First, let’s tend to our business.
› The Rushmore of shortstops — Honus Wagner, Cal Ripken, Ernie Banks and Derek Jeter.
› Rushmore of worst NBA Draft day trades — Warriors giving Robert Parrish and a first-rounder (which became Kevin McHale) for Joe Barry Carroll; Seattle sending Scottie Pippin to Chicago for Olden Polynice; Charlotte acquiring Blade Divac and sending Kobe Bryant to the Lakers; Dallas lands Dirk Nowitzki for Robert “Tractor” Traylor. And that excludes the Hawks dealing some player named Bill Russell to the Celtics during the 1956 draft.
› Jennifer Lopez Rushmore. “Out of Sight,” “Selena,” and “Marry Me.”
› Rushmore of the best superhero movie villains — Jack’s Joker, Heath Ledger’s Joker, Josh Brolin as Thanos and Terence Stamp as Zod.
Here are the litany of Chattanooga-area high school players named all-state. Congrats.
Here’s an interesting story from Paschall on UT’s overall athletic success. The Vols athletics department notched a third-straight top-6 finish in the all-sports race and maybe more impressively, for the second straight year, all 20 sports offered by UT reached the NCAA postseason.
To the bag:
From Terry
Jay, do you read the Athletic?
They do good work — I hate The NY Times, but the Athletic is really good.
They had a question this week that I wanted you to answer, too.
They tried to answer, “how many college programs could have/would have won a championship with Nick Saban?”
Thanks and love your column.
Terry
Almost all of them. Seriously.
And every SEC school. Seriously.
Any school willing to spend whatever Saban asked for would have eventually got a chip.
And I 100% mean that.
Look, Alabama had great history when Saban arrived, but the Tide was broken and being dominated by Auburn in almost every fashion when they fired Mike Shula.
And Saban turned it around in the blink of an eye.
An elite organizer, program builder, disciplinarian and defensive mind. We know this.
But his true superpowers were his elite scouting skills (dude saw talent regardless of rankings) and his ability to convince five-star dudes to come to Tuscaloosa and wait behind other five-stars.
He did that with a pitch that was proven that if you wait and become a starter for Saban, you were going to make millions in three years.
Now those five stars want to make millions in three seconds when they sign.
So Saban’s doing TV.
From Chip
It’s pretty (bleeping) (stupid) to say Garrett Nussmeier can’t win a Heisman but Arch Manning can?
Yes, LSU’s offensive line is inexperienced. That being said … Is Manning? He isn’t going to play ULM, Miss St and UTSA every week. Nuss threw for 4,000 yds last year. Manning’s numbers were decent against bad competition. To dismiss Nuss as a Heisman candidate is silly.
Chip,
Yes, Garrett Nussmeier had a good season last year, but I’d bet Arch Manning would have had a better season playing QB1 with that LSU offense last year.
I think both are going to be first-round picks. I think both are good, but in terms of winning the Heisman, to pretend Arch’s last name does not matter is not wise.
Here are the Heisman odds from ESPNBets:
Arch — plus-600 (bet $100, win $600)
Cade Klubnik and Garrett Nussmeier — plus-900
Julian Sayin — plus-1,400
Drew Allar — plus-1,600
DJ Lagway — plus 1,800.
Can Nussmeier win a Heisman? Clearly.
But I would put my money on all of those names listed above before I’d bet on Nussmeier.
And I’ll finish with the most basic comp I can in these kinds of debates:
If a Garrett Nussmeier-for-Arch Manning trade was on the table, who says no, Steve Sarkisian or Brian Kelly?
From Matthew
At work a lot of us read the 5 at 10 and talk about it at lunch.
Friday, answer this for us: You are the NCAA boss, what are your three first orders of business?
Thanks, Jay.
Matthew
No, my man, thank you guys for reading and spending your time around these parts.
Here are my first three line items:
> Banning transgender athletes in women’s sports. Not sure how anyone can argue there’s not an overwhelming advantage of athletes born as guys against athletes born as gals.
> Transparency in the NIL process. Look, I’m not sure there is a way to legally and practically capping what athletes at big-time schools make — Manning at Texas, Cooper Flagg at Duke (Flagg reportedly made more than $40 million in his one college season), et al. — especially without having the athletes at the table.
Sure they can try to make it even in terms of revenue sharing. But policing the outside stuff is borderline impossible.
And why are we worried about that now?
Policing that now when we have never policed how much programs and schools can raise for facilities or coaches buyouts or all the other big-dollar spending that goes in big-time college sports?
So why are we doing it with the athletes?
But with transparency — sharing where the money is going and where it comes from — allows for at least some balance and ways to monitor the money.
> The portal needs some massive changes.
Make it one free one, and after that it goes back to traditional “transfer and sit a season.”
Now, that comes with stipulations when there are coaching changes, and it also would come with schools making scholarships four-year pacts. Schools can’t complain about guys leaving if the athletes are worried whether their scholarship may not be renewed.
The other portal change has to be with the calendar.
Two portal openings per sport period.
And while we are on the portal, since the NCAA formerly had Job 1 of finding schools that were paying recruits and players — a thing that is now completely within the rules — whatever governing body of college sports needs a new top-priority.
And policing tampering among currently signed athletes at other schools has to be that top task.
Thoughts?
From Patrick
NBA Finals over yet?
Comparison time:
Player A — 21 doubles, 9 homers, 42 RBIs, .880 OPS, 1.8 WAR (if you’re into that sort of thing)
Player B — 20 doubles, 15 homers, 52 RBIs, .841 OPS, 3.2 WAR (if you’re still into that sort of thing)
Who you got?
Patrick
Yes, the Finals are done. Thankfully.
Let’s cut to Screamin’ A to rant about the Knicks.
Your comps are interesting, and the numbers point clearly to Player B.
And for those unaware, Player A is Freddie Freeman. Player B is Matt Olson.
Surprised?
But the weight Freddie carries between the scenes can’t be overstated in my mind.
Also of note: How do those numbers add together for Player B (Olson) to be analytically almost twice as valuable as Player A (Freeman).
And I’ll answer this the same way I did with the SEC QB issue above.
If the Dodgers called Atlanta and said, we’ll deal Freeman for Olson straight up, who says no?
Have a great weekend, friends, and pray for some shade as the Lil Miss 5-at-10’s travel team heads to North Georgia in the heat of the day today and tomorrow.