ESPN is reporting that Tennessee is under another NCAA investigation, this time due to NIL violations. They imply that inducement is the issue, as it was at Florida State. Per their source, “there’s a real uptake in NIL cases, portal issues…The NIL money is being used as transfer bait.”
The question for the NCAA is what it can really enforce regarding NIL, and that’s a question both legal and practical. Legally, it appears possible that if the right lawsuit went through the right courts, the NCAA could be forbidden from forbidding NIL inducement in the first place. I don’t know how that would go, but it appears possible. Practically, NCAA enforcement of recruiting payments has always been a mess. Are we really supposed to believe that the NCAA is capable of policing boosters promising recruits money? They couldn’t do that when it was wholly against the rules.
Colleges want enforcement on this. They want rules. They want rules to be obeyed. They just don’t want to be the ones obeying them. Colleges want to keep recruitment from becoming a 365-day sport, but if they have the chance to tamper and they think they can get away with it? They’re in. Even the school blessed or cursed with the most integrity in the country has rogue boosters. Everyone wants rules. Everyone wants to break them. The NCAA is too small to stop it.
It says something, then, that the NCAA is trying to enforce these things at all. We’ve talked a lot about how the NCAA is little more than a committee of representatives sent by its schools. It’s more like a government than a cartel (professional sports leagues in America are cartels—codified power-sharing structures between franchise owners designed to crowd out any possible outside competition). The NCAA answers to its schools. So, we theorize (this is very much a theory): Maybe the NCAA isn’t investigating Tennessee because it thinks it can stop Tennessee. Maybe the NCAA just wants its schools to know it tried.
The Life-Changing Magic of Staying Where You’re At
Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is reportedly staying in Detroit despite interest from Washington and Seattle in hiring him to be a head coach. Good for Ben Johnson. Great for Ben Johnson.
There are a lot of reasons to take a head coaching job. Money. Power. Achievement of a goal. They’re good reasons. But in the end, what coaches are really after—like the rest of us—is happiness. It sounds wimpy, but why move from a job in which your life is happy to a job in which your life is not happy? Especially if you’re 37 years old, with so much time ahead of you.
We’ve seen a lot with quarterbacks how much external factors can matter in determining who succeeds and fails in the NFL. Put Baker Mayfield on the Packers rather than the Browns to begin his career, and he might not become a journeyman. Draft Jordan Love to the Bears rather than the Packers, and he might not get a second starting job. It’s probably similar with coaches. I don’t know if that’s why Johnson stayed—if he thought Washington and Seattle were bad situations—or if he simply loves his current role with the Lions and doesn’t care to rush being a head coach, but it’s an admirable move. Do what you want, Coach.
The Rest
In college hoops:
- Houston survived Texas last night, but you can see the flaws. The offensive talent is there, but it just doesn’t always click. I’m starting to wonder if that’s a Kelvin Sampson problem by nature, and not just a coincident struggle over his time in Texas.
- Tonight, it’s mostly bubble stuff, or good teams playing bubble teams. The Mississippi State/Mississippi game should be the biggest atmosphere. There’s decent chaos potential but no landmark tilts.
Chicago, the Packers, Iowa State:
- The Big 12 football schedule is out for the fall, and Iowa State’s goes: Houston (A), Baylor (H), West Virginia (A), UCF (H), Texas Tech (H), Kansas (A), Cincinnati (H), Utah (A), Kansas State (H). So, Farmageddon not only lives for this year, but happens on Thanksgiving weekend as Senior Day and the regular season finale. Given the likely power dynamics, that game and the trip to Utah are probably the toughest two on the schedule, alongside the visit to Iowa before conference play starts and possibly the Kansas game, which is taking place at Arrowhead while the Jayhawks renovate their home stadium in Lawrence. Overall, it’s a pretty good draw, especially if the goal is to stay in the conversation for a long time. It gets tougher in the later weeks. That can get you attention, even if it does end badly.
- Justin Turner’s signing with the Blue Jays pushes the Cubs a little closer to Cody Bellinger, with Turner having been a possible option for the first base mix. There’s a weird push and pull here in theory between Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong, very different top prospects who play Bellinger’s two positions. So, in addition to pushing the Cubs closer to Bellinger, Turner signing elsewhere keeps the Cubs attached to Busch playing a big role this year. I remain a little worried about someone doing what the Rockies did with Kris Bryant and offering Bellinger something the Cubs would be idiots to match. Barring that, it continues to seem likely that Bellinger is back, hopefully on a somewhat reasonable deal.
- The Raptors are in Chicago tonight as the Bulls try to firm up their hold on ninth place in the East. Patrick Williams is expected to miss two weeks with his foot injury.
- Up in Green Bay, it’s appearing more and more that the Christian Parker report was false. He did reportedly interview, but it’s been three days since that report and the man is not the Packers’ defensive coordinator. Two new names on the list today: Dennard Wilson, the Ravens’ defensive backs coach, and Zach Orr, the Ravens’ linebackers coach. Interviews requested. Credit to Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero for those reports.
