Good thing it’s not a job.

VIDEO: Herm Edwards sends harsh message: #ASU football may cut scholarship players. Story https://t.co/UD6F4qduMt via @azcentral pic.twitter.com/XhIOY2Sk2M

— azcentral (@azcentral) April 4, 2018

Well, at least Herm Edwards is dispensing with subtlety.

Arizona State football is trying to become more NFL-like, and first-year head coach Herm Edwards sent a harsh NFL-style message to his team Tuesday.

Edwards told his players before they began the fourth week of spring practice that cuts likely are coming, including to some with scholarships if performance dictates after the spring game April 13.

Edwards, an NFL head coach for eight years, then repeated that message to the media after practice, saying any scholarship players who are cut would retain their financial aid if they opt to stay at ASU as a student.

But, Herm, you’re not in the NFL.  These are student-athletes.  Are you sure you’re supposed to be using the word “cut” here?

When Edwards was hired, ASU created a new leadership model patterned after an NFL front office that brings athletic administrators into roles with players development, personnel and recruiting.

“You’re accountable to compete every day,” Edwards said. “You don’t lose your scholarship, you lose the ability to play. It’s always worked that way in football. That’s how you become a competitive team. You want to get in the two-deep. You should want to play. You don’t want to sit four years and sit the bench.”

Edwards said having fewer players short term due to cuts would not hurt because, typically, 45 players are used in a game.

It’s going to be an interesting season, to say the least.

Really, if, you want to play for Edwards, what can you say?  This, I guess, if you’re buying in.

“Being at Arizona State, I’ve seen people come and go. Coaches, players. It’s not a big deal any more. That’s what you’ve got to expect in the NFL. Guys come and go, they get cut.”

But, kid, you’re not in the NFL.  You’re an amateur, right?

“It’s professionalism at its finest,” Wilkins said. “It’s going to be a rude awakening when they go from student-athlete to student. I think that’s how it has to be. There’s got to be competition at every single point. When there’s not competition is when people get stagnant, and being complacent is when things start going bad.”

I bet Larry Scott is having a shit fit right now.

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Larry Scott is college football’s original man of genius.

It still blows me away how so many people thought the Pac-12’s hire of Scott as its conference commissioner was something of sheer brilliance.  The reality is that he’s a putz.

The result of the major missteps with the Pac-12 Network is awful payouts to the conference members. While Big Ten and SEC teams are hauling in around $8 million a year from their TV deal, the Pac-12 dished out a paltry $2.5 million to its members in 2017. When the network launched, the schools were expecting between $5 million and $6 million per year. Now that looks like a pipe dream.

Meanwhile, in overall revenue distribution, the conference Scott oversees lags far behind. The Big Ten paid out nearly $35 million per school in 2016 and the SEC dished out $40.5 million per member. The Pac-12 sent out $28.7 million, a number far below expectations. In 2017, the SEC paid out $40.9 million per school, while the Pac-12 is expected to sit right near $29 million.

Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, Scott is the highest-paid conference commissioner, taking home more than $4 million a year. He’s making more yearly than the universities he oversees make off the conference’s television deal.

Though if he’s a putz, I hate to think what that makes the people who hired him.

This monetary aggression will not stand, man.

With the Big 12’s release of its tax return, here’s a summary of where the P5 conferences stand in terms of financial distributions to their members:

• Big 12:  “The conference reported nearly $371 million in revenue for a fiscal year that ended June 30, 2017… the per-school payouts to roughly $34.3 million…”
• SEC:  “… the 14-team Southeastern Conference’s returns showed $650 million in revenue, or an average of about $41 million per school.”
• ACC:  “… $373 million for fiscal 2016, distributing that money among 14 full members and Notre Dame…”
• Pac-12:  “The Pac-12 reported that it distributed an average of $28.7 million per school in fiscal 2016.”
• Big Ten:  “Citing a document from the University of Michigan, the Detroit Free Press reported in June that it was projecting revenue from the Big Ten of $51.1 million for the 2018 fiscal year (the one that’s ongoing), up from $36.3 million for 2017.”

As the cliché goes, one of those numbers is not like the others.

A $10 million a year revenue gap between the SEC and Big Ten?  I’m sure Greg Sankey’s bosses will shrug that off, just like they did before… oh, wait.

I do not think “sweeping change” means what you think it means.

Shorter Larry Scott:  Changing the amateurism model isn’t “within the scope” of the Pac-12 task force appointed to make recommendations for cleaning up college basketball, but urging the NBA to change its business model is.

These guys are convinced nothing is their fault.

There’s underachieving and then there’s underachieving.

This is a helluva stat:

USC (4.28), Georgia (4.19) and Clemson (4.06) all averaged more than four-stars per commitment in their 2018 recruiting class but, more importantly, this year was the first time three schools averaged more than four-stars per commitment. The most interesting part of this statistic is that teams have averaged more than four-stars per commitment only seven times prior to the 2018 recruiting class.

USC, which holds the record for highest average star rating per commitment at 4.42, has had the highest average star rating per commitment more than any other school (five times- 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2018).

My Gawd — those of you bitching about Mark Richt never getting the most out of his recruiting classes, Southern Cal makes him look like Nick Saban.

 

College football recruiting… how does it work, exactly?

The Herm Edwards experiment is rolling right along.

Never change, Herm. Never change. https://t.co/sNnVtyuq1F pic.twitter.com/rsauX10YJB

— FootballScoop Staff (@FootballScoop) February 7, 2018

Oh, and to what should be nobody’s surprise…

Arizona State is currently the lowest-rated class among all Power 5 programs (78th overall).

Not a single 4⭐️ commit

— Pick Six Previews (@PickSixPreviews) February 7, 2018

Yeah, this is gonna end well.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the Herm Edwards experiment at Arizona State…

Herm Edwards is on Golic & Wingo right now and says he “set up a pro model for how we evaluate players.” He also seems amazed and mildly annoyed that he has to recruit parents and constantly call kids. 🤷🏻‍♂️

— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) January 24, 2018

… it’s going just about as you might expect.