bierce

As I understand it, the House settlement provides both an absolute $ cap and a % of athletic revenue cap for NIL spending. Big East schools don't make big football $, so none of them should be able to spend 8 figures without going way over the % cap. Last Big East basketball TV deal was for $80 million a year for the conference, which has 11 members. Not getting anyone past the round of 32 won't help either. Of course, the Big East is not a defendant in the case, so it would have to opt in, and I haven't heard that it has.

New Mexico hired Olen. I wonder if he will find out the Big West will be a better conference than the remnants of the MWC.

UNM down to Eric Olen and Andy Kennedy. The former is in his early 40s and took a DII team into DI and eventually took it to the NCAA tournament this year and lost a naibiter to Michigan. The latter is in his late 50s and made 2 tournaments in 12 seasons at a P5 school and 2 more in 5 years at UAB.

He's not. He can dunk with two hands.

Hawkins. Was a dynamite PG for them this year.

Oldest coach in today's games is Nate Oats, who is 50. Average age of coaches today is 44. Youngest coach in tomorrow's games is Bruce Pearl, who turned 65 this month. Average age of tomorrow's coaches is 70. Another unique thing about this Elite Eight is that the eight teams remaining were the top 8 in Pomeroy rankings on selection day. This final 8 has the lowest amalgam of seeds ever since the tournament went to 64 teams. Oh, and thanks to a three landing on the bridge and crawling in at the buzzer, Pomeroy bull's-eyed his prediction in the Michigan State-Ole Miss Ole Iss Ole Ipp Ole I game.

Willard meeting with Villanova today and expected to make decision tonight (if it hasn't already been made).

Willard was booed by MD fans while entering the arena tonight. MD is said to already be hunting for a new coach. Last time MD was in the S16 was in 2016. Nice way to celebrate the return.

Willard missed a team dinner earlier this week. Does he fly back with the team or head straight to Philly by himself?

Seems like McCaffery was not ready to quit. He was just hired to take over at Penn, which is now 20 years removed from the Dunphy Ivy League dynasty. Martelli was hired by VCU.

Let us all have a good laugh at the articles today touting the "massive" NIL prize at stake in the CBC starting next week. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/new-postseason-college-basketball-tournament-ups-the-stakes-with-huge-nil-news/ar-AA1BMHQh Ooh, 300K to the winner. That might be enough for a single 10-15 mpg bench player from the prices we are hearing. Massive, I tell you.

Colorado State promoted assistant Ali Farokhmanesh. Time to see what New Mexico will do. Nice arena in which to play, but the conference will be severely diminished. Report is that Baby Pitino took his entire staff with him to Xavier, so no promoting assistants for them. I wonder if UNM will forego the up and coming young coach route and go with a P5 guy no longer employed like Keatts, Craig Smith, or Terry. Smith and Terry have coached in the conference before.

It wasn't just the players attacking the year in residency rule. A coalition of state attorneys general took on the NCAA over the rule. And made the NCAA capitulate. Sitting out a year ain't coming back. The NCAA is a creation of the member institutions, not something that was foisted on them by nefarious outside forces. The members can always dissolve the NCAA and create a new model.

It is hitting the fan in College Park. Willard is reported to have skipped the team dinner. Maryland plays Florida tonight in the early game out west.

And unleash a flood of litigation. The NCAA can't stop players from going from one school to another anymore. Those days are over and not coming back unless the NCAA members agree to certification of a union and collectively bargain with the players' union, and I doubt member schools want that.