“We let ’em in free, so y’all gotta pay for it.”

This is every bit as good as you might expect.

I’d pay good money to hear Rocker mic’d up on the next day of practice after Rochester’s arrest, though.

Not a good look for you, Baylor.

We’re at a point now where you cringe just seeing a header with Baylor’s name in it.

Shawn Oakman was arrested on sexual assault charges earlier this month, but a Waco Police Department report obtained by Rivals.com’s Alex Dunlap uncovered another disturbing alleged incident involving the former Baylor defensive lineman…

Dunlap added that Baylor knew of the report but didn’t discipline Oakman, who played his first of three seasons for the Bears later that fall…

If Baylor indeed knew of the 2013 police report involving Oakman and did nothing about it, it would fit with the alarming reports that the university consistently ignored serious allegations involving violence against women.

That would be the least of it.  Unless you’re Earl Ehrhart, in which case you see a much… um, different problem.

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Six degrees of Bert

It turns out that the idea of aggressively pursuing satellite camping didn’t spring unbidden from the mind of Jim Harbaugh like some sort of college football Athena.  Nah, there was a lot of begettin’ before he got started.

No one voting on the ban apparently thought of the potential consequences for recruits if Group of Five coaches weren’t allowed to work Power 5 camps—something both groups want—so it would not be the least bit shocking if the ban gets tossed. The leagues that want a ban would then be asked to go back and write a more carefully worded rule.

If that happens, the coaches who were planning satellite camps will probably reinstate those plans. That includes Arkansas coach Bret Bielema, who planned to have coaches work camps at Florida International, Rutgers and a few other schools. The Razorbacks also had preliminary plans to hold a camp at Cowboys Stadium. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is an Arkansas alumnus. “I was shocked by [the ruling] the other day,” Bielema told Jack Arute and me Friday on SiriusXM’s College Sports Nation. “We were ready to rock ‘n’ roll. I was kind of in favor of them.”

Bielema also provided a little backstory for how the satellite camp issue has evolved. If you’ve been reading this space, you already know the first Power 5 staff to think of teaming with a lower-level school in a recruit-rich state was Oklahoma State’s, which partnered with Division III power Mary Hardin-Baylor to work camps in Texas. It was Bielema who took brochures from those camps to the SEC’s spring meetings in Destin, Fla., a few years ago to let conference coaches know about the practice. (Given Arkansas’s location, Bielema’s intent was likely to convince the SEC to change its rule so Razorbacks coaches could fan out.) At the time, James Franklin was the coach at Vanderbilt. The next year, he had moved to Penn State. Franklin’s Nittany Lions staff began working camps in Georgia and Florida. When Jim Harbaugh arrived at Michigan, he saw what the Penn State coaches were doing and decided to build on it.

And here we are.

Yep.

Only in America

I’m sure some of you will vehemently disagree with me, but I sure find it strange to live in a place where the media have to apologize to fans of a football program for doing their job.

Which isn’t to say those guys are totally blameless – when it comes to snarking the AJ-C, I think I’ve established my street cred, so to speak – but, dayum, this really shouldn’t have to be written:

As for our part, reporting that Briscoe was arrested, I just have to say that it’s our job to do so. Arrests are public information and Briscoe, being a scholarship football player for the Georgia Bulldogs, is a public figure. Therefore, it’s our duty as reporters to simply let folks know this happened.

And the other part to consider here is that there’s a public interest in what’s being reported.  If we didn’t care about Georgia football as passionately as we do, the AJ-C and its peers wouldn’t care as much, either.

Okay, you can fire away now.

It’s more fun to spend when nobody’s watching.

You want to know why a school might want to change a state’s pesky Open Records law?  Read through this story about what the University of Illinois spent on its search for a new athletic director – the search only, mind you – and you’ll get an idea.

All told, the cost to keep those interviews far from prying eyes in Illinois exceeded $11,000 — from the limousine service that shuttled candidates back and forth, to the Indianapolis Airport ($1,096.52) to the breakfast and lunch buffets at the hotel ($3,854), to dinner for 12 at restaurants like Prime 47 steak house ($987.31, including the $160 tip).

That doesn’t include more than $11,000 spent on the flights, hotel rooms and other travel expenses for candidates themselves.

Maybe that’s the kind of recruiting the Georgia legislature had in mind when it passed SB 323.

(h/t)

SEC, that’s some Year of the Quarterback you’ve got going for you.

I have no idea how accurate this list of SEC post-spring position rankings for quarterbacks will turn out to be, but if it’s anywhere close, what does it say that LSU is third?  Or that Georgia is sixth?

I’m thinking the conference better have some very stout running backs this season.

“They’re really not supposed to use their judgment.”

Is the NCAA dysfunctional?  Is the Pope Catholic?

If nothing else, the satellite camp debate crystallizes that the NCAA governance system is still broken almost two years after the model significantly changed.

Shocking, I know.

All of this would be more amusing if there weren’t major issues for the NCAA to tackle on behalf of athletes: compensation, concussion safety rules, agents, time demands, transfer rules, health insurance and scholarship guarantees, just to name a few. If you can’t figure out which way you’re voting about coaches traveling to a couple summer football camps, how in the world are you going to pass meaningful change for players beyond cost of attendance?

Ooh, I know!  They’ll figure out something right after they lose another lawsuit.  Helluva way to run a railroad.

Then again, some things never change.

Lane Kiffin, still a dick.

You’ve got your change and I’ve got mine.

Energy is nice…

The change has also brought enthusiasm, with some players have stating how it could benefit the program in the long term.

“It’s a different atmosphere, a different energy,” outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter said. “I love Coach Richt. But it’s just different. You can tell.”

Carter likened it to changing seats in a classroom. There’s a new view and a new feel. Richt should certainly be proud of what he accomplished in 15 seasons. But Georgia let him go because of where his ceiling stood after his duration in Athens.

Coming out of the spring, you could sense not only the excitement in the fan base, evidenced by 93,000 fans out for the G-Day spring game, but by the players in how they felt about the direction of the program.

Safety Quincy Mauger agreed that G-Day put forth a statement as to what direction this program is headed.

“There is a lot of energy that Kirby has definitely brought to the table, along with all of the coaches and the leaders on this team,” Mauger said.

… but cut through the fluff and dial up this interview to about the 2:25 mark to get where the real change will come.  Emphasis on building depth on both lines is music to my ears.  Let’s hope he pulls that off with another year or two of recruiting.

The early CW

Stewart Mandel has his first preseason top 25 list posted, and his view of Georgia at #19 is pretty consistent with the other lists I’ve seen to date.

19. Georgia (10-3): New coach Kirby Smart will not be lacking for talent, starting with star RB Nick Chubb’s return from injury. DE Lorenzo Carter and DT Trenton Thompson could thrive in his scheme. The Dawgs’ season largely hinges on how quickly incoming freshman QB Jacob Eason is ready to take the reins of coordinator Jim Chaney’s offense.

I’m thinking Chubb’s return will have a bigger impact on the season than Eason’s arrival, but who knows?  In the meantime, check out which squad is Mandel’s pick after Georgia.