Will Wade goes OFF on a reporter asking about Darrion Williams: “It’s a terrible question. He’s f***ing playing well. I’m tired of hearing about it. He affects winning. Everybody needs to shut the hell up about him!” 😳

Former Notre Dame and Duke University AD Kevin White had a scathing review of the current wild NCAA NIL landscape:

Interesting story in The Athletic today by Stewart Mandel about what schools have no intention of abiding by the $20.5 million revenue share and the decisions of the recently created College Sports Commission to enforce a “valid business purpose” for additional payouts to players. Says some QBs (including Sorsby, Leavitt and Railoa) could get $5-6 million next season. There is a report (The Advocate) that LSU is committing $25-30 million for football. Claims Auburn and Penn State are also ready to spend $30 million for football (according to sources). Those are just the ones Mandel knows about. Says schools are already finding ways around the spending rules. (Editorial comment: No surprise there. That’s what schools are constantly doing. Give them an inch, they take a mile. That’s why the NCAA had so many rules.) If you have The Athletic, it’s worth a read.

NIL is going to dry up within the next few years. People and businesses are going to realize that paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to a kid who's going to immediately leave for what they perceive as greener pastures is unsustainable. Get your bags now, cause it's all going to come crashing down.

The NCAA is banning star D2 cross country runner Mohammed Bati - who works 11 pm - 7 am 5 days a week at an assisted living facility to make ends meet - because the local community came together and raised some funds so he can stay in college. Meanwhile, D1 football players have agents and bidding wars. #Disgraceful

Friends- This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die. Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do. I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all. Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints. There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come. Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son. A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears. Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet. Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective: “When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.” I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape. But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9). With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices, Ben — and the Sasses

NC State's Defense is Trending Up Wade is still not happy, but the trends are positive. Read about it! trinityroadtimes.com/post/nc…

Bama proving once again they didn’t deserve to make the playoff

What a finish to the season!

Notre Dame is a part-time ACC member and yet got a full vote on expansion -- and pitched a hissy fit to get Stanford and Cal in. The ACC has accorded the Irish too much clout, not too little.

As someone who was seriously, legitimately high on Kentucky coming into the year, its just jarring how bad they are. Injuries. Pieces dont fit. Skill-sets dont match how Pope wants to play. But worst of all: They dont play hard. Insult to every Kentucky fan, everywhere