AD Jim Smith on the college football landscape, changes needed, Maryland women's basketball's comeback win

Ahmed Ghafir
2 minutes ago
4 min read

Maryland athletic director Jim Smith joined 105.7 The Fan on Thursday and talked about the new college football recruiting calendar overlapping with postseason play, what kind of changes need to be made, the future of bowl games and Maryland women’s basketball’s 2OT win at Minnesota:

On the changes in the college landscape

“Even the last two years has really changed dramatically just with the evolution of NIL and rev share and how you're allocating out resources and how you're making sure you're getting the best return on investment for your resources that you're investing in the programs. That's a constant discussion that's taking place.

I would say the one theme that was very consistent with all the athletic directors out in Vegas that I talked to was the real need for guardrails and rules that everyone understands clearly how we're to operate in this world today. And then what the penalties are going to be for not following those rules. And I think that there's a lot of frustration from athletic directors around the country in really not understanding what the game plan, what the rules are and what the penalties are going to be.”

On what changes need to be made, calendar not in alignment with the sport

“There's two parts to that. Vinny, I think the calendar piece definitely can get resolved. I think that was another topic of conversation. The Big Ten was very much an advocate of the portal being in April, not in January, not in the postseason, not in the middle of postseason. I mean, it's just you think - and you were in the NFL, you think about, oh, it's the middle of the playoffs and players can go anywhere they want. It's the craziest rule that's out there. And then everybody's got to sprint to get it done in this period of time. And what is the governance of college football and the governance of the NCAA requires all four of the conferences to kind of agree on what these rules are going to be - the Power Four conferences - to agree on what the rules were going to be, and somehow we ended up here in January.

I think the other piece, and you know this very well, is in the coaching changes. The NFL has got a great policy on how you would ask for permission during a period of time to talk to a coach. I would tell you, I think everybody in college football would enjoy something like that where the windows were clear and everyone could understand what those rules of engagement are because you saw the chaos that was created this year.”

“There's a lot of players who are negatively impacted when coaches decide that they're going to leave their team before the end of the season. It's just not good - I think we all would like some set of rules. The challenge is that we got to get everybody to agree to it and that's harder than it seems at times.”

On the future of the bowl system, non-CFP games

“So I think the whole system fits for a lot of teams and doesn't fit for everyone. I'll use the example - my son works at Kennesaw State, probably one of the surprise stories if you're following college football this year. They're thrilled to be going to a bowl game, right there they are absolutely - they're going to the Myrtle Beach Bowl, right? So it's not the bowl game that is on a lot of people's list, but the bowls work for, I'd say, 80 to 90% of the teams in college football. Does it work for everyone? No, and we thought it didn't work for Notre Dame this year. Okay, fair enough, and it didn't work for Iowa State for a different reason.”

On Maryland women’s basketball’s 10-point 2OT comeback at Minnesota, men’s basketball

“We'll start with Brenda, because she's been here the longest and has done really an incredible job each year building her team. I mean, she's going through that injury bug right now too, so you know, but she has a lot of depth, and you saw that in a double overtime game, losing people, having people play almost, what, 50 minutes full games because we're a little short staffed. And with an incredible comeback on the road. So great to see her team. Can't wait to get further into the Big Ten schedule with our women's basketball team.

We’ve talked about Buzz, not having a team to practice a full complement of players. We're slowly getting that back. Huge game here Saturday night with Michigan on national TV. Going to be a huge crowd. Great energy. Red Out for those who are still interested in coming, we probably have a few tickets left. So just excited to see them get a big home surprise victory that will shock the country when we can knock out Michigan on Saturday.”

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