It's Time To Make Revenue Sports In College Professional

 

December 5th, 2023, will go down as the day that NCAA President Charlie Baker finally realized what so many people have known since the early 2000s, student-athletes are more athletes than students. 

FBS Football and Division I Men's College Basketball players should be paid for the revenue they bring into their respective colleges. Men's football revenues for the Power 5 conferences far outpace the second-leading sport men's basketball. According to financial data from the 2022 fiscal year, the average college football program generated 31.9 million dollars of revenue while men's college basketball brought in 8.1 million dollars. Thirty-five non-revenue sports combined average to bring in 31.7 million dollars that year, two hundred thousand dollars less than football alone. 

Baker's proposal would create a new subdivision in college athletics that would be allowed to set its own rules for recruiting, roster sizes, transfers, and other policies. This would let the Power 5 secede from the rest of the FBS and create a feeder league to the pros for football and men's basketball. To be a part of this division schools would have to put millions of dollars a year into an educational trust for the athletes to use either during the summer or after their playing careers are over. The schools would be required to pay athletes a minimum of 30 thousand dollars a semester per athlete for at least half of their athletes. Schools could provide more athletes money and more than the minimum if they want to. It would also not require athletes to graduate to receive the money.   That's all and great but another part of the proposal is where a lot of trouble will come from.

Due to Title IX regulations, women's sports would have to be compensated at the same rate as men's sports including money from NIL according to Baker's proposal. Women's sports do not generate the money that men's sports do especially the sports of football and men's basketball. Should sports that fail to generate ticket sales or TV deals of the big two sports still be allowed to get an equal share of the money? 

This murky area is where the NCAA will have to work on this proposal with Congress and federal regulators. A 15-year study by the NCAA showed that most schools' athletics departments are operating on losses. This model is not sustainable for all the schools especially schools in the Group of 5 conferences. (The Group of 5 conferences are the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.) The new Power 4 (ACC, Big Ten, Big XII, and SEC) can afford these new payments because of the revenue they generate with conference TV deals and bowl payouts. 

The lines are being drawn that will forever change college athletics. The model we grew up with will be on the trash heap of history. Student-athletes will receive thousands if not millions of dollars before they even go pro. The model proposed by Baker is only the beginning. It is not the end of the journey of financial compensation for athletes. A long road is ahead of everyone to work out a model that will officially make parts of college athletics professional. 

Why Ted Lasso Is Right About Anxiety and Sports

 

****Season 2 Spoilers Ahead For Ted Lasso****

The show Ted Lasso is a critical and fan-favorite because it works on so many levels. It's a fish-out-of-water story mixed with a plucky underdog story, a splash of social commentary, and mental health. The main characters all deal with their mental health in different ways and it isn't until Dr. Sharon Fieldstone appears in season two that a lot of the mental health of the team is addressed. 

The season starts with star Dani Rojas killing the team mascot on a penalty kick causing him to go into a downward spiral ending in the yips. His guilt over the death radically affects the play of one of Richmond FCs best players. It isn't until he goes to Dr. Fieldstone that he finally gets the help he needs. All the players start talking to Dr. Fieldstone and eventually, Ted ends up in her office after a panic attack during a critical game. His distrust of therapy is eventually worn down by the persistent doctor who also realizes things about her life during therapy. This is monumental for Ted.

Ted's character is absolutely lovable. He's an Andy Griffith in London who happens to be a soccer coach. His great speeches throughout the series are memorable and heartfelt. He seems to have it all together. But his father's death has an effect he does not want to acknowledge and pushes him to a breaking point. He has his first attack during a party and then the aforementioned panic attack during a critical match. It's not until he confronts his issues that he moves forward. The finale of season 2 has Ted acknowledging that the media needs to do a better job of covering mental health and anxiety in sports. 

Mental health and anxiety treatments are essential today and it's new ground that athletes today are treading. An Ole Miss player named DeSanto Rollins filed a lawsuit against Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin this year due to treatment over mental health.  Simone Biles famously suffered mental health issues during the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo which led to a new conversation about mental health in athletes.  Studies are coming out showing that college athletes are experiencing higher levels of mental health issues and more articles are coming out about this sensitive topic. College Athletes are committing suicide. And this is very troubling.

Athletes today are exposed more to fans than at any time in the history of organized sports. Social media brings out the worst in fans including death threats. Read any popular athlete's comments on their tweets, Instagram pics, TikToks, or Facebook posts and you'll see vile comments. They are exposed to an endless news cycle. The only escape they seem to have is by escaping their devices. There are several stories of phone numbers getting leaked for prominent coaches and athletes. They have no escape. They live in a bubble on campus. They cannot have a normal life. They are going to need someone to talk to and not judge them. Someone who will allow them to vent. That is why more colleges are setting up programs for the athletes.

Ted Lasso's approach to this difficult subject is to be commended. Athletes on all levels need help and therapy options. They need people they can trust who are professionally trained. Athletes need help in dealing with a difficult time of their life when their brains are still forming and they essentially live in a bubble. It's a different day and age. I know a lot of the old-school athletes want to say, "Toughen up, Buttercup." But the days of running around on your wife and no one saying anything about it are over. Athletes today have to deal with smartphones with cameras. They are one viral social media post away from infamy. It's a new day and age and we need to approach it as such. Ted Lasso is just opening the door to this conversation. Thank you, Ted. 

If you or someone you know needs mental health, please call 988 for the suicide and crisis helpline. They have great mental health professionals available 24/7. There is no shame in needing help.

The Alliance Doomed FSU

In one of the classic episodes of the American version of The Office, downsizing rumors swirl and Dwight Schrute proposes an alliance with Jim Halpert to try and avoid being fired. It was a silly move that really had no purpose. But by the end of the episode, the Alliance had failed and Dwight betrayed Jim.

In 2021, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, Big XII Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson, and the Athletic Director of Notre Dame Jack Swarbrick unveiled a 12-team playoff for College Football that would eliminate automatic qualifiers and would instead take the six highest-rated conference champions. It wanted to ensure that the best teams would make the College Football Playoffs instead of a team that was 9-3 pulling an upset in a conference championship game. This plan was accepted by 8 of the 11 commissioners at the conference. But an Alliance blocked this measure.

The 2020 COVID season saw interesting developments in the final College Football Playoff rankings. Had the proposal been in effect that year, the top six ranked conference champions would have been Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Cincinnati, and Coastal Carolina. The Pac-12 champion, Oregon, would not have been a part of that and would have been left out of the 12-team playoff. This ruffled the feathers of the Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott. He wanted to make sure that his conference champion would automatically qualify for the playoffs. 

The proposed playoff expansion would have gone into effect for the 2023 season. But in July of 2021, the SEC rocked the college football landscape by announcing that Texas and Oklahoma were leaving the Big XII to join the SEC in 2025. 

Seeing that the proposed format by the SEC, Big XII, Mountain West, and Notre Dame would make some conference champions possibly miss the playoffs, and the stunning expansion move by the SEC, ACC Commissioner James J. Phillips, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott, and Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren met secretly to propose an Alliance that would be a voting bloc preventing any playoff expansion that they didn't agree with. On August 24, 2021, The Alliance was officially announced.

This Alliance had no official contract but was a gentleman's agreement that was going to stick together on major decisions of college athletics and work together on scheduling various sports' non-conference games. On paper, it looked great and like it would help further college athletics. But in reality, they were going to impede any college football playoff expansion that they didn't agree with. 

In February of 2022, the 11 conference commissioners gathered to vote on the proposed playoff system that would have started for the 2023 season.  The vote had to be unanimous to start the new playoff format. The vote was 8-3 with the Alliance all objecting to preventing the expansion. It took nine months before the vote would happen again and by that time, the college football landscape had changed. 

The Pac 12 became greedy with new commissioner Greg Kliavkoff turned down a TV licensing deal that would have annually brought the conference $30 million per school. Kliavkoff thought he could do better. The Big XII knew they had to jump on any deal to avoid falling into irrelevancy. Then in June of 2022, the Big Ten announced that USC and UCLA were leaving the Pac-12. The Alliance was shattered. The vote for the 12-team playoff expansion was held in November of 2022 and the model had not been changed. The expansion vote passed 11-0 but the soonest the new format would be implemented would be for the 2024 season.

The Big XII then announced that Colorado was leaving for their conference in August of 2023. Then, Oregon and Washington announced they were leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State soon announced they were leaving the Pac-12 to join the Big XII. The ACC announced that Cal and Stanford were leaving the Pac-12 to join them. The once mighty Pac-12 had only two members in Washington State and Oregon State. One of the key pillars of the Alliance was no more. But the effects of the failed group would be felt that Fall.

Now we're here in December of 2023. The FSU Seminoles are undefeated and left out because their conference commissioner joined an Alliance that like Dwight Schrute, ultimately betrayed the other members of the Alliance. Had the Alliance approved the expansion in February of 2022, the new playoff format would be in full effect and the 12-team playoff would be here. FSU would be in. But the ACC was hoisted by their own petard and cost their champion a shot at a national championship. 

Playoff Chaos Is Exactly Why The Expansion Was Needed

 

After last night's College Football Playoff Rankings, controversy is king. The top 4 are 1) Georgia 2) Michigan 3) Washington and 4) FSU. Oregon is outside the top 4 at five and Ohio State is at 6. Texas and Alabama remained locked in at 7 and 8. 

The four most-likely scenarios are as follows:

Scenario #1: Georgia, Michigan, Washington, and FSU win out leaving just the four undefeated teams set for the Playoffs. An undefeated FSU being left out because they're missing their starting quarterback Jordan Travis is ridiculous at that point because they would have defeated the #14 Louisville Cardinals in the ACC Championship Game while Ohio State sat at home.

Scenario #2: Alabama upsets Georgia, Michigan beats Iowa, Oregon beats Washington, FSU falls to Louisville, and Texas beats Oklahoma State. This gets a little sticky because Alabama would have a win over the #1 team in the nation at that point. You'd have three 1-loss teams as conference champions and only one undefeated team in Michigan. Ohio State could sneak their way in despite not playing leaving both Alabama and Texas out despite their conference championships. If that were to occur I think it would be #1 Michigan, #2, Oregon #3 Ohio State, and #4 Texas. 

Scenario #3: Georgia beats Alabama, Michigan beats Iowa, Oregon beats Washington, Texas beats Oklahoma State, and FSU loses to Louisville. In this case, it would come down to who the committee favored between Texas and Ohio State. Texas would have a conference championship and their best win would be over a probably 11th-ranked Alabama team while Ohio State would not have a conference championship with their best win being over a top-ten Penn State team. I think the committee would put in Ohio State over Texas making it #1 Georgia, #2 Michigan, #3 Oregon, and #4 Ohio State. I don't think Ohio State should be in over Texas though because a conference championship should mean something. This scenario would also give the Rose Bowl one final Big Ten vs. Pac 12 Rose Bowl which would make the Rose Bowl Committee quite happy.

And now that brings us to my favorite scenario, the chaos scenario. Alabama beats Georgia. Iowa beats Michigan. Oregon beats Washington. Louisville beats FSU. Texas beats Oklahoma State. This scenario is the Elmo Fire Gif for the Committee. You have three one-loss conference champions with Alabama, Oregon, and Texas and four one-loss non-conference champions with Georgia, Michigan, Washington, and Ohio State. This scenario gets very messy for the committee and would make them possibly try to establish the 12-team playoff this year. In this scenario, who knows what the committee would do. I think you'd have to take the three one-loss conference champions at this point in some order so that gives you Alabama, Oregon, and Texas because the committee has established that conference championships should matter. The final spot remaining would be tricky but I think the committee would go with Michigan due to their two top-ten wins against Ohio State and Penn State. I think you'd have Oregon and Michigan in the Rose Bowl and Texas and Alabama in the Sugar. 

While we're not sure what will happen, there is a lot of intrigue going into Conference Championship Weekend that should see record viewership for the different games. It will also show that this year is in desperate need of the expanded playoffs. There will be a deserving team left out and unfortunately that team will have no recourse and only wonder what might have been. 

Class and the Iron Bowl

 

I am what most people would call a Bammer. I have Daniel Moore paintings of great Bama moments. I have multiple Bear Bryant pictures and quotes posted around the house. I have pulled for the Crimson Tide ever since I could understand the concept of football. But what I had happened yesterday made me reconsider how I view losing. 

My boss at JOX, Ryan Haney, is an Auburn fan and grad. I had a little issue after running a UAB sports megacast and texted him for some help. Through combined efforts of texts to other members of the Cumulus staff we were able to straighten out the issue without the listeners ever knowing we had one. After that had subsided, my boss, who just witnessed one of the most agonizing losses of his program, texted me the following:

Him: Congrats on the Bama win. Hell of a game.

Me: Yes it was. Thank you, Boss Man.

Him: They played their asses off. Bama made the play when it counted. Respect. Y'all deserved the win. Now go beat Georgia. Wish the Iron Bowl was like that every year. Two teams laying it all on the line.

That was an amazing exchange. My boss was the epitome of class after a difficult win. Then I go to the cesspool known as Twitter/X and see this from  Cole Cubelic. And it hit me. 

Yes, I love to beat Auburn and win the Iron Bowl. But the game is so much bigger than that. I grew up with family that went to Auburn. I have friends who went to Auburn. I have coworkers who pull for Auburn. This whole state is divided between Alabaa fams and Auburn fans yet we work, live, and play together all year. I'm glad that I have Auburn friends who are classy regardless of the outcome. I think Alabama fans need to learn to be classier with victory and defeat. The Bear once said, 

“It’s awfully important to win with humility. It’s also important to lose. I hate to lose worse than anyone, but if you never lose you won’t know how to act. If you lose with humility, then you can come back.”

This state is imperfect. But we do football right. People notice that. Even folks whom you completely disagree with. This weekend is special each year because chaos is the only constant thing you can expect when it comes to the Iron Bowl. Punt Bama Punt. The Kick. The Camback. The Kick Six. The Crimson Crane. The Milthrow. All of these games make it so special. The camaraderie between neighbors who will always defend the state's football as the best football. It's something that even folks outside of the state know.  Whether it's Dan Bongino loving the atmosphere at Jordan Hare or Herbstreit and Fowler going nuts to the ending of the Iron Bowl, people know that the Iron Bowl will be a quality game. But what few people know, is that the Iron Bowl brings out the best in many. Here's to more great games and great fans who are great people. 

There Is Crying In Football

 

During the Washington versus USC game this past weekend, a despondent Caleb Williams went up into the stands after losing and began crying with his mother. He has faced ridicule, scorn, and questions about his worthiness of being a top NFL quarterback prospect all because he was showing emotion after seeing the goals of a national championship and conference championship evaporate in three very public and humiliating losses.

Caleb Williams is the reigning Heisman trophy winner. He has put up amazing numbers in the Lincoln Riley system at Oklahoma and USC. He has had some controversy during his Heisman campaign last year but I tend to put that towards being a brash QB who is still in his early 20s. The nail painting backfired terribly and resulted in an epic troll by the Utes. It was a teachable moment.

A lot of critics are jumping on this show of emotion as unmanly, weak, and childish. I disagree. Football is an emotional game despite what some critics are saying. USC came into this season with national championship aspirations and Williams trying to become the second back-to-back Heisman winner. He was prominently featured in the Fansville campaign for Dr. Pepper as well as the Nissan Heisman House and other NIL deals. He has a lot on his plate and was essentially an NFL quarterback balancing his football with endorsement deals. He is also 21.

According to multiple studies, the prefrontal cortex of the brain that controls the rational part of thinking is not fully developed until you are 25. That means that most young adults are straddling the line between adolescence and adulthood while letting emotions control their thinking. Throw in the fact that Williams is also taking violent hits with that and you see why he can become so emotional. 

Williams cares about the team and the goals they put forth. He is an emotional leader of the team who just had everything they had been working for all offseason dashed in the span of four weeks. He was facing a tremendous amount of pressure internally and externally and he just broke. It is completely human to break when you have reached your limits. Most people have their breaks in the privacy of their homes, cubicles, bathrooms, or cars. Williams just happened to be on national television as the face of USC football when the loss happened and cameras followed him into the stands with his mother. 

I think that people tend to lose sight of how much pressure is on the current crop of athletes. While Jordan, Favre, and Jeter were always shown with their icy demeanor under pressure, they were able to just go home and turn off the TV if they had a bad game. Now, with sports talk 24/7 on the radio, social media interactions constant, and YouTube armchair quarterbacks reacting after every game, the pressure is never-ending and almost inescapable. This is the media landscape that these young players face every day. Fandom is at an all-time high and intensity. Death threats to players for messing up are common on social media. After the Kick Six, Cade Foster had death threats. A Colorado State football player and his family received death threats after giving a hit that knocked out two-way player Travis Hunter of the Colorado Buffaloes. Fans have more access to players than ever before and it's not necessarily a good thing. 

I know I never achieved the notoriety that Williams faced but I remember being that upset after football games. My junior year of high school was very rough and we were coming off being undefeated state champions. We played one of our archrivals Mountain Brook at their stadium and lost to them for the first time in 14 games. I was despondent. I was angry. I had angry tears. Then the next game we played another heated rival in Homewood and my botched snap ended up costing us the game. I was angry and crying in the locker room because I had let my teammates down. My mother rode home with me because she was worried about how upset I was after the game. High school football in Alabama is an intense and popular thing. We had the weight of our school, fellow students, parents, and community on us. It only becomes more intense the higher levels you go. 

Caleb Williams showed that he was merely a young man who was dealing with a lot of emotions at the time. He sought consoling from his mother. There is nothing wrong with that nor is it a sign of weakness. Give the young man a break and understand that this is all part of the growing-up process. He just happens to be doing in front of an audience of millions each week. 

The Importance Of Never Giving Up

 

One of the most underrated movies of the late 90s is an homage to Star Trek and its fans called Galaxy Quest. The commander of the ship Peter Quincy Taggart, portrayed by Tim Allen, has a simple yet effective catchphrase that is said multiple times throughout the movie. "Never give up. Never Surrender." This is exactly what the motto of the Alabama team for this year has become.

Many pundits and fans had left Alabama for dead after the devastating loss to Texas on September 9th. The annual talk of how the dynasty is dead and Nick Saban cannot connect with the players anymore was featured prominently on the talk shows and columns of various publications. Then the following week, Alabama benched their starter from the first two games and got a struggle win against South Florida. Many folks throughout the college football landscape predicted a loss to Ole Miss and the descent toward mediocrity for Alabama. But somebody forgot to tell the Alabama team they weren't supposed to be any good this year.

Going through a gauntlet of Ole Miss, at Mississippi State, at Texas A&M, Arkansas, Tennessee, and LSU, the Tide became a cohesive unit. Yes, they still tend to start slowly on the first drives for Offense and Defense, but the team really seems to turn it on as the game progresses. Alabama has embraced difficulty and decided that they will #LANK. This is an uncommon thing for Alabama teams of the past to acknowledge external factors but this team seems to feed off people doubting them and their abilities. 

The story is still being written about the 2023 Alabama team and they have plenty of obstacles left in their path. A difficult 11 a.m. kickoff road game at Kentucky this weekend. A true test of Auburn Jesus at Jordan Hare to end the season. Win both of those and the game against Chattanooga, they make the SEC Championship with a shot at making the College Football Playoffs. Some pundits believe that if Alabama upsets Georgia and gets a little help, they'll be in the Playoffs only to be exposed by supposed superior competition.  Only time will tell who is right about this. But there is still plenty of football left before we even get to that point.

This team thrives on doubt. They seem to have a genuine love for each other and are holding each other accountable for actions on the field. They make mistakes but adjust and get back at it instead of lingering on the bad plays. They're preaching and walking the #Process . They without a doubt embody Commander Taggart's catchphrase, "Never Give Up. Never Surrender." I cannot wait to see how far this team will go and all they plan to accomplish. 

The C Student

 

"I enjoy coaching this team. That's not to say they're not taking years off my life. But I'm okay with it. It's fun because they've got a good spirit about them." - Nick Saban

I know it is difficult to watch this Alabama team struggle each week to win a game and that the discomfort of watching this team can sometimes get a little too much to bare. But I think this Alabama team is one of the most special and unique teams that Nick Saban has had during his time at the Capstone. This team is showing a resilience not seen by the previous two years' teams with a better roster. 

My wife and I have not been blessed with children but I'd like to think that if we were a typical family with multiple kids, we'd have an amazingly talented child who barely needed to study to get straight As and another child that worked hard but could only pull Cs. We would be proud of both of our kids. We'd support both of our kids. But if that C student put in a ton of effort and worked hard to study for an upcoming test that resulted in a B, we'd be ridiculously happy and proud of our student. If that child kept working hard and eventually made an A in the class, we would be ecstatic. We would know that our child put in a tremendous amount of effort that allowed them to make that A.

This is what the current Alabama team is. They have possibly three first-rounders on the team right now with Dallas Turner, Kool-Aid McKinstry, and JC Latham and a lot of later round talent. Jalen Milroe is not as good a QB as the four that preceded him. None of the wide receivers are what you would consider to be elite like the amazing run Alabama had from 2017-2020. But this team just works.

The Texas loss was a setback but it was a teachable moment. Coach Saban loves to preach about not wasting a failure and this team has responded. This team has busted their butts to finish games and find ways to win. While not always a pretty victory, an ugly win tops a pretty defeat every time.

We've seen remarkable improvement from the team since the Texas game. The defense in the second half since that game has given up zero points to USF, three points to Ole Miss, seven to Mississippi State, three points to Texas A&M, 15 to Arkansas, and zero to Tennessee. The offense has scored in the second half of those games 14 against USF, 18 against Ole Miss, 9 against Mississippi State, 16 against Texas A&M, 3 against Arkansas, and 27 against Tennessee. The Arkansas game is the only outlier of the run since Texas.

This team while not perfect, is a lot of fun to watch. They're not the dominant football machine we have come to expect from Tuscaloosa, but you have to love the heart. As the fight song says, "Bama's pluck and grit have writ her name in Crimson Flame." This team is full of pluck and grit. Will they win the national championship? Probably not. Will they leave it all out on the field for us the fans every game? Without a doubt. I'm proud of this team and while they may take a few years off my life, I wouldn't ride or die with any other team.