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NCAA Approves Blanket Waiver: Postseason Games Not Counted Towards 4 Redshirt Games

The NCAA has announced it intends to change its rule regarding postseason games counting towards the four games a player may play to preserve their redshirt.

The main reason behind making this change is because of the need for flexibility and adaptability compared to the old rule in the age of the transfer portal. Especially if the NCAA removes the spring transfer portal window, athletes and coaches alike will have all of their transfer portal activity condensed even further in around the same timeframe as bowl games are going on.

Allowing for both the players and coaches to know how many years of eligibility a player has remaining is understandably a crucially important factor in roster construction for the teams and a crucially important factor in deciding which roster to join for the players.

Georgia RB Trevor Etienne Facing One-Game Suspension

Back in March of this year, former Florida and current Georgia RB Trevor Etienne was charged with a few misdemeanors, including DUI. And despite all of these charges being dropped last month, ESPN’s Pete Thamel is reporting that Etienne may still be punished by Georgia.

According to Thamel, it’s “under Georgia Athletic Department policy,” that he could be given a consequence of a one-game suspension.

In the event that Etienne cannot play against Clemson in the season opener, Georgia will have to look down the depth chart to Branson Robinson, a sophomore, and true freshman Nate Frazier because Etienne’s normal backup, Rod Robinson, will be unavailable thanks to a toe injury suffered in the preseason.

Big Ten Network Blackouts for Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington Games

The Big Ten Network and Comcast Xfinity appear to have a dispute over which games are shown in which markets. More specifically, the west coast additions to the Big Ten – Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington – are not expected to have their games shown on the Big Ten Network.

A spokesperson for the Big Ten shared that Comcast is the lone partner of the Big Ten Network which has not expanded its coverage to include the four programs. Games featuring other teams may still be seen on the Big Ten Network in the market, but not the new four, unfortunately, for the fans of those teams.

Some fans have pointed out the irony of the former Pac-12 schools effectively blowing up a conference of over 100 years due to not liking the media rights deal, just to have their games potentially not shown on their new conference’s channel one of the largest cable providers in the country.

SMU’s Rhett Lashlee: No Evidence DB Spit on Nevada Player

In Saturday’s Week 0 game against Nevada, SMU cornerback Brandon Crossley was ejected from the game after the referee penalized Crossley for allegedly spitting on a Nevada player.

Upon further review from SMU coach Rhett Lashlee, he doesn’t “feel like there’s any evidence that he misrepresented our program in that moment … I don’t know if it went down exactly as they said it was.”

Crossley’s penalty and ejection was just one of many seemingly undisciplined moments for SMU, as the Mustangs had 11 penalties for a total of 125 yards, but at least according to Coach Lashlee, perhaps that one did not exactly happen how it was called.

Shane Beamer: RB Rocket Sanders Full Go for Week 1

Running back Rocket Sanders had surgery this past December to repair a torn labrum, but South Carolina coach Shane Beamer confirmed that Rocket Sanders has no limitations for the Gamecocks’ first game against Old Dominion.

Beamer said, that to his knowledge, Sanders is not on any sort of pitch count, unless he is told otherwise before the game. Beamer also shared that it’s a long season, and so he intends to rotate Sanders and other running backs Oscar Adaway and Juju McDowell while playing Sanders as much as is needed for the team. The running back room also includes Jawarn Howell, Matthew Fuller, Bradley Dunn, and Djay Braswell, as well, as reserve players who could factor in deeper on the roster in blowouts.

Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola: “It’s Gonna Be A Fun Ride”

Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola recently had a brief but exciting message for Nebraska fans ahead of the 2024 season starting versus UTEP: “Buckle up, it’s gonna be a fun ride.”

Raiola also has the confidence necessary for a top quarterback, saying “we have everything we need, all our guns are loaded and ready to fire, so whatever it takes on Saturday it’s gonna happen.”

Finally, the 5-star true freshman shared that Nebraska is “watching different stuff getting ready for UTEP, so that’s the challenge, not knowing where people are going to be lined up.”

WR Ahmari Huggins-Bruce Officially on Louisville Roster

It was a long time coming, but ultimately WR Ahmari Huggins-Bruce is back where he began with Louisville, and is officially on the Louisville roster.

Yesterday we included a story that Jeff Brohm was unable to confirm or deny whether Huggins-Bruce would be with the team, because he could only speak to players on the roster. But with Huggins-Bruce officially appearing on the roster one day later, that should be all the confirmation necessary to confirm that he is, in fact, with the Cardinals ahead of the 2024 season.

TE Mac Markway Transfers to Nebraska from LSU

Former 4-star TE Mac Markway spent one season with LSU before it was shared by LSU coach Brian Kelly that Markway had made the decision to no longer play for LSU. What was not immediately clear was whether Markway was transferring or was just done with football altogether.

Now, it appears we have our answer, as Markway announced on Twitter yesterday he was transferring to Nebraska and should be expected to join the team shortly. With true freshman Dylan Raiola taking over the offense at Nebraska, having the potential for a solid tight end option is always a comfortable safety valve as Raiola gains experience. It will be interesting to see if Markway can be that as he gets up to speed in the Huskers offense if he is able to see the field.

Kirby Smart: We Will Abide By The Rules For Mandatory Injury Reporting

The SEC has kicked around the idea of mandatory injury reports, which would be done to help work around any sort of concerns over integrity as sports betting becomes more and more intertwined with official entities in the college sports world.

As for Georgia coach Kirby Smart, who many believe to be the figurehead for the sport following Nick Saban’s retirement, is that he is all for it so long as every team is doing it.

Many teams report as little information as is required for the purposes of trying to retain a tactical advantage.

Another reason why Smart is for it, obviously, is for the kids. “It keeps some pressure off our kids from people reaching out to them trying to get information for betting sites and try to gain information there. There is no gain if you’ve got accurate information. So it protects our kids, I’m for it.”

Ultimately, Smart ended his comments by saying “we’ll abide by the rules they give us.”

Oklahoma Assistant DeMarco Murray Suspended 1 Game by NCAA

The NCAA found recruiting violations that Oklahoma assistant DeMarco Murray contacted 17 different prospects over the course of 16 months for impermissible contacting. According to an NCAA release, the NCAA, Oklahoma, Murray, and enforcement staff. all agree that the violations occurred: 65 impermissible phone calls and 36 impermissible text messages.

Murray is the current Sooners’ running backs coach, but the Sooners will be without him for the season opener against Temple.

The NCAA found that Oklahoma had properly educated its coaches about it's policy, so Murray should have been aware. As a result, this would seem to be why there’s no concern over punishing neither Oklahoma nor Brent Venables. Venables was also not given consequences because some of the violations occurred prior to rule changes in January 2023 which changed the standard for head coach responsibility from a rebuttable presumption to automatic.

Other Commitments/Decommitments

None.