Decent article from MLB.com on the imbalance issue. Anyone can spin stats to their narrative but this shows some reasonable takes imo:

Jaxbuck said:

I'm visiting @Thump mom

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No rope to pull you out? Guess this may be the final post from @Jaxbuck ;-)

99 days!

brodybuck21 said:

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Notre Dame, Oregon trending for a major recruit who canceled a visit to Ohio State​

Ohio State was expected to have a pair of elite defensive tackle recruits in town this weekend, but five-star Sierra Canyon (DL) Marcus Fakatou is the only one who will be in Columbus. The Buckeyes had planned to have Brother Rice (Ill) DL Brayden Parks in for an official, but the visit has been canceled, according to Rivals’ Steve Wiltfong.

Parks’ only two visits set to happen this summer are now to Notre Dame on June 12, then Oregon on June 19. Ohio State was set to be the biggest contender to land the 6-foot-3, 305-pound defensive lineman over Notre Dame and Oregon. Notre Dame has been seen as the favorite to bring in a player who isn’t far at all from then, but the latest buzz has Oregon rising in his recruitment.

Here's an interesting article/take/speculation on the Chaz Coleman situation at Tennessee:

Former Ohio State DC Jim Knowles is taking a big loss if the latest trend for Chaz Coleman’s playing future at Tennessee comes true​

The Chaz Coleman situation at Tennessee is an odd one — and it looks like former Ohio State DC Jim Knowles might be hurting the worst in the end of all of this.



Just a few months ago, it was cold outside, and the talk of the town for Ohio State football was their chase of former Penn State EDGE Chaz Coleman in the transfer portal.

Ohio State cooled off on Coleman shortly before he committed to Tennessee, where it’s been a rocky tenure with the Vols ever since. Coleman missed the majority of spring practice with Tennessee, and the latest news is that he’s yet to report for summer workouts.

There’s a solid chance Coleman never suits up for the Volunteers this fall, and a former Buckeye coach will be hurting as a result.

Jim Knowles is one of the biggest losers from the Chaz Coleman situation if it continues heading south

Tennessee paid up big dollars (or at least planned to) for Coleman to be an important part of its defense this fall. Knowles is in his first year as the defensive coordinator at Tennessee after spending last season at Penn State. Coleman followed Knowles to Tennessee, but now may never get to coach him again.

“He was in spring practice for maybe not even a week,” On3’s Chris Low said recently on Fox Sports Knoxville. “He did very little, if anything, during the offseason conditioning program and the weight program. Here we are now, what, three days [after] the players are supposed to be back, and he’s not back. I think it’s really to the point now where he’s left Josh Heupel and his staff with very little [choice]. Unless, again, there’s something else out there that comes to life. But we’re probably to the point where it’s unlikely that we see him play football at Tennessee.

“I don’t ever want to get in people’s personal business, but there are some things that this kid has dealt with. So whatever is out there, whatever those things are, he’s gotta get those things under control. But he doesn’t have a lot of options. I know some people say, ‘Well, he wants to go to Ohio State.’ Well, there is no spring portal. You can’t transfer and play next year.”

It’s a wait and see situation with Chaz Coleman

It sure sounds like Tennessee could soon be cutting ties if something doesn’t change, and that’s tough for Knowles in his first season. The Vols watched EDGE Jordan Ross enter the portal and sign with LSU. Coleman is expected to step in and be an impact player for Tennessee, but now there’s major caution on it happening.
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ScriptOhio said:

It could be 1994 déjà vu all over again....

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nah. The Reds are shitty, so they'll get this resolved without any stoppage.

JohnnyCockfight said:

I don't follow recruiting too closely unless it's local kids that I know about coming up. It is interesting to see the comments in the recruit's tweet - folks using Wexner's relationship with Epstein against Ohio State. Seems like quite a stretch to connect anything like that back to the football program, and I wish it wasn't happening directly on the kids' posts.


Yes, those were my thoughts exactly.

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Yeah, well those Wexner allegations will continually follow OSU as long as his name is on so many buildings. Whether we like it or not, there's no escaping it. But its not like its going to be a deterrent to football players. If every school wanted to unveil their past transgressions, than I don't think there'd be a college to attend. Off the top of my head: the entire SEC's insanely blatant racism for decades(ole miss having what looking like a slave master as their proud mascot for decades), Ped St and the Sandusky/Paterno saga, MSU and Larry Nassar, the countless sexual abuse allegations at scUM, OSU wrestling scandal, Oklahoma football drug ring, Miami sex and drug scandals of the 80s and 90s, and the list can go on and on. Fans are quick to be sanctimonious when it's not their program and turn a blind eye to their own.

My bad, back to Marcus

MLB owners propose first salary cap since 1994 strike​

Major League Baseball owners proposed a hard salary cap to players as part of the next CBA on Thursday, their first firm cap proposal since 1994.

Under the proposal, presented in a meeting with union officials, each team would need to maintain a payroll of at least $171.2 million without exceeding $245.3 million, starting in 2027. That includes player benefits, just as it does under the current competitive balance tax system.

If the sides can't negotiate a new CBA before the current one expires Dec. 1, owners are likely to "lock out" the players until a new deal is in place. In that instance, players will have no contact with their teams, and league business involving players -- like trades and free agency -- will come to a halt. The sides are likely to meet again in the coming weeks after each has digested the other's proposals.

"Fans overwhelmingly support a salary cap and floor like in the other leagues because they don't believe a $446 million spending gap from top to bottom is a fair fight," league spokesperson Glen Caplin said in a statement. "Our salary cap and floor proposal levels the playing field while sharing baseball revenue with the players 50/50 as we grow the game together."

Currently 12 teams would need to increase their payrolls to reach the minimum while eight teams would have to shed payroll to get under the ceiling.

The proposal includes a 50-50 split of league revenues with the players. As those increase, the salary floor and cap would also increase. Additionally, the league is proposing a centralized fund for all local media revenues with money distributed equally among the 30 teams.

"Billionaire owners are not seeking to cap their profits or asset values, only player salaries," union head Bruce Meyer said in a statement. "This isn't out of generosity or a desire to protect the game's well-being. It's a play to control costs, increase profits and maximize franchise values -- all at the expense of players past, present and future."

He added that union reps will continue their review of the owners' proposal and "stand ready to negotiate system improvements that benefit players and fans alike."
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Re: If the sides can't negotiate a new CBA before the current one expires Dec. 1, owners are likely to "lock out" the players until a new deal is in place.

Just sayin': If both sides are dug in on their positions and I'm guessing that they probably are. I could easily see this spilling over into 2027 and delaying next year's season; and it could go on for months (i.e. until one side blinks). It could be 1994 déjà vu all over again....

pnuts34 said:

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I don't follow recruiting too closely unless it's local kids that I know about coming up. It is interesting to see the comments in the recruit's tweet - folks using Wexner's relationship with Epstein against Ohio State. Seems like quite a stretch to connect anything like that back to the football program, and I wish it wasn't happening directly on the kids' posts.

BuckBackHome said:

He is one LARGE human being and does not look close to 300 pounds!!!

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Yes, those were my thoughts exactly.

Zurp said:

This reminds me of when Penn State fans wanted to secede from the NCAA (because of their sanctions) and join the NAIA. Their plan included saving money on scholarships, since they only get about 20 or 25 scholarships, making a conference of Pennsylvania teams that would love to be in a conference with Penn State, and Penn State would be able to dictate what goes on in that conference (does that sound familiar?), and Penn State would elevate the NAIA to Penn State's level, rather than the NAIA would pull Penn State down to their level.

I do find it funny that "it would be great if the SEC championship was for their version of the national championship," and yet none of the 6 teams in the last 3 CCG's have made it to a national championship game. It'd be like in 2013 or so when the Big Ten wasn't getting any teams to the national championship game, they just said, "Yeah, we're done trying. We're going to call our conference champion our own national champion." That's what you look like right now, SEC. You look like the Big Ten when the SEC was winning all the championships.

Also, this paragraph is funny:

"If we can't find rules that everybody plays by..." I mean, we had that for a long time, and there was a lot of smoke around the SEC. And, as we were told in 2010 when Ohio State was in the smoke, "Where there's smoke, there's fire." So, by that logic, the SEC was doing some shady stuff en route to winning some championships. Now that it's all above board, things are a little tougher for the SEC. So, now he wants to limit things to where he might be able to hide things again?

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It's a pathetic attempt at leverage in future discussions. HOPEFULLY everyone laughs at it and realizes it's complete BS and doesn't give in and allow the SEC to have more control.

Every year deeper we get into the NIL/Transfer Portal era, it's always some excuse for how things are "unfair" for the SEC. A real thing that I'd wager at some point we are going to see is the SEC and their media pals start campaigning to have the playoff field set by metric systems that are basically cooked to favor the SEC (Like ESPN's FPI that place a heavy emphasis on recruiting rankings that mean almost more than on the field results) instead of a human committee. Like some sort of expanded BCS type system. Then maybe we can get a 24-team playoff with 14 SEC teams!

The Columbus Aviators are handing out 5,000 Ted Ginn Jr. bobbleheads before Sunday’s matchup with the Louisville Kings at Historic Crew Stadium

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As far as I know, these bobbleheads were not held up in customs like the ones honoring legendary coach Jim Tressel earlier this month. If that changes, I’m sure someone at Eleven Warriors will write about it....

Thousands of Jim Tressel Bobbleheads Will Indeed Be Given to Aviators Fans, Actually

5,000 Jim Tressel bobbleheads, thought to be stuck in customs while shipping, arrived in time to be given to fans at the Columbus Aviators' game against the Gamblers on Friday.

www.elevenwarriors.com

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The Aviators enter the finale of their inaugural UFL season at 3-6, still searching for stability in Year 1 of the Ted Ginn Jr. coaching era.

It’s been a year defined by growing pains, both on the field and off it. With one game left, Columbus gets one more look at whether this experiment can reach cruising altitude or run out of runway....

THAT ’94 IMPALA. Cortez Hankton was Mic’d Up during Ohio State’s final practice before the spring game, and the program’s creative team delivered a lively 70-plus-second clip shared on social media this week.

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Tyson Gentry Grateful As He Reflects on Life 20 Years After Ohio State Practice Injury That Left Him Paralyzed​

Twenty years after suffering a life-changing injury during an Ohio State football practice, Tyson Gentry is grateful.

Gentry has been paralyzed from the neck down since suffering a spinal cord injury during a spring scrimmage at Ohio Stadium on April 14, 2006. The former walk-on wide receiver eventually regained use of his biceps, but remains unable to walk or move his fingers or wrists.

Despite that, Gentry has a thriving life. He runs the New Perspective Foundation, which assists others who have suffered spinal cord injuries. He serves on the board and was previously the president of the National Football Foundation’s Columbus Chapter. He shares his life journey through public speaking, and has authored four books, including his new autobiography “Once A Buckeye…: A Story of Football, Family and Faith,” which was published this week.

Most importantly, Gentry is a husband to his wife Megan and a father to his two sons, 10-year-old Adam and 8-year-old Ryan. And it’s because of them that Gentry says he’d still choose to play football at Ohio State all over again even if he knew how his career would unfold.

“I really would. If I was able to answer that question while knowing that I would say I end up where I'm at with my wife and our two sons, Adam and Ryan, undoubtedly yeah, because I don't want to know what my life would look like without them,” Gentry told Eleven Warriors. “My wife is my angel. She makes things so much easier on me and helps me carry a lot of the burdens that come with my injury. So having her by my side is amazing. And then to watch our two sons, who are 10 and 8 now, grow up and to kind of show them so many things that they wouldn't otherwise be exposed to.”

In the immediate aftermath of his injury, Gentry questioned whether he’d ever have the opportunity to be a husband or a father. After undergoing fusion surgery three days after the injury, the pain was so intense that Gentry wished for death.

The following morning, however, Gentry’s parents showed him an inspirational note that told him to “Never give up, no matter how much adversity you face.” The note resonated with Gentry because he wrote it himself after a woman who suffered a spinal cord injury spoke to the Ohio State football team – eight months before his own injury – and asked them to write letters of encouragement to patients at Ohio State’s Dodd Hall, the same hospital where he’d soon undergo his own rehabilitation. Gentry took that as a sign from God, and it gave him the faith he needed to persevere.

“When I reached my lowest point and I was ready to give up, I honestly thought I was going to die. Just the amount of pain that I was in, I was ready to go, I was at peace with everything,” Gentry said. “And I woke up the next morning and realized that it's not the end of the road, and so just from that standpoint onward, my faith has increased.”

The coming months remained difficult for Gentry as he was told to “hurry up and wait” to see if he would regain more function in his arms and legs. But as he gradually came to accept that he would never be able to walk again or do many of the things that he loved to do before his injury, Gentry decided he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life dwelling on what he couldn’t do.

“I don't know that there was a specific point that I recall reaching that phase. But I do remember at some point coming to terms with the fact that like, OK, I obviously can't undo what happened, and I can't suddenly change my function and give myself hand movement or get up and walk or anything like that,” Gentry said. “So I think once I kind of realized like, ‘Hey, if this is what I have to work with moving forward, all I can do is make the best of it.’ Because the only alternative is to sit there and feel sorry for myself and spiral downward, and I didn't want that.”
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calibuck said:

Maybe Diebs needs to check the cushions of the sofa to see if he can find any loose change there.....That's football money for a rent-a-player for one year.

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Every player is a one year free agent at this point. Basketball or football.

Likewise, if this kid wasn't good, some coach somewhere would have cut him at the end of a year.

Seems like a more rational system to me.