You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
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Cast Alan Clavier joining you. Happy Sunday, May 4th. 2025
dreary day here in. Bloomington this morning, but.
Always a good day to. Podcast and I appreciate you
folks tuning. In going solo.
On this one, not a. Terribly long.
Podcast today, so maybe. Good for a short dog walk or
whatever you do with short podcast.
But Part 2 of the mailbag we did a longer.
Mailbag myself and. Scott, couple of days ago.
So if you haven't had a chance to go back and watch or listen
to that, I'm going to tackle some more questions, including a
couple of new things that have. Come up since.
The last time that we. Podcasted so.
Going to dive into. That, and we'll have more.
Podcasts coming up here, relatively.
Soon, we're going to wait. On doing a football recruiting
wrap. With Taylor Layman until
probably. The middle.
Of not this upcoming week, but the week after.
Wanted to wait until more portal dust cleared but a lot of.
Good things going on for IU, including one edition in the
portal that I'm going to talk about at some point during this
podcast, but we're going to do. The full view, especially on the
recruiting front. Probably around May 14th or
15th, so don't get impatient, we will be working on that.
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All right, let's dive in. As we've got several updates.
Some. IU related, some Bloomington
related, and some that are happening out in the society
around us. First of all, a.
News item from last night that was really encouraging.
IU plugging a hole that had been generated during the spring
practice period as. Of course IU loses 1 receiver.
To injury and they add. Another.
One and this one is. One that Fernando Mendoza, the.
Quarterback for IU for this. Upcoming year knows.
Very well. His former target at Cal,
Jonathan Brady, commits to Indiana.
Brady 97 receptions and 11 touchdowns through the.
Three years he was at Cal, he was 1/3 leading receiver for
Cal. Last year had 36 catches through
13 games, 386 yards, 3 touchdowns and a nice pick up
for Indiana. You know, not a probably not
your number. One target, but.
Certainly a guy that's got FBS experience and power conference
experience and you know. 3rd leading receiver.
On the team in the ACC last. Year.
That's nothing to sneeze. At so another weapon for
Fernando Mendoza to throw to and kind of flushes out that
receiving core a little bit more, which I know a lot of
people had some questions about. We had seen from Taylor Lehman
on Bite Sized Bison about some of the options that they might
be going to in terms of trying to.
Fill a hole here or there, but this looks like they've.
Done that and that's that's certainly exciting to see I'm
looking forward to seeing who else if anybody IU decides to
pull in in the portal but. IU still obviously very active.
In between that and what we're seeing on the recruiting front.
It's been a really good. Spring.
So far for IU football, so we'll see what else.
Kurt Zignetti and the guys have cooking, but that one was a good
one to see. And you know, we got the
customary. It's a great day.
To be a Hoosier tweets. Coming out earlier in the.
Day about. That so it was nice to have a.
Little bit of advanced warning. On X about what was going on.
So good stuff from IU and looking forward to seeing what
ends up happening with the. Rest of the roster, as you know.
Obviously spring balls tapered. Off we got a long summer
awaiting the start of the football season.
We'll see what Indiana is able to do and.
We'll talk more about that. Again, in about a week and a
half, we had some questions just kind of in general about some of
the the various aspects going on outside in the world of college
sports and I did want to tackle. Those a little bit.
And then jump back in and talk some IU stuff because I, I keep
getting questions about what's going on with the, the house
settlement with nil, with all of these things.
We had a question. From Hoosier Gal in Iowa, can
you give an update on the latest happenings with revenue sharing
and potential implications? We had a couple.
Of other questions from folks. Who's your?
Dada asking what are the implications of Kentucky
spinning off their athletics program into an LLC?
Wouldn't they lose massive tax incentives we've got?
Several of those. Sorts of questions and you know,
it's almost impossible to. Answer all of them.
Right now in terms of. How everything's going to
ultimately play out. Because there's just a ton of.
Uncertainty going on in terms of the college model and how it's
going to eventually take form and and if that form actually
ends up being able to stay in one.
Place or if the courts. End up being a consistent issue,
but let me try to reset what's going on over the course of the
last month and then also talk about.
Where we're. At in terms of the.
Overall setup with college athletics.
And and how things might play out moving.
Forward SO you know, I, I said back in March.
That I was. Going to do a a podcast series
about nil and about revenue sharing and about this new model
and I'm still planning on doing that but things keep getting
added to the mix that kind of make everybody scratch their
heads and it's. Hard to keep track of.
What's going on So. You've got the.
Situation with the house settlement where Claudia.
Wilkin, Who's the? Judge in that case.
Essentially looked at the. Settlement and And for those who
don't know or or aren't familiar with the terms, the settlement
essentially did a few really important things.
First thing that it. Did was it said?
We're going to pay, you know, athletes that were in the NCAA
from like 2015 until 2021 essentially back pay in in a
repair for the lack of NIL money that they experienced during
that time period and then for athletes.
Moving. Forward the idea.
Was all right, we're going to establish a fund of or a fund,
but like a budget carve out of up to $21 million, the colleges
and universities and their athletic departments would pay
athletes directly and then that could be supplemented by outside
NIL. Payments, but all of those would
have to go through a. Clearing House of sorts.
To evaluate the deals to make. Sure that they were in concert
with fair market value, whatever that means in this case.
And it also essentially allowed the NCAA to create roster limits
on sports. So instead of having walk ONS.
You could have a larger number of scholarships.
But you'd have to give. Full scholarships and the
numbers. Would go up to a.
Certain level, but it meant that a large number of.
Athletes. Would not be allowed to
continue. As college athletes, they would
have to. Be roster cuts based upon these
new numbers I'm I'm. Purposely.
Kind of. Trying to keep this as simple as
possible. Well, a lot of those.
Athletes and their representatives, essentially.
Protested the. Settlement saying well, no,
that's that's not fair and that's not right and the.
Judge essentially agreed like she.
Asked the NCAA and its. Member institutions like please
do. Something about this have some
kind of a tapering in place. So that you don't.
Just have a bunch of athletes who are no longer.
Eligible to to play simply because you've.
Arbitrarily sat down that XY and Z has to happen by this date and
the NCAA and its member institutions, as they are, want
to do, said Nah. We're good.
We've already decided this is the.
Best way to do things and we're not going to listen to you.
So the judge said. I'm not approving the settlement
and I'm going to give you some time.
To try to figure this. Out.
And if you don't, I might not approve the settlement at all.
And so that's where we're at. Now it does feel like the
colleges and universities might finally take.
This judge's advice and. Do what she's asking.
You know this. Is this is not too different
from how we got? To our NIL situation in the 1st.
Place the NCAA. And its member institutions
have. Just.
Never gotten their heads wrapped around the idea that they can't
simply. Dictate.
Terms here, I mean they're. Very used to dictating.
Terms the NC. AA essentially for it's almost.
What I'm going to say, it's entire.
History, but certainly since the NCAA decided.
Back in the 40s that it was going to become the police of
college sports. They have gotten very used to
saying these are the rules and you must abide.
By these. Rules, and it's our.
Way or the highway? And so that you know when you go
back. And you look at the way the NCAA
has managed. Itself over the years.
That's been their approach. With almost everything and it's,
it's kind of funny because. The NCAA.
From an enforcement perspective. Has always just tried to
leverage its own schools. Like shame in policing these.
Rules that it has come up with. And.
Everybody would always fall in. Line and then what's?
Happened over the last. 15 to 20.
Years is that gradually we've. Seen Schools?
Not fall in line. Which has led to the courts
suddenly taking a closer. Look and saying these rules
don't make any sense. You know, and you, you look at a
lot of the big rules. Violations that.
That took place over. The course of the last 10-15
years probably the most egregious.
Being North. Carolina with their academic
fraud scandal, but. There there have been other
examples of this as well where, you know, schools have.
Essentially decided that they're not going to follow along with
what the NCAA says and they're going to.
Throw up a lot of barriers. In court to try to protect
themselves from being policed. From the rules that they
themselves have abided by for a while, we we've talked about.
This on the show before. But this?
Is a little bit different. Because what you're talking
about. Here wraps a whole.
Bunch of different things into one.
So you're talking about, not just.
Athlete. Pay, but you're also talking
about athlete eligibility and. That has been a big.
Thing that has grown in importance within the confines
of college. Athletics over the course of the
last couple of years as athletes have started to sue to get extra
years of. Eligibility because they know.
That if they are able to play high level.
Division One sports, especially basketball and football.
They have access to. Getting paid a much.
Higher amount of money than they would get in many cases by.
Trying to go and play. Professionally, somewhere and.
So what you've got? Going on, right?
Now is a bunch of different threads being pulled on
simultaneously that. Essentially affect the entire
NCAA model, not just, you know, should athletes get paid.
Or should athletes be considered?
Employees but what is eligibility You know we've all
we got used to this idea that well eligibility you get 4 years
of college eligibility you get 5 years to play those four that
was always how. It was and then it changed to.
Well, you get those five years to play 4 but.
If you're a grad student, you can.
Transfer and go play somewhere. Else, as long as they have a
graduate program. That you can go enroll in that
you don't have at your current institution then COVID.
Happened and it was. Like, Oh well, you get.
Everybody gets an extra year, so now you've got some guys playing
5. Years of basketball, Girls too,
Or football. Some people playing, you know.
Be able to stretch. That out, you've got injury.
Exceptions. You got all these?
Things you've got junior college players coming into the NCAA.
Saying, well, wait a minute. Why do the two years in junior
college count? Why can't I get extra?
Years. According to displaying at the.
NCAA level, why is that being regulated?
So that's being challenged in court.
So all of these things. Are kind of wrapped around the
same core set of issues and essentially where we're at right
now is this combination of of three.
Different threads. I would say 3 main threads
coming together. Simultaneously a.
You've got. An NCAA that.
Can't. Really effectively define or
defend. Its own structure from a payment
and. Eligibility system eligibility.
They probably have a better. Argument on in as much as.
There should be some. Standardized rules the problem.
Is they've given so many exceptions it's hard to defend.
Those rules in court. Compensation's a much harder
one, and this is. Where I think most people.
Still. Don't have their brains wrapped
around what's happened with the NCAA and not even like.
Our political leaders. So yesterday there was a
article. That came out, I think it might
have been 2 days ago, depending on when you're listening to this
about, you know, Donald Trump going to the University of
Alabama and then Nick Saban. And him having a meeting.
And. Essentially, I guess Tommy
Tuberville was in this mix as well.
The senator from Alabama, the former head coach at Auburn and
Texas Tech and Cincinnati. But you know, there's this story
and Sportico has a a. Some coverage of it today saying
that, you know, President. Donald Trump is.
Reportedly weighing issuing an executive.
Order that would attempt to place.
Restrictions on college athlete compensation and you know.
Essentially, the idea here is that this executive order would
theoretically provide stable and predictable rules.
For compensating college athletes.
So I guess the idea here and this has been.
Applauded in certain circles is like, oh.
An executive order saying that. College.
Athletes can't be recognized as. Employees, which seems to be the
one thing that the the NCAA is. Is the most.
Desperate to preserve this. Idea that athletes are not.
Employees, but the problem is. That.
The executive orders don't really have a lot of
enforceable. Weight when it comes to these
kinds of things, and you know it was.
It was a good. Article by Michael McCann the.
Lawyer that writes for Sportico about this.
I'm going to kind. Of paraphrase a couple of.
Items in this section that I think are.
Worth keeping in mind if you're listening to this and try to.
Figure out what's going on. For.
Starters an executive or I'm quoting the.
Piece here if for starters. An executive order can't.
Conflict with a federal statute if a court finds that college
athletes are employees. Within the.
Meaning of the National Labor Relations Act or the Fair Labor
Standards. Act they will be employees.
If a court finds they aren't employees, then they aren't
employees. There's also state laws that
supersede federal laws in certain.
States or certain ways, not certain states.
And this is where the legal elements get.
Get kind of complicated, but. You know, essentially there are
legal arguments that are working their way through the courts or
or already have that. When you look at the.
Way like you know again. Quoting here the new.
York labor law, The North. Carolina Wage and Hour Act The
Arizona. Minimum Wage Act define
employment. That they are.
Employees by those basic definitions.
You've also even got this whole idea of.
Restricting athlete compensation, which within the
college game I think is an important thing to keep in mind
because what you're seeing right now.
Is essentially an unregulated marketplace.
So when you're shocked that. You know a.
A a shooting guard. From the Sunbelt might get
1,000,000 1/2 or $2,000,000 a year.
In an NIL deal or you know, the BYU signed, I think Baylor's
point guard for. $3,000,000 a year like these are ridiculous
numbers. They're ridiculous.
Numbers when you compare. Them to what?
NBA rookies would be making under the same like the same
age. Basketball player, you know,
you're, you're limited quite a bit.
To what? You can make even as a high
draft. Pick until you get to.
The end of that rookie. Contract which is normally 4.
Years what you see. Right now is what happens when
there's a completely unregulated.
Marketplace a high. Demand for particular levels of.
Talent and schools and universities that.
Have the money right now and are.
Willing to pay it because that's.
What they have to do in order to maintain some level of
competition. With the teams that they're in
competition with. Nil is not a federal thing.
Nil, like the federal government has.
Nothing to. Do with nil per SE.
You know, I've talked a lot about how the floodgates.
Opened for nil back in. The summer of 2021.
But that was not. Some.
Kind of a ruling by the Supreme Court that said.
Hey everybody. Now you can do nil.
What it basically said that? Supreme Court ruling was the
NCAA. What you've been arguing about
how you can control athlete compensation doesn't.
Exist. It's not legally valid and this
is where. I think the NCAA keeps.
Hitting its head against the. Ceiling on all of these.
Rulings. Is that the NCAA?
From about the. You know the early. 1950s until
the present. Was kind of left alone.
To define this fantasy world where.
In. It was able to dictate the
terms. Of compensation for an entire
classification of people that were in turn, in many cases
making these colleges and universities a significant
amount of money, making coaches a significant amount of money.
But it was all essentially controlled under the guise of.
This thing called amateurism, which doesn't.
Exist as a labor statute. It's not something that actually
exists within the marketplace and.
The. Courts, when they finally looked
at it, when they finally had to look at.
The NC. Double as insistence that they.
Have total control over. How athletes could be
compensated even with like fringe?
Things within you know, like getting getting extra money for.
Food or stuff like that. That's really what the what the
Alston. Case was.
About that led to this, the court said this.
Is not something that you can enforce.
This, you know, you're essentially.
Your labor market is not so special and your business is not
so special. That it can supersede
employment. Laws.
That exist within the United. States you can't just tell
somebody they can't be paid. By an outside.
Party, you don't have any standing to do that and so
that's. Why?
What? We've seen over the.
Course of the last. Four years has been essentially.
The NCAA trying to get Congress to step.
In and say oh. Actually, they have a special
exemption where they can do whatever.
They want. And you know, that's that.
You know, the NCAA made a lot of.
Arguments during this whole process.
With this not just this case. But most of the other cases
saying that. Well, you know if college
athletics is professionalized and people.
And if the athletes are paid, then nobody will watch the
Games. It'll destroy our business
model. That's been proven not true.
As we've. Seen nil money go?
Up and up and yes. Certainly you've got people.
Who are upset with? The amount of money that's being
paid to athletes and some people who are like, well.
The game isn't the same for me, and yet you've got just as many
people. Who are watching and enjoying?
College sports attendance has not.
Dropped TV ratings have. Gone up.
And, you know, college. Sports continues to thrive,
essentially. But you've got the NCAA
consistently pushing against these ideas of not just.
Athlete employment, but also the.
General concept of player compensation, so this.
Idea of like an executive. Order fixing all of.
This sounds. Like.
Not a whole lot different. I think to the average person
than. Oh well, we'll get a, you know,
an. Exemption from Congress, we'll
get some kind of an antitrust exemption and and that'll solve
everything. You know an.
Antitrust exemption from Congress.
Would solve things because. That's where the power.
Can lie, but that's not what we're.
Talking about with an executive. Order which can't supersede
state laws, Nil. And this is where I think a lot.
Of people get confused. Nil is not a federal.
Statute. It's the right of publicity.
Right of publicity is not a federal thing.
It's a state by state. Thing and.
Right of publicity essentially says that you know people have
the. Ability to make money off of who
they. Are and what their image?
Is and that's not something that a federal court can come in
unless. You wanted to try to.
Pass a nationwide. Right of publicity law which.
Is not on the cards within this and so.
The NCAA again. Finds itself in this situation
with its member schools. Where it is, it is already.
Said that it wants to go to this.
System where it's. Paying athletes directly and
that is a step in the right direction just in terms of
fairness and equity and and reality.
But they're also trying to tell everybody.
We're not. We don't want anybody outside to
pay athletes. Because we want to be the ones.
Controlling things, which is essentially just a different
version. Of what we were.
Talking about in earlier eras and the problem is like there's,
there's not. Really a good.
Way to meter this out. Unless all of the.
Colleges and universities get. Together and essentially say
we're going to form a. League A a closed system like
the NBA, like the. NHL like Major League Baseball
and we're. Going to collectively bargain
with a group of people. In this case, athletes Bubba.
Cunningham, the North Carolina athletic director, had some
piece yesterday or some interview yesterday.
Where? He's like, you know, well.
I I. Favor a collective bargaining
model. But you know.
But I still don't think. Athletes should be employees.
And and this is where I. Think it's just like the message
is not getting. Across to college athletics
leaders, who are you collectively?
Bargaining with if they aren't. Employees would be the question
that you asked there. Like to to have.
A collective bargaining situation.
You have to have two parties. You have to have.
A labor union, which. Is made-up of employees and you
have to have. A trade group.
Essentially made-up of teams or colleges and universities in
this case. These.
All these things kind of fall into.
You know. It's a very confusing set of
circumstances that probably doesn't have a simple answer the
question about Kentucky moving. To an LLC model and whether
there would be. You know, negative tax
implications. You know, I think it's.
To some degree, it's an open question whether that ends up
being the model. I think it probably is, in as
much as if colleges and universities don't want to make
athletes. Direct employees, but instead.
You don't want to find a different.
Pathway. The pathway.
Might be to make Employee make them employees of an external
entity that is somehow connected to the university in terms of
licensing. The Marks and logos and.
Branding and using the arenas without necessarily having to be
a direct employee of the university.
I still don't entirely understand what the opposition
is to athletes being. Employees in as much as there
are. Thousands of student employees
on college campuses all across the country, including here at
Indiana University. You know I.
Employ several students. In part time jobs and they fill
in a time card and and they get paid and they get taxed on that
money. I mean, this is this is not a
new concept. Like all of this exists.
Within the college environment already.
So I do find the the the complete and utter resistance to
the employment model to be kind of bizarre at this stage and
for. Those who are like, well, this
isn't what college athletics is all about my.
Argument on that front is essentially that's an accident
of the court system. Not a reality.
Of the actual labor or job. Model that you've got in.
Place here where? You know by any definition.
You're, you know, yes. You can still go to school.
And you can be an employee at the same time like these things.
Do not have to be mutually. Exclusive.
It's just that employment triggers a bunch of.
Protections that aren't currently.
Provided to athletes. Which would be more complicated,
but it's something that's done in a variety of different areas
across the country and across. The world.
It's just that the NCAA and its. Schools have gotten very used.
To being able to. Dictate all of the.
Terms with these sorts of things, and that may ultimately
be at the. Heart of why they're so opposed
to the whole idea. Of an employment model is that
that would not be the case anymore it.
Would also be too expensive. For some schools to really
actively participate in or be competitive in.
But again, I think the. Flip side of that.
Argument is. That level of competitive.
Interaction or competitive balance?
Has been artificially created over.
Time by a. Business model that does not
exist in. Actual reality.
But just in the fantasyland that the NCAA was able to conjure.
Up over the course of the last. 75 years.
So a lot of stuff. To to happen here so you know if
you hear about an executive order fixing.
College sports, It's probably. Not going to fix college sports.
It'll be symbolic. But the chances of Congress, who
has the actual. Power, in this case, actually
getting together and fixing something related to the college
model. Or the courts.
Saying, hey, let's go. Back to the way it was.
That's probably not happening, so that's probably not.
Going to clear that much up for those of you out.
There who are wondering what's going on?
But there's a reason. Why?
And that is it's. Still very.
Confusing, and it's confusing even.
For those of us that have really watched.
All of these different cases. And all of these, these
different elements play out over the course of the last four or
five years. So I think, you know, we'll see
what. Happens I.
Do think ultimately the NCAA is going to have to cave on the.
The house you know items related to.
Roster limits and and the cuts that have happened and that's
going to create some problems. Because if they don't.
Do the settlement. They can now be sued.
In open court over. Lack of prior nil compensation,
which is. What the House case was about,
and it could literally. Bankrupt the entire NCAA 'cause
you'd be talking about damages potentially up to $10 billion.
The NCAA. Does not have 10 billion.
Dollars so we'll. Keep an eye on things and like I
said, once we get some clarity on the House settlement, I'm
going to go back in deep. Dive each of these areas.
Talk about how this started. How we got to, where we have
gotten to and and what it means as we try to move forward
through things. Let's go to some other questions
Robotic Hoosier asked. Are we going to see a college?
Basketball video game anytime soon.
It's actually kind of ties. Right into the nil thing.
I actually think we will. You know one one of the things
about the the last generation of college.
Basketball games. Which really was.
Sadly 15. Years ago, you had college.
Hoops which was by 2K. Sports.
My favorite of the entire. History of college basketball
video games college hoops 2K8 was the.
Last one that came out from that publishing house and then.
EA had a college basketball. Game that came out in 2009.
It was labeled 2010. Because the NCAA had switched to
a model. Where EA had exclusive rights to
basketball as well as football, but then they.
Stopped that game largely because it wasn't selling.
As well as they wanted. But then they.
Also of course. In 2013, and I know it was NCAA
14, but it came out in 13, the last iteration of the college
football game. They had to stop.
That. Because they were being sued for
using the names images. And likenesses of.
College basketball players without compensating them.
That's what the O'bannon case. Was about, if you remember that
now. Since then, obviously a lot's.
Happened. We finally had a college.
Football game. Come out last year it's.
A pretty good first effort. All things considered it, it
certainly had. Some problems but.
It became a relatively enjoyable game once you learn how the
systems work that game actually had.
EA paying players directly for. Their name, image and likeness
and their names were in the game.
That was cool to. See.
Because that was always. A reasonable outcome when it
came to this game and how it should be.
Just same way that it happens, you know, in it, Like in Madden,
for instance, there's a direct bargaining with the NFL Players
Association over name, image and likeness.
So it was nice to see the college game finally do The same
thing could happen 10 years ago. There's suddenly a bit of a
groundswell of interest in doing a college basketball game,
partially because it's been so long, but.
Also, you know there are. Elements of the college
basketball experience that I think actually translate pretty
well to the video game world. So I would anticipate that, yes,
we'll probably see something along those lines within the
next couple of years. I've heard some rumors.
Here or there I doubt. We'll see anything come out.
Like even if something got announced right now, we would
probably not see that get released until fall of 26 at the
earliest. So I wouldn't be shocked if we
heard an announcement over the summer that somebody was working
on that. I don't know if it would be.
I doubt it would be EA. I'm guessing it would probably.
Be 2K which would be great. You know, I, I think all things
considered, since they've already got the model and the
engine in place with, with the NBA series.
So keeping my fingers crossed. I've always really enjoyed
college. Basketball games on video.
On the video game system, so we'll see what happens there,
but I. I do think it will.
Happen. It might be next year, it might
be two years from now. And I think some of it's going
to depend on ultimately what happens with some of the
settlements that are going on, because ultimately that's going
to dictate how many teams are in a college basketball game to
begin with, because college basketball itself might change
significantly over. The course of the next couple of
years. Let's see, let's talk a little
bit more. We had a bunch of questions
about what's going on with the restaurant scene in Bloomington.
Kurt Gutskill or. I hope I I.
Probably mispronounced that. I'm sorry, Kurt, and.
A couple of others. Asking some questions on that
front. So.
I can tell you all. Like.
Restaurant wise, not a whole. Lot of a real huge.
Change from the last update that I gave, obviously.
This past year we lost a couple. Of long time restaurants in
Bloomington, Cafe Pizzeria decided to go out of business
right at the start. Of last year, the Irish.
Lion going out of business as well so now you've got a kind of
a you know the same general mix of higher level dining and
you've got a couple of new entries into the bar and and
beer scene although. We've talked about a lot of
those. Up to this point, so, you know,
looking at, you know, kind of what's at the.
Core of the. Bloomington experience right now
you've obviously got Uptown Cafe, which which had a big.
Menu revamp over the course of of the last.
I think 6 to 8 months. They kind of went back.
To some of their more classic menu options, which meant some
of the items that people have gotten used to have gotten taken
off but but Uptown continues to be an incredibly good,
incredibly consistent experience.
The Elm has continued. If you haven't been to the Elm
yet, I recommend giving it a shot.
It is basically it's second. Let's.
Close to 2nd and Henderson. I think it's between like Second
and Henderson and 2nd and Fess down there in Elm Heights.
So a few. Blocks South of campus, it's in.
A building that's had several. Different lives now.
It used to be a. Like a a small grocery store
back for those of you who were in school in the in the. 80s,
nineties, early 2000s and then it got renovated.
Was supposed to be. I think actually Blooming Foods
was in there briefly. And then they weren't.
And then it was supposed. To be a restaurant.
And then it wasn't. Then it was.
Going to be a brewery. And then it wasn't and.
Now it is the. Elm and they've been there for I
think three years now, three or four years, and it's been a very
good experience every time I've gone.
We actually had our back home network reunion dinner.
Back. There in February when
everybody. Came into town for the.
Live podcast event. Looking around elsewhere in
town, obviously you've. You've had a few.
Other new things open, There's a Taco Bell cantina open on East
3rd Street over by Red Lobster. And you know.
Across 3rd St. from Eastland Plaza I have.
Not been in there. I have friends who have gone in.
It's there's. There's a bit of an issue
because there's no. Drive through at that property.
I don't believe and so it's it's a little bit inconvenient to get
in and out of you've had some changes over on the East side in
that you. You took out both the the Taco
Bell and the. KFC there's no a car.
Wash in that location. But you know, there haven't been
a whole. Lot of like.
Immense changes in terms of like the actual restaurants.
Themselves, you do have new ownership, I think at Malibu
Grill and that's. Probably a place that needed.
New ownership it it had not been quite the same as it had been in
the past. You've got moving up the square
and in the. Square area you've still got.
Kind of that same. Grouping of places further
north, you do have the the the rebirth of Max's place which for
a. Long time was on the.
Square if you remember on the north side of the square.
You always have Samira there on the corner.
You had Groxy which? Became Cabello, which is still
there and then. For a while there was a place
called Q Billiards. Which then turned into Max's
place, I think around 2006, 2007 it was there.
For about 8 years. And then that turned into King
Doe, and then King Doe went out of business.
So this is Max. 'S place reborn, it's actually
up where the we're. Swinging pizza.
Moved after it moved out of its original.
Location on 17th St. SO.
Basically at the. Corner of 17th and college.
You've got square Donuts and then you've got Max's place.
Recommend checking Max's. Place out.
The pizza's really good. I have an open mic night there
It's it's. Relatively close to the.
Stadium areas but. You know it's but it's got some
parking both. Along the street and in the back
and so. Good spot to.
To go check out if you haven't been there already, and
certainly. You know a lot of.
Other restaurants and locations. Another one up in the the area
there in the northern part of Bloomington that I mentioned
when I went through everything in August is hard.
Work Brewing, which has added some food.
Options on top of having. A really good selection of beer,
so if you like beer I would go check.
That out that is essentially in the building.
Next to where? Colorado Steakhouse used to be.
For those of you who were around back in the 90s or two.
Thousands and remember Colorado Steakhouse.
Trying to think if there's anything.
Else that really sticks. Out in terms.
Of new additions. I can't.
Think of anything off the top of my.
Head that we. Haven't already talked about
recently. But we'll do a full kind of.
Reset of what's going on in the Bloomington bar and restaurant
scene. At the start of the football
season, about two weeks before, so we can.
Get everybody ready to go. For coming back to town and
watching IU. Play football this year.
Looking through seeing if we. Have any other questions that?
That make a lot of. Sense to talk about right now it
doesn't. Appear that we do.
It there was some interesting news last night about Anthony.
Wheel supposedly applying to get an extra year of eligibility.
And is not in the. Portal so.
There's a non zero chance that you might see Anthony Wheel back
in an Indiana uniform for next year.
I don't know what the chances of that are.
There is an argument there just in terms of again, going back to
the eligibility situation and what all that means, you know
it, it's. There are a lot of players for
whom they're. Looking at this and they're
saying, well, wait, if if I only played in like a certain number
of games in a given year, why should that count against my
eligibility? You know the NCAA has,
basically. Said well if you got.
Injured and you only played at a certain number of games, then
you get an extra. Year of eligibility.
Like, I'm players are asking in court, why does the injury
status matter? And I don't know what the NCAA
is going to argue in court about why?
It. Should have any like make any
difference? So, you know, Luke Goody, of
course, also still applying for a waiver.
We haven't heard anything, any news on that at this point, but
a non. Zero chance that both.
Leo and Goody might be in an Indiana uniform again next
season. We'll, we'll hold off on.
Speculation or judgement on that until we actually see something
happen. And that would be an interesting
scenario if that actually ended up turning out that way.
Anyway, that's going to wrap it up for this one.
I I wanted to keep this. Relatively short with the idea.
That we'll do another one of these relatively soon, but
hopefully some explanations for you all about certain things
going on within college athletics that might be.
Helpful as we. Push on through May here and and
hopefully at some point have an idea of who's getting paid what.
Who is the arbitrator of of who gets paid what?
And how? College athletics is going to.
Survive what is a pretty. Difficult time right now as it
tries to. To, well, both.
Readjust its business model and fight readjusting its business
model all on the fly. It's it's absolutely a crazy.
Time right now in college. Sports, so a lot more to talk.
About is we're moving forward with things we'll wrap.
Up with that my. Thanks to all of you for tuning
in, as always. And I hope you all have a
wonderful. Weekend and a wonderful first
part of May. Always my favorite month.
Of the year for Crimson cast and for the.
Back home network, I'm Galen Clavio.
We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, stay never
daunted. Bring back the bison.
So everybody.