You think recruiting is crazy now?

Ooh, baby, baby, just wait until the NCAA gets done.

Basically, it’s Nick Saban’s wet dream.

Monday morning buffet

Indulge yourselves.

• Could CTE lead to the death of football?  I’m not sure which possibility depresses me more – that it might, or that football would seek an exemption from liability.
• From prison, Nevin Shapiro is threatening to get medieval on Miami’s ass.
• My math skills aren’t the best, but I believe Tavarres King is predicting that Aaron Murray will throw more than fifty touchdown passes this season.  I blame Bobo for his exuberance, of course.
• John Infante points out that college athletics isn’t as big an enterprise as we give it credit for sometimes.
• It’s a shame recruits change their commitments without thinking about the people they really hurt – the writers making predictions about where they’ll land.
• More concern about ditching the Auburn-Georgia rivalry.
• Add Mike Huguenin to the list of those who think Jon Fabris was a misunderstood man before his time:  “What it might lead to, though, is more directional kickoffs.  Punters can do it, so why not kickers, too? If the rule indeed is changed, look for more “pooch” kickoffs, which could mean a radical change for special teams coaches.  Do you want a guy who can boom the ball through the end zone, or do you want a guy who is adept at kicking the ball high and placing it around the 15 or so?”

Hey, kid, why don’t you pick on somebody your own size?

The NCAA’s multi-year scholarship proposal makes people dumber.  I have proof:

“I see coaches starting to play games with this,” Hickman says. “You might offer your blue-chip kid a four-year scholarship. But then your other kids, you say, ‘Well, let’s give them a two-year deal. We’ll redshirt them the first year, play them the second year, see how it works out.’

“It puts us into an atmosphere of now negotiating a contract, so to speak, for a scholarship with a prospect, which is no real difference from what professionals do with the players they sign.”

“What this legislation does,” Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti echoes, “is essentially put schools into contract negotiations with 15- to 17-year-old kids.”

You read that correctly.  These are gentlemen responsible for running multi-million dollar athletic departments who are afraid they’ll come out on the losing end haggling with a seventeen-year old.  No wonder these guys don’t stand a chance with the Jimmy Sextons of the world.

If I were a school president today, I’d call my AD into my office and ask him or her if Pernetti’s fear was valid.  Any one who agreed would be fired unceremoniously on the spot.

Of course, I have to admit the possibility exists that Hickman and Pernetti are simply being disingenuous assholes indulging in a bit of fear-mongering by overstating their case.   They do sound like a pair of weasels.  It’s just that them being unnerved by a legion of suddenly empowered adolescents who don’t even have their high school diplomas yet is an equally believable possibility.

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UPDATE:  This is why schools don’t want to negotiate.

https://twitter.com/#!/TerpsInsider/status/169132001671118849

So much for the concern about “coaches playing games”.