What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on at Butts-Mehre?

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they’re on a spending spree with Richt’s support staff.

It appears that the new head of in-house recruiting for Georgia’s football program will have a new assistant on board as well.

UGA human resources this week put up an official job posting for an new “associate director of player personnel.” The job summary is as follows: “Responsible for assisting the Head Coach and the Director of Player Personnel with all matters related to football recruiting, including but not limited to, preparing film, conducting research, managing recruiting board, camps/clinics, creating databases/spreadsheets, official and unofficial visits, managing hourly/student workers, providing support for coaching staff, and high school coaches relations.”

I never expected Sabanesque levels of minions scurrying about doing Richt’s bidding, but this is a welcome development.  It seems to take a village to raise a recruiting class in the SEC these days.  Kudos to McGarity for accepting the financial realities of that.

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Praise the Lord, it’s a miracle!

The conference which commissioner not too long ago threatened to take Division III if he didn’t get his way on player compensation has found Jesus.

This is why we propose working within the NCAA to provide greater academic security and success for our student-athletes:

• We must guarantee the four-year scholarships that we offer. If a student-athlete is no longer able to compete, for whatever reason, there should be zero impact on our commitment as universities to deliver an undergraduate education. We want our students to graduate.

• If a student-athlete leaves for a pro career before graduating, the guarantee of a scholarship remains firm. Whether a professional career materializes, and regardless of its length, we will honor a student’s scholarship when his or her playing days are over. Again, we want students to graduate.

• We must review our rules and provide improved, consistent medical insurance for student-athletes. We have an obligation to protect their health and well-being in return for the physical demands placed upon them.

• We must do whatever it takes to ensure that student-athlete scholarships cover the full cost of a college education, as defined by the federal government. That definition is intended to cover what it actually costs to attend college.

Now some might call this response to the presidents’ declaration needed perspective.

After 13 yrs of fighting us & while on the ropes, Big Ten & other presidents embracing NCPA platform RT @Andy_Staples http://t.co/4ndr6AKG8s

— NCPA (@NCPANOW) June 24, 2014

Others might call it a deserved victory lap for a group that finally got those in charge to pay some attention.

But in any event, it’s a different tune than we’re used to hearing the suits sing.  And all it took was looking like crap for a few days in a California courtroom.

Which makes this gold, Jerry:

The best solutions rest not with the courts, but with us – presidents of the very universities that promote and respect the values of intercollegiate competition. Writing on behalf of all presidents of the Big Ten Conference, we must address the conflicts that have led us to a moment where the conversation about college sports is about compensation rather than academics.

Gee, whose fault is that?

Now that you’ve brought it to our attention…

The most Georgia thing ever would be for the NCAA to announce an immediate investigation of this.

Lawyer, Sankey dissecting a 2013 Georgia schedule poster, why it's OK under NCAA rules for Aaron Murray to be on a poster w/ a Delta logo.

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) June 24, 2014

Money makes you crazee.

Today in O’Bannon, we’ve got SEC #2 dude Greg Sankey, who’s engaged in a series of throw them against the wall and see what sticks defenses of the NCAA and amateurism.

This one’s my favorite so far.

Sankey suggests compensation would also create more stress on players and draw attention away from academics.#NCAAtrial

— Mike Fish (@MikeFishESPN) June 24, 2014

So, when they graduate, gettin’ paid no longer stresses ’em out?

Do it for the children, Judge Wilken.

Steele-y Dawgs

Today’s the day Steele 2014 hits the newsstands.  It’s also the day his Georgia preview hit his blog.

If you want the short version,

• QB play will be “solid”.
• OL will drop, but not as much as you’d think.
• Secondary could be “most improved in country” – although he wrote that before Matthews’ dismissal.
• Special teams will be top 30 nationally.

Now you’d think that would lead to a fair amount of bombast about Georgia’s chances, but all Steele can bring himself to say in summary is that “UGA is a legitimate contender in the SEC East.” Kinda knew that already, Phil.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Steele without some fun and obscure facts, and here are two he mentions:  (1) Georgia has only lost one home opener since 1997 and (2) If Georgia beats Tennessee, it will be the first five game series streak for the Dawgs since 1924.

Also worth noting are Steele’s efficiency stats – yards per point for offense and defense.  Georgia turned in its highest number on offense (lower is better) since 2008 and its lowest number on defense (higher is better) also since the 2008 season.

Steele sez – you’re only going so far, Georgia.

Now we know that Phil Steele’s got a ceiling to go along with that “Biggest Surprise” floor for the 2014 edition of Georgia Football:  the Dawgs do not fit his national championship mold this season.

Wouldn’t it be easy if there were key indicators that could trim down a list of National Title candidates prior to each year? I recently went and looked through every imaginable stat from each team that won the National Title and also those that got to the BCS Title game. I also included those few #3 teams that had a legitimate beef about being about being left out. I searched for common threads in numerous categories and was very pleased with what I have found.

The downfall for Georgia shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

Naturally the next category was defensive ppg where the 2009 Auburn Tigers the year before their national title in 2010 allowed 27.5 ppg, which was the highest in the last 22 years. In order to fit the National Championship mold the remaining 59 teams would have had to allow less than 27.5 ppg last year. This category would eliminate 7 teams as Old Dominion (34.0), Texas A&M (32.2), San Diego St (31.7), Texas Tech (30.5), Fresno St (30.3), Georgia (29.0) and Toledo (28.6) failed to make the cut. Now we are down to 52 teams.

What stings about this is that Vanderbilt survived two more rounds of cuts.

Now, to be fair, Steele expresses a tinge of misgivings about Georgia not showing up in his final fifteen – “While there may be a couple of teams left out (UCLA, Oregon, Georgia, Auburn, South Carolina), 14 of these teams made my preseason Top 32…” – he doesn’t have Georgia in his bunch making the national semi-finals.

When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead.

Britton Banowsky, I’ve got a question for you:  if, as you say, colleges continue to seek joining Division I based on uniting a university and bringing alums back to campus as opposed to financial considerations, then why would paying players cause schools to drop football?

As always, when they say it isn’t about the money, it’s about the money.

According to data provided by the plaintiffs, C-USA revenues increased from $30 million in 2002-03 to nearly $59 million in 2011-12. Athletic budgets also experienced significant growth, as did Banowsky himself.

East Carolina’s men’s basketball team, for example, netted $642,000 in 2000 according to date collected by the Department of Education. In 2012, the school pulled in a cool $3 million. Rice football went from earning $2.2 million in ’02 to more than $40 million two years ago.

Coaching salaries have gone up along the way, as have those for athletic directors and conference commissioners.

By his own account, Banowsky said he was paid $328,000 during his first year as commissioner. Now his annual base salary is $500,000.

Part of that is due to the lucrative television contract C-USA has with Fox and CBS. The two television companies agreed to pay Banowksy’s league $84 million over a six-year period.

“There is more revenue flowing into the system than ever,” Banowsky testified. “But we’ve seen growth in expenses. As revenues are flowing in, it’s just plowed back into the athletics.”

Plowing sounds pretty lucrative.  And keep in mind this is coming from the commissioner of a mid-major conference.

Caesar’s wife never served on the playoff selection committee.

Jeff Long posts “SECSECSECSEC!!!” Tweet, then gets into Twitter debate with Team Speed Kills blogger Year2.

Chairman of the College Football Playoff selection committee, ladies and gents. https://t.co/mhTsERH7pP

— David Wunderlich (@Year2) June 23, 2014

Looks like that whole perception thing goes straight over his head.  But at least he’s transparent!

(h/t Eleven Warriors)

Is amateurism all or nothing?

Charlie Pierce has been covering the O’Bannon trial.  He may be on to a way to split the amateurism baby here:

… Heckman had just answered a question about the central issue of the case: whether NCAA athletes like the plaintiff, former UCLA All-American Ed O’Bannon, have signed away the rights to their names, images, and likenesses to the NCAA based on its purported code of amateurism, and whether, by enforcing that purported code — even after athletes’ eligibility has ended — the NCAA has been acting in restraint of trade and in violation of antitrust laws. Wilken was curious about one point.

“Are you saying,” she asked Heckman, skepticism edging every word like a razor, “that being paid for your name, image, and likeness is the same as being paid for the activity itself?”

I nearly sprained my neck. Jesus, I thought to myself, this thing may have been over for weeks.

If Wilken believes that payment for an athlete’s name, image, and likeness is something different from being paid simply for playing the game — that it constitutes something not in violation of the rules regarding amateurism, but rather something outside of them — then that’s the ballgame. Everybody can grab a beer and go home…

But separating payment for likeness from payment for activity would also give the NCAA a graceful way to accept defeat.  Assuming the presidents are in the mood to do any such accepting, of course.

Eh, forget I mentioned it.

Tuesday morning buffet

Have a bite or two…

• Cornelius Washington, don’t make me dust off the “lost control” meme.
• Minor league baseball isn’t exactly thrilled with Mark Emmert.
• Ed Aschoff thinks half the teams in the SEC could surprise us this season.  I doubt it.
• Alligator Army argues that Gator fans are only really happy when their team is winning big (although I think they’re probably okay with their 2006 title).  That’s a problem for Boom.
• Pat Haden breathlessly announces that Southern Cal will begin offering four-year scholarships in its revenue producing sports.
• When’s the last time you saw a head coach also working as a position coach?
• Herschel Walker visits Athens, Tennessee.