I mean, it's time.
anyway, YEEEEHAW
In the state of Missouri, a high school athlete who signs with an in-state college, such as the University of Missouri, can begin earning compensation for their name, image and likeness before enrolling at the school.
Soon in Texas, Texas A&M donors will earn priority points through the school’s fundraising arm for donations that eventually funnel to athletes. For months now in Arkansas, college athletes have been paid for charity appearances through a nonprofit organization that is owned by the school’s fundraising foundation.
Meanwhile, on the Florida Gulf Coast, where the SEC’s most powerful officials gather this week in Destin for their annual league meetings, none of the above is permitted. If the University of Florida carried out those actions, it would be in violation of NCAA rule and its own state law. The same can be said for a handful of other SEC schools in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.
“Right now, we’re in no-man’s land,” says Walker Jones, executive director of the Ole Miss collective, The Grove. “If you are the SEC office and you’ve got 14 schools and three are operating this way, it’s a competitive problem.”
Within the 11-state footprint of the country’s most dominant college football league, fairness is fading, swallowed by the greed of competition from the conference’s very own members. Through lobbying efforts, schools have worked with their state lawmakers to feverishly rewrite statutes to give them an advantage over neighboring programs.
New state laws adopted in Arkansas, Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma clear a path for their schools to bring NIL programs more under their proverbial roof while also prohibiting enforcement from the NCAA and others. This new evolution of NIL collectives tests NCAA and SEC governorship, risks federal rules violations and, maybe most important, pushes college sports another step closer to what many believe is an eventuality: Schools paying athletes directly.
And yet, despite the obvious issues, the movement is sweeping across the Southeast footprint with SEC speed.
“It reminds me of a rigged marketplace,” says Julie Sommer, a lawyer and expert on NIL matters who works for the Drake Group, an organization whose mission is to defend academic integrity at universities. “Federally funded institutions running these enterprises for private gain? The first big question is, what’s the IRS going to do?”
While debates over field storming and a future scheduling format have captured attention, SEC power brokers have a much more pressing issue at hand: the distribution of money to college athletes.
Go HERD!!!
Go Buckeyes!!!
ESPN announces start times for early college football slate
Start planning your food/drinking/wedding skipping needs now.
Rematch of the FSU LSU classic. That was really hard to make it through in one piece, not sure about the rematch
Feeling pretty good about the Cards. Transfer class ranking was top 3 or something last week. Brohm brought some guys with him. It's going to be interesting.
Looks like only 1 tough early game. I could see us being 5-0 and ranked for the Notre Dame game.
Sources: Georgia-Alabama, Texas-Texas A&M on 2024 SEC slate
Ideally, Texas v. A&M will happen as late as possible in the calendar, to just totally ruin someone's season and cause maximum pain.
fUCLA's 2024 schedule has road trips @Hawaii, @Rutgers, @LSU, and @3 other "traditional" B10 locations.
This is good right?
Sources: Georgia-Alabama, Texas-Texas A&M on 2024 SEC slate
Ideally, Texas v. A&M will happen as late as possible in the calendar, to just totally ruin someone's season and cause maximum pain.
I somehow missed this post for a week. It's a hot debate in Aggie circles - return the game to Thanksgiving weekend, or keep the LSU game there, which has been a very solid substitute these last several years.
My issue is that the people who want the longhorn game back there want to go full old-school and have it on actual Thanksgiving, and I'm over that idea.
The former player said he reported his experiences to the University in late November 2022. He alleges that much of the team’s hazing centered around a practice dubbed “running,” which was used to punish team members, primarily freshman, for mistakes made on the field and in practice.
If a player was selected for “running,” the player who spoke to The Daily said, they would be restrained by a group of 8-10 upperclassmen dressed in various “Purge-like” masks, who would then begin “dry-humping” the victim in a dark locker room.
“It’s a shocking experience as a freshman to see your fellow freshman teammates get ran, but then you see everybody bystanding in the locker room,” the player said. “It’s just a really abrasive and barbaric culture that has permeated throughout that program for years on end now.”
The Daily obtained images of whiteboards labeled “Runsgiving” and “Shrek’s List,” containing a list of names indicating players that the player said needed to be “ran.”
The player said the tradition was especially common during training camp and around Thanksgiving and Christmas, which he said the team called “Runsgiving” and “Runsmas.”
“It’s done under this smoke and mirror of ‘oh, this is team bonding,’ but no, this is sexual abuse,” the player said.
According to the former player, team members allegedly identified players for “running” by clapping their hands above their heads around that player. The practice, the player said, was known within the team as “the Shrek clap.”
The Daily obtained a video of a player clapping his hands during a game, which the anonymous player said was the same motion taken to signify “running.”
According to the player who spoke with The Daily, Fitzgerald repeatedly made the signal during practices when players, specifically freshmen, made a mistake.
The player believes some players interpreted Fitzgerald making these signals as knowingly “encouraging” the hazing to continue.
“Everyone would just be looking at each other and be like ‘bro, Fitz knows about this,’ because you wouldn’t take that action otherwise,” the player said. “Everyone joins in, because he’s the head coach.”
Fitzgerald got hit with a two-week suspension already (which... huh), but looking at this, that's gotta be the precursor now. They've gotta fire his ass.
Northwestern to reconsider Fitzgerald penalty amid hazing probe
Northwestern will reconsider penalties for coach Pat Fitzgerald after new details emerged Saturday surrounding allegations of hazing in the football program.
University President Michael Schill, in a letter sent late Saturday to the Northwestern community, wrote that he "may have erred in weighing the appropriate sanction" for Fitzgerald, who began serving a two-week unpaid suspension Friday. Fitzgerald's suspension was among the measures Northwestern announced after concluding the six-month investigation it commissioned into hazing allegations made by an anonymous whistleblower.
The former player, whose allegations were detailed in a report earlier Saturday from The Daily Northwestern, told ESPN that he shared his thoughts and experiences Sunday morning in a conversation with Schill, which Northwestern also confirmed.
Schill wrote in his letter that he had spoken with the former player's family and had attempted to reach the player, adding that he had apologized and was "moved by what I heard from his family and by the impact the hazing had on their son."
"He was extremely receptive throughout the conversation," the former player said of Schill. "He stated that he has meetings later [Sunday] with I believe the board and they're going to revisit this topic and see what the best course of action would be to eradicate this behavior."
Schill will speak with Northwestern's board of trustees and other university leaders to determine a new penalty for Fitzgerald, the team's coach since 2006 and a two-time national defensive player of the year for the Wildcats.
"In determining an appropriate penalty for the head coach, I focused too much on what the report concluded he didn't know and not enough on what he should have known," Schill wrote. "As the head coach of one of our athletics programs, coach Fitzgerald is not only responsible for what happens within the program but also must take great care to uphold our institutional commitment to the student experience. ... Clearly, he failed to uphold that commitment, and I failed to sufficiently consider that failure in levying a sanction."
Earlier Saturday, Northwestern told ESPN that it would not comment on any specific allegations beyond the executive summary of the investigation released Friday. Sources with direct knowledge of the matter told ESPN that investigators were already aware of the allegations outlined by the former player.
Fitzgerald's suspension was one of several actions implemented by Northwestern. Other measures included no more preseason practices off campus in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where some of the alleged hazing occurred, and a new football locker room monitor who will not report to Fitzgerald or his staff.
"Our first priority is to support and protect our students, including the young man who brought these matters to our attention and all student-athletes who had the courage to come forward in this independent investigation," Northwestern said in Saturday's earlier statement. "That is why the university immediately opened this investigation upon learning of the allegations and why we took decisive action once we ascertained the facts."
In a separate statement sent to ESPN from the Northwestern football team Saturday night, the players denounced hazing, while pronouncing their support for Fitzgerald and his "unwavering commitment to our team."
"We want to reiterate that as representatives of the Northwestern Football program, we do not tolerate hazing in any form," the statement read. "Hazing goes against our values of respect, integrity, and personal growth. We are committed to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment that promotes the well-being and development of every individual on our team."
The statement also labeled the allegations as "exaggerated and twisted."
"It is disheartening to see that the allegations brought forth against our team have been exaggerated and twisted into lies. These fabrications have been made with the intention of harming our program and tarnish the reputation of our dedicated players and coaching staff," the statement read. "We firmly deny the validity of these accusations and stand united in our assertion that they do not reflect the true character of our team."
It continues to get worse at Northwestern.
ESPN has an article with comments from a current player that the former player has a vendetta against Fitzgerald, which... two things can be true!
Northwestern players on Saturday released a statement supporting Fitzgerald, saying he had no knowledge of the alleged incidents and that the accusations from the former player were "exaggerated and twisted."
The former player said Sunday that Schill was "extremely receptive" to his accounts of hazing within the program and offered him resources to deal with the trauma.
A current Northwestern player, who asked to remain anonymous, also told ESPN on Sunday that the former player, whose hazing allegations late in 2022 launched the investigation, informed him of a detailed plan with the sole objective to take down Fitzgerald. The current player on Sunday relayed a conversation he said he had early this year with the former player to Northwestern trustees and other influential university figures.
"He just kept emphasizing, 'Yeah, it'll be OK. I'm just trying to get Coach Fitz fired,'" the current player told ESPN. "I don't think he ever acknowledged what he's saying is not true. It was just like, 'I might embellish or exaggerate to get Coach Fitz fired.' He said his sole goal was to see Coach Fitz rot in jail.
"The truth is none of that stuff happened in our locker room."
The current player said the former player told him he would go public with detailed allegations if the university's investigation did not result in Fitzgerald's dismissal and referenced the 2021 situation involving athletic director Mike Polisky, who stepped down amid media and public pressure nine days after being promoted. Polisky had been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by a former Northwestern cheerleader.
"He was thinking he could do the same with Coach Fitz, if he went to The Daily Northwestern and went public with it," the current player said.
Told of the current player's account, the former player said he wanted to "absolutely seek action to get Fitz out of the program" but that he had other objectives.
"I want to shed light on this heinous, illegal behavior," the former player said. "I wanted illegal behavior out of the program. This is an absolutely barbaric and egregious culture that ultimately lies on the shoulders of the head coach."
Should have quoted this article too. The other one is all about blame. But this one is about how other players are coming forward with accusations of clear racism towards Hispanic and A-A players. So it's a lot more than one guy trying to tank a coach.
And he gone
Volunteers avoid bowl ban as NCAA finds over 200 violations
The Tennessee football program avoided a bowl ban but was fined more than $8 million by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions, which announced its punishment for the Volunteers on Friday after finding more than 200 individual infractions committed by the school during former coach Jeremy Pruitt's tenure.
Among the penalties handed down, Tennessee has been placed on five years' probation, was given an $8 million fine among other financial penalties that will push the total closer to $9 million, and will see a total reduction of 28 scholarships.
The $8 million fine, which the NCAA said was "equivalent to the financial impact the school would have faced if it missed the postseason during the 2023 and 2024 seasons," is believed to be the largest ever levied in an infractions case.
"The panel encountered a challenging set of circumstances related to prescribing penalties in this case," the infractions committee said in its decision. "The panel urges the Infractions Process Committee and the membership to clearly define its philosophy regarding penalties -- which extends beyond postseason bans -- and memorialize that philosophy in an updated set of penalty guidelines."
The NCAA will require Tennessee to vacate all wins and individual records in any game in which 16 individual sanctioned players participated. The specific games will be announced later, but sources told ESPN that any wins that are vacated would come from Pruitt's three seasons as coach and not from the past two seasons under Josh Heupel.
The Volunteers were credited for their self-imposed 16-scholarship reduction over the past two years and will cut two more scholarships this year, meaning 10 additional scholarships will be taken away over the five-year probation period.
"Our athletics department, including our football program, is fiercely competitive and committed to winning the right way," the Tennessee athletics department said in a statement. "We have navigated this case during a significant change at the NCAA, and we are pleased with how it was ultimately resolved. We always wanted to be accountable but were unwilling to sacrifice our innocent student-athletes' ability to play in the postseason. The NCAA membership agreed with us."
Tennessee had been charged with 18 Level 1 violations -- the most severe in the NCAA rules structure -- in July 2022. Included among the more than 200 infractions were charges of $60,000 in impermissible benefits and both Pruitt and his wife, Casey, making cash payments to players' families.
Got off reasonably well for all that went down.
But UT was praised by the NCAA for exceptional cooperation. They basically burned the whole football program to the ground, firing everybody in the building, and unofficially running all the offending players off to other teams (Alabama and Oklahoma were popular destinations).
What surprised me was that this wasn't as much about buying players Dodge Chargers like is rumored at other schools, it was more about illegal visits that were paid for (partially during the Covid recruiting freeze) and small handouts. Total violations of a bit more than $60K. It was just done in a very stupid way. So dumb.
No bowl ban takes that off the negative recruiting menu that a lot of competitor schools were using against the Vols. According to sports media working with recruits, a significant number of the high star count guys have mentioned that they'd heard we were going to have up to a 6 year bowl/playoff ban, which knocked Tennessee down their lists. We'll see if getting that off the coaches backs will improve recruiting by next cycle. Already not doing that bad.
Glad to have it finalized so that maybe we can move on. $8M* is a large dollar number, but considering the revenue in the SEC these days, it's not the end of the world. For God's sake, UT just announced they're spending $100M on the BASEBALL stadium. Baseball is not even a revenue producing sport.
*Also coincidentally how much The Athletic reported is being paid to a certain incoming QB in NIL money that might just be on UT's campus. If you believe all that.
Right so again tell me why they took Louisville banner for 2013? Only like 15 violations, total less than 5k. University cooperated , self imposed ban, etc. Coach knew nothing, it was actively hid from him. We fired coach and AD and everyone anyway. Still bullshit.
Right so again tell me why they took Louisville banner for 2013? Only like 15 violations, total less than 5k. University cooperated , self imposed ban, etc. Coach knew nothing, it was actively hid from him. We fired coach and AD and everyone anyway. Still bullshit.
Because the NCAA has much less power after SCOTUS. And the new NCAA constitution says that penalties shouldn't harm players not involved.
Also, it just came out that our Attorney General threatened the NCAA would be violating a state law prohibiting anyone from preventing players from earning money for NIL. No bowl would mean limiting potential player NIL earnings.
Also probably didn't hut that. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey came to the hearings and seemed to put the weight of the SEC behind UT not having post season penalties.
Not saying what happened to Louisville was right or wrong, but times are different. The NCAA knows legally it is on unstable ground because they were stubborn too long on player rights.
Also, it just came out that our Attorney General threatened the NCAA would be violating a state law prohibiting anyone from preventing players from earning money for NIL. No bowl would mean limiting potential player NIL earnings.
Hmm. That seems legally unenforceable. I mean, UT voluntarily agrees to be part of the NCAA and abide by its ground rules.
But, the NCAA (as you say) is on thin ice with when trying to enforce things. Hell, if North Carolina can get off with little consequence for what they did (which should realistically put their accreditation at risk, but it won’t), then anyone should be able to do anything at this point.
MannishBoy wrote:Also, it just came out that our Attorney General threatened the NCAA would be violating a state law prohibiting anyone from preventing players from earning money for NIL. No bowl would mean limiting potential player NIL earnings.
Hmm. That seems legally unenforceable. I mean, UT voluntarily agrees to be part of the NCAA and abide by its ground rules.
But, the NCAA (as you say) is on thin ice with when trying to enforce things. Hell, if North Carolina can get off with little consequence for what they did (which should realistically put their accreditation at risk, but it won’t), then anyone should be able to do anything at this point.
It's as enforceable at all the other states' NIL laws. For instance, in Texas, you can donate to the school and receive all the tax benefits of that, and that money can be directed into the NIL collective. So you're making NIL money go 30% or so farther by making it pre-tax funds for donors.
Whole thing is crazy, and the NCAA is in this boat because they assumed they could just control the players forever when the writing was on the wall that they were going to lose.
Cal picked 9th in the Pac-12 media poll.. the only saving grace is that stanfurd is picked dead last.
Cal is the only conference team that will play all of the top 6 teams, 4 of those on the road.
Don't know about you, but it smells like Roses to me!
Sadly, the scriptwriters who could come up with the fairytale ending in the last year of the Pac-12 are on strike and the AI bots can only write a story based on 10000 years of actual Cal futility data.
Source: Michigan's Jim Harbaugh facing 4-game suspension
Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh and the NCAA are in discussions about a so-called negotiated resolution for a four-game suspension in the 2023 season, sources confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday.
The looming suspension is tied to an NCAA recruiting investigation into Michigan in which Harbaugh faces a Level I violation, the most serious kind in the NCAA's purview, for not cooperating with NCAA enforcement.
While the suspension and negotiations with the NCAA have not been finalized, the expectation is that Harbaugh would miss the first four games of Michigan's season. That includes four home contests in which Michigan is the prohibitive favorite -- East Carolina, UNLV, Bowling Green and Rutgers.
Harbaugh's attorney, Thomas Mars, said in a statement: "We are continuing to work cooperatively with the NCAA staff on an enforcement matter. At this time, we are not allowed to comment on possible penalties or other aspects of the matter."
The alleged recruiting improprieties are tied to alleged violations that took place during the COVID-19 recruiting dead period. The initial investigation into Michigan included just four Level II violations, which are less significant in scope. But the failure to cooperate emerged during the investigation, and in January, there were multiple meetings between Harbaugh and the NCAA in which he refused to admit he lied during the investigation.
Well done NCAA, never shall we allow a man to lie about burgers again.
So Harbaugh's punishment is he will miss Michigan's four pre-season games.
I really don't understand the NCAA, their rules, or how and when they choose to enforce them. It is like a cruel and idiotic god, who occasionally by accident punishes the guilty.
A cruel and idiotic God constantly trying to validate the necessity of their own existence.
Source: Michigan's Jim Harbaugh facing 4-game suspension
Well done NCAA, never shall we allow a man to lie about burgers again.
Bruce Pearl got a Show Cause for a cookout.
Sounds like Colorado is bailing to the big 12. Rumor of another pac 9 school doing the same thing. I doubt the Pac 8 will last much longer after that.
I can’t wait to welcome Cal to the Mountain West.
I can’t wait to welcome Cal to the Mountain West.
Please, it will be the Big 10, where numbers haven't mattered since 1990.
Sounds like Colorado is bailing to the big 12. Rumor of another pac 9 school doing the same thing. I doubt the Pac 8 will last much longer after that.
I enjoy the weird happenings that have brought them back to their old conference.
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