Thoughts of the Day: July 27, 2022

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning:

ABBREVIATED VERSION: THINGS THAT COVID MAKES ME THINK ABOUT

Thirty-nine days until the first football game but who’s counting?

It was 96 degrees in Gainesville Tuesday. With the 85 percent humidity it felt like 107, 102 in the shade. In Salt Lake City Tuesday it was 92. The humidity was 9 percent. Now fast forward 39 days. The Utah Utes will be in Gainesville for their September 3 close encounter with the Gators. Accuweather says we can expect 89 degrees with expected thunderstorms that day so that means the humidity will be 80 percent or thereabouts by game time. In other words, if you aren’t used to rivers of sweat you might think you’re going to die of heat stroke by the middle of the first quarter.

I remember September 18, 1999 like it was yesterday. Tennessee came to Gainesville having won 14 consecutive games including a 13-0 run to the national championship in 1998. The week before the game, the Vols talked about how overrated the humidity was. Why it was hot in Knoxville, too! They had fans and all sorts of machinery on their sideline that night just to prove the Vols weren’t going to be affected by the humidity. By the end of the first quarter even the Vols on the sidelines were soaked all the way through their uniforms. That was the Alex Brown game. Tee Martin still hears the footsteps. Jamal Lewis was gagging before halftime.

I have this gut feeling that Brenton Cox Jr. is going to have an Alex Brown kind of game on September 3. I also have a feeling the Utes are going to be thinking they’ll be ready for heaven when they die because they will have sampled hell during this visit to The Swamp thanks to the combination of heat and humidity. In the fourth quarter, Florida’s massive offensive line is going to be doing the old ground and pound. Imagine a right side of O’Cyrus Torrence (6-6, 340) and Jordan Herman (6-8, 370) grinding it out with Montrell Johnson, Lorenzo Lingard, Nay’Quan Wright and Trevor Etienne taking turns gashing a Ute defense that wonders if there is enough ice in all the world to cool them down. It could happen.

Was Tennessee really that virtuous in self-reporting all those violations?

Oh, but the Vols are taking a victory lap for NCAA compliance for turning themselves in to the NCAA over the Jeremy Pruitt fiasco. They were so brave, weren’t they? Virtuously falling on the sword after “discovering” all those Level I violations. Why, even Paul Finebaum is saying because they turned themselves in and helped the NCAA with its investigation that UT will get slaps on the wrist and Pruitt at least 10 years of show cause.

I question the virtue of the UT athletic department. First and foremost, I just don’t think Pruitt would have been fired and UT would have turned itself in if the Vols had gone 7-3 in 2020 instead of 3-7 with five blowout losses. There was just as much innuendo about a whole heap of cheating going on in 2019 but the Vols went 8-5 and won their last six games. So why didn’t they self-investigate then? Well, we know the answer to that. It’s because they legitimately thought they could unseat Georgia as the best team in the East in 2020 except that the season went south.

To fire Pruitt without cause would have cost UT $12.6 million of buyout money, but by turning themselves in to the NCAA, firing Pruitt and then leading the men in blue suits to where Pruitt buried all the skeletons, the Vols will get off with ZERO buyout money. Even if they get a bowl ban, that won’t cost more than $2-3 million so the net savings will be $9-10 million. So consider me a skeptic. I’m not buying the holier than thou explanation that UT did the right thing because it was the right thing to do. This was a calculated financial gamble and the only way it will backfire is if the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, elects to drop the hammer on Tennessee football with harsh scholarship reductions and a multi-year bowl ban.

I remember November 10, 1973

Since I led this column with a weather statement, my memory has been jogged. November 10, 1973. Happy Valley. Penn State 35, North Carolina State 29. Cold. Freezing cold. Snow accumulating on a frozen field cold. John Cappelletti running 41 times for 220 yards to seal the Heisman Trophy while the Wolfpack defenders slipped and slid all over the place cold.

Why is that important? That was early November. Now think November 2024. Either UCLA or Southern Cal flies into Happy Valley, leaving the 75-degree sunshine of Los Angeles for State College, PA and it turns cold. Tundra cold in Happy Valley. Maybe something similar happens in Minneapolis where Minnesota feels right at home when the gales of November come early or in East Lansing or Ann Arbor.

At least half of the games on the Southern Cal or UCLA schedule will be roadies in the Big Ten. Certainly, not all of the road games will be front loaded for September and October when the weather is mild in the Midwest. November just might be a killer.

Notre Dame will get a mega-deal and remain independent

You can all but take this to the bank. Notre Dame will get a mega-deal whether it is NBC, CBS or one of the streaming services. The Irish have already set the opening bid at $75 million and because NBC has been a loyal partner for the past 20 years, NBC will have the first shot at a broadcast deal. If NBC balks, someone else will take the deal and Notre Dame will remain independent. The Irish will have no problems scheduling, either. If the Big Ten schools don’t want to schedule Notre Dame, you can bet the farm Greg Sankey will offer to include Notre Dame in future scheduling. Remember this boys and girls: Greg Sankey and Notre Dame hold all the keys here, not the Big Ten or any other league.

For now, the Big Ten will hold at 16 teams

Follow the logic here: (1) The Big Ten isn’t going to get Notre Dame. (2) The Big Ten won’t expand again until the Pac-12 fails to land a decent TV contract. (3) When that happens, Oregon, Washington, California and Stanford will join the Big Ten. (4) When that happens the Big 12 will expand by adding Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. (5) The SEC will do absolutely nothing because it won’t have to do anything.

Alex Hickey, writing in Saturday Tradition, offered this: “A year after touting an Alliance with the ACC and Pac-12, (Big Ten commissioner Kevin) Warren made it clear that there are no allies in this world. The B1G is doing its own thing with little regard to how it affects the rest of the collegiate landscape.” Translation: It is only a matter of time before Warren finishes gutting the Pac-12.

I’m not buying the hype on …

Tennessee: The Vols beat only one team that finished more than a game over .500 last year. This year the Vols play Florida, LSU and Alabama on consecutive weeks and later have back-to-back Kentucky and Georgia. They also have to play Pittsburgh and South Carolina on the road. 6-6 if they’re lucky.

Miami: The Hurricanes have to play the Aggies in College Station, Clemson in Death Valley plus Virginia Tech and Virginia on the road.

Notre Dame: Everybody is gaga over Marcus Freeman, who doesn’t have a quarterback. There are four losses on that schedule: Ohio State, BYU, Clemson and Southern Cal.

Oregon: Bo Nix will be the quarterback. Any questions?

Cincinnati: They lost eight players to the NFL including their quarterback. Not good.

Texas A&M: Jimbo is 34-14 after four years. Dan Mullen was 34-15. Think about it.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: If I were not already convinced the NCAA’s sell-by date expired long ago, then new proposed transfer legislation has convinced me that it’s time for all the Division I football schools to FLEE as fast as they can. Set up shop. Form a football division completely independent of the NCAA. Write a new rulebook that makes sensible, enforceable rules. Make a player getting an NIL deal BEFORE he has been on campus for one academic year ineligible. Any transfer who doesn’t have at least a 2.5 GPA has to sit a year. Make Greg Sankey the commissioner of college football and give him Pete Rozelle powers. NCAA approving multiple transfers without sitting is insanity just as the current NIL rules (there are none) make no sense. FLEE. Leave the NCAA. NOW.