Mark Shurtleff, Antitrust Pimp

“Shurtleff has acknowledged that his high-profile inquiry has hit some snags.”

Now there’s a surprise.

Nick Saban doesn’t have time for this.

What could happen when a school needs the football coach more than the football coach needs the school?

Jeff Schultz channels Orson Swindle to come up with a convincing response.

… Alabama officials almost gloated in 2007 when the football program finally was clear of probation. That’s when Saban was hired. In his second season, he led the Tide to a 12-0 regular season record, before losing to Florida in the SEC title game and Utah in the Sugar Bowl.

But now the school is on three years probation and must vacate 21 victories between 2005 and 2007. Some of those came under Saban.

That will forever be on his resume. You think that’s not on his mind? You think he needs this?

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Protection we can believe in.

Paul has linked to this Augusta Chronicle piece with regard to Damon Evans confirming that the South Carolina game would be at night, but I found this comment of Evans more interesting:

Evans said he’s protective of future open dates before the Florida game. In 2007, Georgia had an open date and defeated the Gators. Last year, the Bulldogs played Louisiana State the week before and lost to Florida. This year, Georgia is off before its Oct. 31 contest with the Gators.

“I’m going to protect that open date before Florida as much as I can,” he said.

Right on, brother.  For whatever reason, it’s been an exceedingly rare occurrence for the team with a bye week to lose in Jax – regardless of the weather.

It’s the exploitation, stupid.

Of all the takes you may have already seen about the NCAA’s punishment of Alabama in the wake of its textbook scandal (my favorite is Will Collier’s note about the ’07 FSU-‘Bama game), I bet you weren’t expecting this one:

… This kind of “cheating” is exactly what we should expect to see when we try to hold prices below their market-clearing levels. Anyone who has been to a big-time college football game knows full well that the marginal revenue product of a superstar college football player is a lot more than the cost of tuition, room, and board at a state university. Even when you add on all of the perks (facilities, for example), you’re probably still a long way from the market-clearing wage of a top-tier player.

So how come athletes in sixteen UA sports programs, including softball, baseball, gymnastics, women’s basketball, soccer, volleyball and both the men’s and women’s teams in golf, swimming, tennis and track and field, got pinched?

On the other hand, his extra credit question is spot on.  I’ll leave you to ponder it.

If college sports exploit athletes, why doesn’t competition arise?

Hi! Let’s play another round of “Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics”.

Here we go…

Want to add a reason to re-examine the football future? Of course you do. Start here:

Check out these numbers, from Quarterback A and Quarterback B.

Quarterback A: 406 of 685 (59.3 percent), 4,426 Yds, 32 TDs, 23 INTs
Quarterback B: 329 of 604 (54.5 percent), 4,272 Yds, 26 TDs, 23 INTs

Quarterback A — with the more impressive totals — is Jimmy Clausen of Notre Dame.

Quarterback B?

I don’t know about you, but I saw this one coming a mile away.

The No. 1 pick in April’s NFL Draft, Georgia’s Matthew Stafford.

And it’s a fair comparison, because

… Clausen’s development is as real as Stafford’s when you consider surrounding talent compared to strength of schedule…

Uh hunh.  All that surrounding talent.  Georgia placed a whopping two players on the 2007 first team All-SEC football team, Moreno and Velasco.  That talent gap must come as a complete shock to Tom Lemming.

Now Sprow may be on to something when he mentions strength of schedule.  Young Master James faced exactly one top twenty team last season.  His passer rating in that contest?  A magnificent 47.48.

Throw in the fact that Georgia won twice as many games in Stafford’s first two years as did Notre Dame in Clausen’s, which means Jimmy was likely forced into a lot more passing situations than was Staff, and you’re not left with a whole lot to gleam from those stats.

Of course, I could be completely wrong about this.  Clausen, under the tutelage of the man with the Super Bowl rings, could be poised to surpass all of Stafford’s accomplishments as a junior (given Notre Dame’s schedule, that’s not as preposterous as it sounds) and then go on to sign the most lucrative rookie contract in the history of the NFL.  After all, the numbers don’t lie, right?