3/3/26: Will the NIL tax exemption become law?

0:00From the Clark Ford Studio in Oxford, Mississippi, MBW Digital proudly presents the Oxford Exxon podcast. And say thanks for tuning in, but why am I going to give you a round of applause for something you're supposed to do to be frank? And now, here are your hosts, Chase Park. And Broadcast School is really paid off. And Neil McCrady. I deserve to be on team. Welcome, man, to this Tuesday morning edition Blue Sky Live here with you today. Chase Park, Neil McCrady. Clark Ford Studio. There are sports today. You got basketball tonight against Vanderbilt at the pavilion. The Rebels and Commodore's eight o'clock tip for that one about an hour and a half after the first 630 start time for Ole Miss baseball. Is it Swayze Field? They play the Memphis Tigers, a struggling group of Memphis Tigers at 630 here in this evening at Swayze as well. The first of a five game, Homestand. The immediate conflict for some on our beat. Oh, yeah, you got to decide.

1:00Are you going to hang out with Mike? Well, you could, oh, no, you, because the baseball game might not be over until the new basketball games over, even starting an hour and a half early. It's always stressful for some people. You never know. I'm asked, true. What do you, what do you do? I mean, you get it. Where do you get the free meal? What do you do? Well, you can double that up. You could go with five, get the baseball, and then get over the basketball bus. Like 745, 730, whatever. Yeah, you can make that work. You can get the free meal there too. You can make that work. I don't even take the voucher. They hand you a voucher. Which they have catering to for league games. They do. But you get the voucher too. Is that how it works? They do voucher as well. Okay. I don't do the voucher or partake in the pre-game meal. Where does the voucher give you access to? Do you get the steak and shake and stuff? Or is it just the regular concession? I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Softball double header at home as well today, apparently.

2:00Oh. Lots going on. Lots going on. Yeah, actually, we're going to mention concessions. I think for the days over if we don't run out of time with the more relevant topics of the day. But we'll get to that in a minute, including little politics or at least legislative process playing out in the state of Mississippi. Again, we'll open with that here in a moment. First tell you about blue sky locations off of the state of Mississippi. Up in now in 55, they're out north Mississippi as well, taking care of you with sweet daddy stops lunch specials. You know, two sides bread. Any size fountain drink. You know, the drill by now. Brusket pull pork. Take care of dinner. Maybe you want to just hang out. You want to stream the games tonight. You want to sit at home. Blue sky. Sweet daddy's locations can help you out with that. Let them take care of dinner for you. Again, Oxford Exxon. All throughout Mississippi. That's blue sky. And you can meet you from the car. For sure. Yeah. We are Clark Ford's in Amory, Mississippi. 662-257-1900. Call that number. Ask for Corey Clark.

3:00Tell Corey what Ford product you are looking for. He'll send you a quote. Then 15 minutes in business hours. Right to the bottom line. There's no hassle. There's no haggle. You get your quote. The rest is up to you. You will shop that you can shop that. Go around if you like. Certainly your prerogative. It's fine with Corey. Because there's, again, there's no haggling. There's no going back and forth. He's just going to send you a quote. There's your quote. Or you can do it. I've done what I recommend that you do. Let's hop into a Clark Ford today. 662-257-1900. Guest. Join on the Campbell Clinic hotline from fractures and sports injuries to complex spine and limb conditions. Once the pediatric orthopedic physicians at Campbell Clinic and Oxford are the only specialized pediatric orthopedic team in North Mississippi providing expert care for growing bodies. Visit Campbell Clinic Oxford dot com to schedule an appointment or call 9017593111.

4:01Mr. Sisky, one of our stream viewers this morning to send us a text. He's up early, checking out a little a little blue sky live where the stallions get busy to do that. Two days with their. We're in their schedule. When are you guys talking to you? I don't know. I think he's doing a show. I think he's going to try to do a show Thursday. I'm out of pocket Thursday completely. So we did win yesterday. Sunday. Sunday. Yeah, I see people asking the question. Ole Miss always does four p.m. starts for baseball during February and then they switch it to 630 when March arrives. That's been the case for a long time. Except I think it used to be three back in the day instead of four. But yeah, when March gets here, we do night games and it said it's 630. You're giving more people an opportunity to get there. Four o'clock start, obviously even locally. Anybody who's working later in the day is not going to make that game. So that is the reason they play it off with temperatures and weather and whatnot and do the best you can on that. So we'll jump into it.

5:02I'll hit the particulars and then we'll start discussing. At least media coverage came out yesterday. I think it technically passed a few days ago but it is. Let me get my thing up because I was kind of looking into it a good bit this morning. It is a bill by Jonathan McMillan. He is District 58 House of Representatives. That is in the Jackson area. I think it's a combination of Madison and Ranking Counties if I have that correct. Okay. The bill authorship it is bill 4014 and it has passed the House of Representatives 76 to 32. And basically what it does is it approves legislation that exempts college athletes in aisle earnings. Name image likenesses were very aware of by now, including revenue sharing payments. So most sides revenue sharing payments and outside third party in aisle. Correct. From Mississippi state income tax. Essentially meaning athletes earning money from endorsement deals, appearances, social posts, schools, et cetera.

6:06Would not estate income tax on that compensation. As talked about yesterday in a story I read from the clearing ledger. I don't know who else has covered in written form but I read theirs and I have talked to a few people. The way that this worked and again, I'm going to give all the background of them. We'll talk about it because we got time to go through a little bit is it was written by McMillan. It went into the Ways and Means Committee to begin with. It passed out of the Ways and Means Committee into the floor on the House of Representatives. The chairman of the Ways and Means Committee is Trey Lamar. I expect to have a conversation with him for a podcast in the next day or so. I'm texting with him this morning. I think we're going to work time out. We'll talk about it with him. It comes out of committee. It then goes to the floor again passes 7632. And I do think a quick clarification. It's not a law yet. This is simply a first of a three step process. I don't know that that was fully understood yesterday.

7:08It has down go to the Senate. They will put it in a committee. Most likely the finance committee will be where it has to go. And then if it gets out of committee in the Senate, it goes to the Senate floor. If it passes the Senate, then it would go to take Reeves desk and signed into law at that point. That's the way state government operates House and Senate then governor. There is some uncertainty whether it's going to pass the Senate or whether it's going to get out of committee. I look, I'm, I am, I have a greater knowledge of Mississippi politics than Neil. But I am not an expert in such area. However, I've been told that yeah, probably, but not the guarantee that some people think it's going to be to get out of the Senate side. I'll give you and this is not a great apples to apples example at all, but it's also not apples to mangoes as some things have been is a very similar conversation regarding a controversial bill with school choice went through the House got killed in Senate.

8:10Everyone knew it was going to be killed in Senate even when they wrote the bill. It was simply a starting point to kick off the conversation, get killed in the Senate, go back, change it, work with it and then go from there. So a lot of that consternation was premature simply because it was not ever going to get through at that level anyway as that went. Traylamar was quoted in the Claire and ledger talking about what other states are doing and essentially I mean let's just be very frank. This is to in their words optically level the playing field with other states. You have Florida, you have Texas, you have Tennessee, which do not have state income taxes. So they the entire populace do not pay state income taxes. Arkansas has removed the state income tax on NIL and rev share payments in 2025. So Mississippi would be following suit with what Arkansas is doing. I know, you know, we talked about it a while ago that Georgia was trying this and I don't remember I don't know how far they have gotten because it is not on my list of states that have done this, but I do remember it going on the floor.

9:19And somebody proposing this probably 18 months ago, two years ago, we're feeling in these chairs. That feels about right as we were having the having the conversation. So according to legislative language. It is any money goods or services provided to an intercollegiate athlete while enrolled at a Mississippi college in exchange for the use of the NIL, including rev share third party payments. And as we said, sponsors brand deals and then it again, a clarification, this is only affecting Mississippi state income tax. People still pay federal tax as as normal. This is on the state side of things. There is one argument as we kick this conversation off that I really, really don't like. And it is that Mississippi is going to remove the state income tax for all citizens over the course of the next 10, 11 years, something like that. The way that law is structured, it's down to 4% this year. And it is going to decrease as long as other state funds allow it to, I think it's 0.3 per year until it is removed.

10:25So do the math on on that is well, you know, in six to 10 years, everybody's going to give it out. So why not anyway? Okay, again, we can have a conversation of whether it's good, bad, indifferent or whatever, but that would be like me saying I work at a company. Everybody else getting raises right now and my boss goes, well, I mean, you're going to get one in like six years. So what's the hell's the difference? And you go, I mean, that part makes no sense. So look, I'm sort of T and NIL up here. That's the main way that this is working. That's what's next. That's kind of how we are taking shape. This would, this would go into effect. I guess technically for 27 tax filings, if I have that corrected them, I'm doing that math correctly in my head as we're as we're moving forward. My couple of quick thoughts here is optics are the huge problem here. There's no doubt about that optics are the issue because you are essentially, you're saying you are putting at worst case, you are simply saying that

11:38athletes shouldn't have to do what everybody else in the world does, at least in the state of Mississippi and that teachers and students who are working multiple jobs and all those things, they pay state tax by God, the football players don't that is that is that is one side of the coin. The other side, if you are just completely trying to find a way to justify it and make it make sense logically and economically is that it is more similar to a business where tax breaks bringing revenue to towns to states and thus the better you are increases tax revenue in those ways and makes up the difference. Now, I will say this, everybody who goes, hey, this is a straight conversation of look how many people come in at Oxford on a Saturday, even if you're trying to have that conversation, it's not a gross product, it would be if you didn't do this, how much worse are the players and what would the tax revenue be versus if you are really good and what the net would be like, even if you're having that conversation, it's not a, oh well, this had $300 million of impact, that's not how that works, it's a net conversation as you get here.

12:42I am not worked up simply because I'm not surprised in any way, I expected this, I have bigger problems in my life than this and I just don't seem to really care that much if I'm being frank, but I also fully understand the dissent and the frustration with where this is moving currently. You can look at it and go, how much money is this in the grand scheme, not that much, frankly, again, this is an optics thing as much as anything else. It's a fairness thing, it's a fairness thing as much as anything else. Anyway, that's where we are, but I am just sort of in the mode where athletes getting privileges is not necessarily new and is not something that I'm losing my mind over this morning. Yes, so first I'll say this, my personal thought on this is that I'm against all income taxes. I generally am. I mean, I think income taxes are cake, draconian, lazy, fit were up to me in our in charge of the world, there'd be no income tax.

13:45There'd be a consumption tax and government would be small and it wouldn't spend a lot. We'd go from there. I'm not in charge of the world. My life's at least two thirds over. I'm never going to be in charge of the world. So my view on this is this is absurd. That's simply that it's absurd. When Arkansas did it, it was absurd. When Georgia talked about it, it was absurd. When Mississippi talks about it, it's absurd. You're going to take in many cases high earners and you're not going to tax them, but you're going to tax the rest of the citizenry. It just makes no sense. My overall thought on this chase is that we've we've gotten to a point where this just means too much. It was never supposed to mean this much.

14:45The whole well, we have to do this to compete and get it. Awesome. Reminded of what my mom and your mom and everybody else's mom said numerous times in your childhood. Two wrongs don't make it right. I thought you're going to say jumping off the bridge, but okay. Either way, they can use whichever idiom you would like. That one's true. Also, if all your friends jump off the bridge, are you going to jump also? It's more than fair. It's absurd. In a state like Mississippi, where you're taxing teachers and law enforcement officers and health care providers and people who do things that are actually very important, you're not going to tax athletes. Who in some cases are making a million dollars or more? Not not a lot of Mississippians make a million bucks. You're not going to tax the ones that play sports. That's fundamentally absurd. Now, I'm like you. I'm not worked up over it. Nothing surprises me anymore. You and I've had this conversation. I think I've said this publicly. There's nothing that could happen now that's going to shock me.

15:50To the point that honestly, because of like I said, what where we are in the structure of everything, I don't even really blame them. Like I kind of don't like I don't I mean, I was sort of sitting in the in the room this morning going. If I were sitting in that chamber, what would my thoughts be? And I just kind of this is where we are, which is the bigger problem. I mean, yeah, if you want to put up actual number on it from a revshare side, somebody said, hey, we're talking about about a million bucks. Yeah, that's what you're doing. You're talking about about a million bucks. Four percent of 40 million, which is Ole Miss and States revshare amount. That's the starting point. Yeah, where you would be. You know, again, I had a high sleep score last night. I didn't lose any sleep over this. I'm not going to lose sleep over tonight. Not worked up over it at all. I'm also not going to get mad at the people who do get upset at this and go, this is absurd. This is unfair. This is unfair. I'm with you. You're right.

16:50That argument is the right argument. I just think we've gotten to a place with this where this is becoming silly, which is going to lead into the rest of our conversation in a minute. It's interesting to me. I won't name names, but I heard from multiple people in media yesterday who I consider kind of based normal people. Sure. I don't mean Republican Democrat. I just mean rational who are like, man, this is kind of getting close to the red line, aren't we? I'm like, yeah, I think so. You start seeing the quote from people where people go, this is not sustainable. Maybe we're getting to a place where this is absurd. I never commented on this when it happened, but I'm going to be honest. What's that? I'm going to pick on the University of Arkansas here and I bet a lot of universities are doing this. So student fees. Yeah. That's criminal to me.

17:52Yeah, I had a huge problem with this. I'll use Arkansas as the example, but this would apply to anyone else. If I were to go to the campus sometime soon to see my son and I walked to that campus, I am going to pass thousands chase of students who are there for an education. Now, among those thousands of students, am I going to see students that are big into college athletics? You bet. I'm looking for exact numbers. Go ahead. Am I going to find students who don't care at all about college athletics? You bet. That's an Ole Miss too. I promise you. I could walk over to Ole Miss today on a beautiful day. Things will be 77 degrees. Nice and sunny. Beautiful campus and I could walk the Ole Miss campus and I promise you. I can find students who are there who do not care about college athletics. Let me tell you what else I can find. I can find students who are there on student loans.

18:53I can find students who are there who are their families are sacrificing, scrimping to make this work. And I'm going to add to their fees so that other students who happen to run fast or jump high can get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's absurd. That is absolutely absurd. And the people that do it, the institutions that do it and I know it's most of them, they should be ashamed of themselves. My opinion, you're free to disagree. Please don't get personal. I'm not getting personal. I'm just using the word absurd. It's fundamentally wrong. I promise you. If I were in Fayetteville today walking the campus, I think I'd know where to go. I'd probably go over there near the nursing school that's really hard to get into, that those kids have to work really hard to get into the program to get degrees.

19:55I guarantee you I could find nursing students there. On student loans, Chase, they'll be paying those loans off for years. And we're adding to their debt so that some of their fellow students who just happen to be athletic can make hundreds of thousands of dollars. Someone's going to have to explain to me how that is remotely fair. So I'm reading again, we're picking on Arkansas because we're having a conversation. That's what I was googling. Are these fees true? I mean, you've had three kids here. So I'm asking. Traybitty writing the story when it first came out. By the way, Arkansas State is who is trying to criminally absolutely just rupt. They are talking about over a $600 annual fee on students for athletics. Arkansas State. Think about that. Yeah, six math on that. 600. Reading over four years, you're adding $2,400 of debt to a student.

20:56So again, I'm reading from Traybitty. Says the University of Arkansas had a record 34,175 students enrolled for the 2025 fall semester. And you would say tuition for a student taking 30 hours is 8,092 plus 2,404 in fees for a total of 8,10,496. His paragraph. What a University of Arkansas parent express outrage seeing a $200 student athletics fee on their bill below for below lines for facility fees, $399. Health and wellness fee, 129,90 library fee, 74,70 media fee, 1350 network and data systems fee, 240 student activity fee, which already exist at 44,85 transit fee, 84,30. First year experience fee 55 and new student fee 105. Those are already on the books. So fees are already 2 grand per academic year at Arkansas. Again, I'm sure Ole Miss has them. I have no idea what it looks like.

21:58But yes. Yeah, I mean, the only one I remember and I don't I just don't remember, man. We've done it a few years where they had a deal. I can't remember how much it was. It was like a couple hundred bucks that you paid that got you access to everything as a student. They had one, it seems like they had a package that got you access to like two or three things and they had a package that got you access to everything. I don't remember what we've bought. Some years we bought it. Some years we didn't. My kids aren't sports fans. I mean, I guess the girls are out now. I guess they went to a few basketball games. I think Caroline went to a baseball game once. I don't really remember. My kids aren't sports fans. My house as crazy as this sounds is not a sports fan house.

23:00Certainly not a college sport. We don't ever talk about college sports. It's a central Arkansas charge 2150 per credit hour 645 for the 30 hours. I mean, that's central Arkansas. And that's they're saying, hey, there's no other way for us to pay student athletes. Little rock doesn't even have a football team in charge 2350 per credit hour paying your basketball teams, paying your baseball teams. It's absurd. That's my opinion. And big man, I'm not picking on you here. I'm not. I'm not. But he says, if you don't like athletics, being a part of cost of tuition, go to the University of Chicago or the Ivy League L.O.L. Even if it's not a line item, if your school has full NCAA participation, it's getting paid for somehow. First of all, going to University of Chicago or the Ivy League is prohibitive for a lot of kids. And then secondly, then figure out a different way. Charging their fellow students is wrong. God forbid that the student athlete doesn't make quite as much money.

24:01In addition to their free scholarship, all of their stuff being weighed. They don't pay fees. They don't pay tuition. They don't pay for books. They get housing stipends. God forbid they don't make hundreds of thousands of dollars to play the sport. South Carolina boosted mandatory fees 300 bucks, calling it an athletics auxiliary fee. In addition to the existing 172 a year in a student ticket fees. See, here's what bugs me. If you're going to make me eat a shit sandwich, call it a shit sandwich. Don't tell me it's a Rubin. All right, just tell me, hey, here's what it is, man. This is what it is. That's it. This part does kind of piss me off. Frankly, because there's a lot of kids out there with these predatory student loans. And you're going to pile onto them? Yeah, there's a difference in paying for it through operating budget ways and not simply increasing in this direct line tuition increases in this capacity.

25:10Again, this is 20% or let kids. I'm using Arkansas 20% of tuition is in fees. A sign to these numbers. Let kids opt out. Hey, you don't have to pay this. You don't have access to the games. Okay. A lot of kids ago, I don't care. I'm never going to a game anyway. A lot of kids don't have time to go to a game. Florida charges, at least a very small amount, 346 per credit hour, Auburn $113 if it's 983 in total and student services fees goes to athletics. Georgia 106 annually. Yeah. And then here's the thing. You pay these fees and this applies a lot of places. I can tell you to pause at Arkansas. Hell, half the time you can't get a ticket as a student. You can't get in. You pay the fee, but you can't get in. You have to win some sort of lottery or whatever. Why? Because they're selling half the tickets or more to all the corporations. Yeah, especially baseball. Yeah, you can't hard to get a baseball ticket there as a student hard to get a basketball ticket there as a student.

26:16Hell and they're horrible. They're two and 10. There were times that getting a football ticket or getting into the student section as at a football game was almost impossible. Unless you got in the line eight, nine, 10 hours early. Yeah. And I mean, I hate to break it to people, but there are a lot of college kids aren't going to do that. I was a, I mean, hell, I like sports. I wouldn't do that. You get kids that don't care about sports. They're not doing that. They shouldn't have to pay for that. It's just my opinion. Pretty couple of your comments will come back in a minute. Continue this first in Espark. The fastest, most reliable fiber internet option available, whether you're streaming the rebels or connecting with family and friends. I'll offer both residential and business packages with speeds up to two gigabytes. So we're more registered for service. That's any spark.com any spark you connected stay local. Almost had a great portal season. You can too. Do you have an old IRA or 401k with the former employers that money stuck with a bad team, not living up to its full potential, put that account and the transfer portal at a fellow rebel professionally manage it for you.

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28:22I'll have a hand raised guys to you tomorrow probably start around 5 5 30. It's probably going to be a fairly tight show. But take your calls. We'll talk about whatever you guys would like to talk about. I think there's Ole Miss basketball tomorrow. They are well you and a 630. So I will get started before the baseball game. I've plenty of time for you to hang out with us before you flip over to Ole Miss baseball. It'll be brought to you about com or heating air southern air conditioning and heating different names. Same great people products and services. You might notice it's starting to warm up outside daylight savings time kicks in and five days or so. So the warmth is coming. You have great time to check your AC unit. Make sure it's tip top shape. Make sure it's ready to go. If you live in Oxford Batesville to below those areas call com or 662 801 1777. If you live in Memphis, Hernando, South Haven, those areas call southern 6624294429.

29:26And we're brought to you by ENT physicians of North Mississippi as the largest private ENT practice in the state. We'll go with simple delivering fast expert comprehensive care for patients of all ages with ENT allergy, sinus, dizziness, balance and voice related needs with same day or next day appointments with ENT urgent care for that annoying call for sore throat. In office CT scans and same day allergy testing and access to the comprehensive audiology team offering a full range of services from hearing aids and custom hearing protection to potential surgical options. ENT physicians of North Mississippi are committed to removing barriers to care. They now have new locations in new Albany and startable in addition to two below Corinth and more details at ENT North Mississippi dot com or call 66246513. Neal mentioned sandwiches earlier mentioned a Rubin they have one of those at Chikri market their new lunch menu go in the big room and Rubin corn B sourcrout swish Russian dressing on sourdough one of the options for those roast beef.

30:29They got tons of different options there for you on that new menu again daily sandwiches daily offerings catering that's in addition just all the grocery store options there at Chikri located on North Lamar Midtown shopping center you can find out their fresh sales for every month or discounts or keep on the stuff they got going on foods events and more the Chikri market dot com slash the food on the menu for your lunch options and much more again that Chikri market dot com. All right let's see yeah I mean we're we're being has the point is that everybody I mean we're bloated overall from an institution standpoint from a system standpoint and you oh ten years just moving the money around in some different way no matter what I mean because here's the thing I hear ten years if they don't fix higher education this across the board if they don't make higher education more worth the give you a little more bang for your buck at the juice in the squeeze ten years from now we're going to have a different problem. Because you know it's one of the things that I credited Ole Miss at in their FY 25 report which was they had taken very little money for athletics from the university because there's always I think it's listed and I don't have it up on this computer it's on my home computer is it's like direct institutional support I believe is how the NCAA documents it on their revenue reports.

31:51And Ole Miss was a pretty small number and was about half the number that it was a year ago some of these goals it is an insane amount of money that the university is plugging into the athletics department to operate at budget and to to run things and again that's all coming from some level of tuition donor whatever it is that's university academic side if you will money that is then that is then coming over Missouri is my whipping boy on it every year. Because oh my god it's like 40 million a year that the university pushes in some form whether it be loans or direct revenues to to do that it was one of the things the Arkansas trade bitty by the way did a really good story on this I was just not reading. One of the things in addition to the student fees is they are saying any money that it goes from institution to athletics department does not have to be paid back in any way like sometimes the athletics department then gives some of it back and they play an exchange. Arkansas not doing any exchanges just simply go into athletics and staying there at that at that point and some of that is when was that when was that school founded Arkansas I should know yeah you're way beyond me when they built it back in the 18 I want to say 60s 70s maybe it's maybe it's not that old I don't know.

33:081871 1871 you would think I'd remember because you get there they you if you graduate from there they they they put your name on the sidewalks yeah so they if you go up to year whatever if you go up to old Maine at Arkansas you can see the first few classes which are just like a handful of people. So you think I remember 1871 but I remember if you read back about 1871 one of the objectives was to win big and intercollegiate athletics that was that was one of the things they said hey we're building this place so that we can win games let's do what it takes to win the games that that's what we're here for. It's right there and if you go into old Maine and you look in the first inscriptions I think it what's the what's the the hall at Ole Miss where the kids would go up and write Ventress was at Ventress yeah I mean if you read most of it it was let's win big this season so back in 1850s it was let's win these football games by God I mean I know you're making a joke but it is.

34:09I mean again as I'm making that point big Ole Miss really benefits from not trying to house 45 sports like they have a very small number compared to most schools. It's why when somebody goes hey where's the gym that less like just a word like you can't it would have to justify its own existence to take Andy's quote there to make that to make that operate. And even then you'd have operating cost and all we're so beware to see these days. It's the way it is. Hopefully he's doing well. Yeah. It's again this is not even the police on what should or shouldn't just in general it's amazing though how quickly and how far we've come on this because I mean 20 years ago I mean probably 10 but even 20 25 years ago. These budgets were microscopic compared to what they were now like you just court of took it in and as you said it didn't mean as much like you went.

35:16You went five and seven or went six and six and it was almost just kind of a shrug yeah it was like you know it's. There will never be another Frank beamer because dude lost like eight years in a row before you had a winning season he was still the coach of Virginia tech. Yesterday it was still the dude and it wasn't because of this it was just a lot of things Ross Dellinger had a story out not even a story but he was quoting the Louisville people and there's a lot of people going to Congress again we're begging Congress at a time when the country's at war we're telling Congress hey we really need you guys to fix sports. And it was the it was the two or three people that I heard from who I consider very rational who were like man. Kind of feels like here lately we're jumping the shark. And I'm not saying you shouldn't try to win you absolutely should I'm not saying it's not important there are people who are a lot smarter than me who say hey intercollegiate athletics especially football and men's basketball are the front door to your institution they absolutely matter.

36:18I believe them. But I do wonder if sometimes now we're starting to get to a place where I think it's fair to ask but is it supposed to mean this much well because that's the justification for the previous conversation I was having is that and I've talked to Keith about this I've talked to Glenn about this talk to a lot of people about this Ole Miss and otherwise is. We are simply in a shift where athletic department budgets do not have to actually balance anymore it doesn't matter it is a marketing line item under the entire university umbrella where they will be taking care of in some capacity as long as you're not. Relative to twenty twenty six so fervilist that it is ridiculous yeah and it's just sort of the way we are operating at this juncture. The schools that are frankly in trouble are the ones with the chance was in presidents are going there are like so hardcore academic. That they can't even find any middle ground here because there does have to be some level of middle ground and how this plays out. And I mean it's it's one of the reasons Ole Miss has been so successful is that there is really good synergy between those two or three different entities as they make these decisions.

37:25Yeah I mean I hate putting numbers on that to it I mean Wicked Bruce is almost as twenty percent fewer students the program hadn't been good for the past six years it's just. It's so hard to put it completely on that there's so many I don't know that I buy that and it's entirety and I really don't I think it helps it's exposure. What really benefited Ole Miss was not can't and now look they were one of like 12 SEC schools that did this I'm not picking on them they remove test scores from admittance. That was one factor to is that the southern schools a lot of them damn near all of them have become very popular for kids from the upper Midwest. The Northeast the West Coast people are. Sending their kids away from one environment hoping to get them into another does it help that you want in football sure. But we're picking on Arkansas today this is the pick on Arkansas Arkansas Arkansas not been winning in football okay at all like in fact they've been really crappy at football.

38:31And their enrollments skyrocketing to. So I think you have to. I mean Oklahoma's been good at football but they haven't been great in their enrollment they're breaking freshman enrollment records every single year. Can't keep up can't keep up with the dorms. Auburn Auburn said to like cut it Auburn said to raise standards to control growth and they're not winning in football they went there you freeze. I would also argue that and this is a good thing I think this is actually a really really really good thing for infrastructure and existence through Oxford and Ole Miss I think Ole Miss has found it's. The top of its bill curve a little bit because this year's freshman class was smaller than last year's yeah that was still the second or third largest ever very healthy sure but. You didn't need to go insane at that at that level wicked said his evidence is Mississippi state it's just such a different dynamic that they they do not appeal regionally and nationally and wait now again the football helmet logo does matter.

39:33It matters there's no doubt but it just simply has no name appeal even beyond that from a university standpoint I hate doing this because I I feel like I'm picking on a place and I don't mean to. Because there's a lot of kids that go to Mississippi state who absolutely love it. But. One of the benefits of the job that we have is that you get to see a lot of places yeah. And a lot of the stuff that makes it appealing to kids from areas we just discussed. It makes places like Oxford and Athens and Fayetteville and. Hell Norman. A lot of God I hate that I'm about to say this because I'm going to make people really mad and I don't mean to. A lot of the charm that those places have I don't know that start will really has that in spades or at least that doesn't have it to the extent that those places have. I mean if we're hand Mississippi state doesn't offer some of the career fields that have the mass appeal to those.

40:40What's the word flagship yeah yeah like University of Mississippi University of Oklahoma Alabama Georgia. Yeah Alabama Georgia Arkansas Tennessee whatever I mean those those it's just different. Well and I think state has done a lot here. Yeah I don't like Norman either but here's the truth was the campus at OU is pretty cool. Here's the truth was state I'll be very honest here I in a way I kind of feel sorry for them because they've made a ton of improvements. And there they have certain areas of town that are really nice. But it's such an interstate you just see the can you see the stadiums right there off the interstate you don't kind of get down into it very much. It has a reputational thing that's hard to break. It's hurt by just simply not being as good as Oxford in a lot of the town culture ways. They've done a ton of different things that to to improvement and I do think it is help their situation a lot of ways they're funding his way up. I do think states healthier than kind of they're getting credit for in this conversation.

41:43I do too. But yes from a straight recruiting school size standpoint there are a lot of different reasons why it just has not attracted the level of out of state students that you would otherwise be me discussing at this point. You know and they've had some bad marketing campaigns. It's affected as dumb as that sounds. Yeah I think they've had some weird marketing things on what they're there essentially. Well they've tried to they've tried to drum up and I get it and I understand why. They they have tried to be heavy heavy heavy heavy in state and that makes a lot of sense. I should really get why they did that. I mean Starkville's motto is Mississippi's college town with the inference that Ole Miss is for out of state kids. I understand why they why they push that. Frankly if I were them I might have steered into that as hard as they did. Yeah I understand the deal. I get why they do that. Is that their thing right now Ranger? I don't know. I don't know either.

42:43That's one of the things like the of the 16 schools does any of them have a TV ad that you look at and you don't want to like shoot it. When that's come on during the I mean some of them are so bad. I mean like across the board. I mean watch the SEC tournament next week and just random game and because at some point they'll do that. Yeah what is Missouri South Carolina. They'll do the ads for those two schools and I mean at the end of it you'll go I hate all 16 of these places. Like my God just do something normal but instead it has to be some hokey. I mean no offense to Ole Miss but the one where the girl opened the letter from her big sister and stuff. I hated that. Is that the current one? I don't know it was one a while back I hated that was bad.

43:43The only one of those of anybody I really will always remember is just the overall NCAA ones of we go professional and something other than sports that went years and years and years and years. If it was swimmer or whatever and not anymore you don't go professional now actually. Congratulations. You're a pro for minute one. Shut up. And you don't pay taxes now so congrats. Yeah I believe in Auburn and love it. They would do the creed. It just was so hokey. Oh I mean in ground right A&M is weird as hell but they have a very successful alumni base and their kids go there and droves. Yeah no. Yeah I mean. Well the Texas kids. Again they're a cult but they're a very nice cult that absolutely is raking in the students in the cash. No problem. No problem. In state kids that go to Texas and Texas A&M are basically geniuses. I mean you can't get in otherwise.

44:49You're studying engineering going to state over Ole Miss is a lifestyle preference as a Mississippi resident. Same standards and cost. Well it's true. I mean the IHL makes it very, I mean it's very even from those ways from an end state thing. You are making a decision. Yeah. And as you said this is not an anti Mississippi state thing. I think in a lot of ways they have a lane that they understand and have thrived in. I actually credit Mississippi state for a lot of things that they do that make a ton of sense that's made them successful as university. I mean if I were hand raised guys at Mississippi state and I was sitting in the back corner I'd say hey. If our goal is to stay relevant this might be the way to do it. Get the kids from Mississippi and steer into the Ole Miss's rich, pretentious out-of-state student school. I know that's not the case. It's marketing. I'm talking about perception. You're marketing. So if that's what the reputation is, let's steer into the other thing they do.

45:50And I mean this 100%. I'm being serious when I say this. The other thing they have going for them. And this goes for all the way up and down the line. And again this is not even in comparison to Ole Miss just in general because what you deal with a lot of schools in different areas. They are really freaking helpful at all avenues. At state. Yes. They are very transparent. They are helpful. They do a lot of things to really emphasize the this is going to feel like what you're used to. And we're going to take care of you especially for in-state students. That's smart. And they've done a ton of waving for West Alabama for Southern Tennessee. It's helped Mississippi state a lot in like that Jackson Tennessee area. They've really made big jumps in some of those geographic spots because what they've done. Do they grow in Alabama a little bit by doing some of the same stuff? Yeah. West Alabama. Yeah. They went crazy in West Alabama. And it's where Ole Miss people were frustrated for a while because state had waved those areas in in-state tuition and helped their baseball program a lot by just consequence.

46:53Again, nobody does the baseball on purpose as the main reason. But it had a secondary impact. But now if you play baseball and you get your taxes waved. And you're on full run. All 34. Oh, yes, true. Yeah. Austin, I mean, I can speak to that a lot because I'm on one of the boards there. Yeah. Junior college reached toward Ole Miss has been pretty blacking. I know there's some initiatives to try to increase that. As time goes on, he says Ole Miss has almost no reach in the community college system in Mississippi. And Michigan does. I was one of the very few I see seat Ole Miss transfers in my class most went to MSU. Oh. Yeah. Some hopeful movement in that I'm wearing an ACC cap right now in that capacity. Anyway. I mean, you got a good look of it. I mean, I haven't gotten there yet just simply seeing how schools recruited and sent letters and things like that over the course of your different children.

47:54It's time went on. There's no doubt about that. Turned out to not matter. Well, yeah. And I don't know how much it does or doesn't. But you just see their emphasis. Oh, yeah. For sure. Yeah, for sure. As time goes on. No, I mean, look. I mean, especially the girls, I don't remember with Carson really. But especially with the girls, they got a lot of stuff from Mississippi State in the physical mail. It was constant. You guys having a good conversation about it in the stream will hit some of that. And then get over into some more sports topics in a second. Yeah. Hey, by the way, doors is right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In terms of nicest fan base in the SEC, it's not close. I think you know, they are very nice. They really are. They are the nicest. They are. Period. It's not. I'm just telling you when you do that right.

48:54If you had to do the table where you get typical average fan at every SEC school and pick four for your dinner table, at your names probably making your table, even though they are crazy as well. They know probably to it. Yeah. They're sitting there and they might even cover the bill. They can be well mannered. Yeah. Yeah. They are very nice. They're incredible. Nicer than anybody else. I'm really interested in Austin next week. I've never been. Oh. Yeah. Prayers to Austin right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Terrible. I saw some of the identification on that come out yesterday. I mean, frankly, kind of start a link with that being next week also. And they're being such a big event there too. It makes you always a little more concerned and nervous as time goes on. Sure. Horrible. All right. We'll segue out. Come back. Talk sports in a minute. First is your home and auto insurance. Keep going up with the folks at the firm. Proud Liberty Mutual and Safe Co Insurance. Agency partner. Take a look. Find a moments alum. Brian Hayden.

49:54They service the entire South Eastern Conference with a team of licensed professionals. Review your insurance needs. Put together coverages to protect you and your family without breaking the bank. Schedule consultation by calling 662-236-1101 or emailing staff at the firm south dot com. All right. Interesting. We have something to get Lee on. We could ask him. Uh, Chauncey says A&M fans were the best tippers during my time in the Oxford restaurant scene. I wonder who the best tippers are like out of town teams that come in. That's a good question. Football games or baseball series or whatnot. There was one school. I can't remember. There was a school last year that he was talking about really, really tipped well. Oh, really? Yeah. And I can't remember who it was. One of the football games. Anyway, our net's fine jewelry is a fourth. I'm sorry. My brain's now functioning in a weird way. Fourth generation jewelry located in the old blamens building. North of Mar Avenue and Oxford. It's gift season coming up soon, right?

50:54You got birthdays, anniversaries, graduations right around the corner. They're perfect for that. Whatever jewelry need you've got, they can take care of you at our nets. They want to be your jeweler. Got lots of games on the Ole Miss campus this weekend. You got home games and baseball and basketball tonight. Baseball this weekend, basketball this weekend. So, if you want to get your best rebel gear in Oxford, go to the college corner. 4,000 square feet of it right there off of Oxford Commons, off of CISC. So you're going to fight this tariff on the square or Jackson Avenue. You can stop in, get all the gear you're looking for, all the name brands you know. And love Nike Horn Legend, champion and teagot just to name a few. And you can also visit collegecornerstore.com. And as always, if you're headed to funky's tonight, headed to the stadium, whatever the case may be,

51:55ask for a course. Since 1873, Cours Banquist has been brewed in the same tradition of the original 150-year-old recipe. It's crafted with 100% Rocky Mountain water. So when you're enjoying a banquet, you are drinking history. Martin Palomo and I taped them on to my money. Yesterday, it's up wherever you get podcasts here on MPW Digital. It's brought to you by Argent Wealth. When you work with Argent Wealth's 401k advisory services, you gain a valuable advisory team and time-saving resource that will help you develop and maintain a solid strategy for your retirement plan. They're committed to providing you with personalized attention and involvement that you want need. Their goal is to help you manage your 401k plan properly and ultimately improve your employees' retirement readiness. It's myArgentWealth.com Podcasts will spread to you by Horn Legend. As Neil mentioned, Horn Legend.com, the place to go, the sponsor of My Around the Horn, content item every week that will be out on Thursday.

52:57They're running promotions right now. I have links in the content for that. Ways to get free, nap a vest, way to get a free ocean side jacket. Got both those items. They are excellent. You get plenty of jackets, vest, sports shirts, quarters of up, pullovers, and much more. Horn Legend is the temperatures heat up. They got some more items coming, the polos. Check it out. Click the MPW Digital in the drop-down. We appreciate that. That, again, that's Horn Legend.com and Podcasts brought to you in part by GNM Pharmacy6622362222222, that deliver locally in the Oxford area and offer medsync. Feel prescription. At the same time, it's much more than take care of you. One trip of the pharmacy. One delivery. You have everything you need when you need it with GNM. Again, that's 6622362222222. What we got in the stream is a move forward. Let's see. Yeah, I have not tried to figure out any restaurants or meals or anything next week. I think the Saturday game is during the day, which at least helps by the steakhouse or something from the dinner.

54:00There's no shortage of about that. I would think I could find a place that serves beef in Austin. I'm just assuming that a steakhouse will not be a complicated endeavor on it. A lot of barbecue, a lot of very good Mexican. It's what you'd expect. Yeah. I liked Austin. I thought it was great. I walked around. I walked to the state capital. Did you? I did. How far is that from campus? Not far at all. Oh, really? Yeah. I mean, a mile, maybe half a mile. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah, I haven't looked to try to figure out. My hotel was six tenths of a mile to the campus. The area to walk to the capital was on my way, so it was right there. You walked back and forth? I did. The start times for the game, six thirty two thirty one o'clock. Oh, I can't beat that. Yeah, six thirty two thirty one o'clock. Yeah, two thirty. You'll be done by eight. Oh, before that. Yeah. Yeah. Well before that.

55:00Yeah. So as long as it goes, as you would, as you would hope. So. All right. Ole Miss Vanderbilt to tonight, eight o'clock. Rebels played them well in Nashville earlier in the early in the season. One of their probably dozen games that they had a real shot to win and just couldn't quite finish it. Did you see that post on the board this morning? I want to pull it up. I did. Some of that was not one of the things. Exactly. One of the things was not accurate, but there was a lot of accuracy in it. Essentially, Ole Miss was in games completely had the lead or was very competitive. At minimum, the final media time out, and sometimes with seven minutes to go, something like that. And they went four and twelve in those games. Is that believe I had the number that was written in that one? Frankly, surprised it was four. But yes. Yeah. Yeah, lost a bunch of more. Four and twelve. I mean, I walked off the court in Austin, and I remember saying to Keith Carter, I saw him in the hallway, and I said, I feel like I've covered the same game every day.

56:06I mean, look, it doesn't work this way, so I'm not trying to spin it. But there's an alternate universe where of those sixteen games, instead of winning four, you win nine. And we're having a different conversation right now. You know, are they in? Probably not. Are they in the conversation? You would have kept interest, and at least would be a topic that we would not be starting at nine o' nine a.m. Sure. 100%. Iowa, Utah, St. John's, Oklahoma, Missouri, Georgia, MSU, Vandy, Texas, A&M, LSU, Auburn, where the ones he mentioned. Yep. The winds there were Missouri, Georgia, MSU, and Auburn. I didn't remember St. John's being that close. Oh, yeah. Okay. See, I didn't remember that. Yeah, they were in it. That Iowa at one point with about five and go. Seven to go. Yeah, I don't think it was 11 though.

57:06I don't think the lead was ever that big. No, no, he switched it to 55 54. They were up one with seven to go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I was there. Iowa 55 54 with seven to go. Utah led in the final minute. Yep. St. John's down by four with five to go. Oklahoma, trail by three with eight to go, and then look terrible from the eight to the four mark. MSU tied at 62 with five to go. Georgia went to OT, state one point game. Vandy trail by three with three to go. Texas led by three with four to go, and they went on a 14-0 run to end the game. Yep. A&M led by six with four to go. Yep. And LSU and overtime game. Yep. I mean, you flipped some of those and we're having a different conversation. It's kind of groundhog day a little bit. Again, you didn't. You lost them. You didn't. Yeah. I'm not spinning because I. It's one of the funny parts of what we do is.

58:07I'm called negative on one hand, and then when basketball, I'm told that I'm not mean enough. I'm not nasty enough. I don't ask hard enough questions. I won't say they suck, and it's because, well, they don't just go get blown out. I mean, because I admit it, like, you know, they. Yeah, I mean, I think I agree with what the guy said. They just don't have a dog to go get a basket and take over some of those minutes at times. I mean, they just don't. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to write about it next week when it. Yeah, yeah. When it ends. Because it ends next week. I mean, boring. If not, then we got a whole different conversation. I mean, how Michael's call will have nothing on that Sunday? Chippin' a chair, Neil. Chippin' a chair. Jim Valvano did not believe what you believe. That's true. He did not. Now, he had an NBA player on that team. Thorough Bailey had a nice career. They had a dog. What was I saying? They had multiple dogs.

59:07I mean, actually, if you want to be serious about that team, that team. Sidney Lowe, Derek Wittenberg, Terry Ganon were all sort of dogs. Thorough Bailey was a really good player. You had talented bigs and co-zell McQueen and Lorenzo Charles. That was a good team from a totally different era in sports, too. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But, you know, I mean, they just couldn't finish games because they didn't. Yeah, they didn't have a go-to guy that could go get you the bucket. That's one of the, in the Auburn game the other day, when they made plays, you're like, son of a bitch. Yeah. Because when I cut it from 12 to 2, I went, holy shit, we're going to do this again. Pardon my language. Well, I can't write this again. It was literally thinking to myself sitting there because just looking at it on the TV with my computer in front of me going, I don't know. I have no creative way to go. Well, it happened again.

1:00:09And then they came ready and made that three. It was a huge shot. Cut it from two made it from two extended it out to five. Then they got a stop and pinkins made free throws. And next thing, you know, it's like, oh, my God, they're going to win. And the fact that that was so sort of shocking, it was revelatory. It's just how many times that they lost those kinds of games. Arizona clinched the big 12 last night with a 73, 57 blowout of Iowa state in Tucson. They are now 15 and two in the big 12, which is a hell of a number, because that's a good basketball league there in the big 12 tonight's games real quick. And then we'll change topics after the break, Tennessee, South Carolina, the balls, eight and a half point favorites over the gamecocks in Columbia. Okay. Alabama is at Georgia tonight. Big opportunity for Michael White for sure in his team. One and a half point favorites for the tide on the road in Georgia tonight. 12 and four for Bama eight and eight for Georgia. Missouri is at Oklahoma trying to continue their little bit of a hot sherry right now.

1:01:12Oklahoma five and 11, Missouri 10 and six playing for seating. Oklahoma favored by one and a half at home tonight against the Tigers. Yeah, they've been playing better lately. Kentucky is a one and a half point underdog to lucky ball in Texas A&M tonight. Six o'clock A&M nine and seven can use that dub against Kentucky 10 and six. Mississippi State gets to go to Gainesville and deal with Todd Golden and the Gators tonight. Florida is a 23 and a half point favorite over the balldogs in that one. That is a humongous line. And yet I would not take Mississippi State. I mean, Florida covers it if they want to. But they might not want to. They might not want to. This is not a this. This is a get through the game. Situation is I think they have Kentucky on Saturday. Yeah, they they this is they played a big emotional game this past Saturday. They they might. Yeah, Kentucky interrupt three o'clock on Saturday. They might be a little flat. And then outside of Ole Miss and Vanderbilt, which Ole Miss is a six and a half point underdog in home tonight to the Commodore's 154 and a half on a total.

1:02:15It's Auburn minus nine and a half in home against LSU tonight in the other game. A nine o'clock start, by the way, SEC Networking in Auburn. Kind of crowded. We're getting a Neville arena tonight for a nine o'clock to up against LSU. And why the hell is that game tipping at nine o'clock? Well, they're trying to get all there. Only there's only one Wednesday game because everybody in window. Well, they're well, they're trying to do this on Tuesday because they're trying to not interfere with the women's tournament on Wednesday. Oh, is that true? Yes. Somebody asked him, do I go to all the midweek games for baseball or give it to an intern? No, I go to most. Not all, but I was telling Neville, I can watch the game while also work a ton. And it puts me in front of a computer to get a lot of work done that I'm not getting done at other times of the day. So there is a mutual benefit to that. I'll go early tonight just to a beat the garage people.

1:03:15And then I'm for sure going tonight. I do not know that I'm covering you in a myself tomorrow. That is kind of where I have my head at for or right now. I understand that. I've watched you in a win multiple times. Yeah. Including that kid's day game. We're almost really struggles throughout the past. Kids day game is not kind to the rebels. Well, it's where you always want to put a flyer on the other team on that one. Get that plus 380 money line at 11 a.m. in the morning on the kids day game. Here's 10 bucks. I see what happens. I mean, they lost the double header to UAB one year. Lost both ends of it when Ron Polk fell asleep in the in the bullpen. Because he was a volunteer assistant for UAB at that time. Oh, wow. They lost to UNA. That might have been during the championship season. I don't remember. It was one. No, it was four. It was like 19 or 20. That's the school day game, the championship season. Did they then too? They lose it a lot. They lost it last year, I think.

1:04:15For sure. Who'd they play? Little rock, maybe. No, yeah, it was little rock. I think it was a little rock. I think it was a little rock. Yeah. Who ended up beating LSU, enforcing a game seven in the regional. Yeah, it turned out they were pretty good. I mean, still. But yeah, I understand what you're saying. Northeastern knocked off LSU last night. 13 to 10. I saw that. In Baton Rouge. I mean, nothing at one point. Jay Johnson pulled most of his starters, put reserves in, and they did get it back to 1310 by the night thinning. He's probably kind of pissed at some point early in that game. Not showing. Sure. Sure, that's very as a coach. Mike has not done a lot of that. I only remember one time that he. They lost my brain. Minneapolis in 07. They lost him in a soda in the first game of a double header, and he played all the reserves in the second game of the double header after they lost the first one. Actually, it ended up being the best thing that happened to him because I don't think

1:05:16Zach Miller was going to get a ton of play that season. And he started that second game, played really well. It ended up being an all SCC freshman team for that, for that year. So it was a little serendipitous after. I mean, sometimes things have a way of just sort of working out a little bit. Go for stole my cap and wouldn't give it back that day. Really? On the field. Yeah. Took my cap off, and I had a hard time getting the cap back. Did you ever get it back? I did. Yeah. The go for finally gave it back. Cold as hell in there. They wouldn't turn the haters on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cold as hell. All right. Jackson Graber Group, GMFS Mortgage, local trusted mortgage lender right here in Oxford, Ole Miss grad, Oxford High School alum, local warehouse processing, underwriting, servicing, construction, local people taking care of your business, alcohol, so great in the condo, financing world. It's a little different. He's an expert. Well, John, help you out. So if you're buying a home, refinancing, you're just having mortgage questions. GMFS Mortgage.com slash JGG6627624502.

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1:07:20It's CorinthDental.com. You can find the stream asking where was the 07 Miniapolis game. It was in the metradome back then, Ole Miss played Arkansas on Friday night, beat them 5-4, and then split a double header with Minnesota on Saturday. Minnesota played Arkansas in two games on Sunday. The Citadel was supposed to be in the tournament, and there was a huge blizzard coming in. That was on the same commercial flight with Ole Miss, and they almost rerouted us to Milwaukee at the last minute. But that was when I've told a story probably 5-10 times on the podcast. The pilot said, we're going to attempt to land. And attempt is not the words you typically want to hear when the pilot comes over the intercom, but that was the direct quote. And I feel like everybody just kind of looked at each other and went, he said attempt. And there was no visibility as he was coming in. Got there 22 inches of snow on the ground or something in Miniapolis when we landed. The cab ride to dinner one night was very interesting.

1:08:21You were like slipping sliding all over the place, getting where we're headed. It ended up getting like 4th row seats for the T-wolves and the jazz. Could not get a ticket, period in the arena for the gopher hockey game that night. Nothing. Could not get in, but you could get like 4th row with the NBA game. Did you ever stop by the Quality Learing Center? I guess that was a little before that. Yeah. Did not see that. But yes, so, yes, Ole Miss played Arkansas, played Minnesota twice, and it was in the metronome. The Minnesota people were really confused while Arkansas and Ole Miss and Arkansas fans were really into that game and add each other on that Friday night. There was like 300 Minnesota fans just hanging out and they're going, these people hate each other. What is going on right now? Memphis is three and eight on the season by the way. Not going very well in the bluff city for the Tigers in baseball. Is that game is two nights. They just got swept at home by Jacksonville State, 10-1-9-4-7-1.

1:09:24I mean, all jokes aside, programs like that are not going to be able to keep players. So, at some point, my anticipation is we're a handful of years from programs like that folding them up. It's either that or there is going to be a separate division. Yeah. They're going to actually break and you're going to tell teams like Coastal and East Carolina, you get to choose where you go. Wherever you want to do. If you want to play up, if you want to play down, you guys decide how you want to handle it. I think that's definitely heading. Coastal is actually the team that I think I continue to buy stock into because they don't have a division one football program or they do, but they don't fund it the way that most people do. I think they put as much money into baseball at this point and they tried at times in basketball, but they haven't really balled in the way some of those other ones. They're the other ones high off. So, just a thought there. But yeah, Memphis, not very good, three and eight. They lost to Iowa State, 12-5. They got popped by a lot of tech.

1:10:25It's been a bit of a deal. I had this written down. I get that Ole Miss' best players were younger. I understand how we got here between some defensive linemen, shambles and lacy and the way the roster construction was. This is sort of the same case a few years ago when Ole Miss had a really good season. And obviously it wasn't last year because they had a ton of pros and had a record for draft picks. But I was looking through the two round mock after the combine that ESPN did. And 13 different SEC schools had at least one pick in the top two rounds. Ole Miss was one of three to not. We're talking about the upcoming NFL drafts. The upcoming NFL draft. Ole Miss Kentucky and Mississippi State were the only teams not represented in the top two rounds. It is a credit to roster construction. Yeah. So many ways that Ole Miss was the last SEC team in the deal. And then two, did they have such high expectations for next season?

1:11:28Because yeah, they are not getting rated by the draft in any capacity. I mean, I think pounds is going to get drafted. Yeah. I think Stribbling made a lot of money. But he was not listed in those top two rounds this morning as I was looking at it. I mean, Stribbling will get drafted. I think Trey Wallace will get drafted. But none of those guys are getting top two rounds drafted, I wouldn't think. Arkansas had two players in it. Missouri, South Carolina. Yeah. You see, we're tailing green ran like a 434 or something. Yeah. Like, I don't know where he fits. But there's a world where had tailing green been at a successful program. I mean, we'd be really talking about that dude right now. Yeah. I mean, just athletically, holy shit. Anyway. No, the Saints should not draft a running back at eight. My God. I quit. I mean, I have a lot of thoughts on the whole draft family.

1:12:31Number one, you have to come up with duck when you say this. Lane did a good job. Oh, yeah. Sure. Yeah. And they've positioned themselves well. They've worked the portal really well. They've gone out and gotten guys who could come in and contribute without having to go to the top of the financial ladder on portal guys. Going there for years now, they've been efficient. They've been very efficient. And so they've gotten a lot of contributions from guys who aren't top two round people. Yeah. I thought it was a credit to them in a relevant note, as I was looking through. Oh, Haynes came in a four or four. It was a fast track. There were. Whatever was going on there on that day, I get we're all getting bigger, faster, stronger,

1:13:33the whole deal, which is 90% of it. But that was fast track. It was way different than even last year. They were. They were moving. It's like the wide receiver from Notre Dame's at Malachi Fields. He ran like a four or six something in his kind of plummeting a little bit because he was. Aggressively slow compared to. What everybody else was doing. I had this written down at the beginning, forgot to get to it mentioned at the beginning. They are doing a ticket and unlimited concession items for 29 bucks at St. Louis Cardinals Games this year. Okay. Now it's a little bit of dynamic pricing. If the Dodgers are in town, maybe it's 32. You know, there's a little bit of variance on the price. But for the most part, the Cardinals had been top 10 in attendance forever because they are the best fans in baseball, obviously. Yes. Yes. Cardinals, best fans in baseball see Hawks. They're loud. That is the rules of the game and how we categorize pro sports.

1:14:33They felt like 21st or something last year because the team wasn't very good. They don't expect to be very good this year. It's actually the first year. I saw I was reading a story I think in the athletic about it this week. It's the first year that either didn't make the playoffs the previous year or had some preseason, fan graphs, expectation to be very competitive in forever. Yeah. So it's just a completely different world for the Cardinals there. But you know, the Falcons started this a few years ago had really cheap concessions. Yeah. I think the Astros do something similar. There's a few teams in, in Major League Baseball. Maybe the Reds that, that do this. And credit to them because we now pick on it a little bit. I was, we know I always make jokes about our meal tickets and stuff. I'm not, I try not to eat it baseball overnight because I'll be bigger than a house. But they moved our meal tickets up to 20 bucks because I think a burger basket is like 1750 and chicken tenders are like 1750. I think the basketball meal tickets 20 bucks.

1:15:34Is it by comparison? By comparison, the Cardinals chicken tenders. And you know, I don't know what comes with them. Don't make me start lying was 1150. Okay. It's St. Louis games. I saw that as I was looking through. I do think there is. The real selling point to increase attendance where lower concessions are a loss later. Because they bring families to games. They give you something to do. If it, if there is some sort of discounted rate. It's why we'll miss does the dollar hot dog night or two dollar hot dog night or whatever it is on midweek games is. Come in. Get a pretty cheap ticket. You can feed your family. Feed the kids. Do all these things. Of course. And then you move on. And the good experience. I'm going to do the 850 hot dog in the 17 hamburger. It just makes it cost prohibited for a lot of the. What two things attendance. And then the muscle memory for getting kids and families simply ingrained into the university and the athletic programs and the whole deal. Because I mean, those people have to pay state income taxes.

1:16:35Two share as we are full circle. Look, there we go. No, I mean, when you when you price out. A regular family of 4.2 or whatever. From ever being able to come to your games. I think you're getting into a dangerous territory. I agree with Ben here. He goes as genius because eating out is gotten so expensive. It actually makes it economical for someone to just go to 81 games for the damn food. Maybe not 81, but I get the point. It is cheaper to go to Cardinals games and eat as much as you want and catch a baseball game as it would be. Not depending on what parking cost. Yeah. As it would to take them out wherever you go. Because it's kind of like they're running joke and Oxford anywhere else at this point. No matter where you go, it's all basically the same damn price. There's not really a ton of difference when you eat out on what it ends up costing. No matter where you eat out for the for the day. How often do you eat out in Oxford a week?

1:17:35A couple of you. I don't know. I mean, it comes in spurts. It's really dependent with us, depending on schedules. Sure. I mean, not much at all if we're actually home and nobody's doing anything. The problem comes when you're just moving in a thousand different directions and things like that. But no, I mean, it's not aggressive. I meant to get to some World Cup stuff where 100 days away from the first matches as of today. Yeah. That is the where that's out. Speaking of expensive. Expensive, but then a lot of tickets aren't selling. I know. Interesting. Yeah, I read a story on that. The athletic today. Interesting dynamic as that is. Is that coming? Yeah. Last thing on the cardinals thing here is the diamond bags. Astros and reds that have something similar. Those are the three that are doing something like that. Then I saw a price comparison. I was looking forward to second ago. I think somebody said if you were, if you just came to the game, bought the cheapest ticket and then got the same items. This is saving at least 25 bucks a person.

1:18:37And that's if you just get those items one time. I mean, for a family of four, that's 100 bucks. Yeah. There were stats in here on it. And I don't see them here at the moment. But here we go. In 2024, the average ticket price for a cardinals game was $39.49. Chicken tenders $11.49. Jumbo hot dog $8.49. Chicken 20 ounce bottle of water $5.99. Fountain soda $7.39. Even if it's just a ticket, a hot dog and a bottle of water. That's 54 bucks. So you're talking $25 give or take above that $29 price. Yeah. Top. Here's here's one for you. We'll stop. Without deals. The cheapest parks in the in the league as far as same thing.

1:19:37Ticket hot dog beer. Okay. Okay. Ticket hot dog beer. Cheapest Miami, Maryland's $31.83 for all three. Okay. That's pretty good. Yeah. Diamondbacks $33.35. Rocky's $37.25. Okay. The most expensive. Who do you think it is? Riggly. Nope. Oh. I don't have a list. I only have the most expensive. Yankees. Houston Astros. Astros. Houston Astros. 78.17. Wow. 78.17. Wow. It's expensive. To get in, the cheapest ticket, a beer and a... Now two stacies. Crotted here. She goes, that's all after paying $48 to park two blocks away. Yeah. Okay. Not wrong. It's actually one of the things I like about Riggly, is you just take the L and get off and you can walk to the point. To the stadium. Yeah. So. All right. We will wrap there. Talk to you tomorrow. Again, multiple sporting events on campus tonight.

1:20:38Ole Miss Vanderbilt, basketball, eight o'clock, baseball. 630 against Memphis, while both those staff with both of us and then softball at home today as well. So all that. Rubble's 24-7 in the meantime. MPW Digital tomorrow. Take care.