16 College Players making more than Brock Purdy
- By BassHorn
- Inside the 40 Acres
- 12 Replies
According to an article in Market Watch, Purdy will make 870K this year while his opponent in the Super Bowl will make 44Million.
www.marketwatch.com
Both Quin and Arch make the list. I hope my link works.
Super Bowl quarterback Brock Purdy made $870,000 this season — 16 college football players made more via NIL
Quarterback Purdy was the last pick in the 2022 NFL draft, and led the 49ers to the Super Bowl this season
www.marketwatch.com
Both Quin and Arch make the list. I hope my link works.
The Athletic- 2024 SEC Football 8 key topics
- By OttoA
- Inside the 40 Acres
- 5 Replies
In 2023, no SEC team played for the College Football Playoff national championship for the first time since its inception in 2014. It’s in some ways a fitting end for the conference that dominated the four-team era, and as the 12-team playoff era is here, more teams than ever will have an opportunity to play deep into the postseason.
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Before looking ahead, it’s worth noting the SEC’s run during the past decade: most appearances in the Playoff by a conference (10), most wins (14) and most championships (six), highlighted by Alabama with the most appearances (seven), wins (nine) and championships (three).
Legendary coach Nick Saban has retired, signaling a potential changing of the guard in the conference entering 2024. A combination of returnees and portal additions has Georgia poised to regain its perch atop the SEC. Alabama lost valuable defensive pieces but brings back core offensive talent, while Ole Miss and Missouri are gunning for historic runs. Newcomer Texas has championship aspirations, fellow newcomer Oklahoma is optimistic, and Mississippi State and Texas A&M are hoping for brighter days under new coaches.
GO DEEPER
Recounting the final hours of Nick Saban as Alabama's coach
To kick off the offseason discussion, here are eight topics for 2024 ranging from expansion to television to recruiting. As always, it’s a snapshot and not a film strip as much of this can change by the hour, let alone the day.
The SEC welcomes Texas’ Steve Sarkisian fresh off a Big 12 championship and a Playoff berth and Oklahoma’s Brent Venables, who led the Sooners to 10 wins in 2023 and has high expectations this fall. New Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, who is 2-0 against Sarkisian, takes over the Crimson Tide after a national title game appearance at Washington. Mike Elko returned to Texas A&M, and Mississippi State hired Jeff Lebby to get the program back on track.
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Smart headlines the list of returnees with two of the past three national titles. Brian Kelly won big with Jayden Daniels but enters a new era. Lane Kiffin and Eli Drinkwitz are leading ascending programs. Stoops, the new longest-tenured SEC coach (2013), continues to be a model of consistency, and Josh Heupel led Tennessee to 19 wins the past two seasons. Elsewhere, Hugh Freeze is eyeing a second-year leap while Shane Beamer, Billy Napier and Sam Pittman could use bounce-back years.
Kirby Smart is one of two active coaches who have won two national championships. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
The battle for SEC football supremacy is mirrored by the expanded 12-team Playoff field, which opens the door for programs like Ole Miss, Missouri and others to go all in with their rosters to compete for Playoff bids. This is a time when programs can recalibrate their expectations.
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The top two teams in the overall standings now will advance. The long-term vision for conference schedules isn’t known (more on that a little later), but the opportunity for must-see regular-season games and the new possibilities for teams hindered by their divisions create a new dynamic and optimism for some fan bases.
GO DEEPER
The new-look SEC: A prediction on how the 2024 season might play out
According to multiple sports betting books, the top three candidates for the 2024 Heisman Trophy are SEC quarterbacks: Carson Beck (Georgia), Quinn Ewers (Texas) and Jalen Milroe(Alabama). Further down the list, the sixth- to ninth-best odds are SEC quarterbacks: Garrett Nussmeier (LSU), Jackson Arnold(Oklahoma), Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss) and Conner Weigman (Texas A&M).
Not to be forgotten, Missouri’s Brady Cook returns off a stellar season and has the core of his receivers returning, Florida’s Graham Mertz is back after a solid statistical season, Auburn brings back Payton Thorne, and Tennessee’s bullish on young prospect Nico Iamaleava, who scored four touchdowns in his first start against Iowa in the Cheez-It Bowl. There will be new starters at Arkansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt.
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SEC football mailbag: Which programs can compete for a Playoff bid?
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Several programs are also taking advantage of the transfer portal as eight — Ole Miss (first), Texas A&M (second), Texas (seventh), South Carolina (ninth), Missouri (11th), Kentucky (16th), Florida (17th) and Tennessee (20th) — have top 20 transfer portal classes, and there’s still a spring window to come in April.
The upcoming 2025 recruiting cycle is notable for a few reasons. Will Alabama maintain its dominance under DeBoer, or will Georgia, Texas or someone else start to run away with the field? How much further will Oklahoma and Texas dip into the Southern footprint for recruits, and how much will SEC teams target the Texas market?
And there’s no shortage of Southern talent, according to 247Sports, as 20 of the top 25 prospects in the 2025 class live in the SEC footprint (a state with an SEC program). Two of those four players outside the footprint are No. 1 player Bryce Underwood (a quarterback from Belleville, Mich., who is an LSU commit) and No. 2 David Sanders (an offensive lineman from Charlotte, N.C., which is obviously in a Southern state).
GO DEEPER
SEC football mailbag: What is Vanderbilt's SEC future, can Missouri make the Playoff?
It will be interesting to see how ESPN’s branding of the SEC evolves. Saturdays at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS were a near-religious experience, the iconic high-pitched horns, drums and melodies that were the SEC on CBS theme song marked one of the South’s most recognizable tunes, and the pregame buildup packages set the stage for big games so well.
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What are we to expect from ESPN in this new era? We’ll see.
Kalen DeBoer spent two seasons at Washington before being hired to replace Nick Saban at Alabama. (John David Mercer / USA Today)
Impactful returnees from the all-second team include offensive lineman Tyler Booker (Alabama), linebacker Harold Perkins (LSU), defensive linemen Mykel Williams and Nazir Stackhouse(Georgia), and wide receiver Barion Brown, offensive lineman Eli Cox and defensive back Maxwell Hairston (Kentucky).
For the incoming schools, Texas has kicker Bert Auburn and offensive lineman Kelvin Banks Jr. as All-Big 12 members to join Ewers, and Oklahoma brings in defensive back Billy Bowman, defensive lineman Ethan Downs and linebacker Danny Stutsmanas all-conference performers.
Defensive lineman Princely Umanmielen, formerly of Florida, was one of the prized transfer commits in Ole Miss’ class and should take a step forward. Linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson, a Butkus Award finalist in 2022, is moving from Georgia to Kentucky.
(Top photos of Steve Sarkisian, Carson Beck and Brian Kelly: Getty Images)
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Before looking ahead, it’s worth noting the SEC’s run during the past decade: most appearances in the Playoff by a conference (10), most wins (14) and most championships (six), highlighted by Alabama with the most appearances (seven), wins (nine) and championships (three).
Legendary coach Nick Saban has retired, signaling a potential changing of the guard in the conference entering 2024. A combination of returnees and portal additions has Georgia poised to regain its perch atop the SEC. Alabama lost valuable defensive pieces but brings back core offensive talent, while Ole Miss and Missouri are gunning for historic runs. Newcomer Texas has championship aspirations, fellow newcomer Oklahoma is optimistic, and Mississippi State and Texas A&M are hoping for brighter days under new coaches.
GO DEEPER
Recounting the final hours of Nick Saban as Alabama's coach
To kick off the offseason discussion, here are eight topics for 2024 ranging from expansion to television to recruiting. As always, it’s a snapshot and not a film strip as much of this can change by the hour, let alone the day.
New coaching hierarchy
The most glaring change to the SEC landscape in 2024 and beyond is the departure of the greatest coach the sport has ever seen in Saban. Dominance aside, he was the one constant in the SEC for close to two decades and was the fifth-longest tenured coach in the country at his retirement. Now the only SEC coaches who have been at their school for at least five years are Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Kentucky’s Mark Stoops. But there are plenty of storylines to watch.The SEC welcomes Texas’ Steve Sarkisian fresh off a Big 12 championship and a Playoff berth and Oklahoma’s Brent Venables, who led the Sooners to 10 wins in 2023 and has high expectations this fall. New Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, who is 2-0 against Sarkisian, takes over the Crimson Tide after a national title game appearance at Washington. Mike Elko returned to Texas A&M, and Mississippi State hired Jeff Lebby to get the program back on track.
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Smart headlines the list of returnees with two of the past three national titles. Brian Kelly won big with Jayden Daniels but enters a new era. Lane Kiffin and Eli Drinkwitz are leading ascending programs. Stoops, the new longest-tenured SEC coach (2013), continues to be a model of consistency, and Josh Heupel led Tennessee to 19 wins the past two seasons. Elsewhere, Hugh Freeze is eyeing a second-year leap while Shane Beamer, Billy Napier and Sam Pittman could use bounce-back years.
Kirby Smart is one of two active coaches who have won two national championships. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
Expansion: Twofold
The SEC had expanded only twice in its history: in 1991 (Arkansas and South Carolina) and 2012 (Missouri and Texas A&M). Adding Texas and Oklahoma, the flag bearers of their previous conference, is perhaps the most significant expansion move yet. They’re both Playoff/national championship-level programs, and the SEC is going to welcome them in style by sending Alabama (Oklahoma) and Georgia (Texas) to their campuses this fall. Both schools bring in highly touted programs from other sports. Logistical matters, such as travel, aren’t as big of a hurdle as with other Power conferences. By all accounts, they’re home run additions.The battle for SEC football supremacy is mirrored by the expanded 12-team Playoff field, which opens the door for programs like Ole Miss, Missouri and others to go all in with their rosters to compete for Playoff bids. This is a time when programs can recalibrate their expectations.
No divisions
The SEC was the first conference with a championship game in 1992. Some 30 years later, the East-West split finished with an epic battle between Alabama and Georgia, with Saban finishing his career as the SEC champion. The SEC West, headlined by Alabama’s 11 titles, bested the East with 19 championships. Six teams won championships (Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee) with four others making appearances (Arkansas, Mississippi State, Missouri and South Carolina).ADVERTISEMENT
The top two teams in the overall standings now will advance. The long-term vision for conference schedules isn’t known (more on that a little later), but the opportunity for must-see regular-season games and the new possibilities for teams hindered by their divisions create a new dynamic and optimism for some fan bases.
GO DEEPER
The new-look SEC: A prediction on how the 2024 season might play out
Quarterbacks
Daniels ascended in 2023 to claim the Heisman Trophy, continuing the trend of elite quarterback play in the SEC the past several years. Daniels is off to the NFL, as is South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler. Arkansas’ KJ Jefferson, who rewrote the Razorbacks’ record books, is now at Central Florida, and Will Rogers, one of the SEC’s top passers historically, is at Washington. But looking ahead to 2024, the SEC quarterback group has plenty of intrigue.According to multiple sports betting books, the top three candidates for the 2024 Heisman Trophy are SEC quarterbacks: Carson Beck (Georgia), Quinn Ewers (Texas) and Jalen Milroe(Alabama). Further down the list, the sixth- to ninth-best odds are SEC quarterbacks: Garrett Nussmeier (LSU), Jackson Arnold(Oklahoma), Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss) and Conner Weigman (Texas A&M).
Not to be forgotten, Missouri’s Brady Cook returns off a stellar season and has the core of his receivers returning, Florida’s Graham Mertz is back after a solid statistical season, Auburn brings back Payton Thorne, and Tennessee’s bullish on young prospect Nico Iamaleava, who scored four touchdowns in his first start against Iowa in the Cheez-It Bowl. There will be new starters at Arkansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt.
Conference schedules
The SEC will play eight conference games for at least one more year, but there’s uncertainty about how many conference games each team will play moving forward and what the breakdown of opponents will be. In October, Saban hinted toward a 7-1 model of seven rotating opponents and only one fixed opponent per year during his weekly call-in radio show. Such a model severely would limit several rivalries, which could cause issues among many fan bases. The future scheduling format will undoubtedly be a leading storyline at the SEC spring meetings in a couple of months.GO DEEPER
SEC football mailbag: Which programs can compete for a Playoff bid?
Recruiting and the transfer portal
According to the 247Sports Composite, 13 of the conference’s 16 teams have Top 25 recruiting classes for the Class of 2024: 1. Georgia, 3. Alabama, 4. Texas, 8. Auburn, 9. LSU, 11. Oklahoma, 12. Tennessee, 13. Florida, 16. Ole Miss, 17. Texas A&M, 18. South Carolina, 22. Missouri and 25. Kentucky. A little further down, you can find Arkansas (27th), Mississippi State (36th) and Vanderbilt (43rd) as all 16 programs are within the top 50 classes.ADVERTISEMENT
Several programs are also taking advantage of the transfer portal as eight — Ole Miss (first), Texas A&M (second), Texas (seventh), South Carolina (ninth), Missouri (11th), Kentucky (16th), Florida (17th) and Tennessee (20th) — have top 20 transfer portal classes, and there’s still a spring window to come in April.
The upcoming 2025 recruiting cycle is notable for a few reasons. Will Alabama maintain its dominance under DeBoer, or will Georgia, Texas or someone else start to run away with the field? How much further will Oklahoma and Texas dip into the Southern footprint for recruits, and how much will SEC teams target the Texas market?
And there’s no shortage of Southern talent, according to 247Sports, as 20 of the top 25 prospects in the 2025 class live in the SEC footprint (a state with an SEC program). Two of those four players outside the footprint are No. 1 player Bryce Underwood (a quarterback from Belleville, Mich., who is an LSU commit) and No. 2 David Sanders (an offensive lineman from Charlotte, N.C., which is obviously in a Southern state).
GO DEEPER
SEC football mailbag: What is Vanderbilt's SEC future, can Missouri make the Playoff?
TV and the SEC
The 2023 season marked the end of the SEC on CBS era, which helped propel the SEC to a national brand. The 2024 season marks the beginning of the SEC on ESPN era: a 10-year agreement in which ESPN is the exclusive rights holder. ABC will air an SEC game every week, including a regular late-afternoon kickoff, and will have the option to feature an SEC game on ABC’s “Saturday Night Football” for the first time. ABC will air the SEC championship game, and either ABC or ESPN will feature a late-afternoon SEC game the Friday after Thanksgiving.It will be interesting to see how ESPN’s branding of the SEC evolves. Saturdays at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS were a near-religious experience, the iconic high-pitched horns, drums and melodies that were the SEC on CBS theme song marked one of the South’s most recognizable tunes, and the pregame buildup packages set the stage for big games so well.
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What are we to expect from ESPN in this new era? We’ll see.
Kalen DeBoer spent two seasons at Washington before being hired to replace Nick Saban at Alabama. (John David Mercer / USA Today)
Key departures and returnees
Twenty members of the All-SEC first team (including special teams) won’t return in 2024 (either leaving for the NFL Draft or the transfer portal). The returnees are Missouri wide receiver Luther Burden III, Georgia offensive lineman Tate Ratledge and defensive back Malaki Starks, and Arkansas linebacker Landon Jackson.Impactful returnees from the all-second team include offensive lineman Tyler Booker (Alabama), linebacker Harold Perkins (LSU), defensive linemen Mykel Williams and Nazir Stackhouse(Georgia), and wide receiver Barion Brown, offensive lineman Eli Cox and defensive back Maxwell Hairston (Kentucky).
For the incoming schools, Texas has kicker Bert Auburn and offensive lineman Kelvin Banks Jr. as All-Big 12 members to join Ewers, and Oklahoma brings in defensive back Billy Bowman, defensive lineman Ethan Downs and linebacker Danny Stutsmanas all-conference performers.
Defensive lineman Princely Umanmielen, formerly of Florida, was one of the prized transfer commits in Ole Miss’ class and should take a step forward. Linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson, a Butkus Award finalist in 2022, is moving from Georgia to Kentucky.
(Top photos of Steve Sarkisian, Carson Beck and Brian Kelly: Getty Images)
If you like motorcycles, Mecum Vegas this week is worth a watch
- By tzrider
- Inside the 40 Acres
- 25 Replies
Best lineup of bikes I have ever seen at one auction. Something for every bike lover
www.mecum.com
Lots
View and search all upcoming collector car, truck, motorcycle, tractor and Road Art lots for sale at current or future Mecum auctions.
www.mecum.com
Instant MBB Analysis: BYU soaks Texas with its shooting, leaving an 84-72 mess
- By Ketchum
- Inside the 40 Acres
- 79 Replies
Cliffs Notes: BYU shot the ball better than just about any team I've ever seen, as the Cougars beat Texas 84-72 in Provo on Saturday.
The Participants: NR/NR Texas (14-6, 3-4 Big 12) and No.21 BYU (15-5, 3-4 Big 12)
Pre-Game KenPom Rankings: Texas (No. 35) and BYU (No. 9)
Thing You Need to Know: The Texas defense just wasn't good enough. It's bad enough that BYU was feeling themselves all over the floor from a shooting standpoint, but Texas gave up one shots after another at the rim. With 8:30 to go in the game, BYU was shooting 72.5% from the floor. The Cougars finished the game shooting 64% from the floor on 32 of 50 shooting.
Game MVP: Senior Dylan Disu was the team's best player... by far... scoring 19 point and grabbing 7 rebounds. When Disu was not on the floor, the Longhorns were largely non-competitive.
Key Stretch: Max Abmas made a lay-up to open up the second half to cut the BYU lead to 44-43 and then the Cougars went on a 10-1 run and the Longhorns never cut the lead to less than 8 for the rest of the game.
R-e-b-o-u-n-d-i-n-g: It wasn't the reason for the loss, but the Longhorns finished -8 on the glass today (32-24).
The saving grace: The Longhorns would have been blown out in this game if not for the 15 BYU turnovers it was able to force.
The Nancy Kerrigen Whyyyyyy Award: Brock Cunningham took 6 three-point shots today, one less than Abmas. He made 1.
Fast Start: Both teams came out sizzling right out of the gates, as the Longhorns knocked down 6 of 8 shots (every starter scored), including 4 of 4 from downtown, on its way to taking a 16-12 lead at the first TV timeout. Meanwhile, BYU started off 6 of 10 during the same stretch, but missed on its opening 3 shots from downtown.
Tracking down History: After moving into 4th place on the NCAA' all-time 3-point shots made list a couple of weeks ago, Max Abmas knocked down 2 of 7 shots from downtown today to move within 21 of third-place Travis Bader (Purdue 2010-14).
Weak Sauce: Get out of here with this nonsense.
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ESPN Bracketology: It's amazing what a couple of big wins can do for the NCAA resume, but more work needs to be done to get this team off the bubble. The Big 12 schedule grind continues.
The Participants: NR/NR Texas (14-6, 3-4 Big 12) and No.21 BYU (15-5, 3-4 Big 12)
Pre-Game KenPom Rankings: Texas (No. 35) and BYU (No. 9)
Thing You Need to Know: The Texas defense just wasn't good enough. It's bad enough that BYU was feeling themselves all over the floor from a shooting standpoint, but Texas gave up one shots after another at the rim. With 8:30 to go in the game, BYU was shooting 72.5% from the floor. The Cougars finished the game shooting 64% from the floor on 32 of 50 shooting.
Game MVP: Senior Dylan Disu was the team's best player... by far... scoring 19 point and grabbing 7 rebounds. When Disu was not on the floor, the Longhorns were largely non-competitive.
Key Stretch: Max Abmas made a lay-up to open up the second half to cut the BYU lead to 44-43 and then the Cougars went on a 10-1 run and the Longhorns never cut the lead to less than 8 for the rest of the game.
R-e-b-o-u-n-d-i-n-g: It wasn't the reason for the loss, but the Longhorns finished -8 on the glass today (32-24).
The saving grace: The Longhorns would have been blown out in this game if not for the 15 BYU turnovers it was able to force.
The Nancy Kerrigen Whyyyyyy Award: Brock Cunningham took 6 three-point shots today, one less than Abmas. He made 1.
Fast Start: Both teams came out sizzling right out of the gates, as the Longhorns knocked down 6 of 8 shots (every starter scored), including 4 of 4 from downtown, on its way to taking a 16-12 lead at the first TV timeout. Meanwhile, BYU started off 6 of 10 during the same stretch, but missed on its opening 3 shots from downtown.
Tracking down History: After moving into 4th place on the NCAA' all-time 3-point shots made list a couple of weeks ago, Max Abmas knocked down 2 of 7 shots from downtown today to move within 21 of third-place Travis Bader (Purdue 2010-14).
Weak Sauce: Get out of here with this nonsense.
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ESPN Bracketology: It's amazing what a couple of big wins can do for the NCAA resume, but more work needs to be done to get this team off the bubble. The Big 12 schedule grind continues.
Instant WBB Analysis: Vic can sleep a little better tonight
- By Ketchum
- Inside the 40 Acres
- 19 Replies
Cliffs Notes: One game after giving up 90+ at home to Oklahoma, the Longhorns held Cincinnati under 30% from the floor for most of the game in rolling to a 67-50 win.
The Participants: No.10 Texas (18-3, 5-3 Big 12) and NR Cincinnati (10-8, 2-5 Big 12)
Pre-Game NET Rankings: Texas (No.4) and Cincinnati (No. 102)
Pre-Game RPI Rankings: Texas (No.21) and Cincinnati (No. 82)
Game MVP: It could have been a couple of players, but Taylor Jones wasn't a million miles away from a triple-double with her 13 points, 9 rebounds and 7 blocks. Given what Vic Schaefer would have bene preaching since Wednesday's game, Taylor's dominance on the defensive side of the ball is worthy of a game ball.
Unsung Hero: The Longhorns don't always get a lot off the bench, so when sophomore Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda comes out and scores 8 points on 3 for 3 shooting, while grabbing 3 rebounds and a steal along the way, it's worth giving out an atta-girl. More of that in the next game.
Key stretch: The Bearcats kept the game close into the third quarter, cutting the Texas leaf to 39-34 with 3:27 left in the quarter before the Longhorns responded with an 11-1 run to close out the quarter, which extended the lead to 16 points.
Thing You Need to Know: The Longhorns were +14 on the glass, +7 in blocks, +3 in forced turnovers and +1 in steals. Vic can sleep a little better tonight.
Speaking of Lockdown D: Through three quarters, Texas limited Cincinnati's 5 starters to 17 points.
ESPN Bracketology: The Longhorns moved back down to a four-seed after the loss to the Sooners this week.
The Participants: No.10 Texas (18-3, 5-3 Big 12) and NR Cincinnati (10-8, 2-5 Big 12)
Pre-Game NET Rankings: Texas (No.4) and Cincinnati (No. 102)
Pre-Game RPI Rankings: Texas (No.21) and Cincinnati (No. 82)
Game MVP: It could have been a couple of players, but Taylor Jones wasn't a million miles away from a triple-double with her 13 points, 9 rebounds and 7 blocks. Given what Vic Schaefer would have bene preaching since Wednesday's game, Taylor's dominance on the defensive side of the ball is worthy of a game ball.
Unsung Hero: The Longhorns don't always get a lot off the bench, so when sophomore Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda comes out and scores 8 points on 3 for 3 shooting, while grabbing 3 rebounds and a steal along the way, it's worth giving out an atta-girl. More of that in the next game.
Key stretch: The Bearcats kept the game close into the third quarter, cutting the Texas leaf to 39-34 with 3:27 left in the quarter before the Longhorns responded with an 11-1 run to close out the quarter, which extended the lead to 16 points.
Thing You Need to Know: The Longhorns were +14 on the glass, +7 in blocks, +3 in forced turnovers and +1 in steals. Vic can sleep a little better tonight.
Speaking of Lockdown D: Through three quarters, Texas limited Cincinnati's 5 starters to 17 points.
ESPN Bracketology: The Longhorns moved back down to a four-seed after the loss to the Sooners this week.
