NIL, schedules and making the stars line up just right

I think Bud Elliott is on to something here.

A new phenomenon I didn’t anticipate in college football.

Some teams (Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State) are going for it every year because their HS recruiting is so good.

But now a good, not great recruiting team can see favorable schedule, open the wallet, and make a run. https://t.co/3YtbluvCyo

— Bud Elliott (@BudElliott3) December 15, 2023

Guys like Junior aren’t going to be able to go toe to toe with the likes of Georgia and Alabama on the recruiting front, so they’ll never be able to compete annually, but they can sure pick their spots if they know what they’re doing with the transfer portal/NIL money when the schedule swings in their favor.

Speaking of which, here’s what Bill Connelly ($$) had to say about Ole Miss’ schedule in 2024:

Ole Miss Rebels

2023 SOS and record: 0.828 (12th) and 10-2

Projected 2024 SOS: 0.849 (would rank 25th in 2023)

2024 games favored (avg. wins): 10 (8.6)

An extremely soft nonconference schedule awaits the Rebels in 2024, and while they trade Alabama for Georgia, keep LSU and add Oklahoma, that’s only three current top-30 foes and only five in the top 50. This would be a good time for a breakthrough for Lane Kiffin and his Rebels.

Currently, Ole Miss is ranked third in Sports247 Football Transfer rankings.

Everybody was fascinated with the Coach Prime roster experiment this year.  That kind of fizzled, but I’ll be curious to see if what the Laner is cooking up has legs.  If so, it could become the blueprint for how good, but not elite, programs play the game going forward.

Masters of their domain

Well, well, look who’s in charge of the Pac-12 now.

The Washington state supreme court will not review a lower court’s decision that granted control of the Pac-12 board of directors to Oregon State and Washington State, the court ruled Friday.

With the ruling, a previous stay of the lower court’s decision has been lifted, granting immediate control of the board to OSU and WSU…

The ruling allows OSU and WSU full discretion to operate the conference as they see fit, including as it comes to revenue distributions.

Control of the money is nice, but I hope their first move is to fire George Kliavkoff.  And then maybe fire Larry Scott again for old times’ sake.

Bill Hancock, I forgive you.

Honestly, after all the years of bullshit that have emanated from his mouth, it’s hard to believe he’s capable of skewering a United States Senator this neatly.

🚨BREAKING: The @CFBPlayoff just responded to my letter with more excuses & still NO TRANSPARENCY.@FSUFootball was #4 before beating #14 Louisville without Jordan Travis…but then after that win, the CFP thinks #FSU is a weaker team? It makes no sense. ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS! pic.twitter.com/nCGPSiJ7qE

— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) December 15, 2023

“Knowing how busy you are, thank you very much for taking the time to write about college football.” is elite level snark.  The best part is Scott’s got his head too far up his ass to realize he’s been insulted.  The “so-called P5 conference” reference to the ACC is the cherry on top of the snark sundae.

I didn’t know you had it in you, Bill.  You’re an absolute savage.  Well played, sir.