By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, the last for 10 days while Nadine and I get pampered on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. Well, somebody has to do it.
—NIL (NOT IN LINE): While MLB is in dire need of a salary cap, what does college football and basketball need?
It needs a strong governing body with power instead of the punchless entity it now has, as weak as Casper Milquetoast and Deputy Barney Fife — the NCAA (National Can’t Accomplish Anything).
It is mind—boggling how NIL (name, likeness, image) and the transfer portal is a runaway train that can’t be stopped. Right now, there is no end of the line.
NIL and the transfer portal have turned college sports into a professional minor league, except some of the college players make as much or more money the real pros.
Remember when an elite athlete was offered a scholarship that included tuition, room, board and boos (if the athlete cared to open one?). And, yes, sometimes a quarterback was illegally handed the keys to a Mustang GT under the table.
But now?
Texas quarterback Archie Manning is making $6 milion in NIL money. Miami quarterback Carson Beck? $4.9 million. Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith? $4.2 million.
Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood? $3.1 millioo. LSU quarterback Garrett Nossmeier? $3.8 million. South Carolina quarterback LaMorris Sellers? $3.7 million. Ohio State safetu Caleb Downs? $2.4 million.
Clearly, momma, let your babies grow up to be quarterbacks.
And basketball?
Brigham Young’s A.J. Dybantsa makes $4 million. Texas Tech’s J.T. Toppin (no relation to Obie)? $3 million. Duke’s Cameron Boozer? $2.2 million. Michgan’s Yaxel Lendeborg? $3 million.
And then there is the transfer portal that has turned players into traveling mercenaries. Play a year and switch schools. Play another year and switch to another school.
Check this one out: Cam Woods has played at Troy, Northwest Florida State, North Carolina A&T, North Carolina State, Robert Morris and now Southern California. How is that possible?
Jamile Reynols has gone from Central Florida to Temple to Cincinnati. RaeQuan Battle has gone from Washington to Montana State to West Virginia. Adam Miller has gone from Illinois to LSU to Arizona State.
Phillip Russell has gone from Saint Louis to Southeastern Missouri State to UT-Arlington. Noah Farrakham has gone from East Carolina to West Virginia to Hampton.
And it has its movers in the women’s game, too. Hailey Van Lith has played at Houston, Louisville and LSU. And, oh yes, she makes $780,000 in NIL money.
Fans don’t know from one season to the next who will be on their team’s roster. They barely learn the name of the starting point guard and then he’s gone to the next school.
It used to be an athlete could transfer once, but when he went from one school to another he had to sit out one season.
The transfer portal needs to be blown up. Return to the old transfer rule. It won’t happen because the NCAA won’t and can’t make it happen.
The big, powerful schools can tell the NCAA to take a one-way hike up a mountain and don’t come back.
When will this collegiate madness end? Probably never. The door is open wide and everybody is sprinting through it, too late to slam it shut
—GONE…AND FORGOTTEN: More than half of the Cincinnati Reds 2025 Opening Day roster no longer wear a Reds uniform. The ‘missing’ 13:
Scott Barlow, Jeimer Candelario, Alexis Diaz, Santiago Espinol, Jake Fraley, Ian Gibaut, Austin Hays, Jacob Hurtubise, Nick Martinez, Sam Moll, Taylor Rogers, Brent Suter and Austin Wynn.
And here are the expected returning survivors from spring training for Opening Day.
The returning pitchers Andrew Abbott, Graham Ashcraft, Chase Burns, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Sam Moll, Emilio Pagan and Chase Petty.
The returning position players are Tyler Stephenson, Jose Trevino, Elly De La Cruz, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Matt McLain, Spencer Steer, Sal Stewart, Will Benson, TJ Friedl and Noelvi Marte.
And then there is the acquisition that is expected to be the savior. . .the return of Eugenio Suarez.
Will he be enough? Yes, he will, enough for the Reds to finish second in the National League Central to the Chicago Cubs.
—A BOBBLE WOBBLE: Speaking of Eugenio Suarez, after the Cincinnati Reds acquired him, I was asked to give a short report on what it meant at the Dayton Agonis Club.
Before I stood up, the guys seated next to me, Dan Biedenharn (buy your insurance from Dan) fed ma line.
“The Reds acquired him because they have a closet full of bobbleheads from the last time he played for them that they want to get rid of.”
I used it. Everybody laughed. Then this week Biedenharn sent me a list of the Reds’ bobblehead giveways this season: “June 24 – Eugenio Suarez.”
The Reds must have had a spy at our meeting.
—A NUPTIAL DECISION: Linebacker Dick Butkus, an NFL Hall of Famer, wanted to go to Notre Dame for his college days.
When he visited the campus he asked where the married couples dormitory was. He was told, “We’re here to play football, not get married.”
Butkus then visitied Illinois and asked the same question and was told, “We have a brand new married couples dorm and we’ll get yyour wife a job in a bank.”
Guess where Butkus played and became a consenus All-American?
—TRIVIA TIME: Stuff I can’t use anywhere else but here:
—Cincinnati Reds pitcher Johnny Vander Meer not only is the only pitcher to pitch back-to-back no-hitters, but he is also one of the few pitchers ever to steal home. He did it in 1943 against the New York Giants.
The only other Reds pitchers to swipe home were Dutch Reuther and Bucky Walters. Former Reds manager Fred Hutchinson stole home when he pitched for the Detroit Tigers during the 1947 season against the St. Louis Browns.
—There are seven players with more than 500 home runs not in the Hall of Fame: Barry Bonds (767), Alex Rodriguez (696), Sammy Sosa (656), Mark McGwire (583), Rafael Palmeiro (569), Manny Ramirez (555) and Gary Sheffield (509)
And we all know why most of them are locked out.
—QUOTE MACHINE: Sports personalities say the darndest things:
—From one of my tee-shirts: “It’s OK if you don’t like baseball, it’s kind of a smart people’s sport anyway.”
—From former President Gerald R. Ford, who loved golf but golf didn’t love him: “I know I’m getting better at golf because I’m hitting fewer spectators.”
—From soccer star Mark Draper: “I’d like to play for an Italian team, like Barcelona.” (He must have had the Spanish Flu when he said that.)
—From actor Peter Ustinov after watching Monica Seles play tennis and scream as she hit each shot: “I’d hate to be next door to her on her wedding night.”
—From my sports writing hero, Jim Murray, on Cincinnati Reds pitcher Jim Brosnan, who wrote the book ‘The Long Season’: “I think Jim Brosnan is the best player writer in baseball. I think the Cincinnati Reds would be gladder if he were the best pitcher in baseball.” (And Jim Bouton beat him out for best baseball player writer with his book, ‘Ball Four.’)
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 152: As Argentine poet Atahualpa Yupanqui put it, “Music is a torch with which to see where beauty lies.”
—There Goes My Baby (Drifters), Love On The Run (Neil Diamond), The Winner Takes It All (Abba), Mind Games (John Lennon), Feelin’ Stronger Every Day (Chicago), Best Day Of My Life (American Authors), Save Your Heart For Me (Gary Lewis & The Playboys).
—We Believe (Pat Benatar), Wings Of A Dove (Farin Husky), Apache (Jordan Ingmann), I Like It Like That (Chris Kenner), Caldendar Girl (Neil Sedaka), Quarter To Three (Gary U.S. Bonds), Under Pressure (Queen & David Bowie), All Night Long (Lionel Richie), I Will Always Love You (Kenny Rogers).