• Registration is disabled due to constant spammers. Email [email protected] and we will temporarily re-enable registration for you.

NCAA: Won't Somebody Please Think of the Children?

DeadMan

DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
Hey Mark Emmert, eat a dick: http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsport...er-michigans-spring-break-football-practices/

In case you haven't been following along, Michigan is going down to Florida for the first week of spring football practices. They're going to practice at the IMG Academy, which has a bunch of good prospects. This happens to be during Michigan's spring break. Cue the pearl clutching from the SEC (and now Emmert as well):



Apparently they're unhappy with the players not being able to take a spring break. They should apparently be allowed to have some time off for football. I actually think that's a fine point of view - NCAA athletes spend a ton of time on their sports and maybe we should allow them time off. So, let's talk about:

  • Eliminating spring practice entirely - they already are 100% football for one semester, it's really unnecessary to have it be both semesters.
  • No games over Thanksgiving weekend so the kids can go home to their families
  • No practices or games over any break, for any sport!
  • No games over Christmas break so the kids can go home to their families
  • No basketball tournaments over Thanksgiving weeekend
  • Make sure that basketball tournaments don't conflict with either spring break or finals
  • Change the baseball and softball schedules to later in the year so northern teams don't have to spend a month away from campus to play games
  • Actually paying the players their market value instead of forcing them to play for way below what they are actually worth

Of course they're not talking about any of that. And I'm pretty sure that most of these programs still require the kids to practice over their springs breaks (@GuyIncognito - I assume you had football stuff always over your spring break). Harbaugh actually is holding practice over spring break so the kids won't have it during finals, which seems pretty reasonable to me.

Bottom line, they really just don't like Harbaugh being able to be up close and personal with IMG recruits. But they've gone full pearl clutching in response to this. Ugh. Eat a dick, NCAA and SEC.
 
Simo77

Simo77

Well-Known Member
Emmert's tenure is about power. Retaining, asserting, or expanding. This is no different. He'll invent moral ground to push an agenda and set a precedent. Once precedent is set he's just expanded the NCAA's power. This one is an easy battle for him to chose since he'll likely get SEC backing.

That said I hope all those IMG players know they'll be sleeping with every recruit that Harbaugh has ever slept with.
 
Lightningwar

Lightningwar

Administrator
What? Michigan taking their players on Spring break? I am surprised they didnt call it a benefit and ban the players.

Seriously though, the SEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCCCCCC has spoken. SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCC is not happy. Time for the NCAA to crack down on this.
 
GuyIncognito

GuyIncognito

pressure cooker full of skittles
I honestly have a hard time remembering whether we got spring break off or not.

I want to say that Miami had a relatively early spring break in order to stagger with the rest of the country. So that way Miami kids could actually enjoy the city before it got taken over by Rutgers and CUNY students during everyone else's spring break.

So I think we got the break off and started spring camp when we got back. But I also think we had "morning runs" the week before spring break, which is the coaches getting everybody on the field at about 5am and working us to death for an hour in addition to our normal workouts.

But I do think we got the break, although I'm not 100% sure about that.

But even if we did, there are pros and cons to anything. A break right before spring football might be nice, but you're thinking about camp the whole time so it's not that relaxing anyway. I'd just as soon have a week of practice when I didn't have to worry about class as have the time off and then have an extra week of class + practice.

As far as taking spring ball on a traveling roadshow, it seems plainly geared toward recruiting, but big deal. If it's within the rules then Emmert should STFU.

And obviously I agree with @DeadMan about the "think of the children" argument. There are about a hundred things they could do to make life easier on the players, and scheduling spring ball around spring break isn't even on the list.
 
Last edited:
GuyIncognito

GuyIncognito

pressure cooker full of skittles
I asked a few teammates, they seem to remember us getting the break off, so I think my recollection above is accurate.
 
DeadMan

DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
Hmmm, well I'd assume that lots of schools have football practice during spring break. And because of Michigan's academic calendar, and the NCAA's time limit on spring practice (you get like 34 days to do it or something), Michigan can either schedule practice over spring break or during exams.

I really don't get other coaches complaining about this. If they think this is a big deal to the kids, then use it in recruiting against Michigan. Nothing is stopping you from letting your athletes off during spring break.
 
GuyIncognito

GuyIncognito

pressure cooker full of skittles
Yeah, and I feel like the guys who signed up to play for Harbaugh don't have much room to complain they didn't know he was a lunatic.

But yeah, I hate transparent recruiting politics masquerading as concern for the players. It's so obvious. The NCAA is the worst ever.
 
DeadMan

DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
GatorTD said:
All this says to me is people who live in Michigan don't even want to be in Michigan.
Click to expand...

That is very true. Michigan is really nice for about 2 months but pretty miserable the rest of the year.

I used to skip spring entirely in undergrad. Michigan's 2nd semester ended mid-April, which was still basically winter there. Come back to Colorado and it was already summer.
 
Last edited:
Lightningwar

Lightningwar

Administrator
We also got Spring Break off. We took that week to hit Mexico, get blasted, bang chicks, then come home with some super cold that knocked us out for nearly the first week of Spring practice. My first spring break lost 12 pounds in 5 days lol. Eventually coaches moved Spring practice back a couple weeks after spring break since it didnt make sense to hold them when easily 1/3rd of the team is laid up sick.
 
GatorTD

GatorTD

Male
Mod Alumni
fyi the only team I'm aware of their spring break policy is Texas. They do not practice for spring break.
 
Mr. Radpants

Mr. Radpants

Trog Five Standing By
I played college baseball and we did trips Souf or Cali every spring break for tourneys hosted by other colleges.

So I have no idea what they are talking about or how they could pretend there's something wrong with this. But if they were going to outlaw spring break trips I wish they had done it 15 years ago before I had to cram into a van and sit through a 10 hour drive to Marion Georgia.
 
Southpaw

Southpaw

Fuckface
Utopia Moderator
The ACC corches cried too. I don't know why anyone cares where Michigan takes spring break. If I was a corch, fuck Orlando lol. I would take my kids to Jamaica or something. Now that is a good recruiting tool.
 
GuyIncognito

GuyIncognito

pressure cooker full of skittles
If anyone's pissed, it's just because they didn't think of it first. Harbaugh should suggest that SEC schools are welcome to hold spring ball at Ann Arbor HS if they want to.
 
DeadMan

DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
GuyIncognito said:
If anyone's pissed, it's just because they didn't think of it first. Harbaugh should suggest that SEC schools are welcome to hold spring ball at Ann Arbor HS if they want to.
Click to expand...

Pioneer High School is literally across the street from the Big House, too.
 
goblue96

goblue96

Disney and Curling Expert
DeadMan said:
That is very true. Michigan is really nice for about 2 months but pretty miserable the rest of the year.

I used to skip spring entirely in undergrad. Michigan's 2nd semester ended mid-April, which was still basically winter there. Come back to Colorado and it was already summer.
Click to expand...

In 1996, Michigan's commencement was on April 30. I think the high temperature was just above 40 degrees and it snowed that morning. Had to listen to a commencement speaker who called everyone "brother and sister graduate."
 
Wooly

Wooly

Well-Known Member
goblue96 said:
In 1996, Michigan's commencement was on April 30. I think the high temperature was just above 40 degrees and it snowed that morning. Had to listen to a commencement speaker who called everyone "brother and sister graduate."
Click to expand...
I went to an Amish college, I feel ya.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top