Even as coachspeak goes, this is pretty remarkable.
I can’t figure out if he’s got memory loss problems, or if he’s simply that shameless.
Category Archives: It’s All Just Made Up And Flagellant
Everybody has an Alliance until they get hit in the mouth.
Ah, yes, once upon a time… those heady days when the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 were all singing from the same CFP hymnbook.
The same Alliance that in February scuttled a 12-team expansion because (take your pick):
— The process was moving too quickly, ignoring any number of issues that affect (and stress) student-athletes.
— There was too much “uncertainty” in such a dramatic move.
— Student-athletes shouldn’t be playing a 17-game season.
— Television shouldn’t have a hand in dictating conference expansion in college football.
Now? The tune, she has changed.
What that formally looks like still hasn’t been decided, but the notion of a potential 16-game playoff continues to be perpetuated. Kliavkoff mentioned the dynamic in the room changing now that Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren is expected to tamp down his demand for automatic qualifiers, one of the key stumbling blocks for the 12-team playoff. He also mentioned one of the ACC’s issues — a 365-day calendar review — is underway and likely to be resolved.
“I’m in favor of expanding the College Football Playoff,” Kliavkoff said. “I don’t have particular issues between 12 and 16. I understand the arguments for and against.”
But one thing lives on.
Always. Be. Doing It For The Kids.
Filed under BCS/Playoffs, It's All Just Made Up And Flagellant
Today, in doing it for the kids
For some reason, my bullshit detector is going off.
Yes, Sankey’s problem with the current state of NIL affairs is based on his concern for the families of recruits. If you’re buying that, please reach out to me about that tasty oceanfront tract in Hahira I can let you have at a very attractive price.
Filed under It's All Just Made Up And Flagellant
Today, in no hard feelings
Together, again.
“2 goats, 1 duck, no beef.”
Cool. Now do Nick and Jimbo.
Sometimes, it feels like college football is morphing into pro wrestling.
Margin called, sucka.
Amusing story from Mack Brown:
“There are so many rumors out there, just like with NIL,” Brown said. “Are these kids making as much as they say they are? Some of them aren’t. I had a guy sitting in my office and say, ‘Coach, I’ve been offered $350,000.’ He was a recruit. I thought he was an OK player. He said, ‘I’ve been offered $350,000 to take it.’ I held up my phone and said, ‘Let’s call them now, man. You ought to take it. You need to take it before you get out of this office. I’d hold them to that if they offered you that much.’”
You have to admire, albeit perversely, a 17-year trying to bluff a coach who’s been in the business for decades and has heard more bullshit on the recruiting trail than I could possibly imagine. Brown doesn’t go on to mention the punchline, but I’m gonna presume that kid ain’t going to North Carolina or the school with the “offer”.
Filed under It's All Just Made Up And Flagellant, Recruiting
Say goodbye to Hollywood.
“No one wants the land from under them to be pulled out,” a Big Ten source said. “So everyone has to be nimble. One day, you might be saying one thing, and you mean it from the bottom of your heart. And the next day you have to flip, based on economics, based on governance, based on something.”
Hey, remember how the Big Ten and the Pac-12 were ready to go to the mat to protect their sacred interest in the Rose Bowl? I mean, it was a strong reason they gave for their principled opposition to Greg Sankey’s 12-team CFP proposal. So, how’s that working out these days?
The uncertainty about the future of the Rose Bowl’s place in the postseason ecosystem likely made concerns about the impact on the game from USC and UCLA’s moves less pertinent. The thought being that if the playoff is going to expand as expected, the Rose Bowl was already going to be forced to reinvent itself in order to maintain a meaningful presence.
That is some Olympic-class rationalizing there. Bless the bottom of their little hearts!
The nobility of Kentucky football
Mark Stoops has made it abundantly clear that he’s opposed to a nine-game conference schedule, but at least he’s been honest about his motives. His athletic director, on the other hand, is full of crap.
If UK loses the fight to keep the 8-game schedule, Kentucky could keep the Governor’s Cup alive. However, it would come at a cost, most likely impacting FCS football programs. This year UK will host Stoops’ hometown team, Youngstown State, and pay the Penguins’ athletic department $550,000 for the trip to Lexington.
“It’s important to support FCS football because I want people participating in college football,” Barnhart said. “I think sometimes we forget about thinking about the end game, making sure everybody is still playing. If there’s opportunities that go away and there’s not kids that want to play the game of football, the game of football suffers. We’ve got to make sure we do things that ensure the game of football and people want to play the game. Keeping FCS football alive is very, very important to that end.”
Doing it for the kids can never fail; it can only be failed. The only thing more laughable than his absurd attempt to cloak cowardice with some sort of allegedly higher calling is the pretense that he can use the threat of cancelling the series with Louisville as some sort of leverage with Greg Sankey.
All of that word salad cannot make the FCS game more significant than the rivalry against Louisville. Still, Barnhart will not take the Governor’s Cup off the negotiation table. After all, it’s one of his greatest pieces of leverage to prevent the SEC from expanding its conference schedule. Even though the game is under contract until 2030, Kentucky’s athletic director will not commit to playing Louisville until after a scheduling decision has been finalized by Southeastern Conference officials.
Of course it can’t. Just ask Mitch McConnell, a die hard Louisville fan. Who, by the way isn’t likely to be pleased if Barnhart actually tries to can the series. I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.
Filed under It's All Just Made Up And Flagellant, SEC Football
Will nobody think of the academics?
The horseshit here, she is epic.
College football is racing headlong into a coaching crisis. Experience is headed out the door. Men who have been in the game for decades have had enough of a taste of the new model of college football to know they don’t like it.
Asked point blank if he expects an exodus, Todd Berry, the executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, said, “Oh, absolutely.”
“There are certainly a lot of coaches throwing up their hands and saying, ‘This is ridiculous. This is absurd.’ And it is,” Berry said. “It is completely off the rails.”
That’s what revolutions are supposed to do. Revolutions upend the old way of doing things. The old model, where a coach went into a living room and promised Mama he would see to it her baby got a college degree, is about as relevant as black-and-white television.
“The idea of actually having a conversation about the academics at the school?” Berry asked. “That’s just a waste of time because nobody wants to hear anything about the school…
Yes, coaches being paid millions are threatening an exodus from the profession because nobody wants to talk about academics with the guys who specialize in convincing their players to take a course load best suited for not interfering with practice time. Todd, quit pissing down our legs and telling us it’s raining.
Filed under It's All Just Made Up And Flagellant
That’s a nice story, Nick.
Okay, now, here is an example of somebody bullshitting Finebaum.
“Always had parity”? Seriously? That’s either massive bullshit, or Saban’s getting senile. And I don’t think he’s getting senile.
***********************************************************************
UPDATE: Junior ain’t buying it, either.
Dabonomics 101, part two
The man was on a roll in that interview yesterday. Here’s another sample:
You’ve been outspoken that you’re adamantly against pay-for-play in college sports. Is that the direction big-time college sports is headed with NIL?
I am against anything that devalues education. That’s what I’m against. I am for anything that incentivizes education. People will come after me because I’ve always said that I’m against the professionalism of college athletics, and I am. Kids don’t know what they don’t know. That’s a slippery slope if you professionalize college athletics, and now you’ve got salaries and taxes and you can fire kids on the spot and they’ve got to pay for their tuition and they pay for their housing and everything else. Athletic directors would sign up for that in a heartbeat. They’d save that money.
Um… about that whole “and you can fire kids on the spot” slippery slope thing…
“I met with my team, each student-athlete, individually to discuss my plans moving forward with the Grambling State University volleyball program. My decision was to not to bring back some of the current student-athletes on the team. While student-athletes are granted athletic scholarships, a scholarship is not guaranteed and not binding, per NCAA rules and regulations.”
Actually “some” is a little misleading there. Lucas fired the entire team. I guess that means Grambling’s fully professionalized, Dabo.
Filed under It's All Just Made Up And Flagellant
Get The Picture 
You must be logged in to post a comment.