What it means to be independent in the Year 2020

This is some deal Notre Dame has cut for itself.

All that and you get to keep your own TV contract, to boot.  Sweet!

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By George

.@GeorgiaFootball's George Pickens was a PROBLEM last season 😳

And he was only a freshman. pic.twitter.com/P1JwSYKyMu

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) July 23, 2020

Those clips are a good illustration of his progress over the course of last season.  At the beginning, he wowed us with his body control.  By season’s end, it was his improved route running that was the big deal.

Combined, that’s a damned good package to work with.

An overlooked name

From Jake Rowe’s Insider Notes:

I want to be cautious with this one and remind everyone that UGA hasn’t put on the pads yet and there’s a long way to go, but for the first time since he arrived on campus a couple of years ago, I’m hearing some significant buzz surrounding Tommy Bush. I spoke with a contact and made mention of how I was hearing good stuff about Jermaine Burton and they immediately told me that Bush, a 6-foot-5 190-pound speedster, was turning heads. He has added some strength and mass and it appears to be paying off.

There are some other online whispers about Bush indicating similar stuff.  Who knows, but a tall speedster as another receiving option wouldn’t hurt Monken’s plans, I suspect.

The athletic director who cried wolf.

Shot.

Wisconsin’s athletic department is projecting revenue losses between $60 million and $70 million if the Badgers play a conference-only, 10-game season and losses of more than $100 million if the upcoming football season is canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic…

Alvarez said the Badgers have projected a $140 million operating budget for the 2020-21 academic year.

Chaser ($$).

In the Power 5, a football program that loses money either is terrifically mismanaged or it is simply spending all the money so it doesn’t turn a profit. If they did turn profits — and most Power 5 departments could with any sort of reasonable fiscal restraint — then people might wonder why players don’t get a bigger cut.

The federal government might wonder why the athletic departments don’t have to pay taxes. Schools don’t need to renovate their locker rooms every five years. They don’t need to drastically renovate their football facilities every 10 years. They didn’t need to increase coaching salaries by a factor of 10 over the past 30 years. They also don’t need to subsidize other sports that can’t pay for themselves. (With the exception of the sports that give the school the scholarship numbers to comply with Title IX; that’s simply a cost of doing business.) They pay for all that stuff now because if they don’t spend all the money, the football players or Uncle Sam will come looking for their cuts.

New math:

In 2018-19, Wisconsin’s football program accounted for about 58% of the department’s $157.7 million in revenue, according to the university’s most recent financial report to the NCAA. The Badgers generated $24 million in ticket sales and $8.3 million from contributions related to football, as well as $45.6 million from media rights, $9.4 million from bowl revenue and $5.3 million from program sales, parking and concessions.

If the season isn’t played, the Badgers would save money on some expenses, including team travel ($1.3 million in 2018-19), opponent guarantees ($3.1 million), game expenses ($1 million) and bowl expenses ($2.1 million). Much of their $40.4 million in expenses, like athlete student aid, coaching salaries and facility debt service, are fixed costs.

I sure would like to hear how Alvarez calculated those loss figures.

These people are adorable.

I gotta say, Stingtalk’s game has really slipped of late, but every once in a while, the commenters there go off on something that justifies the board’s existence.

This, for example, is a classic.  Among other conceits, the idea that Georgia is going to object to playing at a site where it fills at least 50% of the seating and hasn’t lost at since the turn of the century is flat out hilarious.

Cost/benefit analysis

Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec isn’t saying what’s coming in response to the pandemic, he’s just sayin’.

What is an acceptable infection rate? That hasn’t been determined by the league, Schovanec said. Both Schovanec and Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt have discussed 20% as a possible number. Should 20% of a team test positive, that week’s game would be postponed, hypothetically.

That decision will not be made solely by the Big 12 presidents. “Deciding what is the critical threshold, the input of coaches and ADs is critical,” Schovanec said.

Football is critical to each school’s bottom line. Even Texas, with its budget of almost $225 million, needs football revenue from TV broadcasters and season ticket holders.

“Kirby and his team have done a lot of planning about the financial implications that we face,” Schovanec said. “What do we do if we have a reduced schedule? What do we do if we don’t have football? If we don’t play football, it will be difficult to have any sports.”

Asked if that meant from a medical standpoint or financial one, Schovanec said, “Both.”

Um, sure.  I think the First Rule of College Athletics Administration applies here.

Schovanec said presidents are ready to let fall practice begin as scheduled on Aug. 7 and could still make a change.

All decisions will be made with student safety in mind, Schovanec stressed. Television money is not the driving force here, but Fox and ESPN pay the league based on an inventory of 57 games. A conference-only schedule is just 46. “You can’t ignore those facts,” Schovanec said.

When they say it isn’t about the money…

Today’s ‘rona roundup

With the Pac-12 news that the conference plans on a 10-game conference-only schedule, spread over 14 weeks (“They are assuming some success in the next month or two (against the virus),” is some assumption), here’s a breakdown of what each conference’s current plans/hopes are for the 2020 football season.

The P5 scorecard looks like this for now:

• ACC:  decision coming by the end of this month
• Big 12:  decision coming by the end of this month
• Big Ten:  conference-only schedule planned
• Pac-12:  conference-only schedule planned
• SEC:  no timeline announced

It’s looking like Greg Sankey may be one lonely man at the start of August.  Or maybe he’s just waiting until the ACC and Big 12 leave him with no other option.  Leadership, for the win!