Jon Joseph

Sark, is that you?

I heard that Machiavelli was a Prince of a guy.

Mora at UConn is exactly where he belongs.

LOL at this today when players can have agents. I wonder if any other team at the time was using a 'runner' to help with recruiting? But I don't wonder a whole lot.

I can recall when there were 4 bowl games and you had to be a conference champion to play in one of these games. No healthy player sat out one of these games. As I recall the Gator Bowl came in as the 5th game.

Why isn't Cade McNamara, a kid from Reno, not playing in the Pac-12? Harbaugh had to be smiling watching the way Bama, dormant in the run game most of the year, ran the ball vs UGA. If Daniels doesn't start, he is in COVID protocol as of now, I think Michigan has an excellent chance at winning this game. Dream champ game? How about Michigan vs Cincinnati which would send Finebaum to the hospital.

And To'o To'o is Bama's leading tackler and Wilson, with Metchie out, is the Tide's leading receiver. It is going to be very interesting to see if Cincy can keep up with Bama and the Tide's Heisman winning QB, Bryce Young. A kid (sigh) from SoCal. Another kid from SoCal, Daniels, could start at QB for UGA. A kid from Reno, McNamara, will start at QB for Michigan.

Great comment. He has started vs UGA thrice; no wins. But he has seen the kind of athletes UGA puts on the field and has played in hostile arenas in SEC territory. Oregon playing UGA in the ATL is equivalent to Georgia playing Oregon in Portland. Oregon, not Maine.

Spot on regarding portal numbers. Far more guys in the portal than there are available scholarships.

Thanks for this great comment. Great to see you on board the Forum.

Great take! At least the departing guys, to my knowledge, are not being beheaded or knifed in the back on the way out?

Ah, Texas. All hat and no cattle.

And I also dreamed of going 4-4 in the SEC? BTW - Bama just signed the No. 1 RB in the portal. Kid from Georgia Tech.

HATS OFF TO HERBERT. And Tom Brady making the Pro Bowl at his age? Amazing.

Nix ran Dillingham's O at Auburn. Bo knows Dillingham's O.

If he is the best QB in the QB room he definitely should start. If he wants to play 2 years he has 2 years of eligibility left. Nix played his best ball at Auburn this season and also played well his frosh season under Coach Dillingham, Oregon's new OC. How many QBs in the QB room have a win over Alabama? 1. Bo Nix. Brown started against and defeated 1 top 25 team. Nix has numerous wins over top 25 teams, including a win over the Ducks. And comparing Nix stats-wise to Brown? Brown faced a much lower level of competition in the ACC than Nix saw in the SEC. I believe QB recruiting from the portal will be a norm and not an exception. The Pac-12 has QBs coming in off the portal from Indiana, Purdue, UCF and Auburn. Spencer Rattler will definitely start for South Carolina next season. Slovis will be the starting QB at Pitt. The portal has put an entirely different spin on QB recruiting. So much so that to bring in a guy like Nix and not start him could ding future QB recruiting from the portal. The guys in the QB room in 2021 could not beat out Brown. Perhaps this is due to the HC being totally risk adverse but I don't know why any HC and OC would not start the best player. Hot shot QBs come out of HS all the time and do nothing in CFB. Perhaps the guys in the room in 2021 were overrated? But only 1 thing matters. The best guy has to start at every position on the field.

I just watched the tape of UTSA vs Sab Diego State and could not help but wonder the number, if any, of Pac-12 teams that could defeat UTSA or SDS? These teams looked organized, aggressive, guys firing off the LOS and going up tempo when it made sense. I don't know if there is coach other than Mario who took less advantage of his roster?

EXACTLY! Spot on post. I was going to reference these 'everyone gets a trophy bowl' audiences vs the audience for regular season NBA games. Thank you for doing same for me.

I think my friend that at least at the college level the bills proposed in Congress and the Alston decision by the Supreme Court have been met. In other words, don't mess with a player's ability to capitalize on his own NIL. And today? There really is no agency in control. So we have pay for play, unfettered free agency, roster tampering and millions of dollars falling down on coaches who have not been head coaches and coaches like Tucker and Cristobal who are barely over .500 for their career as head coaches. When it comes to roster tampering you don't have to talk with the player, you talk with his now allowed agent. There is a single commissioner for the NFL. There is a draft in inverse order of finish. There is no CFB control of agents; agents must be approved by the NFL. There are contractual restraints on free agency. In the NFL, Jacksonville gets the same media financial rewards as does the New York Giants. BTW, the top running back in the portal from Georgia Tech just signed with Bama. I'm shocked. In 2021, Bama's top tackler and top receiver came from the portal.

What entity will be around to do the sanctioning? P5 and perhaps G5 when it comes to CFB will soon be an entity unto itself. The issue then will be whether 'someone' can rein in these NIL deals without violating the Supreme Court's decision in Alston?

Thanks Mike, all great thoughts. A+M has not won a division title since joining the SEC but Jimbo hit it out of the park with this recruiting class that will likely only get better in February? Eligibility? Chance to be brought up to a parent NFL team and then be sent down? 6 years to play 4? Have to complete the equivalent of 2 years of JC credits is 4 or 5 years? I don't know how it will be formally and finally structured, but I do know that it will be about the Benjis.

IVY LEAGUE? They do it through huge endowments. The stands except for the rivalry game, Harvard vs Yale, Dartmouth vs Princeton, are empty. But like Stanford that backed off on cutting non-revenue sports, the Ivy League does not have to worry about CFB paying for the non-revenue sports.

COMPLETELY SPOT ON! IMO, the 3rd terrible decision by the 'leaders' of the Pac-12, following up being sold on the 'need' for CFB to have a champ decided on the field and throwing the Rose Bowl in for crickets, then launching a network without a media partner and all distribution agreements in place, came this baffling decision not to expand. This decision came after the SEC did the dirty work. The SEC poached TX and OK . The Pac-12 could have been a savior for many a remaining B12 team. Instead, the Pac-12 formed an alliance that will add a P5 OOC game every year but a home game only every other year. Would adding OK ST, TX TECH, TCU, HOUSTON, KS, K ST, Iowa State and Baylor immediately drop additional money to the Pac-12's bottom line? Probably not. But the conference would have increased its market size, added the significant Dallas and Houston markets and WIPED OUT a P5 competitor in the process. The folks who made this decision avoided strategic thinking. They looked at the immediate return on investment and said 'no' to expansion. I would expect this kind of 'thinking' from Scott. But I thought that media savvy guy GK, would have looked long term and not short term? These schools would not only have lifted the conference in CFB but also CBB. Perhaps added enough subscribers to save the network? Perhaps added enough market share so FOX would have come on board as the owner, operator, distributer of the network? Plus, for the most part even at Kansas, fans show up to watch the home games. What's even more baffling is that the conference made this decision after the new commissioner said AAU membership would not be a necessary requirement for membership. What does GK now have to sell to the media companies in the upcoming new media negotiations? How about SSDD?

Obviously, the SEC is afraid to take on an Alliance member ACC football team? Seriously, I am afraid this could be the first cancellation of many?

Thanks for the great comment. The problem? Without football how will the non-revenue sports be funded?