Two solid sources had confirmed the story. But that wasn’t enough for news of this magnitude. Jeff Goodman needed at least one more solid source before he broke the biggest story college basketball had ever seen.
He received the first tip on the same day Brad Stevens announced he was moving from the bench to the GM box with the Celtics. Living in Boston, Goodman was getting all kinds of requests for his analysis on the news that had just rocked the NBA. Just when the news was starting to hit its peak, that’s when it happened. Jeff Goodman was told Mike Mike Krzyzewski was going to announce his retirement from Duke in the very near future.
Around 30 minutes later, he got another tip from a source that confirmed Coach K’s impending retirement announcement. He had two strong sources. Most times, that would be good enough to run a story, but not in this situation.
“I was 99.9 percent sure,” said Goodman. “But even 99.9 percent is hard to go with on a story like this. If you’re wrong on that story, you’re forever known, everything you’ve done up to that point is irrelevant.”
So he waited for another source to confirm, knowing too much was on the line to be wrong. After calling a third source, the person gave him the time and the date. That’s when he finally felt confident to run with it.
“I typed up the tweet and my finger was literally shaking,” Jeff Goodman said.
He hit send. The biggest story in college hoops had been broken.
“It’s crazy when you say it like that, because you don’t think about it that way. There’s so many other stories that I’ve spent so much more time on than that one.”
Goodman covers basketball at every level, but he’s easily one of the best in the business when it comes to college hoops. If that’s not proven by his current work at Stadium or his previous stops at ESPN, Fox and CBS, he’s proving it with a new podcast venture that’s quickly taking the college basketball world by storm.
The Field of 68 Media Network was founded almost totally by accident. Goodman’s friend, Rob Dauster, had been a Covid casualty and saw his position cut last year. Goodman didn’t want to just help Dasuter, he wanted to find something new and innovative they could do together.
“At that point it was, ok, what can we do?” Goodman said. “We were in the middle of a pandemic and we thought of this on a whim. We threw out the idea of starting a podcast network and really centering it around former players hosting podcasts of their alum school.”
There were challenges behind this new venture, most notably the task of trying to find the right former players that would be a good fit. Luckily, with Goodman’s background covering recruiting, he had a strong connection with several former high-profile college basketball players. Those players also trusted him.
“We wanted to find the right people that either, one, wanted to do it because they want to do a pod for their school, or, two, and I sold them on this, we’ll help you get a platform and your name out there, so people will see you and it will turn into something,” Goodman said.
The pitch was perfect. Soon after, former players were all over the Field of 68 hosting podcasts for their respective alma maters. Hosts such as Patrick Young with Florida, Dan Dickau of Gonzaga and Eric Devendorf of Syracuse, just to name a few, we’re headline shows across the network.
The idea behind Field of 68 is heavily built on the opinions of former players. Much bigger plans are in the works though for the coming season. It’s those ideas that could vault the network into the go-to hub for college basketball fans in the future.
“I absolutely think it can be the place to go,” Goodman said. “As we’re seeing, people are consuming their information through streaming. Fewer people are watching ESPN on their TV’s. We have a plan in place for this year and we’re going to add something big. Every night. That’s Rob’s brainchild and I think it could change the way people get their college basketball information this year.”
“Frankly, if you’re a big college basketball fan, other than the games, those halftime and postgame segments on ESPN, there’s nothing to them. What do they do? They look at the highlights, talk for 20 seconds but it’s never about the big topics. They don’t have time. We’re going to do something way different.”
Jeff Goodman is involved with podcasting on Field of 68, as he hosts the national show with Robbie Hummel. But he’s the first to admit his role is to come up with content. Everything else centers on the brains of the operation, which always falls to Dauster.
“Rob has been the driver of this thing, not me,” Goodman said. “I’ve helped put it together, but he’s so talented. I know the content, but he knows everything. The fact someone hasn’t hired him and paid him a bunch of money is crazy to me. He’s done all that with two young kids.”
Other hosts under the Field of 68 umbrella include Wayne Turner with Kentucky, Jeff Hawkins with Kansas, Shammond Williams of North Carolina and Christy Winters-Scott who hosts podcasts on women’s hoops. Many more are with the network and others are still to come.
That includes producers the network has incorporated that are either still in college or just freshly out.
“We’re paying them a little bit of money,” Goodman said. “But a lot of it is about giving them experience and the opportunity to be involved. A lot of them are producers, they’re producing the podcast but we allow them to also be on the show. Austin Render is a terrific example. He just graduated from Indiana and he’s terrific. Like, phenomenal. He produces A.J Guyton’s podcast and he also goes on and throws questions at him about Indiana basketball.”
Regardless if Field of 68 works out (my bet is that it does) Goodman is going to be fine. He’s a great basketball mind with an incredible writing talent. But he’s going to do everything in his power to ensure the network becomes a success. Maybe it will never be his main gig, but that won’t stop him from trying to make this the main stop for college hoops fans.
It all started because he wanted to have a friend’s back. That loyalty may get repaid in a big way. But if you ask Jeff Goodman, he’s only doing the things that others did for him when he was making his move in the business.
“I had people like Greg Doyle, who was a big help for me when I broke through. I’ll never forget that. Ever. You just remember the people that helped you and the people that didn’t.”
Tyler McComas is a columnist for BSM and a sports radio talk show host in Norman, OK where he hosts afternoon drive for SportsTalk 1400. You can find him on Twitter @Tyler_McComas or you can email him at TylerMcComas08@yahoo.com.
