Let’s handle our business first.
The all-time Rushmore of sports studio shows — SportsCenter in the late-80s and into the 1990s (an inspired call by Mr. Thurmond, because I asked for studio shows not pregame shows, and that makes a difference), NFL on CBS with Brent, The Greek and the crew, Inside the NBA (which may go down as the best ever) and College GameDay. That is with a very heartfelt apology to PTI, which was and still is amazing.
Rushmore of myths. Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse and Napolean was short. (OK, I’m 6-4; Napoleon was 5-7, which is shortish today, but in his day it was completely average, and for the historical crud he gets about height, you would think he was closer to 4-7, you know?)
Rushmore of movie pilots — (fictional characters) Pete Mitchell, Han Solo (and yes, Anakin and a slew of others could really go too, but if I had the Force, I would expect to be top-notch in everything; Han did it just on pilot skills), Whip Whittaker and Ted Stryker, with apologies to Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen in “Hot Shots!”); (real-life characters) Sully, Hannibal Lee (Laurence Fishburne from “Tuskegee Airmen”), Lindbergh (played by Jimmy Stewart) and Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard in “Right Stuff.”)
Rushmore of athletic sneakers. Air Jordans, Chuck Taylors (I hate them but they are iconic, leaving them off would be like asking a Rushmore of MLB franchises and leaving the Yankees off because you don’t like them), the Nike Air Forrest Gumps (the old-school, angle-treads with the red swoosh) and Adidas Stan Smiths. (And that is with a visor tip to the old Converse Weapons, which I thought were awesome, the gray NB Air Old White Mans, and the Reebok Pump, which I thought was really going to give the AJs a run for the money. I was wrong.)
One more item: You folks know I love game shows, and this week on the “Wheel of Fortune” Pat Sajak continued to deliver dead-pan comedy at its finest. The puzzle was “_ _ _ _ I_ T_E B_ _ T!” and one contest chimed in with “Right in the butt!” which was clearly wrong and made me think of the classic Newlywed Game episode. Right Bob.
(The answer was “This is the best!”)
From too many of you
What’s going to happen in the NCAA moving forward?
Gang,
It’s really impossible too know but here is the simple truth.
College sports will for most of us have a before Thursday, May 23 and after Thursday, May 23 divide.
That’s the size and magnitude of the decision for the NCAA powers to settle the House lawsuit and create a $2.8 billion fund that will be used to pay former athletes the NIL money they were denied and develop a revenue-sharing plan for college athletes moving forward.
That sentence is long and deep and could be on the shortlist of all-time course changes across all of sports, with Jackie breaking into the bigs, Title IX and Curt Flood winning free agency.
Truly the questions moving forward are going to be numerous and almost impossible to answer until we get there.
Will the athletes unionize? What about Title IX and equal payments across sports? Who pays the taxes? Will this universalize the NIL system that has been rolling unchecked in various states and schools? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the unknowns.
This will not be finalized for months as most accounts say the plaintiffs have a five-month window to express objections before a judge can approve the settlement offer.
But the plan is for the plan to be ready to be implemented in the fall of 2025.
There likely will be some form of salary cap, but is that universal across all sports offered or even within one sport like all of the Power Four football programs?
To that end, YahooSports reported that the revenue-sharing deal will fall under NIL agreements and will be from a fund no greater than $22 million, which is viewed as 22% of the average revenues of power five programs. (Spy, that math points me to power five schools making on average $100 million per in revenue, no? But again, I went to Auburn.) That number, of course, could change and of course will not be universal, since smaller schools assuredly can not afford that type of revenue sharing.
This structure, according to reports, will allow the schools to use and broadcast players’ NIL, but reportedly does eliminate all other NIL options in the process.
Also of note is the expectation that this could in some ways eliminate roster restrictions by imposing simple roster restrictions, which seems more expensive to the school and more advantageous for the power leagues who could continue to raid smaller schools’ rosters in the portal and possibly add more in recruiting.
While this sounds like professional sports — at least at the highest levels — and it feels that way, the NCAA reportedly is still looking to be the rules enforcer.
To be honest, college sports needs one, but there should be a football office and czar Nick Saban should be pulling the strings. And again, I’m an Auburn grad.
The enforcement must become more tight — again Auburn grad, where the mottos are “I believe in work, hard work,” and “if you’re not cheatin’, you’re not tryin'” — and more universal, especially as the financial stakes rise.
Man, the ramifications of this are really too numbers to cover in the immediate hours after the announcement but I do believe the two following things:
— This settlement had to happen. Had to. Or college sports was facing a potential loss in court that could have been the death blow. Here’s a harrowing graph from the Yahoo story: “Without a settlement, college leaders risk another loss in court, a $20 billion damages tab and bankruptcy, according to documents obtained by Yahoo Sports.”
— This settlement, the uncertainty, the longing for the good-old days, the scary future (and whatever that may be) is all because Mark Emmert refused to handle this when it first started and refused to recognize the need for leadership and change and courage.
Mark Emmert is the single worst sports commissioner/president in the history of major North American sports, and he is such an obtuse and short-sighted leader that the former heads of the major newspaper chains who ignored the internet and thought their business model was bullet-proof are reading this today and thinking, “Damn, Emmert is a buffoon.”
From John
Jay, with the implosion of PAC 12 and Texas and OU moving to SEC, I’ve heard little of how many schools’ schedules were blown up. I know the SEC grappled with 8 or 9 game conference opponents, but aren’t a lot of games scheduled several years in advance? Schedulers everywhere must have had to scramble to conform to the new normal?
John,
OK, that got long, and we are now short on time and space in a limitless internet space.
Yikes.
Most of the scheduling headaches — like a few years ago when Georgia and Oklahoma canceled a future home-and-home because of the possibilities of the SEC expansion — were handled when the likelihood of expansion increased.
Plus, as the aforementioned diatribe alludes, the Georgia, Bamas and UTs of the world can make a phone call and any SoCon or C-USA school will be willing to cash checks to come for a game.
Name the time and the place.
The biggest piece moving forward is how the new scheduling formats — and the division-less systems — affect the league outcomes and position for the playoff.
That extra coin now is more important than ever moving forward, and if anyone thinks the Big Ten and the SEC are not going to tinker with schedules to make sure they have at least the top three positioned for the playoff, well, I have some ocean-front acreage in Sale Creek I could let you have for a very nice price.
From Patrick
Once Riley and Murphy come back, the bats will come around. It doesn’t help that the bottom of the order isn’t hitting like it did last year either. Arcia was a .280-.300 hitter. He’s under .250. Adam Duvall is, well, Adam Duvall. Power to spare. Outs to spare too. Money Mike hasn’t been cashing at the window as much as he did last year, either.
The rotation is solid — but you’ve got brittle Chris Sale and 40-year-old Charlie Morton and you’re hoping for a lot of innings out of them. Plus, your fifth starter is still a hole in the rotation. That’s my biggest worry. And how much longer before Travis d’Arnaud goes, “four concussions are enough. I want to be able to recognize my kids in three years. Peace out, fellas.”
From Brad
The Braves are killing me, Smalls. What can they do to get back to what we expect? Is it too early to start making deals because lately this clearly isn’t working Jay!
Guys,
Patrick, I agree about your assessment, and moreover, the Braves biggest problem right now is not in their clubhouse.
It’s in Philadelphia, because the Phillies have that “no one can touch us look” the Braves had last year through the first four months.
The power outages for the Braves big bats is more than a touch concerting, especially if you start to wonder if the league has figured out some holes in Acuña’s approach (frustrate him with continued heat up and in, which the Braves need to retaliate to more often), Riley’s approach (foul ball, foul ball, swinging strike three on a slider away) and Olson’s approach (fastball belt higher or higher).
I also concur that, while all of Braves Nation holds their collective breath when various relievers trot out, the biggest area to address is the Spencer Strider-less rotation.
And that’s true now and for the -er months, because even as flummoxing as some of these results have been in a stink-filled May, the Braves have the third-best record in the NL, which is very top-heavy, and even if they do not catch the Phightin’ Phils, they will be no worse than the No. 2 wildcard.
Which leads us to Brad, and no I don’t think it is too early to make a move.
This is the obligatory part of the show where I offer the “In Alex Anthopoulos We Trust” caveat, because he has earned it.
But the time is right currently, because a) it will rejuvenate a clubhouse in need of it, b) add a much-needed arm to a rotation that is about to play something like 31 games in 30 days from last Monday, and c) beat the big-dollar — and contending and trading hunting — Dodgers, Phillies and Yankees to the best arms on the market.
Some name to look for include: Jack Flaherty of Detroit, Oakland’s JP Sears, Miami’s Jesus Luzardo, a couple of Angels starters and maybe even Luis Severino of the rival Mets.
That said — and I am guilty of this too — but Braves followers everywhere should just take a deep breath.
This lineup is simply too good to struggle this much for much longer.
Have a great weekend.