The following article was adapted from a “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1arnooNZK8">Morning Wire</a>” interview with “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company">Crain &amp; Company</a>” host David Cone that was released on Wednesday, June 11. 
A new era has dawned in the world of college sports. Something that was illegal just a week ago – schools paying players – is now the law of the land. 
Last week, a settlement was <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2025/06/07/ncaa-revenue-sharing-settlement-questions/83221673007/">approved</a> in the case, House vs. NCAA, a class-action lawsuit that claimed the NCAA was illegally limiting the earning potential of college athletes. This agreement ends three separate antitrust lawsuits, and it means schools can now begin paying their athletes directly. 
Outkick’s Trey Wallace joined us over at “Crain &amp; Company” earlier this week to lay out how he believes this decision will affect college athletics going forward. Wallace said the settlement will eventually lead to some schools cutting certain sports.
“I hate to say it,” Wallace told us. “But you’re gonna see cuts in track and field, rowing, volleyball, mid-major softball programs. You can’t afford them anymore. You&#8217;re relying on football to pay the bills.” 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="What the House v. NCAA Settlement Means for College Sports w/ Outkick’s Trey Wallace" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mBdaSIRX7dM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
With this settlement comes an annual cap, much like a salary cap in professional sports, and it is expected to start at roughly $20.5 million per school in 2025-26. It will then increase every year during the decade-long deal. These new payments are in addition to scholarships and other benefits the athletes already receive.
The first checks will be cut on July 1, so schools and conferences need to act quickly and establish the necessary infrastructure to enforce their new rules. And this doesn’t just affect current and future athletes; the NCAA will also pay nearly $2.8 billion in back damages over the next 10 years to athletes who competed in college at any time from 2016 through the present day.
In short, this is a shift from name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals student athletes made with companies and collectives to direct pay from the schools. So the cases of O’Bannon vs. NCAA and Alston vs. NCAA paved the way for college athletes to receive NIL money, but those payments were coming from third parties rather than from the athletic programs themselves. This settlement allows schools to share their revenue directly with athletes for the first time, and it also enables programs to create new rules designed to limit the influence of boosters and collectives. Starting this summer, any endorsement deal between a booster and an athlete will be vetted to ensure it’s for a &#8220;valid business purpose&#8221; rather than a recruiting incentive.
Now, what will be interesting to monitor is how each athletic director allocates that $20.5 million between their various sports, as Wallace hinted at in his interview with us. Another thing to watch for is how each program will continue to incorporate NIL deals on top of the revenue-sharing payments.
This development still won’t end the debates regarding how long athletes can compete at the college level, and whether or not they should be considered employees who are represented by a union for the purposes of collective bargaining. 
However, NCAA president Charlie Baker does believe this will help regulate what has been a very volatile market in college sports. In an <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/news/2025/6/6/media-center-a-letter-from-ncaa-president-charlie-baker.aspx">open letter</a> posted last Friday, Baker stated, “This is new terrain for everyone. Given the defendant conferences&#8217; new ownership of complicated pieces of rulemaking and enforcement, there will be a transition period and certainly bumps in the road. Opportunities to drive transformative change don&#8217;t come often to organizations like ours. It&#8217;s important we make the most of this one. We have accomplished a lot over the last several months, from new health and wellness and academic requirements to a stronger financial footing. Together, we can use this new beginning to launch college sports into the future, too.”

NCAA

A Landmark Settlement Rings In A New Era Of College Sports. Will The Tradition We Love Survive?

College basketball

College Football

College sports

Crain and Company

Morning Wire

For the past week, Americans have been glued to an ongoing social media exchange between Olympic legend Simone Biles and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines.
The confrontation began when Gaines shared a photo of a Minnesota high school girls&#8217; softball championship team whose star player was reportedly a boy, prompting Biles to attack Gaines on social media, calling her &#8220;truly sick&#8221; and a &#8220;sore loser&#8221; who was campaigning against transgender athletes simply because she had lost a race.
Gaines fired back, “If Simone’s inclusive dream came true, she would have zero Olympic medals and no one would even know who she is.”
The thread rocketed across timelines, not only because it was fiery, but because it issued a referendum on manhood. It asked every male coach, father, and teammate: Are you strong enough to sit this one out so women can compete, or will you weaponize your strength to win medals never meant for you?
In a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-left-hijacked-masculinity-and-why-thats-bad-for-society?author=Gates+Garcia&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=How+The+Left+Hijacked+Masculinity+%E2%80%94+And+Why+That%E2%80%99s+Bad+For+Society" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent piece</a> for The Daily Wire, I wrote about the left’s slow, hostile co-opting of the word “masculinity.” But it’s not enough to identify what went wrong. In order to help save American men — and American society — we need to ask ourselves: what should men get right?
The Biles-Gaines saga gives us an opportunity to answer that question.
Riley Gaines has fought valiantly to keep men out of women’s sports, as have many other brave female athletes. But this saga should cause all American men to ask themselves: Where were the men in this situation? Where were the fathers telling their sons, “However you identify, you may not line up in the girls’ starting blocks,” or telling their daughters, “If anyone tries to silence your voice, Dad’s voice will echo louder”?
Perhaps the men were on the sidelines because for years, feminists and the left have told them that being aggressive in defense of what was right was “toxic.” Maybe they were worried that speaking out would make them seem dangerous — one of the worst things they can do.
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be a man. True masculinity is a form of strength that heals instead of harms — dangerous on purpose, but disciplined by love.
Healthy masculinity begins with a posture, not a press release — a posture that leans into risk so others can rest easy. Walk into any volunteer fire station at 3:00 a.m. and you’ll find fathers who left warm beds to chase a propane smell no one else noticed, just in case. They aren’t reckless —  they’re responsible. They understand what G.K. Chesterton meant when he <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/94304-the-true-soldier-fights-not-because-he-hates-what-is" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”
Translation: Real manhood is the antidote to cultural decay, not its cause. Or, as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Crain &amp; Co. </a>co-host David Cone said recently on my podcast, <a href="https://wethepeoplemedia.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">We The People</a>, “Toxic masculinity is a contradiction of terms. You can’t have the modifier of a word be the antithesis of the word.”
True masculinity can never be toxic, because it’s covenantal: it binds itself to duties no government can assign and no ideology can erase. Scripture sketches the outline — husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church — and history fills in the colors, from St. Joseph guiding Mary into exile to Sgt. William Carney grabbing the colors at Fort Wagner and refusing to let them fall. Chesterton called it “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Chesterton-Romance-Orthodoxy-Making-1874-1908/dp/0199582017" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Romance of Orthodoxy</a>” — the adventure of guarding what is good. That romance includes a listening ear. As psychologist Jordan Peterson notes, “a harmless man is not a good man. A good man is a very, very dangerous man who has that under voluntary control.”
So, how do we ensure that men understand and inhabit this balance? We start at home.
A 2024 <a href="https://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40359-024-02182-x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meta-analysis in BMC Psychology</a> found that children with engaged fathers show higher emotional resilience and academic grit. Yet engagement means more than hugs. It means clearly explaining to children the difference between right and wrong, and raising them to do what’s right. And of course, it means boldly, unapologetically modeling what choosing the right looks like.
When dads speak with that mix of empathy and iron, cultural confusion suddenly looks more like noise than destiny.
Sons who see their dads get up to feed a baby brother or sister so mom can sleep will grow up to be teenagers who step between a bully and a fellow classmate, and then men who shovel their widowed neighbor’s driveway without boasting about it on Instagram. Or perhaps even men who fight to protect women&#8217;s sports.
Nothing can replace fathers, but they’re not the only ones who can inculcate real masculinity in young men. A high school athletic director can set policy that preserves female divisions without waiting on Congress. A pastor can preach Ephesians 5 (“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church…) and then host a father-daughter self-defense night in the fellowship hall. Each act is a brick in a wall that tells our daughters, you’re safe here.
Notice what’s missing from that blueprint: self-flagellation. True masculinity doesn’t apologize for being strong; it apologizes for being selfish. It’s the difference between a freight train hauling relief supplies through the night and one that plows through a residential crossing because the engineer craves a thrill. Conservatives should celebrate the power while condemning the derailment. The Centre for Male Psychology calls this “<a href="https://www.centreformalepsychology.com/male-psychology-magazine-listings/the-provider-role-indicates-that-masculinity-is-prosocial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pro-social masculinity</a>,” but your grandpa called it being a gentleman.
The same culture that coined “toxic masculinity” is starving for the genuine article. Simone Biles has earned her medals, and Riley Gaines has earned her scars. Now the question is, will American men earn back their reputation as protectors?
If they do — if we do — the next generation of daughters won’t need to tweet for fairness. They’ll be too busy celebrating it on a podium their fathers kept level.
Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast &#8220;We The People.&#8221; Follow him on IG and X @GatesGarciaFL
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Simone Biles, Riley Gaines

What The Riley Gaines-Simone Biles Skirmish Reveals About The Crisis Of Masculinity

Fathers

Masculinity

Riley Gaines

Simone Biles

Women Sports

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance celebrated the 2025 national football championship with the Ohio State Buckeyes on Monday, congratulating the team on taking home the trophy in the first-ever 12-team playoff format. 
Ohio State won the National Championship on January 20, the same day Trump was sworn in for his second term.
“It turns out January 20 was a big day for all of us,” Trump said.
“This was a historic year in college football,” he added. “Standing together today, these men are the first college football players in history who can proudly call themselves 12-team playoff champions. … That’s not easy.”
The president praised the Buckeyes for pushing on through adversity during the season, including overcoming two losses — one to Oregon and another to “that team up north.” After getting upset by Michigan on November 30, Ohio State rallied, beating Tennessee, Oregon, Texas, and Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff.
Trump was flanked by Ohio State head coach Ryan Day and star players TreVeyon Henderson, Emeka Egbuka, Jeremiah Smith, Jack Sawyer, and Will Howard — all of whom were praised by the president for their performances during the playoff.
Vance, an Ohio State grad, also addressed the team and said he asked Trump if he could skip the last Inaugural Ball to attend the National Championship game.
“The president said no, but we’ll have them at the White House,” Vance added.
Vance then pointed out a man in a Michigan hat in the crowd, saying, “I don’t know who let the guy over there in the corner in the Michigan hat into this celebration. I’m about to tell the Secret Service you’ve got a dangerous weapon, sir.”
Hosts Jake Crain, Blain Crain, and David Cone of The Daily Wire’s sports podcast “Crain &amp; Company” were in attendance at the White House for the ceremony and thanked the president for keeping men out of women&#8217;s sports.
&#8220;That was an easy one,&#8221; Trump replied.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Thank you for keeping your word, Mr. President, and protecting women’s sports by keeping men out. <a href="https://t.co/IkHWwMk9qf">pic.twitter.com/IkHWwMk9qf</a>
&mdash; Blain Crain (@Blain_Crain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Blain_Crain/status/1911877181547950591?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Jake Crain <a href="https://x.com/JakeCrain_/status/1911823682881618220" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quipped</a> on X, &#8220;We are at The White House to pitch &#8216;DOSE.&#8217; Department of sports efficiency. Unveiling our platform soon.&#8221;
Cone, a former University of Michigan quarterback, wore a blue suit and his Wolverines ring during the celebration of his biggest rival.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I’m at the White House but…
…I have to sit through the Buckeyes championship celebration. 
Every rose has its thorn, as they say. <a href="https://t.co/qu8nuKcaH7">pic.twitter.com/qu8nuKcaH7</a>
&mdash; David Cone (@davidadamcone) <a href="https://twitter.com/davidadamcone/status/1911846277567959116?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In a post on X, Cone also gave a shoutout to Trump for “bringing up the Michigan game.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Shoutout to President Trump for bringing up the Michigan game. It’s only right. <a href="https://t.co/MPNcJfVQer">pic.twitter.com/MPNcJfVQer</a>
&mdash; David Cone (@davidadamcone) <a href="https://twitter.com/davidadamcone/status/1911865988171055352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

President Trump/Ohio State Football

Trump, Vance Celebrate Ohio State’s 2025 National Championship At The White House

Donald Trump

Executive

JD Vance

Ohio State University

Sports

U.S.

White House

Former University of Michigan defensive analyst Connor Stalions, one of the most controversial figures in college football in recent years, sat down with “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ccs-ep-732-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Crain &amp; Company</a>” for an in-depth interview on the program’s sign-stealing scandal.
An NCAA investigation into Michigan and its former head coach, Jim Harbaugh, allegedly centers on claims that Stalions sent scouts to future opponents’ games to record their play-calling signals. The Big Ten Conference suspended Harbaugh for three games during the 2023 season over the scandal, and Stalions stepped down from his position after he was also suspended. The NCAA has not revealed any information about how Stalions allegedly violated NCAA rules.
During his interview with the hosts of “Crain &amp; Company” released on Tuesday, Stalions gave viewers a glimpse into how he cracked his opponents&#8217; signals on the field, including those of Michigan’s biggest rival, Ohio State. While on offense, teams usually task their backup quarterbacks and graduate assistants with calling in plays by hand motions from the sideline. For most teams, a “live” signaler is calling the actual plays while two or three “dummy” signalers bluff to prevent the opponents from easily deciphering the call.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ccs-ep-732-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH THE FULL CONNOR STALIONS INTERVIEW HERE</a>
Stalions revealed that during the Michigan-Ohio State game in 2022, he quickly deciphered the Buckeyes’ live signaler.
“Ohio State didn&#8217;t change their live signaler in 2022 all season. The whole year,” he said.
“Including the game against Michigan?” asked a stunned David Cone, former Michigan quarterback and co-host of &#8220;Crain and Company.&#8221;
Stalions said that he and fellow staff member Denard Robinson quickly realized that Ohio State didn’t switch out their live signaler for the big game.
“You can call anyone from any Big Ten team when you trade signals during the week, and they all say the same thing: ‘Yeah, it&#8217;s the same guy,’” Stalions added. “Now, when you watch any game on TV, you can see &#8230; you can tell the whole time who&#8217;s live.”
Asked by host Jake Crain if Ohio State kept the same live signaler all season “out of arrogance or incompetence,” Stalions replied, “It might be a little bit of both. I don&#8217;t know.” The former Michigan staffer then said that he correctly predicted that Ohio State would swap out their live signaler for the second half.
“I said, ‘Hey, if there&#8217;s any time all year they&#8217;re going to change, it’s going to be this first drive or the second drive. And sure enough, I said, ‘If they’re going to change, it’s going to be that guy, the tall [graduate assistant] or whatever, and sure enough they switched,” he said.
Michigan went on to win that game 45–23, holding Ohio State to just three points in the second half.
“They changed their like route concepts going into that game,” Stalions said of Ohio State. “I don&#8217;t care what your route concepts are, right? If I can tell you&#8217;re going to run the ball or pass the ball … all I care about is the formation.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="How Michigan Cracked Ohio State’s Signals – The Untold Story with Connor Stalions | Crain &amp; Company" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-nRZX_Pt0MQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Michigan won the national championship in 2024, capping off a perfect season. Between 2021 and 2023, Michigan had one of its best stretches in program history. The team posted a 40-3 record, winning three straight Big Ten championships and making three straight College Football Playoff appearances. After Stalions left the Michigan staff in the middle of the 2023 season, he went on to coach Belleville High School in Michigan as an offensive coordinator, helping the team win a state championship in 2024. At Belleville, Stalions also coached the number-one recruit in the country, quarterback Bryce Underwood, who switched his commitment from LSU to Michigan last year.
Some argue that the sign-stealing scandal surrounding Michigan should result in the program&#8217;s wins from the past few seasons and its 2024 national championship being vacated. Stalions, who joined the Michigan staff as a volunteer assistant in 2018, has maintained that sign stealing isn&#8217;t unusual in college football programs and doesn&#8217;t violate NCAA rules.

Connor Stalions Crain and Co.

Former UM Staffer Talks Sign Stealing Controversy, Reveals How He Cracked Biggest Rival’s Strategy

Media

The Daily Wire

University of Michigan

West Virginia Republican Governor Patrick Morrisey wants more “objective criteria” to determine which college basketball teams secure a bid to the NCAA basketball tournament.
Morrisey appeared on Daily Wire’s sports podcast Crain and Company on Tuesday after the West Virginia Mountaineers (19-13), a team on the bubble, did not make the bracket. The team finished 10-10 in Big 12 Conference matchups.
“That was outrageous for a lot of reasons. And that&#8217;s why it&#8217;s important that we step up and get to the bottom of things, because I don&#8217;t think we should have this kind of travesty, this kind of robbery, ever occur in the future,” Morrisey said. The governor has called for an investigation into the tournament selection process.
Critics have blasted the NCAA tournament selection committee for including the North Carolina Tar Heels (23-13) in the bracket over the Mountaineers. The Mountaineers had a more impressive resume when the strength of their schedule was taken into account. WVU had six Quad 1 wins, the most impressive wins as measured by the NCAA, and no losses below Quad 2. UNC, on the other hand, went 1-12 in Quad 1 matchups and a Quad 3 loss, which means a loss to a relatively weak team.
In early December, WVU star Tucker DeVries, the son of WVU’s head coach, Darian DeVries, sustained a season-ending injury. That was the primary reason WVU did not make it into the tournament, according to Bubba Cunningham, the NCAA tournament selection committee chairman. Cunningham also serves as North Carolina&#8217;s athletic director.
Even with DeVries out, experts expected the Mountaineers to receive a tournament invite.
“Everyone had WVU safely in the bracket. One hundred eleven out of 111 bracketologists – these are these people that do this for a living, they come up with these formulas – universally say WVU is in,” Morrisey said. “By the way, UNC, 27 of the 111 bracketologists say that.”
Cunningham’s dual roles as chairman of the selection committee and athletic director for UNC have incited allegations that the WVU snub may be about more than incompetency or favoritism. Cunningham said he was not in the room when the decision on UNC was made and asserted that &#8220;all the policies and procedures were followed.&#8221;
In a press conference earlier this week, Morrisey raged against the NCAA from behind a podium with a sign that read “National Corrupt Athletic Association.”
“You have an athletic director walk out the door at the supposed just right time, and then their team gets secured as the last team in, and, meanwhile WVU is the last team out,” Morrisey said. “So, I want sunlight, I want disinfectant. That&#8217;s what this is all about. Let’s fix it for the future.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="March Madness TAMPERING?! West Virginia Governor Explains His Investigation | Crain &amp; Company" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JDFrujL4RYA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Patrick Morrisey

West Virginia GOP Governor Wants NCAA Tourney Overhauled After WVU Snub

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey Wants NCAA Tourney Overhauled After WVU Snub

General

March Madness

West Virginia

Adapted from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/deion-sanders-vs-ex-players-here-s-the-truth-guest-brad-crawford-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Crain &amp; Co.,”</a> May 1, 2024.
Deion Sanders is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/coach-prime-catches-heat-again-over-the-transfer-portal">catching heat once again</a> because he told Xavier Smith, one of his now-former players, he needed to transfer during the off season. Smith didn&#8217;t transfer and then said Prime never gave him a chance during the spring.
It’s time we get something straight. I haven&#8217;t heard anyone else discuss this, but it needs to be said: College football isn&#8217;t a daycare. 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nick-saban-on-college-footballs-monumental-changes-coaches-have-lost-leverage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">College football</a> is a very competitive and lucrative business. If a coach gives you a heads up that your best next action step is to transfer and you don’t, that’s on you. You don’t have a right to reps. Reps are earned.
<div id="attachment_731559" style="width: 419px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-731559" class="size-full wp-image-731559" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/05/4SANDERS-unnamed.png" alt="Screenshot. Twitter/X." width="409" height="512" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/05/4SANDERS-unnamed.png 409w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/05/4SANDERS-unnamed-240x300.png 240w" sizes="(max-width: 409px) 100vw, 409px" />Screenshot. Twitter/X.</div>
Players wanted in the business, and they got their wish. In fact, players are getting even more than they asked for, and they (and young people in general) need to learn there are two sides to being in the business.
You don&#8217;t always get your way, Marie Antoinette. You can&#8217;t have your cake and eat it too. Life isn&#8217;t fair. You can&#8217;t cry about wanting in the business, then cry because you don&#8217;t like the negative side of it. You can get paid to play now, even on top of a full ride scholarship. Not only that, if you are getting paid, you’re getting paid as an 18-year-old, so you&#8217;re open to criticism. If you don&#8217;t perform well, that&#8217;s the way the world works.
If the high schooler who runs the cash register at the Chick-fil-A gets told they aren&#8217;t doing a good job, then the 18-year-old wide receiver who&#8217;s getting paid should be open to the exact same criticism. That&#8217;s life.
And to be honest, it&#8217;s a pretty damn good life lesson for some of these young people. If your boss says you&#8217;re not going to get any hours due to poor performance, you should probably go find another job. It happens in every other walk of life because that’s the real world.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/deion-sanders-vs-ex-players-here-s-the-truth-guest-brad-crawford-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: Crain &amp; Company on DailyWire+</a></h4>
It&#8217;s amazing that the 18-year-olds who stormed the beaches of Normandy during World War II didn&#8217;t complain nearly as much as this soft generation of individuals we have today. Child actors get their performances graded — and graded pretty harshly. I don&#8217;t see them moaning or complaining as much as some of these players today.
We have to stop treating people who are entering adulthood and getting financially rewarded like little babies. It&#8217;s not good for them or society.
Now, some would make the argument that not every player is getting paid, to which I would counter and say, that is the cost of your peers wanting in the business. Nobody is forcing you to play. If you don&#8217;t like it, then leave.
That doesn&#8217;t mean anyone needs to be a jerk or criticize just for the fun of it. But acting like these 18-year-old and older players are beyond critique while getting paid is a practice in futility. It&#8217;s one of the reasons so many young adults have a warped view of the world; they never get told no, and they never get told they didn&#8217;t do a good job.
Most coaches are going to defend their players at all costs — because they have to. They are with them every day, and that’s smart. But the best thing you can do for a young person is to tell them the truth. Do I always approve of the way Deion Sanders goes about it? Sometimes I don&#8217;t, but he isn&#8217;t wrong. Maybe if more people took those same steps, we wouldn&#8217;t have the situations we see today all over college campuses.
So, you wanted in the business, and now, you&#8217;re in it. If you can&#8217;t handle <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/coach-prime-catches-heat-again-over-the-transfer-portal">the heat</a>, then get out of the kitchen. As one of my favorite coaches used to say, “Go ahead and quit. I&#8217;m sure your mom will still love you.”
* * *
Jake Crain is co-host of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Crain &amp; Company.”</a> the Daily Wire’s sports show hosted by former athletes and coaches: Jake Crain, Blain Crain, and David Cone. Follow him on Twitter @JakeCrain_
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Colorado v Utah

College Football Isn’t A Daycare

College Football Isn't A Daycare

Colorado

Deion Sanders

Readers Pass

Adapted from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/the-masters-2024-preview-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Crain &amp; Co.,”</a> April 11, 2024. 
Jake: The 2024 Masters begins today. Love him or hate him, Tiger Woods is the most impactful player to his sport in my lifetime — and possibly ever. There&#8217;s a good argument there. And if this weekend is his last go around at the Masters, and regardless of how well he plays or if he makes the cut, I am just thankful I got to be around to watch his rise, his fall, and his rise again.
Never before have I seen one man make a whole sport cool around the globe. He completely changed the way the game is played. He played the villain and the hero, made incredibly clutch shots in huge moments, and overcame adversity time and time again.
Growing up in our house, I loved watching Tiger and my father loved rooting against him because of his “on the course antics.” He was a little bit different in the way that he handled himself. But it didn’t matter how you felt about Tiger Woods: You were going to watch him. And that&#8217;s the most important thing. We saw him make grown men melt in front of our eyes, and he took over the sporting world over and over.
Has Tiger made some questionable choices in his past? Without a doubt. But that is all part of what&#8217;s been the Tiger Woods Experience. And unfortunately, we will never see someone do what he has done in the game of golf again, or maybe any other sport. But in golf, they don&#8217;t have to be concerned because Tiger&#8217;s already elevated the sport so much, from one poll to the other, that golf is here to stay in the forefront for the long haul.
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In the discussion of the most impactful player to their sport, no other player’s impact on the game of golf compares to Tiger’s and the way he elevated the sport in every aspect. (I emphasize player because the most impactful person to their sport is the person who invented it because without that, none of this would even be possible.) But is there anybody that&#8217;s been more impactful than Tiger?
David: Well, no. Now, he may not be the greatest athlete of all time. For example, Wayne Gretzky, who we mentioned earlier this week, is just head and shoulders above everyone who has ever played hockey. But if you&#8217;re going to use the word “impactful,” then it would have to be Tiger Woods.
It just so happens that when Tiger was coming around and dominating, we were of the age we were interested and able to see his career unfold. That&#8217;s always going to be a part of our upbringing. But to prove his impact, you can look at the data when it comes to the sport. And I think he&#8217;s one of the first billionaire athletes as well, certainly the first billionaire golfer.
We should be thankful that he&#8217;s going to be competing in this Masters. I don&#8217;t know how well he will do, and I don&#8217;t know if he&#8217;ll make the cut — though his odds did improve overnight. They were +12,000 Wednesday and +10,000 today (Thursday). But it was just February 2021 when Tiger got in his car accident and people wondered if he would ever even walk again. And now, he&#8217;s going to be walking the greens at Augusta National this week. So for that, we should be thankful.
Jake: Blaine, is Tiger going to win? Is he going to make the cut?
Blaine: When it comes to the Masters, you just want to be close. You want to be in shooting range on Sunday where you can make a run. And I don&#8217;t think people realize how dominant Tiger was during his run. Looking at stats, for Scottie Scheffler to catch Tiger&#8217;s total weeks spent at number one, he would need to be at the top every week for 12 years and three days.
Jake: Well, enjoy your pimento cheese sandwiches, fathers and sons, and let&#8217;s see if Tiger can go on the prowl once again in Augusta.
* * *
Jake Crain is co-host of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/%22https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company/%22">Crain &amp; Company,</a> the Daily Wire’s sports show hosted by former athletes and coaches Jake Crain, Blain Crain, and David Cone. Follow him: @JakeCrain_
Blain Crain is co-host of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/%22https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company/%22">Crain &amp; Company</a> at The Daily Wire and a former wide receiver for Western Colorado University. Follow Blain: @Blain_Crain
David Cone is a co-host and producer of the Daily Wire’s sports show <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/%22https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company/%22">Crain &amp; Company</a>, as well as a contributor to Morning Wire. David is also a former quarterback for the University of Michigan. Follow him: @davidadamcone

The Masters – Preview Day Three

The 2024 Masters Begins: Will Tiger Woods Go On The Prowl At Augusta?

Golf

The Masters

Tiger Woods

Adapted from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/stop-changing-football-rules">“Crain &amp; Co.,”</a> March 27, 2024.
NFL owners have approved new kickoff rules. We all know football is America&#8217;s most popular sport right now, and a lot would have to happen in a short time for people to just completely stop watching. In college football, we have seen monumental shifts with NIL and the transfer portal, but people still watch in droves and it&#8217;s only getting more popular. We have seen the NFL add games, change their playoff structure, move teams — and people are still nuts about it.
But if there are any existential threats to football&#8217;s overall popularity, I believe they include these two things. The first is taking political stances or denouncing patriotism. The only thing people are more passionate about than their football team is their love for their country or their political affiliation. We see it all the time. We saw it with the Colin Kaepernick situation, taking knees during the national anthem. This kind of showed a little bit of a chink in the overall armor of football, and there are people who are still just now coming back to the game because of it.
<div id="attachment_715279" style="width: 825px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-715279" class="size-large wp-image-715279" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1448392800-815x576.jpg" alt="ARLINGTON, TEXAS - DECEMBER 04: Isaiah Rodgers #34 of the Indianapolis Colts runs the ball on a kickoff return against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&amp;T Stadium on December 04, 2022 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)" width="815" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1448392800-815x576.jpg 815w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1448392800-300x212.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1448392800-768x543.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1448392800.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 815px) 100vw, 815px" />Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images</div>
The second existential threat is changing the rules of the game so much that the game becomes unrecognizable. Football is a gladiator sport, and to be honest, we love it because of the brutality and the physicality. It&#8217;s our strongest and fastest men running into each other at full speed. The more we try to control the brutality of the collisions, the more we sacrifice the overall essence of why we&#8217;re attracted to the game.
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Presently, we are seeing those changes with the new rules on how to tackle someone. You can&#8217;t really hit them anywhere, and now, you can&#8217;t tackle them from the side or behind because you&#8217;ll get accused of a hit drop tackle. If you even whisper at a quarterback or blink at them twice before a Friday, they send you straight to Guantanamo Bay now. And yesterday, they just announced a total overhaul to kickoffs.
Now I understand trying to be safer, and there are ways with equipment to mitigate some risk. But we don&#8217;t need to sacrifice the physicality of the game for safety. When these guys sign up to play, they know what risks come along with it. It&#8217;s one of the reasons they get paid so well. We pay people more to do dangerous jobs. Just ask underwater welders or astronauts, who we really just strap to a bomb and shoot to a place we don&#8217;t know where anything is.
Again, I&#8217;m not saying we should not adjust as new equipment comes along where we can lessen the blow to people&#8217;s heads when they get hit hard. But with the new kickoff rule — and all the new rules being created — we are trying to mitigate every single risk. In doing so, we are going to shelter ourselves out of the sport. I really believe that&#8217;s one of the two biggest threats of a nuclear destruction.
Now, these are the only two things that, in my opinion, can bring down what is far and away America&#8217;s present time. And I hope we don&#8217;t totally destroy our game in the name of “saving it.”
* * *
Jake Crain is co-host of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Crain &amp; Company.”</a> the Daily Wire’s sports show hosted by former athletes and coaches: Jake Crain, Blain Crain, and David Cone. Follow him on Twitter @JakeCrain_
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Super Bowl LVIII – San Francisco 49ers v Kansas City Chiefs

New NFL Kickoff Rules: Destroying The Game Of Football In The Name Of ‘Saving It’

New NFL Kickoff Rules: Destroying The Game Of Football In The Name Of 'Saving It'

Football

Opinion

Referees

Adapted from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/nick-saban-s-candid-thoughts-on-alabama-players-chris-marler" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Crain &amp; Co.,”</a> March 7, 2024. 
Jake Crain: ESPN’s Chris Low <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/39623503/how-alabama-moved-nick-saban-kalen-deboer-49-hours" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published a profile</a> on Nick Saban just yesterday, and in it, Saban basically said the quiet part out loud. The truth is, with the way college football is structured right now, after all these monumental changes, coaches have lost a lot of leverage. And when you lose leverage, you lose a lot of control — control over being able to know who&#8217;s coming back consistently, control over being able to construct a depth chart due strictly to who practices better and who has earned it. You lose a lot of your ability to cultivate long lasting program culture, which takes the result even further out of your hands.
In the interview, Nick Saban said, “So I&#8217;m saying to myself, ‘Maybe this doesn&#8217;t work anymore, that the goals and aspirations are just different and that it’s all about how much money can I make as a college player?’ Now, I&#8217;m not saying that&#8217;s bad. I&#8217;m not saying it&#8217;s wrong. I&#8217;m just saying that&#8217;s never been what we&#8217;re all about, and it&#8217;s not why we had success through the years.”
I agree that players should be paid for NIL, but with no guardrails and no balance, it goes from a part of the motivation to the main motivation. Now, that isn&#8217;t a brand new concept. Guys have been motivated by making money in the NFL for a long time, but you didn&#8217;t get that reward until you finished college — outside of what the boosters slid in before you committed. So one can want players to get rewarded, but are we trading the most valuable lesson of college football for valuable pieces of printed paper?
Saban sustained success for so long for many reasons, but his best poker play was being malleable even when he was at the top because he had control. And a great poker player knows when to hold them, knows when to fold them, knows when to walk away, and knows when to run to your $17 million island that you just bought because you can&#8217;t control all the variables anymore. And he’s smart to do it.
The game has changed, and we have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time with this NIL situation with no guardrails. They let the monster out to attack the villagers. And you&#8217;ve seen coaches lose that control. And it&#8217;s really hard right now to be able to consistently have a roster that you feel like you have molded the piece of clay as much as you possibly can. You&#8217;re basically only co-parenting now, and it&#8217;s tough.
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David Cone: Let&#8217;s not forget that Nick Saban is 72-years-old. That&#8217;s the primary reason for him retiring. If he were 50-years-old, I don&#8217;t care what the players did after the Rose Bowl, he was going to whip the thing into shape and come back next year.
I do find Low’s interview with Saban very telling though, and all of the reactions that I saw to this interview fell into one of two categories. Either, one, Nick Saban is exactly right: Money is ruining college football. The game is not the same and I&#8217;m done with it. Or two, Nick Saban is just mad that he&#8217;s not the only one who can pay players anymore and he wants to exploit their talents, so go on and be gone and good riddance. I think it&#8217;s low resolution on either side of those arguments.
Yes, this has ushered in a new wave of college football without any sort of guardrails, and any time the NCAA has tried to put some rules in place, we&#8217;ve gone to class action or antitrust lawsuits like we&#8217;ve just seen at the University of Tennessee. The NCAA has brought a lot of this on themselves.
But we can have leadership in college football without everything falling off the rails. Nick Saban needs to take a leadership role in college football. I know he&#8217;s going to go work at ESPN and I know he&#8217;s going to be on television, but he can help bring about some positive change.
We can solve a lot of these problems and college football can still be great, even if players are able to capitalize monetarily in some aspects. 
* * *
Jake Crain is co-host of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/%22https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company/%22">Crain &amp; Company,</a> the Daily Wire’s sports show hosted by former athletes and coaches Jake Crain, Blain Crain, and David Cone. Follow him: @JakeCrain_
David Cone is a co-host and producer of the Daily Wire’s sports show <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/%22https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company/%22">Crain &amp; Company</a>, as well as a contributor to Morning Wire. David is also a former quarterback for the University of Michigan. Follow him: @davidadamcone

2023 SEC Media Days

Nick Saban On College Football’s Monumental Changes: Coaches Have Lost Leverage 

Nick Saban

Adapted from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/chiefs-beat-49ers-recap-review-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Crain &amp; Co.,”</a> February 12, 2024.
Jake Crain: It was an ugly game early. When there is a postseason format — where it&#8217;s sudden death or whether it&#8217;s win or go home and whether that be March Madness, the NFL playoffs, or college baseball and the Regionals — it&#8217;s the teams that can win in the most ways that are able to not only survive, but thrive. If you go back and watch every game the Chiefs played in the playoffs, they won each one a different way, but they won each game as a team.
Your defense may not play well for four quarters, but they need to play well when it counts. Your special teams may not play well for a half, but they have got to play well when it counts in the second half. And the Chiefs did not make the devastating mistakes that the 49ers made at the end of the game. It just goes to show that a winning culture and a winning DNA is a real thing.
I thought the Chiefs were going to win this game the whole time — because they&#8217;ve proven it. But I think the main thing you can take away from this is most teams lose games. They do not win them, even the elite teams.
David Cone: That&#8217;s why we said coming in, it&#8217;s not just enough against a generational talent like Patrick Mahomes to just come in and shut down the run. It seemed like the Chiefs could win this game if they rushed for zero yards. While yes, the yards would be nice to have, it was not going to be enough to just come in and say, “Oh, you know what, let&#8217;s just shut down Travis Kelce,” because the last couple of weeks, Patrick Mahomes hit Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a few huge plays and Clyde Edwards-Helaire on some big plays too. He’s just proven that he can do that time and time again, especially in the post-season and down the stretch all the way.
Even in the fourth quarter and overtime, it felt like if the 49ers allowed free release and zone coverage, then Mahomes was just going to take that all day on the outside — hitch routes, hook routes, all of that. But if the 49ers got up and pressed, even in two man, then Mahomes was just going to have a field day with the mesh concepts, which he hit Kelce on. Then in overtime, press coverage, he took off with his legs and got huge first downs with his feet. So, he was going to get you coming or going down the stretch of the game.
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Jake Crain: A lot of people will look at that dropped punt that the Chiefs recovered and say that was the mistake that cost them the game. But do not forget, it is a fourth quarter game. The San Francisco 49ers got the ball first, and they were driving it right down the Chiefs’ throats. Christian McCaffrey fumbled inside the Red Zone to give the Chiefs the ball, and there were lost points there — plus a turnover on an interception from Patrick Mahomes right out of the gate in the second half at midfield and they were not able to turn that into any points. Those are the things, outside of the blatantly obvious, that cost you games against a guy like Patrick Mahomes. You nearly have to play perfectly.
Blain Crain: There were a couple of drives Kyle Shanahan didn&#8217;t run the ball one time. He had the most success in this game leaning on Christian McCaffrey. He had two full drives when the momentum was with him when he didn&#8217;t run the ball one time with McCaffrey, the best player he had.
The big key to me in this game was when it all changed. At halftime, the 49ers were winning in every aspect, in my opinion. Who had one reception at halftime? Travis Kelce. What happened? In the second half, the guy had 80 yards through the air. Patrick Mahomes goes when Travis Kelce goes.
I think losing Dre Greenlaw was huge for the 49ers — he and Fred Warner are the best linebackers in the league. But the big thing in this game is Patrick Mahomes is Patrick Mahomes. I picked the Chiefs every game in the playoffs. Every game. Not because I wanted to, but because I knew that though they can be atrocious in the regular season — at times they were and their offense was extremely bad — but when it matters most, when there&#8217;s a guy in the corner open for the three and it&#8217;s Patrick Mahomes, it&#8217;s going in. He is going to make the shot. Then you add Andy Reid and Travis Kelce. There are not any huge names that made the difference for the Chiefs. Just the Chiefs made the difference.
* * *
Jake Crain is co-host of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/%22https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company/%22">Crain &amp; Company,</a> the Daily Wire’s sports show hosted by former athletes and coaches Jake Crain, Blain Crain, and David Cone. Follow him: @JakeCrain_
Blain Crain is co-host of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/%22https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company/%22">Crain &amp; Company</a> at The Daily Wire and a former wide receiver for Western Colorado University. Follow Blain: @Blain_Crain
David Cone is a co-host and producer of the Daily Wire’s sports show <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/%22https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company/%22">Crain &amp; Company</a>, as well as a contributor to Morning Wire. David is also a former quarterback for the University of Michigan. Follow him: @davidadamcone

The Chiefs. The Team. The Winning Culture.

Kansas City Chiefs

Patrick Mahomes

Super Bowl

Adapted from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/super-bowl-lviii-chiefs-vs-49ers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Crain &amp; Co.,”</a> January 29, 2024.
Jake: We&#8217;ve all heard of Murphy&#8217;s Law, but we may need to create a new law and call it &#8220;Andy&#8217;s Law&#8221; or &#8220;Patty&#8217;s Law&#8221; that refers to whenever the Chiefs have to clutch up — because they are going to clutch up. We saw this again this past weekend as the Chiefs were able to advance to their fourth Super Bowl in five years.
Yes, their fourth Super Bowl appearance in five years, which is absolutely incredible. Patrick Mahomes is two and one, he has won two MVPs, and he’s trying to go three and one. Everybody&#8217;s going to be talking about this renaissance we&#8217;ve seen offensively for Kansas City — and that&#8217;s fantastic. Andy Reid is one of the greatest minds of all time, offensively. We know how good Patrick is at quarterback and what he&#8217;s done with this roster around him, which is just a little bit better on offense than the one they had last year.
But I want to turn your attention to the reason why the Chiefs are making this run. It&#8217;s defense. It&#8217;s team balance. In the second half of the last eight games, Steve Spagnuolo and the Chiefs defense have given up no more than eight points — 3, 7, 0, 6, 0, 3, 7, 6 — including two complete shutouts. And they&#8217;re getting it at the best moments: when they have to have it defensively. It seems like whether it&#8217;s Chris Jones or someone else, when the Chiefs need to stop, they know how to turn the faucet off. They dominated the Ravens — absolutely dominated them. Even though they ended up winning by seven, it felt like they were up double digits the whole game.
So when it comes down to clutch, we saw what the Patriots did with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady in those incredible defenses. When they needed the offense to step up, it did. When they needed the defense or special teams to step up, they did. I never thought we&#8217;d see this again, but we are slowly starting to see the same dominance that New England had with Tom Brady, except with Patrick and Andy in Kansas City. And it&#8217;s incredible to watch. But remember, defense wins championships.
Now, those are just incredible numbers. We always talk about the game plans going in and who has the best script for the first 10 to 15 plays. But football, just like life, is a game of adjustments. I would rather have a guy who can go in at halftime and adjust more than a guy who has a better game plan going into the game because you don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;re going to get until you sit down and they serve you the plate. But it seems like whatever Kansas City has gotten, their defense in the second half has been incredible, whether it&#8217;s the red zone, whether it&#8217;s having to defend a full field, whether it&#8217;s third and short, third and medium, or third and long, they seem to always make the play.
I know everybody&#8217;s going to be talking about Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce — insert Taylor Swift joke here — but the reason the Chiefs are going back to the Super Bowl in 2024 is not just an offensive Globetrotters Fest; they are a defensive grind-it-out hard-nosed football team. 
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David: Even as the game of football evolves and becomes more offensive-heavy and everybody wants to see a lot of points get scored, with a game this physical, the championships are still won and lost based on defense.
Look at what we&#8217;ve seen at the college level the past three years: those back-to-back Georgia defenses that they had and Michigan&#8217;s defense this past year. We&#8217;ve seen it at that level. I agree with you completely about what Steve Spagnuolo has been able to do this season. We&#8217;ve talked a lot about this being the least elite wide receiver corps that Patrick Mahomes has had the past two seasons. Yes, we can talk about how great Travis Kelce is, but it&#8217;s the least elite wide receiver corps he&#8217;s had since Tyreek Hill left. Yet it&#8217;s the best defense he&#8217;s played with, and that has proven to be just enough.
Championship mentality also plays a role in this. It&#8217;s not that these championship teams like the Chiefs, who are our generation&#8217;s dynasty, are not trying hard in the regular season, and it&#8217;s not that the other teams they&#8217;re beating (the Bills, Dolphins, and Ravens, for example) are completely falling apart in the postseason. It&#8217;s just that the margins are so small in this area of sports. When you&#8217;re talking about championship, whether it be golf, tennis, football, or baseball, the margins are so tight. There is a championship mentality.
It’s the guys who know in the critical moments not to get the key penalties, they don&#8217;t turn the football over late, and so on. That&#8217;s really what sets them apart. This trifecta of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Andy Reid — is our generation&#8217;s Bill Walsh, Joe Montana, and Jerry Rice. Travis Kelce just passed Jerry Rice in total catches in the postseason. We&#8217;re witnessing something that&#8217;s truly incredible. Add on the Steve Spagnuolo defense, and they&#8217;ve looked unbeatable in the playoffs after looking very vulnerable down the stretch of the season.
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* * *
Jake Crain is co-host of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/%22https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company/%22">“Crain &amp; Company”</a> the Daily Wire’s sports show hosted by former athletes and coaches Jake Crain, Blain Crain, and David Cone. Follow him: @JakeCrain_
David Cone is a co-host and producer of the Daily Wire’s sports show Crain &amp; Company, as well as a contributor to Morning Wire. David is also a former quarterback for the University of Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter/X and Instagram at @davidadamcone

AFC Championship – Kansas City Chiefs v Baltimore Ravens

Chiefs Prove Once Again, When It’s Time To Be Clutch, Be Clutch

San Francisco 49ers

Adapted from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/why-brian-kelly-won-t-leave-lsu-for-michigan-ron-slay">“Crain &amp; Co.,”</a> January 24, 2024. 
Jake Crain: Brian Kelly would be clinically insane to leave LSU for Michigan. Why? Not because Michigan isn&#8217;t a fantastic job or that there&#8217;s anything wrong with Ann Arbor, but because he&#8217;s already at a place where, believe it or not (at least in my opinion), it&#8217;s easier to establish dominance than at Michigan.
Brian Kelly left Notre Dame, which is an established brand in college football, to go down to Baton Rouge. He saw what Bama looked like in the tunnel before they got run over in the National Championship when he was the head coach of the Fighting Irish. He wanted to be able to recruit and sign the best of the best, a true even playing field. Louisiana is a state filled with talent every year to the brim from the top to the bottom, from the east to the west. And LSU is the only power in that state. There is no Sparty and nobody’s spurning LSU to go to Louisiana Tech. (Sorry guys.) But Kelly has already found success there, and he&#8217;s building a monster in a place where the biggest monsters roam. He’s compiled an elite staff around him, and he just had the Heisman winner. Why would you leave Baton Rouge where you have all of this momentum to go follow the greatest season ever in Michigan history? There&#8217;s nowhere to go but down.
Michigan&#8217;s going to remain relevant regardless of what Harbaugh does, but the best chance to win bigger for longer is at LSU. Some will say the SEC is the toughest conference in the country. That is true, but the Big Ten just added Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA. It&#8217;s not getting any easier, and there’s no division, which will create more division. Ryan Day is trying to put the new Justice League together at Ohio State through the transfer portal, and Brian Kelly has already shown that he can succeed in the SEC. He won the West in year one and the emperor Nick Saban just left Tuscaloosa. 
The fact of the matter is you can&#8217;t make work-place decisions based purely on emotion and fandom. And though Kelly&#8217;s accent may be fake, his chance to dominate is not. While some may believe the smoke if Harbaugh does leave to go to the Chargers or the Falcons, it smells like a Jimmy Sexton special to me, which is always a good play.
Harbaugh hasn&#8217;t gone anywhere yet, but we keep hearing that for Brian Kelly, it&#8217;s a dream job. Michigan is an incredible place. They just won the National Championship. Nobody&#8217;s saying that Michigan is a bad job. But when LSU gets hot, they can get hotter than just about anyone. For Brian Kelly, he’s already there. He’s already established. He’s gotten the hard part out of the way. He won early, he won the West. Yes, he lost to Georgia in the SEC Championship game, but he beat Alabama’s Nick Saban. Then in year two, his defense got run through like a finish line, but he had the Heisman winner. He has an elite staff, he’s recruited really well, and it seems like a pretty good fit.
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David Cone: Brian Kelly is not leaving LSU. No way. I agree that this feels like a Jimmy Sexton special to try and get a bigger contract or a new extension. It’s not because I view LSU as that much better of a job than Michigan. I see them both as the top six or seven jobs in the country.
I do find a couple of things interesting though. First, Brian Kelly is the winningest coach in Notre Dame history. He left and gave that up to go to LSU for a lot of the reasons we always talk about; you can put a fence around that state and the high school recruiting is better there in that state. Also, from a historical and traditional perspective, Notre Dame and Michigan are very similar. So I think it&#8217;s interesting Brian Kelly had to watch Michigan go undefeated and win the National Championship. That is what Jim Harbaugh was able to do at a very similar Midwestern school that Kelly was not able to accomplish while he was at Notre Dame. Then, two of the last three coaches at LSU have been rumored to be leaving LSU. The Les Miles thing was a caveat, and I think it&#8217;s a completely different situation.
Ultimately, we still don&#8217;t even know if Jim Harbaugh is going to leave. Harbaugh may remain at Michigan — even though the news could break any minute that he&#8217;s going to be the next coach of the Chargers. So we&#8217;ll have to see. But from my perspective, Kelly has gotten the hard part out of the way. He already built the foundation at his new place, he took the risk which paid off early, he won the SEC West, and he just landed the number one quarterback in the 2025 class. I don&#8217;t see Brian Kelly going anywhere.
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Jake Crain is co-host of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/%22https://www.dailywire.com/show/crain-and-company/%22">“Crain &amp; Company”</a> the Daily Wire’s sports show hosted by former athletes and coaches Jake Crain, Blain Crain, and David Cone. Follow him: @JakeCrain_
David Cone is a co-host and producer of the Daily Wire’s sports show Crain &amp; Company, as well as a contributor to Morning Wire. David is also a former quarterback for the University of Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter/X and Instagram at @davidadamcone

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