Tuesday Morning Brews: Independence Day

Happy Tuesday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. I assume that many of you have barbecues and family time scheduled this Fourth of July so I’m going to keep morning Brews short. Not to worry, everything will be back to normal on Thursday. Today we have news of the NCAA exploring one rule change that make sense, and another rule that is likely a reaction to what Harbaugh, Saban, and Meyer are doing with their off-field staffs. We also have a recruiting tidbit that suggests Michigan isn’t quite done recruiting the QB position for the 2018 class.

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

NCAA Explores Changes to Football Season

The NCAA is contemplating changes to the football season that might actually be decent ideas. The headline change would be a lengthening of the season from its current 13 weeks (12 games, one bye) to 14 weeks (12 games, two byes). For all the inanity football fans must endure from the NCAA, they do sometimes make good changes - and this one could benefit both players and fans.

For schools, this second bye would allow additional flexibility when setting schedules. This would most clearly impact PAC-12 teams and other conferences who like to schedule Thursday night games. Adding an extra bye would limit the number of times teams would be forced to play on short weeks; a Saturday game followed by a Thursday game. For everyone else, adding an extra bye would likely mean fewer injuries and more time for players to recover from injuries.

Other changes being explored is a potential limit on the size of coaching staffs. Presumably, if the NCAA makes a change in this area it will be to place a cap on the total number of coaches (both on-field and off-field). For the top flight schools (Michigan, Alabama, Ohio State, etc.) this could pose problems. These schools have led the way in football’s recent trend of adding numerous off-field coaches and analysts. No rule has yet been proposed, but the NCAA has asked schools to disclose the number of football staffers they have and the range of their duties - so this looks to be the next way the NCAA is going to try to crack down on the Jim Harbaugh’s of college football.

What do you think? Should the NCAA add a second bye week to the football season? Weigh in using the poll below or the comments.

In the middle of last month 2018 QB recruiting experienced a seismic event. Top 20 recruit and #2 pro-style QB prospect Matt Corral decommitted from USC. Corral recently spoke with Scout’s The Michigan Insider ($) to update his recruitment. He told Scout, “I called Coach Jim Harbaugh after I decommitted, he said he’ll keep me in the loop on where things stand. . . . [Pep Hamilton] told me that Michigan is not the type of college to chase anybody. You’re going to have to prove to them you want to go there, so it’s that sort of deal. So I’ve talked to them a couple times since decommitting.” Corral’s visit schedule is uncertain at this point, but he told Scout that if he does make official visits, Michigan was very likely to be among them.