The deal is done.

It’s official:  the genius will roam the Flats through the 2022 season.

The contract extension for Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson has been completed, according to a person familiar with the action. Athletic director Todd Stansbury and Johnson’s Atlanta-based agent Jack Reale had been working on the extension since the 2017 season and reached an agreement in principle in January.

The extension is for an additional two years to his existing contract, pushing out to the 2022 season, which would be Johnson’s 15th at Tech.

And there was much rejoicing, especially in consideration of this line of reasoning:

Tech failed to make a bowl game in two of the past three seasons, but Stansbury is banking on Johnson’s performance over the longer term.

Damned defensive coordinators…

*************************************************************************

UPDATE:  Your Friday afternoon chuckle…

he’s one of the winningest coaches in Tech history
…
but the stadium still has a ton of empty seats on Saturdays

— Will Kahler (@KahlerWilliam) April 6, 2018

So did 90% of the teams in the country. GT attendance is about the same year to year. Atlanta is not a cow town like other places where there is nothing else to do either. https://t.co/IwLPg7m6tU

— Kelly Quinlan (@Kelly_Quinlan) April 6, 2018

They could always shrink the stadium seating again to make it look fuller.

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There’s always something to game.

This genuinely sounds well-intentioned.  (h/t)

The Division I Committee on Academics will recommend to the Transfer Working Group that four-year transfer student-athletes who meet specific grade-point average and progress-toward-degree requirements be able to compete immediately at the second school.

The academic data reviewed by the committee indicated that, on average, sitting out a year of competition following a transfer may not be academically necessary for student-athletes with a strong scholastic foundation. As a result, the committee will recommend benchmarks that align with successful academic progress after transfer.

Committee members agreed those benchmarks should include a GPA between 3.0 and 3.3 and a requirement that students be academically eligible for competition at the time of transfer, based on their progress toward earning a degree within five years of initial enrollment.

So why do I have the feeling that some coaches who will remain nameless might suddenly find it in their best interests to allow their student-athletes to take more challenging courses?

Today, in slippery slopes

It sounds like Iowa’s athletic director is having some sleepless nights because of Jeffrey Kessler.

Iowa athletic director Gary Barta said Thursday he is concerned that a pending lawsuit against the NCAA may flip the current college sports model on its head.

“I disagree that we should have an open-market, pay-for-play (system in which) student-athletes are employees,” Barta told reporters after the monthly meeting of the Presidential Committee on Athletics.

Last week, a federal judge ordered the NCAA back to court to defend its limits on the compensation college athletes can receive. A trial was set for Dec. 3. The plaintiffs are seeking a system that would apply only to major-college football and Division I men’s and women’s basketball players.

That’s one aspect that worries Barta.

“What does that do for all the other sports? What does it do for other challenges like Title IX?” Barta wondered. “Right now, we have 24 sports and they’re funded primarily through football and men’s basketball. So what happens to all our Olympic sports? I’m just concerned about all the possible dominoes that could occur.”

Must suck that you aren’t good at dominoes — if, by “dominoes”, you mean doing the same thing that every chief executive of a big business in this country does every day.

Here’s Iowa’s financial reality.

Iowa's booked revenue has gone from $47 million in 2006 to $118 million in 2018 without adding a sport. You could double Olympic sport spending from 2006 levels and still have enough money to pay each football and basketball player $400k a year. https://t.co/u6vM8E1zEe

— Stephen A. Gifs (@PV_GIA) April 6, 2018

You know what really bothers assholes like Barta?  Having to do their job.  Life is so much easier when you have more money rolling in than you know what to do with it.

Why is Barta an asshole?  Because it’s not just about him.

That’s the so-called “Olympic model” of sports. Barta rejected that notion as well.

“This is about a student-athlete experience. Our student-athletes graduate at a very high rate and they come here to do two things — compete at the highest level in the sport that they love and earn a degree from one of the great universities in the country. And they come here with that in mind, not to be an employee,” Barta said.

“I think the Olympic model is unique to the Olympics. … I like the collegiate model. It doesn’t mean it can’t be improved. It doesn’t mean it’s perfect. The collegiate model has worked for 100 and some years. It’s a great model that can be made better, but not flip and turn into an employee and employer relationship.”

This is why these guys oppose the Olympic model for college.  They’re scared shitless that a court is going to see outside compensation as the camel’s nose inside the tent, and — poof! — that hundred years of exploitation goes up in smoke.  Then Gary Barta would have to work for a living.  No wonder he’s uneasy.

“Jake, he’s a bright kid. He always has been.”

Yesterday must have been Talk To Jake Fromm Day, because it seems like every beat writer filed a story about this spring’s… eh, for want of a better phrase, quarterback competition and how the returning starter is internalizing the situation.

Fromm was asked if what happened last year keeps him on his toes, knowing a true freshman could end up taking his job.

“I’m still going to be the same guy every single day, even from the day I got here,” Fromm said. “I’m just the kind of guy who goes in and competes, somebody who works his butt off. I’m never going to stop doing that and I don’t expect anybody on the team to stop working on their game. That’s what everybody on the team is doing, competing and working. That’s kind of what we do here.”

So, how is Fromm working on his game, then?

Making his first media appearance of the spring after practice Thursday, Fromm was asked what he needed to improve on this offseason.

“Trying to get better in the pocket, try to have an even more clearness of the offense and to have better rhythm on my throws,” he said. “Obviously, doing a better job throwing on the run. I’m just trying to take all that in and improve as much as I can.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t expect Fromm needs the threat, perceived or otherwise, of a Fields to motivate himself to improve.  And if the generic wisdom of the second-year bump holds true in his case, Fromm ought to be heading towards a helluva season.

Why so mad, bro?

The Sporting News pitches five playoff scenarios for 2018 “sure to make everyone mad“.  Here’s number one:

Alabama vs. Georgia — again

The all-SEC championship title game between Alabama and Georgia drew a lot of criticism in 2017. Here’s the bad news. It could totally happen again. The Crimson Tide and Bulldogs will be heavy favorites to win their respective divisions, and the possibility for a No. 1-vs.-No. 2 showdown in Atlanta for the SEC championship exists.

What if both teams were 12-0 or 11-1 with the drop on the rest of the Playoff field? It’s entirely possible for both to get back in. After all, this was a scenario in 2017. Georgia and Alabama were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 the first two weeks of the CFP rankings before Auburn beat both in November. The Tigers must travel to Athens and Tuscaloosa this year, too. The all-SEC championship rematch is entirely possible.

Yes, if there’s nothing else that would enrage me, it’s the thought that the two best teams in the country face off for the national championship.  That would really chap my ass, not because I’m a Georgia fan, but as a college football fan who has this charmingly deluded notion that the point to the sport’s postseason should be to have the best face the best.  Get real.

Here’s what would really happen if that matchup came to be:  the national media, goaded by ESPN, would do its collective best to stir up a feeding frenzy; those jonesing for an eight-team playoff, goaded by ESPN, would seize upon this as the lever needed to move the discussion to a more imperative level;  Bill Hancock, goaded by ESPN, would blink his eyes at the media while solemnly insisting that expansion was not in the works; the national media, goaded by ESPN, would parse the television viewership numbers searching for proof that public interest in the CFP was on the verge of waning, etc.  Sensing a pattern there?

Mad?  Nah.  More like calculating.

Gator bait

You think Georgia’s 2018 home schedule leaves something to be desired?  Florida will be playing two FCS opponents in 2018, and two more in 2019.

According to FBSchedules.com, Florida is scheduled to play home games in 2019 against UT Martin (Sept. 7, 2019) and Towson (Sept. 28, 2019). Playing multiple FCS opponents is not against the NCAA rules for FBS programs, but only one win would count toward a school’s bowl eligibility (essentially meaning Florida would have to win seven games if it won both games against the FCS opponents).

… Florida’s FCS opponents in 2018 will be Charleston Southern in the season opener on Sept. 1 and Idaho later in the season on Nov. 17. The game against Idaho was scheduled when Idaho was still an FBS program. This season will be Idaho’s first season in the FCS after moving down, but SB Nation reports the NCAA has given Florida an exemption for that game so it may still count toward bowl eligibility (assuming it is Florida’s second win against an FCS opponent in the fall).

Let’s hope the football gods have some fun with that.

The way to a man’s heart is through his reserve fund.

I’m sorry, but this quote has me rolling on the floor:

The main reason Georgia made the move to depart from Fox? SEC Basketball is becoming legit, and standing still with Fox was the same as moving backwards.

“McGarity didn’t want to leave money on the table with basketball,” said a well-connected insider. “Pretty much, UGA didn’t want the SEC to get too far away in terms of competitiveness, and I think Greg was feeling that it was starting to happen.”

If there’s anything that’s anathema to Greg McGarity, it’s the concept of leaving money on the table.  Which got me to thinking… maybe that’s how Kirby gets things done at Butts-Mehre:  “Greg, if we don’t triple our support staff, we’ll be leaving money on the table to those programs that do.”  “Greg, if we don’t do a $63 million renovation of Sanford Stadium for recruiting, we’ll be leaving money on the table, because other programs will.”  “Greg, trust me, when it comes to this, you don’t want to leave money on the table.”

If Jeremy Pruitt had used a better sales pitch for the IPF, who knows what might have happened?