DAZN keeps making moves; Rece Davis talks all things ‘GameDay;” Trevor Immelman dishes from Tour Championship

0:00Coming up on the pod, the golf world is in a frenzy. We'll chat with CBS's Trevor Immelman. Plus, DAZN keeps making moves. And with college football upon us, we chat with Reese Davis about all things college game day.

0:19Welcome into the SBJ Sports Media Podcast. I'm Josh Carpenter. And I'm Austin Carp, fresh off a trip to the Arctic Circle. Once again, I'm here in studio. Josh Carpenter, nowhere to be found. Yeah, I am not in the Arctic Circle, Austin. I am in Atlanta, Georgia. But, you know, I am working this week. You were off for what seemed like a month. But I am working this week, and it's good to be back with you. Well, Josh, having gone to school in Atlanta for four years, I totally understand the August weather you are dealing with. It is a swamp down there. So good luck. I'm sure you're going to lose some weight down there They're doing a couple laps around the course there at Eastlake.

0:54For sure. But we have a big show for us this week. That includes CBS's Trevor Immelman and ESPN's Reece Davis. So stick around for both of those conversations. But we begin with three things you need to be keeping your eye on in sports media. Yeah, Austin, I guess let's start with the NBA, with their broadcast hub, with DAZN. You know, we've seen reporting from Tom Prenderava. It seems like YouTube is the leader in the clubhouse at this point for that NBA regional broadcast stuff. But is DAZN a company? We've seen them with more acquisitions lately. Are they a company or a property that we should keep an eye on in terms of that broadcast stuff?

1:31Could they be a fallback option if YouTube doesn't work out? I don't even know if it's a fallback option, but probably best take a step back here real quick. This goes back to when DAZN struck that deal with Yes Network and MSG to get some of those rights there from New York teams. That was all part of them like, hey, we're also going to go after the local rights for a lot of those teams that fell off of the FanDuel Sports Networks, your Pacers and such. And there'll be some other deals announced here shortly, but Pacers, another one that Tom reported on. You know, I've been hearing YouTube for a while, even before Tom's reporting, that they were going to likely be in the mix for this hub that the NBA wants to do.

2:08YouTube, they've shown what they can do on YouTube TV with the NFL out of market package. This would be something a little different. But YouTube still wants to be in sports. Just because they didn't strike that NFL deal doesn't mean they're going away from sports in terms of getting live games. They still want to be there. They still have some very seasoned executives there that want to make YouTube be part of that ecosystem. They want, I guess, the brand lift that comes with live sports. So pay attention to what they're doing there. But the zone, they've really been active here. They're obviously spending a lot of money to scoop up, yes, a lot of these local rights for these NBA teams or NHL teams.

2:41A lot of those are short-term deals, though. We know they're one-year deals, a lot of them, most of them, because these teams, they want to see what the league is going to be doing at the national level with that hub you are talking about for local games. If it's not YouTube, the NBA, yeah, they want to see what DAZN can do. Let's see how the latency goes this summer. Let's see if people actually find DAZN. Like that has been DAZN's biggest issue is really finding a foothold in the United States. And can they do that now? Right. And they've been looking to find that foothold. We saw their acquisition of ViewLift.

3:13You know, they made the acquisition of ViewLift earlier this year. I think it was in the spring. And we kind of said, hey, this could be a precursor to them gaining a 4-8 foothold in the U.S. And since then, you've had a few more. I mean, just ViewLift just this week, DAZN acquiring ViewLift for some streaming options. Walk us through that, how that kind of folds into DAZN's overall strategy here in the States. Yeah, the ViewLift acquisition by DAZN is huge because you saw ViewLift was doing that back-end architecture on streaming for so many of these teams across the landscape on the local side.

3:46This week we saw that deal with Monumental Sports, which is not getting rid of the Monumental Plus app, but it's going to make the Monumental Plus service available as a channel on DAZN. So DAZN really getting creative in how they're going to be offering and supporting these teams, offering them a lot of options on how they can do business with these places. I think you're going to see more and more teams here in the coming weeks offer that sort of channel as a service on DAZN. We've already seen teams like our networks like Chicago Sports Network. They did something similar with Amazon Prime Video.

4:19So you can guess Chicago Sports Network as a separate channel, almost like you can get HBO or one of these other streaming services within the Prime Video ecosystem. You can now do that with some of these regional sports networks or whatever you want to do, teams offerings, their local regional options. But I like the creativity that DAZN is doing. Let's see if DAZN can actually deliver in terms of audience size. That's what I'm worried about here, people finding it. But it looks like some teams are comfortable. You saw the Predators. They were with ViewLift. That's now going to be in that DAZN ecosystem.

4:51They have a deal there for a lot of that streaming. Let's remember what this looks like for these teams. The bulk of these local games, yeah, they'll be streamed, but most of these teams are going to have significant packages of over the air in front of a paywall, and DAZN is just there to kind of, we'll call it, support that. Speaking of streaming services, a couple of more notable ones, ESPN Limited, Peacock, they have increased the price of those services just ahead of football season. What's the latest there? Yeah, I mean, we saw, again, ESPN Unlimited were kind of just past the year anniversary of ESPN going D to C.

5:24Now, you know, the ESPN Unlimited pricing only going up$2 a year. We're going up to$31.99 a year. Not that big of an increase. But then Peacock, the other big one that everyone's talking about, kind of a range of price increases across Peacock. I mean, we've seen Peacock struggles in the market in terms of losses. and yeah it's certainly you know fascinating to see these increases I mean in my own household I watch a lot of golf on Peacock I'll watch a standalone sporting event on Peacock here and there but like listen I got a text from my wife saying hey Peacock just went up to$16.99 a month I mean when we first signed up Peacock it was like seven or eight dollars a month and so now you're talking about$17 a month she said we got to cancel it you don't watch it enough so I'm curious to see how many others there are like that that just feel like hey Peacock's not bringing enough value uh in terms of espn i don't know are you okay paying you know 320 dollars or i guess it'd be more closer to 400 a year uh for espn unlimited that doesn't seem too like outlandish for me at least um if you want just all that espn product but uh you know we see this all the time right these little little nips and tucks that don't seem like big increases but then you look up you know a few years down the road and hey you're paying 20 more a month for these streamers than you were when you signed up.

6:45It's tough. It's tough to keep all that up because the fragmented nature of the sports world and that you need six different streaming services if you want to actually keep up with everything. So it's something I'll be watching. I know you'll be watching. Yeah, Josh, it's kind of like death by a thousand paper cuts every single, especially at the start of football season, because they know that people can't say no. These annual increases for these streaming services. And it was already, we've talked for years now about getting more and more expensive and i think there will eventually be a threshold where people just you know stop paying for all of these but for peacock for me in particular i haven't been on since the world cup when i was going on to peacock to watch telemundo stream on there so haven't really been a lot of sports for me i know that's starting up now you have college football you'll have some of the you have the wild card ground for the baseball playoffs some of those games will be on there obviously they have premier league and some other options but i just haven't been on there since.

7:35I'm a VMVPD guy. I have YouTube TV. It's a lot of the stuff that is on Peacock as part of these new carriage deals, that's getting ingested into these services like YouTube TV. So I'm able to get some of it there. I don't know if I necessarily need to keep subscribing to Peacock in that manner if I'm going to have YouTube TV. But if I'm on Cord, never, then yeah, you kind of got, if you want the content that they have and you don't have YouTube TV, you need Peacock and you need ESPN Unlimited. But we know that, you know, based on these Nielsen gauge numbers, ESPN Unlimited, that kind of gets wrapped up into the Disney Plus ecosystem that probably has a good bulk of people watching.

8:11But Peacock is still not there in terms of people that are watching that service individually. And what really struck me this week was I had reported on that NWSL deal with Roku Channel. I think Roku Channel, it still is underreported how distributed this streaming service is. It's like number five overall in terms of what u.s you know people are streaming on you got like youtube obviously leading by leaps and bounds netflix that disney bundle i was talking about prime video and there's roku channel okay it's bigger than paramount plus it's bigger than peacock it has much more distribution and even something like tubi but sports really it was interesting because sports hasn't necessarily worked very well on roku so far we saw them get out of an mlb deal year early they've had some Formula E that really hasn't really grabbed fans in.

9:01And the NWSL, yes, I know this is like the fifth of their media deals. It was just kind of to replace Victory Plus there. But I'm surprised that Roku hasn't done a little better on the sports side. Maybe when it comes into the Fox family sometime in, you know, 2027, they will develop that a little more. Maybe it combines with Tubi. So I am keeping my eye on Roku channel as a service there because it's free. Austin, we talked a lot about ESPN. If you have that ESPN unlimited plan, guess what? You're going to be getting a lot of Pat McAfee. You already got a lot of Pat McAfee if you've been watching ESPN.

9:36He has a daily show. He's been involved in College Game Day now for a couple years. But now he's also going to be joining in Monday Night Football Allcast. He's going to be on Monday Night Countdown. And my big takeaway for McAfee, I've always been a McAfee fan. I think he's very good. I think he's engaging. I think he's funny. I think he connects with, you know, some of the younger audience that ESPN is looking for. I mean, they have a young audience, let's be real. But I think he just connects a little bit more with some of those maybe casual people who might not be watching ESPN. Now they are.

10:08But I sort of wonder, like, is there a Pat McAfee bubble? Like how much Pat McAfee is too much Pat McAfee? And I think ESPN needs to be careful. you don't want to go too far and start pissing people off and upsetting people by just shoving this guy down down everyone's throats and that seems like the direction they're going i mean austin what how do you feel about mackabee like is it is it getting to be too much i don't think we've gotten to the point where it feels like espn is like shoving him down my throat yet he is in a lot of places i feel like they are well the show's in the afternoon and i think you know you and i we have it on at work so maybe we see it a little more often than a lot of people there I think he's great on game day.

10:49I think he has helped kind of freshen that show up. The numbers support that. They're having record numbers, back-to-back seasons. He has brought a new audience into that show, so I love him on college football. It brings a great energy. And we've seen, you talk about a Monday Night Football altcast. Well, the numbers support that. That's why ESPN wants to do that. The altcasts that Pat McAfee has done, whether it's for a college football playoff game, he's done some stuff even on the basketball side, people have tuned into those. And those are some of the most watched alt casts that ESPN is able to deliver.

11:21So, of course, they want to experiment. But we've already seen ESPN kind of do a little bit of overexposure with Jason Kelsey. He immediately came out of the gate and he was doing 900 things. And people are like, oh, my God, this is the Kevin Hart of sports. Like, I just can't escape him. Like, just everywhere too much, too much content from Jason Kelsey. And they dialed that back. So I think they are cognizant of that. But Pat McAfee, they're going to be paying him a lot of money. He's got to earn that. I know a lot of that paycheck that he gets, that reported$70-plus million or$65 million, whatever it is, a lot of that goes to pay his show's staff.

11:54He has to pay the production costs out of that, and he has almost a separate part of that deal for his role as an ESPN talent on game day or what would be involved with Monday Night Countdown or Monday Night Football Allcast or what have you. But younger people in particular, like you said, that younger male demographic seem to want to watch what he is delivering. But I do think they need to be careful in that in terms of overexposure. I don't think we are there yet, though. All right. Well, speaking of Pat McAfee, one man that's going to be working with Pat, you know, has worked with him a lot and is going to be working for him a lot with him.

12:26It feels like maybe he is working for Pat McAfee at this point. But Reese Davis, the host of College Game Day, you know, we've got week zero and college football. It's here, right? It's this weekend. Austin, you caught up with Reese Davis to talk about the evolution of College Game Day, his work with Pat McAfee, and more. Well, Week Zero is upon us this weekend. We even have some big brands, including USC. We've got a non-conference matchup between some ACC rivals in NC State and Virginia, as well as TCU versus the fighting Jordan Hudsons in Ireland. But while Game Day isn't going to be in Dublin to start the season, That's a win for us as we have the show's host, Rhys Davis, as our guest this week.

13:10Rhys, welcome into the SBJ Sports Media Podcast. Awesome. Glad to be with you, man. Thanks for having me. All right. A dozen years now as host of Game Day. What fires you up heading into the season? Man, I just look forward to feeling the energy, getting out on campus, seeing the crowds, because I've said a lot of times, I like all sports, but I love two of them, and I particularly love college football. So it feels like the start of – it feels like Christmas morning for little kids. It's just something you anticipate. We spend all of this offseason thinking about it and looking forward to matchups and games and what are the storylines going to be like and what's it going to be like when Kiffin goes back to Oxford and all of that stuff.

13:55And then it unfolds in ways you could not have imagined. So I'm really looking forward to getting things started. All right, I'm going to put you in the DeLorean for a minute, go back in time. Your first day on the set for College Game Day, what do you remember most about that? I remember my family was with me in Fort Worth. I remember that it was, you know, it was a day of transition. It was one in which I sort of chuckled to myself, and maybe this is a little bit of ego coming through, but people were like, oh, how are you going to handle it? And I'm like, you do realize I've worked at this network for 20 years.

14:31You know, and I've been on TV for longer than that. So my running joke was I was an overnight sensation 20 years in the making. And sensation might be overstating it. But, you know, I think the thing I remember was the great care that people around took trying to find the right balance between paying the respect to Chris, which he earned and deserved, and to give Chris his sendoff moment, which he earned and deserved, while also not you know, that sort of pushing me to the side or making sure that I realized that they were appreciative that I was in the chair now and knew that I loved the sport too and had been in the studio, you know, for 16, 17 years covering college football.

15:16So I've been in it pretty deep. But I mean, I think that's the thing that and celebrating that with my family there in Fort Worth, you know, probably a little hint of irony or whatever that my alma mater was actually playing in the game, though it was a neutral site game. So there were a lot of things that were that that made it feel special. And you realize how how important it was to do the very best job you possibly can in that role, because the show is so important to so many people. And that's something that we take seriously. Even now we know we know what the show means to people and we are deeply appreciative of it.

15:55And we want to deliver on that expectation for them every every single Saturday. So game day doesn't always go to the best rankings matchup, but more so where the best storytelling opportunities may be. How are some of those conversations executed between you and all your producers and everybody at ESPN? Yeah, I mean, that's the one thing I think that people don't understand, and obviously you do, is that it is a collaborative effort. Now, at the end of the day, obviously someone has to make a call. And if, you know, if we have an executive that feels strongly about something from a business standpoint and it's a tie, maybe they're going to break the tie.

16:31But I can't even recall a specific instance in which that's been the case. You know, they always listen to us, which I really, really am thankful for. And, you know, the conversations may go that most of most weeks, it's pretty obvious, but there are weeks where you sort of forecast down the road. Now you can get in trouble doing this, but you can look and say, look, okay, if we go to Tennessee, three weeks from now, we might really want to be in Tennessee. So it's okay to go someplace twice. We've done it a lot of times, but is that, is that how we want to play this? And you can certainly get burned by it.

17:10The game that you think three weeks from now is going to be huge all of a sudden isn't, and then it leaves you with a different set of, you know, different set of options. But basically what happens is, you know, the conversation will start usually almost as soon as the show is over, depending on what might happen on that particular Saturday. How are we feeling about this? Is this what everybody feels like, the place we should be next week? What if we had to make a choice between A and B? You know, and people weigh in. Sometimes people disagree. I think it's okay to say last year, rather than Alabama for Vanderbilt, Alabama, I thought we should have gone to Tallahassee.

17:49Uh, but as it turns out, um, everybody's opinion was heard and ultimately the decision was made to go to Tuscaloosa. And that was a, that was a great story too. Diego Pavia coming back there and everything. It was, it was that I thought something else in this particular case, the way I looked at it, you know, most people didn't and it was okay. So I think that's the important thing is that everybody's viewpoint is considered. And then ultimately we make the decision best for the show and go out and try to put together the greatest show we can. Well, Reese, you brought up Tennessee. I'm hoping that my Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets throw a wrench in your plans for going to Knoxville in week two.

18:29I'm hoping we knock them off down in the flats. I tell you, you've got, not only do you have a great coach there, tough guy who is, you know, who is really rebuilding Georgia Tech into a power. You've got a guy who, when playing pick up touch football, if you need a conversion on third and medium, he's going to get open and create space. When Brent was an assistant coach at UCF way back when I was calling Thursday night games with David Pollock and Jesse Palmer, we used to go, you know, because Jesse was an NFL quarterback, we'd go and have what we called spin sessions. And Jesse would throw the ball around and David would be the great athlete he is.

19:12And a few others would go out there and, you know, look awful and try to catch balls and stuff. And every now and then a touch football game would break out, and it did against the UCF managers one day. And Brent came out there basically with some other coaches, like, what are you doing? And we divided up, and he ended up being on our side. And he caught a big third down pass before I just threw one to the back of the end zone later to win the game, and Pollock went all OBJ in the back and caught it. But I say Brent is dependable as a third down receiver in touch football and a lot more than dependable as a terrific head coach at Georgia Tech.

19:49Well, who is the best athlete, by the way? You're talking touch football. Who's the best athlete on the game day set? Oh, I mean, all due respect to all of that, I mean, it probably comes down to Pat and Desmond, right? I mean, that's the thing, man. Pat's an exceptional athlete. Desmond's obviously an exceptional athlete. It would come down to them, followed by Kirk. uh nick nick used to be a great athlete still a great golfer great hand eye uh i'm i'm bringing up the rear probably behind uh a dozen or so of our camera operators uh probably some freelance guys you know i'm way down the list down there but uh i i would i mean kirk's probably going to get mad if he hears this but i would i would just have to uh i'd have to bring it down between Pat and Desmond.

20:40Reese, I want to stick with Pat McIntyre for a second. What's it like having him on set and what has he brought to the show? A tremendous amount of energy, an ability to connect with a live audience unlike anything I've seen in my television career, and just an extraordinary feel for what the show needs at what moment, which is something because we're not a scripted show. We're an organized show. We're a planned show, but we're not scripted. So there's a lot of room for capturing moments. And I don't know that I've ever been around anybody who captures a moment better than he does. So I think that he has opened college football up for a new audience, an audience that he had built himself through his work and through his business building.

21:37and he's drawn in a lot of people that way and he's really connected with the college football crowd. I give this example quite often. My wife has an aunt who just turned 90 years old. She's a sports fan, big sports fan. But she wasn't familiar with Pat because she was a college football fan primarily and when he joined the show, she wasn't familiar with him at all. Now I joke with her that I think that she likes him better than she likes me. So, you know, he's connected with our audience on a variety of levels, not just people who were loyal fans of his and part of his show, but also with people who probably knew he was a great player.

22:25You know, maybe knew of him from the Colts or West Virginia and knew of that, but weren't really familiar with who he was. he's connected with those people too. And I think it's been, it's been great for the show because one of the strengths of this show historically is I think that we've allowed the audience to get to know us and they feel like they do. Hopefully they do. I want them to feel that way. I hope they do. And I think that, I think that Pat's ability to connect with people has been extraordinarily beneficial for the growth of College Game Day. Game Day approaching its 500th episode on the road.

23:02How will the show have to continue to evolve to keep it culturally relevant enough to reach its next milestone? It's a great question. I think the best thing that's happened to game day over the years is that this has happened organically with the people who don't lose touch with the audience, who continue to let their passion and love for the sport shine through. because, you know, I think that's what people gravitate to. If they see that you really care and they see that you love something, then they can appreciate that because they do too. For the most part, the people that watch our show every week really have a deep connection with college football.

23:48And as long as we keep that at the very front of what we do, that our connection to the sport, the love of the sport, all of the things that are wrong with the sport, we suspend disbelief on Saturday because we want to enjoy the games and enjoy the pageantry and the tradition and root for our teams and watch the storylines and root against our rivals and snicker at our buddies who root for the other team when their team has something catastrophic happen and they lose a game on the field, catastrophic meaning within the context of a game. You know, all of those things that really give college football depth and flavor.

24:31As long as we continue to capture those, stay fresh in the way we present our stories, be honest, you know, with our audience, never take a position for the sake of taking a position. And in my 12 years on game day and really my entire career in the studio before then, I've never had an analyst do this. I'll say this and you say that. That just hasn't happened. And I've been fortunate in that regard, perhaps, that my guys historically just aren't built that way. As long as we continue to do that, I think game day can stay relevant for, not only relevant, but at the forefront for a really, really long time.

25:12Probably long after I've handed off the torch, which hopefully will be quite a number of years down the road. A couple of quick hitters here to wrap things up, Reese. The CFP, what's the magic number? What should we have? I'm good with 12, to be honest with you right now, no more than 16. I've upset some people by saying 24 is patently absurd. I think it is. Not that we wouldn't enjoy the games. If we had that many, we would. I would. But I think the cost is way too big to the regular season. And 12 is a really good number right now. Transparency in how the teams are selected. Do you want to go to a formula?

25:50Do you want to maintain the committee? all of those things can be debated. I like 12. I could see 16 if they did two rounds on campus rather than just one. 16 with two rounds on campus, I think would be acceptable. Anything larger than that is too much too soon. The game day bus after a show, you guys are watching a lot of football. How are those conversations in the bus? It's a bunch of, it's like fans and your buddies watching games. I mean, people are watching it. We're ragging on each other. If they're, you know, if there are predictions or whatever is that, Oh, you know, uh, your, uh, your, your, your Iowa Hawkeyes, they're in trouble, you know, Oh, Oh, what happened to Kentucky there, Kirk, you know, stuff like that.

26:35Cause we teased Kirk for years because of, uh, you know, his, his affinity for Kentucky on a certain level said, Oh, you love to pick them in the upset. Oh, wildcats down 14. That's okay. Kirk, you got them. You got them right where you want them, you know, stuff like that. So it's, it's stuff like that. It's just like what you would expect with a bunch of friends doing something that they, that they really enjoy. All right. I'm going to give you Jimmy Pataro's job for a day. You have to pick one event to bring over to ESPN. Is it the FIFA World Cup or NCAA men's basketball tournament? Ooh, that's a tough one.

27:11Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to stay true to my roots and say the tournament because it's annual. And while FIFA, while the World Cup is amazing and the ratings are off the chart, it's not an annual event. And you can depend on the NCAA tournament annually. And with ESPN's history of having the NCAA tournament, at least parts of it in the early days, you know, when every game wasn't televised, you know, a few tournaments and tournament games and tape delayed tournament games. I'll say we go back to our roots. So if Jimmy wants to seed his seat for the day, I will dive in there and try to bring the men's basketball tournament back to ESPN.

27:54All right, Jimmy, you heard it here. Do I get a day's worth of – I don't really know his contract deal, but do I get a day's worth of stock options? You're going to get jet access, everything that Jimmy's got. I get everything? That's good. Okay, I'm in. Let's do that. All right, we'll get you out of here on this. Your son, Chris, played college baseball at Princeton and Duke. What would his NIL value have been? It would have been pretty good, I think. I mean, he was a three-year captain, two-year captain at Princeton, one-year captain at Duke because he ended up with two years at Duke there. I'm not sure what, but he jokes that he was born – I want to make sure I get this right.

28:37He was born too late for the 40-round draft and too early for NIL. So he hit right in the middle in there. I'll tell you what, though. You come out of it, and I'll brag just for a moment. You come out of it with a Princeton undergrad degree, a master's, and an MBA from Duke. And that's pretty good NIL that he crafted for himself on the baseball dime. And he's still playing independent ball. So we're still going at it. Those are some pretty impressive diplomas for the wall, for sure. You can keep those up for a long time. That's some good hardware there. Yeah. Well, Rhys Davis, the longtime now host of ESPN's College Game Day.

29:18We're going to see a ton of you this fall. We're also going to apparently going to see you during the U.S. Open. Going to be checking you out there. Really appreciate you coming on the SBJ Sports Media Podcast. Thanks for having me. You guys have a great day, and thanks for all the great work you do. I appreciate it very much. Always appreciate hearing from Rhys Davis. Josh, before we get to your conversation with CBS's Trevor Immelman, we should discuss the most talked about thing going on in golf this week, and that's good, good golf. Yeah, it's been pretty surprising, Austin. You know, I'm at the Tour Championship here in Atlanta, and the PGA Tour has announced a ton of really big new things this week, a new Tour Championship format.

29:55They've been rolling out their new PGA Tour structure over the last couple months. But the biggest story, the most talked about story this week that I've heard about is around Good Good Golf. I mean, we all saw kind of the fallout around that ad they did with Callaway, you know, late last week where there's a, you know, the ad includes one of the good, good influencers shoving a girl to the ground. We've seen all the fallout from that story, and it was really just a golf. It was a marketing story, a sponsorship story. But later in the week, it really transitioned into a media story because Good Good and, you know, Golf Channel have kind of collaborated on the return of the show, The Big Break.

30:35This is a show that was very popular on Golf Channel for many years and was slated to return on Tuesday night after a 15-year hiatus. And what happens? Late Tuesday, we get an email from Golf Channel saying, hey, we're postponing the return of this show because Golf Galaxy, which is the presenting sponsor of this show, has said, hey, we don't want to be involved with Good Good anymore. And so basically, Golf Channel had to go back and scrub all references from the big break from the show. So it's really been a pretty fascinating turn for Good Good Golf. I mean, I just profiled Good Good two weeks ago for SBJ.

31:11I talked to their CEO, Matt Kendrick, and he told me, he said, hey, we want to become the biggest company in golf. Pretty high aspirations. And then so to see Good Good turn around two weeks later and their product is being pulled from Dick's Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy stores and Golf Channel is here postponing an entire show because of their association with the brand. Pretty stunning to see, really, for an up-and-coming brand at golf. Well, Josh, a lot going on in the world of golf, that is for sure. Speaking of that, time for your conversation with a man that we will see all over our TV screens this weekend as the Tour Championship that's going to be on CBS.

31:49So let's get to your chat with lead golf analyst Trevor Immelman. All right, thanks a lot, Austin. As we mentioned earlier, I'm down in Atlanta at the Tour Championship. So it's time to talk some golf. And joining me now, the 2008 Masters champion, Trevor Emmelman, a man who's been the lead golf analyst for CBS Sports since 2023. Trevor Emmelman, welcome to the SPJ Sports Media Podcast. It's great to have you. Hey, Josh, it's great to join you, man. Thanks for having me on. I kind of want to jump into your media role to start. You've been, like I said, in the CBS role for three years now. You've really been doing golf on TV for almost a decade now.

32:30At this point, I think you started back in maybe 2017. You did some work for TNT, some Golf Channel stuff. Do you still get nervous, Trevor? Like, what's your comfort level like? And I know it's different when you started at TNT versus now where you're the lead guy, you know, Sunday at Augusta at some of the bigger events in golf. Yeah, sure. I definitely still get nervous. There's no doubt about it. I think one of the reasons that I love it so much, Josh, is I get a very similar feeling as we're about to go on air on Saturdays and Sundays and what I did when I was on the first tee when I was playing.

33:04And so that same kind of nervousness and excitement and maybe even a little anxiety thrown in there, all those feelings are the same. And so that's one of the reasons why I enjoy it so much, because it feels like it's been such a lovely landing spot for me after 20 years playing professional golf to still be able to get those competitive juices going, those creative juices going right before we go on air. That's one of the parts of it that I really love. But yeah, absolutely. You know, we come on at 3 Eastern every Saturday and Sunday. You know, 2.45, once Golf Channel goes off there, we go into our positions in the booth.

33:48And it's a pretty hair-raising 15 minutes as we're about to come on. And I love every second of it. You're one of the more, I would say, online golf analysts, television analysts that I know. I mean, it seems like you're consuming all the golf podcasts that I consume. and you're reading the newsletters and you're on social media, kind of keep a tap-top thing. And so I'm sure that's a pretty big help when the light actually comes on. Yeah, for sure. I mean, early in the week, you know, I'll spend a little bit of time on social media, just keeping up with pieces that are taking place. Guys like yourself, what you guys are reporting, the news of that week, will absolutely catch some podcasts early on in the week.

34:33Keeping up from that aspect as well. And then generally on Thursdays, I will watch the broadcast from home. So I'll watch the first round from home. And then I like to travel first thing Friday morning. Get to the golf course at about 10 a.m. on Friday. Have a meeting with Sela Shai, our lead producer. Make sure that him and I are on the same page. I know exactly what he expects from me. He knows some of the ideas that I may be bringing in for that week. And then I'll go and take a quick tour around the golf course and then head back to the hotel, watch Friday's broadcast at the hotel. And then there's about a couple hours more prep after that.

35:15I like to prepare for the final 20 on the leaderboard going into Saturday. And so I'll have notes on all of those 20, excuse me, and some nuggets on each, some things that I would like to bring up about each player. and so that's what really calms my mind from a preparation standpoint because as you know you know with live sports you just never quite know what's going to happen so you try and get all your tucks in a row but then we may come on the air and scotty sheffler makes a hole in one or somebody uh pulls out a second shot or something like that or birdies five holes in a row and all of a sudden we dive right to that moment to try and get the viewer caught up so you never quite know what's going to happen to me that's one of the beauties of it is uh that that real live nature of not not exactly knowing what's coming next but you know i just feel like if i've got all my my notes right in front of me there i'll be able to to adjust with whatever's happening of course what about your level of uh you know something that golf fans watch a lot and from from lead announcer or lead analysts is how critical they are of kind of what they're seeing.

36:29Like, I remember the Canadian Open in 2025, the Sam Burns and Ryan Fox playoff. You described it as a pillow fight, I think. You know, so like, but there's been, there's some apprehension by some announcers to really be critical, but it seems like you're not really afraid to do that. So like, was there a point in time for your first year in the lead chair where you kind of hesitant about doing that? Or like, where was the line that was crossed that you said, hey, I feel comfortable doing this? you know i i think i knew immediately once i started being in this role that there's absolutely going to be moments to where you need to give your opinion and it needs to be authentic and it needs to be honest you know when i watch sports on tv one of the things that bugs me is when i can see something as a fan and the announcer doesn't address it and so that's something that's always like on top of my mind is if there's something that's that's obvious out there that you need to speak up about then you need to go ahead and do that because that's what the fans expect from you uh you know that is our priority in in these roles and in this business is people are taking out two three hours of their time on a saturday or a sunday to tune into cbs to watch sport that they love and so you've got to find that that sweet spot there between entertainment and you know telling the truth giving an opinion maybe making everybody chuckle here or there and so those are really the things that that I focus on the hows and whys of what's going on out on the golf course but yeah if you're going to be a lead analyst you've got to be you've got to be willing to uh to pick a side of the fence we can't just straddle it the whole time tell me about your relationship with nance obviously he's been you know sitting in that chair for what almost 40 years now yeah um but i think you guys have really developed a good chemistry um what's the what's the relationship been like with them in terms of his mentorship but like have you gone to other sporting events that he's called to learn from him or you know Like, what's that process been like?

38:39Yeah, actually, this is his 40-year anniversary being with CBS, which is just remarkable. I mean, what a legend. Somebody that I have a ton of respect for and a ton of love for. You know, knew him while I was playing. But, you know, like you say, in the last four years, really, really gotten to spend a lot of time with him and get to know him and his family and understand what makes him tick, things that he enjoyed. it is and it's been a blast he is just one of the nicest human beings that i've ever spent time around super smart great sense of humor has tons of time for everybody around him you know when we go out to dinners or walking around golf course you know the amount of people that come up to him who love the work that he does in golf or march madness or nfl over the years calling superbowls afc championships whatever it may be a lot of people like to come up to him and talk to him and he just always is so gracious so friendly and uh he's just a remarkable person i i find um find myself to be extremely fortunate to get to spend as much time with him as i do and uh you know i'm happy to call him a close friend now we spent a ton of time together working together traveling together over the last few years and uh and really getting to know each other so it's been great yeah i like to go out uh once a year to catch an nfl game with them and go and hang with the crew for the weekend there's a lot of crossover between uh the golf crew and the nfl crew and so a lot of familiar faces for me as i've gotten to everybody in the compound and all the producers and directors and BAs and everybody involved.

40:31So it's kind of fun, you know, after a few months of being away from golf on CBS to be able to head on the road to an NFL game and catch up with everybody again. Trevor, I want to talk about some of the stuff that came down this week from the tour, kind of this new format around the tour championship. And you're in a bit of a unique spot at CBS's and that CBS will carry that initial tour championship played over multiple weeks what's your in turn from a from a broadcaster perspective what's your first bit of feedback kind of around the new format what we can expect in a couple years i like the change i actually like the boldness of it i like the fact that the tour has gone ahead and collaborated with a bunch of different people whether it be sponsors broadcast partners players fans try and figure out exactly what could work for that final season ending tournament um and uh you know so for me to crown a a season-long champion at the finale and then go to tour championship and do something completely different in in like a match play group stage to try and whittle it down to that final 16 i gotta applaud everybody involved for uh coming up with something a little bit different like that the fact that it spans over two weeks is kind of interesting.

41:52And for us at CBS, we're pretty excited to be able to carry that first iteration and see how all of that unfolds. Yeah, Brian Rolaps talked about involving those sponsors and players and media partners as well. David Burson was in the room earlier this week as this got rolled out. In terms of, I'm curious, on the media partner side, have you been involved in any of those discussions or was it more at the David Burson level or or also on top of that what's your relationship like with Brian Rolaf have you given him feedback on what you want to see from the tour what how's that played out for you so the first thing I'd say is you know one of the many reasons I love my job is is because of David Burson he is a tremendous leader for us at CBS Sports.

42:39He's dynamic. He's got great energy. And, you know, maybe most importantly, the guy just flat out loves golf and he loves sports. And so, you know, right off the bat, when I first got to know him, that shone through. And so it's very easy to follow his leadership. I know that he's had a long relationship with Brian from NFL days and now into uh brian's pga tour career and so they've got a close relationship and so you know we've been um up to date with some of the things that they're thinking about and i'm very thankful that david's been a huge part of that for me yeah i've probably had a half dozen meetings with brian over over various different times for different reasons enjoyed getting to know him i think he's incredibly smart i think he's bold and one of the things that's really struck me about him is what a great listener he is he uh he definitely takes the time to get everybody's opinion on a subject asks very smart follow-up questions to try and understand how you've come to that point of view.

43:56And so I'm extremely excited for what the future of the PGA Tour holds. The 2008 Masters champion, the lead analyst for CBS Sports, their golf coverage. Trevor, really appreciate the time on the SBJ Sports Media Podcast, and we look forward to talking again to you soon. It's great to join you, Josh. Thanks for everything you should do for our sport. Well, that does it for this week's SBJ Sports Media Podcast. thanks again to our guests ESPN's Reese Davis and CBS's Trevor Immelman and as always thank you to our production team of Chris Mason Reginald Walker and AC Wyatt finally thank you for listening please make sure to like and subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts for Josh Carpenter I'm Austin Carr make good choices out there and we will talk to you all again next week