Tell me if this sounds like a good idea to you: Next Friday at the White House, three dozen or so “dignitaries and celebrities” ranging from former college football coaches to power conference commissioners to billionaire boosters to the NBA commissioner, the president of the Yankees, a former Secretary of State and a fellow named Tiger Woods have been invited to discuss one of the greatest issues of our troubled times with the President of the United States.
“Saving College Sports Roundtable,” they’re calling it, as if it were really that simple.
For the life of me, I can’t imagine why anyone thinks this might work. That is, if it actually comes off at all. Apparently these White House shindigs are fluid.
Frankly, I’d be good if they’d just put Greg Sankey, the SEC commissioner, in a ring with the Big Ten’s Tony Petitti. Last man standing dictates terms, and off we go.
Texas College Sports
The problems of college football are not unlike the issue facing Dallas City Council over what to do with City Hall. Decades of deferred maintenance have rendered I.M. Pei’s Brutalist masterpiece nearly unfixable. Maybe that was the goal all along. Makes a land grab easier.
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Anyway, the NCAA might not have been able to prevent everything that’s happened the last few years to its precious amateur example, but it could have kicked the can down the road long enough to put up some guardrails. Had officials offered stipends and long-term health insurance instead of fighting lawsuits in a vain attempt to hold on to the past, maybe we’d at least have a framework for something workable.
As it is, they’re asking everyone to go back to their cells once the lock’s been sprung. Next thing you know, you’re Kevin Bacon, flattened by a mob in “Animal House.”
Of course, the NCAA has to look like it’s doing something. Which is why this week its football oversight committee announced it will recommend legislation at its D-1 cabinet meeting in April to curb illegal transfers.
Any coach who accepts transfers outside the official window of opportunity would be prohibited from all recruiting, on-field coaching and team meetings for six games. The program would also be fined 20% of its football budget and lose five roster spots the following season.
Sounds tough, right?
Except who’s turning in whom? A few schools are no doubt worse than others, but everyone’s swimming in the same water these days. Most coaches are old enough to know the lesson of the late, lamented Southwest Conference.
Rat out your neighbors, and they’ll just rat you out next.
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Kirby Smart and Mario Cristobal were only half-kidding when they swapped barbs this week at “The Steve Spurrier Awards.” Normally you’d think the host — who famously said FSU stood for “Free Shoes University” and once labeled a dormitory fire at Auburn that burned 20 books a “tragedy” because “15 hadn’t been colored yet” — would steal the show. But not this week.
During his remarks, Smart, noting that Miami’s playoff quarterback, Carson Beck, once played for his Georgia Bulldogs, said you have to be “careful” around Cristobal.
“Sometimes he’ll take your players, if you know what I mean,” he said.
Cristobal returned playful fire when his turn came. First he pointed out what Beck accomplished as a Hurricane under “great coaching,” then he spoke directly to the parents of a Georgia defensive back.
“We have more than one restaurant in Miami,” he said, “as opposed to Athens.”
Funny.
Also true.
The lack of any clear direction from the top these days has emboldened coaches, players and administrations into taking matters into their own hands. Cincinnati recently sued Brendan Sorsby – who reportedly received $5 million to sign with Texas Tech – for $1 million, claiming that’s the buyout for transferring under terms of his NIL agreement. Not the first such case. Georgia sued a player for $390,000 in December after he transferred to Missouri. The parties eventually settled, which would no doubt be the best result in the Sorsby matter.
Speaking of which: Could Texas A&M get a refund on the Trans Am that Eric Dickerson drove from College Station to SMU?
Look, there’s only so much you can fix in college sports at this point without a radical reorganization. Do what’s easy. College coaches already are on record in support of a football calendar that ends on Jan. 1 with the transfer portal opening the next day. Do that, and coaches and players might at least wait until the season’s over before quitting on their teams.
But the runaway spending that threatens to price out most programs? Another matter entirely. The crazy thing is, Cody Campbell, the billionaire who fueled Tech’s playoff run, is also the impetus behind the “Saving College Sports” movement. Maybe he’s the man for the job, at that. Turning Tech into one of the “haves” was his first miracle.
Campbell’s supposed to be among the crowd next week at the White House. So is Nick Saban and Mack Brown and Adam Silver and Condi Rice and Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor. Tiger and Bryson DeChambeau, too. Ought to be a hoot. My guess is if they don’t get anything hammered out, the President can at least work up a good foursome.
Twitter/X: @KSherringtonDMN
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