First they came for the football events…

Hard to believe this wound up being a minor story on the day.

White supremacy protests in Charlottesville, Virginia forced the cancellation of Virginia fall sports’ Meet the Team event and a movie night at Scott Stadium.

The football team was scheduled to be available for autographs at 6:30 p.m. After an hour-long autograph session, “Beauty and the Beast” was scheduled to be shown on the video board at the stadium.

Before the football team was scheduled to sign autographs, the women’s field hockey and volleyball teams were scheduled to have their sessions.

The cancellation of the fall sports events was part of a widespread cancellation of all activities in the afternoon and evening by the university because of the protests. A men’s soccer exhibition was also canceled.

Three people died because the town voted to remove a statue.  As appalling as that is, it’s capped by the realization that my President can’t even bring himself to condemn Nazis and the KKK by name.

This isn’t normal.  This isn’t some form of “both sides do it”.  It’s… well, it’s kind of hard for me to focus on Georgia football today.  Then again, I can probably use the distraction.

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‘Well, we’re getting a lot of pressure from LSU.’

There’s closing the borders and then there’s Coach O doing what it takes to keep the out-of-state coaching hordes out of Louisiana.

Two sources with knowledge of the discussions told ESPN.com that LSU threatened to never again schedule Southeastern Louisiana for a nonconference game in the future if the Lions conducted the camp with those out-of-state schools present. That constitutes a massive financial hit for schools that need the money; LSU is paying Southeastern Louisiana $500,000 to play in Death Valley in 2018. (By comparison, the Tigers are paying Nicholls State $575,000, McNeese State $600,000 and Louisiana Tech $1.15 million for future nonconference games.)

There was also pressure put on Southeastern Louisiana officials from state legislators, the sources said.

Perhaps this is another good reason for Georgia agreeing to schedule cupcake games against in-state programs, as it certainly ups the leverage.  If you’re Kirby Smart, you’d think that might lead to a better use of state legislators’ power than a 90-day Open Records period.

When informing the disinvited schools of the change in plans, Southeastern coach Ron Roberts explained that “somebody else told him ‘If you do [camps with out-of-state schools], you’re going to get us all f—ing fired,” the source said.

Yeah, that might do it.

Wednesday morning buffet

Dig in.

• Has Smart had a change of heart about Georgia’s running game?  Count me in the I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it camp.
• One thing I don’t get about 2017 win projections is why there’s a general assumption about how the Georgia-Auburn game is going to play out.  After all, “Auburn hasn’t hit over 8.5 wins since going 12-2 in 2013 and has only done so three times since 2007. Georgia, on the other hand, has gone over 8.5 wins four times since 2011, including a 12-2 mark in 2012 and back-to-back years of 10-3 in 2014 and 2015.”
• Screw signing days, says Bob Bowlsby, who likes the idea of signing periods.
• Speaking of Bowlsby, is there a dumber idea in college football than a championship game for a conference that plays a round-robin schedule?  It will serve the Big 12 right if that game screws it out of a playoff spot.
• Seth Emerson asks a good question about Georgia’s defense.  The timing sure would be nice.
• And here’s another good question, in this case, about Title IX in the context of colleges paying athletes.  It’s about time somebody asked.
• Way to go, Tom Herman.

“Hello, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

“Unless you’re a drunk slut, which is extremely likely if you’re pursuing a Title IX claim.”

The Education Department’s top civil rights official’s “flippant” remarks are raising questions about the government’s commitment to fighting campus sexual violence, even as she issued her second apology in as many days for attributing 90 percent of sexual assault claims to both parties being drunk.

Candice Jackson, assistant secretary for civil rights, told victims of sexual assault meeting with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday that she was sorry for her remarks…

… In most investigations, Jackson told the newspaper, there’s “not even an accusation that these accused students overrode the will of a young woman.”

“Rather, the accusations — 90 percent of them — fall into the category of, ‘We were both drunk, we broke up, and six months later I found myself under a Title IX investigation because she just decided that our last sleeping together was not quite right,’” Jackson is quoted as saying in an interview.

In her apology on Wednesday night, Jackson said, “What I said was flippant, and I am sorry.” She sought to issue reassurances that both she and the department believe “all sexual harassment and sexual assault must be taken seriously.”

Hey, if I’m a young coed, you’ll have to cut me a little slack if I’m not totally reassured, Candace.

Is it any wonder why places like Baylor felt comfortable turning a blind eye for so many years?

Student-athletes’ lives matter.

Dennis Dodd has a piece about how Kansas head coach David Beaty will try to handle the new state law allowing anyone 21 or older to carry a firearm without a permit or training, but the saddest part of the story comes at the very end:

Beaty said it was only a coincidence his team, at the moment, is being taught a different kind of weapons training.

“We are training our kids right now specifically on what to do when they are pulled over on a traffic stop,” Beaty said. “Where their hands go, how their hands go, how they speak, what they tell their policeman about what’s in the car.

“We’re not taking anything for granted because we don’t want to lose one of our babies.”

Now that’s a helluva thing for a college football coach to have to worry about.

Roll ‘dem bones.

When you hear Mark Emmert decry a stated position by the organization he heads as “what often seems to be a hypocritical stance”, you’ve got to believe there’s some money at the end of it.

And you would be correct about that.

The possibility of sanctioned NCAA events being held in Las Vegas took a potentially huge leap Tuesday when the Supreme Court agreed to hear a controversial New Jersey gaming case.

The NCAA is among the plaintiffs fighting a New Jersey law passed in 2012 that would allow sports gambling in the state. The NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, as well as the Department of Justice, have sued arguing continued implementation of the 25-year-old Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act.

PASPA was passed in 1992 to halt the spread of sports betting in the country. Such action is banned nationwide except for Nevada, which was “grandfathered” an exemption. Delaware, Oregon and Montana have the option of limited sports betting.

The Supreme Court could hear arguments as early as this fall, according to reports.

The NCAA has placed only one championship event in Nevada (1991 women’s basketball West Regional) citing sports gambling concerns.

“This is more than huge,” former UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood said of the Supreme Court’s consideration. “This opens up all kinds of possibilities.”

Livengood is now a consultant for Las Vegas Events, a management company interested in bringing events to the city.

The NCAA was thought to be moving toward allowing events in Nevada but was stymied by the New Jersey battle. In other words, the optics would be bad if the association was suing New Jersey while cozying up to allowing games in Nevada/Las Vegas.

Who the hell can afford optics these days?  Certainly not the NCAA, if it wants to keep shelling out the big bucks.  There’s at least one thing that happens in Vegas that doesn’t stay there.  Emmert isn’t about to miss out on that if he can help it.

War between the states

Well, this is interesting.

Saying that a new Texas law allowing child welfare providers to deny adoptions to parents based on “sincerely held religious beliefs” is discriminatory, California’s attorney general on Thursday banned state-funded travel to Texas.

… Alabama, Kentucky and South Dakota were also added to the list of states with California travel bans. It’s not immediately clear what the economic impact of the decision will have on Texas.

… One of the key consequences could involve higher education — and college sports in particular. Researchers and staff members from universities often travel to Texas for conferences. And California college sports teams play in Texas fairly regularly. Several major sports bowl games and tournaments are played here — including the men’s college basketball Final Four in San Antonio in 2018. The University of California, Los Angeles played a road football game at Texas A&M University last season. The University of California, Berkeley played at the University of Texas at Austin a year earlier.

The California law allows for exceptions for contracts that are already in place, and it’s unclear whether the state’s teams would be banned from playing in the Final Four. But the Los Angeles Times reported in February that UCLA has stopped scheduling games against teams in banned states.

North Carolina’s bathroom ban caught the NCAA’s attention, as we know.  Texas dodged that particular bullet (at least for the moment).  But here we are with a boycott on a new front.  Will California’s move generate any traction with the NCAA regarding next year’s Final Four?  Who knows?  Although I expect Emmert will get questions about that now.

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UPDATE:  It’s not just about Texas.