Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.
and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.
Good afternoon, everybody.
I'm Todd Alba, along with Aaron Zommer as our producer and engineer.
It is six past the hour of 12 noon on this Tuesday, February 25th, 2025.
It is a great day to be Wisconsinite, sunny skies in downtown Madison, the world headquarters, where it feels like spring.
Mr. Zommer is looking for temperatures in much of the state near or above 50 degrees.
The old groundhog in some prairie, Jimmy appears to be right for right now, spring being a little early this year.
I'll take it.
Yeah, today I had just a thin sweatshirt on the way in and that was too much.
Yeah, I may be topless by the time the show is over.
I have my Wisconsin hoodie on.
Much to mom chagrin, but it's warm in here.
It's very, very warm.
So we toast.
But look, first world problems, that's the least of our problems.
Huge show today.
Important show coming up by here at the bottom of the hour, our very own Luke Mathers.
Little Tuesday tangents with Luke's dirt.
Talk a little news, a little sports.
Find out was grinding his gears.
The Wisconsin Badger men's badger.
basketball team trying to get back on track tonight, they take on the fake UW.
We say University of Wisconsin, UW, right?
Well, these yahoo's out in the state of Washington, University of Washington, they call themselves UW as well.
So it's the battle of the UWs.
The Badgers versus the Huskies tonight broadcast starts at 7 p.m.
Across many stations on the civic media radio network, including Amory, Wisconsin Rapids, Racine, Kenosha, and Richland Center.
You can also listen for free on the civic media app.
More on that with Luke a little bit later.
Then also at hour number two, what's worse, pitting two major U.S.
cities against each other.
But.
Both of these places have mayors that have fallen really short lately.
New York City and Los Angeles.
We'll talk about that.
And then at 134, and this is something I am really looking forward to, Kelly Meyerhofer, who has been on this program before.
She is the great higher education reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
She wrote an absolutely powerful story.
yesterday, it is the story of Sarah Scholes or Scholesia, we'll get the correct pronunciation from Kelly when she comes on, dealing with mental health and college athletics.
Sarah was runner at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who died by suicide in 2022.
Her mom talked to her six weeks before and said she never sounded happier.
Her mom tells Kelly in the story,
That's one of the things of death by suicide.
It's so unpredictable.
And you're not going to want to miss it because the ending to Kelly Meyerhofer's story is incredible.
Be here for that in hour number two at 1.30.
But first of all, get to some headlines this morning, breaking news courtesy of channel 3000.com, the CBS affiliate station here in Madison over the last half hour.
Many people, even if you're not from Madison, are familiar with Tyrell Basin, big ski hill area here just outside of Madison in Mount Horrib.
The owner of Tyrell Basin has been arrested last night after a teen reported being physically assaulted for being on the ski hill without a pass.
Dane County Sheriff's deputies responded after receiving a report of a distraught teen.
walking along the road near the ski hill at around six o'clock yesterday evening.
The 17-year-old boy told deputies he had been on the ski hill without a pass.
The staff had asked him to leave and he reportedly complied.
However, as the teen was walking away, Tyrell Basin owner Nathaniel McGee
McGree, pardon me, and another staff member allegedly followed him off the property and physically assaulted him.
The team reported that McGree made him return to the ski hill and pay $120 twice the price of a regular pass and the team complied.
Online records show McGree
was booked into the Dane County Jail at 946 last night.
He faces charges of disorderly conduct and physical abuse of a child.
The news does not get better in Milwaukee.
According to WISN channel 12 matter Milwaukee television.
The Milwaukee Police Department have arrested four individuals in connection with the death of 15 year old Mackay Neil.
whose body was discovered in a burning vehicle.
Police said four people were arrested in connection to the homicide, a 39-year-old woman, a 24-year-old man, a 21-year-old man, and a 21-year-old woman.
The car was found in an alley on the city's north side at 26th and Locust streets.
Neil, who is identified using dental records due to the condition of the body,
Criminal charges were referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office.
15 years old, according to reports, Maka'i Neal was a star quarterback on a football team in the Milwaukee area.
15 years old and a 39 year old woman, a 24 year old man, a 21 year old man and a 21 year old woman, four adults.
Allegedly.
Kill a 15 year old kid in a burning car in Milwaukee.
What in the hell is going on?
Turning to international news From yesterday an important vote in the United Nations yesterday The United Nations adopted Ukraine's resolution condemning Russia aggression and demanding
the immediate withdrawal of Putin's forces, marking the war's third anniversary.
The United States get this joined Russia, North Korea, Belarus, and Hungary in opposing the resolution.
The United States, Russia, North Korea, Belarus, and Hungary
Three years ago would not have had that on my bingo card as being a new alliance, but yet we should not be surprised Steve Wyckoff Donald Trump's negotiator and special envoy Was on CNN with Jake Tapper over the weekend Tapper asked him Look, you're an envoy or negotiator.
Yes, we get it when you negotiate both sides have to make concessions
What concessions do you believe that Russia should make in ending the war with Ukraine?
Here's Steve Wyckoff, Trump's negotiator.
It's been putting a lot of pressure on Ukrainian President Zelensky as you just noted and laying out the concessions Ukraine will have to make to end of the war.
What concessions will Russia have to make?
Well, I think in any peace deal,
Each side is going to make concessions, whether it's territorial concessions, whether it's economic concessions, I think there's a whole array of things that happen in a deal, and you'll see concessions from both sides, and that's what he does best.
He brings people together, he gets them to understand that the pathway to peace is concessions.
and consensus building.
And I think you're going to see a very successful result here.
We've been struggling with this conflict for three and a half years.
No different than Gaza.
The president has basically said to himself, we need something more purposeful.
What we've been doing in the past has not worked.
Now it's time to get something to work.
In other words,
if you listened to all that at the end of the day,
According to Special Envoy Steve Wittkoff, Trump is not asking Russia for any concessions.
Meanwhile, over on Fox over the weekend, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also weighed in on Ukraine, even the Fox hosts, trying to get Hegseth to admit the truth that it was Russia who is and was the aggressor.
three years ago yesterday in firing the first shots unprovoked on Ukraine.
Even Fox trying to get Hegzeff to
confirm and admit that here's the cut.
Poliski should come to the table because this economic partnership is an important thing for the future of his country.
And we hope that he will very soon.
But fair to say Russia attacked unprovoked into Ukraine three years ago tomorrow.
Fair to say
it's a very complicated situation.
Fair to say it's a very complicated situation.
That's Hegseth, response secretary of defense.
Answer, wrong.
Even Fox knows the truth.
Even Fox News stating it plainly that Russia is the aggressor.
And Hegseth just muddies it up by saying, well, you know, it's a complex situation.
The United States yesterday voting with Russia and Belarus and North Korea in my opinion is the final capitulation The United States under Donald Trump sent a very clear message They are no longer interested in an alliance with Europe with our American allies And are now in an allegiance with what Ronald Reagan
the Republican president who once called the USSR Russia the evil Empire and Reagan was right and HW Bush and W Bush largely maintained that same line as did Republican nominees for president Bob Dole John McCain and Mitt Romney as did Democratic presidents Bill Clinton Barack Obama and Joe Biden not until Trump
Has there been a switch in alliances from freedom and democracy to authoritarianism and dictatorship?
Indeed a sad day for the United States of America 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2.
Let's go to Mark and prayer to sack Mark.
Thanks for calling.
What's a
you?
What I would say here is that here we make the victim have to pay the concessions.
For God's sakes, what's next for these guys?
For rape victims, they have to make concessions so they're rapist.
Let's see a number of women that have been raped by the Russians coming through.
The children kidnapped and murdered and people that's murdered by Vladimir Putin.
And Trump is down on his...
I mean, you might have an image of Donald Trump kissing Putin's feet, like the image of him kissing Musk's feet.
I mean, it is just, it's disgusting.
It is just disgusting.
And, you know, the, unfortunately, FCC rules, you know, don't allow me to use the full.
We appreciate that.
It's Russian here, but it's just ridiculous that, that Donald Trump should be ashamed and Ron Johnson's office are taking calls today, but I mean, that I called and complained, but Ron Johnson, what did he sell?
Got a run, Mark.
Up against the clock.
Yeah, agree with you, Mark.
Thanks.
Up against the clock.
Come on back.
Take your calls.
And also, why, on this one thing, I agree with Donald Trump.
We'll tell you when I come back on almost-showing-cinepedia.
and having fun doing it.
Welcome back to the Town of All Show on the Civic Media Ready Network.
It is 21 past the hour of 12 noon.
Luke Mathers Tuesday tangents with Lukester coming up at the bottom of the hour after the farm report with the great Pam Yonkey, the self-described fabulous farm babe.
Do you not want to miss that?
Looking forward to that.
What's worse, an hour two, New York City.
or Los Angeles.
But by the way, both of these mayors are in hot water, two Democratic mayors in hot water.
We'll discuss that later on.
And then really looking forward at 1.34 in hour number two, Kelly Meyerhofer of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel will be here and talking about this very powerful story that she had reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel yesterday, the story of Sarah Schulze on mental health.
And college athletics right now talking about Donald Trump talking about Ukraine and the fact the United States voted with our adversaries Russia and North Korea well adversaries up until Trump They voted against a resolution in the UN Marking the third anniversary of the Ukraine war in which it said that Russia was responsible for
for the war, which is the truth.
There's no gray area there.
Russia unprovoked attacked Ukraine.
Period.
Period.
And yet the Trump administration voted with Russia, Belarus, North Korea against the resolution.
8-5-5-7-5-2.
4-8-4-2, let's go quickly to Whiskill.
Paul, Whiskill, always a pleasure.
What say you?
Thanks for taking my call, Todd.
I'd agree with Trump on two things, only two things, getting rid of the penny and the daylight savings time.
All right, very good.
OK, that's about it.
And as far as just to follow up a little bit with Mark said,
I'm yesterday and I think I can say this.
It's got to be a WTF moment for the whole world.
And I don't know who our friends are going to be if anything does go wrong.
I just want to mention two quick things in passing here.
Number one, I'm trying to visit as many national parks as possible.
I've been all through the West and I can't figure one I've missed.
I imagine there is everything from glacier all the way down the Zion.
They're beautiful and they need to be protected and you need enough staff to do that.
I don't get this.
You're not going to save enough money to not protect them.
The other thing, Pat, is Medicaid.
For having sex, you have to have some safety net for people.
Sure, there's probably some waste somewhere.
This state doesn't take that Medicare extension, which is kind of dumb.
But in any way, I drive a handicap people around in my part-time job.
i don't think people understand how many people need help and you know this is the way the republican party's not the republican party anymore it's the mega party and these people are just sitting heartless i mean medic k all right
I hear,
I hear you, Wisco.
Always appreciate you.
Thank you so much.
Keep her between the lines out there.
Eight, four, four, eight, five, five, pardon me, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.
Going to Angie, down a beautiful Monroe.
Angie, you want to talk about Ukraine?
What's the?
Yeah, um, I was just wondering, could you see Putin using Trump and us losing all our allies and then Trump or and then Putin going after us?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, I don't think that's out of the realm of possibilities.
No.
Yeah.
And that's why I think that
they're,
no, I appreciate it, Angie.
And that's why I think that, you know, people say, oh, well, what's happening in Ukraine is an important and Trivio Olsen has said this much better than I have because he actually worked in Eastern Europe against Putin.
What happens in Ukraine is absolutely essential to the United States for our security.
What it means because we still at least for today Have an alliance with NATO if Trump is to continue his march across Europe or part of the wall Maybe that was a Freudian slip if Putin was to continue his march across Europe Poland is next Remember a NATO an attack on one is attack on all if Putin attacks Poland.
We are obligated to go to their rescue along with the other NATO nations
Although that is now under question under Donald Trump 8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2 Gene listening on WCFW in Eau Claire.
Gene, thanks for calling.
What's
he?
Thank you.
You know yesterday We were talking a little bit about Trump's personality issues and same with Elon Musk and you know, they got these narcissistic personality Factors and you know like
Trump reacts to criticism with billions of rage.
I got my book out here.
So, you know, and it has a grandiose sense of importance, exaggerates its achievements and talents, expects to be noticed as special without appropriate achievement, fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance.
uh... in in a sense of entitlement and reasonable expectation i mean everybody have to tell how wonderful he is how good he is he's a constant attention and admiration lack of empathy inability to recognize and experience how others
feel.
And another thing too that Matt brought up yesterday and I thought it's important because a lot of people don't understand sadistic personality disorder and it's a pervasive pattern of cruel demeaning and aggressive behavior and humiliate and demean to people in the presence of others and immune to take pleasure
in
that
type of thing.
The guy actually has a lot of problems, Gene.
I'm up against the clock here, Gene, but I appreciate the call.
855-752-4842.
Let's go to Carolyn calling from the 2-6-2.
Carolyn, thanks for listening.
Thanks for calling in.
What's the...
Yeah, actually, I'm from Van Ordens District, which is sort of the western side of Wisconsin.
Oh, yeah.
I just have my old number.
Oh, okay.
Very good.
Very good.
The
comment is, it's 1984.
If they say right, we should go left.
If they say up, we should go down.
An example today is a resolution on the health floor.
I called up the person answering Van Orden's phone.
There's a particular person that's rude.
But there are cases where they're nice and you can have a conversation with them.
They claim that if I went to the site, looked at the bill, you'll see that Medicare is not being addressed.
And that is actually not true.
And I cite that in my Facebook page on page 44 of that resolution, Medicare
Falls under.
Um, I gotta look it up if you don't mind for a second.
I got, uh, we're up against the clock.
Carol, we'll check it out.
And,
uh, it falls under the commerce and energy.
Okay.
And they're looking for eight and eight billion dollars cuts or million dollars cuts with Matt's Medicaid.
Exactly.
Yep.
No, Carol.
They're absolutely going after Medicaid.
And, uh, you know, Joe Biden called him out on that on the, on the house floor during his last state of the state address, uh, back with Luke Mathers.
Also, yes, we will play the cut for you.
Donald Trump, Pam Bondi on something I actually agree with them on.
Stay tuned.
It's the Todd Allball Show on the Pacific Media Ready Network.
on the Civic Media Radio Network and it's 34 minutes now past the hour of 12 noon on this Tuesday, February 25th, 2025, last week in February.
How about that?
But never the last word from our next guest, the wonderful, the fabulous.
You know him, you love him.
Back from vacation, Mr. Luke Mathers.
How are you?
I was back last week.
Well, I know, but I feel like it's, I don't know, I feel like it's been a while.
Were you thinking of gone longer than I actually was?
It felt like
it.
We're happy to have you back.
Well, glad to be back, Todd.
Yeah.
Here's some breaking news across the wires.
courtesy of CBS.
We've talked a lot on this show about the two-year campuses in Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin system being closed down.
About half of them now have been closed, according to CBS Penn State University.
has identified a set of 12 branch campuses that could close as the university faces financial pressure and declining enrollment called Commonwealth campuses Penn State had has 19 satellite campuses away from state college that offer classes and some undergraduate and graduate degrees Luke we've talked about before but public education higher education
Not a priority for some folks.
No, not unless you strap on the pads and play some football on Saturday.
That's true.
Unfortunately, the the satellite campuses that are in communities throughout the the portions of the state that that do not benefit from the the fact that they have a a team in collegiate sports.
Yeah, they they unfortunately they're they're seeing
that they're on the chopping block.
They're getting closed and turned away.
And so it's going to have a major impact on a lot of different communities, not only here in Wisconsin, but Pennsylvania, and I'm sure
it's going
to be the unfortunate trend in other areas of the country as well.
Just want to put a quick plug in.
An hour from now, speaking of universities, going to be talking to the great higher ed reporter at the Milwaukee Journal of Sentinel, Kelly Meyerhoffer is going to be here.
She had just an absolutely long form story yesterday in the Journal Sentinel called The Pressure on Student Athletes Keeps Mountain.
For one, UW Madison runner, it was too much.
It's the story of Sarah Scholesy, who died by suicide in 2022.
It's a story about mental health, about college athletics, and an ending to this story, Luke, that
I got a little choked up on.
So it's very powerful.
I think it's pertinent.
We don't talk enough on this show and other places I feel about mental health.
And so I really appreciate Kelly Meyerhofer's reporting and her being here at an hour.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to hear that conversation between you and
Kelly.
Should be fantastic.
Right now though, Luke, here's a sentence that will surprise a lot of people.
Donald Trump did something yesterday.
I agree with.
There you go.
a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.
Let's play the cut.
Who's the blind squirrel?
Let's play the cut.
President Trump yesterday with his attorney general Pam Bondi.
Pam Bondi sitting there and explaining this new gun reform measure.
Now, I know I'm getting older.
I'm no young stud like Luke here.
My memory is short, the mad cow disease, but correct me if I'm wrong, Luke, I believe
about four months ago during the campaign, we heard do not vote for Vice President Kamala Harris because she and the Democrats are coming for your guns.
We want no part of any sensible gun reform.
And then when Tony Evers earlier this year in his state of state address proposed sensible gun reform for people who are struggling with mental health issues and are going to harm themselves or others, let's remove guns out of their hands.
And we heard nothing.
But from the NRA and folks like that, no, no, no, we can't do that.
Do I have that right, Luke?
That all sounds correct.
With your young brain.
All right, very good.
Zombers, let's check it by another younger brain.
Is that correct, Zombers?
have two young brains saying Ty's memory is not foggy.
That's what happened.
But here's what happened yesterday at the White House with President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
We've been rewriting it and we are going to bring in something called the gun violence restraining order.
So if someone is civilly committed, typically you can hold them for up to 72 hours, but people are getting out within 24 hours, the majority of them.
So what we want to do is let law enforcement come in and take the guns.
They're a danger to themselves or others.
What you can't do right now.
without being adjudicated.
So because they're a danger to themselves.
You want
them to take the guns
and not
go through six months of legal...
trials and everything.
Exactly.
But we also have to give the mentally ill the due process in which they deserve president.
So what we're doing is they're going to be able to take the guns when they're taken into custody or into the hospital.
And then when they're released within 24 hours or 72 hours later, typically it's 24 hours, but law enforcement will have 72 hours to determine whether they should give those guns back or they can go to a judge and say, your honor,
Please keep these guns.
We feel this person is still a danger to himself or others.
So this would not have
worked the way it's currently constituted.
This would not have worked with crews as it's currently constituted.
As it's currently written.
So you're going to make
change.
President Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and again, Luke, keep me honest.
That sounds very similar, if not exactly the same, to some of the sensible gun reforms that Vice President Harris was proposing in the campaign last fall and that Tony Evers is proposing here in Wisconsin in his State of the State address last month.
Yeah, I mean it is a pretty common sense approach to addressing a
shockingly high number of gun deaths from individuals that are harms themselves or to loved ones when there's domestic violence and in households like that.
And so if there are instances where law enforcement
can come in and remove firearms from those situations.
It would improve health outcomes for abuse victims, but also individual suffering from mental health crises.
And so
it is a
common sense aspect.
It was also a common sense aspect when
in, I believe, the wake of the Las Vegas shooting.
I could be getting the year wrong.
I want to say 2017, 2018, during the first Trump administration, there was a common sense approach to say, hey, let's remove bump stocks.
It is not something that should be intended to make something that is semi-automatic, a automatic weapon.
And so bump stocks were removed after the horrific outcome of that shooting in Las Vegas at a country music festival.
There are very powerful special interests that have unwound those and went through the courts to prevent even a common-sense approach like that.
So yes, I think it is an important step, but this isn't something that Trump can just... I haven't read the full aspect of what
Bobby...
I believe this needs to be an act of Congress.
This isn't something that you can just...
wave a wand and do, but it needs to be
all parties getting together.
Well,
that's
the thing, though, is
I think a lot of the things that are being done unilaterally like that are going to see problems in the courts.
And if we can have stakeholders involved, both Republican and Democratic members of Congress, pass this and send it to the president.
Excuse me, an attorney general that can enforce this.
That would be a huge step in addressing gun violence
in the nation.
I'll call it like I see it.
I disagree with the president on
Most things, but on this one particular issue on sensible gun reform, I think it's the right thing.
I'm just struck and saddened that it takes Donald Trump to say the same thing that that Vice President Harris and Tony Evers say before Republicans will get on board with it.
And it is.
Well, there
are those special interests, though, that are going to go and still stay, even though it is.
That's what I'm waiting for, because I haven't looked a lot.
I saw this yesterday.
haven't looked a lot.
I haven't seen that yet, which I find.
Very interesting.
on this?
Yeah.
Well, we'll see.
Remember, for those that might not be regular listeners,
I'm a guy who owns half a dozen firearms myself as a long time gun deer hunter.
I don't really that much anymore.
I still occasionally hunt birds, pheasant and turkeys.
And I believe in ownership of guns.
I also believe in sensible gun reform like this, like red flag laws, like waiting periods, like background checks.
And last check, keep me honest, Luke, I think in the Marquette Law School poll here in Wisconsin, most Wisconsinites support
those things I just said overwhelming
majority
of
Wisconsinites.
Yeah.
And these are all people like me who are either hunt a lot more than me or hunt occasionally like I do, or just like to go out and skeet shoot or clay pigeon or whatever.
mean, as the governor said in the state of the state, hunting, trapping, fishing, these are our traditions in Wisconsin that should be maintained and preserved.
And nobody is talking about doing away with those, whether talking about sensible reforms like President Trump and Pam Bondi or.
talking about there.
So maybe you never know.
There might be an occasional ray of sunlight where something actually gets done.
And I guess in these days, we'll take it when we keep it.
I don't want to spend a lot of time with this one, Luke, but I want to just mention it quickly as we continue to kind of suss out what's happening in DC with Musk and Trump and how this affects us in Wisconsin.
There's a great piece.
These folks, the Badger Herald, I mean, these are student journalists, but boy, they got a program there and do some great.
journalistic work.
And folks at the Badger Herald, you can find it at BadgerHerald.com, the story.
U.S.
Department of Education cuts funding for UW teacher training partnership with Milwaukee Public Schools.
The Trump administration cancels over 600 million, 600 million in teacher quality partnership grants at universities across the country, including UW.
You can read the entire story here.
I'll just read you a couple of lines.
Look at your take on this.
Since the partnership is not a DEI program, it is not focused on any particular identity group, but its grant proposal articulated the program's goals of recruiting from as diverse a group of applicants as possible, which could have been perceived as contradicting
The Education Department's current interpretation of discrimination, I'll use the quote-unquote, which includes the targeting of specific groups in hiring, says terminations like these threaten to make people feel like the field of special education has the potential to be undermined.
And the person being interviewed says, she's telling students that regardless of whatever changes are in the education department, there will always be students with disabilities who need additional support and specialized instruction.
To put it down in layman's terms, what this program did was provide funds to help educate people to be special education teachers, which we are in dire need of in this state.
And now 600 million being cut for that program just in Wisconsin for UW.
by the Trump administration.
Yeah.
And this is why folks, the term audit should not be used at all from this department of quote unquote government efficiency.
Like if an audit was being conducted, programs like this wouldn't be cut.
Correct.
You would see a program like this and be like, yes, this is a good thing for special education students throughout school districts in the entire country, but specifically also here in Milwaukee public schools.
being able to have the resources and recruitment of teachers.
And I will push back to the aspect of, oh, it's an anti-DEI, anti-diversity equity inclusion.
It is important to be able to recruit teachers, not just for special education, but teachers as a whole from the diverse swath of the state of Wisconsin and the entire country.
When you see the teacher shortage that we have, it is one way to be able to address that is also having more teachers that look like more
students.
If you only have teachers that look like white males or white women, you have an entire education system that are not going to be there for black individuals, for native populations, for Asian populations.
If you don't see somebody in the career that looks like you, it is one of those burdens that will keep you or prevent you from even thinking about going down the path of teaching.
If you don't see yourself,
and being able to be in that future role, it is a shooting yourself in the foot problem when you try to, even in the name of something like that, cut programs like this because it is just not beneficial to solving the real problems that our communities face.
To your point, Luca, people wonder, well, does that work?
Our good friend, now departed friend, former state Senate Majority Leader, Senator Tim Cullen of Janesville was on this program most recently in September before he passed away in December.
and talking about exactly this, this foundation that he has set up, where he offers full ride scholarships to about a dozen students, high school kids from Rock County to go into education.
And the only requirement is they come back to a school district in Rock County and teach, I think Zombers, keep me honest, it was three or five years, I can't remember which.
In any case,
Senator Cullen mentioned exactly what you do, Luke, that so many of the people that take advantage of these are minority students that come back and teach and the success rate has been phenomenal with people in the schools of Beloit and Janesville saying it's so refreshing to have a teacher that looks like me and has had those same experience.
Yep.
Come on back, a little rambling with Luke, not rambling, but tangents, I guess, with Luke Mathers on the other side.
Talk about the SEC and Big Ten that was grinding Luke's to his gears.
It's the Todd Allballs Show in the Civic Media.
We're ready to open.
Crossed America's national parks, one park at a time.
Camping in the woods and listening to this Spotify playlist, Luke Mathers.
Spotify is important when we're out there.
You gotta download this playlist before you get offline.
Right,
yeah.
You can't get service out there in other places.
Some places, some places, but we knocked out four at a time.
It wasn't one at a time this time.
But I'm a, now see, let's get off the quick tangent here.
I'm a big believer.
When I go to like a hike like that to a national park into the woods along the lake, I ain't going to put on my my old ear buds, iPod buds, whatever they're called, because I want to hear the natural sound of the wind, wind and, you know, the loons.
I want nature, Luke.
Do you put
your buds in when you hike?
No, no, no.
Usually your buds are reserved for if I'm doing a workout or something.
But if I'm out in nature, I'm trying to take in.
the nature and I'm usually trying to get away from this thing.
Exactly.
I'm fine with the phone being off for most instances when I'm gone.
We're here with Luke Mathers on a Tuesday Tangents with Lukester.
I want to just play a part of this cut.
Came out yesterday from a podcaster out in the pack.
12 or whatever you're packed to right now, um, it's called the Monty show.
And this guy's legit sensible, reported and, and he has a report here and it's kind of being talked about at other places.
Well, yahoo sports.com and other places that the sec and the big 10, of course, were of which the Badgers are a part of our.
trying to do a coup of sorts and trying to create a super league when it comes to football, here's a little bit of the reporting by The Monty Show.
Absolute bombshell this afternoon coming out of the SEC and the Big Ten as multiple sources have now confirmed to me that the Big Ten and the SEC are working on an expansion model to create a super league by expanding with the Big 12 and the ACC.
Sources also confirmed to me that there is absolutely room for top tier G5 programs to be included in this.
incarnation of a Super League that the Big 10 and the SEC have had.
I am told, substantive conversations about, and I am told this program has real momentum.
It is backed by private equity because it is going to create bedlam in college football.
If you are going to the Big 12 and the ACC and you are trying to pry,
programs out of those conferences, it's going to be expensive.
We already know that the Big 12 in the ACC and the Mountain West, amongst others, use a very similar grant of rights that is ironclad and very difficult to get out of as Clemson and Florida State have learned the hard way, but.
That's the Monty's show on YouTube channel.
They're a reporter out of the former Pac-12, not the Pac-2, just Washington State and Oregon State.
So far, although I think for next year, they've added some other universities to
it.
Yeah, it's not really a Power Five.
It's more than a Power Four and a half.
Exactly.
But, Luke, what do you make of this?
Again, it's not just the Monty's.
The other places are reporting this, that private talks are underway by the Big Ten and the SEC to break away from the NCAA, at least for football.
and to create this super league in which they may take select schools from the big 12 and the ACC as well and divide those up.
And this big money now is behind this.
Yeah, I don't think there is a lot of money in sports.
Like there is so much money.
A lot of money.
And so for the longest time, the dirty little secret was like, oh, whether or not players got.
paid underneath the table to, you know, come and do recruitment.
And then, uh, we had a transfer portal where, oh, you had to sit out a year of eligibility if you wanted to change schools.
And now it is, it is truly like the wild, wild West.
Like we've already seen kind of a super league get formed here with the big 10 because there's 18.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was trying to do the quick math.
I was like, yeah, we had less.
Uh, and so like we already have kind of this super league.
We saw the, the realignment that took place.
Last year, you already see the college football playoffs changing their their model away from just four teams to to expand that playoff.
It led to some interesting games.
But
again,
it just it ate into more of the the television broadcast times because you went further and further of season.
You had more games to play.
You had
more
ad revenue to sell or commercial space in those games to sell to make revenue.
And so it is it is a lot of money.
I don't.
Without some proper guide rails, though, it just does not sound like a good idea to me.
My knee
jerk reaction is just like, this is just for boosters and TV rights deals and a lot of money to be made selling the Ozempic ads and Torrito ads and all the insurance ads.
And it's just like, just please, please, just.
I don't think it's needed.
It's just not necessary.
A minute and a half to almost two minutes.
What do you want to do?
Grinding gears or talk about the Badgers?
It was pretty grinding the gears to throw away that game.
You're talking about the Oregon Ducks
coming into Wisconsin over the weekend and beating them after Wisconsin has a 17 point lead.
Yeah, you heard like the.
The chatter around town was, oh, this could be a final four team.
Once they beat Illinois tonight.
They still could, I think.
Yeah, I know.
But the conversation was when Illinois came to town, or we went to Champaign,
I
forget which
one it
was.
They came here.
And we beat Illinois.
And it was like, if we can really have a good show, we beat Illinois by 21 points or something like that.
They had the flu, but yes.
Still, they put up like 95.
I'm
not trying
to take away
the win.
I'm just saying Illinois was out at
full strength.
And so you all of a sudden have this game, you have this game where Badgers were up by what, 17, 16, 17 points?
And they find a way to squander that lead.
And Greg Gard said it best, I think, himself.
He said, we beat ourselves this weekend.
And they hadn't done that all season.
And so the question becomes whether or not they can prevent any bad breaks like that.
throughout the March Madness that is about to be upon us.
Or if this is all of a sudden, you know, a lingering sign of what's to come, where they're one bad break from a really early exit from the tournament.
Badgers take on Washington tonight.
Broadcast starts at Select Civic Media Stations.
And for free on the Civic Media app at 7 p.m.
tonight, Big Test Luke's going to be at the Breslin Center at Michigan State here a week or so.
Yep.
The next Wednesday, I believe.
All right.
Thank you, Luke, so
we appreciate
you.
Have a good day.
Come on back.
What's worse?
And Kelly Meyerhoff for hour two on the Todd O'Ball show for a Tuesday on the Civic Media Radio Network.
