Jay Greeson: 5-at-10: Big 12 beefs with ESPN, Big NIL deal/decision for Texas prep star, Aaron speaks

Jul. 29—Big 12, big hurt feelings

This would be downright comical if it wasn't so downright scary.

The Big 12 sent a cease-and-desist letter to ESPN because the conference believes the Mothership is promoting the departure of Texas and Oklahoma to benefit the Worldwide Leader's bottom line.

ESPN, you see, still owe the Big 12 more than $1 billion (yes with a 'B') over the next four years in TV money. If the Big 12 disbands, well, that money could be used elsewhere.

Now for the scary parts. Because there are scary parts.

First, any league, conference or organization threatening to disallow coverage because they do not like what is being covered is a direct assault on the First Amendment and should give all of us pause about the actions and aims of said leagues, conferences or organizations.

Second, if the Big 12 has proof beyond its broken heart — and broken business model of being a power player in college sports without Texas and Oklahoma as well as Kansas and West Virginia — and ESPN is actually guilty of propaganda and creating news and change rather than covering news and change, then there should be ramifications.

I have said for as long as I can remember, the N in ESPN does not stand for "news." Do they have reporters? Sure they do. And some of the best with some of the best sources that deliver some of the biggest scoops.

But when you're paying all these leagues billions upon billions, well, they tend to return Adam Schefter's calls or Kirk Herbstreit's messages.

Speaking of big-time money in college football

The reaching ripples of Name, Image and Likeness for high schoolers has found the front door of the nation's No. 1 high school football recruit.

Quinn Ewers, a Texas high school quarterback and the nation's top recruit who has committed to THE Ohio State, reportedly has NIL deals totaling seven figures waiting on him, but in Texas high schoolers cannot profit off NIL.

North Carolina allows that, which is why basketball star and social media sensation Mikey Williams has made $1 million in NIL.

Ewers is debating whether to turn down the NIL offers and play his senior year or move to Ohio and enroll early in college and get that ball rolling. And take the NIL deals, of course.

Ewers told Pete Thamel of YahooSports.com that he's leaning toward reclassifying and being at camp when THE Buckeyes start next Tuesday. Elite high school basketball players have long since reclassified to get the clock rolling a year earlier.

This has become more common in hoops because of the requirement of being a full year removed from graduating high school before entering the NBA Draft. With varying legalities of high school players and NIL among states, reclassifying will come to football because of the money.

I have no idea what the Ewers' financial situation is. I know I loved my senior year in high school, but man, saying no to $1 million-plus is a tough call, no?

If I had Quinn Ewers' ear, I'd tell him to wait four months. Play his senior year with his buddies and try to win a Texas state title. Enroll in January, and the second piece of paper you sign is your NIL deals — right after the letter of intent to THE Ohio State.

But that's easy for me to say. I wouldn't blame him one iota for taking the money and heading to Columbus either.

Aaron speaketh

So Aaron Rodgers reported to camp this week, and after forests of trees were spent on the newspaper stories and hours of air time spent discussing Rodgers' angst with the Packers, his answers were somewhat predictable.

He wants to be part of the decision making. OK.

He was upset that some of his veteran buddies were not re-signed. Uh, again, OK.

And that's about it. Seriously.

Yes, it was a slow time, but know this: I am super pleased we all-but-ignored this mini-drama that was much press ado about nothing.

I understand Rodgers wanting to have a say. And I defended him greatly about the Packers' waste of a first-round pick on Jordan Love, because even if he turns out to be a fine starter in the NFL, you only have true championship windows open for a finite period of time. And the Packers moved to shut theirs by not helping Rodgers with that pick 16 months ago.

But Rodgers said his offseason of discontent was not about that. Or money.

It's kind of staggering it got this far, no? This could have easily been avoided with a phone call — and that's on both the Packers and on Rodgers some, too.

Do I think Rodgers is the best I've ever seen play the most important position in team sports? Yes I do.

Do I think a first-ballot Hall of Fame and three-time league MVP quarterback deserves to have a say in roster decisions, especially retention decisions? Yes, yes I do.

Do I think a first-ballot Hall of Fame and three-time league MVP quarterback should act like spoiled middle schoolers when they don't get their way? Again, yes I do.

Because think about it this way: Aaron Rodgers' beef with the Packers was based on the fact that he wanted to be more involved in the organization and in the leadership and decision making, and the way he thought it was best to convey those real, realistic and mature opinions was to throw an offseason media tantrum?

OK.

This and that

— The NBA draft is tonight. I love the draft. You know this.

— Also tonight is the city RBI 10-and-under softball championships at Warner Park. A little upstart bunch from Signal with a mulleted coach and a little blonde-haired pitcher are going to roll the dice and see what shakes out.

— Please get better, Bob Odenkirk. First, we should always want folks to be healthy. Second, and more personally, in the current vacuum of quality television in which we exist, I need "Better Call Saul" to return. Yes, need.

— Braves played. Braves lost. The bats went silent in a 2-1 setback to the NL East-leading Mets. But can we for one second discuss the level of insanity it takes to continue to send Pablo Sandoval to the plate? Yes, pinch hitting in pressure situations in the big leagues is an impossibly tough ask. Sit for three-plus hours, grab a bat with two down and go hit against the other team's closer who is either throwing 100+mph or dealing some filthy breaking stuff. Well, Pablo is putting the K in Kung Fu Panda. Dude is now bagel-for-10 in July. He's 0-for-his-last-19 dating back to June 12 and is 1-for-30 since a three-hit game against Boston on May 25. Some of this is on Brian Snitker; that 4-for-4 game against the Red Sox was in a start and he got four at-bats. Pablo started the next day — going 0-for-4 against Boston on May 26 — but has not started since or gotten more than one AB in any game since before Memorial Day. After that three-hit day his average was at .286. This morning, Sandoval is at .181.

— Shohei hit his MLB-leading 37th homer on Wednesday. And Luka improved to 15-0 with Slovenia in international play in a rout of Japan. Luka has 25 points and no turnovers. Man, when did I become such a xenophile in my favorite athletes?

— There is a lot of distraction and discontent from these Olympics. Not that anyone is watching long enough to notice. (Seriously, the numbers Tuesday were down 58% from the corresponding night of coverage in 2016.) That said, these are the Olympic stories we come back for. Shooter Alessandra Perilli won bronze, the first medal ever for San Marino — a microstate country surrounded on all sides by Italy with a population of 33,562. (Hixson's population is 37,202.)

— Speaking of the ratings disaster for NBC, this from Austin Karp, the sports TV expert: "NBC averaged 13.967 million TV-only viewers for Tuesday's prime time Olympic coverage. Streaming will likely add anywhere from 500K-800K viewers. Not sure on out-of-home. TV-only is down 58% from same night in Rio in 2016 (33.44 million). Streaming brought that to 36.1 million."

— Baseball can produce a lot of surreal stats. This one counts. In the Tigers' 17-14 win over the Twins, Detroit did not hit a homer and Minnesota hit seven. MLB teams are now 41-1 all time when outhomering their opponent by seven, and want to guess the most home runs ever hit in a game by a losing team? Yeah, it's seven.

— You know the rules. Here's Paschall on Georgia's massive defensive tackle Jordan Davis. Side question: Would he be just as good as Davis Jordan? At that size, I say yes.

— You know the rules. Here's Hargis on a slew of area football players making preseason all-state teams.

Today's questions

Remember the mailbag. I have an open slot or two and we're headed out of town Friday, so I'm trying to get that knocked out.

Who do you blame most for the Packers' offseason of dysfunction, the club or the QB?

Side note: I have passed the hour threshold we set for watching the Olympics. But a vast majority of that has been on The Golf Channel, which got a fair amount of my time last night as the Olympics golf started.

True or false on a Tuesday, the Hawks are going to do something that makes Mader curse tonight — and not in a "(BLEEP) YEAH, I love it" kind of way.

True or false, if you are Quinn Ewers, you take the $1 million and head to Columbus.

As for today, July 29, let's review.

Not much to be honest, but we'll try this one. On this day five years ago, Amy Poehler and Will Arnett were divorced.

Rushmore of funniest husband-wife combos. Go, and remember the mailbag.