“Just know that my love for you is limitless.” So said Brian Kelly in a message to his suddenly former Notre Dame football players. Apparently limitless love has its limits and that limit is around nine and half million a year over a decade—the deal Kelly just signed to become the new coach of LSU. Notre Dame as a stepping stone to LSU? That’s only part of what makes this deal odd as football becomes even more disconnected from the colleges it supposedly represents. In another big NCAA move, Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley left the Sooners sooner than expected for a $110 million USC contract that includes “a $6 million home in Los Angeles and … 24/7 access to a private jet.” (The Trojan Horse is being used exclusively to transport cash.) And these days, when coaches move, “students” follow. All of this is taking place in an era when many college sports are being scrapped because of the pandemic. Kendall Baker in Axios: College football gone mad.

+ While college football is being disconnected from college, pro basketball is being disconnected from high school. NYT (Gift Article): The Teenagers Getting Six Figures to Leave Their High Schools for Basketball. “If someone never reaches the N.B.A., will losing the opportunity to play in high school and college have been worth a few sure years of substantial income? When I put the question to Porter, he dismissed it. He described the connections made with Overtime Elite’s sponsors, investors and affiliated celebrities as yet another form of compensation, as if a shooting guard who turns out to be a step too slow could simply go to work for Drake instead.” (I always tell my kids they’ll have three career choices: Play professional sports, work for Drake, or launch a Substack.)

+ And one more piece on the importance we place on sporting excellence, and what we’re willing to overlook to achieve it. WaPo (Gift Article): They trusted a coach with their girls and Ivy League ambitions. Now he’s accused of sex abuse.