Podcast Attorney Bob Rust and Dennis Atiyeh & Andrew Kardos March 3, 2025: Foreign and Millionaire Student Athletes Contribute to the Decline of College Sports
Background
Robert N Rust III (00:02.258)
…Dennis has got quite a background himself. He went to the University of Pittsburgh, played first string all four seasons, went to every major bowl you can think of, and was a top collegiate wrestler. Actually wrestled in the Olympics. Great family man, great businessman with eight children, think it’s three boys and five daughters, all of whom are athletes…In the prior. podcast…talked about what’s happening with women in sports, straight women who are having to sacrifice to get where they are losing positions to people from the LPG movement, males, so-called males, so-called females acting, where actual males in the sport. We also focus on what’s been happening.
Sports Statistics
Robert N Rust III (02:21.938)
…We’re going to go even deeper today. And accompanying Dennis today is Mr. Andrew Kardos, whom you see. Andrew is a younger fellow. He’s also participated in sports, lacrosse, and he’s coached lacrosse. He is a Penn State grad, double major, …And he has done some research that I think you’re going to find quite revealing.
Foreign Student Athletes
Dennis Atiyeh (06:00.886)
If his records are accurate. So here at heavyweight and that weight class alone this year, we have three individuals that I believe shouldn’t even be wrestling this year. I mean, look, move on, go hit the UFC, go hit MMA stuff, go play football, go play, fake wrestling, but give another heavyweight a chance. That’s three opportunities. We live in the great state of Pennsylvania, New Jersey. Wow. Awesome wrestling, Ohio.
New York, the whole country got, we got awesome, awesome heavyweights. Now, why are these three guys wrestling in the heavyweight division? They shouldn’t be there. As much as I respect them and love them, the NCAA just continues to blunder and let foreigners come in and wrestle and take a possible medal or championship away from our local guys. Remember it’s the NCAA…
So if you really look into this, soccer, field hockey, I mean, you name the sport from A to Z, baseball, these foreigners are coming and there’s a foreign invasion that’s got to stop. And looking at the heavyweight division right now, I would tell you guys, you know, there are other problems. Look, look…
Wrestling Tie vs Overtime
Dennis Atiyeh (12:37.458)
To wrestle seven straight minutes, right? So now the match is tied. This should be over. It should be over. These guys are going to get an education. They’re not there to tear themselves apart and run themselves into the ground. Get injured, get sick. No, no, no. Two points. Each guy gets two points. You have to draw. You’re going to see them in the tournaments. Now in tournaments, you have to do some sort of overtime. I’m all right with that tournament time, but ties have to end.
Federal Money needs to go to our Kids
It’s dumb. Look, use common sense, you NCAA guys. And I know you’re gonna watch this, and that’s why I’m being a little bit rough on you guys. Just use common sense. know, the guys right now that are running our country, they’re saying just use common sense, right? So it should be the same thing in athletics. Just use common sense. So, you know, I would tell you those are my thoughts on the heavyweight division, and those things need to change now. And those…and we can’t have foreigners. Again, we’re not the ICAA, we’re the NCAA. That federal money needs to go to our kids. We need to make our American athletes great again, not foreign athletes great again.
Millionaire Student Athletes
Dennis Atiyeh (14:01.73)
Their names are Boy, they’re from Basset, and Blaze. The guys are millionaires. They haven’t wrestled a college match, right? mean, doctors and attorneys, and professionals work and kill themselves. They go to college for 10 years, and they’re 50 years old. not making a million dollars. Here are guys who never wrestled a college match. You know all about the guys playing football who never even played a football game in college, and they’re millionaires. And that’s what we’ve been talking about.
16% of the five-star quarterbacks over the last 10 years have gone in the first round of the NFL draft
Andrew (16:08.573)
…We’re not talking about the kids making money. They should, if you’re generating almost a billion dollars, it’s got to go somewhere. Where does it go? How do you allocate those funds? And how do you do it appropriately to help? Help the kids, help the institutions, help everybody…The five-star quarterbacks that everybody knows…They go to Alabama, they go to Texas, they go to the big name schools, Ohio State…Over the last 10 years, there have been 31 five-star quarterbacks. It’s a different number every year…there’s anywhere between, you know, five, six to one.at some times, five-star quarterbacks. Over the last 10 years, from 2014 up until 2025, there have been 31. Of those 31, five have gone in the first round of the NFL draft. That’s 16%
They’re ruining the kids by giving them that money
Dennis Atiyeh (20:24.63)
Even, mean, the percentage speaks for itself. 16 % of the guys make it. 16 % make it. So they’re ruining, they’re not helping the kids. They’re ruining the kids by giving them that money. And it’s very clear, now, the coaches can only do so much. You know, the counselors can only do so much. But we see what happens with all of the professional athletes in general. Now, like you had just said,
Dennis Atiyeh (20:53.294)
And this is something that attorney Rust and I covered last in our last program. I mean, what they’re doing is they’re ruining the kids. You understand? And I see them doing the same thing in wrestling now. And I’m sick of it. Here are these two young guys, you know, that I mentioned their names earlier, and God bless them. But they haven’t wrestled a real wrestler. I mean, don’t get me wrong. You know, they’re competitive guys or young. But why put that burden on them?
Yale has more national championships than Alabama
Dennis Atiyeh (26:35.01)
Well, as we spoke about Yale, Yale has more national championships than Alabama. Who would ever know that, right? So then you got Harvard and Princeton right behind Penn. So top 10 national championships in football. But what killed them was what Attorney Rust was just talking about. They don’t give scholarships. So to make a matter and to move it forward. You know, here we got this Ivy League Wrestling League. They’re like the number two conference. I mean, four years ago, they had five finalists in the National Wrestling Championships, you know, and I know Andrew spoke about how watching the NCAA basketball is the most exciting time of the year. I differ from him. It’s wrestling
Dennis Atiyeh (36:31.468)
these to occur. Within billions of dollars that they’re making all these conferences, they need to spend it on from B, baseball, basketball, they drop baseball programs, they’ve dropped, you know, various programs, bicycling, boxing, they used to have boxing back in the day, the colleges did. So they need to reinstate as many sports as possible…
