RIP Ryan Mallett, LSU Probation & Speed Typing Scandals

1) RIP Ryan Mallett

I hate to lead with a sad bit of news, but sometimes there’s no way around it. News broke on Tuesday that Ryan Mallett, former Arkansas and Michigan quarterback, had tragically passed after an apparent drowning while swimming in the waters off Destin, Florida. Mallett was just 35 years old and had recently been hired as the head coach of White Hall High School in his native Arkansas.

This is, of course, impossibly sad and tragic. Our friend Dan Wetzel penned a wonderful tribute that is well worth your time.

2) Smaller transfer windows?

The NCAA D-1 Council is proposing a change that would reduce the amount of time a player has to enter the transfer portal. Currently, players have a total of 60 days during which they can throw their name in the hat. Those 60 days are split up into 45 and 15 day periods in the winter and spring, respectively. The new proposal would cut the total transfer window down to 30 days.

Is this a good thing? That depends on your point of view. From the perspective of a coach, you’d much rather have a more condensed window. It’s no secret that programs are stuck in a bit of limbo while star players are deciding whether or not to bolt. I could also see a world in which this means more players enter the transfer portal. With less time to file the paperwork and no penalty for simply staying at your current school, what’s the harm in entering the portal just to give yourself a way out?

3) LSU gets probation

The NCAA gave the LSU football program a Level I, Level II and Level III violations for separate incidents dating as far back as 2012. Notably, Odell Beckham Jr.’s celebratory antics — i.e., handing out cash to players — after the Tigers won the 2020 national championship were also included in the rap sheet, despite early assertions that he was just handing out fake money.

What does this mean? Well, not that much in the grand scheme, at least not on the football side. LSU self-reported the infractions and penalized itself, which the NCAA ultimately found to be sufficient. In fact, the biggest loser in this ordeal is former coach Les Miles. As the Tigers must vacate 37 wins from 2012-15, Miles’s career winning percentage now falls below the .600 threshold required for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

4) And now for a random NIL factoid…

Anyone covering college football will tell you that the beat has gotten significantly more complex over the last couple seasons, and we’re all quietly becoming business reporters who happen to know a lot about RPOs. So, you can expect a lot more stories like the one linked above about SMU’s NIL operation, and specifically where it’d fit into the Pac-12 ecosystem, if the Mustangs ever join forces.

Our current theories about conference realignment center mostly around the size of TV markets and program prestige. But if full-fledged super-conferencemageddon does take place, other factors — like a program’s NIL operation and ability to attract talent — could play a larger role than currently meets the eye. Food for thought.

5) Your requisite Pac-12 media rights update

Creative and forward-thinking. Got it. Stay tuned.

Others Receiving Votes

Andy from our Discord community sent in this one, titled “The Biggest Scandal in Speed Typing History” and, yup, count me in for anything labeled as such:

Cheddar from our Discord harvested this gem from Chess YouTube, which is very much a THING:

Here’s how you can beat Super Mario 3 in 3 minutes and 31 seconds:

WHAT'S GOOD IN THE VERBALLERHOOD?

This week, Dan had a spirited chat with our friend Ari Wasserman and we played a July 4th-themed game to get you ready for the holiday weekend.

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THIS WEEK'S PODCAST EPISODES: