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Is Jim Harbaugh The Real Victim In The NCAA's Michigan Investigation? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes Tomorrow Morning for Thursday, May twenty third. I'm your
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  host, Tom Moore. The Akron game in exactly one hundred days, the
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  game against Michigan in one hundred and ninety one days. Today is one of
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  those days when I had a whole different show plan. We're going to talk
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  all about the Drew Weatherford private equity thing and how that was probably like the
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  worst idea in the history of college football. And then something Ethan Petter came
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  along. Oh boy, Jim Harbaugh has a book coming out and it is
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  full of stuff. We're gonna be talking with our buddy Tony Gurnaman about all
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  that. Tony. The book is called The Price, What it Takes to
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  Win in College Football's Era of Chaos. I almost don't know where to begin,
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  but this is one of these things where sometimes you just read a paragraph
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  and it's like, Okay, I get exactly where this book and these authors
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  are coming from. Obviously, this is something of a book that Harbaugh is
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  on board with, participated in. So this I think this paragraph, I
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  think the tone here probably gives you good sense for where this book is coming
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  from. I will read from an expert excerpt published on cbssports dot Com.
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  At the end of a raucous National Championship parade before tens of thousands of adoring
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  fans, Harbaugh drew to who his quirky, inquisitive nature invoked from memory part
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  of the Saint Crispin's Day speech from King Henry the Fifth, as written by
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  William Shakespeare, inserting as few of his stars at the top, JJ McCarthy,
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  the MVP, Coram and Sangerstille, Kegan and Zenter, Jenkins and Barnett
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  be in their flowing cups, freshly remembered. This story shall be, this
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  story shall the good man teach his son and Crispin Crispians shall ne'er go by
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  from this day to the ending of the world, But we in it will
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  be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
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  For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother. Be
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  here ne'er so vile this day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England
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  now abed shall think themselves a curse that they were not here, and hold
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  their manhood. She well any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
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  In one we salute you, a band of brothers. Thank you,
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  Tony, your thoughts, A lot of thoughts. Uh. One, if
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  we're going to keep it to Shakespeare, can I please drink some poison?
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  This is a bit much, But overall, you know, you see the
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  story that the book and it's just as it says. A tiny excerpt written
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  by Armine Catain and John Talty Tan is the many times New York New York
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  Times bestseller. Talty is a college football reporter who has written books before,
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  and so it's like, these are two very legitimate people. And then you
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  see, like that the what it takes to win in college football's era of
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  chaos, and you see like Jim Harbaugh's involved, and or they're talking to
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  me. If you want to talk about the era of chaos, You're probably
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  not going to be able to talk to Jim Harbaugh about the actual chaos.
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  You're just going to be able to talk to him about what he's been through
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  and and the story that he wants to to to give you in as much
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  detail as he wants to give you. And so this whole thing, this
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  this excerpt here is very very pro Harbaugh, and from his perspective and his
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  attorney's perspective. And I didn't know that we needed to have some Shakespeare in
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  here, but apparently we did. And that kind of just gives you an
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  idea of boy, look at this, look at this man coming from the
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  heart. Uh, clearly intelligent can recite things, and how could you,
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  how could you think anything that that that that he would do anything wrong?
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  And the rest of this excerpt continues, do you paint that as well?
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  In my opinion, Yeah, so Saint Crispin's Day. The speech in the
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  play is about a holiday that used to be celebrated in England. The Catholic
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  Church basically removed it from the calendar in Vatican. To Harbaugh, well more
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  of an old school Catholic. Apparently, this is a feast that celebrated twins
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  that were martyred in the year two eighty six, and the theme of martyrdom
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  Tony kind of continues throughout this book. Excerpt. This is an excerpt quoting
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  Tom Mars, Harbaugh's attorney, who has been an attorney around college football quite
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  a bit. Quote. I will tell you this, said Mars. I
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  told Harbaugh's agent Don Yee and Jim as clearly as I could, more than
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  once more than twice that, in my opinion, if he stayed at Michigan,
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  the COI, which is the Community Committee on Infractions from the NCAA,
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  is going to punish Jim under the vicarious coaches responsibility and legislation. And he's
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  dealing with a COI that's clearly manifested bias against him. He's going to sit
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  out four games, maybe six, and whatever we do, the COI is
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  going to find him guilty. I think my big takeaway from this not only
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  is Jim Harbaugh the victim, but Jim Harball, the head of the Michigan
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  coach, the Michigan football program for a decade, feels like this is just
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  a person whose stuff is happening to and stuff is happening around and it's just
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  he's like this NPC just like, well, I'm just I'm here, but
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  all you know, all the other people, this is just happening around me,
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  and I'm just here and there's nothing I can do about any clearly,
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  and the Committee on Infractions has a clearly manifested bias against him based on evidence
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  I'm assuming that they have found. And so I guess any any good defense
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  lawyer would say, you know if we can just pick up and leave,
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  let's do that. You know what, we're down here at court your honor,
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  have a good day. We're no longer going to participate. We're going
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  to go to the NFL. And that you're never going to lose a case
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  like that if you just walk out on it. And so you've got that.
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  It is a very it paints him very much as a victim. And
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  when when you talk about like the story, the gist of the book is
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  how to win in college football's era of chaos, right, And so it
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  paints this in my opinion, and the way I'm reading it is like Jim
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  Harbaugh was able to win like this when they were He was able to overcome
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  all of these things that people were doing to him and still lead his team
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  to a national title. And he's like, wow, you know it is
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  crazy, nil transfer, portal, all of that. Man, it's just
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  a crazy time. And then you got the Committee on Infractions trying to bust
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  up your joint for whatever, and boy, you're you're able to do deal
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  with that and still in a national title. And so he was like a
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  championing what he was able to accomplish with out acknowledging that he was creating or
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  was allowed this nest of this rat king to develop underneath them and get all
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  tangled. And you've got the NCAA involved, and you've got the NCAA,
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  you know, wanting text messages, winning emails, constantly knocking on your doors,
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  really just really really being annoying. And he overcame that he was able
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  to overcome the annoying NCAAA and and also Tom, an annoying athletic director who
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  clearly didn't have his back ward manual does not come off great in this,
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  which if you were reading a book from Jim Harbaugh's perspective, yeah, you
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  would expect ward manual would probably not come off great in this. And you
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  know, Manuel, if you were coming at it from not Jim Harbaugh's perspective,
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  does feel like a little bit of a sympathetic figure, where, you
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  know, he talks about the fact that he wants to bring Harball back,
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  but Harball has looked, you know, flirted the NFL three years in a
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  row and is very clearly interested in going to the NFL again. Here and
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  they put a big contract on the table, and oh, boy, tony
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  boy, how many times did we hear how badly Jim Harbaugh wanted to sign
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  that, but oh he just couldn't do it. And it's just, oh,
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  these one little thing and just the small, the small issues of well,
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  hey, if I, you know, face major NCAA sanctions as a
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  result of my actions, you know, could I be punished for that?
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  Or can I just get all of my money please? Anyway, small issues
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  like that. There was also, you mentioned very briefly there, the NCAA
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  request for cell phone records. That was maybe the single most interesting piece of
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  this whole thing in terms of a little bit of how the sausage is getting
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  made behind the scenes. Of course, the nc DOABLEA is still in that
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  investigatory process trying to figure out where things stand with that Connors Dallion's investigation.
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  It says, in the wake of the Connors Dallion Science Sealing investigation, NCAA
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  enforcement had made yet another sweeping request for Harbaugh's school issued and personal cell phone
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  records, danging back eighteen months. In response, Harball's attorney, Tom Mahers
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  wrote a stinging email saying he would need to review six and ninety nine emails
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  plus texts, and oh, by the way, your request is illegal.
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  Under Michagan employment and privacy laws, quote outrageous and offensive and without probable cause
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  was quote uh. And it wasn't just Harball. The NCUBA had demanded similar
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  records from the entire coaching staff, only to drop that request. So I
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  guess that might be the single most interesting piece of information in all of this,
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  because I think, you know, there were there were lots of people
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  who were you know, sort of professionally absolutely mystified that what, why why
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  hasn't he signed his Why hasn't he signed his contract? And it's like,
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  well as the because he would like to beat the posse out of town that
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  was that was pretty clearly the explanation back then. That has pretty clearly been
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  laid out as the explanation now. I'm sure there will be lots of clutching
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  of pearls and shock among people who were so sure he loved dear old alma
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  mater so much that why wouldn't he come back? I don't know, I
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  just don't understand. But other than that, I feel like this maybe is
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  you know, one of these one of a really interesting look inside what you
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  know, what that investigation is trying to do, and maybe where that investment
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  gation is going to get hamstrung a little bit in terms of trying to get
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  down to the truth. And you know Jim Harbaugh's long protestations about how he
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  never he knew, never knew anything about anything about you know, he knew
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  he knew nothing about nothing for you know, for the whole multiple year process
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  of the counter science saying you know that may be something that really hamstrings the
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  investigation to a certain degree that you know, well, sure we would love
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  to, but we can't. And also it's illegal, and also how dare
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  you? And also good night, everybody, don't call us again. And
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  now your your number is now blocked on all of the Hartboss cell phones,
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  so you can't even get a hold of them if you wanted to. Uh.
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  There. There's other portions of this as well that really paint Harbaugh and
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  a champion light and Ward Manual and in a different light. And one of
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  the paragraphs is talking about how Jim Harborugh is talking to a longtime friend and
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  he tells us long friend, longtime friend, he wants to remain at Michigan,
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  but believe Ward Manual would not be the advocate he needed in his corner
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  and how many times have we heard this from you know, whether it's a
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  reporting or fans just putting Ward Manual as the bad guy on all of this,
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  when what Manual has been trying has been putting a contract in front of
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  Jim Harbaugh through this this entire time with a rolling number of making him eleven
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  million dollars a year or whatever, and just you know what, I'm not
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  going to sign it was advised by attorneys. You know what, Hey,
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  if you do sign it, there's going to be some MINSIA infractions because of
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  again this bias. And so maybe maybe just end up doing what you've been
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  trying to do for the last three years and head off to the sunset in
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  the NFL, and which was no surprise when it eventually went that way.
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  But the if you don't have to give up information, you don't have to
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  give up text messages, and if you don't have to possibly incriminate yourself you
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  don't know what's on that probably nothing. If you can just avoid that altogether
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  and then head off see and also then make like sixteen million dollars a year
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  for however many number of years, it seems like the smart decision, and
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  yet it was still portrayed in a way as like, yeah, boy,
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  I'd really like to leave, but this Ward manual, he's really chapping my
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  butt. Well, The Price What it Takes to Winning College Football's Era of
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  Chaos will release on August twenty seventh. The Notice of Allegations from the nca
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  DOUABLEA, we'll release on taate TBD. We will I'm sure be following both
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  of those releases very closely when they get closer. Give me a lot to
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  talk about. And this is going to be a fascinating conversation. As much
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  as this everyone wants to kind of handwave this and tell you it's it's all
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  going to go away, and it's not. You know, this is not
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  going to be nothing. We'll find out. We'll find out how nothing or
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  not nothing it is when the Notice of Allegations comes out, and then of
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  course the NCAA punishment or punishments whatever they end up being, you know,
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  say to eight months after that. We will find it all, and whenever
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  we do, we will talk about it here on YouTube dot com, slash
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  pucka huddle on at Puckey huddle dot com. We still have the longest running
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  thread in the history of our board. Going on on the Huddle Board presented
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  by Jeffrey Steakhouse all about the Michigan situation. One of our board members got
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  word that there was something strange happening up in Michigan and posted about that a
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  little while before the counter Stallions news broke and then oh boy did that blow
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  up. So that will, i'm sure, continue to be a very active
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  threat on our board. But of course we talk Ohio State talk, you
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  know, barbecuing and all sorts of other stuff, vacations, all all the
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  fun college football message board stuff you know and love. It's all at pucke
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  huddle dot com and of course you can also find this at YouTube dot com
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  slash Packey Huddle. That'll do it for today. Thank you guys all for
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  joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.