Hour 2: Open Championship, Josh Pate Talks Possible SEC NCAA Defection, plus Tom Brady Slaps Logan Paul

0:01This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies 18+. As soccer takes center stage this summer, Comcast helps bring the experience home to America as the exclusive Spanish language home of the tournament in the U.S.

0:35Telemundo is set to present its most expansive coverage ever 700 hours of programming live on-site presence at all 104 matches and with multi-view and real-time 4K Xfinity will deliver the most innovative and immersive sports viewing experience for fans watching on Telemundo, Peacock, Fox and FS1 Learn more at ComcastCorporation.com This is the Rich Eisen Show

0:58Rich Eisen:Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of The Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to 3 Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. This is the Rich Eisen Show Let me break it down for you again The Rich Eisen Show Spain has been the best team in the tournament From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles The way they suffocate you is unlike any other team in this tournament Earlier on the show Apple TV lead MLS analyst Taylor Twellman Coming up ESPN college football analyst Josh Pate Actor Jake Johnson And now, it's Rich Eisen.

1:58Rich Eisen:All right, everybody. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Hour number two. Hour one, we talked about the World Cup final and everything else surrounding that remarkable tournament that went on for about the last five weeks. Incredible stuff here. And Taylor Twelman joined us. Our friend Jake Johnson of the new Apple TV movie, The Dink. it's it's it's good stuff uh mary steenburgen told us about it when she was here with uh ted danson a few months ago um she's in it it's just delightful it's a ben stiller classic um and he's in it ed harris is in it it's it's good stuff jake's a diehard bears fan he's in studio hour number three uh greg sankey the commissioner of the sec spoke at the uh the kickoff of the sec media week in Tampa, Florida, and said that the talk of the conference breaking away from the NCAA and staging its own playoff is quote unquote real.

3:01Rich Eisen:Whoa. People have talked about that. They've opined about the frustrations that bring them to the point of saying we should look at something significantly different. I do not believe that is a leverage point. I think that's just honest communication. I think what's important is those comments represent a high level of frustration in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Dang. Okay. Hey, man, we've talked about it before. Bringing the soccer world into this again with the World Cup having just finished. If you recall, you remember the Super League that was created over in England for a hot minute?

3:44Rich Eisen:two days two minutes it lasted where that super league that got created that got what folks in london and across the country in the streets right protesting yeah it lasted as long as belichick being the head coach of the jets and we're like how where could that happen here in the united states and on the spot i'm like college football yeah it's only a matter of time that the SEC and the Big Ten get together and say, let's just do it ourselves. Who else wants in?

4:20Rich Eisen:Greg Sankey just basically said, this is not a leverage play. This is a real talk. This is a real conversation. Josh Pate's going to join us on that and my alma mater announcing that the athletic director Ward Manuel is out by the end of the year, based on everything that's gone on on that campus the last few years. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial the uh open championship right what a performance by ryan fox incredible the kiwi from new zealand this guy what a story he didn't start playing golf till high school 17 didn't win anything until he was in his mid-20s his amateur career never finished top 10 in a major He is from a long line of rugby players and cricket players.

5:11His family lineage down there. He's just from a bloodline of athletes. And for this guy to do what he did over the weekend, he was tied for 52nd after the first two rounds going into the weekend. The largest comeback in major history for the winner. Birdies 18 at a course and a hole that was playing next near impossible.

5:37Rich Eisen:Well, I mean, Siwoo Kim looked like it was going to be his tournament at the turn. Ryan Burns got to 11 under. Then he faltered. Then Siwoo took the lead, and it looked like he was going to run away with it. And Cam Young. Those guys just couldn't do it. Cam Young posted a number really early. He played when the conditions were a little bit better. It was a little less windy. posted nine under and just sat around for two and a half hours seeing if they were going to come back to him. And then wound up walking off into the clubhouse after watching Fox Birdie 18, which Tommy Fleetwood playing in Royal Birkdale in front of his hometown, in front of his home crowd.

6:12Rich Eisen:He came up with a walk-off birdie for him. It was just only the fourth birdie on the day at 18 until Fox stepped up. But obviously what he did on 18 to birdie and what he did on 16 to birdie as well, that's what people are talking about but what really impressed me is what he did in the holes before the birdies because for him to step up on 15 tied with young who's they kept cutting away to him warming up yep on their end just in case there was going to be some extra holes yep um he hits one in the par three in the bunker and it's in one of those classic open championship pot bunkers where there's a wall and it was right up next to it and i'm like well that's it for him and then he just stepped up looked at the situation stepped in took his medicine right away yep and then said i'll just get up and down for bogey and go back to work he did then he birdies the next hole and he's right back to where he was when he put the ball in the bunker then he steps up on 17 on a par five and he took out an iron and he still hit it in one of the fairway bunkers over 300 yards away like what the hell's in that thing course was hot course was baked but he shots were running i mean he cooked that yeah and then okay so now he's got to scramble to get a birdie putt which he does which he then misses just by a chinny chin chin and he steps up to 18 and he hits a perfect drive and then a perfect nine iron and then stepped up this is the thing too he steps up and 22 seconds after sam burns putts out he's standing over he's not wasting any time he he saw the putt he saw what he needed to do and just like when he was in the bunker on 15 and 17 just looked at the situation assessed it and just played it that's what he does he stepped up but 22 seconds later he puts that thing a little side entry and he wins the open championship it was awesome if you've never seen ryan fox play that's you know about something a lot of people are noticing now he plays fast he is decisive he does not want to let negative thoughts creep in by over analyzing over talking to his caddy thinking about club selection he has a plan see shot hit shot let's go they finished their final round in four hours which is unheard of on a major championship and like you said 22 seconds after burns uh ball hits the bottom of the cup for his par in 18 he's jarring the game winning birdie championship winning birdie it was incredible and then afterwards he talked about his thought process going through the final shots as he's sitting next to his new claret jug.

9:16Definitely the first part. I mean, I hit two shots exactly how I wanted to hit them. And I didn't feel anything for the part. Everything was shaking that much. I was just happy to hit it somewhat near the hole and to see it go in was incredible. But, you know, I did say to my caddy Dean on the tee that we were going to take it on, that I was going to try to win the tournament and I'd live with the consequences if I stuffed it up. And, you know, to go out there and execute, you know, that drive's not a very comfortable tee shot, obviously. And to hit it in the fairway and give myself a chance was huge.

9:54And then I landed on a good number. I think I had 160 metres to the hole. You know, the breeze was a little down off the left. Obviously, you know, everything's a bit jumped up there. So it was just a solid nine. and I hit it exactly where I wanted to hit it. And I think I screamed at it, please be good in the air. And it was, you know, to cap it off with the putt. Everyone practices on the green, I guess. You've got a putt to hold a major championship to win the Open. It's not like that in real life. It's not a very comfortable feeling, but it's certainly very enjoyable when you see it going.

10:30Unreal. That's got to make you feel better. You talked about not being able to feel your hands, you know, playing the ACC, and then this guy's like, yeah, I can't really feel my hands. I got a putt to win the major. It's incredible.

10:41Rich Eisen:So cool, man. It's very cool. Congratulations to Ryan Fox. I'd love to chat with him. Yeah, there's a cool video going around right now of him flying back to Florida, and he's got the Claire Chug in the overhead compartment. Yeah, there it is. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, I'm glad that he had the cabin space above him. That's awesome. Yeah, is that his one carry-on item? That'd be my one carry-on item. I'm not checking that back. It's not leaving my sight. That's so cool. Pretty good. Awesome. Apparently Cam Young was on the same flight, too. Oh, wow. That's got to be tough for Cam Young. You know, you finish early.

11:19You're playing in the mid-groups, and you're waiting around two-plus hours just to see if maybe there's a playoff. You go out, warm up. Oh, what's that?

11:28Rich Eisen:No, oh, he jarred it. Okay. That's why it's 72 holes. He bogeyed 18. Yeah, he bogeyed 18. So, I mean, again, that's why every shot counts. And well done to Ryan Fox. Yeah, very cool. And Ryan Fox, doing what he did, took Bryson DeChambeau and what happened with him completely off that radar. And certainly so did DeChambeau's weekend. Now, you could say that he was thrown off his game by taking two strokes off of his score on Friday. and DeChambeau shot over the weekend 69 and 72, which is not shabby to say the least. But what he did on Friday, it's kind of crazy that, you know, the conversation that's been around it is we don't know if he did it on purpose or not or did it on purpose or not.

12:22Rich Eisen:and that's the improving improving his ability to connect with a ball and thick gorse yeah it was more it wasn't the lie it was more of the swing path well right you're not allowed to improve the swing path right at all right and you know there's back and forth of like well he's got to get his feet set somehow i mean he needed a look at you know where where where the ball was and you got to step into that grass somehow and then you look at it and it's just like is he is he doing the Macarena in there or what's he doing you know and then you're looking at it like well but still he had to stand behind it to see where it's going right he had to look at it he had to choose a spot and then you're like well do you have to lift your foot up and stamp it down like you take a look at it different way and then you see so many of the players who are like you know Homa's like, and Scheffler, like, I know him.

13:19Rich Eisen:He's not a cheater. He's not going to cheat the game. Right. You know, and then others are like, yeah, I'm not really formulating an opinion on it. And others are like, well, I've got an opinion on it. And it's not a great one. And then Rory McIlroy stepped to the podium. and um if there was a uh pile of dirt and um dechambeau was somewhere um ready to be buried um well rory mcelroy pulled out the big dog of a shovel and kept shoveling so i was watching it live i was up in the players lounge watching it with a few other players and um as soon as he made the step into the ball we all sort of looked each other and we're like that didn't seem right um and then when i heard that he was you know he was called in by the rules officials i think we all it was pretty obvious for for why um and yeah i mean i think you know i think there's no doubt that he improved the line of his backswing so you know and again it's like whether it was careless or whether it was intentional i don't think it matters hopefully it was careless um but i think the two-shot penalty was justified for sure.

14:35What do you think of the scenes after? Obviously, you guys were delayed getting your tee times as well because of it all going on. Late night for everyone.

14:44Yeah, look, I won't pretend to be up here and defend Bryson. I'm not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it's performative. I think a lot of it's for attention. And yeah, to hold the tournament hostage like that and have all of us volunteers, players, everyone waiting on him to depart. I didn't feel like it was a great look. Do you think he knew what he was doing? Look, he's going to say, like, again, I don't, I'm not in his mind. I'm not in his, but it didn't look good.

15:20Rich Eisen:The honesty from Rory McIlroy. Off the charts. That's what we want from our athletes, right? Oof. Jeez. That's live related, right? Isn't it? yeah and i think uh you know final round masters last year they're in the they're in the group together you know not shaking it's all yeah there's goes back along well in terms of the performative uh um commentary um that's one man's opinion yeah um and if i'm being told you're losing two strokes i'm not going to take it well that's for damn sure certainly if i'm going to be now called a cheater i mean that's going to take a while to calm me down and get off the course and then there's the other side of it the telegraph newspaper reporting that during the conversation uh bryson de chambeau according to the telegraph let me see if he will uh address this at any point warned of quote warned officials at the open that he was ready to call president trump in a tense standoff that saw the american hit with a two-shot penalty for inadvertently improving his lie and if that's the case hey bryson um listen you're dealing with the royal and ancient that'd be like um hmm you're gonna call the president of the united states once upon a time our predecessors told braveheart he couldn't improve his lie okay this goes back centuries okay yeah bryson didn't talk to the media on friday he didn't talk to the media over the weekend i imagine he'll post a video on his youtube channel explaining everything the one thing that you could read his lips at one point is he did seem to threaten he's not going to play the next day yeah and that's glad that he did yeah that's kind of rory's point about holding everybody up they couldn't make tea times because they had to wait to see if he was going to withdraw being told okay and so many of his colleagues are like a every shot because he's bryson de chambeau is on camera right so many other guys could have been stomping around or inadvertently improved their line you just didn't see it right because not every shot is on camera for that player you know but man that was a dramatic weekend yeah at royal birkdale what a royal drama that was it was wild all right let's take a break here we got uh josh paid coming up uh in a matter of moments but i just want to tell you this note from our friends at Pella Windows and Doors.

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18:25Rich Eisen:Joining us from, I believe, I don't know where he is. Maybe he's in Tampa, Florida. I don't know. But Josh Pate's going to join us next talking about SEC and my school, Michigan. Don't go anywhere.

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19:50Rich Eisen:Hyundai has always moved the future within reach. We did it when we made advanced safety standard on every vehicle and engineered EVs with ultra-fast charging capability. Because the future isn't some far-off concept. It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Josh Pate, our friend, ESPN College Football analyst, as well as a big-time broadcaster right here on the program. It's good to see you, sir. Greg Sankey, I want to start. I reached out to you this morning based on what was going on at my alma mater in Michigan. We'll get to that in a second.

20:30Rich Eisen:But to be straight up, when the commissioner of the SEC, Greg Sankey, who I like to refer to, even to his face as the president of the United States of collegiate sports. You know, when he says that there is something real to the conversation of the SEC breaking away from the NCAA based on the frustrations and the rules and the regulations that aren't uniform or certainly aren't going to address the member schools of the SEC. That's massive news. He did say that today. Josh, what's your two cents on that? I tend to believe him. Now, it's not a zero-sum thing, I don't think. It's not like he's either totally serious about it or they're totally using that to leverage the conversation in the right way.

21:17There's probably a healthy mixture of both. It's just, as you know, sometimes it's a total bluff and you get your bluff called or you don't and you get your way. I don't think this is a bluff. And I know that because I spent the entire spring going around multiple conferences, SEC included. And a lot of off the record conversations sort of sounded even more colorfully in the same vein that Greg Sankey's on the record comment sounded this morning. And that's from everywhere from ADs to university presidents. They look at it and they they say that word unsustainable. And the thing about it is it's going to be sustainable for the SEC.

21:53It's going to be sustainable for the Big Ten. It's just at some point, if we're the SEC or we're the Big Ten, even we look at it and say, is this even worth our time? because we know we can survive. It's them that need us, not us that need them. Now, me as a college football first guy, I hate all of it. I despise that we're even talking about it in these terms. But it just it's like you and I and 500 other people are on a cruise ship and we keep looking up at the captain's deck and nobody's hands are on the wheel. And you figure at some point someone's going to be in charge. Someone's going to make sure we don't run into the port over here and no one has their hands on the wheel right now.

22:31So at some point, the conferences look and say, well, OK, we've got our own little lifeboat over here. It's pretty nice. And we know we can control that and we know we can sustain ourselves for a long time on that thing. So what's the line in the sand? Like, what is the magic line of demarcation past which forget about it? We're going to torch the barn, kill the rats, as Memaw would say. We're going off on our own. I don't know what that is. I don't know that they know what that is. I think it's one of those, we'll just know when we're there.

23:02Rich Eisen:I understand that for sure. And I just don't know what it would look like. It would have to include the conference from which the last three college football national champions have come from, Josh, right? I mean, the Big Ten's got to be involved in anything of a breakaway. Listen, I know the SEC is popular, but they're just going to have their own championship. And we'll just wonder how they would look against the champs of the rest of the NCAA. Josh, you know. Now, I don't want that. Right. There is an alternate universe where I can see it working, but I don't want it. So I don't want to go to the alternate universe.

23:40I will say because of all these threats being made over really the past year, but specifically the past six months, I famously not a legal type have consorted with a bunch of real legal types. And I've said the SEC and the Big Ten just go off on their own. There's that M word. What is that? Monopolistic. Does this fit that description? And the answer was certain degrees of, yeah, that's why they're going to have to pretend that they're not locked arm in arm for a little while if they do decide to go down that path. So you said, I don't know what it would look like. I said, I don't know what it would look like.

24:17I'm telling you, I don't think they know what it would look like either. But I always go back to this. Ironically, Rich, let's see, it's 2026. This week, five years ago, there was this news out of nowhere. It happened at SEC Media Days. I would say it's the last bombshell story out of SEC Media Days. And that was OU Texas to the SEC. And they kept a total lid on it. No one knew it was coming. And so I keep thinking to myself, if they were able to keep that under wraps five years ago, Might there be something that's in the oven pertaining to matters that we're discussing right now that none of us know?

24:56And might all of what we've been given, might the morsels that we've had thrown at us from microphones just be flack, just be subterfuge to get us looking to the left and to the right? because I do think that there's still a lot up in the air, but for as much attention as has been paid to this by some pretty smart people, I find it hard to believe everyone's just waking up every morning scratching their head wondering what the day will bring. I've got to think there's some design somewhere.

25:25Rich Eisen:And what did Sankey say about college football playoffs expansion? Anything else? Well, they peppered him a lot. I mean, I give him full credit now. He opens himself up to wide-ranging Q &A at this event every year. I love it. I think out of all the power commissioners, I don't know. I value what he says the most. Even if I don't always agree with it, I think it's really, really well-founded in logic. And so I appreciate when he does it. So this morning, I thought the biggest takeaway, Rich, was actually when they asked him about the playoff. And they asked him about you guys, the SEC, expanding to nine league games and all these coaches being upset because they thought expansion of conference schedule was going to coincide with expansion of playoffs.

26:10And that hasn't happened. Are you guys worried that the college football playoff is not going to recognize your strength of schedule the way that you hope they do? Now, when they set out on that course to go nine conference games in the SEC, there was just an assumption that the college football playoff selection criteria was going to change and that they were going to value strength of schedule a little bit differently and define it a little bit differently than they had. Now, side note, I think that's warranted. All right. Now we get back up on the main road. But this morning, his words made it sound like they have no confidence that that group is going to, in any shape, form or fashion, value strength of schedule the way they want it to, to the point where he went back to the spring when they met with the college football playoff.

26:58And I want to get these words right. He said we had very unsatisfactory discussions with the college football playoff, which means and I do not agree with this, but it sounds like this is the way it's going to be. It sounds like wins and losses are going to continue to be the ultimate metric in college football. I know there's a lot of pro sports folks watching saying, duh, what else matters other than wins and losses? You're right. It's just that 10-2 Air Force and 10-2 Georgia sometimes are very different teams in this sport, which is different than the Sunday game. And it doesn't sound like many people on that committee are willing to bend enough to the SEC satisfaction.

27:37Rich Eisen:I feel the same way about Sankey too, Josh. I mean, again, I love that you quoted him like that because his verbiage, his way of talking, it is infused. It's also a lot of breadcrumbs. It's very smart. I'm a fan of his. When he comes on this show, it is a wide-ranging Q &A. We chop it up. He pushes back. It's great. And the first time I ever met him was at the Super Bowl between the Rams and the Patriots in Atlanta. back in 2019, and he's sitting next to me, and he knew where I went to school, and he starts talking about all the SEC players that are in the Super Bowl right here, and I'm like, what is this guy's malfunction?

28:19Rich Eisen:Like, why is he in my grill about this sort of thing? And I just, like, I literally just met him, and I'm like, you see 12 for New England down there? You see that guy with all the rings? You see that guy? Like, let's just stack him up against the rest of the SEC, and then we'll start talking. And I thought, am I going to have to get separated from this commissioner in Commissioner Goodell's box? Is the commissioner going to have to step in here? But I do. I love him. I love him. You know, so last year, it was either preseason or during the college football season last year. You guys had him on the show.

28:52And I've told you this off air. I thought it was one of, if not the best, back and forth conversations I've heard him have publicly. I told him that to his face at the Miami A &M playoff game. So I've told that to all parties involved. But if you go back to the the Eisen archives and you listen to that conversation, you notice it seems like 50 times you asked him a question or you posed an idea. And his response was, well, now let's back up to chapter one. Let's let's start at the beginning. You started in the middle of the story. It was so great.