Schottenheimer’s sales pitch

I don’t think anybody expected Brian Schottenheimer to walk in the door and seamlessly carry on the high level performance Mike Bobo brought to the recruiting trail.  Still, it’s worth noting that Georgia got its first commitment for the class of 2017 from a quarterback that Schottenheimer made a priority. It sounds like he hit it off.

“Coach Schottenheimer is a pretty cool guy, and I think I would fit really well in that system,” Hockman said. “If I want to get into the NFL, I think that is the place. He is also a very personal guy, more than some coaches who are all about football and not getting to know you. I think that is a big deal with coaches. With my dad being a coach, I have been really personal with coaches my entire life, so I think that changes my perspective a little bit.”

And how did he pitch the deal with all-world Jacob Eason coming in the 2016 class?

“Jacob Eason is going there and he is obviously a great, big time quarterback,” Hockman said. “He would either be a redshirt freshman or sophomore my freshman year. We would have to just go in and compete and see what happens.

“Taking a quarterback every year is pretty normal, so anywhere I go I will be competing. What coach Schottenheimer would say is ‘Drew Brees and Philip Rivers each competed against each other when they came in, and they are both top quarterbacks right now. If we both go there and compete, it would make each of us better.”

That’s a pretty well-played “I used to be in the NFL” presentation.  I suspect we’ll hear more talk like that.

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“The pros do that.”

Hey, the coaches want this newfangled technological shit and it’s another revenue source for college football, so I’d say we’re looking at a question of when, not if, it’s all embraced on a sideline near you.

“I think the coaches clearly want to investigate using technology to make the game better and I think that a competition committee can look at some of these,” SEC coordinator of officials Steve Shaw said. “Clearly we’re marching toward technology.”

After all, it’s always a plus when college football can be more like the NFL.  Especially the money making part.

In today’s edition of “I didn’t think it was possible”

… Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush manages to make me feel defensive for the NCAA.

“In my mind, the NCAA is the last plantation in America,” Rush said. “Certainly it takes the layman’s capital and talent and the skills of its participants under the guise of being amateurs, promises them education, but then it exploits their labor — without pay I might add … It should be the National Cabal of Collegiate Athletes.”

Dude, if you can manage to turn off the likes of me with your rhetoric, you might want to rethink your approach a wee bit.

Your cable dollars at work.

Just shoot me.  Now.

The Nostradamus of conference realignment

Who had the foresight to write this five years ago?

A collateral consideration for all of us as national leaders in intercollegiate athletics is the creation of a few “mega-conferences” may result in more governmental, legal and public scrutiny. Pressure to compete may rise with resulting higher salaries and more churning of ADs and coaches. Clear identification of the highest level of intercollegiate athletics reduced to a smaller grouping of (e.g. four 16-member conferences) could cause eventual tax consequences and tremendous pressure to pay those student-athletes responsible in programs driving the most revenue and pressure, and whose coaches and administrators are receiving more and more financial rewards.

The answer may – no, check that – will surprise you.

If the handwriting was on the wall that far back, it really makes the strategy we’ve seen the schools and the NCAA pursue in the interim look that much more futile.  Though not unexpected.

Conference realignment did reset the television rights market, which did make athletic directors and coaches a lot richer. At the same time, seeing people who insisted they weren’t part of a multibillion-dollar business acting exactly like they were part of a multibillion-dollar business turned public sentiment away from the schools and toward the athletes. O’Bannon v. NCAA was already in the pipeline, but these moves helped the plaintiffs’ attorneys to take the tack that would ultimately win them the case. Meanwhile, more lawyers smelled blood—or money, or both—and jumped in with suits of their own. Northwestern football players, aware of their role in the cable television universe, petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for the right to unionize. Under intense pressure, the wealthiest five conferences convinced the other Division I leagues to allow the richest to make rules for themselves so they could pay athletes more. (Leaders also acted as if this was charity and not a response to lawsuits.)

Camel farming is easy.  Managing oil production is a lot trickier.  And so far, these guys aren’t even living up to OPEC standards.

Friday morning buffet

A little of this, a little of that…

• Tennessee goes from firing a basketball coach after just one season amid an NCAA investigation into his former program… to hiring a basketball coach linked to questions about of academic misconduct alleged to have occurred during his tenure with his former program.  The spirit of Mike Hamilton lives on.
• Dial into the audio clip here at about the eleven minute mark and you can listen to CBSSports’ Jerry Hinnen talk some Georgia football.
• Brian Kelly is brutally honest about player academics at Notre Dame.  And I mean brutally.
• The board of Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges slaps North Carolina with a 1-year probation penalty.
• “Get out, get dirty, go to work. Roquan’s a star football player, but guess how everybody else makes their living? It ain’t on the football field.”
• Dig into Florida’s budget numbers, and you’ll find that the Gators lost money on football last year.  Can you say Boom’s buyout?  I thought you could.
• The early signing period for football comes up for a vote next week.  The SEC is the only major conference on record opposing it.
• You want to see a list of Georgia’s freshmen jersey numbers?  Here you go.

In related news, the sun rose in the east this morning.

Mark Bradley wants you to know he has doubts about Mark Richt and Georgia.