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Let's get to some quick hitters from the world of sports. Did y'all hear about what happened to the University of Tennessee this past weekend? The university has moved on from starting quarterback Nico Iama Lava. Nico was a no show at practice on Friday while his nil contract negotiations with the university were ongoing. University was prepared to pay Nico $2.4 million, but apparently representatives for Nico wanted $4 million. Head coach Joshua's hypo had this to say about Nico. Quote this program has been around for a long time. There are a lot of great coaches, a lot of great players who came before that laid the cornerstone pieces, the legacy, the tradition that is Tennessee football. It's going to be around a long time after I'm gone and after they're gone. End quote. On Friday night, Yamalava notified the team that he was in the process of filling out his paperwork and planned to enter the transfer portal when it opens up this Wednesday. This is a bad look for this kid. Let's get that out the way first. It's bad look for the kid. It's not entirely his fault. He's a kid. They say supporters reportedly his father's involved. Obviously he's got an agent. We all listen to our representatives, we all listen to our lawyers. But the adults in the room ultimately have to concede and acquiesce to what the client wants. In this case, it would be I'm a Lava. When you look at Nico, he's a kid, he's a young man and in all likelihood he's following his father's advice and they're going from there. The NCAA is the ultimate culprit. Culprit, of course, because they've been exploiting kids for ages. This is why they ultimately had to acquiesce to things like nil deals and transfer portals. And what have you because they utilize the system to their own benefit at the expense of kids for decades, and now they're receiving their come uppence. But along the way, we also have to recognize the losses we've suffered. Mike Krzyzewski, although he was in his mid-70s, there's no doubt that these kind of things played a role in his willingness to walk away from the game. The same could be said for Roy Williams at the University of North Carolina and their basketball program. It most certainly could be said. I can speak that directly to this because Nick Saban told me himself as to what played the role in his deciding to walk away from college football as the greatest coach the game has ever seen, along with various others. It's also why, you know, folks, you know, didn't want to participate in it. When you think about Dabo Sweeney at Clemson, why you think that this stuff is a headache for him, why he never want to get involved in it. You have players now in colleges acting like pro athletes or acting like as if they're pros because the system now allows it and mandates it. What it ultimately comes down to, ladies and gentlemen, is the need for a collective bargaining agreement. There are no uniform rules or regulations in college football anymore. College basketball, because of the money involved. And the only way to rectify that is to have a collective bargaining agreement. And let me tell you why it's necessary. You know, it's bad when a corporation like the NCAA is begging for con, for congressional interference. Usually they run from such things. Now they're running to that because they want Congress to solve problems for them that they can't pull off themselves. So there's no doubt that the NCAA probably likes something like this going on because they know it's going to create a public uproar. And as a result, elected officials are going to be clamoring to get involved, similar to what Cory Booker, Senator Cory Booker, alluded to a couple of weeks ago right here on this show, along with other elected officials. This is what the NCAA wants. So if you're the players, if you're representatives of the players, if your parents, you want a collective bargaining negotiation to take place. So there are uniform rules and regulations that everybody has to follow because that's what it's going to take to save the sport of college football and basketball. Without it, the sport is going to die. I'm telling you that right now, because the NFL or somebody else is going to find a way to infiltrate the proceedings and take advantage, whether it's the NBA, the NFL or anybody else, because business is business. But in the end, let's not forget the most important thing in all of this. The most important thing in all of this is that this was necessary because the NCAA spent decades taking advantage of the student athlete. Yama Lava is not a bad guy here, but his representatives are making him look like the bad guy because they're chasing an extra million. A million and a half dollars. His valuation was at 3.1 million. He was getting paid 2 million, around 2.2 million. Tennessee was willing to go as high as 2.4 million. His valuation was at 3.1 million, but he's asking for 4 million. So worst case scenario, we're talking about a difference of $1.6 million here. And that's what all of this is for. After taxes take off half that 50%. Come on now, we could do better. Collective bargaining resolves this issue. Getting adults in the room and negotiating a collective bargaining agreement. And the good news there is that finally, after all of these years, players will have representation. That's what the NCAA had denied them the opportunity to have for so long, and they got away with it. I don't want to hear about Senator Ted Cruz or anybody else trying to get involved in all of this in any kind of salacious way whatsoever. I want to see you collectively bargain a deal with the NCAA that doesn't require congressional interference. Because Congress clearly took the side of the NCAA for far too long. Otherwise the athletes wouldn't have been exposed for as long. Exposed or exploited, rather. It wouldn't happen that long if you had done the right thing decades ago. So Yama Lava is not the bad guy here. He just looks like it. Because you sign a contract, you want to honor it. Your quarterback shouldn't be looking to just desert your team. That's how he looks right now. But it ain't all his fault. It really isn't. It's just that he's the face of change that apparently is imminent. Now let's get to the WNBA that's preparing for the draft tonight. Paige Beck is fresh off her national championship with UConn. Is expected to be the projected number one overall pick. But that's not the only deal Becker says in the works. Sources told ESPN yesterday that she's also signing a three year deal with the 3 on 3 unrivaled league. Paige signed an IL deal with unrivaled last year which gave her equity in the league. Sources tell ESPN that Becca's first year salary for the 10 week unrivaled season will exceed what she would make in four years of her WNBA rookie contract. Now keep in mind her WNBA rookie contract was scheduled to pay her a little over 78, 000 this year. The highest paid player in the WNBA is Kelsey Mitchell in Indiana who's getting paid about 239000 right now. Paige Beckers, they're saying over four years she would make a little over $350,000. Whereas in this ten week league she's scheduled to make more than that. If you all remember last year in its first year it was projected that the unrivaled league would make approximately 12 to 13 million dollars and they made over 27 million. So consider that. Pay attention to that now. Pay attention to the brilliance of this girl's Paige Beckhams who just won a national championship by the way, who was spectacular all season long. National player of the year went to Juju Watkins of UFC of course. But Paige Beckins was something sensational, went to the final four all four years of her career, got injured to an acl, came back, overcame it, finally won a national championship and now it's considered on the Mount Rushmore of Yukon basketball, which is a great, great tribute to have along with the people like Diana Taurasi, Brian, the stewards of the world, Maya Moore's of the world, that kind of thing. But let's get back to what the brilliance of Paige Beckins truly is. Do y'all know that she invested in the unrivaled league last year while she was still in college? Did you know that she has an equity stake in the unrivaled league? Do you know that she's making money as a partner as well as a player and on top of it all is only going to build her profile even more. So when she gets drafted and goes to the wnba, she'll get more money and endorsement dollars from that. Paige Beckers is doing her thing, clearly guided by the right people. She knows what the hell she's doing. Major, major props to that young lady. She's doing big things. It ain't just Caitlin Clark now, it's Paige Beckers. And soon hopefully it's gonna be Juju Watkins when she comes back from that knee tear. And she's gonna wreak havoc too. Wishing nothing but the best for her. Let's not forget Asia Wilson who's the best in the business right now. Let's not forget her for wnba best in the business. Our last quick hitter takes us to golf where history was made at the Masters yesterday. That's because Rory McElroy became just the sixth golfer to win all four major championships in the Masters era. McElroy joins Gene Zarazin, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger woods is the only golfers to win the Masters, the US Open, the British Open and the Tour Championship. Here's the story. It's really a story about perseverance. The man was suffering an 11 year drought, came close numerous occasions, finished in the top 10 at the masses eight times over that that time span and still couldn't close the door until he finally did yesterday. It's a story of perseverance and here's why you should love it. Never giving up, always coming back to fight the good fight, to try to strive to be all you can be. That's what Rory McElroy did and it paid off. He's 35 years of age and regardless of that huge monkey that was on his back, he kept going. There's a lot of times we could look at people and we could look at their talent and we could say, hey, we just don't have that ability. We just don't have that greatness. But you know what we all have inside of ourselves if we really dig deep enough, the ability to persevere no matter how rough times get, we can somehow find our way through the maze and come out better than we were when we entered the fray. That's the lesson to steal from Rory McElroy and major props to him for his accomplishments. That's all I wanted to say about that.
