Cole Cubelic
The Gulf Coast Athletic Club opened its January 27, 2025 meeting in the Clubhouse at Craft Farms Golf Resort at 7:00pm. President George Autrey welcomed the crowd of about 65 attendees and reminded all we’d be starting again in August 2025! Guests were introduced.
Zach handled the sad conclusion of the Prolific Pigskin Prognosticators annual contest, better known as the Football Pick ‘Em Pool, otherwise known this year as the Means Invitational as Taylor and dad Steve have won the trophy 3 of last 4 years. Taylor Means, taking the trophy away from last year’s Champ Todd Lamb, won going away with 120 points, being trailed by Beer Money Bruce at 115 and everyone else after that. DAL honors go to Owen Corcoran this year.
With GSHS sports thrown into confusion by last week’s Snow Event of the Century, no real Dolphin Coach was in sight, except for the Head Dolphin, GS School Board President Kevin Corcoran. Although lacking in detail, Kevin reported the Bobsled team finished second and all Dolphin teams went undefeated last week! Seriously, in last week’s Indoor Track Meet in Birmingham, three new school records were set. Three GS Football players received scholarship offers from UAB. Go, Dolphins!!
Our final flight of GSHS Scholar-Athletes were introduced to the Club. Our Female recipient is Carleigh Jurkiewicz. Carleigh has a 4.3 GPA and a 30 on the ACT. She’s been a Cheerleader for 5 years and a soccer player for 6! Twice All-American in Cheerleading, she is a Student Ambassador and SGA President. Undecided at the time as to college, she will major in International Business Affairs.
Our Male Scholar-Athlete is Baylen Byrd. He has a 4.2 GPA and is a Wide Receiver on the Football Team. He’s also involved in Basketball and Track. His proudest achievement is reviving the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at GSHS and also reviving the Key Club. He’s going to Auburn for Engineering.
Team reports were also handled by Kevin, as it seems that Notre Dame Dec was again missing in action. Actually, rightfully so, as the infamous Crying Towel was again given to Notre Dame for its “No luck of the Irish” loss to Ohio State in the National Championship 34-23. Ron Kehoe was the lucky recipient of the Crying Towel.
Arguably the best Speaker of any GCAC season is ESPN Star Cole Cubelic. Your Editor is pretty sure Cole knows every fact in NCAA College Football. His depth of knowledge is astounding and easily switches between topics as questions tend to be all over the pace.
His analysis of the current situation in College Football is that he and others don’t know where we are going. NIL, revenue sharing, collectives, Title IX, Unions, Agents, Disinformation, Congress, NCAA, Tampering, Lawsuits – where does it end? The recent Junior College ruling on NIL and eligibility also throws an already complicated world into more disarray.
He also touched on Private Equity, Licensing, and the stark fact that those with cash will survive and those non-revenue teams who can’t fund themselves might be gone. In short, it’s possible College Athletics with be run by businessmen in the future.
He’s strong on those teams who retain their 3-4-5 year players as having distinct advantages over teams heavy in the Portal. They just care more. Depth is paramount. Too much time in practice is wasted on teaching new Portal recruits the basics of any system. A quick analysis of 2025 SEC teams closed out another incredible Cole Cubelic presentation.
The 50-50 was drawn and the meeting was adjourned at 8:35pm.
Submitted by Bill Tunnell, GCAC Secretary
