March Madness ratings tick up, Final Four picks + New rule could lead to super sized football staffs

Dan Wetzel, Ross Dellenger & SI’s Pat Forde kick off the podcast by reacting to March Madness TV ratings and why this year’s tournament has exceeded most people’s expectation. Forde believes the combination of early upsets coupled with big time programs and storylines moving on to the second weekend will only help the tournament’s interest. Dellenger points out that a record number of Americans will bet on the tournament this year.

The trio then discusses the ramifications of sports betting becoming a prominent part of March Madness and college sports in general. The crew then reacts to the news that John Calipari will be staying on as head coach in Kentucky. Wetzel believes the program can’t move on from Calipari unless they have an immediate plan to replace him. Forde provides an update on Louisville basketball head coaching search, which has become down right nauseating.

After the break, the trio provides their updated Final Four predictions. Wetzel has a hard time staying focused for his picks, given he doesn’t want to give them, and ends up sharing thoughts on a Harvard basketball player that has entered the transfer portal and goes on a tangent about what makes college hockey so great.

The trio ends the pod with Dellenger sharing a story on a potential new rule that could expand college football coaching staffs and change the way power house programs could recruit in the future. Wetzel ends the pod with a wild ‘People’s Court’ and Dellenger shares a heartbreaking story about a wild duck he raised as a kid.

0:00 – INTRO

0:35 – March Madness TV ratings are up… is it because of sports gambling?

19:25 – John Calipari stays put at Kentucky, Louisville really going after Pitino’s son?

29:45 – The guys update their Final Four picks… Dan sort of does (while also talking about College Hockey)

47:55 – Could these new rules lead to an explosion of more College Football coaches and recruiters? Ross explains

55:40 – People’s Court: Juggling Duck Man gets banned for life from Buc-ee’s

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All right welcome to pod presented by Prime video and um I’m intrigued by this uh the television ratings have been coming in for the uh the March Madness for men’s basketball tournament and uh they have been um strong now we know that the TV networks have like little tricky ways of

Saying you know this is the best rating ever best rating for you know from 30:5 to 310 p.m. in 23 years they trick stuff up they include this they include that but um undoubtedly these TV ratings are good I don’t know if they’re the greatest ever or not but you had an

Average of uh and I don’t even know what this means but an average of 8.5 million people watching Thursday that was supposedly the most watched since 2015 you had the mo 8.3 on Friday is the most watched ever on a Friday uh the most watched on a Saturday 10.3

Million um and so the first three days were all uh Records I’m not sure what CBS had on Sunday but I’m guessing it’s not too much down we had some massive games um the Michigan State North Carolina uh second round game uh did a 10.3 million viewers yeah um I mean I

Mean that’s a that’s an SEC football championship game yeah that’s a b number that’s a huge number um Gonzaga Kansas uh before that did 8.3 million um those are all so that was they were in their own kind of Windows although I think I think uh there was

Some competition to State and UNCC late uh Purdue ut state did uh eight I mean these are really good TV numbers for for basketball um and you kind of just go down Oakland vers Kentucky first round game did uh 6.2 million so that’s and I I don’t know these are averages I don’t

Know how they how they figure it all out does not count the I mean I was watching Michigan State in North Carolina in a friend’s um basement like you know he’s got a big setup down there I mean there’s 25 people I don’t know how I don’t even

Know how they can count uh March Madness ratings in particular but but the ratings have been phenomenal um and yet we walked into this tournament hearing uh and and you know we all agreed you know there’s not a there’s not a there’s not a huge lottery pick coming that

Everyone wants to watch right that going to drag some NBA interest there’s not this would be the same bit but there aren’t these like Mega exciting players like Zion Williamson and John Morant right um this is not the year of Blue Bloods uh Carolina and Duke are still in this

Thing but you know the top seeds are generally um good programs but not Houston Purdue Yukon those you know obviously yukon’s more successful than all these Blue Bloods anymore but um they don’t have that fan base so it’s not it’s not you’re not just riding off

Of that Ohio State’s not in it Michigan those teams aren’t even necessar although they’ve had great success they bring huge fan bases not not there uh and then there’s the big where there is increased competition from the women’s side um no the women’s basketball tournament is not bigger than the men’s

Basketball tournament and is far from it but it is increasingly popular and you know you could be peeling off 100,000 viewers there quarter million viewers there whatever Caitlyn Clark’s game did um 3.2 million on Saturday I think it was her first round game against Holy Cross and won the second one like four

.9 yeah 4.9 on Monday night now that got close but that was not competing with um the men’s wasn’t competing with anything no right wasn’t competing but um there it was uh let me find this Caitlyn Clark Iowa it’s a team game it’s a team my

Team is on the floor yeah uh whatever it was it was a it was a decent some of those people might have chose to watch Caitlyn Clark instead so whatever um I don’t think the audiences are exclusive so we come in with all the these kind of

Headwinds and and some of them are temporary right next year you’re going to have uh you know flag at Duke and some of these guys maybe everyone’s going to want to watch um but we produce big numbers so why is is what I’m wondering gambling clearly is a big part

Of this Sports wagering is a big part of this but there was Sports wagering in many locations last year um is that helping is is the more acceptance of it or are more people get I’m like I don’t know I got no idea so I turned to uh my

Experts here um well I don’t have any but I got you guys uh Pat what do you think why is the rating so good for this event when it was we were told they would not be so good I I guess I thought they’d be good but not I didn’t think

They’d be like you know you take oh down 10% or something hey makes sense go right go ahead I talked enough I do not work for neelon research so we’ll state that off the top but um yeah like I mean for one thing the tournament’s always watched no matter what people say and

Yeah that maybe the most ill-informed hot take of last week from some people is people more people are going to watch the women’s tournament than the men’s completely not true uh a lot of people are watching both which is great and I’ve watched plenty of both and I’ve

Really enjoyed it yeah uh you know I think whether it’s just the fact that the games have been quite compelling I mean there was a lot of upsets that first day second day uh we got plenty of those first day especially and then you settled into more brand names playing

Brand names I mean Texas versus Tennessee is two big fan bases going at each other uh Kansas uh playing in the second round certainly is good for business playing Gonzaga while Gonzaga is a small school in terms of alumni base a lot of people know him and watch him at this

Time of year um you know four ACC teams advancing there’s just there’s there’s there’s there’s brand names people get attached to and I do think there are some storylines that people are interested in I think Yukon going for a repeat there’s a lot of people in the

Northeast that are Yukon fans and all and interested in Yukon uh Purdue Zack Edy has become like a lightning rod you either really like him or you’re outraged at what he gets away with or whatever you know I mean the the 7 foot4 guy who’s the two-time national Player

Of the Year people are are taking sides on him and I think that’s helped to a degree uh there’s been a lot of scoring you know we got Virginia out of the tournament on the first night that was a good thing and we’ve seen some really high octane offense uh since then bunch

Of teams scoring a 100 points going up and down the floor so I don’t have a this is why I think but I think you can concoct a number of ideas there may be some of it I don’t know what the weather was like in parts of America over the

Weekend but if the weather was bad people stay in and watch more TV uh it could be as simple as that but uh people did watch and I think they were rewarded with a pretty entertaining product for four days Dan I have a number for you 2.7

Billion that’s the amount of money that was projected to be bet on the first weekend of the NCA tournament I think that’s a big reason why as you mentioned uh M sports betting has increased viewership and and driven it but I think with any uh any sporting event that has uh

Massive implications um especially like playoff you know type of atmosphere I think people just love to watch I me people love to watch elimination games um because of uh because of the what’s on the line um I think I think that drives uh a lot of viewerships to the

Women and the men in any playoff or or postseason shoot we see it in Women’s College World Series stuff I mean I think people just like when the stakes are are really high um and so I think that’s why all those playoff events you know will will drive um viewership you

Know we talk about betting in in the almost three billion That was supposed to be bet last weekend uh just some like news as we’re talking on the pot about betting which I didn’t realize this but the NCAA is encouraging states to prohibit prop bets um and and they’ve

Been doing it apparently for a while they’ve gotten a few States Ohio Vermont Maryland to uh to ban prop bets and they’re trying to encourage more before this next slew of games they’re trying to encourage more states to ban all prop betting because of harassment and uh things like that that athletes are

Getting so kind of an aside there uh but uh a little bit uh interesting as we head into the next weekend yeah I real quick want to want to follow up on the prop bet stuff all you have to do to just get people to take those off the board is send them

The jonte porter stuff and say this is happening at the NBA level um secondly I did hear some like thirdhand talk like some of the stuff that has come at like the scrubs at the end of the bench for some schools that get in games and whether they make or

Miss shots can affect the point spread at the end of a game who who covers and the amount of abuse those guys are taking like that is not good if you know some kid gets his two minutes of NCAA tournament action and misses a layup and

The team you bet on didn’t cover and all of a sudden you decide it’s time to keep abuse on that kid that’s pretty sick yeah it’s completely unfair ridiculous and there are definitely some Psychopaths that would uh do that or you know hold the ball no I’m gonna Jack one

Jack a shot up there and miss it then the other guy comes down and hits it you know you just ran out the terrible um no place for it uh do not gamble that way um this is why gambling on something like the NCA basketball tournament is

Especially a high point spread is crazy we’ve done the high point spread and they’re crazy all the time like honestly um go ahead and do it if you want but um I’ve done the high point spread before on race for the case what I think I did

A Hawaii Michigan game and basically it was like 60s something and then like Michigan had one I think they botched a punt or something and because of that like it just takes one thing yeah and then you’re done and you can literally point to the one play

That cost you because the point spread so big um that is a dark side I don’t if you don’t know the jeante porter story it’s really interesting he he has uh uh plays for the Raptors and um he was betting well they’re investigating some allegations and some possibilities let’s

Just let’s not use Jon’s name let’s just say it was another guy but um I don’t want CU I I haven’t researched the story enough but he basically somebody would in the NBA may have been having some bets placed on a prop and saying he wouldn’t get it right so it’s like if

Pat’s playing in the NBA Pat 40 plus or minus three threes well it’s pretty easy for you to only hit two you just don’t take a third don’t take it yeah you make sure you miss or you get it ankle right or something yeah yeah yeah it’s a case of of the certain

Player under investigation you take yourself out of the game and don’t come back with some Mal M mystery thing but these bets were like 10K which was which was baffling to people because it’s like dude you’re in the NBA do not mess your NBA career up yeah what was his NBA contract well

Whatever millions of dollars yeah right so 10K that’s crazy I think people do things like that just for The Rush actually he was making 450 415,000 this year yeah a two-way deal or something 10K is a pretty nice okay yeah 10K is not bad then yeah but guess what he’ll be making next

Year if this is true zero yeah that’s right make ever again in Turkish League yeah um anyway don’t do it but you can see where this would be completely enticing for players too now these are elimination games not you know um I think it was the March 20th game against

The Kings is under the old raptor king Clash on March 20th who who who Among Us can don’t doesn’t remember that one oh it was it was a glorious night Kings Raptors uh anyway uh this is why our ratings are so high um anyway I I think the gambling is

Huge I also think that’s so like this is a side one I just kind of thought of but like the one beauty of College athletics is it does really well with with young people college kids particularly and then recently after and then I think sometimes fans fade away from it but

Like early 20s and those are big gamblers they’re at my gambling 10K I watched like um like the coverage by bar stool which is you know very popular at that group is all about the gambling they’re just sitting there screaming about their bets all the time but and so

That’s not traditional you know button down let’s get guys in suits behind a desk at on a CBS thing but um that’s very effective in bringing people in on this too so I think that the gambling can be there’s certainly a Sinister side to it and a disappointing side but it

Also can create a lot of excitement um even if you’re not the people gambling you just want to watch uh Dave Porto lose money or something or G or win money whatever you want to do speaking of just this topic I don’t think we discussed it but I think it happened

Earlier this week or last week did you guys see reys Davis was uh I think hosting uh a betting segment on ESPN and um whoever he was talking to a betting expert I don’t remember who it was but she said she was going through all these bets right that you can make

And all these different plays and I think he he said something like um what you’re talking about doesn’t sound like betting it sounds like risk-free investment uh and uh obviously with ESPN’s involvement with with ESPN bet and all that it he took uh he took a little flak

For that I don’t think we’ll be hearing anything like that again come come out of his mouth but you got to be careful with those things for sure please I mean damn what you got that Dan really he got Flack for that got a little Flack it’s a joke

Risk-free investment Dan okay so really there was somebody somebody was 28 minutes into a segment on gambling on ESPN and heard ree Davis say it’s risk-free investment and actually believed that betting on sports is a risk invest window right and and bet his entire mortgage on it ree Davis said I

Mean come on these are the people that end up suing because there’s not enough strawberry in the popart yeah exactly free reys Davis okay come on now like at some point people have to have like some responsibility for their own actions clearly betting on sports there’s nobody who thinks betting on

Sports is risk-free investment it’s impossible because I don’t care you’re like you’re you’re in kindergarten and you bet uh you know the next day’s uh you know half a ham sandwich or whatever on the on the Super Bowl and you lose your sand I mean come on unfair that’s a joke we have

Kindergarteners betting their hamst sandwiches on the Super Bowl it did in my school we might need to look into this it did in my school it was tough it was tough School our school colors were black and [Laughter] blue um and to fight your way on the bus

And fight your way off that’s right we’re gambling on everything dice games on the bus no uh I I mean come on all right anyway aside somebody was a little sensitive on that one okay um I don’t I didn’t if that’s the story all right so

I don’t know what else to say but I think the ratings will be even will remain really good because the one downside to like non-traditional upstarts getting deep in the tournament is they don’t have the fan base that generates it’s not a downside to me because I’m I’m not a television

Executive and uh based on the gazillion ads that are running in these games and these 14 minute TV timeouts followed by 12 seconds of action and then another foul and 14 more minute TV timeout I’m not worried about CBS but the ratings are going to be great going forward too

Yes that’s what I mean you get you get yes you get a you get a George Mason in there you get a whatever somebody in the final four FAU FAU does not have the fan base that would would the built-in fan base from last year that you would get

If and it doesn’t it’d be certainly a North Carolina but like you said even if it’s a you know whatever Purdue or or anybody else that’s in this thing so I think we’re going to have a great weekend of of action and the TV people will be happy

And uh people will keep gambling leave the players alone uh please yeah I’ll just I’m gonna real quick I will go through all right Yukon big fan base going for a repeat they’re absolutely watching San Diego State I was shocked how many of their fans showed up at the

Final four last year they got a good fan base they’re watching Illinois really hungry hadn’t been to this level in a long time they’re watching Iowa State great fan base they’re watching North Carolina huge fan base Alabama big fan base Clemson big fan base Arizona big fan base Houston they’ve rallied around

That team Duke is Duke North Carolina state they’re hungry their fans are hungry Marquette hadn’t been this far since 2013 Purdue massive fan base dying to win Gonzaga brand name kraton they put a lot of people in a 15,000 seat Arena Tennessee 20,000 seat Arena going

To be a lot of people in a and a lot of people watching yeah oh they also they sold like 97% of tickets in the first two rounds they did yeah I mean I was in Indie and like it was absolutely Macky South it was just yeah deafening perduk

R so anyway good good news there um we talked last time about John Calipari and and Kentucky what’s gonna happen he’s back 33 million is tough to do tough to do uh Cal is uh coming back he is going to no more Bahamas trip in the summer uh

They’re going to work on defense I don’t know he says he’s changing some stuff up we will see what happens it’s got another good recruiting class coming in we will see who stays who goes who they they pick out on the the portal Cal was the master of coaching 18y olds when

That would W 19 year olds when that would win you the title now uh particularly with the covid year that has been a not been the case uh but he he can get old if he wants this is the thing Kentucky can do whatever ever it

Wants uh if it wants to win on the you know graduate transfer portal they can go get those guys uh or not but um thoughts on uh John Calipari returning to Kentucky Pat yeah I uh first of all this I think is largely driven by the disastrous contract that Mitch barnhard gave him

And I think Mitch has probably escaped a little bit too unscathed in terms of being on the hook for this terrible deal we talked about it lot on the last podcast so I won’t belabor it but to give any coach a lifetime deal and I did

It in like 2018 or so because of whether he was maybe going to UCLA was a panic move an overreaction for a guy whose best days were already behind him at that point and has done nothing since then nothing since then to earn it yeah caliper is

Going to change I’ll miss the I’ll miss the August trip to Canada or the Bahamas wherever where they play a bunch of like janitors and ERS and win by 70 points and the fan base is all oh my God we’re going to be so good holy cow we’re going

40 and 0 so I’ll miss that um but yes perhaps they should stick stay in Lexington and play a little defense I don’t know it’s a thought learn some some some of those sorts of things they’ll go out yes I mean as you said Dan they they’ll get as many highlevel

Transfers as they can or they need uh we’ll see how they put it together they do have some excellent freshman coming in they I think the biggest question is whether there’s any chance Reed Shepard would stay for a second year just as a Kentucky guy who could I’m sure make a

Massive amount of nil I would imagine everybody else who’s draftable will probably go uh but at this point look they’ve had plenty of talent for years they’ve done nothing with it two and seven in the postseason 2020 in the last four postseasons it’s a disaster from Kentucky standards and the fans are not

Real happy that he’s coming back so you know we’ve heard it before in the offseason yeah it’s going to change this going to change that and inevitably they’ll start bringing in players and then by the end of the summer everybody’s going to be talk watch out for Kentucky watch out for Kentucky

Maybe this year it’ll finally be true but right now it’s not I think if you were gonna fire John calar you need to have a plan set up which will lead us into our next school yes um but you can’t like to just fire him right now and then kind of flail

About and say oh I hope this and maybe they’d made some inquiries too you know but like it would be one thing if and and I’m just you know just making this up but like if Jay Wright was like hey uh you know gives him the little head

Nod to to somebody who gives the head nod to somebody who gives the head nod to Mitch Barnhart and you go all right I’m gonna fire John I got 33 million because I’m gonna get Jay Wright or boy Billy Donovan gets fired after 33 games next year in the you know Chicago and

Then he’s just sitting there now now maybe it’s a different call but to just fire John calari right now a you’re gonna pay this bill and then who you getting and if you don’t have I no doubt Kentucky will attract a high quality candidate that is not currently on the

Market because they don’t want to be they’re not interested in these other jobs or they’re is still in the tournament but you kind of want to have a pretty good idea what you’re getting because John cpar has not done a good enough job the last X number of years

But he hasn’t been that bad they still have very good regular seasons they still uh play an exciting brand of of basketball they still bring in a lot of top recruits which Kentucky fan has been accustomed to and so it certainly has not been enough by any means uh and they

Were Justified if they wanted to fire him but it isn’t been a an abject disaster and you can only need to go down the road to Louisville which I think is uh you know not as coveted of a job as as Kentucky but should be pretty coveted and uh with the tradition and

The fan base and the ACC membership and all of that at least temporar whatever the ACC means at this point but certainly for basketball you know is a big deal and they are uh last I saw we’ll see by now you might might have a coach but like if you

Believe social media and some of the reports out of Louisville you know Richard patino we’re going to bring Patino 2. know um unbelievable unbelievable not that against Richard patino you know sins of the father but still like really um not a candidate but Bob Huggins trying to say he’d like to be a

Candidate I’m sure he would um they could do worse though if hugs is sober you know uh we had a potential I mean wild stories potential death threats were being given to candidates that turned out to not be true um it’s it’s it’s man I love you guys at

Louisville like you just it’s just a mess until it’s beautiful like when they’re when they’re beautiful they are like winning national titles putting Lamar Jackson out there when they are a mess they are a a beautiful mess and right now it is uh we’re not sure they

Are they’re in the chop of the Ohio river right now trying to figure it out by the way didn’t uh Huggin say maybe a couple weeks ago or so he he said that he he had been sober for 300 days the last 300 days and I believe he

Was arrested for the DUI 20 like 80 days before that yeah well you know close enough look we hope he is doing well I don’t want to make fun of anyone’s recovery uh but um I don’t know you know I I have a hard time saying anything bad

About Bob hutkins but maybe needs a little more time not the Louisville job well no he does not need the Louisville job he’s also not getting the Louisville job but that’s shocking I know but that’s a major breaking news point but yeah hugs had people calling Louisville

On his behalf you know like maybe Saturday or Friday last week so there’s that uh um and then yes that when Richard patino’s name c came up I was like okay this has now become the most Louisville story ever you know and that’s it’s just as you said Dan kind of the

Constant churn of what the hell is happening there that’s been the state of the basketball program since 2015 since I wrote the story about the uh the entertainment in the basketball dorm that was led to the book that led to the postseason band that led to all

Kinds of stuff um and then it’s just lit literally has been one thing after another since then just can’t kind of can’t get out of its own weird way and this search which frankly almost started in December they almost fired Kenny Payne in December when he lost by like 15 to

Arkansas State and they should have really they shouldn’t have brought him back this year but but they should have gotten it going then and instead you know but still they knew they were going to hire a coach and they just haven’t been able to line it up where we got our

Guy period no matter what and I think Dusty May took him to the Altar and maybe jilted him at the altar but you got to have a backup plan that you fire on immediately and that clearly has not been the case and so yes we we reached a point

Where Josh shz from Indiana State who said who has the sycamores in the NIT final four which will be in Hingle Fieldhouse which will be an Indiana State party was like he was on the list but he was down the list and it’s like you know whether he’s given an

Indication hey we’re going to have to go another Direction and so he’s right now close to to getting a deal done with St Louis and all of a sudden nature AB [ __ ] a vacuum and more names start coming up and lo Richard patino what

Could go wrong I mean if you just if you want America to continue to look at Louisville basketball and say what the hell is going on down there hiring Richard patino would probably accomplish that he may get in and do a fine job if

He’s the guy and I don’t know that he is is but uh to Dan’s point we may we may have this may end up being settled by the time this podcast airs but no matter who they bring in now a an edgy freaked out easily freaked out fan base could be

Further on edge and more freaked out the seats in the press conference room are getting a little Dusty huh about 4 set those up on Friday Friday yeah five days and counting yeah didn’t quite happen didn’t quite happen um well it’ll be uh it’ll be interesting

To see where those ones go um all right we’ll be back right after this message which are updated final four picks perhaps all right um let’s let’s U we have to make picks we’ve been told we have to redo our final four picks or stick with the ones you

Have it’s a problem for you I picked three in the spirit of Larry David uh kirb your enthusiast I’m ending uh this his last one he says I it’s one of my favorite episodes of Kirby Your Enthusiasm you didn’t watch was on lar it’s like January like know what the

Date was the 12th or something and someone this woman cheerfully wished him a happy New Year and he declared it was isn’t it too far past the new year to really say happy new year and he got offended and created the whole episode was Larry being angry that someone wished him happy New

Year uh past the date of when you can ask happy New Year in the spirit I feel why do I have everyone what’s your final four what’s your brackets how your brackets your brackets busted your brackets doing well I you know what I don’t want to participate Dan wetle human killjoy I am

Larry David right now this is my spirit animal and it’s I don’t what do you care you don’t really care you don’t really care what do you want me to say ah Oakland killed my bracket I had Kentucky in the elite you don’t care well we we

Asked you so that we can tell you about ours yes that’s it’s F what how’s your fantasy football team doing oh you wouldn’t believe it I had the and then my home sprayed his ankle and oh my God I love then they did you see Monday

Night the one guy Ian all right nobody cares yeah your golf game here let me tell you about my golf game for 20 minutes yes yes oh I chipped one in I then four puted but all right so I don’t know if I’m going to anticipate oh my

God it’s two bar past January 1 to wish me a happy New Year Pat 40 your initial picks Yukon Houston kraton and Baylor well Baylor is going to be in the final four we know that so who do you your updated picks yeah Scott drew is on the

Bad list for flopping against Clemson so um I’ll stick with the other three although I the way Purdue play once Purdue got past it gag reflex there in the first round Look Out Boy they were very impressive but I’ll stick with kraton out of the Midwest I’ll stick

With Houston although they had their own near-death experience uh certainly against Texas A&M and both Duke and Marquette look good there I will stick with Yukon because of course I’ll stick with Yukon have you seen them uh from the from the shattered bracket that was Baylor uh I’m going to

Take I think going to take Arizona because I think they’ve got an easier game perhaps against Clemson than North Carolina does against Alabama and Arizona’s playing very very well so far through two games they’ve got they’ve got all the pieces um they look like they’re locked in enough defensively and they’re you

Know they’re going to keep keep focused although I will say a North Carolina Arizona Caleb Love Game would really be interesting cu love was a key player for the Tar Heels for three years and then transferred to Arizona and became the Pack 12 Player of the Year like North

Carolina got better without him and he got better without North Carolina so that would be a fun Regional final there but I’ll take Arizona from that region Ross yeah I think I have three or four still alive oh yeah wait I can list you I can list you Houston Purdue Arizona

Auburn is out yeah yeah the Auburn bra Auburn Auburn almost beat the I League champion Ross yeah I know darn yeah wait wait briefly on the Ivy League champion we have this little bit on the ivy league Harvard freshman guard Malik Mack is has entered the NCA transfer portal

He was a big star I just want to get this before I forget he’s had a big freshman season at Harvard and can clearly maybe get some portal money Malik I don’t know you I wish you the best think twice about before giving up the Harvard degree you’re at Harvard

Okay money Dan money yeah you’re at Harvard okay first off money now not later let’s let’s like you don’t transfer from Harvard you just graduate from Harvard or you leave because your roommate’s Mark Zuckerberg and he just created okay yeah I don’t know you I don’t know the circumstances I don’t know what

Someone’s offering a guy who averaged 17.2 a game in in the uh in in the ivy league I understand the dream of playing major college basketball and all the all the excitement of that you’re at Harvard you know what the dream is you know what the American dream is I went

To Harvard yeah everyone else goes we’re the Harvard of uh of Alabama yeah we’re just the Harvard yeah yeah the the way to play that is get your degree and grad transfer like remember my favorite college football player a few years ago was a tight end who got got went to Stanford graduated

From Stanford and took his grad year at Hawaii that’s how to play the system yeah that’s perfect what about that guy Thor from Harvard remember he got two a good transferred to Louisville Louisville right graduated th Thor Griff a defensive tackle defensive he graduated and now he’s going to

Louisville but he got his Harvard degree right perfect go he’s on somebody told me he’s on uh the freaks list of uh or he’s gonna be on the freaks list of Bruce Feldman don’t spoil the freaks list I’m sorry sources spoiler alert sources I don’t know he’s he’s an

Incredible athlete he was a great hockey player and he just got too big got too big to play hockey I he’s 6’2 320 as a hockey fan I would love to have seen this I would absolutely have loved to see what the heck shot blocking defenseman um

Anyway just we har in Harvard what are you doing you have $40 billion dollar in your endowment and you might lose your point guard to an nil deal to like you know what what is happening anyway where were we you were crushing trampling Ross’s picks here go you did you stepped all

Over me but now you brought up even more interesting part which is schools tapping into their Endowment for athletics it’s against the law you cannot do that yeah probably isn’t wise although some schools are sure trying to get around it and are toying with the idea as they’re about to probably

Directly pay athletes so that should believe allowed I don’t believe that is allowed and I don’t think Harvard is going to risk its 40 plus it’s probably higher than that well not Harvard no no but there are tax maybe taxes if you are risking your endowment the taxes on your endowment for Football not even CR Canyon stocking manipulation or something sounds like a hook them play I don’t know are you done stepping all over my final four go yeah go ahead please showon Houston Purdue and Arizona yeah my one bracket the one side of the bracket uh the one quadrant that I

Screwed up is of course the one with Yukon cuz for whatever reason I had AU beating Yukon and Auburn in the final four uh so from that bracket I’ll say Yukon so Yukon Houston Arizona in Purdue and then I I have my my two championship matchups are still alive I have Arizona

Playing Houston for all the marbles there you go yeah I got Yukon Houston for all the marbles so I’m alive there too all right how about your three fin what you got there buddy first off I looked it up January 7th is the latest date you can say Happy New Year you

Cannot say happy new year after January 7th really yeah I thought it would at least be through January I’m uh it’s been a week I’m totally fine with that I’m fine with that and I I think we we should actually have a whole calendar of when the calendar expires you know like

Everything I was absolutely mortified there were people in my neighborhood who had Christmas lights on their Christmas trees in their front windows till like February 1st compl outage can’t do that you can’t do that I was just too lazy to take it down well we have we have a uh

Long story but we have a migar tree so we convert our Christmas tree to a migar tree at least when we used to live in Louisiana um so we still do it here even though people get very confused because nobody knows what marra is in Washington

DC but so we had ours up still through Migra yeah I know did you put light I mean did you have it lit up every day well that’s the thing the tree is a white tree it’s a fake white tree and it has pink lights and pink flamingo

Decorations because we used to live in of course Louisiana and a neighborhood uh in Baton Rouge where the biggest parade in Baton Rouge was held which was Spanish Town Migra in the color theme every year for Spanish Town marra was pink and the mascot was flamingos that’s

What it was so our tree was a a migar tree really that we just put up early for Christmas christas okay non-traditional tree but that’s like the people that have their tree lit still in their front window till February I have a major problem with them DC has a real

Issue with uh people uh you know you you put your tree to the street in the the garbage or whatever takes it uh here um and people we will see Christmas trees well into march on the street like just laying in the street that people I finally put put on the

Curb better than Jimbo Fisher doing it in November yeah that was pretty greatest Christmas tree in and sa football history all right I got you I’m gonna do this because out a protest play the curb music as I do this I’m gonna open a spite store just to I’m gonna open a spite

Podcast just to attack this podcast because I have to do this my final three were Yukon Houston and kraton so haha perfect three and 0 I’m perfect three for three here three for three uh I have to pick a fourth so what bracket am I missing I don’t know you’re missing the

West North Carolina Alabama Clemson Arizona uh North Carolina Kansas North Carolina Alabama Clemson Arizona man I like what if we have a Clemson Bama matchup that doesn’t involve Dabo or Nick sain well they show up um I would boy I really like Alabama but I like Mark Sears a lot Howell going

Alabama Carolina probably do it but it’s too late to say Happy New Year you don’t care you’re just saying it you’re just saying there’s no there’s no feel you don’t really care about my brackets why would you take my advice it’s true I don’t care actually I do care we’re in the

Yahoo expert pick and pole see where we at there Dan have you Che no idea no idea perfect brackets were perfect did I tell you I will say this my my daughter who lives in a you know Mountain Village in Peru oh you said that last time yeah

She’s leaving did I okay 99.7 percentile of America in the world it’s ridiculous see when you when you tell that story I care people don’t care what my pcks were let me text shony o Tony see who’s got maybe he’s got some insight on this yeah right the

Interpreter uh Ross you’ve got a uh also the NCA hockey tournament starting this weekend it’s going to be great yeah I know nobody cares but I do uh I’m going with the Denver Pioneers there Denver P four Frozen Four is in a couple weeks yeah right um the big controversy is the

NCA has one of their regionals only seats 3,000 seats it’s like a it’s like a some minor league rank in St Louis and uh North Dakota Michigan Michigan State and Western Michigan all are in it and they can all drive so the tickets are like insane yeah uh but they said that when

They were bidding in the in uh 2020 during Co no cities bid for the West Regional of the hocky so this wow they St Louis is hosting the Frozen 4 next year so they gave this like side rink in the suburbs or something is somehow hosting this B event and now it’s like

Ticket Armageddon because it’s it’s within like six hours of all the Michigan Schools and not so I mean 3,000 North Dakota cares yeah each school only got 400 seats as their allotment yikes that too bad they couldn’t get the blues rink I mean it’s you know big arena it’s

A that would be fine that that would be probably too big they they they they go to kind of these secondary cities I think they’re in like Providence Springfield and sou Falls I mean it’s the hockey tournament you know but it the environment will be incredible 3,000

Seats anyway um the problems they have in the in the the hockey tournament gets no respect it’s like on ESPN news or something like you gotta atast on it’s it’s all game sevens like game7 hockey is unbelievable right like like Ross said like you want to watch this time of

Year too I’ll watch like some wrestling or what I mean you if they’re playing for a title I’m I’m I’m intrigued so good I’ll I’ll I’ll see you on the live stream for NCAA men’s swimming uh later today well maybe not that but I do predict Boston College will win the

Boston College is loaded anyway hockey is great now these kids are not going to the NHL they’re not going to play Junior Hockey they’re going NCAA college hockey has the best I’m gonna I’m I’m G I’m hijacking they have the best rules and think about these rules that would

Blow the minds of basketball or football below their minds mind you this is the same organization the same athletic departments right how do they pick the field one computer parse oh boy one computer formula you go into the season that’s the formula top 16 and they they don’t

Quite seat them out because they got some uh hosting rules no committee wow that’s why Colorado College got screwed huh one computer one computer imagine trying to even propose this for basketball or football you can’t do it it’d be Works literally works over here Dan you’re I found the Yahoo expert

Picks uh the right now the ranking there’s 31 of us um and Dan you’re 25th hey um I am 15th so we’re you know we’re not right in the middle I’m right in the middle I’m poised for uh to make a leap we’ll see women’s bracket I picked all

The or all all the favorites I don’t know how I did in the women’s bracket let’s see okay other rules they have in hockey okay you can get drafted and still play college hockey right so now that’s really an NHL rule that is everyone is 18 is is draftable but they draft

Players so you get drafted by the Toronto M beliefs and you’re 18 and they go yeah well I think I’d rather go to uh Minnesota and play cuz I’m you know you’re not ready for the NHL and they go great and they work with the programs and the coaches and they develop the

Players through college hockey so College hockey now has all this Talent Boston College is loaded with first round picks if you say that in basketball you you can’t it won’t be committed to the team we can’t have guys come you you go what about a guy who

Played two years for you goes in the draft doesn’t get drafted or doesn’t like his spot could he come back no no no no no he signed with an agent in cocky they don’t care very good point that’s a uh a major difference how is the rule one other

What Dan Dan hold up here on the Yahoo expert what what what did you put your name as I have no idea you put your name as CFE the college football yeah college football inquire well then you aren’t in then I was looking at a we have a Dan in

Here I thought that was you Dan Divine I be it oh so there you go college football Inquirer how am I doing what place is what place is Dan ahuh I was getting yeah I know now I got to go back and January 7th you can’t say Happy New

Year in the in the women’s bracket you’re doing quite well you are sixth out of 31 in the women’s bracket in the men’s bracket you are slightly ahead of me you are 13th I’m okay there you go well I was looking I saw Dan so I thought that was you but

Then I saw CF I I would think picking only three fours of a final four will eventually come back to bite you but yeah we see I want Michigan Michigan State with a frozen four bid on the line and I want Boston College and Boston University to meet in the championship game that’s

Just as a fan UMass is in the vent too the Denver Pioneers are coming to wre UMass vers Denver we could put a wager on this there you go let’s do it see what do you got got nothing anyway um I said let’s do it we’ll bet

All right we’ll bet we’ll figure out the bet uh um Ross you have a story on the football we don’t have enough football coaches in America apparently oh yeah um I don’t the poor guys are getting no instruction um still running the wing te out there what is this proposal and

Uh what is happening with unlimited coaches yeah I mean you know right now uh the only coaches the only staff members on a football staff who can actually offer skill instruction they call it to players are the 10 assistants and the one head coach overall that’s 11

What they call accountable coaches uh so support staff people analysts Consultants quality control folks they are not supposed to actually coach um even though that rule is bent quite a bit and broken quite often probably and so because of that they’re just planning on at least by according to this

Proposal that is just a proposal for now uh they’re this proposal would let everybody on staff offer skill instruction not only in practice and in the building football building but uh in games on the sideline uh so obviously that’s a a fairly big change because then you basically open up the staff to

An unlimited amount of coaches um who can who can be Hands-On with uh with players it’s something coaches have pushed for for years now in fact this same proposal was introduced last year and was rejected by the D1 council partly because of the fear that there will be a prol proliferation in coaching

Staff sizes uh that is one part of this I think the second part of this is much more interesting and that’s the recruiting piece so according to the proposal the 11 countable coach the the the maximum amount of coaches you can have on the road off- campus recruiting

Is 11 the 11 countable head coach and ten assistant so that’s still the same however you’ve kind of Blended the two groups now right you Blended the support staff guys who now can coach with the accountable coaches so in a way it does give a head coach flexibility to

Take maybe say like this is an example but an older offensive line coach who doesn’t want to go out in the road recruiting anymore you know and and take a support staff member promote him to an assistant offensive line coach and make him your accountable recruiter who goes

On out to the road um that is pretty interesting right because you could have staffs evolve into two separate kind of Divisions you could have a group of recruit recruiters and a group of X and O’s type of position coaches and coordinators right it’s kind of an NFL

Type model um now some coaches I taught to believe that that won’t necessarily happen at many places because position coaches will still want to do the recruiting and go visit the campuses and homes and start building relationships but other coaches tell me no they they

Think that this rule will be if it does pass will will be kind of manipulated like many rules in the NCAA and you’ll have separate scouting or recruiting teams um who whose sole job will be to go out on the road while all the quote coaches X’s and O’s tactical guys stay

Hang back so now this is again just a proposal and it was rejected last year by the D1 council so it’s got a six- week socialization period where they’ll receive feedback and then the NCA football oversight who Ally introduce the proposal we’ll meet again in miday to probably I think they’ll probably

Eventually adopt it but then it is subject to the approval of the D1 council and uh so we’ll see if this year they will give their stamp of approval so I I mean the the the big difference between as Dan alluded to there like the NFL an NFL front office and College

Is the the fundamental difference of talent acquirement is the NFL they draft so they go out to watch players perform and they view them as potential employees that they don’t have to win over in any way in college this the recruiters go out on the road to watch

What first of all whether they can perform but then to to start building a relationship so the offensive line coach has familiarity with the star offensive tackle he’s trying to get and that guy’s family and then you’ve got that relationship and they get in the building and the

Player has somebody they feel close to who’s been there since they were a junior in high school and hey you know what I my girlfriend broke up with me I need somebody’s office I need to go in and talk to well there he is you know I think there there’s value clearly to

What’s gained in face-to-face recruiting by people who become your coaches so I I can I’m sure there are some people that don’t want to do it I wouldn’t want to do it a certain age probably like at the age I’m at right now if you gave me the

Opportunity to not be an on the road recruiter I’d say thank you but I do think there’s a lot of value that’s gained in that that that could be at risk of not being there going forward I don’t know we’ll see the recruiting pit because that’s

The part you always hear the coaches say they like getting to the NFL it’s just football right and they don’t really have to do you know these guys and they’re just they may help a little bit in draft prep but it’s not not this the not recruiters and then you could just

Get this you know they’ve always had these guys on staff so they he’s just you know he’s basically a recruiter you know he’s not really a coach just super smooth right like this could be like like like we get the really smooth dudes like they don’t even know anything about football just like

Just the see the singles bar like this guy’s a real talker man he can just Sals I mean like if you sell like medical devices you don’t know how the thing works but you’re the one who can smooth the head nurse she puts in the order right like this is straight salesman

This could be wild it it could I you know and there’s there’s um this was brought up to me by an athletic director because I think many of the ads were were were one of the reasons that you know they pushed back against it last year why why it failed because they were

Afraid of several things one the blowing you know the increasing of Staff sizes uh in salaries too right um so but one of the ads to mentioned something um really interesting to me and that’s if you do sep separate the two and you you have back home your coaches and then you

Have these separate 6 8 10 just recruiters well those recruiters don’t necessarily have to live where your school is maybe they set up shop as a scouting Department in another state sit in Atlanta or something like that yeah like Scouts who don’t live where their frch yeah couldn’t you see Ohio State or

Or something setting up a bureau in Orlando Florida with their recruiter there um or or recruiters plural recr from home work from home yeah spread out so that is certainly something that’s concerning for administrators we’ll see if that comes up over the next few weeks interesting yeah go go go kill like a

Men’s wrestling team so that we can have a recruiting Bureau in Orlando priorities man priorities yeah one more guy yep um all right uh People’s Court this Show’s been all over the map yeah let’s let’s land This Plane if we can um a man uh there’s a guy named uh

There’s a lot to this story it’s a man named Justin wood uh and he is a uh he is a juggler you know juggling mhm he’s a juggler and he has a YouTube channel which highlights trips taken with his service animal which is a duck oh boy

We’re hitting a lot of a lot of hot buttons already yeah wrinkle the duck is the name of the duck wrinkle wrinkle the duck um anyway Justin uh he juggles and he goes around with his duck and apparently his YouTube channel it has 2.7 Mill subscribers so I can’t put any

Shade on it cuz we shirs ain’t getting that on our YouTube channel that said we neither juggle I can juggle but I won’t uh I I could probably get more will that help our YouTube numbers is that what it’ll take I’ll juggle maybe jug I don’t

Have a duck do I need a duck wrinkle the duck uh Justin and wrinkle the duck the a the the uh exploration The Adventures of wrinkle the duck uh he calls it his service duck it seems like this duck duck is basically content a content

Creator uh he took it to a bues um you know the convenience store in Tennessee and tried to film uh a deal he put Wrinkle in a stroller uh wrinkle basically rides in the stroller but occasionally comes out uh to give Shoppers high fives with his beak because people get excited to see

Wrinkle uh there’s this whole bit that I had no idea existed this world of juggling and uh um uh uh duck influencers I you know quite a combination America’s in a weird spot it’s in a weird spot right how are we not more popular how is this more

Popular how is this exponentially more popular right please watch our YouTube channel so that we’re not just trounced by a duck and a juggler can you please tell your friends to listen at least listen to this podcast for one minute so our numbers go up so I don’t have to be

Embarrassed when talking to my bosses that we’re getting trounced by a by a duck and a juggler please I’m here I’m try you know I don’t try hard obviously in this podcast but I try a little it’s free you get what you pay for anyway uh he’s at the bies and um uh

Employee tells him pets are not allowed uh we get into the the existential thread of this is a service animal like clearly it is not but he has he has someone has labeled wrinkled the a service animal he’s got the ID um the Buy’s employee says the problem is

Wrinkle is not you can watch the whole video if you want um can he put it on a leash they said yes he doesn’t have a leash so he puts him on an invisible leash so he’s kind of like a mime also guy multi-talented anyway um the cops show

Up uh and all goes on and bies bies has come out strong and said you are banned from life from all bies wow for life not just the duck this guy’s life no juggling no ducks no stroller you nothing you cannot get into bies anymore ban so Justice Dinger we’ll start with

You thoughts on this uh ruling by bies uh Justified or not it seems severe Dan uh for Life ban from all bues uh see seems very severe I I I might need to watch the video to see uh if uh warranted yeah we’re just throwing more

Views at them you know yeah but I will say you know as Pat has uh boned often the uh service animal and traveling with a service animal um is is pretty pretty pretty annoying I think for many of us uh so I do get that but this seems

Severe I I don’t necessarily agree with lifetime maybe a lifetime band for the duck I don’t know what duck life bands are but maybe the duck’s not allowed back then ever can you get gas can you get a car wash like yeah what sent I stand with big convenience here

Big gas whatever you want to call them uh that hell yes they’re banned for life get that duck out of there get this freak who wants to juggle and put his duck on a m leash out of there NOP you’re gone you flouted bies man you you

Can’t cross bies you you do that you got to pay the price so I am I am fully in support of a lifetime ban I also I would like to point out there’s no such thing as high-fiving a duck it’s a low five all right what if it’s flying beak I would a

High five a duck I mean if it’s if yes if it flew up to the level where you could raise your arm to high five at fine but I suspect no fraud what about Bucky says a beaver as a logo that’s just a logo they don’t have the thing walking around the store

If they did it would rans sack the place beavers are badasses don’t mess with them I don’t I rarely I rarely run into them I don’t know about you I don’t um I’ve seen them in action look out two two uh I’m on the Buy website there’s

Buckes holds two World Records this is another to go back to the Guinness can we do something with the world record guy what was it oh yeah I can’t remember um it has the world’s largest convenience store uh cerville where is that is that in Seville uh Tennessee tene okay yeah

That’s what I thought seen that Seville Tennessee it is 7477 square feet of convenience store that is a lot of buck a lot of convenience yeah uh it also has a 255 ft conveyor for its Car Wash I don’t know where the location that is wait

They’re showing me that’s at the one in uh is that the same place that’s the one in Katy Texas okay 255 you your car should be washed after 255 feet 70,000 square feet of BU like do they have a is it a duplex I mean do

They have people live there I don’t know I’m looking it up on a map right now immense yeah seville’s it’s Eastern Tennessee yeah well I mean it’s I I I want to go there forget Dolly says five to 10 years is the usual duck lifespan

And that is not a long enough ban for our dude that seems like a penalty enough of course the guy would probably come back in with a new Duck see he will he’ll just come back with a new Duck yeah that would be that’d be kind of cheating to get around it

Um I don’t know yeah this on the map it’s a Google map it’s still an empty parking lot so get your act together Google I don’t know it’s a big it looks kind of too it’s big I’m seeing photos anyway enjoy bies everyone and now you’ll be duck free if you got a

Duck get out of here keep it on the pond we don’t want man I used to have a duck well you what my parents bought me yeah pet duck the lead here my uh when I was gu I’m guessing girls weren’t a big part of your life at

Time Dan come on man a low blow girls love the duck got a duck south Louisiana when we lived in south Louisiana uh my my parents bought me what they thought was a duck and so I had the duck quacker was the duck’s name had how old were you

At this point uh I was probably you know four to six four to six that’s acceptable duck range yeah oh good I’m glad it’s clear cleared uh so so quacker you know would hop around the backyard I’d mess around with him and about a year in or so maybe even less than that

Clacker started to get pretty ugly and mean and it also grew very large started to grow very large very quickly and we ended up figuring out it was some cinjun swamp Goose what not a duck at all so I had got attached to quacker despite him pecking at me and almost killing me

Multiple times in her backyard um and so we had to load him up in the pickup truck and drive him to the swamp to let him go because he was he was uh terrorizing uh the family so we let him go and it was a very sad day to see raer

Go out into the swamp I bet man young R are crying all the way home yeah Yes Man pour one out for quacker qu right 41 out rest in power I got to talk to coach Dell about this yeah good job Mom and Dad right by bought like a a little

Duckling on the side of the road they were selling a course in like Louisiana and it turns into some crazy ass terrorizing Goose wasn’t even a duck well it’s good that you uh you know they probably like hey probably forget about it clearly not no clearly not haunt

Me boy all right that’s probably good for the PO huh I think we’re done I think we’re done think we’re done thanks for listening if you’re still listening breaking down the brackets how’s your bracket bracket bustard what’s your history with ducks go ahead um Oregon lost so that’s it we can

We’ll tied into that we will uh duck thanks for subscribing and uh sharing us on social media and tell telling your friends about us we will talk to you later