Happy Gump Day! NASCAR wheels out new Crimson Tide-branded stock car (2024)

Happy Gump Day, one and all. Not much news today, obviously. But we do have some sweet Gump red meat for you.

Fresh off the presses (and I mean really fresh, like 20 minutes ago), comes this interview with everyone’s favorite lineman, Tyler Booker.

We find ourselves in the great position of having two leaders on the offense, at least. Booker and Milroe are the uncontested motivational gurus for this squad. And, given how big Booker is, and how Jalen is built like a mobile Redwood, they cut a physical presence that someone like Bryce just never did...as if their play hadn’t commanded respect already.

Portal SZN

Looking for players who will make an impact out of the Portal this year? CBS takes a stab at it, but frankly, one of these suggestions seems a bit lazy.

Namely, this one:

Alabama DB Keon Sabb

Alabama has to replace four starting defensive backs and a handful of key reserves as it transitions to the Kalen DeBoer era, including all-star freshman safety Caleb Downs and a pair of high NFL Draft picks at cornerback in Terrion Arnold and Kool-Aid McKinstry. That makes Sabb invaluable. He was a key fixture in Michigan’s secondary rotation in 2023, starting five games at safety for a Wolverines squad that went 15-0 en route to a College Football Playoff National Championship.

One of Sabb’s starts came in that national title game, where he had six total tackles and two pass breakups against an explosive Washington offense. Now a junior with plenty of Big Ten experience under his belt, Sabb steps into Alabama’s defense as an unquestioned starter and an expected leader in a group that has a long road towards coming together. Sabb ranked as the No. 5 safety in the portal.

People who carefully watched Sabb in the spring game noticed him shy away from contact and try to tackle the ball too often. That will need to be cleaned up before Fall, elsewise, we’re going to be seeing a lot of the back of his jersey.

As you may recall, Alabama Hockey is an ACHA club sport that receives little funding from the University. Most of what the team thrives off of are merch sales and butts in seats. So, let’s do them a solid: go buy a sweater from these bros, and be one of the cool kids.

They’re only taking orders for the next two weeks, so hurry. They always sell out...and you can be one of the cool hockey kids here at RBR.

If a jersey isn’t your bag, they’ve got a ton of cool merch over at their dedicated site.

Pat Forde has a very interesting piece in SI today. Given the new pay-for-play landscape, NIL, and a looming massive settlement, perhaps it is time to rethink roster sizes for college football.

Notorious skinflint, UF AD Scott Stricklin, is leading the charge to reduce rosters, alongside Oklahoma:

“Whether we have X number, or X-plus-20 number as a roster limit in the sport of football, I don’t know that that sport is going to generate any more revenue for every person added to that sport,” Stricklin said.

Stricklin and his administrative peers nationwide are bracing their football coaches for change from the way they’ve always done things. A reckoning is at hand, and it’s causing some tension between coaches and their bosses. The tension specifically relates to roster sizes, which have bloated beyond reason.

While other people, like Kirby and Clark Lea, think it’s bad for college football, and simply devastating for high school sports.

Looking beyond the fact UGA wants to pull a Bear and horde potential competitors on the bench, I think he has something here. Even if we reduce rosters to something like the NFL, that’s 30 fewer spots, for 136 FBS schools — a lot of missed opportunities, every year.

“I don’t know anybody that would be against having walk-ons,” said Kirby Smart, who won two national championships with the Georgia Bulldogs with a former walk-on quarterback in Stetson Bennett. “At what cost does that bring us? I think it hurts high school football, and football as a whole, when kids can’t even dream [of being a walk-on].”

“I was a walk-on,” Vanderbilt Commodores coach Clark Lea says.

“I think it’s absolutely against college football—what it stands for, what it’s about,” said Texas A&M Aggies coach Mike Elko, whose school’s “12th Man” walk-on tradition dates back more than a century.

The winds of change will come, however. And I suspect just as soon as ADs have to make that first $20m settlement payment next year. And with that seachange will come smaller rosters. How many seems to be the only question.

Yesterday, we reported that Nick Saban made his first (and likely only) appearance on the CFB Hall of Fame Ballot. But what about players who have been snubbed? This article takes a stab at a few, and honestly, some of these are stunning omissions.

Like this guy:

Simeon Rice, EDGE, Illinois

Rice has a strong case for both the College Football and Pro Football Hall of Fame, evidence of the nigh-unstoppable force he was on a football field. Rice set an Illinois record with nine sacks as a freshman and was named Big Ten Rookie of the Year. His 44.5 career sacks is a conference record that still stands almost three decades later, despite the modern proliferation of elite edge rushers. Rice was a three-time first-team All-Big Ten selection, the 1994 Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year and a consecutive first-team All-American from 1994-95. He was a rare defender that would have garnered Heisman consideration, if not for the fact that he played on some lackluster Illinois teams.

My goodness, we knew that the SEC and Big 10 were attempting to bully the rest of college football with their increasingly ridiculous demands. But only now is the sheer brazen scope of that wishlist being made known.

And it’s not even ridiculous — it’s fatuous.

Earlier this year, the Big Ten and SEC were in the process of what amounted to a hostile takeover of the College Football Playoff. Already succeeding in securing a combined 59% of media rights revenue under the new CFP contract with ESPN, they also socialized the idea of essentially taking over the bracket.

The reaction from within the system was far from positive. The attempted coup peaked — or hit rock bottom depending on how you view it — in February with reports the two super conferences were attempting to grab the top two spots in the playoff for their respective champions beginning in 2026 when the new contract goes into effect.

That was in addition to seeking three automatic qualifiers each for the two leagues. Final tally: 10 combined spots between the Big Ten and SEC.

“I didn’t agree with it,” one administrator in the room at the time told CBS Sports this week. “It would potentially de-legitimize the playoff to some degree. No league has that. No league gives you a lot of [access] because you have money.”

Pushback from the rest of college football was so significant that such talk diminished before flaming out altogether. In fact, a settlement of the issue — perhaps expected when CFP leaders meet again in September — looks like it will be delayed.

The upside here is that the greed from CFB’s Big Two was so naked that it has slammed the brakes on further expansion. Small blessings, I know. But I’ll take it.

And, finally, the University of Alabama is rolling out the 18 Car this season courtesy of one of its sponsors: NASCAR.

It is impressively Gumpy and gorgeous in equal measure. And, as Josh rightly pointed out yesterday, it’s going to make for some outstanding photos when recruits come to town.

If this damn thing wins at Talladega, the State Troopers are going to have a field day: there won’t be a sober driver in the state for a solid weekend.

That’s it for now. We’ll back with some Giving Away Money around lunch time.

See you then, Roll Tide.