Twins back on Comcast soon? + Bad Vikings news and a great Gophers accomplishment

[Music] it is your Thursday daily delivery I am Michael Rand glad to be back for another day hope everybody out there is having a good one as well and really good show coming up today Mike we's bicki gopher senior associate athletic director will join me here in just a little bit did you know that the Gophers Minnesota was one of just two schools two programs two schools to have players drafted in MLB NHL NBA and NFL this season it is true Mike rbii and I will talk about that as well as what other things the Gophers are up to right now as they Gear Up For The Fall season the Olympic started maybe you didn't notice that even it's haven't had the opening ceremonies yet kind of catches people off guard when they see the Olympics on TV when they haven't seen the opening ceremonies yet but I watched some of France versus USA in men's soccer yesterday not great for the Americans uh women's soccer team plays today so I'll get to that at the end of the show uh some Vikings stuff as there always is as soon as they start Camp um injury news not good for the Vikings and um Jordan Addison talk to the media yesterday so we'll get to that here in a minute good win for the twins which I'll get to in just a second first though what did I miss got to start with Comcast twins Diamond Sports again because there was a there was a a meeting a hearing with the bankruptcy judge again yesterday maybe some good news on the horizon for Comcast subscribers sounds like um Diamond Sports and Comcast are close to a deal that would put all of the diamond sports teams the B sports channels back on Comcast now no details in all of this on whether they would go onto a Higher pricing tier which Comcast had been holding out for my sense is that they would be um my sense is that Comcast wasn't going to do a deal unless they were on this higher priced here so if you if you have Comcast and you've been waiting for the twins to come back it's been almost 3 months it's been since May 1st that the twins have been off the air when they do come back and you want to watch the twins if indeed they do come back this year you might have a search charge on your bill now well we'll see what the details of that are more interestingly in all of this you know aside from the fact that hey this could be good news if if the if the bad news has been they're not on com Comcast anymore we can allow the good news to be they they should be back on Comcast soon hopefully maybe within a week or two um albeit perhaps at a higher price if we can if we can say that's good news and there's some bad news baked into that if your bill goes up but at least you would have access to them um so let let's take that at face value but other things emerging from this report were interesting Phil Miller from the Star Tribune writing about this um number one Diamond has asked for another delay in the confirmation of their restructuring plan we were supposed to have a confirmation hearing early next week where hopefully everything would get sorted out in terms of are they able to proceed and get out of bankruptcy we've kind of been kind of had that date those dates out there the end of July has kind of some final Clarity on this they have asked for another small extension as they work out the deals with Comcast as they kind of prepare for their finalized plans with the NBA and NHL don't love that we're getting deep into this we're deep into the summer NBA and NHL seasons are right around the corner we want Clarity on this everybody wants Clarity on this they just keep kicking this can down the road it was supposed to be mid June then it was late July now they want another extension delaying delaying delaying I don't like that piece of it because it just means more time to wonder what the plan is going forward I'm sure everybody involved wants to know what the plan is not the least of which is the the twins because as we've talked about as was reported again in all of the the swirl of what happened yesterday the twins are kind of at like the Nexus of this big problem right because with Comcast first of all Diamond Sports has the TV rights right now the linear TV rights to 12 teams you know the TV rights to 12 teams um but the Comcast teams are kind of bunched into kind of this group of six there's you know not all of the teams in MLB are heavy in heavy Comcast Market that are on B Sports North I thought this was interesting from the espn.com piece on this saying Comcast is most prevalent in the markets where the Braves twins Tigers Royals rays and Marlins play um however the Marlins Rays Royals and Tigers the fans of those teams have access to the balet sports streaming app you can get the you you can buy the what is it $20 a month here I'm assuming it's about the same in those markets you can buy the standalone B streaming app because they do have the streaming rights to those teams in those markets there's just a handful of teams that uh that that have streaming rights and the twins are not one of them only the TW of the Comcast teams of the teams that are most prevalent in the Comcast market and are also Diamond Sports Teams only the Braves and twins do not have inm Market streaming possibilities through b and of course the MLB streaming app is blacked out in the Home Market so the Twins and the Braves have really been hit the hardest in all of this with Comcast because you don't have a viable Standalone product and you are one of those teams that is in a heavy Comcast market so you can tell why this is impacting the twins disproportionately from that front from the other front they are also getting hit from this because they are one of only three teams that has rights expiring uh with Diamond Sports next year along with the Guardians and Rangers so twins have a lot at stake here in figuring out their TV future they've got to have next year as Phil wrote about um you you would imagine and we've talked about this you would imagine the two things they have to have next year are a streaming rights whether that's with MLB or through diamond or some other entity they've got to have streaming rights in 2025 you got to be able to have a standalone product where you can get access to the twins if you are a cord cutter if you don't want to have cable satellite whatever it is and number two you've got to have a resolution to this Comcast mess and it sounds like that piece of it hopefully will be resolved soon we'll see what the price point is on that we'll see when all of this gets finalized it does feel like they just keep pushing this further and further trying to run out the clock trying to squeeze teams trying to play it all all the way around and try to get you know get the most out of everything but you know I guess if the headline of this is that Games should be back on Comcast soon you can watch the stretch run of the Season hopefully um that's at least good news although reading the star tribute and comments on Phil Miller's story a lot of people are like hey I'm not paying more or I already ditched Comcast thank you for showing me the light I've gone with a cheaper product um too little too late I've already forgotten about the twins um watching them some other way listening to them on the radio uh my friend Chris adury listening to him on the radio things like that Dan gladen all those fine folks who do a great job with the radio broadcast things like that um so at a certain point when you've messed with this too long even if you bring it back you have hurt your product you have hurt your visibility so I'd be curious to see once the dust settles on all this how eager people they've lost people they've lost for years when these games haven't been on Dish Network when they haven't been on um Hulu YouTube you know people who have joined these other kind of streaming platforms that already that originally had Bal sports or back in the day Fox Sports North if those people are eager to jump back on board if they' or if they've just kind of determined that the twins are out of sight out of mind and have filled the void in their lives with other things that will be interesting to see how much they have lost and how much they can get back if you were one of the chosen ones who are able to watch the twins still on TV you saw a great one yesterday and even luckier if you were in person at a gorgeous day at Target Field twins win 54 over the Phillies a really nice comeback win they were down I believe 41 before rallying Max Kepler with the walk-off hit Kepler ties the franchise record for most walk-off plate appearances with 11 we don't say walk-off hits cuz sometimes it's a walk hit by pitch sacrifice fly whatever it is Kepler now with 11 of those tying Kirby Pucket and Harmon kbur that is great company to keep and interesting kep 33rd in franchise history tied for 33rd with 4,140 career plate appearances but tied for number one in walk-off plate appearances and of course KBW number two in alltime plate appearances Pucket number six so um you know those guys had almost you know KBW had twice as many play appearances as more than twice as many as as Kepler kilber had over 9,000 Pucket had over almost 8,000 so close to twice as many so don't realize quite how clutch Max Kepler has been over the years in these walk-off situations often coming up with the game on the line and delivering he does so again yesterday was a broken bat infield hit up the middle but putting the bat on the ball getting the run home doesn't matter how you get it done just matters if you get it done and he got it done Twins win the series two out of three against the Phillies one of the best probably record wise is the best team in the majors right now feeling a little bit better about themselves in terms of their competitiveness against the best teams they were 2 and 19 including 14 straight losses against the teams that are better than them in the majors right now coming into the series but to win two out of three they're now 4 and 20 you don't you're not going to take that record very often uh but at least on the upswing right now on that side of it feeling a little bit better about where they are got a good performance from David Festa that was nice to see they used an open with oer going at the beginning Fest it goes over four Innings just one run allowed seven strikeouts feel a little bit better about where he is too um still probably need a pitcher here um you know depending on what the health of Chris Paddock is great start from Simeon Woods Richardson the other day that that didn't go anywhere in terms of results because they lost but looking at the trademark you still think hey starting pitcher is something they need uh but they got the win yesterday and Max Kepler walks it off for the 11th time in his franchise history news was not good for the Vikings as they opened camp on Wednesday training camp Makai Blackman promising second-year Corner lost for the season with a torn ACL that is not the news they wanted to receive already a position where they you know saw that they needed some some reinforc ments of course this is not first and foremost but of course there is an onfield component to the tragic death of Kyrie Jackson the promising firste cornerback who was killed earlier this month in a car wreck um they signed Duke Shelly old friend Duke shell who was good for them two years ago brought him back signed him on Tuesday and then on Wednesday lose McKai Blackman who was probably going to compete for a prominent role in the secondary so now you're talking about um you know Duke Shelly probably playing some more getting some more snaps leaning heavily on a Caleb Evans what is Andrew Booth Jr the second round pick from a couple years ago what does he have to show right now um talking about of course guys like Byron Murphy guys like sha Griffin guys who they're are counting on in terms of you know veterans to play they've got they know they've got some topend depth they should be okay but you know like we saw if you know the depth will be tested right away if on the first day of camp you lose a guy to an ACL throughout the season stuff like that is going to happen as well so Vikings will need to address that perhaps even further or have some good camp surprises show them that hey maybe they do have more Talent there than it looks like right now but the Mike Zimmer you know Mike Zimmer always wanted more more more at that position maybe they are in the same boat right now uh because of what has happened already ready this month Jordan Addison by the way talked to the media for the first time since his arrest in Southern California um he talked about you trying to get trying to move past it trying to learn from it things like that here was Jordan Addison talking to reporters on Wednesday at Camp I know everybody going to have some questions about you know what happened a few weeks ago if I was y I would too but you know I was told by my attorney and my and my agent that I couldn't really answer too many questions on it but you know you know I'm just blessed to be here in front of you guys uh this probably the most peace I felt just being out here with my teammates and you know they've been walking with me they've been pad their arms around me the whole time the whole situation so you know really I'm just blessed to be here right now really I just just make sure I'm put it behind me cuz at the end of the day I got a job to do you know my job is to come in here and work so that's what I'm going to do I'm going to make sure I'm still ja you know they know my character they know my heart so I just come out here every day and just show them that you know I'm moving past it and I'm going to keep learning just take it one day at a time you know what I'm saying I'm putting one foot in front of the other and like I said I'm just going to come out here and score touchdowns for my team and just be a great teammate be a great son be a great brother and just keep learning from my mistakes know I'm saying I ain't got it all figured out right now but you know I'm just going I'm just going to keep moving forward we'll talk more about that on Friday's podcast expected to with Ben guestling covers the Vikings for the Star Tribune he should be my guest on Friday show like I said more on the Vikings more on the onfield stuff as well but um you know it feels like um Addison was took responsibility I I didn't maybe get a full Reckoning of this will never happen again it was more of a we're we're trying to move past it trying to learn I'm not a perfect person yet incomplete which is true I get that um just strikes me that this is a perilous position now this is two things obviously you had the speeding incident a year ago almost exactly a year ago this time and now the the DWI arrest in California still waiting for more details on that and he did not share any details um of of what happened exactly and what and where that case is headed but could be headed for a league suspension and now that there's two things you got to be careful right like a you worry about him and making sure that he's learned from it and nothing serious happens again because both of these things could have ended in much greater tragedy than they did um but like from a competitive standpoint the Vikings are leaning very heavily on their offense on Jordan Addison about the future involving him if something else happens you got to wonder about that future right you got to wonder can you keep tolerating things like this can you keep giving second third fourth chances those are questions they hope they don't have to answer they hope that he has learned from this he hopes he has learned from this frankly we all do we don't want to see that happen in any way ship or form so that's the big question going forward I don't think we have the answers yet but it does put the Vikings in an interesting and perilous position if something else were to happen Royal Credit Union smart checking accounts offer no monthly fees and no minimum balance enjoy Financial Freedom when you open your Royal Credit Union smart checking account online at rcu.org goeing insured by ncua good to be joined right now by Mike we bicki from gopher Athletics senior uh senior associate athletic director for external Affairs um thanks for joining the show how you doing I'm doing well Mike appreciate you having me on absolutely the impetus for this was something I came across I think the other day it was it was a tweet from college football Reddit I don't know if you go on Twitter a lot I don't know if you're on Reddit a lot uh college football Reddit is pretty good actually it's it's it's there's some conspiracy theories as as all as all reddits but um it's pretty good and so I just I didn't know this and pardon me if I should have known this before but the Tweet just it's a it was a very simple tweet just basically said um only two programs only two schools had players drafted in all four of the major men's pro drafts all of them happened in a fairly rapid sense you had the football draft in April but then you know basketball Hockey baseball are all kind of boom boom boom right there in you know June July um only two schools have players at least one player drafted in all four of those drafts this year Minnesota's one of them um Boston College I believe was the other one what what do you did you were you aware of this should I been should I have known this before uh whether you should have known or not I I won't answer that one for you Mike but I'll say this we we were tracking on it and obviously you know it's uh tremendous to see our student athletes um you know reach those opportunities where they're being talked about on on potential draft boards and and forecasts from some of those uh industry professionals and so we knew kind of where things were at and then kind of going into the baseball draft we're keeping an eye on things closely to see um we we felt pretty good that we'd have somebody but now when they were taken and what round um can kind of be a little bit Hit or Miss given the depth of of a baseball draft so we were tracking on it to to see how it played out and and obviously a really cool opportunity that uh to celebrate Minnesota and see our student athletes you know have their name called um for each of those four Sports organizations was really cool to see and and an awesome Testament to what our coaches and student athletes are doing here at the U ofm every day obviously hockey hockey is kind of The Eliminator for some programs you know not every Power five school plays you know Big Time division one hockey so you eliminate a good swath of like say the SEC by doing that but still you have to have players drafted like the Gophers had three players drafted I think in in the NHL draft think the third round Fifth and seventh so you're always you're kind of assuming you're going to get at least one gopher drafted in the NHL draft probably the trickiest one here is probably men's basketball usually you're going to have a baseball player draft especially because there's a lot of rounds um they've had think you've had five years in a row now at least of one player getting chosen in the NFL draft and this year of course Tyler nuban there was a pretty good betat that he was going to get picked you didn't know if Cam Christie was going to get picked you thought maybe maybe first round but probably second round you didn't know that for sure but the NBA drafts the hardest one only two rounds and it's hard to get drafted and you know have hard to be represented there but um it's just just the opportunity like but hockey you know hockey is hockey is the one where you guys have you and Boston College get kind of the upper hand on some of the other schools right yeah I think so right you're right mik you look at it and I think um I think you pointed out to it as our staff was doing the research and really credit to our athletic communication staff and you know tracking this and obviously knowing where where Boston College sat and and knowing no one else was really in the mix at that point and when you talk about the NBA you're right and I think that was another interesting statistic that our staff pulled when you looked at the NBA draft and you talk about you know that the finite number of players selected I think from our research there were only 31 or 31 schools who actually had an NBA draft pick in this year's draft so um right multiple schools had had multiple players you know selected so I think you're right you look at um how challenging it is to to get draft in the NBA really is another differentiator so there's no doubt about it right hockey um certainly has its own um opportunity to narrow that pool a little bit but having an opportunity to be represented in the NBA um was a tremendous one for for Cam and and how um fast he progressed in here his career at Minnesota was wonderful to see see him achieve that potential that I think if you talk to Coach Johnson or cam or talked about him coming into the U you know NBA was certainly on his mind and and he certainly has earned his way there um with a tremendous freshman year so that was awesome to see must be kind of a fun thing to to have within the department right because I me it's obviously good news and good God knows we could use some good news in a lot of respects and I've probably spent a little too much time sometimes talking about nil this or like what's going to happen that or football program how many games are they going to win this so probably nice to be able to trumpet that but also probably is is something you can you can put out there to donors necessarily or just like the general public like hey like whatever your perception of how things went in any of these Sports in the last few years A lot of them have had success but like whatever your perception of this whatever negativity might might be out there like hey we had we had guys in every single one of these major drafts get picked this year and that's you know that that's got to be a a positive thing that you guys can throw out there it certainly is and I think when you look at any of our programs and our coaches our student athletes and and the challenge that Mark Coyle sets and and president Cunningham from the top of the university is that we're going to have young men and young women who can compete academically athletically and socially right and and one of those is not a non-negotiable compared to the others and when when you can see them reach their greatest potential athletically and there's no doubt about it I mean everyone's seen the statistics of you know NCA athletes and 99% of them aren't going to go pro in their respective sport right they're going to get a great degree and go on to tremend professional opportunities but there's no doubt about it that every athlete whether it's you know the Olympics or it's competing in in professional sports here domestically you know reaching that potential um they're they're motivated that by that every single day so I I think there's no there's no question that when we can see these athletes achieve that have that opportunity to hear their name called and take that next step um there's such a small number of athletes who get that opportunity and so now it's up to these you know young men especially to go you know earn that and and you know make the roster and and find their way through a long-term career which is uh challenging enough but they're at that spot that you know so few people get a chance to hear their name called take advantage of this opportunity so you're right we do celebrate it um we celebrate it from our sports program we celebrate it from our coaches and and there's no question our alumni rally behind it seeing you know their past and looking at you know Gophers now who followed in their footsteps to to kind of take on that next step that they did so there's no doubt it's a lot of fun and so for each of our sport programs we follow along the draft we create some cool content we celebrate them with with they're going to professional teams and we'd love to say see them stay here in Minnesota doesn't always happen but wherever they go um now especially like the NBA we've got a little Minnesota pipeline out to uh the West Coast with a Mir coffee out there and now cim Christy joining the Clippers so naturally we we developed some uh certain preferences for various Sports organizations that have former Go Gophers on the roster there you go is that a lot of what you do in your role or how what you know for those who don't know exactly what you do how would you define Your Role yeah no it's a great question Mike so as you kind of think about our athletic department um you know my role overseeing a variety of our external functions is really about um things that impact our fans build our brand whether that is marketing efforts social media in-game production um licensing really anything that that we do from the athletic department um that touches our fan base is really uh something that I work on every single day and obviously um that drives to corporate sponsorships and and helping to support ticket sales and generating the revenue that we need to create to support our student athletes on the internal side of the house and make sure they have all the athletic training and strength and conditioning and academic support nutrition um which there's some you know Hefty expenses there so really my my day-to-day focus is what can we do to elevate our profile grow our brand drive that Revenue that we need to support um our athletic department and so that we're you know content and and seeing our student athletes and celebrating their successes and storytelling um certainly has a financial component to just keeping go for athletics front of mind and whether that be with alumni or season ticket holders or donors or fans or students you name it but also just a way that uh we can continue to make sure that we're celebrating the successes that we're having as you engage with fans I this is a slightly off topic from we started but as you engage with fans um so much change in the last two three years in college sports how much are they just like asking you like what's going on here what's where is this all going to how's this all kind of impact what what I what happens with the program I love things like that yeah it there's no question it's it's something that's uh we're talking about every single day and you you think about it you know three years ago July one of of 21 was when nil passed right and I think we've seen so much Evolution um we never used the word Collective before well now we use that word a lot um and so it certainly is a conversation I think you know um it's a little different that we're dealing with it every single day sometimes our our fans hit you know hear about this or hear about that or don't quite connect all the pieces but um I think there's still a lot of excitement about the future now I think don't get me wrong there's a lot that needs to get settled with the house settlement and and future opportunities of of what this structure of College athletics looks like but um you know I think when it gets back to its core of College athletics and and pride in in the institution and Um passion for run and gold um that's just as strong as ever with with our fan base and our donors and our supporters and there's no doubt it looks a little different um probably will look a little different in the future but I think as we roll around the calendar here to the fall and soccer starts competition cross country football volleyball um you're going to see that same level of passion um and support from our fan base uh like any other year which uh is a ton of fun and very exciting a lot of people in Minnesota say summer ends you know basically State Fair time for you it seems probably ends like mid July right like early July whenever you start turn the page to football we got media days uh this week for football they're going to be on the practice field next week right I mean it's it's coming fast for a lot of these Sports what's what's on you what's kind of on the immediate Horizon what's what's on your what's on your plate right now yeah you're exactly right and uh you know for for the motans out there you know enjoy summer while you can it kind of ends a little shorter for us as we prepare for the fall Seasons but it's exactly right you know we get a little opportunity in in mostly May and June that uh you know it's not as many events as we deal with in a normal um Academic Year but it's planning its strategies its budgets it's all of the prep work um before you actually get to August where from August really through April and into May um you know we're really heavy with events and obviously operating 21 programs you know you get your fall Sports up and running and the next thing you know October November is here and we call it crossover season as winter sports start and here comes basketball and here comes hockey and here comes wrestling and um so it it's really uh it moves fast and so really the the summer months give us a chance to to catch up exhale a little bit do all of our strategic planning really set our priorities and goal setting for the year ahead and so really that's what these next you know four to six weeks are as as as football and and volleyball and soccer start up is really honing in on on all of our different strategies to make sure that uh we've got everything ready to to hit the ground running for the fall Seasons as you set goals should there be a goal next year of adding WNBA to that draft list all all all five of them next year are getting keep adding to that Legacy I mean but really like you could have you could come close to this next year who's who's to say this doesn't get repeated next year right no I'm not going to put that pressure on Coach white and our our women's basketball staff but um you know what no doubt about it and I think you know we're excited with what they're doing and even only a year under her belt here at the U and and tremendous group of student athletes so um you're not wrong and I think you know I think maybe that speaks back to your question about the evolution of College athletics and where things are going and I think being in the Big 10 and you look at the new members joining our conference this year right officially here in August with USC UCLA Oregon Washington um there's no doubt that you've got some tremendous competition but also I think that just elevates the profile right and the visibility and the exposure of what our student athletes are doing so um I think it really is motivating but also um you know kind of sets the standard of competing in the Big 10 you're competing events the best of the best you know every single week which I think then sets us up for a lot future lot more future opportunities as as it looks to those professional opportunities our student athletes receive it should be an interesting fall winter everything like that a time of change as we talked about but sometimes change is good we'll see where it all shakes out for the Gophers um Mike where's Vicky from the Gophers athletic department appreciate your time today and I'm sure we'll catch up down the road again thanks Mike appreciate it thanks again to Mike rbii for joining me on that segment just for the sake of naming everybody sorry if I didn't already and of course it was Tyler nubin for the gopher football team he was drafted in the second round so was cam chrisy for the Gopher men's basketball team gopher's baseball team had two players drafted Connor Wick Griff in the seventh round to the Pirates and um Tucker nney went to the uh Oakland Athletics it was the third day of the draft a little bit further on down the board uh he was taken in the 18th round so two golers baseball players drafted and then three hockey players drafted all of them incoming freshman you had um uh Brody zemer in the third round John Whipple in the fifth round and Eric palson in the seven seventh round of the draft so those are the seven players drafted spanning those four Sports good for the Gophers um I'll be writing about that a little bit more today maybe I can dig into the history of that a little bit more let's finish with the cooler quickly Olympics they started did you notice that I think we were I was watching yesterday and there was people are like wait the Olympics are on already yeah soccer was on men's soccer us losing to France three to nothing not entirely unexpected and remember in the Olympics the men's soccer is the U23 teams not the full national team so it's a little bit different than the Panic from Copa America things like that but not a great result for the men us women much bigger expectations um they begin play today and the men's team should be okay too they've got a couple uh winnable games coming up in their group stage after that loss to France so we'll see where they can go from there but yeah Olympics going on already lots of motans of course you know Anthony Edwards nefisa Coler um Sunni Lee Cheryl ree a lot of Minnesota connections the swimmers they have the divers everything everything like that a lot of motans to watch in these Olympics um Opening Ceremonies very soon a lot of action next week so pay attention to that in case you were in case you were just kind of like going along like when's the Olympics going to start they already started they started yesterday and here we go from there that will do it for me today like I said Ben guestling on tomorrow's show talking more Vikings until then I am Michael Rand have a great rest of your Thursday back at it again tomorrow