“Georgia knows what they are doing…”

I've got Alabama followers and Georgia followers. To each, I can tell Jeremy Pruitt is bridging the difference in how the programs operate.

— TheJunkyard247 (@TheJunkyard247) April 16, 2014

Maybe this is the next step:

“Now it’s not the same excitement as if Georgia would’ve offered Jordan a long time ago, but we understand; It is what it is,” Colbert said. “Georgia knows what they are doing, and I like how they are doing it. They’ve got his cousin, Owens. They’ve offered his classmates, Fuller and Willis. And if they hire (DeVoursney), that would make a big, big difference.”

Steve DeVoursney, who resigned as Griffin’s coach last week, may apply for a quality control position at UGA, according to a couple of players.

Maybe it’s time to retire the “Mark Richt has lost control” meme.

When they make a slideshow out of players arrested in the 2014 offseason, TAMU, you’ve got problems.

“The N.C.A.A. system is messed up, and they’re doing something about it.”

After reading this and this, don’t you get the feeling that if Northwestern and the players could dump the whole unionization mess in the NCAA’s lap, they would do so in a heartbeat?

The NCAA does reform like nobody’s business.

Also from that Maisel post I linked to:

The reduction of training table to one meal per day took effect in the NCAA’s cost-cutting reforms of 1991. That was the same package that included the 20-hour rule, which has become a mockery, and the “restricted-earnings” assistants, who could be paid only $16,000 per year. The NCAA had to pay a $54.5 million settlement in 1999 to undo that decision. Undoing the cutback on meals nearly guts the entire reform package.

“Nearly”?  What’s left?

Football, the South and bigotry

Can somebody explain the difference between this…

Mr. Ruiz, the former prosecutor who handled the case for the state attorney’s office, recalled that the coach at the time, the revered Bobby Bowden, attempted to convince him that a crime had not occurred. A jury eventually acquitted the player.

“I learned quickly what football meant in the South,” said Mr. Ruiz, who grew up in New York State. “Clearly, it meant a lot…”

… and this?

In a speech Wednesday night, Slive described his job thusly: “…I am the trustee of a sacred public trust, and if you live in the South, you know exactly what I mean.”

‘Cause I’m not seeing one.

Here’s something that’ll put “I saw it on the Internet, so it must be true” to the test.

The surprise isn’t that Stephen Garcia is predicting that South Carolina will win the SEC East this season.  It’s that there’s a web site out there that describes Stephen Garcia as an “expert”.

One tough cookie

Well, if this isn’t the capper:

He [Denny Murray, Aaron’s dad] also told me that Murray was hurt a lot worse than people thought in that 2010 game against Auburn in which Nick Fairley was allowed to unleash a personal assault. Murray actually left that game with a broken sternum, in addition to shoulder and knee injuries. [Emphasis added.]

It’s impressive that Aaron was able to finish the game.  I’m not sure what adjective applies to Fairley being able to finish the game.

Oh… and seriously, this?  Sure.

“That’s why I’m on this case.”

You’ve read about O’Bannon.  You know about the NLRB ruling.  Now meet Jeffrey Kessler, whose antitrust suit may be the biggest threat of all to college football as we know it.

Kessler is essentially asking the courts to decide that players are employees whose compensation is being illegally constrained (to the amount of an athletic scholarship), and to lift those restrictions to open the market. Under such a scenario, the “total competitive landscape will change,” he says. “Maybe Ohio State will say, we’re going to pay X amount a year, which we’ll put in trust for when they leave school. The more years they stay, the more they’ll get. Another school might not offer more than the scholarship.

“That’s what happens in a market. It doesn’t force the schools to do anything except what they decide.”

And even here, again, comes an invitation to stop the bleeding:

Kessler acknowledges the possibility that a settlement could occur that “puts some system in place” to provide meaningful compensation for all future football and men’s basketball players.

What exactly that would look like is unclear, but he hinted that the sorts of changes that some people within the NCAA are talking about now — in which the wealthier sports programs might offer provide scholarships valued up to the full cost of attendance, or give some sort of small stipend — would not cut it.

While another lawyer without Kessler’s resources and resume might be willing to get a nice payday for his clients, “if I get my class certified, there won’t be any settlement without real change in the system,” he says.

I doubt anyone’s listening now, but it will be worth watching to see if attitudes change should O’Bannon not go in the NCAA’s favor.  My bet is it’ll take Congress not riding to the NCAA’s rescue to shake things up.

Lose weight – fast!

I missed this little note from Weiszer yesterday, but it’s interesting:

It’s not just the big guys. Pruitt mentioned senior cornerback Damian Swann as one of those guys who needs to get in better shape.

Ain’t nobody escaping the man’s public disapproval.

Well, except for the S&C coach: “Fatigue makes a coward out of everybody. We’ve got to get in shape as a football team. We’re nowhere where we need to be. We’ve got to improve on that. Coach T (strength coach Joe Tereshinski) will do that this summer.”  (Cue the doubters.)