Well, ain’t this something.
Seriously, if they’re gonna do that, why bother with kickoffs at all? Just place the ball on the 25 and save us all the time.
Daily Archives: March 2, 2018
Nike’s gonna Nike, y’all.
Just passing this along.
You can wear those for the low, low price of $119.99. At least until the next pair comes along.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stylin'
“… all you pure market capitalists that emerge from the left”
That was a line in the comments last night that cracked me up.
Allow that noted commie rag National Review to retort.
… The NCAA propounds a theory of amateur athletics — the players are student-athletes, in it for the love of the game — that conveniently happens to divert the hundreds of millions of dollars college sports generate to…the NCAA. The players, from the walk-on at the end of the bench to the celebrated one-and-done prospect spending a short season in college before entering the NBA draft, are technically amateurs. Their reimbursement is twofold: the chance to play, and the chance to be a college student. But the NBA-bound, and the more tragic cases of those who think they are NBA-bound, have no interest in being college students. Though everyone knows the amateurism doctrine is a sham, the NCAA clings to a Frank Merriwell model of part-time athletes balancing homework and practice because it means more money for the NCAA.
But top players, aware they are worth more than an often-meaningless scholarship, will inevitably endeavor to capitalize on their own value. “Wishing away young players’ market value doesn’t change the fact that it exists,” writes The Ringer’s Jonathan Tjarks. Thus the NCAA, in its hubristic attempt to squash market forces, has created a threat to its own continued dominance of college sports: an enormous black market for prospects’ services.
If any orthodox Marxists are reading this (an unlikely proposition), they’re salivating: Wealthy capitalists are capturing all of the value a player generates. But there’s a more fundamental principle at stake that should convince conservatives to oppose the amateurism arrangement: a belief in free markets. Though no government is denying these players their rights, college football and basketball have a near-monopoly as farm leagues for the NFL and NBA. There is no viable alternative for most players looking to sell their labor, but if they take money, they will be declared ineligible, their schools punished, and their teams’ results vacated. As David French points out, a college athlete who plays by the rules will “spend his entire academic career as one of the poorest students on a wealthy, upper-middle-class campus, all during a time when he might actually be achieving his peak earning potential in a truly free market.” When A.J. Green, a talented Georgia football player, sold hisown jersey, he was suspended for four games; NFL scouts deemed him to have “character flaws,” which might have cost a lesser player spots in the draft and millions of dollars. [Emphasis added.]
As the saying goes, when they say it’s not about the money, it’s about the money. That’s not socialism. It’s cynicism. It’s also accurate.
Filed under It's Just Bidness, The NCAA
“Nobody wanted to come and play in The Swamp.”
I give Dan Mullen credit for realizing part of the formula for resurrecting the Florida program…
“You will not win an SEC or national championship if you lose home games. Not in this league. Not in this league. You’ve got to win your home games. And I expect us to win all of our home games, every single one,” Mullen said Wednesday night.
“But we cannot do it if you all aren’t there. … If you all show up and there’s not an empty seat in the stadium and the place is rocking, we’re going to win.”
Mullen has indicated he plans to take an active role in boosting the game-day experience. He’s said the Gators will honor the program’s long-standing traditions, but they also will create some new ones, which he has yet to specify.
He’s said the team will have a grand entrance, because he likes the pageantry of college football. But as much as anything he wants The Swamp to be intimidating again.
… and more credit for being willing to work hard to make it happen.
That’s why Mullen says he plans to talk to student groups on campus about boosting their commitment on Saturdays.
“Once spring practice starts, I’m going to try to go around to different student groups and organizations, go have lunch, go over to the fraternity houses and, more importantly, go to the sorority houses. Listen, if I want all the guys to show up, if I get the girls to show up — ‘Hey, all the sororities are going to the spring game.’ Well, then that answers the fraternity question,” Mullen joked Wednesday night.
“… Every one of the fans in our stadium are going to take the students’ lead. If the students are jumping up and down, having fun, going crazy, so is everybody else. If the students don’t, they’re not. So we’ve got to do a great job of cultivating and teaching the students how, one, we need them there and, two, how we need them to act during the course of the game.”
Mullen said he wants Saturdays in Gainesville to be some combination of a state fair, a Broadway show, a rock concert and a football game where there is something going on for everybody, and there is a buzz throughout the town for the Gators.
Honestly, I’d rather hear about this than some AD’s mindless vision for bringing better WiFi to the masses as a game day solution. Although, this might be fun, too.
He joked that he once tried to research the most intimidating stadiums in the world and ended up reading about a soccer stadium in Turkey.
“They have like flares and they shoot flares at the other team on the field. There’s fire all around the stadium. The AD was like, ‘Nah, can’t do that. There’s no way the commissioner is going to sign off on our student body shooting fireworks at the other team.’
I’d love to hear a Sankey presser where he had to explain why he wouldn’t let the Gators do that.
Filed under Gators, Gators...
Dip shit food fight
Northern Illinois’ athletic director isn’t impressed with Central Florida’s national championship daydream.
“Don’t try to bully the committee,” Frazier said of UCF. “That’s what these guys are doing now. If you want to put a banner up that says ‘national championship,’ God bless you. You can do that. I’ve got no problem with [White] doing that. But to say they should have been in the final four is an unrealistic expectation.”
“You can do that”? Uh… I’m not sure you really want to go there.
Filed under It's Not Easy Being A Mid-Major
I really need this job, Mr. Saban.
Booch is obligated under the terms of his Tennessee contract to seek new employment.
Tennessee owed Jones an $8.26 million buyout when it fired him, due in monthly installments throughout the duration of his contract, which was set to expire on Feb. 28, 2021. His contract requires him to try to find a new job to mitigate the buyout.
The analyst role likely wouldn’t mitigate Tennessee’s damages much – the AP reported in 2017 that analysts usually make about $45,000 annually – but it would fulfill Jones’ contractual duty, and he can continue to rake in that buyout money.
Who knew busy work could be so lucrative?
Musical palate cleanser, a political decision I can dig edition
The Georgia General Assembly has seen fit to issue SR 920, a resolution honoring one George Edward Clinton for, among other things, the “outstanding accomplishments of this pillar of funk music“, and, frankly speaking, who am I to argue with that?
By the way, in case you’re interested, Clinton is currently on tour and I have to admit I’m sorely tempted to travel over and take in this show.
Filed under Uncategorized
Get The Picture 