This year’s model…
Eh. Not doing much for me, to be honest.
By the way, last year’s Pegasus 39 is now on sale at a pretty steep price reduction.
Daily Archives: August 3, 2023
The Texas of the ACC
Shot.
Chaser.
It’s not easy being Gawd’s gift to an entire college conference.
Filed under ACC Football
TFW you slowly realize Congress isn’t going to bail your ass out
Not sure if this will go anywhere, but at least they’re making an effort.
The NCAA Division I Board of Directors directed the Division I Council to develop proposals to improve the environment for student-athletes engaging in name, image and likeness activities in college sports. The board met virtually Wednesday.
The board’s direction comes at the request of the Division I Council Working Group on Name, Image and Likeness following two days of in-person stakeholder meetings — including two dozen administrators and 10 Division I student-athletes with firsthand experience in NIL activity — at the end of July…
Among the proposals the working group will present to the council in October are rules that would:
- Develop a registration process for NIL service providers (such as agents and financial advisors) and NIL entities (those who contract with student-athletes for the use of their NIL).
- Create a standardized contract or standard contract terms that could include certain information to be required, including terms like fee structures and the specific activities for which athletes would be compensated.
- Establish disclosure requirements for student-athletes and/or NIL entities that could serve as a resource for student-athletes and would be intended to provide transparency about NIL activities.
“We heard loud and clear that student-athletes are not always certain about what to look for in NIL contracts, and we hope to establish clear rules that help student-athletes navigate these deals to better — and more safely — capitalize on their NIL potential,” Tealer said.
The board also charged the working group with developing recommendations for how Division I members can address concerns in recruiting and clarify the role schools could have relative to student-athlete NIL. The working group was asked to bring possible recommendations before the council and the board in October.
“The board believes the Association must use the tools at our disposal to improve outcomes for student-athletes when it comes to NIL activity, but there are some things we believe only Congress can address,” said Jere Morehead, chair of the Division I Board of Directors and president at the University of Georgia. “We have seen good progress on Capitol Hill recently, and while that process advances, we are moving ahead to do what we can to increase transparency and establish standards so student-athletes can pursue these NIL opportunities.
“After two years of providing guidance to NCAA members while monitoring the NIL landscape, Division I members are better equipped to take more permanent steps — in the form of NIL-specific rules — to provide clarity for NCAA schools and student-athletes in this space,” Morehead said.
Well, that remains to be seen. But, like I said, at least they’re beginning to try.
Filed under The NCAA
When you mean well trying to say nothing
Kind of begs the question, doesn’t it?
Filed under Blowing Smoke, Georgia Football
Where’s a conference mulligan when you need one?
I’m old enough to remember when assholes like these guys crowed about how smart Bobby Bowden was to reject SEC overtures in order to stay in the ACC to dominate the weaker conference. Not looking so smart now, is it fellas?
Filed under ACC Football, SEC Football
‘That is a great freaking idea, but we can’t get our arms around that right now.’
If you’re someone who’s already morose about college football’s future (regardless of the reason), I doubt this is going to cheer you up.
The conversation — a notably preliminary one — took place in December 2022. Around a table were venture capitalists and private equity types. The super-rich don’t get that way sitting on their assets. They plan. They innovate. They create change; they don’t wait for it.
So, at some point in the conversation, the question was posed: What would it take to “buy” a conference, invest at the base level of college athletics itself?
After some noodling, they agreed: $1 billion.
There’s even a conference out there that would be available. You haven’t heard of it. Nobody has.
It resides in the mind of media consultant Patrick Crakes. He was the one speaking with those investors who are beginning to see great potential in reshaping college athletics.
“Take $1 billion and roll up all the best teams into a new conference,” said Crakes, who spent a quarter century as an executive at Fox Sports. “The best ones you can find who will go. Four or five from the Pac-12. Four or five Big 12 schools. Four or five from the ACC. Maybe there’s a Big Ten or two that comes. You’ve got a conference.”
…The mere fact that it’s being discussed — even in a precursory manner — offers a peek into the future. College athletics has always been a closed loop. Sure, there are sponsors and NIL, but all of that revolves around a (mostly) for-profit athletic department model married in at least a minor way with an educational model.
This sort of deal would not only mean third-party influence in college athletics but third-party ownership.
Since pursuit of this story began, CBS Sports has learned that at least one major private equity firm has shown interest in funding a conference structure.
Private equity has basically trashed every business sector it’s sunk its teeth into. I’m horrified at the thought of what would happen to college football if private equity were calling the shots. And don’t think it’s so farfetched a concept. If there’s one thing we know about college sports, if there’s a big number preceded by a dollar sign, there will be a motivated audience ready to sell.
To put it more bluntly, if this story has legs, we are all well and truly fucked.
Filed under College Football, It's Just Bidness
Returning to the scene of the crime
Well, gee, look who’s back for more.
Dan, you left out “which the Big Ten created” after “Pac-12 uncertainty”.
While the chutzpah on display there is impressive, there’s a nagging feeling about it I can’t shake.
That’s it! Where is the financial sense in paying two (or four) teams in a conference that can’t even lockdown a $30 million/year TV more than twice that to switch sides? That’s going to be the first question the Big Ten’s broadcast partners are going to want answered, and it’s hard to see what the conference can come up with that will molllify them. And if the deal means the Pac-12 refugees have to take significantly less money to come aboard, at what point does it stop making sense to jump leagues?
On top of that, the Big Ten is notorious for not liking to play a lot of late games. That, of course, is one of the attractive points of West Coast football. So how’s that collision course going to work out?
Wetzel engages in some underpants gnome thinking when he declares, “If the Big Ten is willing to work through the details, then this deal will get done. The four Pac-12 schools will jump at a membership offer.” Who the hell knows? And at this point, why would they trust the Big Ten, anyway?
Filed under Big Ten Football, Pac-12 Football
Smart’s preseason presser
Here ’tis, in all its glory:
I wouldn’t say there was anything too earthshattering revealed there, but some useful information was offered.
Injury updates
“Smael and Branson will both be running. They’re cleared to run, land running, and do things. But they’re not going to full-speed practicing. Smael and Branson, those are the two that are both ahead of the schedule we thought five, six weeks ago. But they’re not going to be cleared to go out there and practice.
Mykel has been able to do some activity, do some football activity and conditioning with us. It should be a lower volume, but he should be able to practice some. Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins has been dealing with a little bit of a navicular foot issue but it’s not a break or anything right now. It’s a stress reaction that we’ve had to hold him out some and keep him out of activity some. But he should be cleared soon. I don’t think there is anyone else. We’ve got a few hamstrings and things like that. The major deal right now is Ty, Smael, Mykel and Branson.”
That could be a lot worse. Let’s hope it isn’t over the next month.
This, I thought, was the most interesting thing Smart had to say:
How Javon Bullard affects the safety depth chart
“We have really good leadership in our secondary. I think coach (Will) Muschamp and coach Fran (Brown) do a really good job of developing leadership. Probably on of our strongest leadership position between (Javon) Bullard, Tykee (Smith), Kamari (Lassiter), Malaki (Starks), Dan Jackson. The names go on and on about the good leaders in those rooms. The second part of your question as far as Bullard, you don’t always weigh it based on what is Bullard’s best position for the team but who can play the best position around him. So we’re weighing that option. We feel like he’s a very experienced star. He spent the majority of his development at star since being here. So we have really tried to push the safety issue in order to create more depth there and then figure out who is the best around him. I think Javon is one our best 11 football players, but who is number 10 and 11 and where do they fit? I think all that should play out in camp.”
I still think he winds up at safety, because Tykee Smith is tanned, rested and ready to go at the star position. If Bullard ends up back at star, either Smith got hurt or somebody at safety turned out to be hell on wheels. We’ll see.
What caught your ear?
Filed under Georgia Football
Get The Picture 