“Base salary.” That’s the way Texas Tech boosters are describing a program announced Monday that will pay 100 Red Raider football players $25,000 a year in Name-Image-Likeness (NIL) contracts. Payments will start in August and will be made to all 85 Texas Tech scholarship players plus 15 walk-ons. It’s legal, although nobody—and I mean nobody—fully understands the new NIL regulations and their impact on the sport.
Let’s all get acquainted with the word “collectives,” because it is now as big a part of college football lexicon as Cover 2 or Trips Right. “Collectives,” (the word does sound slightly socialist, does it not?) are outside booster groups that can engage in lining up NIL deals for players. Schools themselves cannot be involved, and NIL contracts cannot be used as recruiting inducements. Yes, I see your eyes rolling…
But the Tech program probably makes sense in the current college football landscape. The idea, according to new Red Raider head coach Joey McGuire, is to promote locker room equality and harmony, and reduce possible resentment and jealousy among players. The operative verb here is “reduce.” Individual Tech players will still be able to seek and secure additional NIL deals, so some Red Raider players will inevitably be more “equal” than others. But I understand, and to a degree even applaud, Tech’s effort to be pro-active and get “out front” of this perilous confusion.
Gee, I can’t wait to see how SMU handles all of this.
There will be no merger or partnership between the Big 12 and the Pac-12. That could a death knell for the remaining members of the Pac-12, who, like Richard Gere in “An Officer and a Gentleman, may now have “no place to go.”
Rams’ DL Bobby Brown has blown an opportunity. The second-year player from Texas A&M was in line to get more playing time this season, but that’s now on hold for a while. The NFL announced Monday that Brown has been suspended for six games for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.
Dear Lord…please don’t let tonight’s MLB All-Star Game be tied after nine innings. Please. After nine, the game will be settled by a variation of Home Run Derby. Lord…hear my prayer.
Nice win for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, who blew out defending Olympic champ Canada 1-nil (see, I’m cool) Monday night in Monterrey, Mexico. The victory earned the U.S. the championship of something called CONCACAF W and officially secured a berth in the 2024 Olympics. Sure, I’m pulling for them. They’re a lot more fun to watch than the men.
Longtime NBC golf commentator David Feherty reportedly is splitting to cover the Murderous Saudi Tour. I suggest that Feherty mail himself a fart, as he frequently and juvenilely sends friends.
