On the morning of November 4, 2015, I figured that my life would make quite the drastic change. I decided to do something crazy and launch a radio show on my own dime. It was a huge financial risk, but an opportunity to be on the DFW airwaves seemed too good to pass up. So before I left for work, I signed, scanned, and emailed the final documents to make the entire thing official.
As soon as I reached my office door, I was greeted with a handshake from my manager whom had just packed up his things and was being escorted out in a layoff.
It hadn’t even been an hour since I put my signature on that piece of paper. Now, I sat at my desk, terrified that I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. I just made a huge financial commitment for at least six months and I was worried that I would have to text my newly pregnant wife that I would be jobless. Thankfully, I was not one of the employees that had to walk out of the door, but ever since that fateful November day, life has been a constant whirlwind of change and I know that change in my life is far from done.
I’m still with the same company, but my job with them will change. To what, I have no idea. Baby Tex will be in the world by then and my daily routine will mostly involve me learning how to be a functional zombie. Even sooner than that, next Friday to be exact, I will say farewell to studio at KVCE and bring the show to a 100% home-produced podcast format.
I could have never predicted that a Tuesday morning in November would send ripples through my life that I would still feel today.
I have to imagine that just about everyone involved in major college football feels like I did at my desk that day. The future is anything but certain and the climate has already changed. It’s clear that student-athletes in major revenue sports will see some sort of increased compensation whether it ends up being additional stipends or cost of attendance. With the O’Bannon case, student-athletes will could also be allowed to make money of their image and likeness, something Jack Swarbrick has come out in support of. However, the term student-athlete might not even work in this current climate depending on a decision from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as student-athlete could become employee and teams could become unions.
And that’s a whole other can of worms that moves beyond compensation. Swarbrick said Notre Dame will want no part of that and Northwestern has made a similar statement as well. And while ADs aren’t coming out of the woodwork to join that opinion, I feel that the safe bet would be on quite a good number of schools banding together to explore a new athletic model in such a brave new world.
Combine this with the explosion of TV revenue, especially among the Power Five, and the whole thing feels like one giant bubble that’s about to burst. Something has to give, whether the NCAA and/or all its members institutions make some major reforms or a gigantic court ruling forces their hand.
Either way, I know for sure that there will be one thing that will not change and that is that I will forever be obsessed with Notre Dame football and the college game as a whole no matter what form it may eventually take. Football will still be football and my alma mater will still be taking the field.
And, hopefully, whatever the future may hold, we can still look out on the field of Notre Dame Stadium with the knowledge that Michigan still hasn’t scored.
The Roundup
Speaking of conferences and the crazy money going around, this is a fascinating read at how the Pac-12 does it different than everyone else, considering they still own their own network. There’s some comparison with other conference revenues as well in there. Spoiler alert: it’s a ton of cash.
BREAKING: Coach of #1 seeded team in playoff thought everything was about him. Nick Saban ignored the sky-rocketing TV numbers and thought people only cared about the playoffs during the bowl season. Jeff Long decided to put him in his place saying that “I’m not sure how aware [coaches like Saban] are of what’s really going on out there in the real world” much to my amusement.
ALSO BREAKING: Playoff committee member confirms what we already knew. The Big XII doing their “co-champion” ridiculousness cost them a playoff spot. Duh?
I always love reading about other fanbases losing their minds about traditions. It’s too easy for us to get in our own outrage bubbles, but Syracuse reminded us that all college fans are crazy this week.
My love of the WWE and college football collide again. A Northwestern player has decided to call it quits to go chase a WWE dream. The full story is much more complex, touching on things like mental health, and is certainly worth your time.
And now your moment of Nix… “Go over to the baseball field and turn that shit off” – Butch Jones commenting on “Sweet Home Alabama”
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The Booze
Every now and then my wife surprises me with a six pack of beer she thinks I’ll like when she’s at the grocery store. This time around, the delivery was Sam Adam’s Porch Rocker which is a hell of a lot like a Summer Shandy but a lot less sugary. It toes the line between “tastes too much like lemonade” and “actually tastes like a beer” fairly well. And considering that, as a child of the South, I grew up drinking lemonade like it was water during the summer months, I suppose my palate was made for such a beverage.
Texan by birth, Irish by choice.
First-generation Domer and a former student manager, HLS podcast host, HLS Sim creator, Extra Life streamer, and technical problem haver. You can find more non-Notre Dame related writing on his Patreon.
- Epilogue - January 3, 2022
- HLS Podcast Finale - January 2, 2022
- The Final Fiesta: Notre Dame vs Oklahoma State NCAA ’14 Sim - December 31, 2021
Good luck Tex! Keep up the great work!