00:00What do you think the effect of nil, Tim, has on the American?
00:04How much has that affected the American conference when it comes to your schools?
00:10Well, I think the things to think about are like, what are the big issues that are creating the fastest
00:15flow of water down the hill?
00:17And I think transfers are really at the top of that list.
00:20A lot of college students feel like they're more like pro athletes now.
00:24And what I would argue is they have it better than pro athletes.
00:26Like you can wake up and play for another school every year if that's what you feel like.
00:29And I think a lot of it is transactional, commitments being de-emphasized, and it's about money.
00:36But I fully support student athletes' ability to monetize their name, image, and likeness.
00:40I think they should have that opportunity, especially because when you and I played, this wasn't a multi-billion dollar
00:46business.
00:47But now that it's been built in a lot of cases on their backs, them sharing in the revenue I
00:53think is something that is deserved so long as there's some guardrails around it.
00:58I worry about student athletes because they're out there taking advice from people that maybe are not the best versed
01:04in how to do these things.
01:06The impact on the American is pretty simple.
01:08Like I'll put it out there.
01:09We're the most rated conference in America every single year in football and basketball.
01:13And I think before I got there, that was a real doom and gloom point for our league.
01:18But what you've seen, the comments, what I always say is like when we lose four coaches and three go
01:23to the SEC and one goes to the Big 12, I congratulated those coaches because they actually made a contribution
01:28to the American last year and for years prior that elevated our profile.
01:32And so you have to get your arms around the idea that you're a strong lead with great coaches, great
01:37talent, strong institutions.
01:39But, you know, we get rated every year.
01:41Now, the beauty of how this is all working is a lot of student athletes are getting smarter and they're
01:48taking a bigger payday to go to a school and they're not playing.
01:51And you know this as well as I do.
01:52Like when we went to college, you wanted to get on the field as much as humanly possible.
01:56Student athletes are realizing that.
01:58And what we're seeing is like that bridge is no longer a one-way bridge.
02:01We're seeing transfers come back over the bridge into the league, which is really elevating our product.
02:07Certainly, I think the biggest concern for – and this is not an American concern.
02:10This is for every conference.
02:12When you have 37 different legislations around NIL based on the states, you've got a problem, right?
02:19Like if you can be in a certain state and earn NIL money and not get taxed on it, like
02:23legislators are creating recruiting advantages.
02:25So if you bring a federal standard in that levels the playing field, I think it gives us the ability
02:30to arrest the system a little bit.
02:31I also think there needs to be agent certification and registration and caps on commissions because a lot of these
02:37kids, it's the only meaningful money that they'll earn in their young lives.
02:41And I think they're being taken, you know, by a lot of people for commissions that are larger than they
02:47should be and also for future rights.
02:48And that stuff has to be reined in.
02:51You know, Tim, I think you answered the question.
02:54I want to expand on it a little more here.
02:56And I'll use USF as a great example.
02:59I look at Brian Hartline, who could have been the Penn State coach, and USF ends up hiring him.
03:05Alex Golish goes to Auburn.
03:07You see USF's basketball coach go to Providence now.
03:10I think this is a good thing.
03:12It's a breeding ground also for showing that some of these commitments by some of these institutions.
03:18I think Rob Higgins is the real gem in your conference.
03:21I mean, that's the guy that I'm concerned about being rated because he's like you.
03:26He sees the future.
03:27He sees the future of his program.
03:29And I'm a big Rob Higgins fan.
03:31I mean, I think this is a good thing for your conference.
03:34Or am I wrong when I say this?
03:37No, you're absolutely right.
03:38And, you know, Will Weatherford, who's the chair of the board at USF, and his brother, Drew, Weatherford Capital, was
03:45a group I got introduced into when I ran IMG Academy.
03:48And when we sold it to private equity, they came in as an investor.
03:52And we got to know them.
03:53And I was just not only impressed with how smart and strategic they were on the business side, but just
03:59good human beings.
04:00And, you know, Will and I talked about that vision.
04:02And I remember when he was doing the search, and I read his dossier about how the industry needs CEOs.
04:08And, you know, selfishly what I told him when we talked about this stuff was I said, as a commissioner,
04:13I'm a disruptor and I need more disruptors in the room.
04:15And I knew Rob for a lot of years from running the sports commission.
04:18I dealt with him on a lot of business.
04:20I was excited about that hire because we need more people that are not thinking about the business in a
04:26traditional way.
04:27And from everything they've done there and, you know, sort of their very transparent manner and how they're operating and
04:32not trying to hide how the sausage is made, I think is a really important case study for everybody in
04:39the industry.
04:39Because the only real way to get legislators or your fans or your donors or other people to support it
04:44is just, like, pull back the curtain and show them what's going on and help explain to them how they
04:50meaningfully can help.
04:51But I do think that's a different type of model.
04:53I think you'll see other schools follow suit in that model.
04:56And, you know, the only concern you have as a commissioner, right, is everybody's thinking about the future.
05:00Nobody can predict it.
05:01But instability is the thing that continues to haunt not just the American but conferences across the country.
05:07Like, what will this thing look like in five years?
05:09I don't think anybody can answer that question.
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