Episode 41 - Andy Staples

Summary

Interrupted by Matt Jones — Episode 41: Andy Staples

Date: June 11, 2026
Host: Matt Jones
Guest: Andy Staples (On3 Sports, Andy & Ari Podcast, former Sports Illustrated & The Athletic)

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Episode Overview

Matt Jones welcomes college sports writer and podcast host Andy Staples for an in-depth discussion on the state of college athletics in 2026. They dive into the current chaos surrounding NCAA regulations, congressional involvement, the impact of NIL (Name, Image, Likeness), media rights, conference power dynamics, and the new economic landscape of college sports—including Kentucky’s prospects. The conversation blends policy, economics, game-day excitement, and the future direction of both football and basketball, reflecting on how schools and athletic departments must now navigate a radically different collegiate world.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Is College Sports “Unfixable”? (03:00–04:00)

• Jones asks Staples if college athletics are truly the mess media narratives claim.
• Staples: "Oh, it's not unfixable. Anything that someone's willing to pay billions of dollars to televise is fixable. It's just a matter of figuring out how best to administrate it." (03:04)

2. Congressional Involvement & NCAA Wishful Thinking (04:00–05:10)

• Staples: NCAA wants Congress to grant them special antitrust exemptions, basically the right to continue “price-fixing the labor market in college sports” (03:26).
• Cites recent failed attempts by the NCAA/SEC/Big Ten to get favorable federal legislation—shows they're learning lobbying in DC doesn't always grant results:
  "They spend all this money lobbying, [but] we don't always get exactly what we want." (03:56)

3. Sports Broadcasting Act & Media Rights Economics (05:14–10:00)

• Detailed breakdown of how college football TV rights could be pooled to raise revenue.
• Staples: "All of the schools, if they sold college football as one, would make more money than they do now ... because they could charge more when you’re the single seller…like the NFL does." (06:39)
• Discussion on power dynamics—why SEC & Big Ten resist pooling: it’s about preserving their current revenue and power gap (08:12–10:12).

4. Missed Opportunities in Labor Relations (12:00–14:40)

• Staples: If he could take a time machine, he’d advise college leaders to have allowed player unionization back in 2015:
  "You’re going to wish you’d let these people do this ... let's make them employees. Let's pay them... for like 10% of the revenue." (12:21–12:38)
• Points out the inevitable rise of employee status and collective bargaining: “They're going to have to do that. Eventually, they're going to have to make them employees.” (12:53)

5. Players Unions: Weak or Strong? (15:38–17:22)

• Reflection on whether a college players' union would have meaningful negotiating power—most college athletes won’t make big money, so union strength could be diluted.
• Staples: “You can't collectively bargain with all college athletes. That's not even an option. You need to split it up by sport, and you probably need to split it up by conference.” (16:42)
• State law quirks (e.g., South Carolina) add complex layers to organizing.

6. Senator Loyalties & Political Complexity (18:00–21:00)

• Not all lawmakers’ allegiances align with the biggest college powers—e.g., Ted Cruz aligned with Texas Tech, Maria Cantwell tied to Washington State.
• Staples: "All politics are local ... if you don't take care of your Baylor people and your SMU people and your TCU people and your Texas Tech people, you got problems because they got a lot of money." (19:38–19:53)

7. Impact of NIL: Parity & New Hope (23:57–26:07)

• Jones: "NIL has made football and basketball better ... you tell me if you agree or disagree."
• Staples: "100%. The same four teams can't win anymore ... Texas Tech is buying a roster ... Indiana just won the national title in football."
• Mid-level programs now believe they can compete. Kentucky’s new football coach, Will Stein, cited as an example of properly leveraging NIL/transfer portal to improve instantly (25:22–26:07).

8. Sustainability of NIL Spending & Market Realities (28:03–29:43)

• Discussion of “booster fatigue” and if donors will just keep spending.
• Staples: “Markets always find their level ... eventually you're going to run up against the thing every business in America runs up against—because I'm about to run out of money.” (28:19–28:38)
• The best spenders, not the biggest, will thrive—underscored with Indiana’s football success as a lower-budget, high-efficiency program.

9. Alabama, Texas Tech, and the Future of Power Schools (30:31–33:13)

• Alabama’s slight NIL “fall behind”—simply fewer mega-donors versus Texas or Texas Tech.
• Staples: "Before, if you had a great network of Cadillac dealers... you could do pretty well. ... Now you just don’t have a Cody Campbell [Texas Tech booster] for Alabama." (32:04–32:13)
• Texas, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Georgia, Tennessee “will hit the upper limit later.”

10. What’s Possible for Kentucky Football? (33:29–34:25)

• Staples: “If you'd have told me three years ago Indiana would win a national title in football, I would not have believed you ... Kentucky, you can do that.” (33:48–34:25)
• Suggests with the right hire and resources, Kentucky can break through.

11. “Sleeping Giants” & Schools to Watch (34:41–36:19)

• Traditional “sleeping giants”: North Carolina and Arizona State.
• Texas Tech cited as an “in-progress” giant due to huge booster investments.
• Also notes how schools like Clemson and Kentucky are innovating by doing NIL and sponsorship operations in-house—saving on middleman (MRR) costs, maximizing efficiency.

12. Basketball’s New World: Transfers and Expectations (41:24–45:42)

• Discussion moves to UK coach Mark Pope (“the beauty and curse of the current system is you have a new roster every year”—41:56).
• Kentucky fans’ expectations: not unreasonable if you’re spending the most, but the question is whether Pope can build effective teams year after year.
• Praise for Florida’s Todd Golden for smart roster construction and resource allocation.

13. Kentucky’s Identity in the SEC (45:44–47:56)

• Matt asks if Kentucky is still viewed as the oddball basketball-first school.
• Staples: “I don't feel that way because I've covered enough Kentucky football to understand how passionate Kentucky football fans are ... they're not that far from feeling just like a football school.” (46:15–47:16)

14. Football 2026: Predictions & Upsets (57:17–59:09)

• Staples’ National Champion pick: Texas.
  • Highlights effective portal recruiting, especially plugging last year’s lineup issues.
• Sleeper teams:
  • Kentucky (“the one I've been trotting out for a lot of the year now” – 58:40)
  • Oklahoma State—expected bounce-back due to fresh coaching and roster fixes.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On NCAA’s Legislation Hopes
  “They would love if Congress were to just grant them some blanket antitrust exemptions ... then they wouldn't have to really ask the players about what they would like, or they could just unilaterally impose rules on them.” – Andy Staples (03:26)

• On NIL Parity
  “The same four teams can't win anymore ... Indiana just won the national title in football. … We could do two hours on Texas Tech.” – Andy Staples (24:09)

• On Booster/Donor Fatigue
  “Markets always find their level ... eventually you're going to run up against the thing every business in America runs up against. Because I'm about to run out of money.” – Andy Staples (28:19)

• On pooling college football rights
  “All of the schools, if they sold college football as one, would make more money than they do now ... because they could charge more when you're the single seller like the NFL does.” – Andy Staples (06:39)

• On Kentucky Football Hope
  “If you told me three years ago Indiana would win a national title in football, I would not have believed you. ... Kentucky, you can do that.” – Andy Staples (33:48)

• On Modern College Coaching/ADs
  “I would hire someone who worked in professional sports ... who knows how to generate revenue in professional sports.” – Andy Staples (52:35)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:00–04:00 – Are college sports unfixable?
• 05:14–07:15 – Media rights, antitrust, and the NFL comparison
• 12:21–14:04 – What if NCAA allowed unionization in 2015?
• 15:38–17:22 – How could a players’ college union function?
• 23:57–26:07 – NIL’s positive impact on competitive balance
• 28:03–29:43 – Donor fatigue, spending efficiency
• 32:08–33:13 – Alabama vs. Texas/Texas Tech in mega-donor wars
• 33:48–34:25 – Kentucky’s chance at football success
• 41:24–45:42 – Kentucky basketball, Pope, and Transfer Era
• 57:17–59:09 – 2026 football champion and sleeper picks

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Conclusion

This episode offered a nuanced, energetic, and expert-level conversation about the fate and future of college athletics in the NIL era. Staples and Jones break down complex legal, economic, and cultural forces reshaping the field, but also keep the tone lively and relatable—highlighting why schools like Kentucky, with smart hires and resourcefulness, may be on the verge of historic breakthroughs.

Whether you care about congressional maneuvering, the media deals propelling conference realignment, or simply if Kentucky can finally win big in football or basketball, this episode delivers both the clarity and the color to bring this unpredictable new era into focus.

Transcript

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[Matt Jones]

This is interrupted by Matt Jones on

[Andy Staples]

Newsradio 840 WHAS now here's Matt Jones.

[Matt Jones]

Welcome. It is episode 41 of Interrupted by Matt Jones and we are joined today

by someone I don't think I've actually

ever had on a long form interview, but have always have talked to a few times on his show and then just always read his stuff for years. Andy Staples, who works for on three

sports hosts Andy and Ari. And you used to be at Sports Illustrated, right?

[Andy Staples]

I did for 11 years and then I went to the Athletic for four and then joined on three. Right as the rocket ship was taken off.

[Matt Jones]

Yes, well, I was the I was Shannon's first hire. It wasn't even Shannon. They wouldn't let. They wouldn't.

I had to not compete.

[Andy Staples]

Wasn't done yet.

[Matt Jones]

Yes.

So Stuart McWhorter, a person I've never

met, ended up buying the But Andy, nice to have you.

I wanted you to come on here

to talk college athletics specifically kind of the state of college athletics. You deal with this on a daily basis. Just yesterday, Brandon Soaresby, the quarterback at Texas Tech. A judge in Lubbock ruled him eligible even though he admitted to betting on football games when he was the quarterback at Indiana.

It seems like the common narrative out

there is college sports is a mess and might be unfixable. Is that what you think?

[Andy Staples]

Oh, it's not unfixable. Anything that somebody's willing to pay billions of dollars to televise is fixable. It's just a matter of figuring out how best to administrate it.

[Matt Jones]

And how is that? I mean, is it. If you listen to the ncaa, they

say we have to have Congress get involved. Do you think that's true?

[Andy Staples]

Nope.

[Matt Jones]

Okay, so explain that.

[Andy Staples]

I think the NCAA and the schools would love if Congress were to just grant them some blanket antitrust exemptions that would allow them to resume breaking the law when it comes to price fixing the labor market in college sports. And that would be just awesome for them because then they wouldn't have to really ask the players about what they would like, or they could just unilaterally impose rules on them and then enforce them, and then nobody would ever say boo. And. And they'd have no legal recourse to do that. And so, yeah, it's a great deal if you can get it, but I don't think Congress is going to give them that deal. And yeah, unfortunately, the SEC in the Big Ten just learned when Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell dropped this bill in the Senate. Oh, you mean when we spend all this money lobbying, we don't always get exactly what we want? Yeah, like Ted Cruz had a bigger donor who supports Texas Tech.

[Matt Jones]

That's it.

[Andy Staples]

Who. Maybe Texas Tech got what they wanted and the Big 12 got what they wanted instead of what we wanted. And people in the. In the sec, in the Big Ten are really not used to that.

[Matt Jones]

They had a bigger boat in some way. So.

So when I was following this Senate

bill for a long time, and I

remember when I first saw the release, I thought, andy, okay, if it really is the case, they can get 60

votes with this bill.

That means Berea Cantwell has a lot

of Democrats on board who have the

same opinion you do. So I remember thinking, if I'm the ncaa, SEC or the Big Ten, this is probably the best deal I'm going to get.

Right.

If I try to get more than this, I'm going to lose the Democrats if I. My thought was they better sign up today for this. But the SEC and the Big Ten decided not to do you think that'll end up being a mistake?

[Andy Staples]

No, not for them. They're protecting their corner, and I understand why. So this is. We'll get pretty in the weeds on this. So if you didn't know about the Sports Broadcasting act of 1961, you're about to find out.

[Matt Jones]

And what a bizarre act, by the way.

Basically, the federal government decided to regulate

what was on television for sports.

[Andy Staples]

There were only three channels. You had to be careful. Public airwaves and whatnot. So basically what this bill says is if 75% of the schools in the FBS would like to pool their rights as one and sell them as one, then they would be granted a small antitrust exemption, similar to what the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball get from the Sports Broadcasting act of 1961. Like, there's a reason a UFL team doesn't sue the Cowboys and the packers for colluding and selling their TV rights.

[Matt Jones]

Well, they tried.

[Andy Staples]

They're allowed to back the, the.

[Matt Jones]

The USFL. Donald Trump tried in the 80s and he lost.

[Andy Staples]

But it. Not only do they try, Matt, they

[Matt Jones]

won, but they only got a dollar.

[Andy Staples]

They got $3 treble damages in an antitrust.

[Matt Jones]

Okay, they got $3. Yeah, yeah.

[Andy Staples]

So, but. So if 75% of the schools wanted to do this, then they could. All of the schools, if they sold college football as one, would make more money than they do now.

[Matt Jones]

Even. You think even the SEC and Big Ten would.

[Andy Staples]

Oh, yeah, because they could charge more when you're the single seller. Like, look at what the NFL does. The NFL doesn't say, okay, NFC east, you go make a deal.

[Matt Jones]

Yes.

[Andy Staples]

With ESPN and AFC east, you make a deal with Fox. No, they're like, espn, if you'd like some of this, you pay this. Fox, if you'd like some of this, you pay this. Meanwhile, in college football, the SEC makes a deal with espn and Fox goes, you know what? We don't want to pay what you're asking. So we're just going to. We're just going to do a deal with the big deal.

[Matt Jones]

Do you think that's true?

[Andy Staples]

Keeps their prices down?

[Matt Jones]

See, I, I don't. All right, so I'm going to play devil's advocate here.

I'm going to give the SEC position.

I think that's true in the aggregate.

[Andy Staples]

Right.

[Matt Jones]

I'm not sure if that's true for the sec and Big Ten specifically.

[Andy Staples]

I'm 100% sure, and I'll tell you why.

[Matt Jones]

Well, let me just make my case. And then you respond, oh, yeah, let's use the NFL. To use your example, I actually think the NFC east might get more money as selling the NFC east than they do splitting the NFL pot 1 out

of 32 like they 100% would.

So why wouldn't the SEC do that?

[Andy Staples]

Because I don't think they would. Because here's the reason. They can't sell the postseason and the regular season together right now. This would also allow them to sell the postseason as part of the package. Okay.

[Matt Jones]

But if the SEC is a rational economic actor and you are correct that

all the schools in the SEC could make more money if they pooled their rights together with the other schools, then

wouldn't they just do it?

[Andy Staples]

No, because if you starve them out and they drop down a level and then there's only a few schools at the top, then everybody makes more at the top and you don't give up the power that you have right now. The power gap with the SEC and the Big Ten and everybody else is just as important as the revenue gap.

[Matt Jones]

But you could. But The SEC and Big 12 could agree.

Or. Excuse me, SEC and Big 10 could

agree to pool their rights with the other conferences new. Well, they could.

[Andy Staples]

Conferences. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[Matt Jones]

With the other conferences. But then agree we get more. I mean, there are sports that do that. I mean, there are sports that do

[Andy Staples]

that part of it. Yeah, that's exactly what would happen if this happened. Is the SEC in the Big Ten would get the lion's share of it.

[Matt Jones]

Yes.

[Andy Staples]

Just like they do in the cfp.

[Matt Jones]

So why don't they want that?

[Andy Staples]

B, we're splitting this equally. It would be. We're all going to charge the TV networks more, but we're going to take more because they're paying for us.

[Matt Jones]

And. And I feel like that would work. I mean, I kind of feel like this is just my opinion. I think the SEC and Big Ten. Let's say we entered a world where

it was only the SEC and Big Ten. Right. Or there was the Super League.

I actually think in every sport but

football, it would definitely hurt the sport.

In football it might not, but in every other sport it would. Like, the NCAA Tournament is not the

same without those other teams in it.

[Andy Staples]

Right, Right. The NCAA tournament is its own unique animal.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

And you need a large division one to make that format work.

[Matt Jones]

Correct.

[Andy Staples]

You need a large, diverse division one to make that format work. So. And that's a billion dollar a year television property.

[Matt Jones]

So it's the primary revenue for the ncaa.

[Andy Staples]

Yeah. Yeah. So. But I think the SEC and the Big Ten. And I understand where they're coming from. They give up power significantly if they do that, if they pool with everybody else, and if they wait long enough, they may just not have to pool with everybody else.

[Matt Jones]

Okay, so now what happens?

You mentioned Ted Cruz.

I find it interesting because the assumption

was that bill would have all the Republican senators on board.

But a lot of these Republican senators

are in the sec.

[Andy Staples]

Yes.

[Matt Jones]

So what do they do?

[Andy Staples]

Yes.

[Matt Jones]

What do those guys do?

[Andy Staples]

Nothing. They've lit their money on fire. They should have known. They should have known they were never going to get what they wanted because in the House, they had. There was a bill in the House called the SCORE Act.

[Matt Jones]

Yes.

[Andy Staples]

They gave them exactly what they wanted.

[Matt Jones]

That was the one sec.

[Andy Staples]

The Big Ten.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah, yeah, that was the one. You're right. Go ahead.

[Andy Staples]

Scalise, the House Majority leader, who's from Louisiana, that gave everything they wanted. It had no chance of ever passing because you just couldn't. Like, I remember the day it was supposed to go to the floor. Somebody I know goes, okay, they think they've got the Congressional Black Caucus on board. I'm like, no, no, they don't. There's not a chance that group is going to support this bill. And sure enough, they did not. And they tried to get it on the floor again. It didn't happen. So that one's doa, The Senate one, as you pointed out, is the best chance of having something pass. Now, it does not give them everything they want because what the, what the SEC and the big and really the NCAA and all the conferences wanted originally is for them to say athletes can never be employees.

[Matt Jones]

Yes.

[Andy Staples]

And the Democrats are never going to go for that.

[Matt Jones]

No, they're not. They want the Labor Relations Board to ultimately just decide that.

So if you were, if you, if

you, Andy Staples, were in charge, okay,

you get to snap your finger and whatever you think is best that would please the most entities in the process

were to occur, what would it be?

[Andy Staples]

I would take a time machine back to 2015 when the Northwestern players were trying to unionize, and I would gather all the people in charge of the conferences and the schools and say, listen here, dummies, you're going to wish you'd let these people do this.

[Matt Jones]

I agree.

[Andy Staples]

You know, because they're about to become the weakest players union in America. So let's, let's make them employees. Let's pay them, and let's make a deal with them for like 10% of revenue. Because right now they're going to have to do that, eventually they're going to have to make them employees. They're going to have to bargain with them. And I can explain how, how all that might work, because again, there are people within the sport now, athletic directors, even university presidents, that are open to it now who are looking into this and how to do it. There have been people trying to figure this out for 15 years. And they would have had such a better deal if they'd done it then. But they never thought they'd lose nine nothing in the Supreme Court. They never thought Brett Kavanaugh, the most conservative justice, would say, would actually act like a conservative and say, hey, free market. Price fixing this market. I like free markets. So, yeah, it's very strange how all this came together, but I think the Brennan Sorsby ruling may be a tipping point for some people. There were already people that were on that side, like Danny White, the Tennessee AD said a year ago publicly, he'd been talking about it longer privately, but publicly said a year ago, hey, we need to collectively bargain. Dabo Sweeney, who once said he'd stop coaching if they paid the players.

[Matt Jones]

He now says it.

[Andy Staples]

Yeah, he now says collectively bargain with the player. All coaches are fine with a CBA because they just want rules. They don't care how you get them. They just want rules. They want to know. They want their players to not be free agents every year. And so I think that would be the most logical way. Look, if the Protect College Sports act were to pass, which I don't think it would, they would probably have enough structure in place that they could deal with most things it would allow them. I still think they. They wouldn't have a salary cap because they can't impose one on themselves and they can't help themselves.

[Matt Jones]

Yes, and that's already happening now, in theory, they have a salary cap and they don't. They won't. They don't follow it.

[Andy Staples]

They don't want to follow it. Exactly.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

So, yeah. And then. But it wouldn't stop what happened with Brendan Sorsby, because that was a case of an athlete suing in state court on breach of contract grounds. It wasn't antitrust. An antitrust exemption won't stop that. So the only way you do stop that is you have a collective bargaining agreement that has gambling rules in it, that has eligibility rules in it, that has a. If you want to negotiate a salary cap, you can like it. Like the NBA, NFL have salary caps. Major League Baseball doesn't. It really comes down to the strength of your players union. I Can. Matt, you would probably know this better than me, having been involved a little more in politics than I have, but I would think this would be a pretty weak players union. Oh, I definitely size it.

[Matt Jones]

That's exactly right. And part of what makes players unions, what's interesting about players unions in pro sports is in some pro sports, the bottom of the union runs it, and

in some pro sports, the top does so. In the NFL, the bottom runs it. There are just a lot more players

that don't make money than do, and

thus the rank and file runs the players union. In basketball, the stars run it.

The stars run it.

And in baseball, the stars agents run it.

[Andy Staples]

Essentially, Drew Rosenhaus run it.

[Matt Jones]

Exactly. In college sports, there are so many more kids who will not make money than who will that I think it will be a very weak union. And if the, if the colleges are smart, a SEC Big Ten players union will be much more powerful than a 365 Division 1 teams union. And I would think they would want

the, the, the, the, the latter rather than the former.

[Andy Staples]

Yeah, I think that that probably isn't going to happen. SEC and Big Ten together, because the other leagues are going to sue. The antitrust sort of hovers over all this. Yes, but not in the way we've been talking about. Not in the, like, the cases they've been losing. Now, it's not about them making rules and unilaterally imposing them on the players. It's about which of these guys get together. And I've said, if you want to collectively bargain, you're like, you can't collectively bargain with all college athletes. That's not even an option. You need to split it up by sport, and you probably need to split it up by conference. Like, let's take the SEC, for example. South Carolina has a law that says state employees can't collectively bargain.

[Matt Jones]

So that's interesting.

[Andy Staples]

South Carolina players cannot be employees of the state of South Carolina. If you want to.

[Matt Jones]

They'll change that law, though, if they have to. If they have to.

[Andy Staples]

Make them employees of the league.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah. Okay, fair enough.

[Andy Staples]

So they're employees of a private entity based in Alabama that everything is based on Alabama employment law, which, by the way, Alabama, I believe is the right to work states. So I think the people in charge would be happy with that being the employment law of record.

[Matt Jones]

So ultimately, I think the NCAA will look back.

I think you're right. In 2015, if they had called them employees, they would have been much better off.

I think now they're going to look

back and say that this congressional act is probably the best thing they could have hoped for for the schools.

Yes.

If they don't pass this bill.

And this is why I think those

senators from the SEC schools are the most fascinating.

The senators from the SEC schools have two completely different. They have the future of college sports

from a university perspective on one side and then their SEC universities on the other side.

[Andy Staples]

And one of them coached an sec.

[Matt Jones]

I know.

And like, they're going to have to figure out like, okay, man, what do

you want to do?

It's also.

And then. And we'll. I'm going to switch to something else.

But it's also interesting to me to see the schools that actually have power

amongst the senators making these decisions. Let me give you an example.

Ted Cruz.

It's clear Texas Tech is pushing his buttons. Big 12 school.

Maria Cantwell's a Washington State grad who got left out of the power four. I think that's really interesting in figuring out how she gets involved. Right. Rand Paul, who is involved kind of in the Republicans considering not doing it.

Duke grad.

Acc. Mitch McConnell, even though he's about to leave. Louisville grad.

Right. Acc.

So it's very interesting that some of the decision makers actually didn't go to

SEC and Big Ten schools and, or,

or, and maybe aren't as impacted by them as you would think.

[Andy Staples]

Well, right. And then there's the other piece of it where all politics are local. You mentioned Cantwell with Washington State. I can't, like, like, Cantwell also represents Washington, which is a Big Ten school.

[Matt Jones]

That's true.

[Andy Staples]

Ted Cruz represents Texas and Texas A and M. But he also, like, if you are, are a politician from the state of Texas, if you don't take care of your Baylor people and your SMU people and your TCU people and your Texas Tech people, you got problems

[Matt Jones]

because they got a lot of money.

[Andy Staples]

And yeah. And then when Pete Bavaka, the Notre Dame athletic director, was, was giving testimony, some of the most enlightening testimony he gave was in answers to questions from a senator from Kansas. If you're a senator from Kansas, you are not on the side of like, you're a Republican. They elect Republicans in Kansas, but you are not on the side of the Republicans from Alabama.

[Matt Jones]

And then if you're Cory Booker, who

has been involved, you really care about the athletes because Rutgers is really not relevant to this conversation.

Like, you're, you're like, what do I

do for these ath.

On the athlete, athlete side.

[Andy Staples]

And Cory Booker is one of the farthest left guys in the Senate is going to support organized labor no matter what.

[Matt Jones]

You're right.

[Andy Staples]

And the longer this goes, the closer they get to that.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

And, and if labor unions were all

of a sudden to have college athletes, it would be some of the most high power profile union members you could have in the entire world.

[Andy Staples]

And, and Matt, I, I'm sure you know this. Like there have been unions that have been trying to win this business for

[Matt Jones]

a while, a long time.

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

And so people ask me, like, who would represent them? I'm like, oh, would line up. Yeah.

[Matt Jones]

I mean, the United Auto Workers.

They're not auto workers, but they'd want to be involved. The Teamsters would want to be involved. I mean, they would, they would want to do it. Let's switch gears a little bit to actual football

[America 250 Announcer]

this July 4th. Come celebrate at America's Block Party. Hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music, performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to giving 4th, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark [e-mail]

[Andy Staples]

this

[Tab Ramos]

is Tab Ramos from inside American Soccer. And this summer, topgolf is turning into the ultimate soccer destination. They're not just throwing games on in the background. Topgolf is going all in on soccer. They've got a new soccer themed game you can play with your group. Special in venue activations, exclusive food and drink items inspired by the global game. And at more than 60 locations, they've even installed full size soccer goals so you can try to hit golf balls right into the net. And every match all summer long will be on throughout the venue. So it's a great place to watch with friends, hang out, compete a little bit and enjoy the atmosphere. And if you want to keep the fun going all summer, you can get the topgolf Summer Fun Pass, which lets you play every single day and bring up to five guests every visit. Get yours now at topgolf.com funpass Summer hits different at Topgolf these days.

[WIX Harmony Advertiser]

I hear about AI so often that I tend to tune most of it out. But I gotta say, WIX Harmony actually lives up to the hype. It's an AI website builder that lets you build any type of website with AI, but still gives you the freedom to edit anything yourself. So you're not just stuck with whatever AI gives you and you've got an AI agent named Aria that can help you out. Try it for [e-mail] Harmony that's wix.com

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[Matt Jones]

I'm going to give you the argument

I've had a lot of people on this show make.

There's my argument.

You tell me if you agree or disagree.

[Andy Staples]

Okay.

[Matt Jones]

While off the court and off the

field, it's chaos when the games start. NIL has made football and basketball better.

Do you agree with that?

[Andy Staples]

100%. The same four teams can't win anymore. We just watched Indiana win the national title in football. The. And, and like people can say, oh, Phil Knight's buying, trying to buy Oregon a national title. Well, that would mean Oregon won a national title, which they couldn't do before. Yeah. So like that Texas is back because Texas can pay. Texas A and M made the playoff. Texas Tech is buying a roster like they're. We could, we could do two hours on Texas Tech. But yeah, look, and I'll. Duke is a good example. Duke, historically terrible football program unless they have Steve Spurger at the helm with Mike Elko and Manny Diaz, two different coaches in the NIL era. Maybe the best sustained four year period of Duke football ever.

[Matt Jones]

Yep.

Well, where we are in Kentucky, we have belief. Maybe we can be good now. Right. I don't know if we will, but we have belief for the first time. You know what, why we could be Indiana.

There's no reason we can't be Indiana.

And so I think it's like added

belief in these places.

[Andy Staples]

And I commend Kentucky's administration because they could have said, look at how much it cost us to fire Mark Stoops. We're cash poor, we're strapped. That's not what happened. They fired Mark Stoops and they hire Will Stein and they say, will, what do you need? How can we make you competitive quickly? And Will Stein said, I need some money to spend in the transfer portal on some offensive linemen. And they said, guess what? Here you go. Yeah, go get them. And he went and got a three year starting center from Baylor. He got an all SEC guy from, from Tennessee. He got a guy who'd been starting at Ohio State who may or may not have been starting this year, but he started for Ohio State for two years for goodness sakes. Like that's a great place to start. Year one if you're a head coach and, and I.

[Matt Jones]

And then on the basketball side, these, the, the product's better. Like the guy, like these games are better. You know, seven or eight years ago I still loved it, but the teams

were not very good in general.

And this year like there were 15

really good college basketball teams and there

were another 40 that were competitive. Now the mid majors, it's tougher for them. But when you get like there are elite games and now guys are staying

in college who Andy never would have before.

[Andy Staples]

No, absolutely. It's. Remember we used to say get old, stay old for the mid majors. Like that 12 seed that you knew was going to beat the five seed. They had four guys who played together for five years and that's what they have now. Except in the power leagues. Yes, with better versions of those guys who would be playing in the G league or would be playing in Europe right now. But they're making more money playing in college basketball. So you're absolutely right. The teams are better. Now look, we've learned in football and basketball, spending the most money doesn't necessarily guarantee you squat. You still have to be able to evaluate, you still have to be able to deploy them. And I think it's interesting, Kurt Signetti and Todd golden, probably pretty good examples of that. You know the, the Rusty, Dusty May, another good example of that. Dusty Mace spent money to win a national title this year, but he didn't spend the most money.

[Matt Jones]

No, we didn't.

[Andy Staples]

Yeah, exactly. Like Elliot Cotto coming from North Carolina. Was he, was he that at North Carolina? No, he wasn't. They figured out a way to utilize him properly.

[Matt Jones]

Do you. Let's say there are no rules. Let's say that nothing gets passed.

[Andy Staples]

We can say that because there are no rules.

[Matt Jones]

Let's say nothing changes though, in the, in the next few.

I feel like at some point though, aren't there some of these schools at least that are going to go like

we're just, we just can't keep paying this.

Like at some point aren't there, is

there going to be booster fatigue about giving this money? And how close do you think we are to that pretty close.

[Andy Staples]

I mean, look, the market will find its level. Markets always find their level. Because this is the part where I'll get in arguments with ads because they'll say, well, this is unsustainable. I'm like, it's certainly sustainable because eventually you're going to run up against the thing that every business in America runs up against. Because I'm about to run out of money.

[Matt Jones]

Yes.

[Andy Staples]

And you know what you do when you're about to run out of money? You spend less money.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

You try to spend it more efficiently. And I think that's, that's probably the next step. If, if there is no congressional bill that, that finally passes that allows them to establish something or no collective bargaining agreement that gives them hard salary cap, I think they just are going to have to figure it out themselves. And yes, they're going to be people who can spend more. But I thought Steve Sarkeesian said it pretty well. He was talking to Chris Lowe from On3 and he said, basically there's about 25 programs in college football that pay the cost of admission. And it's basically like there's a line and if you're above that line, you're spending enough to win a national title. But the line is actually pretty far from a dollar, dollars and cents standpoint below where the highest spending team is. Yes, you just, but, but you have to deploy it correctly. So Kurt Signetti, he came on my show and he wouldn't give us an exact number, but he said, he said, you know, between 40 million and 15 million. We were closer to 15 million.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

Last year. And I just, you know, we've got Pete Nikos, who knows this market better than anyone. We're pretty sure Indiana spent around 22, 23 million on that team. There were teams that spent 30, 35. So you don't have to spend the most, you have to spend it the best.

[Matt Jones]

And that's been what it's like in baseball. I mean, in baseball, you know, the

Dodgers have won the last two years,

but in baseball in the last 15, 20 years, you don't have to spend the most. You just have to spend enough. And you look at baseball this year, three of the top four spending teams are not good.

[Andy Staples]

Yeah, there will be some Dodgers eventually though, where the people spend the most also are great evaluators and well coached and just destroy everybody. That will happen eventually.

[Matt Jones]

Who do you think is the program

most likely to do that? Texas.

[Andy Staples]

Ohio State.

[Matt Jones]

Ohio State.

Okay, so, all right, so let me

ask you about Alabama.

Why Aren't they? Why did this seem to leave them, if not behind, slightly behind?

[Andy Staples]

I will take you back to 2017. It is the week of the FCF game before the Auburn game, and I'm in Nick Saban's office because I'm at si. I have to write this giant story on whoever wins the national title. So I've gone. I'm going around to the teams that might win the national title that year and getting as much stuff as I can. And he says to me, I'll be gone before I watch it go down. Essentially, I will know long before any of you when the right time for me to leave is okay. Nick Saban knew he was not going to create more millionaires in Alabama.

[Matt Jones]

So is that what it is? You just don't think there's enough rich

[Andy Staples]

people in Alabama right now in the system? They're in the places like Tech. You know, states like Texas have a massive advantage unless you've got a sugar daddy like Cody Campbell at Texas Tech.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

So like to use the. The state of Alabama as an example. I guess if Auburn grad Tim Cook, who just stepped down as Apple CEO, if he wanted to do it for Auburn, he could. He so far hasn't wanted to.

[Matt Jones]

But.

[Andy Staples]

Yeah. Who's that person for Alabama? And so.

[Matt Jones]

So it's that simple. It's just they don't have Cody Campbell.

[Andy Staples]

They don't. Yeah. And so before, if you had a great network of Cadillac dealers and RV dealers and people who ran industrial piping companies and you could do pretty well.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

And look, I'm not going to cast aspersions on. On everybody. Sure. I am in the bag, man. Economy. It didn't cost that much to get players.

[Matt Jones]

Yes. Right. Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

It's much more expensive now. You. And then you could, you could funnel that money. Like these guys all did the gold plating with their facilities and all that. And Alabama spent a good amount of money on all of that stuff and they spent on coaching, obviously. But if the payroll is just going to go up and up and up and up, there is an upper limit for them that they're going to hit sooner than Texas is going to hit and sooner than Texas A and M is going to hit and sooner than Georgia is going to hit and sooner probably than Tennessee is going to hit. And so that's. That's where they have to use their money more smartly.

[Matt Jones]

That's interesting. You would never think of Alabama as like the underdog, but to some extent, in the way you're describing it, you know, they are. Okay, so as you go forward,

let's say you're a Kentucky, because I've heard

you say nice things about Will Stein.

You're a Kentucky. If you're, if you're a Kentucky fan.

Listening.

What do you think is under Will

Stein, the limit of what they could do, not next year, but just in general.

[Andy Staples]

We just watched Indiana win the national

[Matt Jones]

title, so you think you could do that here?

[Andy Staples]

To quote Michael Jordan, the ceiling is the roof. Yeah. Listen, if you'd have told me three years ago that Indiana would win a national title in football, I would have not believed you. I would have said you're absolutely insane. So in a world where Indiana can win a national title by making the right coaching hire and evaluating well and keeping their good assistance and just understanding how the system works. Absolutely. Kentucky, you can do that.

[Matt Jones]

What do you, you, you talk a lot to coaches in college.

Let's start with college football.

What do you think? College football coaches, administrators, what's the program

or two out there, where they go, that's a sleeping giant. If they start handling it well.

And then what are one or two?

Alabama, maybe one.

Where they go, that's not going to be the same place in a few years.

[Andy Staples]

So the sleeping giants, historically, in the old days, were always considered North Carolina and Arizona State.

[Matt Jones]

Okay.

[Andy Staples]

For location purposes, North Carolina had money. But the thing is, North Carolina doesn't have money like Texas Tech has money right now.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

So, like, Texas Tech is the test case of can you use new money and just win in this system? So, like, they might be the next big thing because they can afford to be.

[Matt Jones]

But is there?

[Andy Staples]

We'll see. Because, like, Oklahoma State's an interesting case this year. Oklahoma State was as bad as they've ever been last year despite having the best coach they've ever had. And then they fire Mike Gundy. But the thing is, they hire Eric Morris from North Texas. They're giving him money to spend on players. They were starving out Mike Gundy because they weren't sure he knew how to spend it.

[Matt Jones]

So do you think, like, Clemson is done?

[Andy Staples]

I don't think they're done because I think they're very. They're being very smart about the way they move their. Move their money around, the way they handle things. They've created, I believe it's called Clemson Ventures, which is how they're. They're running their athletic department now, and they've done a good job of. Whereas a lot of these guys are slide money off to a middleman and using these. MMR companies like PlayFi and Learfield. Clemson is doing that in house, which is going to allow them to be more efficient.

[Matt Jones]

That's what Kentucky's doing too. Kentucky's doing that as well.

Yeah, people here, very smart. So people here, myself included, have wondered

if that's a smart thing.

I feel like having watched it for a couple years, I think it's worked really well in terms of their ability for resources for football. I think it still remains to be seen about basketball. But as an outsider, do you think the way UK has things set up

with the JMI and all that smart?

[Andy Staples]

Yeah, I do, I do. Because I don't see a reason. And I had a football coach saying this to me and because he's, he's got to deal with it. Like, why do we have to slide 15%, 20% of what we want to pay our players through an MMR company? What are those people doing for us other than acting as a legal pass through? Why do we even need them? And other schools have set it up where they don't actually have to deal with that.

[Matt Jones]

And so, you know, it's funny, Andy,

you just, in a minute and a half made the case for the way UK athletics has set their entity up better than UK has ever made it.

Because I've been. No, I mean that I've been asking for two years, explain to me why it makes more sense to have this

in house the way you do it.

And I get many answers, none of which are what you just said, which is, why should we pay 15% to

somebody else for what we can do ourselves?

[Andy Staples]

Well, even in the old days, MMR companies were just, hey, we'll pay you X flat amount and then we'll sell all your sponsorships.

[Matt Jones]

Yes.

[Andy Staples]

And we'll just keep what we make over X flat amount. I remember somebody from a different RCC school calling me, going, we are leaving 15 million a year on the table. What are we doing here? And that's.

[Matt Jones]

Well, UK has started. They're producing their own.

I think they're more and more producing their own stuff in house. I mean, they do the official broadcast here on our station, but essentially we produce it for them and they just pay. I mean, but I, they do more and more stuff internally and I agree.

I can, I, I can kind of

see what you're saying.

[Andy Staples]

Yeah, I've been screaming about the middleman problem in college sports ever since I really, since I became a national writer and just saw how everything worked. It's. These guys are looking. And a lot of it's cronyism trying to help out buddies in in different places, but schools realizing now that they have to spend as efficiently as possible because their competition may not have to spend so efficiently. It's forcing them to rethink these things.

[America 250 Announcer]

This July 4th come celebrate at America's Block Party hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music, performances from major artists, patriotic tributes and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 1st the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark [e-mail]

[Andy Staples]

this

[Tab Ramos]

is Tab Ramos from Inside American Soccer and this summer topgolf is turning into the ultimate soccer destination. They're not just throwing games on in the background. Topgolf is going all in on soccer. They've got a new soccer themed game you can play with your group, special in venue activations, exclusive food and drink items inspired by the global game and at more than 60 locations. They've even installed full size soccer goals so you can try to hit golf balls right into the net. And every match all summer long will be on throughout the venue. So it's a great place to watch with friends, hang out, compete a little bit and enjoy the atmosphere. And if you want to keep the fun going all summer, you can get the topgolf Summer Fun Pass which lets you play every single day and bring up to five guests every visit. Get yours [e-mail] FunPass Summer hits different

[WIX Harmony Advertiser]

at TopGolf these days I hear about AI so often that I tend to tune most of it out, but I gotta say, WIX Harmony actually lives up to the hype. It's an AI website builder that lets you build any type of website with AI but still gives you the freedom to edit anything yourself so you're not just stuck with whatever AI gives you. And you've got an AI agent named Aria that can help you out. Try it for [e-mail] Harmony that's Wix.com

[Taco Bell Advertiser]

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[Matt Jones]

So let's talk basketball for a second. I know you do mostly football, but you do basketball. Do what?

[Andy Staples]

I dabble.

[Matt Jones]

You dabble.

Do you think Mark Pope works here at Kentucky?

[Andy Staples]

I'm more worried about what nickname you guys are going to give to Milan Momcilovich. I saw. I saw in your message words.

[Matt Jones]

We're not calling him Mommy. We're not calling him Mommy. That was Shannon the dude. And we're not calling him Mommy. I mean, I was on vacation or I was. When he said that. I'm vetoing. It's not going to be Mom.

[Andy Staples]

I appreciate it because the reaction was very strong. As far as Marty Mark Pope goes, the. The beauty of the current system of college basketball is you have a new roster every year. The. The curse of the current system of college basketball is you have a new roster every year.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

Do we know if Mark Pope can put together an effective roster?

[Matt Jones]

It's a good question.

I mean, he did it his first year. I think he didn't really do it his second year. So I think this year decides it.

Do you, from the outside feel like

Kentucky fans are unreasonable in their expectations?

[Andy Staples]

Not unreasonable. If you're going to spend the most, you should expect a lot. It'd be one thing if they were trying to do this on the cheap. They're not. They're giving him the resources he needs to be successful, you know, because, like, so I went to Florida and. And I live in Gainesville still, so I've seen what Todd Golden's done. And the. The year they won the national title, they were not outspending.

[Matt Jones]

No.

[Andy Staples]

The top of the sec, that was just a. They. They had put together a really good team. They had a little bit of everything. And Todd golden, you could tell, was like, when I get some money, here's how I'm going to bolster this. I'm going to have three good bigs. So I always have one good big on the floor. But sometimes I can go with a big lineup and have two good bigs on the floor. But because most teams don't have that, most teams are going to play. Still don't have that. I'm going to have a dog of a point. Walter Clayton Jr. Was a dog.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

And so he understands exactly how his team needs to be constructed, how he wants that roster to look, how he wants his rotations to look. And I think that's that's the. It's same as Signetti. Like, if you evaluate better in this environment, you are. You own the world.

[Matt Jones]

Do you.

You're around Todd Golden. Is he.

[Andy Staples]

I.

[Matt Jones]

Most people. For a guy who's had as much

success as he is, we know very little about him. Except there was a scandal. I mean, that's really all. That's really all we know about him.

You're around him. What should someone from the outside. What.

What should they know about the guy?

[Andy Staples]

I just that he. He seems to have a very clear vision of what his roster needs to look like.

[Matt Jones]

I think.

[Andy Staples]

I think that's been the most impressive thing with him. And so now they gave him all this money. He got Thomas out to come back.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

And I think they should feel pretty good about where they're at. How do you know?

[Matt Jones]

Go ahead.

[Andy Staples]

Oh, no, I was gonna say like the Denzel Aberdeen thing, him coming back from.

[Matt Jones]

That wasn't a great look for us.

[Andy Staples]

Well, I don't. It wasn't a great look for him, I think, from the get go.

[Matt Jones]

That's true. But, but, but we want to think

at Kentucky that everyone wants to play here. And in our minds we want to think that the Florida guys, if given the chance, would be at Kentucky.

And in that case, it's clear the

Kentucky guy, given the chance, wanted to be at Florida.

[Andy Staples]

Well, I think what happened was he realized that he was not going to have the role he. He had envisioned for himself and that he could go get more money and have that role. Yes, but maybe that wasn't the right role for him. I would hope maybe he was in the right role.

[Matt Jones]

But at Kentucky. Well, actually, he played pretty good here

by the end of the year.

By the end, he was pretty good. And they missed him at Florida. I think they would look back and say if they had had him instead of Lee, they probably would have been better off, right?

[Andy Staples]

Yeah, probably. Probably could have used in that last game for sure.

[Matt Jones]

Or even more than Boogie Fland. In hindsight.

[Andy Staples]

How do people. That would be. That would be the one. I would say.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah. If they'd had him instead of Boogie Flynn.

Do you. How do people.

You're around the SEC as much as. As much as anybody. How do people in the SEC sort of look at Kentucky?

Because we are an outsider to the

rest of the conference.

We are a school where still basketball

is the biggest thing. In a conference where football is the most important. Missouri is probably the biggest outsider just because they're not even really in the South.

But are we. But but do they kind of look at us as the. But odd member of the.

Of the.

[Andy Staples]

I don't feel that way because I've covered enough Kentucky football to understand how passionate Kentucky football fans are and how passionate Kentucky people are about football in general. Like, I don't think you're that far away from having a couple of really good football seasons and feeling just like a football school, like all the other schools in the sec. I don't think it's that far away. And it's fine to still care about basketball. Like, you've seen it with various schools in the league throughout the years. Arkansas always cared a lot about football, cares pretty deeply about basketball, and now they've had their ebbs and flows of how much they cared. But, you know, in the heyday of Nolan Richardson, it was probably the biggest sport on campus, even though football was very big. And then right now, they're obviously pouring a ton of resources into it. Florida, I mean, when I was a student was. Was when Billy Donovan just gotten hired. I think if you ask most Florida students right now, they think basketball is cooler than football.

[Matt Jones]

Really?

[Andy Staples]

And so interesting. I, I don't. I don't think it's that different. I don't think it's as different as people want to make it. And I, again, I, I just know that Kentucky football fans and I would. I think most Kentucky fans consider themselves football fans. They just need to be given the reason to hope. And Mark Stoops did that for a good long time. But what he had to rebuild after Joker Phillips? I mean, like the Joker Phillips era. You don't blame Kentucky fans for feeling the way they did? You don't blame them for the empty seats?

[Matt Jones]

No, no. I mean, he, he clearly didn't work out.

[Andy Staples]

Yeah.

[Matt Jones]

Do you what happens in week two

if Kentucky somehow were to beat Alabama?

[Andy Staples]

I know Nick Roush has already predicted.

[Matt Jones]

I know. I don't know if I believe. I don't know. But he. He's a little wild.

[Andy Staples]

I'm so excited for that game because Kentucky went into Oxford and won in that week two spot two years ago.

[Matt Jones]

Like, this is not played him very close. We were terrible last year and we played him very close again. He up here.

[Andy Staples]

Yeah, I'm. I'm excited to see that game because one, I want to see what Will Stein looks like as a head coach. I've been following his as an assistant. Think he's really smart, but again, I like the way he built for year one. Also, I don't know what Kenny Menchie is Because we spent the last, you know, last summer going, oh, are the Notre Dame people sandbagging us? Is this really a competition between C.J. carr and Kenny Menchie? And even after C.J. carr won the job and blossomed into this incredible starting quarterback, Notre Dame, people still said, hey, that was a really close competition. So if they're telling the truth, this dude's probably pretty good.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

And so I'm excited about that. And I think we will find out definitively when Alabama takes the field against Kentucky because they remember they. They have the Florida State game that's actually in week three. Okay. So they can probably play Austin Mack and Keelan Russell both in that first game. I want to see who runs out first in the Kentucky game.

[Matt Jones]

But what is that? Get fired if we were to win?

[Andy Staples]

No, he still got a few more games to make it up. But you can't, you can't lose games like that if you're at Alabama. And the problem is he has lost quite a few games like that. Yes, I say quite a few. He hasn't even lost that many games.

[Matt Jones]

I mean, Alabama, he's lost. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you.

All right, it's one of my last questions for you, but I've taken the view in all sports, but especially in college sports recently, the sort of the

days of the rah, rah, good old

boy, coach, GM are over.

That to win nowadays, yes, you need

to know the sport. But really smart is the thing. I'm a big Carolina Hurricanes fan. The Carolina Hurricanes GM is a scientist. He doesn't even. He's not.

He never even played hockey.

He's an MIT also.

[Andy Staples]

They also play an unusual style.

[Matt Jones]

Yes.

[Andy Staples]

Four check teams. They're basically a full court press team in hockey.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

He's an MIT scientist who said, I'm

going to be smarter than everybody in this dumb sport. And it has worked. They may or may not win the cup because they don't have the best

players, but they've been good for like

seven straight years since he, the scientist got in there.

Is that college sports now like to be a good GM or coach, you now have to be smart.

You can't just be a good old boy.

[Andy Staples]

I think you always had to be smart. I think that.

[Matt Jones]

Well, there were some dumb ones, though, like Barry, Switzerland, but it was somewhat

[Andy Staples]

lost when Nick Saban was ruling the sport.

[Matt Jones]

That's true. He's smart.

[Andy Staples]

And you could say Nick Saban was getting better players than everybody else. And he was. Nick Saban was also better at evaluating than everybody else. And then Kirby Smart took that to Georgia like nobody wanted lad McConkey. They put that kid on scholarship. He wasn't a walk on. Like he knew what he was looking for. He knows what he wants.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

And the fact that those guys could get the best players but also could out evaluate everybody made them that powerful. Signetti is a great example of this. Signetti is the best evaluator in the sport right now. He knows exactly what he's looking for in a quarterback, in a right tackle, in a defensive tackle, in a defensive end. He knows exactly how they fit in the scheme. And so that person may not always be the most expensive person, but he knows what he needs for his system.

[Matt Jones]

But I guess my question's a little different.

I mean, I agree with you that those coaches have always been good evaluators and coaches.

But I guess what, maybe it's more

what I'm talking about, athletic directors. I mean, Kentucky's about to hire a new athletic director. I think I know who it is, but I'm not allowed to say.

If it ends up being a. If you were to have an athletic

director tomorrow, would you hire a business person or would you hire someone in the sports realm?

[Andy Staples]

I would hire a sports business person. I would hire someone who worked in professional sports. I would hire someone who knows how to generate revenue in professional sports. I'll tell you a fun story that the Florida people have told me. They have a guy named Michael Seeley who they just hired from the Stan Kroenke Group, which is the Colorado Avalanche and the LA Rams and the Denver Nuggets, I believe. And so really good at understanding how money gets made in professional sports. Gets the job, finds out, hey, it's cool, there's two Morgan Wallen concerts at the Swamp. Well, apparently Florida was only going to clear like 400 grand from the two Morgan Wallen concerts, which 90,000 tickets are going to get sold for each show.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

At an average price of 200 bucks. I'm bad at math. Everybody can do the math on that. So he gets in there, he's like, we can't do this. And very quickly goes back to the people and says, hey, look, you know, like we've. I worked at a company, we did all these deals at SoFi and everywhere else. We have a little better idea of the market. So obviously they didn't have the leverage because they already had the deal made, but they end up getting like 8 million bucks for the two concerts. So that's the sort of thing that in the old world you'd be like, oh, cool, Morgan Wallen wants to come here. Well, we'll just. What do you want here? Let's sign it. Now it's like, wait, Morgan Wallen's coming here? Okay, great. We're going to take a nice chunk of that because part of what makes this cool is he's playing in a football stadium. It's our football stadium and it's an important football stadium. And so now I think you're starting to see that more and more. Like the Savannah Bananas just played Kyle Field in Neyland Stadium. Like you're going to see more of that and it's not just going to be, hey, they knock these podunk athletic department officials in the creek. It's going to be the athletic department officials are like, hey, we're a revenue generating machine here. We have an iconic stadium. You have something that fills stadiums. Let's make us a good deal here.

[Matt Jones]

I have always been shocked that stadiums don't get used more.

I mean, you think about how big

stadiums are and how few times they are used.

[Andy Staples]

I live in Gainesville, Florida. The largest building in town is the Swamp.

[Matt Jones]

Well, yeah, I mean the largest. The two largest places together in Kentucky

are Churchill Downs and, and Kroger Field. So why, I've often wondered, why don't

you use both of those a lot? And you mentioned the Savannah Bananas.

I saw Messi played at Kyle Field recently for a game.

So you think in the modern era

all these schools are going to be doing more of that stuff?

[Andy Staples]

Yes. And the thing like what Kansas is doing with their stadium, where it's a mixed use project around the stadium, where they're putting hotels and restaurants and why not use that place, turn that into the showpiece of your university. It's the place everybody gathers seven times a year. But why can't it be the place everybody gathers every weekend? Weekend?

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

Well, that's what they're trying to do here at Kentucky. I'm a little skeptical that that works every weekend just because I think a

lot of pro sports towns have empty restaurants when they're not playing around there.

But then you also have like where the Atlanta Braves are, that they've made

that a whole thing. So I guess it's a part in how you do it, right?

[Andy Staples]

Yeah, it's a lot of it's how you do it. Do you put residential near there where you, you sort of build in some. Some demand for your restaurants and bars and that sort of thing. Do you put hotels there to build in? Because the one thing that these universities have is there's always something going on at a giant university. So they're usually the hotel capacity, like the. A lot. Some hotels exist to serve the football games, but you can put a pretty nice hotel near campus and you can charge.

[Matt Jones]

Yeah.

[Andy Staples]

Pretty steep prices.

[Matt Jones]

And in Kentucky we have a hospital right next to where the football stadium is and there are like no hotels. And I've always.

[Andy Staples]

Exactly. Florida's the same way. The. It used to be called Shands, but UF Health now massive hospital. People coming from all over the state to, to. To see doctors there. And yeah, that's where the hotels do a lot of their business. And if you. It's interesting because I have to book hotels in these college towns year round and there's certain ones, State College, College Station, like the hotels are expensive all year because there is always something going on at the school. So yeah, if you can put something right next to your campus that has a little, little bit of luxury to it. And oh, by the way, everybody who's coming is going to a conference, so they're not paying. Their, their employer's paying. You're, you're.

[Matt Jones]

You're going to do well.

[Andy Staples]

You can make some money.

[Matt Jones]

All right, we'll finish with this. Who is your national champion this year? And who is your team that nobody think in football? And who is your team that nobody thinks will be good? That is going to be very good.

[Andy Staples]

So I, I'm still on board with Texas winning a national title. I love the roster. I love what they did in the portal. I love them getting Cam Coleman. They got Relik Brown and Hollywood Smothers to basically reinvent their backfield. They completely reorganized their running back room. Offensive line was, was better as the season went on last year and they went and got Wake Forest right tackle to shore it up. And I just feel like they, they did everything they needed to plug the holes that they had last year. And if you look at the way they played last year, they got better as the season went on. And so I think they should be able to hit the ground run. I know they have Ohio State Week 2. They don't have to win that necessarily. They don't have to play Georgia in the regular season, which I think helps. That's. That's been a little bit of their Kryptonites since they joined the SEC. They're 0 and 3 against Georgia since they joined the SEC.

[Matt Jones]

Beat them though, last year. I mean, we had them beat.

[Andy Staples]

It was first and goal from the

[Matt Jones]

one and we didn't score. So I mean it is. So I, It's. They're. They're bizarre to me. What about the sleeper team?

[Andy Staples]

I think your Wildcats might be one of them.

[Matt Jones]

See, I was hoping.

[Andy Staples]

I really do. I'm not, I'm not saying that. You say that your show, that's the one I've been trotting out for a lot of the year now. Like, I think everybody agrees that Oklahoma State is going to be significantly better than they were, but I think you saw the hire, you saw Eric Morris bring Drew Messamaker and what made a lot of North Texas team good. So I think that one, it's pretty easy to predict. The Kentucky one's not as easy to predict. I just like the way they built. Doesn't mean it's going to work because obviously the schedule is brutal.

[Matt Jones]

Brutal, but yeah, brutal.

[Andy Staples]

It's funny though, because like all these ads are like, yeah, schedule sucks, but this is the best home schedule we've ever had.

[Matt Jones]

Well, that is true. I mean, we have in the first six weeks, Alabama, LSU, A&M and Oklahoma.

It's the first incredible, right? That's the first.

[Andy Staples]

Coming to the stadium down the street from your house.

[Matt Jones]

That's true. I mean, that's going to be. That's going to be wild.

Andy Staples, host of Andy and Ari, and writes on.

On three sports. If you like college sports and you want conversation that is intelligent and not just go hit him in the mouth, I think Andy and Ari are the place to do it. And you. It was great.

Thank you very much for taking the time.

[Andy Staples]

I try to add more hitting in the mouth conversation. I try to bring as many offensive linemen on as possible. The problem is offensive linemen are the smartest players on the team. So it usually turns into an intelligent conversation. Because. Because we brought an intelligent.

[Matt Jones]

I mean, I'm a talk radio guy, but most talk radio is inane, idiotic, yapping and like.

So when I have somebody that I

feel like can sit there and use the word antitrust and not just think it means like, you don't believe the person's telling the truth. I actually, actually have a lot of respect for that.

While also being interesting.

Not everyone's interesting.

And you.

[Andy Staples]

I love about what you guys do because before we got on the air, I was watching a clip from. From your show today. Yes, on ksr. And you're watching a clip. Well, I think you had a still. But the video exists of people making out on a closed section of i65.

[Matt Jones]

Exactly.

[Andy Staples]

I feel like we have room for that.

[Matt Jones]

You could do both and we have

[Andy Staples]

room for the high level. That's exactly govern college sports conversation.

[Matt Jones]

You can do both and it is hard to do both. But I think people who could do both, that's the the most entertaining thing and I think you guys do that. So Andy, thank you very much.

[Andy Staples]

Thanks Matt.

[Matt Jones]

Appreciate it.

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