It’s hard to believe they have taken a once great sport and found a way to absolutely ruin it. Then refuse to at least put some sort of guide rails/stucture around it. Unbelievable.
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Yeah but at least we know the kids will have fun dancing to the music and eating ice cream at practice and winding down afterwards with a few video games in the players lounge. College life can be quite demanding and stressful..
Guess I’ll just go back to pulling for that big “A” in the middle of the field, like when I was a little kid and couldn’t comprehend much.
Calling them student athletes at this point is just an oxymoron. They aren't even real students anymore. I hate this more everyday. It isn't going to take much more before I check out.
I retired in 2021 after 29 years as a leadership and management consultant. Mostly I helped small and medium-sized companies with two things ... hiring people who would shine in the job, and ... "tuning" their Executive Teams to be more effective. (Some of my best "war stories" come from businesses who chose to hire THAT PERSON against my recommendation. Usually within 6 months they'd bring me back to ask me, to "Tell us again what you predicted 'Sally' would do when she was overwhelmed with the requirements of the job?")
One of the biggest complaints I heard was, "These new hires are supposed to have already graduated from college. Why do WE have to put them through remedial education in ... Writing ... Accounting ... How to talk on the phone(!) ... Report Writing ... etc., just so they can *function* in the business world?"
Imagine, if you will, a day when the Alabama QB agrees to return and signs an agreement....then the coaching staff and fans find out the next day on social media that he's leaving for another school.
This stuff is not sustainable.
On the other hand, look at Shaquille O'Neil: Entered the NBA in '92 ... BA in 2000 ... Masters in 2005 ... PhD in 2012. When he left LSU for the NBA he promised his mom he'd graduate from college.
He's managed his money very very well. He's very personally involved in his investments.
He's managed his money very very well. He's very personally involved in his investments.
Which goes back to the question, I continued to ask: what in the world does a player and a team that is basically professional in every sense of the word have to do with the academic mission of a university? These are basically professional athletes, simply wearing branded university uniforms, and playing on Saturdays. You might be able to say it promotes the university brand and drives endowment and drives increased enrollment and interest in the school. However, to sit there and think that you’re giving kids opportunities and academic achievement by giving them a scholarship to attend your university is completely intellectually dishonest.
His story about that is interesting. A lot of the accountant/money manager types he interviewed were very flashy and almost the point of "You can spend the money you have, we'll manage it." Then he interviewed a almost none-existent guy, who was very no-nonsense, and Shaq loved him. I think he's the one managing the money, or at least did so at the start of Shaq's professional career.
Think about this if you really want to understand where things have gone. If I were to ask most any one which university in the Southeastern Conference represents the highest in standards and academic achievement, I think most would say “Vanderbilt”.
And who was “the face” of Vandy football the past two years? Diego Pavia. Not exactly the type of guy we all would hope our daughter would “bring home to mom and dad”.
I just heard Cubelic on WJOX this morning talk about changes at Vanderbilt and Clark Lea’s program. Lea basically told Cole that he wasn’t concerned with molding young men, shaping their character to be the best husband, father, or man they couid be. This was simply because “In two years they transfer somewhere else and come back and beat our brains in”. In other words, he saying I’m here to create football players for the here and now. Who cares about character? They aren’t going be here any way after a year or two.
And this isn’t Alabama, or Georgia, or LSU. This is VANDERBILT.
And who was “the face” of Vandy football the past two years? Diego Pavia. Not exactly the type of guy we all would hope our daughter would “bring home to mom and dad”.
I just heard Cubelic on WJOX this morning talk about changes at Vanderbilt and Clark Lea’s program. Lea basically told Cole that he wasn’t concerned with molding young men, shaping their character to be the best husband, father, or man they couid be. This was simply because “In two years they transfer somewhere else and come back and beat our brains in”. In other words, he saying I’m here to create football players for the here and now. Who cares about character? They aren’t going be here any way after a year or two.
And this isn’t Alabama, or Georgia, or LSU. This is VANDERBILT.
Speaking of Pavia, what are the chances he actually has a degree in anything?
And that's why the whole thing is unsustainable to me.
Saban was always about building character, building value for yourself......the young kids would come in and have to work.
As McCarron said on a podcast this week.....kids coming out of high school are demanding 500k to 700k to a million. You give it to them, you can't expect them to actually put in the work anymore. Now they go to suddenly having money with their family and friends wanting money, they'll go buy jewelry and cars and all sorts of things.
Instead of the kids at Indiana that didn't start out with all that money and are still working their butts off to achieve more and more.
College football is lost
- kids coming in now are given windfall money
- kids don't have to necessarily put in the hours of work every day to perfect their craft
- kids are not building character anymore
- coaches are pushing to build character (they can't really, the kids will just leave)
- all this hurts the product on the field, lack of sharpness
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Per year
Even Henry Ruggs recently graduated while in prison.
Coach Wimp Sanderson ; when asked by a reporter how many of his players graduated, " Everyone of them that wanted to"
Especially since it appears that no players actually have to go to class anymore.
7 years in college. He's gotta be about 1/2 way to a degree by now
A sidebar on Shaq, ever notice that his best brand commercials are with companies going through DOWNWARD transitions? Looking at you RadioShack and now JCPennies
on another note, the auburn football program is now USF 2.O.
they have 11 USF transfers since the portal open!
I guess Golesh has convinced the barn faithful all your needs will be met with the guys he recruited.
we shall see how this will work out.
USF was ranked #91 for the 2026 team rankings.
in 2025 they were ranked # 73
in 2024 they were ranked # 68
in 2023 they were ranked # 80
the years I listed are the Alex Golesh years as HC at USF.
they have 11 USF transfers since the portal open!
I guess Golesh has convinced the barn faithful all your needs will be met with the guys he recruited.
we shall see how this will work out.
USF was ranked #91 for the 2026 team rankings.
in 2025 they were ranked # 73
in 2024 they were ranked # 68
in 2023 they were ranked # 80
the years I listed are the Alex Golesh years as HC at USF.
I like Shaq and he does some really great work. But you don't really think he did all the work to get a PhD do you?
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