GOLDEN CANE Mike Ryan provides the latest updates in Miami's AD search and talks Protect College Sports Act
4 min read
On the latest edition of the CanesInSight podcast, DMoney and Mike Ryan got into the latest in the Miami AD search and the weeds of the Protect College Sports Act.
Here's a sneak peek of their debate below:
DMoney: I'm hearing things are potentially moving toward a candidate, or at least a narrower list. Possibly a list of one. That was as of last week. I haven't gotten an update since, but it sounded like things were moving quickly and could come to a head soon.
Mike Ryan: You have pretty good sources, and I've since verified with sources at Miami and at NASCAR that Brian Herbst is one of the finalists for the AD job. Brian is well respected in NASCAR circles. He negotiated a big-time media rights deal there, with multiple partners, most prominently FOX, and FOX is tied to the Big Ten.
If I'm reading what Miami is leaving behind in terms of crumbs, the people steering the ship right now feel like they can handle the traditional side of this job pretty easily, given what they already had.
That's both good and bad. You get spoiled by what you think is easy, but you're hiring somebody to do the hard part, and I think they view media rights as the hard part. Look, they extended Jai Lucas, they extended Mario Cristobal, they negotiated a grand slam of a Nike deal. They're doing good things. Maybe they just want someone installed who covers the one thing they feel deficient in.
I'm told nothing is done. I think Miami is still exploring other candidates, but this guy came in late. One of the names we'd heard before was Phelps from NASCAR. Now we're hearing Herbst.
I have an idea of how that came about; in a roundabout way, it came from one of the other candidates being entertained as a possibility. That candidate may not have been fully interested himself, but he might have put Herbst's name on Miami's radar, and Miami met with him. For a name of that kind of repute in NASCAR circles to pop up this late in the process, that's something to pay attention to.
Everyone I've talked to in that world thinks pretty highly of the guy. He's younger. It's a curious move going to Miami from the job he has right now. No real Miami ties and nothing's imminent, but this is a name to add to the list, and probably one with momentum right now.
DMoney: NCAA-wise, ACC-wise, I know Miami's higher-ups are working hard from a lobbying standpoint. You saw the Florida senators come out strong against the Protect College Sports Act, front and center in this debate. What are you hearing on the political side of things? And maybe Jim Phillips' role in all this, the commissioner of the ACC.
Mike Ryan: As for Phillips, I'd heard pretty strongly that Notre Dame crafted the poison-pill language that initially would've forced any program leaving its conference to sit independent for six years. The compromise now is three years, which isn't much of a compromise considering the money you'd lose missing even one.
But here's the interesting part. The person picking up that baton and driving it now isn't Notre Dame, it's the sitting ACC commissioner, Jim Phillips. He does have Notre Dame ties, you can check his resume, but he's the one trying to make life difficult for the three or four programs in this league valuable enough that the SEC and Big Ten would come calling if the market ever opened up.
DMoney: I think the state of Florida is strong enough that if it stays united here, it's going to be tough to ignore. Fans care about this stuff. Fans are voters. People don't like seeing NFL or NBA players come back to play college ball, whatever you think about their rights to do it. People want certainty with NIL. That's the popular issue, and that's why this bill exists in the first place. But the realignment piece, that cat's already out of the bag. Stanford and Cal are in the ACC. Oregon, Rutgers and Michigan are all in the Big Ten together. Nobody's unwinding that. So I think realignment is the soft target if you're trying to appease a big state like Florida.
Watch the full conversation down below:
Here's a sneak peek of their debate below:
DMoney: I'm hearing things are potentially moving toward a candidate, or at least a narrower list. Possibly a list of one. That was as of last week. I haven't gotten an update since, but it sounded like things were moving quickly and could come to a head soon.
Mike Ryan: You have pretty good sources, and I've since verified with sources at Miami and at NASCAR that Brian Herbst is one of the finalists for the AD job. Brian is well respected in NASCAR circles. He negotiated a big-time media rights deal there, with multiple partners, most prominently FOX, and FOX is tied to the Big Ten.
If I'm reading what Miami is leaving behind in terms of crumbs, the people steering the ship right now feel like they can handle the traditional side of this job pretty easily, given what they already had.
That's both good and bad. You get spoiled by what you think is easy, but you're hiring somebody to do the hard part, and I think they view media rights as the hard part. Look, they extended Jai Lucas, they extended Mario Cristobal, they negotiated a grand slam of a Nike deal. They're doing good things. Maybe they just want someone installed who covers the one thing they feel deficient in.
I'm told nothing is done. I think Miami is still exploring other candidates, but this guy came in late. One of the names we'd heard before was Phelps from NASCAR. Now we're hearing Herbst.
I have an idea of how that came about; in a roundabout way, it came from one of the other candidates being entertained as a possibility. That candidate may not have been fully interested himself, but he might have put Herbst's name on Miami's radar, and Miami met with him. For a name of that kind of repute in NASCAR circles to pop up this late in the process, that's something to pay attention to.
Everyone I've talked to in that world thinks pretty highly of the guy. He's younger. It's a curious move going to Miami from the job he has right now. No real Miami ties and nothing's imminent, but this is a name to add to the list, and probably one with momentum right now.
DMoney: NCAA-wise, ACC-wise, I know Miami's higher-ups are working hard from a lobbying standpoint. You saw the Florida senators come out strong against the Protect College Sports Act, front and center in this debate. What are you hearing on the political side of things? And maybe Jim Phillips' role in all this, the commissioner of the ACC.
Mike Ryan: As for Phillips, I'd heard pretty strongly that Notre Dame crafted the poison-pill language that initially would've forced any program leaving its conference to sit independent for six years. The compromise now is three years, which isn't much of a compromise considering the money you'd lose missing even one.
But here's the interesting part. The person picking up that baton and driving it now isn't Notre Dame, it's the sitting ACC commissioner, Jim Phillips. He does have Notre Dame ties, you can check his resume, but he's the one trying to make life difficult for the three or four programs in this league valuable enough that the SEC and Big Ten would come calling if the market ever opened up.
DMoney: I think the state of Florida is strong enough that if it stays united here, it's going to be tough to ignore. Fans care about this stuff. Fans are voters. People don't like seeing NFL or NBA players come back to play college ball, whatever you think about their rights to do it. People want certainty with NIL. That's the popular issue, and that's why this bill exists in the first place. But the realignment piece, that cat's already out of the bag. Stanford and Cal are in the ACC. Oregon, Rutgers and Michigan are all in the Big Ten together. Nobody's unwinding that. So I think realignment is the soft target if you're trying to appease a big state like Florida.
Watch the full conversation down below:
