OneLegUpAlex Media · Alex Garrett Podcasting

OneLegUpAlex Media Goes 'Beyond the Surface' With AM Pfeffer POWERED by Podmatch 3-25-26

March 25, 2026·40 min·3 clips

AM Pfeffer reveals why Darius Aikoff's Reebok deal and AJ DeBansa's upside could shake up the NBA draft.

The host gets right to basketball. He brings on AM Pfeffer from Beyond the Surface and the X-rated Sports Network, then asks whether NCAA tournament coverage fits what Pfeffer does. Pfeffer says yes and heads straight for the draft board. He sees a top heavy class with six or eight names that matter most. Darius Aikoff is the first real marker. Pfeffer says Aikoff has moved into the top three or four, helped by a major Reebok shoe deal announced the day before. He puts Aikoff ahead of Darren Peterson. That is the clearest early take, and it comes in the show's usual rhythm: quick prompt, long guest run, no extra polish. Then NIL takes over. Pfeffer does not think name, image, and likeness money is going to kill college sports by itself. Private equity worries him more. He points to the Big Ten weighing a deal and Utah taking $500 million, then argues that spreadsheet thinking changes the game more than athletes getting paid. The transfer portal gets a side eye too. Pfeffer calls that part strange, but he keeps it separate from NIL instead of turning every complaint into the same argument. The host then moves into Pfeffer's sports media background. Pfeffer says most people would know him from Beyond the Surface, launched in October, after years around the X-rated Sports Network. There is a quick YouTube plug. Later, the conversation swings into baseball, where the NL West sounds stuck and Arizona is talked about as trying to improve before dipping again. It is not tidy, and it does not pretend to be: tournament names, media grind, private equity nerves, and enough baseball to tee up the next chat.

As heard by us

Pfeffer starts with the tournament and lands on the money underneath college sports.

AM Pfeffer keeps the conversation moving from the NCAA tournament into the money question around college sports. He grounds it in draft stock, Darius Aikoff, Darren Peterson, NIL, and the odd logic of the transfer portal, then makes the case that private equity feels like the…

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Why you'd press play

You want an NCAA tournament chat that turns into a real fight over college sports money.

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