This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Goooood morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for reading today. We appreciate you.
I’m not going to lie to y’all. I had something completely different written here about the Phoenix Suns. It was done. I was finished. Ready to publish.
Then news broke that Reggie Bush was finally getting his Heisman trophy back and I deleted everything. This is the day’s news. This is such a big deal, folks.
Before I tell you why, let me give you the skinny. The Heisman Trust has reportedly decided to formally reinstate Bush’s trophy and give it back to him he forfeited it to the committee in 2010, according to ESPN, citing the “enormous changes in the college football landscape” as the reason why.
Let me translate that for you: The players are getting paid over the table now through NIL collectives by the same boosters who allegedly paid players like Bush under the table back in the day. So, because of that, Reggie can have his trophy back.
The catharsis is flowing right now. After all these years of lobbying and public complaints, the Heisman Trust has finally listened to the reason. Bush should never have lost this trophy in the first place.
Look, I get it. USC broke the rules. An investigation into USC found that the school allegedly showered his family with improper gifts and benefits during his time at the school from 2003 to 2005.
Sure, they’re stupid rules, but they’re still the rules. Someone had to pay for that. In a way, I guess USC did. The school was stripped of 14 wins that Bush played in, including its 2004 BCS title. But it’s always felt like Bush himself was more severely punished.
Not only did he lose his Heisman Trophy, but his stats were also vacated. He was banned from USC for 10 years after 2010. They quite literally erased Bush from the annals of college football after he made everyone fall in love with it.
Do you understand how infuriating that is? Bush is one of the greatest college football players ever — he might be the most exciting. Every time he played, it was must-see TV. Just watch a highlight. You’ll get it if you don’t already.
What makes it doubly infuriating is that this never actually had to happen. The NCAA doesn’t govern the Heisman Trust. Those two organizations are independent of each other. Bush losing the trophy was the trust kowtowing to the NCAA’s whim and saying, “If Bush’s numbers don’t exist, then neither does his trophy.” Both things have always been extremely unfair.
All the work he did, the numbers he put up, the exciting moments he gave us. We were just supposed to act like it never existed all because the NCAA was upset about a little cash flow. That’s silly. It never made sense.
Thankfully, this egregious mistake has been corrected. Good for you, Reggie. It’s about time.
READ MORE: Fans are so thrilled Reggie Bush is getting his Heisman back
A G5 Playoff?
All the talk about the expansion of the college football playoff usually centers around the Power Five (Power Four now?) conferences — specifically with the SEC and Big Ten holding most of the power.
The middling conferences are always usually left out of the conversation despite having some pretty good teams with lots of depth and talent.
It seems like those conferences are finally looking to do something about that by creating their own playoff, according to reporting from The Athletic.
“Multiple administrators from within the G5 conferences — the American, Sun Belt, Mountain West, MAC and Conference USA — told The Athletic that former college and NFL coach Derek Dooley has been the salesman on behalf of private equity firms, making contact with schools. The administrators, who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, made clear that nothing is imminent and they haven’t been presented with any numbers yet. But conversations are more real than they’ve ever been. Dooley did not respond to a request for comment. CBS Sports first reported on the talks.”
Nothing concrete seems to be laid out just yet. But if these schools can pull this off, it would be an incredible power move. They’d be baking their own pie instead of just taking morsels the SEC, Big Ten and other big players are leaving behind.
This means creating their own structure and bowl games to go along with it. It certainly wouldn’t be easy to pull off, but it’s totally plausible.
I’d love to see this happen.
Anthony Edwards is a visionary
“They got KD, but we got Jaden McDaniels.” This clip of Anthony Edwards from All-Star Weekend 2023 is easily one of the funniest clips ever.
Funniest clip of all time pic.twitter.com/HPTX5uFaJP
— Mike (@MikeAdxx) February 19, 2023
But now, it’s kind of reality? Jaden McDaniels, y’all! He cooked Durant and the Suns in Game 2, which made the clip perfect. Charles Curtis has more:
“In an interview during All-Star week last year, the Minnesota Timberwolves star remarked, “They got KD, but we got Jaden McDaniels.”
KD would of course be Kevin Durant, and before you think that’s just Ant hyping up his T-Wolves teammate, maybe Edwards knew that in Game 2 of the Wolves’ playoff series against the Phoenix Suns, McDaniels would explode for 25 points, outplaying Durant (6-of-15 for 18 points).”
This is why you always show confidence in your teammates, man. Shoutout to Ant Edwards. The dude knows what he’s talking about.
Quick hits: The biggest NFL draft questions … Does Jerry Jones know how this works? … and more
— Here’s Cory Woodroof with 32 questions for all 32 teams as we enter into the NFL draft
— Jerry Jones got roasted because he doesn’t really seem to know how the draft works. Meghan Hall has more.
— Zach Edey to the Wizards? Nice. Very nice. Charles Curtis has more.
— Here’s Prince Grimes with prop betting guide to the NFL Draft.
— Here’s everything we know about the drama between a fan and Nikola Jokic’s brother. This isn’t a great look.
— Let’s hope Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze play together because the vibes are definitely there. Meg has more here.
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading today. Let’s do this again tomorrow. Until then! Peace.
-Sykes ✌️
