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Freeman Rising; Kelly & Riley Falling; NIL/Transfer Numbers Exploding; ACC Schedule Killing Class Time

One of the big stories coming out of next week's college football national championship is Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman.


Freeman is the first black head coach ever to lead his team to the national championship game. The former Ohio State linebacker will go up against his alma mater in the CFP final next Monday night.


With typical grace and modesty, when asked about this singular achievement after his team's semi-final win over Penn State by ESPN's Molly McGrath, Freeman pointed to his players and his school.


“I don’t ever want to take attention away from the team,” Freeman said. “It is an honor, and I hope all coaches — minority, Black, Asian, white, doesn’t matter, great people continue to get opportunities to lead young men like this. But this ain’t about me, this is about us, and we’re gonna celebrate what we have done, because it’s something special.”


We've written several times over the years about the shortage of black coaches in college football and the NFL, as well as the fact that they often aren't given much time to prove themselves.


It wasn't that long ago that Notre Dame hired Stanford's Tyrone Willingham and fired him after three years. 


Tyrone is a great man and a personal friend, so I'm not unbiased. But he was national Coach of the Year in his first season after leading the Irish to a 10-3 record, yet two years later became the first head coach ever let go by Notre Dame before the end of his contract.


Pressure from some members of the Board of Trustees forced AD Kevin White to make the change over his own objections.


This time around, after the wretched Brian Kelly left for LSU (more on that in a minute), Freeman was elevated but lost his first three games. 


There was talk then that he was "in over his head." The skeptics returned early this season when Notre Dame was upset by Northern Illinois.


But the powers that be didn't make the same mistake they made with Willingham. They didn't panic, they stuck with the talented young coach, and now they're headed to the national championship game.


Kelly, Riley Flounder: A respected local columnist called Lincoln Riley and Brian Kelly post-season "winners" because SC beat Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl and LSU beat Baylor in the Texas Bowl. 


Don't think so. 


Winning mid-level or lower tier bowl games isn't what USC and LSU had in mind when they hired Riley and Kelly three years ago for about $10 million per annum. Riley finished 7-6 and tied for ninth in the Big Ten standings this season. Kelly finished 9-4 and in a six-way tie for fourth place in the SEC.


You could argue that Kelly is the biggest loser in the CFP. You'll recall he left Notre Dame because he didn't think he could win a national title there.


"I want to be in an environment where I have the resources to win a national championship," Kelly said when he bolted Notre Dame for LSU.


 Funny how that worked out. Next Monday the Irish will play for the CFP championship under his successor. Notre Dame fans might wonder if the problem in South Bend wasn't lack of resources, but Kelly. He's 29-11 in three seasons at LSU, including last year with Heisman winner Jayden Daniels, and hasn't reached the playoffs.


Riley has also regressed in Los Angeles. After going 11-3 his first season, his teams have slipped to 8-5 and 7-6 the last two years. 


And top players have been transferring out of USC at an alarming rate. The Trojans lost 21 players to the portal in December and only picked up six.


NIL Insanity: Former Georgia QB Carson Beck reportedly has agreed to an NIL package of nearly $4 million to sign with Miami for the 2025 season. The market has apparently more than doubled in the last year, since Cam Ward--a better player than Beck--was reportedly paid $1.5 by the Hurricanes last season when he transferred from Washington State..


You don't have to be a superstar to get rich if you're a quarterback. Consider that Tulane transfer QB Darian Mensah signed a two-year deal with Duke for a reported $8M, and former Duke QB Maalik Murphy got $1.5 to sign with Oregon State.


Closer to home, former Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza reportedly got over $1M to sign with Indiana and former Stanford QB Ashton Daniels pulled in a cool $1M to go to Auburn. 


And, no offense, but they're not elite players. In fact, Daniels is projected to back up Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold.


The world has gone crazy.


Transfer Numbers Escalate: More than 3,000 Division I college football players entered the transfer portal during the early window (Dec. 9-28), according to ESPN. That number included 2,095 FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) players, an almost 30% increase from last year. So far, more than 1,100 transfers have signed with or committed to a new school.


Of the transfers, more than 600 players will be moving on to the third, fourth, or even fifth school of their career. One of the multiple transferees is former Pittsburg High School star Jaden Rashada, who has entered the portal yet again. 


The quarterback originally committed to Miami in 2022, then flipped to Florida after agreeing to a $13.85 million deal. He then decommitted from Florida when the deal fell through and signed with Arizona State, before transferring to Georgia last year. Rashada did not appear in a game for Georgia this season. He has played in just three games during his career, now going on his fifth team.


Does Anyone Care About Missed Class Time? Why are ACC basketball games scheduled on Wednesday and Saturday? When Stanford or Cal play two games on the East Coast, they miss a full week of classes.


The Bears and Cardinal typically depart on Monday for their Wednesday games at ACC opponents. Then they travel to the site of the Saturday game, where they practice on Thursday and Friday.


With their trips this season to play at SMU and Pittsburgh, Wake Forest and North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Duke, and Notre Dame and Louisville, Stanford and Cal players will miss four full weeks of class. 


Cal is on a semester system, but at Stanford, that's 40% of class time in a 10-week quarter.


And if you really care about "student-athletes", that's simply unacceptable.


In the good ol' days, back when I was SID and Associate AD at Stanford, we used to play games on Friday and Saturday nights. Many of us old-timers remember the "Maples Miracle," when Rich Kelley led Stanford to back-to-back upset wins over UCLA and USC, both of whom were ranked in the nation's top five. 

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Gary Cavalli - Bowl and League co-founder, author, speaker 

Gary Cavalli, the former Sports Information Director and Associate Athletic Director at Stanford University, was co-founder and executive director of the college football bowl game played in the Bay Area, and previously was co-founder and President of the American Basketball League.

Get in touch//@cavalli49//gacavalli49@gmail.com

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