For months,
@JHamilton23 and I have had plans to go to the Chiefs game today. Always know it's possible when you take a day to yourself that something's going to happen. Not ideal, but the fact is you simply can't be on call 24/7 and if something happens, it happens. Appreciate your patience (IDK if that happened, just assuming the best) as I was on the road for a while today after the news about Dom Lovett broke. ITT I'll explain my viewpoint of it and also try to answer questions I've seen. If there are others, please feel free to ask them here and I'll get to them tonight or in the morning. Also will have plenty more in the ten thoughts in the morning.
Friday before the game I received a message from someone that Dominic was going to be entering the portal in December. This is a source I very much trust and has not steered me wrong in the past. I asked a few questions over the next few hours and the sense was that, yes, there was a very real possibility Lovett would enter the portal when the window opens a week from tomorrow.
On the board yesterday morning, I hinted at that and told you all it was a possibility. I wasn't going to write a story on it because, frankly, it hasn't happened and my source wasn't Dominic himself. I don't feel right going public with "this is expected to happen" because a lot of things can change. I am surprised that report was put out today based on anonymous sources. I'm not questioning the sources or the accuracy of the story and not even trying to say anything bad about the person that put it out there. But I wasn't comfortable doing so at this point in time which is why we didn't do so.
There are a lot of rumors that you hear when you do what I do. Some you can immediately dismiss, some turn out to be true, some you have to kind of monitor for a while. We don't like to put out all of them because, as I have often said, while you guys THINK you want to hear everything we hear, I promise you don't. If you think you live on an emotional roller coaster with Mizzou sports as this site is now, you have no idea. So a big part of our job is deciding what should and shouldn't be shared publicly. Because the truth is, once I share it publicly on this board, it's largely going to be taken as fact and people in the athletic department are absolutely going to know I'm putting it out there (trust me on that). There's no right or wrong necessarily. I'm not going to pretend I do the right thing all the time. Some think I should share everything. Some think I should do what helps Mizzou. Some just think I'm a giant pussy. I use my judgment the best I can and live with it.
That said, I understand times are changing in college sports and that includes for those of us covering it. We do our best to adapt and my ONLY goal here is to provide you all the best product I can while also doing my job in a way I believe to be professional and responsible.
So anyway, I expect Lovett to go into the portal on December 5th. I have heard Oregon, LSU, Ole Miss and Alabama and schools that have already back channeled interest in him (yes, it's illegal and yes, everybody including Missouri is doing it and no, nobody's going to turn anybody else in for tampering because everybody is doing it). He cannot enter the portal until next week. Obviously that means something could change between now and then. I don't think it's likely that it will, but it is possible.
What I'd heard in the preceding days was that there was concern Lovett would leave. And if he did leave, that would increase concern that Luther Burden could follow. I shared that information on the board. Within about an hour, I got a call from someone in a position to know who told me that Luther is not leaving Missouri. I have since gotten a similar message from about three more people. It's the reverse of Lovett. I'm not going to promise you Luther is staying here because that's not something I'm capable of knowing. I expect him to stay here. If that changes, we will let you know.
I will write more about this tomorrow in the Ten Thoughts, but have been hinting at it for a little while. The portal is going to be INSANE. I've talked to coaches and media members at multiple SEC schools in the last week. Every one of them has said they exact same thing: Nobody is ready for what this is going to be. I think most people expect guys who aren't playing to transfer. It's so much more than that. College sports right now is the equivalent of every player in the NFL being in a free agent year. There are no rules and there is no salary cap. Which means everyone in the country is available if you have the money to get them.
In other words: This isn't ending on Missouri's roster with Dominic Lovett. I fully expect there to be other players enter the portal where you guys say "WTF, why is he leaving?" I don't have solid enough information to know who those players are yet to share the names, but I do believe there will be more. i also believe Missouri will be pursuing guys who have been productive players and starters at other places in the portal. The goal for every coach in the country is simple: Bring in more than you lose.
I understand those who are frustrated and who believe this is ruining college sports and who have less appetite to follow it. Just remember that if that's what you said today, you have to say it again if Missouri poaches a starting linebacker or running back or tight end from another team. It's what it is right now until they figure out a way to fix it (if they can). As Red said in Shawshank Redemption: "Get busy living or get busy dying." Coaches can either do their best to survive in what this age of college sports is or they can bitch about it. But bitching about it isn't making it go away.
The next three weeks are going to be some of the wildest we've seen in the history of college football. We'll do our best to cover it and make it worth your all's subscription money for being here.
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