With Gene Smith earning unfavorable headlines due to his $18,000 bonus in reward for wrestler Logan Stieber's third NCAA championship, CBSSports released a week-old interview where Smith claims class action lawsuits against the NCAA and Northwestern's attempt to unionize could have been prevented.
Yesterday, the NCAA voted to "streamline" its governance structure, meaning power conferences will have greater autonomy in the future. It will allow conferences to offer "full-cost-of-attendance" scholarships, but that reform will not be enough to ward off Ed O'Bannon's class action lawsuit and others like it.
“Had new governance structure been in place four years ago, I don't think these lawsuits would have emerged because we would have addressed a lot of these concerns,” Smith told CBSSports.com last week.
Another issue Smith thinks greater autonomy within power conferences can help solve is Northwestern football's efforts to unionize.
“I'm anxious to pull some of our student-athletes in a room and say, OK, this new governance structure is in place, we're going to start talking about potential student legislation for student-athlete benefits, guys, tell me, what do you need that you're missing?” Smith said.
[...]
“There's one side of me that applauds Colter because you teach our young people to be leaders,” Smith said. “There's another side of me that felt bad for him because I still think the union people took advantage of him. He got in a spot where he had to misrepresent what was happening at Northwestern, that's why his teammates pulled away from it. I felt bad for him…I'm not so sure he ever lied, but he was on the edge of what the truth was.”
I can't hate on Gene Smith for negotiating a bonus-laden contract. (Hate the game, not the player, after all.) And even though he's right about everything being preventable, it's rich to hear sirens about a player "getting taken advantage of" being sounded by an administrator who has made ~$36,000 of a tennis and wrestling championship within the first quarter of the year.
The NCAA, by the way, took it on the chin yesterday. From CollegeFootballTalk.com:
Earlier today, the National Labor Relations Board struck a significant and potentially historic blow against the current student-athlete model. Not so unexpectedly, the guardian – and long-time beneficiary — of that system does not agree with the decision.
In a statement, the NCAA acknowledged it is “disappointed” the Chicago regional office of the NLRB ruled that Northwestern football players are employees and are therefore afforded the right to unionize. As it did in contending the initial petition, the NCAA “strongly disagreed” with the contention that student-athletes are employees.
The decision gives Northwestern football players the right to vote to unionize. While not official, Northwestern is expected to appeal today’s ruling.
It's hard for me to have sympathy for the sports gatekeepers, because what took so long in the first place? Had they not sat on their hands while ESPN and other networks dumped billions into the sport, maybe all this could have been prevented. But they didn't, and now players are supposed to take their word that things will be different? Isn't that literally Albert Einstein's definition of insanity?
JACK NICKLAUS: STILL BOSSY. Jack Nicklaus is still in the hunt to be crowned the greatest Ohioan in the 11W Heart of It All Classic (more on that in a minute). I'll never be accused of being a fan of golf, but even an internet curmudgeon like myself can appreciate the Golden Bear's swagger.
And boy, did that dude swagger. From Dan Wetzel's article on Tiger Wood's time to match Jack Nicklaus majors' mark running out:
In 1980, at age 40, [Nicklaus] won the U.S. Open and PGA Championship. His 17 majors at the time were six higher than the late Walter Hagen's 11 and were safely assumed to be untouchable. For a host of reasons, Nicklaus took a step back from being ultra competitive.
"I really sort of finished my career, basically, in 1980," Nicklaus said. "I was doing a lot more golf course design and watching my kids play football, basketball or baseball or golf or whatever it might be. And I was frankly enjoying my life."
Think about being an ultra-competitive athlete, reaching the zenith of your career, deciding there were no other worthwhile goals and semi-retiring to design golf courses and watch your kids play sports or "whatever it might be." That's baller.
(Before you say, "Mike Jordan did that too," remember Michael Jordan was secretly suspended by David Stern for gambling. No, you will not change my opinion on that either.)
ON TO THE SWEET 16. Round two of the Heart of It All Classic is in the books and it was rather chalky. Higher seeds went 15-1 in the round, with the only upset going to No. 11 Archie Griffin over No. 3 Paul Brown in the Sports region.
The Sweet 16 is loaded: Edison vs. Armstrong, Bob Hope vs. Dean Martin, Archie vs. Jack, Glenn vs. Sherman. You get the picture. Here's your bracket entering Sweet 16 play:
Full round of 32 voting data can be found here.
The polls for the Business & Science and The Arts regions will open up today, with Sports and Politics & Military on Friday. Make your state proud.
CAMREN WILLIAMS FIGHTING FOR HIS SPOT. Camren Williams finds himself between two former five-star recruits in his quest to secure the starting MLB job. Above him is senior Curtis Grant and below is freshman Reakwon McMillan.
From the Toledo Blade's Dave Briggs:
"This is what you come here to do. This is Ohio State. I didn't expect to come here and just have a bunch of no names behind me. I expected the Curtis Grants and Raekwon McMillans and Joshua Perrys and those guys. That's why I came here. It’s a great experience."
That's the right attitude you want from a player, and a lot of his sense could come from his dad, Brent Williams, who played at Toledo and did 11 years in the NFL.
"You have to get out of your own way," Brent said. "You start overthinking everything. I started my freshman year midway through the season at nose tackle, then they moved me back out to defensive end. I was a backup and you’re wondering, ‘What did I do wrong at the other spot?’ The thing I told [Camren] is that your experience is valuable to the program.
"Those challenges that you're facing, they're normal. Kids in this generation, this microwave generation, they expect to come out of high school and play right away in the Big Ten and never miss a beat. That’s not how it is."
If only every player (or everyone, actually) had a dad as sensible as Brent Williams, things would be a lot easier.
SOMEBODY GET FLORIDA A GRAPHIC DESIGNER. Whatever coach's son/Harry Potter fan that did Florida's last shambolic recruiting image is apparently an edgy teen now. (Not as edgy as this Norwegian teen, but still.)
This one took more skill, but it's still terrible:
#Florida15 #StayTurnt pic.twitter.com/ZrkHL71er8
— Baker Inc. (@Lastname_Baker) March 26, 2014
The thought of Will Muschamp saying "If I could give it 8 stars, I would!" amuses me because Will Muschamp has always struck me as a guy who would try to give an eight-star ranking on a five-star scale.
#StayTurnt Productions should not be retained. This looks like the quality found on a softcore VHS porno found in the back room of a Family Video. (Ironically, everything about that last sentence would make zero sense to the the ~17 year-old being pitched.)
BEER WE GO DAYTON, BEER WE GO. Everybody I've known to attend the University of Dayton has been insufferable. That and the fact their basketball team ousted the Buckeyes aside, I have always enjoyed my time during any visit to the Gem City.
And because I always favor the underdog when a neutral observer, I was pulling for Dayton to continue their run even before I read about former Dayton recruit Caleb Gordley and his father.
From Matt Norlander of CBS Sports:
According to the police investigation, the catastrophe unfolded like this: Caleb, drunk, was coming home from a party with a friend. He'd done something 16-year-olds do, sneaking out of the house about two hours previously, and was trying to get back home without alerting his father. Caleb and his friend made their way back home via a back road, and likely because he was intoxicated and the houses looked very similar, he accidentally entered the wrong house. Caleb entered the home through a window.
Donald Wilder had an alarm system triggered in his home. Wilder was in bed with his girlfriend upstairs. He heard the alarm and grabbed his gun. He used that gun in what he said was self-defense. Upon seeing Caleb roaming the first floor below, Wilder fired a warning shot, according to the police report. This did not faze Caleb, and Gordley believes his son was trying to make his way up the stairs to what he thought was his room. In total, four shots left Wilder's gun. Only one hit Caleb, the bullet traveling through his back and into his lung before killing him, according to the autopsy report.
[...]
When Dayton beat Syracuse, one of Gordley's best friends -- a major Syracuse fan -- texted [Shawn] Gordley congratulations and told him something he'd forgotten about. Two Septembers ago, Caleb turned 16 years old. This win, it was a Sweet 16. For Caleb.
The story obviously goes a lot deeper than that, but if you have a son or a dad and you don't want your heart to be shattered, do not click this link.
THOSE WMDs. Sochi has already been abandoned... On emerging MLS supportership... The Fake Lantern, FTW... Dirk's shooting chart is insane... Welcome to OSU, bish, indeed... Watch this incredible rescue from a burning Houston apartment complex... Carl Pelini doesn't recreationally use cocaine, says Carl Pelini... Doug Gottlieb, owned... Deal reached, Tesla to stay in Ohio... BEASTS: Norwegian Forest Cats... LOL doesn't mean what you think it means, Grandma... Wrongfully convicted 74-year-old woman freed from prison after 32 years... Good luck to Amedeo at his new job apparently at Olive Garden.
