The world of college sports is ending, people...

The recent court rulings rendering NFL training-camp invitees eligible to return to college and the NCAA has finished the job.

We're just watching the final downfall:

• The Big XII has banned all professional athletes from any sport.
• The SEC is going further:  Any school which offers professional athletes a path of return is DONE WITH THE CONFERENCE.  They lose their voting rights, half their athletic budget, and their head coach for at least half a season.
• The Big Ten has at least banned NFL returns.
• The ACC, the last of the "Power 4", is considering joining them.

The question now is simple:  Who's the first school which is gonna walk?

There is a 2026 Fine Blotter up for Week 1 of the preseason. And also the fine schedule for 2026-27.

Now, if I had to make a guess, since today was the day they announced the new policies, I don't think any fines from the preseason (or, at barest minimum, the first two weeks of the preseason) are going to count on this new policy.

Before we note of the fines for Week 1 of the preseason, here's the fine schedule:

A first offense of physical contact with an official will cost you not only the rest of the game, but a minimum of almost $42,000.  Double that for any subsequent offense.

Fighting will also carry the same penalties, including ejection ($42K and $84K)

They're upping Bench Involvement in an altercation significantly:  First one is a little more than $12K, the next one costs you $18K.

It looks like non-physical abuse of the officials has become a very serious problem, as they are upping the fines toward physical-abuse levels as well:  $33,523 for first offense, over $67,000 for anything further.

The player-safety list:

First, the five Points of Emphasis, all of which, once confirmed, carry a strike toward suspension after three, all carry first-offense fines of almost $18,000.  About $24,000 for a second offense, which carries a league meeting.  And a third is a one-game suspension, on top of the potential of any further suspension for the offenses themselves.

That's for Horse Collar, Hip Drop, Launching/Helmet, Blindside Block, or Defenseless Player fouls.

Striking and variants, low block, or chop block:  About $12,500 and $18,500.

Face mask or late hit without other aggravation:  About $12K and $18K

The rest (Leg Whip and Roughing the Passer):  About $18K and $24K

The straight conduct list (if I had to guess currently, this is probably the one-time full-rebate at the end of the season list):

Straight unsportsmanlike conduct costs you about $15K and $21K.

Taunting will get you the same fine as a Face Mask or Late Hit:  $12K and $18K

And a football into the stands costs you $8300 and $14300.

And here's the dress code stuff (probably also one-time full-rebate at the end of the season with no other offenses):

Any minor uniform violation (from visor tint to illegally-worn pads to foreign substances to the more standard ones of socks and the like you hear about):  $6K and $12K

Major violations (personal branding and illegal/unauthorized intellectual property):  Personal is $12K/$18K.  Intellectual property is $12K/$24K.

And one more section I see every year but I'm not sure it's ever called:  If a player ever flashes gang signals during a game, it is conduct detrimental to the league and goes to the Personal Conduct Policy directly for whatever penalties deemed appropriate.

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Now, Week 1 of the Preseason:

Striking and variants:

• Buffalo:  Landon Jackson, $8,190
• Cleveland:  Tytus Howard gets the full $12,537
• Las Vegas:  Tommy Eichenburg, $6,441

Conduct:

• Miami:  Ollie Gordon, $5,962, taunting

Facemasks:

• Detroit:  Thomas Harper, $5,972
• Tennessee:  Jerrick Reed, $6,361

And now what WOULD BE under the Points of Emphasis -- but with the policy announced today, I seriously doubt these will be treated as "strikes":

• LA Chargers:  Kendall Williamson, $5,972, impermissible use of the helmet
• LA Rams:  Darryl Peterson, $4,935, horse collar
• Tampa Bay: David Walker, $6,254, blindside block

Jokes aside, the NFL put out a far larger notice today.

And it is endemic to the Fine Blotters I used to post here.  We'll see if I get the time and want this year.

An OFFICIAL NFL Points of Emphasis For Supplemental Discipline has been released.

The NFL has put out the following five Player Safety Fouls for Point of Emphasis this year:

• Horse Collar
• Hip Drop
• Launching
• (Illegal) Hit on a Defenseless Player
• Blindside Block

The big news?  Any player who receives a Supplemental Discipline (and gets it to stand -- fine or suspension) for at least three of these fouls gets an automatic one-game suspension on top of any other suspension accrued.

I think I have a lengthy project ahead of me, if the NFL still has the data on its website from last year.

EDIT TO ADD:  Rats.  No, they took the 2025-26 ones down.

There is, of course, something the players get in exchange:

First, if a player commits only a single offense in certain other Supplemental Discipline categories, their fine will be returned, 100%.

If a player receives only a single offense in the Player Safety Fouls Point of Emphasis, their fine will be half-returned.

And all players, at least with respect to the Player Safety Fouls Point of Emphasis suspension, will start the 2026-27 season on a clean slate with respect to the current policy.  Not 100% sure whether that means long-time situations might get increased fines for a "first offense" of these fouls, but they will not already be counted against for THIS policy.

I will want to see if the league actually publishes the policy, as there are two other important parts:

1) Increased team fines for "excessive" Player Safety Points of Emphasis violations by a given team.  This is probably on top of the other team fines for excessive violations -- though those fines now are going to be more malleable, given possible rebates.

2) Any player receiving two violations under the Player Safety Points of Emphasis will require that the player and his coach submit to a meeting with the NFL.  No word on whether those meetings will be in-person or virtual.

An anachronism has been completely and finally put to bed...

The Pro Bowl Games -- and that meaning any on-field Pro Bowl itself -- finally died today.

And, as I've already seen in one Discord server with the report -- Nothing Of Value Was Lost.

The rampant sacrifice to football -- THEY ALL HAVE CTE!!! ALL OF THEM.

And the article in MSN from Amy Tennery deliberately obfuscates the situation.

878 former NFL players have died between the years of 2016 and 2021.

The article states at least one in four -- 215 of them -- had their brains tested and found CTE within them.

There's only one problem with the findings.

Not all of the brains were donated to science.

235 of them were.

That means almost 90% of the donated brains were found to have CTE -- an effective finding that every one of the brains donated had the disease.

That the basic finding should be that THEY ALL HAVE CTE.

EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM.

ALL OF THEM.

The findings also assert that the players are already beyond brain-damaged before they even hit the NFL -- that the players are fucked by youth football and high school football and college football too.

Bad Faith Actors Get Nothing

An AP source indicates the two former NBA players who are trying to get every transgender person killed by farcically entering the WNBA will not be permitted to do so.

Transition and you can be in, assholes.

But you're bad faith actors, as your continuing incidents are indicating.

I will be more than blunt here:  I'm beginning to wonder if there's a longer play here, straight out of the Heritage Foundation.

It is no secret that these bigots want every transgender person dead.  On top of that, though, I think they have very little want for the women who are actually in the sport today (which see Kanter Bitch's incident last night, for which he might well get the same NBA/WNBA ban that some of the sex toy-throwing morons have gotten).

It is also no secret that many of the men in control of things in entertainment do not see a non-sexual market for women in anything except between their legs (colored as "fertility" by the Heritage Foundation in recent revelations).

But what of an NBA Seniors' Tour?  A summer NBA Legends League?

No one has proposed it, but I'd have to think some of these bigots have thought about it.

EDIT TO ADD:  On and off, Elon Musk has been trying to get people to drum up a campaign that Brittney Griner is a man.

A number of his supporters have said that a number of unnamed WNBA players are men.

A sacrifice to football which is almost personal...

I know I am not nearly all-inclusive when articles like this are made public, but I did happen across a frightening story this afternoon which speaks of a school very familiar to me from my Western Wisconsin school days of the late 1980's.

Alma Center quarterback Adam Massman was beginning his senior year with a game at Turtle Lake last Thursday night.  He was injured and treated, and it was found out over the weekend that Massman died of his unspecified (almost certainly head) injuries.

Alma Center was a school about 50 miles or so from Plum City High School, where I attended school (and now has it's sports in a cooperative with Elmwood, a neighboring town).  The schools would occasionally compete in track and field together (in which I was the school timer and ersatz trainer).