The world according to Jim:
• So, is college sports’ legal tampering period over yet?
(“Legal tampering,” of course, is the NFL term for negotiating in advance of free agency, and if nothing else it’s charmingly honest.)
But as the most recent excesses in the college football and basketball transfer portals have again demonstrated, the college game has more of the chaos with none of the charm and indeed, few of the contractual protections of the pros. …
• Things may get even messier, too. Judge Claudia Wilken put the litigants in House vs. NCAA on notice Thursday that the proposed settlement to that suit, which would basically bring profit sharing to Division I athletics, might be blown up if the parties didn’t address and remedy the potential loss of roster spots included in the deal.
The irony: Power conference administrators seem to be aghast that a federal judge would tell them how to do their jobs, not to mention holding them to the commitments they made to their athletes. …
• Suggested hashtag: #SaveTheWalk-ons.. …
• This latest development seems in keeping with the NCAA’s traditional approach: Fight progress and change for as long as you can, well past the point of reason, only to cost yourself far more money and control when the legal system rules on your business practices. How much simpler would it have been to just accept the concept of athletes as employees from the beginning? …
• But word is that if the settlement is approved, more than 150 NCAA rules would be eliminated. That would turn the Association’s enormous book of Division I bylaws into only an outrageously sized doorstop, instead of one you almost need a crane to lift. …
• All of this brings us to, I guess, the first actual “trade” in college football: Quarterback Nico Iamaleava jumped to UCLA after his failed holdout at Tennessee for an increase in NIL money, and quarterback Joey Aguilar – who had originally transferred to UCLA from Appalachian State – will take his place at Tennessee. Iamaleava’s younger brother, Madden, who is also a quarterback, likewise is coming to UCLA, transferring from Arkansas.
Ordinarily this would be a heartwarming story. Nico Iamaleava was a star at Warren High in Downey, and he and his brother were heavily recruited by UCLA (and Madden in fact committed to the Bruins before flipping to Arkansas). The local kids come home, right?
Uh, not so fast. …
• Nico’s messy “holdout” at Tennessee – sitting out the spring game reportedly in hopes of doubling his pay – is the sort of thing we see every summer in NFL camps: Disgruntled player under contract isn’t making as much as he thinks he should and wants to renegotiate. Only in this case, not only did Nico not get what he was asking for but he learned he wasn’t that indispensable to the Vols after all. …
• Just a thought: At what point did school-hopping, either as a high school player or a collegian, stop being a red flag or a suggestion that a player’s commitment couldn’t be trusted? Are there any coaches, scouts and personnel executives who still see the world that way, or no? …
• The wisest thing would be to change the transfer rule again: One free move, but a player would have to sit out a year with each subsequent transfer. But I’m guessing that proposal wouldn’t last more than the length of one lawsuit. (If the NCAA had recognized players as employees, maybe such improvements could have been hammered out in collective bargaining.) …
• Once college football is transformed into a Super League format – and I’m still convinced it’s coming – what follows will likely be all of the features of the NFL – salary caps, trades, waiver wires – with less of the efficiency and barely a nod to the supposed educational mission. Once that transformation takes place, it’ll be a wonder if any fans still remain true to their school. …
• Add college trades: We may already have seen one involving L.A.’s archrivals. Kobe Johnson transferred from USC’s men’s basketball program to UCLA for his senior season last year. When Londynn Jones entered the portal and changed her women’s basketball address from UCLA to USC, a transaction reported earlier this week and confirmed by USC on Thursday afternoon, did that make her the player to be named later? …
• In other news, have we already given up on declaring the Dodgers the greatest team in the history of history before the end of April?
Or, at least, are Dodger fans now praying they don’t see the Cubs in the postseason? …
• This reminder from Boston Globe colleague Dan Shaughnessy: “The Dallas Mavericks should have checked with the Boston Red Sox before trading Luka Doncic. Some decisions cause irreparable franchise harm. We are in year six of the post-Mookie (Betts) rubble and only now are the Sox beginning to emerge from the damage done.”
And which community has benefited from both deals? Thanks, Dallas, and thanks, Boston. …
• Springtime really is the best time of the year in sports, especially in a locality like ours that has, well, everything. Baseball is underway, the first night of the NFL draft featured Rams’ GM Les Snead morphing back into his “(Expletive) them picks” persona, and we have the Lakers, Kings and Clippers all embroiled in engrossing playoff series.
No place else in North America has three playoff series in its midst at the same time. That’s a reminder that L.A.’s frequent description as the “sports capital of the world” seems less boosterish and hokey and more of an accurate description of what’s available to us. …
• But here’s a drawback: Keeping track of one playoff series, with all of its twists and turns and storylines, is engrossing. Following two? Twice the material in the same limited window of time.
Being immersed in all three? That would make you a sicko. Or a columnist.
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