College Football Morning Announcements for April 7

Miss anything in the world of college football yesterday? Catch up with “Nick Shepkowski’s College Football Morning Announcements” here.

Good morning and happy Thursday!

What happened yesterday that you may have missed in the world of college football or with Notre Dame?  Wonder no more as episode three of the “Nick Shepkowski’s College Football Morning Announcements” is ready for you.

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Links to the stories discussed:

Big 12 cancels media days in-person – Sooners Wire

James Franklin suggests conferences should play even without full members this football season – ESPN

Tennessee’s recruiting uptick and the recruiting vs. development battle that has long been going on in Knoxville – Saturday Down South.

Notre Dame adds a walk-on offensive lineman to 2020 recruiting class – Fighting Irish Wire

Top ’21 Notre Dame Target Will Shipley Headed to Clemson

Notre Dame’s top priority in the 2021 recruiting class has chosen a different school. Now what?

When it was announced on Monday afternoon that Will Shipley, the top all-purpose-back in the nation for 2021 would be announcing his commitment on Tuesday, all signs pointed to Clemson being his choice.

Now that fear for Notre Dame fans has become a reality as Shipley has announced his commitment with fantastically produced video.

Shipley was seen as the top priority for Notre Dame in this recruiting cycle and the Irish did one heckuva job getting as close as they did with him all things considered.

However, the rich get richer as Clemson lands Shipley’s talents.

What does Notre Dame do now in terms of finding a running back for their 2021 class?  It’ll be tough to bring anyone at this point that will bring anywhere near the hype Shipley would have entered with.

It doesn’t hurt having Lance Taylor leading the way trying to make that impact in the 2021 class still, however.

Related:  With Notre Dame out on Will Shipley, what do they do now at running back in the 2021 recruiting class?  Mike Chen breaks all of that down.

NFL Cancels Europe Games for 2020 – College Football Impact

The NFL made an announcement Monday that only means bad news for Notre Dame and Navy fans in regards to their August game in Dublin, Ireland

Think back just a couple of months ago to when conference tournaments were getting going and we thought the NCAA Tournament was about to be played in front of empty stadiums.  What happened that ended that from happening?

Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for coronavirus and as soon as the Dallas Mavericks home contest against the Denver Nuggets ended that night we haven’t seen a big-time sport played in the United States since as the NCAA suspended events the next day.

I remind you of that sequence to tell you that the news of the NFL cancelling all of their games abroad for 2020.

The NCAA wasn’t about to be the first league or organization to step in and cancel things but when the NBA did they felt their hand was forced.

I know we sit and hope for everything to go off as scheduled between Notre Dame and Navy at the end of August, but is the NCAA going to let those two play a contest abroad when the NFL won’t even send their players and team employees?

The chances of that happening are slim to none and and slim is waiting for his jacket at the coat check.

I want to be wrong, I really do.  I was fortunate enough to head to the Emerald Isle in 2012 to take in Notre Dame and Navy and as great as a 50-10 opening day victory was, the trip was downright fantastic before even bringing up the football part.

As much as I’d like to be wrong I simply can’t see the NCAA not following the lead of the NFL here and putting a stop to Notre Dame vs. Navy in Dublin from happening.

Good News from Iowa in Regards to College Football in 2020?

The Univ. of Iowa president spoke about Hawkeyes football starting up on June 1 today. Is that good news or is just words spoken too soon?

We’re 121 days until the 2020 College Football season is to kickoff with the newly formed Week Zero.  As Notre Dame fans know the Fighting Irish are scheduled to play Navy that day, August 29 in Dublin, Ireland.

Much has been made of if this game will or won’t be played.  It makes very little sense to me that a sporting event is alright to play but other mass-gatherings in Ireland are not alright to have.  We can discuss that for literally hours but instead let’s focus on the potential good news that came from Iowa today for college football fans.

University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld said Thursday that the plan at his university for now is for athletics practices, football included, to start on June 1.

So get excited, right?  Iowa is setting the trend and the rest of the Big Ten will follow and then the rest of college football quickly after.

The good news comes from the state of Iowa being in a position that coronavirus hasn’t been as severe and that talks of this are even a possibility.  However, turn on the news and you’ll quickly see that for every Iowa, there is a New York, Michigan or Florida where you’re still seeing over 1000 new cases of COVID-19 per day.

I think Harreld comes off perhaps a bit optimistic but he also gave some reason as to why, right now on April 30, he sees June 1 as a possible starting point for football and other team activities.

I hope like all getup that Harreld is right.  That would mean the worst of this pandemic would be behind us sooner rather than later and that college football gets started as regularly scheduled, something I have not been optimistic about for quite some time.  It was Miami (FL) head coach Manny Diaz who put everything in perspective as well as anyone I’ve seen so far when he spoke to ESPN this week.

“We all know what we want, but we’ve encountered something that’s unprecedented,” Diaz said. “We have to play it out and see what we can get. That’s the difference. Let’s see how good we can get it. I believe we’ll all be appreciative for whatever we get.”

As much as I hope Harreld is correct it’s simply way too soon for us to know if things will start on June 1 like he says.  Think back how different you may have viewed this pandemic just two weeks ago.  Now think back a whole month ago.

Everything news-wise changes so quickly with this it’s almost impossible to be able to predict things getting started like Harreld suggests just a month from now.  I’m not sold his beliefs or hopes will play out this way but I’d be beyond ecstatic to be wrong and for what should be a fun 2020 season to get started after the strangest springs of almost all of our lives.

NCAA Will Allow Athletes to Make Money From Endorsements

NCAA Will Allow Athletes to
Make Money From Endorsements The decision, made by the NCAA’s
board of governors, will go into
effect by January 2021 at the latest. Big East commissioner
Val Ackerman, via Yahoo Athletes will now be able to work with
companies to promote their businesses and
retain marketing agents to handle deals. Schools will be kept separate with
guardrails in place to prevent boosters
during the recruiting process. The legislation must still clear
a vote at the NCAA Convention,
though board approval makes
the chances high. Companies previously had to
strike deals with individual
programs, head coaches
or the NCAA.

NCAA Will Allow Athletes to
Make Money From Endorsements The decision, made by the NCAA’s
board of governors, will go into
effect by January 2021 at the latest. Big East commissioner
Val Ackerman, via Yahoo Athletes will now be able to work with
companies to promote their businesses and
retain marketing agents to handle deals. Schools will be kept separate with
guardrails in place to prevent boosters
during the recruiting process. The legislation must still clear
a vote at the NCAA Convention,
though board approval makes
the chances high. Companies previously had to
strike deals with individual
programs, head coaches
or the NCAA.

NCAA Will Allow Athletes to Make Money From Endorsements

NCAA Will Allow Athletes to
Make Money From Endorsements The decision, made by the NCAA’s
board of governors, will go into
effect by January 2021 at the latest. Big East commissioner
Val Ackerman, via Yahoo Athletes will now be able to work with
companies to promote their businesses and
retain marketing agents to handle deals. Schools will be kept separate with
guardrails in place to prevent boosters
during the recruiting process. The legislation must still clear
a vote at the NCAA Convention,
though board approval makes
the chances high. Companies previously had to
strike deals with individual
programs, head coaches
or the NCAA.

NCAA Will Allow Athletes to
Make Money From Endorsements The decision, made by the NCAA’s
board of governors, will go into
effect by January 2021 at the latest. Big East commissioner
Val Ackerman, via Yahoo Athletes will now be able to work with
companies to promote their businesses and
retain marketing agents to handle deals. Schools will be kept separate with
guardrails in place to prevent boosters
during the recruiting process. The legislation must still clear
a vote at the NCAA Convention,
though board approval makes
the chances high. Companies previously had to
strike deals with individual
programs, head coaches
or the NCAA.

NCAA takes step toward allowing athletes to earn income from endorsements, social media content

The NCAA announced Wednesday it is taking steps toward allowing athletes to earn income from endorsements, social media content.

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The NCAA took a dramatic step Wednesday toward allowing college athletes to earn income for things like product endorsements and social media content when its Board of Governors approved a broad set of recommendations to address an issue that has put college sports leaders under significant political pressure over the last year.

With state legislatures across the country passing or looking into laws that would allow for college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness and members of Congress also sounding the alarm on the issue, what the NCAA announced Wednesday represents a significant change from prior NCAA policy.

“Allowing promotions and third-party endorsements is unchartered territory,” Ohio State president and Board of Governors chairman Michael Drake said in a release.

Still, it’s unclear whether the NCAA’s action to broaden name, image and likeness rights will be enough to get lawmakers to back down. Though the working group presented broad recommendations that would be seen as a significant win for college athletes’ rights, there are several details that remain unresolved on exactly how the new rules would be written and enforced.

The process of codifying those recommendations into NCAA legislation will occur over the course of 2020, with an expected vote happening at the next NCAA convention in January.

“While we wait optimistically for changes, we’ve been down this road before,” said state representative Chip LaMarca, who sponsored the Florida bill that passed in March and is waiting for a signature from Gov. Ron DeSantis. “It is my hope that this is not another hidden ball trick allowing the NCAA to punt this issue down the field. With this global pandemic challenging our economy, now more than ever we must give flexibility to all students to both continue their education and provide for themselves and their families.”

As revolutionary as they are within the college sports ecosystem, the NCAA’s recommendations will not come without critics.

One of the major points of contention will be regulation of potential marketing deals for college athletes. The NCAA working group has recommended that any financial transactions be disclosed to the schools and that the fees for those activities should be within an established range of market values.

In other words, if an average commercial for a car dealership is worth $50,000, a college athlete being offered $500,000 would potentially raise a red flag. How those issues are adjudicated will be watched closely, and some NCAA critics will argue it shouldn’t be regulated at all. From the beginning, the NCAA has maintained that it does not want money associated with name, image and likeness rights to be a proxy for recruiting athletes to a particular school.

The recommendations also do not deal with the notion of group licensing rights, which would be key to a revival of the EA Sports college football video game, for instance.

The NCAA’s release Wednesday calls on Congress to pass a law that would “ensure federal preemption over state name, image and likeness laws” and established a “safe harbor” for protection against lawsuits filed against the NCAA over name, image and likeness rules.

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Notre Dame/Navy: Prediction Time Already?!?

Notre Dame and Navy’s game for the end of August is very much up in the air. But until it’s cancelled we can still get our predictions in!

In a perfect world we’ll have college football go off without a hitch and games will be played in front of full crowds starting at the end of August.  Now is that likely or realistic?  Not so much but until we’re told otherwise we’re still left with the task of predicting how this college football season will go.

We’ve already gone over ESPN’s Football Power Index and how they see Notre Dame not only losing three games but more specifically, having very little chance against three different opponents in 2020.

Our friend Pete Fiutak over at College Football News started putting together some of his “fearless predictions”, pre-season style anyway and today offered his thoughts on Notre Dame vs. Navy in Dublin.

Nothing like putting a prediction out there for a game that seems less likely to be taking place by the day.  I would argue against one point he brings up though and that’s Navy having an advantage with fewer practices.  Maybe it’s just from watching their pre-season struggles in the Showtime series they were featured in a few years back but that offense doesn’t appear to hit the ground running often.

Ultimately Fiutak picks Notre Dame 34-16 in his prediction, which would be a Notre Dame cover by BetMGM’s posted line where the Irish are a 16.5 point favorite.

Odds via BetMGMAccess USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated April 28, 2020 at 3:15 p.m. ET.

Notre Dame will have spots to fill with six players getting drafted and another six signing free agent deals with NFL teams over the weekend and as is always the case with the Navy game, the Irish will still have superior talent and much bigger lines on both sides of the ball.

I’m with Fiutak on Notre Dame winning this game fairly easily and think it taking place early in the season is a better thing for the Irish than the Midshipmen.  I’ll also go along with him four months before the game is set to be played and say that Notre Dame will cover.  For fun I’ll say 41-16.

Now let’s just hope this thing somehow is played as scheduled.

“Want to get in on the action? Place your bet now at BetMGM.” 

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

 

Notre Dame: Brian Kelly Gives Muffet McGraw Highest of Praise

You figure it’s just a matter of time until a Muffet McGraw statue is chilling outside Purcell Pavillion.

Shocking news came down Wednesday afternoon as the announcement of Muffet McGraw’s retirement came down.  The legendary basketball coach exits as not just the most accomplished women’s basketball coach in Notre Dame history but as accomplished as almost anyone to ever blow a whistle on campus.

Head football coach Brian Kelly had the following to say about the retirement of McGraw on Wednesday:

Pretty tough to make any argument against that.  She may not have been as instrumental in building the university or athletic program quite like Father Ted or Knute Rockne, but she exits just as accomplished, if not more-so than any of the other names Kelly lists.

You figure it’s just a matter of time until a Muffet McGraw statue is chilling outside Purcell Pavillion.

Notre Dame Football Cancels all 2020 Summer Camps

These camps might get looked at as not being very big deals but they’re important in terms of selling the program.  Sure, you’ll have dozens and dozens of players that attend that the football program will never have any desire to offer a scholarship to but for the ones they are interested in you can bet your bottom dollar the selling of the program is going on then.

It had been a while since the sports world got news of more cancellations.  Well, Notre Dame football announced the cancellations of no games, but instead all of their summer camps for 2020.

The athletic department made the announcement via the Notre Dame Football Twitter account on Monday morning.

These camps might get looked at as not being very big deals but they’re important in terms of selling the program.  Sure, you’ll have dozens and dozens of players that attend that the football program will never have any desire to offer a scholarship to but for the ones they are interested in you can bet your bottom dollar the selling of the program is going on then.

The camps canceled include:

Lineman Challenge
Overnight Camp
Specialist Camp
7×7 Passing Camp
QB Academy
Irish Invasion
Notre Dame Sunday Night Football

And for the non-high school football players:
Adult Fantasy Camp
Youth Camp
Football 101

For those looking for a positive sign in terms of things getting going and starting on time, this certainly wasn’t the signal you wanted to see on Monday morning.  Let’s hope it’s a just pothole on the road to football and doesn’t lead to a crater that we’re unable to drive through.