It is a slow part of the season but this past week there has been some good reads on the back door dealings in college football. Of course it is all coming out while we are once again speaking of paying players and compensating them for their “time.” I just look forward to the season starting even if it’s more than four months away.
With that in mind, let’s get into some of the news and action from this past week.
1) I talked about “the Bag Man” earlier and ‘they’ had a great read about the men who run college football behind closed doors. The article deals with the men who “buy” college football players and run the payroll. It was a good read and confirmed what we all think … college football players are already getting paid.
The Bag Man brought up a point that even if we paid college football players 40k a year, then guys will still be getting money on the side. I hope one day that we can get these guys some “immunity,” and let them tell their stories of all the deals they made to buy players and how they out paid their rivals to land a top recruit. “Every school is doing it,” it’s just a matter of how much they are paying out.
2) The NCAA has a rule about banning teams from the post season when they have low test scores and are not getting the results from the athletes off the field in the class room. UNLV just got hit with 1-year post-season ban due to low test scores. For a school such as UNLV, it probably will not matter since they are lucky to win five or six games a season.
Imagine this happening to a school like Alabama or FSU. That, basically, would waste a whole season for them. UCONN basketball was banned from post-season play because of this rule, and once they were allowed back into the tournament, we all saw how that turned out.
Hearing of rules like this makes me think the NCAA needs to tweak their rules a little but then again, this is a good one because it allows the NCAA to put the “student” back into “student athlete!”
3) WOW, huge news out of Missouri! They just kicked their top wide receiver, Dorial Green-Beckham, off the team. He was the top recruit of the 2012 class and was performing on the field but had some recent run-ins with the law off the field.
Coaches are under such pressure to win and usually just suspend a player for a few games and move on … especially in the SEC! Good job on Missouri’s coach for sticking to the rules and letting his players know that just because you’re a football player, doesn’t mean you’re able get away with whatever you want! Missouri is going to miss him but it is for the best!
So we are just humming along here in the off season. Got to see my Gators play their spring game today. The offense scored some points – let’s hope that can carry into the fall. If not, Muschamp will be looking for a new job come January! Anything more than 6-6 will be a miracle from God for Gator fans.
We also have the Northwestern Unionization effort still humming along. Should be interesting to see what direction that goes since players are torn on the voting.
Has your favorite team had their spring game yet? If so, how did they look? Did it get you excited for the fall? I know I’m ready for the season to start!
NATIONAL NEWS:
1. Texas taking a step back
2. Duck down
3. Texas Tech has their man
4. Notre Dame changing … again
5. Tennessee fans out of control
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Jeff Hostetler may not have won a Super Bowl with the Giants ( though his uncle of the same name did). He has been an obsessed college football fan living in Florida ever since the Gators beat FSU in the Sugar Bowl to earn the UF’s first national championship.
Ever since Jeff has immersed himself in everything possible related to college football. He enjoys watching, writing, playing, and otherwise obsessing over all things football. A graduate of the University of Florida, he brings a perspective to FishDuck free of our extreme green & yellow homerism glasses to look at the current landscape of collegiate athletics.