Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Shehan Jeyarajah on the NFL not holding a supplemental draft, What it means for Brendan Sorsby, Utah's partnership with Otro + more

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Shehan Jeyarajah on the NFL not holding a supplemental draft, What it means for Brendan Sorsby, Utah's partnership with Otro + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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Speaker 1: Bye bye, Miss American Piddo. Ma Chevy to the Levy.
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Speaker 2: You were listening to a Sean O'Connell show, your source
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Speaker 2: for the best youtes football cover reach. Here's oc from
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Speaker 2: the Murdoch Hundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety
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Speaker 2: two to one, alf Am, this would be.
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Speaker 1: The day that I die. Did you write the book
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Speaker 1: of Love? Do you have faith in God?
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Speaker 3: Love? The Bob tells so.
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Speaker 4: Well, Welcome to the Sean O'Conner Show at our number three.
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Speaker 4: Been a minute since we caught up with Shehanja Rajah,
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Speaker 4: national college football insider at CBS Sports.
0:49
Speaker 1: Shahan, welcome back to the show. How are you, sir?
0:52
Speaker 4: Oh?
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Speaker 1: We'll get you on here in a second. Sorry, James,
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Speaker 1: it's my bed. My bed.
0:58
Speaker 4: James told me I didn't listen properly. We're getting Shahanjay
1:02
Speaker 4: Rajah on and now he's prepared. Now we have prepared
1:09
Speaker 4: for Shahan. Hi Shahan, how are you? I'm doing well?
1:12
Speaker 3: Thanks?
1:13
Speaker 4: Wanted to have you on when this saga was more
1:16
Speaker 4: in the thick of things. Glad we get a chance
1:18
Speaker 4: to talk about it now. But what a wild offseason
1:20
Speaker 4: it has been for Texas Tech. For Cody Campbell, and
1:24
Speaker 4: especially for Brendan Sowersby, who transferred from Cincinnati assuming to
1:29
Speaker 4: take over the Texas Tech starting quarterback role, got all
1:32
Speaker 4: caught up with the gambling stuff. The reports put it
1:36
Speaker 4: out there, He admitted to a long pattern of gambling,
1:39
Speaker 4: entered a rehab situation, the litigation, I don't need to
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Speaker 4: tell you. It was this wild roller coaster up and down,
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Speaker 4: and now we've reached sort of a dead end for
1:49
Speaker 4: the Brendan Soresby camp where he thought, all right, I'm
1:53
Speaker 4: not going to fight this college football battle anymore. I'm
1:55
Speaker 4: going to go participate in the NFL supplemental Draft and
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Speaker 4: I'll tell take a backdoor into the NFL kind of
2:02
Speaker 4: a half season early, and we'll do what we can there.
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Speaker 4: And then the NFL said, no, thanks, we're not going
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Speaker 4: to do the supplemental draft thing this year. And it
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Speaker 4: feels like, you know, a very direct punishment aimed specifically
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Speaker 4: at him because he was going to be the guy
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Speaker 4: that would put his name in there. My question for
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Speaker 4: you is, on the college football front, does this reactivate
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Speaker 4: Does this change anything for Texas Tech or frankly, for
2:26
Speaker 4: any other program who might try to renew the fight
2:30
Speaker 4: in favor of Brendan Soorsby.
2:33
Speaker 3: Yeah. To me, the short answer is no. You know,
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Speaker 3: For one, Sortsby said in his legal filing that he
2:40
Speaker 3: would not have been allowed to play if he had
2:42
Speaker 3: come back to Texas Tech. Again, that's sort of the
2:44
Speaker 3: sort of legal case, so it's not necessarily a guarantee.
2:47
Speaker 3: But I think that certainly Texas Tech has moved on
2:50
Speaker 3: from this whole situation, and there is sort of the
2:53
Speaker 3: statement of you know, obviously at this point, like the
2:56
Speaker 3: transfer portal is not open, he would not have the
2:59
Speaker 3: ability to go anywhere else. And even so, like at
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Speaker 3: this moment, he would have to go and file a
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Speaker 3: separate case, get a separate injunction than the one he
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Speaker 3: got before, which you know, certainly I think one is
3:13
Speaker 3: unlikely and two is probably not worth pursuing. So, you know, again,
3:17
Speaker 3: at this point, we're hearing that towards these attorneys are
3:20
Speaker 3: going to try to petition the NFL Players Association to
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Speaker 3: kind of help him get this trapped underway, which again
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Speaker 3: I don't necessarily think is likely. So more likely than not,
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Speaker 3: I think that he'll either sit out this year and
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Speaker 3: not play football really organized at any level. There is
3:38
Speaker 3: the possibility for example, that he could go to the
3:40
Speaker 3: junior college level. We saw Hunter Deckers, the former Iowa
3:44
Speaker 3: State quarterback, do that a couple of years ago after
3:47
Speaker 3: he got embroiled in the gambling investigation. But there really
3:50
Speaker 3: aren't a ton of obvious good options for him out there.
3:55
Speaker 4: For Texas Tech, I was hyper critical of the choices
3:58
Speaker 4: they made in taking this fight up in the first place.
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Speaker 4: In their defense in the messaging, it felt very disingenuous
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Speaker 4: to me. I don't doubt that they truly wanted to
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Speaker 4: help the player and help the kid and overcoming a
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Speaker 4: gambling addiction and all that stuff. But approaching this from hey,
4:20
Speaker 4: he deserves to play because it's a mental health thing
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Speaker 4: was just, in my opinion, dead wrong. And then they
4:25
Speaker 4: doubled down, and then they tripled down, and then they
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Speaker 4: had their own roundtable, and they tried to over explain themselves,
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Speaker 4: and to me, it was just the biggest pr nightmare
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Speaker 4: I have seen from any Big twelve team, certainly in
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Speaker 4: recent history, and probably from any college football team that
4:41
Speaker 4: I've seen in recent history. Is there going to be
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Speaker 4: any long term negative effects for Texas Tech based on that?
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Speaker 2: Yeah?
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Speaker 3: I think probably not. Now, I look, you look at
4:53
Speaker 3: the Big Twelve right now. I mean, this has been
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Speaker 3: a league that frankly has been very collegial. The schools
4:59
Speaker 3: have had really good relationships since they expanded to sixteen
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Speaker 3: teams and everybody again, you know, they were just down
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Speaker 3: a Big Twelve meetings a couple of weeks ago in
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Speaker 3: BFW and you know, again talking to everybody, like everybody
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Speaker 3: seemed pretty happy with each other. And I think that
5:14
Speaker 3: now you've created a situation if you're Texas Tech, where
5:17
Speaker 3: you've turned things to fifteen against one. And I think
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Speaker 3: that just frankly, like the fifteen are willing to let
5:23
Speaker 3: things go if Texas Tech does, and I think that
5:26
Speaker 3: for Texas Tech, they're probably gonna want to, you know,
5:29
Speaker 3: kind of push this behind them as well. Now again, look,
5:33
Speaker 3: this one thing that was even talked about while this
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Speaker 3: was all going on is, you know, we don't necessarily
5:39
Speaker 3: know what the future of college football and college athletics
5:42
Speaker 3: is going to look like. We don't know if we're
5:43
Speaker 3: going to head to a super league, if there's a breakoff,
5:45
Speaker 3: whatever else. But I do think that one thing that
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Speaker 3: you say is whatever is coming next, you probably don't
5:52
Speaker 3: want to make enemies with some of the people who
5:55
Speaker 3: are going to be making that decision. And I think
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Speaker 3: that Texas Tech, through this process wittingly probably made some enemies.
6:01
Speaker 3: We saw Georgia and Nebraska say that we won't schedule
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Speaker 3: you in future games. I assume that that's not going
6:07
Speaker 3: to be enforced as much as you know what they
6:10
Speaker 3: kind of thought at the time. But like again, these
6:13
Speaker 3: are enemies in the SEC in Big Ten that you
6:15
Speaker 3: probably don't want to be making. There are enemies in
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Speaker 3: your own conference that you don't necessarily want to be making.
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Speaker 3: And while again I don't necessarily think that it's going
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Speaker 3: to be a next five to ten yere thing, I
6:25
Speaker 3: do think that again, like Texas Tech certainly hurt its
6:29
Speaker 3: relationships with people who matter and will matter long term
6:33
Speaker 3: for this university.
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Speaker 4: One thing, and I recognize the irony of this because
6:41
Speaker 4: we're coming down on a kid for gambling, and then
6:44
Speaker 4: we're saying, well, the the betting favorites to win the
6:47
Speaker 4: Big twelve are still the Texas Tech red Raiders. The
6:51
Speaker 4: books haven't really changed their prediction for Texas Tech. Now.
6:55
Speaker 4: I know they have a very favorable schedule this year.
6:58
Speaker 4: The backup Hammond is going to be ready. Maybe I
7:02
Speaker 4: don't know three week four, maybe sooner. I think he's
7:06
Speaker 4: an excellent player. But from an actual football perspective, not
7:11
Speaker 4: having Brendan Soresby as an option for them this year,
7:15
Speaker 4: does it change the outlook of the season.
7:19
Speaker 3: I think that it changes sort of the week to week.
7:22
Speaker 3: I don't necessarily know that it changes the big goals,
7:25
Speaker 3: right because you know, heading into this year, I think
7:28
Speaker 3: that they're over. Under was eleven and a half and
7:31
Speaker 3: I had them at the over with Soresby in the lineup.
7:34
Speaker 3: I think that they're under eleven and a half, but
7:36
Speaker 3: I still think that they're over. You know, they're at
7:38
Speaker 3: ten or eleven to at least, right, Like, this is
7:41
Speaker 3: still a team that I expect to go through their
7:43
Speaker 3: schedule and make the Big Twelve title game. Like you said,
7:46
Speaker 3: this is one of the more manageable schedules in the
7:48
Speaker 3: Big Twelve, though I will say there are potentially some
7:52
Speaker 3: speed bumps along the way. Will Hammond, like you said,
7:55
Speaker 3: will probably not be back until at earliest Week three,
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Speaker 3: the Big Twelve opener against Houston, and that's arguably going
8:02
Speaker 3: to be one of Texas Tech's toughest games, and they're
8:04
Speaker 3: going to be playing it on a Friday night after
8:07
Speaker 3: a short week, because because they play Oregon State in
8:10
Speaker 3: a late game just the Saturday before that. So I
8:14
Speaker 3: do think that there are more losable games on the
8:16
Speaker 3: schedule without you know, a sort of experience at the
8:20
Speaker 3: quarterback position, even if I think that they may be
8:23
Speaker 3: you know, I think they probably downgraded a little bit
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Speaker 3: from a talent perspective, but they honestly might not have.
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Speaker 3: I think that Hammond, you know, when we start looking
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Speaker 3: in two or three years, could be just as good
8:33
Speaker 3: or better than Sowersby's. But obviously, you know, we're gonna
8:35
Speaker 3: have to play through this season. I think that where
8:38
Speaker 3: it probably does start to hurt you more is when
8:41
Speaker 3: you start going and looking in the college football playoff.
8:44
Speaker 3: I mean, this was a team last year that, just
8:47
Speaker 3: to be frank, after Baron Morton broke his leg, they
8:50
Speaker 3: were just not good at the quarterback position. They couldn't
8:53
Speaker 3: block well for them, and again, you know, you saw
8:57
Speaker 3: all the mistakes that were made in that playoff game.
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Speaker 3: I mean, that's just something that they can't afford to
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Speaker 3: get away with. And while I think that that Hammond
9:04
Speaker 3: has a chance to improve and potentially be a really
9:07
Speaker 3: good player by the time December rules around. You just
9:10
Speaker 3: knew what you were getting from a duel det perspective
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Speaker 3: with Brendan Sorosby, and you're just gonna ask to wait
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Speaker 3: and see whether they're able to create that kind of
9:17
Speaker 3: offense with Will Hammond in the lineup.
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Speaker 4: From a Utah fan perspective, it's really interesting because Will
9:24
Speaker 4: Hammond hurt Utah a lot more in the game last
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Speaker 4: year than Brendan Soorsby did for Cincinnati. Now it's apples
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Speaker 4: and oranges, and obviously Will Hammond was dealing with a
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Speaker 4: lot more talent around him, with an incredible defense on
9:36
Speaker 4: the other side of things, things that Sworsby didn't have
9:39
Speaker 4: with Cincinnati. But if you just take the quarterback play,
9:42
Speaker 4: it's like, Wow, Will Hammond is just as good, if
9:44
Speaker 4: not better than Brendan Soorsby based on those two games alone.
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Speaker 4: So I'm very curious to see how it works out
9:50
Speaker 4: for Texas Tech at the position. And then, of course
9:52
Speaker 4: you got to remember right now the depth question, because
9:56
Speaker 4: if you had Brendan Soorsby as your starter and Hammond
9:59
Speaker 4: coming off injury as your backup, that's a really good room. Now,
10:02
Speaker 4: if you've got a coming off of injury, Will Hammond
10:06
Speaker 4: and no sores be there. There there's a depth question,
10:09
Speaker 4: and I don't know anything about the guy backing up
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Speaker 4: Will Hammond, who was going to be the backup.
10:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they've got three quarterbacks in that room outside
10:20
Speaker 3: of Hammond, none to be frank have really a whole
10:24
Speaker 3: lot to go off of. They brought in the transfer
10:26
Speaker 3: Kirk Francis from Tulsa who started ten games there, but
10:30
Speaker 3: you know, just frankly was not very good in those
10:32
Speaker 3: ten games, and again it was a tough situation to
10:35
Speaker 3: be thrown into, but he is most likely the presumed backup.
10:39
Speaker 3: They felt like, you know, heading into the season, this
10:41
Speaker 3: might be one of the better third string quarterbacks in America.
10:44
Speaker 3: You know, we'll see if he's one of the better backups.
10:46
Speaker 3: They also have two underclassmen as well, Lloyd Jones, who
10:50
Speaker 3: is a red shirt freshman got thrown into action a
10:53
Speaker 3: little bit last year against West Virginia, and then a
10:56
Speaker 3: true freshman coming in Stephen Cannon from the state of Georgia.
10:59
Speaker 3: So so again, you know, there's talent back there. There's
11:02
Speaker 3: a little bit of experience back there. But like you said,
11:04
Speaker 3: I mean, we're going to kind of get to see
11:07
Speaker 3: in those first two weeks especially, are they able to
11:10
Speaker 3: get Kirk Francis up to speed and again, what we
11:13
Speaker 3: expect that he will get his first two starts at
11:16
Speaker 3: the Big twelve level and it'll be an opportunity for
11:19
Speaker 3: him to prove himself.
11:20
Speaker 4: Shahanja Rajah is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell show,
11:24
Speaker 4: national college football writer and insider over at CBS.
11:27
Speaker 1: Sports, friend of the program.
11:30
Speaker 4: We have not spoken since the Otro Capital deal with
11:34
Speaker 4: Utah Football, with Utah Athletics became official, the first university
11:39
Speaker 4: to make an official partnership with the private equity firm,
11:42
Speaker 4: and they executed it.
11:44
Speaker 1: I guess what about a couple of weeks ago.
11:46
Speaker 4: Now, after a long run up and due diligence on
11:49
Speaker 4: both sides and all that stuff, it's now sign sealed
11:53
Speaker 4: and delivered. What does it mean for Utah? What are
11:56
Speaker 4: you hearing about this? The perspective from some one who
12:00
Speaker 4: sees things from a certainly different angle than we do here.
12:04
Speaker 1: In Salt Lake.
12:06
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's going to be something that a
12:08
Speaker 3: lot of people are paying attention to, right because we've
12:10
Speaker 3: seen a couple of different athletic departments sort of incorporate
12:14
Speaker 3: separately or you know, sort of bring in these private partnerships.
12:18
Speaker 3: But there really hasn't been a program that's as aggressively
12:22
Speaker 3: and openly partnered with private equity. You know, this is
12:26
Speaker 3: going to I think be something that either will be
12:29
Speaker 3: you know, turn into sort of a model for other
12:31
Speaker 3: schools or turn into a cautionary tale. And you know,
12:35
Speaker 3: it's interesting, right Obviously, the sort of first words that
12:38
Speaker 3: came out of it was the restructuring of the athletic
12:41
Speaker 3: department and you know some of the layoffs that might
12:44
Speaker 3: be happening there. And the reality is, right like any
12:46
Speaker 3: time that a new I mean essentially you know sort
12:50
Speaker 3: of ownership group comes in, there's always going to be
12:53
Speaker 3: disruptions at the beginning. I'll be really curious to see
12:56
Speaker 3: long term again for a for sort of private business
13:00
Speaker 3: coming in where they look to cut ultimately, right, because
13:04
Speaker 3: I think it's unquestionably true there is you know, sort
13:08
Speaker 3: of excess and bloat in college athletics. But you know
13:10
Speaker 3: it's going to be interesting to see, you know, in
13:13
Speaker 3: their modeling, where do they ultimately see that happening. So again,
13:17
Speaker 3: somebody was going to be the first to do it.
13:19
Speaker 3: I was a little bit surprised that it was Utah first.
13:22
Speaker 3: But but this is going to be something that I
13:23
Speaker 3: think a lot of people are paying attention to to
13:25
Speaker 3: see how it works.
13:27
Speaker 4: The Division one cabinet has stamped and signed and said okay,
13:32
Speaker 4: five year, five years to play five the age based
13:37
Speaker 4: eligibility proposal. A lot of people think this is the
13:42
Speaker 4: way to go. What does Shahanji Raja think?
13:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that it's kind of become inevitable in
13:48
Speaker 3: a lot of ways. I mean, when you look at
13:51
Speaker 3: college athletics right now, one of the greatest issues facing
13:54
Speaker 3: it is sort of the waiver process in a lot
13:57
Speaker 3: of ways, right where you have players like Trinidad Schandliss
14:01
Speaker 3: Sue and say I should have gotten a medical waiver
14:03
Speaker 3: and obviously getting that sort of decided in core and
14:06
Speaker 3: this makes the process a lot simpler. You will just
14:09
Speaker 3: get a slat out straight up, you know, level of
14:14
Speaker 3: eligibility that's five years total. And I think that the
14:17
Speaker 3: other thing too, is that it kind of helps stem
14:20
Speaker 3: some of the issues that you're running into with players
14:24
Speaker 3: coming in from overseas as well, especially to play college basketball,
14:28
Speaker 3: because there will be a clear end date as well
14:31
Speaker 3: that ends essentially on your twenty fourth birthday, So I
14:34
Speaker 3: think it makes sense. I think that that it's something
14:36
Speaker 3: that again with the current state of college athletics, like
14:40
Speaker 3: people have just been suing over and over again to
14:42
Speaker 3: try to get more and more years of eligibility. I
14:45
Speaker 3: think simplifying and this whole process ultimately will end up
14:49
Speaker 3: being the right thing for everybody.
14:51
Speaker 4: I saw some people voice a concern that I hadn't
14:54
Speaker 4: even thought of with this, that you know, the five
14:56
Speaker 4: years start when you ro in college or it's when
15:02
Speaker 4: you're nineteen, and for some people that could equally it
15:06
Speaker 4: could create a gap year if you were one of
15:09
Speaker 4: these families, Like you know, we've seen people reclassify and
15:13
Speaker 4: do all this stuff that wants to manipulate and maximize
15:16
Speaker 4: potential based on your age. I saw a couple of
15:19
Speaker 4: people saying, hey, well, everyone's going to wait until they're
15:22
Speaker 4: nineteen to start this clock now, so then they're more
15:24
Speaker 4: physically mature, they have an advantage there. I thought that
15:29
Speaker 4: was kind of silly, because most people are trying to
15:32
Speaker 4: maximize now nil deals are coming when you're seventeen. Why
15:36
Speaker 4: would you wait until you're nineteen to start the clock.
15:39
Speaker 1: Et cetera.
15:40
Speaker 4: But you know, I also allow for the possibility that
15:42
Speaker 4: I'm just seeing things wrong or I have a blind
15:45
Speaker 4: spot for that. Is that something you think could become
15:48
Speaker 4: a trend or a norm where if you've got five
15:52
Speaker 4: years to play five from the time you turn nineteen,
15:55
Speaker 4: is there advantage to waiting until you're nineteen to start
15:59
Speaker 4: that clock?
16:00
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting, right, I mean, for one, I
16:03
Speaker 3: don't necessarily think that that's different than what's existed in
16:06
Speaker 3: the past. I mean, I'll tell you, like, you know,
16:08
Speaker 3: I'm my high school down in DFW. Like one of
16:11
Speaker 3: the better football players who came through there, his parents
16:13
Speaker 3: quote unquote red shirted him when he was in middle
16:16
Speaker 3: high school, right, so that he would be older when
16:18
Speaker 3: he goes in. So I don't think that this is
16:20
Speaker 3: necessarily something that's new. I think that the bigger thing is,
16:25
Speaker 3: like it doesn't really impact sort of the start all
16:27
Speaker 3: that much. The bigger thing is that it sets an
16:29
Speaker 3: end date on it, right, Like it sort of says
16:31
Speaker 3: like we know when you're going to finish. I mean,
16:34
Speaker 3: and look, we've had a version of this in the
16:37
Speaker 3: past with with gray shirting players as they call it,
16:41
Speaker 3: right where you have them sit out essentially the fall
16:44
Speaker 3: after their senior year and then enroll in the spring,
16:48
Speaker 3: and they basically don't use that year of eligibility. And
16:50
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that's going to be something that's
16:53
Speaker 3: out there impossible for players if they want to. But
16:56
Speaker 3: look at the players ultimately who do that, right, it's
16:59
Speaker 3: typical guys who are relatively low end players, Guys who
17:04
Speaker 3: you know, maybe you know, they understand, like, we're not
17:07
Speaker 3: going to make room for you in this class, so
17:09
Speaker 3: maybe we could in the next class. Like, like, I
17:10
Speaker 3: think something like that is possible. But like again, if
17:14
Speaker 3: you're you know, whichever player, right, like, you're probably if
17:18
Speaker 3: you're I guess, the player who's ready to play soon, like,
17:22
Speaker 3: you're probably wanting to get on the field as soon
17:24
Speaker 3: as you can so you can maximize your earning potential.
17:27
Speaker 3: Like you say, I mean, the five years is no
17:30
Speaker 3: different necessarily. And on top of that, if you're a
17:33
Speaker 3: player who believes that they have legitimate NFL prospects, I mean,
17:37
Speaker 3: you're trying to get through those three years in the
17:39
Speaker 3: first place anyway, right, You're not necessarily worried about trying
17:42
Speaker 3: to push forward, because if you're twenty four entering the
17:45
Speaker 3: NFL Draft that's potentially a disadvantage compared to coming out
17:50
Speaker 3: at twenty one or twenty two. So again, I've heard
17:54
Speaker 3: the concern as well, but like I just don't think
17:56
Speaker 3: that this is necessarily a different dynamic than what's listed
18:00
Speaker 3: in the past, and I don't necessarily think that the
18:02
Speaker 3: incentives are all that great if you feel like you
18:05
Speaker 3: have the potential to be a really good NFL caliber
18:08
Speaker 3: football player.
18:10
Speaker 4: They've they've put in new rules to stop ghost transfers
18:15
Speaker 4: I think is what they call them, and severe penalties.
18:19
Speaker 4: BYU has a player, a very talented player, who was
18:23
Speaker 4: expelled from BYU because of a significant criminal charge that
18:29
Speaker 4: has since been dropped. He's not, as far as we know,
18:33
Speaker 4: going to be allowed to re enroll with BYU, although
18:35
Speaker 4: that is yet to be determined and there could be
18:39
Speaker 4: a refile of the case.
18:40
Speaker 1: Of course.
18:40
Speaker 4: I'm talking about Parker Kingston, the wide receiver. Are there
18:45
Speaker 4: other Big twelve or other college football options for him
18:48
Speaker 4: outside of Provo?
18:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like you said, you know, last year,
18:53
Speaker 3: we have a similar situation with Jake Redslaff, the quarterback
18:58
Speaker 3: at BYU. He's able to transfer to Tulane, sort of
19:01
Speaker 3: under the table, that pathway at least at the FBF
19:05
Speaker 3: level is closed. Now, you know, there might there might
19:08
Speaker 3: be some more possibility, you know, I don't know exactly
19:11
Speaker 3: what the rules would be in terms of classifying down
19:13
Speaker 3: for example, certainly you know again junior college and AI
19:17
Speaker 3: that potentially could be out there. But my understanding at
19:20
Speaker 3: least is no, I mean, you can't enter the portal
19:23
Speaker 3: and transfer at this time. And you know that's a
19:26
Speaker 3: tough situation. Of course for a player who at this
19:30
Speaker 3: point has been suspended and dismissed from the team. You know,
19:32
Speaker 3: of course it's gonna have a chance to go through
19:34
Speaker 3: the process there, the disciplinary process and try to figure
19:37
Speaker 3: out what the solution might be over there. But at
19:40
Speaker 3: this point, right now, I mean, there isn't necessarily a
19:43
Speaker 3: clear pathway for him to get on the field somewhere else.
19:48
Speaker 4: Have you jumped on the World Cup Soccer bandwagon? Since
19:51
Speaker 4: it's here in North America?
19:54
Speaker 3: You know what's funny is I'm actually like, right after
19:57
Speaker 3: this getting set to go to my first match Japan
20:00
Speaker 3: Sweden because it's out here in the neighborhood and we
20:03
Speaker 3: were thankfully able to get tickets. So I don't know,
20:06
Speaker 3: you know, I was curious what it was going to
20:08
Speaker 3: be like, because you know, I like watching soccer, but
20:10
Speaker 3: it's certainly not one of my top sports. I mean,
20:13
Speaker 3: it has been so electric. We've had it on TV
20:15
Speaker 3: every single day. It feels like so no, we have
20:18
Speaker 3: very much gotten into the festivities of all of it.
20:23
Speaker 4: Well, look, if if that was the goal with this
20:26
Speaker 4: is to try to get more of the casuals to
20:28
Speaker 4: jump on board, it's working on me, and it sounds
20:30
Speaker 4: like it's working on you. This entire tournament so far
20:33
Speaker 4: has been absolutely incredible and we're not even in the
20:35
Speaker 4: knockout stages yet, but man, I'm like, I'm going to
20:39
Speaker 4: get my US men's national team shirt.
20:41
Speaker 1: Let's go.
20:43
Speaker 3: No. I think that's been so great too, is that
20:46
Speaker 3: it helps so much when the US team is doing
20:49
Speaker 3: something relevant right, and we've gotten to see some stars
20:52
Speaker 3: really break out, and you know, Balligan coming through those
20:56
Speaker 3: first couple of matches and Polisic had a really good
20:59
Speaker 3: first match, and like, I mean, it's just so exciting
21:02
Speaker 3: to get to kind of feel a part of it.
21:04
Speaker 3: And like you said, you know, obviously they play Turkey
21:07
Speaker 3: a tonight and they'll be in the knockout rounds in
21:09
Speaker 3: the next couple of weeks, and it looks like they
21:11
Speaker 3: might have a pretty favorable slate. So I mean, it's
21:14
Speaker 3: just again it's been like you go everywhere, you talk
21:17
Speaker 3: to everybody. Right now, everybody's asked about the World Cup,
21:19
Speaker 3: and again I thought that it would be a cool event,
21:22
Speaker 3: but this is, this is exceeding all of my expectations,
21:25
Speaker 3: especially you know, for us to get words sw so
21:27
Speaker 3: like I've gotten to see the Croatian fans and teams
21:31
Speaker 3: in England and all these stand bases walking around. It's
21:34
Speaker 3: been a really cool experience.
21:37
Speaker 4: Shahan, always great catching up with you. You're going to
21:40
Speaker 4: be down at Big twelve media days. I assume yes,
21:43
Speaker 4: I'll be there all right, and he'll be the best
21:45
Speaker 4: dressed guy in the building. I could almost guarantee that
21:47
Speaker 4: right now. That's probably the next time we'll chat, Shahan.
21:50
Speaker 1: I look forward to.
21:51
Speaker 3: It, looking forward to it. Thanks so much for having.
21:54
Speaker 1: Me, Shahan.
21:55
Speaker 4: Jay Rajah of CBS Sports, national college football insider and
21:59
Speaker 4: right her