This is an IHeart podcast.

And welcome in.

Lake Higg is live.

It is Thursday night in July, or July, if you prefer to soften the J.

Either way, it's the first of a month.

2021, year of our lord, here we are. They said we couldn't make it to July. I don't know who they are, but someone probably said it out there. And we made it and we got a jam-packed show. It's the last one before we cruise right on into Independence Day weekend. And we've got to talk about something that we've avoided a little while here.

You know, I hadn't done a whole lot of NIL talk. And the main reason is because you don't care about it. You have told us emphatically in the viewership numbers. However, as is the case sometimes, we'll have to challenge ourselves around here. I think there is a way to talk about what happened today within the context that's going to interest a lot of you. You've probably heard, if you've been on Twitter, you've been listening to Talk Radio, you've been on message boards anywhere, you've probably heard people talking about how they think this is going to be the death knell or one of the many death knells. Everything's always dying, of course, in college football for the sport. I don't think it's going to be that way.

There will be ups and downs. There are with any set of changes. But I want to dive into that. We won't do it for 15 minutes, but we're going to do it in just a second. Recruiting wars in Florida are back. This is a good thing for all of us. It's even a good thing if you're a Florida a state fan or a Miami fan. We are going to discuss, I have right here, you can't read it yet,

but you hear it if you're a Florida state fan or a Miami fan. We are going to discuss.

I have right here, you can't read it yet, but you hear it if you're listening on the podcast, a very juicy quote by Manny Diaz. I mean, very juicy. Like, picture an orange down there in South Florida, and you squeeze that thing. It's juicier than that. We will discuss. I'll share the full quote with you. Also, Notre Dame may have just struck gold.

Is the pun, yeah, puns intended. They may have struck gold with a new higher up there. Recruiting wise and on-field-wise, all-encompassing. So it's a very fun Venn diagram. If you're looking at the Notre Dame situation right now, and the transfer portal, it's not closed, but a certain date has lapsed that you needed to be in by. So we're going to call it closed for now. And we can start to do an

inventory. And there were a few names, big names that jumped in at the last minute that we need

to discuss. So we're going to do all that. We got a really good show. The no offseason approach

has been working very well around here,

in fact, so well that I want to share some numbers with you very quickly. As you know,

I sometimes against the better judgment of management, share some numbers with you on here.

I was looking at our metrics the other day, podcast, YouTube, all of it, VOD, And our numbers are up 15% month over month. But then they're

up 25% to month over month. So I think about it, and it's June. June, on the college football

calendar, most people just draw a skull and crossbones for the entire month of June. This is their

offseason, but we have preached no offseason for a while now, and you guys followed through emphatically. And so in the time of year where your numbers are supposed to be dwindling and you're supposed to be taking a dip and everyone's on vacation, you guys may have been on vacation. You've been listening to the show and carrying the show with you everywhere you've gone and telling friends. So thank you for that. You know our marketing budget,

our entire marketing budget can be found in this little thermos here. And as you can hear,

when I'm shaking it, there's no rattling. So you guys are all the marketing budget. Thank you so much.

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