Jackson Jambalaya

Well said Kingfish

I always thought that the primary goal of college athletes was to get an education...?

Yeah, disagree with the headline on this one. Not sure why athletes should not be able to change schools whenever they wish, like every other student.

Not to sound dramatic, but can we lock her in a closet and just be done with her?

So when will the SEC/Big10 just break away and form their own league? They already have the most money, biggest fanbases (save for a few schools which would sell internal organs to join either..), and largest stadiums/attendance.

what I really don't understand is how schools in the group of 5 don't form their own championship? It's not like USM will win one ever. But there's a chance if those really big-money programs go off and do their own thing.

Government overreach and its an election year, nothing less…

10:10 Wrong. Athletes can change schools whenever they like, just like any other student, however if they wish to access their grant in aid and then compete under NCAA rules which were legally adopted by member schools they must follow those rules. Those rules do not arbitrarily deny him/her the opportunity to get an education, they simply provide order in the area of athletic competition. Even academic scholarships and financial aid have rules which the student must follow if he wishes to use them. If not, he/she is still free to pay for his/her education.

It would be interesting to know why your AG thought this was an issue she needed to take a stand on.

These players want the NIL money but want to sit out bowl games
It can’t work that way. Also there must be a restriction on the number of schools a player can transfer to. Capped at one transfer ideally. The players can’t have all of the leverage here. It also creates a false sense of entitlement that they will learn isn’t accurate if they go to the NFL. The players can’t and don’t make the rules
I played college football at a smaller division school… this will kill football as we know it.

Was it Ole Miss or State? Who pulled the strings and why?

This is just as stupid as suing China. The NIL is going to ruin college football as we know it without some limitations to it. As a former multiple seat season ticket holder, I'm out. Have been since the NIL. Now other schools will be able to just pay for better results. The NCAA can have it if that's the way they want it to be.

"I always thought that the primary goal of college athletes was to get an education". Yeah, OK, gotcha.

Its not Lynn's fault she was born with a craving for low hanging fruit

Most college athletes can't pass a real college class. It is a sham

She just lost my vote. Pandering rather than spending energy on important issues...

I don't know if this is a good idea or not.

I just wish we had an AG who didn't treat the job like a temporary stepping-stone to higher office.

She's paddling the wrong way. The messed up transfer allowances and NIL money are destroying college football as we know it. It used to be fun - an amateur sport, players connected to their schools, rules against money being a corrupting influence, and very much intercollegiate.
Now, it's the best players bought by the highest bidders from the richest schools, and players that can literally wear 5 jerseys chasing money during their college playing careers and a sport that looks more like the NFL than college ball.

The AG is out of touch.

She thinks that by signing lawsuits she is relevant.

Somebody explain this to Lynn:

Focus on blocking and tackling.

The other difference between student-athletes and regular students is that even before NIL, they got a stipend along with meals. NIL is definitely hurting college sports, but not like the transfer portal is. Poaching of players is common now. Lynn Fitch should have bigger fish to fry. I didn't vote for her last November, and will not vote for her in any future elections.

College athletics is a big money sport, it is not an amateur sport by any means and hasn't been since the first large stadium was built or the first coach that got paid more than the head of the university. Look at how much jimbo received just from being fired. I can change jobs and benefit immediately. These colleges players are nothing but a tool to extract money for other peoples benefit. Let them benefit just like anyone else. You want them to stay, give them a contract that they will have to pay back NIL money. If they get hurt, there goes their chances. Until and unless the stadiums go back to just a field and a bunch of bleachers, then and only then will I say it is amateur. Let the playing field be even for ALL Involved. Boo hoo hoo, having to pay someone what he or she is worth.

In all honesty I probably was not going to vote for her again.
But these pointless shenanigans just reminded me how utterly useless she has been.

It is long past the time when the NFL should have taken over, and financed, their de facto minor league football teams (a.k.a. NCAA football). Most of the NCAA student-athletes don't even pretend to be students anymore (special classes, free tutors, grade inflation, etc.). With revenue of $18 Billion/yr the NFL teams can well afford to take over the college teams, which generate another $5.5Billion/yr. De-couple the sports from the schools, and let universities go back to being institutions for education.

The two transfer policy was badly applied by the NCAA. Tez Walker is the perfect example of the inflexibility of the NCAA and politics in how they " apply" their rules.

Getting an education and learning to improve on your individual talents are what we want for all our young people.

It's not as if a football or basketball player doesn't "earn" the tuition for each year he performs. The schedules for an athlete are gruelling.

Frankly, money and business people have ruined college sports. That includes the deep pocket donors that influence university decisions.

If it wasn't all about the money, every college would have voluntarily given a percentage of sales earnings of their " stars" jersey numbers or names long ago.

And, you all are overlooking the risks these players take. Many get badly injured while playing. Worse, we now know what concussions can do to them. We oddly haven't looked at college only players decades later.

Then why let the NCAA restrict the number of years a "college" player can play? Five or even six years isn't a rare thing for students who have to work to go to college to get a typical "four year" undergrad degree. If deprivation of education is allegedly the reason behind this nonsense, year-eligibility presents as great or greater hindrance to students actually seeking a college education. Suppose a player has an actual desire and scholastic ability to get an undergrad and grad degrees, law or med school, etc., but neither they nor their parents can write a check for it all. Suppose another student wants to find him(or her)self and take a tour of as many colleges as possible, sometimes identifying as a man, sometimes a woman, and other times as a hedgehog named Dinsdale. Others, of course, will want to carry firearms on the field, snort coke in the huddle, do bong rips on the sidelines, get 15 points for a touchdown, have all players eligible receivers, have no players eligible receivers, go off-sides at will, wear whatever they wish while playing, and hold anyone they want to for any reason, whether to interfere with their ability to play or just because they want to cuddle. Why should players even be forced to attend the school they want to play for that game? The NCAA should just let anyone who wishes to wander on up, play a few downs or warm some timber, and mosey on over to another school to lather, rinse, repeat.

Geez, all these fuckin' rules. They are SO unfair and just hinder young athletes' ability to be free spirits and enjoy playing whatever game for whatever team their hearts tell them they want to play that day. Can you imagine what this kind of Draconian nonsense would cause in the real adult world? Nobody would tell adults they couldn't practice law with nothing more than a GED or stop an adult from opening a medical clinic with nothing more than a certificate of achievement from a junior college welding class.

Some Mississippians worry about crippling inflation, crumbling infrastructure, and needless .gov bureaucracy causing poverty and restricting business here in the state.

I, for one, have spent many sleepless nights worried sick that some college student will be restricted to earning millions instead of tens of millions while at his/her state funded sports ball vocational center.

11:19 is dead on! Everyone knows schools are not about education any longer. Schools are now just support systems for the purpose of chasing athletic money.

One thing you have to strongly assume: with Fitch taking this position, either a family member or a child of a close friend or donor has had difficulty in transferring. Politicians only act on issues like this when the issue affects them DIRECTLY!

Can we just go ahead and have paid minor league football instead of putting 80 IQ athletes in college classrooms and pretending they are students?

I seem to recall Coach Kiffin saying that you either "adapt or die ". He has found a way to make it work.

12:38 nailed it .

Just my $0.02:

NCAA athletes should be bona fide full time students at a qualifying school. All schools should require students to obtain over half of their hours required for graduation at the school conferring the degree. Students aren't bona fide unless they are successfully progressing through a specific degree program. Athletes should only be allowed to play for so many (4-6) years, total. Exceptions should never include reasons like coaching or sports changes but instead might be allowed for academic reasons. This would #1 place emphasis on education instead of ball, and #2 pretty much eliminate multiple transfers while playing NCAA sports.

She signed a lawsuit alongside 6 Democrat AGs and the Biden DOJ.

It's crazy even her puppet conscience--Ken Paxton--isn't willing to be part of the case. Let that sink in.

Weird.

@10:34am

"Was it Ole Miss or State? Who pulled the strings and why?"

Both - big time.

We need to worry about more important issues in Mississippi than this. All the crooked sh&t going on in this state and we are wasting time on college football!!??!!?

no telling where this all ends up but its not going to be pretty. greed kills anything it touches eventually. college FB may end up being club level football w/ the colleges completely out of the business (which they're ill suited for in the 1st place)

The transfer portal needs to stop!

If Lynn Fitch will wreck NCAA football utterly out of existence, I would vote her Queen of the Universe.

1010, because these 'athletes' are being given their education - unlike 'other' students. And now they are also being paid along with being given an education - except of course there are some players (like that OM player that was ineligible for their bowl game because he never attended a class during his time as a 'student')

Granted, these football players are no longer students - they are employees. They aren't recruited any more, they are hired. But they do sign a contract - which evidently Ms Lynn thinks that contract can be ignored.

You think the AG would drop this suit if she got a cut of the NIL money? And does any state with a top-notch college program party to this suit?

The schools/networks/NCAA/coaches make millions and millions for years and years. The coaches can come and go as they please. The NCAA had forever to make some kind of allowance for the players to make a reasonable amount of money and didn't do anything. The players are just getting in what everyone has been doing for forever. I'm all for the players the NIL and the transfer rules.

@ 7:12 great point!

She collects all kinds of campaign $$$ from her contingency fee contracts. Republicans hated it when Hood did it but say nothing about her.

Mercenaries with no academic responsibility. What's not to love.

REMOVE this woman from office IMMEDIATELY!!!

NOTHING is more important than college football, and if this hack is trying to wreck it even more, THROW HER OUT. NOW!

Really? Is this important enough for a law suit?

Serious inquiry:

Is there a monthly journal that each state A.G. receives that lists 'tag along' lawsuits that any in the group can join simply by having their name appended?

If not, how much time does she spend on Google looking up this crap...time that could be spent representing the state of Mississippi?

Show of hands if you think Fitch has fulfilled the obligations of her job.

You can remain silent and let everyone think you're a fool, or open your mouth and remove all doubt. The AG chose the latter.

3:57, the way it usually works is that another State’s AG solicits sign-ons either in initiating a suit or joining an amici brief on appeal. In the past, a division head would review the request, advise the AG about the nature of the action, the issue or issues, and whether in his view the case would affect Mississippi or could be advantageous—or not. Then he would make a recommendation to the AG, the AG making the decision to pass or join. Of course, sometimes another AG will speak directly to our AG. In any case, if our AG elects to join, it really doesn’t amount to much more than authorizing the requesting AG to indicate that this State joins as a plaintiff or as amici. The staff doesn’t work on the case beyond analyzing the request, as a rule. Of course, there could be times when our AG might ask other States to join a case or an amici he is involved in. So, to some extent it is sensible to be at least open minded to requests. In this case, I don’t know what State interest is involved, unless you want to think that college football is a genuine, serious issue in State government. I’m sure more than a few think so.

Most of these comments understandably are about the merit's of Fitch's position. I am trying to figure out why the taxpayers of Mississippi are spending money on any position at all on this. What interest do the taxpayers have in whether a sportsball player can transfer or not?

12:26 - I think what you just posted is that this sort of thing is nothing more than theatrical cosmetics with no benefit to the state of Mississippi.

If, on the other hand, any Mississippi funds are used, she is pissing away our money.

Meanwhile - Let's assume she gets at least one first-class airline trip out of it.

Lynn Fitch needs to read her job description.

Interesting to read all the comments by all of the communists above who want laws and regulation to keep human beings, athletes put where they are and at a particular university.

"Bugh bugh let's keep it illegal for them to transfer somewhere!"

Unregulate it all and let whomever pay athletes whatever they want at the highest bidder or whatever else drives them to go to any particular school.

Now that would be interesting to watch. I hope they do get rid of this transfer rule.

Until then, the last first time national champion in NCAA football was Florida in 1996. Contemplate that. It is the same teams winning over and over. College football has been highly regulated and broken. It sucks as a product.

Unregulate it and let's see what happens.