by 2050 we want to be the global epicenter of sports you look at your coach and you say no I'm taking the shot where we were in 1979 when we said we want to be this well now we're in 2025 and we're saying we're going to be that there's so many options to do anything why Sports from South bin to Evansville and everywhere in between this is get in the show focused on the hooer state and the incredible stories happening here today I'm Nate spangle founder of G Indiana and I will be your host for today's conversation before we get end of the episode I have a question for you did you know that Indiana has been a hub for sports Innovation for over a century starting with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where Pioneers tested game-changing Tech like seat belts and anti-lock brakes that Forward Thinking spirit is still in overdrive today and sports Tech HQ is at the center of it they're on a mission to scout the most groundbreaking Sports Tech that is shaping the future of sports and to bring those innovators right here to Indiana guess what it's working Sports sck HQ already has 38 companies in its Collective that call Indiana home with 16 relocating from around the world in just the past year home to a world-class Sports infrastructure Indiana provides the perfect foundation for entrepreneurs to advance innovations that can change the game for fans athletes and teams Sports Tech HQ is the leading Global Hub for an industry that is projected to reach $100 billion by 2030 discover how these companies are driving the future of sports through Indiana's robust ecosystem of Partners at sq.
org now let's get into the show today I'm joined by Julie row lash a Trailblazer in college athletics with over 25 years of experience currently serving as the Horizon League commissioner and board chair of the Indiana Sports Corps she's a former allamerican women's basketball player at milikin University and a season leader from her days at the NCAA Julie's passion for sports community and strategic Innovation shines through every project she undertakes today we're going to be talking about student athlete name image likeness in the Horizon league and Beyond I mean we've all seen the stories of uh College athletes starting to get paid and we're going to talk what's on the horizon for all things Horizon League Julie welcome to get in thank you Nate it's great to be here I am pumped up about this so for anyone that's been listening to the podcast for the last few month uh few weeks I'll say at the corteva Coliseum on March 10th and 11th we India is playing host to the Horizon League championships both men and women's that's exciting it's really exciting this is year six for our Horizon link Championship to be here in Indie and it's just been each year it's been bigger and better oh yeah absolutely and I think the for starters when we think about Horizon league is not only do we have teams here in Indiana but the the whole league is headquartered here in Indiana that's right right here in Indianapolis yeah our worldwide headquarters are right downtown on Market Street heck yeah i' I've been there great time great place but like in the two teams that are from Indiana we have Purdue Fort Wayne and uh IU Indianapolis can't mess up names so do different used to be different noticeable names but now we've uh kind of rebranded a little bit in the last few years and they're both doing pretty well well I would say in particular the mastadons up the road both on the men's and women's side but we are so we a lot of people will say well who's in The Horizon like we're a six State footprint right now division one programs across Six States 10 cities because we've got two schools in the Metro Detroit area so last year of course we had the Oakland men here who Jack gki had gave quite a performance here but then really gave quite a performance when they went on to beat Kentucky in the first round of the NCA tournament so it's it's a really exciting two days because it's our semi-finals and finals oh yeah March starts here right that's like the whole stick that's our term we've coined that because it does start here right all of March Madness we claim it it starts here yeah it's like the first I mean it's an early Conference tournament things get rolling and our guy I have to give a humble shout out to my guy Luke baso who's running Athletics uh at IU Indianapolis and doing doing great things and the dominoes are starting to fall in the right way there he is building really something special there I think it starts with culture and you know Luke like he he's such a charismatic K energy guy with the values the care what does he have it work hard make noise have fun I think that's his slogan um he he's really embraced that and you see that just throughout his Department I was they just hosted our swimming championships at the natatorium this past Wednesday through Saturday just the energy that his staff showed up every day those are long hours long days it's like like I'm a wrestling coach like wrestling isn't the most fun if you're not like a dieh hard wrestler to like go and watch like swimming is similar to that you know like sitting there and watching people swim you're like for like the last 2 seconds of every race you're like pretty in but it's a long day for sure it's a long day okay so so six years we've hosted the championship here in Indianapolis where was it at before that so we were at Little Caesar's arena in Detroit before that and prior to that it was campus rounds and so we started we were campus rounds we went we needed a destination our Olympia Sports entertainment they were our partner for a few years there great run we just recognized we need to be in a more central location and still a destination city right in our footprint and Indianapolis what better place what are those six states that all compete in the Horizon league so okay you're going to test me here off off memory but we've got Ohio because we have um several schools from Ohio rright State Cleveland State Youngstown State we've got Pennsylvania Robert Morris is our alone Pennsylvania member we go up to Wisconsin and have Green Bay and Milwaukee Michigan with Detroit Mercy and Oakland right here in Indiana IU Indie and Purdue Fort Wayne and then in Kentucky we have Northern Kentucky look at that 6 for six okay and what goes into a bid like that when you're thinking about where to host a conference tournament and obviously it's nice because uh Indianapolis is right in your backyard but I'm assuming you have people are trying to come in and say hey we want to move it here or there or anywhere so what all goes in when you're deciding where to host it you know when we went through this process and it was well since this will be your six we're talking seven eight years ago we literally hired a consulting firm to help us our staff and we ended up putting the request for bids out we had I think at the end of the day eight cities bid and we narrowed it down to five all within our footprint and some cities Sports commissions looked at it as more of just more inventory other cities really embraced it as we want to make this an important Community event this isn't just come in and play a couple days of basketball and that's really where Indie because of I think our secret sauce here I'm biased obviously but of Hosting events they just came in and blew the socks off our committee and we had ads from of course other states sitting on this Advisory Group and when the the state fair commission with Cindy Hy and her team and we had other representatives from the city and state come in it was really obvious this is where we needed to be what do the other athletic directors or coaches say when they come to Indianapolis what's the feedback that you guys get it has been not just coaches and ads but also now our presidents who come here they're just like this is exactly where it needs to be cuz they're seeing 32,000 plus people coming to our games they're seeing and that's of course over the course of all of the games but they're seeing the community really step up we have a local organizing committee n of 30 people that meet once a month in our offices starting in September to say how do we blow it up this year and make this a great student athlete experience what are some community events we can put on so that's where we've really been able to build some synergies here with the community well talk to us then about what are the community aspects that are going to happen around this year's Horizon League Championship sure so we call them amp liying events right cuz we want to amplify this event it starts with we've always have a fan Zone valo has stepped up and sponsored that just right across from the ceva Coliseum where fans can come got anything from the Indy sign where you can go be the I and indy we had a Whoever thought of that a g I know right and we had some sort of canned good exhibit there's of course POA shots big screens with a bar setup so you can watch other games happening then we have an Anthem school day where we bring in up to 3,000 kids we make it a literary day so they have a packet they go to this organized chaos in the grand hall called Fast Break Zone where they go through 25 stations the teachers love it because they're burning energy and learning then they come watch our women's champ game which this year will be on ESPN 2 at noon which will be awesome and then we have this think this will be our fourth year International Women's Day celebration last year CEO of the Pacers Mel Reigns was our headliner this year we have not only the new president of the fever Kelly Cross goof but the president of Indie ignite and Mary Hugh so some real power players who are making strong plays in sports and they're obviously women leading in that space Oh yeah we had Alison Barber on the podcast a few months back and talking about making Indiana and Indianapolis The Hub uh the capital of women's sports across the world and and they're doing some amazing amazing and when you have someone like Ken Clark it's pretty it makes sense right you talk about like having a what you a school day I went to the IU men's home opener and they hosted it at the Coliseum oh nice and it was a school out of bounds kids go crazy it's like your ears are ringing it's like talk about an environment to play in I think they played IU Columbus maybe or whatever is and it's like a 50 to 100 point game but the kids are still going crazy I was like and then Boomer comes out yeah Boomer comes out at halftime and I thought these kids were going to pop a gasket it was awesome uh which I love you know like getting out there and being part of the community we grow basketball here you know it's like whether it's uh the top NCAA Final Four you know championship game or kickoff for I don't know elementary basketball down the street like we're excited to host these things and get those opportunities I think it's awesome one thing I will say this is not just going to be a an hourlong commercial for the Horizon League championships uh but when we think about other than basketball how many sports feed into the Horizon League we sponsor 19 regular season Sports and then championships 19 19 let's see can we can do we know how 19 of these uh yes we can we'll see if I can make it through here but so in the fall we'll start off there you've got men's and women's soccer and volleyball in Cross Country the cross country Championship it's men and women running together it's a really fun event although one of the 19 or two that would be one so there's technically 14 events 19 championships some of those are co-ed like that but that's our fall lineup and then in the winter we just had our swimming championship and then of course we've got basketball men's and women's and then we have our indoor track as well and that's men's and women's run together then you go to the spring and you've got tennis men's and women's together golf men's and women's we take over a country a golf course down in Florida that's a really fun experience work with the Orlando Sports commission for the championship for a championship it's a fun great I mean our we talk about on the horizon link providing major experiences and we know that that Championship has got to be culminating because some will go on and play in the NCA postseason for some that's it so we want this to be that Pinnacle competitive division one experience that our student athletes deserve so golf happens and then baseball softball and outdoor track that's a heck of a crew how many different student athletes like do you have a number of like how many student athletes are involved in the Horizon League we have just over 4,000 total student athletes the compete in our Championship it's around 2400 2400 holy smoke that's a lot of lives being touched there when you think about what metrics are you guys using to track success of the Horizon League Sports so just in terms of how are our teams doing there's some competitive metrics and the NCA like in basketball they use the net for men's and women's and that's essentially strength of schedule are you winning on the road you winning at home and then it boils down to a number so we look at that and we look at where are our teams like literally I was looking at this yesterday for men and women and then what is our conference rank so there are 32 division one conferences where when you take our numbers together where do we collectively Rank and we've got goals in particular in basketball about where we want to be this goes on and then in soccer they use a different metric so the team sports all have metrics we care about that but then we also care about specific championships we do surveys of our student athletes to really figure out how was their experience yeah everything from Hospitality to locker room experience to Awards to gifts to the actual competitive whether it's the pool the track the court like just that entire competitive experience so it's all of it when I think of Horizon leag and you can correct anything that that you're like H that's a misconception I don't even think about the way but it's like you're one you're division one you're you know at the top of Athletics but you know I don't know how many uh Horizon League men's or women's basketball players are going to go on and play professionally so you're like somewhere in this middle of very very competitive and you want to obviously win games but you also have like the academic experience and how do you guys position yourselves against like whether it's D3 D2 or niia or the top tier division one programs I don't know how how do you guys think about that landscape okay so first the number is 27 we have 27 former Horizon leag men's basketball student athletes either playing pro or have played Pro in the NBA so just life lifetime um yes that's where we are today we do have just like the old NCA commercial most of our student athletes are are going to go in Pro are going to go pro and something besides sport we do have some of those truly Elite athletes who are going to figure out how to make this their livelihood really not with understanding that we have a responsibility to educate them right one of course they are meeting academic progress that's requirement for them before they even step on the field but two I mean this is why I still work in college sports this is the best leadership lab there is the skills they are getting will absolutely equip them to go on to do whatever it is they want to do in their career I I believe that oh and there's so many business owners leaders that hire specifically ex College athletes right because you have to put in time you have to compete at the highest level uh all those especially like sales you think of some of those like gritty industry it's like you got to have you know if you know how to wake up at do two a days or whatever it is you know how to go and sell software whatever it is 100 and resiliency I mean you're a coach like being able to literally get knocked down and get back up be told no and then make the next call like it's all it's all transferable oh they're going to tell you noes like I physically got hacked on shots like I can I can handle a no play through it play through it okay so 27 a men's basketball athletes have gone on have there been other notable accolades of whether it's track and field or uh golf or anything like that that have gone and done uh had a professional career probably baseball is our next strongest Sport and then in soccer we've got people playing and the not the MLS the level just below it with IND women yes um thank you for that assist but in baseball we've had PL and that's probably our numbers are even more than in basketball just in terms of guys being able to punch that ticket and go go beyond okay so when you think about Athletics and we're ranking the Horizon League who wins the most championships year in and year out what school and I'm not just saying this to be politically correct with my membership but it really changes we we have something we call the Commissioners cup and that's essentially based on how you do in each sport you're awarded points and and then at the end of the year there's the school who has essentially excelled the most in men's sports a school that has excelled most in women's sports and then you put those scores together for the overall Champion we we've had Oakland win we've had Youngstown win we've had Milwaukee win I say Oakland won last year it looks like yes I'm like oh listing of alltime winners of the is this the maffy the maffy trophy all right let's just we'll do a quick Deep dive in and see I love it uh I this is inter interesting to me because you think through of like okay we know we get exposure to IU Indianapolis and Purdue for Wayne but there are those analogues in these six different states and you get to see I mean there's a horizon League men's and women's basketball champion get a bid to March Manis yes well that's pretty cool so and that's every division one conference has that and you know you're asking okay how do we Faire just within division one horizon leue has been in existence for 44 years might be going on 45 39 of those years one of our teams has won in the NCA postseason wow so last year obviously Oakland men beat Kentucky in a very historic exciting win in in men's basketball we've had teams win in baseball right State beat Ohio State a few years ago we've had teams win and women's basketball Green Bay has been a perennial success story of women's basketball in our league had Milwaukee women's soccer a real pocket of regional and National Excellence they've won in the postseason so it's not one one program one sport every year which is I think what's special about being such a strong mid- major we have these pockets of Excellence that just come through and it's not every year but it boy it's they've got to build it and then they're ready to go I know so I I went back and looked the last 10 years so of the maffy trophy for most championships men's and women's sports Oakland is kind of a wagon uh 2014 2015 Oakland 2015 2016 Oakland 201627 A a three p four P 2018 they were second in 2018 2019 and then came back and won it in 2020 won it in 21 and won it 22 and then second in 23 and then won it in so Oakland go and Grizzlies right holy smokes okay so then let's flip that right you talked about educating these athletes is important who is the Harvard of the Horizon League who has the best average GPA if you know that off hand so we have like an academic honor roll that we roll out every semester and we have over 1,200 student athletes on that academic honor roll and it's a certain GPA or above but it is you're talking 1,00 plus it might have even been 14400 student athletes we have GPA this is where I don't want to misquote it women's basketball historically has strong GPA just when you look at that sport compared to others I feel like women's sports probably just has better GPA than Sports in general I feel like we would always see that uh I always say I I was on the football team at depa I never played football but I was on a college football team you know I was a GPA guy locker room guy I became the social media manager my senior year and like made all their hype videos and stuff and then it's funny that it ends up turning see you found your passion that's amazing exactly found what I went pro in right was not football but adjacent to it so you were one of the or you were the first when it comes to the NCAA Women's Basketball unit and your role uh for the fun that was created for women's basketball I'd love for you to touch on on what you guys did there within the inate structure there's too many committees one of them is this women's basketball oversight committee and I've been on this committee going on my fifth year now when we knew that this next consideration of the ESPN contract was coming up when you say the ESPN contract uh explain that to me like I'm five okay the NCA has two big contracts the biggest is with CBS Turner and that is for men's basketball March Madness The second contract which is still big but not as big is for all their other championships so softball baseball which are big those World Series are big you see them on TV right women's basketball March Madness which has really exploded as you as you know you know they had what 18 .
9 viewers for the Women's Champion 18. 9 million viewers for women's basketball champ game and the men's was like 14 I remember turning tuning into that Heartbreaker if you're uh if you were rooting for Iowa but everyone still W it was like it was like this uh the hockey game that just happened exactly I don't remember Canada yeah it it's like you had to I don't know why I was watching this I don't know what we were playing for but I I had to turn it on like I had to see right I had to see Caitlyn's last game in college for sure exactly the NCAA after they negotiated this big ESPN contract the major of that money was really because of women's basketball knowing that the NCAA and those of us that serve on these committees said we already have this pot of money that's called The Men's Basketball Excellence fund so when a team earns when a team wins a game in the postseason on the men's side there is money that then goes to the conference and usually goes back to the team we haven't had that pot of money for women's basketball and what with this recent contract it was time to establish it so that now fund if you will has been established and knowing that it was coming we were the first conference to say when our teams earn money we're going to take it and put it right back into women's basketball and candidly even if they don't for the next two years we're pulling money out of our savings to create our own Excellence fund to reward women's teams in our league that hit certain metrics that's amazing when you think about like getting more money into these programs like what opportunities do that create for these women's basketball teams in the Horizon League well our hope is that it incentivizes our schools to continue to invest in women's Athletics and in particular women's basketball because we know just like on the men's side you can drive exposure for the University you can drive fan interest you can drive some Revenue to then frankly help offset all the expenses your department is is is taken on and that that's like a perfect segue into so you came to Indianapolis to work at the NCAA was 25 years ago yeah 1999 now when I think of college sports and I think of the NCAA everything seems to be about money right this contract that contract name nil this that the other thing was it that way 25 years ago no like people used to care about sports and results in graduating I feel like right not the transfer portal and I think I think they still do care about for for those of us that are working in it the graduation part in particular yeah but the emphasis on the rules and what matters has dramatically changed I used to run I worked in and then I ended up running the enforcement department which is the investigative unit for the NCA no the whole the whole thing the whole thing oh I bet you have some good stories I do yeah that's your off the Record podcast okay so we'll get the Johnny Manzel Inside Story in the author record podcast so we were looking at things like phone calls right like too many phone calls in a week the INF Infamous Kelvin Samson cases that was all when I worked there some of the extra benefit there was academic fraud cases but you would see you know literally the bag of money and the bag of money had like 50,000 in it and that was a recruiting inducement and now the student athletes ineligible the school's going to be on probation you know I'm going way back to like the Alabama Albert mean's case this is like early 2000s where they were looking at a postseason bull band I mean all of those things that were violations for the most part are not today all right y'all let's talk Hoops you know marchmadness is electric but here's something you need to have on your radar the women's basketball invitation tournament known as the wbit the NCAA launched this in 2024 and it's bringing high stakes high energy postseason basketball to women's basketball and guess what it's going down right here in Indianapolis at the legendary Hinkle Fieldhouse this is where history happens the semi-finals are March 31st and the championship is April 2nd so if you win in on the action now is the time tickets are crazy affordable $29 for the championship game or just $44 for an all session pass to catch all the final rounds you you can grab them on Ticket Master or by clicking the link in the description below don't miss this highlevel competition rising stars in that raw unfiltered passion that makes college basketball the best be there like I'm thinking was it like the 80s or '90s but I think it was something around recruiting and like SMU with the death penalty for college football and like it like totally ruined their program for a decade yes for like stuff that everyone yeah and honestly they're still kind of like building back from like where they the Pinnacle they used to be at and now it's just like oh yeah we this is just acceptable you know like this is just normal now they were the first and then ultimately only case that had the death penalty which was you can't have the program after that the the stiffest penalty you saw was you can't play in the postseason and even that was handed out really sparingly and so did you ever have to like issue like what was the most severe penalty you were part of uh issuing the USC case with Reggie yes um that was when I was in enforcement and that that was then appealed and on and on and on but that involve postseason sanctions and that so actually they were challenging that as you've seen this shift I think the easiest way to see it manifesting coming life is in you know Caleb Williams are the biggest players getting I mean I just saw actually I just saw in college wrestling Bo Basset is like the number one recruit he's a junior and somehow in some way the the shaking is he's getting $5 million to go to the University of Iowa to be on the wrestling program to help them beat Penn State wow that's what this so it's like even in wrestling you know millions of dollars are being doled out but as you go down the the line this is even impacting Horizon League athletes that you know may not be signing million dooll contracts but how do you see nil name name image likeness being part of uh Horizon League athletes lives it definitely is it's here and it's not going away to back up a couple years ago the whole ability for student athletes to go out and do endorsement deals the TR the true endorsement deals like we saw Caitlyn on State Farm we see Juju on State Farm now right those are nil deals where someone outside of Athletics can hire a student athlete to promote when all this was starting we at the Horizon League said we need to figure out how to help our student athletes meet that opportunity so we we did this platform with open doors so we had a thousand student athletes sign up and create profiles kind of like match.
com but not creepy it was very very clean and they would put their profile on their sport their picture where they're from what their major is and what they would do to endorse a product we had over the course of three years $900,000 worth of transactions holy some of those were run through collectives which I'm going to get into a second some of those were literally Dunkin Donuts hiring some of our more entrepreneurial student athletes women's basketball seem to have the most success to promote their favorite latte now these were student athletes that already had great social media followings so they said how can I capitalize on this and the fact that I'm a division one women's basketball student athlete and they really got to work and would notify Brands through this platform brand and then they would negotiate a deal and all the financial documents and everything were done through open doors it was fantastic so that was what I would call very legit nil like 900,000 that's way more that's that wasn't the one student athlete I think the highest transaction was like around 50,000 through this through the platform was that also an athlete that probably had their own rep like social media following and this that and the other thing and they would work at it you know they had to go out and promote their brand yeah I mean that's that's still more than I had actually thought thought 3 years we're running through the open doors platform wow that's that's good money that was really our first step into it and we were the only League that did The League wide deal with open doors a lot of schools have their own web pages and what does that mean because there's like transaction fees or did you do a piece of that or what is broker like we got no money we just paid for it we just said open doors rather than you do a deal with all 11 of our schools do a deal with us and give us a discount cuz we're now bringing you 11 schools instead of one and so they gave us a good deal relative cuz I think they charge a percentage of the deal that they broker okay so it's like oh yeah we'll give you 2% versus 5% or whatever and we took no percent um obviously because we wanted the max to go to our student athletes wow so all good okay so that was the first iteration was step one of hey okay there is opportunity here then once we got that off the ground we said okay our schools need to run with that angle cuz some schools like to open doors there's another company called influencer there's a lot of people as you might expect in this cottage industry of nil so each school is now figured out how do they want to do it now enter the collectives and that's what you're talking about like the wrestler example the quarterback at Miami those are essenti I call them the third party booster funds that are set up to supplement whatever sort of Athletics Aid student athletes are getting it's not supposed to be a recruiting inducement but at the end of the day it's a bit of quid proquo of student athlete comes here this is what they're going to get through the collective it used to be you had to do something like go out and promote a product or a charity or have a certain number of appearances and and in some and that is still technically the rule the new nil that's going to take place after this house settlement goes through is going to allow schools to do direct nil deals with student athletes so you think it'll get rid of the collective I think most collectives will come in house ah okay so then it's like you say you have $10 million or whatever it is in your Collective and instead of it being a third party entity of like boosters and you know your writing checks are for promotion of whatever uh it's going to be more like Detroit Mercy we're giving you a $25,000 check to come be the star on our team so Detroit Mercy already has a collective called The Shield that Shield will come I believe inh housee post the settlement that will likely happen in April and then as they're recruiting a student athlete they will have the ability to say here's your scholarship so your more standard athletic scholarship package on top of that here is your name mage Ness opportunity or or Financial offer and do you just like sign that over like right now if you if I had a year of Eligibility left which I do if anyone out there is interested uh they just like write you a check and you get it at the beginning of the season and you're just like chilling and well I think most schools have realized they need to really be intentional about one what's the what is the overall package here because at the end of the day we still want these students to go we still want these athletes to go to class right they are still St stud athletes they absolutely are so they got to do that and then that nil money depend on what the deal is because now you can pay student athletes for their name image likeness so literally it could be I want to pay you Nate and use your name image likeness to promote our season ticket sales yeah to sell jerseys or like I think they there could be a licensing but that needs to be a licensing give back to you too but you're going to go hire an adviser or an attorney as you should as a student athlete to make sure that that nil agreement is is reviewed like you should go just as today I mean most student athletes have agents especially at the power five level not not as much at our level but there do are there Horizon League athletes with agents uh they would probably call them advisers yes but they are absolutely taking what and that would be so if a collective offers a deal to a student athlete now in the Horizon League which is happening that student athlete has and this is legal can take that opportunity to a third party adviser or an agent and say what do you think I just can't like I was worried about like SAT scores and getting the fasta turned in and all that stuff and it's like now you're working on like licensing deals and this that and the other thing it's pretty complex it's comp so talk to me about this uh the house settlement deal and uh what's going on there multiple years ago um there's been well there have been multiple um lawsuits happening right they all got combined into this class action it's called like the word that you're seeing in the headlines is the house settlement and that actually includes three different court cases that's more like a law school lecture I'm not going to get into that but the point is these were different groups of student athletes suing for benefits or pay for play or shared broadcast Revenue but saying hey we deserve a share of the pie in a look back so looking back in Prior years the NCAA and the power conferences the power five were the named defendants so they reached a settlement with that PL of attorney representing however many thousand student athletes that settlement has to get approved by the judge and that judge is Claudia wilin out in California and she scheduled the hearing date on Championship day of the men's tournament as in April 7th so certainly be a very interesting day I think just before tip off think her hearing will start it's like at 4M or something crazy like that so at any rate the hearing um is set to occur that day if she approves the settlement I don't think it'll happen that day but she'll approve the settlement let's say at some point within 30 days of that hearing that's when then you're going to see I believe a lot of collectives coming under the umbrella of Athletics and are they going to have to pay the NCAA going to have to pay back and as part of that the NCA agreed so the exposure was 18 billion and this is for all of division one mainly the power five conferences so the settlement is um to pay 2.
8 billion in back damages most of that money 90% of it is going to power five football players 10% is going to everyone else and it starts with men's basketball and women's basketall basketball and then wait 90% of it goes to men's or just football players in power five conf because of the formula used the overwhelming majority of Revenue comes from college football well think about again I keep putting to this one because he was pretty open about like Johnny Manzel talks about how many number two Texas A&M jerseys they sold at $100 a pop like I don't know the number but millions of dollars I'm assuming in his merchandise sold that he didn't get a slice of and now that athletic career didn't really work out it's like a couple million extra bucks like wouldn't hurt under the changes of today he would get that money like whether the settlement goes through or not that's the new change of student athletes can absolutely get U make money off of their name and is this settlement I mean you guys weren't a name defendant or anything like that but is it affecting you guys yes because the the payment of back damages is being absorbed by all of division one and and candidly like this has been a of a bone of contention why are so many of us in the mid- major space absorbing some of this debt if you will when the money is not going to our student athletes it's not going to Horizon L student athletes over the P like in this look back of six years it's like a look back of five or six years the answer has been well because you are part of division one so you enjoy the reward you also have to take on some of the risk but it is absolutely affecting us wow yes and I don't know the bottom line of the NCAA or whatever but like $2 billion just pull money I don't even know the good news is if there is any it's going to be paid out over 10 years so that that gives a little bit of relief the NCA has healthy savings and then the NCA is essentially going to withhold money from all of us in division one for the next 10 years to a pretty hefty uh percentage do you think that we as the consumer will see that like will there be a way of like oh like broadcast value or something goes down or I do not at our level we going to figure out how to make it work and in particular we did like even in the Horizon League we did we said we're not going to affect even our student athlete championships so all of still they're all produced the gifts are there the experiences are there we're going to find other ways to absorb cuts at the power five level they're getting ready to enjoy a pretty significant increase in their college football contract which is not that money does not go to the NCA at all that's strictly outside of the NCA that just goes to the power conferences they're going to be fine all right folks Mother's Day is around the corner and I'm going to help you get prepared ditch the Amazon or Target candle and get Mom something from Warm Glow Candle Company they're based out in Centerville Indiana and they make some of the best candles I have ever smelled they have made my house smell unreal they aren't your average candle that burns out in 5 minutes oh no your mom is going to get tons of use out of this and every time she lights it she's going to be thinking about how you are her favorite child I love the apple cinnamon and the creamy vanilla bean but my absolute favorite is the blueberry cobbler it smells just like visiting my grandma's house after she spent all Saturday morning baking if you've ever driven East down 70 you have probably seen their massive candle where the shop is but you can also order online and they will ship them right to your door I know you're going to get your mom a candle for Mother's Day now you can do that and support an awesome who your business in the process head to warm glow.
com to check out all their amazing scents now let's get back to the episode they're going to they'll do all right I mean with the amount of money being thrown around I assume that they're going to figure out how to get this you know take care of the 2. 2 billion and go make 10 billion more whatever it is okay so when you think about you were at church church HD and antrum antrum and you had started their Sports law practice right what got you excited to take this opportunity with the Horizon league so when I left the NCAA I knew some folks at church Church Hill and Anum are ccha just to keep the acronyms going CA come on left the NCAA for ccha there you go there you go and then the HL there yeah just like that so with the ccha you know that's an Indiana firm that's been here for nearly 100 years I think more than they wanted to start a sports law practice and the attorney that wanted to lead that effort Kelly Fagan had intern with me at the NCA total all Allstar top of her class in law school so I said if you're going to do something I will do it with you because I know it'll be a success so we started it and the goal was to frankly represent institutions being investigated by the NCAA since obviously I had been on the other side of that and that was the practice we built up now I think it's we're up to eight or nine attorneys not only doing that but more importantly helping with Title 9 issues helping schools figure out this nil space and conferences there's there's really that group has really grown I've when I moved to the Horizon league and started there as a chief operating officer then I just moved into an adviser role but has continued to help build up this Sports law practice which is it does make sense if you're coming from an Insider to like know okay yeah go out and represent universities it's pretty fun and how long did you do that for a few years okay and then when came to time to come and join the Horizon League like what got you excited about that opportunity I missed really like the working if you will on a team in the midst of college sports I had no idea what happened in a conference office though I know about the Championships and I didn't understand about officiating about scheduling about figuring out where where do our championships happen and then and like we talked about how did our basketball championship come to Indie didn't understand that that happens the whole media contract when I walked in we were just in the midst of negotiating an extension of our ESPN media rights agreement which we took that over the finish line and we since have done it again there's so much that happens in the conference office and I I love it it's been a great experience and then how did you end up working with sports Corps as well uh so that is purely volunteer I was just probably because I work in college sports was asked to join their events and strategy committee was probably now five years ago and really enjoyed that working with some real um just strong leaders here Dennis Dy in particular I feel like he's with shill ston but he is behind the scenes for any major sporting event Happening Here on Sports Court board but then uh through just serving on that committee then there was a opportunity to move into a stronger leadership role as board chair and I absolutely said sure and for those we haven't done like an official Sports core episode yet like give uh the listeners a a feel for the work that Indiana Sports Corp is doing so Sports Corp founded in 197 n first one in the whole country and it was a recognition by our city leaders at the time and you think of icons like Jim Morris and uh Tom King who said we need to really make Sports part of our strategy and it was primarily our economic strategy but also our unifying strategy to give our city and state something to Rally around so that's 1979 and the goal was let's be the capital of amateur sports right and so we hosted the PanAm games hosted other key events we did an episode with Milt Thompson and Milt talked all about like he flew down to Cuba and met oh my gosh it CRA he tells some he's already a good Storyteller but when he talks about what brought the PanAm games to life it was really really cool well and J Morris used to tell the story of riding in a golf cart with then NCA president said Dempsey who was a mentor of mine when I was at the NCA and Jim said to S what do you think about the NCA relocating to Indie he said s nearly fell out of the go golf cart and then said that's actually a good idea if you think about it that was the Capstone of Indie achieving the capital of amateur sports right getting the NC headquarters to move here now 25 years ago so now fast forward or 40 years Indie has hosted the Super Bowl how many final fours how many other Premier sporting events the sports Corp is has such a leadership role in bringing one all those events here so bidding on them and then two running them so that's primarily what sports Corp has done we now said okay we're about 40 years old what's next CU there are now over 300 sports commissions across the country we were the first everybody else is doing it including Vegas Nashville Chicago they're all saying all right we see Sports too we want to get on this we want to get on this train so that's why we recently launched our 2050 Vision which is really I would say the next iteration of where we were in 1979 when we said we want to be this well now we're in 2025 and we're saying we're going to be that what are we going to be I was setting you up a little oh what are what is the 2020 vision for the Indiana sports car so TW and by 2050 we want to be the global epicenter of sports the global EP Global epicenter so I I'm going I'll Define it if you want yeah please do when we launched this we didn't just sit in a room as a board and say okay how does this sound and and talked with our president Patrick TTY who was just incredible and by the way the prior president Ryan vaugh also I think really positioned the sports court for this moment and now Patrick and his his team with Sarah Myers have just let it knowing that we said all right let's go talk to the stakeholders over 300 different organizations interviewed surveyed all that good stuff we came out with okay we're going to build this ecosystem we're going to keep doing events but we know if that's all we do we we're at risk here we're at risk of Vegas or Nashville or other cities throwing more money and beating us out of some of these events Dallas right I mean so it's how do we keep doing the big events but make them even more special Beyond who's your hospitality we said well we got to build this ecosystem we want to be the sports Tech Hub and we've already done that with now with sports Tech HQ which would be another good podcast 37 Sports tech companies have located to Indiana yes I uh I talk with uh with Brian all the time and they're a partner of mine and they're doing some of their companies they have that have come here and are like in the works of coming here are crazy cool it's amazing so we we want to be the sports Tech Hub we want to be the place of sports education where any student that wants to go to research study learn about sports working in sports they're coming here right now Ohio University is a place where people claim oh I went to there and got my masters in sports Administration that needs to be happening here in our state because why wouldn't you if you can work the Super Bowl and final fours while you're getting your degree we want to be the place where sport organizations come so yeah we got the NCA here Horizon link is headquartered here USA Track and Field is staying here we're working to keep USA Gymnastics here what are the other 20 organizations we need to be recruiting here because when when you come here you bring your events you bring your staff you bring this whole ecosystem of people working and leading in sports what's the number one organization that's not in Indie currently that needs to move to Indianapolis oh I love that question I'm going to shoot for the stars here and say the US OPC Colorado United States Olympic Committee but it's Olympic and Par Olympic Committee they headquarters like that would be the reach if the Olympic Committee moved from Colorado usoc usopc moved here like that would be but so you got to build towards it by getting more NGB or national governing bodies right of different sports I think even getting National Association of Basketball Coaches there's a women's basketball coach association there's a lot of different groups we could get and that that takes me to the fifth pillar which is we want to be the capital of women's sports so if all of these things happen where a person that wants to study Sports is coming here a person that works and Tech is sports Tech's coming here Sports organization is relocating here then we could absolutely build towards being This Global epicenter of sport and then more importantly be the capital of women's sports I love that what 79 they made the claim like we want to be amateur capital of the world right and now to say we want to be the global epicenter of sports that's it is that it is that the tagline Indianapolis the global the global epicenter of sports and I think it's cool to come and put together like we know where we've been and now like having a 2050 vision is like you know you got to know where you're going and you got to shoot for the stars right and keep guiding towards W that Northstar I think it's super impactful work I'm on the college basketball marketing committee for sports score I actually have like a meeting tomorrow I think cuz we're hosting the final four next spring it's coming from San Antonio I believe to hear so it'll be super fun and it's it's awesome and I do think that some people take that for granted that we get to host these High Caliber Championship events that we have the NCAA headquartered here in Indianapolis we have the Horizon League here and and I mean a laundry list of other sports organizations but not enough there's plent of space for you too US Olympic and Par Olympic Committee we'll take you as well um that brings us to our next segment this is the younger years segment it's brought to you by our friends at or Fellowship they're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young Business Leaders across the state Julie what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self one would be uh it's going to be okay two and I remember being told this as a 22-year-old intern I went to a conference where support interns from across the country were there so the in I was an intern at the national office in can when the NCA was in Kansas City interns there from the Big 10 from the SEC right I mean I don't know like 50 of us and I remember people up on the panel talking the theme that really I kept hearing that frankly was new to a 22 my 22-year-old self was it is all about relationships to me at the time did not fully resonate cuz I came through college it was about grades and GPA day it was about working really hard on the basketball court and and then the win loss column and stats and all that I didn't understand the relationship piece and how true that was so in my intern class Vicky Chun 25 years ago more than 25 this was now 28 years ago she's currently the ad at Yale still a still a good friend at that time we were developing a relationship and it wasn't oh for the purpose of networking but I can't tell you how many times she and I have called on one another hey what do you think about this hey what do you think about that another person who I worked with for 20 years at the N say just called me last night about the house settlement she works in a different conference as an Athletics director division one school hey how are you guys thinking about this so it is about the relationship or whenever you're doing a deal with the ESPN because I know who this person is and that his dog matters to him like my dog matters to me like it is about the relationship and I don't think you can overstate that when you're a senior in college you think that it's like my resume and my accolades are going to get me these things and then you realize as you get a little bit older in season that like the person on the other side of the table is a person right and that being impressive on paper and being a relatable individual that people want to go to work with or do business with or any of those things like those relationships matter so much and for your personal happiness too just in terms of enjoying what you do because of who you're working with and then also candyy you're going to get more done because you're motivated to help someone and they're going to be motivated to help you I love that that is spectacular advice uh we've come to the lightning round where we just have some fun questions to round out the episode first question and I know you can't pick a favorite team or School within the Horizon league but is there an a horizon League athlete that you're really rooting for right now Jack gki who played for Oakland Oakland he's trying to make it in the pros he has such a passion for basketball which we saw it after he scored his 10 threes in the game against Kentucky I'm staying at the same hotel as the team getting ready for you know they playing Inc State the next day I get up early go to the workout room he's in there working out no way yeah and I just remember thinking did you say something like I just said like dude take it easy no I said I believe like go get him I do you go to like if uh Horizon Le team makes postseason you go to the games I do and I'm there I try to be there for men and women if they staggered days but yeah so thankfully I was there and I packed I packed assuming they were going to win by the way I had you know some you got to pack you got to plan win gear from every school um some but I usually just dress a little more neutral all right fair but at any rate um I'm I'm rooting for him because of what he stands for and I think even like I saw it there you know personally but I've seen the way he carries himself and then I mean just in terms of our current student athletes like I just being on the swim deck two days ago it's amazing like you you think about the hours that they put in without the the public accolades to then show up to give it their best in that in that pool like that that to me that's awesome aen and you were also a college athlete yourself I I played basketball long ago yeah played and you were an all American I was that's I mean that's impressive did you have a go-to pregame ritual back when you were playing you know I wasn't very superstitious I I just a little stitious you know I sorry I don't have no like I say this a lot I was a nerd like I studied a lot and so because I had an academic scholarship not an athletic scholarship so the pressure was on very clear to keep that GPA high and I mean I would literally like any bus trips I was studying the whole time so you know that was kind of my distraction I guess you could say that's fair do you have a favorite memory from your college boarding career it was my senior year we had one conference all three years record ended up being like 96 and 16 I didn't even understand how good that was at the time because over four years yeah we just we were good and and we were good before I got there and we were good long after they won a national championship a couple years after I graduated my coach did who I'm still close with today and I remember uh we're at weaton this is going to be way in the weeds here but no I need it it's Conference Championship is on the line we had to travel up to Wheaten and there you know a fan bus came which was a big deal for division 3 basketball but we had great fans traveled of course all the parents are there and some students and it's down to the wire we had to win the game to win the conference Championship and this would be year four I I didn't want to leave there right without us having this Championship three of us seniors had played all four years together I was roommates with one of them were still friends today like all this right so coming down to the wire 2 minutes before this I get elbowed blood gushing uh my eyebrow so I have to go out of the game and the you know the trainers trying to stitch me and this and that I was like you got to get this fixed I got to get back in she fixed it I'm back in the game and Coach calls a play does not have me taking the shot and I was like I coach I'm I I'll take the shot like get you know just give me the ball she was like okay you're right because I thought I could you know F senior I should be taking this so she drew the playup gave me the ball wait you you look at your coach you say no I'm taking the shot we had that relationship cuz I just felt like if if somebody's GNA miss it it needs to be me as well as I I was confident too but I was like this is a senior shot right because I think she had a junior taking it this is a senior shot she figured it was going to be they were going to have like a triangle in two and maybe put two on me because they assumed the ball was coming to me and I was like I'll just take it you know how sometimes you just feel good and I felt good I'm just like this is supposed to be blood's coming out of one eyebrow but she still it was a little tramatic and um I made it and we ended up winning and like we went up by one point you know it was like you had to make it and I'll just I just remember like looking up and seeing my parents seeing my coach like it was one of those kind of movie moments where that I will always treasure that and then we had the big celebration afterwards the community was really there for us but it was just a relief because as seniors we were able to deliver that you know the the fourth year I got chills heck yeah I told that story so you got it out of me love oh I mean I just think uh the the one thing super impactful or powerful that I I'm going to take out out of that obviously winning the confer Championship is great if someone was going to miss it it was going to be me yeah if I miss like I got the shoulders I can carry that and look myself in the eye but like I want that opportunity and I want that to be on me and I think that's like true leadership there's so many great life stories to take out of that I do think in a world where there's so many options to do anything you know like high school kids can start a side hustle make content on in Instagram play video games get a job yada y yada like why Sports you know I've always so when I left College I didn't even fully plan on working in sports and then I realized the N has this internship so I took that I was I mean I applied but I was you know accepted and then I figured I would go to law school which I ended up doing at night here at IU mcken and I'm really grateful they had the evening division otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get my law degree but I thought you know then i' I'd go on and be a lawyer doing had had no idea what type of law then I recognize as I'm working at the NCAA like you can actually your job can be in something you're passionate about now I feel like kids today hear that more yeah you're doing it um it wasn't it was a little more in my generation of get a job that pays the bills that that makes an impact that you feel like you're doing good and and and be grateful yeah it wasn't find your passion and pursue it so it you know of course my parents wanted me to be happy but they were like what's your degree and how you going to make money like so yeah and I think that yeah that's definitely The Balancing Act CU sometimes people overcorrect and it's like oh well playing video games makes me happy so I should just play and it's like no you have to you balance passion with but it's never been easier to balance your passion with also making money I would agree and there are especially today there's so many careers in sports if that's your passion or and that's what I realized is I really enjoy the subject matter of sports primarily because of the transformation that happens for so many people that not just play it but work in it and it's frankly fun so it's okay to have fun at your job it's still hard I mean I still travel a lot there days just like I get up at 4:00 a.
m. if I got to go someplace or there's lot I mean there are commitments just like in every job you got to work hard but if you enjoy it at the end of the day you feel good about it I couldn't agree more basketball easy sport to spectate lots of people like to watch basketball lot people like to watch football what is the most underrated sport to be a spectator of our cross country and our track meets literally see people giving it their all as they collapse sometimes across the Finish Line I mean it is the actual passion poured out uh to me I love that I'm also not a great Runner so I appreciate that even I would say track meets for sure or the end of a cross country meat yes cuz in the middle it's hard to spectate when they're like Here There and Everywhere but the end of it or a track meat and you're seeing that at the end and and it's like it's similar to swimming but you can't see as much of the like I don't know you just see everything like the last 200 meters of a mile run and you're just like holy smokes that's Cole Hawker right like that feeling holy smokes and track's cool because you've got the RAC is happening but you could also have field events happening so you've got the shot put being thrown the high jump I mean it's there's a lot happening there track me is like the perfect thing if you have like a kid with ADHD or something you're like do this do this it's perfect for me like keep him entertained well thank you so much we're down to the final three questions I ask everyone who sits in that seat these are all about the state of Indiana so first question what's some the world needs to know about Indiana I believe cuz now I've lived it you know I moved here only knowing the people that I work with now because of the ability to get involved like if you if you want to get involved using the i in here of get in if you want to get involved in this state it is a wide openen opportunity and you can really marry your passion with your impact it rewards those who put the effort in yes I could not agree more what is a Hidden Gem in Indiana I mean I love our Parks our family spends a lot of time when we're not doing the Youth Sports circuit going to Parks whether it's hiking biking on the trails I mean and I I love the fact that Indiana keeps those Parks up whether it's you know Turkey Run The Falls like there's just there's Cy Falls yes there's some my husband and I have made it a habit of every year for our anniversary trying to go to a different Park in the state to hike and experience it and it just it's a way to make sure we're we're going around and sometimes we take the kids sometimes we don't but I just I think our Parks like it's a and we need those you know like getting outside I think we learned that through Co the power of a good walk there's nothing like it amen uh what are what youth sports are you in the thrs of at this stage in life both girls are pretty heavy into basketball okay where is the best facility to spectate youth girls basketball The Pack Is So what's the pack stand for Pacers Athletics Center up in Grand Park yeah that whole complex up there is pretty remarkable we also spend a lot of time in Mojo up for known as fch Creek that's another great complex so and and the fun thing is there's courts all around so if the your game your kids in is a little bit of a lull you can go watch something else hey sometimes it be like that yeah um but I yeah I think those are good facilities I love it um final question uh you get to share the love with somebody else who is a hoer we need to keep on our radar someone who's doing big things her name is Ivory salmon she's a vice president president with Key Bank and that is not why I know her I know her because she's been a female for fever with me and which was something that Alice and Barbera started to get female leaders to come together to meet and then support the fever before the Aaliyah Boston Caitlyn Clark era when we were building in our building era so to speak then Ivory's now in the local organizing committee for the Horizon League she's on the WNBA Allstar board with me she doesn't just agree to serve she shows up and gives it her all and figures out how to take these events that we're involved in and connect them to the community Ivory salmon Ivory salmon all right and she's a you said VP atce president with Key Bank all right and I love that and I I love the idea of females for fever and I love that people have to kind of say like BCC or a ACC that is a milestone right a oh I was a fever season ticket holder BCC which I was by the way yes yes she remembers those days um cuz I mean and I would say if you're I I know Alison's doing a ton of podcasts the one that we got into this the raw stats on the bookings of Freddy fever and social media H and like all these random things that aren't just like tickets sold is crazy like we truly are very very blessed and it's this perfect storm of female sports in Indiana and I love it it's why we are going to be the capital of women sports that fifth pillar of the 2050 Vision full circle I love it Julie thank you so much for the time today thank you so much for all the work you're doing with the Horizon league with sports core uh it's incredible this episode today if you're listening before noon today you can still make it over to corteva Coliseum for the Horizon League men's and women's basketball championship this will be the semi-finals today the finals are tomorrow right Tuesday uh March 11th women's game a tips at noon on the 11th and men's game is 7:00 p.
m. you can walk up and get tickets or you can buy them online Horizon l. org backend yes the barbasol 2025 Horizon League men's and women's basketball championship at the ceva Coliseum we do have to say it is it is now called as of a couple months ago that's right the corteva Coliseum at the fairgrounds uh it's going to be a good time I'm sure I'll see you guys out there thank you so much keep up all the great work and uh we'll talk soon thank you thank you for listening to this episode of get in if you like what you heard make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcast this show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at sweetwater. com if you want to behind the scenes look at everything we're doing across the state make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik toac @nate spangle thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the hooer steak great we'll see you next time here on get in
