If you needed a reminder of the times we're living in, Thursday's college football news cycle was a powerful one.
SMU Mustangs head coach Rhett Lashlee's loyalty to his current employer this past coaching hiring cycle, when multiple SEC opportunities opened up, was explained plainly by The Athletic's Chris Vannini.
Meanwhile, several SEC athletes from across the conference, at schools like the University of Texas, the University of Mississippi, LSU, and Vanderbilt University, had players who received historic NIL deals with Nike.
Here were your gridiron headlines from the SEC on Thursday:
Rhett Lashlee stayed at SMU because the game is different now
We start with Lashlee, who Vannini explained passed on his home-state Arkansas Razorbacks, the Florida Gators, the LSU Tigers, the Auburn Tigers, and even Big Ten programs like the Penn State Nittany Lions because there's enough at SMU to pass on supposed "bigger" schools.
"In the end, Lashlee didn’t go home to Arkansas. In a cycle that saw prestigious jobs open at Florida, LSU, Penn State and Auburn (another place Lashlee had coached), he stayed at SMU, which two years ago had been in a Group of 5 conference. He also didn’t drag it out toward the end of the regular season for maximum leverage," Vannini wrote.
"Lashlee’s decision, and Curt Cignetti’s similar announcement two weeks prior to stay at Indiana, signaled that what goes into a college football coach’s job decision has changed. If a coach has a supportive administration and a path to the Playoff, he doesn’t have to leave for a so-called “bigger” job anymore."
That's probably not good news for the bottom of the SEC. Money, more so than history or conference standing, affects how a program sustains itself. The doldrums of the Big Ten's cellar are similarly screwed.
It's good news for the SMU's and Texas Techs of the world, though. Any West Coast school could wake up and use all the money it has on athletics to turn the tide. If you don't have money and you're in the SEC or Big Ten, you're at a disadvantage in this modern game. You're losing games and being uncompetitive on the recruiting trail or in any coaching cycle.
Ole Miss suing LSU over transfers, B1G and SEC make Protect College Sports Act push
Six SEC players part of historic Nike NIL deal
Ole Miss Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy, Texas Longhorns receiver Cam Coleman and EDGE Collin Simmons, Vanderbilt Commodores QB Jared Curtis, and LSU Tigers tight end Trey'Dez Green, plus Ohio State Buckeyes WR Chris Henry Jr. and Oregon Ducks QB Dante Moore, were all part of the Nike NIL deal announced on Thursday.
Nike will provide “unparalleled” support with specialized products and media/social media support. Players from the Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn, the Clemson Tigers, the Georgia Bulldogs, SMU, the South Carolina Gamecocks, the Stanford Cardinal, and Syracuse Orange are all currently part of the Nike NIL roster.
Exact figures weren't revealed, but this is a corporation worth over $14 billion in total net assets, so these players are getting something similar to a pretty penny, if this writer were to guess.
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