Some quick hits you may have missed yesterday:
- Mike Mitchell could end up at Texas Tech.
- Ohio State has some interest in former Alabama center Chad Lindsay.
- Here's Miley Cyrus in an Ohio State No. 23 basketball jersey.
KURT COLEMAN IS A VIKING. The former Ohio State safety has found the second team of his NFL career.
Coleman had fallen out of favor with Chip Kelly in Philadelphia; his most-recognized moment thus far in the NFL has been getting his block knocked off by Trent Richardson.
I always liked Coleman at Ohio State. New Viking frontman Mike Zimmer is a defensive guru (Bengals fans will attest), so it's good to see Coleman land with a team that thinks he still has something to contribute.
THE MARKET VALUE. I've always said if college players were paid market value, they'd be able to pay their own way through college. Well, well, well...
The latest buzz from the union movement sweeping the collegiate athletics nation has led to a new batch of fair market value numbers for college athletes at big time universities. The fair market value for an average college football player is $178,000 per year according to a report put together by the National College Players Association and Drexel University. That figure is estimated using data from 2011 through projected data for 2015.
“The bidding war for athletes would likely be in the millions,” said Ellen Staurowsky, a professor of sports management at Drexel University and co-author of the report. “However, I think it all depends on whether or not a players’ association ends up representing the teams and players. The salaries could be effectively bargained to have some sort of minimum guaranteed salary for all.”
The fair market value of a football player is almost $200,000 less than that of a basketball player. The NCPA and Drexel estimated the fair market value for a college basketball player is $375,000 per year. The numbers can vary depending on the player of course. Former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel would have been worth an estimated $547,000 in 2011 and 2012 according to this most recent report. The top ten athletes in football would command a higher value, which would make sense if free agency in professional sports is any indication.
That sound you're hearing? It's Ed O'Bannon's lawyers loading another bullet into the chamber for their shoot-out with the NCAA later this summer.
I know my opinions on this matter are in the minority of readers of this website, but change is a'coming, folks. Make your preparations now.
JOE PATERNO IS THE GREATEST. So says ESPN's tournament of Big Ten coaches. Paterno prevailed over B1G coaching legend Tom Osborne, a man who never coached a game in the Big Ten.
I'm not going to get too fired up about an internet poll, but I can't decide if it's pathetic or somewhat humerous the JoeBots carried the corpse of their disgraced leader to the title. (Probably a little bit of both.)
The equivalent of this in the Heart of It All Classic would have been 988th-seeded Guy Fieri romping over 973rd-seeded Ariel Castro in the finals. (This is your reminder Guy Fieri still hasn't been imprisoned.)
9ROUTE IS FAMOUS. Reader Chris caught this during a Pittsburgh-area newscast. For the non-hockey fans among us, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the mighty Columbus Blue Jackets are set to face-off in the opening round of the NHL playoffs.
WPXI asked its readers: If the Penguins lose to the Blue Jackets, what will be the reason?
Never had Nine Route pegged as a sentient Lego-man, but such are the wondrous times in which we live. (P.S. Blue Jackets are dumping the Penguins, 4-2. The only question remaining is where the parading of Lord Stanley's chalice will begin.)THOSE WMDs. Impressive collection of vintage photos... Yasiel Puig's defection story is bonkers... 92-year-old Swedish man's obituary owns... BEE-ONE-GEE! BEE-ONE-GEE!... This is a prime Gronkowski photo... FSU and Da U have new jerseys... Pulitzer-winning photo series of a Boston Marathon bombing victim's recovery... Stephen Collier is right about the worst part of college... When keeping it real goes wrong... NCAA "may" revise absurd rules on feeding athletes...
