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One Reason Why So Many College Football Players Have Entered The Transfer Portal · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Friday, January sixteenth. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Tom Or the ball State game in two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty two days, the game against Michigan in
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  Speaker 1: three hundred and sixteen days. Our friends at Grateful Griddle
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  Speaker 1: All right, on today's show, we don't get a chance
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  Speaker 1: to talk a lot of economics here on this podcast,
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  Speaker 1: and that is definitely Tony Gerderman's fault. Tony is scared
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  Speaker 1: of numbers and long, long words. But today we're going
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  Speaker 1: to be talking a little bit about economics and incentives.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't want to send you screaming for the hills,
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  Speaker 1: but this did feel like a little bit of an
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  Speaker 1: important show because we keep getting questions about what is
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  Speaker 1: going on in college football? Why are things so crazy
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  Speaker 1: this cycle in particular? And I think understanding some of
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  Speaker 1: the different incentives at play here that maybe have not
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  Speaker 1: been necessarily the case in the past are important here,
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  Speaker 1: and so we're gonna bring in Tony and Tony. I
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  Speaker 1: think there's three different parties involved here. You know, in
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  Speaker 1: the past, it's been player and program, player and coach,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, you'd have your third uncles and they
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  Speaker 1: would probably be sort of playing the types of roles
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  Speaker 1: that you're seeing from agents now, but in a much
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  Speaker 1: less official way. And it felt like when it was
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  Speaker 1: player and team guys were you know, incentives were broadly
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  Speaker 1: aligned where the player wanted what was best for the player,
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  Speaker 1: but with what was best for the player was being
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  Speaker 1: in a good spot and developing and turning into a
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  Speaker 1: good pro and if that happened for the player, that
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  Speaker 1: was generally good for the team as well.
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  Speaker 2: And everybody was team focused at that point, and players
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  Speaker 2: were more focused on finding the best fit for them
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  Speaker 2: as well and finding what you know, whenever you talk
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  Speaker 2: to a player, why'd you choose this place? Well felt
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  Speaker 2: like home. Made me feel like home. I was comfortable
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  Speaker 2: when I got there as soon as I knew it.
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  Speaker 2: I felt like I wanted to be there. I wanted
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  Speaker 2: to be at home. And and that's a nice I guess,
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  Speaker 2: not a fairy tale because it used to happen. It
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  Speaker 2: may happen still initially, but yeah, it was coaches looking
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  Speaker 2: for players that fit the culture, fit the system, were
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  Speaker 2: able to be, you know, depending on the the status,
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  Speaker 2: like you're developmental or you're going to play right away.
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  Speaker 2: They'd fill their roster with whatever they needed, but you
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  Speaker 2: always want to have the developmental guys and guys knowing, Okay,
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  Speaker 2: I'm gonna have to be patient because I'm a developmental guy.
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  Speaker 2: And like the all the of the Iowa tight ends,
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  Speaker 2: do you think any of them were thinking three and
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  Speaker 2: now I'm out of here and you know, I'm going
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  Speaker 2: to go with the NFL. It's like I came here
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  Speaker 2: as a six foot two, one hundred and eighty seven
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  Speaker 2: pound quarterback and I've now grown into a six foot five,
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  Speaker 2: two hundred and forty three pound tight end. That takes
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  Speaker 2: some time, and time is something that nobody wants to
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  Speaker 2: utilize anymore.
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  Speaker 1: Seems yeah. And I think one of the reasons that
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  Speaker 1: you're seeing people not be quite as patient as they
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  Speaker 1: used to be is because there is short term money
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  Speaker 1: out there you can go from. And let me back
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  Speaker 1: this up real quick. You're gonna think, oh, he's talking
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  Speaker 1: about this guy. I'm not talking about anyone. I'm talking
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  Speaker 1: about the fact that there are ten thousand, well well
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  Speaker 1: over ten thousand players in the portal. Why are there
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  Speaker 1: over ten thousand players in the portal right now? And
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  Speaker 1: there's guys from Ohio State, and there's guys from UTEP,
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  Speaker 1: and there's guys from McNee State, and there's guys from
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  Speaker 1: you know, Division two and Division three, and a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of those those guys who are going in the portal
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  Speaker 1: are not going to find a place to land. They're
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  Speaker 1: not everyone who goes in the portal ends up having
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  Speaker 1: a happily ever after or even a here's where I'm
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  Speaker 1: playing football this fall. But a lot of the guys
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  Speaker 1: are getting talked into the portal, and not all of
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  Speaker 1: them are going to get land in the type of
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  Speaker 1: spots that they think they are. But so, why are
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  Speaker 1: so many guys going in the portal? And I think
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  Speaker 1: a lot of that has to do with the incentives
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  Speaker 1: of the third person in this group, which is the agent.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, I have not been able to get
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  Speaker 1: a real firm answer on this, but I think the
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  Speaker 1: most telling number in terms of why things are the
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  Speaker 1: way they are would be what percentage of college agents
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  Speaker 1: guys repping current guys going into the portal? What percentage
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  Speaker 1: of those are also NFL certified agents? And I have
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  Speaker 1: tried to find a specific number, and I've not been
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  Speaker 1: able to find a specific number. I've tried to talk
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  Speaker 1: to people around it, and you get answers like not many,
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  Speaker 1: very few, So we'll say ten percent. It's probably less
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  Speaker 1: than ten percent, but I don't have a number. I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to stipulate up front. I don't have a number.
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  Speaker 1: Very few. Not many were kind of the answers that
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  Speaker 1: I got. So the important part of that is, then
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  Speaker 1: you're not incentivized if you know, I'm this guy's agent,
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  Speaker 1: but i'm his agent right now, and if he goes
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  Speaker 1: to the NFL in a year, I either have to
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  Speaker 1: go through the certification process, which is a somewhat rigorous
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  Speaker 1: one and not everyone is going to qualify for or
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  Speaker 1: then he's someone else's client and I don't make any
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  Speaker 1: money off of him right now. So okay, Tony, if
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  Speaker 1: I'm an agent, right now, And I have a player
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  Speaker 1: who is a year or two away from jumping to
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  Speaker 1: the NFL, and I'm going to lose that person as
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  Speaker 1: a client in a year or two, and I'm trying
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  Speaker 1: to maximize my income and getting him to the NFL
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  Speaker 1: in a great draft position doesn't do anything for me, Tony,
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  Speaker 1: What is my incentive as an agent at that point?
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  Speaker 2: Your incentive is to make your player a free agent
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  Speaker 2: every single year as often as you can. And now
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  Speaker 2: that there's only one portal window open and the spring
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  Speaker 2: portal is no longer open, you can't do it two
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  Speaker 2: times a year, and so you can just do it once.
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  Speaker 2: And the incentive for the agents is crazy. In the NFL, yes,
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  Speaker 2: you've got to be certified. The agents are capped. I
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  Speaker 2: believe it's three percent of the deal. There's no necessarily
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  Speaker 2: a cap for and there's certainly no certification for agents
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  Speaker 2: in college. Agents in college will run ten to twenty percent.
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  Speaker 2: And so that's why they're sending as many players into
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  Speaker 2: the portal as they can. And when you look at
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  Speaker 2: some of these agents in terms of actually they seem
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  Speaker 2: very much like mean coin bros. Get a cash in
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  Speaker 2: right now, that sort of thing you look at their
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  Speaker 2: websites and it was like it was put up three
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  Speaker 2: days ago, and you I think we were talking about
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  Speaker 2: this a few days ago. It's like all of the
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  Speaker 2: people that were in on the NFTs, I think they're
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  Speaker 2: now college agents and just looking for the latest thing.
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  Speaker 2: And all you need is maybe legal zoom and some
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  Speaker 2: players and an Instagram account or a Twitter account, and
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  Speaker 2: you too can go get ten percent of somebody's one
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  Speaker 2: hundred and twenty thousand dollars deal because you know, they
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  Speaker 2: went into the portal and they weren't happy with the
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  Speaker 2: seventy thousand dollars deal, and you just made a quick
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  Speaker 2: buck that way. And there's basically there's no incentive for
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  Speaker 2: any college agent to just let his player do nothing
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  Speaker 2: and whether and that's and the shame of it is
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  Speaker 2: for how many of these players would do nothing, meaning
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  Speaker 2: stay where you are be the best thing for them,
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  Speaker 2: and certainly not the case for everybody, not everybody should
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  Speaker 2: stay where they are, but how many players, how much
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  Speaker 2: of their development is being stunted over the course of
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  Speaker 2: their four to five years because they're being sent into
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  Speaker 2: the portal by an agent. And I know, Tom, they're
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  Speaker 2: all adults.
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  Speaker 1: These are.
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  Speaker 2: Ultimately it's the player's decision, but players are following advice,
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  Speaker 2: and it's advice and also the lure of money, and
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  Speaker 2: it's like the agent's getting something out of it, but hey,
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  Speaker 2: the players are getting more, so you know, it's not
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  Speaker 2: like they're victims or anything, but some of them are.
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  Speaker 2: I think we'll end up being victimized by this whole thing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think there's any question that there are
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  Speaker 1: people who are going to come out, you know, with
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  Speaker 1: short term potentially with more money, but end up ending
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  Speaker 1: up losing money long term because if the agent's not
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  Speaker 1: you know, if the agent's not part of the what
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  Speaker 1: happens two years from now conversation, and you could pick
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  Speaker 1: up whether it's ten thousand or fifty thousand or one
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  Speaker 1: hundred thousand or a quarter million dollars more right now,
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  Speaker 1: But if that costs you a round or two in
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  Speaker 1: the NFL Draft in a couple of years, that could
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  Speaker 1: cost you, you know, your twar two hundred thousand right
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  Speaker 1: now could cost you two million dollars in a couple
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  Speaker 1: of years. But that's a hard thing. Number One, that's
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  Speaker 1: a hard thing to explain to a nineteen year old
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  Speaker 1: who has almost certainly never had two hundred thousand dollars
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  Speaker 1: in his life, and that is a whole lot of
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  Speaker 1: money right now, and you are very likely to get it.
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  Speaker 1: It's very easy to look around and see the people
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  Speaker 1: who have gone into the portal and gotten it, because
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  Speaker 1: once you're in the portal, you got all sorts of
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  Speaker 1: leverage get You can turn it into a bidding war
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  Speaker 1: if you're a good enough player, if you're a player
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  Speaker 1: with enough a player with enough promise that you can
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  Speaker 1: get people excited, and you also get people who are
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  Speaker 1: you get towards the end of the portal window, and
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  Speaker 1: sometimes people get desperate and all, we need a guy
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  Speaker 1: for this thing, and well this guy might be able
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  Speaker 1: to do it, and he's the only one available. So
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  Speaker 1: you throw a bunch of mone adam and then it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily work out, but there you go. So I
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  Speaker 1: just wanted to sort of lay that out, appreciate Tony
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  Speaker 1: Tony joining me today and sort of help lay that
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  Speaker 1: out and help people understand why this has maybe changed
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  Speaker 1: a little bit, because this is one of those questions
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  Speaker 1: we get a lot and it's like, well, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we can sort of have this conversation, but it's a
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  Speaker 1: little bit. It's worth it's worth sitting down and just
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  Speaker 1: really kind of spelling out a little bit more for you.
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  Speaker 1: So there you go, a little out of the ordinary,
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  Speaker 1: but hopefully some of you guys found informative and maybe
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  Speaker 1: help you understand a little bit more. What's going on
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  Speaker 1: right now? What's the solution. It's probably some sort of
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  Speaker 1: regulation from the top of the college college athletics world.
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  Speaker 1: How soon is that going to happen? Well, isn't that
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  Speaker 1: a fun question? That's a whole separate show, and we'll
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  Speaker 1: do that at some point later on, but that'll do
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  Speaker 1: it for now. Thank you guys all for joining us
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  Speaker 1: every great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.