Son of Montana Project

One last take from Stewart Mandel’s Kings/Barons Version 4.0 ($$):

One undeniable consequence of the now eight-year-old College Football Playoff is the consolidation of power among a small handful of programs. With only a few exceptions, a program’s national profile these days seems to go hand in hand with regular CFP contention.

Therefore, this year’s edition sees the Kings undergo their most significant contraction to date.

That echoes the third point I made in my email to him:

I really like the theme [i.e., exclusivity] for this edition of your list, but I don’t think your kings are exclusive enough. I’ve thought about this a little, and I think I’d propose a new version of your perception test: ask 100 college football fans to list the four teams most likely to make the CFP field in a generic season. I suspect after tallying the vote, your current list of 11 emperor/kings would shrink to about seven. In fact, after you post this year’s list, I think I’ll post an approval voting poll on the subject, just to see what turns up as a result.

(Before you ask, no, I hadn’t seen his column before I wrote that.)

Let’s skip helmets, coaches’ pictures and Song Girls, okay?  While we’re at it, let’s skip Mandel’s “only a few exceptions”, too.  If you’re a true national power, it’s ludicrous to suggest you’re not a program at least in the conversation for being a national playoff contender.

So, Peyton and I have devised another poll.  The link is here.  The topic is simple:  in a random, generic season, name the teams you would currently expect to make the CFP semi-finals.  The ballot contains the top fifty winning P5 teams this century, as Mandel doesn’t include G5 teams in his list and nobody’s casting a ballot for Vanderbilt.

It’s pure approval voting, so don’t feel that you’re obligated to pick four teams.  If you only feel confident with three choices, that’s fine.  If you’re feeling five, go for it.

We’re not under time constraints, so we’ll leave the voting open until midnight Thursday and post the results on Friday.  Have at it!

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They’ve got that going for them, which is nice.

You know what’s a little weird?  The national punditry has a better impression of Georgia’s secondary this season than it seems like we do.  Phil Steele, remember, has them as his top group at the position.  Here’s CBSSports’ take on college football’s best DB rooms.  And here’s the group at their top:

1. Georgia

Georgia ranked 13th nationally in passing defense last season, allowing just 190.9 yards per game through the air. That was especially impressive since opponents were airing it out while typically playing from behind. Even with some attrition, this group should be elite again, and it’s led by elite cornerback Kelee Ringo. The redshirt sophomore and former top-ranked corner from the 2020 class was recently projected as the No. 4 pick in an early 2023 NFL mock draft by CBS Sports draft expert Ryan Wilson. If West Virginia transfer Tykee Smith can return to his 2020 All-American form after dealing with injury last season, it would further solidify Georgia’s case to be at the top.

Man, a rising Ringo lifts all boats, don’t it?

Alabama isn’t even in their top five, which I guess is what happens when you lose Metchie and Williams.

The NIL Summit

It was just hosted in Atlanta.  David Hale’s summary is pretty spot on.

Another common refrain from many of the NIL Summit’s attendees was a reminder that this is all still new. For all the “what comes next” questions, there were very few answers. NIL has undoubtedly moved college sports away from traditional amateurism, but it’s still unclear whether it’s also a big step toward a pro model. While some experts theorized unionization and collective bargaining was the ultimate end point, few athletes seem to have given this much thought, and several attorneys and agents said the path to unionization would be incredibly difficult, suggesting instead that a group licensing model could be a better fit.

While school presidents and administrators have begged for federal NIL oversight, few in attendance in Atlanta believed that was forthcoming after a recent effort from Greg Sankey and George Kliavkoff to engage Congress resulted in no serious movement.

More likely, said several sources, was litigation that would more clearly define a framework for the marketplace. What happens when an athlete who unwittingly signed over NIL rights to a collective wants out of that contract? What happens when a company decides an athlete hasn’t performed well enough to warrant payment? What happens when the IRS comes calling because they’re not sure why a sports collective needs nonprofit status? The results of potential lawsuits might end up defining what NIL looks like down the road.

No shit. It’s way too early in the process to start drawing any hard conclusions about where this is headed.

By the way, this is what caused Mark Emmert to spend millions on lawyers:

The one constant refrain on money, however, was that much of what has been reported in the media is widely out of step with reality. Yes, some athletes have found deals into seven figures, but that’s incredibly rare. The median return for a social media post, for example, might be as little as $20, while even big-name athletes with large followings rarely land deals in excess of $20,000.

Kinda seems wasteful, but what do I know?

Your Daily Gator needs a hug.

#Florida fan is already out on Billy Napier! #FireEverybody pic.twitter.com/CNGQZOEbmM

— Message Board Geniuses (@BoardGeniuses) June 17, 2022

“I feel like we are gonna rue the day we fired Mullen.”

The last decade has warped the crap out of Gator Nation.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

One ring to rule them all

The Pac-12 commissioner has an idea and I’m sure it has nothing to do with Greg Sankey’s dominance ($$).

Does college football need the NCAA to run the sport? Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff doesn’t think so. He also doesn’t believe he’s alone.

“We have to be realistic about the fact that football is a unique animal among the rest of the college sports and that there are conferences that should be more aligned and should be more in control of the future of high-level college football,” Kliavkoff told The Athletic on Friday.

“I’ve had conversations with several of the FBS commissioners, and I’ve been surprised by the unanimous support for the idea among the folks that I’ve spoken to about taking football rule-making and football rule enforcement out of the NCAA and investing it in an organization that is run by the 10 (FBS) conferences.”

He doesn’t know the feelings of the commissioners he hasn’t spoken with yet, of course.  I’m sure this will go over well with the head of the SEC:

“The way I think about it is: Control of everything related to college football with the exception of the media rights during the regular season would vest in one organization — setting the rules, enforcing the rules and running the postseason,” Kliavkoff said.

“Everything” is doing some very heavy lifting there, especially when you consider it includes the CFP.  Yeah, I bet Sankey is all for ceding his power and humbly submitting himself to the will of the other nine commissioners.

Happy Father’s Day, Nick, from your favorite son

I would have posted this yesterday, had I seen it then.

Ha sorry @AlabamaFTBL guess I gave @KirbySmartUGA some motivation last Father’s Day @SEC @finebaum https://t.co/kPYj3qRLYn

— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) June 19, 2022

Some people never worry about poking the bear.

The only thing better than screaming hot takes…

Thinking about how 2019 LSU would have beaten 2021 Georgia by 30 points this morning

— SportsTalkATL.com (@SportsTalkATL) June 17, 2022

… are screaming hot hypothetical takes that can never be tested in the real world.

Musical palate cleanser, groovin’ edition

Hard to believe this was originally released as a B-side.

According to Rob Bowman, Canadian professor of ethnomusicology, “Groove Me” had been inspired by a young college student who had worked about twenty feet away from Floyd at an east L.A. box factory. In Floyd’s words: “She’d just watch me and smile at me all day. When I went to the water fountain, she would make it her purpose to come up to the water fountain. But, I was so shy. So, I decided one day that I was gonna write this poem and give it to her and I wrote ‘Groove Me.’ Believe it or not, after I finished it she never came back to work. It blew me away. So, I never gave her the poem. Man, I’d sure like to meet her one day just to thank her!”