Two sports marketers (Jake Kranz and Tyler Webb) interview the most unique people in sports, business, marketing, and technology to learn about the ideas shaping the future of the sports industry.
Why 92 Percent of College Athletic Departments Lose Money
Ten years ago, a few thousand dollars in player stipends was supposed to be the end of college sports, and now schools pay athletes millions while 92 percent of athletic departments still lose money. Tyler and Jake sit down with researcher Greg Chick, who has filed thousands of public records requests to track where the cash comes from and where it goes, to unpack why the Saban effect is shakier than it sounds, how the term “student athlete” was invented to dodge a lawsuit, and why the NCAA is a cop asleep on the beat. Along the way they ask whether football eventually breaks off into its own league, what taxpayers are actually buying, and why nobody can agree who is in charge.
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⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:37 From Admin to PhD
02:12 Where the Money Comes From
05:44 The Saban Effect
06:46 The Front Porch Theory
09:47 The Amateurism Myth
11:51 Birth of the Student Athlete
14:58 Paving the Cow Paths
15:47 The Family Budget Problem
19:04 What Is the NCAA For
21:41 The Caste System
23:24 Funding the Olympics
24:40 Fake NIL
26:14 Where the Data Hides
29:15 Wrestlers Making Six Figures
30:07 Donor Fatigue
32:17 Horse Racing Math
34:34 Taxpayers in the Stands
37:28 The Spider-Man Problem
39:43 Why the NCAA Sleeps
41:42 Football Breaks Away
44:55 What to Watch Next
46:43 Guest Wrap-Up
47:49 Solo Debrief
50:57 A Million Paper Cuts
54:19 Outro
28 Oct 2026
A Paratrooper Inspired the Ankle Brace Now Worn Across the NFL
A paratrooper walking into Notre Dame Stadium sparked an idea that has since put an unusual ankle brace on NFL and college sidelines: strap it on the outside of the shoe instead of the inside.
Tyler and Jake talk with Gavin Ferlic, the lawyer behind TayCo, about how an athletic trainer’s fix for his own players spread by word of mouth, why a design built on the same principle as an I beam is about two and a half times more stable, and how the brace is named after the inventor’s wife and daughters. They also dig into a special operations study, the line between injury prevention and performance enhancement, and the surprising truth that most TayCo wearers aren’t football players at all.
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:33 A Lawyer Walks Into Sports Medicine
01:48 The Paratrooper Moment
04:13 Built in South Bend
05:20 First Game Action
06:30 Beyond the Tape
08:11 The I Beam Principle
10:44 Not Just for Athletes
13:25 Why Tape It Anyway
14:28 Word of Mouth
15:41 One Word: Confidence
17:11 Custom to Injection Molded
20:04 Who Approves This Thing
21:40 Prevention or Performance
23:21 Special Ops Test Group
25:08 Baseball and Golf Bonus
26:13 Is It a Fashion Statement
26:47 The Football Research
28:34 Notre Dame Owns the Patent
29:48 Beyond the Ankle
34:41 Obvious Ideas Win
37:21 Outro
21 Oct 2026
A Network With No Commercial Breaks and a Bet Against Cable
Barrick Prince watched the cable box peak in 2017 and bet his entire career on what comes next: live sports delivered through streamers and creators instead of channels.
The founder of Creator Sports Network joins Tyler and Jake to explain how a Twitch experiment with Thursday Night Football cut the median NFL viewer’s age by 11 years, why he invented a brand new category of broadcast rights, and how a company with no commercial breaks actually makes money. Then the hosts push on the hardest questions, like why Netflix and the big platforms haven’t just done this themselves and whether anyone can afford to wait for the industry to catch up.
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:45 Uncharted Territory
01:27 The Cable Peak
04:28 The Odell Tangent
05:43 Betting on the Puck
09:08 Wrong About Twitch
12:36 No New Channels Needed
14:11 Leaving Twitch
15:57 The One Championship Test
18:02 Network and Affiliates
22:04 Zeros on the Check
24:42 Inventing a Rights Window
28:34 Brand Safety
30:30 One Brand, Three Hours
32:26 Upstairs, Downstairs
36:44 Why Not Netflix
42:03 Just Hang Out
44:40 Solo Debrief
45:14 Do You Buy It?
48:35 A Path for Broadcasters
49:38 More Than a Network
51:56 Outro
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