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Eligibility clarity
The news out of Alabama was what?
Of course Charles Bediako was declared ineligible. Everything we know of college sports centers on a few simple beliefs.
> When your team loses a recruit, it’s because someone cheated.
> When your team lands a recruits, it’s because that kid is in it for all the right reasons and he loves your school.
> And when a player completes his four (five) years of eligibility or signs a pro deal, he’s done with college sports.
OK, the first two have been prospective, and in truth, watered down by NIL deals and transparently paying players.
But the last one has become more foggy than a warm January morning in the Tennessee Gorge.
Some clarity came Monday when the replacement judge — yeah, the second-stringer was called up when the Alabama judge recused himself because he’s a sizable Crimson Tide booster — ruled Charles Bediako was ineligible.
It was the logical choice and restores at least the baseline semblance of order.
Oh, it still leaves questions, especially for the growing number of European recruits who have been playing in various professional levels through their teenage years before coming to U.S. colleges and universities.
And it does not set precedent for the junior college waivers — aka the Diego Pavia Rule — that UT quarterback Joey Aguilar is trying to get for another football fall in Knoxville.
Bediako’s case seemed surreal from the start, and it even caused the unthinkable: SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey siding with the NCAA against any league program (especially that one).
So maybe this is a step toward some form structure, some form of regulatory uniformity, some form of, dare I say it, a step toward understandable normalcy.
Let’s explore a ripple and hidden driver, too.
The ripple: So Alabama used a now-ineligible player in five games, including a big win at Auburn, where Bediako scored 12 points and made all five of his field-goal attempts.
Auburn looks like it’s on a bubblicious track; will that home loss count against it come Selection Sunday?
Elsewhere, I think the eligibility issue — especially in football and basketball — will be the easiest of the complex landmines to clear for the NCAA.
There is the common sense of it. Just ask Sankey.
Then, for football and hoops, I would have to bet the NFL and the NBA are watching intently as their de facto and most popular minor leagues are monkeying with the traditional and familiar pathway to the next level.
The NFL nor the NBA want kids entering the draft, waiting to hear their name called, then leveraging a sixth-round cap slot or a non-guaranteed, second-round contract against six- and seven-figure NIL deals for returning to school.
Super future?
In the aftermath of Seattle’s Super Bowl victory, I believe there are two potentially long-lasting storylines.
We’ll start on the field first.
I’m not sure when the RB1 was devalued, but it has assuredly happened. Heck, Kenneth Walker was the first RB Super Bowl MVP since 1998 when Terrell Davis won it.
But has Seattle’s path to the pinnacle flipped the prism or started the transition to devaluing QB1s?
We all realize the value of good QBs on team-friendly deals in a hard salary cap sport.
But Seattle constructed its championship roster by dealing a QB1 — Russ Wilson to Denver for a slew of picks — and then allowed a good QB in Geno Smith to walk, signing Sam Darnold in free agency.
That’s shunning conventional wisdom of the QBird in the hand is worth two in the bush leagues.
But it worked, and it should have several teams wondering if they should move on from good looking for better. Better value. Better options. And maybe most importantly, better fits.
Notice I said move on from good looking for better and not great, because no one turns down great QBs.
But there are what, three or five truly great QBs in the NFL today?
To that end, if we drafted all the starting QB1s anew across the NFL tomorrow, would Sam Darnold crack the top 10? The top 15?
Would you rather have Darnold or Matt Stafford? Darnold or Caleb Williams or Jayden Daniels, even forgetting the rookie contracts for a moment? Darnold or Dak Prescott or Jalen Hurts or Jordan Love? Darnold or Brock Purdy or Baker Mayfield? Heck, those are fair questions, and that’s just in the NFC.
Which also begs this ripple: When are we going to start looking after-the-fact through that proper prism?
Again, I did not mention the big four above — Mahomes, Allen, Burrow and Jackson are clearly superstar QB1s, and the first three are worth whatever they ask and whomever you have to jettison to make the cap match work — because when you see all-time greatness, you know it. You value it, and we should treasure the times we get to experience it.
We have for too long tried to use rings as the ultimate QB validation, right? Ask the pro Eli-for-the-Hall camp.
Has Darnold — the first Super Bowl-winning QB1 to do it on his fifth team — started changing the modern view of that?
Could serviceable — and affordable — be the path of the future?
Super hero we need?
As for the other, in the aftermath of the halftime fiasco — as we discussed Monday, my overall reaction to the entire thing was a shoulder shrug and asking the crew watching “anyone needed anything from the kitchen?” — is Bad Bunny the hero we need in this divided societal time?
It was a 13-minute concert in Spanish with a slew of celebrities sprinkled among the greenery.
It has generated enough 18-wheelers of outrage that U.S. Xpress may be needed to direct the logistics of this thing.
Amid all of this, we’ll listen to the words of Candace Owens, a controversially conservative presence in these escalating war or words, tweets, posts and pontifications.
Owens, who rose to power as an executive with Turning Point USA, which offered the carnival sideshow of Kid Rock and Co. as a halftime alternative, bluntly said, “I am sorry, but I hate both options.”
Which seems fair and honest. I think the Bunny’s hop was kinda entertaining and visually impressive. He could have been singing my grocery list from Sunday’s Food City run, and I’d be none the wiser.
But the overreaction is off the rail. Heck, Congressman Andy Ogles, R-Tennessee, wants a formal investigation into Bunny’s lyrics and dance moves.
So, those who are anti-Bunny — yes, I just wrote the phrase anti-Bunny, which is the perfect oxymoron for this whole ordeal because who before this was ever anti-bunny other than the Roadrunner or maybe Elmer Fudd? — were originally ticked because, to paraphrase, no one in America would understand the lyrics.
But those lyrics are now offensive even though no one understood them? Perfect. If a tree cusses when it falls and no one is there to be offended, how are we going to peddle a segment on MSNBC or Fox, Rep. Ogles?
As for the dancing and the production, Ogles wrote that Bunny’s set included “choreography featuring overtly sexualized movements, including widespread twerking, grinding, pelvic thrusts and other sexually suggestive conduct.”
Yes, we could tip the visor to the known reproductive proclivity of rabbits everywhere and insert a bad bunny joke, but we will refrain.
Musical and cultural and personal tastes always differ and, last I checked, Rep. Ogles, there were other channels on our TV dial, including the always-family-friendly stylings of Mr. Kid Rock.
Moreover, those choices and preferences should always be remembered as part of the foundation and fabric of our great nation.
Dislike and disdain just because a view or a style or a whatever does not align with yours is the opposite of unity and all-too pervasive in these United States of America.
To that end was the hammer quote from Owens on the matter, especially since all this angst and energy were spent on a 13-minute extended music video with a real-life wedding mixed in:
“The left vs. right grift is actually boring now. What exactly are we doing here, America?”
If Bad Bunny’s all-Spanish halftime interlude pushes more and more everyday folks into realizing this, well, let me be the first to say, “Muy bien hecho mi amigo.”
This and that
> Say what, the Pirates are adding in free agency? Yes, those Pirates in Pittsburgh, not the Capt. Jack Sparrow pirates pilfering unknown folks afloat. Pittsburgh has agreed on a deal with former Braves DH Marcel Ozuna per this report.
> Kansas toppled top-ranked and previously unbeaten Arizona on Monday night. And the Jayhawks did it without superstar freshman Darryn Peterson. Huge win. Shocking stat alert: That was Kansas’s first win against a visiting AP No. 1 team in Phog Allen Fieldhouse. Considering the level Kansas has maintained for decades, that surprised me more than a little bit.
> Another college hoops note: Rick Pitino edged his son, Richard Pitino, in overtime as Daddy’s St. John’s crew nipped Junior’s Xavier bunch in OT Monday.
> One more Super Bowl thing. Here’s a food review of a burger that needed two hands and a fat wallet. Yeah, it’s meant to be split, but the final price tag on this five-pound, bone-in braised veal burger on a brochette bun was $196.46.
> North Dakota State is moving from an FCS powerhouse to the Mountain West.
Today’s questions
True or false, it’s Tuesday. Morning, Ernie.
True or false, a relative newcomer is going to read the above rift and believe I am part of the mainstream liberal media.
True or false, the Pitinos are already the best father-son coaching tandem in college hoops.
True or false, even with a Super Bowl ring, Sam Darnold is not a top-10 QB1 in the NFL.
True or false, you regularly watch college baseball.
True or false, Bediako being ruled ineligible is the proper call.
True or false, NDSU made the right call moving up to FBS.
You know the drill: Answer some Ts or Fs; ask some Ts or Fs.
As for today, Feb. 10, let’s review.
The first gold record — noting a million album sales — was give to Glenn Miller and his orchestra for a little tune called “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” Anyone heard of it?
Man, couple of huge debut albums were dropped on this day as Van Halen’s debut was released in 1978, and Kanye West’s “The College Dropout” was released in 2004.
Elizabeth Banks is 52 today. She is underrated, in my mind.
What’s her Rushmore? Go.