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What’s Going On Eats Things On The Internet

Might want to stick to food items, guys

In July 2014, this happened:

Then the Falcons went 6-10. So, this happened:

This was major news on Twitter at the time. I legitimately spent a night watching a guy eat a hat and was not alone in doing so. After that, you would think people would be more cautious about vowing to eat things on Twitter. You would be wrong, though:

You may remember Snottie as the guy who agreed to a fight in Temecula on Christmas in 2014, only to not show, thus inspiring this:

So, yeah, wouldn’t count on Snottie eating that hat.

— Die Wrecked Her (@YoungQwan) April 14, 2016

Freeze with a hot take

After the NCAA banned satellite camps, Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze lauded the decision:

Jim Harbaugh did what he does and responded

Prompting this from Freeze:

He said that on Mike & Mike, which, last I checked, is pretty public. Way to know what words mean, Hugh.

Hugh Freeze makes $4.9 million a year to coach D-I college football, which is a very time-consuming occupation. Nobody put a gun to his head and forced him to take that job. Nobody put a gun to his head and forced him to participate in satellite camps. The whole “I’m away from home too much already” argument just doesn’t hold any water. If you didn’t want to participate in the camps, don’t. If you really want to spend time with your family that much, give up the seven-figure salary and go spend time with them. You are totally free to do so.

Magnus at Touch The Banner talked about why he thought ruling on the camps was necessary. I like Magnus and his site, so I’m not going to be too mean here, but come on, man…

CONS

– The American Idol Effect. My problem with American Idol and shows like it has always been that if you were meant to be discovered and famous as a singer, someone probably would have discovered you and made you famous already. In the cases of the players mentioned in the first bullet point above (Kiante Enis, Antwaine Richardson, Victor Viramontes, Rashad Weaver), they signed with Indiana, Maryland, Cal, and Pitt, respectively. Those are okay programs, but they’re not Michigan, Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, USC, etc. Those players were ultimately set up for disappointment and negative attention when they didn’t sign with Michigan, and Michigan didn’t come out of it looking so hot, either. Perhaps Michigan gave them the juice to earn those other scholarships, or maybe Indiana, Maryland, Cal, and Pitt would have come calling, anyway. It’s hard to say.

If you want to criticize Harbaugh for the way he handled telling guys he wasn’t going to accept their commitment, that’s fine. He should be more direct with guys in the future. But, first of all, some kids really are just under the radar, sometimes as a result of not having the means to get themselves out there. I don’t know the specifics of every situation, but I’m going to guess that some kids who attend these camps, but maybe weren’t going to cut it at Michigan or another top program were given non-committable offers. Yes, I know, that sounds kind of silly. Welcome to the world of recruiting. They may have said they’re committed to that school, because putting “Michigan commit” in their Twitter bio looks pretty good and might make other programs think “Hey, this guy’s committed to Michigan; he’s obviously pretty good. Maybe we should take a look at him.” It is just a way for kids to get more exposure.

– Unmitigated interactions with players/families leads to shady dealings. Michigan may not be a “dirty” program – though it’s probably naive to think that some Wolverine somewhere doesn’t cross the line – but bringing college teams and all their various personnel to random cities leads to all kinds of opportunities for inappropriate interactions…

That “various personnel” includes compliance officers. Magnus goes on to list opportunities for boosters to give prospects money to entice them to come to their schools. One he leaves out though – the other camps that already exist, such as Nike camps and things of that nature. Those are the camps where there are no compliance officers in sight and some shady dealings are likely to occur.

 – Coaches have lives, too.

I just talked about this. This holds no water.

 – They favor the big boys. Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, USC, etc., have the money to set up camps, travel the country, and do these types of things. I don’t know that San Jose State, Old Dominion, UTSA, and Middle Tennessee State, among others, have the budget to do so…

The big boys have the money to set up the camps, but it’s the non-Power 5 schools who tend to find the most players at these camps. For the big boys, it’s about exposure. If they find an under-the-radar gem, so much the better.

Elsewhere: MGoBlog on reactions to camps and their banning. Brian rips into comments from Dennis Dodd and Mike Florio. Worth the read.

Here comes the moneyyyyy…

The NCAA negotiated a new TV deal for the NCAA men’s tourney to the tune of $8.8 billion with a b for 8 years. The NCAA sent this tweet out afterward:

Sounds great. Except the amount that actually directly benefits athletes is just slightly less.

According to the NCAA, just 15 percent of the money distributed to schools has to be used to aid athletes financially for academic purposes (like summer school) or if they are overwhelmingly burdened by the association’s amateurism rules. A whopping 85 percent of the money can be used however schools want it to be used. The NCAA does earmark five percent of the money for academic assistance and three percent for student support, but the association notes that schools are merely “encouraged” to use the money for those purposes.

Kevin Trahan at Awful Announcing did a great job with that article and goes more in-depth on where that money actually goes. Some of it goes to paying coaches, which it was argued, benefits the athletes. That argument was pretty much disregarded in the O’Bannon trial. Like I said, Trahan explains this in a lot more detail – the article’s definitely worth a read.

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com

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