody's jobs revolve around social media, YouTube, Instagram models, OnlyFans, the list goes on. That is where the modern workforce is heading. Unemployment's high, job openings have stayed open longer, housing market shit, everything's going in such a bad trend. Sports is still that one saving grace where you can go, damn it, I'm gonna spend a little money and go to an event.

SPEAKER_03 30:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

I'm sorry. I'm not gonna go spend how much is the average tuition in the Ivy League a year? A dick ton? Are you gonna go spend that when you can go spend $500 and go catch a really good college football game? No, not if you're a sports guy. And look, man, how many here's the thing more foreigners are coming to college than ever before to play.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Most of them would just stay pro and get their degree from wherever they live and whatever pro team they're nah, not anymore. They're coming over here. The big 6'11 finished kid that's really good, that hasn't made a commitment yet. He's playing pro in Serbia. He could keep doing that. Back in the day, he would have kept doing that.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

And they give degrees through their programs through the universities in the town, right? Now it's like, nah, I want a taste of America.

SPEAKER_03 31:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

But guess where I'm not going? Harvard. Yeah. I want to go play at Duke or somewhere like that where I get a fan base that reveres me.

SPEAKER_03 31:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

I'm sorry, dude. Who reveres a lawyer? Look at the professions of the world now. We don't celebrate doctors. We don't celebrate police officers. We don't celebrate firefighters. We don't celebrate lawyers. We don't celebrate those people. They're the enemy. The world has shifted. Yeah. We now celebrate entertainment. Why do you think there's so many reality TV shows that no people know so much about? See what I'm saying though? So to your point, where do you want to go? Yeah, you can go get a badass degree from Harvard and have a job anywhere you want. Or I can go make a couple hundred thousand and get to play at Kansas. Where every girl on campus knows who I am. Yeah. Even if I'm a walk-on. True. Just saying.

SPEAKER_02 32:05

True. Also, uh Ivy League tuition roughly says is anywhere from 86 to $93,000 per year. Or what? And I think that's interesting too because the Ivy Leagues, the reason they're the Ivy Leagues is because they're some of the first colleges in America, right? So like they have all this history. And I forget what if I saw a tweet or where I saw it, but pretty much they said they made the decision to go in the direction of books rather than sports.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Great.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

And then everything started progressing, and you know, the SEC, the South, was like, yeah, you can keep that up there. Where did Trump go to college? Wharton. Penn. I think it was Harvard and Penn. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Here's a name for you.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

Did you beat us go to college? I don't even know if he did go to college. Where did Mark Cuban go to college? Indiana. Oh, isn't it Ivy? Nope. Is he loaded? Yep. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Did you know he ran one of the bars at Indiana?

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Did he really?

SPEAKER_02 33:35

Dude. I don't know where I saw this story. It was a while ago. Mark Cuban, his first business venture, right? He was in the business school at Indiana. And one of the bars was up for sale. So he took out a went to the bank, took out a loan, and bought it and ran it for his like junior and senior year. Well, that that for his junior senior year, and then he owned it like throughout. But his first thing, I think he said, like, he did like a like a wet t-shirt Thursday or something.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Oh, well, okay, so Bezos went to Princeton. Okay. But here's a name for you, Bill Gates. Don't forget he dropped out of fucking college. Yeah. All I'm saying, the Spanx. What the fuck? The lady who uh founded Spanx, like the what's the word I'm looking for? Kind of like Spandex company for women that like gives them sex store? Nah, it gives them form. Like their bodies. Like if they're a little overweight and not confident, it kind of gives them a little like.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

She was Kim K before Kim K.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

Yeah, pretty much Florida State. She's worth 1.1 billion. Went to Florida State. That's wild.

SPEAKER_02 35:01

I bet Chapel Hill's got a few.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Dude, you see what I'm saying though? Yeah. Long Island University. Uh Bridgewater Associates. Ray Dalio. Yeah, he went to Long Island University, and he's worth $18 billion. All I'm saying is Tennessee State University is where Oprah went. I'd say she's worth some money. All I'm saying is that, like, degrees, man, they're becoming one, less popular, and two, we're not doing anything about the student loan debt.

SPEAKER_03 35:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

You get a bunch of old heads arguing, like, well, I had to pay mine. Well, cool, dude. You had to pay yours. So if somebody in the war when your family was settling America, killed your ancestor, or you killed their ancestor, like your great-great, great, great, great, great uncle killed somebody's ancestor. They come to your house and kill your family and go, that was because before you were born, this happened. You're cool with that? There's your simple logic argument. You don't want people to get their student loans wiped because you didn't have to. Yeah. You had the pay yours. Dude, how immature is that? And here's the other, well, you in reality, what's the point? People don't want to wipe student loans because of why. Their companies don't make money off the debt and the interest.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Okay. You and I share the same sentiment. Money's not real. We just printed billions for Ukraine under Joe Biden and didn't blink an eye to do it. We handed out stimulus checks from COVID and didn't blink an eye to do it. Money does not exist. There could be a world currency and everybody could just get out of debt if you would be willing to forgive, quote unquote, this debt that exists. It makes no sense to me. Fuck off, economist. Come after me. I'm willing to sit down with you. I'll slap the shit out of you. Because, like, dude, it makes no sense. You give people credit cards who are in thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt so they can go in more debt. Money doesn't exist, but you wouldn't be able to do it. A fake coin started on the internet is one of the most valuable assets you can trade in Bitcoin.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

Yeah, that's wild. You think athletes will start getting paid in Bitcoin?

SPEAKER_01 37:27

Odell did it.

unknown 37:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

Worked out pretty damn well for him. That is true.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

So another two.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

He might be making a return.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

I don't want to think about that right now.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

Odell back on the field.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Yes, dude. Because like I like, I have nothing against Odell. I just don't want to see him go out like a feeble man. His injuries have sucked. Yeah. You know?

SPEAKER_03 37:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Yeah, I I mean, kind of tying it back into like sports too and college sports. Like, I was just thinking about St. John's. They just signed Donnie Freeman, the Syracuse transfer, right? And I mean, growing up with Big East basketball right there for me. Obviously, it was different back in the day. Like, you're you look at Nova, they have a legacy. Ever since 80 that first championship in the 80s, like, it's like, okay, we've been back there several times. You look at Jay Wright there, and that's another thing with the media, is how many of these guys are taking on positions after they quote unquote retire. They're not actually retired. There's clauses in their contract that say, oh, actually, I get paid to pretty much sit on my ass. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. I'm just saying they're taken care of after as well. They don't have to coach, but maybe they do. I think his role is advisor to the president. What are you advising? But kind of long-winded getting to my point here. I look at St. John's signing this transfer, and I can't really think of any notable alumni off the top of my head that went there. School in Queens, so it's in New York City, a fairly metropolitan. A member of the dream team, Chris Mullins. Okay. But how often do you think Chris Mullins is breaking out his checkbook?

SPEAKER_01 39:36

Uh after they fired him. Yeah. Probably not very often. But like, you know.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

I mean, being near Queens, they're like, if you look where the school is located, it's not in downtown. It's not like NYU or Columbia, where it's in Manhattan. Uh, it's not like Manhattan College or even Fordham, which is in the Bronx. Like, there's a ton of other schools that are way closer that could, I feel like, tap into like alumni and donors and stuff like that. Uh, but there's not really someone who I'm like, oh wow, yeah. Like they're definitely they're definitely funding the $20 million roster. They're definitely throwing a million dollars a year to whatever advancement for the athletic program. Like, I just don't think there's anything.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

I mean there's your argument right there. Like that that kind of goes back into what we've been talking about about how all this shit you don't want student loans wiped because you had to pay them. Well, all right, we can tie that in real easy with this. You're mad that a guy is getting paid to sit around. Most people are, they're angry about it, right? Unless what? Unless that guy is Jay Wright or Nick Saban or somebody no to like you want around. Yeah. If you want them around, it's fine to pay it. If they sucked, you don't want them around. And you're angry about it. Nobody's happy anymore, dude. That's the problem. I know this has been like a wild like podcast day today. Uh pretty good episode still, I think. But like it's it's been wild. We've been all over the place, but like, there's just it was needed. There's just so much shit going on. Yeah. All over, dude.

SPEAKER_00 41:44

All over.

SPEAKER_02 41:46

And will it ever end?

SPEAKER_00 41:48

No.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

It will just keep piling on and piling on and piling on.

SPEAKER_01 41:53

But we'll be obviously, you know, as we go into future episodes, way more organized, unless some crazier shit happens, which it will. Uh, but like, Portal is a nightmare. Oh my god, Portal's nightmare. Media just a nightmare. Football, like, you got the draft coming up, dude, and like you're talking about some of these players being taken you didn't even hear about.

SPEAKER_03 42:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

That are all of a sudden rising the boards, which by the way, exciting times for the draft. Uh, my Arizona Cardinals might be taking Ty Simpson, so I've never been more in my entire life. Uh big Ty Simpson fan. As we discussed on this podcast, Alabama fan. So, but I think it's just like, yeah, man, I it's tiring. Because it's not sports anymore, it's business.

SPEAKER_03 42:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

It is. It's always been. Oh no mistake, it's always been a business. But you were able to keep the curtain closed. But now everything's out in the open. And it's disgusting.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

Yeah, it's it's rough. I mean, like we keep saying, unless you start putting some rules in.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 43:06

But yeah, I think a good way to kind of bring this episode to a close would love to talk football because believe it or not, basketball transfer portal, you know, we're in the thick of it, but it's gonna come to an end here soon. College baseball, I love following it, but I'm not extremely knowledgeable. We'll touch touch on it a little bit, but there's only so much. I mean, ESPN doesn't even cover it.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

So, like Yeah, we're getting close to College World Series, and that that's that's an exciting time. That's always fun to watch. So, like, we'll we'll talk a little bit more about like maybe even that, like, again, to your point, I I don't follow college baseball like that to know enough about like portal play, but like there are some teams that you're kind of like, how are you good?

SPEAKER_02 43:54

Yeah, I I mean I feel like baseball. Baseball and volleyball, like you said, women's volleyball has seen some teams that are like bringing in those big transfers in women's basketball too. But I feel like baseball is like one of the last of like the big men's sports. Maybe lacrosse. I I I don't know. Could not tell you about lacrosse. About lacrosse. But baseball, I feel like you still see Southern Mississippi is ranked in the top 25 this year. You've got, I think, I don't know about Cal Fullerton, but like some of the like Santa Barbara, Cal Santa Barbara, and some of those other schools out there that can't compete in other any other sport, still put together good teams, and I always say it, there's a randomness to baseball. You could have the best team out there. I mean, with the exception of maybe the Dodgers recently. You could have the best team out there, and you're still not guaranteed to win. Even more so than any other sport. There's just so much random. You could have your best player hit three home runs that game, but your ace who's on the mound gives up five.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

You know, like you never know what the how the game is gonna go. But anyway, circling back, wanna get to the end here, wrap up this episode. Would love to hear your draft predictions tease the college football season because I feel like just about every program's had their spring game. Every team, you could kind of get a sense, or a better sense at least, who's gonna start, who's gonna be quarterback, who's gonna kind of crazy uh I forget if it was Florida. No, Ohio State. Their fans, back to the media piece, are up in arms because in the spring game their backup QB was throwing it better than Saiyan.

SPEAKER_01 46:07

Yeah, and Arch Manning threw four interceptions. Like, you know, like one, Ohio State's Caleb Downs should be the number one pick. I know. A lot of people are like, what? That's pretty high. Yeah, go watch the film. He might be a generational type safety. Like, we haven't seen a guy like that in a long time. And I know people are like, you're an Alabama fan, you're okay with saying that? Yeah, because he gave Alabama a great year. Yeah. But you want me to hate a kid? Jackass. Get your head. Like, yeah, you know, I think he's I think he's a number one pick. He's a stud, man. He's really good. Uh it's not gonna happen. I think they had a nine to the Saints or something, some weird shit like that, but it is what it is. I think he should be number one. But uh and I think somebody will take Jeremiah.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

Like top five?

SPEAKER_01 47:04

Yeah. Yeah. Which is he is a very good football player. But as we all know, running backs don't have a great shelf life. I say that. I mean they're people, they're trying, you know, they just take a fucking beating. College football, you know that's my bread and butter. I are are we really gonna judge it hard? Because like Arch threw four picks, but he really came on at the end of the year last year. Like, it's hard for me to go, oh wow, he sucks. Like, pump the brakes, dude. Julian Saiyan wasn't spinning the rock great, fine. Yeah, all right. You also see schools on the adverse side of things that their starters look phenomenal in spring games and then they suck ass. Uh, I don't know who was LSU's guy last year that everybody loved so much and hyped him up and got benched? Nussmeyer. And nothing against the kid. He took so much hate, dude, and I hated it for him. All I'm saying is, hey, shocker, we like to loop stuff back around here on future funds. Media spun it to where Nussmeyer was a god, and then when he didn't play well, they tanked his ass quick. Like, all I'm saying is, let's pump the brakes if we're gonna criticize a spring game.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

I think it was like, I looked at it and it was like the backup went eight for nine, and Sane went seven for nine, and had an interception. I was like, they threw nine passes, and you're freaking out.

SPEAKER_01 48:34

Yeah, my god, dude.

SPEAKER_02 48:35

Also, I mean, I did see some videos of Lagway in practice, and this was no secret to anyone before, but my god, that guy cannot throw a spiral and save his life.

SPEAKER_01 48:48

Lagway's so interesting because he is physically gifted. I think he has he has a cannon, yeah, but so did Jamarcus Russell. The only difference was Jamarcus could put that shit on a rope in college, and then the pro system just didn't fit. So, like college football is gonna be fun this year.

SPEAKER_02 49:10

I'm really excited. Who do you think I'm gonna ask you two questions? We'll start with NFL first. Not who because you just said down to number one. Or who you think should be number one. Where do you think it was a go? I know you're not sold on him. I know some people aren't sold on him after his pro day. Do you think he drops?

SPEAKER_01 49:40

It's not that I don't think he couldn't be a good quarterback in the NFL. I want to say that because like I also think he's a pretty incredible person. Oh, incredible. Uh I don't know him. For all I know, he's fucking Mike Vicking it behind the scenes. I don't know. But like I think that if you watch him, he's a very good quarterback. Is he a franchise-changing QB? I don't see that. Like, quite frankly, like there are some people that here's a name, I'll throw out for you. Big Ben. I know you you're Steelers.

SPEAKER_03 50:19

My man.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

Was he a great QB? What made him great is he was fearless. He took shots that other people wouldn't, and he threw a lot of picks for it, and he got a lot of shit for it. Mendoza doesn't do that. He's a safe football player. In the NFL, man, like, safe doesn't get you paid. Safe doesn't get you wins. Like these guys that are forcing the football and taking shots, like, I think what people think he could be, correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe you see this. I think people think he could turn into Sam Darnold. In terms of size, he can take a hit in the pocket, he's a strong arm, he can push the ball downfield. He's not as athletic as Sam is, but like, pocket presence-wise, they I think they kind of see this big guy who can like stand and take and also stand and deliver. But I don't see that. I really just don't see it. Their run game was really good, their defense was incredible. Like, you know, I'm gonna say this just because they played Alabama. Bama gave them some shit defensively. Ohio State gave them some shit defensively. Iowa had them beat. Penn State had them beat in the regular season. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:34

That Penn State came out.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

Like, if you didn't have a miraculous toe tap in the end zone for a tutty, you lose Penn State. Iowa was up with two and a half minutes left, and they had a miraculous comeback there. And everybody was like, wow, he really led that drive. I'm not saying he didn't, I'm just saying the whole body of work of the game. He didn't do shit.

SPEAKER_02 51:55

You want to bring up another game? National Championship.

SPEAKER_01 51:58

Yeah, very true.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

People were like, oh, like he willed that team. I'm like, didn't he throw like multiple interceptions?

SPEAKER_01 52:08

It wasn't a great they their defense, man.

SPEAKER_02 52:11

Dude, like he said it, it remains to be seen with them. I think there's potential. Another former Indian QA, Pennett at Washington when people he was going into the draft after that Washington run, and people were like, dude, this this guy's legit. This is the best quarterback. And I'm like, okay. The best quarterback just faced who they face. Michigan in the Natty or Michigan in the semis?

SPEAKER_01 52:40

No, we lost to Michigan in the semis, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

And got he got smoked. Michigan! Like, I don't even think they scored in the first half.

SPEAKER_01 52:49

And then, yeah, and then he made it a game in the second half. I think Penix has a chance. But again, different player. He takes chances.

SPEAKER_00 52:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:59

He takes chances. Mendoza is going to be a good backup. I do not see him as a starter in the NFL. Unlike my boy.

unknown 53:09

Ty Simpson.

SPEAKER_01 53:10

Ty Simpson. I'm going to put bias aside for real. If you watch the film with Ty, when he's healthy, he is one of the better quarterbacks in this class. I'm not saying he's the best, but he's one of the better ones. Yeah. I think that Kate Klovnik has a chance to be a very good pro as well. I really do. He puts it.

SPEAKER_02 53:29

He's going to be like the Brady. I'm not saying he's going to be Brady, but he's going to be like the Brady or like the uh Purdy, where so many teams are going to have. He's going to get drafted in like the last draft.

SPEAKER_01 53:40

He kind of reminds me of Drew Brees.

SPEAKER_02 53:42

Yeah.

unknown 53:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:44

Yeah. No, like actually.

SPEAKER_01 53:46

But Ty Simpson reminds me of uh Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers. Here's a name Ty Simpson reminds me of. Has a better deep ball and made a little bit better decisions, though. Bo Nicks. And he turned out to be great. He was good for the Bronx. Like, I'm just saying, Mendoza, what's his ceiling?

unknown 54:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:09

Justin Herbert? Great quarterback. But he's not going to win one. Is he good? Yeah. Was he also on the trade block not long ago? Yeah. So, like, I'm just saying, let's calm down on the Mendoza train a little and see where it plays out. This is not a great quarterback class, anyways. Next year's gonna be crazy. Next year we'll, yeah, Jesus, dude. We'll have so much to talk about this time next year.

SPEAKER_02 54:37

Of that last question, then we'll wrap it up. You being a Bama fan, who's starting QA?

SPEAKER_01 54:48

Naturally, I want to say Keelon Russell because he's just a so if anybody saw any of the A-day game, it was like, whoa. He looked really, really good. But I like Austin Mack, man. He came in in a playoff game that everybody was like, ew gross, and like marched us down the field and put some points on the board with a field goal. And like, I think there's a respect factor there that he is older and like you got to kind of see what he can do. I think when it comes down to it, I could see us going quarterback by committee game one, and then Keelon takes the reins. I think by the time we come up to Kentucky, week two, Keelon Russell will be the starting quarterback in the SEC test. That's what I think. Awesome account's just as good. That's all I know. They're in a good spot, QB. I think we have a good talent. I think the Bohr's got his team. Last year, you still had some, and we do still have some Saban mindset on this team, even. I think there's something like four players from Saban's era left on this team. This is the Bohr's team now. Let's see what he can do before we start panicking type shit.

SPEAKER_02 55:59

I like it. I like it a lot. Super excited to uh dive more into football here. We'll definitely recap the NFL draft next week. Uh best of luck to all those teams. But uh hope you enjoyed this wild card of an episode. Definitely uh we're all over the place. But uh as always, I'm Howie. Well, and this has been Future Funds. Peace.