Pay For Play Comes To College Football

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0:35Stone baked pizza and air fry, both built right in your oven. That's the game time MVP combo. So when you're hosting before kickoff, Frigidaire helps you cover every craving. Available at the Home Depot, how doers get more done. Only when using stone baked pizza mode, cook time requires preheat and reheat, and may vary based on ingredients. This 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.

1:10Gemini 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+. I'm living my best life Yeah, yeah This is The Rich Eisen Show Here's the other surprising part With guest host Brian Weber Yeah, big shoes to fill Eisen's a legend Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles The Rich Eisen Show Do you know who I am? I'm a guy on television I have my own show And now, sitting in for Rich Here's Brian Weber It's another hour of the program An absolute blast as always to sit in for rich if you enjoy the approach here is a positive development i'm back with you tomorrow if you don't like the approach here's a negative development i'm here through thursday but even if you think it's a tough listen and i can appreciate that sentiment my late great mother used to say brian you're not for everyone and when your mom says that that is certainly a moment of clarity.

2:14I do my best to be comprehensive and I hit you with a variety of topics. So while I've had a heavy NBA lean going back to Friday, now that's justified because the NBA drove the news cycle last week. There was an NBA trade that was finalized today and it's not something I'm going to spend more than 30 seconds on here, but the goal is to keep you constantly updated. That's why Rich invests in you, the listener, to have me here with the team live when who would have more of an opportunity to play a best of than Rich Eisen. Think of all of the interviews he could repurpose. I don't want to give anyone any ideas.

2:58Still, the reason I'm here is to react to things in real time, to put out the possibility of a phone call at 844-204-7424, to remind you you can interact on the X platform, B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs, and have conversations with insightful guests. First hour was wide open. A reminder, if you miss any portion of any program, you listen anytime on demand, the podcast will be up shortly at the end of the program. 20 minutes from now, because I understand millions of you cannot be wrong, although it's not compelling on a platform nationally too often. We talk baseball selectively, but we are getting ready for the All-Star break on Sunday.

3:41All-Star game next Tuesday. There are many interesting topics with big names attached to them. And I always enjoy checking in with Andy McCullough, senior writer for The Athletic, who also happens to be the author of The Last of His Kind, a biography of Clayton Kershaw. Now, if you want to bash Clayton, Commissioner Rob Manfred gave you more material by naming him to the All-Star team. It's a lifetime achievement, folks. And however you view Clayton, and I try to be measured and balanced, he just got the 3 ,000 strikeouts. He has the best winning percentage in the regular season since 1947. The best career ERA in the live ball era.

4:26when Red Barber and I were calling games off the ticker in 1920. I realize he is underachieved repeatedly in the postseason, but I have no issues in a meaningless exhibition with someone being celebrated in the twilight of his career. I understand it cost somebody a roster spot. Sports is bottom line driven. It's a tough world out there, and I'm not going to freak out about that, nor all-star stubs because I'm not doing satellite radio in 2002 in the middle of the night. No MBA. Did I say that clearly? No MBA in this hour of the program, other than letting you know the deal that came together earlier today, just so you're current if you're actually working and want to talk at the water cooler, if they still exist.

5:15Three-team deal. Clips, Jazz, and the Miami Heat finally did something. Remember every trade not too long ago? Every scenario, every possibility had somebody going to Miami? Now, Pat Riley just does not want to deal with anybody, it seems like. Norman Powell, I said these were not Hall of Famers. From the Clippers to the Heat. John Collins goes to L.A. Kevin Love has a Hall of Fame resume. Remember, it's the Basketball Hall of Fame, not the NBA Hall of Fame. Think about Kevin's dynamic run at UCLA. You throw him, Kyle Anderson, and a future second-round pick from L.A. to the Jazz. You're fully caught up.

5:55I would not be surprised if when I rejoin you tomorrow, we have an update on Bradley Beal. I've already bashed him enough, but it's a name that could help a contending team because when healthy, the guy can score with regularity, and whoever signs him will be getting him at a radical discount because according to reports, Phoenix is going to follow the Damian Lillard playbook that Milwaukee authored and pay Beal roughly$100 million if he accepts a little bit less. And this is really boring from a CBA standpoint. But let's just call it$100 million that will be stretched out over five years for cap reasons.

6:36Beal hits the market and could help a playoff contending team, Although clearly he should never be one of your cornerstones as the Suns have discovered. With Rich getting set to play in the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in beautiful South Lake Tahoe, Nevada on Friday. Coming up in 40 minutes, just a little bit of golf. Mostly so I can feel better about watching the John Deere Classic yesterday. Now, you might counter. Hey, Phil and Hack, you're supposed to watch this stuff. You get paid for it. I fully agree. but as a casual fan now of golf, like most of you, when I turn on an event, and I do it mostly just as background as I'm getting ready to put together my preparation for today's show, I want to know who some of these players are.

7:25Every time I turn on a quote-unquote regular PGA Tour event, it is filled with anonymous and generic dudes because all the big names are still making an outrageous sum of money from the Live Tour other than Scotty Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. And I know I'm being reductionist. I'm being guilty of sweeping generalizations. But I want to talk about whatever happened to that. Because however you view the Saudi component, you cannot debate that the sport desperately needs its stars back. When those guys left, they took most of the tour with them. And that's why we only think about golf when we get around to the four majors.

8:05if you care about the British Open, have, pardon me, the Open Championship to watch something in the middle of the night. I love college football. I said it, and I'm in the right chair because Rich talks college, I think more than most national shows, as a proud Michigan man and a good time to be a Michigan man in recent years. So I feel like I have now the endorsement to make the move to college. You might be thinking, hang on, a little bit early, right? Well, there are no rules in Sports Talk Radio. As long as it's interesting, you can take it wherever you want to go. I have a news item I'll get to.

8:44And as much as I view the Big 12 Conference as gimmicky and just Frankenstein going from Arizona to West Virginia, but they had to to survive. And I still have a lot of bitterness about the death of the Pac-12. and let me say it more pointedly, the murder of the Pac-12. That conference got killed. It did not die due to natural causes, primarily due to incompetence internally and a TV network and the Big Ten conference that are partners, so I can't use the word collude, but they got together to kill the Pac-12 because they wanted to pluck USC. They took UCLA as part of the package and then went after Oregon and Washington.

9:31But I'll skip the rant today. I love college football. Big 12 media days kicking off tomorrow. That makes me feel like it is back on the table as something that's relevant. And I saw this over the weekend. First, an observation. And this is not that much of a stretch. How much money is swimming around and just being available at Texas Tech? How much cash is flowing through that alumni base? Now, let me stop there. First, I want to express obviously our condolences and every one of us should be thinking about all of the victims of those horrible floods in Texas. Just a atrocious calamity and very difficult to watch that news over the weekend.

10:20But in terms of what we do in sports, Texas Tech has had their peak moments. I mentioned Patrick Mahomes earlier, although remember, he didn't win anything on the college level. And if you think about someone who's failed upward throughout his career, how about Cliff Kingsbury? But he's got a great head of hair, and he'll wait for his next head coaching opportunity as he remains the play caller in our nation's capital and now has another star in the making in Jaden Daniels to coach up. Texas Tech has capitalized on the brave new world of college sports as well as anybody, and I understand, all the money that is flowing around.

10:59the Lone Star State, and all of the deep-pocketed alums and boosters that the university can tap into. So Texas Tech, if you think about the NIL space, and this is semi-boring, I'll do it quickly, but college softball is big. College softball gets better ratings than college baseball does. The College World Series, Women's College World Series in Oklahoma, featured Texas Tech in the championship game. Why? They went out and purchased Stanford's best player and threw over a million dollars at her in NIL money. And even though that's my alma mater, I have no issue with that. This is capitalism in its rawest form.

11:41And for over a century, those responsible for the revenue, the players, didn't participate in it. I understand the economic value of a degree, room and board, and all that comes with a scholarship. I'm talking about, as the philosopher Randy Moss once said, straight cash, homie. And yes, players have been getting compensated under the table for decades. How's Reggie Bush doing with the apology for his mother and stepfather getting a house, allegedly, from a sports marketing executive? I live in the real world. I know the money's been flowing, and I keep going back to that notion. I think I'm trying to conjure up the image of Scrooge McDuck jumping into that pool full of money.

12:32That's how much money is flowing through Texas Tech. I'm Brian Weber. Another contemporary reference. 844-204-7424. What was the show back in the day? DuckTales. My mind is still active. Hit me up on the X platform. B.W. Weber. Weber with two Bs. 10 minutes, we talk baseball with Andy McCullough, senior writer of The Athletic. So it's no surprise that now that we've reached July and the settlement of the House case, I will not go into all of the details, but the biggest takeaway, which has major ramifications, was that once we got to July, the revenue-sharing era in college football officially started, Meaning, in addition to NIL, which technically was separate from the university, although clearly there was coordination between schools and the boosters.

13:30But we've all heard these collectives. And the notion was, I throw in 20 bucks. I call my rich buddy. He throws in a million. And let's go get that softball player. And let's go to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. Well, now there's another revenue stream. roughly 20 million bucks for schools that opted into the settlement to participate that's all the big schools you know they have that pool of money now to divvy up any way they want to and clearly where's the money going the vast majority of it to college football a little bit to men's basketball a little bit to women's hoops and maybe if you care about gymnastics and i'll give you another sport i've loved to call over the years they draw at schools like LSU across the SEC, 15 ,000 people to show up, not only because of Libby Dunn, or if you go to Utah, Salt Lake City, 14 ,000 to watch the Red Rocks.

14:25They'll get some money too, and they deserve every dollar of it. And the reason I'm talking about it today, along with Big 12 Media Days starting tomorrow, is we had this historic development over the weekend, a five-star offensive tackle, Felix Ojo, committing to Texas Tech, his agent claims a fully guaranteed deal, three years,$5.1 million. That's straight from the school. Now, because every day college football gets closer to the NFL, we have the same challenge that we do in pro football about these valuations of contracts when they're leaked by agents. And then we find out with the great reporting of people like Mike Florio from ProFootballTalk.com, friend of the program.

15:20Yeah, the agent gave us an inflated figure so the agent could feel better about the deal they got their client. The athletic reports, it's worth$2.3 million. The specifics are not important. Just think about that. Let that wash over you. This is a commit. This is somebody who's never played a down yet getting, let's call it at least a couple, maybe close to 5 million. And it tells us where we have arrived in big time college sports. Now, the consequence of this development has not been, I think, thought through enough, at least from a standpoint of Sports Talk Radio, because most of you just care about what you see on the field on Saturdays and sometimes a Thursday and a Friday as well.

16:10And I understand you're not accountants. You're not responsible for keeping the books. But since many of us, I think the majority of Americans now go to college and that's a separate argument. Should they? Probably not, especially when you walk out the door over a hundred grand in debt. But since you can relate to the college experience, here's what's happening in the wake of this historic settlement that has now made it permissible to have direct payment from the schools. First thing that's happening, layoffs at athletic departments. And look, I work in sports media. You want to pick a profession with no job security?

16:51Pick this one. I should have known that 35 years ago, but I wasn't as bright as I thought about when I was going through all the career decisions out there and possibilities. I have empathy for anybody losing their job. I will point out, having worked in the college space until last year with the death of the Pac-12 for over 30 years, in my lifetime, the growth of staff in athletic department settings has been ridiculous. These used to be relatively small, for lack of a better term, mom and pop operations. now they feel like you're walking into a corporation and justifiably so because think about the billions of dollars now connected to big time college sports i saw this the other day lsu i'm not picking on them we know about them because of all of their national championships and if even i enjoy the brilliance of paul skeins and know that he went to lsu it tells you about their brand equity.

17:51Well, they want to monetize that. LSU wants to sell jersey patches on their uniforms, like Ricky Bobby in NASCAR. Why? They need more money to pay the players and to keep up with the arms race in facilities and recruiting and everything else. And where's the money going to come from? Cutting bodies in the athletic department. Again, I feel badly for anybody losing their job. Also, that's a very specific skill set. Where are you going if you're the assistant AD in charge of compliance? I don't think you can go work for a software company. And sports are going to be cut. And it's already happening.

18:32And I know the vast majority of you do not care about tennis or water polo or even volleyball, even though volleyball has got a lot more mainstream. I feel badly for the student athletes. But this is the world in which we live. And we've always known college sports was big business. We chose not to think about it or we look the other way because we love college football Saturday so much. Look, I come to you from our Regal Studios in Southern California. I can start watching college football at 9 a.m. and I can write it all night long. And yes, they're recreating Pac-12 after dark. I'm not even talking about the zombie Pac-12 that has been reconfigured.

19:17To me, that is a sports joke and just horrendous to think about. When the conference was killed, the brand should have gone away, and I have a lot of respect for the good people in Oregon State and Washington State. If you care about my life, I lived in Pullman for six months. I covered the Cougars on a daily basis. Do not tell me Texas State represents the Pac-12, but I know why they're doing it just to stay alive. So here we are in a world in which we're already thinking about playoff expansion. In fact, it's going to happen. It's not even an abstract. The bickering is how many guaranteed teams can the Big Ten carve out because they and the SEC run the sport.

19:59And as we wind down, my only negative response to all this is so much of the heritage and the history and all the unique quirks that make college football special have gone away. And I don't want it to be a carbon copy of the NFL. But when I see universities now are selling jersey patches, just like professionals. And yes, when you pay someone, they become a professional. There's got to be, I would hope, a balancing act between a century worth of tradition and rivalries, which continue to be marginalized with the ability to make all the money you can. Two things can be equally true. But unfortunately, the people that run college football just focus on grabbing every dollar they can and don't think about the impact, especially for those of us who feel passionately about it, in terms of loving the sport.

20:55I'm Brian Weber. On my Soakbox, 844-204-7424. Hit me up on the X platform. That is B.W. Weber. Weber with 2B. No NBA in this hour just to prove that I am receptive to your input. Coming up, we'll hit the diamond. Yankees snapped their six-game losing streak yesterday. Still, they lost the Subway Series with the Mets. What is going to jumpstart the Bronx Bombers? We'll find out when we say hello to Andy McCullough, senior writer for The Athletic. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich.

21:37Taking a quick break to tell you how Saturday's game time can get a little messy. Your crew just came over to watch. Snacks on the table, drinks in hand, and somebody celebrating like they just won the whole season and beyond. And when that energy gets going, your walls can end up taking the hit. Whether it's a big spill or a noticeable scuff, that's where Behr Ultra Interior Paint comes in. It adds an extra durable, stain-blocking finish that helps your walls hold up for the whole season. It also delivers outstanding coverage and hide in fewer coats with easy application and a smooth, even finish that goes on clean from the first pass.

22:11Plus, that easy, clean finish helps walls stay looking new longer. So before the next kickoff, give your space game-ready defense and coverage that goes the distance. Bear Ultra, only at The Home Depot. Rich Eisen here. Running a small business means every hire matters. A bad hire costs time and money, but the right one helps your business grow. The challenge? Finding that person without sorting through resumes. That's where LinkedIn Hiring Pro comes in. It screens candidates so you can focus on conversations with qualified talent. With Hiring Pro, you can hire with confidence and build the team you need.

22:45Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com. Terms and conditions apply. The greats don't shy away from change. They attack it head on with confidence, preparation, and a clear strategy. KPMG LLP and their transformation professionals work with organizations across industries using their advanced AI to help them move faster, work smarter, and adapt with purpose. Because in today's business environment, winning teams don't react to change, they shape it. Learn more at visit.kpmg.us. Look, I'm a blowhard. I use a lot of big words.

23:25Occasionally I raise my voice, but I'm a soft touch. This is all an act. You have to deal with a Marine, and he's an angry Raider fan. So when I give out the phone number, isn't that redundant, angry Raider fan? When I give out the phone number, and I can say that because I covered the Raiders while they still played at the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum. If you follow me on the X platform, B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs, that's from the Avatar 2001. That's from a Fox Network broadcast in Oakland. I believe I am holding Tony Dungy hostage. You can't see it because I cropped it up just for my lovely head of hair.

24:04Tony Dungy, very kind man. I had to hold him because, I'll take it behind the scenes, television runs everything. TV's commercial went long. They're ready to kick off. We can't go until the guy with the bright orange gloves waves thumbs up. Tony stands next to me for 30 seconds. He goes, we ever going to do this? And finally, I get the count of my year three, two. Long-winded way of saying I'm not taking shots at the silver and black. Although, ah, it's story time with Uncle B-Web here. And coming up, what happened to that PGA Tour live-golf merger? Reason I can bring it up is because Rich is going to play in beautiful South Lake Tahoe, Nevada, the American Century Golf Championship with all the celebs coming together coming up on Friday.

24:51and since I mentioned the ex-platform BWWeber, WebO2Bs, I appreciate the interaction, picking up followers along the way and a snarky good observation from Jeff M. I mentioned Bradley Beal could be available on the buyout market as soon as later today. Bradley Beal is as marketable as a Steak 'em. Hamburger Helper didn't want to play, but even I remember the days of Steak 'ems because I grew up in a frugal household. and my parents would say, no, no, it's steak. Mmm. Get it? So the picture, if you go to my X platform profile, taken in Oakland, because I was working for Fox, quote-unquote, I was just a sideline reporter and I lived in San Francisco.

25:36So the reason I was on the air was I was local and cheap. But I had appeared on a couple 49er games. Now, I covered the Raiders on Fox Sportsnet Bay Area as their beat reporter. I was in that facility three days a week for a couple years. but a few people in the parking lot saw me on the 49er game and said, hey, Niner guy, and it was getting a little contentious. And I had to remind them, I've been in this parking lot since 1993 before you moved back because I used to be the Oakland A's guy as well. And it's amazing when you say things loudly and with conviction, people get out of your way, which gets us to baseball and the grand game.

26:14As I mentioned, I'm not going through all-star snubs. It's an exhibition. But the fact that people are still passionate about who's in and who's out tells us that baseball, to a degree, is back. Now, I would love it to go back to the way it used to be, and that's another one of my podcasts, the way things used to be with B-Web, available wherever you get your podcast. I like the sports calendar to be diverse. I just opened this hour talking college football. I'm going to squeeze in golf to bash the PGA Tour coming up in 15 minutes before we get back to the NBA. And I feel good because we have a relationship with our next scheduled guest, Jonathan Von Tobel of VSIM, will join us in the next hour of the program talking about where LeBron could be going, what is the impact of moves made by the Nuggets and the Rockets.

27:09Will it matter? Can anybody bring down the young and talented Thunder? But as we think about where we are in a sporting culture, most shows, and I watched what was on today and with Wimbledon taking over, no get up. I missed the get up just to get a sense of what they think are topics. Something on Fox Sports 1 called Breakfast Ball. All they talked about was football, the entire program. Now, it helps when Mark Schlereth is the host, but I understand the business value of that. the consultants will tell you just talk football talk more football and the audience is never wrong but when I got into this industry decades ago we had a more diverse calendar and baseball was king I know it's never going to be the way it used to be and because I don't follow the sport as closely as I used to I don't want to get that granular anymore I used to cut out box scores like you You know how the term kids cut and paste is available on your phone?

28:10I did it with scissors and a glue stick because I had no life. And you had to if you took your job seriously because I needed to look up what happened the last time the Expos came to town. Yes, there was a team in Montreal. Again, I'm killing the demographic. So in terms of where we stand now, getting ready for the All-Star break coming up on Sunday with the game itself in Atlanta on Tuesday, Home Run Derby should be wildly entertaining. I'm the guy who keeps hammering away about why are we not talking more about Cal Raleigh, who is having, in terms of power, the greatest season for a catcher, not a catcher, slash DH, that we have seen since Johnny Bench in the early 1970s.

28:53Why is he not being discussed more? Well, it's baseball and he plays in Seattle. Wrong zip code. Because, unfortunately, we gravitate, from a national perspective, to the bright, shiny objects, and that's the Mets, the Yankees, the Cubs, always going to be relevant, especially when they're at the top of their division and Pete Crow Armstrong is blossoming into a superstar, and then the Dodgers, justifiably so, even with the setback against the Astros, in fine position to run it back and go back-to-back potentially as defending champs. Although the Dodgers are going to have to, I think, and Andrew Friedman follows a similar formula on a yearly basis, be active prior to the deadline again to get more arms.

29:37I don't know what's going on, but every year we talk about the Dodgers having 100 dudes available in the rotation on the bullpen because they stock up in the offseason, and then half of them get hurt. So L.A., if there is a concern, it is injuries related to the mound. That said, they have unlimited resources because the Guggenheim group will spend whatever it takes, and they have the luxury of players like Shohei Otani giving them flexibility when it comes to the luxury tax and revenue sharing by taking deferred money. But once the pitch clock was instituted a couple years ago, it changed everything.