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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 12-22-25 · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: He's the Shan O'Connell Show, brought to you by Big
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Willies on Utah's number one sports talk and home of
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the Utes.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one af AM, a
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network. Heaven Monday, Body,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Shan O'Connell Show. Glad to have you
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: with us for what will be a bit of a
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: sprint today, Utah women's basketball taking on the Arizona Wildcats
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: right here on our airwaves. Coming up at noon, which
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: means pregame starts at eleven forty five, which means I've
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: got about forty two minutes to entertain and enlighten you today.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: I will do my best in that efforts. Because I
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: am egotistical. We did not schedule a guest for today.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I want you to just have to listen to me
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: the whole time. You'll also hear from James Peterson, who's
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: behind the glass here in our Broadway studios, on a
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: show that has brought to you today and every single
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: day by our friends over at Big Willies seventeen seventeen,
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  Speaker 2: South Maine. Big Willies is Utah's sports bar, Salt Lake
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  Speaker 2: City Sports bar a perfect place to cap off a
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  Speaker 2: holiday season. If you need New Year's plans, Big Willie's
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: going to have a great party going on. You're going
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  Speaker 2: to be looking for a place on New Year's Eve
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  Speaker 2: potentially to be watching that Vegas bul Big Willies is
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  Speaker 2: the right spot for you. Great food, great drinks, great people.
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  Speaker 2: A great time will be had at Big Willies. Telemosse
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  Speaker 2: sent you. They will take extra special care of you.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: All right. For the second year, we have had the
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: opening weekend of.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: A college football playoff featuring an expanded field of twelve teams.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: And depending on what lens you look at it through,
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  Speaker 2: fortunately or unfortunately, you had some games this weekend that
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I think illustrated perhaps another need for a tweak.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Now I say perhaps, and.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: I say fortunately or unfortunately, because there are people out
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: there in the sports world who think that we should
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: be nimble, and we should be flexible, and we should
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: be careful about getting married to certain systems for too long.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: And there are others who are like, look, you got
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: to give this thing time in a little bit of legs,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: and you didn't have that with last year. The automatic bids,
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  Speaker 2: the automatic byes going to the highest rank Conference champions,
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  Speaker 2: allowing for Arizona State and Boise State to have first
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  Speaker 2: round byes.
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  Speaker 1: There were people who didn't like that.
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  Speaker 2: Now there are people who don't like what they saw
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  Speaker 2: with the five to twelve matchup where the Oregon Ducks
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  Speaker 2: smashed James Madison fifty one to thirty four. And obviously
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: you had the two lane Old Miss debacle where Ole
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Miss beats Tulane forty one to ten.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Jake Rehetz laughing.
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  Speaker 2: That game, by the way, twenty of thirty five, three
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  Speaker 2: hundred yards, a touchdown and an interception, but twu Lane's
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  Speaker 2: defense couldn't stop Old Miss and it ends up being
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: a demolition.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think that it's always the right thing to
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  Speaker 2: do to say, well, if you lose the game, you
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  Speaker 2: didn't belong in the playoff in.
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  Speaker 1: The first place.
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  Speaker 2: Because if you put BYU in that spot, if you
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: put Notre Dame in that spot, if you put Vanderbilt
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: in that spot, if you put Utah in that spot,
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  Speaker 2: there's also the potential and according to Vegas, even the
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: likelihood that whatever of those teams ended up there is
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  Speaker 2: also going to lose that game. Now, we want more
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: competitive games and You don't want to see blowouts in
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: the first round of a playoff that is designed to
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  Speaker 2: find you the best team in the country and to
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  Speaker 2: have selected ostensibly the twelve best teams in the country
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  Speaker 2: to then participate in a mini tournament that allows you
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  Speaker 2: to crown at an eventual champion. James Madison, this is They
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: knew it coming in. The social media team knew it,
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  Speaker 2: the coaching staff knew it. The players, in their heart
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  Speaker 2: of hearts probably knew it that this is not a
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: very much winnable game for them. You probably need the
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Oregon Ducks to lay an egg see what I did
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  Speaker 2: there if you're going to beat them, and Dan Lanning's
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  Speaker 2: too good of a coach to allow that to happen.
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  Speaker 2: These Oregon players are too highly compensated to allow that
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  Speaker 2: to happen. And so it was kind of what a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people thought it would be. In fact, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: Oregon takes the foot off the gas pedal maybe a
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  Speaker 2: little bit too much to where if you didn't lose,
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  Speaker 2: or if you didn't watch this game, you thought it
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: was close, because it is. I mean, I guess technically
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  Speaker 2: it's a two score game because two touchdowns and a
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  Speaker 2: couple of extra two point conversions. It wasn't as close
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  Speaker 2: as the final score.
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  Speaker 1: Made it look.
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  Speaker 2: So the debate immediately fires back up, like, okay, do
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  Speaker 2: we need to have these group of five teams in?
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  Speaker 2: And look, I'm here for all of it eight seven
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: seven three five three zero seven hundred at realoc sports.
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  Speaker 1: I enjoy the discourse with.
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  Speaker 2: The differing opinions, especially because you were at one point
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  Speaker 2: not so long ago. If you're a Utah fan, you
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: were James Madison and you were too Lane. And if
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: you listen too much to certain people who keep telling
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: you that Utah has broke, you might still be in
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: some conversations. That's not me, by the way, I'm not
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  Speaker 2: disseminating that opinion or information.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the thing. You can't just dismiss these teams.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: That have earned their way under the current criteria into
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  Speaker 2: the dance. And I don't think it's actually good practice
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: that if you don't like the results of the rules
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  Speaker 2: that you put in place, that you just change the rules.
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  Speaker 2: That's a very like dictatorial practice. That's that's very much
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  Speaker 2: bully behavior.
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  Speaker 1: It's like.
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  Speaker 2: Anyone who's taller than this can ride the ride, and
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: then the tall kid, comes on. No, I don't watch
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: you on the ride, though, But what do you mean
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: it says if I'm taller than I have to be
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  Speaker 2: this taller ride the ride. I'm this tall to ride
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  Speaker 2: the ride, So let me on the ride. No, no, no,
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  Speaker 2: I don't watch you there. Why I can't really put
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: my finger on it. Because you meet the criteria, you
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: are tall enough.
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  Speaker 1: To ride the ride. I just don't want you on
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the ride.
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  Speaker 2: That's where Tulane was this year, and that's where j
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  Speaker 2: Madison was this year.
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  Speaker 1: And look, I'm I'm willing.
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  Speaker 2: One hundred percent willing to re examine whether or not
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  Speaker 2: that was the right thing.
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  Speaker 1: But here's the deal.
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  Speaker 2: You made the rules, and just because the ACC stunk
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  Speaker 2: it up, and just because the ACC rules and tie
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  Speaker 2: breakers didn't provide you with a conference champion that was
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  Speaker 2: justifiably higher ranked than a really good James Madison mid
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  Speaker 2: major or a really good two lane mid major that's
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  Speaker 2: not on those teams. That's on the ACC and the
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  Speaker 2: system in the ACC and the system that the ACC
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  Speaker 2: participated in and agreed to for the twelve team expanded
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: College Football Playoff. But you are going to get a
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  Speaker 2: change now. It is going to happen. It's going to
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  Speaker 2: happen this offseason because the powers that be don't want
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: these teams to be the powers. They don't want Tulane
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  Speaker 2: and James Madison muddling up the playoff. And probably the
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  Speaker 2: best point in argument for that correction, and you might
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  Speaker 2: call it an over correction, is the acknowledgment that the
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  Speaker 2: system is different now, the timing is important, and the
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  Speaker 2: rule set of college sports, in college football especially is
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  Speaker 2: not the same as the one that existed when the
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: overachievers of Boise State, TCU, Utah, Hawaii that one special
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: year we're busting into the party for the big dogs. Hey, look,
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  Speaker 2: we saw mixed results in those cases. You remember when
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Hawaii played Georgia in a BCS game, The Cult Brennan
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: team Rest in Peace, Cult Brennan, the Cult Brennan team
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  Speaker 2: that was just like an offensive power.
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  Speaker 3: That was the year he broke the the NCAA record, right,
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  Speaker 3: I believe sounds I believe so.
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  Speaker 1: But then they went up against Georgia and it was.
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  Speaker 3: Like, oh wait, was that Peach Bowl to like basically
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  Speaker 3: a road game?
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  Speaker 1: It was.
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  Speaker 2: It was not just a road game, It was a
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  Speaker 2: fly across the ocean. Go into the backyard of the
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: SEC power type road game. Yeah, it's not as if
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  Speaker 2: this was the Fiesta Bowl, where it's a much shorter
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  Speaker 2: flight from Hawaii to a wet basically a West coast venue.
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  Speaker 2: They al they also had to go all the way
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  Speaker 2: across the country once they.
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  Speaker 1: It was.
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  Speaker 2: I think that what during the fall or that's like
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  Speaker 2: an eight hour time difference If I'm not mistaken, it's
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: either seven or eight hour time difference from local time
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  Speaker 2: in Hawaii.
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  Speaker 1: And look, if you played that on a neutral site,
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  Speaker 1: you know, on.
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  Speaker 2: An aircraft carrier, they probably are also losing that game.
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  Speaker 1: But it just aggravated the problems.
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  Speaker 3: So long as they have enough footballs, because keep kicking
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  Speaker 3: in the ocean like that, you.
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  Speaker 2: Might there's look, there's there's a lot of ways that
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  Speaker 2: we have.
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  Speaker 1: There's examples.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: You can bust out and just say, yeah, that's why
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  Speaker 2: you don't invite the overachiever to the big kid party.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Look what happened with Hawaii. And then you could say,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: who whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you not see Boise Stately
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: at Oklahoma? Did you not see Utah beat Alabama? Did
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: you not see those things? And then there's always the
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: counter argument, Well, yeah, but what about the other time?
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: What about when?
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  Speaker 2: What about when TC made all the way to the
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  Speaker 2: National Championship game and didn't It's like.
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  Speaker 3: Well, hold on, they were power four team at that time.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: That's true, they were Power five at that time.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: You don't want to just keep moving the goal posts
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: to make it harder and harder for these mid major teams.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: But those goal posts have already been moved in a
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: way that might make it so that these results that
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: we saw this past weekend are all but guaranteed. And
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: the goalposts I'm talking about there are the goalposts of funding.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: And I cannot tell you how much I loathe the
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: idea that that's the primary discussion point. Now, with virtually
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: all competitive conversations around college athletics, you could almost not
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: have a conversation about who should win, who's going to win,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: which conference champion is going to surprise us. We cannot
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: extricate the almighty greenback the dollar from any of those
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: conversations anymore. Even when you're talking about the mid majors,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: we have to be like, all right, well, I think
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: that James Madison probably has better support than some of
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: the other teams that are in their same category. I
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: think Tulane found something that's hard for other people to
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: find that Utah State maybe can't find right now. And
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: I don't even know if those things are true, but
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: we just make those assumptions because we almost can't wrap
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: our head around the idea that there can be a
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: team united enough, a scheme good enough, a coach with
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: the leadership abilities to overachieve not only size, not only speed,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: not only depth deficits, but also payroll deficits.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: I hate it right.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: We talked about how how far is too far last
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: week with the betting thing, how far is too far?
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: On the nil influence over competitiveness.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: We've reached that threshold.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Okay, we've seen it in glaring, stark relief here in
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: our own backyard where the positive side of things is.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: You have two big twelve teams, two Power Conference teams
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: in our state, forty five minutes apart from one another.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: But one of them had to kind of pull up
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: the bootstraps and grind their way into the position that
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: they're in, and the other one was able to buy
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: their way in and the results are what they are.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like, well, much like it always is
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: college athletics is a metaphor for life. At the end
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: of the day, that person with the good job, with
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: the dream job, it kind of doesn't matter how they
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: got there, right, If you did it grinding your way,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: working late nights, waiting tables, mopping floors, paying your way
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: through school, proving yourself as an intern, climbing the corporate
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: ladder and getting that CEO job after twenty five years
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: in the company. Cool, wonderful, the American dream. Functionally, it's
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: actually not different from the perspective of ninety nine point
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: nine percent of the people outside of your tiny little sphere.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Whether you did.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: It that way or whether mommy and Daddy purchase your
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: way into every good school, every good internship, every promotion,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: and now you're still in that spot. You're still where
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: you belong, or you're still where society has put you,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: whether you did it the hard way or quote unquote
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: the easy way. And it's probably unfair just to call
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: it the easy way, because there's a lot of toil
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: and hard work that goes into being financially successful.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: And if you want to.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: If you want to hand out those finances, if you
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: want to cut checks, and we're gonna play you some
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: sound here in just a minute that's gonna make you
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: sick to your stomach. That allows for somebody else to get,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: you know, to skip the line. That's that's fine that
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: you get to make those decisions. But to circle back
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: to the point, the main point here, what we're talking
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: about is a college football playoff system that was put
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: in place with some parameters designed almost specifically to avoid
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: litigation that we saw play out in twenty twenty five
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: in a way that unfortunately is kind of detrimental to
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: the whole thing, kind of detrimental to the whole expanded
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: college football playoff. So they're gonna have to make this
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: tweak again, and they're gonna because we saw a drastic
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: example where the ACC failed to deliver, and the result
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: of that was two group of five champions who are
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: not even top fifteen teams, not top ten teams like
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Boise State was last year. We're talking top twenty to
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: twenty five teams are now being thrown into the mix
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: with the top twelve teams in the country. So it's
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: a couple of guys that are pretty darn good and
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: they're respectable ow achievers, but everyone has agreed to this
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: point not among the twelve best. There's nobody in the
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: country that was trying to make the case that Tulane
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: or James Madison was among the best teams in the country. Instead,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: we had to embrace the idea that even though you're
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: not one of the best twelve teams in the country,
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: even though you have exactly zero chance in our minds,
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: our collective consciousness of winning the national championship, we have
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: to invite you. We have to put you into this
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: tournament because we have established a rule set previously to
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: avoid you getting mad and throwing a tantrum and potentially
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: suing us because you don't have access to the College
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Football Playoff. We have to put you in because of
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: what the ACC did screwing it up for everyone, because
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: it is such a drastic example by having two teams in,
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: not just the one auto at a qualifier, which, by
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: the way, if we had one automatic qualifier last year,
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: even though they end up getting a first round by
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: in Boise State's case, the rules went back and they
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: changed it. If this year you had the one automatic
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: qualifier and you had one first round game where it
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: was just the James Madison versus Oregon or it was
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: just the two lane old miss, everyone would have shut
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: up about it and just been like, oh yeah, all right, well,
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: you know, quit crying, Notre Dame, quit crying BYU, quit
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: crying Vanderbilt, quit crying, Texas, quick crying Utah. We can
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: invite the top twenty team to the party because we
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: have to do it. But now that there's two, and
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: now that it's an extreme example, the reaction is going
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: to be extreme, and so the criteria are going to
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: be made excessively tough. We're going to overcompensate. As a
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: college football playoff committee, the rule makers are going to
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: be like, you know what, never mind, no automatic access
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: for the group of five or any group of five.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Access is going to have to be made automatic by
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: a top ten ranking or by an undefeated record, which
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: I'm on board with.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: But it is it is.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: It is the nature of decision making in the human
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: experience that when you see something extreme at one end,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: you try to balance it out with something extreme at
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: another end. So even as the observations are made and
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: I think astuteley so across sports media, social media, whatever, where.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: People are like, look, the Utah story is a great story.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: The Boise State story is a great story, but those
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: happened in a different time and place. You probably don't
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: get to do that anymore. And honestly, I think it
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: will take that Fiesta bo team as an example. I'm
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: trying to think of how many guys after the ten
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: into Liberty Bowl season on that Utah roster, how many
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: guys would have remained on the Utah roster for an
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: undefeated run to the Fiesta Bowl after that? And if
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: we were living in today's world, right, Alex Smith is
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: gone after he gets pulled off the bench because of
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: a Brett Elliott injury and helps a team to a
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: ten win season, shows his incredible athleticism, shows his decision
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: making ability, the speed of his processing as a quarterback.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: Alex Smith is being offered in today's world one point
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: five to three point five million dollars to go play
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: for a power school. And again, in this world, Utah
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: is not part of that, right, so Utah has to
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: try to overcompensate.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: You're like, well, we'll match the one point five million.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Stay here, and maybe Alex is just like all right,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: I'll do it, all right, Well, now what about Chris
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: km Oyatu, who played a decade in the league. Who
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: was the scariest dude I've ever been around, who was
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: an All American offensive guard, who was massively important to
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: establishing the physicality the tone of what Utah football was.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Now you've paid all your money to Alex Smith to
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: keep him. There is Chris kim Oyattu coming back? Well,
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: all right, probably not? I think you probably Maybe you
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: can hold on to Marty Johnson, maybe not. Maybe you
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: hold on to Quinton Ganther, maybe not. You probably don't
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: get to hold on to Paris Warren and Steve Savoy,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: or if you do, you only have one. Well that's okay.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: If one leaves, then John Madison takes on a bigger role.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Travis Latandras takes on a bigger role the next year. Okay, sure,
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: maybe maybe it works. We haven't even talked about the
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: defensive side of the ball yet.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: PA NFL player captain on NFL teams. You think he's staying.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Jonathan Fanane played a decade in the NFL.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: You think he's still here? Eric Weddle, I hope, I hope.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: I mean Freshman All America right at Utah. Unbelievable season
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Freshman All American and every team in the country calling him,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: including all of those schools that overlooked him coming out
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: of high school.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: If from California, you don't think those teams would be
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: calling him.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: So you have to when you look at the college
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: football playoff as it is now, you do have to
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: ask yourself a question, well, do we think those Cinderella
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: stories are even possible? Do we believe that what we
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: saw on multiple occasions from TCU and Hawaii and Boise
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: State in Utah, do we think that he's even possible
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: in this era? Because these guys don't stay to get
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: like Tulane, I don't. Tulane had a good year last year, right,
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: and they added a guy who was going to be
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: a Power five starter this year to be their quarterback
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: in a very strange and complicated manner, which I don't
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: want to get into because I really it's the whole
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: storyline kind of grosses me out. And I'm not trying
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: to assign guilt or innocence to anyone there, but just
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: the idea of the whole thing is terrible. So Tulane
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: maybe is an outlier that we could see that continue.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Because Tulane had a good year last year.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: You got to keep in mind, they're losing their coach
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: to Florida, so a lot of their good players are
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: probably falling into Florida.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: So next year Toulane ain't there, right it. It's just
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: a it's a valid question to ask now whether or
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: not we need to actually do the super League thing.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Now we need to separate it now.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: I would be far more interested in Tulane, James Madison,
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Utah State, UNLV, Boise State if we had a true
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: promotion and relegation type situation, which we know is not
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: a possibility because no one will ever sign off on it.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: But if they had their.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Own thing that they were competing for to where we
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: actually looked at JMU and we said what And they
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: came from the lower level, so it's awful to try
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: to send them back, but to say, look, you guys,
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: were proud of you. What you've done is incredible, but
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: you don't actually belong at this big kid table. And
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: we now have you know the game to show us,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: and we now have an off season coming where everything
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: that made you this is going to be plucked from you.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: And the same is true for you two lane, and
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: the same is true for every school that is even
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: remotely near that conversation. And that's a tough thing because
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: I don't want it to be the case. I don't
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: want it to be even where, even though it in
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: a lot of ways benefits Utah and a lot of
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: ways benefits BYU, in more ways benefits BYU, I don't
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: want it to be where anytime you earn something as
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: a team, as a university, as a football program, as
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: a school.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: If you're not already.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Bellied up to this like uh, negotiation, this this this
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: big We all are the cool guys here, the knights
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: of the round table, and and you hope at b
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: YU and Utah have a place at that table eventually.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: That's why this private equity money is coming in to
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: keep you at that table.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: I don't want it to be that way.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: But we saw ames this weekend in college football that
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: kind of make it undeniable for me that the system
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: no longer favors David versus Goliath in any sort of way,
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: because now the system we live in now Goliath can
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: just buy the sling from David. And then David's like,
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: all right, I get, I mean, I'm still going to
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: try to fight you. But the thing that made it
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: so I could beat you is gone. That's a tough
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: world to be living in if you are David, if
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: you're Goliath, it's wonderful.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: Goliath is using a sling to knock David out. Okay,
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: well you.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: Don't even have to, Like Gliath doesn't even have to
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: use this sling. But it's just like you take this
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: sling away, right, I'm to extend the hypothetical I'm talking
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: about if you're if you're the Eliath of whatever USC
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: or UCLA or Stanford or Oregon or whatever Washington that
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: somehow comes in and plucks like a young Eric Weddle
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: from the Utah football roster to where all right, like
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: now that weapon is not available for this David to
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: hurt us the Goliaths, So we don't even have to
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: use it necessarily. Yeah, he doesn't even have to have
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: a great year for us.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: We just like they. You can't let David have that.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: You can't let urban Meyer and Kyle Whittingham know how
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: to use this. Yeah, if I can take Alex Smith
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: off of this roster and urban Meyer has to do
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: it now with a seventeen year old Brian Johnson, he'd
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: have been good.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: But he's not undefeated good.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: It's just and by the way, it's not just amid
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: majors that have to deal with this, it's also the
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: majors that don't have the same status as Ohio State, Georgia, Texas, Tech, Oregon,
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: miss And it circles back around to what unfortunately again
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: James money.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: And that's why if I'm Brett, you or Mark in
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: the Big Twelve, I'm resisting the Super League is as
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: long as possible. Even if you don't agree with the
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: way the fields shook out this year with two group
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: of five teams, you're saying, no, those teams belong. You're
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: going to bat for those teams because in because in
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: the back of your mind you're like, we might as
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: well be some of those teams.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Well say that.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: That's you bring up an interesting point, because it's almost
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: you're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: If you're Brett your Mark in this case, because if
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: you say, hey, we put these rules in place for
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: a reason. You have to be this tall to ride
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: the ride. We decided that for a reason. There's actual
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: good logic behind.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: This, and we want them here. Right.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: It may sense for Brett ormark to say that because
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: he's got at least half of the conference that are
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: kind of like, they're not much better off than the
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: two teams were talking about.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: They're a higher level in those teams, but in the
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: eyes of the powers that be, they're not.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: Really Like I promise you, if it was Oklahoma State
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: in the College Football Playoff, the reaction.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Is the same and the score is even worse.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: And if Colorado made it into the College Football Playoff whatever.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Right now, if you're Brett or Mark, you probably one
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: part of you has to campaign for the underdog. But
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: also if you're Brett, you or Mark you have to
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: be looking at it and saying, like, man, I had
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: two teams that were right there within striking distance, especially BYU.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: When I look at how JM you played and I
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: look at how Tulane played, There's not a person in
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: America who thinks BYU would not have fared better.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Would they have won those games?
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: Probably not, maybe, but would they have won those or
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: would they have fared better than JMU and better than Tulane?
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: So if you're Brett your Mark, you're like one half
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: of you has to be the champion of the underdog,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: and the other half of you has to be like, no,
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: get these dudes out of here. So I get two
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: teams in instead of one, I want BYU in there.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: And and by the way, Notre Dame is saying the
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: same thing, and Vanderbilt is saying the same thing, And
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: if you're an insane Utah fan, you're probably saying the
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: same thing. I saw them on Twitter saying Utah beats
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: both of these teams. People were saying that on Friday
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: night about the Oklahoma Alabama game. Utah beats both of
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: these teams. Look, the Utah we saw most of the season.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: Perhaps the Utah we saw give five hundred yards up
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: in passing and then five hundred yards up and running,
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: and maybe not. But the point stands. If you're Brett
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: your Mark, you're going, yes, let the underdog in, but
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: also no, keep them out. So that my medium dog,
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: we're not the top dog, but my like my second
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: best team, I want them in.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: The most medium good team. It just is a it's
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: a strange place.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: And by the way, it's a strange place you only
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: have to tolerate for the next whatever it is month
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: and a half because then the system's gonna change again.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: They're gonna throw all the yachtzi dice into that little cup.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: They're gonna shake it up, they're gonna spill it out.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: They're gonna be like, oh, look at that.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: No more room for the group of five teams, or
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: the group of five teams have to be undefeated or whatever.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: They only get one whatever.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: And that's probably that's probably the most correct solution. And
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: it makes me ill to say that because you were this.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Team a decade ago when you think about it.
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: Oh see, other than the last two years in the
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: expanded Playoff, every time a group of five team back
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: then it was non BCS teams got to play in
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: the New Year's Six Bowls, the BCS Bulls. They were undefeated.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: You didn't have one loss, two loss teams in so
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: I I don't think that it would be holding them
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: to an unfair standard, a different unfair standard. You're holding
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: under the standard that we've always held them to.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: The standard that Utah and Boise State and Hawaii TCUC.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they for a weird reason, they they matched them
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: up with Boise State.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: But yeah, all right, we got to take a break here.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: We only have one more segment left and I'm gonna
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: give you some sound Arizona State fans celebrating because Kenny
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Dillingham not going anywhere. And then Kenny Dillingham stood in
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: front of some cameras and I don't know how the
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: celebration continued after that.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: We'll give you the sound next.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: It's The Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred and
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: ninety two one FM. YouTube The Sean O'Connell Show from
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven and.
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: M O'Connell Show ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: one FAM.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: We got like six or so minutes left before we
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: send it over to Utah Women's basketball.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: I want to play this sound.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: Arizona State got an extension done with Kenny Dillingham. Over
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: the weekend. There was a lot of conversation about him
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: potentially being the next Michigan head coach. Good on Arizona
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: State and also good on Kenny Dillingham because he didn't
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: actually increase his own pay that much. He's still at
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: like seven and a half million dollars a year, which
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: is well below any kind of Big ten standard. He
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: did increase his assistant salary pool to eleven million dollars
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: per year, which is way up there. That is like
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: top ten in the country. So he clearly wants to
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: keep his assistance happy. That is, in his mind, the
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: key to sustaining some of the success. And then you know,
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: of course, he meets with the media and they talk
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: about kind of like congrats coach, what's next?
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: What do you need to do to get over the hump?
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: And this is going to make you sick as a
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: college football fan to hear a head coach have to
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: do this on air.
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: So we need to find one of these really rich
• 33:12
  Speaker 5: people in this city to step up and stroke a check,
• 33:14
  Speaker 5: and I'll do everything I can to make you the
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: most famous person in the city. Right that's really what
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: we need. We need one person. We live in Phoenix, Arizona.
• 33:23
  Speaker 5: You're telling me there's not one person who can stroke
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: a twenty million dollar check right now. There is somebody
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: out here who can. There's somebody who can. There's somebody
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: and like other people are gonna sacrifice to be here,
• 33:34
  Speaker 5: somebody step up, step up and be that dude to say,
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: holy cow, what completely changed it?
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: This person?
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: There's somebody out there that's gonna listen to this. That's
• 33:46
  Speaker 5: gonna get it forwarded it if you know somebody who
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: can do it. Forward this message to somebody. Somebody can
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: step up and completely take this place from the direction
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: that's going to Holy Cow, and it's right here in
• 33:57
  Speaker 5: the city.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: Look, I love Kenny Dillingham, genuinely. I think he's the
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: kind of coach you want your kid playing for. He's
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: not wrong about anything he said there, but that is
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: that's a gross thing to have to say, especially when
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: you've just signed an extension, especially when it's a celebratory
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: moment for yourself, for your family, for everyone who's ever
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: been a part of your success. Then you immediately have
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: to go and say, can I please have a rich
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: person give me some money? Imagine James being a head coach.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: This is this is his dream job. He gets extended
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: in his actual dream job in the neighborhood he grew
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: up in. And then you have to go, could some
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: rich guy please make this easier for me?
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Because that's the world we live in now.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: And how silly doesn't sound You're telling me there's someone
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: out there who can't stroke a twenty million dollars dollar check. No,
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: of course, Phoenix has got a one hundred.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: People that can do that for you.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: But at least ninety nine of those hundred people are
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: gonna hear you say that.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: It'd be like, why.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Would I twenty million dollars for what Kenny Dillingham twenty
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: million dollars for the potential to go see six home games?
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: And let's be realistic, I'll probably actually, if I'm that
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: twenty million dollar check writer, I'll probably go to like
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: three of the road games, and then, by the way,
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: I gotta do it again next year. Also, you can
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: tell people, I'm generous, you're making famous.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: To do you do that, I'll make you famous.
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: If you're not already deeply emotionally invested in the success
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: of Arizona State football, you're not writing that check. And
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: if you are already invested deeply emotionally in the success
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: of Arizona State football, you're already writing those checks. So
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: to do it again or to do it more is
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: probably something that they've asked you every single year, and
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: you've probably already said no to, like, look, my my
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: multi million dollar company, my billion dollar company is already
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: giving you this much.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Don't ask me for more.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: I hate, I loathe the idea that someone as good
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: at their job as exciting to listen to had to
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: go out there, felt a need to go out there
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: and beg on camera for someone to please, please please
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: help us keep up Yuck, Arizona State, you're in the
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: same world that BYU and Utah are in.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: You got to get out of the Big twelve Conference.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Because your television contract ain't big enough, so your coach
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: has to go beg for it. And they did a
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: good job keeping him there, but keeping him there without
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: the extra twenty million dollars, according to him, ain't gonna
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: be as effective. And he's right, but I hate having
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: to listen to it, and you should too as a
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: sports fan. It's the reality where we live, but we
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: don't want to live here and for the school. When
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: you pony up money to keep your coach, this should
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: be a flex of like flexing our financial resources. Instead,
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: the coach is having to give a dose of reality
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: to the public that hey, we still need more. Imagine
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: if imagine if Kalonia Satake, after his extension was announced,
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: stood in front of cameras and was just like, also,
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: I need crumble, I need twenty million, please crumble.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Guy built bar Swig.
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: Can somebody give me twenty million bucks? All of us
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: would just be trashing him.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Yikes.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: All right, it's a short show today, which means we
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: are done now. We're going to turn you over to
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: Utah Women's basketball versus the Arizona Wildcats, two nine win
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: teams squaring off. Tyson and company are going to take
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: it from here. Thanks, thanks for listening. We got a
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: regular show tomorrow and then we're off the rest of
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: the Christmas week with the classic Kyle Whittingham Utah football games.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to this little sprint show today eleven am.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow, We're doing it big.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: It's a Sean O'Connell show on ESPN seven hundred and
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: ninety two ONEFM.