FULL SHOW | Keep your eyes on the Arizona Diamondbacks’ stadium situation… | Pete Fiutak previe…
Hey, this is JJ and Alexen. As you wrap up your day, it’s time to get your fix of the teams you live for and the sports you love. This is JJ and Alex, presented by G2G Bars on 975, the KSL Sports Zone. [Music] What’s going on everybody? 975 BKSL Sports Zone. Alex Cury, Jeremiah Jensen. Together we make up the duo that is JJ and Alex. Hey, we got TV up in the studio. Uh, is there any sports on today JJ? Uh, if you uh go to kslsports.com. Ah, there we are. You can stream high school championships this week. Oh, I thought you say you could you could stream us. You could do that, too. Come on. You can go to YouTube and watch Could you go hear our own producer, Alex, online yelling about yelling about uh football? Yeah. Soccer today. I love it. I love it. Uh 6A semi-finals today, I believe. Boy, I love it. All right, listen. You can go online. You can uh stream anything when it comes to the KSL Sports Zone. Our mugs are on the uh on these here cameras here in studio. So, you can go to the KSL Sports page on YouTube. Say ola a lot to JJ and myself. We’re going to get a lot going. Christian is producing today in place of uh of our producer Alex. And uh Christian, you feeling okay today, brother? Everything uh ship shape? Feeling great. You didn’t break your Tupperware today. Didn’t drop your lunch on the ground. No, that that did happen yesterday. That was a yesterday situation. How do you break Tupperware? I’m just clumsy. So, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait. You broke Tupperware. So I brought lunch to eat in between the shows because I do Jake and Ben and then I’m You think about glass about the glass top. I’m talking about the glassware. You’re talking about like the good glass stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I’m just clumsy. Just slipped out. So you broke glass. You said I was like how do you break Tupperware? I think it would have been nice if Floyd would have put up for your lunch after that after uh did anything of the sort happen? Did uh I mean I kind of agree like here working double working hard. He drops his burrito on the ground. Glass everywhere. can’t eat it. So, at that point, it’s a uh it’s a hazard. I was really sad. It almost ruined my day. That But we made it through. Yesterday was fine. We made it through. We made it through, but your burrito didn’t. Yeah. I was going to say, Christian, that was a Was that a Was that a How long have you guys been married now? Like two years. One and a half years now. Uh yeah, it’ll be two years in July. So, yeah. So, you got So, you’re still all the stuff that you have is still like somebody gave this to me. Yes. Exactly. Yeah. See, and that hurts when you have like that thing because a a Tupperware that clicks, JJ, that’s glass on the bottom. Yeah, that’s high dollar. It is. They they probably for a young married couple, that’s a big loss. Somebody hit the registration. Uh and they then they uh I don’t know. The last thing you want to do is have to go buy another one with your own money. That’s exactly My wife was like, “Well, now you got to go buy me a new glass Tupperware.” I’m like, “Whoa, listen.” It’s like, “Hey, now let’s not get crazy.” Ah, bonkers. Not doing that. Well, listen. Uh, we got lots going on and we’ve got stuff to jump into. Not the least of which is, uh, how can we get Christian a full meal? Uh, if it wasn’t just to make up for yesterday. We’ve got to figure that out. In the meantime, though, we do have a GoFundMe for Christian’s lunch or at least to replace the glass Tupperware. I mean, KSL’s got to do something. Okay, this I don’t stand for this. We do. Okay. We’ve got to uh we’ve got to kick off the program though as we always do. Our program brought to you by G2G bars. All natural ingredients and no preservatives make the G2G bar the perfect protein bar. Uh you can get it at Costco, Holiday Oil, Maverick, Associated Foods, and many other places in the refrigerated section. So just give it a shot today. Uh in the meantime, let’s kick things off as we always do with the cut. We’ll jump in right here. It’s time for the biggest story of the day. This is what made the cut with JJ and Alex on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. And of course, this portion of the show brought to you by Trajan Wealth. T R A janthe.com for all your trusted local needs in retirement. tradewealth.com. Uh, all right. Let’s let’s do this. JJ, we have some sound that comes from Arizona. Now, I heard a little bit of this played on Hansen Scotty today and I thought, you know, and I and I dove a little bit into it and I I started to think a little bit. Arizona is having some issues. If you can give us kind of a brief uh cliffnotes version of what is going on with the stadium situation down is it Chase Field? Is that what the is that the the ballpark down there? Yes, Chase Field. We look at this downtown Phoenix. We’ve made a lot of jokes about Phoenix and and things not working out well. Obviously, the Coyotes, all of your hockey teams are belong to us. Hey, Arizona. Sorry, not sorry. And so, thank you so much. So, they got all they got all sorts of uh they got all sorts of problems when it comes to the funding side of things because they’re they’re not uh they’re trying to make this big pitch that hey, look, we have to as a as a community pitch in here. It’s for the better It’s for the betterment of this uh of the Phoenix area, the valley. Come on, man. And so the president of their chamber of commerce. Uh I’m not kidding when I say this, too. He I think his last name is It’s not Satan, but it’s some version of that. Satan. Dave. It’s Siden. I’m going to call Satan. I’m gonna say Satan for now. Siden. Okay. Uh Satan changed his name to Siden so you wouldn’t know who he really is. Uh so he rolls. I’m sure Danny’s a nice guy. Look, he was on our our sibling station down in Arizona. Uh it’s uh KT down in down in uh down in Phoenix. Uh and so part of the deal is is that he goes on and he’s making a pitch essentially, right? And so it when you’re making a pitch to the community of like, hey, here’s why we need to do this. And and I’m telling you, look look, we do this all the time, right? We asked for and we were we saw this here locally not that long ago. And the reality is is even even guys even SCG, right? Even Ryan Smith and Ashley Smith, they have to come hat in hand a little bit to the Chamber of Not the Chamber of Commerce, but to like the city of Salt Lake. Oh, sure. To the state of Utah to Salt Lake County and they have to go, “Hey, we would love to do X, Y, and Z.” And you have to start really kind of putting a business plan together of this is how we’re going to improve the place. All right? and we would love to share in the profits with you on those things. We just require a little bit of investment on your end. Don’t worry because there’s going to be hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars that we’re going to put in and that the teams that are going to be here are going to put in. And that’s the pitch that they’re making in Phoenix right now. The problem is that uh that the whole situation with uh with Chase Field and with the Diamondbacks, who are not that far removed, by the way, from being in the World Series. I know it was kind of a fluke that year, but by the way, what a bad World Series between the Rangers and the a forgettable World Series. They were there. But the Rangers were champs and the Diamondbacks, who I think got in as like a wild card or one of the, you know, uh further down teams in the in the standings. They made it to the World Series. They also have a World Series title. uh they have the commissioner’s trophy in the old in the old uh trophy bin. It doesn’t matter because Phoenix does not feel like they want to foot the bill for it. And if Chase Field can’t figure it out, we would be happy right over here in the Power District to make it work for him. Let me explain to you what’s going on in Arizona. Chase Field uh is in trouble uh because of significant issues with its retractable roof, its cooling system, maintenance issues. Uh, they got to fix the stadium. Has a leaky roof, a non-functional cooling system, a roof that cannot be operated during games of fans. Whoa. They have concerns about the stadium’s ability to maintain a comfortable and safe environment. And another thing is the lease is up in 2027. Where are the Diamondbacks going to play? Uh, and does the franchise, the ownership want to funnel millions and millions of dollars into fixing this broken stadium? So, essentially, Chase Field is broken. it needs to be fixed and the lease is up in 2027. If you’re the owner and you’re looking at the bill, you’re like, I don’t want to deal with this anymore. I think I’m gonna sell the team and whoever buys it can move it to wherever they want it. And people in Arizona are panicking now. Politicians have got involved. A bill has passed the house in Arizona to fund those renovations. It’s now in the Senate. According to Mr. side and others. The deal is on the 5 yd line to use a football analogy. They should have used a baseball analogy. Yeah, if we were going to be smart about the bottom of the ninth and we have the bases loaded, we feel good about our chance. Rounding third. Perfect. So, major miss major missed opportunity there. The analogy. No good. But that is basically what’s going on. You have the combination of the broken stadium and the lease being expired in 2027. There’s an urgency to get this done or the team could relocate. Then that’s where Salt Lake City comes in. So Danny or and Baseball Utah Danny Satan, am I saying that right? Could it be Satan? Danny Satan Siden whatever Arizona Chamber of Commerce rep. Uh here’s what he did. He went on to K KT in Phoenix and this is what he said uh about the possibilities in there cuz it’s not just about what he’s doing now is not just pleading with the public of understanding what’s going on here. It’s also hey I’m going to while I’m at it take some digs at the other markets that are interested in teams and you don’t want to be like those super knows where that team’s going if they have to leave Arizona. Here’s what he had to say on KT down in Phoenix. Utah is being very aggressive. Oregon’s being very aggressive. They’re passing legislation to uh you know 800 600 million to pay for a new baseball stadium. That’s not anything what the Diamondbacks are looking for. They’re looking for some recapture of income generated that they can bond off of this. The team will put way more in hundreds of millions of dollars more in than any public dollars will go into to keep that asset here. I mean, if we’re not careful, we’re going to see that the Arizona Diamondbacks become the Utah Pika or whatever awful animal they’ll change it to. Like they took our coyotes and turned into the mastadon elephant. Is that what it is? The mastadon. something terri I don’t even want to say it. It’s so the mammoths. It hurts my heart. Some some Utah nonsense. I’m very pro Arizona here. So, um, we can’t allow that to happen to the Dbacks. We know Derek Hall. We know how hard he’s working to keep it here. And I think again the mayor’s coming around. Uh, spoken like a guy who’s worried about it, right? Oh, yeah. For sure. when you start when you start going after it and you start going well whatever some stupidity that Utah’s doing that’s oh that stupid state with its weird what they renamed the look by the way do you think Utah came in and just like stole the team or do you think it was the stupidity of your prior owner ask yourself he knows the answer you have smart people here in the state of Utah who went oh we see an opportunity here and by the way you’re fumbling ing that thing. Well, you’re uh Oh, I don’t know what you would I I don’t know what metaphor we’d use for the hockey side of things. You’ve been shut out, brother. I don’t know. You got punched in the face. Fiveminute major for being an idiot for their own for their owner. Okay. They get they end up they end up losing the team. They act like we came in and nefariously like in the dark of the night negotiated this thing. This is how Phoenix fans have done this whole thing. Oh, can you believe this? Everybody’s looking around and going, “Hate Arizona. one of the bigger one of the bigger markets in the West, by the way. And they can’t keep their crap together when it comes to having these teams. They can’t keep a team there. They cannot keep a team in Arizona and they can’t keep it happy. They can’t The owners can’t figure it out. You know what would never happen, JJ? I don’t think in the wild in our wildest dreams is a stadium going to such disrepair that we go, “Dude, we might need to leave the” And I know that this is what owners do for stadiums. This is what they do across the country. They threaten to leave, right? And there are cities where you can make that threat and it would never come it would never happen. It would never come to pass ever in that market. Imagine Ryan Smith threatening to leave uh with Right. And and and imagine like going to Pittsburgh. I was imagine the Pirates leaving Pittsburgh. Imagine the Steelers the Steelers leaving Pittsburgh. You could threaten that all day. Now just did it in Buffalo and they got a new stadium out of it. Yes. Did they get the whole new uh The Bills have also been winning which helped. It does help. Are they moving out of Orchard Park then? Are they moving? No, I think they’re building it right now. They’re just building it on top of it. I was hoping they were going to maybe move. You know why? Because you know where the worst lake effect in the world is is right here. Orchard Park. This is the worst place to build a stadium. Hey everybody, what were they thinking? Thanks so much for consideration of this football game. Please bring a shovel to today’s game and we’ll give you $14 off your concessions. Yeah. So, I I mean, look, all these different all these different uh stadiums, all these different issues, uh it all comes up and you know what, you have cities like all you can tell from this is that Phoenix feels like they’re not thriving nearly as much as they should be, right? Utah is thriving. They’re overextended. It’s a place that grew rapidly and I think you have some owners down there that probably shouldn’t be owners. We saw that with the with the hockey team. I’m not I I don’t know the situation well enough with the uh well the hockey one it was an irresponsible owner. It was so irresponsible. He was terrible. Cheap ownership. Yep. And he and the NHL needed to get him out. And look, the the NFL doesn’t have teams really relocate. There’s not going to have to You know what? The money’s too much. Like they print money now. There’s no version of in the dark of the night leaving Baltimore going to Indianapolis anymore. That doesn’t happen anymore. The Jaguars might leave, but even those guys who have the worst, they’re the worst franchise on paper that the league has ever had when it comes to not winning and and how many and how many points they give up versus how many they score over the last like 25 years, whatever it’s been. They’re the worst franchise. But you know what they do? They print freaking money. You know why? It’s the NFL. Shod Khan can move that team to London, which he probably is hoping to do at some point, and they’d probably still make an absolute mint off of that thing because the NFL’s king now. And, you know, they have a trust fund now that just will never run out. So, in the end, baseball is in an interesting spot, JJ, because the TV deal is falling through. It’s looking a little bit more dicey. Now, they’re going to pay for it. And these players, they play 162 games, and so they get paid a cajillion dollars. It’s all guaranteed money and these owners might be running into a really really tough spot and I’m praying for it and I’m here for it and I want feels like a conversation we were having about 16 months ago. Isn’t it weird? Very similar only I don’t I have no idea about the ownership group. I will say this. I don’t want to put too many things out there that aren’t that that give up that give uh a vibe of of hope that shouldn’t be there. But there have been multiple groups here in the state of Utah that have deep deep pockets to the tune of that 10 figure number, right? And they that they’ve been to Phoenix, toured around, looked at at places there and and and and talked with people down there about, hey, wow, we could actually make a really we could make this happen for you. bring your ownership to Salt Lake. Don’t even And and I get it. The Millers want to own the team, right? Correct. The Millers want to own the team. Yeah. They’re not bringing it. They’re not inviting someone. They’re not going to invite an owner, and that might be a big hurdle, right? Oh, well, because the owner, if the owner says that he’s going to be forced to sell, I think he’s lying. I think what’s happening here is they’re doing the highest bidder deal. And I think the owner would be dumb to give up the team anyway because what happened in the NHL that he was forced to sell. That guy was forced to sell. Yeah. and he was an irresponsible owner, super selfish, didn’t care about the didn’t have a place to play and they didn’t have a place to play. And maybe that’s where it ends up. If they don’t have a place to play, we’d be all right. Okay. Again, I don’t know enough about the you Arizona Diamondbacks ownership to be critical. We we learned a lot about the situation with with the Coyotes to be critical because there there was clearly some issues there. Uh but here’s the problem that Diamondbacks are facing and the ownership is facing. I mentioned all those things they need to fix. It’s going to cost between400 and $500 million to renovate Chase Field and fix these problems. I told you the long list of problems they have. This is a massive financial albatross. They are not wanting to foot this bill and they are asking Arizona taxpayers to help. And that’s what those bills are about. Now, they’re close. Apparently, they are close and if they get that done, uh, they’re they’re in pretty good shape to get this thing fixed. Now, after that, if they’re not willing to pay that money, and the lease is up in 2027, Rob Manfred has stated the the commissioner of baseball that their priority is to find another location in Arizona to build a new stadium. But then who’s paying for that? So, every single situation that’s positive for the Diamondbacks staying in Arizona has a major issue attached to it, similar to what we saw with our hockey team. Who doesn’t have a problem? Utah. The Larry H. Miller Group. The Larry H. Miller company is shovel ready to build the stadium. They have the property. Uh they have public funding already approved. Nearly a billion dollars. They got Dale Murphy. They got Dale Murphy. Okay. Big League Utah is ready to go now. And if you’re an owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, do you want to deal with this problem? Do you want to beg for public funding or do you want to cash out? get rid of your problem and move on. That’s the issue that they’re facing right now because would you want to dump $400 or $500 million into fixing a broken building? Let’s say you’re an investor and you’re a real estate person and you are trying to put, you know, you you have some rental units and at what point do you decide to cut ties with that rundown rental unit and just get rid of it or just take it down or sell it, get rid of the problem? I’m tired of this. You can understand that the ownership is dealing with that situation with their with their stadium. They need to get they need to fix a problem here and they’re on they’re on deadline. and they have two years to get it figured out. So that’s what they’re up against. So the idea that the Diamondbacks could move, I’d put it at a 15% chance, but there’s a chance. What chance did you think that the Arizona Coyotes had of moving to Utah? Uh probably 15% chance 18 months or 24 months ago. The U Ryan Smith had applied for an expansion franchise. Even he didn’t see that coming, right? So things can move quickly and if the MLB and this Arizona Diamondbacks problem exists and the league needs a quick solution, Larry H. Miller company is ready to help. I like the sound of that. We could get Major League Baseball a lot sooner than when expansion could happen by 2030. I know it’s a it’s a little bit of an early pipe dream. And by the way, we got we were we were spoiled by how quickly everything moved with the NHL. It’s just something that just doesn’t happen. No, not not really. So the reality of of a team coming here to Utah is probably years and years down the line. But you know how these people are that have to have billions. Would you rather spend would you rather spend 500 million or make 500 million? That’s that’s what they’re going to have to deal with if if they can’t get the public funding which they say again it’s on the 5 yard line but we know how these things go. Politics are tricky. There’s a little bit of resistance from the Phoenix mayor on this with some sit when some with some verbiage in the legislation and what’s going to be asked of the Phoenix taxpayer sim. Does it sound familiar? Yeah. And look, it’s not a city that so pay attention to the situation. Start following it closely. I think you have a I think I think you have an I think you have a a situation here. And the biggest difference is is I think that the ownership of the Diamondbacks, um Ken Kendrick is the guy who is the principal owner. I think he’s the the the majority owner and he’s actually the ma the managing general partner of the of the Diamondback. So it’s not just that he’s the owner. He also like is I mean since the since this team was since the inception of this team in ’95, isn’t that crazy? It’s already been 30 years by the way that the Diamondbacks have been a franchise. Crazy. 30 years they’ve been around and this guy’s been there since day one. And I don’t think that he’s he’s not doing the I don’t think he’s doing the halfway thing that uh that the ownership group at the at the hockey at the Coyotes did. But I do think that you know you got to play this game when you’re in partnership with cities when you’re in partnership with some of these places. I mean that there we were listening to more of that conversation that there the Chamber of Commerce guy the Arizona Chamber of Commerce guy had with uh with KTR and he was like look this is uh this is we’ve talked to restaurant owners downtown and they’ve said if that if the Diamondbacks leave then we have to leave too. So they’re like all these businesses are going to get shut down and that’s the threat right? That’s why the Chamber of Commerce president shows up and goes, “Hey, man, you better do something about this or we’re going to do something about this or let’s get the let’s get the legislation figured out so we can make this happen.” So, I’m just keeping it. Look, every few months, JJ, we have to have this conversation just to keep the pressure on, right? And to keep our conversation, trust me, the pressure’s on down there. And just to keep and just to keep the the the you know, the Salt Lake, it’s in the hands of the Arizona Senate, Big League Utah. Let’s keep them relevant for as long as we can every day until that Major League Baseball team shows up right here in the state of Utah. We got more to go. Stay with us. 975D KSL Sports Zone. This is Jake Scott and Ben Anderson. Last year was not fun. The games are pretty fun to go to, but like I don’t know if fun is good enough for Jazz fans. The way you’re talking about like, oh, go to a minor league baseball game or oh, I’m in town. I’ll go to a White Sox game cuz there’s a novelty to it. Well, they’ve made the experience better which helps. Absolutely. No, the experience is good. The problem is Jazz fans want more than that. You don’t have to win, but you have to have something that’s fun to root for. And I just don’t know if there was anything that was fun to root for with the Jazz last year. I mean, even if they hit pause on their season tickets, Ben, they’ll be back. This is a basketball town. You want to talk about they had the worst record in the league this year, worst record in franchise history, whatever. They will never have the worst attendance in the league. People are just disappointed. They’re going to trudge on. They get it. Don’t have to love it. Don’t have to have fun. But the Chaz fan base will endure. They understand. Of course. Yeah. They’re not going anywhere. Hear Jake Scott and Ben Anderson every day from 10 to noon on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Ladies and gentlemen, you’re locked into JJ and Alex with the insight and analysis on the teams you can’t live without. Presented by G2G bars. This is 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Welcome back everybody. JJ and Alex 975 EKSL Sports Zone. Alex Cury, Jeremiah Jensen, thanks for being with us on the program today. Appreciate Appreciate you, JJ. Hey, by the way, uh, every Wednesday on the KSL Sport Zone, that’s tomorrow. You’re going to be able to win stuff. It’s It’s called a win ticket Wednesday. How do we do this? Well, we roll out, uh, we roll out some tickets this week. It’s going to be Judas Priest and Alice Cooper. One of my favorite things of the whole week was when Bob Casper said he wanted to be at the concert front and center this last week. I love how he laughed. Little giddy about Judas Priest. He laughed. He laughed about it. Yeah. Him and Beas and Buttthead. Bob Casper, Beas and Butad. Catch him at the Judas Priest concert this uh this coming up. Tomorrow we’re going to be giving away tickets to Judas Priest and Alice Cooper coming to Utah First Credit Union Amphitheater on August 12th. You can get tickets right now liveation.com or you can listen tomorrow. all across the station all day long. You’re going to get yourself uh the chance to win those tickets. Joining us on the program right now, host of BYU Sports Nation, and of course uh he is a friend of the program. You see him on KSL5 television periodically when JJ takes like a day off, which is not that often, but uh if maybe Sam is the one who ends up taking the day off. And then Spencer Linton from BYU TV joins us on the program right now. What’s going on, Spencer? Gentlemen, great to be with you. How in the world do I get my Alice Cooper ticket as well? Oh, uh, ineligible. All right. Too closely associated. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Spencer, just call in. Try your luck. Yeah. Hey, tomorrow. Be like, oh, you got a favorite Alice Cooper song. He’s like, no. Millie, that’s his that’s his best uh that’s his best Alice Cooper for the good land. That’s right. You got it. Oh, Alice Cooper taught us so much. Yeah. No, he is he is a sneaky historian. Hey, uh Spencer, first of all, thanks for being on the program here with us this off season. Uh well, really there’s no version of offseason anymore for any of college sports, but as we start to look at kind of how this up and down has been, the end of football spring, uh the end of the basketball season, uh the end of the calendar sports year, which brings a new athletic director to BYU and Brian Santiago. We’ve got a lot of stuff to jump in here with with you. Have you ever seen the energy around BYU to the point that it is? Uh to answer it simply, no. I I feel like in many ways BYU is on the precipice of advancing to a new stratosphere of potential accomplishment, accolades, like that next level of national relevancy that they truly want and have sought after for years. They’re right there. And I think that ultimately is why the board of trustees and the administration opted to just keep with this current wave of momentum that BYU athletics has without trying to disrupt it too much. and they opted for a guy in Brian Santiago that has been Tom Ho’s right-hand man for 20 years because he’s there and knows how it is going and frankly has been very heavy-handed in hiring a lot of the coaches that are leading BYU’s athletic department to the level of success that they have right now, notably Kevin Young. Uh, I BYU fans, I feel like it’s a disservice to Brian and to all BYU fans if they’re not aware of how much he was involved in making that a reality for BYU men’s basketball because he worked very hard at initiating and establishing that relationship with Kevin Young, which is why, not shockingly, Kevin Young among others were in Brian’s corner when it was presented to them. would you feel comfortable about Brian Santiago leading this athletic department? And um so it all ties in. But yeah, to circle back on your initial question, I cannot recall a time quite like this. there’s been excitement um at this level in terms of maybe when BYU was invited into the Big 12 and you know on July 1st 2023 when they when they jumped in and it was like official like that there was comparable excitement but now expectations are accompanying that excitement uh along with clear booster backing and an NIL era that BYU for the moment seems to thriving in. Even the biggest BYU hater has to admit that what Tom Holmo did at BYU is beyond remarkable. Navigating BYU through troubled waters and uncertainty to get them where they are today. Brian Santiago is not going to be asked to do what he did. But what is Brian Santiago’s biggest challenge going to be? What is his legacy? What is his biggest challenge, I guess, when it comes to legacy and building and establishing who he is as an athletic director? because he doesn’t have to take on those challenges, but what are the challenges ahead for him in BYU? Yeah, loaded. Fantastic question. And I think he addressed some of those to a degree when he had his breakout sessions um with the media after he was officially announced as the athletic director. But me reading the tea leaves and and knowing Brian and his personality and and having worked with him in somewhat of a close capacity, I can I can tell you right now that one of the most difficult things that Brian is going to encounter is embracing the idea that he has to delegate responsibilities to the staff around him because he is just a get it done guy and he wants to just go ahead and take care of it himself. and he told us on BUA Sports Nation, “This is hard for me because typically I’m just like, “Yep, I can do it. I’ll handle it. I’ll take care of it and and we’ll go.” But he said that he’s excited about the challenge, using your word JJ, of embracing this new leadership approach, which means hiring people that he truly trusts, putting them in places around him, and then letting them go and do it. It is tough. Can you teach an old draw old dog new tricks in that regard? We’re about to find out, but he’s going to need to rely on his support staff, which Tom did uh with Brian and others so remarkably well. It’s the Lavel Edwards approach. So, that’s a challenge for sure um that that he has in front of him. And then to go along with that, the challenge of hiring the right people and the new pieces that are going to be a part of his highlevel administrative staff. It is all about surrounding yourself with good people and the right people that fit your vision and the mission of Brigham Y Young University athletics which is straightforward but at times as you guys know can be complicated with uh wanting to abide by all the rules and and play by the rule book and and be within the mission of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s just such a a loaded conversation. And then, you know, to be frank, you guys have talked about it after uh the announcement of Brian. He’s not the for years hasn’t been the lovable kind of uncle grandpa figure that Tom Homo has been. Nope. So, he he’s got a challenge to win over a large portion of the fan base that are kind of skeptical on who he is as a person. And because he is so competitive, like it it is he’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever met, which frankly is is a big part of what makes him who he is and why he’s successful because he has that competitive edge. Danny A has it. Brian and Danny play golf with each other. They play everything with each other. Basketball, golf, I don’t care. They could be playing freaking raco or rummy cube and it would be the most intense game that you’ve ever experienced in that regard because they just that’s how they are wired. Um, but that’s that’s part of what makes him great. But it also kind of can can give people the wrong impression like, oh man, he’s just he’s just kind of uh he’s abrasive and he’s got this edge to him. Yep. Yes. He’s very intense. And so that too will be a challenge to win over the fan base that he can ex embrace this new role. And I we we need to be fair and give him an opportunity to show that he can take on a new role. And so I I would encourage not just BYU fans, but fans of of sports in the Behive State in general, of just college athletics, when you look at BYU, give Brian Santiago an opportunity to try and take on this new role which will will push him to do things that maybe he’s not innately set up to do. Um, it’s a tall task, man. It’s a tall task and this is a this is a a high demand um forgiving to a degree fan base but like they’ve seen they’ve tasted of the fruits and it’s been rather recent but it’s kind of like advancing from the Toyota Camry to uh a highlevel German car and it’s like all right well we we kind of want to stay with this car can Santiago and company keep us in this car because we don’t want to go back down to the general import. Um, but yeah, challenging task, no doubt about it. Uh, for heaven’s sakes though, Brian Santiago, you don’t need to dress up for Halloween to uh endear yourself to the fan base going forward. Uh, but don’t don’t try too hard. It’s like you don’t need that doesn’t work. You find your own thing, brother. Uh, here’s what I was going to say. He might show up as Alice Cooper. He might show up as Halloween. You know what? That actually would ingratiate your ingratiate him to fans. Well, some I don’t know. There’d be there’d be some people who would not appreciate it. Let me ask you this, uh, Spencer. If if today the Super League were calling the one that we predict I love how we look at it like it’s the Caldera, like there’s going to be an earthquake that hits this area at some point. It’s going to come. If uh if that if if that day comes where a Super League is created, if it were to if it were today, would BYU be in that in that super league? I feel like they’ve done enough recently and have enough positive momentum and have shown what the uh booster base and support group is like at BYU right now while it’s all fair game to go and and help uh get players to BYU with NIL that they would be. I I think they’re enough of a draw, have a big enough national brand, and most importantly have have done enough winning in the two major collegiate sports recently for any super conference to be like, “Yeah, they would be a good addition.” Like, we’re talking about 11-2 BYU football. They’re going to be ranked in the top 20 in the first AP preseason poll. and uh a Sweet 16 team for just the third time in the modern era led by Kevin Young who now has one of the best perceived rosters with maybe three NBA players in his starting five next year like led by AJ Debonsa. BYU is an enticing appealing brand and they’re winning in the Olympic sports all around it just sprinkled with goodness. It’s It’s kind of like extra sprinkles on your cupcake. And the cupcake’s pretty dang good by itself. So, I I think because of this momentum, yes, they they would be involved, but sports are a fickle beast. BYU needs to continue to win. And as much as by fans don’t want to hear this, the reason Utah was so appealing when they got the call to the Pack 12 after Texas and Oklahoma kind of fell out of that conversation is because Utah was on the precipice of something great coming off an undefeated season in 2008 and their basketball team a few years before that was in the Sweet 16 and they had momentum too. So, it it’s um it again fickle, but I believe right now BYU would be a no doubter ad for any super conference with this level of success and the momentum right now. Yeah, they you got to give BYU a lot of credit. It’s cool to go to BYU right now and AJ Debons is a good example of that. And you see that also with the football program. And before we let you go, man, there’s so many things I’d love to talk to you about, but we’re almost out of time. But before I let you go, this BYU football program is is skyhigh. They they might be top 15 when the first AP poll comes out, which is crazy to think two years ago they won five games in the Big 12. But it’s interesting. Last year they did so well without the expectations. My question to you is what is this program going to do with the expectations this year? Gosh, that is the milliondoll question. They’re trying very hard as a collective unit to maintain this edge and this chip on the shoulder to use the uh old adage and cliche to maintain where BYU tends to thrive the most. We’re disrespected. People don’t actually believe in us. I think the players and coaches are kind of hoping that when that Big 12 preseason poll comes out, they’re picked fourth or fifth. And that the rankings maybe not as high as they would hope coming off the season where they finished number 13 in the final AP poll. And Jake Rzoff is using this oh man like lists of I’m the sixth best Big 12 quarterback after that season. Really? That’s the best. They’re all trying to find this edge because they feel like mentally that is where they thrive. BYU has this fixation on being overlooked and underappreciated and then going out and and and thriving. So, they’re JJ I I I think they’re just kind of hoping that they can add to some type of well, it’s good, but it’s not good enough. And people don’t actually consider us a legitimate college football playoff contender and no one actually thinks that BYU is going to win the Big 12. They’re kind of already preparing for that and taking that approach that we need to go and overperform again based on wherever these higher expectations are and prove people wrong again. And frankly, what’s harder than doing uh or putting together a 10- win season once as a power four team? Doing it back-to-back years. That would prove that BYU is here to stay. Not just a flash in the pan like, oh, they went backto back double digit win seasons. Okay, maybe BYU has actually elevated. And so they’re they’re trying to prove that last year wasn’t a fluke while hoping to maybe be disrespected to a degree when these preseason rankings come out. Spencer Linton, playby-play voice across BYU TV brand and of course hosts with uh with Jarm Jordan every day uh BYU Sports Nation. Spencer also a frequent contributor to Cougar Board. So find him there. Um what’s your Cougar Board name? You want to share that? Dude, dude, I’m not kidding. I have two friends, two two of them. I will put them out there by name that anytime someone says something mean about me on Cougar Board, they will screenshot it and send it to me and say, “Hope you’re having a great day.” These are these are your friends, too, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. Spencer on Cougar Board. Say something negative about you. Got to love it. Uh Spencer, we appreciate it, man. Thanks for uh thanks for your help today. And uh we’ll chat with you again, brother. You guys are the best. Way to grind and keep up the elite work. There you go, Spencer and L. Thanks, Spencer. Yeah, you gota be nice to him because he’s got to fill in for you. Oh, yeah. No, man. Spencer’s my best friend. Uh, we’ll take a break. We’ll come back. Are you the guy who sends him screenshots of stuff from Cougarboard? Yeah. Uh, no. We’ll come back. I got my own problems with Cougar, I’m sure. I don’t even want to know. No, no, no, no, no. Uh, we will come back. We’ve got tons more around the around the corner. We’ve got a would you rather next. Stay with us. 975 BKS Sports Zone. This is This is DJ and PK. Former BYU coach Steve Cleveland. I’ve not seen AJ play. As I watched that 90minute practice, right, is going to be the point guard on this team, but you probably have a difficult time telling AJ that he’s not going to handle the ball. He was playing the point guard. He’s not a selfish player. He’s very selfless. He hits the open man. He’s got such size and length. Watching him initially, I thought he looked a lot like Paul George, but he’s even got a better body. It took Paul probably two years to get a body like AJ already has. So, it’s obvious that he’s gonna have an impact immediately. This team’s going to be really good. Houston, Texas Tech, BYU, Arizona, Iowa State, those are going to be the same teams that are going to show up. I’m excited about it, man. I think it’s going to be a really, really good year. [Music] Catch DJ and PK mornings from 6:00 to 10 on 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Listen everybody. Real life hypotheticals to get your brain churning. As JJ and Alex ask, would you rather? Welcome back everybody. JJ and Alex 975 EKSL Sports Zone. Alex Cury, Jeremiah Jensen. Thanks for being with us on the program everybody. Uh yes, it’s that time of the day for us to uh jump in. We’ve got lots to uh to get to still. We’re going to chat with Todd from IBW in just a moment here. But I did want to jump in on a uh have you weigh in on a would you rather here JJ and uh are you aware of what the topic is? No, I am not. You have been it’s been held from you. This is like like the old uh So you don’t know I you haven’t been given any trick cards before. You put me in a uh soundproof room before the show while you were planning the show. JJ, we’re going to go with uh and u I was thinking about this today because of the passing of the great George went. Oh yes. Uh bear super fan and of course uh Barfly at uh at Ted Danc right. So, I wanted to know just from a perspective of and again I I maybe he’s been in some sports movies before, but I don’t know. But it did make me start to think about sports movies and I wanted to know what your uh preference was on some of these uh sports films of all time. Okay. Uh so sports films of all time, best ones ever. Um let’s go from the top here. Would you rather moneyball or major league? Major League. Funny. I I always go funny. Major League or dodgeball? Dodgeball. Dodgeball. If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball. Dodgeball. Uh, dodgeball or remember the Titans. I’m still dodgeball. Remember the Titans. It’s fine. It’s a little cheesy for me. You got Oh, it’s a little cheesy when they do that. It almost is like a weird skit to me when they’re like it’s so cheesy. I know. Let’s just have some laughs and watch dodgeball together. All right. Uh dodgeball or white men can’t jump. Oh, dodgeball. Dodgeball. Yeah. Or Rudy. Dodgeball. Dodgeball or let me see here. Or bring it on. One of my wife’s favorite cheerleading movies of all time. Come on now. Dodgeball or Friday Night Lights? Friday Night Lights is an incredible movie. I’m still going dodgeball again because I like the laughs. But Friday Night. That’s tough. That was tough. Uh, dodgeball or A League of Their Own? Dodgeball. Dodgeball or There’s no crying in dodgeball. The Bad News Bears. Bad News Bears is good. Go back and watch that from the 70s, but I’m still going dodgeball. Dodgeball or Field of Dreams? Dodgeball. Dodgeball or Hooers? Dodgeball. I think I know where this is going. Of all the sports movies JJ has chosen, Major League was much closer than all these. Look, Field of Dreams is great. I love it, but I want to laugh. All right, fine. More to go. 975 EKSL Sports Zone. Your home for the best coverage of the Jazz Utes and Cougars is right here on the zone. This is JJ and Alex presented by G2G bars on 975 the KSL Sports Zone. What are you trying to get the feels from the mid9s going on here? What’s up, Christian? Jeez, that was awkward lyrics to lead into Pete Futac. Pete Futac awkwardly getting thrown in to the uh I’ve waited forever to touch you to the goooo dolls. Oh, Christian as an alltimer right there. I love it. Uh joining us on the program right now, he’s Pete Futac. College Football News is where you can find his by line. Uh Pete, I apologize, but also sorry, not sorry, actually, now that I think about it. Are you about to tell me you love me? Yeah, that’s exactly. In a special way. In a special way. That’s how we do it. I’m old enough to remember that song stuck when it was like in real time. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, we are too. That’s that’s I never quite got it. They actually had other okay songs, but that seemed to be the one that just unfortunately broke through. And I’m sure I’m sure they’re the ones I’m sure those guys are like, “No, it’s one of those songs that they’re like, “Can you just please not ask us to play that song? That’s the one that we didn’t think was going to go.” It was actually written for a movie starring Nicholas Cage. There’s all those bands like that. Like whichever that band was that made the Friends theme, they’re like they want to kill themselves now. Yeah. That’s the Rembrandt. The Rembrandt. Don’t Don’t act like I don’t know. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. Wait. Well, these are all time these are all things from our era. Uh our program brought to you by G2G bars. All natural ingredients and no preservatives make the G2G bar the perfect protein bar. Uh Craball News where you can find Pete Futax by line. Uh as we get into the offseason here, and again it’s less and less of an offseason every year. Uh one of the things that’s coming up here is is the is the house having to decide what this is going to look like, what the settlement’s going to end up being. And college football is going to have to make some decisions when it comes to or college sports really, not football, but college sports are going to have to make a decision and universities are going to have to figure out where sports are going to fit into their uh into their world. Are we going to start seeing uh other sports at universities just dropping off? We’ve already seen some of them. Is that going to be the norm once this thing comes out and everything starts to kind of shake down? I’m gonna bear the full on heel here. and having grown up my entire life in around colleges, my dad worked for a bunch of universities and doing what I do and everything I and now having two kids in college and paying for all this. I have yet to hear an argument why there needs to be non-revenue sports in college. Like I get the the I get you need title nine. I get the the importance of making things equal and I I get that, you know, you do need to balance things out to a certain extent. So that I’m with and and it’s important. Uh but this isn’t high school. You don’t need after school activities. I mean I covered non-revenue sports teams where there’s like two people there. It’s like well why are you spending all this money on this, you know, sport? I mean there’s just there really is no reason to have these other sports that don’t generate revenue. Like look, you know, it’s a college campus. We have to remember it’s college. You’re supposed to be there for education, learning purposes, and all that kind of stuff. But the horses left the barn long ago when it comes to football and basketball and women’s basketball too. So that’s again these things do rise up if you give them a shot. But I think the step that they’re pushing for they’re trying to do this as politically correct as possible is being like look we just don’t need non-revenue sports because you know they just don’t help the there’s no real educational value because it’s to a university. I think one of the biggest challenges that’s going to come forward is figuring out how to I guess manage this new world of college football because you have you know you you now I guess they’re talking about you trying to create an organization and trying to get the conferences to sign off on certain uh restrictions on NIL salaries all that kind of stuff. But isn’t that what the NCA was before? like there’s already been court orders and already these decisions being made on on the legal side of things that could prevent that from happening. So what where does this land and how do they how do they find this middle ground? Is it collective bargaining that solves that problem? Pete, just remember that every turn, every thing that we’re talking about here, one completely gets blown off, forgotten about, not cared about the second the ball kicks off on October 28th or whatever that is. The other part too of this is everything that they’re doing right now is blah blah blah blah blah so they don’t get sued. That’s the only reason that they’re trying to they’re just trying just not to get a bunch of class action lawsuits against them because they actually have the perfect system where you don’t have to pay for the labor. It’s a beautiful thing if you are these colleges because and this is what I’ve always been for. Fine, you know, give them a cut give players a cut of the money, figure something out. They can’t unionize. But all right. But find another aspect of of American business life where you know remember there’s an entertainment product. These are the entertainers on the field. Your coaches are getting paid tens of millions of dollars. So for like someone like a a Nick Sabin to be a part of this. His coaching staff in Alabama was worth about 20 million a year. So like if you’re paying the coaches, why not pay the guys who are the actual players and entertainers in this whole thing? So that’s all this is the one part of all. So I’m for you know however you need to do this and revenue splitting and things like this but there’s two other aspects to that one there’s always going to be places that go an extra mile and do stuff outside of whatever rules because if one if they perceive that one school if if one if a school perceives that one place or their rival is giving someone an extra little bag of cash well certainly they’re going to try to keep up the pace with that. The other part is the the one aspect of all this that I really think fans will have a hard time getting past. I think fans can get past the money. You know, we we’re okay now with uh endorsement deals and we really are more fine than we think with, you know, quarterbacks getting a couple million a year and all that kind of stuff. I think we’re going to start to lose it when we have 31y old college football players. Like the whole idea that yeah, you can you can stay in school and, you know, play, you know, keep playing for eight, nine, 10 years. Well, no. That’s that’s not the point of this whole thing is that now you have grown men playing against 18-year-old kids, and that I think will not sit well because that then really then becomes a minor league uh NFL. Pete, if you’re uh kind of watching and following all this stuff, and of course a lot of our listeners are, and they start to look at Utah and BYU, and they go, “All right, we had this conversation last hour with somebody who uh works at BYU, and you know, they just got a new athletic director, and and you know, there’s a lot of energy around BYU with the football and the basketball stuff and and almost more so with basketball. But from the from the standpoint of these new the new Super League stuff and the conversations that that uh you know when these TV contracts are up and people start to wonder what is the new future of college football and sports look like and really we talk about football in its own in its own universe. Uh where do BYU and Utah fit into that conversation going forward into the future? I’m just going to just talk like I know what I’m talking about here because you guys know this better than I do. I would think BYU would benefit more than just about anybody because is money an object? I mean, if you have a school, if you have a school like a BYU or a Notre Dame or, you know, private universities to a certain extent with, you know, the with funds and revenue sources that aren’t just about the school and the business of colleges and the, you know, multi-billion, you know, business of running, you know, major universities, and you break it down into, well, BYU obviously has a a separate aspect to this school that the funds are there, you know, it’s and it’s from a, you know, the the church side of things, too, where you you can make this a I want to be an entertainment vehicle. It’s a PR arm for the school and for everything about the place. I would think that in a in a world where, you know, it’s about who has the money to spend. I would think that’s not an issue for BYU. And like you said, college basketball, that’s a powerhouse team coming because basketball, you only need a couple guys, unless apparently Ruters, your Ruters of last year. Uh, and it still doesn’t work. It still doesn’t work when you have the two of the top three guys in the draft. You can’t even make the tournament. But BYU obviously looks like they’re going to be awesome in basketball next year. And, you know, the football team’s obviously been great. So I don’t know in in the current climate this is the one positive about a sport where if you go back to like 1800s there’s only like you know 10 schools that have dominated like Princeton and you know Yale and Michigan and Ohio State, Alabama. I mean there just aren’t that many schools that have really dominated at the highest of levels. Well this levels the playing field because if you have money you can you can afford a team that can get out there on the field and compete. Um, now with when we brought up BYU and Utah, I got to ask you a Utah question because they had a five and seven season last year. They were a massive disappointment. One of the most disappointing seasons uh that I’ve seen from Utah because of the high expectations, but now Kyle Whittingham’s right where he likes to be, which is under the radar, people doubting them. Can you see them having a big bounce back here this year with the personnel they brought in? How can you not? I mean, it wasn’t just it wasn’t just Utah. How about Arizona? Remember last year at this time it was it was a foregone conclusion that Utah was going to win the conference, Arizona was going to be right there and Oklahoma State was going to be in the mix. And those turned out to be probably the three worst teams in the league. And well look the the the negative is that the Big 12 from top to bottom is probably the strongest. Not the best, not the most talented, but like I mean Houston’s good, Cincinnati’s good. Uh Texas Tech look, you talk about having money and buying a team. Texas Tech has got a whale of a team because they crushed the transfer portal. Uh Arizona State’s great again. So like every single team in the Big 12 is either improved or good enough to win the the conference if everything kind of breaks right. Uh the difference being this year though, you look at schedules and well Arizona’s going to be better, you know, and again Oklahoma State’s going to go back to Oklahoma State and Utah’s going to be better mainly because you got that you got a quarterback now. This is all going to stop. We’re not going to wait for camera to come out. Devin Dampier is a player. I mean, he is I I don’t know how much you saw him last year in the Mountain West world. He’s fun and there he could be a difference maker uh along with some of the other transfers that come in to make Utah the way turn this around pretty fast. Um yeah, I think every time we talk about Devin Dampier and and after spring and and frankly he was one of these guys too, it helps that he likes to be in front of the microphone and and he gives the right answers and and that helps also too. and people kind of bounce back immediately. And I think that the Kyle Whittingham side of it, uh, you know, people look at that and go, “How long can you keep Kyle Whittingham down?” Especially, you know, I think the the wisdom is here locally that, you know, this is not there there’s not going to be a lot of years that Kyle Whittingham keeps doing this, and this may be the long this may be the last of it. And, you know, you if you’re going to go out on a on a good note, you got to you got to have a quarterback like that. And I think they got him. I think that Jason Beck is also that guy who is able to change the trajectory of what this team can do. If you’re looking from the outside on the outside looking in and you start to look at the Big 12, where are they going forward? You talked about Texas Tech. This is but this was also like a league that was because of the teams that underperformed and then teams who overperformed like Arizona State, BYU even in that category of teams that you didn’t think were going to be as good as they were and they’re, you know, stratospheric on on the performance side, Colorado even in that conversation. So, does the league need to have a little bit more of a topheavy sort of look at it? I know Urban Meyer today said, “Well, you know, uh, the SEC’s good, but they’re nowhere near the the top of the SEC isn’t near the top of the Big 10 right now.” Um, where’s the Big 12 when it comes to these power conferences? I Well, all about that in terms of because yes, Georgia is going to be good and Alabama’s going to be good, but the top of the Big I mean, again, I keep going with the Big 12. I mean, find the Baylor’s really good. Baylor’s probably the best was had one of the best second halfs of the season last year that flew under the radar. they don’t colossally gak away that Colorado game on the two Hail Marys given up. Uh then they’re would have been right into it. TCU is being a little bit forgotten about. They’re great again. So like the problem is you’ve got every team in the Big 12 is very good, but you don’t have that superpower. So, and this is going to be how the the college football playoff world goes forward. And it’ll be interesting to see how fans really keep reacting to it because it’s not going to be like, you know, even the NBA playoffs that we’re seeing right now or it’s definitely not going to be March Madness where you can hit threes for a couple games and all of a sudden, oh my gosh, you’re in the Elite Eight. It’s gonna you’re the Boise State thing is cute, the SMU thing is cute, and there’s going to be a win somewhere, but you’re not going to win two or three of those things. and the superpowers that the strugg you know I’m not that smart but last year’s this time I said Ohio State’s winning the national title they have more money they got Chip Kelly’s offensive coordinator they’re deeper and they have more NFL talent not hard you know so like it’s it’s going to be the superpowers every single year so yeah I mean you if you’re a Utah and you win the Big 12 all right maybe you get in maybe you you catch a break or two you win a couple games but wow getting going from you know 12 soon to, you know, to get that eight and get to the four. You can get a couple, but to get those last two final steps, we as we’ve learned in the college football playoff era, you can maybe win one, you can’t win three. Who’s the best quarterback in college football in 2025? I I’m not going to kneejerk and say Arch Manning. I mean, he’s he’s he is the one of ones. He is the because his name’s Manning and because he’s got all the skills and all the tools, the spotlight will be fully and completely on him. Uh there’s going to be some who believe Drew Aller is going to rise up and this is when it kind of all shines. I’m not quite buying it yet. But it’s not just about the the best. How about naming a a quarterback? That’s what I kind of find funny about all these, you know, the the pre early, you know, top 25. All right, you people are coming up with your top 25. Give me the starting quarterback for Oregon, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, and Michigan because those are those are five of the top six or seven teams out there. Yeah, they got to figure it out. Everyone knows the Texas starting quarterback and pretty much everyone should know Drew Aller and throw Notre Dame in there as well. You can’t The average person has no clue who CJ Carr is right now. Yeah, right. you know, it’s it’s you know, Georgia is still really gonna still try to figure out, are we still going to go with, you know, Dante Moore at Oregon yet? I mean, there’s still a lot of question marks. So, out of the top 10 teams in the country, let’s just say seven of them, the average, you know, diehard college football fan can’t name the starting quarterback for seven of them. That’s that’s that’s depressing for those teams. Good for the teams who have a quarterback already. But yeah, just throwing out like the Garrett Re will be just fine. Alabama will be just fine. For sure. For sure. But you know, like we just kind of knee-jerk go, well, Garrett Nusmeer. Uh I’ve heard that name. Oh, Drew Aller. Sure. Yeah. Oh, Carson Beck. Why not? Kateick. Kate Clubnick. Oh, yeah. Obviously, these guys are your front runners for the uh for the Heisman Trophy because they’re the only names that we know right now in in uh in May, right? That’s what we do every year as we go. I I still do refuse to believe that Travis Hunter can win the Heisman. I just I’m not going to buy it. I don’t believe it. I just don’t. Yeah, those things just come out of nowhere. So, yeah. Crazy. Uh he’s Pete Futac college footballnews.com where you can find that by line. Go check it out today. Go see those. Uh as usual, Pete, uh we appreciate it and we’re going to keep these we’re going to keep the goooo dolls on tap for when you come on the program again next time. I when I need a hug, just happy for us. I love it. All right, Pete. We appreciate it, man. Thanks again. Oh my goodness. That’s as warm and fuzzy as Pete’s ever going to get. And that was like the bring a guest on and then have him join with goooo dolls. What was the name of that movie, by the way? Was that City of Angels? City of Angels. Yeah, with Nicholas Cage. No, it wasn’t Nick Cage. Oh, it was. Was it really? Yes. I thought it was uh Oh, no. It was It was Nicholas Cage. You’re right. You’re right. Right. I was thinking it was uh I was thinking of a different fake Angel movie. I was thinking of Michael with uh what’s his name? John Travolta. What you’re saying is Hollywood has produced way too many fake Angel movies. Angels in the Outfield by far the best one. Angels in the Outfield by far the best one. Christopher Lloyd is the lead Angel bringing the uh I think back then it was the California Angels at Anaheim. Yeah. Boy, what a weird name that was for a while. That and they and they tried to get you to say the whole thing. All right, we’ll take the break here. We’ve got more to go around the corner. We got tons still to talk about, so stay right here. 975 the KSL Sports Zone. This is This is DJ and PK. Former BYU coach Steve Cleveland. I’ve not seen AJ play. As I watched that 90minute practice, Wright is going to be the point guard on this team, but you probably have a difficult time telling AJ that he’s not going to handle the ball. He was playing the point guard. He’s not a selfish player. He’s very selfless. He hits the open man. He’s got such size and length. Watching him initially, I thought he looked a lot like Paul George, but he’s even got a better body. It took Paul probably two years to get a body like AJ already has. So, it’s obvious that he’s going to have an impact immediately. This team’s going to be really good. Houston, Texas Tech, BYU, Arizona, Iowa State. Those are going to be the same teams that are going to show up. I’m excited about it, man. I think it’s going to be a really, really good year. [Music] Catch DJ and PK mornings from 6:00 to 10 on 975 the KSL Sports Zone accessing when TV and radio collide. Love it. This is what you get. You’re listening to JJ and Alex presented by G2G bars. Don’t touch that on 975 BKSL Sports Zone. Welcome back JJ and Alex. 975 EKSL Sports Zone. Alex Cury, Jeremiah Jensen, Christian Esparza filling in for our producer Alex who’s uh calling some soccer matches for the wild. Yeah, they’ve had some golden goals. They had a a shootout that took 13 rounds. I love that. Alex is going to be sore when he comes to Is he back tomorrow? He is. He’ll be back tomorrow and then out again on Oh, he’s gonna be sore. Got a hammy situation. Probably more like a LX. Hey, uh Christian, what’s with the morose mood today, brother? Are you okay? Everything all right in there? Well, you were saying uh 290s for goooo doll, so I brought a little more modern Post Malone. Posty. I love Look, I love me some Posty. And of all the Posty songs, like the one that like is heartfelt, I love it. You’re feeling like some like uh it’s a good vibe. Some real like love vibes, too. I just really miss my Tupperware, man. Ah, hey, he’s a little emo today. He’s a little emo. Go. That’s okay. Go to kslports.com and uh chip into the uh gofundme page of Christian Esparza for the glass bottom Tupperware. Tragic news today. KSL Sports. The sound that it made when it shattered. Oh, was it in the Was it in the break room over there? Yeah. Christian’s glassear dead today. Dropped on the floor. Uh what was in it, though? The burrito was delicious. Stir fry. Stir fry. sound like you weren’t that invested in the food situation. Dude, I was actually really excited. Oh, dang it. Look at his face, too. He’s like, “Dang, he really is crazy.” No, I know. I know. I I remember those days of being like, you bring your lunch to work and then you go and then in look, we’ve had we’ve had lunch bandits in this room or in this building before. Oh, we had somebody who was uh so good at that he became known as the breakroom bandit. Really? Yeah. Down in TV? Was it down in the room? Didn’t say any names. Oh, did it Did it? Oh, they found out he Oh, I said the gender. Uh oh. I guess I have to finish. He got busted. Yeah, it was Doug Wright from KSL radio. Yeah, right. It was not Doug Wright. No, Doug Wright only eats Ruth Chris. Or something from the nut company. Uh the creamed asparagus. Oh, steak and nuts. No one orders steak and nuts. Come on. He does. Come on, man. For his wife, D. Yeah. I will say uh that was a good gig be able to go to the steakhouse whenever you want it. Yes, it was. Love it. Uh let me see here. Well, Chris, we’re pulling for you. Uh first of all, and the stir fry. I think we should uh on Thursday, you know what? Thursday, we’re bringing in we’re bringing in uh we’re going to bring in some food, right? I’m going to bring you a glass Tupperware. May or may not be used. I don’t know. You don’t know. And uh we’ll figure it out. As long as it’s washed. It’ll be washed. It’ll be washed. All right. Let me see here. Uh JJ, first of all, we were uh some of the stuff that some of the stuff that Pete Futch was saying uh it makes me a little bit nervous about what the future of college sports is. And look, I’m going to go right down in top of the hour. Next hour, we’re going to actually chat about this at length, I think, a little bit more about just how this new night commission, you know, that’s getting together and talking about trying to preserve the Olympic sports and and the coaches are like, they’re trying to push for mandated what they well, the the term they use is codified. They’re trying to they’re trying to codify a couple of things. And that means basically to make it a law, right? like we’re going to try to make this a law that you can have minimums of sports that that these schools at the FBS level have to carry. I can’t wait to get into that. And we have schools here who have a ton of sports. And the question is is where do they start to go away if they aren’t making money at some point? As Pete Futch mentioned, he goes, “Look, I I don’t want to be I don’t want to be rude or anything, but why are we doing the not not for-p profofit sports anymore?” And it’s like I don’t have a great answer for you, especially considering what we’re talking about. The scholarships, the scholarship, student athletes. Uh, look, I I I want that for those student athletes. But I don’t want it to go away either, but I do think But I do think economics, asking the questions, asking the question is an okay thing to do. Yes. And so, uh, we’ll ask those questions. Uh, in the meantime, JJ, the AllNBA team, by the way, you can nominate your youth sports volunteer, I think. Uh, yes. you still have uh some time to do it. You can nominate the youth sports volunteer that you know for the Hercules Hero of the Week award with the way you do it is you uh you go to klesports.com/contest and you listen and we will uh we’ll read those winners off the people who are doing an awesome job in your neighborhood as youth sports volunteers. Help us uh celebrate the efforts of those volunteers making an impact with the Hercules Hero of the Week. It’s sponsored by Hercules First Federal Credit Union and Beehive Meals. So there you go. Uh JJ, you’ve got a couple of uh things going on. You’ve got NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. You’ve got the Eastern Conference Finals firing up on that side of things. You have the Western Conference Finals of the NBA firing up tonight, game one. So, uh we are going to be chock full at my house of stuff to watch. You and I are both talking in the break about how fascinating this Timberwolf Thunder series is. Yeah. And I was reading this thing about Ant-Man versus SGA and I thought, well, that’s a fun little talk. But then I started to think a little bit more deeply about it. We’re talking about the possibility of what is being defined as the new face of the NBA. I think with a series like this, tell me if I’m wrong or if I’m overstating it, correct me because I No, let me say this first. I don’t think that the I don’t think that the Eastern Conference has this superstar type firepower. Look, Tyresese versus Hallebertton. It’s a fun series, but those guys are not being talked about as the possible face of the league going forward. SGA is probably going to win the MVP. And if he’s not, it’s not going to be one of those other two guys in the East. And by the way, Anthony Edwards is as exciting as anybody in the league right now. Yes, he is. He’s the most dynamic, most both these guys are freaking young and they’re really, really good. And you have the possibility if if whoever wins this series and goes on and and and maybe they go on and win the the the NBA finals and they win that title, even if they don’t, I think you’re looking at a defi at a defining moment for these two franchises, but specifically for these two guys because SGA and Anthony Edwards are the face of the NBA. And I’m glad that they’re facing off against one another in the Western Conference Finals. Before we get into this, who’s the face of the NFL? Who’s the face of the NHL? Who’s the face of Major League Baseball? Do we even have those conversations? I think Aaron Judge and and Showi have that have that kind of wrapped up right on the baseball side of things. Pretty easy on that side because you have super super superstars. Yeah. And in that case, they had to be like freakish superstars. You have the guy who breaks the AL home run record. But you see those guys doing a lot of endorsements and ads. Are they household names? Are people talking about them all? Show. I think show is. I think baseball fans talk about those guys and get them. Is the general public really fascinated with those guys? You’re right though and for as much as we love hockey, you’re hardressed to find big names that people can just start rattling off if they’re not NHL guys. Right. Right. Um on the NFL side of things, you’re right. It’s about teams and brands. It’s like it’s like Momes I guess but even even he is not looked at as it’s like you know who the biggest face of the NFL probably is Taylor Swift like that’s the like from a mainstream honest perspective like maybe like that’s that’s we have that discussion now I’m I’m joking obviously but I I bring that up because there that conversation only happens with the NBA and you need to have it because it’s a playerdriven and a star driven league. Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, LeBron, Steph, like there’s always that bigname guy. And it started back, I think it started with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and it moved to Michael Jordan. And there’s just always this expectation and progression that there’s going to be a next who’s next. And now the NBA is in this position. And this is a marketing thing and it is important to the NBA because the NBA is different than the other leagues because of what I just mentioned. LeBron James is 40. Steph Curry’s 36, 37 years old. Those guys are moving on soon. They’re all-time greats. Even Giannis, I think, is 30, right? So, who’s next? This series could show us that to your point. That’s why it’s important and that’s why we always ask who’s the face of the NBA because the NBA requires that there’s a face because it has been that for a while now. As basketball fans, I’m really fascinated by Pacers Knicks. As a basketball fan, I’m fascinated by this Timberwolves Thunder series. I think both teams are really, really good. They’re both have depth. I love the way that the if you look at all four of these teams, how they were built is really fascinating. And you also look in around the league that like the league is changing because you you could you’re going to have the seventh different champion in the last seven years. This league has always been about dynasties. Yeah. This is a new era of NBA basketball. And who’s going to be the face of that moving forward? It could be multiple faces, but we still look at it some from the same lens. So to your point, you look at this series and like, okay, those are two guys that could carry that torch, but to get there, you got to win. Yeah. You got to win it all. No, that’s I mean, I think that’s the next step for that. Whoever whoever conquers in this series, I think in the West, I’m not saying that they’re going to be the ones who are going to be your favorite to win the title. I can’t see the Pacers or the Knicks beating either of these two teams. I can’t and I can’t see the Pacers or the Knicks being favored against at the very least against Oklahoma City. I think you’d probably you’d probably list I don’t know you probably see Vegas odds go the direction of the of New of the New York Knicks. How fascinating would a Minnesota versus New York New York finals be after the trade that took place that made both teams better? You’ve got you’ve got Julius Randall and Cat firing off against one another and and everybody looking and going, “Oh boy, Devenzo, you know how bad he wants to beat that coach on the sideline with New York.” Oh, yeah. Well, I think I think even the guys he has any love loss for Tibs, by the way. I was going to say I think all the guys on that team probably don’t like Tib either, but but he gets results. He does. And certainly if they go to the NBA finals by the way because you think about when we were kids like that was the last time that Madison Square Garden had any type of vibe had any type of 90s you know Patrick Ewing John Starks you know that whole vibe you know the Pacers Nick series were great and it was it was a hard time it was a it’s a hard time for New Yorkers because they’re obsessed about they’re as obsessed about the Knicks as anything as They’re and when the Knicks are playing well like over the decades Yankees Knicks Yankees which more popular have that debate Jets and Giants way down here even with the Giants winning Super Bowls no one cares about the Giants compared to the Knicks if the Knicks are doing well right this is a basketball freaking town it’s the mecca and Madison Square Garden is going to be rocking great but I think the NBA champion is coming out of this series no doubt and it’s a crazy thing and like you said you brought that up and once you when you mentioned it I went, “Oh, yeah. Every one of these teams is built differently. They’re built in they were they were built up in a totally different way.” Yeah. And I think that if you’re a smart GM, you got to consider all the ways that you can build your team and there’s no straight line of success for these for these franchises. But I think it’s phenomenal to be able to watch. I’m excited about it. I don’t even know who I want to win this. I don’t I don’t know who I want to win this series. I really don’t. Are they both and OKC and Minnesota would be interesting and different? Are they both in the Northwest Division? They are. They are Northwest Division of the Utah Jazz. I love it. All right, let’s take a break. We’ll come back. We’ve got more to go when we return. Uh let’s jump in and chat a little bit. Oh, we’ve got a top 10 game coming up. Don’t want to miss it. Fun. Don’t want to miss the top 10 for today. Stay with us right here. 975 DSL Sports Zone. Hey, bro. You hear us every day opinions. Hey, how you doing? Well, now it’s time to hear from you. Hey, great show. Download the KSL Sports app and fire off your thoughts with the call-in tab on the bottom of your screen. This show is fantastic. It’s the one that captivates me the most. You can tell PK to stop singing. Let Jake and Ben know what you really think of the jazz. Tell Hans and Scotty about your favorite barbecue spot or what color of tie JJ should be wearing on TV. The best entries will be played on the air. Download the KSL Sports app now and hit the call-in button to let your voice be heard. I think you guys do an incredible job. This is 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Ladies and gentlemen, the biggest name. You’re locked into JJ and Alex with the insight and analysis on the teams you can’t live without. Presented by G2G bars. This is 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Welcome back everybody. JJ and Alex 975 EKSL Sports Zone. Love having you a part of the program every day y’all. Um I’m all over the place with this thing. I’ve got I’ve got in front of me a top 10 for today and uh it’s a little bit hard to It required way more. It was like doing homework. I hate that. You know what I mean? Like I got myself I got myself into a corner and then I couldn’t stop doing it. I was like, “Well, I got to stick with this, I guess.” So today’s uh top 10 is going to be quite fun. Uh it’s also going to be extremely it it will be difficult. I’m going to be honest. Maybe not. I mean, I don’t know. Oh, you guys surprise me all the time. Are you just trying to psych me out? No, no, no. Cuz I I You’re trying to intimidate me. Yeah, I legitimately don’t know if I would do well on this just because it’s a big swath and we were talking about uh well, before I get into it, I got to make sure and get to some business side of things. You ready for this? Uh you want to join Hans and Scotty on Wednesday? They’re gonna have in studio right here in this very studio, Kids on the Move, promoting the Hope in Motion Golf Invitational. Not just a golf tournament, it’s a chance to drive real change for children with developmental disabilities in your community. Check it out tomorrow. They will have uh kids on the move right here in studio. Uh in the meantime here, JJ, here’s how it goes. This year, this week’s top 10 is inspired by dollars, by money. Fred Warner signing up for the richest linebacker contract in the history of the league with that and you know how this works. Um the guaranteed money usually there’s a big big big front end. Yes. So the signing bonus that comes with that a lot of times that guaranteed money is already wrapped up into that. Right. So what’ll happen is is you’ll see a small number next to on the cap space for Fred Warren. Creative ways to reduce your cap. So you throw that out there. you pay the guy. So, you probably had a massive payday for our guy Fred Warner, which makes him the highest career paid BYU NFLer ever. Wow. So, prior to yesterday, that’s until Steve Young cashes all those checks that are in his drawer. Oh, you’re talking about the talking about the the USFL checks. Talking about the the the USFL checks are supposed to be When does he get p when is he done getting paid on that? I don’t know. Bobby Bonia is jealous. Steve Young. So, you’ve got uh Don’t Google anything, Christian. I don’t like I don’t like what you’re doing over there, my guy. I’m not I’m not I don’t like that at all. So, before yesterday, Fred Warner’s career earnings were $46 million. Wow. He’s eclipsed the $100 million uh category, which has not happened for BYU for a BYU player ever. Wow. So, the top 10 is, and I’ll give you number one already. So, Fred Warner’s number. Fred Warner’s number one, but really, I’m going to make you have 10 because I’ve got 11 plus in front of me. So, today’s top 10 is the highest paid uh BYU football players of all time. Are you ready? And go. Kyle Vanoi. Ding. Zack Wilson. Ding. Oh, man. And who would be next? Dennis Pitta. Ding. Uh. Steve Young. Ding. Jim McMahon. Ding. Okay. Oh, who who would be who else would be highest paid? Gosh, I’m missing somebody. Brett Keel. Just outside the list, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Come on, Christian. Give me some BYU legends that played a long time in the NFL. There’s got to be like a something, right? Huh? A DB. A DB of No way. No, no linebacker. Think linebacker. Sorry, let me Sorry, let me correct Rob Morris. Let me correct. Hold on. Let me go back to the Rob Morris side of things. Just outside of it. Okay. Um, sorry. Greg Keel was a winner. D. Okay, I got him. Good, good, good, good. Uh, Austin Collie. No, just outside. Um, who am I missing? A few you’re going to kick yourself over, but I but I get why. There’s just too many names. That’s time. Oh gosh. All right. Right. So, let me give you the top. What’s wrong with my brain? Top earners. And this is a hard thing to do because top earners doesn’t mean the best ever. Right. Right. Because you’ve got I should have been able to come up with a couple more. Yeah. Yeah. You’ll kick yourself over some of these. So, okay. Uh Fred Warner, number one. Number two all time. Ziggya. Oh, yeah. Ziggy. Ziggy. Ziggy got a second contract. He got paid. That’s right. He did. 60 million. And he had a good rookie contract because he was a number five pick. 61 million over eight seasons. Not bad for the for our guy. Yeah, not bad at all. Uh but yes, after Fred Warner, Taesm Hill. Oh, yes. At 42.7 million. He did get that paycheck. Yeah, he did. How did I not say Taesm? Uh K uh KBN like you said. Yeah. Um and then see I have to kind of skip around because some of these numbers are Jamal Williams. Jamal Williams uh just on the outside at 15 million in his career. Uh but Brett Kiesel was 32 so he was on the list. Dennis Pitt at 24 and a half uh on the list as well. Steve Young was 49 million so he was actually number uh number four all time on the list. Uh Jamal Williams 15 and a half. Yeah. Yeah. So and Dennis Pitta you got Zach Wilson you got So you’re only short uh oh this one’s going to this one’s going to shock you. How about Sion Takitaki at 11 and a half. I would not have guessed that. I missed on taste. Oh, that was an egregious miss. Number 11. So technically with the top 10 here and he’s ahead of Ty Demer who would be 12 on this list. Okay. Brady Pinga. How about Bopy? Yeah. Three 11.7. He had a good solid NFL career. Eight seasons in the league. So that’s great. Yeah. No, I’m Taesm. I can’t believe I blew that. The money. Yeah. The Taesm one and the Ziggyel one. like you just don’t you just don’t sneak under the radar. Wouldn’t expect that. No, no, you don’t think about it. But but again, I think it’s partly of what that rookie scale was. He was the number five overall pick. When you’re that high of a pick, you’re you’re making bank. Uh but good for good for uh for our guy Fred Warner. He’s the first BYU Cougar in NFL history to eclipse the $100 million mark. Santiago on line three. He’s Fred. Hey, Fred. You know, Alex Smith has a an entire weight room named after him at the U, right? You don’t want to be showing up. I hate you, do you? Some of that conversation going on. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Yeah. One of these days they’ll come back. He and KBN. Look, him and Kyle Vanoi coming back and like and and donating to like the weight room. That’d be awesome. The the Kyle Vanoi Brian Santiago taking notes right now. No, he already has. Good thing I listen to JJ and Alex. I would not have come up with this idea. He already has the other guys on speed dial, right? I mean, might get he better. We’ll come back. We got more to go around the corner. Uh if if your Olympic sports at your university, the one that you support, if some of those sports had to go away or the secondary sports, when I say secondary, your non football, non basketball, non- big names, non- big money sports uh were to go away, which ones do you think would be the first to go? Stay right here with us. More to go. 975 D KSLO Sports Zone. Your home for the best coverage of the Jazz Utes and Cougars is right here on The Zone. This is JJ and Alex, presented by G2G Bars on 975, the KSL Sports Zone. All right, everybody. Welcome back. JJ and Alex, 975, the KSL Sport Zone. Our program brought to you by G2G bars. All natural ingredients and no preservatives make the G2G bar the perfect protein bar. Give it a shot today. Costco, Holiday Oil, Maverick, Associated Foods, and many other retailers in the refrigerated section. Let’s get the cut kicked off right here, and we’ll jump right in. Uh, we’ve got some we’ve got some tough decisions to make, or do we? The reality is the landscape of college athletics has gotten very weird. Um, but I will say that every university has very, very, very different goals with their athletic departments and from team to team and from sport to sport. So, let’s kick things off here with the cut. We’ll jump right in here. It’s time for the biggest story of the day. This is what made the cut with JJ and Alex on 975, the KSL Sports Zone. And of course, this portion of the program brought to you by an incredible selection of Kia, Subaru, Chevy, Jeep, Dodge, or Ram. It is your Doug Smith family of dealerships. Nobody knows cars like Doug. Uh, all right. So, Ross Dillinger tweeted this out. There’s the night commission which I think is a well look we’re used to hearing the house settlement about uh the major sports like football, basketball. We’ve talked so much about what a possible salary cap so to speak will look like for the revenue sharing side of things. While NIL money is going to run rampant still, you’re going to see an absolute boon in the lives of these guys. Look, we were talking about how much these athletes are going to be making. You have the world of the guys who get uh you know that you know people like to make the comparison JJ of Shador Sanders getting $4.4 million for his rookie deal and he was likely going to make around five or six at Colorado this year had he stayed for another year. Now, he didn’t have another year of eligibility, but his his money that he was worth, according to the NIL side of things, which means he was probably making between four and $5 million last year, is that this year he would have been worth about six, six and a half. So, his four-year rookie deal comes out to be way less money overall than it would have been even for one year. Now, the difference is if you’re a highle player, like a even a middle-of the road starting quarterback in the NFL. I love saying that, middle of Is there such thing as a middle- of the road quarterback that starts in the NFL? Like, if you’re starting in the NFL, like you’re one of the 32 best quarterbacks in the world, right? And we can make fun all we want about the guy who’s the 30th best quarterback in the league. He’s probably still making $30 million a year if he’s not a rookie, right? If he’s on a second part of the deal. Uh Brock Perie is making $3 million per game now for the next five years. We talked about how wild that is, which is almost more than his inertial contract. His initial contract was $3.6 million for four years. And now he’s going to be making $3 million per game for the next five seasons. And all the money and all the things we say is to say that the money is going to get bonkers. I think even for you know imagine how wild it was when we first started talking about the biggest NIL earner here in the state of Utah which is Cam Rising. When remember those first numbers came out I remember having the conversation the very first time around when it was like dude their company’s putting up and then we all looking around be like $750,000 for this quarterback. Yeah. What’s crazy is now is that doesn’t even sound like a lot of money. No. For these quarterbacks, right? I would assume Deon Dampier is probably making double that at least. Cam Rising was making double that by the end, which is why it made it even more difficult, right, to watch his career kind of fizzle out the way that it that it did because he was getting NIL money and he was not playing. Think of it as back pay for the two Rose Bowl. Sure. But that’s the way that that’s the way that it works. You can’t pay to play in the in college football or any of these college sports. So now what you’re also trying to do is put your elbows out if you are not football or basketball or in the case of like Utah for example is stratospheric on its uh on the gymnastics side of things compared to a lot of other gymnastics programs. Um there are schools that are like this. LSU is like that. They have a massive gymnastics program. Uh think about some of the the other like kind of secondary sports that other schools are known for. Stanford has a list a I mean Stanford by far has the most national championships of any school their swimming program phenomen because their Olympic sports they dominate. Yep. You know what I mean? like they and Olympic coaches and the Olympic coaches association are asking for the NCAA and for Congress to get involved to make it a law to make it to codify laws to make minimums for Olympic sports at schools that you would have 16 per FBS school and uh two the second thing would be to require schools to maintain a current average resource allocation for non football or basketball sports. So 6535 basically put those elbows out ask and maybe 65% budget for football and men’s basketball and 35% for the other sports. Is that what the allocation is typically? That’s the allocation. Okay. So BYU has 21 NCAA Division One varsity sports. Utah’s got 19. Um and it’s it’s a really weird time. Utah just cut beach volleyball, by the way. Utah cut beach volleyball and that was a decision that they made like, “Hey, we’re going to get we’re going to get out of this thing.” Are there going to be other cuts in the future to other sports programs here in the state of Utah? I don’t think so. I don’t think you’re going to see. Now, let me let me say it first from the from the BYU standpoint. I think that the athletic department uh obviously has its charge to make as much I mean the charge is hey make as much money as you can that’s all we’re here for but what they are doing is they’re saying you’re not getting resources from the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints to run your athletics department right so figure it out so and but but also bring as much visibility to the university using the resources that you are getting and be smart about it be competitive about it not just from the winning and losing standpoint but from the standpoint of bringing in eyeballs. That makes a difference. Think about what they’ve done and how that’s been Utah. They have the charge to get as many eyeballs as they can on this on this uh on this program. Not just football, not just basketball, not just uh uh you know the the gymnastics team. Red Rocks are as big as any other secondary sport that BYU has when it comes to attendance. Yeah, absolutely. They do better than the men’s basketball team. Yep. In a lot of cases. And again, like I said, I think the gymnastics team up at Utah, I’m trying to think of another program down at BYU that may draw that type of attention. The women’s soccer team some years does phenomenally. Southfield, they’re not getting 13 to 15,000 people into a building. Southfield gets Southfield gets pretty full. Don’t get me wrong. And and so and the volleyball volleyball teams for both men and women. Volleyball has is a draw, but how you know how many fit in Smithfield House? It’s like 5,000. You’re not getting over the 10,000 mark. So, you’re right. But either way, it’s a big deal. There are those those programs are I don’t know if they’re breaking even or money or Utah gymnastics going away. Can’t won’t aside from that it is a visibility. Can you imagine BYU cross country going away? No. But I was looking at it and I started to think the rest of the country some of these schools and again I say some of these schools I happen to look around and go okay what schools have cut programs? You’re seeing mid- major Yeah. You’re seeing mid- major schools that are saying, “Hey, we’re not doing this anymore. We’re not playing this sport anymore. We’re not doing this.” Dinger has the numbers. Uh, what do you have? So, so Jamie Gordon, who is the CEO of the American Volleyball Coaches Association, um, told the night commission that 32 Olympic sports programs in division one have been cut since the announcement of the house settlement. That’s a loss of 966 scholarship spots. Those are 966 athletes that no longer are having their school paid for. Correct. Right. That no longer have an opportunity to play college sports. Some of the schools are honoring those scholarships and I think that most of them are and they’re saying, “Hey,” and that’s the loss that they’re willing to take. Like we’re eliminating the program, you’re in it and we’re going to pay for your school because we told you we would. But there are also programs like that are at the big level like you think of your college basketball, college football that the co that the coaches are having a conversation like, “Hey, we need your scholarship. Uh, jump into the transfer portal cuz this ain’t working out.” Yeah. You’re not playing for us anymore. And that’s a conversation also happens because this part of it even football is being impacted by the numbers. The 105 thing that we keep talking about if when is that going to be enforced? I don’t know. But coaches are preparing for it and they’ve already had to have hard conversations with kids that have been sent packing essentially, right? Told to go find another place to play because we’re not going to have room for you here. Stanford says that they’re going to drop 11 sports due to budgetary reasons. Whoa. By the way, Stanford has the highest endowment by a factor of like three or four to the next one. uh you know in a weird way they’re like BYU where they’re they have resources that they’re not going to touch. Yes. For sports go out and find other resources. BYU has Stanford has not which is weird, right? Yes. They haven’t leaned into the NIL thing. They haven’t leaned into the booster thing. So again, smaller schools. Dartmouth cutting nine uh varsity programs. William and Mary cutting seven varsity sports. uh wrestling, swimming, gymnastics, tennis, these are the biggest ones that are going away now. Swimming, gymnastics, and tennis. I don’t know Utah and BYU both have swimming programs, correct? Both men’s and women’s. I don’t know what those do, but I think that like when you think about the visibility of the sports at the school, just go off of what you know as to what the things are that get the most uh attention. Tennis is not really on that list for either one of these schools. Right. Right. Uh swimming and and diving is not on that list for either of these schools here locally either. Right. So, and what I’m saying is is that I’m not saying, “Hey, cut those programs.” because I don’t think that these schools I don’t think that BYU and Utah and and frankly Utah State and maybe Utah State would be more sus susceptible to this. Oh, for sure. Because they’re in that mid- major kind of category. They’re not getting the revenue that the Big 12 team. And that’s what I was going to ask you is that do you envision Utah or BYU cutting programs? Now, Utah’s already cut beach volleyball, but I think we could all probably ask a friend of ours. A little redundant. They have a women’s volleyball program. if they had like honestly did you even know Utah had a beach volleyball program, right? For most thing for most people they wouldn’t necessarily know that. Now the Big 12 does have beach volleyball by the way uh in their teams and they were playing against them in the Big 12, but this is something that’s different and the question is is will some of these programs go away? I think in the case of BYU, I think that there is an operating cost that you have as a university that you’re willing to take on. If some of these sports are overstepping from the money standpoint, I think that there are places where the athletic department does indeed run itself and they have the opportunity. But these are not for-profit institutions, by the way. But the but what they are asking is for the men’s basketball and the men’s and the men’s and the football programs to be profitable. So they’re going to be held to a different standard. All right? They have to make money. These other programs, I think that these schools, if they’re smart, still make it a priority because you’re never going to get the type of revenue from these ever. If you’re going to have that conversation, you’re always going to lose that conversation, JJ. Right. You are. And I think that BYU, and you’d have to ask Brian Santiago because I want to know what the reality is of what they look at these programs like. I hope that they look at them, and I think that they can look at them differently than other schools are. When UTP uh throws away a couple of programs and they go, “Sorry, we’re not doing that program anymore.” I get it because UTEP sucks. Okay? And I say that as a guy whose brother went to that school and no longer donates to it and was on an athletic scholarship there playing football and it was and it’s a joke now and that school is a joke. And there are some schools that don’t take seriously the fact that they have uh student athletes that are committed and the school’s not. And so that’s a difference that’s a difference maker for me. And in my opinion, BYU, Utah, to an extent, Utah State, you’re going to see some of these programs that are coming that come into question. And I think if these universities are able, they’re going to keep them because you can’t treat these other programs like they’re like the like the football and basketball programs. They’re going to be looked at differently. And I think you need to. I think that university athletics are massively important to the communities and it can’t go away. They can’t be looked at as the same way as they used to. They can’t be looked at as the same way as these uh as these big programs are, the football basketball programs. Um but I think that the universities I see those as a very different uh operation and they should and they should. You tip catching strays on the show today. Oh, sorry to all of our listeners who have El Paso roots. Hey, what did maybe you just like the salsa? I don’t know. What did Kramer say about you? About El Paso? I spent a month there one night. I uh I look like I said, yeah, my brother played four years at UTB football. His poor knees. No, shoulders. That’s what it was. It was either any joint on that turf. And uh and Oh, for sure. Are you kidding? And I like I said, I’ve been to a handful of games at the Sun Bowl and when you’re looking around and you go, “What on earth are they doing here? What what is this school doing? Is football important?” I don’t think so. They’ve never been good at it. Nope. No, they haven’t. What is UT known for? Track and field. It really is. No, track and field. Like they have world class uh track and field. I mean, they put they have so many Olympians from other from other countries who come over and they and they they used to be elite in basketball. Basketball was always Antonio Davis’s um you know, back in the day, obviously Texas Western history. Yes. But those days are long overdue. Long overdue. And I’ll tell you, I like I said, my brother, they’ll call up and they’ll say, “Hey, would you like to donate to the football program?” He goes, “I’m going to be honest right now.” He’s told them straight up, “Ah, it’s a tough call. You need to kill this program.” Oh my gosh. Kill the program. Although, I just looked and UTP is, I think, 74th in the recruiting on the in the recruiting rankings for this year. A resurgence for the Miners. They could go four and they could go four and eight this year. They did lose to my T-Irds last year. That’s right. Beat him there down at the Sun Bowl. Great place. Go Thunderbirds. Go birds. All right, we’ll take a break. We’ll come back. Got our NFL Blitz coming up, so don’t miss it. 975 VK KSL Sports Zone. All the latest news and notes from the league and the locals in the NFL. JJ and Alex bring you the NFL Blitz on 975, the KSL Sports Sum. All right, everybody. Welcome back. JJ and Alex, 975 EKSL Sports Zone. Did you see I was looking uh Yeah, our NFL Blitz. I was looking at a uh I was looking at this article with Joe Burrow and uh first of all it was hilarious because he came into this press conference today and and uh last week of course is when uh his former or not his former teammate maybe his former team right at some point um Trey Hendrickson right uh went off on the team. Yeah. And uh somebody was t he’s like uh hey look he came into the press conference he goes hey look I’m not going to lie that was exciting last week talking about the whole back and forth I’m not going to lie that was a pretty exciting uh situation last year or last week with this uh at this podium. Uh but yeah, he and Zach Taylor talking a little bit about uh a lot of things that they’re at a weekly press conference and Joe Burrow actually goes he was mad because of the prime time games that they’ve been offered. Now, they’re not on the list of teams that did not give prime time games, but for the fifth year in a row, um they are having a one of their prime time games is against the Baltimore Ravens, but it’s at the Ravens Stadium again for the fifth year in a row. Wow. And Joe Burrow said, “Yeah, I’d like to see that changed up every once in a while. playing in Baltimore for the fifth straight year uh isn’t a it’s not ideal. I get it. How’s that happen? Maybe we can get one of those in Cincinnati next year, please. That was the actual quote. A bone, man. Come on. So, there you go. Uh all of them have been losses, by the way, including last year’s one-point loss in week 10 to the Ravens there uh in Baltimore. So, there you go. I was just bring I was just we were talking about the the business side of this thing and and man it’s not just the business side because the NFL you know they’re king they can make the schedule they do what they want and they’re playing the hits and that is an NFC North battle or an AFC North battle what teams are you going to want to see the Ravens and the Bengals right now correct and when the Steelers are doing really well you want the Steelers and the Ravens noticing a trend here. Yeah, the Ravens and the Lamar Jackson is a lot of fun to watch. Not the Browns. Eric Henry is a lot of fun to watch. I will say this, if Joe Flacco gets hurt, we’re all going to be watching. I don’t care what you say. We’re all going to be watching if Shador Sanders gets that next uh that next man up. Shadur, if he starts for the Browns, everything changes. By the way, the Browns are one of those teams that do not have a prime time game next year. But I get it. You get Shadur under center, everything changes. I know, but like say what you will, we’re all going to be watching that thing. Oh yeah. Some people are going to be rooting against him. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. That’s more about that’s sports. I know. Look at the Angel Reese Kaylin Clark thing right now. Oh yeah. With the WNBA thing is that’s that’s quite a dynamic that going on right there. But you know what? It creates conversation. It creates attention. And guess what? Sports are all about marketing and revenue. They that’s they’re okay with that. The NFL has that mastered. The NFL’s really good at playing that stuff up. Yeah. Uh, next up on the old, uh, NFL Blitz here, JJ, uh, the flag football vote officially happened and the NFL has decided unanimously, their owners, as of course the uh, the players union already uh, the NFL PA came out and said, “Yeah, man. and we want this for our guys. And the owners voted and unanimously had said, “Absolutely, we want Olympians on our team.” That’s great. How cool is that? Now, I had this discussion with you before because these are 10-man teams. It’s a five-on-ive situation. You basically have enough for five guys and and backups for each one, right? How many teams How many teams of NFL players would it take before another country could crack the top? What is it? Could the Could the NFL field a 100red teams? Not 100 teams, 10 teams and have every one of them finish one through 10 in the uh in the flag football situation. Can you name what? You’d need five for at least five minimum for a flag football team. Is that they roster 10? Okay. But you need five on the five, right? Yes. Yes. Yes. So it’s five on five. So So you’d have to feel if it was 10 five players in the NFL that are not Americans. Go. Five. Five. Oh. Uh, you got to have at least one team. And is it one country? I mean, Canada. Is that all you got? Australia. You’re just going to put a bunch of punters out there? Oh, boy. Now the gauntlet’s been thrown down. Uh, yeah. Jordan Milada, isn’t he? Is he Australian? Is he Australian? He’s a He’s an old lineman. He isn’t. This is not for him. It’s not for him. He’s not going up against He would have They would actually Gardner in the Olympics. They would actually ask him to suit up for team Australia. I think he’d probably play quarterback for team Australia. Uh but honestly, I think that that team USA. I don’t know if you’re going to see marquee players doing this. Would you? Are you going to see a bunch of Justin Jefferson did a celebratory Olympic gritty as he exited the podium at a news conference during the NFL spring meeting on Tuesday? Fake news. He wants to play. I’m looking at it right now. An Olympic gritty brand of gritty. This is a quote from Justin Jefferson. I’m just at a loss for words. Just to think about the chances of playing in the Olympics and getting a gold medal is a dream. Just reverting back to being a kid and watching the track and field meets, watching basketball win the gold medal. That’s something as a kid I always wanted to be a part of. But football wasn’t global. So now that we’re expanding the game and we’re going more global, it’s pretty cool. Justin Jefferson’s on board. He’s the best receiver on the planet. Here’s my question. is because they’re doing this in Atlanta or in LA 2028, right? Yes. That’s when they’re going to roll it out. Yes. That might be the only time it’s I was going to see. Is this our break dancing? Yes. There’s no doubt about it. Enjoy it while it lasts. They’re like Jeremiah Jensen was put on the He was put on a team because he knew a family member who was running the Olympic committee for the for the flag football. Yeah. Suddenly I got a flag football team from Urguay. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I’m wondering, listen, it’s not that the other places don’t have athletes. I will say I could see a team out of uh Germany being like extremely dedicated, like overly dedicated to to working this thing out, getting their best athletes out there. I could see an extremely overzealous because I think the women’s team from Mexico, the flag football team, they’re good. They’re good. Yeah. And I don’t know if their men’s side is dedicated to that. No, if it was just regular flag football playing teams that do this all the time, we would have a different conversation about this. But when you were inviting the NFL players to play, it changes the dynamic completely. Olympic gritty, get out of here. I will say this. I will I do in my mind’s eye picture that if there’s a couple of Olympic champions on your franchise and they roll you out at halftime and you come out and you show and you’re wearing your gear but you’ve got the Olympic medal on, that’s pretty freaking cool. Yeah, it is. What if you want a gold medal and a Super Bowl ring in football? Think about that. That’s amazing. Because you’re right, it might only be the one time. So, you might as well field. Look, Team USA, team number four, they might they might be I mean, I don’t know how the qualification process would take place. Do you end up with just a bunch of American flag football teams? I mean, I’m sure that there would be opportunities for other countries to qualify, but how many team number seven from team USA just put a thumping on Trinidad Tobago? Jeez. Is Angola have a flag football, too? It’s like, who are all the teams that Charles Barkley shows up? I’m going to go wide. Throw throw throw deep to me. Joe Burrow. Oh, disgusting. Oh, yeah. If we don’t go one, two, three in the flag football, I’m going to be pretty dis Oh, we got to win the gold, the silver, and the bronze and any other fine medals I can come up with. All right, let’s take a break. We’ll come back. Uh, we will uh wrap things up with our best and worst next. Stay here. 975 EKS Sports Zone with our crazy opinions. Hey, what are you doing? Well, now it’s time to hear from you. Hey, great show. Download the KSL Sports app and fire off your thoughts with the call-in tab on the bottom of your screen. This show is fantastic. It’s the one that captivates me the most. You can tell PK to stop singing. Jeep. Jeep. Let Jake and Ben know what you really think of the jazz. Tell Hans and Scotty about your favorite barbecue spot or what color of tie JJ should be wearing on TV. The best entries will be played on the air. Download the KSL Sports app now and hit the call-in button to let your voice be heard. I think you guys do an incredible job. This is 975, the KSL Sports Zone. Hey, welcome back everybody. What? Hey, life happens fast, man. You got to be able to tell that story over here someday. One day I will. We’ll get there someday. Uh, that was wild. Hey, listen. If you uh Yeah, you’ve seen some things. I have. And anybody who has anybody who has traveled out of country specifically for two years or even in country? I mean, my goodness. Were you in Philadelphia? Yes. You saw some stuff. I did. That happens, man. I saw some stuff in South America, man. And I’m telling you right now, they are not going to be able to put together a team that’s going to beat Team USA in flag football. Yeah, they might win all the soccer matches. Fine. You’re gonna have them. You can have them. You’re not beating us. Now, you brought up team Uruguay. I will say Argentina and Uruguay both have, in Argentina specifically, they have really, really good rugby programs. Yes. Phenomenal. Like usually top five, top 10 in the world rankings. And so maybe that’s a thing. Maybe the All Blacks become their flag football team. Maybe they could take some of our dudes out. Sure, they could do it. So, we’ll see. Uh JJ, let me see here. Uh this portion of the program, it’s our best and worst. The worst today is also the best in the sense that it helps me go back and reminisce, but some sound to help us out from today. And uh I want to play this for you and it’ll mean something to all of you who were those mid9s kids uh like we like we were watching SNL. It’s always SNL’s always the best when you were in high school, right? That was like your class of people was always the best. And uh so we will never forget this classic skit. Go ahead. I’m Bob Schwarzki and I want to thank everyone for sending those cards to my brother Bill who recently had another heart attack. We are coming to you live from Dickas here on Thanksgiving Day. A day for giving thanks for or taking punishment from a team that is known as Stubbers. Stubbers. Uh only two super fans left after the passing of course of Chris Farley back in 1997. And now uh George went today passes away at the age of 76. He of course was known in the uh in the Cheers world. Of course he was uh one of the greatest sitcom characters of all time. Norm was the best man. Like everybody everybody could jam with Norm. You know what I mean? Norm comes in and he was pretty happy golucky. You know what I mean? Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. Like he was the character that uh capsu that captured that. Yes. And he was also like he he seemed like the guy like he wasn’t dumb. He knew stuff was going on. He was pretty had that dry humor going on. He wasn’t trying to show off like uh what was the postman’s name? What was it? Cliff. Cliff Claven. Always making up stories, always having to be the center of attention. and Norm just over there dutifully sitting next to his friend. But I’ll tell you what, were they friends? I don’t know. I don’t think I mean, did they really hang out? They just happened to sit They did next to each other at a bar. That’s why it was great because uh George went was uh one of the great characters. Of course, there was there was Norm. There was uh there was the super fans. Oh, yeah. He had some great Saturday Night Live appearances during his acting career. Yeah. Um, he’s a great comedic guy. He’s still with us. Mike Myers and, uh, Robert Smeiggel, both still super fans. Triumph the insult comic dog. That’s right. For me to poop on. That’s right. You got it. Uh, let me see here. Hey, joining us in studio one final time today. Also familiar with Dair. Oh, yeah. It’s a It’s a tough one too, Todd, because uh we all I feel like can all jam and be like, “Oh, we remember the super fans. We remember Dubs, Dubars, Rick Mir, remember I remember he won the he won the Indie 500.” They go, “Uh, Dair, Rick Mir, anything that was anything.” And of course, they had to get, you know, Michael Jordan was on the show, so they talk about Dles. Oh, yeah. That’s right. They did the uh the tiki uh the tiki dance, the hoola dance. Yes. Chris Farley, may he rest. But now George went passes. So there you go. We’ll take the break here. We’ll come back. Got more to go. Stay here. 975 the KSL Sports Zone. When TV and radio collide. Love it. This is what you get. You’re listening to JJ and Alex presented by G2G bars. Don’t touch that guy on 975 BKSL Sports. Welcome on in everybody. Final segment of the day. 975 BKSL Sports Zone. Alex Cury, Jeremiah Jensen, JJ, having been a fun show today, man. It’s been a blast. Don’t tell our producer. Don’t tell our producer, Alex. Now I’m hungry. I want to go eat. Christian’s doing a phenomenal job. Great job. Christian, we’ll miss you tomorrow. I’ll be back Thursday. Oh, good then. Okay, that’s excellent. Not that uh not that long he’s going to be out. That’s good. Hey, uh by the way, we didn’t get to it earlier, but I wanted to roll out the allNBA all rookie team. Yes, the NBA all rookie team. Stefan Castle leading the uh leading the charge of course because he was the uh rookie of the year. Only unanimous first team selection for the all rookie team. You ready for the rest of it? Yeah. Joined on the first team by Atlanta’s Zachary Reach. That sounded pretty good. Good job. Come on. Uh Jaylen Wells, Zack Edy, and then Alex Sar. Those are your no jazz guys on that list. Excuse me. No, they were uh we we talked about it. They were actually by vote. So the second team is uh Kel Matas Buseles [Music] um Vzi Mi uh of Portland. Am I saying that right? Donovan Klingan. My name is Jeff. My name is Jeff. And then uh Bob Carrington from Washington. There’s your second team. Eves and Bob. That sounds like a good TV show. Uh Utah’s Isaiah Collier one point shy of tying Carrington for that final spot on the second team by the way. So he was close. He was close. Um but yeah, Flip not close. Flip was not close. Why not? I I mean it’s not that he wasn’t I mean he got He had a great rookie year. He got votes, right? He got some votes. It was like Would you say at this point he’s the biggest steal of that draft? I would say look for a for a second round guy at a minimum he’s a rotation player. You got a 32. Yeah, and I think part of it was is because I mean he got a lot of minutes toward the end of the year, especially because of the situation the team was in. So, I think that was about it. I think Isaiah Collier, he only I mean it was really twothirds of the season. It was a third of the season in before we really started getting dramatically improved as the season went on. You remember at the start of the season, it was pretty rough. Yes. So, and he wasn’t playing much, but still like he broke the Jazz rookie assist record that was held by John Stockton. You know what? He should have been second team at least. Third team. We’ll put him. He’s the first name on the third team. That’s right. All right. In our hearts, him and Flick have their own team. Screw you guys. We’ll come back again tomorrow for JJ, our producer Christian today. I’m Alex. We’ll see you then, everybody. 975 VKSL Sports Zone.
JJ & Alex with Jeremiah Jensen and Alex Kirry on May 20, 2025.
• Arizona is apparently paranoid that Utah could potentially get another one of their Professional Sports Teams, as the Diamondbacks’s stadium situation worsens.
• Spencer Linton from BYU Sports Nation joined the program to talk about the Cougars and their recent announcement of Brian Santiago as the new Athletic Director.
• Would You Rather: Sports Movies Edition.
• Pete Fiutak, writer for collegefootballnews.com joined to preview the upcoming CFB season. Who will be the best Quarterback in the country?
• Will the Timberwolves/OKC series determine the NBA’s next Face of the League?
• Top 10 highest paid BYU players in the NFL.
• A new proposal could cause Universities to cut certain teams to maintain resource allocation. Who would get cut?
• NFL Owners approve Players Participating in 2028 Olympic Flag Football
• Best & Worst: Rest In Peace to George Wendt