Carl Dukes and Mike Bell, along with Executive Producer Chris ‘Turtle’ Thomas, discussed the recent report from John Ourand of Puck about Iowa women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark. The report says FOX “contemplated reaching out to other networks to see if they could come up with an enticing NIL offer that would convince her to stay in the college ranks for one more season.”
Dukes & Bell, the afternoon drive show on 92.9 The Game in Atlanta, do a segment called “Yeah Man, No Man,” where Thomas does rapid fire questions to which the hosts say either “Yeah, man,” or “No, man” as their response.
“I read something in preparation today for “Yeah Man, No Man” that really sort of stuck out to me like a sore thumb and should be somethng we keep our eyes on in the years to come. We all know that a lot of people, 3.29 million exactly by the way, watched Caitlin Clark break the record for points. Now, that was awesome and she is going to be a star at the next level.
“Apparently, according to [Puck], FOX Sports was in an arrangement with other TV networks to apparently try to offer her an NIL deal to stay in college for an extra year because the ratings have been so good for the networks. Now, for me, this is some murky territory and waters that you’re getting in to. So, “Yeah Man, No Man,” do you think it’s OK if a TV network pays an athlete to be in college?”
Bell responded, “It’s kind of the next progression of where we are, uintil the guardrails come up, which are never coming, so I got no problem with it.”
Carl Dukes looked at the bigger picture of the amount of money that would come in to the networks versus the amount Caitlin Clark would receive in the deal.
“They’re going to make a lot more money than they’re going to pay Caitlin Clark,” he said. “And if you’re saying, ‘hey we need you to stay in college because everytime you play the numbers are off the charts, which means I can charge more for advertising, right?’ How much money are they making versus how much money they are paying her? It’s not equal, now I’m not saying it should be but…it’s going to be nowhere close to where it should be. So, why if I am Caitlin Clark do I sacrifice this?”
Thomas then followed up with a question that seems almost certain to be an issue that comes up again down the road. “Carl, let me ask you this, would you be OK with ESPN sponsoring Arch Manning next year?”
“Now it’s a conflict of interest,” Dukes said. “If you’re involved in the same group that decides who goes to the College Football Playoff and where they’re ranked, some would say that’s a road you cant go down…I think there’s a thin line between crossing over and saying ‘yeah, we’d love to support this athlete,’ but also people are already out there with all these conspiracy theories about how this stuff goes down – the referees are in on it, now you’re going to have the networks in on it? I think there’s a thin line between crossing over on that.”
