Joseph Goodman
The Gulf Coast Athletic Club opened its November 18, 2024 meeting in the Clubhouse at Craft Farms Golf Resort at 6:58pm. President George Autrey welcomed the crowd of about 50 attendees. He talked about how nobody is pulling away near season’s end, especially in the SEC. Introductions of guests ensued, including our Guest Speaker’s Father!
George reported the Prolific Pigskin Prognosticator Competition is racing to a close with only 3 weeks left. Easylikethat won Week 11 and Chilicheesedog won Week 12. Taylor Means remains 2 clear of the pack so far with Pat Miller second but with several still close. Well, all but Scott Jackson and Owen Corcoran at DAL.
With GSHS Basketball playing Orange Beach tonight, there was not a real Dolphin in sight!! (BTW, we won!!!) The Team Reports still go on! JV Girls and Varsity Girls are doing well as well as the Boys BB squad. Swimming sees some State Champs and Golf has started for both teams. GO, DOLPHINS!!
The always scintillating Team Reports were again deftly handled by Dec McClelland, our Irish Fan who always shows up when ND has a W. While many losers weren’t present, Dec and his fabulous Committee gave the Crying Towel to LSU as they hadn’t lost to Florida since 2018. Graciously accepting was Frank, whose prize linen proclaimed “Gators take a full chomp out of Brian Kelly & Bayou Bengals hope of a playoff appearance… Too late for Coach “O”, 27-16”.
President and obviously multi-talented George also introduced our Guest Speaker, Joseph Goodman, from Mobile, but now living in Birmingham where he is the Lead Sports Columnist for AL.com. This UAB Grad went to work for the Miami Herald and covered the Miami Heat for 11 years when LeBron James was there as well as University of Florida football when Tim Tebow was there. Exciting the Auburn fans, he’s predicting AU BB to win it all this year.
He gave a running commentary on the Transfer Portal and NIL, noting schools like Vandy and BYU have tons of money and “admission standards” are different for Portal students.
The game is changing and a new era of sports is unfolding. He gave us details of the $22 million “salary cap” at NCAA schools for next year to fund all sports and noted 105 roster spots, not counting non-scholarship athletes. Teams now have General Managers to keep up with the everchanging financial requirements. He expects the Playoffs to expand to 16 teams or more and Transfer Portal dates will continue to be an issue.
For the National Football Championship, he likes Ole Miss, but with Jalen Milroe being the best player in college football right now, if he stays on track, it could be the Tide at #1.
In comments from the crowd, Dr. McCollough said what most are thinking, that money and NIL is now killing college athletics. No more student athletes playing for the fun of the game.
The 50-50 was drawn with Eli McKee winning for 2nd time this year and he donated the winnings back to the club’s scholarship fund! The meeting was adjourned at 8:05pm.
Our last program of the year will be on January 27, 2025.
Submitted by Bill Tunnell, GCAC Secretary
