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No one so was the Bengals Like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports say, this.

Is really, really, really good.

This is good.

You probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but that's okay.

This is what's good, right, And you could have done this last year.

But the Red's TV deal with fan Duel Sports Network has has blown up, and there's a lot of it that's not good.

I guess there's probably gonna be some collateral damage.

I guess Annie Sabo is going to be working on Reds broadcast moving forward.

And what drove that decision, I don't know.

But Annie is good at her job.

She's been nice to our show, and so that stings.

And with this whole like Red's TV deal, you know, very selfishly, what I've wondered about more than anything is what's going to cost in terms of jobs?

Right, we already have enough media companies just laying people off and letting people go left and right.

We don't need more.

But you're still gonna be able to watch the games.

You're still gonna be able to watch the games I think the way you have and that's good.

But the fact that this is a subscription model, largely a subscription model when it comes to the app and being able to buy the service, this is good and we're gonna get to it here in just a second.

Also, we got a college basketball coach crying poor, which is unbecoming.

The possibility of Trey Hendrickson playing for the Baltimore Ravens has been brought up, and we're gonna go to San Francisco and talk with our guy, Sean Sayad, who's a part of our show every week during the football season when they're in the Bengals season, He's gonna join us from San fran to talk about the game, some Bengals topics, and so much more that coming up at five oh five.

Show preview is available right now at Moeger Thanks to our friends and yours, hopefully at shareffac's credit union.

Make sure you check out share facts dot org and learn more about shareffac's credit union and see what those folks can do for you.

You can become a member just like me.

Go to share facts dot org.

Chad Brendel later on this hour three forty five.

On the Bearcats, you see hosts West Virginia tonight, a rare Thursday night game for the Bearcats that'll tip off at seven o'clock.

Cincinnati trying to bounce back after getting drubbed by Houston on Saturday.

So Auhanio Suarez is back with the Reds, which is great, great because, as we've said often this week, he solves their biggest issue.

Their biggest issue last year was lack of pop.

But he solves another issue, and this is more emotional than mechanical.

For months on end, it has felt like the Reds are doing nothing.

For months on end, it has felt like the Reds have been almost hell bent on having the same team as last year.

Maybe those criticisms have been unfair, but they've been out there, and I feel like there's been a malaise that is set in where any excitement that was there in September from the Reds playoff push was evaporated by not getting Kyle Schwarber and then spending much of the offseason not doing much of anything.

There hasn't been a ton of excitement.

That doesn't mean that the Reds have had mechanically speaking, a bad offseason.

They've added some relievers, some pretty good relievers.

It is completely fair to expect the Reds to have a good bullpen, based on largely at least the work done by Nick Krawl, But relief pictures don't move the emotional meter.

Good bullpens don't get people excited dudes who hit home runs due especially if dudes who hit home runs are guys who used to play here and are fan favorites, which is what a Eugenio Suarez is.

And so now there's been a little bit of an uptick.

By the way, I've seen sports books that have taken the Reds win total eighty one and a half and have pushed it to eighty two and a half or eighty three and a half.

Eighty one and a half.

I feel pretty good about eighty three and a half is a little ambitious, but we will see.

Also, there was a jolt of energy that surged through the fan base.

I don't know that anybody looks at the Reds as a team that's gonna be favored to win the National League.

I'm not sure anybody's gonna look at the Reds as a team that should be favored to win the National League Central.

But still you could feel it like a little surge of optimism or at least a sense of relief.

Hey, they did something, they did something, and they did address their biggest need.

I wonder, and we're not gonna have any way of knowing this for sure.

Red's TV model, now, like last year, maybe framed a little bit differently.

If you are an Ulti Fiber subscribe and you got FanDuel Sports Network, I think there's a very good chance you don't have to do anything.

Just Red's TV is gonna pop up and you'll be able to watch the games.

But if you're a cord cutter and you've you've got to stream it on an app, well you can.

You can buy a subscription and it's like ninety nine for the year or nineteen ninety nine per month.

So the Reds just came out with this.

How many subscriptions will they have sold versus how many subscriptions will they have sold if they didn't do anything to address their biggest issue?

Simply put pre I you Hanio Suarez, how many folks are like you know what, I'm just I'm watching my money carefully and I already pay for a lot of streaming services, and I already subscribe to a lot of different things, and so you know, the Reds didn't really make their offense any better, so I'm gonna hold off.

And then they signed Souarez and it's like, all right, Like maybe they are trying.

Maybe there's a legitimate effort here, and maybe this offense and this team, by extension, is going to be a little bit more interesting and maybe a little bit better than I originally thought.

This era that we're in, I think is awesome.

For years, teams have had to sell tickets, and when folks in Cincinnati have stopped buying tickets the Reds, the Reds have responded.

Remember twenty eighteen.

Twenty eighteen was like a low point in the history of this franchise.

First of all that the team was terrible, and it was also, let's see, the fourth consecutive year they lost way more than ninety games, and in twenty eighteen they had their lowest attendance since nineteen eighty four.

So that offseason, the front office is like, Okay, it's time to start trying.

They went on and got Y s el Peak and Matt Kemp and Kyle Farmer and Alex Wood all in the same deal, and it was like they had to do something.

I think they felt like they had to do something, and they made the team a little bit better.

Wasn't all that good in twenty nineteen, but still this franchise has reacted to folks not buying tickets.

But now they got to do more than sell tickets.

They got to sell subscriptions.

They've got to sell subscriptions, and they've got to get people to keep renewing their subscriptions.

Let's look at it like this.

Let's say you're a month to month buyer of Red's TV, and you go, okay, nineteen ninety nine a month season's going to begin in late March.

I'll pay the freight for the first month.

Let's see how they do.

And the team is okay in April and the g a right, well, I'm not going to bail in the season quite yet.

Let's buy May, and then in May they're wretched, like they just they have a tough stretch and they fall behind, and you're looking at the National League Central standings and they're already like nine and a half, ten and a half, eleven and a half games out.

But you know what, hey, long season.

Okay, fine, I'll buy June.

But if things aren't any better by June, I'm gonna take that twenty bucks a month and do something else with it this summer.

And then June comes in there not any better, and you go, you know what, not only emotionally am I on to football.

I'm done watching Reds games this season, and I'm done paying extra to have to watch Reds games this season.

This is good.

This is good.

I think to a degree, this could help solve tanking.

I think to a degree this could help solve the Reds and other teams because there have been many trying to sell their fans on what the Reds tried to do in the middle of the twenty tens.

Remember that we've got to rebuild?

Can we got a rebuild?

The first time we ever started talking about rebuilds in Cincinnati was trade deadline twenty fifteen, because that's you know, hit the EJEC button on Johnny Quato and move on from Mike League.

And that's when rebuild became in an everyday part of how we talk about the Cincinnati Reds.

And you know, at the time, it's like, all right, rebuild, How long is that going to take.

It's gonna take a while, and you know, frankly, it's taken a decade, and that rebuild that started in twenty fifteen, there was never a real payoff to it, right.

The best they did was make the postseason in the drive through season of twenty twenty.

But you can't go in this era if you're trying to sell not only tickets but subscriptions to get people to consume your product.

You can't go three four five years of being totally irrelevant and expect people to watch when they're having to make a special payment to watch.

It's one thing if you're a cable subscriber or you have a service where the network that the Reds are on is a part of the package, and you can decide, well, I'm just not gonna watch.

I'm still kind of paying for it.

It's a part of my package, but I'm not gonna watch.

It's something else entirely.

If you've got to go out of your way to pay for it, like you do Netflix, or like you might with Amazon Prime, it's something entirely.

I've got Red's TV for a couple of months, but dude, July, they're twenty three and a half games out, I'm good.

Or let's see what they do with the deadline, and the deadline comes and goes and they don't do anything, and now you can go, We'll screw that.

They're not getting my twenty bucks a month for August in September, I'm out this era.

It could be a really good thing.

Now.

Eventually it feels like every team is going to be doing something like this.

But it's one thing when you've got to sell tickets, and I think teams have often said, well, you know, we can make up for the lost revenue by being bad and not selling tickets, by slashing payroll, something else entirely, something else entirely.

And by the way, in many seasons where teams have been bad, including in Cincinnati, the TV ratings have always been pretty good.

I can tell you this.

In seasons where the Reds have been bad, the radio ratings for the games themselves are still really, really good.

But radio is free, which is why it's the best.

And historically TV it's just been a part of a package.

You're not going to cancel cable because the Reds are bad, but you will cancel your Reds TV subscription.

So now you have something here that you, as a fan can use to hold ownership and hold management more accountable.

You're not gonna try it the deadline.

That's fine.

I'm done for the rest of the season, not getting my money.

You know what, I'm waiting to see if I'm re upping my subscription, go do something this off season and the Reds have.

This gives you and I as fans, a tiny bit of empowerment.

What fan doesn't want to be empowered?

So this era that we're in I think is better than what we used to be going through.

It's it's better than it used to be, and it's taking some getting used to.

I understand that you're gonna find some cord cutters who are like, look, I'm just paying for the entire season.

I don't want to worry about it.

By the way, that would be me.

I'm not yet a cord cutter for what it's worth.

But you're gonna have a lot of folks, you know, like there there are people who they get rid of Netflix.

So they get rid of Peacock because a favorite show is is is finished in first run, or you know what, I was subscribing and now I get other stuff I want to pay for and so I hate to do it, but this is going to be the service that I cancel.

Now Cincinnati Reds games are going to be a part of that discussion.

You're going to be a little bit more discerning.

You've got the power to cancel.

You've got the power to not pay for something if you're not getting what you're looking for out of it.

This is, in a small, small way, a really good era for fan empowerment because not only now can you say I'm not gonna buy tickets, now you could say I'm not going to subscribe to watch the games at home.

Sixteen minutes after three o'clock, five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty is our number.

Eight sixty six seven oh two three seven seven six.

By the way, the phone lines are used to call the show to like call the radio show and talk with the host.

The phone lines we try not to use them, so you can sit on hold and listen.

We have an iHeartRadio app for that, and we invite you to use that.

Thank you.

Seventeen minutes after three o'clock, I got a college basketball coach crying poverty, which is I want to say, unbecoming.

Maybe it is you might agree, you may not.

We'll discuss anyway next.

Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

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Southbound four seventy one and the off ramp to the Bellevue exit blocked off.

That's due to a watermet break.

That ramp expected to remain close for an extended period of time.

Southbound seventy five traffic slow from Azir Charles Drive to Fort Washington.

Wait minute or two worth of de ladies on that ezelic with traffic.

This twenty three minutes after three o'clock.

We got the Olympics on in studio.

We're watching men's Big Air snowboarding.

Why are their events happening before the opening ceremonies?

I was about day.

I thought that the ceremonies was Friday.

Since tomorrow, right is that it's not tomorrow?

Already in Courtena, Milano, so the the opening ceremonies don't take place until tomorrow.

But we already have a qualification run too.

In the men's Big Air snowboarding competition.

We will, obviously because this is live, we'll keep you up to date on what's happening in the men's Big Air snowboard.

I had to look on FanDuel and see if I can get odds on the Jay Canter from the US is currently in eighth place.

I gotta see what odds we can get him out.

I decided this year because my college basketball teams aren't very good, I'm gonna be all into Thelympics all in, like I like the Olympics, like the Olympics a lot.

Olympic hockey is the best.

But like this year, I'm gonna go overboard.

But I'm also going to pretend like I'm an expert on all the sports.

So I'm gonna like chime in on social media, which is a great place to sort of show your expertise that nobody was aware of.

And I'm gonna go on and explain, like, you know, well, why this Bob's letter was the better bobsledter of the other bob's letters.

And I might do it here.

In the men's Big Air snowboarding competition, which is currently being led by Japan's h Ogiwara I don't know what the age stands for.

We don't have a guy in the top six, but I will keep you up to date and let you know what's happening.

And this is oh we Yeah.

Canter's an eighth and our Gerard from the US is in tenth, so we've got some work to do in this heat of the Men's Big Air Snowboarding competition in Italy.

Five point three seven four nine fifteen thirty is our our phone number today and eight sixty six seven oh two three seven seven six.

You could also anytime you want, send me a tweet.

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Oh dot com, Uh, Chad Brendle and the Bearcats coming up in just about twenty minutes.

I've said a few times on this show that I am a huge admirer of the University of Houston's basketball program, which the Cougars have.

Another great team rank in the top ten.

Last night destroyed a pretty good UCF team by twenty four points.

Kingston Flemings.

If I rooted for an NBA team that had a top ten pick in the draft, that would be who I wanted.

Not the number one pick in the draft, but that would be who I wanted.

He just looks and feels like a Houston basketball player.

I admire that program because A they have an identity, and it's never been more difficult to carve out an identity in college basketball.

B.

For the most part, the identity they have is the one that you see used to have, and so I'm envious.

But I really admire that program.

I wanted Houston badly to win the national championship last year, and barring some miraculous run by one of the teams that I root for, that's who I want to win it this year.

Kelvin Samson, the Kelvin Sampson rebrand has been I think, really fun to watch.

Disgraced former IU coach is probably gonna be in the Nate Smith Memorial Hall of Fame because of his work at Houston and obviously prior to that Oklahoma.

But this is weak.

I'm sorry.

This is Kelvin Sampson after last night's twenty four point victory, crying poverty on behalf of the Houston Athletic Department.

Now, we participate in the NIO just like everybody else.

We know what our kids market value is.

I mean they're trust me, they're not starving here.

They're getting They're getting exactly what the market is for them.

But you know, we have a very poor athletic department.

We're poor.

You know, we're poor when I got here, and we're still poor.

We probably have the lowest budget of anybody in power for you know, and you know the way our recruiting is going, we have to stop at some point because we don't have enough money to keep bringing in really good players.

And that's not easy for us to do.

People ask about recruiting.

You know, teams that have the best recruiting classes usually have the most money.

That's the way it is today.

Yeah, like we we know, uh you know, we signed uh I Kenna and Arathon early.

You know a lot of these kids we have will come back.

But who knows what else will all sign be thereu's how much.

Money we have.

It's not about who do we want to sign, it is who can we afford to sign.

And even even though we've been doing this h nil thing that it still feels funny for me to even say that.

It's like a culture shot that that's coming out of my mouth because for so many years it's illegal to do that.

But it's legal now.

That's why they call it nil.

Now it's legal.

Just quickly here he Houston has qualified for the last six Sweet sixteens, the last three NCAA tournaments, They've been a one seed.

They were this close to winning a national championship last year.

And maybe they're doing all of that in spite of having a quote poor athletic department.

Here's what I'm looking for.

He may be right.

I'm sure in comparison to other Big twelve schools, other schools in the state of Texas, but they could pay for players pales in comparison.

Now, I'd be willing to bet a guy like Travis Steele's over there or a guy like Rich Patino's over there going.

I'd like to have those problems.

Also, Houston has football.

Do what you want with that, I'm looking for the first college football or basketball coach who will publicly say, you know what, we're we're actually flush with cash.

Maybe that's happened and I missed it.

We are, We're loaded.

In fact, we don't don't need any more money.

We're good, right a check to something else donated to the school's academic endeavors.

I am mostly all in on ANIL have been for a while.

Certainly believe that there should be more regulation than there is.

I don't know how we get there.

But the one thing I don't like about this is like everybody has their pockets out.

Now, everybody's got their hands out.

Now when you're losing, it's an excuse, and now when you're winning, it's a preemptive excuse in case the winning stops.

I like Kelvin Samson.

I'm gonna admire of his program.

When you're twenty and two, nobody wants to hear about how poor you are.

By the way, there's never going to be a level playing field in college boards because there never has been.

Somebody is always going to have more, somebody's always going to have more resources.

That was the case ten years ago.

It was the case eighty years ago.

It's getting me the case twenty years from now.

But the sort of like crummy part about this is is now, if you lose, it's it's our finances.

It's what we don't have financially.

Now.

When you win, yeah, but when we lose, it's going to be because we don't have enough money.

So keep pumping money into those golfers.

Twenty nine away from four o'clock.

Let's make some money on the Super Bowl at least early.

Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Southbound four seventy one, the off ramp through the Bellevue exit blocked off that due to a water meaning break.

Crews expect that to remain closed for an extended period of time.

Southbound seventy one seventy five at Dixie Highway, there's an accident.

Moved off onto the left shoulder.

I'm that easylk with traffic.

This report is spumption.

Sports Headlines are a service at Kelsey Chevrolet home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life kelseyshev dot com.

You see in West Virginia hookup tonight at fifth third, tip off at seven on seven hundred wlow Aircuts lost to the Mountaineers in the first game in Morgantown.

Also tonight, Ohio State is at Maryland and the Men's Big Air Snowboarding competition is now onto qualifying stage number three.

They've taken a leaderboard off the screen, so i can't tell you who's winning, but I'm sure that information is accessible to you if you need it.

Here's what we need.

We need our guy Lee Sterling Paramount sports dot com.

A staple of our show during the regular season.

College and pro football makes us a lot of money.

We have them on on the Thursday before the Super Bowl every year.

So talk about the game, some props inside the game, maybe some props that have nothing to do with the game, and of course his daughter's famous national anthem over underpick.

Lee is on Twitter at Paramount sports dot com.

How you been, I'm good.

I'm good.

Came up forty yards short in the National Championship Game, but other than that, can't complain quite a run.

So feel pretty good about the run, and feel good that Hurricanes football looks like we're finally back.

It sure does, it sure does.

Let's you're back too, So let's let's talk.

Let's talk about some actual, like football related props first.

Right, Okay, So most people love to play who's going to score the first touchdown?

It is so random that if you're wagering on this with serious money, probably not the way to go here.

So I would rather take a player who I think will score during the game, And I think the best guy is probably someone like Kenneth Walker, the third running back for Seattle.

Anytime touchdown minus one twenty, take a shot on him.

You know, if you got twenty twenty five people.

At the party you're going to and you want to just put names in a hat, then you can do first down at a time touchdown.

That would be fun that way.

A couple others.

There's a couple of receivers.

I'm looking at Cooper cup Wide receiver for Seattle over two and a half receptions.

The Patriots love to use a lot of zone defense.

He's really good at reading zone defenses and knowing where to go, what seem when to sit down in these zone defenses, and they're starting to use them worse.

I'll take Cooper Cup over two and a half receptions.

Two receivers.

I like, either going four or against them.

For the New England Patriots Mac Hollins, so he's only going to catch probably two or three passes, but when they do, you're not going to see many flanker screens from him.

They use him to go down the field.

He's six y four two twenty.

Physical long arms.

They have him as over fifteen and a half yards longest reception.

I love that.

I'll go over there and Stefan Diggs.

Four and a half receptions is his number, and it's probably because he's caught four and five balls the last two games, but I think he's lost a step and he's going to face a lot of Manda Man coverage.

So I'll go under four and a half receptions here for Stefan Diggs.

All right, Lee Sterling is with us from Paramount sports dot com.

Are there any props outside of the game itself you want to give me?

So I don't do the gatorade or anything like that.

Most of those will come out this afternoon, tonight or tomorrow morning.

We'll study those more.

Now.

As you know, we love the national anthem, Yes, and maybe this year more than most years.

The first nine times my daughter did it pretty easy.

The last two years have been tough.

Two years ago, Reeveen McIntyre, my daughter had the under the under, but she decided to sing the last line home with the brave twice right.

And so what happened was most books paid it both ways.

They figured, hey, we're gonna most don't allow more than five hundred dollars to be what bet on that wager, so it's a good will gesture.

They paid both sides.

Last year she liked the under, didn't love it.

She said it's going to be tight.

Boy was it tight.

Came in by anywhere from a half a second to a second.

So she's right now we'll call it a ten oh in one.

So this year, Charlie Poot is going to be singing the national anthem.

He's never sung it before.

Never, there's no video, no sporting event he has ever sung it.

So you're saying, well, how can you handicap him singing over under a minute in fifty nine and a half seconds, Well, He actually did an interview my daughter found with Ryan Seacrest a little over two weeks ago.

He said he takes it seriously, said that the other New Jersey native that did it with him has done the national anthem, Whitney Houston is the gold standard.

No one will touch that.

But he said he's going to do it differently.

And he he's a composer also, and he said he's going to do it with a choir and an orchestra.

So I have a feeling and she does too, that it's going to play out a little longer than normal.

So it sits right now at a minute in fifty nine and a half seconds.

She likes the over a lot on that.

All right, very good.

The track record is unimpeccable or unimpeachable, so you can't argue with your daughter.

Game itself, Seattle, the line has held study at four and a half since it came out late.

We should go this past Sunday to post a total forty five and a half.

Do you feel strongly either way about one of the other.

I actually like the game now.

The last seven years team less having tries, the team has been favored by four more points.

Oh to seven against spread.

The last time a favorite it's covered by more than four points was going back to Peyton Manning in the Indianapolis culture of the Chicago Bears.

I feel that New England's not quite there yet.

I think by being able to play Denver in the AFC Championship was to their supreme advantage and could have lost that game.

If they would have gone down ten to nothing might have been different.

But Sean Payton decided to go for a fourth and one early in the first late in the first quarter, and they never were able to mount anything after that point, lost ten to seven.

I think that something's wrong with Drake May's shoulder.

He's thrown eight interceptions in the last thirteen games.

Also, it's about explosive plays in the NFL, and right now Romande Stevenson is fine, he's playing well, but he's due to fumble.

I would if I was them, I would probably look to maybe move more into Henderson into the lineup.

He has I think three or four runs of more than fifty yards for touchdowns.

But let's Stevenson fumbles that.

It doesn't look like it's going to be the case.

So I think that Seattle's legion of Boom Defense is right there.

They probably forced a fumble in an interception.

I think Sam Darnold has finally figured it out.

I'm gonna take Seattle Lay the four and a half.

I have winning twenty seven to sixteen.

Great minds think Alikely, we've been on the same page with pretty much everything you've articulated, mainly that right there, Seattle and Lay in the point.

Sorry, Paramount sports dot com.

What'll folks find when they go?

Well, you can get our top fifteen prop plays and also our selection ninety seven dollars.

We've won five to the last six years on the Super Bowl.

We've won nine of the last ten years on our Super Bowl prop plays ninety seven dollars.

Whose coupon code save also USC card we went twenty three the last twenty nine UFC cards.

We have forty to fifty unit max wager going on Saturday night.

That's just thirty five dollars for five Monster selections.

And we're going to take a break until Tuesday before March Madness.

But if you want to check me out, I do a daily podcast on the locked On network.

Go to YouTube, Spotify, Apple, just type in three where it's locked on Bets.

Hear me Monday through Friday, comes out by ten am.

Fifteen minute podcast with three to four selections every day, locked on Bets anywhere you check out your podcast.

You mentioned something very important the week before the NCAA tournament begins.

Will we hear from you?

Yep, Tuesday, We'll do Tuesday.

I'm off Tuesday because my daughter's school plays at five o'clock, so I'm off on the seventeenth.

But maybe that Wednesday before.

Wow, oh Wednesday.

Maybe Wednesday, we'll do it Monday.

Okay, all right, you're the man.

All right, buddy, that's our guys.

Sure what's that?

Nope, well I don't know Lee.

Hopefully Lee's okay.

Outsports dot Com.

What's the play?

I I have no idea, but I know she's in a school play that starts like late afternoon, so I will be off.

It's Saint Patrick's Day.

Might have taken it off anyway.

Chad Brendle next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

From the UC Health Traffic Center.

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Southbound seventy one seventy five.

There's an accident at Dixie Highway.

It's off onto the left shoulder southbound four seventy one.

The off ramp to the Bellevue exit is currently blocked off.

That's due to a water main break.

PRUSE expect that to remain closed for an extended period of time.

I'm at Ezelek with traffic.

Nine from A four.

This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Thursdays.

This time we talked with our friend, your friend, our guy, Chad Rendall, Bearcat Journal dot com, u SE in West Virginia hookup tonight at Fifth Third the Bearcats aiming for a twelfth victory this season and revenge revenge on the Mountaineers after losing the first game in Morgantown.

Game tips off at seven o'clock tonight.

Full coverage at Bearcat Journal dot com.

Chad, how's it going.

I'm good, Moe.

Just just drop the daughter off at Hot Pilates, getting ready to make my way towards Fifth Third Arena.

Wow, what an exciting Thursday.

It really sounds like it.

It sounds like an amazing Thursday.

Is Seanabayev gonna play for the Bearcats again this year?

I mean if his ankle heels Yeah, what benefit I had this question asked last night on the bcjpod.

What benefit would he have to shut it down?

He hasn't played well, right, so if he's gonna play college basketball again next year, like he needs to come back and play well down the stretch of the season.

Like the he's obviously not gonna I mean, he might do it, but he's not gonna be selected in the NBA draft, so like he has to help his value on the open market.

So I mean, I just don't see, Like, if his ankle gets back to healthy, it doesn't make any sense for me for him to shut it down because nobody's gonna have a positive opinion of him at that point.

Will Jalen Haynes play for the Bearcats this season?

If ever, that's a tougher question.

The problem there is logic would say sit it out, get a waiver play next year, but from my understanding, that's not a guarantee.

He would have to go through the NCAA to get a waiver on a season where he competed in games back.

I think his second year in college basketball, and they've cracked down on some of what his waiver case would be.

So there's a possibility this is his last opportunity to play college basketball.

They know more about that than I do, so I couldn't tell you one hundred percent what the thinking is there, but there is a chance that his only ability to play college basketball to finish out this season.

That said, Mo, he's still doing non contact stuff at practice.

That's a long way to go from and he hasn't played since late June early July, and he's still not doing contact work.

I don't know that he would physically be able to play even if you know they got to a point where he wanted to.

Are they gonna beat West Virginia tonight?

I think so, But with with the inefficiency inconsistent.

They are consistently inconsistent, which I feel like is something we've said too many times over the last five years.

The splits this year say much better at.

Home than on the road.

They should have beat West Virginia.

At West Virginia, you would think you'll get a much more advantageous performance from Gisel James and Dayde Thomas than we've seen on the road.

So I think they're better than West Virginia playing at home.

But then again, with the way that they struggle to close out games, they could have the game in hand with two minutes left and and still not end up victorious like we saw in Morgantown.

So if I was wagering your money, I would bet on the Bearcats.

If I was wagering my money, I'd probably just keep it in my pocket.

That that sounds like the prudent the prudent action there, Chad Brendle's with his Bearcat journal dot com.

I played the audio earlier of Kelvin Sampson crying poverty for his athletic department.

Have you heard a coach in college basketball or college football talk about how flushed their athletic department is with money?

I guess not.

You know what we had Mark Students a couple of years ago, like basically telling the fans, we're losing because you're not giving us enough money.

That was that was a great look.

That really that really did him well.

I think that was the start of his demise.

No, I don't think so.

But what Kelvin saying, They're going to have to cut back on their spending, So what they're only going to get two five stars next year.

That's three five star players this year.

One of them is the top five player in the sport in Kingston Flemings and Chris Sinak has been excellent over the past two weeks or so for Houston, Like, oh, save me the low as me.

Kelvin Samson's not going to be able to build a roster.

And plus Bo that's a guy that was paying players under the table seven, eight, ten years ago, Guy Dondireau.

Yeah, he got money to transfer to Houston.

So like, spare me the indignation on how the sport is being ruined just because you don't have the advantages that you had when they weren't letting everybody cheat miss me on that.

Just one of the few things I don't like about this is when you're losing, this is just the go to excuse, right, it's it's not my fault, it's we don't have enough money.

But now when you're winning, it's an excuse in case we somehow end up continuing to not win.

I got to get out in front of it by just saying like, ah, we're winning in spite of what we don't have financially.

Yeah, it's it's just a crunch, and and they're all leaning on it one thousand percent.

Like, I wonder how many of the big donors are like, man, I just cut a three million dollar check for you to buy good players.

What do you mean you don't have enough money to.

Buy a roster.

That's what I want to hear.

I want to hear the expos a from a donor and it's like, and I gave them all the money I had.

I'm bankrupt now because I paid for this roster?

How much?

In the sport as a whole.

This doesn't have to necessarily be about u CEO though obviously that's that's the school, that's the athletic department you cover.

You hear the term donor fatigue even for winning programs.

I've got to think that not only has that set in, but it's going to start to become almost reality for so many programs, including possibly here.

Yeah, that's the big thing.

That's why everybody talks about having like billionaire donors.

Right right, If I've got three hundred dollars and you want twenty of it, like, that's that's you know, a substantial amount of like dollars.

I'm giving you.

If I have five thousand dollars and you want twenty, that's a little bit more reasonable, right.

So the donor fatigue.

Part, like there are going to be these large state land grand institutions that are just going to be better able to sustain this a place like Cincinnati, like there's not a billionaire donor.

There's not a guy that you can just hey, write me some checks and make everything okay.

So then you're leaning on guys that you know might have a hundred million or two hundred million, which is an absurd amount of money.

But people that have that amount of money didn't get there by giving large percentages of it away turn on investment.

So well, I think Chad went away.

I think we lost him.

That's okay, that is all right.

Chad needs a billionaire to help fund better sell service.

Chad Brendle bearcadturnal dot com on Twitter at Chad Brendle.

We are guests free until four o'clock left to this.

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ESPN fifteen thirty win one thousand dollars just entered this nation.

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It has been related there at the Super Bowl that Trey Hendrickson may go play for the Baltimore Ravens, and you know what, that's okay, more on that here in just a few minutes plus.

Pretty good chance you're not paying attention to what's happening with the Detroit Tigers and their players and arbitration cases.

But it points out something that the Reds have done that's really, really smart that I don't believe, and you may disagree.

I don't believe they get nearly enough credit for.

I'll explain that coming up here in just a bit, just quickly to dovetail off what Chad and I were just talking about.

We played the Kelvin Sampson audio before.

I think there's two things about the griping about nil money.

Number One, if the idea is for everybody to be on a level playing field, that's never going to happen.

It's never happened in the history of college sports, never prior to nil becoming a thing in twenty twenty one, where Ohio State and US see on the same level.

No I'm as big of a Bearcat fanashill find and there was never going to be anything that leveled that playing field.

Now, the transfer portal has, I think, allowed for a wider distribution of talent where you know, you got guys who don't want to be backups at a place like Ohio State, but they're Ohio State caliber players, and they go and find a place that they might not have ordinarily gone to because they can start.

And so a place that ordinarily might not get a player that good now gets them because there's at least opportunity.

But you know, the widening of the gap because of nil like a sout recap, isn't going to change things that dramatically.

It will have an effect, and I'm not entirely opposed to it, but we've never had level playing fields in college sports.

There's a reason why we've had so much movement among coaches, right because they're always you know, it's interesting.

You never hear coaches talk about how there has to be a cap on their salaries.

Do you.

Know you never hear, well, you know, the coach at Central Michigan should make as much money as the coach at Michigan.

You never hear that it's not realistic, nor is it realistic to expect schools to spend all the same on recruiting and travel and marketing and all the different things they invest in.

And that's been the case for a very long time.

I don't recall anybody complaining about it, you know, back in the day, and I guess to a degree, maybe we'll say it's credit.

But back in the day, when Mick Cronin first became the basketball coach at you see, he loudly made the case for like I got to be able to have planes at my disposal.

I need to be able to jump on a plane and go on recruiting trips.

I need my team to charter it, you know, when Bob Huggins was the coach.

And this isn't just to uce thing, but like they're still flying commercial for the most part, whether it was for recruiting or making trips to go play road games or neutral site games.

Uh.

And Mick was like there were folks who like said, well, mixed whining too much and like Mick does complain, say what you want, but he's whining too much.

Point was like, I'm at a disadvantage here because of travel.

I'm at a disadvantage here because my team's gonna fly commercial.

I'm going to disadvantage here because me or my staff wants to go see a dude go recruiting, like I gotta, I gotta go to Expedia and book a flight on Delta, and I'm at the mercy of the airlines.

And by the way, much of that got rectified.

But there have always been inequities.

Twenty eighteen NCAA tournament, Xavier and UC played in the same place.

Xavier flu u see bust.

You know, Like so this, this search for a level playing field is a search for something that's never existed in the In the mid two thousands, UC started to spend more money on football recruiting, but I think even at the height of Brian Kelly, they were still maybe the lowest team in terms of Big East recruiting expenditure rankings.

I don't know that I needed to quite put it that way.

Never been a level playing field, So you really want to level of the playing field.

Let's have everybody operate with the same recruiting budget.

Let's give everybody the same TV and media money.

Right, Let's put a limit on what schools can invest in facilities.

We're obviously talking about amazingly unrealistic things, and that's okay.

But this search for a level playing field is a search for something that we've never said we wanted before, and now somehow we're looking for it.

I think the other thing is Chad used the perfect word before his phone died.

Crutch, Like this is the only part of it that I really, really, really dislike.

It's a crutch.

My team underperformed.

We didn't make a bowl game, we didn't compete for a league title, we had no chance of playing in the playoff.

We're not a tournament team.

It's not your coaching, it's not your decision to recruit these particular players.

It's not your ability or lack thereof to blend a team together, none of that.

It's money beyond my control.

Money.

It's a crutch.

It's a crutch for bad teams being coached by people who underperform.

It's also now going to become a crutch for the coaches who are killing it.

Calvin Sampson's got a team that's got a chance to win the national title this year.

But hey, in the event that the good times cease, not my fault not enough money.

I mean, it's it's not unlike baseball owners, like so much of what has been exasperating about being a baseball fan for the last you know, really thirty years has been just the non stop, just incessant pulling out of the empty pockets by small market owners and the sorry, we just and by the way, it's it's at times not even small market owners.

The Cubs have done this.

Previous ownership of the New York Mets did this.

And you know, when something is said repeatedly, eventually there are gonna be people who buy it.

That's happened in baseball.

Now.

Yeah, there's financial inequities.

We all know what they are.

But we've allowed financial inequity in baseball to be an excuse to be a crutch or we're not winning.

But surely it's not your inability to develop players.

Surely it's not the players who invested in underperforming.

Surely it's not decisions being made in the dugout.

It's well, we just we don't have any money.

And now you're seeing that in college sports, it's a crutch.

I mean, I like Scott Saderfield.

I know opinions on him are aren't very high right now because and understandably so, because of what's happened in November and any amount of frustration being aimed at him.

I think he would be the first to admit he deserved but right when the season ended.

He did it in an interview with Tony Pike, right after I think the last regular season game of the year, where he talked about, like, need more money.

I'm paraphrasing him here, like after your team has lost it's what was it, fourth consecutive game to end the season.

That's not what anybody wants to hear.

It may be true in many cases, but now it's the crutch, pull out your empty pockets.

Don't have any cash.

Not me, It's not our coaching, it's not the coaches I hired.

It's it's not the players that we chose not being as good as we thought.

It's well, we don't have any money.

And that's There's so much about nil and play compensation that I love, that is fair, that is overdue.

I can't think of a college sports fan that doesn't want some degree of regulation.

I do.

But the biggest part I don't like about this is it's it's now just built in.

If we stink.

It's money we can blame.

And when you blame money, you're you're really blaming fans.

You might be blaming the more well healed fans among fans, but you're you're still blaming fans.

But it's it's like blaming a team's bad attendance for it not winning in the pros.

We'll have enough money.

By the way, there's some there have been some really brazen college coaches.

Kenny Dillingham, the coach at Arizona State, toward the end of the season, like was blatantly saying, like, hey man, there's got to be restaurants in this area that should you know, give our players like a thousand bucks a name of sandwich after him.

Now, my counter to that was, if you own a restaurant, take that thousand dollars and give it to a line cook or a bar back, or a server or a host or hostess.

But and I get, I get like they're they're all trying to earn as much money for their programs as possible, but it's it's just become the go to and in it, like college programs weren't sticking their hands out for money for all sorts of things to begin with.

But now even before your roster isn't nearly as good, we're hearing about how poor you are.

Like that's it's going to get so fatiguing.

That's the off putting part about this era that we're in.

Quarter after four on ESPN fifteen thirty five Win three seven four nine, fifteen thirty is our phone number.

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He didn't say stand by, he said here we go.

Daren, when you said here we go?

Were you yawning?

You're in the middle of a yawn the producer of this show yawning during this there's the there's the confidence boost I was looking for.

Oh no, no, no, I have long night.

I get it, and trust me, there's times there's times I want to take a nap during the show.

There are times where during the show it sounds like I'm half napping, no offense.

Uh.

Sometimes when we go to Mike, we catch him like mid nap.

Let's see it's joining US Radio Road tomorrow.

I think, Mike, how you doing.

That?

Was rude?

What?

What was rude?

Well?

I might be nappy.

Sometimes we go to you and you're either napping that's happened before, or you're doing something else.

I'm just I'm using I'm using your track record.

But but now you're obviously wide awake.

Are you just sitting on hold so you could hear the show?

Yeah, because we're having trouble with the Wi Fi in the building the last week or so, so gotcha?

Oh that's why, gotcha?

And uh, I hate to bother you with the emails, but uh, well we do.

We do prefer if it's possible for you to listen on the iHeartRadio app if if Traditional fifteen thirty on the AM band is not available.

Gotcha?

Okay, now my first question to you listen is smarty pants.

Yeah.

Well, I'll get to the end regarding Super Bowl paraphernalia, love to pick up for you?

And oh how about that?

All right?

Now, now you've gotten our attention.

We're gonna get some some swag out of this.

Now.

Now I'm perked up, I'm ready to go.

What else is on your mind?

Okay?

Why are you the publicist for Houston Cougars?

Why am I the publicist for the Houston Cougars.

I just spent five minutes ripping their coach?

Yeah, but you love that team?

I do?

You love that team?

I do?

Yes?

I love how they play.

Yes.

I've explained this to you before, Mike.

I think in this era of college basketball, it's increasingly difficult for a program to have an identity, and yet they do.

Would you disagree with that?

Yeah, but I think it's the identity is gonna start fading away because they're too slow, They're not.

The most athletic team.

They're also twenty and two playing in the Big twelve.

Yeah, I'm not so sure.

The Big twelve a lot better than the Big Ten this year.

But anyway, you know, everybody, every time I mentioned Houston, you seem to take issue with the fact that I give you the same explanation all the time.

They're twenty and two, They've made five consecutive Sweet sixteens.

They were in the National Championship Game last year, like, all right, so, and they're twenty and two this season.

What is there not to like listening?

When I've been listening to you for a long time, until the last few years, I never heard you even ever mentioned the Houston koude.

Right, because it was within the last few years that that identity.

Why would I have mentioned them seven years ago?

Hegan?

Why would I have mentioned them seven years ago?

I don't know, right, I wouldn't have.

But Mike, you have asked me this like four times, and I've given you the same answer every single time.

As a UC fan, I think Houston has Cincinnati's identity lead the country and playing hard, hard and knows tough defense, smart players, high IQ, they rebound the hell out of the ball, and in some respects they do things that even my favorite UC teams didn't do as well.

They run great half court stuff.

But in this era of college basketball, like right now, what is Kentucky's identity?

What's Louisville's identity?

What's Michigan's identity?

Those are you know, Michigan's really good team, Louisville's good, Kentucky's okay.

What are the identities of those programs?

There's only a handful that I can give it to you.

I think Alabama in recent years offensively have been something to behold.

I'll give them credit for that.

Under Natoates, what's Duke's identity right now?

Duke was in the final four last year?

What is that program's identity?

That's no knock on any of those programs.

And it's really hard with so much roster turnover for you to be able to say, I know what this program is going to bring to the table every single year.

You could say that about Houston.

Would you disagree?

No?

But they don't win the tournament?

So what So the only measure of whether you can admire a program is that they win the tournament.

That means no UC basketball team in the last sixty plus years was deserving of attention.

That means that no Xavier basketball team in history was deserving of attention.

You really believe that Saint John's basketball has never won the NCAA tournament, Purdue has been in one final four, IU hasn't won a title in forty years, but there has There haven't been teams in those programs that we should celebrate.

There haven't been Hall of Fame coaches.

There haven't been players deserving of individual accolades.

Like if the only measuring stick, Mike, there's three hundred but more than three hundred and fifty Division one basketball teams.

If the only one that we could give any credit to is the team that wins the tournament, following this sport is going to totally suck.

How many?

What's your favorite college basketball team?

What?

No, Mike again, you asked this question all the time, and God love you, I give you the same answer.

What is your favorite college What is your favorite college basketball program?

Louisville is your favorite college basketball program?

Would you like to have?

Okay, what is your absolute favorite college basketball program?

All right?

If I told you the Bearcats.

Over the next five years, we'll go to five consecutive sweet sixteens, two final fours, and play for the national championship, but not win it.

Would you sign up for that?

Sure?

Of course.

I get your point.

I'm not gonna bring it up again.

And I didn't mean to get your damage.

I like, there's certain like I don't understand why this bothers you.

I mean, in our entire audience, I've not heard any pushback to like, God, Houston's really good.

I wish we were like that.

Boy, Houston's got this like the same team every year, Like it bothers you for some reason, Like don't be bothered by the teams that are good.

By the way, I've just been five minutes ripping the coach for what he said, But don't hate the programs that are good, hate the ones that underachieve.

But if the only measuring stick is you in the national title, oh boy, then then following this program, following this sport is going to be almost pointless.

No, I just I get well, your affinity for this program has then since they were in the same conference with UC, So I get it now.

I think they've been in the same conference with UC for a long time now.

Yeah, well, yeah, that's true.

It is import than the AAC.

They were in the AAC.

Yeah, they they played UC in the AC Tournament championship game in twenty eighteen to twenty nineteen.

Cincinnati won both.

All right, I won't bring it up again now my blood pressure is too No, it's not really.

Hey, I heard, to change the subject.

I heard they traded a Bretseuito to the Halos.

Right, well, he signed as a free agent.

He signed a free agent, so he's got to pitch at the Big A, which is the fourth oldest ballpark in the major leagues, and that still astounds me.

Yeah, but it only hosted one World Series, Mike, So does it matter?

No, not really.

It kind of sits off the freeway.

It's not as nearly as attracted as Dodger Stadium.

But well, I just thought it was pretty cool because most people wouldn't you think of Fenway and Rigley, maybe the Dodgers Stadium, but never I never heard anybody say the fourth you know, the Big A.

I never heard anybody say that.

I think you're right.

I think if you ask most baseball fans to name the five oldest parts, they would easily get the first two, right.

They would they would get Dodger Stadium.

I'm not sure they would get Anaheim.

And then also in the top five I believe is Kansas City.

I'm not sure.

I just looked at the top four and then I got distracted with some kind of interveners.

Intervenous got Okay, So I wanted to ask you guys about what you might like from the uh, the super Bowl, not just some hats off and along the Yeah, I just just.

I want some, Mike, I want some Houston Cougar's.

Gear from the super Bowl.

No, I just I want you to take the money that you were going to spend on the super Bowl and some some super Bowl gear and buy some Houston Cougar's gear for me.

Okay, I really I really don't want any.

I really don't want any Houston Cougar's gear.

Such a trip, Karen, What do you want from this?

What do you want from the super Bowl?

Tearing you anything?

Just like a hat?

I like hats, which.

You just want one that has like a super Bowl logo on it?

Yeah, you just have super Bowl logo on it.

Neither team matters.

I want you to Here's what I want you to do, Mike.

I want you to to find like you know, I like, I like hoodies.

I like to wear hoodies.

I want you to find a hoodie that you think I would like, and I want you to look at the price tag and whatever that cost is.

I want you to take that money and do something nice for someone with it.

Oh, I'm always good at that, all.

Right, that's what That's what I want.

No, no, no, no, I still am going to get you the hoodie.

Do you want a hoodie with an affiliation or no affiliation for either team?

It's a super Bowl.

I want, I want.

I would just want to like a regular Super Bowl hoodie.

But I want you to find a hoodie.

And super Bowl merch is expensive.

So if you see one that's like one hundred and fifty dollars, I want you to take that one hundred and fifty dollars and I want you to do something nice for someone else.

Maybe give it to a children's charity, or maybe give it to someone that you know could could use a break on their groceries.

I want you to do something nice for someone instead of sending me more merch that I don't need.

I do that all the time anyway.

I just sold my house finally, finally sold my house at Fort Thomas gott So only took about five years, but I got a little little money now on the side, feeling.

Kind of call, well, well, in that case, I'll take I'll take a hoodie, I'll take a game program, maybe a hat.

Uh you know, man, is there is something for my kid that you could get.

I want you to do something nice that.

What about Crosley?

No, well, let's let's focus.

On Crosley has more clothes than she knows what to do with.

She does, there's there's a lot of My wife also has more clothes than she knows what to do with.

She wears a uniform to work, so you know she doesn't really care.

Okay, And one last thing, if you give me a time, well, go ahead.

I'm looking at this Dodger's lineup since they've got Tucker in there, scary.

It's not even fair.

But I just want you to let people know that it's time to start practicing pictures and catchers and reporting.

It's time to start practicing with the preseason baseball.

On the home Dog, well, I would I would not suggest you bet on spring training games beyond the first five innings, but the home Dog strategy is, well, yeah, practice, but here's the thing.

In spring training, they don't play series.

And the whole, the whole philosophy behind the home dog strategy is betting a series.

In spring training, they don't play series.

But my point is is to start looking at the games daily and getting.

In the half of the studying the lines.

I understand.

All right, well you're calling, you're calling us from a radio row tomorrow.

I'm gonna do my best, brother, I'll tell you that.

All right, tell me what time you're gonna call.

I will make sure I'm not talking about the Houston Cougars in the moments before you call them.

I'm not bringing them up again.

I'm sorry, I really feel bad.

Enjoy What are you guys taking a bus to you?

How are you get into San Francisco?

Well, they got a van for us.

It's really pretty cool.

Nice man.

It's not a Calm Brady van or anything, but it's a nice van.

And then we're gonna be staying in San Mateo, which is right on the other and San Mateo Bridge can the peninsula to to the to them to the city.

And you're going to the game with a bunch of other men or men and women who have served the country.

I'm going with three other veterans who have They're all men who have purple at least one purple hurt.

All right, here's what I want you to do.

Take the money that you're gonna use to buy merch for me.

I won't speak for Terran, and I'm sure beers at the Super Bowl are not cheap.

I want you to take that money and buy around of beers or two for the people you're with who deserve it.

Okay, yep, all right now, but i'll call you tomorrow because we're leaving.

Actually we're leaving kind of late tonight.

It's kind of weird, but that's what we do.

And you know what Sam MITTAYO is Tom Brady's hometown.

Oh well, maybe you'll meet Tom Brady.

I doubt all right, I'll call you to more.

Thanks for the time.

Yeah, well, buy Terran whatever he wants, but take the money you're going to spend and buy buy round of beers.

Buy a couple rounds of beers for the the men you're going to be at the game with.

Okay, go sure, well, thanks them out.

Twenty six away from five o'clock.

He doesn't need to tell us he's gonna call tomorrow.

It's it's implied the days where we don't take his call.

That's I should share the emails he sends.

I hope Mike has up blast at the super Bowl sports headlines and made Trey Hendrickson end up with the Baltimore Ravens.

That amazing sports talk radio topic is.

Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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College hoops Tonight at fifth third, Cincinnati is hosting West Virginia.

The Ears tip off at seven UC loss to WVU in the first go round six thirty pre game seven hundred WLW.

Also tonight, Ohio State battles Maryland, and right now, in men's curling, Canada leads Italy five to one in the third end.

Does the Cincinnati curling clubs still exist?

Years ago they invited me to come curling with them, and I never took them up on that offer.

Gonna find out if that still stands.

Five to one.

Canada leads Italy.

This looks like it's there's co ed curling.

Men and women are on the same team.

That's co eds mixed pairs.

I don't know.

It's five to one Canada curling.

The opening ceremonies haven't happened yet, but the curling action is already underway.

Which, by the way, you can bet on this on FanDuel dot com right now, which is great.

Nineteen away from four o'clock, according to I read this on Sincijungle dot com.

Give credit words due Bleacher Reports.

Alex Ka did a series of free agency projections and he has Trey Hendrickson signing with the Baltimore Ravens, writing the Ravens will be looking to make a splash in free agency to open the post John Harbaugh era.

With jesse Minter now at the helm, Baltimore could steal Hendrickson away from an AFC North rival and deploy him as the centerpiece of a pass rushing unit that must improve.

In twenty twenty six, Baltimore's thirty sacks this past season tied for the third fewest in the league and marked as significant regression from the fifty four second most in the NFL the team amassed the prior year.

Two things about this Number One, does anybody in real life ever use the word helmed or helm?

Like if let's say the next program to hire a coach, is it going to be like, Oh, so and so is at the helm Zach Taylor.

Hey can't believe Zach Taylor is back at the helm of the Bengals.

No.

Number two, Okay, Trey Hendrickson is probably not going to sign a long term contract with the Bengals.

Our friend Paul Danner Junior illustrated all the possibilities for Trey in his three part series on edge rushers or pass rush improvement at the Athletic dot Com.

It wasn't obviously just on edge rushers, because he talked about the scarcity of defensive tackles.

It feels like the most likely outcome here is Leaves.

Now there's a thought of franchise tagging him.

He plays for the Bengals for close to thirty million dollars.

I'm not sure that's the most prudent use of resources, but okay, or you could tag him and try to trade him.

Lots of different possibilities, But the Bengals were pretty comfortable a year ago not having Trey in their plans for twenty twenty six.

Many disagreed, but it was very clear they had no plans for Trey beyond twenty twenty five.

If they did, they probably would assign him.

Has anything changed since now?

When Tray was healthy last year, he did play pretty well, but he wasn't as healthy.

He's going to be thirty two by the end of the season.

If the concerns a year ago were health and age, I can't imagine last year did anything to ease concerns about health and age.

And you know that, plus all the different sort of I don't know, standoff issues and the back and forth and the trays of our lives thing copyright Paul.

It just it feels like it's time for these two parties to separate.

Your guess is as good as mine as to what they'll do to make the past rush better.

Your guess is as good as mine as to where Trey is going to end up.

But if you're comfortable with letting him go, then you have to be comfortable with any possibility for where he may go, which means you're comfortable with him playing against you twice.

You can't change your mind, you know.

Well wait a minute, wait, wait, hang on, he could he could go to the Steelers.

I'm not sure that makes sense for them, but I'm not sure a lot of the things the Steelers are doing right now makes sense for them.

We're comfortable with him not being in our plans.

But he could go.

He could go to the Ravens.

Ooh, remember years ago UC did not want to move its spring game or any other game to Paul Brown Stadium, so that Ohio State was like player spring game at Paul Brown Stadium.

And you see fans, including some folks that you see were like what no, no, no, no, It's like, hey, man, if you're not going to do it, they are.

If you're comfortable saying no, then you have to understand, well, there's there may be some other outcomes that you don't like.

You can't you can't base your decisions about a player based on fear as to which specific team he may end up at.

It's not unlike how we talk about trades.

If you trade away a player, he may still thrive elsewhere, he may thrive against you.

You've got to be comfortable with what you're getting in return.

You've got to be comfortable with letting that player go.

You know, the one of the examples for me where we've talked about this, you've got to go back now seventeen years when the Reds traded Edwin and Carnassion for Scott Rowland, and Edwin and Carnassion went on to just crush it for the next like ten years.

That's cool.

You knew that was a possibility.

He at least at least had to confront that being at least a slight possibility.

But if you were comfortable with what you got out of the deal, which I think the Reds were, then okay, fine, Let Edwin and Carnassion go on to be a star elsewhere.

Same here.

If you've been comfortable this entire time with Trey Hendrickson leaving at the end of the season, which has been the Bengals plan apparently all along, that cannot change just because wait a minute, no, no, wait, hang on, and they didn't say he was gonna play against us.

Can't work that way, because if it does, then you're you're letting other things dictate your decision making.

You're also then making not totally well thought out moves, like if suddenly, and I don't think this would be the case, but if suddenly, after two years of not having a plan for Trey to play for you in twenty twenty six, you change your mind because oh oh, the Ravens could be interested.

Then you didn't think this that well, you didn't think this out that well, you didn't really plan appropriately.

That's bad planning, that's bad decision making.

So all right, he may end up with Baltimore.

He may end up making them pay.

He may have like four sack games against the Bengals.

He may be a Defensive Player of the Year finalist for the Baltimore Ravens.

If you have decided already we don't have him and our plans, then you know that you've acknowledged it and you're willing to live with it.

You're willing to live with it, and you still have a plan to replace him.

We'll see if they do.

Your plan to replace him still has a good chance of working.

Oh and by the way, when you do play against Trey Hendrickson, your guys are going to be able to block him.

If the thinking is suddenly I think this is more of how we as fans do this.

If the thinking is suddenly, whoa whoa whoa whoa way so he could sack Joe Burrow, let's rethink this, then you didn't think this out that well.

You didn't really vet out this entire decision to not have him come back.

So yeah, man, it sucked.

Like there's no more semantically responsible way of putting it.

We all would prefer if you're on board with just letting Trey go.

He plays at some outpost.

Chances are he's not going to sign with a very bad team.

Why would a very bad team throw a bunch of money at a thirty one year old edge rusher who had surgery at the end of the season, So he's probably gonna go to a team that's equipped to win, and you may play high stakes games against him.

That possibility was already accounted for when you decided he wasn't a part to your plan for twenty twenty six.

Five point three, seven four nine, fifteen thirty is our phone number.

I got into it with Mike there about Houston, like number one.

If the only standard of success is winning a national title, do you know how many otherwise really good college basketball programs don't get any credit for anything.

Gonzaga for the last quarter century plus doesn't matter.

No Xavier basketball team ever matters, No UC team since nineteen sixty two matters.

If I said right now you could have Houston's last seven years for your program, or whatever's behind door number two, you would not take whatever's behind door number two.

It's what makes the NCAA tournament so awesome.

It's what makes this sport so awesome.

It's the hardest championship to win.

I believe that more Southern college football.

It's the hardest championship to win.

So you could also celebrate some of the most revered teams in this city, not only didn't win a national title, they never really came close.

Identity in college basketball is awesome.

The most fun thing about being a UC fan for a long time was your program had an identity.

Some fitted more than others, but your program always had an identity.

And I'm jealous of the ones that do, and I think it's admirable when you can have one.

With the way college basketball works now, and Houston, I think has done that better than anybody else.

Ten away from five o'clock, Cincinnati Reds get criticized for a lot of things, but there's one thing they've done really well that at the time I don't think they got nearly enough credit for.

I'm not sure they do now that Coming up at five oh five, I promise on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

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They're in the fourth end in this heated curling battle in our Quartina, Milan.

I'm sorry, Milana, Quartina, Quartina, Malana in the Olympics.

We'll update you.

When does that?

When does women's hockey's already underway?

Because I saw score?

When does does men's hockey get underway?

Olympic hockey is the best, by the way.

The Netflix documentary on the eighty US Olympic Hockey team is awesome.

Like there are a few things that you just can't have enough content about.

That is one of them.

That is one of them.

Check that out the Lway documentary.

I also watched that very very very early this morning.

Eh didn't learn anything.

I think John Elway is like, among a lot of fans, almost underrated, because what he accomplished was incredible.

He was must watched.

King of the comeback for a large stretch the documentary, uh left, I thought a lot to be desired.

There's the portion of the show where we review documentaries.

Five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty is our number eight sixty six seven oh two three seven seven six Add two pieces of good news if you're a Reds fan coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

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That's credit enter it now.

No one covers the Bengals like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

All right, five after five, ESPN fifteen thirty, Moleger, thanks for listening today.

I got really good news for you if you're a Red stan and we will get to the smartest decision Dave made.

I don't think they get nearly enough credit for us that they should today.

Coming up in just a few minutes, but first it's got to San France super Bowl.

You may have heard is Sunday.

I'm thrilled to do this because he's a cornerstone of our show during the Bengals season.

Every Tuesday, he's for the second consecutive here.

I think he has been crowned King of Radio Row.

He's with Summer Sports, which is an invaluable resource and one of the authors of these stats and scheme newsletter.

Our guy Sean sayed, how many shows have you been on this week?

No, look my voice, it's struggling a little bit.

Be a lot, but Ale'll talk about a lot of different things, of course, saving the best stuff for you as we get towards the end of media week here.

Beyond that, what is the best show you've been on so far?

Good question?

I mean the Super Sport Show of course.

Actually, it's been really fun to talk to you some of the players, have them come on.

I actually really like No, I'll tell you the Irish NFL show.

Yes, a ton of fun.

They were really well prepared.

They asked some great questions.

We had a really good conversation about some stuff.

I've been lucky enough to be a guest on their show.

I don't know why they asked, but those guys, as we say, no ball and I've watched them and I've seen that they're at Radio Rows, so so good for them.

What about let's talk about both these teams from a Bengals perspective, which you're kind enough to do with me every single week during the season.

Let's start with New England Schematically, as a Bengals fan, what can I learn from what the Patriots.

Do to me?

Their safeties I think are pretty flexible where they're playing a little bit, you know, Gallon Hill sometimes on these inbreaking routes.

That's been a really good way to do it.

And I think they change things up overall just so much like they are and they have a different approach to the seaufining.

The pitchers are a little bit more aggressive.

It feels like when you bring in that big money free agent, and I like Nolan Williams be able to change some things for your defense.

Even though no I end up missing a bunch of the season as he was injured, it still thinks like we are building this thing really through that defensive line.

Now from a Seattle perspective, now.

The Seahawk's perspective is kind of similar but also very fun to where their defensive line less than it unlocks everything.

They're happy to just have four defensive linemen on the field.

They can stop the run that.

Way, they can rush the passer that way, it just makes us feel like, all right, got to keep on drafting the defensive line.

Mean, even though of course we're gonna have situations like the Angles have had in the past where not everything's gonna feel like it hit, it just always feels like that's kind of a safe way to start building your team.

Can I run a couple of takes past, you'll fly though.

Here's what I love most about the Patriots this season.

All eleven of their draft choices wore a uniform.

This year, all eleven played.

Mister irrelevant has played in a playoff game.

Now, some of them less than others, But like you know, in a day and age where you've got to get instant return on your draft picks.

We've talked a lot about the Bengals inability to get instant return from their draft choices.

The Patriots have done that in spades.

That's Bengals won't have eleven picks next season.

That's a goal.

And I know folks are gonna say, well, wait a minute, all the Bengals draft choices at some point played this year.

All eleven Patriots picks played for a team that's in the super Bowl.

That's what I want next season.

It's such a good thing to have where look, we know it's a salary cap league, right, so any sort of costen gold talent that you have, it makes things so much easier where it allows you to take some home run swings at different positions.

So unfortunately, I mean, you know, some teams will built through free agency, but you have to have to have to be able to find a way to build through the draft to get some of those starters.

I keep thinking about the Bengals defense.

Right, of course you'd like to continue to build along the offensive line, but well, next year we've got to be able to talk about some of these battle drafticks that are starting on the defense's side of the wall.

All right, I'm gonna give you another one here, right with Seattle.

I see a team that did something that in real time was difficult.

Right, They were willing to move on from Russell Wilson.

That move is paid dividends if you look at who they got for the picks they acquired from them, DK Metcalf moving on from him not quite apples to apples, but still difficult.

New England moves on from a coach who's like a franchise legend after just one year because there's a better option available.

Sometimes you got to do what's difficult.

Sometimes you got to do what's unpopular.

There are times, not all the time, but there are times where I've wanted about the Bengals willingness to do that.

I mean, this whint is Zach Taylor wanted, like the most tenured head coaches in the entire NFL, I wish is almost a wild thing to think about.

But I do agree with you where.

Look, sometimes it's a different both see you need.

Sometimes it's a game management type situation.

With Seattle, of course, like Nadal, it's a home run at the offensive coordinator spot that's.

Going to be an important thing.

End with the Rabel as well, you have a guy who has that built in offensive coordinator where you probably feel like, hey, this guy's most likely not going to go ahead and be found a head coach.

So I agree with you where a lot of times it is that tough decision, and it's scary because nine wins and being near the playoffs is a really nice thing I feel consistent about.

But sometimes you just got to break that bank.

You got to make that big decision and move on to.

Your head coach.

Are you ready for one more?

Absolutely, I wish I had a time machine.

I wish I had a time machine for a lot of different reasons, but I wish I had a time machine because this time last year when I was screaming for the Bengals to sign Milton Williams, they didn't and they should have.

So if we go back in time they can It would be nice.

You know, I think maybe we get that top machine.

I'm sure, yes, there are some other things perhaps that we would both be interested in texting, but I do think, yes, like you are.

It's a rare situation.

Because and to be clear, Bil Williams, did you get He got injured this year, missed a bunch of time, but still in the playoffs he's able to really emerge and can and you to play the way that he did as a philo dumping evil.

And it is a rare thing for a high level pass rushing type player to hit the open market.

It is just too hard now these days, where teams are a little bit smarter.

I think front office members understand, hey, we can't let these guys get frequency.

We want to kind of sign that maybe a year early, maybe even two years early.

At some times when you extend him, so it would have been nice.

No, certainly, and you gonna make your linebackers like the easier.

There's so many wonderful effects to when you have a high quality defensive line.

Have our guys.

Sean Side is with us from Suomer Sports.

Suomer Sports Live is a big part of Summer Sports dot Com.

Sean one of the authors of these stats and scheme newsletter.

Have you started to dive into the draft yet?

No?

So I have not done.

Will say sumer sports has our draft guide for this upcoming year.

I believe it's already live on Summer Sports dot com, so it has all the advanced data for all of the top however many consensus big board picks.

It's going to be a real fun one where you're going to give a look at that information.

I'm excited how to follow that through with some of.

The film this off season?

Are you allowed to tell me who you think is going to win the game on Sunday?

Yeah?

I me up boring.

I think it's going to be the Sea offfs I do you think it's apt to win the game at three points?

Though?

So, I feel like the Patriots are going.

To be able to keep it close in a few different ways where I think the Patriots defensive line and create some issues for that center, that right guard for the seaoffs.

I could see it be a situation.

Where, you know, even when you have a guy like JSN who is really unguardable, I can see a little bit of a defensive slug best going atster this game?

Well said, how many more shows do you have to do?

However many today?

Tell me is that for many I've left it too.

Wow.

All right, the star of Radio Row.

Who's the most famous person you've seen a Radio Row?

Oh that's a good question, that see, I mean all the players, those are big ones usually like on Friday and like you start to see the guys like the rock and then there's no movie starts kind to run around of here as well.

Yeah, well there's no bigger star than you.

And thank you for carving out some time for his suomer Sports dot Com check out sumer Live.

You're the best man.

Thanks so much, Oh, thanks so much, appreciate you.

That's our guy, Sean Saya, the star.

I've said that Radio Row is the saddest place on Earth, and it is.

But Seansayaed who is awesome and we love having him on the show and brings a level of enthusiasm that is unfortunately exceedingly rare.

The fact that he has been the breakout star of radio Row and I look on social media and he's doing different shows.

We're gonna get to a point where he's too big for us, but we're not there yet.

Sumer sports dot Com Canada, sixth, Italy two fifth end of this curling match, the day before the actual opening ceremonies.

By the way, I just noticed this, So tonight is the NFL Honors.

We get NFL Honors tonight, the big award show where all the big league awards are handed out.

This was This was a night of anticipation last year because I don't think any of us thought Joe Burrow was going to be MVP, but he was at least a finalist.

He did win for the second time the Comeback Player of the Year award, and Trey Hendrickson was up for Defensive Player of the Year and Jamar Chase was up for Offensive Player of the Year and neither guy won, which is fine.

Tonight though, we're gonna find out who the NFL Man of the Year is.

Ted Carris up for that honor for a second consecutive year.

I maybe this is just me.

I don't think an award for character and service is the sort of thing that should be decided by hashtags or a fan vote, but rooting like hell for Ted and then obviously we find out tonight who's gonna be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of twenty twenty six.

I desperately want to be wrong about this.

I'm gonna guess Ken Anderson doesn't get in.

By the way history is on the side of that prediction, I feel like it's gonna be Roger Craig.

And Roger Craig has a Hall of Fame resume.

Nothing against him, man.

I mean as watching the forty nine Ers as a kid, it was Montana and Rice and Craig, and then obviously John Taylor unfortunately because he scored the game winning touchdown, and later on Brent Jones.

But it is like the big three was Montana, Rice and Craig.

Roger Craig was a terrific player with somewhat of a short peak.

You know, one of those guys that was like Roger Craig's production dipped quickly, but there was a time where I thought he was already a Hall of Famer, So nothing against him, but I fear that he's got the forty nine Ers machine behind him.

Elsie Greenwood made benefit from something similar.

Really really really really good players from historically great teams, I think sometimes are given a little bit more weight, or are considered a little bit more or there's just more of a preference toward them then from players who weren't.

Plus, the game is technically it's in Santa Clara, but it's San Francisco is hosting the Super Bowls.

Roger Craig mainly played for the forty nine Ers, So we'll see about Ken Anderson.

Obviously Willy Anderson.

We're all holding out hope that one day he gets to Canton.

I just noticed this, he tweeted just before two thirty today.

If you're holding on to hope for good news tonight, and then he's got the gift and the dude's name, it's off the top of my head, it's Jonah Hill.

Thank you, Jonahill doing the throat slash like cut it out thing from whatever award show that was.

I don't know.

Jonah Hill from super Bad and Moneyball, Willy Anderson, as he did last year, suggested that there's not going to be good news for him tonight, which stinks.

We'll see, but the NFL Honor Show is tonight, and you hate for the NFL because that show takes a back seat to the UC West Virginia game tonight at seven o'clock.

All right, got some red stuff, good news and a good job.

I'll make it make sense next.

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There is an accident at Mounts Road right now.

CRUs are directing traffic around that area.

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Moweger really do appreciate you listening today.

Five point three seven four nine fifteen thirty is our number.

There's a very good chance you have not been following the arbitration case of Detroit Tigers Starr and arguably the best pitcher in the game, UH Trek Scooble.

So the Tigers went to arbitration with him, the two time reigning American League Say Young Award winner.

The Tigers went to arbitration with him, which is stupid, but they did that options available to him.

Schooble won his arbitration case and he's now going to make thirty two million dollars in twenty twenty six, a deal that will surpass Juan Soto.

Is the largest arbitration salary in MLB history.

Previous high for a picture, I'm reading this from a spot track.

The previous high for a picture was sho Hey Otani with the Angels in twenty twenty three.

Obviously, show Hey did other things beyond pitching.

And David Price with Detroit nineteen point seventy five million dollars in twenty fifteen.

Just to apply some context, and Hunter Green is not Trek Scouble.

Nobody is Hunter Green is the red staff Ace.

Andrew Abbod provided very legitimate competition for that title last year.

And look the idea is for there to be so many good pitchers that we can have fun discussions about who the staff ace is.

Hunter Green, when completely healthy, is still one of the very best pitchers in this sport.

It would be awesome if he can get through a full season healthy.

He couldn't last year.

But Hunter Green over the next three seasons will make combined forty million dollars, and then at the end of that season, which is twenty twenty eight, there's a club option for twenty twenty nine, but for the next three seasons, Hunter Green is going to earn combined forty million dollars.

Trek Scuoble for this season will make thirty two.

Again, the two pitchers aren't the same.

Paul Skenes had to see that news today and go, hell yeah, But the Reds don't get credit for this to this day, and they should.

Hunter signs that contract a few years ago, which locks in his salary for all of his arbitration years and is what would have been his first free agency season.

It was smart, maybe stop short of brilliant, but still smart, proactive, the kind of thing that agents will advise against their clients signing, the kind of deal that no other Red has signed since Hunter Green last season, which when he was healthy he was terrific.

And again we're all waiting for him to get through a full season healthy, but when he was healthy, he was awesome.

Hunter Green this season will get a two million dollar a year raise.

Last year made six point three.

This year, he'll make eight point three.

Can you imagine what that number would have looked like had he not been already locked into a specific salary for twenty twenty six, Like sign your ace early.

We've discussed many reasons why the Reds should try to sign Ellie Teller Cruz, and there's many reasons why Ellie te La Cruz is like, yeah, man, I am good.

I might want to be Baseball's highest paid player.

I probably really can't do that unless I hit free agency, But yeah, you want to get out in front of some of these things.

Sometimes it's gonna blow up in your face.

If you look at the Reds in the twenty tens, a lot of moves that are similar to this kind of blow up in their face.

This one so far has not.

This one so far looks really smart.

I haven't looked, but I referenced that a lot last year.

Last season, Hunter Green was I think the eighty second highest paid starting pitcher in baseball.

My guess is he's going to be somewhere in that range this season.

It's not that hard to look up to this day, I don't think the Reds have gotten proper credit for getting that done, And to this day, I'd be willing to bet that if Hunter has a bad start, you will hear folks talk about how the Reds overpaid him.

Like I understand that when the deal first came out, the entire value of the contract, which I think was ninety six million dollars, you know, that was a lot of money, right, and it, obviously in the real world, is a lot of money.

But I think a lot of folks saw that and said bad contract.

In reality, it's a great contract.

Sign your ace.

Again.

Trek Scoob was a once in a lifetime guy.

Maybe your ace is never going to be as good as him, But the going rate for an ACE only climbs.

If you can lock into one early, all the better and all the more flexibility you'll enjoy.

Moving forward, twenty six minutes after five o'clock, the Reds TV deal has been talked about a lot, but the Reds are going to get specifically for their TV deal.

I haven't seen.

I don't know that it's out there.

It's been reported the Cardinals are going to take a big, like twenty million dollar haircut from their TV deal from last year to this year.

We'll see what that means for the Reds.

The TV deal uncertainty.

I've hated what it's meant for the people who work to produce Reds games.

Annie Sabo apparently is no longer going to be a part of Reds coverage, which stinks because Annie did a good job.

But there's something about this that is great because I think it gives you, as a Reds fan, a little bit more power over them, and maybe not that much, but still a little bit more power over them.

Historically, the loudest statement you can make in sports is not buying tickets.

But by the way, there have been large stretches of time where people have stopped buying Reds tickets, and occasionally they'll hear that and go, uh oh, gotta do something else.

They acquired yes THEELP week in a trade that brought them three other dudes.

Because attendance bottomed out to a thirty four year low, in twenty eighteen.

But now, obviously if you have cable or an Ulti Fiber account that sort of thing, and you got the FanDuel Sports Network, my understanding is you're not really going to have to do anything different.

You'll still get Reds TV, But there would be a lot of people who get Reds TV on a subscription that they pay a monthly fee for.

I think it's going to be nineteen ninety nine.

Maybe you buy the full season, but I think you're gonna have a lot of folks maybe you who you buy the nineteen ninety nine subscription per month, and if we get to July and the teams out of it, guess what, ejeck button no more than nineteen ninety nine a month, or hey, I'm going to renew.

I'm gonna renew my subscription this offseason.

But I need to see you do something.

Need to see you try to win like this is good.

Now you're accountable to a different type of consumer, one that wants to watch your games.

Some that will watch the games no matter what, but others maybe a little bit more discerning.

Who go, Okay, I'm already buying a bunch of subscriptions, do I really want to show out another twenty bucks for Reds games when they're a thousand games out of first place.

Like there's a little bit more power in your hand right now.

If you're a Reds fan and in an era where it feels like fans are more and more powerless, how could that be anything but good?

What's not good are cry baby college coaches.

You'll hear one.

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All right, we've talked a lot about coaches in NIL and crying about not having money.

Calvin Samson, whose team is twenty and two is played in five Street sweet sixteens, whose team played for a national championship last year, the latest after his team wins by twenty four last night against a good UCF team, the latest coach to cry about being broke.

Here it is.

Now we participate in the NIO just like everybody else.

We know what our kids market value is.

I mean, the trust not starving here are getting.

We're getting exactly what the market is for them.

But you know, uh, we have a very poor athletic department.

We're poor.

You know, we're poor when I got here, and we're still poor.

We probably have the lowest budget of anybody in power for you know, and uh, you know, the way our recruiting is going, we have to stop at some point because we don't have enough money to keep bringing in really good players.

And that's not easy for us to do.

You people ask about recruiting, you know, teams that have the best recruiting classes usually have the most money.

That's the way it is today.

Yeah, like we we know, uh, you know, we signed uh I Kenna and arafon early.

You know, a lot of these kids we have will come back, but who knows what else will sign, pays how much money.

Yeah, it's not about who do we want to sign, is who can we afford to sign?

And even even though we've been doing this inn il thing that it still feels funny for.

Me to even say that.

It's like a culture shot that that's coming out of my mouth because for so many years it's illegal to do that, but is legal now.

That's why they call it an il.

Now it's legal.

I think there's a couple of different things here.

One, there's a search for a level playing field.

I don't know in my lifetime that we've ever had a level playing field in sports.

Some schools have always been able to spend more on recruiting, on travel, on coaches, on marketing, on things that just enhance the program more than other schools.

Like there are reasons why Ohio State is Ohio State.

And that's not to say they haven't that great coaches, great players, but they've had more at their disposal than or Miami or Bowling Green or Akron or anybody else in the state, much less pretty much anybody in the country.

So whenever I hear coaches go on and on about nil and the disparity.

I wonder a hotcome coaches never talk about the pool of money out there for coaches and how it needs to be spread evenly.

Number two, like Kelvin Samson needs more dough.

Houston will always be at a disadvantage in some way, shape or form when compared to someone else, whether it's somebody in the Big twelve or another school in the state of Texas.

But the other part of this is I love so much about the NIL era.

Certainly there should be more regulation, Certainly there should be things that rained things in a little bit here, But it's also now like a built in excuse, it's a built in crutch.

If your team is no good, it's not how you coach the team.

It's not your decision to bring in the players you're coaching.

It's not decisions you made on the bench.

It's not personnel decisions, it's not strategic decisions.

It's not players underperforming relative to their expectation.

It's simple, we need more money.

We don't have enough.

And now, if you're good and Houston is twenty and two in the top ten, they've been a Big twelve powerhouse since entering the league.

They've been a sweet sixteen mainstay for six years now.

It's an excuse even when you're winning, just in case there ends up being a dip in the winning.

How's that good for anybody?

How's that good for anybody?

And it plants in everybody's head the thought that, well, it's not the variables that a program or a coach can control.

If we lose, it's simply because we're not rich enough and the rules are slanted against us, which is exactly what we have in baseball.

Let's try to win some money on the Super Bowl.

Next Cincinnati's esp' on fifteen thirty.

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The left two lanes still blocked off from an accident on southbound seventy one seventy five.

That's at two seventy five in erl Anger with a forty minute delay back from Kyle's lane.

Also a disabled vehicle northbound seventy one after Red Bank, that one blocking off the right lane.

I'm at Ezelic with traffic.

All right, let's make some money on the Super Bowl.

Lee Stirling from Paramount sports dot com, who's on Twitter at Paramount Sports, is with US Seahawks four and a half point favorites.

We'll get to the game itself here in a bit, but let's talk about some pure football prompts for the game on Sunday.

So most people love to play who's going to score the first touchdown?

It is so random that if you're wagering on this with serious money, probably not the way to go here.

So I would rather take a player who I think will score during the game, And I think the best guy is probably someone like Kenneth Walker, the third running back for Seattle.

Anytime touchdown minus one twenty, take a shot on him.

You know, if you got twenty twenty five people at.

The party you're going to and you want to just put names in a hat, then you can do first time at a time touchdown.

That would be fun that way.

A couple others.

There's a couple of receivers.

I'm looking at Cooper cup Wide receiver for Seattle over two and a half receptions.

The Patriots love to use a lot of zone defense.

He's really good at reading zone defenses and knowing where to go, what seem when to sit down in these zone defenses, and they're starting to use some words.

I'll take Cooper cup over two and a half receptions.

Two receivers.

I like either going four or against them for the New England Patriots Collins so he's only gonna catch probably two or three passes, but when they do, you're not going to see many flanker screens from him.

They use him to go down the field.

He's six four two twenty physical long arms.

They have him as over fifteen and a half yards longest reception.

I love that.

I'll go over there and Stefan Diggs.

Four and a half receptions is his number, and it's probably because he's caught four and five balls the last two games.

But I think he's lost a step and he's going to face a lot of Manda Man coverage.

So I'll go under four and a half receptions here for Stefan Diggs.

All right, Lee Sterling is with us from Paramount sports dot com.

Are there any props outside of the game itself you want to give me?

So I don't do the gatorade or anything like that.

Most of those will come out this afternoon, tonight or tomorrow morning.

We'll study those more.

Now, as you know, we love the national anthem, yes, and maybe this year more than most years.

The first nine times my daughter did it pretty easy.

The last two years have been tough.

The last two years ago we've been MacIntyre.

My daughter had the under, It wouldn't have hit the under, but she decided to sing the last line home with a braave twice right.

And so what happened was most books paid it both ways.

They figured, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna.

Most don't allow more than five hundred dollars to be what bet on that wager, so it's a good will gesture.

They paid both sides.

Last year she liked the under, didn't love it.

She said it's gonna be tight.

Boy was it tight.

Came in by anywhere from a half a second to a second.

So she's right now we'll call it a ten oh in one.

So this year, Charlie Pout is going to be singing the national anthem.

He's never sung it before.

Never, there's no video, no sporting event he has ever sung it.

So you're saying, well, how can handicap him singing over under a minute in fifty nine and a half seconds.

Well, he actually did an interview my daughter found with Ryan Seacrest a little over two weeks ago.

He said he takes it really seriously, said that the other New Jersey native that did it with him has done the national anthem, Whitney Houston is the gold standard.

No one will touch that.

But he said he's going to do it differently, and he he's a composer also, and he said he's going to do it with a choir and an orchestra.

So I have a feeling and she does too, that it's going to play out a little longer than normal.

So it sits right nowt a minute in fifty nine and a half seconds.

She likes the over a lot on that.

All right, very good.

The track record is unimpeccable or unimpeachable, so you can't argue with your daughter.

Game itself, Seattle.

The line has held study at four and a half since it came out late or we should go this past Sunday posted total forty five and a half.

Do you feel strongly either way about one or the other.

I actually liked the game now the last seven years, a team least seven tries a team has been favored by four more points oh to seven against the spread.

The last time a favorite it's covered by more than four points was going back to Peyton Manning in the Indianapolis culture of the Chicago Bears.

I feel that New England's not quite there yet.

I think by being able to play Denver in the AFC Championship was to their supreme advantage and could have lost that game.

If they would have gone down ten to nothing might have been different.

But Sean Payton decided to go for a fourth and one early in the first late in the first quarter, and they never were able to mount anything after that point, lost ten to seven.

I think that something's wrong with Drake May's shoulder.

He's thrown eight sections in the last thirteen games.

Also, it's about explosive plays in the NFL, and right now Romande Stevenson is fine, he's playing well, but he's due to fumble.

I would if I was them, I would probably look to maybe move more into Henderson into the lineup.

He has I think three or four runs of more than fifty yards for touchdowns.

But let's Stevenson fumbles.

That's it doesn't look like it's going to be the case.

So I think that Seattle's legion of boom defenses is right there.

They probably forced a fumble in an interception.

I think Sam Darnold has finally figured it out.

I'm gonna take Seattle lay the four and a half.

I have'm winning twenty seven to sixteen.

Great minds think a likely.

We've been on the same page with pretty much everything you've articulated, mainly that right there, Seattle and Lay in the point.

Sorry.

Paramount sports dot com.

What'll folks find when they go?

Well, you can get our top fifteen prop plays and also our selection ninety seven dollars.

We've won five to the last six years on the Super Bowl.

We've won nine of the last ten years on our Super Bowl prop plays ninety seven dollars use coupon code save fifty.

Also USC card we won twenty three the last twenty nine UFC cards.

We have forty to fifty unit max wager going on Saturday night.

That's just thirty five dollars for five Monster selections.

And we're going to take a break until Tuesday before March Madness.

But if you want to check me out.

I do a daily podcast on the Locked On network.

Go to YouTube, Spotify, Apple, just type in three words locked on Bets.

Hear me Monday through Friday.

Comes out by ten am.

Fifteen minute podcasts with three to four selections every day locked on Bets.

Anywhere you check out your podcast.

You mentioned something very important the week before the NCAA tournament begins.

Will we hear from you?

Yep, Tuesday, We'll do it Tuesday.

I'm on Tuesday because my daughter's school plays at five o'clock, so I'm off on the seventeenth.

But maybe that Wednesday before.

Wow, Wednesday.

Maybe Wednesday, will do it Monday?

Okay, all right, you're the man.

All right, buddy, it's our guy, Lee Sterling Paramount Sports dot com.

We'll talk to him right before the NCAA tournament begins in about a month and a half.

Show is over, Gotta go.

Anything you might have missed go find on the iHeartRadio app or mypage at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com.

Thank you for listening.

Thanks to Tarren Bland for producing.

We'll talk tomorrow.

Have a great night.

This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati sports station.