Fact or Fiction: Reggie Bush will get his Heisman back
In today’s Fact or Fiction national columnist Mike Farrell looks at three big recent topics in college football and decides whether each statement is indeed FACT - or if it’s FICTION.
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1. Reggie Bush will get his Heisman back.
FACT. Bush went to Twitter to ask for his Heisman back and said that the NCAA has been either nonresponsive or downright defiant when it comes to his requests. Bush, who won the award in 2005, was found to take improper benefits during his time at USC and was stripped of his Heisman. USC was hammered with sanctions, people lost their jobs and the award was vacated for that season. But now with NIL and players getting paid, the public outcry will be too much to keep Bush away from his Heisman, and that’s the way it should be.
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2. Alabama will benefit the most from NIL.
FACT. Alabama is already the go-to destination if you want to be a first-round draft pick, and the data under Nick Saban shows that. But with NIL, they could have a further advantage. The Alabama program is akin to the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL — except the Tide win. Every sport has one or two marquee programs that are on television for the big games in the right time slots, and Alabama players get as much attention as anyone in the country. And with no NFL team to compete with, Tuscaloosa is the NFL city in Alabama. Name, image and likeness there will be massive.
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3. Carson Strong is the sleeper to watch for in the 2022 NFL Draft.
FACT. Malik Willis, Desmond Ridder and Grayson McCall are all interesting names, but keep an eye on Strong from Nevada. Strong is a huge kid at 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds with a cannon arm and he’s an excellent decision maker. He completed 70% of his passes last season and threw only four interceptions against 27 touchdowns. A small school QB always emerges (Trey Lance, Josh Allen, etc.) in the NFL Draft, and I feel Strong could be the one being overlooked the most.