The Saturday Column With No Name
We’re still hoping this column will eventually name itself. If anything strikes you interesting, just fire away in the comments and give us your suggestion.
- Aside from the 1993 National Championship, I’m not sure I’ve ever been more proud of Texas Tech Lady Raider Basketball than I have been this past week as they brought home a silver medal representing the United States in Germany at the FISU World University Games. China took them down 81-69 Friday, but it was a great run to the championship game by the Lady Raiders. And they did it all without any of their international players on the roster. To see Texas Tech wearing the Red, White and Blue of the US with the Double T logo on the shorts gave me patriotic chills. That they played as well as they did, a ton of games in a short amount of time is worthy of respect. This team will be much better because of their experience getting in practice time and games against high-quality competition. The wins were great, the silver medal in international competition is awesome, but again; seeing USA and the Double T together is something else. A win for the program.
- With Dallas Cowboys training camp under way, it’s that most special time of the year for Cowboys fans. It’s also the most dangerous. There’s nothing worse than hope, as my friend Matt Youmans on VSiN likes to say. Dallas fans will talk themselves into the idea that since no NFC East champ has defended that title since the 2004 Eagles, that it’s their turn. They’ll think This Is The Year, Dak stays healthy, the run game returns, the WR corp is complete and the defense will dominate as soon as Micha Parsons’ gets his new, top-of-the-market deal. How can Dallas NOT win???? The answer is simple and the same as it’s been for nearly 30-years. Jerry Jones = Culture = Underperforming When It Matters. An easy math equation with empirical evidence. So, to our Dallas friends, hold close your heart and emotions, don’t buy the latest jersey and spend more time with your pets on Sundays. It will make life easier come December.
- President Donald Trump can do a lot of things. His Executive Order this week regarding N.I.L. was nice, but toothless. It was a payoff to Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) Alabama and a few other politicians who have wanted him to carry the water for the NCAA and the Blue-Bloods of College Football. Those days of politicians and others protecting the Chosen Programs are over. No E.O. is going to stop N.I.L. and no College Sports Commission is going to be able to regulate it. Unless… the colleges admit the players are employees, all them to form a union and then the schools leave the NCAA for Football and Men’s Basketball and start their own NFL, NBA style league where they can act as one, negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the players union, control costs and mover forward. That would also allow the schools to collectively barging language regarding outside income (N.I.L.) just like the NFL and NBA does. There. It’s that simple. So why won’t the schools do it? Because it allows schools like Texas Tech to operate on the same level playing field as Ohio State, Alabama, Texas and Vanderbilt. The interesting thing is that the more the “chosen schools” fight this, the stronger schools like Texas Tech become. They call it the Wild West. Well, no program is more situated and storied than Texas Tech when it comes to the Wild West. We live here, we understand it and we embrace. Welcome to the Wild, Wild West…
Thanks for hanging out on a Saturday for a few minutes. See you in the morning for our 5 Things We Know on a Sunday column. If you missed our Friday night show, here ya go:
Thanks again and be sure to share this with your friends on Social Media and invite them to be a part of Raiderland!
