Ole Miss entered Week 2 of fall camp Friday, holding a scrimmage in privacy that afternoon and a public practice on Saturday. There are still two-plus weeks until the Rebels' season opener in Atlanta against Boise State. There are plenty of topics to occupy us until then. For example, U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken issued a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in the O'Bannon vs. NCAA case, one day after autonomy passed to give the Power Five conferences more control. The NFL preseason got started, a deal was struck to send Kevin Love to Cleveland and make the Cavaliers a favorite to win the Eastern Conference next season, Rory McIlroy continued to lead a charmed existence and Kevin Durant left the U.S. national team less than one week after Paul George's horrific injury in Las Vegas. My thoughts on those topics and more, brought to you courtesy of Oxford-based RE/MAX Legacy Realty agent Harry Alexander.
Speaking of Harry, I'm thrilled to have him join the RebelGrove.com family. He helped support our coverage of the College World Series in the summer and now he's become a significant sponsor of the site.
Harry grew up in Grenada and has been coming to Rebel sporting events since he was a tike. Throughout those years he's watched Oxford grow and change. His dad was a photographer and took lots of pictures for Ole Miss during the 50's, 60's, and 70's. For Harry, the highlight of some of those early years was taking down the names and addresses of cheerleaders from around the country whose pictures he would take during Ole Miss' Summer Cheerleader Camp. He'd stay at the old Alumni House, swim at the pool, hit the Alumni House for breakfast, The Grill for lunch, and the cafeteria for dinner. Harry enrolled at Ole Miss in 1972, graduated in 1976, moved to Jackson and then moved back to Oxford in 1981. He opened a business, Alexander's, downtown in 1981 and then owned Syd & Harry's until 1992. Harry knows Oxford. He knows every street in Oxford, and he knows the real estate business in Oxford. He's seen values escalate higher than he would have ever imagined and he doesn't see the market even coming close to slowing down. Because of that, folks interested in buying Oxford real estate need to be represented by someone who knows the lay of the land, literally and figuratively. Through the years, Harry has been Past President of the Oxford Downtown Council, Past President of the L-O-U Chamber of Commerce, Board of Directors of the Chamber and EDF, Elder in the First Presbyterian Church, Chapter Advisor of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, member of the Oxford Planning Commission, Past President of the North MS Board of Realtors and Realtor of the Year in 2010.
As Oxford began to really take off in the late 90's, Harry needed a bigger platform to get the real estate word out. That is when he started looking at a national brand and when we purchased the RE/MAX banner. For the last several years, Harry's office has been the No. 1 office in the state in regard to sales. Last year, he sold a little over $15,000,000, putting him at No. 2 in the state for real estate sales under the RE/MAX brand. Harry knows the residential and condo market well. He knows what something is worth and what the market will pay for it. He knows his business and he knows Oxford.
1. There are still 18 days or so until the start of the season, so there's time to fix problems and --- as Ole Miss learned the hard way Friday --- time for new concerns to pop up. Anyway, here are a few overall observations from the practices I've seen leading up to the opener with the Broncos.
A. Bo Wallace is poised for his best season. He's healthy, confident and in control.
B. Offensive line play is going to determine this team's season. If I were an Ole Miss fan, I'd be concerned about the interior of the line and absolutely petrified regarding the (lack of) depth of same.
C. Robert Nkemdiche is poised to have an All-American season at defensive tackle. He's a beast.
D. A year after struggling to mount a pass rush, I look for Ole Miss to terrorize quarterbacks this season. Marquis Haynes, C.J. Johnson, Nkemdiche, et. al., are game-changers.
E. Ole Miss might not have a superstar at tailback, but there's depth at that position. Mark Dodson and Jordan Wilkins are going to help, at the very least.
F. If I were an Ole Miss fan, I'd be a little concerned about the receiver corps (this is assuming Damore'ea Stringfellow's waiver isn't approved). Right now, Ole Miss misses Donte Moncrief.
G. There are lots of new faces, but I actually think Ole Miss is going to be improved in the kicking game.
H. Tee Shepard's foot injury (extent unknown; early rumblings aren't good) could be a dagger for the Rebels' defense. Shepard was looking like a lock-down cornerback in his first week on campus. Without him, that position is back to being an injury away from thin.
2. We haven't seen as much practice this fall camp as those of us who have covered Ole Miss awhile are used to. It's the trend in the coverage of collegiate sports these days, and frankly, I don't blame the coaches for limiting the access media has to their programs.
For us who cover the team, it's challenging. We have to be careful to issue caveats with almost all observations. We have to make the absolute most of every opportunity we have to talk to people in the program or observe practices. We have to be creative with coverage. Frankly, I think that's a strength of this site, so I don't mind, but it's a different dynamic from the last six fall camps I've covered in Oxford.
There's a solution, of course, for programs and coaches who want to keep things under wraps, and it doesn't require eliminating media. It's called accountability. Access should be limited to those of us who actually cover the team. There's so much "media" at practice now that it's comical. They all have cameras and smart phones, and many of them have absolutely no journalism background.
Media relations departments could stop the trouble by limiting credentialing to legitimate media, make rules, hold the media accountable and go from there. It's not a complicated concept.
However, it would require hurting some feelings and ruffling some feathers. At some point, credentials would have to be suspended or pulled entirely. It's easier to just put the kibosh on the whole thing and close the doors.
Don't take this as a complaint, either. It's anything but. I don't need to have access to every practice. Much of what I see at practice --- schemes, game plans, personnel wrinkles --- can't be reported until after a game is played. I've never once violated that understanding.
I'm simply saying there's an easier fix to the problem, but the trend you're seeing in the coverage of college athletics isn't changing. There will likely be a day when access is limited to a press conference at the beginning of the week and a game at the end of it. It'll be a challenge, and resourceful media types will answer it with aplomb, but it will be the fans who will be punished.
3. Much was made last week about Ole Miss' announcement that the university will make all official correspondence from the University of Mississippi and not from "Ole Miss." The development is part of a six-point plan on Jones' part to enhance diversity at the UM.
The wide-reaching plan includes the employment of a new Vice Chancellor For Diversity and the placement of plaques at racially divisive sites to add modern context to their symbolism. Jones also defined a shift in the common use of the term "Ole Miss" for close identification with athletics and school spirit. The plan also calls for more education of students in racial history, changing the street name of Confederate Drive to Chapel Lane, changing Coliseum Drive to Roy Lee "Chucky" Mullins Drive and an effort to have students make an early commitment to diversity.
Many have insisted that this is Jones' attempt to eventually rid the UM of the term "Ole Miss." That's just silly, in my opinion. The athletics department strongly embraces "Ole Miss" and has spent countless millions marketing that name. It would be ridiculous at this point to deviate from that, and there is absolutely no indication that's anyone's plan. My suggestion: Relax.
4. The NCAA Division I Board of Directors passed a restructuring of the organization by a 16-2 vote on Thursday, opening the door for power conference teams to create their own legislation to enhance "student-athlete welfare."
One of the first rules expected to be enacted by the Power 5 is an increase in athletic scholarships to a true "cost of attendance scholarship" that is used in the case of academic scholarships. This would include money for clothes, laundry and travel and add on a couple thousand dollars in total cost. That proposal was voted down by school presidents in 2012. Other likely enhancements to be made by power-conference include enhanced medical coverage and educational opportunities after players have graduated.
"The approval of the steering committee's report on restructuring by the NCAA Board of Directors is a positive and necessary step in the continued efforts to ensure that we have a more effective and nimble NCAA moving forward," ACC commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. "These changes will allow us to continue to prioritize how to better address the needs of our institutions, athletic programs and, most importantly, our student-athletes. As we implement the new structure, we must continue to recognize how special the collegiate model is to the educational system within our country and culture."
The power conferences' first opportunity to adjust their student-athlete welfare rules will come in January at the NCAA's annual convention. Submissions for changes will are due by October 1. Between now and then, you can bet athletics directors like Ole Miss' Ross Bjork will be surveying the landscape, searching for ways to create the revenue streams necessary to pay for the full cost of attendance. The money doesn't grow on trees, and some Power 5 schools are going to have to search for it.
The autonomy is a win for the student-athletes at institutions such as Ole Miss. There's simply no questioning that. It's also the first major step into an uncertain future, one that will undoubtedly bring major change to the face of college athletics.
5. Autonomy wasn't the only major development occurring late last week. Wilken confirmed Friday what many people have stated for decades: College football and men's basketball are not amateur endeavors; they're big business. Further, Wilken had no use for the amateurism defense to justify the restraints on paying players. Also, Wilken told the conferences and schools they must compete against each other for recruits instead of colluding to fix a price for everyone.
I've linked Jon Solomon's excellent breakdown on CBSSports.com regarding what Wilken's ruling means and where things go from here. It's tremendous reading. In short, Wilken's injunction has two components. One, the NCAA can't cap the amount of a scholarship below the actual cost of attendance; and two, the NCAA can't ban schools from creating a trust fund to pay players equal shares for use of their NILs.
For the trust fund, the NCAA and schools are allowed to cap the amount, but it can't be lower than $5,000 for every year an athlete remains academically eligible. The schools can't conspire to fix these amounts at a set price, thus creating competition.
Wilken's injunction, although a win for the O'Bannon plaintiffs, could have been worse for the NCAA. The $5,000 number could have been higher. The injunction doesn't allow athletes to receive money for endorsements, citing efforts by the NCAA and its schools to protect against "commercial exploitation." And the injunction doesn't prevent the NCAA from creating rules that prohibit athletes from selling their NIL rights individually.
There are many questions still unanswered. What about Title IX? Those lawsuits are certainly coming soon. Where will the schools get the money for these trust funds? When do those have to be set up? Will the NCAA settle future cases or will it gamble in court again? The fallout will take years --- decades, perhaps --- to fully settle. Suffice it to say, however, the landscape has changed dramatically. Those with intelligence and vision will survive; those stuck in the comfort of the old model won't.
6. On Thursday afternoon, the long-awaited SEC Network will launch on Dish, AT&T, DirecTV, Comcast and everywhere. The NFL is king, and that's not changing, but the crown prince of sports is the SEC. Any doubts about that will be eradicated Thursday.
Ole Miss becomes an elite national power on Thursday. That's the good news for Rebel fans. The bad news: So does Mississippi State. And Vanderbilt. And South Carolina. And Missouri. Surely you're onto the theme of this paragraph by now.
How much money will the SEC Network mean to each member institution. No one really knows yet. We'll see. My guess is it's significant. Further, my guess is it will be significant enough that some schools that have long been rumored as potential SEC targets --- North Carolina, Virginia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State, Oklahoma --- will have to give some serious consideration to any future overtures from Mike Slive and Co.
Thursday is a big day for Ole Miss, an even bigger day for the league. The network, in short, is a game-changer. No other league has anything like it.
7. Speaking of Mississippi State, Sports Illustrated's Colin Becht was recently charged with determining who will be this year's Auburn, meaning who will play the role of Cinderella in 2014. Becht narrowed his candidates down to Iowa, Marshall, Duke, Florida and --- you probably guessed it --- Mississippi State.
From Becht:
"In a year in which the SEC is marked by new faces at quarterback nearly across the conference, Dak Prescott is one of the few returning signal callers who could spark an unexpected run to an SEC title. Prescott gives Mississippi State a dynamic dual threat as he returns to Starkville after a 1,940-yard-passing, 829-yard-rushing junior campaign. He could easily improve on both those numbers in 2014 and has drawn hype as a dark horse Heisman candidate. Prescott should have no shortage of capable targets, including speedster Jameon Lewis, the Bulldogs' top receiver last year (64 receptions, 923 yards, five touchdowns).
"Defensive coordinator Geoff Collins has eight starters returning from a group that finished fifth in the conference and third in the SEC West in scoring defense. Defensive tackle Chris Jones showed tremendous promise as a freshman last fall, and junior linebacker Benardrick McKinney brings consistency after making 173 tackles in his first two seasons.
"Though the SEC West is typically a hostile division to Cinderella bids, rebuilding years at LSU and Texas A&M create room for the Bulldogs to improve on their consistent lower-to-middle finishes under Dan Mullen. Even Alabama faces a relative unknown at quarterback and potential vulnerabilities in the secondary. If there were a year in which a perennial SEC West also-ran could shake up the division, this might be it. Mississippi State will just have to hope it's not Ole Miss who causes the stir."
My take: I'm thinking people are too bullish --- pardon the pun --- on Prescott and an offense without enough weapons to win big, but I get the love affair with Mississippi State's defense and its schedule. Let the Bulldogs win in Baton Rouge on Sept. 20, and things get interesting fast.
8. If you were watching the PGA Championship Sunday, you saw the ads for the curved television that makes the viewer feel like he/she is on the scene and not looking at a screen. It's yet another challenge for college athletics departments looking for ways to get rear ends off couches and into their stadiums.
Per the Wall Street Journal, some college athletics departments are looking to the MLS for answers. In May, a group from Florida's athletic department became one of hundreds of sports teams to visit Sporting Kansas City, the reigning Major League Soccer champion, and Sporting Innovations, the team's spinoff consulting firm focused on fan engagement and technology.
The trip, wrote the Wall Street Journal, wasn't as unorthodox as it sounds. As colleges seek out ways to enhance their stadiums and entice a generation of absentee fans, they are looking at MLS teams as models, even though the average MLS crowd is about a quarter of the 75,674 that the SEC averaged last season, the top figure in college football.
"The word is out," Portland Timbers president of business operations Mike Golub told the Wall Street Journal, "that it's a special game experience."
Pac-12 officials also took a trip to Kansas City. They were so impressed that they signed a deal with Sporting Innovations, which is quietly influencing the way college-football teams operate, to help them on fan-related issues.
"They know what their soccer fans want," Pac-12 chief marketing officer Danette Leighton told the WSJ.
Per the WSJ, the average age of Sporting KC's 14,000 season-ticket holders is 29.7 years old, relatively close to a college-aged demographic. Florida failed to qualify for a bowl last season, and the rate of students showing up to games fell to 66 percent. For the stunning Nov. 23 home loss to Georgia Southern, the student section was only 45 percent full and more Florida students bought tickets and stayed home than bought tickets and actually used them.
Per the WSJ, Sporting KC is trending in the opposite direction. The team formerly known as the Wizards averaged 10,287 fans a game in 2010. Then it rebranded, moved from a minor-league baseball stadium to soccer-specific Sporting Park and saw attendance climb to 17,810 a game. That number has increased this year to a franchise-record 19,709 per MLS game.
In addition to Florida, three other SEC schools have visited Sporting KC, while Oklahoma State announced a deal with Sporting Innovations in March. According to the WSJ story, "MLS executives believe their league's stature forced them to come up with creative solutions for attendance problems before they struck bigger sports like the NFL and college football. The Portland Timbers, for one, scored with fans by making the in-game experience reflect the city around them. Timbers Army members park their bikes outside the stadium, and the concession offerings inside include artisanal, small-batch chocolate. The result: Its 10,000-person waiting list for season tickets is longer than almost every college-football team's.
"Sporting KC's approach to accommodating younger fans goes beyond giving them fast Wi-Fi so they can use their smartphones. At a time when some colleges don't keep records on student attendance, Sporting KC collects data on everyone from season-ticket holders to single-game buyers through Sporting Innovations technology, which they offer to college clients. They now have close to 250,000 profiles of fans who have attended games with information as detailed as when, where and how they bought tickets, what time they arrived at games and who they sat near.
"In exchange for that information?which they say allows them to understand their fans better?they offer perks. Sporting KC pays for their fans to attend road games and organizes social events for young professionals in Kansas City. They also strive for irreverence and to be transparent in their transactions, which separates Sporting KC from other teams in pro sports."
9. It's Rory McIlroy's world. We're just living in it. McIlroy rallied to win the PGA Championship Sunday, beating Phil Mickelson by one shot. The win came on the heels of McIlroy's dominant win in the British Open. McIlroy has become the face of golf, and he just might be the game's remedy for its case of Tigeritis.
When it comes to golf, I'm a typical viewer. If Tiger Woods is in down the stretch of a major, I'm locked in. If he's not, I'm less interested.
McIlroy has changed that for me, and I suspect I'm far from alone. He is charismatic. Hell, he's downright cocky. He's an amazing player with a magnetic personality. Right now, people want to see him win. Soon, many will want to see him lose.
Most importantly, for the sport, people will want to watch McIlroy. Sure, we still want to see Woods return to his once dominant form, but it's looking less and less likely that will happen. No one has been able to fill the void left by Woods' injuries and fall-off until McIlroy.
Late Sunday, I caught myself looking forward to The Masters in April. I still want to see Tiger be Tiger, sporting red on Sunday, chasing a major title and Jack Nicklaus' record. Now, thanks to McIlroy, I'll have another reason to watch.
10. Kevin Durant took himself out of the Basketball World Cup last week, citing mental and physical fatigue. As an Oklahoma City Thunder fan, I was thrilled. Durant has played more minutes than anyone in the NBA the past few seasons, and he needed a break.
I wasn't surprised. I saw Durant's body language in the immediate aftermath of Paul George's gruesome injury in Las Vegas, and it was obvious Durant was thinking about how easily that could have been him and not the Indiana Pacers star forward laying on the court with his future very much in doubt.
George's injury, at least in my opinion, marked the end of the NBA's elite players playing for the U.S. national team. Durant's teammate, Russell Westbrook, dropped off the team earlier in the summer. Soon-to-be-Cleveland Cavalier Kevin Love did the same shortly thereafter, as did Lemarcus Aldridge and a few others. The NBA season is such a grind, and there is so much money to be made. Risking it for an international competition really makes no sense.
Speaking of Love, he'll officially join LeBron James and Kyrie Irving in Cleveland later this month, making the Cavaliers a major threat in the NBA's Eastern Conference. All three players will be fully rested when training camps begin late next month. I can't help but think Durant thought about that, at least a little, when he was deciding whether he wanted to go to Spain in a few weeks to compete for a World Cup.
Durant drew some criticism for his decision, but it was likely the right one. His career is missing one thing, and that can't be won in Madrid or Barcelona. Durant, now an MVP and already a gold medalist, needs to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy to complete his resume.
He needs rest, not a grueling nine-game, 15-day tournament in Europe, to prepare for that quest. He made the right call, and in so doing, likely paved the way for many of his contemporaries to follow suit. I suspect we've seen the last Dream Team.
O'Bannon fallout
