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Maryland Athletic Director Jim Smith stops by the show to preview Saturday's Maryland vs. Virginia Tech matchup and discuss some of the biggest things coming to Maryland athletics.
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00:00Coming to you live from CQ Stadium, College Park, Maryland, ahead of a massive game for two programs tomorrow night,
00:06Virginia Tech against Maryland.
00:08We got the Los Terps hats here. Thanks to our friend, Uncle Jim. Maryland Athletic Director Jim Smith joins the
00:14program. How are you, sir?
00:15Great, JP. Great to be with you guys. Really appreciate the time.
00:19Now, you may not know this. Do you know Brian's ties to the University of Maryland?
00:23No. Tell me about them.
00:24My daughter went to school here. She cheered for the school four years.
00:27Oh, really? That's great. What's she doing now?
00:30She's now working with SeatGeek down in North Carolina.
00:33Nice.
00:34She's a proud Terps.
00:35Hey, by the way, she's making some serious money with SeatGeek.
00:38Oh, yeah.
00:38This game, the demand, SeatGeek put out a stat, and we were like the third highest secondary price ticket in
00:45the market.
00:46You know what's going off the charts? I know this just from my group text thread with all my college
00:51buddies.
00:51Parking.
00:52Oh, yeah.
00:54Hey, that's for real.
00:56Hey, you know what that means, JP?
00:57Come early.
00:58Yeah.
00:59Get here early.
00:59Get your spot.
01:01Find your place to tailgate.
01:02Get ready for what's going to be a really great game.
01:04What did I tell you yesterday we need to get, bro?
01:06Parking?
01:07Parking.
01:08Yeah, B and I, if you know anybody, Brian and I would like to get into the parking business.
01:13Oh.
01:13I paid $30 for 65 minutes of parking at the Anthem the other day.
01:20Hey, it's a real business, and I think we do have a friend of Maryland who is in the parking
01:25business.
01:26Well, let them know Brian and I are interested.
01:27I'll let them know.
01:28I'll let them know.
01:28We have some investment.
01:29Yeah, yeah.
01:30It's a good investment.
01:31It'll be a good investment.
01:32Our investment's more of our time and effort, not necessarily money.
01:35That may not work then.
01:36That may not work quite as well.
01:37You guys are important, but I'm not sure from a financial standpoint that's going to work for him.
01:41That's a shame.
01:42Jim, I appreciate you making time for us, dude.
01:45You took over this job at a tough time for the school, and I think you need the wins to
01:51follow,
01:51but there's a different feeling around the University of Maryland, and I think tomorrow night is such like a kind
01:57of a headliner for it
01:58because you've got national television, night game, two undefeated programs, some personal history between the two head coaches.
02:05This has all the makings of a dramatic ball game.
02:09How excited are you that fans are showing out, you've got to sell out, and to showcase what's happening in
02:14College Park?
02:15Yeah, it's great.
02:16I mean, it's a team effort that everybody in the department has been working really hard on it,
02:21and people can see that we've got a pretty good team this year.
02:23They're very excited about that, and I said this to a couple people.
02:27I said, hey, get used to it.
02:29This is how it's going to be, and that's what we came here to do, and I think we're really
02:35starting to feel that.
02:36I think if you were here for Hampton, you know, it's not the most compelling game.
02:40It's Labor Day weekend, and we had 10,000 students here.
02:44Wow.
02:44The energy in the stadium was great because they bring incredible energy.
02:49So we'll have more than 10,000 here for the Virginia Tech game.
02:52It will have great energy, and we're really, really excited.
02:55So I agree with you.
02:57I feel a little bit of positive momentum building, and, you know, I think it's going to build throughout this
03:01entire season.
03:02A lot of times people look at the carpet, our support.
03:04When you have students staying on campus for games, it tells you what the students think about the football team.
03:10That's right, and there is.
03:12There's some energy with the students.
03:13I could just tell you that I speak to the freshmen, the incoming freshmen every year.
03:17They do a big event here, fantastic.
03:19Student Life does that here.
03:20And just to get people to learn the traditions of Maryland early on as they get on campus.
03:26And that group, way more energy than the year before.
03:29And I think they all came, and I think that's what we are starting to feel here at Maryland.
03:34Jim, speaking of the traditions of Maryland, I was really confused driving in here this morning.
03:38Now, granted, I graduated 20-plus years ago now.
03:42What were all these kids doing on Friday morning with backpacks?
03:45There's no class on Fridays.
03:47Hey, JP, there are classes on Fridays now.
03:50That was the tradition, JP.
03:52You just didn't follow it.
03:54I was like, go back to sleep.
03:56What are these kids doing?
03:57A 10 a.m. class on a Friday?
03:59You crazy?
04:00Hey, I guarantee they'll rally.
04:02They'll get their rest during the day, and they'll be ready to go later, just like you used to be
04:06able to do.
04:07A lot more energy when you're 19 and 20 years old.
04:10But for this team, having this non-conference game, college sports has changed, man.
04:16Like, fewer teams are playing these big non-conference games.
04:19How important was this for you and maybe for Virginia Tech to get this on the board?
04:24Because this is a big – now, granted, Blacksburg is five hours away.
04:28But there's a huge alumni base in the DMV.
04:30Like, this is a DMV game.
04:32Yeah, it really is.
04:33And, look, it was on the schedule, obviously, before I got here.
04:36And, you know, I think it was smart to schedule a game like this.
04:39You know, we need to schedule a good quality non-conference opponent every year.
04:46You're going to see the Big Ten do something more to really encourage that to happen as we go forward.
04:53So, I think you're going to see matchups with – you're always going to see one really good non-conference
04:57matchup going forward.
04:58I used to love – when I was in school, it was West Virginia every year.
05:01I thought that was a ton of fun.
05:03Playing Virginia Tech is awesome.
05:05Did I see – is UVA coming back on the schedule or is that basketball?
05:09I think it's basketball.
05:10Yeah, so, like, next year we have Baylor coming here.
05:12All right.
05:13Wow.
05:13So, it's a Big 12 team coming here.
05:15You know, that's another compelling game.
05:17So, I think we're always looking for that really compelling game.
05:20We're hoping to get a really good slot for that game that can maybe put us at, you know,
05:25in that early window to where people can really pay attention to Maryland and see the talent that we have.
05:31I think that's a little bit – people haven't seen all the talent we have.
05:35We've got some talent out there now.
05:37It's exciting.
05:38Speaking of talent, the quarterback.
05:39And then you start looking at all the national media and people that are going to be on campus for
05:44that game.
05:45Malik kind of pushes a lot of that, doesn't he?
05:48Definitely.
05:48Definitely.
05:49And then, you know, it's interesting.
05:50I watched – you know, you watch the press conferences for opponents that you've played
05:55and what they say about your team or who you're going to play.
05:58And I think that, you know, people have recognized this team has very much improved over last year
06:04and we've added a couple of pieces to the puzzle and so it's really exciting.
06:08Talking with Maryland Athletic Director Jim Smith here sitting at CQ Stadium
06:12ahead of tomorrow night's Terps-Hokies game.
06:15You can listen to the Hokies feed on 106.7 The Fan.
06:18That will start on 99.1, I believe, because there's a Nats game.
06:21Then it will be on The Fan after that.
06:23If you want to listen to Johnny Holiday and the Terps feed, that will be on the Team 980.
06:27So we got you covered all ways for Terps-Hokies.
06:30It's a shell-out.
06:31It is a shell-out.
06:32It's a shell-out.
06:32That's right.
06:33So our friend over there, his name is Maniac.
06:36And he earned that name.
06:38He's B's college teammate.
06:40And he's up from Louisiana for the weekend and he asked me, he pulled me over, you know
06:46the shell where the players run out of there?
06:47He said, is there a real live turtle in there?
06:51Is there any consideration to a live turtle?
06:54A huge one.
06:55Yeah.
06:56We may have to do a little homework on that one.
06:58I don't know.
06:59I mean, Colorado's got the buffalo.
07:01They got tigers.
07:03Yeah.
07:06It might take a while.
07:08For a 730 kick, you start that walk at noon.
07:10I'm a little worried how we're going to get them off.
07:13Before kicks.
07:14So we'll have to consider that.
07:16That's actually pretty good.
07:18Later in the program, we're going to be joined by Baba Olatudin, as well as Quincy Wilson.
07:22I mean, a gold medalist and a future lottery pick.
07:27Yeah.
07:27How good do you feel about not just where the football program's at with a huge game tomorrow
07:31night, but all your sports here at Maryland?
07:32Yeah, I think we made a statement earlier, maybe this time last year, about, hey, we need
07:38to keep the hometown kids home and make the investment to be able to do that.
07:44And I think, you know, Baba and Quincy, or Jordan, you know, we're making an effort of
07:51the DMV, you know, the elite DMV comes to Maryland.
07:55We're not going to get everyone, but we got to get our share every year.
07:59That was the big thing.
08:00Hey, are you guys going to be able to keep Malik?
08:01Yes, we're going to be able to keep Malik.
08:03We're going to work very hard to keep our top talent at home.
08:07And on top of it all, they're all great people.
08:12They're elite athletes, but they are great people.
08:15And I think you're going to experience a little bit of that here a little later this afternoon.
08:19Yeah, I'm excited by that.
08:20I'm curious if we could zoom out from College Park just to the overall college sports landscape.
08:26Like, tomorrow night, there's going to be a ton of eyeballs here, right?
08:29But the kind of center of the college football universe this weekend is Oxford, Mississippi.
08:33And you've got Ole Miss with Lane Kiffin coming to town from LSU.
08:37I'm sure you've seen everything that happened, court cases, injunctions, all of this.
08:41Where is college sports as an entity, and where is it going?
08:46Well, it's incredible.
08:47College sports is incredibly healthy.
08:48I mean, so there's a lot of drama and noise and all of that that is in it.
08:55But the actual enterprise itself, from a fan perspective and a ratings and an interest perspective, is incredibly healthy.
09:06Financially, we've got to work on that.
09:08That's a real challenge for every athletic director in the country.
09:11How do you put out really competitive teams in all your sports while also recognizing, hey, football is the one
09:21that drives everything else.
09:24Success in football gives you the opportunity to have success in every other sport because of what comes with it.
09:31But don't you think they've got to get something done with that transfer portal?
09:34There's a lot that has to be done.
09:35I think it needs to be a guarantee when you go to a school.
09:38You've got to be there for a certain amount of years.
09:39And that's part of the legislation that's being worked on right now where you get one transfer in your first
09:48four years.
09:49Or if you graduate in four years, then you can have a second transfer with very limited exceptions.
09:56And it's actually a good rule to build not just continuity on the field, but continuity with your alumni and
10:04fan base.
10:04That you know who you're going to have each year.
10:08And it also, and maybe most importantly in all, it gives these student-athletes the best chance to get the
10:14degree.
10:15If you're transferring every year, it is really hard to get a degree.
10:19Just credits carrying over and stuff, right?
10:22I mean, some schools don't accept them.
10:23Yeah, or like that doesn't count towards this major and all that kind of stuff.
10:27It makes it really hard all the way around.
10:29I understand a lot of people like the free agency piece of it.
10:32It gives the ultimate mobility.
10:33But it really runs counter to what we want to do, which is also educate in this process.
10:40While also developing young athletes to be the absolute best they possibly can be.
10:45My pops always told me, you're a student-athlete.
10:47Don't ever forget that student.
10:48That's right.
10:49Yeah.
10:49That's right.
10:50Jim, from your background working in professional sports, how similar now is being...
10:55Because you had never worked at college sports, right?
10:57Or am I wrong on that?
10:58No, I worked at Ohio State.
10:59I was in the athletic department at Ohio State.
11:00Oh, that's right.
11:01And I did a stint in Sam Houston State in Texas as well.
11:06How different is working in college sports from pro sports now?
11:10Yeah, so I hear people say college is now professional sports.
11:17It's quasi-professional.
11:20It's not quite that.
11:22These student-athletes have an unbelievable schedule balancing the competition
11:27and the academics.
11:28And the academic piece of this is still incredibly important.
11:33Yeah, it's interesting because I think you're right.
11:36We get so focused on Malik or Arch Manning or something.
11:41Even a school like Texas or Ohio State and the payrolls they may carry,
11:45the bottom 30, 40 guys on that roster, they're never going to the pros.
11:49And it still is about getting a degree, right?
11:52A hundred percent.
11:54And so now the opportunity has expanded a little bit past what your pops told you,
11:59which is, hey, you're a student first.
12:02And that still is the order.
12:05And for the majority of them, now they have an opportunity to actually earn
12:09while they're playing in college athletics.
12:11But they're earning a compensation while getting a degree because,
12:15to your point, JP, they're not all playing after they play in college.
12:20This gives you the great opportunity to earn something while getting that degree.
12:26There you go.
12:27Absolutely.
12:27You'll do a little nest egg.
12:29That's right.
12:29Totally.
12:30I mean, if you just save this while you're living in dorms
12:32and eating from the food hall or whatever,
12:37that is a real opportunity to bank some cash, I imagine.
12:40Very much so.
12:41Very much so.
12:43So we got the Los Terps hats.
12:45We appreciate you giving us these hats.
12:47Maryland Athletic Director Jim Smith joining us here.
12:50Tomorrow night is Hispanic Heritage Month.
12:51What are some of the festivities going to be?
12:54Yeah, so you'll see the branding throughout the game.
12:57You'll see it on the helmet.
12:59You'll feel it a little bit in the energy in the building and with the music.
13:04So you just have a little different vibe celebrating our Hispanic heritage culture
13:09here in the area.
13:09That should be fun.
13:10Yeah, I'm a lot of fun.
13:12You know me well enough.
13:13I'm going to sneak some hoops questions in here.
13:16How are we feeling about Buzz and the boys?
13:18It should be a very different year, right?
13:19Well, you're going to talk to Baba.
13:20So he's going to be able to give you the insights.
13:22And I think, look, the roster's solid.
13:26You know, we're going to be very, very competitive.
13:29I also say that the Big Ten is going to be incredibly competitive.
13:33So while we have dramatically improved over last year, other teams have as well, right?
13:39Every game's going to be – it's going to be a can't-miss game in the Big Ten every time.
13:44And then this year, you know, we're going to celebrate our 25th anniversary of winning a national championship.
13:50It's a special time that was.
13:52It'll be a great – I mean, we'll celebrate it all year, but we'll have one big game where we're
13:57going to be able to bring everybody back.
13:58Do I need to text Kirby now for a ticket?
14:00Yeah, you should.
14:01Okay.
14:01I'm going to need to be a tough one.
14:02The great part is hopefully every game is going to be a tough ticket, right?
14:06Yeah.
14:07And so – but that one will be a special time.
14:09Maybe I'll call Coach.
14:10Yeah, call Jeff.
14:10Yeah, call.
14:11Like, I'm going to call for, like, five tickets to bring the family, maybe when, like, Maryland Eastern Shore is
14:17coming on a Saturday afternoon or something.
14:19But the 25th celebration, I just won.
14:21Just won on that one.
14:22I'm going to take an Uber, and I only need one ticket.
14:25You're about to give a text and say, oh, no, I'm going with you.
14:28You know, and then we're also celebrating Brenda with 25 years this year.
14:32Crazy.
14:32I mean, she's really an incredible –
14:34Well, she's going into the Hall of Fame, right?
14:35Yeah, she's going in the Hall in October.
14:37It's going to be really a lot of fun, and she's got a really good squad as well.
14:42So, I mean, basketball is going to be a really good year, much different than last year.
14:48You know, it was – you know, I'm not going to lie.
14:50It was tough last year with both football and men's basketball being down.
14:55You're not lying.
14:56I'm just so excited.
14:57I'm so excited to still be here and be ready to go in the second year.
15:03I mean this sincerely.
15:04Your enthusiasm and your approach to the job and your approachability is so remarkable,
15:09and I think it's the perfect fit at the perfect time for this place.
15:12I mean that sincerely.
15:13Well, I appreciate that.
15:14And one of the best Instagrams in the game.
15:16Tell everybody your Instagram.
15:17Well, it's at Terps –
15:20Terps AD.
15:22Yeah, Jim Smith.
15:23Yeah.
15:23So, and I got a lot of – I have a lot of help with the Instagram, but, you know,
15:27it's – trust me, I have four kids, and they're all following me, so I hear about my Instagram.
15:33Trust me.
15:33So, it's got to be good.
15:35But, dude, how much are you on the road?
15:36Because from the Instagram, you are traveling every week.
15:40So, maybe we just do it better.
15:42I think every AD is on the road.
15:43This isn't – I don't – I think if you're going to do this job right, you've really got to
15:47be out there and be seeing people and being active.
15:52And, you know, we got two soccer games tonight, five and eight.
15:54You guys should just stay the whole day.
15:57I'm going to see Garth Brooks.
15:59Thanks for the invite, Jake.
16:01But I would have told you I couldn't go.
16:03See, if you're trying to get tickets, you need to start.
16:06Yeah, yeah, it's got to go both ways here.
16:07I might mention we're doing the show live at the stadium.
16:13But, dude –
16:14You got parking.
16:15I got parking for you.
16:17I did want to ask you this.
16:19As somebody who sees the big picture, has the NIL era been really good for the entire Big Ten?
16:27Because it seems like since a lot of things have shifted – I mean, the Big Ten's won the last
16:32– now, Maniac's not going to like this.
16:34The Big Ten's won the what?
16:35Last three natties in football.
16:37They won the natty last year in men's hoops.
16:39Like, of the big revenue-driving sports –
16:41Women's basketball.
16:42Women's basketball, certainly.
16:43But now, South Carolina's been a wagon down there.
16:45But, I don't know.
16:47Is the Big Ten well-positioned for the NIL era?
16:50Oh, I think so.
16:51And I think – look, I think everybody's getting better positioned.
16:55I mean, it's only going to get more competitive as we go forward.
16:59If we get some framework for some rules, it will become dramatically competitive.
17:05And I think that's a good thing.
17:06So, I don't know if there's an official position or the Big Ten has an official position.
17:11But the legislation that's working its way through, are we for that, against that, neutral?
17:15No, I think the four – all four power conferences have come out in support of the act.
17:20Yeah, okay.
17:20Gotcha.
17:21Like, it's not perfect.
17:22It doesn't work for everyone on every issue.
17:26But it's much better than the situation we're living in every day.
17:30Gotcha.
17:30Less unknowns.
17:31Yeah.
17:31That's right.
17:31You're better off operating where you know what the table is.
17:34There you go.
17:34That's right.
17:34You know what I mean?
17:35Last one, purely selfish here.
17:36How is the golf performance center build-out going?
17:40What is their timeline for that?
17:41Yeah.
17:41So, we're in the design phase now.
17:44So, from the time the design –
17:46B will be over there.
17:47It's from the time that we complete the design, it will probably be about 16 months before we're done.
17:54So, we're probably just under two years out from being completed.
17:58That's awesome.
17:58That's awesome.
17:59I love that course.
18:00And I think you put a good performance center there.
18:04I'm there a lot.
18:04Yeah.
18:05B's there.
18:05B will be on those Sims.
18:09Jim, thank you so much for the time.
18:10JP, always great to see you.
18:12Appreciate you very much.
18:13Maryland Athletic Director Jim Smith.
18:16Give him a follow on Instagram at TerpsADJimSmith.
18:19One of the best grams in the game.
18:20I'm not lying to you.
18:21Thank you, Uncle Jim.
18:22Appreciate you.
18:22Appreciate it.
18:23All right.
18:23We're talking Commanders-Cowboys when we return.
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