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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 5-27-26 · The Sean O'Connell Show

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Speaker 1: He's the Sean O'Connell Show, brought to you by Big
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Speaker 1: Willies on Utah's number one sports talk and home of
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Speaker 1: b ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one alf AM,
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Speaker 1: a proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.
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Speaker 2: Iaving Humpday, everybody, Welcome to the Sean O'Connell Show on
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Speaker 2: ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM. Happy to be
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Speaker 2: here with you. Beautiful day in Salt Lake City. The
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Speaker 2: sun is shining. Your kids are either out of school
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Speaker 2: or they're probably having that last meaningless week of school
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Speaker 2: where it's just about sending home art projects and field days.
0:54
Speaker 2: I think it is high school graduation day for a
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Speaker 2: lot of the high schools around here, either that or tomorrow.
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Speaker 2: We're we're coming down to the end of the school year,
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Speaker 2: and that's not always a great time of year for sports, honestly.
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Speaker 2: But you've got Stanley Cup Playoffs, some really interesting things happening.
1:10
Speaker 2: You've got the NBA playoffs, with the Western Conference Final
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Speaker 2: shaping up, Eastern Conference Final already in the books, and
1:17
Speaker 2: actually in the Stanley Cup playoffs. We had the end
1:20
Speaker 2: of the Western Conference Final last night. We're going to
1:23
Speaker 2: talk about that a lot on the show today. Adrian
1:25
Speaker 2: Denny swinging by at one o'clock for some between the pipes.
1:32
Speaker 2: You've got French open on right now. If you're a
1:34
Speaker 2: tennis fan and you're feasting your eyes on the iconic
1:39
Speaker 2: red clay of Roland Gueros, right now it's Novak Djokovic.
1:45
Speaker 2: Looks like he's up two sets to one in second
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Speaker 2: round play. So plenty of things to digest. The spring
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Speaker 2: football meetings that have gone conference by conference, the SEC
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Speaker 2: is up on deck, and the SEC he always generates headlines.
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Speaker 3: They continue to oblige and do the same thing.
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Speaker 2: You've got Vanderbilt's head coach saying it's national championship or bust.
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Speaker 3: At Vanderbilt.
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Speaker 2: You've got George's head coach, Kirby Smart, talking about, Hey,
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Speaker 2: we might just take our ball and go home. If
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Speaker 2: we don't like the way these things are happening, we
2:20
Speaker 2: might just leave, separate ourselves and play on our own, which,
2:25
Speaker 2: by the way, for the SEC, I think would actually
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Speaker 2: be a pretty successful business model in the South. I
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Speaker 2: think if the SEC created its own thing, did its
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Speaker 2: own league, and maybe they snag Miami and North Carolina
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Speaker 2: and Clemson and they steal the cream of the crop
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Speaker 2: potentially from the ACC and they become like a twenty
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Speaker 2: or twenty two team super league and they just have
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Speaker 2: their own rules, their own salary cap, their own collective bargaining,
2:54
Speaker 2: their own whatever. I could see it working for the SEC.
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Speaker 2: The problem is it would be a regionalized product. It
3:02
Speaker 2: would be Canadian Football League, it would be MLS soccer
3:08
Speaker 2: right the world soccer fans don't pay attention to what
3:12
Speaker 2: happens in the MLS. The SEC, by separating themselves, could
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Speaker 2: peel off and be successful, but they would be less
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Speaker 2: than they are right now because being the second best conference,
3:27
Speaker 2: traditionally the best conference in a national sporting landscape, is
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Speaker 2: a lot better than being the biggest fish in your
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Speaker 2: own individualized, small, even regionalized pond. Even if you're Texas
3:42
Speaker 2: in the Texas, Oklahoma, I should say in all of
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Speaker 2: the Southeast, we already begrudgingly swallow SEC football. Out here
3:52
Speaker 2: in the West, in California, it's the same. In the
3:57
Speaker 2: entire Midwest, it's the same. We all watch it, but
4:01
Speaker 2: we're just like, oh, SEC, there's if you separate, there's
4:05
Speaker 2: no reason to watch the SEC. Isn't that this kind
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Speaker 2: of going backwards to OC like, isn't sure what we
4:12
Speaker 2: had in like the thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, whatever,
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Speaker 2: where it's like this is so great, because this is
4:21
Speaker 2: so great, we have our own backyard type thing. Then
4:24
Speaker 2: we started to go supernational, and now it's like, let's
4:29
Speaker 2: go back to what we had. That's what that's what
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Speaker 2: was better. It's like you could have just kept it.
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Speaker 3: Well, I don't.
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Speaker 2: I think national is probably better, but I don't know.
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Speaker 2: I think it's it's best to have a national competition,
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Speaker 2: a nationwide competition that truly involves the entire nation. I
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Speaker 2: think that the right thing to do was to make
4:53
Speaker 2: sure that not not to give a participation trophy out,
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Speaker 2: but I think the right thing to do for college
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Speaker 2: football and for college athletics as a whole, was to
5:01
Speaker 2: engage everybody. But part of the reason that March Madness
5:04
Speaker 2: is so fascinating and such a big money maker, but
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Speaker 2: more importantly is such a cultural event, is because there's
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Speaker 2: a reason for everybody to care. Now, for a lot
5:15
Speaker 2: of people, march madness is not even about rooting for
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Speaker 2: your favorite team, supporting your favorite conference, supporting your favorite university,
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Speaker 2: supporting your favorite player. For a lot of people, March
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Speaker 2: madness is just about being engaged in the company bracket pool.
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Speaker 2: It's about trying to win a bet with your friends.
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Speaker 2: It's about those first weekend hangouts where you're just watching
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Speaker 2: basketball game after basketball game after basketball game. It's watching
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Speaker 2: for the chaos. Yeah, it's about Cinderella stories, which are
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Speaker 2: kind of dead now. But that was a genius marketing
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Speaker 2: plan that came out of the desire to have a
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Speaker 2: more universal competition, to have a true tournament. Let's battle
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Speaker 2: this thing out and the best will rise to the top.
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Speaker 2: And nine years out of ten in the history of
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Speaker 2: the college basketball tournament, the teams that were in the
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Speaker 2: final four were teams you expected to be in the
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Speaker 2: final four, and when there was an outlier, that was
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Speaker 2: just a fun story. Yeah, and then they would often
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Speaker 2: get blown out in the national semi finals, like.
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Speaker 3: Oh, like, oh, you had a good run, George Washington.
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Speaker 2: We would have loved we probably would have loved a
6:27
Speaker 2: blue blood in there to give this a better game.
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Speaker 3: But that was a great story.
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Speaker 2: The reason I bring up isn't it like going backwards
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Speaker 2: and you could have just kept that is it sounds
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Speaker 2: a lot like Seaton, one of the former Danette on
6:39
Speaker 2: The Dan Patrick Show are too bad.
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Speaker 3: He ended up leaving. Yeah, it's weird. It's weird.
6:44
Speaker 2: Like I like the Dan Patrick Show. I still think
6:47
Speaker 2: that's kind of the gold standard. And obviously you could
6:49
Speaker 2: listen to it right here in the mornings on ESPN
6:51
Speaker 2: seven hundred nine two NFM. But you know, we are
6:55
Speaker 2: people I think in my age group and older were
6:57
Speaker 2: resistant to change. Yeah, and that's how happening. It's a
7:00
Speaker 2: little different now there's you're now down to staple Danettes. Yeah,
7:04
Speaker 2: it's a little different now, it's still it's still the same,
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Speaker 2: same great show.
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Speaker 3: But just anyway.
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Speaker 2: Seaton recently left to do another role within the Dan
7:12
Speaker 2: Patrick Show universe there just not on air. But he
7:15
Speaker 2: would always bring up it's hilarious hearing people say since
7:21
Speaker 2: everything has been debundled, right with like TV for example,
7:25
Speaker 2: now you have to go to all these different apps
7:27
Speaker 2: to get TV. There's there's certain things like YouTube TV
7:31
Speaker 2: and if you still got satellite TV, you've got every
7:33
Speaker 2: you got all the things you you still want in
7:36
Speaker 2: the traditional way, right. But he's saying, oh, it'd be
7:40
Speaker 2: great if my podcasts were just on the radio and people,
7:44
Speaker 2: and he's like, that's the radio.
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Speaker 3: That's yeah, you have that. It's called live radio. It's
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Speaker 3: called the radio.
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Speaker 2: Like So anyway, I I was thinking of that as
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Speaker 2: I'm saying, it's funny that the SEC is maybe thinking
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Speaker 2: of going back to souper regionalization thing because we're bigger
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Speaker 2: than everybody else SEC, because it's like, wait, that's you're
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Speaker 2: going backwards in time. You could have just had that
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Speaker 2: the whole time. Well, it's also it's also and maybe
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Speaker 2: this is we shouldn't paint the entire SEC with the
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Speaker 2: same brush, because there's some disagreement happening right now in
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Speaker 2: the SEC sixteen sixteen schools there there's disagreement. There's nine
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Speaker 2: of them that did support one expanded college football playoff model,
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Speaker 2: there's seven who liked it another way.
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Speaker 3: Whatever.
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Speaker 2: So Kirby Smart is the head coach of most recently
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Speaker 2: the dominant force in SEC football, so we listened to
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Speaker 2: him a little bit more and the well if I
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Speaker 2: don't get it my way, I will take my ball
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Speaker 2: and go home mentality is something that we kind of
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Speaker 2: always accuse the SEC of without a ton of proof, right,
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Speaker 2: we always just assumed these were front runners spoiled frat kids,
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Speaker 2: the guys that were just like, well, I want to
9:00
Speaker 2: play by my own rules, and for a long time
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Speaker 2: they did. I won't listen to any argument against that.
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Speaker 2: For a long time, they got away with things that
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Speaker 2: other teams wouldn't do, or couldn't do, or shouldn't do.
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Speaker 2: The SEC was just kind of running the thing the
9:14
Speaker 2: way they wanted to. And they don't like the fact
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Speaker 2: that the gap closed. They don't, and of course they don't.
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Speaker 2: Nobody does, right when you're an industry leader, when you're
9:24
Speaker 2: the biggest, strongest, fastest kid in elementary school, and then
9:28
Speaker 2: everyone else hits puberty and suddenly you're just like, oh, crap,
9:33
Speaker 2: my advantage actually just came because I was like, I
9:38
Speaker 2: was just a big kid, and now there's a bunch
9:40
Speaker 2: of big kids, and now we're in a sport. We're
9:42
Speaker 2: in a level of sports where size matters less than
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Speaker 2: speed does, and you're just like, crap. Anyone who is
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Speaker 2: an above average size boy, I don't know how it
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Speaker 2: is with girls. I can only speak from anecdotal experience.
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Speaker 2: Anyone who is an above average size boy in elementary school,
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Speaker 2: at some point you had this, you had this moment right.
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Speaker 2: Playground basketball when you were in fifth grade, if you
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Speaker 2: were the tallest kid on the playground, was easy for
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Speaker 2: you because nobody's that skilled.
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Speaker 3: Why are you talking so much about me?
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Speaker 2: Once I got to Once I got to like junior high,
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Speaker 2: middle school is what we haven't think, George, I was.
10:23
Speaker 2: I was like feeling very inferior all of a sudden.
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Speaker 2: It's like I used to be the biggest guy in
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Speaker 2: my elementary school. I my best friend from elementary school,
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Speaker 2: middle school, high school, moved in in fourth grade. I
10:36
Speaker 2: moved in in third grade. Okay, I moved in in
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Speaker 2: third grade. And I wasn't a good basketball player. We
10:41
Speaker 2: didn't play basketball in Minnesota, where I moved from. I
10:43
Speaker 2: wasn't a good basketball player. I was okay at all
10:47
Speaker 2: the other stuff, the playground kickball and the wall ball
10:50
Speaker 2: and those fun things we would play, much to the
10:53
Speaker 2: chagrin of the raspy voiced like something out of a
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Speaker 2: cartoon recess monitor. We would play tackle football at Willow
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Speaker 2: Canyon Elementary School, and I was untackleable because I was
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Speaker 2: a sturdy, like above average sized kid.
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Speaker 3: You couldn't tackle me. You couldn't tackle me.
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Speaker 2: I was like, there was me and there was a
11:13
Speaker 2: Siman dude, and it was like they wouldn't let us
11:16
Speaker 2: be on the same team because you weren't able to
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Speaker 2: tackle us. Because nobody's scalinating, nobody is skilled. When you're
11:23
Speaker 2: in fourth third grade, nobody knows how to really tackle.
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Speaker 2: You're too dumb to be like, well, I'll just tackle
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Speaker 2: them by his legs, right, you just you hang on
11:32
Speaker 2: the guy's shoulders and you jump on their back and
11:35
Speaker 2: they run for ten more yards before you fall.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 2: Well, my best friend Trevor Moss. Shout out to Moss.
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Speaker 2: He moved in in fourth grade and he was a
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Speaker 2: great athlete already, right. He was fast and he was strong,
11:48
Speaker 2: and it was just like WHOA, what is this? And
11:51
Speaker 2: suddenly he becomes the best kid. And then as you
11:54
Speaker 2: get older and older and older, a skill element gets involved,
11:59
Speaker 2: and now that's SPAD matters even more and you're just like, crap, I,
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Speaker 2: my elementary school dominance is waning if I don't get
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Speaker 2: faster and more skilled.
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Speaker 3: That's what's happening with the SEC.
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Speaker 2: It's an underrated, tough thing to go through now that
12:13
Speaker 2: you're talking about it, and I'm like, I remember how
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Speaker 2: inferior I started to feel as I got older and
12:18
Speaker 2: been like, oh, I'm actually not the best at this
12:21
Speaker 2: thing that I used to think I was the best.
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Speaker 3: My guy Mike Wahlberg, Okay, Mike loved it.
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Speaker 4: He was.
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Speaker 2: He came into elementary school, moved into the boundaries, same
12:31
Speaker 2: as I did, same as Trevor did, and he was huge.
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Speaker 3: In fifth grade, he was like six feet tall. He
12:36
Speaker 3: was a giant.
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Speaker 2: Right for years, he was the best football player we
12:42
Speaker 2: had because he was a giant. And then we got
12:45
Speaker 2: to about eighth grade and skills starts to be more involved.
12:50
Speaker 2: Who's actually running conditioning, who's actually working out, who's actually
12:54
Speaker 2: got the mental grit, who actually wants to be playing football.
12:58
Speaker 2: Turns out, my guy, Mike Wahber, he was more of
13:00
Speaker 2: a band. He was more of like a music like,
13:02
Speaker 2: wanted to play guitar type of guy. That big body
13:05
Speaker 2: doesn't mean anything if you don't have the desire. That's
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Speaker 2: what's happened to the SEC. Okay, the SEC is going
13:12
Speaker 2: through that puberty elementary school to middle school to middle
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Speaker 2: school to high school transition where they're dominance that used
13:20
Speaker 2: to be solely size based, and for their for the
13:24
Speaker 2: practical folks out there, the size I'm talking about is
13:26
Speaker 2: the size of the booster pocketbooks and the size of
13:30
Speaker 2: the booster willingness to skirt the old rules that has
13:34
Speaker 2: gone now that advantage everyone else hit puberty.
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Speaker 3: The Big Ten was the late bloomer that the SEC.
13:42
Speaker 2: Was like, oh crap, if they were the The Big
13:45
Speaker 2: Ten was the always formidable, but never the best in
13:50
Speaker 2: the last like twenty thirty years.
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Speaker 3: Right now there, now they're the best.
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Speaker 2: The Big Ten was like the wholesome kid whose family
13:59
Speaker 2: wasn't hard core dedicated to sports, right, but we're really
14:03
Speaker 2: good at them. They were just happened to be good
14:04
Speaker 2: at them. And then the other dads, right, the dad
14:07
Speaker 2: that always bought their kid the best cleats and the
14:09
Speaker 2: fanciest baseball bat and had the new helmet and put
14:13
Speaker 2: the visor on the helmet and had every under arm
14:16
Speaker 2: or sleeve and glove like those dads were the SEC dads,
14:20
Speaker 2: and they were always they were always like noticing and
14:24
Speaker 2: wary of Like, man, that kid over there, if we
14:28
Speaker 2: give that kid this four hundred dollars baseball bat that
14:31
Speaker 2: I bought my kid, he'll be hitting dingers all day.
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Speaker 3: That happened to the SEC.
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Speaker 2: It's like the Big Ten because they had bag men. Absolutely,
14:41
Speaker 2: but it was like the Big Ten was less, was
14:44
Speaker 2: way less apt to break those kind of rules well
14:49
Speaker 2: and honestly, and now that it's now that, now that
14:52
Speaker 2: it's legal, they're the thriving maybe out of.
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Speaker 3: The Big Ten.
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Speaker 2: Was like the four power schools in the Big Ten
14:59
Speaker 2: were just as willing to break the rules. And that's
15:02
Speaker 2: why Michigan is Michigan. Ohio State, it's Ohio State. But
15:06
Speaker 2: I'm using the Big Ten as the one as the
15:10
Speaker 2: visual example of the kid that came back from the
15:14
Speaker 2: eighth grade break in ninth grade and he hit a
15:16
Speaker 2: six inch gross spurt. But it's not just the Big Ten.
15:19
Speaker 2: The Big Ten is the best example right now, it's
15:22
Speaker 2: actually all of college football. The SEC used to be
15:26
Speaker 2: able to stash the guys. You've heard these arguments for
15:29
Speaker 2: two years now, three years now. The SEC used to have.
15:33
Speaker 2: Alabama's running back room used to be eight NFL guys.
15:38
Speaker 2: Wasn't Trent Richardson mark Ingram's backup to start, yes, or
15:44
Speaker 2: something crazy like that, And then he ended up being
15:46
Speaker 2: the best running back in college football by the time
15:49
Speaker 2: his career ended. There was a time where Alabama had
15:52
Speaker 2: like literally six NFL running backs in the room at
15:56
Speaker 2: different stages of their careers. Right and now that doesn't
15:59
Speaker 2: have happened as readily because there are other schools out there,
16:03
Speaker 2: because nil is a thing. There are other schools out
16:05
Speaker 2: there that are just like, yes, you can go to
16:07
Speaker 2: Alabama and yes, someday you'll maybe be the Heisman Trophy
16:10
Speaker 2: winning most prominent running back in Crimson Tide history. Or
16:15
Speaker 2: you can instead of sitting behind whoever sitting behind mark Ingram,
16:21
Speaker 2: you can come here and you can play right now,
16:24
Speaker 2: and we're going to pay you eight hundred thousand dollars
16:26
Speaker 2: to do it. And that has changed the scale. That
16:29
Speaker 2: has changed the balance in college football. Unfortunately, Utah Texas Tech,
16:36
Speaker 2: even with their huge spending, they're finding out that, like,
16:38
Speaker 2: it's actually harder even with money to close those gaps.
16:43
Speaker 3: Then people have given a credit.
16:47
Speaker 2: And when you spend the money, the big money on
16:50
Speaker 2: certain players and that's two three years of a decent run,
16:55
Speaker 2: it still doesn't mean that you're gonna win a championship.
16:57
Speaker 2: The SEC is facing this reality where they're just like,
17:01
Speaker 2: the success that I once had is no longer guaranteed
17:06
Speaker 2: to me, and I don't like that. The rules are
17:09
Speaker 2: no longer favoring me because the rules in the past
17:12
Speaker 2: favor of the SEC, by the SEC looking the other
17:15
Speaker 2: way in when it pertained to rules. Now you've got
17:20
Speaker 2: the most prominent coach at the current most prominent football
17:23
Speaker 2: program saying, fine, we will take our ball and go home.
17:27
Speaker 2: If we don't find and expanded college football playoff format
17:30
Speaker 2: that we like, we being the SEC, if we don't
17:34
Speaker 2: find recruiting rules that we like again in this conference,
17:39
Speaker 2: if we don't like them, if we don't find some
17:42
Speaker 2: type of salary cap structure, some sustainability model so I
17:46
Speaker 2: don't have to have forty million dollars for my roster
17:49
Speaker 2: this year, fifty million next year, sixty million the year
17:51
Speaker 2: after that, seventy million by the time we hit twenty thirty.
17:55
Speaker 2: Then we'll just do something different. We'll do something on
17:58
Speaker 2: our own. And it's an immature response. I think he
18:01
Speaker 2: probably doesn't mean it. I think he's probably just trying
18:04
Speaker 2: to be as inflammatory as he can to say, like, hey,
18:08
Speaker 2: do something about this, because again, he lives in a place.
18:12
Speaker 2: He lives in a region where when a coach, a
18:15
Speaker 2: college football coach of his stature, says something like that,
18:19
Speaker 2: lawmakers court officials start being like, oh boy, we better
18:24
Speaker 2: fix this, we better figure this out. That's not necessarily
18:27
Speaker 2: true in Chicago. Not necessarily true in Los Angeles, not
18:31
Speaker 2: true in Portland, Oregon. I don't even think it's true
18:34
Speaker 2: in Salt Lake City. For being honest, right, if Kalani
18:39
Speaker 2: Satake started going, you know what, I need the rules
18:43
Speaker 2: to change, or we're gonna take our ball and go
18:46
Speaker 2: home in the Big twelve, or we at BYU are
18:48
Speaker 2: probably just going to do things differently.
18:50
Speaker 3: We're going to become independent again, go back to independent.
18:53
Speaker 2: We'll go back to independence, we'll schedule games against this
18:56
Speaker 2: new sec entity and we'll be on television that way.
19:00
Speaker 2: I mean, maybe that causes a ripple on Capitol Hill
19:04
Speaker 2: to where there's some kind of movement.
19:06
Speaker 3: I don't know. In the South, you get like bipartisan bills.
19:11
Speaker 2: When a coach says something like this, suddenly the hands
19:14
Speaker 2: reach across the aisle and everyone's kumbayan, just like, well,
19:18
Speaker 2: I hate you and you hate me, and I don't
19:20
Speaker 2: like your politics and you don't like mine, but we
19:23
Speaker 2: both love Crimson Todd football and we loved him Jordia
19:26
Speaker 2: boul Level, So come on, let's vote together, and that's
19:29
Speaker 2: it's crazy. The look no further than the Louisiana governor
19:35
Speaker 2: firing the ad, basically firing the AD at LSU before
19:40
Speaker 2: they hired Lane Kiffin, right, Like, yes, that stuff happens
19:44
Speaker 2: all the time in the South that we can't even
19:46
Speaker 2: fathom the highest political official in that state happened to
19:49
Speaker 2: be like, I don't trust this person to hire the
19:52
Speaker 2: right guy at my university, at this university that we
19:55
Speaker 2: need to be good and we need to be a
19:57
Speaker 2: representative of the state. So we're gonna step in here
20:00
Speaker 2: and we're that's I mean, that's can't I can't imagine
20:03
Speaker 2: Governor Cox doing It's unique to the South, right, it's
20:06
Speaker 2: special in the South, but on its own. If Alabama,
20:13
Speaker 2: Georgia and maybe they pulled Miami, whoever, if if the
20:18
Speaker 2: SEC as we know it were to secede, and I'm
20:22
Speaker 2: using that word on purpose, from the the general nation
20:27
Speaker 2: of football, absolutely people would watch it. I would still
20:33
Speaker 2: tune in every once in a while for a Texas
20:35
Speaker 2: Georgia football game.
20:36
Speaker 3: But iron iron bull is always great.
20:39
Speaker 2: The criticism then, right, The risk that you run then is,
20:43
Speaker 2: first of all, there's not actual emotional buy in when
20:47
Speaker 2: you're just fighting amongst yourselves.
20:49
Speaker 3: It's the same way. Like again, I don't like to
20:52
Speaker 3: get too political.
20:53
Speaker 2: You only care as an American citizen about international conflicts
20:58
Speaker 2: that the United States involved in, Right, That's just the
21:03
Speaker 2: nature of being a human. If you know, Malaysia gets
21:08
Speaker 2: into a skirmish with the Philippines, you're probably not overly
21:12
Speaker 2: opinionated one way.
21:13
Speaker 3: Or another, maybe not even don't even know about it
21:16
Speaker 3: at all.
21:16
Speaker 2: If your favorite university or you know, like we'll use
21:20
Speaker 2: Utah by US an example. If Utah BYU are playing
21:25
Speaker 2: against Arkansas, Texas, Auburn, Alabama, Miami, we have feelings about
21:33
Speaker 2: those contests.
21:34
Speaker 3: Right.
21:35
Speaker 2: If Miami is playing against Ohio State, we have fewer
21:41
Speaker 2: feelings about those contests, but we still do because we
21:44
Speaker 2: have some level of awareness of what this means on
21:47
Speaker 2: the national stage. It's a national championship type game, that
21:50
Speaker 2: kind of stuff. If Washington is playing against Oregon, we
21:54
Speaker 2: care because they used to be conference mates, right, But
21:57
Speaker 2: even that has less cachet than used to because now
22:00
Speaker 2: those are Big Ten teams. And if you regionalize college
22:04
Speaker 2: football to an extreme, the way this threat is coming off,
22:09
Speaker 2: what you're doing is you're taking away the buy in,
22:11
Speaker 2: the emotional buy in from the rest of the country.
22:14
Speaker 2: And the Big Twelve, by the way, is the conference
22:16
Speaker 2: that can least afford that the PAC twelve died because
22:22
Speaker 2: nobody cared enough in their region. Right, the Big twelve
22:27
Speaker 2: would be on the most tenuous footing because they just
22:31
Speaker 2: don't have the resources. If the SEC is like, we're
22:33
Speaker 2: doing our own thing, and then the Big Ten's like, cool,
22:35
Speaker 2: we're going to do our own thing, then then the Big.
22:38
Speaker 3: Twelve would be like, well what what?
22:40
Speaker 2: Then you're playing against the new PAC twelve, which is
22:42
Speaker 2: the old Mountain West and guess who's not watching that
22:46
Speaker 2: anyone east of the Mississippi. So what you need as
22:51
Speaker 2: a university, what you need as an athletic department, what
22:54
Speaker 2: you need is a tiered system of achievement and that
23:00
Speaker 2: you are going a tiered goal system. Right, you want
23:03
Speaker 2: to dominate your state first, then you want to dominate
23:06
Speaker 2: your region, then you want to dominate nationally, and you
23:10
Speaker 2: want to check those boxes. If the SEC and Kirby
23:13
Speaker 2: Smarter saying like, we're going to dominate our state first,
23:16
Speaker 2: we're going to dominate our region, and we're not even
23:19
Speaker 2: gonna give a bleep about doing it nationally because we
23:21
Speaker 2: don't like your rules you are. That's a self inflicted
23:25
Speaker 2: wound that the SEC, even the mighty SEC, cannot afford.
23:29
Speaker 2: And they probably think if we dominate our region, we
23:32
Speaker 2: will dominate nationally. And that's just that's a The last
23:36
Speaker 2: three years have proven that to be untrue. It's not,
23:39
Speaker 2: it's it's a false it's a falsehood that if you
23:44
Speaker 2: go down that road, like you say, could be pretty
23:48
Speaker 2: dire for you outside of the Southeastern Conference, and then inevitably,
23:53
Speaker 2: right inevitably after you you sort of like shell up
23:58
Speaker 2: and say we're going to do our own thing here.
24:00
Speaker 2: You're gonna come down the road, and your network partners
24:03
Speaker 2: are gonna be like, guess what, guys, Like, the ratings
24:06
Speaker 2: are not as good as they used to be because
24:09
Speaker 2: it turns out that a lot of people in Los
24:14
Speaker 2: Angeles and Chicago and New York used to watch your
24:17
Speaker 2: SEC football games when you were part of this whole
24:19
Speaker 2: national thing, and now there's a lot less of that
24:22
Speaker 2: because you're just the Confederacy of football down here. You
24:26
Speaker 2: become an enemy if seceded from the College Football Union.
24:30
Speaker 2: So now like these households care less, so inevitably, after
24:35
Speaker 2: three years or two years or five years or however long,
24:37
Speaker 2: it'd be like, Okay, so here's what we're gonna do now.
24:40
Speaker 2: Now we're gonna take our regionalized league, the SEC that
24:42
Speaker 2: has its own rules, has its own salary cap, has
24:45
Speaker 2: its own whatever. And the champion of this is gonna
24:48
Speaker 2: challenge somebody else, and all of us are gonna be
24:51
Speaker 2: like we had this five years ago. It was called
24:54
Speaker 2: the college football Player. It was called bowl season a
24:57
Speaker 2: hundred years ago. That's the point of why we did
25:00
Speaker 2: those things in the first place. The pendulum swings all
25:04
Speaker 2: the time in media, swings all the time in pop culture,
25:06
Speaker 2: swings all the time in sports right now, the SEC
25:11
Speaker 2: of all conferences, I never would have thought that this
25:14
Speaker 2: would be the one that's like, this system is not
25:17
Speaker 2: working for us, we're gonna go home. If Brett Yormark
25:20
Speaker 2: came out with that at Big twelve meetings, it was
25:23
Speaker 2: just like, guys, we can't compete, So if we don't
25:26
Speaker 2: get a better system, we are going to break away
25:29
Speaker 2: and we're gonna like do our own thing.
25:31
Speaker 3: It would actually kind of make sense.
25:33
Speaker 2: It would be a still a bad idea, but there
25:35
Speaker 2: would actually be some reasoning behind it, some logic behind it.
25:38
Speaker 3: The SEC doing this is just a tantrum. It's petulance.
25:45
Speaker 2: I don't get it enough ranting about the SEC. We
25:49
Speaker 2: have a big show, really fascinating Game five in the
25:55
Speaker 2: Western Conference Finals of the NBA Playoffs yesterday, even more
26:00
Speaker 2: fascinating Game four in the Western Conference Finals of the
26:04
Speaker 2: Stanley Cup Playoffs. We're gonna be talking about those as
26:07
Speaker 2: the show progresses. We have a professional sports franchise in
26:11
Speaker 2: Utah now in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, the Utah Talents.
26:17
Speaker 2: Hannah Flippin, former Ute is going to join us next
26:19
Speaker 2: to talk about her role with the Utah Talents. We're
26:22
Speaker 2: also going to have Sidney Ball Malone, they're head coach.
26:25
Speaker 2: That'll be at noon eleven thirty and noon for those guests.
26:28
Speaker 2: Sidney Ball Malone is, by the way, the UCF headball
26:32
Speaker 2: coach as well at softball coach. So we're gonna we're
26:36
Speaker 2: gonna get get into some conversation about the Utah Talents
26:40
Speaker 2: ahead of their opening day matchup on June ninth. And
26:44
Speaker 2: of course I already mentioned we have between the Pipes
26:48
Speaker 2: with Adrian Denny in our one o'clock hour the college
26:51
Speaker 2: football landscape. It's talking season and it happens to be
26:55
Speaker 2: threat season. I saw an article alluding to this. It's
26:59
Speaker 2: threats and right now in college football Iowa State ad
27:03
Speaker 2: of all of all people started this all off being like, hey,
27:07
Speaker 2: why don't you just make good on your threats? Yeah,
27:09
Speaker 2: you want to go and go relax, Brendan Soorsby. Well,
27:14
Speaker 2: we did not have a meaningful Brendan Soorsby update. Yesterday
27:17
Speaker 2: on this show. We got breaking news, the most predictable
27:21
Speaker 2: of all, breaking news about the NCAA decision regarding his
27:24
Speaker 2: eligibility and whether or not his waiver would be granted.
27:28
Speaker 2: So you could probably guess, but we'll have updates on
27:32
Speaker 2: all that. It's a loaded show here on Utah's number
27:35
Speaker 2: one sports talk, brought to you by our friends at
27:38
Speaker 2: Big Willies, The Sean O'Connell Show. By the way, if
27:40
Speaker 2: you want to go watch some French open you want
27:44
Speaker 2: to have a lovely lunch out on the patio, Big
27:46
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27:50
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27:54
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28:02
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28:05
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28:09
Speaker 2: sit down on the patio, you have a cold beverage,
28:11
Speaker 2: you have one of their incredible meals. You take forty
28:14
Speaker 2: five minutes an hour, you reset your day. You basket
28:18
Speaker 2: a little bit of sunlight, you go snap a photo
28:20
Speaker 2: in front of the mammoth mural they have on the
28:22
Speaker 2: west side of the building. Maybe you shoot around a
28:24
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28:26
Speaker 2: back for the second half of your workday.
28:29
Speaker 3: It's a great, great, great plan, and I just gave
28:32
Speaker 3: it to you.
28:33
Speaker 2: Courtesy of Big Willi's are presenting sponsor on the Sean
28:36
Speaker 2: O'Connell Show.
28:37
Speaker 3: Hannah Flipping of the Utah Talents joins us. Next. It's
28:40
Speaker 3: ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM.
28:49
Speaker 1: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
28:52
Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one
28:56
Speaker 1: a half.
28:56
Speaker 2: M All right, going a little bit off the beaten
29:02
Speaker 2: path of what we usually talk about with NBA, NHL,
29:06
Speaker 2: college football, etc. Here on the Sean O'Connell Show, the
29:10
Speaker 2: Utah Talents Athletes Unlimited Softball League are defending champions in
29:15
Speaker 2: this fledgling league, this brand new league. Hannah Flipping happens
29:18
Speaker 2: to be one of their best players, former ute, former
29:21
Speaker 2: PAC twelve Player of the Year, former Defensive Player of
29:24
Speaker 2: the Year in the PAC twelve, and last year's Defensive
29:26
Speaker 2: Player of the Year and Athletes Unlimited Softball League, and
29:29
Speaker 2: she's kind of enough right now to talk to us
29:32
Speaker 2: ahead of the Utah Talents beginning their season in early June.
29:35
Speaker 2: Opening day is Tuesday, June ninth against the Rosemont Bandits.
29:39
Speaker 2: They play at the University of Utah Dunkey Family Stadium.
29:43
Speaker 2: Hannah Flipping, Welcome to the show.
29:44
Speaker 3: How are you hi?
29:46
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me.
29:47
Speaker 5: Super excited to talk about the talents of the AUSL.
29:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're excited.
29:51
Speaker 2: I happen to also be involved with like a kind
29:55
Speaker 2: of a startup professional athletics endeavor.
29:58
Speaker 3: It's in the MMA space.
29:59
Speaker 2: We're trying to compete with the UFC, and so I'm
30:02
Speaker 2: really really fascinated with all of these like startup leagues
30:05
Speaker 2: and So if you don't mind me rewinding all the
30:08
Speaker 2: way back to before the inaugural season, and you know
30:11
Speaker 2: the phone calls, you're getting the sort of opportunity presented
30:14
Speaker 2: to yourself when you're you find out that not only
30:18
Speaker 2: is Athletes Unlimited going to have a team in Utah,
30:21
Speaker 2: but they want you to play for Utah, a place
30:23
Speaker 2: where obviously you're very familiar with the softball scene here
30:26
Speaker 2: and you played your college ball here. Tell me what
30:28
Speaker 2: that process was like for you. What was going through
30:30
Speaker 2: your mind as this opportunity presented itself.
30:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, Athletes Unlimited has evolved over the last five or
30:38
Speaker 5: six years now. I think this is the sixth year
30:40
Speaker 5: that the business has been up and running. And so
30:43
Speaker 5: we started off as kind of like a fantasy softball
30:46
Speaker 5: league where you played on a different team every weekend,
30:48
Speaker 5: and the idea was for that league to be supplemental
30:52
Speaker 5: to a traditional league. And unfortunately that time, at that time,
30:55
Speaker 5: COVID had folded the NTS, the National professt this league,
30:59
Speaker 5: which so there's just been a long tradition of the
31:02
Speaker 5: softball league starting up and then folding because they don't
31:05
Speaker 5: have the financial backing and the business side of things.
31:07
Speaker 5: Kind of nailed down, and so now we're here some
31:11
Speaker 5: years later and Athletes Unlimited as put together a traditional
31:14
Speaker 5: league where we have sixteen six home locations, and that
31:19
Speaker 5: is something that we've been missing for the last ten years,
31:21
Speaker 5: probably of some really solid foundation in a professional softball league.
31:27
Speaker 5: So I'm so excited to have a traditional league back.
31:30
Speaker 5: And then on top of that, for it to be
31:32
Speaker 5: in Utah, it's just in my wildest dreams, I never
31:35
Speaker 5: would have wrote this, and so for that to be
31:38
Speaker 5: the true statement that's going to happen is I'm going
31:40
Speaker 5: to be a Utah talent and play at my alma mater.
31:42
Speaker 5: I'm so grateful. I feel so lucky to not only
31:46
Speaker 5: play in Utah, but be one of three alumni in
31:50
Speaker 5: the league that's going to play at the alma mater.
31:52
Speaker 5: So I'm like double lucky on top of lucky, and
31:54
Speaker 5: so super excited for Salt Lake City to have a
31:57
Speaker 5: pro softball team.
31:58
Speaker 2: So athletics is obviously not only it's not only a
32:04
Speaker 2: business on the rise, but participation for young girls.
32:07
Speaker 3: I'm a father of three girls.
32:09
Speaker 2: Participation in all sports is increasing for young women, and
32:13
Speaker 2: softball has had this long standing sort of place as
32:17
Speaker 2: a great option for women's participation. The Women's College World
32:23
Speaker 2: Series gets really good ratings now and a lot of
32:25
Speaker 2: hype and a lot of attendance. I think they do
32:27
Speaker 2: a good job with the broadcast and things like that.
32:30
Speaker 2: And you know, you've seen the growth of your own sport,
32:33
Speaker 2: You've seen the growth of other women's sports, especially in
32:36
Speaker 2: kind of the pop culture and business space. Do you
32:40
Speaker 2: feel like softball can carve out a nice sustainable spot
32:45
Speaker 2: in the professional ranks now the same way they have
32:48
Speaker 2: with college sport?
32:50
Speaker 1: Yeah?
32:50
Speaker 5: Absolutely, I think that we will do that. We are
32:55
Speaker 5: going to carve our spot just like women's basketball has,
32:58
Speaker 5: just like women's soccer has. I mean, they are kind
33:00
Speaker 5: of the models for us and the inspiration for us.
33:03
Speaker 5: Like they did it, we can do it too. So
33:05
Speaker 5: to have those women fight for their sport just like
33:09
Speaker 5: we're going to, it's been a real inspiration and just
33:12
Speaker 5: like a model of hope almost that we can be
33:14
Speaker 5: that and we are trending in the right direction. You're right,
33:17
Speaker 5: The women's called College World Series and the college game
33:20
Speaker 5: in general is booming right now, and so we're definitely
33:23
Speaker 5: trying to steal a little bit of that thunder and
33:25
Speaker 5: take those big names out of that league once they
33:27
Speaker 5: come out of college into our league and hope continue,
33:31
Speaker 5: hope we continue to grow and kind of roll off
33:34
Speaker 5: the college seasons back and create some of that momentum
33:38
Speaker 5: in our own league, which we saw last year tenfold.
33:41
Speaker 5: Like are, we had sold out stadiums everywhere we went.
33:43
Speaker 5: It was truly truly amazing. I've never played in the
33:46
Speaker 5: professional league that had that many fans consistently all summer long.
33:50
Speaker 5: So I'm super excited for what the summer is going
33:52
Speaker 5: to look like and how much it's going to be
33:55
Speaker 5: showing growth from last year to this year.
33:58
Speaker 2: How much do you appreciate, you know, playing the role
34:02
Speaker 2: of pioneer. There's people who are just like, look, just
34:05
Speaker 2: give me a chance to play the game. I love
34:07
Speaker 2: the sport, I love You're obviously willing to come talk
34:11
Speaker 2: about it, so I imagine you don't mind being a mouthpiece, right,
34:14
Speaker 2: But like, how important is the pioneer role for you
34:18
Speaker 2: to the trailblazer in this sport for women who have
34:21
Speaker 2: Like like you mentioned, there's been plenty of attempts to
34:25
Speaker 2: make something like this work long term for softball and
34:28
Speaker 2: for other women's sports, But now feels like the time
34:31
Speaker 2: where it'll actually work, if that makes sense. How important
34:34
Speaker 2: is that pioneer role for you?
34:36
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean getting into it. Never thought I would
34:39
Speaker 5: be a pioneer. I was just wanted to be wanted
34:41
Speaker 5: to keep playing, And so I think now I'm in a.
34:44
Speaker 4: Place where when I got into the league, I.
34:47
Speaker 5: Was like, oh, I'm playing to grow the sport. I'm
34:49
Speaker 5: playing to grow the sport, and didn't really know what
34:51
Speaker 5: that meant. And to where I am now as a pioneer,
34:54
Speaker 5: as we're moving this leak forward, I can truly say
34:57
Speaker 5: that like I am playing to grow the sport and
34:59
Speaker 5: grow the league. And when I was a young kid,
35:02
Speaker 5: I wasn't looking up to softball players. I was looking
35:04
Speaker 5: up to MLB players. The San Diego Padres were my
35:08
Speaker 5: favorite team. And so now to be a team that
35:12
Speaker 5: this young generation can look up to and dream to
35:15
Speaker 5: be exactly what we are, it's so exciting and I
35:19
Speaker 5: almost wish that I can be a little kid again
35:20
Speaker 5: and go to all these pro softball games because I
35:23
Speaker 5: am such a fan of the sport, and so to
35:25
Speaker 5: have this be a dream for athletes now is I
35:28
Speaker 5: think the most important part in the coolest part about
35:31
Speaker 5: it is that these little girls have a dream to
35:33
Speaker 5: be pro softball players. They don't have to dream to
35:36
Speaker 5: be MLB baseball players. They can be pro softball players.
35:39
Speaker 5: So I think that's really special. And being a pioneer
35:42
Speaker 5: of the league is just kind of falling into place.
35:44
Speaker 5: It's nothing that I sought out to do, but I
35:47
Speaker 5: just wanted to play softball for as long as I can,
35:49
Speaker 5: and this is where it's led me, and I'm so
35:52
Speaker 5: I'm grateful and I'm happy to be a pioneer of
35:54
Speaker 5: this league because I truly believe in it, and I
35:57
Speaker 5: believe that all little girls and little athletes should have
35:59
Speaker 5: them to play pro softball.
36:02
Speaker 2: There was a time in my life where I was
36:04
Speaker 2: a professional fighter and when I told my parents I
36:07
Speaker 2: was going to pursue this thing that the first time
36:09
Speaker 2: I did it was going to pay me one hundred
36:11
Speaker 2: dollars to go get punched in the face. My parents
36:13
Speaker 2: were just like, what are you doing? But my parents
36:16
Speaker 2: were never all American softball players. Your mom was what
36:20
Speaker 2: is your fam What was the conversation with your family
36:22
Speaker 2: like when you're like, yeah, I'm gonna I'm going to
36:25
Speaker 2: spend a significant amount of time and effort on pro softball,
36:29
Speaker 2: which didn't have an obvious and viable path when you started.
36:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I think that they saw me as
36:37
Speaker 5: a young athlete and they saw how much I loved softball,
36:40
Speaker 5: and so thankfully I have the best parents in the
36:43
Speaker 5: best support system in the world to where they were like, heck, yeah, play,
36:46
Speaker 5: we want to follow you and we want you to
36:47
Speaker 5: keep playing. And I joked that my mom lives vicariously
36:51
Speaker 5: through me because because she was a softball player and
36:54
Speaker 5: there was a pro league when she was around, but
36:56
Speaker 5: it was nothing like this, and so for her to
36:59
Speaker 5: see what we're doing now, I know that she's so
37:01
Speaker 5: proud of where softball is now and so proud of
37:04
Speaker 5: me to be a pioneer of the league. And it
37:07
Speaker 5: is crazy when I tell people that aren't my family
37:10
Speaker 5: that don't get it, They're like, you're a professional softball player.
37:12
Speaker 4: I didn't know that was a thing.
37:14
Speaker 5: Well, so then I educate them, and that's part of
37:16
Speaker 5: the pioneering and part of the storytelling is trying to
37:19
Speaker 5: get the word out that there's professional softball and it
37:22
Speaker 5: is a real career path. It is a real dream
37:24
Speaker 5: that people can have. But if you're around long enough
37:27
Speaker 5: you get it and you see it and you're like,
37:29
Speaker 5: totally this makes sense. But if you're just new here,
37:32
Speaker 5: then get on board because we're going fast and we're
37:35
Speaker 5: going far and it's going to be really exciting to watch.
37:38
Speaker 5: So yes, super grateful to have awesome parents that have
37:41
Speaker 5: never doubted this stream of mine and have just continued
37:44
Speaker 5: to support me all the way through.
37:46
Speaker 2: Hanna Flipping is our guest right now on the Sean
37:48
Speaker 2: O'Connell show. Former Utah softball all everything infielder and now
37:53
Speaker 2: she's with the Utah talents are all very on professional
37:57
Speaker 2: softball team here. Their first game is Tuesday, June ninth,
38:01
Speaker 2: up there at the Dunky Family Stadium on the campus
38:04
Speaker 2: of the University of Utah, and as Hannah mentioned, the
38:06
Speaker 2: same place she played her college ball. She's playing as
38:09
Speaker 2: a pro, which is really cool and really unique. Going
38:12
Speaker 2: back to the College Conversation, we talk a lot of Utes,
38:16
Speaker 2: where the home of the Utes. On this station, we
38:17
Speaker 2: talk a lot about college sports, and as you are
38:20
Speaker 2: well aware, the landscape has changed very, very drastically in
38:24
Speaker 2: all college sports, and we focus heavily on the revenue
38:27
Speaker 2: producing stuff, but even in softball, if you're a top
38:30
Speaker 2: flight player now in college softball that comes with money. Now,
38:34
Speaker 2: you didn't graduate long enough ago to be like the
38:38
Speaker 2: folks in my generation are just like, oh man, we
38:40
Speaker 2: were there one hundred years ago, and so none of
38:43
Speaker 2: this was even a possibility. You finished at the University
38:47
Speaker 2: of Utah, like not so long before. These conversations about
38:52
Speaker 2: paying athletes started in earnest and people like you are
38:55
Speaker 2: now making money even in college softball. And it doesn't
38:59
Speaker 2: have to be millions of dollars to make it relevant,
39:01
Speaker 2: because the life of a college athlete is not always
39:04
Speaker 2: super glamorous when you're just on scholarship. So I wanted
39:07
Speaker 2: to get your thoughts on how you've seen the college
39:11
Speaker 2: game change since you left.
39:14
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's crazy, I don't We could sit here and
39:17
Speaker 5: talk hours about how the college game has changed, and
39:20
Speaker 5: I do get asked the question because I missed that
39:23
Speaker 5: window of like, well, what would you do if you
39:25
Speaker 5: get offered X amount of dollars? And I just I
39:28
Speaker 5: can't even imagine being a college athlete right now because
39:31
Speaker 5: I loved my time at you talk so much, and
39:33
Speaker 5: I loved my coaching staff and my teammates that I
39:36
Speaker 5: don't know if there was a dollar sign put in
39:38
Speaker 5: front of me, if I would jump ship or not.
39:40
Speaker 5: But that's something that kids are having to make that
39:42
Speaker 5: decision on and sometimes it's life changing money, but I
39:46
Speaker 5: don't know, it's it's a totally different world. And I
39:49
Speaker 5: feel for the college athletes that are trying to make
39:52
Speaker 5: the best decisions for themselves and do what they can.
39:55
Speaker 5: But it is crazy times and I'm happy to be
39:58
Speaker 5: out of it and happy to I don't have to
40:00
Speaker 5: make those decisions. But at the same time, I'm so
40:03
Speaker 5: grateful for the experience that I had. And I think
40:06
Speaker 5: any time you can go play college a college sport
40:09
Speaker 5: at any level, regardless of if you're making money, if
40:12
Speaker 5: you're a walk on, it is such an unreal experience
40:15
Speaker 5: and I think everybody should go and find their spot
40:19
Speaker 5: and find their home and play college sports because it
40:22
Speaker 5: really does change your life and help you grow as
40:25
Speaker 5: a human. And at the end of the day, like
40:28
Speaker 5: I think college sports are like what shapes my life
40:30
Speaker 5: and what teaches me life lessons. I always say, like,
40:33
Speaker 5: I have no idea how people learn things without sports,
40:36
Speaker 5: Like how do you learn something if you don't have teammates?
40:38
Speaker 5: And so I'm so grateful for my experience and wouldn't
40:42
Speaker 5: change it for the world.
40:43
Speaker 2: When I was trying to be a professional fighter, I
40:46
Speaker 2: always had a day job. Now my day job was
40:48
Speaker 2: this was in sports media, but professional softball is not
40:54
Speaker 2: yet a lucrative and glamorous endeavor.
40:56
Speaker 3: Do you have a day job.
40:58
Speaker 5: I don't this year, Actually last year I did. I
41:01
Speaker 5: had a part time job as a neuropsychologist, or sorry,
41:05
Speaker 5: not a neuropsychologist, a neurotechnician for a neuropsychologist, which is
41:09
Speaker 5: a lot of fancy words just to say that I
41:12
Speaker 5: helped a doctor test patients coming in with memory loss,
41:17
Speaker 5: brain injuries, Alzheimer's, dementia, things like that. So that was
41:23
Speaker 5: my part time job. And I was working for a
41:27
Speaker 5: teammate's mom who owned the practice. And so it's all
41:30
Speaker 5: about connections. But a lot of the athletes in our
41:33
Speaker 5: league either coach in the collegiate level or give lessons
41:37
Speaker 5: or coach high school teams, and so we just kind
41:40
Speaker 5: of all find the ways to make bands meet and
41:43
Speaker 5: get to continue living this stream that we all want
41:46
Speaker 5: so badly.
41:47
Speaker 3: That sounds like a fascinating part time job. You had.
41:49
Speaker 3: Was that your field of study in school?
41:52
Speaker 4: It was.
41:53
Speaker 5: I studied psychology and family studies in school. I thought
41:56
Speaker 5: it was going to be a teacher, an elementary school
41:58
Speaker 5: teacher coming out of school.
42:00
Speaker 1: What my mom did.
42:00
Speaker 5: I'm really passionate about teaching and about kids and youth,
42:05
Speaker 5: and so that's kind of where my college studies were,
42:09
Speaker 5: and so psychology not too far off. And it is
42:11
Speaker 5: really interesting. You meet so many different people, so many
42:14
Speaker 5: walks of life that come in and they are they're
42:17
Speaker 5: just there to get help and try and figure out
42:19
Speaker 5: how they can make their lives better. And it's it's
42:22
Speaker 5: been really fun and really humbling to be in an
42:25
Speaker 5: office with four head lights from nine to five. It's
42:28
Speaker 5: a lot different than being out of the softball field.
42:30
Speaker 5: So I appreciate the experience.
42:34
Speaker 3: What is the what is the Utah Talent's practice schedule?
42:38
Speaker 2: Like, give us give me a sense of just how
42:40
Speaker 2: much of this how much of your life this pursuit
42:42
Speaker 2: is consuming right now with practice and you know BP
42:46
Speaker 2: and all these things.
42:47
Speaker 5: Yeah, the the Pro Softball World only happens kind of
42:51
Speaker 5: over the summer right now because we're such a short season,
42:54
Speaker 5: because they can't support us year round financially, and so
42:58
Speaker 5: a lot of the training in the off season is
42:59
Speaker 5: in and so I'm my base. My home base is
43:02
Speaker 5: in Tucson. Right now, I go work out at the
43:04
Speaker 5: University of Arizona. Thankfully they let me kind of tag
43:07
Speaker 5: along to some of their things and work out in
43:09
Speaker 5: the weight room there. So for about nine months of
43:11
Speaker 5: the year, everybody is kind of on their own, or
43:14
Speaker 5: if they live around people in our league, then they
43:17
Speaker 5: kind of train together. But the real grind happens when.
43:21
Speaker 3: We get together.
43:22
Speaker 5: Starting now, for the next ten days, we're in Vero Beach, Florida.
43:25
Speaker 5: We're at the Jackie Robinson Training Center, and we're going
43:29
Speaker 5: to do two days. We're hitting in the morning, hitting
43:32
Speaker 5: on the fields, and evenings doing weight training in between
43:35
Speaker 5: having team meetings and so these next ten days are
43:37
Speaker 5: really where we're going to try and come together as
43:39
Speaker 5: a team and bond and gel so that we can
43:43
Speaker 5: start our run to winning another championship.
43:46
Speaker 2: How well do you know Cindy Baum alone, She's going
43:49
Speaker 2: to be our guest at about noon, So at about
43:52
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes, the new Utah Talents head coach, how well
43:55
Speaker 2: do you know, we're already Yeah, Coach.
43:58
Speaker 5: Bar I have a good relationship with her. He's coached
44:01
Speaker 5: a couple of the USA women's softball teams that I've
44:03
Speaker 5: been on, and I've been fortunate enough to go out
44:06
Speaker 5: to UCF where she coaches now and works in camps
44:09
Speaker 5: with her, and so I have a good relationship with her,
44:12
Speaker 5: and I think she's great. I think she's exactly what
44:15
Speaker 5: the talents made this year, somebody who coaches at a
44:18
Speaker 5: high level already and just is intelligent and all facets
44:21
Speaker 5: of the game. She was a pitcher who also hit,
44:24
Speaker 5: and so she kind of can de Bertel into both
44:26
Speaker 5: sides of the game and just is a really mature
44:29
Speaker 5: coach as far as like what she asks from her
44:31
Speaker 5: current team, and so I think she's going to transition
44:34
Speaker 5: really well into the pro side. A lot of the
44:36
Speaker 5: coaches kind of struggle with like, well, it's professional softball now,
44:39
Speaker 5: and I don't want to treat them like kids. I
44:41
Speaker 5: don't want to treat them like my college team. But
44:44
Speaker 5: there's a fine line between how do we treat them
44:46
Speaker 5: like professionals but still be able to coach them, Because
44:49
Speaker 5: that's something that a lot of players in our league
44:51
Speaker 5: are looking for. Because we trained so individually for nine
44:55
Speaker 5: months out of the year, we're looking for somebody to
44:57
Speaker 5: come in and say, hey, you can do that better,
44:59
Speaker 5: or hey here's what I'm seeing.
45:01
Speaker 4: Try this out.
45:02
Speaker 5: And so I think they try and walk that fine
45:04
Speaker 5: line of not stepping on our toes because we are professionals,
45:08
Speaker 5: because we are adults, but kind of dipping our toe
45:10
Speaker 5: into we still want to be developed. And so I
45:13
Speaker 5: think Coach Bear is going to really walk that line perfectly.
45:15
Speaker 5: And I'm excited to spend a whole summer with us.
45:18
Speaker 2: We're we might have a problem because we already there's
45:21
Speaker 2: now two coach Bears in the professional ranks here in
45:24
Speaker 2: the state of Utah.
45:25
Speaker 3: The Utah Mammoth Head coach. His nickname is Bear Bear Tourney.
45:29
Speaker 5: Wow, it's perfect. It's like it's meant to be.
45:31
Speaker 2: So we got two Bears, this is going to be.
45:34
Speaker 2: We're gonna only you know what, only one gets to
45:36
Speaker 2: keep the nickname. We're gonna have a competition between the
45:39
Speaker 2: two and we'll figure out who gets.
45:40
Speaker 3: To keep the nickname.
45:41
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it.
45:43
Speaker 2: Before I let you go, what about your own individual
45:46
Speaker 2: goals for the season. What do you have in your
45:47
Speaker 2: mind that you want to accomplish this year?
45:50
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean always in my head, the team comes first, right.
45:53
Speaker 5: I want to win back to back, back to back
45:56
Speaker 5: championships with this team. I think it'd be really cool.
45:59
Speaker 5: We've already cemented at ourselves in the history books as
46:02
Speaker 5: being the first team to do it, and so why
46:04
Speaker 5: not continue to do it and continue to put our
46:06
Speaker 5: name in the history books. So back to back champions
46:08
Speaker 5: But individually, I just I want to be the best
46:11
Speaker 5: shortstop in the league, even I don't even know if
46:13
Speaker 5: that's what position I'm going to play. We haven't even
46:15
Speaker 5: practice one day as a team, but played shorts up
46:17
Speaker 5: last year for the talent. So just want to be
46:19
Speaker 5: the best player I camp for my team. And I
46:22
Speaker 5: also have been like putting my own tangible or like
46:27
Speaker 5: accountable goals into the future. I said, I want to
46:29
Speaker 5: lead the league in doubles this year, And that Dunky
46:32
Speaker 5: Family Football Stadium's got some pretty good gaps in it,
46:34
Speaker 5: and so I think I got a good shot.
46:36
Speaker 1: At that.
46:38
Speaker 2: Little home field advantage because you know this field better
46:41
Speaker 2: than anyone else in the league, probably exactly.
46:44
Speaker 5: And it's so fun because the field is so big,
46:46
Speaker 5: and so there's plenty of places to get some doubles.
46:49
Speaker 5: And so I'm excited to play at home.
46:52
Speaker 2: Well, Hannah, very much appreciate you giving us your time today.
46:56
Speaker 2: Good luck with the camp, good luck with the upcoming opener.
47:00
Speaker 3: Uh, you know what I like. I said, I got
47:02
Speaker 3: three daughters.
47:02
Speaker 2: There's no reason I shouldn't be out there Tuesday, June
47:06
Speaker 2: ninth against the Rosemont Bandits to support former utes like
47:09
Speaker 2: Hannah Flipping and of course the defending champions, the Utah Talents.
47:13
Speaker 3: Thanks again for joining us, Hannah. Have a good season.
47:15
Speaker 3: You guys do ninth Hannah Flippin'. Maybe your shortstop.
47:22
Speaker 2: Maybe she'll play second, maybe she'll play third base, whatever
47:25
Speaker 2: you probably want to keep her where. She was the
47:27
Speaker 2: defensive Player of the Year, PAC twelve Player of the Year.
47:31
Speaker 2: She is an incredible softball player, a former ute, and uh,
47:36
Speaker 2: that was fun. I'm really interested to know how this
47:40
Speaker 2: league can build momentum because women's professional sports are having
47:45
Speaker 2: this protracted moment of growth, and uh, there's real traction
47:50
Speaker 2: with the WNBA, with college women's college sports that I
47:54
Speaker 2: think can translate for athletes Unlimited Softball League. We will
47:58
Speaker 2: be talking to her head coach, Indie bomb Alone in
48:01
Speaker 2: just a few minutes. But the hot lunch is next
48:03
Speaker 2: here on the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN seven hundred and
48:06
Speaker 2: ninety two one FM.
48:11
Speaker 1: As you're listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from a
48:14
Speaker 1: Murdoch Hyundai studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
48:19
Speaker 1: to one, alf am, are we.
48:29
Speaker 2: Seeing a Victor Webbin Yama heel turn? Is he going
48:33
Speaker 2: to become a villain but one that you can root for?
48:38
Speaker 2: I love this intrigue coming out of a very fascinating
48:41
Speaker 2: Game five of the Western Conference Finals in the NBA Playoffs,
48:45
Speaker 2: a game won by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Here in
48:48
Speaker 2: the hot lunch by the way, head down to Big Willie's.
48:51
Speaker 2: Grab the lunch special today, Grab a drink Telemos sent you.
48:55
Speaker 2: The daily drink specials are four dollars or less every
48:58
Speaker 2: single day at Big will the seventeen seventeen South Main.
49:03
Speaker 2: We saw this right on the broadcast last night. Victor
49:06
Speaker 2: wemin Yama getting subbed out and he whispers some sweet
49:13
Speaker 2: nothings into the ears of his teammates. Who was a
49:16
Speaker 2: Bismack Biyambo coming in? And the allegation or the assumption
49:22
Speaker 2: from some people is that Victor wembin Yama was saying, hey,
49:27
Speaker 2: I need you to foul hard. This game got a
49:31
Speaker 2: little chippy, this game got a little physical, and for
49:35
Speaker 2: whatever reason, Oklahoma City was just able to hit the
49:41
Speaker 2: timely shots. Every time that the San Antonio Spurs would
49:46
Speaker 2: put together a nice little run, try to come from behind,
49:48
Speaker 2: close it to within. I mean late in the game
49:50
Speaker 2: it was ten eight, even earlier, five or six points,
49:58
Speaker 2: you would see somebody Jared McCain pull up from three
50:05
Speaker 2: and extend the lead again. So it was Mason Plumbley.
50:08
Speaker 2: It was Mason Plumbley and Bismack Biambo that we're checking
50:13
Speaker 2: in and the whisper is that maybe Victor wimbin Yama
50:19
Speaker 2: as he's exiting, said hey, go commit a hard foul
50:24
Speaker 2: or two on that guy. Now, I'm of the Ned
50:31
Speaker 2: Stark opinion that he who passes the sentence should swing
50:36
Speaker 2: the sword. Anyone understand that Game of Thrones reference, James,
50:40
Speaker 2: You're not a Game of Thrones guy yet, right?
50:43
Speaker 4: No?
50:43
Speaker 2: I have watched him now, okay, so sorry, I was
50:47
Speaker 2: John Snow. He he took that into his his dad
50:50
Speaker 2: and Ned Stark, Yeah, he who passes the sentence must
50:53
Speaker 2: swing the sword. John Snow did the same thing like
50:56
Speaker 2: six seasons later that I'm of the opinion that Wemby
50:59
Speaker 2: should do that. If Wemby wants somebody to get fouled hard, Wenby,
51:03
Speaker 2: we've seen you do it before. We've seen you get
51:05
Speaker 2: frustrated and thrown elbow. If you need somebody to be
51:08
Speaker 2: taken out, you're a giant. You got you could be
51:11
Speaker 2: the one to take him out. Now, if you're Mason Plumley,
51:15
Speaker 2: if you're Bismack Biyambo, you probably love this.
51:18
Speaker 3: You probably love that you're.
51:20
Speaker 2: Coming in and they're like, you know, the one of
51:23
Speaker 2: the best players in the league, the de facto leader
51:26
Speaker 2: of your team is just like, I know that your
51:28
Speaker 2: actual contribution to this game is going to be relatively meaningless.
51:32
Speaker 3: I'm giving you a job to do, all right. It
51:35
Speaker 3: is the hockey enforcer thing.
51:37
Speaker 2: And I've you have heard on this show that I
51:40
Speaker 2: have demanded this role exists in NBA basketball.
51:44
Speaker 3: Now.
51:45
Speaker 2: I don't know that Jared McCain deserve this, because Jared
51:48
Speaker 2: McCain wasn't being fake tough guy. He was just hitting
51:50
Speaker 2: shots that frustrated the heck out of the San Antonio Spurs.
51:54
Speaker 3: So that's probably not the right time to do it.
51:57
Speaker 2: For me, the enforcer should be deployed any time someone
52:00
Speaker 2: gets a little out of pocket, thinks they're tougher than
52:03
Speaker 2: they are, thinks they know how to fight, or they're
52:05
Speaker 2: committing hard fouls of their own for no particular reason.
52:08
Speaker 2: But if Victor Webbin Yama is the guy, he's the
52:11
Speaker 2: mafia boss. Now with the San Antonio Spurs, he's like, guys,
52:15
Speaker 2: we're gonna lose this one, but go take that dude out. Yeah,
52:18
Speaker 2: Like I disagree with with Victor should be the one
52:22
Speaker 2: to do it, because you can't have him thrown out
52:23
Speaker 2: of the game. We saw, we saw what happened the
52:26
Speaker 2: Minnesota series nearly turned because he decided to take matters
52:30
Speaker 2: in his own hands. Charles Oakley was this guy for
52:34
Speaker 2: the nineties Knicks. Dennis Rodman would do that, but even
52:39
Speaker 2: Dennis Rodman was a little too valuable to be for
52:42
Speaker 2: the Bulls to survive in the Pistons, to survive in
52:46
Speaker 2: the playoffs, you need a Mason Plumbley type. That's something
52:50
Speaker 2: that's been missing in these playoffs for the Spurs, and
52:54
Speaker 2: it's been it's not been a thing in the NBA
52:56
Speaker 2: for a couple decades now. But Wemby for whatever reason
53:00
Speaker 2: and is they're they're trying to be overly physical with him.
53:02
Speaker 2: Isaiah Hartenstein should be the one on the receiving end
53:05
Speaker 2: of this. He's he's wrestling with Wenby and the rest
53:07
Speaker 2: aren't calling a thing. That's someone needs to be Mason Plumley,
53:11
Speaker 2: Bismack Biambo need to come into the game and like
53:14
Speaker 2: elbow him in the head or somebody like, hey, get
53:16
Speaker 2: off our guy, because obviously the rest are letting you
53:19
Speaker 2: do it. We're not gonna let you do it. I
53:21
Speaker 2: mean if the refs aren't, that's kind of it's kind
53:24
Speaker 2: of the thing that's where it all came from in hockey, right, Yeah,
53:27
Speaker 2: because referees they call the penalty, but it's not proportionate
53:32
Speaker 2: to the foul. And so the team says, two minutes
53:35
Speaker 2: in the box was not enough. When you get out
53:37
Speaker 2: of that box, you're gonna get a five minute major.
53:41
Speaker 2: You're gonna get a double minor. We're gonna, we're gonna fight,
53:44
Speaker 2: You're gonna have to defend yourself. You're gonna and I'm
53:47
Speaker 2: you know, the the enforcer comes in to defend the
53:51
Speaker 2: honor of the Sidney Crosby or the Connor McDavid or
53:55
Speaker 2: the Macklin Celabrini or whatever, a time honored tradition that
53:59
Speaker 2: is becoming less and less of a thing in NHL hockey,
54:02
Speaker 2: but has never really been as much of a thing
54:05
Speaker 2: in the NBA and certainly in modern NBA not a lot.
54:09
Speaker 2: If if Wemby loses this series, but he brings back
54:13
Speaker 2: and the NBA enforcer and next year we have an
54:16
Speaker 2: Anthony Mason or a Charles Oakley or a Ben Wallace
54:20
Speaker 2: on every.
54:20
Speaker 3: Team in the NBA.
54:21
Speaker 2: On Davis for the Pacers, I'm on board with that. Like,
54:25
Speaker 2: if that's your contribution, Victor Weber, I'm cool. Also, if
54:28
Speaker 2: you get kicked out of a game with two minutes
54:30
Speaker 2: left in the NBA, it's not like targeting in the
54:33
Speaker 2: targeting in the college football, right, No, you.
54:37
Speaker 3: Just missed the two minutes of the game, So Wemby
54:39
Speaker 3: could have done it.
54:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean in that at that point you're talking about,
54:42
Speaker 2: But like in general, I'm like Wemby needs to be
54:46
Speaker 2: he needs to keep his hands clean. He needs an
54:49
Speaker 2: enforcer type to do the dirty work for him, just
54:51
Speaker 2: like just like those nineties Nicks the Pacers and come
54:55
Speaker 2: to think of it as a lot of the Eastern Conference,
54:57
Speaker 2: so you didn't hear much about it.
54:58
Speaker 3: In the West.
55:00
Speaker 2: Pistons used to just mug people, right the bill Lambier
55:03
Speaker 2: pacers or bill Lambier pistons. Those old highlight reels are
55:08
Speaker 2: absolutely hilarious because every foul committed on those reels would
55:13
Speaker 2: be a flagrant to in today's NBA.
55:18
Speaker 3: Wimby.
55:19
Speaker 2: If you're taking a heel turn here, I love that
55:21
Speaker 2: this is the choice you're making to do. All right,
55:24
Speaker 2: we got to take a break here. That is the
55:26
Speaker 2: end of our number one. The Festival of Teas, by
55:29
Speaker 2: the way, still on, powered by the Utah Golf Association
55:31
Speaker 2: and brought to you by Mountain Home Services. We're giving
55:34
Speaker 2: away three rounds of golf. Make sure you stay tuned
55:36
Speaker 2: for your chance to win. Cindy Baum alone, Utah Talon's
55:42
Speaker 2: head coach. Coach Bear is her nickname. We'll have to
55:46
Speaker 2: address this right at the top of the conversation. It's
55:49
Speaker 2: the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN seven hundred and ninety two ONEFM.
56:00
Speaker 1: He's by Sean O'Connell's show. You were home of the
56:02
Speaker 1: best inside of your hughes. Let's get back to oc
56:06
Speaker 1: from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and
56:10
Speaker 1: ninety two to one A.
56:11
Speaker 3: F am you, welcome back to the Shawn O'Connell Show.
56:19
Speaker 2: Welcome to the start of hour number two, and welcome
56:22
Speaker 2: in Cindy Ball Malone, Utah Talons head coach, the defending
56:27
Speaker 2: champion Utah Talents in another campaign in the Athletes Unlimited
56:32
Speaker 2: Softball League opening day Tuesday, June ninth, against the Chicago
56:36
Speaker 2: Bandits at the University of Utah Dunky Family Stadium.
56:42
Speaker 3: Coach, thanks for giving us some time today. Welcome to
56:44
Speaker 3: the show. How are you.
56:45
Speaker 4: I'm doing great, Thanks for having me.
56:48
Speaker 2: We're going to start off with the most important thing here.
56:50
Speaker 2: We have to address the elephant and the bear in
56:52
Speaker 2: the room. In the room your your nickname is Coach Bear.
56:58
Speaker 2: Andre Tourney, the the head coach of the Utah Mammoth,
57:02
Speaker 2: is affectionately referred to as Coach Bear.
57:05
Speaker 3: Is this town big enough for two bears?
57:08
Speaker 4: Well it better be right. We've got to make that happen.
57:11
Speaker 4: But I do think we've got to have some type
57:13
Speaker 4: of face off. I don't know, I don't know if
57:15
Speaker 4: this bear here has been on ice, but you know,
57:18
Speaker 4: we'll see.
57:20
Speaker 3: Oh, that's awesome.
57:20
Speaker 2: We got to get you guys together and I don't know,
57:23
Speaker 2: said get all the Utah Mammoth out for opening day
57:26
Speaker 2: or something.
57:27
Speaker 3: Let's talk about by the way, coach Bear.
57:31
Speaker 2: This coach Bear also the head coach of UCF Softball,
57:34
Speaker 2: so we'll talk about that a little bit in just
57:36
Speaker 2: a second. Utah Talents, Like I already mentioned, your season
57:40
Speaker 2: begins in just a couple of weeks. We had Hannah
57:43
Speaker 2: flipping on about half an hour ago and she told
57:46
Speaker 2: us that, you know, you're about to embark on this
57:48
Speaker 2: kind of condensed training camp. What are your expectations for
57:53
Speaker 2: the the sprint you're about to begin and athletes unlimited?
57:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean really I'm looking forward to just getting
58:02
Speaker 4: with them, starting to build relationships with some of the
58:05
Speaker 4: athletes that I haven't had, you know, prior relationships with
58:09
Speaker 4: with if it was USA softball or just through college
58:12
Speaker 4: and recruiting. So that's really my biggest expectation is building
58:18
Speaker 4: those relationships, finding out what they need. They're highly talented,
58:22
Speaker 4: as you know, like you said, reigning champs, and all
58:26
Speaker 4: they've talked about is their eyes are set for another one.
58:29
Speaker 4: So it's just awesome to have such driven women, you know,
58:35
Speaker 4: doing their thing on their own for a matter of months,
58:38
Speaker 4: and now they get to bring it to the table
58:41
Speaker 4: and be together. So that's I think it's just all
58:44
Speaker 4: good stuff that we're expecting.
58:48
Speaker 2: I'm trying to figure out the right way to phrase
58:49
Speaker 2: this question because in an emerging league, right, in a
58:53
Speaker 2: sport that has a long established tradition in the collegiate
58:58
Speaker 2: ranks but has not really until now hopefully found traction
59:02
Speaker 2: as a professional league, and you've been part of a
59:04
Speaker 2: lot of these efforts in the past, how comfortable are you?
59:08
Speaker 2: How much do you like, you know, not only the
59:11
Speaker 2: ball itself, but like maybe being an evangelist for the
59:15
Speaker 2: sport and like trying to help sell this new league.
59:19
Speaker 2: I've been through some of this myself in my own
59:21
Speaker 2: career in a different sport, and it's not easy, right,
59:24
Speaker 2: It's a there's some heavy lifting to be done, and
59:26
Speaker 2: sometimes you just want to focus on competition and in
59:29
Speaker 2: your case, on softball.
59:31
Speaker 3: But I don't want to put words in your mouth.
59:33
Speaker 3: So is this a role you relish?
59:37
Speaker 4: Oh? Absolutely, I mean, first and foremost, to even have this,
59:41
Speaker 4: you know, opportunity is such an honor, not only with
59:45
Speaker 4: a great league and a great leader in kimming, and
59:48
Speaker 4: then my GM an our GM, Lisa Fernandez. I mean,
59:53
Speaker 4: it's you know, I am definitely pinching myself and I
59:59
Speaker 4: and just like how this has all come about. And
1:00:01
Speaker 4: when I look at our roster, when I got this opportunity,
1:00:04
Speaker 4: and I looked at the roster, I'm I've been on
1:00:06
Speaker 4: the field either you know, on the same team or
1:00:09
Speaker 4: against more than ninety percent of this roster and so
1:00:14
Speaker 4: to be able to be a part of it is
1:00:16
Speaker 4: and to have a little piece of it is so amazing.
1:00:19
Speaker 4: But I have to really go to the leadership of
1:00:22
Speaker 4: the league and everybody that just the driving force of it.
1:00:25
Speaker 4: I mean, I can't take much credit. They're just going
1:00:28
Speaker 4: to allow me to play a small role in it.
1:00:31
Speaker 4: And I just couldn't be more excited for that. And
1:00:34
Speaker 4: what you talk about how fast this league is moving
1:00:38
Speaker 4: and how quickly they're doing it in such a great
1:00:42
Speaker 4: manner is I mean, it's incredible to watch it, and
1:00:45
Speaker 4: so to be able to help it along and be
1:00:48
Speaker 4: a part of it is again, I'm truly honored, and
1:00:52
Speaker 4: I think, you know, to be able to say I
1:00:55
Speaker 4: do something that I love, I truly love every day
1:00:58
Speaker 4: and now this Wow, blessed are the words that I have.
1:01:03
Speaker 2: The obvious comparisons when you look at, you know, what
1:01:07
Speaker 2: this league is trying to do. You go to what
1:01:09
Speaker 2: the WNBA is doing right now and how prominent they
1:01:13
Speaker 2: are on you know, major sports networks, and how those
1:01:17
Speaker 2: athletes have established real followings inside and outside of basketball.
1:01:22
Speaker 2: The soccer NWSL is thriving, and obviously our national team
1:01:27
Speaker 2: in women's soccer has always been incredibly popular. Hockey and
1:01:31
Speaker 2: softball now coming along and trying to maybe capture some
1:01:35
Speaker 2: of this momentum.
1:01:36
Speaker 3: How do you do it?
1:01:37
Speaker 2: How do you make sure that you know, the growth
1:01:40
Speaker 2: is there the same way that it took the WNBA
1:01:44
Speaker 2: like thirty years to get to where they're at right now.
1:01:47
Speaker 2: So maybe the early stages for athletes unlimited, but how
1:01:51
Speaker 2: do you follow that path?
1:01:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, again, I'm going to say I can't. I can't
1:01:57
Speaker 4: say that I'm in the room making those decisions, But
1:02:01
Speaker 4: I think it's just really listening to those leaders that
1:02:03
Speaker 4: understand how to push this thing faster and you know,
1:02:07
Speaker 4: just as much as those other sports and leagues have done,
1:02:11
Speaker 4: but we're going to do it on a more accelerated
1:02:13
Speaker 4: pace and you know, what better person to drive us
1:02:19
Speaker 4: than who who's in charge of us. And I think
1:02:21
Speaker 4: that that whole group of advisors is just doing such
1:02:26
Speaker 4: a great job of paying attention to the details what's important.
1:02:30
Speaker 4: And I think the other thing, too, is just how
1:02:33
Speaker 4: incredibly amazing they take care of these athletes, because that's
1:02:39
Speaker 4: so important, right, and people love to watch them. They
1:02:44
Speaker 4: are great at what they do. It's exciting, and you
1:02:48
Speaker 4: know they're they're getting to reap the benefits of the
1:02:51
Speaker 4: products they put out on the field. So I just
1:02:54
Speaker 4: again I think the whole infrastructure around it. Again, I'm
1:03:02
Speaker 4: just gonna work on the curve balls and the changeups
1:03:04
Speaker 4: and all of those pieces and just helping along some
1:03:08
Speaker 4: of these athletes. But the infrastructure around it is the
1:03:12
Speaker 4: people that are building this. Just truly love not only
1:03:16
Speaker 4: the game, but the people in it and the idea
1:03:19
Speaker 4: and the process. And to see how fast it's building,
1:03:23
Speaker 4: the word I have is incredible. It takes my breath
1:03:27
Speaker 4: away to see it because I did play in a
1:03:29
Speaker 4: league many years ago where I felt like I was
1:03:33
Speaker 4: paying to play, and I think a lot of athletes
1:03:35
Speaker 4: can say that. So it's a long time coming. But
1:03:38
Speaker 4: they know they're putting it to work really quickly, and
1:03:41
Speaker 4: I appreciate you acknowledging that too, because it is hard work.
1:03:47
Speaker 3: Coach Bar not the one you're used to.
1:03:49
Speaker 2: Cindy Baum alone, Utah Talon's head coach, who was also
1:03:54
Speaker 2: affectionately referred to as Coach Bar, is our guest here
1:03:58
Speaker 2: on the Sean O'Connell shows.
1:04:00
Speaker 3: So you already kind of alluded to this.
1:04:02
Speaker 2: You look at the roster, you look at what's available
1:04:04
Speaker 2: to you with this Utah Talent squad, and you're going
1:04:07
Speaker 2: to have to, you know, kind of cobble it together
1:04:10
Speaker 2: quickly because it's a very condensed training schedule and then
1:04:14
Speaker 2: a very condensed actual competition schedule. What are the I
1:04:18
Speaker 2: don't know, benefits and challenges of that sprint?
1:04:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think, you know, getting right into the games
1:04:25
Speaker 4: is so important because we have a squad ful of
1:04:28
Speaker 4: just competitors and winners. And I know every coach can
1:04:31
Speaker 4: say that, but I've seen handedly seen it on the
1:04:34
Speaker 4: field of or I've seen it with my own eyes
1:04:36
Speaker 4: of you know, the women on this roster, they want
1:04:40
Speaker 4: to be out there, they want to compete, they want
1:04:42
Speaker 4: to keep driving this game as well, and they have
1:04:45
Speaker 4: been training hard. You know, though we may not be
1:04:48
Speaker 4: in the same spot, like, there's been a lot of communication,
1:04:52
Speaker 4: you know, a lot of building up where they want
1:04:55
Speaker 4: to be and just having their their process of where
1:04:58
Speaker 4: they're going. And again, the best person to be in
1:05:03
Speaker 4: charge of all of that is our GM Lisa Fernandez.
1:05:06
Speaker 3: So she I mean, if you.
1:05:09
Speaker 4: Look at her track record and Utah, get to know
1:05:11
Speaker 4: it really well because she's amazing. She's she is the
1:05:15
Speaker 4: founder of our sport, and she thinks of every detail
1:05:20
Speaker 4: and just loves this game so much and wants to
1:05:24
Speaker 4: build it up along with the people in it. So
1:05:26
Speaker 4: I think that's the exciting part and the challenges of
1:05:29
Speaker 4: us not being together, that's going to be the fun
1:05:32
Speaker 4: part because we actually get to play as a squad together.
1:05:36
Speaker 2: You're in a very unique position as far as pro
1:05:39
Speaker 2: sports go because you're also a college coach. So the
1:05:43
Speaker 2: pipeline of talent that comes into athletes unlimited softball is
1:05:48
Speaker 2: for the most part, correct me if I'm wrong, is
1:05:50
Speaker 2: going to come from you know, college softball, and is
1:05:53
Speaker 2: going to come from the domestic college softball pool that
1:05:57
Speaker 2: we've got. And you're at UCF and when we're talking
1:06:01
Speaker 2: about that pipeline, and you know, you get to see
1:06:06
Speaker 2: kind of both ends of this is what the professional
1:06:08
Speaker 2: product is supposed to be and looks like, and this
1:06:11
Speaker 2: is what the next wave might look like.
1:06:14
Speaker 3: How does one feed the other in your mind?
1:06:16
Speaker 2: How does what's happening right now in college softball prepare
1:06:19
Speaker 2: these athletes to take this league to the next level.
1:06:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think it's a really unique situation
1:06:27
Speaker 4: because you don't see that happening, you know, across the
1:06:30
Speaker 4: board in all sports. And you know, people when we
1:06:34
Speaker 4: announced here that I was going to be a part
1:06:36
Speaker 4: of the Talents, I had so many people reach out like,
1:06:38
Speaker 4: We're going to miss you so much, and I'm not
1:06:39
Speaker 4: going anywhere. You know, they did this right. They made
1:06:42
Speaker 4: it to where we can incorporate both of them and
1:06:46
Speaker 4: it doesn't affect our seasons. And if you have a
1:06:49
Speaker 4: well established staff at the university that you're at, it
1:06:53
Speaker 4: allows you to go and help build the game. But
1:06:56
Speaker 4: I'm telling you, in just the conversations with the athletes,
1:06:59
Speaker 4: with the staff, with the coaches, it has built up
1:07:03
Speaker 4: our brand here in Orlando at UCS, And so I
1:07:08
Speaker 4: mean that's that's a big part of it is. You know,
1:07:10
Speaker 4: you're getting to see the athletes that you might be
1:07:13
Speaker 4: coaching or facing, and you know, just the conversations, Like
1:07:17
Speaker 4: I have athletes on our team, and like we they
1:07:20
Speaker 4: they aspire to go out and be a professional athlete.
1:07:24
Speaker 4: And so now I get to have those conversations of well,
1:07:27
Speaker 4: this is what it looks like every day over the summer.
1:07:30
Speaker 4: And so I think it's you know again, I think
1:07:34
Speaker 4: it helps both. I think it's going to help me
1:07:37
Speaker 4: build as a as a person and as a coach
1:07:40
Speaker 4: as well. And this sport brought so much into my
1:07:44
Speaker 4: life and has brought me to a point that I
1:07:48
Speaker 4: never imagined having a career in this sport and doing
1:07:52
Speaker 4: as well as we're doing when you first, you know,
1:07:55
Speaker 4: pick up the ball. And so now to be able
1:07:57
Speaker 4: to be in this moment and be able to give
1:07:59
Speaker 4: back and really set the you know, set the path
1:08:02
Speaker 4: for the people that are going to come after us,
1:08:05
Speaker 4: is I feel really proud to be a part of that.
1:08:10
Speaker 2: You'll have to forgive the novice question here, because like
1:08:13
Speaker 2: I enjoy watching college softball, I have not watched a
1:08:17
Speaker 2: lot of pro softball.
1:08:19
Speaker 3: Are the games different in any measurable way?
1:08:24
Speaker 4: I mean, they're probably just going to play a little
1:08:25
Speaker 4: bit quicker, I guess to say, but I mean you're
1:08:28
Speaker 4: going to see like elite dominant pitching and that that's
1:08:34
Speaker 4: just you know, there's the best of the best pitchers
1:08:37
Speaker 4: are going to be in this league. So I would
1:08:39
Speaker 4: say that across the board, very consistent. And then it's
1:08:44
Speaker 4: it's going to be similar, not always too, but like
1:08:48
Speaker 4: I'm this is my first year in it, and so
1:08:51
Speaker 4: I'm I may come back and answer that question, you know,
1:08:54
Speaker 4: next year and say, wow, I really blew that question.
1:08:57
Speaker 4: I had so many other things they could have said,
1:08:59
Speaker 4: but I think really the big thing is continuing to
1:09:03
Speaker 4: show that, you know, it is a game, it's a
1:09:05
Speaker 4: part of the competition and winning, but the entertainment of
1:09:09
Speaker 4: this game is unreal. I mean, what these women can
1:09:13
Speaker 4: do on the field is it's no different. And I
1:09:16
Speaker 4: think that that's what's really important and we need to
1:09:18
Speaker 4: start continuing to get out there is you know, people ask, well,
1:09:21
Speaker 4: how do you coach women, Well, we just coach athletes.
1:09:24
Speaker 4: The women can do just as many things as those
1:09:27
Speaker 4: men can do. Maybe they don't lift as much, and
1:09:30
Speaker 4: you know, their speed is a little different, you know, comparable,
1:09:32
Speaker 4: But I mean it's still is. It's an entertainment that
1:09:39
Speaker 4: very hard to replicate, and so that's I would say,
1:09:44
Speaker 4: it's just at the best level, the most elite level,
1:09:48
Speaker 4: and you have more more mature maturity when it comes
1:09:52
Speaker 4: to the mental performance piece. So you're probably seeing less
1:09:57
Speaker 4: uh ohs during the game as you would in maybe college.
1:10:01
Speaker 4: And I think that it goes true to you know,
1:10:04
Speaker 4: they're hitting their peak physical performance at the age that
1:10:08
Speaker 4: they're in when they are in the league, and so
1:10:10
Speaker 4: it's exciting to be able to have the opportunities for
1:10:13
Speaker 4: these athletes at the time where they're at playing their
1:10:15
Speaker 4: best softball.
1:10:17
Speaker 3: Did you have Utah connections before taking this job.
1:10:23
Speaker 4: I mean, I have lots of friends. The head coach
1:10:24
Speaker 4: there at Utah is somebody I've always been connected with
1:10:30
Speaker 4: and whatnot. But I mean no, not other than that
1:10:34
Speaker 4: the coaches at Utah and I did coach at Boise
1:10:38
Speaker 4: State for a short time, so I know that area.
1:10:42
Speaker 4: But it just kind of all wound up, you know,
1:10:44
Speaker 4: connecting together.
1:10:46
Speaker 3: When you were at the University of your Pacific.
1:10:49
Speaker 4: Right as an athlete and a coach for a little bit. Yeah.
1:10:53
Speaker 3: Right, didn't you overlap with Lynn Roberts do you know
1:10:55
Speaker 3: Lynn Roberts at all?
1:10:57
Speaker 4: The name yes, okay, but not yeah not didn't over
1:11:03
Speaker 4: but I do know the name.
1:11:04
Speaker 2: It just it's a you know, you look at your background.
1:11:07
Speaker 2: It's like, I wonder if they because she was a
1:11:10
Speaker 2: great coach here before moving on into the w NBA,
1:11:13
Speaker 2: and I don't know. You know, athlete circles are sometimes small,
1:11:16
Speaker 2: but depending on how big an athletic department is, like
1:11:19
Speaker 2: there's not always a ton of crossover anyway, just wondered, Yeah,
1:11:23
Speaker 2: I think.
1:11:23
Speaker 4: That I miss I missed when by a couple of years.
1:11:28
Speaker 4: If I'm not mistaken with the timing of things.
1:11:30
Speaker 3: Okay, that's so.
1:11:31
Speaker 4: I just know by you know, being a proud alum
1:11:34
Speaker 4: and reading about the different sports and everything.
1:11:38
Speaker 2: The Dumky Family Stadium is a really cool facility, one
1:11:42
Speaker 2: of the many upgrades that the University of Utah athletic
1:11:45
Speaker 2: program has made on campus. And you know, they got
1:11:49
Speaker 2: that thing done a long time before the baseball team
1:11:51
Speaker 2: got theirs done. But similar views, similar kind of backdrop,
1:11:56
Speaker 2: a wonderful place to uh to come out and watch
1:11:59
Speaker 2: a game. So I hope that you guys get the
1:12:01
Speaker 2: attendency deserve. We're going to do our best to help
1:12:05
Speaker 2: in that effort, because I'm a dad of three daughters
1:12:08
Speaker 2: and I should be bringing them out to games, and
1:12:10
Speaker 2: I want to make sure that women's sports are really
1:12:12
Speaker 2: thriving by the time they get old enough to be
1:12:15
Speaker 2: participating them themselves. So we look forward to seeing you
1:12:19
Speaker 2: June ninth, and then beyond good luck with everything until then.
1:12:24
Speaker 4: Thank you, I appreciate it.
1:12:26
Speaker 2: That is Coach Bear Cindy ball Malone is the head
1:12:31
Speaker 2: coach of the Utah Talons, the newest professional franchise in
1:12:36
Speaker 2: the state of Utah, the defending champs in Athletes Unlimited Softball,
1:12:41
Speaker 2: which is now the Softball the Pro Softball League in
1:12:45
Speaker 2: the United States of America. They used to have a
1:12:48
Speaker 2: Fast Pitch what was it called NPF something like that,
1:12:53
Speaker 2: which was a different entity, a pre COVID. Like many
1:12:57
Speaker 2: organizations that kind of fell on the COVID, We're funding
1:13:01
Speaker 2: dried up because people couldn't go out to sporting events
1:13:03
Speaker 2: or whatever. And look, I know that you have a
1:13:07
Speaker 2: ton of entertainment options, especially in the state of Utah.
1:13:11
Speaker 2: There's a lot of things you can do with your summer.
1:13:13
Speaker 2: This is a pretty contracted season that the Utah Talents play.
1:13:18
Speaker 2: You got like eight weeks of total softball here, so
1:13:21
Speaker 2: if you can get out to the dumb key with
1:13:24
Speaker 2: the kids, have a good time. Obviously, they make it affordable.
1:13:28
Speaker 2: We talked about this with the seat when the team
1:13:29
Speaker 2: got announced last year. James, the uniforms are awesome. The
1:13:34
Speaker 2: logo is really cool.
1:13:36
Speaker 3: It's like.
1:13:38
Speaker 2: It's like the eye the Allwen talons is the eye
1:13:41
Speaker 2: of a bird of prey. Okay, and there's a little
1:13:45
Speaker 2: stylized looking talent on top of it.
1:13:47
Speaker 3: It just it's neat.
1:13:48
Speaker 2: I'm into that when we're talking about sports branding as well.
1:13:52
Speaker 2: So big thanks to the Utah Talents for providing us
1:13:55
Speaker 2: a little reference today and hopefully all of you at
1:13:59
Speaker 2: least to listen and maybe got a spark of curiosity
1:14:03
Speaker 2: about women's professional softball right here in our own state again,
1:14:08
Speaker 2: opening day June ninth against the Chicago Bandits up at
1:14:13
Speaker 2: the U.
1:14:14
Speaker 3: The Daily Dump is coming next. Lots of stuff to
1:14:17
Speaker 3: get to.
1:14:20
Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell show on Utah's number one Sports Talk ESPN
1:14:23
Speaker 2: seven ninety twofm.
1:14:30
Speaker 3: Feeling out of the loop.
1:14:31
Speaker 1: Let's catch up on today's biggest headlines and the Daily
1:14:34
Speaker 1: news Dump, where we flush out the biggest stories of
1:14:37
Speaker 1: the day on the Sean O'Connell Show at Utah's number
1:14:40
Speaker 1: one Sports Talk ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one.
1:14:44
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Speaker 2: All Right, lots of things that we can throw in here.
1:15:22
Speaker 2: This one we've given you plenty excuse me, plenty of
1:15:26
Speaker 2: updates on the Brendan Soresby situation. Remember, the University of
1:15:32
Speaker 2: Cincinnati quarterback has been paid, depending on which reports you believe,
1:15:38
Speaker 2: between five and six million dollars to transfer to Texas Tech,
1:15:42
Speaker 2: and as of today, he is ineligible to compete this
1:15:47
Speaker 2: upcoming season because of the revelation that he was involved
1:15:52
Speaker 2: for many years in gambling sports gambling, specifically sports gambling
1:16:00
Speaker 2: on teams that he was playing for. Now he wasn't
1:16:04
Speaker 2: playing in the games that he was betting on. He
1:16:06
Speaker 2: never bet on his team to lose. When he was
1:16:08
Speaker 2: at the University of Indiana, I think they call it
1:16:11
Speaker 2: Indiana University. Actually right, it's IU, not u of I,
1:16:15
Speaker 2: Indiana University. He was betting on everything. They pulled up
1:16:20
Speaker 2: the transcript. They pulled it like this. This guy was
1:16:22
Speaker 2: betting on the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest for the
1:16:25
Speaker 2: fourth of July. He had a gambling problem. He checked
1:16:28
Speaker 2: into an impatient gambling addiction facility. The defense that his
1:16:34
Speaker 2: legal team is going to try to overturn this rejection
1:16:38
Speaker 2: of his of his eligibility. The legal team is going
1:16:43
Speaker 2: to focus on the fact that this is a mental
1:16:46
Speaker 2: health issue, that this is a mental health problem for
1:16:49
Speaker 2: Brandan Soorsby. But as of right now, he has been
1:16:52
Speaker 2: denied eligibility reinstatement. Texas Tech and the Sorersby legal team
1:16:58
Speaker 2: are going to appeal that decision and try to get
1:17:01
Speaker 2: him eligible to play before the season begins, and we
1:17:04
Speaker 2: are rapidly approaching kind of year zero doomsday on this
1:17:10
Speaker 2: for Brandon Sowsby. Right now, college football players are finishing school.
1:17:18
Speaker 2: Pretty much every university is done, right, so these guys
1:17:23
Speaker 2: are heading back home. They are doing the quote unquote
1:17:27
Speaker 2: voluntary summer workouts. Then they will convene back on campus
1:17:33
Speaker 2: depending on the program, depending on the time for summer conditioning,
1:17:37
Speaker 2: and of course for fall camp.
1:17:39
Speaker 3: That's in effectively six weeks. Right. We get into football
1:17:46
Speaker 3: in earnest in August.
1:17:50
Speaker 2: There's not a ton of time, and we know how
1:17:52
Speaker 2: the legal process can drag out, which is why there's
1:17:56
Speaker 2: a lot of questions about whether or not he will
1:17:59
Speaker 2: be able to get a temporary restraining order against the
1:18:02
Speaker 2: NCAA and be allowed to play while he fights this out.
1:18:08
Speaker 3: It is worth noting.
1:18:10
Speaker 2: That the first judge that was assigned to the Brendan
1:18:13
Speaker 2: Soresby case happened to be a Texas Tech alum who
1:18:18
Speaker 2: was like a season ticket holder and like a booster
1:18:23
Speaker 2: pictures on social media of them with the pistols up,
1:18:26
Speaker 2: Go Tech whatever they do. He recused himself, so at
1:18:32
Speaker 2: least the legal process is playing out with some integrity.
1:18:35
Speaker 2: There I just don't see a scenario in which college
1:18:42
Speaker 2: football can allow Brendan Soresby to play.
1:18:48
Speaker 3: And I don't think we don't have any.
1:18:51
Speaker 2: Information to make us believe that he was trying to
1:18:55
Speaker 2: manipulate outcomes on games, or that he was undermining the
1:18:59
Speaker 2: spirit of competition, like maybe he does have a real
1:19:04
Speaker 2: gambling addiction. The problem is that you just you cannot
1:19:08
Speaker 2: create this precedent right now, the president is that anyone
1:19:11
Speaker 2: who associated with gambling on sports, and specifically on college sports,
1:19:15
Speaker 2: you're ineligible. It's done, it's over with. I'm sorry. You
1:19:19
Speaker 2: can't play if you reverse that. Now, if there's somehow
1:19:24
Speaker 2: some landmark legal ruling where Brendan Soresby is allowed to play, yikes.
1:19:37
Speaker 2: We believe that, given the facts, in the context of
1:19:39
Speaker 2: Brendan's case, the INCANTABLEEZ ruling should be reversed or modified.
1:19:43
Speaker 2: This is from the president of Texas Tech University. This
1:19:49
Speaker 2: is not his coach, this is not even the athletic director.
1:19:53
Speaker 2: This is a university president saying we believe that, given
1:19:57
Speaker 2: the facts and context of Brendan's case, the NCAA's ruling
1:20:01
Speaker 2: should be reversed or modified. As a generation of college
1:20:04
Speaker 2: athletes face the legislator the legalization and rapid proliferation of
1:20:08
Speaker 2: sports betting in our country, Gambling addiction is rising to
1:20:11
Speaker 2: a point of epidemic proportions among college age men. In particular,
1:20:16
Speaker 2: the NCAA's state admission includes fostering student athlete lifelong well being.
1:20:21
Speaker 2: They have claimed their goals to promote a culture of
1:20:23
Speaker 2: care for student athletes mental health. Gambling addiction is a
1:20:27
Speaker 2: clinically recognized behavioral disorder. Texas Tech is doubling, tripling, quadrupling
1:20:33
Speaker 2: down on supporting Brendan Soresby because they believe this was
1:20:41
Speaker 2: an addiction, not his choice, not something that was controllable,
1:20:46
Speaker 2: nothing nefarious. This is a wild decision. And by the way,
1:20:54
Speaker 2: a university president going on record with quotes about a
1:21:00
Speaker 2: scandal involving a high profile athlete is actually not all
1:21:05
Speaker 2: that common. Yeah, you're gonna hear from the coach. Yeah,
1:21:10
Speaker 2: you're going to hear from the athletic director. How often
1:21:14
Speaker 2: do you hear from the university president on these things?
1:21:21
Speaker 2: I mean, think of all of the sports scandals in
1:21:24
Speaker 2: college athletics that you can go back through, and how
1:21:27
Speaker 2: many times was there a quote of any import or
1:21:30
Speaker 2: meaning from a university president. There's a layer of insulation
1:21:34
Speaker 2: between athletics and the university president by design for a reason.
1:21:40
Speaker 2: The athletic department and the university are actually two different verticals.
1:21:44
Speaker 3: They share licensing agreements.
1:21:46
Speaker 2: Basically, for a university president to be the one who's
1:21:51
Speaker 2: just like, yeah, man, we're against the NCAA decision on this,
1:21:55
Speaker 2: that is a level of buy in and commitment to
1:21:58
Speaker 2: athletics on your campus that.
1:22:01
Speaker 3: A lot of schools do not enjoy.
1:22:03
Speaker 2: Where the university president is just gonna be like, hey,
1:22:06
Speaker 2: good luck, athletic director, you're gonna handle this one. I
1:22:09
Speaker 2: am not getting my beautiful suit muddy with these gambling
1:22:13
Speaker 2: waters out of Texas Tech. Their university president is just like,
1:22:18
Speaker 2: you're wrong. This is a mental health disorder. Let him play.
1:22:22
Speaker 2: This is We talked about this with how things are
1:22:25
Speaker 2: different in the SEC. Texas Tech is not part of
1:22:29
Speaker 2: the SEC, right Big twelve. They actually like they're in
1:22:33
Speaker 2: Texas right Texas is my The way Texans care about
1:22:40
Speaker 2: high school and college football might as well be like
1:22:43
Speaker 2: they're part of the SEC. That's why you get That's
1:22:46
Speaker 2: probably why you get something like this where the university
1:22:48
Speaker 2: president is like, you know what my hands don't need
1:22:52
Speaker 2: to be cleaned from this. This is important enough for
1:22:54
Speaker 2: me to voice my opinion on this. You're not gonna
1:22:58
Speaker 2: get the governor of Texas, you know, stumping for Texas Tech.
1:23:02
Speaker 2: That's the difference here. But I mean things are different,
1:23:06
Speaker 2: Things are different in that part of the country. With
1:23:08
Speaker 2: college football, for sure, I actually agree wholeheartedly with the
1:23:14
Speaker 2: assertion by Texas Tech, by Soresby that it's deeply hypocritical
1:23:18
Speaker 2: for the NCAA to be like, gambling is criminalized for
1:23:25
Speaker 2: our student athletes. Also, this broadcast, this game, this whatever
1:23:30
Speaker 2: is brought to you by DraftKings.
1:23:31
Speaker 3: I totally agree with that.
1:23:35
Speaker 2: If you are drinking from the fountain of gambling money
1:23:40
Speaker 2: and telling the student athlete like, but you can't participate
1:23:43
Speaker 2: in this, that is a hypocritical stance. But again, we
1:23:48
Speaker 2: allow people to be hypocritical on a business front in
1:23:53
Speaker 2: the United States, legally and otherwise all the time.
1:23:57
Speaker 3: I mean all the time.
1:23:58
Speaker 2: I mean, think of another exams, think of the alcohol
1:24:02
Speaker 2: and beer commercials, and it's But yet, many of many
1:24:06
Speaker 2: college athletes are under the age of twenty one. So
1:24:09
Speaker 2: if they the best example you could come up with,
1:24:12
Speaker 2: So if and and you know, we all know, wink
1:24:16
Speaker 2: wink gonna enforce every underage drinking on college campuses. They don't,
1:24:21
Speaker 2: right unless there's something crazy serious happening and we have
1:24:25
Speaker 2: to enforce this. But if one of these athletes who's
1:24:29
Speaker 2: under a high profile or not under the age of
1:24:32
Speaker 2: twenty one is caught underage drinking and they're arrested for it,
1:24:36
Speaker 2: you can't be like, well, that's super hypocritical because you
1:24:38
Speaker 2: have commercials advertising beer. Like I, I worked in bars
1:24:42
Speaker 2: and clubs for all through my college days and after
1:24:47
Speaker 2: I don't drink.
1:24:48
Speaker 3: I never have drink myself.
1:24:49
Speaker 2: But there was a hypocritical process even on that micro
1:24:54
Speaker 2: level where it's like, hey, do not overserve people. It's
1:24:58
Speaker 2: actually illegal for a bar to over serve somebody, right,
1:25:01
Speaker 2: But then you're just supposed to like use your discretion
1:25:04
Speaker 2: as it. By the way, for me, a twenty one
1:25:06
Speaker 2: year old non drinker, be like, well, this is his
1:25:10
Speaker 2: eighth shot. Is that over serving him? He's had ten beers?
1:25:14
Speaker 2: Is that too much he keeps paying?
1:25:16
Speaker 3: Should I? What is the actual goal of the business.
1:25:19
Speaker 2: You want to sell as much as you can, You
1:25:21
Speaker 2: want to make as much money as you can, right,
1:25:23
Speaker 2: So look, there's there's hypocrisy in a lot of rules
1:25:28
Speaker 2: and laws in the United States of America. Does that
1:25:31
Speaker 2: mean I support hypocrisy? Does that mean that I'm like
1:25:34
Speaker 2: okay with it being that way.
1:25:36
Speaker 3: No, I'm not. However, Brendan Soresby.
1:25:41
Speaker 2: And his legal team deciding that he is going to
1:25:43
Speaker 2: be like the poster boy for fighting against the hypocrisy
1:25:47
Speaker 2: of athletic organizations and institutions taking money from gambling but
1:25:52
Speaker 2: not wanting gambling to be a thing that actually affects them.
1:25:56
Speaker 2: It's it's a hell of a take to be like, Yeah,
1:26:00
Speaker 2: this kid he was he was abused by this system,
1:26:06
Speaker 2: and because of that, you should allow him to still
1:26:09
Speaker 2: play quarterback.
1:26:10
Speaker 3: He knew the rule.
1:26:11
Speaker 2: There's no shot that Brendan Sooresby can make a case
1:26:16
Speaker 2: that he did not realize he was doing something he
1:26:19
Speaker 2: wasn't supposed to be doing.
1:26:21
Speaker 3: You knew the rule. Oh my gosh.
1:26:25
Speaker 1: I you know what.
1:26:25
Speaker 2: I see all these Internet ads about taking testosterone replacement
1:26:29
Speaker 2: and you know, borderline steroids, and I took them as
1:26:33
Speaker 2: an athlete because of the ads. Well, it's hypocritical that
1:26:36
Speaker 2: these ads should be on my Instagram, but that I'm
1:26:39
Speaker 2: not allowed to take them.
1:26:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, man.
1:26:40
Speaker 2: You operate under a different set of rules when you're
1:26:43
Speaker 2: a professional athlete. He's a professional athlete. The rules for
1:26:48
Speaker 2: you on a college campus as a now compensated athlete
1:26:53
Speaker 2: are different than they are for the student body. They
1:26:55
Speaker 2: always have been, and guess what they always will be.
1:27:00
Speaker 2: If you are a sports personality, if you are an athlete,
1:27:04
Speaker 2: if you are a coach, your behavior, your conduct is
1:27:11
Speaker 2: asked and required to be held to a higher standard, or,
1:27:16
Speaker 2: if you don't want to call it a higher standard,
1:27:18
Speaker 2: a different standard. You are not allowed to do some
1:27:21
Speaker 2: things that other students are. And guess what on the
1:27:25
Speaker 2: flip side of that coin is you get things that
1:27:28
Speaker 2: no other student could possibly dream of in their life.
1:27:32
Speaker 3: And that was true before nil came into play.
1:27:39
Speaker 2: Everyone knows the trade off, and then when you get
1:27:42
Speaker 2: caught doing something you're not supposed to do, everyone plays dumb.
1:27:47
Speaker 3: Blah blah blah.
1:27:48
Speaker 2: I didn't know I wasn't supposed to be driving one
1:27:50
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty miles an hour in the suburbs of Georgia.
1:27:55
Speaker 2: I'm a Georgia bulldog. I didn't know I was supposed
1:27:57
Speaker 2: to be doing this, just like yeah you did. He
1:28:00
Speaker 2: made a bad choice, and in this case, many many,
1:28:03
Speaker 2: many bad choices. I don't think they can let him play.
1:28:09
Speaker 2: I've said it many times. I probably spent too much
1:28:11
Speaker 2: time on it. But the latest in the Daily Dump
1:28:15
Speaker 2: is that the NCAA has officially denied the Texas Tech
1:28:20
Speaker 2: quarterback Brendan Soresby request to be reinstated as eligible for
1:28:24
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty six season, and even the school president,
1:28:27
Speaker 2: the athletic director, everyone is backing him, Texas Tech versus
1:28:34
Speaker 2: the NCAA. Remember the Jim Harbaugh the scandal, this Connor
1:28:41
Speaker 2: Stallion scandal that he left the school with Right Michigan
1:28:46
Speaker 2: and they win the national championship that year. The T
1:28:49
Speaker 2: shirts Michigan against the world. They're printing. They're printing Texas
1:28:53
Speaker 2: Tech Red Raiders against the World T shirts in Lubbick today,
1:28:56
Speaker 2: no doubt, Schigin against everybody, whatever it.
1:29:01
Speaker 3: Was, whatever it is.
1:29:05
Speaker 2: Also in the Daily Dump today, this is something that
1:29:10
Speaker 2: I was I'm fascinated by the opinion that people have
1:29:14
Speaker 2: on this. The the expanded college football playoff proposals that
1:29:20
Speaker 2: we have talked about that we have heard the Big
1:29:22
Speaker 2: Ten wanting to go to twenty four, the ESPN partners
1:29:26
Speaker 2: saying no, let's stay at twelve, or maybe we can
1:29:29
Speaker 2: at least keep a little bit smaller.
1:29:30
Speaker 3: The SEC said, no, we want sixteen.
1:29:33
Speaker 2: And then at the spring meetings a bunch of the
1:29:35
Speaker 2: individual programs came out and said no, one, no, we
1:29:38
Speaker 2: didn't want sixteen. Greg Sanki went up and said, the
1:29:42
Speaker 2: SEC's stance is sixteen. It's not my stance at Vanderbilt.
1:29:45
Speaker 2: That's not my stance at Old Miss. That's not like
1:29:48
Speaker 2: they're not even in agreement there. And as we look
1:29:52
Speaker 2: closer and closer at these numbers and what it would
1:29:54
Speaker 2: look like, did you see what Sports Illustrated did and
1:29:59
Speaker 2: went through and said, all right, what if when we
1:30:02
Speaker 2: brought a college football playoff into play, got rid of
1:30:05
Speaker 2: the BCS system, what if it had always been a
1:30:08
Speaker 2: twenty four team college football playoff? Did you see the
1:30:10
Speaker 2: numbers on who would have made the college football Playoff? Yeah,
1:30:14
Speaker 2: Utah would have had a bunch of college football playoff appearances.
1:30:19
Speaker 2: Utah would have made the college football Playoff eight times.
1:30:24
Speaker 2: It would have been since twenty fourteen twenty fifteen. Eighty
1:30:30
Speaker 2: different teams would have made the field at some point
1:30:34
Speaker 2: in time. Now, I have been against twenty four teams.
1:30:38
Speaker 2: I've been against all of the I've been buying into
1:30:41
Speaker 2: some of the scare tactics about why twenty four teams
1:30:46
Speaker 2: devalues the regular season and rivalry games at the end
1:30:50
Speaker 2: of the season could fall on the sword.
1:30:52
Speaker 3: Here.
1:30:53
Speaker 2: I'm fully buying into that fear mongering because we've seen
1:30:57
Speaker 2: it happen. We've seen guys decide to opt out a Bowl.
1:31:00
Speaker 2: We've seen guys opt out of even really important games
1:31:03
Speaker 2: for their team because they're pursuing professional opportunities. Well, in
1:31:07
Speaker 2: this case, coaches might be like, you know what, Holy
1:31:12
Speaker 2: War finally got put at the end of the season,
1:31:13
Speaker 2: but we're making the college football playoff. I'm resting you, guys,
1:31:18
Speaker 2: and that takes a little bit of love out of
1:31:19
Speaker 2: that game.
1:31:20
Speaker 3: My proposal is you move.
1:31:22
Speaker 2: All rivalry games, all protected rivalry games in college football.
1:31:26
Speaker 3: And yes, we should go through and we should have
1:31:30
Speaker 3: some committee. I will be the head of it.
1:31:32
Speaker 2: I don't care that decides which rivalry games are culturally
1:31:38
Speaker 2: historically relevant to the game of college football. Holy War,
1:31:43
Speaker 2: Territorial Cup, Civil War game between Oregon and Oregon State.
1:31:48
Speaker 2: Give me USC, Michigan. I'm USC Notre Dame. Give me Michigan,
1:31:53
Speaker 2: Ohio State. Give me all these games, okay, all these
1:31:56
Speaker 2: games that't matter, the backyard brawl, the biggest cocktail party,
1:32:02
Speaker 2: whichever ones you are decided are most important. And you
1:32:07
Speaker 2: put them all in week one so they are protected,
1:32:09
Speaker 2: they are insulated from resting players.
1:32:12
Speaker 3: On purpose, you put them all in week one.
1:32:14
Speaker 2: That's the only way to guarantee maximum participation with rivalry games,
1:32:21
Speaker 2: especially if you're expanding a college football playoff. But when
1:32:24
Speaker 2: I see that eighty teams would have been playoff teams
1:32:27
Speaker 2: at some point, I'm reminded of the March madness effect.
1:32:32
Speaker 2: We were talking about this at the beginning of the show,
1:32:36
Speaker 2: College basketball and fans interest in March madness across the country.
1:32:43
Speaker 3: There's a ubiquitous nature.
1:32:45
Speaker 2: It's always there because you've got a bracket to fill out,
1:32:51
Speaker 2: and at some point, even if you're like a Weber
1:32:54
Speaker 2: State grad, even if you're a George Washington grad, your
1:32:57
Speaker 2: team is in the tournament. Teams in college football would
1:33:01
Speaker 2: have been in the College Football Playoff if it were
1:33:03
Speaker 2: twenty four teams. Now, that takes a little luster off
1:33:08
Speaker 2: of being a college football playoff team, but I'm.
1:33:10
Speaker 3: Fully on board with that.
1:33:11
Speaker 2: I don't think making the college football playoff is an accomplishment.
1:33:17
Speaker 2: I don't think it's a cool thing. I don't think
1:33:18
Speaker 2: you had to hang a banner for that. Hey, we're
1:33:20
Speaker 2: a playoff team, So what you made it into the playoffs?
1:33:25
Speaker 2: Conference champion, national champion, those are the things.
1:33:28
Speaker 3: We made it to the.
1:33:29
Speaker 2: Second round of the playoff. I don't even know why
1:33:31
Speaker 2: we like final four. We're a Final four team, all right,
1:33:35
Speaker 2: were you the fourth best team in the country.
1:33:39
Speaker 3: That's good. It's not great.
1:33:41
Speaker 2: It's the it's obviously the event that the Final four
1:33:45
Speaker 2: has become. And I think it's because it's four brackets.
1:33:48
Speaker 2: You want to read, you want a regional But yeah,
1:33:51
Speaker 2: it's it is. It is funny because in pro sports
1:33:55
Speaker 2: we only celebrate the champion. We kind of celebrate the
1:33:59
Speaker 2: runner up because they want a conference or something. But
1:34:02
Speaker 2: we but we barely even celebrate that. We celebrate the
1:34:06
Speaker 2: one champion as company pro athletes, whether or not they
1:34:09
Speaker 2: wear their NFC championship ring.
1:34:14
Speaker 3: Ever, right.
1:34:16
Speaker 2: Like, hey, you know what, we were Eastern Conference finalists.
1:34:22
Speaker 2: We do that in sports media to give context to
1:34:25
Speaker 2: how good a team was last year. In the fan base,
1:34:30
Speaker 2: you shouldn't be celebrating that too much out by all
1:34:34
Speaker 2: means a little pat on the back. Fine, but I'm
1:34:36
Speaker 2: digressing here the number of appearances that teams would have
1:34:40
Speaker 2: made if we had been a twenty four team college
1:34:43
Speaker 2: football playoff. We're gonna take a break here, and I'm
1:34:45
Speaker 2: gonna give you some of the numbers on that on
1:34:48
Speaker 2: the other side, because they're really interesting and it does.
1:34:52
Speaker 2: It does bring in a lot of, like quite frankly
1:34:56
Speaker 2: compelling thoughts for me about whether or not you increase
1:35:01
Speaker 2: the buy in from all college football fan bases if
1:35:04
Speaker 2: you do have this large of a playoff.
1:35:07
Speaker 3: I'll tell you why.
1:35:07
Speaker 2: I won't exactly work that way, but we'll get there. Okay,
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Speaker 3: twenty four.
1:37:54
Speaker 2: All proposed numbers of a college football playoff structure. We've
1:37:58
Speaker 2: seen four, we've seen twelve, sixteen not universally agreed upon,
1:38:04
Speaker 2: twenty four far from univers universally agreed upon, But several publications,
1:38:09
Speaker 2: including Sports Illustrated, have looked at what might have been
1:38:13
Speaker 2: in college football if twenty four team college football playoffs
1:38:16
Speaker 2: had been a thing in the last decade plus. If
1:38:19
Speaker 2: you go back to the twenty fourteen twenty fifteen season
1:38:24
Speaker 2: and you make the change there and you say, right,
1:38:26
Speaker 2: it's twelve excuse me, it's twenty four teams, eighty different
1:38:30
Speaker 2: college football teams would have made the field at some point.
1:38:34
Speaker 2: And that was one of the selling points for the COO,
1:38:38
Speaker 2: the chief operating officer of the Big Ten. That's one
1:38:40
Speaker 2: of the reasons why the Big Ten likes it and
1:38:43
Speaker 2: thinks everyone else should like it. Like, hey, your team
1:38:46
Speaker 2: could be one of the eighty if we expand to
1:38:48
Speaker 2: twenty four teams, that means everybody gets involved. And I
1:38:52
Speaker 2: went down to the bottom of the list to look
1:38:55
Speaker 2: at all, right, but like, who really would be involved?
1:39:00
Speaker 2: Tell me if these teams you think of your mind's
1:39:04
Speaker 2: eye brings up college football glory in a pursuit of
1:39:08
Speaker 2: a national championship in a college football playoff.
1:39:10
Speaker 3: When I tell you the.
1:39:11
Speaker 2: Names of these teams, Western Michigan Broncos one time appears,
1:39:18
Speaker 2: wake Forest Demon Deakins, the Vanderbilt Commodores, who might actually
1:39:23
Speaker 2: be a power player in college football now, the UNLV Rebels,
1:39:26
Speaker 2: would have made it. Tulsa the Golden Hurricane would have
1:39:30
Speaker 2: been in a college football playoff at some point the Trojans,
1:39:34
Speaker 2: not of USC, of Troy University.
1:39:37
Speaker 3: Shout out to osi U Minora. How about this.
1:39:41
Speaker 2: Even in an expanded twenty four team college football playoff,
1:39:45
Speaker 2: Texas Tech would have made it one time, and they
1:39:49
Speaker 2: did make it one time in an expanded twelve team
1:39:52
Speaker 2: So this last year would have been the only time. Yeah, yeah,
1:39:56
Speaker 2: I guess they've They've had some lean years of it.
1:39:59
Speaker 2: Even when they were good, they weren't that good. They
1:40:02
Speaker 2: were like four losses. Yes, yeah, San Diego State would
1:40:08
Speaker 2: have made it, Minnesota would have made it, Liberty, James Madison, Illinois,
1:40:13
Speaker 2: Fresno State, Coastal Carolina Army would have been a playoff team.
1:40:18
Speaker 2: Arkansas and app State all would have been one time
1:40:21
Speaker 2: playoff teams.
1:40:23
Speaker 3: Coastal Carolina we all know which year. Yeah, we know
1:40:26
Speaker 3: whis year that would have been.
1:40:28
Speaker 2: BYU would have made it four times into the College
1:40:30
Speaker 2: Football Playoff. Same with Arizona. Oh sorry, Arizona three times.
1:40:35
Speaker 2: TCU would have been in it four times. Boise State
1:40:38
Speaker 2: would have been in three times, Baylor four times. Utah
1:40:43
Speaker 2: would have been in the College Football Playoff eight times,
1:40:46
Speaker 2: and it for me, it's always the question of do
1:40:48
Speaker 2: I like something just because it's good for me individually?
1:40:52
Speaker 4: Right?
1:40:54
Speaker 2: Do I like a system that rewards mediocrity from middle aged,
1:40:59
Speaker 2: white and instead of everyone else just because that's what
1:41:02
Speaker 2: I've got? I'm middle aged, mediocre and white. Does that
1:41:06
Speaker 2: mean I want a system in the country, A system legally,
1:41:10
Speaker 2: a system economically that that's all you need? I mean, obviously,
1:41:14
Speaker 2: no on paper. You look at that and you're just like,
1:41:16
Speaker 2: that shouldn't be a thing. That shouldn't be a qualifier
1:41:19
Speaker 2: as to why I buy into something or not. Right, Hey,
1:41:24
Speaker 2: I really like every system. I get to go to
1:41:26
Speaker 2: the front of every line because I have blue eyes.
1:41:28
Speaker 2: Do I think that's a good system? No, it's not
1:41:30
Speaker 2: a good system. Do I like a college Football Playoff
1:41:33
Speaker 2: expanded to twenty four teams just because Utah would have
1:41:36
Speaker 2: been an eight time appearer.
1:41:38
Speaker 3: In this thing?
1:41:39
Speaker 2: I still know for me that whole list that you
1:41:42
Speaker 2: just read off by the way, O see the highest
1:41:44
Speaker 2: profile teams, and Utah is higher than that list we
1:41:48
Speaker 2: threw out. We included them because of the local tie
1:41:51
Speaker 2: in here home with the youths too. But if you
1:41:53
Speaker 2: take if you take Utah out, just those teams that
1:41:55
Speaker 2: made it four times or less, BYU, Baylor and TCU Arizona,
1:42:01
Speaker 2: those are the highest profile teams. None of those teams
1:42:04
Speaker 2: are outside of the big twelve footprint, packed old Pac
1:42:09
Speaker 2: twelve footprint. None of those teams are anyone that's going,
1:42:13
Speaker 2: oh yeah, we want those, we want those universities in there.
1:42:16
Speaker 3: Maybe BYU or Baylor the well, I guess.
1:42:21
Speaker 2: Arizona would be the one that they would that most likely, well,
1:42:24
Speaker 2: people in I left a bunch Ausiana would have been
1:42:27
Speaker 2: I left a bunch out. Because here's what's interesting. How
1:42:31
Speaker 2: many Power four teams are there?
1:42:34
Speaker 3: Is what sixty something? Sixty five eighty teams have made this.
1:42:38
Speaker 2: Every Power four team effectively makes the college football Playoff
1:42:41
Speaker 2: in the last twelve seasons. If it's a twenty four
1:42:44
Speaker 2: team playoff, that's the selling point that is going to
1:42:48
Speaker 2: get conferences on board and is going to get universities
1:42:52
Speaker 2: on board because they're going to look at this list.
1:42:56
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a genius exercise by the Big ten.
1:42:57
Speaker 2: Who's the number one proponent, say look who all has
1:43:01
Speaker 2: made it? Because you can be resistant to it, you
1:43:04
Speaker 2: can just pay. We don't need twenty four. Twenty four
1:43:07
Speaker 2: is too many. The broadcast partner doesn't want twenty four.
1:43:11
Speaker 2: And if you're like at the university, if you're at Houston, right,
1:43:15
Speaker 2: you're not really a player. If you're at UCF, you're
1:43:18
Speaker 2: one of these places, you're just like guys. The Big
1:43:21
Speaker 2: twelve doesn't need this, doesn't want this. There's no reason
1:43:24
Speaker 2: for me to support this until the Big ten comes
1:43:26
Speaker 2: to you. Guess how many times you would.
1:43:28
Speaker 3: Have made it.
1:43:28
Speaker 2: Houston you'd have been a two time playoff team. Yeah,
1:43:32
Speaker 2: and Kansas State you would have been in man. This
1:43:36
Speaker 2: is the whole reason why from a institution perspective, not
1:43:41
Speaker 2: just from a financial perspective, but why institutions, why coaches
1:43:45
Speaker 2: really like expansion is because I would have a resume
1:43:50
Speaker 2: bullet point that says I made the tournament right. We're
1:43:54
Speaker 2: expanding to seventy six teams for example. Again, a reason
1:44:00
Speaker 2: why US locally might be should probably be on board
1:44:04
Speaker 2: with it in basketball is because it makes it easier
1:44:07
Speaker 2: for Alex Jensen and the running Newts to make the
1:44:10
Speaker 2: tournament a lot less, a lot harder to do it
1:44:15
Speaker 2: when there's eight less teams invited to the dance, right,
1:44:18
Speaker 2: looks the same thing with College.
1:44:20
Speaker 3: Colorado would have made it twice.
1:44:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, you're telling me that ESPN doesn't want Colorado
1:44:26
Speaker 2: in a college football playoff with coach Prime at the helm,
1:44:31
Speaker 2: especially two years ago. I'm assuming one of those years
1:44:34
Speaker 2: they would have made it when they still had Travis
1:44:36
Speaker 2: Hunter and Shadoor Sanders. I mean Houston, Cincinnati, Arizona, Iowa State,
1:44:44
Speaker 2: Arizona State, Colorado, Kansas State. These are the teams just
1:44:49
Speaker 2: in the Big twelve conference that would have made it
1:44:52
Speaker 2: in a UCF would have made two appearances. This is
1:44:56
Speaker 2: the danger, if you want to call it that, of
1:45:00
Speaker 2: why people are gonna eventually get on board with this.
1:45:04
Speaker 2: How bad has Oklahoma State been as of late? Oklahoma
1:45:06
Speaker 2: State just one of the most epic collapses of a
1:45:09
Speaker 2: program we have seen in college football. Oklahoma State looks
1:45:14
Speaker 2: at this list and says, wow, we would have been
1:45:15
Speaker 2: in that field six times six times, and Utah being
1:45:21
Speaker 2: in eight times shouldn't be that surprising because the end
1:45:25
Speaker 2: of the that was the end of the Pac twelve era,
1:45:27
Speaker 2: and that was when when Wit and company really had
1:45:31
Speaker 2: things rolling for Utah in the Pac twelve but it's
1:45:35
Speaker 2: still that seems like a huge number. Here's the teams
1:45:38
Speaker 2: that's most tantalizing for right, because the top the top
1:45:43
Speaker 2: number of appearances. When they broke this thing down, Alabama
1:45:46
Speaker 2: would have been in twelve times, Ohio State would have
1:45:49
Speaker 2: been in twelve times, Clemson eleven times, Georgia ten times,
1:45:53
Speaker 2: Notre Dame ten times. Right, for them, there's no change needed.
1:45:57
Speaker 2: They still have easy access to a college football playoff.
1:46:00
Speaker 2: You could make it a twelve team playoff, those teams
1:46:03
Speaker 2: are gonna be in. You can make it a sixteen
1:46:05
Speaker 2: team playoff. Those teams are gonna be in. You go
1:46:07
Speaker 2: to an eighteen playoff, those teams are gonna be in
1:46:10
Speaker 2: more often than they're not. It's most tantalizing for Oregon, Utah,
1:46:16
Speaker 2: Penn State, USC Iowa. Those are the eight eight time appearing,
1:46:23
Speaker 2: seven time appearing type teams. Because you're right there, you're
1:46:28
Speaker 2: close as a program to that threshold even for the
1:46:32
Speaker 2: twelve team playoff, but you're guaranteed if it's a twenty
1:46:35
Speaker 2: four team, you're in. I don't want the twenty four
1:46:39
Speaker 2: team playoff. But this breakdown, this numbers table is the
1:46:44
Speaker 2: reason why we're probably gonna get it. At some point,
1:46:47
Speaker 2: I need going back to the comparison BAU and Utah
1:46:52
Speaker 2: in this.
1:46:54
Speaker 3: History.
1:46:54
Speaker 2: If it were the college football playoff history, if it
1:46:57
Speaker 2: were always twenty four teams, Utah double the amount of times.
1:47:00
Speaker 2: You got to think if BYU was in the Big
1:47:03
Speaker 2: twelve the entire time, it'd probably be close to what
1:47:05
Speaker 2: Utah was. A lot of that was independence and not
1:47:09
Speaker 2: having the same resources as Utah had.
1:47:12
Speaker 3: I think that that's I think.
1:47:13
Speaker 2: That BYU benefited a lot more from NIL than they
1:47:17
Speaker 2: did from the Big twelve. Yeah, I think that that
1:47:20
Speaker 2: was the big I mean, they happened concurrently basically, But
1:47:24
Speaker 2: I think that for BYU, NIL is a lot bigger
1:47:26
Speaker 2: deal than Big twelve inclusion, because what wins you football games,
1:47:31
Speaker 2: It's not being in the Big twelve conference. It's the
1:47:34
Speaker 2: roster that you've got now that you are a big
1:47:37
Speaker 2: time financial player. But half of that, half of that
1:47:40
Speaker 2: time was pre NIL, and those are the years that
1:47:44
Speaker 2: those are the years that BYU is in independence, that
1:47:46
Speaker 2: certainly hurt them. I feel like no for sure, but
1:47:50
Speaker 2: like even like if you took BYU and you put
1:47:53
Speaker 2: BYU in the Big twelve in twenty fourteen or whatever,
1:47:59
Speaker 2: I think I think a bigger difference maker like BYU
1:48:02
Speaker 2: would have had a harder time competing, like Utah went
1:48:05
Speaker 2: through a tough growth period transition period into the PAC
1:48:08
Speaker 2: twelve conference.
1:48:10
Speaker 3: That would have happened to BYU.
1:48:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, And BYU didn't always have like Utah had the
1:48:15
Speaker 2: right coach in place when it went through that transition
1:48:18
Speaker 2: and it was still really hard. BYU didn't, right, So yeah,
1:48:24
Speaker 2: I guess depending on the year, because Kalani is the
1:48:27
Speaker 2: right guy. But if we extract to your point, if
1:48:30
Speaker 2: we extrapolate this forward, you're absolutely right. Conference affiliation or
1:48:36
Speaker 2: lack thereof not as big a deal as NIL going forward,
1:48:39
Speaker 2: and BYU certainly has taken big advantage of that.
1:48:45
Speaker 3: All Right, we got to take a break here.
1:48:46
Speaker 2: One of the big surprises in recent pro sports happened
1:48:51
Speaker 2: was completed, I should say, last night. The Colorado Avalanche
1:48:55
Speaker 2: eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Western Conference
1:48:59
Speaker 2: Finals in a four game sweep, a rough end to
1:49:03
Speaker 2: one of the more impressive seasons we have seen recently
1:49:06
Speaker 2: in the NHL. We'll talk with Adrian Denny about that
1:49:10
Speaker 2: and why it happened. It's the Sean O'Connell Show Between
1:49:13
Speaker 2: the Pipes. Next on ESPN seven hundred and ninety twoe FM,
1:49:21
Speaker 2: you tuned.
1:49:22
Speaker 1: To the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio
1:49:25
Speaker 1: of ESPN.
1:49:26
Speaker 3: Seven hundred and ninety two to.
1:49:28
Speaker 1: One alf M.
1:49:33
Speaker 2: Two thousand and seven Patriots, the twenty sixteen Warriors, the
1:49:40
Speaker 2: Oh seven MAVs, the twenty twenty four Kansas City Chiefs,
1:49:45
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty six Colorado Avalanche, best team in the
1:49:49
Speaker 2: league in the regular season, and now for the thirteenth
1:49:52
Speaker 2: straight year, that team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs fails
1:49:57
Speaker 2: to advance to the final, eliminated in a four game
1:50:02
Speaker 2: sweep at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights last
1:50:05
Speaker 2: night in Las Vegas, Wild.
1:50:10
Speaker 3: Two to one.
1:50:11
Speaker 2: Took an empty netter really cool deflection goal by Landeskog
1:50:16
Speaker 2: to get to within two to one under two minutes left,
1:50:20
Speaker 2: but Vegas able to close it out and they are
1:50:22
Speaker 2: headed to the Stanley Cup Final against either Montreal or Carolina,
1:50:27
Speaker 2: who will play their game six tonight, which you could
1:50:30
Speaker 2: listen to right here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety
1:50:32
Speaker 2: two one FM. We're talking hockey with our Mammoth and
1:50:35
Speaker 2: NHL insider Adrian Denny as we go between the pipes,
1:50:40
Speaker 2: Hey Adrian, how are you?
1:50:41
Speaker 6: Hey, Sean, thanks for having me back after last week.
1:50:45
Speaker 6: At this time, we were getting ready for the Western
1:50:48
Speaker 6: Conference Finals with the Abs and Vegas Golden Knights hadn't
1:50:52
Speaker 6: even started the series.
1:50:53
Speaker 3: And now it's over. It's done.
1:50:56
Speaker 6: And I didn't have any of that. I don't think
1:50:58
Speaker 6: anybody else did. I was looking at reporter predictions from
1:51:01
Speaker 6: The Athletic. Twenty eight to twenty nine reporters had Colorado
1:51:05
Speaker 6: winning the series. ESPN not the same. Twenty one to
1:51:10
Speaker 6: twenty four had Colorado winning the series. Steve Levy and PK.
1:51:16
Speaker 6: Suban were two that had Vegas by the way, So
1:51:20
Speaker 6: I guess, don't beat myself up too bad. But holy cow, folks,
1:51:24
Speaker 6: listen last week, they're listening now. They're like, they brought
1:51:27
Speaker 6: back the guy that doesn't know anything about hockey.
1:51:29
Speaker 3: Here he is.
1:51:30
Speaker 2: If that's how it is, then that means a lot
1:51:32
Speaker 2: of people don't know anything about hockey. But no, I mean, look,
1:51:35
Speaker 2: there's a tendency to look at the regular season that
1:51:39
Speaker 2: Colorado had and I was I mean, I called them
1:51:44
Speaker 2: probably for weeks on this show, the presumed or the
1:51:48
Speaker 2: eventual Stanley Cup champions. I've been talking about the Winter
1:51:51
Speaker 2: Classic coming next year and every time saying, hey, Colorado
1:51:55
Speaker 2: might be the defending champs when you play them next
1:51:57
Speaker 2: New Year's New Year's Eve, I should say, And it
1:52:01
Speaker 2: just didn't play out that way, and it played it.
1:52:03
Speaker 2: They went out with such a whimper in this series,
1:52:06
Speaker 2: getting swept four games to none. It makes you question,
1:52:11
Speaker 2: like what went wrong? Not in a oh, well, good
1:52:14
Speaker 2: on Vegas type of way, but like that epic of
1:52:16
Speaker 2: a collapse for Colorado really is hard to figure out.
1:52:21
Speaker 3: Beyond the injuries. Hockey just always seems to fool.
1:52:24
Speaker 6: Yeah, right, Like you just said it coming into the segment,
1:52:28
Speaker 6: the team with the best record in the NHL in
1:52:30
Speaker 6: the regular season hasn't won the Stanley Cup since Detroit
1:52:35
Speaker 6: in two thousand and eight, So it's it's not common
1:52:38
Speaker 6: playoffs are you know?
1:52:39
Speaker 3: The different story? But I don't know.
1:52:43
Speaker 6: When Colorado was thirty one to two and seven, I
1:52:46
Speaker 6: didn't I didn't see anybody beating him. They were they
1:52:48
Speaker 6: were man handling everybody. And then they fall behind three
1:52:54
Speaker 6: to zero after they had that three nothing lead on
1:52:59
Speaker 6: Sunday night, and it just seemed like they were down,
1:53:03
Speaker 6: they were deflated. They they they were done playing Vegas.
1:53:07
Speaker 6: They they knew it was over. We saw it from
1:53:10
Speaker 6: Anaheim in game six. We saw it from Utah in
1:53:13
Speaker 6: Game six against Vegas, like Okay, we're done, we're out
1:53:16
Speaker 6: of here, but we are done. We're tired of dealing
1:53:19
Speaker 6: with this and we're moving We're moving on. And for Colorado,
1:53:24
Speaker 6: it kind of sunk in a little earlier than it
1:53:27
Speaker 6: did with with Utah and and Anaheim and oh see,
1:53:31
Speaker 6: after that game they're down three to OHO. And when
1:53:33
Speaker 6: a team goes down three to oh you see all
1:53:35
Speaker 6: the all the numbers and the chances in the NHL.
1:53:38
Speaker 6: Four times in history as a team erase a three
1:53:41
Speaker 6: to zero defosit to win a series. In the NBA,
1:53:44
Speaker 6: it's never happened. But you remember two years ago, Edmonton
1:53:48
Speaker 6: falls down three oh to Florida in the Stanley Cup
1:53:51
Speaker 6: Final and their head coach, Chris Nablock gets gets on
1:53:55
Speaker 6: the podium and says, I'm really looking forward to the
1:53:58
Speaker 6: next ten days and won three in a row. They
1:54:01
Speaker 6: got to game seven. There was none of that from Colorado.
1:54:03
Speaker 6: They just they just seemed they just seemed over it.
1:54:06
Speaker 6: They seemed resigned to the fact that it was over
1:54:09
Speaker 6: third period last night like that, the body language and
1:54:14
Speaker 6: you hear people that were down reporting in the bench areas,
1:54:19
Speaker 6: you know nationally saying gosh. There was a difference between
1:54:22
Speaker 6: the Vegas bench the Colorado bench. Vegas bench was going,
1:54:25
Speaker 6: Colorado bench.
1:54:26
Speaker 3: Was was quiet. And there's there's factors.
1:54:29
Speaker 6: Again, you watch Nathan McKinnon Cam McCarry, you can tell
1:54:31
Speaker 6: the two best players are not even close to being there,
1:54:35
Speaker 6: but uh to get swept well.
1:54:40
Speaker 2: In between mid second period and mid third period last night,
1:54:45
Speaker 2: there was a twenty five minute stretch of hockey where
1:54:49
Speaker 2: the Colorado Avalanche had two shots. They were not able
1:54:54
Speaker 2: to possess the puck in their own offensive zone. They
1:54:56
Speaker 2: weren't able to get it through the neutral zone at
1:54:58
Speaker 2: all Vegas. It's like Vegas just decided we're just not
1:55:03
Speaker 2: We're not letting them get started at all in this game. Now.
1:55:07
Speaker 2: Of course, every team wants to make a decision like that,
1:55:10
Speaker 2: but the execution of it was pretty incredible for Vegas
1:55:13
Speaker 2: as well. And Colorado looked like a completely different team
1:55:17
Speaker 2: than the one that we saw the Utah Mammoth play
1:55:19
Speaker 2: several times this year. They just they didn't look like
1:55:22
Speaker 2: the same team that you saw on television that you
1:55:24
Speaker 2: saw in the last series, and you got to assume
1:55:28
Speaker 2: there's a health element to it, obviously, But it's not
1:55:31
Speaker 2: only that, because one thing that you have taught me,
1:55:33
Speaker 2: that we have learned watching these NHL playoffs and watching
1:55:37
Speaker 2: hockey for these last couple of years a lot more closely,
1:55:40
Speaker 2: is that you cannot be a team that only depends
1:55:43
Speaker 2: on your top line. You cannot be a team that
1:55:46
Speaker 2: only depends on your stars in the NHL because it's
1:55:49
Speaker 2: not like NBA basketball. It's way different than NFL football.
1:55:54
Speaker 2: Your stars are obviously massively important and they're gonna make
1:55:56
Speaker 2: big plays for you, but your stars don't play really
1:56:02
Speaker 2: a large margin, a significantly larger margin of minutes than
1:56:06
Speaker 2: the rank and file on your team. Then the depth
1:56:08
Speaker 2: on your team. Your third line has to be able
1:56:10
Speaker 2: to do something, your second line has to be able
1:56:12
Speaker 2: to do something for you. And Colorado got none of
1:56:15
Speaker 2: that from those guys. Vegas did last night.
1:56:17
Speaker 3: They got they got a goal. The two zero goal
1:56:21
Speaker 3: was from the fourth line. Vegas got that.
1:56:23
Speaker 6: Colorado didn't exact opposite of the Colorado and Minnesota series.
1:56:29
Speaker 6: When we were sitting here talking about Oh, Colorado was
1:56:32
Speaker 6: was just stack they were They were getting stuff from
1:56:35
Speaker 6: their third liners, their fourth liners, there their fifth and
1:56:38
Speaker 6: sixth d and there was just nothing. The Ads scored
1:56:42
Speaker 6: the most goals in the NHL during the regular season.
1:56:45
Speaker 6: They were over four game for most of the year.
1:56:48
Speaker 6: They scored seven goals in four games. Martin Nichiz and
1:56:53
Speaker 6: Nathan McKinnon, two guys that had over one hundred points
1:56:56
Speaker 6: during the regular season, both held to assist in four games.
1:57:00
Speaker 6: And when we were talking about this series, Okay, if
1:57:03
Speaker 6: Vegas is going to have a chance, what do they do?
1:57:07
Speaker 3: How do they do it?
1:57:08
Speaker 6: And for me, it was shut down the top players
1:57:12
Speaker 6: of Colorado McKinnon, Nachus and Gabe Laniskog, like they did
1:57:17
Speaker 6: against Anaheim, like they did in spurts against Utah. There
1:57:21
Speaker 6: were games where Keller, Smalton, Kraus were held off the
1:57:23
Speaker 6: board and then they moved on to Kooley, Gunther and Yamamota.
1:57:28
Speaker 6: But Vegas in this playoffs did a great job of
1:57:32
Speaker 6: mowing through the West by shutting down the top forwards
1:57:36
Speaker 6: from the other team. And you know, if they don't
1:57:41
Speaker 6: play Utah in that first round that they barely got
1:57:45
Speaker 6: through right. Mammoth had had the lead in four of
1:57:49
Speaker 6: the first five games in the third period, but a
1:57:52
Speaker 6: fast team in the Mammoth. Then they go to a
1:57:54
Speaker 6: fast team in Anaheim and a fast team in Colorado.
1:57:56
Speaker 6: And you could tell throughout the course of the playoffs.
1:57:59
Speaker 6: We talked about the and I got off to some
1:58:00
Speaker 6: slower starts against Utah and Anaheim, and then against Colorado
1:58:04
Speaker 6: was just from game number one. They clogged up the
1:58:07
Speaker 6: neutral zone. They didn't let the speed of Colorado breakthrough,
1:58:12
Speaker 6: which cale mccarr missing the first two games huge there
1:58:16
Speaker 6: because he can do anything that he wants when he's
1:58:19
Speaker 6: got the puck. So that and then they block a
1:58:22
Speaker 6: lot of shots, and holy smoke, so see Carter Hart
1:58:26
Speaker 6: all of a sudden, has to spend the MVP of
1:58:28
Speaker 6: the playoffs so far for a Vegas team that had
1:58:32
Speaker 6: the twenty eighth best save percentage in the NHL in
1:58:36
Speaker 6: the regular season. Goaltending was an issue for him and
1:58:40
Speaker 6: Carter Hart, we talked about it for the playoffs. He
1:58:44
Speaker 6: had a run with John Tortorella when they were with
1:58:46
Speaker 6: Philadelphia and then coming back this year eligible to play
1:58:50
Speaker 6: on the December first, Boy has he been good? Going
1:58:54
Speaker 6: up against the two ABS goalies who combined for the
1:58:56
Speaker 6: most wins in the NHL. And if there's one thing
1:58:59
Speaker 6: that Jared Bednar might be looking back at is and
1:59:03
Speaker 6: I don't think it changes anything in the series. But
1:59:05
Speaker 6: you know, your Monday morning quarterback, it he stuck with
1:59:09
Speaker 6: Scott Wedgwood for the first three games, whereas during the
1:59:12
Speaker 6: regular season it was pretty much every other game, every
1:59:15
Speaker 6: other game, every other game, and so kind of changing that,
1:59:19
Speaker 6: you know, the balance of those two goalies. Maybe we
1:59:22
Speaker 6: saw how good Mackenzie Blackwood was last night. He could
1:59:25
Speaker 6: have been five to six nothing if he goes to
1:59:27
Speaker 6: him after a game one like he probably would have
1:59:30
Speaker 6: after a regular season loss on a Wednesday when you're
1:59:33
Speaker 6: playing on a Friday.
1:59:34
Speaker 3: Is that anything that changes the series? I don't think so.
1:59:37
Speaker 6: But that's one thing that Colorado kind of straight away
1:59:40
Speaker 6: from that was in their control outside of the injuries
1:59:44
Speaker 6: during this conference final.
1:59:46
Speaker 3: But holy spokes, Vegas.
1:59:48
Speaker 6: The recipe they employed against Utah and Anaheim, they did
1:59:52
Speaker 6: it even better against Colorado. Just didn't give him any space,
1:59:55
Speaker 6: block shots, got saves and as you said, one shot
1:59:59
Speaker 6: and how many minutes.
2:00:01
Speaker 3: Crazy.
2:00:05
Speaker 2: I remember when the news came out that they were
2:00:09
Speaker 2: that Vegas was moving on with what eight games left
2:00:12
Speaker 2: in the regular season, and they were going to hire
2:00:15
Speaker 2: John Tortorella. I was like, all right, Towards is one
2:00:18
Speaker 2: of those guys that, even if you're the most casual
2:00:20
Speaker 2: of casual hockey fans, you know the name, you've heard,
2:00:23
Speaker 2: the name, you've seen Towards. And I still was like,
2:00:25
Speaker 2: is this going to be That seems like a weird,
2:00:28
Speaker 2: kind of desperate, bad messaging move that late in a
2:00:34
Speaker 2: season where your team is in the playoffs. It's like
2:00:37
Speaker 2: that that made no sense to me. And yet here
2:00:41
Speaker 2: they are with John Tortorella. And maybe it's just the
2:00:47
Speaker 2: relationship he has with Heart that has allowed this to
2:00:50
Speaker 2: be such a perfect fit. But eight games before the
2:00:54
Speaker 2: regular season ends, you make a coaching change and you're
2:00:57
Speaker 2: in the Stanley Cup Final.
2:01:00
Speaker 3: Never would have been on my Bengo card me either.
2:01:03
Speaker 6: Like I'm watching Game five against Vegas when the series
2:01:08
Speaker 6: is two two and it's the first period, I'm like,
2:01:10
Speaker 6: come on, guys, like you can you can beat this
2:01:14
Speaker 6: team like this? This that's that's the one part of
2:01:18
Speaker 6: the series, the one part all year. I was just
2:01:20
Speaker 6: kind of kind of annoyed, kind of frustrated. I'm like
2:01:23
Speaker 6: the man that can take it to this team, and
2:01:26
Speaker 6: and we saw him in March and there was just
2:01:28
Speaker 6: something off with him. We talked about it when when
2:01:30
Speaker 6: Utah went down there and shut him out for nothing,
2:01:33
Speaker 6: and John Tortorella comes in, and there's been reports that
2:01:39
Speaker 6: there was no intention of keeping him beyond this playoff run.
2:01:43
Speaker 6: They they like their AHL coach Ryan Craig, who's got
2:01:47
Speaker 6: a connection with their GM Kelly McCrimmon. But now now
2:01:50
Speaker 6: you look at it and they've kind of adapted the
2:01:55
Speaker 6: personality of their head coach. Like it's it's hard to
2:01:58
Speaker 6: compliment somebody who you don't relate to. Who we like
2:02:03
Speaker 6: people that are like us, right, but I can't relate
2:02:07
Speaker 6: to John Tortorella. But his team has taken on his
2:02:13
Speaker 6: personality and it's just kind of you know, just how
2:02:20
Speaker 6: do you how do you say it on the radio
2:02:22
Speaker 6: and stay on the air. But they just don't care,
2:02:25
Speaker 6: like they he's he's come in, you could he hasn't
2:02:29
Speaker 6: micro managed him. His message the whole time is I'm
2:02:32
Speaker 6: just gonna I've got a team here. They're veterans. They
2:02:34
Speaker 6: won a Stanley Cup I'm I'm gonna kind of shepherd
2:02:37
Speaker 6: them along as need be, but we don't need to
2:02:39
Speaker 6: make major changes here where they made that. The coaching change,
2:02:43
Speaker 6: you could tell Bruce Cassidy to kind of grinded on
2:02:46
Speaker 6: him as has been kind of his reputation. Tortorella has
2:02:49
Speaker 6: the exact same thing. But eight regular season games and playoffs,
2:02:53
Speaker 6: you know, you're still getting that new coach bump. But
2:02:56
Speaker 6: they've adapted his personality and John try to all of
2:03:00
Speaker 6: us a coach. Columbus last team in in twenty nineteen
2:03:03
Speaker 6: when they beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first
2:03:05
Speaker 6: round and swept them best record in the NHL, So
2:03:09
Speaker 6: he's he's done it before.
2:03:10
Speaker 3: One of the knocks on him was.
2:03:13
Speaker 6: Managing playoff series because he's so motivational, he's so mindset based.
2:03:21
Speaker 6: But but the x's and o's have have not been
2:03:25
Speaker 6: you know, kind of the criticism of him in previous years.
2:03:29
Speaker 6: In this series, in fact, vegas Is has gotten better.
2:03:32
Speaker 6: So I didn't see it coming. I mean I thought
2:03:37
Speaker 6: I thought, man Utah should Game five, like there's no
2:03:41
Speaker 6: reason why Utah shouldn't be winning this series, and and
2:03:45
Speaker 6: then but we've seen him just get better and better
2:03:49
Speaker 6: and and and for the Mamboth. And now I think
2:03:51
Speaker 6: you're looking at it like we did play a good series,
2:03:55
Speaker 6: as we said, and here's the here's the proof.
2:03:58
Speaker 2: I'm I'm gonna be haunted by fifty two seconds left
2:04:02
Speaker 2: to go up three to one in that series in
2:04:04
Speaker 2: Game four and couldn't close it out because that changes
2:04:08
Speaker 2: the entire complexion of not only that series, but maybe
2:04:11
Speaker 2: this Stanley Cup playoff if you're able to get it done.
2:04:14
Speaker 2: And I'm fine, right, It's one of those things that
2:04:17
Speaker 2: a group has to maybe go through together. You have
2:04:19
Speaker 2: to have that sting and remember it in next to
2:04:22
Speaker 2: year Stanley Cup playoffs and so the next time you
2:04:25
Speaker 2: come across that scenario you do close it out over
2:04:28
Speaker 2: that final minute of play or whatever. But now that
2:04:31
Speaker 2: this Vegas team is in the Stanley Cup Final, and
2:04:33
Speaker 2: I think is gonna be the favorite in the Stanley
2:04:35
Speaker 2: Cup Final depending on who comes out of the East,
2:04:38
Speaker 2: I'm like, man, this Mammoth team was able to play
2:04:42
Speaker 2: with them, and there were moments where it looked like
2:04:45
Speaker 2: they were really truly the better team.
2:04:48
Speaker 3: So that's gonna haunt me for a minute.
2:04:50
Speaker 6: And John Trderella right after the series. First thing he
2:04:53
Speaker 6: said was like, Andre Turney coached a good series and
2:04:57
Speaker 6: he's got a good team over there, and they gave
2:04:59
Speaker 6: us a run for it, and you know it, you're
2:05:06
Speaker 6: always going to look back at it. And but but
2:05:09
Speaker 6: that's the Stanley Cup playoffs. The team that gets hot
2:05:12
Speaker 6: is you know that they make the move and they
2:05:15
Speaker 6: go into it. And we've seen it over the years
2:05:17
Speaker 6: with with Florida and with Tampa Bay and with Colorado.
2:05:21
Speaker 6: And I didn't see anybody taking care of Colorado. But Vegas.
2:05:27
Speaker 6: Vegas is the hot team, and you got to say
2:05:29
Speaker 6: that they're the favorite. Is they're going to open their
2:05:31
Speaker 6: fourth straight series on the road, be it against Montreal
2:05:35
Speaker 6: or Carolina. Is now they're going to get some some rest.
2:05:42
Speaker 2: That game Montreal Carolina right here on ESPN seven and
2:05:46
Speaker 2: ninety two FM.
2:05:47
Speaker 3: How do you think it plays out? Do you know what?
2:05:52
Speaker 3: I think?
2:05:52
Speaker 6: You can look at both conference finals series so far
2:05:55
Speaker 6: and see the home team loses game one. Right, Carolina
2:05:59
Speaker 6: got blown out by Montreal. They went up one nothing
2:06:02
Speaker 6: in game one and then they're down four to one
2:06:04
Speaker 6: and then before you knew it, they're you know, they're
2:06:06
Speaker 6: they're run out of the building and then they got
2:06:11
Speaker 6: things reset and now they've won back to back games
2:06:13
Speaker 6: in overtime. Kind of expected that to be what happened
2:06:15
Speaker 6: in Colorado Vegas.
2:06:17
Speaker 3: It just it just didn't.
2:06:19
Speaker 6: And and sometimes you see a team with some rest
2:06:22
Speaker 6: or adjusting to a matchup, they lose the first game
2:06:24
Speaker 6: and then they win four straight. I wouldn't be surprised
2:06:29
Speaker 6: to see Carolina roll off a couple more wins, win
2:06:33
Speaker 6: the series in five, Montreal saying, hey, whoa, well, we're
2:06:38
Speaker 6: gonna take him to seven. Like we've gone seven games
2:06:41
Speaker 6: in every series thus far. Montreal has just lost two
2:06:44
Speaker 6: games in a row for the first time since March.
2:06:47
Speaker 6: But shots scoring chances, high danger chances got two to
2:06:52
Speaker 6: one in favor of Carolina in the series. Montreal the
2:06:55
Speaker 6: other night, same same thing, went over a half an
2:06:58
Speaker 6: hour of game time and had one shot on goal.
2:07:03
Speaker 6: And and you know, they beat Tampa Bay in a
2:07:06
Speaker 6: game seven with with nine shots. And Caroline is always
2:07:09
Speaker 6: gonna control the puck possession. They lead the NHL and
2:07:12
Speaker 6: shots every year. This year they were second to Colorado.
2:07:15
Speaker 6: But but I kind of feel Carolina after those two
2:07:19
Speaker 6: overtime wins kind of kind of pulling away as we
2:07:22
Speaker 6: talked about with Utah in Vegas. You lose two games
2:07:25
Speaker 6: in overtime, then you then you have to win two
2:07:27
Speaker 6: more instead of just the four you already had to
2:07:30
Speaker 6: win because you were one shot away from from winning
2:07:32
Speaker 6: a couple. So I think, uh, Carolina pulls away, but
2:07:38
Speaker 6: Montreal has already gone to seven in the first two
2:07:42
Speaker 6: series so far.
2:07:44
Speaker 3: Sorry about you.
2:07:44
Speaker 2: Luck again, Canada, another year potentially without a Stanley Cup
2:07:52
Speaker 2: for a Canadian franchise Montreal.
2:07:54
Speaker 3: Last team that did it was nty three. Yeah, beat
2:08:00
Speaker 3: the Kings.
2:08:01
Speaker 2: It's a long time for a nation that is the
2:08:04
Speaker 2: home of Canada. Now you've lost the gold medal to us,
2:08:08
Speaker 2: we keep making the Stanley Cup. Stay on American soil.
2:08:13
Speaker 2: It's our sport now, Canada.
2:08:15
Speaker 3: Sorry, not only American soil, but Florida, Florida, Vegas.
2:08:23
Speaker 6: Yeah, all right, this is the ninth time in ten
2:08:26
Speaker 6: years that there's gonna be a Sun Belt city in
2:08:30
Speaker 6: the Stanley Cup final.
2:08:32
Speaker 3: Yikes.
2:08:35
Speaker 2: Well, we're looking forward to seeing how tonight's game plays out,
2:08:38
Speaker 2: and of course we'll always check in with Adrian Denny.
2:08:41
Speaker 2: Our Utah Mammoth and NHL Insider Between the Pipes. Brought
2:08:45
Speaker 2: to you by Valley Plumbing, Heating and Cooling and Aladdin Industries.
2:08:49
Speaker 2: Thanks for coming in again.
2:08:51
Speaker 6: Yeah, and tonight Carolina and Montreal, which you can hear
2:08:53
Speaker 6: right here. Nick Olchek will be on the call from
2:08:57
Speaker 6: Hockey Night in Utah.
2:08:58
Speaker 2: Yeah.
2:08:59
Speaker 6: So I always love flipping on, flipping on the radio,
2:09:02
Speaker 6: driving around and catching the games here.
2:09:04
Speaker 2: So I love the work. He does also hate how
2:09:07
Speaker 2: good he is at it in his twenties. You know
2:09:10
Speaker 2: what I mean, It's so good.
2:09:11
Speaker 3: You're just like, save some for the rest of us. Man.
2:09:15
Speaker 2: Supposed to take supposed to take some time for you
2:09:18
Speaker 2: to get that good. Anyway, he's good. That's Adrian Danny
2:09:22
Speaker 2: big thanks to him for coming in.
2:09:24
Speaker 5: Uh.
2:09:24
Speaker 2: We have breaking junk mail news, official Utah football scheduling
2:09:30
Speaker 2: news from the junk mail folder. It's the Sean O'Connell
2:09:35
Speaker 2: show on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM's.
2:09:45
Speaker 1: You were listening to The Sean O'Connell Show from the
2:09:47
Speaker 1: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
2:09:52
Speaker 1: to one am.
2:09:54
Speaker 3: I'm James.
2:09:56
Speaker 2: We need like an official junk mail drop, you know
2:09:59
Speaker 2: what I mean. We have the break news sounder. We
2:10:01
Speaker 2: need a junk Mail sounder junk Mail. For all of
2:10:04
Speaker 2: you who are listeners at the show, you know what
2:10:06
Speaker 2: it means. It's not actual junk. It's official Utah football
2:10:10
Speaker 2: news from Keeler mcjenkin, Assistant Athletic Director for Strategic Communications
2:10:16
Speaker 2: at the University of Utah. It's a fancy title for
2:10:19
Speaker 2: the football sid junk does a great job and he
2:10:25
Speaker 2: is okay with being called junk by the way, we
2:10:27
Speaker 2: made sure but junk mail. Today is the early season
2:10:32
Speaker 2: kickoff times being announced for the entire Big twelve. But
2:10:36
Speaker 2: here's the Utah slate as we know it so far.
2:10:40
Speaker 2: September third, Thursday night game against the Vandals of Idaho
2:10:45
Speaker 2: will be a seven pm mountain time ESPN U kickoff.
2:10:51
Speaker 2: September twelfth, Arkansas Night game eight fifteen pm mountain time
2:10:58
Speaker 2: on ESPN right.
2:11:01
Speaker 3: Week two night game. Yeah, that sounds fun. I like that.
2:11:08
Speaker 2: And then September nineteenth, Utah State that'll be a one
2:11:13
Speaker 2: thirty mountain time Fox kick The twenty sixth is Iowa State.
2:11:18
Speaker 2: No kickoff time for that yet. Kansas, Colorado, Houston Cincinnati
2:11:23
Speaker 2: BYU Arizona TCU. Remember your bye week is the October third.
2:11:30
Speaker 2: That's Saturday, October third for the University of Utah this year.
2:11:35
Speaker 2: So that is a what's that week six? Nice placement
2:11:41
Speaker 2: for your bye. It's exciting to know, you know, it's
2:11:45
Speaker 2: it's general conference weekend for those so you don't even
2:11:49
Speaker 2: have to worry about this. In football, Yeah, it's always
2:11:51
Speaker 2: the first weekend of October.
2:11:53
Speaker 3: Oh is it? I didn't know.
2:11:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, So anyone that's got that, any of you that
2:11:58
Speaker 2: are members of the church that have that cognitive dissonance,
2:12:01
Speaker 2: you don't have to worry about that. I'll tell you
2:12:02
Speaker 2: what the The decision to remove the temple announcements from
2:12:07
Speaker 2: the from conference itself when you're not when you're a
2:12:11
Speaker 2: non when you're an infidel like me, when you're a
2:12:13
Speaker 2: non member, takes the luster off a conference man, because
2:12:17
Speaker 2: that was always like the you know, my my family's
2:12:20
Speaker 2: always watching it and you would see social media people
2:12:23
Speaker 2: would blow up, Oh my gosh, that's true. You know,
2:12:27
Speaker 2: you'd be like, oh, cool, they're building a temple there.
2:12:29
Speaker 2: It was always just like a fun, curious thing to
2:12:31
Speaker 2: know where the next one was going. And now they
2:12:34
Speaker 2: took it out of conference because of the outburst the unruly,
2:12:37
Speaker 2: the unruly morms oh yeah, because yeah, the the little up,
2:12:43
Speaker 2: the silent uproar of like, oh my gosh, really that's
2:12:46
Speaker 2: where they're.
2:12:46
Speaker 3: Getting a temple.
2:12:47
Speaker 2: Every once in a while you get like a whoa
2:12:50
Speaker 2: and the person at the podium back, whoa.
2:12:51
Speaker 4: What was that?
2:12:52
Speaker 2: That was always fun unruly morms for the for the
2:12:57
Speaker 2: non member, that was always a fun curiosity. And it's
2:13:00
Speaker 2: gone now, don't have it anymore. So conference weekend. You
2:13:04
Speaker 2: can't get me to watch it like.
2:13:05
Speaker 3: You used to. And that's your that's your Utes by week.
2:13:08
Speaker 3: It's take it full service.
2:13:09
Speaker 2: That's your Utah bye week. Conference updates on the Sean
2:13:12
Speaker 2: O'Connell show. No, those are your kickoff times. Idaho is
2:13:16
Speaker 2: a seven pm ESPN You Arkansas eight fifteen Mountain time
2:13:20
Speaker 2: on ESPN. Utah State Day Game one thirty September nineteenth,
2:13:26
Speaker 2: and that game will be on Fox. That's the fighting
2:13:28
Speaker 2: Bronco Menden Halls coming down to take on your utes.
2:13:33
Speaker 2: Yeahs your head coach, Morgan Scali rivalry renewed, Bronco versus
2:13:38
Speaker 2: the Utes rivalry renewed.
2:13:40
Speaker 3: Bronco versus Morgan versus.
2:13:44
Speaker 2: Now, uh, let me tell you what stands out to
2:13:47
Speaker 2: me from this none of these ESPN plus games, even
2:13:53
Speaker 2: the Idaho game, which would which last year the it
2:13:57
Speaker 2: was the cow Poly game that was ESPN Plus only,
2:14:00
Speaker 2: even that one's on ESPNU, So I don't know, because
2:14:04
Speaker 2: the ESPNU is not a big platform at all. But
2:14:07
Speaker 2: I don't know if that is an indication of Utah's profile,
2:14:13
Speaker 2: high profile kind of being restored in the Big twelve
2:14:16
Speaker 2: or if that's just a nothing burger. But interesting that
2:14:22
Speaker 2: ESPNU is the lowest platform that Utah will be on
2:14:26
Speaker 2: these in the early part of the schedule here and
2:14:29
Speaker 2: the last game of the season so on in West Virginia.
2:14:32
Speaker 2: The only gripe I have here is when you're that
2:14:36
Speaker 2: game on ESPNU, I guess it's a Thursday night game,
2:14:38
Speaker 2: so you might get a good broadcast crew because there's
2:14:40
Speaker 2: not a lot of competition. The downside is if you're
2:14:43
Speaker 2: an ESPNU game, you're getting like the J team a
2:14:46
Speaker 2: lot of times. Yeah, and that means we're sitting our
2:14:50
Speaker 2: over under at Polynesian name mispronunciations at like seventeen and
2:14:56
Speaker 2: a half. There's no way, even on a Thursday night
2:14:59
Speaker 2: that that Dave Fleming Brocossweiler usual late night ESPN crew
2:15:07
Speaker 2: is it. I don't know West Coast Crew because that
2:15:10
Speaker 2: I mean, that's obviously a pretty good broadcast, but.
2:15:13
Speaker 3: Do a good job. Yikes.
2:15:17
Speaker 2: Anyway, here's the rest of the Big Twelve slate, because
2:15:20
Speaker 2: we got the junk mail focusing on Utah also the
2:15:23
Speaker 2: official Big Twelve conference mail. So the first the first
2:15:29
Speaker 2: Big twelve game of the year is actually not Idaho
2:15:33
Speaker 2: at Utah. It's Bethune Cookman at UCF. That game kicks
2:15:38
Speaker 2: off on ESPN Plus at six pm Eastern, oh, so
2:15:44
Speaker 2: a few hours earlier.
2:15:45
Speaker 3: So it's a couple hours earlier.
2:15:47
Speaker 2: So the ESPN Plus though the nights the Knights slid
2:15:50
Speaker 2: in against Bethune Cookman a little bit earlier to start
2:15:53
Speaker 2: off the season. Friday game, September fourth, l i U
2:15:57
Speaker 2: at Kansas don't like that. Keep college football on Thursdays
2:16:03
Speaker 2: and Saturdays. September fourth, there's a full slate of high
2:16:06
Speaker 2: school football games. All right, Kansas, what are you doing?
2:16:10
Speaker 2: Oregon State, Houston, Coastal Carolina, West Virginia, Southeast Missouri, Iowa State,
2:16:18
Speaker 2: Boston College, Cincinnati, Nichols at Kansas State, Abilene, Christian at
2:16:23
Speaker 2: Texas Tech, Utah Tech, The Fighting James Peterson's at BYU
2:16:28
Speaker 2: Trailblazers to start the BYU slate. That's an ESPN Plus game. Wow,
2:16:34
Speaker 2: Utah Tech's not drawing ESPN U at least, James, what's
2:16:37
Speaker 2: going on?
2:16:37
Speaker 1: Now?
2:16:38
Speaker 3: Come on now, Trailblazers, the those.
2:16:43
Speaker 2: Those group of like those fcs and and mid major basketball,
2:16:48
Speaker 2: they're they're very well tied into ESPN Plus.
2:16:52
Speaker 3: So that doesn't surprise me at all.
2:16:54
Speaker 2: Northern Arizona at Arizona and then Morgan State at Arizona State.
2:16:59
Speaker 3: That's the full Week one slate for the Big Twelve Conference.
2:17:04
Speaker 2: So the only the downside here, and we already knew
2:17:08
Speaker 2: this because we knew what the schedule was, but we
2:17:10
Speaker 2: didn't know the kickoff times and the networks. The downside
2:17:13
Speaker 2: here is that unless you're a Big twelve football fan,
2:17:17
Speaker 2: if you're just a college football fan, there's not a
2:17:20
Speaker 2: Big twelve game you're watching in Week one, Like the
2:17:24
Speaker 2: conference is going to be invisible in week one. Yeah,
2:17:27
Speaker 2: we don't have the you know, the week zero Ireland game,
2:17:32
Speaker 2: Pharmageddon game. Yeah, there's no Farmageddon game. There's no like
2:17:36
Speaker 2: Kickoff Classic. When we get to it's twenty twenty seven, Right,
2:17:40
Speaker 2: when we get to twenty twenty seven, Utah's playing Miami.
2:17:43
Speaker 2: Everyone's watching that, yeah, case they want to see who's
2:17:46
Speaker 2: going to be known as the U. Yeah, who gets
2:17:48
Speaker 2: to call themselves the all year long battle for the U,
2:17:50
Speaker 2: the battle for the you. But I that's hopefully just
2:17:56
Speaker 2: a quirk of scheduling that won't repeat itself with any regularity.
2:18:00
Speaker 3: But that sucks, man. Every game in the Big Twelve
2:18:03
Speaker 3: Conference is just a it's a non contest.
2:18:07
Speaker 2: For example, Arkansas is not necessarily a top twenty five
2:18:13
Speaker 2: program perennially, right, but it almost would be better. Would
2:18:18
Speaker 2: have been better for the Big Twelve this year if
2:18:20
Speaker 2: if the Utes began open their season against Arkansas instead
2:18:24
Speaker 2: of Idaho, because you'd have at least a couple Power
2:18:27
Speaker 2: four teams facing off, and maybe a ranked one in
2:18:30
Speaker 2: Utah facing an Arkansas team that may or may not
2:18:34
Speaker 2: be ranked as well. So that's yeah, it's too bad
2:18:39
Speaker 2: about this year's opening week schedule. Week two, you have
2:18:42
Speaker 2: Oregon at Oklahoma State. That's not gonna be a good
2:18:44
Speaker 2: look for the Big Twelve Conference. What was that sixty
2:18:48
Speaker 2: five nothing last year? The Oregon Oklahoma State game? Oh
2:18:51
Speaker 2: my gosh, you got Arizona at BYU in week two.
2:18:55
Speaker 2: So a conference game in week two for Kalinasatake and
2:18:59
Speaker 2: the Coogs. That's not gonna be one of those conference
2:19:03
Speaker 2: games that doesn't count as a conference game, though, is it?
2:19:06
Speaker 3: Oh? I've had it could be.
2:19:08
Speaker 2: It might be like because it was scheduled when Arizona
2:19:11
Speaker 2: was a was a Pac twelve team. It's in that
2:19:14
Speaker 2: time of the year where it might be we may
2:19:16
Speaker 2: still have a couple of those out there.
2:19:18
Speaker 3: I have to look into that. And then Arkansas Utah.
2:19:21
Speaker 2: I mean again, I'm thinking of this through the lens
2:19:24
Speaker 2: of if you're a football fan that's not a Big
2:19:27
Speaker 2: twelve fan, which game are you watching? And Arkansas Utah
2:19:31
Speaker 2: is the night game, so it's gonna have kind of
2:19:34
Speaker 2: its own spot people will watch. It's gonna be nine fifteen.
2:19:41
Speaker 2: That's nine fifteen eastern, right jeez, eight to fifteen Mountain times,
2:19:45
Speaker 2: so ten to fifteen eastern.
2:19:47
Speaker 3: Okay, So that's weird. Why would they?
2:19:49
Speaker 2: I think Arkansas must be Maybe that's central they maybe
2:19:52
Speaker 2: what you're reading the Central time. I'm reading the Central
2:19:55
Speaker 2: time because that's where the text this is from the
2:19:58
Speaker 2: Big twelve league office.
2:20:00
Speaker 3: Okay, that makes sense. We've figured it out, ladies, and gentlemen,
2:20:03
Speaker 3: So seven.
2:20:04
Speaker 2: To fifteen Pacific time, if you want to follow it
2:20:06
Speaker 2: three fifth? Is that three fifteen in Hawaiian?
2:20:09
Speaker 4: Is that?
2:20:09
Speaker 3: What with that?
2:20:11
Speaker 2: So in week two, you're gonna your Big twelve Days
2:20:13
Speaker 2: starts with a mollywopping of the Oklahoma State Cowboys at
2:20:17
Speaker 2: the hands of Dan Lannings. Oregon ducks once for this
2:20:20
Speaker 2: second straight year, and the redemption of the conference will
2:20:23
Speaker 2: have to come with the night game of Utah against Arkansas.
2:20:26
Speaker 2: And then I think Arizona BYU will be a good draw.
2:20:30
Speaker 2: Whether that counts as a conference.
2:20:32
Speaker 3: Game or not.
2:20:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's gonna be an awesome game. I
2:20:34
Speaker 2: think Arizona's a really good team. I think they're a
2:20:36
Speaker 2: well coached team. They've got some talent, and obviously BYU, like,
2:20:41
Speaker 2: especially if this Soresby thing doesn't get figured out, BYU
2:20:45
Speaker 2: is gonna be the conference's favorite to win. We're gonna
2:20:48
Speaker 2: go to Big twelve Media Days and the coaches poll
2:20:51
Speaker 2: is gonna say BYU is the conference champ this year.
2:20:54
Speaker 2: If Texas Tech is, yeah, still asking questions about who
2:20:58
Speaker 2: their quarterback is, and even if it's Will Hammond, like,
2:21:01
Speaker 2: people know that Will Hammond's not healthy till like Week
2:21:04
Speaker 2: four at best, Texas Tech is if without soordsby Texas
2:21:08
Speaker 2: Tech is very much in a Utah cam Rising situation, like,
2:21:12
Speaker 2: oh yeah, he's gonna be back. He's gonna be back.
2:21:14
Speaker 2: Everything's gonna be fine, He's gonna be back. They're holding
2:21:17
Speaker 2: their breath on Will Hammond. If that's the case, b
2:21:21
Speaker 2: Yu is gonna be picked to win the conference one
2:21:24
Speaker 2: Will Hammond definitely. I mean we saw it here. He
2:21:27
Speaker 2: showed he shows that he's got some he's got some
2:21:30
Speaker 2: talent there.
2:21:31
Speaker 3: But he did it. He did that.
2:21:33
Speaker 2: What played like three games last year or did he
2:21:36
Speaker 2: play a little bit more than that? Very limited sample
2:21:39
Speaker 2: size anyway, So if that's the guy you're hanging your
2:21:43
Speaker 2: hopes on, if you're Texas Tech, because of this Brandon
2:21:45
Speaker 2: Brennan Sorosby gambling scandal and the and ineligibility there, that's
2:21:54
Speaker 2: not necessarily the best thing to be hinging all your
2:21:56
Speaker 2: hopes on a guy who's not played much high level
2:22:00
Speaker 2: college football. But even though he looked really good in
2:22:03
Speaker 2: a little bit that he did play, I mean, he
2:22:05
Speaker 2: was a highly rated recruit. He's a big get like
2:22:08
Speaker 2: Himon is a good player. There's not a lot of
2:22:10
Speaker 2: question about that, but he's not nearly his experienced as
2:22:14
Speaker 2: sores B and again the health thing. We always assume
2:22:17
Speaker 2: the best timeline on recovery for these guys, and we
2:22:21
Speaker 2: learned the hard way that you can't do that. So
2:22:25
Speaker 2: Texas Tech we'll see, but Arizona BYU will be a
2:22:28
Speaker 2: good game.
2:22:29
Speaker 3: Week two.
2:22:31
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Speaker 2: Next, it's a Sean O'Connell show on ESPN seven hundred
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Speaker 2: twenty fourteen twenty fifteen expansion.
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Speaker 3: Thought it was an interesting exercise.
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Speaker 2: How many times would Utah have been according to the
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Speaker 2: Sports Illustrated article that we were referencing in an expanded
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Speaker 3: Spence check its How are you?
2:26:58
Speaker 7: I'm well, Sean. I heard you and Jay Games breaking
2:27:00
Speaker 7: down the schedule release. Kind of a random busy news
2:27:03
Speaker 7: cycle in college football over the past twenty four hours
2:27:07
Speaker 7: so far, only one super late game Arkansas, right like
2:27:10
Speaker 7: the seven o'clock mountain time. Love the one thirty mountain
2:27:13
Speaker 7: time for Utah State. Your point about the opening weekend
2:27:17
Speaker 7: of the Big Twelve, though, I thought, was really good.
2:27:18
Speaker 7: Like you look at the schedule as far as we
2:27:20
Speaker 7: have it right now, and you know, the SEC Greig
2:27:24
Speaker 7: Sankee came out of Australia and said, what this next
2:27:27
Speaker 7: year is going to be their last year with cupcake weekend.
2:27:31
Speaker 7: I'm just always one that believes the best teams in
2:27:35
Speaker 7: the sport should be playing against each other every weekend.
2:27:38
Speaker 7: And you know, I want to be sensitive to G
2:27:41
Speaker 7: five teams, lower level teams, the FCSFBS dynamic that bankrolls
2:27:46
Speaker 7: athletic departments. I know how much damage that would do
2:27:50
Speaker 7: to smaller schools if it went away, But as we'd
2:27:55
Speaker 7: leave amateurism behind, and quite frankly, we've been doing that
2:27:59
Speaker 7: for a while. I just think every weekend, the best
2:28:02
Speaker 7: teams in the sports should be matched up against each other.
2:28:04
Speaker 2: My new proposal is that, in order to preserve relevant
2:28:08
Speaker 2: and historic rivalries in college football, regardless of what you
2:28:12
Speaker 2: do with the college football playoff field, if you're going
2:28:14
Speaker 2: to expand it, which they are, just like we did
2:28:17
Speaker 2: with March Madness, move every rivalry game to Week one. Okay,
2:28:23
Speaker 2: I don't hate that Holy Wars played in Week one,
2:28:26
Speaker 2: Civil Wars played in Week one, Iron Bowl has played
2:28:29
Speaker 2: in Week one.
2:28:30
Speaker 3: Because then there is absolutely no chance and no excuse why.
2:28:35
Speaker 2: Well, we rested our quarterback, we rested our starting safety,
2:28:38
Speaker 2: we rested our linebacker because we got a playoff run.
2:28:40
Speaker 2: We got five straight weeks of playoff football against ranked
2:28:43
Speaker 2: teams in a twenty four team playoff. You don't know
2:28:46
Speaker 2: where you're at yet. Yeah, rivalry game in week one.
2:28:49
Speaker 2: That's the way to start a season. That's a wild
2:28:51
Speaker 2: way to start a season. And would coaches hate it,
2:28:54
Speaker 2: Yes they would, Would players and fans love it, yes
2:28:57
Speaker 2: they would so. And it would keep teams from either
2:29:02
Speaker 2: scheduling out of their rivalry games or making excuses as
2:29:06
Speaker 2: to why they're not going to play at full strength
2:29:08
Speaker 2: in those rivalry games. If you lose rivalries in college football,
2:29:14
Speaker 2: we've already lost some, But if you lose them from
2:29:16
Speaker 2: the spirit of actual competition, I'm not going to play
2:29:20
Speaker 2: my best, guys, because this rivalry game doesn't mean as
2:29:23
Speaker 2: much as winning in the college football playoff.
2:29:25
Speaker 3: If you lose that, you have lost college football.
2:29:29
Speaker 7: I totally agree, and it's one of the things I've
2:29:32
Speaker 7: always believed that should be preserved. And the other nice
2:29:34
Speaker 7: thing about your proposal, and you kind of alluded to it,
2:29:38
Speaker 7: let's find out who you are right away?
2:29:40
Speaker 3: Why not the first three weeks of this sport.
2:29:43
Speaker 7: Oftentimes their exceptions BYU as Notre Dame this year you
2:29:47
Speaker 7: reference Utah in Miami coming up, which will be awesome,
2:29:50
Speaker 7: but more often than not, the majority of the sport
2:29:53
Speaker 7: for the first three to four weeks, you're just kind
2:29:54
Speaker 7: of like, oh, cool, sixty four to seven, way to go, Like,
2:29:58
Speaker 7: what does that mean? Sure if you're an AP voter,
2:30:02
Speaker 7: because look, we can crack on the AP all we want,
2:30:04
Speaker 7: but the reality is, you know, like a lot of
2:30:08
Speaker 7: the conversation is okay, Soorsby's not gonna play. I never
2:30:11
Speaker 7: thought he was going to I would be stunned if
2:30:13
Speaker 7: there's some about face there. And maybe Will Hammond is
2:30:17
Speaker 7: ready sooner than we think coming off that ACL.
2:30:21
Speaker 3: So like, what does the Big twelve preseason coaches pull
2:30:24
Speaker 3: look like? Who cares? What does the AP look like?
2:30:27
Speaker 7: Because the higher up you can start, the better chance
2:30:30
Speaker 7: you have to actually crack the thing when it's all
2:30:31
Speaker 7: said and done. You know, let's not forget BYU was
2:30:36
Speaker 7: ranked ahead of Texas Tech last year when they went
2:30:39
Speaker 7: to Lubbock. Now they got undressed, they got their doors
2:30:42
Speaker 7: blown off. But you want to be ranked as high
2:30:46
Speaker 7: as you possibly can in the AP, certainly if you're
2:30:49
Speaker 7: a Big twelve team, because what the College Football Playoff
2:30:52
Speaker 7: Committee tells us, and quite frankly they tell us pretty
2:30:55
Speaker 7: early on, you are a one bid league if you
2:30:58
Speaker 7: want in. Now the expansion will change some things, but
2:31:01
Speaker 7: as of now, with the format the way that it is,
2:31:03
Speaker 7: if you just kind of pay attention, they do say
2:31:06
Speaker 7: the quiet part out loud, which is, if you want in,
2:31:09
Speaker 7: you have to go win the league. And I don't
2:31:11
Speaker 7: even know that eleven and one BYU or eleven in
2:31:14
Speaker 7: one Utah losing to Texas Tech, Like whoever wins the
2:31:20
Speaker 7: Utah BYU game. As I see it right now, there's
2:31:23
Speaker 7: an excellent chance that's a virtual playing game for the
2:31:25
Speaker 7: Big Twelve Championship, because I still think Tech should be
2:31:28
Speaker 7: the favorite, even without Brendan Soaresby, even with the questions
2:31:31
Speaker 7: around will Will Hammond.
2:31:33
Speaker 3: I mean they updated the transfer portal rankings.
2:31:36
Speaker 7: They still have the number one transfer portal class in
2:31:39
Speaker 7: the Big Twelve and one of the top five in
2:31:41
Speaker 7: the country even without their quarterback. But will an eleven
2:31:45
Speaker 7: and one either BYU. Let's give either BYU or Utah
2:31:48
Speaker 7: the benefit of the doubt. Whoever wins the rivalry game
2:31:51
Speaker 7: this year enters that the Big Twelve Championship game. Let's
2:31:55
Speaker 7: just say with one loss and both teams have avoid
2:31:59
Speaker 7: Tech this year, I still think if you lose to
2:32:01
Speaker 7: Tech and you have two losses, you're probably not going
2:32:04
Speaker 7: to the CFP until it's expanded.
2:32:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think I don't think that's a hot
2:32:09
Speaker 3: take at all.
2:32:09
Speaker 2: Out of I don't think that you're gonna get any
2:32:12
Speaker 2: messaging that's going to convince me otherwise. Like I got duped,
2:32:16
Speaker 2: I felt for it last year when the first College
2:32:20
Speaker 2: Football Playoff rankings came out and there were three teams
2:32:23
Speaker 2: in the Big Twelve within striking distance.
2:32:25
Speaker 1: Yeah.
2:32:25
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, this is what the committee is
2:32:27
Speaker 2: telling you, that they actually like the Big Twelve conference
2:32:31
Speaker 2: more than we had previously thought. And they were doing
2:32:34
Speaker 2: exactly what they were trying to do by keeping me
2:32:37
Speaker 2: on the hook, by keeping all of you on the hook,
2:32:39
Speaker 2: by dangling that carrot out there, like yep, make sure
2:32:42
Speaker 2: you're watching closely next week's release show. Make sure you're
2:32:45
Speaker 2: watching closely all these games this season, because it matters
2:32:50
Speaker 2: if you can win your way through this thing, we're
2:32:51
Speaker 2: actually going to put you in.
2:32:52
Speaker 3: And it was like, no, I never thought so. Nope.
2:32:55
Speaker 7: And you know, I'm starting to believe even if there's
2:33:00
Speaker 7: some Big Twelve representation in the room, whether it's Mark Carlin,
2:33:04
Speaker 7: another athletic director or whatever.
2:33:06
Speaker 3: Which is it's Mark Carlin right now? Yeah, I believe
2:33:08
Speaker 3: that it is.
2:33:10
Speaker 7: I'm starting to believe that with how powerful the Big
2:33:15
Speaker 7: ten in the SEC clearly are, if you're a Big
2:33:19
Speaker 7: twelve voice, if you're an acc voice, you want to
2:33:22
Speaker 7: play nice with them, so eventually you can be a
2:33:24
Speaker 7: part of them as opposed to push back on their process.
2:33:28
Speaker 3: If that makes sense.
2:33:29
Speaker 7: I mean, there's not enough wailing and gnashing of teeth
2:33:33
Speaker 7: Mark Carlin or Brett or Mark can do to convince
2:33:36
Speaker 7: the two conferences that are running this sport that their
2:33:40
Speaker 7: voices should be heard. There's just no leverage. I mean,
2:33:43
Speaker 7: you've been through negotiations. I've been through negotiations in my career.
2:33:47
Speaker 7: If you have no leverage, then you just kind of
2:33:50
Speaker 7: have to play nice and hope that at some point
2:33:52
Speaker 7: they just kind of accept you into their club. So
2:33:57
Speaker 7: I don't think there's really anything that can be done
2:34:01
Speaker 7: to change. And look, we can talk about, oh, well,
2:34:04
Speaker 7: the Big twelve doesn't get the benefit of the doubt
2:34:05
Speaker 7: that the Big ten, and then Texas Tech goes and
2:34:08
Speaker 7: gets undressed by Oregon. So if you're a CFP committee voter,
2:34:12
Speaker 7: you say, okay, well, if your best team can't hang
2:34:16
Speaker 7: with one of the top five or six teams in
2:34:17
Speaker 7: the country and it's not even close, what will your
2:34:20
Speaker 7: second and third best teams do against this top tier competition.
2:34:23
Speaker 7: It's really hard to argue with that logic. And the
2:34:26
Speaker 7: only way to change the narrative is results. A Tech
2:34:29
Speaker 7: a utah a BYU advancing to the CFP and showing
2:34:33
Speaker 7: well and winning games against really good teams consistently because
2:34:37
Speaker 7: as long as they blow the brakes off of any
2:34:39
Speaker 7: Big twelve team, certainly the upper echelonne of the Big twelve.
2:34:42
Speaker 7: Because I heard you talking about the ok State Oregon
2:34:45
Speaker 7: game and that's probably going to be a repeat. There's
2:34:47
Speaker 7: nothing the Big twelve can say to convince anyone in
2:34:50
Speaker 7: the college football ecosystem that they deserve a seat at
2:34:54
Speaker 7: the table next to their Big ten and SEC piers.
2:34:56
Speaker 7: It's got to be results. That's the only thing that
2:34:58
Speaker 7: will change it.
2:35:00
Speaker 3: Here a fun facts I do. I love fun facts.
2:35:03
Speaker 3: Right now, the.
2:35:07
Speaker 2: Fourth most expensive get in price for a week one
2:35:11
Speaker 2: game in all of college football is Idaho at Utah
2:35:16
Speaker 2: on a Thursday night.
2:35:17
Speaker 3: You're kidding.
2:35:18
Speaker 2: The only more expensive games right now are Colorado at
2:35:22
Speaker 2: Georgia Tech. Why would you want to see that game?
2:35:27
Speaker 2: That makes literally no sense to me. Clemson, LSU, and
2:35:32
Speaker 2: Wisconsin Notre Dame. Huh, Which makes sense? That's Wisconsin Notre
2:35:36
Speaker 2: Dame is the most expensive. That's at lambeau Field. So
2:35:39
Speaker 2: that's a special game. That's two hundred and twenty nine
2:35:41
Speaker 2: dollars for your get in price one ninety three to
2:35:44
Speaker 2: get into the Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge to watch
2:35:48
Speaker 2: Clemson take on LSU one hundred and seven dollars to
2:35:51
Speaker 2: get into Rice Cycle Stadium for that Thursday night game.
2:35:54
Speaker 7: Did the Vandals have like some sneaky pro prospects?
2:35:57
Speaker 3: I'm not aware of. It is the Vandals, right, it is.
2:36:00
Speaker 2: It's actually just everyone in Luther Ellis's extended family coming
2:36:04
Speaker 2: down from Moscow, Idaho, just driving the price up.
2:36:08
Speaker 7: Hey, whatever, whatever you gotta do to get it done
2:36:11
Speaker 7: real quick before I said you lose. Did you see
2:36:14
Speaker 7: the Tribune piece today on on Wit making inroads here
2:36:18
Speaker 7: in state recruiting?
2:36:19
Speaker 3: Oh? Is that shocking to be?
2:36:21
Speaker 7: But now, like we have some numbers right as far
2:36:24
Speaker 7: as how many offers, So I guess historically speaking, Michigan
2:36:28
Speaker 7: has offered two to three players in Utah throughout the
2:36:31
Speaker 7: course of the recruiting cycle, and now it's like eighteen players,
2:36:35
Speaker 7: including the best quarterback in the state of the kid
2:36:37
Speaker 7: that plays for West.
2:36:38
Speaker 2: You watched Curb your enthusiasm, right, Oh? Yeah, of course
2:36:41
Speaker 2: you know the Spike Store. Yeah, absolutely, that Larry Establishes. Yeah,
2:36:47
Speaker 2: that's gonna be Kyle Whittingham's finishing legacy. He is going
2:36:53
Speaker 2: to He's gonna take guys from the state of Utah,
2:36:56
Speaker 2: even if they never play it down at Michigan.
2:36:58
Speaker 3: Oh huh, just stash him at the end of the
2:37:00
Speaker 3: roster so you didn't want me there, Yeah, okay.
2:37:05
Speaker 7: And be able to pay them more ultimately, that's uh,
2:37:09
Speaker 7: that's what he has.
2:37:10
Speaker 3: By the way, you.
2:37:11
Speaker 2: Get to send like Lewis Powell to go talk to
2:37:13
Speaker 2: their uncle who he already knows it's I mean, but
2:37:17
Speaker 2: he's just wearing Mazon blue instead.
2:37:19
Speaker 3: It sucks.
2:37:20
Speaker 7: Yeah, the West Hide kid actually referenced coach Palace specifically
2:37:24
Speaker 7: because obviously that was a big loss. But yeah, now
2:37:27
Speaker 7: we actually have data about just how prescient Michigan football
2:37:35
Speaker 7: is in the state of Utah.
2:37:36
Speaker 2: Tho I was in I was in his old neighborhood
2:37:38
Speaker 2: last night, and I drove past the house to see
2:37:40
Speaker 2: if there's any any like trace of of Crimson on
2:37:44
Speaker 2: it anymore.
2:37:45
Speaker 3: Blue and yellow entirely. That's pretty neutral. Actually, is is
2:37:49
Speaker 3: he living here? No, he's not kept the home. Smart
2:37:54
Speaker 3: economics moves. I mean he didn't need to sell.
2:37:58
Speaker 2: Sell to buy something in an art When you're making
2:38:00
Speaker 2: ten million a year, we will And by the way,
2:38:03
Speaker 2: when you're being paid by the university of Utah thirteen
2:38:06
Speaker 2: million dollars over the next time, we were.
2:38:08
Speaker 7: Going to buy a home in ann Arbor, but it
2:38:09
Speaker 7: was contingent upon the sale of our home in Salt Lake.
2:38:11
Speaker 3: No, that's not how that went good for wit. What
2:38:13
Speaker 3: do they what do they call those? It's like a
2:38:16
Speaker 3: five oh one C three?
2:38:17
Speaker 2: No, what's there's a there's an exchange that you have
2:38:20
Speaker 2: to do where you roll over your your money from
2:38:23
Speaker 2: the previous purchase into the new purchase.
2:38:25
Speaker 3: Wait, probably didn't have to worry about it.
2:38:27
Speaker 2: To worry about it, all right, Stay tuned for the
2:38:30
Speaker 2: Drive with Spence check us. Thanks for listening to The
2:38:32
Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell Show. We'll do it again tomorrow on ESPN
2:38:35
Speaker 2: seven hundred and ninety twofm