SEC Commissioner Doubles Down, Officially Asks NCAA to Ban Spring Training Practices
A few days ago, I had never heard of Greg Sankey. Now he's my favorite guy in the world. This morning, he officially asked the NCAA to make Jim Harbaugh stop.
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/201…
February 12th, 2016 at 4:29 PM ^
It's time to ban football games and basketball tournaments Thanksgiving weekend.
February 12th, 2016 at 4:46 PM ^
Kids want to be with their families for the Holiday Break, not practicing for or playing in bowl games.
February 12th, 2016 at 4:59 PM ^
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February 12th, 2016 at 11:20 PM ^
February 12th, 2016 at 7:06 PM ^
And then there are the four weeks during August when young adults spend carefree days sunning, drinking, and screwing. I'm sure football players, especially those in the southeast, would rather be drifting on the lake with nubile young ladies sharing spirits and spit than working up a lather twice a day in the sweltering heat of Lord Saban's laser like gaze.
February 12th, 2016 at 5:57 PM ^
raised his hackles wih the spring football thing on students off-time just flies in the face of the other hypocritial crap spawned by the the college football machine which overlooks all other collegiate athletic programs as drains on the financiai system. He is what he is, a banker with a broker mentality. He talks around the issue and pretends what he's saying has influence.
February 12th, 2016 at 7:13 PM ^
February 12th, 2016 at 4:31 PM ^
February 12th, 2016 at 4:33 PM ^
I have no problem with them moving to ban it, but yeah, just come out and say you don't want to lose your location-based recruiting advantage. Everyone sees through the pathetic "player well being, cutting into their break" argument.
February 12th, 2016 at 4:41 PM ^
Truth be told, there are arguments in favor of limiting this sort of thing, and some of them do involve player well-being. (There are also counter arguments based on player well-being, so it cuts both ways.) But from what I understand, Michigan and others have previously used Spring Break for practices, meaning that the only thing new here is Michigan's choice of location. That's why he looks disingenuous; there's no evidence (that I've seen) that the timing ever bothered him before.
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February 12th, 2016 at 4:42 PM ^
I have no problem with it either. This is perhaps the best free marketing and advertising for the Michigan football program one could imagine. If we hadn't just landed the nation's #1 recruit, I would say this is the best thing to happen all year. And even if it somehow does get banned before Harbaugh can follow through this year, he will come up with something new to gain an advantage within the rules that pisses everyone in Johnny Reb territory off. I <3 U JH...
February 13th, 2016 at 12:27 AM ^
So it would seem that Sankey's argument, taken to its logical end, is that Harbaugh should reschedule the Florida trip to conflict with an actual week of classes. According to the SEC, that would be just fine.
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February 13th, 2016 at 5:22 AM ^
when asked if he can deny that the SEC's latest NC involved a demand, not a request, for their entire football team to sacrifice any benefits which might be gained by taking advantage of their built in scheduled break, how, realistically will he be able to counter? . It sickens me to read about some ass hat fuck stick like this espousing the absolute necessity for schools to not even consider infringing on the athlete's free time provided by these breaks not even a month after Alabama used the entire fucking month in preparation for not one, but two fucking nationally televised games. Now how in the fuck is this less of an infrigement on allowing, ""not demanding" a team to take advantage of its spring break by flying to Fl, on the school's dime, although there is an understanding football related events will occur? This is an opportunity most of these young men have not experienced yet and the opportunity to bond with teammates without the pressures associated with preparation for an upcoming football game is one of the greatest opportunities these young men have been presented to date.
Hey Dickweed, Alabama decidated the entire fucking break, you deem so essential to the welfare of the student to prepare for two football matches and you think this is somehow going to be ignored by those you are preaching to? You are not presenting a case to a group consisting of SEC like intelligence so, sir, raise the level of your fucking game or remove your ass from the venue. Time to get back to business.
The transparency of his agenda is so obvious that a commissioner from an actual conference, one that includes, at minimum, occassional visits to scheduled classes as an obvious and necessary courtesy for nothing more than a token of appreciation for enhancing the likelihood of becoming a mult-millionaire before age 22 could not pull off the act he is attempting.
Yeah, I think it a very wise idea to shine a light on your conference that has gained its prestige by taking every advantage imaginable of its student athletes, and to do so under the pretense that you actually give a fuck about their welfare is ridiculous. You do understand, don't you, that you were hired for your current position with an understanding that you, under no circumstances whatsoever, were to act in a manner that could conceivably cause those not welcome to look further into the strange occurrences rumored to take place down yonder in SEC country? Given the nature of your comments, I am thinking you acted without the advice of conference coaches, a breach of etiquette so glaringly irresponsible you may have placed your job in jeapordy. You, Sir, are a hole of ass of such large measurement that prior to now have only been rumored to exist.
February 12th, 2016 at 6:24 PM ^
Why do you have no problem with moving to ban it. If the student athlete is a legitmate concern then having the week off of finals is much more beneficial.
February 12th, 2016 at 6:48 PM ^
The thing is, a reasonable argument to ban it can be made. There is a former college player I follow on Twitter named Michael Felder who made a couple legit arguments against it, and that is from the players' perspective. Fine, I don't happen to agree that banning it would be good for all or even most players, but I see that viewpoint.
But the SEC obviously doesn't particularly care about the players and has co-opted a legitimate argument for its own benefit. What these suckers don't even realize is that it doesn't matter if they ban it. It will go into effect after this spring, and Harbaugh is already on to the next idea. He's already winning, making them look foolish and getting all the media attention in 2017. He's miles ahead.
February 12th, 2016 at 7:32 PM ^
Its really refreshing to come to a blog where people express a variety of opinions and some are open-minded enough to consider the "other" side. I don't look at blogs for other teams, but I imagine a lot of them have nothing but homerism.
February 12th, 2016 at 8:00 PM ^
Felder & some others pointed out one important issue: there are relatively few weeks during the year where scholarship football players have completely unscheduled free time (no classes and no football). Taking away Spring Break is one of those few weeks.
But I think you will get a variety of opinions from former & current players. Like Jake Butt posted on Twitter, some kids would trade that Spring Break week for a week without football during Finals. But I am sure there are some kids & families that would prefer having that Spring Break free too, and by scheduling this spring break football trip, you are taking that option away from the players.
One thing Felder ignores though: players from the Midwest may enjoy having a spring football trip. Because he played at UNC, a lot of these opinions are coming from players in the South where they never had to have "spring" football in Northern-type conditions. Playing football in those conditions can be tough and sometimes even worse than the regular fall football weather. I think his opinion may be different if he played at a Midwestern or East Coast school.
February 12th, 2016 at 8:27 PM ^
Yeah, I found that first point you mentioned the most compelling. I was just thinking back to my college days and as far as free time, my experience was basically the total opposite of what an athlete has to deal with. Yes, they almost universally love the sport they are playing and yes they get a scholarship. But I can empathize with a kid who just wants a week or two a year off from all those obligations, basically wants to live like a normal 19 year old.
February 12th, 2016 at 4:32 PM ^
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February 12th, 2016 at 4:48 PM ^
I can't believe Delaney hasn't issued a statement about this Harbaugh issue or any other Harbaugh issue. Dude's flaccid
February 12th, 2016 at 8:55 PM ^
Which is ironic given how hard he lobbied for OSU to play in the Sugar Bowl a couple years back despite that whole cheating thing with Tressell.
February 12th, 2016 at 5:04 PM ^
Not all of Delaney's B1G constituency is necessarily going to like Harbaugh's Southern forays. To Harbaugh's credit, part of his "play" here is that Michigan football is profitable enough to allow him to ship the team to FL for a week of practice. It's pocket change in the grand scheme of things to Michigan (or to OSU or other very profitable programs). Michigan's revenue sports are profitable, and it makes sense for them to petition for means to access fertile recruiting grounds. I'd suspect the "have-got" schools are asking Delaney for support.
But the tremendous profitability is not uniform across the B1G. Look at schools like IU, Rutgers, Minnesota, etc. Those schools with less-profitable programs still have to compete with Michigan. And it may not be "in budget" for them to do offsite camp. Those "have-not" schools may be well-served to echo the SEC/ACC line.
Point being, that Delaney may not have a clear mandate from the member schools on this issue.
(Ewwwh, I just defended Delaney. I feel ... ewwwh.)
February 12th, 2016 at 5:33 PM ^
To be fair...revenue is shared among the teams in the conference.
February 12th, 2016 at 5:42 PM ^
You are right --- some conference revenue sources ARE shared and that's a good thing. The B1G does have less variation (as measured by standard deviation divided by average) in revenue between programs vs. other conferences (e.g., the Big XII). All 14 schools being partners in BTN is the primary reason for the relatively low degree of variation.
But still, the differences that remain are nowhere near insignificant.
February 12th, 2016 at 7:09 PM ^
Fine, they can charter buses instead of planes and they can pitch tents at the local KOA.
February 12th, 2016 at 5:56 PM ^
I get that TV revenue is shared. But that's just a piece of the revenue puzzle. A big piece, but just a piece.
Put another way, Nike would like to have a word with you. Now if Rutgers recently signed a huge apparel deal, do spill. I missed that press release.
February 12th, 2016 at 6:21 PM ^
I don't mean to bring politics into it. But not being happy with increasing your own revenue simply because others have more seems like a backward, socialist mentality to me.
Kudos for the Robert Palmer reference and not the Thompson Twins.
February 12th, 2016 at 7:45 PM ^
Someone on the board (MGrowOld?) relayed an apt parable from Russia or somesuch. The story is that a Russian peasant is bitter about his lot in life. His crops didn't grow, his family is malnourished and poor, his children are sick, and he has a neighbor that he despises because the neighbor has two cows while the peasant has none.
One day, while tilling his field, he finds an old lantern. He polishes it, and a spirit appears and offers him one wish. The peasant is ecstatic - his big day is here! "Spirit, grant me this wish - I want my neighbor's cows to die." Maybe we've got a few Russian peasants in the conference.
But I think it's not necessarily irrational for the have-nots' to oppose Harbaugh's Southern camp tactic. Not for revenue reasons, but for competitive reasons. Why should Harbaugh, Meyer, Franklin etc. get to go to Florida for camp if my school can't afford to? Michigan, OSU, etc. are already kicking our asses on the field, the last thing I want is for them to get more of a recruiting advantage by investing in camps.
February 12th, 2016 at 7:50 PM ^
If you have a friend who is a true player, the kind that always has them three deep. Do you not hang out with him because he gets all the tang or do you buy the beers and hang out all the time for the overflow? In this case we are the players and Indiana should be buying the beers for the overflow trim.
February 12th, 2016 at 7:52 PM ^
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February 12th, 2016 at 5:41 PM ^
February 12th, 2016 at 5:57 PM ^
It could be argued that this could also indirectly help the recruiting efforts of schools in the midwest who cant afford to take thier team to Florida. Every recruit we take from outside of our footprint leaves one nearby for the lower revenue teams to pursue. IMO this is good for the entire B1G.
February 12th, 2016 at 5:59 PM ^
Double post. Ill take this time though to apologise for not reading one more post before I submitted mine.
February 12th, 2016 at 6:51 PM ^
Even Dantonio has said he is seriously considering doing something similar. And State is not the richest school in the conf.
February 12th, 2016 at 7:56 PM ^
Michigan State would have a Doublewide. UM, OSU, PSU live down the road in the big houses that behind a gate to keep there kids out. I guess what I am saying is State is going to play in Daytona.
February 12th, 2016 at 8:22 PM ^
February 12th, 2016 at 5:42 PM ^
Delaney's busy negotiating the addition of Oxford and Cambridge to the Big Ten. First step was expanding to the east coast, next step is expanding across the Atlantic.
February 12th, 2016 at 6:01 PM ^
Man I was hoping for SNHU for the national footprint. Oxford and Cambridge play a wierd type of football where the ball is round.
February 12th, 2016 at 4:32 PM ^
Is this news / new? Thought that's what he said he was going to do, and now he's done it.
February 12th, 2016 at 4:33 PM ^
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February 12th, 2016 at 4:34 PM ^
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February 12th, 2016 at 4:41 PM ^
He may be worse than Gary Bettman. He's just letting Harbaugh twist in the wind while the SEC and ACC commissioners stick up for their conference. Must mean Delaney is not capable of forming an intelligent response.
February 12th, 2016 at 4:45 PM ^
February 12th, 2016 at 5:52 PM ^
Never wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.
February 12th, 2016 at 7:55 PM ^
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February 12th, 2016 at 4:49 PM ^
Delany has always seemed to favor OSU to me. Always willing to fight for any cause that helped OSU so my guess is he won't lift a finger to help Michigan.
February 12th, 2016 at 6:33 PM ^
This issue is as important to OSU as it is to Michigan. Keeping Big Ten schools out of the Southeast to protect the SEC's recruiting monopoly under false pretenses hurts OSU as much as Michigan.
February 12th, 2016 at 4:59 PM ^
February 12th, 2016 at 6:03 PM ^
Good thing he just signed a six year extension.