I just read an interesting article regarding a newly enacted state law in Tennessee that would give universities in the state immunity from antitrust lawsuits by athletes/others, and shift any liability to the NCAA itself. Apparently the SEC is requiring its schools to sign a "Loyalty Pledge" stating that they will opt-out of any legislation similar to the one in Tennessee, or risk getting kicked out of the conference. It will be interesting to see who blinks first here.
Update: it looks like each of the Power 4 conferences will be requiring members to sign such "Loyalty Pledges"
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Will be interested to see how long this lasts compared to "ironclad" Grant of Rights that made it a decade before being neutered.
Seems like something that will be dead on arrival of the first lawsuit.
If a college offensive coordinator sued for 5 downs for a first down today, he would win. ANY proposed rule/governance is overturned now.
It's not opting out of state laws, it's agreeing to the oversight of the College Sports Commission which as a requirement means agreeing to allow that commission to handle NIL and Revenue Sharing oversight.
Honestly though screw Tennessee and all their legislators. They purposely passed a bill that would allow them to violate all conditions of the House Settlement. They essentially created a checklist of what the Settlement called for and made their law to counter every stipulation. I would love the SEC to boot Vandy and UT.
The main sticking point is that any Power 4 school that doesn't opt in to the Commission will be blacklisted from scheduling any games with other Power 4 schools as the schools that opt in will be barred from playing them. The agreement also apparently will prevent any school that doesn't opt in from receiving television revenues from their conference/NCAA.
Not sure it would stand up in court but would be absolutely entertaining to see Tennessee athletics implode.
Yes please.
obligatory
FWIW, we've done quick visits to 11 universities to look at the campus and general area. Of those 11, the only 1 our daughter was able to rule out as saying she did not want to go there was University of Tennessee.
That makes sense. It's a shit hole.
I honestly don't understand why people disliked it. My wife really hated it. Seemed fine to me. Nothing special, but nothing bad. Granted, we - literally - just drove through the campus and part of town near campus for maybe 20 or 30 minutes. What did you see as the problems? You can't really get a feel for the quick looks we took. She is in 10th grade now, so we will start looking closely at places later this year and next year.
Daughter did not like that it was so big and she said it was too open. As in not enough trees and the buildings did not feel close together. Her favorite was Emory and she really liked College of Charleston and Wake Forest. I'm 100% confident that was because they were the smallest places we visited and she felt like the main campuses were close together in 1 place. For what it's worth, VT was probably second from the bottom for her because, again, the campus was really big and spread out. But she and my wife did not really dislike it like U. Tennessee. I was surprised, but she also seemed to like Georgia a lot and that is certainly big and spread out.
EDIT: and there seemed to be tons of construction going on at U. Tennessee and that was probably part of the turn off as well.
Tennessee's campus has an odd feel. It's not in a part of town where you would put a college. Obviously the college came first, but the surrounding city planning was pretty bad. It is also really large and spread out, and very hilly.
I'm certainly biased by living near the VA/TN line and having to deal with those ass clowns on a daily basis. It's unbearable.
If I had to make an honest critique, I would start on the basis of academics, though this is also biased. I would then pivot to the fact that I think Knoxville is not a nice or pretty city by any means, and the college is spread out and not ideally located for me. I don't think it's an attractive campus at all, and outside of being a UT fan I don't know what would draw you there. Yes, gameday is great and Calhoun's and the river is awesome, but if you're not a homer it's a horrible experience. The fans are obnoxious. I-40 is awful. There are no mountains and hence no rocky top. And I hate UT. If I had to sum up my feelings, I would simply say "fuck that place".
That came out a bit more subjective than I intended, but it felt good to type out.
Bahahaha, preach it. I've only ever driven through, but Knoxville has always seemed like little more than a hole.
I've been to U of Tennessee twice, once for a football game and once for a recruiting event. I just thought it was ugly. The buildings weren't pretty. The surrounding town just felt like... A shopping center? Like one of those weird sort of subdivisions where it has every possible chain store, and then a couple apartments, but the Knoxville version of this was just shittier than the rest, but still equally as soulless.
what if they opt in and then just cheat like always?
Does seem like the well-trod path here is to accept the rules and then just not follow them.
Kicking out Tennessee?
While I love the thought of Tennessee being homeless, it would be shocking if this came to fruition. This would be like the ACC kicking out UNC (also a wet dream). The fact is that Tennessee is way too engrained in SEC culture that the conference would do absolutely everything they could to keep UT in the league before resorting to kicking them out.... But should they do that in exchange for bringing, say, VT into the league? Sign my ass up for that press conference.
Personally, I wouldn't put them in the UNC category for the SEC...more like NC State.
Just in - The ACC will adopt similar rules, with one tiny, tiny, tiny variation, to wit, any fine imposed on a school in North Carolina, would be shifted out of their expense column and be paid by Virginia Tech. [sarcasm, obviously]
Ya'all are funny bagging on Knoxville... it's a fun town and is on a beautiful spot on the river. I've spent several nights down there and there is plenty of history and lots to do, especially if you are a foodie. I mean we can hate on them and all which I am all for but there is nothing wrong with Knoxville in my opinion. When we moved back here from SoCal it actually came down to SML or K'Ville for us. Being on the lake and close to the Burg won out but it was a reasonably close decision.
No one here is complaining about Knoxville. Looks like a great place. I'm hammering away on UT, not the town.
I was about to reply above, but I'll do it here to spin it positive. I haven't spent a whole lot of time in Knoxville, but the times I've been there, I had a lot of fun. I don't think it's a particularly "nice" city, but there's good food, good places to drink, and concerts.
On the topic of rivals, I think Charlottesville is a nice city. It just has the bad fortune of being home to an insufferable university with another insufferable fan base.
This fits many UT fans IMHO
Let's compromise and say they're both insufferable
They would probably just use the chance to kick out Vandy as a warning to the rest.