Starving for leadership

Firmly believe the movie line that “in the absence of true leadership, people will follow anyone.”

We are desperate for it. And it has never been in shorter supply.

A leadership vacuum is the current state of college football, and without the ostrich-head-in-the-sand of even the old NCAA pretending to lead college football, the two dudes now driving the bus are speeding toward a dangerous destination.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey — the most powerful dude in all of college sports — and Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti and their minions met in New Orleans over the past couple of weeks to plot the future of college football.

Strike that, they are not mapping the future of college football. They are mapping the way the future of college football can best serve the SEC and the Big Ten.

Granted, that’s their jobs, so no one is blaming them for being great at their jobs.

But we can blame the self-centered focus of being arguably the biggest threat to the sport many of us love the most.

Sankey and Petitti are crafting plans that would guarantee four bids for the SEC and Big Ten in the college football field. The rest of the field would have two bids each from the ACC and the Big 12, one group of five bid and one at-large until the field expands from 14 to 16 in coming years, according to The Athletic. (Pay site.)

Now we could assume that when the field expands, maybe the at-larges would expand from one to three, but who in their right mind thinks Sankey and Petitti are not already eyeing those extra spots as their conferences’ rightful property?

Here’s the other thing clear to me: The biggest threats to college football’s very core and its soul have less to do with NIL and the portal than it does with the expansion and the greed above and outside the playing field.

Buckle up.

QB solutions

More times than not, NFL teams look to the draft to find a QB1 lottery ticket.

And that’s smart because you get multiple years of a rookie deal, so a whiff on a draft pick — while bad — is not the franchise careening debacle like DeShaun Watson’s contract in Cleveland or the Russ Wilson deal in Denver.

But, with arguably the worst QB1 class in an extended period, the free agent names — and even possible trade partners — become more enticing to QB1-needed teams.

It’s a seller’s or free agent’s market.

Because, as we head into next week’s underwear Olympics, there are only three QB1s in this draft I’d consider spending a first rounder on: Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward and Jaxson Dart.

But there are, what, a good seven-plus teams with “Address QB1” atop their offseason to-do list?

What will happen in Pittsburgh?

In Las Vegas, New Orleans, Carolina, Cleveland, New York (both) and Tennessee.

Add in the fact that when the music stops, I don’t think any of those above teams have Aaron Rodgers — a surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer — atop their list.

A good run

Monday night, when an eighth-grader I have coached in multiple sports playing for a high school junior who I have coached in multiple sports hit a 3 with three seconds left, my youth sports coaching career was a wrap.

Between my high school junior and my eighth-grade daughter, I have been blessed to coach a majority of the 14-to-18-year-olds on Signal.

As you may expect, a) our teams were always really fun and had a lot of success, and b) there were few teams other teams (and parents) wanted to beat more.

That was a part of the fun, too. A big part.

It’s time, but I also am aware of how much I’ll miss it.

I know this to be true because my father missed it greatly after our time was done.

(Side note: I will be helping some with the Lil’ Miss 5-at-10’s travel team, but that’s mainly working with the pitchers. When you sit on a bucket through that many lessons a young softball pitcher goes from trying to get it to the plate to throwing in the 60s — and 60-plus from 45 feet is quick enough, you better a) be paying attention and b) make sure your eye-doctor visits have been regular — I’ve picked up a ton of underhand pitching knowledge.

The memories are forever. The highlights were magical. The laughs were pure.

I hope I taught a majority of those kids I’ve worked about the games and about life.

Because I know whatever they got, I got way, Way, WAY more.

But like so many things in life, that’s just another great lesson in athletics.

Bad trades are part of sports. Who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, for God’s sake?

This and that

› Normally I watch as much hockey as I watch cable news. Hard pass for me. But count me in on Thursday. It’s hockey + fighting + Olympics patriotism + international angst = supreme intrigue. Giddy up.

› Have known and coached against this kid for a long time, but major congrats to Chris Kennedy for becoming Signal Mountain’s all-time leading boys’ basketball scorer.

› Here’s the AP poll with AU at 1, Florida at 2 and Duke at 3.

› This just in: The NBA All-Star Game was an unmitigated disaster

› Mike Trout is moving to right field. Man, two things can be true. Mike Trout numbers-wise is a first-ballot, near-unanimous Hall of Famer. And Mike Trout has been, because of injuries, among the most under-achieving all-time players of my lifetime, in that makes sense.

Today’s questions

True or false, it’s Tuesday. Morning, Ernie.

True or false, expansion comes to the college football playoff before the 2026 season.

True or false, the SEC and the Big 10 deserve four auto bids to the dance.

True or false, Mike Trout’s career has been a disappointment.

True or false, Aaron Rodgers would be a good fit in Tennessee.

True or false, you watched any of the NBA All-Star game.

You know the drill.

As for today, Feb. 18, let’s review:

› On this day in 1885 “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was published in the U.S.

› Wow, John Travolta is 71 today.

› Have we done his Rushmore. It’s got the full bell curve of some all-timers and some all-time misses.

Feel like we have, so let’s do this: Rushmore of the best current actors without an Oscar.

Go.