Deion Vibes, Recently Fired All-Stars, & the World's Strongest Magnet

Happy Thursday! It's the best day of the year... the first day of the NCAA Tournament. Yes, this is still a college football newsletter, but I have to be honest. When I was still working the office job, it was a day for fake meetings and creative scoreboard watching. Oh, the memories. Anyway, I watched about 52 minutes of college basketball all year, and am weirdly confident in my picks. For now, anyway. My brackets will be blown to smithereens by Friday night.

And... to pay special homage to the teams that go one-and-done in this year's tournament, I'm rejiggering our referral bonuses. For a limited time, JUST ONE REFERRAL will get you in the door of our Virtual VerbaCon event this summer. Scroll down for more info.

Onwards!

Here's my very unofficial ranking of the 5½ college football things that got the juices flowing over the last week:

1) The hottest ticket in college football is... Colorado's Spring Game?

You know, if Miami were serious about bringing back its swagger, it should've hired Deion Sanders. Sheesh. Instead, Colorado is basking in the glow of the newfound spotlight that Coach Prime has brought to Boulder. I can't sit here and say that the Buffs will have a renaissance season in Year One, but there are worse moves than hiring a certified Vibes Guy to infuse the operation with some optimism.

In related news, Deion is apparently afraid of Ralphie the mascot.

2) Mike Locksley & the Recently Fired All-Stars

Mike Locksley is... trying some stuff with Maryland's offense. I think that's the best way to put it? In February, he hired Kevin Sumlin as associate head coach, co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach. Last week, he hired Josh Gattis as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Sumlin and Gattis will replace Dan Enos who left for Arkansas.

Locksley is buying very low on both guys. After a meteoric rise, Gattis was unceremoniously fired after his stay in Miami went sideways. Meanwhile, Sumlin's star has faded after his historic run with Johnny Manziel. Sumlin was fired from Texas A&M in 2017 and again from Arizona at the end of 2020.

Assembling a cast of Recently Fired All-Stars always carries significant risk. But, if nothing more, it'll be interesting!

3) Mr. NIL goes to Washington

According to ESPN, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is planning to host a hearing on March 29th to discuss the name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights of college athletes. If you've followed the evolution of NIL at all, you'll know that the NCAA's "amateurism" model is facing serious legal challenges, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are proposing bills that could reshape college athletics.

The NCAA's new president is Charlie Baker, the former governor of Massachussetts. Presumably, the NCAA picked Baker in hopes that his experience could help the organization navigate uncertain political waters. It's unclear what will come from this hearing, but it certainly won't be the last time we have to talk about politics in this space. Yuck.

4) Utah's AD has had enough of your conference guff

Our friends over at KSL Sports chatted with Utah AD Mark Harlan, who had a few things to get off his chest:

A couple things here:

1) I can't possibly imagine how annoyed Harlan must be, watching the media chaos while trapped inside the bubble. Hell, I'm annoyed and I'm outside the bubble. If I took the last three months of Dennis Dodd's articles on realignment and fed them into a computer, it would think that he's arguing with himself. Everyone is trying their best to figure out what's going on with the conference's media rights, but I believe Harlan when he hints that nobody knows a damn thing.

2) My BS detector went off when Harlan calmly asserted that the remaining 10 teams "always had a plan." Okay, guy. I can assure you that Oregon and Washington plan to go to the Big Ten as soon as possible. And it sounds like Colorado's plan is to play footsies with Brett Yormark and the Big 12.

3) This is all going to hit the fan very soon. All indications are that things could get spicy in April. Stay tuned!

5) All your Pro Days are belong to Brett Yormark

The Big 12's new commissioner has yet to meet a college football entity that he wouldn't expand. That extends to on-campus Pro Days in advance of the 2024 draft. In a move that will be the first of its kind, Yormark aligned every school in the conference and has set up a conference-wide Pro Day that will take place next year in Frisco, TX.

For those that don't know, "Pro Days" have long been organized by individual schools as a way to showcase their outgoing football prospects. This tends to give players a more comfortable setting when performing in front of NFL scouts. But because the scheduling is so scattershot, it hard to generate media attention. Yormark's attempt at drumming up more press for the highest profile prospects in the Big 12 seems like a win across the board.

Others Receiving Votes:

• Ted Lasso: Season 3 is officially here! No spoilers, please. The Solid Wife and I didn't think we'd be able to stay awake last night, so we're targeting Friday night for the first episode. To get you ready, here's the official trailer:

• NASA unveiled the new spacesuits that astronauts will wear when we go back to the Moon:

• This video about the world's strongest magnet was awesome and started out with a story about how the magnet destroyed a metal chair:

THE VERBALLERHOOD

WHAT'S GOOD IN THE VERBALLERHOOD?

March Madness is in the air, so we steered into it. This week, we put together a bracket of 32 coaches and debated which we'd most want running our teams. Look, you already know how this is going to end, but the conversation was a lot of fun and took us to a few weird places.

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Thanks for reading. Until next week, stay solid!-Ty Hildenbrandt