In a less than shocking development…
“Somebody needs to do something about this NIL mess… well, not me, but somebody.”
Jello has a stiffer spine than these people do.
Daily Archives: May 16, 2022
Mark Richt has lost control of the ACC Commission.
Commissioner Melissa Link has responded to criticism spurred by a comment she made during a budget hearing in which she said football players at the University of Georgia are “out there raping and murdering.”
On Thursday, Athens commissioners met for the first of a series of budget hearings, and during this meeting, they discussed recruitment at the police department, which has seen a high number of vacancies.
In the budget proposal, there is a potential Police Youth Cadet Corp program that would have 10 part-time cadets work with the police department and serve as a path to employment for Athens community youth.
In the meeting, Link was skeptical of the idea and brought up the alternative of other recruitment tools, including recruiting from the University of Georgia.
“I brought this up before [I] had [a] discussion with Chief Spruill about direct recruiting, maybe, from UGA athletes,” said Link during the budget meeting. “They’re highly fit and intelligent college-educated young people who might want to stay in this community.”
Later in the conversation, Commissioner Mike Hamby remarked, “I think all the football players got drafted.”
As a response to Hamby, Link made her comment about UGA football players.
“A lot of them are out there raping and murdering,” said Link.
She did amend her comment to a “couple of them”, so there’s that. Anyway, it was really meant as support.
“The fact is the vast majority of college athletes never get anywhere near a professional career in athletics and one would hope it would be a priority of the program to assure that those individuals transition smoothly into productive adulthood. Sadly, quite a few do not,” said Link.
Link said that Gaines did not take into account the context of the conversation, which she said was a discussion of giving graduating Georgia athletes an opportunity to “prevent straying down the wrong path.”
Maybe the ones who avoid raping and murdering should consider a career in politics.
Filed under Georgia Football, Political Wankery
Pass pro, 2022 edition
I wouldn’t say I’m at the point of losing sleep over it, but, if pressed, I will admit to a concern I have about Georgia’s offense this season. It’s an area that’s lost a lot of experience, as this tweet indicates.
Okay, those aren’t particularly big numbers either way, so what’s the big deal? Let Rollins explain.
Why examine something that is an extremely small percentage of plays, especially for Georgia? Because one of the biggest plays in school history (above) doesn’t happen without James Cook’s pass protection. Cook picked up Bama’s Christian Harris and allowed Stetson Bennett the extra second or two to hit the free play shot/go-ahead touchdown to Adonai Mitchell.
The above play was actually something Bulldog backs were rarely asked to do. In total, the running backs only had 67 total pass blocking reps last season, good for the fourth-fewest in the Power 5 despite the additional games. Only Florida left their backs in to pass protect fewer times in the SEC.
It’s not something the Bulldogs did particularly well either. The team’s running back pass block grade was 36.6, seventh-best in the SEC and just 41st in the Power 5.
It doesn’t matter until it does, in other words. No doubt Monken will scheme around this deficiency — and when Kenny McIntosh is your best returning back in pass pro, a deficiency is what it is — until more experience brings more consistency. And he’ll do a good job in that regard, but still, good ain’t the same as perfect.
Like I said, I’m not losing any sleep over it, but when you like to take deep shots the way Georgia does, it’s something to consider.
Filed under Georgia Football, Stats Geek!, Strategery And Mechanics
Stick around a while
I’m not sure we realize how lucky we are that the Smart hire worked out so well. Statistically speaking, it was a crapshoot ($$).
More than 40 percent of FBS head coaches hired from 2013 to ’20 have been fired. That includes eight of the 27 hired in the 2018-19 cycle three years ago.
The money gets bigger. So do the expectations. And that means the firing trigger gets pulled sooner.
Filed under College Football
“The solution is smaller units that don’t trigger antitrust.”
I think Pete Thamel is correct when he writes,
The Supreme Court roadmap from the Alston case involves individual conferences taking the lead on the future. Time and again in the ruling, the court stresses that “individual conferences remain free to impose whatever rules they choose.”
And at some point, that’s going to evolve into some sort of compensation model for players — derived from the billions in television revenue. It’s only a matter of time before the pearls are unclutched. The question school presidents and conference commissioners need to ask is whether they want courts to force this — again — or if they finally want to craft their own future.
College presidents are mostly to blame for this leadership rut.
Ah, but therein lies the rub. As Thamel goes on to note, it’s the college presidents who have enabled Mark Emmert for the past decade. That worked out well.
He also goes on to note that there’s a catch to the whole “individual conferences taking the lead” thing, and, not too surprisingly, it’s money and parity.
The conferences need to take the lead. And the Power 5 leagues outside the Big Ten and SEC should be sounding the alarms in their conference offices daily to stress how much the revenue gap projections could undercut their future.
While all this NIL tail chasing is happening, the Big Ten and SEC are pulling so far away from their alleged peer power leagues so quickly that we appear poised for another seismic realignment shift soon because of the revenue gap. And the only reason people haven’t seen this coming is they are distracted by nonsense.
The smart leaders who aren’t in either of those two power leagues know they are soon going to be competing against schools that receive nearly double the annual revenue from their conferences. This is an unsustainable competitive model that’s destined to shake up college sports much sooner and more drastically than is being discussed right now.
“The solution is smaller units that don’t trigger antitrust,” said another prominent college leader, meaning wholesale decisions can’t be made for the country but rather made in smaller groupings. “I’m not sure it’s the way that we think of the conferences as units today.”
Instead of worrying about NIL inducements, the real play here is for conferences to stop worrying about NCAA regulation and create a model that uses the incoming billions to create inducements.
His solution seems a bit idealistic. At least half of it, anyway.
The Big Ten and SEC should be finding ways to leverage revenues that project to be as much as double that of their peers in a few years to distance themselves on the field. The other power leagues should be using brain power to find creative ways to keep up.
Brain power? Yeah, that ought to work. I mean, look at all the football programs that have used brain power over the past decade to win national championships against richer teams. Oh, wait…
And as for the money conferences, does this sound like any school president you’ve heard about?
The presidents have to bury all the amateurism propaganda they’ve sprouted for decades and realize their days of talent-for-scholarship deals in college football and basketball have ended. Revenue sports are going to cost them more to run. They need to figure out a model to attract the best talent. The revenue streams are there.
Nah, me, neither.
Things will keep going along just like always — the schools will try to maintain the status quo (whatever that may be at the moment) while begging Congress for an antitrust exemption, while the market continues to encroach where the courts and politicians have provided the openings. Lather, rinse, repeat.
In the end, if a conference moves to bury amateurism, it’ll only happen after there aren’t any other available options. These people don’t do proactive and never have.
Filed under College Football, It's Just Bidness, The NCAA
Musical palate cleanser, still ticking along edition
Delbert McClinton’s 81 years old. He recently announced his retirement from touring (although he’s still hosting the Sunny Beaches Cruise). But just because he’s no longer touring doesn’t mean he’s stopped making records.
Texas blues and soul rocker Delbert McClinton has announced the forthcoming release of his new studio album Outdated Emotion. The 16 song collection offers listeners a backstage pass to some of the most significant musical moments in American history as the legendary 81-year-old performs his lifelong favorite tunes.
Outdated Emotion symbolizes a full-circle moment for the 2020 Grammy Award winner as he reinvents the swing, jazz, blues, and country tunes that have informed his 65-year career. Following the recent announcement of his retirement from touring, McClinton’s Outdated Emotion marks a return to his musical roots and the songs that started it all, ultimately proving why he has earned the title as “the Godfather of Americana Music” (Rolling Stone).
With the announcement, McClinton shares “Ain’t That Lovin’ You,” an energetic, harmonica-driven reinterpretation of the ‘56 classic by Jimmy Reed. McClinton realized he wanted to play music for a living when he heard the late blues troubadour’s music for the first time.
And here it is…
Time has thinned the voice a little, but the delivery is still pure Delbert. Keep on rolling, my man.
Filed under Uncategorized
Get The Picture 