Drea Cooper Talks 'The Money Game' Premiering on Prime Video

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00:00and executive producer. He makes docs, killer flicks. And he's on today to talk about the

00:15money game on Prime Video that's coming out. And I got to tell you, you know, Dre, going

00:21back in, it's great to have you on the show in your career. I remember one of your docs.

00:27It was the one about the fires in California. I lived in California. And I remember you

00:34made that flick about fire in paradise. That was badass. That one awards that that documentary.

00:42Did that like you had already been made a little bit with some of your other docs and

00:47gotten a claim. But that one was really over the top. Cool. I thought that one put you

00:53on the map with me. I had heard of you. After that, I was like, who is this dude making

00:58these cool docs? Yeah, no, I appreciate that. Yeah, man, that was an intense one to say

01:04the least. So yeah, fire in paradise. It's Yeah, it's a pretty intense look at the situation

01:12out west. That's for sure. And it's still happening today. It's happening right now

01:18as we speak in Orange County. It's awful. I lived in Huntington Beach. I used to always

01:23say Dre, to my friends, I'd say it never. There's never fire down at the beach. Never

01:30fire. Unless you live near a volcano. So I was born in Hawaii. And man, when you see

01:40the volcano hit the water, and you see that intense, that intense reaction, man, it's

01:45pretty wild. But yeah, usually water is safe. We're in Hawaii because I used to have a pad

01:50in Kona. Okay, that's pretty cool. Yeah, my aunt Karen used to live in Kona. So I was

01:56born on Oahu, but but lived in Maui for a handful of years with my mom. We lived in

02:00like a little tool shed up country in Makawao. And then, yeah, then I moved to San Francisco

02:06as a little kid. So yeah, I live there too. I love San Francisco. And I, I love California.

02:12I live in New York City. Now it's hell on earth. Let's talk about the money game. You

02:16know, interestingly enough, you it's a lot about on Prime Video about LSU. And I'm fascinated

02:26to be honest with you with Libby Dunn. So she is making a fortune and she should be

02:32God bless her. She's dating that Paul Skeens. I'm a pirate fan. I grew up in Pittsburgh.

02:38So I watched this guy. Meanwhile, this chick, she like lives near me, believe it or not

02:43in real life when she's not at LSU. So I've seen her around. And believe me, she is well

02:50worth seeing around when I see that girl. I'm like, well, I'm with my hot wife. I'm

02:54like, wow, look at that. That's that gymnast from LSU dating that baseball player. Look

02:58at her. I'm an old man. I'm all washed up. But my wife's like smacks me in the face.

03:03And I'm like, look at that girl doing flips on the TV. How much money was that chick

03:08hauling in at LSU? I mean, look, Olivia Dunn is the top earner in college sports today.

03:16I mean, she's pushing 10 million on an hour right now. Yeah. Yeah, man, it's pretty

03:24incredible. And look, this is the new world order of college athletics, which I think

03:29is pretty fascinating because, you know, look, for 100 years, the system was virtually

03:34unchallenged. Right. The NCAA, these big D1 programs across the country have been raking

03:40in millions and recently billions of bucks off these TV contracts. So I think it was

03:46a long time coming. But I don't think the NCAA or anybody had any idea exactly how this

03:52was going to play out. And here we are sort of in the middle of chaos in college sports.

03:56How did Angel Reese do? She's doing really well now in the WNBA. Her season just ended

04:03with a wrist injury. But I'd imagine she was raking down there playing for Mulkey.

04:10Absolutely. I mean, look, we we follow a handful of the biggest athletes from LSU across

04:16the 23-24 school year. And really, the idea was to see firsthand how the NIL policy

04:23change is impacting the lives of everyday college athletes. And so I think what's

04:28fascinating about our series is that we follow these big names that you just mentioned,

04:32Olivia Dunn, Angel Reese, Flau'jae Johnson, Jaden Daniels. But we also follow two other

04:38athletes who really make up the 98 percent of all college athletes. And that's Aaliyah

04:44Armstrong, a track athlete, and Trace Yang, who plays on the men's basketball team. And

04:49they're they're the small fish. But that's that's the typical college athlete who's

04:54trying to find their way in this new NIL landscape.

04:59Did it like surprise you? Like you're not like exactly a guy doing tons of sports

05:08movies. So here you go. You go down to Baton Rouge and you start following this money,

05:14essentially. It's a it's a money path of all these different athletes and what they

05:19make. It's kind of the haves and have nots in essence. Right. Like some of them make

05:25nothing at all and they go unnoticed and that has to suck for them. And then these other

05:30ones are making all kinds of money. What was it like for you to be exposed to it as a

05:35filmmaker?

05:37Yeah, I mean, look, I think, you know, we've all got different opinions on NIL. Right.

05:42When when the NIL policy came down just three years ago, I think, you know, it was

05:47hotly contested then and it's hotly contested today. I think a lot of people have

05:51really strong ideas about the impact of NIL on college sports. But I think, you know,

05:57rather than just talk about how messed up the policies are, how every state has different

06:02rules, I think I ultimately wanted to see, well, what is this really like for, you know,

06:06for these athletes day to day? And so what I saw that that I was really surprised by was,

06:12man, this NIL stuff is hard. It's a hustle. And to be honest, it doesn't matter if you're

06:18Libby Dunn making millions of dollars or you're Leah Armstrong, who's just struggling to

06:24find a deal. It's a full time job. And so you add, you know, you've got already a full

06:31time job with your sport. You know, you're doing that 40 plus hours a week. You're a

06:34full time student. And now you add to it this NIL piece, which is a job unto itself. It's

06:41pretty tricky to figure out how to come up in this. But look, it's an incredible

06:45opportunity. But every one of these kids is hustling in different ways. And so whether

06:50you've got a team of, you know, 10 people behind you in the case of Libby Dunn or, you

06:54know, really just yourself and the LSU NIL department like a Leah Armstrong, it's a

07:00game. It's a money game now. And everybody's trying to take advantage of this

07:05opportunity. Six parts this doc on Prime. So you really get into it. I think I think

07:14the struggle of some of these kids, that's, you know, intriguing to me more than just

07:23the ones that get flipped the stacks of money that make all the money. I think the

07:26struggle. I can't wait to watch it from the standpoint of those that have to kind of

07:31fend for themselves that you were mentioning and how hard it is.

07:35Absolutely. I mean, look, you know, I think what's really fascinating about the series

07:41that comes out of the six different athletes that we follow at LSU is this idea that, you

07:46know, you've got some of these big earners, right, with Flau'jae and Jaden. But each

07:52person has a different relationship to NIL. So some might think, oh, well, Jaden Daniels,

07:57you know, he must be taking full advantage of all these NIL deals coming his way. And I

08:02think what's interesting to learn about Jaden was that while he was a transfer kid, he

08:07didn't get any money in the portal. Right. Because he was he was sort of an untested

08:12entity, if you will. He had some talent. He showed streaks of greatness at Arizona State

08:18as a freshman. But his sophomore year was pretty rough. And he ends up going to LSU.

08:24No money guaranteed. And it wasn't until he beats Alabama in 22 at home at Death Valley

08:31where everybody sat up in their seat and said, holy, who's this kid? Yeah. And his first

08:36deal was from a local personal injury attorney. Gordon McKernan came to the table and

08:41said, hey, man, I'm going to throw you some coin. I want to put you up on billboards all

08:45around Baton Rouge. And that was his first deal. And it turned out, you know, after a

08:51little while, him and his mom were like, look, we're going to we're going to step back

08:54from NIL because it's starting to take away from the main goal, which is going to the

08:59league. Right. And so Jaden's got that big opportunity. He could make 30 plus million

09:04and he ended up landing that incredible contract. However, someone like like Olivia

09:10Dunn, there's no professional league for gymnasts. So she's incredible. Greg, great job.

09:16I can't wait to see the doc on prime video. Thanks for coming on. See you today.

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