Jon Joseph

CBS Sports take on B1G transfers who will have an impact. Big Ten football transfer portal additions: One newcomer for each team ready to make impact in 2024 season - CBSSports.com WWW.CBSSPORTS.COM This crop of incoming transfers hope to make an impact in 2024 as the Big Ten invites four new members

College football 2024 - Questions about the expanded playoff - ESPN WWW.ESPN.COM We're cautiously excited to see how the expanded postseason will change college football. And we're ready to make some guesses about who might be in it.

How two commissioners thawed the SEC-Big Ten cold war THEATHLETIC.COM The SEC and Big Ten commissioners have met privately one-on-one and with their peers at meetings in recent months, texting regularly. 'We made it to the airport, caught the last plane out' to B1G Country. Thank Goodness.

This article by Nicole Auerbach was prescient. Will the Power 5 soon become the Power 2? Unpacking new TV revenue projections for a 12-team CFP world THEATHLETIC.COM Updated projections indicate the SEC and the Big Ten stand to make nearly twice as much as the Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC by 2026.

Micro, I hear that an Usher is doing the halftime show. Did the NFL run out of $? I couldn't distinguish between the Usher and the Taylor. However, I don't think that 77-year-olds are the targeted demographic.

Who knew? That's my girlfriend in the No. 87 jersey! Don't leave me hangin' Honey! I want a ticket to the Super Bowl in Vegas! Taylor after a show in Japan is flying to Vegas arriving at 5 PM on Saturday, the day of her departure from Japan. Devoted to You.

And likely agreeing on the Power 2's preferred football playoff format come 2026. If Clemson, FSU, UNC, and others can escape the ACC, Notre Dame is forced into a conference for football, and the big ACC brands join the Power 2, why do you need a playoff any different than the NFL's American and National Conference playoff? The B1G/SEC Playoff could keep all the money with the Power 2. It would not need the bowls. And it would not need a Bill Hancock administrative layer. You might face antitrust issues but just hand some money to the G5 and p2 and let them hold their playoff. As CFB continues to consolidate, teams in addition to Wazzu and Oregon State will be left behind. How long will the 'money schools' agree to an equal split with teams that operate in the red?

I say Go For It and plant the Oregon flag in Atlanta, Birmingham, and Miami.

Now rumored that former UW and Bama OC Ryan Grubb will be leaving Bama to be the Seahawks OC. This move would not surprise me. With the chaos in CFB today it was not surprising to see the BC head coach leave for the pros. Roster management in CFB today is coach crazy-making. And not everyone is like Dan, Kirby Smart, and other great recruiters who go at it 24/7 every day of the year.

Every NFL team has a Salary Cap expert. A person(s) who knows exactly how much room the team has in cap space. Don't need a collective as the team is the employer. I don't think multi-billionaire NFL owners need help coming up with the money. This is true even for publically owned Green Bay.

My bad. Punic and a Freudian slip on my part. 😒

Yet, in one season Sanders took a moribund CU to one of the most watched CFB teams. At Nebraska will be a B1G game to see if the Buffs team can beat the Cornhuskers back-to-back. CU plays Baylor, K State, Cincinnati, OK State, and Utah in Boulder. At Arizona will be an interesting game. Ditto at UCF. His kid is back at QB as is preseason AA Travis Hunter. The OL can't be worse. I think that in the B12 the Buffs could be a player for a conference title.

Friend, Duckley. Michigan has a rebuild on O, not so much on D. Michigan in 2024 will, perhaps barely, be a Blue Chip Roster Team. UW will not. Rebuilding Washington? See Carthage post-Rome Or, perhaps Chapter 1 of Genesis with 'days' turned into 'years?' 10/5/24 - the proof will be in the pudding when the Wolverines trip to Seattle. Early LIne? Give me 5! Michigan -5. O/U 55.5.

One thing for certain is that I refuse to recognize the JCC, John Canzano Conference (a/k/a The Pac-2) as being a Power Conference. To my knowledge, the only 2 'football guys' who recognize the JCC, P-4 or not, are the Oregon and UW athletic directors.

ESPN+ - Paywall - No. 2 - OREGON - The Ducks made the Biggest move going from a No. 9 ranking to being ranked 2nd and just above Ohio State. The battle of the O's is on! 1. Ole Miss - Strong additions on the D-side of the ball where the Rebels (52 points surrendered to UGA in 2023) needed the help. 3. Ohio State - Few additions but all are likely to have an immediate impact but for 5* QB Justin Sayin. 4. A+M - Unlike Jimbo, will new HC Mike Elko be able to coach up a talented Aggies roster. The opening game vs. Notre Dame will be interesting. 5. Florida State - A good haul but lots of losses from the 2023 undefeated team. OOC vs. Florida and Notre Dame in South Bend could be tough. Clemson trips to FSU. 6. Louisville - Tyler Shough is a nice pickup at QB but will he stay upright? 6 home games in 2024 instead of last season's 8 and Notre Dame will be looking for revenge in South Bend. 7. Colorado - Will moving to an easier conference help? Bringing in a lot of OL guys but will they work together and block? 8. NC State - Signing QB Grayson McCall from Coastal Carolins makes the Wolfpack a contender for the ACC title. Versus Stanford and Cal in Berkeley. Very strange. 9. Texas - Silas Bolden from the Beavers is one of the great WR transfer gets. 2023 PO No. 3 at PO No. 1 Michigan opening week, Heck Yes! 10. Missouri - SEC SOS is ranked the easiest; 16 out of 16. 8 home games. 4 OOC cupcakes, especially with the BC coach leaving for the pros. At Bama and A+M but no Ole Miss, no UGA, and OK in CoMo. HMMMMM? Go Ducks! Vandalize the Vandals!

One question CFB fans are waiting to be answered come the final PO Committee ranking on December 8, 2024, is whether strength of schedule (SOS) will matter. Or, will PO rankings continue to be a simple matter of wins and losses regardless of the quality of the teams your team played? In his latest Athletic Mailbag, Stewart Mandel provided the following example using his preseason top-25 and noting that with conference's growing in size, schedules within the conferences will have a significant difference in difficulty. SP+ has ranked Florida's 2024 schedule the toughest in the land. Utah's schedule is not as yet ranked by SP+ but is outside of the top 15. Florida Scheule - No. 1 Georgia, No. 3 Texas, No. 5 Ole Miss, No. 14 FSU, No. 17 Tennessee, No. 20 LSU, No. 21 TX A+M, and No. 25 Miami. Eight games vs Stewart's top-25. Six games versus the top 20. (Oregon plays 2 such games, Michigan and Ohio State.) Utah Schedule - No. 10 Oklahoma State, No. 13 Arizona, and No. 24 Iowa State. Three games in Stewart's top 25, two games versus the top 20. Florida finishes 9-3. Utah plays for but does not win the B12 title and finishes 11-2. There's one PO opening left, Which team do you put into the PO assuming that the Committee's final ranking matches Stewart's preseason rankings (which, of course, it will not.) W/Ls only? Slam dunk for the Utes. But if the difficulty of your schedule matters, the Gators would have a heck of an argument. In 2024 and 2025, before the PO is likely restructured comes 2026, you can bet the B1G Commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey will be paying close attention to how the Committee answers the SOS question. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... OBD - Behind the 8 Ball in 2024. It has already been noted that Oregon is the only Power 4 team in 2024 that will play eight games in a row vs. Power 4 opponents (all B1G teams) without an idle week. 9/21 - In addition to the time off, Oregon should benefit from its first Off Week falling on Week 4, the week before Oregon opens B1G play in LA vs. UCLA. Why? Because in Week 4 the Bruins will be battling the LSU Bayou Bengals in Baton Rogue. Tough trip before drawing the Ducks. In 29 days in 2024, Oregon will travel a total of 13,444 miles, including the return trips, to W. Lafayette, Indiana to play Purdue, Ann Arbor, Michigan to play Michigan, and Madison, Wisconsin, to play the Wisconsin Badgers. 10/19 - At Purdue - This game that has 'Trap' written all over it. Why? Because it's the game after Oregon plays Ohio State in Autzen. The week before this game find the Boilermakers playing the nearby Illinois Illini. OK, this is just the 'rub of the green.' 11/2 - At Michigan - Game No. 6 in the 8-game gauntlet finds Oregon coming off a home game vs. Illinois with Michigan playing Michigan State in Ann Arbor. Nothing amiss here, Michigan will be up to play Oregon after any game except perhaps, vs. Ohio State. 11/9 - Maryland - Game No. 7 in the 8-game gauntlet. Puddles gets to fly home which is nice. The rub? Maryland has the week off before playing an Oregon team that may find it difficult to focus on Maryland after playing Michigan in the B1G House in one of the biggest games of the season. 11/16 - At Wisconsin - Game No. 8 in the 8-game gauntlet finds Oregon turning around and heading back East for a game on what is likely to be a cold day in Madison vs. the Badgers. Fine, eh? This is what Oregon signed up for. However, like opponent Maryland, Wisconsin has the Week Off before playing the Ducks. Two opponents in a row napping the week before they play Oregon? One might think that Oregon is The New Kid on the Block trying to make it with the In Crowd. Right? Behind the 8-Ball 2? Oregon will play seven home games in 2024. Chief rivals for the B1G Prize, Michigan, and Ohio State, play eight home games. Thank you B1G Powers-That-Be for an Off Week the penultimate week of the regular season. Ditto for UW before the rivalry game. Bring It On!

No one should be writing off Kirby and his Dawgs in 2024. Not only does Georgia have many great players back, UGA finished #1 in recruiting in 2024, and filled the very few holes it did have from the portal. Tough road games but Georgia put up 52 points on Ole Miss in 2023 and surrendered 17 points. Tailgating in The Grove in Oxford is going to change this? Saint Nick has left the building. Texas lost last season to OK and UW and a lot of quality players have gone pro. I'll take Carson Beck over Ewers. UGA will be preseason AP Poll ranked #1 and for good reason.

Some needed clarification on the AGs vs NCAA lawsuits. These folks want wide-open 'free agency' in CFB. And they have a point. If there is no union to bargain with than any restriction on a player's ability to transfer can be viewed as a restraint on trade. BRUTAL! NCAA sued over NIL rules after Tennessee football investigation - ESPN WWW.ESPN.COM The attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia filed a lawsuit against the NCAA over NIL-related recruiting rules.

Mandel: NCAA takes on Tennessee, but it's likely a case of too little, too late THEATHLETIC.COM Much more so than the Florida State or Florida cases, this Tennessee case feels like a bigger-picture referendum on NIL collectives. What a Mess! And no one is around to clean IT up.

Oregon adds quality QBs, Arizona keeps dynamic duo: West Coast winners, losers in the portal THEATHLETIC.COM Washington suffers heavy losses after a coaching change. Cal keeps its most important weapon. USC bolsters back seven.

Please, keep bits of tid like the above coming!

Terrific take, Mike. Thank you. Not only Worker's Comp will be affected by athletes being determined to be 'employees,' but also FICA, FUTA, and State Retirement Funds, and will you be able to drop a player-employee from 1st to 2nd string without allowing him the benefit of an administrative hearing as has been negotiated between the workers union and the employer? IMO, it's inevitable that government action including that by the NLRB and State AGs, private litigation, and the liability that could attach to a university over such long-term injuries as CTE, will cause a split of at least big-time college football from their respective schools. All "indicia" of a football program will be assigned to a 3rd party, such as a private equity fund or the NFL, with the assignor indemnified and receiving an agreed-upon fixed payment. An arrangement with a private equity fund has already been looked into by FSU. Title 9? Tell the men's and women's swim teams that they are free to bargain for whatever deal the market will bear. Will this fly? The only 'remedy' that might work for a university employer will be to simply drop school-funded athletics. To my knowledge, no public school charter requires 'after school' sports. I can see the baby being tossed with the proverbial bath water. And a school like Alabama, for example, will have far fewer out-of-state full tuition dollar applicants. Lawyers private and representing and employed by the government are involved. what could possibly go wrong? Thanks again.

The NFL does not have an NIL salary cap. It does have a cap on what teams can spend overall on the players' salaries but no cap on what an individual can earn off of his NIL. I can see a salary cap coming when CFB morphs into NFL Lite as agreed to between the teams and the Players Union but no cap on NIL. Coaches' contracts have built-in liquidated damages, the cost of a buy-out. In the USA, contracts may provide for penalties and non-compete clauses but cannot be used to tie someone down to a job they do not want. In sports, players are locked into their team for a given time because, again, this is what the Union has collectively (the players being the collective) bargained for. That the NFL deal with the Union deal penalizes rookies and young players in favor of experienced players should come as no surprise. Your take is spot on. I read today, forwarded to me by friend, Notalot, that the AGs of Tennessee and Florida have filed anti-trust litigation against the NCAA. Tennessee because of the NCAA accusing the Vols of improper use of NIL and Florida to help FSU escape the ACC. This along with litigation percolating in state and federal courts will lead to a break of the 'biggest boys' in CFB and agreements with a players' union including restraints on free agency, a salary cap, and quite possibly a high school draft. All of this will drop CFB coaches' salaries closer to the realm of reason. The impetus for consolidation is not only coming from the outside. It's coming from within with FSU being the most dramatic example. FSU wants to be paid according to its market value, investment in football in particular, and on-field success and not share conference revenues equally with Wake Forest. In this regard, FSU is far from unique. It will be a new world for "college" football but whether 'brave' or not remains to be seen.

Here's a 2024 updated top 10 recruiting ranking before the 2nd signing day with average NIL payment included. At $82K per player, Oregon appears to be negotiating better than Texas at $225K a player and with better results. https://athlonsports.com/college-football/updated-college-football-recruiting-rankings-ahead-of-national-signing-day-on3-sports#gid=ci02d4bc46600025fb&pid=1-georgia

Jabbar Muhammad explains decision to transfer from Washington to Oregon SATURDAYOUTWEST.COM Jabbar Muhammad explains what led him to transfer from Washington to Oregon.