Shorter Stacey Osburn: if you compare Mark Emmert’s more than $2.4 million compensation package to what Larry Scott’s pulling down, he’s worth every penny.
Daily Archives: June 21, 2018
At your service
That sure didn’t take long. Now, how about those integrity fees?
Filed under It's Just Bidness
Hit or miss?
ESPN’s got a piece up about ten former highly ranked recruits “running out of time to live up to hype“. One of the ten plays for Georgia.
Julian Rochester, DT
- What happened: Rochester was a big recruit, literally and in the rankings. At 6-foot-6, 335 pounds, he was the No. 8 defensive tackle in the 2016 class. He signed with Georgia and has played both seasons for the Dawgs, but the impact hasn’t been as big as many expected. That’s not to say that he has been bad, because he hasn’t. But the expectations haven’t yet matched. Rochester appeared in all 15 games for Georgia last season, starting one, so many are hoping he continues to progress forward.
- The opportunity: Rochester has two years of eligibility left and there is a big opportunity along the interior of the defensive line. Nose guard John Atkins and tackle Trenton Thompson are both gone to the NFL, which leaves a lot of snaps for Rochester to grab. With some consistency in the defensive coaching staff as well, this should be an excellent opportunity for Rochester to shine and and take over the stage.
I find that interesting on several levels. For one, if you want to talk about running out of time to live up to hype, Thompson’s a better example of that than Rochester, who has, as the article notes, two years left, been through a coaching staff transition, played regularly behind more experienced players and is in a system that prefers to rotate defensive linemen constantly. He’s got time, in other words.
Filed under Georgia Football
Calvin Johnson is Chantastic.
The AJ-C does a Q&A with Calvin Johnson in which I was a little disappointed that he didn’t address his performances against Georgia (or mention Reggie Ball, damn it), but I have to admit this does make up for that omission a little bit:
Q: If you were a high-school kid coming out, do you think Georgia Tech is the place you’d end up again?
A: Right now, they don’t really throw the ball. So if you’re trying to make plays in the receiving game, 10 throws a game, that’s not going to really (do it). Unless they’re throwing all 10 to you, like they did “Bay Bay” (former All-American receiver Demaryius Thomas).
I guess the genius isn’t going to be calling on Calvin any time soon to help reel in some receiving talent.
Filed under Georgia Tech Football
“You’ve extended the best league in the world to the two best leagues in the world.”
So, with regard to the idea of extending new market options to high schoolers looking to play ball someplace other than in the NCAA’s domain, here’s something to ponder (h/t Alex):
… A G League that attracts the best high schoolers and other top young players from around the world would command tens of millions of dollars in global media rights, says Daniel Cohen, a media rights consultant at Octagon sports agency. The G League has distribution deals with ESPN, Facebook, NBA TV, a startup network called Eleven Sports, and Twitch Interactive, an Amazon.com subsidiary that streams video games and esports competitions. Eleven, Cohen estimates, pays about $1 million a year. (Turner wouldn’t comment on the league’s finances.) “If I could tune in and watch LeBron James and Kobe Bryant go play their first year for a G League affiliate, it opens up a lot more interest,” he says. “You’ve extended the best league in the world to the two best leagues in the world.”
The NCAA, which charges more than $1 billion per year for broadcast rights to its March Madness men’s tournament, is proof of concept that the American appetite for basketball runs deep. And while much of the attraction of the college game is in its being, or at least pretending to be, for amateurs—kids playing their hearts out for a taste of athletic glory—some of the fun is in seeing tomorrow’s stars today. If the NBA gets it right, fans who once tuned in to watch James Harden play for the Arizona State Sun Devils will soon be watching the next James Harden play for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. [Emphasis added.]
As the article puts it, “The investment would be worth it for the NBA.” And there’s the catch — everyone agrees the NFL and NBA currently leave player development to the schools because it’s in their own selfish best interests to do so. If that approach changes, it’ll be for the same reason, not out of some beneficent gesture on their part to make Mark Emmert’s life easier.
This is your classic “be careful what you wish for” scenario. Does anyone honestly think that a significant talent drain from the schools will benefit them commercially? And before you go down the road of asserting that it will improve college ball, or that fans will be just as likely to tune in, be careful not to confuse your aesthetic preference for ESPN’s business model. Assuming that the NCAA and its schools wake up a few years down the road and find that their product isn’t worth as much, how do you think they’d respond?
Filed under The NCAA
We’re gonna need a bigger hat ceremony.
You knew this was coming.
Yep, that’s a high school junior announcing his commitment to transfer to a different high school.
When you’ve got college coaches making offers to eighth graders, I can only see this as an inevitable result.
Filed under Recruiting
Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out, son.
Hey, no hard feelings about the new transfer rules, right, coaches?
Not long after the NCAA said players don’t need to get permission from their schools to transfer, Power Five conferences are changing the way scholarships are handled for players who want to transfer.
The NCAA announced Tuesday afternoon that “schools can cancel the aid of a student-athlete as soon as he or she provides written notification of transfer, but the aid may not be reduced or canceled until the end of the term. Schools can re-award the scholarship at the end of the term, subject to other financial aid rules.”
In plain terms, if a player decides that he or she wants to transfer in October, a school now has the right to cancel the player’s financial aid agreement at the conclusion of the fall semester.
The NCAA, being the NCAA, says this is simply a matter of fairness.
“In fairness to the transfer student-athlete’s teammates, coaching staff and overall team dynamic, the Division I [Student Athlete Advisory Committee] felt that a student-athlete should not be able to give notification, search for other opportunities, then return to their institution if dissatisfied with their options with no repercussions,” UMKC athlete Noah Knight said.
The sponsoring conference, the Big 12, noted that allowing schools to cancel aid immediately provided a measure of fairness to student-athletes remaining at a school.
If there’s one thing we know, it’s that coaches certainly behave fairly when confronted with the possibility of a player transfer.
Pure class, guys.
Filed under The NCAA
Today, in it just means more, Urnge edition
In three short years, Lane Kiffin went from being someone who was advised by security to wear a bulletproof vest on his first trip back to Knoxville as Alabama’s offensive coordinator to becoming the choice of many Tennessee fans to succeed Booch as the head coach there.
Only in America, my friends. Or Knoxville, anyway.
Get The Picture 