Another day in (O’Bannon) paradise

Today’s big witness was NCAA survey expert John Dennis, who explained that his work showed paying players would have a devastating impact on college football fan support.

Dennis survey: 38% less likely to watch/attend games if athletes paid $20K; 47% if paid $50K; 53% if paid $200K.

— Jon Solomon (@JonSolomonCBS) June 25, 2014

Sounds very scientific.  One little problem:  garbage in, garbage out.

Dennis survey had 453 of 2,455 respondents who said they watched 0 CFB games get counted as being less likely to watch if players paid.

— Jon Solomon (@JonSolomonCBS) June 25, 2014

Elvis Costello does the math on that.

You can read Jon Solomon’s Twitter feed for how plaintiffs’ counsel carved Dennis’ testimony up.  Sadly, he was considered one of the better witnesses the NCAA has put on the stand.

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Head coach job opening? Expect to hear Kyle Flood’s name dropped.

‘Cause Jimmy Sexton is on the mother.

Irish gettin’ real?

Buck Belue seems to think so.

Sounds like UGA has struck a deal w/ Notre Dame! Big anno coming next 24-48. Irish in Sanford Stadium, 'Dawgs in S. Bend = awesome opp!

— buck belue (@buckbelue8) June 25, 2014

Bet that game in South Bend will be a tough ticket to get a hold of.

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UPDATE:  It’s on.

It's official. Georgia football will play at Notre Dame on Sept. 9, 2017. Notre Dame returns a game at Georgia on Sept. 21, 2019.

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) June 25, 2014

Over/under on number of games VanGorder coaches?

Also, maybe I’m guessing wrong, but does it look like Georgia will face Notre Dame and South Carolina on back to back weeks in 2017?

Playing the long game

As yesterday’s statement from the Big Ten indicates, I think it’s slowly dawning on college presidents that O’Bannon is turning into a losing proposition for them.  Now even if they lose the trial, the walls don’t start falling down around their ears immediately.  There’s an appeal process that they’ll likely milk for all it’s worth if for no other reason than that every day the inevitable is postponed is another day they don’t have to share the loot with anyone else.  But that won’t last forever.  Plus, there’s the concerns raised by the unionization effort at Northwestern and other litigation threats.  All it takes is losing once.

At some point, then, it’ll be time to turn to the last refuge – politics.  And don’t think that’s not already on their minds.

Did the reform movement arrive too late? Delany doesn’t think so. “Are you kidding me? This will be with us for a decade,” he said. “Between the reform, the restructuring, the litigation, congressional activity. This is the beginning. Not the end.”

A sentiment echoed by one of his bosses:

“A lot of water has got to go under the bridge before we’d have serious conversations about doing that,” Kaler said. “There’s a whole long list of possibilities that are out there. … A lot of people think this will go to the Supreme Court and maybe even Congress. There’s a lot of water to move.”

These guys, as much as they may protest to the contrary, ain’t going the Division III route.  There’s simply too much money involved for them to walk away from it.  They will run to the feds instead, to try to hold on to what they’ve got.  And, yes, the irony of Jim Delany asking people like Joe Barton and Orrin Hatch for assistance isn’t lost on me.  (And probably won’t be lost on them, either.)

Here’s the thing, though – who’s to say they’re any good at lobbying?  Delany can be Delany when it comes to bullying mid-major conferences who want him to throw them a bone, but how does that work when he’s the one who comes asking for a favor?  Will the presidents he speaks for be willing to do any serious horse trading for an antitrust exemption, or will they continue to operate with the same combination of arrogance and myopia that’s gotten them into the mess they’re trying to extricate themselves from?

And, maybe more importantly, should they even assume Congress is of a mind to help?

A conference commissioner’s most important responsibility

I mock Jim Delany now and then for behaving more like the head of programming of a sports network than running a college conference, but the reality is that he’s far from alone in his sense of priorities.

Plaintiffs show SEC's 2011 tax return, notes it paid TV consultant Chuck Gerber's company $2.2M, more than Mike Slive's $1.6M salary.

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) June 24, 2014

Yeah, you tell me what college presidents care about the most these days.

Wednesday morning buffet

Because breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

• Did you know that Clemson’s Frank Howard once threatened to sue over a piece Lewis Grizzard wrote about him?
• I always love it when somebody else does the heavy lifting for me, so, thanks, Tyler, for counting the number of scholarship players currently on Georgia’s roster.
• Barry Alvarez sez, “To keep fans in the stands, you have to keep up with the technology, so they can continue to use those things in the stadium.” You could always beef up the home schedule, Barry.
• Hunter Atkinson’s high school coach says the kid’s family has endured a backlash from third parties as a result of his withdrawal from Georgia.  Stay classy, people.
• Troy’s Larry Blakeney suggests an interesting proposal for paying players – a stipend based on academic performance, paid to student-athletes per hour passed with a C or above.
• Marc Weiszer talks to Danny Ware about a Knowshon-Gurley comparison.
• High school quarterback being recruited by Georgia has this to say about his first conversation with the head guy:  “… The SEC is the biggest in college football. I was super excited to talk to Coach Richt. I was a little nervous. I had never talked to a coach that big before. It was awesome.”
• Amateurism, first half of the 20th century style.