Well, now.
It’s not every day you see a conference commissioner decide to drop in on an NCAA enforcement hearing. I doubt Greg is there to put in a good word for Jeremy Pruitt.
This guy, on the other hand…
Daily Archives: April 19, 2023
Today, in gapping
Shot.
FLORIDA GATORS
2023 schedule predictions (5-7, 3-5): at Utah (Loss), McNeese (Win), Tennessee (Loss), Charlotte (Win), at Kentucky (Loss), Vanderbilt (Win), at South Carolina (Loss), Georgia (Loss), Arkansas (Win), at LSU (Loss), at Missouri (Win), Florida State (Loss)
The skinny: If the Gators fail to split non-conference showdowns with Utah and Florida State this season, Billy Napier will fail to reach bowl eligibility in his second campaign, further heating up his unexpected hot seat early in his tenure. Florida’s in a great spot recruiting for 2024, but on-field production is going to matter this fall and the schedule appears to be treacherous. Splitting road games against comparative teams Kentucky and South Carolina is necessary too, but it may not happen.
Chaser.
GEORGIA BULLDOGS
2023 schedule predictions (12-0, 8-0): UT Martin (Win), Ball State (Win), South Carolina (Win), UAB (Win), at Auburn (Win), Kentucky (Win), at Vanderbilt (Win), Florida (Win), Missouri (Win), Ole Miss (Win), at Tennessee (Win), at Georgia Tech (Win).
The skinny: Can confidently predict that unless something goes terribly wrong at the quarterback position for the Bulldogs and this defense takes several steps back, the two-time defending national champions will get to Atlanta on the nation’s longest-winning streak. The schedule sets up for it. By SEC standards, this one is a relative cakewalk with potentially the first nationally-ranked opponent coming in November (at Tennessee). The Bulldogs miss Alabama, LSU and Texas A&M from the West.
Yep, any day now.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Georgia Football
The new normal
Good Q&A from today’s Mandel Mailbag:
Stewart, with the Big Ten’s Tony Pettiti hire following the Big 12’s Brett Yormark hire, do you expect pretty much all future conference commissioner hires to be people with media backgrounds? And if that’s the case, do you expect future AD hires to start having media backgrounds instead of athletic backgrounds? Is this a seismic change in college sports leadership or a blip on the radar?
… Fifteen years ago, all of the major conference commissioners were longtime college admins: Jim Delany (Big Ten), Tom Hansen (Pac-12), John Swofford (ACC), Mike Tranghese (Big East), Dan Beebe (Big 12) and Mike Slive (SEC). It was seen as completely unorthodox when, upon Hansen’s retirement in 2009, the Pac-12’s presidents tapped pro tennis executive Larry Scott.
Today, the SEC’s Greg Sankey and the ACC’s Jim Phillips are the only commissioners among those six leagues (counting the AAC as the Big East) with a traditional background. The others are a former TV exec (the AAC’s Mike Aresco), a former media and entertainment exec (the Pac-12’s George Kliavkoff), a former NBA and Roc Nation exec (the Big 12’s Brett Yormark) and, now, a former TV and Major League exec (Pettiti).
If that doesn’t give you a sense of schools’ priorities in this day and age, I don’t know what to tell you. As Mandel puts it,
It’s an admission by university presidents that a modern-day college conference more closely resembles a professional sports league than a traditional college model. This is, of course, rife with hypocrisy, given these are the same people who insist their athletes are mere college students, not team employees…
Once upon a time, we were told to accept that amateurism was whatever the NCAA said it was. Nowadays, the contradictions have grown so much that the NCAA is incoherent. Which is why the schools want to change the definition of amateurism to whatever Congress says it is. In the meantime, though, bring on those media deals!
Filed under College Football
Get The Picture 