Kessler, on his victory lap

Compare this Q&A with Alston’s winning attorney to the nonsense Emmert spewed:

SI: What’s your response to the schools that say: This is going to turn into an arms race, and sorry, we don’t have $5,000 worth of computer equipment and iPhones and other educational benefits to bestow on our students, we just don’t have the resources?

JK: So, it’s an argument that sounds good, and makes absolutely no factual sense. And, the reason is, that arms race exists today. It exists when Alabama pays each of its strength and conditioning coaches $550,000 per year. It exists when these schools spend $150 million on some palaces for the athletes to live by themselves and have their own billiard rooms and gold-plated locker rooms, of which you can’t possibly imagine. There is no equality of competition in college sports now. There are the rich and there are the not rich. And, that’s not going to change today. But what will change is instead of Nick Saban making $11 million, maybe he’ll only make $9 million and the athletes will benefit from the difference.

SI: What excess did you come across that offended you the most?

JK: The spending is not what offended me the most. What offended me the most in this record is how the athletes are treated. It’s the fact that the average BCS football players and Division I basketball players work more than 50 hours a week for their schools, before they attend a single class. That they’re told not to pursue majors or classes that they’re interested in because it will conflict with the team. That their first priority is to support their team, not to be students. And then they come in and say, “Oh but we can’t let you have any benefits because you won’t be integrated as students in the campus.” It is so offensive. It is so exploitative. And let’s not forget that the majority of football and Division I basketball players are students of color. That’s what offends me the most.

“But what will change is instead of Nick Saban making $11 million, maybe he’ll only make $9 million and the athletes will benefit from the difference.”  Ditto for the administrators.  That’s what the amateurism fight has been about.  Despite the money rolling in, the suits don’t want to share.  They never have.

Summertime, and the schoolin’ is easy

How it started ($$):

Brody Miller, LSU beat writer: The Arik Gilbert saga was a troubled one at LSU. Sources said he seemed unhappy once he arrived, which of course included a pandemic. There were academic issues, with LSU sources unsure he’d be eligible. Gilbert was the highest-rated tight end in 247Sports history, and he played like it, but by December he went to coach Ed Orgeron and informed him he was opting out for the final weeks of the season.

How it’s going:

Congratulations to our academic players of the week!#ATD #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/xJbwxsMtMd

— Coach Kirby Smart (@KirbySmartUGA) June 29, 2021

Well played, Kirbs.

You know, if part of your job as a head coach is to keep your best players eligible, it seems like Coach O ought to get dinged a little in the coach ranking department.

No doubt they mean well.

Doing it for the kids, 12-team playoff edition ($$):

Last week in Dallas the CFP’s Board of Managers, a group of 11 university presidents representing all 10 Football Bowl Subdivision leagues and Notre Dame, discussed the new 12-team proposal and greenlit it for further discussion. CFP leadership will spend the summer meeting with bowl and television partners to determine the feasibility of the new model and how soon it can take effect.

Commissioners and presidents have said they want to get feedback from current and former players about the additional wear and tear that would come with extending their season — a listening process that’s only happening after the favored Playoff model has been selected.

Sounds very open-minded.

Which doesn’t mean players aren’t thinking about what’s coming.  For example,

… But Perry speculates that load management could come to college football, with star players opting not to play certain games in November if their team has already all but locked up a Playoff spot.

“Or if you’re one of the last teams to get in, does somebody make a decision like, ‘Hey, I don’t know what our chances are in this game, but I don’t necessarily want to risk this when I know I’m staring at a $30 million contract in just a matter of months.’” Perry said.

No matter how big the CFP gets, there will always be business decisions to be made.  All that will change is the timing.

SEC strength of schedule rankings

Barrett Sallee ranks Georgia’s as the conference’s third easiest.

It won’t be easy for the Bulldogs right out of the gate, as they will travel to Charlotte to take on the mighty Clemson Tigers in what is the most heavily-anticipated game of Labor Day weekend. After that, it’ll be smooth-sailing for Kirby Smart’s crew. Arkansas is their rotating cross-division opponent, permanent cross-division rival Auburn is rebuilding under first-year coach Bryan Harsin and it’s not like intra-state rival Georgia Tech has returned to bowl contention. Even with a loss to Clemson in the opener, Georgia should run the table and could be double-digit favorites from Week 2 through the SEC Championship Game (depending on what Florida looks like).

It really is beautifully constructed.  The opener, win or lose, should establish Georgia’s bona fides as a national title contender.  From there, as Sallee notes, the Dawgs will be favored in every game for the rest of the regular season.  (It certainly helps that Georgia doesn’t face itself or Alabama.)  It’s a recipe for success.

By the way, somebody really hates Sam Pittman:  “The Hogs draw Georgia on the road as their rotating cross-division opponent, have a four-game stretch that has Texas A&M, Georgia, at Ole Miss and Auburn in consecutive weeks and face back-to-back road games at LSU and Alabama.”

No football program left behind

If it strikes you as being a little bizarre that the NCAA’s retreat from any meaningful enforcement of players’ rights to NIL compensation makes it likely that football programs in states with NIL laws may turn out to be disadvantaged from a recruiting standpoint from those in states without… well, you’re not alone.

It’s an aggression that cannot stand, man.

A political aide in a state with a state law told me that he's already gathering material to amend the law, if need be, this fall.

"The rules were written so these schools in those states weren’t left behind. If they start to get left behind, then the law will change.” https://t.co/jOyhRIKFnt

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) June 29, 2021

Wanna bet said aide is in a state with an SEC school?

Today, in amateurism is what we say it is

Just a reminder that Mark Emmert once uttered this horseshit under oath:

Lest we forget, here is the sworn testimony of Dr. Mark Emmert in federal court on June 19, 2014, regarding the NCAA's position on college athletes doing paid endorsements pic.twitter.com/0yrMXo8ZAg

— Andy Schwarz, sponsored by Envelopes of Cash (@andyhre) June 30, 2021

Dr. Emmert continued:
THE FUNDAMENTAL NOTION IS THAT YOU — YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE STUDENT ATHLETES, AMATEUR STUDENT
ATHLETES, BE IN A POSITION WHERE THEY ARE PITCHING FOR — FOR PRODUCTS AND FOR COMMERCIAL INTERESTS AND BEING — BEING ESSENTIALLY PITCHMEN FOR VARIOUS PRODUCTS. pic.twitter.com/8KGirayz7i

— Andy Schwarz, sponsored by Envelopes of Cash (@andyhre) June 30, 2021

And here’s where we’ll be — totally blessed by the NCAA — tomorrow ($$):

That is a different approach from Jenloop, the relatively new platform started by NFL agent Neil Schwartz. Jenloop creates athlete and entertainer profile pages, and users can pay them to send out a tweet or Instagram post (so a Georgia fan on his birthday pays a player to tweet a message to him).

“Jenloop is the 21st-century version of Hallmark,” said Schwartz, who added he is not running afoul of prohibitions of contract agents representing collegians because the platform only facilitates connections among fans, brands, and players. Unlike Opendorse, he is only activating pages for athletes in states that passed NIL laws.

Lewis Cine, a defensive back from Georgia, is on Jenloop, though his page is not yet live. He has talked with several other services. “Well, it’s kind of like certain platforms that come and say, ‘Hey, we want to help you out when the rules pass, when we can begin,’” Cine said.

… How much a non-star collegiate athlete can earn on platforms like Jenloop is unclear. The biggest name currently on Jenloop is the rapper Waka Flocka Flame, who has 1.8 million Twitter followers and charges $1,000 a tweet for fans and $2,500 to endorse a product in a tweet. Cine, by contrast, has fewer than 7,000 followers.

“A player can easily make, minimum, five figures, easily,” Schwartz said. “Six figures if they promote themselves through their own platform.”

Poor Lewis, exploited like that.

“Just going to leave this here for Georgia fans…”

How it started:

Matt Corral: Preseason All-SEC QB1 🏆 pic.twitter.com/gFIFXKcwtj

— PFF College (@PFF_College) June 29, 2021

How it’s going:

They say good things come in three’s, so after writing that the Florida Gators will dominate the Georgia Bulldogs this season and Dan Mullen is a better head coach than Kirby Smart, I’ve decided to dunk on Georgia fans for the third time. This time I am just reminding them that Florida quarterback Emory Jones is so much better than Georgia quarterback JT Daniels.

… While Daniels will be an upgrade over Bennett, he shouldn’t even be discussed in the same tier as Jones.

Yes, both players have limited action, with Jones playing even less than Daniels. However, Daniels showed at USC that he is nothing special. We know that he will never be an elite talent at the position, while Jones has sky-high potential.

… There is always some uncertainty with predictions like that, but one thing is sure. Jones is better than Daniels, and it’ll show while Mullen out coaches Smart again and the Gators dominate the Bulldogs this season.

Fansided?  More like Trollsided.  I love the smell of buffoonery in the morning.

If, if, if

Bill Connelly ($$) looks at how many “ifs” it takes for him to turn a team into a genuine national title contender.  There is only one “two if” team on his list and I’m not going to insult your intelligence by pretending there’s a question it’s anyone but ‘Bama.  Bill has four teams with three “ifs”.  Georgia is among that group.

Here are the three “ifs” he posts for Georgia:

• If … late-year JT Daniels is full-year JT Daniels.
• If … the receivers handle a change in weight class.
• If … a renovated secondary holds up.

One thing all those items have in common is that Smart used the transfer portal to shore up potential holes in those position groups.

Also of note is that the offensive line didn’t make his if list.  In fact, Bill goes on to say the line is in good shape.

Where are you on “ifs”?

Ixnay on the ILNay

To its credit, there is one thing the NCAA does really, really well:  abdication in the face of responsibility.

The Division I Council voted to recommend the Division I Board of Directors adopt an interim policy that would suspend amateurism rules related to name, image and likeness. The board meets Wednesday.

… With the NIL interim policy, schools and conferences may choose to adopt their own policies.

If this sounds familiar…

Most athletic department officials around the country assumed for much of the past year that the NCAA or Congress would eventually prescribe a set of nationwide rules to guide them through the specifics of what athletes can do and provide the infrastructure needed to enforce those rules. But attempts to pass a federal NIL law remain bogged down by partisan disagreements. And a previous, more detailed NCAA proposal that was nearly two years in the making was fully derailed just last week by increased concern that blanket restrictions on how players could make money could violate antitrust laws. In a confidential memo written late last week, the NCAA’s working draft of the interim NIL policy acknowledged that “the current environment does not allow for as much guidance as the membership prefers and to which it has become accustomed.”

As it became increasingly clear in recent weeks that help was not coming from above, schools were left scrambling to sort through the details themselves.

… it’s only because they employed the same strategy in dealing with last year’s pandemic crisis.  And while an argument can at least be made that COVID was unexpected, that’s not the case this go ’round.  Anyone with half a brain could see the train wreck coming.  And, boy, it’s gonna be a doozy.

By way of example, let’s dive down a rabbit hole. Louisiana’s state law, which is expected to be signed by the governor sometime this week, prohibits college athletes from endorsing alcohol. It’s clear that means an LSU football player could not appear in a Budweiser commercial, but could he endorse a local liquor store that also sells soft drinks and snacks? Could he endorse a Baton Rouge bar that doubles as a pool hall? What about a restaurant that serves food along with alcohol? Where do you draw the line? Schools will have to make the initial decision.

When an athlete (and potentially their agent) disagrees with a school’s decision to prevent them from cashing in on a certain opportunity, disputes could turn awkward quickly. Major disagreements will likely have to be resolved through the legal system. Rolling out the lawyers to battle your own athletes will be an unpleasant experience for schools and teams that are constantly locked in a hyper-competitive battle to recruit and retain talent.

But it won’t be the NCAA’s problem.  Well played, Mr. Emmert.

The hard bigotry of high expectations

Josh tipped me off to this tweet that graphs recruiting ratings against a performance metric:

Georgia is below the line.  Yeah, there are certainly worse places to be on that graph (looking good, Texas!), but it’s clear that you get the “not bad, but not great” narrative because people expect more results from the Dawgs’ recruiting success.

Georgia’s problem is that it has to deal with the only team farther out to the right on that chart every season.