Musings on the 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

The NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament is now under way. March Madness has already flexed its muscle with several upsets (North Texas over Purdue, Oral Roberts over Ohio State and others), with more to come. There’s so much to talk about regarding this tournament, these are my highlights and low lights.

The NCAA can breathe a temporary sigh of relief – the Men’s Basketball Tournament is their cash cow, a second cancellation would have further doomed the NCAA’s future. There is some concern that a COVID outbreak in the Indianapolis bubble could blow up the tournament, but I think at this point, the NCAA would have to accept that its 68 team field could be cut down to the low 60s/high 50s due to COVID dropouts by the end of the event. Nothing like a bye to the final four, right???

Travel advantages have been minimized as the teams play in a bubble of gyms in Indianapolis, Indiana. A thirteen seed doesn’t have to worry about the notion of traveling to Charlotte or Greensboro to play Duke in a virtual home game for the Blue Devils. While no team has to worry about playing Duke this year, sweeping away the advantages of a regional host clearly changes the game. A one seed is cooped up in the same hotel bubble concept as a sixteen seed. Every coach from Morehead State to Houston now has to deal with the same problem – keep the kids engaged during down time and avoid the ennui that goes with sitting around in a hotel room with nothing much to do. The bubble concept definitely aids a bit to even the playing field amongst the top teams and the lower level automatic qualifiers.

Two disappointing stories haven’t gotten the attention that I would have expected. First – one of my least favorite basketball hall of famers – Patrick Ewing. Ewing has never been the most well spoken, nor the best under pressure. We all have our weaknesses. His gift that has nothing to do with anything he can control, is that he is a seven foot tall man with great agility. The result, a national title as a player (Georgetown), a fantastic NBA career, and several gold medals representing Team USA. And because he was a great player, he was then given opportunity after opportunity to coach at high levels. Now the head coach at his alma mater, he exemplified elitism in a recent press conference.

In the Big East tournament last week (played at Madison Square Garden where Ewing spent most of his career as a New York Knick), he was stopped by security and asked for his ID before being allowed in for his team’s game. Instead of politely providing an ID, he made a stink. In a press conference after the game, he decried ‘you should know who I am, my number is retired in these rafters’. A couple of massive problems here – Ewing is a coach who is expected to set an example for his team. So much for setting an example of humility and grace. Other problem – the security guard was just doing his job. It’s certainly possible that he has never been in MSG to see Ewing’s retired number, and also possible that the security guard would not recognize Ewing by sight; at a tournament like this there are 6’8” – 7’0” basketball players and fans at every turn. Ewing is an embarrassment to Georgetown basketball regardless of whether or not they sniff a win in this years tournament.

Now to a disappointing story about one of my favorite hall of famers – Michigan State University head coach Tom Izzo. MSU is my alma mater and I’m a huge fan of Izzo’s consistent success over more than 25 years. However, Izzo made a huge coaching mistake at the end of the first half of their loss to UCLA (Sparty was actually winning 44-33 at that time). Rather than ride the momentum with positivity in to the locker room, Izzo grabbed Gabe Brown’s arm and yelled at him from the sounding of the halftime horn all the way in to the locker room. I believe that this act rattled Gabe, and probably rattled the whole team (why is coach all over Gabe???).

The result was a slow start in the second half, and UCLA had eclipsed their 11 point deficit no longer than three minutes in. Sparty mentally ran out of gas, and couldn’t make a basket to finish things off late in regulation. In overtime, it was all over for Sparty, UCLA held Sparty to only three points in the OT and secured the victory. If Izzo wants his squad to return to its winning ways during March Madness, he must eliminate these sorts of outbursts at individuals on his team. This is not about old school or new school, this is about what should get the job done. There is no reason why MSU should have lost the game with an eleven point lead (playing the right way as they had) going in to the half.

Two ‘bluebloods’ in Kentucky and Duke did not make the tournament, but that is a good thing this year. I’ve never been a believer in the ‘one and done’ concept which Kentucky follows – yes it can help a team win, but it is not how you assemble a team. You can put together a good group of players, but ‘team’ is far from a realistic goal here. What you have in Kentucky is a bunch of me first kids all using the name Kentucky to hopefully get a ticket to the pros. Only a few will make it pro, the rest will be left out of the NBA cash lottery. And after being coddled as a University of Kentucky Big Man on Campus for their college careers, they won’t be prepared for a real world career of ‘gasp’, something not basketball.

For Duke I feel differently about why I think it’s good that they are out. I like the way Mike Krzyzewski coaches, and there is no better place to play than Cameron Indoor Stadium. For me it is a hard place to call a game as an announcer (I have called games for Duke Volleyball played at Cameron) but as a fan and player, the environment is second to none. However, Duke assembled a team with at least one selfish player that ultimately caused Duke to fail to make the tournament. Mid-Season, Jalen Johnson ‘opted out’ of the season. Johnson was their best player, and he opted out to protect his chances in the NBA Draft. After he opted out, Duke actually played better (thanks to the departure of their selfish teammate), but the loss of what was a key player to the squad was too much for the Blue Devils to overcome.

Had Johnson opted out prior to the season, he could have used the explanation of concern regarding risk for catching COVID. The NCAA gave him this excuse to use but he didn’t use it. Instead, he quit in the middle of the season. His teammates must have thought of him as selfish, but the coaching staff for Duke did not say much about his departure. They don’t want to risk the reputation for seeming to not care about the importance of some of their athletes doing what they can to go pro. Jalen Johnson, like Patrick Ewing, is a selfish ‘me first’ man. NBA scouts are now doubting whether or not Jalen will be a good teammate for any team, or if his selfishness will infiltrate and poison pro locker rooms. Sadly he will still get drafted – FOMO will cloud the judgement of the team that drafts him.

This is a great year for teams like Baylor and Gonzaga to make their mark. I for one hope that one of these two teams wins it all. Both Scott Drew and Mark Few are classy guys leading teams that aren’t supposed to win it all. Baylor is not a men’s basketball school per-se, (it is certainly a women’s basketball school with recent championships in 2005, 2012, and 2019) and with their massive past football problems, a championship for Baylor Men’s Basketball would be a crowning achievement. My hope though is for Mark Few to take the championship title for Gonzaga. Few has passed up multiple ‘bigger’ coaching opportunities to remain in Spokane, Washington where he continues to lead his team in the West Coast Conference. Few is known to be an avid outdoorsman and fly fisherman at that – Spokane gives him that balance along with the nasty hours that accompany collegiate coaching. A championship for Gonzaga also would temporarily dispel the notion that only a Power Five school can win it all. With MSU now out of the tournament, I will be rooting for Gonzaga.

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is a great way for our society to return to some normalcy. My boss is not a sports fanatic though he enjoys watching an occasional game, and he can talk sports at the coffee corner at work with the best of them. He remarked months ago that without sports, fans are left to other options for entertainment that may not be as innocent. If super fan screams at their TV for two sports hours on a Saturday, besides the annoyed roommate or spouse in the house, everyone comes out alright in the end win or lose. Banter at the coffee pot about some Netflix series is just not as authentic. We as a society take the Men’s Basketball tournament for granted, so in a nasty lesson of fate, last year’s tourney was taken away like a failed magician ripping the tablecloth from a fully plated table. So in the words of Dan Dakich, make some seven, eight, or nine layer dip, get some chips and a beer, and enjoy the ups and downs of the 2021 tournament.

A Heavyweight Title Bout Between the Kid and the GOAT

Tom Brady versus Patrick Mahomes. It will be impossible to divert our gaze on Sunday from arguably the most significant individual matchup in the history of the Super Bowl. The big four pro sports have successfully drawn more eyes to their games by highlighting individual matchups over the teams themselves. The NBA no longer says in a commercial for its game “the LA Lakers take on the Houston Rockets at 2:00 pm today!”. Instead it is “LeBron James faces off against John Wall today as LA takes on Houston!”. I have never been a fan of highlighting the individuals over the teams in team sports, but the primary spectacle of Sunday’s game will be the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) versus the kid.

Recency bias may be clouding our anticipation of this game. Some are calling this the greatest single matchup of individuals in a championship ever. Not so fast my friend (thanks Lee Corso), a quick look at other matchups indicates otherwise. Ali versus Frazier, MJ versus LeBron, Magic versus Bird, I’m sure there are several others… If Mahomes adds to his resume, we can at least call this the best Super Bowl individual matchup ever.

The Super Bowl has highlighted some great individual matchups in the past; Roger Staubach versus Terry Bradshaw, John Elway versus Joe Montana, and Montana versus Dan Marino rate amongst the best. Unfortunately Marino doesn’t have a Super Bowl victory, otherwise his matchup would probably rate higher. (On an aside, I think of Matt Stafford as the modern day Dan Marino. Stafford passes the eye test and the statistics test deserving enshrinement in the Hall of Fame just like Marino. But as of now even if Matt is enshrined in the Hall of Fame, he will be panned for never winning the big one.) The best Super Bowl matchup of all time is going to happen on Sunday, February 7, 2021.

Tom Brady has already earned his GOAT status. With six Super Bowl championships in nine trips to the Super Bowl already, Terrific Tom has led great teams and even just very good teams (check out some of the rosters that he has directed in Super Bowls) to the big game. Sunday marks Brady’s tenth trip to the Super Bowl; he will have been the starting quarterback in a whopping 18% of the 55 Super Bowls ever played. A Super Bowl win tomorrow may convince Rob Gronkowski, and upstart Leonard Fournette to re-up their contracts with Tampa after their contracts expire at the end of the season. Mike Evans is locked up through 2024, so with all of these weapons making a possible return in the fall of 2021, Brady’s Super Bowl visit this weekend still may not be his last.

Patrick Mahomes has already cemented himself in the mix as the heir apparent for football super stardom. A fantastic blend of gunslinger meets strategist meets running threat. If Mahomes’ offensive line can provide reasonable protection for him, look out for a scoring field day from Kansas City tomorrow. The problem lies in the KC o-line; with two injuries to this key support squad, Mahomes may not be provided with enough time in the backfield to dish to some fantastic weapons in Travis Kelce, and Tyreek Hill. With both defenses playing well but not great, there is still little doubt that this game will have a high score.

So the only other problem with this matchup – Brady and Mahomes will never be on the field at the same time. Unlike the boxing and NBA examples earlier, these two won’t ever throw a single punch at each other, or look each other eye to eye on defense/offense. So the Brady v. Mahomes matchup is not apples to apples. How would Brady fare against his own Buccaneers’ defense? Mahomes against KC’s D? We will never know. For Mahomes to move one step closer to being in the conversation for best ever (his one Super Bowl ring to Brady’s six means that right now he is not in that conversation), he must lead his Chiefs to victory tomorrow. The kid must outscore the GOAT.

I cannot wait for this barn burner of a game. My prediction – Brady walks off with another championship and puts six Super Bowl victories between himself and Mahomes. KC won’t be able to protect Mahomes enough to position themselves for a last minute drive. Tampa Bay 35, Kansas City 31.

Big Ten Football’s Coaching Carousel Going for a Spin

Big Ten football has been notorious for exceptionally competitive games, and national relevance for multiple team members. The league’s relevance took a major hit due to its commissioner, Kevin Warren. The conference’s coaching carousel (both current and future) hasn’t helped the league either.

COVID has certainly added difficulty in planning for and directing a season. Coaches left and right have been impacted in how they coach, along with cancellations and other changes in between. Two coaches proved themselves to not be up to the challenge of dealing with change. Jim Harbaugh and James Franklin each underwhelmed in their efforts to work through this mired season. Harbaugh had a few top athletes opt out; Franklin’s squad had opt outs and a few key injuries. These two coaches of traditional powers are paid handsomely to handle these sorts of issues. Harbaugh now is clinging to his position, and it appears as though U of M may keep him for one more year. (He just fired his Defensive Coordinator – a clear indication that UM’s administration said – make some staff changes, or we will fire you.) Harbaugh’s last year of his contract is 2021; I think U of M sees that a millions of dollars buyout of his contract is not something they can afford or want to afford (see Will Muschamp for 13 million, and Gus Malzahn for a whopping 21 million). James Franklin just inked a deal in February that keeps him at Penn State through 2025. Penn State will lose big bucks if they fire him now. Thanks to Sports Illustrated for walking us through Penn State’s woeful contract with Franklin. Look for moderate improvements from the Wolverines and Nittany Lions in 2021. Improvements worthy of their massive contracts? I doubt it.

Kirk Ferentz dodged the firing bullet this past summer. Current and former Iowa players alleged that he and his staff were overtly racist in some dialogues with athletes, and also racist in their decision making for playing time between white athletes and people of color. How Kirk Ferentz (and Chris Doyle – Ferentz’s strength and conditioning coach) averted the chopping block is a textbook definition of sleight of hand. Ferentz denied the allegations, met with current and former players, then ultimately indicated ‘he would do better’. In today’s (rightly) heightened attention to racism and inclusion, it is surprising that Ferentz isn’t on the street right now looking for a new job. I hope that Ferentz’s personal pleas to the athletes were honest and heartfelt, not just calculated and proper to appease the masses.

The verdict is still out on Michigan State’s coaching change this past spring. MSU made a great hire in Mel Tucker. He was hired to rebuild a program that rose to great heights then began falling fast under Mark Dantonio. Tucker’s inaugural season allowed for two massive program building upset victories over the University of Michigan and Northwestern, and disappointing losses to Iowa (a 49-7 blowout), and Penn State (39-24). If Tucker can remedy the inconsistency of the 2020 team, Sparty should be back on track in 2021.

The shining light of coaches in the mass of confusion that is Big Ten football can be found at Ohio State, Northwestern, and Minnesota. Ryan Day has managed COVID (including contracting the virus himself) wisely, and led the team to a 6-0 season. No thanks to Commissioner Kevin Warren (much more on Warren in a moment), OSU did all it could to win the games on its schedule, and pass the eye test as a final four team. Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald has masterfully assembled a program that wins year in and year out, despite being in the lower half of the conference in amenities and support. And while many don’t like PJ Fleck’s ‘Row the Boat’ slogan (the dislike is that Fleck trademarked the phrase), there’s no denying that Minnesota has a team that can win. If Fleck moves on, Minnesota will slip within minutes of his departure.

The final ‘coach’ up for discussion is the ‘coach’ of the Big Ten. Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren did all he could to take the Big Ten out of the national conversation for football relevance this year. His opening salvo in the COVID prep wars was essentially, ‘we aren’t having a football season.’. He made this statement with the arrogant thought that ‘since we are the Big Ten’ that the other conferences would fall in line. Silly Kevin, you forgot one thing. Your conference is NOT the top football conference in the land. That title is held by the SEC. While the Big Ten is the pre-eminent athletics conference (when considering all the sports), it is not the number one conference for football.

Instead, the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 worked toward a season with safety measures and stop gaps in place to allow for cancelled games to be rescheduled, and ultimately allowed for their seasons to be played with room for rescheduling. The Big Ten (see Kevin Warren) eventually capitulated with an overwhelming ‘yea’ vote from the university presidents to have a season. Late to recognize his failing, Mr. Warren’s deferred decision to move toward a season left only a very few available days for rescheduling canceled games. The result is an Ohio State team who by the eye test alone is clearly a top four team but is unfairly maligned for having only played six games (and won them all).

Kevin Warren would have been better off in the beginning by discussing safety for the athletes and staffs under his watch as the ultimate priority, and he and his own staff could have then continued to evaluate and confer with the Big Ten membership to chart the best path for all involved. Warren nearly dashed the Big Ten’s football season, and its chances at bowl games and national relevance galore. Ohio State single handedly saved him.

Next step, lets watch his mismanagement of the NCAA’s cash cow – men’s basketball. Instead of waiting, an immediate ouster of Kevin Warren with a vote of no confidence is warranted – if I were a Big Ten university president and witnessed Kevin Warren’s football charade, there’s no way I’d risk another stumble with the sport of basketball. It is time for Warren to go. His struggles as a Minnesota Vikings admin, and his failure as Big Ten Commish show that he simply isn’t capable of handling the big job. If Kevin Warren can move on (university presidents move him on), the Big Ten can begin returning to its original greatness in 2021. If he stays, look for another fumble that sets the conference back even further.

Big Time Fan Bases and the Media Must Lower the Bar

Meme-spawning Michigan fan presents ESPN 'best play' award to MSU - mlive.com
UM Fan’s famous reaction to Michigan State’s return of a botched punt for the winning score

Many fan bases would have us think that they are perennial championship contenders year in and year out for decades on end. However, their perceptions are based upon antiquated successes of yesteryear, opportunistic media, overspending on athletes, and the forgotten reality that other teams are working to build their teams in the face of these aging legends of sport. Here are a few teams for which their fans must surrender the arrogant thought that they should be annual championship contenders.

First I introduce to you, the Dallas Cowboys, the NFL’s first expansion team founded in 1960. In 1978 a NFL films narrator anointed them as America’s team because they were on television so much. What a great media creation to keep eyeballs on the storied franchise. After several Super Bowl victories, Dallas did not need the help from NFL Films for marketing.

Is a caption really necessary here??? A picture like this speaks a thousand words.

Skip forward past the first heyday (1970s Super Bowls) of the Cowboys to 1989 and Jerry Jones’ purchase of the team that had fallen from its pedestal. The selection of Troy Aikman in the next draft, and controversial trade of Hershel Walker brought the Cowboys back to relevance and three more Super Bowl victories. Jerry Jones would have you believe that the Dallas Cowboys remain one of the key programs of the NFL as it was in the early 1990s regardless of its recent woes.

During Jones’ ownership, he has built the value of the team to billions, and erected a new state of the art stadium which is the envy of all of the other owners. What’s the problem? Dallas football is bad. Jerry Jones has wielded too much control over the management of the team, and the result is a failed team and a failed culture. The difference between today’s Dallas Cowboys, and the Detroit Lions? Nothing at all. Fans frothing at the mouth screaming for Dallas relevance need to remember that while Oil Man Jerry has ruined his team with his meddlesome involvement in on field decisions, teams like Kansas City, Seattle, and others have been smartly building their teams. KC and Seattle deserve more, and have earned more for their fan bases even as Dallas’ metropolitan size and media scope double or even triple that of KC and Seattle. Settle down Cowboys fans; at the rate you are going, the Lions may earn a playoff bid sooner.

On to two more fan bases of storied professional franchises which are at a different state of decline. First – the LA Lakers. The LA Lakers won the NBA title this past year during the COVID pandemic. LeBron James continues to be the best player of our generation, and amongst the best of all time. However, the Lakers had to back up the money truck to earn their title, having to pay both James, and Anthony Davis astronomical amounts to attract them to LA. I believe the Lakers could have won the title in a full length season, however the shortened season significantly benefited their squad.

LeBron would have been worn out from a complete season, and Anthony Davis (something is injured on him about every second game) would not have lasted to and through the playoffs. As James continues to age, and Davis remains injury prone, I believe the LA Lakers are a one championship and done squad with this unique lineup. The Lakers greats of old (1979 through the 1980s) along with LeBron’s, err the Lakers, 2020 title makes the Lakers fans believe and expect more championships (think back to LeBron’s intro at Miami – not one championship, not two, not three…). LeBron only has a few more years left, Davis cannot carry the team on his own; LA fans’ expectations clearly need to take a breath.

Things Yankees Fans Hate | Zell's Pinstriped Blog, A New York Yankees Fan Blog
Zell – big time Yankees fan

Next – the New York Yankees. The media and the Yankees money artificially fuel this team and the result is an obnoxious fan base that believes that every Yankees team, every year, should contend for the World Series. Wait a minute, aren’t there 29 other MLB teams? The media smartly recognizes that the Yankees are in the largest market in the country. So ESPN Baseball programming has become the NY Yankees YES network spin off. Yes they cover a few other teams, but why should they, when the largest viewership which will generate the most advertising dollars, is the New York market? Where the fans miss the boat is that just because their squad is on TV more, doesn’t mean that their team is any better. However the YES Network and the other powers that be funnel more funds to the Yankees than other squads. They can afford better players, and technically they should be better than most of the other teams on a year by year basis. The media and money have created a competitive imbalance that the rest of the MLB can only dream of. Hey NYY fans just relax, with all of the advantages you have, another World Series championship is right around the corner.

Desmond Howard And Photographer Brian Masck Reach Settlement In Litigation Over Iconic “Heisman Pose” Photo – CBS Detroit
Desmond Howard in his famous Heisman Trophy Pose

Last but not least, University of Michigan football. There was a time when there were really only a few legitimate Big Ten teams (think 1970s and 1980s with U of M and Ohio State, and add Wisconsin in the 1990s). Bo Schembechler’s Wolverines squad popularized the Big Ten’s ‘three yards and a cloud of dust’ reputation, then added individual flair later with the likes of legend Desmond Howard.

Today’s Wolverines are not Bo’s team. Flawed departmental philosophies and deeply ingrained athlete arrogance have the team tumbling from its great pedestal. Michigan first limits its head coach options to ‘Michigan Men’. Yup, you read that right. Michigan Athletic Administration generally limits its football head coach search to Michigan graduates or others with deep Michigan connections. The result has been a string of ‘pretty good coaches’ but not great coaches leading the way. Sorry Nick Saban, you aren’t the right fit for us, you didn’t attend the University of Michigan or pay your dues (painfully) as a UM assistant.

Arrogant team culture further sinks this squad. Mike Hart famously talked about Michigan State University football in 2007 when he said “… Sometimes you get your little brother excited… you let him take the lead, then you just take it back.”. Since then, ‘big brother’ is a pathetic 4-9 against Sparty. Since Jim Harbaugh (another Michigan Man) took over as the Wolverines coach, his teams are 3-8 against rivals MSU and OSU, having laid an egg with none of those wins against the Buckeyes. Dear Michigan fans, until your football team can beat the Bucs, you need to say their name (Ohio State University), not the silly ‘that team down south’.

The media further energizes the Wolverines entitlement. In the last twenty seasons (I am including 2020 in this stat – a 1-2 start with a loss to MSU locks in this year as part of the statistic), Michigan football has had a pre-season Associated Press Poll Top 25 ranking fourteen times. In only three of those fourteen seasons did the Wolverines football team’s final AP Ranking exceed that of their preseason AP Poll Ranking. It is hard to ‘prove’ that any team is overrated, but the media’s bias in favor of a Wolverines championship season is overwhelmingly evident when considering those polls.

The media has clearly over rated the Wolverines for years, while continuing to cheer in an echo chamber for the Yankees, Lakers, and Cowboys. While the maize and blue fans drink up the Kool-Aid, they should work on updating the lyrics to their famed fight song. A good start would be a change to the first line. ‘Hail to the Victors’ can easily be replaced with the more honest ‘notice the mediocre’.

Name, Image, and Likeness (Part Three of Three)

Top notch NCAA athletes like Zion Williamson bring thousands of dollars of attention to their respective schools. Without a doubt, Zion is worth plenty more than the scholarship plus $5,000 allotted to him (how about $5,000,000 or so more?). For every star NCAA athlete who may be up in arms about not being fairly compensated for their value, about 98% are being compensated fairly enough, or getting overpaid for their financial contribution to their teams. Bench player #12 on the perennial champion hoops team still doesn’t even bring his tuition in when calculating his financial value to the team. In Part Two of this series I threw out some extreme options for NIL compensation. Keep your hands and feet inside this ride; here’s a plan that blends Part Two into a solution all parties could sign up for (minus the pros).

The notion of name, image, and likeness compensation for college athletes cannot work without repairing the professional sports age limitations. College athletes need not spend time picketing to unionize their group, or increase NIL, etc. Prospective college athletes need to band together (I’m not sure a formal union really would work here) and bring their ageism lawsuits against the NFL and NBA. Just as illegal as hiring a less qualified 30 year old instead of a seasoned 55 year old due to their age, the NFL (3 years out of high school), and NBA (19 during their draft year) must drop their ageist regulations else their pants get sued off. This change would allow an adult (18 years of age) to go pro if they so choose.

To implement NIL in college we also need to take an honest approach toward which sports bring in money for the school. Each institution will calculate based upon the athletic year’s profits, the percentage of income or loss each team contributed to the bottom line. A greater percentage of the profit should be attributed to the NIL for the team that contributes the greatest amount. The teams that break even (or take a loss) each would get a small flat percentage of the profit from the NIL pie. Teams will have different percentages based upon their impact on ‘the bottom line’ at their school. Women’s Field Hockey would generally ‘earn’ the lowest flat percentage as a team which generally contributes a loss to the bottom line. Football and basketball teams will generally earn a higher percentage as teams. Volleyball is a unique example of a sport that occasionally profits, depending on the institution. The University of Nebraska and University of Hawaii volleyball programs net a profit (attendance and television revenue are key money makers for the volleyball programs at these schools). Volleyball athletes at UN & UH then would make more as a percentage than volleyball athletes at the University of Arkansas.

Distributing NIL to athletes on each individual team then becomes a big math problem. If an athlete lands the #12 roster position on a Duke hoops team that ends up winning the national title, should he make the same amount of money on his NIL for Duke hoops that the #1 roster position makes? (Zion Williamson for example.) I don’t think so. Instead the percentage of NIL contribution to each athlete should be predetermined by a percentage basis. This would allow for some serious recruiting! Coach Calipari says, “Hey Joe Athlete, Come to my school and get 20% of the NIL allotment for the team for the year!”. Coach Izzo responds, “But Joe Athlete, come to my school and get 18% of the allotment, since our team has the Big Ten Network – you’ll make more than you can at Kentucky!”. The National Letter of Intent program could very easily include the percentage slice of NIL commitment from the university, along with the financial aid commitments already included on the document.

So far, the onus of this plan has fallen squarely on the professional leagues, and the schools themselves. I think the athletes should be responsible for actually being students. As I cited in a previous post, many athletes would not have been accepted to their respective schools if not for their school massaging (loosening) the acceptance criteria for them to attend. Presently, some schools have greater limits (Stanford/Notre Dame) than other schools with lesser limits on how many athletes may have their acceptance criteria loosened for purposes of playing on the team. Those athletes attending those schools who otherwise would not be accepted often get easier schedules and questionable flexibility when it comes to passing classes.

Instead, limit the number of athletes with massaged grades to a set number for each team (for instance Division I basketball – allow only four athletes to attend with massaged acceptance standards). And, for those athletes, provide them with the ‘lite’ degree and degree program. Let’s stop pretending that the 18 ACT athlete is cutting it with Stanford level classes. Instead, offer the Stanford ‘lite’ degree and force those massaged athletes to actually attend class and work through a rigor and major that suits them. Now when a kid graduates from Stanford with a ‘lite’ degree, they have a degree they earned. While life isn’t fair, I don’t think it is fair or appropriate that the word Stanford reads the same on the diplomas of both a 33 ACT Physics grad and an 18 ACT ‘General Studies’ grad star athlete. Speaking of ‘General Studies’, eliminate this as an acceptable major. We do our borderline passing student athletes a disservice by not requiring them to have a major that provides a base of knowledge that would employ them after graduation.

Restrictions regarding the hiring of an agent will need to be relaxed. Right now, when an athlete hires an agent, they surrender their college eligibility. However, with my plan, if a 15 year old hoops star wants to hire an agent to aid in the decisions associated with ‘college or pro’ then they should be allowed to do so without jeopardizing their college eligibility. Weighing the proposed NIL payment versus the risks of entering the draft, along with endorsements from either pursuit means big bucks; the agent will serve as a professional consultant here for a star athlete’s future. Further, an athlete should be able to ‘test the waters’ of the draft one time in their college career. The athlete should be allowed to enter the draft to determine his professional earnings potential prior to committing to an additional collegiate year. I believe that this should only be done once – the college coach should be allowed to plan their roster and recruiting without so many athletes on the team in the balance every year.

The NCAA and the pros will have to decide how much corruption they can police/battle/tolerate. For now, the NCAA continues to ‘throw a bone’ to its big 5 wealthiest, allowing for a cost of attendance allowance of up to $5,000 per athlete per year. This standard is in effect until at least January of 2021. If the NCAA and the pros wait too much longer to solve the NIL problem, college athletes may force their hands with union battles and strikes that could permanently tarnish college athletics. The rust is already on the bumper of the NCAA’s NIL clunker.

Name, Image, and Likeness (Part Two of Three)

Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire

In Part Two of this Three part series, let’s take a dive in to some possible solutions that could provide student athletes with compensation for their Name, Image, and Likeness. Here’s three different options that could eliminate all of the NIL hubbub.

Option One – Eliminate ageism in pro sports. Right now to turn pro, a football player must have been out of high school for three years. A basketball player must be turning 19 during his draft year (prompting at least one year in college). Taking ageism out of the pro game should allow a top athlete to go pro without the arbitrary requirement of attending college. However, this should be paired with a couple of key components. First, schools should limit and standardize the ability to alter acceptance requirements per team. While this suggestion should prompt screams from solid academic schools like Stanford and Notre Dame, there should be less need to ‘massage’ acceptance requirements at schools if those athletes were allowed to go pro in the first place. Second, allow the student athlete to attain an agent and test the professional waters ONE TIME in their college careers. The choice to attend college should not be a limiting factor in an athlete’s chances to go pro. Why only ONE TIME? Coaches still need to plan their recruiting and prep for a team the following season. Transfers and pro declarations will be plenty for coaches to keep up with just to assemble a roster that can win (so the coach can keep their job).

Option Two – NIL as an escrow against tuition. Everyone wants a free lunch. But in business, as in life, there is no such thing. If a student athlete is getting a free education, why not have them apply a percentage of their NIL up to or approaching their cost of tuition toward the value of their scholarship. This seems a bit extreme, however if an athlete wants to earn compensation for their name, image, and likeness, they won’t have much luck here without the college team opportunity to begin with. Though when you ask a kid to work in this environment, then you should rightly allow that kid to hire an agent if they so choose. That agent would be responsible for reporting the amount of NIL earned by the athlete, a fraction of which gets paid to the university. You could then require full disclosure of income for an athlete. Right now that is not disclosed because the income isn’t supposed to be happening. (Remember Cam Newton’s family payout of nearly $200,000 for attending Auburn? Cam’s payoff is not an anomaly in the world of college sports.) With this option, athlete amateurism in college may go the way of the dodo bird. This would also shift the presumed power conferences. The Big East and PAC 12 Conferences would move well ahead of the Big Ten and SEC by virtue of having many more teams located in metropolitan areas with greater NIL opportunities.

Option Three – The College Sports degree ‘lite’. This NBA season will have an asterisk beside it as it does not have the same components of a normal NBA season. How about offering a sports ‘lite’ degree at the Power 5 schools. A Power 5 degree with an asterisk. As I highlighted in Part One, some of the athletes being ‘massaged’ in to their respective schools could not have attended had they not been accepted for their athletic prowess. Instead, allow each team to offer up to a maximum number of ‘lite’ degrees which don’t have the same rigor as the normal classes. Combined with the NIL possibilities that the NCAA has posed for a vote as soon as January 2021 (see this Sports Illustrated article for details) a student athlete may be able to have their cake and eat it too. Amongst the many problems here is a team of players where the top dogs have an easy course load (lite) while the balance of the players are stressed with the intensity of a legitimate degree course load at that same school. What are you doing tonight awesome Joe baller? Nothing much. What are you up to? I’ll be up til 2:00am studying physics… ‘That’s cool’ is probably not what physics teammate will be muttering after that exchange.

As part of any of these offerings, schools should include required courses in the business and life of professional athletics. Sally Jenkins’ Washington Post article provides a poignant (but slightly misguided) approach to this idea. “We’ve told ourselves that athletics actually interferes with education”, she ponders. Athletics provides a great place to learn competitiveness, effort, etc. I personally miss teaching persistence on the court even to this day. She later goes on to talk about the many great attributes gained from participating in athletics. She’s right, but if these are so important, why isn’t competitive athletics a general education course at every school? Because this blog author’s 5’11”, non-vertical hops, average athlete body doesn’t qualify. I’m not offended to be excluded from this elite group; as long as the opportunity is equal, (if given the chance, I’m probably not taking out Cam Newton in a throwing contest). If acceptance at his first school, the University of Florida, were truly equal though, then would both of us have been accepted to UF?

There are plenty of other possibilities out there for Name, Image, and Likeness compensation. So the question is, where do we go from here. In Part Three I’ll give you my pie in the sky snapshot of what NIL and the NCAA to professional sports bridge should look like…

Name, Image, and Likeness Compensation (Part One of Three)

The NCAA sports landscape has widely become a tool for entertainment, not too different from your favorite Marvel Comics movie series. More and more, money is revolving around the NCAA’s ‘entertainment industry’, as NCAA football and basketball, at an exponentially greater extent than that of NCAA Olympic sports, continue to entertain a large population of the American public. But that money by and large has not moved in to the hands of the star entertainers, the NCAA athletes. Imagine the movie Deadpool in comparison to March Madness or the College Football Playoff. Deadpool’s star and co-producer – Ryan Reynolds, was compensated quite nicely along with its movie distributor and director. In March Madness, its distributor (Duke and the NCAA), and co-director (Coach Mike Krzyzewski) make and have been making large sums. The actors (Zion Williamson and company) were paid a flat fee for their star performances in March Madness with no chance for improved compensation. It is clear that the notion of Student Athlete amateurism will be dying a slow death in NCAA athletics at the hands of the demands for Name, Image, and Likeness compensation.

The mass media would have you believe that the athletes are being manipulated and ‘used’ for the benefit of their school and the NCAA. The mass media forgot that in most Power 5 schools, athletes for their respective football and basketball teams are on full tuition scholarships along with room and board included. Great additional benefits include the training table (special food for athletes), flexibility in course scheduling and attendance (and in the case of UNC, fake classes wrongly classified as ‘available to all students’), and the endowment of BMOC status during all hours when present at their respective school. Additional special treatment includes traveling academic counselors, tolerance from professors allowing missed test and class days, and other benefits that a non athlete would never get to enjoy.

I don’t have a problem with most of this (minus the fake classes for credit). Like any other star in the movies or otherwise, special treatment is part of the deal and a large part of the courting process between that star, the promotion of the movie to the public, and the production of the movie itself. NCAA Power 5 football and basketball athletes aren’t much different. There remains one major ethical problem here. For most of the Power 5 schools, acceptance requirements are ‘massaged’ for prospective student athletes when necessary to make sure that they can still play for the program that recruited them. Shhhhhh. No one talks about this. Duke University has a specific standard for academics when determining the acceptance status of a student. If that student plays basketball and Coach Krzyzewski offers him a scholarship, Coach K can ‘talk’ (demand) to the admissions department and request (demand) that acceptance standards are waived to allow the athlete to attend Duke. Is a kid that otherwise would not have been admitted to Duke without the academic waiver truly ‘attending’ Duke? If that student could not get in to Duke otherwise, then that kid likely is being provided with extra help to pass classes at Duke. That treatment sure would be great for any average student that wanted to go there.

Who is using who here? Many Power 5 schools are making millions with its football and basketball teams. (Not all are making millions, or even profiting from sports. Clemson athletics without its ballyhooed football team would be in the hole financially.) We must look at the flip side though. Student athletes are using sports as the ticket to attending a school that, in many cases, they would not be admitted to if not for the academic waiver. My guess is that Zion Williamson was quite capable of getting in to college on his own. Respected by his teachers at Spartanburg Day School as an excellent writer and a solid poet, if he were a non athlete he would have likely made it to college. However, you will have to show me Zion’s 30+ ACT or 1500+ SAT, 4.00+ GPA, and a resume of leadership beyond sports to convince me that he would have been accepted to Duke. A four year education with books, room, and board at Duke will cost you about $325,000 before any financial aid. Not bad compensation for an 18-22 year old – especially for an athlete who could not get in to Duke had they not had the gift of athleticism. Oh and the degree is thrown in for free… I’d say that the athlete gets plenty of ‘use’ out of Duke here too…

The issue doesn’t just fall on the NCAA’s shoulders. Ageism in professional sports has something to do with this too. We are considered legal adults at the age of 18. However, all NBA drafted players must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of their draft. By forcing a basketball player to be 19 years old to participate on a team, you are requiring them to attend college, or sign as a free agent in the D-League. Trust me on this one, P-5 travel and lodging beats the socks off of D-League travel. In the NFL an athlete must have been out of high school for at least three years before playing in the NFL. At their youngest, an NFL player could be 20, again much older than that of a legal adult. NFL options are even more limited, there aren’t any great minor league alternatives for a young football player. At the least, these rules are limiting and restrictive to 18 year old adults. At the most, these rules could be considered illegal.

Don’t expect Samuel Jackson to show up with an eye-patch in the second round of this three part series, but it is time for us to take off our rose colored glasses. Let’s take a hard look at the NCAA football and basketball cash machines, and consider some alternatives to the requirement of amateurism in NCAA sports. In Part Two of this blog series, I’ll dive in to the pros and cons of some Name, Image and Likeness alternatives that may provide a fair slice of the pie to the top level NCAA athletes.

The Petri Dish of Professional Sports

Welcome to your first Biology 101 Petri dish experiment. The startup of the MLB, NBA, and the NHL seasons has provided a classic laboratory test with elite athletes as the test subjects! These three have provided us with examples of how to reopen, and how not to reopen professional sports. The NCAA will be making its scientific presentation soon too. Individual athletes’ behaviors in each sport are proving to be the the great variable in this risky experiment.

To date, the most successful reopening, by a landslide, is the NHL. The NHL first decided to select two hub cities where they would play all of their games. The hub city concept is galvanized further by selecting the two Canadian cities (gasp, not US cities) of Edmonton, Alberta; and Toronto, Ontario. Keeping the hubs in Canada accomplished two keys: 1. The locations are in low outbreak locations, and 2. The locations are in the heart of the true hockey world (excepting Detroit, Michigan – nicknamed Hockeytown). A look at their athletes in general seals the deal on the NHL’s success in reopening without issue. It is hard to dispute that the NHL has the least selfish population of athletes of the big four pro leagues. Their humility apparently is accompanied with a personal responsibility to follow simple protocols in quarantine.

The NBA went with a similar strategy, though their bubble is in a single city – Orlando, Florida. With their season underway like the NHL, few cases of COVID-19 have been identified during their bubble season. However, signs that there would be risky behaviors in the bubble were indicated before the season was paused. See Rudy Gobert’s childishness in March when he mocked the disease’s virulence by licking his hands and touching many shared surfaces in a press conference after a match. Only days later did he find out that he tested positive for COVID-19. I know a fourth grader that acts more mature than Gobert. Not a good look for the NBA.

The NBA season is rolling and the bubble is working well. The NBA even set up a call line so that an athlete, if observing another athlete not taking appropriate precautions to limit COVID-19 spread, could anonymously call to request action from the league toward that player. The reaction from the athletes was embraced by some, but a small group reject the policing efforts. The call line is nicknamed ‘the snitch line’. The stigma associated with this ‘snitch line’ indicates that the ‘snitch line’ response team isn’t taking many calls right now.

Major League Baseball got it wrong and it already shows. While they opted for a shorter season, there is no MLB bubble location, nor any significant precautions preventing the spread of the disease. For baseball it came down to… wear a mask, distance if you can, and just don’t spread the disease. (The old – ‘just don’t think about a pink elephant’. What did you just think about? A pink elephant.) The St. Louis Cardinals have been sidelined for four games already, and we don’t know yet why there was an outbreak on their team. We do know why the Miami Marlins had an outbreak. This one was a blatant example of immaturity, and like the NBA’s disdain of the ‘snitch line’, indicative of a greater problem in its league. The Marlins were diagnosed with COVID-19 to the tune of 17+ in one fell swoop. Why? It was later admitted that the team went on a bender together. Talk about irresponsible.

No surprise to some – MLB in season partying has been a problem for years. In a recent replay of an interview of former coach and player Ozzie Guillen, the coach said, paraphrased, “I want players that will go hard during a hangover.”. How about instead, I want players that won’t drink so hard the night before games that they have hangovers. We may win a few more games than the other teams… This is an overt statement that partying like this has been rampant for years; clearly the baseball product on the field is diluted and lethargic on the day after a party night. Can I get a discount on my game ticket if I come to a game and the guys blow a .1 or greater on the breathalyzer 18 hours before game day?

If ‘professionals’ eschew the rules against partying, can we expect the college kids to follow distancing guidelines 24/7 to curb the spread of COVID-19? I doubt it. When I was 18 in my first year at Michigan State University, I could choose from plenty of parties to attend (and I did!). Had there been a pandemic while I was in school, I can tell you that many of the college kids would have attended these parties anyway. Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly further summed up an added problem. While the pros are going in to a bubble for their seasons, the fall college sport athletes are coming out of their bubbles. Fall college sport athletes have been on mostly barren campuses this summer during pre-season practices. As the regular students return to school, the college summer athletics bubble will burst. Parties and the bursting bubble will surely cause outbreaks among the athletes at schools across the country.

Hey NCAA – you are up next. The NCAA’s general guidance to date has been, hey conferences and divisions, you figure it out (except for our cash cow – football of course). We are going to find out if the NCAA’s various DI programs are able to figure it out without going broke. So the various Power 5 teams have convoluted schedules on the table with the hopes of limiting the disease (everything from pod scheduling, to pool play type schedules are on the table). Each conference’s various fall football and olympic sport schedules will provide differing results in the efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, the NCAA’s Petri Dish experiments this fall will expose far more about athlete behaviors and the NCAA’s grasp for cash than it ever will about the virulence of this once in a lifetime (hopefully) pandemic.

Capitalism in Sports (the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)

Capitalism did not seep in to sports yesterday, it has been leeching in to the games for a long time now. Free market capitalism should have long ago corrected the issue of a pejorative being used as mascot for a multi-billion dollar football team. Capitalism is showing itself as the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Washington Redskins received their namesake in 1933 when the team (then the Boston Braves – named because they played at Braves Field) moved their games to Fenway Park. At that time, cultural sensitivity, or more accurately, cultural concern/respect, was not the talk of the day. Strong polling and marketing strategy did not exist then in the fashion that we see it today. If Native Americans had actually been asked in 1933 if they were discomforted by the possible nickname, they likely would have raised their hands in dismay, or at the least preferred a different name be given. Formal public protest of the name took place as far back as 1968 (informal protests likely more latent), however it took the death of George Floyd to prompt the groundswell for changing the name.

Yes, the word Redskins is offensive. An otherwise descriptive word initiated without offensive intent by the French as a description of the Native Indians they encountered in the late 1700’s underwent pejoration over time. In 1863 the first major pejoration was noted when Minnesotans were called to kill indians for a bounty. If a Minnesotan provided the scalp of a redskin, he would be provided with a $250 bounty. Since then, the term Redskin was used in an offensive manner as a slur, not as a simple reference to skin color.

In early June this year, FedEx, along with Nike, and Pepsi requested that the Washington Redskins change their name due to the offensive meaning of the name. Capitalism reared its beautiful head when those corporations rightly threatened to pull their advertising dollars from the Washington Redskins football team if it did not change its name. Owner Dan Snyder, who in 2013 proclaimed that the name would never be changed, now was put to a decision. Lose millions of dollars in ad money while stubbornly hanging on to a nickname, or succumb to the pressures of FedEx and others and move to make the change. Sounds simple right? But when you are a billionaire owner like Snyder, you don’t get pushed around in the public eye quietly.

The killing of George Floyd in May brought great attention to the problems of racism and police brutality in America. “What better time than now” (thanks Zack de la Rocha), to pull the plug on the sponsorships for the Washington Redskins. The public certainly should look respectfully to FedEx, Nike, PepsiCo., and others and appreciate that they now intend to put their advertising money/sponsorship of the Washington Redskins elsewhere due to the derogatory name of the team. However, we should not laud these companies blindly.

Why now? The word was offensive for years and years, but why only now are the sponsor dollars being pulled? Did the companies decide that they should await national unrest to attain the best publicity for this change? Did these companies look at the growing social justice movement in America and make an altruistic decision for the betterment of society?

These companies looked at their bottom lines and determined that their advertising dollars on the Washington Redskins were no longer worth the hassle of sponsoring a team with an offensive name. I would have preferred a different action; pull the advertising money from the Redskins and move those funds to support another team. Had they spoken with their wallet (no threats, just give the money to someone else), a more punitive scenario would have occurred – Snyder would have been forced out. Instead, the name will be changed (good), a history of sexist culture within the organization has been exposed (ugly), and Snyder remains the owner (very bad).

For now, the team has temporarily been named the Washington Football Team. The expense to the team will be immense as it changes logos, names, and maybe even colors as it eventually moves to a new moniker. The expense for this change pales in comparison to the cost that this change would have amounted to prior to Snyder’s tenure. When Snyder took over in 1999, he would have been better served by promptly spending the money to change the team name. He would have earned immediate respect for halting the use of this term as a representation of the football team.

Snyder will now tap dance with the media to spin that he is changing the team name (and working to improve executive culture?) for the good. The name change and efforts to improve executive culture will both be good, but he is not doing this for the good. He’s doing this to retain the ownership of his lucrative NFL team. He’s doing it for the money. While capitalism is a base reason for doing right, I’ll take the right however I can get it.

Pro sports is not the NCAA’s problem

The ideal (or old school) NCAA focused on amateurism and the student-athlete (SA). The prospective SA chose a school where he could participate in a sport or sports. He would still be considered an amateur even if he was getting money in the form of a scholarship to attend the school because of the sport he played. The NCAA has gone so far astray from these basic tenets, that professional sports now leans on the NCAA as its own homegrown minor league. The NCAA has unwittingly taken on a significant share of what should be the problems of the professional sports themselves.

Professional football in the NFL is the most taxing of the big four sports. The physicality of this sport at the highest level requires that the athlete have a mature physique not generally developed enough by age 18 to survive the brute force associated with the sport. I don’t know about you, but a 275 pound linebacker barreling in to me at full running speed could only take place once (If you have met me, then you know what I mean). The NCAA is providing the physical training ground for future NFL pros.

The NBA relies upon the NCAA for a different kind of maturity. 16, 17, and 18 year olds can dunk, pass a ball, and otherwise play at a professional level, but a 17 year old or younger athlete is usually not mature enough to handle the off court responsibility of being a professional basketball player. Me trying to be responsible while earning my $893,000 MINIMUM (yup, minimum) salary as a 16 year old NBA rookie probably wouldn’t go so well.

The MLB at best is a convoluted system… enter the draft straight out of HS and start out in the minors (or leap to the majors if exceptional); go to a four year school, then complete your junior year of college; or go to junior college and leave whenever you’d like. In the favorite words of a former assistant coach of mine, ‘Wait, what?’. So if an athlete chooses to begin at a four year college in the sport of baseball, they have to either, finish their junior year, or transfer to a JUCO where they participate in one season, then enter the draft? Let me get out my slide rule…

In the end, the pro sports that are requiring that athletes be a certain age, or stay in college a certain length of time, are actively participating in age discrimination. If an athlete – HS graduate or not, college attendee or not, minor league participant or not – is the adult age of 18 on the first day of practice in the professional season, it should be his or her right to go pro at his or her own risk. The PGA, ATP, and NASCAR have it right. The participant in each case attempts entry to the pro ranks at their own risk developmentally and financially. While there are avenues to the PGA and ATP through college, with the exception of the true education (gasp!) gained at the college, the development of the athlete is dedicated to the sport itself.

The NCAA needs to move to a format that doesn’t confuse the pro sports business with the student athlete business. The NCAA puts out commercials attempting to leave you with your fingers in your dimples singing kumbaya (see the classic ‘99% of athletes in the NCAA will never go pro’). However, remember that without the questionable entry rules of the pro leagues, the quality of college football Saturdays would be leaving you with tailgate indigestion, and the level of basketball prowess during March Madness would look more like march silliness.