But let's talk about that arms race because I think it is an interesting one and relevant backdrop to the bigger story here.

Yeah.

So, I mean, there was, you know, legal decision that basically opened up where schools can start paying players.

And so we're in this sort of wild west new frontier of college sports that's become a literal money arms race.

The biggest schools with the biggest brands that have the most money can buy the best players.

What this private equity deal sort of like reaffirms, I guess, sort of Pandora's box that's been lifted with with these legal rulings and.

that you have these big money managers wanting to step in and invest in this.

there's

And a lot of this is the bear effect, this kind of appetite for Chicago food right now in other markets.

Yeah, so I think the bear definitely contributes to that.

I asked industry observers sort of, what's happening? Why is this the moment? Why is this in the zeitgeist, to use that word? One of the things they point to is, yes, everyone's sort of jumping on the tailwinds of the bear.

which, you know, debuted in, what, 2022.

It's, you know, won critical acclaim.

It's a big deal.

People like it.

How are those two things squaring?

And it would have been impractical to do that, Representative Stefanik, with all respect.

And that kicked off this whole scrutiny from congressional leaders, from the Department of Education and Health and Human Services looking into civil rights violations, etc.

Once again, an example of the inherited environment that was across the country, very volatile.

And there was a lot of friction on campuses.

But the way he handled it sort of blew up in his face and led to more problems down the line.

that essentially kicked on to him being in the crosshairs of the Trump administration for his deal with, you know, the student protesters and also for a lot of criticism for him not doing enough to sort of stamp down on the allegations of antisemitism on campus.

So you have that, which resulted in, you know, the Trump administration withholding, you know, 700, you know, almost 800 million in federal funding and grants, which took a huge toll on sort of academic reputation on research and, And this is all happening under his watch and you can't throw it all on him, but it's happening while he's leading the university.

Well, in addition to who will be in that role, what other things will you be watching just in the days and weeks ahead?

We're talking about $100 million.

Their team, provost, their president, sent out various messages across the community yesterday.

And they said the goal that they're trying to cut in terms of expenses is $100 million.

And just for some context, they've been in the red in terms of their budget for the last, I think, decade.

Their plan has been we're operating with a deficit.

Intentionally, it's kind of like been the party line.

Like, we know we're doing this.

antitrust

Tell me about this.

Yeah, so as has been the situation that Schill, the Northwestern president, has found himself in, any deal or seeming capitulation to the Trump administration would result in a lot of pushback and anger amongst the faculty at Northwestern.

The group of faculty members there who have been pretty outspoken, they sent out a press release essentially saying, calling Shell to push back against the Trump administration.

They argued that the Trump administration has skirted the legal system and is now demanding what they quote as a ransom that essentially violates the fiduciary responsibility of Northwestern's leadership.

Because if I could go back, these deals or agreements with the Trump administration basically result in the school paying a fine.

The first school to do it was Columbia.

They paid around a $200 million fine, which included some other concessions.

So it just seems like there's a lot of tension in the air in the middle of all of this kicking up with faculty demands.

in 2024.

And this is compared to chains of all other sorts, compared to the large bulk of just chains in general, which rose 3% in 2024.

Pizza chains only rose 0.5%, which the analyst was actually kind of surprised about.

And so I pushed him on what's going on here.

There's two main reasons.

He says one potentially could be pizza fatigue.

which he cites from the pandemic.

Looking at Giordano's and Lumanati's, what are their specific targets that they're aiming at?

It really sounds like not only do we have follow questions, but we are dissatisfied with how things have been going.

Yeah, that's kind of been the tone ever since they called him facing Northwestern.

And Northwestern, I will say, is not alone here.

Maybe we can go into that.

Sure.

Even before Trump stepped in, but it's really amplified since Trump's second term.

They've really been going after some of the nation's most elite universities, a lot of Ivy Leagues, and Northwestern's among them, sort of has the crosshairs pinned on them.

What will you be watching most going forward just in the months ahead?

On Capitol

Hill, he defended his peace deal with the campus protesters.

And then he also admitted to the fact that there has been a rise in antisemitism on campus and the university will do everything it can to curb this.

He said they wanted to do a whole student conduct policy upgrade and review to sort of capture the current moment in addition to enforcing these policies.

Since then, and sort of since Trump came into office, there's been a sort of this year, there's been a renewed interest in scrutinizing these university leaders and figureheads.

And Schill is amongst them, Schill Northwestern.

There's been various probes by different federal offices, sending letters to the school, announcing various things.

Tell me what's going on there.

And how did he sort of envision Giordano's weathering all of that?

Yeah, I mean, like many CEOs, he's sort of watching the news a lot and sort of wait and see for what's going to happen next.

He said that definitely, you know, tariffs would impact them.

Like, you know, most of the things are from the Midwest.

They get their cheese from Wisconsin.

But there's things like the tin packages for the cheese.

And sort of small things like that, that get imported, that would be affected.

Tell me about that.

Is that moment still kind of happening or have they started to kind of make sense of what it means for their universities?

I think we're still a little bit up in the air.

It's unclear what President Trump will do next.

So I think everyone's just kind of operating from the standpoint of we don't really know.

The initial sort of pause in funding, which happened early when Trump came into office, it caused a lot of confusion.

And the schools, like you said, issued statements about sort of reviewing the process.

We're going to sort of wait and see.

How does that square? How are they kind of coloring in the lines and also try to do that?