Technical Tidbits 6/12

Though Georgia Tech had just two players selected during this week's MLB Draft in A.J. Murray and Daniel Spingola, five would-be Jackets from Danny Hall's 2016 draft class were chosen by major league teams. The first of these players was catcher Tyler Stephenson, who was selected just outside the top 10 by the Cincinnati Reds. Following him was pitcher Jonathan Hughes, selected in the second round by the Orioles. Those are the two that I (and most people) expect to forgo a college career -- Stephenson's slot value (the recommended signing bonus to offer a player based on where they were selected) stands at $3.1 million while Hughes is expected to receive somewhere in the neighborhood of $900 thousand. It is rare for a player to pass on that much money, but it does happen nonetheless and both are still Tech commits until officially signing with an MLB team.

It was announced yesterday that the ACC would be holding "ACC Day" at Yankee Stadium as a way of growing the conference's relationship with the New York Yankees and the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. The Pinstripe Bowl, with which the conference has an agreement through at least the 2019 season, has hosted a number of what I'd consider to be underrated games over the past few seasons. The 2014 edition featured a dramatic overtime win by Penn St. over Boston College -- one of the best and most underrated games of the postseason -- and hopefully it will continue featuring good matchups in the future.

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly nearly lit some college football fans on fire when he made the comment that almost none of his players would be able to make it into the college without an athletic scholarship and exceptional athletic gifts. While this obviously doesn't apply to every student athlete, the way Kelly phrased it sure does make it seem that it applies to most. It also begs the questions that if the athletes wouldn't normally have what it takes to get into the college, how do they have what it takes to stay in while also dedicating so much time to practice and games? I made a comment similar to Kelly's a few months back and my argument got shot down because it was too anecdotal. Is this more valid? It just seems too obvious now that players are accepted whether they meet regular admissions requirements or not, and I'd wager that it happens at every single school in the country without fail.

I'll leave you today with this amazing video courtesy of Jimmy Kimmel Live. It features Kimmel's trusty sidekick Guillermo interviewing all of the players in the NBA Finals -- including former Yellow Jacket Iman Shumpert -- about random and hilarious topics. Shumpert seemed to be the only player who didn't understand what Guillermo was doing; he had the stud reporter removed from his interview after Guillermo requested to level his hair to make sure it was perfect.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wfZIvaHu2xI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

What do Brian Kelly's comments tell you about how much of an emphasis there is on the "student" part of "student athlete"? If a head coach is openly admitting that his players couldn't make it in on their own, doesn't that lead some questions about the legitimacy of what they actually do at the school?

Have a great weekend!