The NCAA strenuously objects.

From the Alston arguments in front of the 9th Circuit yesterday, this is hilarious.

Judge Smith also pressed Waxman on whether he thinks proposed state and federal laws could impact the case, pointing to California’s Fair Pay to Play Act, which allows compensation for a college athlete’s name, image and likeness, or NIL. The new law was signed last year, but doesn’t go into effect until 2023.

The judge said allowing athletes to get paid millions of dollars for their NIL could “completely undercut” the NCAA’s defenses.

But the attorney replied that the NCAA thinks that those statutes are “flatly inconsistent” with its principles of amateurism and the O’Bannon precedent.  Waxman added that they think that the state’s Fair Pay to Play Act is unconstitutional and violates the dormant commerce clause.

If you say so, man.

(h/t)

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In the ATL, but not of it

Ummm…

Great to have @MarkRicht (👀 the shirt!) here on The Flats representing the @accnetwork at #GTSpring practice today. He is documenting the whole day on Instagram — check him out at mark_richt! #404TheCulture #TogetherWeSwarm pic.twitter.com/YKPnaV2iyO

— Mike Flynn (@MFlynnGT) March 10, 2020

Coach, just because you own the place doesn’t mean you have to dress like that.

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UPDATE:

Don’t tell anyone! pic.twitter.com/hY4BpQbV0w

— Mark Richt (@MarkRicht) March 10, 2020

Oops.

Your Daily Gator has expectations.

Come for Andy Staples’ take ($$) on how Florida’s expectations for the college football playoffs this season are reasonable, but stay for how Kirby Smart has flipped this rivalry on its head.

The fifth-year senior has seen the coach who signed him win the SEC East and get fired the next season. He has seen his current coach win double-digit games in his first two seasons and get celebrated to his face while everyone asks But what about Georgia behind his back…

Yes, the Georgia question is perfectly legitimate. Two of Mullen’s five losses are to Kirby Smart’s team. The SEC East might very well be decided at the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party again this season. But Smart had a two-year head start on Mullen in that rivalry, so perhaps the balance has shifted. Or maybe it hasn’t. We won’t really be able to handicap that game until this Florida team and that Georgia team — with its revamped offense — take the field.

I’m old enough to remember when we spent years thinking the same thing about Georgia versus Spurrier and Meyer.  Thanks, Kirby.

The be all, end all

The bad news is that Georgia didn’t sign a five-technique/defensive end in the 2020 class.  The good news is that Georgia has three studs at the five-technique/defensive end for the 2020 season.

Malik Herring (senior): The former four-star prospect has showed some tremendous flashes over the past two seasons. Consistency has been lacking, but Herring clearly has game-changing ability against the run and the pass. He was a healthy hold out of the season opener against Vanderbilt largely because he’s not the best practice player out there. UGA’s staff puts a lot of stock in how players perform in practice and if Herring improves in that area, he has a chance to open some eyes as a senior.

Travon Walker (sophomore): Despite being a five-star prospect coming out of high school. expectations weren’t all that high for Walker as a freshman. Georgia was loaded with talent an experience along the defensive line in 2019 but Walker still found a way to make a huge impact. He was fixture on third downs and showed the ability to get after the quarterback. He’ll take on a much bigger role in his second season with UGA losing David Marshall and Justin Young.

Tramel Walthour (redshirt sophomore): The Bulldogs signed Walthour twice for a reason. He’s a gifted player. He spent 2018 at junior college despite being a full qualifier and enrolled in January of 2019. He would have likely played a lot more in 2019 if a foot/ankle injury didn’t hamper him for the first few weeks of the season. By the time he was fully healthy, it was clear that UGA had everything it needed at defensive end and it would be best to preserve a year of eligibility. Now he’s in line to be a part of the rotation at defensive end and the Bulldogs like to use at least three guys at this spot.

I’m guessing the coaches will be forced to add an inside player or two to the defensive end rotation.  I would also expect that these will be among the first guys subbed for when Georgia takes control of a game.  But they all can play.

Scott Cochran’s gamble

We’ve explored Cochran’s change of jobs from the Georgia angle and from the Alabama angle.  Now Ross Dellinger takes a look at it from the strength coach’s perspective.

While many paint Cochran as the spoils in an on-going war between SEC coaches Kirby Smart and Nick Saban, the world of strength coaches is collectively scratching its head over such a stunning and rare shift. That includes those who know Cochran best here in Baton Rouge, where the man got his start under Moffitt.

“Big shocker to the industry,” Moffitt says. “For somebody that is a top-five highest paid strength coach in the country and is the face of Alabama football to some degree—there’s Nick Saban and then there’s Scott Cochran; Scott’s got commercials!—it was a shocker.”

Longtime strength coaching leaders call the move unparalleled in the history of the business.

It may be an even bigger shocker now than when it was announced, considering that Ohio State’s Mickey Mariotti just saw his pay bumped to a whopping $801,150 next season, which in turn means Iowa’s S&C coach is about to get a nice, new payday.

Mickey Marotti's standing as top-paid strength coach likely to be short. Based on provision in Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz's contract and team's achievements last season, Iowa assistants in line for 12% raise for 2020. That would put Chris Doyle at $896,000: https://t.co/rN6m7zwKx3

— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) March 9, 2020

That’s a lot of short term moolah for a guy to forego in hopes of chasing his dream to become a head coach.  Hope it works out for him.

As the old saying goes…

… when you’ve got five quarterbacks, you must be at Tennessee.

Here’s a hot take I didn’t see coming.

Pete Fiutak lists Jamie Newman fifth on his list of twenty impact transfer players for this season.  No, that’s not the hot take I’m referring to.  This is:

Newman is hardly a lock for the gig – D’Wan Mathis is going to be a major factor now that he’s okay after having a cyst successfully removed from his brain – but for now, the former Demon Deacon has the inside track to be one of the biggest keys to the SEC season.

Mathis?  Where the hell did that come from?

Don’t get me wrong.  I’d be thrilled to discover that’s the case, but for a kid to go from not being tackled for more than a year to suddenly being elevated into major factor status seems a bit abrupt, to say the least.  I’d love to know where Fiutak’s getting that from, assuming it’s not straight out of his ass.

“For someone who doesn’t care a whole lot about athletics, it seems a bit much for me to have to contribute…”

It’s bad enough that student athletic fees have increased faster than the overall cost of a public university education over the last decade.

Schools in Division 1, the top level of college sports, collected $1.2 billion in fiscal 2018, according to NCAA figures, 51 percent more than a decade ago. By contrast, the average yearly tuition at a four-year public college has risen 37 percent in the same span, according to the College Board.

It’s even worse that many schools hide that expense by burying it in tuition costs.

Students often have little way to know how much they’re paying towards athletics. Many schools, despite reporting large revenues from student fees in athletic finance documents, do not list an athletic fee on their website or tuition bills.

NBC News examined actual tuition bills received by students from 20 schools in six states that collect athletic fees, and didn’t find the fees listed on any of the bills. In more than half of those cases, we were able to determine the fees by looking at a school’s financial website. In the rest, however, we had to ask a school official or file a public records request.

And the Adding Insult to Injury Award has to go to Miami of Ohio for this bullshit move:

At least one school used its fees to keep itself from being kicked out of the top tier of Division 1.

Miami University in Oxford, Ohio — which charged students $1,044.87 in athletic fees this school year — has used money from student fees to make up for low ticket sales. It purchased 10,000 of its own football tickets per home game this past season. The tickets were not resold at a discounted rate or donated.

Amazing this stuff isn’t more of a public outrage.  I guess it’s okay when it’s in pursuit of the academic experience.

Scott Frost says out loud…

… what I bet you a lot of P5 coaches with programs in college towns are quietly saying in private.

Usually we hear coaches express concern about name, image & likeness benefits. Scott Frost sounded excited today about the possibilities for Nebraska. pic.twitter.com/duMPIrudm8

— Max Olson (@max_olson) March 9, 2020

The programs that embrace this the quickest are going to be paid dividends on the recruiting trail.

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UPDATE:  Frost is getting ahead of the curve.  Now.

Nebraska has announced today that they will be the first to launch a custom program designed to help their student athletes build their individual brands. The program – OpenDorse – will work with all 650+ Cornhusker athletes to provide some really valuable tools and

Blake Lawrence, a Nebraska football alum, founded OpenDorse and noted that he and his company have been preparing for this moment for over seven years.

How will it work? Well, the Ready Now Program will offer every Nebraska student athlete a current valuation of their brand and will also review and flag content that could have a negative impact on their brand and provide insight to help increase the individual’s brand value as well, the announcement points out.

Which will be the first SEC school to offer something similar?

Change gonna come.

Does anybody seriously question whether Kirby Smart intends to allow Georgia’s offense to “evolve” this season?  I mean, sure, we certainly don’t know the extent to which things will change, but to bring on Monken and Faulkner to keep doing what wasn’t working?  C’mon — is it realistic to expect Monken to take the job simply to refine the James Coley playbook?

There are other ways to skin the Manball cat besides running repeatedly into a brick wall stacked defensive fronts.  Kirby may be stubborn, but he’s not that stubborn.