August 15, 2022
GOD BLESS UKRAINE AND THE USA!!!!
MORE PROPAGANDA!
Our next newsletter will be emailed at the end of August. Through HS Football season, we’ll be coming out weekly with JonFineProductions.com Newsletter. Scott Osborne and yours truly, Jon Fine, will alternate writing columns every other week, starting with our next newsletter.
JACKET FOOTBALL IN 12 DAYS!
Denham Springs HS Football Radio and Internet broadcasts return to the airwaves on Friday, August 26, 5:30 pm, with Sport N Center Yellow Jackets Warmup as we broadcast the Denham Springs vs Walker matchup in the Walker Jamboree. Josh Ward and Mitch Covington are on the call. I’ll be contributing to pre-game, half-time and post-game. Tune in to Family Radio, 91.9 FM, Baton Rouge or on the net at JonFineProductions.com. More details to come in our next newsletter.
DSAA MEETING
The next Denham Springs Athletic Association meeting will be tonight--Monday, August 15, at Big Mike’s Sports Bar & Grill, Aspen Square, Denham Springs, at 6:30 pm. The public is invited. The DSAA furnished us the following information:
We are so excited to get this year started! Our first meeting of the year will be Monday August 15th at 6:30 at Big Mike's! We will have updates on the facilities, sport spotlight and important information concerning the upcoming year. We hope to see you there.
A new year means it's time to renew your family membership. Membership is still just $25 for your family membership for the academic year. The membership form is attached for your convenience.
This year we also have an opportunity for you to celebrate the 125th birthday of our beloved Denham Springs High School. We are still running our 125 for $125. This will include your membership for the year, and you will receive a 125 DSHS official logo sticker to display as you like to show your pride in being a member of this great community!
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TODAY’S COLUMNS:
FINE IDEAS tackles some pressing college sports issues in the second of a 2 part series… THE WIZARDRY OF OS discusses LSU Football
Please scroll down below.
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FINE IDEAS
PART 2 of 2 on the state of college athletics:
For football and men’s basketball? It has become the Wild West, as schools are using NILs as another recruiting tool—perhaps rapidly becoming the biggest tool in their recruiting tool belt. There are virtually no NIL regulations, none are standard throughout the country, and the few state-specific rules that have been established are rarely enforced.
Now, there are some business arrangements where athletes provide services and are compensated an amount commensurate to what they produce in return. Yet, in many cases, athletic departments are indirectly furnished the opportunity to help illegally fund their “money” athletes and have the cover of plausible deniability. As more colleges get more organized, they will find more illicit ways to funnel dough to more of their top revenue producing athletes via NIL.
What often was done under the table previously will be made, ostensibly, above board via NIL and be widespread. The big-time boosters will be toting the load, as they always have, but this time not under the table, but under the guise of NIL legitimacy.
The Transfer Portal—where athletes declare their intention to transfer, with all colleges given access to this information—has provided a valuable service to college athletes and universities. The fact that athletes can only use the portal once to transfer needs to be explored. After all, coaches can perennially make themselves available to the highest bidder. I’m not sure if athletes should be restricted to employing this transfer vehicle only once in their college careers. Then again, schools are entitled to some stability too.
To chase the big-time loot that the networks pay for football/some men’s basketball rights, we’ve seen the shuffling of schools within the Power 5 conferences. A year ago, Oklahoma and Texas announced they were eventually (2 or 3 years from now) leaving the Big 12 for the SEC. Just recently, the Big 10 cherry picked the Pac 12 for the future services of USC and UCLA. Many believe this will precipitate the departure of several ACC, Big 12 and Pac 12 schools (and Notre Dame) for the greener environs of the SEC and Big 10. Eventually, the thinking is that there will be 2 super-conferences. I would take this one step further.
An aside… Many fans, like myself, would love to see college football and basketball go back to its hay day of numerous conferences with intense league rivalries. Unfortunately, there is no going back. So, with that qualifier on the record, here is what I would like to see happen:
The 2 prospective Super Conferences will need to merge. There should be one conference (league) for a majority of the present Power 5 Conference schools and Notre Dame. They would play football and men’s basketball. These athletes become employees of their universities. They are directly compensated by the universities, but retain the right to pursue NIL deals, which are strictly regulated by the league to mitigate against impropriety. Football and men’s basketball would retain all of its revenue, setting them free from propping up other non-revenue sports in their athletic departments, and, yes, making it feasible to pay their athletes.
There would be conferences and divisions like exist in pro sports. —Think the NFL or NBA. There would be a commissioner of football and one for men’s basketball. Players would have the right to collectively bargain.
Now, under the system I propose, I’m not sure how many “non-revenue” sports are sustainable, unless they’re underwritten by their universities. The super conference/league concept is not viable here either. Certainly, there’d be no way most of these teams could afford to compensate their athletes.
How would these “non-revenue” sports be funded? They would be via the revenue they generate, contributions from their private booster money and, as mentioned above, with a healthy dose of university money, if the university should be so inclined. Maybe these sports’ alumni could be tapped. Maybe large corporations would be willing to issue grants.
In some cases (UConn Women’s Basketball, LSU Baseball, Iowa Wrestling, UCLA Softball, North Carolina Women’s Soccer, perhaps, are examples), teams could pay for themselves, possibly even be able to pay their athletes. More power to those that could afford to do this.
Another source of revenue? The late George Steinbrenner, the bombastic one-time owner of the NY Yankees, had an interesting idea for colleges with budget draining Olympic sports. Boy George proposed to let the US Olympics movement subsidize these training ground college programs.
There would have to be true Gender Equity proportionality, strictly enforced, but football and men’s basketball scholarship numbers would be excluded.
Right now, there is a broken system in college sports. The NCAA has become a deferential, ineffectual body, which wields no control. Many football and men’s basketball players are starting to get legally paid under the guise of unregulated NIL rights of dubious integrity.
Yet, sorry about being repetitive… but, the profits many football and men’s basketball programs produce is going into many pockets, but none of their players. Football and men’s basketball players don’t earn a Dime from their athletic departments. How is this equitable? College football and men’s basketball are big business. They operate as such in every way, except in compensating the employees most responsible for their thriving products—its players.
This needs to change. Will it? Probably not. The narrative in society—which I believe has extended to college sports-- is diametrically opposed to paying football and men’s basketball players. There is a present cry for equal opportunity for all in society. The operative words have become inclusion and equity. And you can count me in on giving everyone access to an equal shot—in, proverbially, levelling the playing field.
But, the fundamentals of this movement are being misapplied to college athletics. Certainly, men and women deserve the same opportunity to thrive in college “non-revenue” sports. Yet, the prevailing wisdom is that this equality/equity should be all-encompassing, with football and men’s basketball being part of the equation. This is fundamentally unfair. In a certain ironic sense, the supporters of equal opportunity sports conditions—irrespective of a sport’s revenue producing ability--have become proponents of the concept that many decry. I’ll call this Non-Revenue Sport Privilege!
Yet, it is not viewed in that prism by most. And will likely never be. Until it is, revenue producing athletes (largely football and men’s basketball players) on campus will never be compensated by their universities. And, many of the other ideas espoused in this column, which some might find sound theoretically, will likely have no practical application.
THE WIZARDRY OF OS
BY SCOTT OSBORNE, Head Basketball Coach, Central HS
I have to admit it. By the time LSU kicked off against UCLA last year, I thought the “experts” were wrong and the Tigers were going to have a pretty good year. Geez, was I wrong.
The experts are predicting another rough year for LSU, and I am in no position to disagree. Still, as a fan, who will always hope for the best, I wonder what it would take for LSU to have a season that proves the experts wrong.
When I look at the roster, I see numerous players who did not excel at LSU in 2021 for one reason or another, but could be excellent players in 2022.
The first group are players who did not attend LSU last year. Tre’Mond Shorts, Mles Frazier, and Will Campbell are three likely starters on the offensive line who fall in this category. Normally, that would be scary, but Shorts and Frazier were highly sought after transfers. Campbell could be in the mold Todd McClure/Ben Wilkerson who started and excelled on the offensive line from day one.
Jayden Daniels and Noah Cain are the other two players on offense new to LSU, but experienced in the world of power 5 football. I doubt either one is destined to be All-SEC, but they set the bar high. If they do not start, it means someone else is playing very well.
One of the reasons LSU is not highly thought of is that the someone else I am referring to at quarterback and running back were on the roster last year, but did not play. While all the buzz from camp right now is about Nussmeier and Daniels, I still have a tough time seeing how a 23 year old Myles Brennan does not play a role this year. Maybe I am wrong and Brennan is not the guy. Regardless, that would still mean that Daniels or Nussmeier is playing lights out. The internal competition has to be elevating the performance at the position.
At running back, it is all about the development of John Emery. A backfield of Emery, Cain, and Goodwin has the blend of talent that we are used to seeing from LSU.
The other player in the category of being on the roster, but not impacting the team last year is, Kayshon Boutte. A player of his caliber changes the game. The defense has to over commit to slow him down and that just makes it easier for everyone else on offense.
From Shorts, Frazier, Campbell, Daniels or Brennan, Cain or Emery, and Boutte could come six starters that did not or barely played for LSU last year. All of them are upperclassmen who have excelled at some point or another in college except for Campbell.
The defense tells the same story. Maason Smith is like Kayshon Boutte. When he played, he was dominant as a freshman. He was simply hurt most of the season. If he takes the expected step this year, he will force offensive lines to account for him on every play, which makes it easier on everyone else.
The secondary has Joe Foucha, Jarrick Bernard-Converse, Greg Brooks, and Sevyn Banks who have been extremely productive in power five football. Meanwhile, the highest draft pick might be Mekhi Garner who transferred from ULL. This secondary does not enter the season looking like the shiny new sports car we are used to at LSU. It is not Stingley/Ricks of a couple years ago. But isn’t LSU the team with the reputation of looking shiny and fancy but does not actually produce or play together? What if this group just uses its experience and work ethic to play fast, together, and actually be productive on the field?
The theme is repetitive at linebacker. West Weeks and Kolbe Fields were not on the roster last year. Mike Penn and Mike Jones were, but did not play much. When Mike Jones transferred from Clemson, the experts thought he would be a star and be in the NFL right now as a top 1-2 round pick. What if they were just one year nd a coaching staff off?
I know what you are thinking or at least what I am thinking as I type. “Those are a bunch of question marks.” We are correct, and that is why the experts are not going to go out on a limb. The odds say that question marks are more bust than boom.
But that way of thinking comes from an era where the question marks were true freshmen, players that had never started, or juco transfers. LSU’s question marks are returning from injury who had been very productive or were productive players at power five or quality mid major programs.
Honestly, I am guarded in my optimism. Though, I can’t shake the feeling that a 9 win season is very possible.
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