Future Funds

#7 - We Are Back Baby!

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0:00 | 52:33

After a little break from your hosts we dive into all the latest news  college athletics. Sorsby. College World Series. New Athletic Directors. As well as the highly anticipated college football season.

SPEAKER_00

All right, and we're officially live again. It's been a brief hiatus. Uh I'm Howie. Well. Back again with another episode of Future Funds. I'll say it's been almost a month, unfortunately. But I mean always circles back to sports. We always like to relate it back, you know, things going on at work. And we talked about like the industry and how someone can break into it. Well, I think one of the things that definitely separates people, especially in sports, not exclusive to sports, but your willingness to go above and beyond. So, you know, whether that's staying a little after or, you know, things come up and life happened.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, life happened. But here's the thing. And I think a cool thing is is something that we've been talking to you guys about. We wanted to do. We've got our Instagram up and running. Absolutely. Drop it a follow if you haven't already. We've made some posts on there already. Yeah. And like, look, things have happened. Things have happened. How he's moved.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, that that took takes time. I mean, we're not monsters. We go on vacation. Like, I mean, these are things that it's like, but to his point, we talk about breaking in the industry, right? We try, we try to get these done pretty much after our work day. Yeah. We're filming these episodes after a full full nine to five. But like again, sports happens. Like, there's meetings that run after five. There's things that happen. And we, you know, we're not gonna cry wolf here. Like we love talking to you guys. We love doing this. It's this is not an inconvenience by any means. But there's some nights where we get after it a little bit later than others. Or, you know, now the weekend episodes are fun as hell because it's the weekend and it's like, hell yeah, we might have a couple brewski, watching the game, yeah, things like that. But we're coming back to you, and it's just gonna be a rift today. You know, there's a lot going on in sports, and quite frankly, the fun shit, the World Cup, big soccer fans, big couple of Italians here, which not great. Not great. No, definitely. Not great for us right now. Uh, but dude, Lionel, the GOAT, badass, broke the World Cup record, goal scorer. Really?

SPEAKER_00

I didn't see that actually.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I've been a little bit out of the loop. I saw like America's success. Definitely I've uh been kind of riding that way.

SPEAKER_02

Better nice. Uh it's it's cool. The World Cup's going, I I've as you know, I love soccer, and I've been watching the shit out of it. And like, again, man, some teams showing up, you can tell they're getting a little older. Like Croatia, dude. I don't know what the fuck is going on with them, but they're disappointing as hell.

SPEAKER_00

I thought uh who's uh Mocha Modric? Yeah, Modric. I thought he was retired. I was like, I the first match, I was like, damn, like Croatia kind of dropped the ball here. Is uh what's his face like still playing? I know he was getting up there.

SPEAKER_02

The defense is slug. Like they had some dogs on defense that one miracle run they had not long ago. Yeah. Uh in Paris, it was a little younger. He's getting older now. They're striker, like they're just getting older. But some of the like Portugal. That's Belgium too.

SPEAKER_00

They're getting old. Like, and and I I mean that I know what was that? Like, probably the last the eight-year one and the one four years ago, both of those Belgium came in as like big favorites, and then but some of those names I don't even think the Hazard brothers are playing for Belgium.

SPEAKER_02

I'm pretty sure Eden retired or didn't make the squad. Like really, yeah, and I mean that guy was on a FIFA Yeah, like top player in the world. Yeah, I mean, so it's we won't we could dissect the World Cup all day. Uh we're in the college space, more so is what like we want to talk about. Pros kind of segue into college, things like that. World Cup's been really fun, and we will continue to touch on it as it goes on in our episodes. Uh college baseball just ended. Yeah, there that's tying into the funders.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I I was I was gonna say there's so much, you know, and I I guess I do want to talk about baseball, but before we get into that, I want to kind of circle on the industry piece. Feel like this is the time where there have been some AD openings that we've talked about over the past couple months. Now a big one, UK just hired their AD, which to me came out of the woodworks. Like it would be it was kind I don't want to say random, but out of nowhere, it was like, yep, we got our guy. Um, and I feel like there's just a bunch of other schools too in general that are either looking. I saw what did I send you? Oh, Stanford.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, CEO, yeah, chief development officer.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, they're they're just now starting their development, I guess, department.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know what they were doing before. You know, we talked about that. You guys will remember in a in a previous episode about ranking. Yeah, Stanford for some odd reason gets unanimous number one vote for a lot of people. And uh again, I say fuck it, and I don't believe that, but whatever, do you? And that's an interesting piece to me, the CDO.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Because for the number one quote unquote department in the country, what have you been doing? That's a weird one. What have you been doing? Like, how are you so successful? Because if you've been out there to that school, you go south, it's a shithole. Like, the school is the nice area in that area, so it's like, or it's tech business-y, but like, I don't know that but again, touching on the the Michigan State UK piece, if you follow anything in that world of leadership moves, it's a very interesting thing's unfolding there, too, because the president's going to Clemson, from my understanding. Okay. Not yet, though. Meaning that AD can't come to UK till the president goes to Clemson.

SPEAKER_00

Well, did you see what uh who was it? Uh Izo spoke up about it. He's like, this is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it sucks.

SPEAKER_00

He was pissed about it. Yeah. And that's a guy who I don't want to say he's got one foot out the door, but like he's on the tail end of his career. He's he's been pretty open about I want to make one more run. Like, I I want one more. They it's been a really long time since he's made a deep march run. Yeah, I thought last year they could have, but and uh and now I I I feel for the guy because in his position, you gotta kind of be like, I want to, but I don't I keep getting stripped of the resources. Like what's he doing?

SPEAKER_02

See, this is the interesting thing to me. Yeah. What what we've seen this shit lame Kiffen, we've seen crazy moves happen in college athletics over the past couple years since it's become the Wild West. Soresby was almost reinstated. He wasn't, there was a lot going on there. I mean, there's just so much shit. Who's to say that this is even a done deal at Michigan State with the I mean arguably two of the biggest brands in the space for their respective sports and a massive thing, a big turnaround. He was only there a year. He started this monster program in the Spartan Ventures, which is all over. And to a lot of you guys, if this sounds like jargon, you're like, what the fuck is this stuff? Feel free to shoot us a DM us. Like, yeah, we'll we'll talk more in depth if that's what you want to do. D1 Ticker. Yeah, I mean, there's a ton, but like, you know, I I think we've seen crazy shit already happen. What's to say there's not crazier in like the biggest argument. People call them a blue blood in UK, but like, who's to say they don't get scorned right here and this guy never comes? That I'm just saying, yeah, wild ride if that happens, because now you're about we're in July, people. Holy shit, crazy to say that, but we're about to say today.

SPEAKER_00

I was like, next week is July, like new fiscal year for schools. Hey. Uh I I love the summertime, but I got an itch, and that itch is college football.

SPEAKER_02

College football, baby.

SPEAKER_00

My crimson time, baby. Now, so so yeah, and I mean, just a brief overview of obviously the Stanford piece, the the uh UK piece, when we talk about like development, um, I think there, you know, when I shifted into the college space, I didn't know what development necessarily meant. I always said I wanted to go into development, but at the pro level, development means like partners, sponsors, um, new ideas, you know, creating those new ideas. Now, not to say that there aren't those sponsorship companies and programs. Uh, we talked about that, like JMI, Learfield. They handle that. They call themselves development, and that is development. But what we're kind of talking about, especially with the Stanford piece, what makes it interesting is fundraising. And especially in the space of NIL now, what are we, two, three years in at this point?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, well, Will Wade brought it to the forefront, quite frankly. Like, yeah, that's what kind of spurned all this, and that was however long ago that was. Yeah, like four years ago is when you got caught, some shit like that.

SPEAKER_00

So, I mean, look, people, Coach O said, we go in the front door now instead of the back door for the money. And I don't think there's any doubt, like there are some schools that it was more prevalent than others. I think Stanford might be one where it was always we can sell you on our education. And it's kind of like if you're going to an Ivy League school, right? They don't give athletic scholarships. So it's like, okay, I'm walking out of here with an education and I'm set up with a job. I think Stanford has been able to have that standard up until the past two or three years, and now it's like, well, here's the difference.

SPEAKER_02

And this is interesting, and I'd love you know, for funders to weigh in on this too. There's two schools, Stanford obviously being one, that are considered Ivy Leagues that are in the Ivy League because they're in mega conference. Vandy. True. Here's the difference. Stanford had sustained success in football for a long period of time before NIL. Why did Vandy not? Vany's in Nashville, downtown Nashville, California, I guess, sure, but okay, whatever. Arguably the best conference in the country in the SEC versus what was the Pac-12, and now they're in the Big Ten or ACC. They're in the ACC.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Like, it's so interesting to me. What were they doing before NIL to make them so good? There's a question right there in itself to recruit top talent, Christian McCaffrey's of the world, Andrew Lux of the world, these guys that were monsters. David Montgomery. Like, there's some ball players that came out of Stanford back in the day, and like it's very interesting to see how did they have success, but Bandy didn't. And it's it's weird because now you flip into the NIL era, Stanford fucking sucks.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Bandy's on the up because they're investing in a lot of their sports, their facilities, they're doing a lot of these things.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that is interesting.

SPEAKER_02

This comes to the development piece. A lot of people have universities across the country donor fatigue where they're there's going back to the same donors and they're like, damn, I can't just keep giving money. I can't keep doing this. Yeah. Now, am I crazy in thinking the younger generations that are coming up don't feel as inclined to give money because bars, social media, friends, houses, things like that are cheaper? The economy's ass cheeks. It is. And like you have this constant swirl. How do you educate those people to say it's not for that, it's for the love of your school? When in reality, the love of their school has become a pro model. True. That's where the hurt is right now.

SPEAKER_00

I think it I'll say this with Stanford too. There's my two two thoughts that pop in my head. With Vanderbilt, you're in Tennessee. Maybe not everyone's from Tennessee, but you are. You're in that state. I feel like when push comes to shove, it's still like, even if you're working a white collar, an office job, you you got that grit to you a little bit. You're in the Southeast, not the deep south, but the Southeast. Stanford, I look at it, Silicon Valley, one. How many of the billionaires that go there? Quote unquote, I'm air quoting, go there, because how many of them drop out? How many of them Wahlberg it or whatever, and it's sophomore year, and they come up with that big idea, and they're like, screw this, why am I even bothering paying when I already know all this stuff? And two, I need to phrase this properly. Um, how many of those people that go there for academics care about sports too?

SPEAKER_02

No, that's a that's a good, I mean, you do get a lot of that's a great point, and I agree with you on that, because you get a lot of foreign students at these more academic schools, right? Different demographics you got because it's a little bit more educated. Now, what I'm saying does not indicate that they don't fall in love with sports.

SPEAKER_00

No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_02

I didn't love soccer. Let me speak on behalf of the majority of Americans here. They could give a fuck about soccer. There's a lot of them that don't give a shit. That'd be like me saying, college football, lacrosse is where it's at. Hold on a second. No, it's not. Is it growing? Absolutely. Do I think it's a cool sport? Yeah, I do. When I was growing up in Alabama, was it a fucking option for me to play? Fuck no, it wasn't. Like, I mean, that's just a part of it. That has nothing to do with anything other than it's a different demographic, right? So, like, to your point, but Stanford, man, they were the pinnacle of football. Like, they were packed out on games, everybody knew who they were. David Shaw, like there was some reputation there as well. Absolutely. Whereas Vandy, you're in the Southeast. You got UT in your state, you gotta compete with them. But man, there was a time where Memphis had stadiums packed out because Mike Morvell had them rocking, and other coaches had them good, and like Memphis is a different animal.

SPEAKER_00

That stadium's gonna be sick too when they finish.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah. But so, like, it is so interesting to me. Vandy has just taken just such a shit on themselves for so long, and now they're like, hold on a second. We're gonna come up in this space, we're gonna sell out our premium, we're gonna sell out season tickets for the first time. We're gonna flip a five-star quarterback from the University of Georgia to come to Vanderbilt. That is insane to me because I'm telling you, man, Deep South guy from Alabama, when I saw Vandy on the schedule, I was like, thank God we get a bye week. Yeah. Now I'm like, I can't believe we fucking lost to them as a number one ranked team in the country. Yeah. That's insane. But that's the flip, and that's what NIL's been doing. So, like, development's coming from somewhere. Yeah. Why is Stanford just now thinking of, or has it been they've always had development and now they're trying to revolutionize and get a CDO like a company would have in a pro model?

SPEAKER_00

Boom. I'll say this, and then I I want to ask you a question about Bama, and that'll segue into our baseball piece because I definitely want to talk about the College World Series. I was glued to that. Now I know a lot of people don't necessarily care about it, but I think it's interesting nonetheless what unfolded. Um I became more glued as it went on.

SPEAKER_02

And and we'll talk about it in a second. Yeah. I'll tell you why I became more glued.

SPEAKER_00

Um I think the Vanderbilt thing is the SEC factors into it. I think the SEC has become, you know, especially since the Pac-12 disbanded, I I want to say kind of R.I.P. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I was born in Phoenix, so I have an affinity for the Pac-12.

SPEAKER_00

I wish. I I say prayers every night. Like, please bring it up. What a time to be a lot. Um but I I really think let's say the college football playoff, because the SEC has been in it about just about every single year. I think that's really what has driven and allowed Vanderbilt to take these leaps just because now students want to go there.

SPEAKER_02

Also, real quick segue, fuck ESPN. Uh terrible news. You can find news at come to this podcast, go to any podcast if you're trying to talk sports. They wrote an article I saw about how the SEC are is it over or is the drought gonna be over this year for a title? And I'm like, it's been three years, dude. Learn to fucking write because there's a lot of schools that haven't sniffed a natty from conferences in way longer, and they were dominant. So pump the bucking brakes, suck my ass, DSPN. Suck my ass. Outside of Pat McAfee. Suck my ass.

SPEAKER_00

I'm gonna continue. So I think the SEC definitely helps. Now, I'm gonna play devil's advocate here. I did see something. How Alabama has like one of the smallest NIL budgets in the SEC.

SPEAKER_02

Very true.

SPEAKER_00

So, in now, obviously, you're a fan. How long do you think they can sustain that? I personally I'm gonna say this before you give your piece. I think that's kind of like a Stanford situation where they can recruit off of name for football at least, for everything else, okay. But I mean, one, how long do you think that can last? And then we can go into Bama baseball. That overperformed, in my opinion. I I'd agree with that.

SPEAKER_02

They overperformed in the way they went out on paper might not look pretty. The fact that they were there, the fact that they produced LeBron.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

That kid is a fucking animal.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Bama baseball was not producing players like that. I promise you, Bama Baseball was a bandy. Uh and they were like, oh, Bama's on the schedule. Thank God. Home series win. Like they they just weren't ever very great at baseball. So the fact that they're even there and ranked in the country, and that was a big win for people, and like, yada yada, down the list. But like on the football piece, you know, even basketball, if you want to go that route, like to your point, there's a reason that players are still going to Alabama. Yeah. Right? There's a reason that that's happening. LeBaron Phylon got drafted by your 76ers. Love the pick. You did love it. And to play to see him play with Tyrese, that will be a fun offense to watch.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I think that the fact that he's even a first-round pick from Alabama, Alabama basketball used to be a joke, man. Gottfried had some good teams, but like, dude, no. And so the Boer football. Bama fans are divided. Some people like myself are smart. Uh, not calling the rest of you guys idiots, but let's pump the fucking brakes on wanting him gone because he's done great as a coach for filling in for the greatest coach of all time. And everybody, I'm pretty sure how many teams would like to have Lottie or Brooks, the wide receiver on their team? Would you say quite a bit? Probably. Okay, cool. Would you say that a lot of people want London Simmons on their team, the big defensive end? Absolutely. That was a freak. Yeah. Yeah. Both those guys were not ranked until they committed to Bama and then became three stars.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And now they're first team all SEC, second team all SEC freshmen. That's coaching, baby. That's figuring out how to make the most out of your fucking talent, which is what Kurt Signetti prided himself on. And we suck his dong down.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

Does NIL play a factor? Absolutely, but I do think that's only a part of the equation, which is why Alabama will continue to have success because of what you said. And it's the brand and it's the fundraising and it's the cap. And it's the fact that when you go to the state of Alabama, if you're north of Montgomery, you're nine times out of ten an Alabama fan. You go south of Montgomery, typically they're Auburn fans because it's regional and shit like that. But here's the thing there will always be Alabama fans scattered throughout.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

Always. You wear an AU out in fucking Colorado, people go, the fuck is that a Broncos hat? You wear an Alabama A, they go, oh, Alabama fan.

SPEAKER_00

Roll down tie.

SPEAKER_02

That's a completely different animal, right? Like so NIL is playing a big factor. NIL's changing the landscape, but there's going to be brands that are going to be brands, man. It's the same concept of Michigan, Ohio State. You can change the coach, you can change whatever you want. They could get three stars. They're never going to be terrible. Let's start there, right? Now, good, great, fantastic are different.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But those programs will never be terrible ever.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Because of the brand name. That's where we need to continue to like think. Because yeah, you can have quite. quote unquote new bloods. Here's a flip question for you. You're a lot of people are like, can Alabama sustain it with the small NIL? Okay. Can Indiana?

unknown

True.

SPEAKER_02

Who has a better chance of being great for longer?

SPEAKER_00

Definitely Bama.

SPEAKER_02

You see what I'm saying? Yeah. So like it goes into baseball though. I think baseball is a much more affected sport by NIL than football. Really? The reason I say that is because some of the greatest NFL players of all time went to schools people never heard of. True. Let's not forget Carson Wentz took a team to a fucking Super Bowl before his ACL injury. He went to North Dakota State That's my point. First time FBS school this year. Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So think about that.

SPEAKER_02

Think about that, right? Like some of the greats as a Cardinals fan, David Johnson, Northern Iowa, turned out to be an all-pro running back. Not everybody goes to these monster schools and like quarterbacks especially. Like some of those guys, Geno Smith, man, is he a fucking Hall of Famer? No. Is he a good NFL quarterback? I don't know. West Virginia. Yeah. And yeah, you can go, well, they were good teams back then. I'm like, yeah, they're playing in the Big East. And the man has and he's had a really good career. Like what I'm saying is like it doesn't necessarily football doesn't necessarily matter. Yeah. Where kind of like basketball. Like you can get Alan Graves went high in the draft last night. Santa Clara.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Jalen Williams. Yeah. Tony Snell. I'm not saying he panned out. What I'm saying is he was the what, number two, number one overall pick in the NBA draft from New Mexico? Are UNLV wherever he came to? Tony Bennett. Tony Bennett, sorry.

SPEAKER_00

Tony Cavs. Tony Bennett.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, UNLV. So like I'm saying it's a little different. Whereas baseball, maybe I'm crazy. NIL's affecting that sport to where there is a dominant conference and it's clear as fucking day.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Let me paint you a picture. Let me paint you a picture, funders, and now I can talk about why I was glued to the series more. Oklahoma had a dick in a cow's butt chance of going to where they went to making it out of the SEC in general. They were like down there with the go to the standings in the SEC and if you look at the bottom you're going to be shocked at some of the names because some of those names were ranked throughout the year.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And they were at the bottom bandy was at the bottom dude. LSU was at the bottom. Yeah LS teams that were at the bottom that you're like that doesn't make sense. They're baseball that's how competitive the SEC was this year. And guess what? You saw an unranked nine seed knock off an ACC best and did it effortlessly.

SPEAKER_00

Oklahoma smoked their ass. Not to mention they beat every conference champion. Now that's why I I've I've said this to you time and time again I like baseball because I don't I'm not going to say it doesn't matter the NIL. It's obviously changing. I've seen a lot of tweets about people entering the transfer portal which I think stinks because baseball we've talked about it that was this is the last frontier like once baseball falls it's it's going to it's going to be really sad. Where's my Cal State Fullerton's yeah I mean we southern Mississippi is still kicking. Now what happened to them they got shown the door real quick real quick. Real quick there there is a couple others that we got Troy that made it um badass yeah there I'm trying to there there was a couple others for sure but yes it is it's it's changing it's disappearing um for sure for sure that's why I was glued to it though yeah because of Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Not because how he knows this I think I've said it here to you guys before Texas and Oklahoma are still not SEC to me. No. Yeah they're not in the SEC but they're not SEC to me Oklahoma being that on that big of a run I mean guys hitting home runs that haven't hit one for the second half of the season and like they were on fire make no mistake but I think that shows just what NIL and the talent level in the SEC looks like you can be a bottom team and then go wax dick. And I want to say this too like a lot of the once we got to Omaha that Eric the SEC cannibalized itself.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02

They were beating each other out of spot.

SPEAKER_00

I looked at the bracket as we're going into Omaha I'm like okay this is awesome we had like six or seven SEC teams there and I'm like but wait how'd they all end up on the same side of the bracket there were two on the one side and then the rest were just all playing each other on the other side and obviously it like that's what it boils down to. But I think Oklahoma winning is the perfect example of kind of what I was trying to say before of baseball there's a certain level of unpredictability. You've seen it in Moneyball if you've never seen the movie you need to watch it right now. Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill are phenomenal in it. I think the story in general is amazing because yeah you can build like a crazy basketball team a crazy football team honestly you can field a crazy baseball team at the end of the day for every sport you still got to play the games and I feel like baseball is one where you you can go through streaks as a great player. Like Ted Williams Hall of Famer one of the greatest hitters of all time batted 300 his his career and he's a Hall of Famer. Like all these players in the Hall of Fame for baseball only succeed three out of ten times when they're at the plate. Same thing for pitchers like they they go through and that's what happened with Oklahoma. Everything came together at the end of the season. So I think that's why maybe NIL is still going to affect baseball but not to a certain extent because there's this level of unpredictability that you never know what's going to happen.

SPEAKER_02

What I think happens with baseball is the unpredictability stays which is why we saw Oklahoma right but it changes the conference landscape. I think we're going to see more SEC which we already have make no mistake baseball's been ran through the SEC for a while.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But we're going to see that stay because now even your worst teams are better than the best teams in other conferences. That's what I think NIL changes for baseball. To your point the unpredictability stays. Oh yeah but I think you're going to see it doesn't mean the ACC or the one off Southern Mississippi can't win a Natty. What it means is they're going to have to beat an SEC team to do it because it's going to be a bracket heavy of SEC. That's what's going to happen. Yeah Kentucky who the fuck Kentucky baseball a couple years ago whatever it was go to Omaha for the first time because of NIL. Because they got players that again unpredictability but they still got players that could hit they still got players that could field they still got players that could do this. To your point I mean as you know I love him he is he is hands down in my top three favorite players in MLB Fernando Tatis. I think he just hit his first home run a couple weeks ago in like fucking 200 at bats or something ridiculous. He was just on a dry spell man he couldn't do shit he couldn't hit a homer to save his life and that but so it happens it happens 100 my favorite player Bryce Harper it's 1A1B between him and Shohei but like Bryce like he's a whiffer man if he doesn't connect he doesn't give a shit he's striking out. That's a fucking fact he's made his living off big bombs yeah in his defense you know so like everybody's seen it if he gets up to bat he'll go 0 for four in the fucking World Series.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And it's just like well that's what you get with him though. You know you know he's not going to do it all the time. He's good enough but it's unpredictable. Yeah right Paul Skeens getting figured out a little bit by some people. Some people are starting to kind of understand his rhythm a little bit more. Absolutely starting to hit him a little is he still a going to be probably a Hall of Fame pitcher? I would argue yes. Absolutely I know people might say it's too early to tell I don't know man he's just got that swag he's got that fire he knows his pitches are nasty. Oh like but it happens and I think like that's what glued me to the World Series a little bit more this year was just damn Oklahoma's doing what? Alabama's doing what Troy?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah if you've never been to Troy you're not missing shit. On your way to Troy go to Sykes and Khan if you're looking for some good deal on Patagonia and some fucking Carhart and shit like that. But like other than that man like wow cool very cool that's what I love about it. Yeah. But that's what NIL's taking from us. And we've touched on it before see they try to make it look like it's not because they give you like the four spot in region it goes to like Coastal Carolina or some yeah they so they're like oh no we didn't take it yeah you did dude that's a constellation bullshit. Don't give me that you're taking the fun out of it man yeah I miss college baseball. Again I love Arizona State Alabama's my team but that's the hometown team.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah they haven't been there in a long time they went on a nice little run this year. They were I don't know if you watched that that they were close.

SPEAKER_02

You miss them man you miss the good ones that weren't big ones.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah no long beach it's like March Madness. Yeah yeah literally literally Coast of Carolina where have they been yeah and I I mean I I know I I saw some people saying like oh that's why that's why a lot of people watch the College World Series this year because they're like this is the closest we're going to get to March Madness now. Because there still are the teams and it's the unpredictability again the unpredictability of baseball that gets the Troy there that gets old Miss who despite playing in the SEC like not or the Oklahoma or I will say despite being an SEC fan obviously Oklahoma isn't necessarily SEC seven straight though for the SEC which is kind of wild you talk about football oh is SEC going to break its drought fuck off and you can say baseball isn't a major sport all you want guess what I can I consider it somewhat major because I I feel like that's it generates revenue. I did feel bad for UNC because you know how many college world series finals they've made? A shitload 13. Yeah they've been good they changed they changed the number as they advanced from super regional they have never won one they have and I was like damn like that this would be awesome for the it to be their first time and I mean credit to them they I thought they were they had some of the best relief pitching in college baseball this year and then all of a sudden Oklahoma like figured it out that game three it was crazy.

SPEAKER_02

You know what Oklahoma did Royd's just dicked them yeah dicked them oh yeah that was just straight belt oh my god I mean I I don't even know that is the world's largest bukkake that's what that was like that was just a straight up yeah oh game two okay thanks for waking us up yeah we thought we could just beat your ass because game one we did that's on us let us show you what we do in game three real quick yeah I mean my God dude football yeah damn FCS football score yeah I mean it was just like I'm so excited man I'm so excited for football season yeah I I Crimson tied a lot of people are doubting us man a lot of people are just like what are they gonna do they're gonna go up to Kentucky and lose week two and then Georgia's gonna beat their ass and they got the second hardest schedule and like dude keep doubting I I trust in the board I trust Kane Womack I I think Ryan Grubb's got his offense right I think that shit is going to pop I do not think everybody's saying Lane Kiff and LSU Lane Kiff and LSU yes they're gonna be good and then he's gonna do what he always does when the big games come around not necessarily during the season maybe but when we get playoffs things like that or if he makes SEC championship he'll choke. He'll get out coach he'll he'll try to do too much and do shit like that. Quite frankly Pete Golden schemed that defense to make Lane look better yeah let's not forget like some of the old like if you're a football fan and you're an SEC fan you watch every game yeah I remember Kiffin struggled offensively against Kentucky almost lost that game. It was an interception called back that would have done it. I'm just saying like he's been out coach I'm fucking getting pumped.

SPEAKER_00

I know we're far away from it I was I was gonna say that that's the perfect segue though because I've been I've been seeing the uh the Instagram posts of like the SEC stadiums and it's like man I love summer but I got an itch like and that itch is college football and what are we 10 nine nine weeks away at this point which is awesome and uh I mean I'm I'm super excited but I guess for from there it's kind of like what do some of these teams look like especially when I want to talk about Texas Tech you go out you get your your guy in Soresby your guy your guy and it hits the fan like what do you do also Soresby it your life's just falling apart here. It's over for you buddy and it kind of exposes college athletics and how I don't want to say awful it's turning because that's definitely not the right word but how sad it is because this is a guy who is getting paid now but all i i in this story I'm thinking of the universities right like how come no one at Cincinnati stepped up and was like hey man like are you okay you know like you're not really supposed to be gambling to begin with and now you're throwing thousands of dollars in these bets and it's just like you know my hot take of told I I and this maybe some funders will see my side but what are we crucifying them for?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah all I'm gonna say is five six months ago we were talking about and very close to okaying college athletes being able to gamble on pro sports and now you look like a bunch of fucking morons when you were even proposing that idea because that was definitely going to end badly some ADs voted on it for it let's not let's not act like they didn't till SEC stepped in and nipped it. But like that was close. Yeah what they did to Pete Rose was crazy. Ridiculous so all I'm saying we're allowed to let college kids atone for reckless driving pointing fingers at you Georgia we're allowed they're allowed to come back to school for marijuana arrest which is illegal if I'm not mistaken in against NCAA bylaws. Oh yeah uh and there's a whole bunch of different shit that we let people come back kids are able to transfer after domestic violence cases and they can go to a new school uh once the school kicks them out and I'm not saying kids shouldn't get second chances that's exactly what I'm fucking saying. He gambled for his team to win and then the other shit he was gambling on was wild. I'm using this I don't think so but like Joey Chess not eating the most hot dogs. Like he was gambling on everything. Everything now whether the PR behind it was his agency telling him you're going to rehab because you got to look like you have a fucking heart and a soul and you have a problem yeah maybe that was the case. Maybe he really did have a fucking problem in the world of mental health you're gonna tell me that a kid telling you he has mental health issues is wrong. That's what we're saying now? Fuck him. The NFL's allowed to persecute him I love him Bama my guy Calvin Ridley only got a year and he's back making millions I'm just saying why and everybody's like cuz we gotta make an example out of somebody make an example out of the adults how about that shit how about hold a fucking adult accountable for letting the bottle open with the genie of NIL that fucked all this in the first place. True because it's never gonna get better. No this five for five rule passed I'm sure you saw yeah I was just they took a bunch of shit out of it. They did all like the foreign exclusion and all that if you play pro overseas you can't ever come to college like they took that out like it was a pick and choose fucking five for five rule. So lick my nuts Brendan Soresby whether it's a soft topic or not and a hot take you've got my support if you're truly going through something addiction related and you're truly going through something that you needed help for and you were just shunned and cast away like a piece of shit it starts with the coaching it starts with the adults Cincinnati what the fuck were you doing how did you not know true how did you not have your quarterbacks back all the way back to Indiana too. How did you not have this kid's back yeah you know all I'm saying it's a it's a as you know I have hot takes about mental health and things like that. I won't really touch on them here. That's not the place but the kid is saying he does we live in a world where everybody does we live in a world where therapy is a very viable option that everybody's forced to go to therapy go get help go do this talk to somebody that is the message we're sending why turn your back on a kid you just turned your back on somebody who said he needed help. Because now all of a sudden it's he doesn't need help he's he's just fucking covering his ass he's just doing this.

SPEAKER_00

Wow yeah okay so when you need help I'm gonna say the same thing you don't need help you lying bitch yeah all I'm saying is dude it's just a little bit like you don't want to let him play in college because it's a rule I get that make it about the rule but then to take it a step further and he's can't play in the NFL he can't do this there's no supplemental draft for him and like all this shit and like yeah I'm just saying man it is what it is that's a hot take that's a rant because I that shit just dude uh what are we doing pot calling kettle black I feel like it's just like it's when we like touched on the Trinidad Cam Chambliss case like everything is like very specific to that one person. It's like okay well how much it's almost like they look at it and they're like how much money are you going to bring in for us? How much revenue are you going to make for these TV deals? It's like eh well maybe Texas Tech has a a big following now if he was at Ole Miss where it's roped into ESPN and ABC with the SEC guarantee you they would have been like yeah do whatever you want honestly but you know it's not so I think they were kind of like oh let's be a little bit stricter I think the five the five years of eligibility rule is really interesting.

SPEAKER_02

I haven't looked too much into it yeah but it's interesting because someone brought up like well can people red shirt now still like what's the deal because essentially you're saying okay from when you're 19 now it's five years you know like or 18 or whatever I'm using this name because it's the most recent big name this rule gives Milan Momsilovich two more years who is that the big time shooting guard in the portal that Kentucky signed. Oh he was like the last big domino to fall him in uh Tundai from Baylor those those were the last two big dominoes to fall it gives him two more years because of the five for five rule so yeah technically you helped try to stop transfers but at the same time you also gave kids extra eligibility would you say that the NCAA is a rule abiding organization or do you think they're a bunch of suckwads I don't know if I would use the term suckwads but like would you say they've done their job no okay cool he uh Charlie Baker is making three point one five million that's without any incentives that's how much he's making that's when you total his fa his total compensation is that much to do what? Because for my where I sit, conferences have more power than the NCAA.

SPEAKER_00

What does the NCAA really do? Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

That's my fucking point. Why is he making $3 million? Shouldn't that go back to the employees at the institutions? All I'm saying is, I know pe I know people aren't making that much fucking money in very high positions. ADs eat. They eat well.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But a lot of senior staff, places like that, they ain't eating. People who get into sports, man, they're doing it for the love of the game. They're doing it because they love it. They're doing it because they want to be here. They're doing it because they want to help kids. They want to see these kids graduate, do this. Imagine how hard it is. Now I know it's their own fault for signing up for it. Imagine how hard it is to drive in to one of walk-on's making 300,000, and you won't see that for the next four years. I get it. They signed up for it. Fuck them. It's the same as a McDonald's employee. They signed up for it. Sure. Absolutely. Yeah. But the hours worked. Yeah. The time away from family. Pumping into other people's families. True. I'm just saying, man. It's we got a lot going. I love these riff episodes. I love them because there's a lot that we're going to get back. We're back. We do have some vacation coming up. Both Howie and I are out the same week.

SPEAKER_00

I think too, like now we can get in the mindset of college football. Everything, you know, baseball just ended. We've been talking a lot of basketball transfer portal. We didn't even talk about uh Dusty Nuts.

SPEAKER_02

Dude.

SPEAKER_00

That that is pretty wild.

SPEAKER_02

That's gonna be a good one.

SPEAKER_00

Um but yeah, no, there's there's uh there's a lot of excitement for the football season. And uh honestly, what what you just said there reminds me I started watching Yellowstone, right? And I'm on season two, and there's this scene where um Casey is like starting to become like a I don't even know like an uh uh officer for Well, yeah, AG. Yeah, yeah, yeah. An ag officer, and like he's like doing like ride-alongs and stuff, and they go to like this call, and the guy he's like shadowing, like shoots a kid. I I think you know, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Stupid bit, another shot his ass.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and it's just like um like John comes in and he's like, Alright, give me the give me the lowdown, and he's like, Was it justified? And he's like, Yeah, it was justified. Was it right? Absolutely not. I feel like that's where we're at with this. It's like, is it justified? Yeah, maybe. Is it right? Absolutely not. And like that's kind of what you what you just said.

SPEAKER_02

That's a great take.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's justified that we're paying players how much? I wouldn't say I I think this is one of my hot takes. Do I think payers should be played paid for name, image, and likeness? Yes. What they're get getting right now is not name in image and likeness. It is let me throw as much money as possible to get you to come and play here. I think you should, if you sell jerseys, if you sign autographs, if you do stuff like actual tangible things, maybe an ad campaign or social media posts, like, yeah, let's put a nominal value to each individual one. Not say we're gonna pay you four million this season and you're gonna do XYZ to quote unquote earn that. Right? Like that that's not what it is. I think name, image, and likeness, you get paid for each thing. And your real prize is the education.

SPEAKER_02

At the end of the day, like let's do this. Pay them minimum wage, pay them as a student worker who works their fucking football games, who rips their tickets, who scans in people, who helps with Wi-Fi problems, who's on the field for operation student workers.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Pay them like that when they go to practice. You clock in like a fucking McDonald's worker, you clock out when you're done, you'll get your scholarship money on top of that to get a free education. Emphasis on the free. And here's your name, image, and likeness. Gone. Because we'll take the fucking names off the back of your jerseys.

SPEAKER_00

True.

SPEAKER_02

How about that? And we'll go back to the old days where companies can't use you on their March Madness promotions and NCAA 14 because you bitch about that or not giving you enough money, and you're bitching about all this stuff. And like, quite frankly, we lived without the game for so long, it's not even really that talked about anymore. Like, they're having to bundle it with Madden to sell it. So all I'm saying is, you want to fix it? Pay them. Make them an employee. That's what the NFL is, it's an employee.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

They're also grown men who went through the process already. And a lot of those guys didn't get NIL money. A lot of those guys went to college and just fucking played football. Not saying they're they're like they don't want NIL. What I'm saying is if you want to be paid, let's pay you like a student, worker, because don't you think that's fair? You're still making money. Oh, yeah. You're putting a little chingling in your pocket. So there you go. You're getting your free ride. Your free ride. Free. And we'll just strip all the basics of NIO. Because, to your point, you just said it. It should be name, image, and likeness. Great. We'll take your fucking name off the back of your jersey. That solves that problem. Your image won't be used anywhere for anything else, other than your fucking photo on the website for your team. Which, guess what? You're gonna get paid for that. How are you getting paid for that, you might ask? Your image? You're clocking into work every day. There's your pay coming from your student hourly wage. Yeah. And your likeness? Student hourly wage. There you go. And honestly, you could even make a case where you can keep the name on the back of the jersey because you're getting paid because that's clocking in for work for a four-hour football game. True. You're technically working. What that does is that also saves some of these injuries because they're overworking kids too much. Well, now you're not going to go over and practice because you'd have to pay overtime. You're getting your work week, just like any normal human being would. But millions of dollars, man. You're pricing people out of literally their job. People pay for daycare, man, that work these fucking jobs and shit. Dude, these people have fucking lives and we're treated like pieces of shit because a college kid is worth more than the person that's trying to help that kid get through school. Athletes aren't giving us money. They ain't giving back to us. Are you fucking kidding me? I just saw how Jalen Hurts spent his first million. And I went, he's a good individual. And yes, I'm an Alabama fan. He also went to Oklahoma. I'm saying this because he's a good individual. $60,000 of that million, I know, a million's a lot of money. But if you look at his breakdown, $60,000 went to charity. He said, first and foremost, take care of that. Then his bills, then his mother's bills, his brother's graduation gift, tuition for his sister. It went to places that mean something. Not a fucking car, not a fucking house, not bitches.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I just man, we'll get into more of that. Like I just think a change is necessary and it just won't happen. It's too far gone.

SPEAKER_00

Oh no. No. We're off the deep end at this point. And we'll definitely be talking a lot about that over the summer, like I said. College football, TikTok, it's about to be here. Super excited for it. But yeah, I think that's where we'll leave it for today. Nice little riff episode. We'll dive deeper into college football expectations, too, because I know we touched on that like kind of right when the portal was closing up and whatnot. So we'll kind of go in as uh as teams announce their starters and stuff like that. But as always, uh I'm Howie.

SPEAKER_02

Walt.

SPEAKER_00

It's been another episode of Future Funds. See ya.