I appreciated coach’s honesty that the program was trying to help find Wrighster and Rasor a place to get snaps. The comment about Caden though “him and his team of people and his agent decided it was better for him to move on” - not sure who his “team” is but it didn’t sound flattering. There’s fiduciary guidance and there’s non-fiduciary grifting. I think the current setup allows the latter to masquerade as the former. I wouldn’t be surprised if 10 years from now we see a crop of cashed out crashed out dudes who earned too much too fast and blew all of it with help from greedy family members and agents.

kind of funny when I saw 1-1 conference record in a conference of 2. Technically co-champions?

that says plenty.

I'll be honest I knew he was gone months ago after talking with his mom), — Sailorgabe

Are you at liberty to share context of this statement?

I’m not disagreeing with you. I think it was a move to hedge against enrollment decline. And from what I understand, generally in small private universities athletics scholarships are a finance mechanism to move money between pockets and generate revenue on paper for dorms, dining halls, etc.

I read the athletes.org CBA framework. Having supervised several hundred represented employees, which I know is not quite the same, but my experience is that money is often the easier negotiation because both sides already know the valuation. Often the real PITA stuff has to do with work rules, which a lot of people greatly underestimate.

yeah, remember when the goal posts were just scholarship count and attendance? Those seem pedestrian now.

Regarding Mercer, I believe they added football to attract enrollment. Birth rates dropped in the 2008 financial crisis and Gen Z males are becoming increasingly apathetic toward college so some universities have decided sinking money in athletics is in fiduciary interest to attract students in what may turn to a buyers market. They don’t need a large fan base to fulfill their goal. University of South Alabama went from 0 to FBS in like 5 years. But it had the blank check support of the city, state, and a conference. Basically they actually did what Sac has wet dreams about. But they did it just before it got crazy expensive.

realistically, the bottom 1/3 of FBS belongs in FCS and the bottom 1/3 of FCS belongs in D2. Some of those football teams may have been dragged up by an asymmetrically better basketball team and the rest were chasing relevance. There’s a limit to the number of teams who are going to be national household names and the top 40 or so teams are extremely invested in making sure the door is shut and bolted behind them. The biggest shame is that the FCS and even D2 titles have such little relevance when they are arguably more honest football and seeding than FBS. MWC has historical tie ins to Bucked Up LA Bowl, Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl, Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, Idaho Potato Bowl, and Isleta New Mexico Bowl with pool appearances in others. Dare anyone to look at the day of the week and time those are. I totally get the strategy - in terms of size, academic prowess and contribution to society, Davis belongs in the same sentence with the likes of Michigan, not Eastern Washington - and athletics are perhaps the best way to build a brand name with the 70% of America that doesn’t have academic inclinations. But the road takes a lot of time, money, and probably mortgaged morals. Not to mention the Pacific time zone will always struggle with Central and Eastern time viewers and much of the country has an aversion to anything with California in the name (despite rabidly consuming products made there). So yeah, I think you’re right that greener grass appears closer than it is.

there is a distinction between parents providing advice, wisdom, and access to facts so their kid can reach an informed personal decision and parents who are yanking the marionette strings to grift off their kid. The latter is as shameful as Joe Jackson.

the cautionary tale is that the #10 or 20 TV market generally may not be the #10 or 20 market for football interest when you factor demographics.

the irony is they are graduating into a work world hesitating to hire college educated knowledge workers because shareholders think the same chatGPT they used to cheat might just be able to replace them. It is a difficult time for people trying to get on the corporate ladder.

athletes were not historically villains or victims. The villains were power conferences and cable tv monopolies in their probably unconstitutional overvaluation. The victims were cable subscribers and all the non-athlete students subsidizing the excess. Now the athletes have joined the SEC and Comcast in the circlejerk. They were never exploited in real terms, maybe just in comparison to what the conferences were getting. But yeah, the athletes joined the villain problem.

I’m not a lawyer, but seems like public entities like to keep their litigation quiet, even when it is the people’s business.

Have I made my money back in discounts and perks? No, probably not. It was maybe more of a pride purchase for me when they offered half off a lifetime membership. I live on the east coast, but the events might be more relevant if you live in CA. Some of the local chapters have regional events.

One thing to be aware of, you are likely to start getting fundraising calls every couple of months. Personal as to if you are in a position to donate. If you are, consider if there is a particular cause you have passion about.

Maybe off topic from the transfer portal but if you’re thinking across Hutchison Dr from the stadium, next to all the greenhouses, you are probably seeing the Resnick Center for Agricultural Innovation under construction. Part of the $50m gift from the POM juice fortune for the building and a perpetual research fund. Current research includes using pomegranate peels to enhance honeybee disease resistance and using walnut shells to clean winery wastewater.

from what I recall, Gould was a Terry Tumey hire and Tumey was a Katehi hire. Incompetence begot incompetence squared. I don’t know whether Katehi or Ralph Hexter fundamentally found Kevin Blue, but what a refreshing corner turn that was. Sure seemed like alumni and donors appeared out of nowhere after that. Wood would be wise to get out of his own way here and allow Orr to make a hire with some level of buy in from the Hornet community, but I don’t think that’s his style.

very much correct that there is a market for upgrades short of going business or first class. Just look at the number of “premium coach” seats on airlines. Chairs are more comfortable but they take more space, like 18-24” per seat versus bleachers are often in the 14” range so you’d trade capacity.

As for TV, sure you have more high angle shots that catch the west side when going to commercial but otherwise you don’t want to switch sides too much on the viewer. Sac does this. They put the main cameras on the east side to catch the home grandstand, maybe so you don’t notice the east side is empty with the upper level tarped. It was disorienting because the broadcasters were on the west side and they’d cut to a west side camera to show the refs. So it was a lot of wait, who’s going which direction?

the first guy moved to Davis HS, the next one to Oregon State. Both were problems. The next one was good, but he took the fall for what the OSU guy left. Don’t know the current director, but he’s been there 5 years and I have my thoughts as to the lack of growth and improvement.

I bet the Mondavi Center doesn’t actually pencil just on ticket sales either. There is a cost to build. Also a cost when you don’t build the right environment for the right people to do their deals. Fiduciary caution always wise but this looks like an indirect value play.

I haven’t been in person in a long time but the band cheers had started to disappear several years before the rebrand. I believe there was a staff director who didn’t like them a string of student directors who didn’t really understand the game.

redwoods require fire to reproduce. And this case, the fire has to be the special teams leadership. Gotta set aside the friendships there and fix it.