Jumbo Package: “FrenTchi” is looking healthy, Texas and Oklahoma blow off Big 12 conference call

Happy Friday, everyone. First, some of the best news you’ll see today.

Alex appears to be moving quite well, and he has been working hard in the weight room. Coming out of high school he was listed at an even 200 lbs. but looks every bit of the cited 235 in that video. He was a very raw prospect coming in, but the talent jumps off the screen. He also has a fascinating backstory after leaving his family in Paris at age 16 to chase his NBA dreams.

A ruptured achilles is not an easy injury to come back from and there had been rumblings that he was struggling to get healthy. If he’s fully ready, look out. A frontcourt that adds FrenTchi, Noah Gurley, and Charles Bediako to go along with Juwan Gary and Keon Ambrose-Hylton has a chance to be special.

Of course, Nate Oats also adds top PG prospect JD Davison, who is already cashing in on NIL.

Congrats, JD. Now let’s win some ballgames, shall we?

The divorce of Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 seems to be all but a done deal at this point, and not particularly amicable.

Officials representing Oklahoma and Texas were no-shows Thursday to a Big 12 call to discuss the schools’ reported interest in leaving the conference for the SEC, according to multiple reports.

Basically, the eight left behind are in panic mode. For years there have been claims that the Pac 12 doesn’t want schools with religious affiliation. If this is true, Baylor and TCU would have a tough time getting in. Would the Big Ten have interest in getting into Texas despite the odd geographical fit? Or, would these eight simply stay together and form a basketball centric conference that is more G5 caliber in football, perhaps even adding some combination of Rice, Houston and SMU? The revenue loss in that last scenario would be substantial.

Of course, then you have the political side of things. Enter Baylor grad and statehouse rep Jeff Leach.

They got a regular soap opera going on over there.

Moving on to SEC Media Days, NFL writer Chase Goodbread notes that some players are staying away from most NIL for now, with good reason.

“I’ve taken a different approach to it. You see everybody across the country trying to get what they can with any deal, any company, whatever it is,” Corral said. “I’m all about making the right deals, looking for long-term deals that not necessarily are going to hurt me in the long run because I don’t want to burn the bridges with companies that I haven’t even made relationships with.”

It could be a shrewd strategy for Corral, who is among the draft prospects generating the most buzz among NFL executives this summer, per NFL.com analyst Daniel Jeremiah. His wait for the right deals might be a short one, but that’s not a gamble many of his peers can afford to make.

This is a great point. Signing a deal now for a small amount of money may stand in the way of much bigger opportunities down the road. Every player will have to weigh this.

Bo Nix doubled down on the “take the head off the elephant” nonsense.

“Tony, he transferred into us, and that quote, obviously it’s a confident quote, but I hope he’s coming to take the head off the elephant,” Nix said. “I hope he’s not coming to get the head taken off the Tiger. So that’s really important. I think that actually I like the quote. I think it’s important because we’re not scared of Alabama. I know that a lot of people want us to be scared, but we’re really not.”

Bo also isn’t scared of throwing into double coverage. Auburn also made waves when new coach Bryan Harsin revealed that the team is about 60% vaccinated, and said this:

This is certainly a different approach to the one Saban has taken. Guess we will see if they end up with any forfeits.

Check out Saban rolling out of Media Days like the King of Zamunda.

Dude has his own little Secret Service.

Alabama has dominated the playoff era poll rankings.

In terms of the College Football Playoff rankings alone, Alabama has appeared at No. 1 in more than half of the 42 weekly rankings released by the selection committee since 2014, with an average rating of 2.6 during that time. The Tide is also the only program to appear at No. 1 more than 10 times, making them the unquestioned leader in the playoff era. Alabama has appeared in every playoff poll, too, making it one of only three schools to accomplish that feat alongside Clemson and Ohio State.

They have been at the top of the poll more than half the time. Let that sink in.

Haylie McCleney is tearing up Tokyo.

She also scored the winning run in yesterday’s win over Canada. Altogether there are 22 former TIde players in these games:

Track & Field - Remona Burchell (Jamaica), Quanesha Burks (USA), Daniel Haugh (USA), Kirani James (Grenada), Natassha McDonald (Canada), Shelby McEwen (USA), Jereem Richards (Trinidad & Tobago), Portious Warren (Trinidad & Tobago), Ayla Stanisclaus (Trinidad & Tobago)

Swimming - Kalia Antoniou (Cyprus), Kristian Gkolomeev (Greece), Leonie Kullmann (Germany), Anton McKee (Iceland), Diana Petkova (Bulgaria), Abbas Qali (Kuwait), Rhyan White (USA)

Golf - Stephanie Meadow (Ireland), Justin Thomas (USA)

Baseball - David Robertson (USA)

Gymnastics - Shallon Olsen (Canada)

Soccer - Merel Van Dongen (Netherlands)

Softball - Haylie McCleney (USA)

Best of luck to all.

Last, baseball fans remember Greg Maddux as one of the greatest pitchers of all time, but he was also a known weirdo. Check out this disgusting story about him from fellow Hall of Fame teammate Chipper Jones.

“In a big-league clubhouse, we have community showers. The shower that I always showered in was the second one on the left. The shower that he always showered in was the third one on the left. Big mistake by me by showering next to this gross human being.

“I got a big base hit to win a baseball game and he’s like, ‘Man, what a great at-bat. Walk me through what you were thinking.’ I’m first or second year in the league. Dumb as hell. I’m thinking to myself that this is pretty cool. Greg Maddux wants to know what I’m thinking. So I go into this whole thing. I’m into it and I can sense that guys over on the other side are snickering and chuckling.

“I look down and he’s peeing on me. He’s Greg Maddux, so I can’t knock him out.”

I don’t care who he is, a grown man pissing on me in the shower is probably going to catch some hands.

That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.

Roll Tide.