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College craziness — again
And we’re off. Off to the races. Off the charts. Off the rails. Off their rockers?
Look, the craziness that is college sports is impossible to accurately predict and almost as difficult to keep up with these days.
NIL. Portal. Eligibility. Expansions. Those are hot-button issues that bring emotion and intrigue.
But those are like major volcano eruptions in the total climate impact of college sports. Yes, there is damage and uncertainty, but they feel containable.
Well, the asteroid — the global killer — has been openly discussed for the NCAA.
Ross Bjork, THE AD of THE Ohio State, walked out of the Big Ten spring meetings this week and directly fired the first shot of what many of us believe is the future. Bjork, the boss of the biggest and likely richest program in the biggest and richest conference in college sports, did not mince words about the slow roll and rubber stamps of Congress and the ineffectiveness of the College Sports Commission (CSC).
According to CBS, Bjork said plainly: “We cannot govern nationally right now. There are too many extenuating forces. So, can we have a subset at our conference, but we’re still going to play each other?”
Game changed.
A large part of the talks amid Big Ten leaders centered on this idea, according to reports, and it included controlling revenue-sharing, enforcing violations — and defining violations, for that matter — as well as the approval process of the CSC for NIL and transfers
Yikes.
Yes, these are the first hard words on the college sports-changing topic of the Superpower 2 looking toward self-governance. Because know this: If the Big Ten is exploring this, the SEC is either a) exploring it as well, or b) immediately exploring it as we speak.
And if the Superpower 2 are governing themselves, isn’t that every bit the super power that the financial divide provides?
If the 18 players who were denied NIL approval at Nebraska because of third-party NIL involvement was decided by Tony Petitti and the folks in Indy, how do you think that plays out?
If Brendan Sorsby was at an SEC school and the gambling stuff came out, who’s to say he wouldn’t have a four-game suspension as opposed to a season-long or lifetime ban?
And the NCAA can’t put up much of a fight against this even though it guts its relevance in terms of college football.
The NCAA will grimace and nod at football decisions forever because it needs the Superpower 2 to be the Goliaths in a March Madness forever controlled and loved for its Davids.
And yes there is already backlash. The AD from Iowa State says let the SEC and the Big Ten break away.
Be careful what you wish for, my man.
Game on, friends.
NBA delivers
So we lamented the matchups and the meh factors of an NBA final four with some small-market teams and some less-than-household names as leading actors.
And then, two games into the conference finals, we have been treated to some high-quality sports theater.
Tuesday, the Knicks lethargically slugged through the first three-and-a-half quarters and were down 22 before a listless Madison Square Garden crowd. In fact, it was all but a wrap since in the previous 30 postseasons, teams down 22 or more points in the fourth quarter were a combined 1-594.
That stat now reads 2-594 after the Knicks’ furious and fabulous comeback led to a 115-104 OT win.
(And yes, that covered for the Plays. Good times.)
It was a transitional moment for a Knicks team that looks to have a bit of a “destiny” feel through these playoffs so far.
It also was a transitional moment for Knicks star Jalen Brunson, who was brilliant with 15 of his game-high 38 points in the critical fourth-quarter comeback.
Brunson looked the part of crunch-time difference-maker, masking his defensive shortcomings and pouncing on Cleveland’s James Harden’s defensive inabilities.
MLB items of interest
So MLB is speeding toward Memorial Day, which seems to be in a lot of ways the starting point of the real marathon of baseball’s regular season.
With that, there were a few things that caught my eye Tuesday.
> Braves played. Braves won. Not all the news was smiley-happy, though, as Drake Baldwin, the team’s stud catcher and the team’s all-around best player during this torrid start, has been moved to the IL with an oblique injury. Get Ronald Acuña back on a Tuesday and put Baldwin on the shelf? Yeah, so it goes. In a lot of ways, Baldwin has a strong case to be the NL MVP through the first quarter of the season.
> Former Baylor School star and current A’s slugger Nick Kurtz continues to amaze. A year after running away with the AL Rookie of the Year award, Kurtz has reached base in 42 consecutive games. He went 3-for-5 with five RBIs Tuesday night and is now sizzling. After a rough 1-for-17 start to the season, Kurtz is hitting .328 in May and is batting .276 with 34 RBIs this season.
> Aces all around. We may write more on this later this week, but, dang, the young power arms across MLB these days. Sure, we know the Shoheis and the Skenes and the other already-arrived supersedes. But Tuesday. a couple of youngsters announced their presence with authority. (Copyright, Nuke LaLoosh, because, well, he seen Nuke’s heat.) There’s Milwaukee flame-thrower Jacob Misiorowski, who leads the league in Ks with 88 in just 57 innings. Want more? Yeah, the Mis has a five-start streak of eight or more Ks and no-extra-base hits allowed. That has not been done since 1893, friends. Also, Cincinnati righty Chase Burns says hello, because that dude is straight dealing right now.
Baseball questions always welcome for the mailbag, friends.
This and that
> This makes a ton of sense. SEC Network host Peter Burns says Lane Kiffin should move on from discussing Ole Miss. Yes, it’s something we said two weeks ago. His reasoning is more clever. Lane, you broke up with Ole Miss, so quit telling us the many reasons your ex was bad.
> Looks like Alabama — the state, not the Tide football program — will be led by former AU coach and U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who won the Republican primary in the Yellowhammer State on Tuesday. Well, unless Saban decides to run as an independent, that is.
> Man, Grogu got more face-time in Game 1 of the ECF Tuesday than Jalen Brunson and Donovan Mitchell combined. I kinda hope my plummeting expectations for the latest Star Wars feature film will make it surprisingly tolerable as opposed to the expected suck-tastic. Thoughts, Vader?
> Man, so the outrage to the outrageous (and stupid) calls for athletes to just “Shut up and dribble” are now being spun in the opposite direction. The NAACP is calling on college athletes at several prominent Southern universities to take stances against recent redistricting decisions from the government.
> Personal shout-out here: The (not-so) Lil’ 5-at-10’s best bud won two Tennessee state championships at the track and field meet at the Spring Fling on Tuesday. Major league visor tip to that young fella.
Today’s questions
Which Way Wednesday starts this way:
Which professional sports arena attracts the most big-time and easily recognizable stars from all walks? Because MSG brought some bona fide A-listers to the gym for Game 1 Tuesday.
Which way do you think this plays out: The SEC and Big Ten break away in two years or not?
Which young MLB pitcher not named Paul Skenes would you want on your team?
Which is your favorite Braves player from this team?
As for today, May 20, let’s explore.
So Levi Strauss patented blue jeans — wonder what he called the company? — on this day in 1873.
What’s the Rushmore of “Jean” in popular culture?
Go.
