By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning:
DYSFUNCTION JUNCTION
Quarterback Jaden Rashada has committed to the University of Miami. The California lawyer who represented Rashada in NIL negotiations says Rashada left millions of dollars on the table to go with Miami. There are reports that the Miami deal is worth $9.5 million and that the Gator Collective offered $11 million. Caspino, per reports, says the Gator Collective is dysfunctional and that he won’t deal with them again.
In a Twitter statement, the Gator Collective responded: “The recent comments by California lawyer Michael Caspino have been brought to our attention. Gator Collective has never had any communications with Mr. Caspino about Jaden Rashada or any other recruits. Rather, Gator Collective has refused to engage in any dialogue with Mr. Caspino on numerous occasions as Gator Collective does not approve of his tactics and has no interest in engaging in activities which violate Florida law and NCAA Interim Policy and may put athletes’ eligibility at risk.”
I have no way of knowing exactly how much money was involved in the deal that clinched it for Rashada, but I know this: It’s way, way, way too much for a kid who has yet to take a college snap. He could be the greatest thing since the invention of crushed ice. He could also be the next Tate Martel. Know this: before it gets better, things will get worse. Much, much worse.
Essentially, the NCAA is powerless. It should have had a contingency plan in place for the eventuality of losing Alston v. NCAA in the Supreme Court, a plan with rules and regulations for NIL agreed to by every member of the NCAA. The few guidelines we have are weak and practically unenforceable, so we have chaos on our hands that has turned recruiting into sold to the highest bidder.
The only way things are going to get better is for some of these kids signing mega-NIL deals to bust so badly that the bottom falls out of the market. I don’t think it’s a bad thing for kids to get some money, particularly in a sport that takes such a physical toll on its participants, but things are out of hand right now. I just hope there is a market correction before college football as we know it becomes nothing more than a professional league complete with unions and salary caps.
TIME TO END THE PETTINESS REGARDING VERNON MAXWELL
Vernon Maxwell scored 2,450 points during his University of Florida basketball career from (1984-88) yet if you look in the Florida media guide, the leading scorer in Florida basketball history is the late Ronnie Williams, who scored 2,086. Why the discrepancy? Because the higher-ups at UF, in their infinite wisdom, have erased the last two seasons of Vernon’s records because he took money from agents and accepted a free ticket to a basketball camp.
Norm Sloan was fired for what Vernon did and probably a few other violations that occurred during his second tenure (first was 1960-66) at the University of Florida. This was at a time when Florida was viewed as a rogue school because of NCAA issues that occurred under football coaches Charley Pell and Galen Hall.
What Vernon did was wrong, but does it merit erasing two years and 1,404 points? Here is what one former Florida player, who graduated in the decade prior to Vernon said in an email that I was made privy to only recently:
“Then Sloan’s records need to be removed as well, and Pell’s, and (Aaron) Hernandez’s, etc. That record needs to be reinstated. Ronnie Williams is NOT the leading scorer. Journalistically incorrect. I would have flunked out of UF … with that kind of fact error. A top five public university should not have that kind of caliber of mistake in its athletic department’s records.”
He is absolutely correct. The Gators went on a harsh NCAA probation for violations that occurred on Charley Pell’s watch. Charley’s coaching record remains intact and none of the players cited in the NCAA violations have had their records purged. UF did have its SEC championship vacated by the SEC, but that was wrong, too. If Alabama can have its SEC title from 1999 even though there were egregious NCAA violations, then why does the SEC continue to have UF’s 1984 SEC title vacant? Jarvis Williams allegedly was the recipient of an extra benefit from Galen Hall. The NCAA put UF on probation that kept the Gators from winning the SEC in Steve Spurrier’s first year (1990) on the job even though there wasn’t a single player on the team that was even on the team when the violation allegedly occurred. Galen’s records remain intact.
Purging the last two years of Vernon’s on-the-court records has accomplished nothing except to make the University of Florida look petty and vindictive. It doesn’t make the Gators look righteous but people who know what happened tend to think of it as a holier than thou type of decision.
If UF is willing to keep the names and records of Charley Pell, Galen Hall and Aaron Hernandez in its record books and media guides, then Vernon Maxwell’s records should be there also. It is time to end this ridiculous vendetta against Vernon. You can argue until the cows come home that Vernon has always been a rather shady character and no one could dispute it. However, that doesn’t change the fact he scored TWO THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED FIFTY points in his career, nor does it change the fact that one of the reasons there is a disconnect between former Gator players and UF is because of this kind of stupidity.
LAST TEAM STANDING AT THE CWS: OLE MISS
The Rebels were one of the last four teams selected to play in the NCAA Tournament, but they are the last team standing after taking out Oklahoma in two games win their first national championship in baseball. Ole Miss wasn’t the best team for an entire season, but they didn’t have to be. They only had to be the best team in the country for four weekends, which they were. Not bad for a team that at one point in the SEC season was 7-14. The Rebels nearly didn’t make it to Hoover for the SEC tournament and on selection Monday when the NCAA chose 64 baseball teams, they almost didn’t make it.
The difference for Ole Miss was a pitching staff that allowed only 25 runs in 11 tournament games. In the Hattiesburg super regional they shut out host Southern Miss back-to-back and in Omaha the Rebels gave up 14 runs in six games. In the championship series against Oklahoma, Ole Miss pitchers gave up eight hits in two days. Tournament MVP Dylan DeLucia, a Port Orange native who went the juco route before arriving in Oxford, pitched 16-2/3 innings in Omaha, allowing just eight hits and one run while striking out 17 without walking a single hitter.
Watching the joyous celebration on the field after Ole Miss took out Oklahoma, 4-2, Sunday and in the stands where Rebel fans accounted for nearly 20,000 of the nearly 26,000 in attendance, I couldn’t help but think about our poor country cousins up in Knoxville, who set NCAA records for obnoxious behavior and arrogance. The Vols were the unquestioned No. 1 seed in the tournament and they had their share of media folks proclaiming them a team for the ages. The team for the ages never made it to Omaha.
Were the Vols the best team in the country? Maybe, but I’m reminded of something Billy Donovan had to say after the Gators won the 2006 NCAA basketball championship: “You don’t have to be the best team in the country. You only have to be the best team in the country for three weekends.”
Ole Miss was the best team in the country for the only four weekends that matter.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Take a moment and scan the following list: Mary Beth Cooper, president, Springfield College; Beth DeBauche, commissioner, Ohio Valley Conference; John DeGioia, president, Georgetown University; Grant Hill, co-owner, Atlanta Hawks; Linda Livingston, president, Baylor University; Jere Morehead, president, University of Georgia; Steven Shirley, president, Minot State University; Nadja West, 44th Surgeon General of the United States Army.
Do you know why these eight people are bunched together on a list?
If your guess was “beats the ever-loving hell out of me,” then you probably join 99.9 percent of all the people in the free world. Perhaps there are four among China’s 1.7 billion inhabitants who aren’t miffed, but I wouldn’t count on it. If your answer was the new Board of Governors of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, then you win the kewpie doll and should sign up the next time the Jeopardy people are in your area in search of the next Cliff Clavin.
Study those names once again and somebody tell me how many of these people actually have a clue about college football played at the Division I level. Livingston and Morehead? Maybe. Just because they are presidents of Power Five institutions doesn’t mean they actually know more about the intricacies and problems facing college football in the foreseeable future than a Sherpa awaiting his next gig guiding climbers up Mount Everest.
In the immortal and misquoted words of Jack Swigert, “Houston, we have a problem.”
I’m sure all of these folks are all fine, wonderful human beings. I’m sure Grant Hill knows more about football than any of the others since his dad – Calvin Hill – made the Pro Bowl four times while playing for the Dallas Cowboys but Grant played basketball at Duke in the post-Steve Spurrier football era and now he’s the co-owner of an NBA team. I doubt seriously he’s got a clue what John Ruiz is up to down at Miami or what to make of the pending spending war between the Longhorns and the Aggies. Only God has more money than they do.
Do any of you, for even a nanosecond believe Mary Beth Cooper, the president of Springfield College – 3,600-plus students and a member of Division III – has a clue about NIL or the transfer portal? Beth DeBauche is the commish of the Ohio Valley Conference. They play Division IAA football. Georgetown plays non-scholarship football at 3,750-fan capacity Cooper Field, which doubles as a lacrosse and women’s field hockey venue. I’m sure John DeGioia, who has been at Georgetown since he began school there in 1982 and has never held a job in the real world, can tell us all about football on a Saturday night in Baton Rouge. Did you know that Minot State University in North Dakota has a women’s hockey team? At least the surgeon general might be able to carry on a decent discussion about a torn ACL or Tommy John surgery.
If I am the athletic director at a Division I football school one word comes to mind when I see this Board of Governors: FLEE!
It is indeed time for the Division I football schools to hightail it from the NCAA. FLEE! Secede! Take college football completely out of the NCAA equation. Form your own organization. Put people in charge who actually have a clue about the monumental problems that will have to be tackled in the future. These issues aren’t going to go away and the NCAA, with its one size fits all approach, cannot and will not provide the answers. We cannot allow any organization overseen by Mark Emmert to have a say in the future direction of college football.
When I contemplate what the NCAA has just done, I’m reminded of these powerful words from the late Howell Heflin, senator from the great state of Alabama: “Ah am perplexed!” Say it five times out loud, each time with a more pronounced southern accent. It won’t change anything if you do, but you might begin to feel as miffed as I am.
A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning:
DYSFUNCTION JUNCTION
Quarterback Jaden Rashada has committed to the University of Miami. The California lawyer who represented Rashada in NIL negotiations says Rashada left millions of dollars on the table to go with Miami. There are reports that the Miami deal is worth $9.5 million and that the Gator Collective offered $11 million. Caspino, per reports, says the Gator Collective is dysfunctional and that he won’t deal with them again.
In a Twitter statement, the Gator Collective responded: “The recent comments by California lawyer Michael Caspino have been brought to our attention. Gator Collective has never had any communications with Mr. Caspino about Jaden Rashada or any other recruits. Rather, Gator Collective has refused to engage in any dialogue with Mr. Caspino on numerous occasions as Gator Collective does not approve of his tactics and has no interest in engaging in activities which violate Florida law and NCAA Interim Policy and may put athletes’ eligibility at risk.”
I have no way of knowing exactly how much money was involved in the deal that clinched it for Rashada, but I know this: It’s way, way, way too much for a kid who has yet to take a college snap. He could be the greatest thing since the invention of crushed ice. He could also be the next Tate Martel. Know this: before it gets better, things will get worse. Much, much worse.
Essentially, the NCAA is powerless. It should have had a contingency plan in place for the eventuality of losing Alston v. NCAA in the Supreme Court, a plan with rules and regulations for NIL agreed to by every member of the NCAA. The few guidelines we have are weak and practically unenforceable, so we have chaos on our hands that has turned recruiting into sold to the highest bidder.
The only way things are going to get better is for some of these kids signing mega-NIL deals to bust so badly that the bottom falls out of the market. I don’t think it’s a bad thing for kids to get some money, particularly in a sport that takes such a physical toll on its participants, but things are out of hand right now. I just hope there is a market correction before college football as we know it becomes nothing more than a professional league complete with unions and salary caps.
TIME TO END THE PETTINESS REGARDING VERNON MAXWELL
Vernon Maxwell scored 2,450 points during his University of Florida basketball career from (1984-88) yet if you look in the Florida media guide, the leading scorer in Florida basketball history is the late Ronnie Williams, who scored 2,086. Why the discrepancy? Because the higher-ups at UF, in their infinite wisdom, have erased the last two seasons of Vernon’s records because he took money from agents and accepted a free ticket to a basketball camp.
Norm Sloan was fired for what Vernon did and probably a few other violations that occurred during his second tenure (first was 1960-66) at the University of Florida. This was at a time when Florida was viewed as a rogue school because of NCAA issues that occurred under football coaches Charley Pell and Galen Hall.
What Vernon did was wrong, but does it merit erasing two years and 1,404 points? Here is what one former Florida player, who graduated in the decade prior to Vernon said in an email that I was made privy to only recently:
“Then Sloan’s records need to be removed as well, and Pell’s, and (Aaron) Hernandez’s, etc. That record needs to be reinstated. Ronnie Williams is NOT the leading scorer. Journalistically incorrect. I would have flunked out of UF … with that kind of fact error. A top five public university should not have that kind of caliber of mistake in its athletic department’s records.”
He is absolutely correct. The Gators went on a harsh NCAA probation for violations that occurred on Charley Pell’s watch. Charley’s coaching record remains intact and none of the players cited in the NCAA violations have had their records purged. UF did have its SEC championship vacated by the SEC, but that was wrong, too. If Alabama can have its SEC title from 1999 even though there were egregious NCAA violations, then why does the SEC continue to have UF’s 1984 SEC title vacant? Jarvis Williams allegedly was the recipient of an extra benefit from Galen Hall. The NCAA put UF on probation that kept the Gators from winning the SEC in Steve Spurrier’s first year (1990) on the job even though there wasn’t a single player on the team that was even on the team when the violation allegedly occurred. Galen’s records remain intact.
Purging the last two years of Vernon’s on-the-court records has accomplished nothing except to make the University of Florida look petty and vindictive. It doesn’t make the Gators look righteous but people who know what happened tend to think of it as a holier than thou type of decision.
If UF is willing to keep the names and records of Charley Pell, Galen Hall and Aaron Hernandez in its record books and media guides, then Vernon Maxwell’s records should be there also. It is time to end this ridiculous vendetta against Vernon. You can argue until the cows come home that Vernon has always been a rather shady character and no one could dispute it. However, that doesn’t change the fact he scored TWO THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED FIFTY points in his career, nor does it change the fact that one of the reasons there is a disconnect between former Gator players and UF is because of this kind of stupidity.
LAST TEAM STANDING AT THE CWS: OLE MISS
The Rebels were one of the last four teams selected to play in the NCAA Tournament, but they are the last team standing after taking out Oklahoma in two games win their first national championship in baseball. Ole Miss wasn’t the best team for an entire season, but they didn’t have to be. They only had to be the best team in the country for four weekends, which they were. Not bad for a team that at one point in the SEC season was 7-14. The Rebels nearly didn’t make it to Hoover for the SEC tournament and on selection Monday when the NCAA chose 64 baseball teams, they almost didn’t make it.
The difference for Ole Miss was a pitching staff that allowed only 25 runs in 11 tournament games. In the Hattiesburg super regional they shut out host Southern Miss back-to-back and in Omaha the Rebels gave up 14 runs in six games. In the championship series against Oklahoma, Ole Miss pitchers gave up eight hits in two days. Tournament MVP Dylan DeLucia, a Port Orange native who went the juco route before arriving in Oxford, pitched 16-2/3 innings in Omaha, allowing just eight hits and one run while striking out 17 without walking a single hitter.
Watching the joyous celebration on the field after Ole Miss took out Oklahoma, 4-2, Sunday and in the stands where Rebel fans accounted for nearly 20,000 of the nearly 26,000 in attendance, I couldn’t help but think about our poor country cousins up in Knoxville, who set NCAA records for obnoxious behavior and arrogance. The Vols were the unquestioned No. 1 seed in the tournament and they had their share of media folks proclaiming them a team for the ages. The team for the ages never made it to Omaha.
Were the Vols the best team in the country? Maybe, but I’m reminded of something Billy Donovan had to say after the Gators won the 2006 NCAA basketball championship: “You don’t have to be the best team in the country. You only have to be the best team in the country for three weekends.”
Ole Miss was the best team in the country for the only four weekends that matter.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Take a moment and scan the following list: Mary Beth Cooper, president, Springfield College; Beth DeBauche, commissioner, Ohio Valley Conference; John DeGioia, president, Georgetown University; Grant Hill, co-owner, Atlanta Hawks; Linda Livingston, president, Baylor University; Jere Morehead, president, University of Georgia; Steven Shirley, president, Minot State University; Nadja West, 44th Surgeon General of the United States Army.
Do you know why these eight people are bunched together on a list?
If your guess was “beats the ever-loving hell out of me,” then you probably join 99.9 percent of all the people in the free world. Perhaps there are four among China’s 1.7 billion inhabitants who aren’t miffed, but I wouldn’t count on it. If your answer was the new Board of Governors of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, then you win the kewpie doll and should sign up the next time the Jeopardy people are in your area in search of the next Cliff Clavin.
Study those names once again and somebody tell me how many of these people actually have a clue about college football played at the Division I level. Livingston and Morehead? Maybe. Just because they are presidents of Power Five institutions doesn’t mean they actually know more about the intricacies and problems facing college football in the foreseeable future than a Sherpa awaiting his next gig guiding climbers up Mount Everest.
In the immortal and misquoted words of Jack Swigert, “Houston, we have a problem.”
I’m sure all of these folks are all fine, wonderful human beings. I’m sure Grant Hill knows more about football than any of the others since his dad – Calvin Hill – made the Pro Bowl four times while playing for the Dallas Cowboys but Grant played basketball at Duke in the post-Steve Spurrier football era and now he’s the co-owner of an NBA team. I doubt seriously he’s got a clue what John Ruiz is up to down at Miami or what to make of the pending spending war between the Longhorns and the Aggies. Only God has more money than they do.
Do any of you, for even a nanosecond believe Mary Beth Cooper, the president of Springfield College – 3,600-plus students and a member of Division III – has a clue about NIL or the transfer portal? Beth DeBauche is the commish of the Ohio Valley Conference. They play Division IAA football. Georgetown plays non-scholarship football at 3,750-fan capacity Cooper Field, which doubles as a lacrosse and women’s field hockey venue. I’m sure John DeGioia, who has been at Georgetown since he began school there in 1982 and has never held a job in the real world, can tell us all about football on a Saturday night in Baton Rouge. Did you know that Minot State University in North Dakota has a women’s hockey team? At least the surgeon general might be able to carry on a decent discussion about a torn ACL or Tommy John surgery.
If I am the athletic director at a Division I football school one word comes to mind when I see this Board of Governors: FLEE!
It is indeed time for the Division I football schools to hightail it from the NCAA. FLEE! Secede! Take college football completely out of the NCAA equation. Form your own organization. Put people in charge who actually have a clue about the monumental problems that will have to be tackled in the future. These issues aren’t going to go away and the NCAA, with its one size fits all approach, cannot and will not provide the answers. We cannot allow any organization overseen by Mark Emmert to have a say in the future direction of college football.
When I contemplate what the NCAA has just done, I’m reminded of these powerful words from the late Howell Heflin, senator from the great state of Alabama: “Ah am perplexed!” Say it five times out loud, each time with a more pronounced southern accent. It won’t change anything if you do, but you might begin to feel as miffed as I am.
