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What made college sports better in the old days

I've given this a lot of thought over the past several years and have come to in part the following conclusion:

Rules.

Lots of people bitched and moaned about NCAA rules in the past as they do today. But what people don't seem to understand is that there would never be a perfect set of rules that everyone agrees with and while many thought that the rules were too restrictive (like dinging a school if a kid got a free meal or some extra school supplies), all of the rules had a purpose, which was to try to be fair to all of the members and to keep a check on schemes made up to juice the system.

While there is plenty of argument on the specifics, one thing that's more true than almost anything is that in most cases, flawed rules are better than no rules. What we have now is basically no rules, anything goes, and the chaos and uncertainty associated with this is ruining sports. For example, it used to be that the eligibility rules were pretty cut and dried (4 years to play, can redshirt one year, you have 5 years after you graduate until your eligibility us used up). Transfers were the same way, if you transfer to another D1 school, you sit out a year. There were always some limited exceptions, but for 99.9%, the rules were the rules.

Now, there are essentially no rules, and the rules that exist are easily gotten around. This has created massive uncertainty and all of the problems associated with it. 85 scholarship limit? Now all you have to do is have some booster money laundered through the university as NIL money and now your lower tier players (ones you need for the scout team or are "developing") can have all of their college costs paid just like a scholarship. There literally are no transfer rules, just everyone trying to do what they want with a uncertain and strange NCAA review and approval process. Under these rules, a kid who wants to get back closer to home is denied while a kid who's a better player gets to play right away because he thought some other student cast a racial slur at him. Now there's a system in place to hand over booster money to players, creating a situation where some players get a lot of money and others who produce just as much get near nothing. How does that work in the locker room?

The sad thing is that this could have all been resolved by simply letting players in all sports turn pro whenever they want to. The NCAA could have said, "hey, these are our rules and they're designed to promote some semblance of fairness, and if you don't like the rules, then pursue professional options". They could have put caps on coaches and administrative pay to keep it in line with the structure of the Universities, and if there's any largess left over after funding all of the sports at a University, the money goes to the University Foundation to offset tuition for all students. All of this would be in line with how a University is run in general and would be above legal or legislative challenge. Booster money funneled through the back door to players or coaches would be treated harshly because it corrupts everything.

But now it's chaos, chaos brought on by a system that's designed to have chaos, a system that's fed by a crazy, ridiculous sports media.

I just don't see how this team scores many points against anyone

We have to be realistic and realize we are asking Haarberg & Grant to carry a run game against 8 - 9 in the box because we cannot threaten you downfield with Kemp as our WR1. Fidone is a nice option but TE's are easy to remove from a game plan as well if you can have two spy him, because again - we have no players to threaten your defense deep or across the field (well Kemp is a GOOD slot type player if we had others alongside him to take lid off - no Betts just stings here).

Then you factor in the OL situation - bleak winter ahead there I think we all know with the OTs we have to rely on.

Pray for a 17-14 win - which I think is totally possible and I'm all in on the team working hard to improve as roster changes continue to happen. I bet a lot more freshmen start playing if we lose tonight because then a bowl game appears unlikely - so all in on this group to show what they got for the long haul.

OT: Prayers Needed

Never done this, but my dog Bowser going in for surgery today. On Monday was fine and by Wednesday was paralyzed.. Apparently has IVDD which is a herniated disk. Has less than 50% chance to walk again. He is my boy's favorite dog, follows him everywhere, sleeps in his bed... He is only 5 and this is absolutely crushing.. trying to stay positive..Hug your dogs extra hard tonight and tell them how good they are... Life comes at you fast...

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Rich Rod

I was watching Jax State the other night and noticed Rich Rod going full Bo Pelini with his players on the sideline. I knew that the guy is a hothead, but I didn't know it was to that extent. A couple of things occurred to me.

1. Some of these coaches who have had big paydays and are financially set can go to the bottom of D1 and just have a good time being a coach, just locally recruiting players from Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. I'd probably do the same thing rather than try the gauntlet of the upper 50 tier.

2. As they have similar personalities, I'm really surprised that Pelini hasn't fallen into a similar gig. The only thing I can think of is that he's alienated so many people both at Nebraska and LSU, that he can't assemble a staff. It's also possible that he's just decided to be done with it at 55 years old.

Basketball Tominaga Named Preseason All-Big Ten

Nebraska senior guard Keisei Tominaga was honored Friday morning as the Big Ten Conference announced its preseason All-Big Ten team.

Tominaga was one of 10 players selected by a vote of media that cover Big Ten basketball. He becomes just the third Husker to be named preseason All-Big Ten since Nebraska joined the conference in 2011-12, joining James Palmer Jr. (2018) and Terran Petteway (2014).

The 10-member team included four unanimous selections: Terrence Shannon (Illinois), Jahmir Young (Maryland), Boo Buie (Northwestern) and Zach Edey (Purdue). Edey, the reigning national player of the year, was tabbed as the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year.

Football Phalen Sanford set for first career start on Husker defense that sounds pissed off

John Bullock and Phalen Sanford have been my two favorite players to cover at a press conference, simply because their demeanor never, ever changes. Some may call it boring, but I like that they're always right down the middle and have an aura of "I don't give a (darn) about any of this. When can we go play football again?"

Sanford was that way again yesterday despite gearing up for his first career start on a defense that looks and sounds pissed off after its Michigan performance.

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