SEC SQUAD - Spring Ball is OVER | How should LSU feel?

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0:41

Which team made us feel better? Heading towards next season, it's time to get our squad together.

1:09

You're talking ball with the SEC squad. From Alabama to Tennessee, from Georgia to Oklahoma, from Auburn to Texas, it's called Local Experts of the Locked On Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming SEC weekend. It's the SEC squad, and we have a seat for you. Hurt feelings and thin skin are prohibited. Squad up. You're part of the SEC squad.

1:14

What's up, everybody? Welcome into the SEC squad. Sit back, grab your favorite beverage and join us as we get you ready for another week talking all things sec. Want to thank you guys for checking us out and helping make Locked on the number one podcast network out there. Let's welcome in our panel this week, we've got John Neighbors from Locked On Razorbacks Corey Burton from Lock On Vandy Jimmy Stein from Locked On Bama, Steven Willis from Locked On Ole Miss Jay Smith makes a return from Locked on sooner. It's good to see Jay. He's. He's out on parole this week or something. I don't know what, why he's back with us, but. Jay, good to have you back, man. Where you been?

1:44

Yeah, no, it's great to be back. High school sports. I'm about to wrap that up for the. The end of my career. No, not me. Myself, my youngest is graduating high school this year, so I usually spend my weekdays at his activities and we're about to be a graduate in about a couple weeks, so a little bit different.

2:18

You were watching your kid Play. It's way, way, way, way, way less intense story than you were doing a rap or something. But anyway, let's get into it, fellas. Speaking of putting a wrap on things, we are putting a wrap. Sec, Arkansas had their spring game on Saturday. LSU and Ole Miss kind of wrapping things up this week. Neither of them will play a spring game. So as we put a cap on things, guys, ask the question, is there a team you feel better about now than you did going into spring ball? And yes, it can be your own team, but kind of kick it around. Is there something you saw this spring that made you go, okay, I feel a little bit better about this team. You know what, John Neighbors, let's start with you.

2:39

Why?

3:20

But no, it's. Listen, I, I would be lying if I sat here and said that I had really paid attention to every other spring practice for all the other football teams. But I will say though, that it's as far as like, you know, what comes out and what's really interesting, what's really intriguing or what's kind of the main thing. I think, you know, quarterbacks is always a big situation. I think it's also about these new coaches with their new teams and everything too. But you know, honestly, I think LSU is always just going to be interesting to me just because of the link given angle, obviously, and the talent that's there. But it's also a matter of, you know, are they going to be a team that fits right off and starts winning 10 games and not being on the hot seat after only going 9 and 3? I think that's the big one. But I don't feel really much better about any team, especially Arkansas. I don't feel any different. But I will say that there's at least an element to where I feel like this SEC season is going to be even more parody and have even more close matchups, close games and close division St. Or conference standings when it's all said and done, we even saw

3:22

last year, is it fair to at least say you feel better about Arkansas's defense? Haven't saw what they did in the spring game?

4:23

Well, yeah, because it couldn't get any worse than what it was. I mean, it has to be, it has to be better. Listen, I mean, there, there was some things that were better about the, the team. I mean, they didn't commit a lot of penalties, which I know, hey, it's a spring game. But to me that's more important from being able to just take one performance from a player and be like, if this guy's going to be good or not. If you take something like, hey, not having a whole lot of penalties, not having a whole lot of mistakes being made, I think that's a big part of it. I like their rushing attack and I like what their defense was able to do, but I just don't really have a whole lot of confidence in their quarterback play. In fact, there's a. There's a situation to where this could be one of the worst quarterback situations Arkansas's had in a long time, maybe even ever, because they can't throw the ball downfield. That's a problem. So you may just see one of those types of teams that, hey, if you're going to win games, keep the time of possession and run the ball effectively. But that may be just about it. But the defense does look better. I think the organization's better. At least the energy's higher. So take that for what it is. But I'm sure it's going to be another banner year for the Razorbacks in the sec.

4:30

They should have gone to the Arkansas court, try to get another year for Taylor Green there. He just got drafted by the Browns, but that could have helped.

5:23

Yeah, yeah, because he went 2 and 10 last year. That would definitely helped.

5:29

Hey, he was good. He was productive, at least. Corey, which team you going with?

5:32

Well, first of all, my. I was really happy with my defensive schemes that we put in at Texas. They're responding really well, all the different coverages we're giving them. So it's going to be great there. I think we're going to stop a lot of teams and we have a chance of winning the conference over there in Austin. So I'm very excited to be here to tell you about it. So if there's any recruits.

5:38

Champ, could you tell us about that player you just picked up, Michigan State?

6:02

No, I can't.

6:07

For those on audio, Corey has a striking resemblance to Will Muschamp, the Texas defensive coordinator. So. But it's okay. You can go with Texas said a lot of people said they've been oppressed with Texas's defensive spring.

6:08

I mean, they are actually going to be. In all seriousness, they are going to be pretty nasty on defense. But, you know, for Vanderbilt, I was, you know, came away impressed with Jared Curtis, obviously. You know, I think despite what you may hear about Blaze Berlowitz being in that quarterback competition, I don't know that there's going to be much of a competition once fall camp starts. I think Jared Curtis is going to kind of just take over and that's going to be kind of the start of, of that era there. And Vanderbilt's defense is going to be really, really good. And then a team that I'm intrigued by is the Florida Gators with their quarterback battle and the new stuff they got going on down.

6:21

That's your actual cousin.

6:59

And then that's that. Now he's gonna be with his offense, so that's gonna be intriguing there too. So there you go.

7:01

Yeah, no, I like. And look, I have to think them to get Jared Curtis on campus at Vanderbilt, there had to be some guarantee, right? Like maybe they didn't come out and say you were hands down the starter. But hey, we're gonna give you every chance to be the starter this year. If you come to Vanderbilt, you have to earn it.

7:09

Wink, wink. You have to earn it. Yeah, that kind of thing.

7:24

Yeah. Jay Smith, who you want to go with, you can go with Oklahoma if you want.

7:27

Sure, why not? We're just going to keep it all in the family. I do feel more comfortable with Oklahoma coming into it. They actually showed the tight ends can block and catch passes and running backs can find holes and actually hit them and run straight up the field. So feel pretty good about the way that we look overall in that capacity. The good thing is, is a lot of our top starters, we helped them out specifically to, you know, rest them up and not really get them more dinged than what they were coming out of last season. And so I'm pretty confident and comfortable with the way Oklahoma looks, especially with that offensive line. The offensive line is. They were young last season, so they were figuring out a lot of stuff together. Now you're returning a bunch of guys, six dudes that have at least six starts from last season, and it feels like they're starting to gel a lot more quickly than I even anticipated. So pretty comfortable with Oklahoma going forward. Georgia is the team I would pick outside of Oklahoma. I think they may actually have some wide receivers that's going to be dangerous this year.

7:31

Yeah. Well, Steve Smith senior thinks Gunner Stockton sinks stinks. So fair.

8:29

I mean, I could totally see that. I mean, they didn't really use Zachariah Branch the way that I guess everyone wanted them to. But I do feel like they did highlight his best abilities, which was give him the ball in space and let him go. They didn't need him to run a full route tree. This is college and for the most part, you highlight the best features of a player by giving them either having them run, you know, some run a Cam Coleman route Tree of just running a slant or a, a 9 and just go or branch. You give him the ball quickly, let him do his thing. I don't think that's a problem. Now. Gunner Stockton is not gonna go out there and just dominate. He, I mean, he threw for what, 2800 yards last season, middle Heisman voting.

8:35

So I think that's something, right?

9:17

He put up 25 touchdowns. I mean, that's, that's something that, that's a good deal. You, that to me helped him stand out in the sec. But he's not going to go out there and give you even what Stetson Bennett gave you. He's just going to be consistent. He's going to get some passes off, get some touchdowns, but he's not going to lap the scoreboard on his own.

9:19

Stephen, let's jump over to you. Which team do you feel better about coming out of spring?

9:36

I know everybody is tuning in, expecting me to go straight homer, but the reality is that we saw about 24 minutes of total spring practice football. So we don't know with our own eyes what we've seen. Now I was in Oxford last week and everybody is crazy excited about this team, but I haven't seen it with my own eyes. I guess the team that I am expecting after spring to take a step is you're going to finally have competent offense at Auburn. I think Auburn could be a school to watch for as far as Ole Miss goes. I mean, I think top quarterback in football, college football, top running back in college football, top kicker in college football. There's a lot to be excited about, but we need to see it on the field with much tougher schedule.

9:40

I like it. Jimmy Stein will finish things off with you.

10:28

I think the team that I look at differently post spring than I did pre spring is Oklahoma a little bit. I mean, in terms of if I was projecting what the league might look like this fall, not sure I would have included Oklahoma as a team I would put in the, in the playoff. But now I do. I just feel like with Venables and what they're returning on defense, on that front and Stone and they're going to run the ball better, obviously. I don't know they could run it any worse. Oklahoma and Alabama kind of in the same boat when it came to that. But I like the combination of schedule, defense, one more year of matier, one more year of the same offense, the continuity there material healthy. So Oklahoma is a team that I would put in a playoff projection now and I don't know that I was saying that in early March. As far as Alabama goes, it's a narrow thing, but one thing that I do feels better at Alabama than most realize is the portal class, the transfer portal class. It was ranked 13th out of the 16 SEC teams by by rivals, 40th in the nation. Don't normally see Alabama with numbers like that beside a class, but the portal class, particularly on defense, look really good this spring at Alabama. I think those, those portal guys, Devin Tompkins on the defensive line, Caleb Woodson at linebacker in particular. But there's others like Carmelo o' Neal at corner, Josh Ford, a tight end. Noah Rogers is having a spectacular spring. He's another portal guy. He tore his tore his knee up on the on the final day of of spring and might and it's probably going to miss most of the season. But I would say I feel better about Alabama just based on the transfer portal class appears much better than it was ranked by the by the industry.

10:32

And I'll add, I think we feel pretty good about Keelan Russell too. I had questions about him coming in the spring and obviously he lit up on a day we'll see if that carries over into the fall. But all good stuff there, guys. Yeah, I think, I think there's, you know, you never get some definitive answers coming out of spring. You never want to overreact to a spring game or things like that. But you can get some questions answered and we get a lot of those answered. All right, fellas, when we return, we'll switch gears. The latest news. The NCAA going to be moving towards expanding. Is it the right move? Getting some thumbs down already? We'll discuss that next with the squad. Hey, well, first, guys, I want to remind you about our friends over at Indeed. Workplace chaos, deadline stacking up your inbox, overflowing in that one position you gotta fill still sitting open with pressure's on and you need to make the right hire. This is a job for Indeed. Sponsored Jobs are gonna help you reach the right people who actually fit what you're looking for. Skills, experience, location. So you're not just hoping the right candidate stumbles across your post. I had a friend doing an interview the other day and it was some guy who lived in like, another state. It's like, no, I need the people that fit what I need right here. And here's a stat that says it all in the minute. We've been talking to you guys. Companies like yours made 27 hires on Indeed according to Indeed Data Worldwide. So if you're hiring, spend less time searching and more time interviewing the candidates who check all your boxes with Indeed sponsored jobs. And of course, listeners of our show will get a 75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com podcast stressed less time, more results when you need the right person to cut through the chaos. This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Go to indeed.com podcast right now. Support our show. Tell me heard about it right here. Indeed.com podcast terms and conditions apply if you need to hire. This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.

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14:26

All right, SEC squad rolling along here, guys. And if you missed this, the news coming out. Well, we, we heard rumblings of it back in early April. I think Ross Dellinger put it out there that, hey guys, just a heads up, there are some decision makers that want to make this thing expand. This, this the NCAA tournament. Well, news coming out yesterday that this is indeed moving towards happening. The NCAA has begun the final steps to expand the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments to 76 teams each in men's and women's. Now they've come out and had some statements. They said, well, this guy go through a whole lot of levels of approval and all this. But if you read between the lines, basically everybody's saying this is gonna happen. So I put the question out there. Let me post it to you guys. Does anybody like it? Does anybody think this is a good thing going to 76 teams?

14:36

What are we curious? Curious about it? Do we, do we know what the plan is for the 76 yet? Have they even give us an idea of how they plan on breaking this up? Or are they going to have a massive bracket with 76, have a whole bunch of first fours playing and see where it goes into the standard. You know, the standard.

15:24

They're just gonna, that's what I heard. 24 teams are going to play, play in games, essentially. They're going to expand, basically Dayton and probably have another location.

15:46

Yeah, yeah.

15:56

They're like, let's. This formula works great.

15:58

But yeah, well, I can say this as the. The residential expert of a team that actually is good in the NCAA tournament and is actually good at the sport of basketball. To sign, show everyone shut up, all right? Because all the other sports I'm not very good at, but I'm good at this one. Here's the deal that the NCAA tournament, the fact it's expanding is the stupidest thing. I think everybody agrees with it because it's like, it's amazing. And, you know, it's always kind of like a fun little joke about, hey, the NCAA does so much wrong. It's like, no, this. They truly just, like, do things wrong on purpose. Sometimes I feel like there was. Nobody was asking for this. Nobody wanted this. And I know people would say, well, it's all about money, but I mean, how much more money are they really going to make on something like this? Maybe they are, but it just seems like this was something that it was unanimously everyone was against, and they did it anyways. So is that going to change anyone's watching the NCAA Tournament? No. Is that going to change anyone's approach on the NCAA Tournament? Is that going to change? Oh, well, you know, the champion this year is not really a champion because it expanded. Like, no, it's not going to change anything like that. To me, this is just. Of all the things that you could fix and you can improve, this is the least amount. Like, how about not sending Arkansas to fricking San Jose? How about we start there, you know, and start having some places, but instead it's just going to be. You're basically just going to have a bunch of average teams playing average basketball as a precursor leading up to the actual tournament that matters.

16:01

Yeah.

17:23

The one thing that you probably need to take away from this is that their research means that they're probably not going to get nearly the same amount of money, the next television contract deal. So they needed some more inventory to put in there to try and get as much money as possible. I think that is the case here. That is the story. The TV rights are about to just go down the toilet and the NCAA is trying to get ahead of it. I don't agree with it. I think it's stupid to have a situation to where, you know, Auburn's playing Mississippi State and Dayton, Ohio. Nobody wants that. Not a single team wants that. And this is from coming from an Ole Miss team that went 15 and 20 this year. There's a chance that we could be on the bubble if we do it again. So, I mean, it's ridiculous.

17:23

I'm curious to I mean, we all believe it's a money grab in some capacity. And you're right, neighbors, like, how much more are you really going to make? But Steven, I totally see what you're saying, that, that this new TV contract is really going to be the determining factor of why they're doing this. But the inventory there is huge. It's one of the most watched, especially the first four games, the first four weekend. That, that weekend is the one of the most watched events every year. And so to me, it's, I guess the thing that upsets me the most about this is that this is with it being a money grab. The one thing that NCAA has thrown in everybody's face is that paying the players in NIL is going to cause them to lose other sports. Seeing that with some. Arkansas just got rid of the tennis program. Totally understood. Right. I mean, it's just the price, you know, the, the price of doing business. But will any of that revenue that they're going to be creating with all of, with the expanded cost of all playoffs, the expanded March Madness, are they going to use any of that money to pay and fund those other sports that they said are now going to be hurt because they have to pay players?

18:10

Well, let me.

19:12

Why is that going to happen?

19:12

Let me throw in this caveat. You know, look, there's one part of this where, yes, TNT and TBS and all them and espn, whoever, you know, whoever has the right cbs, they're all pushing for, yeah, we'll take more games because, yes, more advertising dollars and all this, but this is also the conferences and the schools pushing for this too, because there's more revenue share. You're paying players out of the revenue share. Now, if you get more teams in the NCAA tournament, there's more money in the revenue share. So I think, you know, don't think it's just the advertisers and the TV networks. This is. The schools and conferences want this, too.

19:13

I think there's a lot of people pushing forward, except for one group, the fans. And the fans pay for everything. They're the only, they're the only group that's not at the table. The schools are there, the presidents are there, the conferences are there, the TV executives are there, the advertisers are there. The one group that isn't there, the fans who pretty much universally said no to this and it's ignored. And the shame of it is the fans speaking for the fans, they're going to watch the games anyway. And they know this. They know the fans that complain about it are also going to be watching the games. But it is a real shame in all of this that, that the one group that pays for all of it is. It doesn't have a seat at the table and isn't heard.

19:46

Yeah, we love ball. I mean, we love sports. We love, we love, we love the tournament just immensely. People go to Vegas and go watch the games and enjoy it. It's like a vacation for a lot of people. We love the playoffs just because we just love football. We're addicted to it here in this country. And so the. But it's, it's very sad. You know, just as you mentioned, Jimmy, we're going to watch these games no matter what they know people are going to watch. And that's the justification. It's the ratings. Oh, the ratings are going to be up. So I guess everybody wants it. No, we're going to watch it because it's the only thing out there that you have to consume live. Because if you watch a tape delay, you're upset because people are going to spoil it for you. Everything else you consume, you can choose to watch it when you want to. You can stay off the interwebs and not hear about the season finale of your favorite show. But you can't do that with sports because it's all over the place the minute something happens. And so, yeah, we know that people are going to tune in because that's just the thing we do. We love something that's live. It's the one thing that can't be created.

20:28

Those games aren't necessarily easy to. True TV isn't easy to find, especially if you don't have a cable package. So like it's gonna be on true tv. Maybe some HGTV games.

21:30

Yeah, I mean it's been that way for some years. So I mean, I hope people didn't figure some of that out. But you're right, Gordy, like, they're gonna start moving it to streaming services. That's the next thing you're gonna see. It's gonna leave from True. It's gonna be on Amazon prime, you're gonna see it on Netflix, you'll see all these random other places. And, and I think that's when things are really going to just get really sour.

21:41

To me, the over saturation is what was. What's going to drive it down. In my opinion. I think it's going to make some of those playing games less important. Like if. And people aren't going to care if they have to go through all this effort to go, okay, Is the game on Amazon Prime? Is it on Hulu? Is it on Bravo? Is it on the Weather Channel? Like, where's this game at? You know, it's like, what are we doing here? It's like, I'm just not going to watch it. I'll wait till the tournament starts on Thursday.

21:58

I was talking about angry. I was talking about angry fans. Fans. Let's see how angry my wife is when she turns on HGTV and there's a college basketball game on. Like Gordy said, she talked about she'll be the angriest fan in. In the nation when her HGTV is ruined by an opening round game in Dayton.

22:25

Take away my impractical jokers already. I mean, come on.

22:41

Yeah, that is true. One, one request. If you have an automatic qualifier, if you got in, if you're a 16 seed, you get straight into the field of 64 and make this at large. Only those 24 teams.

22:44

Yeah, well, and also, too, to like, to throw into it of like, we just got. It's got. It's about how you look at it. Like, postseason in a lot of cases, in a lot of sports at a lot of different levels is about finding the champion and seeing who's the true champion. That's not what the NCAA tournament is. It hasn't been for a long time because I'm sorry, the 68th team has. That's not at somebody who's like, I have a legitimate reason to believe that I am a champion, so I want to prove it. It's like, yeah, you can, but it's not a real thing. It's just about the. The event. And we are very scared as fans, no matter what, when it comes to if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Because it's like, oh, you can only go down. There's some cases where it's not necessarily been like that. Sometimes expansion has been good and because, you know, went from 32 teams to 64 teams at one point, I don't think anybody was, you know, I don't know. We didn't have Twitter back then, but maybe people were pissed about that and then now they're fine with it. So it's like, we'll adapt to it, but it's just a matter of the. The idea that any of this is. Had any say in what the fans thought or what anybody wanted. I'm just surprised it took them this long and the fact that they were. Because it seems like they're all on board with it and trying to make it happen. But you know what is when you brought up losing sports and everything, like Arkansas's loss with, with tennis and all that. Yeah. It won't matter because you got to have people who know what they're doing when it comes to athletic departments and what to do with the money, so.

22:57

Well, can I, Can I add to the women's. I mean, like, the women's tournament is so top heavy. I mean, it is the power.

24:12

It's just chalk.

24:20

Yeah. I mean, South Carolinas, they're all sitting up. We know they're all getting to the Final four, going to 76 in the women's tournament. Just. I mean, that to me, doesn't make a ton of sense.

24:22

Yeah. And somebody is going to be the 16th seed from the women's tournament, have to go play Yukon and get beat by 80 points and that. That's how their season is going to end. And I'm. I don't think that's right.

24:33

Yeah. By the way, Oklahoma, Auburn, San Diego State and Indiana were the first four out of the men's tournament last year. And most people agreed they didn't deserve to be in. Now, Auburn won the nit. Give them that but good. John.

24:49

Well, I was gonna say another thing that we gotta think about this is thinking about coaches contracts and thinking about, like, getting now into the NCAA tournament. Because now it's suddenly going to be like, you know, like, you just mentioned Auburn and Stephen Pearl and all that. Everyone's like, this guy's a joker. He's no Bruce Pearl. Or even with Oklahoma and Porter Moser, he was on the hot seat. Be like one of them gone now if it happened last year, it's like, those guys make the NCAA tournament and say if they win a game or two in the play in, suddenly, what's that value now? Like, what is the value of. Well, you didn't make a sweet 16, but hey, you made the field of 64 because you won two or three games beforehand. So, like, what. What value does that become? And how do fans view that? Is. Is it something about now coaches? Because I'm sure, I'm sure there's a lot of coaches within incentives of getting to the NCAA Tournament. These coaches are probably just pumping their fists like, all right, now I get a better chance of getting this raise, even though it's not going to mean anything in the grand scheme of things,

25:02

except for the ones that don't make it. Don't be the SEC coach that doesn't make the 70, 60 term because the fans are going to be louder than ever about not making the tournament now that it's expanded.

25:54

And at the end of the day on what what neighbors said, the big winner for the 76 team tournament will be Jimmy Sexton.

26:05

Nice.

26:11

As my buddy who tweeted about the the NCAA going to 76, he said everything just gets worse and we can't do anything about it. That's kind of how I feel. They're not asking the fans what we want. They're just going, we know what you want and you're going to get it. And thanks.

26:14

More ball.

26:31

Yeah y human nature is you're going to improve something until you absolutely destroy it. That that is human nature. And they do it over and over again.

26:32

That's literally Razorback football in a microcosm.

26:40

When we return here, guys, another G leaguer coming to college. We'll discuss that next.

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27:18

sec squad roll along here and look. Charles Benioco started a trend last year. It was playing in the G league. And you know what? I'm gonna go back to college where I played a little bit at Alabama and I'm go back there and play again. We know how that saga ended, but we didn't get a rule change. The NCAA did not step in and go, hey, we're gonna make a rule. If you play pro ball, you can't go play college. Well, no rule. We're just gonna play by the current rules that already exist. And we saw Bryson Warren commit to Texas A and M last week. He's a G leaguer that's going to go play for the Aggies. I think played for the Heat, played in their summer league ball. And then just yesterday or earlier this week, Oklahoma basketball added G league player. A Colda Gak is I guess how you're gonna say it, but he's from Australia and got an opportunity in 2022 to play for the Chicago Bulls in their summer league, play for the Mexico City Independent G League team. And so what do you guys think? Do you like swagy league players coming to, coming to college and he played

27:50

for the capital city Go Go, which is the G League team for the Washington Wizards or whatever they're called nowadays. I don't know what the heck these teams. I think it's kind of, I think it's ridiculous. Not gonna lie. Now granted, I mean, him coming to Oklahoma, of course everyone's excited about it. He's also the nephew of Longar Longar, former big man that played for Oklahoma as well. So it's kind of fascinating how that connection came together. But yeah, I think it's kind of ridiculous. Now he never played college ball, so I guess in theory his eligibility is there because he never actually got called up to the NBA either, just played in their minor league system. But yeah, it's, it. I guess it's similar to Chris Winkey coming from minor league baseball or playing baseball and then coming back and playing for, you know, Florida State, Brandon Weed doing the same thing, Oklahoma State playing quarterback. But yeah, I, the NCAA needs to go ahead and step up and make some actual rules around this and stop allowing it. It's kind of getting old.

28:52

Let me ask you guys, Let me ask you guys because maybe I'll know of this and I've never heard of it. Has there been a high school baseball player drafted by the Mariners and never didn't sign with the college, but he went to the Mariners and he played minor league baseball. Got all the way to AAA because he played minor league baseball for seven years, got all the way to aaa, never made the big league club, decide to go back to college and played for a college basketball team as a college baseball team. Does that ever happen?

29:48

No, it's always other sports, basketball, to

30:15

say, basketball is saying you can do this. Yeah, I mean every precedent that basketball is telling baseball, you can do this, you can go get minor league baseball players as long as they didn't make it to the majors. You can go get minor league players as long as they didn't enroll in college when they were, when they were leaving high school. And I would think all of us would find it outrageous that a seven year minor league baseball player for the Mariners organization could end up going to play baseball at North Carolina. That, that's, I think it's outrageous, but I Guess the NCAA is telling us, hey, cool with us.

30:17

Well go get Crash Davis. He's available, right?

30:51

As long as he didn't sign with the college and I don't believe he did.

30:55

Yeah, the cross sport thing is fine. Like I, I'm fine with a kid who got drafted out of high school in the Mariners organization and then want to go back and play college football, that's fine. But like G league is professional ball. You are getting a paycheck to play ball. It's a pro league. I get it's the minor league for the NBA, but I think there needs to be a definitive line drawn in the sand and go guys, I don't care that you didn't go to college before you played pro ball. You can't go back and be an amateur again.

30:58

Well, the challenge behind that is, is then you start to eliminate all the euro players where there's no European players ever allowed to come and play in the state. So your guys, because a lot of them play ball at 14, 15, 16, they're playing professional ball and getting paid for it. Europe, Australia, all of that. So that's where that, that slippery slope comes into play. But to me if you're going to do, if you're going to allow the loud pros to come back and play in the collegiate levels, which with nil in theory, they're kind of pro ish guys, you can't, it has to be foreigners. You have to let them, they can play overseas and come back, that's fine. But they can't do it with the teams here in the States. You, you can't do this with your G league teams. That's, that's got to be a no or they can't play that sport. They can't play that same sport. That to me is where I think it, it gets annoying and it really becomes too murky. Just make a decision. Ncaa, that's all we're asking. Please choose, please decide, please like govern, govern or something.

31:25

It's very hard.

32:23

Don't do the selective enforcement thing to where this is okay and this is not okay when it's the same thing. Just make it to where everybody that played a minor league sports can come back if you didn't make the big league or nobody can one or the other and rule everything the same to everybody.

32:23

But here's the thing about it and John Caliperi has talked so much about it. In fact he had a whole thing of the rules, Bees the rules is what he said is because you got, you know, you get Five years and you play four. All of that he's like, but once, you know, you have a chance to go to college, but once you go pro, you forwent your eligibility. Like that is the, that's the name of the game here. And it's a frustrating thing because I think that he and so many coaches agree with this. And it seems like it's everybody, a lot of people are on board with it. But then you see coaches and I'm not like just calling them out, but it's like saying you see them, you know, do this rule and be able to add these players and it's like, okay, so do you think it's good this way? And then you know, Nate Oates was talking about, well I just want his education and degree. And I'm like, shut up. That is not like that. That is nothing about this. It needs to be something to where I think everybody needs to be locked foot and step foot in it. But also like Cal was saying, he's like these, these kids that are coming overseas, he's like, we don't have birth certificates. They could be 25 years old for all we know. And he's, I mean he's being serious in a lot of those cases. So if you have murky waters when it comes to those things, just you know, not saying you got to deny everybody from overseas, but you got to be able to have an, an established rule, be like if you've played pro, you can't play college in like, I don't know why you can't just do it that way. And then that cuts off everything, makes it fair for everybody and then you have a decision to make now where if you want to go pro, if you're overseas and you can go play in the pro leagues, great. If you want to go pro and play in the G leagues and all that, great. But you have zero percent chance to come back and play college basketball in any capacity you forwent your eligibility. Just leave it at that.

32:42

What about the foreign born players that never come over to the United States? Do we set an age limit for that? Is like if you make it to 20, 21 before you decide to come over to the States, you can't play in college and you just have to go straight to whatever pro route, pro to pro route or what do, what do you do with international born players that aren't in the States?

34:14

That one's tough because as far as I understand it, like a lot of those, a lot of those European countries, like they might not have A university with a team. But like, a lot of kids, like, instead of like, like they'll be in high school and they will play pro ball on the circuit, like for Spain or for whatever.

34:38

So it's.

34:53

It's a different world over there than. Than here, where it's like, you play aau, you. You play high school ball, you go to college and. Or you go to the. Straight to the G League. But there's certainly a conversation to be had there. But I think that's the thing. The problem here is I think almost people just don't view the G League as pro because it's. Oh, it's like amateur, whatever, but it still is pro ball in that sport. And to me, I mean, we've seen several guys forego college and go play G League because they get paid. We just saw Galen Green a couple years ago. The. The Thompson Twins, Oscar and Amen. And, you know, then they declare for the draft and went pro. It would be insane to see those guys go, you know what? NBA didn't work out. I'm going to go back and go to college. No, you don't get to go backwards. It's stupid.

34:54

Yes, with the, with college, they. Especially overseas, they have multiple divisions when it comes to their levels of pro. Right. They're all pros, but they've got multiple levels. And that's kind of where it gets super murky and. But you're. You're right, Gordy. Like, gotta stop trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube. I. I don't. I don't get it. Losing my mind on this.

35:34

Yeah, leave. Leave everything the way that it is right now. But just say, hey, if you go to the G League and you want to retain your college eligibility, you gotta go amateur. Is that like the pro Am thing in golf? You have to stay an amateur. If you do it, if you are willing to do that, you can do it. But if you take $0.01 from a professional organization for your services, it's done. It's over.

35:55

Yeah, that's kind of how I am too. Like, if you're overseas and you go pro and you're in that pro league, it's like, to me, that's the same thing. It's like, because you're, you know, sorry about it, but I just don't think that it's like, well, no, because those guys were pro, so they need. They should. Why do they have to come to play college basketball here? Like, why do they have to. It's not like, oh, they just don't get any exposure over there. Are you kidding me? Half of the super, the best players in the NBA are overseas, so don't give me that stuff. It's like there's no reason for them to have to play here. As if they're being denied some sort of great opportunity to play college basketball. It's like, yeah, you can have that, but as soon as you go pro over there, there's no, there's no like gateway of saying, well, even if you go pro, you deserve to play college basketball here in the United States. Like, no, it's a privilege to do that. You made a decision and that's fine. If you don't want to go pro, if you haven't made any money, then come on over. But I don't know, I just feel like this idea that, oh well, we have to get these guys over here from overseas that went, that went pro over there. Why? Well, because we have to. It's like, oh no we don't, we don't have to do it that way.

36:21

The 18 and 19 year old Europeans are choosing to play in their club leagues as opposed to coming to the US and playing college basketball.

37:19

Yeah, yeah.

37:27

I mean, I think it's about the NBA draft. Honestly, if you play college ball, maybe it's a little bit preferential with the draft and maybe you see yourself getting to the NBA.

37:28

Yeah, I mean, I mean Arkansas just signed a guy that's the number one player out of Serbia and he's coming in and his name's Mika and I mean he looks like the, the Serbian version of Chris Birdman Anderson. I don't know how great he's going to be, but it's like he's a five star player and people are really excited about it. But he didn't play pro league over there. Like there's not a situation where he's a pro league. So I don't know. I just feel like you can figure it out. It's not that difficult. It's just somebody needs to actually step up and say, hey, this is the rule. No if, ands, buts about it. Get over it.

37:37

If you don't like it, model sucks.

38:05

There's no consistency.

38:10

Yeah, no, can we do something where the school could buy the rights to a G league team? Like whenever he decides to come to college, we own his rights. I think that'd be really funny.

38:11

Might be the future.

38:19

They are so much on the edge of just saying, hey, we're Katie, bar the door. We're going to be a pro league. And for college sports. And then there's other half that is like, no, we have to go back to what it was in 1975 and there has to be a happy medium.

38:20

Yeah, 76 tournament teams is not the answer, but we're doing that one anyway, so we'll, we'll leave it there as a tournament.

38:37

How about that?

38:45

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38:46

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