Same as it ever was.

For all you amateurism romantics who believe nothing’s changed in the wide, wide world of college sports that justifies any demand that student-athletes deserve something more than the traditional scholarship, room and board arrangement, allow Jeremy Foley, of all people, to retort.

Jeremy Foley, who is retiring as Florida athletic director on Oct. 1, notes how much longer the seasons are then when he first got to the school in 1976. Back then, he said, there were 10 football games and now there are 12 with as many as 15 now for those who advance in the postseason. Basketball has gone from 27 games to 31 regular season games and the NCAA tournament has expanded.

It’s not just that, of course, and the linked article touches on many other time demands that have cropped up as the money being paid to schools has ratched up:  mandatory summer practice hours, weird TV times, to name just a couple.

The point is that the world has changed and the way these kids are being compensated for their time and effort needs to change, as well.

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If it’s mid-June…

… then we’re due for some stimulating SEC re-alignment/rescheduling talk.

Bill Connelly and Jason Kirk come up a non-divisional format.

Seth Emerson suggests sending Alabama and Auburn to the SEC East.

Both are fun reads, but I can’t help but wondering one thing after going through them:  wouldn’t it just be easier for the SEC to go to a nine-game conference schedule?

“You don’t alienate your shareholders, and ours are our alumni.”

Is Gale Galloway, a former Baylor regent chair and football player, the most detached-from-reality Art Briles fan in existence?  You be the judge.

“One of the finest men I’ve known is Art Briles,” said Galloway, 86. “He certainly deserves to be reinstated. This (his firing) is heartbreaking and an overreaction.”

… Galloway said he has not seen any other evidence from Pepper Hamilton but said Briles should not have been fired.

“If he has been negligent in reporting or receiving phone calls in relation to transgressions, he’s admitted he made mistakes,” he said. “He’s a fine man and father. No one respects womanhood more than Art.”

Oh, brother.

I get all the usual caveats about how every fan base has its share, but you read enough stuff like this and it almost leads you to think a NCAA-imposed death penalty wouldn’t necessarily be that inappropriate a course of action.

Returning offensive line career starts

Phil Steele blogs every year about the number of career starts returning for D-1 offensive linemen.  This year’s post on that subject is out, so, without looking, guess where Georgia ranks nationally.

The answer is here.  Yeah, that surprised me, too, especially the conference ranking.

I will say, based on last year’s experience, the quality of coaching matters a shitload more than returning starts.  Which should be a good thing for the Dawgs…

More mid-June madness

Like I said, it’s that time of year when most everyone writing about college football has little else to do but speculate.  Which brings me to Pete Fiutak’s (Way Too Early) week one predictions.  His call for Georgia is either stunning or demented, depending on your point of view.

Georgia vs. North Carolina

4:30 PM ESPN Georgia Dome, Atlanta, GA

When last we saw North Carolina, it was getting steamrolled over by Baylor’s running game in an epic collapse. That was last season. This season, it’ll start out by getting stuffed cold by a frenetic Georgia defense that’ll do everything right in Kirby Smart’s debut. The spotlight will be on freshman quarterback Jacob Eason, but it’ll be the Dawg running game that carries the load on the way to an ugly blowout.

Line: Georgia -3.5
June Prediction: Georgia 40, North Carolina 13

I think it’s safe to say that were that to happen, Dawgnation would go nuts.  Pure, unadulterated nuts.  It would be a result reminiscent of this unexpected outcome, a year ahead of schedule.

Sure, it would be as much fun blogging about the over the top reactions to a 27-point blowout as it would the win itself, but I’m not betting the ranch on it.  I wouldn’t even bet the dilapidated outhouse on it.  If Georgia manages to cover, I’ll be thrilled.  Hell, who am I kidding here?  If Georgia wins by a point on a contested play, I’ll take it.  But thanks for the thrill, Pete.

Everybody likes to make a little bank.

MaconDawg, you spoilsport.

It stands to reason then that Foley might recommend turning the reins over to a guy who already knows his way around the place.  Could Greg Mcgarity leave his post in Athens to become the athletic director at the University of Florida?

Much to the chagrin of a truly committed group of Bulldog fans, I think the answer is no.

Eh, for the record, I don’t disagree, mainly because I don’t see that McGarity’s done enough since he’s left Gainesville to make him that enticing a replacement for Foley.  (The sneering condom references likely to be contained in a McGarity-to-Florida story alone make it unlikely.)

But MaconDawg’s raised one amusing possibility that I can’t resist touching upon.

And as much as Florida fans might disagree, it is essentially a lateral move. Florida does not offer significantly more in the way of resources, and in fact may offer less in terms of revenue to work with. Admittedly, Georgia’s revenue hasn’t been spent on its athletic director. McGarity makes roughly $600,000 per year, which certainly ain’t that bad. But Foley earns about twice that ($1,230,000) at Florida. McGarity’s current contract runs through 2019 after being extended this time last year, but if necessary I suspect the board could find a few extra dollars to keep him.

Actually, he’s wrong about Florida’s revenues, at least according to the numbers published in USA Today.  The Gators took in about $30 million more last year than did Georgia; they also spent about $30 million more.  But I digress.  What would really be funny is if McGarity were to use the opening in Gainesville as a means to leverage the athletic board into giving him a salary bump.  If only he were represented by Jimmy Sexton…

COA, one year later

Remember when everyone was wailing about COA stipend madness?  The conference took action.

In May 2015, the SEC enacted legislation proposed by Kentucky and Georgia, which each had the lowest cost of attendance figures in the conference, that required each school to submit a report to the conference office illustrating “the value of the institution’s ‘other expenses related to cost of attendance’ for the upcoming academic year and describing the methodology for determining such value.”

And now?  Even Auburn’s yawning about it.

“I don’t think (cost of attendance had) much of an impact (on recruiting),” said Auburn coach Gus Malzahn, whose school has a $5,586 cost of attendance ranking among the highest in the country. “I know it was a big topic last year. You really don’t hear a whole lot about it this year.”

If this is true…

No SEC coach could cite a circumstance where a recruit was swayed by a difference in cost of attendance stipends between schools, which started paying out the stipends, in accordance with the Ed O’Bannon case, last August.

Even during the barrage of recruiting announcements on National Signing Day, not one time did cost of attendance get mentioned.

… Gus is understating things, because you’re not hearing anything about it.  Players getting paid and yet the Republic survives?  Color me shocked, shocked.