Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / Big Ten Media Days from Stadium Swim, AJ Edds on B1G & Iowa Football & Mike Palm from Circa Sports

Transcript

Big Ten Media Days from Stadium Swim, AJ Edds on B1G & Iowa Football & Mike Palm from Circa Sports · The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon

• 0:05
  Good afternoon. Welcome in Miller and Condon on
• 0:08
  the air with you on a what is it Wednesday?
• 0:13
  Yeah, it's Wednesday. Glad to have you aboard with us
• 0:15
  as we come to you live from Circa and Stadium swim set up
• 0:20
  for day #2A Big 10 Football Media Days.
• 0:23
  It will continue today. We will get to hear from Phil
• 0:26
  Fleck. He is going to be a part of it
• 0:29
  today also. Maybe one of the more intriguing
• 0:31
  storylines is Wisconsin and what they're going to do.
• 0:34
  We'll hear from Luke Fickle a little bit later on here this
• 0:37
  afternoon as well. Those will be the two kind of
• 0:39
  regional teams that are in the spotlight.
• 0:41
  James Franklin and Penn State also go today and for a lot of
• 0:45
  people, the preseason number one team in college football, James
• 0:48
  Franklins, Penn State, Nittany Lions, and I know there'll be a
• 0:51
  ton of media there. So I want to take you in
• 0:54
  yesterday after I wrapped up here with the show, I know Ken
• 0:57
  hung around a little bit with Lucas and I made my way over to
• 1:01
  media day. So we're here at Circa in
• 1:04
  downtown Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay is where the Big 10 football
• 1:08
  media days are. Had an opportunity to talk to a
• 1:11
  couple of coaches. First listen to Matt Rule when I
• 1:13
  got there. And it wasn't the the one that
• 1:15
  you see on Big 10 Network, right?
• 1:17
  The big podium up there in front of all the people.
• 1:19
  It's the side sessions that they have.
• 1:21
  And I think for the most part, and what I'm really looking
• 1:24
  forward to also on Thursday is those conversations with Kirk
• 1:27
  Ference, just because I think you get a little bit more, I
• 1:30
  mean, you get you can dive in a little bit deeper.
• 1:32
  And there were questions. Our buddy Stephen M simple.
• 1:36
  He he was asking about the right tackle position and then he had
• 1:39
  a follow up and then another follow up.
• 1:41
  But those are the kind of kind of deep cuts that you're able to
• 1:43
  get on the side sessions with all the different coaches and
• 1:47
  like the set up the way that it is bounced around.
• 1:50
  Talked to Greg Schiano for a moment.
• 1:52
  The Rutgers head coach. Of course, that's going to be
• 1:54
  the Big 10 opener for Iowa as they'll go on that short week on
• 1:57
  a Friday night and make their way to Rutgers and face off
• 2:00
  against the Scarlet Knight team that a bowl team a year ago feel
• 2:03
  like they're still ascending. And Shiano, just an excellent
• 2:05
  coach and talked a little bit about him back.
• 2:07
  We'll play that a little bit later on.
• 2:09
  I'm coming up on the show today, though.
• 2:10
  We're going to open things up here in about 12 minutes.
• 2:13
  AJ EADS, who now, for all intents and purposes, he runs
• 2:17
  Big 10 football, former Hawkeye linebacker, certainly moving up
• 2:21
  the ranks in college administration and I'm going to
• 2:25
  talk to him about some of the keynotes that were coming out,
• 2:28
  the talk of playoff expansion, what's going to happen.
• 2:31
  We'll talk some Hawkeyes with him as well as AJ Eaves is going
• 2:33
  to join us here at about 12:15. Then 1235 Mike Palm, the vice
• 2:38
  president of operations, is going to stop by here from
• 2:40
  Circus Sports. We'll talk a lot of gambling.
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  Had an opportunity last night to hang out with Mike for a long
• 2:45
  while. Always good catching up with
• 2:47
  him. A lot of great stories, as are
• 2:48
  always as the Iowa native from Rebuke, Mike Palm, making his
• 2:53
  way in the world and doing it well here in Las Vegas.
• 2:55
  He'll stop by here at about 12:35.
• 2:58
  We're going to talk a lot of baseball in our number 2 as
• 3:01
  we'll open up the hour with Matt Snyder from CBSSports.com.
• 3:04
  He's going to join me. We'll talk a lot of baseball
• 3:06
  with him. What we saw last night in the
• 3:09
  Cubs Royals game, Rich Hill on the mound.
• 3:11
  At 45 years old, that guy's still my age is out there.
• 3:14
  And tell you what, this body does not feel like I can pitch
• 3:17
  in a Major League Baseball game Rarely.
• 3:19
  And after a couple of days in Las Vegas, it makes it even
• 3:21
  worse. And then we'll wrap things up at
• 3:23
  the end of the show, as we do each and every day with my picks
• 3:26
  of the day presented by Circus Sports as we try to get back on
• 3:30
  the right side of things. So if you listened yesterday,
• 3:33
  Lucas with us for the first time in Las Vegas for the first time,
• 3:38
  it's fun kind of seeing this place through the eyes of
• 3:40
  somebody that had never been here before.
• 3:42
  No, this is our home away from home.
• 3:44
  Circa is where Ken and I come do shows, enjoy everything here.
• 3:50
  Stadium swim is absolutely incredible.
• 3:52
  This is the time we sign up for the football contest and want to
• 3:55
  talk about that a little bit as well.
• 3:57
  But seeing Lucas go through this, had a great first night on
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  Monday when we got to town, he was outstanding.
• 4:02
  Everything that he was playing was hit and and the last night
• 4:05
  went the other way and we took a walk down Fremont Street.
• 4:08
  We're gambling a couple of different establishments.
• 4:10
  We went to El Cortez. I got absolutely walloped,
• 4:13
  walloped, played baccarat for the first time ever.
• 4:16
  That was a terrible decision. The crabs table wasn't hitting.
• 4:18
  So that's going to happen. And now the new reality that
• 4:22
  yes, you're not going to be a winner every single time has hit
• 4:24
  Lucas after yesterday, he'll talk more, I'm sure about that
• 4:27
  coming up in his show today. Speaking of baseball and
• 4:31
  watching Rich Hill last night, Twins, Dodgers, an excellent
• 4:34
  game late into the evening as well and watching it here at
• 4:37
  Circa. It's just it's so different.
• 4:39
  It's the world's largest sports book and seeing all the games in
• 4:42
  front of you and the science behind what screen is where,
• 4:46
  what's going to have the volume? What are you hearing?
• 4:49
  What are you seeing up there at WNBA going last night, The
• 4:52
  Liberty of the Liberty of the Fever, we're going at it.
• 4:55
  So there's so much going on. You're kind of keeping track.
• 4:58
  You hear cheers from different corners of the sports, but just
• 5:01
  for baseball. And then you think of when we
• 5:03
  get to football season, what that's going to be and what it's
• 5:05
  going to look like. And if you give an opportunity,
• 5:07
  look, if you're listening to us, you're obviously a sports fan,
• 5:10
  right? You're obviously somebody that
• 5:11
  loves sport. And because of that, an
• 5:13
  opportunity to be at this venue, to be at a place that is first
• 5:18
  class, to have the opportunity to do it.
• 5:21
  It's amazing. It really is.
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  And if you haven't been here before, I know we've been
• 5:25
  talking about it for a long time.
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  You have to make a point to get here.
• 5:29
  Even if you're not staying downtown, even if you're not
• 5:31
  staying at Circa, you have to get here, hang out for a game,
• 5:34
  watch the games. Fired a couple of things because
• 5:37
  it's, it's hard to describe just how amazing it is for you, the
• 5:42
  sport fan. Make sure the contest.
• 5:44
  So again this season Ken's got his group of guys that are
• 5:47
  signing up for the football contest.
• 5:49
  And as we talked about the football contest there well have
• 5:52
  been 2 for a number of years. We're up to three now as we have
• 5:56
  Grand Decimo and yesterday two more entries into Grand Decimo.
• 6:00
  So now up to 8 entries in that $100,000 contest.
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  That's right, $100,000 entry fee just to get in.
• 6:09
  There is a 1.5 million guarantee.
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  So they still need 7 entries to hit that point and then the
• 6:14
  money continues to roll in from there and they're going to hit
• 6:16
  that. I don't think there's any doubt
• 6:18
  about it. I talked with Derek Stevens a
• 6:20
  little bit yesterday, the owner of Circa, and he mentioned he's
• 6:24
  always concerned, you know, until they hit the number,
• 6:26
  always concerned about it. But we signed up for Circa
• 6:29
  Millions and Circa Survivor. Now, the Survivor contest is
• 6:33
  very simple. The Survivor contest is you pick
• 6:36
  an NFL team each week of the season.
• 6:38
  If they win, you move on. It's not against the spread.
• 6:41
  All they have to do is win. Simple, right?
• 6:43
  Well, it's not simple as we've joked, Ken has never seen
• 6:46
  Octoberfull. We haven't joked.
• 6:47
  It's the reality has never made it there.
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  I did in your number one and that's it.
• 6:51
  We have not had a ton of success.
• 6:53
  But just thinking about that sweat, thinking of the prize
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  guarantee, $15 million guaranteed to the winner of this
• 6:59
  contest. And if there are a number that
• 7:01
  make it through the 20 weeks of the schedule, well, then they
• 7:04
  will split it up at that point. And then circa millions, which
• 7:07
  is against the spread lines come out in the middle of the week.
• 7:11
  And then after that, you have an opportunity to pick your five
• 7:14
  games against the spread each and every week.
• 7:16
  Standings are up there. So got signed up for the
• 7:18
  contest. And again, I use the same proxy
• 7:20
  that I have. So that's the other part that I
• 7:22
  think some people don't understand or realize is you
• 7:26
  have to be in Las Vegas, you have to be in Nevada to put your
• 7:30
  picks in state rules way it's set up.
• 7:32
  So what you do here, if you're like most everybody listening in
• 7:36
  Iowa or the surrounding states, you're not in Nevada.
• 7:39
  You have to have somebody to put your picks in that is your
• 7:42
  proxy. So footballcontest.com is who we
• 7:45
  use, Tony. She's an Ankeny, grew up in
• 7:48
  Ankeny, Ankeny grad and Maddie been using them for a number of
• 7:53
  years and never had an issue with them.
• 7:55
  Absolutely outstanding. And they're also doing something
• 7:58
  a little bit different this year, which I think is really
• 8:00
  cool is if you get knocked out early in Survivor, they're going
• 8:05
  to give you an opportunity to get that money back, something
• 8:10
  they don't have to do. They've been highly successful
• 8:12
  throughout the years. But that is something, if your
• 8:16
  contest is eliminated in week 1, you'll get a 50% refund back on
• 8:20
  your proxy fee. Week 240% back, week 330% back.
• 8:24
  So that money that you're paying for your proxy and ability to
• 8:28
  get that back, definitely a really cool thing.
• 8:31
  footballcontest.com. If you're coming out to Vegas
• 8:33
  here before the NFL season begins, hit them up there.
• 8:36
  You can contact them through the web website footballcontest.com.
• 8:40
  Local Midwest people, Maddie from Chicago, Tony, she's from
• 8:44
  Ankeny, and they will hook you up and give you an opportunity
• 8:47
  to get your entries in for Circa Survivor, Circa Million or if
• 8:51
  you want to go big, yeah, you can do it for Grandissimo and
• 8:55
  the 100, $1000 prize. One final thing before we hit
• 8:58
  our first break and bring in AJ EADS to talk some Big 10
• 9:02
  football with us. As I mentioned, Schiano also
• 9:05
  listening to Matt Rule. You know, there's something
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  about the guy. I get why he's successful on the
• 9:09
  recruiting trail last year, the way that the Black Friday game
• 9:13
  went against Iowa. They're not shaking of hands not
• 9:15
  knowing who J Higgins is. They're those kind of things.
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  I know it rubbed a lot of Hawkeye fans the wrong way.
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  I'm not a fan of him by any means.
• 9:23
  However, I get it. I understand both how Nebraska,
• 9:27
  now the Nebraska media, I mean, they take everything hook, line
• 9:31
  and sinker, right? So that shouldn't come as a
• 9:33
  surprise. The same thing with the fan
• 9:34
  base. The optimism is there for
• 9:37
  Nebraska and it just is going to take the right hire to return
• 9:40
  them back to a national program. That's their belief every single
• 9:43
  year. But this guy, he knows how to
• 9:47
  sell and he knows how to recruit and I understand how he is
• 9:50
  successful in that realm. Taking an early break here, a
• 9:53
  little bit different today. We're going to get into Big 10
• 9:56
  football with AJ EADS. He's going to join us coming up
• 9:59
  here. But before we take our first
• 10:00
  time out, let's give you a chance to win $1000.
• 10:04
  Go to kx&o.com. It's a bonus Bucks promotion,
• 10:07
  your opportunity to win. Go to kx&o.com and enter the
• 10:11
  keyword bonus. Bonus at KX and o.com, your
• 10:15
  chance to win $1000. Talking Big 10 football with AJ
• 10:20
  Eaves when we come back. Then Mike Palm as we come to you
• 10:23
  live from stadium swim at Circa. We're back with more in a
• 10:27
  moment. Welcome back to Las Vegas Big 10
• 10:37
  Football Media Day as we're live from Circa and Stadium Swim
• 10:41
  today. We'll be on Radio Row tomorrow
• 10:43
  for five hours of programming. Excited right now to be joined
• 10:47
  by our guest. He is AJ Eades, former Hawkeye
• 10:50
  linebacker, part of the 2009 Orange Bowl team and former NFL
• 10:56
  player now working in the Big 10 offices.
• 10:59
  AJ, good to connect. Good to meet you yesterday.
• 11:01
  How are things? Yeah, Mel, thanks for having me
• 11:03
  on. This is great.
• 11:04
  Things are going well. We're getting excited for day 2
• 11:07
  out here in Las Vegas, day two of three.
• 11:10
  And you know, things are going well.
• 11:12
  It's media day season, which means it's about football
• 11:15
  season, which is always a good thing.
• 11:17
  You can definitely feel it. And yeah, the anticipation
• 11:19
  continues to grow and build and we're excited for it, certainly
• 11:22
  here. AJ, I'll first want to start
• 11:24
  with what your role is in the Big 10 offices.
• 11:27
  But you run football. Is that basically the easiest
• 11:29
  way to say it, that you are kind of running things on the
• 11:31
  football side of the Big 10? Yeah, that's probably the
• 11:34
  easiest catch all. So, yeah, I'm our football
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  administrator, which encompasses a number of different things,
• 11:40
  but all football centric. So scheduling, replay
• 11:43
  operations, officiating operations, working hand in
• 11:46
  hand, the court of officials, any sort of game operations,
• 11:51
  stadium operations, working with our head coach, the athletic
• 11:54
  directors, their respective Staffs, being a conduit to and
• 11:58
  from the commissioner on any number of items as it pertains
• 12:01
  to daily operations, strategic undertakings, anything kind of
• 12:06
  in everything some ways relating to Big 10 football.
• 12:09
  So no shortage of interesting topics and areas to to focus and
• 12:15
  spend 1's time. But yeah, to say that I'm kind
• 12:17
  of the football guy, I guess he's probably the the quickest
• 12:21
  way to describe what I what I'm doing on a daily basis.
• 12:25
  Well, Aji want to talk a little bit about kind of the big
• 12:28
  picture item that was out there yesterday, Tony Petiti, and most
• 12:31
  of the conversation and the question certainly revolved
• 12:34
  around the College Football Playoff and what's going to
• 12:36
  happen going forward. The SEC in the Big 10 with the
• 12:38
  power, their ability to kind of figure out what this is going to
• 12:42
  look like in the Big 10, maintaining that they want that
• 12:45
  4422111 model is what they're hoping for and ability to host
• 12:50
  not just a championship game, but have a couple extra play in
• 12:53
  games, if you will, to do that. Why is that so important to the
• 12:57
  Big 10 from a strategic point looking forward at a college
• 13:01
  football play, if it expands to 16, why is the Big 10 kind of
• 13:04
  digging in their heels in that model?
• 13:07
  Yeah, it's a, it's a good question, fair question.
• 13:09
  I think our commissioner represented exactly where and
• 13:12
  why we feel the way we do. But to summarize it, we are a
• 13:17
  deep league. We feel like we can go as deep
• 13:20
  as anybody and we've proven that the last couple of years and
• 13:22
  look forward to the opportunity to continue to prove that into
• 13:25
  the future and our our whole mentality.
• 13:28
  And again, the commissioner summarized this is we want to
• 13:32
  further value the regular season and keeping teams alive in an
• 13:36
  opportunity to get into the postseason and earning that on
• 13:40
  the field in conference play is a way that all of those things
• 13:44
  can be accomplished. And in a tremendously deep
• 13:48
  competitive league such as Big 10, we feel like that's the
• 13:51
  right model to be pursuing and and trying to get done.
• 13:55
  So there's a lot of other, I would say intricacies that come
• 13:59
  along with the model that's being discussed, deliberated,
• 14:03
  evaluated. And as you mentioned, it's still
• 14:06
  all on the table up for debate and for consideration.
• 14:10
  And these next couple weeks and maybe months will be, I would
• 14:15
  say, critical to how that's all going to come to be and unfold
• 14:19
  and, and ultimately be what the future looks like.
• 14:21
  But you know, First things first, let's get ready here to
• 14:24
  play some football and, and the competition, the
• 14:27
  competitiveness, all of that, the things that that drive Big
• 14:31
  10 football are about to be on full display, which is an
• 14:33
  exciting time of year and something that we are we're more
• 14:36
  than ready to get back to work on.
• 14:39
  No doubt about it. You also mentioned you work in
• 14:41
  the scheduling part of it. And you know, when we get that
• 14:43
  release that comes out during the winter time of what the
• 14:46
  schedule is going to look like for the upcoming year.
• 14:47
  It's it's like a holiday. You know, the NFL, they've
• 14:50
  definitely built that into it its own day on schedule, release
• 14:52
  day. And you guys are doing the same
• 14:54
  in the Big 10. How difficult though is it to
• 14:56
  come up with that schedule and Iowa again, starting on the road
• 15:00
  this year? I think Kirk and his 27 years, I
• 15:02
  think he started on the road like 22 of those years,
• 15:04
  something like that. And I'm sure he's probably
• 15:06
  mentioned that to you a time or two in the past.
• 15:08
  But as a whole, putting together that schedule, 9 conference
• 15:11
  games, four home, 5 away and then vice versa for different
• 15:16
  teams, just how difficult is that process?
• 15:18
  Yeah, No, we go through an exhaustive process.
• 15:21
  We've looked, we look at, we start with draft one Model 1 and
• 15:25
  it goes into the hundreds before we finally get a schedule that
• 15:29
  we feel comfortable with and we share with our coaches and our
• 15:31
  administrators before we finalize.
• 15:33
  So it is a labor intensive process.
• 15:38
  It is always, I would say ongoing.
• 15:40
  We do opponent rotations in a four or five year period so that
• 15:45
  there is a sense of understanding and and
• 15:48
  transparency frankly around where teams will play home and
• 15:51
  away. And the cadence thing is what we
• 15:54
  work on on a yearly basis. And you you mentioned it, it's
• 15:57
  a, it's a, it's a big league. It's 18 teams.
• 16:00
  So a nine conference game schedule 5 home, 4 away or vice
• 16:06
  versa for each of the 18 programs.
• 16:10
  Something that we look at to balance year over year
• 16:13
  competitively and otherwise to, to give everybody all 18 as
• 16:18
  close to an equal opportunity to go out and, and a compete for
• 16:22
  championship and pursue their goals for the season.
• 16:25
  So it's, it is, it's a, it's a big undertaking.
• 16:28
  It's something that is not done quietly or or quickly.
• 16:32
  It is in an, in an exhaustive process.
• 16:34
  It's an inclusive process naturally working hand in hand
• 16:37
  with our TV partners. So between an 18 team league
• 16:40
  that covers the entirety of the United States and for television
• 16:45
  partners Fox, NBC, CBS and BTN, it's just a lot of different
• 16:51
  stakeholders in the mix. And it's our goal and it's our
• 16:54
  job to bring everybody together and get that done in an
• 16:57
  equitable manner so we can always improve it.
• 17:00
  There's no perfect schedule year over year.
• 17:02
  There's no perfect model year over year.
• 17:05
  But our goal is to continue to pursue and try to reach
• 17:08
  perfection and take notes along the way, learn along the way and
• 17:13
  incorporate those learnings and notes into future work.
• 17:15
  So it's one that even if it's not scheduling time per SE,
• 17:20
  we're always working on future schedules and putting drafts and
• 17:23
  models together. So that when it comes time to
• 17:26
  put one out and publish it for the following season, we've
• 17:29
  we've put plenty of time into it and we're not making any, any
• 17:33
  decisions on short notice. AJ Eats joining us as we're
• 17:37
  talking Big 10 football. AJ on the local front, want to
• 17:41
  get to Iowa here in a moment. One more thing though, and I
• 17:44
  heard a conversation yesterday, Big 10 Media day is talking to a
• 17:48
  couple of media members and they were talking about the future of
• 17:51
  bowl games. You know what the future is
• 17:53
  going to look like. Your guys's conversations in the
• 17:56
  Big 10 offices. You have contracts still with
• 17:58
  the number of bowl games. As you've been talking to these
• 18:01
  people though, bowl games as we know them, with the College
• 18:04
  Football Playoff expansion and maybe expanding more, if you
• 18:07
  could crystal ball it in another 3-4, five years, how different
• 18:11
  do you think the bull landscape is going to look compared to
• 18:13
  kind of what we're used to? Yeah, you know, that's a tough
• 18:16
  1. The bull space is fluid.
• 18:20
  I'd say it's constantly evolving.
• 18:22
  We've seen that over the last four or five years and the
• 18:26
  impact of COVID, the transfer portal, the advent of NIL, the
• 18:31
  recent implementation of the House of Settlement are all
• 18:33
  really critical impacts in the bull space, in the post season
• 18:36
  space, frankly. So it's really tough to predict.
• 18:39
  And you know, rather than trying to do so, I would just say that
• 18:43
  bullship bowl games and partnerships are really critical
• 18:47
  to us. They're important to us, they're
• 18:49
  intentional to us with our coaches, our administrators, our
• 18:52
  fan bases, our alumni bases. It's not a casual undertaking
• 18:56
  for us. It has not been and we don't
• 18:59
  anticipate that it will be into the future.
• 19:00
  It's, it's deliberate. It's intentional where we play,
• 19:04
  the opponents that we play, the news that we play in, when those
• 19:09
  games are played, all of those are critical competencies that
• 19:13
  feed into what our post game bowl portfolio looks like both
• 19:16
  in the non CFP space and of course in the CFP competing for
• 19:20
  championships. So you know, really tough to
• 19:23
  know what next year, which was five years I was going to look
• 19:26
  like in that arena as a whole. But as long as there is a
• 19:30
  postseason, which we anticipate that there certainly will be in
• 19:33
  the non CFP space, it'll be a an important part of our Big 10
• 19:39
  branding and our Big 10 business as it pertains to football
• 19:41
  specifically. Let's wrap things up, talking a
• 19:45
  little bit about your alma mater, the Hawkeyes, and the
• 19:47
  team that you played for. Starting with Kirk Ferris
• 19:50
  getting ready to start year #27 he's going to be turning 70
• 19:54
  years old coming up on August 1st.
• 19:56
  Take us back to playing for Kirk Ferris and and seeing him even
• 19:59
  after you've moved on 15 years ago, him still out there blowing
• 20:03
  the whistle. Yeah, You know, it's, it's a
• 20:05
  testament to push Ferris and the the the level of the staff he's
• 20:10
  been able to surround himself with and bring into the building
• 20:13
  over the trajectory of his career, the young men he's
• 20:16
  brought in and been able to develop and coach and give an
• 20:19
  opportunity in life even more importantly than on the football
• 20:23
  field. And I would say that I'm
• 20:24
  probably an example of that. Had a little bit of success,
• 20:28
  complete testimony to my team mates and coaches.
• 20:31
  That was the guy that was in the right place at the right time
• 20:34
  more often than not, certainly not all the time.
• 20:36
  And you do that enough and you build up some small successes,
• 20:40
  then you know, things tend to more often than not get some
• 20:43
  lucky breaks, some fortunate bounces of the ball.
• 20:45
  But beyond that, the lessons that you know, not just coach
• 20:48
  fair, but all the coaches in our league are imparting on these
• 20:53
  young people are really critically important and
• 20:55
  valuable for life after college football, whether that means
• 20:59
  going to play professional football or obtaining a degree
• 21:03
  and going on to be leaders in their respective communities.
• 21:07
  The the same tenants and attributes that lead to success
• 21:12
  on the field, be it in Iowa City or at the University of Iowa or
• 21:16
  professional football, almost assuredly are the same lessons
• 21:20
  that community leaders are carrying with them as they go on
• 21:23
  to pursue their own goals personally and professionally.
• 21:26
  So I was fortunate to play for Coach Ference.
• 21:29
  It's a really unique and privileged opportunity to work
• 21:32
  with Coach Ference in a much different environment and
• 21:35
  capacity than it was when I was playing for him and a member of
• 21:39
  the of the of the football team that he was coaching.
• 21:41
  But, you know, I mean, there's truthfully to have a chance to
• 21:43
  work with all eighteen of these coaches on a daily basis, their
• 21:47
  respective athletic directors and their respective Staffs is
• 21:50
  no small undertaking. The opportunity that's not lost
• 21:52
  on me to be able to do this type of work and to consider it work
• 21:57
  because it's it's truly a pleasure.
• 21:59
  It's a joy. There are great days that are a
• 22:01
  bit more demanding than others, but it's Big 10 football.
• 22:04
  That's the way it should be. It's supposed to be hard nosed
• 22:06
  and there's supposed to be high expectations and demands that
• 22:09
  come along with this type of undertaking and this type of
• 22:11
  work. So, you know, just kind of
• 22:14
  summarize it was it was a it was a wonderful four year period in
• 22:19
  my life to to spend time in Iowa City and to to be a member of
• 22:23
  Coach Ference's team. And you know, what he's embodied
• 22:26
  through the program is lessons learned that I've carried with
• 22:30
  me and hope to continue carrying with me.
• 22:32
  And I would imagine that all 18, excuse me, all 17 of the other
• 22:36
  coaches, their players and their former alumni would, would say
• 22:40
  very similar things about them. And it's, it's just a joy to, to
• 22:43
  be able to work, wake up every day and work with this group.
• 22:45
  And, and you know, consider it my goal to, to help put them in
• 22:50
  the best position they can to go out and, and compete, excel and
• 22:54
  try to, to win ball games and, and go pursue championships.
• 22:59
  AJ EADS joining us. AJ, really appreciate the time.
• 23:02
  I know it's a busy one for you. You got to go get to work now.
• 23:04
  But really, thanks for taking some time out here for our
• 23:06
  audience back in Iowa all. Right.
• 23:08
  Thanks, guys. Good to catch up and looking
• 23:10
  forward to the rest of media days.
• 23:12
  Thanks for having me. Absolutely.
• 23:14
  AJ EADS joining us. Big thank you to him for jumping
• 23:17
  aboard with us here today is he's got a busy one in front of
• 23:19
  him. The administrator of football
• 23:22
  for the Big 10. Hawkeye doing right in the
• 23:24
  world. Great to see that.
• 23:25
  Speaking of Iowans, we got another one coming up.
• 23:28
  That's Mike Palm. He's the vice president of
• 23:29
  operations from Circa Sports. He'll join me next as we come
• 23:32
  back live from Stadium Swim at Circa.
• 23:35
  It's Miller and Condon on the Iowa Sports Radio Network.
• 23:44
  Back with you on a Wednesday as we come to you live from Stadium
• 23:49
  Swim at Circa, It's Miller and Condon on the Iowa Sports Radio
• 23:52
  Network. Thanks for joining us once again
• 23:54
  today. We'll be set up tomorrow at
• 23:56
  Radio Row doing our shows from there.
• 23:57
  Myself and Lucas got you covered for five hours of Big 10
• 24:01
  football, including a lot on the Hawkeyes, and we look forward to
• 24:05
  that. Mike Palm joins us from Circa,
• 24:08
  the VP of operations. Always good to catch up.
• 24:11
  And Mike, nice to hang out. Last night.
• 24:13
  We had a couple of hours together here swapping stories,
• 24:16
  say an old baseball players names, just having a good time.
• 24:19
  How are you today? Yeah, it was a nice hang at this
• 24:21
  book last night sweating some baseball and some WNBA and now
• 24:25
  you got your daytime baseball on the screens here.
• 24:28
  It's a probably going to be about a ball me 98.
• 24:30
  It's not been too bad. We, we, we had a couple weeks of
• 24:33
  the one 10s, but after that it's been very manageable summer so
• 24:37
  far out here. Last year when we were here for
• 24:39
  Big 12 Media Days, it was that time and Ken and I at one point
• 24:43
  we are leaving Allegiant waiting for our Uber and just sitting
• 24:47
  there for 2 minutes. That the difference between one
• 24:50
  O 9 and 99. It's incredible how big of a
• 24:52
  difference it is. It was very significant and for
• 24:55
  me with the kids, you know, I mean, this is great because I
• 24:57
  don't, you know, have a problem with them going out when it gets
• 25:00
  to one O 5. I don't want them outside.
• 25:02
  I can go out, you know, my wife should go out in the morning and
• 25:04
  walk and run. But I mean, even the day like
• 25:06
  today, you go out ten, 10:30 in the morning and it's not bad
• 25:09
  because it's breezy. So yeah, we're enjoying it.
• 25:12
  The first summer here, 2005, I had a tough time.
• 25:14
  I just really. And if I didn't work graveyard,
• 25:17
  I don't know if I would have made it through, right.
• 25:19
  I mean, you're getting up and getting in your car at 1:00 AM
• 25:22
  to go to work and it's 112. You know, it was it was
• 25:26
  oppressive, but we got through it.
• 25:27
  And so every we live to tell the tale.
• 25:29
  Well, a lot going on. You mention a lot of day
• 25:31
  baseball here. The WNBA is back after their All
• 25:33
  Star break. We were talking about that a lot
• 25:35
  last night. I want to go there because the
• 25:38
  WNBA as a betting property, is that something that you guys are
• 25:44
  seeing growth? We see obviously the television
• 25:45
  numbers and those kind of things.
• 25:47
  How big is the growth bet in the betting market for the WNBA?
• 25:50
  The rising tide of the interest in the WA since since WNBA since
• 25:55
  Caitlin was drafted has risen all ships, including the betting
• 26:00
  markets and and on both sides of the counter.
• 26:04
  Two seasons ago, let's say the 23 season, like we had one guy
• 26:08
  that booked WNBA and he was like our number two NBA guy and he
• 26:12
  did it out of can you do it OK, I will not a lot of props right?
• 26:17
  There's not a lot of interest, very niche.
• 26:19
  Only a few people bet it to this summer where we have 4 different
• 26:23
  guys working on WNBA, keeping the futures up, putting up a lot
• 26:28
  of props, points, rebounds, assists on games.
• 26:32
  I'm offering some end game on WNBA.
• 26:34
  And look, we we went back and looked at our June numbers, the
• 26:38
  sport with our second biggest win after baseball.
• 26:41
  It wasn't the NHL playoffs, it wasn't the NBA playoffs, it was
• 26:45
  actually the WNBA. So I mean, how far have we come
• 26:48
  in two years? It's sort of like the rise we
• 26:50
  saw in betting on women's college basketball that we saw
• 26:54
  from Caitlin's junior and senior years, although it hasn't been a
• 26:57
  big dip, right? She left and I think she raised
• 27:00
  the level of interest in the game.
• 27:01
  There were some compelling storylines at UConn team, South
• 27:04
  Carolina, Texas. So people got an interest in it,
• 27:07
  but I didn't know if it would convert to to to volume and
• 27:11
  handle. But it really has.
• 27:12
  Yeah, it's incredible to see what this girl from Dowling
• 27:17
  Catholic, what it was. And I told you, I called a
• 27:19
  number of her games in high school and knew she was going to
• 27:21
  be good, knew she's going to be. But this, I don't think anybody
• 27:25
  could have envisioned this, that you become a changer for a whole
• 27:28
  sport. It's unfathomable that that
• 27:31
  happens from a girl from West Des Moines.
• 27:33
  And you know, all the circumstances that happened and
• 27:36
  you talked about when Gino came, she had a bad night.
• 27:38
  What if Muffet doesn't retire? So everything changes, right?
• 27:42
  If she's just a a part of a cog somewhere else?
• 27:45
  And Christine Brennan, I thought, did a good job in her
• 27:47
  book talking about that the circumstance of her coming from
• 27:51
  Iowa and playing in her home state and lifting a program that
• 27:54
  hadn't been close to those heights compelled the storyline
• 27:58
  as well. So, you know, obviously if
• 28:00
  people take great pride in her that, but not just from Iowa,
• 28:03
  but people that appreciate her game and just, you know, want to
• 28:07
  soak up all that is Caitlin. Want to talk a little football?
• 28:11
  We're here for Big 10 football media days.
• 28:13
  So yesterday we got to hear I was listening to Matt Rule for a
• 28:16
  while. I get his personality and how he
• 28:18
  recruits. Well, he's got that personality.
• 28:20
  Seems like a fun loving guy. Year 3 is what he makes a jump.
• 28:23
  Are you guys seeing in the market Nebraska?
• 28:25
  Are people firing at them either over in their win total, what, 7
• 28:29
  1/2? Or even in the market to win the
• 28:31
  Big 12 or make a College Football Playoff?
• 28:32
  No, not really just the win total.
• 28:34
  You see a little bit of a, a bull market on them, but you see
• 28:40
  that every year because for, for as long as it's been since they
• 28:44
  were a top program, there's still that fan base and there's
• 28:47
  still that Midwest fan base that we attract here because we're
• 28:51
  all from the Midwest and we operate in those states.
• 28:54
  And so we get a lot of people from Nebraska, you know, out,
• 28:57
  you take out California and, and Nevada is when you look at our,
• 29:03
  our players club, those obviously are the biggest 2
• 29:05
  states. But then it's not Texas like
• 29:07
  many other casinos are here. It's not Colorado or it's not.
• 29:12
  It's Wisconsin and Michigan and Iowa and Minnesota and and in
• 29:16
  Nebraska and Illinois and Ohio. It's Big 10.
• 29:20
  It's Big 10. So we'll see.
• 29:23
  I thought he gave a good answer to when he was asked about Scott
• 29:26
  Frost, saying it wasn't a good job and he was guilted back into
• 29:29
  his alma mater and all that. Scott Frost had a lot of other
• 29:32
  problems. I thought he gave a good answer,
• 29:34
  but we're making it a good job again.
• 29:35
  And I'm a Matt Rule guy. I'm a big fan of Matt Rule.
• 29:40
  We'll see right When's the step? They haven't they they haven't
• 29:44
  gotten the quarterback play that they've expected.
• 29:46
  A lot of their guys have really have been busted that have come
• 29:49
  in there and played a long time for it but never really
• 29:51
  produced. They've never gotten back to
• 29:53
  that black shirt mentality on defense, right, But we'll see.
• 29:57
  I think you seen saw, saw some signs at the end of last year.
• 30:00
  So Nebraska being a doormat and what was the the Big 10 W and
• 30:05
  and and now in general in the Big 10, it's not great for the
• 30:07
  conference, right? You, they're one of the, they're
• 30:09
  one of the landmark schools that you, you need to do good.
• 30:12
  USC is a team, and we'll hear from Lincoln Riley that I've
• 30:14
  been on. I jumped ahead of that.
• 30:17
  Odds have been cut in half. You guys have seen, I know USC
• 30:20
  Steam. What team we haven't talked
• 30:23
  about though is UCLA and probably a part of it.
• 30:25
  They're not on Iowa schedule this year, so don't talk about
• 30:27
  it as much. I thought they made some strides
• 30:29
  in the back half of last year, not just beating Iowa, but just
• 30:31
  the way that they played at different times in the backside.
• 30:34
  Is Foster going to get it done? Do you think he can get them at
• 30:36
  least back to, you know, competency at minimum?
• 30:40
  It's interesting because you know, they don't have the
• 30:44
  funding that USC does. That's a big problem for all
• 30:48
  their programs. It's not just football.
• 30:49
  They're they're an IL poor school.
• 30:51
  When you look at this stack up the big 10 that in it you say LA
• 30:55
  in it, but they're an IL poor school.
• 30:57
  So I think he has to compete against that.
• 30:59
  Obviously I'm Aleva leaves, so there's some belief there in the
• 31:03
  in the program and what can get done.
• 31:07
  Yeah, they are the forgotten team, right.
• 31:08
  When you're when you look at the West Coast and you think about
• 31:11
  Oregon and USC really dominating the headlines.
• 31:13
  I was impressed with the game they played against Iowa.
• 31:16
  I thought, I thought that that as much as anybody outside of
• 31:20
  the big teams really made Iowa struggle.
• 31:23
  And obviously, right, yeah, they they, they really moved the ball
• 31:28
  at will. So I can see where you see the
• 31:31
  upside there. But they, they don't take a lot
• 31:33
  of USC when we talk about the home teams here for, for Las
• 31:35
  Vegas, Dodgers, Lakers and for college, it's USC.
• 31:41
  We get, we get a lot of USC money that comes in.
• 31:43
  We get a guy that comes in every year and bets a couple $100,000
• 31:47
  in USC futures. However, he wants to lay it out
• 31:49
  right. He's just a, he's a grad and
• 31:51
  he's going to come in and put the money in.
• 31:52
  So they they become de facto college home team for for for
• 31:56
  Las Vegas more than so than UNLV is.
• 31:59
  UNLVI mean with this, the local team, those kind of things,
• 32:04
  they've been pretty good last couple years.
• 32:05
  I'm sure that. Entertaining, Very entertaining.
• 32:07
  Now they don't got the the offensive coordinator, he moved
• 32:10
  on to what Sacramento State where he went to with the go go
• 32:13
  offense. But UNLV is that is there an
• 32:17
  opportunity for that becoming because you didn't see UNLV back
• 32:20
  in the 80s and 90s, what basketball was and how important
• 32:23
  that that program was at that time.
• 32:25
  Can they get back to that? Well, you got the coach now they
• 32:29
  don't have the money to pay him beyond Year 2, right?
• 32:31
  That the right, the athletic department is, is, is in the red
• 32:36
  like $26 million. So I know there's a lot of
• 32:39
  fundraising going on. Derek's a part of that.
• 32:43
  But boy, that's a big hire for them.
• 32:44
  You know, you hated to lose Odom because he did such a great job.
• 32:48
  Dan Mullen, considered one of the top five offensive minds in
• 32:51
  college football for a long time, right?
• 32:53
  And so you bring him and you bring his energy.
• 32:55
  He's a high energy guy. Got to spend some time around
• 32:57
  him and what he can do and what he believes.
• 33:00
  I mean, he passed up dozens and dozens of opportunities before
• 33:04
  he took this one because he believes he can get this team to
• 33:06
  College Football Playoff, whether it's in the Mountain
• 33:08
  West or what he thinks maybe in three years the Big 12.
• 33:12
  So it's very interesting. At least it'll keep drawing
• 33:15
  attention, right. And they're playing an
• 33:17
  Allegiant. So, you know, I when we had the
• 33:20
  flood, I had to live in this Residence Inn next to a Legion.
• 33:23
  I saw the you know, that they drew the Syracuse game was an
• 33:26
  incredible game that they played.
• 33:28
  And of course, obviously their game against Boise here, I mean,
• 33:31
  when they went there for the Mountain West, they were up
• 33:33
  against it for the Mountain West championship game.
• 33:34
  But certainly hope that they can continue to generate an interest
• 33:38
  in the support of the community here and be relevant again,
• 33:41
  because the basketball program certainly isn't.
• 33:43
  Let's talk a little NFL, OK, before we run out of time.
• 33:48
  So I'm here, put in some futures, you know, I get that
• 33:51
  little bonus then when I come back and you got something in
• 33:53
  the account. So that's what I like to do
• 33:55
  before I leave and empty out the account that way.
• 33:58
  I want to start with my Bears. Ken thinks they're ascending.
• 34:03
  He believes in Ben Johnson, he believes that Caleb Williams,
• 34:05
  that that these guys are going to connect.
• 34:07
  And maybe it's just because of basically 40 years now, a scar
• 34:10
  tissue, a frustration and ineptitude from that
• 34:13
  organization as a whole. Do you see any reason to be
• 34:16
  optimistic the Bears can be that surprise playoff team this year?
• 34:19
  I don't know what we don't know about Ben Johnson.
• 34:22
  Everybody who tells me it's the greatest hire, you know, since
• 34:25
  they, they took the pig off the skin, the skin off a pig.
• 34:29
  I, I don't know, I say to people, it's a, it's a greatest
• 34:32
  hire ever. So I say to them, will you bet
• 34:34
  me even money, $5000 that the Bears will win the NFC North in
• 34:39
  the next three years? And they go, well, then how
• 34:41
  could it be that great of a hire anyhow?
• 34:43
  We don't know. Could be, could be Marty Morning
• 34:46
  Wig. He could be Cam Cameron, right?
• 34:48
  We don't know. He could be a really good
• 34:49
  offensive coordinator. What I will say is they
• 34:52
  addressed the offensive line, which is what the Vikings did.
• 34:56
  They saw what the Bears did. O'Connell solved the mistake the
• 34:59
  Bears made, not addressing the offensive line with a rookie
• 35:02
  quarterback. And what did the Vikings do?
• 35:03
  They went out and fortified their offensive line because
• 35:05
  they know they have a rookie now and McCarthy going to play.
• 35:08
  Everything's set up for Caleb Williams.
• 35:10
  He's got all the weapons. He's got the offensive line,
• 35:13
  he's got the offensive mind, right?
• 35:15
  If if if he isn't really good, then he's a complete miss,
• 35:20
  right? Then he's the bust.
• 35:21
  The level of Trevor Lawrence, who I call a bust because of
• 35:24
  this generational expectation that we put on guys, that
• 35:28
  division is really tough for me to handicap.
• 35:29
  I could see a lot of different scenarios, a lot of differences.
• 35:33
  I don't think the Lions will be bad though.
• 35:35
  I think they might may regress. You lose both coordinators.
• 35:38
  You lose 2 offensive lineman, they could regress.
• 35:43
  I guess the team that I don't have the big upside on, if you
• 35:46
  tell me the Packers win the division to be more surprising
• 35:49
  to me than the Vikings or Bears winning it.
• 35:51
  I think those teams have bigger upsides than the Packers.
• 35:54
  I can see, I can see there's a higher floor, but I'm not I
• 35:59
  don't know if they're going to win 13 games.
• 36:01
  And So what if they go and just get them?
• 36:02
  They were not even competitive in the wild card game.
• 36:05
  Not competitive. When are they taking to sleep
• 36:08
  forward? I don't know if Love's the guy.
• 36:10
  They won the games. He was hurt.
• 36:13
  It was the first best coaching job of his career.
• 36:15
  He won with a single T when it when Love wasn't even playing
• 36:18
  and won those games with Willis, right.
• 36:20
  So I don't know, I the Bears win 11 games, I wouldn't be shocked
• 36:24
  if you say the Bears win 6-7 games, I wouldn't be shocked.
• 36:27
  But the money is coming on the under.
• 36:29
  It's been the vice versa. People bet the Vikings over 8
• 36:31
  1/2. They bet the Bears under to the
• 36:33
  point where we had to move the Vikings to 9 1/2 is the standard
• 36:35
  number. So Ken and I, this has been our
• 36:37
  summer argument. JJ McCarthy, and he's got a
• 36:40
  trump card on me, though every time O'Connor and I, I have no
• 36:44
  rebuttal for that. And every time he does it, I get
• 36:46
  frustrated because because I believe in O'Connell.
• 36:48
  The the dude's a stunt. I mean, look at some of the
• 36:51
  quarterbacks that he's won games with these last couple of.
• 36:53
  Years, everybody. Yeah, I mean, he he brings in
• 36:55
  guys off the street and they're winning games, so he has that.
• 36:59
  You watched. I know a lot of McCarthy of
• 37:00
  Michigan. A lot.
• 37:02
  I love the arm talent. It's not a arm talent thing.
• 37:05
  I just maybe it was a talent surrounding him was so good.
• 37:08
  I just can't completely buy in. Can you sell me why I should buy
• 37:12
  JJ McCarthy? Well, you're putting him into
• 37:14
  another great system, right? You're putting with all these
• 37:16
  weapons. I do think O'connell's going to
• 37:18
  want to run the ball. I think he's going to want to
• 37:20
  protect him. I don't think the receivers will
• 37:21
  put up the gaudyard. You're not going to throw the
• 37:23
  ball as many times as Darnold did, but he's done it with
• 37:27
  everybody. Nobody thought Darnold had
• 37:28
  anything left in him other other than Shanahan.
• 37:33
  Who's the one that reached out to O'Connell and said hey, he'll
• 37:36
  sign a one year deal? Remember they wanted Tannehill,
• 37:39
  the Vikings and he demanded 2 years.
• 37:42
  He wouldn't take the one year deal and so Shanahan reached out
• 37:46
  to O'Connell and said Darnold will take it and he was good for
• 37:49
  us. Honestly, he played two games
• 37:51
  right? I'm surprised Daniel Jones left.
• 37:54
  I would have stayed in that system.
• 37:56
  I thought he was going to be the guy right this year for them,
• 37:59
  basically a full red shirt year for McCarthy and then you go
• 38:02
  that direction. I thought that was a terrible
• 38:03
  decision by Jones. It must mean, though, if you and
• 38:06
  if you look at these markets to take the first snap for a team.
• 38:10
  To me, that must mean Daniel Jones is the starter in Indy.
• 38:14
  Why would he leave Minneapolis if he wasn't?
• 38:16
  They didn't tell him you're the starter.
• 38:18
  Although Atlantic sort of pulled the wool over Cousin's eyes,
• 38:21
  didn't they? He would never have left no if
• 38:23
  they thought that they were drafted Penix.
• 38:25
  Well, have you watched quarterback the series?
• 38:26
  I have not. So I that was what I watched it
• 38:29
  on the flight here and seeing just his reaction to both the
• 38:36
  draft and then just him talking about it in the Kirk Cousins
• 38:39
  way, right in the nice guy way. He can tell you he's pissed.
• 38:43
  He really? Was they totally deceived him?
• 38:45
  Absolutely, and with the 8th pick, you know, not taking a
• 38:47
  second or third round or something, using the 8th pick on
• 38:50
  a team that was pretty good at times last year and he just
• 38:54
  wasn't there going to be a fun season in front of us.
• 38:56
  One final thing in our last minute grandissimo. 2 more
• 38:59
  yesterday. Yeah, up to 8.
• 39:01
  I just did the numbers, survivors up 53% year over year.
• 39:06
  I mean if you extrapolate that, does that mean we're going to do
• 39:09
  21 million? Now there's capacity issues
• 39:12
  because when you're doing 1000 a day, the last four days, you
• 39:15
  can't do 2000, you can't do 1500, maybe 1200.
• 39:19
  But the pace is incredible. We did 100 survivor entries on a
• 39:23
  Tuesday the 3rd week of July. I mean, the thought of it few
• 39:28
  years ago you said if we got 20 that day would be good.
• 39:30
  So, and then one of them we're a little ahead of pace on the, on
• 39:33
  the 1,000,000. But I'm, I'm, I feel pretty
• 39:37
  confident to say we're going to get to 20 million in Survivor
• 39:39
  this year. That'll be awesome.
• 39:41
  Mike Palm, Vice President of Operations, joining us.
• 39:43
  QuickTime out. We're back.
• 39:44
  Our number 2 talking baseball with Matt Snyder next.